Hello friends! Long time no update :I Sorry for this... hiatus? Was that even a hiatus? Maybe, i dont know... Thank you for all your reviews! They were so lovely to read and made me smile like an idiot as i did my Christmas shopping xD Anyways, i'll just stop blabbering and let you read! Thanks for reading as always! ~Hana

Levy groaned as a bright light woke her up. She blinked a few times as she rubbed the corners of her eyes, wiping away those nasty eye discharges that naturally accumulated. Slamming her hand on the coffee table, she wiggled it around as she searched for her pair of cherry glasses. She let out a light sigh as she closed the Netflix tab on the television, realizing that she spend the night on the couch yet again. She groaned as she moved her legs that fell asleep long ago, and placed them on the floor. Her toes wiggled back and forth as they tingled, the feeling slowly coming back. Breathing out of her nose, she heaved herself up onto her feet.

Her nails itched her head, relieving herself of the nasty tingle she got after not showering for a few days which caused her hair had become greasy and unmanageable to the point where a cute 'messy bun' just looked like a train wreck. I could go to the gym... She debated lazily as she touched her thigh, searching for her phone in her pocket. Not feeling it, her hands naturally went to grasp her butt, looking in those pockets as well. When she found no lump, she whipped herself around, and eyed the jumble of blankets she had slept in the night before. Puffing out a fast breath, she pouted as she realized that she would have to search in the mess.

Leaning over, she ripped a gray blanket to the floor, followed by a pink, and a purple. "Lucy?" She yelled. "Have you seen my phone?" She stopped moving her hands. "Lucy?" Looking behind her, towards the direction of her friends room, she listened for movement. Levy was unsure of the time, but she was sure it wasn't before Lucy normally woke up. She padded across the apartment, listening for some sign of her friend. "Luce?" She pushed her friends door open with her fingers. She poked her head in, hoping not to see her friend laying naked with another body.

Gazing at the pink bed, Levy didn't see a bump. "Huh." She said, leaning against the doorway. Turning around, she walked back to the living room where she heard the familiar ring of the Imperial March. "My phone!" She yelled as she scrambled to the couch. Listening to the march of the baddest man in the galactic empire, her hands sprawled around in search. Finally grabbing it, she slid the lock screen open to the call before looking at the caller ID.

"Hello?!" She said.

"Levy?" A small voice asked.

"Lucy?" She asked. "Why are you whispering?"

"Im not, my voice is just... kind of gone."

"U-huh. Did you come home last night?"

"No, I... uh... Stayed out."

"Where?"

"Where?" Lucy repeated.

"Yeah, where."

"Nowhere in particular..."

"So, the side of the street?" Levy asked.

"No, no"

"Was it perhaps in someones bed?"

"Well-"

"Was this person NATSU?" She screamed into the phone.

"Shh!" Her friend shushed. "I stayed over last night, and I need you to come get me."

"As I recall, you're the one with the car."

"I left it."

"You left it..."

"Yes, at my running spot."

"Why?"

"He drove."

"He drove from your running spot..." Levy repeated. "Im confused, why was he at your running spot?"

"He was running." Lucy said as if it were obvious.

"Are you sure he wasn't stalking you?"

"Pretty sure."

"But, how can you know?" Levy asked curiously.

"Can you just come get me?" She rubbed her head. "I'll call you once you're in the car with directions."

"Yeah, sure. I was going to go to the gym, but why go there when you can just jog 4 miles to get a car, then pick up your best friend from a booty call."

"It was not a booty call."

"Yeah, sure it wasn't." Levy laughed.

"Just, hurry." Lucy said.

"Sneaking out before he realized you're gone? That's low." Levy said as she walked towards her room, going to change for her 4 mile jog.

"Some weird stuff happened... I'll tell you later, just come get me." Lucy pleaded.

"Alright, alright..." Levy said. "I'll be there soon." She said before hanging up her phone. Reaching into the mess of a closet, she pulled out a sports bra and got changed.

Going back to Natsu's house for coffee was a move Lucy didn't think she would make. On the car ride over, she debated making up an excuse and leaving. After all, this could be a potential big step. 'Coffee' could mean a few things. What if this was code for a quickie in the nearest Starbucks! No, we just left a coffee shop... Lucy took a few breaths to calm down her racing heart. This was going to a friend's house to drink a caffeinated beverage and nothing more. That was it. Just a friend. And coffee.

Oh, how she was wrong.

As they walked up the steps to his house, Lucy looked around in awe. Natsu owned a simple studio apartment in a nice neighborhood with simple trees in front. The elevator indicated that he lived on the top floor, the twenty first to be exact. When the doors opened, a simple foyer was all that was in view. It was round, octagonal even, and blue. It was bare aside from a door on the left, and a parallel door on the right. Both were white, which accented the trim and floor. It was... fancy.

"Its cute." Lucy said.

"You think?" He asked as he jingled his keys. "Lisanna picked it out." There was that name again. Lisanna, Natsu's best friend and sort of wife.

"She sounds like a nice person, I'd love to meet her sometime." Lucy said, pushing her feelings of jealousy aside.

When Natsu finally got the door open, he gestured for Lucy to walk in first. "Its nothing major. Just enough for myself." 'Nothing major' turned out to be one of the nicest apartments Lucy had seen to date. Everything what white, and blue, and yellow, and clean. The walls were mainly brick, but everything inside accented so nicely. There was no way he decorated it himself.

"I know what you're thinking." He said as he threw his keys into a bow by the door. "I couldn't have decorated this?" He walked towards the kitchen, beckoning Lucy to follow. "Well I didn't."

"You make enough money to offered a studio apartment on the top floor?" She asked. "Oh, that sounded wrong..." She sat down at the island counter on a bar stool.

"No, I get what you mean." He waved it off as he moved around, making coffee. "A gym trainer lives in this." He gestured around the room.

"Yeah..." She breathed out as she watched him move around the kitchen, putting coffee beans into a grinder, and crushing them into a powder. Grabbing a french press, he poured the beans powder in, and let it sit.

"Yeah, Lisanna helped me decorate. Not to mention Mira and Cana." He said as he walked over to his bed. It was a king with white sheets that shone in the light. Lucy wanted to jump on it and snuggle her face into it.

"So it was a gym effort?" Lucy asked as she swiveled on the bar stool, turning to watch him.

"You could say that..." Before Lucy could contemplate what was happening, Natsu whipped his shirt over his head, and was standing before her clad in running pants that left little to the imagination. "But Gray didn't do anything except judge my refrigerator choices. He claimed that the freezer wasn't cold enough." Natsu kept talking as he rummaged around his drawer for a shirt. When he bent over, his abdominal muscles flexed, and extended, rippling his tight core deliciously.

"Was it?" She asked.

"Not cold enough?" He clarified, grabbing a black t-shirt from his dresser before pushing it shut with his butt. "No, it was fine. Gray's just a freak." He scoffed.

"Then why are you friends with him?" She asked. "If he causes you all this trouble, and Mira says you two fight a lot..." Lucy trailed off. "Sorry, its not my place to say."

"No, I get it. He's a pain, and probably my mortal enemy and natural opposite." He laughed as he walked back to the coffee maker. "But he's my best friend, and probably the closest thing I have to a brother." He pushed down on the french press, proceeding to make the coffee. "Its almost dinner, would you be interested in staying?" He asked.

"Oh I don't want to intrude-" Lucy blushed violently at his invitation.

"Its no problem, really." He said, his eyes filled with an unrecognizable emotion.

"If its really alright..." She started, and his eyes lit up. "I have nothing to do tonight."

"Good." He smiled.

Dinner was lovely, and the conversation flowed lightly as it switched between working out, and art, and everything in between. They had eaten a simple vegetable stir fry, with white rice, and some red wine- on his all too white couch. Of course a gym trainer would eat a healthy dinner, so Lucy wasn't concerned about counting calories.

"And that's how we met!" Natsu laughed.

"That's how you met Gray!" Lucy couldn't hold back her laugh at the story.

"I know, its unbelievable but that's the truth." He shrugged. She let out a last chuckle, the noise in the apartment dying down. "Do you want desert?" He asked, pointing to their empty plates on the coffee table.

"Oh, uh, sure!" Lucy said, doing anything she could to prolong the unavoidable truth that she had to leave.

"I think I have ice cream... But I got this strawberry cheesecake the other day- don't tell Erza, she'd kill me." He place the cake on the counter with a plop. "Her husband, Jellal, works in the office with Mira's boyfriend, Freed. They're nerds, those two. But Jellal could probably kick my ass..." He thought aloud. "Not that I'd ever give him the chance." Natsu said, thrusting the cake knife upwards.

"I take it she doesn't like cheesecake?" Lucy asked with a light laugh.

"Just the opposite." He said as she heard him clang around the kitchen. "She loves it."

"She sounds great." She smiled at him as he handed her a plate before he sat down on the couch himself. He suggested they eat on the couch, and she highly rejected- after all red wine and which couches don't mix. And for a good reason too.

"This is delicious!" Lucy exclaimed as she indulged herself even more, sad her piece was so small.

"Isn't it?" He asked. "It hits the spot, definitely. Although its not that healthy... But some things we just have to binge on." He waved off the unhealthy food.

"I have to get some for Levy, she'd love it." Lucy said as she leaned over to put her plate down on the coffee table.

"That's you blue haired roommate?" He asked.

"Yes, the ballerina." She smiled.

"Think she could show me some moves?" He joked. "Im pretty flexible, although I don't think I could get my foot over my head..."

"That's alright." Lucy waved her hand. "She cant do it right now anyways, she had me help her stretch the other night and man, is that girl flexible." She smiled as he placed his plate down next to hers. Pivoting his body, he looked at her face. Reaching his hand up, he fixed a strand of hair behind her ear. He leaned in slightly, his face mesmerizing Lucy.

His eyelashes laid on his eyes so delicately, and fluttered as he blinked. His lips looked so soft and kissable as his face slowly got closer to her own. She could feel her chest start to go a million miles an hour as it pumped her blood through her veins rapidly, causing a blush to form on her cheeks and probably all the way down her neck at this point.

Lucy squirmed as she could feel an unfamiliar wetness in her lap. Realizing it wasn't her, her eyes shot wide open. "Oh my god!" She said as she looked down at her lap now covered in red whine, not to mention Natsu's white couch.

"I'm so sorry!" She said as she placed the glass on the table, and looked down at the mess, avoiding his eyes. The wine was already spreading, with no chance of saving the cushion. "I can pay for that, and this, and just... I can buy you a new couch. I am so sorry, I didn't mean-"

Natsu grabbed her face, and tilted it so she looked back at him. She had light tears in her eyes that threatened to fall at any minute. "Luce, its fine. You don't have to buy me a new couch." He laughed slightly. "I didn't even like this one all that much."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better." She sniffled her nose. "I'm sorry I just ruined this whole thing, now you're going to hate me and we'll never-" He cut her off. In the nicest way possible. With his hands still on her face, he brought her head to his own, tilting her head to the side slightly on the way, and met their lips together. Realizing what was happening, that her crush was kissing her, she moved her lips with his. Snaking her hand up, it wrapped in his hair. They sat like this for a few minutes, their kiss innocent with no hint of a rush. When they finally parted, their lips were mere millimeters apart, still within reasonable distance if one of them chose to lean a bit forward.

"I think we should get you out of there wet pants, don't you think?" He whispered, his lips lightly brushing against hers.

"Yeah..." She whispered lightly, her breath taken away.

"Four miles..." Levy said to herself as she did a few warm up moves. "That's not that bad.. Not like I haven't worked out seriously in years, Luce..." She sassed her friend. Plugging in her ear buds that she so unceremoniously 'borrowed' from Lucy, she began her jog through town. Lucy preferred a scenic route as she jogged, so she opted for the forest trail on the opposite side of the city. Perfect for leaving your car, and forcing your friend to pick you up.

She jogged along the street, stopping for traffic, and jogging in place. However Lucy's keys on her side were making the most annoying sound, and she could hear it through her music. What good were Lucy's headphones if they don't work! Nothing an increased volume couldn't fix. Turning up the sound of her iPod, she waited for the light to turn green with the walking man, indicating that it was safe to go. She subconsciously started doing a few ballet moves as she waited, pointing her toes, and twisting her core as she stretched. Finally, the man blinked, signaling that she could go. With a little hop in her step, Levy jogged across the crosswalk, only to be met by the feint sound of a car horn over her music. Turning her head towards the sound, Levy stared straight into a car's headlights.

"Levy!"

LOL, I'm evil. Sorry for the delay on this chapter, holidays ya know? HAPPY LATE HOLIDAYS by the way... I was going to update on Christmas but then I got an offer for an editor and couldn't pass it up. And I figured giving an editor their first chapter of Christmas was a pretty crappy thing to do... And then I just never wrote the chapter. WHOOPS. Buuuuuuut, i totally have an editor now, so go me! Now my chapters will be less sucky, and actually proofread xD I'll promise to update soon, I know you hate cliff hangers, but I love em! Thanks for following, favoriting, and just listening to my banter! As always, reviews are widely appreciated ^o^ ~Hana