"Just a little more than one day now Natsu." said Wendy, they were back at the inn and Wendy was in her favorite position, resting comfortable with her back against Natsu's knees. She could feel Natsu's excitement through the trembling of his knees.
"You bet! Just watch me in my battles, it's going to be a clean sweep every match!" Wendy giggled and nodded.
"Yes I bet you will be excellent dimwit." she said mocking him.
"Well so will you of course, you're so strong now." he answered slamming his fists together to prove his point.
"I guess so, but I don't like fighting so I hope I don't have to all that much." Natsu sighed, but he knew Wendy really didn't like fighting so he understood.
"Don't worry Natsu, though I really don't like to fight. I like watching your battles." She said before she rose from her position. She kissed him before she walked up to their room.
"Hey Natsu cool down on your couple thingy why don't ya?" called Max. That was all it took to start a fight. Natsu turned on him and delivered the first blow. Max blocked it easily with his sand.
"Don't you forget that I'm just as strong as you are at the moment!" Max seemed confident, until Natsu delivered the second blow and he was blown away by the force.
"You said you were just as powerful as me right? Well you might have been, but that was 2 months ago." he turned to follow Wendy upstairs leaving a knocked out Max lying in the corner of the bar. He found Wendy fully changed lying in the bed with a comfortable smile. She could have been fast asleep the way it looked, but Natsu knew better. During the few nights that they'd shared she had never fallen asleep without him.
"Hey." he said and she opened her eyes.
"Yeah?"
"You know you don't have to do this right?" he asked.
"I might not like fighting all that much, but I still want to be on the team to. It's my way of testing myself. I want to know that I can do something for myself and not just be the one who needs rescuing all the time." he sighed before joining her in the bed.
"You know you're not like that." was the last thing Natsu said before falling asleep.
"Hey you two the master said that he had something to tell us." said Erza effectively waking the two up. Wendy blinked and looked at Natsu who was smiling.
"Midnight the tournament starts." Wendy said, Natsu nodded before they both got out of bed.
"Here you go Erza you gotta read this by tonight." said Makarov throwing Erza a brick sized book. It was all the rules of the tournament.
"Why couldn't you have given this to me before?" demanded Erza.
"I forgot." said Makarov before charging off to pee.
"Don't worry Erza, I'll finish it." said Levy producing a pair of windreading glasses from her bag. Jet and Droy shouted levy's name in admiration and affection and Erza sighed in relief.
"I'll leave it to you then."
Just half an hour later Levy was ready to rum up the most important rules of the tournament.
"The one that you need to worry about the most is that you have to stay at your dormitories at midnight tonight." She said and the five mages all nodded.
"Well if we all have until midnight today," Lucy started.
"Then the rest of the time we can do whatever we want!" yelled Natsu ready to spend the last day before the tournament with Wendy.
"Stop right there Salamander!" it was Charle, one of the few who still called Natsu for Salamander.
"Today is the last day before the tournament starts which means that it is my last chance to spend time with her." She pointed to Wendy.
"Charle is right," said Wendy.
"I haven't spent and time with here these last weeks and I won't get to ether during the tournament." Natsu sighed and kissed Wendy before he watched the two of the walk out through the doors of the inn together.