Natsu cringed as Lucy left him. Talk about being a jerk. He lifted his mug up and then decided against it. Alcohol was the last thing he actually needed. Who knows what he would do with that in his system? Lucy was clearly already enough to make him act like an idiot. When he turned around Lucy was already gone. He left the bar and walked towards the door. He was going to have to apologize to Lucy, but how? He started walking faster, following her scent. He followed her quickly, hoping to catch her before she started hating him. He finally caught sight of her, just down the road. He was almost to her side when he caught ear of her voice,
"-need a partner for this job, what do you say?"
That was when he noticed Gray by her side, she was holding out the job request, her face lit with a smile.
No way. No way was he letting this happen. He picked up pace, he was not letting Gray take his place.
"Yea-"Natsu grabbed Lucy's wrist and ripped the paper from Gray's hand. "Natsu! What the heck!?"
"Lucy already has a partner snowflake!"
"Natsu!" Lucy cried, as he pulled her behind him. "Ow! Hey! Slow down!" He did, but didn't release her.
He started walking towards her house, fuming but not quite sure why. Nothing he had been doing lately made much sense. He didn't get why he felt so out of control. Sure, he thought Lucy was great, and beautiful and he liked her… but he didn't get why he was acting so bipolar about it.
"Natsu." He glanced behind to look at Lucy.
"Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I just get grumpy without Happy around." She nodded, as if she understood. He stopped walking and she nearly ran into him in surprise. "When's this job anyways?"
She looked up into his eyes with a shy smile,
"Um…we probably should have left an hour ago." She looked at him apologetically. "We won't be able to wait for Happy, so maybe it's best if I go with someone el-"
"Didn't you hear what I told Gray? I'm your partner Lucy!" She blushed,
"I know that, but Happy is a part of the team too."
"A part that is currently not here. He'll understand."
They looked at each other a moment before either one spoke. Finally Lucy broke the silence,
"All right, let's stop at my house and pick up the supplies we need."
"Sounds Perfect!"
When they got to the street outside her house, Natsu immediately jumped up to the window.
"HEY!" she yelled, "Can't you go through the door just this once?"
Natsu looked down at her from his perch and smirked, "can't you jump just this once?" And with that he left her to climb the stairs as he entered her home.
The first thing he noticed was that his jacket was no longer on the couch. Curious he sniffed around to see if he could find where she had put it. He sniffed his way to her closet where he found it amidst all her clothes. Interesting.
He went over to her bed and sprawled out, relaxing into the cushion while he waited for her to make it up the stairs.