"Natsu?"
The man that had himself stuck inside of Lucy's head since she met him grinned as his olive colored eyes landed on her, a corner of his mouth lifting as his white canines peeked through his parted lips. She watched as he began to speak, her heart fluttering at the hundreds of different things he could say to her within the next moment.
"Oh hey! What's up Luigi? My comic better than the book yer tryin' to make me read?"
However, that was not one of them. The smile she had been wearing just for the rose-haired man quickly turned into a scowl, her chocolate eyes darkening. "My name's Lucy!" She corrected the man, partially turning her head away from him. Natsu chuckled as he scratched the back of his head.
"And I haven't read your flimsy comic book," Lucy continued, moving her gaze back onto him. Natsu still held a childish smirk as he began to twirl the basketball that he had been holding onto. He and his cousin had come to the basketball court to play a round to settle a fight, but he was definitely pleasantly surprised to see the pretty girl from last night.
Totally beats seeing Gajeel's ugly mug anyday.
After Natsu's and Lucy's exchange of words, the former finally noticed the petite short haired girl standing next to Gajeel. She was glaring at the heavily pierced man, but Natsu wasn't really surprised. Gajeel usually pissed everyone off. With the pinkette, all it took was one glance before the two started fighting with each other.
Before he could say a word, the blue haired girl held her hand out to him, her light brown eyes looking at him in determination.
"I'm Levy McGarden," Levy said as Natsu took her smaller hand into his much larger one. "I'm Lucy's best friend. You're Natsu right?" Natsu's smirk grew into a shit eating grin as his eyes sparked with a sudden evilness.
"Aw, Luce!" His voice changed into a mock higher pitched one as Natsu turned to face the now blushing blonde. "You talk about me with your best friend?" Sarcasm was mixed with his fake girlish voice as he let go of Levy's hand to hang a loose arm around Lucy's shoulders. "I knew you cared about me."
Once her face was red enough to his liking, Natsu leaned closer, a hand shielding Levy's and Gajeel's view of Lucy's ear and his mouth. "Don't worry Luce. I talked about you too."
If possible, steam would be shooting off of her face as it heated up to an unbearable red. Seeing his little trick succeed, Natsu laughed loudly as Lucy shoved him away, trying to cool her burning face with her cold hands. The ball twirling on her pointer nearly fell, but Natsu quickly recovered it as he continued to smirk.
"Oi, Salamander! Quit flirtin'! We got a game to finish!" Gajeel yipped. One of his meaty hands slapped the spinning basketball off of his cousin's finger. Natsu glared at him and was ready to yell an insult at Gajeel, but his stomach grumbled loudly in complaint. Suddenly, the rose-haired man's face lit up as he snapped his head to look at Lucy who was still trying to calm down her raging blush.
"Let's go eat, Luce!" Without warning, he snatched her smaller hand into his and began to drag her away from the basketball court and Gajeel who was aiming to throw the basketball they were going to use at him until Lucy's little friend Levy smacked it out of his hand and grabbed the burly man by the elbow, pulling him after us.
Natsu cackled at the sight before slowing down his pace so that Lucy could walk normally.
"Where are we going, Natsu?" Lucy's heart raced, beating in a wild rhythm as she watched Natsu as he nonchalantly slid his tan hand down her wrist and into her's, lacing his fingers with hers. When she glanced up at him, it looked as if he didn't even know he was doing it. She wouldn't be surprised if he didn't.
This man is truly something else… The thought was true though. He had no concept of personal space, he was so easy going and relaxed, and he was easily the most social person she had ever met. And she met Hibiki Lates as he was introduced as a possible fiance from her dad. But not only that, but he managed to do something with her heart that she didn't know whether or not she liked it. He was so calm about everything that seemed to make her stomach twist and he had no hesitation towards anything, as if it were all a part of some plan of his.
Natsu shrugged in response to her question. "Somewhere that's got a lotta food."
Lucy rolled her brown eyes at him. "So descriptive." She muttered before she heard Gajeel's hearty laugh from the back of them. In a split second Levy was by her side, her cheeks puffed out angrily as she hooked her arm around Lucy's, pulling her away from Natsu, their entwined hands slipping apart.
"Levy? What-"
"I am not walking with him!" Levy growled before turning back at Gajeel who was still laughing with his cousin now by his side. "Quit calling me Shrimp! I'm not that small!" Levy pouted as Gajeel patted down her blue hair.
"Don't worry Shrimp. Yer just the right height for an armrest." Gajeel belted out another laugh, walking closely behind the two women, Natsu moving over to Lucy's side. Lucy laughed at the face that Levy made before she was suddenly jerked to the left by none other than Natsu.
"I knew it was 'round here somewhere!" Natsu exclaimed in happiness as he tugged Lucy into the restaurant he'd been looking for. Gajeel visibly paled as he read the name of the restaurant. Titania's. Honestly, seeing such a big, tough guy paling at the mention of a name should have set off some triggers in Lucy's head but she was completely oblivious to it as she looked in wonder at the small restaurant.
A bright smile made it's way onto Lucy's face, her eyes nearly sparkling as she walked in. Titania's was a well-known restaurant in Magnolia, famous for their cakes. Lucy had always wanted to go here, but her father always refused. He told her that a lady of her stature wouldn't stoop low enough for small restaurant just to eat cake.
"No, and that's the last I want to hear of this. You could very well ruin my reputation if someone caught you eating cake in a place meant for peasants."
Her father's words echoed in her mind and caused her to come to a screeching halt. If she got caught in here, especially after her father's strict orders, who knows what kind of consequences she would have to suffer. Her relationship with her father was already on thin ice, and she didn't want to do anything that might result in her losing the only family she had left.
At the thought, Lucy's grin dropped as she imagined the horrible lecture her father would give her if he ever found out that she had even stepped inside the restaurant. Sure, Titania's was famous in Magnolia, but she recalled her father saying something about the owner being an orphan, which in his eyes are people that the Heartfilia's don't associate with.
But then again, if her father had known that she was here with Natsu and Gajeel, he might as well just disown her, if not for the fact that she was his only child.
Are you really going to always do what your father tells you, Lucy? This is your chance to do something that you want to do, not something that father wants you to do.
It sounded like such a simple choice. It probably was, to anyone who wasn't Lucy. She often over analyzed even the simplest of things, which made decisions quite hard, more often than not. She had an inkling of a feeling of what to do but she didn't want to risk it. Why should she risk her last true family member for some stranger she had met the other night? Certainly there was no concrete reason as to what he should even trust him as well, forgetting about the fact that he had saved her life. So why is she having such a hard time with this? She should just turn around now while she still has the chance, snatch Levy, and never mention it to her father.
Natsu glanced behind him at Lucy, a big smile waning on his face as he grinned at her. He looked completely innocent and held a trustworthy look in his gorgeous forest green eyes that seemed to hold undying flames.
Her stomach was twisting from knowing what she was going to do next but she didn't care. She knew that in the end, it was all going to be worth it. "Hey Luce! What's takin' ya so long?"
She knew her answer the second that she saw that smile of his, the smile that made her stomach churn and her heart palpitate. She knew at that point, the punishment she might have to deal with later on would be worth it if it meant doing something she wanted to do. She knew, she'd rather see his smile than turn back around and risk the chance of never seeing this exotic and energetic man again.
Lucy had a ghost of a smile on her face as she chose what she knew was the right answer. Or what was hopefully the right answer. Only the future knew what was held in store for her if she went with this pink haired stranger.
"Coming!"
Lucy crossed her arms over her chest as she huffed, begrudgingly turning her head away from Natsu who was the source of her problem.
"Luce," Natsu whined, shaking her shoulder as if that would convince her to forgive him. "I didn't know I left my wallet." The shaking didn't cease as they both made their way to the park. Somewhere along the way they had lost Levy and Gajeel, who had not-so-secretly snuck off together into a store that she knew Levy loved. Lucy knew Levy had a crush on him! Oh, she was so going to tease her about this next time she saw her.
Currently, Natsu was trying to beg Lucy for forgiveness seeing as he had magically 'left his wallet at home' causing her to pay for all of the food that he had eaten, and he practically ate the entire restaurant. It was like that man had an endless pit for a stomach!
Gajeel had told her that they had just been lucky that Erza wasn't there, whoever that was. Judging by the look on his and Natsu's faces when he had mentioned that name, she doesn't think she wants to meet this Erza.
"C'mon Luce."
"Ugh! Fine! I forgive you, but you're paying next time." Natsu smirked, brushing arm against her shoulder with a sudden burst of cockiness filling inside of him.
"So yer sayin' that there'll be a next time? Good ta see that our date wasn't that bad." He teased her, watching in enjoyment as her face flared a bright red for the umpteenth time that day. She was beginning to hate the fact that a guy she barely knew anything about had the ability to make her blush like it was his second nature.
"Shut up, that wasn't a date." She muttered as they entered the seemingly abandoned park. There were no tracks in the snow in front of them as they walked on what they assumed was the sidewalk up to the swingset that was perched on top of the hill. She had asked him after they figured out that their companions had left if they could go to the park. So here they were now.
"Yeah, sure it wasn't." He was teasing her. She knew that. But even with that knowledge, it wasn't any help when it came to taming the raging blush on her cheeks. "Oh, Luce! Let's play twenty questions!"
"What?" A childish game in her opinion, yet childish seemed to fit this man's personality perfectly. It was something new, refreshing. It was fun.
Lucy sat down on one of the two swings on the rickety old set, curling her hands around the freezing chains as Natsu followed suit on the other one. "Twenty questions! Haven't ya ever played it?"
She shook her head no in response as the rose-haired man began to push back on the swing, kicking his legs so he could start to go higher. "It's easy, we take turns asking questions about each other until we reach twenty. There's really no rules to it. Just ask questions."
Simple enough.
Taking her silence as a yes, Natsu asked the first question for their little game, digging his heels into the freezing snow to slow himself down. "So what's yer favorite color?"
They both ended up going over twenty questions, realizing that it became increasingly easier to talk to one another after they got over the goofy basic questions before delving into the more personal ones. Lucy had learned by the end of the game that Natsu was twenty, his favorite color was red, he lived with his younger sister Wendy, was a volunteer firefighter and worked in Gajeel's auto shop even though he had an extreme case of motion sickness. She had also found out that he had a cat named Happy that's fur was colored blue. She almost regretted asking why he was permanently blue, as the rose-haired man had dived into a very, very, long story that could have been shortened. Apparently a guy named Reedus had been experimenting with different solutions of paints when Happy had knocked into the can, thus resulting in permanent blue fur.
As for Natsu though, he learned that Lucy was still nineteen, turning twenty a few days after his birthday, her favorite color was pink, she lived with her father still, she reads as often as she can, and that she had her own story that she was writing. That last one was particularly hard to get her to cough up. Her cheeks had darkened from the light pink it was from the cold wind to a rosy color as she muttered about her novel.
Speaking of her novel, Natsu was currently trying to get her to spill the beans on what it was about.
"C'mon Luce! Can't ya at least tell me what kinda book it is?" Natsu complained, yanking on the chain attached to her seat on the swing, swaying her side to side. Biting her tongue, Lucy rolled her eyes at the manchild as he began to throw what looked like a tantrum.
"It's just an adventure novel, Natsu. Nothing too special." His 'tantrum' ceased quickly as he grinned up at his blonde friend, (he was just going to assume that they were friends at this point), clearly happy about her answer.
"Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" Lucy huffed at his sarcastic response, crossing her arms over her chest as she pouted. "So why an adventure one?"
Lucy shrugged at the question. "Guess it's because I can't have an adventure of my own. I can just live through my characters." Lucy went on, completely oblivious to Natsu's frown. "My father keeps my on a tight leash, so I've never really gotten to do what other people have. Writing about someone else's adventures just seemed like the only way- What are you doing?"
Natsu had bolted off of the swingset, his hand latching onto her wrist as he pulled her up with him, his grip on her firm but gentle enough to not hurt her. Paying no mind to her stumbling behind him, Natsu began to march down the hill they had trekked up to get to their spot. "What does it look like I'm doin' ya weirdo?"
"Says the one with pink hair!"
"Anyways," Natsu ignored her comment as he turned to face her with a wide, lopsided grin, showing off his sharp white canines. His olive colored eyes seemed to almost sparkle as they bored into her dark brown ones. "Ya said like adventures, right?"
Lucy nodded, not quite catching onto what he was implying.
"Then what're ya waitin' for, ya weirdo? Let's go!"