Animal, Person...Or Dragon

Evil Queen: Now my dear...one bite and all your dreams will come true...

Chapter 4

Snow White's Cleaning Frenzy

"Think about Happy...what an unfortunate cat." She rested her hand on his lap, shaking her head dramatically, making her look like she was thinking of the cat's misfortune.

"What's wrong with happy?" Natsu looked frantic, needing to know the reason for Happy's affliction. Lucy's eyes softened for a juncture, finding the affection for his cat sweet. She shook her head, her heart was getting fairly too mushy for her taste. She continued with her conniving plan for Natsu to clean up a bit.

"Look around you! It looks like a tornado swept through this area! It's bad for a cat to live in this mess, and you." She exclaimed.

Natsu's heart fluttered. Nobody had ever cared about his health or needs before; it felt nice. He looked around the room, not really caring about the junk flung on the floor, or the moldy food sitting in his fridge. Natsu also knew that Happy didn't care one bit either, so he decided to do it for Lucy.

The problem with Natsu cleaning was that he had never done it before in his life. Without parents, he was never forced to. It was the job of a parent to keep their child in line...that's what they said to their kids whenever they were mad at them.

The boy's strategy was collecting everything off the floor and misplaced items to soon after stuff them under his couch or in the only closet he had. Natsu seemed delighted. It didn't even take him more than five minutes. Lucy, on the other hand was trying to keep her sang-froid. She would have to clean up herself. Natsu was useless.

"I guess I'll have to be your personal cleaner...but only for today. Watch what I do so next time you can do it yourself. Now step aside and let me clean." She told Natsu, with sterness and seriousness in the tone of her voice. It appeared she took the art of cleaning passionately. It was going to be hard for Natsu, the blonde's anger accumulated whilst she cleaned. It was like anger management for her. A way to get rid of all her nervousness and bottled up feelings. She was a pro at cleaning, she dusted, swept, mopped until her apartment was pristine. She had a few too many stressful emotions bottled up from her writing, family problems or even everyday life.

The dragon enthusiast obeyed what the weird woman said, kind of getting a bit afraid of her. Watching her clean was like watching her go on a scary rampage. A cleaning frenzy. He tried to remember everything she was doing. In the middle, he even took out a pen and pad, writing down notes, like he was a student in college. His handwriting was that of a child, and it was even hard for Natsu to comprehend what he had wrote.

Whilst Nastu was writing, Lucy started cleansing her friend's house. She started to throw out every food wrapper, moldy food, and anything else without usefulness. It was typically almost everything on his wooden floor. Some underwear she had to throw out as well. She was baffled and disgusted at the amount of holes it had. The key collector had to use gloves for that filthy job.

Next, she swept the now (almost) clean floor with a broom she found in the closet, which looked like it hadn't been used...ever. It was subtlety picking up dust, not even knowing it existed. All she had to do for the floor to look immaculate now was to mop it with water and a drop of soap. She though how much work she was putting into one's house which didn't belong to her. She wasn't usually this generous to...anybody. "Why him?" She wondered, dazed. At that instant she was on the brink of slipping and landing on her arse, humiliated. Fortuitously, gravity and balance was leaning towards her side.

It was the time to dust and rearrange the shelves. She was solaced that there wasn't many. Lucy set everything in the right place; the places she thought was right, and examined them again, shifting a few objects a few centimetres to the left or to the right. It was hard being a perfectionist. Natsu just found it bizarre and lightly funny, but he decided not to speak his mind. Sometimes the truth hurt. That's what his father taught him and trust was something he defiantly had for his father.

Natsu watched how Lucy moved around the house. She reminded him of Snow White—not the resemblance—who cooked and cleaned for the seven dwarves. Sure, it was only him and Happy, but however slightly, he still thought about the Snow White fable. Only more a perfectionist Snow White on a sterilisation rampage.

After taking out the garbage, scrubbing the windows, cleaning the cat litter, placing the books in alphabetical order (a bit too much), and airing out the house, Lucy had forgotten all about the owner of it. She was in her own different world, even after completing her task. After a few minutes she snapped out of it, remembering about the man on the couch, scribbling a bunch of incomprehensible words, looking rather dishevelled and awfully concentrated on the task in hand: remembering each step to keep a house clean...to precision and transcending everything Natsu thought he knew about keeping a house sterile.

" *pant* Now that's how you do it." Lucy declared proudly, slightly out of breath. It was not surprising, considering how little amount of time it took to complete each task.

"Wow, thanks. I was not expecting you to be so...committed. I don't think I will be able to do that good of a job." He complemented her, grinning ear to ear, patting Happy on the head. The tips of Lucy's ears flashed red out of flattery. Every girl loved to be complemented. They couldn't help being happy.

"It was my pleasure to help a friend..." The word friend rolled off her tongue so ordinarily. It was nice.

"Now I have to help you some way." Natsu said, stroking his chin with his left hand, pondering.

"You're going to help me get to that town. Then I'll be able to call a tow truck and get back into civilisation." Deep down, both friends felt quite sad, knowing that they might not encounter each other ever again after that day. Lucy lived in Montreal and Natsu in Newfoundland's dense wood. They were—as you can say—worlds apart, and Nastu was sure to not have a car. They couldn't call it a long term relationship for they were not dating. But now they became friends, the term could still be set into account, and everyone knows they never work out.

"Yeah...I'll help you get out of the woods...but you're going to stay a little while longer right?" He asked once again, staring at her with pleading puppy dog eyes. It was tough for Lucy to say no. The couple was doing the wrong thing, getting attached to each other knowing they had to separate soon. It was like a tragic Brother's Grimm story.

"Sure, but I told you before...only for a bit longer." Not to feel any heart ache (as much as she could have about someone she had just met) the blonde thought about her dream; becoming a known writer, and before accomplishing her goal, she had to publish something first, then go back to Montreal...where her apartment was situated. "Maybe I can move..." She then scoffed at the ridiculous idea. She didn't know why thoughts and worry kept rambling on in her brain. She was blowing everything out of proportion, something she didn't do often. "If you're asking me to stay longer...what did you have in mind to do. I'm kind of bored right now?" Noticing they were now sitting in silence, not doing anything important.

"Sometimes its good to just sit back and relax, not thinking about anything but nothing. You don't have to do something all the time. Now it's Happy and I's turn to show you something; to relax and not worry." Natsu just lay on his hammock placing his hands on the back of his head whilst Happy reposed on the window pane. They looked almost comatose. Instead of relaxing like the other two, her nervousness increased. She stayed sitting upright on the couch fiddling immensely with her keys.

She could only sit still for a couple of minutes before beginning to burst. She mind followed by her body was telling her to do something. She decided to make up a random story in her head about a shepherd and his flock...of cats? Strangely, she made the shepherd Natsu, for some unknown reason :

Dusk rose, sun hiding mystically from view as a young shepherd led his herd of sheep into a run-down derelict cathedral for the night. The energetic, fearless handsome almost adult had a large responsibility immensely packed on his shoulders; being the sole care taker of a large amount of blue cats. They were not the brightest mammals of the bunch so they looked up to their master, following his lead. Trust was an important piece in the relationship between shepherds and their meowing litter. From the pink haired boy trusting the furry felines not to steal his fish dinner to the blue cats trusting Natsu to feed them aquatic creatures once in a while. When all the cats had entered, Natsu closed the wooden door, keeping the felines from the fangs of carnivorously dangerous dragons. Without the molten fire spewing from their mouths or they skin crawling roar, they would appear like shadows in the night; invisible, swooping down and catching their prey with their sharp claws...

Lucy found the story entertaining, knowing the reality of the subject impossible. Although that was the case, she still found it easy to imagine. She glanced to Natsu's unmoving body. She saw him wide awake looking at her intensively. She looked away, finding the stare heart warming. Lucy tried to get back into her made up Fairy Tale, but she couldn't concentrate because of Natsu's stares. The key holder was bored once again, after ten minutes.

"Can we do something else other than nothing. Anything is better than this" Lucy whined, going up to Natsu and rocking his hammock roughly, almost knocking his off it. Natsu started to go a odd shade of green.

"OK, OK! Just stop rocking my hammock...I don't feel too good." Natsu replied weakly, putting a hand over his mouth. The boy had a bad case of motion sickness.

"Sorry!" Lucy apologised.

"I'm fine. What do you want to do Luce?" The colour in Natsu's face came back when he stepped off the swaying hammock.

"Well..."

Thanks for reading! Please review.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto...

welshcanadian14