Chapter I: Moving In
Author's Note: holy crap, you guys. I'm so, so, so sorry for being gone for so long. School's been a real pain in the ass, but since it's summer right now, I don't have a good excuse for putting off my writing this long. But I'm back now, and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this one. I really wanted to get this up before later today, because I'm going to Japan until August fifth. I really can't explain how excited I am for Japan. We're staying in a nice hotel in Tokyo, and then we're taking the bullet train to Kyoto. I'm so ecstatic! But I'm not sure if I'll be able to update until we get back, so don't get your hopes up.
And as for updates for TBL, I wouldn't get my hopes up for me finishing it either. I really didn't have a specific ending in mind for it, so... I think I'm just going to change its status from "in progress" to "complete," because I don't see myself working on it anytime soon. (Please don't hate me.)
Anyway, this was written by me and one of my close friends. I posted it a while ago, but I took it down to rewrite it. I hope it's better than it was before, but I'll let you tell me that yourself! Please leave a review. And as always, no flames, please and thank you.
Natsu had always liked summer. He liked the warmth, the sun, the blue sky, and the overall perfect weather. His name literally meant "summer" after all. Why wouldn't he like this season? He also liked summer because of Lucy's birthday. Despite how hard it was to shop for her, he loved celebrating another year of her precious life.
In fact, he was on his way to her house right now to wish her a happy twentieth birthday. He felt kind of bad for not getting her a present until the last minute - again - so he sent Happy out to get something for her while he went to "distract" her. He really hoped she wasn't in a greedy mood today. Lucy really loved presents, and she nearly beheaded him when he forgot to get her a present for Christmas, and she made sure he'd never hear the end of it.
Natsu had a slight spring in his step as he turned the corner onto Strawberry Street, smiling to himself. He always got strangely excited while on his way to see his favorite blonde. He wasn't quite sure why, but he never really put much thought into it. His smile broadened into a toothy grin as he saw her apartment come into view, taking longer strides. As always, he walked passed the door completely and stopped in front of her bedroom window instead. He opened it and peeked inside, looking around.
"Luce?" he called, slipping into her apartment and closing her window behind him. He waited for a response, tilting his head in confusion when he didn't hear anything. He sniffed the air. Lucy was definitely here. But the shower wasn't on, and he didn't smell her peppermint bubble bath, so she wasn't in the bathroom. "Lucy, you here?" He walked into the living room. He blinked, frowning when he saw her sitting on the couch, her face buried in her hands as she cried softly.
Natsu frowned deeply. Who dared make his best friend cry? Was he going to have to punch someone's face in again? Kick some other asshole into a brick wall? He growled softly and walked over to her. "Lucy?" he said softly, touching her shoulder. She gasped softly and looked up at him, startled. Her eyes were wet and bloodshot, like she'd been crying for a long time.
"N-Natsu," she whispered, wiping her eyes. "What are you d-doing here?"
He frowned and sat beside her. "I came by to say hi. What's the matter? Why're you crying?" Lucy didn't say anything, sniffling as she pointed to a paper sitting on the coffee table. Natsu blinked at it before picking it up and reading it.
"It was on my door when I came back from my morning jog," she explained softly, looking down at her lap. The dragon slayer blinked as he continued to read it, his eyes widening slightly in disbelief.
"This is an eviction notice, Luce," he muttered. The blonde nodded, sniffling. He looked at her. "Your landlady's really gonna kick you out if you don't come up with seventy thousand Jewels by tomorrow? That's bullshit! She can't do that! You live here!"
"Yes, she can, Natsu," she murmured, looking at him. "I'm only renting this apartment. I don't own it. If I don't pay her seventy thousand Jewels every month, she has to kick me out." The two of them fell into silence. Natsu sighed heavily after a long moment.
"Then where are you gonna stay?" he asked quietly.
"Um... well, I guess I'm going to have to stay at Fairy Hills," she answered sadly.
Natsu blinked. "Fairy Hills?"
She nodded. "Yes. Until I find another apartment, anyway. I mean, if I stay there, then I'll be closer to the guild, I would have to pay more rent than I do now, but... it just seems like the best choice for me right now."
"You can move in with me and Happy," he blurted before he could stop himself. Lucy blinked, tilting her head cutely.
"Eh?" she uttered, surprised that he'd offer something like that. "Live with you?"
The dragon slayer smiled and nodded vehemently. "Yeah! I mean, we practically already live together, so why not?"
Lucy took a moment to consider his proposal, before looking at him uncertainly and shaking her head. "I don't know..."
Natsu pouted. "Oh, come on. Please? It'll be fun! I mean, you won't be as close to the guild as you would be if you lived at Fairy Hills, but if you live with me, it'll be really quiet and secluded, so you'd be able to concentrate on writing your novel. And you wouldn't have to pay for rent or anything!"
Lucy had to admit, she did like the sound of that. She wouldn't have to constantly worry about getting rent money every month, and she'd be able to spend all of the money from jobs on whatever she wanted! That was always a good thing, right? Especially for a girl like her. And she also liked the idea of being able to work on her novel in a quiet place. Of course, no place stays quiet for very long in Natsu's nearby, but that didn't make the idea any less appealing to her.
She sighed in resignation. "Okay. I'll take you up on that offer." She smiled at him and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you so much, Natsu."
Natsu smiled brightly and returned the hug. "What are best friends for, right?" Lucy smiled as she pulled away to look at him.
"And I'll do anything to make it up to you," she said. "I'll cook, clean, everything."
Natsu chuckled. "Nah, you don't have to do that."
Lucy scoffed, thinking about how messy his house was the last time she paid him a visit. "Oh, but I think I do have to." She blinked when something suddenly occurred to her. "Wait, what about Happy? Will he be okay with me staying with you guys?"
"Happy?" Natsu echoed, lifting an eyebrow. He smiled. "Yeah, of course. Happy loves you! He'll be thrilled!"
She blinked. "Happy loves me?"
He chuckled and nodded. "Duh! Why wouldn't he? He's almost as close to you as he is to me." Lucy smiled softly and nodded, looking away.
"Oh," she mumbled softly. "I didn't know he liked me so much."
Natsu lifted an eyebrow. "Eh? You didn't?"
"Well, I knew he liked me," she said, looking up at him. "But I didn't know he liked me that much." She fell silent, looking at her apartment, frowning slightly. Natsu blinked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Luce?" he said softly. "Are you okay?" She sniffled, her eyes getting glassy. She nodded and wiped her eyes.
"Yeah," she whimpered softly. "I'm okay. It's just..." She trailed off and ran a hand through her hair. "This apartment has so many memories. It's been my home for several years. Even though my apartment in Crocus was nice, it never... held the same significance as this place does." She rubbed her arm, sighing shakily. "I'm just going to miss it."
Natsu sighed and rubbed her back. "I'll miss it too." Lucy sighed and rubbed her face, straightening her back. She looked at him.
"Want to help me pack?" she inquired. Natsu blinked and nodded after a moment, smiling.
"Yeah, sure!" he said enthusiastically, jumping to his feet.
Two hours later
Natsu groaned as he carried five heavy boxes in his arms as they carried them to his house. "Why do you have so much stuff, Luce?" he whined, glancing at her as she walked beside him, carrying a small box of candy. He scoffed. "And why aren't you helping? I'm not your pack mule!"
Lucy looked up at him, popping a piece of chocolate into her mouth. She patted his shoulder. "But I just got my nails done. I don't want to chip one."
Natsu rolled his eyes, groaning softly as he readjusted the boxes in his arms. "You and your nails..."
She scoffed and looked at him. "My nails are delicate, Natsu. They break so easily, and they finally just evened out from the last mission we took. I don't want to risk chipping them again. Besides..." she trailed off, rubbing his back. "You're doing so good, and you're so much stronger than I am."
The dragon slayer huffed. "Well, be that as it may, we could really use Erza's luggage wagon right about now. You have so much stuff..."
"I'm a girl, Natsu. Every girl has a lot of stuff." She fell silent for a moment. She looked at him. "Will there be room for all of it?"
He nodded, looking down at her. "Yeah, sure. We'll probably just have to clean up a little bit."
She looked at him accusingly, narrowing her eyes. "And by 'we,' you mean 'me,' right?"
Natsu chuckled and nodded. "Yup! You know I don't clean."
Lucy sighed in disdain, but couldn't stop herself from smiling. She gently hugged his arm. "Again, thank you for letting me stay with you. It means a lot."
Natsu smiled and nudged her gently. "It's no problem." He walked up the steps to his front door and sighed when he couldn't open it. He looked at her. "Could you, uh..." He nodded toward the door to indicate it. Lucy giggled softly and nodded, reaching forward to turn the doorknob and pushing it open. He smiled as he stepped inside. "Thanks." He carried the boxes into the living room and set them down, sighing in relief. "Holy Mavis..."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh, quit complaining." She closed the door behind her and took a look around his living room. Surprisingly enough, it was cleaner than it was the last time she was here, albeit still pretty messy, like he actually tried putting an effort into keeping it clean. He looked up at her.
"I know it's... pretty messy," he admitted sheepishly. "But Happy and I usually don't have company, so we don't really clean up after ourselves."
"Tell me something I don't know," Lucy sighed, continuing to look around. Natsu shifted on his feet.
"So, uh... make yourself at home. I'm gonna go get the rest of the boxes. Happy should be home soon with your birthday present." Lucy blinked and looked up at him.
"You guys got me a present?" she asked, legitimately surprised.
He blinked. "Uh, yeah. We do every year. Why wouldn't we this time?"
Lucy was silent for a moment, before she shook her head, smiling. "No reason. You guys just usually forget or give it to me several days late. I'm not used to you guys actually being on time."
Natsu laughed. "Well, it's your twentieth birthday, so it's pretty special right?"
She smiled softly and nodded. "Yeah, it is. Thank you, Natsu."
He smiled brightly. "You're welcome. Happy birthday."