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It took Lucy a bit of time to lure Natsu out of the woods and into her apartment. She got lucky, if Natsu wasn’t able to walk with her it would have taken forever to drag him back into town. As it rests, her dragon slayer is tucked nicely in her bed as Lucy attempts to make soup.
The recipe isn’t too hard. The challenge lies in whether the soup will be filling to a sick, hungry dragon. Usually whenever Natsu’s sick, eating is the last thing he wants to do. It falls onto Lucy to coax him into eating or threaten to tell Erza.
Apparently, before Lucy joined, Erza just forced food down the throat whenever any guild member was sick and refused to eat.
Lucy places the lid back over the pot and lets the soup simmer on its own. She’ll check on it in a few minutes. She makes her way over to where Natsu rests. His pale complexion is highlighted by the bright flush of his fever. A thin layer of sweat coats his skin and heavy bags sit under his eyes.
“Igneel?” Natsu whines as Lucy places a hand atop his forehead.
While his fever hasn’t broken yet, it hasn’t risen any higher. It’s a small mercy Lucy will gladly take. She can, at least, fix this for Natsu. It’s not like Lucy can track down Igneel for him.
The truth is Lucy has tried to find Igneel but it’s never bore any leads. Dragon sightings aren’t a common occurrence, and the few sightings are all fake. She doesn’t know why all the dragons disappeared on the same day of the same month.
It’s almost like they have little pieces of a much larger puzzle and until more pieces appear the truth can never be revealed.
Lucy runs one of her hands through Natsu’s damp hair. There are still some leaves stuck in it from Natsu’s forest escapade. She removes them from his hair carefully so as to not awaken him. Natsu barely stirs at the movement. All he does is squirm in place and mumble incoherent words.
“Luce?”
“I’m here Natsu.”
She uses her other hand to grasp one of Natsu’s. His eyes blink open slowly, and it takes him a few tries to lock onto her. Lucy hasn’t seen Natsu this out of it since their return from the Tower of Heaven. At least this time it’s a normal illness and not the result of eating something other than fire.
“Happy?”
“He’s here too, look.” Lucy points to the end of the bed where Happy’s peacefully sleeping.
The damn cat somehow managed to sleep through Natsu leaving Lucy’s apartment and Lucy wrangling him back in. Typical cat, always burdening Lucy with the hard stuff. All Happy needed to do was stop Natsu from leaving but no, he’s sleeping on the job!
“I’m hungry…” Natsu mumbles even as his eyes droop closed.
“Okay, I’ll bring you some soup.” Lucy gets up and makes her way back to her small kitchen.
In the background she hears Natsu say, “No, real food…”
She’s choosing to ignore that. The last thing Natsu’s body can handle right now is a full course meal. That doesn’t stop him from begging for it every chance he gets. She grabs a bowl and fills it about halfway full.
She grabs a bowl and fills it about halfway full. By the time she makes it back to Natsu, he’s already sitting up.
“Here, careful it might still be hot, okay?” Lucy offers the bowl to Natsu.
He takes it carefully in both hands as if Lucy’s handing him the most important thing in the world. He brings the bowl to his lips and begins chugging the bowl’s entire contents. Honestly, Lucy should have seen this coming, but at least he’s willing to eat whatever Lucy offers him.
“Did we find him?” Natsu asks after downing the last droplets of soup.
“No Natsu, Igneel wasn’t here.”
She hopes one day Natsu will be reunited with Igneel. She hopes Natsu can get the closure he deserves. Lucy knows the pain of losing a parent. She can’t imagine how much more her mother’s death would hurt if most of it was some unsolvable mystery.
“But once your fever’s gone, we can go looking again.”
Natsu’s eyes light up. “Promise?”
Lucy holds out her pinky finger. “I promise.”
With a loud yawn and a big stretch Happy wakes up. He takes one look at Natsu, feverish with a pinky finger wrapped around Lucy’s, and the empty bowl of soup in Natsu’s lap. Happy’s mouth drops and he lets out a screeching noise.
Natsu scrunches his nose in disgust and curls back into the blanket. It’s thanks to Lucy’s quick reaction that prevents the bowl from shattering against the floor. She places the empty bowl onto a nearby bedside. Hopefully it won’t fall from there.
“Geez Lucy! Hogging all the food for yourself!” Happy huffs in annoyance.
“I’m not fat you stupid cat!”
“Then why is there no food for me!” Happy wails.
“The soup was for Natsu!”
“Oh okay.”
“Seriously?!”