A/N: Happy New Year's! Gosh, it's been a long time since an update! Energy, ideas, motivation, free-time ... you can have only have one at a time, AMIRIGHT? My apologies on slacking, but here's a chapter! I'll be answering a guest's review at the end of the chapter.
"Can't it wait?" Lucy wanted to retract her words as the excited glitter in Natsu's eyes dimmed and died. He pulled away and Lucy shivered. Damn! She'd made him nervous again and now guilt made her want to tear her hair. "Ah, I didn't mean to sound harsh Natsu." She flopped on her back.
In the dim of the room Lucy listened to their breathing settle. Natsu heaved a sigh and sat up, wrapping his arms around his knees. "I don't think you sounded mean or anything Lucy." He looked up at the ceiling and then made a conscious effort to relax, moving to lay on his side and waiting for Lucy to return his steady gaze. "There's things we need to talk about before we go any further in our relationship."
"I thought maybe you'd rather not talk." Lucy looked at him and did her best to shrug, but it was awkward laying down as she was. "We're alone right now and I wanted to show you …" She coughed and bit her lip before continuing. "Show you how you make me feel."
"Weirdo." Natsu grinned, the tips of his fangs poking out like always. "My hands have a pretty good idea of how you feel. What I need to know is will you accept and bond with me?"
"Haven't I already?" Lucy frowned and made an effort to smooth the consternation from her face. "As partners, as best friends and," Lucy licked her lips, "you're my boyfriend." She paused, searching his sombre eyes. "I'm your girlfriend."
"I've been thinking about us for ages and only recently did I realize I was making a mistake." Natsu help up a hand to forestall her speaking. "I knew all the dragon lore and I didn't let you know. I just kinda assumed you'd pick up on my hints and we'd fumble into an agreement. But I see I took away full consent from you without meaning to."
A shaky feeling built in Lucy's stomach. If she hadn't been laying down, she feared she would have collapsed. Mistake? Was he saying he changed his mind? And consent. Hadn't she just tried to go further with Natsu without letting him have the chance to say no?
Natsu let go with another sigh and grabbed Lucy's closest hand. Holding it tight he searched for more words. After a steadying breath he licked his lips. "What I need to ask," Natsu inched his face closer to Lucy's, "I gotta ask for your permission."
A bit dazed with the laser focus of Natsu's eyes, Lucy blinked and remained silent.
"We can have a human style marriage, or a deeper bond." Now his gaze dimmed and he blushed. "It's your decision. Not just 'cause you're the female and that's how dragon's manage this - it's because I already made mine long ago."
"W-what? You decided what long ago?" Lucy made an effort to wring understanding from Natsu's statement. Each word on their own did make sense, but for them to be strung together in this order - it defied her brain.
Natsu gave Lucy a sheepish half-smile. His mouth losing the fight to seriousness - flattening into a defeated line. "I chose you as a friend and a partner from our first meeting. I know I want to bond with you, but I haven't explained bonding and you can't choose without knowing what it would mean."
"You said I didn't have to make a choice right away."
"That's right, but you need the facts to make an informed decision and time to think it over." Natsu felt the furnace in his stomach rumble back to life; Lucy didn't look terrified or angry or any sort of emotion that would dictate a negative answer.
"Oh!" Lucy gently disengaged her hand from his grip. His eyes became shuttered and he leaned backward, only to freeze in place as Lucy cupped his chin. "Then what do I need to know about bonding?" She pressed a swift kiss to the corner of his mouth and smiled. "Don't leave anything out."
"This is nice, right?" Gray set the basket down and unfurled a chequered blanket, taking two tries to get it flat and spread on the floor of the garden gazebo. "A few snacks, some coffee and all my attention."
Gray hoped he wasn't grinning too much. Juvia's answering smile to his inane chatter was filling him with an insane amount of confidence. How could such a simple date put together in five minutes have her beaming?
"Juvia has never experienced a picnic date."
"Ah, then I'm glad I'm the first." Hands gently on Juvia's shoulders, Gray urged her to sit down, missing the dimming of his girl's smile at the mention of 'first.' "Go on, sitting on the blanket is part of the fun or so I am told."
The ice mage moved the basket between them and sat down cross-legged to face Juvia. "Actually, I haven't dated much myself and this is my first picnic date too." He nodded in an automatic response as Juvia nodded, her smile returning to a state of blazing joy.
"Juvia would like to thank Gray for this opportunity. Juvia will treasure this memory always." She inclined her head and held the pose until Gray patted her on the knee.
"I haven't done anything worth thanking, really." Opening the basket, he took out two lukewarm coffees and handed Juvia hers. "Guess the walk let them cool down too much."
"Juvia does not mind, Juvia can fix this." Reaching out, she touched Gray's coffee and then closed her eyes. Concentrating her attention on the two drinks, Juvia compelled the beverages to heat.
"Now that's worth thanking." Gray cradled his now steaming cup, opened the lid and blew on the liquid. "Thanks." He'd been about to leave it at just saying warming the coffee was 'thankable', but Juvia had straightened her posture and grown such a sweet smile, he'd had to say more.
"What else does one do on a picnic date?"
Back to her old tricks, deflecting and turning back the conversational ball? Nope, not gonna let her get away with that. Gray took a sip of his coffee and considered his next move. "We haven't done much yet, now have we?" Holding out a hand, he waited for Juvia to grab hold and when she did, he laced his fingers with hers. "But I'd like to hear about you."
"Juvia is not that interesting, Juvia is unsure -"
"Tch tch tch, of course you're interesting." Gray nodded to Juvia. "Anything you want to share, I want to hear. Anything."
At first Gray thought he'd been too overwhelming in his demands, but Juvia spoke after a few minutes. It had been hard to not break the silence, but he wanted Juvia's thoughts and now she was going to share of herself.
"Juvia was raised by her uncle who loved his job more than anyone or anything. Juvia cannot speak of before, but after living with her uncle, Juvia learned her place in this world.
"Juvia did her best to make uncle happy -"
She stopped abruptly as Gray tugged on her hand and shook his head. "He sounds like a jerk. You don't have to share this." His lips twisted in distaste, "Your uncle," more anger lit his face, "was a horrible excuse for, for …" he frowned as he searched his vocabulary, "for an uncle!"
Tension broken, Juvia laughed. The force of her laughter made her shoulders heave and her stomach ache. Juvia sat her drink down so she could hug herself and rock back and forth as she laughed. She wiped tears away with the back of her hand and on impulse scooted closer to Gray. She took the coffee cup from his unresisting hand and put it on the basket.
She opened her mouth to speak. Gray looked at Juvia with the kindest expression she'd ever seen. Following an impulse, Juvia grabbed his face and planted a chaste kiss smack on his forehead. Letting go, she dimpled - that was what set Gray into action.
Gray followed Juvia's body, deep in her personal space, eyes glittering. A hair's breadth between them, he stopped and stared. His grin self-assured, Gray let his lashes flutter shut. A small tilt of his head and a reciprocating gesture from Juvia; their breaths mingled, they kissed.
"Lily, what were you thinking of getting?" Wendy asked once they stopped running. She pointed to a bench, "Let's sit and figure out where we should go."
He hopped up and tapped his paw on one knee. "The thing is," He grinned weakly at his companion. "I'm not sure. Mostly, I just wanted to escape."
Wendy giggled. "Yeah, that was the most important thing for me too."
"But now that I think about it, I'd like to give them a sort of engagement gift. Gajeel's been serious about Levy for longer than even he realizes."
"Aww!" Wendy impulsively reached over and hugged Lily. "Engagement! Is he going to ask her to marry him? That's so sweet!"
Lily shook his head. "I don't know, but what do you think about combining Gajeel's love of swords and Levy's love of books?"
"A book about swords?" Wendy let her forehead scrunch up in confusion. "How about a pop-up book of swords?"
Lily stared at Wendy. He considered that while Wendy returned his gaze and thought about what she'd just said. Bursting into laughter, they chuckled until they had tears leaking and then laughed some more.
"Let's find a shop and get a clerk to help us."
Wendy hopped down from the bench and Lily followed, offering Wendy an escorting arm. "Excellent idea."
Happiness was becoming a natural state of being for Gajeel. Satisfied after their latest bout of lovemaking, he relaxed flat on his back and smiled. Levy had a large amount of ideas, vigour and the book knowledge to surprise him.
"Gimme a few more minutes and I'll help tidy the room." Gajeel turned his head to grumble his words at Levy. Even though he was in a good mood, there was no reason to deviate from habitual patterns.
"Aren't you buzzing with energy too?" Levy stepped into her underwear and pulled them up, looking over her shoulder. "I feel amazing!" She lifted a discarded robe searching for her hair band.
"Stop bragging, ya felt insanely good. Ghee hi hi!" His laughter was cut off by Levy tossing his robe over his face. Trying a pout on for size, Gajeel levered himself upright. Swinging his legs over the massage table he kept the robe over his lap. "The room isn't too bad, but -" He lifted his hand from the surface of the table which made a odd sound as it released his flesh. "But we're gonna have to clean this for sure."
"Of course." Levy giggled at the look of consternation on her lover's face. "Don't you think this happens a lot in this sort of place?" Shrugging into her robe she tied the belt and walked up to Gajeel. One delicate hand came to rest on his knee and the other covered her mouth as she tried to hide her smile. "Here's hoping it was sanitized beforehand."
With wide eyes and a grimace of distaste, Gajeel scooted off the table. "Why'd you have to say that?"
Levy scrambled back and hooted. Her big, strong, dragon slayer, weirded out by a sticky surface? "Wouldn't your nose let you know if something was …" She twitched her lips trying to hold in her smirk. "Unclean?"
Gajeel frowned. "Heh, I ain't worried about germs."
Yup, he was perturbed at the thought. "The way you're wiping your hands with your robe says otherwise."
"Oh." Gajeel stopped and shrugged. "Now you're stuck with me, looks like I can be myself." He made an exaggerated wink. "Let's clean off these germs with a shower."
"After we clear the evidence of our own happy fun time land activities."
Gajeel groaned at Levy's word play. "You need to be pun-ished for that."
"Looking forward to it!" She gave him a mock salute. "Now let's clean!"
Happy preened. It couldn't be helped; Charle had taken pictures with him! Honest to goodness photos where they had posed side by side and she'd smiled! Not once has she called him an idiot tomcat, or even a fish crazy fool. The fierce brushing from Mira disguised as Erza he would have given a miss, but good golly - he and Charle looked fabulous together.
"Thank you Charle! Thank you Mira!" Happy used his wings and swooped up into the sky, flying loops with joy.
"It takes so little to make him Happy." Charle smiled at 'Erza' who waved at the crazily flying exceed.
"He'd better watch what he calls me though. The boys would not be happy if they knew." The tall red-head crossed her arms. "The real Erza will feel guilty soon enough and come back ready to kill all my fun."
"Well, yes." Charle nodded. "Tonight in fact."
"Then we're gonna have to hurry."
Charle rubbed her paws and smiled. "She'll be back but now she knows what she's been missing."
Dear Guest reviewer: I actually have no set schedule for updating this fic. I do try to have a new chapter every two weeks, but holidays wreak havoc with my spare time. I also work a minimum of 40 hours every week. I'm very glad the story has garnered your attention; I hope you continue to enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think. This back and forth between me and my audience is the biggest source of motivation. This site often has issues with 'losing' reviews and other technical difficulties - but when it runs and does the job it's supposed to, I love to reply to the reviews.
