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Chapter 2 - Sleepless Nights

Lucy couldn't sleep. In fact, it seemed impossible. For the past three days, all her thoughts seemed to linger around was Natsu, and no matter how much or how hard she tried to lead her thoughts elsewhere, all of her attempts proved to be futile. It wasn't as if she was attempting to lead her thoughts elsewhere because there was something wrong with Natsu, because there wasn't - she just wanted to continue viewing Natsu as her best friend, and on top of that, she didn't want to risk ruining their friendship. Her and Natsu's friendship was too important to her, and she didn't know what she would do if she was lose it.

Now, if she had to be completely honest with herself, she had always seen Natsu as a friend until the time she thought Natsu was going to confess his feelings for her, and of course the only thing that ran through her mind at the time was how to break it to him that they couldn't be together because of the interferences that might cause for their team and so forth. But later on that same day, Lucy found out that she had been mistaken, for Natsu had only wanted her to call upon her Celestial Spirit, Virgo, to dig a hole for him, and for some reason, when she learned that, she felt hurt and the only logical thing to do at the time, according to her, was to slap him and run off - which she did.

At first, Lucy wasn't sure as to why the fact that Natsu wasn't going to confess to her, upset her and hurt her feelings, and when she spent an hour or two thinking about it and venting her feelings into a letter to her deceased mother, she realized that she did see Natsu in that way, but, once again, she had no intention of ruining their friendship or causing a shift in their team, so she decided to ignore it, and merely accept the fact that they were friends and that it would stay that way, which was what she has been doing for a while now, but ever since she saw Natsu naked, three days ago to be exact, it has been more than difficult to apply the 'it would ruin their friendship and cause interferences' and to reason with herself. And to make matters even more worse, for the first time in her life, she had a vivid dream about Natsu last night and she didn't think she'd be able to see Natsu the same ever again.

She hadn't even been at the guild in two days, for she had taken a solo mission in hopes of riding herself of the conflicted and various emotions as well as to escape the awkwardness she knew would be present the next time she'd see him again. When she had first attempted to go to the guild, and inevitably face Natsu, which had been the following day after she walked in on the pink-haired mage, it had been extremely awkward and she blushed and stuttered like an idiot whenever her and Natsu had an encounter with each other. To put in a nutshell, it was complete torture and in order to avoid being in another situation like that again, she took a simple job off the request board, and left before anyone could ask her anything.

Lucy had made sure to take her time completing the particular job, a simple escort, because she had been in no hurry. She had even stayed in a hotel around the area she finished her job at last night, just to delay arriving at the guild. And now, here she was, in her apartment, sitting in the bathtub in an attempt to relax and calm her thoughts. The Celestial Mage knew she couldn't put off going to the guild forever, for that would only rise concerns and inquires from other people that she just wasn't prepared to confront yet.

Perhaps, it'd be best to go ahead and get it over with. The sooner she got it over with, the faster she could get back home, right? In that case, she'd go over as soon as she finished her bath, it was already noon and, like she stated before, she had to make an appearance sooner or later.

...

Natsu sat at a table in the far back of the guild, his right hand on his head as he stared off into space at nothing in particular. Everyone and anyone who knew Natsu, knew that it was very much unlike him to be sulking in the guild, instead of participating and/or starting the wild, daily brawls that would occur on a daily basis, so of course, various and many people approached him, concerned about the well-being of their Fire Dragon Slayer. But Natsu, not really in the mood to talk to anyone, just told anyone who asked not to worry about it, and that he was okay.

Of course, Fairy Tail being Fairy Tail, the guild was still somewhat rowdy, but without Natsu and his antics, the guild just wasn't as rowdy as it'd usually be. But the guild was the last thing on his mind right now. At the moment, his thoughts were only swirling around Lucy and how he hadn't seen her in two days. Plus, she has been acting weird for the past three days, and it was bothering him.

He may not be the brightest guy around, but it was very apparent to him that something was bothering his blonde friend. He had been very much tempted to stop by her apartment more than a few times today, but he couldn't shake the vibe that he was the reason for her strange behavior. For the first day (out of the three days her behavior changed) she had began acting weird, she would begin blushing and stuttering whenever he approached her, and on top of that, she'd barely make eye contact with him. She had even cut their conversations short, claiming that there was something important she had to do. If that didn't state anything, then he didn't know what did.

Natsu had even attempted to rack his brain and backtrack everything that he did, to see if there was something he had done to upset her unintentional, but he hardly came up with anything. The only thing he could come up with was that she was mad at him for using her shower without her permission, but surely that wasn't it, right? That couldn't be it, besides, he was always as Lucy's apartment, and he spent the night there plenty of times, and she didn't seem to have a problem with it before.

Maybe he should just apologize. He wouldn't know if it'd worked until he tried, at least.

"Oi, flame-brain. What has your panties in a bunch today, huh? You look like shit."

Natsu didn't even have to turn his head to know who that was, unfortunately (for him), he'd recognize the stripper anywhere. Natsu scrunched up his face in mild irritation as he rose up from his seat. "Oh, yeah, stripper?" Natsu replied, slamming his head against Gray's, bearing his teeth.

"Yeah, asshole." Gray replied, scowling, butting Natsu's head with his. "You gonna do somethin' 'bout it?"

Natsu ignited his hand with flames. "How 'bout I show you instead, pervert?!"

"Bring it on, idiot!" Gray challenged, his hands already in the position to release the ice that was ready to burst forth any minute.

"Fine!"

Natsu proceeded to throw the first punch, only to stop abruptly moments later when a specific scent hit his nose. Messing around with Gray, he had forgot about Lucy for a moment. It wasn't his fault though, the pervert was just that aggravating. He'd have to deal with him later. He didn't have time to mess around. Not until he at least figured out what was wrong with Lucy. Deciding that Gray could wait for him to kick his ass, he immediately headed in the direction of Lucy.

"Lucy!" Natsu called as soon as he reached her, causing her to turn towards him.

"Oh, Natsu. W-what is it?" Lucy questioned quietly. She could already feel her cheeks heating up, and her hands were beginning to tremble. With Natsu this close to her, she couldn't help but feel slightly self-conscious.

Natsu looked at her seriously. "I need to talk to you. Can we head back to your place?"

Lucy sighed. She had a feeling Natsu was going to attempt to talk to her. She honestly didn't want to talk to him at her place. The thought of being alone with him in a private place scared her, there was no telling what she'd blurt out or what she'd say. And if she turned him down, there was no doubt in her mind that he'd be persistent, and probably refuse any excuse she attempted to come up with. Besides, she most likely couldn't avoid talking to him forever. She couldn't forget that doing that could also cause a rift in their friendship if she wasn't careful.

Was there even a possibility that Natsu knew what was bothering her? Did he even know how he was affecting her? What exactly would they talk about, and what would she say? What could she say? How would she explain that the fact that she saw him naked, pushed up feelings beyond friendship that she had been trying to suppress? Did that even make sense? And would that even make sense to him? What if he took it the wrong way?

Lucy ceased her thoughts, deeming it best to just stop worrying before she worked herself up even more. "Okay," she finally answered, "but can we head somewhere else instead?"

Natsu gave a quick nod, his serious expression fading into a more lighter one. "Sure. I know the perfect place."

Let me know what you thought about this chapter. I may have the next chapter out tomorrow or maybe two days from now, it all depends. Special thanks to emikot316 for reviewing last chapter.