Summery: A broken ankle does wonders for Natsu's pride. Considering Lucy has to take him back to the guild for treatment.

Author's Note: Buona sera! Or buon giorno, if it's daytime where you are. This is my first time writing Fairy Tail…so, I'm not 100 percent sure I got their characters right, but…here goes. Review please, it makes me happy!

Rating: T for swearing

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

-0-0-

"This is so degrading," Natsu grumbled.

"Oh, hush. This is your fault anyway," Lucy said in reply, slightly frowning at her best friend.

"You don't understand, Lucy. This is humiliating. Gray and Gajeel are gonna laugh at me for MONTHS. Elfman's gonna rant about how 'unmanly' this is," Natsu continued.

"Which part?" Lucy interrupted. "The part where you tripped in the gap walking off the train due to your motion sickness, or the part where you broke your ankle while you tripped, resulting in me carrying you back to the guild?"

Natsu refused to answer, keeping his gaze turned away from her as best he could. Which was kinda hard, seeing as Lucy was giving him a piggyback ride, and he had wrapped his arms loosely around her shoulders. His face was pressed against Lucy's shoulder, so all he could really do was turn his face away from hers.

"…this is humiliating," he mumbled.

"Whatever. You better not get sick on me."

"Hey!" Natsu pouted. "I only get sick on transportation."

"Oh yeah? Then what am I?"

"You're my friend, Luce. Duh," Natsu scoffed, offended that she would even ask such a question.

Lucy smiled a little bit and kept trudging towards the guild. The people of Magnolia gave them some strange stares as they walked down the street, but Lucy ignored them in favor of gripping her teammate's legs more securely, and trying to keep his injured foot from jostling around too much. After what seemed like a month, the pair finally arrived back at the guild.

'Why the hell is he so heavy?' Lucy thought, collapsing to her knees on the floor as soon as they pushed through the doors of the guild. She kept in mind to keep Natsu's injured foot from bouncing off the floor, but she didn't hesitate to drop him from her back as soon as they were inside.

"OW! Damnit, Lucy, did ya HAVE to drop me?" Natsu grumbled from behind her.

"If you weren't so damn HEAVY, I wouldn't have HAD to drop you! What the hell do you eat, anyway?" Lucy retorted, still panting from their long trek to the guild.

"It's muscle!" Natsu grinned, thumping himself on the chest.

"The hell happened to you two?"

Natsu's face fell as he stared up into the face of his dark-haired rival. He looked away guiltily, refusing to answer. Gray turned to Lucy, who seemed content to stay collapsed on the floor.

"Your leg looks pretty messed up, Salamander," Gajeel commented from somewhere behind Gray. Natsu yelped as Gray nudged it a bit with his foot.

"OW! DAMNIT, YOU SNOW-CONE BASTARD, LEAVE MY FOOT ALONE!"

Lucy sighed. "Leave him alone guys, it's broken. Where's Wendy, anyway?" She looked around for the small girl.

"I think she went fishing with Happy and Charle," Gray noted, before turning his attention back to Natsu. "So, how'd you break your leg?"

Before Natsu could launch into a long-winded excuse about having broken it in an epic fight with the monster they'd been battling, Lucy beat him to it.

"He tripped getting off the train. I ended up carrying him all the way back to the guild."

Natsu's cringed. Gray, Gajeel, and Elfman (who had randomly shown up out of nowhere, as most members of Fairy Tail tend to do) stared at Natsu's red face before bursting into snickers. Elfman proceeded to rant about how it was unmanly to be tripped by such a simple thing as a platform at a train station, while Gray and Gajeel continued to laugh hysterically. Halfway through his rant, Elfman placed a giant hand on Lucy's shoulder and said, rather dramatically,

"Lucy, it is very manly to carry someone like Natsu through the city."

Natsu looked close to tears, and Gray and Gajeel only laughed harder, if possible.

-0-0-

A/N: WAHHOOOOO it's done! This took me a while to actually complete. -_-' But I did, so go me. I got the inspiration for this from reading another fic that mentioned Lucy and Natsu and a piggyback ride. I don't remember the specifics, so if that was your story, sorry for stealing your idea, but it was too entertaining to pass up! I adore Natsu/Lucy. And Gajeel and Levy. Yeahhhh….and Happy wasn't here this time. If I ever write another story, I'll be sure to include him. AYE SIR! Until next time, BAIBAI.