Lucy hadn't understood exactly what had just happened. She tried changing the subject off of the dumb rumor, but expected him to at least comment. He either had a really good selective memory or decided to ignore it all together. But never mind that, Lucy didn't need to think of such things at the moment. Instead she should be rejoicing! It was already the next morning and she had completed her novel!
"Haha! Yes, finally!" She held the sheets now bound together with a stretched string in both hands above and in front of her, admiring her hard-worked masterpiece. Her sleep-deprived body shook as she set down the papers again. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before, trying to write while Natsu and Happy ran amok in her apartment. The said boys were now passed out on her bed even though she had told them to leave after the storm blew past. She didn't care anymore, too tired to kick them out forcefully and in no way would they leave if she just told them to.
She stood from her desk dragged her feet towards the bed. Her body fell limply onto the empty sheets next to Natsu, her face slamming into the pillow beside his head. This was enough to wake Natsu a little. His vision was blurry, but he could see the blonde lying next to him, practically dead. Wait, she wasn't moving, was she really okay?
"Lucy?" Natsu said almost as a whisper, still trying to catch his voice that hadn't completely woken up yet. She didn't respond, though she couldn't hear him in the first place. Natsu was getting a bit scared. Is she dead?! He started shaking her shoulder and continued until she stifled a mumble.
"Stop, it's annoying." He sighed starting to sit up and crossed his legs. He looked over at the desk and noticed the stack of paper, the sheets slightly fluttering from the breeze coming through the window he had opened earlier and her quill rested neatly on top of it.
"Did you finish?" He asked looking back over at Lucy. She rolled onto her side enough for him to see her nod before she fell back into the pillow. He knew if he kept talking, it would just get on her nerves more because Tired Lucy is also Cranky Lucy. Bored, he leaned backwards into the open window so his head would hang out. An upside down view of the neighboring buildings and river shown before him, twinkling in the sunlight. The storm had passed by nighttime but what Natsu really liked about storms were the smells after. If anything is wet, the fragrance is enhanced or it smells completely different. The cobblestone pathway, the wooden window-frames, the flowers, even the tiles on the roof. They all smelled amazing. It was too bad they weren't at the park earlier that morning, because usually around dawn after a stormy night, the grass is amazing and you can even smell the air. He couldn't really describe what air smelled like, but if he had to, he'd probably have to say it smelled fresh and cool. He never really understood what feeling cold was like, but he knew how it smelled.
Natsu let out a deep sigh, this was boring. Screw it he was waking her up. He pounced from his spot in efforts of shaking the bed to wake her up. Instead she just rolled onto her back letting out a soft moan showing she had completely fallen asleep. Happy flew across the room and landed on the edge of the bed, finally woken from his sleep.
"Ne Natsu, I'm hungry. Can we go get food?" Happy said tiredly as his stomach grumbled.
"One minute, Happy" Natsu crawled on top of Lucy, straddling her, and placed his hands over her shoulders. "LUCY, GET UP!" He shouted as he shook her by the shoulders successfully making her open her eyes.
"Unnng, Natsu leave me alo-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING GET OFF OF ME-"
"Lucy, it's boring here." Natsu interrupted her, not caring what she had said. She grit her teeth together.
"Then leave."
"I wouldn't be waking you up if we were going to leave without you." Natsu put a bored look on his face, making his statement seem obvious.
"No, PLEASE let me sleep." Lucy could feel her pulse speeding up. She was too tired for this.
"Don't be a buzz kill. I thought you were going to get your story made into a book once you finished."
"I'll do it later." She just wanted him off of her at this point. Natsu removed his hands from her shoulders and placed them on either side of her head. He lowered his head so their faces were mere inches apart.
"Come on please?" He said in the same tone as before but adding a smile.
"E-Ehhhh, Uhhhh" Lucy's face heated up. Please back away just a little. "NO!" She shouted accidentally kneeing him in that area as she tried pulling the sheets over her head. Natsu choked and fell over onto the floor in a ball.
"Please…Luce…" He stuttered as he trembled on the ground. Lucy, now noticing what she had done, looked over the side of the bed with a bead of sweat dripping down her forehead.
"Sorry Natsu… Uh, I guess I could come with you." She said nervously.
"IT TOOK THE GUILT OF ACCIDENTALLY KICKING HIM IN THE BALLS FOR YOU TO SAY YES?!" Happy shouted from the end of the bed. The blue cat glanced over at Natsu's crippled figure. He let out a deep sigh. "Let's go eat now." He said flying out the door not giving a second thought of helping Natsu up. Lucy grabbed her novel and didn't bother changing out of her clothes from the previous day before leaving. As she stepped out the door she remembered Natsu on the ground and quickly turned around and gave him a hand up.
"Come on, let's get going." She said lightly in a more cheery mood than before. Lucy had realized how excited she was to bring her novel to the publisher again. "I'm SO ready for this!"
-Outside the publisher's office-
"On second thought, maybe I should go over my work juts ONE more time." Lucy trailed off, turning away from the door and taking a couple steps in the other direction. She suddenly felt a jerk on her collar forcing her to turn back.
"No way are you gonna spend ANOTHER night working on this novel! Go in there and present that thing! I know you'll get it published." Natsu said reassuringly, adding a toothy grin as he released her.
She relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath as she turned the knob on the front door and pushed it open. The familiar red and gold carpet led a path down the hall passing the front desk and leading to several different offices. There were multiple mirrors on the walls and a large bookshelf full of the books the store had published. Each book had a sign on it saying something like "Send copies to library" or "Release within next month". Lucy slowly walked passed them and glanced at the desk before receiving a quick shove by Natsu.
"Good luck!" Him and Happy both said in unison. They turned towards a set of chairs and quickly sat down, waiting for Lucy to go. She gave them another moment of staring nervously before she turned toward the desk and placed her book on the counter.
"Yes, how may I help you?" A young woman spoke from behind the desk with a fake smile planted on her face. She looked less like she was smiling and more like she was trying to keep in a loud yelp of pain. The young woman had curly brown hair tied up into a ponytail and droopy sad looking eyes that made her look concerned no matter her expression.
"Hi, I have a meeting with Mr. Crymph" Lucy said with a shaky voice trying to ignore the woman's pained expression. The woman typed on her lacrima-powered keyboard hologram and screen then pointed down the hallway toward the same room she had been in before the last time she tried publishing a novel.
"He should be in there waiting, you're late." The woman looked up at Lucy then back down towards the screen, continuing to type away on her keyboard. Lucy grabbed her book and nervously turned toward the same office and walked up to the door. She firmly knocked on the door before hearing a muffled "come in" from the other side. Mr. Crymph, a man of maybe 30 years old with jet black hair, glasses, a lean posture and wearing a grey vest and purple tie, glanced over toward the doorway from his own screen and put his full attention onto Lucy.
"It's you again!" He said cheerfully with a large smile, "I knew you'd be coming back to try again at some point but I never would have assumed you'd make another story so quickly!" Lucy let out a slight giggle, pawing the air with her hand.
"It was nothing, it became a lot easier because of the advice you gave me last time and I hope this one won't be as bad- no, I hope it's a lot better than the last one." She said taking a seat in front of his desk and handing the book to him. He handled the book with great care and flipped to the first page then started reading.
"You don't have to stay the whole time you know. I am a fast reader but reading a book can still take awhile." He said adjusting his glasses with two of his fingers on the side of the rim. Lucy sat calmly and looked back at him.
"No, I don't mind staying." She said placing her hands onto her lap. This was too important to her, if it meant staying there to earn some respect she would gladly wait a few hours. Unfortunately, that also meant Natsu and Happy would be waiting for a few hours too, even though they most likely would leave after the first hour.
-Later-
"Natsu! WAKE UP!" Lucy screamed forgetting where she was. Natsu groggily sat up from his sleeping position on the chairs making Happy roll off his lap, startling him awake as well.
"Oh, hey Lucy. How'd it go?" He said rubbing his eyes trying to make a clear view of her.
"He's not done yet, but he's mostly finished with the reading part. I just came in to see how you guys were doing because you've been out here awhile." She said taking the seat next to him. She rested her head back over the chair and stared at the ceiling. "I remember this being a lot less nerve racking and boring last time, what happened to that?" She looked over at Natsu without moving her head, her eyes started to droop a bit with fatigue. "Hey Natsu, what have you been doing this whole time other than sleeping? It's unlike you to sit quietly and do nothing so what else did you do?"
"Haha! I'm glad you asked! We asked the lady for some paper and we've been making paper planes with really awesome designs on them." He said pointing to the paper airplanes that were scattered about (and a few burnt) throughout the waiting area. Some were colored with flame patterns and others just randomly drawn on with stick figures and flowers and houses. The pinkette shimmered remembering all of the planes flying around. He had tried shooting some down with little fire bullets. It was like a shooting and aiming game.
Natsu turned back to Lucy to continue to speak but noticed she had completely fallen asleep in the chair. It made sense considering how exhausted she was earlier and she did stay up all night trying to finish what was being presented at the moment. She was definitely a lot less mean in her sleep, Natsu could say for sure. Lucy started to fall over into the chair next to her but Natsu caught her and rested her head against his shoulder. She'd probably complain about her back hurting from sleeping that way and that Natsu not doing anything to help her if he didn't bother. Natsu suddenly heard a door swung open, revealing Mr. Crymph for the first time to Natsu.
"So Lucy, I finished your story. I honestly really liked it a lot. It's definitely better than the other one you made." He began speaking but looked up to see the blonde hadn't heard him. He then looked over at Natsu and slowly approached him.
"Hello sir, is she a friend of yours?" Mr. Crymph asked pointing to the sleepy girl. Natsu gave a firm nod and crossed his arms, making sure he wasn't trying to pull anything. "Could you please tell her that I really enjoyed her story and it will be published within the next couple days? It was a lot better than the other story she made and I'm proud she improved in such little time. Sorry I can't tell this to her in person, I have to leave now or I'll miss the train. Thank you!" He smiled then left the office with a wave goodbye.
Okay, I haven't updated in a month and that's sad. As I mentioned earlier I am very busy lately and my schedule's been getting worse. I've already started chapter 6 so it will be up sooner than a month (definitely) and maybe under a week. I went to NYC ComicCon last week (first time going to any con ever) and I literally only got Fairy Tail merch. I got like 9 posters, a Happy plushie, an FT necklace and I got a little dragon named Louie who has nothing to do with FT but I bought because he is adorable. Anyways, if I'm not too busy I'll post the next chapter in under a week.