Two new chapters for you today! I didn't want anyone to think poor Natsu was going to loose all his innocence!
Enjoy!
~ShanaHollows~
"Natsu," a voice was saying beside him, "Natsu, get up."
Natsu lifted his head, cringing at the massive pain in it, "Uggghhhh."
"Natsu, you slept with your apartment door wide open! C'mon! Get up!"
Natsu put his palm to his forehead, begging the loud noise in his head to stop as he sat up. The world came somewhat into focus and he realized it was Lucy beside him. She was dressed in her regular hoodie and jogging pants now, on her knees looking at him with concern. Gray wasn't on the ground beside him anymore. He must have gotten up at some point and moved to his room.
"Why does it hurt so bad?" Natsu grimaced, closing his eyes, "Everything is spinning."
She giggled, "Don't tell me you've never had a hangover before."
She already guessed that he hadn't.
"Hangover?"
"Stay there. I'll be right back."
Lucy disappeared back to her apartment as Natsu attempted to make his eyes focus. A moment later, she reappeared.
"I don't like this feeling," Natsu told her, "Why do I feel like this?"
"You drank too much. By the smell of it, beer was the culprit," she told him, grabbing his hand and opening his palm. She dropped two white pills into it. There was a glass of water in her other hand, "These are aspirin. Swallow them."
He stared at the water.
"It's okay, Natsu…it's just water," she assured him.
He tossed the pills back into his mouth and gratefully accepted the water she offered.
"I did drink beer," he admitted, "But I didn't know beer would make me feel like this. Never again. Never."
"Can you stand up?" Lucy asked, "The best thing to do is go to bed and sleep it off."
He tried to get up, but the room was spinning.
She sighed. She could have left him on the floor. He was fine there all night. She had been on her way to her first shift at the restaurant when she saw the open door. In this city, it was a bad idea to leave your apartment wide open, let alone sleep in the doorway. Plus, she felt a little bit sorry for the pink-headed child-like man.
"I'll help you," she said, slinging one of his arms over her shoulders, "I assume your apartment is just like ours. Is your room the big one or the little one?"
"Little," he mumbled.
Natsu couldn't put any strength into his legs at all. Lucy ended up dragging him down the hallway and into his room. She looked around. He had no belongings. Literally none. There were no books, no posters, no personal pictures, nothing! His bedspread was plain and brown.
She tried to maneuver his weight so she could help him into bed, but he stumbled and fell, trapping her under his big body on the mattress.
She turned red, trying to move his arm.
"Luce," he whimpered, "I feel so gross. How long does a 'hangover' last?"
She was pushing his torso, trying to get away. He was making no efforts to help her. His torso was pressed against hers, "It'll go away, I promise, Natsu. Can you…move please?"
"I can't," he whined, "It's like my whole body is weighted down. My head hurts sooo bad! I'm pretty sure I'm dying."
"You're kinda dramatic when you're hung over," Lucy flashing him a quick smile, still struggling to remove herself from him, "Please Natsu. I need to go to work."
He lifted his head slightly, realizing he had her pinned on the bed. Their noses were inches apart. He felt a different heat run through his body as they locked eyes. He felt an odd sensation. He had no idea what it was at all.
"Lucy," he whispered.
She stopped struggling for a moment, trying to read him. He looked confused, innocent, sick as a dog…and something along the lines of lustful all at the same time. She shook her head. She doubted Natsu was capable of lust.
"I'm going to throw up," he warned her.
Ripping her body out from underneath of him, she dodged to the door.
He collapsed back onto the bed, murmuring as he fell asleep, "Sorry – false alarm."
She helped him shift his body so that he was somewhat under the covers, "Sleep well, Natsu."
As she left the room, she flicked out the lights and shut the door. She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as she slid down the wall. He confused her. He made her want to help him. He made her want to confide in him. Just now, she was pretty sure he was going to kiss her…until he instead announced about the throwing up. She didn't understand what it was about him.
Sighing, she let herself out of the apartment, being sure to close the door behind her.
Natsu sat on the couch, still grumbling about his hangover. He woke up an hour ago in his bed, his head still aching and stomach churning. It was better now, but not until he'd heaved into the toilet twice.
"Get over it," Gray snapped. For some reason, he was perfectly fine now.
"You're a bad influence!" Natsu exclaimed, "Beer is…really bad!"
"It's not bad," Gray muttered, snatching a controller from beside him, "You're just a pansy. Go for a walk. The fresh air will help."
Natsu opted to take the stairs down instead of the elevator. He didn't like the elevator. It always made him feel…weird. Walking through the apartment buildings front doors, he took a deep breath, letting the air cleanse him. He walked the streets for about an hour before deciding to return home, already feeling a little better. This time, he kept track of where he was so that he'd get home with no particular trouble.
As he reached the apartment, he recognized the blue-headed companion of Lucy's getting out of a cab.
"Levy!" he called out.
She stopped and turned, acknowledging him with a nod, then continued to walk.
"I just wanted to say sorry about last night," Natsu stated as he caught up to her.
"Don't worry about it," Levy gave him a small smile, "It's not like I've never had a night like that."
"I didn't want to meet you like that," Natsu apologized, "I'm Natsu."
"I've heard a bit about you," Levy said.
Natsu offered his hand for a shake, but took it back when she continued walking, "I've never had beer before. That was a first for me," he admitted, "And probably a last."
Levy giggled, "Lucy told me she helped you this morning on her way to work when she texted me at noon. Bad hangover, huh?"
"Never again," Natsu groaned, "But I'm feeling a bit better now."
They started walking into the building, Natsu hesitating as she selected the elevator, "Are you just coming from work, Natsu?"
Natsu paused. Work?
"No, I just went for a walk. Gray said it would help with the hangover."
Levy nodded.
"Lucy said she had to work today too," Natsu cocked his head, wondering internally what that meant.
"We both did," Levy stated, stopping at his door, "What do you and Gray do for a living?"
Natsu scanned his brain for an answer, remembering something comical he'd seen on the side of a building. Gray hadn't thought it was that comical, "Um…we're in Human Resources."
She nodded and he let an inward sigh of relief, "Glad you feel better, Natsu. Seeya around."
He gave her a little wave and opened the door to his apartment. Gray was still on the couch, playing video games.
"I met Levy," he said, dropping onto the couch beside Gray.
"Good for you."
"What's work, Gray?"
Gray paused his game, turning to him, "It's how people get money. They do jobs for people and receive money for what they do."
"Lucy and Levy both work," Natsu said, realizing his headache had disappeared.
"Good for them," Gray returned to his video game.
Natsu watched him for a moment. Gray was good at ignoring him. But shouldn't they be working a little harder to help Lucy and Levy?
As if Gray had read his mind, he began to speak, "I know what you're thinking and no…you can't go to work. Our work is finding a way to help Levy and Lucy. I need to teach you a few things about how Angels can interact with humans before we can really get down to it. We have 'abilities' to help us with our work."
"Levy asked me what kind of work we do. I said we were in Human Resources."
Gray glanced at him, a smirk on his lips, "You know, that was actually a half decent answer…for a complete dumbass, anyway."
"I think my 'hangover' is gone."
"That's great, Natsu."
"Can you put the video games away and start our work now?" Natsu asked, trying not to beam with Gray's version of a compliment. A half decent answer!
Gray sighed heavily. Couldn't a guy take a few days to himself first? But Natsu had done well at interacting with the girls and Gray supposed he could try harder. It was just so nice to be back in the land of the living, doing normal, human things.
He turned the Wii U off and turned to Natsu.
"Okay," he said finally, "but you have to listen to what I say and do as I do."
Natsu nodded.
"So Angels have a few abilities. You must never EVER let a human watch you use any of these abilities. And they are only to be used for helping your person. Got it?" he didn't give Natsu a chance to reply, "The first one you'll need to know is relocation. That's when we need to go to a different room or whatever. Like this."
Natsu watched as Gray lifted his hand and made a snap between his fingers, "Relocate…to kitchen." He said as he made the motion. Gray's body disappeared and two seconds later, he rounded the wall from the kitchen.
"Cool!" Natsu exclaimed.
"The second one is called shadows," Gray continued, "We use it for disappearing quickly…to hide. Sometimes it's good for observing as well without being detected."
He walked to the wall, tapping his wrist, "Shadows."
Gray disappeared into the wall. Natsu looked around, confused.
"Unshadow," Gray said. His body reappeared on the other side of the room, "I used the edges of the wall to travel the room. Basically, you can go anywhere a shadow does."
Natsu nodded. Gray didn't realize he was stripping again…right down to the buff.
"We also have an ability to nudge, "Gray told him, "We can't interfere with human will, but we can nudge some humans to notice things that may have gone unnoticed. Or help them make a decision that they're wavering on. I'll have to demonstrate that another day since it's just the two of us here."
Natsu nodded, listening intently.
"Another ability is called Transparency," Gray said, snapping his fingers. Instantly, he began invisible. He reached out and grabbed Natsu's hand, "See? I'm still here. You can't see me, but you can still touch me."
He snapped his fingers again, becoming visible.
"I wanna try that one first!" Natsu exclaimed, "Tell me how to do it."
"Okay," Gray stood beside him and raised his fingers into a snapping position, "Snapping your fingers only is not going to make it happen. You have to visualize it. Heaven doesn't have magic per se, but it does channel its' energy to you."
Natsu copied Gray's stance.
"Transparency," Natsu said, snapping his fingers. Nothing happened.
"Channel the energy," Gray repeated, "Think about what you want to do."
Natsu closed his eyes, willing the energy to make him invisible, "Transparency."
Natsu's body disappeared from Gray's sight. He could hear Natsu's footsteps moving toward the bathroom, presumably to look in the mirror.
"Okay, that's awesome!" Natsu laughed. He snapped his fingers again, becoming visible.
Gray gave a lop-sided grin, "There's a few more, but knowing you, if I cram more into that miniscule brain of yours, it'll blow up…and I don't feel like cleaning up the mess! Lessons are over for today."
Natsu's eyes grew wide, his hands gripping the pink hair on either side of his head.
"I didn't mean literally, you moron. Seriously Natsu…your stupidity amazes me sometimes. You should be put in a zoo for all the world to see." Gray sighed, "Wanna play Smash?"
"Maybe later," Natsu decided, "I don't want to drink beer."
"You know, you can play Smash without beer," Gray dead-panned.
"That's not what you said last night! You said it was the man-code."
Sighing heavily, Gray opened his mouth to speak, then shut it. There was seriously no point in clarifying.
"I'm going to practice," Natsu said, heading for the door.
"Best idea ever," Gray mumbled sarcastically, sinking into the couch and picking up the controller.
Natsu shut his eyes, "Transparency."
Satisfied that he was now invisible, he headed out the door.