Chapter 13

Lucy the not so great figure skater

School had ended and Lucy walked home by herself. She and Natsu had agreed to head home and grab their skating stuff before meeting at the outdoor rink at 4. It was only 2:30pm by the time Lucy had gotten to her apartment so she decided to freshen up. She wasn't sure why, but she felt the need to look good to see Natsu. The dude had literally seen her in sweatpants drooling on her pillow while sleeping but she still wanted to impress him.

By this point Lucy was well aware of her feelings towards Natsu, she knew damn well she was whole-heartedly in love with the Pinkett, but she had no plans on pursing him. She had felt this way before with Laxus and that entire situation nearly ruined her. Plus, her liking him didn't mean he liked her back. Lucy had rationalized the night prior with Natsu as an entire accident. He had only pulled her into him to cuddle because he probably thought she was a pillow or something. He had never acted in a way to make her assume he had felt differently, so why should she jump to such crazy conclusions such as pursing him now. In Lucy's mind everything between her and Natsu was completely platonic… how wrong she was though…

Lucy changed into and oversized t-shirt and headed into her bathroom. She curled her hair into soft ringlet curls then brushed them out to make defined beach waves. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, this was something she had begun to do daily because everyday the person looking back at her felt a little more familiar.

Lucy headed out of the bathroom and changed into her skating attire. She had brought one of her skating dresses from her old home. It was a plain light blue skating dress with long sleeves. The skirt of it had a slight shimmer that she loved. She threw on her figuring skating tights that way she wouldn't be cold. Finally, she threw a hoodie and sweats on top for the walk there. She grabbed her skates and checked the time "3:30, perfect! If I start walking now, I'll meet Natsu right on time." Lucy said. She headed out of the apartment and ran out of the restaurant before Alex could even ask where she was going.

Lucy threw on her headphones and began to walk to the skating rink; it was in the center of town so about a 15-20minute walk. As she walked, she sang along to her music, completely oblivious to the world around her. For a moment Lucy felt like she was a child again, walking to the private rink with her mother singing along to whatever song they decided upon.

Before she knew it, she stood before the rink, to her surprise it was completely empty. She walked around the rink, searching for some warning or closed sign that could explain that lack of visitors, but to her dismay there was none. "Great, free rink all to myself." She thought.

Lucy took off her sweats and hoodie and placed them into her skating bag, she then pulled out her skates and quickly laced them up. She pretty much ran from the bench to the rink; she had missed skating dearly over the summer as the town of Fiore didn't have any indoor rinks.

Her skin came to life as she stepped onto the ice, Lucy smiled and began to practice some of her old skills. She started small with some simple jumps and turns but gradually moved into harder moves she knew such as the bielmann spin. Though it took her a few tries to get it down again, she swiftly maneuvered the technique in under 5 minutes.

She continued skating along mindlessly until Natsu had finally arrived at the rink.

"Hey Luce!" He said with a big smile.

"Oh Natsu! Sorry I didn't even hear you walk up. C'mon and get your skates on so we finally find out who the better skater is." She said with a sly grin.

Natsu narrowed his eyes as he smiled, he loved a good challenge. "Since you're so sure you'll win, how about a bet?" He wagered

"Sure, only because I know you're gonna lose this one." She said back.

Natsu walked to the bench and laced up his skates, he got onto the ice and skated to Lucy who was in the center waiting for him.

"If I win you have to do something for me, if you win, I have to do something for you." He said

"This sounds inherently sexual Natsu." She laughed

"Yuck cooties Luce, no not anything like that." He replied while sticking out his tongue and mocking disgust

Lucy slapped his arm. "Hey! Of anything you're the one with cooties!" Lucy retorted.

"Nope women do, sorry Luce, the diagnosis is dire, but you will survive." He replied. He then skated off as Lucy chased him around the rink, neither of them saying what they would win If they won the bet.

The two quickly divided the challenge up, the first part was who was the faster skater, Natsu won immediately. Lucy tried to refute the challenge saying figure skaters focused on agility and form instead of brute speed, but Natsu didn't let up.

"Natsu 1 Lucy 0." He cheered as he skated circles around her. She tried to swat at him but only managed to hit his shadow.

The next challenge was focused on precision, they both did an array of jumps and spins to see who could best. Naturally Lucy won this one as Natsu had never even attempted to do crazy jumps on Ice like Lucy had been trained to.

The two were now in a deadlock. Unsure of how to proceed Natsu suggested something fun and simple

"How about a hockey game, first to score on the other wins."

"Sure! But we don't have any sticks or a puck, we can't really do much without those." Lucy said with a frown.

"Nope we do, that shed over there holds hockey sticks and pucks that way when people use the rink, they can use the community equipment." He said pointing at all old shed next to the rink. He got of the ice and grabbed what the needed.

After they set it up the two skated in the middle with the puck between them

"You ready to lose?" Natsu said baiting her

"I don't know Natsu, are you?" She replied. Natsu threw the puck into the air, and it landed to his left. The match began as both fought for the puck. The game was pretty flawed since there was only the two of them, no ref, and no actual hockey nets. But they didn't care as it was all for fun.

Even though Natsu was the one who had played Hockey as a kid, he struggled to keep up with Lucy as they played; turns out she was good at hockey too. As they played the sun began to set, the sky illuminating with colours of purples and reds. The two didn't even notice as it began to snow once more.

Lucy now had the puck, she was racing full speed towards Natsu's imaginary net, she was so close she could taste victory. She smiled widely as she got ready to smack the puck into the net when the toe pick of her skate dug into a gash made in the ice. She gasped as she fell forward and crashed into the boards, smashing against them with a thud, successfully hitting her head and bashing her knee simultaneously.

Lucy whimpered as she tried to get into a sitting position, the world was spinning, and she felt viciously nauseous. She toppled back over onto the ice, deciding she would lay there until she stopped seeing three of everything.

Natsu dashed towards her, dropping his stick onto the ice when he saw her crash. He watched as she tried to get herself up only to fall over once more. Fear pumped through his veins as he saw a trickle of blood stream from her head onto her forehead. Once he got to her, he dropped to his knees.

"Luce? Lucy? Can you hear me? Open your eyes." He said as he moved her onto his lap. Lucy slowly opened her eyes to see two of Natsu, nausea washed over she again and she groaned.

"Ah Luce your bleeding." He said, he ripped off his scarf and placed it on her head.

Lucy tried to move his hands as she opened her eyes to see him staining his scarf with her blood. "Na-Natsu stop, Lisanna made you that, that might not wash out." She whispered, the lights surrounding the rink seemed far too bright, she squinted as she tried to look up at him.

"Luce, stop fighting, I can get another scarf, I can't get another Lucy." He said firmly as he kept the pressure of the scarf on her head. Lucy closed her eyes again, she felt weak and extremely dizzy.

"But Lisanna made you that one..." She whispered, she felt terrible that he was ruining it because she was a clumsy idiot who forgot what balance was.

"Lucy. Ruining this scarf doesn't mean I lose my last piece of Lisanna; I carry her in my heart. So what if the stupid scarf gets ruined, I'm more concerned with your brains being scrambled right now." He said. Lucy smiled lightly but then made a face of pain, her head was pounding.

Natsu knew Lucy was too weak to sit up, so he scooped her up into his arms and skated to get off the ice. He sat on the bench and laid her, so her head was on his lap. He reached down and grabbed some fresh snow with his hand and placed it on her forehead to help with the pain. She flinched for a second but calmed soon after, the cool of the ice made her head feel less on fire.

The two sat like that in silence for a few moments as Lucy tried to recover. Natsu just stared at her, even like this he thought she was the most beautiful girl to ever walk this earth.

"How ya feeling now Luce? Your head feeling any better?" He asked concerned.

Lucy attempted once more to open her eyes, when she did, she was met with Natsu's gaze. This time she only saw on of him thankfully.

"Yeah, actually quite a bit, the world isn't spinning anymore so I should be good to sit up." She replied in a bit more than a whisper. She slowly lifted herself into a sitting position with Natsu's help.

"We should probably get you home to Alex." He said in a serious tone.

"Yeah, Honestly Natsu I'm not sure I can walk though…" Lucy trailed off; this was super embarrassing she thought. She went from Lucy the figure skater to Lucy the concussed really quick.

"Good thing your best friends with a super strong, super talents hockey player." He said with a laugh. He grabbed Lucy's and his bag and threw them on his back. He then picked up Lucy bridal style and began to carry her home.

3 Band-Aids, a cold cloth, and a Tylenol extra strength later; Lucy was sitting in bed with Natsu beside her and Alex standing before her. She was feeling much better, but she definitely had a concussion.

"Well, you have outdone yourself this time CeeCee, its for sure a concussion which means you should probably have me sleep over on the couch tonight just in case something happens." He said with a sigh. He freaked out when he saw Natsu carry an unconscious Lucy into the restaurant, Natsu explained she had a nasty run in with the rink board and lost miserably. Luckily for him Lucy's bleeding with superficial, no need for any stitches. He would call a doctor tomorrow to go see her since she refused to go to the hospital tonight.

"No big brother really, I'm okay. Go home, Ill call you if anything happens." She said trying to reassure Alex.

"No CeeCee, concussions are serious, you can't stay here alone tonight. I'm putting my foot down on this one." He said firmly. Lucy went to argue back when Natsu jumped in.

"I can stay if you want. I can keep Luce company and sleep on the couch. I'll text you if anything happens" He offered.

Lucy stared at him wide-eyed. She much preferred that idea over Alex staying over, though she loved her brother dearly, he snored so loud that even sleeping on the couch in the next room would keep her up all night.

"Hmmmm." Alex pondered; he didn't love the idea of a boy staying the night with his little sister. The protective part of him wanted to yell no and tell Natsu to go home, but the rational part of his brain, that contained a total of two brain cells according to Lucy, knew Natsu staying was the better option. He knew Natsu would stay up all night at her bedside to make sure she was okay if he needed to. Plus, he had grown quite fond of Natsu over the last few months. Lucy raved about him every time he asked Lucy how school was going. Alex knew Natsu would make the better option here. Also, according to his little sister, his snoring was quite the sleep-disturber.

"Sure Natsu, that's a good idea, you better watch her though. If something happens while your with her just know you will be cut off from my free lunches." He threatened.

Natsu paled, if free lunches were on the line, then he would give Lucy his own brain to make sure she was okay. "I will protect her with everything I have, for the sake of my lunches…. And Luce's health of course." Natsu said trying to cover up for his lunch slip-up. He seriously would do anything in his power to never eat cafeteria food again.

Alex laughed and patted Natsu's shoulders, "She's in your hands…. good luck." He said to Natsu with a smile. He kissed his sister on the forehead lightly and said goodnight.

"Well, since your my patient now Luce, I say we watch movies in bed and munch on whatever you have in your cupboards. Lucy gave a weak laugh, "Alright Doctor Natsu, if that's what your prescribing."

Natsu smiled and rummaged through her kitchen until her found a bag of chips, He came back to her room and turned off all her lights. He sat on the bed next to Lucy and propped her laptop up on his lap. He began to play another Christmas movie since Lucy loved them so much but lowered the screens brightness to not irritate her head.

"Thank you Natsu…" She whispered; her head was leaning on his shoulder as they watched The Grinch.

"For what Luce?" he said with a confused tone.

"For carrying me home, taking care of me tonight. You're an amazing friend." She said while looking up at him. He cringed at the word friend; he didn't like it at all. He looked passed that though and stared into her eyes.

"Yeah Luce, you weigh like a million pounds, you definitely owe me dinner at minimum." He joked.

Lucy laughed and hit his chest lightly. "Shut up dumbass before I give you a concussion too." She jokingly threatened. Natsu laughed, Lucy could hear it rumble through his chest.

Her eyes began to droop as she watched the movie with him. She was half asleep when she felt Natsu move his arm so that her head laid on his chest instead. She heart froze in her chest when she felt his face lean down and kiss the top of her head.

"Good night, Luce." He whispered to her. Lucy smiled, maybe she didn't want to just stay as friends with the boy who stole her heart.

Authors Note: Sorry for the update super late at night. This chapter is kinda a filler but just know big things are coming. Anyways enjoy and Cya!

I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS; I simply write the plot :) all rights are reserved by the creators of Fairy Tail