Author's Note:

Hey guys! It's Sunday, and time for another chapter! Yay!

As always, HUGE thanks to everyone who reviewed! Big hugs and kisses to: stranger1999, Nalusmutlover, Starstruck-MJ, Copperreign12, Izzy088136, sakshishetty3003, Sele de la Luna, Roll24k, valerioux, Bookwork129, Moon'n'Tide, SistershoOk, Byrd3-13, CathJorda, Lucinda, NarukoSon, Titania Writes, FireShifter, MajorPain67, blue02eclipse, Nathair1, and BetaDreamer! You guys are the best! ❤❤❤

Anywho, on with the show!

It was only after she'd left Makarov's office and was on her way back to the main hall that she realized she didn't know where to go or who to talk to about this tattoo business. She was about to turn back around and ask Makarov, when someone called out behind her.

"Oi! Luce! What're you doing over here?"

"Natsu! Hi! I just finished talking to Master Makarov, and I was on my way to get my guild tattoo…. But, uh, I don't actually know where I'm supposed to go to get that taken care of. I don't suppose you could-"

"You joined?!" he excitedly interrupted and bolted the last few steps over to her.

"Yea—ah!"

He picked her up and spun her around in the middle of her affirmative, and it turned into a yelp.

"Gah! Natsu, what are you doing?!"

Her eyes squeezed shut, and she flailed with her arms, swatting at him for a little bit until she switched to grabbing onto his shoulders for balance.

When he finally stopped after a few crazy seconds, she opened her eyes and glared down at her boyfriend, ready to scold him for the sudden and not entirely pleasant greeting. But before she could say a single word, the mood completely changed.

At first, it was just a melty feeling in her chest as she realized how happy he looked about her joining his guild, and her lips twitched up into a smile instead of a frown. However, a few seconds after that, things shifted again as she noticed the position they were actually in. His hands were on her waist holding her up, and she abruptly became hyper aware of the sensation of his warm palms and fingers clutching her sides. Meanwhile, her fingers were digging into his strong shoulders… and since he was wearing another of those loose tank tops he seemed to like, her hands were touching more of his skin than his shirt. Plus, she had squeezed his torso between her knees in panic when he'd picked her up, and she was suddenly very conscious of his quick breathing and the rapid expansion and contractions of his sides.

It was obvious that she wasn't the only one who experienced a shift either, because as she watched, Natsu's eyes widened a little and then darkened as he probably picked up on all the things she just had. His lips parted, and she felt him suck in a deep breath as a strange new tension started to build in the air.

Within a few seconds, she began to notice that his face was growing closer, and unless she was mistaken, he was very gradually lowering her. Only the tug on her clothing and the shifting position of her hands alerted her to it, and she wasn't even sure if he was conscious of it or not. Likely not, considering that – knowing him – if it had been on purpose, he probably would have done it much faster.

.

…

.

Natsu didn't know he was lowering her… at least not until they were nose to nose, and then he kinda figured it out; though he still didn't remember doing it. Of course, he didn't waste a bunch of time wondering how it'd happened either, 'cause all his attention was taken up by other stuff.

He'd been so excited to find out that she'd joined, he hadn't thought twice about picking her up and spinning her around like that… it'd just seemed like the thing to do. But now that she was pressed up against him and in his hands, he was realizing that maybe he'd jumped the gun a little.

It wasn't exactly a huge shock when his brain went straight to the gutter. He really should've expected it, and he kinda wanted to kick himself for being an idiot.

Holding her close was stupid and dangerous… especially with her looking all wide-eyed and curious and interested – like she didn't really know what was going on, but she sorta liked it. Which immediately made him think that maybe she wouldn't say 'no' if he went in for a kiss right now.

But before he could get too horny, he tried to distract himself by thinking about something else… like how she'd finally gained some weight. Which was great. She hadn't seemed real healthy before, and he was happy for her.

… Too bad that wasn't the right distraction. Thinking about her weight just made him notice that she was a lot softer and squishier in places he liked women to be squishy. And then all he wanted to do was squeeze those places and feel her up in a whole lotta ways he was pretty sure she wouldn't be down for.

Honestly, it was a weird feeling for him…. He never would've predicted that he'd turn into a gropy bastard struggling to keep his hands to himself.

Not having self-control was a big no-brainer for him – everyone knew he was terrible at that – but he hadn't ever thought it'd be such a huge problem. Maybe that was 'cause he'd never been in a situation like this, where he had to control himself around a girl he liked… and he hadn't known how strong those kinda wants could get. They were crazy intense.

It'd snuck up on him. He really hadn't realized that his desire for her had gotten this bad….

And before he knew what he was doing, he was going in for a kiss.

At first she looked like she was okay with it, but as soon as his lips touched hers, she flinched and pushed on his shoulders in a clear, 'nope.' Her eyes got all big and worried – not scared luckily, just a little unsure – and he figured that she must've realized she wasn't ready for kissing yet.

So, he gritted his teeth and focused insanely hard on exerting the kinda self-control he usually never bothered with and forced himself to put her down – with some space between them.

It took him a second to remember the thing they'd been talking about before, but luckily he came up with the answer quick enough. "That's awesome, Luce! So… you, uh, said that you're gonna go get your tattoo right now?"

Just starting where they'd stopped seemed like a good thing to do, since Luce still looked a little freaked out… and he really needed something else to focus on too.

He was rewarded for being so freaking considerate – even though it'd nearly killed him – when she sent him a grateful look that made all the frustration and stuff totally worth it.

"Yeah… but… um… I don't know where to go for that," she stuttered, sounding like she was still sorta shaken up.

"I'll take ya. Come on!"

He grabbed her wrist and hauled her out into the main hall. It was pretty easy for him to switch tracks and get back to being excited about her joining, 'cause that was way too cool to stay in a funk for long.

She fussed at him for dragging her around, but he was pretty used to that by now and just ignored her while he eyeballed the crowd. As soon as he saw a spiky black mess of hair, he grinned.

"OI! Gajeel, we got a tatt for you to do!" he bellowed across the room, and the iron-mage sent him a nasty look.

"I got shit ta do, Salamander. If you want me to pretty you up, you've gotta make a fucking appointment."

"It isn't for me; it's a new member tatt! For her!" He pointed, and Gajeel cocked his head at Lucy.

Other people had overheard them, and there was an explosion of sound when he said that she was getting a Fairy Tail tattoo. Suddenly, they were surrounded by all the folks she'd apparently made friends with.

"You finally decided to join?! I'm so glad!" Levy said, running over and grabbing her hands.

Natsu hurried to get outta the way when they started doing that thing girls did whenever they got super excited… jumping up and down and hugging and squealing loudly and stuff.

Mira had heard as well and came around the bar to give her a hug too, and Juvia sorta ambled over to offer congrats.

"Luuuushy! You're joining?!" Happy yelled as he flew over – popping out his white wings and really booking it across the room.

Natsu didn't even try to bite back his laugh when his best friend barreled into the girls' hug-fest and nearly knocked them all over. But when Happy somehow burrowed into the middle and buried his head in Lucy's chest – which was getting pretty cushy now – he scowled a little and felt a zing of jealousy.

Happy could get away with that kinda stuff 'cause looked so young and always acted like a big kid… and that just wasn't right.

It was annoying enough that Natsu plucked his buddy outta the pile by the back of his collar and got nose-to-nose with the little jerk.

"Don't go motorboating my girlfriend," he huffed, and Happy's cheeks puffed out.

"I wasn't! I was just hugging her! What…? Are you jealous?"

"Yeah. I am. What of it?"

That just made Happy start cackling, and Natsu scowled and swung the idiot around into a headlock. He used his free hand to give Happy a noogie, and the cat-man immediately started squirming and yelping.

"Ow! Okay, okay! I get it! Uncle! Stop! That hurts!"

When Natsu let him go, he stuck his tongue out at him and griped, "Jerk! Meanie!" But he didn't stay upset for long.

A couple minutes later, they were both kinda standing back outta the way, chatting and watching Lucy get fussed over by everyone.

"I'm so glad Lucy is joining us!" Happy said, all excited again and bouncing up and down.

"Me too, buddy!"

"She's so nice. I really like her!... But you like her mooore."

Natsu just nodded and agreed. "Yeah. She's great isn't she?"

"Geez, Salamander, you've really got it bad, don't ya? I'm gonna get a cavity from listening to all this sweet crap."

Gajeel swaggered up next to them, and Natsu sent him a nasty look.

"You tryin' to pick a fight, metal breath?"

"Nah, not right now. I've got shit ta do, like I told ya," he scoffed and stalked over to the bunch of people around Lucy.

"Okay, okay, get lost all of ya. I've got a job to do here."

"We'll throw a big party to celebrate when you're done," Mira assured her as everyone scattered.

There were a couple more goodbyes and good lucks thrown at Lucy, and then Gajeel huffed, "Yeah, yeah… okay. Come on, you. I don't got all day."

She kinda jumped a little and hurried to tail him as he started stomping off towards the hall they'd just come from.

"Whoops, gotta go. See ya later, Happy," Natsu called to his pal and then jogged after his girlfriend.

When he caught up to her, she shot him a relieved look that said she was happy he was coming.

"Is he always that gruff…?" she whispered and nodded at Gajeel.

Natsu snorted. "Yeah, pretty much. He's no charmer, that's for sure. But he kicks ass when it comes to tattoos, so you're in good hands for this."

"Damn straight. Don't expect a bunch of coddling, but your tatt is gonna be perfect."

Lucy winced when Gajeel tossed that out there…. probably 'cause she was embarrassed he'd overheard them. She was that kinda person.

"Oh, um… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you by that. So, uh… have you done all of the Fairy Tail members' tattoos?"

"Yep. All of them."

There were a couple of quiet seconds, and then right about when they were walking into Gajeel's workshop, Lucy perked up and asked, "Even Natsu's dragon scales?!"

"I just said, 'all of them,' didn't I? Yeah, I did that crazy thing."

"Really? That's amazing! I've always thought his tattoo was so beautiful and well-done…. The first time I saw it, I really thought it looked just like actual scales! It's so incredible!"

"Oh yeah? Well… that was the idea," Gajeel grunted, but he gave a cocky kinda sniff that said he was happy about getting a compliment.

… And Natsu was pretty dang pleased with it too. She'd never said she liked his tattoo before, and it was a huge ego-boost to hear.

"Wow, Luce… so ya really like it, huh?"

She sent him a glance outta the corner of her eye and then looked away and flushed. "Yes…. It's a very nice tattoo."

That made him even happier, and he couldn't resist giving her his biggest, cheesiest grin. He probably would've teased her or pushed for some more praises, but Grumpy Pants interrupted them.

"Alright, that's enough. No flirting in my workshop, ya got it?"

He shot them a cranky look over his shoulder, and Natsu sent one right back – not super pleased about being stopped.

Gajeel made a disgusted sorta snort and then jerked his head at the metal chair parked in the tattoo/piercing corner of his workshop.

"You sit there," he grunted at Lucy, and she hesitantly parked herself on the seat.

Natsu could understand why she didn't seem too sure about it…. the thing was big and bulky with lots of hinges and pullies and levers and stuff that made it look like a dentist chair or something from a torture room. That was just so it could be moved around in all kinds of ways to make tattooing easier, but the look definitely didn't bring up good things to think about. Probably just made her think even more about how much this was gonna hurt.

When he went over and stood next to her, he could feel her sorta vibrating with tension.

She was looking around them with big eyes while Gajeel worked on setting up all the tattoo stuff, and after a couple minutes, she said, "This room is… impressive. I guess you aren't just a tattoo artist, huh?"

Natsu snorted, 'cause that was pretty obvious. They were in the tatt and piercing corner, but the rest of the giant freakin' room was full of crazy equipment and huge piles of metal.

Gajeel also kinda scoffed. "You got that right. I'm the metal-worker here. Anything needs fixing or making, I get the job."

"So… do you also go on missions? Or do you mostly stay at the guildhall like Cana, Mira, and Levy?"

"Geez, you're chatty. How about saying something useful and tell me what color you want your guildmark, huh?"

"Oh, um… pink?"

"Tsk, figures," Metal Head grunted, sounding grossed out.

Lucy blinked and then scowled. "What's wrong with pink? It's a perfectly respectable color!"

That seemed to kinda surprise Gajeel, but he just snorted again and shook his head. "Uh-huh. Sure. Whatever, Blondie."

Natsu snickered when Luce narrowed her eyes at the idiot. This was gonna be good.

"Do you also have something against light blue, light orange, and light green? Or is it just light red that you're prejudiced against?"

"Don't play dumb. It's a baby girl color, and you know it."

"Hey!" Natsu growled, getting ticked off too. "Are you calling my hair girly?!"

"What of it?"

Natsu wanted to plant a fist right in the middle of the bastard's cocky smirk, but Lucy grabbed his shirt when he went for him.

"That's enough. Can you not start a fight right now, please? I'd really like to get my tattoo taken care of first."

He grumbled but settled down. "… Fine… I'll punch his stupid face later."

"You're on, Salamander," Gajeel said back with a grin.

There was a short pause, and then Lucy groaned, "You guys are nuts. I just don't get it…. Why do you all fight so much?"

"Ha! Don't worry about it, Luce. You'll get used to it!"

"I doubt it," she grumbled, and Natsu laughed at the cranky expression she pulled.

After that, Gajeel went back to getting all the stuff ready to do her tattoo. He was done in a couple minutes and dragged over the metal cart he'd put his supplies on.

"Okay. Where do you want it?" he asked Luce as he sat on a stool next to her.

"Um, somewhere that's easy to see."

Gajeel cocked an eyebrow and leaned back a little. She'd obviously surprised him, and Natsu was pretty sure he saw a little more respect in the guy's eyes when he looked at her.

"'Kay. Define 'easy' for me."

Lucy huffed and thought about it for a sec, then said, "Somewhere that's obvious… but where I can still cover it if I absolutely have to. Oh, and I'd like it to be a meaningful spot too if possible…"

"Then how about over your heart or somethin'?"

"No that's too cheesy," she immediately replied, and Gajeel snorted.

"Well excuse me…" he muttered, sounding both sarcastic and kinda amused at the same time.

There were a couple minutes of silence, and then she suddenly sat straight up and made an 'AH!' sound that said she'd figured it out and was excited about it. "I know! My hand! I'll have it on the back of my hand."

"A hand tatt huh? Never would'a pegged you for that type. You know it's gonna hurt though, right? 'Cause I'll be working right over the bone."

Natsu was also pretty surprised. He wasn't sure how that spot was meaningful, but he was definitely impressed she'd picked her hand…. And also cringed a little, 'cause he knew Gajeel was right. Tattoos over bone did hurt like hell.

She frowned and looked worried for a sec, but then her face fixed into that stubborn, determined sorta expression he'd seen before.

"I can handle it. If I'm doing this, I'm going all in."

That got a weird upside-down smile and nod from Gajeel that said he was impressed.

"Okay then. Let's do this thing."

…

.

…

Thirty minutes or so later, Lucy was slightly regretting her decision to get the tattoo on her hand. Just as Gajeel had warned her, it hurt. She didn't know how many tiny little needles he manipulated over her skin, but it was at least twenty… maybe even thirty or forty at a time. He worked so ridiculously fast, the needles were an irony blur through the air that she couldn't even see, much less count – though she could certainly still feel them.

The first few minutes had been the worst as she acclimated to the sharp pinpricks of what felt like a thousand insects biting her all at once. But after that, the pain had started melting into a single, giant throb that took up her whole hand, and individual jabs ceased to matter as much. That took some of the sharpness away, and she was able to handle it a little better… especially when she practiced breathing deeply.

Her pink-haired boyfriend also helped by distracting her with anecdotes from his latest mission, while letting her practically crush his hand in her grip.

"There was this farmer guy on the way that let me stay in his barn for a night, but MAN his horses stank. I dunno what he was feeding them, but I think they were havin' some kinda reaction. Kept me up all night."

She chuckled, but made sure to keep her right arm completely still. Gajeel had already snapped at her once for moving, and she didn't want to make him mad at her again.

"Why didn't you just… camp in the woods?" she asked after a second, trying to focus on the conversation. Honestly, saying anything smoothly was a struggle at the moment, and most of what she managed to get out was choppy and disjointed.

"It was raining cats and dogs. I wouldn't've gotten a good night's sleep outside either. At least it was dry in the barn."

"Ah… makes sense. So… what else happened on your way there?"

"Huh. Not much really. There was a porcupine that tried to pick a fight over my food, but I kicked his ass. Oh, and there was a really annoying kid on the train one time that kept poking me and wouldn't stop."

Lucy could easily imagine Natsu being nearly delirious with motion sickness and pestered by a child without any way to protect himself. It was both funny and slightly annoying to picture, because the child's guardian shouldn't have let them bother another passenger like that – especially one who obviously wasn't feeling well.

"Why… didn't the child's parents stop them…?"

"Eh. I dunno. Wasn't really paying attention… but I think they might've been reading a book or something."

"That just… isn't right…" she huffed and shook her head.

"Heh, I still can't believe ya took any trains at all, Salamander. You're usually such a wimp," Gajeel snorted, interjecting one of his typically rude comments.

"Oi! I'm not a wimp!"

"Hey, hey… no fighting with my tattoo artist while he's working on me," Lucy fussed, squeezing Natsu's hand extra tightly to emphasize her point.

"Oh… right."

He settled down, but was obviously sulking and didn't talk anymore about his trip… which quickly began to wear on Lucy's nerves. Without his conversation as a distraction, the tattoo needles became significantly more painful, and she gritted her teeth against the discomfort.

Grasping at straws, she wracked her mind for a question to restart Natsu's mouth, and luckily there was something that she'd been wondering for a while.

"Hey Natsu…? I've been meaning to ask…. How did you deal with Zoldeo? I'm sure my father must have used him against you…"

"Zoldeo…? Who's that?"

Lucy felt her eyebrow twitch. "He's a dark mage who uses subjugation magic… and he has a large scar on either side of his mouth… which makes it look like his jaw was taken off at some point…

"Sounds like a nice guy," Gajeel inserted sarcastically.

"Oh yeah! Crazy-Eyes!... I roasted his butt."

Lucy snorted. "Crazy-Eyes? Is that what you called him?"

"Duh. I mean, did you see the guy? He looked totally psycho."

"You aren't wrong…" she had to admit. "But how did you beat him? I saw him in action before… and his magic didn't seem easy to defeat…"

"It wasn't exactly easy…. The jerk used a spell that plastered me to the floor. I guess he thought that I couldn't use my magic if I couldn't move. But that's where he messed up, 'cause all I had to do was explode when he got close enough, and he went flying! You should've seen his face!" Natsu laughed hysterically, obviously remembering the moment.

"I wouldn't go bragging about that kinda victory…" Gajeel scoffed. "Sounds pretty pathetic if ya ask me."

"Who are you calling pathetic?!"

"No fighting…" Lucy reminded both men and gave Natsu's hand another tight squeeze.

The sound that came out of her boyfriend's chest was extremely close to an animal's growl, and she sent him a surprised look – amazed that he'd been able to create such a noise.

…

And so it went for the next hour.

Sneak Peek:

He grabbed her wrist and started dragging her along behind him… but they both quickly discovered that Lucy, when drunk, couldn't walk fast and just toppled over instead.

"What the… geez, Luce, pull yourself together…" he grumbled and laughed, looking down at her where she'd landed on the floor.

She pouted up at him while staying on her knees. Then a brilliant idea occurred to her befuddled brain, and she immediately went through with it – lifting both arms up into the air in a childish request.

When he just stared at her, she wiggled her hands and arms a bit, thinking that it was obvious what she wanted… but he just kept giving her that strange, blank look and asked, "What?"

That made her pout even more, and she griped, "Pick me up! Carry me!"

His eye twitched, his jaw dropped a little, and he looked utterly stunned. When he continued to simply gawk at her for another minute, she gave another little whine, and absentmindedly saw both of his hands twitch.

"Holy shit, Luce… uh…. How drunk are you, again?"

Post Note:

Well, looks like things are going to get wild and wooly next chapter. Who's ready to party?

Also, incidentally, one of the titles I was considering for next chapters was, "How to Torture Your Boyfriend" ... Lol. XD