Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: The result of the poll was a Laxus x Lucy pairing, but as the Rogue x Lucy pairing was nearly there, I've decided to write this story as a LaLu with slight RoLu and perhaps later work on pure stories of RoLu and LaLu each. Enjoy! (And if you find the first part of the story very confusing, thank you. This was the point I was trying to make.)
8. A Dragon's Flight
Time rewound. Thunder bellowed and Lucy felt her body froze as if Gray had decided to attack her. An ancient clock ticked loudly away inside her mind. She shrieked in fear of finally going mad. However, the piercing pain hit her hard and she curled up, trying to keep the fire inside her from getting out. Her back erupted and magic oozed out of it like blood. Lucy screamed.
The wings spread from the wound and this time, she could not hold back her tears. They glistened on her pale skin, but her eyes were fixed on one face in the crowd.
Natsu had frozen on the spot, staring at her. His eyes were wide and he seemed to be in the middle of telling her something. "What?" she wanted to ask, but no sound came out. She moved her mouth like a fish.
Only then she realized she was falling no more. She was floating, no flying. She had wings? But that made no sense! She shook her head, dizzy from the pain, and reached carefully out her fingers to touch her back. She brought it back almost immediately, feeling the familiar zap of electricity. Her eyes flew to Laxus, who like Natsu had his eyes fixed on her.
There was something strained in his eyes and Lucy wondered why. She spread the wings carefully, but there was no need. They clapped once and created a wind so strong Wendy had to swallow most of it to save them all from blowing away. The blond girl turned her head and gasped in fear and admiration.
There were indeed wings, but for such a petite body, they were far too enormous. Scales covered them and they were wired, buzzing loud enough to ward off enemies. Lucy admired them and spread her arms to catch her balance. The wings kept her in air, nearly unmoving, but she felt the power leaving her body. There was no way she had that much latent magic in her. It had to come from somewhere else. She realized it fast enough.
Lightening magic. The only magic to give off electricity in her companionship and the only person to use it was Laxus.
Lucy turned her eyes to him the moment an enemy's blade grazed his arm. The girl let out a scream, before descending - although not as the most graceful flier, she ended up more falling than flying - to the earth. However, the wings didn't disappear. Lucy fell to her knees, from fear and desperation. If her wings stole power from others stronger than her - she would have agreed to fall into pieces. She'd rather die than let her friends be killed because of her.
Everything happened too fast, she realized, falling face forward, unsure why she was doing it. She felt drained and her back ached terribly. "Laxus," she murmured, scared he might have got otherwise injured.
"Lucy-san, hang in there!" She heard stand out from the voices whispering. There were too many sounds. Everything quiet stood out almost painfully. Lucy kept her eyes closed and allowed herself to drift into the darkness.
"You okay, blondie?" was the first thing she heard after waking up. She opened her eyes and rubbed them to clear her vision. She was in the ... and on the bed beside her sat Laxus, fixing up something like a bandage on his arm.
"Yeah, I think so," Lucy said."How did I..?" Before she was able to finish her question, memories came flooding back. "I used your power," she whispered, peeking through eyelids to see how angry he was. Laxus shrugged it off.
"No big deal," he said, staring at her curiously.
"Did Levy.." she started, but Laxus shook his head no, before she could answer. Awkward silence fell between the two and Lucy decided to sit up. The movement was blindingly painful and she was surprised to feel two strong arms on her shoulders.
"You should stay down," the young man said and Lucy relaxed immediately. His faint smell soothened her. She sighed in contentment.
"So what was it?" he asked, voice indifferent. Lucy didn't answer. Seeing how she wasn't going to reply any time soon, he stood and laid his brownish coat over the motionless body, tucking her in. Without saying a word, he left.
Lucy breathed in deeply.
"Laxus-san is very kind, isn't he?" a sweet voice said and the blonde smiled. "He has been waiting for you to wake up, although his cover was to change his bandages," Wendy said, raising the coat up a little. "Let me see your wounds."
Lucy allowed Wendy to get close to her, noticing how her whole upper body was in bandages that were coloured red by now.
"These wounds are really weird, Lucy-san," Wendy admitted, deciding to not remove them. "Gray-san had to freeze them so that we could get them tied up. Everyone was really worried."
"I'm sorry," Lucy whispered. She didn't dare to move and Laxus' coat gave off the strange comforting warmth she'd been missing ever since her mother died. The warmth spread. Her fingertips tingled and like wires, the warmth found a way to the wounds. Blood dripped from the bandages and she hurriedly sat up, head dizzy.
"There is no curse more awful than the one of dragonriders," she heard Levy say, but she didn't entirely understand. She felt the meaning of the warmth, her body mending itself. When she was ready the slashes on her stomach and back had nearly fixed themselves, she removed the bandages.
Her stomach was covered with skin-like scales, so tiny you'd probably not notice them. Although they were beautiful, Lucy realized with dread how little protection they gave from her insides, if the strange wings were to burst through her body again.
Levy ruffled her hair sadly, before sitting down. Lucy was drifting again, hand on half-removed bandages. Wendy stared from the corner of the room, feeling the call of the sleeping woman. Her heart was beating erratically.