A/N: Thank youuu sooo much for the reviews and comments! They are what motivated me to push this chapter out so quickly. Forewarning: For future reference, I just want to let you guys know that I don't… particularly like writing about Happy. It's nothing personal; I actually adore him, so cute! However, when I'm writing stories, I tend to leave him out accidentally. Most times, it's too difficult and cumbersome to weave his dialogue back into a completed story… so I usually just leave him out. So I apologize in advance to the Happy fans.

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Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail.

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The following story is rated K+.

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02: Ebony and Ivory

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"C… D… E… F… G… A… B…"

"Hey, Lucy! Watcha doing?" The girl in question was currently hunched over one of the guild's dining tables, eyes steeped in concentration, her lips moving soundlessly, but no less fervently. Whistling amicably to himself, Natsu walked up to his blonde-haired partner, slapping her on the back enthusiastically in greeting. Bewildered by his sudden appearance, she gave a start.

"I… Natsu! Geez, don't sneak up on me like that," she breathed out, irritation coating the soft, melodious pitch of her voice.

"What are you doing? You've been sitting here all day! I haven't had lunch yet; let's go get something to eat!" He nodded his head excitedly, as if to emphasize his point. Hovering in the air beside him, Happy saluted in agreement.

"I'm sorry, but I'm really busy right now… Why don't you go ask Erza or someone to accompany you?" She had turned back to the sheaf of papers littering the area in front of her, eyebrows knit together delicately.

"Look, if I wanted to ask someone else, I would have. Forget it. Let's go on a job then? I'm sure we'll find food on a mission!" Natsu rubbed his hands together gleefully, stomach rumbling in prospect of an awaiting meal. Having tuned out the dragonslayer, Lucy simply hummed in acknowledgement, fingers skimming quickly over the inked blotches splattered onto her papers.

"Luuuce, come on! It's already past two; we won't make it in time if w—,"

"It's past two! Wait, what time is it? Aw, crap!" In a panic, the stellar spirit mage leapt up from her seat, hastily stuffing the assortment of pasty papers into her bag haphazardly. "Crap, crap, crap, I gotta go. See you guys later!" And off she went, dashing through the double guild doors and disappearing into the bustling crowd of townspeople beyond.

"What… was that all about?" Natsu wondered aloud, confusion marring his customary grin.

"Natsuu, look! Lucy dropped something when she ran away," Happy called out, waving a piece of paper in his hands. He flew over to the pink-haired boy, dropping the note into his outstretched hands.

Marvin's Melodies

1:30

…Lucy had scrawled in her neat, elegant handwriting.

"I don't get it!" Happy complained. "If she won't take us out to lunch, I'm going to find Mira! Miiiiraaaaa!" The blue cat flew off in search of the angelic bartender. Natsu, however, stood rooted to the spot, running one hand through his hair idly.

Marvin's Melodies… Where have I heard that before?, he wondered, attempting to place the name. As realization dawned on him, he dropped the note carelessly and took off in the same direction Lucy had gone.

As Natsu whizzed past the guild doors, Gray, who was seated by the entrance, groaned in frustration as his newly constructed house of cards came tumbling down yet again, due to the fire mage's rapid velocity. Irritated, he shot a stray beam of ice into the ceiling.

"Would it KILL you guys to walk like normal people?"

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"One, two, three, four," Lucy counted, placing her fingers in their correct positions and beginning again. "One, two, three, four…" She repeated the process, discontent with the resulting pitch that assaulted her ears.

"You're going way too fast. Slow down, and take it one note at a time," an old, severe voice from behind her instructed, grunting in approval as she obeyed. "Again."

And so the afternoon was passed quickly. Lucy, pleased with her progress, began to tune out her instructor, relying on her emotions to guide her movements. She concentrated on mimicking the same set of notes and repeating the same rhythms over and over again. It was a simple melody – a cheerful children's lullaby, often sung in Magnolia's busy streets during the summer. It wasn't exactly to her tastes, but she had to start with something simplistic.

"All right. That will be all for today. Come back tomorrow afternoon and I'll show you how to place your fingers properly." The heavy, metal door behind her opened briefly, and then slammed shut. Lucy, smiling to herself, collected her sheet music, tucking them carefully into her bag. Standing up slowly, she raised her arms over her head and arched her back, sighing contentedly as the muscles in her shoulders loosened.

"Huh?" Out of her peripheral vision, she spotted a dash of pink, reflected in the sun's glare on the studio's window.

Natsu?, she mused, curious. Had he followed her here, upset that she had blown him off so inconsiderately? It wasn't like him to hide himself. If that truly was him, why hadn't he approached her yet? Shrugging her shoulders unceremoniously, Lucy gathered her belongings and left the building. As soon as the door slammed shut, a tuft of brightly colored pink hair slowly rose into view, followed by a pair of dark, inquisitive eyes. Natsu, taking cover behind a large elm tree, pressed his face against the window, peering into the room. Although she had turned the lights off when she left, he was able to distinguish a lone piano, a small chalkboard, and a lamp in the corner.

"She's… taking music lessons?" Natsu furrowed his brows in confusion, curious as to why his partner had decided upon such a time-consuming hobby when she was dutifully employed as a Fairy Tail mage.

"Natsu?"

Crap, he muttered, slowly turning around to face the blonde girl standing before him.

"What are you doing here?" Lucy questioned, eyes sparkling.

"I… We… I was… errr… hungry. Yes, hungry! And this… I heard they had good… tacos here!" Natsu laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"Here… where, Natsu?" Lucy raised a finely arched eyebrow, gesturing to the empty streets around them. In a panic, Natsu looked up, noticing that they were now in a sparsely populated part of town, with only a few shops open for business. And, unfortunately for him, the entire area was devoid of various food stands, which so completely dominated the busier sections of Magnolia.

"Uhh… over there, of course. Come on, Luce." At a loss as to what to do, Natsu grabbed his partner's hand, pulling her through an intricate network of streets. Behind him, Lucy rolled her eyes, pointing out that the fire mage was clearly lost, to which he adamantly denied, claiming that the mythical taco stand was nearby. By the time the sun was starting to set, Natsu had already dragged her through half the town. He only stopped when he spotted a stray hotdog stand, attended to by a chubby middle-aged man, who jumped in fright when the dragonslayer descended upon his wares triumphantly.

Lucy stood by a vacated picnic table, rubbing her right hand slowly, a pensive look adorning her face. A small smile graced her rosy lips, as she took note of how her fiery companion had held on to her hand for the duration of the entire search.

"Luce! Told you so!" Her thoughts interrupted, the celestial mage glanced up. Natsu held up two hotdogs (which were overly burnt, for the record), triumph written all over his face. He proudly offered her one.

"What happened to the tacos, hm?"

"…Just finish your lunch, little girl."

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"Okay, I gotta run some errands for a while. See you guys later!" Lucy called out, dashing into the crowded streets of Magnolia.

As she exited the guildhall, a pair of dark, sharp eyes followed her. Wordlessly, Natsu stood up from his seat at the bar and waved a hasty farewell to Happy. Weaving his way through the tangled mass of Fairy Tail's mages, he reached the entrance doors and set off slowly after Lucy.

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"Good. Good. Stop. Play that chord again. Keep going."

"Like this?"

"Yes, well done. Start over now."

Leaning against the studio's walls, Natsu closed his eyes, quietly humming along to Lucy's playing. Because of his concentrated hearing, he was able to hear the girl's soft playing clearly, as if there were no obstruction between them at all. It had been a month since he had first stumbled upon her secret hobby, and every afternoon since, he would discreetly follow her to the studio. He always stayed out of sight, taking refuge behind a flowery bush or a shady tree, keeping his presence unknown from the girl. He liked to sit with his back against the wall, listening to her concentrated efforts. It soothed and relaxed him – filled him with an indescribable contentment that he had never felt before. That's not to say, however, that she played beautifully, like a skilled pianist. It was quite the opposite, actually. Her pitch was often skewed, the melody distorted. Natsu had listened to her efforts so attentively, he was now able to detect her feelings through her playing. When she increased the tempo, fingers pounding rapidly against the keys, he could tell that she was nervous, harried, and under a good deal of stress. When she played softly, slowly, almost tragically, he knew that she was sad, that she had other thoughts on her mind. When he hears her feet tapping along in time to the music, he smiles, because it is during times like these that he knows she is cheerful. Sometimes, she would play a song correctly, and when she did, he laughed along with her, reveled in her joy and accomplishment as if it were his own. When she pressed the wrong keys, or failed to match the correct tempo, he would wince and sigh and complain as she did, acknowledging her failures as his own. Music had never played a big role in his life, but now that Lucy had taken up lessons, it was an integral part – an essentiality that he looked forward to every afternoon.

Natsu let out a breath of air he hadn't realized he was holding in as Lucy finished her piece without error. Content, he placed his arms behind his head and immersed himself into her music.

And so the days passed by, full of harmonious comfort.

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"Oh no, I forgot my sheet music back at the studio!" Rifling through her bookcase, Lucy searched in vain. Her eyes fixated on the window, and she took note of the darkening sky and setting sun outside. Torn in decision, she decided to make a quick run to the studio to pick up her forgotten belongings.

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Shrugging off her coat, Lucy slipped into the building. She was sure that her instructor would not mind if she entered at this time to retrieve her music. Sighing tiredly, she set a brisk pace and walked to the end of the building where her studio was located. She reached out to turn the doorknob and froze.

Music. A mesmerizing, euphonic symphony of lightly clashing chords, perfectly in tune with one another, assaulted her ears. A mellifluous, silvery melody floated out from the room within, a haunting sensation that resounded throughout the empty building.

Struck by curiosity and an intensity she could not describe, Lucy soundlessly opened the door and let herself in. The sight that befell her eyes caused her now-warm skin to tingle pleasantly.

Seated at the piano before her sat a lone boy, whose rosy colored locks tumbled down his forehead in an unruly manner. His arms, strong and sinewy, were raised professionally, poised over the piano's keys. His rough and callused fingers danced in the moonlight, which filtered through the open window and cascaded into a pool of silvery, ephemeral light at his feet. He moved with the unmistakable grace of a flowing river – simple in direction, yet complex in execution; broken in pieces, yet fluid in whole. His entire figure was softly illuminated by the moon's benevolent luminescence, an eerily beautiful mixture of cerulean and midnight. The euphony that she heard outside the studio's doors now freely reverberated through the entire room, and the accompanying music swirled in the air around her, almost tangible in its artistry, as if she could reach out and grasp a note in her outstretched hands. Lucy took a step back, hesitant to break the intensity that now enveloped her.

Natsu's playing slowly diminished into a soft crescendo, at which point he leaned back, fingers still poised over the ivory keys elegantly. Without turning around, he sighed in acknowledgement.

"Hey, Luce."

Lucy, still struck by this unexpected vision, smiled and came forward. She stood behind the boy, and raised a hand to gently ruffle his hair.

"I wasn't expecting you to come practice so late at night," he questioned, curious.

"I forgot something here. I wasn't expecting you to actually know how to play. And so beautifully, at that," she replied quietly, one hand still playing with his hair.

"I picked it up on some mission I took a while ago," Natsu shrugged. "Kind of boring, I guess. How come you didn't tell me you were taking lessons?"

"I didn't want anyone to know until I got better. Oh, you should hear me play! It sounds like a bunch of cats dying – literally!" she laughed.

"It's not bad. I like listening to you play," he denied, shaking his head.

"Oh? And you've heard me play before, is that so?"

Natsu turned around to grin at her. "It's so. Come on."

He tugged her wrist firmly, and she complied, taking a seat beside him.

"But it's so embarrassing! I'm really terrible, trust me. You don't want to hear," she protested, trying to draw her fingers away from the keys.

"I like listening to you play," he repeated, more forcefully this time. Giving in, Lucy began to move her fingers, the familiar flow of musical notes resounding through her. In her nervousness, she hit a wrong key, and the ensuing jarring noise caused her to look up at Natsu apologetically. He simply laughed, and leaned back further, continuing to hum along to the music. His laugh was infectious, and soon, she was laughing along with him – a sound which, to his ears, was more melodious and mesmerizing than any a musical instrument could ever hope to produce.

The pair stayed late into the night, disharmonious music echoing through the deafening silence. At times, Natsu took over, and she simply observed, basking in the awe and newfound admiration that he evoked. He motioned at her to take up the keys again, and she cheerfully obliged. The resulting clash of music was harsh, grinding, and in much discord. Juxtaposed against one another, neither one of the melodies was harmonious. It was, instead, a culmination of their emotions, a fierce and ardent consummation of their feelings – the pinnacle of intensity.

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The next afternoon, and every afternoon that followed, found Lucy at her customary music lessons. She had long since scrapped her old instructor, and now sat beside the fiery dragonslayer, who was, for all intents and purposes, her new mentor. On this particular afternoon, however, he had decided to forego the usual lesson plans, and instead chose to demonstrate to his student the complexities of playing with one hand.

The reason?

Secretly, he just wanted her to have her hands free. He needed something to hold, right?

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A/N: Enjoy. This idea's kind of… very OoC, but… I was practicing this one song, and it kinda just… happened. Nevertheless, I hope you guys like it – don't forget to review! Please and thank you.

- L