Chapter 10: Like a Flame

Oh, she got both feet on the ground and she's burning it down. Oh, she got her head in the clouds and she's not backing down. This girl is on fire.

Happy was flying him over the city when Natsu first realized how incredibly impossible Lucy was.

They were in the middle of a mission, a little something to blow steam off. After his conversation with Gajeel, the last thing the boy needed was another idle afternoon in Magnolia.

Especially when they were usually filled with the three of them in the Strawberry Street apartment, talking and laughing and just being together, like some sort of… family.

Natsu looked down, shaking his head to disperse such thoughts, and stared at the scene that slowly unfolded in the ground.

Happy had stopped in midair, chuckling at any attempt the dragon slayer made to land.

"Let's go, Happy! It's a fight!" He tried once again, excitedly shaking his legs in the empty space under them.

The exceed wasn't convinced, because he just flew higher, smiling.

"Yeah! It's her fight!"

It wasn't everyday that Happy demonstrated his affection towards Lucy, preferring to shower her with off-hand insults and little jabs; he was still a child, after all. And then there were moments like this, when he came up with some strangely accurate insight, and that was when he proved how truly he cared for the girl.

Happy's words brought Natsu's attention back to where two of the thieves were.

They had been hired to defeat a group of criminals who'd been causing trouble in the more commercial side of Kunugi. After a brief confrontation, those two had run away. They were the only mages in the bunch, but there was a greater number of thugs than expected and Lucy ended up being the one to chase the deserters, leaving Natsu to take care of the others.

The two had gone down a dead end and turned around to realize Lucy was already behind them, one of her keys in her hand. She was about to summon whatever spirit it belonged to, but was interrupted by the men – they looked so alike that it was probable they were brothers – who joined hands as they pointed in her direction.

Their magic was weird, the boy decided. It obviously depended on their physical contact, as if the link between them was their source of power.

"Close gate of the twins, Gemini!"

The beam of light hit the sidewalk as the Lucy that had previously stood there disappeared.

There was a moment of disorientation while Natsu searched the ground for his partner. She had used Gemini in order to disguise her actual position, but the mages wouldn't be confused for long and every cell in the boy's body told him that the blonde should make her move soon, before the surprise wore off.

He really shouldn't have worried.

"Virgo, now!" Just like that, a hole opened and closed under the more muscular man; he screamed as the ground swallowed him.

His partner dropped to the ground, digging into the freshly fluffed soil, but it was no use. As if the man, too, had come to this conclusion, he got up, taking a sort of wand from within his pocket. The thing was nothing special, thin and dark, with a single strand of hair encircling it.

In a second, it was out of his hands.

The whip came out of nowhere, wrapping around the object and pulling it towards Lucy, who was sitting on the edge of another hole, a few meters away.

She smiled.

"Cute. That's what your magic is about, then, blood connection. You guys are twins, right? I have one of those, as well." She got up, dusting herself off as the man's expression turned from shock to rage.

He charged, throwing his whole upper body forward in an attempt to tackle the celestial mage, but she simply moved to the side, letting him crash against the wall behind her. The criminal seemed more prepared than she expected, though, and changed directions.

This time, Lucy did a sideways handstand, before landing back on her feet.

She'd been training. Natsu knew that because of her sudden absences and because of the lean muscle that had started to appear in certain parts of her body that had been mainly soft curves mere months earlier. He hadn't confronted the girl about it, knowing that it was one of those things she had to do for and by herself.

Seeing the results of it all, though, the dragon slayer couldn't stop his grin.

Lucy Heartfilia was impossible.

She was a princess, most of the time, with her obsession about cleanness and clothes and pretty things. She was a sort of person he'd never met before. Most of the girls in the guild seemed too invested in their fights to care about what they wore or how they looked. And if they did care, they made a great job of hiding it.

But Lucy was girly. She liked to cook, enjoyed fashion, despised filth. She was supposed to be soft and a bit dependent, not because she wasn't powerful, but because her brains were more important to her than her brawn.

It was a weakness of her, so she adapted.

"This was fun," The girl laughed, escaping another punch. "but I'm in a hurry." She grabbed her attacker's wrist, using his own strength to redirect it and crash it into a wooden box. The fist got stuck, making it possible for Lucy to distance herself from the man. "My turn."

The celestial mage smirked as she pulled out one of her keys.

"Open gate of the Golden Bull, Taurus!"

"That was awesome." Natsu commented, landing by her side and throwing an arm around Lucy's shoulders as she finished tying the criminals' hands. "You've gotten better with that defensive kind of thing."

Through his touch, he felt the girl chuckle, the sound muffled by the murmurs of the crowd that was already gathering. Despite the sheen of sweat that covered her brow, Lucy seemed fairly unaffected by the fight.

"Well, I defend, my spirits attack. It's not like I have your raw power." She huffed, lightly thrusting her elbow into his ribs. "But that wore me out. I don't have enough stamina to hold that many spirits for long."

The boy glanced at her, watching as Taurus threw the tied up men over his shoulder.

"How many were you using today?"

She turned to smile at him, grabbing the hand that fell over her collarbones and pulling it in a signal for them to move.

"Back in the commercial center? Three or four, depending on the time. When I followed the twins, I lowered it to just Gemini and Virgo."

They were walking back to City Council, where the people who'd hired them promised to wait as they finished the job. The citizens around the mages talked excitedly, apparently recognizing their guild's mark. There were catcalls and laughs, but their reactions were mainly positive; after everything that happened in the Magic Games, it was good to see proof of Fairy Tails' growing reputation.

"So that's where you'd disappeared to? Underground tunnels?"

Lucy nodded, averting her eyes from his to look at Happy, who had flown over them and towards Taurus.

"You're not so stupid, anymore." The exceed interjected, smiling in that way of his.

"What are you talking about?! Rude cat!" She yelled back at him, releasing Natsu's hand and throwing her fist in the air.

He laughed, retreating his wings.

"You studied battle strategy. You've gotten better at it." He tried again, looking up at the girl from where he'd landed. "The hole technique worked this time."

This seemed to remind Lucy of something, because a warm redness rushed to her cheeks, and she pouted. Instead of being irritated, however, the comment made something akin to pride appear in her eyes.

"Was that an attempt to compliment me?"

Happy grinned, but there was just innocence in his eyes.

"Aye!"

The three laughed, silent for a moment as they crossed the bridge leading to the more residential area of Kunugi.

"Happy's right, though. Those moves were incredible!" Natsu jumped in place, trying to disguise his stare for something other than his new-found attraction.

Even if she was tired, Lucy still looked beautiful. There was something about her flushed appearance, about her wind swept hair and quick breathing that made the dragon slayer want to touch her, to just reach out and brush a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, so he would be able to lean down and bite into that point in her neck where he could almost see an artery pulsing with her heartbeats.

What would it feel like against his lips, against his tongue?

"Natsu?"

He blinked, realizing by the girl's concerned tone that he must have been staring. Happy was flying again, behind Lucy, while trying to muffle his laugh in his pawns.

"I just wanted to say that you were amazing today, Luce!" The boy grinned, tightening his grip around her shoulders and pulling her nearer.

Her gaze remained fixed at him for a moment before she shifted it to the ground, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. There was a new surge of color in her cheeks and the idea that he'd been the one to cause it made Natsu feel strangely pleased.

"I- I'm trying really hard." She confessed. "You're all so strong that I just… Sometimes I just feel like I need to work harder."

Lucy sighed, bringing a hand to smooth down her hair. She seemed anxious, as if this had all been a test and the results would be coming out soon. The boy frowned at her expression, feeling surprised and a bit irritated that his partner still felt the need to prove herself, despite how long they'd been friends.

"This is our life, Luce." He started, turning to face her fully, his arm slipping back to his side. "We fight because we want to, because we are mages. And yes, we need to work to improve, but it's for ourselves, not because we need others' approval."

She smiled, but all her mirth was gone.

"That's easy for you to say, Natsu, you are one of the most powerful mages I've ever met."

The compliment caught him off guard and the dragon slayer found himself unable to play it off. He gulped, feeling as Lucy grabbed onto his vest and traced the pattern of the fabric, obviously unaware of the sensations it caused in his body.

"That's because Natsu needs to be the greatest in order to find Igneel!" Happy waved from the ground, round eyes staring at them with doubt; he didn't understand why the two had stopped, especially since Taurus had continued to drag the criminals' unconscious bodies to the City Council.

His explanation seemed to awake something in Lucy, because she looked up once again, eyeing the dragon slayer with curiosity.

"Yes, Igneel…" She hesitated. "Why aren't you looking for him?"

Happy seemed even more confused by her question; it hadn't been long since the last dragon rumor and they had pursued it until there wasn't a single person left to interrogate about the "scaled monster". It'd turned out to be a magically mutated lizard, nothing else.

Natsu, however, understood what the girl meant.

He'd stopped travelling as much as he'd done in the years previous to Lucy's appearance in his life and he knew Levy had told the blonde about it.

The boy smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

"I guess I just realized Igneel wouldn't want me to live like that. You are more than just a mage, you know? You write, you go other places besides the guild…" He covered her hand with his where it held onto the vest, and their eyes met. "I decided I wanted that too, a life apart from Fairy Tail."

They smiled at each other.

"Yeah! Like Alzack and Bisca!" Exclaimed the blue exceed, already turning to follow the path Taurus had taken.

Lucy dropped her gaze to the ground, embarrassed by Happy's comparison. If Natsu had also made that connection, he said nothing, choosing to pull on her hand, forcing the girl to run with him, like he'd done that first time, in Hargeon.

She laughed, finding it humorous that, this time, they were running towards the city's officials, instead of running from them.

"Oh, Luce," Natsu began, looking at her over his shoulder. She met his eyes, grinning. "Today, it was like you were…"

He seemed to be at a loss for words, so the girl chimed in.

"All fired up?"

The dragon slayer must have caught the amusement in her tone, because he chuckled.

"Yeah!"

Unstoppable, like a flame, Natsu recognized in a more secluded part of his mind. And what a meal she would be.

So, I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter; partly because I suck at action, partly because I've been horribly busy this past week. However, here it is. I hope everyone will like it, though.

A big thanks for every reviewer and every reader, you guys cheer me up so much.

The song, as everyone who isn't living under a rock probably knows, is Girl on fire, by Alicia Keys.