Apologies for the wait, but in my defense, holidays are never going to equate to free time with me, unfortunately.

Notes: Amazed as always at the feedback I'm getting from everyone. Heads up, courting and romance are gonna be pretty sparse here. Slow burn hell is slow burn hell, after all. Also, some original content at the end, so let me know what you think of that mess.

Also, this takes place during the Duke Everlue arc. If you're not caught up to that, I… really have no idea what to tell you, man.

Shout out to Twinado for taking the time to read this over and make sure it's in top condition for you folks.

So, he could admit that Lucy wasn't all that bad. Ditzy as hell, but she was stronger than she looked and definitely entertaining, if nothing else. And Happy liked her too, oddly enough. Of course, the second he decided he liked the summoner well enough, she up and disappeared on him.

But he was hardly one to sulk, especially over some new girl. Even without any leads on Igneel, there were still jobs to do and money to earn. It was just a matter of finding one interesting enough to…

Burn a certain book belonging to Duke Everlue.

Location: Shirotsume Town

Reward: J200,000

It was a ridiculously easy job for that high of a price, and ordinarily he'd be pretty suspicious, but…

*Warning: This man is a raging, unapologetic pervert.

*Duke Everlue is currently looking to hire a blonde maid.

A devious grin started to inch up his face as he reread that last line. Ignoring the weary looks of suspicion sent his way, he ambled over to the bar to let Mira know which job he was taking. And to ask where he could find a certain newbie undoubtedly in need of money.

Sharing space is an important aspect of any relationship. How well you're received when unexpected says a lot about their fondness for you.

Even when asked later, Natsu wasn't quite sure what possessed him to break into Lucy's new home and make himself comfortable. He knew from personal experience just what a spectacularly bad idea snooping through a girls room was, and his dad would have his hide if he ever found out about Natsu doing this with anyone but his intended.

And yet.

He couldn't help recalling their first meeting, when she treated him to a literal feast for doing nothing at all. He couldn't keep from pondering on her surprising desire to tag along after him and Happy. He certainly couldn't stop thinking about her lunging after him on Mt. Hakobe to save his life (and Happy's and Macao's). Three times now, she'd attempted to court him–albeit unintentionally. Didn't seem inclined to stop doing it either.

He supposed that had lulled him into a false sense of security. And to be fair, she'd inserted herself into his life pretty damn fast for someone he'd known barely four days. Seemed only fair he return the favor.

Which meant that damn kick to his face was completely uncalled for. It also, admittedly, threw him off how upset she was, considering she'd been downright overly friendly from the moment they'd met. Why she chose now of all times to preach about distance was beyond him. And her desperation to hide those papers was even weirder.

Thankfully, she warmed back up pretty quick, even offering him tea, so he guessed she wasn't actually that bothered by his presence there. It was… comforting, for reasons he wasn't gonna look too hard at. But that wasn't why he had come here, and so he started putting his plan in motion.

Lucy wasn't keen on bringing out any of her spirits, like Bull or the clock guy, but that was only a minor setback. He could work with a new one just as well. Even one that was… was… What the hell was it? It looked like a snowman had come to life and gone totally wrong. Did she accidentally screw up the summoning?

Well, she claimed she didn't, but she also said the thing was cute. Gods, she was a weirdo. Even her magic was weird as hell, from the creatures it brought to their literal contracts. But that thing about keeping her word… that was promising.

He was distracted from his scheming by her weird-ass name for the… snowman-dog-thing. Plue. What the hell.

Ah well, if it got a smile like that out of her… He may or may not have been struck a little dumb by it.

Fortunately for him, Plue the snow-mutant chose at that moment to start playing charades. He was running around and punching the air, which seemed obvious enough to him, and then he brought his paws together with a smile… Huh. Guess these spirits really were pretty handy. Damn thing had given him the perfect opening.

All it took was admitting that Lucy had been surprisingly helpful and pretending that it was all Plue's idea to get her interested. Happy's explanation on the purpose of teams made it sound reasonable. And everyone else's enthusiasm pulled her along, causing her to agree and sealing her fate. She couldn't turn down the job now, not even once she'd realized just why they'd sought her out for this job. Spirit mages kept their word, after all.

Not even her cries of betrayal or teary, begging eyes were gonna make him let her out of it.

Though he supposed he might have deserved the snide comments thrown his way during the carriage ride. Just a little.

He was trying to be a good teammate to Lucy, even if she didn't seem to appreciate his effort to include her in things. Hell, even when she turned him down for lunch, he still intended to save some food for her.

Not that she seemed to appreciate that either, judging by the exasperated tone she was using to reject their attempt to do even that the second she got back. It would've annoyed him, except that he was kind of distracted by the maid now standing before him. The blonde maid. By the gods, had Lucy taken them seriously?

It was hard to say whether he or Happy was more incredulous. He'd known she was a bit gullible, and definitely ditzy as hell, but this was unbelievable. She'd even worn the thing in public, for crying out loud. Truth be told, he was starting to worry a bit about bringing her on this job.

But then their employer bumped up the prize to 2 million, and well… he could be forgiven for letting his greed get the better of him. After all, it wasn't like Happy was much better, though he did note that Lucy didn't seem as eager with the increase. If anything, she looked like she was ready to back out at any second. His best friend must have noticed too, because Happy didn't waste a second to heckle her some more about how little of the pay she was gonna get.

It worked all too well, with her willingly walking all the way across town in her maid getup. And it certainly seemed to be effective with the number of onlookers they passed, so their plan to use Lucy as bait seemed pretty surefire at that point. Unfortunately, it seemed the duke's tastes ran… in another direction. One he wasn't aware existed, but okay. So that plan was a bust.

Not that it seemed to have deterred the summoning mage one bit. In fact, she was more determined than ever to break in and destroy the book. Sure, she was insisting on unnecessary things like stealth and subtlety, but at least she was being a little more aggressive now.

"In addition to burning the book, I'll hide his shoes and other stuff!"

…A six-year-old's idea of aggressive, but he'd take what he could get. Even if she was gonna force him to crawl around the mansion at a snail's pace, at least she was gonna let them pretend to be ninjas while doing this boring-ass crap.

Of course, right when he was starting to get on board with this whole sneaking around thing, they had to get discovered by the army of… maids. Couldn't actually do shit, but it did kind of ruin the whole "stay quiet" plan. In his defense, though, the maids attacking them did imply they'd already been discovered, so Lucy could stop sighing at him like it was his fault.

They ended up finding the book pretty quickly, all things considered. This whole job really was turning out to be laughably easy. Thus far, their biggest obstacle was–

Lucy, apparently.

She was being surprisingly stubborn about this stupid book, and it was starting to piss him off. Not the job, not Everlue, not even him yelling was convincing her to let go of the damn thing. She was ignoring literally everything around her in favor of the novel, up to and including the showdown he was having with the pair of mercenaries that just showed up.

Although, it was kind of funny seeing how pissed off they were getting at her dismissal. Or, it was until she decided to take off on her own, shouting some nonsense about a secret hidden in the book. Not that that had anything do with their actual mission, but Lucy clearly didn't care about that anymore. Nonetheless, he sent Happy after her. In her current state, he doubted she'd notice the duke giving chase.

And, hey, he got to take out some of his frustration on a couple of assholes with superiority complexes. They were pretty good opponents for normal folks, and they even managed to get a couple hits in, so at the very least, he got a half decent fight out of them.

Did wonders for his irritation with Lucy too, which meant he could go after her himself without worrying about shaking her when he finally got ahold of her. It just left the question of where exactly she was in this ridiculous mansion. The debris in the air from his little brawl really messed with his nose, but he didn't want to waste too much time searching room after room...

Just then, he caught a twitch from that ogre-like maid. Perhaps she knew where her master was? The second he grabbed hold of her, though, his world began to dissolve.

There were stars all around him, above and below. Little spheres of land with weird monuments and equally weird plants dotted his surroundings. It was beautiful, but…

Something in him was disturbed at how unnatural and empty this place was, screaming at him to run, to get out, hurry before it's too late.

And then he was back. He didn't actually recognize his surroundings, and the prevalent scent of sewage was off-putting. But he could also smell Lucy and Happy, and his skin no longer crawled at the eerie, airless space he was for just a moment. The relief he felt at that was enough to eclipse any residual exasperation with the blonde, and he quickly followed her lead once he realized that he'd dropped in on a battle in progress.

He took down the maid, as Lucy had directed, and to his surprise, she took advantage of the duke's distraction to take care of him herself. Pretty damn spectacularly at that. She tossed him into the air, finished him with a strike from one of her spirits (a new guy with scissors and crab legs and who the hell came up with these guys?), and even managed to top it off with a cool one-liner.

The icing on the cake had to be the duke's newfound baldness, though. Really, Lucy was just as outrageous as the rest of Fairy Tail. He was a little proud.

On their way back to Melon, the blonde mage took the time to explain herself, citing how the uncharacteristic nature of the work had made her suspicious and brought to light just how the duke had obtained the supposedly worthless book. Even he was finding it hard to press the issue of destroying it, if only because his own curiosity was alight now.

But she kept a tight lid on the actual secret hidden inside, insisting that their employer should really be the one to know the truth behind Day Break. So, he let it go and just quietly followed along, content to let her take the lead for this last stretch of their mission. It had certainly been more lively than expected, but he wasn't going to complain. He couldn't remember the last time he had had so much fun doing work.

The discovery that Melon was actually the author's son and had been determined to destroy his father's last work destroyed his good mood pretty fast, though. He didn't care that it had been a piece of shame for his father, and he wasn't particularly appeased with his story either. Atonement may've helped him feel better, but his dad…

He hoped Lucy was gonna reveal the mystery of this whole affair soon, before his blood really started to boil.

However, she kept her silence, just watching the man and seeming to wait for something. What for soon became apparent when the book started glowing, letters lifting away and rearranging themselves. Not just the title, but every single letter in the book itself. They glittered beautifully as they filled the room and then began to swirl. The damn things were even tangible, bouncing slightly when he touched them. He wasn't normally one to find much value in words, but for once, he was entranced by them. The words had literally jumped off the page.

Between that show and the honest tears of sorrow and joy in Kaby's eyes, he really couldn't find it in him to stay mad. Especially as Lucy told them the real reason the book was so important. And, okay, he was damn glad she'd insisted he didn't burn it. Something like that, dedicated to his son and made with all the love he had for his family–he was pretty impressed with this author. The fact that the magic inside the book lasted so goddamn long was pretty amazing too.

Considering all that, he really couldn't accept the reward money now. Sort of a bummer, but with everything that had happened, he wasn't all that torn up about it. It'd been a hell of an adventure, and he'd gotten to see something incredible. Even Lucy couldn't whine too much about it.

Not now that he knew she was a writer herself, he grinned knowingly.

As expected, she was ridiculously flustered at being figured out, immediately shrieking about not letting anyone else know. He didn't fully understand why, but he'd do as she asked. He was feeling benevolent.

She trailed off after a while of walking, having quickly accepted that they were walking instead of taking the hell device back home. Instead, he noted that she was eagerly taking in her surroundings, an excited gleam in her eyes that belied her early complaints about how slow the return trip would be. He didn't really see what was so impressive about a small creek and some trees, but she seemed… almost in awe. It was like she'd never been on a walk and had to take it all in while she could.

Seeing the wistful look in her eyes reminded him a little of the times he'd spent as a kid looking to the horizon, waiting for Igneel to come flying in from wherever the hell he'd taken off to. She looked just as lonely as he'd felt then too...

...

But if Gramps could help him back then, then he could help her now. You just had to start out small.

With that in mind, he started leaping back and forth across the creek. Both Lucy and Happy were confused at first, but when he just shot them a grin and started adding little flips and kicks to his leaps, excited grins matched his as they cheered for each successful jump. It didn't take long for Happy to start calling out challenges: two kicking flips this time, a flaming spin next, three corkscrew twists after that.

Of course, it wasn't long before he misjudged the distance and nearly fell back into the water when he landed just barely on the other side. Luckily, he had a guardian angel in the form of a certain blonde mage that was good at catching him before he fell. For a while after that, she kept close by, watching to make sure he didn't fall again.

Soon enough, though, he got bored with all the jumping and settled back on the their side. Before the quiet from could fill the air again, he quickly grabbed Lucy and hauled her over the edge of the creek. She shrieked at first, obviously not trusting him, but when all he did was get them both standing on the ledge, confusion took over. For several moments, they just stared at one another expectantly, until his patience thinned again and he tugged on her wrist to get her moving. When she only kept shooting him that bewildered look, he sighed and let go of her in favor of spreading his arms out to balance himself while he walked backwards.

She gasped, obviously expecting him to fall, but when he just kept steadily walking away and nodded his head in encouragement. Brows furrowed, she stretched her arms out to mirror his and hesitantly put one foot forward. Grinning, he started moving backwards once more, and slowly, she began to follow. Before long, he'd grown tired of it and returned to the road, but the blonde apparently loved it, because she stayed there, humming cheerfully as she swung one leg in front of the other.

Happy teased her about falling in, but when she actually did wobble for a moment, both of them leapt forward to grab and steady her. Not willing to tempt fate again, the cat sat on her shoulder to stick close, and he himself kept just a few feet away. Things quieted down after that, but he didn't mind as much now. It felt… better, somehow. He was satisfied with how the day had ended.

The mission had been weird but good, and Lucy had turned out to be weird and better than good, and he found that that suited him just fine.

Fun notes: I don't know if anybody else noticed, but Natsu is kind of a vicious bastard, even when he's not taking you seriously. Also, he has some hysterical facial expressions in the early days. I'm a little disappointed this particular format doesn't allow me to really describe them beyond Natsu feeling a particular way.

Anyways, let me just say a massive thank you to everyone that Favorited, and Followed. I'm tremendously flattered at everyone showing interest in this humble fic. And your amazing patience as well.

Reviews (BTW, I only do this because otherwise, I wouldn't reply at all. The hazards of procrastination.):
Celestialite, Writing bunny, OhtaSuzuke, and GryffindorsRock, I'm glad you guys are interested in this story!
Whyote, Sawakaze-Steph16, and KHLostEmpress, I'm pleased to know other people are enjoying my Natsu POV. He's pretty fun to write.
Semi-absorbed, it's a tremendous compliment to know that despite your preferences, you're still enjoying yourself. It IS pretty nostalgic, yeah.
Elise, Will do. But don't worry, considering my speed, you'll be current long before I get even close to there.
Lyonsgirl, thank you. It's definitely gonna be slow, but we'll get there eventually. This1Voice, glad I could deliver on that, slow as I may be. I'll try not to get too crazy with my little add-ons, I promise.
cutekittenlady, the constant dismissal of Lucy's competence is a sore point for me, so yeah, emphasis goes there. And yes, Natsu isn't a total dumbass, so I'm working on that too. Thank you!
Guest (1), Lucy's characterization, even amongst pro-Lucy fans, does stray there on occasion in early-series renditions, so I'm glad you appreciate my portrayal of her.
serioushugsies, Natsu's POV in these sorts of things is surprisingly uncommon, isn't it?
Kyogre, not gonna lie, there was a brief shock of terror when I first saw you had reviewed. No offense, I just get intimidated when people I admire read my stuff. And that IS something they'd complain about, but in hindsight, Gray's situation with Juvia probably warrants it more. And Natsu getting Lucy's name wrong even internally for most of that time period is a personal head canon of mine you'll have to pry from my cold, dead hands.
Guest (2), yep, it's still going. I'm just a slow writer.
SubtleJoy, the premise really just started out as "ten bucks says Natsu is nonchalant about all the romance because Igneel's already explained this shit to him" with my love of courtship tropes as a bonus. And thank you! Characterization is a massive thing for me, and I don't care for flanderization, especially to main characters. Hijinks will definitely increase once Natsu actually starts taking Lucy seriously… which will be a while yet. Ah, thank you so much for the compliments on my writing. I'm actually pretty subpar by my standards, but you saying that is immensely satisfying to hear… er, read. Because I do take pride in it. As for making you wait too long… whoops. Does nearly a month count as too long?

As always, let me know what you guys think! I appreciate all feedback, even if I might not necessarily like it.