Ch. 12 - A Burn

Lucy tried to keep a poker face on when she arrived at Night Pythoness' meeting place.

Lupa ran up to Lucy and hugged her tightly. "Licia! Oh, I'm so glad you're safe," she breathed. Lucy bit the inside of her cheek and patted Lupa on the shoulder as more guild members gathered around them. Lupa finally let go of Lucy and stepped back.

They all began to stare at her strangely. Lucy frowned.

"What…?"

A teen named Rini with Nature Magic giggled. Lucy was getting annoyed.

"What?"

Lupa's suppressed laughter burst out, and the other women followed suit. Lucy's tisked, and her patience broke.

"What the hell is going on?!" She screamed. The women fell silent, but there were still red faces and stifled giggles. She gazed at Lupa with such an intense glare that Lupa was too scared to even look at Lucy. "Tell me, Lupa," Lucy said sweetly, "What are you guys so contentedly laughing about?"

Lupa sucked at poker faces, so she pushed forward another girl to answer. The girl, Rini, coughed and took a minute to compose herself. "You-," she choked out. "You have a… A burn on your face," she answered. Lucy paused. That must have been Natsu when they were fighting. What was the big deal?

"So?" Lucy shrugged. "It's not like I was fighting a Fire Dragon Slayer or anything, was I?" she said, her voice oozing sarcasm. Lupa snorted.

"You should probably look in the mirror," Lupa retorted.

Lucy paused. Wait… What he did before she left couldn't have left a burn… Right?

Lucy, despite how much she didn't want her guild laughing at her, she turned and ran for her canvas bag. She heard the guild erupting in laughter behind her has she dived for her bag and rummaged through. After a bit of searching, she found the mirror that Sakimo had given to her with the whole bag. For a second, Lucy held on to the small hope that it hadn't left a burn.

Her small hope was squashed as she looked into the mirror and saw the burn on her face.

Now, a burn could have meant anything, but this burn could have only meant one thing.

That Natsu had kissed her firmly on her cheek and that he had so stupidly left a burn. The burn was in the shape of Natsu's lips, and now it was on her face. On her freaking face.

Lucy almost smiled. 'I guess in the heat of the moment I didn't even notice,' she thought girlishly. She replayed the situation in her head.

— Earlier —

He leaned in slowly.

And Lucy didn't dodge.

He pressed his lips firmly to her cheek, holding it there for a second before realizing what he was doing. Natsu and Lucy both felt the heat of blood rushing to their faces. Was that… a burning smell?

He suddenly jerked away, his face hotter then his flames. Lucy's face was equally as red, rivalling that of a ripe tomato. They both began to speak at the same time.

"Sorry abou-"

"So, abou-"

The both fell into an inconvenient silence. Natsu, for once, was as at a loss for words. Lucy took the moment to speak, choosing to disregard what had just took place.

"So we won't come to any cities around here anymore," she said flatly.

"Okay," Natsu replied, scratching his head. "Oh, and, uh, your new hair is cool, I guess. So is your face," Natsu blurted. Internally, Natsu punched himself. 'What the hell kind of compliment is that? I'm so dumb,' he thought. "I meant the black stuff," he quickly said.

"Oh, thanks," she said, smiling. She self consciously ran her fingers through her hair. There was a woman in her guild with dagger magic who would cut her hair every month or two. "You look well too… " In her head, Lucy slapped herself. 'What am I thinking? This wasn't supposed to happen! I was supposed to act cool about this…'

"And… Y'know," she coninued, "I - I guess I could come visit the guild in a couple weeks…"

"Really?" Natsu exclaimed. Lucy nodded, smiling crookedly.

Natsu grinned widely and then, not thinking (as usual), wrapped his arms around her waist and crashed his lips to hers in the burning city of Minno.

—

"Licia?" A voice wormed it's way into her thoughts and broke Lucy out of her daydream. Lucy blinked.

"Yes?" She replied hastily, dropping the mirror back into her bag. A young woman peeked through the bushes. Junna, with healing powers.

"Um… I can speed up the healing of that, heh, burn for you if you like." Junna smiled.

"Oh, okay… Sure. And, uh, thanks." Junna smiled again and nodded.

"In case you're wondering," Junna began, "None of the other guild members are judging you. We all just didn't expect that guy to be, well, a guy from your past," she murmured, stretching her hands over Lucy's kiss-shaped burn.

Lucy snorted. "Why do you think I chose him to fight me?"

Junna shrugged. "We all just thought that you just made a random decision."

"Huh."

Junna healed the rest of her burn in silence and Lucy thanked her one last time before going to face the wild animals that was also her guild.

The chatter stopped when Lucy stepped beside the river. Lucy eyed Lupa, who was still giggling.

"We're gonna take a break for a while. Just chill for a bit," she announced. The ladies nodded. "And then," she said hesitantly, "We're gonna go and visit my old friends," she declared. The women were silent for a minute before all nodding in agreement.

"This will be in a town, and when we get there, do not destroy anything. I repeat, anything." Some of the women looked a little disappointed, but Lucy continued. "This place is like my home," she continued. "And some of my friends can be a little bit… rowdy…"

After Lucy finished her speech, the found a clearing in the forestry to settle down for the rest of the night. Lupa rolled over to face Lucy. "Hey, Licia," Lupa murmured.

"Mm?"

"Do you love that guy? The one with the pink hair?" She asked softly, her face innocently curious. Lucy smiled.

"Yeah. I do," Lucy replied, smiling softly. Lupa smiled devilishly. Lucy frowned at the sight of that mischievious smile.

"So, we already know he kissed you on the cheek…" Lupa grinned. "So what I want to know now is that is he kissed you any where else… You know, somewhere around here maybe?" She circled her own mouth with her fingers wonderingly.

Lucy blushed. "No, no, of course not," she replied, trying to remain calm. Lupa sighed.

"Aw man, I thought tha-"

Lucy shushed her by placing a slender finger to her mouth. "Lupa, it's 3 o'clock in the morning. Let's drop this and catch some sleep while we can, okay?" Lupa pouted but was fast asleep in a matter of seconds.

Lucy exhaled. Thank god nobody in the guild was telepathic.

But, however, there was a mind-reader in Fairy Tail.

— The next morning —

"How was your first S-Class job together, guys?" Mirajane asked, smiling.

Erza smiled. "It went well."

"Oh, that's great," Mira replied. "Do you want anything?"

Erza nodded. "Yes. Can I have a strawberry cake?"

Mira nodded absentmindedly. She handed Erza her cake and turned to Gray, who was talking to Warren. Mira leaned in to listen to their conversation.

"… So ever since then, Flame Brain over there has been livin' in his own little world."

"I see," Warren muttered. "So, you want me to dig around his head for a bit and get the gossip?"

Gray nodded.

"What's this gossip I'm hearing about?"

Gray turned and looked at Mira in surprise. "Erza didn't tell you? The guild leader of the dark guild Night Pythoness, the job we went on, is Lucy." Mira froze.

"Lucy?" Mira said.

"Lucy," Gray replied.

"Wow! She really trained hard then," Mira exclaimed. "Who else knows about this?"

Gray shrugged. "About every one else," he replied, turning back to Warren. "So, can you do it?"

Warren shook his head. "I don't know, I'm almost afraid to go in his head," he said. "But I'll do it. I wanna know what's up with him anyway."

Warren breathed slowly and pressed his fingers to his temples. Gray and Mira leaned forward in anticipation. He gasped.

"Well? What did you find?" Mira asked excitedly. Warren looked at her in joy and jumped on a table.

"Guys!" He hollered. "Lucy's coming to visit soon!"

The guild froze. Being very trusting in their telepathic comrade, they all began to party.

"Lucy! I'm gonna drink to your return!" Cana yelled drunkenly.

Warren was about to join the party when Gray stopped him. "Wait, Warren, can you find out more? This is great, but it still doesn't explain why Natsu is in la-la land."

Warren nodded firmly and sat back down, pressing his fingers to his temple again. He glanced at the Dragon Slayer, unaware of the celebrations around him. A minute passed. A bead of sweat appeared on Warren's forehead, and then, unexpectedly, his face turned beet red.

"Warren? Are you alright? I'll get you a glass of water," Mira said worriedly, running to the sink.

Warren just sat there, shocked. "I didn't know he was mature enough to do something like that…" He murmured.

Gray shifted in his seat, alarmed. "Oi, oi. What did you see?"

Warren burst out laughing as Mira appeared with a glass of water. He gulped it down in a few seconds.

"What did you see?" Gray tried again as Warren swiped tears from his eyes.

"I-it's N-Natsu!" Warren choked out between gasps of laughter. "He… he…."

"What the hell did he do!?" He shouted, getting annoyed.

Warren jumped at the sudden outburst. "Well, I don't think I can describe something like this, so I'll just send you the image I found into your head," he replied.

"Send it to mine too!" Mira smiled excitedly.

Warren nodded. "Roger that." Warren placed two fingers on his temple again. Gray leaned back in his chair and waited for the image to come to mind. Mira rested her head on her hand, leaning against the counter.

Almost simultaneously, they both had very different and very intense reactions. First, Mira screamed for Lisanna and then almost fainted on the counter. Gray turned bright red, and looked at Natsu, lounging in his chair.

"Was that-" Gray began.

Warren nodded.

Gray and Mira had both received the whole event in their heads through Natsu's eyes.

"Holy shit," was all Gray could muster.

Lisanna had arrived at the counter, balancing two trays of beer empty mugs on one arm. "Hey! Isn't this great?" She gestured to the celebration that surrounded them.

Mira grinned. "Warren, send her the thing," Mira commanded. Warren nodded.

The two trays crashed to the ground.

"Was that-" Lisanna began.

Mira nodded.

"Hey, that was my exact reaction," Gray remarked.

Lisanna didn't hear because she had bolted to Natsu.

"Natsu!" She shouted, shaking his shoulders. Mira stood next to her, looking equally as terrifying. "Tell me everything that happened!"

Mira nodded enthusiastically. "I'm so proud of you!"

Natsu just lolled back in his chair, a ridiculous smile on his face. Even a fool could tell he was in love. Especially since Natsu didn't even try to hide it.

Gray and Warren looked at each other and sighed. "Let the interrogation begin," Gray muttered, taking a swig of his drink.

— Meanwhile —

Lucy stretched and forced her tired eyes open. They had got back late last night, so she only got about 2 hours of sleep because her internal alarm didn't allow her to sleep in. She smiled at the sleeping guild sprawled out around her.

Right now, at this moment, they didn't look like the dark guild Night Pythoness. They didn't look like the strong wizards that had brought cities down to nothing but rubble. They looked like normal women; innocence painted onto their faces. They looked like her friends, her family. These women were the reason Lucy was still living now.

"I'll let you guys sleep in for today," she whispered, heading off to the river. Emerald opened his eyes at the sound of her getting up. She smiled. "I'm just going to the river; you can go back to sleep." Emerald nodded and yawned.

She began to walk to the river. It was a short walk, only about 5 minutes. She took her shoes off and sat on the riverbank, dangling her feet in. She tried hard not to, but eventually she caved and began to daydream.

"He kissed me. He kissed me," she grinned, covering her mouth. She could still practically feel the tingles on her lips. After all these years, she never expected for him to slowly fall in love with her. She could hardly believe it. Back when she was still living in Magnolia, he would always somehow get into her house and take up all the bed space. He would always walk in when she was changing and go through her clothes and together, he and Happy would go and poke her underwear as if they were corpses.

Long story short, they knew practically everything about each other. They were basically always around each other. And yet, the moment when he decided to kiss her was in the flaming, trashed city.

The thought of the kiss again brought blood rushing up to Lucy's face. She hurriedly cupped her hands together and splashed her face violently with the ice-cold water.

She shook her head roughly and wiped her stupid smile off her face, but before long, the girlish smile was plastered back on. Despite herself, she giggled. She giggled. She slapped her hand on top of her mouth.

"Licia?" A voice called out.

Lucy coughed. "I'm over here," she muttered.

A purple-haired head poked out of the bushes. Lucy squinted in the early rays of the sun. It was Pam, who could manipulate inanimate objects. "Uh, we're all awake now… The girls just wanted to know what we're gonna be doing…?" She asked.

Lucy paused. How long had she been daydreaming? She looked up into the sky. She gasped. She had been sitting on the riverbank for an hour! The blonde quickly stood up and dried her feet. She slipped them back into her boots. "We," she said, tying her boots up, "are going to take a nice, leisurely walk to my old home," she answered.

About two hours later, Night Pythoness was taking a walk to Magnolia.

"I thought we were taking a break!" Lupa whined. Lucy looked at her, surprised.

"This is a break! We aren't doing anything except walking," Lucy pointed out. "We aren't even carrying any of our stuff. I gave everything to Virgo to store in the spirit world for the time being."

Lupa pouted. "But can't we at least ride on Emerald?"

"Nope," Lucy answered, popping the 'p'. "We still gotta keep in shape." Lucy looked into the sky, checking the sun's position. "Hm… In about thirty minutes we're gonna start running. We'll go in intervals of two hours, okay?" Lucy said, smiling warmly.

The women groaned. "How can someone so nice be so brutal!" Rini muttered.

"I could just teleport us there," Telli said. Even though she was only a 16 year old girl, her teleportation skills were impeccable. Her ability extended to teleporting others without even touching them.

"You haven't ever been there before, so how can you teleport us there?" Lucy pointed out. "Besides, we need the exercise. I don't want us to get out of shape."

"Ugh," Rini groaned.

— Three and a half weeks later —

— The border of Magnolia —

"Gate of the Virgin, I summon thee. Virgo," Lucy said quietly, not wanting anybody from the city to hear her.

"Punishment, princess?"

The women giggled. Lucy sighed. "No, Virgo. I just wanted you to take our cloaks. I'm afraid we're gonna be to… intimidating with our special cloaks on," she explained.

Virgo nodded. "Yes, princess. As you wish, Princess." Lucy rolled her eyes.

"If you don't mind me asking, princess," Virgo said as women handed her their cloaks, "What are you going to do about the Jinsoku?"

Lucy blinked. "The what?"

Virgo gestured to Emerald.

"Oh, yeah," Lucy said. She had momentarily forgotten Emerald's species name. She hardly ever used it, after all. "I guess he'll just have to come with us and wait outside the guild building," she shrugged. "We'll see how it goes."

Virgo nodded and then bowed. "I shall go back now," Virgo said in her monotone way. Lucy smiled and sent her back.

"Okay…." Lucy began. "Let's do this," she breathed. "And don't touch anything. Anything."

The women nodded. Lucy turned and began to walk but she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Alice, a pretty young woman with transformation magic. She was also quite skilled in transforming people physically. Basically, she was a aspiring beautician. "I think we should fix you up a bit before you go and see that guy again…" she murmured. The rest of the guild nodded devilishly. For such sweet looking women, they could really pull of the demonic look. Lucy didn't even have time to say crap before they held her down and let Alice do her torture.

An hour and a half later, Alice stepped back, admiring her work. She fumbled for a mirror.

"I gotta say, Licia," Cydia murmured. She was a petite woman with immense strength, contrasting vastly with her physical appearance. "You look damn good."

Lucy sighed and grabbed the mirror from Alice's hands. She actually did look damn good. "Well, this is all creds to our personal beautician here, so… Thanks Alice," she said, and grinned crookedly.

Alice smiled back, relieved. "No prob. Now whaddya say we get goin'?"

Lucy nodded and stepped into Magnolia, the Night Pythoness on her heels.

A/N:

Eyyyy. How was this? Drop a line! :D

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You know something's wrong with you when you start fangirling over your own fanfiction. And forgive me if it was boring! I have interesting stuff planned so sit tight! I thought it was interesting if you know what I mean. *wiggles eyebrows*

And guess what.

NINETY REVIEWS GUYS LIKE HOLY CRUD HOW-

I CANT EVEN PUT MY THANKS INTO WORDS GUYS LIKE UGHEJKSD

jeezus ;A; im almost crying

-jo