It's been a while since I've made a Nalu one-shot. As some of you have seen I have three Nalu fics going on right now. I don't want to deprive my one-shot readers so I'm giving everyone a heads up that I'm closing this when it reaches chapter 15. That gives everyone 6 more oneshots, including this one, till the conclusion of this continuous one-shot fic. Maybe in the future I'll add on but it's the general idea.

The silly quote challenge is still on, to refresh everyone's mind that my 40th reviewer can give me a silly quote to put at the end of my next chapter. Alright great!

This is a bit angsty which I admit is my least favourite genre, but I wanted to develop the realism on characters so this was thought of. Enjoy!

The flickering of the camp fire nulled their thoughts. The pressures of the months that slowly went by up to this moment were near desolation. Both figures huddled by the fire were both near their limits, and each ones tolerance was wearing thin. The light had been flickering off her blonde hair and his pink, creating different shades of colour. They were huddled close, with her head on his shoulder, sharing a thin blanket and braving the cold wind.

Her eyes were becoming heavy and the even breathing of her companion had a calming effect on her, making her drift more into the void of her mind. He turned his head to look at her face. Her blonde bangs were messily pulled back, her eyes were raw and tired but the peaks of her brown orbs made her as seem as alive as ever, full of adventure and curing the thing she had been fighting for many years:

Her ache for wanderlust.

He straightened up and effectively made her come out of her haze.

"Natsu…?" she said in a cracked voice.

He didn't answer; he just kept staring into the fire.

"What's-"

"Are you happy?" he asked, still staring into the flames.

Her eyes became less heavy and she removed her head from his shoulder. The blanket fell to their laps and the cold nip awakened her more.

"Of course I am." She assured.

He didn't look convinced, his dark onyx orbs darted to her rich brown. "Why? I've done nothing but bring you trouble."

She stood up and turned to him blocking the light of the fire making a glow around her body as he looked at her. Her jeans were worn out and she had been wearing those boots for months. The top and jacket she had found in a lost and found after her tank top had reached its time.

She stared at him with ferocity.

"I don't regret a thing. We had no future back there and I'd pick you over anything else. Think like that again then what we did would be for nothing."

The struggle they went through would be for nothing.

The crisp evening air ran up through the young man's body. His back pressed against the luxurious building. Guards posted by the entrances, the young man snuck his way in with not much ease. He tried to keep his breaths even. Hiding from the posted guards was tough on its own but to keep from plain sight from within the house was another task on its own. So many people worked at the estate. The young man hid under the sight of the passer-by's by ducking under the window and jumping into bushes when the guards came near.

The young man finally reached his destination. Looking up he found a quaint balcony where the moon glowed more brilliantly then the rest of the estate. There was a reason for it. It wasn't like it was an unknown phenomena, the reason he knew the moon glowed better there was the same reason he had snuck in that night.

She was an image crafted by Angelic smiles and pure love. Her every movement was slowed down and with every flick of her blonde golden hair, time almost stopped. Her eyes could melt the Arctic Circle by one fluttering of her eyelashes. And her Figure… the nosebleeds are countless.

She kept in a crouching position. Almost crawling so to not been seen. She wore a tank top with a baseball jacket on along with jeans with brown boots with a small backpack on her back. In her hands were sheets tied into knots. As cliché as it sounded she was going to climb down on said sheets. By the one pillar to the side she knotted the sheet around it expertly, pushed it to the side of the building were a blind spot was for the guards and climbed to the side. Their eyes met briefly and her lips crawled into a nervous smile. His teeth formed a bright smile, excited for her to reach him. She took in a deep breath before shifting her body off the balcony, holding for dear life onto the bed sheets.

He knew she didn't like heights but she was shifting down warily. Half-way down she felt something odd with the rope she made from the sheets. The whole thing notched down a few inches without her influence. His eyes widened when he realized one of the knots were unravelling. He rushed underneath her.

"Luce, let go." He whispered.

Her eyes widened and she shook her head furiously. She felt she inched down another notch and her worried eyes met his. He smiled softly,

"I'll always catch you Luce."

Closing her eyes tight she let go of the sheets and fell into his arms. She noticed he winced slightly and panicked.

"Are you okay?" she squeaked quietly.

He looked at her and gave her a devilish smile "You got to lay back on the pastry's Luce." He joked.

Her face turned red and she smacked him hard in the head. He tried to control his laughter as she did so. The sound of footsteps interrupted his sensitive ears and he covered the blondes mouth darting his eyes to hers telling her to stop hitting him. She did just so and he lifted his hand off her mouth. Still holding her, he crept back closer into the blind spot of the building and crouched down low, waiting for the noise to fade away from their position.

Instead the sound got louder and louder and the two were terrified. The footsteps were near their position. The blonde recognised the person's voice.

"Hime?"

Lucy tried to crawl off the pink haired boy but he refused not trusting the person. Lucy looked at him with stubbornness as if saying to trust her. He let out a sigh and let his arms fall to the sides. The blonde smiled and got up onto her feet, peaking her head out to meet the familiar face.

"Virgo…" she whispered.

The pink hair maid looked confused her blue eyes dull and her head turned to the side. "Are you leaving us Hime?" she said in a monotone voice she always uses.

Lucy looked upset as if she felt guilty "Virgo… I'm sorry. If I stay… I can't be with him." She said referring to the young man behind her.

The pink haired woman gently smiled and did something the blonde had not expected; she hugged her. It felt a bit out of her comfort zone knowing that the woman wasn't affectionate like this. Her arms to the side she brought them up to hug the woman back.

"Be safe Hime." She said. The blonde started to cry and pulled away from her trusted friend.

A loud voice broke through the estate; Lucy knew all too well who it was.

Her father.

Lucy turned to look at the young man behind her. She was sweating now, her father knows she's trying to escape.

"Natsu what are-"

He shushed her with his finger. "It's not over." He declared. He shifted his sights on the pink haired maid and pleaded with her "Can you help us?"

She looked different from her normal stoic expression, with her eyebrows slightly scrunched and her mouth turning into a smirk she nodded with a determined expression. Lucy smiled and pulled the same expression.

…

The young maid started to run to where her employer's voice was yelling. She was slightly out of breath in accordance with her acting.

"Master Jude, I saw your daughter." She said with a blank expression.

The older male's attention was on Virgo, his greedy eyes darted to her and his growl made out a "Where?"

"The back of the estate. She and another made a break for it in the woods." Virgo declared.

Jude nodded and yelled to his guards "I want all guards to the woods now!"

He started to walk to the direction too "You're dismissed Virgo." He said walking away.

Mischievously her smile crawled onto her face. When the coast was clear she saw from a distance the two exited the front gate. Making it on foot to where she assumed the pink haired boy hid a car. The lights of the vehicles caught the attention of some guard nearby and they ran as fast as they could. They couldn't make it in time though, no far from it; the car was already pulling off onto the abandoned road.

As the last bit of light shined in the distance, a single tear escaped the pink haired maid's eye.

The old Blue Cadillac's soft top roof was pulled down. The wind blew gently against their faces and their smiles were wider than the horizon. Her golden hair was loose and flew against the wind. He would always look to her happy expression, an expression only a free woman would have.

The new morning sun dawned upon them and left a gorgeous pink hue across the sky as they travelled on the empty highway with an occasional truck in view. The wind whipping her hair and pushing it back so wonderfully, and unfortunately for the pinkette; he got an occasional bug in the face.

That perfect moment felt like a glorious eternity.

Then came the hard part.

They drove for days aimlessly, hoping to find the most deserted place in Fiore. Town after town they passed seemed too bustling for their liking. With the money saved up by the pink haired boy they went by easily for the first week just driving around from town to town; stay at local motels and to provide provisions to eat.

His calculations on finding an average non-busy town to stay and start saving up money again to carrying to keep traveling were disappointing. So they stuck to the open road, with the saved money he had dwindled quickly.

And before they knew it they had only enough money for gas to travel near Magnolia. To save money, they slept in the Cadillac or by a flickering fire huddled up in an old blanket. He then started doubting his motives, her trust and his strength. She was so angry at him that night.

After her yelling session she kissed him. With tears running down her cheeks.

She kissed him again gently and asked him "I wouldn't be able to be with you. Don't break my heart and wish you weren't here with me."

He grabbed her and pulled her into a long embrace, feeling his throat become dry.

"I only wish for you to be happy" he rasped.

And the two peacefully slept that night. The next morning, in their tattered clothing's but new ambition they were on the road again.

"We need to get jobs." The blonde said to him behind her sunglasses, riding alongside him in the blue Cadillac.

He glanced to her in the corner of his eye and let a sigh. "That would mean we would stay in a town for a week or two." He stated the obvious.

She faced him and pulled her shades down "We need money Natsu." She said in a low voice.

He didn't glance to her that time. Just nodded and mumbled "I'm afraid we'll be caught."

She gazed at him and back to the road. "I am too you know." She whispered against the wind, but loud enough for him to hear.

His frown deepened. They continued driving until Natsu spotted a gas station ahead with a convenience store next door. He smiled slightly and changed into gear before grabbing onto Lucy's hand; startled she looked to him and then looked to the direction to where he was looking.

"I have an idea." He said.

Pulling into the parking area he grabbed his wallet and turned to Lucy "I know this sounds weird but meet me in the mother's room in the bathroom. I'll be there in a few."

She nodded slowly not really sure of what will take place. She then wrapped a scarf around her head in case someone would spot her and she dashed to the bathrooms. Natsu watched her dash and he quickly tucked his pink locks under a baseball cap and then put his jackets hood over that as well.

He walked into the convenience warily and quickly looked over his shoulder to see who was at the counter. He sighed in relief to see a young blonde headed teen playing on his cell phone. He made a b-line to the isle where he could find hair products. He carefully studied each box and chose the ones that appealed to him. He looked over his shoulder and saw another person behind the counter; this boy though had black shaggy hair.

Picking up on their conversation he started to worry

"Sting get off your phone before you get caught again" the dark headed boy said.

"Yeah yeah Rogue, just wait a minute. Yukino just texted me that some heiress in Konvern ran away with some guy. There's like this huge bounty for the guy and the heiress's dad is offering big money for his daughter back."

Rogue moved in next to him to look at his phone. "Serious?"

Sting moved back slightly smirking at him "Interested much?"

The dark headed boy rolled his eyes "Of course. I would love to get rich easy and leave this dump"

Sting laughed at him heartily and got startled when a certain hooded person dropped his items on the counter. Rogue stifled a laugh and moved away so Sting could work. Sting glared at the hooded man and beeped through his items. Confused at the two colours of hair dye he looked up to the suspicious teen.

"What's with the two different hair colourings bud?" he asked

Natsu looked up "Girlfriend messed my hair up the first time. There's a good chance she'll mess up the second"

Sting laughed at him forgetting he was slightly irritated at the hooded man. He tried to look at his hair peeking out from his hat "Dude she made it pink?! Tell you what I'll give you a 15% off deal. That'll be 120 Jewels."

Natsu smiled and handed him the money "Thanks man. You saved my ass."

Natsu quickly rushed to the Mothers room to meet with Lucy.

Once in, he saw her pushing herself off the wall she was leaning on. He took his hood and cap off and lifted his packet in front of her.

"So do you want Brown hair or Red?" he asked smiling.

She smirked at him "Brown"

"Nathan, clean up at table seven" an older male called in the diner.

"Sure Gildarts!" young teen came through the kitchen. His spikey Red Hair poked in several directions.

He walked past his employer and playfully punched him in the arm. The older man punched him back harder, knocking the red head off his feet. Gildarts boomed out laughing at the sight.

"Oi you old Geezer, is this how you treat your daughter?" the red head asked

The older man smirked and brought a whiskey flask to his lips despite the time being 10am.

"And do you always moan like a child in front of your girlfriend?" Gildarts countered

The Red Headed boy stuck out his tongue and continued to work in the diner. The night time, he noticed, was quieter than usual as he observed while peering out the window to glance at the town. It had been a few weeks since they had arrived to the town and had introduced themselves under different names.
Natsu and Lucy were close to gathering up money again. Through the few weeks they decided to head to Magnolia. As it was the only town in Fiore that wasn't run by Crocus Capital.

They would be safe there. They could start anew.

The coming late night was catching up to him, he was ready to go to his motel room. He sighed tiredly while he collected the dishes and stepped in front of Gildarts for further instruction. The middle aged man stared at the young man as if he had something on his face. Not far off though, he brought his hand up to Natsu's head and yanked him forward by this hair.

"WHAT THE HELL OLD MAN!" Natsu yelled in pain.

Gildarts inspected his hair and let go of it "So that's not your natural hair colour." He observed.

Natsu gulped "Uh… yeah… well as you can see I have an embarrassing natural colour so…"

"- And I'm guessing Layla isn't a brunette either." He said plainly.

Natsu felt like he was punched in the stomach. Gildarts looked at him with a blank stare, it felt like an eternity of silence. Gildarts shook his head disappointingly and looked at the red headed boy.

"You kids don't respect your bodies at all."

Natsu so badly wanted to let out a sigh but nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Hahaha, yeah we weren't thinking when we did it."

Natsu spotted two girls coming toward the diner and his smile grew to its limit. Two brunette girls walked in but he only paid attention to the one wearing her hair in a high side pony tail. From the looks of it, some new blonde hairs poking out of her roots. Her brown orbs though still the same always; looked into his soul and still gave him goose bumps. Although missing Lucy's blonde sunlight hair, he admits the brunette colour suited her too.

He smiled at her lovingly but was interrupted by a punch in the arm. Though it wasn't Gildarts.

"Nathan stop being a pervert, my old man and I are here too you." A female voice said after she punched him.

The girl who was standing next to his girlfriend was a girl of their age and sporting a very inappropriate outfit of a bikini top and jeans that reached her knees. Her hair was a rich chocolate brown and was slightly wavy. She held a beer bottle in the one hand and stunk of booze.

"Don't show up to the diner drunk. I don't care that Gildarts is your dad, you're scaring off customers and my girlfriend"

She smiled cheekily threw her tongue out and wrapped her arm around Lucy's waist, earning a growl from Natsu.

"Fine fine, I get it" she said throwing her arms in the air and stepping away from the former blonde. "By the way Layla thanks for helping me at the store. See you tomorrow for our shift." Cana said before gorging herself in her beer and walking to the kitchen.

Once the couple was alone Natsu closed the distance between them and concealed her in a hug. She snuggled in his shoulder, letting out a sigh. They had been closer these past few weeks, finding the town was a good idea although their visit was expiring, upsetting the both of them. Gildarts and Cana definitely made them feel at home.

"I wish we could stay like this." she mumbled

'Yeah that would be nice' Natsu thought

…

Sirens blared from a distance.

Things happened so fast.

Natsu was never the type to be afraid.

But he was terrified.

They were happily in each other's arms sleeping in their Motel room before they heard persistent knocker at their door. Frightened Lucy passed her side lamp to Natsu as a weapon. Taking it he crept to the door that suddenly was stopped being knocked on. Natsu looked Lucy again mouthing to her to get ready to run.

"Nathan open up." a familiar voice said. Natsu opened the door to find Gildarts in a rush.

"I know who you two are." He said coldly.

Natsu was ready to hit his 'friend' before Gildarts held his hand up. "I'm helping you kids out, so put the lamp down."

Hesitantly he lowered his hand holding the lamp.

"Why should we trust you?" Lucy said behind Natsu.

The older man looked behind him to check if the coast is still clear. "Because I know a thing or two about love, Miss Heartfilia of Konzern"

Shocking them both the older man kept surveying the area. "Listen you two. Someone informed the police you're here. They are checking all the residents' houses and other motels as we speak. You need to get out of here this instance!"

Natsu turned to Lucy with panic in his eyes. They didn't save enough to get to Magnolia, it was a three day trip and they had to pay for residency there; which wasn't cheap. They had no choice though.

Lucy already gathered her there things and ran up next to Natsu and Gildarts. The older man smiled at the two and brought his fist to Natsu's face and he dropped an item from his hand. Natsu instinctively caught the item which was revealed to be a bundle of money. Lucy's mouth became dry and tried to protest.

"Gildarts we can't-"

"You can and you will." He interrupted

Gildarts grabbed the two in a bear hug and bid them kind words before they got in Natsu's Cadillac.

"Will we be okay?" Natsu asked referring to the road being clear for their escape.

"Cana should already be starting with a distraction at the local bar. It'll only give you a few minutes. You better rev it kid to lose them." Gildarts explained.

Natsu nodded and Lucy teared up while they said their last words of departure and a message of thanks to Cana.

Natsu started up the car and floored it on the accelerator, jerking them forward onto the road, leaving Gildarts behind in the dust. Flying onto the main road they quickly left the town with ease but by the minutes that passed Gildarts thoughts where correct. Sirens screamed out behind them and the Blue Cadillac was trying to push itself a fare distance away from them, trying so hard to shake them off.

Ten minutes in they were getting closer and closer.

How would they get away?

Natsu smiled "I'm an idiot"

Lucy looked at him anxiously "Natsu?"

He smiled brighter than ever before "Listen I forgot about an item I bought, it's in the back of the car. When I say 'now', take the wheel and get into the driver's seat okay"

Her heart was thumping so hard it made her whole body quiver. She nodded and readied herself.

Natsu pulled down the soft top of the car and yelled out and she grabbed the wheel immediately and saw him climb on the rear of the car. She kept at the same speed and steadied the car so he wouldn't fall off, oh how she prayed he wouldn't fall off. The young man tried to grip the car with all his might and pop the door up to receive the packet he's searching for. Their sleeping bags unfortunately flew out but he managed to close it before anything else fell out. Closing it he almost lost his grip but adjusted his foot to lock with the seat belt to steady himself.

He grabbed the container out the plastic packet and let it fly off into the dark. With what little light he got, he opened the container to reveal large nails. Grinning evilly he scattered them behind the car so the police vehicles would stumble on them.

Once he cleared the large container he pulled himself into the passenger seat. He noticed Lucy's face morphed in concentration mixed with fright and he lay his hand on her shoulder to ease her slightly.

"Notice anything different?" Natsu said while looking behind them.

She glanced in all the mirrors and noticed the slights dimming down behind them. She smiled widely and looked over to Natsu.

"And you said they wouldn't be necessary." She joked while her heart was still flying.

He grinned at her as he always did, canine teeth and all.

"I love you" he said while laughing against the cold wind blowing in his face.

She couldn't contain the heat rising to her cheeks "I love you too."

Giving her a kiss on her blushing cheek they kept riding along the road they've grown to love. The Blue Cadillac brought them so much Happiness within the course of their travels and with plenty determination they'd arrive in Magnolia in a few days.

The sunrise was so beautiful that morning, so full of hope. They never for a moment thought, "Will the sun rise today?" because they knew it would.

These two had the same mind-set, they knew happiness would eventually rise up and shine brightly upon them.

It was a thought swirling around my head when I listened to my Tracy Chaplin CD a few months ago. The song was entitled "Fast Car". The story isn't based on it but some lyrics reached me and it turned into this.

[JBB: DUDE! I LOVE THAT SONG, I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO IT FOR DAYS! TWIN POWER FOREVER!]

I'll be working on my normal stories after this but I'll be back for the remaining chapters I promised to do.

Next theme is about Video Games.

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