Lucy whined softly, rubbing the back of her aching neck and mentally cursing the pink-haired buffoon who had forced her to hide. He'd made her promise not to work on translating the book or anything of that manner until after their wedding, but that wasn't for another couple of days. It seemed too long to wait with the book calling to her.

Natsu had noticed her discomfort with abstaining from researching and had tried to help by attempting translating himself. But, translating was a difficult business and watching him struggle was making it even worse.

So, Lucy had waited for him to be distracted. Which, thankfully didn't take too long. This is Natsu we're talking about. While he and Happy spazzed out over the delicious chocolate mints the hotel attendants had left on their pillows, Lucy snatched the book and disappeared as inconspicuously as she could.

Not wanting to waste any time, she rushed to the hiding spot she'd found ahead of time. Wendy, while hesitant to help in her promise breaking, had agreed to cover for her when Natsu noticed her absence. She didn't want to worry him into thinking something bad had happened to her. She felt guilty enough.

Too much guilt. It was distracting. Despite her wishes to get a lot of work done, she couldn't help but whip her neck around at every sound, expecting him to find her at any moment. The guilt was even churning her stomach. Okay. Maybe her stomach was already upset that morning, but it felt even worse now that guilt was chewing away at her.

It got to be so bad, that she wasn't even that upset when he found her. In fact, she couldn't even pout when swung open the supply closet door and pointed at her accusingly. The relief that her guilt was over eclipsed it.

"Hey, Natsu," she greeted on an exhale.

"You promised!" he shouted.

"I know. I'm sorry," she said. She probably would have gone back to the hotel room in a few moments. The desire to translate the book and figure things out had finally lost to how contrite she felt.

"Now I'll have to punish you," he said, crossing his arms and nodding.

"I know, I'm so so-," she started, ducking her head in shame. Her head snapped up when she realized what he'd said, "Wait. Punished?"

With a decidedly terrifying expression, Natsu stepped towards her with exaggerated menace, "That's right."

"Natsu…" She stood slowly.

"Accept your punishment and it'll be over quickly," he said with a cackle.

"Wah!" she shouted, trying to rush around him. He hooked his arm around her waist and prevented her escape. She struggled in vain to slip out of his grasp, and breathlessly protested, "No! Natsu, lemme go!"

He laughed evilly, hoisted her over his shoulder, and took off. She stopped struggling in favor of clutching onto him with one arm and covering her mouth with the other. His shoulder in her stomach didn't feel good on her upset stomach, but he wasn't hurting her on purpose.

When she was felt confident enough that she wouldn't throw up when she opened her mouth, she said, "Natsu, it hurts."

He adjusted her position immediately so that it was her lower ribcage pressed against his shoulder, but he didn't slow down, taking both of them outside.

"Natsu, what're you doing?"

He didn't answer, so she looked over her shoulder and saw that they were quickly approaching the decorative pond in the hotel's yard. She gripped his neck tighter.

"Natsu, what're you doing!?"

He laughed evilly again, his hand slipping down to cup over her rear to hold her better just as he took a running jump off the end of the dock. She only had a few seconds to scream and plug her nose before the water enveloped them. He let go of her after they'd submerged and she stood up beside him with an angry splutter.

"You're lucky the water is this deep!" she said, tapping her chest where the water line was. "Some places just have it for decoration! It could have been only two feet! You could have killed us!"

He shot her a skeptical look, "Why would there be a dock if it were only two feet?"

"For decoration!" she shouted, frustrated. After taking a deep, calming breath, she rubbed the side her cheek shyly and said, "You know, you can touch me more."

"What?"

She flushed. Damn, this moron was determined to embarrass her with his thick-headedness. "I mean, when you touched my butt just now…that's the first time since when we were fighting Kain. And…well…both times have been on accident."

"Oh," he said. She dared glancing at him and saw that he looked kind of bashful himself. He gestured vaguely, a note of fear in his voice, "Erza said I had to be a gentleman."

Lucy shuddered a little, imagining how that conversation had gone down. She imagined it had been very one-sided and very threatening. Smiling a little at her friend's misguided protection, Lucy said, "Natsu, we're getting married. You can touch me. It's okay. I'm honestly getting tired of initiating everything."

"I can?"

Her smile slipped away when he stepped closer. She splashed water in his face, "Not when you're making a face like that!"

"I'm gonna get you~!"

"WAH! NATSU!"

Her splashes didn't slow him in the least and she couldn't retreat fast enough. Not that she was trying all that hard. She fell into him easily when he caught her arms just below the elbows and kissed her laughing mouth. She melted into him like sugar and lost herself in his warmth, his kiss making her giddy like always.

This was supposed to be punishment? She couldn't wait to see what he considered a reward.

#43 Punishment