Chapter 13: Lucky Number Thirteen

(Vulgar language warning!)

Her body seemed to convulse with energy, as she laid on the ground-nursing the pounding headache. Through her pain, she could hear a scream. But it it was only heard from faraway, it never dared to come closer.

Erza felt paralyzed in fear, like she had all her energy zapped from her; she swore her heart had stopped beating. The air around her went up an octave that reached immeasurable heights, so high only a dog could hear. Her stomach twisted and churned with every miracle breath she took, as if it will break at even the slightest movement.

Then, she finally felt warmth wrap around her shaken body, which she curled herself around. Despite her high state, she could hear someone whispering encouragement and prompting her to stand up. It wasn't needy, it was soft and sweet-like a teacher encouraging a student on a hard problem.

With her limited movement, she managed to sneak a peek at her rescuer, exhaling in relief to see Lucy. Lucy set her arms gently underneath her comprised body, and maneuvered her to an upright position. Though Erza felt she was going to vomit, it felt nice to finally remove herself from that horrible position. Once Lucy checked she was ok, she pulled out her phone and dialed in a number, her features pulling into a furious frown.

Within seconds, she started to scream-to an extent, of course, Erza was still ill- and Erza could hear the word Natsu being repeated viciously by Lucy, like the word was poison. Erza thought the word wasn't bad sounding, though, it felt nice. She knew it meant summer, perhaps their personality could match that of the specified season.

Another wave of nausea hit her cold in her face, her eyes going cross eyed. Faintly, words drifted from the abyss that she could hardly make out. Her surroundings were no longer visible, as she began to only see darkness. But she closed her eyes as hard she could, fisting her hands. She wouldn't submit.

She refused to.

With all the pain Erza felt in her life, this was only mere child's play. Although Erza wouldn't like to admit it, she's known a much greater pain than this.

With measured breaths, she slowly inhaled and exhaled until she felt herself relax. This slowly cleared away the invading darkness, and, with a satisfying sigh, she opened her eyes to the dead leaves.

As much as she would like to, Erza knew it would be too much to try and stand, so she remained firmly on the ground. The red-head slowly turned her head towards the growing, loud source of anger-realizing Lucy was still arguing with her friend.

Natsu, she believed.

Lucy looked behind her to realize Erza was up again, flashing a rare smile to her. In response, she merely flashed a small thumbs up. But that smile was taken over again by rage when the person on the other line spoke again, prompting Lucy to start the usual line of insults.

"Natsu, you ass! I'm getting fucking tired of cleaning up your freaking messes, and then I get no thanks?! Just- ugh! This day was supposed to be a fun day, but it turned out to be the most crapiest day ever- No! You can't say you didn't know about this place, you know our area well! That's complete and utter bullshit..."

Erza tuned out the rest, finding it all too much in the moment. Instead, focused on the calm currents of the wind that subtly moved her hair wayward; the leaves that freely rode the wind as they pleased, busying themselves with nothing at all. She smiled; this was nice.

"Hey, Erza, you good to stand? We're heading home now," A voice said, cutting through the zen. "I- I'm not sure... exactly. I guess I could try, though," Erza responded, hating how her voice was so croaky. "Then, let me help you," Lucy said, offering her hand.

Shakily, Erza took the hand and was surprised at the firm grip once it realized she was there. She rose up, and with Lucy's help, steadied herself. The blonde nodded, and escorted the knight mage into the brush to the car. After a few falls, Lucy and Erza found the car and, Lucy being the lady she was, helped her in safely. She got in herself.

Erza treated herself to a warm silence, relaxing into the warm and comfortable car seat. But, Lucy dug her fingers into the grooves of the wheel, finding comfort in that. Then, Lucy looked back to her phone, where soft conversation still lulled from the phone. She had the microphone muted to exempt him from the rage.

She knew it was a bad idea to come, Lucy could feel it when she woke up that morning. And between Erza's injury, and the lost supplies-she had reason to believe this was a set up from her best friend.

Lucy unmuted the microphone.

Well, that's all guys! Hope you all enjoyed! So sorry it was late.

Have a good day/night, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive! Bye~!