Chapter 2

It is around noon; Lucy has been hard at work throughout the day.

"Lucy, could you put those books over there in the corner?" Porlyusica is preoccupied; her attention primarily on taking care of the waiting customers in line ready for their books to be checked out and bought.

"Yes Ma'am!" Lucy answers obediently with haste making sure to carefully carry them in a way they won't fall over.

"And Lucy, bring these over to section H over there please." Porlyusica continues in between scanning and cashing books.

"Right on it Miss P!" Lucy grabs the books and heads towards the alphabetized section where the H books are kept. Out of breath, she is about to make a turn into the idle when she bumps into Natsu, at least that's who she thought it was. Hands instantly cover her mouth in shock and Lucy drops the books she has been carrying in the process.

Lucy's mouth hangs open slightly unable to contain her disbelief and her eyes widen at the sight. Forgetting about the books that dropped she approaches the figure cautiously trying to get a better look.

To her revelation, it is indeed in fact Natsu.

Except he isn't wearing his glasses nor did he wear his usual oversized sweaters and jeans, instead he wore a red plaid flannel and black skinny jeans along with his customary scarf. His hair that was regularly combed down, along with his bangs that hung low in front of his face, is now spiked upwards.

Natsu moves forward towards Lucy who tries to slip behind him, which is a mistake on her part. Natsu blocks her with a hand that presses against the bookshelf for support leaving Lucy unable to find an opening to escape. To her right is Natsu's arm and her left is the wall leaving her pretty much unable to go anywhere at all. With no choice due to being so caught up in the situation, she simply let her back leaning against the shelf hoping to get an explanation of this.

"Excuse me miss, could you point me toward the Self-Help section? I need some advice on how to approach a gorgeous girl in a bookstore without seeming creepy." Natsu says in a rather husky tone with a smirk on his lips.

"U-Um…" Lucy squeaks, her face growing bright red.

Her eyes are unable to take their focus away from Natsu.

"Are you a library book Lucy, because I can't stop checking you out." He winks at her; his smirk growing as his voice grew even deeper.

Lucy can feel her heart skip beating rapidly.

What in the world has happened to the quiet boy that she once knew? The boy who hid his face in his bangs and wore big glasses?

He looks so different to her. Lucy always found Natsu endearing and cute but right now he actually looked rather...sexy.

So many thoughts cloud Lucy's mind trying to figure what to say or how to act.

Maybe Natsu hit his head. Yup. That's gotta be the reason.

Lucy notices that Natsu is beginning to sway a little and his hand holding the spot he placed it on is starting to lose its grip. She studies his body posture wondering what the issue is until she realizes he can't see without his glasses.

"Uh...Natsu hey, this isn't funny anymore you need to put your glasses on right now." Lucy whispers with urgency trying to snap him out of it if he doesn't this can end so badly in both of their favors.

"What do you mean put my glasses on? I'm fine Lucy!" Natsu says in a throaty voice full of exasperation; struggling to keep his voice in character.

Who is he kidding though? This is probably the worst plan he ever thought of, not to mention his eyes saw nothing but a blur wherever and whenever he walked. He even tripped three times trying to leave his apartment. He can make out Lucy just barely but everything else is hazy and blurry.

"No, you're not Natsu! You can't even see what you're doing, can you? You probably can't even see me!" Lucy protests trying to reason with Natsu but the words fail to reach him.

It soon dawns on Natsu that she isn't kidding after all. He definitely has taken a dangerous risk to not wear his glasses. Yet he knew that the bad boy act wouldn't be perfect with them on so he chose to go without wearing them and left them at home.

Natsu shifts his hand higher pushing against the shelf for support. Unfortunately, due to his balance being off from the inability to see clearly, he ends up pushing against it harder than meant to.

Crack.

"Huh?" They both exclaim out loud turning their heads to the direction of where the noise is coming from. Both notice the bookshelf began to wobble slightly backward, looking as if it is going to fall over at any given second.

The two of them watch in horror hoping the wobbling will stop. Lucy shuts her eyes tightly imagining the amount of trouble they are going to be in if it falls over. Natsu sucks in his breath hoping with all his might hoping that it stops moving so his humiliation won't worsen any more than it already has.

After a brief moment, it stops.

Natsu exhales a long sigh and looks down at her with a toothy grin.

"See Lucy? There was nothing to worry about!"

Thinking that the situation has simmered down, Natsu instinctively puts his hand back in place forgetting the precarious nature of the bookshelf.

It is only after that he saw Lucy open her mouth almost as if she is going to say something.

"Natsu-WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Crash!

Screams echo within the building.

The bookshelf tumbles backward taking Natsu and Lucy along with it. Books are spread across the floor and pieces of the shelf itself are lying in shambles.

"Ow…"

"Ugh…"

Lucy grunts as she takes a book off her face. She attempts to raise her body up hoping that the bookshelf itself is the only thing broken and not her. A weight bears down on her body, forbidding her from sitting up properly.

Natsu struggles to open his eyes. He notices his cheek is resting on something soft and his back feels like it has a mountain of books on it. Natsu tries to elevate himself upwards to be aware of his surroundings only stopping halfway realizing how close he and Lucy are.

"G-Gosh Lucy I'm really sorry about this…" Natsu apologizes with shame in his voice. He reverts back to his meekly usual self. He helps her get up slowly, worry washes over his body thinking that she must really hate him now.

"I-it's okay, don't worry about it," Lucy says quietly trying to steady her balance with Natsu's help. She is about to bend over to start to clean up when she freezes at the sound of an all familiar angry voice.

"Oh you will worry about it because the BOTH of you are staying till this entire mess is spotless!"

Natsu and Lucy look up to see a very furious Porlyusica glowering down at the both of them.

"Um, w-we can explain!" They both yell in unison.

"Save it for tomorrow kids." Porlyusica scoffs leaving the two to clean up the clutter.

They both sigh with their shoulders dropping low staring at all the mess they have to clean up. Lucy began to pick up the books and put them on a nearby table. Natsu stood there awkwardly too anxious to do anything else fearing he will worsen the situation especially since he is blind as a bat.

Neither of them says a word leaving the atmosphere uncomfortable, nothing but the noise of books and the sound of Lucy picking up debris from the broken shelf fill the air.

"Ugh...I-I'm really sorry Lucy." Natsu stammers, his head hanging low breaking the silence.

"I told you Natsu," Lucy inhales, taking a second to catch her breath, in between picking up a huge stack of books. "Its fine, I'm not upset, although I might be if you don't start helping me." She exhales afterward setting them down.

"Uh...Lucy, I can't really see." Natsu says dryly.

"Oh." The blonde's look softens. She almost forgot that he can't see very well right now. Her lips press together watching his eyes droop seeing the regret in his face.

"I'll be right back." With no explanation, Lucy disappears only to come back seconds later with something in her hands.

"Open your hands." Lucy simply states.

Natsu does as he is told and squints trying to make out what she put in his hands. Two small circular mounds lay in his hands; they are soft and feel as if they had been dipped in the liquid.

"They're contacts! You can have these. I usually carry an extra pair just in case."

"Wow thank you." Natsu smiles gratefully. He picks one of them up; bewildered by the soft texture of it.

"Careful now, they're hard to find if you drop them anywhere." Lucy brings Natsu over to a chair to sit down so he can put them in.

"Have you ever put contacts on before?" A brow of hers rises as she watches Natsu study one of the contacts unsure of what to do.

Natsu shakes his head slowly.

"Would you be comfortable letting me try to put them in or would you rather be shown?" Lucy sits in the nearby chair gently taking his hands into hers.

"U-Uhm either works for me I guess." He answers in a hushed tone feeling the blood in his body rush to his face gradually become hot.

"I'll put it in then. All I ask for is to just stay still, look at me and don't freak okay?"

And with that Lucy carefully put the contacts into Natsu's eyes gently. It took a bit of time since putting them on someone else rather than yourself was a lot more work. Natsu blinks a few times and opens his eyes, everything becoming clear again.

"Oh wow, I can see even better with these than my glasses honestly!" Natsu gasps standing up to get a good look around.

"I agree! Plus it's more convenient than glasses." Lucy claps her hands together in agreement. "You should look into getting some! After I decided to get some myself it was so so worth it." She stands up herself and watches him grin happily.

"That's right you used to wear glasses. What… made you switch over?" Curiosity is prominent in his voice. Natsu had wanted to know the reason behind it for so long. He always had the strange impression that there was some deeper meaning to the cause.

"O-Oh uh...w-well..." The blonde hesitates with her reply. She starts to blush knowing dang well she can't possibly give him the actual reason why. Lucy carefully chooses her words and decides to go with a simple answer. "I just didn't like wearing them." She says flatly.

"Plus...I hated how I looked in them." She trails off the end of her sentence in a mumble.

Natsu nods sharing her opinion about the contacts and he can most definitely get used to wearing some himself. His ears had faintly heard what she said under her breath and it made something inside of him do something he never thought he could do. A sudden wave of courage rose in him pushing him to speak out loud what he wanted to tell her so badly.

"Lucy what are ya talking about, you're beautiful with them on!" Natsu proclaims grabbing her shoulders. "You're beautiful either way. With or without glasses." He huffs from shouting so loud, not caring if Porlyusica or anyone had heard him. His brows are close together and his nostrils flare as he scowls to show how serious he is.

"I...N-Natsu..." Lucy is speechless and she can't hold it back any longer. She quickly turns away so he can't see the amount of crimson that has taken over her face. Her heart is skipping beats from being so taken off guard by such a compliment.

Feeling a bit hurt from her have turned her back like that to him he backs away a little. He jets a hand out then took it back thinking maybe he shouldn't have said that.

To his surprise Lucy twirls around giving him a bright smile that cheers him up in an instant, erasing any negative thoughts he was thinking of.

"Thank you, Natsu."

Now it's Natsu's turn to blush, he closes his eyes smiling, proud of himself that he did the right thing after all.

"Y-Your welcome Luce." He chuckles lightly. His pupils broaden and he covers his mouth scolding himself for so casually giving her a nickname. "Ah I mean Lucy! Uh..I.. Er..Uh..." Natsu stutters trying to give her a good explanation but is failing.

"Natsu its fine! I love the nickname actually. "Lucy laughs. "Feel free to call me that actually, I mean, we are friends you know." With a hint of amusement in her voice from adding that comment, Lucy can see Natsu giving her the back treatment now, probably spazzing to himself.

"We are...?" Natsu repeats her question dumbly, facing her direction slowly with a twinkle his eye.

"Duh silly." Lucy winks giving him thumbs up. "Now let's be even better friends and work together to get this mess cleaned up or Miss P will have both our necks."

And for the remainder of the day, Natsu and Lucy spent their time tidying up the spot where the bookshelf had fallen and all the books surrounding it.

A/N: AHHH I wanted to keep writing more but I decided to end it there. :') It felt really fitting the way I wrote it and I didn't wanna change it. Although I may add some more of what happens next in the beginning of the next chapter I don't know yet. I had more I intended to write but like I said, I like how it ended. What do you all think?

Also, can we get some cheers for Natsu for taking a huge step out of his comfort zone? YOU DA MAN!