Author's note: After months of waiting it's finally here! Lo siento, I've been sooo busy! But now like everything is over and I may or may not have time to write! Not only did I write this chapter, but also the next one! So heres the bad news. For the last 3 days I've been trying to upload this chapter and it just wouldn't. I dunno whats going on. So today I tried uploading it again and it finally worked! Except all the paragraphs were scrambled and I don't even know what's happening. So here's my final attempt. Let's go.
Lucy POV
"So all you have to do is send in this song and then you win?" Natsu asked me, leaning over my shoulder and staring at the computer. It was two weeks before the first of the Icicle Queen Competitions. Loke left it up to me to send in my song and routine, so here I was, in my schools computer lab trying to work. But of course, my curious puppy otherwise known as Natsu, was to curious to let me get any work done.
I clicked my tongue at him. "It's a little more complicated than that. I actually have to compete." I told Natsu. He sighed and rested his head on my shoulder, I tensed up at the sudden contact.
"Yeah, but once they see your name, they'll have to give you first place! You're Lucy Heartfilia! The idol of the figure skating world!" He said striking a pose. "And you're good too!" I spun the swivel chair around and pushed him away with my foot. Good, no more contact. I certainly did NOT need that right now.
"Idiot! As if it worked like that! If I fall then I'll automatically get moved down to second. Or if I land one of my turns a half rotation off then it's an automatic deduction, or-" I was rambling now, but to be fair it really wasn't my fault. If he had known the way the skating world worked then I wouldn't be forced to explain it. I angrily crossed my arms and glared at him.
Natsu was sitting on the ground, legs crossed and watching me, obviously amused. "You're so weird, Luce." He said simply and I couldn't help but groan.
"You weren't listening to any of that, were you?" I dead-panned. He grinned at me and jumped up off the floor, his salmon colored locks bouncing slightly, landing in front of his eyes. I had a sudden urge to reach up and fix them, but I quickly shoved that thought away. Natsu grabbed the back of my chair and spun it back around so I was facing the computer screen again.
"Finish! I wanna eat lunch. My dad packed me..." He excitedly talked about his lunch as I attempted to turn my thoughts back to the registration form. Which was extremely difficult because every few minutes Natsu would bump my head with his in order to hurry me along. Although he was trying to help, it did the exact opposite. From the reflection in the computer, I saw that my cheeks were dusted with pink. I really hoped he hadn't noticed. Since when was it okay for him to be this close? I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek and focused on pounding out the letters on the keyboard. Natsu, obviously bored with my typing, sighed and backed off. Now it was my turn to sigh, in relief though!
Through the computer screen I saw him pace back and forth behind me, looking from the door and then back at me. This was accompanied by a few occasional groans. This continued for a few more minutes until he walked back over and sat down in the chair next to me. "You know, all the classrooms should have wheelie chairs." Natsu said absentmindedly, spinning in the chair.
I cut my eyes over to him. "How old are you again, Dragneel?" I asked the spinning boy.
He stopped spinning and looked at me seriously. "So many." He responded and then resumed spinning, now using his upper body and arms to make the chair turn even faster.
"I hope you fall." I told him as I finished filling out the music form. Just a few more things to fill out and I'd be done.
"If I fell and died, would you come to my funeral?" Natsu asked me. The chair now spun slowly, at a more humane speed. Natsu leaned back in the chair and rested his arms behind his head, head tilted toward the ceiling. Then he shook his head. "Never mind. If I died because I fell from a chair, I don't think I would want anyone to come to my funeral." He said solemnly.
I rested my head in my hand and continued scrolling down the page until I found the accept button. "I don't think you'd die that easily. I have a hard enough time getting rid of you already." I stated. I heard a thud followed by a pathetic whimper and directed my attention over to the older boy, who was now lying on the floor. I rolled my eyes and pushed away from computer. I crouched beside him. "Do you want to go have lunch now?" I asked him, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. Natsu immediately sat up and grinned at me.
"I thought you'd never ask!" He exclaimed happily and all but dragged me out of the computer lab by the wrist.
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After school that day Loke picked me up in front of the school. I waved goodbye to Levy and Juvia and trotted over to him. Loke rolled down the window as I approached and stared at me over his sunglasses. His mouth was set in a thin line.
"Thought we were meeting at home?" I asked my manager as I threw my books in the back. I walked around to the other side and climbed in.
"Change of plans." Loke responded gruffly. His eyes were lined with dark circles. We pulled out of the parking lot in silence. I starred out the window. Loke could be such a drama queen sometimes. I mean, yeah I know why he was aggravated, but at least he could try to act pleasant!
Today we were going to meet the head figure skating coach. Even though I had my routine set for the first competition, we still wanted an outside opinion. Well I did at least. Loke wasn't one for criticisms.
Instead of meeting at the Fairy Tail Complex, she had insisted we meet at a public outdoor rink the next town over. Loke had grumbled, annoyed that this wasn't the 'professional' way of doing things, but I ignored him. If this lady could help me win, I was willing to do anything. I grabbed the letter out of my pocked and reread it for the hundredth time that day.
Ms. Lucy Heartfilia,
My name is Michelle Lobster and I am the figure skating coach for Fairy Tail. Next Tuesday, please come to the Bosco Outdoor Skating Rink for private instruction with myself and other Fairy Tail coaches. Since other Fairy Tail skaters are competing in this competition, we do not want them to see what you have worked on. Mr. Dreyar has told me much about you and I am breathlessly waiting to see your skill and what you have prepared for the Icicle Queen Competition.
Sincerely,
Michelle Lobster
I had been so excited and nervous to meet the Fairy Tail coaches. Of course I had kept this a secret from Levy and the others. I didn't want them to know about this opportunity in case something went wrong. Even though she was a women, a breed of person Loke was quiet fond of, I had my doubts he would so easily get along with her when it was about my skating.
We drove down a winding road, darkened by the trees that surrounded it. We had been driving for close to an hour and the sun was just beginning to set over the landscape. "Winters coming fast." I noted. All the branches were bare, and it looked as though life had been sucked from the forest. I settled back in my seat and closed my eyes.
Suddenly there was a loud honking from in front of us and Loke jerked the car to the side. My eyes shot open in time to see a pickup truck speeding toward us. I gripped the arms rest while Loke laid on the horn, but his attempts did nothing to stop the truck. Loke spun the wheel and moved the car to the other lane, but the truck mirrored our movements. Loke cursed and banged on the horn. I watched in horror, sweat dripping down the back of my neck. Finally in a moment of desperation Loke turned the wheel and we drove off the road and into a ditch. Loke released the wheel and practically dove on top of me, wrapping his arms around me, trying to protect me.
There was a crash, and the screeching of metal and cracking of wood filled my ears. It was so loud. I couldn't hear anything over the crushing metal. I felt my head hit something hard. The window? The seat? What had just happened? Loke had his arms wrapped around me protectively, and I felt him take quick, shallow breaths. I tried to squirm out of my seat but something was holding me down. I was trapped. I thrashed about in my seat, trying to break free from my restraints.
"C-Calm down... It's the seat belt." Loke said breathlessly and unclipped the buckle. We both scampered out of the car. I immediately sunk down into the grass. Loke limped over to where I was, his eyes on me, and not on his priceless convertible that was now crushed between two trees. "Are you hurt?" He asked me, crouching besides me.
I shook my head no, now focused on him. He had a huge cut across his forehead and blood was pouring out, pooling onto the grass below him. "Loke! You're bleeding!" I shouted at him and he winced. Instead of reacting, he pulled out his cellphone and glared at it.
"Damn it, I don't have service out here. I knew this was a shitty service." He said, ignoring my cries. He attempted to stand back up, but then fell back. "Shit, something's wrong with my leg." He hissed out. He ripped open the bottom of his pant leg to reveal a long deep cup on his leg. It was covered in blood and I thought I could see bone.
"I have to get you help." I told him, standing up. He immediately grabbed my arm and stopped me.
"Are you serious? We're an hour outside of town and it'll be dark soon. Plus if you think I'm going to let you go anywhere while that crazy truck is still on the road, you're crazy!" Loke argued. I shrugged off my jacket and wrapped it around Loke's leg. I noticed a bruise the size of a baseball covering my arm. Ouch. That would hurt after the adrenaline wore off.
"And I'd be crazy if I let you bleed out!" I shot back and he clicked his tongue, annoyed.
He stared at me hard. "You check your phone every two minutes until you get service, and then you call 911 and get your butt back here. Do you understand me?" He said through clenched teeth. I breathed out a sigh of relief. Well at least he wouldn't let himself die.
I stood up and jogged a few feet away, but then turned back to him. I put my hand over my heart. "I swear I'll come back, so you better be right there waiting for me!" I called and he chuckled hollowly.
"Yeah, yeah." He muttered and I turned back around. I tried jogging, but after a few minutes I felt light headed and had to stop. Loke was no longer in sight.
I thought I hadn't gotten hurt, but after a few minutes, there was a pounding in my head and I could feel my heart beat course throughout my body. The blood drummed louder in my ears with every step I took. A few minutes later I kneeled down to rest. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. No signal.
This continued for another 30 minutes. No sign of any cars of the town. Had we really driven that far? I tried to walk faster but my body ached with pain. Had I passed that tree before? How long had it been? It was no dark out and it occurred to me that I had no clue where I was, and I still had no signal. I raised my phone above my head, hoping that I would get lucky.
And I did. After a few minutes my phone buzzed with a call. I immediately flipped it open and heard Natsu's cheerful voice. "Luce! We're having a study party-"
"Natsu!" I cried into the phone. "H-help! Loke- he's, so much blood, and the car!" I couldn't form sentences, and I was barley speaking English. Tears were streaming down my face and when I heard no response I thought he thought I was joking. I pulled the phone away from my ear. Dead battery. The phone slipped from my grasp and landed on the grass. After a few seconds, I went down with it.
"No." I whispered over and over again, till the word sounded foreign to my ears. "No! No! No!" I screamed. A bird fluttered and landed a few feet away from me and chirped at me. "Are you happy?!" I screamed at it. I pulled at the grass and threw it at the bird. This went on for a few minutes until the bird realized how pathetic I was and flew away.
I sat back on my heels. I was lost, my phone was dead, and Loke probably was too. The only person who may or may not know something is wrong was miles away and probably only heard me cry out his name before my phone died. And I felt if I walked anymore I would probably pass out. I fell back on my butt and let the tears flow freely from my face. The tears stung a cut on my face I didn't even know I had. I was so absorbed in self pity, I didn't see headlights pass me on the road and then pull off to the side.
"Hey! Are you alright? Hey blondie!" I heard a deep male voice call out to me. I looked up to see a blonde haired boy squatting in front of me. Hey he was blonde too. Where was he getting off calling me blondie? He sucked in a breathe. "Hey aren't you that new Fairy Tail chick? And woah, you don't look so good. What's with all these cuts and bruises?" He asked me.
"A... car accident. My manager... He's hurt." I struggled to stand, now extremely aware that I had to get back to Loke. "We have to help him! He could be dying!" I fell back but the blonde boy caught me and scooped me up. I struggled in his grasp, but then relented, exhausted.
"Alright, let's go then." He said as he put me in his car. I struggled to keep my eyes open, looking for any sight of Loke. The boy drove, eyebrows knit in concern. He looked over at me every few seconds. Probably to make sure I was still breathing. "How far away is this guy?"
I shook my head, but then immediately regretted it. "I don't know." I squeezed my eyes shut. Ow, why did every little movement hurt? "I walked for a long time. Then I got lost."
The man sighed. "Alright, do you want to call him to tell him we're coming?" He asked and pulled out his phone.
"No service." I replied. "Well, we didn't at least."
"Then why don't you call one of your Fairy Tail friends? Get one of them out here?" I shot him a confused look. "Not that I wouldn't love driving a battered and beaten girl around whose name I don't know. Not suspicious at all." I nodded, understanding and took the phone from him.
Should I call Natsu? Maybe he hadn't even heard me. Or maybe he had and was no freaking out. I decided to try anyways. The dial tone hung in the air till I heard a deep, angry voice pick up.
"Sting? What the hell do you want? This isn't exactly a great time." I sighed. It was him. He wasn't happy, but it was him.
"Natsu?" I whispered into the phone and heard him breathe out a sigh. He was silent for a minute, and I was afraid I had lost him again.
"Lucy." He said sounding less angry, but still on edge. "Where are you? Why are you with Sting?" He spat the last part out, and I assumed my rescuer was named Sting.
I thought I was all cried out, but nope. "Loke and I, we got in a car accident, on our way to meet a coach." Sting look over, concerned, and I was only mildly embarrassed I was sobbing into his phone talking to someone who wasn't my boyfriend or a family member. "There was so much blood... I tried calling you! But the phone died! And your friend found me." I heard a car engine start in the background.
"Can I please talk to Sting?" The calm in his voice terrified me. I shakily handed the phone back to Sting. Sting accepted the phone and he and Natsu quietly exchanged words. By this time I saw Loke's car come into view. Oh thank god. Almost there.
"She's a bit bruised up. Minor cuts too. She's real shaken up though. Don't know if she can walk. I carried her to my car..." I heard Sting say, accompanied by a growl from the other end of the line. As soon as he stopped the car, I fumbled out and ran as well as I could over to Loke. He was unconscious. Shit. Was I really gone that long? I gently shook him, crying his name until he finally stirred.
"Lucy." He said quietly and reached his hands toward mine. I grabbed his hand and held it, trembling. "You came back." He whispered.
I nodded. "Of course I did." Even though it was dark, I could see the relief etched out in his face. Sting coughed and we turned our attention to him. Loke raised an eyebrow at the stranger.
"Um, some Fairies will be here soon." He said and crouched beside us. "I'm gonna stay with ya'll till they get here, but then I have to go. I have some medical stuff in my car. I'm going to get it and we'll try and stop the bleeding, okay?" I nodded and Sting walked off.
Loke watched him walk away and then turned back to me. "First you join Fairy Tail, and then you meet up with Sting Eucliffe?" He chuckled in disbelief. "I can't decide if you're extremely lucky or unlucky."
"How so?" I asked him. Loke snorted, which turned into a cough. It set me on edge, but Loke waved me off.
"Sting is apart of Sabertooth, number one rival of Fairy Tail." Loke told me. Ohh. No wonder Natsu was angry about getting a call from him.
Sting came back a few minutes later, carrying a first aide kit. "Mom makes me carry it." He explained. Together we tried to clean some of Loke's wounds but to no avail. Sting sat back on his heels. "He's gonna have to go to the hospital." He stated and I nodded in agreement. My head was still killing me. "You too." He said. I rolled my eyes.
"I do not have to go to the hospital because I have a headache." I told him.
"No, but since your nose is broken you might." He stated. I immediately reached my hand up to my face and gingerly touched my nose. Pain seared throughout my face.
"I didn't even notice." I whispered, shocked.
"Yeah, adrenaline tends to do that to a person." Sting said simply. "But I've had a few broken noses cause of hockey. One courtesy of Fairy Tail's Salamander. Well, they doctors set it and you just hope your face doesn't stay disfigured because of it!" He joked and I made a disgusted face.
We sat there in silence after that until multiple sets of headlights came into view. Sting stood up and backed towards his car. I looked at him questioningly until I heard a car door open and Natsu came dashing out.
"Natsu! At least wait until the car stops!" I heard someone call, but paid it t little mind when his arms wrapped around me. I melted into his embrace, wrapped my arms around his neck and felt him lift me off the ground. He buried his face in my hair and carried me towards the car.
"But Loke..." I whispered, feeling all my resistance leave me.
He rested his forehead against mine, "Mom's got him. Don't worry. She's a doctor." He said and set me on the seat of a jeep. My legs dangled off the edge and he cupped my face with his hands. He stared intently at my face and my face heated up immediately. "Your nose is broken and you have on hell of a black eye. Along with a bunch of cuts. This one's kinda deep, but I don't think it'll need stitches." He pointed out and gently ran his thumb across my cheek.
"So should I just call you Dr. Dragneel?" I asked him, trying to make a joke but his face remained the same. Tense, on edge. Worried. Levy ran up beside him and attempted to throw her arms around me, but Natsu blocked her path.
"Lu-chan!" She wailed and I was reminded about the time when I first met Natsu and almost got a concussion. "I was so scared! Natsu called you and then he stopped smiling and said something about blood! And then he tried to call the cops but Gray wouldn't let him!" Levy told me.
"Yeah and now Gray has a black eye because of it." Natsu spat out. I ruffled his hair, trying to calm him down and he turned his attention back to me. "I'm driving you to the hospital." He stated seriously.
"You get car sick when you drive." I pointed out.
"Not my number one issue right now." Natsu responded, dead serious.
"Yeah but I don't want to get in two car accidents in one night." I joked. Natsu's eyes turned steely black and hard and he slammed his fist on the car door. Levy and I both jumped.
"Damn it Lucy! Is this a joke to you?!" He yelled, though not at me. He let out another growl and stalked around to the other side of the car and go in the back seat, refusing to look at me. Smooth move Lucy.
Levy looked at me sympathetically. She pulled me close. "He was really worried. I thought he was going to start crying." She leaned back. "Well, Loke's in the car with Mrs. Dragneel, she's driving him to the hospital. Gajeel and I are taking this car to the hospital with you two." She informed me and crawled up into the passenger seat. A few minutes later Gajeel got in the drivers side and we were off.
The ride was silent. I couldn't blame anyone. Gajeel and Levy must have been worried and irritated and I had done the impossible and pissed off Natsu twice in one night. I looked over at him. He was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. He had obviously not been expecting this outing and hadn't thought much about his own well being. Guilt chewed at my stomach. I was an awful person.
As silently as I could, I unbuckled my seatbelt and scooted next to him, getting ride of the space between us. I wrapped my arms around his torso and nuzzled my head against his chest. I expected him to push me away, but he didn't. Instead, before I could react, Natsu pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms tightly around me. He held me close, shaking slightly. I couldn't see his eyes, and that bothered me. Not only had I scared him to death, but then tried to make a joke out of it. Tears filled my eyes and I buried my face in his neck, ignoring the pain from my nose.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I repeated over and over again. "Please don't hate me. I'm sorry!" I felt his mouth move against my hair, whispering comforting words, his own apologies, to stop crying. But now I couldn't stop. And I probably had him terrified, sobbing like a little girl in the back of our friends car. Eventually he tilted my face up and gently wiped away my tears, being careful not to touch my injuries. His eyes were damp too and filled with pain. I saw an expression I'd never thought I'd ever see the always cheerful boy make. We locked eyes and stared at one another for so long, seconds ran into minutes. He leaned in and pressed his lips against my forehead.
He pulled away after a seconds and settled me against his chest. "Just go to sleep. I'll wake you up when we get there." Natsu said gently. I blinked and stared up at him, but he was focused on something outside the window. Natsu had one arm looped around my waist, and the other wrapped around my shoulders, keeping me pressed against him. It was then I realized how exhausted I was. I closed my eyes and drifted off, listening to his heart beat steadily against his chest.
Author's note: I REAAAALLLY Hope this works.
And woah drama! Sorry Lucy keeps getting hurt! This will be the last time! I promise! Well, psychically I guess. woah what?
Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Hopefully i'll be able to upload the next soon!
PLEASE REVIEW =)