A/N: I always feel like I need to say something at the start here for tradition's sake but I don't actually have much to say. Just the traditional disclaimer and...what else? Rambles about how I don't know what to write? Haha. Oh, maybe I should apologize for this chapter title not starting with the same letter like the rest. I'm not creative enough to keep this up. It's also super cheesy. Just let me have one chapter title that doesn't sound super contrived! I promise I'll go back to the usual formula after this.

Thanks for the kind reviews!

"C'mon, Luce."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"I came all the way over here and you're gonna turn me away?"

I crossed my arms. I was standing in the front doorway of my apartment, blocking Natsu from gaining entrance. I'd nearly had a heart attack when there was a knock at the door and I saw his eager face through the peephole, but I wasn't going to let that get my guard down.

"How'd you know my address anyway?" I asked.

"Levy told me," Natsu said, tilting his head. Oh no. Here comes the innocent act.

"I'm not going to let you in when I didn't invite you over."

"But when I asked Levy, she didn't think you would mind." He pouted. "I walked all the way here. Can I at least have some water for the trip back?"

I gaped. "You walked?" The distance had to be at least 45 minutes on foot; we lived on different ends of town.

"I don't have a car," he said. "And I forgot my bus money. And I wanted to surprise you, so…" He trailed off, looking at his feet and squirming.

Ugh. When he was acting all innocent and pure-hearted like this it was hard to say no to him.

"Fine," I sighed, stepping aside.

"Alright!" he cheered, bounding inside.

"Take off your shoes!" I called after him as he ran into the apartment. It was a tiny place, just big enough for Daddy and me, but it was still not easy to keep clean.

"Sorry," he said, slipping off his sneakers. "Nice place." He looked around at our meager décor and sparse furniture. Not what I'd call nice, but then again, I wasn't Natsu.

"Thanks," I said. "And I work hard to keep it nice, so don't mess anything up, okay?"

He nodded enthusiastically.

"Here, just sit down on the couch."

"I wanna see your room."

Of course he did. "It's over here." Sometimes it was best just to humor him.

I brought him to my room, where he once again ran around in circles. Apparently this was his way of exploring it.

"Very you," he decided.

I glanced around. Like the rest of the house, there wasn't much, but I had stacks of books in one corner, cheer stuff in another, and I had space posters on my wall. My secret interest: the stars.

"I guess so," I finally agreed.

"So." He plopped down on the carpet. "What do we do?"

I hesitated. "You're the one who came over without warning. We don't have much here. We had to sell most of our fun stuff when the company failed."

"What do you usually do for fun then?" he asked.

I glanced at my book corner. "Do homework. Exercise. Write. Read."

Natsu made a face.

"I'm telling you, I'm boring."

"No, you're really interesting," Natsu said. "You just have boring hobbies. I don't get what's so fun about reading. But I'm willing to give it a try, just for you!"

I supposed I was supposed to feel flattered, but I was mostly wary. Natsu was definitely not the "sit down and read" type, so I didn't see this going well.

"Let's see if I have a book I think you'd like," I said. But after a few minutes of searching, the only thing I found was that Natsu's guesses of a book's plot based on its cover and title were actually hilarious, and sometimes hilariously accurate. So Natsu's short-lived interest in reading was worth it, even if we ended up watching TV instead.

We watched cooking shows, several in a row, and both of us spent the entire time drooling over the delicious food.

"That looks so good," I said of a beautiful chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

"Those wings on the last show are still my favorite," Natsu said.

I laughed. "Of course they are. You and your meat obsession."

"Meat is the best!"

"Meat is tasty, but it's okay to like other things too, you know."

"No," Natsu said. "I am loyal to my meat."

He said it with such pride that I couldn't hold back the snicker that escaped from my lips. He gave me a frown and the usual line about me being a non-believer, which of course only made the giggles worse. He was so predictable and yet so utterly ridiculous.

He suddenly grabbed me and pointed to the screen. "I want that," he said. They were showing previews for the upcoming episode, and food was flashing across the screen.

I glanced down at his hand wrapped around my arm. When he kept touching me like this, it was hard not to be conscious that it was just the two of us in the apartment. With Natsu, it was easy to get comfortable, but just one touch and it hit me like a brick wall.

I tried to ignore it. Speech could drown out the sound of my own heart.

I looked at him. "Won't happen," I said simply.

He turned to me. "Why not?"

"Didn't you say you can't cook?"

"I burn everything. Gramps says I have a skill."

I snickered. "I'm not any good either. And the food on this show uses a lot of ingredients that'll be hard to get, especially when we're both poor."

"You're such a downer, Luce."

"Sorry."

"No you're not."

"You're right. I'm not."

This whole time, our faces were only inches from each other, but we continued to converse normally. Natsu didn't seem to notice a thing, but it was taking all my concentration to keep from attempting to close that short gap.

To experiment, I moved my face an inch closer, tilting my head slightly. I saw Natsu's eyes widen. Ah, now he felt it.

"Uh…Lucy?"

"Yeah, Natsu?"

His face was slowly changing color to match mine. "What are you doing?"

I leaned back and laughed, ignoring the trembling in my body. I could only hope he didn't feel it, with his arm still hooked in mine. I wasn't nervous, I wasn't nervous.

"Luce, you're freaking me out."

"It's nothing," I said, extracting my arm to give him a dismissive wave. "Keep watching or you'll miss that recipe you want to make."

But he kept looking at me, an expression of concentration on his features. His eyebrows furrowed.

I smiled wryly. "Don't think too hard. You'll hurt yourself."

The strange expression broke and he scowled. "Hey. I'm just trying to figure out something."

"I'm sure it's nothing," I said.

He leaned forward and tilted his head. I did my best not to look nervous. "I don't think so," he said. "I think it's something."

My heart hammered in my chest as he continued to stare at me. I wanted to look away, to break from the intensity of his gaze, but I couldn't seem to do it. His eyes were so dark, so probing. He was searching my face for answers, I could tell. That little test had been a bad idea. He was starting to notice.

Then he leaned away and I let out a slow breath.

"Never mind," he said. But his face still wore a frown.

I was glad he hadn't read too much into things yet. Yes, there was an interest, a curiosity, an infatuation. But even I wasn't sure what to think of it, and I sure wasn't ready for Natsu to try and make any sense of it either. For now at least, I wanted to keep things as they were. I could figure out the rest later when I was more sure of myself.

And then, after a while, the inevitable happened: my stomach wambled.

There was a moment of silence, and Natsu burst out laughing. "Was that you, Lucy? Ahaha, that sounded so funny!"

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, standing up. "It's almost dinnertime. You should go home."

"What about you? Is your dad coming home soon?"

I shook my head. "He works late today."

"Then let's eat together."

"Natsu…"

"What? I'm here, you're hungry, let's eat!"

I sighed. "Is ramen okay with you?"

"Is it spicy?"

"Um, we have a few different kinds around the house, but there's this one brand that has a kick to it…"

"Let's eat that one," he said quickly.

I smiled. So predictable, Natsu. "Okay. Want egg in it?"

"Yes please. Do you have spam?"

"A little."

We wandered into the kitchen, planning out the ingredients for our masterpiece based on what I had in the fridge. Natsu maintained that he couldn't cook for his life, even if it was only ramen, so I took over cooking while he handed me things and mostly watched.

"You eat a lot of ramen?" he guessed.

I turned and gave him an incredulous look. "Didn't you see our entire cabinet full of the stuff? It's cheap. And I can't cook complicated things. We try to buy different kinds so it doesn't get old, but…" I shrugged.

"Isn't that unhealthy?"

"That's why I put vegetables in it," I said. I held up the wooden spoon I used to stir and pointed it at him. "Except somebody refuses to eat his veggies, so I won't be getting any tonight."

"I just thought it'd be tough doing cheerleading and stuff when you're not eating healthy," Natsu said.

I turned back to the pot in front of me, poking absentmindedly at the noodles as they cooked. "It's not so bad, actually. You get used to it after a while. It's not like ramen is all I eat; it's just the easiest. When Daddy's home, we usually cook something more substantial, but when it's just me, it's hard to get motivated to cook anything more complicated than ramen."

The noodles were done cooking by now, so dumped in the flavorings and stirred it around. Finally, I cracked an egg into the still-bubbling pot, put the pot on a trivet, and handed Natsu some chopsticks.

"Eat up," I said. "Want a bowl?"

He took the chopsticks and grinned. "I was right," he said. "You're definitely my kind of person."

"What?"

"You eat ramen straight out of the pot, too, don't you? Gramps always yells at me."

I smiled and sat down. "Well, Daddy's never home, so I can do what I want. Why make extra dishes when you can keep it warm in the pot?"

"Exactly!" Natsu exclaimed. "Nobody else gets it."

We laughed together and began eating, taking turns slurping noodles from the pot so we didn't accidentally bump heads. I also wasn't going to take the risk of having a "Lady and the Tramp" situation, which given the huge amounts Natsu was eating with each bite, had a relatively high probability of happening.

"Save some for me," I said, pushing his forehead back when he leaned over to take another mouthful.

He pouted. "You didn't make enough." But he sat back and let me finish off the rest of the noodles.

Though it took a little pushing, I did manage to make him leave after we ate. The last thing I wanted was for my dad to come home and see a boy in the apartment. Maybe he'd have been okay with it if I told him beforehand, but when Natsu had come so suddenly, I didn't have the time to warn him. So Natsu's visit had to be kept a secret.

At school the next day, I marched over to Levy as soon as I saw her.

"Levy!"

She turned around. "Good morning, Lu," she said.

"What made you think telling Natsu to come over to my house uninvited was okay?" I said.

She blinked, confused. "What? I never said that."

"Well he just showed up yesterday, saying you told him my address and said it was fine to come over."

Recognition crossed her face, and then sadness. "Oh. I did give him your address when he asked. I thought it was okay since you two are close now, but I shouldn't've said anything without telling you first. I didn't think he was going to visit you with it. I'm really sorry, Lu," she said.

I sighed. "No, it's fine. I was just really surprised."

Levy smirked. "You had fun, did you? What did you two do in your apartment all alone?"

"Nothing like what you're implying," I said, rolling my eyes. "We just watched cooking shows until I got hungry, and then we made ramyun."

"You couldn't make anything better for your guest?" Levy laughed.

"Hey, you know we don't have much," I said. "And he likes spicy things, so we had something spicy."

"Sounds yummy," Levy sighed. "I had leftover tuna casserole. Yuck."

"Probably better than ramyun," I said.

"Not when it's leftovers."

"Valid point. What the heck even is tuna casserole anyway?"

Levy scoffed. "You said it was better when you don't even know what it is?"

"I said probably. So what is it?"

"You don't wanna know. My mom wanted to 'try new things' from her Joy of Cooking book and that is what she came up with. Of all things."

"Next time, if you have the option, just join me and Natsu if it's that bad."

"So Natsu's coming over again?"

I thought a moment. "Well, I guess I don't know for sure, but he probably will. It's a lot easier to talk in person than texting all the time. We both agreed on that. I told him he could come again so long as he told me beforehand next time."

"Does he not have any homework though? Even we never get to see each other outside of school this time of year."

"Well the soccer team lost immediately at regionals so their season is over now, and he does his homework immediately after school while I'm still at club activities."

"If he's going to do that, I'll have to be more diligent with getting my homework done early so I can hang out, too. Can't have him one-up me. You're my best friend, not his."

I giggled. "It's not a competition, Levy. But if you want to hang out more in the evenings, I would absolutelylove that. Just don't make your parents mad staying out too late."

"Yeah, that's the only problem. I'll just take your afternoons when we meet in the library, and Natsu can have your evenings. I guess that's fair."

"Glad you two were able to work this out," I said, letting the sarcasm drip from my voice.

She continued, "And Erza gets you all to herself on student council days. And you have more classes with Juvia than the rest of us. Yeah, it all works out. We can share custody." Levy enjoyed teasing me way too much. If only she knew what kinds of thoughts I was having about Natsu recently, I'd never hear the end of it. Well, Levy would probably be okay about it, but if some other people found out... Loke especially. That'd be a disaster.

"...Lu, are you listening?"

"Huh?"

She shook her head. "Never mind. I was rambling. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not going to get involved in your friendship custody battles anyway."

"Sorry," she said, laughing. "I was just having fun"

"Gotta have your fun now while it's still only homeroom."

"And before the announcements start," Levy added, apparently jinxing herself because as soon as those words left her mouth, the speakers crackled, indicating the start of the morning announcements. We instantly fell silent, but shared a look as the class prepared to pledge allegiance to the flag like good little patriots. Fun over, it was going to be another long school day. I had cheer practice, and then— and then back home to an empty apartment.

Was it bad that I hoped Natsu would come over two days in a row? Weekday evenings were always so boring, and yesterday had been so fun. Levy was usually too busy, and her parents didn't like her to leave her apartment alone after dark. The McGarden family preferred early bedtimes anyway, so even if I forewent dinner and visited her place, I wouldn't be able to stay long. Natsu lived across town, but he said he didn't have a curfew, so...

I heard a quick buzz come from my backpack and checked my phone. Looks like I'd forgotten to silence it before announcements started, but I was glad I did. It was a text from Natsu.

Can i come over tmrw?

So he was asking permission this time. I smiled and typed my reply before shoving it back into the recesses of my bag for the remainder of the school day. Yes, of course! You can come anytime.

A/N: She liiiiiiikes him~

Hehe. Thanks for reading!