Chapter 4

Natsu stood in front of a door to a house on the edge of Magnolia, clenching and unclenching his fists. He was hesitating, his mind trying to prepare himself for what he was about to see. Every time his mind would conjure up an image to get used to, it would immediately dismiss it as a possibility, which scared the shit out of him.

He had seen Lucy get injured countless times, hell, he had even seen her die. But, each time he had been able to do something about it; each time, he had been able to save her. Now, she had gone through it all alone, and no one had been able to stop it. He hadn't been able to save her, and she was suffering for it.

With a deep, shaky breath, he raised his white-knuckled fist and knocked on the door. He shuffled on his feet while he listened to footsteps come nearer to the door, not sure if the pounding in his ears were the footsteps or his heart.

The door swung open to reveal Laxus with what might be considered a frown on his face. "I'm kinda impressed that you didn't burn the house down."

Natsu slowly let his eyes drift up to meet Laxus', and whispered lowly. "Where is she?"

Laxus let out a slow breath through his nose, glancing at the boy's fists for a second. "Maybe you should calm down before you see her."

"I need…I need to see her."

Laxus sighed at the restraint in those words, and he stepped aside. "Just… don't let this break you."

Natsu swallowed thickly at the man's words as he stepped into the house. How could one prevent something from breaking them? He took a long breath of air as he put one foot in front of the other, a burning in his stomach that set him on edge.

The house was bright, all the windows open and letting the sun shine through, possibly to cheer the place up? He really didn't give a shit, but what he definitely did give a shit about, was Lucy's scent. He followed her scent from the entryway to the living room. Ever so carefully, he entered the room, hoping to Mavis that the dreaded feeling in his gut wasn't true.

Freed looked up from the paper he was reading when he saw Natsu walk into the room, and he immediately stood up from the couch. The way Natsu's entire being froze when his eyes landed on Lucy, made him silently check the runes he had set up around the girl. Not that he could blame Natsu though, the girl looked like a statue as she sat on the armchair, not moving, and very unconvincingly breathing. It was eerie to say the least.

"L-Lucy?" Natsu choked out as he tried to look into her lifeless, unfocused eyes. This wasn't right, she always smiled when she saw him, but she wasn't even looking at him. He stepped forward to try to help her see him. "Lucy, it's me." He noticed Free moving closer to her as he crouched in front of her, but he didn't really care what Freed was doing. He tilted his head to try and gain her attention. "Lucy, can't you see me?"

The silence that followed made his heart squeeze in his chest. There was no response, no movement of any kind. His eyes then drifted down to her hand, it was short…too short. "What the hell?" He whispered to himself before he shot up and rounded on Freed, the man not even flinching as he got right in his face. "What the hell happened to her?"

Freed let out a long breath through his nose, trying to figure out how the hell he was going to talk about this again. Thankfully, Laxus came in the room and spoke before he had to.

"If you'll sit the fuck down and promise not to destroy anything, then we'll tell you."

Natsu bared his teeth in frustration, not at them but at the situation.

Freed warily eyed the boy who looked like he could kill them at any given moment. "Maybe we should talk in another room. Lucy doesn't need to hear this again."

Natsu's face slowly morphed from anger to sorrow, his eyes held a spark of hope in them though. "She can hear us?"

"Yeah of course." Laxus huffed. "So, don't say anything you would get Lucy-kicked for."

That made Natsu smirk. "No shit, those kicks of her's hurt like a bitch."

"Glad we have an understanding then." Laxus turned around and started walking toward the back porch. "Why don't you get your flaming ass outside so we can explain this shit to you."

Natsu gave Lucy one more confused and sorrowful look, before he followed Laxus and Freed outside.

"How…"

Laxus' eyes scrunched at Natsu's growled words. "The fuck do you mean how?" They had just explained everything to Natsu. The impending exploding rage that could scorch an entire country was expected, not a question that they had already given an answer to.

"…could you have let them fucking live?!"

Oh. That made a lot more sense.

"Might I remind you, Natsu." Freed stepped up to the boy and looked him dead in his eyes, his gaze just as hard. "That Fairy Tail has a no kill rule, no matter what the circumstances might be."

"I don't care!" Natsu shouted, his rage getting harder and harder to control as he grabbed Freed's lapel. "They don't deserve to live! Why should they get to move and talk freely when she can't?!"

"I agree completely." Freed stated and he brushed the now stunned Natsu's hands off of him. "However, I would rather stay in Fairy Tail and be able to monitor miss Lucy's recovery than to be kicked out and never know what would become of her."

Natsu huffed a puff of air out of his nose, not liking, but agreeing with Freed's words.

"Why don't you calm down and think about shit before you come back inside." Laxus said as he followed Freed back into the house.

Natsu sank down onto the edge of the porch, his head falling into his hands. Why her? Of all the fucking people in all of Earthland, why the fuck did it have to be her?!

On that porch, Natsu cried a little, cursed a little, and for once, thought a little.

Freed looked up from the book he was reading to Lucy as he heard the door to the back porch creak open. Natsu walked in with pensive look on his face, something that Freed found odd, considering that it was Natsu. So, when Natsu strolled into the living room and kneeled in front of Lucy, he sure as hell listened in, despite feeling just a little nosy.

Natsu tried to put his eyes in focus of where Lucy was looking, and the fact that he couldn't put a tiny crack in his heart. Her eyes were the main reason he told her so many things, why he could pour his heart out to her so willingly. Her eyes were real, they were forgiving, loving, unjudging, and just by looking at them he could tell what she was thinking. So, not being able to see the focus in her eyes was tearing him up inside. He wasn't able to tell what she was thinking, he wasn't able to see the emotions she was going through.

"Lucy…" He whispered, pausing to try to get his thoughts in order. "You know that I love you." He grabbed her hand in both of his and pressed his nose against it. "You're the family that I always wanted. Yeah, Fairy Tail is all family, but you're like immediate family…like blood related."

Freed found that interesting. He, along with so many others, had always thought that those two were in love, they just didn't know it themselves. But now he understood that they were just undeniably together, like true family. It made sense when he thought about it.

"I always want to protect you," Natsu continued. "And to know that I wasn't able to do that this time…it's killing me inside." He grit his teeth as tears started to form in his eyes, and he shook his head to try to keep them in. "I'm going to get stronger, I'm going to be able to protect you against anything, I promise. So, I'm gonna go away for a while, but I trust you with Freed and Laxus. I know you'll be able to recover here. That's what I want you to do for me, Lucy. I want you to work on recovering. I want you to try as hard as you can, cause you have a whole lot of family waiting for you." He ran his hand through his hair and stood up. "When I get back, you better be able to give me a hug, okay?" He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Lucy."

Freed nodded his head when Natsu did the same, and he put his hand over his chin as he watched Natsu walk away. Now, Freed had known Natsu for a very long time, but he had never seen that side of him before. Natsu was always just the crazy, goofy, dumb dragonslayer that didn't know his own potential. But, listening to what he'd said just now, Freed realized that there are always way more layers to people than what they show. You could know someone for years and years and still not know everything about them.

"Well shit."

He looked up to see Laxus eating his favorite butter pecan ice cream. Why the man loved that flavor, he would never understand,

"Indeed." Freed's eyes drifted away from Laxus licking a spoon and to Lucy's face. His eyebrows scrunched when he saw a shine on her cheek. He got up and moved closer, only to realize that she was crying. His heart hurt for her. "Lucy." He said softly as he sat next to her.

Laxus wiped his mouth and put his ice cream down to come over to her. "I thought I smelled salt."

"It's going to be okay, Lucy."

"Move aside Freed." Laxus said and picked Lucy up, making Freed's eyes widen, and placed her on his lap on the couch. When Freed raised an eyebrow at him, he shrugged and said, "She just needs a teddy bear in her life."

Freed smirked at the man, silently laughing at the fact that he just called himself a teddy bear.

"That does sound like a good idea, doesn't it?"

"Hell yeah it does!"

They both looked over to see Bickslow and Evergreen coming into the room in full pj's and pillows and blankets.

"The fuck are you two doing?" Laxus asked, genuinely curious.

"I hope moron disease is curable." Evergreen huffed.

"We're having a sleepover! Duh!" Bickslow's tongue lolled out of his mouth.

"You do realize that we all live here…right?" Freed asked, understanding what they were doing…but not being able to resist saying it.

"Well we can't leave Lucy to sleep by herself after that conversation, now can we?" Evergreen smirked, putting a scarf around Lucy's neck

"You're both ridiculous." Laxus sighed, wrapping his arms around Lucy and leaning his head back against the couch.

"I'll go get the popcorn! Evergreen, pick a movie!" Bickslow shouted, getting super pumped for a sleepover.

Freed smiled, he had no doubt that they, in fact, could help Lucy recover, and honor Natsu's silent request.

I'm not going to give any excuses, just know that life is a real cunt.