About the Story: This is going to be an eventual romance, so nothing is going to come right away. Please keep this in mind, especially for the upcoming chapter 3.
Author's Note: Whew, it's finally up. I worked so hard to write this chapter so I hope it's up to standard! It was right in the middle of exams too! Anyhow, have you ever seen Natsu in an uncomfortable situation? I haven't, thus the trouble with writing the chapter. This is a take on how he views relationships. Poor simple-minded Natsu has no idea why Lucy's being so mean to him. If you're confused as so why, please refer to chapter one.
Also, thank you for all the feedback! I didn't expect so much for the first chapter, but you guys time out of your day to review, so thank you so much!
As always, constructive criticism and feedback are highly appreciated.
Possession by HawkofNavarre
Chapter 2 – The Wonders of Relationships
"No, go with Happy," Lucy muttered stubbornly. The dragon slayer stared at her in bewilderment as she played with the pen in her hand, wondering what he'd done wrong.
"I've already done three missions with Happy in the last week," he sulked at her refusal. Peeking over the blonde's shoulder, she turned her head ever so slightly as he stuck his face next to hers. She looked away from him. Natsu scrunched his face in annoyance and shuffled sideways, glancing at her over her other shoulder. However, the celestial mage simply turned her head once again and avoided his gaze. He moved around the table she was sitting at until he was across from her, crouched down, and peered over the flat surface at her. Lucy's nose was in the air and her eyes were firmly directed onto the ceiling.
He leaned in close, right up until he was centimetres away from her chin, his own eyes wide as he inspected her. Lucy's head lowered and their eyes finally connected for an extremely brief moment before she squeaked in surprise and fell backwards off her chair.
"Natsu! I already said 'no', so quit bothering me!" the spirit mage shouted indignantly, standing up angrily with clenched fists, glaring this time.
"Why won't you do any missions with Happy and I?" the fiery-haired male demanded hotly. "We're supposed to be partners, so you should come too!"
The teenager crossed her arms, again looking elsewhere. What was with that anyway? It wasn't like she was going to die from looking directly at him.
"I'm...working on my novel," she insisted relentlessly.
Natsu glanced at the table. The pen she'd been fidgeting with was now lying next to the blue notebook she'd brought with her. The book was unopened, just like its counterpart. The fire user was quite certain that the notebook hadn't even been touched since he'd approached her. Lucy had appeared to be a lot more preoccupied with trying to ignore him, and he really had no idea why.
"Your book is closed," he pointed out lamely, but that evidence alone was enough to prove what he was saying.
"O-of course! How can I write when...you're being so nosy?" the mage girl shot back rather reluctantly, as though she was struggling to find words to throw back at him.
He scowled at her retort and decided to return to exactly what had been the subject from the start. "You usually write at home when it's night, but it's day right now! We should go on a mission," Natsu emphasized, pointing at the mission board.
"That's fine! Just go without me!" she persisted.
"No," the dragon slayer denied sharply. "We're partners. That means you and I are supposed to be together."
Lucy suddenly looked very, very red and she gave the distinct impression of an imminent explosion. She stalked up to him in a rage and poked him roughly in the chest. "Listen up here, hotshot," she hissed as Natsu felt fear building up in his body at her wrath. In terms of intimidation, Lucy could seriously give Erza a run for her money. "I don't care what you or anyone else in this guild thinks, but I do not belong to you and I will personally see to it that you suffer horribly if you ever tell anyone otherwise! Now leave me alone!"
Terrified out of his wits, Natsu swiftly moved away from the raging female quite stiffly. Lucy was weird—and really, really scary sometimes, but he could never recall her getting so angry with him before. What in Earthland had he said that had been so horrible? At least before she was just ignoring and avoiding him.
Still, he couldn't comprehend the reason for any of her recent reactions. She never wanted him around anymore—at least, not for the last week—and it made him sad. He, Happy and Lucy were a team, and although he and his flying cat used to be the team, it just wasn't the same without the celestial wizard anymore. Natsu kind of found her oddness amusing, and her spirits were fun to have around.
However, Lucy was currently being pretty mean, so he'd have to put off missions for now. He wanted to get to the bottom of this! Sadly, hugging Erza seemed like a better idea than approaching Lucy at the moment.
He trudged over to the bar where Happy flitted over to sit with him. "So is Lucy coming with us?" the cat asked.
"No," Natsu sulked dreadfully, "and we're not going on any missions until Lucy will come too. I don't understand why she's being so stubborn."
The feline frowned, furrowing his brow in thought. "But she always goes on missions with us. How come she doesn't want to anymore?"
It was at that moment that Mirajane returned from her waitressing to behind the bar's counter. Natsu could feel Mira examining him, but he didn't care. He just felt confused and sad—so very confused and sad...
"Natsu...?" she began n that motherly way she could speak in. "You seem rather sad."
"Confused too," the dragon slayer confirmed with a grumpy, solemn nod.
"What about?" Mira asked, leaning her elbows on the counter to support her head.
He looked up hesitantly, realizing that Mira knew pretty much everything that was going on in the guild. It was entirely reasonable that she would know what was going on with Lucy. "Lucy won't go on missions with us and now I've made her mad. Do you know why she hates me so much lately?"
The devil mage looked at him in surprise. "Oh, Natsu, Lucy doesn't hate you. She's just having some...personal issues," she told him carefully.
Natsu's brow creased in further confusion. "What kind of issues?"
"The boy kind," was her response, and yet, all at once, Natsu understood.
It made all sorts of sense, and the dragon slayer didn't know why he hadn't thought of this before. Lucy always shut down when it came to boys. He didn't comprehend anything beyond that, but he knew the whole "love" thing was important to her. If something didn't work out with a guy, Lucy wouldn't go on missions for a day or two. The only difference was that this time, it was lasting longer.
Darn it, Natsu had to fix this. He didn't want her to be sad about some stupid boy who didn't appreciate her. Perhaps she would feel better if he beat up the person who made her feel sad? It always made him feel better after people trashed Fairy Tail's name in his presence. Scumbags were always going to be scumbags, and it would be an honour to destroy the one who hurt his best friend.
Quickly, the male stood from his seat and thanked his fellow member for the help. His destination never left his mind, leaving the guild in great speed while Happy followed behind. If there was one thing he didn't get, it was the concept of relationships. People were always dating and going out with each other, only to end things after an extended period of time. Natsu didn't understand how people could feel love for more than one person—not the platonic kind, of course, but the romantic type. Igneel had taught him that dragons could only love one other, and while the fire mage was most certainly human, his magic had always caused him to feel more dragon than anything. Love that people were always talking about had never surfaced in his heart even while everyone around him had crushes or some sort of infatuation with another. Not him, though. Never him.
Honestly, it didn't really matter to him. That kind of thing was pretty much the last thing on the dragon slayer's mind, so he hardly fathomed as to why it was such a big deal to people. He supposed that, in a way, he could see it when he thought of Gajeel. That guy had found his mate and wanted to claim her as his own, yet Natsu didn't really care if he never found his. It didn't seem very significant to him.
The fiery-haired male briefly wondered how Wendy would feel about the whole thing. Though she was young now, she would be having a crazy time in the future. Female dragon slayers had it different. Men flocked to her and she would take her pick from the batch on which she would fall for. Wendy would be able to choose while he was stuck pondering who his heart had chosen. Girls were so darned lucky.
On the other hand, like he'd said, love hardly mattered. It was no big deal.
Still...it was important to Lucy and Natsu respected that. She was just one of those people who had to test out boys to see whether she liked them or not. If she did like him, she would test him some more before eventually deciding that she no longer enjoyed his presence, dumped him, and then went back to test different guys. Natsu regarded this process of finding a partner in marriage as a massive waste of time, but because Lucy found it to be a vital part of her life, he supported her in it.
However, though he supported her, he never once approved of a guy she'd chosen to test. The first one he'd met was some really, really feminine looking guy, yet woman kept staring at the dude and Natsu had no clue as to why. One girl he'd hear gasp, "Bee-shee!" in excitement, but he hadn't heard that word before in his life and was certain that it was some sort of foreign language. What in the world was a "bee-shee" anyway? Anyhow, there wasn't anything totally distinguishable about that guy besides the fact that he really liked himself. He was always looking in the mirror unless he was looking at Lucy or other girls. And he made his surroundings sparkle in some sort of weird faded lighting. Girls swooned when he was around and Natsu was pretty disgusted by the whole thing.
A short while after the pretty boy was kicked to the curb, there was a dark-haired guy who wouldn't stop reading. That guy carried around a huge messenger bag that was full of thick, 500-page books. His nose was always stuck in a novel and he hardly ever looked at the girl he was dating. When Natsu inquired as to why she wanted to be with this weirdo, she'd said that they had things in common. All he could think was "WHAT?" Certainly the pretty mage enjoyed reading, but she wasn't an obsessive word fiend. That man was seriously introverted too, not even looking up after Natsu had acknowledged him. Lucy gave up on him after three days, which was quite obviously a good idea, and the fire-breather was relieved that the bookworm was finally gone.
There were a few more guys after that, but really only one more of notable interest. This one was very silent and stoic, acting cold and callous to everyone around. Natsu pretty much hated this guy, but the thing was, Lucy actually stayed with him for longer than all the others. The dragon slayer didn't know what she saw in that man—she was together with that guy for almost three months! And he was such a jerk too!
…Although…when he thought Natsu wasn't looking, the fire-haired male noticed him doing something sweet. Occasionally he'd stroke Lucy's hand gently or make some sort of concealed, tender gesture. It'd crossed the Fairy Tail member's mind that that might be the reason the celestial magician had stayed in a relationship with him in the first place. He never found out exactly why they had split up either, but he was certainly glad that the angry dude was gone. It had affected the amount of missions Lucy went on with Natsu.
Actually, it was sort of like now, with Lucy refusing to accompany him on missions—let alone look at him. She was really trying her best to avoid him like the plague. Well, Natsu wasn't going to let her run anymore!
Hurriedly, the dragon slayer reached Lucy's front door and opened it with that key he had copied long ago. As it clicked open, Happy headed straight for the kitchen whilst Natsu continued on into his fellow guildie's bedroom where the sound of running water drifted in from the bathroom. Natsu heard the water click off and stared at the shut door in anticipation.
A minute later, it swung open and he was staring directly at a glistening, damp-haired Lucy clad only in a fuzzy, cotton towel. Her mouth was slightly ajar as her eyes connected with his with questionable emotion.
Natsu got his interrogation underway, unmoved by her state of undress. "Is there a guy I need to beat up for you?"
It was as if she hadn't even heard his question as she shrieked at the top of her lungs, the scarf-wearing boy cringing at the shrill noise. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" Lucy screamed in devastation, chucking a hairbrush at his head that he narrowly dodged.
It was somewhat unnerving how fast that object had flown past his face.
"GET OUT!" she shouted again, this time throwing a more dangerous lamp. "STUPID LECHER!"
In order to preserve his life, Natsu obliged instantly and raced for the kitchen where Happy was. He couldn't help but object to the names Lucy had just given him—well, perhaps not the first as, admittedly, he wasn't the wisest guy around—because he was not a lecher. He didn't think about women's bodies like their master did!
Happy was sitting on the kitchen table, munching on a few sardines. His eyes fell on Natsu as the frightened male entered the room. "So did you get talking to Lucy yet?"
"No, she tried to kill me again," he replied shakily. "I think I'll wait here this time…"
Natsu wasn't sure why she was so mad this time either. How did seeing her in a towel make him a lecher? She normally covered only that amount of skin when she left her house anyway. He grew more confused ever time he thought about it.
However, his puzzled thoughts were interrupted when a red-faced Lucy arrived in the doorway, appearing no less furious than she'd been minutes earlier. At least now she was in a pair of gray sweatpants and a pink t-shirt.
"I've had enough of you, Natsu! You think you can just barge into my house with no good reason and try to catch me naked?" she seethed through her teeth.
"I didn't have any other choice," Natsu defended timidly. "You keep avoiding me and you never even told more or Happy why. I had to ask Mira."
Lucy suddenly looked positively stiff as she bit her lip and gazed angrily in another direction, an action the dragon slayer was quite used to receiving now. "And what did she tell you?"
"Boy issues."
He watched as the spirit mage placed a palm on her face, shaking her head with a sigh. The fire-breather was taken aback when she began to smack her hand on her forehead a couple of time. Frozen in his place, Natsu stared at her in bewilderment. She was currently nodding to herself instead and he was just totally unsure of what she was doing. Lucy looked to him—directly at him—and smiled gently.
Uh…what…?
"Well, you know, Mira was right. I'm having some boy issues, but I shouldn't be taking it out on you. I'm sorry," she apologized softly, her mood now absolutely the opposite of what it had been seconds ago.
Natsu didn't question this. He was going to take what he was getting. "Is there a guy being mean to you? Should I beat him up?"
She laughed, which frightened Natsu, unsure of whether he should keep his guard up now, before she walked over to the table and sat in a chair and stroked Happy on the head. "It's nothing like that. Mira and Levy just said some stuff that…" The blonde paused, searching for a word, "…scared me. I guess it affected me pretty badly, even if I don't think what they said is true at all."
"…Oh," was all he could manage as she treaded onto an uncomfortable topic for him. He appreciated an explanation, but he hadn't expected her to open up to him.
Lucy continued. If she felt the anxiety he was radiating at all, she disregarded it. "Gajeel said that dragon slayers can only fall in love with one person. Is it true?" the key user asked almost casually, but there was a curiosity in her voice that indicated he wasn't going to get out of this very easily.
"Uh huh…"
She was blushing now. "Have you found her yet?"
The answer was obvious for him, but he couldn't seem to vocalize it as clear as it was in his mind. Natsu shifted in his spot, nearly regretting his choice to come here as his face grew hot in embarrassment (which it rarely did). "I…uhm…"
"Oh! Sorry!" she abruptly apologized for the second time as her hand rose in front of her moth. "Have you found him yet?"
Happy choked on a fish bone while Natsu choked on his own saliva.
"N-" he coughed, wide-eyed. "No! I DON'T LIKE GUYS!"
"Well, you didn't answer, so I just assumed—"
"I'm not gay!"
"Okay, okay! I believe you!"
A pregnant silence overtook the room and the sound of fish being nibbled on was the only thing that could be heard. Lucy was the one to break it.
"Is it alright if I try something?" she asked, getting to her feet. "I won't hurt you or anything."
It didn't sound as if Lucy had any malicious intent, so Natsu nodded, albeit skeptically. He still felt a little offended by her earlier statement. Had he ever given off that impression? "S-sure… What do I have to do?"
"Nothing, just don't move," she told him before turning to Happy. "Happy, could you close your eyes?"
"Okay," the cat agreed instantly. He'd been smart enough to stay out of their conversation thus far and knew that he wasn't part of it, but because of this request, Natsu knew whatever Lucy wanted to do was private.
The dragon slayer was nervous when Lucy moved forward, her eyes never leaving his. She stopped in front of him and placed her hand on this bare left shoulder, running her fingers down his arm until they touched his palm. The urge to move somewhere—anywhere—threatened to drive him insane as he struggled to obey her command, a tingling sensation running up through his arm when her skin touched his.
Her body drew closer still as the intensity of her gaze made him forget to breathe. He desperately tried to stay composed as her fingers slid into the crevasses between his own and grasped his hand lightly.
Agonizing seconds passed as Lucy studied him quietly. It took everything in him to keep his exterior indifferent while she did so, and when she, at long last, backed away, he was on the verge of screaming out from the physical strain he was placing on his body from resisting movement. Her hand remained under his as she stepped away, keeping them connected for as long as she possibly could.
His body felt like stone when she finally let go.
A small, weak laugh came from Lucy's mouth as she shook her head once more. "Sorry, I was being stupid. I just wanted to see something."
"Did you see it?" he asked her hoarsely, still practically quivering from her touch and unable to figure out what she was referring to.
"Mmhm," she responded, going over to Happy and patting his head to show he could open his eyes. "You two should head back to the guild and pick out a mission. We can head out tomorrow morning."
"Great," Natsu said, turning toward her front door. "See ya tomorrow then."
The fire mage left her house in silence, his flying companion hurrying after him.
"What happened?" Happy inquired worriedly. "You seem kinda out of it."
Natsu was asking himself that very question. There had never been a situation that had scared him more than today's. Even his fight with Gildartz hadn't left him this shaken to the core. No… Gildartz's magic wasn't even as close to as terrifying as the turmoil he'd been through only minutes before.
When Lucy had touched his hand, a shock had shot through him like electricity, He hadn't been focused on her anymore in that moment, but only Lucy in a fantasy of pulling her into him and kissing her breathless. It was the hardest battle he'd ever fought, not to turn that fantasy into reality. He wasn't even sure how it happened. He and Lucy had been partners for so long, and never had he experienced anything like this.
Still, Natsu wasn't dense enough to just brush something like this off. He understood what it meant. He just didn't know how things had become this way.
"Natsu?"
Happy's voice pulled him from his stupor and the dragon slayer stopped poking at his own very confusing thoughts. He answered the question his best friend had asked honestly. "I…I think I found my mate."