NATSU:
I wondered if anyone had ever told Lucy that she was beautiful. I woke up first and saw her sleeping, leaning against the wall. Even with her eyes closed her face seemed warm and inviting. She radiated kindness. But if you looked close enough you could see the pain of her past engraved on her features and how hard she tried to hide it. She was strong, even though she didn't look the part. I sat up quickly, pleased at how much my strength had improved. Slowly I tucked my legs under me, testing their stability as I slowly straightened. My right leg seemed kinda off. I could feel it, but anything I did seemed to happen a couple seconds after I tried to do it. Eh. Probably nothing Wendy couldn't fix. I slowly unwrapped the bandages on my hands, revealing rapidly healing cuts and gashes. A couple bruises were on the point of fading. I noticed that my scales had moved further down my arm. Surprisingly, my guild mark was a big hole in an otherwise mostly encased arm, like the scales were repelled somehow. I was certain that it was covered before. Shrugging off the confusion I sniffed out more chicken and poked my hand into the big bag. Pulling out two boxes of delicious chicken, I was about to begin my breakfast when a small hand sternly tapped my shoulder.
"Natsu. Leave some food for later." Lucy's menacing whisper made me turn around to see a pair a large brown eyes glaring jokingly at my face. I grumbled about it, but eventually let her take away a box. She put it back and pulled out a small container with something that smelled like dumplings. I scooted over to see if I could snag one, but she shook her head and moved the dumplings away.
"Hey!"
"Natsu! You have your chicken and I have my dumplings. Go eat. We'll start to move right after." Man, she was bossy. She didn't even need to use her actual voice; her whisper alone reminded me of a certain scary scarlet-haired demon. I wolfed down the delicious chicken, which only made me hungrier. With a small smile she pulled the empty box out of my hands and stuffed it into the bag. Then she took out a golden key and pointed it at the wall.
"Open Gate of the Maiden: Virgo." A bell sounded and the purple-haired maid popped out.
"Punishment time, princess?" Virgo placed a chained hand across her heart.
Lucy sighed. "No, no punishment. Please take the bags back to the spirit word."
"Yes, princess." Grabbing the bags, Virgo vanished in a flash of golden light.
"Why does she call you princess?" I asked.
"I have no idea. I guess she wants to." Lucy whispered in answer. She began walking towards the unseen other end of the tunnel and with a few weird first steps I followed. My leg still felt really weird.
"How's your leg?" Lucy whispered over her shoulder.
"Funny. It feels off." It also made me limp. She nodded and kept walking.
LUCY:
He could walk on that leg, but I could see that it was lagging a bit. Here's to hoping Wendy could fix it.
We kept walking for what felt like forever. Eventually we reached one of the camps I'd asked Virgo to set up, complete with sleeping bags and some snacks. Natsu's beastly appetite was famous. While he ate I scratched a sign on the wall to mark us being there. If we got ambushed and captured, Mira has asked that I mark the camps so that they knew where we last were. It didn't really make sense to me, but I did it anyways. As I was finishing the sound of running footsteps reached my ears. Natsu's new tenseness told me he heard it too.
"Lucy!" Wendy's voice. I felt a small smile tug at my lips. I liked the little Dragon Slayer; she was the first person from the guild that I had talked to. Whispered.
"Lushi! Natsu!" Happy. That damn cat smushed up my name every damn time. Still, I heard tears in his voice and knew that he'd seen Natsu. I hadn't even finished turning around when a blue blur shot by me and collided with the pink-haired boy sitting on the ground. On the tunnel floor a few dark spots bore witness to the cat's tears. "Natsu! I missed you so much…" Happy snuggled in Natsu's neck while the boy stroked him. They looked cute together. Wendy ran up to us, panting slightly and carrying a white exceed in a pink dress. Charla.
"He-cat! Can't you see Natsu's hurt? You could at least be more careful!" Charla scolded.
"It's fine." Natsu waved the concern away. I frowned slightly at now much his tone had changed. Before it was open and cheerful, but now that his guildmates had found us he seemed to close up. Noticing my concerned look he gave me a tight smile, shaking his head.
"Are you ok?" Wendy spoke at my shoulder. Looking down at the blue-haired girl I nodded towards Natsu.
"I'm fine. Can you check his right leg?" She quickly nodded and came over to the boy, who at her request slowly stretched out his leg. The movement almost seemed… reluctant. What was up with Natsu?
"Why don't you run away? Everyone else did." Oh, Natsu. He didn't trust them because he thought they saw him as the monster he appeared to be. I hoped it wasn't worse with the rest of the guild. I had done a lot of background reading of Dragon Slayer curses, and the closest reference I could find had mentioned the influence of other people on the curse's spread. I had figured that it meant how people reacted toward you. If the cursed person was rejected in a way that hurt they would give in to the curse until it consumed them. A turquoise light indicated the presence of Wendy's healing magic.
"Did you get him out ok?" Panther Lily's gruff voice had me spinning around.
"What are you doing here?" I whispered to him. Master hadn't mentioned him at all.
"Gajeel told me to go with them so we could fly you guys back. It would be faster." The black exceed inclined his head towards Natsu. I nodded in agreement, keeping my words to a minimum. The guild had stopped trying to get me to talk after the second week, realizing I needed time to open up to people. So far I had five I could whisper to normally: Makarov, Mirajane, Wendy, Levy, and now Natsu. Natsu was probably my first choice. I felt at easy around him, and he really was an easy person to talk to. Wendy finished with Natsu's leg and he tested it. Seeming satisfied he nodded to the girl and stood up. Wendy blinked in surprise at his cold reaction and took a couple of steps back. Walking over to the girl I gently placed my hand on her shoulder.
"It isn't your fault. Give him some time." I whispered to her. She nodded and wiped away a stray tear.
"Happy, grab Natsu and Charla take Wendy. I'll carry Lucy." Panther Lily commanded. He spread out his wings and took hold of my shirt. Happy and Charla did the same to their respective Dragon Slayers. The exceeds took off and whisked us through the tunnel.