"How many fingers am I holding up?"

There was a ringing, it rather defiant in terms of lingering; even with his vision blurred, he knew the voice belonged to Lucy. He always knew.

"Natsu! How many?!"

He groaned, pulling himself upright, flicking his eyes lazily in her direction. She sounded tired to the point of agitation, but of course she did. They'd literally just endured an explosive. He was the one that should be checking on her. But at the moment his eyes were still blurry and his head felt like it had been ripped apart.

With another push, he tried to focus on Lucy.

"Three… Three, you're holding up three."

She sighed at that, a sound of relief and as if that sigh had triggered it; he felt his eyes focus, clamping a hand on his head.

It was sticky, wet and sore; clearly his metaphorical feeling of a torn head was a little more true than he had anticipated.

"Are you okay?" He asked gently, turning slightly so that he could view the wreckage. Luckily they had been the only ones here, thank goodness Happy wasn't beyond the wreckage. Railings were knocked over, and they were practically in a cave of bricks from the building they had been standing in.

The attack had flown in through the window, they had never expected to walk directly into a trap like that, it almost made Natsu feel sick with how easily they had been fooled.

He looked at Lucy, this time with his vision at full capacity. He had been right about he looking tired, her face was as pale as paper and she looked like she was about to throw up more than anything. Though it seemed she was more concerned about Natsu than anything.

"Your head looks awful Natsu, you need to keep still." She whispered, sat up against a large clump of wreckage.

She sat rather odd, and Natsu was curious as to whether or not she too had been injured.

A wave of pain flooded through the left side of his head and he squeezed his hand tighter. perhaps if he did it hard enough it would stop the fountain of blood from staining his hair.

"I asked if you were okay, did you get hurt bad?" He specified the question this, he was starting to get a bad feeling.

She was curled up too tightly on herself, that unusual way of sitting was abnormal unless she was trying her very hardest to hide something despite the pain.

Not to mention her expression was strained, at first he had put it down to the situation, but it seemed now that it was more a reaction of pain.

"I'm fine, I just shouldn't move just yet."

"Where are you hurt?" He let his sticky hand drop to the floor, debris going to the blood in an instant; but he was using it as a lever to push himself onto is feet.

Lucy's eyes followed him, shaking her head.

"You shouldn't move, a wound that bad probably gave you concussion." The wobble in her voice made Natsu tremble.

"I'm fine, I just want to check on you."

Up on his feet his body shook; the pain from his head shooting through his body like a rocket. He could barely stand straight, she was right. Better move quickly if he intended on checking oer Lucy before he collapsed from standing up.

As if adrenaline decided to take over, he brought himself closer to the blonde girl. She only seemed to hold herself tighter, him dropping down to sit beside her.

"Ugh…"

Now that he was beside her he could clearly see the item sticking out of her back, his eyes widening as he tried his best not to empty the contents of his stomach. An ache in his chest began to develop quickly.

"I told you to stay…"

He dropped his hand onto her arm and tugged at it; Lucy uncurling.

What he saw was no figure of imagination; the was a metal pole buried deep into her ribs; as she opened her legs away from her chest, blood escaped like a dam being opened. The sides of her lips curled up in apology, blood trickling down and out of her mouth to her chin.

"I'm sorry…"

"Y… You are… dying?" He felt something warm fall down his check.

She nodded gently. "And I think you are too."