Been a week guys, and I feel a little bad. Between teething, our trip north, and the lack of sleep, I've found it very difficult to focus on writing. Added to that, I was having trouble deciding how I wanted to write this one, but I think I've finally gotten it mostly where I want it. I hope you all love it, because…

IT'S TIME FOR THE ALTERNATE CHAPTERS! To those who are interested in the sexy scenes, this is the first chapter that has an alternate version! If you go to my stories, you will find a new one called Surprise Guest: NSFW Chapters. I recommend following that one as well, so you can be updated when the later chapters are added. I will post both versions at the same time, every time, with a note in here reminding you it exists.

For those not interested, I promise you will not miss out on anything important. There will be some conversation of course, but nothing that will make or break the story if you miss it. Also, as promised, this version was written first, so it meets my minimum requirements for length, like all the previous chapters. Also, there is some sexy action here. Nothing too graphic (I don't think?) Some clothes removed and kissing/ touching, but I cut it off before things got too heavy. Let me know if you think I put too much in. I've never had to cut my sex scenes short before so I'd love feedback so I can get better at it!

As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading!


"Natsu, how much farther?"

"Not far." Natsu hugged her a little closer. "Are you cold?"

"No, I'm warm enough. It's…"

"The height?" he finished for her

Lucy nodded, her hands firmly over her eyes. "Even though I'm not looking, it still sort of feels like my stomach is down on the ground, you know?"

"I could do the spell I did last time we flew if you want," Natsu offered.

"No, it's okay," she said. "I'd like to try and get used to it."

Natsu grinned. "Get used to it, huh? Does that mean you'd like to go flying more often?"

Lucy could hear the smugness in his voice so she peaked between her fingers to confirm. "I'm not saying it's the greatest way to travel or anything, I just think I'd be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity."

He chuckled. "Sure."

"Oh shut up." She moved her hands back. "Are we almost there?"

There was a pause. "Yeah, but it looks like I'll have to set you down somewhere else for a bit. It snowed last night so I have to clean up again."

Clue one: they were not in Magnolia. Clue two: they were outside. "Okay."

Natsu landed carefully and set her on her feet. "Stand right here and don't move. I don't want you to trip."

Lucy lowered her arms to wrap them around herself. "I will stay right- ahh!"

"Keep your eyes covered!" he said as his hands frantically covered her face.

After she pushed his hands away, she put one of her own back over her eyes. "I had my eyes closed, Natsu, calm down."

"Sorry…" He planted a kiss on her forehead. "I just don't want to ruin the surprise."

"I won't look, I promise, just hurry up so I don't get cold."

"You got it."

Lucy wrapped her free arm around herself as she waited. She could hear movement and some sizzling, but she realized after a while that she couldn't hear much else. It was too cold for animal noises, and she couldn't hear any car noises or any other noises from town. "How far away from home are we?"

Natsu's voice floated back to her. "I think it's a few miles from Magnolia. I'm not good at converting to your realm's measurements."

After a while, Natsu's heat announced his arrival and his arms came around her again. "You ready to move?"

She nodded and he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted back up, landing again after only a few seconds. "Alright, let me move over here… okay, open your eyes."

When Lucy finally let her hands fall, her knees instantly threatened to give out from under her. "Natsu…"

Suddenly he was there again, his arms wrapped around her to keep her steady. "Do you like it?" She couldn't seem to find any words, or even nod her head as she looked around.

It was the clearing.

It was her mother's clearing.

Natsu had melted all the snow so she couldn't have mistaken the space if she wanted to. The willows' limbs were longer than she remembered and the grass was all a pale green from being buried in the snow, but the three flat boulders were still in the same place and the bald patch in the middle had some grass on it, but it was still mostly worn down where they used to spread out their blanket.

Lucy's heart threatened to explode as she fought to sort through the emotions rapidly flowing through her. "Natsu… you found it…"

"It wasn't easy, but I did! I had some trouble with people roaming around at night seeing me, so it slowed me down, but I wanted to make sure I got you something awesome. Do you like it?"

Lucy nodded rapidly as her vision blurred. She couldn't manage to hide the tears as she quickly turned around and threw her arms around him. Being there, where she had once spent so much time with her mother, was overwhelming and she desperately wanted a few moments to collect herself.

She felt Natsu shift uncomfortably as she locked him in a death grip. "Luce, are you sure you like it? You're crying."

Once again, Lucy nodded her head and did her best to sort through her emotions so that he could feel how happy she was. "I… I am, I promise… I'm just… I'm feeling a lot of emotions all at once."

"Oh." He didn't do anything else, just continued to hold her while she gathered herself.

After a while, she finally managed to pull herself together. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I understand. I'm glad you like it." When she leaned back, he reached up to wipe the tears away from her eyes. "We can stay as long as you like, by the way. I can keep you plenty warm."

Lucy nodded and then looked around her. "We'll have to come back some time when it's dark out. Mom and I use to come out here to look at the stars, so I'd like to do that again."

Natsu looked above him at the clear blue sky. "I didn't think about that… damn it."

"It's okay, really. Just knowing where it is is an amazing gift. I love it."

"Well, we could wait or…" He looked at her again. "Do you trust me?"

The answer came out of her before she could even fully think it through. "Of course."

Natsu nodded and then gently pulled her face to his chest. "Close your eyes and don't move, okay? I've never done this before with someone else and I don't want you to get to jostled too hard."

Lucy pressed herself back against him and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. Once his arms were around her again, he began to murmured quietly. Lucy couldn't understand the harsh words, but as he spoke, the air around them began to vibrate. A buzzing sound built up in her ears and her body began to shake. Lucy grit her teeth a little and tried to hold steady, but she didn't have to try long. The noise and movement all stopped simultaneously and Natsu sighed.

"That was easier than I expected."

Lucy slowly pulled away, in case it was too soon, and when he didn't stop her, she tilted her head back and opened her eyes. As she looked around, she realized everything was very dark, until she looked up.

Hundreds of stars sparkled overhead, dozens of constellations that Lucy recognized blinking at her as though they were saying hello. "How?…"

"It's very limited, but I can jump through time a little." Natsu wobbled a little as he pulled away. "I moved us forward a few hours so you could see the stars."

Torn between being impressed and a little annoyed that he hadn't asked first, Lucy slowly looked around them as Natsu sat on one of the boulders. In the dark, the clearing looked no different than the last time she'd been there. That Natsu had put in so much time and effort to find this place for her again… Lucy didn't know if she could repay that kind of debt.

"You know, this is an awfully impressive first gift," she said, trying to make a joke around the lump steadily growing in her throat. "How are you expecting to top this one?"

"This isn't your first gift," Natsu argued.

"It is since we started dating," Lucy said. "You just set expectations awfully high."

Natsu blinked a couple times looking worried, before he scoffed. "I'll worry about it once you manage to catch up."

Lucy's eyebrows shot up. "Catch up?"

He gestured around them. "It's going to be awfully hard to give me something this good. Until then, I think I'm winning this gift giving thing, so I won't worry about topping it."

"I think I can surprise you," Lucy said with a smile before she slowly spun around to look at the surrounding trees. She paused with her back towards him, her head tipped back to stare above her at the stars.

"Natsu?"

"Hmm?"

Lucy licked her lips. "I… you know what this place needs?"

"What's that?" he asked.

"More memories." She clasped her hands behind her back. "I want to make more memories here. With you."

"What did you have in mind? We could hang out and look at the stars if you'd like. I'd love to hear the stories you've been taught about them."

"I'd like to do that, too." She turned so she could look over her shoulder. "That's not the kind of memory I had in mind, though."

"What would you like to do?"

Lucy struggled not to hesitate as she spoke. "I'd like to… do stuff with you."

When she looked his way again, Natsu was squinting at her, obviously confused. "I feel like I should understand what you're trying to say, even though it's so vague."

"I want to… do stuff with you," she said again.

Even in the dark, she could see when the gold entered his eyes. His voice was just a little deeper when he spoke. "Things that couples would do, you mean? Things the would require… a bed?"

Lucy nodded as she spun to fully face him again. "I don't want to go all the way, not yet, but I want to… do other things."

"From what I've seen, don't most people wait until the third date to kiss? Isn't 'more' a little too soon?"

Lucy shook her head slowly. "It doesn't feel too fast, not with you. It feels… right."

Natsu's eyes practically glowed in the dark as he slowly got to his feet and moved to stand in front of her. Lucy's breath puffed out in front of her as her mouth fell open. "I don't really want to undress you outside where it's so cold and open."

Lucy chuckled quietly. "That's not very adventurous of you."

Natsu's fingers slid along her jaw, causing her eyes to flutter closed as he tilted her head. "The ground is hard."

"Magic us up a bed," she breathed.

Natsu sighed against her cheek as Lucy's hands moved up his sides, finding his skin under his shirt. "I don't want you to get cold."

"That can't possibly happen if you're with me," she whispered. When Natsu's nose skimmed her own, Lucy opened her eyes and lifted onto her toes so she could kiss him. The growl in his throat made her smile, and when his arm wrapped around her, she knew she'd won as he held her head still for his lips.

As he ravaged her mouth, the only sounds in the space were her moans and sighs and his harsh breath.

After some time, her jacket was yanked from her body, and she was lifted into the air, only to have her boots roughly pulled from her feet. "Luce… you'll have to make sure I don't hurt you. Or do anything you don't want me to do."

"You can't hurt me," she said as she dug her fingers into his hair. "I don't think you have it in you."

"Just… promise me you'll stop me if you don't like something."

His tone was pleading, so she pulled away to reassure him again, but got distracted.

All around them, candles floated in the air. A large mattress, covered in pillows and blankets, had appeared in the middle of the clearing. As she continued to stare wide eyed around them, Lucy was suddenly flung into the air. She landed with a giggle on the bed and was instantly covered by a shirtless Natsu. He leaned down and lightly kissed his way down her jaw. "You're wearing an awful lot of clothes," he whispered. "How much of it would you like help removing?"

Lucy moaned quietly when he nibbled on her ear and then laved it with his tongue. "I- I think I'd like most of it off." Gods above, she was still in her pants and shirts and she was already more turned on than she'd ever been in her entire life.

When Natsu's body heat suddenly became more intense, she opened her eyes and saw that her sweatshirt was gone. "How'd you do that?"

"Don't worry, it's on the ground. I just didn't want to try very hard to get it off." Natsu's hands were slowly sliding around the top of her pants.

"Do you… do you plan on taking all my clothes off like that?"

Natsu chuckled. "No, I want to enjoy taking off the rest."

Lucy stuck her lip out in a pout. "You know, I'd like to do that to you as well, but you've already taken your shirt off."

Natsu pulled back, and with a grin his shirt reappeared on his body. "By all means, master, do to me what you please."

Lucy narrowed her eyes at the challenging glint in his eyes, so in a move that only worked because she surprised him, she rolled him over and straddled his waist. Natsu grinned up at her in response to her smile. "I think I will, thank you."

His muscles were hot and hard under her hands as she slowly ran them up his abs, raising his shirt inch by slow inch. Half way up, Natsu made a move to help her, but she quickly grabbed his wrists and held his arms down at his sides. "Uh uh," she admonished him. "You keep your hands to yourself. This is my turn."

A growl was Natsu's only response as the gold in his eyes increased slightly. His breathing became more labored as she went back to work, but he did nothing to rush or help her. With her eyes firmly on his, she leaned down once she'd revealed his chest and showered kisses over his exposed skin. Natsu's nostrils flared and his hips rolled as he watched her, his hands fisting into the blankets as she licked carefully at his nipples. He groaned as his head sank into the pillows, not sure how such a move could make him feel so much.

Lucy made a note of his reaction before she finished taking off his shirt. When she tossed it onto the ground to join her own, Natsu flipped her onto her back again. "My turn," he growled as he grabbed the hem of her shirt and shoved it up.

The heat in the clearing amped up as Natsu's mouth found the skin of her stomach. Lucy closed her eyes as she reveled in the attention he gave her body, not sure she'd ever had such an intense focus on her before.

Natsu spoke between kisses and licks, struggling to find the words. "Luce… I don't know what I'm feeling right now… I can't seem to control my body." He drank deep the smell of her skin as he moved back towards her neck. "Stop me if you have to. Hit me, kick me, whatever you have to do. I don't know… if I can control myself. I've never done this before so I'm only working with instinct." He buried his nose in just over the vein in her neck. "And with your smell in my nose… I can't seem to think, only act."

"I highly doubt I'll need to- ahhhhh." Lucy gasped as her shirt was suddenly ripped from her body and Natsu's mouth latched onto her left breast. His canines poked at her skin, possibly into it, but Lucy didn't care. Pleasure- hot, heavy, overpowering- pulsed through her body as Natsu's hands and mouth desperately roamed over her body.

When his mouth found hers again, she met him kiss for kiss as her muscles melted in the heat he was producing. When he finally pulled away to breathe, she opened her eyes and saw that his had changed.

Instead of the usual rings, the gold and onyx were swirling together. Lucy wondered if that meant the dragon and Natsu had managed to share the space inside Natsu's head, but before she could think about it further, Natsu's hands grabbed the top of her pants and yanked, tearing them from her body as well.

Lucy wanted to be upset, but she figured the clothes were a small price to pay for the intensity of the feelings surging through her as Natsu continued to touch and tease her. His lips, his hands, his body… it was all so much more overwhelming than she'd imagined.

Her last thought, as her bra fell to the same fate as her shirt and pants, was that she could always have him fix her clothes later.