*Disclaimer: I do not own the story or the characters from Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima owns them.*

CHAPTER 14

As Lucy closed the door behind Erza, she let out a soft sigh, not sure of what to say to her two remaining guests and best friends. She felt her inner turmoil bubbling to the surface; he did apologize earlier, but with everything that has happened since their initial argument she still felt uneasy about it. Lucy prayed that it wouldn't ruin anything between them.

She turned around and jumped. Natsu was standing directly in front of her. Before Lucy could say anything, he pulled her into a tight hug. She felt her arms wrap around him as she gave him a good squeeze back. She felt his warm breath fanning against her ear and was mesmerized by his soft voice. "I missed you Lucy."

She tightened her hold and buried her face into his shoulder. "I . . I missed you too." She stepped back and stared into his olive green eyes. "I was so worried about you when Lisanna came back alone." Tears started to well up in her eyes.

He bit the inside of his cheek and looked down. "I'm sorry you had to worry."

Natsu felt a hand on his cheek and looked back into Lucy's chocolate brown eyes. "I'm sorry for going on the jobs without you."

He let a small smirk escape with a light chuckle. "Lucy, it fine. That didn't have anything to do with what happened to me. I was the one. ."

"NO!" Lucy was crying. "If I didn't go on other jobs, maybe this wouldn't have happened." She looked away. "You might not have gone on that job at all. Maybe there could have been something I could have done."

He pulled her into another hug. "Lucy. . . ." Her legs were starting to feel weak and Natsu felt her wobble; he scooped her up and carried her to the bed. Setting her down gently, he carefully sat beside her. He gently held her hand, watching his thumb caress her fingers delicately. "Don't blame yourself; none of what happened was your fault." He looked back to her face; she was biting her bottom lip and staring out the window next to her bed. "Luce, I'm fine."

Lucy turned, her brown eyes meeting his green. "Natsu," her hand squeezed his, "I just know that they will be back for you again."

"Yea, I know. Don't worry though! We have the guild. With them around, nothing can hurt me."

Lucy stared at him clearly unconvinced. "I wonder if you're the only one they are after . . ?" She wondered out loud.

Natsu frowned at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well . ." She put her finger under her chin, deep in thought. "They are called the Dragon Demolishers, correct? If they are after dragon slayers, they might go after the others, not just you."

Natsu stared at her in disbelief. Thinking hard, he didn't recall them saying anything about going after the others, but it is a possibility. "We will talk with Gramps about it tomorrow." He gave Lucy a serious look, "For now though, I think you should rest, you don't look so well."

Happy flew over to the bed. "AYE! You look tired and pale!"

Lucy frowned at them. "Thanks." She stated flatly. Natsu gave her a goofy grin and chuckled lightly. Lucy couldn't help but smile to herself. It's so nice being with them. I really missed just being around them.

She let out a content sigh and stretched out on her bed before curling up under her blankets. Natsu and Happy made their way to her kitchen to clearly raid her fridge. Lucy never remembered falling asleep.

Lucy was running, faster and faster. The sky was blood red, the moon black. She couldn't remember what she was running from, but she knew she didn't want to turn around to look.

Her steps faltered as she hit a fork in the road. She heard a thunderous roar behind her and she decided that either path would suffice and chose the left. She heard her feet pound against the dirt path and saw that a forest was ahead. Once in the forest, she started getting cold. She continued running long after she couldn't feel her toes.

Soon the trees started to dwindle and she saw that there was snow everywhere. As she was about to slow down, she heard branches snap behind her; it sounded close. She picked up her pace, cursing to herself. She dragged herself to a sudden halt at the edge of a cliff. She looked behind her and didn't see anything. She let out a soft, relieved sigh and curiously made her way closer to the edge. Cautiously looking over, her stomach dropped when she realized that she couldn't see the bottom. She felt herself shiver and could see her own breath. Holding herself in her arms, she failed at trying to stop her teeth from chattering.

Hearing a scuffling sound behind her, she turned and terror took over. There stood a huge black and purple wolf with luminous golden eyes. The wolf itself had to be as large as a single train car. It's long white teeth were brighter than the snow on the ground, and they were all at least the length of her entire arm. She eyed the beast warily. It took a step towards her, snarling. Instinctively, Lucy took a step back; her foot never hit anything solid and she suddenly felt herself falling. She let out a scream.

Suddenly, everything was dark and she wasn't falling anymore. Confused and still feeling a little adrenaline pumping she went to move only to realize that she was being held in someone's arms. She tried to focus her eyes. "Natsu?"

"Shhhh . . ." She felt him standing. His warmth was radiating over her, warming her freezing body. She leaned against him, suddenly feeling drained, exhaustion teasing her senses.

"What happened?"

"Sounded like you had a nightmare and you fell out of bed. I caught you just in time." He reached across her bed and gently laid her down so she was away from the edge, before sitting next to her.

"You didn't leave?"

"Nah, I was sleeping on the couch, I woke up because I heard your teeth chattering. While I was trying to grab extra blankets I heard you tossing and turning so I came to check on you. Then I caught you."

She felt her cheeks go warm with a blush. Thank goodness it was too dark to see. He let out a yawn and looked over towards her; she was already starting to shiver again. He stretched out on the bed next to her and pulled her in close. Before she could protest, his body heat started to wash over her, starting to fall weak against the temptations of sleep.

"You okay now?"

Wrapped her feet around his ankle, starting to feel them again and put her arm over his chest, her head on his shoulder. "Yea." She managed to murmur before sinking into sleep.

He smiled and rested his chin on the top of her head, before falling asleep himself.

The next morning, Natsu woke up and let out a yawn. He could feel Lucy snuggling on him so he decided not to stretch like his muscles were pleading him to. He opened his eyes to see a blue cat hovering over him with a weird grin and an eyebrow raised. "What happened to sleeping on the couch?"

Natsu frowned and looked away. "She was cold." He quickly glanced back to see Happy's unconvinced face.

"You liiiiiiike her!" Natsu raised an eyebrow back, but remained silent. He felt Lucy stir next to him and looked down. His eyes felt like they about bugged out of his head. He didn't realize how much she was actually sprawled across him. He blushed and tried to clear his head. Was she going to remember last night? Is she going to flip out and kick me?

He watched as she gave a small stretch and froze. She must have realized that she is cuddling me. He held his breath in anticipation to her reaction. She slowly opened her eyes and let out a soft gasp before looking up to his face.

Lucy bit her bottom lip, remembering the night before; her nightmare, being cold, falling out of bed. She felt her cheeks go red. Natsu gave her a lazy smile. "Morning."

She knew she couldn't be mad, so she just sat up and climbed over him to get out of bed, mumbling a soft reply. Once he had the bed to himself, he stretched and rolled over to his stomach.

"I'm going to take a shower and get dressed." Lucy looked over to Natsu before looking over to Happy who was already flying towards the kitchen. "Feel free to get some food."

Once Lucy was in the restroom, Natsu sat up. Happy came back with a large fish in his paws. "Let's go Happy, we should get changed and head to the guild." The cat frowned at him. Natsu knew he couldn't go to the guild like this, Gajeel, Wendy and most likely Laxus (if he was around) would be able to smell Lucy all over him and he hated when they asked him about it. Natsu felt like it put Lucy and him in a weird spot. Happy followed Natsu out the window and back to their cottage.

When Lucy came out of the restroom, she wasn't overly surprised to see that they were gone, it was common that they would leave when she wasn't paying attention or out of the room and just head to the guild.

She went out and got a hot tea on the way to the guild. Even though it was warm outside, Lucy couldn't help but feel cold still. They did warn her that she wasn't retaining her body heat as well as she usually could, but Porlyusica assured her that it would go back to normal soon.

Lucy walked into the guild and smiled at everyone before making her way to the bar and sat on the stool next to Natsu to order some breakfast for herself. Natsu smiled warmly to her as Happy flew over and sat next to her. "Lucy, why are you drinking something hot? It's pretty warm out."

Lucy gave a small undecided pout, "I guess I've been kinda cold still. The hot drinks just help warm me up."

Happy gave an enormous and mischievous grin as he raised an eyebrow. "I know another way that you like to keep warm!"

Mira raised an eyebrow as Lucy blushed and pretty much snarled at the cat "SHUT IT YOU STUPID CAT!"

Natsu and Mira chuckled as Cana walked over. "Oooh, what other ways can Lucy here keep warm?" She gave an amused smile.

"Nothing!" Lucy quickly said and glared at the blue cat. Happy gave a soft pout and huffed away.

Mira excused herself, saying that she had to go finish making breakfast. Cana sat down next to Lucy.

"How are you feeling?" Her violet eyes, filled with concern, scanned over Lucy.

Lucy smiled back. "Better, I think I'll be good by next week."

"Good!" Natsu exclaimed. Lucy and Cana both looked at him. "We can go on more missions." He gave a wolfish grin. "It'll be great."

"No." They all jumped as the heard the voice. They turned to see Makarov sitting on the bar next to Natsu, and wondered when he arrived. "Natsu, you are temporarily banned from going on missions."

"What?! Why?" Natsu's fire was pumping through him, he was ready to go out and use it.

Makarov kept his eyes closed and continued. "After everything that has happened, I am banning all Dragon Slayers from going on missions for the time being.

Natsu jumped out of his chair, hands aflame. "Oh come on Gramps, I can handle it. Now that I know what's going on, I know I can take them!"

Makarov opened his eyes to glare at the pink haired Dragon Slayer. "Do you? Because I can assure you that not even I know entirely." He let out a soft sigh and looked around the guild. "I forbid you from taking missions until we speak to all of the Dragon Slayers together."

Lucy slid out of the chair and put it on Natsu's shoulder reassuringly. "When will you speak to everyone?"

Makarov looked over to Natsu, and cautiously drawled out, "Well, since all of ours are here, whenever Sting and Rouge are able to arrive."

Natsu's face lit up. "Sabertooth's coming?!" He gave a spirited grin.

The master let out a sigh. "Natsu, they are not coming to fight, they will be here to discuss the importance of the situation. They should be arriving later this afternoon. I have already informed all of the other Dragon Slayers to be in my office at 1pm today." He gave Natsu a serious look. "Don't be late!" He glanced over to Lucy, deep in thought, "Lucy you can attend as well, as well as the exceeds. Knowing our Dragon Slayers, they will need someone close who knows what's going on to keep an eye on them." With that, Master Makarov jumped off the counter and made his way through the guild.

Thank you for reading my story this far, I hope this chapter wasn't too mushy or anything, I have a lot of NALU fluff built up and it spills into my writing, which is why I started my other story so it hopefully won't crash into this story too much, no guarantees =P.

I have also found the perfect writing schedule. I'll be rotating my weeks from now on, one week I'll post Sunday and Friday, the next week I'd post Wednesday, then the rotation would start again. It's the only schedule that I can promise to full hearted. Obviously, if I can foresee not being able to post, I would post ahead of that or if I can post earlier, I will.

Thank you all for your patience as well. When I write, it feels like the chapters are longer than they really are so I apologize for when they are short. I have really noticed it now that I have been getting into the groove of my other story (those chapters are twice as long so I only post that story once a week if I'm able to).