Hi everyone happy Thursday :D
Well you did it you all survived two weeks. I had a great trip,
wish it didn't have to end ( ಥـْـِـِـِـْಥ)
but I guess I am happy to be home :D
Well I won't make you wait any longer! enjoy the next chapter
Lucy decided to go to Fairy tail and take on a small mission; turns out someone would pay a good amount of money just to have this secret basket delivered to the outskirts of Magnolia.
Lucy happily strolled down the familiar street. Despite having to carry a heavy basket, Lucy was thrilled she was able to find a mission so easy that paid enough to cover this month's rent.
Reaching the outskirts of Magnolia Lucy placed the tan basket down, and then looked around for an older lady the requester specified.
Upon seeing no person within miles Lucy let out a hefty sigh, just as she went to sit under a tree, a figure quickly popped out of the trees and snatched the basket before Lucy could even blink.
"Hey!" Lucy cried jerking her hand to her hip.
"What the?" Lucy looked to her side and noticed her whip and keys were gone.
"Looking for these" a deep voice came from up in a tree.
Lucy shot her head up and focused on the dark haired man who held her keys, whip and the basket.
"Give them back you jerk" Lucy shouted.
"I don't think so! Thanks for the gifts" The man shouted as he jumped off the tree, landing on the hard ground safely then taking off into a fast sprint. Lucy shouted again and took off after the guy. As hard as Lucy tried, she could only growl in frustration upon seeing the man get further and further.
As soon as he was almost out of sight, Lucy was forced to come to a dead stop, when she saw a familiar black coated figure appear out of nowhere and knock down the running man with a single kick. The blonde quickly made her way over to the strangers, keeping a reasonable distance; observing the figures stance and body type, it was obvious that this person was a man as well, so Lucy prepared herself in fighting stance to get her belongings back.
To Lucy's surprise; the person who hid under the cape's hood, strolled a few feet away from where she was standing. Before Lucy could even blink, the figure extended his arms as far as they would let him then waited for Lucy to take her things.
Without a second thought, Lucy grabbed and clipped her whip and keys back to her hip very relieved to have them back. The man turned his back and started to walk away.
"W-Wait a minute!" The blonde hollered angrily as she put the basket down, reaching her hand to put on his shoulder. However Lucy's clumsiness got the better of her, for she tripped over a rock, tugging at the man's cape causing the hood to fall down while she fell to her knees.
"Ouch that really hurt" Lucy sobbed as she placed a hand on her ankle. Lucy looked up and her eyes squinted; she could have sworn she saw familiar pink hair. Of course she couldn't be sure since the man was quick to put the hood back up.
The man turned back towards Lucy and grabbed her small wrist. Lucy's heart sunk to her stomach as she caught a whiff of a fiery scent. Before the man had time to yank Lucy to her feet, the blonde placed both hands on the hood and yanked it down revealing the figures face.
In that instant, Lucy's whole body went numb; she still had her hands tightly gripped on the black hood as she stared into the obsidian eyes. Natsu's eyes went wide, and he was quick to redirect his eyes as if he was ashamed he got caught.
After a few silent seconds Lucy managed to let go of his hood and feel back to sit on her back legs. She could feel tears prickle her eye balls causing her sight to become blurry, as the tears made their way to the edges of her eyelid.
"N-Natsu" She squeaked out in a dreadfully, dry and low voice
Natsu still hid his focus from her as he ducked his head lowly into his cape.
"Uh… Hey Luce"
And with that Lucy threw her arms around his neck pulling him into a tight hug. Natsu's body stiffened as the scent of Vanilla-Strawberry entered his nostrils, and though Natsu didn't hug Lucy back, he could feel the girl tremble with overcome joy.
"Natsuu!" Lucy buried her face in his shoulder.
The hug was a long one, but neither of them cared. When Lucy finally finished crying she pulled herself together and slowly shifted her body to look at Natsu, who finally decided to meet her eyes.
"Where were you all this time?" Lucy asked fighting back more tears that were forming
"This isn't the place to talk 'bout it"
"Why not?"
"It's just not, okay?" He snapped.
Lucy lowered her eyes to the ground and stood to her feet.
"I'm sorry Luce I didn't mean to freak out like that… I just" Natsu paused and exhaled. He looked around the area before standing to his feet and throwing his hood back over his head.
"Can we go somewhere more private… like your apartment?"
Lucy took a moment to examine his, once again hidden features.
"Sure" Lucy sighed under her breath.
"Okay I will meet you there" Natsu spoke before disappearing.
The women gaped at the spot he was just standing in with puzzlement. He sure did know how to make an entrance and exit when he wanted too. Lucy couldn't help but get a little angry with him, here they were reunited after all this time, and he is acting all distant and strange. The blonde didn't spend much time wondering why it bothered her more than it should have; instead she just let out another sigh before turning her body toward the direction of her apartment. She picked up her basket and began walking. Only managing to take three or four steps before realization hit her:
"Wait a minute… I have to finish my mission."
Lucy cursed under her breath at Natsu who was toying with her mind at the moment. Shaking it off quickly, Lucy got back on the original path.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Lucy hastily paced back to her apartment; though she was still a little upset with the way Natsu acted, she couldn't help but to get a jolt of excitement every time she thought of Natsu waiting at her apartment for her, the thought alone was enough to make her walk turn into a slow jog.
Lucy rushed into her apartment, but stopped right before her bedroom door. The blonde took a deep breath and tried calming her increased heart rate due to running. After a moment or two, Lucy was able to calmly stroll in her room.
A sudden wave of disappointment washed over the girl as she noticed the dark room. She flicked on her bedroom lights and saw no Natsu. Finding herself sighing yet again, she marched over and dropped her butt on her bed grumpily.
"Yo Lucy" a deep voice came from behind her, triggering the girl's color to drain from her body leaving her as white as a ghost. She yelped then dove a few feet away from her bed, turning around to face the sound, her panic went down a level, seeing Natsu remove his cape's hood.
"Naaatsuu! Why the hell are you climbing through my window?" Lucy hissed as her eyes bulged out of her head.
The curvy blonde couldn't deny that somewhere deep, deep down, she liked and missed yelling at Natsu to stop entering through her window.
"Well how else am I supposed to get in?" He asked innocently
"Hm I dunno, let's see, Oh yeah through the door!" She hissed again.
Natsu shrugged his shoulders while he positioned himself crisscross on Lucy's soft bed.
"What took ya so long to get home anyway?"
"What? You just got here how would you know if it took me a while to get home or not" Lucy lifted a brow.
"I've been here for two hours outside of your window"
"Two hours? Why didn't you just come in?"
"Ya weren't home yet, so I thought I should just wait for ya"
"Seriously?! That's never stopped you before"
Natsu shrugged it off again, getting off the bed and and eyeing up her room.
"What are you looking at?"
"Your room is a mess" Natsu stated as he picked up a pink laced bra.
"S-Shut up jerk!" Lucy blushed as she quickly snatched her bra back and placed it in a nearby hamper
"Why is your room so messy anyway?"
"It's not that bad!"
"You have clothes all over the floor"
"It's four or five things! It's not all over the floor! Besides I bet your room is worse" Lucy growled as she picked up her clothes and threw them in the hamper.
"Doubt it"
"Hmpf! This is how you treat people you haven't seen in six months?!"
"It's only been six months? It feels a lot longer than that"
Lucy shot him a questionable look but before she could say anything there was a knock on her door distracting her from her thoughts. Natsu's eyes widened and he dove back on her bed.
"Lucy! Please whatever you do! Don't let anyone know I am here!"
"What? Why not? Everyone will be thrilled that you're back!"
"I don't care! No one needs to know! KAY?!
Lucy knitted his brows then shrugged as she walked to her door. Opening it slowly Lucy smiled seeing, Wendy Carla, and Happy.
"Hi Lucy-san" Wendy greeted shyly
"Hey Wendy, what brings you here?"
"Well, Gray, Juvia, Erza, Happy, Carla and I were on our way into town to go shopping and we wanted to know if you wanted to come along"
"Shopping in town!? Boy would I love to come!" Lucy beamed excitedly.
"Great so then you will come with us?"
Lucy was just about to accept when she remembered she had 'company'. Lucy bit her lip and inhaled.
"I would like to, really I would. But I can't go sorry"
"Oh why not?"
"I just got home from a single mission and I am pretty tired I think I want to rest. Maybe we can do it again some other time"
"Yeah of course! Sleep well Lucy-san!" Wendy smiled
Lucy smiled one last time before closing her door and walking back to her room. When her eyes landed on an anxious Natsu, Lucy lifted a brow and parted her lips to speak.
"Okay what was all that about?"
"What?"
"Why don't you want any of your friends to know you're alright?"
"Because they don't need to know"
"What? Of course they do Natsu! They miss you a lot!"
"I know that, you don't think I miss them too! Why do you think I came back?"
Lucy's heart dropped a little and she tilted her head a bit to the side. Natsu let out a sigh and closed his eyes pinching the bridge of his nose lightly. He repositioned himself on Lucy's bed so that his legs formed a rhombus shape.
"Yes, I was away all this time on purpose. In fact I wasn't even supposed to come near Fairy Tail ever again. I swore to myself that if I ever did come back I wouldn't let anyone see me."
"But why Natsu!? Everyone else keeps trying to make me believe your dead."
"That's what I wanted them to believe"
"Why?! It doesn't make any sense!"
"It makes perfect sense if it's for the safety of everyone in the guild"
Lucy knitted her eye brows and bit her lower lip in confusion.
"Those men weren't just ordinary enemies. They are members of a secret guild, which all the members focus their time and energy on training or hunting dragons and dragon slayers. If anyone stands in their path they waste no time to annihilate them. They don't care about anything and will stop at nothing until they or the dragon slayer has fallen."
"D-Dragon hunters?" Lucy muffled out.
"My bonds are my greatest weakness. I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me, if I don't have bonds then I won't have a weakness, so after Happy took off with you I decided to train alone, sleep alone, and do everything alone"
"So that's it?! You just decided to end the bonds with your friends because you don't want weakness?!" Lucy growled
"No, I'm not ending them, more like putting them to the side for a while. At least until I am able to defeat the hunters."
Lucy rolled her eyes then turned her back to Natsu. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Most importantly she didn't know if she should be angry or glad with him. He was just looking out for everyone but she couldn't help but to have the feeling that he was making the wrong choice.
Natsu stood up from Lucy's bed and walked up behind her. It wasn't until Lucy felt Natsu's hot breath and smelt his intoxicating fiery scent that made her turn around. As soon as Lucy faced Natsu, her eyes widened a bit from the sudden closeness he was to her. Lucy looked up at the boy who stood only inches away.
"W-What is it?" Lucy stuttered.
"Lucy…" Natsu began in a whisper
"Everyone else thought I was dead… why didn't you?"
Lucy looked down and started playing with her thumbs. Fighting back a blush that threatened to appear Lucy took a breath and spoke softly.
"Well, you're Natsu, someone who doesn't go down quite easily, you're strong, and if I believed you were dead even for a second… That would be like a huge slap in the face for you. It would mean I didn't believe in you"
Natsu's cheeks turned pink and he turned his head to the side to hide it.
"You're such a weirdo Lucy!"
"What?! I am not!"
"Are too" Natsu stuck his tongue out.
Lucy was quick to mimic him and stick her tongue out too.
a few minutes of silents go by and Lucy used the time to think for a the blonde placed her fist into her open palm.
"Hey, if you don't want anyone knowing you're you. Then why not just wear a disguise?"
"A disguise?" Natsu echoed again