A/N: I normally try to post on Mondays, but I had a busy day yesterday. Also, it was really hard for me to write this chapter. I'm not quite sure why, but I just lost all motivation and had a really tough time coming up with material for it. I've actually been working on it for a couple weeks now. But the good news is, I have the next few chapters completely worked out in my head, and then a way-later chapter already written, so don't worry!

Enjoy, my lovelies!

Good Gods, it felt like he had been sleeping for days. His body was achy, his eyelids were heavy even though they were still closed, his back felt as if it had been whipped a thousand times over. What the hell did he do last night to make him this tired and weak?

Natsu rolled over onto his back, stretching his arms over his head while his wings splayed out over the bed. He took a deep breath and-

Lucy filled his nose. Sitting up in his bed, he suddenly remembered why he was so sore today: he had held back his wings for so much longer than he was used to, thoroughly exhausting him, because he had saved (kidnapped) Lucy and brought her to his home. He knew she wasn't here, in his room, but he could still smell her scent lingering throughout his cave.

Natsu stood and reached down for his shirt. Wait, had he taken it off last night? Tying the knots around his neck and waist, he thought, no wonder she wasn't in here anymore. Some man you just met (that had kidnapped you) taking off his clothes while he slept next to you? Yeah, he'd leave too.

He walked through the dirt halls, noticing the sunshine that was coming through the entrance, and followed her scent outside. The sun was bright, and he had to squint his eyes, but he knew instantly that she was not here.

A blast of disappointment ran through him, and he fought the urge to take off down the mountain path and follow her. She was going to leave at some point, he knew that. But he didn't even get to say goodbye, that he was sorry.

Natsu walked over and sat on the log he had made into a bench. As he stared at the fire pit in front of him, he figured he didn't even deserve that much. She was a Princess, and he was an outcast, a freak, a thing that shouldn't have even been born. There was no way anyone would be able to stay around him for any length of time, even on good terms. His father hadn't; in fact, his father had them living in the shadows of a mountain similar to this one, keeping him heavily clothed whenever he was forced to travel into the nearby town. So even Lucy, with her good heart and sadistically understanding ways, shouldn't be expected to stay around long.

Still...what if she couldn't find the way back to her town? What if she got hurt, or attacked by an animal? What if someone found her and tried to take her?

He had to know she was at least okay, even if he couldn't talk to her. Jumping up, Natsu ran back into the cave, scanning the floor. He wasn't sure where he dropped his cloak last night, but he did remember waiting until he got here to throw it off. He walked throughout his entire floor plan, looking in every corner, but his cloak was nowhere to be found.

Weird. And a little unnerving. But he couldn't sit and wonder about it. Lucy might be in trouble, and he had to ease his mind with her safety.

Grabbing his father's scarf off the floor next to his bed, he tied it around his head to hide his hair as best he could, and jogged out of his cave.

As he soon as he set foot on the path leading down the mountain, however, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Coming up the incline was a small figure completely draped in his cloak, hunching over, carrying a book in their arms and a large pack on their back. The figure looked up, and then stopped.

Natsu stared with wide eyes and his mouth hanging completely open as the hood was pulled back, revealing a head of beautiful, yet slightly sweaty, blonde hair, and a softly flushed face.

"Thank the Gods you're awake. I can't believe I made it all the way back up this mountain." Her voice was like a symphony to his ears. It was really her; she had really come back. Lucy began sliding the pack off her shoulders, the thing falling heavily onto the ground, her going down with it. She looked up at him from the ground, smiling gently. "I got your things."

Natsu jogged down to her, still completely shocked. He wrapped one arm around her waist and used the other to sling the pack over his shoulder, then stood up, bringing her up with him. She sighed and leaned against him. "Of course you would make it look so easy."

He really couldn't say anything. His head was still wrapping around the reality that she had come back, and he walked her over to the log-bench silently. Helping her sit down, he watched as she sighed heavily, then placed the book she was carrying down gently next to her. Unwrapping his cloak from her figure, she bent down and began rubbing one of her feet.

Wait a minute..."Are you-...why are you barefoot?" Lucy looked up at him.

"Well, my shoes were hurting my feet on the way down, and then I realized that they would have given me away in town. So I took them off halfway down the mountain and threw them in some high grass." She said this matter-of-factly, like he should have been able to come up with that reasoning on his own.

Finally, his brain started to work again. "Why wouldn't you want to be found out in town? Why did you think you had to come back?" He stood over her, realizing that his tone was somewhat accusatory, but he just couldn't comprehend this.

Lucy looked up at him incredulously. "I didn't think I had to come back. I wanted to come back. You said you forgot to get your things from the merchant last night, so I traveled down there to get them for you."

She pointed to the pack he was carrying, and Natsu slid it off his shoulder. It was the one he gave to the old man merchant last night, and it was extremely full. Setting the thing on the ground and resting on his haunches, he opened the top of the pack, only to see that it was filled with everything he had needed, and a few extra items the merchant obviously spared him. He looked back up at Lucy, shocked. She had traveled to the town to get him this?

She smiled at him again, and then continued to rub her feet. "You know, I thought climbing up and down the stairs at home was good exercise. Turns out I was sadly mistaken." She laughed to herself, switching her attention to her other foot. "I was going to make you kiss my feet after I got back, but honestly I wouldn't want to come near them if I were you."

His instincts kicked in once again, and he operated on autopilot as he jumped up and walked over to Lucy. He gave her no warning before he leaned down and tilted her chin up, crushing his lips against hers. She sighed against his lips, bringing her hand up and lacing her fingers in the hair on the back of his head.

Natsu pulled away gently, resting his forehead against hers as he stared into her eyes. "Thank you, Lucy."

She smiled at him softly, sliding her hand from his hair to his cheek. His eyes slid over to the bench she was sitting on, to the leather-bound book that he just noticed was covered in pictures of dragons. "What's that?"

Lucy followed his gaze and reached over to grab it, suddenly excited. "Oh! As I was leaving I passed a library window that had a book about dragons on display. I went inside and talked to the keeper for a minute. She answered a few questions I had about dragons. Then-"

Natsu stopped her. "Questions about dragons? Why would you have questions about dragons?"

Lucy looked up at him. "Well...probably because I had just met a man with dragon qualities." Her eyes slid behind him, to his wings, then back to his face. "Anyway, she told me that dragons have magic and would often curse the dragon slayers who killed them. Then she gave me this book, which is supposed to have a lot of information about slayers and dragons and their magic." She looked back down at the book, stroking the cover gently. "I figured we could read it together. Maybe you could even learn more about yourself."

He opened his mouth to tell her that he knew everything he wanted to know about that side of him, that he wasn't interested in learning more about how much of a monster he was, but her stomach interrupted him by growling loudly. She looked up at him with pink cheeks, laughing slightly.

"I guess it has been a while since I've eaten."

Natsu smiled at her. "Just let me start a fire."

He got busy arranging the wood inside the fire pit, and then took out the new flint rock that was inside his pack. One of the things he had needed for a while. As he started the fire, he saw Lucy out of the corner of his eye, standing and trying to rearrange her now very worn and dirty dress. She walked over and gazed inside his pack, then picked out a long, and very sharp, knife.

"Do you mind if I use this?" She held it up carelessly in front of her, and Natsu's nerves started jumping.

"Uh...do you know how?"

She huffed at him, and then tossed it in the air. Her eyes stayed on his the entire time it spun in the air, and then she flawlessly caught the handle. Natsu was on his feet, his hands held out in front of him, sweat beading on his forehead, and she smiled at him. "I might be a Princess, and I might not have a lot of knowledge about surviving in the wilderness, but I'm not dumb. I've been practicing with all types of knives and swords since I was young."

He could do nothing but stare at her. On the list of things he should have expected from her, knowing how to wield a knife was definitely not on it. She just continued to surprise him in the most unexpected and good ways. Straightening up, then returning to a crouch in front of the fire, he cleared his throat. "Go ahead, just uh...be careful." Lucy laughed at him then took the knife with her as she went back inside the cave.

Natsu spent the next twenty minutes building the fire enough to be able to cook over it, then took out the new bow string that was in his pack. Fetching his bow from just inside the cave, he sat on the log and began restringing it. His mind was completely occupied with the task, his concentration on his fingers as he expertly checked the string, then wrapped it around each end of his bow. He had been hunting with a knife for the past few weeks, which he was good at, but he had only been able to catch small game. The larger animals were faster, and harder to kill up close.

As he was finishing, making sure the string was taut and even with his sights, he heard Lucy's footsteps coming near. He looked up, and froze. The sunlight was beaming on her, making all the newly shown skin gleam. She had cut the skirt of her ball gown, and now the better part of her toned thighs were bare. The half-sleeves were completely gone, showing off her shoulders and collarbone. She had strung a small piece of fabric through the middle of her collar, right at the apex of her breasts, which she tied behind her neck. Her feet were now wrapped in the white sash that had previously occupied her waist, creating a soft barrier between them and the ground. Her hair was separated into two, parted down the middle, tied back behind her ears.

Lucy looked over at him and smiled, holding up the knife she had taken earlier. "It was the best I could do. But I'm definitely more comfortable now, and a lot cooler."

"It's uh...you look...good job." Natsu had no clue what to say, so he just looked back down and started nicking his arrows. Lucy sat down next to him.

"What are you doing?"

"The arrows fly faster and quieter if I put these marks on them."

"Does it really make a difference?"

"You'll see."

"What?"

Natsu looked over at her and smiled. "Have you ever shot a bow before?"

D'aww, he's gonna take her hunting. How...sweet?

Leave me love, leave me hate, doesn't matter, just leave me something!