Natsu practically danced the first step off the last boat.
"I'm revivied!"
The trip had been terrible; if nauseated Natsu was irritating, there were no words to how sour, vulgar, and cranky the other dragonslayer was. The only relief she'd had from the two of them were the times when Gildarts put them to sleep so he wouldn't have to listen to Natsu whine or hear Laxus' Exposition of Interesting Curse Words.
"Why does my head hurt?" Natsu mumbled.
"Mine too." Laxus rubbed the back of his head.
Lucy said, "Gildarts has been punching you two in the brain stem pretty regularly. It's been nine days since we left Ishgar."
"That doesn't seem right…" Natsu said.
Lucy shrugged. "You've probably both sustained some brain damage."
Gildarts took a deep breath of coastal air and dismissed the concern. "Who could even tell the difference? Come along, little boys, Daddy needs a beer in a proper tavern. Lucy deserves a drink too, dealing with you two vomit geysers all this time."
"Thanks for not helping except to punch them in the brain," she sarcastically answered.
As they made their way across the dock, soldiers suddenly came from everywhere, wielding magic inhibition weapons.
Lucy quietly asked, "Is this a real threat to us?"
"Of course not. Three of the four of us could handle this on our own," Laxus whispered.
She throw her elbow into this abdomen so hard she heard air forced from his lungs. "Sorry, what did you say?"
Natsu leaned in. "You guys need to grow up."
Lucy said, "Thanks Natsu. I'm so glad you're here to see me at my lowest."
"What's your problem?" her boyfriend asked.
"Do you two know what how awful you are when you're travelling?"
Natsu answered, "I don't remember anything that happens when I'm feeling sick. Just that sometimes you're real pissed when we get wherever we're going."
Gildarts gave Lucy a pat on the head. "Bless your patience."
"It's not patience. She's going to kick me in the stomach when nobody's looking," Natsu complained.
Laxus said, "Her kick is probably her strongest move."
"Yeah, she practices it on my stomach daily. 'Natsu this, Natsu that, Lucy kick.'"
Lucy shoved Natsu off the dock and felt droplets splash her as he hit the water. "You got me wet, Natsu!"
The older wizards watched this: Natsu pissed off Lucy for nonsense reasons, Natsu complaining about her being violent, Lucy throwing him into the water, Lucy yelling at him for getting her wet…
Gildarts said, "Oh, I get it now."
"Right. You think he's the problem, but then you realize they're both crazy," Laxus said with a nod. "She pushed him in and she'd mad she got splashed. Like she wanted him to break the laws of science or something."
"Natsu and science being in the same thought is silly in the first place," Gildarts answered.
Lucy growled, "I'm right here. And you know what? I'm a much bigger person than you, Laxus."
"Only in the ass, blondie."
The conversation was ended as the enemy soldiers drew in and Lucy charged across the dock, riled up. Despite being sent to be the diplomat and translator for the group, her first act was to point her finger at the apparent leader of the group and give him a positively deafening earful in another language, presumably about charging at them with weapons.
The man seemed insulted at first, and then as Lucy went on, withered like some delicate flower subjected to blistering desert winds. The weapons were lowered, and he bowed.
"We are sorry," he said, in broken Ishgari.
"You can speak some Ishgari?" Lucy asked, switching over to her native tongue. "Then good. Let me say again in my own language, you better not ask us for help and then come at us with weapons. We're here to help you, and we're not going to tolerate an approach of armed caution. Got that?"
They spoke to Lucy in Aegian, and she turned to them and said, "They're taking us to a room to stay for the night. Then in the morning, up to where the monsters came from."
The soldiers were wearing symbols on their uniforms that reminded them of the icons seem at Kardia Cathedral. This country was a religious oligarchy of sorts, not a theocracy. Lucy had explained the difference on the way, but religious zealots in charge of anything was something every wizard had heard about a thousand tired times. It always went poorly.
They were taken to customs, where their bags were dumped out and searched for illegal contraband.
Natsu got on well enough, but Gildarts' bag had nothing in it but a change of clothes, one can of beans, and thirty fetish pornographic magazines with worn out pages.
Natsu tilted his head. "Oh, hot giants are a thing?"
Lucy put her hand over his eyes. "Shhhhh…don't think about it."
The inspectors spoke to her, and she turned and said, "They're going to burn it with fire and would like a priest to help you repent from your sins and counsel you on living a good and moral lifestyle. I said you'd do it."
Laxus went next and had nothing particularly scandalous in his bag. He had novels, three of them from a fantasy series Lucy thought was a little nerdy for him.
When it was Lucy's turn, they emptied her bag, and went through everything she had, paying close attention to her lacy panties. She was incredibly embarrassed by this, but right when she was about to start screaming about it, she started to feel a certain blood-boiling aura coming from somebody in the party and looked up to see Natsu giving the inspector the kind of look he gave to his worst enemies.
The man who met them on the dock who could speak a little Ishgari asked, "Would you who are not in moral peril like to pray to God?"
Natsu answered, "I don't believe in God. I'm hungry. So I believe in food."
The man didn't fight the issue any further, and once they'd packed all their stuff back up and Gildarts had time to repent from his rampant sexual deviance with a priest, they continued their journey to the inn.
Their room was big, with four beds, a little eating area, a living area, and a bathroom, but it wasn't particularly fancy. It was clean and they were tired from travelling, so anything was welcome.
They took turns showering and getting ready for bed and the innkeeper brought them a big meal.
Lucy ate before her shower, so she was last, and after washing her hair, was devastated to learn her blow dryer's power plug didn't fit the outlet.
She came out in her pajamas, towel-drying her hair, and found the guys were sitting around the table with dominoes.
"Chickenfoot?"
"Yep. They confiscated the cards that were in my bag, because they're evil or something. You know how to play Forty Two? We could do pairs." Gildarts asked.
Lucy nodded. "Sure. But uhhh, if I jammed my blow dryer plug into these weird wall-sockets, what would happen?"
Gildarts and Natsu stared at her blankly, but Laxus said, "Is that a question for me?"
"Are you or are you not the guy that electrocutes people, places, and things?"
Laxus said, "I'm not an electrician, but that seems like a stupid idea."
"Fine." Lucy grumbled as she sat down at the table across from Natsu and all was quiet except the clinking of shuffling dominoes.
It was strange for the celestial summoner to do something so mundane with this group, because they were some of the most powerful wizards on the continent, maybe in the world.
Once Natsu had the rules of the game more or less figured out, they played a round. While they were reshuffling, Gildarts asked, "Do you really not believe in God, Natsu?"
"Why would I? I know there are things out there that are more powerful than us than come down here and cause problems. I don't believe there's some giant dude up there that loves us and has any kind of opinions about what the world is supposed to be like. Doubt very seriously if someone like that does exist he tells people to start wars and kill each other," he answered.
Lucy said, "I don't really know how I feel. I want to believe there's some order to the universe."
Gildarts answered, "Personally, I don't care. I'm going to live my life until I run out of life to live."
Laxus shrugged. "I agree with Natsu. There are definitely things out there. I don't think they are benevolent or care at all about humans."
Natsu added, "Places run by religious people who claim they're doing god's work tend to be places where mass graves are, right?"
That was definitely true, and wasn't even a point worth arguing. Fiore was a largely secular state due to the rise of wizardry, but it had been born from religious conflict and many of the countries in Ishgar still struggled with those issues.
Lucy said, "You have to think if Zeref hadn't been cursed by Ankserum that he just would have gotten old and died. That curse is what allowed him to kill like he did. Wasn't there ever a point that this high and mighty god realized he was punishing everyone on earth?"
Gildarts said, "Wasn't Zeref's sin not being evil, but daring to make decisions like a god? Same with Mavis. They didn't give respect to the laws of the gods. Mavis wasn't doing anything wrong. She just had a single moment where she used magic like she was a god instead of a human. I assume it's more like 'we don't care what happens as long as you live and die like filthy little humans. Anyway, there's no reason to dwell on it."
They went back to their game and Lucy asked, "Can we just talk about the Skysails series? I saw the books in your bag! Who do you think Sara is?"
Laxus slumped down. "Eh? She's obviously the Druid's daughter."
"No!"
"Yes, that's why she couldn't go in the sheiki temple, and the reason the unknown assailant kept trying to kill her."
Lucy said, "It's because she's the chosen one?"
"She's the villain. She's going to kill the little girl and possess her body. Watch, at the end of everything, she's the last enemy. And people will be sad because the knight loved her like an idiot."
Natsu stared. "Who is what? Is someone in danger?"
Lucy said, "She just needs the sword from her father."
"She's the villain, she's going to murder everyone, and no one ever needs any strength from their parents. The whole orphan genre is about how worthless family bonds are. The whole theme is that family is garbage and love has no meaning," Laxus answered.
"Yeah, I think you're projecting a little bit there. You think self-determination and family are mutually exclusive literary concepts?" Lucy asked.
"Obviously. You're either floating on what you inherited or what you've made yourself. One would assume a girl who grew up in a castle would understand that."
Gildarts said, "Look Natsu, nerds!"
"Ha. Nerds. Lucy is a nerd," Natsu echoed.
Lucy answered, "Calling someone a nerd isn't an insult. It's like telling someone they're smarter than you and expecting them to be sad about it."
Happy jumped down on the table and swung his claws in the air. "Lucy is claws out for you, Gildarts. I think she wants to duel!"
"Why do people call you Happy when you just make everyone mad?" Lucy answered, pushing him off the table.
Gildarts asked, "Did you want a duel?"
"No, of course not. I'm not a monster."
Gildarts said, "You keep thinking like that and it'll never happen. I'm keep sensing that you've got a massive amount of untapped potential. Celestial spirit summoning has proven to be capable of bending time. That's not something I've seen you do."
"I don't know how."
"I've seen you using it as ability type magic recently. I've never heard of that before. How does it work?"
Lucy put her keys on the table. "So each of my keys is sort of like a bond I have that crosses the barrier between our world and the celestial realm. The silver keys are like strings, but the gold keys are like unbreakable chains with an anchor. That's why it takes so much magic to summon a spirit with a gold key. My understanding of my magic has changed a lot over the past couple of years. There's a lot more to it than just summoning."
"You should go see the old man," Gildarts suggested.
"Master Makarov?"
"Nah, the old old man. Warrod."
Natsu said, "The tree guy?"
Gildarts nodded. "Ability-type wizards have different bodies than holder-type. You've got ability-type potential, but the body of a normie. I would assume that limits you significantly. If Natsu didn't have a body adapted to his magic, he'd probably turn to ash. Same with anyone using a higher-order power. Warrod is the living authority on that type of stuff."
Laxus said, "You summoned the ruler of another realm to this world, so it's obviously ridiculous for you to be playing dress up games and fighting by proxy at this point."
"Rude," Lucy answered.
They played well into the night, and Lucy found a strangely familial comfort in the group. When they were with their regular team, they were a bunch of young adults fighting the world to become strong and find their place. Here, the dynamic was a little different. Gildarts was like some lovable but weird uncle, and Laxus was an annoying older brother.
Most interesting to her was how relaxed Natsu was. Usually, if they weren't at home, he was hyper aware, memorizing scents and listening and looking around. He was a natural and relentless protector, but in the presence of stronger wizards, he was the one who was protected. It was the second of stunning insights into Natsu that night, first, that he had zero faith in a higher power, and second, that sometimes he didn't want to be the strongest.
For all the times he charged in, demanded fights, and struggled to the top, there was a part of him that was comfortable with being under someone else's wing. Natsu was happy to spend time like this with people he looked up to, and she actually enjoyed it too. They honestly weren't terrible company all the time, but when they were bad, they were very bad.
When it got late enough, they went to bed, in four small, relatively closely spaced separate beds.
Lucy was already getting used to having Natsu next to her in bed, so she felt a bit lonely even though she could hear him breathing. While she tried her best to fall asleep, she rolled over on her side and found Natsu was in the same position, facing her, watching her trying to get to sleep. There was just enough light in the dark room that she could see a little glimmer from his eyes, and the outline of his hand as he reached out for her.
She stretched her hand out for his, held it for a minute and then coaxed herself to sleep.
Natsu waited for everyone else to go to sleep and then just relocated himself to Lucy's bed. Was it tiny? Yes, but they were grand masters at sleeping in small beds. Even in their huge bed at his home, he still slept on top of her and most of the bed was empty.
When Lucy awoke the next morning, she was sweaty from having his unusually warm body on hers all night. She could hear at least one other person snoring, so she didn't want to wake anyone up by yelling and throwing him out of the bed, although she was sure he deserved it. The little beds were obviously made to fit one person only, yet she woke up with Natsu and Happy all over her like that was just the way it was supposed to me.
And maybe it was, but she was hot and annoyed. Lucy tried to get out from under him while he snored in her face, but he was a clinger and held her in place even in his sleep until she finally managed to slip from his grasp and fall silently yet gracelessly to the floor.
When she stood up, she found Gildarts sitting at the table with coffee, leaving the Exceed and the two dragonslayers still snoring.
He poured her a cup as she made her way over to him, and said, "You guys could have pushed your beds together," he said.
Lucy answered, "That's just how Natsu sleeps. If we were sleeping on the biggest bed in the world, he'd still do that. No sense of boundaries."
"I saw him try to hold onto you even in his sleep. You two are pretty cute."
She blushed as she quickly stirred more sugar than was necessary into her coffee and added some powdered cream. "Not to mention I don't want him crawling all over me while we're around other people."
Gildarts said, "It's fine. We're all grownups. Except Happy, I honestly don't know what he is."
"Besides an annoying bed intruder? I think he's like a child or something. Exceeds definitely become adults at some point," she answered.
The old wizard asked, "Are you happy? With Natsu, I mean. I know all relationships don't last forever, but I want to see you guys make it. Natsu considers you his soulmate and can no longer imagine any sort of future where you don't live by his side."
"Sometimes it feels like it's so good something is bound to go wrong. But Natsu and I have already gone through a lot together. Lots of happy times, but also a lot of really sad and dark times," she said.
Gildarts nodded. "Natsu is a better man than I am. He's been through a lot in his life. Incredible losses. Horrors no one should have to live through. More battles than most retiring wizards. He still has a big heart, capable of love, loyalty, filled with dreams. Please don't break it."
"I won't. I can't imagine my life without Natsu. I grew up really lonely. Natsu is really my first true friend, my best friend, the one person I can't really go without."
"You guys gonna get married?"
Lucy said, "Maybe someday."
"Have a family?"
"That's kind of a personal question, don't you think? Step one, obtain boyfriend, step two through three hundred, answer this question over and over. People ask it so casually, but it's just really a nice way to ask if I'm going to let my boyfriend impregnate me," she said, her cheeks burning from embarrassment.
Natsu sat up in the bed and mumbled, "Luigi, did you just ask me to do something?"
"I MOST DEFINITELY DID NOT!" she yelled, hurling the drawstring bag with the dominoes at his head, where it opened and spilled, sending them all over the room.
Laxus brushed some of them off his bed as he awoke. "Good fucking morning? There a reason you're screaming and throwing things?"
Gildarts said, "Relax. Lucy's just all excited about becoming a mother."
"She knocked up or something?"
Natsu's eyes widened. "What?! Why don't I know about this?! Are you serious, Lucy? Is it mine? Will you lay an egg?"
Lucy said, "Natsu? No. Just no. All of you…no. Especially no for you, Natsu. Do you think I would be having someone else's baby?"
"You're having my kid?"
"Back to my earlier point, NO. And if I did, it would not be an egg. You saw a baby be born, I don't even know why you would ask that question."
Natsu flinched. "You're going to do that gross thing Levy did?"
"Give birth? No. Because no."
The fire dragonslayer tilted his head. "So you're having a baby, but it's not going to do the gross thing from the gross place, and it's not going to be an egg. How's it going to get out?"
Laxus got up, hammered Natsu upside the head so he fell back down into the bed unconscious, and wandered over to the table in his boxers for a cup of coffee. As he slowly poured it, he despondently stared into the cup and said, "I reset your dragonslayer. It was malfunctioning. You are welcome."
"Leave me alone."
He added, "You two deserve each other."
"Is that a compliment?" Lucy asked.
"No. Because no," he answered, mimicking her.
Lucy said, "There is zero chance I care at all about anything you have to say."
Laxus answered, "Have you finished Crimson Five? I saw you reading it at the guild."
"I'm not finished yet. It's one of the best books I've read in a while. I'm so excited to see what happens at the end. The suspense has just been exquisite. I've heard there's a huge shock at the end."
"Benji dies. Eaten by King Raptorus. Rawr."
Lucy stared at him, slack jawed. "Did you just…did you just spoil it out of spite?"
"He cries out for the girl while he's dying and imagines the life they could have had. He shouts that she will always have his heart, but really King Raptorus had it. Delicious!"
She slammed her hand down on the table. "This is the evilest thing you have ever done!"
"Spoiling a book? Okay, Key Girl. Milestones…Millie moves to the farm and dies from pneumonia. The real main character is her kid, who is a sociopath and grows up to become a serial killer."
"STOP RUINING MY LITERARY EXPERIENCE, SHOCK TART," she threatened, "I don't even know how it is that you read. You just don't seem like someone who can read well. What kind of monster loves books enough to read them, and then ruins them for someone else?"
Laxus smugly added, "Shrouded Peaks, I saw you with that one. Creepy town of supernatural events and lots of evil characters…everyone is dead and they don't know it and the town is actually hell. The protagonist was sent there accidentally and has to find a way out but eventually gives up and embraces life as the damned."
Lucy took a deep breath. "Laxus, I hope something bad happens to you today."
Gildarts said, "What's more exciting than a couple of rowdy nerds at seven in the morning? Literally everything. I could be watching the grass outside slowly die, trying to scratch the arm I don't have anymore, or contemplating my own mortality."
Natsu stirred again, confused, but Happy was more than willing to catch him up on his first awakening. Once they'd recovered from confusion, bad jokes, and spoiled books, and got ready and had breakfast, they prepared to move on to the next leg of their journey.
He walked beside her and held her hand. "Hey. I miss you," he said.
"I've been right by your side," she answered.
Natsu let go of her hand long enough to wrap an arm around her and pull her in for a kiss.
Lucy blushed. "People are going to see us."
"I don't care."
"Are you having fun?" he asked.
Lucy nodded. "I actually am. I'm learning all kinds of new things. I guess it's good to get to know other people. We should go on jobs with different groups sometimes, maybe. But, just not these two at the same time ever again."
"What are you talking about, this is the best!"
When the got to the square where a carriage was supposed to pick them up and take them to the forbidden zone where the monsters had emerged, they learned it was late. This left the group with an hour to spare, and they were free to wander a little away from the group in the downtown area.
Natsu and Lucy settled down at a bench together at a nearby park while Happy joined Laxus for a game of 'ask Laxus one thousand questions,' which Lucy promised to pay him for in fish and Gildarts went to find a gift for Cana.
Natsu asked, "Is there anything you want?"
"Anything I want?"
"Yeah. Lately, you've been helping pay all the bills and putting a lot of money into our house. Or my house. Or the house, or whatever," he said, sputtering nervously at the end.
Lucy leaned on him and sighed contentedly. "I'm good, Natsu. And if you don't mind, I like the sound of 'our house.' I guess soon it'll be ready enough that we can maybe think about getting moving in for real. That's a big step. Do you think we're ready?"
"I think we are. It would make me really happy if you'd stay with me, Lucy. You wouldn't have to worry about rent anymore and even though you don't need my help or anything, I'd take really good care of you. I promise."
She held his hand and said, "Whenever you say things like that, it just makes me feel really warm and excited for the future. You know I'll take care of you too, right?"
"You've been looking out for me since the first day we met. I was hungry and you bought me a good meal. Remember?"
Lucy laughed. "I remember you made a really big show of your gratitude right in the middle of the restaurant."
"There just aren't lots of people who are really generous like that. Plus, I thought you were cute."
"You did?"
"Obviously. I don't think anyone who has ever met you would think you're not the prettiest girl in the world. Except maybe Duke Everlue, but something wasn't right with that guy. I mean, you noticed his mustache, right?"
She laughed again. "Yes, just long nose hairs curled up. Gross! It was our first job together, so it'll always be special to me."
Natsu teased, "It's the reason the maid outfit exists in our house, so it'll always be special to me too."
"Just so we're clear, you know there's not ever going to be a situation where I lay an egg, right?"
He said, "You just really freaked me out. I don't even know how that conversation happened. Guessing it was Gildarts trying to start trouble."
"You guessed right. But Gildarts really loves you. I don't want to say like a father, but it's warm like that. He really wants you to be happy."
Natsu said, "I'm really lucky, to have so many people who have cared about me in my life. I think my human parents loved me. I think Zeref probably cared about me a lot and things just…I don't know. Igneel. Master. Gildarts. Everyone at the guild. Happy. Even Erza and that jerk Gray. But that's nothing compared to you. To be loved by somebody like this is…I don't know what to say."
Lucy kissed his cheek. "I feel the same way. You don't have to say anything. I know your heart. It's so big and warm and good. I'm a lucky girl to have you."
They kissed, and then kissed again, and then kissed deeply.
"Natsu, someone is going to see us. We can't make out in public. That's too much."
Natsu wrapped his scarf around both of them so their mouths were hidden. "How about now?"
"Fine. This feels so bad. Like we shouldn't be doing it."
"So? I'm never going to feel bad about expressing how I feel about you, Luigi."
They went at it for a few minutes and Lucy was left missing the feeling of his hands all over her and wanted more than they could safely do in a park. Since they had a long carriage ride and then camping and rock climbing and fighting, it was unlikely that they were going to have a comfortable time alone for a while.
She knew Natsu felt the same way too and tried to come up with some solution. There was basically no chance that she'd ever stoop so low as to use a bathroom of any kind, but there was a clothing store on the other side of the park.
"I think you need a new shirt. Come with me," she said as she fixed his scarf and then used it to gently drag him toward the store.
Natsu was confused, but something about the tone of her voice told him not to resist. When she spoke to him like that, it meant that things were going to happen. He wasn't sure how, but he knew Lucy and he knew Lucy was wanting to be closer to him than their current situation had allowed.
She held up a few shirts while she watched the store employees and he repeated the phrase 'whatever you think' about a hundred times until she abruptly grabbed his hand when no one was looking and pulled him into the dressing room.
"You want me to try these shirts on?" he asked.
Lucy pushed him against the wall. "What do you think?"
"Here? Now?"
"We'll have to be really quiet," she cautioned.
Natsu said, "I'll be quiet. Like a ninja. Nin-nin."
"The last time you said that was right before you made something explode."
"Something is definitely going to explode…"
Lucy started to ease him out of his top. "Is that a dirty joke, Natsu?"
"I always think it's weird that people call it that. I don't really think there's anything dirty about what we do. It feels right."
They stripped down as quietly as they could, and she sat on his lap on the one little bench the room had.
She could tell he wanted to get real rowdy and have an intense session that likely would have knocked down the dividers between dressing rooms, but that would have ended in them being expelled from the store, and possibly from the country. 'Sorry we destroyed property while having intense premarital sex in a public shop' was not the right thing to do in a country run by religious zealots.
To Natsu's credit, they managed to not get banished from the country, and after they finished, dressed and slipped back out to find Gildarts standing in front of a mirror trying on a new cloak.
They froze, and he turned and said, "Oh, it was you two."
"We were just…trying on some new shirts. For Natsu. Because he almost never wears anything different."
Gildarts said, "Right. I believe that is exactly what happened."
Lucy laughed nervously. "What else would we be doing?"
"We heard from the locals that it's cold up where we're going, so you might want to invest in some warmer gear. Boots, thick socks, something to shield you from the wind," Gildarts commented.
Lucy turned to quickly escape and Gildarts gave Natsu a smirk.
"Really? In a dressing room, the first chance you get to slip away? You chose wisely, my young friend. What a girl. Finding a girl who is so crazy about you that she needs to try on shirts if you've been apart too long is special. I'd give you a high five, but you need to go wash your hands immediately."
Natsu shrugged, since he already talked about nearly everything with Gildarts. He didn't feel nearly as embarrassed as Lucy did. "Hey, I want to get something nice for Lucy. She always says she doesn't want anything."
"Maybe some nice earrings. Or a locket. She seems like she'd like something like that. Maybe an engagement ring if you're feeling brave. Or maybe a key. Or a rare book. Seems like there's a lot of things she'd like to have but might not spend money on herself. Once you get into a place where paying rent is the most important thing, it's hard to go back to indulging yourself sometimes. You and Lucy should have enough, especially after this job, right? Take her on a shopping spree, a spa, a vacation…she deserves to be spoiled a bit, right?"
The dragonslayer nodded. "I want her to have everything she wants."
Gildarts smiled. "If you really want to make her happy right now, there's a bookstore on the corner. They have a display of books with a lion and a number four on the front. If you buy Lucy that book, she'll be happy."
"What is it?"
"Just trust me. Laxus was talking about it when we passed by. It's not published in Ishgar, but it's for sale over here."
Natsu wasn't really bothered by cold, so while Lucy shopped, he obtained this book. It wasn't magical, there was no apparent significance to it, but when he gave it to her outside the store, she jumped into his arms.
"You are amazing, Natsu! How did you pull this off? Not even I knew about it!"
Lucy threw her wind reader glasses on and flipped through the pages, eyes widening. "This is so good!"
When she finished, she gave him another big hug and a kiss right on the mouth. "You're the best Natsu. I love you so much. Not because of this, but this! I don't even understand this miracle. How did you know?"
The others joined them, and Lucy held up the book.
"Is that Skysails 4?" Laxus asked, before freezing. "You better not, blondie!"
"Fox, Ingrid, and Teramis all die in a bloody battle with the druid! The book ends on a dark, bitter, apocalyptic note, because the good guys failed to save the day and the world has been blanketed in darkness. Ingrid realizes that being her father's daughter was important and she needed the love of her dad all along," she declared.
Natsu stared in confusion. "Are you happy because you told him the end of a book he wanted to read before he could read it? That seems…immature."
"He did it to me first! But I did it worst. Admit you've been defeated, you miserable, book-spoiling troll!"
Laxus said, "You might have won this battle, but I don't lose wars. You better think wisely before you decide this is the road you want to go down."
Natsu shook his head. "I don't really understand what is going on here."
"Nerds," Gildarts commented, "But let's remember who we're dealing with. You push enough of Shock Tart's buttons and he'll go full nerd rage and try to blow up a city or something. At least he's not doing anything evil or stupid when he's reading."
The carriage pulled up to take them on to where the monsters were, and Natsu said, "Finally it's almost time for some action. Real action. I'm all fired up!"
-Reviews Welcome!—
I wanted to thank everyone who has taken time to review the last chapter:
Seireidoragon, Kjacket, KatanaNoNeko, obsessedwithnalu, min-chan17, Jazminee18, Ember Reverie, valerioux, and Random-Gaurdian!