The Dragon's Mark

I'll Try My Best

"It's been six  months, Lu-chan," answered Levy softly.

"Six months? One celestial week lasted six months?" Lucy pondered aloud. She turned to Lisanna and gripped her hands. "Where is he? Tell me what happened!" She couldn't face Erza.

"Lucy, he's alive, but he's not in great shape. Porlyusica and Wendy have been with him. It happened about a week ago. Let me take you to him."

Lucy followed Lisanna up the stairs to the guild's clinic.

"Lucy!" Wendy squealed, giving the celestial mage a huge hug. "I'm so happy that you're back!" She stepped back and her eyes grew wide. "I can feel that you're so much stronger and confident now with your magic! That's amazing!"

"Thanks, Wendy," murmured Lucy, but her eyes had strayed to the only occupied bed in the clinic. Pink hair tufted out of the bandage around his forehead and eyes. His arms and hands were wrapped. The rest of him was hidden under a blanket, so Lucy wasn't sure if there was more to his injuries. The fire dragon's eyes were closed and he seemed to be asleep.

"Oh, Lucy," whispered Wendy, sensing Lucy's emotions. "You can't blame yourself. This is Natsu - he's always going to go to the extreme."

"What happened?" Lucy whispered incredulously.

"Lucy!" A blue blur slammed into her chest, almost knocking her down. "I'm so glad you're here! You have to help Natsu! He won't wake up!"

Lucy hugged the blue exceed to her. A tear rolled down her face as she studied the unconscious fire dragon mage. On closer examination, she could see his chest was bare, which meant more bandages around his torso, she was sure.

She looked at the group assembled in the clinic - LIsanna, Wendy, Happy, and Porlyusica - waiting for some sort of answer.

"We were returning from a job," Happy began, sniffing, cuddling closer in Lucy's arms. "We ran into some dark mages. They asked Natsu where the 'busty blonde' was and other rude comments I can't repeat, and he went crazy! He took on all 5 at once!" He looked up at Lucy and smiled sadly. "You know Natsu - he beat those guys to the ground! After, he just collapsed and..." Happy started wailing and buried his head in Lucy's chest.

Lucy hugged the cat to her. "Thanks for telling me," she whispered, making her way to Natsu's bed.

"Too many people in here! Out!" Porlyusica suddenly yelled, pushing Lisanna and Wendy out the door. Pausing she looked back at Lucy, who was kneeling next to Natsu's bed. "We've done what we can, girl. It's up to him now. See what you can do to help," she sniffed. Her irritated look softened for just a moment as she looked at the two mages and cat before her mask went back up. "Humph," she said as she shut the door behind her, leaving the three alone in the clinic.

"Lucy," sniffed Happy, his sobs dissolving into hiccups. "I can't wake him up! I've tried everything! I even put a fish under his nose and it didn't help."

"Oh, Happy," sighed Lucy, giving the exceed another hug. "I wish everything could be solved with fish."

"But now that you're here, Lucy, you can wake him, right? You are his mate!"

"I'll try my best, Happy, but if Porlyusica and Wendy were having trouble, I'm not sure what I can do."