I've done it a couple times now, so I should probably address it. I use a line of bolded, nonsense letters to separate chunks of the chapter before I load them to FF and then put in the line breaks. I have forgotten a few times to fix them before posting, so if you ever see them, that's what they are. In other news, I have another writing contest I need to get done writing for, so I won't be working on this again for the next week or so while I get my story for that finished up, but I will be back soon after!

To EchizenRyoma, of course there are. Just wait, there will be more showing up. All in due time.

To TheFranticPhantasm, I can't believe I forgot to address your review sooner. I love your prediction. Demons may not have hoards, but they can be greedy about sharing, so perhaps you're right. Only time will tell...

As always, thanks for the love and happy reading!


"Say it back to me."

Natsu wiggled uncomfortably in his seat. "Luce, I really don't wanna-"

"Say it back to me," Lucy repeated, "or I will remain in our room until it's time to go, living off baths and room service." She crossed her arms as she stared him down.

He avoided her gaze, but eventually heaved a sigh. "I won't go on any of the hills until you say that I'm ready."

"Good." Lucy leaned forward to adjust the sling his arm was in.

"But how about if we just- OW!" Lucy tugged harder than necessary on the tie near his neck, jostling his broken arm. "Was that really necessary?"

"What's wrong Mr. I'm-Totally-Fine? Did I hurt your arm that you claim you didn't break?"

Natsu grumbled as he looked away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lucy hummed to herself as she stood and walked towards her bag. "You know, I remember a certain someone claiming they didn't lie…"

"I never said I didn't break it, I said it was fine, which it is. Give it a few hours and it'll be good as new." He scooted back on his bed and leaned against the headboard. "I can't speak for the skis, though." They both looked across the room where his broken skis sat in a pile near the door.

"They have a place the hotel where you can rent skis. You'll just have to make sure you don't break those, too, or I'll have to pay for them."

"Yes ma'am," he sighed, leaning his head back against the wall. "How do you humans do it?"

"Do what?"

"Deal with broken bones. It takes your bodies weeks to fix themselves. I've had to keep it still for less than an hour and I'm already completely bored."

"To be fair, we get casts put on them so we can still mostly function. And good pain medication is nothing to sneeze at. If you want, we could bring you to the hospital, but I have a feeling they'd have questions about things you'd rather they didn't know about."

He waved away her concerns with his good arm. "Like I said, I'll be fine. I've had worse, I'm just bored."

"Wanna watch a couple movies? Maybe they can distract you long enough for your arm to heal."

Natsu nodded. "Sure, I think I can handle that. Anything in particular you wanna watch?"

"This place has hundreds of channels, I'm sure I can find something." Lucy grabbed the remote and sat on her bed as she turned on the TV and began searching through the channels. Natsu closed his eyes as he waited. He was always a little more tired while his body was regenerating. There was a good chance he would sleep as long as Lucy that night.

A sound from Lucy drew his attention. She was leaning forward, a large smile on her face. "What's up?" he asked.

She turned his way, her smile lighting up her face. "They have a few anime channels, and one of them is running a Black Butler marathon!"

"I have no idea what that is, but you seem excited about it."

"It's a show about a boy who makes a deal with a demon. The demon agrees to help him get vengeance against his parents' killers in exchange for his soul."

Natsu sat up, his interest growing. "The demon made a deal with a child? We have strict rules against that. We're not allowed to create deals with humans who are less than sixteen years of age. Our summonings can't even be completed by someone under that age."

Lucy quickly pushed a few buttons and chose the show, excitedly crawling her way backwards on the bed. "Oh we are so watching this now."

Natsu watched her as she stacked her pillows up to lean against. "What are you doing?"

"Getting comfy, what does it look like?"

He frowned. "Aren't you going to come over here?"

Lucy stopped. "Why would I do that?"

"We usually sit next to each other when we watch TV."

"Well, yes, but we're sitting on beds. It's a little different."

"You can make your pillow mountain over here, too, can't you?"

Lucy looked over at Natsu, taking in his relaxed position. He'd propped one of the pillows under his broken arm and his free arm was folded behind his head. He'd changed his clothes, magically of course, to a pair of thick sweatpants and a comfy looking black shirt. With his bare feet sticking out from under the blanket and his hair in its usual ruffled state, he looked completely comfortable and cuddle worthy. "Well, you look pretty comfortable, and I don't want to risk bumping you and hurting you."

"You had no problem doing it before," he said.

She glared. "That was to prove a point."

Natsu shrugged. "At any rate, there's a whole half a bed you could sit on over here without bumping me. Come on," he said as he patted the space next to him. "It'll be weird if you're all the way over- why is he dressing the kid?"

Lucy glanced at the TV. "He's a demon butler, it's his job."

Natsu's confusion grew. "If he's supposed to be helping the kid get vengeance, why is he wasting time being a butler?" Lucy sighed as she grabbed her pillow stack and moved to his bed.

A couple hours later, Lucy found herself falling against Natsu's good arm as she laughed. "I just don't understand! Why is he agreeing to take a demon hound back home with him?! Do you have any idea how dangerous those things are? And there's no way that woman is just some woman. Demon hounds do not respond to human commands. They're only response to seeing a human is to eat them. The rest of the house doesn't stand a chance, least of all his master. He's soft and human and no good in a fight. He's going to be eaten in- that's what I said, Sebastian! Well, not in so many words. She's not just incredibly persuasive, she has to be some sort of demon or angel or something. They're the only ones who can control one of those beasts."

Lucy tried to catch her breath, ignoring the way Natsu's arm rested so casually around her shoulders. "So does that mean… that angels are real?"

"Of course they are. They've got a whole system set up in their world like ours. They've got different races with a variety of powers and jobs, just like us. Most of them don't come to earth to work, though, unless they're guardian angels."

Lucy wiggled slightly to get more comfortable. "So guardian angels exist, too? Invisible beings that follow their charge around and protect them from harm?"

When he didn't respond right away, Lucy looked up at Natsu. He looked uncomfortable, but she wasn't sure why. "Natsu?"

"They don't work quite like that. Usually, they hide their true appearance, like I am now, and move around looking like regular humans. Some guardian angels only save a person once, so they show up just in the nick of time, a stranger willing to help out, and then leave once the human is safe. Other times, if it's a long job, they'll integrate themselves into the person's life in some way, so they're always around. They can handle situations from behind the scenes or manipulate the situation so the person doesn't even know they were in danger. However they want to do it, as long as they keep the human safe."

"How does a guardian angel decide to take on a job?"

"It's usually on behalf of someone in the afterlife. Souls that know they're leaving someone behind in danger or a less than ideal situation. They make their plea to the leader, and the leader decides if an angel will be sent to help out."

"What do they bargain with?" Lucy asked. If she hadn't been looking at Natsu as she asked, she would have missed the way his face subtly changed. It was gone a moment later, but she wondered why he'd be bothered by the question. As he answered, she thought perhaps she knew.

"They don't have to bargain anything. The angels help those whose hearts and requests are pure. The more love a person holds for the one they are begging help for, the better the chance their request will be granted is." Natsu returned his gaze to the TV as he finished. "I still don't understand why this demon is bothering to play house when he has real work to do. He should have just talked to that red grim reaper and gotten the information he needed. He's rather lazy about his job."

Lucy hummed as she turned back towards the TV. They continued to watch well into the night, Natsu continuing to criticise the demon, and Lucy continuing to laugh at his distress over the inaccuracies in the show. Much later, Natsu glanced down at Lucy when she remained silent during a particularly intense rant on his part to find her sleeping. Once he realized, he gingerly moved his other arm, finding the pain had lessened to a faint throb. He stretched it out a little before carefully reaching down and pulling the blanket over her. Once he had moved to a more comfortable position, he untucked the end of his scarf and put it around her neck, careful to avoid waking her. Once he was satisfied, he returned to watching the show, intent on seeing how it ended.


The first thing Lucy noticed when she woke up was how warm she was. She refused to open her eyes for a while, choosing instead to enjoy the heat surrounding her. When she eventually took a deep breath, she noticed the familiar smell of smoke and something dark that she usually only smelt when she was-

Lucy's eyes flew open and she found herself firmly held against Natsu's side, with her face turned into his neck. In the faint night coming from near the door, she could see he was still asleep, his chest falling and rising with his even breaths. Carefully, she pulled her head away from him, lifting it to look down and see that her whole body was pressed up against Natsu's left side under the blanket. His right leg and arm were stretched out, free of the covers, making her wonder if he was too warm. As she put her head back down, she realized that part of Natsu's scarf was tucked around her neck, aiding in the strong smoke smell that was filling her nose.

She felt her body heat even more as she realized Natsu's arm was firmly wrapped around her waist. Lucy couldn't even focus on her surprise at him still being asleep as she tried to figure out how to get out of his hold. Slowly and carefully, she removed the scarf from around her and draped it over Natsu's body. Then, she pulled the blanket off of her body. Once she'd gotten the covers mostly out of the way, she began to carefully pry Natsu's hand off of her side. When she was mostly free, she used her arms to lift her torso off his arm and started to roll over.

Unfortunately, only a second or two after she got out of his hold, Natsu groaned and rolled over to put both arms around her and snuggled against her. She sighed and tried to pry herself out of his hold, ignoring his grunt when she elbowed him. "Natsu, let me up."

"No," he said, squeezing her tighter, "warm."

She sighed. "Natsu, I need to get up."

"We're on vacation," he grumbled into his pillow. "We don't need to do anything."

"Natsu-"

"Luce, can you just relax for a few minutes? Please?" He lifted his head to give her a half hearted glare. "If you don't figure out how to just relax, I'll stop bringing you with on my trips."

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him, maintaining eye contact as he continued to glare at her. They both knew it was an empty threat, since her joining him was part of the contract they had together, but he refused to back down.

They stared at each other for a few minutes, Natsu out of stubbornness, and Lucy because she knew she was right. Eventually he looked away, ignoring Lucy's smirk as he sighed and he tightened his arms around her again. As he buried his face back into his pillow, he grumbled, "You win, alright? Now just relax for a while. You can get up later. There are no meetings, no work, no anything for you to do right now, so just… take a chill pill and hang out for a bit."

Lucy chuckled as she allowed him to pull her close. "Your slang is getting better."

"I'm still not going to start using cool beans. I really just don't understand that one. Now are you going to fight me or just relax?"

She sighed as she got comfortable. "I guess I can wait a little while to get up."

"Good," he said, loosening his arms a little. A minute later, he was softly snoring in her ear.

Lucy glanced at the clock and realized it was earlier than she'd thought. Sighing, she adjusted her head, not surprised when Natsu's arms tightened around her as she moved. Once she'd settled, she lightly draped her arms around Natsu's. She'd always thought she wasn't much of a cuddler, but perhaps she'd just never given it a chance. It was nice having another body to share heat with. As Natsu's warmth continued to surround her, she realized it also made her very sleepy. She snuggled more closely to the half dragon, eventually falling back asleep with a small smile on her face.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad for her to relax a little while they were on this trip.