"Ugh! Why can't you just admit it out loud?! Why must I wait?!" Lucy demanded. I can't remember how this argument started anymore, but right now I just don't get why she's so mad over it. So, I'm not ready for everyone to know. Is it really that hard for her to stand by me this way lately?
"You know why I want to wait! I'm not ready!" I retorted, getting annoyed with her. She gave me a hard stare, and I gave her one right back.
"Um, Lu-chan?" Levy tried to put an arm on Lucy's shoulder, but Lucy just wasn't in the mood. She shrugged Levy off and yelled at me again.
"Why can't you be ready?! I'm tired of staying silent! You don't know how I feel when you're surrounded by others and you do nothing to keep them at bay!" She glared at me now. I looked at her confused. I knew what she meant by 'others', clearly meaning other women, but they weren't surrounding me… Were they? And even if they were, is this mood swing really because of jealousy?
"Because I want this to be private a little while longer, is that so hard to understand?! And is this really all because you get jealous over others?!" I asked, shocked at her behaviour.
"Yes! It is! I understand why, but that doesn't mean I have to like it, right?!" She asked, her glaring eyes beginning to tears up. My anger melted when I saw the tears, instead it was replaced by guilt.
"Luce…" I said her name softly, but she looked away and closed her eyes. Her fists were shaking by her sides.
"No. Fine, do what you want. I'm going home. Don't follow me unless you're going to apologize to me for making me wait so long." She said, letting her tears spill over as she turned on her heel and ran out of the guild. Automatically my hand shot up, as if to reach for her, but I lowered it when the guild's doors slammed shut behind her. I stared at the doors with sad and guilty eyes.
"Natsu, what was that all about?" Gray asked me, coming out from nowhere. I sighed heavily.
"Isn't it enough that I protect her on missions when she needs me to? That I go after all those who hurt her? Isn't it enough that I help her when she needs me to? And that when she's upset I always go and comfort her?" I asked to no one but myself, scratching the back of my head. "So why must I also get down on my knees and apologise for something she know I'm not ready for?"
"Natsu? Is there something going on between you and Lucy?" Mira asked, teasingly. I knew that she thought I would immediately deny it and say that she's just being a weirdo again, but this time I sighed. Lucy was right. Fairy Tail was our family; we can't keep things like this from them, it's not fair. Ready or not, for the endless teasing and ridicule, they had a right to know.
"Luce's my girlfriend." I said, looking Mira directly in the eyes. Everyone went silent. "We've been secretly dating for a year, tomorrow. She's been nagging at me to tell you all but I didn't want to." I told her, then looked back at the doors with guilt-ridden eyes. "And now, I've just made her so mad at me that she doesn't wanna see me unless I apologize to her, and for what? Protecting her?"
"Natsu, are you serious? You and Lucy are dating?!" I heard Erza ask, her face was red and shocked.
"Yeah."
"Whoa…" Gray breathed, looking at me in shock.
"I didn't know you and Lucy were dating! Do you like her a lot?" Happy asked, tilting his head to the side. I turned to look at my blue adoptive son. I gave him one of the most warmest grins I've ever given him.
"I love her Happy; I need her like Earth needs the Sun." I said.
"Wow, he's a real Romeo… Eh, Mira?" Cana slurred, looking at the barmaid who currently had hearts in her eyes.
"Really?" Happy asked. I nodded, before turning to the doors with longing eyes and a sad smile on my face.
"For the last two years, she's been the one I love. Only recently have we been dating, but you get the point… She's been the one to keep my hope alight, my head right, and the reason for my heart to keep fighting on until I'm back in her arms. She's the rain in my summer, and every time I hear her beautiful voice I feel it bring strength to my soul. I reckon that even if we were miles apart, I'd still be able to hear her sweet melody… Without her love, I'm absolutely sure, I don't think I would endure anything anymore… I need her like I need to breathe…" I said.
"Oh my god, that's sweet…" I heard Evergreen gasp. I turned to Happy, ignoring everyone's gobsmacked expressions, and gave him a curious look.
"You remember that bible story Mira told us once? About Adam and Eve?" I asked, and Happy nodded. "Do you think Adam needed Eve like this? Because whenever I see her, all I wanna do is shout to the world how much I adore her…" I said. Then I looked to the ground in shame. "But I've been keeping a lid on it in public because I didn't want her to be teased or ridiculed because she's dating me… Because, face it, I ain't exactly the world's perfect boyfriend… I'm destructive, loud, love to fight, have ADHD, have a family complex, my palms get sweaty at the thought of holding her hand, my heart nearly stops when she kisses my cheek, I faint with a bloody nose every time she suggests we make out or do anything further, I can't take her out on proper dates because I get too nervous and end up puking in the nearest bush or toilet because she's always dressed up and looking so damn beautiful… And, to top it all off, I am so insecure that every morning – since we've been in this relationship - I wake up and wonder if she's finally going to open up her eyes and dump my sorry ass for someone who'd treat her the way she ought to be treated. A man that will touch her the way she wants to be touched, without losing consciousness after a mere kiss on the lips. I can't do squat for her, unless it involves kicking someone's ass… And I'm kicking my own right now, mentally, because I made her cry just before…" I said, raising my scarf so that no one could see my cheeks go red.
"Hold on, you have ADHD?" Lisanna asked. I nodded.
"Yeah, it's why I can never focus on the one thing unless it's fighting. I need to be active with my body or my mid won't be still. Why do you think people have said that I'm like a steel trap when it comes to fighting? I've heard them, even when they thought I couldn't." I explained. My red cheeks went back to their normal colour, and I looked at my childhood friend. She looked at me with wide eyes.
"Then, if you have ADHD… Natsu, do you know what your IQ is?" She asked. I blinked.
"Yeah, why?" I asked. She gulped.
"What does it matter? He's still an idiot." Gray taunted, but Lisanna turned to him with wide eyes.
"Gray, people with ADHD tend to have higher IQ's than normal people. But because they have a hard time focusing, it usually doesn't show." She explained, and Gray's eyes went wide again.
"What's your IQ?" Erza asked. I turned to her with a straight face.
"When I last saw Porlyusica, she said it was 206." I told her, and everyone then looked at me disbelievingly.
"No way…" Gray said.
"Natsu… If you were standing on either pole of the Earth, and you were holding a compass, which way would the compass point?" Mira asked, and I answered with only a second of hesitation.
"I'll assume you are referring to the magnetic poles of the earth, which are in different locations from the geographic poles. The geographic poles are defined to be the places where the earth's rotation axis crosses the surface of the earth, and the magnetic poles are the places where the magnetic field points straight into or out of the earth's surface. The magnetic field everywhere is what we call a "vector" quantity. It has a strength and a direction - and this direction may point anywhere in three-dimensional space, including up and down, not just north and south. Just about anywhere on earth, except near the equator, the field will have some vertical part to it – and it will be at an angle to the ground. For example, if you are holding the compass horizontally at one of the magnetic poles, so that the magnetic field is perpendicular to the plane of the compass, then there will be no preferred direction for the needle to point. It may point in the last direction it was pointing as you walked up to the pole. It may turn until friction slows it down if the needle was spinning – you can get it spinning by using another magnet or by turning the compass and letting friction spin the needle up. If you are carrying anything magnetic at the same time, then the compass needle's direction may point according to this other object's magnetic field. However, if you hold the compass sideways, one end of the compass's needle will point down into the earth, and the other will point up. If you hold the compass at some angle between horizontal and sideways, which is most ways of holding the compass, and it may be hard to get it exactly horizontal, then the needle will point along the direction which is lowest. Some compasses are built such that the needle is supported on a sharp pin; the compass needle has a hemispherical cup in the middle and the pin rests in the cup. The compass needle then may wobble around and dip up and down even if the compass itself is held flat. It may then dip and point down until the needle scrapes on the compass face or the needle rubs on the edge of the cup. Water-filled compasses, though, with special bearings won't wobble like this and will behave as I previously described." I said. Everyone looked at me with pale faces.
"Jesus Christ…" Gray muttered.
"Natsu, you're a genius…" Gramps whispered. I frowned.
"No, I'm an idiot that made his girlfriend cry. And why? Because I never told her that my excuse of being 'not ready' was really a cover up to protect her. I need to fix this, but Luce is unpredictable. I could find the sweetest and most romantic way to apologize to her and she still might just kick me out of her window." I said.
"Or, she could've been standing on the other side of the guild's doors this entire time and came inside just after Evergreen said that what you said was sweet… And I agree with her, by the way." I heard a melodic voice say, and my head snapped to see Lucy's smiling face staring back at me.
Safe to say, I stared at her like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time…
"L-Luce?" I asked, and she giggled.
"Yes?"
"Am I out of the dog-house now?" I asked. She gave a smile and walked over to me. I closed my eyes once she stood in front of me, scared she was going to hit me, but opened them once I felt something warm on my lips.
Lucy was kissing me…
Lucy was kissing me?!
ON THE LIPS?!
Oh, boy…
Once Lucy had broken the kiss, I fainted with a blush on my face and a slight blood trickle. Only Lucy could reduce me to this. But, god, do I love her…
