Hi Everyone and Welcome Back!
I don't have a lot to say other than thank you to all of you who has favorite my story and those who have also been following the story. It means a lot and the more people follow the faster I like to try and start the next chapter. As long as I don't have school work or writers block of course. Anyone enough of me let's get to the story shall we?
~wolvesfinalden
Fairy Tail: By Your Side
Chapter 5: Damage
It had been almost a month since Natsu, Happy, Lucy, and Duke had spent the day together. During that time she got know Gray and Erza better and also figured out how terrifying Erza was. However Lucy noticed Duke showed no signs of fear towards Erza. In fact she remembered when they first started talking to her.
Duke and Lucy had been at a table with Happy and Levy. Gray and Natsu were picking a fight with each other again. Then the next thing she knew Erza was yelling at them to stop which terrified both the mages. Lucy turned to see what was going on but before she could she heard Duke growling again. This time his ears were back and laying almost flat against his head.
She couldn't keep Duke back so the wolf ended up charging over to the three. Which in turn surprised Erza as Duke stood in front of the boys and bared his fangs at her for yelling at his friends. Erza didn't know what to do. At first she started yelling for him to back off but all that did was piss Duke off further.
The requip mage had backed up a bit but she didn't want to back down to the wolf either. Natsu stared in shock that Duke showed no sign of fear of Erza. He didn't know what to do at first but then he knew he had to stop Duke before something bad happened. Though when he went to calm Duke down, Lucy appeared out of nowhere.
"Duke you should know better it's okay. She wasn't going to hurt them." Lucy said to him as she gently stroked his fur.
Duke then calmed down and sat down to show he was fine now. Erza then smiled and walked over to the wolf. He was still uneasy about her but he allowed her to pet him.
"You're a very strong wolf aren't you? I don't think anyone stood up to me other than Mira way back when." She said to Duke.
Lucy almost laughed at the memory. After that day they all teamed up on some missions. Soon they were known as Fairy Tail's strongest team. Right now they were returning from a mission they had taken just a couple days ago. It was easy enough and thankfully they didn't go to overboard so they were able to get most of the reward money. Which meant Lucy was able to make rent and have some extra spending money.
"I can't wait to get back. I'm a little tired." Lucy sighed.
Duke whimpered in agreement. Duke had fought with Natsu but the wolf would always afraid to leave Lucy alone for too long.
"Yeah some rest would do us some good." Erza commented.
As they were walking Duke got ahead of the group but all the sudden he stopped in his tracks. He was sniffing the air and his fur was standing on end. Lucy noticed first and got to his side.
"What's wrong boy?" she asked him in a worried tone.
Duke then looked from Lucy and he motioned up ahead. Lucy tried to see if anything was wrong but she couldn't see anything.
"Luce what's wrong?" Natsu asked her.
"I have no idea. Duke must sense something up ahead."
Then the wolf looked to Natsu and the rest of the group. The rest didn't notice what he was looking, however Lucy followed his gazed and realized exactly what he was looking at, on everyone of them. Her eyes widened as she looked at Natsu. The dragon-slayer stared at her a little worried about what she might have to say.
"Luce? What is it?" Natsu asked.
She paused for a second then looked back up ahead. It all made sense to what was bothering Duke. The wolf knew how to give hints to his master very well.
"Something is wrong. Something must have happened at the guild. Is that what you were meaning Duke?"
The wolf nodded then pulled on her skirt gently so she would hurry and follow. She made no hesitation in following him as he sprinted towards the guild. The others weren't far behind, Natsu kept close by Lucy while Happy flew above Duke just about as fast as the wolf was running.
When they reached the guild, they were all shocked and horrified. The guild had rods of iron all through the building. It had to have destroyed a lot of the inside as well. Duke was the first to recover and ran over by the doors sniffing the air. He made his way to the basement, following the scent of the guild members that were there.
Lucy and Natsu were right behind him with Happy close behind. Erza and Gray were not too far behind them when they reached the basement. Everyone seemed to have gathered here. The request board was down stairs and they also set up a bar down there as well. The team slowly walked over to find the master and when they did Natsu didn't hesitate to demand answers.
"What the hell happened here gramps?!" he shouted.
However it before the master could answer Mirajane came up to them and answered.
"We're not sure. It happened after everyone went home for the night. So for now we have to operate down here for the time being."
Natsu was still disgusted that no one seemed to be doing anything about it. Duke noticed his distress so he moved from Lucy and made his way over to the dragon-slayer, while he was ranting to the two mages.
"How can everyone just sit around and not do anything!? Aren't you as pissed off as I am?!" Natsu screamed.
While the fire mage was ranting he felt something brush up against him. He was about to yell again but towards whatever it was that brushed his hand. However he stopped when he looked down to see Duke. The wolf had his ears back and his head down. He paused and realized that he wasn't the only one upset about all of this.
Then the fire mage felt someone rub his back and he didn't have to turn to see who it was. He could smell Lucy's scent beside him. That's when he finally calmed himself down. Duke and Lucy may still have been new but this was their home too. He wasn't alone in feeling like this, but still he wanted to know why they weren't doing anything.
"Gramps why aren't we doing anything?" Natsu asked him this time with some concern in his voice that replaced the anger that was once there.
"We can't do anything now Natsu." Mira answered for him. "The council won't allow fights between the guilds and you know that."
"Yeah but they're the ones picking the fight!" Natsu yelled.
Duke then whimpered softly to try and calm Natsu down again. The dragon slayer heard him and slowly moved his hand to his head again.
"Natsu all we can do is operate here. It kills me to wait like this but the council will have my head if we take this into our own hands now. So just wait and let me take care of this." The master finally said.
That's when Natsu decided to walk away. He grabbed Lucy by the arm and they walked out of the guild with Happy and Duke trailing behind them. Lucy was slightly confused as to why he dragged them out of there. Although she just followed him until they were out by the cliff that out looked the water below.
He finally stopped and sat down on the ground. Allowing his feet to dangle off the edge. Lucy took a seat beside him and looked out at the water for a little bit before finally saying something.
"Natsu, why did you bring me out here?" She asked him.
The fire mage sighed and noticed that Happy and Duke had now joined them. They were probably wondering the same thing themselves.
"I just needed to get out of there. I thought you might want to, too."
"What's really bothering you?" Lucy asked him.
"Fine, the guild's never been attacked like this before. I hate the thought that anyone could have been hurt. It just really pisses me off."
Duke then came beside Lucy and looked out at the now setting sun. The wolf didn't like water all that much but he didn't mind looking at it.
"Well we better get home. Come on Duke." Lucy said.
The wolf got up and followed her but then stopped to look back Natsu and Happy. He noticed Natsu looked uneasy and the cat looked a little confused. Duke was going to walk up to them to see if they were alright but then he noticed that Lucy was still heading back home. So the wolf ran after his master without a second thought.
"Lucy wait." Natsu called.
The celestial mage stopped for a second and waited for Natsu to say something. However the dragon slayer and the feline simply walked up to them. The fire mage then began walking in the direction of Lucy's apartment.
"Come on I'm not letting you and Duke by yourselves for a while. Not with all of this going on." Natsu said as he walked.
Lucy looked over to Duke who only motioned to the direction the fire mage was walking. Then he got up and began to follow him. Lucy took a moment before she finally followed the rest of them. Who knew Natsu was worried about all of this. She had never seen him like this before. She just hoped that this would all blow over soon and that everything would just go back to the way it was.
That night not only was Natsu and Happy staying with the wolf and celestial mage but also their other two teammates, Gray and Erza. At first Natsu told them to get out, that the four of them were just fine by themselves. Then of course Erza threatened the poor dragon-slayer, who had backed down without a second thought.
However Lucy was too tired to deal with everyone. So she headed to her room for the night quickly followed by her wolf. She got changed and crawled into her bed. Duke followed her laid down next to her. It was peaceful for a little bit until Lucy heard her door. She expected Duke to get up to the noise but she didn't feel the canine move.
"Luce you awake?"
Lucy turned to see Natsu standing by her bed. He then moved and sat down beside her. Though she couldn't find Erza, Gray, or Happy.
"Where are the others?" Lucy asked.
"There in the other room. Erza is kind of snooping around and Gray is trying to get some sleep on the couch. Happy is coming in, in a minute. I think he was looking for something to eat."
Then the fire mage climbed into the bed next to her and Duke. Lucy had no objections to his actions. Happy then snuck into the room and climbed in with the rest of them. He laid next to Duke like always.
"Natsu, why do you guys always want to sleep here?"
"Because we're a team. Plus tonight I'm a little paranoid about what had happened today. I just feel better knowing your safe here with us."
That was the first time Lucy ever heard the dragon-slayer sound so worried and serious. Yeah the guild was trashed but no one was hurt. That was one thing to be thankful for.
"I see, then thank you Natsu." Lucy said with a smile.
They all then fell asleep that night, thinking everything was fine. Sadly the next morning that would all change.
And that is it for this chapter. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next update should be pretty soon and I hope to see you all then.
~wolvesfinalden
