Wow, you guys, really. I go to sleep, wake up and see I have 45 emails – I love all of you~! Thank you to all of those that offered some ideas the one anon who went through all the letters and gave me a word :) we even had a few of the same ideas. So, without further ado, here is chapter 1.

Chapter 1: Plan A – Admirer (Prompt by anon)

When the doorbell at Lucy's apartment rang for the six time in the past three days, she peeked the door open with a suspicious hum. Her eyes immediately went to her feet and found, yet again, another gift. They had been appearing for three days randomly, no return address or even a name, just a cliché "From your secret admirer" card.

She had at first thought it was just some sort of prank from the Guild, but when they just kept coming and actually had some … really nice and sweet things in them, she instantly diminished that thought.

Opening the door wide enough for her to slip her head through, she quickly surveyed the hallways in hope of catching the culprit, only to find it as deserted as it usually was—her being one of the only residents in the apartment complex. She grabbed the thickly wrapped basket by its handle and hefted it into her apartment, shutting the door with her foot before waddling over to her kitchen table and setting the gift on top.

So, what was it this time?

She searched for the ending of the large piece of plastic that was wrapped around the basket, but came up empty after several minutes of searching. With an annoyed huff, she brought out her cancer key, considering calling him to slice it up for her, but thought otherwise. Why waste energy when she can just use the key itself.

She apologized mentally to Cancer for using his key in such a way—making a reminder to go and buy a new pair of scissors after Gajeel had eaten them when Levy had last visited—and stabbed the pointed tool into the plastic, yanking down. A fairly large slit was made in the layers and layers of plastic, enough that she was sure she could manage the rest on her own. After shining the key on her shirt, she tucked it back onto the key ring and back into its pouch.

Though it definitely had some resistance, she still managed to yank the rest of it off and toss it into the garbage bin next to her fridge. Yep, this was definitely done by a man. Eyeing the plastic bundle in the garbage, she noticed that there were small charred marks around it, just like the previous presents.

Her first thought, naturally, when she saw the burn marks, that it was Natsu who was sending her these things. But she, yet again, dismissed the idea. First off, Natsu knew how to control his power better than to let a few little burst of flames out. And if it was because he was getting frustrated with the wrapping, he would have just 'Fire iron fist'ed the thing until the only thing that remained was the metal hinges that kept the basket stitched together on its sides. Not to mention it had some really girly things in it, stuff that only a true romantic would know a girl would like.

The basket held items similar to her previous presents—chocolates, bath salts, roses, one small bottle of expensive perfume, a new novel, a fresh feather pen, and of course the small little slip of paper that she knew she'd find stuffed between the stems of the bouquet. With a sigh, she grabbed the paper between two fingers and tugged it from between the white rose and the red rose, pulling it up to her nose. And, just as she thought, the card smelt like cinnamon and chocolate, exactly like the other cards. While at first, she had been relatively flattered, she was now getting … bored with the gifts. She already had more flowers than she knew what to do with, the chocolate that had been piling up in her fridge would only had more weight to her—which she wasn't in the mood to hear Happy comment about—the perfume was nice, but the portion was just so small and the fragrance wasn't really all that strong nor sweet smelling. But the bath salts, the novel and the pen were appreciated … then again, the novel wasn't really that interesting looking, it looked plain and dull—especially when she skimmed through the first couple pages. She preferred fiction or something she could gain useful knowledge from, this was just a book on wood repair and construction ….

Yep, definitely a man.

With another sigh, she emptied the basket—putting the presents in their respective places around the apartment, and dropped the basket beside her fridge. She'd reuse it later on when she goes grocery shopping. It was big enough that Wendy could probably roll up and lay down in it, and maybe even Carla and Happy would manage to squeeze in there with her. It's better than using those horrible plastic bags the store insisted were eco friendly—but Lucy knew high quality anything when she saw it, and those plastic bags were fresh from the pollution inducing factories they were made from.

She returned to her desk, twiddling her brand new pen around her fingers in thought before setting it inside the ink bottle and closing her notebook.

She was really curious who it was that kept sending her the gifts—only so she could turn them down face to face and tell them that she wasn't really interested. She considered asking Natsu to sniff the gifts and help her track down the admirer, but decided against it. Those gifts were all overwhelmingly doused in perfumes, strong enough that you couldn't smell anything but the perfume. Even the roses that came with everything didn't have their natural scent anymore.

Sure, Natsu might be able to pick up on the smell of the admirer, but if anything, he'd first notice the lingering smell of the chocolates and demand to know where she was hiding them. Her love life was the farthest thing from his mind … actually, just love in general. She was seriously becoming concerned if Natsu knew any kind of love other than that of Nakama-ship.

And for some reason, that set a really heavy rock in her stomach.

She couldn't really explain what it was, but ever since they returned from the games, she hasn't had an interest in … any male. She barely shares them a glance, unless out of curiosity for their magic or back story. And she couldn't explain why. Ever since they returned to Magnolia, she had been confronted with date offers on more than one occasion, yet she always turns them down with an apologetic smile and an offer of being friends.

She couldn't explain it … she just wasn't interested in any of the guys that approached her, even if they seemed like they were her type.

Unless, you know, you count whenever Natsu suddenly appears out of nowhere and her heart picks up to a dangerous rate.

"Yo Lucy!"

Like right now.

Lucy jumped in surprise, knowing that if she had been sitting she would have fallen off of her chair. She spun around to face her window where her pink haired partner was entering, her heart still pounding at an alarming speed thanks to his surprise exclamation … and because he was walking towards her with his usually zipped up jacket currently unzipped. There was one thing that Lucy couldn't deny, that Natsu's body was impressive. She actually sort of missed his little vest he used to wear, allowing her to view his washboard abs at all times, but now he wore that once sleeved jacket that—despite not as revealing—still looked incredible on him.

"Natsu! What did I tell you about sneaking up on me?!" She scolded, slapping halfheartedly at his—toned, muscular, tanned and ohmygawdineedtostopthinkingaboutthis—chest.

"You didn't show up at the Guild, everyone's been wondering where you were." He said with a shrug before leaning forward with an accusing stare, invading her personal face space. "I thought you said that you'd come before noon."

"I lost track of time, and who are you to talk about being late? You've never been on time when we set a time for a mission." She said sternly, forgetting about her need for personal space and pressing closer until their noses almost touched. That is, until Natsu's nose started flaring and he reeled back with a look of disgust on his face.

"What's that smell?! Did a shelf of that smelly bottle water stuff fall on you or somethin'?" he asked, pinching his nose between his fingers while eying her with concern.

"No, no, nothing like that. I just got a present in the mail and it was a little … strongly scented, that's all. It must have rubbed off on me while I was carrying it in." she said, trying to not look offended by his comment.

"Did they dump a shelf of that smelly bottle water stuff on it?" he asked with a scrunched up face.

"Natsu, it's called perfume, and it's made to smell good. And … actually, they might have." She said, with a thoughtful furrow of her brow.

"Whatever, I told everyone I'd come and get you. Let's go." He said, walking over to her and grabbing her wrist to drag her out the window.

"Natsu! Stop! J-just use the door! I can't survive a drop like that, you dumbass!"

^V^V^V^V^V^

"He drags me over here only to ditch me the moment we step inside to go and fight. Geez, that idiot." Lucy mumbled to herself, leaning against the counter and tossing a piece of chocolate into her mouth. She had manage to stall Natsu's plan of dragging her out of the window by saying that she had some chocolate she wanted to grab—which she did—and then bolted for the door before he could get his hands on her again.

"Hello, Lucy!" Mira said cheerfully, coming to join the blonde on her end of the bar. "Why the long face?"

"Oh, it's nothing. It's just that Natsu dragged me out of my house to come here only to abandon me the moment we get here." She mumbled again, turning her head to look at the brawling men in the middle of the room. She missed the glint that had shined through Mira's eye when she noticed the case of chocolate sitting beside the girl's arm.

"Ohhh, where'd you get this brand of chocolate? I didn't think that they sold this kind anywhere near Magnolia." Mira asked with feigned excitement, picking up the box to examine it.

"I didn't buy it, they've just been showing up at my apartment for the past couple days."

"Wrong address maybe?"

"… maybe, but I've been getting them, along with a ton of other presents from 'My secret admirer'." She stated, using air quotes and an eye roll to emphasize her thoughts on how ridiculous it was.

"Oh, how to romantic! Do you have any idea who it might be?" Mira asked, leaning against the counter and leaning towards the girl. Lucy thought nothing of Mira's behavior, knowing that the woman absolutely loved this kind of topic.

"Nah, not really. At first I thought maybe it was a prank from the Guild or something, but there were actually some really nice things in there that most of the guy members wouldn't even know were used for." Lucy said with disinterest, but a small blush coated across her cheeks as she remembered who her next assumption had been, pondering over whether she should tell Mira or not. "Then … I thought maybe Natsu, cause there were burn marks on all of them." Lucy summed up, noticing the sparkle in Mira's eyes gleam brighter than any of the stars she had seen. "But, it couldn't be him. First, he knows to control his powers better, and second, if he didn't even know what perfume was called, I don't think he'd know that it's a gift to give to a girl." Lucy giggled.

"Well, you never know, Natsu could have asked for advice. You know everyone thinks that you two would be the perfect couple." The barmaid said with a smile, cupping the side of her mouth with her hand as if to make sure that no one else could hear her. Lucy's blush intensified, but the information wasn't a shocker. She knows that everyone teases her about their accidental moments—reminding her that she still had to get back at Happy for spilling to Cana about her little nudity incident when the dragons were attacking. "I'm sure that'd anyone here would be more than happy to give him a little help."

"But what about the burn marks? It's like I said, Natsu has better control over his powers than to let them out of control like that." Lucy reasoned, not at all persuaded in Mira's apparent determination to convince it was Natsu.

"Maybe he did it on purpose, like to give you a hint that it's him or something. Has he been acting any different around you lately?" Mira asked, hiding the slight desperation that had started to lift in her voice. She knew she shouldn't have set her hopes to high, considering it was just plan A.

Lucy thought it over, considering it deeply. She liked the idea, thinking it was kind of cute, but again, it was a little detail, something that Natsu wouldn't have thought of. He was either go big or not at all. The fact that he floated a tree down a river just for her to see was proof enough that he didn't really understand the meaning 'subtle'. But then again, maybe Mira had a point. The others in the Guild could have been giving him ideas and advice on it. But if they wanted the two of them together so badly, wouldn't they just say for him to run up and kiss her or something?

Of course the idea made her blush even deeper, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"It's a possibility, Mira, but I'm not really convinced. The last time you tried to convince me Natsu had feelings for me, I made myself out be a giant idiot!" Lucy scolded, trying to duck her face to hide her blush but still hold eye contact with the woman.

"But that was when you guy were still just getting to know each other! Now you are so much closer!"

"Just drop it Mira, please? I'm not really in the mood to discuss this right now. Besides, I just want to find who is really behind it—which is not Natsu—and turn them down. I'm not looking for a relationship right now."

Mira released a dejected sigh, mentally checking off Plan A with a big fat X. The point in this plan was to get the idea that Natsu held feelings for her into her head, but that obviously had failed. Mira almost regretted hinting at the idea of it prier months—er, years because of Tenrou—before the list had began.

Well … maybe there was one more thing they could do.

…

"Natsu!" Happy's voice rang through their house. They had decided to return back to their house for the day, seeing as Lucy had been in an irritable mood and had shoved her dresser up against the window so they wouldn't be able to get in. Of course, they could have easily just pushed it over, but Natsu didn't want to risk the thing falling on top of the girl if she was standing nearby at the time. Besides, they needed to get more food money.

"What's up little buddy?" he asked, popping out from the bathroom to see that the cat was waddling back and forth with a large basket in his arms—throwing his balance severely off. "What ya got there?" he asked, walking over and grabbing the basket so the Exceed could drop to the ground in exhaustion.

"I don't know, I just found it outside our door." Happy lied easily, still trying to catch his breath. Mira owed him for this—with a big juicy fish.

"I smell food." Natsu said with hungry eyes as he looked at the basket, easily ripping the plastic layer off of it and smiling at the large pile of meats and a pack of matches that sat inside.

"Natsu, there's a card." The cat said without even needing to look at the basket.

"Hmm?" he hummed curiously, before searching the basket for said card. When he found it taped to the back of the matches, he brought it closer to his face to read the tiny print. "From your secret admirer— Lucy."

.

.

.

"So, Lucy secretly admires me, huh? Not really a shock, but if she wanted to keep it a secret, she shouldn't have put it on the card." He said with a nonchalant expression. "Thanks anyway, Lucy!" he called into the air, digging into the mini chicken in the center.

Happy smacked his palm into his forehead with a sigh.

And that's the end of this one! I had fun with it but it was a little difficult to write for. But I think it turned out how I wanted it to! Now, onto plan B!