This'll be my last Fairy Tail one-shot for a little bit, I promise I'll get back to the planned one-shots, don't worry. Anyway, this one begins post-chapter 292 and ends post-chapter 293. Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

He took good care of her, that was for sure.

Not that he would admit it outright.

The first night she woke up at two in the morning to voices speaking lowly outside her room. Of course, she was still too rough for wear to get out of bed, so she strained her ears to hear what was going on.

After a while, she discerned one voice clearly as Natsu's, and she heard another voice she recognized as Erza's. It sounded like they were saying their goodbyes, and Lucy couldn't help but wonder what exactly they had been talking about.

So after the talking ceased, she stretched her voice a little, hesitant but clearly wondering if he was still there or not.

"Natsu?"

It was only a few moments before he replied from the other side of the door, a hint of excitement in his voice, "Lucy? You're awake?"

She rubbed her eyes, "Yeah…"

His anxiety was glaringly obvious, "Then you wouldn't mind if I came in?"

A slight smile crossed her face, "No, I don't mind."

As she said it, he entered the room, his classic wide-toothed grin engulfing most of his face. The grin quickly faded into a disapproving scowl when she tried to sit up to greet him.

He rushed to her bedside, "Lucy, you shouldn't get up! Lay back down, okay?"

The blonde frowned, but obeyed.

Pulling up a chair, he sat down beside the bed and stared at her.

He stared at her for so long that she began to get nervous, so she asked, "What?"

Natsu shrugged, "Well, because. If I take my eyes off you, you might try something reckless again."

"That's really something, coming from you." Lucy laughed, causing a small coughing fit as her stomach heaved painfully.

Natsu growled, standing from his seat, "See what I mean? Now lay down!"

She breathed and obeyed him once again. Lucy closed her eyelids and Natsu sat back down and the room was silent for a few minutes. Finally, Lucy turned to face her partner, her eyes falling on the oddly serious and dedicated look on his face.

She smiled again, "Hey Natsu."

His dark eyes found their way to the lock of her gaze.

Lucy continued, "I'm sorry for worrying you guys."

The man tilted his head and smiled, "Well, as long as you get better, it isn't that big of a deal, right?"

She breathed heavily and nodded. It wasn't a few moments after she closed her eyes again that a shiver ran up her spine and she winced, a painful hiss seething through her clenched teeth.

Natsu was up in a moment, "Lucy, what's wrong?"

After taking a moment to relax, she waved him off, "It's nothing, don't worry."

Her mind wandered to all the things that had happened in the past 24 hours and a sigh escaped her mouth, "It's just…ever since the Naval Battle…I can still feel how cold the water was every now and then, and it seems to be getting worse at night…Maybe I got a little too accustomed to the heat from Minerva's blasts."

Natsu frowned for a few seconds, then abruptly left the room.

He was gone for a few minutes, in which Lucy attempted to huddle into the covers. However, when Natsu returned, he was carrying a pile of blankets no less than four feet tall. Lucy was barely able to gather her thoughts before Natsu heaved the pile onto her bed and proceeded to shake each one out and lay it over her.

Soon it was almost difficult to see Lucy's head under all of the heavy fabric. She harrumphed, "I tell you I was only a little cold and this is how you react?"

The dragon slayer shrugged again and resumed his watch beside her bed, "But are you warm enough?"

Lucy rolled her eyes, "Yeah. It'll do fine."

As expected, Lucy fell asleep after no more than ten minutes.

The next day, people from the guild came in every now and then to keep her company and deliver food and gifts, but she knew Natsu and the others from the team wouldn't be back until evening.

However, Natsu surprised her, bursting through the door just when she was finishing an early dinner.

Then she listened as he relayed the events of the day to her.

Of course, the events of the day consisted of his full review of the fights that went down and how badly he wished he could be a part of it. Full, exuberant hand gestures accompanied the review and Lucy couldn't help but smile as her companion continued, fired up even at the thought of the brawl.

"…and then Ichiya busted out some awesome moves. He got all huge and buff and stuff and blasted those Quatro Puppy goons into next week!" Natsu roared, stepping one foot onto the chair and pumping his fists.

By this time, Lucy had managed to get the nurses to prop her up into a sitting position with pillows. Now she sat watching Natsu blabber excitedly about the fights that had just taken place, a simple smile spread across her face.

When Natsu finally finished his "epic report", Lucy watched as he plopped into his chair and released a huge sigh.

The celestial wizard held back a giggle. That is, until his eyes turned to her sharply, "They've been treating you alright, right? And you're staying warm enough?"

She rolled her eyes, "Of course, Natsu. I'm not cold all the time, it just gets a little chilly at night, that's all."

It was a little strange, lately Natsu had expressed such serious concern for her. He was squawking like a fretting mother chicken. A pink-haired fire-breathing chicken.

But it was still nice to see him worry about her, if not just a tiny bit amusing as well.

His visage stayed serious as his voice lowered, "I'm supposed to fight Sting tomorrow."

She tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows, genuinely confused at his overly grave expression, "Isn't that what you want?"

He snorted and clenched his fists hard, "More than anything in the world! I want to tear that guy's gizzard out with my teeth and burn his body to a charred crisp and feed the ashes to his dumb cat!"

Lucy blinked, waiting for him to finish.

"But…"

His head fell to his hands as he massaged his rough fingers over his scalp. Lucy simply watched him as he was unable to finish his sentence.

Natsu was quite often hard to understand, and more than once Happy had to translate, but after this long, Lucy could see some of what was going through the dragon slayer's head.

He was nervous.

Natsu? Nervous?

When the thought hit her, it didn't make any sense. After she thought about it, however, certain things stood out to her.

She bit her lip.

Maybe…just maybe…what had happened to her really messed him up.

No. Wait.

That wasn't quite right.

Looking at him now, it wasn't that he was nervous about the battle. With the way he avoided her eyes for a split second, she realized what it was.

He was afraid of worrying her. And probably afraid that if he overdid it, she would get herself too worked up and make her condition worse.

Of all things, the last thing she could have was Natsu getting the jitters, so she licked her lips and addressed him with a firm reprimanding tone and steely eyes.

"Natsu. You're going to win this. You have to. For our friends. For the guild. For me. I know you will, so don't worry about me."

That quickly, a huge smile jutted across his face like nothing ever happened. She was sure he was probably still concerned but the biggest part of it had probably passed. He probably just needed a little push in the right direction.

Watching him, she couldn't help but feel just a little bit blessed. All the folks from her guild, while they were usually just a little bit insane, really did care about her. She knew that that was worth all the pain she was feeling at the moment.

Natsu tilted his head, "So, do you feel cold?"

As if by cue, a shiver tickled across her skin. She frowned, "Well, a little, but don't you dare bring me ten blankets again! That was way too excessive!"

Natsu's eyes narrowed as he stared at the floor, as if in thought. Lucy could almost see the light bulb turn on above his head as his face lit up, "I got an idea!"

With that, he did something that Lucy didn't quite expect.

He grabbed her petite hands and wrapped them tightly within his large palms. When she finally recovered from a slight shock, she realized that his hands were emanating heat. She supposed it was to be expected coming from Natsu.

He waited for her reaction, the brilliant smile on his face, "There! How about that? Is that better?"

The heat from his hands to hers shot straight up to her cheeks, "U-uhm…yeah. T-thank you."

The young man smiled back at her and the two companions sat there, Natsu in his chair beside Lucy's bed, the dragon slayer's hands wrapped entirely around those of the celestial wizard.

"So, Mira, where exactly do you want these?"

"Oh, just put them on that table over there, Gray, thank y–oh my…would you look at that?"

Evidently, Mirajane had intercepted Gray while he was travelling the halls and enlisted him to carry blankets to Lucy's room for her. However, when they entered the room, they were met with a slightly unexpected scene, much to Mira's delight.

Gray turned to look at what the barmaid was squealing about, and a smirk spread across one side of his face as he crossed his arms, "That flame-eating moron…who would've guessed? I didn't think he'd have it in him."

Mira couldn't hold back a giggle, elbowing the ice mage in the ribs, "Maybe you could learn a thing or two, huh, Gray?"

Gray, in turn, narrowed his eyes and swallowed, his lip curling into a one-sided snarl, "Oh come on, first Erza and now you too, Mira? Why can't you all give me a break?"

Mira smiled, very easily catching sight of the hint of red on the ice mage's face. However, she returned her attention to the subject at hand, "They look awfully peaceful like that, don't they?"

Gray scratched the back of his head, clearly relieved that the attention had drawn itself away from him, "Yeah, I guess they do."

So they eventually left the room, much to Mirajane's dismay, to let their two comrades sleep. And sleep they did, Lucy serenely sleeping on her back with her head tilted to one side while Natsu was bent over her bed as he sat at the edge of the chair. Natsu still cocooned her hands within his grasp as his head lay next to hers, his warm breath flowing over her shoulder. Lucy had her head turned so the side of her face was leaning against the dragon slayer's head. It was no question that someone could make a big deal out of it, with them leaning on each other like that.

But Lucy couldn't remember being cold once that night.

He would never admit it, but he really did take good care of her.

Fin.

Hope you all enjoyed. Shoot me a review if you like or have any questions. Lord bless, and I'm praying for you all!