Her Chime

Natsu had been staring at his best friend the moment she walked away from their table at the guild to talk to Levy about a new novel that she had just finished writing. His stare was not just merely a normal stare a person unconsciously did because he certainly knew he was staring at her yet he did nothing to stop himself nor did he try to keep it at bay. His stare was so intense that a few of his nakama who was near Lucy at that time started winking at him and giving him some thumbs up. But Erza….. she was giving him a glare from the bar while waiting for her strawberry cake. As if she was stopping him from doing something stupid or was that glare she's giving had another meaning to it because she was thrusting her chin towards Lucy. Before he could asked her anything, her strawberry cake arrived and she gave that piece of cake her undivided attention.

Natsu thought it was nothing and continued to stare at Lucy's magnificent blond hair. He only stopped staring when Levy tugged Lucy's blouse and pointed her finger directly at him. Lucy turned her head towards him and smiled. A hand was waving at him while the other one was tucking some stray hair back to their place that is behind her ear. Natsu blinked and waved animatedly back at her with a smile on his face.

Lucy then turned back to Levy and continued their conversation. As Natsu lowered down his hand, he blushed a deep shade of red. Damn! He needs to stop doing that! What if Lucy caught him staring at her? What if she thinks that he's a creepy pervert staring at her butt? Oh he'd be damned if she thought so. He can't afford to lose her thrust on him…. He worked so fucking hard to be where he is now in Lucy's life. He is her best friend and partner. They even slept in the same bed sometimes. If Lucy thinks that he's a pervert than she'd never let them sleep together again! His train of thought was abruptly halted when something caught his attention and of course that something was Lucy. She always managed to catch his attention somehow. He wondered why...

Natsu focused his eyes on Lucy again. She's going to laugh and he knew it seconds before she was able to do so. He could see it before her tinkling laugh could be heard. He could see she took a deep breath; her shoulder started shaking slightly and her eyes…. They were shining brighter than they normally did and it curved to a crescent moon shape as her cheekbones rose higher to indicate a smile that was going to form on her slightly blushing face. Only after her body had done all those small gestures, he heard her laughter.

No…. He was not going to call that harmonious bell ringing a laugh. It spread cheer like a disease it cannot be just a laugh. It was contagious that he, himself started to smirk when he heard them or was it just contagious to him? Because he can't see anybody else smirking or smiling except for Levy. It's normal for her because she was the one who cracked those jokes to Lucy. Hey, wait! Did Gajeel just smirk? Natsu narrowed his eyes to get a better view of him but the bastard turned away to talk to his exceed who was poking him. A few words were exchange between them and he blushed…wait….WHAT THE HELL! GAJEEL BLUSHED?! Well that was better than what he was expecting to see. To his amusement, Gajeel was giving some discreet glances towards Levy. Ooohhh…. This is just too good to let it slide. Maybe he can provoke Gajeel into a fight if he teases him with this….

Abruptly, he stopped thinking because he heard it again….Lucy's laughter. He silently thanked his awesome dragon slayer power because now he sees why people didn't get affected by her laughter. It was because they can't hear it as clearly as he did. Those beautiful chiming….. That's it! He'd call it chime! It suits her laughter perfectly. It chimed like a bell, caught his attention like the chiming of clock, and it spreads cheer through the chiming wind. He closed his eyes and nodded to himself quietly. When he opened his eyes again, brown orbs were staring back at him.

"What are you doing Natsu?" Lucy asked while tugging his hands as a sign that she wanted him to get up.

While he was collecting back his thought, his eyes strayed passed Lucy and onto Gajeel's table. He smirked as he saw Gajeel spluttering when Levy poked his cheek. He blushed but managed to hide it from the blue haired beauty by acting like he was talking to Lily. He then called her a 'midget' and Natsu can clearly see the pout forming on her lips when he did so. Gajeel then ruffled Levy blue locks with more affection than what he intended to show. Natsu's smirked widen when he saw Levy laughed at him, snatched Lily from the table and hurriedly ran through the guild door. Gajeel took a moment to process what had happened before he smirked and stormed out to find the solid scrip mage.

"Let's take Happy to the park. We promised him days ago," Lucy said smiling brightly.

Uhhhh…. Don't let him talk about her smile because it will be an endless tale. Clearing his thought, he decided to answer Lucy question.

"To answer your question, I was thinking about your chime."

"Maa…. My what?" Lucy asked spluttering slightly. Natsu just laugh at her and quicken his pace. While Lucy was still holding his hand, he decided to take advantage on this situation and acted like he didn't noticed their linking hands.

"Let's go and find Happy!" was all he said and of course he failed to see the blushed on Lucy's face as she stared at their joined hands and wondering when will one of them be brave enough to entwine their fingers together…..

The End.