The cliffhanger is HHEEEE-RRREEEEEE! MISS IT?

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I do not own Fairy Tail or Ibuprofen or much of anything else in this story.

so without further adeu, I give you (drumroll please)...CHAPPY 13! Tada!

Ok, bye!

Chapter 13

Complications

The next morning, breakfast was in Erza's room. Lucy had made waffles and a HUGE batch of homemade maple syrup. In fact she had made WAY too much. So, in her distress, she had asked Happy to carry the syrup to Erzas'. After all, she had to carry the waffles and a strawberry cake all the way there, too. Her hands were pretty full.

When she got there, Lucy gasped at the decor as Erza, little hearts in her eyes, swipped the cake and ran to her kitchen in triumph to find a fork. Blinking, Lucy reached over and took the blanket full of jars of syrup from Happy and told him to go rest.

(I wanna describe Erza's room ok? so PREPARE!)

Plush carpet covered every inch of the room. It was a forest green color that looked amazing! The walls were a deep maroon color and the ceiling held a huge map of the kingdom. Erza later explained that it was enchanted and what it looked like right now was what it looked like outside right now.

"It's kinda fun," Erza told her. "I like sitting here and watching the yellow machines pave roads." She smiled impishly. "And at night I watch the lights go out everywhere and I feel special. But it's not fun when rain rolls in." She wrinkled her nose. "The water actually falls and my ceiling is wet for days!"

Erza's room was actually a bedroom, sitting room, a bathroom and a really long walk-in closet that held all of her armor on a long spindle. Kinda like a swirl. There was a button to unravel it and make it run along the track that ran all around to room. Erza explained that since she was a re-quip mage, she had to possess a lot of weapons and armor in a safe place. She, of course, explained this while showing Lucy that you could slide the wall panels across and there was a LOT of weapons underneath.

(there, all done. Happiness?)

Sitting down on one of the couches, Lucy laid the plate of waffles on the table along with the three big mason jars of syrup and looked at the arrangement. Suddenly, a voice sounded from her elbow making her jump. "Big sis, do you know where Juvia is? I haven't seen her since the day before yesterday."

Lucy turned to look at Wendy with a weak smile on her face. "Don't worry. I'm sure she'll turn up eventually." Wendy offered her a peice of toast. "If you're sure..."

"Hey, Lucy," Jellal asked, " could you go wake up Natsu? I usually do it, but Erza said she needed my help today."

"Oh...Alright. I'll go do it." Lucy said as she stood up and smiled. 'Erza probably just wants his help to finish off that cake before Sting and Levy get here.'

After she was out the door and on her way, her thoughts went to what had happened last night.

FLASHBACK

She had ran down the hallways with Happy leading her until they got to Natsu's room. She had ran through the door and over to his side without a second thought.

He had rolled off the bed and was laying in a heap of blankets and limbs while moaning out incoherent words. Lucy had asked Happy to pick him up and carry him to her room. Needless to say, they had ran all the way.

Lucy had burst through her bedroom door and Happy had laid Natsu on her bed while Lucy had grabbed wet washclothes and a bottle of ibuprofen from the bathroom. She had convinced Happy to go spend the night at Wendy's while she took care of him.

"Is he gonna be ok, Lucy?" Happy asked as silent tears streamed down his face.

"He's going to be fine, Happy. I promise." Lucy said as she started wiping his face down. Happy had left shortly after and Lucy had stayed up most of the night soothing Natsu and calming him when the nightmares that plagued him became too much.

At one point in the night he had woken up and begged Lucy not to leave him, too. She had gotten him to calm down enough to go back to sleep, but he had clutched stubbornly onto her waist and fought to stay awake until she relented. She'd spent the night willingly sharing her bed with Natsu, of all people.

'That isn't the worst part though.' she groaned. When she had awoke, she had been squashed against his chest with her hands on him and his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. She had spent an hour trying to escape his death grip, which ended with him finally shifting and her rolling off the bed and let out a groan after hitting the ground hard.

This, sadly, had jolted Natsu and he shot upright in the bed. Apparently, his body didn't like that very much as he laid back down with a grimace on his face. He had noticed her staring at him and asked her what was going on.

Lucy had explained what had happened and she watched as Natsu's face grew white when she told him of the state she had found him in. What he had done next still shook her to the core even when she only thought about it.

He had grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a hug, begging her to not tell anyone about his nightmare and thanked her repeatedly for taking care of him.

Right at that moment, somewhere deep in her heart, she had felt a shift. When Lucy thought about it later, the best explanation she could think of was that her heart had shifted in order to make a little room for Natsu.

She didn't know how he would react to her when she saw him. After he had hugged her, Natsu had ran out of her room. She sighed again. Lucy walked up to Natsu's door and knocked.

"I'm coming!" The door opened to show the pink-haired teen's scowl as he rummaged through the shelf by the door. "Jeez, Jellal, I told you that I'll get there when I -" He cut off and the scowl disappeared when Natsu finally turned and saw who he was addressing. "Oh...Hi."

Lucy smiled faintly as she explained, "Erza needed him, so he sent me instead." A huge grin spread across his face and he opened his mouth to reply.

Unexpectantly, small red lights appeared from the ceiling and a shrill alarm sounded. Natsu's grin vanished and he took off sprinting to Erza's room, gripping Lucy's hand and pulling her along.

"What do you think is wrong?" Lucy asked as she struggled to get to her feet. Natsu replied worriedly, "I don't know, those things only ever go off if Gray and I are going on a rampage. Either way, it can't be anything good." He burst into Erza's room. It looked a bit different. The table of food had been pushed up against the wall and there was now a large table in the middle. The weirdest part was that the map that had been on the ceiling was now laying on the table.

Lucy examined it for two seconds and understood what was wrong. Surrounding both the town and the castle was a large half-circle of black SUVs that were very slowly closing in.

"Erza! What's happening?" Gray shouted as he burst in followed shortly by Juvia, who walked over to Lucy and started complaining about getting lost.

"Gray, clothes" Jellal said calmly as he brought out a scroll from his pocket.

(I couldn't resist adding this :) )

"Dammit!" Gray yelled as he ran back out of the room. Wendy walked in shortly after he left, pulling Levy and Mirajane by their sleeves. Jellal smiled kindly at her, " Thank you, Wendy. Could you find Wendesday and Jean? Better yet, just grab everyone-"

Wendy glared murderously at him before stomping out again.

Levy took one look at the map before she grabbed the scroll from Jellal and walked away so she could find what she was looking for. Natsu strode over to Jellal and they talked in whispers, with mild huffing from Natsu, until everyone had filed in.

Once they were seated, Erza, who had been examining the scroll with Levy, walked in front of them with anger in her eyes.

"I'm going to put this as simply as I can. We are being approached by hostiles who wish to enter our castle. We don't know why they're doing this but Levy has learned something." Erza paused and waved Levy forward to take her place.

Timidly, Levy crept forward and told everyone something that caused Lucy and her sisters to freeze, "The men were sent by the current king, Jude Heartfilia."

TADA! Another cliffhanger I'm afraid but next chapter you get to learn Lucy, Juvia and Wendy's past! It's not happy I'm afraid, but it helps you understand them as characters better.

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