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petri808 · 6 years

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Porcelain Doll

Chapter 3 of It Was Always You

It has been about a month since Natsu and Lucy have officially become a couple when Lucy goes out on a mission with Shadow Gear and comes back a little worse for wear. How will the over protective dragon handle it?

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To say he was angry was like saying his battle against his brother had merely been sibling rivalry gone just a little askew, no Natsu was furious, livid, hell there wasn’t a word yet created to describe how he felt when Lucy walked into the guild hall. He was already irritated that she had been gone on the week-long mission with Shadow Gear without him but had relented at her and Levy’s persistence that it would be a simple, no danger involved, we’re just gonna translate and catalog for the Magic Library some new materials they had received request.

And now he stood there, heat waves flaring off his body, mid-transformation, staring at his mate with a swollen lip, black eye, and limping as she desperately tried to calm him down, begging, pleading that it really wasn’t that bad, it was no ones fault that a shelf decided to break under the weight of ancient manuscripts at the same moment she had been adding to it’s volumes.

She was using every trick she had gained in all her years of knowing the slayer, all her skills to tame and soothe the demon back into submission and it was slowly working, first the reversal of his physical changes, then gradually his temperature began to come down. Almost ready to take a sigh of relief that’s then it happened, of all the times to add to her dilemma now, when she had finally got Natsu to calm down! She sneezed. And not just one of those cute, something tickled her nose sneezes, but a loud, mucus driven, no air left in your lungs expulsions when you’re suffering from a cold. Twice.

He roared and surged again towards the cowering guild mates that he blamed for her condition, she pushed desperately against his frame, bracing him from moving forward, and now Gajeel and Gray had joined to hold him back.

“Please Natsu!” her tears are streaming at this point of desperation. “It’s nothing Wendy or Porlyusica couldn’t fix…” but before she can finish the growl he emits sends chills down her spine.

“They aren’t here!”

“W-What?” she stops pushing.

“They left yesterday and won’t be back for at least a week!” tugging harder at the arms holding him, “damn it let me go you bastards! Gajeel you know damn well if it were Levy you’d be…”

“Oh, don’t lump me into this, Salamander,” the iron slayer only tightens his hold, “Yes I’d be pissed but I got more brain cells to know this ain’t worth killing over.”

“Come on man,” Gray tries to reason with him, “Lucy will be fine, she’s tough, just some good ‘ole rest and patching up and she’ll be good to go. Cause we ain’t letting ya go till you calm the fuck down!”

“Fuck you!”

Lucy let’s out a long, drawn out exhale to calm herself down. The team had known Porlyusica was not home since they stopped there first, knowing this is exactly how Natsu was going to respond. They had even checked Fairy Hills for Wendy, but she too had not been home, and they’d hoped she’d simply be at the guild; well now they know why. Just Great. The spirit mage knew she really wasn’t as bad as he was acting like she was, damn it she wasn’t a porcelain doll, and she understood his possessive side which had only grown worse after consummating their bond, but still… Another exhale, she needed to get him settled down again, this was her problem, her duty, not the guilds.

With the two men holding her mate firmly enough, Lucy cups his blazing cheeks and forces him to look at her directly. She holds his gaze, searching, imploring, his emeralds still fiery as they melted her chocolate hues, moisture teeming again, her lips part, sweeping into a smile and voice is soft, gentle like a delicate flower petal despite the sniffles she was holding at bay. “Natsu,” kissing his lips ever so tenderly, “My love, my mate, I need you to come back to me. If Wendy is not here I will need your help until I feel better. Please?”

His head lowers and rests against her forehead as his body stills. Oh, Mavis he was still livid, but she was right, he need to take care of his responsibilities, and Lucy was his priority not these idiots around him; he could beat them up a little later; a twitch of his lip at that last thought. Finally, it’s his turn to exhale and relax his body. “Alright…”

She tilts his head back up and kisses him again, “Take me home, dragon.”

First things first, he leaves her next to the tub to strip while he runs a bath for his mate and gathers other necessities. As the water fills he checks her over more closely and aside from the black eye and lip that is less swollen than it was earlier, noting bruises on her side over her ribs and likely the bones themselves where the shelf had come to land, and the ankle that was inflamed and would need to be wrapped, received as she tried but failed to get out of the way. Another round of sneezes. Now that was another issue. With her energy reserves lowered, catching a cold on their way back was a new problem developing quickly and just in the half hour from when they had met up at the guild, the congestion had gotten worse, and was well on its way towards the next symptom.

Body sore all over, all she wanted to do was unwind in a nice hot bath with her man, so after scrubbing their bodies and rinsing, he picks her up and lowers them both into the steaming waters, settling the blonde between his legs and keeping his arms around her waist, careful against her bruises. It felt so good, her wispy sighs convey as she relaxes against his chest, all the aches and pains, the memories of that stupid mission dissolving away into the water molecules that surrounded them.

It had only been a month since they had gone from friends to lovers and they were still adjusting to the differences. Granted, the pair had been so close before the change that not a whole lot did, but one thing was the possessiveness, and the crazy territorial dragon he had become. It drove her nuts, but what could she do? She had chosen him for better or for worst and no matter what happened they’d figure it out, they always did.

She really did hate seeing Natsu so upset, it pained her, and if she had thought for a second the job was going to be dangerous, she never would have taken it unless he would be with her. The worst part, was he’s barely said a word to her the whole time they’d been home, brows still furrowed and frowning, she couldn’t tell if he was upset, frustrated, worried…

“Natsu, are you,” exhale, “angry with me?”

“No, why would you think that?”

“You look angry… and you haven’t really said much since we left the guild…”

Exhale, “Luce, I’m not mad at you, it’s just,” longer exhale, “I know your injuries aren’t that bad, a-and I know that it was just an accident, but it scared me.”

She shifts just enough to see his face, now tilted downward, and bangs shielding his eyes a little; is that a tear? “But I’m fine, baby, why would you be scared…”

He looks up; it was tears… “yeah, this time, but what if it had been different… People die from accidents too, and I wasn’t there…” she turns all the way around to face him as tears of her own build. “…I can’t protect you if I’m not there. I-I can’t lose you Lucy, do you understand that?”

“Natsu…” pressing her lips gently to his and sweeping away the tears along his cheeks, “I’m so sorry, I really wouldn’t have gone if I thought something bad would happen.” Now they are both crying, “I promise, I’ll never go anywhere without you again, it’s breaking my heart to see you like this.”

A small smile finally rewards Lucy as he returns her kisses and reminds himself she’s still here, in his arms where she belongs. She smiles back, tousling her fingers through his hair a little before, sliding them along his face and neck. He doesn’t know how this woman can be jarring and yet so soothing to his soul, how she manages to pacify the swirling emotions that is him and keep her wits about her. Mavis, how he’d die for this woman! His arms enfold her again, turning her to rest against his chest, and kisses the back of her head. Yes, he still wants to beat up Shadow Gear a little just because, but they are damn lucky that this vengeful dragon slash demon can be tamed by his mate.

They stay there for quite some time, the water never getting any cooler thanks to his natural body heat, and as wrinkled as some of their extremities may get, even Lucy succumbs to the serenity of the water, lids growing heavy and drowsy. Under different circumstances, the two of them naked in a tub would have led to a much more pleasurable experience but she needed to rest, and he wouldn’t risk adding to her bruises, chuckling in his head, ‘I can contribute new ones later.’

Natsu takes her out of the bath and gets her ready for bed before she could fully pass out and be much more difficult to handle. He applies salves to her bruises and bandages her ribs, wraps her ankle, happy to see the discoloration over her eye and lip have lightened considerably, and lastly forces her to take some medicine for the cold he knows is going to rear its ugly head tomorrow. Cuts, broken bones, with plenty of experience, these are things he can deal with, but colds, that’s something he’s dreading. All his life, he’s never suffered from colds, his body seemingly immune to infections so all he can hope is to do the right things to help her through it, and it will take much more than simply digging up a tree to make her feel better. With her safely tucked under the covers and bundled in his arms, they drift off into the night.

“Ah choo! Ugh…. Ah choo! Ugh, I feel like shit…”

It had been two days since he’d got her home, two days of a steadily worsening cold, two friggin days of running himself blind not knowing how to deal with it, and worst of all it was just the beginning.

As Lucy stayed dead to the world yesterday morning, Natsu had snuck out, knowing he needed to get medicine for her cold but with no idea from where and he really didn’t want to go to the guild for help. This might sound crazy, but knowing Fairytail was like a family, his friends would have insisted on coming to the apartment to help and damn it if he did not want anyone near his woman right now. He knew himself well enough to know, the over protective side they saw the day prior was still lingering and could kick back on at any moment. It didn’t matter to him if he was being selfish, she wasn’t just Lucy Heartfillia, Celestial Spirit mage of Fairytail anymore, but his mate, his woman, and screw what anyone else thought! But shit, where the hell does he get meds from??

So, he did the only other thing he could think of, asked everyone he passed on the street. Two people pointed him to a part of Magnolia he’d never really ventured before, back alley shops, shady was an understatement, but if they said there was an apothecary then so be it. Low and behold, the shop existed, and Natsu bought the supplies he was told would help her. It’ll clear her right up, she’ll feel instantly better, the owner swore on his life, back to new in no time flat. Well hell, that was the best news a gullible and desperate man could ever hear!

Yeah, the slayer ran back to the apartment, excited and ready to shove the remedies down her throat expecting the ‘instant’ reaction that never came, in fact, he swore by days end Lucy looked even worse. Pissed, he flew back to the shop and destroyed it, reducing not just the apothecary but the entire building it was housed in to rubble.

Back to day 2. Word of a half-man, half creature destroying a building in Magnolia had reached Fairytail by that morning and of course, who else could it have been? So, in response Makarov had sent Gray and Erza to Lucy’s apartment to find out why on Earthland had Natsu rampaged the day before. But he had refused to let them in, even with Erza threatening to break the door down along with him, just wouldn’t budge and surprisingly, she didn’t follow through with her threat. Maybe it was the storm behind his eyes or the menacing aura that had developed around the slayer as his anger grew that made her back off.

Either way, the one thing she wouldn’t do was leave without helping and if medicine was what he needed, then that was what they would get for them, anything to keep the dragon from racking up more bills for the guild. It had taken a couple hours for the pair to show back up with not just medicine but food and other necessities along with instructions for Natsu to follow, Mira had even whipped up a batch of chicken soup for their dinner, promising more deliveries each day. He was grateful for the gesture, its not like he thought his friends had bad intentions, just right now, he had to satiate his demon and said demon wanted nothing more than to hoard their mate.

The medicines were helping her sleep, much to the relief of her dragon. The care package really had been the catalyst to turn their situation around, having taken a load off his shoulders, he could focus on caring for Lucy and by the evening of day 3, her congestion was better, which meant her couching wasn’t hurting her ribs as much, the cold sweats had subsided, her fever was at a manageable temperature, and she had even held down a full bowl of soup in one sitting. The bruising on her side was no longer an angry purple but a jaundice yellow and the marks on her eyes and lips were gone, but her ankle would take longer to fully heal, maybe another week to be on the safe side.

“Thank you,” she whispered as Natsu carried her to the bath. He had been so doting and loving, it was a side to her boyfriend she infrequently saw but treasured seeing how much he was willing to do for her. She had heard the argument through the door yesterday between he and Erza, how he had destroyed a building, and while part of her wanted to chastise him for what he had done, she couldn’t help but feel more enamored by the gesture, feel special that he would face the wrath of the Titania just for her. Besides, sick or not, a little pampering never hurt a girl and so she gave in to the rare opportunity.

He looked down at his mate as she rested her head against his shoulder, “You don’t have to thank me Luce,” and kissed her forehead, “I like taking care of you…”

“Mmmm…” she stretches her arms and back before settling amongst the sleeping body behind her, Mavis she was feeling so much better! Natsu groaned a little at her movement and shifted his leg over to pin her from moving again earning him a chuckle. A week of constant care must have taken a toll on the poor man but thanks to his efforts, her cold was just about gone, and her body was almost fully healed, so now it was his turn to get some much, needed rest.

She turns around in his embrace and snuggles her face into the crook of his neck, inhaling the smoky cinnamon, Mavis how she loved his scent, taking her sweet time walking her fingers along the lines of his chest, rising and falling, beneath her tips before resting above his heart. Her heart, he had once said, his heart belonged to her as hers belonged to him, and it was a strong beat, telling a story of strength and of a love that could weather any storm, ebbing and flowing in rhythm through a life’s journey, and one now shared between them.

The brushing of her fingers along his side brings an exhale from her lover but continue ghosting their way to his hips and his abs, twirling the little curls of pink peeking from his waist. “Luce, you should be resting…”

“It’s kinda hard in this position,” she plants a little peck to his collar bone.

“You keep that up and something else is gonna be hard from this position.”

Lucy giggles and plants a few more kisses, “I feel a lot better Natsu, and now I’m wide awake.”

“Go back to sleep,” he tightens his hold over her, squishing her face to his chest, “as much as I’d love to play, I want you to be one hundred percent first.”

“I’m not fragile,” the pout evident in her tone, “you don’t need to keep codling me…”

He lifts her face, “I never said you were fragile, of all people Luce, I know how strong you are,” softening his expression, “but that’s still not gonna stop me from fussing over you right now.”

“Aww, fine.”

“Good, now go to sleep,” chuckling, “cause I’m tired.” Lucy couldn’t help but laugh too.

Word had been delivered via Happy that Wendy was now back from her trip and so, the next morning finds the couple heading back to Fairytail for the first time since the disastrous and explosive encounter with Shadow Gear. Refusing to let her walk on her own, Lucy was riding piggy back on her boyfriend, shielding her face to the stares and snickers they passed along the street. It was embarrassing for the proud mage but no amount of sweet talk nor out right beating on his back to let her down was working. She was also worried about what will happen when they entered their guild, not so much because their friends would hold a grudge, but more so if something will provoke the slayer’s temper, and as soon as they crossed the threshold, Lucy braced for the worst.

His eyes found the blue-haired girl he was hoping for and walked straight to her table without acknowledging anyone, the priority was his mate, and nothing was getting in that way. Members steered clear for the most part, simply watching, trying to gauge the fire slayers emotional state which didn’t seem promising at that moment. After putting Lucy down on the bench beside the healer, he takes a place next to her.

“Hi Wendy,” the spirit mage hugs her friend before Natsu pulls her back and takes control over the conversation.

“Wendy, could you look her over, make sure Lucy is healing up okay? Her cold seems to be gone and the bruising over her ribs have almost faded away, but her ankle is still bothering her.”

“Sure guys,” she stands up and kneels in front of Lucy, placing her hands over Lucy’s side first. Satisfied that the ribs were in fact okay, she then shifts over her friend’s ankle where her hands linger a little longer, Lucy can feel the heat coming off Wendy’s hands, permeating through her muscles. After a few anxious minutes, the healer sits back down. “Well you should be good to go. The tendons were still a little sprained, so I took care of that, and luckily no broken bones anywhere.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Lucy hugs the little girl. “Natsu took really good care of me too,” she smiles at her boyfriend. Exhale, “and now I’m back to normal.”

Wendy giggles, “You did a great job Natsu, did you run into any problems?”

He runs his hand through his hair and finally smiles, “just a little…”

“Oi just a little?” Gray steps up beside his friend, “You friggin blew up the apothecary shop!”

“Hey!” Natsu pops from his seat, “That bastard had it coming, selling me that crap medicine!”

As Gray and Natsu trade words and a few fists, Lucy fills Wendy in as to what they were arguing about. Levy, Gajeel, and Juvia join the table in the midst of it, peppering the spirit mage with questions of how Natsu had treated her, while Erza stepped in to break up the fight. When Natsu turned back to Lucy, the frown returned, for Jet and Droy were standing there talking to her. “Get the hell away from her!” Shouting and stomping his way back over, they immediately cringed and took off out of his path.

“Natsu!” Lucy screamed back, waving her hands at him, “they were apologizing, but it wasn’t their fault, so you need to stop acting like an idiot and control yourself!”

“I don’t care, they should’a taken better care of you.” He tries to grab her flailing limbs, but she pulls out of his grasp, stands up and pushes him down onto the bench roughly. Shock fills his orbs at the sight of his furious woman just glaring daggers at him. Holy Mavis!

She leans into her boyfriend, hands planted on either side of his body, and effectively boxing the slayer in. “I appreciate how much you love me, and I can understand your dragon nature, but this mate is not going to tolerate you taking it out any of our friends!” She sighs, “Natsu,” hanging her head slightly, “this whole territorial thing, it was cute at first but,” exhale, “we need to figure out how to keep your dragon instincts in check, so you don’t end up hurting someone.”

His shoulders slump down, fuck it’s not like he wants to go beating up on anyone, he doesn’t want to lose his temper every time something remotely bad happens to his mate. “I know…”

“Hey,” she kneels and cups his face in her hands, “I told you, we’re a team right, we’ll figure it out together, but I need you to help me too.”

He places his hands over hers, “I’m sorry Luce,” resting his forehead against hers.

She smiles, “the first step is you need to apologize to Jet and Droy.”

“But…”

“Eh,” eye brow raise, “no buts, it’s not their fault I got hurt, now go and apologize!”

“Okay, okay!” Lucy moves out of the way and watches him saunter off in search of the two men hiding somewhere in the hall. She exhales and plops down on the bench, that had taken a lot of energy out of her.

“You know Salamanders damn lucky to have you bunny girl.”

“Thanks, Gajeel.”

“I’m sure Natsu will get past this,” Levy looks over at her husband with a smirk, who quickly turns his head with a huff, “I mean it took Gajeel a few months to stop eyeing out every guy who even glanced in my direction.”

“I know… It’s still early and he’s still trying to get used to the emotions, we both are.”

“But you handle him flawlessly,” Erza pats Lucy on the shoulder, “Gajeels right, you two couldn’t be any more perfect for each other.”

Lucy looks up to see Natsu walking back towards their table, with closer to his normal, lackadaisical gait and so much more relaxed than he’d been through this whole mess. When he sees her staring at him, the goofy grin she loves, plasters to his face. She can’t help but smile too, “Yeah, I guess we are…”

#nalu fanfiction #nalu #it was always you #petri808 #petrischronicles

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