Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, even if I love it.

Author's note: Spoiler for chapter 198.


Cloak

Falling.

From the sky.

In full rain.

Lucy sure could imagine better things to do. Taking a bath, for example. Writing. Chatting with Mira-chan or Levy-san. Or Erza. Or even with Natsu, hell, everything was better than this! Everything!

In one moment, they were sucked from Edolas, sucked upwards, and in the next, they fell down from above. Obviously down to Earth again. She just hoped it to be the Earth and not another strange parallel universe.

Natsu was just some metres below, and with his strange black cloak and arms stretched out downwards, he looked like some super-hero on a mission. Even if he cried just like her, it was involuntary. And there was Happy, the flying cat, with extra emphasis on flying. Now he was falling like every one of them.

"KYAA!" Lucy exclaimed when she, finally, belly-landed right on Natsu's back. Her insides got squashed in the most painful way she could imagine (for the moment), and apparently it wasn't any different with the dragon slayer beneath her.

"NGAHH!" he gasped when she hit him, and she felt really sorry for him – at least, until Happy, as well as Wendy, Gray, Charle, Gazille and Erza, one after another, ended up crashing right onto her. And Natsu.

Every bit of air was squeezed out of her lungs, and she tried to gasp – or to breathe –, but it was impossible. Just as every single one was down, they slowly stood up, and with one final intake of air, Natsu yelled his joy out for the world to hear. "WE'RE BAAACK!"

Yes, they were back, and after a glance down into the valley, where Magnolia had always been, they were delighted to find everything was also back and in one piece. Lucy was on the brink to hug everyone on the spot, had not Erza's usual rationality taken her back to reality. "It's too early to celebrate. First we've got to make sure everyone's alright."

However, when the cats came flying down – flying, not falling –, they were completely baffled.

"They're fine!" "We reached Earthland a step ahead of you …" "The guild and everyone in the town are just fine …" "We flew all over …"

Flew, not fell.

"Phew …" Lucy muttered and shook her head with a smile. She was glad that everyone survived, but also exhausted. And she started to get cold. All the rain and stuff, she surely would get sick like that, victory or not.

As she watched the Exceed fly all over them, shouting for joy that they were alive and had made it, her hands went up and down her upper arms. Not that it helped so much, though. It was still cold, and she couldn't make the water disappear.

When someone came near, she first didn't notice, but then, as something warm covered her shoulders, she flinched in surprise. Warm and really comfortable. "Huh?" she uttered in confusion and turned her head, only to see Natsu standing next to her, showing a smile. "I thought you'd get cold in the rain. I don't need it."

"Uhh …" She looked down at the black cloak he had draped over her shoulders. Of course, he was the fire dragon slayer and had no problems with the cold, but she hadn't actually expected him to notice her. Or, to be so gentleman-like and help her out. That was just extremely cute.

"Thank you," she said, suppressing the sudden compulsion to take him into a hug, and smiled up to him. And when he smiled back, suddenly, the world was much warmer than before.

This guy always managed to surprise her anew.


Author's note: I came across that when, later in that chapter, Lucy wore a black cloak and I thought: huh? How did she get this? And when I saw Natsu in one of the next pics, without his cloak, my mind worked by itself, and that's the result. Hope you enjoyed my first FT fic.

Oh, and as to the names, I learned them like this and Gazille is Gazille and not Gajeel to me. So.