Hi Everybody!

I'm so sorry about the long wait this chapter was so hard to write! But I have gotten back and have some amazing ideas for the next few chapters so I hope the wait won't be too long. Also thank you to all of you who have reviewed and favorited my story, you are what has kept this story, so thank you so much!

Again, I own nothing, only Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail unfortunately.

Lucy had never felt more free in that moment as when she was flying with Igneel for the first time. She felt as if she could do anything and that she could see everything the world had to offer. She could see miles around and as far as the eye could see. For the first time she felt she saw a world other than the one her father showed her.

But her joy soon ended after Igneel landed in a clearing far away from her "haunted" mansion. After he landed he motioned for Lucy to climb off his back.

Something about the way that Igneel was looking down at her reminded her of her father before she had left the mansion. But underneath his harsh expression, Lucy could tell that Igneel wasn't really mad at her by the softness around his eyes. It felt so fatherly and loving compared to what her father had done to her less than an hour ago that she started to cry.

Igneel freaked out and got very flustered at Lucy's, at least to him, sudden show of tears, "Whoa, Lucy what's wrong? Was it something I said? Did something happen?"

Lucy could barely speak through her harsh sobs that shook her body with every breath. She just fell apart after everything that had happened to her in the last two months. She finally was breaking completely and utterly.

Igneel watched helpless as he saw Lucy break apart. And in that moment Igneel realized that he personally could not help her, she was far too broken for the dragon to put back together. She needed go to with someone who could hold her and sympathize without being a very very old dragon. And he realized that in that moment Lucy needed to go to Natsu. Natsu was the only person who could put her back together again.

But as Igneel thought he was scared of the consequences of bringing her to Natsu because he knew the interaction could easily ease Lucy of all of her problems, but at the same time it could make everything worse. But Igneel soon realized after listening to more of her sobbing that it was a gamble he was going to have to take.

So he did what he could in the meantime, he brought his face to Lucy and softly spoke comforting words while she slowly cried herself into unconsciousness.

After he was certain she was in a deep sleep, Igneel slowly brought her up into his hand and flew the short rest of the way home, to wherever his son was.

For the first time ever Igneel felt nervous about coming home to Natsu. He was sure Natsu would freak out but he hoped that Natsu would calm down and act maturely by the time Lucy woke up. But judging on how tired she seemed wouldn't be for a long time.

When Igneel landed down into the clearing, Natsu came storming up to him as usual asking what he had gotten and why he had taken so long, but Igneel barely heard him over his pounding heart because of his anxiousness over what was going to happen next.

"Natsu!"

Natsu abruptly stopped his rambling and stood straight up at Igneel's yell, "Yes!"

Igneel inwardly smiled at Natsu unsure and slightly scared expression, but didn't show it for the gravity of the situation. He put his face right in front of Natsu and calmly stated, "Son, I'm going to tell you something really important right now and I don't want you to freak out and make a scene. Got it?"

Natsu just silently nodded instead of saying anything because he knew that when his father got into these types of moods to just listen to what he says without arguing if you don't want to face the consequences.

"Ok now what I'm going to tell you is a very long story, and so sit down and get comfortable. And absolutely don't interrupt me unless I say so. Understood?"

Natsu just silently sat down as his confirmation that he was listening and was going to do what his father told him to do.

As Igneel prepared what he was going to say to Natsu he discreetly brought his hand that was still holding Lucy in front of Natsu so he could show her to Natsu at the right moment.

Igneel took one last deep breath before he started his story.

As Igneel told Natsu about Lucy, he was surprised about how seriously his son was taking it. He honestly expected Natsu to interrupt him at one point or another, but he guessed that Natsu actually does know when to be serious and when he can have fun and play around.

As Igneel got closer and closer to telling Natsu about what happened today, he could barely hear himself of his nervous pounding heart, "Up until today Lucy's Father had mainly ignored her after her Mother's death, I'm not entirely sure what happened but I guess Lucy tried to talk to him, and her father didn't react very well, causing Lucy to be more depressed than she already was. And because of this when I went to go see her today she begged me to take her away from her home.

"And that's what I did.

"But the thing is Natsu, Lucy has been through a really dramatic time, and I'm not sure how she's going to recover from this. You have to be there to help her, she really needs a friend right now, to help her get over this." As Igneel was saying this he brought Lucy out from underneath her hand and showed her to Natsu.

"Oh my god." Natsu gasped out as he ran over to Lucy and saw her expression and how red and puffy her face was from crying for so long.

"Dad, but I don't know what I can do. I'm a dragon, I can't help her," Natsu stayed just away from her though not touching, as if afraid of himself.

"Yes you can Natsu. You're going to help her, because you know what its like to be ostracized, and really sad. Please Natsu help her, she really needs you."

But Natsu could barely comprehend what was happening, but when he saw this girl for first time he wanted to help her, she seemed so fragile and small but at the same time so beautiful, like an angel that had fallen from heaven, with her golden hair framing her face.

Natsu slowly reached out and put his hand on her cheek revelling in the softness of her skin. But as he got closer he realized that Lucy was not as peaceful as she appeared to be from a distance, she had too many burdens on her shoulders. Her eyes were so red and she basically looked like she was just thrown around and couldn't take the weight of the world anymore, her body tense and strained.

Natsu could barely believe that this little girl could harbor all this sadness inside of her. So he picked her up with as much sincerity and gentleness as he could. And held her close to his heart in hopes of protecting her from herself.

Igneel could barely believe what he was witnessing, he had never seen Natsu respond with that much gentleness with anything, and he could even minutely see that Natsu's presence had eased Lucy's mind somewhat, her body seemed more relaxed than it had a few minutes before.

"Igneel, what do I do." Natsu wanted to help this girl so bad he could barely stand it.

"We'll just have to wait for her to wake up, that's all we can do right now, son." Igneel said sadly because he knew they just needed to wait for her to wake up.

Natsu just nodded once and held Lucy just a little bit closer to him.

Both Igneel and Natsu waiting in trepidation for the moment in which Natsu would truly meet Lucy.

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