Chapter 12
Strolling slowly the alleyways of the grocery, Natsu curiously watches Lucy tapping her finger to her chin while keeping her attention to the stalls they were passing by. He couldn't fully understand what Lucy was doing besides from the fact that she was buying goods he didn't know Lucy needed. As he continues to push the cart and follow Lucy behind, he suddenly snaps out of his thoughts when he hears the blonde say, "What do you prefer, beef steak or sweet and sour pork?" Lucy then turns to face him and then stop at her spot
Tilting his head in confusion, Natsu stood up straight and asks back instead of answering, "Does it really matter what I prefer?"
"Yeah," Lucy then furrows her brow at the man as she continues, "Why do you have that tone with me?"
"What tone?" Natsu suddenly stiffens as if he was being reprimanded
"That tone," Lucy points out before she crosses her arms over her chest, "Like your annoyed and bored,"
"No, I'm not…" Natsu denies, which only made Lucy raise her brows even more and look at him skeptically, "Alright fine. So answer my question now,"
"What question?" Natsu confusingly asks and this made Lucy groan in annoyance. As Lucy rolls her eyes and turns away from him, she mumbles to herself, "Why have I thought of cooking some meal for you when you're going to be this annoying?"
As Natsu hears the word 'meal', his eyes began to sparkle and thought of a delicious food, then instantly he remembers the question of the blonde. So running up to the woman, Natsu quickly clarifies and asks, "Did I hear it right? You plan to cook some meal for me?"
Glaring at the man next to her, Lucy kept her mouth shut as she tries to think if she was going to answer the pinkette, whom she has considered annoying and childish. When Natsu began to do his cute puppy eyes, she nearly choked on her own spit. So quickly looking away, she puffed and said, "Well, I changed my mind!"
"What?! No!" Natsu then stops pushing the cart and ran in front of her and took her hands, "Please…I'd be honored to have a meal made by the famous Lucy Heartfilia" Natsu then grins at Lucy who couldn't help but feel her cheeks blush. As they stayed longer like that, Lucy began to feel her heart pump faster and so she pulls her hand away as she side steps and walks away saying, "I'm Lucy Ashley, remember?"
"Alright, Lucy Ashley," Natsu said then he attempts to run after the blonde but remembers the cart and runs back for it and quickly pushes it.
When he finally caught up to the blonde, he was about to plead once again to the blonde when suddenly his name was called, making him stop from his stride. As he turns around to face the person who has called him, Lucy turns as well to look at the person. The two sees a middle-aged woman walking towards them, caring a handbag in her arm and a smile plastered on her face.
"Hi Natsu," the woman greets again as she finally stood before the pink-haired president
"Hello...Mrs. Kuhuwara," Natsu then slowly bows his head in respect but his face showed confusion and surprise to see the older woman. When he lifts his head, he curiously asks her, "What are you doing here Mrs. Kuhuwara?"
"Shopping, what else?" The middle-aged woman then began to laugh while covering her lips with her hand
"I see..." Natsu then looked at the blonde who was confused about what was happening. As Lucy mentally asks the pinkette what was with the sudden greeting, Natsu just shook his head for he, himself, doesn't even understand why he's seeing and talking with Mrs. Kuhuwara, "Um...Are you grocery shopping as well? Because Luce and I are actually in the middle of shopping for ourselves,"
"Ahh," Mrs. Kuhuawara then looked at Lucy and let her eyes run over her form, making the blonde uncomfortable with the sudden attention.
With the way the elder woman was looking at her, Lucy unconsciously pulls down her shorts as if it would make her shorts look longer. She couldn't help but feel conscious with the way Mrs. Kuhuwara was looking at her. So, when she couldn't handle the unnerving stare, Lucy looked away and took a step to start hiding behind Natsu's back. Seeing Lucy stepped behind him, Natsu quickly cleared his throat to catch the attention of the black-haired middle-aged woman.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Mrs. Kuhuwara?" Natsu then took a step forward to ensure that the attention of the woman was on him and that Lucy wouldn't be disturbed anymore
"Well..." Mrs. Kuhuwara then leans to the side to get a glimpse of the blonde woman, who instantly screeches when she saw the woman peeked at Natsu's side, "I just wanted to see the woman whom you chose over my daughter,"
With that being said, Natsu and Lucy's brow began to rise and looked at the woman skeptically, wondering if Mrs. Kuhuwara was looking for a fight.
"I believe your daughter and I had only one date, which was not successful due to our opposite likes," Natsu then turns to stand next to the blonde and wrap his arm around the blonde woman's shoulder
"My daughter is very adorable and sweet. I don't see anything bad about that. So, I wonder," Mrs. Kuhuwara then looked at Lucy once again from head to toe, "If your choices of women are the frisky one," Mrs. Kuhuwara then ends her gaze at the face of the blonde as if she was trying to demean the blonde actress
"Mrs. Kuhuwara," Lucy suddenly spoke, not an ounce liking the way she is being belittled, "I hope your not trying to look me down," Lucy then took a step forward, making Natsu nervous knowing that Mrs. Kuhuwara is an acquaintance of his parents and if Lucy challenged the woman, he'd be in big trouble
"I believe we haven't met properly yet," Lucy then extends her hand, which the middle-aged-woman just looked at, "I'm Lucy Heartfilia, daughter of Layla and Jude Heartfilia," she then witnesses the widening of the eyes of the woman, "Oh wait, maybe you're not familiar with them. My parents own the Heartfilia Konzern-"
"I know them!" The woman suddenly exclaims, shutting her eyes in annoyance while Lucy grinned in satisfaction after receiving the reaction she wanted. When Mrs. Kuhuwara opens her eyes once again but with a glare at the blonde, she attempts to retort back but was beaten by Natsu when he spoke, "Oh Mrs. Kuhuwara, we don't mean to be rude..." Natsu then gave a gentle smile but behind those smile, it was a smile of triumph after annoying the woman
"You," Mrs. Kuhuwara then points at the pinkette, "You'll regret dumping my daughter over this..." She then looked at the blonde, trying to come up with a mean insult while Lucy just gave a disinterested look at the woman, "Petty heiress turned into an actress!"
"I doubt that Mrs. Kuhuwara because if there is one thing Lucy have that your daughter doesn't, it's the guts to stand up against you," Natsu then grinned at the middle-aged woman before he takes the hand of the blonde and entwines their hand before walking away from the place.
Red hair sways as a scarlet-haired woman walks the corridor of the Belserion Security Agency building and as she walks the hallway she couldn't help but pull down her black pencil skirt a bit before she stops in front of a door that has a door plaque on it. Clearing her throat, the redhead brought her chin up before she starts to knock on the door.
Tok! Tok! Tok!
"Ms. Eileen Belserion," the red-head then pauses for a second before she continues, "It's me, Erza Scarlet"
"Come in," a feminine voice answers from the other side of the door, and there Erza opens the door to reveal a woman that looked nearly like her. As she enters the room, she held a professional stance with no expression on her face as she waited for the woman behind a desk to look up at her.
When Eileen looked up, she gave a good stare at the red-haired woman before she gave a small smile to her. Dropping her back to her chair, Eileen then crosses her arms over her chest, "So, what brings my daughter to my office?"
"I didn't come here as your daughter but as an employee," Erza sternly answers back before she took a step forward to place down the folder she has brought with her, "That is the file you have been asking me," then she steps back and stood up straight while she kept her eyes on the woman who is her boss and biological mother.
"Don't tell me that you were offended when I told the Dragneels that you are not my daughter," Eileen then grins when she saw her daughter flinch a bit yet the expression of her daughter was still hushed, "I see..." She then stood up and walked to her daughter, "No matter how much you try to forget the feeling of being abandoned by your mother, you still feel those desires to be loved by a mother,"
"And it will not be coming from you," Erza unnervingly replies before she steps back and bows her head, "I should be heading now, Ms. Belserion," and with that, she turns around to leave when suddenly she was called once again.
Not daring to turn and look at her mother, Erza just stops in her spot as she waited for her mother to speak up, "Mrs. Dragneel is requesting an undercover investigator,"
With the mentioned name, Erza couldn't help but give attention to the topic so she slightly turns to give gesture that she was listening, and so, Eileen went on, "She wanted to know the background of this certain woman Natsu Dragneel is dating,"
And with that, Erza finally looks at the other scarlet-haired woman, with a confused expression, "Natsu? Since when did he start dating?"
"Not my point of interest Ms. Scarlet so I don't know. I'm appointing you to do the task," Eileen then turns away to head back to her chair and continue what she was doing, leaving a younger red-haired woman in pure confusion
"But I can't," Erza declines, taking a step forward towards the desk of her boss, "I'm Natsu's friend,"
"So?" Eileen nonchalantly replies, "Oh come on Ms. Scarlet, I'm pretty sure you are capable of separating your personal life to your job,"
Erza then was silent as she looks down to her heels, which was killing her feet some time now. When she hears the older scarlet woman chuckle, she looked up with pure confusion on her face, "Why me?" She asks
"because things will be easier if Natsu knew nothing about being investigated," Eileen then smirks, "Also, a way for me to teach you backstabbing,"
"What?" Erza baffled asks, not sure if she would feel disgusted with her mother's words
"Leave," Eileen commands, but Erza couldn't move away from her spot as she still hoped to be given some explanation, "I said leave!" Eileen shouts as she slams her palm to her table, leaving Erza no choice but to take a step back and leave.
Once the door was closed, her mind began to run a mile as she thought of what she was tasked to do. She has to investigate Natsu once again. Just like the first time Natsu was in a real relationship, she was put into the task to know what Natsu and his ex-girlfriend used to do. The last time she was put in that situation, Natsu had hated her for meddling in things that she shouldn't have.
"I'm sorry, Natsu," mumbled Erza before she sighs and walks away from the office.
Natsu and Lucy continued to stroll around the supermarket despite the weird and unsuspected encounter with Mrs. Kuhuwara. When they walked out on the woman, the two had no idea where they were heading and they just knew that they had to leave.
When they left, Lucy barely noticed Natsu grabbed her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. So, when they knew that they were far enough from the annoying woman, she suddenly realized that her arm was swinging slightly. So, Lucy looked down to her hand and saw that her hand was entwined with Natsu, and quickly thought they were literally walking while holding hands.
Abruptly stopping from her tracks, Lucy suddenly stops Natsu from walking further, making the man stumble a bit backward. When Natsu composed himself, he threw a nasty look at the blonde as if to show his irritation from the sudden stop from walking. But the instant he saw the confused look of the blonde, his malicious look fades and confusion replaced.
"What?" Natsu shortly asks as his eyebrows rose in question
"Hand," Lucy replies
"What about the hand?" Natsu continues to ask back
Sighing in frustration, Lucy raised their entwined hands and said, "Hand,"
"Oh!" Natsu then pulls his hand away, dropping the hand of the blonde. When they were no longer holding hands, Lucy quickly walked away and continued her shopping for goods.
As Natsu watched Lucy walk away, he just sighs in defeat then pushes the cart forward. When he was able to catch up to the blonde, he began a small conversation, "You were badass back there," he states, making Lucy look back at him
"Excuse me?" Lucy said, almost sounding she was offended
"Hey, relax, it's a compliment..." Natsu then chuckles as he saw the blonde roll her eyes on him, "You were really tough awhile ago," He shortly adds
"Yeah right," Lucy scoffs as she recalls the incident
"No, it's true! I mean, Mrs. Kuhuwara was put into her place right when you spoke," Natsu then grins until Lucy looked back at him and chuckled at his face
"Would you please stop," Lucy warns but the man just chuckled back at her, "I was not trying to embarrass her. I was just giving my opinion,"
"Oh come on," Natsu then shoulder bumped the blonde who chuckled at his actions, "You were fiery out there. I'm Lucy Heartfilia! Daughter of Layla and Jude Heartfilia! Oh, wait! Maybe you're-" Natsu teases, repeating the words of the blonde with his big voice but then he was cut short when he was gently pushed by the blonde while she was laughing, "Stop!"
Lucy kept on laughing as she realized what she did back there. She really was trying to embarrass the woman. She thought, she should have felt guilty for being mean but the way Natsu was mimicking her, she couldn't help but laugh instead.
"You were badass," Natsu says again as he straightens his back while looking at the continuous laughing blonde. When he saw that Lucy was laughing harder, he suddenly stopped and grabbed the wrist of the actress, making her stop from walking. He hoped to calm the blonde once he held her wrist but it seemed like Lucy didn't notice that she was even stopped by him. When Lucy continued to laugh, people started to look at them and Natsu was sweatdropping for the awkward situation. So, trying to cover up the weirdness of the blonde, which Natsu have thought that he has confirmed Lucy was weird, he started laughing as well then took a step closer at the blonde and wrap his arms around her.
Right when Natsu hugged her, Lucy slowly calms down until her laughter dies. When it did, Lucy curiously questioned why Natsu was hugging her. So she mumbles to the shoulder of the man, "What are you doing?"
"Obviously, hugging you," Natsu whispers back to her neck
"Uh, yes, I know but why are you hugging me?" Lucy irritably questions, then tries to step out of the embrace but Natsu tightens his hold and pulled Lucy back to his chest, "What the-! Natsu, get off!" Lucy angrily whispers as she tries to push the man in his stomach
"Would you chill?" Natsu whispers back, not bothered at all by the push Lucy was making, "People were looking at you as if you were crazy,"
"What?" Lucy then pulls her head away from his chest and surprisingly looked at the pinkette
Before Natsu could answer the woman, a voice suddenly spoke, making him and Lucy turn their heads towards the person who spoke.
"Aww, you look so in love! I wish I have a honey to hug as well!" A woman, wearing a uniform of the market and an apron, exclaims, before hugging herself and imagines cuddling with someone else.
"Wha-!" Lucy then pushed Natsu away from her, stumbling a little as she tries to catch her composure, "He-he," Lucy points to Natsu, stuttering, but then Natsu beats her in finishing a sentence
"Oh, thank you, Miss! My girlfriend is really not the PDA type," Natsu then takes a step closer to Lucy and drapes his arm over her shoulder to pull her close. As Lucy was pulled close to Natsu, he quickly hugs her again with his hand on her head. When Natsu heard Lucy whine, he chuckles at the whiny woman, making him ruffle her hair and successfully annoy the blonde even more.
"Oh! Would you like to taste our Hungarian Sausage? Here's a sample!" The staff then leans her tray to the pinkette, offering her product. Natsu was so tempted to get half of the sample but when he felt Lucy was trying to push him again, he back out and shook her head while he laughed, "Haha, no thanks miss. My girlfriend is pretty much transforming into a mons-ow!" Natsu then yelps when he felt a painful pressure on his foot, despite wearing rubber shoes.
When he looked down at the blonde, he saw the glare Lucy was giving to him. So, quickly, he pushes the head of the blonde back to his chest and laughed as he stepped away further from the market employee.
While Natsu kept his hold to the blonde, he guided her as he turns away from the staff and pushes the cart along. When they were quite far enough, Natsu stops the cart again and looked down to the woman he was embracing.
"How's that?" Natsu asks with a grin on his lips while the blonde looked up at him with a death glare
"How's that?!" Lucy repeats with venom in her voice, as she pushes herself away from the pinkette, who just chuckled at her fury, "What were you thinking?!"
"Luce, hold your horses, will ya? I was just trying to protect our public image as a couple," Natsu then mischievously smiles at the huffing blonde, who later on puffs in annoyance and turns away from the man
"Hey!" Natsu chuckles first before he began to chase after the blonde. When he was walking next to the woman, he casually asks, "So, what are you planning to cook? Sweet and sour pork or beef steak?"
Lucy then stops in her tracks as she gawked at the man as if she has been insulted. Not getting the point of her surprise, Natsu questions, confusingly, "What did I say wrong?"
"What makes you think I will cook a meal for you?!" Lucy disbelievingly questions the man back but then Natsu was not taken aback at all because he saw one weak point in her argument
"I didn't say you'd cook the meal for me... I just asked what food you would be cooking," Natsu then smirked at the baffled lady
"Arrrgh!" Lucy growls before she sharply turns, making her golden hair slap the face of the man, who quickly backed away when nearly all of her hair tried to choke him. When recovered, he saw that Lucy was pushing the cart herself. So, Natsu chased the blonde once more
"Hey, wait up!" He calls but was still ignored until he walked next to her
"How about this..." Natsu starts yet Lucy didn't pay any attention to him as she continued to push the cart. So, Natsu grabbed the rails of the pushcart to help her but then Lucy pulled away and just walked with her arms crossed over her chest, "I'll cook for you the meal... What do you think?"
Natsu then waits for Lucy to speak up but then, she still ignored him. And so, Natsu took the matter in hand seriously. He stopped the cart and blocked the way of the blonde.
As Lucy side steps to get away from Natsu, the man just copies the step of the woman to continuously block her. So, the moment Lucy shifts from one side to another which Natsu does too, Lucy finally huffs in annoyance as a response.
"Natsu!" Lucy exclaims, making the pinkette grin
"Finally! You spoke!" Natsu joked before he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the cart, making the blonde stumble. When they were back to their cart, Lucy tugged her hand but not strong enough to free her hand from Natsu's hold
"What?!" Lucy bursts out along with a stomp of her foot
Instead of answering the angry blonde, Natsu gently taps the head of the blonde and watched the surprised look of the woman. Lucy was obviously trying to keep her anger obvious but the more Natsu patted her head, the more she was calming down.
"I'm sorry for anything I did that you didn't like," Natsu said, still patting the blonde locks of the woman. With his gentle voice, Lucy couldn't help but forgive him, but then again, Lucy didn't want to, so she looked away and pouted, "Whatever," she mutters, feeling her cheeks warming up when she realized Natsu was keeping his eyes on her with his gentle smile
"Good enough," Natsu then stopped tapping her head but instead let his hand run down her hair then to her shoulder, where he gave her a gentle squeeze, "Ready to go home? I think we have everything we need,"
"Really?" Lucy then looked at their cart and sees everything she needed for the meal she thought of cooking, "Oh," she sighs then Natsu grins
"Yosh! Let's go!" And with that, Natsu grabs the wrist of the blonde as he pushed the cart towards the cashier counter. When Lucy was walking along, he let go of her wrist and grin instead at the blonde, which Lucy returned with a warm smile.
"What?!" Levy loudly exclaims as she looks up at her computer and her hands became still over her keyboard
"Levy, why are you panicking? I'm just asking if it's true that Lucy is dating Natsu?" A sweet and calm voice spoke over the mobile phone of Levy, which made her look down at the gadget and furrow her brows as she thought about what to say, "I'm not panicking," She denies but the woman on the other line just scoffed at her and replied, "I know you, Levy,,"
"Oh yeah?" Levy challenged but quickly regretted it when the woman chuckled
"Yeah. I was the one who discovered first about your secret nights with Gajeel-"
"Mira! What was your question again?" Levy immediately cuts off the woman as she recalls that time back in college when the woman caught her coming out of Gajeel's apartment, wearing only his hoodie.
Laughing at the behavior of the young historian, Mira just chuckled to herself before asks again, "I was wondering if Lucy and Natsu are really a dating couple?"
Levy silently thank the heavens when Mira drops the embarrassing story of her love life, but then again, still cursed internally at the question thrown again to her, "Yeah, I guess?"
Hearing the woman groan, Levy couldn't help but cringe in her poor answer, so she quickly adds, "I mean, is it bad if Lucy is dating Natsu? Just look at Lucy, don't you think she looks in love?"
"Hmmm..." Mira, Lucy's manager, hums in thought, "If you would think about it, it is true... she does look more in love than she was before,"
And with that, Levy sighs in relief as she has finally escaped the lies she has to make. Snatching up the phone and turns off the loudspeaker, she quickly puts the mobile to her ear and speaks, "Mira, why is this topic a concern all of a sudden?"
"It's not really much of a concern. It's just that I've been told by Lucy's team that she's out in public flaunting her date," Mira then hums as she thinks and Levy waited for her to continue, "Natsu is not some typical guy a woman could date. It requires Lucy to tell her real name. More media would want a story about her,"
"Don't worry Mira, Lucy has handled that," Levy then relaxes to her chair as she crosses her legs, "In fact, Lucy has met Natsu's family"
"Really? Why didn't she tell me?" Mira questions, more to herself than to Levy, "I'm her manager and I know nothing of this,"
Levy's eyes then became wide as she realized that she might be revealing too much information to the manager of the blonde actress. So, internally cursing herself, Levy, agitated in her seat as she tries to counter back, "Umm…Mira," Levy suddenly calls as she stops herself from moving around
"Yeah?"
"Ummm…uhh…" Levy trails off as she couldn't think of anything to say to the white-haired manager
"Levy, is there something I need to know?" Mira's voice became quite serious and Levy couldn't help but be more nervous because she was not quite a good liar
"N-No-nothing!" Levy stutteringly exclaims as she holds her breath, "Um…you-you could…um, t-talk to Lucy…yeah, that would be good," Levy then internally cried as she was busted for such poor excuse and the way Mira replies, she knew she screwed up
"Huh," Mira sigh first before continuing, "I think there is something I need to know. Thanks, Levy!" and with that, the call ends making Levy frantic to call up the blonde to give her some warning.
"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" Levy panicky shouts as she fumbles with her mobile to call up the blonde.
Flashes of the camera were seen everywhere in the lobby as photographers and story-scoopers continuously bombard the front security to allow them to interview the blonde actress. The moment a paparazzi submitted a raw picture of Lucy and a shirtless man in her condo unit, to an entertainment news website, many of the news-scoopers went to the condominium building of the actress to get the story behind the photo. But unfortunately, security of the building has stopped the media in the lobby. Without knowing, Lucy and Natsu are on their way back to the condo towers as the media continued to plead or trick the security.
Lucy and Natsu were just entering the building when suddenly they heard loud commotion in front of them.
"So I'll be making you some swe-" Lucy suddenly stops talking as she and Natsu looked up at the huge crowd before them. At first, Lucy doesn't understand why there were many media at the lobby when she suddenly hears some paparazzi yell,
"Can we just know who the person went to Lucy's unit? Who is her visitor?!" A news-scooper asks as he shoves a recorder tape to the receptionist
"Can you just confirm if it's Dragneel upstairs?" Another media person questions despite being at the back of the media
"Is it Dragneel or De Leon?!" A third reporter asks, trying to get in front of the crowd
"Oh my god…" Lucy wearily states as she eyes all the frantic media trying to get a scoop. Feeling rattled with the way the media was crowding the poor receptionist and the security, Lucy couldn't help but step back, when suddenly she felt a warm hand hold her wrist. Looking down to her wrist, she sees Natsu holding it with concern in his eyes. Giving the man a confused look, she mentally asks what was he thinking until she realized what Natsu was trying to do. He was trying to help her escape.
When she and Natsu were taking a step back to exit the lobby, a mobile phone suddenly rang. With the loud ringtone, Lucy suddenly looked down to her other hand and sees her phone was blowing up. Eyes turning wide, Lucy frantically looked at her phone and sees Levy was calling but she decided to drop the call. When her finger couldn't turn down the call, she panicking looked back at the media crowd who were slowly turning their heads towards her direction.
Seeing the blonde actress, the whole attention of the media became hype, until one of them shouted, "It's Ashley!" Then they all ran towards the actress, making the security personnel curse out and try to outrun the media to protect the actress.
The moment Lucy saw the crowd running towards her, she unconsciously steps back but then she was tugged forward by Natsu. Unsure of what to do she just let the man lead her and all she knew was that they were heading for the back exit door of the building.
"Ms. Ashley!" A media shouts trying to chase the actress
"Lucy! Wait! We need your statement!" Another media exclaims
"Just a short message!" Third media yells trying to catch up to the other media people running after the actress
With the continuous pleas of the media, Lucy couldn't help but shriek in frustration as she and Natsu descend the stairs, heading towards the underground parking lot. After her frustrated shout, Natsu let Lucy run down first while making sure she wasn't going to trip.
"Luce, just keep running!" Natsu instructs Lucy, as he lifts his arms to cover his head from the flashes of cameras that the paparazzi uses while trying to chase them
"Where do I go?!" Lucy shouts back
"Just head for the underground!" Natsu loudly replies back
As the two chased after showbiz personalities continued to run down the stairs, Lucy finally found the door for the underground parking. The instant Lucy opened it, a few media were on stand by waiting for them, and so Natsu quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her into another sprint.
As they ran, Natsu hurriedly pulls Lucy towards his red ford mustang. Automatically unlocking the doors to his car, Natsu instructed Lucy to enter the passenger side while he quickly throws the grocery bags at the back. When he was able to enter the car, he immediately starts the vehicle and soon speeds away while media tries to chase the car and steal some images of them together.
When Natsu was driving away, Lucy turns around and looks back at the left out, tired, and disappointed media. The actress began to smile and happily cheers, "We did it!" She exclaims as she grasps the shoulder of the pinkette and looked at him with glee in her eyes
Looking back at Lucy, Natsu also had a smile on his face when he replied, "Yeah we did...I can't believe I just ran away from media like that..."
"Well, get used to it..." Lucy said as she finally faces the road, relaxing her back, and sighs in content
"Why?" Natsu questions, giving a quick glance at the blonde
"Because, if you are dating a celebrity, expect media to be watching your back all the time..." Lucy then turns her head and smiled at the man, "And since you're not just any guy, expect media to be more inquisitive about you,"
"Huh..." Natsu exhales then soon he began to chuckle, "And they all think our relationship is for real,"
"Yeah...they can be hopeless for a scoop," Lucy then chuckles as Natsu follows after.
The drive went on silently but the two were comfortable with it. It took them 15 minutes before one of them began to start a conversation again.
"I thought you were jogging this morning?" Lucy suddenly questions, breaking the comfortable silence between them, as she looks at the man driving
"I was," Natsu simply replies, not bothering to look back at the blonde
"Then how come you have a car in the underground parking lot?" Lucy finally sat up and looked at the pinkette with more curiosity in her eyes
"Obviously, I drove it to your condo building," Natsu answers but when silence greeted him after, he looked at the blonde and saw the confusion on her face, "Luce, I drove my car going to the park then I did my morning jog. When I finished, I was planning to drive back home when you suddenly called me. So, from the park, I drove to your place,"
"Ahhh..." Lucy then nods as she looks away and took notice of the new neighborhood they have just entered, "Wait, where are we?" Lucy immediately looked back at the pinkette
"Welcome to my neighborhood," Natsu states with a smile on his face before he looks at Lucy and saw her curiously taking in all the new view.
After they turn to the second corner, Natsu slowly drove down to an underground garage, which surprised the blonde all of a sudden.
"We're here?" Lucy asks, confusingly looks at Natsu
"Yeah..." Natsu simply replies
"Wait, but this doesn't look like the Manor," Lucy says as she tries to look for anything similar to the underground parking she saw before in the Dragneel Manor
"Because it isn't," Natsu replies before he slightly chuckles
"What?" Lucy surprised answers, "Then who's place is this?"
"Mine," Natsu then presses on the brake gently and successful stops the car. As he turns off the engine, he looked at the blonde and studied her confused look.
"Come on," Natsu then opens his door and steps out of the vehicle. Once he did, he took the grocery bags from the back and went to Lucy's side. When he noticed that Lucy hasn't stepped out, he opened the passenger door and looked at the frozen blonde, "Are you going to sit there the whole day or what?"
Slowly looking at the pinkette, Lucy suddenly sighs before placing the strap of her bag to her shoulder and stepped out of the car. As she stood before the man, Natsu just grinned at her before grabbing her wrist and pull her along towards an elevator door.
When the small contraption reached the desired floor of the pinkette and opened automatically for them, Natsu took a step forward, tugging the blonde forward, and grinned at his simple yet quite messy place.
"Welcome to my house," Natsu then looked at Lucy who was awestruck at his home
To be continued...
