Author's notes at the end.
Chapter Seventeen
It's Dangerous to Go Alone
7pm, Friday, September 25th
Lucy had a distinct feeling of déjà vu as she stood in front of her wardrobe, staring at the selection of her fancier clothing choices and was trying to decide on what to wear for an evening of watching a fantasy movie at Natsu's place.
It was much like preparing for Loke's party all over again except this was vastly different. This was a casual affair, no dress-up required. This was just two friends hanging out. It was going to be no different than when her and Levy used to meet up.
So why was she fussing over an outfit?
Shaking her head and practically slamming her wardrobe doors closed, she tottered over to her dresser to get a much more sensible choice of a t-shirt and skirt.
Once Lucy had changed, she decided to apply a light application of make-up and make her hair much more presentable after drying it from the long time spent in the bath after she had finally finished work for the week, relieved to not have to see Dan and put up with his antics for two whole days.
Settling on having two straight pigtails, she was about to apply perfume before she was interrupted by loud banging at her front door.
Settling down the glass bottle, she hurried out of her bathroom and through her living room to answer it, expecting a salesman or something whom she would politely decline as she would have to start heading out soon.
To her surprise, she swung upon the door towards her and was met with pink hair, a soft white scarf and of course, a black t-shirt with a fierce-looking red dragon on it.
"Natsu?" Lucy exclaimed as he widely grinned and simply walked into her apartment without invitation. Unexpected guests were one thing but barging into your personal space was just plain rude! Yet it was such a Natsu thing to do!
"Yo!" He greeted as he looked around, getting a good look at her furnishings in her living room.
"Why are you here? We're going to your place, right?" She asked as something on her desk caught Natsu's attention, causing the young man to amble over to it.
"Yeah, but I'm gonna walk you over. It'd be pretty dumb of you to go by yourself," he teased as he tapped on what Lucy could see was the rough, hand-written draft of her latest chapter in her novel. She often did that – plan out chapters by hand before actually typing them up on her laptop.
Lucy ignored his teasing as Levy's comment resurfaced about Natsu's ability to somehow accidentally set fire to things quickly came to mind.
"Is this your book?" Natsu asked, picking up the notebook. "Does it have any dragons in it yet?"
Lucy dashed over as fast as she could to snatch it from Natsu's grasp and held it to her chest protectively, "Please don't touch this."
Natsu studied her curiously for a moment before he nodded, "Okay."
Unfortunately, Natsu merely directed his attention elsewhere – namely the armchair and he practically threw himself over it, landing with a thud and causing Lucy to worry he would break it entirely.
"This is way nicer than my couch, Lucy!" He exclaimed, bouncing up and down for a second to get a feel for it. "We should hang out here next time."
'Next time?'
Not wanting to witness Natsu potentially destroy anything of hers, Lucy decided it would be best just to hurry things up.
"Let me get my jacket and boots and then we can get going," she said, placing her notebook back down on her desk neatly before turning heel.
Transitioning from her apartment to the street outside didn't take long and Natsu was quick to direct in the direction of the bridge as they walked side by side together. As if it were a memory that had happened only recently, Lucy briefly recalled that last time they had walked along Strawberry Street together – she was tipsy and he held her hand with his.
The fact that he wasn't doing it this time made her feel… lonely maybe?
The same feeling as last time was still there though. She felt safe. She felt as though nothing could happen to her with Natsu there beside her.
Lucy mentally cursed that her feelings and sudden urges to do things that she would never normally do were toying with her like this. A part of her wanted to blame Levy for all the teasing last night. Her imagination was clearly out of whack and she just needed to get her head together.
"I was going to get a taxi you know," Lucy suddenly blurted out as she tried to return to what she had wanted to say earlier to him in her apartment. "You didn't need to come get me."
It sounded so cold once she realized how she had said it and internally cringed.
'Great job, Lucy, now you sound ungrateful.'
"This is more fun though," Natsu replied, unbothered by what she had said in the slightest, "and why bother paying for a taxi when it's not even that far to walk?"
Once again, she glanced over Natsu, still dressed as if it were summer. He looked… happy. Definitely happy. He wasn't smiling or flashing his toothy grin, but his demeanor felt a little different now. She wasn't even sure how she could describe it which felt pretty bad of her considering she wanted to write for a living.
It was as if… Natsu was carefree before and just sort of did the things he wanted to – whether it was just being helpful and kind or whether it was being mischievous or challenging guys to fights. Now Natsu looked as if… he had a plan?
Perhaps it was just her overactive imagination again playing wither again.
But when she thought about it further, Natsu in general had been a lot more talkative all week. She wasn't sure if it was something to do with his missing father or whether giving him that tressym miniature had given him the go-ahead to try and become better friends with her.
Honestly, she wanted to ask more about his dad. It was selfish, she knew, to bring up memories for him that were probably painful and difficult to talk about but she couldn't help but be curious. She wanted to help him in his search but it seemed presumptuous to just invite herself to help him without his agreement first. She also wanted to know because well… Igneel sounded like the father she never really had.
Except that wasn't really true. There were some good memories with her own father.
Lucy shook her head lightly, vowing not to ruin their evening of just hanging out, eating food and watching a movie together. This was supposed to be fun – not another gut-wrenching visit to the past.
"What's wrong, Lucy?" Natsu suddenly asked, looking to her with concern in his dark green eyes. "I can tell somethin's up with ya."
She never was that good at hiding things.
"It's nothing, just thinking!" Lucy said, smiling back to reassure him.
"Ya sure?" He double-checked, crossing his arms in a fashion that indicated that he wasn't believing her in the slightest.
Lucy didn't want to lie to him nor going digging into his past. It was thanks to her quick thinking that she was quick to spot one of the many friendly corner shops on the street that they were about to make a turn in to and it would provide the perfect distraction for Natsu.
"Yeah, I was just thinking that I should pick up a few things to have with the movie!" Lucy announced to him, pointing out to the small, quiet store which caused Natsu to look over to it straight away. The store in question was actually one that Lucy frequented a lot in the year prior to starting her internship – she was always popping in late at night for a milky coffee to take home as she worked on her assignment papers.
"I was gonna order us somethin' when we got to mine," Natsu replied before quickly looking pleased, his smile returning with Lucy's suggestion. "… but I'm not gonna say no to extra food."
"Let's go then!" Lucy declared, "bet I can beat you to the store first!"
She began speeding up her pace until she was practically running towards the store, giggling a little as she glanced behind her and seeing a bemused Natsu suddenly take off after her. Lucy acknowledged she was being silly, childish and this was out of character for her to do but it worked. In a way, it felt absolutely freeing to just be dashing through the streets.
Natsu was quick about catching up and overtaking her, shouting that she didn't stand a chance and needed more training before running on ahead. She may jog on a regular basis but there wasn't a chance that she could keep up with him. For someone whose interests included dragons, video games and D&D, he was certainly athletic and evidently those muscles of his weren't just for show.
Sprinting for short bursts of time was never Lucy's strong suit and when she caught up with him, he was smugly stood outside the store looking as if he hadn't struggled in the slightest whereas she was lightly panting.
"So… what do I win?" Natsu teasingly asked her and Lucy could only chuckle in response in between taking a few breaths.
"Uh, popcorn," she managed to say once she caught her breath and she sauntered over to the automatic doors of the store, entering before Natsu could gloat at her although she didn't even know if he would. She was just glad to have stopped him pushing for her to tell him what she had been thinking about.
Natsu followed her in and Lucy pointed out to where she knew the popcorn was, "Go grab a bag, I'll pay for it."
He didn't waste any time going down the aisle to browse the selection and Lucy made her way over to the cashier at the register whom she knew through Cana but only as acquaintances.
"Good evening, Bacchus!" She greeted the well-built man who was currently leaning against the counter, skimming through his phone and generally looking a bit bored. Lucy hadn't seen him on the night of Loke's party all those weeks ago so this was the first time she had seen him in months.
"Lucy! How've you been?!" He called out, looking up and easily recognizing her.
"I'm good – it's been a while hasn't it?" Lucy warmly responded.
Bacchus set his phone down, eyeing the shelves of liquor behind him briefly before facing towards the espresso machine. It was nothing fancy – in fact it was worn and old but was fine for simple white or black coffee.
"Your usual? I didn't think you were studying again," he asked, holding out his hand to which Lucy understood was his way of asking for her reusable cup that she usually brought with her.
"Actually no, I'm just grabbing a few things with a friend," Lucy sweetly answered, making her way over to one of the refrigerators not too far from the register to grab a couple of chilled bottled cola.
"Friend? I don't see anyone?" Bacchus confusedly asked, looking briefly around him.
It was as Lucy turned back with the cola in hand and made her way back towards the register that Natsu appeared from the aisles at the counter.
"Yo! I'm the friend!" He greeted Bacchus with and placed a bag of popcorn down in front of him by the register. There was something odd about the way Natsu greeted him but Lucy couldn't pinpoint what it was.
"Eh? Not seen you before?" Bacchus asked before turning in Lucy's direction. "Lucy, when did you start making manly friends?!"
Lucy hurried back over to the register, taking a comfortable place standing beside Natsu, brushing against his arm slightly and realizing that Natsu was somewhat tense. It only lasted a very briefly moment before he relaxed again.
'That was strange.'
Ignoring that, she continued on with her conversation. "Yep, this is Natsu, we met over at Strauss Games. Do you know of it?" Lucy asked, making casual conversation as Bacchus ran up the drinks and popcorn before putting them into a brown paper bag.
"Heard of it. The nerd shop, right?" Bacchus blithely answered as Lucy took out her card to pay for the items.
"Yeah, I play there every weekend with Natsu… You know Cana's been there too now."
Bacchus paused for a moment in taking payment to raise a suspicious eyebrow at her – as if he didn't believe her for a second.
He lightly snorted. "Huh…I wouldn't have thought. Hey, say hi to her for me will ya?" He asked as Lucy put away her card and went to grab their purchases from the counter.
"Sure thing! See you around, Bacchus!" Lucy called and nudging Natsu's arm to leave. Bacchus offered a small wave before going back to leaning on the counter, whipping his phone out and presumably went back to doing whatever it was he was doing before they had arrived.
With two small bottles of cola and one bag of 'red hot cinnamon' flavored popcorn bought and paid for, the pair of them left the store and they began making their way down the sidewalk towards the bridge.
Lucy couldn't help but nervously wonder what Natsu's part of town looked like. She had heard the rumors, she had knowledge of the main gang that ruled that area, 'Tartaros' and she was beginning to think she had made a mistake in choosing to wear a skirt as she vaguely recalled the wolf whistles that she had to put up with that came from the other side of the canal.
At least Natsu was there and she took what comfort she could at the safety he offered as they approached the bridge and began crossing over.
Lucy abruptly stopped in her tracks. She just had to know what she was walking into.
"Hey, Natsu?"
Natsu turned, stopping when he saw that she was no longer walking, "What's up?" he asked.
"Is it… is it safe?" She struggled to ask, looking to Natsu in a way of asking for reassurance.
"Huh?" He quickly looked around as if he were expecting someone to jump him.
"I mean… will we be okay? I heard that Tartaros does a lot of bad things." It was a silly question really. Natsu lived in that area and was perfectly fine.
None the less, her perhaps sensible or maybe foolish decision earlier in the do a search on Tartaros on her laptop had definitely given her cause to worry. Articles from Magnolia spanning several years – some as old as when she would have been only four years old, told stories of drug crimes, torture, human trafficking and worse. There was an element of sensationalism to them for sure – her writing experience had made identifying that easy but knowing that didn't really ease her mind either.
Her question was soon answered discourteously when Natsu laughed, "Course' we will be! Tartaros are a bunch of wimps – I've taken them on plenty of times."
Lucy was having a difficult time understanding what he meant by that. "You've… taken them on?"
"Yep, Tartaros is a big gang but they target teenagers to recruit into their ranks when they are still in high school," Natsu explained. "So there were a few of them about back when I was still in school."
Lucy shook her head at him, "This isn't school though, Natsu."
Natsu tutted at her, almost looking offended at her for stating the obvious, "I know that. I've lived here a while now – they mostly leave me alone and the ones that don't…"
Natsu smacked his fist into other palm, proudly, as if he loved the very idea of engaging in fist fight with them. Lucy wasn't sure how much she liked Natsu's obvious approval of using violence but given Tartaro's reputation, she couldn't blame him either.
"Let's go already. I'm still hungry," Natsu suddenly said, dropping his fists and turning away from her, already starting to walk ahead towards Tartaro's part of town as if it were no big deal at all.
Lucy remained still, struggling to step forward as her fear of the potential and unknown dangers filled her with doubts.
Her lack of footsteps must not have gone amiss by Natsu who quickly stopped, turned and looked at her in confusion – as if it were supposed to be easy to just walk into a gang's territory.
It was probably easy for him – he wasn't a woman, he was unlikely to be targeted for truly horrid things.
"Lucy, it'll be fine!" Natsu insisted in a carefree manner. "I'll protect you, I promise."
Hearing that was enough to make her take a step forwards, gulping nervously. Then another. It didn't take much for her to catch up to Natsu, taking her place by his side and trusting that he would keep that promise.
A Heartfilia always kept their promises – whose to say Natsu wouldn't keep his?
The streets beyond the bridge didn't feel any different to begin with. The buildings were dated although looked nothing alike to 'Old Magnolia', a more historic part of town where period buildings, structures and statues could be found.
However, as Natsu guided Lucy around a corner, the difference between her neighborhood and his was quickly becoming apparent. The streetlights flickered – many of the bulbs were out, leaving some parts of the sidewalk completely dark. Old soggy newspapers, soda and beer cans littered the street gutters, broken glass was scattered across the road. It wasn't long before they passed run-down stores with their rollers down, graffiti of the Tartaros logo newly spray-painted on the metal surfaces.
Several buildings were boarded up although some weren't – those ones were stores that were clearly open for business, the neon-pink signs indicating that they were far from the types of places that Lucy would ever step into. She could only imagine the look of horror on her father's face if she ever walked inside of one.
She sorely hoped that Natsu wasn't a regular customer.
After another minute of walking and Lucy began to notice other people on the other side of the street, stopping and looking over their way. Their stares were unnerving as Lucy suspected they were sizing her up more so than Natsu.
Despite this, she didn't want to judge them and decide that they were criminals without any reason for doing so. They might be perfectly innocent. But telling herself this wasn't working as well as she hoped it would.
It was at that point that Lucy felt her hand being grabbed by Natsu, no doubt sensing her unease and it caused her to jump slightly but his warmth assured her she was safe. She believed it too. Natsu could be rude, he could be reckless, but clearly he was just as protective as his D&D character was.
The implication that was associated with hand-holding didn't even cross her mind as this was entirely about him looking after her well-being.
She continued to let him lead her in silence. She didn't want them to draw attention to themselves with loud talking nor distract Natsu from him being vigilant as he guided her through the urban neighborhood.
They turned another corner which led into a better-lit street but Lucy still remained anxious, squeezing Natsu's calloused hand a little tighter and if he hat at all minded, he didn't say anything.
It wasn't long before he came to a stop outside an apartment block, plain in design and structure but not nearly as shady looking as some as the other deprecated buildings that they had passed.
"Here we are!" Natsu announced although at not nearly as high a volume at which he usually spoke. "My place is on the third floor. Gimme a sec to get my keys."
To her disappointment, Natsu let go of her hand and Lucy felt her source of comfort rapidly fade from her. Instead, he went to check each of his pockets – clearly not remembering in which of them that he carried his keys. By comparison, Lucy always knew where her keys were at all times as though they were one of her most treasured possessions. How Natsu could be so careless with his own keys was strange to Lucy – it just didn't sit right with her at all.
He eventually pulled out a key from his back pocket, gesturing for her to follow him as he clumsily unlocked the door to the lobby and shoving a rather squeaky door open.
Never one to be a gentleman, Natsu did not hold open the door for her to go through first but instead took Lucy's more preferable option of taking her hand back into his and pulling her inside with him.
The lobby was shabby with some of the mailboxes looking on the more 'beat up' end of the spectrum. As expected, there was no elevator to use but it wasn't if the building had that many floors anyway.
"This way," Natsu said, tugging Lucy in the direction of the stairs. Lucy could practically hear her boots squeaking along the linoleum floor.
Once again, Natsu let go of her hand as he made some bounding steps up the stairwell, Lucy lagging behind with much more delicate footsteps but not as ladylike as one might have expected from someone of her background.
On reaching the third floor, Natsu waited for Lucy at the top as she stared up at him, frowning slightly that he had just gone and left her behind.
"Took ya long enough!" He bantered as he turned and thudded roughly three doors down before stopping and gesturing for Lucy to hurry up and catch up with him.
Once she did, Lucy looked to him in earnest. "This is it?" She asked as Natsu fiddle with the lock on the door.
"Yep, this is it. Home sweet home," he confirmed, displaying some pride in introducing her to it.
Upon unlocking the door, Natsu had to give it a light kick to get it to swing open before turning to Lucy as she looked on, ready to see what the home of her friend and definitely not love interest, looked like.
She had read the stories about single men and their bachelor pads – that they would be messy, sparsely furnished and lacking feminine colors. Loke's place was an exception, he being from a high class and wealthy background and most likely being able to afford the staff to clean it for him.
Lucy didn't think she would mind what Natsu's home looked like as long as it was clean and comfortable enough to watch a movie in.
However, Natsu's apartment was not what she had expected at all.
Stepping inside after Natsu, she noticed that the space wasn't huge, but it was open plan as well as being a studio apartment, immediately recognizing that the space was roughly divided into four distinct sections. What did stand out to her however, was that it was clean – almost immaculately so.
"It's cleaner than my place…" Lucy uttered as she walked in further, her eyes scanning the layout carefully, the kitchen area especially – she always kept her own exceptionally tidy.
"It ought to be after what Erza put me through a few hours ago," Natsu responded, catching Lucy unaware as she didn't think he had heard her mumbling. She would have thought she would have gotten used to that by now – he always heard her mumbles.
'Wait? Did he say Erza? As in, Erza made him do this?'
"Erza made you clean up?" Lucy asked, spinning around in horror. Natsu had told Erza about this?! He had told Erza about this… this… not-date! And now Erza was going to say something to the others at D&D and then everyone would think that they were dating and-
"Yeah, when I told her that you were coming over, she came over after I was done at work and made me clean it all…" he explained grumpily. "She threatened to hit me with the mop."
Putting the amusing image of Erza chasing Natsu around with a mop aside, the fact remained that Erza was probably thinking the same thing as everyone else. That this was a date.
Dates were supposed to be romantic with flowers and sharing chocolate fondue over live music that featured violins – not whatever this was! So this couldn't be a date. End of. And as this was definitely not a date, Lucy was going to look around her friend's place without worrying about doing anything remotely close to doing anything associated with dates.
"I'm gonna order the food 'cause I'm already getting hungry," Natsu suddenly said, closing his apartment door, slipping his sneakers off and practically throwing himself on his couch.
Lucy left him to it as she had to roll down her boots to take them off, then she carried in the brown paper bag of her purchase from the corner shop, making her way over to the small kitchen. She didn't hesitate to run a finger over the spotless counter surfaces and promising herself to ask Erza for some cleaning tips next time she saw her.
She also found that it was easy to study the rest of the large open room from where she stood.
The lounge area was in one corner of the room which contained a single worn leathery couch that Natsu was now sprawled out across as he tapped away on his cellphone. It faced a decently sized widescreen TV that was mounted to the wall although it didn't compare to the TV that her father owned in her former home. She spotted a myriad of consoles and wires underneath it along with stacks of DVD shaped cases stockpiled to one side – probably video games and maybe a selection of movies.
What was most eye-catching was the single display case to the other side of the TV and although Lucy couldn't directly see what exactly it contained, she could definitely see it was a collection of miniatures and the like.
When her eyes found the other side of the room, it made Lucy feel a little indecent to observe it – a freshly made small double bed that looked surprisingly well kept compared to some of the shabbier furniture choices in the room, as if it had barely been used. Unwanted memories came up of her father's uncomfortable 'talk' that he'd had with her when she was a few years younger, about what all men and the sorts of things they wanted and would expect from her.
'Natsu seems like he wouldn't ever want that kind of thing.'
Perhaps her father was wrong – aside from encountering a few bad eggs and receiving the occasional unwanted attention, the current men in her life were nice, friendly and mostly respectful… when they weren't barging into her apartment. Even Loke, who was not discreet the slightest with his compliments and flirtations, was never inappropriate like that.
Somewhere in between the two 'sections' of the room was an old battered desk and chair and Lucy recognized the contents that sat on top – little paint tins like the ones she had bought to paint Happy. There was a pot of various sized brushes too.
Curiously, a large, half-closed cardboard box sat to the side of the desk and Lucy felt the urge to look inside but refrained herself from going over and doing so. Rummaging through other people's belongings was something she wasn't about to do. Her keen eye caught a glimpse of the slightly open part that it perhaps contained books making the urge to investigate it harder to avoid.
A small selection of dumbbells sat neatly beside it, their sizes indicating that they would definitely be too heavy for her to lift.
As for Natsu's kitchen – it had the basics, a fridge, a cooker, an oven, microwave, sink. Everything you would expect to find. Lucy was dubious about looking inside Natsu's cupboards, however – not because be extremely inappropriate of her but because she half-expected a mountain of snacks to come tumbling out and bury her right there and then in the middle of the kitchen.
She guessed that Natsu's bathroom must be through a door that she passed when she first entered the apartment.
Lucy went about unpacking the meager contents of the paper bag, wanting to put away the cola in the fridge and leave the popcorn on the side for later. Hot cinnamon flavor though? Natsu's taste palette was certainly… exotic.
When she opened the fridge, however, she was surprised to find it surprisingly empty with only a few basics in stock – milk, eggs and an opened packet of ham. Rather than question Natsu about his odd living choices, Lucy simply put away the bottles to chill.
"Hey, Lucy? Did you want a pizza or something else?" Natsu called out from the worn couch.
"Anything is fine by me!" Lucy called out as she gently shut the refrigerator door and deciding to go have a good look at Natsu's display case.
"You sure? I can get somethin' else," he murmured back. "Anything you haven't had in a while?"
Lucy didn't ask why Natsu was suddenly concerned about what type of food she wanted as she had a sneaking suspicion that he would eat just about anything you would put in front of him. She also hadn't treated herself in a while to takeaway food and the devious part of her really wanted to indulge just a little.
"Hmm, well I guess I haven't had white Clover dumplings in a while," she idly commented with a naughty grin.
Natsu sat up from lounging on the couch, sitting forward and began to rapidly tap on his phone's screen.
Lucy went back to paying attention to the contents of the display case – the case itself looked cheap but the miniatures inside gleamed with love and care. The most prominent of which was a large red dragon that sat on the top shelf, delicately painted and shaded in hues of scarlet and sunset yellow. It sat on a pile of coins and gems that came in a variety of metallic colors, evidently showing that the dragon was guarding its treasure.
"That's the dragon that Salamander's lookin' for," Natsu commented although he didn't take his gaze away from the phone as he scrolled through his options.
"That Salamander's looking for?" Lucy echoed back, looking over to him and confused as to why Natsu had suddenly decided to mention it in casual passing.
Natsu briefly glanced up at her, nodding, "Yeah, my character in D&D. He's trying to find his dad – a red dragon."
Lucy probably should have given more thought to the words that came next that spilled out of her mouth, "Oh, so like you and Igneel!"
She grimaced immediately as she expected a baleful reaction from Natsu.
Natsu shrugged, "Kinda, yeah."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring all of that up again!" Lucy frantically tried to explain but Natsu merely cocked an eyebrow at her. "I know it's painful for you and I-"
"Stop fussin', it doesn't bother me," Natsu said as if she was being more annoying than anything else.
"It-it doesn't?" Lucy stammered, not expected Natsu to be so casual about it, recalling how pained he looked previously when he first told her about Igneel in the basement of Strauss Games.
"Nope, 'cause I'm gonna find Igneel again just like Salamander's gonna find that dragon," Natsu stated, smiling slightly before he went back to looking at his phone.
Lucy didn't know if she felt relieved to hear that or silly for assuming that he would be upset if she brought it up again. Natsu had thicker skin than she bargained for and that made sense really, given his upbringing.
Although Natsu had for some reason, without being asked, just told her what his D&D character was trying to do yet he hadn't revealed that to anyone during their sessions so far. There was the possibility he had told everyone at the table when they first started the campaign when his brother was still playing but it seemed odd that he suddenly just wanted to tell her in passing. She really wasn't sure if she should tell him about her own character's intentions.
"Aren't we supposed to keep our character's objectives a secret?" Lucy asked.
"Only if you want to," Natsu replied, not looking up.
Lucy went back to looking at the display case, smiling briefly when she caught sight of Happy, sitting comfortably next to Salamander on the second tier shelf. She concluded that Natsu must have really approved of the miniature if it earned a place in his case like this. Still, her eyes kept finding her way back up to the dragon and the magnificence of it.
"Alright, food's ordered," Natsu said happily, tossing his phone down on the only side table beside the sofa and getting up to go stand beside Lucy as she gazed at the painted dragon.
"How much was it?" Lucy asked, making sure that she was going to pay her share.
"Doesn't matter, I got it this time," Natsu replied.
"No, tell me," Lucy insisted, her determination to have financial independence making her stubbornness shine through.
"4000 jewel maybe?" Natsu admitted, causing Lucy's eyes to widen in shock. For that amount, it must be well… a lot of food for two people and she only asked for one thing!
She was just about to question Natsu about what exactly he had ordered when she felt him slightly shimmy to stand even closer in front of her - to the point that she could almost feel his unnatural heat radiate off of him. With him being at least half-a-head taller than her, she looked up at him as he stared back down at her as if he were expecting something.
Lucy involuntary blushed as her voice reduced to a quieter volume, "Natsu, what are you-"
They stared awkwardly at each other for a moment and Lucy found herself unable to look away as his eyes roamed the contours of her face.
"You're in the way, Lucy," he told her bluntly.
Lucy, breaking away from his piercing gaze, glanced around and realized she was indeed blocking Natsu's exit from the lounge area.
"Oh! Right!" Lucy said, stepped aside to let Natsu pass as she mentally slapped herself for being such a ditz sometimes.
Natsu plodded into his kitchen, bending down to open one of the cabinets and began to rummage for something.
"What are you doing?" Lucy couldn't stop herself from asking, wandering what he had suddenly needed to go grab from over there.
"I'm getting the movie."
'Of course, the movie. Because everybody keeps their movies in the kitchen,' Lucy sarcastically thought.
Why it wasn't in the stack of cases in the corner of the room with everything else wasn't particularly obvious to Lucy but she decided to let Natsu just do his thing and instead, she went to go settle herself down on his couch. It wasn't as nearly as comfortable as the one at Strauss Games but nice enough.
Lucy recognized the console – it was exactly the same as the one at the store. There was another one she didn't recognize beside it but it looked dustier, indicating it wasn't used as often.
The stack of games and movies made for an interesting browse – titles that weren't present in the basement in the store stood out, such as 'Dragon Quest XI' or 'The Witcher 3'. Boxsets of various TV shows that Lucy had vaguely heard of sat at the bottom of the pile – the most notable being Game of Thrones.
A minute later, Natsu padded over with a BlueRay case in hand and went about inserting the disc into his PlayStation. Before long, he sat back down, leaving some space in between them as he went about setting everything up with a controller in hand.
"I wonder if it will be as good as the book…" Lucy said out loud, voicing her thoughts openly.
"I dunno, I think the movie's pretty good," Natsu replied as though he thought she was asking him a question.
Lucy grinned at him fondly, "I don't think anything is more powerful than your imagination which is what a good book can give you," she explained as Natsu squinted at her in obvious disagreement. "But watching The Fellowship of the Ring with you was pretty fun," she added.
That statement alone was enough to make Natsu grin back at her before he turned to face the TV again to select the movie, "I still can't believe you haven't seen these movies before…" he uttered.
"I've told you before, Natsu… my dad wasn't a fan," Lucy glumly replied.
"Yeah, but why?"
"He believed in a society divided by social status I think. He said he didn't want me to behave like 'some commoner' and preferred that I read classical books or went to the theater," Lucy explained. "It was only when I met Levy that I started watching the same movies that everyone else was."
Natsu sat back, looking up at the ceiling for a moment as if he had just realized something. "Huh," he muttered, looking a bit dumbstruck.
"What?" Lucy asked, wondering how that explanation could have confused him.
"Gajeel once had a girlfriend called that. Weird." Natsu explained, turning his head to face her.
Lucy wasn't sure how common the name 'Levy' was but she doubted it was the same person as to who Natsu was referring to. Both Gajeel and Levy was were vastly different and Levy didn't seem the type to date tough men on motorbikes.
"Yeah, it's probably not the same person," Lucy stated to him.
"Your dad sounds really strict," Natsu said, returning back to the previous subject, his eyes wandering over to the red dragon miniature in his display case for a moment.
"He was- is. My-" Lucy began to say, her breath hitching at the painful memory of that horrible day, no matter of how faint it was now. "My mom died when I was ten… that's when he changed."
Natsu didn't say anything and Lucy wasn't sure if she should continue. She did anyway, deciding not to focus much on what happened exactly, keeping her previous notion of not talking too much about the past in mind.
"It was lonely growing up, that's why… it's important to me to have the friends I do now," she explained quietly.
Natsu cocked his head, his signature smile appearing with a flash of his unique looking canines, "You're not lonely now though?" he gaily asked.
"It's hard to feel lonely when I'm around you, Natsu," Lucy admitted before recoiling at her sudden openness, placing her hands over her mouth at how implicative it sounded!
'What the hell, Lucy?! He's going to get the wrong idea when you say things like that!'
When she glanced over at Natsu, he was getting up without a word, leaving Lucy to think she had crossed a line with what she had said.
"Natsu, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like-" Lucy began to ramble.
Natsu, however, merely made his way over the other side of the room to reach under his bed, "Whaddya saying sorry for? I'm getting you a blanket."
'Wait… he's doing what?'
"A blanket?" Lucy questioned, utterly lost at what was happening.
"Yeah, I just remembered you liked having a blanket when you watched the last movie," Natsu replied, pulling out a red tartan blanket and tossing it to her from across the room.
Lucy caught it, scrunching it in her hands before looking at him in utter disbelief.
'His thought patterns are something else. Did he even hear what I said?'
Before either of them could say anything else, the buzzer near Natsu's front door went off, alerting the both of them to the fact the food had probably arrived. Lucy wasn't sure how it was so quick but she wasn't about to complain about it being so either.
Natsu was quick to rush over to the door, shouting that he would be back in a minute before dashing out and leaving Lucy alone in his apartment.
If someone had asked Lucy two months ago if she would be sitting in a man's apartment who was borderline obsessed with dragons, she would have laughed at the very idea.
Now, Lucy couldn't imagine a life without Natsu being a part of it.
The amount of takeaway food on the kitchen counter was excessive. Whether Natsu intended to eat all of it in one sitting or if he planned to have some leftovers to put in his fairly empty fridge wasn't clear. What Lucy did know was that she was positively envious of how much he could eat with a seemingly bottomless stomach and not have an ounce of fat on him.
"Okay, so that's your dumplings," Natsu said, opening up one of the paperboard cartons of food before placing it back down and sliding it over to her. Lucy had to admit, it smelled absolutely divine.
Natsu began opening up several of the others and familiar scents tickled Lucy's nose. Spare ribs, some sort of marinated pork, fried noodles, edamame, sesame chicken, dango, there was even a few lotus buns too.
"How are we supposed to eat all of this?" Lucy couldn't help but ask out loud, causing Natsu to look at her as if it were a redundant question.
"Just watch me, Lucy!" Natsu challenged her as he broke apart one of the pairs of chopsticks that had arrived with the meal. To her disbelief, Natsu simply grabbed the carton of sesame chicken and piled in a few mouthfuls there and then where he stood.
"Um, Natsu, shouldn't we get some plates?" Lucy asked him, looking over towards the overhead cabinets in the kitchen.
Natsu gave a satisfied moan as he swallowed down the food in his mouth before answering her, "Huh, suppose we could, I usually just eat the food like this."
Somehow, that didn't surprise Lucy one little bit. Even if they were to eat from the cartons, Natsu didn't seem to own any kind of dining or coffee table to put them on. She could only presume Natsu didn't eat at home too often and if he did, it wasn't usually with this quantity of food.
Natsu pointed to the cabinet where he presumably kept his plates and Lucy huffed as she went to go retrieve some herself, noting that this was just another reason why this wasn't a date. A real gentleman would have gone and got them himself!
She opened up the cabinet and gently collected two plain-looking plates from where they were stacked before bringing them back to the pile of cartons. Natsu was already sticking his chopsticks into the fried noodles to give them a taste.
Lucy lightly frowned at him and his lack of table manners but he remained ignorant of whatever she was trying to demonstrate with mere facial expressions. She took a pair of chopsticks for herself, breaking them apart and then carefully began taking a small quantity from each of the generous selection of 'dishes' available onto her plate. She avoided the ribs – they would be too messy and she also avoided the dango and lotus buns as they were too sweet to eat with the savory choices.
Bizarrely, when she was done, Natsu looked at her wide-eyed with a mouthful of noodles before gulping it down and then grabbing the plate she prepared.
"Man, this was nice of you to do – thanks, Lucy!" He exclaimed, grinning at her devilishly.
Lucy looked at him, stunned. "What!? No, that's my food!" She yelled at him but Natsu merely grinned, grabbing the carton of ribs as well with his other hand and ran over to the couch with them.
Lucy grumbled to herself, tempted to go over and grab her plate right back off of him and risk making a mess but decided to not stoop to his level of childishness.
She took the second plate, repeating the same selection as before grabbing her bottle of cola from the fridge and going to sit down beside Natsu on the couch.
"You're unbelievable, you know that?" Lucy said to him as he sat with the plate on his lap, controller in hand as he hit play on the movie.
"You're being loud again, Lucy. C'mon, we're watching the movie now," Natsu playfully teased back and Lucy had to restrain herself from flicking an edamame bean in his direction.
Lucy frowned at him once more but saw an opportunity to get revenge once Natsu realized that the light was still on in the room, causing him to get up and put his stolen plate of food down to turn it off.
Lucy was quick about it, but she swapped several of her beans for some of his pork, knowing that it would probably annoy him.
The room went dark and as the movie opened up to a mountain scene that Lucy partially recognized from the previous movie, Natsu returning to sit down a few seconds later.
It only took a few seconds for Natsu to spot the change to 'his' plate and turned to face Lucy, "Oi! You stole some of the pork!"
"I don't know what you're talking about, Natsu," Lucy replied with feigned innocence and then to her own audacity, picked up a piece of the stolen pork with her chopsticks and popped it into her mouth right in front of him with a smile.
That was a mistake.
Natsu quickly responded by reaching over and stealing a dumpling right off her plate with his fingers and swallowing it all in one in a fit of playfulness.
Oh, she was tempted to keep going, she really was, but the movie's music took a dramatic turn, catching her attention instead and she decided to put this silly little game behind her. Natsu similarly did the same, more than happy to munch loudly on his food which meant Lucy had to ask him to turn the volume up but it overall, it made the movie more immersive.
They had only reached to about ten minutes in before Natsu had finished his plate and was greedily helping himself to the carton of sticky ribs with his fingers. Lucy only caught a glimpse of the bones of meats but she had to admit, the sauce that they came in looked pretty tasty. Unfortunately, the only way of giving it a try now was by licking it off Natsu's fingers and she certainly wasn't going to ask him that, causing her to blush at the thought.
At least an hour later and Natsu had to replenish his plate a few times and was soon washing it all down with his bottle of cola. Lucy was full after just one helping and decided that she would let her stomach settle before she would go to help herself to one of the sweeter treats available (if Natsu hadn't devoured them by that point). She also made herself cozy with the tartan blanket that Natsu had offered to her earlier and she could confidently say that it was thoroughly nice to have an evening like this.
As for the movie so far itself? Lucy loved the portray of Smeagol and thought it was very well done. The musical score was exceptional too, especially when the Riders of Rohan were on screen. Unlike last time, Natsu seemed much more engrossed which Lucy could only assume was because of the increased amount of combat scenes that were being presented to them.
Two hours in and Natsu went to go grab the bag of cinnamon popcorn, munching on a few handfuls before offering some to her to try. She shook her head but looked over to the kitchen counter instead, eyeing the dango in particular. Natsu surprisingly caught on to this, getting up and fetching her the whole carton that they arrived in, throwing in a lotus bun too whilst he was up.
To both her surprise and a little embarrassment, when Natsu sat back down, he looked her over once or twice before he grabbed the hem of her blanket, tugging a portion of it over himself.
'He wants to share a blanket again?'
The blanket was clearly smaller than the one at Strauss Games as Natsu was evidently not happy about how little he had managed to pull away from Lucy and her look of shock and annoyance had little effect on him.
That's when Natsu unexpectedly (in Lucy's eyes) just scooted over until his hips were touching hers and enough blanket was covering them both. There was blushing in Lucy's cheeks and sudden tensing in her body as Natsu obliviously continued to watch the movie, popcorn in hand.
'This is so much closer than last time!'
As if by some miracle, Natsu must have felt how tense Lucy had suddenly become and his eyes darted between her and the movie on the screen. Lucy was losing focus on the movie by Natsu's sudden decision to sit so close to her that she was even further surprised when he leaned over to whisper something.
"You've read the books, right? So ya don't need to worry about Helm's Deep 'cause you know what happens."
Lucy turned her face towards him to look at him incredulously.
'He thinks I'm tense because of that!?'
Choosing to just accept that Natsu was not in fact, making any sort of affectionate gesture and merely just wanted to share a blanket again, Lucy shook off any wandering problem thoughts to focus on the movie.
She settled after a few minutes, enjoying the tension and atmosphere the movie was building and in all honesty, she loved that Natsu was providing so much natural warmth as his apartment did feel a little bit cold. That wasn't surprising, October was right around the corner now.
More than content to nibble at her dango and eventually a lotus bun too, Lucy leeched Natsu's heat and thoroughly watched the battle of Helm's Deep take place which had her completely hooked to the screen.
By the time the movie was beginning to wrap up, Lucy was on the edge of her seat as Gollum plotted against the hobbits and then she was being presented with an ominous overview of Mordor. The credits rolled and Natsu, still not moving, turned to her.
"So what did ya think of that one?" He asked.
Lucy smiled back at him, "It was really good!"
"The third one has got lots of epic battles. It's gonna be so awesome when you see it!" Natsu stated as his eyes connected with hers.
Lucy wasn't sure what she was thinking as it felt as if minutes passed between them although neither of them said nothing, merely stared at each other without either one of them moving from where they sat.
Perhaps it was her sensibilities that snapped Lucy away but the sudden realization that it was probably getting late and that she needed to try and call a cab before all the party-goers and clubbers in town kept them all too preoccupied to collect her.
She reached over to where she placed her shoulder bag down, taking out her phone and to her horror, the time displayed indicated it was almost midnight.
"Uh, Natsu, I need to try and call a taxi before they're all booked up," she murmured as she began typing into her phone to search for a reputable taxi company in the area.
"Why would they be booked up?" Natsu asked, leaning over her to see what she was doing.
"Because it's Friday and people go out to party when the weekend begins," Lucy answered, doing her best to ignore how close he was as she found a number to dial.
"I can walk you home."
Lucy turned to him, pausing in what she was doing to shake her head at him, "No, that's alright. You've already walked all the way over to come and get me and back once already today."
To her surprise, Natsu sat back and folded his arms as if to disagree with her, "I don't mind. I can protect ya just fine."
Needing to be protected wasn't something Lucy had in mind, especially if her plan was to be comfortably sat in a taxi. The cost of it didn't even bother her for once if that was the price of staying safe. The thought of walking home back through the same streets even later in the night had her anxiety spiking to worrying levels.
"I'm not sure, Natsu," Lucy replied to him, turning away to avoid his staring.
She felt the couch adjust as Natsu stood up and Lucy barely had a moment to turn her head before he was standing in front of her, grabbing her hands and pulling her up in a way that told her that he intended to drag her home.
"Natsu!" Lucy shrieked at him as it began shockingly obvious that Natsu wasn't going to drag her but instead, he was shifting as if he meant to pick her up as if he was going to carry her home over his shoulder.
"It'll be fine, Lucy. Paying for a taxi is dumb when I can get you home myself," Natsu said nonchalantly as if this was perfectly acceptable normal behavior.
"Okay, okay!" Lucy cried out as she felt him reaching forward, grasping her arm, "we'll walk!" she conceded.
Natsu let go of her, smirking before turning to switch off the console and TV.
That absolutely did leave the room pitch black and Lucy heard the fumbling as Natsu made his way over to the light switch, flicking it on.
"Let's go then!" Natsu said without a care in the world as if he wasn't just about to walk through the dangerous side of Magnolia at midnight.
Together, they started walking the same route back, Natsu holding her hand tightly again which Lucy welcomed thoroughly at such a late hour. The only difference was that Natsu had decided to actually wear a sweatshirt for a change although he didn't remove his scarf.
Even the stars above couldn't offer any further comfort to Lucy as the skies were dark and clouded.
They passed the familiar, neon-lit shops with the added addition of several drunken men were now shambling and moaning in the streets as if they were something from a horror novel.
"One day, I'm gonna get a better place," Natsu idly said quietly. "I've always wanted a house in the woods."
Lucy turned to him, curious as to why he felt the need to say that. She could only conclude that he was trying to distract her.
Natsu continued talking although his eyes never stopped scanning the streets, no doubt looking out for danger, "It's gonna be big enough for me and a cat I think."
"A cat?" Lucy murmured back, wanting to know more. She noticed his use of language – he didn't mention anything about anyone else being involved in his idea of a home. Just him and a cat. No mention of a girlfriend, wife or family. Maybe she had him all wrong and he wasn't interested in women in that way at all. Perhaps Natsu was even asexual – it would explain a lot. She willfully ignored the weird ache she felt that accompanied that possible conclusion.
"Yeah. It won't be anything like this place," Natsu said earnestly. "But it's cheap here and I use the extra jewel to look for Igneel."
That made sense, Lucy thought. Natsu wasn't exactly going to be made of money. It made a nice change from all those spendthrift sons of her father's business associates. Natsu actually put his spare finances to a good cause at the cost of living a more comfortable life and, despite his opinions about his job, he was evidently a hard worker.
Without really thinking, Lucy squeezed Natsu's hand tightly for a moment, treasuring the fact that he really was a good person despite his occasional rudeness and unawareness of personal boundaries.
Natsu didn't appear to notice it as his pacing rapidly slowed, eventually coming to a standstill as his face contorted into a frown, his eyes becoming deeply focused on something ahead of them.
Lucy, quickly filling with worry, glanced away from him to whatever it was that he was staring at.
If she thought she was already squeezing Natsu's hand a little too hard, that was about to get worse as her earthy brown eyes settled on a dark masculine figure that had just turned into the street around ten meters away, his mop of dirty blond hair illuminated by the flickering street light nearby. The stranger stared back, surprised at first before a deceitful smile formed menacingly on his face that could only spell trouble for them.
"Natsu?" Lucy whispered, looking to her male companion for guidance.
A low snarl escaped Natsu as he tensed immensely, releasing Lucy's hand in the process and the next word escaping his lips filled with vitriol.
"Jackal."
AN:
Yeah, yeah, it's a cliffhanger.
Okay, so by now you're probably thinking, 'otter... you've written almost 20 chapters and over 100k words and they are still both being oblivious as fuck! Where's the Nalu part of the story going?!'
Well, I say my dear readers, have patience! Within the next ten chapters planned are some events coming up that will help them to start to figure some things out… okay, maybe not on Natsu's end – he's gonna need a little bit longer. It'll be worth it in the end I hope! Seeing Natsu's POV is going to start becoming more frequent from now on too.
Also hoodie is sweatshirt in the 'Americanisms', right? I am writing my next fic in British English after this – I have to google this stuff way too often!
An extra special thanks to the reviewers!
It really helped to hear your opinions on the story structure so far!
Amanny, rao hyuga 18, Fleeting96genius, FairyTailxFanGirl, milchins, Sydneste, moonluver92, BeachBumBabe, .X, FireShifter, xfangirl123X, aweeesomeee, 52dreamer52(chapters 1-7), Wolfcry77 and mushi9!
Next Chapter: Jackal, Loke and some misunderstandings