Disclaimer: I do not own fairy tail or any of it's characters.
Natsu was on his way to Lucy's when his phone rang. He answered without checking the number, "Natsu."
"Jenny accepted the bid; I need you to get over to her lake house right away. She wants you to take her to pick out materials for the trim and floor," Laxus grumbled.
"Do I have to go now? I kinda have somewhere to be," Natsu responded sharply, before actually thinking about who he was speaking with.
"Mmmm? Do you want a job Natsu? Or should I just have Gajeel do this one on his own? Jenny asked for you specifically, apparently the rest of us can't do fricking floors. If we lose this job because you've got your panties in a twist, you can just not call me for any more work because I don't need any babies on my team." Laxus' tone made Natsu grimace. A pissed off Laxus was not what he needed in his life.
"Nah, nah, chill out," Natsu made a U-turn and headed in the direction of Jenny's home. "I'm heading there now."
"Good, don't forget to text Gajeel when you've got the supplies all set. He knows he's on standby for when you are ready to start demoing the old floor. I'm helping the old man today, apparently he's having some lighting issue over at Magnolia. Call me if you need me." Laxus hung up before Natsu could get another word in.
Natsu tossed his phone on the seat next to him and slammed his fist on the dash, cursing under his breath. He turned up the radio and exhaled loudly, unable to stop himself from looking in his rear view longingly. He had been so close to his half hour escape with Lucy. He knew he should have gotten her number yesterday, why did he hesitate? How is it that after over a week of coming by he was still so unsure of himself around her? Now his uncertainty was leaving him without a good way to tell Lucy he would be gone all week. Jenny's lake house was too far away for him to run back to town for coffee and there was no way to get back in time to catch her before she closed. Would she even care that he didn't come by? Damn Jenny's timing!
Levy hit the silence button on her alarm clock for the third time that morning and fell back hard on her pillow. Her head was throbbing and her mouth felt like sand paper. Yet even though her body felt like there wasn't a single drop of moisture left in it, she couldn't stop crying because she had dreamed of him again.
Last night she had not felt up to going out, so Cana had taken it upon herself to bring the party to Levy. Two romantic comedies and three bottles of wine later, she had revealed her secret. She and Gajeel had slept together and now he avoided her like the plague. Annoyingly, Cana had only been mildly surprised and she told Levy she needed to woman up and punch that metal head in the face. She had also told Levy that when Gajeel came into the bar, he had been depressed, and would drink himself silly in the corner before stumbling home alone. Apparently Natsu and Gray had told Cana that Gajeel had become a bear to work with on their jobs, quieter and crankier than usual. Instead of helping, all of this information seemed to completely break down all of the progress she had made at getting over it. If he was so damn upset then why the hell wasn't he speaking to her?
She flipped and screamed into her pillow. The images of that night a few months prior just wouldn't get out of her head!
After their encounter she had tried to talk to him but he wouldn't pick up his phone, and his texts became shorter and shorter until there was no response. He no longer stopped by the store and he avoided Mira's whenever Levy was there. The one time she had caught him out he had looked at her, paled, and then the asshole had the audacity to run away without a word. That had been an extremely hard day.
Now here she was, almost two months later, and not a single word from a man she had grown to consider her best friend, it really stung. She looked at the clock and cringed. Levy was going to be super late today. She dragged herself out of bed and into the shower. She had to get over herself and shake off this funk. It wasn't as if she could call in sick!
Lucy looked at the text and wanted to cry. Levy was running late and couldn't come by. That meant another day with no company, trapped with her cookies. The baby shower had been a huge hit, bringing her tons of special orders. Unfortunately, between those orders and Christmas, she was now baking and decorating nonstop, sometimes staying past ten. All she had time to do when she left work was walk home, shower, and flop into bed. Then she was up at three to come back and do it again. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful for the business, but after a week straight of Natsu's company, his absence was leaving a gaping hole. It just made the feeling of solitude that much more bitter. It really bothered her that there had been no warning. Did he care about her at all?
Natsu sat at a booth in Mira's, still nursing the beer he had gotten when he came in hours ago. Every day he raced to the bar, hoping to catch Lucy at the end of happy hour. Every day he was disappointed when he walked to his truck and saw her light still on in the back of the bakery. He wanted to go and knock on the locked front door, but he wasn't sure if he would be welcomed. The longer he put off trying, the more convinced he became that he wouldn't be. Natsu was so wrapped up in thinking about Lucy that he didn't anything of it when he responded to Gajeel's text with "No, Levy isn't here."
Gray sat in the chair across from him putting a large plate of cheese fries in front of Natsu. "Mira says they are on the house if I can get you to stop moping and bringing her customers down. So what crawled up your butt and died today? Have too much hot sauce for lunch?"
"Nothing man, I'm just tired. Jenny is working us like dogs." Natsu grabbed a handful from the greasy plate and stuffed it in his mouth.
Gajeel thumped into the booth next to him, double in hand. "Yea, if that lady doesn't stop micromanaging everything we do, I'm gonna have to snap her tiny neck."
"Fantastic, I'm sitting with two rays of sunshine. If I hang out here with you guys any longer I might try to drown myself in my beer mug. You guys really need to lighten up or else I'm not coming to help you tomorrow," Gray sat back in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head.
"Shut up ice princess," said Natsu grumpily.
"Yea, bug off," added Gajeel.
Gray was about to retort when an extremely drunk Cana dropped into the chair next to him and covered his mouth. She furrowed her brow and look at Gajeel. "Redfox," she said.
He looked at her quizzically and responded, "Alberona."
"What the hell's your problem?" she spat.
"Huh?" he looked up at her lost.
"How could you do that to our sweet little Levy? Do you not have a single brain cell in your Neanderthal head?" Cana was starting to climb up on the table now, putting a finger in Gajeel's face as he stared at her, pale and wide eyed. "I'm gonna tear every one of those stupid pieces of metal out of your stupid face and shove them up your . . ."
Before she could finish, Gray grabbed her and pulled her away from the large dark man. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I think that's enough crazy for one evening!"
What amazed Natsu was that Gajeel said nothing, his face sad and ready to accept his fate. "Hey, I can take her home. I need to go anyway and she's definitely had enough. Can you take her out to the car? I'll meet ya there in a sec." Natsu tossed Gray the keys.
Cana slipped out of his hold and fell in front of Natsu purring "What a good boy you are! I'll read your fortune," she grabbed his hand and licked his palm. "I see a beautiful blond in your future!" she cackled.
"Yea, definitely time to get her home, I'll see you outside," laughed Gray and he tossed Cana over his shoulder, carrying her singing, drunk self to the front door.
Natsu slid out of the booth and turned to Gajeel dropping a few bucks on the table for Mira. "Look man, I don't know what's going on between you and Levy . . ." Gajeel opened his mouth to say something but Natsu stopped him. "Truthfully, I don't need to know." Gajeel nodded quietly and Natsu continued. "What I do know is she's sad and hurting, and you need to fix this. I'm tired of fixing that girl's microwave. How many times can you forget to put water in a cup of noodles?"
At this Gajeel sat back and smiled fondly, "Yea, she really needs to get her head out of those books every once and a while. I'm worried she's gonna burn the whole place down."
"Yea, I don't have time to be her fix it guy and I can tell I'm not her first choice, so you really need to talk to her. I don't know how someone so smart can be so scatter brained, and I really don't have the patience for it. Quit being such a pansy and start acting like the Gajeel we know and tolerate. This whole thing is getting old." After giving Gajeel a nod, he grabbed the fries, "And I'm taking these, cause I gotta drive drunky home."
Gajeel waved him off. As Natsu left he called out to Mira, "I'll bring the basket back tomorrow!" She laughed and blew him a kiss as he walked out the front door.
It had been an extremely long and exhausting day for Lucy. It was ten o'clock and despite the work left to complete, Lucy knew it was time to throw in the towel. She would need to find some holiday help, Lucy just didn't have the energy left to get this all done by herself. She put the deposit bag in her purse, shut off all the lights, and headed out the back door.
Lucy did not yet have the funds to buy a car, even if she could, she couldn't afford to fuel one. The walk to her apartment wasn't far and it was a reasonably safe neighborhood. Typically the walk was a soothing way to decompress after a hard day of work. Tonight was just a little bit later than usual, nothing to worry about.
She was so caught up in her exhaustion and missing Natsu, that she went in auto pilot right past the bank, forgetting to leave her envelope of deposits in the drop box. She was also so distracted, that it wasn't until he was holding a knife to her throat that Lucy noticed the man who had been creeping up behind her. Lucy started to panic, all her money, all her hard work was in her purse. She was barely getting by, she wouldn't be able to hire anyone if this man took it from her.
"G. . . g . . .give me your purse," the man's high voice stuttered.
Sensing his hesitancy, Lucy felt brave and reached up to grab his weapon, "Wait, is this a butter knife?"
She turned towards him and he leapt away, holding a plastic butter knife, ready to strike.
"No, it's my claws! Now you've made me really angry. I'm super strong," he pulled out a plastic fork. "Now you've got both sets of claws. You're really going to get it now!"
This is when Lucy realized he was wearing dog ears and was that a sock hanging around his neck? This man was completely unhinged. Lucy rubbed her tired eyes in disbelief, "This can't be for real."
"Just give me your purse!" screamed the man and he lunged for it, making Lucy join in a tug-o-war struggle to hang onto it. Lucy heard a car slam on its brakes and a door open. She nearly dropped her purse in surprise as she watched a furious Natsu storm over and clock the strange mugger in the face. The plastic utensil aggressor fell to the ground, knocked out cold. Natsu turned to her concerned, "Are you okay Luce?"
"Uh. Ye . . .yes, th . .thank you," she stuttered, still in shock at the entire situation.
"Let me take you home, you live near Cana right?" he put his arm around her shoulder and began herding her towards his truck.
"Uh, ye . .yes, th . .thank you,"Lucy said again. Why could she make any other words come out of her mouth!
Natsu opened the door and gave her a boost into the cab. "Sorry it's a tight squeeze tonight."
"LUCY!" yelled Cana, folding Lucy into a bear hug when she slid over next to her. Natsu followed close behind and shut the door. "See Natsu, I do good fortunes!" Cana began laughing maniacally, then suddenly slumped against her car window, fast asleep.
Natsu smiled apologetically, "She's a little drunk, I had to take her home from Mira's, there's no way she could have made it home. Sorry, let me call Erza about the mugger and then we can be on our way." He put the phone up to his ear and put his arm on the back of the bench behind her. Natsu felt so warm it was hard for Lucy not to snuggle closer.
"Yea, Toby's back, he just attacked Lucy at the intersection of Main and Sakura Way." He listed for a second and then softly chuckled. "Yea . . .I kinda hit him harder than I meant to. I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon. Yea, I'll let her know."
He started the car and pulled into the street. "Erza is sending Meredy over to pick up Toby, but she's gonna need a statement from you. Is that okay?"
"Yes, we don't have to come back here do we?" asked Lucy
"No, no, she'll come to your apartment. It won't take long; the whole thing was pretty straightforward. Why were you walking home anyway? It's so late!" Natsu said incredulously.
"Well I always walk home. It's not as if I have another way, I don't have a car. I've never had any trouble before." Lucy blinked her eyes widely, trying not to let herself fall asleep from coming down off the adrenaline. The exhaustion from earlier was suddenly hitting her in full force.
"You don't have a car?" Natsu glanced over at her confused then quickly looked back at the road. "It's normally pretty safe here. I think Toby is just back on drugs again, he's been sober for a long time, I can't remember the last time he tried to steal from someone. Guess it was just your lucky night!" He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Text yourself so you have my number. Call me next time; I'll come over and drive you home."
"Oh no, I couldn't make you do that!" said Lucy.
"You wouldn't be making me, I want to help you Luce," he turned and grinned at her. "I like helping you."
She smiled back at him, and then she looked at the phone and began to enter her number into his messenger, "Well if you put it that way."
"Smooth Dragneel," slurred Cana from her corner of the truck, eyes still closed. Natsu rolled his eyes and groaned. Lucy couldn't help but giggle. Thank goodness Cana had needed a ride home.
Natsu never thought he would be so happy that Toby had fallen off the wagon. Toby was now on his way in Meredy's trooper to a warm holding cell. Natsu was on Lucy's couch, waiting for her to return from the kitchen where she was making him some tea and grabbing a few cookies to thank him for his help. Her apartment was much more practical than he had expected. It was warm and homey, but the furniture was worn and it was sparsely decorated. He didn't know what he expected, a castle? Either way he liked it, he could really see himself spending a lot of time here with the smells of good cooking, the comfortable places to sit, and the beautiful blond baker heading his way with delicious things.
She set the things she brought on the table and Natsu's eyes widened when she joined him on the couch, sitting right next to him and wrapping her arms around him, placing her golden head on his chest.
"Thank you for rescuing me," she whispered sweetly into his coat.
He smiled. "No problem Lucy, though really you probably could have taken him by yourself anyway."
She looked up at him, her brow furrowed, "Where have you been all week? I missed you."
His heart gave a squeeze, she did care! He had been such an idiot. "Sorry, I didn't have your number and I was called off to a job down by the lake. I couldn't get over during your open hours."
Lucy seemed confused, "My store doesn't have to be open for you to come by, you're my friend, just knock on the door. I would let you in."
Natsu could kill himself, he really was a moron.
Lucy snuggled back into his chest. "Can you stay here tonight? I have blankets for the couch, I just don't feel safe on my own right now."
"Of course Luce, do you need a ride in the morning too?" Natsu asked. Lucy didn't respond, he looked down and saw she was fast asleep. Unable to help himself he kissed the top of her head and pulled her close to him. She smelled like vanilla and lavender. Yea, he could really get used to this.
After about fifteen minutes, when he knew she was in a deep sleep, he picked her up and carried her to her room. He gently tucked her into her bed and watched her sleep peacefully for a few seconds before going back to the living room and getting comfortable on the couch. After making sure his alarm was set on his phone, he closed his eyes, falling asleep with a smile on his face.