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It was something that lasted for only a few seconds but Lucy would have sworn it went on forever. Both she and Gray had been separated from Wendy, Natsu and Erza on their most recent job, to track down a dangerous criminal and bring him to justice, but their target had hired help.
And said help was a master of poisons. He’d coated his weapon, a dagger, with something and thrown it at her. Her eyes had closed, frightened of the incoming impact, but she didn’t feel anything except for a splash of some liquid on her face, running slowly down her face.
The dagger was embedded in Gray’s side, right above the scar he’d gotten at Tenrou Island, and his body was twisting towards her, letting her see just how bad it was already.
Lucy froze.
*/*\*
“I’m sorry Lucy, I twisted my ankle trying to stop that knife, you shouldn’t have had to see that.” Natsu had found his way into the room not a minute after Gray had been hurt and beaten the poison master while he was trying to escape with his things, running to get Wendy immediately after.
She hadn’t been able to heal everything completely, but she’d done a good enough job that Erza could carry Gray to Porlyusica who whipped up a remedy moments after seeing the Ice Mage’s condition.
“You’re sorry?” Lucy’s voice was quiet, and she kept her head down so he couldn’t see her eyes or the tears welling up. “You shouldn’t have to be sorry for protecting me, you shouldn’t have had to protect me in the first place!” Both of them had expected her to be shouting at the end, but it didn’t make the silence that followed her final word any less awkward.
“I’m still so weak. Even after everything we-”
“No!” Her head whipped up, looking at how angry Gray looked, sitting up in his hospital bed and glaring at her. “Lucy, you are not weak.”
“But this whole thing-”
“Is not your fault. It’s that poison master’s fault for throwing that dagger, and mine for intervening, I should have known that Horologium probably would’ve shown up to save you, I’m such an idiot.”
Lucy was about to comment that ‘no, he wasn’t’ before she was interrupted.
“But I panicked. That thing was flying right at you and I just… moved.” There was another silence for a minute, one where Lucy was sure her eyes would pop out of her head, until Gray finished speaking. “I almost lost you.”
Gray kept his head down, only looking at his hands while Lucy’s jaw dropped, before tightening into a thin line.
“Well, you were right; you are an idiot.” She slid off her bed, kneeling next to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulder and whispering, “You’re forgetting that I almost lost you too.”