*Hides in giant trench*

Okay, I know what you're thinking ... I suck. I seriously do suck. OI, STOP TRYING TO THROW TOMATOES AT ME! *cries chibi tears*

I've had a really rough last 8 months or so, ok? I've been super depressed and just secluding myself to my room and just neglecting everything pretty much. So I finally just decided to write and see what happened, and here's what I got. Sorry if this chapter sucks, I did my best, ok?

Anyways thank you for all the support I still get for this story, I'm getting follows/favorites/reviews at least once a week in my inbox (which lets be honest feels pretty damn awesome to know you guys still want this sucky plot-hole filled story to continue).

As always please ignore any spelling/grammar errors as I am one very, very, very sleep deprived teenager.

Hope you enjoy c:

PS: I winged this so yeah, I'm honestly praying to kamisama that it doesn't suck as much as I think it does.

Lucy watched the ball land right in the middle of her team and Lamia Scale's. Lyon made a dash for it at almost inhuman speed, as did Gray. Their kicks hitting it in such perfect synchronization that the ball flew upwards from the force. Natsu jumped and knocked it with his head, the only female player noticing the hand signals he was sending her moments before he pushed off the ground.

'Coming your way.'

She timed it so that the ball didn't even get a chance to hit the grass. As soon as it was in her range, she shot it forward a few inches and started running. Lyon and a short guy with insane eyebrows were on her tail, but Gray and Loke were already guarding her front. Natsu quickly cut off the bushy-eyebrow guy and was working on Lyon.

It didn't take long before they were closing in on Lamia Scale's goal, Lucy could feel a certain pair of eyes burning holes into her the entire time. His name - Jura. He was a rather large and older looking senior, but a soccer legend. His eyes were challenging her, watching her so intensely he could probably count the beads of sweat on her forehead.

She quickly checked her surroundings – Gray and Loke had spread out more but Natsu and Lyon were still on her heels. The other LS members were starting to surround the goal with the intention of intercepting any pass she tried to make. A glace to the main scoreboard told her there was only a few minutes left, which meant she had to act now.

'Where? Where, where, where, where – I'm basically surrounded - I should've run faster! Shit, think stupid, think! If I can't go through … I'll just go above.'

The blonde gave the hand signals indicating what she wanted to do. Gray and Loke nodded slightly, and she could see pink hair approaching in her peripheral vision. As she started to get more surrounded, and a boy that almost resembled a dog closed in on her, she went on the defensive. Shuffling the ball rapidly between her feet caused the dog-boy to become horribly confused. She kicked it up behind her slightly, then rapidly spun around and shot it into the air.

Oh well - there goes her back and hip muscles for three days or so, but she was able to the ball heading towards her team members.

Gray was the first to reach it. He brought it back down with him and started defending from Lyon. Taking a risky chance he kicked with all his strength and managed to get the ball to Natsu, who immediately had to fend off bushy-eyebrow boy. Natsu made eye contact with the orange haired playboy, passing it to him skillfully. By now they were in the upper corner of LS's territory, but you could only see the goal itself from the corner of your eye.

Loke quickly thought about the angles of the shot and the probability of making it in, and with only about a minute and a half to go, he decided to give it a chance. He kicked it in that weird way he does, putting a spin on the ball that caused it to go straight and then hard right. As it began to curve in the air, all the players basically stopped and watched because they honestly didn't know where it was going to go. It started to descend and was coming down about 70ish feet away from the goal, which by chance was right next to Lucy.

Said girl jumped and gave a mighty round house kick, the ball's momentum quickly changing direction and heading right for the goal. Jura, who came out of the goalie's area in the expectation of Loke trying to directly shoot it in, was frozen stiff. He barely registered Loke's weird kick in general that caused the ball to spin that way, and hardly expected the petite blonde to hit it with so much force that you could hear it swish through the air. The ball only stopped when it made contact with the net, at which point the timer ran out and the stands started to explode with noise.

The announcers confirmed that it was a valid shot, even though it came super close to the time limit. Fairy Tail won by a smidge-bit, and it was all thanks to the blonde girl who had failed to get up from the ground.

"Luce, that was amazing! You seriously saved our asses –" Natsu stopped talking as he got closer, noticing how she was holding her ankle gently and her face was cast downwards. "Oi, Lucy. What's wrong?"

She didn't respond, only burying her face deeper behind the few pieces of hair that came loose from her pony tail.

Natsu shooed away the concerned players who started to gather around and knelt down to her level, slowly starting to take off her left shoe.

"It's alright Natsu, I just jammed it with that goal," she tried to retract her leg from him, only for him to grip onto her foot and Lucy to hiss in protest.

"I'm going to look at it, don't even try to get out of this," he glared at her with a look she didn't even know he could produce, one that made her freeze and gulp silently. He gingerly slipped her shoe and sock off, sighing when he saw a very large bruise forming on the front of her now-starting-to-rapidly-swell foot and ankle. "Dammit Lucy, you kicked it too hard."

"If I didn't it wouldn't have gone straight, it would've just flown off to the side somewhere. I had to counter Loke's momentum with even more force so –"

"Just shut up. Don't try to change the subject by bringing logic into this or whatever," he stuffed her sock into her shoe and handed it to her. She held onto the muddy footwear while he picked her up bridal style and started walking towards the stands. "You shouldn't have done that … it could've broken your ankle."

"I told you, it's not broken – just bruised," she countered.

"Lucy!" he stopped walking and his grip on her tightened slightly. "Just, please … don't do it again."

She tried to look at his face, but he held it high enough so she couldn't make out an expression.

"… Sure Natsu … but you know, I'll be fine in a couple of days. Just some ice and anti-inflammatory medication and I'll be good to go."

He didn't respond, and Lucy's efforts to try to get down and walk on her own were ignored as well.

"Oi, Lis, Mira," he called out to the two white haired siblings who appeared to be on their way into the field from the bleachers to celebrate.

"Nat – Oh god, Lu-chan!" Lisanna ran over and frantically looked the blonde over. "What happened?!"

"She was stupid in her attempt to make that goal, she hurt her ankle pretty bad. Can you guys get her cleaned up in the locker room? After that I'll take her to the nurse's office and bandage her ankle."

"Yeah, sure thing," Mira nodded.

"Of course," Lisanna added.

"Thanks," he continued to the locker rooms, the two girls following right behind him.

He walked into the girls' locker room and gently sat Lucy down on a bench.

"I'll be outside waiting – don't rush or anything," he glanced at Lucy's injury one more time before hastily turning away and walking out.

"Lucy," Mira's voice sounded pained as she examined her ankle.

"It's just bruised and jammed Mira, nothing to be worried about."

"You can't take this lightly though, you have to take care of yourself," Lisanna chided, starting to help Lucy undress.

"I wasn't thinking about my wellbeing or anything. I saw the shot and I took it, that's all."

"Come on, let's get you showered off first and then we can talk after," Lisanna spoke as the Strauss siblings practically undressed her and carried her to the showers.

After Natsu heard the showers turn on, he walked off towards the boys' locker room. Stripping faster than Gray, he stalked into the showers and turned one on full blast. As the water washed over his sweat and dirt covered body, he held a clenched hand against the wall. Sure he would've done the same thing as her, no question about it, but … to see her get hurt … it infuriated him more than he could even hope to understand.

Let me know how I did after coming back after like a year of not updating. It would be much appreciated :) I don't know when we'll see the next chapter, but hopefully it won't be as bad as this last time. Sorry again guys, and thanks for sticking with me so far.