"That was a blast!" Natsu cheered as they were on their way back home from another successful job. They'd exterminated some kind of lake monster that was apparently eating the people of a nearby town. Both the town and the lake were huge tourist attractions, but with people being eaten left and right, business was dying, which meant that the town's economy was crashing. Even if they avoided getting eaten, by avoiding the lake, it didn't solve the problem, so they'd asked for help. It was an S-class job with a huge reward, and Natsu and his entire team were happy and satisfied.

Wendy smiled to herself as she watched Natsu walk ahead of her. He and Erza had handled the monster all on their own, though, the rest of them had just watched. Well, Lucy had helped, providing the information that even though it was a water dweller, the monster was weak to fire. Sometimes Wendy was caught off guard by all the things Lucy knew. They were all intelligent people in Fairy Tail, but Lucy and Levy were on a different level altogether.

At first Wendy had been a little bit intimidated by Lucy, who'd seemed almost stuck up and arrogant, not to mention that she had a pretty nasty temper and a violent streak, but over the time she'd come to understand that Lucy was in fact sweet as pie. Her arrogance was a shield to mask insecurities, her temper and violence though were legit. But she needed both to deal with Natsu on a daily basis, even Wendy knew that.

She really admired Lucy. The older girl was strong, smart, beautiful, independent and loyal to a fault. She wasn't as close to Lucy as she was to Erza, but that didn't have anything to do with Lucy herself, instead it was mostly Natsu's fault for having a tendency to monopolize Lucy's attention.

Like he was currently doing, by slinging his arm around Lucy's shoulders and pressing her against his side. Wendy had learned early that Natsu was a tactile being, but she'd never seen him seek as much contact with anyone as he did with Lucy. He was almost constantly touching her, even if it was only walking close to her and letting their arms brush.

During their fight against the lake monster earlier, Wendy had observed that even though Natsu kept beating the creature up relentlessly, he also seemed to keep an constant eye on Lucy. It was almost like he was scared she'd vanish if he didn't watch her.

Wendy knew some of that behavior stemmed from having to watch future Lucy die without being able to help her and was amplified during their recent war against Alvarez, where Lucy had been heavily injured and Natsu had thought she'd died and lost control completely. Having to watch a loved one die would leave lasting scars, after all.

Even as painful as some of Natsu's behavior was, mostly Wendy found it cute.

They were bickering as they strolled along, something about Natsu's tendency to sleep in Lucy's bed. Lucy always made a good effort to seem affronted but Wendy could see that she didn't really mind. The way she pressed closer to Natsu as they walked and ruffled his hair as he said something funny, the way she leaned her head on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh out loud gave her away.

Lucy was just as weak to Natsu as he was to her.

Wendy just didn't understand why Lucy always denied that they were a couple. They certainly behaved like one. And Natsu didn't protest when Mira teased him about that, he'd just grin.

So Natsu wasn't the problem, it was Lucy.

Maybe Lucy needed something to push her along. Something like a kiss. But not the innocent kiss Natsu just pressed in her hair. Wendy may be a child still but she wasn't stupid, or ignorant. Natsu would really need to start crossing certain boundaries or he and Lucy would be forever stuck at this stage.

As cute and endearing as their cuddling was, Wendy knew it had to be frustrating to both of them at this point. But she was sure Lucy wouldn't make the first move. And Natsu probably had no idea what to actually do to move things along...

Well, it wasn't like she could offer either one of them relationship advice, no matter how much she'd want to.

She'd just have to wait and see. Maybe they'd do something on their own.