This is the first half of my first smut writing. The first chapter is safe, and can be considered a oneshot on its own.

Natsu was worried, to say the least. He and Lucy had gone out on a mission, just the two of them since Happy lost a bet to Lily and was his slave for a week. The job itself was simple enough. They'd estimated it would take a week or less considering that it was a simple monster tracking and extermination mission. The duo had found the den on the third day, that part being simple enough. Attempting to enter the monsters' hideout the next day, that was a bit more challenging to say the least. Natsu, being the headstrong idiot he was rushed in. By the time he realized he'd gone into the wrong cave, the busty blonde had disappeared. He rushed in and rescued her as fast as possible, but she'd sustained major injuries and needed medical attention fast. He rushed her to the nearest town, cradling her with gingerliness he didn't know he'd possessed. Four painstaking hours in surgery later, she was stable. Two weeks later and she was permitted to leave. Covered in scars and suffering nightmares the small group returned to their hotel, and went to their separate rooms.

That brought him to his current predicament. When he saw her wounded form on the ground, an instinctual ball of hatred rose in his stomach. It felt like Zancrow's fire, except hotter. He hadn't felt anything so hot in his life. He could imagine that it was similar to someone placing a red-hot ball of lead where his diaphragm should have been, which was, as best as he could think to describe it, strange. When Jellal tortured Erza at the R-System, he felt fury, surely, but he hadn't felt the irresistible urge to rip out Jellal's throat as he made him feel fear and temperatures not even Igneel could produce. The only other time the pin-salmon haired teen had felt anything like that was when Minerva had nearly killed Lucy in the GMG. He'd felt the same urge then, but didn't want the blood on his hands, especially with his guild under the spotlight like it was.

He was ripped from his thoughts as he heard shuffling through the wall, and the click of the lock on the door to his room. The familiar, calming scent washed over him, and his inner turmoil was instantly quelled. That was yet another power the scarred wizard now slipping into his room had over him. "Natsu?" he heard her timidly ask. She didn't even have to voice her question for him to know what she wanted. Lucy had needed him by her nearly every night at the hospital to keep her nightmares at bay. So he wasn't surprised this was happening. If anything, he was pleased. Having her close made the ball of lead and guilt in his chest disappear, as if signifying that she was still alive, and his fuckup hadn't erased her from the world. He lifted the covers slightly, and he could make out her form slipping across the room and under the covers with him. Without conscious though, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her as close to him as possible. She made a slight squeak of embarrassment, but soon sank into his grip and began to fade into the welcoming depths of sleep.

They slept like that until they both awoke later in the night and the circumstances were quite different from comfort, but still welcome.