It was a beautiful day in Magnolia. The flowers were blooming and the birds were chirping. Young couples walked along the river side arm in arm, talking happily and taking in the warm sun. Lucy watched for a moment from her window and smiled. Everyone was so happy. She felt a tickle in her nose moments before she let out a sneeze. She groaned and lowered herself back into her bed. She glanced at the thermometer hanging from her lips, and saw the little light flashing meaning it was done. Taking it in her hand, she looked closer at the little number. Yup. She had a fever.
That wasn't really a surprise. Her whole body ached, and she felt cold as ice no matter how many blankets she threw over herself. Ugh, why was it always the beautiful days she had to spend inside? She groaned and rolled over, pulling her blanket tight around her. She felt miserable. Her head was spinning, her joints ached, her stomach was empty, but at the same time, she knew she would regret it if she ate anything.
"H-heeeeeeey, Luuucyyy!" Her front door burst open, and she let out an exasperated sigh. It could only be one person
Natsu happily barged into her apartment, Happy followed soon after. "We found a great job that you'd just be perfect fo-hey, why are you in bed?" As usual, he was pretty slow on the uptake. Lucy let out a weak laugh that quickly turned into a cough.
"I've got a fever. As you can probably tell, I'm not in any condition to take on a job right now." she groaned and adjusted her position. "I really need to r-rest..." She was short on breath. Talking took way more out of her than it should have.
"Yo! Lucy! You don't look so good!" Natsu rushed over to her bed side, concern suddenly painted over his face.
Lucy sat up exasperated. "Duh! I just said I have a fe-" the sudden movement made her light headed, she fell back and almost hit her head against the headboard of her bed, instead, it landed on the soft belly of the winged blue cat that swooped in the way just in time. Happy let out a little grunt. "Man, Lucy, you've got-such a big head..."
Lucy threw herself forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "woah..." She opened her eyes, but her vision spun.
"Oh man... you really are sick..." Natsu stood and looked around. "You got some soup or anything around here?"
"Geeze, Natsu... always thinking about your stomach..." Lucy's shoulders slumped.
"Not for me! For you! You're supposed to eat soup when you're sick, right? I'll make some for you."
"Look, that's really nice of you, but... but I don't think I can eat anything right now..." Lucy laid back down and pulled the blankets around her. "ugh... so cold..."
"Cold, huh? I can help with that!" Natsu stood straight and held a flaming fist up.
"I DON'T WANT TO BE THAT WARM, THANKS!" Lucy yelled.
"haha Don't worry! I was just kidding. Here." He extinguished his fist and knelt next to her. He placed his hand over her forehead. It was amazingly warm. Warmer than a normal person's hand would be. But he was a fire wizard, and a dragon slayer. Not to mention that hand had literally just been on fire.
Lucy sighed. "Yeah... that's much better..." She snuggled deeper into her bed. "Thanks Natsu..." She breathed as she drifted off to sleep.
"Well... she's a sleep." Happy whispered. Natsu hadn't moved from her side for a few minutes after Lucy had fallen asleep.
"Yeah. And?"Natsu said quietly.
"Well, aren't we going to go do that job?It's not like we need her or anything. She was just going to be a decoy."Happy said.
"No. I'm going to stay here with her for a bit. She seems really out of it. I don't think she can even take care of herself like this."Natsu finally moved his hand from her forehead. She squirmed a little at the movement, and pulled the blankets tighter around her.
"Even I can feel her forehead is hot. She must have one heck of a fever." Natsu moved from his position on the floor and sat on the side of her bed.
"Man, this blanket is so thick, but she's still shivering..." He looked down at his team mate. He was always messing with her and making fun of her. Why did he do that? Did she know he was just kidding around? Her hair was all matted to her head, and she was sweating but still shivering. Even in her sleep, she grimiced with the acheing she must be feeling over her entire body.
He had defended her from so many powerful enemies. Evil people who had tried to kidnap her, or hurt her. People who had tried to use her to get to him. He could defend her from anything... but he felt so helpless against this. He couldn't heal her like Wendy could, and she was gone on a job with Erza and Grey. He couldn't find some remedy and learn how to make and administer it like Levy could, but she was out of town with team Shadow Gear.
He growled, annoyed. "Man I'm so useless!"
Lucy stirred, pulling at the blankets. In her sleep she mumbled and Natsu had to lean in close to hear her "So...cold..." As she pawed around for the blanket, she caught hold of the end of his scarf and pulled. Natsu, not quite expecting his thin, sleeping team mate to be so strong fell forward.
"Hey!Lucy! What gives?"He complained, but stopped when he opened his eyes. His head had hit the pillow next to her. She had pulled the end of his scarf up to her face, and was snuggling on it. The grimice she had once had plastered of her face turned up into a small smile.
"Natsu..." She whispered, still fast asleep.
Natsu gawked for just a moment before smiling. He pulled his scarf off and carefully aranged it over Lucy.
"Woah! Natsu!You're giving her your scarf?"Happy hissed, only half heartedly trying to stay quiet so as to not wake up the sick girl.
"Not giving. I just figure, it's made from the scales of a fire dragon, so it's sure to help keep her warm. See? She likes it!"
Natsu stole one more glance at his team mate.
"Come on, Happy. Lets let her rest. We'll come back later with some soup for her."
Natsu stood and started toward the door. He felt so naked without his scarf, but he would do anything to help Lucy.
Lucy awoke feeling much better. Her joints weren't aching, and she didn't feel cold anymore.
"Huh...I guess my fever broke while I was asleep. I wonder why..." She sat up. "Hmm?What's this?"She looked down at the forign piece of cloth that fell into her lap. "NATSU'S SCARF?"She held it far away from her. "Oh man!How did this get here!?He's going to think I stole it!I wonder if he knows it's missing? Oh who am I kidding?Of course he knows. He wears this thing all the time..."She looked around franticlly looking for some sign of what she should do. "Oh man, he's going to be so mad... Unless..."A thought occured to her. He had been wanting to help her out. "I wonder if he left this here for me because I was cold..." She stopped handling the scarf as it it were a deadly snake, and pulled it closer to her, resting a hand on it and smiled.
"I should go give this back since I'm feeling better."
She stood up slowly. Though she didn't seem to have a fever anymore, she was still sore and her muscles didn't want to work after spending the entire day in bed. Slowly, she made her way to the bathroom to bathe and get ready to go out.
"Hey Natsu, where's your scarf?"
"You lose a bet or something?"
"Be nice!What if he lost it somehow?"
"Natsu!You look different!Finally grow out of that security blanket?"
Every comment just fueled the anger that was boiling in Natsu's belly. He should have known better than to show up at the guild hall without his scarf. Where else was he going to go though?It's not like he had anything else to do.
"WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUTUP?"Natsu yelled, jumping up on the table. "Unless you want a piece of me, you better stop making stupid jokes about my scarf!"
"Calm down, flame brain. They're just teasing you. Yeash."Gray said as he walked past on his way to a table where Juvia sat.
"You wanna go, snow cone?" Natsu shouted.
"Not really. Rain check."Gray said, waving a hand.
"Yeah...what ever."Natsu mumbled, sitting back on the bench.
"Hey... Natsu?"A girl's voice said behind him. He turned to see Lucy standing there, hands clasped behind her, smiling.
"Lucy. You look much better."Natsu said. He stood and smiled back at her.
"Yeah, that extra bit of warmth must have been what broke my fever. So I guess I have you to thank for that. Thanks, Natsu."She said.
"Aww, it was nothin. We're a team, remember?I need you in peek fighting form!"He said.
"Well, anyway, I figured you'd be missing this, so I wanted to give it back to you."She pulled her hands from behind her back, and held them out to him. In them folded neatly, she held his scarf.
"Hey, thanks."He said, grabbing it quickly. He looked around to make sure no one had seen. Of course, the entire guild was watching the pair. It took Lucy a moment to notice the extra attention, but when she did, her face went beet red.
"Uh, anyway, I just wanted to return this!I better get back now!Bye!"She turned tail and ran from the guild hall as fast as she could.
"Aww, Natsu is in Loooooove!"Happy said, mockingly.
Natsu looked down at his precious scarf in his hand and whispered
"Yeah?So what if I am?"