Sorry to keep you guys waiting minna! I've just been busy hanging out with my friends in Switzerland and watching Miraculous Ladybug!!! So good! My new ship is officially Miraculous Ladybug x Chat Noir! Definitely go watch that, it's a great cartoon. Anyway, I would like to dedicate this chapter to Mysterico_Anime because she is the first person to comment her appreciation on my story, and she's very sweet. Also a special shout out to SallyHale8 for coting on all my chapters, so thank you!!! And without further ado, I present to you chapter 11!!

Lucy managed to shoo everyone out of her room, mostly by embarrassing Juvia and Gray further so that Gray eventually grabbed Juvia's hand and left, Erza following close behind, smiling all the way. Lucy closed her door and leaned her back against it, sighing in relief that she had been able to get everyone out of her room so quickly.

She ran over to her little cubbyhole, soundlessly removing the tiles and placing them beside her. She threw on a frilly yellow tank top and some dark pants. The yellow tank probably wasn't the stealthiest thing she could wear, but she'd done it before, and she had managed to escape surveillance, plus she was in a hurry, and maybe she wanted to look good when she went to see Natsu... She rushed to the kitchen, well as fast as she could go without being caught that is. She briefly recalled the conversation she had overheard Mira and Lissana having and hoped to the heavens that they hadn't posted a guard at the kitchen door. Thankfully, they hadn't.

Lucy decided to grab a couple more rolls of bandages and gauze and packed all her supplies in her bag. She snuck back to her room and after slipping her boots on, vaulted off the balcony. When she hit the ground, she immediately began to sprint because she knew the guards would be coming around to look her way anytime now. She kept running the whole way, hoping that Natsu hadn't done anything stupid because she was late like last time.

She broke through the trees into the clearing and stopped, hands on her knees, panting. Once she had regained her breath, she looked up to see a very cranky looking Natsu drumming his fingers on his knee. She gave him a nervous smile as her words tumbled out in a rush, "I'm so sorry I'm late, Natsu! It's just that I was just the cause of something amazing!!"

Natsu just raised a brow and continued to stare at her, but Lucy ignored him and ran over to him, taking his hands excitedly, not noticing the blush that coated his cheeks at her gesture.

"I just set up Gray and Juvia and I entered my room and they were making out!!" Lucy squealed, squeezing Natsu's hands in her own.

"Just hold up a minute, Luce! You're going too fast for me! Now who's Gray and who's Juvia again?"

"Gray is basically my brother and Juvia is my lady in waiting. Juvia's been in love with Gray ever since they met, and I just knew that Gray loved her back so I made him go ask her out, and when I came into my room later, they were kissing on my bed!!"

"That sounds gross, good thing you're not actually gonna sleep in your bed tonight," Natsu said, making a face.

"Just wait until Mira finds out that Gruvia has finally come true, and not because of one of her schemes this time!" Lucy continued, ignoring Natsu's statement.

"Gruvia?" Natsu sweatdropped. "Seriously?"

"Mira's the one who made it up and it just kind of stuck. She's the shipping queen, except that she sort of ships everyone with everyone to see who the best couple would be. You know, before Juvia came into the picture Mira wanted my and Gray to be together and called us Graylu," Lucy said, remembering that horrible time.

"Say what?" Natsu growled, looking quite peeved.

"But that's just gross cause Gray is my brother and I have never thought of him that way," Lucy said, shivering at the thought.

Natsu seemed to relax a bit as he nodded along and said, "You're absolutely right about that, Luce."

Now that Lucy had emptied out her excitement about her successful matchmaking, she remembered what she actually wanted to talk to Natsu about. Squeezing his hands slightly she began, "Hey, Natsu."

"Yeah," he said, looking at her a bit worriedly. "What's up?"

"Do you wanna tell me about what happened this morning?" she asked softly, looking up at him.

He tensed and looked away.

"I don't really wanna talk about it," he said, slowly removing his hands from hers.

"I know that you don't think that I can help you, and maybe I can't, but we're friends and friends share their problems so the other doesn't have to bear it alone," she said, tightening her grasp on his hands.

"Lucy, this isn't your problem to deal with, and I don't want to put you in any danger by telling you anything," he said, his eyes looking at her pleadingly, but Lucy couldn't let this go because it was obviously bothering him a lot and it was her duty as his friend to help him.

"You realize that I'm already in danger by sneaking out every night to see you right?"

"But I would protect you," he grumbled.

"Not in this state you can't," she retorted.

He grumbled something unintelligible.

"Do you remember when I told you about that guy who... touched me..." she said, shivering at the memory.

"Yeah," he said, anger flashing in his eyes. "I would have killed him for doing that! If I could move..."

"Well, remember how at the beginning I didn't want to tell you?"

"Yeah," Natsu said, not knowing what she was getting at.

"But I did tell you because I trusted you and I knew that you would help, even if couldn't actually beat him up like you wanted to, but I was happy that you cared so much," Lucy said with a smile. "The most amazing thing is that I felt so much better after I told you just because I talked to someone about it. So even if I can't do anything about it, maybe just talking about the problem to me will make you feel better."

Natsu stared at her for a long time before saying anything. He finally sighed and said, "Ok, I'll tell you."

Lucy gave him a smile of encouragement, and he gave her a small smile back.

"My home has been under attack for a year now by a dragon called Acnologia," he practically spat out the name. "And ever since Igneel and the other dragons disappeared, it's been harder for us to defend our territory. Especially since there are only five of us."

Lucy gasped. "There are only five ryus left in the world?"

Natsu nodded gravely. "Me, Gajeel, Wendy, Sting and Rogue."

"You never told me about those last two," Lucy remarked, confused.

"That's because they weren't with us when we were fighting Acnologia," Natsu explained. "They were still recovering from the last battle, and Acnologia was coming so Gajeel, Wendy, and I decided to lure him away so they wouldn't get hurt, but," he said, clenching his fists. "He got the best of us and sent us all flying in different directions, all three of us pretty much in the same state I am now. Now who knows if Sting and Rogue are even still alive."

"Natsu..." Lucy said, at a loss for words. "Did you three at least manage to wound him?" she asked hopefully.

"A bit," he said. "Gajeel did manage to rip his wing and I blew fire in his eyes and Wendy landed some pretty great hits on him too."

"Good! Then I bet he's still recovering!" she said optimistically.

"But so am I!!" he shouted.

Lucy flinched.

"I-I'm so sorry, Luce," he said, noticing her reaction. "I-I didn't mean to..."

"It's ok," she reassured him. "I know you're just frustrated about this whole thing."

"But that doesn't give me an excuse to snap at you," he said, looking into her eyes.

There were those eyes again, so sad and helpless. She hated seeing his beautiful eyes like that. It didn't suit him, at all. So she acted on instinct, got on her knees in front of him, and hugged his head to her chest. He took a moment before he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her too, burying his face in the crook of her neck, and shaking a bit. Lucy massaged his scalp comfortingly through his mess of hair, trying to soothe him.

It must be so hard for him, not knowing where his dad is, sitting here, not able to do anything knowing his home is in danger, not knowing if his comrades are still alive or not, all because of one extremely powerful dragon! There has to be something I can do help Natsu bring that damned Acnologia down, right? There just has to be! But father... But I have to do something! Lucy could feel wet droplets sliding down her neck as Natsu shook in her arms. I'll have to figure out how I can help later, right now, I need to be here for him, and somehow help him heal quicker.

They stayed like that for a while until Natsu stopped crying. As soon as she was sure he was ok, she released him and gave him a warm smile. He smiled back at her, then Lucy grabbed the basket of food long forgotten in that very emotional moment and said, "You hungry?"

Natsu had finished eating a while ago, and Lucy had managed to coax his head into her lap as she rubbed her hands in his hair absentmindedly. He stopped in his purring a moment to look up at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Thank you," he said, his voice full of sincerity.

"For what?" she asked.

"For making me tell you, and not judging me for crying like a stupid baby," he grumbled the last part.

Lucy giggled at his embarrassment.

"You know it's not a bad thing to cry," she said, amusedly.

"But it's so unwarriorly," he said.

"I don't think that's a word," Lucy said.

"Don't care," he stated, before going back to purring.

Lucy sweatdropped at his ignorance, then she looked around to see if she needed to bring anything besides food the next trip over. She saw an empty box of matches, meaning Natsu had certainly ate his fill of fire, but he had two more so he should be fine for a couple days. Then Lucy saw the book she had brought him lying open in the shadow of the weeping willow. He didn't! There was no way! Did he actually try to read the book?!

"Ne, Natsu," Lucy said once again.

"Hm?" was his only answer.

"Did you actually read The Fifth Wave?" she asked incredulously.

"Well yeah, cause ya told me to," he said as if there were no other reason.

"Did you like it?" she dared ask.

"W-What? No! I-I only read it to make you happy! Th-There is no way I could ever l-like a book!" he spluttered.

Lucy smirked and whispered, "Liar!"

"I am not a liar!" he protested, shooting up from her lap.

"Oh, yeah?" Lucy taunted. "Then tell me the truth, did you like the book?"

"Uuh...nyaaaa...yano..." Natsu said, sweating.

Lucy laughed at him and said, "Oh come on, just admit, you know you're dying to talk about it, or are you a liar?"

"Fine! I am not a liar, and I love it! It's SO GOOD! You know these aliens can enter a pregnant lady's unborn child and hide there until they're old enough to wake up?! It's crazy! And aliens have taken over the planet and they are now starting what the humans call the fifth wave of the attack on humanity. This one girl, Cassie, is trying to find her brother on her own because he was abducted by aliens everyone thought were humans! They killed her dad too, and her mom had already died because of the third wave which was a big swarm of disease," Natsu raved.

Lucy laughed at how much he was enjoying this book, and his excitement at describing it to her.

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Lucy said, putting her hand in front of his face effectively silencing him. "I'm gonna read it after you're done so I don't want to know anymore about it."

"But, Luuucyyy," he whined. "You're the one who told me to talk about it, and now that I can't stop you're telling me to stop!"

He did have a point there.

"Man, you are such a weirdo, Luce," he said, scratching his head. "You are one weird princess."

Lucy huffed in annoyance.

"I am not a weirdo," she said.

"Luce, we've had this conversation dozens of times, and we have established that you are a weirdo," Natsu stated calmly.

"We never established tha-" she protested, only to be cut off by Natsu's finger on her lips, shushing her. She blushed furiously at their proximity, which was kind of ridiculous if she thought about since she always ended up falling asleep with Natsu hugging her.

"Lucy," he said, his voice dropping down an octave.

"Yes," she squeaked out.

"If you won't embrace you're inner weirdness, then I will," he said in all seriousness.

Lucy was shocked and blinked a couple times before wacking him over the head, hard.

"Ow!" he yelped. "What was that for weirdo?"

"Quit calling me weirdo!!" she yelled.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not one!!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!!"

"No, I'm not!!"

"Yes, you are and that's one of the things I love about you, so stop saying you're not!!!" he shouted back.

That shut Lucy up.

"S-S-Say w-what?"

Natsu's face went as red as Erza's hair as his darted everywhere but at Lucy.

"Did you really just say that?" she asked in wonder.

"N-No! Y-You're just imagining things, you weirdo!" he said, pointing a finger at her.

"I am not! You just said-" Lucy was cut off as Natsu suddenly wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her against his bare chest.

"N-Natsu?! W-What are you-" Natsu covered her mouth with his hand and covered them with his wing.

"Go to sleep," he ordered.

"Mhmhmfm," her words completely unintelligible since her voice was muffled by his hand.

"Ssshhh," he shushed her.

She blew her cheeks out into his hand, getting a chuckle from him, making her cheeks turn pink. She was now grateful for the dark. Engulfed by Natsu's abnormal body heat, she slowly felt herself get sleepier and sleepier before she couldn't keep her eyes open any more. The last thing she heard before slipping into complete unconsciousness was Natsu's voice saying, "Sweet dreams, weirdo." And she found herself liking the way it sounded almost endearing when he said it this time.