I hope that this made sense.

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Rissa was shaking, her tears dropping onto his bare shoulder. Wetting the skin. Her breathing was erratic, her heart beating too fast- Just what had the others done to her to trigger such a reaction in her? Natsu wondered as he continued to rubb her back when he felt someone start to step forward and pulled one hand from Rissa's back to wave the person off.

He didn't want to hear anything that could possibly upset him further right now. He wasn't sure that he could keep himself under control if he did. He heard everyone file out of the room and waited until it was completely empty before he bothered to speak. "Rissa? Your name is Rissa right?"

She nodded her head and sobbed and asked him if he was going to kill her now inbetween ragged breaths and Natsu felt himself go completely still. His mind blanking for an moment before kicking into overdrive. His temper spiking dangerously. Was that why she was so scared? Because she had somehow gotten it into her head that he was going to kill her?

He bared his teeth in a silent snarl over her shoulder and inwardly, savagely growled. Who the fuck had told her that he would kill her? That had to be one of the most ridiculous things he'd ever been asked. And once he found out who had told her this, someone was going to disappear that was for damn sure.

He kissed her shoulder and felt her jerk in his arms as a soft whimper escaped her throat and sighed. "I'm not going to hurt you Rissa." And it was true. He had no intention of destroying someone that hadn't wanted to cause him or his friends so much pain to begin with.

He could forgive the fact that Lucy was gone, he could even accept it despite the fact that Rissa was within her body. He could accept that there was no way to reverse what had been done. And with enough time, patience and understanding he could even be happy again.

All he needed was to get to know his mate and move on. He knew that it would be more difficult than he made it sound- after all no one got over losing someone preciosu to them in just a few hours. It took months, maybe even years of torturing yourself with questions and grieving before you would finally reach the point where you got sick of crying and torturing yourself and decided enough was enough and started living again.

But this situation was a tad bit more complicated. Because on top of losing his partner, he now had a mate to take care of and simply couldn't ignore her until he felt better. It just wasn't possible.

His dragon half wouldn't allow it any more than his human half would. A vow was a vow after all, and he'd promised everything he was and ever would be to the woman in his arms. "I won't hurt you Rissa. If you feel you can't believe anything then at least believe that I'll never raise my hand to harm you." He said softly as he hugged her a little more tightly.

She hiccuped but other wise didn't respond. He doubted that she was feeling very trusting of him at the moment, her fear was making her parinoid about what he might or might not do. It was a knee jerk reaction that was to be expected of someone in her position.

He repeated his words over and over and over again for what felt like forever until her breathing calmed a bit and she lay slumped against him with her cheek resting on his shoulder. Her trembling had almost stopped and from time to time she'd hiccup and whimper until finally she had managed to cry herself to sleep.

Natsu tsked and laid her down and then without thinking about much of anything laid down behind her and wrapped his arms around her. Hunting down the person who had made her think he would kill her could wait until later.

He needed this time to be close to her as much as she needed this time to rest and be close to him.