There were a few seconds of silence. Neither Natsu nor Lucy knew what to do. Lucy knew what she wanted, but she just didn't know how to ask for it, and then Natsu bas unsure of how to react to the whole situation. A million thoughts went through Natsu's head in the few seconds of silence. Oh my god I'm going to kiss Lucy, Natsu thought, Oh my god I don't know if I'll be any good. His thoughts were everywhere Finally when he realized that Lucy might be equally nervous and considering that Lucy was so inexperienced in those kinds of things, he figured she must be even more nervous and anxious about the whole thing. The last thought he had before talking was of how pretty and soft Lucy's lips looked. When he did finally speak it was a strangled out awkward, "So..." But before he could continue his sentence he was interrupted by Lucy.
Lucy unlike Natsu was nervous about a whole different thing. Her main concern at the moment was pressuring Natsu and putting him on the spotlight, her silence was supposed to be intimidating, hoping that the intimidation would finally get him to tell her what she wanted to know. And so when she began to talk, she quickly interrupted him, "Tell me."
It was just two worlds but it confused the hell out of Natsu, he didn't know what he was supposed to tell her, for a moment he doubted himself and all he knew about this seven minutes in heaven game. As far as he knew there wasn't supposed to be much talking, only...well...making out. But then here was Lucy asking him to tell her something. Maybe she was one of those people who liked when their partners talked dirty to them, maybe she was kinky like that. He didn't know. He didn't even know how to appropriately approach her, or how he was supposed to kiss her, or how she liked to be kissed. He figured she was the kind of girl that liked to start slow and then the whole situation would take over from that. Yet at the moment he didn't know nothing, so he did nothing. Instead he asked one word, in hopes that it would be enough to have Lucy explain. With a confused and somewhat deep throaty voice he asked, "What?"
The question did not surprise Lucy at all. She expected Natsu to try and avoid the subject, even if it meant him to pretend to be ignorant of what she was speaking of. What surprised her was the amount of time that it took for him to answer. Deciding that he would not get away from her this time, she bluntly answered his question, "The scar. Tell me how you got the scar."
Natsu didn't know how the hell Lucy did it, but somehow she always confused him even more. There was a moment of total baffled confusion in his head, where he was trying to process and classify Lucy's request. When he finally did understand he was a little anoyed, not at her but more at the whole subject that was about to be discussed. Natsu reached over for the door handle but he was quickly blocked by Lucy's body. "Lucy leave it alone, honestly it's nothing." Yet Lucy did not move, not even an inch. She was slowly becoming more and more irritated. She didn't understand why Natsu kept on hiding the subject behind his scar. And it kind of annoyed her that he didn't trust Lucy enough to tell her what was going on. There was a look of defeat in Natsu's face, which made Lucy believe that he would finally tell her. Instead Natsu sighed and began a small speech. "Lucy I don't understand why I need to let you know, it honestly does not matter and it's in the past." He took a pause and then finally with a sort of annoyed and defeated voice he said, "Why do you feel the need to know everything?"
A silence filled the air. It wasn't a comfortable one, like the one that they usually shared. This one was a bit awkward and there was a sense of regret in it as well. Natsu couldn't take back his words, and Lucy couldn't go back in time to stop everything that had just taken place. Instead she moved away from the door, and she herself opened the door and walked out.
Outside of the closet everyone was anxiously waiting for both Lucy and Natsu to come out both holding hands or with lovey dovey eyes, however the sad thruth was that Lucy came out with a sober looking face. Natsu came out with a similar attitude to that of Lucy's. Throughout the room the tension and awkwardness could be felt. The first one to pick up on the atmospheric feel was Erza. "I uh...I have to wake up early to go somewhere tomorrow so I should be going." Erza hoped that her actions would help others realize that they too should leave and let Natsu and Lucy solve whatever it was they needed to solve. However almost no one picked up on her clue except of course Jellal. Seeing how no one understood her clue, she took it upon herself to remove everyone from the apartment. "Actually I think it's pretty late, so we should all go. Come on everyone let's leave Natsu and Lucy to sleep I'm sure they're tired."
Everyone soon began to ready themselves to leave, because no one argued with Erza.
Soon everyone was out of the apartment and the only people left were the two tenants. Lucy didn't acknowledge Natsu and instead went to get ready for bed. Usually on days when she was really tired she slept without a bra and only her boy shorts. This was one of those days, as she changed into her night clothes she realized how inappropriate it might be since Natsu slept in the same room as her, but then again he's seen her in bikinis and even naked one time, besides they were best friends. As she got out of the bathroom she made sure to try and avoid Natsu. She still didn't know how she felt about the whole argument they had in the closet. Maybe it was kind of ridiculous of how she felt the need to know everything about Natsu, but the only reason for her interest was because he genuinely worried about him. Either way he had made it clear that he didn't want her poking her nose in his life, and so she decided to try and drop the whole subject. Once she went inside the room she realized that Natsu was probably asleep since he was facing the wall. She tried making as little noise as possible and climbed the stairs up to her bed. For a few minutes she just stared at the ceiling, it helped to calm her. She was slowly drifting into sleep, and it was a wonderful addicting feeling. Just as she was about to finally fall asleep, she heard a rustle from the bed underneath her. She wondered if she should open her eyes, but she opted for the opposite and began to drift into her slumber. She turned herself facedown into her pillow and tried to ignore the noise in the room.
"Lucy, I'm sorry." There was a quick jerk from Lucy, and then she decided to ignore any apology from Natsu, since she didn't really know what to make of it. She stayed quiet but her eyes stayed open and she no longer felt the drifting feeling of sleep.
Natsu figured Lucy wasn't going to answer him any time soon, unless he became so anoying that she had to respond in some way. He left the warmth of his bed and climbed up to Lucy's. "I know you're not sleeping Lucy, you snore when you sleep." Natsu gently pushed Lucy to the end of the bed where the wall was and he settled himself at the other side. When he had climbed on he failed to notice Lucy's nakedness. It was weird because he felt something stir inside him, but he decided to ignore it and continue to try and make Lucy talk to him. He poked her back dimples, trying to get her attention. When she didn't respond he decided to make a radical move that could potentiality end his life. Slowly he raised his hand up to where her bra strap was and proceeded to mess with the clasp. Of course he never actually wanted to take it off, for one he never even unclasped a bra, and besides it's not like he hadn't seen Lucy's breasts. However the trick did it's job and with a quick jerk Lucy sat up and slapped Natsu's hand away.
"What do you think you're doing, you pervert?"
Natsu had to bite on his bottom lip to keep from laughing. Not only did it amuse him on how quick she reacted, but her hair that was tied up in a messy bun had moved to the left and her eyes were wide with anger, though he feared for his life he also found the sight halarious. "I knew you weren't sleeping."
Lucy stared at Natsu until he felt the burning holes that her eyes left. Finally she spoke, "What is it Natsu?" She half whispered and half hissed at him.
"Geesh Luce, I'm just apologizing, no need to try and kill me with a death stare." Lucy began to play with her fingers rather than to look at him. She was afraid that if she laid back down, Natsu would try to get her bra off again. She made a note to herself to always wear a shirt from now on.
"Luce...I...ugh" Natsu didn't know how to begin to explain where he'd gotten has scar from. And it made it even worse that Lucy refused to accept his apology. "I got it from one night after I'd gone partying with some of my friends. They were a few friends who had gone to a club in the city, and I went with them and another girl. At the moment I thought we were all friends and that they were genuinely good people. They were natives from the country, so they pretty much knew the place, some were born in the city and some near small town around the city. But that doesn't matter, when we'd gone out it was three of them, two which were under a scholarship from the college I used to attend, and one was wealthy enough to pay for the college from his own family's money. I swear I thought they were good people, I swear. God Lucy I...I don't understand."
Lucy couldn't help but look up at Natsu because he sounded hurt, not the physical type, but rather it was almost as if he were fighting with himself. She'd only heard him like that maybe once or twice, once because of his dad, and another when he told her of his old friend who he barely talked of; Lissana. This time when she looked at him he looked angry with himself, pulling at his hair almost like he wanted to rip it off. She wanted to reach out to him, touch him to let him know she was near and with him; but she didn't want to startle him.
"I...I told you I was with a friend of mine that was a girl. They specifically told me that I should bring her, because they knew she liked me. I mean I didn't... I didn't like her, but they told me that I should bring her just...just to please her that once. Just to make her happy, because it was her birthday. And I did, I knew it was her birthday, and I knew she wanted to come, I mean she was going to bring a friend too. Luce I swear...I swear I didn't...I didn't know Luce. We went to the club, and we all had fun, and it was nice, it was fun. Then we started to go back home, then...then they said they knew a short cut. And so me and my friend followed them. There was no fucking short cut, there was a fucking dead end. Fuck. They grabbed her and held her, and I can clearly remember her face, she just looked at me, like...like asking why. But I didn't know what was happening I didn't understand. And then I remember one of them saying, 'you want to go first Natsu?'"
Lucy had to cover her mouth rom keeping her large gasp from being audible to Natsu's ears. She wanted to stop. She wanted him to stop, because she was afraid of what would happen next. She had an idea of what would happen next, but she desperately hoped that Natsu would say the opposite. Or that all along Natsu had played a mean trick on her, she would rather that than the actual truth of the events. Yet, she knew she had to hear. Not because it was her business, but because she had some responsibility as a woman herself, to hear of these realities. And because she could hear in Natsu's voice that he desperately needed to tell someone.
"I stood shocked, and confused...and...for the first time I didn't know what to do. The girl was crying, she had tried fighting back, but eventually she realized she was outnumbered. I cursed at them , I asked them what in the world they were thinking, I asked them why, I remember I kept on asking why. But I knew why. I realized, I fucking finally realized why they had pushed me to bring her along. All I remember next was throwing punches everywhere. I managed to remove her from their grasps. I put her behind me, but she wasn't safe. And I kept on fighting them off, but I couldn't keep them off. The grabbed her and even though I had managed to weaken two of three, one had a hold of the girl and held her neck against a blade. At first I swore they wouldn't do it. She was their friend too, I didn't...I don't understand why. Why and how they could be so...disgusting. He told me to leave or they would cut her throat off, when I didn't move he pushed into her skin. And I saw a dropped of blood fall from her neck. In that moment I didn't think Luce, I saw y...I saw her face and I knew. I knew I could never let that happen to her, or to anyone. I threw myself at him. I told her to run. I told her to run and not stop until she was somewhere safe. The other two didn't bother to try and catch her, they were more busy with me. The one with the blade stabbed me in my shoulder when I pushed him off behind me. Though I felt the pain I didn't even care. They all threw me on the floor and kicked and punched, and one of them even cut me below my hip. It's not as deep since my belt stopped most of the damage. And I laid there. Because it was all my fault. I...I had brought her...I didn't protect her. But then I heard...I heard a voice in my head. I heard you telling me that you were waiting for me. That I had to come back to you because I still owed you a pizza from that one time I ate the whole pie while you were taking a shower. And I remembered. And i didn't even know what I was hitting I didn't even care. I punched and I kicked and I lost control. Next thing I knew I heard the police, and they had to remove me from one of the guys. I don't even know who I was hitting. When they finally managed to get me off, I looked at myself, covered in blood, I didn't even care that most of it was mine from the stab in my back. Anyway, once they took us to prison and asked us what had happened, and etc. they let me go, but only because the girl had come to bail me out. Can you believe that? After what she had gone through, she thanked me...she fucking thanked me and bailed me out. She smiled. And that smile has been haunting me since...since now."
Natsu looked up at Lucy, and he stared. He didn't even care if it was the longest look he had ever given her, he stared at her for five straight minutes, until she reached out with her hand and gently dragged her thumb along where a tear had fallen along his cheek. Her touch immediately made his whole body relax. His eyelids dropped, his breath exhaled, and his shoulders eased.
Lucy kept her hand on the side of his face. Hoping that her touch could be of help to him. She couldn't say she felt his pain. She couldn't say she felt the girls pain. But she could emphasize for them both. One part wanted to cry, for Natsu and for the girl, but a part of her knew she shouldn't. She needed to be strong for Natsu, and it wasn't her right to cry for a girl whom she did not understand. She felt not right to cry when she had not lived through her pain, and so she stayed strong. For the girl and for Natsu.
Natsu raised his hand to grab a tight hold of Lucy's hand. He knew. He knew that if he told her, this would happen. He knew that Lucy was hurting for him and for his friend, but he could also tell that Lucy was trying to be strong for him and for his friend. He just never wanted her to know of something so clearly traumatic and troubling. He didn't feel as if he should burden her with his troubles. Yet here she was, holding him together. And he was scared to think of himself without Luce.
They didn't say anything for the rest of the night. Instead Lucy held Natsu as both laid together. Lucy held her whole body against his and she hugged Natsu from behind. Natsu fell asleep holding the hands of Lucy against his own.