Chapter 10! Double digits. I doubt this will make it to triple digits but if it does, congratulations future me! (The words might though, still not sure about that though.) Anyways, here's the chapter.

Anyways, Chapter 10!

Confused, elated, and grateful. Emotions like these ran through Lucy Heartfilia's brain all at once. She had no idea why she was the center of that fight? Was Natsu really looking out for her?

That's what confused her. Someone she just met is actually caring about her safety, willing to fight someone she hates to keep that person away. Who would do that for her? I mean she doesn't even have any friends besides Natsu and formerly Dan. Yet Natsu was protecting her. Why go through all the trouble... for me?

At the same time she was elated. She was overjoyed with the fact that Natsu protected her as to go as far as to fight her. That he was willing to get hurt to fight for her safety. She found herself thinking that Natsu was indeed her protector. She couldn't help but smile at the way he made it sound like it was obvious that he was fighting for her.

Grateful. She was grateful for the same reason she was happy. She had a protector, a true friend, not one who would exclude her from the world, but one who would face it beside her and protect her as she adventured through it an-

"Hey Lucy what are you thinking about?" Natsu said, interrupting her train of thought.

"Oh nothing really. I was just really curios as to why you picked the fight to help me." She responded.

"It sounded like the creep wasn't going away until someone pounded sense into him, so I thought I might as well do it!" He said pridefully.

"W-well thanks Natsu." Lucy responded.

"Anything for you, Lucy." He responded. The words flew right out of his mouth. He didn't realize what he had said until he saw Lucy's extremely red blush.

After that, neither said much. They walked down the street in silence looking at different things. Natsu realized that this place, although called Magnolia, had a very different atmosphere to it. The feel of the town was different from the one back at Earthland's Magnolia. However, he couldn't quite get a grip on what it was. When he realized he was getting close to where they lived, Natsu being a few minutes away from Lucy, he asked her:

"Hey wanna come to my place. I have a lot more space to work with, so it'll be easier. Besides I'm a little closer to the center of town so I can easily pick us up some food."

"Umm, sure I don't really mind."

With that they kept walking forward, passing Lucy's house. Even from outside, Natsu could smell the vanilla mixed with Lucy. It smelled great, it was like mixing the two greatest smells in the world and getting something better.

As they got to Natsu's home, they walked in and put their stuff down. Natsu told her he was going to get her some pizza, and Lucy agreed, saying that she was going to go buy some supplies. Natsu gave her some money from the desk where there was absolutely tons. There had to be at least ten thousand dollars stored in that safe underneath the desk.

"So where'd you get all this money? Don't tell me you stole it all!" Lucy asked.

"Of course I didn't! But, honestly, I don't know. It was here I when I came. Almost as if someone expected me to show up. It's kinda weird you know, I was told I'd need money, but I didn't expect to get this much!"

"Oh okay. Just making sure you're not a thief." Lucy said.

"Do I look like a thief?" Natsu asked.

"I don't know, I haven't seen a lot of people with pink hair." Lucy responded.

Nothing more was said after that. Natsu left to go get the pizza, and Lucy went for the supplies.

When they came back, Natsu had two pizzas in his arm and a bottle of Coca-Cola. He'd never drank anything other than fire-containing liquids but he settled with the coke because it seemed like that was what everyone else was getting.

Lucy returned from the craft store with a bunch of supplies. They were to make a 3D model of any historic battle and so she decided that she'd pick up everything at once. The project wasn't due until Monday, but both of them knew they'd forget. Plus they wanted to enjoy the weekend together and thought it'd be best if they didn't wait around until Sunday night.

Natsu and Lucy began to eat and discuss their project. Natsu thought about what the scene would look like and Lucy knew she'd be the one to put it together because there's no way Natsu could ever do something like that without either getting frustrated and breaking everything or just quitting. In the end, it was around 10:00pm when they finished their project. It only took them four hours and they were happy with the results. Natsu told her to stay at his house for the night and she decided she didn't want to walk home alone in the dead of night, so she complied.

When they both decided to crash, Natsu told her that she could have the bed. She suspected Natsu to do something but she was too tired to care. All the thinking, planning, and constructing wore her out. She was glad to be done and decided not to make a big deal out of Natsu sleeping next to her. At least not for now.

The rest of the weekend went by uneventful. Natsu and Lucy hung out for most of it, mainly because Lucy didn't have anyone else to be around and they both enjoyed each other's company.

When school rolled around on Monday, Natsu and Lucy walked in with their project. They immediately went into their 2nd period room to put it down but left shortly thereafter. They split up to go to class and neither noticed how no one would go near Natsu or dare mess with Lucy. They saw what he did to Dan and they were sure as hell afraid of the same fate happening to them. Some of the students even pointed out how much Natsu and Lucy look like a couple. Natsu heard the whispers with his super dragon hearing and decided to let them slide. After all, it didn't sound too bad to him.

From that point on, Natsu was looking forward to meeting Lucy after school everyday. They enjoyed their previous two walks home and it gave them an excuse to hang out for the day, so Natsu was all for it. He didn't know that Lucy was too.

The week passed, and Natsu and Lucy were still inseparable. They spent so much time together. They didn't go a day without talking to each other. They grew much closer and by then, Natsu knew everything about Lucy, and Lucy knew everything about Natsu. Even though Natsu wanted to go home, he didn't feel like he could drag Lucy away from her world by force. So he decided to stay, and forget about it for a while. He would convince her. After all, it wouldn't be too hard because Lucy sounded really excited to meet his friends (though he never told her he was going to take her to his Magnolia or anything about the glowing wrists).

On Sunday, Lucy decided she needed to go shopping.

"Hey Natsu, can we go shopping today?" Lucy asked.

"Why? I thought you went last week. Forget to buy something?" Natsu asked, curiously. He never loved shopping, but he put up with it for Lucy. Plus, she always bought him something tasty if he agreed to come along.

"Well yeah, but I want to buy some Christmas decorations because it's that time of year." Lucy said plainly.

"What time of year?" Natsu answered back.

"You know, Christmas? The day where everyone gives gifts and is all happy and merry." Lucy said.

"No, not really. Is it some kinda special celebration?" Natsu asked back, curious about this special day. (A.N. Technically this is AU so Natsu doesn't need to know what Christmas is)

"Yeah, you could say so. Mostly people give and get gifts during the holidays." Lucy answered.

"What kinds of gifts? Like anything?" Natsu asked.

"Well yeah you could give anything. But it has to be something special to the person. You can't just spend a lot of money. It has to be something you buy from the heart. Something that you know the person would want." Lucy said.

"Oh okay. Sounds easy." Natsu answered.

"EASY? DID YOU EVEN LISTEN?" Lucy screamed at him. She didn't think he was picking up on the whole meaning of giving gifts.

"Yeah give something that's important to someone. It's not that hard." He answered.

"Whatever, so you coming or what?" Lucy asked.

"Sure thing, Lucy!" Natsu answered, before adding, "So you're going to buy peoples' gifts today?"

"No, not yet. I can't because I don't know what to get and who I'm getting gifts for." Lucy answered. Although she knew Natsu would really be the only person she could get a gift for. After all, she didn't have anyone else who was close enough for her to get him/her gifts.

"So what are you shopping for?" Natsu asked.

"Decorations."

"Decorations?"

"You know, Christmas stuff. To make the apartment have Christmas spirit and all." Lucy answered.

"Oh" was all Natsu could say. He never experienced a crazy holiday like this. December 25th. He knew he better write that down. He thought that he might as well learn a bit from Lucy so that when they go back to the guild they can show them this crazy new holiday and Natsu can get tons of presents. Of course, being Natsu, he overlooked the whole giving presents part. For now, at least.

When they got to the mall, Lucy went crazy. It was crazily stocked with all things Christmas. She ended up buying enough decorations to cover her entire apartment. After they left the mall, Lucy decided to go to the grocery store to get supplies to make things like sugar cookies and gingerbread men. When Natsu found out about the holiday foods, he went absolutely insane. He decided that Christmas was going to be a thing back in his Magnolia for sure.

It was late in the afternoon when they finally got home, the sun was setting already by the time they got to Lucy's apartment. Natsu spent a lot of his time there, even on occasions spending the night.

"Okay, so now that you have the decorations, what are you going to do?" Natsu asked.

"Well, obviously, I'm going to hang them up. I didn't buy them to sit in a box." Lucy answered.

"Oh, cool." Natsu answered, almost emotionless.

"Well can you help? It'd make it go by a lot faster." Lucy said.

"Uh sure, what do you need?"

"Just take these stocking holders and put them on top of the fire place. Then put these stockings on them."

"Okay, anything else?"

"Just come back when you're done with that. We shouldn't have that much stuff to hang."

An hour and a half later, Natsu and Lucy finished decorating. When they did, Natsu couldn't help but notice a gap in the decorations. He didn't want to have to move any though, so he decided not to speak up about it. Hanging up Christmas decorations wasn't nearly as fun as eating sugar cookies. Speaking of which...

"Hey Lucy, didn't you promise me some sugar cookies?" Natsu asked.

"Is it always food with you?" Lucy answered back as she headed towards her bed.

"It's just that you said they were tasty." Natsu said.

"Well, I'll make them tomorrow. I'm kind of tired because of the Christmas decorating we did today. Thanks for helping by the way." Lucy said pulling the covers back.

"You're welcome Lucy!" Natsu said, flashing a bright smile to Lucy.

"Well I'm going to go to bed now, since we have school tomorrow." Lucy said, pulling herself under the covers.

"Alright then, good night." Natsu said before hopping into bed next to Lucy.

"Uh... What do you think you're doing, Natsu?" Lucy asked.

"Sleeping." Natsu said simply.

"In my bed." Lucy said, emphasizing 'my'.

"Yeah I know. You got the best bed ever Lucy!" Natsu said.

"And why is that?" Lucy asked, curious but at the same time frustrated. Even though Natsu explained it before, it was a while ago and she doesn't remember.

"Because it smells so good. Plus it's really soft." Natsu said.

"Smells good? Smells pretty normal to me." Lucy said, not seeing the truth in Natsu's words.

"Well duh. That's 'cuz it smells like you, Lucy. That's why you can't smell it." Natsu said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

It may have been a simple answer to Natsu, but Lucy couldn't help but blush at how her friend unknowingly complimented her. It was just one of the many times Natsu would do that. She was always surprised about how blunt he was, but still she couldn't help but appreciate the compliments, especially knowing that Natsu spoke his mind and nothing else. She figured being blunt had an upside. It made everything he said believable because he didn't hide it from anyone.

Lost in her thoughts, she forgot about the pink-haired dragon slayer sleeping right next to her until he wrapped his arms around her waist like usual. Oh, he was so going to get it in the morning. Laughing to herself about all the ways she would get him back in the morning, she fell into a calm sleep.