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That was the first time...Natsu’s flame scared me.
This pain - it was the worst thing she’d ever felt. Worse than Gajeel’s iron fists pummeling her all those years ago. Worse than Kain stomping her into the ground. Worse than Minerva’s torture at the Grand Magic Games.
Worse than losing her mother, losing Aquarius - She only held her scream in for him. For Natsu.
For Natsu for Natsu for Natsu for Natsu
Someone was screaming. Oh, gods, was it her - ? No. Her lips were sealed shut by force of will, her entire body rigid and trembling. It was Gray who was screaming. Screaming for her, at Natsu, at Erza to Fucking get her off of him! Wendy was screaming, too, at Natsu, trying to get his attention. From somewhere above her head, Happy was weeping, calling for Natsu to wake up and for Lucy to let go.
For Natsu for Natsu for Natsu for Natsu
“It’s...all over now...Natsu.” Lucy was shocked at the calm sound of her own voice, though she spoke in barely louder than a croak, her very vocal cords feeling like they were melting, trailing down her sides like the ruins of her Stardress. “It’s alright, I’m here.” His knees gave way, body pulling against her ruined skin, and she held back her whimpers as she fell with him. The sharp rocks that cut into her legs felt like soft caresses against the sear of Natsu’s heat.
Then, the most glorious sound, joy and warmth and familiarity that broke her heart -
“It’s over?”
--
When Natsu came to, the first thing he became aware of was Lucy’s scent, golden and warm and as bright as the stars, wrapped around him.
The second thing he noticed was the sharp, unpleasant smell of burning skin that was so strong he almost gagged. Slowly, then all at once, his brain put the pieces together as his mind and skin cooled.
He froze.
Standing before him, eyes wide and face tracked with tears, was Wendy, trembling from head to toe. Her horrified expression flicked between Natsu’s face and Lucy’s - he could feel her, now, pressed up against his back, her arms around his chest.
“No.” He gasped. “Lucy. No.”
“It’s alright...I’m here. It’s over. It’s over. Natsu, it’s over.” Lucy’s voice was weak and strained.
“Don’t move!” Gray snapped, his frozen hand clamping down on Natsu’s shoulder about a half second before the Dragon Slayer tried to lurch to his feet. “You’ll hurt her more. Wendy, get over here.”
Natsu stopped breathing entirely, sitting so still he might as well have been a statue. Wendy hurried over, not quite able to meet his eyes, and dropped to her knees just out of his peripheral vision. The other Dragon’s Slayer’s gentle fingers, laced with healing magic, brushed his chest and side. Salt touched Natsu’s lips, his bottom lip stinging where it had been split hours ago.
Holding in his sobs was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but hurting Lucy - hurting her more , gods damn and forgive him - was the last thing he ever wanted to do. So, even though it was hard, even though every Dragon and Fairy instinct in him was roaring, screaming - Natsu stayed still as death.
“ - think I can heal her upper layers of skin to get her off.” Wendy was saying.
“Do it,” Erza’s terse voice replied. “Natsu, keep staying still.” Titania's gentle, unarmored hand touched his face. “It’s not your fault,” she said softly, even as Natsu didn’t dare to raise his eyes for fear that some small movement would hurt the blonde. “You didn’t know what you were doing. Believe me, when all is said and done I will give her the tongue-lashing of a lifetime.”
“I shouldn’t have been able to hurt her.” The words weren’t even audible, his lips barely moving, but Erza seemed to understand anyway. The redhead murmured softly and stroked Natsu’s face as both Wendy’s soothing healing magic and the coolness of Gray’s magic washed over his back. Over Lucy.
Natsu gagged. Lucy whimpered.
The Dragon Slayer wanted to die. This was a nightmare - it had to be.
“Just one more second, Natsu, it’s okay -” Wendy spoke quickly, the feeling of her magic intensifying on his skin. “Gray, be ready....now!”
The weight on Natsu’s back disappeared, and with a heart full of dread, he turned his head to look over his shoulder. Erza’s hand dropped away from his face, as if even she couldn’t comfort him from the horror that awaited.
Lucy’s Stardress had held up in the most sensitive places on her body, like the thin, soft skin of her breasts - thank the gods. But those bits of fabric that hadn’t survived - the ones on her shoulders, arms, and stomach - had given way to horrendous burns. She was probably lucky to have been wearing a Stardress rather than normal clothes. He couldn’t imagine someone surviving the heat he’d been putting off when he came to, let alone whatever heat he might have been generating before that.
Lucy’s arms were the worst, where they had been banded across his chest; almost every inch of creamy skin was red and blistered, and her limbs trembled even though she was very clearly unconscious. Blistering spots dotted her neck and marred her right shoulder; her stomach was a patchwork of angry color. Gray held one hand a few inches above Lucy’s right arm, his other hand moving steadily over her body from neck to hips. His magic was soft, a cooling to soothe her agony as Wendy’s sputtering magic began working on healing her left arm.
Natsu made a sound low in his throat, like a strangled groan, and dropped his head. His stomach heaved and he gagged again. Erza knelt before him, touching her forehead to the crown of his bowed head as he choked and sobbed silently.
“She is going to be okay, Natsu. She’s going to be just fine.”
And yet, even as Wendy worked, even when Lucy came to and began to ask where he was, Natsu stayed frozen in the ruins of his mistake and cried.
--
Lucy regained true consciousness long after the sun had set. Blinking against the total darkness of what she recognized as her hotel room, she tested her limbs in a gentle stretch and winced. It almost felt like she had a sunburn across her entire front; her skin held enough heat that the tank top and shorts she’d been dressed in were uncomfortable, but she felt no true pain. More than that, her entire body was sore. That was to be expected after fighting Diablos and a Water God Dragon. If Natsu hadn’t been there -
“Natsu!” Lucy sat up with a start, the skin on her stomach and arms protesting slightly.
“Luce?” A sleepy reply came from - from next to her in the queen sized bed? A warm, calloused hand fumbled across her thigh, paused, and then jumped to her elbow. “Lucy?” Natsu sounded more alert. “Are you okay? What do you need?”
Lucy put her hand over his immediately, then sighed in relief when she registered that he was warm in a normal, Natsu way. She plucked his hand from her arm, tugging against his resistance, and dropped her face into his palm. The Celestial Spirit mage breathed in deeply: soap, mint, and embers. A normal, regular, Natsu smell. Tears welled up in Lucy’s eyes, and she sniffled, “Natsu.”
He was up in the next second, wrapping his free arm around her hips and pulling her into his lap. She supposed his Dragon Slaying magic gave him better sight than she; even this close, he was little more than a dark outline in the room. With a shudder, Natsu buried his face into Lucy’s neck. His damp cheek was a cool shock to her skin.
“I’m so sorry,” he choked out. “Lucy, I’m so fucking sorry.”
Her arms came around him at once, one hand burying in his hair and the other bunching at the end of his scarf, dangling between them. “Natsu,” she whispered. “Gods, Natsu, I thought...I thought we had lost you.”
“You were worried about me?” Natsu sounded bitter. “Lucy, I almost killed you. I burned you, gods, so badly that Wendy worked over you for hours and you still might scar. Gods damn it, Luce, I don’t even deserve to be here right now, touching you, when I hurt you so badly.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Lucy said harshly, punctuating the command with a sharp pull of his hair. It brought his head up, and luckily she rested her forehead against his on the first try rather than bashing her head into his nose. “Natsu, don’t even go there. I did what I did and I don’t regret it. Whatever that fire was, whoever that dragon was - I was not going to lose you to them. I’d do what I did and suffer the consequences a thousand, a hundred thousand times if it meant you stayed with us and stayed yourself.”
Natsu began to cry in earnest, his tears trailing down Lucy’s neck and over her chest. It was still too warm - still burnt slightly - and it killed him. “Lucy,” he croaked, “when I came to and all I could smell was you, your skin burning...I wanted to die. I wanted to cry, and scream, and - and rampage. I wanted to destroy the thing that hurt you. But that thing was me .”
“It wasn’t,” Lucy said firmly, pressing their foreheads together more firmly. “Whatever overcame you, it was not you . I know you would never hurt me.”
“I shouldn’t be able to hurt you!” Natsu wept. “Lucy, a Dragon shouldn’t be able to hurt its mate!” The silence was so deafening that it took Natsu a moment to realize what he’d said, what he’d revealed.
“I knew it,” Lucy murmured. “I knew it.”
“Lucy - it’s not, I mean, you don’t have to -”
She silenced him, sealing her lips over his. Natsu tasted salt, and he didn’t know if it was from his tears or hers, but the taste on his lips, the unmarred scent of her skin, the feel of her unblemished skin under his hands - Natsu groaned.
Lucy pulled away, laughing a bit breathlessly. “I knew it,” she whispered again. “I knew that I was your mate, Natsu.”
“How?” The Dragon Slayer settled his forehead against hers again, then admitted, “I only realized after everything with Zeref and Acnologia.”
“I knew before we left Ishgar to pursue the 100 Year Quest,” Lucy replied. “I just...I started to be more aware of you and your magic. And your flames began to feel...less hot. My magic, my body, began to accept your flames as safe . That’s why I grabbed on to you. I knew, no matter how far gone you were, that your flames could never kill me. Even if they burned me, even if they scared me, they couldn’t kill me.”
Natsu whimpered. “You were scared of me?”
Lucy said simply, “Yes. But I was more scared of what would happen if I let that thing take over you. Natsu, please understand - I’m not angry at you. I’m no longer scared of you. I...I love you. More than anything, than anyone. I love you and your flames that protect me and our family so fiercely.”
Natsu yanked her lips back to his, kissing her feverishly. “Lucy,” he whispered. “Lucy, I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.” Lucy pressed her lips to his, to the tip of his nose, to the crease between his brows. “You did it, Natsu. You saved this town, you sealed the Water Dragon God. You didn’t hurt me, not really. You did it.”
Natsu dropped his head, kissing the skin of her chest revealed by her tank top, right over her heart, then said simply, “No. You did it.”