Hello, everyone! How are you guys? I promise I'm still alive and well, haha. Since I left out of nowhere, I think I owe you guys some type of explanation. Or rather, I would like to explain some things.
As always, school tore me apart last week; I just couldn't update. It sucked, but since I'm on spring break now, I was able to write a lot. :] I might have even written a new one-shot I've been thinking of for a while…
In addition to school, I got this really strange social life. It was just too weird and it made time go by too quickly.
Also, over the past month, one person has tried to steal Secret Lovers and another person has tried to steal Love At First Site. They've been removed, so it's all fixed now, but this month has been just a big plagiaristic mess.
And the final announcement! I'm one years old on this website! :') I can proudly say I've had this account for one year already. Am I cool yet?
I hope you guys weren't freaking out because I didn't update. I'm back now and I'll be trying to update every week again!
Sorry for how long this is, asdfghjkl. This is by far my longest A/N and it will be my only long A/N, I swear.
To the people who sent me a PM asking if I was okay, you guys are all really sweet. :3
/nonstop sobbing because Gray in the FT manga is literally driving me insane.
Alright, that's enough of me. If you guys have any questions about the chapter, please don't hesitate to ask.
I will for sure be seeing you guys next week! Thanks, everyone. ~
"Y-You're joking, right?" Lucy laughed anxiously while giving Natsu a rough push on the shoulder. "We're not actually lost in a town we've never been in before, right?"
"It won't be hard to find everyone else!" Natsu guaranteed. "We just need to search a little."
Lucy sighed in an effort to calm down. She shut her eyes and rubbed her temples until she was ready to begin the search for the group. She took several glances around her.
"Where should we start?" they asked simultaneously. They exchanged a look with raised eyebrows.
"You're the one who got us lost!" Lucy accused. "You need to be the one to lead."
"You're the smarter one," Natsu retorted. "I'll get us even more lost."
Lucy stared at him for a while, unhappily accepting that he would definitely make the situation worse.
"W-We'll start there," she lifted a finger towards a random street.
They headed for the street with Lucy searching on the left side and Natsu searching on the right.
"This shouldn't be hard," Lucy told herself. "How hard is it to find a group of seven?"
Yet the hunt didn't last long as the second Natsu smelled food, he became distracted.
"Natsu, now is not the time to eat!" Lucy whined, forcing her legs to follow him to the food stall.
"But I'm hungry," he responded.
"Well, so am I," she muttered, "but you don't see me eating—"
She wasn't able to finish her sentence due to a strawberry crepe being waved in front of her face.
"Here," Natsu offered her the crepe.
Lucy looked at the crepe dumbfounded as though she had never seen one in her life.
"Thank you, Natsu! You're the best," Natsu said for her, taking a hold of Lucy's hand and forcing the crepe in her hand.
"T-Thanks," Lucy stuttered. He grinned in response.
Nibbling on the crepes, they continued to stroll through Onibus, the tense air thinning away in an instant.
"This is really good," she admitted.
"I already want another one," he pouted down at his empty hands.
Lucy giggled, looking at him in her peripheral vision. She then turned to him after noticing there was a spot of chocolate dripping on the corner of his mouth.
"Natsu, you have something…" she tapped the corner of her mouth.
"Hmm?" he turned to her curiously.
She couldn't stop herself from suppressing her laughs at the dot of chocolate beginning to spread with each of his mouth movements.
"Don't move," she commanded as she rose on the tips of her toes and leaned towards him.
Natsu did as he was told, his body becoming still while smoothly Lucy wiped off the chocolate.
"What did you do to me?" he inquired.
"You had some chocolate on your face," she answered nonchalantly.
"Oh," he said plainly, turning away to resume the search. "Thanks."
With a nod, Lucy returned to her search as well. It wasn't until her eyes landed on a store when she froze in her tracks.
"We don't have that store in Magnolia!" she gasped.
"Let's go inside then," Natsu beckoned her to follow him into the store.
Lucy gleefully trailed behind him, trying not to show her excitement too much.
"Why did we have to go inside this kind of store?" he immediately groaned after noticing the ridiculous amount of plushies shelved across all the walls.
"This place is so cute!" Lucy gushed, not knowing where to look first.
It was now Natsu following Lucy as she whizzed past each aisle to take a look at everything all at once. She abruptly stopped after some time causing Natsu to bump against her.
"Why'd you stop all of a sudden?" he frowned down at her, not bothering to take a step back.
"Look at this plushie!" Lucy raved while snatching a green and black ball in front of her and spinning around to show Natsu.
She knew she was being more enthusiastic than usual, but to her surprise, Natsu's eyes lit up with hers as she shifted the ball of plush into his arms.
"Can we buy it?" he asked.
Lucy nodded eagerly in response. "What should we name him?"
"Kemokemo," he responded instantly, giving its heart-shaped face a few squeezes.
"Kemokemo?" Lucy echoed.
Though it was the strangest name she had ever heard in her life, it fit—somehow. With a shrug, she gently took Kemokemo back from him.
"Let me go buy it then—"
"No, I got it," he interrupted, taking Kemokemo away again, and striding to the front counter.
Lucy watched him with her lips pressed together in a thin line. After he finished paying, he raised an eyebrow at her.
"What?"
"Nothing," Lucy shook her head to keep herself from revealing her smile. "I'll hold the bag."
Ignoring the moment when Natsu accidentally wrapped his finger around hers, she took the bag and happily swung it by her side while leaving the store.
"Where should we go next?" she wondered aloud.
"Let's see where Kemokemo decides to take us," he joked, walking beside her down the street and turning into the next.
They had both subconsciously put their friends at the back of their minds. Neither of them had realized it since they were too busy doing their own little sightseeing of Onibus.
Lucy couldn't help but think that being together like this with Natsu was somewhat similar to being on a date with him. With this taunting idea, this day had slightly become a bit more special—just a little.
"Natsu, that looks nothing like Happy," Lucy disagreed with the shake of her head.
"Yes, it does!" he insisted as he pointed to a building. "There are his eyes, his tail, and his—"
"Lucy!" a voice shouted from behind them. "Natsu!"
The couple looked behind them to find Lisanna jogging up to them.
"I've been looking for you two everywhere!" she proclaimed breathlessly.
"This whole time?" Natsu inquired.
"Aren't you tired?! I have water," Lucy offered, hurriedly taking the water bottle out before Lisanna's face went any paler.
"T-Thank you," she breathed out after chugging down the water.
"Where is everyone else?" Lucy asked.
"We've been waiting for you two on the same street this whole time," Lisanna answered.
"Natsu has no sense of direction," Lucy rolled her eyes in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.
Despite feeling bashful, she didn't regret spending some time alone with Natsu for a while.
"Tell me about it," Lisanna agreed.
"I'm right here, you know," Natsu mumbled.
It wasn't long until Lisanna brought Natsu and Lucy back with the group. Levy immediately leaped into Lucy's arms after they returned.
"Where were you all this time?!" she cried. "I've been so worried! What if you were stuck here forever?!"
"I'm okay," Lucy reassured, pulling away from Levy's grip.
"Must have been nice being with Natsu alone," Cana nudged Lucy with her elbow.
"I-It was fine," Lucy stammered.
There was a rustling beside her, so she turned around before Cana could get a chance to tease her further.
"What are you looking at?" Gajeel sent her a glare.
"Why are you holding all those bags?" Lucy questioned.
"I told him I could hold them, but he wouldn't let me!" Levy exclaimed. "He's stubborn."
"Is he now?" Lucy scoffed, feeling as though she had missed an entire episode of Levy and Gajeel's relationship. Well, almost relationship, anyway.
"Good thing you two are back now because we have to go back to the buses," Erza stated while glancing at her watch.
"Already?" Cana complained as she sipped a drink with the strongest scent of alcohol in the world.
"No drinks on the bus," Jellal said shortly, seizing the cup and tossing it into the trash.
"Hey!" Cana furrowed her eyebrows at him.
With that, the reunited group slowly returned to the buses. After ten minutes of shoving and dragging Natsu and Gajeel, the seats of the bus were filled once again.
"Did you have fun, Gray?" Lucy asked when he plopped down beside her.
"It was alright," Gray shrugged. "Did you have fun with Natsu?"
"Of course," she nodded. "It was a lot of fun!"
"I'm glad you thought it was," Natsu grinned with his torso twisted back to them.
"Don't eavesdrop on our conversations," Lucy ordered with a scowl.
"Good for you then," Gray replied after Natsu's motion sickness kicked in.
Lucy wondered why Gray's tone sounded incredibly distant, but she decided not to push it. She was tired, anyway; she gazed out the window in the meantime.
"What's in that bag?" Gray randomly questioned.
"His name is Kemokemo," Lucy answered while sliding it out of the bag.
"What kind of animal is that?" he scrutinized at the forever smiling plushie.
"Does it have to be one?" she countered, returning it back into the bag.
"Luce, give me Kemokemo," Natsu groaned. He reached behind him and patted Lucy's head until she responded.
"Okay, okay," she giggled. "Here."
"Thanks," he murmured.
Lucy couldn't tell what Natsu was doing with Kemokemo, but as long as there wasn't any of his throw up on it, she wasn't going to worry about it.
"We have returned to school, everyone," the teacher notified. "You may exit now and go home."
"Get me out of here," Natsu pleaded with a nauseous Gajeel attempting to beg as well.
Again, Natsu's legs weren't able to hold him up. His face was instantly met with the ground when he exited the bus.
"Weak," Gajeel snorted, though the shade of blue across his face had hardly started to fade away.
Once everyone was off the bus, the group stood around each other to form a circle.
"Let's go to Fairy Tail," Natsu said. "I'm hungry."
"I don't work today so I can eat with everyone," Lisanna spoke.
"But Gajeel can't go," Levy mentioned hesitantly.
"I don't work today," Gajeel responded with a shrug. "I only work four times a week and the days have already passed."
Levy's eyes widened at the new information, her mouth opening to give him a piece of her mind, but she clamped it shut and turned away.
"So are we going or not?" Cana inquired.
"I need to go take the things I bought home," Levy said. "I'll go to Fairy Tail after I'm done!"
"I'm going to bring this home, too," Lucy swung her bag by her side.
"I thought that was Natsu's?" Lisanna asked.
"H-He was just borrowing it," Lucy answered smoothly.
"And I'm going to borrow it again," he stole the bag away from her.
"I'm going to go to Fairy Tail to get a head start," Erza declared with strawberry cake swirling in her eyes.
"I'm going to go, too," Jellal stepped forward to stand beside her.
"I'll go, too," Lisanna and Cana chimed in.
"See everyone there then!" Levy proclaimed with a wave. Gajeel didn't say a word as he followed Levy.
"Gray, are you going to go to Fairy Tail?" Lucy questioned.
"Yeah, I'm going to take a walk first," he stated. "See you there."
"Okay," she replied, whirling around on her heels to walk to her apartment.
"You know, you don't have to come with me," she remarked as Natsu walked beside her.
"We need to agree on a place where we can both see Kemokemo," he conveyed.
"We can just do that after Fairy Tail," she stifled a laugh at how serious he was being.
"Maybe I wanted to walk with you for a while?" he smirked.
"Whatever," she scoffed. It took every fiber of her being to not let her blush expose itself on her cheeks.
"Happy, we've got a new member of the family!" Natsu announced after unlocking the door to their apartment.
Lucy viewed the three with amusement, watching Natsu swing the plushie in the air as Happy blankly stared at them.
"Where are we going to put him?" she asked.
Natsu hummed as he looked for the perfect spot to place him.
"How about here?" he proposed, pointing to the middle of the couch. "It'll be in the middle of our apartment."
"Sounds good to me," Lucy accepted with a confirming nod.
Her back tingled as Natsu gently placed their new member of the family in the middle of the couch. Her cheeks were sore from smiling so much.
"Okay, let's go to Fairy Tail now," she spoke when stepping to the front door.
"Wait, I need to feed Happy," he stated.
"Since when do you ever feed him?" she inquired under her breath.
The blonde was seconds away from turning the doorknob, but a knock on the door caused her to jerk her hand back.
She stared at the door with bewilderment.
"It's probably Gray," Lucy assumed to herself, going back to opening the door.
But the person who stood behind the door wasn't Gray. Lucy held her breath as though she was underwater when her eyes landed on the person in front of her.
"L-Lisanna, what do you need?"