A/N: Oh man, being revolutionary, putting the authors notes before the post! Snap!

You know, maybe I should just quit college and write fan fiction fluff. I seem to be pouring my daily points into it anyway.

Once again, just a single review, (not gonna name names) prompted me to think about adding some more to this now not-one/two-shot. Thanks to that one reviewer! If you like what you read here, post a review like that one person did! Otherwise, hurl your keyboard at the nearest wall (don't worry, I'm sure it's plenty durable) until you've hit enough random keys doing so to constitute a review to post!

For reals, to those who reviewed- check the bottom. Otherwise this A/N will bother me and maybe readers.

Disclaimer: Nope. Still nobody named Shadic on Fairy Tail volume covers.

Scales

Natsu needed to get out of bed. Fairy Tail couldn't stay disbanded, and he knew they could be brought back together. The problem he had was that he didn't want to move. He came up with an easy fifty reasons why.

And they all started with Lucy.

She looked quite content with her legs locked around his and her arms about his torso. Natsu had discovered through the last few minutes that the celestial spirit mage had a more powerful grip than she let on when she wanted. The dragon slayer knew in the back of his mind that she'd be happier once she found out about his plans. Weighing that one thought against the numerous others that tempted him to stay put, he used his secret technique of swift movement, bed sheets and quick reflexes- the rest he would never tell- to escape.

Natsu tiptoed to Lucy's bedroom door, slipping out into the rest of her apartment. He picked up his scarf from the back of the couch and slung it around his neck. His sharp ears caught the sound of snickering above his head, and he looked up to find Happy with a paw over his mouth. Natsu smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"What're you giggling at," he asked, even as his smirk grew into a grin while he thought about his plan.

"You came from Lucy's room without a shirt," Happy said, hovering in circles about Natsu's head. The fire mage furrowed his eyebrows.

"I went in without a shirt."

"You were in there for a long time, too."

"There a point to this, Happy?"

"You liiiiiike her!" The little Exceed trilled. Natsu put a finger to his lips, signaling him to turn down the volume. The dragon slayer scratched his jaw, thinking for only a moment about what Happy said.

"Yeah," he said, uncertain why it always seemed to bug Lucy so much. "I guess I do."

Before Happy could crash to the floor in sheer dumbfounded shock, Natsu caught him and whispered in his ear. Soon both of them wore the same knowing smirk.

Lucy huffed. Her dragon was a master of leaving her bed without rousing her. For the second time, she found herself cuddling her bed sheets instead of her favorite dragon slayer. Nonetheless, she gave a contented sigh, rolled out of bed, and stretched.

She caught something different about her map when she opened her eyes. She walked up to the wall to inspect things. She didn't get too far before familiar heat and large hands caught her about the waist from behind in a hug.

"Mornin' Luce."

She squeaked at the contact, her face boiling with a sudden flush.

"G-good morning."

Wait, why did she feel so flustered from proximity to Natsu? She'd been content with touching last night. Pleased, even. Lucy bit her lip, her brain struggling to work while she could almost feel it melting. Was it because they had agreed to share and be more than job partners? Natsu did say he would want more hugs and physical contact. Was she not okay with that for some reason? Did she want to be okay with that?

If Natsu took notice of Lucy's internal rambling, he didn't show it. The fire mage spun his partner around and greeted her with the toothy grin that lit up any part of her day.

"Get dressed quick, princess," he said, snatching a fast peck on her cheek before he released her. "And pack anything important- we're going on an adventure!"

His hand gone from her waist, Lucy felt some of the blood ebb from her face, and her brain began to work again. She smirked and raised an eyebrow, pointing a finger at Natsu.

"That's Princess Luce to you!"

Natsu chuckled. Lucy smiled. She really did prefer his old nickname for her to anything else.

"Okay, weirdo!"

Lucy ground her teeth while Natsu ran out of her bedroom laughing.

"Natsu!"

She shook her head, still smiling despite the tone of her voice. She gathered a set of clothes and walked to her bathroom to change.

Only a few minutes later she was shouting at him again.

"What did you do to bring the King's army to my apartment," she asked, unbelieving that a platoon of soldiers stood outside her building so early in the morning. Natsu exchanged a look with Happy.

"Told ya we were goin' on a new adventure," he said. That was all the explanation he gave before he hoisted her into his arms bridal style and leapt out- backwards- through her window to the street below. "Now for our daring escape!"

The dragon slayer hit the ground running. They left the King's army bewildered for a few moments before they gave chase. Happy flew to keep pace with Natsu, his grin matching his foster father's. Lucy hadn't even eaten breakfast yet and she felt flustered for the second time that day.

"Natsu," she said, after insisting that he let her run on her own, despite and in part because she couldn't focus as well with his natural body heat surrounding her. "Where are we going?"

Natsu gave her another great grin over his shoulder.

"You wanna get the guild back together, right?"

Lucy's mouth hung open, and it felt like time stopped. Natsu grinned even wider.

"Let's get started!"

The celestial spirit mage felt a smile to match her partner's bloom on her face. Happy tears gathered in her eyes.

"Okay!"

"I can't believe this!" Natsu shouted. Lucy treaded slow steps in front of him, trying to keep him from disrupting the parade in Margaret Town. The blond mage guided him down any street that looked secluded to avoid the main attractions. Her faith in her partner's ability to control his magic during a tantrum was fair at the best of times.

"Calm down," Lucy said, taking his hand in hers. For the umpteenth time that day, she felt a response to the unusual warmth Natsu's body exuded. She managed to keep herself collected, though, maybe because they weren't drawing attention from anyone. Not even a certain magical blue cat, who'd stayed at Lamia Scale to no doubt beg Charla to change Wendy's mind. "The decision had to be hard for her. We did drop it on her kind of suddenly."

Lucy felt a bit of the ache that had lived in her chest the year following Fairy Tail's disbandment sting anew. Natsu's letters did wonders to assuage that pain, but it nonetheless persisted. Lucy hadn't been quite as optimistic or certain as the fire mage about bringing everyone back together. Natsu huffed and took to stomping his feet next to her.

"She oughta be overjoyed that we came to find her," he said, throwing his arm in the air. "There's no good reason that she'd turn down the chance to come back! I refuse to accept this."

Natsu made a one-eighty, and Lucy found herself being dragged back the way they had come.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm gonna take Wendy back with us!"

"No," Lucy said, planting her foot in the cobblestone walkway to halt Natsu's momentum. "You're really not doing that."

Natsu whirled around and brought his face in until their noses were inches apart. The fire mage had that determined glare in his eye. Lucy straightened to her full height and matched his expression.

"She's gonna be upset if she doesn't come with us! There's no way she's as happy here as she would be with Fairy Tail again!"

Lucy poked a finger into his chest.

"You can't know that. And what about her Lamia Scale mark? You can't just erase it without her permission. That's not even mentioning how the rest of Lamia Scale will feel about taking her away by force!"

Natsu looked away from her. He grumbled.

"She can get rid of the mark later," he said, his hand tightening into a fist. "And I can take on anyone who tries to stop me."

Lucy rolled her eyes and pinched his forearm.

"You can't force a girl to do something she doesn't want to, Natsu!"

Lucy glared at her favorite, if stubborn, fire mage from under her bangs. She seethed while he dropped his scowl and his ears perked.

"You can't?"

"No!" She shouted, indignant. She wasn't sure why Natsu seemed occupied, but she was determined not to let him distract her. Nonetheless, her glare fell at the feeling of a rough thumb on her hand and the grin on Natsu's face. She'd forgotten they were still holding hands during the heated exchange.

"So that means," Natsu said, pulling his hand from hers and locking it with his other behind his head. "Nothing you've done with me was because I made you do it, huh?"

A thousand possibilities of what the dragon slayer meant ran through Lucy's mind before she felt her face warming. She glanced down, finding it hard to keep eye contact with him. She figured he was referring to the few intimate moments they had shared. She stammered, frustrated that Natsu managed to rustle her feathers again.

She lost all hesitation when she found the courage to look back up at him, though. His trademark grin shrank from smile to blank expression in less than half an instant, his horror betrayed only by the glimmer of shame in his eyes. Lucy closed the distance between them faster than he could blink.

"No, Natsu, no," she said, hugging him tight. "Never."

Lucy felt his chest expand and shudder with a shaky sigh before he wrapped his arms around her.

"Shit, Luce," he said, nuzzling his nose in her hair. "Don't scare me like that."

Lucy felt regret fester in her gut for whatever amount of time she had taken to answer. Her dragon kept surprising her with new aspects of himself just when she thought she had him pegged. When would she ever have guessed he hid these kinds of insecurities beneath his tough scales?

She caught the sound of footsteps and hushed murmuring passing by them, and she yanked herself back. Even if there weren't a lot of people, they were in too public a space for this conversation. Lucy was almost certain Natsu could care less, but she still didn't know if or how much she cared. She took back his hand and laced their fingers together- she knew that much sat fine with her.

"We'll wait around long enough to hear out Wendy's reasons," she said. "But if she stands by her choice after that, we respect it. Okay?"

Lucy watched Natsu's eyes follow her and trail down to their hands. He blinked a few times. He had pulled his typical grin back up by the time he met her gaze with his.

"All right, Lucy."

Lucy watched Wendy tend to Juvia's fever. The celestial spirit mage had a special regard for the former Elemental despite her tendency to imagine her as a Love Rival. Juvia was a dear friend. Lucy couldn't help but think Gray had to be at least somewhat callous to leave her the way he did.

She turned from Wendy's nursing to the window, where Natsu stood glaring out at the perpetual rain. Beyond promising Juvia that he'd bring Gray back, the pink-haired dragon slayer hadn't said a word to anyone. Happy was perched on top of his head, waving a paw in front of Natsu's face. Lucy stifled a giggle, seeing Happy's tail hanging from the back of Natsu's head.

Somehow, that sound broke the fire mage from his trance. He whipped his head around, startling Happy and sending the blue Exceed tumbling down his shoulder.

"Ow~" Happy moaned, rubbing at his forehead where he'd landed. He pouted at Natsu with watery eyes. "Natsu, what was that for?"

The dragon slayer still didn't say a word. Lucy noticed his hard expression soften, and he knelt down to scoop the little cat into his arms. He placed a palm pulsing with fire magic to Happy's forehead. The Exceed's whimpers petered out, and, with his fur now dry due to Natsu's heat, he sighed. Natsu rubbed a thumb against the back of Happy's ear. Happy rewarded him with a contented purr.

"Sorry, little buddy."

Lucy watched all this from the other side of the cabin Juvia and Gray had shared. Natsu's eyes flickered up to see her, and she blushed. Whether from his look or embarrassment over being caught looking herself, she couldn't tell. Natsu whispered something to Happy and the cat jumped to the ground, landing on his feet this time. The fire mage paced over to her, his face still serious. She couldn't think of anything to say, so when he reached for her hand, she gave it to him.

"Wendy," Natsu said, placing his other hand on the younger dragon slayer's head. "We're going to visit Sabertooth. Take care of her, okay?"

Wendy didn't question Natsu's sudden decision, rather nodded and assured him she'd break Juvia's fever. Lucy found herself raiding one of the town's stables for a horse with Natsu little more than a minute after. The dragon slayer pulled her up behind him the second he found one and they galloped off. Happy trailed not far behind them in the air.

"Natsu," Lucy said, finally finding her voice. "What are you thinking?"

The celestial spirit mage didn't get an immediate response. The first time she did, she lost his answer under hooves beating the ground.

"What?"

"I said," Natsu reiterated, raising his voice. "I don't ever wanna find out that you forgot to take care of yourself just 'cause I wasn't around."

Lucy had half a dozen replies on the tip of her tongue vying for preference. Natsu hadn't told her much of anything about his plan to find Gray, which was what she'd been asking after. Even though her first instinct was to defend Juvia, Lucy pushed her initial curiosity.

"What does Sabertooth have to do with finding Gray?"

To her surprise, and subsequent arm-flailing terror, Natsu swiveled on the horse so he was riding backwards. The fire mage ignored her pleas for him to watch where they were going.

"Luce," he said. "Do you trust me?"

Lucy paused in her panic attack to regard him. Did she trust Natsu? Natsu? She couldn't think of anyone she shared so much of herself with except her own mother. The man saved her life, protected, encouraged and assured her like he'd signed some sort of contract in blood.

"If you do," Natsu said. "Believe me when I say I gotta good reason for not telling you."

Lucy glanced away from Natsu's sincere eyes before she shrieked at him again to watch where they were going.

Lucy groaned and wrestled against her restraints. How long had it been since she and Natsu had found Gray? Hours somehow turned into both days and minutes when she was with the pink-haired fire mage. She was too upset to linger on the sentiment, however.

"I can't believe him!" She shouted, grinding her teeth while she struggled. Happy whined in agreement. Gray betrayed them! Lucy couldn't justify it even if she wanted to; the ice wizard had abandoned his family.

"Lucy," Natsu said. The fire mage, perhaps a bit out of character, hadn't made nearly as much noise or fuss over being locked up. His eyes held the same determination they ever did, but Lucy couldn't fathom why he wasn't up in arms and barking out threats like he had many other times. "Relax. You might hurt yourself."

The celestial spirit mage whipped her head toward Natsu and all but spit at him.

"How can you sit there and tell me to relax," she asked, appalled. "Gray put us here and basically sentenced us to die!"

Natsu looked back at her in silence for a moment before he answered.

"Oh yeah," he said, chuckling a little. "I'm definitely gonna kick Ice Cube's ass for bein' a prick after this. But let's give 'im the benefit of the doubt. I mean, his so-called friends hurt ya, yeah, but he didn't, right?"

Lucy took a moment to look at Natsu before she responded. The dragon slayer apparently interpreted that brief instant as confirmation. Just seeing the way he snarled reminded the celestial spirit mage all over again why dark guilds feared the name Salamander.

"I'll tear that fucker to pieces," Natsu said, muscles tensing inside his restraints. "I'll rip out these Avatar bastards' guts and feed them to 'im with a"

"No!" Lucy said, shuddering to think how her dragon might have gone on about carnage wreaked. "No, Gray didn't hurt me."

The inferno in Natsu's onyx eyes flared once before dying down.

"Oh."

Lucy swallowed, shaking off the various physical reactions she'd had to Natsu's display.

"That aside," she said, frustration laced in her tone. "Why are you even defending him?"

"Because I hope I'm wrong."

"About what? Whatever you still won't explain to me?"

Natsu flinched and broke eye contact with her.

"I told you I had a good reason."

"Good enough to justify being thrown in a dungeon?" Lucy asked, adding a bite to the last word. Natsu made an aggravated humming noise, and glanced back at her.

"I don't want your opinion of him to change," he said, shifting his feet against the chains attached to the wall. Lucy wondered where Natsu had kept this side of himself hidden, but couldn't prevent the sarcastic laugh she answered with.

"Kind of late for that, isn't it?"

"Well."

Lucy froze, turning toward the stairs leading down to the dungeon. She schooled her expression into a spiteful scowl at the familiar figure that appeared. Gray's face remained blank as he strode up to the cell and opened the door. The ice mage stepped inside, regarding Lucy and her companions. His eyes softened and he made an apologetic smile.

"I really hope not," he said.

Natsu watched from a distance while the others cooed and smiled at Gray holding Frosch. The fire wizard felt a smile take root on his face and he scratched the back of his head.

"Something the matter?"

Natsu shook his head without even turning to see the source of the voice like music to his sensitive ears. He reached for Lucy's hand, still reveling in how much easier he could breathe because of what he saw.

"No," he said, finding the hand he'd been groping for. He gave it a light squeeze. "Everything's all right now."

Natsu could have complained about a lot of things, but he didn't have the nerve. After he heard Juvia talk about Gray's disappearance, the dragon slayer had been apprehensive and worried that something terrible would happen. He still remembered the warning Rogue's future self had given him before disappearing. That memory came packaged with a reminder that he'd failed to save Lucy's future self. At the moment, though, Natsu felt certain any chance of that darkness visiting his family, his Lucy, was gone.

"Are you going to explain things to me now?"

Natsu felt another small hand take the place of the first. Lucy's right hand hooked on his waist. The fire mage looked down and just smiled at the curious chocolate eyes he adored. He chuckled to himself at Lucy's flush when he pulled her toward him and pressed their foreheads together.

"It's not important anymore," he said, closing his eyes. He knew there would be other threats to Fairy Tail and to Lucy that would need to be crushed. But he felt more equipped to handle that. Time travel talk tended to confuse him. "We protected our future again. That's all that matters."

Anonymous Guest- (Because I didn't give you true props last time): Thanks for reading! You may flatter me a bit much, but I'm overjoyed that you thought it was so good! I hope the rest I've been adding lives up to expectations!

MarS (I can abbreviate your name, can't I? Sorry if that's rude.) - I'm glad it lives up to it's original name. Thanks for reading and taking the time to review!

Guest87- Aw, c'mon, now you got me all flustered! To say that I can write fan fiction with Mashima's characters being... well, in character, is about the highest compliment there is. I sorta toned down the feels and turned up the... er, realism, I guess, for this one. I hope I still managed to keep Natsu and Lucy's essence pure. Thanks for reading!

Mirai- Haha! If canon went anything like this, what would those of us FT fans have to fluff about? Thank you very much! I'm admittedly an avid reader of fluff, though only recent writer of!

KawaiPanda- Thank you very much for reading and posting! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

SlightlyOff7- Whoa! A computer literate cat! I'm honored that you took the time out of your precious sleeping hours to read and respond to my humble submission to this site! You wouldn't perchance also have wings, would you?