A/N: I'm sorry if I missed replies to anyone. My email has been acting up lately and I have no idea why (I should probably clean out my inbox though). Sorry for the lateness of this one! I was planning on posting this chapter at two, but my mom had to go to work and I had to feed my baby sister. It's all good though! Just a few hours late, no harm done.

There's a bit of OOC with Natsu in this chapter, but my excuse is that he does mature a little when he's older, and it's kinda hard to capture his everything when I'm saving dialogue for the last chapter only. Plus this is an AU and I have a right to a little OOC-ness.

I made this slightly longer to make up for my lateness! Enjoy and as always, see you in the next one! -808Lionfire

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail (c) Hiro Mashima

Seven Attempts to Fall

Attempt Three: 31 October x791, 7:00 p.m.

The next time they met was on Halloween.

Lucy was always running and rushing, even in her downtime. It kept her busy and she liked the organized chaos that being busy brought. It was purely in her nature to rush, and it was exactly that nature that helped her keep Celestial Fire open every day of the week for every month of the year. Halloween and other holidays were no different than any other normal day; that is what she believed. The only variance was that it gave her an excuse to play around with a few holiday-themed coffee and pastry recipes.

Autumn was her favorite time to experiment because it was the well-reknowned pumpkin season in Magnolia, and pumpkins were her all-time-obesssion. Countless regulars that frequented the humble café raved and craved what new pumpkin recipe she'd bring into her workshop. Her most popular—by far—would be her Pumpkin-Cinnamon Hot Chocolate, followed closely by the Pumpkin Spice latte.

And although she locks the doors earlier than any other day, everyone in Magnolia knew her shop wasn't really closed until the last customer left the café. Customer satisfaction was her policy, so she resisted the urge to shuffle out any one of her patrons. Unfortunately, that was why she was late to a few of her friends' parties sometimes.

Time, however, she made sure to close early. Levy pleaded for her to help with preparations and who was she to deny her best friend a task like that? It could be just another ploy to set her up with someone but she accepted it anyway. Even if it was a ploy, she deserves it considering all the times she was either late or unable to make it because her café schedule clashed. If pretending to fall into the bluenette's scheme would make her happy, then Lucy would silently resign to her fate and feign ignorance.

Ugh. Curse her self-guilt-trip through Tartaros' flames and back.

The sun slowly started to set when she finally shuffled out Ms. Milkovich (a sweet, old woman who told her that the Hot Chocolate she makes reminds her of her late mother– back in the old, winter days in the Land of Isvan) and the golden-haired woman couldn't help the tired sigh that pushed past her lips. Her eyes closed as she pressed her forehead against the wooden frame of the double-door entrance. It could have been her imagination, but she swore she saw a flash of pink round the corner outside her shop and then shrugged it off.

Lucy didn't want to move because she knew that she still had to do the routine closing clean-up and it didn't help her case when she remembered that she excused her employees long before she locked the store.

It was a holiday and half of her workers had their own families to go to. Lucy appreciated the offers to stay behind, but what kind of boss would she be if she let them do that? Work will always be there but who know how long they had left with family. Children would grow up and move out, some family only visit for the holidays, and—as morbid as it sounds—death takes its toll. Sometimes unexpectedly.

Lucy knows that a lot better than anyone.

The blonde woman instinctively reached towards the bolt and deftly twisted the lock, the click resonated in the empty shop louder than realistically possible. She slowly opened her eyes, her brown orbs tracing an imaginary pattern on the wooden design. Eventually, Lucy forced herself to push away from the door and took a deep breath.

Warm tendrils of courage filled her veins at the familiar scent of her café and her resulting smile was pure and determined. She pushed up the sleeves to her shirt and got to work. Every so often, she glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of her shop to keep the time. Levy's party officially started at eight but she wanted her at the apartment around seven. It was currently six, so she still had time.

In a last ditch effort to make the best possible use of her time, she decided to clean up here first and change into her costume at Levy and Gajeel's apartment. It was a tradition of theirs to go trick-or-treating before getting totally wasted. She lost a round of beer-pong last year against the crimson-eyed brute himself and he dared her to wear the most embarrassing costume he and Levy owned. She wasn't surprised that he remembered their bet despite how drunk they both were.

The ass wasn't the least bit embarrassed when he showed up at her café earlier that morning with the costume of his choice on the hangar; the clear, plastic, dry-cleaning bag only made her flushed face drop in mortification.

She was sorely tempted to Lucy Kick him where the sun doesn't shine, but she couldn't– at least, not under the watchful eyes of her customers. She'll get him back though, no doubt. She's going to win the Halloween challenge this year, she's going to make him dress up as a kiwi, she's going to cackle evilly when his giant black-cat, Pantherlily, tires to bite and scratch him, and she's not going to care when Levy sends her a disapproving look.

Lucy is still going to hope Lily aims for the face.

The golden-haired woman was still snickering to herself as she left her café and firmly locked the doors. She rounded the corner, swinging her keys around her finger as she made her way to Levy and Gajeel's apartment complex, which was conveniently three blocks from the main street her café was settled on. The cursed costume hung limply of of her arm but even that wouldn't dim the happiness she found in her small plan.

It was roughly around six-fifty when she arrived at her best friend's doorstep and Levy immediately pulled her into the apartment with an eager grin. Lucy smiled back and sheepishly held up the costume, silently asking for a moment to change. The tiny blue-haired woman rolled her eyes and led the blonde to the room they used to use whenever they had a girls' sleep-over before Gajeel moved in.

After a brief, paranoid scan around the room, she came to the conclusion that it hadn't been used recently and nodded her thanks to Levy. The bluenette rolled her eyes again before sternly telling the blonde to change quickly or she was going to send someone after her. Lucy immediately got to changing into her horrid costume once the door shut behind her because Levy was serious. The tiny woman was honest to a fault and she followed through with every promise. That was probably why Lucy befriended her; promises were sacred and were meant to be honored.

Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

In spite of knowing that knock would've come sooner or later, the golden-haired woman couldn't stop the the loud cry of horror when she lost grip of the stubborn zipper she finally managed to grab after four—long—minutes of uncomfortable twisting. She was right about to curse the seven useless years of gymnastics when the door burst open and she squealed in a mixture of surprise and horror.

In an effort to scramble away, she slipped on the freakin' headband for her costume and promptly face-planted the ground.

Thankfully, the bedroom floor was completely covered by plush carpeting, so she knew her face would be fine. But no amount of cloud-like rugs, however, will save her ego from being bruised. So she just laid there. Unmoving.

The golden-haired woman whimpered softly. Her entire back was exposed thanks to the stupid zipper that refused to cooperate and her entire front was still complaining from the fall. The headband she tripped on somehow managed to cling to the curve of her waist and was currently bruising her stomach with its pointy end. There was no greater embarrassment at the moment. The blonde would even take Gajeel walking into Celestial Fire a with her bunny suit a hundred times over than experience this scene again.

The blonde twist her head slightly to peek up at the person who was the direct cause of her humiliation. She honestly didn't care who burst into the room; all she knew was that she was going to be mortified either way. What was the harm in checking? Nothing could be worse than Gajeel or Gray bursting in to watch her face-plant the ground. The would never let her live it down seeing as she gave them so much grief about their questionable man-hood concerning their girlfriends.

Ah.

Never mind.

She takes that back.

Lucy would rather take the merciless teasing of both Gray and Gajeel than to see the amused smile on the pink-haired stranger's stupidly handsome face any day. She was glad the blood rushing through her ears blocked out the chuckling she knew was coming from him. The golden-haired woman faintly heard him ask if she was alright and she just shook her head, too mortified to speak.

How could she even be slightly okay after that?

For what felt like the hundredth time in the last five minutes, the blonde squeaked but this time it was in the form of a giggle when the fuzzy, bunny-ear headband brushed against her side as it slipped off of her. However, the laugh was short lived and she found herself holding back a small moan when heated hands replaced where the headband once were.

Without warning, her entire world tilted as she felt herself being lifted off the ground almost effortlessly and blinked at the carpet that seemed a lot farther from her face than it was a second ago. Her feet instinctively scrambled to support her own weight when she felt the hands slip to the curve of her waist to keep her steady. One of her arm shot forward to grip the footboard of the bed while the other wrapped around her bust, holding the front of her outfit so nothing would spill out against her will.

An involuntary sigh pushed past her lips when one of the hands reached around and spread itself across her stomach, the other hand slipping down the curve of her back to grasp the metal, bane of her existence.

A little lost to what was happening, she turned her head to look over her shoulder. Her brown-orbs widened as it caught the olive-colored gaze that were already focused intently on hers. Despite the flush spreading carelessly across her cheeks, she rose her blonde eyebrow in a silent inquiry. The pink-haired man just grinned in reply and forced a gasp out of her when he deftly pulled the zipper up. The sudden tightening of the costume took away what little breath she had already and she narrowed her eyes at his playful grin.

She opened her mouth to tell him off, but he quickly pulled her against him and shoved the bunny ears onto her head. Her surprised splutter didn't seem to faze him– if anything, it seemed to make him grin wider. The pink-haired stranger chuckled when she ripped away from him and glared heatedly, reaching up to adjust the headband on her head. His head turned when an angry yell shouted from outside the slightly open door.

He muttered something under his breath before turning to her and flicking one of her bunny ears with a grin, telling her that she only had five minutes left because he still needed to change into his costume then strolled casually towards the door. Lucy opened her mouth to say something but pursed her lips to stop it. She should've probably felt embarrassed after the exchange with a man she had only met twice previously. It surprised her when she didn't feel an ounce of it.

Instead, she felt a little flustered, maybe a little warm from where his hands lingered on her body. But most of all, she felt a little confused and a little awed at own skin for reacting so strongly from a touch dulled by a layer of cloth. A feeling of dread settled heavily on her stomach as the epiphany finally hit her because it was working. What her friends were doing was working. She knew she felt drawn to him, but her naturally stubborn nature kept her from admitting it.

Lucy was attracted to this pink-haired stranger and she didn't even know his name.

Oh for star's sake.