AN: DOUBLE UPDATE ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE SKYYYYYYYY! Yeah...yyyyyeah...SO INTENSE!
Because I'm a glutton for punishment and also I love my readers and this story. HERE GOES! :) :) :)
Chapter 4: Ignition
"Ahhhhh...nothing like a soak after training hard, huh Natsu?" Happy sighed contently from his spot in Fairy Tail's hot bath.
"Aye..." The pinkette murmured his response, head resting on his forearm, body slouched in the warm water that filled the tub.
Being a fighting guild meant they always had need of a gym for training and a tub for soaking sore, tired muscles. Fairy Tail's gym had separate male and female baths that were equally luxurious; huge in ground tile mosaic tubs with built in jets and sauna benches all around. Prefect for recovering after a mission or long journey.
On this particular morning, however, the male bath was crowded with grouchy mages with pounding headaches and short tempers. Everyone had enjoyed themselves at Lisanna's welcome back party.
"If by 'training' you mean 'drinking yourself stupid' then sure. Soak your hangovers away." Gray, wearing only a tiny white towel around his waist, sat well away from the tub itself with his arms crossed. He had gone shot to shot with Cana but never had an issue with hangovers. He claimed it had something to do with his ice magic.
Natsu stuck his tongue out at his rival but otherwise ignored the ice make Mage, slipping further into the hot bath water. Normally he would have challenged Gray to a fight for that kind of snarky comment, but his hangover still had his head in splitting pain. Natsu decided the water was not quite hot enough for him so he focused his magic on heating it up.
"Drinking is manly." Elfman announced this while rubbing one of his sizable shoulders with a strong smelling balm.
A few other male mages yelped and leapt from the bath as the pink haired dragon slayer warmed the water past a safe-for-humans level.
Even Happy flew out, hissing as he did, to settle down on the bench near Gray to cool off. It was always much cooler next to the icy Mage.
Now Natsu had the bath to himself, which he preferred anyway. He sighed loudly and stretched out, feeling the hot water starting to work out the soreness in his limbs. A hangover was sort of like getting in a battle you didn't fare so well in but couldn't quite remember.
Annoying. He hated losing. Even to a hangover.
What Natsu did remember was the way he felt when he held Lucy in his arms. The soft press of her body against his, the tickle of her golden hair as it swept past his face. And her smell. He groaned quietly as he recalled how completely overwhelmed he had been by Lucy's scent.
Working with her as closely as he had since she arrived at the guild, Natsu had become accustomed to the smells of Lucy. He knew her general aroma and quite liked it; she smelled of light and ripe peaches. A sweet, happy Lucy smell. He knew how she smelled when she was angry, hurt, confused, content, sad, excited...
But what he had smelled last night when he tumbled through Lucy's window had been something else entirely. It was not the gentle sweet smell of normal every day Lucy.
It was her scent but enhanced and captivating. The way she looked hasn't helped matters either. Dressed only in that tiny tank top and itty bitty sleep shorts, hair undone and mussed from bed. Her concerned look as she leaned over him to make she he was okay after his fall from her window...
It had all effected his dragon side in a very primal way. His heartbeat had gone erratic and his skin tingled like crazy; every cell in his body had screamed for him to take her. To claim her. To make her feel the force of his need.
Natsu felt himself getting flustered at his own memories. His body had reacted on its own in that moment and he had a very hard time restraining himself when Lucy had blushed and squirmed against him. She was so naive and pure, all creamy skin and pink lips...
The dragon slayer slapped himself suddenly. No way! No more fantasizing about Lucy! She was his best friend and team mate, nothing more. No room for lustful thoughts in that relationship. No sir.
Natsu busied himself with actually bathing now that he had thoroughly soaked himself to a state of raisin toes. The bath room was mostly empty now, he noted; everyone must have finished up while he daydreamed about Lucy.
He then shook his head vigorously and grabbed a bottle of shampoo. He squirted roughly half the bottle into his hands and sudsed his hair up, fingers massaging his scalp angrily.
Besides, he mused to himself as he doused his pink tresses to rinse out the soap, Lucy was practically a princess in the general sense of the term. She could never want Natsu in that way, very much nonetheless care for him.
And then there was Lisanna...
Natsu found himself frowning when he caught his reflection in the mirrored panel that ran along next to the tub. He studied the expression on his face and wondered why it looked so odd. He was usually smiling and the deep frown looked just as foreign as it felt.
How were these two girls making him feel so confused and weird?
Lucy perched on the edge of her seat at the bar, squirming uncomfortably under the scrutiny of a certain pink-haired dragon slayer. He was staring her down across the guild hall, something not entirely uncommon, but it was somehow setting her whole body on fire.
Maybe it was because of what had happened the night before. Or maybe it was because of what she had done that morning. Either way, he was making her wish she was invisible and she hated that feeling.
Normally Lucy loved the attention. She loved walking into a room and knowing people were looking at her. It was part of her hidden, selfish inner persona that delighted in all things ego.
That was, after all, one of the reasons why she dressed the way she did, subtly showing as much skin as possible. Her motivation for dressing seductively recently had shifted slightly from wanting everyone's attention to wanting a specific person's attention, particularly because he seemed so completely oblivious.
In this particular instance, Lucy cursed her skimpy wardrobe. She wished she could have worn a full length burlap sack with a hood if it meant he would maybe just not notice her presence.
His slanted olive eyes were locked on her even as he laughed at something Happy said to him. They never left her as she ordered another cup of coffee from Mira and shakily poured too much sugar into it and stirred it so aggressively that brown liquid splashed on the polished bar top.
Mira clucked her tongue and wiped it up, arching a pale eyebrow in question at he blonde. The S-Class barmaid looked like she wanted to say something but Lucy gulped and dropped her eyes, praying that for once everyone would just drop it. But, this was Fairy Tail and he was Natsu. And if humiliation was on the menu, Lucy had a lifetime all-you-can-eat pass.
Lucy groaned inwardly as she heard Natsu exclaim something ridiculous to Gray about "fiery glory" as he stalked away from the table he was sitting at with the others. The blonde Celestial Mage had purposefully distanced herself from her teammates that morning because she needed time to reflect.
Her mind wandered back to the events of the past 24 hours even as her chocolate brown eyes lost sight of the dragon slayer she had been locked in a staring contest with all morning.
Her heart ached longingly as she recalled how Natsu had crashed into her apartment the night before. He had fumbled with her top, pulled her close, breathed her in like a lover would. Then he had proceeded to vomit all over her apartment. Lucy felt her eyebrow twitch at the memory. It had taken her and Virgo a loooong time to clean it all up. Gross.
Then earlier that morning Lucy had made a fool of herself by going to Natsu's only to walk in on what seemed to be a happy family breakfast. Anger and jealousy lanced through Lucy now. Lisanna's tinkling laughter reached her ears from across the guild hall and Lucy barely contained a snarl.
Clapping her hands over her mouth, Lucy tried to take deep breaths through her nose to calm herself down. When she had unraveled in the woods, Loke had appeared and held her. He hadn't said much. He just soothed her, told her she was beautiful and wonderful and someday someone would make her happy.
Lucy lowered her hands and smoothed them over her legs. Loke had been very sweet, but part of her still felt angry and hurt. She didn't want SOMEONE to make her happy. She wanted Natsu.
She sighed, feeling very defeated by the whole thing. She was resigned to just waiting for Natsu to drop her from the team so she could leave the guild and move on. There was no way she could stay if he wants going to be with Lisanna.
"Lucy? Are you okay?" A small voice spoke next to her.
The blonde turned and spotted Wendy and Charle taking the two seats next to Lucy at the bar. The petite dragon slayer had a very concerned look on her face while the white Exceed looked superior as always.
"Oh Wendy I'm fine. Just tired..." Lucy croaked then trailed off, realizing she wasn't fooling the healing Mage. Wendy folded her hands delicately and fixed Lucy with a sagacious gaze.
"If this is about Natsu, you know you can talk to me, don't you?" She sounded so earnest for someone so young.
Lucy was constantly surprised by Wendy's wisdom. In this instance, however, Lucy felt like the younger girl was overstepping just a tad.
"No Wendy. I don't think I should talk about it. Not that it has to do with Natsu at all." The blonde blurted this out and tried to laugh dismissively but it came out sounding very strained.
Charle raised a delicate eyebrow dubiously. Wendy nodded, accepting Lucy's dismissal. She eyed her friend sadly and hopped up, Charle trailing behind her as they walked away.
Lucy instantly felt horrible! She was frustrated with herself and Natsu not poor Wendy. Maybe she needed to be alone for a while so she could figure out her wacko feelings.
Nodding to herself, Lucy spun in her seat and leapt up, losing her balance as her booted foot got caught on the edge of the barstool's lower rungs.
With a pathetic squawk of protest, Lucy crashed to the floor along with the offending bar stool. Silence fell over the guild hall, Lucy felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment. What a day!
A pair of warm, callused hands were lifting her up, brushing her off, stabilizing her. She turned toward thank her chivalrous helper but when she realized who it was she nearly tripped back over the same stool in her hurry to scramble away.
"Lucy! Are you okay?" His features were clouded with worry, lips turned downwards slightly in a frown. Lucy shook her fist mentally at his overwhelming cuteness.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine Natsu. Just fine." Lucy took another step back away from her friend and teammate. She couldn't take standing so close to him. Not with everything being so weird.
Natsu arched a pink eyebrow at her unconvincing response and crossed his arms over his muscled chest. What was with everyone and arching their eyebrows at her today?
"You stink at lying, ya weirdo." Lucy huffed indignantly. There was still a hush over the room, as if their guild mates were waiting for a show. Lucy was just angry enough to oblige them.
"Well at least I can hold my liquor! My apartment still reeks of vomit thanks to you!" Natsu's mouth fell open as a few raucous bursts of laughter echoed around them. Lucy caught a glimpse of Gray and Gajeel looking gleeful and slapping each other high five.
Natsu was sputtering, clearly grasping for a comeback. That was odd. Usually he had rapid fire snotty comment about her when they bickered. Lucy seized upon the silent opportunity with gusto.
"Yeah! And another thing! Maybe you should figure out what's up with your own issues before you start asking me about mine!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu looked confused, but the familiar gleam was in his eyes. He was fired up for a fight now.
Good, Lucy thought. Better things were like this; normal fighting and shenanigans were better than confusing affections.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy saw Lisanna enter the ring of spectators as if on cue. Happy was floating along next to her and they were chatting casually. They came up short when the spotted the crowd gathering around Lucy and Natsu.
Perfect. Now she was here. Lucy felt the sudden urge to back down, gracefully exit stage right. But the more selfish Lucy won out. This needed to be addressed and if Lisanna was here to witness it so be it.
She drew herself up, shaking out her long blonde hair and squaring her shoulders. She jabbed a finger at Natsu and watched the horror on his face as the words she said next left her mouth.
"You can't keep this up Natsu. It's either her or me and you know it. Only one of us can be your best team mate. So choose." Stunned by the harshness in her own voice, Lucy braced herself for what would come next.
Whispers and shouts broke out all around them as people gossiped; of course they had all been waiting for this. Lucy was well known to be jealous so everyone had to know what Lisanna's return would mean. Even Erza was leaning forward now, eagerly awaiting Natsu's answer.
Natsu himself looked like Lucy had slapped him. He was pretty ignorant when it came to women so it was all new territory for him. Lucy took two steps closer to the fire dragon slayer, just close enough to poke his chest with her pointer finger none too gently.
"I. Said. Choose." She hissed this through clenched teeth, her anger raw and tears close to the surface of her eyes. The longer he was silent, the farther away Lucy felt.
"That's not fair Lucy. You can't-" Natsu stammered this, grasping his scarf nervously, but Lucy cut him off, yelling now.
"No! I can! I'm in love with you Natsu! I have to know whether I need to wait around for you to realize I've been here all along or if she's the one for you! I can't deal with NOT knowing! But if you can't decide then it's already over!" Her shouts echoed throughout the hall, everyone had fallen silent again.
Natsu's olive eyes were wide with shock, cheeks painted with a furious crimson blush. Lisanna had clapped her hands over her mouth, tears sparkling in her eyes. Lucy realized with sudden horror that she had just literally confessed everything she felt in front of everyone, in front of Natsu.
Her brown eyes filled with tears and her shoulders shook slightly with the effort to hold back her sobs. Natsu's expression said it all. He was flat out horrified and clearly humiliated.
"L-Lucy I...I can't. I don't...ughh..." Sputtering for on his answer, Natsu tried to take a step towards Lucy who choked out a sob and held out her hands as if to fend him off.
"No Natsu. That's it. I'll make this easy on you. I'm leaving." She didn't wait for another weak response from the dragon slayer. She whirled and pushed through the crowd towards the exit.
Lucy took off running the second she got outside, sobs wracking her body for the second time that day. Tears blurred her vision making it hard for her to navigate but she knew her route by heart. She was heading home. She had to pack and get out of town.
