Chapter 26

-Natsu POV-

I did feel a little bad for not telling her that we were going to the lake, but I really didn't want to spoil the surprise. I could tell, once we arrived, that she was a little disappointed - the longing look she gave the water was unmistakable, and I almost wanted suggest just jumping in, clothes optional. I mean, why would we swim in our clothes? I knew how uncomfortable that was, but she probably wouldn't have gone for it. She's a girl, and I could tell she'd go all bashful and angry that I'd even suggest such a thing. I was sure she had a very nice body - the type of clothing she usually wore left little to the imagination.

Okay, getting off topic. I didn't bring her there to go skinny dipping. No, I wanted to share another great pastime of mine: fishing.

I hopped out of the truck as she stared out at the water. I had to admit, there was a moment where I was just about as transfixed with the view as she was; dark blue, sparkling water, surrounded by trees, nature...except my view included one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. Her golden hair was almost as sparkling in the sunlight as the lake. After about thirty seconds, I had realized I'd been staring. I visibly shook myself - thankful that she hadn't caught me, but regretful that I had to look away...where was my camera when I really needed it? - and hurriedly made my way to the back of the truck, pulling down the tailgate, albeit a little more forceful than I had wanted.

The sound startled Lucy, and she whirled around to stare at me with wide eyes. I covered myself with a chuckle and a shrug, mumbling about the metal slipping out of my hands. She raised an eyebrow at me, crossed her arms under her chest - I was proud of myself for only glancing for a split second - before I motioned her over to help me.

I handed her the tackle box - her eyes lit up, but she quickly covered it with a small confused look...had she been fishing before? - and instructed her to go over by the shore while I grabbed the fishing poles.

I took a deep breath as I held the poles in my hands. This would be the first time I'd gone fishing with anyone since my dad passed away - the day before, to be exact - and, truthfully, I was a little anxious about sharing something so personal with someone, but Lucy wasn't just someone, not anymore. I know, we confessed our liking one another awhile back, but I didn't think she meant it the way I did then. Not once had we showed each other any sort of romantic physical contact - not for lack of trying, on my part - and, for awhile, I thought maybe, if she didn't like me that way to begin with, that she never really moved past the friend sort of like.

It didn't take me as long as other people might have expected for me to understand why she was like that. I mean, she was in the hospital for almost a full twenty-four hours with a condition that she hid from me. At first I was upset - holy shit, was I upset - but, during the few days that I haven't seen her, I grew to understand her reasonings; and I respected them, not that I'm not still pissed about her keeping it from me, but I cut her some slack.

I stepped up beside her, taking in a deep breath. Can't get enough of that fresh air.

"I'm so glad today turned out to be sunny," I told her, grabbing the tackle box from her, gently setting the poles on the ground. I glanced up at her, and caught her smiling a little at the scenery, and, again, I wanted to take that picture. "Apparently it's supposed to rain at some point in the next few days…"

She turned to me, still smiling, and I found myself so entranced that I could only gently lift the corner of my mouth in some weird lazy smirk. I shrugged, looking away, though it was very hard to.

"I'm glad today isn't that day," I croaked out. I cleared my throat and opened the box, hoping she didn't notice. The moment my eyes settled on the various fishing equipment, I seemed to calm down, taking in the familiar feeling of nostalgia washing over me. All of my dad's special fishing tools were still in there, even the little tub he bought me when I was five that we reused constantly for our worms.

I practically shoved that into Lucy's hands. She inspected it, clearly confused with what it was. It took me all night to scrounge up all those little worms in there, I hoped she didn't get super squeamish and drop it. One of her hands rested on her stomach for a brief moment, and I caught a glimmer of regret in her face as she glanced back at the tackle box. She was so obvious that I burst out laughing.

"What were you expecting?" I asked. "A picnic?"

Her quickly reddening cheeks puffed. "Well, what was I supposed to think?" she demanded, making me laugh harder.

"Have you never been fishing before?"

Her eyebrows furrowed, and she looked at the worms again. "Ah, no, actually. I prefer not to know what goes into preparing a salmon fillet before I eat it." She held the tub out a little ways from her body, and I was relieved that that's all she did.

I grabbed the tub from her and handed her my pole. I only owned two fishing poles - mine, and my dad's - and, granted mine was basically made for professional fishers, my dad's was harder to handle. I could live with her losing mine, if it came down to it, but I didn't know how I'd feel if she hooked a big one, was unprepared for it, and my dad's pole would go shooting from her hands. I'd jump in after it, but I decided to just play it safe and not have to deal with that situation at all.

"You'll enjoy it!" I couldn't help exclaiming. Fishing was one of my absolute favorite hobbies, and the thought of sharing that with her just cause me to almost vomit rainbows of pure happiness. I watched her handle the pole a little awkwardly - chuckling to myself as she tried to get a firm hold on it - and I decided to save her. I pulled her down to sit next to me, and grabbed the end of the pole, gently weaving the wire to attach a hook on the end.

She gasped when I popped open the lid of the worm tub, grabbed a wiggling worm, and expertly attached it to the hook. I glanced at her, and chuckled again at her pale, frightened face. No matter when, where, or how, she always managed to bring a smile to my face - and that included her looking almost sickly to one of the most common fishing techniques.

"Why are you laughing?" she shrieked. "That poor worm!"

"Hey, don't worry." I gently put my hand on her shoulder. "This doesn't hurt it, if you do it correctly." She raised an unbelieving eyebrow at me, and I shrugged. "They've done studies on it."

"Well excuse me for thinking that worm is in pain after having a sharp hook shoved up its butt."

And then I lost it. I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore, and it felt good to finally let it out. It felt good that she was the one who brought it out.

"Stop laughing at me!"

"I'm...I'm sorry," I heaved. "You're just so weird, Lucy."

"Natsu, if all you're going to do is make fun of me, then you can just take me home."

That calmed me, but not all the way. I watched her pout, and shook my head. I had never met anyone who showed so much compassion for a little miniscule thing like a worm. Then again, this was Lucy, and I had come to find out that she valued all life equally. Originally I thought that was just some odd trait that was probably pounded into her head from a young age, but then I found out about her condition, and it made sense.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her against me in a sort of half hug.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I promise this isn't why I brought you here." I let her go, stood up, and swung the pole back and forth, getting a feel of the movement. I smiled down at her, and jerked my head up, motioning for her to stand up as well. She almost looked like she was going to decline - I didn't know what I'd do if she had - but she conceded and pushed herself up.

I held the pole to her, but she looked reluctant to take it, continuously glancing at the dangling worm. I sighed and grabbed her hand, pulling her closer.

"Stop being a baby," I mumbled, forcing the pole into her hands.

She squeaked at the sudden movements I made, and I quickly stepped behind her, covering her smaller hands in my own so she didn't try to move away. Only briefly did I notice how close I had brought our bodies together, her smaller form surprisingly warm pressed against my chest. I hadn't actually thought this all the way through, but the moment her back pressed against my chest, I almost felt like a shock wave traveled through my body. I didn't know why this surprised me - it wasn't the first time it had happened - but it rendered me still regardless. There was a thudding between our bodies, and I couldn't tell if it was my heart or hers, but I could tell by the way she stiffened that she was just a nervous as I was.

Though I never would admit that out loud.

"So - " My voice cracked and I cleared my throat, which sounded more like I was hacking a hairball. "So, you put your thumb on this button here…" I positioned her hands on the reel the way I instructed. I found myself with my nose in her neck - not really complaining, but I wondered just how nervous I was making her - so I rested my chin on her shoulder. "...and pull your arm back. You're going to throw the pole forward - not literally, still hang on to it - and as it gets to about here, you take your thumb off the button and the line is going to fly out into the water." I moved her body as I spoke so she could a feel of what she needed to do. When I finished, I stepped back - immediately shivering due to lack of contact - and nodded at her. "Go ahead and cast out the line."

She glanced at me, and did as she was told. I kept my eyes on her body - keeping an eye for any mistakes, not checking her out - and I smiled as she released the button and the little worm took a one way flight into the middle of the lake. I whistled, and was about to congratulate her, but she beat me to it.

She cried out and hopped around, turning towards me and wrapping her arms around my neck. I couldn't hold in my laughter at her antics. "Okay, okay, don't get too excited," I said, regretfully taking her arms from around my neck. "You get too loud, the fish'll get scared."

She gasped a little and immediately brought her attention back to the water, her eyes wide with focus.

"Now, take the little lever there, and reel it in a little bit...slowly."

Again, she did as I told her, and I was amazed that she was able to forget about the worm on the other end. Satisfied with how she was doing, I grabbed my own pole and did the same things that I told her, very aware that her eyes were watching me. I'm not lying when I admit that I was trying to show off for her - adding a little more flourish to my casting.

"Okay, now what?" she asked, seemingly not at all impressed. I pouted slightly, and huffed as I sat down.

"Now we wait."

"How long do we wait for?" She sat next to me, cross-legged.

Shrugging, I glanced at her. "Depends. We could be out here all day." I smirked at her look disbelief. "What? Got something better to do?" I returned to looking out at the water.

Her reaction to fishing was almost the same as Gray's, the few times we went out together. He didn't like to just sit and wait for the fish to come to him - couldn't blame him...I was the same way most of the time - and we'd end up competing for who could cast their line out farther. Granted, those days we never caught anything, but it was still fun.

"Gray used to love fishing," I said, breaking the silence. She jumped and looked at me, her eyes wide. I shrugged, not missing her how quickly she glanced around us before looking back at me. Did she expect someone to be around to overhear? This was a public fishing spot, so it wouldn't have surprised me if someone was there.

"Gray was a fisher?" she asked, though her voice had grown quiet, almost as if she was trying to keep it between ourselves.

"I wouldn't say he was a fisher, but he liked to come out every once in awhile to clear his head. You look like you have some things on your mind, and, what with everything that's been going on lately, I thought maybe you were the same."

She bit her lip and looked at her hands in her lap.

"If you want to talk about anything, that's fine." I had leaned closer to her so I could speak quietly. "If not, that's fine, too."

"I want to…" She trailed off, took a deep breath, and picked her head back up again. "I want to talk about Gray," she said.

I blinked at her. I mean, how would any other man feel knowing the girl he liked would rather talk about another man? Okay, so the other guy had past away, but it still made my body stiffen a little.

She gasped and waved her hands in front of her face. "I didn't mean it like that!" Almost as if she were reading my mind… "I just know that he was a big part of your past...and well, everyone else seems to know so much about what happened...and then what happened at the studio the other day…"

"Ah, yeah…Speaking of that...We did another ghost hunt. Sting had been trying to get us to do another one, and a few nights ago, we did...but we didn't have any luck."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Her cheeks blushed and she looked away.

"Don't be," I assured her. "Ghosts work on their own schedules. Can't expect them to show up the moment you call on them."

She glanced around us again. Was she worried someone was going to overhear us talking about ghost hunts? That might be more likely for her to be nervous, since people were sensitive to that topic. I didn't care, but with her upbringing, she probably still held onto those thoughts. She took a deep breath, and gently placed her hand on my arm.

"Natsu, I have a question." She pulled hand away as I nodded, though I missed the contact. "There was a picture at the tribute...with Gray and a girl with blue hair." Again she looked around. "Who was the girl?"

Okay, her nervousness was starting to get to me, and I looked around just as she had. I wasn't sure why she was so nervous, but it had to be for a good reason, right? What if her aunt found out she wasn't in her room and came after her? I never came close to punching a woman before - especially one older than me - but if I saw her again, and she tried to take Lucy away from me again, I probably would.

I took a deep breath, relieved that we were still alone, then shrugged. "Not many people know about her," I replied, nodding in understanding why she'd be curious. "Which is why we keep all the pictures of her in the back so only those of us who do know about her can see."

"Why all the secrecy? Who was she?" I wondered if she knew just how pushy she was sounding just then. We had all day to discuss this, but she was acting like we only had a few minutes. "They looked pretty happy in that picture...was she his sister?"

This had me laughing again. Gray would probably be turning in his grave if he knew that people thought of Juvia as his sister. "No, not his sister. She was an old friend of ours...and they were a couple for a brief amount of time."

Just a few months, to be exact. They probably would have lasted longer had things turned out differently. Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you think everything's okay and everything's going right. Thank you, Alanis Morissette, for pretty much summing up the great question of life, the universe, and everything with just one simple sentence...maybe two…

The sound of Lucy clearing her throat brought me out of my thoughts, and I realized she was close to crying again, but she looked like she was trying hard to hold it in. I didn't like seeing her cry, but she also seemed like the girl who held in her pain, and she was only able to let it out when I was around. That was both a curse and a blessing.

"Could you tell me about them?" she asked, quietly. "If it wouldn't upset you too much to do so…"

"Why so interested? Did you know them or something?"

She shook her head quickly. "No...but they seem to be a big part of your life, and I want to know more about you. Not to mention everyone at Fairy Tail knew who they were, so I just wanted to be in the loop so I wasn't completely ignorant of the whole thing, and get blindsided by something important again…"

I let her ramble on, getting stuck on one thing she said. She wanted to know more about me? Well, that was a giant step in the right direction that I wanted us to go. Since I first saw her, I had to be the one to initiate our time spent together, so hearing her taking the first step for once was almost too good to be true.

"O-okay…" I mumbled, and she flinched as I interrupted her. "I warn you, though: I'm a terrible storyteller...so don't blame me if you're left more confused than you are now!"

The way her face lit up was almost too bright for me to handle, but I loved it. "Don't worry," she chirped. "If that happens, I'll berate myself for being too curious, and leave you out of it, okay?"

I nodded, rubbing the back of my neck, and thought of where to start…

AN: Okay, first off, can I express how sorry I am that I've made you guys wait so long for these next couple of chapters? Well, I have a few reasons...1) I've been trying to find a new job...raising a family of 4 plus 2 pets by myself wasn't hard enough as it was, my pharmacy closed down, funds ran low, and, despite the need for techs in the area, I couldn't find anything...okay, enough of my angsty life...2) When I originally wrote these chapters, they were in Lucy's POV, just like the rest of the story, but no matter how much tweaking and editing I did, I couldn't bring myself to like what I had written down, and I refused to post something that I didn't like. So, I took another approach, and, voila! Here's Natsu's side of things. We will continue with him for these next couple chapters, and I hope you enjoy the change.

As always, please review, and fave/follow if you haven't already.