Today started out just like any other normal day at the guild. Natsu and Happy showed up at the guild hall, went to the bar, and ate their fill of food at a table. So far, nothing out of the ordinary had happened yet but knowing Natsu, she knew that things would probably get wild soon. Although he was a creature of habit when it came to food, everything else about his actions were purely impulsive. But little did the ravenous dragon slayer know, that today his spontaneity would set in motion a different kind of journey, one he's never dreamed of taking before, that would drastically change his life forever.
"Lu, you're already looking at another job?" Levy asks her best friend. "But you just got back from one yesterday, aren't you going to take a rest?"
"Oh Levy I wish I could." Lucy groans. "But my rent is due soon and I haven't made enough to pay it yet."
"Seriously?" Levy asks. "How is that possible? You've taken so many jobs already."
"I know but they've all been small. I haven't been able to land a big job in awhile." Lucy groans. "I'm not sure I'll be able to pay my rent this month."
"Aw come on Lucy, chin up!" Erza says, overhearing the conversation and walking over and punching Lucy in the arm. "No matter what you've always come up with the money to pay your rent somehow. I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Thanks Erza." Lucy replies with a small smile. "I know I'll be able to make enough to pay it this month, but all of this struggling to make enough money to pay it always stresses me out. If only I could find a place of my own that I could buy once and not have to pay for every month." She sighs.
"Hey I've got a great idea!" Natsu exclaims from the table he and Happy were sitting at near the job board, making the blonde jump in surprise from his sudden outburst. "I know a place where you can live that won't charge you any rent, and you don't even have to buy it!"
"Natsu, don't joke about that." Lucy sighs. "I know that the 'place' you're talking about is probably a trash can or some hovel somewhere and that's definitely not a place I'd like to live."
"Of course not!" Natsu laughs. "The place I'm talking about is a house that you can live in for free."
"Natsu I'm not that gullible." Lucy reminds him. "It's too good to be true, there's no way that there's an empty house lying around that I could just live in for free."
"Well it's not empty but if you don't mind having me and Happy as roommates you're more than welcome to come and live with us." Natsu says.
Everyone in the guild hall stopped what they were doing and a few of them even let small gasps escape their lips as they watched Natsu and Lucy.
Lisanna's face lit up in excitement and she turned to her brother and sister.
"Did Natsu just ask Lucy to move in with him?" She whispers.
"He definitely did!" Mirajane whispers back.
"Yeah! He's finally man enough to ask his girl to live with him!" Elfman shouts.
Lucy's face turned red with embarrassment and she screamed.
"Natsu and I are not dating!" She shouts back at Elfman.
"If you two aren't lovers then why would Natsu request that you move in with him?" Juvia asks from the table she was sitting at with Gray who had his arm around her but quickly removed it when he saw the guild's attention turn to them.
"Because she's my best friend." Natsu answers cheerfully. "And we've practically been living together for awhile already. Happy and I spend more time in her apartment than we do at our own place."
"That's because you two keep breaking in!" Lucy reminds him in an anger-laced tone.
"I know, and I know that you don't like it when Happy and I do that. So I want to make up for that by offering to let you come live with us. I figured that if the three of us are practically living together anyway, it might as well be somewhere that we don't have to pay rent for." Natsu explains.
"Well I can't argue with that logic." Lucy says and ponders the thought for a moment.
"That and he loooooves you." Happy teases.
She blushes then glares at the Exceed and he yelps in fear and flies to hide behind Natsu.
"So is that a yes?" Natsu asks shyly.
Lucy's chest felt warm. She'd never heard Natsu sound anxious about an answer from her over something he was so confident about like this. He must really be serious about this if he was feeling like that.
"Well, I mean...I guess a one month trial run couldn't hurt." She answers.
She screamed as Natsu wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up into the air.
"That's awesome! Happy, Lucy's moving in with us!" Natsu exclaims.
"Hooray!" Happy cheers and flies around him and Lucy.
"Are you sure you're okay with me living with you and Natsu Happy?" Lucy asks.
She knew that the Exceed always agreed with whatever Natsu wanted to do but she wanted to be sure that she wasn't going to be making him uncomfortable by living with them.
"Well it might be kind of a drag to have a girl living in our bachelor pad." Happy ponders out loud. "That kind of cramps our style."
"What 'style' could you possibly be referring to?" Carla asks, making Happy gasp in shock then go sulk in the corner.
"He's fine with it." Natsu answers for him while setting Lucy down. "He was just teasing ya, don't worry. Now let's go pack up your stuff and get you all moved in!"
And with that, Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand and ran out of the guild hall with her, followed by the cheers and applause of their guild mates, congratulating them.
"You don't have to congratulate us we're not a couple!" Lucy shouted back at them before she and Natsu left the hall.
"Wow, I can't believe Natsu asked Lucy to move in with him!" Levy exclaims. "Do you think this means he's in love with her?"
"If Natsu was in love with her, then I doubt he would even know it. He was raised by a dragon, and then he was raised by the people here in the guild and they never bothered to teach him about romance and he never expressed the desire to learn." Erza explains.
"But if he asked Lucy to come and live with him, that must mean he feels something for her right?" Levy asks.
"Perhaps." Erza smiles. "We'll have to wait and see how this plays out."
"Welcome home Lucy!" Natsu and Happy exclaim.
Lucy held her suitcase and smiled, giggling from their greeting.
"Thanks guys. You're too sweet. And this place doesn't look as run down as I remember it. Have you guys actually been taking care of your house?" Lucy asks.
"Hey we always take care of our place! It's been spotless for months!" Natsu argues.
Lucy arched an eyebrow. There was a moment of silence before the Exceed broke.
"Oh Lucy it was awful!" Happy wailed. "Natsu made me lift a bunch of heavy things and move them around inside the house to clean up so you wouldn't judge us when you came over! Every part of my body is sore!"
"Hey I didn't make you do it so she wouldn't judge us! I did it so that she'd be comfortable living here." Natsu argues.
"You want me to be comfortable?" Lucy asks and blushes a bit.
"Of course I do! You're my best friend and I want you to be happy." Natsu says. "If that means cleaning up around here a little bit more then I think I can manage that no problem."
Now her cheeks were bright red and she smiled at the ground to avoid having her friends see how much she was blushing.
"How sweet of you." She says.
"Ooooo she looooves yooooou." Happy teases.
Lucy instantly became more flustered and Natsu laughed.
"Maybe you should lay off the teasing Happy." Natsu requests. "At least when we're at the house."
"Aye Sir." He obeys.
"Okay then let's make this official." Natsu says.
Lucy looked confused as Natsu handed her a purple can of paint.
"What's this for?" She asks.
"For the sign." Natsu says and grins. "You're living here now, you've gotta add your name on it. Once you do, this house'll belong to you just as much as it belongs to me."
"Oh I don't think I'm ready to do that yet." Lucy politefully declines. "This is just a trial run remember? We should wait until after I decide if I'm staying or not to make things official."
"Yeah you're probably right." Natsu agrees and sets down the can by the sign. "But feel free to come out here whenever you're ready and add your name on. Now let's head inside!"
"You should carry her over the threshold. That is tradition after all." Happy teases.
"Happy that's only if we're marri-HEY!" Lucy exclaims as Natsu throws her over his shoulder like a bag of flour and walked towards the door.
"Natsu you idiot that is not how you carry a bride across the threshold!" Lucy scolds him.
"You sayin' you're my bride?" Natsu asks Lucy, confused.
Lucy's face turned bright red.
"Oooo Natsu she wants to marry you!" Happy teases.
Lucy growled at the Exceed. His smirk turned into a look of fear and he gulped.
"Natsu I think I'm having second thoughts about Lucy living with us." Happy says.
"Well then stop thinking a second time." Natsu answers.
Lucy gasped as Natsu re-adjusted her so he was now carrying her in the proper bridal style.
"I hate seeing Lucy being stressed out over her rent. I want her to be happy, so I came up with this solution to fix that problem." Natsu says and smiles at her.
"Natsu..." Lucy says softly while wrapping her arms around his shoulders and looking into his eyes.
"Now welcome home!" Natsu exclaims and kicks open the door. "What do you think?"
Lucy was pleasantly surprised. The house wasn't in a huge disarray like it was the first time she came to visit. It was actually pretty neat and tidy. Natsu had done a pretty decent job at taking care of it from what she could see.
"Wow, this is...actually pretty nice." She says and smiles.
Natsu sets her down and she takes a moment to look around. It looked like she'd have enough space for her stuff. Natsu had done a great job of cleaning the place out.
Then she realized, it looked like there was only one place to sleep, the hammock that hung from the tree coming out of the floor and on the beam of the loft.
"Uh Natsu, where's the other bed?" Lucy asks.
"What? Another bed?" Natsu asks. "Why would I have one?"
"Oh, right." Lucy remembers. "It's just been you and Happy living here until now. I'm sure we can find a place to set up my bed in here."
"Why would we do that? I thought you could just climb in the hammock with me and Happy." Natsu says casually.
Lucy's face turned bright red then her ears began to steam with anger.
"You expect me to sleep in your bed with you!?" Lucy exclaims.
"Well technically it's not a bed. It's a hammock." Happy corrects her.
"I don't care! I'm definitely not sharing a bed with you two!" Lucy declares.
"Why not?" Natsu asks, clearly not aware of why having Lucy in his bed with him was inappropriate.
"Because...you know..." Lucy starts.
Natsu tilted his head in confusion.
"I don't honestly." Natsu says and scratches the back of his neck. "But if you don't want to share the hammock I can just take the couch. Kind of a shame though. I was hoping I could use your chest as a pillow-OW!" He exclaims as Lucy slapped him in the face.
"Pervert!" She scolds him.
"He's so dense." Happy sighs.
"I'm sorry." Natsu apologizes while rubbing his cheek. "I forgot that talking about your chest makes you upset."
"Thanks for the apology at least." Lucy sighs. "But that does remind me, where can I change?"
"Anywhere you want, it's not like there's nothing I haven't seen before." Natsu jokes.
Happy let out another deep sigh as Natsu earned a slap on his other cheek. Natsu really knew next to nothing about women.
"Don't worry, I've got a sheet for you right up here that we can hang in a corner for you to change behind." Happy says and flies up to the loft.
Lucy looked up and gasped when she saw that cleaning up clearly meant Happy moving all of he and Natsu's junk up to the loft where everything was precariously piled and could tumble down on top of them at any moment.
"Uh, Happy that doesn't look too stable." Lucy points out.
"What are you talking about?" Happy asks. "It's perfectly fine!"
He grabs the sheet and tugs, sending a barbell falling down fast towards Lucy. She screamed but was unharmed as she found herself cradled in Natsu's arms protectively as he leapt away from it with her.
"Are you alright?" He asks Lucy, concern in his voice.
"Yeah, I-I'm fine." Lucy says softly, clinging to Natsu's jacket and scarf for dear life.
"Happy what the hell!" Natsu shouts. "You could have hurt Lucy!"
"I'm sorry it was an accident!" Happy apologizes and flies down to them.
"Thank goodness you had your big, strong, man to protect you." Happy teases the blonde.
"You almost killed me and now you're teasing me!" Lucy exclaims. "Didn't Natsu say you're not allowed to tease me in the house?"
"I'm sorry! I'm so used to teasing you that I forgot." Happy laughs nervously.
"We'll work on that." Natsu says. "And feel free to ask me if there's anything about this place that you want to change. I want you to be happy here with us Lucy. You're important to me, so I want to take this as seriously as I can."
"Wow Natsu..." Lucy blushed and felt her heart flutter. "That's really mature of you."
"Well what can I say, I'm growing up." He says with his signature smile. "Now you rest here while I carry in the rest of your stuff!" Natsu says and tosses her onto the hammock before rushing back outside.