The city of Crocus. Fucking finally. Yes, after the kind of awkward meal I had shared with Lucy two days before (in which I kinda, sorta friendzoned myself somehow) I needed something to distract myself with, but not TWELVE HOURS IN MOTHERFUCKING HELL.
"Natsu, get off now. And Happy, you need to wash yourself."
"Aye, Erza! And Natsu..." said the little guy crying "don't eat so much before traveling next time!"
Yeah, no need to say that again. I think I might accidentally have puked all over Happy on the road here... Shit happens.
"I swear there is no FUCKING way I'm ever traveling again! I always say it, but now I mean it..." I then breathed in to calm myself, then added "Look, I'm sorry... Ask Luce to invite you some fish, you deserve it."
"AYE SIR!" He shouted, flying to get off the carriage "But Natsu..." He said, now with an evil smile on his face "Isn't it not chivalrous to let your girlfriend pay?" He said with his tiny, devilish paws over his mouth.
"One: she's not my girlfriend. Two: what the hell does "chivalrous" mean?"
I got off the torture instrument as fast as I could, happy to see the heavens were finally showing some mercy on me. Little Miss Icypants, on the other hand, was very comfortable using Luce's shoulder as a pillow, snoring and all. Well, fuck him.
"OI, WE'RE HERE Y'ALL!" I yelled, waking those two up. Damn Icefreak.
"Was that actually necessary, Flamebrain? I swear to god, next time you do that I'll drown you in a pool of your own blood."
"Yeah, whatever..."
My mind was full of thoughts of me being the one that killed that bastard in various ways. And food, because now my stomach was empty again. But mostly, killing Gray.
"Natsu..." Lucy said softly, just barely opening her eyes and realizing the situation she was in. She smiled at me apologetically, and I just nodded and shrugged like it was nothing. Damn, how I wished to be the one to sit next to her. But then we should consider that she would punch me or kick me if things got out of control and I puked all over her too... Luce is weird. On the other hand, seeing her being weird with someone else...
"Oi, Natsu! You okay?" Gray asked me, looking like he was trying to figure something out.
"Yeah, whatever... Just put your shirt on, nobody wants to see you naked here."
"Wha- Whoa!" He said, stupidly looking down to find out that *surprise* he was shirtless.
I walked closer to the cart to help Lucy get off, remembering that we had to act as normal as we could. It was then that I saw it: she blushed, and so I blushed too. I was still angry that Gray could be close to her and I couldn't, like there was some kind of barrier even after the talk we had.
"You enjoyed the ride?"
"Certainly, more than you."
"I mean, with Icefreak and all..."
"Come on, it was nothing! We didn't even notice... Don't start some kind of scene now."
"Whatever... I wasn't intending to do that anyway."
"Natsu..."
I felt a little too possessive over her at that point, I admit it, but there was something literally making me behave like a jerk right now. I had to show everyone else that she was not available, not for Icefreak, not for anyone else.
"Let's go out again today. We've trained hard, we are ready to give it our all. Fairy Tail will be number one by the end of this week. Just..." Her face was a no "Look, we have today. Why don't we just call it off until tomorrow? After that, we can act like friends all you want."
"Isn't that just complicating things even more? You keep contradicting yourself all the time! I try to make this as easy as possible for us both, so we can focus all our attention in the Games and..."
"And we will. I promise. No girly stuff, I swear!"
"Alright, but Happy is coming too."
"Right" I said, grabbing her hand.
"They liiiike each otherrr" Happy, I swear to God...
"Well, well, well... What have we got here? Aren't you two a little more affective than usual?" I let go of Luce's hand quickly. Where the fuck does he even come from?
"Get out of here, pervert! I have no idea of what you're talking about!"
"Sure you don't" Gray said, looking at us both "Sure you don't... Let's go. Guild Master's there."
I stood there, not really paying attention to what they all said; all I knew for now is that we had to be back at Honeybone at midnight for something. I was so sure we were gonna win that shit.
When the whole "rules rules rules" thing finished, Happy, Lucy and I escaped to explore the city. This time, I won't let awkwardness ruin it.