Things get good this chapter. I'm sure you all will be very very pleased with it.
As Lucy walked through the carnival she got glimpses of her friends. She spotted Bisca and Alzack at one of the many shooting games. Judging from the pile of stuffed animals next to them, they were doing quite well. She caught a glimpse Fried and Mira sharing a funnel cake. Juvia had somehow managed to convince Gray to share a large slushie. She swore she spotted a blush on the boy's face as they slipped together from two straws.
Gajeel ran past carrying Levy on his shoulder. She was yelling something at him but in the noise of the carnival Lucy couldn't make out the words.
"Hey there's Mitch and Jessica." Sage said pointing out the two. The two were sitting at the ring toss failing miserably but laughing never the less.
"You will never guess who you just missed." Jessica said to Sage.
"Who?"
"Betty, you know my friend from North Shore. We just talked to her like five minutes ago." Mitch said.
"Really? Where is she?" Sage asked looking around.
"I think she went that way." Mitch said pointing to their left.
"Babe, you don't mind if I go say hi right."
"No, go ahead."
"Great." Sage gave her a quick kiss before disappearing into the crowd. Lucy was going to wait by the ring toss but after some time had passed she got bored and went to look for Sage. Instead she ran into Erza.
"Hey, did Natsu find you?" She asked.
"Natsu? No, I haven't seen him since we got here." Lucy said.
"I ran into him not so long ago and he was trying to find you."
"I'll run into him sooner or later."
"I want to talk to you." Erza said suddenly serious. "You and Sage, are you back together?"
"Oh, that. Kind of, I guess. I gave him another chance."
"Are you sure that was a smart move? I know I should be the last one lecturing you about this, given my relationship with Jellal, but I just don't trust Sage. And a lot of the others agree with me."
"I think I should give him the benefit of the doubt. Everyone deserves a second chance. You gave Jellal a second chance."
"Yes, but Jellal and I are childhood friends, it was months before I was ready to trust him again and I lo….really care about him. How many of those things do you and Sage have?"
Lucy didn't answer because she knew they didn't have any. She wasn't even sure of her feelings, had she made a mistake?
"Look, it's up to you if you want to get back with him. But we just don't want to see you get hurt again." Erza said placing a hand on Lucy's shoulder.
"I know…" She decided she needed to talk with Sage. Really talk with him. "Thanks for the concern Erza." Lucy said heading off into the crowds. She looked was a solid twenty minutes when she ran into Mitch and Jessica again.
"Sage took off." Mitch said. "He said his stomach felt weird so he headed home. He told me to tell you he's sorry and to enjoy the night with your friends."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I wonder if it was something he ate. But we had all the same stuff and I feel fine." Lucy said. Mitch just shrugged. Lucy was going to look for Natsu when she thought better of it and decided to go check of Sage and see how he was. Near the entrance she ran into Levy and Gajeel.
"You're not leaving, are you?" Levy asked.
"Yeah, Sage went home sick, I'm going to check on him." Levy gave her a look but didn't say anything. Lucy waved good bye heading down the road towards the line of beach house. A cold breeze blew from the ocean making her shiver. She wished Natsu was here, he was always warm. She remember the moment earlier when she had woken up next to Natsu. He had felt so comfy and that moment when his lips had touched her skin…she shivered again, but not from the cold this time.
"Levy! Hey Levy! Gajeel!" Natsu pushed his way through the crowds towards the two.
"Natsu, what's up…oh my gosh! That is so cute!" Levy squealed when she saw the red stuffed dragon in his hands. "Where did you get it?"
"At the test your strength booth-"
"Oh, Gajeel can we go try to get one. It's so cute, I want one." Levy asked grabbing his hand. He blushed and looked away.
"Ahh…sure shrimp." He said.
"Hold up!" Natsu stopped them before they ran off. "I was looking for Lucy, have you seen her?"
"Yeah, she left a little a while ago. She went down to Sage's."
"Thanks." Natsu turned and started pushing his way through the crowds.
When Lucy got to his house there wasn't any lights on, which she found a little strange. She rang the bell and waited. After a couple minutes she rang the bell again. Was he sleeping? She was going to ring again when the door was suddenly ripped open.
"What?..Oh, hey Lucy. What's up babe?" He said quickly stepping outside and closing the door behind him. He only had on some boxers.
"Were you sleeping?" Lucy asked.
"Yes, yes I was. I was sleeping." He said quickly.
"I'm sorry to wake you, but Mitch said you weren't feeling well, so I came to see if you're okay."
"Aren't you just the sweetest?" He kissed her on the cheek. "I'm feeling way better. Thanks for dropping by. I'll see you later." He opened the door and stepped in.
"Wait? Aren't you going to invite me in?"
"No! I mean, I'm really tired." He said giving a wide yawn (a bit too wide to be a yawn), "But we'll talk later. Okay? Okay." He slammed the door in her face. She jumped a little.
"That was weird." She mumbled to herself. She walked slowly back out to the road. She was deciding on which way she should go when a yelled made her jump a foot in the air.
"LLLLLLUUUUUUCCCCCCCYYYYYYYY!"
She turned and saw Natsu speeding down the road. He was going to fast that he couldn't slow enough to stop, crashing right into her. They ended up in a bush, with Natsu's face pressed into Lucy's chest. She blushed violently. He groaned, the vibrations, made her feel were like a bolt of lightning coursing through her body. She gasped at the sensation.
"Oh, sorry Lu," He mumbled getting up. He held out a hand helping her up.
"Th-that's o-okay." She stuttered out. He ran a hand through her hair making her blush harder. "Wh-what are y-you doing?"
"You have some leaves in your hair."
"Oh…" She could help but enjoy the feeling of Natsu's fingers in her hair. It made shivers go down her spin. He stopped, with his hand still in her hair, at the nape of her neck. He gave her a grin that made her stomach twist.
"You look really nice." He said. She took a step back blushing. She stared at her feet.
"Is there a reason why you knocked me into a bush?" She asked unable to look at him.
"Oh right! I forgot…where is it?" He looked around. "Ha! Here we are. I got this for you." He held out a red dragon plushie. Lucy's jaw dropped when she saw it.
"You got this for me?"
"I just said that didn't I?" Natsu said with a laugh. Lucy took it from him still in shock.
"How…how did you know?" She asked.
"I happened to be near you when you ask Sage for it. I saw he couldn't win it for, so I decided I would try. It's funny, I actually rang the bell on my first try." He said scratching his nose. He was blushing. Natsu was blushing!
Lucy felt a warmth spread through her. He had won the dragon simply because he knew she wanted it. She felt a smile spread across her face.
"Natsu, thank you. I love it." She said softly. He grinned at her words.
"Do you want to go back to the carnival?" He asked locking his hands behind his head. She thought about it for a moment and decided that she didn't.
"How about we go for a walk on the beach?"
"I would like that."
They walked slowly, not really having a destination in mind. Lucy kept the dragon held against her chest.
After walking for while in silence Natsu suddenly stopped.
"Natsu are y…"
"Why are you back with him?" He asked a hard, almost harsh tone to his voice. Lucy gulped looking away from him out towards the water.
"Natsu…I'm not sure if I'm over him."
"Lucy, he hurt you. He cheated on you." Natsu gripped her shoulders turning her towards him.
"I know it's crazy, but I still care about him." She whispered. Natsu let a cry that sounded almost animalistic.
"Bull shit!" He snapped. "He doesn't deserve you. If I had you I would never do what he did. NEVER!"
Lucy was shocked at his words. She opened and closed her mouth several times but no sound came out. Natsu's expression changed and he let her go. "I…I mean if I had someone like you." He said quickly turning his back to her. "Just forget I said anything."
Lucy hugged him from behind. He placed his hands over hers. "Thanks Lucy…Let's head back to Fairy Tail."
"Yeah," She let him go and quickly wiped the corner of her eyes. They walked in silence. Lucy was going over in her head what Natsu had just said. Could Natsu…No, no way. Natsu was her best friend. That's all they were…friends. Right? She was so absorbed she didn't notice that there were two people on the patio until Natsu put his hand to stop her from walking.
"What…" She started to say but he held a finger to his lip pointing to the patio. She eyes grew wide when she saw them and realized they were kissing. Natsu pulled her behind two coconut trees. From here they could just hear they were saying.
"I missed you these past months." A male voice said.
"I know. I was counting the days until summer started." A girl said. Natsu and Lucy started a look, they both knew those voices. It was Mirajane and Fried.
"I was counting the minutes." Fried said bringing Mira's hand to his lips and kissing her fingers. Natsu and Lucy were covering their mouths to stifle their laughs. Mira didn't seem to think it was funny. She placed her hand against Fried's cheek. He leaned down and kissed her again. They stumbled inside never breaking the kiss.
Lucy and Natsu didn't move from their hiding place for a while. Lucy finally broke the silence.
"Something tells me that the rule that guys and girls have to sleep on separate floors isn't going to last much longer." She said.
"I bet by next week we'll be finding socks on doors." Natsu said laughing a little bit. They walked into the common room and won't surprised to find it empty.
"We probably don't want to go upstairs, unless we want to hear some suspicion sounds." Natsu said. Lucy hit him playfully for his comment. Natsu turned on the TV jumping over the back of the couch. Lucy sat down next him, curling her feet under her. She placed the dragon on her lap cuddling with it. Natsu flipped through the channels twice, and not finding anything good to watch flipped to a music channel. After a while more people started coming back. Gray and Juvia were the first. Gray was shirtless.
"What happened to your shirt?" Natsu asked.
"I lost it…"
"How could you lose a shirt?" Lucy asked.
"I don't know. It was on one moment, then gone." Gray said. Juvia was staring very intently at Gray's abs. Lucy swore she could see hearts in the girl's eyes. Gray joined them on the couch. Juvia didn't sit, instead opting to lean on the armrest looking at Gray. As more persons come in, very few went upstairs instead found a place in the common room. Someone got out a few cases of beer and sodas passing them around. Some had started dancing, like Cana, who was now on the counter dancing with…believe it or not…Laxus. How she got him to it, no one knew, but several people suspected the large number of empty beer bottles next to chair Laxus had been sitting on had something to do with it.
Sometime between one and two in the morning it turned from just everyone hanging around into a full blown party. Levy and Gajeel walked in when it was in full swing and the music they were playing probably could be heard down the street.
"Looks like you are having fun." Levy said in Lucy's ear. Lucy jumped. She had been dancing with Natsu.
"Yeah, kind of started a party." She yelled over the music.
"Look what Gajeel got me!" Levy said holding out a dragon like Lucy's, only it was grey.
"Natsu got me one just like that. Only mine is red."
"I know, after seeing Natsu with that one I asked Gajeel to get me one."
"Hey shrimp, you wanna dance?" Gajeel's gruff voice interrupted their conversation.
"Ahh, sure…" Levy said a little bemused. He took her hand and pulled her onto the coffee table. It was a wonder how they managed to get on, since Max and Laki were dancing on the table as well.
"That's not going to turn out well." Gray said. The words had barely left his mouth when there was a loud crack and the table broke. Levy landed on top of Gajeel. She blushed but it wasn't because everyone was laughing.
It wasn't until about five that most people headed off to bed, the others had passed out right there in the common room. Lucy collapsed into her bed pulling her dragon with her. She was out in seconds.
Didn't I tell you that you would like the chapter. Next time a certain 'trio' makes an appearance.
Nardragon~ until the next page.
