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

Spellbound voice

A month had passed since Lucy had finally recovered her voice and now everything was slowly but surely going back to normal.

After being tried by the magic council, Lancer —the poacher of sound— was given a hefty prison sentence that meant he would be locked behind bars for a very long time while his pet monster was deemed too domesticated to be released into the wild so it was placed in a monster sanctuary on the edge of Magnolia. Lucy and Natsu were still grounded which was fine by the former because she didn't have much energy to go galavanting off anyway. Natsu had to mop up the entire guildhall by himself after one of the guilds many brawls as punishment! Lucy also got an apology from Gramps but was then informed that the only places she could go were the guild, the market and her apartment.

The stellar wizard didn't mind, though, as she knew that she deserved it for going off on her own despite being told several times not to. Actually Erza did end up shrieking her head off at Lucy for a mortifying four and a half hours but ended up hugging her out of pure relief.

Again, Lucy didn't mind since she saw it coming.

It took her that whole month of doing daily vocal exercises and speech therapy until she finally could speak without her sounding like her face was stuffed with food and to rebuild the strength she needed to call upon her Celestial spirits once more. Not to mention the muscles and fractures and internal bruising she'd taken needed it's own time to heal.

By the time the first month was up, it was as if the whole incident had never transpired in the first place...

Lucy arrived at the Fairy tail guild in the best mood she had been in ages and she opened the doors to the guildhall and beamed happily when she saw everybody acting as though nothing was wrong. They were all chatting amongst themselves as they sat at the tables and went about their usual lives and completely ignored her presence, not that they knew she was there yet.

She raised her hand up high and shook it in an excited wave.

"Hi, everyone!" She exclaimed cheerily.

Everybody immediately raised their heads upon hearing the voice they hadn't heard in what felt like ages.

They all simultaneously looked back at Lucy and waved at her in reply, some even voicing their response, although each individual's greetings were so mixed up together that Lucy couldn't make all of them out. She didn't care much about that, however, because she was in such a great mood that she was sure that nothing could ruin it at all. She grinned from ear-to-ear and was so excited that she was basically bouncing up and down jovially on the spot.

That was when her eyes caught sight of a certain pink-haired individual seated at one of the tables.

Lucy felt her delight skyrocket when she saw Natsu and she hardly even hesitated before she hurried and ran up to the table. She slammed her hands down on the surface of the table, the force causing Natsu to jolt upwards with a look of pure shock and surprise crossing on his face.

The Celestial Mage beamed brightly at a stunned and rather disgruntled Natsu.

"Hey Natsu!"

Natsu's reply was a bit strange:

His shocked face dropped into a sulky scowl and shrugged his strong shoulders in nonchalance.

Lucy just stared silently.

Ever since the day in the infirmary after that fall she'd taken from the castle, Natsu had been oddly quiet. He had been in such a bizarre mood and it confused everyone —not even Gray could battle it out of him and this made the ice maker mage just as (or maybe even a bit more) concerned for the hot-tempered dragon slayer.

It was strange but she was determined to get him to open up.

She folded her arms across her chest and glared at the Dragon slayer with a quirked brow. "What's with the silent treatment?"

Natsu didn't respond right away; he just stared down emptily of the bench surface in front of him.

Lucy felt her stomach sink with worry. Was Natsu actively ignoring her? Why? Maybe he was disappointed in her too for running away after their agreement to stick together? But, then, why hadn't he blown up at her yet? Perhaps he was waiting for the right time to explode at her? No. Otherwise he'd look more angry instead of thoughtful.

Then a look of genuine fear swept across her face.

What if Natsu's voice had been...!?

"Oh no...! Has your voice been stolen now too!?" She cried.

Natsu suddenly, kind of answering her question and giving her relief, sighed and shook his head and responded to her with a rather nonchalant voice.

"No, you weirdo, my voice is perfectly fine..."

Lucy looked as though as she was about to cry as she implored.

"But, then, why are you not talking to me? You can't even bring yourself to look at me! Are you still mad that I left on my own? P-Please tell me...!"

Natsu finally turned around and lifted his gaze to see her face and what he saw made his heart break. He could see the threat of tears start to swim in Lucy's coffee brown eyes and his silent thoughtful expression swiftly into one of guilt and upset that he'd caused Lucy so much distress. He really wanted to reach out to her and pull her into a tight hug...but he lowered his head, closed his eyes, and exhaled a deep breath from his nostrils.

He knew what he had to do.

"C'mon, weirdo. Don't get all weepy on me..."

Lucy sniffled as she managed to suck back any tears threatening to fall from her eyes and rubbed at her bloodshot eyeballs, they were red from the raw emotions she felt pounding away in her mind but she eventually managed to grab the reigns on her feelings and pull them back.

Natsu stared at her for a long time until he gave a resigned-sounding puff of breath.

He stood up from the bench and grabbed hold of her hand.

"I need to have a word with you."

Before Lucy could even try and make a response, she was dragged off.

Everyone watched awkwardly as Natsu drug Lucy off into the distance and observed as the two mages left though the exit. Lucy wanted to protest but, given that Natsu was in a bad mood before, he'd just started to talk to her again and she didn't want to wreck that. She could sense that Natsu needed her silence right now.

The two left in silence.

An incredibly awkward silence passed the entire guildhall by.

A few lengthy moments passed until Gray spoke up.

"Sooooo...who wants to spy on 'em?"

Gajeel smirked wickedly.

"Gihi...I'll take that action!"

Meanwhile outside...

Lucy felt very nervous as she stood face-to-face with her friend, she was sweating bullets and she was glancing everywhere except him because she couldn't stand the thought of him looking disappointed or something. The mere thought of it tugged hard at her heartstrings and it made her arms break out into goosebumps.

She even felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

The Celestial wizard subconsciously hugged herself as though trying to keep herself warm, and she ducked her head in between her shoulders. She wasn't cold —it was quite warm and toasty thanks to the suns heat beaming down from above— so she didn't know why she was hugging herself like she was but she did feel somewhat calmed after doing so.

That was until she heard Natsu clear his throat in an attempt to gain her attention.

She finally gathered her courage and finally had the guts to peer up at Natsu.

Natsu stood tall and straight as he looked her directly in the eye.

Lucy stared back at him, eyes locked on him.

Then, without a semblance of warning, Natsu reached forwards whilst extending his right arm towards the back of her head, slipping it passed the side of her face, and lightly thwacked it with his hand. It wasn't a hard smack by any means but Lucy did give an "oof" as she reached up to rub at where the dragon slayer had hit her.

Natsu's eyes hardened.

His expression was unreadable and it was a stare that made Lucy's spine curl with dread.

The pinkette seemed to think for a moment before he asked.

"Lucy...was everything you written in that letter true?"

Lucy was confused. What letter? He couldn't possibly mean the letter that she'd written before running away to retrieve her voice...could he? The thought struck her like a bolt of lightning and she felt her face go red hot with her complexion suddenly matching that of a ripe tomato.

Her deep caffeine brown eyes widened in their sockets and her chest felt tight.

"L-L-L-Letter?" She squeaked anxiously.

Natsu nodded his head and decided to clarify.

"The letter you wrote when you ran off. You said that you...Happy and I...that you...you..."

He found that he couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence. The words just refused to roll off the tip of his tongue and it caused him to fumble his speech slightly. He felt a hint of frustration build up and he felt his throat tighten due to how nervous he felt about asking her. His face even started to match the same hot red colour as Lucy's as they both sported a serious blush.

Natsu scuffed his foot on the ground as he tugged at his scarf to loosen his tight throat, he was sweating buckets.

He wasn't sure whether or not it was heat or fear but he tried to ignore it.

Lucy was beginning to understand what he was trying to ask and her whole world froze for a moment.

Was...Natsu trying to...tell her that...that he loved her?

If she was hearing this right and if she was dreaming then she never wanted to ever wake up.

Another few moments of silence passed on.

"OH FORGET IT!"

Natsu cried out suddenly as he just threw his arms around her waist, puckered his lips and crashed them into Lucy's lips.

The Celestial wizard of Fairy tail felt like she was in afloat in nirvana. She never felt so happy in her entire life, she couldn't believe it. Natsu was KISSING her! Her mind was racing with a thousand thoughts, her heart was thumping like a bounding rabbits foot, her legs felt like jelly but she refused to drop to the ground right there and then, her arms shook and trembled.

She closed her eyes as she melted into the kiss.

Her heart kept on racing in her chest, her legs quaked and trembled, she felt lighter than air, she could have been walking on clouds...this feeling was indescribable and she never wanted it to end. Natsu sighed with his lips still pressed firmly against Lucy's as he suddenly pulled away from his new girlfriend momentarily and he raised his head and started to sniff the air.

An annoyed expression flashed across his facial features.

"Sorry about this, Luce, but I don't feel entirely comfortable with everyone hiding and watching us HAVE THIS PRIVATE CONVERSATION!"

The salmon-pink-haired fire dragon slayer made sure to amplify his voice as he looked around for the people watching their very private discussion.

Both Lucy and Natsu pulled away from one another and watched with annoyed expressions as a multitude of their friends popped out from their hiding places —Gajeel, Gray, Juvia, Erza, Mirajane, Elfman, Evergreen, Happy, Wendy and even Carla emerged from their respective spots while they each wore their share of teasing smirks...except Wendy who just wore a pleasant smile on her face.

Natsu's face became red hot as steam fired from his air and a curl of smoke blew from his nose.

Lucy decided to defuse her new boyfriend's rage as she threw her arms around his neck and held him tight in a loving embrace.

"I...I love you, Natsu Dragneel...thank you so much for h-helping me get my voice back,"

Natsu was caught off guard by the display of affection and replied with a soft smile as he returned the gesture.

"I love ya too, Lucy. Just know that I love your voice and I'd help you all over again in a heartbeat."

A/N: HERE IS THE FINAL CHAPTER, EVERYONE!

Thank you for sticking by this fanfic and I have seriously enjoyed writing this fanfic and I hope the lot of you enjoyed reading it. I want to thank everyone for reading this and you lot are supremely awesome! Hopefully this fic will help you pass the time with the Corona virus and the isolation it brings.

Don't forget to review and fave, everyone.

Thank you very much.

-Chloemcg