Chapter 33
When Lucy comes to, her eyes focus up on a ceiling she is not familiar with. She hears someone softly snoring off to her left and she turns her head to look. On his left side, Natsu is snoozing away with his right arm thrown over his girlfriend to keep her close. Her body stiffens up in an instant. Why are the two of them sharing a bed? She should be in her own bed without a cuddle buddy. What is going on?
Lucy tries to sit up slowly, but Natsu reacts to her attempting to leave him. His grip around her tightens and he pulls her closer to him, nuzzling her arm with his face. Then he becomes still after relaxing once again.
Accepting her fate, Lucy glances around only to find that she is inside of Natsu's room. Now that she thinks about, she does not recall leaving last night. Had she been so tired that she fell asleep? Someone clearly took care of duo since a blanket is over them.
Natsu inhales deeply, taking in her oh-so familiar scent. "Luce…" he mumbles in his sleep. "My Luce…"
Happy. She feels happy. The motion is humming through her. Using her left hand to reach over and runs her fingers through his hair. She lightly drags her fingers across his scalp at certain points. Then she absentmindedly starts singing under her breath.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy when skies are grey.
You never know, dear, how much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.
Surprising Lucy so much that she stops working her fingers through his hair, Natsu starts singing a song in French to a similar tune.
Tu es mon rayon de soleil, tu es mon seul rayon de soleil.
Je suis tellement contant même lorsque le ciel est gris.
Tu ne sauras jamais comment je t'aime.
S'il vous plait ne m'enlève pas mon rayon de soleil.
Natsu finally peeks open an eye at her. "Bonjour."
"Good morning to you, too," she says. Lucy has been trying to learn basic French in her spare time so she knows what he just said to her. "How long have you been awake?"
"Since you started petting me," he replies.
"Too bad you didn't purr for me when I did," she teases.
Just to sass her, Natsu does. Then he becomes obnoxious about it.
Lucy laughs. "You're such a weirdo."
"You must be rubbing off on me," he says, propping himself up with a hand.
She flips onto her side to face him. "You wish."
"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you here?"
"I'm guessing we fell asleep together after talking so much. But I have no idea why someone didn't come up here so I'd go home with them."
"It's like they left you alone so we could be together."
"Maybe they thought it would do me good," Lucy muses.
"Us," he corrects. "Do us good."
She smiles a little. "Right."
Natsu removes his hand from Lucy to dig around in a pocket. "Huh?" he says, making a face.
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"I can't find my phone…" Then he cranes his neck around until he finds it on the nearby nightstand, plugged into a white cord. "That's weird…"
"Oh, my phone didn't charge all night!" Lucy realizes, sitting up to get a hold of her phone. However, she does not find it on her person.
"Uh, you sure about that?" Natsu questions.
"I never charged it."
Natsu points with a finger. "Looks like somebody else did."
She looks to where he is pointing to find her phone resting on the nightstand by her. It is plugged into a pink charger cord that winds down to an outlet in the wall. A light is glowing, letting her know there are unread notifications. "Is that your charger?"
"Nope. I only have one and it's white. Easier to spot in the dark that way."
"So someone put a blanket over us and charged our phones for us?" Lucy pieces together. She supposes that makes enough sense. Clearly they did not mind her and Natsu sharing his bed.
"I guess so. Nice of 'em to do that for us."
She reaches for her phone and unplugs it, the screen lighting up. She notices it is fully charged, but what really catches her attention are all of the notifications. There are text messages, missed phone calls, and voicemails. Different social media accounts all of things she needs to check as well. "What… ?"
"What's wrong?" Natsu asks, reaching for his phone.
"I think something happened while we were out." Lucy decides to look at the text messages first and finds different people from her father to Yukino have texted her. Others like Gray and Levy have as well. She checks what Jude has to say first.
Father: I'm not sure how you will find out the news first, but someone has exploited your secret of Ashley and Lucy Heartfilia. The media and everyone knows you are the same person.
Her secret. Her well-protected secret is out. The entire world now knows that Ashely the author's real name is Lucy Heartfilia. Mortification washes over her. "Oh, no…" she breathes.
"What's wrong?" Natsu questions, going through his own phone. He skims through some text messages. "Oh. Oh, no." He jerks his head up to look at Lucy. "Luce."
She cannot tear her eyes away from the screen of her phone.
Yukino: It seems that your secret is out! It's everywhere that Ashley's secret identity is Lucy Heartfilia! I don't know how this happened!
Yukino: We'll get through this, Lucy! I promise that things will work out!
Natsu is quick to snatch Lucy's phone away so she no longer can see.
She finally looks over at him, slowing turning her head to do so. "N-Natsu…" she murmurs. Her eyes are glassing over already.
He scooches over to hug her tightly. "This is not how I wanted you to start this morning," he admits. "I only want happy tears from you. Not sad ones. Only happy ones."
"Whoever is messing with me, they somehow found out about me," Lucy says numbly. She does not even have the strength to hug him back. "But I don't know how. I've been so careful about things."
"We'll get 'em, Luce. They won't get away with this."
Lucy wants to belief him. She really does.
x-X-x
A couple of hours later, Lucy is still at the Dragneel's house. Natsu has since left for his pizza delivering job, but she is able to hang out with the other members of the family. Currently, she and Wendy are in the family room, each with a cat on their lap. Happy is purring loudly, perfectly content with the attention he is receiving from Lucy's hands. He is flopped over on his back so she can scratch his belly.
Lucy mind is going back and forth between her Ashley/Lucy Heartfilia situation and anything but that. She has debated making a video admitting to her true identity and posting it on her various Ashley media accounts. However, she has not brought herself to do it. Plus, petting Happy is a good distraction for her.
"Do you girls need anything?" Grandeeney calls from the kitchen.
"Do you need anything?" Wendy asks, looking at Lucy.
She shakes her head.
"No thanks, Mom!" Wendy responds.
Suddenly, there is a knock on the front door.
"I'll get it," Grandeeney says so the girls do not bother standing up.
"Hello, hello!" an unfamiliar, male voice greets. "I'm here to pick up, Miss Lucy!"
"Oh, come in then," Grandeeney says.
"Thank you kindly!" the man says.
"Someone's already here to get you?" Wendy asks.
"I did text Capricorn that I'd need a ride," Lucy responds. "He's very efficient in getting things done.
"He totally is." Then she chuckles. "He's like the opposite of Natsu!"
Both girls laugh.
Grandeeney and an unfamiliar man round the corner and approach the family room. More on the tall side of things, he has long, wavy dark locks and dark eyes. He is wearing a green vest, black pants, and black boots.
The man smiles when she sees Lucy. "Hello, hello, Miss Lucy! My name is Sagittarius, and I'm here to take you to your apartment!"
After gently removing Happy from her lap, she stands up. "Thank you for doing this for me."
"Not a problem at all!" Sagittarius assures her. "Just doing my job!"
Lucy looks back at Wendy to wave goodbye. "Thanks for keeping me company."
Wendy holds Carla when she stands up. "It was fun." A thought occurs to her. "Oh, text me when you get home, all right? That way I can let Natsu know."
"I'll be sure to do that," Lucy says, and looks at Grandeeney. "Thanks again."
She smiles. "You're always welcome here. You know that."
"It's a great thing to know." Lucy finally faces Sagittarius who will take her home. "Shall we go?"
He gestures for Lucy to go ahead first. "After you!"
A/N Part 1: Woo, I finally introduced another Celestial Spirit :D Yay for Sagittarius! Also, a special thank you to MarSofTheGalaxies for giving me the French translation of that song! You rock!
A/N Part 2: If y'all could PM pucksabrinadaphne on FFnet to place your vote for Cute as Fuck as The Favorite Fairy Tail Fanfiction 2016 story, that would be wonderful :D And a huge thank to those of you who already have :D CAF is in Primary Round, but I'm curious to see how far it can go!
A/N Part 3: Thank you to all for the birthday wishes! A friend from Tumblr with the username of tobethefairybest even made me art and it's super awesome (smiling Natsu is always great to see)! I had a blast on my mini vacation with my friends :D It was great to relax and not worry about updating, even if I did sneak writing a little on my phone :P THANKS AGAIN! Y'ALL ARE THE BEST! :D
Guest: Gah, thank you! But more to come for NaLu! And I'm eager to get to the next arc when the Dragneels will be traveling!
Fairy Tail Lover: Aww, thank you! :D
Guest: Thank you! And I totally did have a wonderful birthday of happiness, rainbows, and kittens! :D
Phoenix Deity: Pffft, as if Natsu would break up with Lucy :P Not gonna happen with him! Haha, you're welcome! Understanding my readers is greaaaat! And I thought that phone call between Natsu and Wendy was funny XD And I'll totally remember my birthday :D Pictures and all!
TigerArrowgirl: Well, when Natsu leaves, it'll be the longest NaLu has been apart since they started dating :P Neither will like it!
Galeshipper18: Aww, thank you so much! Uh, I'll hafta see about a scene like that. I'm not sure though! And I'm just excited to see how far CAF might make it! There are tons of other great works in the running for sure :D
Anon: Pffft, like Natsu would break up with Lucy… Nanny Capricorn and Nanny Natsu are all one needs in life XD Oh, and that tiara!
Anon: I doubt CAF will turn into a work like that XD Nanny Capricorn is greaaaat! And thank you :D
