A walk through the tranquil streets of Magnolia had always been nothing than less than therapeutic to Lucy, but when she was accompanied by a hyperactive dragon slayer, Lucy conceded that she had to think otherwise. She sighed again, mentally facepalming as Natsu exclaimed from beside her, "Whoah, Happy! Look at these salmon tiles! Doesn't it make ya hungry?" and as Happy chimes in with "Ne, ne, Lucy, can we have fish for dinner tonight? I'm reaaalllly hungry, you know?"
"No! Besides, why do you think you're going to eat dinner at my place? Make your own dinner, you lazy cat!" Lucy yelled, frustrated at not being able to have a leisurely stroll to her favourite bookshop and mentally cursing Levy for abandoning her on their tradition to go on a mission with Gajeel and Lily.
"Calm down, Luce, you'll get wrinkles again," Natsu stated simply, with a smile he clearly thought would appease her.
"What do you mean, again, you idiot?" cried Lucy, frustration at its peak, "Also, those aren't salmon tiles, they're plain old pink!"
"Eh?" asked Natsu, looking confused, "but they're the same colour as my hair."
Arching a perfect eyebrow, Lucy looked from Natsu undeniably pink-not-salmon hair and to his quizzical expressions, and bit back the words she was on the verge of saying, and resorted to half-hearted sighing instead.
"Never mind," she exhaled, once again mentally strangling Levy, and hoping she was having a good time with Gajeel for this utter treason.
After walking several blocks, they finally arrived at Mayoi's Bookshop, a rustic store far from the guild (which was smart thinking, given the, ah, destructive nature of the Fairy Tail members ) and Lucy walked in, inhaling the comforting smell of papyrus and leather and calming her frazzled nerves. She walked up to the librarian, a short and bucktoothed boy, and flashed her best smile as she asked him for the newest additions, causing the boy to turn red and fumble with the large quill in his hand as he read her the list. Natsu in tow, she began browsing the shelves for something that piqued her interest.
Hmm, When He Is More Than Magic, huh? she thought, as she idly stroked her index finger along the sparkly spine of the book, gazing at the handsome guy on the cover as he held a weeping girl in his arms (AN : Uh huh, hon, you know you've seen these ones before) and weirdly enough, she saw his jet-black hair morph into salmon-not-pink. Her cheeks colouring similarly, she shoved the book back into its place with a loud bang, the noise causing the nearby Natsu to jump.
"Jeez, Luce, what was that for?" he asked, scuffling his hair.
"Ah, sorry, sorry," she muttered, not quite looking at his onyx eyes. "Let's go, I've got nothing today."
"Er, sure, sure, Luce, whatever you say," Natsu replied, suspiciously shuffling his feet and folding his arms against the waistband of his scruffy pants.
She squinted at him. " What are you doing, Natsu?" she asked, finding Natsu's behaviour odd.
"Who, me? Waiting for you to leave, that's all!" he replied instantly, his voice rising several decibels over the course of his sentences.
"Ne, Natsu.." Happy's voice trailed as his partner turned around to fix him with a ~fiery~ glare.
Still thinking something was up with Natsu, she shrugged and exited the the shop, waving goodbye to the librarian, who promptly dropped the scrolls in his arms.
"Ah, I'm exhausted, I want to go home and take a bath," sighed Lucy, a smile curving on her lips as she thought of her cozy bathtub.
"Well, we'll leave ya to it then, right, Happy?" exclaimed Natsu, in an unusually high-pitched voice.
Lucy's smile was instantly replaced with a look of disbelief.
"What?" she exclaimed, hardly believing her ears.
"Natsu, what are you saying? Fish for dinner, fish for dinner~!" the Exceed sang.
"I'm actually not that hungry, and I'm exhausted too, in fact, I need a nap right now," shot the dragon slayer rapidly, "See ya, Luce!". Pulling Happy by the scruff of his neck, the dragon slayer dashed home so fast that Lucy could only see a vibrant blur of pink hair and a depressed echo of 'Fiiiiiiiiiiish'.
That was odd, Lucy thought. Natsu was never not hungry.
Several hours later, the librarian yawned softly as he did his nightly check of the his fingers over the shelves, he compared the list of books against those checked out today, but stopped mid-yawn upon noticing DL-6 (AN : Any Ace Attorney fans out there?) , a slot that wasn't supposed to be empty. Hastily, he whipped out his pocketbook and looked up the book title using the code.
5 Easy Ways To Make Her Yours.