He didn't know how long they sat in the bottom of the shower holding on to one another, it could been hours or it could have been minutes, but eventually long after their hands had wrinkled, Lucy slumped against his chest and fell into a deep sleep. Finally Natsu took a good look at her, there was still glass protruding from her hand and still small trickles of blood made their way down her body in to the drain, but apart from that there was no serious damage done to Lucy from her meltdown. A small knock on the shower door pulled Natsu's eyes from Lucy to the small dragon slayer look at the blonde concern clearly etched into her face. Looking around the room Natsu realised at some point everyone had cleared out of the bathroom to give him and Lucy space. "Natsu-san, can you take her to the bed so I can look at her wounds?" Wendy timidly asked the older man.
Without answering her Natsu scooped up the spirit mage and tenderly carried her to one of the beds in the infirmary. Happy flew over to him and perched himself on Natsu's head, everyone else simply watched him silently asking him if she was okay. "She'll be fine." Was all he said eyes never leaving Lucy. Wendy gingerly checked Lucy's wounds before retrieving tweezers to remove various pieces of glass; he hand shook as she reached for the first piece. Natsu's warm hand enveloped Wendy's as he took the tweezers out of her hand "I'll do it." He said to the sky goddess knowing she didn't want to. Wendy quietly thanked Natsu as he carefully pulled out the first piece.
Lucy's eyes shot open with pain as it exited her body, but she managed to stifle the scream threating to rip through tightly closed lips. She looked up and met Natsu's onyx eyes. "Sorry, but it needs to come out." Was all he said as he reached for another piece, Lucy simply nodded her head and sat still anticipating the pain of the next shard. It took some time but eventually all the glass was removed from Lucy and Wendy healed and bandaged her up again. By this point it was only the three dragon slayers, Happy and Lucy left. Everyone else had gone down stairs to greet and inform the rest of the guild of Lucy's condition.
Happy had moved from Natsu's head to sit himself in Lucy's lap and she ran her fingers through his blue fur feeling comforted by the once common habit. "Right bunny girl," Gajeel said, pushing himself off the wall to walk over to Lucy, "feeling better? Or do I need to wrap your hands in cotton to prevent you from punching anything else?" Natsu growled at Gajeel and Wendy only looked at the Iron slayer with narrowed eyes.
"Gajeel shu-"Natsu stared only to be interrupted by the girl originally addressed.
"I'm fine now, I'm sorry I caused so much trouble." Lucy said as she looked at Happy who was purring happily in her arms, ignoring everything going on around him. Lucy could help but smile at the little guy, wishing she could be as oblivious as the small blue cat was half the time. "Trouble is something that follows you like a bad smell Miss Heartifilia. The thing you should be saying sorry to be that mirror. It didn't really deserve to get punched did it?" Lucy could help but giggle at Gajeel's comment. In a small way she's glad it was him who pulled her out of the pit, he was a close enough friend that she felt safe when she realised it was him and not him but not so close that she felt like he would never see her as just Lucy again. It was different now of course, Lucy would always think of Gajeel as a close friend and he would always be one of the people she would seek comfort from. "It's good to have you back bunny girl." Gajeel said as he pat Lucy on the head and left the room.
Lucy smiled at the familiar nickname. "Lucy-san?" Wendy's small voice broke the quiet air and Lucy looked over to the young girl.
"You patched me up didn't you Wendy, sorry for ruining your hard work and making you start over and thank you." Lucy smiled softly at the dark haired girl, honestly feeling guilty for making her start over.
"It's okay Lucy-san, I'm glad I could help you and I'm happy you're feeling better. If there's anything you need make sure you ask okay." Wendy reached for Happy and carried the Exceed outside claiming Mirajane had a fish just for him. Lucy smiled at the two leaving the room, it almost felt as if she never… left? Is that the right word for it? Or should she say was never kidnapped? She didn't really want to every say that. Kidnap didn't feel like the right word for what happened to her, but neither did left. As Lucy sat thinking this over, Natsu watched her curious to what she could be thinking so hard about the she made the cute thinking face he'd sometimes see on her when she was writing her book.
Lucy felt a pair of eyes watching her, looking up Lucy met Natsu's onyx gaze. Fear shot through her as she thought over everything that could go wrong in the next minute. What if he only came because they made him? What if he left her again? What would Lisanna say when she found out that he maybe boyfriend was in the shower with her? Then Lucy noticed the look Natsu was giving her. He looked… scared? No, Natsu doesn't get scared. What does Natsu the almighty have to fear? "I'm sorry Lucy." Natsu said his eyes watering and over flowing, Lucy looked at him shocked. What does he have to be sorry for? "I'm sorry I didn't notice that you were feeling lonely at the guild. I thought you were just giving me time to catch up with Lisanna, so I thought I'd repay you by not breaking in anymore. Give you some time to write your book." Lucy was stunned; he had not been breaking in to please her? "I'm sorry I didn't come after you straight away, I thought you had gone on vacation or something so I didn't want to invade your piracy." Lucy was speechless. Natsu had ignored her, because he thought that's what she wanted, not because he no longer knew she existed.
"Natsu I-"She began only to have him stop her mid-sentence.
"Let me finish. I'm sorry I did come for you and I let everything that happened, happen. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me and that I choose not to be around you because I didn't think you'd want me here after everything I've done. And I'm sorry that I made you think I thought you were disgusting, I could never think that of you Luce. I love you, no matter what." Natsu finished. Tears cautiously fell from the fire mages eyes. Lucy was stunned she never expected this from Natsu of all people. Delicately Lucy reached for Natsu's hand and laced her fingers between his.
"Natsu," She said trying to get him to look at her, "Natsu, look at me." Lucy said, squeezing him hand gently. Slowly Natsu looked up at her. Enchanted by her brown eyes that had slightly regained their glow. "I love you too." Was all Lucy said before she slowly leaned forward to lightly connect their lips. Although Lucy's body screamed for a more intimate contact with Natsu, her mind found even holding his hand difficult. Lucy moved away from his lips but still held his hand a small smile erupted on her face, as a small blush erupted on Natsu's. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers. "I love you so much Lucy. I'll never let anything like this happen to you every again. I'll always be here for you."
Lucy moved back from him and scooped over on the bed patting the spot next to her. Slowly Natsu climbed in and wrapped him arms around Lucy. Just as they were drifting off to sleep Lucy whispered "You better you silly lizard."
So… Two weeks… oops… again. But look they kissed aw. There's only like two chapters to go. I promise that the next one will be up in a week. I swear. And if it makes you guys feel better karma bite me the other day for not uploading because my fucking car broke down. It was super embarrassing at the petrol station. Thank you all for your patience and reviews. I love you all.
Anyway anyone who hasn't read the new chapter of the manga stop reading here.
OMG! I'm fucking psychic! Was anyone else like OMG ECLIPSE! They're going to sacrifice Lucy for immortality! How cool would that be if they do? Like not for Lucy of course, but for me that would be epic. I would feel like I've been published. So neat.