Author's Note:
Hello! It's Wednesday! And you all know what that means...another new chapter! Thanks to everyone and their WONDERFUL reviews.
So of course, I wanna give a wholehearted shout out to all the fantastic people who made it possible. :D BIG hugs and thanks to all my repeat reviews: Daisy73, 19vanelkc, Shadowslayer15, valerioux, mumof4, TheJSmooth, Ksta, Firefly9917, The Rain Will Fade, Elphaba818, thechani, ravenqueen162, Wolves silver wind, MiseryWolf97, ThatOneAnimeGirl08, moeruhoshi, Donthedarkdragon26, WisdomDragon27, Leomae2.0, and Larissa. Love you guys! And EQUALLY big hugs, thanks, and love to my newest reviewers: kilatails and TheOldIronKing!
So now...on with the show! I know you're all anxious to see what happens. :D And as you'll notice, it's another double chapter! Yay!
Be sure to stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek of next chapter and a short Author's Note.
It had been several weeks since the whole Juvia kidnapping incident, and Natsu had been spending most of that time confused and with a headache as he tried to wrap his mind around the weird things he was constantly feeling now.
Things had changed…big time.
Natsu was not great with emotions and stuff – not the gooey fluffy kind of emotions at least. He knew when he was fired up and ready for a fight. On those few occasions where he truly got angry, there had been no doubt that he was pissed. Sadness was a no-brainer, especially after losing his dad. Happiness was his normal state of being, so he had no problem identifying that.
Those were all feelings he had plenty of experience with, but these new ones he'd been struggling with were unlike any he had ever felt before.
They were warm and fluffy and made him feel like he was sitting in a sunbeam on a soft poofy cloud. It was kind of like friendship in a way…sort of like the happy, warm, caring feelings he got when he saw Happy do something cute or funny, or the kind of feelings he experienced when his new adopted family all banded together and supported one another. Loyalty, the urge to protect, a deep sense of comfort…those were all there too, and they were also familiar. He'd been feeling those things for a while now whenever he walked into the guildhall, and even more-so when he walked into Lucy's apartment. It was a sense of belonging and of home.
All of that stuff was sort of hard to identify though and even harder to name for someone like him who rarely put words to this kind of stuff, but for the past couple of weeks he'd been trying to do just that…mainly because everything had suddenly gotten so much more somehow.
And it was all tied to Lucy. That was the one thing he did know without a doubt.
He couldn't get her out of his mind, couldn't stop wanting to be around her twenty-four-seven, and basically just wanted to snuggle with her all the time. If he could have transformed into a small form – like a tiny version of his dragon self – and wrap himself around her neck to be worn everywhere, he probably would've been perfectly happy with that. He just couldn't get enough of her.
At night, he couldn't help but be even more insistent on sleeping with her, despite getting kicked out repeatedly. Occasionally, she'd let him stay, but it was still a rare and awesome thing when he was able to actually spend the whole night with her without being banished from the apartment – and she still kicked him out of bed when she woke up in the mornings.
Basically, she'd turned into one big dragon magnet, and he was helplessly stuck to her.
If it had just been that though, he wouldn't have been too perturbed about it. However, there were some other things going on that confused him to the point where he really had to figure it all out … or risk being driven insane.
Even while he craved it … being close to her and inhaling her unique and pretty aroma drove him absolutely nuts. As soon as her scent drifted into a room, it was like every sense in his body was tingling and pointing a big fat red arrow right at her – forcing his eyes, his ears, even his nose to swing in her direction. The whole thing was a huge distraction. It was even making it tough to get any brawling done – because any time he started, she would walk up, distract him, and he would end up with a fist in the face. It was even worse on the few missions they had gone on in the past few weeks.
And then there were the boners…
Natsu had never been one to pop a boner randomly. He was a dragon…it just wasn't really something dragons did on a regular basis. It was probably a carryover from having a massive reptile form – which was lucky. When he was fully transformed, he was twice the size of a normal two-storied house, and he couldn't really imagine anyone being overly enthused by a dick the size of a bus suddenly coming into the picture. Normally it was tucked up in his scaled belly in that form…but, yeah, he could still get an erection. So, the asexual thing just carried over to his human form.
That had all changed though.
Now, sometimes around Lucy he would randomly have a physical reaction without realizing that he'd made the decision to do so. It was like his brain had shut off and gone on autopilot.
It was usually triggered by something that normally never would have sparked interest in him, but somehow when Lucy did it he was suddenly all fired up. Something as simple as her sucking on an ice pop, or a drop of sweat going down her neck, or lifting her foot onto a chair to put on her shoes, or even just bending over in one of those short skirts of hers…. They were all things she'd done a million times before, and yet now he felt like he'd been slapped across the face each time. Hell, just her scent was enough to nearly toss him into boner-land face first without a warning.
All the warm fluffy sweet feelings combined with the crazy lust was just about ready to drive him up the wall…which was why he'd been wracking his brains to try and figure out what the hell was happening to him. The one thing he could come up with, was that he was falling in love with her. That was the only emotion that made sense, and it took a ridiculously long time for him to figure it out. He'd never been in love, so how the hell would he know it would be this all-consuming and crazy? Of course, he wasn't absolutely positive, but he was pretty sure that's what it was.
And now that he'd sort of pinned it down, he could look back and see the signs leading up to it.
Since she'd become his mage, she had also quickly become his best friend and the most important person to him in the whole world. It wasn't just that she held his contract and was his key to this world – it was way more than that. She made him laugh and feel happy. She was so kind, loving, warm, and gentle – but also had a fiery temper, fierce loyalty, and a ferocious attitude … and basically everything that a dragon like him could hope for in a claimant.
He'd loved her as his best friend almost since the beginning, because she was Lucy, and there was only one Lucy. In his entire long life, he had never encountered anyone like her before…someone who made him feel like he was coming home, like comfort and warmth – but that also riled him up and made him want to go on an adventure with her. She was so funny and happy and full of sunshine, and he would follow her to the ends of the earth.
So really, it was no wonder why'd he'd fallen in love with her. Who wouldn't? He honestly didn't know how long he'd actually been in love with her …. probably months now.
It was kind of ridiculous that he only realized he loved her as more than a friend after what happened on Juvia's rescue mission.
When he'd gotten a face-full of the scent of a turned-on Lucy, he'd basically had a heart attack… twice. That had made it absolutely impossible to mistake the fact that he was attracted to her, despite him being dense about that stuff. You can only be oblivious about something until it goes and slaps you in the face before yelling in your ear, "YOU LIKE HER, DUMBASS!"
So yeah, after that there was no denying the fact that he liked her like that.
Of course, he'd still had to spend the last few weeks processing it, because while the insane animal attraction was as obvious as stepping in shit, the rest of his feelings had still been a confusing pile of mash.
And then, realizing he was in love with her only made more problems and questions that he had to figure out. Knowing that he loved her only solved the question of why he was feeling this way, but it didn't really answer the question of, "what the fuck now?"
What was he supposed to do? Now that he knew he loved her…was there an obvious next step?
He couldn't help but want to be with her, even though he wasn't exactly sure what all went into romance or dating…. and that was actually an option now, since he knew good and well that she'd been completely claimed by his fire if cauterizing her wound only STUNG. That should have hurt like hell.
Naturally, knowing that he could now make her his mate only made him want to be with her even more. Hell, he'd marry her – or in his case, do all the ceremonial shit required to officially make her his mate for life – in a heartbeat if she'd let him. He wanted to be by her side, through heaven or hell, for as long as he drew breath into his sorry lungs. But wanting to change their relationship was a problem too, because he didn't want it to change in any bad ways. He just wanted to be closer to her and love her, but he was worried that she didn't feel the same about him. If he pushed her for something she didn't want, it might cause her to not like him anymore as a friend, and that was not acceptable.
The only thing he could do really, was just wait and see what happened.
It grated on his nerves…he was NOT a wait and see kinda guy…but the thought of doing something wrong and losing Lucy was a million times worse than waiting.
Dragons could be patient, when they were hunting a treasure that required them to be.
…
Meanwhile, Lucy was just doing her best to forget everything that had happened and had focused all her attention on business as usual. Of course, the first thing she did when she got back from rescuing Juvia was to form a contract with her new spirits.
After the battle with Aster had concluded and they were on their way home, three of the spirits had come to her and offered her their keys.
Amaterasu, the alpha of the Lupus constellation, was the first to show, and it was clear to see her gratitude and her pleasure at offering Lucy her pack's key. Lucy was just as happy to take the beautiful red and white key as the wolf was to give it. She couldn't wait to show her new canine companion that not all celestial mages were dicks.
The second to pop up was Lepus, the rabbit spirit. Lucy was immediately smitten with the little yellow guy, and he with her. He made the cutest noises she had ever heard, a high pitched "peeka!" sometimes followed by "choo," as if he was sneezing. Given that, she couldn't resist giving him the nickname 'Pikachu' or just 'Pika' for short, and he seemed to really like it, given his excited squeaks.
The first two spirits to offer her their keys were friendly and happy. The last one was…not.
To her shock, Genbu had sulkily appeared on the train ride home. This time he was significantly better put together, and she eyeballed his different get-up with some surprise. His green hair was slicked up and forwards into something that looked a little like a rooster's comb, and he wore a knee-length maroon duster over a skin-tight black turtleneck. His black pants from before were now tucked into maroon boots that matched his coat, much to her amusement.
He interrupted her appraisal by shoving his key in her hands, saying, "Here. Take this. I'll make my contract with you right now. These are my conditions: do NOT summon me. I'll come and help ya out if I feel like it. Otherwise just consider that," he pointed at the beautiful jade key he'd handed her, "as super expensive decoration."
She had nodded, a little shocked, but figured that he was probably fed up with celestial mages and simply didn't want to be stuck with another asshole. She was touched that he at least trusted her to keep his key safe, if nothing else.
So, she had simply said with a smile, "Of course. Thank you for entrusting your key to me. I promise it's in good hands." After a brief second, she remembered something else, and quickly asked, "Oh, and I remember you saying that you didn't like Aster to call you Genbu. So, what should I call you?"
To her surprise he had blushed vividly, and then suddenly turned his back to her. "Uh…you can call me B-B-Bartolomeo." he stammered in a supremely high-pitched tone, and then poofed – leaving her wondering what the hell had just happened.
Compared to that strange interaction, Amaterasu – or Amy, as Lucy had taken to calling her – had turned out to be much more like Natsu. Her terms were pretty much like his … she just wanted to come and go as she liked. Her pack pretty much stayed in the celestial realm though – which was good, because Lucy figured having thirty wolves following her around everywhere might make missions difficult to complete.
Which explained why, right now, Lucy was eating lunch at the guildhall flanked by Happy on one side and a white fluffy dog on the other. Amy had taken to following her around in a dog-sized pure white version of herself. Now she just looked like a white german shepherd or husky. She was parked on the bench next to Lucy, panting happily and looking around with bright amber eyes at everyone, most of who stopped to pat her on the head if they passed by.
Lucy's attention was completely distracted though when she saw Gray and Juvia walking in holding hands. They detached almost as soon as they passed through the door, but they had definitely been holding hands … and this hadn't been the first time she'd caught them doing something like that.
Narrowing her eyes, Lucy muttered, "What do you guys think? Are Juvia and Gray dating now or something?"
Happy looked up from his fish and predictably cooed, "They looove each other."
She rolled her eyes. "We all know that. But do you think they finally started dating?"
He shrugged. "Dunno, Gray is pretty stupid."
Lucy had to choke down a laugh at that, because her blue cat had pretty much nailed it on the head.
Amy's nose twitched as she sniffed in that direction. "Their scents are all over each other. I'd say they're a couple."
At that, Lucy's eyebrow cocked. "No kidding? Well, I might just have to have a little talk with our favorite water mage."
Getting up, she walked over to her blue-haired friend and snagged her, before dragging her back to their table. Juvia sputtered in surprise, but followed along willingly enough and then sat across from Lucy as the celestial mage plopped her there.
"Alright. Spill. You and Gray are dating now right?"
Juvia instantly turned bright red and started fiddling with her fingers. "Um…well…that is…"
The fact that she didn't immediately swoon and agree meant that she was serious about the question, and it was a dead giveaway.
"Come on Juvia. It's super obvious."
"Really? But we've been trying to keep it secret!" Juvia cried, looking upset. "I hope my darling Gray doesn't get upset…"
"I'm guessing it was Gray's idea to keep your relationship a secret?" Lucy asked, feeling irritation budding in her gut. She was going to have to talk with the ice mage.
"Well yes…he said that he didn't want to make a big fuss right away…"
Despite not looking sad, Lucy knew that her friend probably wanted to shout it from the rafters, so hiding it couldn't exactly be fun for her. She instantly wanted to go find Gray, but decided to stay with Juvia and chat for now.
However, she kept an eye on Gray, and later that day she pounced as soon as the two love birds were separate. When she spied Juvia sitting by herself for once at a table – probably waiting for Gray to return – she knew now was as good a time as any.
She sent Amy to distract Juvia – which she did quite successfully by parking her furry white butt right next to the water mage and plopping her upper half in Juvia's lap. Juvia was definitely a dog person, because she immediately buried both hands in the husky lookalike's fluffy ruff and cooed happily.
Meanwhile, Lucy hunted down Gray.
She found him at the bar and pulled up a stool next to him. As soon as Mira had gone to the other side of the bar, Lucy leaned in and said softly, "Soooo…I hear you and Juvia are Fairy Tail's new item."
He instantly stiffened and whipped around to give her a wide-eyed shocked glare. "Shhh!" he hissed and glanced around quickly to see if anyone had heard her.
Lucy could feel an unimpressed stink eye settle onto her face, and when he turned back to look at her he winced.
"Really? Are you that ashamed to be dating her?"
His worried look quickly changed to one of confusion. "What? Wait, no, never mind. Come on." He grabbed her arm and dragged her off to an empty corner.
As soon as he released her arm, she crossed both over her chest firmly and fixed him with a scowl. "Seriously Gray? Why are you so averse to having people know about you and Juvia?"
"Look, it's nothing like that okay? I'm not embarrassed about dating her or anything. I just don't like people butting into my private business, and you know how this guild reacts to stuff like this."
"You know people are going to find out. Nobody can keep a secret for very long in Fairy Tail."
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. It's only for a bit, I just wanna have some time with her to … you know … get used to being in a relationship and shit." By the end he was scratching his hair and looking really uncomfortable and irritable.
Lucy sat back on her heels and stared at him for a long moment, trying to figure out the validity of what he was saying. With a deep sigh she closed her eyes. "Okay. That's cool. But just don't wait too long okay? Because it'll make Juvia wonder if you're ashamed of her. Especially since you've always said that you'd never date her because she was 'fucking crazy.'"
She air-quoted 'fucking crazy' since she was citing him on that.
His face cringed a little, but he nodded. "Yeah. I get what you're saying."
"Alright, good."
As she turned to leave, she stopped and added, "By the way, I'm sorry for butting in. That's what you said you were trying to avoid, and here I am doing that exact thing."
"Nah, it's okay. I don't mind you doing it, you two are good friends. I just wanna avoid the big ruckus that everyone will throw when we finally tell the guild. You know they're all gonna start talking about sex in crazy inappropriate ways…and offer unasked-for advice…and ask a bunch of personal questions, like when we're getting married and when we plan to have kids…and all that crap."
Lucy laughed at his exasperated eye roll and the fact that he'd pretty much outlined exactly what would happen. "Yeah. They're all a bunch of nosy gossipers, that's for sure."
After that, she let it drop.
…
About a week later, Lucy was in the guildhall drinking a strawberry milkshake and reading Sorcerer Weekly – which had a great photoshoot of Natsu from his first interview as the newest hot member of Fairy Tail. They'd somehow managed to get him to look serious in one of the photos, and Lucy couldn't help but wonder how they got that particular smoldering expression. What had they told him to think about for his eyes to be burning like that? She would pay good money to know. In fact, she might even bother to ask sometime, but that might be a little awkward.
As she was pondering this, someone tapped her on the shoulder…which made her jump a foot in the air and swing around with a squeak. She halfway expected Natsu to be behind her and flushed at the prospect of getting caught looking at his pictures so intensely.
When it just turned out to be Juvia, she exhaled a long relieved sigh and groaned, pressing her palms to her flushed cheeks with embarrassment. "Juvia! You scared me! I thought you were Natsu!"
"You were worried he would catch you looking at his pictures?"
"Um. Yeah…"
When the water mage glanced over her shoulder, Lucy opened the magazine again to let her take a look. The blue eyes of her friend glanced over the pictures and she nodded. "He took some good pictures. Though nothing could compare to my beloved Gray's photospreads! I have all of them of course!"
"I hope they aren't tacked up to your walls. Gray would probably be turned off seeing that. And since you two are now… you know…he'll probably visit your rooms sometime."
"Oh yes. I took them down and put them in my diary."
Nodding, Lucy closed her magazine and turned to the water mage sitting in the seat next to her. "So, what's up? You look like you've got something on your mind."
As the bluenette twiddled her thumbs, Lucy took a long drag of her milkshake and waited, knowing that if Juvia was embarrassed about whatever she wanted to say, it might take her some time to spit it out.
"Well…you see, Darling Gray and Juvia take turns picking out where they go on a date. It's Juvia's turn, but she's drawing a blank…. So, Juvia was wondering if you might have any ideas?"
"Oh! Yeah, sure, no problem. Hm…let's see…I'm assuming that you two have already gone out to dinner right?" At her nod, Lucy thought a little more. "Picnic? Yes…okay…how about dancing?"
Juvia blinked. "No, we haven't done that. Dancing… that sounds like a lot of fun! I'll go tell my darling right now!" She turned to run away, but then skidded to a halt and turned back around. "Actually, would you and Natsu like to go on a double date with us? I mentioned to Gray that it might be fun to do, and he agreed."
Lucy was surprised. With the way those two butted heads – she was shocked that Gray would think hanging out with Natsu could ever be fun. "You're serious? He thought going on a double date with Natsu would be fun?"
"Well yes. Despite them fighting all the time, they really are quite good friends you know. Of course, he protested at first, but after calling Natsu a few bad names, he admitted that it might be fun."
That got a laugh out of her, because it sounded just like Gray. "Somehow I'm not surprised. Well, okay then! This will be fun."
Juvia grinned and turned to run off again in search of Gray. It was only after she had left that Lucy realized just what she had signed herself up for and froze in the process of taking another sip of milkshake. The cold substance sat in the straw and her mouth as her eyes widened, and she stared blankly ahead for a long moment. She had just unthinkingly agreed to go on a double date…with Natsu…who she had a roaring crush on.
Actually, by now she was pretty sure her crush had turned into something infinitely more dangerous. But that didn't mean that she couldn't still try to ignore the feelings. However… it might be a bit hard to ignore her feelings for him if they went on a date.
This could turn out to be incredibly awkward, and potentially emotionally problematic for her. Not to mention the double date involved DANCING of all crazy things – a very romantic activity – so that was bound to make everything even worse for her. Sure, friends could dance together, but with her secret feelings for him, it was going to feel romantic whether she wanted it to or not.
On the upside – Natsu would be doubtlessly be unaffected. Lucy suspected that he didn't even know the meaning of the word, 'date.' So at least she didn't have to worry about him getting the wrong idea. Probably.
As she was internally freaking out, Juvia jogged back over and quickly said, "Gray says okay! And we planned for this Friday, if you're free?"
Lucy numbly nodded.
"Wonderful! I have to go now. I signed up for a short mission, and my train leaves in an hour. I'll see you on Friday!"
She ran off, leaving Lucy feeling like she had just made a horrible mistake.
No sooner had Juvia left, than Natsu popped up out of nowhere – which just compounded the problem for Lucy, and she winced as his cheerful voice assaulted her from behind.
"Hey Luce! What's up?"
Slowly turning around, she eyeballed him, and then absentmindedly chewed on her lip … wondering how she was going to tell Natsu what she had signed them up for without making a big deal out of it. Really, it shouldn't be that difficult, since Natsu didn't think that way about her – or seemingly at all.
"Um, hey there Natsu." she greeted for starters, giving him a slightly uncomfortable smile.
He cocked his head. "What's wrong?"
Whoops. She really didn't want him to pick up on the fact that she was feeling awkward about this, because that could definitely tip him off to her feelings on the matter. The last thing she wanted was to let him know she had a fallen for him. That would make working with him way too awkward.
"Oh, nothing. I was just a little worried. I…uh, made plans for the both of us without thinking, and then realized that you might not want to go…"
"Is that all? Geez, you're such a worrywart sometimes! I'm sure I'll be cool with whatever you signed us up for. So what is it?"
"Um, Juvia asked if we'd like to go dancing with her and Gray this Friday…"
He narrowed his eyes. "Will I have to dance with the ice princess?"
"No! No of course not!" Lucy sputtered, unable to help but picture it in her head and then laughed hysterically at the thought.
"Oh. Okay then! Sure."
And that was the end of the conversation.
…
For the rest of the week, Lucy couldn't stop thinking about the fact that she was going on a 'date' with Natsu on Friday … though of course it wasn't a real date. Still, she wanted to look nice and even ended up purchasing a cute outfit – despite part of her screaming that it was dangerous to invest too much into this.
It was sort of accidental how it happened. On her way home from the market, a small clothing store caught her attention, and she couldn't resist investigating – groceries and all. A particular lovely red-orange dress displayed in the window had snagged her eye, especially since it was Natsu's favorite color.
The dress came to midthigh and had thin little straps, so it was a bit sparse for the chilly breeze that kicked up from time to time now that it was fully autumn. But she knew she could pair it with a few things she already owned to make it warmer. So, when it fit perfectly she couldn't resist buying it, and as soon as she got home she tried it on with white arm sleeves, white thigh-highs, and a pair of tan ankle boots.
Over all, she was quite happy with the outfit when it was all said and done…. but that didn't make her feel any better about the upcoming date. She just knew it was going to be awkward as hell.
When Friday finally rolled around, she did her best to alter the way she was thinking about the whole thing and tried to look forward to it instead of worry. Natsu would definitely be able to pick up on any negative feelings she might have, and like heck was she going to let that happen.
It didn't help when Happy made his usual comment of, "You loooove him," as she was doing her makeup.
"Oh, hush Happy."
"But you're getting all prettied up for him…so that must mean you -"
She interrupted him. "I always dress up when I'm going out with my friends! Now stop it! You're being annoying!"
He snickered and hopped up to sit on her dresser next to all her makeup. She sent him an unimpressed glance as he blinked innocently up at her. "Happy…"
"What? I didn't say anything!"
"You didn't have to…"
"Now who's being paranoid?"
"Watch it, Cat. Don't make me threaten to skimp on your fish."
He just grinned. "You wouldn't do that…"
"Don't push your luck." Lucy grumbled, rolling her eyes.
He was right of course. She wouldn't starve her cat just because he was being an ass, but that didn't mean she couldn't threaten it. Not that it did much good since he knew the threat was idle.
A little pop indicated that someone had taken it upon themselves to come and visit from the celestial realm, and Lucy glanced over her shoulder to see if it was Natsu. Even though she had expressly told the dragon that she didn't want him to interrupt her while she was getting ready for tonight, she halfway expected to see him behind her. Just asking him not to was hardly enough to stop him.
However, this time it seemed he had listened, because Amy was the one sitting on her bed.
"You look very nice." the fluffy white wolf complemented.
"Thanks Amy."
"Yeah, she spruced herself up real nice for her boooyfriend."
Lucy grabbed her blush poof and swatted it right in Happy's face, leaving a big pink splotch on his blue fur. He yelped and then sneezed, a cloud of pink powder drifting through the air, and Amy scoffed from her place on the bed.
"You were asking for that."
He glared at her and then sneezed again.
Lucy giggled and then gently patted him on the head and scratched his ears a little in apology.
He pouted but accepted the pets. "You're mean…" he mumbled, crossing his arms.
"Well, can't say I didn't warn you."
He grumbled a little but perked back up quick enough. "So, when is Natsu coming?"
"Uh…I told him to pop in around five…and it's four thirty now. So, about thirty minutes?"
"Why are you having him come so late?" he whined.
"I know you boys like to play and stuff, but I needed some girl time, okay? Besides, I knew you were going to be obnoxious and tease me. Natsu doesn't need to be subjected to that."
"It doesn't work on him anymore anyways…" he grumbled under his breath, sounding irritable. "Whenever I say, 'you loooove her,' all he does is just grin at me."
That was news to her, but she was glad that he had learned how to brush off the annoying comment. It still got Lucy every time.
…
Naturally, Natsu showed up early. About two minutes after she had noted the time, a pop and flare of heat signaled his arrival, and Lucy rolled her eyes, somehow not surprised by his lack of patience. When she turned around though, anything she might have said got whisked away, and she was left speechless instead.
Since the club they were going to had a 'no shirt, no shoes, no service' policy, she'd suggested he wear something other than his usual open vest. Somehow, she had doubted he would heed her request, but he had definitely proved her wrong.
He was still wearing his white scarf of course, but aside from that, he was wearing completely different clothes from what he normally did. Up top, his vest had been switched out for a blue-gray sleeveless coat with a collar high enough that it stuck out from under the top of his scarf. It was closed in the front down to his belt, under which it was parted to allow for ease of movement. The hem reached mid-thigh, replacing his skirt-thing. His pants were still baggy but had been switched out for a slightly less baggy black pair, and instead of his normal sandals, he wore tall black boots that his pants tucked into.
Over all, it was quite attractive on him, and seeing him in something knew made him look totally different in a weird way.
Apparently, she stared a little too long and too obviously, because he frowned and looked down at his outfit, then back up at her with a confused look. "Uh, is this okay? You said to dress up, so…"
"Oh, yeah, uh, it looks great Natsu. You look really good! You should switch out your outfit more often." she said maybe a little too enthusiastically, and his trademark grin popped back onto his face, complete with squinty eyes.
"Really? Awesome! So are you ready?"
"Yeah actually. Well, mostly, just give me one more sec here." She turned and touched up the last few bits of her makeup and then made sure her hair was still in the cute high ponytail Cancer had swept it up into earlier.
After a few last touchups she was finally ready to go do this thing, and so they set out in search of the dance hall that Juvia had told Lucy about. It took a little while to find, but eventually they were stepping through the front doors to a large club.
The music was the first thing that hit them, since it was pretty loud, but that was shortly followed by the impression of multicolored lights and lots of people. Thanks to Natsu's nose, they were able to easily find Gray and Juvia in the crowd, which otherwise would have been absolutely impossible. Not for the first time, Lucy was thankful for her partner's extra sharp sense of smell.
The other couple had already claimed a small table near the dancefloor, and as soon as they saw them Juvia waved and Gray scowled.
"Took you long enough Flame-for-Brains!" he yelled, which was the only way he could be heard over the music and other people.
"Well maybe if you'd given Luce better directions, we would've been here sooner!"
Of course Juvia was the one who had given them directions, but neither boy seemed interested in acknowledging that fact. They were much too busy starting up a rousing argument and were already forehead to forehead hurling insults at each other. Juvia and Lucy shared an exasperated and amused look, and without a word Lucy had grabbed Natsu's scarf and Juvia had snagged Gray's hand. Pulling them apart was no easy feat, but by working together the two friends managed to put some space between their partners.
"No fighting in here, got it?!" Lucy scolded Natsu, and let his scarf go as he nodded.
He coughed and rubbed his neck while giving her a dirty look, which she ignored since she knew good and well he was just fine. She'd yanked on his scarf a whole lot harder before without doing any damage to the practically indestructible dragon.
"So, do you guys wanna dance? Or did you wanna get a drink first?" Gray asked, acting as if nothing had happened.
Natsu was instantly distracted and glanced out to the dance floor, then looked back with a gleam to his eyes. "That looks like fun! Let's do that!"
He didn't give Lucy a chance to state her opinion on the matter because he'd snagged her hand and was already dragging her out onto the dance floor. She caught a glimpse of Juvia and Gray also standing and entering the dance floor, but her attention was quickly diverted to Natsu who had come to a halt in the middle of the room and was now looking around at all the various dancing. The song was upbeat and there were equal amounts of couples dancing together and individuals dancing separately. Many of the couples were dancing in slightly inappropriate ways, and a few were really pushing the envelope with some heavy grinding – all of which made Lucy highly uncomfortable.
Her people-watching was cut short by Natsu when he stated, "Hey Luce…I dunno how to dance."
Somehow that didn't come as a surprise, although it shocked her that she hadn't thought of that. "Um…well for a song like this, you just move your body to the music. Like that guy…or even Gray…wait, Gray can dance?!"
This was the first time Lucy had seen Gray dance, and he was shockingly good, leaving her with her eyes bugging out of her head as she stared in shock.
At the moment, he and Juvia were dancing separately – or more accurately, he was dancing and she was watching with hearts in her eyes. Lucy didn't exactly blame her blue-haired friend though, because even she was having trouble believing the sheer number of moves he apparently knew.
"You're not gonna beat me, Popsicle-Breath!"
Lucy snapped her head around at the exclamation and then got stuck staring at Natsu as he worked out how to dance. The first moves were clumsy and nearly took out a few of the other dancers, but after a long dangerous moment he seemed to get the hang of it. He mimicked a few of Gray's moves and a few of the other dancers' moves, and after absorbing those he started making up his own. A lot of them were wild and crazy and not exactly smooth by any stretch of the imagination – like lifting a knee and then making an Egyptian sort of motion with that hand while bobbing his head before repeating on the other side. Another had him jumping from one foot to the other while he made wild jazz hands. But perhaps the funniest one was where he did an exaggerated impression of the girls wiggling their butts.
Lucy nearly couldn't dance because she was too busy laughing, which thankfully didn't seem to offend him at all. In fact, he just grinned broadly at her and danced even sillier in an apparent attempt to try and make her collapse in stitches. Then abruptly their attention was caught by the crowd parting and surrounding someone who had decided to break dance. The hoots and hollers of the crowd had them both pausing and going over to watch the guy as he spun and twisted and flipped and did a bunch of pretty awesome floor moves. Natsu was instantly fired up, and before Lucy could stop him he had jumped in as soon as the guy left the ring.
Really, she shouldn't have been surprised that he could do all those moves, because a lot of them were similar to fighting moves and required a level of athleticism that Natsu definitely possessed. If there was one thing that the fire dragon was good at, it was fighting, and that translated perfectly into a series of moves that mimicked the previous break dancer and even pushed it further into greater feats of athleticism and agility.
Naturally, as soon as he saw what was going on, Gray challenged Natsu by following his performance with one of his own, which was equally good. This repeated a couple of times until the song finally changed to something slower and the girls were able to tear the guys away, much to the boos of the crowd who had been having a great time.
With the change of music, all the solo dancers melted away and just left couples to slow dance. Natsu once again looked around, confused, before turning to Lucy and asking, "Hey, where'd everyone go?"
"The music changed, so now it's just couples slow dancing. Did you wanna go get a drink or …?"
"Nah let's keep dancing! So how do we do this?"
He'd obviously picked up on the fact that he was supposed to hold her because he stepped forward and reached for her, but since he didn't know exactly where to put his hands, they ended up hovering awkwardly. His hands ghosted over her, reaching for one spot, then changing and going somewhere else – as if he just couldn't figure out where to grab. After a second of watching him wind-milling his hands around her, she sighed and grabbed his wrists. Guiding him, she put one on her waist and moved her hand to his shoulder, while keeping their other hands clasped.
"Okay, now you step forwards when I step backwards."
She tried to help him into a clumsy rendition of the waltz, though counting was pretty much out of the question. Though she tried telling him about the steps and how it went to the rhythm of 1,2,3 - 1,2,3 -1,2,3 – he just didn't get it, but it still worked out well enough. In the end, they mostly took tiny steps back and forth in a small circle.
When the next song came on it was just a little bit faster, and with a grin Natsu sped up, nearly bowling Lucy over with his enthusiasm. Scrambling to keep up and not trip over herself or him, she ended up laughing right along with him after her protests died away. Somehow his hands both migrated to her lower back and hers ended up clutching onto his shoulders to keep herself afloat and off her butt.
"Ah! Natsu! Come on! You're going to fast!" she shrieked while laughing, stumbling a little and feeling his hands tighten their grip to steady her.
"Where's the fun in that?" he countered, laughing too.
Then his hands latched onto her waist and hoisted her up to spin in a circle. Screaming, she grabbed his shoulders even tighter and would have probably wrapped her legs around him too if she didn't stop herself at the last moment – remembering that she was wearing a skirt and that was highly inappropriate. The first thought that shot through her mind was that he would drop her, but that idea died almost as soon as it was born, because she could feel his steady hold on her and knew he would never drop her anyways.
Looking down into his laughing face, she couldn't help but smile back as he spun her in circles. Naturally, the song changed again, and he gently set her back on her feet…but didn't release her. Still chuckling, he started dancing slower again to the new song. Lucy attempted to catch her breath as they did little more than rock back and forth to the slow beat. While she did that, their eyes met, and they shared a smile. Slowly that smile changed though, the broad grin on Natsu's face gentling into something else…a very small curve of his lips that she'd never seen before. His eyes grew softer and somehow more intense at the same time.
Clearing her throat, Lucy had to break the eye contact and looked off to the side while she felt her cheeks flush a little. After a long, slightly awkward moment – for Lucy at least – Natsu surprised her by suddenly pulling her a little closer. Her hands automatically moved from his shoulders to loop around his neck instead as he practically hugged her, and she sucked in a sharp breath of surprise at the sudden proximity.
"Um…"
Turning her head gingerly – with the goal of getting a look at Natsu's face to ask him what the heck he was doing – her cheek bumped into his, and she froze, realizing that he had also sort of ducked his head down into the crook of her neck.
Numbly she kept rocking with him as he continued to sway them to the beat, but her mind was definitely not on dancing. It was mostly consumed with the feel of his breath on her neck and wondering just what was going on.
Her shock went to a whole new level as he deeply inhaled and then mumbled, "Why do you always have to smell so good Luce?"
For a long moment she was speechless, and then eventually managed to stammer, "I-I'm sorry. I must have put on too much perfume. Uh…you know? I think I'm getting a little thirsty…" Very carefully she disentangled herself from him and then led the way off the dancefloor with somewhat shaky steps.
"Huh? Oh, okay!" he answered with a somewhat surprised tone and then shrugged as he followed her off the dance floor – not seeming to be upset at all by the sudden change in location and activity.
Gray and Juvia were already at the table with drinks, and Lucy left Natsu with them as she excused herself to go to the restroom. After splashing some cold water on her flushed face, she headed towards the bar to get a drink of her own. Glancing back towards her friends, she saw with relief that Gray had thoroughly distracted Natsu and it seemed they were in a heated discussion about something – probably an argument of some sort. That left her free to cool her head with a strawberry margarita at the bar, which she quickly followed with a pink shot of some sort that had pop rocks in it.
By the time she was midway through her second margarita – watermelon flavored this time – she definitely felt tension easing from her shoulders as things got fuzzy.
She still jumped though when a hand landed on her shoulder, and she jerked to look up at Juvia, who had appeared behind her.
"Oh…it's you Juvia…"
For a minute the blue-haired girl just stared at her, and then finally asked softly, "What's wrong Lucy? You seem out of sorts."
Slumping a little, Lucy mumbled, "I think I've fallen for Natsu... Hard."
"Oh…I see." Juvia blinked for a moment and then pulled up a bar stool. "Have you told him?"
"No…I'm pretty sure he's asexual and doesn't understand those sorts of feelings. I mean, he knows familial love, just not the romantic kind."
"I would still tell him if I were you. I felt much better after my feelings for Gray were out in the open."
"Well yeah, but it worked out for you two because you're both human. Natsu's not…he's a dragon. Plus, he's one of my spirits. I don't think a relationship with a spirit that I'm contracted to is a really good idea."
"Why not?"
"I mean…even if we did end up in a relationship, suppose it went badly? We'd still have to work together even after that. And imagine being contracted to your ex…that wouldn't be overly pleasant for either of us. Plus, I'm not even sure if a romantic relationship between a celestial spirit and their mage is allowed … never mind marriage – if they even have such a thing as marriage."
"All of that stuff is in the future though…it doesn't have any effect on you now. There's no telling what will happen, so why not just focus on the present?"
That was actually really wise, but Lucy was still bothered. "All that stuff aside, he's still my best friend and partner. If I tell him how I feel, and he doesn't feel the same way, it'll make things really awkward."
"Natsu doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would get uncomfortable with something like that. If he didn't feel the same way, he would probably just shrug off your confession and everything would go back to the way it was."
"But I would still feel awkward about it!" Lucy protested, earning herself an eyeroll from her friend.
"Well, do what you think is best Lucy. But I really think you would feel better if you knew for sure where you stood with him."
She just groaned in response and clunked her head onto the bar – where she left it for a long moment before realizing that it was sticky and putting her face there wasn't the best idea. Her eyes closed in defeat and she just stayed there for a bit longer, thinking that things couldn't really get worse. With another groan, she sat up, finished off her drink in a few big gulps that gave her brain freeze, and then staggered to the bathroom to wash her face.
By the time she had managed to wash off all the stickiness, she had also taken off all her makeup and her dress was a little wet. Plus, the room felt sort of floaty and blurry as the alcohol really hit her. She wasn't wasted by any stretch of the imagination – however she was definitely teetering on the edge between tipsy and drunk, and didn't really feel like going that extra millimeter. All in all, she was pretty much ready to go home, but felt bad about calling it an early night.
Dragging herself back out to the rest of the gang, she parked her butt in the open chair at their table and resisted the urge to rest her head on the table. That hadn't worked out so hot last time, and she wasn't drunk enough to make the same mistake within such a short time-frame. The alcohol was making her a little sleepy now, so she had trouble following the current conversation, but did her best. Soon though she found herself listing to the side and ended up unconsciously leaning into Natsu.
"Hey, you doin' okay there, Luce?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah. M' fine. Just a little sleepy." she responded with a yawn and tried to pull herself back upright.
"Maybe it's time to get you home."
The others seemed to agree with this assessment, and soon she found herself getting dragged out of the club by Natsu. She followed him blindly almost, not really paying attention to her surroundings. After tripping over nothing for the fifth time, he stopped abruptly, and she proceeded to walk right into him since she hadn't expected the sudden halt.
"Wha-? Why're we stopping?"
Unexpectedly he heaved a sigh and bent down in front of her, presenting her his back. "Get on. We're never gonna get anywhere with you staggering around like that."
She pouted a little but clumsily clambered into a piggyback position, and he looped his arms under her legs. Before they set off, she made sure to reach back and tug her skirt down over her behind, then looped both arms around his neck and rested her cheek on his back. He was so incredibly warm, and she just couldn't help but sink into that heat. She probably would have fallen asleep if it hadn't come with the risk of falling.
She must have dozed a little though, because suddenly they were in her apartment and she was being unceremoniously dumped onto her bed. At the jolt and bounce that nearly sent her tumbling to the floor, she jerked awake again and flailed around a little in disorientation.
"Where…what's going on?"
"We're home…?" Natsu answered with a confused and amused tone that made his response sound like a question too.
"Oh. Right." Her brain came back online finally, though it sputtered a little and still felt fuzzy and confused.
"Woooow … you drank too much, didn't you Lucy?" Happy laughed from his bed, sounding a little sleepy like they had just woke him up.
She decided to ignore her cat for the time being, and instead did her best to stagger into the bathroom – before realizing that she needed pajamas. Turning around, she stumbled back to her dresser and plopped down in front of it, deciding to sit while she dug through a drawer that was above her head.
After a moment, a warm hand inserted itself into the drawer and Natsu asked, "What're you looking for?"
"Sleep shirt and shorts…" she mumbled, feeling embarrassed for being so helpless.
A bundle of soft fabric was shoved into her hand, and she grabbed it right as she was pulled to her feet and helped to the bathroom. At that point she shoved Natsu out, and Happy took over helping – laughing at her the whole time of course.
After brushing her teeth and relieving herself, she staggered back out and made it to bed with few difficulties. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she conked out.
…
Sometime later, she woke up confused again. The first thing that caught her attention was the heavy warm band of weight laying over her midsection and the wall of firm heat behind her. It took her longer than it should have to realize that it was Natsu cuddled up to her, and in her drunken half-asleep state things got perplexing. All her feelings on the matter came out in one confusing mishmash of emotions and thoughts that made no sense to her currently. It hurt – in a way that she was pretty sure she had felt before but had suppressed. She was torn right down the middle – half of her wanted to snuggle into him, while the other half was screaming that it was a really bad idea. The confusion grated across her nerves and nearly sent her into a panic attack as her heart rate spiked rapidly.
In a daze, she freaked out and started struggling, doing her best to toss Natsu off her and out of bed, going with her first knee-jerk reaction. It was a move she was familiar with making, since she had to kick him out of her bed almost daily. Although … lately she'd been growing a bit lax with kicking him out since she had been guiltily enjoying his presence in her bed more than she should. That probably made her a terrible best friend though.
However, right now she was majorly freaked out and launched him out of bed with more energy than she had put towards it in a long time.
"What the…?!" he yelped as he crashed to the floor. "Hey! What was that for?!"
He popped to his feet, and she rose up onto her knees to face off with him. "For sneaking into my bed! You can't just do that!"
"I've been doing it since you first summoned me!"
"Well it has to stop! You can't do it anymore!"
He paused and cocked his head. "Why are you so upset?"
"I'm always upset when you sneak into my bed!"
"Not lately."
"Well…maybe I got used to it. But that's over! You can't sleep with me anymore!"
As for Natsu, he jerked back, shocked by the strange tone of her voice. He might not be great at figuring out what people were feeling sometimes, but he got the distinct impression of hurt and sadness from the way her voice cracked. It was so different from her normal irritated yells that he didn't quite know what to do about it.
"Uh…why?" he asked hesitantly, feeling like he was treading some pretty dangerous water here.
"Because…because…just because all right?!"
Obviously she was still a little drunk – he could even smell the alcohol in her system – so it wasn't like he was expecting her normal level of speech … but this was pushing it.
"Okay, you're gonna have to give me a little more than that, Luce."
Some sort of little choked growl came out of her, and it sounded both irritated and pained. "It's just too awkward now!"
"Awkward? What do ya mean?"
"It hurts, okay?!"
"What the…? First you say it's awkward, then you say it hurts! None of this is making sense Lucy, and you aren't explaining any of it!"
"It's cause she loooves you." Happy chimed in sleepily.
That apparently didn't strike Lucy in the right spot, because she abruptly got much louder and screamed, "Shut up Happy!"
Natsu heard a small, "…whoops…" from the blue cat as he did exactly what she asked and clammed up.
He'd never seen her lose it like that with Happy before. Then again … she was drunk, and that apparently made her unreasonable and emotional, so he supposed it made sense. It still shocked the hell out of him though.
"Uh…Luce, don't ya think that's a little harsh? I mean it was just a joke…"
"Not to me it isn't! I'm sick of it!" she sobbed, sounding nearly hysterical, and he could feel his eyebrows creeping higher and higher on his forehead.
"Note to self: don't make jokes around drunk Lucy…" he muttered and heard Happy snort softly from his bed.
"Oh sure, laugh at me! Go ahead!"
"Well, uh, you're not exactly acting rational, Luce…so…you know…"
"So you think this is funny?! I'm losing my mind over here, and it's all just a big joke to you guys?!"
"Look, why don't you just calm down, and we'll figure out whatever the problem is, okay?"
"Calm down? Calm down?! When I wake up to find you sneaking into my bed in the middle of the night and then laugh at me when I say that it's uncomfortable and embarrassing and hurts like hell!? Sure! I'll calm down…why not?!"
"Geez! Alright, alright! I get it! I'll leave!" Natsu finally spat, getting more and more confused and irritated by the minute. He had no idea what brought on this hissy fit, but he didn't want any part of it.
As soon as he left with a spark and drift of smoke, Lucy collapsed into herself and started sobbing into her hands. Balling up, she grabbed fistfuls of her comforter and buried her face in the soft material to muffle her bawling.
She hadn't meant to shout at him … not like that.
"Oh god…what's wrong with me…?"
Author's Note:
Well, a little tension there at the end, but I hope you all enjoyed it nonetheless. Anyways, I wanted to give you all hints as to who the turtle character is based on (which will give you some insight about why he blushes and acts weird.) He's based off a character from another SUPER popular anime, if you haven't seen it, you will have heard about it. He's a MINOR character, and I kept his appearance pretty much the same. Also, what he asked Lucy to call him is a big hint. His power (the shield) is also a big hint. If you think you know who he is, be sure to put it in your review, and I'll let you know if you're right. ;D I'll be posting the correct answer next weekend as well. Of course, even if you aren't familiar with him, his actions will still be explained, so never fear.
Now, let's have a little Sneak Peek shall we?
Sneak Peek
Of course Natsu, being an overeager dragon with the attention span of a gnat, just charged right in – or tried to anyways. He got held up by the bouncer at the door, and Lucy had to intervene before he picked a fight with the guy. When he'd tried to charge through the door, the big muscly security guard had physically pushed him back, and Natsu took it as a challenge – despite having just promised that he would behave himself.
"Um, we're from Fairy Tail. We received a request for two people to fill in for a couple of servers?" Lucy cut in, snagging Natsu's scarf and pulling him away from the guy.
"Oh, yes of course. Go right in." the bouncer responded, giving Natsu a pretty nasty stink eye while he gritted the polite words out through his teeth.
As soon as they were through the door, Natsu once again had a broad grin on his face as if he hadn't just gone toe-to-toe with the security. Lucy just rolled her eyes at his mercurial moods, but her attention was quickly diverted by the scenery inside of the club. Sure enough, it was an adult entertainment venue, and she stared in dismay at the stage where a line of girls pranced around in glittering skimpy outfits and feathers. With a sinking stomach, Lucy was suddenly absolutely positive that this was orchestrated by Gray as payback for setting him and Juvia up so long ago.