AN: Today's QOTD comes from NaluPrincess, who asked with Fairy Tail ending soon, how do you feel? I am very upset that FT is ending soon because I've been watching the anime for almost five years now and it's my favorite series by far. I do wonder how Mashima is going to wrap up the ending in 3 chapters because admittedly, it doesn't look possible, but I have faith in him! Whatever ending he comes up with will be amazing, I'm sure of it. And even if none of my ships become canon, I will still be happy and thankful for FT and Mashima. :) What are your guys' thoughts? :)
Also, I loved reading all of your guesses as to who the mystery people were at the end of last chapter! :D
Chapter 53
Clover Town
The next morning, Natsu's eyes slowly opened as the sunlight washed over his face, causing him to growl in annoyance. Glancing around the destroyed clearing, which was littered with fallen trees, the boy's eyes immediately landed on Lucy. The girl was snoozing away in peace, her mouth parted slightly and her golden hair splaying around her.
Natsu smiled fondly at the sight before searching for Happy. The cat was sleeping near the blonde, using his knapsack as a pillow. The desire to be close to Lucy erupted in the dragon slayer. With quiet movements, he crawled towards her, wincing whenever he accidentally snapped a twig.
When Natsu was finally next to Lucy, he laid beside her, a familiar warmth coursing through his veins. He gently drooped his arm over the blonde's waist and scooted closer to her, offering additional heat. Burying his nose in the girl's hair, he inhaled deeply, the lavender scent intoxicating and addictive. Everything about Lucy was addicting.
Not once was Natsu able to stop thinking about their kiss. He enjoyed every second of it and he wanted nothing more than to have a follow up session. Not wanting to rush Lucy, however, the boy acted casual and didn't bring it up.
Lucy murmured to herself incoherently as she snuggled deeper into the firm object that was providing her warmth. When the sun's rays became too bright to ignore, the girl reluctantly opened her eyes with a loud yawn. She brought a hand to her eyes and rubbed them sleepily. She was still a bit drained from using Urano Metria.
"Morning," a voice whispered into her ear.
Lucy had to stifle a shriek, her body growing red and warm with heat. She could tell from Natsu's voice that he was teasing her and she could imagine the smirk that was surely plastered to his face. And that was when she realized that the firm object that was providing her with heat was actually the dragon slayer she had been travelling with for a few months.
"W-What do you think you're doing?" Lucy quietly scolded.
"You were shivering so I was warming you up," Natsu fibbed with a shrug.
"Oh really? You expect me to believe that?"
"Well yeah since you're always talking about using me as your human heater."
"Okay, that's a good point. You can get off of me now though," Lucy stated, her cheeks coated pink.
"Nah," Natsu lazily replied. "I think this feels nice."
Lucy huffed as she turned around, Natsu's arm still resting over her hip. She faced the boy, her brows slanted in feigned annoyance. In truth, waking up cuddling with Natsu was nothing to be annoyed of. Not for her, at least. Especially when he wasn't snoring or drooling.
The two's faces were mere inches apart, their hair still messy from the night's rest. Their cheeks were mutually pink and their hearts were soaring within their chests.
"You think that just because we kissed I'm going to let you spoon me?" Lucy teased with a smirk.
"Looks like it," Natsu replied. He gave the girl a heart-warming grin. "So again, morning, Luce. Did you sleep well after using that spell?"
"Good morning to you, too. And yeah. I'm a bit tired still but I think I'll be fine. We can't keep Snow White waiting for too long."
"We'll be reaching Clover Town this afternoon. Then we can work on finding her somehow."
"That's good…" Lucy bit her bottom lip nervously as she continued, "Hey, Natsu… Can I ask you something?"
Natsu already had a pretty good idea as to what the girl was going to ask so he simply nodded in return.
"W-What are we?" Lucy shyly questioned. "I mean, why did you kiss me?"
The boy averted his gaze, heat rising in his cheeks as he buried his face in his scarf. The question was simple, really. He kissed her because he couldn't control it anymore. Being so close to what he desired for a while now, he just couldn't fight it.
But was he ready to tell her that? Surely that meant confessing his feelings. Was he ready for that step? All of this was new to the boy, something he had absolutely no experience in. He had the basic knowledge of relationships, or at least what Igneel told him before he vanished. He knew of dates, sex, marriage, and having kids. Did he want all of that stuff with Lucy?
With one look at the girl's stunning brown eyes, Natsu knew the answer to his unasked question.
"I couldn't control myself anymore. And I'm not sorry about it," he stated bluntly. His eyes were hard with seriousness and he refused to look away.
The look admittedly had Lucy squirming in her spot, pink coating her cheeks. Whenever he looked at her with such intensity, her legs couldn't help but turn to jello as her breath hitched in her throat. Then she realized something from his answer.
"Anymore?" Lucy questioned. "Y-You mean… You wanted to kiss me before?"
"Yeah," Natsu answered honestly. His heart was beating a hundred miles an hour but he wasn't going to back down. "And I went for it because I heard your heartbeat and I assumed you did too. But I could've been wrong-"
"You weren't!" the blonde quickly assured. "I-I mean, I did want to, too. So… What does this make us?"
"I don't know. Why don't we just go with the flow of things?"
"You mean without a label?"
"I don't see why not. It's not like we have a lot of time for the mushy romantic stuff anyways."
"I guess that's true," Lucy stated with a shrug. "Alright, we'll just take things slow and steady and see where it takes us." It wasn't a bad idea. It probably would help for the day Rapunzel came along. There would be no label to erase. Surely that would ease her heart at least a little bit.
"Alright!" Natsu replied, a wide grin plastered to his face. "About us, though… Maybe we should keep it a secret from Happy? At least for now."
"Definitely," the blonde replied with a nod. "I can only imagine how much he would tease us."
"He'll do that weird tongue rolling thing."
"Don't even remind me."
The two laid by each other in a content silence, sloppy smiles glued to their faces. Everything was right between them, simple. They weren't rushing to settle down, instead they were testing the waters and they wouldn't have it any other way.
Lucy glanced at Natsu's lips, a familiar warmth spreading through her body. With newfound courage and confidence, the girl leaned forward and pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss. It didn't match the passion of their kiss from the other day, but it still managed to send a jolt of electricity within them.
"Time to go," Lucy stated as she got up to her feet, her lips curling upwards into a smirk.
Natsu frowned and asked, "Can't we do that just a little longer? Like the last time?"
"Nope," the blonde answered, her grin widening. "We're taking things slow, remember?"
"Didn't think you'd be such a tease."
"Didn't think you'd know what a tease was."
"I'm not as dense as everyone thinks."
"Really? Could've fooled me."
"You two are arguing already?" a sudden voice questioned, followed by a loud yawn. Happy slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes with his paws. "What's it about this time?"
Lucy released a sigh of relief, glad that the cat didn't hear their conversation. That definitely would've revealed her relationship with Natsu. Whatever relationship that may be.
"We were just arguing about directions," Natsu fibbed. "Lucy thought we should be heading North, but I was reminding her that we're supposed to go East."
"Lucy's so stupid," Happy mumbled.
A vein ticked in the said girl's forehead as she picked the cat up by his tail, sadistically amused with the yelp he gave. "Who's stupid?"
"N-Not you!" Happy shrieked.
"That's what I thought."
Lucy dropped the cat back onto the ground and with that, the trio were quickly packing their things for their last day of walking. The blonde made sure to carefully fold her blanket before stowing it into her backpack. Though she wasn't planning to actively seek out her parents, she still wanted to be careful with the only memento she had of them.
Due to their eagerness to finally leave the East Forest, the three walked with fast paces. Lucy shared a few quick and sneaky glances with Natsu, hidden from their other partner's gaze. Other than that, they made sure to stay an appropriate distance away from each other and despite how much she wanted to hold his hand, she didn't.
Three hours of nonstop walking later, the trio finally approached the tree line of the forest. It was just in time, too, considering they just ran out of water, thanks to a certain cat hogging it all. Natsu and Lucy took it upon themselves to punish their friend by making him watch them eat his last fish.
Since then, tension has been high, but they were finally about to leave the hellish forest. It was amazing how many stories had taken place in that dreaded thicket of trees. It was like a long camping trip in which the bathrooms were horrendously dirty and they forgot all of their board games.
Lucy practically squealed with delight when they approached a sign declaring they were nearing Clover Town. Sure enough, with five more minutes of walking, the three were finally out of the East Forest and were in Clover Town. Though, there wasn't much of a difference.
There were few paved roads and there were still a plethora of trees scattered around. The only real proof of them being in a civilized town were the small cottages and the train station they could see in the distance. Though it was a traditional town, it was big in size and was not rundown like Shirotsume when Lucy first arrived in Earthland. The cottages were in pristine condition, not even a bit of paint chipping away.
"So this place is supposed to be controlled by some evil dwarves, right?" Natsu asked, taking in his surroundings and staying close by his friends.
"Aye," Happy answered. "But it doesn't really look like it."
"Maybe it hasn't happened yet," Lucy suggested. "Maybe we have more time than we thought."
"Alright, so what's our first step?" Natsu asked.
Lucy shrugged as she pointed towards an inn. "We find a place to stay. I don't think talking about this in public would be too smart."
With that, the three went inside the inn. It was bigger than Deguchi's and far pricier, though the regal furniture made up for the price. After getting a room on the bottom floor, they bustled in and plopped on their own beds- well, Natsu and Happy shared as always.
"Alright, savior, what's our plan now?" Natsu questioned, sitting cross legged on the bed.
Lucy shrugged and answered, "There's not really a choice other than fighting the dwarves first and rescuing Ferdinand so he can wake up Snow."
"And how do you plan on finding them?"
"Remember what I told you about Mira? I just have this weird, pulling feeling when I'm close to figuring something out. I don't know what it is, but I feel like it's the book's way of helping me."
"Seriously? We're going with that?"
"It hasn't let us down before. And I doubt you have a better idea!"
"I do! We just charge in there and beat them up!"
"And we don't know where there is, idiot!"
"Stop flirting in front of me!" Happy cried. He raised his brows in confusion as neither of the two denied that they were flirting. Usually they would deny it with flushed faces. This time they just smiled at each other.
"That's weird," Happy thought, watching the two.
Before the cat could start to question them, Lucy spoke.
"We just have to go with my gut feeling until we think of something better," she stated. "But just you wait, my gut feeling is going to be right again!"
"Whatever you say," Natsu replied. "Let's go then. It's still just the afternoon, we shouldn't waste this time. We can figure out more about the town's situation or get a head start looking for Snow."
Lucy and Happy nodded, following their third musketeer out of the room and onto the paved streets of Clover Town. People were out, smiling and filling the air with their laughter. It definitely didn't look like they were on the verge of destruction at all.
The three paused their walk and ordered ice cream cones from a stand. Lucy's was a single strawberry scoop. Happy's was a vanilla scoop, topped with a raw fish from his knapsack. Natsu's was a triple scoop with a mixture of flavors Lucy never heard of in Earth.
As they walked and ate their ice cream, they kept their eyes glued for any hints. Hints of what, they weren't exactly sure. Whether it be to Snow or Ferdinand would be helpful.
Natsu turned his head and watched Lucy eat her ice cream. She was so slow, only licking it once or twice a minute. His cone was already finished for he practically inhaled it.
Lucy could feel Natsu's longing gaze on her ice cream and ignored him. It was hers and it was his own fault for finishing so fast.
"Oi, Luce-"
"Nope."
"C'mon! Just a bite!"
"Not happening."
"You can have a bite of my ice cream!" Happy offered, holding the cone towards the dragon slayer.
Natsu studied the cone and cringed seeing the juices from the fish leak into the ice cream. If he looked at it any longer, he would hurl. So, he kindly turned down the cat's offer and resumed gazing at Lucy's cone.
"Stop being so stingy, Lucy!" Natsu whined.
"You stop being so greedy and annoying!" the blonde shot back.
"Just a bite!"
"No!"
"Please?"
Lucy finally glanced at the boy and immediately her resolve began to chip away. His eyes were big and filled with desperation while his cheeks were adorably puffed.
"Fine," the girl reluctantly stated. "You get one bite. One!"
And immediately Natsu's desperate, pleading face turned into a heavy smirk as he accepted the ice cream. Opening his mouth wide, he shoved most of the scoop into his mouth before biting off. How he was able to bite cold ice cream, Lucy wasn't sure. She muttered incentives under breath when he handed her the ice cream.
After everyone finished their cones, they focused on finding clues once again.
"Well? How's your pulling feeling at the moment?" Natsu asked with a heavy smirk.
"It's not working right now but you just wait!" Lucy replied with a huff. "We just aren't close enough yet!"
"Oh yeah? So what, you think a sign is going to just pop up out of nowhere?"
"Yep! You'll see! And I expect you to admit defeat when- Wait. I felt something."
"Really, Luce? You think I'd fall for that?"
"I'm serious, idiot. I feel it. It's faint, but it's there," Lucy answered with hard eyes as she studied their surroundings.
"Are you sure you aren't just sick?" Happy questioned.
"Positive. I've felt it before and I've been getting better. I think training with Loke helped, too."
Natsu crossed his arms and shrugged. "Well I don't see any-"
"Help! Please, somebody help! My friend is in danger!" someone randomly cried in a high-pitched voice similar to Happy's.
The trio whipped their heads to the voice and immediately their jaws dropped to the ground. Their voice wasn't the only thing similar to Happy. Standing in front of them was none other than a white exceed.
AN: Well I think it's pretty clear who is in this story! :D Of course I couldn't leave her out! ;) Also, YAY WE'RE AT 700 REVIEWS! THAT MEANS A SNEAK PEEK IS WELL DESERVED:
And then there was Happy. Lucy had a feeling that he had never met another exceed before if his obvious curiosity was anything to go by. She recalled the night they sat around the campfire before meeting the Strauss siblings, in which they tried to get to know each other better. Happy knew next to nothing about his upbringings, there was no doubt in the blonde's mind that he was wondering if the other exceed knew more.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed: CupcakeGoddess22, Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi, ThayetJade, MasterGildarts, Shadow Joestar, Alexa60765, An Amber Pen, Crazymagic16, KitKat2648, HuskyDawn, Guest, Lunahartz, happyheroin, Soul Eater Maka, ThatPixleDino, Nalulove, NaluPrincess, xSinfulDragonSlayer.
