**I will be changing my username to my tumblr URL: MissyPlatina**
25TH CHAPTER?! I DON'T BELIEVE IT!
Asdkjasda thank you all very much!
Here ya go!
XOXOX
Natsu felt like a weight had been lifted.
He had finally said it.
Granted, he didn't stick around to see her reaction…
Nor did he bring it up again while texting her because why should he? He confessed, that's all that mattered and all that counted.
And besides, he was almost positive Lucy loved him back.
But it would be nice to know for sure…
"Are ya gonna invite Lucy tonight, Natsu?" Lisanna asked in a sing-song voice, breaking him out of thought.
"Huh?" Natsu stared at the short-haired girl. "What's tonight?"
"You forgot?" Lisanna gasped. "Tonight is the first match of the semester!"
"IT IS?!" Natsu gaped. "WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?!"
"Erza did," Lisanna sweat-dropped. "First period."
"I MISSED FIRST PERIOD!" Natsu exclaimed.
"You did?" Lisanna awed. "Who misses the first day of classes of a new semester?!"
Natsu glared at her.
"Was it because of Luuccyy?" Lisanna teased.
"Pshh, no," Natsu looked away, hiding his blush with his scarf.
"It was!" Lisanna clasped her hands against her mouth. "Natsu's in loovveee!"
"Am not!" Natsu denied, blushing even harder.
Lisanna skeptically raised a delicate eye brow.
"ARGG, FINE!" Natsu groaned. "I'M JUST A LITTLE BIT IN LOVE!"
"A little bit?" Lisanna snickered. "You're cute, Natsu." She tousled his hair before skipping off.
Natsu glared at her, "So annoying."
And then he pulled out his phone.
"Almost forgot to tell you, I have a match tonight!" Natsu texted Lucy.
"Are you going to light something on fire?" Lucy inquired.
"Huh?" Natsu blinked, but then he understood, "No, Weirdo, I have a fighting match. First one of the new term! You should come, make sure you bring the pass I gave you."
"Okay :)," Lucy texted back.
And Natsu's heart hummed in his chest.
There was something both thrilling and nerve wracking about Lucy coming to watch.
He had been so nervous to give Lucy the pass for Christmas…he didn't think he would ever ask anyone to come watch him…that was a place only for his dad.
But that all changed of course…thanks to that weirdo.
XOXOX
Lucy was confused.
Natsu hadn't brought up his love confession and all his texts were so causal… "GAHHH I'M SO STUPID!" She cried on her walk home from school. "Of course he meant it in a friendly way!"
But still…he invited her to his first match of the semester…That was enough to fill Lucy with giddy happiness.
And of course, Lucy's father had been pestering her all day at school. Sending her messages of how precious she is to him and how proud her mother would be… It was nice and all—the first five messages, but now he was up to the twentieth and that was enough for Lucy to pull her hair out.
But she enjoyed it at the same time…she would take this over not speaking to him any day.
And this was all thanks to Natsu.
XOXOX
Levy and Juvia had also been invited to the match since both Gajeel and Gray were a part of the fight club known as Fairy Tail.
So the three of them walked into the school and found close seats.
It was strange that the school had an actual fighting arena. It was almost like a boxing ring, except it was circular.
And all the seats circled around like a coliseum.
And there were hundreds upon hundreds of people here.
No wonder Natsu had to give her a pass.
Lucy's phone buzzed.
"Are you here yet?" Natsu texted her.
"Yeah," she replied.
"THEN GET YOUR BIG ASS BACK STAGE!" Natsu sent back.
Lucy's eye twitched. This was the boy who confessed his love to her?
But even with her nervousness, Lucy managed to hall her big ass backstage.
It was surprisingly huge back there and cozy. There were couches set up all around and TVs plastered in front of them. There was food and refreshments displayed out in a buffet fashion.
And people were all over the place.
She searched around for Natsu and accidently bumped into Gray and Loke.
"Well if it isn't my bodacious mistress!" Loke grabbed her hand and brought it up to his lips, but before he could actually kiss it, a fist jammed into his face.
"You're annoying," Natsu was now standing next to Lucy, with a scowl present on his face.
"Oi!" Gray growled at Natsu. "Don't hit your own team mates, Hot Head."
"He was bein' annoying!" Natsu said as if that made it okay.
"Who cares?!" Gray exclaimed. "Loke flirts with everyone! You can't throw a hissy fit all because he hit on your girlfriend!" Butterflies fluttered all around Lucy's stomach. Girlfriend, oh how badly she wanted to be Natsu's girlfriend…
Gray continued, "We need him in good condition! We are fighting Sabertooth after all."
"Whatever," Natsu lazily brushed off. "C'mon, Lucy."
He grabbed the girl's forearm and dragged her off to a quiet sector that looked like the emergency room since there was a bunch of first aid stuff lying around.
"Thanks for comin'," he brightly smiled.
Lucy's cheeks heated up, "N-no problem."
She shyly took him in; he was wearing one his strange outfits again; his puffy pants and his opened vest.
"Why do you wear that?" She blurted out.
"Hmm?" Natsu glanced down. "Oh 'cuz they are comfy to fight in."
"Ahh," Lucy nodded. "Makes sense…"
It was nerve wrecking being this close to him.
His ember scent filled her nostrils.
"I wanted to ask you something…" Natsu started. "About earlier…"
Oh God…he's going to bring it up, Lucy's eyes bugged.
"You know…" he continued. "This morning…I was wondering…"
It suddenly became hard to breathe, as though all the oxygen in the room had vanished.
"If you could make me lunch every day?"
"I love you too—I'D LOVE TOO!" Lucy slapped a hand over her mouth and Natsu just stood there ogling at her.
There was no way he didn't hear her slip up…
She swallowed.
Natsu stared at her with that shell shocked expression.
Please say something, she silently pleaded.
Natsu tugged at his scarf before breaking into a grin, "I like the enthusiasm!" And then his smile vanished and his face flushed up. He tugged at his scarf again as he said, "There's something else I want to ask you…"
"Wh-what?" Lucy couldn't take this anymore. She already felt like a total idiot and yet her heart began to race again as her mind whispered, This is it!
"I umm…" He averted his eyes and rubbed his arm in a sheepish manner. "I was wondering…if I could…you know…"
Her heart was going to burst.
SPIT IT OUT ALREADY! She wanted to scream at him.
He took a deep breath, "Could I sleep over again tonight?"
She wanted to strangle him.
She really needed to stop getting her hopes up.
"It's been so long since I've had a descent night's sleep…so I was wondering if I could sleep over again."
"Is that all you want to ask me?" Lucy seethed.
"Yeah," Natsu said.
"There isn't anything else?"
"Nope."
Something in her snapped, "WHAT ABOUT—"
"NATSU-SAN!" An unfamiliar voice interrupted Lucy.
"SERIOUSLY?" Lucy turned around to see who had the audacity to interrupt her. It was some blonde, spikey haired guy. He ran over to them. Lucy moved closer to Natsu, "Who's he?"
"Yo, Sting!" Natsu beamed, which, both, greeted he boy and answered Lucy's question. "Whoaa you got big!" Natsu taped on Sting's muscular bicep.
"Yeah! Been working out extra hard so that I can be in your league, Natsu-san!" Sting grinned. "Be prepared to lose!"
Natsu grinned back and curled his right hand into a fist and pounded it into his left palm, "I'm all fired up!"
"Good," String laughed. "Wouldn't be fun if you weren't. Rogue's been working out a lot too."
"He has?" Natsu awed.
"Yeah," Sting nodded. "He's really excited for this match as well."
"Good! Speaking of Rogue, where is he?" Natsu inquired.
"Who's Rogue?" Lucy squeaked, looking back and forth between the boys.
"Rogue's with Gajeel-san," Sting said, ignoring Lucy. "You know how much he idolizes Gajeel-san…"
"Ahh well I guess I'll see him in the ring," Natsu said.
"Actually, you won't," Another voice joined in.
"Erza!" Lucy gasped. The red haired beauty stood before them, with her hands on her waist and a deep frown embedded on her lips.
"Natsu," Erza said sternly. "You didn't show up to first period."
"So what?" Natsu raised a brow.
"You aren't allowed to participate tonight. You have to be in school all day in order to participate."
"WHAT?" Natsu roared. "THAT'S NOT FAIR! IT WAS ALL THAT STUPID ICE STRIPPERS FAULT!"
"Rules are rules, Natsu," Erza stated, before walking away.
"How was this Gray's fault?" Lucy incredulously asked.
"It's not," Natsu sighed, crossing his arms. "I just like to blame everything that goes wrong in my life on him."
"Oh?" Lucy sweated.
"Well this sucks," Sting exhaled. "Maybe next time, Natsu-san." Sting left the room with his head hanging low.
"ARGGG!" Natsu groaned, pulling at his pink locks, "I WANTED TO FIGHT SO BADLY!"
"C'mon, Natsu," Lucy rubbed his back. "There's always next time, right?"
"I guess," he loudly exhaled. "BUT NOW THAT STUPID ICE-FOR-BRAINS-LOSER WILL HAVE A HEAD START ON EARNING HIT POINTS!"
Lucy giggled, "You're silly."
Natsu face scrunched up, "How am I silly?"
"You're not thinking clearly," Lucy explained. "Think of it this way. You're just giving Gray a handicap. Imagine how fun it will be to start from nothing and then crush him?"
A grin formed on Natsu's lips, "Now I'm really fired up!"
"Good!" Lucy laughed some more. "Now let's go watch the matches together!" She grabbed Natsu's hand to drag him to her seat, but he didn't budge.
"Nah," he said. "I want to do something else."
"Like what?" Lucy looked over at him.
He was staring down at their interlocked hands.
Then his eyes flickered over to hers. "Anything really," his voice lowered. "I just want to hang out with you...alone."
"Okay," Lucy breathily replied.
XOXOX
"Natsu," Lucy said calmly. "Why exactly are we folding all your clothes and putting them into a duffle bag?"
"For our sleepover," he cheekily grinned.
"Oh really?" Lucy skeptically asked. "Because it sure as hell looks like you're moving into my apartment!"
"Why would I want to move in with you?" He smirked. "All done!" He zipped up the duffle bag and placed it over his shoulder and then he picked up his backpack and placed it on his back. "Lucy, can you take Happy?"
"WHY ARE WE TAKING YOUR CAT TO A SLEEPOVER?!"
"Because he gets lonely," Natsu said with a straight face.
"Natsu," Lucy moaned. "When you said you wanted to hang out with me alone…this isn't really what I had in mind."
He dropped both bags off his shoulders. "What did you have in mind?"
Well what Lucy had really wanted was for Natsu to properly confess to her or at least bring it up...
She couldn't take it anymore.
Clearly he wasn't going to progress their relationship any further...
Mustering up some courage, Lucy approached him. His eyes widened as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
She watched Natsu's Adam's apple bob up and down.
She almost wanted to back down…
His shocked eyes were glued on her, watching every movement she made.
She leaned in really close, and breathy whispered, "I thought we could do something a little more fun..."
XOXOX
Cliffy! Yay!
Sadly, this story will be coming to an end soon, but I have two possible stories for when I finish this one!
I posted the first chapters to both stories and it would really mean a lot if you all could check them out and tell me which one you like better!
One is called The Embers of a Mix Up, which is like a mix of this story and Virtual Flames.
Summary: Through a strange mix up, Lucy somehow ends up swapping phones with a complete stranger.
And then there's also Quarantine.
Summary: Natsu and Lucy end up in Saturday detention, forced to clean up a research lab and through an accidental fight, a tank that contains a deadly bacteria breaks open, causing the school to be on lock down.
Both are NaLu-centric AU.
Thank you so much for reading!
*Hugs*