Chapter 20

Waking Up

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's, and my Ideas

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Nnn... What... What's going on...?

Alumina's eyes fluttered open half-way, and she blinked a few times to get rid of the haziness of her vision.

She felt like crap, her whole body hurt, with her stomach and chest being the worst. Once her vision focused she blinked in surprise as she stared up at a roof, and realized where she was.

She was in an Infirmary, white beds and medical supplies on a counter at the far end of the room, with a closet and a bathroom connected to it. There were several beds with white sheets all around her.

She glanced sideways, and scanned her gaze over the rest of the room.

She was laying in a bed near the open widow to her left, where an armchair was pushed up across from her against the wall, and a nightstand on the same side.

Her ring of Keys was resting on the nightstand along with Ursa's key.

She had been changed into a pair of black pajama shorts and a white loose fitting tank top, her hair down to fall around her face, reaching her lower back due to its length. She lifted up a hand and pulled her hair over her left eye, so it was covered completely, before letting her arm fall back onto the sheets.

Her stomach and chest was wrapped up with white bandages along with her right arm and hand. All over her body were faint cuts and burns that were almost gone and hadn't been bothered to be wrapped up in bandages. One bandage appeared on her left cheek.

For a minute she just lay there, staring up at the ceiling as she tried to piece together everything that had happened...

Natsu... Natsu coming after her... That's right...

She let her eyes close as she let out a heavy sigh, now she remembered that... It was a little hazy toward the end, when she guessed she had passed out.

Damn... Natsu really did a number on me, huh?

Her eyes opened up as she pushed herself to sit up. But she couldn't find the strength to do it, and the effort caused pain to shoot through her body, and she fell back down onto the pillow, jaw clenched in pain, eyes scrunched tight as waves of pain started washing over her.

"Take it easy Alumina."

Her eyes flew open at the voice, and she twisted her neck around to see who was standing to her left, wincing in the process, not having noticed him there before.

"L-Loke...?" She stammered quietly and he adjusted his glasses, eyes closed.

"Hey there, Lumie." He smiled a little at her. She blinked at the fact that he had used Ursa's nickname for her.

"What are you doing here...?" She murmured and he sighed a little.

"Thought I might check up on you, you did get attacked by a Dragon Slayer after all." He told her, and she didn't miss the slight anger in his voice at the thought. "How are you feeling?" He asked gently and she sighed.

"Ok I guess..." She murmured. "Still feel like shit though." She put in truthfully. Loke frowned a little worriedly at her answer and she looked away, "Don't give me that look." She told him.

"Hmm?"

"Oh you know, that worried look." She told him, and glanced his way again to see him looking away. "But your worrying is sweet though." She smiled a little and she smiled more when he blushed a little at the comment. "But why go out of your way to see if I was ok?"

"I owe you." He explained quickly and she blinked. Loke looked back at her and noticed her confused look,

"What for?" She asked him and he sighed.

"A few things." He murmured and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Like what?" She asked and he looked at the floor for a minute. When he didn't answer she just sighed once more, and pushed herself to try and sit up again.

But she didn't have much more luck this time, and was about to fall back on the pillow, letting out a grunt of pain, when steady hands were placed on her shoulders and helped her sit up slowly.

"Didn't I tell you to take it easy?" Loke mumbled as he helped her sit up and lean back against her pillow. She gave him a weary smile, and thanked him anyway, completely ignoring his comment and fixing him with a curious stare.

"So, what do you owe me for?" She asked, tilting her head slightly as she asked the question. For awhile Loke didn't answer her, and he took a seat in the chair pushed up against the wall after pulling it closer to her bed.

He locked his fingers together and rested his chin in them, elbows propped up on his knees as he leaned forward a little, simply looking her over for a long time before letting out a low sigh, eyes closing.

"First of all, for keeping your promise." He murmured and she blinked a few times. "The first time you summoned me, I asked you not to abuse any of my fellow Spirits, and you have kept your promise not to." He told her and she just looked him over.

He didn't owe her anything for that, she would never have even considered abusing any of her spirits, she had only promised him that to put his mind at ease. But she knew better than to argue with what he thought, especially when she could tell he was a little reluctant to be admitting this to her, so she kept her mouth shut.

"You've been good to everyone, and I thank you for it. After Lucy's death..." He trailed away a little and she smiled at him sympathetically.

He seemed to sense her sympathy for him, and he met his gaze with hers; only being able to see one eye due to the fact that the other one was covered by her hair.

He faintly wondered why she did that, but pushed the question to the back of his mind.

"Its nice to have such a kind Master after losing our old one." He finished in a calm voice.

"You don't have to owe me for that, I should be thanking you guys for agreeing to make contracts with me." Alumina told him with a small smile, and Loke blinked in surprise at her, before looking away again.

"Still." He mumbled. "And the other thing I have to thank you for," his eyes closed for a minute and Alumina just watched him silently.

"I want to thank you for helping make things between Ursa and I alright again." Loke told her and she couldn't help but smile, even though he didn't see it. "I never liked fighting with her, and I thank you for helping clear things up. Ursa is one of my best friends, and its great to not fight with her anymore." His eyes opened and he looked up at her, blinking in surprise to see the wide grin spread across her face.

"I'm happy you're both getting along so well." She told him cheerfully, "It makes me feel better to see that you're both friends again." She smiled a little wider, fixing him with a steady gaze, one he returned as he just looked at her silently. "I hated seeing both of you so torn up about it, now that your getting along, I'm happy."

Loke couldn't help but smile a little at her, she really was something, wasn't she? She'd gone out of her way to mend the rift between Ursa and himself...

"Its all thanks to you." He murmured and she just smiled back. "Now Alumina, I want to know what happened, really." He told her and she tilted her head a little.

"Hmm?"

"What happened to make Natsu go off at you? The Flame-Brain hasn't said a thing from what I found out." Loke told her and she glanced away from him.

"Uh... Well..." She murmured, coming up with what to say. "I sort of called him out on how he's been being a jerk and asked him why he thought I was lying to everyone." She started slowly. "He sort of just snapped, and came after me after that." She said, glancing down at her hands that were folded in front of her in her lap.

She supposed that she probably should have shut her mouth after he came after her. Talking to him like she had while he was going after her... Thinking back now it had only angered him more. Any normal person would have shut their damn mouth, and perhaps he wouldn't have hurt her so much.

But she wouldn't have taken all that damage, that abuse from him for nothing. There was no way she could. She had to a have gotten through that thick head of his somehow, even if she only ended up getting beaten to a pulp...

I wonder if what I said had any effect on him other than anger...?

"That idiot..." Her gaze snapped back up to rest on Loke, he was glaring at the floor, fists clenched in his lap. "That's one hell of a reason to hurt you! What the hell was he thinking?!" The Lion Spirit hissed quietly, and Alumina blinked slowly.

He was angry... Because Natsu had hurt her? She smiled sadly at him, a little touched that his anger was being fueled because he didn't like the fact that Natsu had hurt her, even if she hadn't known Loke for that long.

Loke POV

"Don't be angry with him, Loke." Alumina murmured, looking away from him and closing her eyes. Loke's eyes snapped up from the floor to land on her, but she wasn't looking at him. " He was confused... He's been keeping his pain and grief locked up inside of him for too long. It turned into anger, he was only venting." She told him quietly.

Loke stiffened at her words, she couldn't really think that Natsu's actions were justifiable, could she? She of all people should be fuming at that stupid Dragon Slayer!

His temper rose at the thought, what Natsu did... What he did to her... It really pissed him off, damn it!

He wanted nothing more than to give Natsu a punch in the face, he smirked a little on the inside at the thought.

But in the back of his mind, he was a little confused at himself. Why was he so angry?

Sure, he would be pretty mad at Natsu for attacking anyone in the Guild... But this... it made his blood boil beyond belief. He couldn't remember the last time he had been so angry at any one person, he couldn't remember the last time something like this had bothered him so much.

Was... Was it really because Natsu had gone after Alumina...?

Was it something different with her? Sure, she was his KeyHolder, his duty was to protect her to the best of his abilities... That was normal... But...

He shook the thoughts to the back of his mind. He couldn't think about that now.

"Don't get too worked up about all of this, ok Loke?" She asked him; and he blinked once her gaze became level with his one more time. She was looking him over carefully, searching for anything that he may be showing, any emotion. "I don't want you to be angry with him for too long." She explained.

They fell into silence as he contemplated on what to say back, then he looked up. Sighing, he closed his eyes and pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"Alright." He agreed, looking back her way she smiled a little.

"Thank you."

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Be HAPPY I updated this now.

I've had a long day, I feed 11 horses, 4 dogs and a cat morning and night everyday. I had a track meet that lasted the entire day. I got home late, I had to feed those animals and couldn't take a shower until very late, and I still had shit to do.

Be happy this is updated now.....

......Another shout-out for my other story! Give it a try if you could! Its not as well written as this one but if I manage to post the entire thing here on Wattpad, I can post the second story for that one and it gets better then~

Thanks for reading, votes, comments!

Till next time~