Night had fallen in the country of Fiore and the town of Magnolia was swept by peace and quiet. The sky outside was dark yet illuminated by those numerous glinting stars and the air outside was crisp.
In other words, it was a time for relaxation.
It was a time to soothe aching muscles and a time to momentarily forget about problems that plagues the mind and a time to shut the eyes for a much needed sleep.
Of course, it was no different for a certain apartment that was located on Strawberry Street and no different for a certain blonde mage who was in her bathroom taking a much needed bath.
"Sigh. A hot bath always feels good every time I come home from those troublesome missions." A tired Lucy Heartfilia said and once again let out a sigh as she leaned back and dipped her body more into the inviting hot water until the water raised to her neck, completely submerging her aching shoulders into the water and let out a contented hum afterwards.
Lucy blissfully closed her eyes and let the silence inside her bathroom engulf her. Peace and quiet only comes once in a blue moon for the blonde celestial mage so she wants to enjoy it as much as she can whenever the opportunity rises. After all she is a mage of Fairy Tail, a guild that is famous for its destructive reputation and rather rowdy behaviors of its mages.
'But people in Fairy Tail are lovable; I really can't stay mad at any of them despite the trouble we always cause every single day, but damn that Natsu! Why does he always have to cause extra damage to every mission we go on to?! I just lost half of my part of the reward as payment! And here I thought I get to pay my rent after that last mission!'
Lucy's eyebrows furrowed and soon enough the peace and quiet that she was enjoying earlier was then broken by her own voice of complain against her pink-haired teammate and best friend named Natsu Dragneel. It went on for a while even though she knows that no one was listening to her except for herself but she still went on, wanting to vent out her anger but after a few minutes or so, she stopped and let out an exasperated sigh before standing up from the bath and dried herself.
'Oh well, it's no use complaining about it now since what happened has already happened. But still, Natsu earlier went completely berserk! I think he had just inflicted twice-no thrice the damage he usually inflicts! I wonder what triggered him to do so.'
Lucy is now inside of her room wearing a pair of pink pajamas with long sleeves as she dried her blonde hair with the towel while at the same time walking towards her fluffy bed, preparing to get a nice long sleep.
As the young celestial mage laid down on her bed and drew the blankets to her body, she just couldn't help but recall what happened in their mission earlier but it's a good thing that her body had screamed for rest or else her mind wouldn't be able to shut down and cause her to have eye bags tomorrow and earn her a lot of teasing especially from Mira and Natsu.
'Natsu…'
Well even though she was now unconscious due to sleep, her mind seemed to be plague by the events that happened earlier in the form of dreams.
Team Natsu had taken a mission as soon as Lucy had arrived. The mission was about some simple dark guild hunting since it was threatening another guild; simple enough.
The easiness and simplicity of the quest, however, was soon put to a halt when the confrontation came. Well, it wasn't at the start of the confrontation but rather at the end of it. Of course, the team was able to handle the fight easily but just when Lucy thought that it was over, another dark mage who was seemingly unconscious after the fight suddenly stood up. Before anyone could register anything, the man quickly grabbed Lucy by her arms and pulled her in front him before holding her neck with one of his large, calloused hands.
Fortunate for him and unfortunate for her, she was the closest one.
"Damn it! You people in Fairy Tail are always a pain in the ass! Always meddling and sticking your noses to everybody's business! You people always ruin everything! But I guess it was worth it since I now have Ms. Blondie here." As she was being held, Lucy suddenly remembered what magic the man has, bullet magic.
She let out a gulp knowing that he could shoot a bullet through her throat anytime. It seemed that the man that held her noticed this since he let out an amused smirk as he looked down at her.
"Oh? It seems here that Ms. Blondie had suddenly remembered what I can do. Now, if you're smart like her, I would suggest for none of you to move or else she dies." He then let out a cackle after that, not noticing the raging fire that had materialized on Natsu's curled fist.
"Let go of her!" Natsu said in what seems like to be pure anger as his sharp fangs showed as he spoke. If Lucy wasn't in danger and they weren't all too focus into killing the man, they might have noticed that he was a lot angrier than usual and looking a little more feral than needed.
Good thing they were distracted though because if they weren't especially the man that was holding her captive, she wouldn't have been able to kick him between his legs as hard as she can with her famous Lucy kick, only this time she kicked backwards.
"Ahhhh!" In result, the man let out a pained shrill cry as she hit him as quick as lightning and as painful as death. Distracted with the overwhelming pain, he let go of Lucy's neck and held his painful injury as the woman quickly ran away from him while the rest was prepared to attack him as payment for the black mail.
Lucy was also ready, she was already in the midst of calling out Leo.
Their preparation to attack was, however, put to a stop and was never needed because of the distinctive blur of red and orange that went charging past them and aimed straight for the man. Lucy caught a glimpse of pink-hair and immediately recognized it as Natsu who seemed to be venting out his anger towards the man with every flaming punch he gave to him.
Natsu held a look of vexation, his face twisted into a scowl while his eye brows were deeply furrowed and his eyes were glowing red and turned into two slits that resembles to that of a dragon's. Lucy caught every animalistic growl that escaped through his gritted teeth and she saw his two sharp fangs protruding from his lips.
"Nat…su?" Saying that she was shocked could be considered as an understatement comparing with how she really feels towards the situation and right now, she really doesn't know how to describe it.
All she knows is that Natsu could kill the man.
'Could…or... would?'
Lucy let out a gasp as the sudden realization hit her. It seems her other teammates had reached the same conclusion as her as Gray and Erza tried calming Natsu down but it was futile as he continued wrecking havoc into the now unconscious dark mage and his surroundings.
It looked like a nightmare for Lucy. Everything around them was burning due to the enraged Natsu's flames. All she saw was red and orange and the trees swayed violently, looking like it was trying to put out the fire that was burning its leaves and branches. It was hot and Lucy got the impression that she was brought to hell.
'…Brought to hell or hell was brought?'
"Natsu stop! That's enough!" At first it was a whisper because that's all Lucy could muster as her eyes intake the havoc that was breaking out in front of her. Gradually, she was able to control herself and put herself together as she started raising her voice until she ended up screaming as she ran towards where the rest of her teammates were along with Happy.
"Natsu stop it! Killing them wasn't part of the mission!" Erza tried once again to reason to her enraged pink-haired teammate but like her previous attempts, it failed.
"Oy flame brain! Are you trying to kill him? That's enough! He already released Lucy! She's fine now! The only remaining threat to her life is you! Stop barbecuing the whole forest because if you don't, you'll burn everything and everyone to ashes!" To their surprise, Natsu actually listened to Gray as he stopped pummeling the unconscious dark mage to a more bloody pulp before raising his head and looked at Gray at the eye.
For the first time, the now half naked Ice mage actually flinched under his friend's gaze and it wasn't because he was cold but because of how intimidating and spine-chilling Natsu's eyes were especially with the way it glowed with its bloody color. It wasn't even helping that he looks so similar to the dragon he called Father named Igneel. He wasn't even covered in scales yet!
"…Lucy…is now…safe?" Natsu spoke in a low, gruff voice that managed to bring a shiver down the blonde's spine especially after hearing her name leave his lips.
"Yes, Natsu. I'm safe now." Lucy had decided to answer him herself, wanting for him to revert back to normal.
And he did like he was never angered, like she was never held captive, and like he was never near into killing a man.
"Oh really? That's great!" He showed her his toothy grin where his fangs would show, the grin that Lucy had come to love over the time he had shown her it over and over again. Whenever Lucy sees it, she knows that Natsu has abandoned whatever emotions he was harboring and was now truly happy.
Lucy was able to smile back to him, she was always able to smile despite the situation because that's who she is even though she was drowned by her emotions earlier.
What those emotions were, Lucy doesn't know and somehow she wanted it to stay that way.
'I'll think about it later. Right now, it's important that Natsu is back to normal-Eh?'
The poor troubled celestial mage was even more troubled after she felt Natsu's warm arms wrap around her voluptuous frame with her face buried into his shoulder.
"Yukata…I don't know what I would do if something bad happened to you." Lucy doesn't know what to say or think or do at the sudden display of affection but she did wrap her arms around Natsu's body after she heard the fear in his voice as he spoke.
'Natsu feels warm…'
Lucy didn't know why but she suddenly wanted to hug Natsu more. She was intoxicated with the scent that was radiating from his muscular body and she was surprised that he could actually hug her with such comfort and cautiousness because she was actually expecting him to crush her in a bear hug since he was covered by slabs of rock hard muscle.
"Oy! Oy! Save the mushy things later. Right now, we have Royal Army to run from." It was Gray's voice and it seemed to snap Lucy out of her trance as she abruptly pulled herself away from Natsu's embrace before her face matched the color of Erza's scarlet hair.
"Luce! Let's go?" Natsu took a hold of her right hand, the hand that bears the symbol of Fairy Tail before flashing her his famous grin and she was then reminded that they were finally going home.
"Mm!" Lucy replied enthusiastically as they all started to run away from the damage they had caused, well Natsu's mostly.
After that…well…let's just say that it was the same cat and mouse chase between the Royal Army and the mages of Fairy Tail.
Lucy let out a soft smile as she continued her sleep, unaware of the danger that has now entered her room.
Two pointed red eyes gleamed and looked at the sleeping figure of Lucy before letting out a sneer as it leaned down and finally inflicted its brought danger.
And that's a wrap for my first chapter! Hope you guys had enjoyed it so far ^^ I wrote this story after being influenced by countless of NaLu fans XD You guys are awesome! Hope you guys stay tuned for the next chapter ^^ Reviews are much appreciated. Bye-bye, till next time ^^