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Chapter 3 - The Confession
Lucy glanced at Natsu from the corner of her eyes, secretly wondering where he was leading her. They had left the guild approximately twenty minutes ago, and they had yet to stop walking. Though, she had to admit she was pretty curious as to where Natsu was leading her, she couldn't help but be more and more anxious and nervous as their distance from the guild continued to increase.
"Natsu." Lucy called out in curiosity, immediately causing his gaze to be directed towards her. Blushing slightly, as well as averting her eyes from his gaze, she continued, "Where are we going?"
"To me and Happy's place." Natsu answered simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lucy stopped walking, her eyes wide, and her mouth slightly agape. That was even more worse than going to her house! Natsu may have pure intentions, but if she couldn't handle talking to Natsu alone in her apartment, then she definitely couldn't handle talking to him alone at his house! "W-What? Natsu - I - Well, can we not go there?" she asked nervously.
Natsu stopped walking, and turned around to face Lucy in confusion. "Huh? What's wrong with my place? You said you didn't want to go to your place."
Lucy sighed, not quite sure how to explain to her pink-haired friend that she wouldn't exactly be comfortable being alone with him in any private area. She wanted to tell him the truth because he deserved to know, but she didn't want him to get the wrong idea. "Nothing's wrong with your place, Natsu - "
" - Then, what are we waitin' for, Luce? Let's go!" He interrupted, grabbing her by her wrist and practically hauling her in the direction of he and his Exceed's house.
"No! N-Natsu! Wait!" Lucy shouted, beginning to panic. They were literally one or two feet away from entering the woods, the location of Natsu's house, and if they went any further, Lucy wasn't sure whether or not she'd burst into tears and freak out, or something similar along those lines. It was probably needless to say that when she suddenly felt the both of them come to a stop again, she couldn't be happier. Even though Natsu still had her wrist in his grip, Lucy was too focused on slowing her rather rapidly beating heart down at the moment. Once she felt like she was calm enough, she began to explain herself, "I can't go to your house, Natsu. I just wouldn't feel comfortable being there alone with you...not right now, at least." Lucy admitted.
"What do you mean? Don't you trust me?"
"Of course, I do, Natsu. This is it, Lucy thought to herself, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in order to prepare herself. After this, there was no turning back. But could she really do this? Could she really tell Natsu how she felt about him? Lucy ceased her thoughts, well aware that if she let her thoughts continue to run then she wouldn't have the guts to tell Natsu what she really wanted to tell him. When she re-opened her eyes, she saw Natsu's brown eyes staring back into hers, patiently awaiting for her explanation, silently reassuring her that she could talk to him about anything.
"Natsu," the blonde began, dropping her eyes from his gaze. "I've had feelings for you a while a now. Feelings that pass nakama. When I first realized that I had feelings for you, it was when I thought you were going to confess to me, but really, you just needed me to summon Virgo. You remember that day, right, Natsu? That day I slapped you and ran off?" Not waiting for a response, she continued, fearing that if she stopped, she might not be able to go on, "I'm not sure if you do, but later that same day, I questioned myself, wondering why I felt so hurt and disappointed with the fact that you didn't confess when I was somewhat determined to let you down easy. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I had feelings for you, but I pushed them away and decided to ignore it, valuing our friendship more. It was easy to do that for a while, but when I saw you in my bathroom naked, it pushed up the very feelings I tried to suppress. I've tried to ignore it once more, but I just can't; I haven't even been able to sleep, nor think properly for the past few days.
Finally finished with what she had to say, Lucy inhaled, feeling a whole lot better than before. She felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her chest, and now that she said what she wanted to say, all there was to left do now was to wait for Natsu's response and accept it, no matter what. Lucy brought her gaze back up to Natsu's, patiently awaiting his answer. It seemed like an eternity had passed by - which, in reality was only two or three minutes in the least - and with each second that ticked by when Natsu didn't respond to her confession, Lucy could feel her confidence slipping, and the worry seeping in as well as her thoughts beginning to run wild.
She couldn't help but wonder if she made a mistake by telling him. Maybe, she should have just kept her feelings to herself, and just continued to ignore what she was feeling to the best of her abilities. But, Lucy knew that ignoring and running from the problem would do nothing to solve the problem - or any problem for that matter. So, maybe what she did was for the best. But if that was so, then why didn't she feel convinced? Was she fooling herself in believing that she could actually handle being rejected, if Natsu decided to do so?
Deciding that she couldn't take the silence any longer, Lucy decided to speak, ignoring the flutter she felt in her stomach at seeing Natsu still gazing at her with a serious expression, "Natsu," She started quietly, smiling sadly, "it's okay if you don't feel the same. I just wanted to let you know how I felt."
Why did it pain her so much to say those words? Wasn't that the correct thing to say? If Natsu didn't feel the same way, then she couldn't get upset and she certainly couldn't force him to return her feelings, either.
The blonde snapped out of her thoughts when she felt warm hands come in contact with her face, apparently wiping something off. "Lucy," Natsu started quietly, "you're crying."
Lucy's eyes widened, realizing that he was right. Had she been to caught up in her thoughts to not notice? Blushing, suddenly feeling embarrassed, she lowered her head. But Natsu, having other plans, lifted her head back up, their gazes locked once more. "I didn't mean to take so long to respond back. I just had to think and see if I felt the same... Lucy, I don't know if my feelings for you are as strong as yours, but I do know that whenever I'm away from you, I'm already thinkin' about the next thing I'm goin' to say to you when I see you again. I know that whenever we're around each other, I wanna do whatever I can to make sure you're happy. I know that the thought of losin' you and not havin' you around anymore hurts, and makes my chest tighten. I know that I can't picture my life without you, and I know that I don't want to ever see you cry or hurt again. I also know that I wanna do whatever I can to protect you."
"Natsu..." Lucy breathed out, genuinely touched by his words. She could feel tears trailing down her face, but she didn't care or even bother to acknowledge it, for the tears that were spilling out of her eyes, were tears of happiness. Not being able to resist it any longer, she wrapped her arms around him, pressing her head into his chest.
Natsu blushed, well aware that this hug was unlike the friendly and comforting ones they shared a few times before, slowly wrapping his arms around Lucy.
A/N: There's probably about one or two chapters left for this. Pushing that aside, I want to apologize for taking a while to update, I'm not really the patient type, and I like to get things out and update as quickly as possible. I did have a little run in with writer's block for this, which I thought was absolutely ridiculous. But anyway, please let me know what you think of this chapter. I prefer to keep any character(s) I write in character, and I would like to know how I did with that. Also, how did Natsu's confession sound? Was it unlike him?
Thanks for reviewing last chapter : krikanalo, emikot316, LiveTake, Broken-Roses-Dragon-Heart