Alrighty I have a short filler NaLu chapter, but my story will be a little longer for you guys. It seems very popular. More popular than my NaLu story. Thank all so much for so many wonderful, and positive reviews. I cannot believe just how awesome you all are.

I had small happy tears in my eyes at your support and care. Wrap your arms around yourself and squeeze tightly because I want to give you a huge hug for being so wonderful.

I hope you enjoy my quickly released filler chapter :) The next chapter is gonna be yummy. Not lemonade yet, but steps in the right direction.

Chapter 6 continued – Lucy's POV

From Dejected to Hopeful

"God I can't believe him sometimes. When is he going to see me as an equal team mate? I am so tired of him treating me like I'm some helpless porcelain doll. The master chose me to be a member of the Grand Magic Games as well!" She angrily thought to herself as she sat on the couch counting out Natsu's reward. She planned on giving him all of it. He had done all the work this time around. Which did nothing to help her mood. It just added a sense of uselessness to her churning emotions.

"I'M NOT USELESS DAMNIT!" An overwhelming sadness threatened to make her cry. She wanted to be a real partner, someone Natsu could truly depend on. Not some charity case, that he felt pity for. She couldn't fathom any reason why he continued to be her partner, besides pity, and the fact he liked her bed so much. No matter how strong I seem to get, he seems to always need to save my sorry ass from one thing or another. But as it were, he didn't even trust me to go get food on my own.

In the past she had tried to have Gemini duplicate Natsu, but they had informed her they couldn't. They could only copy people whose magic power levels were close in equality or less than that of their users power. That's why she didn't use Gemini earlier to help Natsu out using his fire ability. She wasn't strong enough.

Well and truly in a funk, the usually perky girl was uncharacteristically depressed. She slowly finished counting the reward. Exactly 129,250.00 jewels. Not a cent more or less. "At least I was able to get Natsu's hard earned reward." She thought dejectedly. Natsu had worked incredibly hard today. Running full steam, breathing fire for miles on end. Natsu did always enjoy a good challenge. Nothing "Fired him up" more. She had been exhausted just watching him. She hoped her sorry attempt at help, of food and fire, had helped him at least a little.

I had tried really, really hard to help Natsu. First I had used Virgo to dig the ice away, but it had been too slick for the poor spirit. Scorpio had, had better luck with his sand blaster, but he was able to clear a foot for every half mile Natsu could manage. "Maybe I'll be a little less useless the more keys I get." She thought unhappily.

She sat back on the couch, and sighed, staring at the ceiling. "Enough of that", she decided. "No more sulking. There's no use getting upset what I can't currently change. I'll just continue to work hard, and get stronger. I'm annoying myself. I'm holding 10 of the golden keys, I'm not pathetic." She got up a stretched. Looking over at the sleeping Natsu. "He just worries for me, that's all."

What was that earlier? In her anger she had forgotten that little episode with the tickling. Was Natsu really trying to flirt with me? Was it my imagination, or was he actually about to kiss me? Or had he been setting me up for more tickling? She watched him thoughtfully. "Could he possible like me?" The thought made her tummy flutter a little. Did she dare allow hope to blossom? "I'll have to think about this a little more."

She was starting to get hungry and bored. There was a part of her that just wanted to go get the food. "It's not like I'm not alone most of the time anyway. I live alone, I shop alone, and I've even gone on missions all by myself…Though Natsu had pouted about it." But she was a woman of her word. She had agreed to not leave the room. So she picked up the room service menu, and the mini contact lacrima. There hadn't been any leftovers from last night, so she followed his example, and decided on a bunch of different dishes. Thinking back, she thought there were like 20 boxes last night.

"Natsu is such a bottom less pit." She thought with a smile. "There I go thinking about Natsu again. It feels like no matter what I'm doing, it cycles back to him. He's even been entering my novel! I really can't stay angry at him. I really shouldn't be angry that's he's so protective of me. It's probably just become 2nd nature to him by this point."

Feeling much better after her little pity party, she placed the order for dinner. "I'll become the best partner. One he can truly rely on. I may never reach his power levels, but that doesn't mean I'll always be weak. And maybe, one day, he'll see me as more? No Lucy, don't go down that road, you're gonna put yourself in a funk again. Negativity causes wrinkles and fixes nothing."

She hopped in the shower quickly, to start getting ready for tonight. Could she maybe, possibly consider it a date? They've never actually gone out for fun together before. Sure they've eaten out loads of times, but that is a necessary part of life. They've never done anything, just the two of them, for pure fun. If it could be considered a date, I should dress the part, right? She did pack some club wear, not because she had planned on going to a club, but who knew what circumstance would arise that could require it? A girl is always prepared. She'd bought it after going with Cana a few times, but hadn't actually had a chance to wear it yet. Though it was pretty…risqué, even for her. Would it be enough to finally get Natsu to notice her?

The door interrupted her train of thought. She quickly put on a bathrobe, and answered it. She directed the 3 servers on where they could put their food, and paid them. One of the servers had stared a little too hard, but didn't do anything inappropriate. So she ignored it. She ate her dinner first, so Natsu could rest a little longer and then would finish getting ready while he was eating.

Natsu had been sleeping for almost 2 hours at this point. She saw it was starting to get late, so decided it was time to wake him up. She walked over and started stroking his head, softly calling his name. "Natsu, hey Natsu. Dinner is here." She heard some indistinct mumbling. "Come on Natsu, wake up please?" She saw his eyes slowly open, and she smiled. He was so cute! Like a little boy.

He kind of blankly stared at her. She waved her hand in front of him. "Good morning Natsu, well good night anyway. You asked me to wake you up in 2 hours and said we'd go have some fun tonight. Dinner is here." She said with a warm smile.

He blinked a few times, "Right, yeah, thanks." He said as he slowly got up, and stretched. "What's for dinner?"

"Everything."

"Sounds good."

"I'm gonna get ready while you eat, take your time Natsu."

He just nodded his head in acknowledgement. Lucy was feeling a little guilty now. Maybe it would have been better to let him sleep. He still looks really tired. "Hey Natsu, we don't have to go out tonight. I can see you're still tired."

"Nah, I want to go. I've never been to a club before, and we might not get another chance for a while." He said smiling at her.

"I don't want you to feel you have too Natsu. There are several clubs in Magnolia that I can take you to when we get back." I really wish I had let him sleep now. I was feeling so guilty.

"Lucy." He said it in such a way, that I knew I'd just annoy him if I continued. So I smiled brightly instead, gathered my clothes and went to the bathroom to get ready. It didn't have to mean anything that I was in the mood to wear leather. Nor that I took extra care with my hair and make-up. I'd been growing my hair out lately, much to Cancer's sadness, but I had missed my pretty cascades. I wonder if he'll like my outfit?

Our first official date was movie and a dinner. Original I know. But it's a classic for a reason. It was a little awkward at first, but after a while it was just like before. We talked about all the things we usually talked about. We saw "Pokemon 2000" in case you were curious. Yes I am that old. Then ate out at a nearby diner.

As a whole we kept it on the down low at first. We didn't want the extra pressure to get together if it wasn't really meant to be. We really wanted it to be our decision.

His best friend, Art, was all proud of Michael. (Fun fact, Art had actually been my friend first, they met though me.) And was happy for us. He had pretty much knew we liked each other, but was honor bound to not spill our secrets, as much as it drove him nuts. Art had been subtly pushing Michael to confess for about 6 months.

My best friend was kind of a negative bitch about it actually. (We're not friends anymore). She said something along the lines of, "It's probably not gonna work. It's like craving something from someone's table, and it looks so great, you want it so badly because you don't think you can ever taste it, but once you get it, it's just liver."

I was kind of hurt by this. I mean she knew I had liked the boy for years, and had always been supportive, my dream finally comes true and she says that. I had answered her sarcastically, "Don't be too supportive now, I might get confused and think your happy for me." She apologized, but I never quite understood her reaction. I don't think she liked him. She'd never hinted at it. In fact she hinted that she had liked Art. Which they did wind up dating for the rest of that summer, but that completely fell apart.

On one of our dates we got caught in a random down pour. So I got to meet his parents much earlier than I would have felt comfortable with, but they were fabulous. He had an adorable little brother and sister, and his parents were so nice. His mom let me borrow some clothes and dried mine in their dryer, and we spent several hours just talking together. I had dinner with them and everything. We weren't even officially boyfriend and girlfriend, and I met the parents. For an awkward situation, they made it very pleasant.

On Friday, October 13th, 2000, about 3 months after he confessed, we officially became a couple. There was a full moon that night. But no kissing had happened yet. Remember both of us were so inexperienced at this whole thing, and I was a little scarred by dog boy. We didn't really hold hands, though we would hug each other good bye. Neither one of us was quite sure how to go from friends, to boyfriend and girlfriend.

For Christmas he took me to fancy steak house. I was so shocked at the prices. At this point, we'd done mainly fast food, with places like Denny's for our nicer joints. I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, because I felt guilty. He got himself a big ole steak. When he drove me home, I thought he was finally gonna kiss me. We hugged and sat in the car for a while, but we just didn't know how to initiate it. I wanted to kiss him, I'm sure he wanted to kiss me, but what do you do? We were so silly, and nervous about the whole thing. So we we've known each others feelings for over 5 months at this point, and hadn't gone beyond hugging.

Two 18 year olds without a freakin clue.