“Don’t cry.”

Natsu said to her.

The gentle sound of his words had an even mixture of rage dancing with them.

He was looking straight into her moist eyes when those words came out of his mouth, but something in her fair skinned cheek caught his attention. A trace of mark. A red mark.

The instant he saw it, his brows puckered.

His eyes went narrow.

Natsu wasn’t dumb enough not to know it was a bruise.

His onyx orbs that were once placed on Lucy’s brown ones shifted to the man in front of him.

“You,” the gentleness in his voice was gone, “Tell me you did not dare to touch a single part of her skin with those fucking hands of yours.”

His voice as he said it, had no trace of calmness anymore. And his eyes as he spoke, they were as dark as the future he had in store for the man before him.

A mocking chuckle came out of the enemy’s mouth.

“Oh don’t worry, I did not touch her,” he said with a smug smirk, “In fact, I slapped her.”

Natsu’s brows furrowed even more as if he wasn’t obviously angry enough. His hands that were already turned into knuckles started to go white.

“It felt pleasing, too,” the man chuckled again as he continued,

“I hit her hard right on that beautiful fa-”

But before he could finish whatever he was going to say, Natsu swung his fist straight into his face.

If everything went in slow motion, you could see his knuckles landing on the other’s nose. Breaking it and letting blood spurt out from his nostrils.

The man wasn’t expecting it at all.

He stumbled back and struggled not to lose his footing as the force hit him hard. His hand covered his bleeding nose as if on instinct. His face showed pain as he lifted his hand away and stared at the red color of blood on his palms.

The man wasn’t able to quickly process what just happened. It took him a moment to realize what had happened. All the while, his eyes were wide. Not believing that Natsu was able to break his nose with just a single blow.

He clearly underestimated him.

The man’s face lost the smugness in it and what replaced it was an obvious angered expression. An angry and humiliated expression.

“You knocked out my younger brother.” He glared at Natsu, he could feel the stinging pain from the inside of his nose as he said the words, “You will pay for it.”

Natsu stared back at him with the same dark eyes as he walked towards the man. Very much willing to get into a close hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

“I don’t even know who the hell you’re talking about,” he said dryly.

Hearing this, the man felt pissed.

He was doing all this for revenge, while his opponent didn’t even know what in the world they were fighting for in the first place. Another wave of humiliation crossed his face again.

“YOU ARROGANT LITTLE PRICK!” the man shouted as he lunged towards Natsu with his fist ready.

As his arm swung towards him, Natsu dodged it easily.

When the man lost his balance and his weight pushed his body downward, Natsu instantly kneed the man on the face.

It was enough for the man to fall on all fours on the floor, coughing out blood…with a piece of something that was white as well. A tooth.

Lucy, being held captive by someone and having a knife pointed at her throat, she could only watch as Natsu fought with the enemy and at the same time hold her breath without knowing it.

As the fight got bloodier in front of them, Natsu was winning.

“Not once did I ever hit her,” Natsu said in gritted teeth as he punched the man on the gut, “BUT A BASTARD LIKE YOU SO EASILY LAYED A FINGER ON HER,” he placed another punch on the man’s face,

“YOU PISS ME OFF!”

Natsu shouted as he gave yet another hard blow to the enemy’s already disfigured face.

The man’s body hit hard on the wall as he received the blow.

“H-Hey!” the man who had a knife on Lucy’s neck interrupted their fight, “Stop!”

But it seemed like Natsu didn’t hear the scream of a cowardly idiot as he walked closer to the frontrunner to give him another beating again.

He started to raise his fist, ready to finish him off.

Natsu was about to end it already when the man suddenly spoke.

The words that came out of his disgusting mouth, he loathed it.

“If you swing that fist one more time, the girl will get a slit on her throat as a souvenir.”

.

He stopped.

Unlike what Lucy thought, Natsu didn’t finish the fight. In fact, he just froze there as the man started to chuckle. With his own blood covering his face, he looked ugly.

And what Lucy least expected, was the very thing that happened instead.

The man punched him on the face.

For the first time, he was able to land a fist on Natsu’s face.

Natsu let him.

Lucy got confused. Somewhere along their fight, she felt confident he would win. But now, what was happening? Why have the tables turned?

Everything seemed so impossible.

He was doing so well.

Why was he losing now?

Another fist collided with Natsu’s face.  A small trace of blood appeared on his lower lip. He was cut.

Lucy’s eyes widened. She couldn’t believe it. Natsu wasn’t fighting back. He was letting himself get beaten up.

“NO!” She shouted.

A kick on the face got Natsu down, his left foot and right knee in contact with the floor.  

“NATSU!”

Lucy shouted again.

This was not what she wanted to see.

“BABY! FIGHT BACK!”

Not him.

“NATSU! PLEASE FIGHT BACK!!”

Not Natsu falling in front of the enemy, in front of her. She couldn’t take it. He was hurting. Again. Because of her. Again.

“NO, NATSU NO!”

Tears started raining down her cheeks. Seeing him hurt before her eyes was like going through a field of flying arrows and getting hit by each and one of them. It hurt her like hell.

The man was laughing the whole time as he punched Natsu on the face many times now. A bleeding cut had already rested near his brow.

But no matter how many times he hit him, he couldn’t seem to make Natsu lay face down on the floor.

“Stop it! DON’T HURT HIM!” Lucy struggled to make her voice louder, her sobs were uncontrollable already, “PLEASE!!”

But nothing changed.

The same thing happened all over and over again. Natsu being hit, and the man laughing as he hit him.

Lucy knew she had to do something.

But at her current state, what was she to do?

She had to do something.

Something that will make Natsu get back into his senses.

Something to make him fight back.

And she got it.

It lit up like a candlelight in her thoughts.

“If you don’t beat this guy up, I WILL BREAK UP WITH YOU FOR GOOD! THIS TIME, I WILL NEVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE EVER AGAIN! EVER!!!”

.

The instant those words left Lucy’s lips, Natsu’s eyes instantly shot open.

Another punch from the enemy standing in front of him was about to land on his face.

But before it did, Natsu swiftly blocked it with his firm hand.

The laughing man stopped, he was going to threaten Natsu again. But he stood up from the floor, and as he did, Natsu effortlessly twisted the enemy’s wrist.

“AAAHHKK!!!”

The man’s deafening scream echoed throughout the abandoned building as he felt his bones shatter. It was wonderfully dislocated.

“AAAHH-“

Another round of pained scream started to escape his mouth again, but that scream wasn’t able to come to a finish when Natsu smashed his elbow with his poor face. Hard.

The man fell unconscious on the floor.

Why not? He lost big time during this fight.

.

Now it was just him and the guy holding a knife towards Lucy.

Natsu turned his head from the unconscious ‘leader’ on the floor, to the remaining one.

“H-How did you-,” the guy spoke shakily as he stared in horror at Natsu.

“Did you really think he could land a single punch on me if he fought cleanly?”

The man gulped at the question. Of course not. He saw how Natsu fought. One thing he learned was, he wasn’t one to be messed with. And unfortunately for him, he was the only one remaining and even had a knife on his girl’s throat.

“I-I-“ the man struggled to speak.

“Hey,” Natsu started as his attention went to Lucy whose eyes were still wet with tears, “Stop crying.”

She tried to stop but another sob just came out.

“I can’t help it,” Lucy cried some more.

Natsu sighed and started to walk towards her.

As soon as he did, the guy shakily put the knife closer to Lucy’s neck.

“I-if you don’t stop,” he started, “I-I’ll…I won’t h-hesitate to c-cut her!”

Natsu stopped just a few feet away from them as he stared at the other man dead in the eyes.

Breaking bones aren’t so hard for him. He could do it again if he wanted to.

“Do you really wanna die here?”

Natsu’s voice was dry and blank. Back to being calm again.

Nope. The poor last unscathed soul didn’t want to die just yet. No, thank you.

It was like he was facing the angel of death at his last hour.

He shakily shook his head as an answer.

“No?” Natsu made it easier for him, “Then get your filthy hands off her and get the fuck out of here.”

Without hesitation indeed, the man pushed Lucy to where Natsu stood as he ran out of the room like a smart coward. At least he knew when to give up.

Natsu caught Lucy in his arms. She was still crying. Muffling her hiccups as she wept.

He slowly set her down on the floor to calm her down.

“You’re safe now. Stop those tears,” he said calmly as he untied the ropes on her hands.

As if knowing that she was finally safe, Lucy’s weeping started to fade away.

As she wiped the trace of liquid from her cheeks, Natsu reached his backpocket for his phone and dialed a number.

“Yo?” Jellal answered on the other line.

“Where are you?”

“Outside. We’re all here. Need any help?”

“If you see a man running out of this building, beat him up.” Let’s just say Natsu doesn’t really let anyone off so easily, especially when that someone happened to put a knife near Lucy’s neck.

“Got it.”

“Oh look, here’s one now” The voice belonged to Loki. It sounded like he was smirking.

And with that, Natsu ended up the call.

But hey, at least the poor guy won’t die right? I mean, he just gets beat up for the least.

.

Natsu carried Lucy out of the room.

As they walked in the silent halls of the old school building filled with unconscious bodies on the floor, her faint soft sniffing could be heard.

“Baby, you know I love you,” Natsu started, “But let me just say something.”

Lucy turned her head to face him as one of her hands clutched his shirt as he held her.

“You are an idiot for leaving the house without telling me what was going on.”

He said it straightforwardly with composure and a hint of anger. He was not happy. Of course not.

“I’m sorry!” Lucy knew he was right, “I only wanted to keep you safe.”

“That was a stupid idea.”

It might have been a stupid idea, but he didn’t have to be so mean when he said it. Lucy felt bad and lowered her head, not wanting to look at him.

Silence came after that until they neared the exit of the structure.

“You made me so damn worried you know that?”

“They said they were going to hurt you if I didn’t do as they say.”

“And you were being a fool for believing that.”

Like a vein popped, she’s had it.

“I KNOW!” Lucy shouted as she looked back up at him, “Stop judging me! I just didn’t want you to get into a fight!”

Natsu just sighed.

“Baby, guys want to kill each other from time to time. It’s natural.”

“No it isn’t!”

By the looks of it, she wasn’t going to back down any time soon. Natsu will just have to go with it if he wanted to keep his eardrums functioning.

“Fine. Just…stop shouting.”