Sorry it took me so long, but here it is! the sixth chapter guys!
Natsu sat back up on the bed, sweating and trying to catch a breath, the events were haunting him in his sleep. He could remember everything perfectly, and knew that the image would never disappear from his mind: Lucy on the floor, pale and bleeding, trying to mutter something but wasn't able to, trying to focus, his confession (he started blushing as that fact came back to him) and of course, how close he was to lose her
He had started to develop his feelings a while back, without a warning he found himself caring more and more for the blonde mage. Before he realized, he was already in love with her and everything they went through together had played a part in those developing feelings, from their silly conversations and fights, such as him breaking into her house to eat her food and sleep next to her, to the dangers they faced, like what had happened with Phantom Lord, to the events in Edolas, were the dangers they all went through made him see how much Lucy ment to him: knowing that she was okay was a big comfort to him, specially when he had seen the lacrima where Gray and Erza were (although he tought that all the members were there) (A/N: maybe you don't remember but after seing that Lacrima, Lucy hugged him from behind, trying to calm him down - totally loved that part!).
He felt how his nakama stirred next to him. It seemed like his jolting right after the nightmare, had pulled her away from her now-not-so-deep slumber
"Natsu, are you ok?" she said with her groggy and low voice, that gave away the fact that she had just woken up
"Yeah, sorry I wake ya. You probably want to sleep some more, right?" He smiled at her
Lucy then, sleepy as she was, put her arms around Natsu's waist, pulling him once again to the bed, next to her. Natsu blushed at the touch
"Lu-Lucy, are you okay?" he stuttered
"Mm" she mumbled "I just wanna sleep for a little while longer"
Natsu didn't understand why she had to hug him if she wanted to sleep. Actually, why wasn't she happy that he was about to get up and she wouldn't have to sleep next to him? (A/N: You are really dense Natsu, but we still love ya!). Either way, he let it slide and relaxed against the mattress. After the nightmare he knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep, so he just decided to stare at his friend while she slept.
After half an hour, the blonde mage opened her eyes once again and realized that her arms were wrapped around Natsu's waist, she then saw his face, realizing he was staring at her.
"S-Sorry!" she pulled away and blushed "good morning" she whispered
"Mornin'' Natsu grinned, quite amused by her reaction
"Hey Natsu... can we go to the guild now?" she asked shyly, afraid he would get angry
"You do realize the time right?" he chuckled
"Eh?..." Lucy looked outside, to realize it was still dark "why is it so late?"
"Actually early" he explained "It was the afternoon when we fell asleep, around three I think"
"Seriously? and what time is it now?"
"Half past five, in the morning. I actually thought you would sleep more due to your injury but-"
"WE SLEPT FOR MORE THAN HALF A DAY?!" Even if for Natsu that wasn't much, she wasn't used to sleeping more than eight hours, actually, she baerly reached the 8 hours, thanks to a certain pink-haired boy who woke her up either because he had slept on her bed, or because he was hungry "Now that I think about it, Natsu is like a 5-year old of some sort! waking up people because he's hungry! he has no shame" She, even though was mad, smiled at that thought
"Don't yell jeez! I have sensitive ears Luce!" He was glad to see her energetic self "anyway, it's too early to go to the guild and I'm hungry, do you have food?"
It was as if he was reading her thoughts! "Right on time" she thought
"I'll make some french toasts! and wake up Happy, tell him I'm making some fish for him!" She shouted while exiting the room
"FISH!?" Happy woke up at the mention of his beloved fish
"Hey Happy, wake up! Lucy's cooking" Natsu informed, even though the blue cat had realized that already. He took a look at Natsu and realized why he was so distracted: Happy caught him looking at the door from which their friend had dissapeared
" You liiiike her!" he rolled his tongue, but Natsu was so distracted that he didn't bother to deny it
Just when Happy was about to tease him a bit more he heard Lucy calling them "Guys, at least do something useful and set the table" The little feline was surprised to see natsu stand up and going to help set the table, and in case you didn't realize, let me tell you again HE WENT TO SET THE TABLE, a shocker for Happy "The world is ending!" he thought "Natsu helping out like that is as weird as imagining himself not eating my beloved fish!NO! nothing can compare to fish, what am I thinking?". Natsu and Happy ate their food at their normal speed, which was, surprisingly fast for Lucy, while she decided to take it slow since they didn't have anything to do until they reached a more reasonable hour to go to the guild
They hanged in Lucy's apartment up until eight o'clock, the boys were eating and playing around, being careful not to break something so their friend's evil side wouldn't come along, and Lucy was writing her novel, when they heard Wendy nock on the door
"Hi Wendy! why are you here?" Lucy asked cheerfully, glad that there were still people in the world that had heard of knocking
"Hi Lucy-san, I came to check on you. I wanted to know How you were feeling" The blue haired girl answered
"I told her she shouldn't push herself so much but she didn't listen" Carla intervened
"Carla!" Happy called "Do you want some fi-"
"No" She interrupted him, expecting nothing else coming from the exceed
"Well, I'm feeling great actually! It's like nothing happened so don't worry" Lucy answered Wendy, after sweat dropping when hearing Happy's offer
"I'm glad to hear that! and you really do look okay!"
"Did you think I was lying?" Wendy got nervous at the question but was glad that Natsu intervened
"I wouldn't blame her Lucy! You always act as if you're fine so we can't take you seriously"
"Oh REEALLY? it that so, Wendy?" Dark Lucy was starting to emerge, while glaring at the pink-haired boy after his bold comment
"Ano... Lucy-san..." Wendy called "I'm on my way to the guild so I'll leave you two alone"
"That won't be necessary Wendy! We are going with you!" Lucy said, and added after seeing the girl's confused face "We were waiting for a more reasonable hour to go, since we woke up early"
"Oh! I see! Then we should get going"
The three mages, along with the two exceeds arrived at the guild some minutes later
"Lucy! you are okay!"
"Lucy, did natsu behave like a pervert?"
"So? Are you an item or what?"
"Hey! how are you feeling blondie?"
"So you decided to show up, Bunny girl"
"Lu-chan! I really wanted to go see you! I was worried"
Questions rose from everyone in the guild, as well as encouriging comments and expressions of affection. They were all yelling from their different positions, fixing up the building while a smaller group was sitting on a round table, resting. Lucy approached that group, being Levy, Gajeel (and Lilly), Erza, Gray, Cana and Romeo. Wendy sat next to Romeo, and Carla followed, and because Carla was there, Happy sat next to her. Natsu ended up sitting next to his partner, dragging Lucy along, so she ended up between Natsu and Levy, who put a stop to her reading to check on her friend
"So Lu-chan, are you sure you are well enough to be walking around?"
"Sure I am! It's all thanks to Wendy, oh! and Polyuoska of course"
The little girl blushed at the praise "I didn't really do anything" she whispered
"Sure you did!" Happy meddled "When i told her what happened she started freaking out, but then put herself together and started running towards the guild! Then Carla started carrying her but still! We should give her a fish as a reward for her hard work! No! make that two!" He explained to the group, who as usual, sweat-dropped at the comment.
Then, Mira appeared out of nowhere
"Kya! Are you two finally dating?" She asked, looking back and forth, from Lucy to Natsu
"Wh-WHAT?!" They said in unison while blushing
"Don't tell me that you forgot about the sweetest love confession I've ever seen?!"
"Yeah Lu-chan, I agree" Levy teased her along with Mira "What about L-O-V-E?"
"And you!" Mira pointed at Natsu "You are not as dense as you pretend to be, aren't you? I bet you thought about kissing her while she was asleep"
Natsu blushed, unable to deny it, Mira hit the bull's eye
"How cute! He's blushing!" Levy said
"Oi, Salamander! don't go all 'girl-in-love' on us!" Gajeel joined the conversation
"What did you-" Natsu started, still with a tint of red in his cheeks
"don't fight" Erza said 'calmly.
While Erza was scolding Natsu and Gajeel, along swith Gray who couldn't resist teasing Natsu, Levy, Mira and Cana tormented Lucy
"Sooo... Did anything interesting happen? Maybe some kissing and touching?" Cana teased
"Wha-NO!" Lucy blushed "We didn't even talk about that!"
"How come?" Levy asked
"Well... Let's just say... I forgot about it?"
"WHAT?!" The three friends yelled, earning the atention of the rest of the guild. They waited until they were back to their own business
"what do you mean you forgot?" Mira yelled in a whisper (Is it okay to call it that? kindda like a loud whisper)
"well, It's not like I forgot, but I kindda pushed it to a corner of my mind"
"Why?! I mean, you love him, he loved you! It's perfect" Levy said
"I know but..."
"But what?!" Cana demanded "Go and ask him out or something!"
"The thing is... I... We... What would we do later? I mean, we go out and imagine it doesn't work out, it would be totally awkward! I'm okay with being just friends"
"That's bullshit!" Cana said "You maybe okay now, but there will come a time when you won't be able to hide your feelings!"
"Cana is right" Mira agreed "Plus, What if you do go out with him, and then get married and live happyly ever after, huh? You will regret it if you miss your chance"
"I don't know Mira" Lucy answered " But it doesn't matter"
"Yes it does!" Levy said
"No, and I really am okay if we just stay friends" Lucy lied once again "And, maybe he didn't even mean it as a confession, I mean, he most probably just blurted it out in the spur of the moment, but just as an "I love you, like I love everyone else in the guild" "
"Lu-chan, we all can agree that what you just said is just some lame ass excuse"
"Just let it be, okay?" Lucy said to the three girls, who got tired of trying to knock some sense in the the blonde
(If you are wondering about what happened to the Exceeds, Wendy and Romeo, they are talking about other things, not related to romance, while watching Erza punish Natsu, Gray and Gajeel)
"Well, do we know something new about the perpetrators?" Gray asked, after everybody had settled down at the table.
"I did my research, but I cannot find any information about the mysterious last member"
"Well then, I think we should head out for Hargeon. I'd have rather to have some more information about this guy, but I guess we'll find out eventually"
"Hargeon?" Natsu asked
"yes. Master did some research before coming back and he found out that there were three mages that got away, talking about midnight damnation here, the guild we attacked the other week." Erza explained "Well, as I was saying, we know about a guy Ryou whose magic deals with bombs and explosives, and Kyousuke, who changes the state of matter"
"Apparently there's another guy, whose name is unkown to everyone except their master. Kindda like Mystogan" Gray added
"Also, it seems there are some mages breaking into peoples houses in Hargeon and stealing everything of value. The possibilities of being the same mages are low, but it's worth a shot. Plus, today I heard there have been some weird happenings with the houses walls and doors, like they melted or something" Erza continued "So I'm suspecting now more than ever that we are talking about the same people"
"Well! what are we waiting for?! let's go! Happy!" Natsu yelled
"Aye sir!"
"Wait! I wanna go too!" Lucy intervened
"I'm okay with that. It seems you really are feeling well" Erza said
"Yattā!" Lucy celebrated
"Let's go then" Gray said
Lucy, Erza, Gray, Natsu, Happy, Wendy and Carla were now boarding the train
"I hate trains!" Natsu said
"Stop complaining Matchstick!" Gray said
"What did you just call me, ice cone?!"
"You heard me, Flame for brains!"
"I dare you to say it again, ice perv- UGH!" The train started moving
The train ride was like usual: a calm enviroment, a sick Natsu, a mocking Gray, a calm Wendy, a talkative Lucy, a relaxed Erza, a serious Carla and a teasing Happy.
They got off the train and witnessed a turmoil in the streets
"Finally! The beautiful and solid ground!" Natsu was as good as new "I'm never riding a train again- UGH"
"You are pathetic ash brains, even the thought of it makes you sick?" Gray mocked him
"What did you-"
Natsu, Gray!" Erza yelled, while they shook in fear
"What's going on here?" Lucy asked, refering to the frighten crowd
"Excuse me, sir" Erza asked a man from the crowd "We are mages from Fairy Tail, What's happening?"
"T-The street" The scared man stuttered
"What? Is there something on the road?" Erza couldn't see because of the amount of people, neither could any of the other Team Natsu's members
"It-It disappeared"
"What does that mean?" Wendy whispered to Lucy, who shrugged. Then Gray asked the same question, but to the man
"I-I was passing by the street when some kind of mist appeared, that later turn into a fog. I-I Couldn't see anything but when it dispersed, The road was gone. Now it's just mud" He answered
"Oi, Erza" Lucy called, which made the requip mage turn around
"Yeah, I know. It's most likely those guys"
"Maybe someone from here saw a mage doing it, we should try asking" the blonde suggested
"Good idea, we should split to cover more ground, that way-"
Erza's plan was interrupted by an ear piercing scream, coming from the front of the crowd
THANK YOU FOR READING! AND REVIEW! PRETTY PLEASE! :(
no, seriously! I wanna know what you think so DON'T BE LAZY, MY DEAR READER! ;)
HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT! I'm not good with cliffangers, but I decided to leave it at that so I can finally update! I know it took me forever so to make it up, I made it longer :D
WELL, ANYWAY, this may be the longest chapter I've ever written for this fanfic! (since I wrote a one shot that had almost 3000 words) You have my crappy internet service to thank for that!