Damn, I forgot to change the time stamp on chapter 35 to sometime in the morning.

Sam.

36: Dan Straight

13th April, Friday. Fairy Scale Corp, Lucy's office. 6:45 p.m

Within 3 hours, Lucy had perfected the civil, noncommittal nod that many famous personas had gotten down pat during their glory days. With her closer friends it was a little harder, since the more irritating ones like Loke, Gajeel, Bixlow… pretty much all the males refused to let the matter slide with just a few nods.

Levy had been simply the worst of the entire lot.

"Enough! Leave me alone!" She wanted to shout but having been estranged from her friends for so long, she did not want to risk endangering their newfound friendship. Though with the shit they had actually put each other through on a daily basis in the past, she doubted yelling at them would do anything. It would probably just rile the more manic ones up anyway…

She shuddered when Gajeel's trademark "Geehee" rang out in her memory. Seriously, if anything the man had only gotten worse over the past two years. How someone as sensible and levelheaded as Levy could put up with him, she could not comprehend.

"-listening?"

"Huh?"

Natsu was waving in front of her face. "I said, are you listening?"

"Uh…"

Sherry, Lyon and Sena were also watching her with curious looks. Lyon's cheeks now sported a few bruises, a memento from Natsu when Lucy had insisted the pinkette discipline Sherry vicariously through the silver-haired male. After all, a boss was responsible for his subordinate, right?

Besides, if she laid a hand on the buxom female, as tsundere as he was, Ren would come flying over here in a moment to… what, yell at her? She had no idea how people like him would behave when they were always attempting to hide their true feelings.

Ooh, she was drifting again.

"Uh, yeah… I'm here. Uh… we were on the part about…"

"We've ended, Lucy." Sherry laughed sheepishly. "You seemed really tired."

"Oh."

Lyon was rising to his feet. "I'm sure Natsu is capable of dealing with the follow-up today." He glanced at his watch and his lips twitched. "It's late… so we'll head back for today."

Lucy stood up as well, though she was at a loss for what to do. Instead, she simply nodded.

Natsu was done tidying up the junk scattered across her desk by the time she gathered her wits. Turning, he gently laid a hand over her forehead, taking her by surprise. Lucy blinked a few times as his hand shifted from her forehead to her neck.

"What are you doing?"

"You're not ill or something, right?"

"No…?"

"Just…" He scratched the side of his head. "You seemed kinda… tired. Though I guess after all that fuss, it'd be more surprising if you weren't, huh?"

Lucy sighed deeply as she touched her own forehead. "Yeah, I guess. I just… need a bit of rest. Everything happened without warning, it just threw me off…"

Natsu picked up her heavy satchel, and took her hand.

"C'mon. I'll make dinner. You need to get some rest before our big day tomorrow."

14th April, Saturday. Central train station, Crocus. 3:55p.m.

"Thank you for accompanying me. It means a lot to me."

"Yeahh- urrrgghkk- one moment."

Lucy sighed as she watched the pinkette hit the pillar hard, his face pale as sweat trailed the sides of his skin. Pulling tissues from her pocket, she began dabbing at his face, smiling softly when the debilitated male gave her a shaky smile.

"Want another sip?"

"Y-yeah…"

As Natsu sipped slowly, Lucy looked around till she found the main street, the curb of which was lined by a few cabs. While she did not want to subject him to another round of torture, it would be better if they could just go through everything quickly so that he could get some proper rest. She dived her hand into her pocket, her fingers closing around several pieces of cool, jagged metal.

Only a few friends had been to her apartment in Crocus before. The Strauss siblings, Erza and Levy and Dan... Her mind shuttered then. She was weary from the guilt of leading him on and lying to him. It was time to end this. But, Dan… Dan would come only tomorrow. Today, it was all about Natsu. The thought of him crossing that threshold of her life both scared and thrilled her.

On one hand, she could not rein in her excitement about introducing her private home to the most important man in her life. On the other, it had been her haven during the most painful ordeal of her life, brought about by the same man. She was overflowing with conflict but yet it seemed, that bringing him in was now an important milestone.

Natsu was feeling better as they climbed into the cab, though that iota of recovery was quickly done away with the moment the engine started. The only consolations Lucy could offer him were the promise that the ride would not take long and her lap..

While Natsu rested, she took in the familiar sights whirling past her from behind her small window. The avenues of boutiques, the cafés with their gilded gates and fleur-de-lis awnings and the people, dressed in the height of fashion as they strutted down the promenades.

As they traversed the bustling weekend streets, she was made even more aware of the differences between Crocus and Magnolia. The people, the shops, the atmosphere… While at first glance nothing much seemed different there was, in fact, a stark contrast.

If Magnolia was milk chocolate with raisins, Crocus was Valrhona with white truffles flakes, with graceful trails of alcohol infused sauce. Not for the first time since she had gotten acquainted with Crocus, Lucy was grateful that she was not a local here.

She did like this place though. The blonde smiled when the vehicle drew to a halt in front a towering white brick building.

Beside her, Natsu roused groggily when he heard her going through the payment. "We're… pfffggf- here…?"

She wrapped her arm around his waist and gently dragged the male out from the passenger seat. Thankfully, they were travelling light; Natsu needed only a single change of clothes and she still had the bulk of her clothing here.

Her apartment was neither lavishly furnished nor well-equipped, since neither of them had been important criteria for her. All she needed was a place to rest her head at night.

Now it was different though, and she felt a pang of anxiety when she realized just how sparse the place actually was.

Her furniture inventory consisted of only the basics, and even those looked a sad match for the intricate architecture of the building. Glancing around, she winced when she saw how mismatched her legless couch was for the Aubusson carpet. The gorgeous carpeting had come with the house, the couch from a warehouse clearance sale. The cleanliness was maintained by a weekly laundry service. At least she had that. Slanting her gaze at the man beside her, she held her breath for his reaction.

The first thing Natsu noticed was a dartboard hanging next to the display cabinet. The shelves were stacked with old books (something the blonde had never been able to live without) and other miscellaneous display items. Neither stayed his attention.

He heard Lucy gasp when he made his way to the dartboard, his eyes narrowing as his vision focused on… himself.

To be more exact, a printout of his photo that bore stab wounds that he could only assume were the result of darts.

"That's! Uh… Natsu, don't mind that! Let me show you the rest of the place!" Lucy blurted out in a flustered voice.

"I'm not angry, Luce." He managed to reply. He did feel slightly perturbed though, but he was not going to let that get to him. It was an important weekend for the both of them.

"Ok…" Her tone sounded a little disbelieving but she picked up his bag and brought it into the bedroom.

A second later, Natsu heard a loud thump followed by a scuffle. Peeking his head, he arched his brows at the sight before him. His bag had been thrown against a wall and Lucy was clambering up on the bed, a long body pillow grabbed tightly against herself. As she heard him come in, blonde hair whipped around and she regarded him with a horrified look, as if she had just been caught red-handed.

"Luce…?"

She tucked her hair behind an ear and laughed weakly. "Uh… one moment. I need to uhm… put this away." Scampering to the opposite side of the room, she flung open the large closet and forcefully stuffed the pillow into the closet, cursing when it refused to stay in.

"You need some help with that?"

"NO! I mean… ahahahahaha I can manage this… just make yourself comfortable or something. Tea! How about some tea? Wait… my kettle is in Magnolia… Well, I'm sure I've something in the fridge for-"

"Lucy, chill. You're rambling."

"Am I? I don't think so."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "What's that you're holding?"

"Nothing! It's just… just an old pillow I- Natsu! Let go!"

"Not until you- woah."

"Shut up." Lucy snapped as she tugged hard on the other end.

"I mean it. Geez, I thought the dartboard was it but this is something else… you put this on your bed? It's filthy."

The pinkette held up the large pillow out from her reach. The thing was almost as tall as he was, though that was by design. It did, after all, feature him… if he had been thrown, kicked and punched mercilessly. Natsu noted that while he was topless on the photo, his chest was unrealistically undeveloped. He hid a smirk; Lucy did have a rather obsessive fascination with his chest. It was not surprising that the first things to go were the abs he was so proud of.

The cover was now a patchy grey over what he suspected had been a pristine white to begin with. There were shreds from where he had been stabbed by something thin and sharp; he suspected darts or stationery. A knife would not have left him so intact.

Regarding himself critically, he heard the blonde grumbling in the background. "I forgot about that… you only have yourself to blame."

Ignoring her, Natsu pointed to a large purple stain that marred his left shoulder.

"Oh. That's grape juice."

"You... threw juice at me?"

"Course not." She folded her arms. "I was using the pillow as a table."

"Glad to know I was of more practical uses other than to bear your wrath…" A teasing gleam entered his eyes as he grinned wickedly at her.

"Wh-what?"

"Did you… ever fall asleep with it? Y'now… hugging it?"

Lucy instantly launched into a diatribe of scathing insults but the furious blush on her face was a dead giveaway. Dropping the pillow onto the bed, he stepped forward and grabbed the blonde around the waist, ignoring her startled gasp and halfhearted attempts to push him away.

"You're so adorable."

Her jaw screeched to a halt before she relented with a tsundere "Hmph."

15th April, Sunday. A café somewhere in town, Crocus. 10:45 a.m.

"Stop touching your hair."

"But it's messy!"

"No it's not. You're making it messier every time you comb it."

"Fine."

5 minutes later…

"Your leg…"

"What?"

"You're fidgeting. It's really ugly."

"Shut up. I'm nervous."

"I know you are."

"Well, this is how I deal with nervousness. Suck it up."

"Relax, babe. I'm right here with you. There's nothing to be nervous about."

"What do- there're so many things to worry about! How I lied to him, cheated his feelings, dragged him along on this-this… why the hell are you so laidback about this?! So much of this is your fault as well."

"Like...?"

"Like… like how you went along with my stupid decision to pretend that I did not know you… if he had found out then, I would not have had to deal with all the guilt up till now."

"If I remember correctly, we were hardly on speaking terms then. You drank my beer, slapped me and ruined my shirt. Why on Earthland would you have wanted your boyfriend to know that you and I had history?"

She hated it when he was right.

"Well- it's still your fault! For-for- for being so damned sexy!"

Natsu barked out a laugh. "What?!"

Lucy threw her arms out, gesturing to some odd shape he did not make head or tail of."

"Good Mavis! If you had just become a… a fat slob! With shaggy hair and-and a mustache and three- I dunno! Three legs or something, I would not have had to deal with all this feelings for you again!"

Natsu snorted and rolled his eyes at her. "You speak like these feelings aren't exactly what you had hoped for."

"They aren't!"

"I see."

Shit.

Lucy's eyes widened when she saw the hurt that suddenly flashed across his face. "God. I'm such an idiot. That was not what I meant."

Grabbing his cheeks softly within her hands, the blonde turned the male's gaze back onto her.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I wasn't thinking. But I admit. I admit that feelings for you were not something I wanted, but that was only at the beginning. Not a day goes by anymore that I'm not relieved that you've waited for me for so long."

"Luce-"

She closed her eyes and touched their foreheads together. "I love you. So, so much, Natsu. You know that."

"Yes, I do… but Lucy…"

"Hmm?"

The pinkette pulled away from her with a deep sigh and gestured to something by her side. Mortification seeped into her gaze when the blonde took in the sight of a brunette standing barely two meters away, shock apparent in his red eyes.

"Now, so does Dan."

Finally, the revelation! Stay tuned.

Sam