(A/N) Well everyone here comes Chapter Four! Thank you to all of you who have read so far! I'm glad you like it!
-That Morning-
When morning came, Natsu slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he did was look down at the floor, and there was Lucy asleep next to him still. He smiled softly and got up, petting Happy as he did. He walked onto the balcony to stare out at the morning. They had a long day ahead of them: they had to go to the client's house and help him clean house and find his keys. Then they had a long day's ride ahead of them to the rest stop that came before Sunōfurēku town. Just the idea of having to sit in the cart for hours made him want to barf. Then his thoughts quickly shifted to Lucy and last night. His dragon hearing had allowed him to hear her as soon as she came into the room. However he was still so embarrassed about not telling her how he felt that he hadn't sat up and just pretended to sleep. Then she had lied down on the floor next to him, not wanting to sleep in the bed without him. Then, she had kissed him. His mind raced wondering what it all meant. 'No sense dwelling on it; just gonna drive myself crazy. Let's just get going already' he thought to himself as he went back inside.
When he came back inside, the first thing he noticed was that Lucy was no longer on the floor next to the couch. Then he heard the sound of rushing water and felt the sticky moisture of steam in the air. 'Should've known the first thing she would do is take a shower' He thought to himself. Then Natsu stood in the room, debating for a moment on leaving to grab breakfast or staying and waiting for Lucy. He soon decided to just sit on the edge of the bed and wait for Lucy. Soon, a few minutes turned into almost half an hour and Natsu had grown bored of making the candles light and extinguish with his magic. 'Damn Luce, how long does it take you to clean yourself?'
He had just started to lie down on the bed when his dragon hearing picked up the faintest clicking sound; the sound of a latch leaving a doorway. He jumped up excited that Lucy was finally done. He jumped up to run to her when all of a sudden-.
"AHHH WHAT THE HELL NATSU?!" Lucy screamed.
"What Luce? What's wrong?"
"Well when I got up you weren't in the room so I had thought you went down to breakfast. That's why I didn't bring the towel into the bathroom with me! I left it on the bed!"
That was when it finally hit Natsu. Lucy was standing in front of him naked. "WHAT THE HELL LUCY! STOP STANDING THERE AND COVER YOURSELF ALREADY! YOU PERVERT"
"PERVERT? YOU'RE THE ONE THAT'S STILL STANDING THERE LOOKING! YOU'RE THE PERVERT!"
He quickly pulled off his vest and wrapped it around her then pulled off his scarf and tried to cover her some more. Then he walked over to the bed and grabbed the towel it turned out he had been lying on and threw it to her. Finally he hopped onto the couch and threw a pillow over his head so he couldn't peek.
Lucy sighed blushing slightly, 'A gentleman as always in his own special way.' She thought to herself. She pulled off Natsu's vest and scarf; still slightly startled he had taken it off. He never took it off, no matter what. She shook her head and began drying off. Once she began drying off her hair, she noticed something. Her whole body, and the towel, smelled like Natsu. She had never really noticed his smell before, but now that it was all she could smell, it really struck her. It was, unsurprisingly, a warm smell; but far more than just that. There was a slight scent of charcoal; like a stick that had been burned all the way to ash. And the warm scent of cinnamon. And part of the scent, could only be described as the smell of heat. There were no other words for it. After deeply breathing in the scent, she quickly got dressed then grabbed Natsu by his spiky pink hair. "Come on hot head, let's go get some breakfast," She said smiling. He shot back his big goofy grin and they were off.
The day started off with only a slight hitch, that hitch being they were no longer allowed back in that hotel. The weirdest part is no one knew exactly what happened. Lucy felt a strange brushing feeling then all of a sudden Natsu had sent a guy flying through the wall with a pissed look in his eyes. Everyone asked yet he wouldn't explain what happened. So they finally gave up and headed off to the clients house.
They arrived at the gates of a huge mansion. "Dang no wonder he can't find his keys," Lucy said gasping at the size of the house. "If I lost my keys I would never find them there."
"Well let's get to work!" Natsu said popping his knuckles as he walked towards the gate. All of a sudden Erza grabbed him by the back of the neck.
"Remember Natsu, this is a searching mission. Not a 'destroy everything you see until we find what we're looking for' mission." Erza said squeezing his neck.
"Aye sir!" Natsu choked out gasping for air as Erza finally let him go.
"Good now let's go."
As they arrived at the gate it slowly swung open and they entered. They walked along a winding path that led up to the large mansion, flanked on both sides by beautiful emerald green grass that looked like it had just been recently cut. When they finally made it to the door Lucy walked up and knocked. Soon an elderly man with graying hair opened the door. "Hello there young ones. How may I help you?"
Lucy spoke up and said, "We're Fairy Tail wizards. We came about the job request to help look for some keys. Are you Mr. Gowan?"
"No young lady I am his butler Hidan. I shall let the master know you are here." Then there was a flash of light and Capricorn appeared beside them all.
"You're a butler? Really? I just happen to be the personal butler for the Heartfilia family!"
"Capricorn! Now is not the time!"
So they entered the main parlor while Hidan went to fetch Mr. Gowan. A few moments later he came back with a tired look on his face as if he hadn't slept in days. "Please ignore the mess, I have been so desperate to find these keys and I've been tearing the house apart searching for them!"
They looked around and noticed everything. All the turned over bookshelves, the tables that had been flipped and thrown, and all the chairs and other furniture that lay in piles around the room.
"If you don't mind me asking sir, what is so important about these keys?" Lucy asked.
"Well I am a Celestial Spirit mage and I lost my Spirit Keys! None of them are particularly powerful; I just have a few as pets and a few as friends. So I've been awfully lonely trying to find my keys so I can see my friends again."
Lucy grabbed a key from her ring and said, "Open Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" In a flash of light, a pink haired girl in a French maid outfit appeared standing in front of all of them.
"Yes Princess? Did I do something wrong? Is it time for punishment?" Virgo questioned bending over.
"NO VIRGO! No punishment." Lucy screamed! "We need your help cleaning up this house to find this man's keys. Can you help us?"
"Of course Princess!"
"Requip!" With a flash of light Erza appeared next to all of them in a maid's outfit.
"What do you think you're doing Erza?" Virgo asked.
"Just getting into the cleaning spirit of course." Erza replied grinning.
"Oh no, no, no," Virgo scolded. "There is only enough room in this house for one French Maid."
"Then bring it on spirit girl!" Erza taunted.
Erza held out her hand and a bladed feather duster appeared in her hand. As Virgo swung her chains at Erza she easily batted them away with her sword, feather duster thingy. As Erza went to attack, Virgo quickly burrowed underground avoiding it. This soon continued throughout the house. Erza and Virgo would trade blows back and forth, some landing hits and others just missing and going through the walls.
"Come on you French Bitch!" Erza screamed. "I'll show you not to mess with the Fairy Queen!" Erza Requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor and sent sword after sword flying after Virgo.
"And you think you can step up to a Celestial Spirit? I can't die! Bring it!" Virgo yelled back as she sent sword after sword flying into the walls. Soon the entire house was filled with the sounds of smashing plaster as the walls broke apart from the cracks formed in the fight.
"Anything yet Virgin? I mean Virgo?" Erza taunted.
"Nope not yet you flaming slut. I mean flaming warrior!"
"Slut?! I have loved only one man! And he still has yet to kiss me, let alone touch me! It's on now!"
The battle intensified as Erza requipped from armor to armor. One second swords would be flying from her Heaven's Wheel armor and next thing there would be flames from her Flame Empress armor, followed up by a tsunami of water from her Sea Empress armor.
Every strike she tried however, would be quickly dodged by Virgo with either her chains or her drilling through the walls and floors. It wasn't long before the house began to shake from the weakening of the structure and the force of the battle. 'No!' Lucy thought to herself. 'This is going to come out of my reward money!'
"Virgo enough!" Lucy yelled. "You're destroying the house!" And with that, Lucy closed Virgo's gate and she disappeared in a flash of light.
"Lucy! What were you thinking? We were doing that on purpose! By crashing through the house we could check the rooms faster!" Erza screamed.
"Oh yeah? Check the house by destroying it until we have to lose our money to fix it? Brilliant plan Erza." Lucy said her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"What was that Blondie? Do you want to know what happens to people that question my plans?"
Erza glared at Lucy and threw a punch at her full force. Just before it made contact though, Natsu grabbed it absorbing the blow with his hand. "Wow Erza, you must be losing your touch. I haven't felt a punch that weak since we were kids." Natsu taunted.
"What was that Natsu?" Erza flung another punch straight at Natsu's head, but he grabbed her fist again and slowly twisted her arm.
"Now Erza, we can continue this all day, or we can stop arguing and just find the keys." Natsu said in a calm yet dangerous voice.
Erza stared at Natsu and just nodded unable to speak. As he walked away she looked at Lucy and whispered, "Natsu has never stood up to me like that. Ever. Not for anyone or anything. Lucy, I think Natsu really cares about you. Or he would never stand up to me like that."
Lucy considered it for a moment before shrugging it off. "Don't be ridiculous Erza. He's my best friend. We're best friends. There is no way I love Natsu."
"Uhm I said he loves you. Not the other way around."
Lucy blushed deeply, her whole face going dark red. "I just meant uhm, I guess, I, uhm, I just got confused was all!"
Erza giggled softly. "Okay Lucy, let's just get back to work. I'm sorry about attacking you." With that Erza and Lucy went separate ways, Erza lightly laughing to herself. 'You may not want to admit it Lucy,' She thought to herself. 'But I can read it all over your face. And I could tell by Natsu's reaction as well. You two love each other. Just stop trying to hide your feelings. It only causes problems.' She would later come to regret that thought. Because she never imagined just how bad things would become.
(A/N) You know how it goes! Leave a review and tell me what you think! The next chapter will end the key search and then things start getting really good! Get ready everyone :)