Chapter 5
"Good morning sleeping beauty" a gentle voice came from beside Lucy's ear. She rolled over, clutching the blanket tighter, yawning. "Go away" she muttered. The cellar floor seemed awfully soft today. Really soft, like a bed. And the blanket seemed thicker than hers. Her stepsisters wouldn't call her sleeping beauty, and defiantly not in Natsu's voice, that was impossible…Her eyes snapped open. Natsu. She shot upright scaring Natsu who was flung back into his wooden chair. "Woah!" he said. "Where's the fire?" She looked around franticly. She was a Mr Green's house. In the spare room. She let a sigh of relief and flopped back down onto the bed.
"No fire then? Good, I was worried for a moment there" Natsu said grinning at her. She looked over at him. His clothes had changed to black leather boots, black trousers, a red silk shirt, and a long red jacket with silver buttons and a high collar that was unbuttoned showing his shirt. She frowned at him, sitting up again. "How did I get to Mr Green's? Weren't we at the dance? What are you doing here? What time is it?" "I carried you here, we were at the dance but you fell asleep, and I didn't want to wake you up so Mr Green said I could let you sleep here for the night, I went home for the night then came back to see if you were still here, and its…" he looked over at the clock on the wall. "5 O'clock in the morning" he said turning back to her.
"5 O'clock!" she screeched, flinging the covers off before racing across the room to the door. "Is there another fire?" he asked sprinting after her. She ripped the door open and flew down the stairs. "Thanks for letting me stay Mr Green!" she yelled as she burst through the door, Natsu right behind her. "No problem Lucy!" he yelled back. "Any particular reason why we're running?" Natsu asked as they raced through the streets. "I have to get back before my… mistress does" she puffed. "Got it" Natsu replied as they continued on.
They made it too the mansion a few minutes later. Lucy bent over, gasping for breath. She raised a hand and wiped sweat of her forehead. The carriage wasn't outside the house. It looked like she'd made it. Natsu looked up at the mansion, hands on his hips. He hadn't even broken a sweat from their run. "Duchess Heartfilia huh? She's your mistress?" (Her father was a duke remember so when she married her father she became a duchess) Lucy's heart stopped. How did he know who she was? "How…How do you know her?" she asked. Natsu shrugged "My Dad kind of knows everyone. He mentioned who lived here once we passed by one time" he replied.
"Right" Lucy wheezed. "She'll probably come back soon, so you should go" Lucy said quickly, moving closer to him. Natsu frowned at her. "Why do I have to go? Can't I just stay?" he asked moving towards her. Lucy looked around anxiously. "Thanks so much for bringing me to Mr Green's, but please, if she sees me with a guy she'll kill me" Lucy said. Natsu took a step closer to her. "What's wrong with you being with a guy?" he asked. They were now only centimetres apart. Lucy once again thought of how attractive he was. Lucy heard the faint sound of galloping, and looked up to see her stepmother's carriage appearing at the end of the road. Her eyes grew wide.
"Please" she hissed to Natsu "You have to go". She looked so terrified of something. Natsu could see the fear in her eyes. It was that that convinced him to move away. "Fine" he grumbled. "But I'll be back Lucy. You can count on it" he said before turning and quickly hurrying away, the tails of his coat flapping in the wind. Thank you… Lucy hurried to the doorstep and sat down. She quickly unclipped her beautiful necklace and hid it in her dress. If her stepmother saw it she would keep it for herself. The carriage pulled up, her stepmother's foot appeared and as soon as her thin lipped mouth opened, Lucy knew it would be a long day.
•••
Lucy huffed in frustration, hissing through her teeth. She sat back on her knees, rubbed the layer of sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. A few loose strands of sweaty hair dangled in front of her face, so she flipped them back. She glared at the large black stain in front of her. Beatrice just had to spill a whole bloody pot of ink all over the good white rug didn't she? And of course, who had spent the past 5 hours trying to scrub it out again while her stepsisters and stepmother were at another party? Her of course. The black stain seemed to leer at her, taunting her. Lucy groaned loudly, flopping back on the cold wooden floor. She rubbed her face with her hands and sighed. "You look like you're having fun" a voice came from the doorway, scaring the living crap out of her. She bolted up and twisted to see the pink haired smugly smiling Natsu. He was wearing the same clothes as earlier. Lucy could only squeak in utter shock. The grinned from where he was leaning casually against the door frame, arms folded across his chest.
"Whaa…WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!" Lucy screeched as she leapt up, an angry tick mark appearing beside her head. Natsu raised his hands in surrender. "Don't have a fit Luce, I was just checking up on you" he said defensively. Lucy felt heart swell in joy. That's really sweet of him… "Why?" she teased. "Were you worried about me?" "Pff no" Natsu stammered, hiding his blushing face. "I was just… curious to what the inside of your house looked like".
Lucy frowned. "How did you even get in here?" Natsu pointed upwards. "The window was open upstairs" he said. "YOU CLIMBED IN THROUGH THE WINDOW! ARE YOU INSANE!" "No" Natsu replied. He had simply been walking past the house, thinking about Lucy of course, and he saw the open window. He thought about how scared she had been earlier, and then he got worried. What if she was in trouble? What was she so afraid of? The thought of her being hurt or in danger made his heart shatter and he wanted to kill whoever was responsible. It was in that moment that he realized he'd fallen in love with Lucy. Hard. He loved every inch of her adorable, beautiful, kind, sweet, funny, generous being.
He'd never felt the way he did with Lucy with anyone before. He was actually surprised that it took him so long to work it out. He'd been in love with her since her saw her on that street. He got so worked up he climbed in through the window to check if she was ok. He wanted to help her in any way he could. Lucy rubbed her temples, taking a deep breath. "Ok fine, just get out. I'm busy" she said returning to scrubbing at the stain.
Instead, he walked towards her and sat down beside her, crossing his legs under him. "Whatca doin?" he asked. "Trying to get this stain out" Lucy muttered. She gave one last scrub before sitting back and sighing. "That should have to do" she said. She threw the brush into the bucket filled with soapy water and picked it up. She stretched her aching legs and walked out to the kitchen. Natsu got up and followed her.
"So what are we doing now?" Natsu asked, leaning on the counter beside her. She emptied the bucket into the sink. "I am dusting furniture. YOU are leaving" Lucy said as she picked up the feather duster. Natsu pouted cutely. "Aww but Lucy! I want to stay with you" he moaned. Lucy blushed then sighed. "Fine. But if you're staying then you're making yourself useful" she said tossing him the other feather duster.
He caught it and grinned. "Works for me". He pulled his red coat off, draped it over a chair and rolled up his sleeves. "Let's do some cleaning!" Natsu cried, brandishing his duster. Lucy laughed at him, grinning widely. She had a feeling chores were going to be much more enjoyable with Natsu there.
•••
Lucy collapsed on the floor in fits of giggles. "It's not funny" Natsu complained. He folded his arms across his chest and huffed. He was covered in grey dust from when he had previously pulled a book of the shelf, unknowing releasing a centuries worth of dust stacked behind it. Ok, maybe not a century. Natsu shook his head, releasing a flurry of dust out of his hair. He quickly brushed of his arms and legs, while Lucy was currently dying on the floor.
They were in the library, the last room they had to dust. As Lucy thought, having Natsu there to talk to and mess around with was much more fun than dusting by herself. Of course, he did almost destroy quite a few things. At some point during their childish antics and giggle fits, Lucy realized she'd fallen for the extremely attractive, childish, idiotic, sweet, destructive man. She was still not sure whether or not to tell him. What if he only thought of her as a friend? She didn't want to ruin their friendship.
Once she managed to compose herself, she stood up. Natsu glared at her. Then a wicked grin spread across his face. "You know what Luce? I think you need to be punished for laughing at me" he grinned. He leapt and her, pulling his hands out from behind his back. In one hand was his duster, and in the other hand he held hers. He attacked her, using the feathers on the dusters to tickle her.
Lucy screamed in laughter, falling to the floor again. Natsu fell on top of her, still tickling her with the dusters. Lucy writhed underneath him, tears leaking out from the corners of her eyes. "STOP! STOP!" she shrieked.
Natsu ceased his tickling. Lucy lay on the floor and gasped for breath. Natsu stared at her, eyes focused on her face. He smiled softly at her beauty. He really badly wanted to run his fingers through her golden locks, and kiss her. Once Lucy managed to regain her breath, she looked up at Natsu hovering above her. She flushed lightly. His face was really close. If she just moved forward, she would be kissing those tempting lips of his.
Lucy realized that Natsu's eyes were focused on her lips too. He moved forward slightly, almost on instinct. Lucy started to move forward slowly, towards his lips. Her eyes started to drift shut, her heart rocketing in her chest. Natsu looked at her through half lidded eyes. He could barely believe this was happening. His heart was exploding in joy and anticipation.
Just as their lips were about to touch the sound of a carriage outside the window snapped them both out of their daze. Lucy's eyes went wide. "Crap!" she cursed, pushing Natsu off and racing to the window. Her stepmother's carriage was pulling up. Lucy whipped around, grabbed the dusters in one hand and a very dazzled looking Natsu's hand in the other. "Come on!" she hissed at him.
They thundered down the stairs and into the kitchen. Natsu grabbed his coat and pulled it on quickly. Lucy shoved the dusters into a cupboard and unlocked the back door. Natsu slipped out then grabbed her hand where it was resting on the door. He gave it a quick squeeze. "Bye" he whispered. "Bye" Lucy whispered back. Before she could consider it she stepped forward, cupped his face in her hand and placed a long lingering kiss on his cheek. "Thank you" she whispered before darting back into the house and shutting the door softly.
A fierce blush gathered on Natsu's face. He grinned widely, before running off. He felt like his was flying. His brushed his cheek, where Lucy had kissed and a huge grin split his face. Lucy stood with her back against the door, blushing scarlet as the shrill cry of "Lucy! Get up here now you lazy good for nothing peasant!" echoed through the house.