Author's Note:

Hey all! Once again, sorry about the wonky posting time... but hey, at least it didn't take quite as long as last month! I've been really buckling down on my novel (and also have a couple of other side jobs now), so I just haven't had as much time as usual to write my fanfiction unfortunately. 😫

But anywho, as always thank you SO MUCH to all my AMAZING reviewers out there. Big hugs and kisses to: valerioux, Klau, Natsulover89, FairyTailxFanGirl, sakshishetty3003, Byrd3-13, Bookwork129, SistershoOk, Jcat007, DevilHippy, Copperreign12, Millennial Stargazer, Moon'n'Tide, Melga92, stranger1999, and CathJorda! You guys are so awesome!

And, without further ado, let's get to it shall we?! XD

They started heading back towards her room, but Natsu lost his patience after about five minutes. She was moving so slow… and that just wasn't doing it for him.

There was a super easy fix though. All he had to do was just pick her up and carry her the rest of the way.

Which he did.

And she fussed at him the entire time.

"Natsu! I can walk on my own!" she huffed and smacked his chest as soon as he picked her up.

"Yeah, like a snail."

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad. I was moving faster than a snail."

"Okay, a turtle then."

"Natsu!"

The whiny tone in her voice struck him as funny, and he busted out laughing – but made sure to keep his arms tight around her so he wouldn't drop her. That wouldn't be funny.

They made it to her room way faster with him in charge of the walking, which he had lots of fun teasing her about when they got there.

After he set her on her feet, she grumbled, "Okay, okay, yes. We did get here faster thanks to you. I give in… so shush it!"

That made him laugh some more, and she just shook her head and chuckled too – so he knew she wasn't really annoyed at him.

Then, she glanced at the bathroom and said, "I think I'd better wash up a little before we do any first aid… do you mind waiting a minute?"

"Sure, go ahead," he grunted and sat on her bed, not extremely happy about waiting.

But he knew that she probably should clean up before they dealt with her wounds, 'cause it'd be a lot harder after she had bandages and stuff on her.

"Thanks. I'll be right back…"

She disappeared behind the door, and he flopped back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling as he listened to her splashing around in the bathroom.

After a bit, he loudly asked, "Haven't you been using the baths lately?"

"Huh?"

Figuring that she probably couldn't hear him through the door and over the sound of the water, he sat up and yelled louder right at the bathroom, "I SAID, haven't you been using the BATHS lately?!"

"Oh! Yeah, I have! But the last thing I want is a bath right now… I've seen enough water to last me weeks!" she yelled back.

That made sense, and he snorted and slumped back on the bed, satisfied.

He wasn't laying down for long though, 'cause just a couple minutes after that, Lucy came back out in a cloud of wet bathroom air. She was wearing fresh clothes… and a lot less of them than he'd ever seen before (at least when she wasn't drunk).

The pajama tank top and shorts looked really good on her, and if she hadn't been all banged up, his brain probably would've gone straight to the gutter.

He was pulled outta his still-sorta-dirty thoughts when she shifted around awkwardly and muttered, "Um… I thought this would make it easier to patch up my scrapes. But if it looks weird I can change…"

"No, you look hot. Aside from the bruises and stuff," he said point-blank, figuring she must've caught him staring.

The confession made her turn really red, and he grinned, thinking she was both cute and kinda silly for getting embarrassed.

"Oh… thanks."

When she didn't say anything else, and the air got weird and thick, he rolled his eyes and hopped off the bed, going over to stand in front of her.

"So, are we gonna do this thing or not? Do ya have bandages and stuff somewhere?"

"Right! Yeah, uh, I do. Let me get them…"

That seemed to snap her back to normal, and she limped over to her dresser and started pulling out stuff. When she'd gotten everything she needed, she carried it over to the bed and dumped it. He followed her and plopped back down on the mattress across from her as she started picking through all the bottles and bandages and stuff. And there was a whole bunch of it to pick through….

He picked up a bottle that he recognized and squinted at it a second, before asking, "Hey, where'd you get these?"

"Wendy healed me after my first trial, but apparently she had to leave for a mission later that day. So, she gave me all these healing items that I could use on myself in the meantime until she gets back. Honestly… the assortment is a little overwhelming though."

"Yep, that sounds like her! She always goes kinda overboard when she's gonna be gone for a while," Natsu laughed, putting the healing potion back down.

Lucy chuckled along with him and then winced and groaned, "Owww…."

…

.

…

Pain shot through Lucy's ribs, reminding her of the beating she'd just taken. Aquarius had outdone herself this time…. There wasn't a single part of her body that didn't hurt.

She cringed and took a few shallow breaths until her ribs stopped sending shards of 'OUCH' through her system, and then she reached for the medicine, eager to get started on healing herself.

It took a few moments longer to finish identifying and organizing everything, but soon enough she found a cleaning solution for her cuts and scrapes – which seemed like the best place to begin. She poured it on a few of the little gauze squares that had come with it and started sterilizing the scrapes on her arms, hissing in a sharp breath as her wounds protested. The solution stung like heck, and she grimaced, her eyes watering a little under the pain.

She almost dropped her gauze though when Natsu suddenly grabbed her shoulders and started pushing and pulling, forcing her to turn around.

"Hey! Wait! What are you doing, Natsu?!"

"I'm gonna get your back while you work on your front. Duh."

It was a solid plan… but she was still ticked off that he had just shoved her around like that without any explanation.

"You could've just told me, and I would have turned around… you didn't have to push me," she grumbled, shuffling around on her knees and getting comfortable again.

"Okay. Go ahead and take off your shirt then."

Shock stunned her for a second, and then she squawked, "What?!" – automatically crossing her arms over her chest protectively and staring over her shoulder at him.

He tsked and tugged on the bottom of her shirt for emphasis. "You asked me to tell ya what to do right? So… take off the shirt. I can't get to all your scrapes with it on. And you can't either."

Her heart kicked into high gear and started pounding in her chest at the thought of being shirtless in front of Natsu. This would be the first time she had taken any of her clothes off in front of him – which was a big deal, even if it was for medical purposes. Of course, he'd seen a lot more of her when she was drunk, but she didn't remember most of that… so it didn't really count in her book.

He was right though… taking it off would make getting to her wounds a lot easier… and she did have on a bra underneath, so she wouldn't be completely naked. As long as they left that on, she didn't think she would have too hard of a time with it.

So, with a deep blush, she gulped and grabbed the bottom of her shirt, tugging it up her body. It didn't take more than a few seconds to completely remove the article of clothing, but time seemed to move both slower and faster than reality for those few short moments.

Once it was completely off, she clutched it to her chest for a moment, and then carefully laid it aside, shivering as the cooler air touched her newly exposed skin. The whole thing was so distracting that she didn't even hear the clinking and 'bloop' of Natsu pouring cleansing solution onto a fresh gauze square… but she definitely felt it when he started cleaning the scrapes on her back.

The sharp sting took her by surprise since she wasn't expecting it, and she jumped and yelped, her back arching away from the cold touch of Natsu's damp gauze.

"Woah! What was that about, Weirdo?" Natsu exclaimed, sounding almost as shocked as she'd been.

"Sorry… I just didn't realize you were ready. You could've warned me that you were going to get started, you know…"

"You sure are bein' jumpy," he snorted, and then his hand landed on her waist and gripped it firmly. "Now stay still, so I can get these scrapes clean."

The hot palm on her bare skin made her pulse jump again, and she sucked in a breath and held it for several moments, trying to pull herself together. This wasn't exactly the time to get 'aroused.'

…. Maybe after they'd finished applying the healing items to her wounds, and she felt less like roadkill, they could enjoy their reunion with some kisses (and perhaps more), but right now, she was in too much pain to do anything like that.

Of course, the sting of cleansing solution on her back distracted her VERY quickly from that line of thinking. She hissed and arched again, squeezing her eyes closed and trying not to squirm too much. Natsu's hand tightened on her waist, holding her in place as he scrubbed at her wounds – not being especially gentle but working very quickly.

At one point, he unsnapped her bra so he could get underneath, but she didn't have a chance to scold him for it. She just grabbed the front and held it in place while he cleaned the scrapes in the middle of her back and on her shoulder blades. When he was done, he reclosed it – after a lot of fumbling – which melted any irritation she might've had at him for opening it in the first place without her permission.

After a bit, he paused and asked, "Aren't you gonna clean the front?"

Her teeth were gritted, but she managed to say, "I will when you're done cleaning the back. It hurts too much for me to focus."

"Oh… okay. Sorry, Luce, I'll be done in just a bit."

She grunted an affirmative as he got back to scouring, and she clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes closed again, taking slow breaths and trying to stay still. It was amazing how sensitive her back was, and how much more she wanted to squirm when someone else was cleaning her wounds.

Then, she flushed and winced with embarrassment when he tugged her shorts down on one side so he could scrub the top part of a large raspberry on her behind. She'd known it was there, because she was sitting on part of it (which hurt), but she hadn't really put two and two together and realized that he might tend to it.

He got what felt like the upper half, but then pulled her shorts back into place and said, "I'll finish off this one when I work on the backs of your legs. I can't get to it while you're sitting on it."

"Oh… okay…" she mumbled, already anticipating the embarrassment of that procedure.

Then, after a moment, she added, "So, does that mean you're done with my back now?"

"Yeah… but maybe I should do the backs of your arms too. Those might be hard to see, and you've got a couple really nasty ones there."

She nodded and steeled herself again.

There was one cut that felt especially deep and really hurt, but otherwise, her arms weren't as painful as her back…. And of course, they also didn't take him nearly as long.

"All done," he said after a few minutes, and she breathed a sigh of relief, letting her tense muscles finally unclench.

"Thank heavens. Give me a moment, and then I'll do my front."

"How about I put the healing salve on your scrapes while you do that? It shouldn't hurt as much as the cleaning stuff, so I doubt it'll distract ya."

"Sounds like a plan. But let me catch my breath first."

"Sure thing," he hummed, and his other hand landed on her waist as well.

She tensed and closed her eyes, suddenly very aware once again of his warm skin on hers. His thumbs swept up and down a few times, stroking her back, and she couldn't force down the shiver that it pulled out of her. Warm breath brushed over her spine, making a mountain range of goosebumps rise up in response.

"Um… what are you doing?"

"Huh? I'm just getting a closer look at 'em. She really got ya good, Luce."

For some reason that answer disappointed her, and she sulked for a second before huffing, "Okay, well I'm ready to continue."

"Cool."

His hands disappeared from her sides, and she heard him fiddling with the bottles, probably hunting for the green-ish healing salve that would help her skin regenerate within just a few minutes. And sure enough, several moments later, she felt his touch on her back, smearing the thick past into her scrapes… which was a tender process but not nearly as painful or disruptive as the other.

In fact, it was soothing… the ointment stung for just a moment, and then the pain from her cuts slowly started to melt away. She sighed a little and closed her eyes to relax into the sensation for a brief second before starting on her own task.

As she got to work, her mind drifted a little, thinking about how gentle Natsu could be when he put his mind to it… (not that he was being extremely gentle right now, but he was being delicate for Natsu). She loved how he always tried so hard to be considerate and patient and careful with her, despite that sort of thing obviously not being his forte; and her heart filled with warmth and marshmallows as she contemplated it.

She would have loved to just relax and think dreamy thoughts about her boyfriend, but naturally most of her concentration was quickly eaten up by the task at hand – applying painful cleaning solution to her wounds – and the romantic fluff was unfortunately relegated to pleasant background noise before long.

In fact, she was so involved with the first aid process, that she was a little startled when Natsu suddenly made an out-loud observation.

"Looks like your scars are finally fading."

"Huh? Oh, yeah. You're right," she murmured, glancing down at her arm to see the tan-colored marks on her skin.

That was definitely a good thing. Though they didn't bother her as much as they used to, she was still eager to be rid of them.

Of course, right now, she was more concerned with her new wounds – which made her even less concerned about the old.

Unluckily for her, she still had plenty more of those that needed medicating, and it took them a while longer to finish. Once all the cuts and scrapes on her upper half had been tended to, they switched their attention to her bruises, which required a different healing ointment. Then, after that, they swathed her in bandages, and she slipped her shirt back on before they moved onto her lower half (where they repeated the entire process once again).

She laid on her stomach first so Natsu could deal with the backs of her legs, and after he was done, she handled the fronts. There were a few awkward moments – like when he hitched up her shorts to finish treating the large scrape on her behind (which went all the way down to her upper thigh) – but even though she was embarrassed from time to time, Lucy didn't complain. Her wounds hurt too much, and she wanted his help fixing them.

Eventually, after what felt like forever, they'd finally slathered and bandaged every one of her wounds, and she sat up with a sigh and a relieved groan, feeling much better and also happy that it was over with.

"Thanks, Natsu… that would've been much harder without your help."

"No prob," he hummed, crossing his legs and getting more comfortable on her bed.

After a moment of just resting, she huffed and forced herself to search through the medical supplies one last time for her final treatment – a bottle of healing potion that Wendy had also given her. The young healer had told her to drink it after she'd applied all of the healing salves, and it was supposed to help amplify the magic in those as well as work to heal any deeper bruises and internal injuries she might've sustained. It had come with a small dosage cup, which Lucy filled to the line, and then she shoved the cork back into the bottle.

"Oh yeah, have fun with that stuff…" Natsu laughed, which suggested that he'd been subjected to this potion before.

"Is it nasty?"

She hesitantly sniffed at the liquid as she asked that, and her nose crinkled at the slightly musky, herbal smell.

"Yeah! It's super bitter!"

"Great… that's wonderful," she sighed. It felt like she'd had enough disgusting potions to last her for a lifetime in this past month.

After a small shake of her head, she heaved another sigh and said, "Well, bottoms up I guess."

Just as Natsu had warned, it was extremely bitter… and she was very glad the dosage was only a few swallows.

"Woo!" she whooped and pulled a face. "That is bitter! Wow… ahueph… sheesh…"

She huffed and coughed a little and cleared her throat, trying to get the taste out of her mouth.

On the plus side though, almost as soon as she swallowed, her aches started lessening – which also had the side effect of making her tired. It was like she had been running solely on pain, and now that it had finally eased, all of the fatigue she'd accumulated from her trial hit her full force.

She had enough energy to step into the bathroom and rinse out her mouth of course, but once that was done, she went back into her room and collapsed onto the bed next to Natsu.

"I'm so tired…. It feels like I could sleep for a year."

"I bet," her boyfriend snorted and flopped down on his back next to her. That crowded her a little and she scooted slightly to the side to give him more room.

"Why don't we take a nap?"

She turned her head and looked at him, slightly surprised by his suggestion. Natsu was such an energetic type of person, she hadn't expected him to ever take naps. Then again… now that she thought about it, he did seem to have this strange ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat (and literally anywhere). She'd only seen it a few times, but perhaps that was an indication of some unknown napping habit.

Whatever the case, she certainly wasn't going to turn down the offer.

"That sounds heavenly…."

…

For the next several hours, the two of them napped on her bed together. Normally, Lucy might have protested… but to be honest, she'd missed him while he was gone these past few days, and that made her feel particularly affectionate, (especially after he'd helped her so much with her wound-care).

Of course, almost as soon as she had agreed to take a nap with him, he fell into a solid sleep right where he was – which left her to try and squirm into a comfortable position with the small amount of space she had to work with. A twin bed wasn't the easiest thing for two people to sleep on side by side… particularly when he was sprawled out and taking up more than his fair share of real estate.

In the end, she'd wound up wedged between him and the wall… her knees pressed against the former and her back braced against the later.

Even with the slightly cramped quarters though, she had still expected to drift off right away thanks to her intense exhaustion, but that wasn't what happened. Falling asleep with Natsu in her bed was still very foreign and new to her (even after all the times she'd woken up next to him), and naturally that meant she couldn't help but be extra aware of his presence. The sound of his snores… the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed… the insane warmth he gave off… not to mention the space he took up, all of it just fueled her hyper-sensitivity of him.

Despite fatigue making her eyes heavy and her mind fuzzy, the butterflies in her stomach felt amazingly lively, and her thoughts inevitably started fluttering towards romantic pathways. Soon enough, that lead to an array of ideas involving her sleeping boyfriend and cuddles… which ate at her insistently and only continued to grow in strength.

After a few minutes, she caved into her urges and lowered her knees so she could inch closer to him. Then, very hesitantly and cautiously, she draped her arm over his midsection, (trapping his arm between them). The rhythm of his snores seemed like a good indication of whether she risked waking him up, and they didn't hitch at any point of her stealthy operation. So, she settled in a little more comfortably.

It took a second to figure out what to do with her other arm, but she resolved the problem by slowly and carefully rearranging it up under her head and pillow… which had the unexpected bonus of putting her hand within reach of Natsu's hair. Since he still hadn't stirred at all, she risked threading her fingers through the pink mop and lightly petted it – hoping that she wasn't pushing her luck too far.

Really, now that they were a couple, she wasn't doing anything wrong… but it would still be a little embarrassing to get caught cuddling up to him while he was asleep like this. And knowing Natsu, there was a decent chance he might take the opportunity to tease her.

Thankfully though, he didn't wake up, and she was able to fully enjoy the slightly guilty pleasure of snuggling with her passed-out boyfriend. She even indulged herself and very carefully stroked her hand up and down, just a little, where it rested on his torso – feeling the smooth ridges of his muscles, the warmth of his body, and the way his chest rose and fell with his breathing.

It was interesting. From the very beginning, she'd wanted to kiss and touch Natsu, even before she realized there was a sexual side to those sorts of desires. But now, she was truly starting to discover the ins and outs of what that all meant… and her wanting to touch him had only increased (in both ways.) Actually, she was somewhat surprised by just how powerful and varied those desires were.

Her love and affection for him came out in wanting to cuddle, snuggle, hug him close, play with his hair, and touch with other various loving caresses. Meanwhile, desire made her want to touch for other reasons. Admiration and attraction made sense, but she was slightly surprised by the possessiveness that also came with it and the simple, yet complicated, need to just feel his body and skin.

Not to mention that everything was mixed with a healthy dose of curiosity as she explored new territory. Despite all their kisses and hugs, and even their sparring, she still hadn't spent an enormous amount of time just simply touching him, and his body was still a mystery to her in plenty of ways.

It was both amazing and confusing…. There were so many thoughts and feelings that were apparently linked to the physical side of a relationship.

Though, at the moment, her desires were definitely more romantic and fluffy in nature, and even though her heart beat a quick rhythm at the beginning, soon it started to slow as she snuggled into Natsu's side. It took a few more moments, but after absorbing his warmth and inhaling his scent for a little while, she finally started drifting off to sleep (her urges satisfied for the time being, and the exhaustion finally taking over).

…

Several hours later, Lucy woke up feeling warm and cozy… aside from her completely numb right arm.

Hissing slightly with pain, she quickly yanked her arm out from under her and rolled onto her back, mumbling, "Ow, ow, ow, ow…. Stupid…"

A grunt from next to her was a swift reminder that she'd fallen asleep next to Natsu – not that she'd really forgotten – and he sleepily grumbled, "Wha's up… you okay?"

"Yep… my arm just fell asleep… stupid thing…" Lucy groaned back, rubbing her tingling limb with the other hand.

"Oh, heh… yeah, tha's no fun," he huffed, and then yawned loudly and stretched.

As Natsu woke himself up, she continued to massage her arm until it finally stopped screaming with pins and needles. By that point, he'd sat up on the side of the bed and was scrubbing his fingers through sleep-messy hair.

When she sighed with relief and sat up as well, he twisted around a little to look back at her over his shoulder.

"Your arm feeling better yet?"

"Yes, finally. I can't stand that pins and needles feeling."

"Mm-hm, it's a pain in the butt," he said, nodding in an amusing sage-like way, as though they were discussing some great wisdom.

Then after a second, his eyes brightened, and he added, "And how's the rest of ya feeling? You look a whole lot better."

"Oh! Uh…"

The question took her by surprise… maybe because she was feeling so good now that she had almost forgotten how she'd previously felt like a bruised peach. One look down though showed that the scrapes on her arms and legs had completely scabbed over, and even those were starting to flake off to reveal the darker new skin underneath. Everything itched, but almost all of the pain was gone already – aside from a few little stings here and there as she moved and the deeper scabs cracked a little.

Her bruises had fully bloomed, and the purplish-blue colors were starting to fade and turn to greens already. She was still tender in those spots, but they didn't have the deep aching they'd had before, and when she took a few deep breaths to test her ribs, they didn't hurt at all.

"Wow! You're right! that's amazing… Wendy's potions and salves really worked quickly!" she gasped, shifting this way and that to look at all the places she could – almost in disbelief.

"Yep, her stuff works great! You'll probably be good as new tomorrow if ya put some more salve on tonight."

A loud growl interrupted them, and they both looked at her stomach, which was the origin of the noisy complaint. After a few seconds, Natsu burst out laughing, and she flushed a little, slightly embarrassed.

"Woah… sounds like you're hungry. Wanna go grab a bite to eat?"

She chuckled faintly, amused as well. "I think that'd be a good idea."

"Alright then! Let's do it!"

As expected, he jumped off the bed with his usual enthusiasm and held a hand out for her to take – which she did.

However, before he could run off and drag her along behind him, she gave his hand a firm tug and said, "Don't walk too fast, okay. I feel a little dizzy…"

"Ooh… yeah. That can happen after taking a bunch of healing shit. We'll go slow."

"Great. Thanks, Natsu," she sighed, relieved.

Sneak Peek:

"So… uh… what do you want to do now?" she questioned once they reached the middle of her room – feeling a little flushed and not sure how to broach the topic.

"Didn't you say something about wanting to play your harp?"

She winced and then licked her lips, thinking about how to counter that.

"Well… yeah. I did say that, didn't I? But… that seems like it usually leads to us kissing… doesn't it?"

He blinked, and his eyes glazed over like he was trying to remember. After a minute, he grinned a little (it was actually more of a smirk) and said, "Heh, you're right! Guess I must really like your music, huh?"

His compliment made her blush with pleasure, but that wasn't exactly what she'd been aiming for. It looked like she was going to have to be a little more blunt – which wasn't exactly surprising, considering this was Natsu.

"That's great! I'm really glad to hear it! But anyways… uh, I was thinking… maybe we could skip that part tonight and… go straight to kissing? Maybe? If you'd like to, of course."

Post Note:

Well, well... it looks like Lucy is going to be a little bit bold next chapter. ;D