Chapter 42

Before going out, Lucy is putting on the final touches to her makeup look. The rest of her is all ready to go. The dress she has on is strapless, being two different colors. The top half is a dark mint color while the creamy napkin skirt is textured with dots. Her hair is pulled back into a cute messy bun.

"You almost ready to go?" Natsu whines from where he is sprawled across the bed. He has been ready and is still waiting for her. He is wearing a short sleeve, black button-up, grey jeans, and white shoes. He is going for more comfort than fashion in his look.

Now finished, Lucy puts away her mascara and steps into view. "I'm all ready!"

He quickly sits up and looks at her, smiling because of how great she looks. Then he tilts his head to one side, smiling fading away. "Wait, you're all ready?"

"Yes. So now we can get going." Although, she does have to grab her purse, but that does not count.

"Really? You don't think you're missing anything… ?" As a hint, Natsu points down at her feet.

She looks down, discovering that she is not wearing any shoes. "Oh. Whoops."

"I didn't know bare feet was in this season," Natsu chuckles in a teasing tone.

"Hey, it's still summer," she points out, walking over to her suitcase to fetch shoes. She picks a pair of cute sandals to match her dress.

"'Tis the season for bare feet," Natsu says in a sing-song voice that is eerily similar to a popular Christmas song.

She does not bother to look at him while she puts on her other shoe. "I'm not continuing that…"

So Natsu does it himself. "Fa la la la la, la la la la!"

She groans. "I can't take you anywhere."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure I'm the one taking you places this vacation," he points out.

He does have a point.

With purse over her right shoulder, Lucy is officially ready to go. "Waiting on you, Dorkneel."

So Natsu hops off the bed, sticks the landing, and holds his arms above his head as he poses.

"Ten out of ten… don't do that again," Lucy jokes.

"You're just jelly since you can't do something amazing like that," he huffs.

"Jelly?" she snorts.

"Yeah, jelly." Natsu stands in front of her, a grin on his lips. "You look beautiful by the way."

Pink tints her cheeks a little bit. "Th-thanks."

"Did you just get flustered?"

"No," Lucy denies all too quickly.

"Aww, I still can get to you."

"You always do…" she mumbles, avoiding eye contact.

His smile softens. "You still get to me, Luce. Every day. Every time. Always."

Butterflies. He still gives her butterflies. Sometimes even hurricanes of butterflies. "Well, we better get going before you get any sappier."

"Aye, sir!"

x-X-x

Since Lucy and Natsu both want to try a new place, they are inside one of the restaurants the hotel has to offer. They are seated in a booth across from the other, waiting on their food to arrive.

"How can you struggle with writing?" Natsu asks. "You're an author. You've published things before. Three separate works!"

Lucy starts talking about her process. "I'm struggling because I have to stick with an idea. Just one idea. You know me, I start one idea to get it out of my system. I build it up for a bit. Then I go to another story and work on it. I keep doing that for multiple stories."

"So you never get just one done," he reasons.

She nods. "Exactly."

"Do you want me to help?" he offers.

She blinks. "Huh?"

"I mean, I'm no writer, but maybe I can help you narrow down your works."

She smiles at this thoughtfulness.

"So what stories are you struggling with?"

"Two Idiots and a Blonde is nonfiction and modern times. Amanda is the main character, and she lives with Brantley and Corwin in a house. The trio, mostly the guys, makes vines, but Amanda is in them. They all have separate jobs, too. It'll mostly follow their lives and how they all get along."

"Uh, what genre would that be? Angst?"

"I doubt that I could ever do a good, pure angst… But that work will be humor and normal things in general. And some romance, but things happen naturally. Not forced."

"What else you got?"

"I'm calling it Cam for now unless I come up with something better. It's entirely fiction with some other world where these demons, but not demon demons, exist. I want to create creatures just for it that are maybe based on negative things. Like, as long as evils in the world exist, they exist. So certain trained humans, think of military, have to fight against them when the not-demons break out of their realm."

"Sounds action based."

"Cam is the main character and she's a Tainard. Now, she's not the only Tainard in existence, but she's different because of–"

"Tainard?" Natsu interrupts, not meaning to be rude. He is lost and unfamiliar with that term.

"It's a combination of tainted and bastard. Humans came up with the term, and Tainards are humans that have been infected by the not-demons. By their blood. The not-demons like causing trouble and it can cause trouble for some humans."

"This has a totally different vibe from the other work you mentioned with the idiots and blonde…"

"I still like both of those ideas. Oh, and Asher is different from those two. And like Cam, I'm calling it Asher for now."

"Lemme guess, Asher is the main character."

Lucy nods. "Magic will be involved, but I'm debating if it'll be, like, this world, but magic is a secret. Well, it's not a secret to those who can use it. Anyways, Asher can use magic, but hers has a twist. She's mute and can't cast spells, but she has a trick up her sleeve. Er, sleeves. She has tattoos along her arms of different things, from animals to objects to elements. She can bring them to life by focusing. On the other hand, her younger twin, Jesse, and can't use any magic."

"So what are their lives about?"

"I want there to be some magic syndicate that has records of Asher because of her peculiar magic. It falls into the wrong hands, and the group of bad guys now wants Asher. They want to use her in order to accomplish their goals. Maybe it's world domination. I don't know. But they want her because she can create anything." She thinks about the twins. "There are some secrets along the way, but I don't want to spoil anything now."

"So that'll be some action and adventure I'm guessing."

"Probably. Jesse has a boyfriend, but I don't know if Asher will have a love interest. Not everyone needs a love interest to be happy, you know?"

Natsu is completely blown away. Well, he is always in awe by Lucy. She can come up with universes in her head and bring them to life through her writings. That has to be magic in and of itself. And he knows that she is sharing a part of herself each time that she talks about her works in progress. "You're amazing. I really hope you know that."

She blushes a little. "I try…"

"I hope our kids take after you and your creativity," he comments, and then winks. "And looks."

"N-Natsu!"

He reaches across the table to take her left hand with his right. "Hey, I can't help it. I just love you so much. Sooo much."

She smiles. "I love you, too."

Their waiter swings by their table with plates in hand and distributes them to their rightful owner. "I'll be back to check on you two in a bit."

Natsu is already digging in, so Lucy acknowledges the waiter. "Thank you."

With a quick nod, he walks away to tend to other tables.

"Oh, were there any other works you were thinking about?" Natsu asks after he swallows his bite. He got distracted by food and did not mean to lose focus on the matter at hand.

Lucy thinks for a moment. "Those are the big three for now. There are other works, but they aren't in my top faves."

"Going off of whatcha said, I think Cam is more up my alley. But that's just me. You hafta think about the audience you wanna go after."

"That's always a thing to consider."

"I think the Two Idiots and a Blonde might appeal to more people compared to the other two."

She nods. "I think that, too."

Natsu points his fork that has spaghetti twirled around it at her. "But the choice is up to you."

"I'm sure one of them will jump out at me. In the meantime, I guess I can keep working on all three until one sticks out more than the others."

"You can do it, Luce. I believe in you."


A/N: This chapter was closing in on 2k words so I decided to break it up. The rest will be in the next chapter :P The three works Lucy talked about our mine (some of y'all might know about the first one mentioned). And I had that moment with my fiancé: Talking about my different works, figuring which one to work with, and he's just staring at me. He wishes that he could be creative like me. Likewise, I wish I could do math as well as him XD


TigerArrowgirl: That seemed like a total NaLu moment to happen with that kiss XD

LittleFoxMinx: I wish it appeared in my works: I love it!

Kura-chan13: Aye, sir!

plue and happy: Aww, thank you! I liked that kiss, too!

Anon: Sure, superpowers. Let's go with that :P Pfft, going down with fluff is a good way to go XD And thanks for reading!

Guest: Omg, you shouldn't be reading if you think you're gonna get caught! Pay attention and read later :P I think the only reason that I don't finish this work is if I die (seriously). Plus, I'm stubborn and like seeing things through until the end!

Fairy Tail Lover: Woooooooooooooo :D

Unova03: Oh, more NaLu for sure :D Count on that!