Author's Note:

Hello, hello! Welcome to The Runaway and the Rebel, part two of The Princess and the Arsonist!

For anyone who hasn't read that… well, you probably should go do that first. Otherwise you'll be a bit lost. ;D

Also, sorry for the delay in posting. I wanted to get this out sooner, but I had a pet-related emergency that set me back a couple weeks. Suffice it to say, my seventeen-year-old cat decided that eating something inedible was a good idea. She's okay now, but the surgery and everything definitely didn't mesh with my writing mojo.

But anywho, that's all I'm gonna say about that. Now, on to writing-related news: I am planning to keep my previous every-other-week posting schedule on Sundays. Sorry today is Monday, I just didn't quite make it yesterday. But hey, it's finally out and that's the important thing right?

So, let's get right to it shall we? Hope you all enjoy this new installment! And, as usual, I'll be putting a preview of the next chapter at the bottom, so stay tuned for that. ;D

As Lucy walked through the front door of a cheap-looking hotel, she was so numb that she barely noticed her surroundings. The last 24 hours or so had been such a whirlwind of stress and activity that there wasn't any earthly way she could think clearly or even rationally… and by this point she was blindly trusting Natsu to find them a place to sleep.

After he had freed her from the castle on Balsam Island, they'd snuck through the thick forest surrounding the town all the way down to the harbor. That had taken almost all night – thanks to getting lost more than once – and it was a small miracle that they had managed to find their way to the docks at all. Luckily Natsu had loaned her his coat, so her raw skin hadn't been torn up any worse by all the twigs they plowed through.

Speaking of clothes, Lucy had expected them to somehow disguise themselves and sneak onto a boat… or something to that effect at least. But what had actually happened was that Natsu simply dragged her through the part of town they had to cross to get to the docks. Then, he'd just picked a boat at random and threatened the owner into getting them back to the mainland. The only strategic part of the plan was that Natsu had stopped – for a millisecond – to grab his backpack on the way out.

It had all been very haphazard and terrifying… but somehow it'd worked. Not to mention that Natsu had even managed to hijack a surprisingly speedy boat for their getaway.

Unfortunately, once they were on board, all Lucy could do was watch helplessly as Natsu turned into a useless lump of jelly and threw up more than it seemed humanly possible to do. It was amazing that the boat owner hadn't turned around and taken them right back to Balsam then and there…. but maybe he'd recognized Natsu as the Dragon and was simply too scared to disobey someone with such a terrifying reputation. Whatever the case though, Lucy was just extremely grateful that he hadn't abandoned them.

The long boat ride after that could've been murderous if she had been in a thinking mood, but luckily she had been too dazed from shock, exhaustion, anxiety, and stress to really focus on anything other than simply getting away. She'd spent the entire time scouring the surrounding water for any sign of a faster boat pursuing them.

Being so on edge definitely hadn't been fun… but it had still been better than spending solid hours alone with her thoughts. As far as she was concerned – both then and now – her memory was an enemy and she was happy to shut it off.

It'd taken the second half of the night to make the full trip back to Hargeon, and by the time they had safely landed a little while ago, she'd reached her current level of numbness. She had dragged Natsu off the boat and then blankly watched as it turned around and made a speedy retreat – probably to get away from Natsu before he recovered.

At that point, nothing had really felt real to her anymore after being stretched thin by anxiety and pessimism for so many hours. She honestly couldn't believe that they had really gotten away…. it was too good to be true.

Long after the boat had disappeared, Lucy's eyes had stayed fixed to the water, the exhaustion and stress catching up with her and making her zone out for a while. She'd been stunned into stupidity and couldn't function properly for several long minutes. It certainly hadn't been one of her proudest or more lucid moments to say the least.

Meanwhile, Natsu had stayed on the ground at her feet, groaning and whining for just as long.

Looking back on it now… they must have looked very strange, but she hadn't been aware enough to pay attention to anyone staring at them at the time.

At some point she'd sat down next to Natsu and absentmindedly started to rub his back, sympathy for him cutting through some of her numbness. It seemed to have helped, because he had been able to get up shortly after that, and they'd tiredly staggered into town. Both of them were exhausted after a full night of no sleep – not mention everything that had happened before that – so they were in full agreement when they stopped at the first hotel they ran across.

Lucy zoned out while Natsu paid for the room… but unfortunately, that turned out to be a bad idea.

When they found their number and opened the door, Lucy came to a dead standstill at seeing only one bed. A faint high-pitched sound started ringing in her ears as shock and something much more sinister stunned her into immobility. The sound of the door clicking shut snapped her out of the temporary muscle lock she'd gone into… but that wasn't the only thing that snapped. Abruptly she was no longer numb, and a flood of images and sensations rushed through her mind.

Up to that point, she hadn't even realized that she'd pushed all of the terrible memories and emotions behind a wall of purpose, but now that she had successfully escaped, it all fell out to swamp her. Seeing the bed had triggered it… which made perfect sense… and yet somehow she hadn't predicted it.

A brief touch on her shoulder and the sense that someone was behind her preceded Natsu asking, "Hey, what's up? You okay?"

Her body immediately flinched and moved without her permission, scooting to the side and spinning around to face him before she knew what she was doing.

She could see his confused face and his hand still hovering in the air, but it was almost as though she was looking at him through a fuzzy pair of goggles. In reality, most of her mental capacity was tied up inside her head dealing with the mess that had just exploded.

Everything she hadn't wanted to remember was running around with free reign, and all she could focus on was the feeling of ghostly hands on her body… and other things she didn't want to identify. When Natsu took a step forwards and reached for her, she reacted with pure fear and fell back.

Her arm flung up to ward him off as she automatically cried, "Don't!"

…

.

…

Natsu's gut jerked, and he stopped so fast that he almost fell over. It took him a couple seconds to figure out what was going on, but a quick glance at what she'd been looking at – the bed – and the fear on her face made it pretty obvious.

It felt like he'd been kicked in the stomach, and he reacted maybe a little too fast. "Hey! What's up with that?! You know I'd never do anything to hurt you!"

She gasped and flinched back when he shouted, which made him feel like a grade-A ass. Before he could say 'sorry' though, she started nodding and said, "I know, I know…. It's not that…. I'm not… I know you're…you… but…."

He blinked and tried to figure out what she was tryin' to say, but he couldn't really make heads or tails of it. The only thing he thought he might've understood was that she wasn't scared of him exactly.

"So, uh… why're ya scared if you know I won't hurt ya?" he finally asked when nothing else came outta her.

She scrunched up her face and grabbed at her head like she had the world's worst headache or something. "I'm not… scared of you. But…"

She stopped there, and for a long couple of minutes he didn't think she'd continue. But then she started sobbing and clawing at her head.

"I can't stop it…. Oh… god, I don't want to remember…. Please, make it stop…!" she cried and thunked to her knees so hard that the sound made him wince.

That cleared everything up, but it didn't make anything better. She was obviously reliving whatever that bastard had done to her, and there wasn't a thing he could do to help. He suddenly wished that he'd gone ahead and killed Erigor. To hell with the consequences, that man deserved to die.

Her sobs kept him from getting too mad though, 'cause he was too busy being worried about her. After just a minute or two of watching her cry, he couldn't hold himself back any longer… and before he knew it, he was on his knees in front of her.

Of course, she flinched back again when his hand touched her shoulder.

"Don't touch me… please…" she whimpered, and he jerked back. He couldn't tell if she even recognized him anymore, or if she was so far gone that she really thought he was Erigor now.

He couldn't stand the thought, and his immediate response was, "Then you touch me."

That got her head up, and at least she looked at him again. Her eyes were still pretty glazed over, but he thought he saw a little bit of recognition in there.

"Wha…?" she mumbled.

"Touch me," he repeated, in case she hadn't heard. "I've gotta comfort you somehow, and if I can't touch you, then you're gonna hafta do it yourself."

When she just stared at him with a dumb look on her face, he held out his arms to show her what he meant. And when she still kept looking and didn't move, he started begging. Heartbreak wasn't something he was good at handling, and his heart was getting pretty thoroughly smashed by seeing her in so much pain.

"Please, Luce…"

…

.

…

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she thought that he was being awfully selfish… but the idea was quickly squashed. Even through the haze of her thoughts, she could clearly see the pain on his face that told her he was suffering right along with her. It felt… nice actually, to have someone that loved her so much that he hurt when she did. The thought of that helped cut through some of the memories that were clogging up her mind, and she was able to process his words a little better.

She blinked at his arms, which were still held out for her, and after a minute she gingerly reached out and touched her fingertips to his forearms. Her fingers landed a brief moment and then flinched back, testing the sensation to see if it would make her worse. Surprisingly, the feel of skin didn't trigger anything… maybe because she hadn't actually touched Eisenwald aside from clawing at him.

Since there hadn't been any negative effects, she lightly let her fingers rest back on Natsu's skin, taking in the insane heat his body gave off. To his credit, he left his arms still as she closed her hands over them.

They stayed like that for a long quiet moment… and then something went off inside her head like a bomb, and she dove into his arms and buried her face in his chest. She inhaled his unique smokey scent into her lungs and felt his heat completely surround her. When his arms gently wrapped around her, she tensed a little, but he kept the pressure light so that she could only feel his warmth. After a few seconds, she relaxed again and let him hold her.

Her sniffles grew less and less as the memories started to dim, snuffed out some by Natsu's presence. He was so insanely different from Eisenwald, and everything from his body heat to the scaly scarf pressed against her cheek reminded her that she was far away from danger. It helped soothe her nerves enough that she could scramble some sense back into her brain.

Once she had a decent amount of her sanity again, she was able to more logically process what was going on. The first thing that came to mind was that she needed to somehow pull herself back into reality and out of the wormhole of her memories, and the best way to do that was probably by finding a good distraction.

The perfect object presented itself when a black pattern caught her blurry eyes as she slit them open. Natsu's tattoo was only a few inches from her face, and it abruptly reminded her of a big question that had been bothering her ever since she'd found out about his true identity.

"Natsu? Why didn't you tell me?" she mumbled into his scarf.

"Huh? Tell ya what?"

Clearing her throat, she pulled back a little, letting her forehead stay on his collarbone but giving her mouth more room to move. "That you're the Dragon. I still can't believe it…"

"Oh!... That? Uh, well… 'cause I couldn't?" His response sounded both confused and questioning, like the answer was obvious and he wasn't sure why she was asking him that right now anyways.

"Why couldn't you?" she huffed, not about to give up on her perfect distraction. Fussing at Natsu was safe.

"'Cause I was on a secret mission. Duh. If my cover was blown, I wouldn't've been able to do my job."

She pulled back even further so she could wipe her eyes and nose and fix him with a look. "I wouldn't have exposed you if you'd told me. And what kind of job were you on that required you to be 'under cover' anyways? None of the rumors about 'the Dragon' mentioned disguises or anything…"

"Why do ya think I was there? Your dad's a real jerk and needs to be taken down a peg. You said you've heard the rumors, so you know what we do."

Lucy's mind was reeling a little. Having 'the Dragon' teach her dad a lesson had been a dream of hers, and it was crazy to think that it'd come so close to happening right under her nose. But…

"Why in disguise though? I've never heard anything about that before…"

"That's 'cause we don't always do it. But sometimes, if we don't have all the info we need, we've gotta go in and look around first," Natsu replied with a sour face that said it was a rule he didn't agree with.

"Gramps says it's important anyways…"

"Gramps… I guess that's your master, huh?" Lucy asked somewhat dully, finally closing her emotions off again.

"Yep."

"Uh huh…" she hummed absentmindedly and pulled away completely, watching as Natsu's arms slowly dropped back to his sides.

He also sat back a little – getting more comfortable by crossing his legs – and then quietly stared at her. Which was unnerving.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, she huffed a sigh and then exhaustedly said, "Sooo… anyways… sorry about… all of that. Um, I'm okay now."

She gingerly stood and brushed herself off, as if that would help her dust off the embarrassment that she could now feel staining her pride.

Breaking down like that definitely hadn't been in the plan. Just because she felt comfortable and safe around Natsu didn't mean that she wanted him to see her so weak and vulnerable and broken. It was a little humiliating, but she guessed she was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it. She didn't want it to affect their relationship.

And at that thought, a fresh stab of pain sung through her as she remembered that they didn't have a 'relationship'… or at least not the kind she'd wanted… and they never would. Now that she was a married woman, the most she could hope for was to keep him as a close friend. She winced a little and rubbed her chest where it suddenly hurt.

"You don't have to apologize, Weirdo," he grumbled, still sounding a little tense and worried, but with an edge of amusement and irritation now.

She nodded silently, too tired to argue or protest his annoying nickname for her.

Feeling utterly drained, she barely had enough energy to wobble the few steps it took to get to the bed, where she collapsed in an exhausted heap.

Meanwhile, Natsu stayed where he sat, and after a minute or two he called, "Hey, Luce? I'm gonna sleep on the floor, okay? So don't worry."

That little detail had somehow completely slipped her mind – which was ironic since it had basically been the catalyst for her meltdown – and she struggled to sit partway up so she could look at him apologetically.

"You don't mind?"

"Nope!"

With a sigh, she flopped back on the mattress and murmured, "… thanks, Natsu…" already starting to drift off.

"No problem."

…

.

…

Lucy was out for the count super quick. Which was good, 'cause Natsu didn't know if he could've handled any more drama tonight. He still kinda felt like he'd just been in an earthquake.

After a couple minutes of just staring at her – whatever he could see over the edge of the bed anyway –he got his butt in gear. He'd dropped his backpack in front of the door, so he hopped up and went over to get some stuff outta it. The loose chainmail shirt he wore on missions wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't super fun to sleep in either. So, he dug around in his pack until he found a tank stuffed in there and switched it out with his work shirt.

He shoved the chainmail into his pack and then flipped it closed and unstrapped the sleeping pad from the bottom. A good snap unrolled it out mostly flat on the ground next to him. That'd do just fine for a bed as far as he was concerned, 'cause he was used to sleeping on the ground. His scarf would be his pillow, after he untied it from his hips.

And that was pretty much it for getting ready for bed. The only thing left to do was hit the bathroom and get on his cot.

But when he got back from taking a quick whizz, he stopped and stared at Lucy for a couple of seconds before laying down, checking to make sure she was doing okay. It kinda looked like she was having a rough dream or something…. her face kept scrunching up and she was shifting around a bunch.

"Oi, you okay?" he asked, just in case she was awake.

When she didn't say anything in response, he figured she was just dealing with bad dreams like he'd thought.

Deciding to take a risk, he eased over to the side of the bed and eyeballed her, trying to pick a safe place to pat. He ended up settling on her head and very lightly petted her hair a little… hoping that would help somehow. It felt kinda weird, 'cause he wasn't used to being this gentle, but after a few strokes he decided it was actually pretty nice. He liked the feel of her hair sliding under his hand.

It looked like Mavis was on his side too, 'cause Lucy did actually seem to calm down after a few pets.

Once she looked like she was sleeping peacefully, he very carefully pulled back and then let himself grin… super happy that he'd been able to help.

He stuck around a few more minutes to make sure she didn't start fussing again…. And when she just kept sleeping soundly, he padded over to his sleep roll and plopped down. Of course, then he realized that the lights were still on, and he got back up with a groan to flip them off.

"Stupid lights," he grumbled under his breath as he laid back down.

It was still hard to go to sleep though, even after the room was dark. His eyes got stuck staring at the shadows on the ceiling, and his brain kept going over all the stuff that'd just happened.

He really hadn't expected Lucy to freak out like that… which was pretty dumb on his part. After what he'd seen and smelled in Erigor's castle, he should've been ready for Luce to have some PTSD once they got to safety. Just 'cause Natsu wasn't an expert on mental-emotional-brain-stuff didn't mean that he hadn't been around it enough to know what was going on.

Most of the members of Fairy Tail had ended up there 'cause they were looking for a safe place to call home. That meant they had dark pasts and shit they were running from… him included. Between himself and everyone else, he'd seen and experienced first-hand the aftereffects of all kinds of traumas.

It should've been a no-brainer that Lucy would go through a whole mess of painful stuff, but it'd still managed to catch him with his pants down.

'That's probably not a good way to put that…' he thought to himself and cringed at the reminder.

This was gonna take some getting used to for him as well. He still couldn't really believe that he'd been too late to save her from getting raped, and he knew that it was gonna be a very sore spot for him. Probably for a long time.

It was a good thing that Natsu wasn't the kinda guy that got all obsessive about his mistakes…. if he was, he'd never let this one go. And he was still gonna have plenty of trouble getting over it without that kinda stuff.

Right now though, he was mostly just trying to think about what he could do to help her.

Really, the best he could come up with was that he'd literally do whatever she wanted or needed him to. If she needed someone to help keep her mind off of stuff, he would drive her nuts with distractions. If she wanted to talk about it, he'd sit and listen for as long as she wanted. And eventually, when they finally got together, he'd take things really, really slow for her and help wipe away all those crappy memories with good ones.

At least that was a happy thought, and he grinned, finally letting his eyes close for the night.

Sneak Peek

She wanted to act normally around him today… or as much as possible anyways.

"So, are you ready to get going?"

"Pretty much. I've gotta pee first, but otherwise, yeah," he answered, snapping his pack closed with a click and slinging it over his shoulder as he turned to give her a grin.

His smile turned crooked as he eyed her. "You're wearing that?"

She gritted her teeth, deciding to ignore his blunt bathroom comment and just answer his question. "If that's alright? Do you need your coat?"

"Nah, you can use it. But we'd better get ya some shoes at least."

"Definitely. And there are a few other things I'd like to pick up in town before we leave, if you don't mind. I'll pay you back as soon as I can…"

He flapped his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. We'll get whatever you need, let's just make it quick. Shopping is such a pain in the butt."

Post Note:

Welp, we're off to a bang aren't we? But don't worry, it's not going to be all angst by any means. We have lots of fun stuff ahead of us to look forward to. Did I mention there will be lemons in this one? It'll be a slow burn, but we're finally going to get some NaLu. ;D

And, as always, if ya have any questions or comments, I'll be happy to answer them in the reviews. :D