"I'm dying." He groaned out, his head pressed deep into pushed up pillows, a damp cloth pressed to his neck.

"You're not dying, you're hungover." Lucy exclaimed, no sympathy in her voice, she was quite used to dealing with Cana in the mornings after an extravagant night out, she knew if she babied Natsu, he would lounge around all day, expecting her to wait hand and foot on him.

"Same thing." He grumbled out, his voice distorted as it came from the plush fabric his face was buried in.

"You know you'll have to leave eventually, you have Happy to feed." Lucy noted, looking over to his statuesque form on the couch, he hadn't moved since he had woken up. Lucy had been the ever-wonderful person she was and left a glass of water and some aspirin next to it, the bastard had spilled its contents all over her floor. Of course, she retrieved him another glass, but she brought it over with spite.

He seemed to acknowledge he couldn't stay in bed all day, yet part of him was choosing to ignore that. "Just this once, you get coffee. But I'm not seeing you the rest of the day, that's the deal!" She knew better than to have Natsu in her home, high on caffeine, she had too many breakable things casually laying around.

He was gone within the hour, thankfully for her, she had managed to avoid an awkward conversation on what had occurred last night, and if it meant anything. More importantly, she had the rest of her day to finally commit to her novel.

"The sooner I finish this, the sooner me and Natsu can go back to normal." She stopped in the middle of a chuckle, the affection was comforting. When their hands were together, Lucy had found she enjoyed the feeling, it was a nice luxury to have in their arrangement. However, the sooner she had understood the gist of dating, there was no point in continuing. The thought saddened her slightly.

"No more on that, let's start writing about Anna and the mysterious R." Lucy only had a base plot lined out in her head, those annoying pestering details eluded her.

Her computer loaded up and once more, the white screen was the only thing to show of her work. Hoping today was the day she would fix that, she started to write.

"Why won't you tell me your name, Sir?" Anna begged, pleading to call him something, but he had ushered her every time she tried to ask.

"If I tell you my name, you'll fall in love with me." The man replied, his hand reaching for Anna's as he placed a slight kiss on her knuckles. Anna wasn't impressed, she had had many suitors do the same thing, she gave them one go at it, if they tried again she would use her hand to issue them a slap.

"Love is not real, stranger."

Lucy looked at the few paragraphs she had added and, in a temper, slammed the laptop's lid. She wasn't writing like she usually did. She was looking at this all wrong, was it Anna that didn't believe in love or R, she was losing herself in the repetitive words.
"I can't have writer's block, not after yesterday!" She was frustrated at herself and thought about yesterday in itself.

"Why are you so kind to me?" Anna asked, the sun's heat breathing down hard on the pair.

"You are important to me." He replied, he smiled, the man was emotional and strong and she found herself often laughing alongside him, no other man had made her laugh so.

"I see the Lord Lance is jealous of you, Sir."

"Nope. Still horrible." Lucy thought that perhaps part of her was simply blaming the characters, they were too boring, they were just dancing around, not doing anything exciting. She exhaled regrettably that she was the one who had to make the characters be interesting.
"Maybe Levy can help me." Lucy said aloud to herself and called the reader over. She arrived swiftly and hugged Lucy upon seeing her.

"You really are a Saint, the boys wanted me to go to the other side of town just to see this shitty 'Phantom Lord' band that's playing." Levy let herself walk in and placed her satchel down by the door, seemingly exasperated by the mere thought of seeing the band.

"Jet and Droy still fighting over you?" Lucy asked, looking over at her friend. Levy was brilliant in every sense; her intellect had no rival and had a secret ferocity she'd only seen Natsu beat. However, the two men who were in Levy's life also saw this brilliance and both had their eyes fixated on her.

"I like them, I do. But it's the little things, you know?" She started, her hand playing in her hair as she thought of her friends. "Droy is scared of spiders! Spiders, Lucy! They're just little arachnids!" Lucy didn't want to point out she also didn't find the eight-legged things nice to look at.

"And Jet?"

"He's so sporty and always asks if I want to go on a run. Running Lucy! I like a rare jog, sure, but my little legs can't do that every morning!" Lucy laughed over the idea of Levy having to jog alongside Jet. Jet ran like no one else and poor Levy didn't exactly have the longest legs there was, it must have been a struggle for her to keep up, no matter how resilient and stubborn she was.

"So, how would you talk about your dream man then?" Lucy asked Levy, watching as the girl seemed to blush, had Levy thought about this before?

"I want someone who's different, someone who's not afraid to be themselves, someone who doesn't look at me as this perfect angel like Jet and Droy do." She sighed and looked back over to the blonde. "What about you, has Natsu been who you expected?" The question about Natsu was expected, she moved beside her friend and brought her legs up to rest.

"There's nothing wrong. We've been friends for years, so we obviously get along." Levy sensed the word coming even before Lucy had ushered it.
"But?"
"But seeing Juvia act around Gray, I don't have that with Natsu." Levy frowned at her friend's confession and moved her form closer to Lucy's, letting her arms wrap around her friend.

"There's nothing wrong with that comfort, who's to say if it's right or wrong." Lucy nodded and brought her friend over to her laptop and let her read through the slight drafts she had made for herself. She was embarrassed even to have Levy look at them, she wondered just how she would deal if she ever did manage to get the books published.

"Well, you're right in you are missing something. This reads like most books I've read, it doesn't have that 'Lucy' signature." The writer groaned, knowing full well her friend was right in this situation; who was she kidding, Levy was always right in any situation.

"Maybe I need to clear my head." Levy nodded, running to pick up her satchel and sprinted back into Lucy's room to pick up her favourite notebooks, added with a few worn-out pens.

"Lucy Heartfilia, writer extraordinaire, you are going to write a rough chapter draft by tonight." Lucy smiled and her friend's excitement and followed her along without any complaint.

It was nice to walk around the city, Levy insisted that Lucy was to have her notebook out at all times and just write about everything and anything she spotted, even if it was the simplest of inspiration that came her way. Writing was better than no writing.
Lucy had to admit they ended up spending a good and productive day together, Levy toured her around many roads which led to many sights. She was spoiled in friendship. The beauty of Magnolia was something to be praised, she liked its culture and architecture, the simple chaos the whole place had.

Their chatter was interrupted by Levy's phone going off, stopping in the middle of the pathway, Levy picked up the phone and groaned, so Jet or Droy then, and placed it to her ear. "What's up?" She asked casually, winking to Lucy. "Is he okay?" Lucy couldn't help scrunching her face as Levy's tone turned and there was yells from the other side of the call. "I'm on my way! Sorry, Lucy some guy from that band they went to go see ended up getting in a fight with Jet!"

"Go, you're probably the only one who can help calm this down, I'll come with you." Lucy added in for good measure, there wasn't any chance she was going to let her friend go into a bar fight alone.

Phantom Lord wasn't local is the first thing Lucy found out when she entered into the rustic atmosphere of the bar. The smell of stale beer and wine tickled at her senses. Levy was the first to react as she marched straight over to where a tall man had Jet in a headlock.

"Let go of him, asswipe!" Levy screamed, going as far as to reach for the burly man's bicep and attempt to rip his hold off herself.

"Asswipe? Wow, little shrimp really knows how to pick the insults." The man laughed, causing his friends behind him to laugh along with him, deciding to mock Levy's stature.

"Leave them alone!" Lucy called, making her way to the commotion, the man's form was terrifying. He let Jet go who stumbled slightly as Droy helped him stand straight again. The man bore piercings scattered all over his face, replacing eyebrows, and alongside his nose, there were even a few under his lips.

"They started on me, Blondie." His voice was gruff, and he looked over Levy, Lucy felt her instincts kick in as she was ready to jump to shield her from any movement Gajeel would make, Jet and Droy had the same thought. "Next time your groupies decide to laugh at a musician, make sure they can handle the consequences."

"Gajeel, Kitty's calling for you, let's go." Gajeel smirked at the notion of this 'Kitty' character, Lucy presumed it was some pompous woman he would spend the night with. Luckily, it was enough to drag Gajeel's attention away as he moved to leave but Levy wasn't done with him yet.

"Maybe you should just accept you're a shit musician!" She was angry, as much as Levy teased Jet and Droy for their unrequited love, they were still her childhood friends and she was loyal to them.

The band's members all snickered as Gajeel was being stood up to by a small girl such as Levy. He moved over to her and had the audacity to bend his knees a little to emphasise on her height as he struggle to get to eye-level with her.

"I am amazing, shrimp." Lucy could see Levy had a slight shake, but she held her ground.

"Don't ever touch my friends again." Gajeel smirked and returned to his standing height, he didn't say another word, only looked impressed at her pride as he and the grew left the small group of them be. "What were you guys thinking insulting the band playing!" She said as she screamed at her wounded mates.

"It was awful, Levy!"

"It was burning our ears!"

Lucy found herself laughing at Jet and Droy's description over Gajeel's playing, they really hadn't been impressed by him, she found herself suddenly wanting to write. The adrenaline of the situation had just urged her to do something, thankfully it wasn't asking her to fight, it was asking her to jot it down.

"I'm going to head home, Levy. Take care of them." She said with a wink, Levy groaned and stared at Lucy, knowing full well they would ask Levy to nurse them back to full health, even though it was apparent they only had received slight bruises and cuts.

The sky was giving off an impressive ombre display, the pink hue of the sun disappearing as the shades of dark blue and indigo took over. She sat down gracefully under a strong oak tree and found herself unable to stop smiling as the stars came out to bless her. The stars reminded her of her mother, there was no better inspiration for her than right now in this moment. Strangely enough, she was also thinking of the intense spark of fire Levy had showed when she faced off against Gajeel's iron posture.

The stars were smiling as the pair found themselves in a locked embrace, a secret between them, sealed away so their families would never find out. Anna had never once felt so strongly towards someone like this, but he had awoken something within her. Something of passion and lust, she even teetered on the idea of love. But she knew those words were not meant to be spoken; not yet.

"You are mine, forevermore." He said, strong like him, the two argued and fought in verbal matches that neither could win, but when they settled they realised a bond had been forged between them.

"I am yours." She confirmed, the pair for once finding something to agree on.

Lucy hummed, pleased she had managed to write something that she had enjoyed putting down on paper, it was nice to become invested in her work again. She looked up at the sparkling sky again and was pleased that nothing had changed, they still glistened honouring an unknown contract between them and the night.