A/N: Fourth chapter is up! This part is my favorite in the story. I had a field day writing these parts.

Major warning: FLUFF CONTENT AHEAD.

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and Hibi Chouchou belong to their respective authors, not me. I'm just a writer who wanted to have both series for the price of one. XD

When he saw her standing by herself amongst the crowd, Natsu remembered why he stopped on his tracks the first time he saw her by the school gates and why he kept glancing at her when she sat beside him on their first day of classes.

"Beautiful," said the small voice in his mind as he looked at Lucy.

He was never one to stop and appreciate clothes but this time he couldn't help it. The Sakura-patterned yukata she wore complimented her flushed pale skin and her obi showed off her thin waist and the swell of her breasts. And to complete the look, she had her hair up in a golden bun with a crystal bauble to hold it in place.

Suddenly, he felt so underdressed with his red jacket, white shirt and faded jeans get-up.

He wanted to go home and change. Maybe he could grab a yukata from Igneel's closet. He remembered seeing a few in there once.

But too late, Natsu realized, when Lucy found him and smiled. The sight jarred him, confused as to why his heart raced at that. It was just Lucy, his best friend, who happened to look extremely beautiful that night. Why was he even thinking of changing his clothes to match her?

He shook his head, whisking away the errant thoughts and smiled back at his friend. Then he walked over to where she stood under the lamp post.

"Hey." Lucy greeted, her soft smile turning into a radiant, full grin.

"Goddess," said the voice again. Natsu tried his best to ignore it as he stumbled with his reply.

"H-hey." He croaked, not realizing how dry his throat was. He cleared it as softly as he could then tried again. "Hey there. You look great."

He did a little internal dance when he finished that compliment without stumbling.

"Aquarius, Aries and Virgo had fun with me," she said sheepishly as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ears. More pink coated her cheeks as well.

"Figures." Natsu teased.

"What was that?" Lucy pouted, throwing a half-hearted glare at him.

He simply shrugged and grinned at her, which was willingly returned by Lucy.

"Where are the others? They're late," he asked as he looked around the area. "Fireworks start in an hour."

Lucy pulled out her phone from the little pouch she brought with her. Her fingers quickly tapped on the screen then put it over her ear. She waited a few beats until the other line connected.

"Levy-chan?" Natsu heard her say. "Where are you?"

Natsu started texting Gray and the other guys as well.

[Wer r u? it's just lucy and me here.]

"What?" That was Lucy, whose voice started to soften. "Levy-chan!" she hissed, her cheeks suddenly flushing.

She was shaking when she turned up to him. "Levy-chan said they won't be coming."

"Eh?" Natsu raised his brows. "Why?"

Lucy shook her head then avoided his eyes. "She won't tell."

He knew that look. She's lying. Levy definitely gave her a reason. But before he could ask what it was, his phone buzzed. It was Gray.

[Sorry. Cant come. Dont wanna be in the way in case you realize something tonight.]

Perplexed, Natsu quickly tapped in his reply.

[Wat do u mean?]

[Not telling. :p how's lucy btw? Tell her i said hi]

Natsu typed the first thing that came to mind.

[Lucy looks really pretty in her yukata]

He almost hit send until he realized what he typed. He tapped at the backspace furiously and typed another message.

[Not u too. ]

[Stop denying man. It's fine. Been there before.]

[Remind me to punch u on mon]

[Bring it flamebrain]

He was gonna type a very rude reply when Lucy called out to him. "Natsu, what did Gray say?"

His sighed as he locked his phone and slipped it back to his pocket. A hand brushed over his face as he answered her. "He's not coming either."

"I see." she said. She fiddled with the strap of her pouch around her wrist. "It's just you and me then."

"Yeah, I guess." he said.

He felt an awkwardness bloom inside him after reading Gray's text. "Get it together Natsu." He chided himself. "It's just Lucy."

Lucy was quiet too, her head hung low as she continued fiddling with her pouch.

"Hey, it's okay. It's their loss for not coming." He tried to comfort her, placing a hand over her shoulder. "Let's enjoy ourselves and take lots of pictures so they'll know what they missed."

She looked up to him, her brown eyes shining. "Great idea."

"I know." He grinned at her. "Let's go."

They walked together in comfortable silence, taking in the festive mood around them. The park was full of banners and little lanterns in different colors, giving the place a muted lighting.

The crowd was increasing too as they neared the booths. Natsu constantly looked behind him, making sure that Lucy was still with him.

To his surprise, Lucy was a few paces behind him and was getting swallowed by pedestrians.

"Natsu!" she cried out as she tried to move forward.

Natsu moved quickly, bumping into a few shoulders and hands in his effort to reach for her. "Lucy!" He said in relief as he pulled her towards him. "Sorry, I thought you were behind me."

"T-thank you." She said as she caught her breath. "I thought I was gonna lose you in the crowd. I can't walk fast in these slippers."

Natsu looked down and saw her feet were starting to redden under the slippers' straps. They looked uncomfortable.

"Why didn't you tell me? We could have walked slowly."

Lucy ducked her head and looked away from him. "I'm sorry."

Natsu wanted to hit himself. It was his fault for not noticing and now Lucy was apologizing. He should be the one saying sorry, not her.

"Never mind," he told her. "Let's go straight to the viewing area so you can rest your feet."

"Okay."

"But I'm not letting you walk for now." He turned around and knelt on one knee. His hands were turned backwards as well, beckoning her to climb.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" she asked him, hoping that he's not suggesting that.

"What do you think? I'm giving you a piggyback ride."

"No, I'm not doing that embarrassing thing!"

"Come on, Lucy." Natsu insisted, his head turned towards her. "I'm not letting you walk on those evil slippers until we wrap them. Besides, this way is faster. There's only 30 minutes until fireworks. We're not missing them."

"Natsu, no."

"Lucy."

"Natsu."

They stared down at each other for a minute but Natsu stayed firm, even against Lucy's patented puppy eyes. "Yes, she's cute," he told himself, but there's no way he's letting her walk with her swollen feet.

"Fine." Lucy relented. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Natsu's neck. She buried her face on the tail of his scarf to hide the deep blush that settled there during the stare down. "Idiot."

Natsu chuckled, knowing that she's pouting as she called him that. "I know."

"If anyone from school sees us like this, the rumors will never stop you know." She still has her face buried on his scarf.

"I don't care." He slowly stood up and hefted Lucy on his arm, making the girl squeal, and then started walking through the crowd.

The festival-goers parted immediately upon seeing them. Some people even started whispering among themselves, wondering why a pink-haired boy is carrying the girl bridal-style.

"Are you really bothered by the rumors of us dating?" he asked as they walked.

Lucy shook her head against his scarf. "Not really. I just don't like that they're dragging you into it is all."

"Well, I hate it that there were rumors about you even before that." Natsu added.

"People need to find hobbies other than spreading gossips."

"You said it."

True to his word, he carried Lucy up to the viewing area. It has less people than the festival grounds, most of which were settled in pairs or groups. Lanterns still hung between posts, giving the area a mellow lighting. It looked exactly like the dating places featured in movies and magazines. Something that Natsu tried very hard to ignore that night.

He looked around to see where they could rest and found a vacant bench. Lucy was eager to get off him and quickly claimed her space on it.

She pushed the offending footwear off her feet and wiggled her toes when they were finally free. Said footwear lay on the grass, temporarily forgotten as their owner flexed and rolled her ankles.

Natsu sat beside her and watched fondly at her antics.

Not long after, they heard the first sound of fireworks launching. Both looked up, anticipating the colorful display on the night sky. Red, yellow and orange lights burst above them in succession, earning some ooohs and aaahs from their fellow spectators.

It was dazzling but it was nothing compared to what Natsu saw when he looked to his side.

She had her hands over her lips but he knew underneath those delicate fingers, she was smiling. Her eyes were sparkling with joy, her lashes sweeping up and down gracefully in every blink. He could hear her voice clearly despite the noise around them. As if Natsu's world paused for a moment and focused on her. Only Lucy and nothing else.

"It's beautiful!" she said as she turned to him, her face split with the prettiest smile ever.

He was breathless. His heart skipped a beat. Words caught in his throat but he felt great. He felt like the luckiest person alive to be able to see that smile, so pure and free.

He nodded slowly. His eyes never left hers. "Yeah... beautiful."

Lucy stilled as eyes grew wide in surprise. She blinked a few times then looked up again at the fireworks in the sky. She tucked a stray strand of hair in her ear then cleared her throat. Both of which Natsu knew were Lucy's nervous ticks. He wondered what got her nervous now.

He looked up again at the fireworks but his eyes kept sneaking glances at her. She sneaked glances at him too. He knew this because their eyes met several times and then they were laughing because it was just like their first day of class.

"What's so funny, weirdo?" he asked as another firework launched to the skies.

Lucy just giggled and shook her head and it was music to Natsu's ears. He could listen to her laugh all night.

"I've got it bad." He mused to himself. "I love her. I'm in love with Lucy Heartfilia."

Then he was laughing with her again, because he was happy. Loving Lucy made him happy. His blood sang in this realization; it gave him a strange rush. He wanted to scream his heart out and tell the whole world about it. He wanted to pull her hand and hug her. God, he wanted to kiss her. But he couldn't do it. Not yet. So he laughed instead.

He loves Lucy.

The fireworks show soon ended. People started moving out of the viewing area by groups until it was just Natsu and Lucy. They were still breathless from their laughing, silly smiles plastered on their lips.

"Wanna go home now?" he asked her, although he didn't really feel like going home yet.

There was a mischievous sparkle in her eyes when she shook her head. "My dad's on a business trip. He won't be back until Monday."

"Soooo?" he followed up, sensing where their conversation was going.

He watched her stand up slowly from their bench. She turned so she was facing him then did an exaggerated bow as she scooped up her slippers.

"It means my curfew is temporarily suspended for tonight." She twirled around, arms extended with each slippers hanging on her fingers. "And I asked Capricorn to take a day off."

"Well that's convenient." Natsu commented. He couldn't stop the grin forming on his lips at her antics.

Lucy grinned back at him as she pulled on his right hand. "I know."

"What do we do next then?" he asked as he let himself be pulled up by Lucy.

She paused as she tapped a finger over her chin. "I saw a takoyaki stand on the way here."

"I like the sound of that."

Natsu and Lucy spent the rest of the night eating takoyaki and choco-bananas while winning most of prizes in game booths. The goldfish scooping booth would have closed up shop early if not for Lucy convincing Natsu to free the fishes after he scooped them up. She had to tell him that it would be bad for his cat Happy if he eats goldfish.

In another booth, Lucy won herself a pair of bunny slippers. It was a game of chance where one would bet on which among the seven colors of the rainbow the ball will land. She put her money on red on Natsu's insistence. Three rounds later, she proved herself to be truly "Lucky Lucy" and left with a new pair of slippers, a tumbler and a strange snowman plushie.

Stall owners have started to close up shop when they finally decided to go home. Natsu offered to walk Lucy home which she graciously accepted. It was a rare occurrence after all and the Heartfilia Manor wasn't that far from the festival grounds.

Too soon they reached Lucy's gates.

"Here we are." mused Natsu. "Man, your gates are scary."

Lucy giggled then turned to him. She gestured for her loot that he volunteered to carry while walking. "Thanks for inviting me." she said. "I had lots of fun."

"Mission accomplished then." He lifted his hand and ruffled her hair. "I'm glad I invited you."

She smiled softly at him and reached out for his hand. "I wouldn't have gone if it was someone else."

He turned their hands over and laced his fingers with hers. It was an unconscious action, something that just happen over the course of their friendship, but right now, Natsu felt so lucky to be holding her hand.

"I don't just invite anybody, only special ones."

Lucy raised her brows at this, intrigued. "So I'm special?"

He nodded slowly. "Very special."

She giggled again as she shyly tucked her hair behind her ear. She sighed briefly and leaned back. "I have to go." she said, her voice shaking slightly.

"Okay." Natsu was still holding her hand.

"Good night, Natsu."

He let go of her hand slowly, dragging out that moment for even just a second. Lucy was reluctant to let go as well.

"Good night, Lucy."

He watched her get inside and waited until he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore before starting his walk home. As he walked, he pulled out his phone and started typing a text for Gray.

[festival was fun w/o u and Lucy was really pretty. Still gonna punch you on Mon)

A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. Please tell me in the reviews, I got more inspiration with your kind words!