I'll Fight For You

Things have definitely changed since the Games and the War. Especially for the original members of Team Natsu. Happy would take any moment he could to cling on to Lucy, often nuzzling her chest with his head. Lucy would always stick around the guild, even past her usual stay. Natsu was never more than an arms length away from Lucy, if not he always managed to have her in his sights. And at night, they all usually slept in the same bed together.

The three were heavily affected from what they learned and from what happened that day. That day they watched Lucy die.

The one who was probably most affected by it was Natsu. Before, he was protective of the blonde and rightfully so. She was his partner, other than Happy, and it was his duty to keep her safe. But now, he was extremely protective and borderline possessive. Something had clicked in the Dragon Slayer's mind, something that told him Lucy meant more to him than just being his partner now.

It killed him inside whenever she cried. It made him angry whenever she was hurt. It destroyed him if she was sad. He didn't want her to suffer. He wanted to protect her…Even from her own spirits if he had to.

They were her spirits, celestial beings that had bound their lives to their master. To Lucy. They were supposed to protect Lucy, not like Natsu, but close enough…Not trying to kill her.

Virgo was the first to demonstrate their new sadistic sides towards their master. Lucy, being too proud for her own good, wanted to deal with her spirit by herself. But Virgo was still Virgo and Lucy was extremely close to the spirit (to all her spirits really). The blonde had to stop her attack before the spirit took damage and the former maid had taken advantage of the blonde's bond with her spirits. The bond that Lucy was so proud and fond of.

Natsu couldn't take her screams of pain and agony. He was furious that Virgo (one of his personal favourites of Lucy's spirits after Plue) was hurting her beloved master. He wanted to fight for Lucy because Natsu knew she couldn't hurt them. Lucy refused, she was going to do this on her own.

Then her other spirits showed up, essentially (at least to Natsu) threatening their master. Aquarius, who knew Lucy the longest, didn't even remember the blonde. Loke, or Leo whatever, who had the strongest bond with their master, had tried to kill her. It pissed Natsu off to no end.

They betrayed Lucy. They were going to pay…Natsu would make sure of it.

Lucy's (former) spirits had left for some time, returning to their realm. Team Natsu was heading back to the guild on foot. Because of the anticipation of the large reward, they had spent most of the money they had on them on getting to the job site. Natsu was walking ahead of Lucy and Happy, glancing over to the blonde mage every so often. Happy was in Lucy's arms in an attempt to comfort her. Lucy was looking glum, her eyes weren't shining and would widen as her body flinched every time her keys jingled.

Thunder cracked in the distance. The team looked up to the sky, seeing dark clouds hanging over them. The sudden changes in the weather were getting stranger by the minute.

"We better stop now," Natsu said. "Right Luce?"

Lucy simply nodded.

With a sigh, Natsu turned to his other partner. "Happy, fly up and see if you can find shelter around here."

"Aye!" Flying out of Lucy's arms, the blue Exceed looked around above the canopy of trees.

A few minutes later and Happy returned to his team. "There's a cave couple minutes away. We could camp in there till the storm stops."

"Great! Let's go Luce!"

"Hm? Oh, yeah."

Natsu's mood fell, but continued to follow Happy towards the cave with a feign smile.

The three managed to get into the cave right before the rain hit. Happy had fallen asleep on the blonde's lap as Natsu tended to the fire. Lucy was staring into the flames as she kept one hand petting Happy and the other on her keys.

Natsu saw Lucy's face cringing with pain. He didn't like it.

"Hey, Luce-"

"What's going to happen now Natsu?" she asked. Lucy glanced over to him, her brown eyes were glassy.

"I…I don't know what you mean Luce."

"I can't use my spirits. They nullified our contract for some reason," she continued. "My magic's useless now that I don't have them anymore." Lucy turned away from the Dragon Slayer, looking back into the fire. "I'm useless now, Natsu."

Anger began bubbling up in Natsu. "You're not useless!"

Lucy smiled weakly. "Don't kid yourself Natsu. I might as well quit F-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Lucy."

The blonde had never seen her partner acting like this, heavy breathing and his eyes staring deeply at her with fire in his eyes. He was angry-no-furious. She wasn't sure if his fury was directed at her or at the situation they were currently facing. Either way, the blonde was scared and the pinkette saw it.

Natsu's hard stare softened and he moved from his spot by the fire to sit next to Lucy against the wall. He grabbed her right hand, the hand on her keys and the hand with her guild mark.

"Lucy, you don't have to leave. You're still a Fairy Tail mage and the guild is your home."

"But I can't use my magic Natsu."

"Doesn't matter, you're still apart of Fairy Tail without magic as you were with it."

There was a pause of silence between the two mages, with the crackling of the fire filling in the quiet space.

"But, I'll get it back for you Luce." Gripping her hand in his grasp, onyx met brown. "I'll fight your spirits for you till they get their heads straight."

"Natsu."

"I know how much you care for your spirits, so leave the fighting to me and I'll leave the words to you. I'll knock some sense back into them while you keep calling for them."

Lucy smiled genuinely. Leaning over to him, she rested her head on his warm shoulder. "Thank you Natsu."

Natsu's ever-so-famous grin was etched on his face. "Anything for you Luce."

With that, they followed Happy and drifted off to sleep, the rain lulling them to close their eyes. Natsu would always fight for Lucy, he'd even lay down his life for hers. And he assured her by a quick squeeze on her hands that she fully returned with her head snuggling closer to him.