Chapter 40
In the more than spacious indoor water park of the hotel, Lucy and Natsu have claimed a table as their own. The smell of chlorine is everywhere, and people seem to be having a lot of fun with what they are doing. The two tallest slides are tube-only rides while the remaining ones are body slides. The lazy river has people merrily floating with the flow in tubes while others are simply wading through. When it comes to the wave pool, there is not a tube in sight for safety reasons. The kiddie section holds no interest for Lucy at all, but Natsu is itching to try out the racing area with sturdy floaties anchored into the ground to hop across. Of course, there is much more!
"Where should we start first?" Lucy asks as she kicks off her flip-flops.
"Wherever you wanna go first," Natsu replies, stripping off his plain white tee.
Now it is Lucy's turn to admire his body. He is only wearing his orange trunks that have black flames outlined in yellow along the bottom of the left leg. Of course, they are fire-related. And, of course, he makes them look good.
The duo is also wearing white bands around their wrists with the hotel's logo on them. Other guests have them as well to indicate they are staying and to give them access to the water park.
"Well, the heated whirlpool does look nice…" Lucy comments, looking away from her boyfriend before he can catch her staring at him.
"Yeah, but there's one in our room," he points out. "One we don't hafta share with other people."
She does agree with his logic. "So what then?"
They receive an answer when wolves start howling, indicating the wave pool will be starting up.
Natsu's eyes light up and he grabs Lucy's right hand with his left hand. "C'mon, we're going to the wave pool!"
She smiles because he is smiling. "All right!"
The water in the wave pool has a pleasant temperature to it. Two little kids chasing one another splash the couple as they race into the deeper water. The waves are already building up in the deeper end and washing onto the shore where some people are lying down.
"Let's go, Luce!" Natsu encourages, the water coming up to their waists now.
"I'm coming," she laughs, keeping up with him. He is acting like a child right now since he is eager to be where the bigger waves are. He just wants to have some fun. After all, things are always more fun when they are together.
By now, the duo is in the deep end. Natsu does not have a trouble standing even with the waves, but Lucy has to really jump to keep herself above them. She does not mind doing it though since it is kind of fun.
The wave pushes back the man in front of Lucy, and she lets go of Natsu's hand so she can move back as well. She does not want to get hit by him, even if it is an accident. She still jumps to keep her head above the wave when it goes by.
"Lucy!" an unfamiliar voice calls.
Lucy looks over to where she heard the voice. Only now does she realize that she is probably not the only Lucy in the wave pool and someone was calling their friend, not her. When she looks back in front of her, the next wave is already inches away from her face.
Going through the wave, she clamps her eyes shut and holds what breath she has as she is pushed back. She scrambles for the surface to breathe and get back to Natsu. Through blurry vision because of the water, Lucy spots a familiar shade of pink hair. She moves towards him and wraps her arms around his neck while her legs go around his waist. Something feels off, but that might be because she needs to catch her breath.
"And hello to you, too," a voice that does not belong to Natsu chuckles.
Lucy jerks her head up to make the unpleasant discovery that she is looking up at some stranger. His hair is dyed pink and is a bit shorter than how Natsu has his.
The guy shoots her a grin. "Hey."
Her face heats up from embarrassment. She is clinging onto some guy that is not her boyfriend! "S-sorry!" she stutters. "I'm sorry!"
"Don't be sorry. Not every day a beautiful girl washes into my arms." Not being low enough to go over a line, the guy puts his arms around her and locks his fingers together behind her for support. He then jumps a little so the incoming wave does not hit Lucy in the face. "Are you okay though?"
"Fine." She is doing much better now that she has caught her breath.
The guy is moving back so the waves can be less of a threat, but he is unknowingly moving away from Natsu. "That's good," he comments.
"Luce!" Natsu calls out, looking around for her. He is looking for her blonde hair through the water in case she is underneath it as well as above it. "Luce!"
She spots him first. "Natsu!"
His eyes lock onto her and a look of relief washes over his face. But when he notices the guy she is with, his eyes narrow. Natsu wastes no time in making his way over to them, going around people in his way.
"Oh, are you here with him?" the guy asks even though he is more than sure that she is.
"He's my boyfriend," she replies to clarify their relationship. That way, he can know that she is taken and has no interest in looking for something else.
Natsu holds his arms out to take Lucy. "Are you okay?" He sounds worried, but there is also something else in his voice. He is gearing up to be protective of her.
She leans away from the guy to transfer herself over to Natsu, clinging onto him now.
The guy looks at Natsu. "You better take better care of her before she's snatched up by somebody else." It is supposed to sound partly innocent, but a threat is clearly hidden in there.
"Not gonna happen," he growls, no longer enjoying being in the wave pool. He starts heading for the shore.
Since she is facing him from her position, the guy waves a little at Lucy.
She blatantly ignores him in order to focusing on her boyfriend instead. She pulls her head back to look at his face. "Natsu?" Lucy questions.
"I'm bored here. We're doing something else." He clearly does not want to be around that guy anymore.
"So what are we going to do now?" Lucy muses.
"Water slide?"
"I'd like that."
Once the water reaches Natsu's shins, he puts Lucy down so she can stand on her own. "Are you sure that you're okay?" he asks. "What happened after you let go of my hand?"
She nods. "Someone had called out my name so I looked around for them, but they meant another Lucy. Next thing I know, there was a wave right in front of me. I go under and when I surfaced, I couldn't see all that well. I saw pink hair and naturally thought that it was you…"
Natsu runs a hand through his own wet locks. "Yeah, I guess that's a thing. His color is similar to mine, too."
She bumps her right shoulder into him. "But he's no you."
He grins. "I doubt anybody could be me."
After their hands brush against the other, Lucy laces their fingers together. She gives him a reassuring squeeze. "Oh, trust me. That's not possible."
Natsu leans over to smooch the side of her head. "I love you, Luce."
"I love you, too."
x-X-x
Lucy is currently relaxing on a chair while Natsu is getting them drinks. They have been doing water-related activities from slides to the lazy river nonstop so this break is well deserved. Although, this break could be even better with a good book. Oh, or even something for her to write with!
"Hey, it's you," a voice says.
Lucy looks over to see the guy from earlier. Whatever little relaxed smile she has disappears in an instant.
"Luce, right?"
"Lucy," she corrects without hesitation.
"Oh, I thought I heard your boyfriend call you Luce–"
"He's the only one allowed to call me that," she interrupts, not caring if she is being rude. Then she closes her eyes to show that she does not want to talk with him anymore.
"You look familiar by the way," the guy comments.
She does not bother to peek an eye open. "I doubt it."
"Really? Because I think you look like my next girlfriend."
Lucy shows no sign that she heard him. She can only hope that he will go away soon enough when he finally realizes that she has no interest in him.
"Name's Nathan by the way."
She yawns to show her disinterest about him.
However, he is determined. "Do you think that we should swap numbers just in case–"
"No," Natsu answers for her as he approaches the two, drinks in hand.
Lucy opens her eyes and smiles at her boyfriend. "Natsu!" she says in an overly cheerful manner.
He purposely squeezes past Nathan, barely brushing against him, in order to stand by Lucy. He bends at his waist, holding out her carbonated drink and smooching the top of her head. "A dragon always protects his princess."
"Uh, don't you mean knight in shining armor?" Nathan asks.
In order to be intimidating, Natsu glares at him. "No. Dragon."
"A vicious dragon that always protects his princess in her time of need," Lucy adds before casually sipping her drink.
Nathan stands his ground even though he appears slightly intimidated. "Is that so?"
"And if you thought the dragon is bad when mad, you should see the princess," Natsu comments, taking his seat right next to Lucy. "When the princess is pissed off it ain't a pretty sight."
Nathan moves his gaze away from Natsu to look at Lucy.
She smiles up at him, but there is something dark behind her smile. "He's right."
Taking a step back, Nathan gulps. "Maybe we'll talk again later." Then he retreats, tail between his legs.
Natsu cracks up once Nathan is out of range. "We mighta been a bit too mean, but so worth it!"
Lucy holds out her cup. "Totally."
Natsu clinks their drinks together.
A/N Part 1: CHAPTER 40. THIS SUPPOSED TO BE ONE-SHOT CONTINUED BECAUSE Y'ALL WANTED MORE. WOO. Anyways, I wanna thank each of you for the attention CAF has received so far! I still have more planned for it :D
A/N Part 2: For those who don't know, I posted my first Gruvia work last week and it's called Open Your Eyes. It's comfort/good feels based, and inspired from FT's Ch 499. I just posted a sequel called Open Your Heart which is rated M for certain smutty reasons. I told myself I'd make a second part if it reached a certain number of notes on Tumblr. It did. Open Your Heart isn't Ink & Icing, but I considered it practice for writing it!
Kura-chan13: Thanks :D
Anon: I'm eager to read Chapter 501 :D But I'm happy you enjoyed the previous chapter of CAF! It was fun! And more fluff to come :D
Guest: I think because appendicitis is a valid thing if you want it to happen to a character. I know I've used it before with Lucy. And I went through the ordeal myself years ago. In this case, I needed Lucy to have a scar in that area!
Fairy Tail Lover: Yesss fluff is great :D And more to come for sure!
