Lucy's a Go-Getter

"Yeah I want four large pizzas with the works on them!"

Lucy walked into the study, "There you are Natsu. You shouldn't go snooping around—"

"Oi, Lucy, what kind of pizza do you want?" Natsu propped his feet up on the coffee table in front of the couch he lounged on. His cell phone was pressed to his ear as he picked at his teeth with his pinky nail. "I'm gettin' four for myself, but I can order a fifth one if you're hungry."

"Pizza?" Lucy's eye twitched. "How do you plan on going to get the pizza?"

"Duh! They deliver!" Natsu grinned.

Lucy stomped her feet, "AND WHERE WERE YOU GOING TO HAVE THEM DELIVER IT? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHERE WE ARE?"

"Oh…" Natsu blinked at her for a second before saying into the phone, "Uhhh, what happens if I don't know where I am and also I'm way far away from town?"

Lucy rubbed her temples as he grew quiet. After a moment, he looked at the phone with surprise.

"He hung up."

She laughed and placed her fists on her hips, "Pffft. Well of course he did! Not only is it only half an hour from closing time, but they're not going to deliver way out here in the countryside!" she rolled her eyes. "Get real, Natsu."

"Hey Lucy," Natsu jumped to his feet and walked over to her, clasping his hands behind his back. When he was in front of her, he bent so that his eyes were level with hers. "You'll come back to Fairy Tail, right?"

Her cheeks flushed and she took a step back, "L-leave it alone! I told you I wasn't!" she spun on her heel and stomped towards the door. "Quit asking me every half hour!"

He chased after her, "Where are you going?"

"I'm hungry!"

"Aha! Good idea!" he caught up and walked at her side, grinning down at her, "Should I order takeout?"

"Idiot! No one is going to deliver out here!"

"Then what will we eat? I already raided your cupboards and fridge, I didn't find anything good!"

"That's because you look for a meal rather than the ingredients to make a meal," she smiled. "I'll make you something."

"You mean it?" he clenched his hands into fists, eyes brightening in excitement.

"Sure, sure," she waved her hand at him. "If it'll shut you up."

"Alright!" he pumped his fists in the air and ran ahead to walk backwards. He grinned down at her, "You're the best, Lucy!"

She blushed, "Sh-shut up. It's nothing…"

His eyes squinted as he gave her his best smile. "So, what are you going to make?"

Lucy smirked.

"Why spaghetti?" Natsu slumped over the marble island in the center of the kitchen as Lucy gathered her ingredients.

"You don't have to sound so disappointed!" she placed a bag of noodles down and frowned at him. "What do you have against spaghetti?"

"Nothin'," he rolled an onion from hand to hand, eyelids drooped in boredom. "I like all food. I was just hopin' that you'd have something a little more exotic since this is a big house and you're like super rich or whatever."

"Something a little more exotic, huh?" she grabbed a package of four sausages from the fridge and carried it to the stove that was built into the island. "Like what exactly?"

"I dunno!" he sat up on his stool and started tossing the onion in the air. "Whatever rich people normally eat!"

She pulled the sausages from the package and then took a knife to the casing, slitting each one down the middle. "Well, I'm rich and I normally eat spaghetti. So you're getting the full rich person experience here."

"Who would've thought rich people were so boring?" he muttered.

"Hey," she held the knife up and pointed it at him. "I'm making you food out of the kindness of my heart. You're not allowed to complain about it unless you want me to stop right now and you can starve for the rest of the night. How does that sound?"

"Sorry ma'am!" Natsu bowed frantically. "Forget I said anything! Want me to help?" he ran around to her side of the island and looked around at the mess of ingredients. "What should I do?"

She stared up at him in surprise, "You want to help?"

He smirked, "Sure! Just tell me what to do!"

A smile tugged at her lips, "Alright… grab that onion you were playing with and chop it up then. The knives are over in the block over there," she pointed to the counter over her shoulder. "And make it snappy, okay? It won't take long to cook this sausage."

"Aye Sir!" he grabbed the onion and a knife and stood at the cutting board next to her. "Here I go!" he slammed the knife into the onion, cutting it in half.

Lucy chuckled as she dropped the sausages into the pan and put it over the stove. She grabbed a wooden spoon and used it to break up the meat as Natsu clumsily sliced through the onion halves.

"Hey Lucy," he said.

"Hm?" she adjusted the heat.

"You're gonna come back to Fairy Tail, right?"

She sighed, "Natsu…"

"'Cause if you don't, we're gonna spend the rest of our lives together in this house," he glanced over at her with a mischievous grin. "And I dunno about you… but that sounds like fun to me. So if you really don't want to go back to Fairy Tail, I hope you don't mind makin' spaghetti at midnight every night for next eighty years or so."

Lucy glared at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I told you I wasn't letting you leave this house until you agree to come back to Fairy Tail," he reminded her. "So naturally, if you don't agree, then we'll be here forever."

"You would seriously take it that far, huh?" she sighed. "Staying here with me forever just because I won't come back to Fairy Tail?"

"I dunno," he shrugged, rubbing his eyes on the back of his forearm momentarily. "If all I had was someone to make spaghetti with in the middle of the night every day until I died…" he turned to her and smiled brightly, "I'd think I lived a pretty wealthy life!"

She gulped, fire blazing across her cheeks. She turned back to the sausages, which were sizzling softly in the pan under her spoon. She stirred quietly for a moment before muttering, "Shut up."

He chuckled and wiped his eyes again, "Augh… why do my eyes sting so bad?"

Lucy smirked, "No clue. Are you almost done with that onion?"

"It hurts!" he whined. "I don't want to do it anymore!"

She laughed, "Wow! I had no idea you were such a baby, Natsu!"

"Auuuuughhhhh," he wiped stinging tears from his suddenly bloodshot eyes. "Stupid onion!"

She set the spoon down, "Jeez, you wimp. Wanna switch me?"

He glanced at her, blinking moisture away, sniffing softly. He used his scarf to dab at the corners of his eyes.

She gestured for the knife, "I can do it. Just stir the sausages okay?"

He smiled and pushed her hand away, "Nah, it's okay. I can do it."

She cocked her head to the side.

He turned back to the onion and started chopping. His eyes twitched and started to tear up again and Lucy retreated to a safe distance once more. She stirred the sausage silently.

A few minutes later, Natsu moved away from the island, tears streaming down his face, a giant grin revealing his pearly white teeth, "All done, Lucy!"

She snickered at his pitiful appearance and then set her spoon down, "And just in time!" she grabbed the cutting board and carried the onions to the pan. She pushed them in with the sausage and then replaced the cutting board on the island. "Now can you mince the garlic?"

"I don't know what that means," he wiped his face with a paper towel, blinking.

"Okay, then you stir, and I'll do it."

He took the spoon from her and she grabbed the mincer and three cloves of garlic. As she crushed the garlic onto the cutting board, a thought crossed her mind.

"Hey Natsu?"

"Hm?" he pushed the onions around with the sausage bits in the pan absently.

"Do you plan on having kids in the future?"

"Kids?" he cocked his head to the side. "I never really thought about it. I suppose I wouldn't mind having a few."

"What will you teach them about morals and values of the real world?"

Natsu was silent for a moment as he deliberated. The fact that he was taking the question seriously made Lucy's heart twist in her chest.

"Well," he pursed his lips. "I guess I would teach them to always be kind to other people because you never know what someone else is going through. And I'll teach them to fight for what they want because life isn't worth living without happiness. And I'll make sure they know that friends and family are the most important things in the world, right after themselves," he smiled over at her. "I'll be sure they know that it's okay to be selfish sometimes, especially if it's involving their happiness."

Lucy swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. Good answer.

"Would you teach your sons differently from your daughters?"

"Probably not. Except I'd probably be a little more careful with my daughters because I wouldn't want any boys to take advantage of them. I'd teach them how to fight so that if anyone tries to do something to them when me or their brothers aren't around, they'll be able to kick their butts on their own!" he held up his fist and then grinned at her, "I don't know why, but I just have the feeling that all my daughters would be really cute."

Her heart wrenched. "And your sons? You'd teach them to respect girls?"

He cocked an eyebrow, "I'd teach all my kids to respect all people, regardless of if they're girls or boys."

She put another clove in the mincer and squeezed the handles, "Natsu… do you know anything about female anatomy? Do you know what the menstrual cycle is?" she glanced over at him, expecting the worst.

He pursed his lips in thought, "I know of it, but not a lot of the details."

For someone so immature, he sure is treating these questions awfully maturely, Lucy observed.

"Hypothetical situation," she said. "Your wife is gone and your daughter wakes up with her first period and doesn't know what to do about it. What do you do?"

"Hmm…" he stared off across the kitchen, stirring slowly. "Well… I would hope that my wife would prepare me for something like that in advance so that I could help her, at least with the basics until her mom got home. But if she didn't prepare me… then I guess I would try to calm her down, convince her she's not dying, and hopefully make her feel better in any way I can. So you know… I'd try to make her laugh and feel happy. I guess that's what I'm best at anyway. Besides fighting. I dunno. That's kind of a hard question to answer since I really don't know a lot about it."

Lucy finished with the garlic and grabbed two cans of diced tomatoes and a can opener. She popped the lids off and then did the same to two cans of tomato sauce and a can of tomato paste. She moved closer to Natsu, sliding the cans with her across the island.

"Hypothetical situation," she said as she started emptying the cans into the pot. "Your wife dies during childbirth. Do you remarry?"

Natsu sucked in a deep breath and continued to stir as she dumped the red mixture into the pan.

"That's also a hard question to answer," he murmured.

Lucy grabbed a measuring cup she had filled earlier with water and poured it into the pan, eying him quietly.

"I'm not sure that I would," he finally said. "I think that if I found someone to want to dedicate her whole life to me, I wouldn't just be able to replace her if she died. And not because I don't think it's possible to find two women to tolerate my wildness," he grinned at her. "But because… if I find someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with, she's gonna get all of my love. I'm gonna be all dried up and empty and not have a single drop left to give to anybody else. Except our kids, obviously. But that's a different kind of love, so it don't count."

Lucy scooped the garlic into the mixture and then stared up at him.

"Hypothetical situation. You live together with your wife for many years before realizing she doesn't love you back. What do you do?"

Natsu held her gaze for long seconds.

"That would never happen," he finally said.

She cocked an eyebrow.

"If she didn't love me, she wouldn't marry me," he said simply. "I wouldn't force her to marry me just because I have feelings for her. That's just wrong. I think you need to be one hundred percent completely invested in your partner in order to get married to them. Or else it's a lie, isn't it?"

She gulped, "What if she did love you but then later down the line fell out of love with you?"

"I would be sad," he said softly. "I would be really sad and heartbroken. But I would wish her the best and let her go free to find someone that she could fall in love with and stay in love with for the rest of her life."

They stood in silence for a few moments.

Natsu grinned, "These are strange questions to be asking out of the blue, Lucy. What are they for?"

"Science," she whispered and turned to gather up the remaining ingredients for the sauce.

He snickered, "You're a weirdo, you know that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know."

"So how is it?" Lucy asked as she twisted noodles onto her fork.

Natsu scarfed down his plate of spaghetti like he was a ravenous badger. When he finished it, he started piling on seconds.

"You know something, Lucy?" he said as he scooped noodles out of the large bowl they had mixed the noodles and sauce in.

"Hm?" she stuck her fork in her mouth.

"You're an awful cook," he said.

Her eye twitched and she delivered a swift kick to his knee under the table.

"Ah!" he winced at the blow. "I was kidding! Just kidding! Jeez," he reached under and rubbed the spot. "It's good! The best spaghetti I've ever had!"

She smiled, "You mean it? Or are you just saying that so I won't kick you again?"

He deliberated, "Well…"

She kicked him again.

"I'm serious! It's really delicious."

"Thanks… I've had a lot of practice," she ate with new exuberance, clicking her heels together under her wooden chair.

"Hey Lucy?"

"Hm?"

"You'll come back to Fairy Tail, won't you?"

"I'm going to start ignoring you," she warned.

"Tomorrow you should give me a tour of this place," he suggested, gulping down an entire glass of milk. "Do you have cool stuff outside too? Like a tennis court or shooting range?"

"The estate has a lot of cool stuff," she said, tapping her fork on the plate, "But I don't think you should stay here too long. You should go home tomorrow."

"So you're coming back to Fairy Tail then?" he perked, noodles hanging out of his mouth.

"No—"

"Then I'm staying," he slurped the noodles up, leaving a trail of sauce down his chin.

She sighed. Arguing with him was pointless. Tomorrow she would just have to call Leo or Capricorn to come and pick him up. She tossed a paper towel at him, "Wipe your face! You look like a toddler!"

He took the napkin and swiped it across his forehead before shoveling more spaghetti into his mouth.

She rolled her eyes and set her fork down.

He eyed her curiously, "You done eatin'?"

"Yeah," she stood and picked up her plate. He carried it over to the sink and set inside. Natsu watched as she turned on the water and started cleaning up. He finished up his second helping and then carried his dishes over to her. She took them from his hands and put them under the water, reaching for a sponge.

"Don't you guys have servants here?" he asked.

"We did," she replied, squirting soap onto the sponge. "But since we moved in to the townhouse, they're on paid vacation."

"Vacation?" he leaned on the counter. "You've lived in the townhouse for several months now though."

"I don't think you understand just how rich my family is."

"So while you live in that townhouse, this giant mansion is completely empty all day, every day?"

"That's right."

"What a waste."

She smiled, "Yeah…"

"What's the point of having a big ol' mansion like this if it's not being used?"

"Well," she placed the clean plates on the rack next to the sink and Natsu grabbed a towel and started drying them off. "The only reason we moved into town was to be closer to school. Now that I'm not going to Fairy Tail, we will probably move back in here."

"Hey Lucy."

"What?" she handed a glass to him.

He toweled it off, "You're coming back to Fairy Tail, right?"

"You're a broken record, you know that?" she turned the sink off and turned to him, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't know why you are acting like this is the end of the world. People come and go in your life and you just have to accept that. There's nothing you can do to keep someone around that doesn't want to stay."

Natsu put the glass down on the counter and slapped the towel onto his shoulder. He took a step closer to her, reaching out. His thumb and forefinger held her chin and turned her face up towards him. She gulped and met his gaze. There was no hint in his eyes as to what he was thinking or feeling.

Which was strange, because Natsu was an open book. If anyone should be able to hold her heart behind an iron wall, it should be Lucy. And yet, under the heat of his stare, it was her body that was quivering. It was her eyes that were turning hazy as her lip trembled.

Natsu held her still for a long tense minute before releasing her and turning away. He tossed the towel onto the counter and then walked leisurely across the kitchen, hands stacked behind his head.

"I'm pooped! I think we should go to bed now. I've had a full day you know? It's tiring worrying so much."

Lucy took in a shuddering breath and slouched gratefully, clutching at her heart. "You don't think I know?" she muttered after a moment and followed.

"What do you suppose they're doing right about now?" Leo picked at his teeth with his pocket knife.

Scorpio turned the page of his magazine, "Hm. I don't know if I want to even think about it."

"Lucy's got such a nice body, there's no way that kid ain't making a moove on her," Taurus grumbled.

"As it were, I don't think Natsu-san's that way," Sagittarius said, stirring sugar into his mug of coffee. "I spent a good deal of time around him on Galuna. It seemed that Lucy-san was more inclined to put the moves on him."

"Lucy's a go-getter," Scorpio agreed. "No doubt she'll make the first move."

"Don't make me laugh," Leo turned his knife to the dirt under his fingernails. "In the past she was a go-getter. But she's definitely calmed down after her last loveadventure."

"Moo… she blushes more than she flirts these days."

"Still," Scorpio sat up from where he was draped across the couch. "Think about it. How long ago was it that she broke up with that guy?"

"It's been about a year," Capricorn mused over the top of his paperback novel.

"Exactly. A year with no action. You think you could last that long, Loke?"

"Lucy and I are two very different people," Leo reminded him.

"But that guy ain't just anybody," Scorpio grinned. "That's the guy she's crushin' on. And now they're all alone in that big, empty house. That big empty house with the gorgeous view of the valley and the enormous beds that feel like heaven. Lucy's vulnerable. She's upset. She's on her way to marry a guy she doesn't love and the guy she does love, who also epitomizes the life she's leaving behind in Fairy Tail, is right in front of her. Not only that, but he came to bring her back, like a white knight on a stallion. Go ahead and try to tell me they're just sittin' around playin' cards or watchin' TV."

Leo pursed his lips, "Hmm… you've got a good point…"

Jude stood slowly from his place behind his desk, eye twitching. He calmly reached behind his body and pulled his gun from his waistband. He pulled it up, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.

The bullet ripped its way through the large vase just off to the side and behind Leo's skull, sending ceramic shards, water, and flowers all over the floor. Leo's eyes went wide as he stared at his boss.

Jude leapt onto his desk and leveled the gun at the space between the redhead's green eyes.

"LLLEEEEEEEOOOOOOOO," he roared.

"Hey, hey!" Leo jumped to his feet, "It's not my fault, Boss! I was just trying—"

Jude pulled the trigger again and again, scaring a yelp from the younger man as he bounded out of the path of the bullets.

"I'M GOING TO SHOOT YOU AND THEN DRIVE OUT TO THE MANSION AND SHOOT THAT BASTARD PRICK SON OF A BITCH THAT WOULD DARE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY SWEET DARLING LITTLE GIRL!"

Scorpio cackled as Jude chased Leo from the room, blasting holes in the walls always just slightly behind.

"Moo," Taurus leaned back in his seat, placing his arms on the back of the couch. "So Scorpio, you really think they're doing something?"

He grinned, "Totally. There's just no way they're not. That guy would have to be a colossal idiot to pass up on an opportunity like this one."

Natsu was snoring like a freight train.

Lucy covered her head with a pillow and groaned. The deep rumblings erupting from the boy's chest were like nothing she had ever heard. She imagined it was the same sound a bear would make after three months of hibernating in a cave with incredible acoustics and a surround sound system.

She could feel the noise echoing deep in her abdomen.

"That's it!" Lucy sat up in the bed, leaned over the wall of pillows she had erected between them and shook the boy awake roughly. "Wake up, damn it!"

"Snrk— wha?" Natsu sat up hurriedly, blinking drowsily. "Wha? Lucy?"

"I can't sleep with you choking on a golf ball like that!" she propped her fists up on her hips. "Why are you even here? I said you could sleep in Loke's room!"

"Mm," he rubbed his eye sleepily, "But why would I want to sleep under a poster of a half-naked Lucy when I can just sleep next to the real thing?"

Heat flamed up her cheeks, "That bastard has a half-naked poster of me over his bed?"

"It's kinda creepy," he yawned and stretched onto his back once more. "You got dead eyes, Lucy."

"Shut your mouth!" she slammed a pillow into his face.

"Hey Lucy," he pushed it away.

"WHAT?"

"You'll come back to Fairy Tail, won't you?"

She slammed the pillow right back down on him again. She released it and rolled over, lying on her side, facing away from him on the other side of the bed. "I'll give you another chance but the second you start snoring, I'm dragging your ass out onto the lawn!"

"Could you please be quiet? I'm trying to sleep here."

She suppressed her furious shout and squeezed her eyes shut, vowing to ship the boy off first thing in the morning.

"What do you mean you can't?" Lucy snapped.

"Sorry, Lucy. We're all really busy today," Leo said through the phone. "Can't you hold out just one more day?"

She pouted, "But—"

"Sorry. There's nothing I can do about it. Is everything okay? Has he touched you?"

"No!" she blushed. "God! It's fine! He's just really annoying. That's all."

"Sweet," his voice faded and she could hear him faintly call, "Ha! Scorp! You owe me fifty bucks you piece of shit!"

"Are you kidding me?" an even more distant cry called. "That pussy ass kid! Doesn't he have any balls?"

Leo snickered into the phone.

Lucy rubbed her eyes and sighed, "I'd appreciate it if you kept my love life out of your petty bets."

"Anyway," he ignored her grumbling. "You're just gonna have to last another day. Think you can make it?"

Lucy lowered her hand and stared across the room. "You're hoping I can't make it, aren't you?"

"Err… Sorry Lucy, you're breaking up. I'm gonna have to talk to you later. See ya!" there was a click as he hung up on her.

Lucy glared at the cell phone and tossed it onto the couch. Just then, the door to the bedroom opened and Natsu walked inside, shirtless, dirt smudged on his shoulders and elbows, blades of grass sticking out of his messy pink hair.

He yawned and glanced around the room until he found her on the windowsill.

"Why was I outside?" he mumbled, voice groggy.

"You snored," she said, glancing out the window.

"Hey Lucy—"

"No."

"You're gonna come back to Fairy Tail, right?"

She glared at him and stood, "Give it up. It's never happening. Stop asking."

"What are we gonna do today?" he stretched his arms over his head, ignoring her harsh words.

"We're not doing anything," she pushed her hair over her ears and walked across the room. "You are going to leave me alone."

"Show me around the mansion!" he grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the room. "I wanna see all the cool stuff you have!"

"Natsu!" she whined.

"It's fine! It's not like you've got anything important to do, right?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Well… since you left Fairy Tail, you don't have to worry about homework."

"I can have other things to do besides homework!"

"Not today, you can't! Because we're gonna spend the entire day together. No arguments allowed!"

Lucy stared as he grinned brightly at her over his shoulder. Her heart thudded in her chest. To spend the entire day together… she gulped. Surely it wouldn't be too awful to have one last chance. One day of happiness before she turned her back on the life of her choice to live the life she was destined for. What was the harm in indulging just one last time? She could go out with a bang. Leave without any regrets. Lucy rubbed her lips together.

She would pamper herself. Satiate the hunger inside that called for Natsu and everything he had to offer. She would do it, and when the night was over… she would disappear and never see him again.

Before she went… she would allow herself just this one last pleasure.

Author's Note: Eh... kinda boring today. I sure am dragging this out, aren't I? Oh well. At least I got something done... I guess... I also flossed today. I guess you could say my life is pretty much going a good direction.

Just kidding. Seriously... I spent ALL this morning playing chase and hide with Nashi, (she likes to chase me from room to room and then let me get a head start so I can find a hiding spot. Then when she comes looking for me, I jump out and scare her and she runs away just to come barreling back to chase me again) and then Picole came over and ruined it. ;P I was actually grateful. I'm so out of shape that even running around the house from my deranged cat is enough to feel like the devil hath taken over thine body.

Quote of the day:

Me: "There is no order in my life. I'm not wearing any underwear and my bra is inside out. Leave me here to die."

Okay, here's a song for today's chapter:

"Gravity" by Sara Bareilles

Well, I hope you guys like it, even though not really anything happens... and I'm really dragging this out... and you're probably dying for some action here... but... yeah. Anyway. I'll see you guys later. Love you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your hard work keeping up with me and sticking around even though sometimes I suck so bad and stuff! You're seriously the best readers a cow could have! Hearing from you, even if it's just one word, makes my whole day so much brighter! (Which I really need, considering that I never see the sun) And for the people that even take the time to write long reviews with some kind of deep insight to the chapter or story as a whole... you are angels! It really means a lot that you go that far! Wow wow wow like seriously wow! I love love love you all! Thanks a million!

ONWARD!

Love-Moo