Yeah, not going to lie. I kind of felt like I was forcing myself to write this, mostly so others can continue to reading the story. If you notice a drop of quality in this chapter, That's why. I kind of ran out of a ideas or I pushed myself to a situation that sounded good in theory but didn't know how to come out of it. Anyways despite this, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter

Reference:

Talking - "Quotations"

Thinking - 'Contractions'

Flashback - Italics

Spells, Important people or objects - Bold

A Return Worth Waiting For

Chapter 7

Flashback: The Previous Night

"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" A spell was screamed out followed by a gigantic geyser of fire shooting up into the sky, missing its intended target.

"Come on, is that all you've got Natsu? I figured you'd get much stronger in the last year." Erza teasingly mocked, despite her lowering magical reserves and the wounds she was receiving. She meant nothing harmful of course, but Erza was well aware of how Natsu's magic power fluctuates with his emotions.

Natsu was fairing no better, he was just as beat up, with cuts everywhere; normally he would be exhausted by now, but will seems to give him endless magical reserves. "Dammit!" He yelled, flames started to envelope the entirety of his body. He started building up his magic power, he then sent the flames to his hands, brought them together and… "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" A massive fireball shot out torwards his target.

Erza's eyes widened in shock. 'That's a new one.' She thought. She soon realized she would not be able to evade it in time with her Flight Armor so she decided to at least halve the damage. She quickly changed into her Flame Empress Armor.

BOOM! A massive shockwave hit the surrounded area as an explosion covered the area. Trees were uprooted and flown away. How the nearby town of Magnolia was able to sleep through this was beyond them.

Natsu quickly fell to his knees panting for air. "It's still fairly new, and takes a toll on me." He said despite not really directing it to anyone.

Erza soon came forth from the smoke, at first Natsu was shocked, thinking she wasn't fazed in the least, but upon closer inspection, he soon realized she was rather banged up, despite her reducing the damage with her armor.

"I guess that spell was a little stronger than I thought it would be." Erza admitted, "I got careless." she finished with a smirk.

Natsu simply smiled as he reignited his magic. "Yeah well, I'm just making you eat your words about me not getting any stronger."

Erza said nothing, only letting a smile remain on her face, before a white light enveloped her figure and disappeared.

Natsu was now nervous. 'Damn, as I thought, she no longer requires the need to chant her magic, meaning I have no way to know what armor she's using. Judging by how fast she disappeared I think she chose-'

He had no more time to finish his though. His keen sense of smell caught onto Erza charging him from behind, clad in her Flight Armor. 'No time to dodge! I must use-'

Erza was already behind him before his thought finished and already swung her sword from the blunt edge in order to not harm her friend. To her surprise however, the sword just phased right through Natsu. Natsu's body decomposing into fire and disappearing.

Erza was quite shocked as she literally thought she killed Natsu. These thoughts were soon erased from her mind. 'Ok Erza. Think! Think! Where could he be? Left? No. Right? No. Straight ahead? No, Natsu is smarter than to charge me head on. Behind? Dammit! Where could he be!?' She desperately thought.

"Hey there." The soft, yet mocking, whisper of Natsu pierced the air. Erza's head whipped around to where she thought she heard it. 'Dammit! He's not here! How does someone, effectively composed of fire, stay hidden in the night!?'

"FIRE DRAGON'S-"

Erza noticed too late the source of those words. 'ABOVE!' She looked up to see a materializing Natsu less than 3 feet from her, leaving her no time to defend herself.

"-IRON FIST!" Natsu brought his fist forwards to Erza and hit her dead-on, causing yet another detonation of shockwaves and explosions.

Minus the low rumble of the ground and the dirt falling back to the earth, silence was all that was heard. Natsu found himself completely drained and starting to lose consciousness. Natsu fought to keep himself awake to prove his finally beat Erza, but the temptation of sleep was too much. Natsu ultimately lost consciousness and fell forward, but not before being caught by an equally battered and beaten Erza, now in her regular clothes.

"It seems you saved the best for last Natsu. I feel like I didn't learn anything compared to you, I simply improved my physical capabilities." She said softly, despite knowing Natsu would not hear her. She set him down, and laid right next to him. Sleepiness taking her too, due to her condition.

End of Flashback, and a short time after Natsu and Erza Explanation

"Oh! It seems our loving couple are done recuperating in the Medical Bay. You didn't impede our Natsu's recovery with your desire to have fun, right Erza?" The ever mischievous bartender teased Erza as she saw her and Natsu exit the room with the guild master following behind them. Said bartender's smile disappeared after a sword imbedded itself, next to her head, into the wall behind her; courtesy of a very red-in-the-face-Erza.

"Oh my! Did I just strike a nerve?" Mira recovered to further taunt the Fairy Queen.

Natsu, who was witnessing this, was trying his best, along with the master, to prevent the very angry and embarrassed Erza from going down to beat Mira into next month.

"Destroy….prove dominance….regain sanity….satisfaction….happiness." Erza incoherently mumbled as she seethed in her anger, continuing to struggle against the grip of Natsu and Makarov.

Mira who was now sensing the killing intent coming from the Titania was actually starting to back off, a little nervous. "Uh. Elfman can you watch the bar for one second? I need to do something real quick."

Elfman had no chance to give a proper response before Mira already found her way out of the guild. "A real man does no-"

"FREE ALCHOHOL!" The guild heavy drinker, Cana shouted and jumped over the counter after said beverages and accidently hit Wakaba who then hit Macao.

"You got a problem Wakaba!?" Macao roared

"Yeah! I didn't do shit!" Wakaba yelled back

"That is total-" The dark blue haired man was unable to finish as he was sent flying to the wall by a giant fist.

"Real men argue with their fist!" Elfman roared

Natsu had to pull Erza down to prevent the two of them being hit by the now projectile Macao, doing so however brought their faces right next to one another, this being enough to snap Erza out of her anger.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Erza asked, fighting to not get embarrassed again.

"You didn't see that thing fly right at us?! I had to pull you down so we wouldn't get hit."

"Hm humph ah hng" Macao muffled with his head lodged into the wall.

"Shut it old man!" Wakaba yelled, almost unable to contain his laughter at his drinking buddy's situation.

A brawl then ensued when Natsu simply went to Wakaba and hit him. Elfman, not wanting to miss a chance to prove his manliness, charged Natsu, only to be sent flying into Gray and some other guild members. The brawl went on until everyone realized something. They, the entirety of the guild, had done the fatal mistake. A mistake that was well known when a certain someone was around. Never fight when Erza is around. Well, that is what they thought. Many people turned in fear, thinking that Erza would be right there ready to deliver divine punishment on all of them, instead, Erza had a small smile on her face. Natsu noticed this and decided to take the opportunity to get an easy hit on Gray.

"Ow! What the hell!?" Gray yelled rubbing his cheek, backing into Jet.

"You want to go again Gray!?" Jet threatened preparing his magic before being knocked into Wakaba by the now mobile Macao.

On looking the scene, Makarov noticed how quickly the guild forgot the presence of Erza and turned to her. "You're actually not going to stop them this time?" He asked intrigued.

"No. Not this time, it has been far too long since I saw them like this. I think I will actually just sit back and let them have their fun." Erza stated with a simple smile.

"You like him, don't you?" Makarov asked out of the blue.

"Huh? Like? Who are you talking about?" Erza asked startled, the master never asked her about more personal matters.

"Who else could I mean? Only a fool could miss that you've attempted to spend every moment since you've returned with Natsu. You did grow up with him after all." He explained

Erza simply just started to blush. "I-I-I W-well…"

"No need, your face is giving it away." Makarov smirked, causing Erza's face to further redden, "My advice to you however, is to hurry up and try to get him. In your absence, if you haven't already noticed, Natsu has grown much stronger and he is starting to gain notoriety. This will spark some admirers, some possibly hoping to take him for themselves."

Makarov noticed that Erza's blush was replaced with a fire that lit up in her eyes. Her competitiveness sparking up. "I bid you good luck." With that he returned to his office for the time being. 'Looks like she's all fired up. Heh, could have taken that the wrong way.' He smirked to himself.

Erza however steeled her resolve, "NATSU!" she shouted, the guild, Natsu included, froze in horror. It would seem their 'fun' would end with Erza giving out punishment, with the dragon slayer possibly getting the worst of it. "We are going on a mission!" and quickly turned to leave the guild.

'But you didn't even get a request from the board!' Natsu frantically thought as he rather reluctantly followed the scarlet beauty.

Following Erza to outskirts of town, towards to woods. Natsu noticed they were not far from his house. He then noticed Erza stopped moving.

"Erza, where are we going?" Natsu asked rather tired of walking all this way without telling him a thing.

Erza said nothing as she slowly turned around and stared right at him. This cause Natsu to slowly become nervous as she started a slow walk to him.

"E-e-erza, are you o-okay?" Natsu started to shiver in fear as Erza stopped when her face was a couple inches away from his.

"Natsu, how do you feel about me?" She asked plainly

"W-w-what did you say? Natsu asked, still shaking.

"I said, how do you feel about me? Do you like me? Am I just your friend? Do you….love me?" She struggled to ask the last part.

"Uh, w-w-well, you're my best friend, I've known you forever b-b-but, why do you ask?" Natsu asked, not wanting to continue answer, lest he say something that will shorten his life span significantly.

"I-i-it's just that I…I…Ah screw it!" Erza just yelled and crashed her lips on Natsu's.

'Peeerrrfect, that's how I will do it.' Erza thought deviously about how she would claim Natsu as her own when she turned around to see….Natsu not behind her? "Eh!? Natsu!?" She comically panicked when she noticed Natsu was no longer behind her.

"God dammit…" She huffed to herself, guess her confession will be able to wait a few measly minutes. The scarlet haired woman then sped off to find her dragon slayer.

Did you notice the drop of quality? Most of said Quality drop happens after the Flashback which I felt particularly proud of since I have never wrote out a legit fight scene. Anyways, hope you didn't completely hate this chapter, I will hopefully feel better about the upcoming chapter(s). However, I am slowly losing ideas whether I forget them, use them faster than I get them, or someone else has used them and I want to retain a form of originality from other stories. Anyways I hope to see you in the near future.