"The Importance of Being Earnest "

In which Natsu is anything but...

A/N: Wow everyone! There has been a lot of promise for this fic! You all seem very interested in it, and that really keeps us motivated!

Here is the next chapter. Sorry it's a little late on FF, I definitely crashed early last night.

Lucy didn't know what had gotten into the demented dragon's head, but it didn't take long for her to rebel against him dragging her around. She dropped her feet and dug her heels in, despite nearly having her arm ripped out of her socket when she did so.

"Hold on!" She snapped, wondering vaguely how she hadn't lost it yet, and jerked her hand out of his, "I don't know what you think you're doing, but you're not hauling me around like that!"

She poked him in the chest, "I don't know you. I don't trust you. And I'm definitely not letting you drag me around because you've got some demented idea in your head!" She shouted, her voice rising with every word, "I've had the day from hell. I'm hot. I'm tired. And I would kill for some decent food and something cold to drink!"

By the time she was done her chest was heaving, her teeth were bared, her face was flushed, and she felt somehow a little better. Maybe it was the stunned look on his face. Though she didn't know why he was so surprised. Hadn't she just said before this latest discovery that she was going to find food?

Maybe he just hadn't expected her to stop him?

She didn't know, and she didn't care. She just wanted a chance to relax, eat, and get some sleep. Preferably without anything else falling on her head today.

"Jeez Luigi you don't have to shout about it."

The look on her face must've promised the slow and painful death she was contemplating over that comment because the big, bad, dragon actually paled fractionally and started chuckling nervously.

"I mean, this is the way to Hargeon." He continued, his superior tone ruined by his faint twitching, "Unless you want to stay here and live off the land?"

Hargeon was an actual city?

Leo had called it a port, but somehow that hadn't translated into civilization for her. Now it did. And it sounded like the best thing she'd heard all day.

Even if civilization was different for this place than she was used to it had to have the basics. And the basics were all she cared about. She might even get a bath. Oh, the thought of a bath had her in raptures. She could just picture it.

Lucy's entire expression lit up eagerly, and this time she was the one grabbing the wrist as she tore off in the same direction he'd been going a minute ago.

She ignored his startled yelp as visions of food, and cold drinks, and baths, and beds danced before her eyes. Heaven.

Unfortunately, reality reasserted itself a few hours later as soon as she laid eyes on the absolutely adorable town. Seriously, it looked like something out of some of her favorite alternate history novels. Some of the people were even dressed in period clothing.

However, seeing all that had her realizing one major roadblock.

Money.

She didn't have any.

Not the kind that would be accepted here anyway.

Natsu ignored her dose of reality as he marched on ahead of her until running into what looked like an invisible barrier.

He scowled and rubbed his nose as he glanced back at her, "Now what?" He demanded grumpily. She was in civilization. Wasn't she supposed to be happy now?

"I don't have a way to pay for anything." Lucy admitted, wanting to cry at the complication. So close and yet so far.

Oh for...seriously? That was her problem?

Though he supposed he couldn't entirely fault her. She had said something about falling through by accident, so she probably hadn't made any provisions for being here.

He growled under his breath, but kept his thoughts to himself. He didn't want to re-visit that moment when she'd reminded him eerily of HER.

Just the thought sent shivers up his spine.

Instead he grumbled a little more, and crossed his arms, "Fine." He huffed, "I'll get whatever you need."

He hated sacrificing any portion of his hoard for a measly human, but he couldn't ignore this situation. And if it got her out of his hair faster so be it.

Natsu could hardly remember a time he actually paid for anything he couldn't just take. His cheeks puffed out as he peered around the little mortal town. It was the very definition of quaint, and it made Natsu's skin crawl to be milling around with so many people. There wasn't anything wrong with that he supposed, but there was definitely something about it that put him on edge.

Instinctively his hand crept up towards his tattered scarf, his heart jumping into his throat. It had been so long since he had travelled with someone, never before had it been a human. Not since-...

He forced his thoughts away and watched with genuine amusement as Lucy expressed her happiness by doing some weird dance thing. Cocking an interested head towards her, he watched as one leg kicked up and she clasped her hands under her chin like a smitten maiden.

Was this how all humans acted? Or was she the exception?

Regardless, he smirked. He couldn't wait to show her how he got merchandise.

Not that he actually ever bought merchandise in the sense she meant. But then he hadn't specified how he was doing that had he? This was going to be fun.

He blinked a little as he realized just how easily he was getting into the anticipation, and feeling amused by Lucy's antics. They would've just annoyed him earlier. He realized with a jolt that the last time he was in his human form was just after the Celestial war when Zeref perished and…Igneel...

And he remembered, vividly, how passionate his feelings were in his human form. Feelings he'd shut away since he'd stopped changing. Feelings that were now swarming him.

He glared at a potted shrub on a vendor's cart and watched as the plant burst into a cheery flame. The owner let out a horrified gasp and threw it to the ground, desperately trying to stamp it out. Feeling a little humored, as the man's frantic yelps pulled him out of his black thoughts, he directed Lucy down a different path happily distracted.

Better not to let her see him blowing up spice stands for amusement.

Petty though he knew it was, Natsu relished in it.

"You're being nice," Lucy's eyes narrowed in suspicion as she allowed him to guide her down a random street. Her eyes scanned over the dragon's body, as if looking for a coin purse or wallet.

Where did she think he put it? He had just been a dragon less than a few hours ago and he looked like a grizzly wartime patient with a hole ripped out of his side. There was no place for him to hold a bag of Jewel.

He just gave her a wide smile, "Why the suspicion?"

The look she gave him was absolutely frigid, which he supposed was a little fair considering he announced his desire to kill her. Something which hadn't waned even in the slightest and was only shelved for the time being.

"You not only tried to attack me, twice, but you also called me fat," Lucy said sharply, her eyes narrowing into such deadly slits, the dragon felt like taking a large step back.

Oh well crap, yeah he did do that. But that was only because she had landed on him when they dropped out of the gate right before he passed out. He had her to thank for his concussion.

His lack of response to that did not endear him any to Lucy. If anything, his widening smile, only made her more suspicious. If that were possible.

Whatever he was planning it would be trouble. That was for sure.

And sure enough, he turned his shit eating grin on a nearby vendor, one selling various kinds of food and drink, and without changing expression grabbed the man by the front of the shirt and slammed his head against the countertop. Hard.

She gasped in horror at the sight, though she would later wonder why she was surprised at his behavior at all, "Natsu! What are you doing? Stop it!"

The dragon just glanced at her and smirked wickedly as he shoved the bleeding man away and began cheerfully gathering up a good meal.

"Well that's one thing taken care of!" He exclaimed happily, "C'mon Loopy! Let's go eat!"

Lucy glanced between Natsu and the man, horrified at what had just taken place, "How could you do such a thing?!" She demanded, and Natsu's smile slipped a little, "Huh? What's your problem now?"

"My problem?" She repeated, unable to believe that he didn't know exactly what the problem was, "My problem is you assaulted that man and are stealing from him!" She shouted, ignoring the other people watching, "You said you would pay for everything! So apologize to him and pay!"

"And my name is Lucy!" She jabbed her finger at the poor vendor, and Natsu actually found himself taking a jerky step towards him, the first traces of an apology on his lips before he realized what he was doing and scowled at her.

"No way in hell!" He snarled back, "I said I'd get you whatever you needed. It's your problem if you don't like how I do that! Now c'mon!"

"No way!" Lucy shouted back, not aware that they were snarling in each other's faces by now, "That's not what you said! And this is wrong! I'm not budging until you do the right thing!"

Natsu let out a frustrated half roar, pissed that she was ruining his fun, "Fine then!" He snapped, and grabbed her around the waist and slung her over his other shoulder, "I'll just carry your fat ass!"

He ignored her outraged shouts and kicking as he stomped off.

"Excuse me!?" Lucy shrieked as she bounced around on his hard shoulder, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist, fingers digging into the waistband of her skirt.

She let out a new, sudden shriek when she felt an airy breeze and remembered certain realities over wearing skirts. And Natsu was hauling her over his shoulder without a single care to Lucy's sensibilities.

"Natsu! Let me down right now!" She beat her fists onto his strong back, ignoring the vibration of his growls as she kicked and tried very hard not to give any of the spectators a show. They were making quite a scene now.

"No," came the dragon's stubborn growl, and her frustration mounted. Natsu was a brute and a bully, neither of which Lucy ever had any patience with. During her time as an heiress, she had to deal with men and women both who thought the world of themselves. Never once had they stopped to give anyone they deemed lower than themselves a second thought.

She didn't escape that life just to have this violent, evil, brat make her fall into the same trap.

She grabbed a handful of his scarf and yanked backwards as hard as she could, making his head jerk back. But strange enough, it was almost as if she had pulled his reins. Natsu stopped on a dime, and in less time than it took to breathe, he had dropped her in a heap on the floor.

Groaning at the rough treatment, she slid her eyes towards him. But he wasn't paying even the slightest bit of attention to her. Instead, he was inspecting his scarf, the fabric being held tightly between his hands. The expression of intensity on his face was so focused, he didn't even realize the murmuring crowd that had gathered around him. Was that worry Lucy saw, pinched around his eyes?

He was tuning out to everything around him, which made her wonder what was so captivating about his scarf, and as such, didn't notice the attack behind him until an icy storm of birds struck him square in the back.

Lucy's eyes widened at the display of magic when he staggered forward, a vicious snarl ripping from Natsu's lips. And she remembered suddenly right then. That even though Natsu couldn't kill her... He could kill anyone else who pissed him off.

And he looked very angry.

"Fool." The white haired man who had thrown the ice attack at Natsu sneered haughtily, "Did you really think that we of Lamia Scale would allow you to harass our citizens and steal from them?"

Lucy wasn't sure who this guy was, and wasn't really a fan of his condescending tone, but she appreciated the way he was trying to watch out for the people. That was quite a bit better than the ill tempered brat she was stuck with.

Natsu, however, did not agree.

"Oh you just made your last mistake buddy!" The enraged dragon snarled, fire starting to drip from his mouth.

It was bad enough he was stuck being bound to miss morals over there. It was bad enough she wasn't afraid of him and kept spoiling his fun. It was bad enough she also wouldn't get out of his face and insisted on challenging him on everything. It was even bad enough that she'd had the gall to touch his precious scarf.

But this? Oh this took the cake!

He was pissed, and here was an arrogant, condescending, jerk of a human trying to talk down to him. One that was also squishy, and not in the least bit protected.

He bared his fangs and roared, starting to lunge forward only for a gold blur to interpose itself between him and his intended prey.

"Get out of the way!" He roared at her, raising his fist to strike only to remember at the last moment he couldn't.

Lucy's angry brown eyes locked with his as she spread her arms, "I'm not letting you touch him." She told him quietly, intently, and her skin began to glow a soft gold, "You're not going to touch anyone in this town!" She growled, "You'll have to go through me first!"

And Natsu felt shock run through him again as his fires went out without his say so, and he dropped out of his attack position. It was as if something gripped him, forcing his submission. The spell, he realized - with enough magical force behind her words, she could make him do anything.

"Lucy..." He murmured, stunned that she'd actually stopped him. Him. The one not even Titania Erza or the popsicle could stop fully.

What kind of insane willpower did they grow in her homeworld? No one should be able to stop him. He was the infamous demon dragon king End! No mortal should be able to even make him pause!

Even with a bond it shouldn't be possible without a considerable use of magic. And yet this slim slip of a girl had actually enforced her orders.

He couldn't even feel a trickle of smoke in the back of his throat. Whatever Lucy had done to smother his flames, feeding her magic through the bond to try and push her will over his... He didn't like it.

Slowly, he backed off, his nose crinkling in the remnants of a snarl. His gaze was steady on Lucy, unable to go through her like he so desperately wanted. It almost wasn't fair. This frosty bastard had dared to hit him and now he wasn't even allowed to turn him into a smoked fillet?

His hands balled up into fists and a furious snarl tore through his throat, "Fine then!"

He wasn't going to tell her anything. Past his initial shock over her domination, she didn't need to know anything about the power she held over him.

Even that was more than enough of a clue.

Resentment boiled its way in his chest, his arms crossing over his chest while Lamia Scale slid around them. Natsu gave the gathered wizards a disinterested look.

The moment he was able to transform again, he was going to return to Hargeon and flatten this stupid town and it's idiotic guild.

But before then, he was going to destroy Lucy. Gods, she was just so annoying he didn't understand it. Where was this weird moral compass she had coming from? She seemed to have it in her head that one thing was right while another was wrong. What did it matter if it yielded the same results?

"I'm not apologizing though," He said stubbornly, arms sliding over his chest.

Lucy sighed as she dropped her arms, warily watching him for a long moment. She didn't trust him not to attack once she'd relaxed her guard, but when he made no further moves she slowly relaxed and turned to the wizards, or whatever they called themselves, with a half smile, "Uh, sorry about all that." She told them apologetically, "And I'm really sorry about the vendor Natsu beat up. We'll be glad to give everything back."

She glanced around and winced slightly as the spilled goods around them, "Uh, on second thought maybe that's not a good idea..."

"Did you say...Natsu?" One of the wizards asked, a tall man with a bald head, a long beard, and a kind smile. Though at the moment he appeared more shocked than anything.

Lucy belatedly remembered that Natsu's name was known, even if he didn't often tell people what it was, and indeed the dragon was giving her a positively poisonous look.

"Ah, yes?" She replied, uncertainly, and shook her head, "It's a really long story."

The man chuckled and dropped a hand on his white haired companion's shoulder before he could say anything, "I'm sure it is." He agreed gently, "And you look like you've had quite a day." He smiled and extended a hand, "I'm Jura of the guild Lamia Scale."

Lucy smiled back, feeling a warmth similar to what she'd felt from Leo from this man. Certainly there was nothing creepy or shark-like about him. Not like with that Hades guy and his friends. His smile reminded him more of her mom in a strange way.

She took his hand, "I'm Lucy. It's nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine Lucy." Jura replied, "And this is Lyon and Sherry."

Lucy started to reply, but immediately blushed brightly when her stomach made it's complaint over the lack of food very audible. Though Jura didn't seem to take offense. The tall mountain of a man just chuckled again, "Perhaps you would be willing to tell your story over something to eat?" He offered, "I confess to quite a bit of curiosity over how you came to be traveling with Natsu."

Lucy hesitated, uncertain if she should trust Jura given her rocky introduction to this world, and what Leo had said about gate travel. Jura must've picked up on it immediately because he bowed slightly, "You have my word of honor that nothing will happen to you. There's an inn not far from here. Very public, and they serve the most wonderful seafood you've ever had."

Lucy's stomach whined again, and decided for her. Maybe it was risky, but she had to trust someone sometime. And Jura didn't give her the same feel Hades had. That was a huge point in his favor.

"Thank you. I would be delighted." She replied sincerely.

Okay! Special thanks to all the lovely people who reviewed! A lot of people had questions for us, so I'll do my best to answer them here!

The question we recieved the most was basically "WTF NATSU WHY?!" - this is a long story, and the characters will be taking a journey on their own to move past their emotional hurdles. Also no, Natsu doesn't eat people.

As for how Lucy gets her money, you can see she will have to get very creative about it.

Thank you everyone for being so enthusiastic with your questions! I won't use this space all the time to answer questions, but I did want to address those ones!

Thank you to everyone else who reviewed!

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THANK YOU EVERYONE SO MUCH! We read every single precious word and it really motivates us to keep going! So here is your update!