Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Fairy Tail, the rights to them belong to Hiro Mashima. Not me.

Spellbound voice

Lucy groaned when she felt a horrible headache pound inside her skull.

Her eyes stung, her body ached and her stomach felt as though it had been flipped upside down. She felt so sore and she couldn't remember what she had been doing last...she tried to remember and she felt a small rasp slip from her scratchy throat. She felt like her whole being had been encased in a ball of cotton wool, muffling all of her senses such as sounds and smell...even sight.

Even her eyes had become foggy, she could sense this behind her closed eyeballs.

But a couple of thoughts had managed to break through the splitting pain in her head:

What had happened?

Had she gotten her voice back?

Had that bad guy been beaten!?

The realisation had caused her to try and verbalise her thoughts, her tongue flopped about in her mouth.

"N...Na...?" She gasped.

Faint voices began to break through her muffled sense of hearing and she was vaguely aware of the fact that one of those sounded like the voice of a child while the other sounded older. She knew that she recognised them and she felt her heart flip for joy when she heard them...but she was a bit too subconscious to notice it very much.

"Hey! I think she just said something!"

"I think you're right, Happy!"

Reflexively, Lucy let her fingers tighten on what he believed was a blanket. She knew he was laying down and she felt warm so she figured out that she was laying in bed, she was definitely laying on a comfy mattress. Her head continued to pound, it felt like she had been whacked over the head and her muscles felt like weights. She licked her dry lips and she swallowed to try and loosen her poor throat.

Her throat felt as though a claw had dug around in and tore it into ribbons.

"Uuugh...wha?"

It was faint and barely audible but she could definitely hear something coming out of her own throat!

The Celestial mage's curiosity got the better of her and she finally managed to force open her eyes, despite her eyelids feeling like weights.

She found that her previous suspicions from before were proven to be correct as she was lying in a bed and a very comfortable one at that. She blinked repeatedly to try and clear her vision but everything was a haze and all she could make out were blurred shapes. She noticed that one blur consisted of pink, tan, black, gold and white while the other blur was a small blob of cobalt blue.

Lucy blinked her eyes slowly in disbelief.

The blue cat looked at her with eyes huge with concern.

"Are you okay?"

Lucy made a low, muffled-sounding moan.

Natsu lowered his voice into a soft-sounding whisper.

"Heeeey...Lucy. Can ya hear us?"

Lucy's eyes opened a bit more but their forms were still blurred and she could hardly see much but, at the very least, she could focus on the voices that she knew belonged to her two dearest friends. Her heart pounded rhythmically with her headache and she subconsciously tightened her grip on her blanket.

She opened her mouth and let out a rasp of a noise that was supposed to be one of confirmation.

The celestial wizard blinked repeatedly to try and refresh her vision and make it so the shapes of both the Dragon slayer and the bipedal blue cat clearer, but she felt as though she were looking through a blurred camera lens that made everything hard to see and her brain felt as though it was trying to pulsate out of her skull. She grit her teeth as she tried to sit up but was quickly pushed back down by a gentle but firm pressure on her sternum.

She felt said pressure pin her down on the bed gently.

"Woah, woah, woah, easy, easy! Easy, Lucy!" Natsu hurriedly spoke. "You took a nasty spill at that tower and you gotta lay down and relax."

Lucy blinked in silent bewilderment.

Took a nasty spill?

She fell?

Was that why she couldn't see too well?

"It was a good thing that Loke caught ya before you hit the ground, Lucy, because you just about passed out from your magic power being completely drained dry!"

Lucy was stunned.

Loke had caught her?

But...how?

When?

She glanced down at herself and noticed that she was wrapped up in bandages. Her arms were wrapped, her chest was wrapped, her waist was wrapped, her left foot was wrapped and her forehead was wrapped up; she was covered in bandages. She could even feel a small plaster stuck to her left cheek.

She must have had a terrible fall to have been hurt this bad.

Then she felt it.

Her head sparked with pain.

She felt as though a flash of lightning hit as a bolt of memories came flooding back to her like a vicious tidal wave. There was losing her voice, that Poacher of sounds, spending all that time with Natsu, running away, recovering her voice, getting her magic and her Celestial spirits back, and then it all stopped. She wanted to clutch her head from the pain and cry out but felt at ease almost immediately when something grabbed her hand.

Her eyes fell on her right hand and she saw that not only had Natsu seized hold of it but Happy had planted a paw upon the bandaged appendage too.

Her heart warmed at the sight and she quickly felt more at ease.

"We're right here for you, Luce," Natsu assured her with a grin that showed off his pearly white fangs.

"Aye sir!" Happy piped up in agreement. "We won't leave your side!"

Lucy felt her heart swell in her chest at the sentiment. How did she get to be so lucky to have Natsu and Happy with her? Her eyes welled up with tears and she held back a sob or two since she didn't want to worry the two. Her lips formed into a squiggly smile as huge tears threatened to roll down her pale cheeks and she couldn't help but want to throw herself at the both of them and loop her arms around them both.

Natsu gaped in shock when he saw the tears and was about to panic and demand why she was crying until he saw the smile etched upon her lips.

"Th-Th-Thaaaa...yewwww..." Lucy rasped out.

She looked down at herself yet again, her eyes wide with stunned shock.

Didn't she...get her voice back?

Why was she having difficulty speaking properly now?

She sounded as though her face was stuffed with marshmallows...and it made her cheeks flush a deep scarlet red colour due to embarrassment of both that comparison and that, even after, all she had gone through, it still wasn't quite right.

However, the Celestial wizard's worries had been quelled slightly when she saw and heard the door (or what she thought was the door since her vision was still quite blurred) being softly knocked before Wendy entered and came into what turned out to have been the Fairy tail guild hall infirmary.

The younger blue-haired sky dragon slayer was accompanied by her exceed, Carla, who came in carrying herbal medicines and other medicinal supplies.

All eyes turned to face the girl and the white-furred exceed accompanying her.

Wendy's eyes lit up with a mix of relief and exhilaration upon seeing that Lucy had finally regained consciousness. She was so happy that she couldn't even try and make an attempt at fighting back a few large tears and her lips quivered into a huge smile. She hardly hesitated and ran over to Lucy and basically thrown herself at her and buried her face into the nook of her neck.

Lucy was caught off guard.

"Lucy! You're awake!" Cried Wendy.

Wendy spent her tears on Lucy's chest. Her sobs and sniffled were muffled because she had her face buried in her neck and her body wracked and shook with convulsive snivelling; she tried to calm herself but she was just so relieved that Lucy was back to herself again that she couldn't help herself.

All Lucy could do, in the meantime, was gingerly stroke the back of the girl's head in a comforting manner.

The Celestial mage couldn't lie and not say that she was thrilled to be back as well, but she couldn't help but be shocked and surprised at everyone's behaviour towards her. They were acting as though she'd died and then been brought back or something.

Her brown eyes softened compassionately.

It took a total of ten minutes and fifteen seconds before Wendy finally managed to rein in her emotions and she decided to try and explain to Lucy what Porlyusica had spoken about while the Celestial wizard had been knocked out cold. She wore a patient but glassy-eyed look as she sat down at the edge of the bed and stared at Lucy, Happy and Natsu whom all stared back at her as they awaited for her to spill the beans on Lucy's prognosis.

Wendy reached down to Lucy's arm and a warm, green and healing glow enveloped her own arm which spread to Lucy's.

As she used her healing magic, she proceeded to explain.

"Well, Lucy, since your voice has been out of you for as long as it was, it will take awhile for you to sound normal again. Not only that but when you fell from the tower, you took quite a few hits to your body that seems to have ended up with some bruising on the inside—" Natsu and Happy flinched at the description. "—but things could have been a lot worse, considering everything you've gone through this last week or two."

Lucy felt a tidal wave of relief wash over her when she heard that.

While she held no appreciation for the internal bruising, she was happy to be alive and will recover.

Wendy smiled optimistically.

"Don't worry though! You just need some rest and you need to recuperate since you have been through a lot; when you've got enough energy, Porlyusica said that you could go back to your apartment but you'd probably need someone with you just encase. I could escort you home if you want!"

Wendy's smile was so adorable that Lucy couldn't bring herself to decline such a polite and sweet offer like that; besides, she was probably not going to feel safe on her own for some time after all of this. She could definitely use a lay down in her own bed and have a long soak in the bath...

The mere thought of it made her want to melt into a puddle of pure bliss.

She could hardly wait!

Carla, nuzzling in close to Wendy to comfort her, concurred. "Indeed. But from what Porlyusica had said, it shall take time to heal but we shall lend you our support should you call upon it."

The small white cat sent Lucy a peculiar warm smile that only a cat could make. Carla might have been prim and proper (and maybe even a little snooty at times) but she definitely was compassionate at the best of times...plus, she and Happy were an adorable couple...especially as she couldn't help but notice that Happy was gazing at her with absolute adoration while Carla wasn't looking.

Lucy was thrilled nevertheless.

She could have her life back to normal!

But then she thought of something.

"Wh-eeeres tha' sound s'ealing guy...?" She asked with her raspy yet husky-sounding voice.

Happy decided to answer her question.

"Oh! The rune knights took him back to Fiore so he could be arrested and charged with his crimes while you were still unconscious. He stole a bunch of sounds and those were returned to where they belonged!"

Carla harrumphed while folding her paws across her chest and turning huffily away. "Hmph! Ruffian..."

Lucy turned her head to see what Natsu had to say about it but she started to notice something with Natsu, he seemed distant all of a sudden.

The Celestial wizard of Fairy tail couldn't see it clearly but she saw some emotion she couldn't hope to describe on the salmon-haired fire wizard's face as he stared blankly out the window with a strange expression etched on his facial features. His shoulders were broad, his onyx eyes were passive and empty, his frown was so large that his mouth could have fallen right off his face without much difficulty at all.

The recovering blonde mage couldn't deny that this was bizarre.

What had gotten into him?

Was he just a bit banged up after the battle too?

What was on Natsu's mind...?

A/N: Here's a new chapter, guys!

This is almost done and I'm hoping you guys enjoyed this chapter. I think Lucy might need a bit of TLC but what about Natsu? What's on his mind?

We shall find out in the next chapter, stay tuned!

-Chloemcg