Author's Note:
Hi everyone! It's Sunday! And that means a brand new chapter! :D And I can't believe I'm actually able to get this out earlier in the day than usual.
As always, HUGE thanks to all my WONDERFUL reviewers! Big hugs and kisses to: SistershoOK, valerioux, Anna5949, OhtaSuzuke, Stormy Lights, stranger1999, H2o2000, Daydream-wannabewriter, Konasuki Profitt, Writer in the Meadow, waiting-for-you443, illleashya, I12Bfree, NaLuAlways26, FireShifter, ManderNaner, Chibi-Lazy14, CrazyZaika, ABT4Life, Mishy1824, Karmitara, dani-yell10, UzumakiDavis27, NebelTeddyBear, CodenameMise, fairyblue1132, Andria Justus Haynie, Katnibal94, quidditchChick6, Trottingham-sama, zahad dragneel, Lucinda, Catleana, Leomae2.0, PandoraJ, and Jonahziuss! You're all amazing!
Alrighty! I know you're eager to get on with the show, so without further delay, let's get to it! And stay tuned till the end for the sneak peek of next chapter. ;D
Much to Lucy's relief, things actually seemed to go back to normal over the next few days. She, Natsu, Happy, and Gray even went on a short 2-day mission – not necessarily because she wanted to, but because she needed to for rent. However, though she'd had some trepidation about going on a mission so soon, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise and actually helped to normalize everything. There was definitely some awkwardness and tension between her and Natsu on the first day, but by the time the mission was finished, things had almost completely blown over.
Their normal banter was perhaps a bit more subdued, and there was still a hint of a shadow hanging over them, but she supposed that would simply take time to dissipate completely. Personally, she was mostly working under the strategy of simply pretending like that night had never happened. For that matter, she was trying to mentally deny the entire episode, including all the days leading up to the final night. Whenever a memory flashed through her mind – usually brought about by a random touch or when she was trying to go to sleep – she shoved it down into the heavily armored safe where she stored all her less than platonic feelings for Natsu.
So far it had worked pretty well.
…
Except that Natsu knew Lucy was pretending it hadn't happened.
He might come off as dumb when it came to people's feelings, but that was probably because he was impulsive and didn't usually think before he said or did something.
When it came to Lucy, he was always pretty in tune to how she was feeling, so he knew good and well that she was still upset about what he'd done. She might have forgiven him, but she refused to talk about it…. And whenever she avoided talking about something, it was usually something that made her sad or upset.
So he'd stopped trying to bring it up, because he didn't want to make her unhappy. More than anything, he wanted her to get comfortable with him again. It seemed like they'd gone back to the way they had been before, but he could feel the space she kept between them – like she'd built up a bunch of walls or something to hide behind. Tension made the air smell sour, and it really got under his skin and wore on his nerves.
But even though he kept his trap shut about it, he couldn't pretend like it hadn't happened… not to himself anyways. Everything that had gone down had made some big changes in him that wouldn't be going away – ever – so it was pretty impossible for him to just go back to the way things were, even if that was what she wanted.
All the emotions that were sparked had turned into a full-blown fire in his gut. They'd already been there, but he just hadn't ever really put two-and-two together before. 'Course, there was no way in hell he could miss such a huge clue as him picking her as his mate. Igneel had told him that if he ever did choose a mate, it was the person he was meant to be with for the rest of his life.
To be honest, he was pretty shocked that he hadn't realized he was in love with her before that, but…well…he'd never really had those sorts of feelings before, so he'd always just figured that Lucy was his super-extra-special friend that he cared for more than anyone else. It hadn't ever crossed his mind that what he was feeling was love…but that's definitely what it was. Maybe he should have figured it out when he couldn't picture life without her, or when it hurt so damn bad to leave her behind for that year of training. He might've set off on that little adventure all enthusiastically without really thinking about it – but a couple weeks into it, he'd started dreaming about her and missing her waaaaay more than he'd ever thought possible. That was probably why he'd thrown himself into training so hard… 'cause he was trying to distract himself.
So… now he was left with a really irritating problem. He had to keep his feelings to himself for a while, even though that wasn't what he wanted to do at all. If it wouldn't freak Lucy out, he would have told her he loved her as soon as he figured it out, but she obviously didn't want that. She had to know his feelings after he'd made her his mate, so the only thing he could figure was that she didn't feel the same about him.
That wouldn't stop him from pursuing her of course – he definitely planned to change her mind – but he assumed she probably needed a little time to come to terms with the idea. So, he kept himself from bringing up any of that stuff while they were on their mission.
Weirdly enough though, the thought never even crossed his mind that he shouldn't visit her later that night after they'd returned to Magnolia.
As usual, when they came back from their mission, he hung out at the guildhall longer than her – picking fights and having fun – and by the time he was done, it was dark outside and Lucy had already gone home. Without even thinking about it, his feet led the way to Lucy's apartment instead of his house when he and Happy left.
If he'd been paying better attention, or maybe had a better mind frame, he might've figured out that he probably shouldn't go barging in there so soon. But no, he hadn't really thought about that.
When he hopped through the window, he very nearly fell right back out and instantly had second thoughts about how good an idea this was. His hesitance had nothing to do with Lucy yelling at him from where she'd jumped out of bed though. No… it had everything to do with their combined scent still hanging around in the room, especially around the bed. 'Course, that was where he landed after entering the window, so he immediately got smacked in the nose with the smell of sweat, blood, and sex.
It had faded a lot, but it was still definitely around – even under the soap that she'd used to wash the sheets with.
The reminder was both jarring and arousing… which kinda made him feel like shit, 'cause he definitely shouldn't be getting aroused by that particular memory. But, there were still those lingering instincts that told him he had to finish what he'd started with her. He was usually able to keep them shoved to the back of his mind, but the smell had brought it all forwards… which was uncomfortable and more than a little dangerous.
After a whole lotta huffing and puffing from Lucy – which Natsu mostly ignored because he had better things to worry about, like not jumping her – she eventually gave in and asked, "Oh whatever. What are you doing here anyways?"
"What do ya mean? I'm just doing what I always do."
"Sneaking into my room hoping to spend the night?" she asked sourly.
"Well…yeah. Duh."
"Ugh! Do you really think that's a good idea?! I mean…"
He cringed when she trailed off and finally realized this was a pretty bad idea. But what else was he supposed to do?
Thinking fast, he spat out the first thing that came to mind – desperate to get permission to stay. "But you're the one who said you wanted things to go back to normal. This is normal."
She sputtered around for a moment and then barked, "Yeah, and I'm reacting the way I always do! I'm always mad whenever you sneak in here without permission at night!"
"Alright, alright…I'll sleep on the couch." he grumbled and hopped off the bed – secretly super relieved to put a little space between it and his nose.
"What?! What makes you think that's okay?!"
"That's where you always put me right?"
"I…well…yeah but…I normally don't even give you permission!"
"Aw come on Luce…let me stay. Please?"
"No!"
"Pleeeeaaase?"
"No!"
It didn't look like she was going to budge anytime soon, so he stopped joking around and got serious. His next request came out almost as a whisper and sounded way too close to begging for his comfort.
"Please let me stay…"
At least it worked, because she immediately got less angry and her eyes widened in surprise.
After a long silence, she quietly asked, "Why do you want to stay so badly?"
It looked like he was going to have to fess up to at least part of the reason he wanted to be here so badly, or else she wasn't going to let him stay.
"I've been having some bad dreams…about you gettin' hurt. If I'm here, I can make sure you're okay when I wake up…" he finally confessed, feeling a little awkward and embarrassed about it. He kinda preferred keeping that kind of stuff secret.
"Oh…"
After a pause, Natsu risked asking, "So…can I stay?"
"Fine…" she sighed and plopped back into bed. "But you're sleeping on the couch. If you even think of getting in bed with me, you'll be out of here so fast your head will spin… and you won't be sleeping over again."
"Aye Sir!"
"I'm serious Natsu…"
"I promise! I'll stay over here. I won't move from the couch till morning. And Happy can even sleep on my chest, so if I try to sleep-walk he'll wake up and then wake me up. Right little buddy?"
When he didn't get a response, he spun to see that Happy was already curled up on the couch sound asleep. With a frown he marched over to him and picked him up.
"Wha…? Natsu?"
"Happy, I need you to do something very important for me. Wake up so I can tell ya."
His friend's eyes popped open and looked at him with a lot more alertness. "What's wrong?"
"I want you to sleep on top of me, so if I try to sleep-walk over to Lucy you'll wake up and can wake me up. I'm staying on the couch tonight."
"Oh…okay. I can do that. But are you sure you waaaaaant me to?"
Normally his partner's jokes didn't faze him, but tonight wasn't the time for that. "This is serious Happy. I've gotta prove to Luce that I can keep my promise… otherwise she won't trust us enough to let us stay the night ever again."
The grin on Happy's face immediately dropped and he went wide-eyed instead. "What?! No way…that's no fun. I'll definitely make sure you stay on the couch!"
"Thanks." he said with a relieved smile and then turned to face Luce. "See?"
She eyeballed them for a moment and then finally got back into bed and yanked the covers over her. "Alright then…I'm holding you to that."
"Yeah…me too," he whispered to himself a little later, after he'd also laid down and Happy had fallen asleep on his chest.
It took a good long while for Luce to fall asleep… he could hear her quietly grumbling to herself for a long time after they'd both settled down.
He didn't really like knowing that he was upsetting her, but this felt like a step in the right direction to getting her comfortable with him again. Plus…the truth was he really couldn't stand sleeping so far away from her. He'd learned that the hard way when she left his house that day he woke up from being in heat.
There was more to it than just the bad dreams… his instincts were still yelling at him that she was his mate and he hadn't claimed her properly. Being away from her for too long made him feel very, very uncomfortable. It was closest to the kind of discomfort he'd had at the very beginning of being in heat, and he could stand it if he had to, but he really didn't want to.
That first day back, it had been downright torture to let her leave. He was pretty sure he hadn't slept more than a few minutes that night with all the tossing and turning…. which naturally kept getting his ass dumped out of his hammock. That was the main reason he had insisted they get a job right away, because he knew they would either rent a room together or at least next to each other, and he could be closer to her. So the very next day – after they got Happy's fish – he'd practically dragged her to the mission board and picked out something.
Even then, sleeping in separate rooms had put him on edge and made him pissy to the point that he and Gray nearly destroyed their room at least ten times.
He might be able to mostly control his leftover instincts and urges, but he was gonna have to learn how to live with being extra clingy, protective, and possessive. That stuff would probably go away after he'd finished mating with her, but who knew when that was going to happen? So, she was just gonna have to deal with him having a few more sleepovers than usual… though he would be making absolutely sure he stuck to the couch.
If he broke his promise and ended up hopping into bed with her… he didn't know how many of his instincts would get woken up or how strong they'd be. There was no way in hell he'd ever put her through that kind of situation again.
But it was still worth it to sleep here… even with the danger and his instincts yelling at him to go over there and finish what he'd started. Her scent soothed him as much as it riled him up, and he quickly felt himself starting to fall asleep.
A dream hit him fast and hard as soon as he lost consciousness. Lucy's scent swamped him, and he felt like he was drowning in it… but in the best way. It was dark, and he wasn't really sure where they were exactly… but she was under him and his head was buried in her neck and he couldn't care less about anything else.
The brief thought that there was some reason why he shouldn't be doing this went through his mind, but he brushed it off.
His hands and lips moved without his say-so, and it didn't take him long to realize she was basically naked with all the skin he could feel. It kinda felt like he was pretty naked too. Everything was a bit fuzzy though, as if he was watching this from a distance while experiencing it first-hand, and he had no control over anything that happened. He felt like an observer in his own body – which was pretty weird – but he was so wrapped up in everything that he didn't really care.
Except…he started to care a lot more when he realized that Lucy was yelling and crying and begging him to stop. At that point, the dream almost became a nightmare, as he tried to do what she asked but failed miserably.
He was panicking, absolutely horrified, and yet… every part of him was alive with fire and felt so good he couldn't stop. He was a monster. How could he enjoy this when Lucy was obviously scared and upset? Desperately he clawed at himself, trying to get himself under control, but it just wasn't happening.
Then, something finally clicked. This was a dream, it had to be. It wasn't real…except…it felt so damn real. It was so much more vivid than a dream, there was way too much detail…something was off.
'Wake up…I have to wake up…wake up damn it!' he shouted, but nothing came out and he couldn't tear himself away. It was like Lucy's scent had trapped him and was forcing him to do these things to her that he loved and she hated.
And then, he was ripping off her underwear, and his dick was out and pressed against her, and his heart was pounding so hard he thought for sure it had to wake him up. 'No, god…please…no…don't make me…'
And then finally, whatever spell had him in its grip shattered as she screamed, "No!" and he recognized something different in her voice. He'd thought she sounded scared before… but compared to her last scream, all the others had been super weak – like she hadn't really meant them.
He was finally able to stop and look up at her, but when he met her eyes he wished he hadn't. They were full of tears that he'd caused, and she looked so scared that he kinda wanted to kill himself. Something else swamped him though, something weird and primal and not normal at all. The beast that had taken him over – which he guessed was the dragon part of him – howled in absolute pain. It'd ignored her protests before, because somehow it still thought she was accepting his advances… as if it hadn't sensed actual rejection in her body language or tone.
It sure as hell did now though, and the feeling was kind of like being kicked in the balls. It was that same sort of gut-wrenching shock of pain and his insides twisting. His heart sunk into his stomach and felt like it was burning or dissolving or something, and he wanted to just curl up and die.
Before he knew what he was saying, words were spilling out of his mouth. "You don't want me?"
As he watched, her face totally changed. The fear slowly left her expression, and shock replaced it – which meant her eyes went wide and her lips parted. The surprise softened everything… but her face kept getting even softer as it was slowly taken over by something else… something warm and gentle and burning and wonderful that made everything right with the world again and completely erased his pain from before.
And then she whispered, "…of course I want you. Idiot…I love you."
He could've figured that out just by her expression, but hearing her say it made him feel like he was melting inside… and he couldn't remember the last time he'd been so happy. It was wonderful and amazing and awesome and perfect… up until his instincts woke back up and made him ridiculously horny and out of control again. Then, everything turned into a mess of heat and lust and pleasure.
As soon as he shoved himself inside her, he woke with a gasp and jerked upright – which knocked Happy off him of course.
"Wha…Natsu? What're you doin'?" he asked sleepily from the floor.
"Oh uh…nothin'. Just a bad dream." he told his companion and scooped him back onto his chest. "Go back to sleep."
"Kay…"
A few seconds later he was snoring soundly, which left Natsu staring up at the ceiling and doing his absolute best to ignore the raging hard-on between his legs. Making himself busy by trying to figure out what the hell just happened helped – though the memory of it definitely didn't. All he could figure was that he'd just remembered something he had forgotten about that damned night, and it'd come out in a dream. If that was true, then Luce really had said those things and she really loved him…which would make things so much easier. Then he could be with her and wouldn't have to wait for her to feel the same way he did.
That thought kept him awake for the rest of the night.
…
The next morning, Lucy woke to find two very strange things. One, Natsu had not crawled in bed with her. Instead, he was sitting on the couch staring at her… which was the second strange thing she'd noticed. Waking up to someone silently staring at you was unnerving at best… but it was even weirder when it was coming from someone who normally never shut up.
"Um…okay…way to be weird Natsu." she croaked disapprovingly and gave him a wide berth on her way to the bathroom.
After her morning routine, she came back out only to discover that Natsu was still… off. She even had to put up with him quietly watching her all through breakfast. Of course he still stuffed his face, but he never took his eyes off her for more than a second. At first she thought if she ignored it, the bizarre behavior would go away… but no, of course it didn't. Even Happy noticed and was giving Natsu weird looks.
So, after about thirty minutes of that, Lucy lost her composure and smacked her hands down flat on the table, making all the cutlery and dishes shudder and clink.
"What is up with you?! You've been staring at me with that weird look since I woke up! Do I have something on my face?!"
Naturally, the first thing she'd done when she went into the bathroom was check to see if he'd drawn anything on her, but she was spotless as far as she could tell.
"I dreamed about that night."
"Ah…oh…I see." she stuttered, suddenly thrown off her game by that one little statement. "Um…what about it?"
"I think I remember a lot more of what happened…"
She flushed and glanced uncomfortably at Happy. Thankfully the little cat was thoroughly preoccupied with his fish and didn't seem to have caught on to what they were talking about. He'd probably figure it out quickly enough though if Lucy couldn't get her embarrassed blush under control.
She cleared her throat and did her best to wrestle her embarrassment under control. It made things a little easier for her to focus on how Natsu must be feeling, and the thought of his potential guilt and perturbation helped to wash away some of her discomfort – or at least enough for her to address him in a steady tone of voice.
"Well…please don't worry about anything you remembered. Like I said, it's over and done with and everything turned out fine."
"Yeah…" He nodded, but kept giving her that look. Then after a moment he added, "I remembered when you gave me permission."
At first she was relieved, thinking that maybe now he wouldn't be so upset about what had happened.
"Good. I'm glad." she said with a gentle smile.
However, a few moments later, she realized the potential greater ramifications of that and froze stock still in her kitchen chair. She'd said a lot more than, 'go ahead,' after all. Her permission had also included a confession of those feelings she had been hiding for so long… and suddenly she felt a wave of concern wash over her. Her mouth opened, ready to ask what exactly he remembered, but then she shut it without saying anything.
Before she could figure out what to say, he asked, "Why didn't you tell me why you gave me permission?"
"Huh? You mean when we were at your house? I did, remember?"
He huffed in impatience. "But you didn't say that it was 'cause you love me."
By now, Happy was definitely paying attention and was watching the exchange with wide eyes. When Natsu said that, he said, "Oooooh….Lucy looooves you, Natsu."
She ignored the cat in favor of trying to figure a way out of this pickle. She could try to deny it, but there wasn't really any point to that anymore. He'd figured it out, and there wasn't much more to say about it. All she could do was just accept it and hope that he didn't get weird about it. Knowing him, he'd probably blow it off easily enough…. and in all honesty, she was more worried about herself.
Eventually she simply slumped as she gave up. With a sigh, she looked away and muttered, "I just didn't want to make our friendship awkward. I know you don't feel that way about me, and you were upset after everything that happened. It seemed like a bad idea to add one more thing on top of it all."
After one or two seconds of utter silence, Natsu busted out with, "Wait! You don't think I feel the same way?! Are you kidding?!"
She jerked, not expecting such a loud and vehement answer. The shock caused her head to turn of its own accord and she fixed wide eyes on him, taking in his disbelieving expression.
"I know you don't… why are you upset?"
He scowled. "Why don't ya think I love you?"
That was a peculiar question, and she frowned right back at him, not understanding why he was being so weird about this. "It's obvious. You've never showed any interest in me. You were totally oblivious to my advances when I first realized my feelings. Frankly, as far as I can tell, you've never shown any interest in girls at all. I've just sort of assumed you were asexual or something."
"Huh…well I guess that makes sense. I mean, I didn't even realize it until I went into heat… guess I'm kinda dense about those things." He grimaced and then chuckled awkwardly. "But why would you still think I don't care about ya after I picked you as my mate?"
This was going in a very unexpected direction, and Lucy found her heart beating way too fast. If she wasn't mistaken, it sounded very much like Natsu was saying he did have romantic feelings for her, and it was so crazy and unbelievable she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the concept.
"Um…I just figured you sort of picked the first person you saw or something? I don't know…"
"Wha?! Seriously?! Jeez…that's rude. What do you think I am? Some kinda animal or something?"
At that, she just couldn't resist muttering, "Well you act like one often enough…"
Happy snorted and Natsu gave them both the stink eye. He actually looked and sounded offended, much to Lucy's surprise.
"No! The only reason I went into heat in the first place is cause I'm a dragon slayer, so I'd be going into heat like a dragon! Dragons mate for life!"
It took Lucy a moment to absorb and process that information. "Wait…waitwaitwait. What do you mean by 'mate for life?'"
"Just what it sounds like! The only person I'd pick for my mate is the person I wanna spend the rest of my life with. Duh."
"… and when you say, 'spend the rest of your life with'… do you mean platonically or…?"
He gave her a mildly disgusted look. "Jeez you're bein' stupid Luce. Why don't ya get it? I love you! I'm in love with you! Not as a friend…well, I mean you are my best friend…but more than that! Love, love. Like… marriage, babies, sex, dating, flowers… all that shit. That kinda love."
"Oh…" she said weakly, feeling so numb with shock that she wasn't even embarrassed by him saying 'sex.' Then a worrying thought occurred to her. "But wait…quick question. Do you only feel this way because you chose me as your mate? I mean, is it a side effect of that? Because you said you didn't feel like this before going into heat…"
His eye twitched. "You've got it totally backwards. I loved you first, then picked you as my mate because of that. Hell, I must've picked you as my mate waaaay before this whole heat thing."
"You loved me before going into heat? But…how…you never showed any sign of that!"
"That's 'cause I didn't know! I mean, I always knew there was something different about the way I felt about you, but…I just couldn't figure out what. I guess I never really thought about it to be honest."
That really did sound completely plausible. She could totally see Natsu being in love and just not paying enough attention to the emotion to notice it.
"You have got to be kidding me…so this whole time…" she groaned, thinking back to all the heartache she'd experienced over the past few years.
"I probably would've realized it a lot sooner if you'd told me how you felt." Natsu pointed out.
A spark of irritation made her snap at him. "But I didn't think it would do any good! What was the point of confessing my feelings for you when you didn't feel the same way!? It would've just made things awkward!"
"But I did feel the same way!"
"How was I supposed to know that if you didn't even know it?!"
They glared at each other for a few heartbeats and then the tension broke. First Natsu's lips twitched, then Lucy's, and soon they'd dissolved into stupid laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation.
Happy had been glancing back and forth between them like he was watching some kind of sport. Eventually, after they'd been laughing a few minutes, he asked, "Soooo….is everything okay now? Did you guys finally make up?"
"Yeah Happy, everything's okay. Better than okay." Lucy breathlessly chuckled, wiping tears of relief, happiness, mirth, and amazement from her cheeks.
After a few more moments of snickers, snorts, and guffaws, the laughter slowly tapered off. Lucy leaned back and watched as Natsu realized that he still had food on his plate and started wolfing down the rest of his now-cold breakfast. She honestly couldn't believe that had just happened. Who would have thought that he actually loved her all this time, and they could have been together long before now? It was mindboggling.
Of course now the question was… what happened next? They'd confessed their feelings, so she assumed they were now a couple… but with Natsu it was never safe to just assume something. If nothing else, this whole experience had taught her that much. It would probably be best to make sure they were on the same page.
"So what now?"
"Hm?" he asked, his mouth full of the last bite of eggs from his plate.
"Now what? We've both confessed, so are we a couple? Do we start dating? Where do we go from here?"
He swallowed with a loud gulp that sounded almost painful and then cleared his throat. "I dunno. I've never done this before. But I guess, yeah, we're a couple. Right? That's how these sorts of things work?"
His confusion was surprisingly adorable.
"Usually, yes. After someone confesses and their feelings are reciprocated, the two people start dating and are a couple. I just wanted to make sure that's what you wanted." she replied with her lips twitching in amusement.
He nodded and gave her one of the biggest and brightest grins she'd ever seen on his face. "Awesome!"
Then, his smile dropped just a hair and his head cocked to the side. "So how exactly do we date?"
She could feel a sweat drop grow on her forehead. "Um…we go on dates? You know, we go out to eat, maybe go to the lacrima movies, go on a picnic, just…do fun stuff together as a couple? Ring any bells?"
"Well yeah, I know what a date is. I just didn't know if there was something special to 'dating' besides going on dates."
To both of their surprise, Happy was the one to pipe up and give the pink-haired idiot a lesson.
"To be a good boyfriend you have to give her presents! Especially on Valentines Day and her birthday and Christmas. And be sure to tell her she's pretty all the time. And make sure you smell good or she'll complain. Oh! And …"
Natsu and Lucy both stared at the cat in shock as he continued to list things, not expected the surprisingly detailed lecture on how to be a good boyfriend. He and Carla had gotten together a little over a month ago, and Lucy was impressed by how well the white cat had trained him. Of course, after spending so much time working to win Carla over, she supposed it wasn't surprising that he would go out of his way to make sure he did everything he could to keep her happy.
Natsu looked a little overwhelmed. "Seriously? You've gotta do all of that to be a good boyfriend?"
Lucy had to laugh at his nearly panicked expression. "Happy's definitely got some good tips, you should listen to him. But don't worry, I'll go easy on you."
Sneak Peek
Mira pounced on Lucy's apprehension and suddenly suggested, "Hey, I have an idea. How about we have a sleepover? Just us girls. We can invite the other girls too."
"That's a great idea! We can have a night full of bubble baths, wine, chocolate, and girl talk." Cana enthused, immediately on board with the transformation mage's plan.
"Mm-hm, and if anyone's having relationship problems it'll be a perfect excuse for us to all put our heads together and help them out."
"What do you think Lucy?"
They turned to her, and she blinked owlishly at them. This had come out of nowhere and she wasn't really sure how to respond. On the one hand, she could already predict how awkward and embarrassing it would be, but on the other hand… she really could use some advice and help. The sooner she could put these fears to rest, the better...