I Can Show You The World
Natsu settled into his hammock, overlooking the city lights below him. He wasn't that high up—only five stories at most—but it was one of the higher buildings in Magnolia, giving him a perfect vantage point of the bustling below him. Sometimes he liked to sit on the ledge and pretend he was Spiderman...
He didn't live in the best part of town but that was a given since all he could afford was a run down apartment that had yellow markings on the walls and carpet with the bathroom in the kitchen. He had been going to college to be a chemist, but when his dad got sick he decided to drop out after the first semester of his freshman year and take a job at a restaurant to help pay for the medical bills.
When his father did pass away, Natsu had figured he'd return back to his classes and finish up his schooling. Three years later he was still working at the same restaurant and living in an apartment that he was pretty sure had mold growing on the ceiling—he didn't care what the landlord said, the fuzzy green stuff was definitely not cheese.
A small crash behind him brought Natsu's attention to a small blue furball curling up on the corner of the fold-up table in the middle of the room. Happy.
Originally, Natsu hadn't even wanted the cat around—it had somehow followed him home and a pet was just another mouth to feed. He had tried chasing him off but it always came back. Eventually, Natsu just began feeding the blue furball scraps and then found himself deliberately saving leftovers for him. It wasn't too long after that he realized how happy and less lonely he felt when the feline was around, thus earning him the name.
Natsu settled back into his hammock, eyes glazed over as he listened to the cars rushing outside and watched the glow of the lights.
Then a high trilled scream and a bunch of hoots and hollering, which were nowhere near normal, broke the pink haired man out of his relaxed lull.
"What the hell?"
He scrambled out of his hammock and hung out the window in an attempt to get a better look at the commotion below him. A bunch of hooded figures were boosting each other out of a second story window with what looked like TVs and the such. Police sirens were approaching and Natsu could already make out the blinking of the lights though they were still a few miles away. It wouldn't be long until they showed up.
The oddest thing about the whole situation was that one of the hooded figures wasn't helping out his comrades; he was standing with his back to the wall of the alley, arms bunched up tight around his chest, hood pulled snugly over his face as he tried to sink into the shadows.
Natsu had to admit to himself that the thief was doing a pretty lousy job hiding himself. If he hadn't wanted to get caught then he shouldn't have let his buddies talk him into going in the first place.
The pinkette was about to return to his hammock when the same shrill, and rather feminine, scream erupted from beneath his window. Natsu leaned out to see the hooded guy leaning into the wall being roughly grabbed under the arms by two of the other hooded figures.
"Somethings not right here." Natsu climbed up onto the sill —Like Spiderman, he thought to himself with a smirk—and dropped down to sill below his.
"Listen blondey," the guy on the right hissed to the one in the middle, "I don't know where you came from, but you better get in the van otherwise this whole job will be a bust. We'll have to deal with you later."
"Wait, please-" The voice was definitely a scared female and that was all the motivation Natsu needed to drop down the remaining twenty feet onto the top of the dumpster lid, and then the remaining six to the ground.
"Hey!" Natsu barked sharply. He was pleased when the entire group of people halted, seemingly fear struck. "Let her go, and I might decide not to wipe the floor with ya."
The guy on the right, the same one who spoke earlier Natsu realized, smiled darkly. "And what are you going to do about it, pinky? You're only one guy and last I checked, there were four of us."
Natsu cracked his knuckles, a fanged smile taking over his face. "Is it bad that I was totally hoping you would say something stupid like that? I'm fired up now."
The two guys exchanged looks over the girl in the middle's head. Then the guy on the left charged. Natsu easily sidestepped the wild swing, using his scarf to wrap up the guy's wrist and then used his momentum to slingshot him into the side of their van—their creeper van; it didn't have windows.
"Your turn, buddy." Natsu didn't wait for the second guy to charge him, instead advancing straight away.
He barely made it three feet when the hooded guy dropped the girl's wrist and sprinted toward the van. He hauled his fallen comrade in and then the driver hit the gas. The tires screeched as it peeled out of the lot.
"Haha! That's what I thought, ya cowards!" Natsu laughed to himself as he watched the van speed off. A fluttery gasp behind to his right reminded him of the girl that he'd just rescued...like Spiderman! "Hey, are you alright?" he jogged over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She tensed slightly at the touch, but he felt her relax after her initial fright. "Hey, I promise it'll be alright now. Do you need a doctor? I'll call you a cab to take you home—"
"NO!" Her urgent tone made him scrunch his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that one. The girl shifted under her hood. "I mean, I don't want to go back."
Natsu rubbed the back of his neck. Well, now what was he supposed to do? He had a crazy weirdo girl who didn't want to go home. First a night of lousy tips at Fairy Tail and now this! "Well," he glanced up at his apartment window, his stomach churning at the thought of this girl seeing the inside of his crappy apartment, "you could come in for a minute to collect your thoughts if you wanted."
"Yes...thank you." The girl shifted under her hood again, and then looked up, giving Natsu his first clear look at her face. Now he understood what the one lackey said by 'blondey'—her honey blonde hair was tied back into two low pigtails and her skin was the color of cream. Wide brown eyes stared back at him.
Natsu's annoyed frown melted into a dopey smile, his cheeks tinting with pink. The entire time only one thought replayed through his mind; Wow. She was easily the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, a solid 22/10, a real knockout.
"First time out by yourself?" he asked casually as he lead her up the cramped hallway. There was a 100% chance that his apartment was going to be a gross, hazard sight and he was already regretting that he invited the cute blonde to his house.
She, on the other hand, looked delighted for some weird reason. Except when she heard the question, her face tinted red in what Natsu assumed was embarrassment. "That obvious, huh?"
He shrugged, smiling. "Just a smidge. But it's never a bad time for an adventure."
He missed seeing the girl's baffled expression followed by a smile.
He opened up the only functioning door on the top floor—he was the only one living on the top floor since the three other rooms were even bigger health hazards than his own. "Well, here we are. Mi casa es su casa."
He waited for the grunt of disgust, the twisted facial expression, or some sort of gag but it never came. Instead her eyes zoned in curiously on Happy lounging in the middle of the room. "Is that a blue cat?"
Natsu laughed. "Yeah. No idea what the story behind the blue is. He followed me home one day and I haven't been able to shake 'im, though I don't think I could live without him now. His name's Happy."
The girl slid up beside the hammock. She was about to reach down and pet him when she pulled her hand back and peered over her shoulder at Natsu expectantly. "May I?" she asked hesitantly.
Natsu had been so focused on her, he barely heard her words. "Yeah," he quickly supplied, taking a seat on the window sill. "Go ahead."
He watched as her hand slid across Happy's matted fur like it was the silkiest thing she'd ever touched. He noticed how her nimble fingers combed through different tangles and never once did she rip the fur. Throughout it all, Happy purred contently.
"Quite the view you got here, huh," she muttered distastefully, breaking Natsu from his staring again. He looked out toward the Heartfilia penthouse, which seemed to be the object of the girl's fascination, just a few city blocks over.
Natsu nodded dreamily. "Yeah. Don't you ever wonder what it would be like to live a life like that?"
"Mhmm," she grunted, almost in anger, "where they tell you what to wear and who to talk too."
"Where you don't have to bust your ass everyday just to eat."
"Where you're always being judged by everyone around you."
"Having a dead end career with no college degrees makes it really hard to make it ahead…"
The girl sighed. "It's like I'm…"
Natsu picked at his fingernails. "I feel like I'm…"
"Trapped." Natsu shared a glance with the girl as they chorused on the word. He smiled at her softly and she smiled back before turning away with a small blush.
The girl perched up on the ledge beside Natsu, cat still in hand as she traced a carving he had done of his last name. They sat in silence, watching the Heartfilia penthouse as windows started to go dark until Happy's purs became louder than the nighttime traffic.
The girl laughed and Natsu felt his stomach swell. "What's he saying?" she asked with a smile.
Natsu ran his index finger along Happy's forehead, down his nose, and then scruffed up his chin. "That he likes you." He thanked God that it was dark so that she couldn't see his rapidly coloring face. "And that he'd like to see you again."
Natsu became consciously aware of how close they had come as they bonded over Happy. Her nose was nearly brushing his and he could feel her breath mingling with his. He also detected a strong smell of lavender and honeymelon, both of which were the sweetest scents he'd ever experienced.
"Well, tell him," she started leaning in further and Natsu felt his heart skip a beat and his stomach flip in excitement, "that's very...sweet."
Her lips were four inches away, then three, then two, and then he closed his eyes...when it was all ruined by one of the biggest jackasses Natsu knew. The door slammed open against the wall, making both Natsu and the girl jump away from each other in surprise, and a big, ripped blonde walked in.
Instantly, the girl pulled her hood back up, which Natsu may have been curious about if the hulking blonde hadn't been standing there. "Laxus!? What the hell are you doing here?"
Laxus adjusted his belt where Natsu knew a gun and handcuffs among other gear was on hand. Not that he would use it on him, right? "The station got a complaint concerning this area." Laxus pulled out his handcuffs and took a step towards the pinkette. Maybe he would use them on him... "Considering you're the only one who causes trouble around here—"
"—hey! I haven't set off any fireworks or smoke grenades for weeks!"
"—the department gave a warrant to bring you in," Laxus ignored him. "You know that I hate doing this to ya."
Natsu frowned. "You don't seem like you hate what you're doing right now." Laxus shrugged. "Come on, man! You can't arrest me!"
"Yeah!" Natsu was surprised when the girl jumped to his defense. "Don't arrest him! He's done nothing wrong!"
Laxus chuckled as he fitted the cuffs around Natsu's wrists. "And whose authority do you have, sweetheart?"
The girl flipped her hood back, which quite frankly Natsu thought wasn't going to help his situation out much. Unless she planned on seducing Laxus, but something told Natsu that she would do a lousy job pulling it off. "I'm Lucy Heartfilia, heiress to Heartfilia Enterprises. My father funds your department, so if you want to keep your job, I'd suggest letting him go!"
Natsu felt his jaw drop as he stared at what he had originally viewed as a lost, harmless girl. But all of sudden he could see the fierceness behind her eyes, the regal posture, the way she commanded to be obeyed. How did he miss it all before? This girl had power. She could easily ruin someone's life if they crossed her the wrong way. "You're Lucy Heartfilia?"
She ignored him and focused her piercing gaze on Laxus. Laxus seemed nervous, something Natsu had never seen the big guy experience. "I'm sorry, Miss Heartfilia. I would if I could, but this warrant comes straight from Jose. You'll have to take it up with him."
Lucy—the name sounded sweet—folded her arms in anger. "Believe me, I will."
Laxus sobered up and suddenly lost his nervousness. "You do know that you're father has the entire city looking for you, right? He's just about ready to get the SWAT Team involved." Laxus sneered down at Natsu. "How you had no idea about any of this is beyond me." He looked back to Lucy who still looked like she was ready to kick something. "I'll drop you off at your home, Miss Heartfilia."
"Don't worry," Lucy promised as she was escorted out of the room by Laxus's partner, "I'll make sure you get out of here."
Natsu smiled dreamily as she left the room, her sweet honeymelon scent lingering behind her for him to revel in. Laxus rolled his eyes. "Stop it, Natsu. You're a street rat and she's basically a princess. Don't hurt yourself by getting attached to her."
Natsu sighed, suddenly realizing that his friend was right. But that still didn't stop the sweet scent from warming him from his cheeks to his toes.
…
"Oh, Miss Lucy, thank goodness you've returned home safely to us!" Jose put on a fake smile. He had learned how to perfect them from dealing with this industry.
Lucy continued to glare at him in anger and Jose had to bite back a slew of insults. Why couldn't she have stayed lost? All he needed was the pink haired boy!
"Come on, Jose," she spat, hands on her hips. "Just let the guy go!"
"My dear," he purred, touching the small of her back. Though he despised her, he couldn't help but appreciate the nice figure of her body. "That man has been charged on several accounts of public disturbance and some older ones of theft. And now he kidnaps the daughter of—"
"—but he didn't kidnap me!" Lucy exclaimed. She tore away from him and stood by the window. "Just let him go and I won't bring my father into this."
Jose had to fight off a laugh to keep himself from breaking his solemn character. "I'm afraid that won't be possible, sweetheart."
He enjoyed the way Lucy shuddered when he called her the pet name. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"That man has been evaluated and diagnosed with mental ailments. He's been moved to a rehabilitation asylum out of the country. You won't be seeing him again."
"What?" Tears brimmed in Lucy's eyes. "No. He can't just be gone!"
"You did hear me right?" Jose eyed her. "He has several illnesses that make him dangerous to people around him. He blew up a city block with fireworks!"
"He's not dangerous!" Her tears spilled down her face as she ran from the room.
Immediately the sympathetic frown he had been wearing disappeared from Jose's face only to be replaced by a more intense scowl. "Good riddance."
Now he had a pink haired boy to visit in prison.
…
Natsu kissed the ground the moment they landed.
He had always gotten motion sick, but there was something about airplanes that seemed to intensify his nausea tenfold. Imagine how much worse it was flying on a magic—oh, yeah, apparently magic was a thing?—carpet and then crash land into the middle of the forest on the outside of the city.
His head was still spinning when he sat up on his knees, but whether it was from his passing queasiness or disbelief of the entire situation, he wasn't sure. He had a pretty good feeling that it was more the magic thing though.
"You think he'd be more pleased with me getting him out, huh?" Natsu whirled around at the tall, orange haired guy who had rescued him. He looked like he had been talking to Happy.
"I, uh, um...can't believe this is happening," Natsu stammered, reaching across the grass for his cat. "I must be dreaming. Yeah, that's it! I'm still in my cell, waiting for Laxus to get me! I just fell asleep..or maybe I'm hallucinating. "
Natsu clutched at Happy, the only thing that was keeping him anchored to any level of sanity. Everything that had happened had been too surreal—how could any of it be real?
He had barely been behind bars for twenty minutes when an old man who looked more like a corpse than a living being had posted his bail. Natsu had found it weird and quite unnerving, but when the old man said that he needed help getting an old family heirloom back from a museum, Natsu found himself agreeing to offer his assistance.
In retrospect, Natsu should have refused the offer and returned back to his cell, but he had already agreed to helping before getting all of the details and there was no way Natsu Dragneel would be written off as a liar. Instead he shoved Happy into the backpack that the old man had provided and followed the decaying guy through the city.
The rest was a bit hazy; something about the heirloom being a lamp, don't touch anything else in the museum otherwise the alarms would go off...he supposed he should have paid more attention to Happy because before he knew it, the lil bugger had knocked over a vase, the alarms sounded, Natsu and Happy fell into some sort of pit and the old geezer got out with the lamp.
Well, he would have gotten out with the lamp if Natsu hadn't switched it with some other artifact. At first he had felt guilty, but after the betrayal he was glad that he had the item that was so valuable. Not that it would do him any good stuck in a black pit waiting to get picked up by the cops for the second time that night while alarms blared in his face.
It only went further downhill from there when the orange haired guy in the tuxedo and glasses sprung from the lamp.
Yeah, Natsu was pretty sure he belonged in an insane asylum. Or writing movies. If he was able to spin a story this good, then he should be working for Disney.
The tall man rolled his eyes. "Quit being so dramatic. Besides, you should be grateful I got you out of there."
Natsu stood up, still feeling shaky. "Huh?"
"I usually only give freebee wishes to hot babes, but you weren't in any condition to think, let alone utter a wish to get you out." Tuxedo guy pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Think of it as a gift. Anyway, you get three wishes. Don't use them on something stupid, alright? I can't even count how many times I've had to deal with people who went with the "I wish I could fly" crap. I can grant wishes, not miracles."
"Someone's in a mood," Natsu muttered to himself. He dropped Happy on the floating carpet when he started squirming. "What's your name, man?"
"Loke," Loke said, beginning to look annoyed, "or Leo. Most of my masters call me Loke. Karen though, damn that woman—"
"—that's okay." Natsu didn't need this guy's life story, because let's be real, they'd be here for a while. "And you say that you're a genie who can grant me three wishes?"
"Were you listening to me at all on the way here?"
"Hey! I get motion sick! I was busy puking my brains out! Give me some slack."
Loke smirked in what Natsu thought was the first time he'd seen this guy do something other than frown. "Okay, then," he said, sitting down on a stump. "Take your time. But make it quick, will ya? I got a date in the celestial world."
Natsu began pacing between two trees, vaguely aware of Loke's eyes on him and the fact that the magic carpet was mimicking his movements while Happy pawed at the carpet's fringes. What should he wish for? A new apartment would be nice, but what good was a new apartment if he couldn't pay for it? Maybe a better job...but how would he be able to keep a good job without a college background in it?
"What would you wish for, Loke?"
Loke looked at his fingernail, bored. "Nothing."
Natsu stared at the genie in surprise. "Nothing? Nothing at all?"
Loke nodded. "Nothing."
"Why? Don't you want to be free of having to serve people or something?"
Loke grinned. "Why would I want that? The celestial world isn't bad—there's eleven other genies who reside there besides myself. And there's no way I'd want to give up having attractive women be my master."
Natsu's jaw dropped. He wasn't expecting that.
Loke's smile widened even more as he sat forward, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Who do you think really made the Kardashians famous? Or who helped Britney Spears make her comeback? Or who Taylor Swift really writes all her songs about?"
Natsu's jaw dropped even further if it were possible. He definitely wasn't expecting that. Then an idea popped into his head. "Hey, Loke, what if my wish involved a girl—"
"—that's my area." Loke jumped to his feet, looking far more interested than before. Natsu wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. "But remember, I can't make anyone fall in love."
Natsu sighed dreamily as he thought about Lucy. "But Loke, she's smart, and gentle, and understanding, and—"
"—pretty?"
"Beautiful!" Natsu exclaimed. "Her big brown eyes, her long blonde hair, and her smile." He sighed again.
Loke materialized at his side and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "Then show me a picture! It's the Twenty-First Century for Mavis' sake!" Natsu pulled out his phone and pulled up the page where he had Googled Lucy. Loke's eyes dilated slightly and a smirk played out on his lips. "Not bad, Natsu. Lucy Heartfilia? She's quite a catch."
"Back off, Romeo," Natsu snapped, pulling his phone away. "But her being such a catch is part of the problem. She's basically a princess, she's so rich. And I was doing some research and it turns out that she has three business degrees and is scheduled to take over her father's company by the end of the year!"
Loke beamed. "I guess we'll just have to top that!"
Natsu blinked at the redhead. Suddenly he wanted Happy in his arms to anchor him down to reality again. "What?"
"I'm going to turn you into the next big thing! You'll put Bill Gates to shame!"
…
The musical number was a little over the top in Natsu's opinion, but at least Loke pulled it off like a pro.
The good thing was how Natsu had his character down—a young entrepreneur who struck it big after some big investments and was now interested in creating a merger deal with Heartfilia Enterprises.
Loke had assured him that this would be the best way to meet up with Lucy because it was common knowledge in the recent tabloids that Jude was looking to find a young man adequate enough to be his daughter's business partner. Rumors were also starting about how Jude's vice CEO Jose could possibly inherit the company with Lucy.
Honestly, Natsu was relieved that Loke was caught up in the latest gossip because he had no idea what was happening beyond the gossip Mira told him and other tidbits of this or that that he heard around Fairy Tail.
But even as Natsu marched down the hallway towards Jude Heartfilia's office, he was a bit surprised to find that he wasn't nervous trying to pull this off at all. Maybe it was the comfort of knowing that Loke was there to offer assistance on the sidelines or maybe it was just Natsu's natural flare for the dramatics, but he found himself smiling his fanged smile as he walked among the other employees (completely ignorant of all the attention the female population was giving him. Loke facepalmed in the Celestial World.)
Staying true to his outgoing personality, Natsu flung the double doors open and let himself into Jude Heartfilia's personal office. Two men were in the room—Natsu assumed that the blonde behind the desk was Jude while the creeper with the lipstick and witch hat was that Jose guy Loke had mentioned.
Who would want that guy to run the business?
"Yo." Natsu grinned as he planted his fists on the end of Jude's desk. He didn't look all too thrilled. The Jose guy seemed a little put off as well. "I'm Natsu," he wracked his brain for the fake last name Loke had given him, "...Dragion."
Jose looked at him in disgust. "You're the young prodigy that scheduled a meeting?"
Natsu blinked, confused for a second before grinning. "Honestly, I didn't even know I had a meeting scheduled! Loke...my, uh, assistant must have done that for me."
Jude laced his fingers together, giving Natsu a hard stare down the bridge of his nose. "So why do you think Heartfilia Enterprises should be merging with your unstable business?"
"I wouldn't say a fireworks industry is necessarily unstable, sir. The people of this country seem to enjoy a good party pretty often."
Jude perked up a bit at that. "Fireworks? I didn't see that on the file, Mr Dragion. I'll admit that you've peaked my interest—fireworks are a very popular product, especially here in Magnolia."
"Fireworks, huh?" Jose noted the pink hair. He'd only ever met one other person like that..
Natsu smiled, pulling papers out of his back jean pocket. "I usually design them myself—"
"Yourself?" Jude was becoming more and more interested in this Draco guy and Jose had to put a stop to this.
Natsu gave the blonde man his blueprints. "Yeah. I majored in chemistry." He left out the part about never graduating.
While Jude examined the blueprints with an impressed expression, Jose slid up alongside Natsu. "So Mr. Draco—"
"Dragion."
"Whatever. Where did you say you were from again?"
Natsu rubbed the back of his neck, laughing nervously. "I grew up in a little town in the south much farther than you have traveled, I'm sure."
Jose threateningly leaned in close to his face. "Try me."
"Can it, Jose," Jude snapped. "This kid could do wonders for the Heartfilia legacy. If we're lucky, Lucy might be able to go into business with Mr Dragion instead of you."
Jose gritted his teeth. "Superb."
"Lucy," Jude murmured and Natsu's heart flipped. "You know, Mr Dragion, that my daughter is about your age.."
Natsu grinned. "She is beautiful. I hope you don't mind me saying, sir, but I'm surprised she doesn't have a boyfriend yet."
Jude's nose wrinkled, almost in disappointment. "She's spurned all of the men I've set her up with in the past, but you seem like a guy who may be able to win her over. I'm sure she'll be excited to meet you."
"I'm excited to meet Lucy."
"How dare you all!" The three men turned to see Lucy standing in the open doorway, hands on her hips, eyes furious. Suddenly it became very awkward as both suitors and father were unable to look her in the eye guiltlessly. "You're all talking about my future as if I have no say in it! I can do what I want!"
She turned to leave, but snapped over her shoulder, "And another thing, I am not some prize to be won!"
"Just give her some time to cool down," Jude muttered after she had stormed down the hall. He looked less than pleased. "She'll come around."
Natsu nodded subconsciously. The girl of his dreams had just walked back into and out of his life just mere seconds of each other.
…
Lucy slammed the fridge hoping that her father could hear it in his study on the floor below hers.
It had been a few hours since the incident but she was still frustrated. Not only did she have her dad breathing down her neck about taking over the company, but recently he'd been intensifying his search for a rich suitor—emphasis on the rich part.
She'd been set up on several dates by her father ever since she was a teenager, but now that she needed a partner when she took over the company, the dates had doubled. Where she was used to being set up once every few months, she had had five dates in the last month alone.
It was the last one that sent her over the edge; some guy named Ichya thinking he could get all up in her face just because he owned a couple of million dollar homes was the final driving force that helped her make her decision to run away. Run away...ran into Dragneel…
At least, that was the name that was carved onto the windowsill at his apartment.
Spoon and ice cream in hand, Lucy ventured out onto the her balcony. Plue, her white pomeranian, scampered at her heels. "I wonder what he's doing now, Plue," she murmured, elbows on the railing.
She stared out into the busy night that was the city of Magnolia. Try as she might, she wasn't able to spot the apartment building that he lived in the same way he was able to watch the penthouse from his window.
"Do you think they feed him the right food in a mental hospital?" The spoon in her mouth muffled her words, but it didn't matter. She was mostly talking to herself anyway. "I wish I knew where he was taken so I could get him out. Dragneel isn't dangerous."
Lucy finished up ice cream cup. She stared out to the city skyline for an extra minute, then retreated back through the French doors that led to her room of her father's penthouse. What she did not expect was to find a pink haired guy sitting in her beanbag with an ice cream cup in his hands with an expectant look on his face.
"Hey there, Lucy!" he smiled with the end of the spoon sticking out of his mouth.
"AAHHHHH," Lucy jumped, holding her spoon like a weapon. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?"
The guy she recognized as the one from earlier with her father responded, "Thought I'd pay you a visit since we got off on the wrong foot earlier."
Lucy resisted the urge to facepalm. "And breaking into my room is your idea of fixing that? How did you even get in here!"
"Uh, the balcony? You weirdo," he replied, but he was blushing a little.
Lucy growled, pointing at the door to the balcony. "Well, you better go back out there and leave the way you came!"
Natsu stood up, quirking his head to the right. "You're kicking me out?"
Lucy felt her face heat up. "Well, yeah. You can't stay here you idiot!"
Natsu faked a sad frown and walked to the balcony. Arms crossed, Lucy followed behind him to make sure he left. Natsu hopped up on the ledge of the balcony, making her gasp. "Hey, wait a sec—"
"I'll see you around, Luce." He smiled and jumped down from ledge.
Did he just…? They were dozens of stories up!
"Natsu!" Lucy dove for the railing to look over the ledge but his head popped back up at her shriek, exclaiming, "Geez! You're so loud, Lucy!"
Lucy puffed out her cheeks in embarrassment. "What? How?"
Natsu scrambled back onto the balcony. He had a knowing smile that kind of made Lucy want to punch him off of the balcony herself. "There is a second ledge before I drop down to the next balcony and I was on that when you called so I dropped back in for a visit."
Even though she was thoroughly annoyed with him, Lucy had to admit that she found his smile oddly comforting...and charming even?
No, Lucy! She thought to herself. There would be none of that! He was just some other guy that her dad thought would make an ideal boyfriend. Besides, it'd be awkward if he got the job as her business partner and then she had a crush on him!
"It was only because I thought you were going to pancake on the pavement fifteen stories below that I even bothered to call," she stated, crossing her arms.
Natsu grinned, narrowing his eyes mischievously as he continued to swing his legs over the edge of the balcony. "Oh I get it. You were worried about me!"
"Eh!?" Lucy froze in horror. He started to giggle. "Don't flatter yourself, jerk! I just didn't want to deal with the media coming at me with questions about the body lying in front of my building!"
"Whatever you say, Luce."
Lucy watched him with puffed up cheeks and raised eyebrows. Who was this guy? What did he think gave him the right to break into her room and use her stuff? Shouldn't he be trying to get on her good side if he planned on being business partners with her? Because all he'd done so far was piss her right off—
"Uh, Lucy?"
"What?" Lucy nervously turned to him, cheeks tinted pink. Had he been talking to her this whole time?
"I asked if you wanted to go on an adventure," he said, looking between her and the city. "You know, it's never a bad time for an adventure."
The statement caught Lucy off guard and she found herself watching Natsu with a new interest. It couldn't be him, could it? "What did you just say?"
The pink haired man rolled his eyes, clearly becoming impatient. "I said, 'Did. You. Want. To. Go. On. An. Adventure. With. Me?'" He took his time over enunciating each word.
Lucy scoffed, but she agreed before she could even stop herself. "Where are we going?"
Natsu shrugged, the maniac grin returning. "Who knows? Isn't that part of the adventure?"
"Usually you have at least an idea of where to go, ya idiot."
Natsu scrunched up his nose at her. "What's the point of an adventure if you're going somewhere you already know, ya weirdo?"
"I'm not weird!" Lucy perched herself up on the edge of the balcony as Natsu slid down to the ledge he had been talking about earlier. Once he secured his balance, he reached up toward her. "What are you doing?"
"Well, I thought it was pretty obvious that I was going to help you down."
"You must be crazy if you think I'm going to scale a one hundred-fifty foot building! I'll take the elevator and meet you down there!"
"But that's not fun!"
"It's safe!"
"Isn't being so safe part of the reason you ran away in the first place?"
Lucy blinked down at his intense gaze. Suddenly she felt embarrassed. "How did you know about that?"
Natsu looked at his shoes, cursing quietly. "Y-you're dad briefly mentioned it." He looked up at her losing the bashfulness almost instantly. "How about a compromise? We can climb down halfway and then we'll take the elevator the rest of the way down."
Lucy bit her lower lip, glancing over her shoulder into her room through her glass doors. No one would be coming to look for her until morning…"Deal," she said, hoping that she wouldn't regret it as she swung her legs over the barrier so that her feet hung dangerously above the street. One slip up and she would be a Lucy pancake. "Aquarius is going to kill me if she ever finds out."
Natsu held his arms out for her and she nervously placed her hands on his shoulders. When she hesitated in fear, he tightened the grip he had on her waist and smiled warmly. "Don't worry, Lucy," he said, "I'm not going to let you fall."
For some reason, Lucy found much more comfort in his words than she probably she should have. Praying that she wouldn't die, she gave herself a push off of the ledge and then Natsu had gracefully placed her on her feet.
Opening her eyes, she felt an enormous weight lift off her shoulders as she realized that she was still alive. "Oh my God! Natsu, we did it!"
Natsu laughed. "I knew you could, ya weirdo."
Lucy felt herself blushing slightly, and that's when she noticed for the first time that she was still clutching onto him with his shirt balled into her fists while his hands were still firmly on her waist. They were so close! She also became notably aware that she was still wearing the pink sweatpants and white t-shirt she used as pajamas. She couldn't go out looking like this!
She must have made a face or something because Natsu simply poked her on the nose good naturedly. "Don't worry about your clothes, Lucy. You look fine without the fancy getup."
She smiled, but said nothing further.
And that's how it went; Natsu would drop from the balcony to the next and help Lucy down. Petty insults were exchanged but nothing was taken seriously. Sometimes they stopped on one of the balconies to watch the city lights, but mostly they kept a steady pace at their descent. It wasn't until they reached the bottom that Lucy remembered that she had originally wanted to use the elevator. The thought seemed so silly to her now.
"Wow!" she exclaimed, staring up at the building. She could just make out the window that was her own room. "I can't believe we just did that!"
"Told you you would have fun." He handed her a pink helmet and Lucy regarded it skeptically. "Ready for part two?"
Lucy accepted the helmet, a smile spreading across her own lips as he smirked at her. "I guess it depends on what you have in mind."
Natsu slid onto a sleek looking motorcycle that made even Lucy impressed—and she had seen some impressive bikes in her time. "You should know me well enough by now that I don't really think first."
"I've only known you since this afternoon," she replied, climbing on behind him. She stared at his back for a minute. Was she supposed to hold onto him or would that be awkward? But then she felt him pull her arms around his waist and she decided to go with it and leaned her face into the back of the red hoodie he was wearing. It smelled like campfire smoke.
"I think that's long enough to get the gist." He revved the engine and they were off.
The next few hours were the most unpredictable of Lucy's life...and she loved every second of it. At first they just drove around the city, looking at the different aspects of Magnolia's night life until they found themselves walking through the park where the cherry blossom trees had colored lights streamed through them. Lucy had never been able to see the cherry blossoms at night so it really did seem magical.
Then they got chased out of the park by some rangers after Natsu got caught feeding all of the animals they encountered:
"Natsu! The sign said No Feeding the Animals!"
"I just couldn't help it! It was a baby deer!"
"Baby deer don't eat gummy bears, you idiot!"
"But she looked so hungry!"
They were barely able to get to Natsu's bike and out of the park before they got fined. Not that money was the problem, but if the tabloids ever found out about all of this….
But her favorite part was when he took her for a surprise midnight snack at Fairy Tail. Even though it was well into the night, Fairy Tail was as loud and alive as any other business was during the day time. Natsu introduced her to a bunch of his friends and Lucy found herself exclaiming some weird stuff:
"You're not wearing any clothes!"
"Oh my God, is that a sword!"
"I'm not a man!"
"Shoo-be-doo-what?"
"I'm not your love rival!"
"Oh my God! Mirajane Strauss! You're my role model! I loved you so much in Sorcerer Weekly! I was so upset when you quit!"
It was pretty cool that she was able to meet Mirajane.
Now she and Natsu were cuddling together on a bench overlooking the canal. It was just over two in the morning, but they were both contently eating cheap ice cream from a fast food place they picked up on the way back to Lucy's place. Even though she hated to admit it to herself, she had definitely fallen for him, but something was still bugging her.
Natsu reminded her a lot of the Dragneel guy she had met just a few days ago. They sure looked similar, but how could they be the same person if Jose said Dragneel was shipped out of the country? What would be his motive to lie? Natsu Dragion….Dragneel...Natsu Dragneel….
Lucy bit her lip, then a sly smile took over her lips. "This sure was fun."
Natsu smiled, and Lucy saw him watching their entwined hands. "Yeah."
Lucy mixed up the rest of the ice cream in the bottom of the cup. "It sure is a shame that Happy wasn't here with us…" She watched him expectantly.
"Nah," Natsu said, casually linking and unlinking his pinky finger with hers, "he would hate the motorcycle for sure. And he probably would have hacked up a hairball from all the running we did back at the park." His eyes widened in a panic and he turned toward her as realization dawned on him. "I MEAN—"
"I knew it!" Lucy ripped her hand away from his, frustration swelling up in the pit of her stomach. "You are the guy from the alley way!"
"Lucy! I'm sorry—"
"Why didn't you tell me? Did you think I was an idiot? That I wouldn't figure it out?"
"No!" Natsu exclaimed. His pink hair was ruffled and he was picking at the string of his hoody nervously. "I mean, you are weird so I was hoping you wouldn't notice…" Lucy stood up. "Wait, that's not what I meant!"
"I can't believe you!" Lucy stormed off but she could hear his footsteps after her in no time.
"Lucy!" He matched her pace alongside her.
Lucy whirled around on her heels, looking him right in the eye and giving him a solid jab in the chest with her index finger. "Who are you? Tell me the truth!"
"The truth?" Natsu had this panicked expression again. Lucy scowled, continuing her fast walk away from him. If that was how he was going to be, she wanted nothing to do with him.
"The truth is," he yelled, chasing after her again until he was once again keeping her up with her pace, "that I went into hiding because the pressures of my business were becoming really stressful!"
Lucy narrowed her eyes at him skeptically, but he continued on, "So I rented a crappy apartment and started working at Fairy Tail about a month ago to relieve some pressure! But I really am the CEO of my own company."
Lucy sighed, rolling her eyes. She even slowed her pace a little and uncrossed her arms. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
"Well, ya know, um," Natsu scratched the back of his neck with a nervous fanged smile, "young, rich kid destined to take over the family business running away—sounds kinda strange don't you think?"
Lucy cracked a smile, hugging herself around the waist. "Not that strange," she admitted. She noticed Natsu's hand swinging at his side and she slipped her hand into his and nestled herself into his side. He was warm.
She wasn't able to see the dopey smile that settled on his face
…
Getting back up to Lucy's apartment in the building was an adventure all of it's own.
They decided that since climbing up the balconies would be harder than climbing down and that some of the rooms would now be occupied by sleeping tenants in the rooms now, it would just be better if they took the elevator.
The building was mostly quiet so Natsu turned it into a game of ninja where he would try keeping to the shadows or perform backflips and the such all while keeping silent. Lucy liked it, which was what he had been aiming for. She even tried joining in, but when her somersault ended with a table being knocked over, he had hauled her to her feet and they both made a sprint for the elevator before anyone found them out.
He was pleasantly surprised when Lucy laced her fingers through his again when the doors closed. He liked the way her hand fit into his, but when she leaned her head onto his shoulder a thread of guilt blossomed in his heart and stomach. He hated how much he was lying to her…
Lucy gave a tug on his hand when he hesitated to follow her when they reached her floor. The doors opened up into a spacious room that he recognized as the one he had broken into earlier—he saw the ice cream cup he had dropped on the floor.
"Not as exciting of an exit than your entrance was, huh?" Lucy laughed.
Natsu grinned, shrugging slightly. "I'll just climb up from your balcony like before. I'm only two floors above you."
Lucy smirked playfully, leading him to the balcony where he climbed up on the ledge. "Be careful. Okay, Natsu?"
"Yeah, I will." He was about to hoist himself up when a thought crossed his mind. He was going to kiss her. "Hey Lucy?" Lucy blinked up at him with her big dark eyes and he swung down from where he was standing on the ledge, placing his lips on hers.
She seemed surprised at first, but she had already relaxed into the kiss before he could break it up. Her familiar scent swirled around him and he truly felt drunk on love—thank God Gray couldn't see him now!
After a few seconds, Lucy pulled back from the kiss with fluttery eyelids. "Woah," she whispered.
Natsu chuckled and ruffled her hair. "I hope that's a good thing."
Lucy smiled. "It is. I'll see you tomorrow?"
Natsu stood up on the edge again. "Of course you will! We still have adventures to go on!"
Lucy sighed, staring up at him with what he hoped was adoration. "Yeah," she sighed happily.
"Sweet dreams, Luce." Then he hoisted himself up onto the balcony above and then the next, collapsing on the ground from both fatigue and bliss.
For once his impulsive behaviour had paid off! He had been nervous she wouldn't have felt comfortable with it, but it was just something he had to do.
Not even bothering to change, Natsu kicked off his shoes and belly flopped onto his bed. In retrospect, he should have known that creepy Jose guy would have had something planned.
…
For once, Loke had a good hand.
His last few turns had been good, but now he had five cards that would trump any other one. And it was Scorpio's turn to judge them, and he had a twisted sense of humor. Which was exactly why Loke got along so well with him.
Aries, Sagittarius, Virgo, Taurus, and Libra had just finished putting their cards in when Loke's ring went off. He ignored it for a second, hoping Scorpio would speed up the round of Cards Against Humanity. If anything, it just slowed down as everyone watched Loke expectantly.
"Um, Leo?" Aries squeaked, "aren't you going to take care of that kid?"
Loke rolled his eyes. "He can wait a second! I just want to know what card wins the round!"
"What if you prince is in trouble?" Virgo asked.
Loke scrunched up his nose. "He isn't my prince! I just turned him into one. Well, basically a prince since Lucy is basically a princess. And I'm sure he's fine for an extra minute."
"What if he's not?" Aries pressed.
"Yeah," Taurus agreed, "Don't want a repeat of Karen."
Loke clenched his fist. "Okay, don't get me started on Karen! She was a major pain in the butt and even though I didn't show up for a few extra minutes it's not like she died!"
"You just got him started on Karen." Scorpio face palmed.
"Idiot." Sagittarius grumbled.
"Leo," Aries placed a hand on the lion spirit's shoulder, "just go make sure he's okay? We'll pause the round."
Loke groaned, falling backwards from his sitting position onto his back. "Fine. I'll B-R-B."
He dissolved away from the spirit world, wondering where Natsu had gotten into trouble. Despite his reluctance to appear when summoned, Loke hoped that the pink haired boy's date with Lucy had gone well.
Imagine his surprise when he reformed at the bottom of the canal alongside a gagged Natsu chained to a brick slab that held him just below the water.
"Oh no, Natsu!" Loke shook him by the shoulders. "Look kid, I can't really give you another free-bee otherwise the Celestial Spirit King will wring my neck—or worse, Aquarius. All you have to say is LOKE, I WANT YOU TO SAVE MAH BUTT and I can save you!"
Natsu made no move to respond, his body beginning to shut down. In a panic, Loke said, "Oh what the hell! I'll just do it and it'll be charged to your wish account like credit!" Then he snapped his fingers and the two of them appeared on the bridge above the canal.
Natsu coughed up water, but that didn't stop Loke from uncharacteristically pulling the pink haired boy into his arms for a hug. "Don't scare me like that, ya moron! If you died, I'd be in big trouble up in the Celestial World!"
Natsu rubbed his cheek. "Nice to see how much my death would weigh on your conscience."
Loke laughed. "Of course it would weigh on me." Suddenly his mood became serious; in fact it was the most serious he had looked since Natsu had met him. "Now who did this to you?"
Natsu growled, "That stupid Jose guy! And he didn't even get my fake name right!"
Loke raised an eyebrow. "What did he say?"
Using wide arm movements, Natsu exclaimed, "He called me freaking Draco! I thought he was kidding when he did it earlier today, but he might be genuinely confused! Unless he's big enough of an asshole to purposefully call someone the wrong name as they carry out a murder attempt! Besides, isn't Draco from Hunger Games or something?"
"Harry Potter."
"What?"
"Draco is from Harry Potter."
"Now I know you're messing with me. Harry Potter is one of of those One Direction guys."
"You're hopeless."
…
The next morning, Lucy was in an exceptionally good mood for only having gotten six hours of sleep.
Slipping on her bathrobe, she took the elevator down one floor to her father's apartment floor. He had called her this morning and requested that she join him for breakfast since he needed to speak with her. Normally she would skip having breakfast with him because she didn't feel like dealing with another business lecture or blind date set up, but today she had a feeling she knew what the news was.
She had a feeling that her father was going to accept Natsu's proposal on the company merge. Even better, that would make her and Natsu business partners! The idea of being able to work with him every day made her stomach flip in excitement and Lucy slid on her socks across the floor the rest of the way to the kitchen.
"Good morning, father," she said cheerily as she slid into the room. What she was not expecting, however, was Jose to be sitting next to her father at the head of the table. She quickly regained her composure, coughed into her fist weekly, and took a seat beside her father and opposite of Jose. "Uh, good morning, Jose."
"Good morning, my dear," Jose said in what had to have been the fakest and most forced smile Lucy had ever seen. Seriously, why did her dad keep this guy around?
Jude laced his fingers together and set his chin on the back of his hands. "So, Lucy," he gave her a pointed look that worried her for some reason, "as you know, you will be taking over the business in a few months."
"Yeah." Lucy stirred around the oatmeal that a servant had placed in front of her. She was highly aware of Jose's piercing gaze on her, but she kept her eyes downcast.
"I've been putting some hard thought into it and I've decided that Jose is going to be your new partner." Jude seemed slightly off put when Lucy slammed her spoon down in a rage. "What's wrong?"
"I-I-what?" She was so angry it was hard to form words. "Why him? I want Natsu to be my business partner!"
"The Draco boy?" Jose asked.
"His name's not Draco!" Lucy snapped. She turned to her father, taking one of his hands between her own. "Father, I want Natsu! And besides, Jose is such a creep!"
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Jose muttered.
Jude furrowed his eyebrows. "I thought you would prefer it this way, Lucy. Jose is one of my most trusted associates and you've known him for most of your life. I thought you'd be more comfortable with a known friend as your partner."
Lucy cast a side glance at Jose, with his creepy smile and dark attire. "Yeah...he's not my friend, dad."
"He's not going to be your friend much longer either, Mr Heartfilia!" Natsu dropped down Lucy's balcony. Papers flapped in one of his hands. Jose's jaw dropped in shock at the sight of him.
"Natsu!" Lucy pushed back her chair, running past his outstretched arms and hid behind him instead. "Keep me away from that wack-a-boo!"
Jude was standing now too. "What's the meaning of this, Mr Dragion?"
Giving a pointed glare in Jose's direction, Natsu dropped the papers on the table in front of Jude. "This wack-a-boo has been trying to take the company from right under your nose! These documents prove him as the backstabber he is!" He glared at Jose again. "And next time you try to kill me, at least get my name right! It's not that hard!"
"You tried killing him!" Lucy snarled.
Jose turned to Jude. "You can't honestly believe—"
Jude held up the papers, his expression a hard frown. Lucy had seen her father angry on many occasions, but right now he was deadly scary. Natsu must have thought so too because now he was hiding behind her. "You've been stealing from me all along," Jude's deep voice rivaled a growl, "and your last step was to take over the business with my daughter and then run it into the ground!"
Suddenly Jude's eyes flashed in a rage. "I will not tolerate this!"
A pierce of laughter made everyone stop in their tracks. Even the anger in Jude's eyes dissipated in surprise. She was almost afraid to look, but Lucy turned to see Jose doubled over and laughing like a psycho maniac who was ready to set off a series of dangerous tricks.
"I can't believe a little street-brat like you ruined me! But at least you finally served your purpose!" Jose produced a golden lamp.
Natsu gasped in horror. "How did you-?"
"You dropped it from your sweatshirt pocket when you dropped the papers on the table like the fool you are!" Jose howled in glee. Lucy cowered back in disgust. "And now I have the one up!" He rubbed the lamp and an orange haired guy in a tux appeared.
"Loke!" Natsu screamed out in frustration. He took a step out in front of Lucy to separate both Heartfilias from Jose and Loke. "What the hell, man?"
"It's not my fault that you're an idiot and dropped it where the creepy bastard could get to it!" Loke yelled back.
"Leo the Lion!" Jose screamed, "My first wish is for this joke to be turned back into his actual form!"
"Actual form?" Lucy repeated with wide eyes.
"Oh, shit," Loke and Natsu grumbled at the same time.
Against his will, a radiant light jumped from Loke's fingertips and enveloped Natsu. When the light cleared, Natsu looked exactly the same as he had before. "Well that was a waste, huh?" he laughed.
"What!?" Jose hollered in despair.
"He's a genie!?" Lucy and Jude chorused together.
Natsu looked over at them, surprised. "You know what a genie is?"
"Do I know?" Lucy huffed. She pulled out a golden key from a cord around her neck. "The Water Bearer, Aquarius!"
Lucy smiled in satisfaction at the dumbfounded looks on Natsu and Jose's faces when the giant mermaid appeared hovering beside her. And for once, Aquarius was in a good mood. "It's about time you used up your third wish, you little brat!"
Lucy quivered in fear. "Heh, yeah..!"
Loke also trembled slightly. "Aquarius! I didn't know you were in a contract with someone right now!"
"I could say the same, but I really don't care."
"You two know each other?" Natsu exclaimed.
"There's another genie?" Jose wailed.
"We can get to all that later!" Lucy pointed at Jose. "Aquarius! I wish for you to get Leo's lamp back from Jose!"
Before Jose could even make a second wish, Aquarius had already drenched him from head to toe with a blast of water from her giant pitcher and effectively knocked the lamp out of his hand. He was about to dive for it, but Natsu performed a backflip and reached it first. Then he punched Jose into a wall where the man crumpled to floor.
Aquarius huffed. "What a lousy opponent."
Loke grinned. "Thanks for not taking it out on me."
Aquarius turned to Lucy. "Well, that was your third wish, girlie. It's about time I got away from you."
Lucy smiled. "Thanks, Aquarius. I'm sure our paths will cross again."
"Don't count on it." Aquarius faded away in a puff of blue smoke. The key that was around Lucy's neck also vanished.
Suddenly something slammed into her from the side and all Lucy could see was a wave of pink hair. "Lucy! Are you okay?"
Lucy hugged him back. "Yeah. I'm fine."
Natsu grinned and pulled back, one hand holding onto hers while his other cradled the lamp. "Oh, that's good."
"Happy to see you're worried about me too," Loke grumbled, walking up to join them. Off to the side, Jude was directing Laxus and his police force toward Jose to take him away.
Suddenly Lucy remembered the thing about Natsu and his true form. "Hey," she said, pulling her hand away and poking him in the chest, "what was Jose talking about when he said to turn you into your normal form?"
Loke suddenly looked nervous. "Well, I'm going to go back to the Celestial World! You know where to find me when you want your third wish, Natsu!" He disappeared in an orange cloud.
Natsu smiled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, I might not actually be a multi-millionaire after all…"
Lucy quirked an eyebrow, biting back a smile. "Oh really?"
Natsu kicked at the floor. "Loke may have turned me into a basically prince so I could see you again. I actually work at Fairy Tail..."
Lucy laughed, shaking her head. He looked up at her with a cute, dumbfounded expression on his face. "You don't have to be a 'basically prince' just to see me you know." She slipped her hand back into his, turning his raised eyebrows into a wide grin. "And even if you can't be my business partner, you could still take me out again. We still have adventures to go on, right?"
Natsu grinned as he entwined their fingers. "I'm fired up now."
...
twist ending. and yes. Lucy also had a genie.
dedicated to my bae Sanja.
8/13/2016