Author's Note:

Here it is! The extra chapter I promised. :D

As always, a huge thank you to all my wonderful reviewers. Big hugs and thanks to all my repeat reviewers - TheJSmooth, WisdomDragon27, Elphaba818, and moeruhoshi. I always really look forward to, and enjoy all your comments. An equally big hug and thanks to my two new reviewers - and MiseryWolf97.

We got enough reviews for a preview! So stay tuned till the end.

I hope everyone enjoys this fluffy chapter! Let me know if you want another early posting. ;P

On with the show!

When they got back to the guild, Lucy hurried to report to Master Makarov that the mission was a success.

She was rushing because she really wanted to get back to her apartment and rest. All the way home she had felt worse and worse – aching, nauseous, and feverish, like she was coming down with the flu. What really sucked extra hard about that, was the fact that Fairy Tail was holding the Cherry Blossom Festival later this week, and she had the distinct feeling that she would probably be in bed as sick as a dog when it came.

Even worse, it didn't feel like a normal illness either, and she had the sinking feeling that it might be a side effect of having her shadow stolen – as temporary as that had been.

After signing off with Master Makarov, she spun around and hurried to leave the guildhall, knowing that she was going to get sidetracked if she stayed too long. In fact, she was in such a hurry that she left Natsu there alone to talk to the master about joining Fairy Tail. He didn't complain though … he knew how bad she was feeling.

Happy flew her home at top speed, and the whole way there she felt like she was going to puke. As soon as they practically busted down her door, she made a beeline for the toilet. Sure enough, up came her breakfast and lunch … and what felt like maybe even last night's dinner. Even after everything had been removed, she was left dry heaving into the porcelain bowl for a good while … long enough that she was still bent over it when Natsu's voice resounded through her apartment.

"Hey Luce! Guess what?!"

The only thing she could muster up as a response was a weak groan, and soon the sound of Natsu's fist pounding on the bathroom door bombarded her sore head.

"Oi! You okay?" His voice had switched from eager and excited to worried.

"Nnng…" was about all she could manage, and then another dry heave made her whimper a little with self-pity and pain. Her throat felt like it was on fire, while her stomach felt like it had been punched with a bowling ball. The taste in her mouth wasn't great either.

Happy thankfully answered for her. "No. She's been puking her guts out ever since we got back."

"Shit. I'm coming in okay?"

Lucy couldn't even feel proud of him for finally learning at least a little self-control and asking first before barging in. She just didn't have the energy. But she did manage a weak nod, which Happy translated for her out loud.

"She says okay!"

The sound of her door opening alerted her to the fact that he was indeed entering her bathroom.

"Wow, you really do look like shit."

That statement was perfectly punctuated by some more dry heaves, which left her gasping for breath and wincing in discomfort.

"Hey, come on. Let's get you in bed. I don't think you got anymore to give the toilet."

She weakly nodded and let him sling her arm over his shoulder so he could hoist her onto her feet and help her into the bedroom. She did pause to rinse and spit in her sink with some mouthwash, even though she didn't really have the energy to do so. Every part of her ached, and her skin broke out in a cold sweat – both from the continuing nausea and what felt like a spike in fever. She'd felt like she had a low grade one the whole way home, but it really seemed to be setting in now.

After clearing the nasty taste out of her mouth, Natsu dragged her out into the bedroom, plopped her down on the bed, and loosely covered her with her quilt.

For a long while, she lay there under the blanket, huddled in a ball and feeling miserable while drifting in and out of purely exhausted half-sleep. She could hear Happy and Natsu talking softly in the background off and on.

After a while of that, things started getting uncomfortable enough that she began to shift under the blanket, pulling halfheartedly at her clothing to try and give herself a little more room to curl up comfortably. Her bra was pulling on her breasts and shoulders, her shirt had twisted up in some really unfortunate ways, and her skirt had ridden up and was bunched around her waist. What made it worse were the shivers and aches that continued to wrack her frame and seemed to only be getting worse.

As soon as she began moving around, Natsu was by her side.

"Hey, is there anything I can do? What do you need?"

He obviously didn't know squat about taking care of someone who was sick, but she was touched that he wanted to try and help.

"J-just…could you get my pajamas out of the drawer?"

She knew that he knew where they were. One of his hobbies when he was bored was to go through her stuff – no matter how many times she told him not to.

"Sure thing."

Soon he was back with the clothing she had asked for and she reached out a hand to grab them. She didn't feel like moving from her spot, so instead she disappeared under the quilt and somewhat awkwardly wiggled out of her current clothes and into her sleep clothes – reemerging to toss her skirt, blouse, and bra onto the floor. With a sigh she settled back into bed, feeling a lot more comfortable.

"Anything else I can do?"

She turned bleary eyes to look up at her pink-haired companion and smiled, her heart softening under his worried gaze. She had never seen him look quite so concerned before. Maybe he'd never seen someone get sick. It would explain why he seemed so freaked out.

"Um…some Tylenol and a glass of water? The Tylenol is in the cabinet over the sink in the bathroom."

"On it."

He disappeared, and she heard a commotion in her bathroom as he hunted for the pills. From the crashing sounds and cussing, Lucy would probably have some cleaning up to do whenever she was well enough to get around to it … but instead of irritating her like it normally would, she found it amusing. Maybe that was because she felt so fondly towards him at this particular moment.

He reemerged a bit later with the pills and quickly grabbed a glass of water, so he could bring her both. She downed the pills quickly and drank the water completely, knowing that if she did have a fever it was important to hydrate.

Speaking of… "Hey Natsu, c-could you also bring me the thermometer?" she asked through teeth that had just started to chatter.

Once again he ran off to find it, though this time Happy had to help since her celestial dragon had no clue what a thermometer looked like. Even more sounds of chaos and destruction met her ears, but she honestly didn't care at the moment.

She certainly felt like she had a fever, complete with drastic changes in freezing her tail off and then burning up. At the moment she was shivering like crazy and just couldn't seem to get warm. With a little squirming, she managed to get under all the covers of her bed and cocooned herself in them. Even so, she still felt like she was suffering under the effects of below freezing weather, despite it being perfectly 74 degrees in her apartment as always.

When he came back victorious with the thermometer, she grabbed for it and stuck it under her tongue, waiting for the little beep. Sure enough, when as she pulled it out and squinted to take a look at the numbers displayed, she groaned to see that it was a little over 101 degrees. A full-body shudder wracked her frame as if to confirm what she'd already just found out, and another small groan escaped her.

"Are you okay? What did it the thermobanger say? Why are you shaking like that? Are you cold?" Natsu asked, sounding utterly befuddled and at a loss.

"Yeah, I've got a f-f-fever. I feel like I'm freezing my b-b-b-butt off." Lucy stammered between chattering teeth.

Without a word, he grabbed the thermometer out of her hand and tossed it onto her bedside table. Then the covers were lifted up, and Lucy curled into a tight ball, already working on stuttering a protest. Before she could form a logical sentence though, the covers were already being sealed back up tight … but this time a certain dragon shaped space heater was crammed under them with her. For once, she didn't complain about Natsu being in her bed, and instead just curled into his warmth.

With the addition of his heat, she felt significantly more comfortable, and soon the Tylenol began to take effect and the aches eased up a bit as well. It wasn't long before she slipped into sleep.

When she woke, it was to the sensation of sweat coating her body, and before she was even fully awake her legs were kicking the covers off. Natsu was still coiled around her, which meant she had to shove him off as well.

He had apparently fallen asleep too, and her clumsy push woke him up – though it didn't budge him at all. "Wha…?"

"Too hot…" she whined, her legs working to push the covers completely off. They were hung around one foot and it took some thrashing to accomplish.

The thrashing jostled Natsu a good deal, and he woke fully. "Woah, geez Luce, calm down."

He finally got the picture and gave her a little space, having to unstick his body from hers since she had sweated so much.

"Crap, you're all sweaty."

"That's cause I'm hot." she repeated, breathing a little easier now that her overly warm partner was no longer wrapped around her.

"Right. Yeah."

All of a sudden she realized that she needed to use the restroom, and with a groan she clumsily made to get out of bed. Since Natsu was still on the bed with her, she had to climb over him. Normally she wouldn't even consider doing such a strange and awkward thing, but since fever and sleep were still dulling her brain she did it anyways.

It was just as uncoordinated and clumsy as one would expect, but even more-so because of how weak she felt. Her top half crawled over him, then one hand snagged on something and she faceplanted into his chest. Doing so gave her an up-close and personal feel of hot skin, and the scent of spicy charcoal filled her nose. Normally being pressed so close to a boy would have flustered her, but at the moment she was simply too uncomfortable, and her entire focus was getting to the bathroom so she could pee.

Natsu though seemed to be reacting a bit more, and even in her dazed state she registered how he tensed up beneath her.

"Um, Luce…what're you doing?"

"Bathroom…" she mumbled into his chest, but doubted the word was audible.

Just as clumsily as before, she levered herself up onto her hands again and proceeded to continue attempting to crawl over the speed bump that was Natsu. He squeaked when her knee came down hard on the bed between his legs, and he scooted up really quickly beneath her while spreading his thighs to give her knee some room.

"Watch it!" he gasped, and his hands landed hard on her waist to stabilize her.

She didn't even register that she had come incredibly close to crushing his family jewels. All she knew was that the way he suddenly moved knocked her off balance again and laid her out flat on top of him – despite the firm grip on her waist. This time though, her head and shoulder dangled off the bed while the rest of her splayed out over Natsu's body. Her shirt was caught between her ribs and the edge of the bed, and it stretched uncomfortably tight over her chest while the breast hanging over the edge threatened to pop out.

Up to this point she hadn't noticed Happy watching the entire spectacle. However, when she managed to get up enough strength to plant her hand on the ground and lift her head up, she came nose to nose with the blue cat, who had his mouth covered with both paws. His cheeks were puffed up with the effort of trying not to laugh apparently, and she scowled at her companion.

"Instead of standing there laughing, how about helping me?"

"Nope! This is way too funny to watch."

"Heartless bastard…" Natsu mumbled under his breath, and Happy snorted in response.

"Having a little trouble there Natsu?" the pest teased, and Lucy glared a little more.

"I'm the one having trouble!"

Now that she was officially awake, she put a little more effort into clambering off the bed, which resulted in practically dragging her body off Natsu and slinking onto the floor. The process left her shirt riding amazingly low on her chest, and her sleep shorts had nearly been dragged off her hips.

With a groan she sat up, wobbling a little in place for a moment. Unsteadily she managed to get to her feet once the world stopped feeling quite so unfocused. Her shorts and shirt were fixed haphazardly by clumsy fingers as she wobbled her way into the bathroom. She didn't even bother to look back at Natsu … though if she had, she would have seen an incredibly disheveled and shocked looking dragon.

When she reemerged, Natsu had exited the bed and was standing nearby to help. Plopping down onto the mattress, she groaned and held her head, which felt like it was going to pound its way off her neck. Once again, everything ached.

"How long has it been since I took the Tylenol?"

"Long enough to take another dose if you wanted."

"Huh?"

He held up the bottle. "It says on the back that you can take it every 4 hours."

She was mildly shocked that he had actually read the instructions. That was so utterly un-Natsu-like that she wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

At her baffled stare he grinned sheepishly and admitted, "While you were out, I used your lacrima to call Erza for advice. She said to make sure to read the information on all the meds you take, and a bunch of other stuff like that."

That explained it.

She sighed and nodded, holding out a hand for the bottle. He handed it over, and without being asked, grabbed a glass of water for her while she was pouring the pills into her hand to select two.

After she had downed the pills and water, her stomach made an almighty growl, reminding her that she basically hadn't eaten anything today – since she'd vomited everything up earlier. Natsu's eyebrows shot up on his forehead, but before he could comment, Happy beat him to it.

"Wow Lucy! You sound like Natsu and me!"

She grimaced, having to agree. They were the ones who usually had talkative stomachs.

"I can run down to the guild and grab you some soup from Mirajane if you want." Natsu offered, and she nodded.

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks Natsu."

Before he left, she added, "Oh, while you're there, could you ask Levy to look up the magic Gekko Moriah used? I really think this illness has to do with getting my shadow removed."

"Sure. No prob. I'll be back in a flash."

After closing the window behind him, she collapsed back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling – her feverish brain consumed with thoughts of her kind partner. It was so weird to her that he was acting so nice. Not that he was an unkind person – quite the opposite in fact – but he was incredibly dense when it came to feelings. Or maybe he just didn't care about embarrassing or irritating her … that was always possible. But he had never struck her as the type of guy who would take on the position of nursemaid.

Apparently she had been wrong.

Although – as the enormous mess he'd left in her bathroom suggested – he was still operating with the same level of intensity and mindless energy he did everything with. He wasn't exactly known for possessing a gentle touch when doing things, and her poor medicine cabinet had suffered the consequences. She'd simply cleared the bottles out of the sink and left the rest of the mess to deal with later, when she was feeling better.

Still, despite his lack of finesse, he was surprising her immensely with how he was taking care of her. It made something inside her soften up and get all warm and fuzzy in a weird way. He was showing her a side of himself that she hadn't known existed … a capacity for thoughtfulness that she hadn't thought he possessed. It was still brash, energetic, and a little too careless, but it was heartwarming. If he was anyone else, she might have said he was treating her almost…tenderly – a word she never would have previously applied to the destructive force known as Natsu.

For the first time, she wondered if maybe she had dismissed his potential as a romantic partner too soon. The happy, warm feelings currently swelling in her chest as she thought about him made her doubt the previous conviction she had about it. If he could show this level of thoughtfulness, maybe he wasn't just the destructive, boneheaded, teasing annoyance she'd always considered him to be. Those negative qualities had always kept her from feeling any attraction towards him, but now…if they were tempered with this previously unknown gentler side, maybe…

As soon as Lucy realized what path her feverish mind was taking, she shook her head with irritation. Even if she was a little attracted to him right now, it wasn't like she would ever pursue it. Just because those feelings had sparked a little didn't mean that it would work between them. He was a celestial spirit, while she was a human. That sort of thing might work for Loki and his harem of girls, but she doubted it would work for her.

When she thought of romance, it was always with the long haul in mind – marriage, kids, the works. Not right away of course, but eventually she really wanted those things. She wanted a family, the sort she had never had. And so, whenever she judged a guy's dateability, it was with that thought in mind…. which was probably why she'd never managed to date a guy longer than a month. The guys she had gone on dates with never seemed like they were interested in more than a quick fling…probably because of the way she looked and dressed. Then – whenever they inevitably tried to push her into sleeping with them – she would have to try and explain that she wasn't a slut and didn't dress the way she did to attract horny losers. She just dressed that way because she liked it – though if she were entirely honest with herself, it probably started as a way to rebel against her posh upbringing.

Whatever the case, with Natsu, she doubted a future and family like that could ever exist. There were probably celestial laws against marrying a human.

Besides, she really enjoyed the relationship they already had. He had become her best friend seemingly overnight, and she wouldn't want to potentially upset that just for the sake of romance. Friendship was a much higher priority for her than romance.

Still…

"What ya thinkin' about Lucy?"

She jerked as the slight weight of a certain blue cat landed on her chest. When her eyes opened, it was to the sight of his face in hers, and a smirk was plastered on his whiskery mug.

"Nothing in particular. Why?"

"That must be some hot 'nothing' to make you blush like that."

Thinking fast, she covered with, "I have a fever. Dummy."

To distract him, she reached up with one hand and proceeded to scratch his soft blue ears. As usual, it worked, and he dissolved into putty on her, the deep vibration of his loud purrs soothing her tummy.

About thirty minutes later, the sound of her window slamming open and a jolt on her bed woke her from the light doze she had fallen into. "Wha?"

Sitting on her bed with a broad grin and the window gaping open behind him was Natsu. Of course.

With a scowl, she mumbled, "How many times have I told you to use the door?"

He ignored her completely, and instead plopped a huge bowl of something heavy and hot on her stomach, unseating Happy. He tumbled off the bed and landed on the floor with a small bump and yelp.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" he spat as he jumped upright again.

"I brought soup!"

Instantly, Lucy's stomach made an embarrassingly loud noise, which made Natsu grin.

After fetching a bowl and spoon, she tucked into the warm chicken noodle soup with gusto, though when her stomach turned over she forced herself to slow down. She really would rather avoid spending any more time bent over her toilet.

As she ate, her eyes drifted up to Natsu, who was sitting on the end of her bed and playing with his fire to occupy himself. Happy had relocated to the kitchen table to eat a fish, which she refused to let him eat in bed. Lucy was just gearing up to scold Natsu for messing around with fire inside her apartment – which was something she constantly told him not to do, and he constantly did anyways – when she was distracted by the new red emblem on his shoulder.

"Oh! Congratulations Natsu!"

The fire between his fingers flickered out, and he turned to look at her with confused black eyes. "Huh?"

"For joining Fairy Tail." She pointed at the guild mark on his upper arm with her spoon.

A broad grin spread his lips and his eyes sparkled. "Oh yeah! I guess I never got to tell you huh?!"

"We'll have to celebrate when I'm better."

"Can we go to a buffet?"

Natsu had recently been introduced to the concept of a buffet, and ever since then he was smitten. She rolled her eyes and couldn't help but grin. "Sure, we can go to a buffet."

"Yeah! I'm fired up now!"

She chuckled and refocused on her soup while he rattled off the kinds of food he wanted to eat at this imaginary buffet in his mind. Once she was done, she put the dirty dishes on her side table and flopped back into bed, full and sleepy. After that she rested, drifting in and out of sleep again and fighting waves of fever.

That night was a mess. Every couple of hours, Lucy would switch between hot and cold, and Natsu would have to move accordingly.

"Natsu…cold…" She shuddered, and with a groan, he joined her under the covers and cuddled up to her.

Only two hours later, it had flipped. "…so…hot…"

"Damnitall Lucy, make up your mind already!"

"I can't help it!" she protested weakly and flapped her hand in his direction.

Surprisingly he put up with it and only offered token protests, but when morning rolled around they were both exhausted. When her communications lacrima started yelling at them they both groaned, and Lucy huddled under the covers even deeper to hide from the noise. There were a couple of other good reasons for her fetal position as well … such as the chills going through her and the gut twisting cramps that coiled through her middle. If she had to guess, she was gearing up for an epic case of the runs here in a bit, which she was not looking forward to.

When her lacrima kept trying to get their attention, Happy eventually got fed up with the sound and flew off to locate the large crystal ball before flying back and dropping it on the bed. It landed at their feet, and the sound of the person's voice got louder and even more annoying.

"You gonna answer that?" Natsu eventually asked with a growl in his chest.

"Nu-uh," she whined and shook her head, which was under the covers currently, so it wasn't clear whether Natsu would even see it.

He sighed and sat up to grab the crystal before flopping back down into a horizontal position.

"Yeah?" he grumbled at the thing.

What was now recognizable as Levi's voice sounded from the crystal. "Natsu? It's about time! Do you how long I've been trying to get one of your attention?"

Completely ignoring her tirade, he yawned and mumbled, "Oh hey Levi, what's up?"

She sighed and apparently decided to let it slide, instead launching into the reason for her call. "I looked into that magic you asked me to, and Lucy's right. That sort of dark magic can really make you incredibly sick…and she's only going to get worse. I contacted Porlyusica and she said she'd mix up an antidote for her. She'll probably be dropping by sometime this morning."

"That's great news, good job Levi." he said, but the excitement was cut with another yawn.

She chuckled, no longer sounding irritated at all. "Alright, well I'll let you get back to sleep now."

"K," he grunted and hung up.

Sure enough, just as Levi warned, a certain grumpy healer showed up at their door only a couple of hours later. She dropped off the vial of liquid, giving dosing instructions, and then left.

…

Even with the antidote, it was several days later before Lucy even began to feel remotely better. Still, she was nowhere near well. As she'd dreaded, she was going to miss the Cherry Blossom Festival, which was really disappointing, and she couldn't help but be depressed about it. She loved all of Fairy Tail's annual celebrations and festivals and did her very best to never miss one.

Being both sad and sick was a horrible combination, and the morning of the festival she simply stayed huddled up under her covers when she woke.

"Why do I have to be sick today of all days…" she mumbled quietly to herself, sulking at the injustice of it all.

"What'cha mopin' about Luce?" a voice asked from right next to her.

With a jerk, she realized that Natsu was in bed with her and threw back the covers to give him a grumpy look.

"Hey! I said my fever's pretty much broken, so I don't need you to sleep with me anymore! What are you doing in my bed?!"

He totally ignored her mini-hissy fit, and instead continued on his previous train of verbiage. "Are you mad you can't go to the Cherry Blossom Festival?"

That took her by surprise. As far as she knew, he didn't know about the festival.

"Huh? How did you know about that?"

"Mira mentioned it to me when I went to get your soup the other day. She said you'd probably be sad to miss it."

"Oh…" That made sense, and she slumped back into her cocoon. "Yeah. I wish I was feeling up to going…but I'm just not. I still feel like fucking shit." – the last bit was growled angrily as she huddled down into her covers.

With a low whistle, Natsu commented, "Yeah you must be, cause you rarely cuss like that."

She just 'hmphed' in reply and turned away from him again to pout some more. That plan was thrown out the window though when Natsu vigorously began jostling and bouncing her.

"Come on Luce! Get up!"

"…why?"

"Cause I said so!"

That got a grunt, and she refused to give him more than that. When she didn't respond, he seemed to give up temporarily, but then something that smelled amazing was shoved under her nose. It was a familiar smell – one which instantly made her mouth water.

"What the…pancakes? Are these the blueberry pancakes from that little restaurant down the street?"

"Yep!"

"I told him they were your favorite!" A perky voice piped up, and Lucy finally sat up to give her blue cat a grateful smile.

Then she turned the smile on Natsu, and said, "Thank you both."

"Yeah no problem! We got enough for all of us!"

Lucy's eyes instantly landed on the enormous takeout bag on her kitchen table and just rolled her eyes. It was both funny and tragic, because she knew they would run out of money again pretty soon at this pace. Still, that couldn't keep her from digging into her own plate with gusto.

"Happy? You dropped off that envelope in the landlady's box mailbox right?" she asked through her pancakes, referring to an envelope filled with this month's rent that she had given him yesterday.

"Aye Sir!"

"Oh good. Thank you." she sighed, feeling herself relax completely. As long as the rent was paid, this little splurge for breakfast wasn't a problem.

After they finished their meal, Natsu surprised her once again. Out of a huge canvas bag, random games came pouring. Lucy stared with her mouth agape as he dumped Monopoly, packs of cards, a box of dice, a chess/checkers board, dominoes, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Scrabble, crossword puzzles, sudoku, Trouble, Pictionary, and quite a few games she had no name for. As usual, he had overdone it, but the gesture was shockingly sweet and considerate…especially for a guy who barreled through life with the attention span of a gnat.

Natsu parked his butt on the carpet and gave her a broad toothy grin. "You guys play games as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival right?"

"Yes…"

"Well then come on! What are you waiting for? Pick a game already!"

Happy joined in on the festivities instantly and sat to one side as he pawed through the pile of games.

A bubble of happiness that had slowly been filling since he presented her with breakfast threatened to pop, and she fought down a grin of her own as she sat on her thick living room rug with a blanket draped around her shoulders.

They settled on Monopoly to start with and played a rousing game in which Natsu burned down boardwalk and Happy ended up in jail more times than she could count. They jokingly started calling him "The Fish Thief" and made up some story about how he would creep around at night stealing everyone's fish while they were asleep.

After that, they played some card games – largely poker and Go Fish – with the caveat being that the first loser of each game had to do whatever the winner told them to. Lucy won the first game of Go Fish and made Happy do his best Erza impersonation. When Natsu won at poker, he made Lucy act like a dog for a full minute, while he told her to sit, stay, and roll over. Happy made them both flop around like fish when they tied for last place. Lucy's performance was much less energetic.

After several hours of fun, Natsu pulled out a giant picnic basket from somewhere. "How about lunch?! Mirajane packed a picnic for us with the same food they'll be eating at the festival!"

And yet again, Lucy was left wondering just where her idiot of a partner had gone and who had replaced him. Surely this super thoughtful guy couldn't be him…right? Or maybe Natsu had been duping her this whole time, and he was actually really observant and considerate. Somehow she doubted it. Nobody could pretend to be as oblivious as Natsu was sometimes.

…

After their late lunch, Lucy's limited energy had begun to flag, so they relocated to her bed and she snuggled down into the covers as they played Scrabble. She only lasted another hour or two before she began to doze off, leaving Happy and Natsu to finish their game, but she still won by a wide margin. After all that activity, she fell sound asleep for several hours, and only woke up when Happy started shaking her shoulder.

"Lucy, wake you. You've gotta see this!"

"Huh? What?" she groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

All the lights were out in her apartment, so the magnificent rainbow glow coming in from her window was even more vibrant and instantly grabbed her attention. She quickly scrambled across her bed and flung open the window to stick her head out. It didn't take her long at all to find the light source, and she stared wide-eyed at the huge glowing rainbow cherry tree in full bloom floating down the river on a boat.

"What the…Natsu…" she breathed – in a state of shock, awe, and wonder as she watched the stately progression slowly float past her window, petals blowing in the wind and landing on her hair and floating into her room. The sweet scent of it wafted with the petals, filling the air with the smell of cherry blossoms.

This had to be Natsu's doing, there was no doubt in her mind. Even her crazy guild wasn't insane enough to uproot the largest cherry tree and send it on a boat down the river past her apartment. Warmth flooded her chest, and she rested her chin on her folded arms and watched until it had completely drifted out of sight.

"That idiot…" she sighed, but a peaceful smile rested on her face and there was absolutely no irritation in her voice.

…

The next morning, the first thing Lucy said to him was, "Thank you Natsu…" and then she added, "I hope you replanted it."

"I uh…I dunno what you mean…" he stuttered

A brilliant flash of light later, a certain cocky lion was suddenly present in her room as well. "He couldn't have done it without my help."

"I never asked for your help, you jackass!" Natsu bellowed, and the two engaged in a mild fistfight – mild because they both knew that if they broke anything, Lucy would banish them from her room for weeks.

A smile spread across her lips, and the gentle laughter that flowed from her stopped them both in their tracks as they turned to stare at her. Soon, they too sported wide grins and joined in with chuckles of their own.

Sneak Peek - whoops, I forgot! So I re-uploaded with it. :D Sorry guys!

One particular day found her at the board as usual, working on picking out a last-minute job to help cover her rent expenses – which were due yet again. Before she could decide on one though, Master Makarov suddenly marched down the stairs from the second floor and hushed everyone so he could make an announcement.

All fighting, drinking, and talking ceased as every head turned towards Makarov.

"Everyone! I've just been told by the Magic Council that our guild has been chosen to take on a supremely important mission!"

The silence grew even deeper as everyone's interest was piqued.

"A team of our choosing will meet up with teams from three other chosen guilds, and then all of you will hunt down the Oracion Seis."

Various sounds of shock resonated through the room as they were told the details of the mission. The fact that they were going to be taking on the Oracion Seis was completely shocking and blindsided them all with the abruptness of it.