Author's Note: Ok, here's part two. I'll get chapter 3 up tomorrow
When the bell finally rings, Lucy gathers up her stuff and starts walking along with Natsu.
"You walk so slow," he complains.
"Well sorry to inconvience you," she replies sarcastically, "but I'm carrying all these heavy books."
"You're so annoying, here," he says taking the books from her arms. Then he grabs her wrist firmly and pulls her along with him, "let's go."
Lucy's face turns the reddest shade possible as she stares at his strong, warm hand gripped around her delicate wrist. Her stomach flutters with butterflies.
"What's he doing? He's practically holding my hand." She thinks to herself.
"Lucy? Oi, Lucy. Are you alright?" Natsu asks as he stops in the middle of the sidewalk to stare at her.
"Huh?" she says, snapping out of her daze.
"You're face is really red. Do you have a fever or something?"
"What? N-no," Lucy lets out a little squeak as Natsu's hand lets go of her wrist and reaches up to rest on her forehead.
"Hmm," he says, "I guess not."
He takes his hand off and asks, "You ready to see my house?"
"Y-y-yes," Lucy stutters caught off guard by the feeling of his hand on her forehead.
"Alright! It's just a little ways further."
"Ok," she says smiling, cheeks still pink.
Soon they walk up to a small but inviting house. The yards a little messy with plants growing about but Lucy likes the way the ivy runs along the walls of the house.
"Cute," she says.
"What?!" Natsu says as he stares at her with wide eyes.
"The house, it's cute."
"Oh, uh yeah. Thanks," Natsu says.
Lucy swears she saw his cheeks tint pink but before she can check he's already striding to the front door and fishing for his key in his bag.
"Come on in," he says once the door is open and he's walking in.
He drops their stuff by the door and immediately pulls on his tie to start loosening it. Lucy looks around; the house is pretty small and messy too. Stuff scattered about but Lucy expected that much from Natsu. She can see the open door to a bedroom, which she assumes is Natsu's because it's even messier in there. There's a bathroom too and a cute, little kitchen. Hey, wait a sec.
"Natsu?" she asks.
"Yeah?"
"Where's your parents' room?"
"Oh, I live alone," he replies nonchalantly as he pulls off his tie.
He starts unbuttoning his shirt as he walks to his bedroom and Lucy lets out a gasp. Her cheeks blaze with heat as he shrugs off his shirt while entering the room and she gets a view of his finely toned back. She rushes over to her bag and quickly busies herself with getting out her books. Natsu enters from his bedroom with a t-shirt on and a pair of baggy pants.
"What the heck, did he change his pant's with the door still open?" Lucy wonders to herself, "He still has his scarf on too."
Natsu walks towards her and says, "So, I was thinking, for our project we could-"
Lucy lets out an ear-piercing scream as something furry brushes her leg. She jumps over to Natsu and clings to him as she yells "Something touched my leg!"
She instinctively buries her face in his chest as she continues to squeal. She takes in his warm, nice scent. It's distinctly male while also being what she can only describe as spicy. She's shocked when she feels his arms circle around her and hold her there. His hands rest on her back and the feeling sends shivers down her spine.
"Lucy," he says breathily, "it's just Happy."
"What?" she asks.
Lucy pulls back to peer up at him. His muscular arms drop to his sides and she notes that his cheeks are definitely a little pink.
"That something that brushed against your leg is my cat, Happy."
Lucy searches the floor around them and finds a blue cat standing startled behind Natsu.
"Why's he blue?"
"Because he's a cat."
"Cats aren't blue, Natsu."
"But he's a cat and he's blue."
"Never mind," Lucy says pinching the bridge of her nose.
They work a little on the project but soon they're too busy laughing.
"And then I tried to eat the fire!" Natsu exclaims.
"What, no way!" she says through giggles.
"Yeah, Igneel told me I was one stupid kid cuz' I burnt my whole tongue."
"Who's Igneel?" Lucy asks.
Natsu's smile immediately fades away, "He's my adoptive father but he disappeared when I was pretty young. I spent some time in foster care but they eventually let me live on my own since Igneel left me some money."
"Natsu I'm really sorry," Lucy says, "I get it though, my mom died when I was young."
Natsu gives Lucy a gentle, caring look before asking, "Hey, you hungry Lucy?"
"Yep," Lucy says smiling.
"Cool, I think I have some leftover curry," he says as he makes his way to the kitchen.
Lucy follows after him and helps him warm the curry on the stove.
Natsu has no dining table so they sit across from each other on the floor and eat their day-old, half cold, half warm curry. Natsu is once again a messy eater but Lucy doesn't really mind. Happy eventually finds his way to Lucy's lap and purrs happily as she strokes his peculiar blue fur.
"It's late, I should get going," Lucy says when they've cleared and washed all the dishes.
"Alright, I'll walk you. Where are we headed?"
"What? No, it's fine I can walk myself."
"Lucy, I don't doubt you can take care of yourself but Magnolia doesn't have the safest streets."
"Are you sure it's ok?"
"Of course, Happy can walk with us too."
They head out onto the sidewalk and begin their trek to Lucy's new apartment with Happy trailing behind them. It's actually not too far from his house.
"Lucy, you live alone too don't you?" Natsu inquires.
Lucy's startled, "Huh? How did you know?"
"Well not once have you called someone to tell them where you are or that you're going to be home late so I just kinda figured."
"Oh," she whispers, "yeah, I want to go to Fairy Tail so I had to come and live on my own."
"Well this isn't the way to the school dorms, are you staying in an apartment?"
"What?!" Lucy yells as she stops in the middle of the street, ignoring Natsu's dramatic reaction to her loud voice, "they're aren't any dorms, I checked on the website."
"No we have a girls and a boys dorm, almost everyone in the group lives in the dorms."
"Are you kidding me? I already moved all my stuff into my apartment and it's really cute but I should just move into the dorms so that I don't have to get a job. What if I can't keep up with the rent? Ugh!" Lucy lets out a frustrated groan.
"Then you can move into the dorms if you have to or you can just come stay with Happy and me. Right buddy," he says as he leans down the pets the cat behind the ears.
Lucy's immediately washed over with relief, "Natsu's right, there's nothing to worry about. I shouldn't let myself get so worked up"
She gives him a warm glowing smile, "Thanks Natsu."
"No problem."
"How come you don't live in the dorms?" Lucy asks.
"There are no pets allowed and I couldn't get rid of Happy. He's family."
Lucy's not sure what to say to that so she just keeps quiet as they walk. There's silence between them but not awkward silence, it's the comfortable kind. Lucy's never gotten to talk so much with people her age but what she loves most is how comfortable she already is with Natsu. She's not sure how all of this is supposed to work but what she does know is she's really glad she met Natsu.
It isn't much longer before they reach the apartment and Lucy says, "Thanks again Natsu, for everything."
He gives her another one of his famous grins flashing his abnormally large canines. "Hm," she thinks, "they suit him in a way don't they?"
"Night Natsu," she says as she opens the doors.
"G' night Lucy," he says as he starts walking back to his house.
Lucy stays a moment in the doorway, watching his retreating figure as he scoops Happy up off the ground. Her heart gets this odd, fluttery feeling while memorizing the way he walks and the cute, unruly way his pink hair spikes up around his head, "he's actually really caring and kind. He's funny too, I didn't know I missed laughing so much."
When he turns the corner she closes the door and heads to her apartment. The best decision she has ever made is coming to Fairy Tail, now she has friends. She has friends! Lucy quickly climbs into her bed that's surrounded by a number of boxes and allows herself to slowly drift off to sleep.
