Chapter 7
•
Natsu woke up with puffy eyes. After telling his explanatory backstory to Lucy, she had walked him home. As Natsu walked to the kitchen, he saw someone he did not expect to see. Lucy was passed out on the couch, motionless. Natsu walked to the kitchen, quickly cooking eggs, bacon, and toast, set a plate next to Lucy on the table. He sat on the chair next to her and ate his breakfast. He flipped on the TV to see a news report. There was a flipped, smashed truck in the middle of an intersection with no debris of any sort around.
"There was a pink-headed kid and a blonde girl. She got stuck in the grate in the middle of the intersection and it looked like the truck was gonna smash into the both of them. that was until the pink-headed kid threw the truck over his head. He smashed the grate to get his girlfriend out and grabbed the guy in the truck. Poor b****d must've been scared s***less. The pink-haired kid carried his girlfriend and the truck driver to a police car and tossed the guy in." An anonymous witness said
"I resent that remark. My hair isn't pink. It's Salmon! Get it right, asshole!"
A news reporter lady shooed off the witness "I'm not exactly sure what that man thought he saw, but we have asked every witness that we know of and they all say the same thing. Also, roll the security tapes!"
A low-quality film was played on the screen demonstrating the devastating power that Natsu had used and then showed them walking into the ice cream shop
"In other news, Marvell's Ice Cream has reached an all-time high in popularity."
"Natsu, I'm hungry. Make me some food." Lucy moaned
"I already did. Just open your eyes."
Lucy slowly opened her eyes and had a slight frown
"What? Is the food not good enough?" Natsu asked heartbroken
"You're too far away. Move closer."
Natsu smiled and sat right next to Lucy who smiled in return. She sat up and began eating
"Hey, Lucy, do you want me to grab our stuff?"
Lucy frowned "Are you that eager to get away from m-"
Natsu engulfed her in a hug, causing her to drop the piece of bacon that she was holding
"I would never want to leave you. By the way this is mine now." Natsu said grabbing the fallen piece of bacon
Lucy giggled "Is there a place I can shower, or will that blow up like everything else?"
Natsu stood up and carried her to the bathroom "Would you like me to join you?" He joked
"Absolutely."
Natsu's jaw dropped. "W-w-w-w-WHAT?!"
Lucy began unbuttoning her shirt. Natsu got out of there faster than lightning "I REALLY APPRECIATE THE OFFER BUT I THINK IT'S BEST IF I GO FINISH BREAKFAST!" Natsu yelled running down the halls still shielding his eyes resulting in crashes and booms of all sorts
Lucy had never laughed so hard in her life! Just say a few suggestively mature things to Natsu and he was running and screaming down the hall. She was going to abuse this knowledge until she died. Or he died.
Lucy finished her shower and put on her clothes. She was thinking about what happened yesterday when she had the realization of what he said "Layla supposedly died" "supposedly died" "supposedly" the words echoed through her mind. Why would her mother not return if she was still alive? What had happened to her?
Lucy left the bathroom in confusion. She hardly noticed Natsu sitting on the couch and almost sat in his lap.
"Hey Luce, is something bugging you?"
Lucy didn't know what to answer. So she decided a direct approach
"What do you mean when you said my mother 'supposedly' died?"
"I mean she's not dead ye- I mean you misheard me." He said breaking out in a sweat
"Anyway, we have to explain to your father why you didn't come home last night. And hopefully he wasn't watching the news this morning."
Natsu and Lucy lounged around the house for a while until they worked up the nerve to take Lucy home. They got to her house without any holdups. When the walked up to the door, a very angry white-haired man threw it open
"LUCY WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?! YOU WERE ON TV THIS MORNING WITH THIS STUPID FUCKING DELINQUENT! AND WHY DID I GET A CALL FROM THE SCHOOL SAYING YOU DITCHED MOST OF YOUR CLASSES YESTERDAY?! DID YOU STAY AT HIS HOUSE AND DO THE FRICKITY FRACK OR SOMETHING?! YOU ARE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD! AND YOU! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU?!"
"Technically, you can only ground me for 2 days." Lucy retorted
Natsu was holding his head in his hands, doing everything he could to soothe the ringing in his ears and contain the desire for the utter annihilation of the asshole in front of him
"Actually, Dad, I would advise you to stop yelling before this goes south."
"I'LL NOT STOP UNTIL I GET MY ANSWER! TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE!" Jude said after slapping Lucy
Natsu was suddenly boiling. Lucy had just been slapped to the ground. LUCY! SLAPPED TO THE GROUND! He couldn't get the image out of his mind when everything went dark. Natsu picked up Lucy, jumped over outside blasting range, and jumped back in front of Jude. Natsu was ready to annihilate the existence of this fucker.
"You. You just made a terrible mistake. And now you'll pay." He said, giving in to the darkness that was ever looming inside, yearning to be let out
Jude was in such a rage that he didn't notice his life was about to be ended
"Natsu! Don't!"
Natsu came back to reality, all of the darkness inside of him dissipating. He was still gonna beat the shit out of the asshole in front of him, but would spare his life.
"I won't kill him. But I will make him regret being born. I will make him wish he was dead. And I will personally shatter every one of his 206 bones."
Natsu had successfully broken every bone in Jude's body in under five minutes. "Alright, I'll call an ambulance. Hello? Yes there is a man with every bone in his body broken lying in front of me. Yes I did do it. You'll never take me alive. The Heartfilia estate. What do you mean you don't know where it is? It's the biggest house in the whole town! Anyway, he's here. Address, umm... 1156 parkinghemegesegway avenue. Okay. I'm not sticking around. He can tell you who did it but I guarantee you will never find me in any- shit gotta go. It's the 5-0." Natsu hung up the phone
"Time to go, Luce." He said cheerfully as he burned the phone that was in his hand to nothing but ash. He grabbed Lucy and jumped over the back fence. They got back to his place to see Makarov looking insanely angry.
"You. Fucking. Dumbass. Your stunt is everywhere. Internet, national television, MTV IS LOOKING FOR YOU! Call everyone. We need to leave today. Lucy, I'll give you the overvi-"
"That isn't necessary. Natsu explained everything last- HOLY SHIT WHY IS THAT- oh wait. Hi happy!" She waved at the flying blue cat
"Hey Lucy!" Happy jumped into her cleavage (because fuck you that's why).
"GET OUT OF THERE YOU PERVERTED CAT!" Natsu yelled "Also, gramps. I kinda broke every bone in her dad's body so we need to leave sooner. I almost killed him. I did lose control, but I didn't lose it."
Makarov looked pleased "at least you didn't kill him. And you must be making progress. You've never regained control without an outburst ever!"
Natsu called each and every one of his friends. 30 minutes later, they all arrived.
"Everyone ready?" Makarov asked. Everyone nodded
"Let's go." They jumped through the portal. Lucy said she was scared so Natsu carried her through. She wasn't afraid until they jumped through. She just wanted Natsu to hold her. After they jumped through, there was a 500 meter drop into a river. She was screaming and holding onto Natsu
"Chill out! There's something I want to try!" Natsu yelled
Lucy looked even more terrified "WHY WOULD YOU JUST TRY SOMETHING WILLY-NILLY WHEN WE'RE ALREADY ABOUT TO DIE?!"
"WINGS OF THE FIRE DRAGON!" As he said that, he concentrated the magical energy to his back which spontaneously grew wings cloaked in fire
"This is nice!" Natsu said cruising around with his wings fully extended
Lucy became more comfortable and began to feel more safe with Natsu
"Now there's something I wanna try." She said
"Like wha-" Natsu was cut off. She had slammed her lips on his. Natsu felt something. Maybe it was the rush of wind coming downwards. Maybe it was his lack of concentration on flying. Maybe it was the painful smack of the water he slammed into. Oh yeah.
Natsu and Lucy surfaced. They fell 100 meters to the water, however, they hit last and everyone saw what they were doing on the way down. Lucy blushed deeply at the whistling and Natsu was oblivious. He was still too focused on Lucy. He leaned in and kissed her. They sunk. That is, until a large, Burly, manly man drug them back to the surface
"IF YOU'RE A MAN THEN YOU FLOAT WHILE KISSING YOUR WOMAN!"
"Shut up, Elfman!" The group yelled unanimously
"Anyway, Natsu. Congratulations on your girlfriend and its time to go home!" Makarov yelled
They swam out and were all totally soaked. Well. Natsu dried himself off with his body heat. But everyone else was soaked. Some suspicious looking people were messing around with large red containers throughout the forest. When they were roughly halfway through, there was a massive blaze. The red tanks were filled with gasoline! The suspicious people lit the forest ablaze and gathered around the circle of fire, waiting to strike.
A loud sucking noise was heard and then all of the fire disappeared. Lucy was confused. That was until- "geez. That fire tasted like shit. Where did you guys get gasoline from anyway?"
A large man covered in piercings stepped up "don't bother, salamander. Petty bandits like this can't do anything but babble excuses."
"Ice Make: Lance!" The group of hostiles was chopped down to a few people
"Heaven's Wheel!" A scarlet haired woman became cloaked in light. When the light faded, she had completely changed armor and was surrounded by swords
The group of bandits surrendered immediately. Lucy told herself she wouldn't be shocked at what she saw here, but that was certainly shocking
"Hey Natsu, what just happened?"
Natsu stared at her "what do you mean?"
"I mean was that magic?" She asked
"Yeah. Gajeel's metal face, Ice Hole uses ice, Erza fights with random weapons, Makarov can make himself not so tiny, and Laxus isn't here."
"What magic does everyone use?" She asked
Natsu told her everything he knew about everyone.
"We're here!" Makarov yelled
"Okay. Everyone has the same rooms as always, but Lucy. We don't have a spare room. You can stay with whoever you like." Makarov stated "Now. LETS MAKE SOME MONEY -ahem- I mean HELP PEOPLE, PEOPLE!"
Lucy stayed by Natsu's side "So where is our room?" She asked
"Actually, I don't stay here." He stated
"Flame-brain doesn't care for the guild houses so he made his own shack. He and happy live outside of town. It's quieter there."
Lucy looked at Gray "but that's just his reasoning." He said
"Okay. Natsu, where's our house?" Lucy inquired
"I suppose I could delay a job for one day."
Natsu and Lucy were walking through town
"Everything is so old. I don't see any cars. And the only weapons I see are swords. Seriously. EVERYONE HAS A SWORD!" Lucy babbled
"Fiore is an alternate universe that dates over 1200 years in the past. The year is X784 here." Natsu explained
The two stopped in front of a store. Natsu escorted Lucy inside and she saw all sorts of magical items "Get anything you want, Lucy. You can use everything here. Or rather, you have the aptitude."
"But Natsu, everything here is over 1000 whatever this currency is!"
"Lucy. The average rent is 70,000 jewel. I'm an S-Class wizard. I can buy the entire store with my savings if I wanted to. It's a birthday gift." Natsu said
"Alright then. What about these... Set of 11 zodiac keys? It says 'celestial wizards only'. What does that mean,?"
"It means, they will only sell it to a celestial wizard. Or someone who can pay enough." He said looking at the price tag
Lucy took a glance at it "1,000,000 jewel? 1,000,000?!"
"I'll take the zodiac keys."
Lucy saw Natsu with the cashier
"I'm sorry, salamander, but you are not a celestial wizard. I'm afraid I can't sell them to you." The cashier replied
"I may not be, but she is. Or can be rather. She can use light magic. Not yet, but she will. I will buy it for 3 times the amount on the price tag."
"You couldn't possibly-"
Natsu placed a large bag on the counter which cracked under it's weight
"It's yours. And I get to keep the contents of this bag."
"Deal." Natsu said as he grabbed Lucy and pulled her out
"How much money was in that bag?" She asked
"SALAMANDER!" The cashier yelled
"None at all. Just 700 pounds of useless junk. He said he would take the contents of the bag for the keys. It was a deal. If he sold it all, he might be able to make 2000 jewel with it" he said sprinting with Lucy on his back
"Time to go home. In 2 weeks, you can learn some magic."
"Why in 2 weeks?" She asked
"Because. That's when we go to Tenrou. The only person in existence who can use light magic lives there."
"Wait. Isn't Tenroujiima where Zeref is?" She asked
"Absolutely. He lives there. And one day, I'm going to kill him. I'm not strong enough yet, but when we go there, I train under him. Everyone else just tries to make S-Class. You, on the other hand, will train with Mavis. She is the only person who can fight Zeref and survive if he truly intends to kill the person."
Lucy laid her head on Natsu's warm shoulder. She buried herself in his scarf loving the smell and heat of it. She fell asleep draped over Natsu's back
"Wake up, Lucy. We're here!" Natsu cheered
Lucy clung on to Natsu like a baby koala clings to it's mother. Natsu walked inside and laid her down in the bed. When he tried to leave, she grabbed him
" Natsu, don't leave. You're warm." She pleaded
"I was planning on taking a shower, but-"
"I'll come with you to the shower. Just don't leave me." She begged
"I'm going to take a shower. It's better for you if you don't shower with me."
Lucy pouted "and why is that?" She asked
"Because I have the skin of a fire dragon and I like showers that would melt the flesh off of other people's bones. My showers are hotter than fire."
Lucy pouted again "then don't shower! Just stay with me!"
Natsu sighed as he climbed into bed and turned out the lights "Goodnight, Lucy." He said and kissed her.
Lucy felt too distanced from Natsu and decided to lay on top of him
'This is much better' she though as she drifted off into a sleepy paradise of her own