Lucy woke up her head throbbing and her entire left side numb, looking around she recognized the familiar walls of the guild infirmary. She struggled to remember what happened and why she was back at the guild. Looking around she saw the rest of Team Natsu asleep at the foot of her bed even Happy had curled up in a little ball next to her. All of them looked worn out they were still covered in blood and dirt from battle and their eyes looked like they had been crying. Had they failed their mission? Holding the side of her head she groaned as a wave of nausea hit her.

"LUCY YOU'RE AWAKE!" Happy yelled Lucy's movements having woken the small blue cat

The rest of Team Natsu jumped to attention hearing Happy's excited cry.

"LUCY!" They all shouted at once their eyes filling with tears causing Lucy to grasp the side of her head in pain

"Guys not so loud please" Lucy whined "What happened anyways? Why are we back at the guild and what the hell is wrong with my left side?

"Oh Lucy it's all my fault" Lisanna cried grasping Lucy's right hand "I got scared and called out for Natsu. I knew you were hurt and couldn't defend yourself I should have tried harder to help. I should have called for Natsu to help you...I should have done more. Lucy please forgive me. You were injured because of me."

"Lisanna it's not your fault.." Lucy started memories of their battle flooding back to her

"Lucy's right Lisanna it's not your fault it's mine" Natsu stated grimly as he took a place on the left side of Lucy's bed "I could see that you were hurt, and I just left you there for that guy to impale with his weird shadow sword. I wasn't even thinking I was careless and stupid I let you down when you needed me the most."

"Natsu..." Lucy said softly looking at her pink haired friend

"No Natsu it is Juvia's fault Love Rival was hurt, that mage was Juvia's to deal with and Juvia let him get away" The water mage said her eyes down cast "Juvia is sorry Love Rival Juvia did not mean for you to get hurt Juvia was distracted by Grey-sama's injury. Please forgive Juvia Love Rival"

"No Juvia if I would have never been hurt you wouldn't have needed to save me. I'm sorry Lucy I should have been stronger I let you down" Grey said sitting down on the edge of Lucy's bed

"Guys really..." Lucy started

"No I am to blame Lucy. I should have disposed of the guild master faster and been there to fight at your side. You may hit me now if you wish" Erza said standing beside Lucy's bed

"Guy's really it was no one's fault people get hurt in battle it's no ones fault. I'm ok really I am just a little tired." Lucy said smiling at her friends

"Oh Lucy you're awake good" Wendy said smiling as she walked into the infirmary "Let me take a look at your wound I want to make sure everything is healing properly"

Everyone stepped aside to give the young healer room to properly examine Lucy all of them looking worriedly at the blonde as she winced in pain everytime her shoulder was moved even in the slightest.

"Everything looks like it's healing nicely you should take it easy for the next couple of weeks though" the blue haired healer said as she helped the blonde lay back down.

"Thank you Wendy." Lucy yawned as she fell back asleep


The next couple of days were torture for Lucy Wendy insisted that she stay in the infirmary so she could keep a close eye on her at least for the first 72 hours and she was B-O-R-E-D bored. Levy brought her books to keep her busy and everyone from Team Natsu took turns visiting her throughout the day, but still being stuck in bed for so long was really starting to get to Lucy. She hated seeing the guilty looks on everyone's faces when they came to see her all of them blamed themselves for her injury; they all apologized to her repeatedly for not being able to protect her. Lucy frowned they were right though she relied on them too much to protect her especially Natsu. When she had seen Natsu rushing towards her she hadn't even tried to defend herself she just sat back and waited for him to come rescue her.

The more Lucy thought about it the more it upset her, part of her felt betrayed that he had rescued Lisanna instead of her it was the second time he had chosen the other girl over her. No, that wasn't fair Lucy herself hadn't known about her feelings for Natsu until recently there was no way he could have known either, so he didn't really 'choose' Lisanna over her she was just letting her jealously get the better of her again. She relied on the pink haired dragon slayer far too much she thought frowning. He helped her pay her rent by doing most of the fighting on their jobs heck the only reason she could even take such high paying jobs was because of him, and she usually repaid him by complaining that he was too destructive. She counted on him to be her constant companion; Lucy came home almost every night to Natsu and Happy waiting for her. And any time Lucy was in danger she just expected Natsu to be there to bail her out.

Now that Natsu was with Lisanna it was time for Lucy to face the harsh truth that Natsu wouldn't always be there for her in the same way he was before. Sure he still went on missions with her to pay her rent, but there were times she knew he would like to go alone with Lisanna. She struggled to remember the last time she had come home to find Natsu just sitting in her house or going through her things; ever since he started dating Lisanna he rarely came over uninvited. Then on this mission when she had been hurt and counting on the dragon slayer to save her he had saved Lisanna instead and now here she was in a hospital bed. She needed to become more self-sufficient; she should be an equal member of Team Natsu not a burden.

Maybe she should do some training on her own, take a few solo missions, and take some time to get over the whole Natsu Lisanna situation. Maybe she could travel around and look for more celestial keys and spend some time working on her novel, anything to get her mind off of the pink haired fire mage. Lucy frowned how was she going to tell her friends she thought she needed some time to herself? They would probably think she was mad at them or think she wanted to leave them behind and she didn't want to hurt them. How can I explain my situation with out giving away too much about me and Natsu? Lucy was so deep in thought she didn't even hear the door open or Erza walk in and sit beside her until the red-head gently cleared her throat.

Started Lucy nearly fell over in her bed "Oh Erza I didn't hear you come in"

"I saw you were deep in thought and didn't want to disturb you. I thought you should know that Wendy has cleared you to go home; I came here to walk you back to your apartment. I was hoping we could have a chance to talk I'm sure there are some things you would like to discuss about this last mission." the older mage replied knowingly

Lucy smiled at her friend "Thank you. There is actually an idea I wanted to run by you see if you could help me explain it to the others."


As the two girls walked home Lucy explained to Erza her feelings about Natsu and how dependent she was on him as well as her desire to grow stronger and more self-reliant. She talked at great length about how she would like to have a chance to go out and do solo missions to help develop her skills as well as search for more keys. Erza simply listened not saying anything until she was finished, and Lucy was extremely thankful that her friend was at least hearing her out before she gave her input.

"So what do you think? Sounds crazy right? Me all on my own...just for a little while though I'm not leaving the team or anything" Lucy finally asked as they walked into her apartment

Erza looked thoughtful for a moment before finally replying "I admire your determination to grow as a mage and better your skills, but I do wish you would at least let one of us go with you to help you train."

"But if I go off with you or Grey that would mean I would either have to go out with Natsu as well or hurt him by going on missions with everyone but him." Lucy frowned "I really think I just need some time to myself to think things over, and I wont take any long or dangerous missions at least not at first. It's just ever since I joined Fairy Tail I've always been on Team Natsu I never got to go out and experience things on my own as a solo mage. I fee like this would be the perfect opportunity for that as well as giving myself time away from Natsu and Lisanna for my heart to heal. Our last mission I was too distracted by the thought of those two together that I ended up getting hurt and making everyone worry. I don't want that to happen again"

Erza looked at the blonde and seeing the determination in her eyes smiled "I understand Lucy, and I will help you explain to the others. I don't know how Natsu will react though, we should probably prepare for the worst he may even try to follow you on missions."

Lucy frowned at that thought "I really don't want him following me he wont be able to resist jumping into the action if I find myself in any kind of danger"

"Then I will do my best to keep him in line while you are gone" the red-head replied

The two girls stayed up well into the night discussing Lucy's plans to travel; Erza even outlined a very strict work out routine for the blonde to follow while she was away. After Erza left for Fairy Hills Lucy laid back in bed trying to plan out what she would say to Natsu tomorrow to make him understand how much she needed his time alone. I'm sure Erza can make him see things my way she thought as she finally gave into sleep.


The next day Lucy awoke earlier than usual still a little unsure about how she was going to break the news to Natsu without hurting him. She decided that a nice hot shower would help clear her mind before she went to the guild to face her team. She sighed in content as she entered the steamy water. All those days in that horrible infirmary the thing she had missed the most was the luxury of a nice hot shower. She took her time washing her hair with her strawberry honey shampoo and scrubbing her body down with her vanilla body wash. This is the life, she thought as she let the water run down her curvaceous body for a few more moments before stepping out of the shower and wrapping herself in a towel.

After going through her extensive wardrobe Lucy finally decided on a simple yellow sun dress that showed of her long tan legs. Holding the dress up to herself in the mirror for one more good look the blonde suddenly frowned. This dress wouldn't do at all she needed to work on getting stronger and flaunting her body in a flimsy sun dress wasn't going to help her with that. Putting the dress back Lucy grabbed a pair of short black work out shorts and simple white spaghetti strap shirt she finished the outfit off with her running shoes and her belt which held her whip and keys. "Might as well start Erza's work out routine today" she thought as she put her hair into a high pony tail.

Walking out of her apartment Lucy started to streach before her run to the guild when suddenly a sparkling golden light caught her eye.

"Good morning Princess are you ready to head over to the guild?" Loke purred as he took in the view of Lucy bent over with her ass in the air

Lucy frowned seeing Loke's blatant observation of her ass "What are you doing here you pervy Lion?"

The lion spirit grasped at his chest in mock dismay "Why Princess you wound me I am here to help you train. We're running to the guild today right?"

The blonde looked at Loke noticing that for once he wasn't in his usual dark suit instead he stood before her in a simple pair of gray sweat pants and a dark green tshirt. "Fine you can run with me, but I want you right beside or in front of me you're not going to run behind me and check out my ass the whole time"

"Princess do you really think so little of me" he replied pouting

Lucy simply stared at her faithful Lion with her arms crossed in front her chest.

"Fine...fine...you win I wont run behind you to check out your ass" The Lion relented not even bothering to hide his disappointment

Loke actually turned out to be a good running partner he set a good steady pace and kept her motivated the entire run pushing her to keep up with him. He even managed to keep the number of times he looked over to watch her large chest bounced as she ran to a bare minimum much to Lucy's surprise.

As they came to a stop in front of the guild hall Lucy felt as if her lungs were about to burst out of her chest panting she looked up at Loke and frowned, he didn't look like he even broke a sweat. Was she that out of shape? No it must be a celestial spirit thing there was no way she was THAT bad off she thought as she struggled to get her breathing under control.

"Oi Blondie you going to stand in front of the guild hall all day? You're blocking the doors" someone shouted behind the blonde

Lucy turned around fully intent on giving whatever jerk thought he could talk to her like that a piece of her mind when she found herself face to face with Laxus. Looking up at the lightning dragon slayer Lucy suddenly found herself at a loss for words of all the people to find her outside the guild hall it had to be Laxus. He probably thought she was an idiot...I mean look at him he looked like he could run across Fiore and not even break a sweat and here she was dieing after barely a 2 mile run. She wondered how much time Laxus devoted to working out I mean the man didn't get a body like that by just hitting the gym sporadically his muscles looked like they had muscles.

"Well just let me know when you're done drooling over me so I can go inside Blondie" Laxus said looking down at the blonde with a smug smirk breaking her train of thought

Blushing Lucy sputterd "I wasn't checking you out! I was just thinking that you look like you're...in really good shape"

The lightning dragon slayer pretended to look thoughtful before taking a step towards Lucy effectively backing her against the guild doors "You know that sounds a lot like checking me out" he whispered seductively into her ear

Lucy flushed bright red and for some reason her legs couldn't seem to hold her up properly they wavered threatening to give out at any second. She opened her mouth to say something...anything but all that came out was a tiny squeak. Suddenly the sound of Laxus' booming laugh filled her ears breaking the trance she was in.

"Calm down Blondie I'm just joking with you" he laughed reaching behind the stunned blonde to open the doors to the guild hall still laughing as he walked inside

Lucy looked over to see Loke clutching his sides nearly doubled over in laughter "You were here the whole time! Aren't you supposed to help me when things like that happen? What happened to my 'loyal lion'" the blonde raged fixing the spirit with her most threatening glare which only caused the ginger haired man to laugh even harder

"I'm sorry Princess it's just I've never seen you so flustered by anyone before." Loke finally managed to sputter out in-between fits of laughter "I can't believe you told him you were checking him out"

Lucy flushed again "Stupid Lion... stupid Laxus... I wasn't checking him out" she replied annoyed when her obvious embarrassment just made Loke laugh even harder "Ugh lets just get inside and get this over with"

Annoyed Lucy pushed past the lion spirit into the guild hall intent on finding Natsu.


Thank you again everyone for all your wonderful reviews. We finally got to see at least a little bit of Laxus this chapter and next chapter we should see Natsu's reaction to Lucy wanting to venture out on her own.