It was the middle of the night, and Lucy groaned as something slowly woke her up. She twisted in her bed and pulled the blankets up to her shoulders to get warmer, then snuggled back against her fiancé, whose arms were loosely wrapped around her. She felt Natsu stir before tightening his hold on her. Lucy murmured something (she had no idea what, she was barely cognizant at the moment) before moving a hand to hold one of his. Natsu squeezed her a bit tighter and then pulled her back against his chest. Lucy smiled, ready to fall back into slumber, but then she felt something uncomfortably warm and wet against her lower back, something on Natsu's stomach.

Her eyes flickered open, a sick feeling settling in her. She carefully reached a hand back to the source of the wetness and then brought it back in front of her. Her eyes widened and all drowsiness left her body as she realized it was blood.

Lucy shot up in bed, to Natsu's chagrin. He was frowning and grasping towards her as she reached to the bedside table, turning the lamp on.

"Lu-cyyyy…" Natsu groaned, shying away from the sudden light.

Lucy gaped at his stomach, not knowing what to say or how to say it, a long slash cutting across the flesh of his stomach and letting out the blood she'd felt. Next to him was a bloody cloth that she had to assume had been wrapped around the wound.

"Natsu!" She finally gasped out.

"Hmm…?"

"Your- Why didn't you tell me you were hurt!?"

Natsu frowned, his eyes still closed as he tried to comprehend her words through his sleepy haze.

"Damn…" he finally responded, eyes squinting open. He reached a hand to where he knew the cut was and winced as he felt the blood. "I guess the bandage fell off."

"That's not- Natsu, why didn't you tell me!?"

"I didn't want you to worry," he replied simply.

Lucy cursed as she climbed out of bed to find a fresh bandage to stop the blood. "Natsu, it's my job to worry! I'm your fiancée!"

"I know, I know…" he sat up, realizing he should probably try not to get any more blood on the sheets, although they were probably ruined at this point. He picked up the old bandage and pressed part of the blood-less portions against the cut. "But you were just so exhausted after we finished the job that I didn't want you to have to deal with this. I figured I could fix myself up and everything would be fine!"

"Why didn't you at least have Wendy do something about it!?" she asked, coming back with a roll of fresh bandage, a washcloth, and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide from their bathroom.

"Well, she had already been healing that nasty bruise of Erza's and Carla's broken wing, I didn't wanna push her too much."

"Natsu, you're so stupid." Natsu winced at Lucy's insult. "When you get hurt, you tell someone! Wendy knows what her limits are, and even if she couldn't use much magic on that cut, she would've been able to disinfect it and patch it up properly!" Natsu hissed as she used the peroxide to clean his wound.

"Yeah, I know, I just… figured I should take care of it myself."

"You always wanna take care of everything by yourself. We're getting married in three months, Natsu. I should think you'd be able to tell me when you're bleeding."

Natsu was silent and looked away. "I'm sorry. I'll tell you next time. I just hate making you worry."

Lucy's frustrated frown morphed into a soft smile. "Like I said, it's my job to worry about you. How would you feel if I was hurt and didn't tell you?"

Natsu frowned. "You will tell me though, right?"

She laughed and then pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Only if you promise to tell me, too, Dummy."

The dragon slayer nodded, feeling guilty as she started wrapping the bandage around his stomach. "Yeah, I will."

"Maybe if you had, you wouldn't have ruined my sheets," she teased, trying to lighten his mood.

Thank you for reading!