Natsu sighed as he put his head down on the table. The guild felt strangely empty without Lucy and Happy around. He kept his head down as Gray walked up and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Oi, whatcha up to?"

"Nothing much.." Gray scoffed.

"You seriously need to stop moping around. They've only been gone for two days. Who knows how long they'll take? You need to get over them. Let's go on a job. I'm gonna go find Erza and Wendy." Natsu sighed as he tilted his head up a bit, so that his chin was resting on his forearms. It was true that Natsu couldn't afford to just sit at the guild until they got back. Lucy had warned them beforehand that she had no idea how long it would take to get back from the Celestial Spirit World, and Happy's trip could take a while as well.

Natsu needed to sustain himself with jobs until then. He knew he should be going out, but, without Lucy and Happy, going on jobs suddenly seemed so much less appealing. The guild just seemed more boring without them. His reason for missing Happy was obvious, them being partners for so long. When it came to Lucy, however, Natsu couldn't quite explain. The blonde had only been with them for about a month, but she got along with the team so easily. Even without her magic, it was as if she was meant to be with them. Whether they were on jobs or not, Lucy was always fun to have around.

He sighed again and closed his eyes, remembering a specific mission that the team had gone on. It was last week, and they were all going to a wizard's ball to protect a specific ring from a thief. The count wanted to use the ring to get a suitable husband for his daughter, but the thief ended up marrying the girl. A strangely happy ending, but what stood out the most about the job for Natsu was how Lucy and Erza got overly excited about going to a ball. Lucy even made Natsu learn a dance in preparation.

"What!? You want us to learn how to dance?" Lucy nodded enthusiastically as she led Natsu outside the guild.

"Come on, Natsu. You have to know how to dance, or you'll stick out like a sore thumb! Come on, it's not that hard." She took his hands, and began to lead them in a simple dance. He stepped on her foot a couple times, but other than that, he picked the dance up pretty quickly. Erza gave Gray a dance lesson of her own, and Wendy almost wanted to cast Troia on the poor man. Erza was a commanding demon when it came to dance, and she had a knack for making her dance partners pass out from her crazy spins.

At the actual ball, after the whole mess with the thief was sorted out, Natsu walked over to the refreshments table to stuff himself with food. Within a few minutes, however, Lucy came up and grabbed his arm.

"You can't possibly expect to just eat all night. Let's dance!" Before he could object, she was already dragging him towards a floating platform. They got on, and she led him in the very dance she taught him earlier. They remained silent as they followed the music. Natsu, while awkwardly trying to keep balance, noticed that Lucy had closed her eyes and was taken away with the dance. She smiled as she gently moved back and forth with him, not a care in the world.

"Uh, Lucy?" Lucy opened her eyes in a questioning look.

"Yeah?"

"T-Troia wore off.." She noticed that the dragon slayer was turning green with motion sickness.

"What!? How do you get down from here!? Help!" After a few minutes of panic, Lucy and Natsu were finally lowered from the platform. She led him outside, to the balcony of the mansion, to get some fresh air. He leaned over the railing, heaving for a little while, while she sympathetically rubbed circles on his back. When he managed to recover a bit, they stayed outside, taking in the fresh air and the night sky. Lucy particularly enjoyed looking at the stars. Natsu spoke up while she was counting the constellations.

"You really like stargazing, don'tcha?" She nodded.

"One of the few things I remember is how to identify most of the constellations. Look." She pointed up at a few bunches of stars. "There's Leo, the Lion. There's the goat, Capricorn. Scorpio's over there." Natsu struggled to make the shapes out, but he failed.

"There are way too many stars to make anything out!" Lucy giggled.

"I guess they can be a bit hard to spot." She leaned forward against the balcony's railing.

"For some reason, I feel safe when I see the stars. I guess it's because they're the one thing I seem to remember so well." Natsu silently nodded. It really must have sucked to not remember anything. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to forget all of his friends at Fairy Tail; they were just too precious.

Lucy took another deep breath and looked up, a serene smile on her face. "Aren't they just beautiful?" Her hair and dress swayed in the breeze. Natsu really wasn't as crazy about the stars as she was, but he couldn't ruin the mood.

"Yep, beautiful for sure."

Natsu stretched and got up from the table he was sitting at. He'd accidentally fallen asleep while thinking about that night at the ball. Meh, guess I'd better do some jobs. He called out for Erza, Wendy, and Gray as he ran towards the request board.

Lucy sighed as she fell back towards the ground. She was exhausted from a day's worth of traveling. During her conversation with the Celestial Spirit King, they decided that she should track the magic levels of the Celestial Spirit World for a while, and try to locate the worst areas of decline. She spent her first day resting and catching up with her spirit friends, and the second day had been all travel. She was alone on this trip, and she couldn't summon anyone. Her powers weren't quite designed to summon spirits in the same dimension.

She shuddered a bit when a chill wind blew by. She forgot to prepare enough appropriate travel clothing, and regretted it. It occurred to her that she never really had to worry about being cold while in Earthland. It was because she had a certain fire dragon slayer handy to provide all the heat she needed. He was always more than happy to warm the air up a bit, like that time a couple weeks ago when the team was lost and separated in the woods.

They went on a job to find a patch of rare herbs. They split up to make things easier, but a sudden storm brewed up, and everyone got lost. A simple enough job turned into a big disaster. Happy and Carla were unable to fly in the storm, and decided to stay with Wendy, Gray, and Erza. Natsu and Lucy were on their own, so they ran for shelter. Luckily, they were close to a cliff formation, and found a small cave to wait in. They sat, soaked, not saying much. Lucy shuddered a bit.

"It's so cold.."

"Is it? Here." Lucy yelped when she was suddenly pulled in front of him. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, and he pulled her in so that she was leaning against his chest.

"N-Natsu! What are you doing!?"

"What? It's warmer this way, isn't it? There isn't anything to start a fire with, so this is the easiest way to warm you up." Lucy's cheeks flushed at the position they were in, and she was really glad Natsu couldn't see her face from behind. Still, she had to admit that his body was really warm.

"I-I guess. Thanks.." Natsu only gave a toothy grin before looking towards the cave's opening.

"It's really coming down hard out there. We might have to spend the night here."

"Yeah.."

"I'm sure everyone's fine. They probably found shelter too. We can find them when the storm stops." Lucy nodded while holding back a yawn. The warmth was getting her a bit drowsy.

"Say, Natsu. How'd you find Fairy Tail?"

"Gramps found me. I was traveling alone ever since my dad left me."

"Your dad left you?"

"Pretty much. He just.. disappeared one day, without a trace."

"That sounds awful!"

"He probably had a good reason for it. Whatever it was, I still think Igneel was the best. Definitely the nicest, smartest, and strongest dragon out there!"

"A dragon!?" Natsu laughed.

"Yeah, he was a fire dragon. I guess I never mentioned it to you. Wendy and Gajeel had dragons for foster parents too. As for our real parents, I don't think any of us remember them. The dragons were all we had." Lucy stayed silent for a bit.

"Natsu," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Could you... tell me more? About your past? I'm a bit curious." He smiled and obliged. He told her about what he did while he was with Igneel. He told her stories of his childhood with his friends at Fairy Tail. Lucy contentedly listened and giggled every now and then when he talked about beating some rival (mostly Gray).

He soon noticed that Lucy had stopped responding, and was steadily breathing. She had fallen asleep at some point, unable to fight against the comfort provided by the dragon slayer. He gently smiled before shifting ever so slightly to get himself more comfortable. He leaned back, and soon followed Lucy to the realm of sleep.

Another cold breeze blew by, and Lucy curled up into a ball. She really missed Natsu's natural heat at that moment. She shook her head, however, concluding that it was too weird to want another person's warmth like that. She sighed, and settled against a small formation to get some sleep. I really miss everyone at the guild... And I really miss him. It's been a while since I've seen him.. I wonder what he's up to? Before Lucy could speculate, however, she had drifted off and away from consciousness.

A/N: Hi! This chapter's a bit awkwardly formatted, so I'll summarize it quickly to make sure everything's clear. Natsu and Lucy are in Earthland and the CSW, respectively. They just have flashbacks to a couple missions they had in the past. I know this chapter's a bit dull, with pretty much zero plot progression, but I kind of needed a fluffy filler to show their beautifully blossoming... friendship. (I won't say much more xD) Do you guys like stuff like this? Should I have more fluff in the future? Or do you want less? Please let me know! If you like fluffy things, I promise to put more effort into writing them in the future! (This was honestly a bit rushed :3) And I'm happy to take any other commentary you might have!

And since this chapter was a bit slow, I'll add in a fun little anecdote. When I was planning out Lucy's past, I considered making her the Celestial Spirit Slayer because of how similar her past was to the dragon slayers. But, after some more thought, I decided to make things turn out this way. The reason isn't clear yet, but it should be revealed in the next few chapters. It just works more in my head to make her a more original entity. Hope you like that!

Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope you look forward to next week's chapter!