AN: Hope you all like this chapter! :D Sorry about updating a day later than usual, I was very sick yesterday haha it was so terrible!

Chapter 21

Two weeks had passed since Lucy and Natsu shared multiple kisses on Christmas Eve and it was time for everyone to return to school. Since then, they hadn't kissed again, much to Lucy's disappointment. But she did realize that they were much closer than before. For instance, they walked much closer now, their arms brushing with every step. Sometimes Natsu would teasingly brush his hand against hers, to which she would nudge him and hide her blushing face. They were also spending much more time together. If they were inseparable before, now it was as if they shared a body with how much they were around each other. He always came over and when he didn't, they were always texting. Even right after he would leave her apartment Lucy's phone would buzz with a new text from him. Though she knew it was clingy, the blonde knew she would be lying if she said she didn't like it.

But this was just ridiculous now.

"Morning, Luce!" Natsu's cheery voice said from right beside her. In her bed. Under the covers.

Said girl groaned and pushed the boy off of her bed, glaring at him. "What the hell are you doing in my bed!?"

Natsu rubbed his aching head and glared back at her. "That hurt, Luce! I was just waiting for you to wake up! I got tired of waiting for you outside so I came in here! Then I saw that you had a few more minutes before your alarm rang so I decided to sleep with you!"

"D-Don't say that! And don't come into my house uninvited!" Lucy screeched. She got out of bed and stood in front of him. The deep blush on his cheeks didn't go unnoticed by her. She followed his gaze and was mortified at what she was wearing. Her nightwear consisted of extremely short shorts and a loose, low cut tank top, which was currently riding up and revealing her stomach. The girl shrieked and grabbed her uniform, running into her bathroom to get dressed.

Once Lucy was dressed, she came back out and began making breakfast for the two of them. While she waited for their bagels to finish toasting, she subconsciously fingered the silver jewelry around her neck. The girl never took off the necklace Natsu had given to her for Christmas. It was sacred to her, just as the other presents were. But while she removed the sweater and scarf when she got home, the necklace never left her body.

"I'm glad you like the necklace," Natsu said, bringing Lucy out of her thoughts. He was sitting at the table with a goofy grin plastered to his face.

"I don't like it, I love it," Lucy replied, returning the smile.

"Good, because I'm going to give you a ring someday too when I propose."

The blonde spat out the orange juice that she was drinking, wondering if she had heard him wrong. Analyzing his face, she figured she must have misheard him considering his face wore his usual goofy grin. But just in case…

"What did you just say?" she questioned, her cheeks gaining warmth by the second.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing." Just then, their bagels shot up in the toaster. "Bagels are done."

"Gee thanks, Natsu," Lucy sarcastically replied. "Not like I didn't hear it or anything."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't considering you didn't hear what I said earlier," the boy shot back with a smirk. "Hurry up or else we're going to be late and Erza is going to kill us."

"You know, I could just throw your bagel in the trash."

"No, Lucy!"

The said girl giggled and brought their breakfast to the table. She forgot all about his earlier remark and munched happily on her strawberry cream cheese slathered bagel. Once both of them finished- Natsu practically inhaling his food while Lucy savored the taste- she went to retrieve her school bag. When she returned, she found Natsu staring at her expectantly.

"Where's your sweater?" he asked with an irritated voice.

"It's dirty!" Lucy answered. He didn't expect her to wear it every single day did he?

"Fine," Natsu grumbled. He picked up Lucy's scarf and wrapped it around her neck. "You have to at least wear this."

"And why is that? Are you marking your territory for the other boys in school?" she teased.

Natsu only smirked at her. "Are you saying you're my territory?"

Lucy flushed from head to toe and was about to retort but Natsu was already cackling and dragging her out of her home. She quickly realized that even after they left, he still never let go of her hand. In fact, he even made it more intimate when he intertwined his fingers with hers. While Lucy loved the feel of his warm, calloused hand, it utterly confused her. They hadn't talked about the event that transpired Christmas Eve once and now he was holding her hand like he was her boyfriend.

"Boyfriend?" she wondered. "Is he my boyfriend? Is that why he's holding my hand? I should ask. No, that's too desperate. Mavis, being in love is hard."

"Oi, you there, Luce?"

"Huh?" the blonde questioned, suddenly brought out of her thoughts as Natsu shook her hand.

He chuckled and then replied, "You were zoning out on me. I was asking you if you were planning on going to the New Year's formal."

"New Year's formal?"

"Yeah, the school throws a dance the Friday after Christmas break every year and we call it the New Year's formal."

"Why can't this school just be normal and have a winter formal?"

Natsu smirked. "Because that's too boring. Anyways… Are you going?"

Lucy blushed and she played with her scarf with her free hand. "I-I don't know… I haven't been asked…"

"But if you're asked will you go?"

"Well, it depends."

"On what?"

"On who's asking me!"

"Oh," was all that Natsu said, irritating the girl. "Okay!"

"Well," Lucy thought begrudgingly, "I guess we aren't dating."

Once the two arrived at the school, Lucy became a nervous wreck. By then she knew that she and Natsu weren't dating, but she knew that they had some sort of special relationship. It was their first day back in school with this "relationship" and the girl was utterly confused as to what she was supposed to do when they approached her math class. Was she supposed to kiss him? Was he supposed to kiss her? Or were they supposed to hug instead? Perhaps they weren't supposed to do anything at all?

Lucy didn't have any more time to stress about the endless possibilities as there simply wasn't enough time. Once they approached her math classroom, Natsu let go of her hand and ruffled her hair before turning around and going back to his own class. The blonde sighed with disappointment and entered her classroom.

"It is good to see you again, Lucy," Erza calmly greeted. Despite having to wake up earlier than the rest of the students for student council meetings, the redhead always appeared as though she didn't miss a second of sleep. "How was your break?"

"Morning, Erza!" Lucy greeted in return, temporarily forgetting about her sour mood. "It was great! How was your New Year's?"

"It was fantastic. J-Jellal asked me to accompany him to the New Year's formal this Friday."

"H-He did?" Lucy inquired, trying her best to maintain a cheery attitude, but it was futile as she was instantly reminded of her own issues with Natsu. Jellal was one of the shyest boys she ever met and yet even he was able to ask Erza to be his date to the dance.

Erza quickly picked up on the blonde's mood. "Don't fret about it, Lucy. We all know you and Natsu will end up going together. Give it time."

Lucy sighed in exasperation and laid her head on her desk. "I don't want to wait though! I want it now! I-I didn't tell you and Levy this yet, but some stuff happened at the Christmas party and long story short, Natsu and I made our feelings very clear! Yet we haven't talked about things since then and I don't know what our relationship is exactly and I just wanna be asked to the damn dance I just learned about this morning but Natsu is too much of a dense piece of-"

"Ahem," Wakaba interrupted. "Lucy, if you don't mind, I would like to start class. Complain about your boyfriend after class."

The girl's face was set ablaze as she buried her head in her arms. "He's not my boyfriend," she muttered.

As Natsu sat in his mechanics class first period, his thoughts drifted towards a certain blonde. He knew that things were a bit weird between them but he had no idea what to do in the slightest. The boy had absolutely no experience in this sort of thing. Was he supposed to ask her out? Was he supposed to take her on dates first? Did Lucy just assume they were together in the first place? Were they together?

"Oi, flame brain, get your head out of your ass and help already," Gray said, slapping the distracted boy upside the head.

"Shut it, popsicle princess," Natsu grumbled as he rubbed his head.

"Both of you shut it and help me put this damn car together!" Gajeel shouted.

Gajeel definitely exceeded in mechanics class and surpassed the rest of their classmates. Though Natsu and Gray refused to admit it, they had no chance passing the class if it weren't for him. Everyone even believed that he was more experienced and knowledgeable than the teacher. This was the only class the teen aced on his own without cheating or help from Levy and he wasn't about to let his two idiot friends ruin that for him.

"What are you thinking about anyways?" Gray questioned. "Can't have you hurting yourself thinking too hard."

"Ha ha," Natsu replied, fighting the urge to start a fight. "It's none of your business."

"It's Lucy right? Why don't you just ask her already?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"To the dance. Gajeel and I were talking about asking Juvia and Levy to the dance and that's when you got all distracted. It's obvious you were thinking about Lucy. So just man up and ask her to the dance."

"Yeah, quit being such a wimp," Gajeel added. The two dark-haired teens shared a fist bump.

"Argh just be quiet already!" the pink-haired boy cried out, wanting nothing more than to bash their heads into the nearest wall.

"You shouldn't wait too long," Gajeel replied. "Levy told me that Bunny Girl is getting pretty popular. I can see guys staring at her during second period in our creative writing class."

"Well then why the hell don't you stop them!?"

"Why should I? Bunny Girl is single as far as I know. And let's not forget what happened last time someone tried to stop her from going out with someone."

"She was scarier than Erza," Gray said, repressing a shiver at the thought of the blonde's wrath.

"A-Aye," Natsu agreed.

"Anyways," Gajeel began, "you haven't defined the relationship, so Bunny Girl is single. Meaning that any of the guys in this crummy school could ask her to the dance and she would have no reason to say no."

"Lucy and I don't need to define anything! We're just fine the way we are! There's no need to change anything!" Natsu replied almost desperately. He forced himself to believe it but soon those thoughts would crumble away.

AN: Hope you all enjoyed! :D Btw, I broke my phone on Wednesday which makes replying to reviews hard but I will do it anyways!

SingingAngel327: Yes, Lisanna is a sweetheart! I feel like that is what she would be like in the actual manga, not the mean girl that everyone writes her to be (though I do love those stories too tbh).

Cookie panda-roo: Thank you haha that was definitely one of my favorite parts of the whole story haha! :')

Sidjr100: Thank you so much but it must come to an end eventually! D: Don't worry though, there's plenty of cute scenes before then!

Rose Tiger: Thank you! :) Lisanna is a nice girl!

Alexa60765: Ahhh thank you! :D And yesss the scarf was such an important gift. :')

Author Autumn: THANK YOU SO MUCH! But I don't think that any of the other couples have any more moments besides jerza! The rest is all about Nalu! And no it wasn't the end! :D Chapter 25 will be the ending, followed by an epilogue! :D

SavageReaper: Thank you so much that is such an amazing review you have no idea! :') I'm glad you love my story that much! :D And yes! You're the only one that talked about liking the group chat and I do too! I love the friendship Lucy has with everyone, they're all so unique and the group chat is my favorite too. :')

Iamtlani13: THANK YOU SO MUCH. AND HAHA OOPS LET ME EXPLAIN. See, Lucy had the courage to do that but I would never! My boyfriend and I were already dating then so it wasn't courageous at all lmao! I would never be able to do that to my crush if we weren't dating haha! I would be way too scared and nervous!

Lunahartz: Thank you so much! :D

Guest: Thank you I loved that Jerza moment. :') I'm not really experienced in writing any of the other couples in the show other than Nalu but I actually really liked that moment!

Soul Eater Maka: THANK YOU! :D

CelestialLunaPanda-Senpai: YES, NALU FOR THE WIN. THEY WILL ALWAYS COME THROUGH!

Magnificent dragoness: Yes it did! :D Were you expecting it? :)

Brynn chan: Thank you very much for another review! :)

Mavis Senpai: Thank you so much! :D

Lunalover: Hello again! :) And wow that sounds fun! Why are you going to Dallas? :) And it's all good! The story will be ready for you when you get back! :)