Author's Note:

Hey guys! It's Sunday! And that means a new chapter. ;D

I'm so glad you're all enjoying it so far! And thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews! Big hugs and kisses to NaluGrey, valerioux, DemonicSpider, Firefly9917, BearPlusCat, quidditchChick6, NaLuAlways26, aliciacevbra, Anna5949, HotvampGurl23, Karmitara, 20, GothBanshee, SistershoOk, Katnibal94, and MasterJennfer! You're all so amazing!

Alrighty! Let's get on with it shall we? And be sure to stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek of next chapter. ;D

"Morning Luce!"

The loud voice permeated her dreaming state seconds before she was jarred awake by someone landing on the bed… and on top of her.

Being violently bounced around quickly roused her, and she immediately responded with a Lucy Kick and a war cry of, "Natsuuuu!"

Unfortunately he happened to be kneeling on the covers in such a way that her leg got tangled up and was unable to deliver the punishment he deserved for waking her in such a rude way. Instead, she just managed to thrash around for a moment and got thoroughly wrapped up in covers until she could barely move at all.

By that point she'd opened her eyes and was glaring at him – and the open window behind him – somewhat blearily.

With a wild swat of her arm she managed to throw the covers off her upper body at least and gestured at him and the window. "How many times have I told you to come through the door! And you don't wake someone up by jumping on top of them and yelling in their ear! What is wrong with you?!"

When she first opened her eyes he'd been on all fours looming over her with his face alarmingly close to hers, but after all the wild gesturing he had sat back on his heels to give her some room to vent without getting smacked in the face.

"Wow Luce, you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Did ya have a bad dream or something?"

Her eye spasmed in annoyance.

Then, in response to his boneheaded question, she promptly sat up, shoved him off her, and kicked the covers off too. Her duvet flew off the bed and landed on top of the downed dragon slayer, who was bemusedly staring up at her from the floor.

With a list of grumbles, she stepped off the bed and started stomping towards the bathroom, intentionally paying no attention to whether or not he was underfoot. He yipped and rearranged himself speedily so she wouldn't tread on him.

When she passed by the couch, she shot the blue cat sitting there an unamused glance, lumping him in automatically with his companion's irritating behavior. Happy's puffed up cheeks deflated as the amusement drained from his face to be replaced by trepidation at her no-nonsense look. He was smart to have kept his distance.

...

After the unpleasant awakening, the rest of Lucy's morning proceeded in a similarly odd fashion.

As soon as she'd completed her morning ritual, dressed for the day, and exited the bathroom, Natsu was on her like a dog on a bone. He grabbed her wrist and started tugging on it as if to drag her out the door.

"Come on Luce, let's go on a mission today! I saw a couple of cool postings on the board yesterday!"

She was still a bit miffed at him for the abrupt wake-up call, but after being his best friend for so long she'd learned how to blow things off in a matter of minutes. If she hadn't learned that skill, she would be perpetually irritated with the pink-haired bundle of energetic chaos.

"Sure. But let me eat breakfast first." she grumbled, wrestling her arm free of his grip.

He pouted, but then seemed to realize that 'breakfast' meant 'food' and immediately perked up again. As she grabbed the box of cereal and a gallon of milk, she made sure to get out two bowls, knowing that he would join her by either eating out of his own bowl or by picking out of hers. The task was made more difficult though when Natsu insisted on following her around the kitchen, and every time she paused he leaned in so close that his front brushed against her back and she could feel his breath on her neck.

Any hope that yesterday's oddness had been a fluke was completely gone by now, and she was already exhausted despite having just gotten up. If he didn't stop breaking her personal bubble, there were going to be problems.

Even when they sat down to eat, he scooted his chair over so his elbow brushed her every time he took a mouthful. Needless to say, breakfast was awkward… for her at least. Once again, Natsu seemed mostly oblivious.

Naturally, under the circumstances she couldn't get out of the house soon enough – mainly because she hoped that Natsu would reign in the PDA once they were out in public.

She should have known that wouldn't be the case.

Natsu was not a shy kind of guy… not in the slightest. Someone who would bust down the front door of an enemy's hideout and shout, "I'm here to kick your ass!" on an infiltration mission was not shy, demure, or – for that matter – familiar with the art of subtlety.

He was loud, straight-forward, blunt, and completely oblivious to social niceties.

As they walked through town to the guildhall, Natsu continued to crowd her. In fact, he was walking so close that she kept having to side-step or risk tripping or losing her balance. It got to the point where she just gave up on personal boundaries and grabbed his elbow to use as a handle. With that, she was able to keep herself at a slight distance which gave her enough space to walk.

Ironically, he shot her a slightly surprised look when she grabbed him – as if she was the one acting abnormal – but thankfully he didn't seem put off by it. His eyebrows rose and he seemed a tad bemused, but then shrugged and grinned.

That at least allowed them to get to the guildhall without too much embarrassment or awkwardness, but once there she let him go. She might as well not have though, because he immediately grabbed her hand and dragged her to the board with it.

When they came to a stop, he kept holding onto her as he perused the board, and she glanced down at their clasped hands with what felt like should be surprise, but by now had turned into exasperated acceptance.

They'd held hands plenty before, but always when they were running either to or from something… and usually Natsu was yanking her along behind him like some kind of overpowered tugboat. However, once they reached their destination, he had always dropped her hand. So, she'd never really had the pleasure of experiencing it without being distracted by the physical activity of keeping up with him.

Unsurprisingly, she found it quite nice. His hand was ridiculously hot, but of course his normal body temperature was always way above most people's, so she wasn't surprised. His fingers were strong, and his palm was callused and scarred, and he held her with a matter-of-fact firmness that perfectly fit with his normal direct way of approaching everything.

In any other circumstance, it would have been heavenly. She would have been on cloud nine, because normally it would mean that he reciprocated her feelings. However, in this situation – while her heart still beat faster and she could feel her cheeks flush – her emotions were more along the lines of concerned, confused, annoyed, and a little sad. A tiny flutter of hope was desperately trying to survive the mood storm, but she shoved it down. It was better to assume that this was the work of some spell, rather than let herself hope he was growing feelings for her and just didn't know how to express them.

A while back, she had let herself hope he was interested in her, only for the whole thing to turn out utterly unlike what she'd expected. He had been acting different and had wanted to meet with her alone later that evening so that he could tell her something 'special.' Unsurprisingly she had let her imagination run away with her and had thought that maybe this was it… that he was finally asking her on a date and wanted to confess some kind of feelings for her. Then, when she'd shown up, it had turned out that he simply wanted her to help him dig up some kind of secret photo album that he had heard was buried under a tree.

The experience had been so mortifying and had crushed her hopes so thoroughly that she promised herself she'd never make that stupid mistake ever again. Natsu was simply asexual and that was all there was to it.

Therefore, this current situation had to be the work of a spell gone wrong or something similar. There was no point in letting herself get her hopes up yet again, only for them to be smashed apart. So, once again, she did her best to ignore his clingy behavior and focused on the mission board in front of them.

Given that Natsu was obviously experiencing something out of the ordinary, she wanted a mission that was close by and could be completed within a day, just in case his symptoms got worse. As it was, she already wasn't sure how they could do a mission with him clinging to her like some kind of tree lizard.

Thankfully, there was a simple retrieval mission on the board requesting that they harvest some snow berries from Mt. Hakobe. It would be tedious for sure, and cold, but at least they wouldn't be in the public eye and they could do it together without having to split up. Reaching up with her free hand, she plucked the notice free and waved it in front of Natsu's nose.

"Here's one."

He looked it over and then pouted, like it wasn't packed with enough action, but in the end he shrugged and said, "Sure."

After handing the mission off to Mira, Lucy hightailed it out of the guildhall as fast as possible to avoid trouble. She'd seen the way the whitehaired barmaid had eyeballed them holding hands, and Lucy feared Mira's matchmaking schemes more than just about anything else.

Much to Natsu's displeasure, they ended up taking a train to the base of the mountain, and he spent the whole ride with his head in her lap while she hoped that he wouldn't vomit all over her. Chatting with Happy helped to distract her from the potential danger, though she had to ignore his occasional joking comments. Luckily, Natsu usually spent transportation trips in her lap, so the blue cat was used to it enough that he didn't make a ginormous deal over it.

Thankfully Natsu somehow managed to keep his cookies and not toss them onto her lap, so when they arrived at their stop she didn't need to figure out how to take a shower in the station bathroom. There had been a few times that she had purged from her memory where she'd had to learn that specific art.

However, they did have to wait around until he had perked back up before they could start heading up the mountain. It was a bit embarrassing when he insisted on lying down on the bench with his head in her lap again, but that did seem to help him recover faster, and they were on their way within a few minutes.

This time around, Lucy had been smart and brought her warmest clothes so she wouldn't have to ride in Horologium again like a wuss. Those incidents were downright embarrassing, and whenever she had to resort to that the others would tease her mercilessly for weeks.

But that sure as heck wasn't going to happen today. Thanks to her thick parka, scarf, gloves, pants, wooly socks, heavy sweater, thermal underwear, and boots, she was actually prepared…. Which was a blessing, because naturally it was snowing before they'd made it halfway up the godforsaken mountain.

Lucy liked snow, but not THIS much snow. The wind was no laughing matter either, because it blew the snow right in your face and into any unprotected nook or cranny that might be exposed. Even with her warm clothes she found herself quite chilly. For the first time since this whole 'Natsu-is-extra-cuddly' business began, she was ridiculously glad that he insisted on walking right next to her. His body heat kept a lot of the chill at bay as they trekked through the damn snow.

It was a long way up to the summit, and by the time they got there Lucy was beyond ready to leave.

"L-L-Let's find these s-s-stupid berries and g-g-get out of here!"

"Aye S-S-Sir!" Happy chattered right back, his teeth clicking together just like hers.

Only Natsu remained annoyingly unaffected by the cold. As such, he was more interested in sticking close to Lucy than splitting up and looking for berries. On the one hand, that did slow them down, but… she couldn't find it in herself to send away his welcome warmth. So they ended up searching together.

She curled into his side and they crab-walked through the snow, sort of crouched over so they could reach the ground and rustle through the frozen precipitation to find the berries.

Lucy's gloves were soon drenched, and after a little while she stood up and pulled them off. Then she proceeded to desperately scrub her hands on her coat to try and get some feeling back into her poor frozen fingers. All the fussing soon got Natsu's attention, and he also stood to give her a confused and fairly amused look as he watched her practically hopping in place while she whimpered and rubbed her hands together.

'Note to self: get waterproof gloves,' she thought as she warded off frostbite.

"Need some help with that Luce?" Natsu asked after watching for at least a couple of minutes.

His smirk was almost enough to make her say, 'no thanks,' but in the end she figured it wasn't worth potentially losing a finger over.

"Yes! You could have offered sooner you know!"

"Or you could have asked." he shot back.

She didn't have an appropriate rebuttal, so she just thrust out her hands, palm up, and silently pleaded for him to do something about it.

Thankfully he got with the picture. He grabbed both her wrists and pulled her hands towards him using that grip. She kind of expected him to rub her hands between his or something and was taken aback when he pulled her hands up to his face instead. As he nestled his chin, mouth, and nose in her cupped palms – looking for all the world like he was about to drink or eat something out of them – she blushed and blustered, utterly confused.

"What're you…?" she started, but then shut up and gaped at him in shock when he opened his mouth and breathed into her hands.

He didn't quite breathe fire, obviously that would have burned her, but it felt like he came damn close. It was just as effective as dunking her frozen appendages into a tub of HOT water, and it stung just as badly. She yelped and flinched back, but he didn't let her hands go and she didn't try to pull them away from him. This was simply a process that would hurt, no matter the method, and there wasn't really any getting around that. So, she put up with it.

After a while, the stinging eased up some and the pain started turning into painful pleasure. The heat seemed to seep into her very bones, and it was positively blissful for the warmth-loving Lucy… especially after halfway turning into a popsicle. Now if only she could feel that on the rest of her chilly skin, she'd be in heaven.

… of course that would require Natsu to breathe all over her body…

That random thought caused her to jerk and pull away as she opened eyes that she hadn't even realized were closed.

"Alright! That's enough, thanks Natsu."

"Anytime." he said with another of his grins, and on anyone else it would have come across as flirty.

Ignoring her slight blush – which thankfully didn't manifest because of the cold – she responded with, "Well in that case, here. Can you dry these off for me?"

In a matter of seconds she was holding bone dry, toasty warm gloves and slid them back onto her hands with a sigh of relief.

After that little misadventure, she regularly had him dry off her gloves and heat them for her so she wouldn't get so frozen again.

It took at least another twenty glove drying sessions – and plenty more shivering from her and Happy – before they finally unearthed their price.

"Yes! It's about time!" she crowed, and quickly spun Natsu around so she could get to his backpack. A little rooting around found her the small refrigerated box that the berries would go into.

Once the box was full, they latched it, shoved it back into Natsu's pack, and then hightailed it off the mountain. Darkness was already starting to fall and the temperature was dropping by the second, so the sooner they could get to a lower elevation, the better. This time it was Lucy who was dragging Natsu along by his wrist… though he easily kept up with her, so it wasn't truly 'dragging.'

It turned out to be lucky that they were in such close contact though, because about an hour into the downward journey Lucy very nearly slipped right off the mountain. Her foot skidded on a frozen rock, and she would have hit the ground butt first and slid off the icy path they were skirting, except Natsu instantly switched who was grabbing who and his fingers clamped around her wrist instead. With a sharp tug, he'd yanked her back into him. His arms wrapped around her waist and squeezed tight, halting all wayward movement that could have dangerous consequences.

When she'd been falling, of course her limbs had thrashed around trying to right herself, but she went immediately stiff and then limp when Natsu locked her in a safe bearhug. A wave of shivers skated down her form as the realization of what almost just happened really slammed home and she refused to look over the cliff she'd nearly introduced herself to. That had been way too close.

"…thanks N-N-Natsu." she managed to whisper after a moment, her voice coming out small and frightened.

"Yeah, let's not go flying off the mountain, alright? Although the exercise might help warm up Happy."

Said blue cat peered over his shoulder and frowned down at her. "I d-d-don't know, she's awfully heavy…and m-m-my paws are so cold I don't know if I c-c-could hold her."

Aside from the normal 'Lucy-is-fat' joke, she could tell that Happy was actually being pretty serious. Based off how hard he was visibly shivering, she didn't doubt that he'd have trouble making his paws work properly. Heck, she didn't know if she could have made her hands work properly enough to catch herself on the lip of the cliff.

The moment eventually turned a little awkward though when Natsu continued to hold her like that, and after a while she cleared her throat and tugged at his arms. "Um…okay, you c-c-can let go n-n-now."

He reluctantly did so with a fair amount of unintelligible grumbling, but she still stuck close to him on the rest of the way down – which wasn't hard since he refused to completely release her. She also forced herself to slow down a bit despite the frigid temperature, and thankfully they soon reached a low enough elevation that the falling night didn't turn them into ice cubes.

As soon as they were off the icy cliffs, Lucy picked up the pace again. They had to book it back to the train station to catch a decent timed ride. If they missed the 9 o'clock train, they'd have to wait till 1 AM before the next train could take them home, and Lucy just wasn't in the mood to nap in the station until then. Not to mention that Natsu would probably lose his limited patience and just force them all to walk home – which would take all freaking night.

And then there was the matter of his PDA problem.

She'd been so thankful for the added warmth up on the mountain that she hadn't really paid attention to the fact that his sense of personal space had apparently reduced in size yet again, and now he was practically plastered to her. He insisted on walking half a step behind her so that the left side of his front bumped into the right side of her back on every step. As such, his left foot had to step with her right foot, otherwise he would kick her in the calf, and she stepped on his toes more than once – nearly tripping several times because of it.

No matter how she shifted or walked, he stuck right to her, not letting her put any distance between them at all. If it hadn't been Natsu, she would have found the strange behavior beyond creepy…. Heck, even with Natsu it was disturbing.

The trend didn't stop there either. While they sat waiting for their 9 o'clock train, he sat so close that his thigh, hip, and side were plastered to hers…to the point where there wasn't even any room for their arms. It took her elbowing him in the ribs at least ten times before he scooted back enough for her arm to not feel like the filling in a squashed sandwich. She also had to shed most of her outer layers of clothing thanks to his heat and had sweated through most of her under layers.

It got to the point where she resolved that they'd better have another little chat once they got back to the privacy of her apartment. Surely now he realized that something was up…this behavior was just not normal.

With that in mind, she was exceptionally antsy to get on the train and go home as soon as possible, so they could hopefully get some of this strangeness resolved. She also really wanted to get into a semi-private booth where she wouldn't feel quite so self-conscious about Natsu's incessant PDA.

Of course, when the train finally did arrive and they boarded, Natsu found yet another new way to make her uncomfortable.

He once again put his head in her lap… but this time he buried his face into her stomach. Of all the times they'd ridden various modes of transportation together, he'd never put his head in her lap that way, and she found herself flustered for what felt like the millionth time in the past two days. Her shirt was no protection against his hot breath, and she could clearly feel it painting her belly with warmth. It was a stupidly intimate sensation that had her heart racing like it was trying to run away from the mass invasion of over-excitable butterflies taking over her insides.

His retching and heaves seemed better this time around though, so at least she was less worried about potential bile stains. He'd started out just as miserable as usual, but once he buried his head in her stomach his breathing changed to big deep inhales, and that seemed to somehow sooth him.

Despite her discomfort with the whole situation, she still ran her fingers through his hair the way she always did in these situations and tried to ignore how wonderfully soft his pink spikes were.

It had been an accident the first time she did it – sort of an absent-minded thing – but after he told her that it had helped the nausea, she started always doing it whenever he had motion sickness. She certainly didn't mind. In fact, normally she allowed herself to indulge and enjoy the intimacy…. but with all the strangeness going on, she figured that it was probably prudent to rein in her emotions as much as possible.

At the very least, Happy was curled up on the bench across from them and had fallen asleep… which was good because Lucy didn't really feel like dealing with any more of his ridiculous, 'you loooove him,' jokes at the moment.

After a while, in an attempt to distract herself, she commented on Natsu's surprising apparent lack of nausea. "You seem to be doing better than usual. Is the train smoother or something?"

He grunted what sounded like a negative and then huffed, "Your scent is distracting me."

His voice was rougher than usual, sort of gravelly and husky, and she assumed it was thanks to the discomfort of the nausea. However, it sent shivers down her spine and immediately brought to mind a whole variety of inappropriate subject matter that made her wonder what was wrong with her brain. She instantly flushed and wished she'd kept her mouth shut. That certainly hadn't helped her problem…. it had just made things a whole lot more confusing and embarrassing.

Thus, the rest of the ride was spent in fantastically awkward silence.

The uncomfortable atmosphere lingered even after exiting the train and was still in effect when they dropped off the berries at the guildhall, so Lucy just handed them off to Mira and pleaded exhaustion to escape quickly. By the time they finally made it back to her apartment, she was at the end of her rope.

As soon as they walked through the door, she whirled on him and poked her finger into his chest. "Alright, seriously, what's going on? Whatever was happening yesterday has obviously gotten worse! Please tell me that you've finally realized this isn't normal!"

"Well…" he scratched the back of his neck and flushed just a tiny bit, which was highly unusual for him. "Yeah…I guess the urge to be close to you has gotten stronger. I dunno what's going on…. Today it's kinda felt like I have to stay touching you or else I feel really weird."

"Weird how?"

"It's like…an itch I have to scratch."

Well… that was ever so slightly insulting, but it certainly gave her a good idea of what he was feeling. There had been many times when she'd been bitten by a bug and had suffered trying to keep her nails away from it. If that was truly the same kind of urge he felt, then she could understand why he kept touching her.

"Huh. Yeah, that's definitely weird." she agreed, frowning and trying to think of what might be causing this problem.

"Uh-huh. And…" Once again he looked just a tiny bit uncomfortable. "Your scent is getting better and better. It's like… drawing me to you or something."

As he said that, his nose flared and he took a step closer – but it almost looked like he hadn't even noticed, as if it had been completely subconscious.

"Oh…kay. That's um…that's pretty strange too. So… you're finally admitting that this isn't normal?"

He heaved a sigh. "Yeah, you were right. Something's definitely off."

"Thank Mavis. I'm so glad you've finally seen the light…it'll make this a lot easier." She matched his sigh with a relieved one of her own, then shook herself together and got down to business. "Alright, first things first. We've gotta figure out what's going on. Did this just start yesterday?"

"I think so."

"Then retrace your steps. What happened before you came to the guildhall?"

"Nothing much…."

"What about that potion shop we visited?" Happy interjected, and Natsu's eyes lit up.

"Oh right! Thank little buddy, almost forgot about that. Yeah! We found this awesome potion shop and I bought one that was guaranteed to increase a person's fire magic." Then he pouted and mumbled, "Though I haven't noticed any difference…guess it was a dud."

At that, Lucy's eye ticked. "You took a strange potion? Really?! After everything we've experienced with potions going wrong?! Do you remember that time I was turned invisible?! Or the time Juvia tried to make Grey fall in love with her and the whole guild ended up going insane?! And it didn't strike you as weird that you suddenly had strange urges and shit after drinking said potion?! Why didn't you tell me this yesterday?!"

He winced back a little and one eye squinted closed at her bombardment. "Yeah, yeah, jeez. It's not like I got the thing on the side of the road. I bought it from a potion shop, like I said."

She forcibly calmed herself down. After all, she was known to use potions on a regular basis, so it wasn't like she could really blame Natsu…she was just irritated that he hadn't connected the dots sooner.

After a bracing breath, she more calmly continued, "Okay… is that the only thing out of the ordinary that happened yesterday?"

"Yep." He glanced at Happy – who had taken shelter behind him when Lucy blew a gasket – and the blue cat nodded in agreement.

"Then I'd say it's a safe bet that the potion has something to do with this. First thing tomorrow, we're going to that potion maker and asking what the hell was in the potion you took."

"Sure thing Luce."

He was still leaning back a bit and looked tense, like he was waiting for her to blow up again. When she didn't, he slowly relaxed again and Happy popped out from behind him.

She plodded over to the couch and plopped down on it, throwing bags, coat, boots, gloves, scarf, and everything else on the floor as she did. It had been an exhausting day, and she leaned back against the arm of the couch with a groan, trying to round up the energy required to get ready for bed.

She'd eaten on the train, but knew Natsu was probably hungry, so she flapped her hand at the fridge. "Help yourself Natsu, we can go grocery shopping tomorrow."

His eyes lit up and he made a beeline for the appliance she'd pointed out. "Thanks Luce!"

Happy also eagerly joined the dragon slayer in the kitchen and ate the fish he had tucked away in his pack. He had eaten on the train like Lucy, but the fish-loving cat never passed up an opportunity to indulge in his favorite food.

Meanwhile, Lucy eventually heaved herself off the couch and plodded into the bathroom. She dragged her pajamas with her and sleepily stumbled through her nighttime routine while listening to her kitchen being demolished. Crashes and bangs that normally would have had her running out there to fuss at them didn't even faze her. Everything had suddenly caught up with her all at once after she'd blown up at Natsu, and as soon as the temper tantrum was over her energy had wilted away to nothing. Now, all she wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep off this whole ridiculous day.

When she was finally done, she left the bathroom and managed to get to the bed, even though her feet felt like they weighed way too much and tempted her to stop early at the couch. With a sigh, she flopped onto her mattress and listened to Natsu finishing up his dinner. Even that racket wasn't enough to keep her from dozing, but she forced herself to remain awake enough that when he finally finished and came over to investigate what she was up to, she woke back up.

"Hey, before you go could you turn out all the lights? I don't wanna get up again."

"Sure." he huffed, and within a few minutes the room was plunged into darkness.

"Thanks."

She sighed and rolled over, fully expecting him to hop on the bed and then out the window like he normally would. However, silence met her and she could feel him staring at her.

"Hey Luce? Can I stay?"

At that, she frowned and rolled back over to face him. She even cranked herself up on an elbow so she could give a little extra oomph to her incredulous stare. "I know you stay here a lot without permission…but when have I EVER said you could sleep here?"

It was true enough, she woke up to the sight of Natsu sprawled on her couch, the floor, and sometimes even with her in bed on a disturbingly frequent basis. She'd never given him permission to do that though. In fact, she normally chewed him out when she found him in her apartment without permission, and whenever she woke to him in her bed he was ousted with a sturdy Lucy Kick.

He'd also NEVER asked to stay before, so she was thrown for a loop.

He shuffled around in place for a moment, and she couldn't see his face in the darkness, but she could tell from his body language that he was feeling uncomfortable. That was the second time today that he'd acted flustered… which was a record. Natsu was very rarely uncomfortable or embarrassed. He possessed less shame than patience, and that was saying something.

"Please?"

At that, her jaw dropped. She was pretty sure that word had never passed Natsu's lips…. Or if it had, it was probably because either she or Erza had smacked him around for being impolite to someone of importance. But normally he had no need for such a word, because he usually didn't ask for stuff. If he wanted something, he often just took it…. And whenever he did ask, it generally came across as more of a declaration or a demand. Really, he was so straightforward that he often came off as downright rude.

Her shocked musings were cut off when he cleared his throat and shifted his feet again, before softly asking, "Luce?"

"Oh, right! Sorry, I was just a little surprised. Um…"

She thought about what could possibly have driven him to such lengths, and quickly came up with the obvious answer. "Is this because of your, uh, urges?"

"Yeah…leaving you feels really, really wrong somehow. I don't think I'd be able to sleep if I did."

She was stunned by his honesty and couldn't think of anything to say to his statement. Kicking him out now would feel cruel, knowing that he'd be uncomfortable all night if she did. So, she heaved a sigh and let her arm slip out from under her so she flopped dramatically on the bed.

"Alright, you can stay. On the couch though."

"Yay! A sleepover at Lucy's place!" Happy chirped from his place already on the couch.

"Yeah little buddy, we're gonna have a slumber party." Natsu responded happily.

Lucy wiggled around in bed until she was comfortable again. "I dunno about 'party'…" she mumbled, already half asleep. "Count me out of any pillow fights."

"Aye Sir!"

Sneak Peek

Natsu lost his patience first of course. "Or what?! Come on, spit it out Levy!"

"Well…if it's the right season…it could even cause a dragon slayer to go into heat."

Lucy felt herself sweat-drop. "I'm sorry, what did you say? A slayer going into heat? Like a dog or cat? That can't be real. Who wrote that book?"

"It's real."

She was reaching for the book to inspect it when Natsu spoke, and she froze mid-reach. "What? You're kidding right?"