Chapter 5: Just Can't Seem to Catch my Breath
"Do you want to join Fairy Tail?" Wendy asked.
"Eh?" Lucy asked, thrown off guard by the question.
"Do you want to join Fairy Tail?" Wendy asked again.
"Uhhh… I don't know. I'm kind of used to the whole solo act at the moment."
"I know, but just hear me out. Fairy Tail is cool like that. You can totally go solo, but here's the question: How much longer can you survive? I've seen the way you act. You spend days without sleeping. The longer you go, the sloppier you get. Fairy Tail is about having each other's back. You get a partner and you survive." Wendy said.
Lucy stared at the girl.
"..."
"Besides. You're like a sister to me. I know that's kinda silly, but… You've taught me so much and genuinely cared about me. Please."
"I'll think about it." Lucy decided. "But let's get that car first."
"So this is the town, huh?" Lucy remarked. It was very quiet.
"I think it's called Hargeon. Before the apocalypse they had the best lobster."
"That's too bad. Wish I coulda tried some." Lucy said.
"Me too. Quick question: Why do you wear that hood?"
Lucy had pulled a long, black cloak out of her bag and put it on. The hood was drawn over her head so you couldn't even tell that she was female.
"I don't know who we're gonna meet. I might have pissed off a few people at your base without knowing it. Sorry."
"How?"
Lucy shrugged. "Sometimes I raid houses. Sometimes, I steal the supplies right from under their noses. Speaking of which, you need to wear a cloak too."
"Why?"
"If there are hostiles here, I don't want them recognizing us in the future."
Wendy accepted that answer and put on the cloak Lucy had handed her. They continued to walk in silence until Lucy spoke again.
"Which street were we on again when we met?" Lucy asked.
"I think the house you burned down was on Celestial Road, Why?"
"Then we should turn left." Lucy replied.
Five minutes later, they had reached the road and Lucy could see that wretched house in the distance.
Once they reached it, Lucy traced them back to where Wendy had abandoned the car.
"Something's not right." Lucy muttered. Why were there no zombies anywhere?
She stopped short, yanking Wendy behind her.
"Someone's here." Lucy hissed. She quickly slipped Wendy a second knife and a pistol. "If they're hostile, aim and shoot."
"I know you're hiding! Come out and fight me like a man" Lucy called out, deepening her voice so it sounded very masculine. She wouldn't step forward because she could see the outline of a trap. Wendy was confused as to why she had changed her voice, but shrugged it off. The lady had to survive somehow, right? She shuddered, thinking of all the non-zombie related dangers of being a single female.
No answer could be heard.
Suddenly, Lucy tackled Wendy to the ground as an arrow shot past them.
She pulled Wendy behind another house for cover. That was her big mistake. She hadn't realized that there were more than 2 people (she deduced 2 from the complexity of the trap) and ran face first into the barrel of a gun.
"Shit." She shouted.
"I don't know who you guys are but let us go. You'll regret otherwise." Her voice was still low. She maneuvered her body to completely cover Wendy, protecting her from any stray bullets.
"Weapons now. Or I shoot." The mystery guy said. He was wearing a headlight that almost blinded her, but Lucy heard some noise and decided to play along.
She began to reach into her cloak to retrieve her weapons as the guys tensed.
"I'm just getting my guns. I don't fancy dying today."
The guy just chuckled. "Good luck with that."
As she reached behind her cloak, she signaled to Wendy that there were two heading up behind her. She hoped Wendy had understood and tossed her only gun left onto the floor in front of her.
Wendy turned around slowly to see two figure walking up to them. She quickly hid her gun and one knife, but gripped the other tightly. She would fight if she had to.
"Who are you?" A rather familiar voice said. Wendy gasped, but didn't say anything. She wasn't sure.
Lucy recognized the voice. It was him. The guy who had almost caught her stealing and forced her to actually speak. Maybe this would play into her hands.
"I think you know who I am." She said in her low voice and she smirked.
She suddenly lashed out, disarming the guy with the headlamp and knocked him out cold.
Wendy reacted too, taking out gun and turning off the safety. She decided that she was mistaken. Natsu wouldn't trap someone like this. Besides, how could he have figured she'd come back?
When Lucy retrieved her gun and her captor's, she heaved the guy on her shoulder and held the gun to his head.
"Weapons. Or I shoot." She said, repeating the exact words he had said to her. Oh how she loved taking revenge.
Slowly, they put down their immediate weapons and kicked them over to the girls.
Lucy chuckled. Did they think she was a fool?
"All of them."
The two shared a look, before fully disarming themselves.
"Now if you cooperate with us, we'll let you and your little friend go."
"What do you want?" The man snarled.
"Just answer some questions. Why are you here?"
"A friend of ours disappeared around here. We assumed they would come back."
"Alright. So why make me disarm myself?"
"We saw the burnt house. It's practically your signature. We thought you took her."
"Her?"
"My sister."
Wendy couldn't deny it any longer. It was definitely him. It was no coincidence that he knew it was her.
"It's ok Lucy. I know them. You can put the gun down."
Lucy looked at Wendy in shock as she pulled her hood down, which is just what Natsu needed before charging.
"Natsu no!" Wendy cried, but it was too late. Natsu had tackled Lucy and the two were then currently fighting it out.
Erza quickly pulled Wendy and Gray away from the danger.
"You don't understand! She saved me! Please! Stop!" Wendy cried to no avail. No one noticed her slip up.
Erza kept a firm grip on her arm as they watched the fight.
It was a blur of hits and punches, grunts and heaving. The two were evenly matched. It seemed like a draw would be the outcome until Lucy cried out in pain and stumbled back. Wendy's eyes widened as she saw blood seeping through Lucy fingers. She turned to Natsu who had a knife in hand. He sneered.
"Not so tough now, huh? Why don't you just show everyone who you are and then we can fight 'like men' as you said earlier."
Wendy was in shock that her brother had played dirty. He had always preached to others about making sure they didn't harm other humans who showed no threat. What was going on?
Now you are probably asking how could such a wonderful person cheat. The answer is simple. He was sure that this man had kidnapped his little sister. His instinct was to slay all those who harmed his family. He didn't care about morality or manners. When it came to his family, he'd do anything.
At that moment, Gray stirred, distracting Erza, which was the moment Wendy had been waiting for. Lucy had told her that the weakest knuckle was the thumb. Her instructions were to exploit the thumb and that's what Wendy did.
No less than 2 seconds later, she jumped in front of Lucy.
"Wendy! Get out of there!" Erza yelled. Natsu had already started charging towards Lucy when Wendy jumped in front. He couldn't stop.
"OUT OF THE WAY!" He roared.
Lucy was the first to actually react. Grimacing in pain, she shoved Wendy out of the way as Natsu struck home.
Luckily enough for Lucy, she had tripped sending both her and Wendy down. But, Natsu had caught her hood with her knife, and revealed her identity as he tripped on her legs.
Everyone froze for a second.
Lucy was cursing herself for being careless and Wendy was just happy no one was hurt.
On the other hand…
"You're…"
"A g-g-.."
"Girl?!"
Gray seemed to be in the most shock, having missed out on most of the action.
To their surprise, the girl blushed and snorted. "No I'm an alien. What? You didn't think a girl could actually fight?"
Natsu couldn't stand it anymore. This was too confusing for him and he hated the fact that she was on top of Wendy.
Faster than lightning, he grabbed a discarded gun and knocked Lucy out.
"LUCY!" Wendy cried. "Why'd you do that?"
"Natsu. That was uncalled for."
"SHUT UP!" He yelled. He couldn't do it. "Let me think."
After about 10 seconds of pondering, he decided on what to do.
"We'll bring her to base and question her there while we take Wendy to the infirmary."
"But Nats-"
"No buts Wendy. I could always just leave her here to get bitten."
"But you won't because that is against our rules. In fact, you have broken many already. Let's get moving before we get kicked out." Erza said.
Natsu seemed to sober up and he silently drove his truck with Wendy while Gray and Erza drove Lucy. He didn't complain about his own injuries and Wendy was too angry and betrayed to care about them at the moment.
Natsu hated the fact that Wendy was ignoring him. He had taken the weapons and tossed them in the back, but Wendy had just stared at him when he said, "Give me those before you hurt yourself." Wendy didn't tell him about the knife she had strapped to her leg. It was hers and hers alone.
(1661) A little longer...
AN:
I cannot say how much i LOVE all of y'all! I never expected this story to get more than 3 followers, so thanks to all 12 of ya! And here, you see the first NaLu interaction... Not what y'all expected huh? Anyway, I think I need to mention a couple of things I kinda forgot (blame school).
1- I just wanted to make sure you all knew that the main ship in here is NaLu, so if you are weirdly prejudiced against all NaLu goodness, then I won't judge you for leaving and not reading :)
2- For the first 13 or so chapters, the titles are from a really cool song that kinda inspired this whole story. It's called: Will I Make It Out Alive by Tommee Proffitt/Profitt/Proffit? Check out the really cool Fairy Tail AMV by Anime Safe Haven!
3- There WILL be: Jerza, Gruvia, Miraxus, GaLe, NaLu, RoWen, and a teensy bit of Lories w
Below are some answers to reviews:
Ushindeshi: Glad you liked it! I really like the friendship I see between the three of them in the anime, manga, and certain fanfics... Don't fret because there will definitely be more coming in later chapters.
sharmintisharminti: I really wanted to build on the connect that appeared between Natsu and Wendy in the GMG Arc, which was especially clear when they were fighting the Hungry Wolf Nights ;)
Kalessia04: So first I went to google translate (bc I'm learning Latin in school :/), so here's the English Translation:
"ok, as it happens to lose Natsu such an important weapon; v, the good thing is that Lucy has it and that calms my heart u-u I'll be attentive to more updates, and I like that Lucy is not the typical weak. Pd: I'm Spanish speaking and that's why I'm writing in Spanish, I did not want to leave without my comment here why I later forgot"
THANK YOU SO MUCH KALESSIA04! Honestly, the weapon is the equivalent of Natsu's scarf... Hope you liked it. I also planned on doing something special with Lucy and Aquarius. *Evil Laughter*
As always, I love seeing the emails when I recieve a review, fave, and Follower, so keep it up guys!