A/N: Here we go! Finally got another chapter finished!

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I'm glad to hear that you're all liking my story! :D Hopefully this chapter doesn't disappoint - althoguh it's not my best (damn writers block!) BUT hopefully the next chapter will be better, because I know what I wanna do, so no writers block yay! :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail!

Enjoy!

Chapter 24

Lucy was with Natsu in the nurse's office when Makarov came to question them. They each told their account of what happened, and he seemed to be satisfied with them, but Natsu still got a week of detention for fighting. Lucy was off the hook because she's a first time offender and model student. Plus, she wasn't really fighting - she was trying to stop it.

"I hope you feel better soon," he told Natsu before walking out.

"Hey, at least I'll get a scar from this," Natsu grinned to Lucy when they were alone.

She didn't laugh.

"Luce, I'm fine," he told her gently, cupping her cheek. "Don't worry so much,"

"But you almost weren't," she whispered. "He nearly stabbed you – Natsu, he could've killed you!" she burst, tears forming in her eyes.

"But he didn't," he told her gently, wiping the escaped tears. "Because of you."

Lucy's eyes widened slightly.

"You stopped him," he continued. "Luce, you saved my life," he told her seriously.

She leant forward and hugged him tightly, the tears flowing freely now; he hugged back just as hard. After a moment, she loosened her grip, leaning back to look him right in the eye.

"I love you," she said softly. It was the first time either of them had said it.

"I love you too, Luce," he replied, smiling back at her.

Natsu moved over in the bed, making room so that Lucy could get on and snuggle up next to him. They lay there in comfortable silence – he was playing with her hair while she played with his fingers.

They both eventually fell asleep.

Lucy woke up momentarily confused. She knew immediately that she was in Natsu's arms, but it took her a while before she remembered that they were still in the nurse's office.

Then she heard the giggling.

Groggily, she turned to see a familiar figure. "Levy-chan?" she slowly sat up, trying not to wake Natsu.

"Morning, Lu-chan!" she grinned.

"Morning," Lucy yawned. "What's up?"

"I just came to tell you guys what happened last night," she said, sitting down on the chair next to the bed. "He might wanna hear this," she added, nodding to Natsu.

Lucy turned and gently shook him to wake him up.

"Luce?" he mumbled, not opening his eyes. His arms reflexively snaked around her waist, pulling her closer.

"Natsu, you need to wake up," she told him firmly. "Levy has news for us,"

"Huh? Oh, hi Levy," he said, finally opening his eyes. He sat up on the bed next to Lucy, who leaned back against him.

"Okay, so Laxus got expelled," Levy burst. "Sting, Rogue, Freed and Bickslow all got suspended: Sting for three weeks, and the others for one,"

"Serves them right!" Lucy cried.

"Gajeel got a week's detention," Levy added.

"Looks like you'll have a buddy," Lucy said, turning to her boyfriend.

He just scowled and turned away. "Great," he mumbled sarcastically.

"So, does that mean you've spoken to Gajeel?" Lucy asked the small girl.

Levy turned pink and nodded. "Yeah, he came to find me and tell me all this,"

"That's great, Levy-chan," Lucy smiled. "You know he was fighting for you, right?"

Levy just turned away, not answering. Lucy could see her lips twitching a little at the corners.

She was saved from answering when Wendy and Romeo burst into the room.

"Natsu-nii! Are you okay?" she cried, running to his side. Romeo stood behind her.

"I'm fine, what are you doing here?" he asked, frowning.

"Mira-san told me what happened," she said quickly. "I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to the game last night! We had stacks of homework to do, so we figured it would be okay to miss one game,"

"It's okay," Natsu told her, patting her head. "I'm glad you weren't there,"

She didn't answer, just stood there eyeing the bandage on her brother's neck.

"Lucy-nee, did you really save Natsu-nii?" Wendy asked, eyes on the blonde.

"She sure did!" Natsu grinned before Lucy could answer.

"Wow," Wendy replied, eyes wide. She ran around to Lucy's side of the bed and flung herself at her. "Thank you so much!"

"You don't need to thank me," Lucy told her. "I just did what I had to," she smiled softly at Natsu, who squeezed her hand.

Wendy jumped on the bed on top of both of them. "I'm so glad you guys are okay!"

Levy smiled at them while Romeo sweat dropped.

After much discussion, Natsu finally convinced Lucy and Wendy that he was well enough to go into town for the afternoon - Happy was the game changer. They agreed to three hours in the park for a picnic, and then straight back to campus to rest.

They managed to sneak Happy out pretty easily, and – as expected – Wendy was smitten.

"He's so adorable!" she cried, holding the cat up as they walked through the town. "Romeo-kun, just look at his little face!" she held him up for her boyfriend to see.

"Yeah, he is pretty cute," Romeo answered.

"How come you get a cat?" Wendy whined, pouting at her brother.

"He's Lucy's as well," Natsu reminded her.

"But still…"

"We found him! It's not like we went and bought him,"

"Well I'm going to ask Mum if I can get my own cat!"

"Do whatever you want, I don't care!"

"My cat is going to be much cuter than yours!"

"No way!"

"Yes way! And it's going to be a girl, so she'll be much smarter too!" she poked her tongue out.

"Okay, that's enough!" Lucy said, finally stepping between the fighting siblings. "Why don't we eat now?" she asked.

They set up and enjoyed their picnic while playing with Happy, who was very excited to be out.

"He seems more like a dog than a cat," Lucy chuckled, watching him run around.

"Maybe that's just how blue cats act – you've never seen one before, so you'd have no idea," Natsu said.

"That's true," Lucy said. "But I don't think it works that way,"

Once the three hours were up, they packed up and headed back to campus, Happy hiding in the now empty basket.

"Do you want to come with us to the common room?" Lucy asked the middle schoolers. "Since you didn't get your full day in town,"

"That sounds like fun," Wendy said. "Do you want to, Romeo?"

"Sure," he smiled.

So, after dropping Happy off in Natsu's dorm, the four of them headed to the common room, where they met the rest of their group.

They decided to watch a movie, since Natsu was supposed to be resting.

As Lucy had hoped, Natsu fell asleep halfway through. She chuckled when she first felt his chest vibrating from his snores. When they got louder, however, she got annoyed and lifted his scarf so that it was sitting lightly over his mouth – he could still breathe, but the sound was muffled.

Just then, a girl with short silver hair came up to them. She looked a little like Lisanna, but Lucy had never seen her before.

"Excuse me," she said quietly and politely. "Lucy-san and Natsu-san?"

"Uh, yeah," Lucy replied, sitting up.

"My name is Yukino, and I am here to apologise for Sting and Rogue's behaviour towards you and your friends," she said, bowing.

"Sorry?" Lucy was so confused.

"Sting is my cousin, and Rogue is my boyfriend," she explained. "And I found out today everything that they have done to you. I wanted to apologise for their terrible behaviour,"

"Oh," Lucy replied. She didn't know what to say. She noticed that Natsu had stopped snoring, but he was still pretending to sleep.

"I don't know why Sting is the way he is, but Rogue is not normally like that," Yukino told her. "He's normally a really sweet guy, but since he became friends with Sting, he's been involved in more fights. He says he just wants to protect his friend, but…" she trailed off. "I just want my Rogue back!"

Lucy just looked at her. She felt really bad for the girl; that must be so tough.

"I'm sorry!" she suddenly cried. "I didn't mean to blurt all that out!"

"It's fine," Lucy told her.

The truth was, Lucy couldn't help but like Yukino. Not only was it really brave to come to the people that her cousin and boyfriend tormented to apologise, which Lucy admired, but there was something else about her that Lucy couldn't quite put her finger on.

"It always seemed like Rogue just followed what Sting did," Lucy told her. "I'm not saying it wasn't wrong, but Sting was definitely the leader in every encounter we've had with them,"

"I'm so sorry," Yukino said again. "I will definitely be talking to them – hopefully I can get through to them,"

"Thank you for that, we'd all appreciate it," Lucy smiled. "And thank you for apologising – that's not your job to do, and it takes a lot of courage. You have no idea what we're like - for all you knew, we could have turned on you," she frowned.

"Actually, I do," Yukino said quietly. "I'm in the grade below you, and everyone in my class admires you and Natsu-san – all of your friends, actually. I hear so many stories of your kindness. Hearing them is what helped me know that I had to come here,"

Lucy stared at her wide-eyed. She'd had no idea that her and her friends were so popular around the school. I mean, sure they were cheerleaders and football players, but still. Wow.

"Thank you," Lucy told the girl warmly. "I really hope you can get through to them – and that we can maybe be friends one day?"

"I'd like that very much," Yukino smiled back. "I should go – I have a lot of apologising to do – but please tell Natsu-san when he wakes up,"

"I will," Lucy promised.

When Yukino was gone, Lucy poked Natsu in the stomach.

"Ow," he mumbled. "What was that for?"

"For pretending to be asleep, instead of talking to the poor girl!"

Natsu sat there silently for a minute, scowling.

"You're too nice," he eventually mumbled.

Once the movie finished, Wendy announced that her and Romeo were going back.

"We'll see you soon," Lucy said, hugging Wendy tightly.

"Hai!" she called.

Lucy turned to Romeo. "You're not getting away without a hug," she told him, pulling his small frame into her arms.

"Bye, Lucy-san," he said.

"Seeya squirts," Natsu said, ruffling both their hair.

The scowling teens waved and ran off together.

"Should we study now?" Lucy asked.

"Lucy!" Natsu cried. "I'm injured, I thought I needed to rest!"

"You have rested," she told him. "You can study a bit, then rest a bit," she told him.

"But Luce," he pleaded.

"Look, Gray's studying," Lucy pointed to where he was sitting with Juvia.

"No he's not – he's moping because he missed the fight last night,"

"Well, at least he has his books out," Lucy said. "So he's doing better than you – I thought you hated losing to him?"

"I can handle it this once,"

"I'm not so sure you can," she winked.

Natsu groaned as the giggling blonde grabbed his hand and led him away from the comfy couch and large TV.

A/N: sorry this chapter was a little filler-ish haha

Also, I don't really ship Yukino and Rogue, it's just that I wanted to put her in, and it seemed like an interesting idea to explore :) I really like Yukino, and I kinda like Rogue as well, he seems like he actually is a nice guy, the way he looks out for Frosch :3

Anyways! Please review and hopefully I'll get the next chapter up real soon! I'll try get it done before I have to go babysit, but I also need to have lunch and a shower (it's 1:21pm and I'm still in my Pjs :P haha)

Much love! x