Chapter 17

Tag You're It!

He could hear her voice, but it never matched what she was saying to him. A scene of Lucy always played in front of him. It was never the same one of her. She could be laughing in one, and the very next second she could be crying. He never understood what was wrong or why he couldn't hear anything. If he did, they were muffled and couldn't understand who was saying something. He knew that these visions weren't the real Lucy. When he reached out to her, he couldn't feel her warmth. She never faded. She sat there staring and laughing, and whenever he tried to talk to her, nothing came out.

He was tired of seeing this Lucy. She wasn't real, he knew that. Natsu felt himself cuddle up to his knees. He looked up, looking at the Lucy that was in front of him. She laid there, playing with strands of her hair. Their eyes met and she sat up, coming closer to him. He felt dull, didn't even move or waver when she moved his legs to sit in his lap. He was bored, tired of seeing this Lucy. He knew his mind was making up this one to try and cover up the hole in his heart. Because after a while, this was the only thing he ever saw. The same scene of an emotional Lucy.

Natsu watched as she started to unbutton her shirt. He rolled his eyes and turned his head away. This isn't what he wanted. He didn't know why he saw only Lucy or what was even happening to him in the first place. He couldn't remember a single thing. He could only remember Acnologia and the forest, but he couldn't remember why he was in a dark room with just Lucy.

"...Natsu… she needs you…" A muffled voice cut through the silence. Natsu went to push the fake Lucy off, only to have her disappear in front of him. Was it over? What's going on? Natsu stood up quickly, and then a bright light in the distance started to cut through the darkness. He started running towards it. He didn't care what was on the other side. As the light got closer, it got brighter, and brighter.

Natsu blinked and suddenly, he saw a ceiling. He closed his eyes a few times, to get rid of the blurriness. As the room became more clear, his eyes frantically searched around before he saw Gray next to him with a shocked expression. He went to sit up, only to have a sharp pain in his lower stomach. Gray grabbed his arm, pulling him back down onto the bed. "Natsu, take it easy. You got hurt pretty badly."

"Where… Where is Lucy?" Natsu's voice came out faint. It was hard for him to speak clearly. He started to cough, his breathing became unsteady. He felt dizzy and uneasy. "I… need to see her…"

Natsu started to rise out of the bed, throwing his legs over the side. He felt like he could barely move, everything had hurt. Gray helped him up, sighing slightly as Natsu finally stood to his feet. Gray looked to him and handed Natsu a dagger. "Dan stopped by about an hour ago. I don't know what for, but Lucy went down to the dungeons a while ago-" Before Gray was able to finish, Natsu was already out the door.

Even though his stomach screamed in pain, Natsu pushed through it, sprinting down the corridor. Servants gave him looks as he passed by, ignoring the growing pain on his side. Natsu could hear Gray in the distance yelling his name. Natsu ignored him, the feeling in his blood made him run faster. The adrenaline grew as he grew closer to the stairs. He rushed down them, his feet smacking against the floor. He quickly ran through the room where the stairs led to the dungeon.

He quickly went down the stairs, asking himself how long had he been out. He didn't know, nor could he even remember. It made him angry and all he could worry about was how his fiance was. Natsu winced as he turned the corner, his adrenaline started to fade.

When he reached the bottom, his eyes widened. Lucy was held up against the cellar bars by Dan. Her eyes were closed shut, and her face was full of fear. He seen as Erza had her hand on her swords handle, but her body didn't move. Natsu saw as Erza's chest rise and fall unsteadily. His eyes looked back to Lucy, tears started to stream down her fragile face.

"Now, Lucy, you can agree to marry me, and I can call off the incoming war. Or, I can kill you and fuck your dead body." Dan whispered in her ear, closing his eyes as he sniffed Lucy's hair.

Natsu's anger rose, he clenched his fist tightly. He marched forward, grabbing the key out of Erza's hand. She opened her mouth to say something but he put his hand up and opened the cell door. He went to Dan and grabbed him by the throat. Dan gasped and let go of Lucy's hair and the blade. The metal hit the floor as Dan looked up to him. Natsu got closer to Dan's face, spitting on him, "If anything, I'm going to be the only man she's sleeping with."

Natsu started to pumble Dan. Blood started to run down Dan's face. He pleaded with Natsu to stop, his screams filling the air. Dan tried to block Natsu's punches, but Natsu held on of his arms down, raising his fist. Dan looked up to him, his eyes full of fear,"Please! Stop! I'm sorry!"

Natsu released his fist, it slammed against Dan's face. Blood flew out of Dan's mouth as he screamed one more time. Natsu let go of him, watching his body go limp. Lucy quickly grabbed Natsu, pulling him back, "Enough Natsu! We need him alive."

He backed out of the cell with Lucy, her body still clung to Natsu's. As he closed the cellar door behind them, he looked to Dan and spit on his body. "Fucking coward."

"Natsu, please. You need to be careful of your wound." Lucy stated as she watched Natsu give the key back to Erza. He nodded and held out his hand. Lucy took a deep breath. She didn't know if this was real or a nightmare. She had dreamt up so many different dreams of Natsu waking up. She grabbed his hand. His warm fingers intertwined with hers. Lucy relaxed as she pulled Natsu back up the long spiral stairs.

"How uhh… How long was I out for?" Natsu asked, hoping that it wasn't long. He wanted to know how much pain she was in for what happened. And he wanted to remember what happened to him.

Lucy stirred for a moment, trying to find the right words to tell him. "A month," she paused, gluping lightly, "Do you remember what happened?"

"Honestly, no." Natsu looked off to the side, examining the moss of the walls. "All I remember is being with Acgnoloiga in Waas Forest. The rest is a blur." Natsu looked back forward as the reached the top of the stairs. He pushed open the latch door, and allowed Lucy to go through it first. He gulped as she passed him, but he stared at her. She quickly turned around, giving him an eye.

"What?" Her face started to turn red as his glare became stronger. He came through the trap door and closed it behind him. He got close to her and grabbed her arm.

"Are you wearing my clothes?" Natsu asked, a smile creeping on his face.

"Kinda," she admitted, her face turning beet red, "I had them modify one of your vest to fit me, what do you think?" She finished, pulling part of the vest in front of her face. Natsu pulled away the vest and placed a kiss on her lips. Lucy's eyes widened in surprise, but quickly closed to savor his lips. She felt happy and comfortable knowing that Natsu was back. Her endless nights of crying next to his motionless body would finally come to an end.

They pulled away staring into eachothers eyes. Lucy blinked and watched Natsu gaze back at her. He started to giggle lightly and poked her arm. "Tag you're it!"

Lucy kept an eye on him as his body got further away from her. She smirked and darted after him. Her eyes locked on Natsu as she booked it out of the dining hall, out into the grand hall. She heard his laugh travel up the stairs, seeing his pink hair disappear around the corner. Lucy rolled her eyes and ran up the stairs. "Natsu be careful you idiot! You don't want to re-open your wound!"

"I won't! It's practically healed!" Natsu shouted back at her. He quickly turned his head, seeing Lucy come up behind him. Natsu shrieked, picking up his pace in front of the blonde. He ran into their bedroom, slamming the door open with his shoulder. He grunted a bit before he swiftly hopped onto the bed. Natsu huddled himself into the blankets. He listened for Lucy to come through the door, but he never heard anything.

Natsu went to peak out of the blanket, suddenly a weight came over him. "Tag you're it!" Lucy shouted, giggling on his torso. She looked to him and quickly got off of him. "But in all serious Natsu, we need to talk about the situation we are in and what happened while you were out."

Natsu's smile faded, but he grabbed Lucy's hand and gave her a slight nod. His expression was blank, what was he supposed to say? He was king and he knew what was going on before the battle would start. He sat up and studied the woman in front of him. Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand tighter, afraid to let go.

Lucy looked to him, she sighed softly and turned away, "I sent an old friend of mine to work under my father to grab intel. A letter arrived this morning saying Dan is trying to win my hand in marriage," She paused and looked to Natsu, "Which is why he is in the dungeon."

Natsu raised a brow, "Why would he try that? What is this dumbass trying to accomplish?"

"I'm not even sure." Lucy replied, "I'm going to have Erza find out exactly. Back to the kingdom, after we brought you to Magnolia after the incident, Makarov and I had a talk." Lucy stood, going to the vanity and opening one of the drawers. She pulled out a slip of paper and went back to Natsu's side. "We had a meeting with some of the people we allied with. We picked a day to go to the Straights and take them down."

Lucy handed him the paper. Natsu hesitantly grabbed it, and started to open it slowly. His eyes gazed through the words, reading them carefully. He looked back to Lucy, his eyes full of worry, "This says that you found out that they plan to ambush us. That could be any day now."

"Not exactly." Lucy said, "I don't think they would have sent Dan to win my hand if they were going to ambush us. They wouldn't want him to die if they plan for me to be his wife."

Natsu let go of her hand and rose out of the bed, "So when are we going to attack? We are running out of time and now that we have Dan in our clutches, we have the upper hand." He paused and turned to his fiance. He watched her tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. His eyes followed her as she stood and moved to the window.

Lucy placed her hands on the sill and she exhaled heavily. The wind blew lightly through the window, her hair moved with the rhythm of the gust of air. Natsu sighed and walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her torso. He laid his head in the crook of her neck, "I don't want you on the battlefield. I can't lose you and if things go wrong, one of us needs to be alive to run the kingdom." Natsu paused, then kissed her neck, "I'd rather it be you who lives."

Lucy clenched her fist, spinning around and pushing Natsu off her body. "No, I'm going to fight by your side!" Lucy exclaimed, "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't fight!"

Natsu was pushed back a bit, "Then… At least marry me." He walked up to her and cupped her face in his palm, "If this war truly goes south… I want to know that even though I might not be here, I'll at least meet you in the after life."

He pulled her face closer to his, inches away from her lips. Her body paused and her eyes met his, "That won't happen. We will be ready for anything."

Their lips met in the middle. A warm feeling came over Natsu, it traveled throughout his entire body. His free hand wrapped around her, pulling her closer, and removing any space between them. His giggle traveled through his lips as a smile crept on his face. Lucy embraced him and a single tear fell down her face.