Author's Note:
Alright! So sorry again about leaving you guys on a cliffhanger last chappie, but hopefully this one will make up for it! It's not quite the end of this arc yet, but hopefully it ends a little better than last time and resolves some stuff for you guys. :D
Also, it's a super long chapter! Since I know I won't be able to post on Wednesday, I figured I'd double up on this chapter.
As always, HUUUUUGE thanks to all my WONDERFUL reviewers out there! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: WisdomDragon27, TheOGFTfanatic, valerioux, Shadowslayer15, Lady La-sara, Elphaba818, MiseryWolf97, thechani, RavenShadow, mumof4, TheJSmooth, Donthedarkdragon26, Leomae2.0, FantasyDreamer06, Ksta, Firefly9917, moeruhoshi, and Wolves silver wind. You are all amazing and wonderful!
Now, on with the show! And stay tuned till the end for the next sneak peek.
Lucy was still having a really bad day.
After Pierre had sent her keys to who-knows-where, he turned back to her. For a long time, he sat and watched her while sipping on his tea. Eventually though, he sighed and put that aside.
"Entertain me."
"Despite being strung up like one, I'm not a puppet. Amuse yourself." Lucy spat back, indignant.
"Very well. I shall do so."
A magic circle formed in front of him, and Lucy cringed as the light from it hit her. She screamed once again as it felt like her body was pierced by hundreds of spears. The sensation, and her cries, lasted up until a distant crash distracted him.
It caught Lucy's attention too, and she lifted her head to stare at the door with both hope and dread welling up within her. It was Natsu. She knew it was, and the thought filled her with glee. But…this man was a monster. She wasn't even sure Natsu could beat him. Plus, there was no doubt in her mind that Pierre was going to use her to hurt him.
Sure enough, the door blasted open in a billow of fire, and there stood her fire dragon, out of breath and looking supremely angry.
"Why is Lucy screaming?!" His enraged eyes landed on Pierre first, and he asked, "Was it you?!"
"Natsu!"
His gaze flashed to her, and there was a second of absolute silence as he took in her appearance. Pitch black eyes darted from her face to her neck and hands, lingering on the sight of her blood as his nostrils flared and blood vessels erupted on his forehead. A few long seconds later his eyes flashed bright gold, molten with rage, and he positively exploded. A blast of heat unlike any she had felt from him before scorched the room. Every single plant went up in flames.
Pierre hurried to summon a magic circle and aimed it at Natsu. Before Lucy could cry out to warn him, a flash of green light hit the dragon, and all his flames went out. He went to his knees with a gasp, and his palms hit the floor.
"Wh-what the hell…?"
"Natsu! He can control emotions and make you feel things that aren't really there!" Lucy shouted, though it was too late.
Her warning cut off with a scream as their opponent sent a magic circle for pain her way. With a gasp, she was once again set to writhing in her cage, clutching at the noose around her neck to keep from strangling herself.
As for Natsu, just the sight of her in that cage with a rope around her neck and blood seeping out from under it was enough to send him into an ungodly rage the likes of which he had never felt before. But seeing her actually convulsing with pain had his blood positively boiling.
"STOP IT!" he roared, and flames licked the ground in front of him.
"Oh don't worry. I'm not causing any physical damage. Only pain." the smug suited man told him.
Despite the sudden exhaustion that had put him on the ground, he rose to his feet and a deep snarl worked its way up his throat. "I said…stop it…"
He had to keep his feet spread wide and planted to keep himself up, but like hell was he going to lay around on his ass while Lucy was being tortured. Before he could actually try to attack though, a second green circle sent him back to the ground as every single muscle in his body seemed to stop working and go to sleep.
"You do realize she doesn't have your key anymore right? So, you no longer hold a contract with her, and therefore no longer have to help her."
"That's bullshit. Until I've contracted with someone else, my contract with Lucy stands – key or no key."
"Suite yourself. I'm certainly not opposed to entertaining more guests. In fact, this could prove very amusing."
"I dunno what you're planning, but leave Lucy alone!"
"Ha! Please. My puppet is the star of this show … and the key to making you so entertaining."
"I already told you I'm not your -" Lucy cut off with a gasp as he hit her with another magic circle.
Natsu watched in horror as she seemed to cave in on herself and get as small as that damn noose around her neck would let her. The expression on her face was one of pure terror and panic, and Natsu's stomach dropped out as tears dripped off her chin in an unending flow. Even from this distance, his keen hearing could pick up on her pounding heart and panting. Her entire body started to tremble, and it looked like she couldn't even hold herself up.
Glancing up at that rope holding her strung up like dead poultry, he felt a surge of rage. Without even bothering to think about it, he spat flames at the rope above her cage, burning through it in an instant. Without it, she collapsed and fell flat on her face … going utterly limp as soon as the line was cut.
Her raw fingers scrabbled at her neck and yanked the rope off, gasping as she did, and her bloody fingernails told him how her throat had gotten scratched up so badly. She'd been clawing at her own skin to get the rope off, and the thought sent another gut-wrenching blast of fury through his veins.
However, on the plus side, burning the rope had surprised the enemy, and both circles broke. Natsu immediately staggered to his feet and turned halfway towards her.
"Luce, you okay over there?"
A very quiet, very hoarse voice answered, "Yeah. Just fine."
"Don't worry, I'm gonna get you out. Just hold on."
She lifted her head and gave him a tearful smile. "I know you will…"
He felt his heart clench tight and try to choke him.
The moment was shattered by that posh bastard, as he scoffed and made another circle aimed at Natsu. "Sit back down. You haven't amused me enough."
Natsu wasn't given much choice in the matter. Pain seared his blood, and it suddenly felt like he'd been dunked in a cold sea. Being a fire dragon, pain born of ice was not fun, but he was hardly a stranger to it thanks to Gray. This was a different kind of pain though – like ice water had been shot directly into his veins almost, and it knocked him back on his ass. He hit the ground hard and writhed half a second before getting his shit together.
"Natsu!" Lucy screamed, and he did his damnedest to send her a thumbs-up.
"A-Okay over here, Luce. Don't worry 'bout me."
At Natsu's attempt to sooth Lucy, their opponent drawled, "How adorable. Perhaps it's time to make things more…interesting. Let's see how the two of you deal with this."
He heard Lucy scoff, and then her voice changed to one of horror. "Oh no…don't you dare, you dirty bastard…"
The abrupt shift had Natsu raising his eyes to her. Another circle was aimed at her, and she had her arms wrapped tight around her body as she seemed to cringe. However, she didn't seem scared, or exhausted, or in pain – so he had no idea what she might be fighting.
"Stop it! Whatever you're doing to Lucy, stop it right now!" Natsu bellowed.
The enemy then turned to him. "Oh right…I suppose you won't be able to enjoy the show if you're writhing in pain. We don't want you distracted, now do we?"
The circle aimed at him flickered and changed color as it was switched out for the one that made him super tired. Natsu was able to get to his feet again for a brief moment, but he staggered and went to his knees as soon as a second circle joined the first. The enemy smirked and apparently deemed him not a threat, because he turned back to Lucy – who was glaring at him viciously.
"Why the hell are you doing this?" she hissed, though Natsu still wasn't sure what he was doing to her.
He shrugged and smiled politely. "For humiliation purposes mostly."
"Humiliation…?! You son of a bitch!" Lucy spat, seeming absolutely infuriated.
"It seems that it's not strong enough yet for that though," the enemy continued as if she hadn't said anything, and Natsu couldn't help but growl at how dismissive he was of her protests.
A second circle formed in front of the first, and when it hit her she groaned and curled up into a ball, leaving Natsu to wonder just what the hell was going on. He had no idea what the guy had meant by 'humiliation purposes,' – though Lucy certainly seemed to understand – and he had the odd thought that maybe their opponent was making her feel like she really had to go to the bathroom or something.
By this point, he normally would have attacked somehow despite his lethargy … except … a certain scent had hit him, and he was left paralyzed. He had no idea where it was coming from at first, only that it was one of the most intoxicating smells he had ever come into contact with. It made him feel downright drunk – and as his mind grew a little fuzzy, he felt heat pool low in his gut and set his blood on fire.
Why the hell he would feel this way in such a fucked-up situation he had no idea, and it left him spinning for a loop. As a celestial dragon, he always chose when he wanted to get a boner, and it had never once popped up without him actively deciding to get one. Usually he only made that choice when he was bored out of his mind…generally when he was stuck in time-out in the celestial realm after doing something to piss off Lucy or whenever she was on some form of transportation. During those times it gave him something to do at least. But he had never popped a tent in this world because there were always more interesting things to occupy himself with. He certainly hadn't ever been tempted to do so in the middle of a fight.
And yet now … for some reason that scent was making it extremely hard for him to control his body, as if he was instinctively responding to it. It was almost like that smell – whatever it was – had hijacked his mind and was forcing him to make a subconscious decision to get turned on…in a very physical way…and it was downright maddening.
In fact, the scent was completely taking over his body, and now he knew for sure that it was instinct at work. He normally wasn't driven by instincts – but as a dragon he sure as hell had them, and when they got activated they were impossible to ignore. On the plus side, that was overriding the lethargy that had been pinning him to the ground…. not that he really noticed, since he had become single-minded in figuring out where that smell came from.
"Okay, what the hell are you doing now?! Where the fuck is that scent coming from?!"
…
Meanwhile, as soon as Pierre hit Lucy with the first lust spell, she felt like she'd definitely died and had gone straight to hell. Or else she had fallen asleep and was having a nightmare. There was simply no possible way that she was dealing with this guy and his perverted spells while Natsu was in the room.
It was rude, crude, and unacceptable in her book. She sat up partially to give him a heated glare as the stupid sensations pulsed through her body, settling low in her gut and making everything start to throb in a way she resolutely ignored.
However, when he completely ignored her protests and hit her with a second lust circle, she gave up on fighting back verbally and switched to just hiding her face and pretending she didn't exist. Curling into a ball and doing her best to ignore everything seemed the best option at the moment, and she tried her hardest to believe that none of it was happening.
This was bad. Really, it almost hurt in a way. The physical problems, plus the actual emotion clouding her brain, was a one-two punch that almost sent her to la-la land. She fought it, trying to breathe deeply and slowly, instead of panting the way her body seemed to want to do. Controlling her breathing also helped to control her pulse, and it was something to focus on other than the things going on with her body that she refused to acknowledge. It was all just too embarrassing to accept, and like hell was she going to let this guy see that she was being affected in any way.
If she ever got out of this cage, she was going to literally kill him. Or maybe neuter him.
It was all absolutely humiliating, but she just had to hope that Natsu would remain oblivious at least. That hope was shattered though when he opened his big fat mouth.
"Where the fuck is that scent coming from?!"
At first she had no idea what he was talking about, but then she remembered his sensitive nose and - with mounting horror - realized that he could actually smell how her body was responding. Her head snapped up and she stared at him aghast, her mouth working silently as she failed to think of something to say.
Thankfully it seemed like Pierre hadn't put two and two together as he frowned at Natsu, who was now standing and growling and looking around angrily. Apparently he had somehow broken through the sleep spells that Pierre had put on him.
"A smell? I don't know what you're talking about…and how are you standing up all of a sudden? How did you break my spell?" he asked, but Natsu wasn't paying any attention to him any longer. His nose had turned him in her direction, and he was staring at her with wide eyes.
She stared back, equally shocked about what was going on. Her brain seemed to have simply short-circuited and ceased to work.
The enemy looked back and forth between them, and then seemed to figure out just what was going on. As soon as he did, he started to laugh.
Her eyes snapped from Natsu's, and she instantly aimed a glare at the laughing lunatic. "Shut up!"
"Oh! But this is too rich! He can actually smell you! Just how aroused are you?!"
At that, she felt like she'd definitely gone to a different dimension. It was like an out-of-body experience, only without the out-of-body part. This conversation didn't exist in this reality. There was simply no other solution that made sense.
That didn't keep her from flushing so hot that she was sure a raw egg could be cooked on her face, and she felt like just melting into the floor and dying. Instead of hiding her head again though and curling up into a ball like she wanted to, she decided to embrace the anger that kept her fried brains somewhat sane.
"Well I don't know. You're the one doing it! How about you tell me?!"
He just laughed some more and she growled. The anger drained away though when she risked a glance at Natsu and instantly regretted it. His mouth was hanging open, and he was just staring at her. Apparently his brain had also been fried.
Her cheeks tried to roast her alive again, and she just finally gave in to the desire to curl up into a ball and pretend that she wasn't here again.
"Can you please just kick his ass already?! This really sucks you know!" she finally yelled at the floor, and she could almost hear Natsu snap out of whatever daze he'd gone into.
"Oh! Right! Sorry!"
…
Natsu was kind of horrified at himself for dazing off like that, but as he turned to look at the guy and saw him laughing at Lucy, suddenly everything this jackass had done to her flashed before his eyes. His imagination filled in a lot of it, but the evidence was more than enough to piss him off on its own…. plus, now he could smell her tears mixed in with the other stuff.
Also…his instincts were still all fired up, but now they were screaming a completely different message from before. Instead of shouting at him to CLAIM and TAKE…and a few other things that made him flush to think about…they were now shouting only one thing loud and clear. PROTECT.
Not only had every possessive instinct been woken up inside him, but now the person who he thought of as HIS had been hurt – was still being hurt – and the enemy who was doing it was standing right in front of him.
It was going to stop. Now.
He roared and sent a blast of fire scorching towards the bastard… just as a preliminary statement of his anger.
Then, clicking his teeth together and cutting off the fire, he let his tail slither out from where it was wrapped around his leg and transformed. His aura was let loose, and a blast of volcanic heat blackened anything that still wasn't scorched. The image of his immense true form hung over his body, and he allowed a deep growl to erupt from his chest – the sound echoing much louder and larger than it should from this body. It was an expression of the pure, unadulterated rage that had blanked his mind.
When the smoke cleared to show that his opponent was still alive and only partially cooked, Natsu grinned – making sure to give full fang exposure – as he opened his wings with a snap. The guy's eyes widened, as if he only just realized what he was dealing with, and he scrambled to make a magic circle. Natsu was hit with a wave of terror, but he fought through it easily enough. At this point he had more than enough fuel to fire him up about a hundred times over.
When he was hit with a pain circle, it barely even fazed him in this form. Another deep growl sounded out of his chest, and he enjoyed the fear that lit up his opponent's eyes at the feral sound. This bastard deserved a little fear after what he put Lucy through.
Gathering fire into his wings, he lifted off – just a foot or so above the ground – and then yelled, "Fire dragon wing attack!" His wings snapped forwards at full force to hurl all the flames in two deadly lashes at his enemy.
They hit and sent him flying through the wall. The backlash of flames took out every window in the place. Lucy squeaked from where she was still in her cage, and he looked through the roaring fires to see her cringing in a red-hot cage.
"Natsu! Get me out of here!" she screamed, and by the last word he was already grabbing hold of the bars and bending them open. They were soft from being heated, so it was easy.
She reached for him as he reached for her, and he snatched her out of the cage and hauled her into his arms. He wasn't even concerned about the flames licking around his body, because he knew they wouldn't hurt her …. though her clothes were another thing entirely. As her skirt started smoking, she protested, and he put out the fires coating his skin.
As for Lucy, she was still in a state of shock about everything that had just happened. So, after putting out her smoldering clothes, she rested her cheek against his burning chest and let him fly her out of there. Normally, she would have insisted he put her down and that she could walk for herself, but at the moment she was actually thankful for the assistance. In fact, if taking a nap wasn't impossible, she would have loved to indulge in one right about now.
She felt totally sapped of all strength and energy, partly because of all the pain and suffering she had just endured, and also from the physical drain of fighting. So she just closed her eyes and let Natsu do the flying for them. The soothing sound of his heartbeat pounded under her ear as she rested her head on him, and the rhythmic beat strangely made her want to cry.
Before she knew it – and before she was really ready for it – Natsu was setting her down back in the very first room they had come to, the one with three doors.
As she was set on her feet and met Natsu's eyes for the first time since everything happened, the most embarrassing parts suddenly rushed back to her, and her cheeks lit up like firecrackers once again.
Clearing her throat, she grimaced and said, "Hey, uh…can we forget everything that just happened and never, ever talk about it?"
Natsu blinked and stared at her, nonplussed. "Uh…why?"
"Because it's embarrassing, and I don't ever want to talk about it!"
He jumped a little when she snapped at him, and for once he actually seemed to listen to her. "Okay. Sure. I guess." And then he mumbled, "Still dunno why though…"
Strangely, the fact that he didn't seem to think it was embarrassing helped to relieve some of her own discomfiture. Still, she exhaled a relieved breath and shoved the memory of this incident down into her mental files … never to be disturbed again.
"Thanks."
As he turned away, she quickly swiped her hands down the insides of her thighs to wipe away any sticky evidence that still might be there, and when she came away with wet palms she was glad she'd done so. At the moment there wasn't anywhere for her to wash her hands, so she simply squatted down and wiped her hands on the dirt floor…hoping that it would help disperse the scent that Natsu had picked up on. She brushed the dirt off her palms as she stood back up.
"So, I guess we just go down the next route?" Natsu asked, sniffing the doors for clues. "Happy went down this one!"
Instantly Lucy was throwing that door open, and Natsu eagerly followed her as they rushed down the hall. Much to their surprise, the very first room yielded a cage, and in it was the blue cat in question.
"Happy!"
"Lucy! Natsu! Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you came! I was so scared Lucy! I just knew someone was going to come and take me away!"
The little cat started bawling as they reached the cage, and Lucy inspected the keyhole on the door. It was just a simple lock, and all she had to do was hold her hand over it and let her magic unlock it for her. If only she'd been able to do the same on her own cage, but for the life of her she hadn't been able to find it.
As soon as the door swung open, Happy leapt from it and jumped into her arms, where he buried his face into her chest and continued to cry. She cradled him in her arms and petted his head gently to help soothe him as they looked around the room. Before they could even attempt to figure out how to progress, the door on the other side opened, and out came Gray and Juvia.
"Gray! Juvia! Oh! Juvia! I'm so glad to see you're alright! Good job getting her back Gray!" Lucy cheered, and Happy raised his head to cheer with her.
Of course she instantly noticed that they were holding hands, and both their faces were flushed. Something must have happened down there, and Lucy hoped that maybe – just maybe – Juvia had gotten her deepest wish and Gray had confessed his love or something to her…. as unlikely as that seemed.
Naturally Natsu completely missed all of this and went straight to being pissed. "And just why was Happy in a cage? Did you leave him behind, ya Ice Jerk?"
For once, the ice mage didn't have a defensive come back, and his eyes landed on Lucy's before guiltily skittering away to look at the ground. "…yes, actually. I wasn't really given much of a choice. One of us had to stay here and turn ourselves in…"
"It's okay…it was safer out here actually. And Gray's much stronger than me." Happy said from Lucy's chest. Normally he would have had something snarky to say, but it seemed that this had been a mutual decision.
Natsu steamed but seemed willing to let it slide. For now.
"Well, now that we have Juvia, let's all get the hell outta here." Gray announced, already walking towards the exit.
"Hang on. Did either of you encounter a celestial mage?"
"Uh…no? Why?"
"I have a bone to pick with one that's been mistreating their spirits." Lucy growled, remembering the promise she had made to those wolves. And she'd bet anything that when she found the other celestial mage, she'd find her keys. There was no way that she was leaving without them. Even if she had to turn this entire place upside down and inside out...she would find them.
"Alright. Well, they must be down the route that Jellal and Erza took."
Lucy nodded and followed them out to the first room again. There, they split up again – Juvia and Gray exiting the building entirely, while Lucy and Natsu went through the last door. Happy chose to come along with them as well and stayed perched on Lucy's shoulder
As they stood in front of the last door, Lucy sent Natsu a somewhat tired grin. "You ready?"
He grinned back, somehow still enthusiastic and energetic after everything that had happened so far. Then again, he wouldn't be Natsu if he wasn't bouncing off the walls with overabundant energy. "I'm fired up Luce! Let's do it!"
Apparently he had completely recovered from his angry meltdown earlier, but that wasn't exactly surprising. He always tended to bounce back to a state of happy after he had kicked their enemy's ass.
As usual, his positive attitude rubbed off on her and some of her exhaustion was wiped away. "Yeah! Let's go kick some ass. Right Happy?"
"As long as it's not our butts getting kicked, I'm in." he chirped, and they threw open the last door.
As soon as they passed through the doorway though, Happy got tossed back out. "Hey!"
"Oh for the love of…that's still in effect?!"
This time, Happy wasn't nearly as upset about getting separated from Lucy, though he still sounded concerned through the shut door. "I'll be okay. I'm just gonna go outside with Gray and Juvia. But promise me that you'll be okay! Okay?!"
"We'll be fine Happy. You just go wait for us with the others. No worries."
"Okay!" …. And his voice disappeared.
"Well…he didn't sound too upset about being kicked out." Natsu said.
Lucy chuckled. "He's a brave little guy, no doubt about that. Normally he's all for fighting, but I think he was traumatized earlier and just wants to get out of here."
Natsu's cheerful mood instantly went south again. It was true that he was a normally happy individual, but he could also be prone to mood swings – usually from happy to pissed and back. He'd cheered up after beating their last opponent, but now he had another one to get pissed at.
"Don't blame him really. I'm getting sick and tired of this shit. Why can't we go up against a dark guild that just meets us at the door and fights us?! I mean, if someone busted down my door and started messing up my house, I'd be after them in a heartbeat. I wouldn't sit back and watch them run around destroying stuff."
That was probably the longest rant Lucy had ever heard Natsu make, and it caused her to cock an eyebrow at him. "You've given this some thought haven't you?"
He growled. "It just seems like all they ever wanna do is fuck with us. I just wanna get in there and fight 'em! Not go through all these stupid traps and mazes!"
By this point they were exiting into the first room and were confronted by a lake of lava. Lucy blinked at it in shock and horror, but Natsu instantly perked up again.
"All right! Now this is more like it!"
"Natsu wait! That doesn't seem like a good idea-!"
Her warning fell on deaf ears as Natsu jumped into the lava. It rose up to his chest, and Lucy flinched. Surely even a fire dragon wouldn't do well in lava.
That notion was proven utterly incorrect as Natsu proceeded to eat all the flames from the lava. Slowly, the molten rock turned dark, and now Lucy yelled, "Don't get stuck!"
Again, she was ignored as he sucked every bit of heat out of the lava and it turned cold, hard, and dark …. incasing him up to his chest in rock.
Once the last bit was sucked past his lips, he let out a satisfied sigh and then belched loudly enough to shake the rafters. "Now I've got a fire in my belly!"
"Oh yeah? And how are you gonna get outta there?" Lucy asked somewhat snarkily, irritated at being ignored twice in a row.
He blinked and then glanced down. "Huh. Oh yeah…"
He started struggling and punching at the rock, but it was too hard and didn't budge. Of course, that only lasted a few seconds before he lost his patience and released a whole bunch of magic all at once, creating a fiery explosion.
She was sitting on the sharp ledge rimming the pool of ex-lava, and her proximity meant that the blast knocked her over. With a little scream she landed on her back, her legs in the air, and her skirt tossed up. She stayed there a moment, pouting up at the ceiling and wondering why she had been surprised by that outcome. With Natsu as a partner, destruction was inevitable … and with that came being knocked over, made completely filthy from head to toe, and usually running from the authorities.
After a short few seconds, the dragon in question jumped up next to her and laughed. "You worry too much Luce!"
She quickly smoothed her skirt back down and glared up at him from her position on her back. "You could have warned me!"
He shrugged and grinned. "It's not like my flames can hurt ya."
That confused her a little. Sure, she'd gotten lucky a few times and avoided being roasted – and for whatever reason it hadn't hurt when he'd cauterized her wound earlier – but she didn't doubt that he could turn her into a toasted marshmallow if he roared at her or something.
Scoffing, she sat up with a groan. "I doubt that. But whatever. Let's get going."
Jumping down onto the rock bed, they walked across the dead lava, and reached the other side in no time at all.
The next door led to yet another hall, and based off of all the weapons and spikes and stuff sticking out of the walls and floors, it was obvious that it was rigged with booby traps. It looked like most of them had already been diffused, but likely some were still plenty active.
"Natsu…we should – hey wait!"
As usual, he was just charging ahead at full throttle, and sure enough he triggered some more booby traps along the way. Standing back and watching, Lucy called out warnings that he actually started heeding. "To your left! Above you! Below you! Don't step there, Idiot!"
He dodged most of them but got poked a couple of times with spikes. Lucy just shook her head and sighed as he finally arrived on the other side, a little worse for wear, but not too bad off.
As for her, she proceeded much more carefully. The triggers seemed to consist of tripwires that were placed at every conceivable angle and height, but she figured it was safe to stuck close to the already triggered traps. So, she made a conscious decision to walk close to the spikes and scattered weapons she saw throughout the hall, edging along them and keeping her eyes peeled for any tripwires left over. With this method, she reached the other side unscathed, and gave Natsu a look.
"What?"
She just shook her head at him and walked through the next door.
"What?!"
"Nothing…let's just keep going." She'd given him numerous lectures about charging forwards into a dangerous situation, and just didn't feel like getting into it at the moment.
The next room simply held a pedestal with an empty bottle, and the door on the other side was already open.
"Huh…well I guess this was a one-time trap and they already sprung it." Lucy surmised and Natsu just shrugged in agreement.
They continued on without stopping to investigate it closer.
Beyond the strange drink room was a seemingly endless cave – similar to the mazes that both Natsu and Lucy had encountered, only this one was booby-trapped as well. They found that out when Lucy stepped on something and suddenly a mass of giant stalactites fell down, aiming to skewer them.
They both threw themselves to the side, and Natsu landed on top of Lucy and shielded her with wings that spread open with a snap. As the giant rock spikes hit the floor and shattered, a good number of shards bounced off the dragon leather of his wings.
"Your back!" Lucy gasped, worried about rocks hitting his back but not really concerned about his tough wings.
He tsked at her and rolled his eyes before reiterating, "You worry too much…"
Once the shower of rocks was over, he got off her, shed his vest, and turned around to show her the crimson scales now coating his skin and the line of black spikes poking out of his spine. Though she probably shouldn't have, Lucy couldn't resist reaching out and running a hand down his new red hide in amazement. Because she was so relieved and happy to see his transformed skin she didn't notice how he tensed up at her touch, and then curiosity took over her attention as she touched his scales. They were burning hot of course and felt hard and smooth like armor. It was amazing how something so hard could move, and she was momentarily entranced by the sensation of scales shifting under her hand as his muscles tensed and he breathed hard.
This all happened within the span of a few seconds, and then she realized that she was acting like a weirdo and withdrew her hand quickly.
"Sorry." She didn't know if she was apologizing for touching him strangely without permission, or apologizing for not trusting him to be able to handle it.
After that, they continued on a little more carefully, though at one point they fell into a pit of spikes and Natsu had to fly them back out before getting turned into pincushions. Other than that, they managed to escape with relatively little trouble, because Natsu picked up on the faint scent of their comrades and they followed it to the door.
That door lead them to a short hall, and then they emerged into another room. The door slammed shut behind them of course, and when nothing happened, Lucy tried the other door, but it was locked too.
"Well…what are we supposed to do?"
"Dunno…"
As if to answer their question, a sign appeared. "Answer the riddles before the room fills with gas."
"…gas?" Lucy asked with trepidation.
On cue, a soft hissing sound started up, and when she looked up she saw little holes perforating the walls in a line close to the ceiling.
A stream of yellow gas started filtering into the room, and soon Lucy's eyes started stinging. "Shoot. Tear gas."
Natsu growled and rubbed his eyes, which were already starting to water too. Quickly, Lucy looked towards the sign, which had changed into the first riddle.
"You see me in water, but I never get wet. What am I?"
She grimaced and Natsu growled again. "What the hell is in water but doesn't get wet? Some sort of wetsuit?"
There was the sound of an obnoxious buzzer, like a short alarm, and suddenly the gas started coming into the room faster.
"Crap. Every time we answer wrong, the gas comes in faster?"
"I guess so," Lucy muttered, closing her eyes as the stinging got significantly worse. It was hard to think when her eyes felt like hot peppers had been squeezed in them. Even her nose was starting to sting.
"In water…seen in water…doesn't get wet…so it can't be something…maybe…air? No…is it bubbles?"
The noise sounded again, and she flinched as the gas sound got louder. Even closing her eyes wasn't helping anymore, and she was finding it hard to breathe. It felt like the tear gas was burning the inside of her nose and even her throat and lungs.
"Shit Luce…"
"I know! I'm sorry!"
She went back to deconstructing it. There had to be a clue. There always was with riddles. "Always…see…in water…doesn't get wet…wait…you always see me in water…see…that has to be the key! You see it! What can you see but doesn't get wet?"
"I don't fucking know! A reflection!?" Natsu spat, obviously just grasping at straws, but suddenly there was a ding and the hissing of the gas changed to a sucking sound.
"Wait…that was it! You did it Natsu!"
"I did?"
"Yeah! Good job!"
As the room emptied, her eyes slowly started to sting a little less and she risked squinting. She met Natsu's eyes, which were bright red, and he grinned at her. His face was a mess – nose running, eyes overflowing and bloodshot – and she suspected that she looked the same.
Wiping her face quickly, she looked back towards the sign, to see that a new riddle had replaced the first.
"A hundred feet in the air, but its back on the ground. What is it?"
"The heck?!" Natsu cussed, looking at it with squinted eyes as he rubbed his face too.
"I don't know." Lucy groaned, and massaged her temples.
Once again, she had to try and pick it apart.
"It's in the air and on the ground at the same time. What can do that?"
"A balloon?" Natsu supplied and the sound of gas hissing into the chamber made them both groan. It oozed out of the holes and fell to the ground where it started to collect.
"Nope. Uh…a shadow?"
The buzzer sounded again, and the gas filtered in quicker. At first Lucy had no idea what this gas did, but then her feet started to itch.
"Ah! Oh no…itching gas!"
At first it wasn't too bad, but soon her feet were unbearably itchy. It was incredibly distracting, and the way Natsu started hopping around scratching his feet was also pretty distracting. He tried flying above the gas, but his wing beats just sent the gas swirling around the room – which made everything else itch too – so he had to give up on that idea.
"Ah! In the air and on the ground too! What…gah! A hundred feet in the air and its back on the ground…in the air and on the ground…the sun?"
The negative sound honked, and she groaned as Natsu cussed vividly and scratched his feet raw. It was up to their calves now, and Lucy was hard pressed not to follow suit and jump around like a crazy person scratching herself bloody. She already had blood caked around her fingernails from where she scratched up her throat, and she was determined not to add to it.
Desperate, they both started shouting out things that could be in the air and on the ground at once. "Air! Rain! Light! Darkness!"
Each answer was followed by the honking buzzer that said they were wrong, and the room filled faster and faster. Soon their hips, their bellies, and then their chests were itching … and Lucy was crying.
"A hundred feet…in the air…on its back…"
"A hundred feet in the air? What's got a hundred feet?" Natsu asked, and Lucy spared him a weird look.
"A hundred feet? A centipede but-"
Suddenly something clicked. The riddle read, 'a hundred feet in the air, but its back on the ground.'
"Oh come on. You've gotta be kidding me. It can't be a centipede on its back can it?"
With that, the chime sounded for, 'correct,' and the gas was once again sucked out of the chamber. Falling down in relief, she collapsed into a fit of coughing. The gas had reached a point where even her throat and lungs were itchy. Both of them indulged in a little rolling around, scratching whatever they could reach as the gas slowly left the room.
Eventually, the itching slowly started to subside too, leaving them gasping and all scratched up.
The telltale hiss told them they weren't done yet, and they groaned in unison.
"Just how many of these stupid things are we supposed to answer?" Natsu grumbled as he pushed himself back up and inspected his bloody fingernails.
"Don't ask me…" Lucy groaned back as she stumbled to her feet and examined the sign once again.
"What four lettered word can be written forward, backwards, and upside down, and still be read left to right?"
"This one's all yours Luce. You're the writer."
She whined but dutifully put her head in her hands to think hard about it. Another heavy gas filtered in to sit on the floor and her feet started to sting, but she ignored it in favor of sifting through words in her mind. She started with letters. "It can't have any letters that can't be flipped upside down, so that cuts out A, F, G, J, L, M, P, Q, R, T, U, V, W, and Y. Which leaves, B, C, D, E, H, I, K, N, O, S, X, Z. Plus, it has to have the same letter in front and behind, and probably only one or two of the same letter in between."
"How about BOOB?" Natsu offered, and the hiss said he was wrong.
"Oh come on! That actually works!" Lucy protested.
"I guess they're looking for a different word though. Maybe they want the letters to actually be flipped backwards and forwards too."
Lucy racked her brain for something, as the gas levels rose in the air. The light sting from before was now mounting fast, and soon her skin felt like it was burning. It was a different sensation to the burning of the tear gas … this one felt like she was being bitten by hundreds of ants all at once. The sensation made it very difficult to concentrate once again, but she dutifully focused as much as possible on what word this riddle could want.
Finally, she desperately yelled, "NOON," and the bell chimed to say she'd guessed right and the stinging gas left the room. She gasped in relief, as did Natsu.
It wasn't over yet though, they still had to deal with a couple more rounds. The next gas hurt to inhale, and they almost died in fits of coughing as they tried to figure out the riddle. Thankfully, "I travel all around the world but never leave the corner," was quickly figured out to be a stamp, and they went to the next riddle as soon as they'd stopped hacking and choking.
"I go in hard, I come out soft. You blow me hard. What am I?"
Still wheezing a tad, Lucy stared at the new riddle in shock. "Seriously? It can't possibly be a…"
"Dick?" Natsu supplied with a snort. Just because he wasn't interested in sex didn't mean that he wasn't aware of the basics at least – especially with a friend like Leo and guildmates like Cana.
Lucy sent him a glare as the hissing sound of gas increased. "Come on, you knew it couldn't be that obvious."
He shrugged and then looked up to stare at the pink gas now puffing out of the holes. While Lucy was thinking about the riddle, he eyeballed the cloud of pink slowly filling their space.
After a moment where nothing seemed to happen, he asked, "What d'you suppose this gas does?"
"I don't know, it hasn't had any effect on me yet." she mumbled absentmindedly.
Then, suddenly she tensed as a sweet scent hit her nose, and heat immediately coiled through her. Given that she had just come from a mage who could use a lust spell offensively, she instantly recognized the sensation of her body being forced to respond in an inappropriate manner.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me…" she groaned as she tried to refocus her mind on the problem.
A hiss from Natsu distracted her, and she glanced at him before realizing it might not be a good idea. Meeting his eyes in this particular situation was incredibly stupid, because not only was she being affected by the gas, but he was too – which she abruptly realized after taking a look at his face. He was flushed, his eyes were dilated, and he was panting.
None of that did anything to help her state of mind, and she found her brain fuzzier than before and even harder to control. Seeing him like that would have turned her on even without the gas – thanks to her crush on him – but with the gas she abruptly found herself losing a lot of higher thinking capabilities for a long moment as she stared at him.
Meanwhile, the gas just pissed Natsu off.
In fact, this whole situation pissed him off. As he had told Lucy before, he just wanted to get to where they were going and fight the last dumbass of this dark guild.
However, he couldn't deny that the gas affected him the way it was meant to, and he abruptly found himself having to – once again – adjust things with his tail so he wouldn't be sporting a flag pole where there shouldn't be one. It was incredibly convenient to not only wear loose pants, but also have his tail tucked around his leg inside those pants. Of course, he'd never needed to use it for this particular purpose, since he'd never been interested in sex before.
Now though, not only was the gas messing with him, but Lucy's scent and the sight of her was also making his blood heat up to an insane degree. His brain had already completely shut off, and he really hoped Lucy was in better condition than him, or else they were never gonna answer this one. And if they were in here much longer, he had no idea what would happen. This gas was doing weird things to him, and he didn't know what it might make him do.
Those new instincts had already been roused once today, and he was desperately doing his best to keep them at bay…but he was slowly losing the fight.
Lucy wasn't faring much better, and abruptly turned away from Natsu so she could try to gather her thoughts.
It took some doing, but once she was able to focus on the riddle again, she came up with a new answer. "Glass? Like, blowing glass?"
The answer was wrong, and she ended up having to sit down as the gas hissed even faster into the room. Her legs simply refused to hold her up any longer. The throbbing in her body was making it really hard to think, since it seemed like her mind had been burned up with the heat flooding her senses.
"Shit…what's the answer?"
After a long moment of silence, she jumped when Natsu rasped from somewhere behind her, "Hurry it up Luce…"
His roughened and deeper voice sent a shiver through her. "Well, help me figure it out then!"
"…don't think I'm gonna be much help, but I'll try." he growled back, and she adamantly wrestled her mind to keep herself from fantasizing about that tone of voice talking to her in a completely different setting.
"It says that you blow it. What's something that you blow?"
"…a whistle?"
They both ignored the gas as it increased its flow. She could barely see a foot in front of her now, the air was so thick with pink, and she risked a glance back at Natsu.
"No, because it's hard and changes to soft. A whistle is just hard."
"Well what is it then?!"
She couldn't see him clearly through the pink fog, but she could still see enough to note how tense he was. When he practically snarled his last sentence, his whole body jerked a little, and she could see his fists clench. One flung out to the side and hit the wall behind him with a resounding boom. She flinched at the sudden sound, but somehow couldn't take her eyes off his hand as he dug his fingers into the wall and clenched tight – almost like he was trying to anchor himself.
To be honest, it looked like he was pissed, and she wouldn't blame him if he was. The sexual tension was so thick that it was easily translating to frustration, and she could feel herself coiling tighter and tighter as well. It might not be long before she punched or kicked something to expend some of that built up energy too.
Forcing herself back around, she did her best to focus and not think about the way his muscles were currently rigid with tension, the glimpses of his burning eyes, or the sound of his ragged breathing.
The next time he spoke it was just to say her name…in a tone that was so deep and soft that she barely even heard him. There was a definite hint of warning hidden in the single word though, and it sent skitters of something shivering down her spine.
"I know! I know!" she whined back, burying her face in her palms and tangling her fingers into her hair, trying to think of the answer.
"…you blow it…what do you blow beside a whistle and glass…a bubble? But a bubble is soft, not hard…wait! You can blow a bubble with gum! It's gum!"
Finally, there was a sucking sound, and the gas started dissipating. They both gasped in relief.
Strangely, the next gas to filter in did absolutely nothing, so they were able to focus all their attention on the riddle and solve it quickly. They didn't spend any time wondering what that gas could have been, since they were already onto the next. At least it had given them both a breather to calm down.
The last gas was a sleeping gas, which was much more difficult. Lucy was the first to be affected and ended up teetering on her feet rather dramatically as she started to stagger. Natsu instantly reached out to try and steady her, but he was pretty unsteady too, and they both ended up toppling over. To stay awake, they helped each other by poking, pinching, pulling, kicking…basically anything they could manage. It took so long for their drowsy minds to come up with the answer that they had both almost completely passed out – which likely would have ended with them being captured.
However, when they eventually did solve it, the door opened for them – signaling the completion of that challenge.
"Oh…good. We're done…" Lucy droned, her voice half asleep still thanks to the sleeping gas. She still felt like she was about to pass out.
"Hey…Natsu…We did it…"
"Huh…?"
She gave him a good kick, which was pretty weak since she was only just starting to fully wake up again.
"I said we did it, Idiot. Now wake up!"
He woke fully with a snort and groaned as he slowly sat up. "Crap…my head. I feel like I've got the worst hangover ever…"
"Well we were just subjected to a whole bunch of different gasses, so I'm not surprised."
They both managed to drag themselves to their feet and exited the room gratefully. Once outside, the completely clean air refreshed them, and the last dregs of the gas left their bodies.
With a sigh, they continued on.
"If we have to go through another thing like that, I'm gonna beat the ever-loving shit out of whoever's at the end of this path. I'll burn 'em to a pile of ash…" The anger in his voice made his threat sound real, and Lucy flinched back from him.
"Um, we already beat at least three of the bosses…"
"Yeah, but this last guy is really gonna get it. Cause I am sick and tired of-" he cut off as they got to the next area and saw what looked like yet another torturous trial. Lucy could swear that she actually heard his teeth grind together.
"Come on Natsu, let's just get through this mess, and then we'll worry about beating up the last enemy together okay? I bet I can get through the next challenge faster than you!"
He instantly cheered up. "Oh yeah? What do you wanna bet? Cause I know I can beat it faster!"
"I did most of the work in that last room, don't forget…" she taunted, trying to get him fired up. Seeing him so frustrated hurt when she was so used to his cheerful smile.
He scoffed. "No you didn't!"
There was no heat to his words, and she knew he didn't believe them. He was just playing along with the game they were constructing.
She laughed along…up until she went over to the sign and read it. Then her laugh cut off pretty fast and was replaced with a gasp and a bright flush.
Sensing her change in mood, he came over and worriedly asked, "What's wrong?"
Before answering, she glanced around and took note of the set-up. They were in an area that was cut off from the hall by a glass wall, but she could clearly see through it and noticed how there were cameras lining the walls at key areas where it looked like there were obstacles to pass through. She shuddered, now knowing what this challenge was going to entail.
"Oi! What's wrong Luce?!"
"This is going to suck."
"Huh? Why? What do we have to do?"
She just pointed at the sign, and he glanced over it.
His eyebrows shot up. "We have to strip?"
She nodded.
"Okay…so what?"
She glared at him. "Not all of us are dragons who don't care about clothes okay? And it wouldn't be that bad if it was just you and me! But did you happen to notice the cameras?"
"Oh right…you get embarrassed by that kind of stuff…" he mused, as his eyes followed to where she was now pointing out to the hall. When he noted the cameras she was gesturing at, he added, "Wow…. This IS gonna suck for you."
"And you don't mind them taking a video of you naked?" she asked incredulously.
"I don't care who sees me naked."
"And do you care about going through an obstacle course naked? Because that's what it looks like we'll be doing."
"That could be a pain, yeah. Depending on what we have to do. But we still have a bet on who finishes first, remember, so don't chicken out on me now."
Heaving a sigh, she decided to try and be positive like him. "Fine. But don't look at me while we do this, alright? Otherwise I'm gonna say you forfeited!"
He just rolled his eyes. "I'll try. But if you fall off a cliff or something, I'm gonna have to look at you to save your butt."
"Alright. But only then!"
"Fine."
They turned their backs to each other and undressed. When she was down to her skivvies, she asked, "Hey, are you done over there?"
"That's my line. You can actually look to see if I'm done, you know. Like I said, I don't care."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna take that to mean that you are done."
"Yeah."
"Alright, then…uh…how should we go about this?"
He heaved a sigh, and she heard him walk away. "Oi! Natsu? Natsu?!"
"Come on already, we don't have all day! And I'm gonna be first!"
She had no choice but to turn around. When she did, her eyes widened as she got a full-on back view of him. It wasn't like his great body was a big shocker or anything, he walked around with an open vest after all, showing off his chest and abs. But she hadn't quite expected his lower body to be equally impressive, with muscular legs and a fantastic ass. At that thought, she finally managed to avert her gaze and chastised herself for being a pervert. This was neither the time nor place to be admiring her partner – fine specimen though he might be.
As she walked forwards with him, she couldn't quite resist sneaking another look at his tail though, because it was downright fascinating. She'd never seen a tail on a person before, and it caught her attention. The way his skin turned to red scales and how it melted into the base of his spine was amazing. It was thicker at the base than she had expected …. but then again it was a lizard tail, not a cat or dog tail.
And then her attention was distracted as he ran into a barrier that wouldn't let him pass. She very nearly ran into his back, but stopped herself just shy of it and threw herself back – nearly falling over backwards with the strength she used.
"What the fuck?!" he cussed, distracting her from what had just happened, and she immediately saw the problem.
"Um…your scarf…"
He paused and then cussed some more. "I guess I have to take it off too…well that really sucks."
He carefully folded it and put it on top of his carelessly discarded clothes in the corner, and then looked at it sternly as if to say, 'don't go anywhere!'
"Can I ask what's so special about that scarf? You always wear it…and it's obviously important to you."
He paused, and then softly said, "It was a gift from my dad. He made it out of some scales he'd shed."
At first, Lucy was a tiny bit grossed out by the thought of using someone's skin to make a scarf, but she reined that response back in. Shedding scales wasn't nearly as gross as peeling off dry skin, she reminded herself. Her thought process on it screeched to a halt though when Natsu added one last very important piece of information.
"He died soon after that. In battle."
Suddenly it made complete sense, and she abruptly had utmost respect for him always wearing that scarf. It was way more important than she'd ever imagined.
"Oh…I'm so sorry."
He shrugged and there was a long uncomfortable silence. Then he seemed to shake it off, and she could practically see the gears in his head switch to a different track. "Alright! Well let's get going! Come on Luce! I'm all fired up! And I'm still gonna be first!"
She respected his decision to change the conversation and pushed her emotions on the matter down to be sorted through at a later date. "All right!
With that, they passed through the barrier that had prevented Natsu's scarf from entering. As soon as they entered the hallway, a horrid stench smacked them both across the face and poor Natsu retched. If it was this bad for Lucy, it must be a thousand times worse for him, and she couldn't even imagine how horrendous that was.
"You okay?"
He gagged but gave her a weak thumbs-up.
They started down the very long extremely well-lit white hallway, but soon Lucy called them to a halt. "Wait up…see those holes in the walls and all that gunk on the ground? What do you wanna bet they're gonna spit stuff at us?"
Natsu scoffed. "Oh yeah, and it ain't gonna be pretty. I can smell it from here."
She cringed and peered more closely at the mess of brown, green, and white smeared all over the floor, and she could vaguely make out footprints and streaks where it looked like someone slipped. "What do you suppose it is?"
"Dunno, but it's definitely rotten."
"Oh great…"
Without looking behind him, he reached his hand back and held it out for her. "Come on, let's just run for it!"
She gingerly grabbed his offered palm and then took a deep breath. With a jerk, he started charging and yanked her along behind him.
As they ran, sure enough the hall suddenly became a splash zone. Lucy very quickly figured out that the projectiles were rotten moldy fruits and vegetables that had mostly decomposed to mush. The stench was unbearable, and she guarded her face from it with her free hand. As the wet gooey produce hit her body, she cringed and nearly threw up. If Natsu hadn't been dragging her along with him, she might have keeled over from the smell and gross factor, but he wasn't going to let her do that.
Soon enough they had made it past that zone, and before they entered the next section of the hallway, Lucy yanked Natsu to a halt so she could catch her breath and try to figure out the next area.
"I bet I got hit less!" Natsu gloated, still trying to make this entertaining rather than horrifying.
Lucy was willing to play along. "I got…" she glanced over her body and counted, and then tried to count what was on her back just based on feel. "About twenty. You?"
"Eighteen! So I won that one!"
"Okay, I'll give it to you, but you definitely cheated. I saw you deflect some with your tail."
"Well they may have hit you too if I hadn't, so it's not really cheating."
She scoffed, and then grimaced as he suddenly lit himself on fire and all the rotten produce burned to a crisp and fell of him. The smell of burning mold was horrible for a moment, and then it got a little better. Mostly though, she was just jealous of his ability to dispose of it so easily.
"That's not really fair Natsu…" she whined a little, unable to help herself.
"You want me to burn it off you too?"
"No! You'll burn me to a crisp with the fruits and veggies!"
"No I won't."
"Yes you will!"
"You wanna bet?"
"No! Now let's just drop it and get going!" She was absolutely positive that he would fry her if he tried to burn the produce off her skin. Natsu was built for destruction, and the last thing she wanted was to end up like one of the many buildings he had accidentally burned to the ground on a mission.
He shrugged, and then she glanced past him to see what they had to deal with next. It was a pool that they were going to have to wade through, and she could tell from here exactly what it was.
"That's sewage isn't it?"
Natsu stiffened and must have looked at the pool. Then he nodded. "Yeah. Definitely."
"Shit."
"Well yeah. That too."
"No I mean…oh never mind."
"Luce…" The amused note in his voice said he was laughing at her, and she realized he'd been joking.
She scoffed and then sighed. "Okay…so how do we want to do this?"
Wordlessly he answered by popping out his wings, nearly smacking her in the process. "You've got a choice. Back or front?"
"Back or front?" she repeated, not quite sure what he meant by that.
"I mean, I can carry you, or you can ride piggy back style. It's up to you."
Both had pros and cons.
If she had him carry her, he would only be touching her back and under her knees – as long as neither of them accidentally slipped or fumbled and touched something they shouldn't. On the downside, he would get a pretty good look at her. Although… she could cover her breasts with her arms – not that she could shield them entirely. There would be some under-boob, side-boob, and cleavage, but at least she could cover the important middle parts. It probably wouldn't be any more exposing than a swimsuit, if she was very careful about it. But she wouldn't be able to cover her pubic hair. At least it was well groomed, since she'd just gotten a martini glass bikini wax, which was the way she liked to keep things down there. It looked nice, but there was even a con to that, because it didn't do anything to cover her private bits. So that was embarrassing. Still, if he just averted his eyes while picking her up, she could probably get away with it without exposing too much.
On the other hand, he wouldn't see her at all if she rode piggy back. But he would be touching her in some key places – namely her breasts would be pressed into his back. Actually, the entirety of her front would be pressed up against him. She didn't even know how her crotch would land, or if it would come into contact with him inappropriately. Plus, she would get a really good feel of him as well.
"Well?" he prompted, and she snapped back, "I'm thinking! Give me a minute!"
Eventually she determined that the first option was better. "Is it possible for you to not look as you pick me up?"
He sighed. "I don't know. Maybe."
"Okay. Close your eyes."
He grumbled and snorted in an exasperatedly amused sort of way, but she assumed he did what she asked. When she walked around him, sure enough, his eyes were closed. What she hadn't counted on though, was the fact that she could see his front now, and instantly averted her own gaze so she wouldn't get a good look at his private parts. She'd caught a glimpse, and just that was enough to make her mind go straight to the gutter and her cheeks light up like a Christmas tree. She wasn't sure if she really needed to know that when it came to him, the carpet did indeed match the drapes.
"Alright, uh…can I just guide your hands to me and you keep your eyes closed?"
He started grumbling again, so softly that she couldn't hear, but held out his hands for her. It was kind of amazing he had put up with this for so long…given his famously short patience. By this point she would have completely expected him to just lose it and grab her. She certainly wasn't going to complain though, it was a nice surprise.
"Um…cool…" She awkwardly stepped closer to him and turned sideways. Reaching behind her, she grabbed his left hand and placed it on her back.
Getting his other hand down to her knees was the tough part though. Tugging on his wrist, she got him to lean over, but that put his head dangerously close to her breasts, and she instantly flinched away. After fussing with him for a while, he finally gave an exasperated sigh and knelt, leaving his left hand up high on her back, but it still slid down quite a bit.
"Oh. That works." She bent over, grabbed his right hand, and placed it on her knee.
He patted her knee, then patted around to find the backs of them both and mapped out where they were. He was gentle, but not so much that it tickled, and the slightly firm pats helped her to not feel like it was a weird touch.
"Okay, squat down a little so I can reach your shoulders." he asked, and she did so, tucking her arms tight around her breasts and squeezing her legs tight.
He patted up her back with his other hand and found the shoulder closest to him, then her far shoulder.
"Alright, here we go! Hup!" With a grunt, he stood in one fluid motion and took her with him.
She squeaked as he whisked her off her feet. There was a little fumbling and he nearly dropped her at one point, but finally he was holding her securely to his chest bridal style. Her arms covered her breasts, and the upwards angle of her thighs meant that they covered all the important bits from view. She resolutely refused to think about what the cameras might be seeing though.
"Can I look now?" he asked, sounding somewhat amused but also a little sick and tired of this.
"Yeah, and thanks for being so patient with me."
He heaved a relieved sigh and popped open his eyes. She flinched a little as he sent her an amused, slightly put-upon glare, and then tensed up when his eyes widened and stared a little longer than was necessary.
"Um…can you not…stare?" she asked, cringing a little. It wasn't like she was shy by any means. If she was in a bikini she wouldn't mind him staring as much as he wanted. But this whole situation was so unnerving … and being naked just made it all so much worse. The new feelings she had for him didn't help the situation any either – since having a crush on him naturally meant that she was more easily flustered by this sort of thing.
"Oh, sorry." He jerked his eyes up to stare straight ahead. Without further ado, he lifted off and flew them through the air over the pool of sewage.
Not being able to wrap her arms around his neck like she normally would, she just had to trust him to not drop her – which was pretty easy to do considering this was Natsu and she trusted him with her life several times over. Still, it made her just a little uneasy. Being carried over a puddle of sewage didn't make her feel any better about it either.
Once over, Natsu set down on the other side. He put her back down on her feet, and she quickly took a few steps back behind him again. Lucy didn't feel any sense of relief though as she stared at the next stretch of floor. Strewn across the ground was mass amounts of blood – and even worse, chunks of guts. She could clearly make out the shape of intestines and other organs mixed into the slop, and looking at it made her spin around and finally throw up.
Still partially kneeling, she croaked, "Where did it all come from?"
"No idea."
Groaning, she turned back around, and just tried her best to not look at the floor.
"Here, this'll make it easier for you to stomach."
Natsu inhaled, choked a little, and then roared, letting his flames turn all the offal to ashes. Lucy watched and felt her belly unclench.
"…thank you…" she whispered, trying not to cry with relief.
"No problem!" he responded cheerfully, and reached back to grab her hand again. "Now let's get outta here!"
She sniffed and grabbed his hand, letting him pull her along behind him as he charged forwards. Almost instantly, the ceiling opened up and blood and guts started raining down on them – answering her previous question about where it had come from.
She screamed, and Natsu yanked her closer, extending one wing over her like an umbrella as he just charged on through it. The slippery feel under her feet made her want to pass out, and she nearly lost her footing more than once on a chunk of something unspeakable, and each time made her retch painfully.
"Come on Luce! Almost there!"
With Natsu cheering her on, she made it through the horror show. But on the other side she collapsed to her knees and indulged in some more throwing up. That had been a scene from a nightmare, and she felt utterly traumatized.
"Just one more bit to go, and then we can leave this hall behind!"
"Right…" she croaked, and slowly stood, doing her best to ignore the smears of blood on her skin.
The floor in front of them looked reflective and wet, but the liquid appeared clear, as if there was just a thin layer of water there. It was with hope that she followed Natsu into it … up until jets of water shot out from both sides of the hall at such a high velocity that it felt like it was peeling off her skin.
A voice sounded loudly, "Dirty boys and girls need to be scrubbed clean…and punished."
It was obviously meant to rile them up and increase the humiliation of the whole thing, but it mainly just pissed her off. "Then you'd better get down here and submit to this bath, because you're a sick, twisted human being for making something like this!" she yelled back.
Even though it hurt, it was still a relief to have the rotten fruit and blood scourged from her person. That only lasted a short while though, because the sheer frigidity and pressure of the water just hurt too badly for her to feel any sort of relief. Natsu reached back, snagged her hand, and took off running – dragging her behind him once again.
They skidded to a halt on the other side.
"This better be the last door…" Lucy grumbled as she squeezed freezing cold water out of her hair.
Sneak Peek:
As soon as her eyes locked onto the other mage, Lucy knew without a doubt that she was the celestial mage Lucy had been looking for. The tall brunette oozed celestial magic like a lighthouse, and Lucy could feel her own power rising up within her to compete.
"I'll fight this one…" Lucy growled, already taking another step forward.
"We will fight with you." Erza said, but Lucy shook her head and turned to lock eyes with the redhead.
"This is really personal Erza. I'd like to take her on myself…I made a promise to some celestial spirits I met on the way here, and I intend to keep it. If I fail…then I'll pass my promise on to you to uphold. I told them I would release them from their contracts, so beat her to a bloody pulp and take her keys. She doesn't deserve them."
There was a long poignant silence, and Erza's eyes widened for a brief moment. Lucy held the eye contact, and after a moment, resolve and understanding made Erza's gaze grow significantly more intense. It seemed she understood, and solemnly nodded.
"I understand. We will remain here. And I promise to do what you asked if the time comes."