Howdy folks, thank you all for your wonderful reviews and words of encouragement. I've gotten a couple showing displeasure for Gray flirting with Lucy. Since chances are you aren't going to get his Point of View, He's only doing it to piss off Natsu. Whereas he does find Lucy attractive and his type (when Pisces duplicated him, they said so) and let us not forget the movie where he's quite thankful for his "stripping habit"; however he's only saying such things to rile up Natsu. wiki/GrayLu has several GrayLu moments there, taken from the manga and anime. And I firmly believe he would know how to flirt (much better than I can portray) since he used to be close friends with Loke. The king of flirts. But worry not, this is NaLu through and through. He was meant to be more to be funny than anything else :)

Mashima-Sama, creator of all things "Fairy Tail", you're my idol.

Still Natsu's POV

"So just you and me this time Lucy!" I said happily. It's been so long since it was just the 2 of us on a mission. I was still holding her hand by the way. And yes it was on purpose. Her hand fits so perfectly in mine, and so much softer than my own. Damn I'm turning stupid.

"What about Happy?" She asked curiously.

"He's going with Carla and PantherLily to visit the Exceeds. There was this farming couple who were helped him and Carla back when we were in Edolos, that he's been wanting to see again. It's been about 8 years Earthland time since he's seen them, so he was a little anxious to go."

"Why's PantherLily going? I thought he wasn't a good terms with them since they banished him?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, the queen specifically asked if he would come. I think they're going to formally apologize to him for what they did."

"That's really great. It's always better to reconcile relationships when you have the chance." She replied a little sadly.

I knew she was thinking about her dad, so I put my arm around her shoulders and said in a happy tone, "So I will allow you to pick our mission this time around!" I really did like her in my arms. She just fit so well.

"Really?" She asked suspiciously. I did have a habit of forcing her to do the quests I wanted. What can I say, every time she picks one, I get stuck in some musty old library sorting books. I can read thanks to Erza (Though I try to bury that memory deep, deep down) doesn't mean I want to spend days sorting freakin books! Low pay, low excitement, extreme boredom!... Though I do get to spend all day stuck in a room with Lucy. Hmmm, maybe it's not so bad afterall. Perhaps she'll have to climb a ladder again…bad Natsu! Bad. I mentally smacked myself.

To distract myself from the direction my thoughts went, I quickly looked at the available missions, trying to find the longest one with the biggest reward. Saw one that made me laugh.

"Here's a perfect one for the ice princess."

"You mean Gray?"

"Yup. Up in Iceberg, some rich dude needs security for his daughter's wedding. He's paying 100k per mage. Non-mage people only get 25k."

"Why would that be perfect for Gray?"

"Well it's the ice cube's natural habitat for one. And he could double as a stripper for the bachelorette party!"

She laughed. Ah I love her laugh, and did I hear a snort by chance? Then she said with amusement still in her voice, "Hey, here's another one for Iceberg for taking care of a large group of monsters up near the mountains. 'For preventative measures' it states. Guess that means no attacks have happened yet. It's 200k… Could we do both? That's be 200k for each of us" She said excitedly.

"You 'want' to go to Iceberg?" I asked with a quirk of my eye. "You know it's called 'Ice'berg for a reason?" Emphasizing the ice part, just to annoy her.

"Shut up Natsu." She said while elbowing me in the side "The party sounds fun. I haven't had a chance to go a ball since after the Grand Magic Games."

"Right, you're into that fancy stuff." I thought a little dejectedly. And yet another reason why me and her wouldn't be. Her background as a rich noble lady, and mine as a wild boy raised by a dragon. I've honestly been trying to be more 'civilized' as she likes to admonish me. I even use a fork and knife now, even though it takes like a 1000 times longer to eat that way. Why cut things into small bites when you've got teeth?

"Anyway," I said before she could reply to my comment, " technically speaking you're only supposed to take one, but since they're both fairly easy, low levels ones, you could take one and I could take the other; then we're not breaking any rules. So what if we just happen to be heading the same way?" I said with a grin.

"A little devious, but I'm not going to complain. I need the jewels."

"Rent again?" For some odd reason, she just always needed rent money. Her rent was less than what the other girls paid by staying at Fairy Hill, but she was the only one I knew who constantly worried and whined about it. I offered to let her live with me for free, but she just blushed and smacked me. Nothing's happened yet, why would anything change just because she lived with me? It's not like I'm not at her house as often as possible anyway.

"Actually, despite all the jewels wasted paying for the things YOU break, I have enough for this month and next."

I winced a little at the reminder. Grrrr. I've been trying to show more restraint. Act more mature and all that crap. It's just hard when you're in the heat of the moment. When the opponent is right there, worrying about little things like damage to the building, can get me killed by not focusing solely on the fight. I've tried explaining it too her, but she just rolls her eyes at me. I keep telling myself why do I bother trying. Then I look at her brown eyes and remind myself, that I'd like a chance… maybe. Damn it's all so confusing. "So why do you need the money?" I was genuinely curious.

"I've been thinking I want to start actively pursuing the rest of the celestial keys. The silver ones specifically, since all the gold ones are accounted for. Plue alone cost me 19 grand, and he's mostly a pet, the others will undoubtly cost even more."

"How many are there?" I was trying very hard to show interest in her passions. I can't get books, and wouldn't even be able to fake it, but her celestial being key thingys were pretty cool. I can keep an interest in that. Girls like talking, and talking. Really they just sit for hours doing nothing but talking! So I've figured if I want this girl to be interested in me, I've got to talk. I'm learning I just need to ask a short question and she'll do the rest.

"Ummm, if I'm remembering correctly, there are at least 1 for every known constellation. So 88 minus the 12 gold ones would be 76. So I'd say about 76 silver ones total. I've got 5 silver keys currently, so there are approximately 71 more that I need to get. " Okay, she still needs 71 keys. I followed that. Wait a second, AIIEEEE! 71 times 20 grand each was more than I could count! We better get booking on these requests if she ever wants to complete that goal.

"I'll take the monster one, you take the dancing one, and we'll meet at the train station after lunch. Pack something warm for once." She had this really stupid habit of wearing miniskirts in cold climates. She'd steal my blanket and rely on her clock to walk her around. So she wouldn't freeze. I asked her once, and she said some idiotic thing about the pains of being fashionable. What the hell does that even mean? I mean, I love her in mini skirts, but the preventable whiney is seriously annoying.

"And you pack something nice for once. " She retorted as she walked away. My side felt cold and empty when I had to release her. "Hope you haven't forgotten your dancing lessons." She said with a smirk as she walked toward Mirajane to tell her that she was taking that request.

I smiled in anticipation. Dancing. With Lucy in my arms. I liked the image. I hadn't forgotten my dancing lessons, and had actually wanted to dance with her again. But I have been too embarrassed and felt too awkward to ask. How is it logical that I can take on anyone in a fight without an ounce of fear, but quake at the thought of Lucy finding out I like her? Because I'm an immature dumbass I guess.

So I said I'd share a little of my own story. I shall start at the beginning. Freshman year of High School. I was sitting with my friends, when I noticed this really cute boy sitting by himself. He wasn't in any of my classes, so I asked my friends if they knew who he was. Nope. So my friend Jessica and I went over an introduced ourselves, and asked if he wanted to join us at out table. He agreed.

Found he was a Sophomore. And trying to strike up a conversation with him, I asked if he played any video games. His eyes actually got excited by the conversation. We discovered we both loved playing Final Fantasy 7. And talked about Cloud and Tifa, and how awesome the graphics were for the rest of lunch. And thus a new friendship was formed.

Let me know if you would like to read more about my own little love story:) Rate, review, follow and above all else, enjoy.