Lucy's Apartment - 2 Days before the Fight

Lucy's POV

"You ok Lucy? You were real quiet on the way home?", Lucy had paused just inside the front door to her apartment block after they'd left Natsu on the street outside.

"I'm ok as I can be at this point Happy. At least I know I've got you and Natsu to look out for me tonight which makes me feel better"

"Aye sir! We best get upstairs before Natsu freaks out something happened to us on the stairs"

"Good point, can't have him go all dragon force on my apartment!"

The duo made their way upstairs to Lucy's front door as she approached it she could hear noises from within, her heart started to race with panic and an odd tint of excitement that it may be Laxus in there. Logically she was trying to remind herself it's just Natsu in there not Laxus and there was no need to be afraid, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves she turned the key and pushed the door open.

Still, the whole day's event had her wound up and she was quickly whipping around to throw the lock shut on the door and pulling across the chain. "Make sure you lock that window tonight Natsu!", what if Laxus came through this window? Natsu always came through that way so it only stood to reason that Laxus could make the same jump, and even though he'd never been to Lucy's apartment if his nose was anywhere near as good as Natsu's he'd surely be able to find them.

She moved through her thoughts on how to best keep Laxus at bay whilst stuck on the good sense of smell they had she swiftly thought that she'd have a bath. Usually, she kept the scents to a minimum – Natsu had complained they irritated his nose when she used too many so maybe if she used her smelliest bath potions she had it might block Laxus' nose at least enough to not find her.

"Hey Natsu, Happy I'm going to go for a bath. There's some fish in the fridge Happy if you want them"

"Yay fishies!"

She walked into the bathroom and flipped on the water for the tub, going over to her cabinet she found a rose petal bath potion along with a rose scented bath bomb that Levy had gifted her for Christmas – perfect she thought, these are far from the normal perfume scents I go for so this hopefully will confuse his nose. She threw the bath bomb in and poured most of the potion in too for good measure.

She went back out to grab some PJ's before heading back into the bathroom, putting them down on the side before shutting the door. The bath bomb seemed to have worked its magic and the overwhelming smell of roses seemed to destroy the barrier she'd managed to forge several hours ago in the guildhall, and she was suddenly sat on her floor hugging her knees resting her forehead on them as she silently sobbed about her situation.

After a few minutes she managed to peel herself off the floor and turned off the taps just before the tub overflowed, she stripped off her clothes and submerged herself into the tub.

She'd still been crying silently; this was far from the fairy tale she'd wished for. Her father had tried to arrange a marriage for her so many times before and she couldn't help but see the similarities here, a lifelong commitment she was being forced into.

"Hey Luce…uhhh…you wanna talk about it?"

Broken quickly out of her self-pity she snapped her head towards the door where Natsu was slowly making his way towards her, she'd been too pre-occupied and must've forgotten to lock the door or notice when he'd opened it as he was already halfway across the floor.

Embarrassed more for being caught crying she panicked trying to get him away from her and started hurling anything she could grab at him while yelling in the hope he'd turn tail and run back out of the bathroom.

Unfortunately her aim was terrible, he didn't even need to dodge her attempts and just kept closing in on her. That was until he got so close he was suddenly being zapped with lightning and kneeling on her floor in pain. She was quickly out of the tub, grabbing a towel to fling around herself and moving towards him to help, but with every step towards him the lightning increased along with his screams of pain until he stopped making any noise and passed out on the floor.

Remembering what was causing her best friend so much pain Lucy backed away into the farthest corner from him, taking him out of her perimeter and stopping the bolts just as Happy came flying into the bathroom.

"Natsu! Lucy, what happened to him?!"

"The lightn-ning, he g-got too close Happy", the pain she'd seen Natsu endure had her in broken sobs and she looked away from Happy as he dropped down to check on Natsu taking some deep breaths to recompose herself. "Take him away Happy, away from me. He'll be safe as long as he's away from me" her voice was trailing off into whispers but Happy heard carrying Natsu out and on to Lucy's couch. Once she was sure they'd gone Lucy hurried across the room to shut, and this time lock, the door spinning around she took up her earlier position sliding down it and onto the floor.

Great, now she was hurting Natsu – again! She'd seen him take so many beatings in fights but it was rare he passed out, that must've really hurt him. Come on Lucy, what are we going to do?

Well, she knew she didn't want to be with Laxus that much was for sure – especially after the way he'd gone about this whole thing and attacking her in the street. But her options were him or another slayer – she didn't really know enough about Rogue or Sting to really put them in the running, Cobra wouldn't be her first pick either and either way he was totally in love with Kinana and of course Gajeel was made for Levy.

That left Natsu.

Although 'left' didn't really feel right to Lucy, that made him seem like a last choice when really he was her first choice person to spend time with, next to spending a whole day in the library with Levy she really couldn't think of anyone she'd rather spend time with.

No, she hadn't thought of him last because she put him last, she thought of him last because he was her best friend. Because she didn't want to risk getting hurt by him again. What would happen if she told him she wanted it to be him to take on Laxus and win only for him to turn the idea down because he didn't want to replace the mark with his own and be tied to her. Or what about if he did replace it but then he left her again, that year without him and Happy had been the loneliest she'd been since that day in Hargeon where she'd met the two of them.

Natsu had never shown any interest in her as more than a friend, heck that time she'd thought he wanted to he just wanted Virgo to help dig something up for him. She just couldn't risk it, their friendship was just too great for her to risk on something she wanted that she was sure he didn't. She'd rather be mated to Laxus but always have Natsu as her friend than risk losing him ever again.

Standing with her resolve she got changed and emptied the tub, she could hear Natsu and Happy on the other side of the door – grateful he hadn't been knocked out for too long she exited the bathroom.

"Thanks pal, how's Lucy now?"

"I'm fine Natsu", he was the one shocked to the point of passing out and yet he's worried about me – so Natsu. "I should be asking how you are?" he was looking at her with a frown so she quickly looked away, afraid she would be unable to completely contain all the emotions she'd had in the bathroom if she looked him in the eyes.

"Hey pal, can you do me a favour?"

"Aye sir", she looked over curiously just as the two shared a nod and Happy came hurtling towards her landing in a hug at her chest.

"What? Was this your favour?"

"Sure was! I can't get near your scary bubble Luce but Happy can and you looked like you needed a hug. I'm totally fine from your lil shock attack – don't worry about me, I'm here to look after you. Besides, it's my fault for forgetting and getting so close." She frowned and went to correct him, it's not like he was the one with the bubble of pain around him but he cut her off "you are not to blame Luce". His eyes bore into her own with a seriousness he rarely ever showed, she finally decided he was right, the blame fell to Laxus not either of them. She hugged Happy tightly to her, taking comfort in having him with her and pulling a small smile – his hugs weren't as great as Natsu's but she knew they both cared and Happy was being used as Natsu's proxy hug for the time being.

"Goodnight Natsu. Goodnight Happy"

"Night Luce, you keep her safe Happy – I'll keep watch from here."

She chuckled and turned off the lights, pulling a curled up Happy to her for comfort before drifting off to sleep. With Happy and Natsu there she knew she'd be safe. She'd decided it was worth hiding her feelings from him if it meant she wouldn't lose him; after all she could never lose him as her mate if he never was to begin with and she wasn't sure she could stand losing him again as a friend let alone if she gave him everything.

Ahhhh - well I hope that was ok, was challenging to write the same scenario from a different angle! Hopefully not too samey with Natsu's chapter, I tried to only cross the dialogue where they actually spoke to each other. Sorry for the delay - I kept changing my mind on which chapter you'd get first but I've decided not to be too mean and give you Lucy's POV straight after Natsu's.

Copperreign12 - thank you as always for your positive comments! I hope you enjoy reading Lucy's flip side of the scenario, albeit it ends a bit differently!

For an update of length, we're over halfway through with this now - I'm expecting 20-25 chapters in total.

Thank you as always for your likes, follows and reviews! I'm working on another story at the moment, gonna be a Fairy Tail AU and planning it to be a long one - stay tuned to my profile in 2022, hoping to get this story tied off around Christmas/New Year and to have several chapters ready for release on my new story from the New Year :)