So here is the 4th chapter to this small story. I am finally done with school and all the celebration that came with it. So I have roughly 3-4 months of really doing nothing other than working a part time job. I kind of feel like some parts of this chapter feel a bit rushed, but that may just be me.
Reference:
Talking - "Quotations"
Thinking - 'Contractions'
Flashback - Italics
Spells, Important people or objects - Bold
A Return Worth Waiting For
Chapter 4
Time Skip 1 ½ days
It was a rather nice night. A night where the moon shone enough to where one could see where he/she was going without having to worry about walking into something. A night where the light breeze of the soft wind made it feel very refreshing. This night, despite having all these qualities, was not a night to be thoroughly enjoyed. Two figures walked through the woods near the edge of town, one leaning on the other's shoulder.
As the two figures walked from the shade into the moonlight their features were revealed to be a rose haired young man and scarlet red haired woman. The man's shirt being absent, apparently lost in the issuing battle beforehand, and both his sandals missing. Though somehow the scarf remained in place around his neck, unscathed. The scarlet haired woman faired better, not visually messed up but simply exhausted with a few scrapes and bruises here and there. She was simply wearing a white shirt and blue skirt as she forgone wearing her armor after making her appearance at the guild.
"Ugh. I really am sorry about this Erza. It was wrong of me to ask you to find us a S-Class mission to go on." The rose haired man humbly apologized.
"No. It's not you're fault Natsu. It's not like you could have expected a couple dark mages to appear and throw you on transport to take advantage of your motion sickness while you were focusing your attention on the Vulcans. Besides, if only I would have properly prepared for this mission, then you wouldn't have been this injured."
"Yeah. I really should fix this weakness of mine. It seems to hinder me more often than not." Natsu lamented.
"Hey. What's this? It's not like you to beat yourself up over something you had little to no control over." Erza berated.
"Eh. Well, what's done is done. By the way, where are we? I kind of zoned off for a bit." Natsu curiously asked.
"If memory serves me right, I believe we are not far from Fairy Hills now." Erza replied
"That means I still have to go to the other side of town to get to my place." Natsu hung his head. His suffering would have to last a bit longer before he could crash in bed.
"Well, y-you know I could let you stay at m-my place." Erza stuttered, her cheeks turning slightly pink. Thankfully it was night so it was unnoticeable in the current lighting.
"Thanks for the offer, but I recall that men aren't allowed there." Natsu responded
"I believe in this case, there can be an exception. Nothing is open at the moment, the situation is rather urgent, and my place is closer. Also, I can treat your wounds at my place." Erza quickly stated. She didn't have what Mira had in mind for Natsu, but she was genuinely concerned for him and wanted him to rest and recover, and in this case it was to be at her place.
"T-thanks Erza. You're a great friend. I-I really mean it." Natsu thanked rather genuinely. Becoming rather embarrassed at the prospect of staying the night at Erza's place.
The rest of the walk was in silence. Natsu was trying to ignore the pain coming from his wounds and Erza was trying to concentrated on keeping him up while trying to keep the strength up to keep walking.
They soon arrived at the dormitory, what Natsu didn't expect was that Erza would literally drag him up all the flight of stairs to her room.
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About fifteen minutes later, Erza had finished bandaging Natsu, which was a good portion of his midsection.
"Ah, finally done. I'm tired." Erza yawned.
"Well, I should be getting to bed as well." Natsu said as he begun to lay on the floor.
"Why are you sleeping on the floor Natsu? It's rather rude of me to invite you to stay here and making you sleep on the floor." Erza asked both concerned and annoyed that he maybe didn't like her.
"What? N-no no. You're not technically making me sleep on the floor. I just didn't want to intrude in on your bed anyways. Besides I always slept on the ground when I was living with Igneel." Natsu frantically replied thinking he may have made her mad.
"Come on Natsu. I insist." Erza said with a sly smile. She really enjoyed how he always thought of others before himself, though it tend to make him suffer. "If anything, this is a lot better than what we used to do." She continued, remembering when she used to bath with him when they were younger.
Natsu eventually gave into Erza's request and joined her in bed not aware of what sharing a bed with a female normally meant. Erza silently laughed at how the moment he got on the bed he crashed face first into the sheets and fell asleep. She then closed her eyes and let sleep overcome her.
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The following day
It was about nine in the morning. The guild was it's rowdy self except the young bartender was talking to the raven haired man, the middle aged blue haired man and the elder master of the guild.
"I'm kind of worried about those two. I figured they would have been back by now, if not last night." The blue haired man expressed his concerns.
"Now now . Let us have faith in Natsu and Erza's ability to do a mission such as the one they took. Natsu even asked for Erza to pick one that wouldn't be particularly long or difficult. They are probably just taking their time to catch up and head back." The old man said.
"Hmph. I bet the Flame-Brain messed up the mission, got himself beat up, and is getting punished by Erza." The raven haired man mumbled. He didn't show it, but he cared for the two.
"I think Erza is just trying to have some Fun with Natsu. She hasn't seen him in almost a year. Those two were always close." The white haired bartender put her two cents in with a coy smile on her face.
Macao and the Master caught the hint and had a perverted grin on their faces. 'Lucky bastard.' they thought
Gray however, didn't catch the hint. He just grunted and went back to eating his breakfast as the doors flew open to reveal Natsu (still with some bandages on him) and Erza besides him.
"WE'RE BACK!" Natsu hollered enthusiastically.
"Welcome back you two!" The bartender greeted.
"You look like you got your ass kicked Flame-Brain." Gray insulted while noticing the bandages on Natsu
Erza just glared at Gray. "I believe you meant to say, 'It looks like you got injured' Gray."
Gray just paled but Mira spoke up. "So did you guys just get back?"
"Actually we finished last night, but as we were taking care of the Vulcans, Natsu was ambushed by two wandering dark mages and by the time we got back everything was closed and he couldn't get treated." Erza explained.
"Yeah so Erza just let me crash at her place after she bandaged me up since my place was on the other side of the city." Natsu finished with a toothy grin.
A squeal was heard from Mira who then continued "Erza! How could you woe our innocent Dragon Slayer into your room for the night you sly devil you. Even more so considering how Fairy Hills is an all girls dormitory!" She teased.
Erza's face quickly matched her hair color. "WE DID NOT DO ANYTHING! I WAS JUST BEING A GOOD FRIEND AND NOT MAKING HIM GO ACROSS TOWN IN HIS PRESENT STATE!" Erza desperately explained. She was telling the truth but the way she was expressing herself made Mira think differently.
By now everyone in the guild was listening in on the conversation, some giving jealous looks to Natsu at the possibility that he bedded Erza.
Natsu on the other hand, had yet to catch on to what they meant by Erza taking him into her room for the night; but then it clicked. Natsu quickly went red.
"We did not do anything! I swear! After she bandaged me up I fell asleep. I did not do anything to her!" Natsu yelled out hoping to break the embarrassing situation he and Erza were placed in. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to announce he stayed at Erza's place or better yet, to have stayed their at all.
"Hah! I knew it! She's too good for you!" Gray laughed at Natsu.
"Gray. Your clothes." A beautiful brunette who seemed to enjoy wearing what seemed to be a bikini for a regular shirt pointed out between gulps out of a barrel of alcohol.
"Huh? Not again!" Gray exclaimed as he looked down to notice he was indeed missing his clothes and was once again in only his boxers. Due to his confusion, he failed to see both an infuriated redhead and rose haired pair hit him with full force. The resulting impact sent him out the building and disappear as a twinkle on the horizon.
"She is / I am not too good for me/him!" They both yelled at Gray before he disappeared from view.
Everyone just froze and stared in shock at what they just saw. It wasn't the fact that Gray was sent flying. It was the fact that both Natsu and Erza were the ones who did it. Mira, who wasn't too overly shocked by the pair's actions, was able to more clearly comprehend what the two blurted out without thinking.
Her everlasting smile quickly turned into a very mischievous grin.
Both the rose haired man and scarlet haired woman felt a chill go down their spines, yet, they were not able to think of who caused it before a voice called out.
"So you two are back." a small old man commented.
Natsu turned around and noticed the old man. "You bet gramps!"
"Good. I want to see you two in my office." He grew serious and turned away.
A few minutes later
"So Natsu, how was your first mission with Erza since her return?" Makarov asked.
"It was great! Just like old times!" Natsu cheerily replied. "If possible I want to be able to go with her on missions more." He added.
"Would that be a problem for you Erza?" The guild master questioned.
"Actually, I quite enjoyed his company on the mission, and while he was injured, it was not exactly his fault. So, I quite like the idea of him joining me for more missions."
"Now that you brought it up, what happened to Natsu here?" Makarov replied genuinely curious as to who actually injured one of the guilds top members.
"Basically in the middle of fighting the Vulcans, some wandering dark mages happened by, recognized Natsu, and decided to ambush him by taking hold of his weakness to transportation. I shamefully failed to notice as I was concentrated on fighting off the Vulcans." Erza hung her head at the last part.
"Now now child. Not everyone is perfect. You can't expect yourself to do everything." Makarov wisely explained.
A small silence was ensued until Natsu finally broke it.
"Well, if there is not anything else. I'm heading home." He waved as he turned to the door of the office to walk out.
"Very well. You may leave." Makarov stated.
"Natsu, need me to accompany you? You're still injured." Erza asked worriedly.
"Nah, I'm fine. I'm basically all healed up. I feel like I can take on the world right now!" Natsu replied with his signature grin.
"Oh really?" Erza face became overshadowed followed by a very sly smirk. "You think you can take me on then?" She then asked as her town grew darker, yet more mischievous.
Natsu, who realized what was about to happen, made a break for the door. However, he was not slow enough. Erza tackled him and sent them both crashing through the door.
"GOD DAMMIT! That was the third door this month!" Makarov yelled out in rage. "Why can't anything stay intact around here for longer than one day?!"
This ends chapter 4. I kind ran myself into a corner here. I made it where I lack some ideas, mostly towards the end of the chapter, as I noticed it seem rushed. Any who, as always, tell me what you think by giving a review, and if you want, leave a suggestion. I shall see you all later.