It was moments like this, Natsu decided, that he would rather live without. He was currently sitting at a table in the guild, just like normal, but what wasn't normal was the pattern he was beating into the table with his fingers, or the beat he was tapping with his foot. His eyes roved across the crowded guild hall, watching all of his friends drink and party and have fun. He jumped when a heavy hand fell on his shoulder and a warm female voice said, "Come Natsu, there's no need to be nervous, Lucy's been on plenty of solo missions before."

Natsu turned his head and said, "I'm not nervous at all."

Erza smiled at him, "You're going to put a hole in the floor if you tap your foot anymore."

The Dragon Slayer turned around and put his head down on the table, grumbling, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Gray had sauntered over and chuckled at the Dragon Slayer, "You've been like this for a week Natsu. It's kind of pathetic."

Natsu lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at Gray, "What did you say Ice-Freak?"

A line developed on Gray's forehead, "You heard me Flame-Brain! You're pathetic!"

Natsu was indeed, pathetic. He groaned and let his head fall back onto the table, "I don't even feel like fighting right now. Go away."

The Ice-Make mage gaped and then murmured to Erza, "I tried. Usually that works."

Erza nodded and said in a deadly serious tone, "Then we shall have to use our plan of last resort."

The red haired woman grabbed Natsu, pulled him out of his seat, turned him around until they were face to face and said in an earnest voice, "Natsu… I will give you a piece of my cake if you cheer up."

Natsu only stared at her morosely, "I don't want cake."

An angry tick flashed over Erza's face before she slammed Natsu into the ground and walked away in a huff muttering, "Heathen. What sort of respectable man doesn't want cake?"

Gray walked away chuckling as Natsu lay on the floor groaning in pain. Wendy came up and a glow surrounded her hands as she gently laid them on Natsu. His pain diminished and he sat up, rubbing his head and smiling ruefully at the young girl, "Thanks Wendy, Erza can overreact sometimes when you insult her cake."

Wendy smiled, "I know, and you should know too. Why on earthland would you say no when she was offering you cake. That's a once in a lifetime king of thing."

Natsu laughed, "I know, it's just… I don't want cake… I want Lucy."

Wendy giggled, "She really has only been gone a week. That's not very long."

The pink haired boy flopped back down on the floor in front of Wendy, "It is! I can't remember the last time Lucy was gone for a week."

The tiny blue haired girl giggled but it turned into a full blown laugh when somebody dumped a glass of ice cold water on Natsu's head. He gasped in shock and looked to see Gray with an evil grin on his face. Natsu growled, "That's it, you're going down snowflake."

With a shout he flung himself at Gray's legs from his position on the floor, knocking him down. The Ice-Make wizard cursed and threw a punch at Natsu's head but he jerked it to the side and threw his own punch, which connected. Soon enough they were rolling around on the floor shouting curses at each other and punctuating them with punches.

Mirajane and Erza watched it all from the bar where Erza sat eating her cake and Mirajane served drinks. Erza watched, her eyes occasionally twitching as she fought the impulse to go break them up. Mirajane just giggled as she watched the three present members of team Natsu before saying to Erza, "Why don't you go break them up?"

The fiery red headed woman glared at her, "It's going against every instinct I have to sit here and watch right now. That being said, Natsu needs to cheer up. He needs to learn that he can't just mope around when Lucy leaves for a week."

The barmaid smiled and shook her head, "They just need to get together already. They'd both be much happier that way."

Both of them started when a voice behind them said, "They llliiiikkeee each other."

They both whirled to see Happy sitting next to a bottle of tequila happily munching on a piece of fish. Mirajane said, "Well of course they do, they're just too dense notice it."

Happy stopped eating for a moment to say, "Not really. They've been dating for three months now."

The resultant shriek that left Mirajane's mouth caused Happy to fall off of his perch, Erza to choke on her cake, and the entire guild to stare incredulously at the white haired woman. She grabbed Happy and held him up in front of him, a maniacal gleam in her eye as she demanded, "Are you sure!"

The cat grinned, "Aye! They told me not to tell anyone 'cause they knew you'd react like this. Well, Lucy told me that. Natsu was too busy eating."

Mirajane dropped the cat without a second thought and he landed unceremoniously on the floor, wailing because he'd lost his fish. The demon matchmaker whirled to see Natsu sitting on top of Gray with the Ice-Make mages hair gripped in his hand, looking like he'd been repeatedly hitting his head against the floor, but both of them were gaping at her. She practically screamed, "How could you not tell me that you and Lucy were dating!"

The whoosh of air was audible as the entire guild sucked in a deep breath and Natsu scratched the back of his head with his free hand, "Well, I guess I just never got around to it. Sorry Mira!"

The sincerity of his grin was lost on Mirajane as she hurtled the bar and rushed at him, intent on giving him a beating worse than even one of Erza's. Natsu recognized this and quickly got up, pulling Gray up with him, and shoving the unfortunate man straight at Mira. He quickly received to a punch to the face and sailed across the guild but that was enough of a distraction for Natsu to sprint for the door. He got to it and shouted, "Sorry Mira, I'll make sure to tell you next time me and Lucy start dating!" before sprinting out into the night.

An unearthly wail of anger followed him but he successfully escaped into the night. As he got farther from the guild he slowed down and sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets and burying his face into his scarf before grouching, "I miss Lucy. She needs to be back now."

His feet gradually took him to where they always too him, the alley next to Lucy's apartment. He glanced up and was startled to see the window open, 'Damn, I must have left it open last time I left."

Natsu quickly hopped up through the window and was crawling over Lucy's bed when he froze. From the other side of Lucy's closed bedroom door he could hear a muffled feminine humming and his heart leapt into his throat. In a flash he was across the room, opening the door and flinging himself onto a startled Lucy. She shrieked as they went down in a tangled heap and shouted, "Natsu! What the hell are you doing?"

Natsu had his arms wrapped around her waist but looked up at her with accusatory eyes, "Why didn't you tell me you were getting back today, or even come down to the guild!"

She at least had the good graces to blush before saying, "I just wanted a night to relax by myself. The job was really tough and the client was a total pervert. I'm sweaty and nasty from being on the train all day and I just want to take a bath and go to sleep."

The pink haired boy unleashed his puppy dog eyes on her, whining, "But Luuuuce."

He grinned when her resistance to him crumbled and she capitulated, saying, "Alright alright, you can stay."

Natsu bounced up and pulled her with him, swinging her around by the waist, making her shriek again before setting her down and planting a big kiss on her mouth. Before she could respond he'd pulled back, grabbed her hand, and dragged her into the bedroom. He threw her down onto the bed and then slid in next to her. He wriggled around to get into his favorite position and soon enough he had one arm wrapped around Lucy's waist, pulling her tight against his front, and another wrapped loosely around her neck, letting her use it as a pillow. The Dragon Slayer sighed contentedly and buried his face in the crook of Lucy's neck, a wide smile breaking out on his face. He felt the tremors of a chuckle run through Lucy's body as she murmured, "You really missed me, huh?"

Natsu nodded against her neck which caused her to giggled, "Stop, that tickles."

This only made him nuzzle her neck even harder, unleashing a torrent of giggles from the blonde beside him. When he stopped and her laughter had died down she said breathily, "I love you Natsu."

The Dragon Slayer hummed contentedly at having his Lucy in his arms and gave her a small squeeze, "I love you too Luce."