Chapter 3

~#~

Lucy spent the next three days in bed. She couldn't get that man out of her head and it scared her to death. Every time she closed her eyes, his ugly face would show itself and she couldn't catch a wink of sleep at night.

Work had called countless times and Lucy ignored them. She knew they would be wondering where she was and she would most probably be fired, however she couldn't bring herself to leave the comfort of her own bed.

Even when she heard footsteps in her living room, Lucy ignored them because she was truck with fear. "It won't be anyone. Just my imagination." She would tell herself while she snuggled deeper into to silk sheets.

~#~

Another day goes by and Lucy got a whiff of her armpits and decided it was time to move. The noise her stomach was making reminded her of a dying whale. So it was also time to eat and that prioritised over cleanliness.

As Lucy stepped out of her bed onto the smooth cold floor she heard a groan come from her living room. The blonde froze with one foot on the floor and the other kneeled in her bed. She took a deep breath inwards and brought her other foot onto the floor.

A cold draft blew up her pink silk pyjama shorts as Lucy opened the heavy door slowly and peaked around it. She bravely wondered into her cold apartment.

As she rounded the corner into her living room she saw it. A bundle of pink locks connected to a toned semi-naked man who was snoring away contently on her very expensive corner sofa.

Lucy screeched at the sight and picked up the closest thing to her to use as a weapon. A vase full of dead magnolias.

"W-what do you want?!" Lucy shouted as she edged closer to her unwanted guest, "And how long have you been there?!"

A mumble erupted from Natsu's open mouth. To Lucy, it sounded like he was saying something to her. So she moved a little closer ad lowered her head to his level.

"W-what did you say?" Lucy asked as she took another tiny step towards the sofa.

"Mrrrrmm, hue hue…"

"Natsu..?"

"Blurg, mrmm…" Natsu's mouth moved slightly in-between snores when he mumbled.

"I SAID WHAT DO YOU WANT!?" Lucy shouted into the man's ear and he woke up and jumped around six feet in the air and fell off the back of the sofa.

As he jumped, Lucy also jumped and spilt the water from her make-shift weapon all over herself and her apartments laminate floor.

"LUCY!" A spiky mess of hair and a very large grin, were plastered onto Natsu's head as he jumped up from behind the sofa and ran over to the blonde.

"G-get away from me!" Lucy stuttered as his face was only an inch away from hers, "I barely know who you are and why are you in my apartment?!"

Lucy held up the vase defensively above her head and Natsu replied,

"I was worried about you, so I followed you home and got in through your open window." He grinned at her as he pointed to her large windows that looked over the large city.

Lucy mentally noted to remember to ALWAYS lock her windows to prevent this form happening in the future.

"You climbed up here?" Lucy asked as she looked the man up and down. He was dressed in similar clothes to what he was wearing a few days ago. Long khaki shorts and a plain white wife-beater.

"Yup." He beamed out.

"T-this is the seventh floor!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Well done Luce, you know what floor you live on!" Natsu slapped his hands on her shoulders, "It was kinda hard to find out what floor it was, but I found it eventually. Oh that reminds me! I need to apologize to your neighbours!"

Lucy stood there. Utterly speechless. This was crazy and she literally didn't know how to handle it. So she slumped down to the floor, out of Natsu's grasp and she brought her hands up to her face a breathed slowly.

"Lucy?" Natsu leaned down to her level. But Lucy just waved him away, "I'll go make some food." He said and walked away.

Lucy stood up and wiped away the tears she didn't know were falling. She then turned on her heels towards the bathroom. It felt odd to her that some random man she didn't really know was making himself at home in her apartment, however she didn't feel like Natsu was a threat. Lucy was quite happy when she saw the collection of pink hair on her sofa and kindly thanked the gods that it was him, since he had saved her a few days ago.

The blonde turned the shower on a quickly undressed. The hot water felt like heaven on her unwashed skin and Lucy really had forgotten how much she appreciated being clean. The bathroom quickly fogged up as she finally finished washing her skin and hair with her best soaps.

"I finally have someone of the opposite sex in my apartment; I might as well smell nice." Lucy said under her breath and giggled slightly at how she was blushing slightly at the thought of Natsu in the other room.

Lucy quickly towel dried herself and started on her hair, she stood naked in front of her large mirror and ran the towel through her hair when suddenly,

"Hey, Luce! Food is ready!" Natsu came barging into the bathroom with his always suited grin, plastered onto his face.

"AHH! GET OUT!" Lucy did her best to cover her curvaceous body with the small towel she had in her hands.

Natsu didn't even blush when he saw Lucy, however it was a different matter for her. Lucy face and chest (which Natsu has full view of) were burning red. They stared at each other for a while and Lucy waited for the pink haired fool to realise what he had walked in on, but he didn't.

Natsu pouted and said,

"Okay, well you did have to be so mean about me coming to tell you that the food is ready." He turned on his heels and walked out.

Lucy threw he arms up in the air in disbelief and inwardly groaned. The towel that was covering her modesty fell to the floor and her hands ran through her wet hair.

"Eurgh!" Lucy stomped over to the door and grabbed the dressing gown the hung on the hook behind it.

She was genuinely embarrassed and was dreading walking out and seeing Natsu. However at the same time she was absolutely furious with that idiot! She constantly asked herself how someone can be so rude in a house that isn't there's!

Lucy's shaking hand hovered over the door handle; she was scared about seeing Natsu. What if he wasn't there anymore? What if he was the same as the man the other night? She started shaking more and more.

With one quick movement, Lucy pulled the handle down and pulled the door open. Natsu was sat at the long wooden table with steaming plates of rice and vegetables. He had his eyes closed and his hands pressed together in front of him.

"Itadakimasu!" Natsu opened his eyes and said, "C'mon Luce! Dig in!"

Lucy stared at him with her mouth wide open and she could have sworn she dribbled slightly and then she snapped to her senses.

"Aren't you going to apologise for walking in on me! Instead of just acting SO normal!" Lucy walked over to him, her silky dressing gown forming around her body like a beautiful dress.

Natsu pouted with his chopsticks still in his mouth and mumbled,

"I didn't want to embarrass you more."

"Embarrass me more?! You walked in on me naked! How can you get anymore embarrassed!?"

"Well, by the colour of your face, I guess this is."

Lucy gasped and brought her hands up to her cheeks. She felt even hotter than she did before so she walked over to the mirror near her front door.

Unfortunately for Lucy, Natsu was right and her face looked even redder than before. She patted her cheeks lightly, hoping they would go back to there usual milky tone. Before turning around, she gave herself a once over to make sure she looked slightly acceptable to eat dinner.

Lucy found herself looking okay, so she turned around and said,

"What's for dinner then?"

She walked over to the table and sat down with making a 'flump' sound with her tired body. The table was covered by pots filled with colourful food. Lucy didn't even think she had this much food in the apartment and she forgot most of the pots here still existed.

"I've cooked a bit of everything really. You looked starved so I expect you to eat everything on this table." Natsu put the bowl down that he was holding and looked at her.

Lucy pouted and picked up her chopsticks and started to dig in.

The food was glorious! Lucy could bet that she ate her full body weight in the amazing food that Natsu had cooked. She looked up from her bowl and asked,

"N-natsu?"

"Yep?"

"How did you learn to cook so good?" She asked.

"Well," Natsu began, "I really like food. So I guess I just learned from liking to eat so much."

He shot his huge grin over the table at Lucy and she giggled into her hand. She looked over at the oven clock and saw the time. 23:57.

"Oh my! Look at the time! I best go to work tomorrow.." Lucy pondered the thought of getting back into her usual routine. She really wasn't looking forward to it, however she needed her job and quite enjoyed it at times.

"Natsu? I'm going to go to sleep now and I would like you to be gone by the morning. I really appreciate your cooking and worrying about me. Arigatou gozaimasu." Lucy stood up from the table and bowed.

"It's okay, Luce. And sure, sleep well." Natsu also stood up and started gathering plates up.

As Lucy walked to her bedroom, she quickly took some clean sheets from the cupboard next to her bathroom. While closing the cupboard door, she turned around and said,

"I really mean it Natsu, thank you."

A delicate pink blush dusted itself on Lucy's cheeks and she smiled shyly at the pink haired man in her kitchen. Natsu merely smiled at her and then got back to washing the dished in her sink.

"I'll always protect you, Luce."

A/N: AHH! Im so sorry for such a late update, however it is my new years resolution to keep up with all my stories! I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and new years! Drop me a review! Thank you for reading!