Chapter 45

Lucy is unaware of how much time has passed. Maybe it has been more than ten minutes since she last saw Natsu. Maybe it has even been more. She cannot check her phone for the time because it is in her bookbag which Natsu has. Which also means that she cannot contact him. Well, she can try asking a stranger to borrow their phone, but in her current state, she cannot recall the correct sequence of numbers.

She cannot understand why he left without waiting for her to return. Well, unless something came up. But what could possibly happen to make Natsu leave? Lucy is conflicted with waiting for him and going out to look for him. If she tries searching him, she is not even sure where to begin. If she waits some more, there is a chance for him to come back since they agreed to meet back here.

Passing some time, Lucy watches all of the people around her in hopes that she may spot a familiar face. She sees couples and groups of friends. It is like she is seeing everyone, but the one person she is looking for her.

"What if something happened to him…?" she murmurs to herself.

Lucy highly doubts that Natsu went looking for trouble, but sometimes trouble has a way of finding him. She abruptly stands up when she starts hearing a familiar voice calling her name as they get closer and closer. She looks towards the voice until she spots the face it belongs to. "Natsu!" she shouts.

He is running towards Lucy, a Band-Aid on his left cheek. He seems worried, but the look on his face disappears when he finally sees her. "Luce!"

She meets him halfway so he does not have to run all of it. "Where have you been?"

"Long story short… I'm back!"

She is utterly confused. "Back? Back from where? And what happened to your face?"

"Tis but a scratch," he says, quoting one of his favorite movies. He considers it to be a classic.

She is not buying it at all.

"No seriously, it's just a scratch. A little one. I'm only wearing this"-he points at the Band-Aid-"because the lady insisted on it."

"Wait, what lady?"

"It's nothing to worry about," he assures her.

Lucy crosses her arms under her chest. "Story time. Talk."

So Natsu starts explaining things. "Some punk grabbed a lady's bag. She saw him and called him out. He ran so I chased after him since nobody else seemed to be helping out. Slight scuffle between us. Staff came and took care of him. The lady thanked me, but wouldn't lemme leave even though I told her I had to get back. I figured you were waiting for me. She kept saying she wanted to reward me and blah. I didn't want anything. So, being such a mom, she put the Band-Aid on before letting me go. Theeen the police wanted to talk to me and that seemed to take forever. And I couldn't text you what happened since I had your phone. That sucked for both of us I'm sure. Anyways, as soon as I was free to go, I ran back here. And now we're here."

Lucy manages to take everything in. It seems that she had been right about him being in trouble even if he did handle it.

His face softens. "Sorry 'bout all that."

"And you promise that you're all right?" she asks, seeing no sign of another form of injury from the scuffle.

He nods. "Totally fine. The scratch doesn't hurt or nothing."

Stepping forward to close the gap between them, Lucy hugs her boyfriend. She is starting to wonder what she did to deserve someone like him. "I'm glad that everything turned out all right in the end."

He hugs her back. "Me, too."

When they break apart, Lucy wants their fun to continue. "So are you up for more rides?"

Natsu grins. "I'm all fired up!"

x-X-x

They are now eating lunch at a small table, planning on going to the water park portion afterwards. The hot sun is great, but they want to cool off a little bit with water. Lucy is busy munching on the rest of her fries while Natsu is still eating. Of course, he ordered more than her due to his appetite. Even now, Lucy cannot figure out where all of it goes. She can only assume that he exercises to work it off due to his physique.

"So is there anything specific you wanna do at the water park?" Natsu asks after he swallows his bite of burger.

"I've never been there before so I'm not entirely sure," she replies. "Whatever is fun I guess."

"Well, think of the hotel we're at. Do you like the wave pool? Body slides or tube slides? Like, if you wanna do over the other, that's cool."

"What's your favorite ride there?"

He grins. "Boogie boarding."

"Wait, what? How can you do that at a water park?"

"They have two different ones. One's good for getting better and doing the bigger one. Anyways, they both stimulate the conditions to boogie board. One of 'em is just a narrow strip for you to ride on for as long as you can. Can't do much else. The other one, my favorite, has a lotta space for you to do tricks and stuff."

"What tricks can you do? I mean, besides wiping out."

He sticks his tongue out her for his comment. "Not many. I can be on my knees. About it."

"I'll stick to being on my stomach."

"Hey, girls pick it up faster than guys."

She perks up a little. "Really?"

He nods. "Yeah. For some reason."

"How do you know that?"

"Last time I was here doing it, a group of dudes from down south were there. They even had their own boogie boards to use since they're so into it. Some of 'em taught me some tricks and tips. They mentioned girls pick it up faster, too."

"That seems neat."

"It was a ton of fun hanging out with 'em." He chuckles a little bit. "I got horribly burned, but worth it."

"How about we try avoiding that? You don't need to be burned for Paris."

"Oui!" he agrees in French.

Lucy smiles a little. "Je t'aime."

He smiles from ear to ear, loving it whenever speaks the little French that she does know. "Je t'aime tellement."

She is pretty sure that she knows what he just told her. "You love me so much?"

He only nods.

She totally pats herself on the back. Her lessons will eventually pay off. Perhaps there will come a day where she can Natsu can have a full conversation in French! "I have to get better at my accent. We don't sound the same when we talk."

"I've been doing this since I was adopted so I've got a couple years on you." He truly does appreciate her efforts into learning the language that his a second nature to him. In fact, he appreciates just about everything about his Luce.

"Just a couple," she teases.

"Only a couple," he chuckles.

"Now hurry up and eat your burger. I want to try out that boogie board ride." She is somewhat eager to try it out since it is something new.

"Aye, sir!" So Natsu keeps munching away and starts choking when he tries to swallow.

Lucy holds out his drink for him. "I meant without choking!"

He waves a hand, signaling he does not need his soda to help his current condition. "I'll"-he coughs a little-"be fine." Then he hits just below his collarbone with a fist to help. "Just fine."

She is totally dubious. "I don't want you die."

"Not ever?"

"Not now," she sasses. "Besides, immortality doesn't seem like the best thing ever. Imagine watching your friends and family just come and go, but you stay the same. You won't die like them."

He blinks. "Wow. Like, that got deep pretty fast."

"Sorry. Immortality was in the last book I read."

"Pfft, who reads for fun?"

She arches an eyebrow at him. "Natsu, I write books for fun and as my job," she reminds me.

"Well, that's because you're a weirdo."

"Look who's talking."

Natsu picks up fry and points it at her. "Hey!"

Seizing the opportunity, she leans forward enough to snatch away the fry with her mouth. "Hay is for horses."

He looks down at his empty hand. "But that was my fry!"

"You shouldn't have offered it for me to eat." And before he can snatch one of her fries to even the score, Lucy pulls her cardboard basket closer towards her.

"You better not lower your guard because I'll pay you back for the crime you committed against me."

"Crime?" she laughs. "As if."

"Don't say I didn't warn you…" In the end, Natsu will probably not do anything to exact his revenge. The anticipation of him doing something might just be enough to mess with Lucy. He still loves her though.

"If you don't hurry up and finish, I'll just go without you…" she teases.

That is enough to spur Natsu into eating faster without choking. As if he will let his bikini clad girlfriend, who could possibly be a model if she wants to, go out on her own without him around to protect her! He will be damned if he cannot his princess since he is her loyal dragon!


A/N Part 1: I'm baaack! Surgery went well, except for one tooth that was mighty stubborn in coming out :P I had chipmunk cheeks for days and didn't let my fiancé visit me until after the swelling went down quite a bit XD I'm still recovering even now, but I'm muuuch better off than before :D

A/N Part 2: I'll also be posting a new one-shot after this chapter! Featuring NaLu (of course)! More funny and general things than anything else. Calling it Talk Harry Potter To Me.


Guest: Yeah, it wasn't until AFTER I posted the chapter when I recalled that ride doesn't have any photos. But I was lazy for once and haven't changed it…

TigerArrowgirl: Hey, but Natsu at least had a good reason to keep waiting Lucy waiting. Kinda XD

Fairy Tail Lover: Yay for being able to relate to a character XD And I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter!

Anon: I love NaLu since I can relate to it with my fiancé! He and Natsu have some similar traits much like me and Lucy. But I'm not as whiney as she was at the start of FT haha But yes, the fluff is totally real in this work! Just the way I like it!