All rights to Hiro Mashima

~ Sixth ~

-Natsu-

Being dragged behind Lucy wasn't the worst thing in the world.

For one, she was holding my hand in a firm grip, all five of her decidedly dainty fingers laced between mine. I could feel the rough calluses on the pads of her fingers. Probably something to do with her magic.

Another great reason was the view. Small skirt, swaying hips, legs that just kept going. I was in full on pervert mode and loving every second.

I didn't quite realize that I had been staring at this woman's ass for at least a full minute until someone whispered in my ear.

"And you call be the pervy bastard because I unconsciously strip my clothes off at every turn. If you stare any harder at Lucy, her skirt just might catch on fire." His statement didn't make any sense until I actually turned my head towards him and caught him shucking off what was left of his outfit.

"You must really love feeling the breeze in here Popsicle dick." He looks down at his naked legs and heaves a gigantic sigh.

"Whatever flame fuck. Just don't let Erza catch you trying to take a look at what's under Lucy's skirts, she'll castrate you on the spot. Believe me." He drops behind us mumbling something about 'disappearing underwear'.

I plant my eyes forward, staring at the back of Lucy's blonde head, not letting my eyes stray downwards for even one second. 'Wouldn't want that red haired demoness to chop off one of my more important parts.' I also didn't want to know if Gray had actually lost his boxers.

"Hey Mira, where's Romeo? I thought he would be back from that job he was on." She plunks down the slumbering cat in her arms on top of the bar counter, but he just rolls over mumbling about 'sweet fishies.'

I took a seat at the bar beside Lucy and looked around at the white haired woman in front of us.

"Good afternoon Lucy, Natsu. I got word from Max earlier today, he and Romeo got waylaid in Oshibana. Something about the trains being down for routine maintenance. They should be back tomorrow in the afternoon sometime." The woman… Mira… smiled sweetly and waved one of her hands around in an airy manner.

I frown started to pull at Lucy's face. I didn't like that at all, she looked much better smiling. "Don't worry Luce, it won't kill me for a day. Could you maybe show me around instead?"

She looked at me, contemplating her options. "Yah, I could do that. Help you reassert yourself into your life again, or at the very least help you find your way around Magnolia without getting lost seeing as you don't have your Dragon senses anymore." A small smile started to curl at the edges of her mouth replacing the frown.

'Look at that! You made her smile. She doesn't look weird anymore.' But I would never tell her that.

"You know, you don't look so weird when you smile." Huh. Apparently I would tell her that.

It seems that I have no filter on my mouth, if I ever had one before. Either that or what is left of my brain decided to desert me.

Damn traitor.

To my relief, and ever maddening surprise, Lucy starts to giggle and an absolutely adorable blush starts to wind its way up her cheeks, tinting them a light pink hue. 'Oh Mavis, how does anyone get any work done with her around? Is she always this fucking cute? Good Gods.'

"You know, I should be used to you calling me weird by now." So this is another one of those…imprint gut-feeling…things that the small blue Dragon Slayer was talking about. Lucy shakes her head a little and swivels back towards Mira and abruptly freezes as if she's caught in the stare of something way higher up in the food chain than her.

I look in the same direction and my eyes widen. And there it is, the predator that caught Lucy, and now myself, in its gaze.

And she looks ravenous.

"Oh Natsu, how nice of you to complement Lucy like that, it was very….unexpected." Sweet Mira from a minute ago is gone and in her place is the devil wrapped in a very tastefully ruffled dress.

I hear something hitting wood beside me. Lucy has dropped her forehead onto the counter in front of her and huffs. "Mira, stop it, he has no memories and his magic is gone, I'm tired and want a bath. I would also like it if you would stop playing gam-…. Annnnd she isn't listening anymore."

Which was the truth, the barmaid had stopped listening somewhere during Lucy's tirade and was now humming and twirling on the spot, seemingly making plans for a summer wedding.

I turn back to Lucy. "Is she always like this? And why would you need a bath, you smell nice already." She did smell nice. Like honey, or flowers, or something equally delicate. I caught a hint of it up in the old man's office and caught me completely off guard with how delicious it was. The magic that I have now apparently reacts to my more…primitive instincts and promptly increased the temperature around my body by a balmy twenty degrees.

All I wanted to do was lick the bead of sweat rolling down her neck and stick my face in her cleavage. Is that really so terrible?

Something told me it wasn't appropriate in that situation and I resisted the urge.

The demon barmaid zeros in on my compliment of her smell with unquestionable precision. Her eyes flick between us both and her face adopts a calculating stare. "It seems that when your head isn't filled with thoughts on fighting and eating the entire guild kitchen every day, you can be quite the gentleman. Can't you…Natsu?"

Her smile adopts a sharpish edge and makes my skin crawl. Beside me, Lucy is starting to flounder a bit, waving her hands around her like she is trying to make sense out of this situation.

I snort. 'Welcome to my world.'

"Okay Natsu, I think that's too many compliments in front of Mira for one day." Lucy's voice has a twinge of panic lacing it and I can't help but feel the same.

"OkayMiraseeyoutomorrowbye." She grabs my hand in hers again and speed walks out the large wooden doors that lead out of the hall.

"So what you're saying is that I break into your house on almost a daily basis, eat all your food, make a mess and don't clean it up, and then jump into your bed with that blue fuzz ball that everyone calls Happy and you, and all we do is sleep?"

Lucy are standing outside her apartment on the street facing her front door. As we walked through Magnolia, Lucy kept up a running commentary about the shops and some of the people around us. I won't remember any of it for the life of me, but I appreciated the gesture. Which comes to her telling me how I get into her house.

She gives me a weird look. "Well…yah…I guess I just got used to it. You are my best friend and all." I look at her incredulously. She is just so strange. I can't figure her out. I'm betting that if it was anyone else, they would have called the authorities on me and my flying companion.

Still having trouble wrapping my head around the talking cat….err… Exceed.

I squint at her to gauge her next reaction. "And I do all this, by jumping through your bedroom window?" She just nods. And then shrugs.

"You've popped in so many times when I wasn't paying attention, scare tactics don't work on me anymore. Its usually just after I've had a shower for some reason, and it really doesn't faze me as much as it used to. You just ask me to make you and Happy dinner cause you are starving or whatever, happens a lot when I only have a towel on, if I'm lucky."

My eyebrows have got to be lost in my hair line now. Oh Gods, either both my lost memories and magic took up an incredible amount of space in my dumb head where there was no room for beautiful women with amber eyes or I am the smartest man alive to play oblivious and hang in for the long haul.

It's taking most of my self control in this situation to stop myself from leaning over licking the patch of skin right behind her ear. 'I wonder what she tastes like...'

"Ah crap, Aquarius is going to drown me again. Last time I dropped her keys she sent a damn whirlpool at me in the middle of a fight with forest Vulcan. Anyways, you can just stay here with me until we find Romeo tomorrow, I already told Happy to stay with Wendy and Charles for a while, just until you guys are comfortable with each other again." Her voice breaks me out of my fantasies of creamy skin dripping in honey.

As she bends down to pick up her dropped key ring, her skirt rides up a bit higher than normal and I can spot a hint of red lace. I groan low in the back of my throat and roll my eyes up to the sky. The temperature around my body sky rockets as all the blood in my head rushes straight down towards the bastard in my pants. It seems that I don't have very much control over my magic when it comes to her. 'She looks so amazing in the colour red.'

Correction. I am the dumbest man to ever live being oblivious for this long. I can tell this is going to be a long night.