"It's not good fer him ya know", Gajeel had snapped her from her deep train of thought she'd been lost in whilst having her milkshake at the bar in the guildhall. She knew he was obviously talking about Natsu, the rabbit hole her thoughts had been lost in were about their resident fire dragon slayer.
Gajeel was leaning back against the bar with his elbows resting on it giving her a side glare.
She let out a deep sigh, dropping her head down to rest on her palm with her elbow propping it up on the bar unconsciously seeking out the usual bundle of pink haired energy round the guildhall only to find him sitting rather subdued on the other side of the guildhall with only Happy for company. "Yeah, I know. He was really fine to begin with…"
"Yeh as fine as Salamander gets gihihi. Look, I know you two haven't completed the whole process yet. Gotta be drivin him mad, specially letting you round other men"
"It's so early there's barely anyone here, just you and Mira. We only came in because we really need to go on a job for some money but Natsu keeps turning down all of the jobs! We were going to come in, get a job and then leave on it but then he started insulting me"
That's how they'd ended up on separate sides of the guild, they'd come in looking for a job but Natsu had very uncharacteristically said they were all farrrrrr too dangerous for Lucy to go on. He'd also gone on to declare that he could do the jobs on his own but he couldn't possibly leave Lucy on her own. Which had sent her off on a spiral that if he didn't think she could handle herself then what business did they have being partners, and that for the record – she could handle herself just fine and had Lucy Kicked him just to prove a point.
But, she knew the mating mark was affecting him, it had been three days since the fight and since she traded her sparky dragon for a fiery one. It had all started fine – well maybe fine wasn't the right word for it…it had started with Lucy waking up on a very toasty dragon slayer, she found herself virtually on top of him on his hammock with his arms around her in a sort of dragon slayer cocoon. Albeit embarrassed, she found herself happily dozing on him for a while longer – after all she couldn't just get out of the hammock and pushing him out would have meant pushing herself out too, so really what else could she do!
They'd both been so tired the first day they didn't really leave Natsu's – Happy came back at some point and the three of them just ate food, talked and slept the day away.
After day one had been relatively normal they meandered back to Lucy's on day two with the lull of better food and a comfier bed – Lucy having opted to take Natsu's sofa as her bed for her second night there…though she did wake up right back in her dragon slayer cocoon in the morning. Whilst they'd gone ahead, Happy went off to report back how normal everything was, which was a huge relief to the guild. So much so that Team Natsu decided to stop by for a visit…well that's where everything took a turn for the worse.
Truth be told they were both pleased to see other people, Natsu was having a hard time keeping to himself – and whilst he usually had a good amount of physical interaction with Lucy like putting his arm around her, he found he just couldn't help himself but want to be close to her. He'd find himself thinking about lunch one minute and the next he was across the room running his hands through her hair, or gently running his hands up her arms when they were sat next to each other – any and all usually resulted with her stammering at him with a tomato red face.
His increase in physical touches weren't exactly unwanted by Lucy but she had no clue what to do with them – especially as Natsu seemed so zoned out whilst doing them and then would laugh and go grab food whenever his brain seemed to kick back in (usually after her fist had collided with some part of him). They were frustrated, confused and outright terrified what the other would think if they made a move. So the arrival of Team Natsu was a happy distraction.
Until Gray walked in and got within radius of Lucy that was. He found himself thrown back from her with a puff of flame and in an instant Natsu had given up his lounged position on her sofa and was in front of her snarling at Gray. He'd taken quick note sensing the difference from their usual fist fights, the whole team had – Natsu was emanating a heat that had them all sweating in seconds. Erza stood between them trying to diffuse some of the tension whilst Happy swiftly picked up Gray and flew him out of the window before Lucy's apartment was torn apart.
As quick as his fury had come it settled again. "Hey where's the ice princess goin? Doesn't he know it's rude to just up and leave. Geez" and he settled back on the sofa as if nothing had happened. The girls exchanged confused looks before joining Natsu in the living room exchanging light conversation and everyone avoiding the topic of what had just gone on.
Yeah – it was safe to say that Lucy around other men was driving Natsu up the wall.
Day three was when she realised she didn't have enough money for her rent so they'd agreed to go to the guild, grab a job and swiftly leave preferably without seeing Gray if Natsu had anything to do with it. The entire trip there had been stressful enough, they did quickly find out though that if Natsu was touching Lucy then her barrier of destruction didn't seem to kick in. This was after she'd pushed him off her a few times after his hands started drifting of their own accord…which resulted in a nearby male getting a tad scorched, but as soon as Natsu grabbed her wrist (or snuck an arm around her waist as he'd become more frequently doing) the fires all went out. They'd made it to the guild with a heap of bickering, which then was topped off with the request board argument – day three was anything but fine.
Well aware of the pain she could inflict Gajeel had put himself a good distance from her when he'd come to chat.
He dragged his hand down his face drawing out a long groan, "I can't believe you've got me takin his side but…", he turned to face her fully blocking her view of Natsu. "The dragon urges are takin over, dragons are possessive and protective creatures yer know. He can't help it, and he won't be able to till you finish what you – well – what Laxus started I guess"
It was Lucy's turn to groan, dropping her head to the bar and letting her arms drop to her sides.
"Come on – we all knew it was gonna happen someday. Yeh sure, some dark mage got involved and whatnot – but we all saw it. Just you two knuckleheads too dim to see what's goin on. Well that's my try – he's comin over and I sure ain't getting in his way right now. Later bunny girl"
"Hey Luce" she peeked up at him, turning her head slightly from the bar and raising an eyebrow at him, he scratched the back of his head and looked towards the doors. "Sorry. Bout earlier – you're really strong and I'm lucky to have you as my partner…even if you are a weirdo" he peeked a look back at her to find her covering a smile which broke his out in turn taking that as their mutual sign that the fight was over.
"Great – let's go pick out a jo-"
He was cut off by Lucy grabbing his hand as he'd gone to stroll by her to the request board, he looked down at her hand and then back up at her, cocking his head in question when she didn't immediately explain. "Actually, I think maybe that's not such a good idea today. Maybe" she took a deep breath and looked up at him, her face a picture of seriousness. "Maybe we should go back to my apartment Natsu. I think we need to talk"
His eyes blew wide and he just nodded slowly back, allowing her to drag him back out of the hall – waving his goodbye to Happy who'd left him earlier when Wendy and Carla had come in.
Apologies for the super long delay! January saw me get a new job (yay!) but also lose my manager who's job I took and my old job hasn't been replaced yet...so yeah working both jobs in the interim hasn't left me too much time or my brain with my creative capacity!
This is a slight filler of a chapter but we should be kicking into the next phase of this story soon :)
Thank you to all those who have followed and liked this story.
And thank you especially to my reviewers!
takeagamble27 - thank you! We should be out of flashback land now and all on one timeline but I'm glad to hear you think it worked! All shall come soon with the other party...
copperreign12 - as always thank you for your lovely review! Glad you liked the interaction between Natsu and Lucy with the bite - I played around a few times with how this was going to pan out so glad you liked it :)
I'll try to make the next update more on time, I've a lot going on at the moment but I will be back with the next chapter as soon as I can be :)