a/n: this took so much longer than it should have, i'm embarrassed. please do not hate me friends. i'll try not to take so long on the next one! thank you so much for the support on this story so far, you have no idea just how much it means to me to have people read my work and give feedback. I never could have imagined this just a few years ago, having the courage to actually post my writing online for others to read. Now look at me. Posting (albeit very very slowly at times, lol). Regardless, I'm pretty darn happy.

disclaimer: I own nothing

Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you

Natsu couldn't fucking breathe-too afraid of saying something stupid as he led Lucy carefully through the crowded bar.

He swallowed hard while trying to dissolve some of his nerves, but the blaring music was doing little to drive down the adrenaline flooding his system. Keeping his hand on her back, he helped to steer through the crowd, aiming for the direction of his usual table. Part of him wondered if she was okay with the contact, but after some dude had accidentally stumbled into her, he wasn't taking any chances.

He could feel her stiff posture beneath the palm of his hand and through the material of her shirt, and he felt a twinge of guilt that shouldn't have belonged to him. It wasn't as if he'd invited her here... to a place she obviously wasn't comfortable being. It was pretty obvious from her deer-in-the-headlights expression that this wasn't her kind of scene.

It also didn't escape him that she hadn't answered his question from earlier, but he wasn't about to ask again and only fluster her more.

However, even if he couldn't ask why she was there, that didn't mean he couldn't make sure she was okay being there.

Levy's hair wasn't quite in view yet when he pulled Lucy off to the side, away from the bar's usual tenacious activity as people danced in the open space between tables.

"Before we get to the others, I want you to be real with me for a second." he told her, having to bend down slightly to be able to make sure she was looking at him. "Can you do that for me?"

She looked at him for a moment before nodding slowly.

He slid a hand through his hair, looking around as if gesturing to it all. "Are you sure that you're okay will all this? With being here?" he asked. "I mean, who even told you about this place?"

She bit her lip, and the shy action was suddenly rewinding Natsu to the first time he'd ever met her in class. His mind drifted to that damn origami fish that had fallen from his desk and had reappeared with eyes in purple ink. She had been so endearing that day without ever saying a word, and it had made him uncomfortable at the time. Natsu Dragneel wasn't used to having words escape him.

But now, looking down at her as her bottom lip was trapped between her teeth, the way that he couldn't tell if the pink flush of color on her cheeks was makeup or a true blush... God, something about this girl. Natsu all but accepted his fate right there on the spot.

She dropped his gaze as she slipped up onto her tiptoes to try and see over the crowd, seemingly not aware that she had grasped his arm as leverage as she scanned the sea of faces. "Uh, I met her downtown yesterday. She goes to our school, I think. She seemed to know you."

There went Natsu's lovestruck high in one fatal swoop.

Oh God oh God oh God... Every bone in his body was screaming abort mission. If all Lucy had to go on was 'she goes to our school' and 'I think she knows you,' then Natsu was treading in dangerous waters. His stupid tendencies with girls could cost him the night with Lucy before it even really began.

He chuckled, hoping his nerves weren't showing as he tried to play it cool. "You, uh," he coughed into a fist as he avoided her eyes, "have anything else to go off there? I mean, my hair's pink... Kinda sticks with ya, heh. People tend to know me from somewhere or other."

Lucy cocked a brow at that. "She said her name was Levy."

Natsu breathed an audible sigh of relief before quickly trying to cover it up with another cough. "Geez," he smirked, suddenly feeling brave at this bit of information as he slid his arm around her shoulders. "In that case, follow me."

Lucy wanted to disappear, wondering why she ever thought this would be good idea.

Natsu's arm was warm around her shoulders as he continued walking towards the back corner of the bar, and the course material of his bandage was rubbing along the free skin that her sleeves didn't cover and creating goosebumps along her arms.

While it had sparked a short second of relief in her when Natsu seemed to recognize Levy's name, it had also created a whole new list of worries. If he and the spunky girl she had met downtown yesterday were affiliated, then that meant that Lucy had unknowingly agreed to meet up with Natsu's friends.

What if he realized this and didn't believe in coincidences? What if he really believed it was something Lucy had cooked up on her own and served only to have the contents come back and burn her? Badly?

Nerves were causing her to become tense, which Natsu could no doubt feel if he was paying any attention at all.

"Oi, Pretty Boy's here to join the party!"

Lucy didn't quite understand the sudden downturn of Natsu's mouth until she spotted that familiar head of blue curls.

"Levy," she breathed in a sigh of relief as the girl turned her gaze on her. Lucy could feel the blush creeping in as she saw the girl struggle to hide her knowing look at Natsu's arm around Lucy's shoulders. The redhead beside her in the booth was throwing Natsu a dirty look for some reason, but Lucy ducked her eyes and slipped from the boy's hold before she could be the reason behind it.

She struggled to find a familiar face amongst the six people crowded together around one table, and the first one she saw wasn't one that had exactly been pleasant. "Uh, h-hey, Juvia. I love what you've done with your hair," Lucy said as she stuttered through the compliment, and she meant it. Since the last time they'd seen each other, the girl had dyed strands of her cobalt blue locks with added streaks of green that gave the girl a mermaid-like appearance.

Juvia was also witness to her and Natsu's close proximity and must have immediately made the connection that she wasn't the so-called "love rival" that she had called Lucy that day in the halls. She ran a hand through her new hair, smiling politely in thanks from across the table where Lucy was still standing.

A large man with many, countless piercings who was sitting on Levy's other side raised his beer at Natsu. "Pretty Boy!" he said, repeating the nickname again as he sloshed his drink around. "About time you showed up."

"Damn it," Natsu muttered as the group shifted around to make room for him and Lucy. "I hate when Gajeel gets drunk."

"Why?" Lucy murmured in response, thanking Gray as she sat down between him and Natsu.

"He calls everyone embarrassing nicknames when he's had a couple," the boy grumbled, glaring across the table at the man in question.

Levy rolled her eyes and said, "Tell me about it."

Gajeel gaped at her, quickly engulfing her in a huge hug as he unnecessarily shouted to be heard over the music playing. "Shrimp, you're wounding me. Are you saying you don't like to be called Shrimp?"

"I don't like to be called Shrimp."

"Shrimp! Shrimp say no more, my heart can't take it."

"Tell your heart to-"

"Shrimp!"

Natsu leaned down close so that his lips were right at her ear, words warm against her skin as he said, "Drunk Gajeel is honestly the worst. Sober, he's the toughest-looking S.O.B. you'll ever meet. Teddy bear only on the inside. However, give him a few beers and," Natsu trailed off, lifting his chin to indicate towards the large man who was begging a tiny Levy to take him back.

"We never broke up!"

"You saying you don't like Shrimp was all I needed!"

Lucy hid her grin behind her hand as she took in the scene.

Gray was in deep conversation with a young man with hair a darker shade than either Juvia or Levy's, a red mark on his face that Lucy wasn't sure was a birthmark or some kind of tattoo. She smiled softly when she saw Gray lift his arm to rest on the back of the bench, and the way that Juvia ever so slightly shifted closer as she played a game on her phone.

Gajeel was still sloshing his drink around and getting drops of it on Levy's top, much to the girl's chagrin as she struggled to pry the mug from his hand.

"Over my dead body!"

"That can be arranged!"

"Shrimp!"

To her right Natsu was speaking in low tones to the redhead, the two of them deep in conversation about something Lucy couldn't quite catch. The other girl still didn't look exactly happy, but her features had softened considerably since they'd arrived. It seemed as if she was listening to Natsu explain something or other, not that Lucy could even begin to guess what the something was.

She shifted in her seat, not quite sure where she belonged just yet at the table as everyone was preoccupied with their own thing. Then she felt Natsu's hand find hers under the table, giving her a soft squeeze that she assumed was supposed to be reassuring.

Which it was, in a way, but in another...

Her heart was going crazy, beating like a hummingbird's wings in her chest.

But still, she found herself squeezing back beneath the table.

until next time...