I'M BAAAA-AAAACK! Thanks again to all my awesome reviewers! This one was supposed to be short from the way I originally had planned, but for some reason I went a bit further into it than I intended XD haha. I like it though! It's a bit more serious than the first two, but not in an unhappy way :D

Enjoy!

#41 Smoke

No… He can't. I won't let him.

Lucy shook her head angrily as she sped through Magnolia, eyes peeled for a certain someone she hoped wouldn't be too far ahead of her. Her hair was whipping back and forth, momentarily obscuring her vision every few seconds, and her already-aching feet were adamantly protesting the beating the hard, stone streets were giving them. But she didn't care. She had to get to him, before it was too late.

People gave her strange looks as she passed them at top speed. Some waved or shouted a greeting, but all gestures fell on deaf ears as Lucy continued her sprint through the crowded, twilit town, Gray's earlier words being the only ones she could hear.

"He just left, Lucy. Said he had some things to take care of on his own, that he'd be gone a while. I sort of… thought you knew."

Some part of Lucy's conscious mind was irritated that her best friend and partner hadn't discussed with her his intentions (which she knew were obvious enough, whether Gray had outright told her or not). That also was a driving force in her need to find him and make him explain. No, not just explain, she corrected herself. She would make him rethink this stupid decision.

Just as she reached the edge of the city and was about to give up hope, she saw him. He was now maybe twenty yards away from her, walking alone on the dusty road just outside the borders of Magnolia. She wasn't too late.

"Natsu!" Lucy called as loudly as she could without stopping her feet, considerably out of breath due to her mad dash from the guild hall. Natsu halted abruptly and stood still for a moment, before slowly turning around to face her. He didn't say anything, only watched Lucy as she slowed to a jog and finally came to a halt in front of him, breathing heavily. He bore an expression she found difficult to read, which was saying something as she'd learned to discern his moods quite well after all their time together. There was definitely some surprise, but also something that looked suspiciously like sadness, mixed with a strange, desperate intensity. It made Lucy slightly self-conscious to be watched in such a way.

After a few seconds he shook his head and blinked, and the expression was gone. He glared at Lucy and said, "What are you running all this way for?"

She returned his scowl and placed her hands on her hips. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, surprised at the fierceness in her own voice.

His expression faltered a bit, and she was pleased to see she could still get through to him. "…I'm tired of sitting around here," he explained, his voice softer than before. "You know I have to find him." So she'd been right after all. This was about Igneel. It was always about Igneel. And that made her angrier than anything.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Lucy continued, raising her voice in contrast to his. "You think that means you have to leave? You think you have to abandon us all here and go off on your own? What if something happens to you, huh? Who's gonna be there to bail you out of trouble?"

Natsu took a step away from her, his jaw tightening and his eyebrows creasing in uncertainty. "I can manage just fine on my own," he insisted, and though Lucy didn't want to admit it, some part of her knew he was right. But that wasn't the point, and that wasn't why she'd come after him.

"I know you can…" she said quietly, her voice so different from before that it surprised even her. She looked down and added, "But I can't."

He frowned and tilted his head to the side. "What?"

She bit her lip, trying to find the right words. "You just… can't go."

"Why?"

Why? Lucy repeated the question to herself. If it wasn't for his sake, then why did she want him to abandon this decision? The simplest, most obvious answer was a selfish one—she didn't want to be separated from him. That, however, was a difficult thing to say to someone.

When she remained silent, Natsu shook his head. He stepped forward and placed a hand on Lucy's shoulder, making her breath catch in her throat. It felt too much like a gesture of goodbye. "Look," he began gently, "you guys… you'll be alright without me, okay?" There was a hint of constraint in his voice, as if the words he was saying weren't the ones he wanted to convey. He opened his mouth again to speak, but seemed to change his mind and closed it again with a jerk of his head. He squeezed her shoulder and offered a small half-smile, before releasing her and turning around. He hefted the bag slung on his shoulder and started walking away from her in silence.

No… We won't, she realized. Or more specifically, I won't. Her mind was made up. She wouldn't let herself lose him. Not when she knew there was something she could do about it—something she wanted to do about it.

Before she could lose her nerve, Lucy jerked her head up and darted forward. She grabbed Natsu's arm with both hands and spun him around to face her. She caught a brief glimpse of the surprised and wary expression on his face before she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into the tightest embrace her tired body could muster. His arms remained at his sides as he said apprehensively, "Lucy…" But he didn't shake her off, so she didn't let go. She held on, clearing her muddled brain and focusing solely on the feel of his body against hers. She heard his breath hitch in his throat, like he wanted to say something but couldn't get it out. They stood there like that for a minute, before suddenly Lucy felt tears well in her eyes, threatening to fall and pour all her emotions out with them. This feeling… she knew now it was too precious to her to let go.

"You're wrong," she whispered, choking back an unbidden sob. She loosened her grip and backed up just enough to look him in the eye, not letting go for fear of losing him. She studied his face, now only inches from her own. No longer was he hiding behind the glare he'd shown her earlier. Now she could clearly see a mixture of pain, sadness, confusion, and even a small glimmer of what she was sure might have been hope.

When his eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch in inquisition of her vague statement, his dark eyes shining with a curious intensity, she elaborated, "I'll never be alright without you." Just as the tears in her eyes finally spilled over, she tilted her chin up and sealed the small space between her and him, gently touching her lips against his.

The gesture was tentative at first, both of them being in particularly vulnerable states, but when Natsu finally hung his arms around Lucy's waist, she allowed herself to tighten her grip on his neck, leaning into the kiss and pouring into it all the emotion that had been welling up inside her since she'd heard of his sudden flight. All the fear, surprise, sadness, guilt, worry, hope, desire, and love that had hitherto formed nothing but a giant, befuddled mass of confused thoughts circling around in her head like a twister, all of it came rushing to the surface in one fluid and unstoppable motion, making the tears pour faster from her eyes and causing her to press herself as tightly as she could against the person in her arms, reveling in his presence and its being the only thing she needed to know. Suddenly, nothing else mattered. Just her and him. The feel of his arms on her lower back, the familiar smell of his hair and clothing, the sound of his racing heartbeat, the taste of the heat—the intense, burning heat—inside his mouth, scorching her tongue like fire and bringing more stinging water to her eyes. But despite that small discomfort, she couldn't bring herself to pull away, to break from the intoxicating feeling of closeness and contentment that came from their contact.

Finally, both due to the screaming in her lungs and the numbing burns on her lips and tongue, Lucy loosened her tight grip on Natsu's shoulders and allowed air to pass between them again, resting with her face still only inches from his. She let out a long, shaky breath, and was surprised to see a thin but defined ring of smoke emerge from between her lips. She giggled at the sight. Guess that's what I get for kissing a guy who eats and breathes fire on a daily basis, she thought wryly.

Natsu grinned and cocked an eyebrow at the fading smoke ring. "That's a new trick," he said, breathing slightly heavily.

Lucy allowed a small, tentative smile to touch her face. "Yeah, but it needs a bit more practice," she replied evasively. "Too bad my teacher's planning on leaving town…?" She let the end of her sentence hang in the air, as if seeking confirmation. A small part of her was afraid of the answer, but a bigger part was confident in it.

Natsu studied her for a minute, raising a hand and brushing the fallen tears from her face. "I guess I can stick around for a little longer."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "A little longer?"

He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck, the corners of his mouth twitching in a small smile. "Alright, fine. You win." He pulled her into another tight hug, and she smiled happily as his warm breath touched her neck. "I'm not going anywhere."

"That's all I wanted to hear."

Huzzah! Three down! This one's sort of pointless, I just can't help but love the idea of Lucy breathing smoke rings XD hahaha. As a side, most of these will probably be told from Lucy's head, just because I can more easily identify with her than with Natsu (proooobably because she's the same gender as me? haha). Just a random heads up :D Hope that's okay with everyone!

We're almost through my backlog now, but I'm still trying to keep up working on these, so review for me and encourage me to keep it up! Before my steam runs out, haha XD

-oMM