Day Two: Reunion

"Shhh," Natsu warned the blonde maiden. "You have to be quiet."

Lucy huffed at the dragon slayer, "I am being quiet." Despite her annoyance, she kept her volume at an all time low as she quickly walked through the forest.

The two companions had been tracking the dragon they saw over an hour ago. Lucy couldn't fathom how such a large creature could cover so much ground just by flying. Natsu was leading the way, claiming he could smell the dragon's scent.

The celestial wizard had no idea how he could possibly smell the dragon, but she didn't question him. Instead she followed behind closely, trying to avoid making noise so they could successfully sneak up on the beast.

"He's not much further," Natsu said in a boyish whisper. Lucy noted the smile on the dragon slayer's face. He looked giddy, and not at all in the foul mood she expected him to be. He had said before that he needed to give the creature a piece of his mind. To Lucy, that implied some type of physical violence, but the way he looked right now said differently.

Lucy decided to chalk it up to him being excited that he was finally going to run into the dragon. She felt the same way, but mainly she felt nervous. Her entire mission was about this beast, and she couldn't blow her chance to kill it. She wasn't sure she'd get another one.

They felt a harsh breeze sweep by them, and Natsu tensed, "damn it. He's moving again."

"Again?" They had already traveled a few miles, "what can we do to catch up?"

The pink haired man grimaced, "I'm not sure..." Then Lucy saw his expression brighten. "I have an idea, just don't make a sound," Natsu instructed.

Before Lucy could ask him why, Natsu's arms were around her body, and she was being lifted up. A small squeak slipped from her lips as her body became squished against his torso. He was cradling her in his arms bridal style.

"Hold on," Natsu said, and in the blink of an eye, he was taking off in a dead sprint.

Lucy clung to his torso, noticing the heat from his body, and the firm muscles hidden under tan skin. Her face flushed as she tucked her head under his chin, since it was the only way to block the painful wind that kept hitting her face.

The only noise Lucy heard was the wind. She was surprised that despite his running, Natsu wasn't making a sound. Not even a twig snapped as he jumped over debris and twisted around trees. The maiden wondered if this was a special skill that dragon slayers possessed, but she didn't ask since he told her not to make a sound.

Natsu moved so fast, the trees around her started to blur together as he increased his speed. She wanted to know why he didn't just do this in the first place, and she intended on voicing her question later, right now she had to focus on her attacks.

It was hard for her to think of which battle strategies she should use when her mind kept drifting to the sensation of Natsu's fingers clutching at her body. He made her feel protected, as well as embarrassed. She'd never been this close to a man before, and she would surely be punished if anyone at the church found out about her compromising position.

Her heart was pounding wildly, and she didn't know if she should blame the closeness of Natsu, or the anticipation of finally seeing the dragon up close.

Suddenly, Natsu stopped.

Lucy's ears were ringing from the change in her equilibrium. She didn't even have a chance to regain her composure before Natsu gently set her on her feet. The blonde stumbled a bit before warm hands settled on her waist to keep her still.

The maiden blushed from his bold action, and worked to shove his hands away from her body.

Natsu didn't seem to notice as he leaned in closer, his hot lips brushing against her soft cheek on their journey to her ear. "Quiet, he's here," he barely whispered.

Lucy's brown eyes widened in shock. The dragon was here? She waited until Natsu pulled away before giving him incredulous look, but he simply pointed towards the tree line.

The duo were at the edge of the forest, and Lucy could see the sun light shining through the gaps of trees. With careful steps, the two walked towards the exit.

The sun blurred her eyes, and it took a moment to make out exactly what she was seeing. They were now in a clearing, lush green grass-covered the land. Lucy noted a large, sparkling lake next to a red mountain.

Only upon further inspection did the maiden realize that was not a mountain at all. Instead of being made of stone, red and black scales adorned the large object.

She opened her mouth to speak, but a warm hand covered her lips. She looked over to Natsu, who was shaking his head.

'Oh right,' Lucy thought, they were supposed to be sneaking up on it.

The maiden followed his lead, watching as he took calculated steps towards the beast. 'Natsu must want to take it out while it's unaware.'

Lucy had prepared for a fight, but this would be a better option. They had less chances of getting hurt with a sneak attack, and hopefully the dragon slayer would pull through for her and do exactly as his title dictated.

They now stood close enough to the beast that she could see it expanding and deflating with every heavy breath it took. She could distinguish between it's belly and tail, but its head was facing away from them.

'This is it,' Lucy thought. 'All my hard work and training has led me to this moment...'

The blonde's hand grazed over her whip, and noticed that Natsu had yet to turn his fire magic on. 'What is he waiting for?'

Lucy decided she couldn't wait for her companion any longer. She had to take this beast down, with or without Natsu's help.

The celestial wizard's other hand grabbed for her pouch, thinking about which key she should use first. She decided that Taurus would be the best bet, and if things got bad, she could run over to the lake and summon Aquarius.

Lucy was about to snatch the golden bull's key from her pouch when a loud, booming voice came from her right.

"IGNEEL!"

The blonde maiden jumped away from Natsu, who was now running towards the dragon, who started to stir.

She watched in horror as the thing stretched itself out, revealing his face to the blonde. Her brown eyes doubled in size, and she suddenly lost the ability to move her body. This was the moment she'd been waiting for, but now she was frozen with fear.

The dragon's dark eyes took in the sight of the stranger, before flitting over to the pink haired dragon slayer, who was now climbing on his scaly back. The creature didn't look angry in the slightest, if anything he looked amused.

"How have you been?" The dragon's voice shook the very ground she stood on.

Natsu finally stopped, opting to sit on the dragon's shoulder. His smile was so genuine that it confused Lucy to the core. "I've been great! How 'bout you?"

The conversation between the dragon and dragon slayer soon faded into the background until the only thing Lucy could hear was her beating heart, pumping blood that was roaring in her ears. Slowly she started piecing things together.

Natsu called that dragon Igneel.

That dragon wasn't attacking them.

Natsu and that dragon seemed to know each other on a friendly level.

It all led Lucy to one terrible conclusion:

That dragon was not END.

Lucy closed her eyes. She just stood there, hands letting go of her weapons, and head tilting downward. She felt like a failure, because she had wasted a month of her time searching for a dragon she didn't need to find.

The maiden felt the slight prick in her eyes, letting her know her body was flooding with emotions, and the only way to regulate them was to let out some tears. However, she refused to cry. She wouldn't let these emotions escape and become useless.

No, she would instead harness them, and use them to fuel her hatred for END all the more.

'You can still do this Lucy... This is just... a set back... Yeah...' Convincing herself was not an easy task, and did little help to calm her down. She could feel herself spiraling into a void of hopelessness, and only realized where she was when she felt heat on her back.

The blonde opened her eyes, staring at the ground and smelling the fresh air blow by her. "Huh?" She mumbled to herself, remembering that she was in a clearing of the forest.

"You alright?" That all to familiar voice asked.

She glanced up, confirming that it belonged to Natsu. He looked worried, placing a comforting hand on her back while he asked again, "are you alright, Luce?"

"Y-yeah," she found her voice to be soft and weak. She hated feeling like this.

"Okay," Natsu said, but he looked unconvinced. "I wanted to introduce you to my dad."

"Your... Dad?" Lucy looked past Natsu to see that the large, red dragon was now standing on two legs.

Her heart dropped when she took in his incredible height. She's never seen something stand so tall, even the church where she was raised didn't reach that high. He was comparable to a mountain, and that just brought on more fear.

"It's alright," the pink haired man said, noticing her slight trembling. "He's not gonna hurt ya."

Natsu stepped to the side to look up at the dragon. "Igneel, this is Lucy. She's my friend who helped me look for you," Natsu looked between the blonde and the beast.

Lucy flinched when the dragon spoke, "it's a pleasure to meet you Lucy. I trust Natsu hasn't been a bother?"

The vibrations from his voice traveled through the ground and up her body. All she could do was stare at the massive creature with an awed expression.

"Yo," Natsu said, waving his hand in front of her face. "You still there?"

"I-I..." The blonde blinked rapidly to clear her head, "I need to go sit down..."

"Are you sure?" The pink haired man frowned when he noticed Lucy's vacant eyes.

"Yes," she nodded, but her feet weren't moving.

"I'll be right back Igneel," Natsu assured before wrapping a warm arm around her shoulders. He eased her out of her standing position until her feet slowly carried her towards the lake.

The dragon slayer was worried that Lucy might be feeling ill, but he shook it off, knowing that she was probably just overwhelmed. Most people have similar reactions when they see a dragon for the first time.

Still, that only made Natsu more curious. She was looking for a dragon, but she never really said why. He assumed she just wanted to see one because truthfully, everyone wanted to see one at least once in their lifetime.

He thought it was a little cute, that once she saw one she froze up. It was amusing to see her scared of the gentle giant, because that's what Igneel was. He would never harm her, or anyone else for that matter, but clearly Lucy thought he might.

Of course Igneel had the ability to cause a lot of trouble, but the dragon opted to spending his life traveling from forest to forest in peace. Occasionally the dragon could be found wandering around mountains, but Natsu's red-scaled father preferred the wooded areas.

Natsu stopped when they reached the edge of the lake, far enough so she could feel comfortable, but not so far that he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her. He helped her sit down, realizing the initial shock still hadn't worn off.

"Hey," the man said, using his thumb to rub circles on her delicate hand. "Everything's alright, if you need anything I'll be right over there. I promise you're safe, he's friendly."

Lucy just nodded, she had only heard half of what he said because her mind was switching between running a mile a minute, to nothing at all. It was really hard for other parts of her body to function when her brain wasn't at full capacity.

She vaguely recalled Natsu placing a soft kiss to her hand before he left her by the lake. She looked down at the clear water, easily seeing fish swim peacefully by the edge.

The blonde took a deep breath when she finally found a balance in her mind. Now the damn thing was only jogging through her thoughts, and she could control her body again. Shock had worn off, and now she had to deal with her future.

For the first time in a while, Lucy didn't know what to do.


While Natsu was enjoying his reunion with the dragon known as Igneel, Lucy could be found sitting at the edge of the lake. Her legs were swishing through the water as she contemplated her next move.

She had spent far longer than she wanted trying to track down the dragon, only to find out it wasn't the one she was looking for after all. In hindsight she supposed it was her own fault. In all this time she could have brought up the name of the dragon she was trying to kill, but there was no use dwelling over it now.

The blonde had wasted a lot of time, and didn't know how to make up for it. She could always ask the dragon over there if he knew where END would be, but she was sure he wouldn't give up the location of another dragon if he knew it. To him, she was probably an outsider, not worthy of his trust.

She might be able to convince Natsu to ask Igneel, but it seemed rude to do that. Besides, it was time she cut ties with him. He found what he was looking for, so there was no reason for him to tag along with her on her wild goose chase. Although wild dragon chase seemed more accurate.

She looked over to her bag that Natsu must have set beside her. Inside contained part of the horn of END. She wanted to laugh, knowing now that the dragon she sought out had to be much smaller than Igneel.

Not only were Igneel's horns completely there, they were also huge. The chunk she had was much smaller, so it had to belong to a tiny dragon. That only made her more confused, since she always pictured the beast as giant. Especially since that's what the church officials told her. They said END was a large dragon, but there was no way.

She decided not to think about it right now.

Lucy grabbed her bag and stood up. She debated giving Natsu a proper goodbye, but decided against it. She had already become far to attached to the dragon slayer, and didn't want to go through the potential pain of losing the closest friend she'd had since her parents were killed.

Plus she was still embarrassed about their almost kiss, and that was enough of a reason to send her packing. She was not supposed to even entertain such thoughts, and here she was about to willingly kiss a man she just met! She must be delirious to think anything good could come out of these crazy ideas.

The maiden took one long, last look at the pink haired man. He was sitting on the dragon's shoulder, and she could faintly hear the sound of his laughter. It was a nice way to say goodbye, and at least she got to hear him laugh again.

With a deep sigh, Lucy turned away, walking back into the forest until she disappeared behind the trees.


It had been a few hours since Lucy left Natsu and Igneel. This was the longest she'd been away from the dragon slayer since they teamed up, and she assumed it meant he was finally letting her go. What should have been a comfort, was actually a burden.

She disliked being away from the pyro, and thought more often than not about turning around and trying to find him again. She never did though, always moving forward and not looking back.

It was silly to think things would work out so well for her. They hadn't in the past, so why start now? She only had one mission in life, and that was to slay the dragon that slaughtered her parents. All other things were pointless, which included her affections for the pink haired man.

Lucy saw that the sun was still high in the sky, and she had plenty of time before it became dark. Of course she didn't exactly know where she was, so she didn't know if she should walk faster to get to the nearest town, or go a different direction because she was going the wrong way.

Natsu had been guiding them for the majority of their journey, so she hadn't even bothered using her map in weeks. She doubted it would be of much use now, but she decided to try anyway.

Just as she thought, it looked as though it could have been in another language. She had no idea where she might be, and could only use the knowledge that she had been near a lake... hours ago.

She felt utterly hopeless.

"Might as well take a break," the blonde mumbled to herself as she saw a nice, smooth rock to sit on. It was large, and thankfully in the shade, so it didn't burn her bottom when she sat down.

"Let's see," she studied the map more. Maybe now that she was resting, she could think clearly.

Her focus was completely on the map, so she didn't hear the footsteps approaching behind her.

"Whatcha doing?" A deep voice came sounded in her ear.

Lucy screamed, jumping off the rock and instinctively grabbing her whip. She cracked it towards the shadowy figure, but the bastard was quicker. They grabbed the whip and started tugging on it, bringing her closer to the darkness.

"Fine! Keep it!" She let go of her weapon, seeing the stranger stumble backwards.

"Open! Gate of the golden bull!" Lucy pulled out the golden key to summon her strongest spirit. "Taurus!"

"Mooooo!" The humanoid bull appeared, battle axe already in his hands and ready for a fight.

"I'll take care of him miss Luuuuuuucy!" Her spirit ran towards the figure, but it jumped high in the air.

Blocking the sun with its body, Lucy couldn't see what the stranger was doing. She planted her feet firmly on the ground, ready to make a move. "Taurus! Hit it with your axe!"

The bull nodded, throwing his battle axe in the air to throw off their opponent.

"Ah, shit!"

Lucy was just about to smirk that the attack landed, before realizing that she recognized that voice.

"Oh no," she whispered to herself, and watched in horror as the rest of the scene took place in slow motion.

Taurus's axe fell to the ground, the sharp blade digging deep into the dirt. Blood splattered on the ground, covering the weapon and dead leaves.

The bull was about to grab his weapon when a swift kick to the side of his head knocked him unconscious. Her spirit vanished to the celestial world where he would get a chance to rest.

As if to confirm her suspicions, the pink haired man came out of the shadows. His right arm was covered in blood, and he wore a surprisingly cheerful smile on his face, despite the obvious pain he must be in.

"W-wh..." Lucy wasn't sure what she would even say. She hadn't expected Natsu to be the mystery attacker. If she did she never would have called out a spirit, because now she injured the dragon slayer and he now knew for a fact she was a wizard who used celestial magic.

She gazed at his face, looking for any trace of anger, but found none in his dark green eyes.

"Well," Natsu said, excitement laced in his voice. "What are you waiting for? Call another one out!"

"Huh?" The blonde deadpanned. Out of all the things he could have possibly said, that was not one she expected.

"Call another one out! Maybe one a little stronger, that guy was way to easy to take out," the dragon slayer said, oblivious to the scowl forming on her face.

"I'm not going to call out my friends just for you to fight them!" She was seething at the idea of using her spirits as some kind of fighting game.

"Whoa, chill out," Natsu lifted up his undamaged arm to show he meant her no harm. "I just wanted to spar with them. It's been a while since I've had a good fight." It was true, the dragon slayer was itching for some type of battle. Fairy Tail wizards weren't known for just sitting around -with the exception of his guild mate named Nab, but that's another story for another day.

She huffed in response, placing Taurus's key back in her pouch. The woman didn't bother calling another spirit out, knowing it would be pointless to send them to fight against Natsu. It would literally accomplish nothing.

"Oh don't be like that," Natsu laughed, and Lucy found herself leaning in towards the pleasant sound.

"Look, if you don't want to fight that's fine," the dragon slayer said before sitting down on her rock. He finally brought his attention over to his injured arm.

Blood still flowed from the deep cut on his bicep, but he didn't seem to notice. What shocked Lucy more was that it looked like it had gotten smaller since the last time she saw it.

Finally snapping out of her stupor, she walked over to her bag and grabbed some medical tape. She was pretty good at dressing wounds, and was sure she'd do a good job again.

"I wouldn't bother if I were you," Natsu said when he stole a glance at the blonde.

She froze under his gaze, "a-and why's that?"

"Look for yourself."

The female raised a brow in confusion, but looked over at his arm anyways. Her mouth parted as she watched with a troubled mind, his wound was healing itself. Just in the time it took her to get to her bag, the cut had shrunk half its size.

"How did you...?" Lucy was stunned.

He shrugged, which was not a valid answer for the maiden. She gave him a rude glare, which made him laugh. "It's just a perk I have," he said it like it was obvious.

"Do all dragon slayers have that perk?" She asked, becoming more wary of the power these wizards seemed to hold. Accelerated healing would definitely pose a problem if she decided to talk to the church officials about her discovery.

"Er, not exactly," Natsu said, but didn't elaborate on the subject. "So when were you gonna tell me you were a wizard?"

"Never," she said a bit to quick, and realized she might have hurt his feelings based on the way his smile faltered.

"Oh."

"Sorry," she found herself actually apologetic about keeping that fact away from him.

"Not like it matters anyways," Natsu huffed, trying to brush off the implied insult she gave him. "I already knew you were a wizard."

"You did? How?" She wasn't sure she believed him, but she was curious to see what kind of answer he could come up with. It was sure to be entertaining -if any of their past conversations were an indication of how wild his imagination was.

The dragon slayer just squinted his eyes. "I can feel your magic energy," he said plainly. "Can't you feel my magic?"

"I guess I did notice it when we first met... But I thought it was something only I could do," Lucy said honestly. "You're the first wizard I've been around since-" She stopped herself because she almost revealed her mother was also a wizard.

"First wizard since what?" Natsu asked, but after a few moments of silence he realized she wasn't going to spill the details. "Anyways, wizards give off different levels of magic energy depending on how strong their magic is. I can tell you hold a good amount of power."

"You can," she breathed, "why didn't you say anything earlier."

The dragon slayer just shrugged, "figured you wanted to keep it a secret."

"Thanks," Lucy said, actually meaning it. She was surprised he would respect her wishes like that, especially since he'd been trying to fish for information about her for weeks now. He could have easily brought that up to make her slip up, but he hadn't until now.

The blonde put the medical wrap back in her bag, then pulled out a small towel. "It's not the best, but it'll do until you can get to some water to wash this off," she rubbed the cloth over his blood, soaking it up in the hopes of preventing it from drying on his skin. The wound was already completely healed, and she was astonished that something like that was even possible.

"So you gonna tell me where you're from now?" Natsu asked, a cheeky grin on his face.

"I don't think so," though she honestly didn't know if it'd be the worst idea in the world to at least tell him a little about where she was raised. She ultimately decided against it, fear being the prime feeling that led her to stick with 'no'.

"That's fine," the pink haired male sighed.

When Lucy was done cleaning up most of the blood, she asked him to burn it. She didn't want to liter, but she also didn't want to bring it with her since it was contaminated now and had little chance of being cleaned thoroughly.

The pyro jumped at the chance to set something on fire, his excitement grew as it lit up in a brilliant flame. His fire was used for fighting, but lately all he'd been using it for was discarding trash, cooking, and making campfires. He really, really wanted a fight.

"Do you want to go with me to Fairy Tail?" Natsu asked without much thought. He knew for a fact he could find multiple people to challenge to battle with him, and it seemed like a good idea to get Lucy more socialized. He had a feeling she lacked that from where ever she came from.

"Wh-what? No, I don't want to go there," Lucy had no intentions of deviating from her mission, and a trip to his wizard's guild would no doubt put her even further behind. She originally hoped to be done with her mission before two months had passed, but that didn't look likely.

The dragon slayer pouted, "why not? We already found the dragon. Let's go have some fun now."

The blonde sighed, taking a seat on a rather jagged rock. 'Stupid Natsu for taking my good rock!'

She thought for a few moments before deciding to tell him about her mission. "That wasn't the dragon I'm looking for," Lucy finally said after getting over her annoyance that her original seat was unavailable.

"Really? I thought for sure Igneel would have been him. There's not a whole lot of dragons around," Natsu thought to himself, wondering who she could be searching for. "Who are you looking for?"

The holy maiden looked down at the dirt, avoiding any eye contact she could have with the pink haired man. "His name is END."

Natsu's body tensed, having been so long since he'd heard that name. "Is that so?" He tried to sound casual, hoping Lucy wouldn't catch anything from his tone.

"Yeah," the blonde finally looked up, her brown eyes boring into his own. "He's a demonic dragon, and my mission is to kill him."

The man's mouth fell open as his eyes widened. Red flakes danced in his right eye long enough for Lucy to confirm it was really happening, and not just her imagination. She assumed it had something to do with his type of magic, but chose not to comment on it in case it was a sensitive subject to him.

If there was one word Lucy had to describe Natsu as right now, she would guess it'd be afraid. His fingers were twitching, beads of sweat were forming on his forehead, and there was a nervous twitch in his eye.

"Have you heard of him?" The blonde asked, wondering why he was having such a strong reaction to what she just said. She figured it was because he didn't expect her to actually be able to kill a dragon, but she decided she might as well ask him just in case.

Slowly, the pyro nodded, "I have..." He looked troubled, and Lucy wondered what was going on in that thick skull of his.

"I didn't think he was a bad guy though..." Natsu seemed conflicted, though the female didn't know why. "What'd he do to earn a death sentence?"

The dragon slayer saw the way her brown eyes dulled. He had crossed a line somehow, but he wasn't letting up. This woman wanted to end the dragon's life, and he had no idea why.

Finally her lips parted, and a dreadful sentence left her mouth, "he killed my parents."

'LIES!'

Natsu's mind screamed, 'lies, lies, lies!'

He knew for a fact that END had never killed anyone, let alone this woman's parents. She must be wrong, there's no way. Natsu would know if END killed someone, because END was him.

Sure he didn't use that name often, and it was just what he called himself when he was in a certain transformation. Few dragon slayers had the capability of transforming into dragons, but Natsu was special. He had demon blood running through his veins, and he could unlock a special transformation that mixed his dragon side with his demonic side.

But just because he was part demon didn't mean he was a killer! He'd never even think of hurting someone like that. There had to be a mistake.

"Is there a chance you could be wrong?" He held out hope that she might be able to see past the lie.

"No," Lucy said, crushing his small shred of hope. "I'm absolutely sure, he has to be stopped."

Natsu didn't understand why she thought he killed her parents. He'd never even seen this girl before a month ago, so why does she have a vindictive goal. Questions swirled in his head, all involving what led her down this path. He knew she wouldn't tell him even if he asked, since Lucy held her secrets close.

"I see..." Natsu finally said to break the silence. "And you're not going to give up until he's dead?"

Lucy was surprised by what he said. He didn't go straight to doubting her abilities to slay a dragon, he just asked if she was going to give up. "I can't give up. I have to kill him."

"Why do you have to kill him?" The dragon slayer couldn't fathom why she would want to harm him. He wondered who told her those horrible lies to brainwash her into thinking he was evil, or maybe she saw something and assumed it was him? He wasn't sure, and that troubled him.

"Did you not hear me? He killed my parents, and countless others. He needs to be put down before he hurts more innocent lives," Lucy reasoned. She sensed that Natsu wanted to defend the vile creature, though he didn't outright say it. She hoped she was just imagining it.

Natsu knew she already had her mind made up. He was sure if he told her the truth, that he was END, that she'd try to kill him. In a normal fight he could defeat her, she'd give him a run for his money, but in the end he knew he'd be victorious.

Unfortunately for him, this wasn't a normal fight.

If they were to go all out now, and actually fight for blood, he'd lose. There was no way he'd be able to hurt her, because he loved her. He knew it was stupid to fall in love with someone he barely knew, but his heart was absolute.

In the past month Natsu saw the little clues that told him she was a good person. She was kind, funny, and apparently extremely loyal.

He had fallen for the blonde woman, hard.

No, he couldn't kill her.

Natsu had three options.

He could try to fight, and end up dying by her hands. He'd give her life the purpose she was obviously looking for, but he really had no intentions on dying any time soon. He still had a lot of stuff he wanted to do with his life, and ending it now was just out of the question.

He could run away and avoid the maiden for the rest of his life. That was the safest choice. Sure he'd feel guilty for her wasting the rest of her life in search for a dragon she was never going to find, but it'd be better than dying.

Although the thought of leaving Lucy caused a pang in his chest. He didn't want to leave her, in fact he wanted to stay by her side, even after knowing her plans of slaying him.

Plus, Natsu Dragneel doesn't run away, it's just not who he is.

He decided to go with his third choice. He let out a sigh before throwing a fake smile on his face. "So where are we going next?"

"Huh?" Lucy looked surprised. "You already found your dragon. Why would you want to go anywhere with me?"

"Because," Natsu said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "I wanna be around you."

The maiden's cheeks blushed a nice scarlet red. She had to look away to calm her racing heart. It throbbed painfully, and she feared for her health. It certainly didn't seem normal to go through this so often, but it kept happening the more time she spent with the dragon slayer.

Natsu watched her, and decided he liked seeing Lucy flustered. She looked adorable, and he couldn't wait to poke fun at her. He could feel his own face heating up, but he really didn't mind. He had been honest with her by saying he wanted to be around her. He was willing to pretend to help her find END in order to spend more time with Lucy, even if she ended up angry if she found out the truth.

However, Natsu had no intentions on her finding out the truth. Unless there was someway he could also convince her that he truly wasn't a bad guy, he planned on keeping his secret away from the blonde.

Natsu wanted to be near her. He felt drawn to her, like their was an invisible string attached to his heart that she held. She clearly wasn't aware of the hold she had over the dragon slayer, and he intended on keeping it that way. She seemed a little too pure to be playing around with the dragon, so he'd try to be on his best behavior while around her.

He had slipped up earlier when he tried to kiss her, so he'd be better from now on. After finding out her mission, he still felt the same about her. He loved her, but she didn't need to know that.

"Shouldn't you go back to Igneel?" Lucy's voice cut through his thoughts.

Natsu smiled warmly at her, "nah, I told him I was gonna go find you. 'Sides, he's staying there for a while in case I need to meet up with him later. There's no rush to get back."

"Oh," the maiden nodded. "Very well, if you still want to accompany me then I won't stop you." She was secretly happy he wanted to be with her.

The dragon slayer held back a snort as he grinned. Lucy had tried to run away from him four times already, yet now he was allowed to tag along. She certainly was a weird girl.

But that was just it...

Natsu loved weird.


Thank you for reading!

Thank you for all the favs/follows! And thank you to those who reviewed: fanficlove2014, Guest, AnimeArmorFreak, Crimsonlink310, & mikethepokemaster.

See you tomorrow with Day Three: Admiration