"She tried to restore the magic that—"
"—hey Lucy what's this?—"
"—she tried to restore the magic that—"she repeated, ignoring her partner as he tested out her assortment of makeup.
"—Luuuucy~ come on, I'm boooooored—" he whined.
"—she tried to res—DAMN IT NATSU! Go play somewhere else!"
Jutting out his lower lip he gave her the best puppy dog look he could muster as he sat on the bed. Taking a deep breath, the blonde haired maiden ignored it as she glowered darkly at the dragon slayer. She wouldn't give in this time. Nope, not even an inch.
"Luce, I'm booooored~ Happy is out with Charle and Wendy, Gray is on a mission with Juvia, and Erza is busy trying out that new bakery." He groaned falling on the mattress.
"I fail to see where the problem is." Lucy huffed, crossing her arms underneath her chest. Natsu lifted his head to glare back at her.
Placing her book on the desk she turned to face the pink haired pyro, "Natsu, I understand that you're bored. But crashing into my room whining like a little kid isn't going to solve anything!" Lucy scolded earning an eye roll.
"Honestly, sometimes I feel like I have a child for a partner… Why don't you ever act your age?" a sudden thought clicked in her head.
"Say… how old are you anyway?" she asked eyeing him quizzically.
"What difference does it make?" He shrugged sitting up on his forearms "Are you going to entertain me or what?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No, Natsu. Now would you please leave, I would like to finish reading my story in peace." Natsu pouted at her before following her orders; exiting through the window ignoring her protests of using her door before he took off.
Walking down Strawberry Street, he kicked an empty can grumbling about his friends abandoning him.
Even Lucy his best friend didn't want him around. He could understand the exceed needing a little time off from his foster-father, or Gray making a promise to Juvia. Erza he didn't even want to question…
But for Lucy to reject him was like a punch straight to his gut.
He admitted that he did pick on the key-wielding mage once too many times and the constant break-ins were a bit tad annoying if he were in her shoes. He couldn't help it though. She brought an immense feeling of joy and excitement to the dragon slayer when they were together from the first day he met her.
Igneel had once told him about this kind of feeling being described as 'Love' when he was young. That the one who made him feel this way would become his mate.
So why did she not want him around?
He would change then, if it were for Lucy. Natsu hummed in concentration as he thought of what she said before kicking him out. She said something about his age…
"I got it!" Taking off high-speed, the fire wizard made his way to the nearest magic shop.
Lucy sighed glancing over at the clock; it had been hours since she last saw the hyperactive flame head and she was beginning to worry. Perhaps she was a bit hard on him.
"I didn't mean to overreact; I just wanted a little time to finish reading the book Levy-chan gave me." She reasoned to Plue watching as he sat on her bed munching on a lollipop.
"Still… I suppose I should have let him stay. I could always finish reading the book later." Plue tilted his head at his master.
Spotting a dark silhouette appear in the window the spirit shivered in fear. Lucy noticed the startled snow dog's gaze before turning around in her chair to see her window open.
"Huh? That's weird. That wasn't open before…" the female wizard walked over shutting it closed.
"Lucy…"
Upon hearing her name, amber eyes flashed with fear. 'Is it a ghost? I don't think I read that in the description for this place. I'm too young to die!'
Swallowing the large lump in her throat she spun around placing one hand on her keys summoning the Nikola back as she turned her head around to look around for the intruder.
"E-ehehehehe… must be my imagination."
"Luuuuuucy~" the voice spoke again causing the girl to shut her eyes shrieking in terror. "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME MR. GHOST!"
"Ghost? Where?"
'That voice… wait a second…' her eyes snapped open before noticing a small blob of pink.
"N-Natsu?!"
Glancing down, Lucy stared in shock at the little boy looking up at her. His signature outfit was much bigger on him in his child-form all except for his scarf. Little Natsu's face scrunched in confusion at the girl's expression.
"What?"
"What? What? Do you know that you're a kid again?! What happened?"
Natsu placed his hands on his hips before he spoke, "Yep, just like you told me to Lucy you said: "be more like a kid," remember?" he grinned.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Lucy tried to calm herself from strangling the infant. Surely murdering a child was NOT on her bucket list.
"Natsu… I never said to become a kid." She deadpanned, "I said that you act like one." She watched as her partner gave an unintelligible answer before coming to the realization.
"W-w-wait, I can't be a kid again! That means I'm not as strong anymore! I can't fight Gray like this, much less go on missions!" the little boy cried tugging on his pink spikes.
"You should have thought about that before you did… whatever you did. How did you get younger anyway?" Lucy asked.
"Oh, you see I went to this magic shop in town and they had this candy there that the store keeper said would make me young. He said something about only needing one, but I took four just in case." Lucy stared at him in disbelief.
"WHAT?! What do you mean you just took four? He told you to take one! Seriously, four?"
The little boy shrugged at the older mage before climbing on top of her bed, kicking his sandals off in the process. "It might be great being a kid again though. I can have you to take care of me Luce."
She blushed furiously at this before marching over to scoop up the protesting boy, dropping him roughly on the wooden floor. Natsu rubbed his sore back, before glaring up at her.
"What did you do that for?"
"Listen here Natsu, if you think that I'm just going to babysit you until we find a cure then you are sorely mistaken. Now just go home and wait for Happy tomorrow to look for a cure." She said, towering over her smaller partner.
"Don't wanna! Besides Happy said he wouldn't be back until tomorrow afternoon and... its dark out Luce. You wouldn't send a child out at night all alone... would you?" he whimpered, giving her his cutest pout.
Although she hated to admit it, Natsu looked adorable as a kid and his pout made her almost breakdown and glomp him. But she was a dignified woman, raised to be civil and understanding.
She would not be easily persuaded by a mere child.
He watched as her hardened stare softened reluctantly giving in. With a victory yell, he bounced up and down on the comfy mattress.
"I'll go take a bath then…" Lucy sighed making her way to the bathroom.
"Sounds like a good idea, maybe I will too."
"What? Fine then, take your stupid bath! I'll just go after you." He tilted his head in response.
"What's wrong? I thought you were going?"
'Yeah, I was going to take a bath until you decided to want one too!' The blonde stopped in her tracks at this.
'Wait a minute…'
"Natsu…You're not thinking about bathing with me… are you?" she asked eyeing the pink haired boy as he flashed his signature smile in return.
"Yup!"
"YOU PERVERT!" she delivered a Lucy kick less powerful than her normal ones.
Throwing on her pajamas consisting of black shorts and a pink tank top Lucy hopped inside her warm bed. The bathroom door's squeak alerted her of the small dragon slayer that had nothing but a towel around his hips.
"Natsu you cannot just go around dressed like that in my room! Go put some clothes on would you?" she seethed chucking whatever she could find at the boy.
"That's the problem; I don't have any other clothes!" once the objects stopped flying, Natsu peered up at the blonde.
"I-I see…" Lucy felt her cheeks burning. Grabbing Virgo's key she summoned the celestial spirit requesting children's clothes.
Virgo arrived changing the toddler with lightning quick speed despite her Master's embarrassment, afterwards proceeded back to the spirit world. Natsu glanced down at the pair of overalls and red shirt that had a dragon on it.
'So cute!' Lucy gulped, "Well, that's better." Pulling out an extra blanket and pillow she walked over to the sofa preparing his make-shift bed. "Here you go all—" she began cut off by the sounds of light snoring.
Lucy felt her eyebrow twitch in irritation. Ready to kick him out she opened her mouth to yell closing it shut at the small voice.
"Luce…" Natsu smiled in his sleep. Releasing a small sigh, Lucy crawled into bed turning her back to him.
She figured she'd let him stay in her bed just this once.
A/N: Sorry for the lack of update for Fallen, I will get on that shortly. This idea just came to me when I was reading through one of my old kindergarten books. I just had to jot this down before I lost it! You guys have to understand it was too adorable for me to not write TT~TT please don't be too mad at me…
Just for clarification, since Natsu's age is unknown I won't give out his age (he's immortal who needs an age?) so for future reference I'm enlisting him as a six-year-old. But that's not his true age so… yeah. Thank you all for reading and have a nice day!