chapter thirteen: the promise I made

"Will they be okay?" Natsu asked.

"With some rest they should be just fine," Wendy said.

"That's great," Sting said. He sat beside Rogue's bed, where he was resting peacefully.

"But Lucy… she used so much of her magic trying to help us, not to mention they drained her magic before we got there," Natsu said.

"She'll be okay with some rest." Wendy looked up at Natsu. "Luckily she didn't have any severe injuries."

Natsu grit his teeth together. "I'm going to make them pay for hurting Lucy."

"You don't even know who your enemy is," Master Makarov said from the doorway.

"Gramps!"

Makarov looked at Lucy and Rogue, who were resting in their respective beds. The look of sadness on his face was easily readable; he sighed deeply and turned away. "Everyone is upstairs waiting. We need to discuss our next plan of action."

"I'm not going to leave Lucy!" Natsu said angrily.

"Natsu! She'll be fine. We need to be a part of this discussion," Sting said.

Natsu clenched his fist. He hated to admit it, but Sting was right. They knew where the enemies' current hideout was, and could help in the battle. He stood up and looked over at Lucy. I'll be back soon, Lucy, I promise.

"We'll stay here with Lucy and Rogue," Happy said. He looked over at an upset Frosch. "Frosch is worried about Rogue so he was going to stay anyways."

"Okay, you guys keep an eye on them," Natsu told him. He walked out of the door to the infirmary, with Wendy and Carla behind him. Sting looked back at Lector.

"We'll be back in a few minutes, Lector," he told his Exceed.

"No problem. You can count on us to keep Lucy and Rogue safe," Lector told him.

Sting grinned and walked out of the infirmary. As the door shut behind him, he saw Natsu waiting for him in the hall. He dropped his grin and gave him a serious look. "Cut the crap. You like Lucy, don't you?"

Natsu looked away toward the stairs. "Guess it's that obvious, isn't it? But what about you?"

"What?"

"You like Rogue, don't you?"

Sting looked down at the ground. "Yeah. And before you say anything the reason I haven't said anything to him is because I'm afraid he doesn't like me back."

"Same here." Natsu began walking down the hall toward the stairs. "Do you have any plans to tell him?"

"No."

As they walked down the hallway together, Natsu could hear the sounds of loud talking and laughter coming from the guild hall. They stopped just short of the steps. Natsu looked ahead, and clenched his fist.

"If they decide not to do anything, you're heading out with me right?" he asked Sting.

"Yes. We need to get revenge for our friends, and if no one will help us, we'll do it ourselves," he agreed.

Sting walked up the stairs and entered the guild hall, Natsu behind him. Everyone fell silent. Gray and Erza came and met them. Sting greeted them silently, but Natsu kept his head down. His only concern right then was Lucy.

"It's about time you two made your way up here," Gajeel said.

"Master has orders for us," Erza said.

"Yes. I've decided to send some of you out to battle. The rest will stay here and protect the guild. I've decided this is what is best," Makarov said.

"Sir, I'm not a member of Fairy Tail - " Sting started to say.

"I know. Which is why I'm letting you decide who from your guild goes with you on this mission along with my children," Makarov told him.

Yukino stepped forward and put her hand on Sting's shoulder. "I'm staying behind to help protect Fairy Tail. Rufus and Orga both agreed. Fairy Tail is strong, and without their main fighters here, they're going to need more people here to protect Lucy and Rogue."

"Yukino…" Sting started to to argue, but realized she was right. "You've got a point."

"Alongside Sting I'm sending Natsu, Gajeel, Erza, Gray, and Juvia. The rest will stay here and help the guild stay on the defensive."

"I'll give each one of you a card to communcate with us, and we'll have Warren use his telepathy to keep us in contact," Cana said.

Natsu crossed his arms. His only goal was revenge for Lucy. But he realized that he may need to rely on Fairy Tail for help. They cared about Lucy as much as him.

"Natsu, you and Sting know where their hideout is. I'd like you two to lead the group there," Makarov said.

"Yes sir," Natsu said. He turned and headed toward the guild's doors.

"Where are you headed Natsu?" Erza called after him.

"There's someplace I got to go before we leave."

Sting watched as he walked out of the guild. He turned back to Makarov. "When do we leave?"

"At nightfall."

"Okay. I'll make sure Natsu is back by then," Sting said, and ran out after Natsu. He saw the pink-haired dragon slayer heading down the road towards Lucy's apartment, and ran to catch up with him. "Natsu!"

Natsu turned to look at him. "You followed me?"

"Well, yeah."

"I have two places to go to. But it won't be long."

Sting looked at him and nodded. As they went to enter Lucy's apartment, Happy and Lector came flying up to them.

"Natsu! We just heard that you guys were getting ready to set out on a mission!" Happy said.

"You guys weren't planning to leave without us, were you?" Lector asked.

"What about Frosch?" Sting asked.

"Rogue is awake now, so he said he'll be okay." Lector closed his wings and landed beside Sting. "So we decided to come along with you guys."

"Wait, Rogue is awake now?!" Sting yelled.

"Is Lucy awake too?!" Natsu asked.

"Lucy's still out of it. Wendy said she'd stay with her and try to heal her," Happy said.

Natsu's face fell. She's still not awake. She must be regaining her strength. Unless something is wrong.

"Let's go," Natsu said. He pushed open the doors to Lucy's apartment. Before he could head up to Lucy's apartment, her landlady stopped him. He didn't say anything while he looked at her.

"Miss Lucy isn't home," she told Natsu.

"I know. I just want to do something real quick," he said. "I'll only be five minutes."

Lucy's landlady narrowed her eyes. "Five minutes."

Natsu walked up the stairs to Lucy's apartment and opened the door. He stood in her front room for a moment before heading over to her desk. He saw her story laying on it, and thought back to the last night Lucy was here, the night before they went to work at Yajima's restaurant.

"So where are you headed Natsu?" Sting asked him as they headed down the street.

"I'm stopping by Lucy's."

"Why?" Rogue asked, eyes wide.

"Because he loooooves her!" Happy said.

Natsu's face turned pink. "No I don't! I just like to make sure she's okay before heading home."

"So you do love her," Sting said, grinning.

"You guys want to come with me or not?" Natsu asked.

"I'm in," Gray said from behind them.

"Have you been following us?" Natsu asked.

"I'm only coming along because I'm worried about Lucy. You could show a little more concern for her as well."

Natsu looked down at the ground. "I am concerned for her."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it."

Natsu stopped outside Lucy's apartment. "She knows I'm worried about her."

"So Natsu, how do you plan on getting in?" Happy asked him.

"We can go in through her door," Gray said. "I got her spare key from Mira."

As they entered into Lucy's apartment, Sting looked around and spotted her desk with her writing on it. "What is that on her desk?"

"Oh, it's some story she's been writing," Natsu said. "She's been really secretive about it."

Sting picked up the papers and sat down on a chair. Lector came over to him, followed by Rogue and Frosch.

"You're not really going to read her work, are you?" Rogue asked him.

"Why not?"

"She might not like that." Rogue watched as Lector and Frosch joined Happy on Lucy's bed. "She may not even like the fact that we're in her apartment without her permission."

"I come in here all the time," Natsu said, shrugging.

"Again, she may not like us coming in here without her permission."

"Where did Gray go to?" Natsu asked.

"He went into the bathroom," Happy said.

As they all sat there talking, they didn't hear the door open. Natsu, Sting, and Rogue were each doing their own little thing until Lucy spoke out.

"My room!"

"I told you guys she wouldn't be too pleased," Rogue said.

"I said so too!" Frosch said.

"What are you guys doing here?" Lucy asked.

"We wanted to make sure you were okay before we headed to our inn for the night," Sting told her.

"Yeah, you've definitely been out of it all day. We want to be sure you're okay," Gray said, coming out of her bathroom in his underwear.

"Put on your clothes!" Lucy cried out, throwing a chair at him.

"Dammit!"

"It seems like she's okay, can we leave?" Happy asked.

"Hey Lucy, you can't write a story and leave us hanging. When are you going to write more?" Sting asked. He held up the story Lucy had been writing on.

"Hey, let me read it," Rogue asked.

"That's mine!" she said, yanking it away from Sting.

As they sat and talked, Natsu watched Lucy's face go from scared and upset to calm and happy. And he'd never forget the promise he made her that night.

"If anyone tries to hurt you, they'll pay for it."

"I made you a promise that night, Lucy," Natsu said. "And I'm going to keep it."

He walked over to her desk, where her story sat. He touched the papers, which had new words joining them. She added what happened to her to her story, Natsu thought. He looked out her window and down onto the street, where Sting, Lector, and Happy were waiting for him. He walked toward the door and opened it. He looked back at her empty apartment.

"I swear, Lucy, when this is over I'm going to tell you how I feel," Natsu said with determination. He closed the door behind him and headed downstairs to meet up with Sting, Lector, and Happy.

"Are you done?" Sting asked him.

"Yeah. Let's go back to Fairy Tail, I want to see Lucy before we leave," Natsu said. "We can see Rogue too."

"Yeah. We can see them before we leave," Lector said.

"Maybe Rogue can give us some info about the people that were there before we bailed them out," Sting said.

Maybe Lucy will be awake, Natsu thought to himself. "Let's go. We should go see them before we leave tonight." Natsu headed back up the street toward Fairy Tail, Happy, Sting and Lector following him.