Your tears from the last chapter we delicious ufufu... Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us! We had a question as to whether there will be any Gruvia in this fic. We have written some small interactions between Gray and Juvia, yes! They'll make an appearance in later chapters. And yes, updates are weekly. We usually upload on Saturdays (although sometimes we get too busy and update on Sunday, like now ahaha)
Also, thank you for getting us past 1,000 reviews omg. It's a huge milestone for our fic. As a special thank you, here's a doubly long chapter! Lots of fluff and shenanigans ahoy in order to repent for the pain caused by the last chapter.
Enjoy!
rated: M
summary: In a world of underground fighting only the strong survive, abiding by the rules of kill or be killed. In the Ring, a feeble emotion like hope is all it takes to destroy you. And yet it exists– and those who hold onto it play a dangerous game. But once you enter into the Ring, it will never let you go.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Slip
moving one's head to either side so that an opponent's punches "slip" by
As Gajeel feared, Natsu had been unable to remember anything useful about the location he'd been held at. All he could say for certain was that the place had gray walls and a bad leak near the entrance.
When he was shown Wendy's picture though, Natsu's entire body had gone still. He had taken the photo with shaky fingers, his thumbs smudging the glossy emulsion. That was all the confirmation Gajeel had needed.
"Is she alive?" Gajeel had asked, causing Natsu to snap an awkward nod.
Even with that, there wasn't a lot left to go on to determine their next steps. They had managed to collect a blood sample from the bullet that had shot Zeref but they weren't confident it would tell them anything they didn't already know.
Gajeel for his part was under intense scrutiny after what he had done to one of the men who had hurt Levy. His captain was sympathetic of course, but there was the matter of Gajeel's knowledge of a potential threat and the excessive force he used.
Excessive force being a kind way of describing it.
The thug he'd shot and beaten to a pulp had landed in the hospital - he'd barely survived after fourteen hours in surgery.
Thus, Gajeel was suspended and taken off the case. With that in mind, he was directed to take the time to cool his head off and get Natsu adjusted to life in the real world. Because case or not, Gajeel was his best chance to come out of the shock of being freed even a little sane.
Natsu had nearly thrown up on the car ride over to his place, and Gajeel supposed that only made sense. Natsu had always been drugged while in a vehicle. Gajeel still got violently ill if he wasn't driving.
Lucy shuffled around them, while Natsu had his face turned up to the sky. Gajeel could imagine, with perfect clarity what he was feeling. For the first time in years, Natsu was looking up at the clear blue sky.
It was a nice day too, and he was a little glad Natsu was getting the chance to see it.
But as sunny as it was, it was as cold as a morgue outside and Gajeel had perfectly good windows for him to look through. He threw open his front door and stomped in without preamble.
"Don't mind him." Lucy eyed Gajeel's back, her lips twisting in a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "He just doesn't like having to share his space with you. He'd much prefer Levy."
Gajeel tensed at the name, having heard, and pinned Lucy with a black scowl over his shoulder.
"Is that so," Natsu whispered back, seeming wholly amused by that sliver of information. "And I'd much prefer you," he said simply, so casual that Lucy almost passed it by with a smile.
But then the words settled, and her cheeks lit up.
Fortunately, he was already getting out of the car.
Natsu inspected Gajeel's home with enthusiasm, much like he did with every new place, experience, taste, and sight he had encountered in the last few days. It was like watching a little boy discover the world for the first time.
In a way, that was exactly what it was.
The wonder and the excitement and the curiosity were exactly the same. As was the indescribable joy that lit up his eyes over the most simple things - the balloon stand on main street, a group of dogs chasing a frisbee in the park, the bee that landed on his shoulder and very nearly stung him…
Life.
Now, his eyes were still alight as he trailed his fingers along the clean walls and the furniture of Gajeel's apartment. Just touching. Like he needed to physically assure himself that this was real.
When the group trekked into the living room, Gajeel turned and eyed Natsu with displeasure. "You gotta take off yer shoes by the front door. House rules," he grumped.
Natsu frowned, blinking down at his white tennis shoes.
They were brand new.
And from the look on his face and the way he rocked back on his heels, he didn't want to take them off. Like a child with a new toy he didn't want to put away.
But Natsu didn't complain as he observed his friends' bare feet on the carpet. He went obediently back to the front door and slipped off his sneakers. That didn't stop him from casting them a wistful glance over his shoulder, though, as he rejoined Lucy and Gajeel in the living room.
That look made Lucy's chest hurt.
"Why can't I just stay with Lucy?" he whined for the hundredth time that day. "I bet she'd let me wear my shoes."
"Oh, hell no I wouldn't!" she exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how much dirt you bring into the house like that?"
Natsu pouted, but then shrugged. "Bet it'd still be more fun than with metal bat over there," he mumbled under his breath, evoking a low growl from the other.
"Oh shut up, Salamander," Gajeel snapped, his expression darkening. "This isn't about me begging to have you as a roommate. What would you do if you hurt her? Could you forgive yourself for that?"
"I wouldn't hurt Lucy." Natsu scowled at Gajeel in offense, hands stuffed in the pockets of his borrowed jacket. But even Lucy could tell they were balled into angry fists.
"Maybe while you're thinkin' about it, you wouldn't," Gajeel grunted, pacing across the room. "But what happens if she startles ya? You're gonna tell me your first impulse ain't to swing?"
Natsu fell quiet, but his teeth ground together so hard Lucy thought she could have heard his molars popping.
"If you think it's no big deal, then whatever. You're not a prisoner here." Gajeel's scowl deepened as he threw open a linen closet and began to yank out extra blankets and pillows. "But don't come crying to me when she tries to wake you up from a nightmare and you break her arm."
This seemed to put a damper on Natsu.
Lucy opened her mouth to protest, but was muffled by a thick blanket that landed on top of her. When she yanked it off with a pout, the two men were caught up in a glaring match.
"And just so we're clear," Gajeel rumbled, glaring down his nose, "if you do break her arm… I'll personally break both of yours. Got it?"
Lucy swallowed and fisted the blanket.
Gajeel had a right to be concerned, she knew that. He was her friend, after all. But to so blatantly threaten Natsu, even if it was for her sake, unsettled her. The last thing the two needed was to get into a brawl - because knowing them, they wouldn't stop.
Maybe, Lucy wondered worriedly, this arrangement wasn't such a good idea after all.
But, much to her surprise, Natsu stepped back with a snort. He was the one to break eye contact and look down, shaking his head. Almost like he was...amused?
"Can't say I'd blame you," Natsu muttered around a wry grin. "We're pretty similar I guess."
Lucy felt like she had missed something in the way they communicated with one another, and it frustrated her to no end that they were seeming to speak a completely different language. Although she supposed it was to be expected.
Natsu was right after all, he and Gajeel were pretty similar.
When Gajeel had stayed with her in those first few months after he was back...
To say it had been tough was an understatement of epic proportions. He'd been unsettled in his new surroundings, hated being cooped up inside and unable to burn off the excess energy pounding through him. He'd lived a life of relentless activity up until that point, and to sit in comfort to 'heal' was out of the question.
No doubt as soon as Natsu started to physically recover from his injuries, the same thing would happen to him. As it stood, it wouldn't take him too long - he luckily hadn't gotten more than a few grazes.
But Gajeel hadn't been able to relax. He would deny it to his dying breath, but closing his eyes in those first weeks had had him terrified he'd wake up in his old cell. Like he was just waiting for his dream to end. Lucy had known by the look in his eyes, the way he'd whipped around when something clattered to the floor in the large, empty hallways of the Heartfilia manor.
He'd fought and practiced with her bodyguards during that time, but on the nights he was unable to totally wear himself out, that was when he'd been the worst.
She saw Natsu circle around Gajeel's place, his eyes mapping out the place he would be staying in for now. While it was clear neither man really wanted to be around the other, they were accepting it was for the best.
Lucy couldn't help but feel a touch disappointed, a thought she quickly shook past. She was being ridiculous. Natsu would be with Gajeel until he was able to acclimate back to normal life.
It was going to be tough for him, but from what she gathered, Natsu was better educated than most of the fighters were. At least that was the way it seemed to her. It was thanks to the special treatment he received from his older brother, apparently, and it had made him a constant target among the guards for the attention.
With that in mind, Lucy had hope for Natsu. He was like a sponge already, and showed no signs of being oversaturated with information yet.
Happy darted past her feet, almost making Lucy drop the blankets she was tasked with carrying. The cat snuck between Natsu's legs and made a beeline right for the bed his master would be sleeping in.
"Hey!" Gajeel scowled at the blue tail that slithered past him the moment he opened the door to Natsu's room.
"I think he claimed it." Natsu observed the blue ball of fur that was resting directly in the center of the bed, to maximize the amount of space he could take up.
"Guess you'll be sleeping on the floor," Lucy replied dryly, but the instant she said those words she immediately regretted them coming from her. For a second she forgot that had been Natsu's reality, and she peeked at him to see if he was offended.
She didn't even know if it was worse when it looked like he hadn't even registered her words with any sign of sadness. Instead he grinned and bent to scoop an arm under Happy's limp body. The lazy cat didn't budge a bit.
"I guess it wouldn't be the first!"
He let himself drop onto the bed, making Happy scramble for his life, and bounced up and down happily. Lucy bit her lip in order to not laugh out loud at him.
"My own bed!" he proclaimed, beaming at Lucy, whose face broke into a happy grin. "And I don't have to share it with anyone!"
For a fraction of a second, Lucy's smile faltered. For a terrible, traitorous second, she found herself wishing he'd want to share the bed with her.
But maybe, she guessed, she'd just been another buyer this whole time. It wasn't that she questioned his friendship and affection, but in the end she had paid to be with him, and he'd never had a real choice but to accept her presence whether he'd enjoyed it or not.
Now that he was free, and had not only the choice of sharing his time and space of his own free will, but to build new human relationships, who knew how long he'd stick with her?
The thought made Lucy sad. She told herself it was silly to doubt - but the funny thing about doubt was, it didn't simply go away if you asked it to. It clung like dust to an all too receiving, sticky surface.
What if he'd latched onto her simply because she'd been the only one there? He liked her, she knew that just as she knew she liked him, but was it simply because she had treated him with kindness and respect, or because she was Lucy?
Sighing, Lucy shook her head to rid it of the tumultuous thoughts troubling her.
For now, all she could do was to help him to the best of her abilities. To be there for him. And she would be there for as long as he wanted her to, whether as guide, confidant, friend, lover - it didn't matter. What mattered was his happiness.
And, Lucy decided as he waddled around on the bed, her eyes trained on the one thing that had been bothering her for the last days, the first step towards happiness - her own, perhaps - was a haircut.
The messy, formless mop of hair on his head seemed more like its own living entity than an actual hairdo. It might jump off any second and reveal itself to be Happy's long lost sibling, and Lucy wouldn't have been surprised in the least. It had to go.
She realized Gajeel had left the room, and decided presenting him with pre-decided certainties would give him less room to protest. That left her with convincing her main victim: Natsu.
"Say, Natsu," she said as she sauntered over to his new bed, "I have a suggestion."
His head snapped up immediately, a sheepish smile tugging at his lips. He still hadn't gotten completely used to her calling him by his name, and his reaction had not yet ceased to make her feel stupidly happy.
An eyebrow quirked up curiously as she sat down on the edge of the bed, a situation so familiar that for a second his heart leapt into his throat, eyes nervously flicking to the open door as if to reassure himself this was not another of the "rich rooms", as he'd called them.
"How about we go shopping for you soon?" she asked, carefully approaching the topic she had in mind. She had a feeling she might have to be a little sneaky with this one.
His eyes lit up. "More clothes?" he asked enthusiastically, nodding his approval.
"I'll buy you all the clothes you want," she replied with a grin, and then prepared to strike. "But first...this has gotta go."
Lucy tugged at the small ponytail his hair was gathered in, causing him to whine and pull his hand around to cover hers. Natsu pouted at her, his expression sullen.
"You want to give me a haircut?" Natsu remarked, his fingers brushing over the back of Lucy's smooth knuckles as he tried to grab at his ponytail protectively.
Meekly, Lucy nodded.
"You don't like my hair?" he gasped, offended.
"No, no!" Lucy was quick to protest. "It's just I think it would look even better if you cut it off a little, you know, give it some form and style…"
"Same thing," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest after he unwound her fingers from his hair, dragging her hand down with him. It was trapped under his armpit, between his hand and ribcage, and he didn't let go when she pulled a little.
With her hand lodged against his side, Lucy was forced to move along with Natsu as he got comfortable on the bed. She grumbled and pulled again to free it, but he didn't seem to even notice her attempts.
Sighing, she gave up and shifted closer to him on the bed so at least she wouldn't have her arm bent in some awkward position while he pouted.
"Why can't I keep it long? Gajeel has long hair," Natsu's eyes narrowed stubbornly, and she rolled her eyes at how he desperate he was to cling to any excuse.
"Well Gajeel can pull off the grungy unwashed look," Lucy shot back, inviting an offended 'hey!' from somewhere further in the kitchen.
It was enough to make even Natsu snort a bit.
She rolled her shoulders forward, leveraging herself up onto her knees against the mattress so Natsu craned his head up to look at her. A muscle in his cheek twitched, causing him to wince around the bandage. His free hand turned up to balance her elbow automatically as she hovered above him, and Lucy couldn't help but smile at the natural gesture.
"I don't mind getting my hair cut," Natsu admitted, fidgeting a little as his eyes seemed to dart down across Lucy for a moment.
She held her tongue, unable to feel a shred of pride that she at least was interesting enough for him to look at. She pushed that thought aside for the moment to focus instead on Natsu's twitching.
"Then what's the problem?" she asked him, meeting his sharp, green eyes with what she hoped was a comforting look.
He fidgeted again, breaking contact with Lucy when his gaze dropped to the right.
"I don't know if I want a stranger cutting my hair," he said gruffly.
Lucy's mouth formed a small 'o' in surprise.
Natsu was still unused to interacting with strangers - trusting people didn't come naturally to him for very clear reasons. And for so long, his life had centered around fighting other people; other people who exploited weaknesses. To have another person behind his back, out of his sight...it was probably unnerving. Probably felt unnatural and made him anxious.
Doubly if that person was holding shears.
Lucy could understand that. Given his situation, she definitely wouldn't be letting a stranger stand so casually behind her - much less touch her hair.
"Okay," she acknowledged without pressing further. "Then what if it was done by someone you know?"
Natsu's brow furrowed as he looked at her, and then he snorted. "What, you're gonna tell me you're a hairdresser on top of being a reporter?" he joked.
"Well, no," Lucy admitted, flushing, "but it's just hair, right? How hard could it be?"
As it turned out almost an hour later, Lucy discovered, the answer was: very.
The two were cramped in Gajeel's bathroom, Natsu sitting on the toilet and facing the wall with Lucy standing behind him. The scissors in her hands felt heavier than usual as she snipped along the back of his neck, just above the protective towel. And even though she had a perfect image of what she was trying to create...her hands just wouldn't cooperate.
She measured and took her time, but somehow...somehow his pink hair still looked choppy and uneven. No matter how she tried.
It was maddening.
Some strands were just the right length but most were either too long or far too short. And when meshed together, one word came to Lucy's mind.
Terrible.
This had been a terrible, terrible idea.
Biting her lip, Lucy forced a sigh out through her nose and held two locks together, measuring with her fingers. Terrible, yes, but maybe she could still fix it. It didn't look beyond the point of saving yet.
And while she snipped away, Natsu sat fairly quietly.
At first, he'd been tense - the thought of letting someone stand behind him was still unsettling, even if it was Lucy. But as the minutes ticked by, the only sounds in the bathroom being the wisping snip-snip-snip of the scissors and the flighty tune Lucy hummed under her breath, his shoulders slowly lowered. The muscles in his back unknotted and he even released a calmed sigh.
At least someone was relaxed, Lucy thought wryly.
She on the other hand….well...if his hair hadn't looked bad enough before, it certainly did now.
Her frustration growing, Lucy gripped a piece of hair and cut it with short precise movements. And when it came out two inches shorter than she'd hoped, she muttered, "Oops…"
Natsu's head jerked as he tried to turn around. "Oops?" he echoed. "Whaddya mean, oops?"
She yanked the scissors away from his head. "Er, well, this is just a little more...difficult than I thought it would be. No worries, though!" she assured him quickly, nervously. "It doesn't look...too bad. I don't think."
A moment passed by.
And then Natsu reached around to feel the back of his head. When his thick fingers brushed through the wild mess she'd made, he tensed. He abruptly stood, yanked off the towel from around his neck, and leaned over to inspect the damage done in the mirror.
For a while, he didn't say anything, just simply stared.
Almost like he was in awe of how horrible his hair looked. Like he was surprised that she'd managed to make it look that bad.
The embarrassment threatened to eat Lucy alive.
And then Natsu said, "Good thing you aren't a hairdresser. You're shit at this, too."
Just like that, the embarrassment fled and Lucy felt herself puffing up in offense. She pouted and propped a hand on her hip. "Oh, so now you're keeping score, huh?"
Their eyes met in the mirror, dark green on bittersweet brown, and he flashed her a crooked grin that dimpled just one cheek. That look, as devastating as it was to her heart, was answer enough.
Lucy closed her eyes and huffed out a laugh, dropping the scissors on top of the counter. "Okay, so I'm not the best at cutting hair," she said with a shrug as Natsu combed through the back of his hair. "But luckily, I know someone who is and he just so happened to work for me a while back."
Before Natsu could reply to the life line she was attempting to throw out, Gajeel's large frame filled the doorway.
If Natsu held any hesitation on enlisting a stranger for help, Lucy thought it disappeared the instant Gajeel's eyes fell on the cotton-candy locks of hair coating the bathroom floor and the butchered job sitting on the top of Natsu's head.
He let out a roar of laughter so loud, he had no choice but to stagger away, leaving Natsu and Lucy both red faced in embarrassment over the monstrosity they both had a part in creating. Mostly Lucy.
For a moment, she had even forgotten they were in Gajeel's home. She had gotten so caught up with the simple task of annihilating Natsu's hair, her mind had totally dismissed the fact that her friend was still lurking around.
"I think I'll take anything at this point," Natsu grumbled, squinting at Lucy and probing his fingers through the nape of his neck which was less hair at this point and more clumps.
"That's probably for the best," Lucy said in apology. But when she looked at Natsu, he surprisingly didn't look angry over the absolute mauling she did to him. No, in fact...
...He looked almost happy. Like he'd had fun?
Despite his 'keeping track' - a bad hair cut with a friend was a new experience for him. Perhaps it wasn't one Lucy would want to have, but it had to be better than most he'd had.
"Who is this guy?" Natsu asked, whipping the towel back around his neck to try and brush off some of the spiky pink clippings that were sticking around his throat.
Lucy could still hear Gajeel choking on his own laughter down the hall and she tried very hard to ignore it. From the narrowing look in Natsu's eyes though, she wasn't sure if he was going to be able to for much longer, so she hurried to pull out her phone.
"His name is Cancer, he was one of my bodyguards growing up." She edged in the way of the door, to serve as an additional barrier between Natsu and his new, obnoxious roommate.
"So you...trust him," Natsu said hesitantly.
Lucy smiled as she held her phone up to her ear. "There was a time when I trusted him with my life. Your hair will be in good hands, I promise," she told him.
"At this point you should just go bald," Gajeel snarked from the kitchen, dissolving into another round of laughter that made Natsu scowl.
"I won't be the one going bald," he promised under his breath.
"I heard that! Touch my hair and I'll ship ya off to Timbuktu, squirt."
Not having a clue where that was, Natsu just turned an oblivious look to Lucy who was already beginning to develop a kind of migraine she had a feeling would become chronic.
He laughed at the expression on Lucy's face, actually grinned and pointed, seemingly far too amused by what was going on than her. Which she didn't really understand, considering he was standing in the remnants of his hair's dignity.
Lucy leaned against the sink, phone pressed between her shoulder and chin, listening to the ringing as she prayed Cancer would pick up.
On the third ring, he did, and Lucy quickly explained the situation to him, with Natsu unhelpfully filling in the blanks she tried to gloss over.
"I might have taken too much off the back."
"I'm pretty sure I may have a bald spot now," Natsu teased back.
By the end of the call, Lucy was torn between wanting to smother him in the towel around his neck, or laugh at the way the back of his head resembled something similar to a porcupine.
When she hung up with Cancer, Lucy hopped off the counter and cringed a bit when she got a good look at her handiwork from a different perspective. "Wow. That really is bad."
"Yeah." Natsu grinned at her. He reached out to her before she could register what he was doing, plucking a feathery lock of pink hair from her shirt. He swirled it between his index finger and thumb, looking at the strands with interest.
Hesitant, she guided her fingers back up through his hair while he was distracted. She felt him go still at the touch, his eyes blanketing over her while her fingertips probed at the shorter areas against his scalp.
She thought she felt him wobble at the press and light scratch of her fingers through his hair, as if his knees had given out for a second.
A surge of pride filled her, but she did her best to ignore it.
Instead, she concentrated on feeling the different lengths of his hair, from the patches that resembled a perfectly manicured English lawn to the ones that remained untamed and overgrown. How had she not noticed this before?
And as her concentration on his patched hair wavered, she realized there was something else she had not noticed while she'd been busy with examining the damage she had done: Natsu was staring. At her face.
It was a curious look, a tad wonder mixed in with awe.
Lucy swallowed, blinking at him rather dumbly.
"Hey…" he started, his tone of voice making her mouth run dry and her heart speed up. "Thanks… for trying."
His lips quirked in what would have been an amused smile, had the longing in his eyes not turned it into something else entirely.
"What're you talking about?" Lucy asked, subconsciously reflecting his voice. It dropped down in pitch, her nerves shaky, pausing in her finger's pursuit through his scraggly locks. "I am pretty sure I made you look like some kind of Disney villian."
Natsu snorted, the mention seeming to have evoked a memory. His eyes brightened. "Well at least you didn't give me a scar."
He gloated over his pun, his grin spreading across his face. The cheeky twinkle never left his eyes.
"Well, I think you have enough of those already," Lucy laughed softly, unconsciously lifting a finger to trail against the one on his cheek. The freshest, barely healed, a reminder of what had happened mere days ago.
It all still seemed so unreal.
And yet here he was, with her, laughing about failed haircuts in Gajeel's bathroom. Lucy smiled up at him, eyes full of warmth.
Her heart gave a start as his eyes hooded, and their noses bumped together. Jolting as if an electrical current had swept into her, Lucy brought more distance between them. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she realized their closeness, and the expectant tension that had loomed over them both.
Was it her imagination, or did Natsu look… disappointed?
He licked his lips, but then the hunger disappeared from his eyes as he shook his head with a small smile. Lucy would have paid to know what he was thinking.
Alas, there were things her money could not buy.
What it could get her, however, was a decent haircut. Cancer should be here any moment now. Lucy herself was no expert in the art of styling hair, but she feared if there was anything salvageable in the mess she had created, it would amount to a crewcut.
She couldn't even begin to picture Natsu with his hair cropped off completely, cocking her head as she tried to imagine it on him. She shivered.
Natsu's brows furrowed under her excruciating stare. "What?"
"What would you do with your hair?" she asked after a moment's hesitation.
Natsu hummed pensively, turning to examine himself in the mirror once more. He grimaced.
"Have you ever… I mean, how'd they cut it, usually?" she tried, scared to hit a nerve. Unfortunately, that seemed to be exactly what she did.
Natsu's eyes darkened, and he stared at himself in the cold light of the bathroom lamp with empty eyes. He shrugged. "They just sheared it all off super short once it got too long, to save time."
Oh. No, Lucy decided, a crewcut was out of the question. The thought shouldn't even have crossed her mind. Forcing a smile onto her face, she stepped beside him.
"Let's do something special then," she suggested, a warm hand coming to rest on his shoulder. He turned his head, and she watched in relief as a smile returned to his face. "There's nothing Cancer can't do, and if I have to force him to give you extensions..."
She giggled at the thought, even though the joke was lost on Natsu.
"I don't wanna have an extended haircut," he complained. "Just make it quick."
This was enough to make Lucy laugh out loud, no matter how she tried to keep her face still.
"No," she clarified, "I meant he could even give you long hair, like mine, if you wanted to."
She bit her lip, hoping she hadn't just sparked an insane idea, but Natsu just laughed. "Yeah, right," he snorted, but tousled the longer hair on top of his head lovingly. "I would like to keep those, though…Looks kinda cool, don't you think? Maybe we should just leave it like this!"
Oh dear.
"That's out of the question," Lucy chided in amusement. "You can't show up anywhere like this! But I'm sure there's a way to keep some of it."
Cancer came up with a simple solution to their dilemma not much later, and settled for an undercut.
Natsu was delighted, and that would have been enough for Lucy even if the outcome had not been to her liking.
Which it was. Very much so.
There'd never been a disaster Cancer hadn't been able to fix.
Natsu gets to experience domestic life for the first time in...forever? Let's hope that he can settle well...
Thanks for reviewing: GummiBears824, OrihimeKurosakiInoue, Bunnyrabbit212, subtle-memoriess, lucy ashley, toxicity7, 10 10, Jinx, Lulu Heartfilia, Aya Rose, Guest, Guest, Guest, Minnie101, Guest, Etrinity, AVMfreak96, CanadianOtaku13, crazydasiy-in-tha-house, A Beauty that's a Beast, Min-chan17, Phiafairy, CheyennaBanana, swallowmysoul, sarara1 8, Yuyui Hime, Fairytail-FMA-fan, mrsallsunday, JayScriptMage345, HannahWritesFanfiction, animequeen100, MehKitty, FlameDragonHime, Ryuu91, Twishadowhunter, BloodRedRubies, Fairy Rains, sthokatrina, LePengwen, Animefun17, GreyRey, FireDragonPhia, darklitfaery888, sleepinginblues, Wonderwomanbatmanfan, jackercrackers27, notsudrogneel, RunningWithTheRiptide, Crysteldragon, Celestial War101, mushi0131, lifeisjustchess, Lollilollicandypop, Mo0nyMoon
Next time! Chapter 22: Sucker Punch