Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. All rights go to Hiro Mashima and all copyright laws apply.
Lucy's POV
I clicked my tongue in annoyance as another batch of mages came running out of the seemingly overflowing guild hall. I took care of them quickly, having Virgo drill holes under them while Loke punched them out. It was really simple, you just needed to use your brain. These fools come out looking all tough, but when it comes to actual battle plan and strategy, these guys were newborn kittens. I sighed as the rest of them were wiped out, or so it seemed. Then, a blast of water hit me, coming from an injured mage. It didn't hurt since Aquarius' shield took most of the impact, but boy did it drench me. I clicked my tongue even louder, angry that my favorite blue and gold trimmed shirt had just gotten ruined. Anger bubbling up, one of my limiters broke, again, and just the overwhelming energy knocked the struggling few left out. I side glanced over to Natsu, who was too busy eating a torch to notice anything. Walking up, I smacked him upside of the head.
"You idiot! If they had been stronger, we would've been in big trouble!" I scolded, giving the same speech that I seemed to give on every mission I happened to take with him.
"Aw, but Luce! It was super fun! I sure kicked their asses, though, didn't I?" Natsu went on, his hands lighting up in the process. I smiled, knowing all too well that my best friend wouldn't listen to what I said, even if Erza held him at point blank range. Interrupting my thoughts, though, I let out a violent sneeze as the sun set. Sighing, I picked up my bag that I left against a tree.
"The sun's down, and I'm drenched, so we should set up camp in one of the caves that I saw earlier. I really don't want to spend the night in a dark guild in the middle of a forest" I said, walking ahead as Natsu quickly caught up. Looking at my still drenched state, he mumbled a quiet agreement, and we walked in a comfortable silence to a nearby cave.
We got there about ten minutes later, but my clothes were still wet and I just looked down in defeat. I sat down near the fire that Natsu had started, and snuggled closer to my companion as he sat down next to me. I didn't dare go closer to the flame, for I knew that I would just burn myself, so I hovered my arms over it, hoping to dry my sleeves at the least. When my attempt showed no results, I cursed silently. I guess that I can't underestimate magic, though why would anyone have a spell to keep people drenched? Wait for them to catch a cold, oh I don't know, about a million years later and then attack them while they're blowing their nose?
"Hey Natsu, can you dry me up?" I asked, surprising the dragon slayer.
"S-sure!" He stuttered for some unknown reason. I'm not sure how much I trust my best friend's flame control, but he should be fi-
He wrapped his arms around my waist, and as much as I wanted to protest, my body immediately snuggled closer to his warm body, though his toned chest against mine didn't go unnoticed by my self conscious.
"What are you, a heater?" I joked, sighing in content. He didn't reply, but I felt him getting slightly warmer. I craned my neck slightly to look at him, only to see him blushing. Seeing that, I started to blush too.
Idiot, why are you blushing?! You never blush! He freaking SLEEPS with me almost every other week, so why is her blushing?! Wait, I never even knew that he could blush! I mentally screamed as I buried my face in Natsu's arm, not wanting him to see my flushed expression.
"Hey, Lucy, your face feels warm… did you catch a cold?!" he yells, pulling up my chin with his forefinger and thumb. The sudden eye contact makes me squirm under his gaze, and I'm desperately trying to calm my beating heart, while yelling in my head as well as willing myself not to blush an even deeper shade of red.
"Y-y-y-you IDIOT!" I yelled in a panic, all of a sudden tackling him.
"Hey what are yo- OH MY GOD!" Natsu yells as his head makes contact with the concrete. MY clothes were dry now, but my face was still warm. Natsu looks at me, surprised, confused, and a little hurt as he rubs the back of his head. Getting up, I quickly apologized while bowing, in which he waves it off as he sits up to look at me. I shifted under his gaze once again, but I was getting near my breaking point. When I saw that he was about to step closer to me, I knew that my heart couldn't handle this anymore.
"Star Dress Transformation! Aries!" I transformed, immediately making a solid, pink wool wall between the boy and I. Natsu tried to burn through it, but his attacks just bounced softly on the magical wool. Converting back to my normal clothes, I slumped against on of the cave walls in defeat. Changing into my pajamas and snuggling into my sleeping bag, I blocked out the whines of the fire mage, my mind revolving only around one thought.
"Do I still have feelings for him…?" I whispered to myself, my mind starting to wander as I drifted into a beautiful thing called sleep.
Natsu's POV
The next morning, I woke up to an un-barricaded cave, and I blinked in surprise as I saw Luce cooking some food. Looking at me, she sipped a smoothie that god knows where she got, and popped a fresh blackberry into her mouth. I yawned sleepily, reminding myself that I left Happy at the guild, noticing that the blue exceed wasn't here. Handing me my plate with a smile, I accepted the offer of food, and I looked down. She made some sausage links and fried eggs, as well as a bit of toast.
Must've gotten in from the spirit world I thought as I began to chow down.
"So, what's the plan for today?" I asked, chewing my food gratefully.
"Well, I checked in the middle of the night, and I cast a sleeping gas over the mages, so that they didn't wake up. All that's left to do is to hand them in and to collect the money. At least, we have money to collect since you managed not to destroy anything" She pointed out, glaring at me a little. I shrunk back a little, fearing for my life, but then popped back up when she exited demon mode. I sighed in relief. I really think that her sighing habit has rubbed off on me. I just pulled her by the arm as she hurriedly cleaned up her stuff, trying to resist my insistent tugging. She tries lifting her bag, but she can't reach it, because I'm still trying to pull her towards the exit impatient. All of a sudden, it turns into a game of tug of war.
Lucy pulls back, but I pull back, too, wanting to get out of the old cave and into the outside (funny). I glanced out of the mouth of the cave, getting a glimpse of the vibrant plants of the forest, and the sun. Then, I direct my eyes upwards, towards the bright, blue sky. I always knew that Igneel was up there, somewhere, flying up high and watching over me. While I was distracted, Lucy gave one last tug, I had tumbled on top of her as we both fell down. We looked at each other, but this time, neither of us blushed. We just got lost in each other's eyes. When I smiled and offered a helping hand, Luce took it, and pulled herself up along with her bag. I ran out, with her in tow, and I looked up at the bright sky once again once we came to a clearing. I temporarily forgot about everything as I thought about the vast, big sky. There was so many things that I've never seen or even heard of. The thought alone made me excited.
"Hey, Luce, do you know what my dream is?" I asked, disrupting the silence between us.
"Hm? Isn't it finding Igneel?" Luce asked, something else in her eyes.
I shook my head slightly, and pointed upwards.
"Sure, but that's just a motivation, something that'll help me later on. My real dream… Is to be able to go all the way up there, and to fly" I said, watching as a white cloud rolled over the blue canvas. Lucy looked as if she was contemplating something, but she wiped off that look and giggled slightly, touching my arm and telling me I was silly. We then continued to walk towards the dark guild, ready to tie everyone up and get them back to the magic council.
Lucy's POV
On the way home, I ran my hands through Natsu's soft hair, sadness in my eyes. I wanted to tell him, I really did, but I couldn't bring myself to. It wasn't that he wasn't ready for it, it was just that I wasn't ready. I told Rogue, I even managed to tell Wendy and Gajeel at some point. All that was left was Sting and Natsu. Sting would be easy, but still… I couldn't bring myself to face my best friend. A little part of me told me that I should tell him, but I couldn't stand to see the heartbreak on his face once I told him that Igneel was the only one missing. I ruffled my hair in distaste. I would just tell him. Even if he got angry for me keeping it from him, there was nothing I could do. When we came to Magnolia, we departed as Natsu, once again, celebratedbeing on land with a little victory dance. Remembering what he said, though, I looked up. The sky was pretty.
"You want to fly, huh…?" I whispered to myself, and I wondered what my dream was. I was doing this dragon quest for others, but I never really had a dream of my own.
We arrived at the guild, and everyone greeted us cheerfully. Sulking, I made my way over to the bar, my new realization weighing me down like a ton of bricks. Mira nodded at me, smiling, as she handed me my usual smoothie, and knew that I wasn't in a good mood. Taking a seat and putting my head down, I didn't even get a chance to breathe before I heard Levy bounding towards me. Smiling to myself, I turned around to see a very happy- and blushing- Levy.
"Lu- chan!" The blue haired girl yelled, jumping onto me in a tight bear hug.
"Hey! What's up? You seem happy" I pointed out, laughing, my bad mood suddenly gone. My eyes widened as I saw Levy start to fidget and blush even more, and I smirked in understanding.
"So, did something happen~?" I asked, grinning, knowing full well the answer.
"Gajeelaskedmeout!" she blurted, panting from the sudden outtake of air.
"What? I didn't hear you~" I sang, smiling.
"Gajeel h-he, um, h-he a-asked me o-out" she said, blushing, steam coming out of her ears. I heard Mira squeal as she ran over, and soon, all the girls in the guild had surrounded my friend, bombarding her with questions while they left males hanging, some only midway through sentences. I giggled at the usual sight of my guild, and I walked away from the crowd, not wanting to get trampled over.
"Yo what's happening?! Is it a fight?!" Natsu yelled, perking up from his conversation with Erza, who happened to be one of the few sane females left.
"Nothing you would understand" was my blunt reply as I started to drag Natsu by the ear out of the hall.
"Ow! That hurts Luce! Where are we going?" Natsu whined, trying to resist my iron hard grip.
"I- I need to talk to you" I said, softly, even though I knew perfectly well that the boy could hear what I said. Straightening up, we walked in an awkward silence, something that rarely ever happened, and continued to make our way to my apartment. Once we got there, though, my calm composure broke as I told him everything in a rush, flinching and closing my eyes, waiting for Natsu' reaction. It wasn't what I thought it would be at all.
He laughed merrily, and picked me up, twirling me around.
"That means you know where Igneel is! Yosh! We can find him together!" He yelled, shocking me.
"Y-you're not mad that I-I didn't t-tell you?" I stammered, my heart beating in my chest.
"Huh? Why would I be mad? I know that you kept it from me, but we all have our secrets. And although I may not be able to always hang around Igneel, it's better knowing that he's alive and safe" Natsu finished, cocking his head to one side. I had told him everything, everything except for the teensy weensy fact that I may or may not be a dragon slayer…
Natsu stopped talking for a moment, and he sniffed the air, also apparently listening to something.
"There's something you're not telling me" He said, apparently listening to erratic beating of my heart. I panicked, to say the least. I lit matches, almost burning down the house, in attempts to lure Natsu with food. When the floor caught on fire, I stumbled to the bathroom to get some water, not even thinking about using my elemental card magic. I face planted and bumped into a wall, splashing water everywhere and getting myself wet. Natsu watched with curiosity, though, not concerned about the chaos that was I at this particular moment. When I finally was able to think coherent thoughts, I put out the fire, bandaged my face, and situated myself in fixing my already neat bed.
"Hey-" I cut him off not wanting to hear his next words.
"You know, I'm going to work on my novel now so… bye!" I exclaimed hurriedly, pushing the salmon haired pyromaniac out of my apartment. Locking the door, and rushing over to do the same to the window, I sighed in relief. I was beginning to regret telling Rogue that I was a dragon slayer as well. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to use memory magic to change things up a bit. This should be interesting.
Gray's POV
I looked around the guild hall, hoping to see Lucy, but with no luck. I really wanted to ask her if she could maybe give me a few new ice spells, seeing that she had elemental magic and all that she showed me. Sighing, I turned to Juvia, who was too busy tackling Levy to the ground, after hearing about her friend's love interest. I shook my head at my girlfriend's silly antics, loving her free will. I smiled to myself happily, and I knew that I was lucky. MY love life wasn't complicated, it was straight to the point, no harm done. I always hated love triangles, because I knew that someone would always get hurt. And that already happened in our guild, inclusive. But now, oh boy, Lucy's got it tough. That's right, I know all about this, and it's mostly because I'm not dense like Natsu. If a love triangle was tough, how will Lucy handle a love square, which also includes the two most powerful mages of our once rival guild? This would turn out to be interesting.
Sting's POV
My eyes widened at Rogue's story, which Lucy had told him to pass onto me. Boy, was I excited. My short lived happiness was quickly thrown aside, though, as I glared at the stack of paperwork in front of me. Reality was cruel. I felt Minerva's glare from downstairs, though, and I set straight to work, not before taking a longing look out of the window and towards the sky.
Rogue's POV
I sat in my room, thinking about everything. I had some much on my mind, and so little time. If only life was a bit easier. I stole a glance at the shadows, and I smiled to myself. The shadows always comforted me, but… I looked out, spotting the blazing sun. IT was so bright, yet it was something that even I couldn't resist. I fought the urge to run outside, and I got up, heading to my desk to file some complaints for the guild.
Natsu's POV
As I waited outside of Lucy's apartment, I looked up at the sky again. I swear that I could've saw Igneel in the clouds. I wasn't that surprised at the new information. I mean, after all, Luce was still Luce, right? If anything, I'm more encouraged now to find my dragon parent. Igneel was always there, and he still is. I just need to find out where. I sighed contentedly, waiting for my best friend to let me in again.
Erza's POV
I didn't know why, but I felt like there was trouble brewing somewhere, and when I looked at Master, I saw that he was thinking the same thing… not. Of course, the old geezer was drunk yet still going on with Cana. I face palmed as I stepped outside, taking in a breath of fresh air. I smiled as I spotted a bakery near by and decided to 'check it out'. IN other words, I was going to raid them ad rob them of their strawberry cake supply. I licked my lips in anticipation, enjoying the feel of the wind in my hair as I began to run. Problems could wait until later. For now, I just wished to continue my silly, carefree, Fairy Tail life.
Sorry if this chapter was a bit short! I'm determined to update at least every other day! Peace out!