Learning To Fight | A NaLu Fan Fiction

• Part 15 •

I am such a horrible updater. Really, I am. I am so so so so damn sorry guys! If you remember those emotional issues I mentioned before, well those only got worse when school started. As it turns out a lot of the people at school are the reason I have so many issues–shocking, I know. Either way, I still shouldn't have taken so long to write an update and I am genuinely sorry it took what...two months? Yeah, something like that. Hopefully you all aren't mad at me or anything xD and from what I have seen you guys are really patient; that means the world to me. 

On the topic of you guys, I was considering asking you guys to message me different ways you think this book will end. Honestly my version of the end is pretty shitty, and from experience I know that sometimes the readers have more vision for the book than the author. So if you guys want to tell me what you think will go down in the coming chapters leading to the grand finale, message me on kik: BlueBear180 or pm me. I love getting input from all of you and I really want to see what you guys can come up with! 

Okay I have rambled enough, please enjoy the 15th chapter of "Learning To Fight"!

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His fist hit my jaw before I could block it. I hit back and I felt my fist connect but I wasn't sure where it landed. I felt two more hits on my chest and I swear all the wind was knocked from me. I hit the floor of the ring and bounced, hitting it again. I pushed myself up just fast enough to avoid another furry of punches. I rolled away from Zeref and I used the momentum to get to my feet. He swung around and landed a roundhouse kick on me, sending me against the side of the ring. 

"So, this is your interrogation?" I laugh bitterly, my chest aching.

"I need to see how worthy you are to be kept alive, knowing what you know," Zeref strolls over to me.

"I. Know. Nothing." I say through clenched teeth.

"I'm sure you don't. Dear brother would never tell his delicate little girlfriend all the bad things he has to do," Zeref kicks me behind the knees and I collapse completely. I push myself up on my arms to start righting myself but Zeref keeps me pinned with his foot. 

"He doesn't do anything bad! He told me the gang isn't bad..." I struggle and manage to speak but its mangled. 

"Lucy, its a gang. You poor naive child, you don't know a thing. My brother is a second tier member, he is on his way to being full fledged. Do you know what that means?" Zeref asks and I shake my head no slowly.

"It means soon he will be sent on jobs to fight other rival rings. Maybe even kill other people, did you know that?" my heart is racing in my chest. Why didn't Natsu tell me? Why is he even involved in this kind of thing?

"There is no way Natsu is doing that, not by choice!" I fire back, acidly. Zeref chuckles again for a few minutes.

"Well of course not, but you see..." Zeref leans down close to me, "if he doesn't do it then his beloved father gets his throat slit, after a long and brutal torture session. And now, I'll throw you in the mix too." He straightens up and laughs. 

"No! How could you say that about your own father? How could you do something like this to your brother? They are your family!" I yell and Zeref's face darkens. 

"They are not my family." he growls and I freeze, petrified by his look. Then out of nowhere he yanks me up by my hair making me yelp

"Now prove to me that you are worthy or I will crush you beneath my foot like the worthless dirt you are," his words enrage me and I clench my fists. Then silently I take a swing at him, which he blocks by grabbing my wrist. But as he does that I use his hold on me to lift myself and ram my feet into his stomach, landing a good hit and making him let go of my wrist. He stumbles back slightly but recovers himself quickly. I take a proper stance and block a few of his hits before he lands a hard blow to my side. I groan and take a swing at him but my fists are starting to ache. 

"Come on Lucy, don't tell me this is the best you've got," Zeref taunts me before slamming another hit to my jaw and face. I stumble back and hit the ropes. He grabs me by my shirt collar and yanks me forward so hard I heard the fabric rip slightly at the force.

"Of course this isn't all I've got," I cough out. He smirks darkly.

"Oh, but it sure seems to be." He let's go of me and I drop to the mat of the ring, letting out a heave of breathe. 

"Zeref!" a loud voice yells, startling both myself and Zeref. I look back at the stairs to see Natsu, who we had missed the arrival of by our commotion. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Zeref smiles a sickly kind smile. "Why, I am just interrogating your little toy." Natsu looks at me and I see rage and worry flicker across his face. He immediately looks back at Zeref and then he leaps into the ring fluidly. He moves to stand in front of where I was in a heap on the ground. I felt my eyes roll and I was pretty sure that blood was running down my cheeks from my nose and mouth. Now that I was coming off of my adrenaline high the pain was kicking me in the gut–and everywhere else too. 

I saw Natsu punch Zeref hard in the stomach where I had previously kicked him, and before he fell Natsu landed a good hit under his jaw, knocking him out cold. I groaned in anger, pissed that I hadn't been able to do something like that to make a point to Zeref. Then Natsu quickly turns to me and leans down, scooping me up in his arms. I yelp in pain but he doesn't say anything. Waves of pain are hitting me now and I try to keep myself from crying. It was intense pain all over my body, not one part of me didn't hurt. 

"You are an idiot." That was the first thing Natsu says to me after getting me in the car and helping me get buckled. I don't respond. I did what I thought was best. Sure, I got my ass kicked but I still went and tried to do something. Not to mention the things I found out. I prayed they where lies, I needed them to be lies Zeref fed me to unnerve me. To make me run away, like the scared little girl he wanted me to be. 

"Why did you do that when I told you specifically not to?" Natsu asks through clenched teeth.

"I wasn't going to just sit on my ass and do nothing," I spit out between labored breaths. 

"That would have been better than this! Fuck, Lucy this isn't like your problem with Lisanna! You can't just run in blindly swinging and hope for the best, this is Zeref. A trained fighter, who's whole job revolves around his abilities!" Natsu scolds me. 

"And trained killer. Right?" I mutter the question angrily. 

"What?"

"I said, he's a trained killer too, right? Like all the rest of you?" My voice is low and icy. 

"No, Lucy what gives you that idea–" I interrupt him mid sentence. 

"You are all trained to fight and kill, that's why Zeref wants my head! Not because I know too much but because I'll get in the way of your willingness to comply! I'll be a liability, a variable he wants to remove from the equation!" I snap. 

"That's not it Lucy," Natsu's voice is gentle.

"Really? Then just was is it Natsu? Because I am starting to think there are a lot of things you haven't been telling me, and it all has to do with that gang."