Looking for him, she crawled to where she last saw him standing.

She found his bloodied and bruised body sprawled on his stomach.

His hands were in an awkward position

His legs were covered by two large rocks...

"Natsu! Can you hear me? Please answer me", called Lucy, patting his cheek. Seeing as he was not responding, she panicked. "Somebody please HELP! Gray! Erza! Anybody around?"

The only response she got was Natsu's eyes moving in an attempt to open, only for his face to morph in an expression of pain. Distressed because of the pain he was in, she started to push wildly the rocks trapping him in.

"SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP!

She was hesitating whether or not to leave him to look for somebody to help. Looking frantically in her surroundings, she got up with a final painful push, and sought the wall of the bakery to her right for support. Limping her way around, she screamed her lungs out hoping someone will hear her calls. All the other dragon slayers have probably landed in other random places, she thought. Who will find them?

She thanked her lucky stay when Elfman and Lisanna appeared, from a distance, just as battered as she was. She wasn't sure they heard her, so she waved with her hands, screaming even more.

"ELFMAN! LISANNA! HELP!"

To her relief, they answered her calls, and she heard a faint "Coming Lucy!"

In a hurry to check up on Natsu again, she half-ran, limped and crawled to his side again, anxious to hear him breathe. Thanking her lucky star again, she found him half-awake whispering her name.

"It's me Lucy. Don't tire yourself out, Elfman and Lisanna are coming to help."

"Di ..d we win?", he managed to groan, his face scrunched in pain.

"Yes Natsu, you were amazing. Please …" whatever she was going to plead with him died down her throat when his pained expression became peaceful. Half-scared he was dead, half-relieved he was no longer in pain, she went to look for the pulse in his hands. The minute it took her to find it threatened to submerge her in darkness, as she started seeing dark spots clouding her vision by the time she felt his faint heartbeat.

"Please hurry up!", she said turning around to see if her friends were close, she was pleasantly surprised to find them only a few feet away.

"Is he alright?" asked Lisanna with concern etched along her features.

"He just passed out. He is in very bad shape. Let's try to get these rocks off" replied Elfman.

"Yeah thank you" breathed Lucy.

It took all of their efforts to push the first rock to reveal a half bloodied leg. If the adrenaline wasn't coursing through Lucy's veins and giving her a boost, she would have passed out from the sight. Fortunately, Elfman handled lifting the second rock and all that was left was to carry Natsu to the guild.

"Please, Elfman, carry him carefully" whispered Lucy. She felt numb at the sight of the full damage that Natsu has taken. He was no stranger to injuries and bruises, but never had she seen him this beaten up. There was no spot on his back that was scratch-free, and upon revealing his yellow and blue torso, she thought that no way some of his ribs weren't broken. Limping after Elfman and Lisanna, she prayed for his recovery and the safety of all the guild members. Where was Erza? Gray? Levy? Juvia? Little Wendy?

The guild was only a few turns away, and she was relieved to find Madame Porlyusica preparing a bed and asking the new arrivals which of them needed her care the most. Lucy did not remember what happened after Natsu's body was laid in the nearest bed and Porlyusica's careful hands started examining him.

She woke up with a start in a room she didn't know and in a bed that wasn't hers. It was clearly night and no sound made it to her ears aside from the singing of the night bugs. Upon remembering the events of defeating Acnologia, she started feeling the aches in her body: Her ribs hurt with every breathe, and her legs were burning in multiple places. The peaceful atmosphere made her relax and feel serene, but it did not take away the desire to make sure all her friends were alright, and above all see how Natsu was doing.

Having adjusted to the dim light of the moon that was filtering from the window, she braced herself for the pain and got off the bed to move around the infirmary to see her guild mates. Next to her was Elfman and across from her was Jellal. To Jellal's right was Erza, and to his left Wendy, Gajeel and Laxus in the beds next to her. They all looked in pain, either one of their arms or legs bandaged in layers. Right next to the door, opposite from Gajeel was Natsu, his spikey hair looking dark-pink in the moonlight.

Carrying herself to his side, she couldn't help the lump that formed in her throat at the sight of him. Both his arms were bandaged and she could tell even with the dim light that his legs were thickly bandaged with blood leaking all over the bandage, from his cuts. His face was breaking in sweat, which she tried to dry with the palm of her hand but only ended up burning herself in the process. His temperature was abnormally high. In a hurry, she found her way outside the infirmary, and started whispering Madame Porlyusica's name repeatedly. She did not want to get too far from the infirmary because she knew the healer had to be close by. Confirming her guess, she responded to her calls soon enough.

"What are you doing outside of bed at this hour Lucy?"

"I wanted to see if everyone was okay", she hurried saying. "Madame Porlyusica, Natsu is having an abnormal fever. He's burning up. Please come to see!" She felt on the verge of tears again, but swallowed the lump in her throat. Natsu's was going to be okay, she thought repeatedly.

Anxious, she hovered around Madame Porlyusica, while she gave Natsu and injection, and volunteered to dry the sweat from the parts of his body that were not bandaged, using a cloth. She handled his body with care, scared to hurt him further.

"Lucy, if you are not going to rest, it's best you take this pill to lessen the pain." Indeed, it was becoming increasingly hard for her to breathe and to stay up on her legs, so she took it gratefully. She did not feel like leaving Natsu any time soon.

After handing her a chair to sit on by Natsu's bed, Madame Porlyusica left the room. The stars were still shining brightly in the sky, making Lucy resent them for not caring about her friends' lives having been in mortal danger mere hours ago. Forcing her anxiety to calm down, she repeatedly thought that Natsu was going to heal and that the guild was going to be fixed again. Examining Natsu's face, she was relieved to notice that he was not sweating anymore. Desiring to feel his normal temperature again, she brushed the back of her hand on his forehead, and was happy to find it warm.

She stayed there examining every inch of Natsu's face, ignoring her body's call for sleep, ready to call Porlyusica at any complication. Her heart ached and every passing moment made it harder to hold onto the tears. She was scared for her friend. She wanted him to open his eyes again, to smile, and for everything to be okay with the world again. She did not want to see the blood staining his bandages, she did not want to see his still form. Natsu was never this still in his sleep.

In an attempt to comfort herself, she put her head on his pillow, her forehead right next to his jaw, and started running her hand through his hair. Despite the smell of the ointments covering most of his body, she was still able to smell his usual perfume, which relaxed her. Hearing him exhale and inhale calmed her as well. Had she not been scared of something coming up or Natsu's fever rising again, she would have gladly let sleep overtake her right then and there.

She stayed up next to him, breathing at the same pace as him till the sky turned to a light blue, and since it was almost time for things to start getting busy around the infirmary, she felt safe leaving Natsu's side and going back to sleep for a few hours. When she could no longer keep her eyes open, she stood up, not without pain, and let her hand run across Natsu's cheek for a moment, feeling his temperature one last time. That's when she saw his right hand's fingers intertwined with Lisanna's, who was occupying the bed right next to him. The sight made her freeze, while her heart started beating erratically inside her chest. She felt the overwhelming urge to run up to their hands to pull them apart. Why was Natsu's hand in Lisanna's, she thought. She could have been staring at their hands for an hour or just mere seconds when she felt someone shuffling in one of the debs. She couldn't move past what she saw.

"Lucy, how is Natsu doing?" It was Erza who broke her trance.

"He is still sleeping", she managed to mutter before limping to her bed in a daze.

"You don't look too good Lucy"

"I will be fine" she replied with a forced smile "Don't worry. Erza don't push yourself too hard okay? Wait for Madame Porlyusica"

"Of course"

She laid in her bed, ignoring all the aches and burns, and looked up at the ceiling, losing herself in turbulent thoughts. A fear, deep within her being, was preventing her heart from going back to its normal pace; it was also making her breathing come in raged as if she had been running on full speed. I am afraid, she thought. There was no use denying that Natsu has become the most important person in her life. She admires him and cares for him and would do anything for him. She loves spending time with him, hearing him talk, and was going to break every single time he passed out because of the tumor, but she never thought about love. She never had the luxury to think about Love...

This is it for now, next chapters will come soon.

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