Well, this was great. This was fan-freaking-tastic. It was suppose to be a simple task: go to the supply closet, get the party streamers, come back to finish setting up for the party. This is something Lucy had done dozens of times at the guild; well something she had done dozens of times without help from Natsu.
The dragon slayer begged the girl to come with her since he didn't know where the party supplies came from. Lucy just let out a sigh in return, she knew when the dragon slayer wanted to do something it was best to go along. Oh sure she always yelled at the guy when him and Happy showed up uninvited to her place, but she knew no matter how many times she said 'stop' he wouldn't.
However, given her current situation, Lucy should have definitely told Natsu to stay.
Everything was going well at first. Without causing any property damage, they got to the back of the closet where the party steamers were kept, there Lucy pulled down the box that contained them. She turned around to show Natsu where the party decorations came from, but instead of seeing the pinkette, she was greeted with nothing except one of the tall storage racks followed by a loud bang.
Lucy quickly placed the box on the ground and rushed towards the front of the closet. There she was met with the sight of Natsu sitting on the ground, back against the door, with mops and buckets littered around him.
"What on Earthland is going on?!" Lucy screeched at him. Can't that guy go anywhere without destroying something? Oh yeah right, this was Natsu she was talking about, of course they couldn't go anywhere without him messing something up. She really shouldn't be shocked or surprised by this anymore, yet she always was.
"Hey Luce. I saw something really cool looking on the top self over there, and I went up to go get it, and I kinda knocked everything over," he laughed a bit before closing his eyes and flashing a grin at Lucy. When he opened his eyes again the celestial spirit mage could see the smile quickly fading. "You're… not going to yell at me… again, are you?" the boy sheepishly replied.
Letting out the deep breath of air she was apparently holding, Lucy shook her head and replied, "No, Natsu I'm not. I'm starting to expect this kind of behavior from you is inevitable, and although it really really annoys me, I think I can look past it. But, seriously why did you have to knock everything over? You should be more careful around other people's property. You're always like this when you break into my apartment."
"I thought you said you weren't going to yell at me anymore."
"I'm not yelling," the blond grunted in exasperation, "Never mind, I'll go grab the streamers, and we can head back to help everyone set up. Sound good?"
"Yup," replied Natsu with a head nod.
As Lucy walked towards the back of the closet she couldn't help but laugh a little. As much as Natsu could be a pain in the ass, she wouldn't trade him for the world. She couldn't imagine where she'd be if she hadn't run into the dragon slayer. It was funny, she had heard many rumors of "the great salamander" before she met Natsu. But, she always pictured him as−well−the imposter that posed as him: a tall well-mannered man who was wise beyond his years due to his extensive traveling. She did not at all vision him as the pink hair goof ball that became her best friend. Natsu was special to her; she could feel it in her guts whenever she saw him. The dumb idiot just needed to be more careful around other people's stuff.
After retrieving the box, Lucy returned to the front of the closet to see an amused look on the pinkette's face and a feeling of despair starting to rise in her stomach. Something was wrong.
"Hey Lucy guess what?" the boy laugh, "I somehow jammed the door and now it won't open. I think we're stuck here until someone comes saves us." No, no, no, oo flipin' no. This is the reason why she'd go and grab this stuff herself. For such a powerful mage Natsu sure was−wait, Lucy realized, Natsu is one of the most powerful mages in Fairy Tail why doesn't he just knock the door down with magic. The blonde turned to the boy and, as calmly as she could muster, asked him. There was no need getting worked up if the problem could easily be fixed.
"I did, but it seems gramps had someone put some sort of runes on it so magic won't effect it. Guess there's too many valuable stuff in here to let people steal so easily," Nastu informed the girl with a shrug.
"Well this is fan-freaking-tastic. Natsu you-"
Lucy was so angry she blocked out the next few minutes she yelled at Natsu for his stupidity. When all was said and done, the blond realized getting mad about the situation wasn't going to fix it. She should relax a bit, start taking deep breaths, and find something to do to pass the time. That's when she stumbled upon the bottles of wine the guild kept in the closet. Man, they really do keep the oddest things in here,Lucy thought.
It took awhile to get Natsu to start drinking since he was reluctant at first, but a few drinks later the celestial spirit mage didn't mind having to wait for help. She was rather enjoying her time with the dragon slayer.
"You know…" the girl started off, "I've been trying to become more relaxed, I checked out a breathing technique book from the library… aaaand I've been trying to use it to help me become calmer." Lucy rolled her head along the wall that she sat against to get a better look at Natsu. He also had his back against the wall, but instead of his legs straight out in front of him like hers were, his left knee was propped up with his arm draped on top of it. He picked his head off the wall and turned to look the girl in the eyes.
"That's great Luce," he started laughing.
"I know I think so too. I'm really staring to like this new Lucy also, I think-"
"No, I meant cuz, you're not at all calm," the pinkette said cracking up some more, "You're the second bossiest person I know, and one of the loudest too."
"No, you're lying. I can be completely calm if I want to, you're being an asshole," Lucy retorted back. She knew it was true, the blond could be quite loud and bossy sometimes, but she could change. What Natsu said didn't really annoy her, but his belief that she couldn't become a more relaxed person did. Wasn't he usually the optimist? So what gives?
"No, no," the boy replied waving his hands in front of him, "I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, it's one of the things I love most about you−you know? It means… you've got a personality, which is a good thing to have. That's something I value in a partner."
Well this was quite unexpected; Natsu is more of a man of action than a man of words. To hear him talk like this surprised the celestial spirit mage, until she realized that he had been drinking. It was probably the alcohol speaking, she should start limiting his intake.
"Luce, I'm not that drunk." Crap, she must have said that last part out loud. "Can't I tell you what a cool person you are?" Maybe it was her clouded judgment or the smile on the dragon slayer's face, but before Lucy knew it she blurted out,
"You wanna dance?" The blonde knew just throwing that out there could be a bit weird, she should probably follow up with some explanation, "You know since we had to go through those dance lessons before, why not use them?"
"See you're acting calmer already, but you know I don't really care for dancing."
"Please?" Lucy begged, hoping her puppy eyes would work on the guy.
"Okay Luce."
Natsu stood up and extend a hand towards the girl. Lucy smiled and grabbed it using her free hand to push her off the ground. She must have been drunker than she realized, for as soon as she stood up, the blonde started to wobble backwards. Natsu tried his best to keep the girl stable, but it was futile and the pair both landed back on the ground.
"Hey, you okay Lucy?" the pinkette looked down and asked her. Somehow during their fall Natsu ended up on top of her. Lucy moved her body a bit, it was a little sore from the crash but it was fine.
"Yeah, I'm good," she replied quietly. The two stayed in that position, neither one of them wanting to move. It was weird really, normally Lucy would push Natsu off of her as she often did when he tried to sleep in her bed, but this time was different. Strangely enough, she'd spent all this money on relaxation books, but lying on a dirty ground with Natsu made her feel calmer than any of those books did. Lucy wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but before she could think any further about it the door opened.
"Oh my goodness, we were wondering where you guys were… Uh, you know what? Don't mind me, go back to what you were doing," came Mirajane's voice from the doorway.
"No, wait!" Lucy and Natsu shouted, trying to capture Mirajane's attention but that didn't work; the mage already closed the door. The couple could hear Mirajane shout something about a pool bet to the guild before her voice was too faint for them to hear.
"Maybe the door is unjammed," Natsu said optimistically. He got up and went to the door. After a few moment of trying to open it with no success, Lucy looked at the boy and unfazed said,
"I'll go get the playing cards."