Not Losing You Again
"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" Lucy yelled as she covered her chest with her arms and turned away from Natsu. She bit her lip.
The blonde was furious, and she was shaking from her anger towards that stupid dragon. Standing in front of her partner, naked…This obviously wasn't her day. Kidnapped. Nearly died a bunch of times in the span of a few hours. And she saw her future self died in her arms…Not to mention the stupid dragon made her clothes disappear. Not her day. But, in the end, she managed to stop an entire armada of dragons coming through the gate and destroying civilization as they know it. So that was a win…she guessed.
"Did you catch Gray's stripping habit again Lucy?" Happy teased as he flew overhead his two partners.
With one arm still covering her chest, the blonde mage flailed her arm in the air at the blue cat. "Shut it Cat! I'll turn your fur into a coat!"
Happy immediately went to Natsu and hid behind the fire Dragon Slayer's shoulder from Lucy. "Natsu~! Lushie's being mean to me!"
"Luce, ya don't have to be mean just because Happy's saying the obvious," Natsu said wiping his mouth from the leftover residue of his motion sickness.
Lucy retracted her arm from the two's direction, placing her hand on the bridge of her nose and sighing under her breath. This really isn't my day.
"Why are you naked in the first place anyways?" Natsu asked, tilting his head in confusion. "It's not like you to strip like Gray in the middle of a battlefield…Or maybe you are getting his stripping habit!" Natsu held out his fingers in an X formation in attempt to exercise the habit of Gray's stripping.
"It's not my fault that I'm naked!" she yelled, making her partner drop his arms. "It was that damn dragon who made me!"
"A dragon? Igneel never made me strip."
"Well no shit. Igneel's different from these dragons…They're more…feral," Lucy said.
"Why would a dragon make you strip in the first place?"
"He said that clothes taste weird on humans," Happy said.
"And he said that because?" Natsu asked.
Lucy really wanted to bury her head into the ground from utter frustration with him now. Were all Dragon Slayers like this? Then again…Gajeel and Wendy weren't stupid like Natsu was. She sighed, how dense can he really be?
"Because I was going to be eaten Natsu," Lucy said.
The blonde missed Natsu's dark eyes widen then narrow immediately as she said the word eaten. "What?" he hissed.
"He was going to eat me. Honestly," Lucy said, finding a white blanket that was laying to the side. She began to wrap herself with it so she could actually talk to her friend and not feel embarrassed. "This has been a day, hasn't it guys?" She turned around to see Natsu having an aura around him. "Natsu?"
His fists were clenched tightly. His eyes were hidden by his pink bangs. His jaw was shut tightly, but Lucy saw that the Slayer was grinding his teeth together. His entire body was full of rage, but Lucy couldn't pin-point the exact reason why.
She…Luce nearly died…Again! Natsu thought, clenching his fist tighter. He felt blood start trickling from his palm and heard Lucy mentioning the blood, but he wasn't focused on that. He had let her down once again, breaking another promise.
She was supposed to be safe. He wasn't paying attention again…She was nearly eaten by the very creatures that he had loved so dearly. Natsu didn't know how Lucy had managed to escape the dragon, but he was happy she did. He wouldn't be able to face both, future and present selves of Lucy, if something did happen to her.
"Natsu?"
Lucy's voice pulled him away from his thoughts and saw her standing directly in front of her. She didn't seem injured in any way, just dirty from the tumble they took together in the bell. He looked away from his blonde partner's doe eyes. He couldn't face her.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry."
"What? Natsu, I don't under-"
"I wasn't watching you and you nearly got eaten by a dragon…I should've been there with you so you didn't-"
"It's not your fault. You were busy with Rogue to know what's going on," Lucy said. "It's fine."
"It's not fine! I should've been looking after you instead of-"
"You needed to take care of Rogue though," Lucy said. "We needed to separate in order to handle things. You were handling Rogue while I was handling the gate-"
"I'm not losing you again Lucy."
There was a paused between them.
"Natsu, look at me."
The pinkette refused her order, turning his head farther from her. She heard her sigh before hearing a few steps closing in on him. He felt slender fingers placed on the back of his head, pulling him to look forward. Lucy was directly in front of him now and had placed his forehead against hers…Like how he had done with her future self an hour (maybe) before.
Natsu fell to his knees and pulled Lucy down with him, shaking with feelings that were unknown to him. Sadness…Anxiety…Fear…Love
"Natsu, there are more things to deal with than watching over me every minute." Natsu was about to interject when Lucy continued. "Things have happened, yes that's true. But we couldn't stop it. We have to leave it behind us or we won't be able to protect everyone's future."
"But, I can't see that again Lucy," Natsu said. He immediately grabbed the hand holding his head with his hand, placing it on his chest. His other hand went for her right. He gripped her right hand tightly in his, stroking his thumb over her pink mark. "I promised I would protect your future…I'm not losing you again Luce…I…" He felt tears prickling at his eyes, but he didn't care. "I…don't…" He sighed heavily. "I don't want to see you dead again. I can't lose you."
He felt Lucy's left hand slip away from his and her slender fingers wiping his face. He had failed to notice that the tears had spilled from his eyes. He looked to see a warm smile gracing Lucy's face. Her brown eyes were sparkling, even in the red moonlight. She was beautiful, even with a dirty piece of cloth that was wrapped around her body.
Natsu's mouth was slightly opened. When did she get so beautiful?
Her smile grew. "You won't Natsu."
"But Luce-"
"You won't lose me…because I know you won't let me leave you," Lucy said. She giggled a bit, "You're too stubborn to let me."
She pulled away slightly, placing a kiss on Natsu's forehead where hers was just moments before. Natsu looked up to her eyes, seeing some sort of genuine feeling to them. He smiled before Happy began flying over their heads, teasing them.
"You llliike him~!"
Lucy didn't deny it like she always had. Instead, she looked up to the cat and smiled.
"You're right." Lucy looked up to Natsu. He stood up, still holding her right hand in his. He pulled her up and had a hand on her shoulder, still holding her right. "I won't lose ya Luce! Not if there's anything I have to say 'bout it!"
He bent down, placing a chaste kiss on her lips, pulling away with a very large, very Natsu-like grin plastered on his face. Happy began teasing Natsu now, saying 'You llliike her" whilst flying around. On Lucy's face was a deep red tint that matched Erza's hair. The team was too into the kiss, that they hadn't noticed that the blanket wrapped around Lucy had undone until Virgo had popped out from the Spirit World.
"Ho, ho, ho Hime," the maid spirit said. Virgo's voice had a suggesting tone to it that Lucy caught on while the other two were clueless. "I didn't know you went that way with Natsu-sama."
Lucy tried to put on a forced smile, trying to stop her spirit from thinking some perverted things. "Virgo? What are you-AHHH!" Lucy yelled as she saw her naked body…again. "Don't look at me…AGAIN!" She bent down, covering herself from Natsu and Happy. Her eyes were shut tightly until she felt something draped over her back. Looking up, the blanket was placed on her shoulders and Natsu was bent down to her level. "Natsu…"
"Don't worry Luce!" he said with a happy grin. "We're gonna win this war and go back home together!"
Lucy had a light pink blush grazing her cheeks now. "Natsu."
"Let's go Happy!" Natsu said.
"Aye Sir!"
"I'm going ahead Luce!"
Natsu started running from the area they were in, towards where Future Rogue was. Happy flew right beside him. Lucy stood up from her spot on the ground. A hand gripped the blanket securely around her body as her right fingers were touching her lips.
"Be careful…Natsu."
Unbeknownst to the blonde mage, a hot-tempered mage's grin grew larger as he picked up his pace towards the future self of Rogue. He was going to end this quickly so that he could go back to their team and guild together with Lucy by his side.