I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does!

Some of you got really close to what I had planned on happening, but no one quite got it right, so without further ado… here it is!

By the way! It was pointed out to me that it should have been Elfman, not Gajeel that had attacked him in the last chapter. You are all completely right, and I have fixed said chapter to read with Elfman over Gajeel.

Chapter 6: Lies

Mirajane fought against the arms that held her, growing fearful for the life of the one she loved. Her pleas to be let go fell on deaf ears, more of their guild members surrounding the now unconscious Dragon Slayer as they rained down with attacks, set on destroying the male where he laid. "Let me go!" She cried out. She didn't want to have to hurt them, she didn't want to force them to let him go, but she could not bear to see him get hurt any further. It broke her heart to see him lying there, unable to protect himself. 'Did you ever even love me?' Those few words could not have struck her any harder than they had at that moment; the look of utter defeat in his eyes had been the killing blow.

Mirajane dug her heels into the ground to slow Era down, but found it was a useless gesture. The woman was dead set on getting Mirajane out of there, thinking she was protecting her from the sight, of the pain that Natsu had brought her. 'Did you ever even love me?' The words rang out again and Mirajane screamed as the air around her circling in a dark vortex as she called forth her strongest soul. "Take Over: Satan Soul Halphas!" Darkness engulfed the mage in the blink of an eye and just as soon as it had circled her, it was gone with Mirajane standing there covered in long blue scales down her arms and her legs, her outfit changing to that of a dark blue, one-piece suit revealing her arms and legs, which is open on the front and the back, exposing most of her stomach, wide cleavage, and upper back. A long blue scaled tail appeared from said darkness in a similar fashion. "Get off of him!" She cried out, giving them another chance. She had to act, if she didn't they could kill him, but she had to be careful as well, if she struck too hard she could kill them.

Mirajane slapped Era's hands away from her before launching herself across the gap into the crowd of guild members surrounding Natsu's limp form. They were too focused on trying to attack the downed Dragon Slayer that they didn't see her attacks coming, sweeping them aside as she got closer. All she could see was blood, his blood. Anyone within reach was either knocked away or, having caught her demonic gaze, froze enough to allow her to get past. The entire sequence from when Elfman had slammed him into the ground and Mirajane intervening by grabbing his limp body from the onslaught took less than a minute, but the broken bones and cuts all along his body paired with his wheezing struggle to get air only proved that she had been right. They were on the verge of taking it too far, letting their blind rage take over to protect their family. He hadn't even fought back; he had accepted what they were planning on doing to him without bothering to explain the situation.

Holding him tightly in her arms, Mirajane threw herself away from everyone towards the second floor. Those that were still standing cried out after her, demanding that she let them get revenge on him for her. She noted absently that Elfman, Erza, Gray and even Wendy had followed her to the second floor, attacking with everything they had, just trying to get that split second that they needed to steal the Dragon Slayer back from her. "You are all pathetic!" Mirajane cried out, protecting Natsu from their attacks by dodging past them recklessly.

"He needs to pay for what he has done!" Erza challenged, jumping at the two once again. "No mage of Fairy Tail has the right to call themselves a Fairy if they are willing to stoop this low and hurt one of their own!"

"He didn't do anything!" Mira retorted as her back slammed against the far wall. She glared at the gathering forces in front of her.

"He admitted to it himself! What more do you need to hear?!" Lisanna's voice caught Mirajane off guard and she spun her head to see her sister just reaching the top of the stairs, anger and pain written on her face. "You just can't accept that he chose me and not you! I gave him an opportunity to find what he really wanted. I even tried to keep him from coming here to tell you in front of everyone what we did, but he was set on telling you himself as soon as he woke up!"

Mirajane's eyes blackened in anger and she shot along the ground, Natsu draped over one of her shoulders as she grabbed her sister by the front of her shirt and shoved her into the nearby wall, casting a glare over her shoulder at the mages before they could attack Natsu while she was trying to fix the situation. "So tell me, when exactly did you two have sex?" She growled.

"Last night, we woke up naked; it doesn't take a genius to see what happens between two naked adults!"

"When Last night?"

"After we took a walk down by the river near his house." Lisanna retorted.

Mirajane smiled wickedly and dropped her sister from her grasp. "So you are telling me you slept with him in my bed while I sat next to you all night and kept you from freezing? I was awake the whole time! When could you have possibly done it then?"

Lisanna's face furrowed in confusion and she recoiled at the anger drifting from her sister. "Then it happened before you got there."

Mirajane turned to cast her glare at Erza once again. "You followed them, am I right? Did those two have sex in any way before they got to his house?"

"No!" Erza said angrily. "I wouldn't have let it happen. Besides, when Lisanna tried to get to him at the river, he was too drunk. He couldn't even remember why he was there with her and kept telling her that he was married. He tried to push her away but they fell into the water, causing Lisanna to hit her head or something because by the time I got up to them Natsu had her draped over his shoulder and was drunkenly running through the forest, dripping wet. He carried her back to his place and you yourself told me that you would look after them and sent me home!"

"Then how the FUCK do you think they slept together without me knowing?" Mirajane spat at the woman. Erza didn't have an answer for that, glaring at her rival as she tried to find the words. The others that were closing in stopped in their tracks as the implications they were saying all lead to Natsu's admission of guild either being a lie, or someone else here was lying about what happened. "Tell me Lisanna. Do you remember anything that happened before you woke up?" Mirajane redirected her glare to her sister, silence filling the guild once more.

Lisanna fidgeted slightly before taking a deep breath and meeting the demon's glare. "He was my first, that much I know." She said loudly.

"Lies." Mirajane corrected. "You are far more honest when you have had a few drinks. That first night you were back, you let slip that Edolas's Natsu was your first and that the physical relationship had been the only good thing about the relationship in the first place." The white-haired beauty stabbed her forefinger into her sister's chest to further prove her point. Letting her gaze lower, Mirajane set Natsu on the ground gently, adjusting his position to ensure that he was still breathing and that the look of pain on his face wouldn't increase from the way he was lying.

"Would you like it if I told you what happened after Erza left? After Natsu brought you home, he kept saying that you would freeze if he didn't get you out of your wet clothes and into something warm, suggesting that body heat would be the best thing for you at the time. After he undressed you and wrapped you in a blanket he begged me to help him keep you warm, telling me that it wasn't right for a man to be naked in the same bed as a naked woman if that woman was not his wife, no matter the circumstances. He sat on the floor next to the bed and watched us lying there for hours to be sure I would hold you and you would be alright. Natsu never slept in the bed with you, I did. He was too out of it to even remember who we were, but he still never went against his word, always claiming that he was loyal to his wife, a wife he doesn't have might I add. He never tried anything with either of us, least of all you in your unconscious state!" Mirajane's voice had raised to a loud roar, causing some of the guild members to step back in fear that she would turn her aggression to them.

Lisanna recoiled once again at her sister's anger. "He still thinks he did it! Besides, do you really thing that they…" She gestured to the guild members watching her. "… Could really give their blessing for your union after seeing what he is capable of!? He thought he cheated on you; he never second guessed it or anything, just assumed that he had done something horrible and needed to admit it to you. If he thought he had done something, then he must have had the intentions of doing something!"

"Why do you want to hurt us like this?" Mirajane asked calmly as the blue scales and her outfit shattered in a bright light to leave her in her long red dress once again. "Why couldn't you just be happy for us?"

"Because I had my happiness ripped away from me when I was younger! I loved Natsu then, before any of you knew that you had feelings for him, or even before you grew those feelings. In Edolas I never saw the real Natsu, and now that I'm back I can't be with him I can only watch him from afar. When will it be my turn to be happy?!" Lisanna cried out. "I will have him in any way I can, even if it means tearing the two of you apart to do it. I know we didn't sleep together! But he doesn't!"

Mirajane dropped her gaze from her sister to the Dragon slayer lying on the ground, pain etched into his features. 'Did you ever even love me?' "I gave up on him once, stepped back to give him a chance to be with you, and when you left I stayed away in respect of what you had with him. Then Lucy showed up and you finally came home so I was content with just watching him be happy. But when he needed someone, I decided I would be there for him. He chose me Lisanna, I put myself out there and let him make that choice, and I didn't have to trick him or make him believe something that never happened did happen just to make him feel obligated to be with me. That is what makes you and me different there Lisanna. I was willing to wait; you decided to take by force."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Silence hung in the air as Mirajane sat next to the bed in the guild's infirmary. Wendy and Porlyusica had both spent a great deal of time to stabilize Natsu and heal most of his major problems, leaving little more than light bruising and a few cuts and scrapes along his skin that would heal in time, but for the time would be a cold memory of what Elfman and the rest of the others had done when they had thought he had cheated on her. They had finished healing him three days ago and Wendy claimed he would wake up when his body had recovered some of its strength, once it had recuperated enough. While the color had returned to his cheeks, he had still not woken up or even moved from where he currently sat.

Worry wracked Mirajane as she wondered why he was still just lying there, why his body hadn't healed enough just yet. His words rang out in her head almost every time she saw his face. 'Did you ever even love me?' Of course she had loved him, and she still did love him. "What could I have possibly done to make you question what has always been yours?" She whispered to the sleeping Dragon Slayer. She had tried to show him that she believed in him, that he had been wrong about thinking he had slept with Lisanna, that he had done nothing wrong. He had obviously taken a misunderstanding to that look she had given him, that small smile that she only reserved for him. It worried her that the smile itself could have possibly been the cause of all this pain she was still causing him, that if he hadn't believed her he wouldn't have had a reason to come back if he couldn't have her. Did he think he had been abandoned by her, like his parents and that of the Fire Dragon Igneel? She shook her head, she wasn't like that, and she would never leave him again. Now all she could do was wait for him, wait for him to come back to her.

Taking a, slow, deep breath Mira rung out a washcloth from a nearby bucket of lukewarm water. She moved at a slow and leisurely pace, dabbing the cloth over his exposed skin on his face, ever so careful not to irritate his bruises and cuts. Eventually she found herself wiping off his lips with the rough cloth and watched as his hot breath dried the water on his lips. Just sitting there looking at his lips, she could feel the gentle hunger that always laid in wait, ready to pounce at the right moment. The hunger behind his kisses, the pleasantly rough feel of his lips on hers, and the strong fiery taste of him; it all swam through her memories of being with him. "You promised me that you would never leave me, Natsu…" She said down at him while at the same time she pushed his spikey salmon locks out of his face, reveling in how soft his hair was. His overly warm flesh made her frown, shaking her head. She liked that feeling too much, the feel of his bare skin on hers. "Take as long as you need, I will wait for you until you wake up."

A voice from the doorway caused Mirajane to squeak and look over to the doorway. "You should really go get some rest, Mira." Erza's usually rough voice held a small amount of compassion and regret in it. "He will wake up in time, we know that much. There is no point in you staying here while you could be out working and generally taking your mind off of things for a little bit? You don't have to worry, when he wakes up we will tell him everything, from the mistake that Lisanna made by lying to him about sleeping with her to leaving you and everything in between. As soon as he wakes, we will send for you." She offered trying to not show how concerned for her rival as she really was.

"No." Mirajane said quietly, but bluntly, rubbing a hand over Natsu's arm gently. "He needs me here. I have to be here when he wakes… My words are the only ones that can really show him the meaning to my heart. It won't be the same coming from someone else… Besides… his last words to me were to question my love for him. I have to be here to tell him that I loved him, no matter what happens between us!"

Erza folded her arms with a huff and stood in the doorway silently, looking for a way to get the mage away from the Dragon Slayer without forcing her away, in which she didn't know if she would be able to do right now anyways. She watched as the take-over mage gently caressed the side of Natsu's cheek before grunting in defeat and shutting the door to the room to give the two a little privacy for the time being.

Mirajane took his hand in her own and brought it up to her forehead, whispering a silent prayer that he would wake up soon, and that he would listen to reason, listen to her reasons. To have him listen to her admission of her love, that it had never swayed and that it had always been there. Slowly leaning over the Dragon Slayer, sleep eventually took its toll on Mirajane, her body draped over his legs and holding his hand tightly between her own fearing that he would simply get up and walk away if she wasn't there to stop him.

Natsu had indeed been awake for the past few hours, schooling his body to remain completely limp while keeping a slow even breathing cycle. He waited for the woman to fall asleep and for her breathing to even out before he even dared open his eyes. He knew he should have told her sooner, should have let her know the second he had woken up. Hell, he even knew exactly what had happened, and the fact that Lisanna had lied to him in an attempt to steal him from Mirajane. Over the past couple of hours that he had been awake, he had lost count with how many times she had explained it to him, as if she was trying to push it through his unconscious mind just to help him wake up. He thought he was sure to be caught the first time, he had been so relieved to hear her words that he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. But it still hurt to know that he had gotten so close to losing her, that if she hadn't had so much trust in him, that she would have left him back with the others to do as they pleased, and he would have accepted such a fate. Natsu brought his spare hand up and pressed his thumb and forefinger into his eyes, letting out a shaky breath as he worked on getting everything through his mind and back to the present. He didn't know how long it would last, how long Mirajane would sit there and sleep, but her peaceful smile sucked at him and made him smile. For her, he felt like he could wait an eternity, only to see that smile once more before he died.

Another hour passed before Natsu could work up enough courage to even speak to Mirajane. Pushing against the thin mattress with his free hand, Natsu pushed himself into a sitting position. She stirred on top of his legs, but quickly fell back asleep. He took anbother chance, this time slipping his hand into her silky hair. She let out a breathy sigh before it too caught in her throat and she bolted upright. Their eyes met and he looked away in shame. "Natsu… no, please… no don't look away." She pleaded with him, taking her cheek and placing it on his cheek to look into his eyes once again. "You never cheated on me; you never even slept in the bed with Lisanna. I promise you that, you don't' have to worry."

Natsu shook his head. "I know…" His voice was quiet, but confident. "I heard you say it quite a few times while I pretended to be asleep. I still feel like I hurt you, I feel like I betrayed your trust just by wanting to be with her. I swear I tried not to…"

Mirajane felt a small laugh slip out and she wrapped her arms around Natsu's shoulders, nuzzling into his shoulder. "If you feel bad for thinking someone is pretty, we may have a bit of a problem on our hands. I don't care if you think someone is cute or sexy or anything, but you always have to come to me. I will give you something else to focus on…. You can focus on me." She offered. She pushed back away from him and stared deep into his eyes, a serious look crossing her. "But we need to talk about what you said. I have always loved you Natsu, I always will. Even if something happens between us, I couldn't hate you. I could lose my trust in you, but I will always love you Natsu."

Natsu snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her up onto the bed beside him, enjoying her company while he squeezed his eyes shut. "I can't do it anymore…." He whispered, earning a surprised squeak from her.

"What do you mean you can't do it anymore?" She asked, worried.

"I can't let the others dictate what we are. I don't care if they hate me or hate what we are. I only care about what you think, and what I can do to make you happy. I don't want to marry them, so they shouldn't have a say in the matter of our marriage, or whether we do or not."

Mira sighed slightly and squeezed him tightly, kissing his cheek softly. "Are you willing to pay the price of not asking for my hand from Elfman?" She asked with a giggle. "He may act tough all the time, but he is a little old fashioned. He won't be too happy that you aren't asking him for my hand. Besides, you never really did propose to me."

Natsu smiled and felt a single tear roll down his cheek. "That's because I didn't want to ask. I don't want to give you a chance to say no. You will be my wife, Mirajane. I will make you realize that you belong to me one day, and this is but the first step of doing so."

The two sat there and held one another for a few long minutes, calming one another's racing hearts with their mere presence. "When do we tell them?" Mirajane asked, finally breaking the silence.

"How about at the festival? It should be coming up within a couple of weeks, it would have everyone in a good mood already and we can just add to the excitement." He offered.

"That is fine with me." She whispered closing her eyes to burrow closer against him. "I love you Natsu, I can't tell you that enough."

"I love you too Mira… We should get out of here though, Erza would kill us if…"

Natsu's words froze in his throat when he saw the exact woman he was speaking about appear in the doorway. "Natsu!" She called out, surprised to see him awake. "You shouldn't be doing this right now, you aren't strong enough."

"Whatever Erza." He said gruffly, pulling Mirajane up with him, flinching slightly as the balls of his feet touched the ground. Taking a deep breath he pulled her along with him out of the room and towards the guild hall. Erza wouldn't let up though, storming after the two.

"Considering all that has happened, you two-"

"Shut up Erza." He said interrupting her thought.

"What did you say!" She screamed at him, pointing a sword at his throat. "I'm just looking out for you two! I just-"

"Need to mind your own business." Natsu growled slapping the sword point from his neck. "You are partially to blame for this whole thing happening, if you hadn't agreed to Lisanna's suggestion, this may have not happened."

Erza stood there numb at his accusation. He shook his head. "I don't blame you for what happened; too many things went wrong in that situation. But you need to step back and take a look at your own situation before you turn into someone you don't want to be. Just because you can't admit your own feelings for Jellal to anyone doesn't mean you can try to make our feelings go away."

"Wh-who said I felt a-anything for Jellal?" She asked, blushing and glaring at the same time to try and pretend she did not in fact care for the blue haired man.

"I've heard your whispers to him when you think you have him alone." He said before turning and dragging Mirajane along with him back into the guild. She let him move her, lift her up onto the counter of the bar and watched as he sat on a barstool in front of her before pulling the two of them closer so he could wrap his arms around her waist and lean his head against her chest. She blushed, but giggled to herself at how open he had started to become now that everyone knew they were together. She took the time to adjust her seat slightly before playing with his salmon locks contently. She noticed as Elfman stood and made his way over, an unreadable look across his face.

Natsu must have noticed him as well because he turned his head to watch the man approach, but held out a hand to prevent the man from speaking. "Next time I expect you to not make the mistake of letting me live if something happens." He said coldly. "If you don't try harder, you won't be able to protect your sister."

Elfman nodded his head and looked up to his sister before nodding a second time, a smile spreading across his face as he laughed. Natsu smiled and went back to what he was doing before they had been interrupted, pinching Mirajane's rear slightly, causing her to jump in surprise that earned him a smack on the shoulder.

"I don't think we have to worry about them accepting us anymore Natsu." Mirajane said looking out over the guild, their appearances having changed drastically from when they had thought he had cheated on her to claiming she was his wife and refusing to sleep with her and Lisanna despite the fact that either of the mages wouldn't have argued. Well, if they were alone they wouldn't have argued, he knew that now. But she was more than enough for him anyways so he burrowed further into her cleavage, ignoring the cat calls that were coming from the men around them.

He felt at home with her, it wasn't that he felt at home at the guild, but rather it was with her, wherever she was, that was home for him.

As always, R & R please!

Kind of a corny ending to the chapter, I know.