It took forever to come. Nothing much to say. It's nearly my bed time so you guys go ahead and enjoy this one.

Superstitious

For you, I'll do the impossible….

"What did you say?!" Gray's eyes have never been wider than this before. "Natsu.. Natsu…"

How can they be small when he found out the most shocking thing in his entire life, that too about his sparring partner from his sparring partner's partner?... Confused, huh? Let us go back to square one to find out what happened in the first place to make our favourite ice mage too dumbstruck!

"Ohayou, Natsu," the ever cheerful Mira greeted the flamehead who was in a not so good mood.

"Ohayou, Mira," he said, the smile that lifted his lips in an upward direction faltered to the edges of his chin.

"Hungry, are we?" Mira asked, her sweat dropping. The fire mage can sure be the best child when he was hungry. "I'm bringing some extra spicy food, especially for you,"

She chirped; her feet began to carry her towards the door when a grumpy voice stopped her in her tracks.

"I don't want any food," he said, disappointment etching his tanned face.

"What?!" Mira turned around, disbelievingly.

"Am I imagining things or did you really say that?" she asked in disbelief.

"No, you're not imagining things. You heard right. I'm not… I'm not hungry," he said, looking away.

"What happened to you Natsu?" a pale hand went over his forehead, trying to feel the temperature of the mage in question. His eyes rose to meet the cerulean blue eyes of his childhood friend which were livid with worry. She noticed the entire thing while she was cleaning the glasses with an old rag, helping her sister in the process. "No, No fever? Happy? Have any clue about what Natsu is saying?"

"Happy?" the white haired girl whined when she saw the cat paying no attention to the situation. Instead, it was trying hard to impress the only she-exceed in the guild. Lisanna laughed off before returning her attention to the troublesome guy. Natsu Dragneel and not eating…. That was something never to happen!

"I get it! Mira-nee!" Lisanna called out to her elder sister. Natsu had to close his ears hard for him to not be left deaf.

"Get a plate of fire!" she asked her sister, winking at her. Mira brightened up at that. Natsu may not eat anything but she sure can't resist himself from eating fire.

The barmaid returned with a large bowl of fire, hoping that it is just a dream that Natsu is on a hunger strike.

"Here you go…" the barmaid said before placing it in front of him.

The dragon slayer blinked dumbly at his favourite food.

"One, two…. And Natsu will gulp it down…" the barmaid smiled at the guy, admiring her sister's tactics.

"three…" She was counting in her mind when suddenly-

"Ahh! Take that away from me!" The dragonslayer screamed, drawing the attention of the whole guild. Even Happy who was whining after being rejected again by the pale pink exceed also opened his ears to his partner's suffering.

"Take that away! Take that away! Or I'll eat it and Lucy will still be sick!" he said, walking backwards and hitting into the wall, breaking it in the process. The guild members just watched him act, not knowing how to react.

"But Natsu-" Lisanna tried to hand it over to him. However….

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!" He ran out of the guild, not even remembering to ask his friend to follow him.

So that was what happened and when Gray who missed the fun part came to the guild. He was greeted by the questions like "Have you seen Natsu?" or "Do you know what happened to Natsu?" greeted him.

"Aye! He even forgot to call me!" the blue cat complained, crying that his partner forgot him.

"What is wrong with this guy?" He shouted unaware that a certain iron dragon slayer was near him.

"That's what we're trying to find! You don't have to shout!" he shouted back at the ice mage. The ice mage flinched but thought it was best not to get into a fight right now. He scanned the guild hall, trying to look for some clue. That's when it hit his dumb brain.

"Where's Lucy? She might be able to help" Gray asked, hitting his fist to his hand in realisation that the blonde was nowhere to be seen.

"You don't know. Lu-chan has a fever," Levy answered him.

"What? Since when?" he asked, trying to recollect the happy face of the blonde before he left for a mission.

"I still don't get what is the relation between Natsu's eating and Lucy sickness," Mira face palmed while the others sighed. Natsu can sometimes be… weird.

~0~

Natsu Dragneel, the one who was synonymous with destruction and the one who couldn't stop eating until he was bloated, hadn't even eaten a single fish nor a piece of bread today. His face lacked the usual cheerfulness. He wasn't running on the path like he always does. Even people of Magnolia were getting worried about their dragon slayer's behaviour. His feet came to a halt at a certain blonde's apartment. He, with great difficulty, made through the window and into the blonde's bedroom.

"I wish Happy was here," he mumbled, scoffing that his partner had left him. His eyes darted to the comfy bed of his teammate where she was supposed to be. Note this… she was supposed to be.

The moment he found that the bed was empty his widened eyes darted for every nook and corner of the room searching for the blonde.

"Lucy?" He called out, hoping she was using the bathroom or something. With no response for more than a minute, he barged in expecting shouts at him but neither did that happen.

He ran down stairs only to find no sign of the blonde. Panic struck him when he realised that she was missing. Was she kidnapped? Who's behind it? Could it be anyone trying to harm her? He had to get to her fast but how was the question. He frowned until he remembered about his ace- his sense of smell. He sniffled in the air and yes, there it was- her scent still fresh lingering in the air. The kidnapper might not have thought about her dragon slayer friend when they were kidnapping.

He ran to the place wherever the scent was taking to as fast as he could, with a hope that his blonde friend was safe. Little did he know that the scent would carry him over to one place he never wanted to see at least for today. What's more to it? His jaw dropped when he saw the blonde laughing and talking to a certain girl whose raven blue hair was held up in ponytails. In the sky dragon slayer's arms was the white feline with her stern expression on her face. In between both of them was what seemed to be extra spicy and sizzling food- from ramen to meat and what not! What a day!

"Natsu-san," a small voice broke his drooling over the meal.

"Huh? Natsu?" the blonde's voice caught his attention just when he was on his heels to return home. "What are you doing here?"

"That is… uhm… hehe" he gave a sheepish smile, making the two girls suspicious. Both of them looked at him in such a way that he had to spill the beans out after gulping. Whoever said that Lucy and Wendy were quite similar seemed true to him today.

~0~

"Iie(no)" the sky dragon slayer smiled after hearing the fire mage's theory. "I just went to check over Lucy-san like you said. Well, I was not really free but considering how worried you seemed, I went for a quick check up before leaving for this mission"

Heat rose to Lucy's cheeks as she avoided eye contact with the sighing fire dragon slayer. "What's with him?"

"Even though you did this much Wendy, there is no single thanks. Did you forget the train was leaving in half an hour?" the white exceed mocked, making the other two mages grin slyly.

"What? Did I waste so much of the time?" the wind eater cried. She stood up, bowing to the both of them. "Natsu-san, Lucy-san, I have to go now. I've healed Lucy-san but there might be some weakness which is why I accompanied her to this restaurant which is near her house. So please do take care of her"

She turned her back and was about to leave when Natsu said, "Arigatou and take care of yourself too!"

"Hmm" she nodded before being mocked by Charle again and hurried after the exceed to the station.

"So, are you alright now?" he said, placing his hand on her forehead. He sighed when he found her temperature lower and almost close to her usual body temperature.

"Yes. Thanks for being so worried! But it was nothing really. I mean.."

"It was nothing? You're kidding me. You hid it from us all for a whole day and when we barged in, you were burning" he got up, slamming his hands on the table and gaining attention of the people around. Lucy flashed a smile in an effort to calm the fire mage and make him sit.

"Really, Really, Natsu… Thanks anyway," she said in a low tone and smiled at him. He smiled back. It didn't take long before the smile faltered though.

"So, as a thank you gift, I'll treat you today. Eat whatever you want" she said. He frowned.

"Luce, I'm not eating," he replied in a blunt statement.

"What? Are you serious? This must be my imagination" she said, acting to faint.

"Why are everyone reacting the same way? I mean it's natural-"

"Natural? Natsu, this is impossible! You refusing to eat- I mean, I can never imagine that happening," she exclaimed in disbelief.

"You're seeing now," he mocked.

"It isn't funny. Are you unwell or something?" she was getting worried now.

"Nope" he replied with that blunt expression of his.

"Wait! You said you ran out of the guild because they were forcing you to eat, right? And you shouted something about my sickness too? What exactly are you hiding? Now spill all the beans, Natsu" she said with a glare, daring him to lie and she'll hand over him to Erza.

Natsu gulped. The scary Lucy mode was on. Doesn't she care that she was sick and spare him?

He tried to resist for a few minutes and then it yielded in.

"Fine. After asking Wendy I was coming to check on you," he said. Lucy leaned on the table, interested in the story he was going to tell. From the look on his face, it didn't seem that he wanted to though.

"That's when I overheard a conversation-"

"You were eavesdropping?" she interrupted, irritating the poor guy even more.

"No! I just… I was passing by and overheard that if we don't eat for a day, then anyone whom we love and is sick will feel all fine" he mumbled in a low voice. It took a minute before Lucy could comprehend what he was saying. She blinked her eyes, once, twice, and thrice. Then she burst into laughter earning a groan from the guy sitting opposite her.

"Lucy?!" he whined.

"Natsu! That was a superstition!" she tried her best to reduce her laughs to giggles.

"Yeah… Yeah" a vein popped over his head, "But it worked you see"

He pointed to the blonde, who laughed again, pissing him off even more. He looked away.

"You mean, Wendy's healing magic worked ne?" she giggled, getting him annoyed. "Alright, alright, since now I'm fine, you can eat I guess"

"No"

"Really? You want to lose this opportunity?" she cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's fine… unless and until you won't become sick again," he said, not showing the minimum bit of interest in the conversation.

"But-"

"Go ahead and let's get this over with. I'm sleepy you see," he fake yawned, earning another giggle from his partner.

"Alright," she took a last bite of her food before getting up and heading towards the exit. The fire mage followed her lead.

They walked in silence. All that could be heard along the way was Lucy's giggles and Natsu's grumblings. The red sky turned blue and then black, considering the time was nearly six in the evening. They halted at the blonde's apartment and the blonde turned to pinkette, smiling at him.

"Natsu…" she said, his ears perked up at the call of his name. "Arigatou!"

She smiled, making him look away and mumble something. He was glad it was dark enough for the blonde to not notice the pink that tainted his cheeks.

"Anything for nakama…." He smiled back and watched as she made her way to the apartment door.

"But I never knew you were the superstitious type!" she remarked, earning a "What the-?" from the dragon slayer before being chased by him.

This ends our story here, with a still oblivious Lucy and a less dense Natsu…

This still seems a little OOC. But doesn't matter! It's finally done. This was on my mind for months! This is based on scene from a movie in my mother tongue. Glad it turned out better than the earlier drafts. I'm not really sure if this is a one-shot. I mean if I find some other superstitions which fit the characters, I'll write another one or maybe a serious. For the time being this is it!

Leave a review if you would! It would make me happy by knowing what you think of it… It really will make my day.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

beatress