Stirrings

By Chidoriprime

It was a week after they had hit the road that Natsu had noticed something weird was going on with him.

A week before, he had arrived at Crocus to crash the finals of the current Grand Magic Games to challenge the last two guilds competing for the position of the strongest Guild in Fiore. After spending the past year training alone with Happy, Natsu had been all fired up to show off his new-found power to the public and let everyone know that he was back, and had naturally beaten the ever-loving snot out of the competitors to do so. That was also when he and Happy had been reunited with one of their old teammates and fellow Fairy Tail member Lucy Heartfilia, though in the process of showing off, he'd accidently burned her clothes off when the Dragon Slayer had released his magical power as a wave of heat, something Lucy hadn't appreciated in the slightest at first. Still, she was happy to see them both after a year apart, so she'd let the matter drop.

Once they'd spent the night over at Lucy's apartment in the city and learned about Fairy Tail's disbandment, Makarov's disappearance and Lucy's efforts to keep track of every one of their friends over that one year period, Natsu had made the impulsive decision to revive the whole Guild and find Makarov, signaling Fairy Tail's return by writing the guild's name in fire on the palace itself. As expected, the Royal Army hadn't taken too kindly to such a gesture, and so the trio of friends had to make a quick exit out of the city ahead of the soldiers chasing them.

Once they had lost their pursuers, Lucy had suggested that they try to find their former guild mate Wendy Marvell and her Exceed partner Carla first, stating that the last place she had heard they were at was in a village called Margaret Town. So that was where they were headed for at the moment.

The days afterward were just them catching up further with what the other had been up to in the year Natsu had been away training. He and Lucy had talked a bit before in her apartment that one night, but it had only scratched the surface of their adventures. There was a year's worth of tales, and they wanted to tell each other as much as possible.

Lucy had laughed long and hard as Natsu told her about his sudden encounter with another guild member, Gildarts, not long after he had left Magnolia with Happy, and how they had gotten into a huge fight against some monsters (in the process, killing Natsu's desire for a friendly fight after watching the older mage pulverize the hapless creatures with his Crash Magic), before a small mistake over getting their bags mixed up had resulted in a rather comedic but destructive brawl between the two, which was later revealed to have been because of Gildarts' worry over the loss of a picture he had of his teenage daughter, Cana. Happy had gotten caught in the middle somehow and ended up getting just as beat up as the others, though the blue cat considered the loss of a prime cut of salmon to have been the true tragedy, earning him the mirth of his two human companions as he flew by with his wings spread, sulking.

Lucy in turn had told her two friends about what she had been doing ever since the Celestial mage had become a reporter for Sorcerer Weekly. Lucy, being a woman who was concerned with the details involved in any story of hers, did not hesitate to describe the many situations she had ended up in and experienced while on the job. While some of the assignments had been dull ones to be sure, others had be surprisingly dangerous but thrilling, and as she continued to talk, it amazed Natsu and Happy to discover that the blonde-haired mage, who they had once considered to be a bit of a coward when it came to fighting, had risen to overcome the obstacles thrown her way to get the story she was after. They had to admit, while she might not have gotten stronger than Natsu, she was certainly braver than the last time they had been together. Though, to Natsu and Happy, it was a bit weird for the two to hear her admit that her mentor Jason, the loud, goofy reporter they knew from his many encounters with Fairy Tail, had actually been an excellent mentor to the young woman, much to her own surprise. They couldn't picture the crazy fan boy reporter they all knew as being anything else but a loudmouth who had an obsession with anything related to their guild. Still, Lucy seemed to think he was a decent teacher, so Natsu just left it at that.

Natsu had to admit, he had ended up missing out on a lot of events since he and his partner had left. Finding out second-hand that the guild that he had spent his childhood growing up in was now no more had been a shock, and he had gotten a little angry at the Master, but at the same time the Dragon Slayer privately admitted to himself that Makarov must have had a good reason for doing what he had done. Taking down the dark guild Tartarus and its band of Zeref-created demons had taken a huge toll on all involved.

The revelation that Zeref had created the guild with the sole purpose of killing him had left a lot of questions that Natsu wanted answers to, but unfortunately for him he could not confront Zeref about his motives; Natsu had not heard a single word about the Dark Mage during his travels. The man was probably laying low after he had shown himself to retake the book of his strongest demon, E.N.D., from him and Gray before they could deal with it.

Natsu had also had to deal with the grief of losing his foster father, the fire dragon Igneel, to the black dragon Acnologia who had suddenly attacked both sides and decimated the town of Magnolia in the process. The whole reason Natsu had left to train in the first place was to prepare for a third encounter with the renegade dragon. He was not about to let the promise he had made to Igneel be left unfulfilled. The next time he faced the black dragon would be far different; Natsu refused to let Acnologia live any longer.

However, those thoughts were pushed far out of his mind for the moment. Now wasn't the time to dwell on the depressing stuff; now was the time for reconnecting with a dear friend, a friend that the rose-haired boy admitted he had missed a great deal. And it was good to finally see her after all this time.

Though, after a while, Natsu had started to realize that something was off about Lucy. Well, truth be told, nothing was actually wrong with her, as far as Natsu could tell, but even still…

Something was different about Lucy. For the life of him, Natsu couldn't place a finger on it, but something about the Celestial mage was making him feeling strange inside. For some odd reason, every time he looked at her, his heart seemed to flutter. Every time that she looked at him, he was surprised to find himself feeling self-conscious, but about what, Natsu couldn't tell.

And her smile, that bright, warm one that she used whenever she had felt really happy about something, he actually found himself thinking that he liked it when she smiled like that, and was hoping for her to do it more often. Her smile made him feel happy, but he didn't know why that was. He had seen her smile plenty of times before, but never had he wanted to see her smiling at him more often. This feeling was a strange one, and it was confusing the hell out of him.

"Hey Happy," Natsu whispered to the blue cat, making sure that Lucy didn't hear him as she walked on ahead on the dirt path the three of them had been taking. "Does it look like something's different with Lucy today?"

"What'cha mean by that Natsu?"

"I don't know." The fire mage admitted, folding his arms behind his head as he contemplated his own question, "it's just that Lucy seems…I dunno, she just feels different. Like she feels…brighter somehow. I don't know any other way to describe it. She just looks, well, great."

Happy tilted his head to the side as he looked ahead at Lucy, trying to understand what his childhood friend was talking about. Not seeing anything unusual, he turned back to look at Natsu and tell him nothing looked out of the ordinary with the blonde girl, but was brought up short with what he saw.

Natsu was gazing ahead at Lucy's back, but at the same time, the pink-haired wizard seemed to no longer be aware of his surroundings. His dark eyes were locked on her head; more precisely, he seemed to have taken a great deal of interest in observing the motions of her long blonde hair bound up in a sideways ponytail, watching it swish and sway back and forth with each step she took. Happy couldn't be sure, but to the little blue Exceed, the Fire Dragon Slayer seemed to be in a trance, and as he kept on watching a small, barely noticeable smile began to creep across the young man's face.

Happy looked at Natsu, then to Lucy, then back to Natsu again. For a moment he did nothing, before a large grin of his own made its way across his lips.

"Nah, I don't see anything wrong." Happy said, smirking slightly as his voice seemed to snap Natsu out of the daze he had been in. "Your stomach must be getting to you again."

"You think so?" the Dragon Slay asked. And almost on que, Natsu's stomach made itself known to all with a thunderous rumble. "Well, now that you mention it, I do feel a little hungry right now. Hey, Lucy! Let's stop for a minute and get some lunch. I'm starving!"

Lucy stopped walking to look back at him. At first it seemed like she still wanted to keep walking, but when she saw the pleading look in Natsu's eyes, she smiled and laughed instead. "Okay Natsu. I guess we could use a break. It's a good thing I bought those sandwiches in the last town we were at. Do you want one of them?"

"Heck yeah! What kind of a question is that? Come on, Lucy, don't hold out on me here!"

As they sat by the road and Natsu began to tear into the sandwich Lucy had handed him, Happy was content to sit on a near-by rock and munch on a raw piece of trout, keeping a close eye on the two teenagers as they sat and ate, a knowing and crafty grin upon his feline features.

Boy, you sure are oblivious sometimes, Natsu. But that's alright; I'm sure that you and Lucy will be able to figure it out someday. After all, you two are always on each other's minds, whether you know that or not.

Because after all…

You loovvveee each other~!

"Hey," Lucy suddenly asked, wrapping her arms around her body in alarm as she shivered. "Did you suddenly feel a chill or something, Natsu?"

"Yeah. Now that you mention it," Natsu said uneasily. "I feel like something creepy just happened…"

They both looked around for the source of the chill, but found nothing at all, only the mountain meadow around them, and a blue cat enjoying a piece of fish.

…

FIN