Chapter Six
Lucy woke up in the morning to find that Natsu had joined her in bed when she was asleep. She craned her neck to look over at Happy's bed to see that he was with them as well. She sighed.
She found it strange that she had been slightly worried when he wasn't back when she fell asleep.
He was supposed to be the bad guy, technically. She couldn't help but feel like he had freed her more than captured her though.
He had saved her from Phantom Lord. He had taken her away from the immense pressure of being the Heartfilia heir. He had taken her away from the chance of being married off for money.
She sat up and looked over at the sleeping man. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the adorable look on his face, a small amount of drool making its way to the sheets. His pink hair was plastered to his face and the low covers showed off his well-defined muscles.
She found a hard time convincing herself to look away.
Maybe she was crazy, but she felt an undeniable connection to him.
He had kidnapped her and threatened her. But he hadn't hurt her. He didn't seem to even have any intention to. He had made sure she was dressed and well fed and he trusted her enough to leave her alone in the camp.
She laid back again, facing the roof of the tent. She groaned.
She felt a little crazy.
She just needed air.
She pushed herself out of the bed and walked over to the pile of clothes Wendy had made her. She pulled out the same outfit as the day before, secretly wanting Natsu's opinion on her new dress.
She poked her head out of the tent to see no one around. It must have been too early.
She grabbed a piece of fabric she could use as a makeshift towel - something she had made a note of asking Levy about before they had headed off for bed yesterday - and headed out to the waterfall that Mira had shown her.
Natsu woke up alone and immediately panicked.
He was, at first, convinced that he had scared off Lucy by muttering something in his sleep. He had had a very realistic dream about her. He groaned just thinking about it.
Maybe he was insane. Because he was pretty sure that he was starting to feel something for her that he had never felt with any other girl.
She drove him completely crazy. He was pretty sure it was because she was a weirdo. But he also had a horrible feeling it had something to do with all of those explicit dreams he had about her.
It might be both.
He sighed and got up, yawning and stretching while he looked over at Happy's bed. The little blue cat was still sleeping soundly. Natsu was pretty sure that Happy would sleep through anything unless there was fish involved.
He smiled at his friend and decided to let him be.
He was debating what to do because he was too awake to go back to sleep, but he was also too sleepy to do anything productive.
It was pretty early, he could hear everyone else in the camp sleeping.
He frowned, trying to think of something he could do that would help him wake up.
He almost hit himself when he realised this might just be one of those times a bath could actually be useful. And he could have it all to himself. He was sure Lucy would be back by the time he got back.
He wasn't exactly sure where she had gone, but he could smell that she was close, so he didn't really care. He shrugged and grabbed his clothes before heading out of the camp.
He decided to find his secret bathing place, seeing as he had more time, rather than risk another bath with the icy bastard like yesterday.
He made his way through the trees until he found the waterfall. It looked beautiful, as always, but it had a wonderful smell today which Natsu was instantly drawn to. He wasn't sure where it was coming from, but he quickly discarded his boxers to dive into the welcoming water.
He dunked his head under the water, breathing heavily when he came up for air and shaking his head so that the water on his hair wouldn't get into his eyes.
He looked around, trying to find the source of the amazing smell that was permeating his nose. He pushed his fringe out of his eyes, running his hands through his hair when he finally noticed the figure that stood at the other side of the pool.
At first he thought he might be hallucinating, or that the figure was in fact an angel, sent from heaven, for him to ogle because damn she had a great body. But no.
As he moved closer, ducking his head lower under the water so only his eyes and nose were above the water level, he was able to make out her face - and just about everything else. It was Lucy.
It was Lucy and she was looking towards where he was hiding, noticing a puff of obvious pink hair sticking out from the waterline. Crap! What was he going to do? He was having a hard enough time as it was, trying to concentrate, and not get a nosebleed, when she was fully exposed in front of him.
He quickly stood up in the water, pretending not to have seen her, and ran his hands through his hair in stress, hoping it would come off as a relaxed and unbothered action. He looked anywhere but Lucy, pretending he couldn't see her - and making sure his waist was in the water, because then she would be able to tell that he had seen her - until he heard her scream.
He snapped his head around in her direction and he watched her go deeper in the water to cover her lower half and covered her chest with her arms.
"N-Natsu?" she asked, blushing furiously. "What are you doing here?"
"I was tryin' to have a bath…" he said, hoping it sounded calm and collected.
"I thought Mira said that guys didn't use this place…" she muttered to herself, but he heard.
"Well I was the one who showed Mira this place. I don't come here often cause of all the girls but I thought it would be safe since it was so early an' all. Ah, sorry Lucy. I can just get out if you want" he said, standing up a little taller until he was only just covered by the water.
"NO!" she shouted, blushing still. He raised an eyebrow. "I mean, we're both here now so there is no point in getting out and I don't really think it's appropriate to show everything to a lady…" she rambled.
"Sure, whatever" he said, secretly celebrating inside his head.
"You should just clean over the other side and I'll clean over here...just tell me when you're done and I'll turn around so you can get dressed" she said, motioning for him to move further away. Not what he wanted, but just being naked in the same water as Lucy was doing crazy things to his heart.
"Okay...you know I don't care if you see, right?" he blurted out.
"Well I do! I'm supposed to be a lady you idiot! I'll never get married if I spend my time showing men my body!" she cried in horror. He shrugged.
"You don't have to worry about all that, Luce" he said, giving her a smile.
"And why is that?" she asked sarcastically.
"Cause you can just marry me"
"I don't even know you, Natsu! Why would you want to marry me?"
"I dunno, you are a bit of a weirdo I guess…"
"Exactly! Wait. What? Shut up! Anyway, you technically kidnapped me, so why do you think I would like to marry you anyway?"
"Cause you're a weirdo?"
"Stop saying that!"
"You're the one who worryin' about marriage an' stuff. I just gave you a solution and now you're shouting at me...I don't get you…"
"If I'm such an annoyance, why don't you just let me go?" she asked, sounding more than annoyed.
"NO" he growled and moved closed to her. "I already told you. I don't want you going anywhere" he said, a little threateningly, close to her face, before swimming away back to the other side.
"Natsu…" she started, he was already feeling bad but he was not in the mood to continue the conversation.
"Clean yourself. I'll see you back at the tent later" he said, not bothering to turn around and look at her.
He swiftly got out of the water, waiting for his body heat to dissipate the water on his skin, before pulling his clothes on and walking back to the camp without another word.
Lucy was really annoyed at herself. She wasn't sure if it was because she felt bad for upsetting Natsu, or if it was because she was actually starting to care for the guy that had taken her away from her home.
She knew she probably wouldn't see him for the remainder of the day which, in a way, was a good thing because Natsu seemed to have a bad temper.
She got out of the water once she was clean and dressed herself quickly. As she pulled on her clothes she became even more angry with herself. She had picked out the same outfit to show Natsu, but now he was angry with her and she wouldn't get to show it off. Great. She just had to ruin everything.
As much as she hated to admit it, she had started to look at Fairy Tail as her new home and she didn't want to mess up her one chance to start again.
She sighed as she found her way back to the tent.
She threw her clothes on a pile next to her clean ones and looked around. Natsu, as she guessed, was nowhere to be found, but Happy was still soundly sleeping in his bed.
Lucy sat down on the vacant bed and frowned. She wasn't quite sure what to do. Everyone was still asleep and she didn't know her way well enough around the camp to find one of her 'friends'. She was tempted to wake up Happy, but she didn't want to get on the bad side of Natsu and his best friend.
She stood up and left the tent, heading for the beautiful flower field that Levy had shown her yesterday. Maybe it could clear her head.
She found her destination with relative ease, frowning, once again, as she looked at the pink flowers. They reminded her a lot of Nastu. She sat herself down in the middle of the field and laid back, watching the soft blue sky, almost the same colour as her dress.
Maybe she wasn't meant to be a part of Fairy Tail. Maybe she was just supposed to be the Heartfilia heir for the rest of her life and nothing else. Maybe she would never be just Lucy.
A single tear worked its way down her cheek as she closed her eyes.
"You're not crying are you, weirdo?"
Her eyes snapped open at the voice as she saw Natsu standing above her, watching her face.
"N-No, you idiot!" she said, wiping the tear from her cheek and sitting up.
He walked in front of her and sat down in the flowers opposite her; his knees up and his arms resting lazily over them.
"Good. Cause I don't wanna make you cry or anythin'" he said, not meeting her gaze.
"How did you find me? I mean, this place is pretty far out…"
"Nah, this place is easy to find. I was the one who showed Levy"
"How come you know all the best places around here?" she asked curiously.
"Cause I'm a dragon. I gotta know my territory" he shrugged. As if saying her was a dragon was nothing. "Anyway, this place is the easiest to find" he explained.
"Why's that?"
"Cause it's full of flowers...they smell really strongly, they might've well as put a sign up, bein' that obvious an' all"
"That doesn't really tell me how you found me"
"It does and it doesn't" he shrugged again, this time looking her in the eye. "You're askin' the wrong questions though, weirdo" he chuckled lightly.
"And what should I be asking, Mr Know-it-all?"
"Why"
"Why what?"
"Why I found you"
"Oh yeah…"
"I told you you're a weirdo…"
"So why did you find me?"
"Cause I wanna marry you"
"WHAT?!" Lucy shouted in panic, her heart racing.
"Calm down, stupid. I mean, like, I just wanted to say that I would marry you cause I want to, not cause I saw you naked or anything" he said, scratching the back of his head.
"SO YOU DID SEE! PERVERT!"
"Hey! I thought you'd calm down after I told you I wanna marry you!"
"Stop saying you want to marry me, idiot!"
"Maybe I don't wanna stop!"
"Well then you can go marry yourself then, dumbass"
"Maybe I will! Why would I want a wife who yells at me all the time?"
"And why would I want a husband who's a pervert!"
"Oi! I wouldn't be a pervert if you married me! And that was an accident anyway!"
"Maybe I should marry you; so you don't perv on other girls!"
"I said it was an accident! I didn't know you were there! Maybe I should marry you so you don't annoy some other poor guy to death!"
"FINE THEN! LET'S GET MARRIED, IDIOT!"
"FINE. I'd like that!"
There was an awkward silence when both parties started to take in what had actually happened. When they both realised they simultaneously looked away from each other and blushed, not knowing what to say.
"You liiiiiike each other"
Their silence was broken by Happy, flying circles around them, snickering.
"SHUT UP!" Natsu and Lucy said in unison.
"You didn't say no!" Happy chimed, running away when Lucy started chasing him away from the field.
Natsu sighed as he was left alone, unsure as to whether he was now engaged or not. Leave it to Lucy to confuse him so much that he accidentally proposed.
It wasn't like he was against the idea of having such a pretty wife. Nor was he against the idea of sharing a bed with her properly. She just made his so confused. And she made his heart go all haywire.
He watched Lucy and Happy run in circles around the field and decided to lie down.
For now, he decided, he wasn't going to marry Lucy.
But maybe - if he was lucky - he would in the future.
He smiled to himself as he watched the clouds in the blue sky roll across his vision. At least she wasn't mad at him any more.
A/N: Man, I can't believe I got this out on time. I was super busy this week and when I did have time I, for some reason, decided that writing stuff I wont post for a while would be a better option. Silly Lizzie.
Anyway! Thanks for reading! and for all the wonderful reviews I've received! I finally reached over 100 followers! Holy Mavis, that's cool!
P.s. Sorry for all those that read both my stories because the apparently I can make no other jokes than marriage jokes at the moment...sorry.
See ya next time! :)