Forty-Two - Lucy Heartfilia

Lucy couldn't stop thinking about Natsu all day, and it was really getting on her nerves. Was he really as clueless as he acted all the time? She got the distinct feeling that he often understood more than people gave him credit for. Gray had said that he didn't recognize his own feelings, but Lucy wasn't so sure. She wondered if maybe he just acted differently than everyone else did.

"What are you thinking about so hard?"

"N-Natsu!" she exclaimed as he leaned over her desk and stared right into her face.

She was reminded of how close he had gotten the night before, when proving his point about Jellal and Erza. Had he chosen Lucy for that on purpose, or had he just grabbed her randomly because she was sitting next to him? Juvia had been sitting on his other side, so he could have done that to her instead. Lucy vaguely wondered how Gray would have reacted to that. He seemed more clueless than Natsu did sometimes.

"Thinkin' about me?" Natsu asked with a grin.

"No!" she denied. "What are you doing? Don't get so close!"

He didn't back off, even though the few people that hadn't left their science class yet were staring at them.

"It's time for Gym," Natsu said. "Why are you still sitting here?"

"Why are you still here?" she asked.

"I'm waiting for you," he said, matter-of-factly.

"Why?" she asked, standing up and gathering her things.

He smiled at her. "Because, I like you," he said. She froze in the process of picking up her bag. She looked at him for a moment, trying to decide what exactly he meant by that. But he was impatient. "Come on," he continued, turning towards the door. "We don't want to be late."

"Natsu!" she called, as he was about to walk out the door. He turned back and looked at her expectantly. She glanced around to make sure everyone else had already left. "I like you, too," she said.

"Yeah, I knew that already," he said. "Duh! Now hurry up!"

He darted out of the room, leaving Lucy still unsure. She still couldn't tell what he was thinking. When she made it to Gym, she had to change quickly, since everyone else was already ready. They were playing dodgeball, which meant a pretty easy win, especially since Jellal's ribs had finally gotten the chance to heal. Natsu wasn't acting any differently around Lucy, so she was starting to doubt if he really understood the meaning behind her words.

"Are you okay, Lucy?" Erza asked in the locker room as they finished changing back into regular clothes.

"Yeah," Lucy sighed. "I'm just not sure- I dunno."

"Is it about Natsu?" Erza asked.

"What?" Lucy asked in surprise. "How did-?"

"You've been staring at him all day," Erza said. "It's pretty obvious that you like him."

"Don't talk to me about obvious!" Lucy said.

"I'm just saying," Erza smirked. "Your home ec partner is gonna be jealous."

"Loke?" Lucy asked. "Nah, he dropped home ec. Besides, he and Aries are going out now, so he wouldn't even have a reason to be jealous."

"So, you're just gonna do the flour project alone?" Erza asked.

"I guess," Lucy shrugged, grabbing her bag and starting to head out with Erza.

"Maybe you can get Natsu to help you," Erza said, elbowing her in the side.

Lucy just rolled her eyes, but she wondered if maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.

-.-.-

"I shall call him Sting!" Natsu announced to everyone standing in Fairy Tail's main room.

"Are we supposed to name it?" Jellal asked, seeming concerned as he looked down at the bag of flour in his arms.

"Of course!" Erza said. "I've already named ours! Wendy!"

"Wendy?" Lucy asked. "But-"

"I've always felt very maternal towards Wendy," Erza said. "So it's the perfect name." She patted the top of the flour sack and smiled.

"I suppose Wendy is a good name," Jellal said. "But won't it get confusing?"

"Hmm, maybe we'll call her Wen, for short," Erza suggested. "That'll clear it up."

"Whatever you want," he said, smiling slightly.

Lucy shook her head in amusement. She was glad to see Erza getting back to her regular, theatrical self. And it was good to see Jellal in high spirits as well. She looked over at Natsu, who was drawing spiky hair on their sack of flour with a yellow marker. He was also showing it off to Gray, who seemed to care very little.

"Juvia wishes she and Gray-sama could share a flour baby," Juvia said, looking at 'Wen' and 'Sting'.

"We're not in home ec, Juvia," Gray reminded her.

She frowned and crossed her arms. "So unfair," she huffed, storming away.

Lucy pulled her bag of flour away from Natsu before he could draw anything else on it. "Thanks for your help, Natsu," she said. "But I really don't think it's necessary to color it."

"But now it looks like us," Natsu protested.

"It does, kinda," Erza agreed. "Spiky for Natsu, blonde for Lucy."

"Does it need to look like us?" Lucy asked.

"Well, duh," Natsu said. "It's our baby."

Lucy blushed slightly, wondering if Natsu even heard the words coming out of his own mouth.

"But, it's not a real baby," Jellal said. "It's flour. It's a project."

"We have to pretend, Jellal," Erza insisted. "That's what the project is."

"Mira expects you to treat it like it's your actual child?" Gray asked. "What, like you're married?"

Lucy, Jellal, and Erza all blushed at his words, but Natsu just shrugged. "Can't be that hard," he said. Then he turned to Lucy. "Come along, Wife," he said. "It's time to put little Sting to bed."

"N-Natsu, you can't call me that!" she exclaimed, her face turning even redder than before.

"I don't get what the deal is," he huffed. "Why is everyone around here so against people being in love."

There was silence for a long moment.

"What do you mean by that?" Erza asked cautiously.

"No one wants to talk about Jellal being with Erza," he said, holding up one finger as Jellal and Erza avoided each other's gazes. "Gray won't talk about being with Juvia, no matter how many times it comes up." He held up another finger and Gray made a scoffing sound and glanced around to make sure no one else was around. "And now I'm not allowed to be with Lucy?" He held up a third finger and then threw his hands up in the air. "I don't understand."

"Wait," Gray said. "Are you saying that you want to be with Lucy?" Lucy was glad Gray had asked, because she couldn't make herself speak. "Like, you're just saying that outright?"

"You got a problem with that?" Natsu asked, narrowing his eyes.

"No, but Lucy might," Gray said, gesturing to her shocked expression.

"What?" he asked, looking over at her. "Why would she have a problem with it?"

"I- I- Um-" Lucy stammered. "You- You never told me that!"

Natsu looked perplexed. "Should I have?" he asked.

"Yes, Natsu!" she shouted, letting her array of emotions come out as frustration. "You should have! How could you be so stupid!" Without waiting for him to respond, she just ran off to her room.

-.-.-

She had been lying on her bed for nearly an hour, staring at the sack of flour that Natsu had drawn on. Had she been oblivious all this time? Or was it Natsu being foolish that had led to this point? She decided she didn't really care which it was and she was just going to move forward now that she understood. Just as she came to that determination, there was a knock at her door.

"Lucy?" Natsu's voice said from the other side.

"Are you actually knocking, Natsu?" she asked, surprised that he had managed to be so considerate of her privacy.

"The door is locked," he said. "I couldn't open it."

"Oh," she said walking over to the door. "Right."

"Can you let me in?" he asked. "Erza yelled at me a lot and said I'm supposed to talk to you, or whatever."

"You can talk to me from right there," she huffed, letting her frustration with him take over a bit.

"Come on, Luce," he said. "I'm sorry. I thought you knew-" She opened the door and he grinned at her. "That's better!" he said, stepping inside.

"Did you just say the words, 'I'm sorry'?" she asked.

"Yeah. I didn't realize that you were so dumb," he said.

"Excuse me?" she asked, annoyed once again.

"I thought you would be smart enough to know that I liked you," he shrugged. "I guess I have to be more clear."

"Natsu!" she exclaimed, stomping her foot. "You are so-"

"Hey," he cut her off, putting his hand on her shoulder and leaning in close. "Calm down." With that, he kissed her, full on the mouth. She was so shocked that she didn't know how to respond. He pulled back and grinned widely, blushing slightly. "Well, I'll see you later!" he said happily.

"N-Natsu…" she mumbled as he ran off. "What-? Um… Okay…."