Lucy didn't manage to get much sleep last night, she couldn't stop replaying the same scene in her head, over and over. Even now, on the way to the guild she was blushing as she thought about it again. The blonde mage took a deep breath to try and get her mind back on track, she knew there was more important things to be thinking about. Holding onto the woman's right hand was the little pink haired girl Nasha, and the sudden breath caused her to look up at the mage curiously. The little girl noticed that Lucy had been acting like this all morning, so she finally decided to ask why.
"What's wrong?" Nasha had asked so innocently, and it took Lucy by surprise at how out of nowhere the question seemed.
"Oh it's nothing sweetheart, I just keep thinking." Lucy was not going to really tell the little girl what she was thinking about, she wasn't going to tell anybody for that matter. The celestial spirit mage just hoped that the little girl would accept that answer and not ask anymore questions. But as you would expect, most 7 year old don't really stop asking if you give them a vague answer.
"Is it about the visit with Papa?" Oh boy, here we go. Red becoming more visible on Lucy's cheeks at the mention of it.
"How did you know about that? You were asleep." Lucy was fairly certain that the little girl was sleeping the whole time Natsu was there.
"I woke up a little." Now Lucy was the one who didn't want to except a vague answer.
"When? For how long?" This was quickly turning into more of an interrogation than a conversation.
"I dunno." Nasha shrugged her shoulders while looking up at the blonde with such pure and innocent eyes. This didn't make Lucy feel better, she started to get the feeling that this was going to be a long day, and for all the wrong reasons.
"Do you remember the entire time he was there, or just that he was there?" Panic was starting to take over Lucy's mind. Everyone knows little kids love to just shout out your most embarrassing secrets, and always at the worst times. But maybe Lucy was just being paranoid, after all the girl might not even know what happened.
"We're here!" Nasha completely blew off the blonde's last question, and she couldn't tell if the girl did it on purpose or not. She really is like a mini Natsu. Lucy didn't even have time to be annoyed at her lack of answers, because as soon as the pink haired girl finished speaking, she was running full speed toward the guild doors. The older woman trailing right behind. The celestial spirit mage caught up just in time for Nasha to walk through the doors. Immediately the little girl found who she was looking for, the guild was already crowded so it was shocking how fast she spotted him, like she had a radar for him.
"Greige!" The dark haired boy blushed as soon as he spotted the girl calling his name, you would almost think that his natural skin tone is pink from how often he does it. "How long have you been waiting for me?" Nasha said it like the only reason he would be there is to see her.
"I wasn't..." He was.
"Where did you sleep last night? We should've had a sleepover." This little girl was always so full of energy. And questions. But to Lucy who was listening it, she was just thankful that the girl seemed to have moved on from the earlier topic.
"I was sleeping at his house." Greige pointed at the ice mage who had been sitting next to him the whole time. Gray looked over at being mention, but he had a quick look of nervousness for some reason. Maybe it was from the conversation he and the smaller boy had this morning on the way to the guild. Something about why Mama didn't stay over the whole night?
"I had my Papa come over last night... Well not Papa, but Papa. You know?" Oh no, Lucy was starting to sweat.
"My Mama came over last night too." Oh no, Gray was starting to sweat. These two comments caused a couple ears to perk up and heads to turn, the guild got noticeably quieter, wanting to hear what happened. They always are a nosy bunch.
"Yeah Papa came over but he didn't stay the whole night with us." Lucy was hoping this is where the conversation ended, she wasn't sure if the little girl knew what happened that night, and this wasn't the best place to really find out.
"My Mama didn't stay too. I wish she did." Greige was also making Gray nervous. The pair of mages were praying that the kids would change topic.
"I think Mama and Papa were kissing." The little girl let out a giggle at this. She seemed to be the only one laughing. "I looked over when I heard Papa but he and Mama were really close, with their faces." This little girl had to be evil, Lucy was convinced. Nasha was giggling the whole time, thinking it was so funny. But another person started giggling too, Greige.
"My Mama and Papa also did that too." He giggled. Of course neither parties had any kissing actually happen, but it was probably going to take a bit of convincing to clear their names. Lucy and Gray couldn't handle much more of this, both of them embarrassed, so Lucy spoke up to change the topic.
"Anyway!" She said it a bit louder than intended. "We have some work to do today, and I'm going to need help from both of you, okay?" Lucy directed the question at both of them, the kids nodding back in acknowledgement. Before they can get any experiments done, Lucy leads the pair outside to an empty patch of grass. To make sure nothing gets destroyed if something goes wrong, but she also needed a break from all her fellow guild members looking at her after the comments the kids made. The celestial spirit mage stood in front of the two kids and cleared her throat before she spoke.
"Okay. So I know this whole thing has something to do with that gold key you have Nasha, but I'm just not quite sure how." Nasha digs into her pocket to pull out her golden goat shaped key. "What I want to do first is compare it with mine to see if it's an exact copy." The blonde woman took her golden goat shaped key off her key ring after taking Nasha's and held them side by side, staring intently, trying to spot any little difference she could. When she was done one side she would flip them both to another side and do the same thing, checking the front, back, and both sides. Nasha speaks up after it seemed like Lucy was done.
"Is it the same?" They looked the same to the little girl.
"It looks like they are. It's so strange seeing a second key." Lucy, now done with her little investigation, hands the key back to the girl. "Now I want to try something else, and it might be a long shot, but I have to rule out every possibility." The celestial spirit mage held out her key, ready to summon Capricorn. "Now I'm going to summon him. Nasha can you watch what I do and then try and do the same thing after me?"
"Okay!" Nasha was excited, she was about to see real magic, she could barely stay still, her excitement getting the better of her.
"Open gate of the goat, Capricorn!" A bright golden light appears for a moment before revealing the spirit dressed in his usual formal attire.
"Woah! That was so cool!" The little pink haired girl was shocked seeing an actual... Person? appear out of thin air.
"Okay, now it's your turn Nasha. Do you remember what to say?" Lucy was getting a bit nervous, she had no idea what was going to happen. Best case scenario is that it just sends the kids back to Edolas, but Lucy doubted that it would be that easy.
"Yeah I remember!" Nasha shouted her response with enthusiasm before mimicking the same stance Lucy had done just before. "Open gate of the goat, Capricorn!" And for a second nothing happened, until...
"Huh?" Lucy was beyond confused when Capricorn had just disappeared.
"What happened?" Nasha seemed really sad that she never got her own spirit to appear, but Lucy was quick with her thinking.
"I think both of our keys work for the same spirit. So let's try this again. First you summon him, and then I'll summon him to see if that closes his gate, Okay?" Even if they both controlled the gate, why would it close if Nasha was opening it, Lucy was quite confused.
"Okay!" But Nasha was quick to cheer up at the thought of a second attempt. "Open gate of the... Huh?" The girl never got the second attempt though. Lucy had forgotten how much magic power it takes to summon a spirit, especially one of the 12 zodiacs, and Nasha was just a little girl after all. The blonde mage was quick to react and catch Nasha before she had hit the ground after losing consciousness.
"Nasha! What happened?" Greige was worried for his friend, he didn't understand why she had passed out. Lucy was quick to rid him of worry.
"It's okay, she just used too much magic. She should be fine after a bit of sleep and something to eat." Greige looked at Nasha laying in the older woman's arms, he couldn't help but still feel a little worried.
The trio walked back into the guild, Lucy found a spot for Nasha to sleep for a few hours and then made her way over to the bar to get a drink. She knew she had a lot to think about.
"Mira, can I get something to drink?"
"Of course Lucy! Have you found out how to send the kids back yet?" Mira was always happy to talk with Lucy. Especially when she could try and take the moment to get some juicy information out of her.
"Ugh. Not yet, but I did find out that the key Nasha has is real. I can't tell if that makes anything better or not. This is turning out to be quite the problem." Lucy wasn't even sure if finding out anything about the second key helped at all. It didn't answer any questions, it only gave her more.
"Maybe it's a good thing the kids are here." Mira was a little too happy, she was up to something and Lucy knew it.
"How so?" She couldn't figure out what the white haired mage was thinking.
"I mean, with the kids here, maybe it'll bring you and Natsu closer together. Like last night." The devil woman was smirking an evil smirk, Lucy should have known Mira heard the kids earlier, and she should have known that she wouldn't forget about it.
"Nothing happened last night!" In her state of embarrassment, Lucy had said it a bit louder than intended, causing her to get a few look from nearby guild members. "Nothing happened last night Mira." The blonde repeated herself in a hushed tone, trying not to worry about the heat she could feel on her face.
"Are you sure?" Mira was teasing her, but she also wasn't fully convinced nothing happened.
"Yes I'm sure. Nothing happened." Lucy was beginning to wish she never came to ask for a drink.
"A little birdie told me that Natsu had stopped by for a visit last night. Sounds pretty suspicious doesn't it?" Mira was determined to get to the bottom of this.
"He did come by, but nothing happened. And besides, Natsu stopping by my place isn't anything new." It was taking every ounce of strength Lucy had to defend herself from this woman.
"He just stopped by in the middle of the night and nothing happened?" Mira didn't believe a single word coming out of the blonde woman's mouth.
"Yes! It was just a quick visit and nothing happened." This was a losing battle that Lucy was fighting, and she was becoming more and more aware of that fact.
"Not even a kiss?" It took everything in Mira not to burst out laughing at the blondes response.
"MIRA!" Lucy was bright red and hot in the face, she didn't care that everyone in the guild was now looking at her. She just really needed Mira to stop before she died of embarrassment.
"Come on Lucy! Something had to have happened. You have to tell me." This was it, Lucy knew she was defeated, and she was choosing to surrender before anything else happened.
"Okay! I'll tell you. Just don't tell anyone else okay?" Lucy was using a quieter tone now, she couldn't believe she was even going to say this out loud.
"Okay okay, I won't. Now tell me everything. Don't leave out a single detail." Like a kid in a candy store, Mira's eyes lit up, she knew this was going to be good. The blonde motioned for her to come closer and looked around her to make sure nobody was listening. She couldn't handle it if somebody else heard what she was about to say, so she was being extra cautious by whispering it into Mira's ear.
The guild was fairly quiet for about 2 minutes, everyone was doing their own thing and minding their own business. Until the highest pitched scream was heard from over at the bar, this startled everyone, some even briefly being sent into fight mode before noticing who it came from. It was Mira screaming while Lucy frantically tried to stop her from talking. Lucy was visibly distraught, her face couldn't be any more red, while she flailed her arms around in front of Mira, a poor attempt to stop the woman from doing anything. And then the silenced guild heard Mira speak, just above a whisper.
"Natsu was going to kiss you, maybe try again tonight when he comes over." Mira knew the people in the guild could hear her, what can she say, she loved some good drama.
"Mira stop! That's- This isn't- We- I-" Lucy couldn't think properly, this had to be without a doubt the most embarrassing moment in her life. Well, it could be worse, at least Natsu himself wasn't here.
"Yo Lucy!" And somehow the universe knew exactly how to make things worse for Lucy. Luckily Natsu had walked into the guild right after the public display of Lucy's personal life. "What was that loud scream earlier?"
"Sorry that was me. I was just so shocked when Lucy told me you-" And before the white haired she-devil could finish, there was a hand slapped right over her mouth.
"It was nothing!" Lucy couldn't handle things being any worse, she was hoping that now was the perfect time to move on and forget any of this even happened.
"Okay... Weirdo." Natsu was a little sceptical but not enough to truly care. So he moved on. "Can I get something to eat Mira, I'm starving!"
"Sure thing! You didn't eat breakfast with Lucy this morning? I heard you were at her place last night." This woman really was the devil in every form.
"Nah, she kicked me out last night so I slept at my place." Lucy thought this topic was done, but she was sorely mistaken.
"Oh, why did you go there last night?" Mira was acting innocent, but she knew exactly what she was doing.
"I was going to see if she had any snacks for me, but she kicked me out before I could even get one!" Natsu shot a fake look of betrayal towards Lucy, but as he was looking at her he noticed something. "Are you okay Lucy? You look really red. Are you sick or something?" Oh god when will it end?
"No no no, I'm fine, don't worry about it." Lucy had never wished for something more than for this whole conversation to end.
"Are you sure? You looked a little red last night too, maybe you're getting sick?" And to make everything just so much worse for the blonde mage, Natsu had put both hands on either side of her face to feel the heat coming off of her. "You're really hot Lucy." This has to be fake, this has to be a setup or something, a dream even. The dragon slayer moved both of his hands off, but put his right hand up to feel her forehead, not convinced she didn't have a fever.
"I'm okay, I promise. It's probably just stress or something." Lucy was trying her hardest to sound nonchalant, but it was hard when he was doing this and Mira was just beside them barely able to contain herself.
"Maybe you should go home and get some rest. I can walk you there." The blonde mage was ready to say no, but unfortunately somebody else spoke on her behalf.
"Great idea! You should take her home right now, she looks like she's getting even more red as we speak!" Mira was too happy about Lucy's 'fever' and Lucy would remember this moment the next time she has a chance to give the woman a little payback.
"She's right Lucy, I'll take you home right now." Neither mages left much, if any, room for Lucy to say anything. When Natsu said 'right now' he meant right now, because he grabbed Lucy by the hand and headed toward her place. The duo made it out of the guild, but Lucy had stopped them before they could get into town, they were kind of in between in a spot where nobody was.
"Natsu wait!" Lucy couldn't believe what she was about to do.
"What's up? We have to get you home before your fever gets any worse." Natsu was a little confused. She had a fever but while he was stopped, he noticed she didn't really seem sick otherwise.
"I-" There's no going back after this. "I don't have a fever." Was she actually ready to do this?
"Then why are you so red? You looked like this last night too." Natsu had no idea what was about to happen, Lucy didn't really either. She had never prepared for this.
"It's not a fever Natsu." How was she supposed to say this? This is not something Lucy had ever done before. "Last night..." This was going to be harder than she imagined.
"Last night what?" The pink haired man seemed to be growing impatient, why wouldn't she just spit it out?
"Last night when you were at my place." Lucy took a deep breath before continuing. "When you were there and it was just the two of us..." This was going painfully slow.
"Yeah what about it? C'mon spit it out Lucy?"
"When just the two of us were at my place last night, before Crux appeared..." She couldn't seem to say anything else.
"You keep saying that, I know. Just the two of us last night at your place... what?" It was like she was a broken record. Natsu had no idea where she was going with this.
"When the two of us were at my place last night, just before Crux appeared... When we were together..." This could not possibly be more painful.
"Come on Lucy, You've said the same thing a million times. Just spit it out already!" And here goes literally everything.
"WERE YOU GOING TO KISS ME?" The silence lasted for hours in Lucy's mind, but only 5 seconds in reality.
"What?" That's all he could say. Lucy was about to start crying, she knew she shouldn't have said it. It was just a stupid misunderstanding, she got the situation completely wrong and now she's ruined everything by making it weird. Before she had the chance to say anything, Natsu spoke up again. "That's it? Is that what the whole thing was about?" Why was he so casual about it?
"Yeah." The words barely came out of her mouth, if she spoke any louder the tears might have started falling.
"I mean I was gonna, but it seemed like you didn't want to. And then you kicked me out, so I just thought that you didn't want that..." He was trailing off, like he was nervous.
"What?" Now Lucy was the one who could only say one word.
"Yeah I mean... It seemed like that's what was gonna happen... Unless I just misunderstood... Maybe you-" He never got to finish his sentence, he was cut off by something unexpected, Lucy. Lucy was shaking, he thought maybe she was crying, but quickly found out that wasn't the case. Lucy was laughing. "What? What's so funny?" The man was beyond confused.
"Nothing-" She could barely say anything between her fits of laughter. "Nothing, it's just that-"
"What is it?" Natsu must have missed the joke, because he couldn't figure out why she was laughing so hard.
"It's just- It's just that-" Lucy paused to take a breath and calm down. "It's just that I was so scared to bring it up that I was forgetting who I was talking to." Natsu had no idea what she meant by that. "I forgot that you are the most unserious person. I thought that if I brought this up, it would completely ruin our friendship." Lucy was still chuckling a bit.
"Well... Wouldn't it?" Natsu just couldn't seem to catch up with this conversation.
"What do you mean?" Lucy was getting nervous again.
"Well wouldn't it make us different if we kissed?" He just couldn't seem to get a handle on the conversation.
"I guess it kind of would... But we would still be best friends and partners... Right?" Lucy could not tell what he was implying, and that was scaring her.
"Of course! We'll always be partners, but wouldn't it change some things?" What was going on in the dragon slayer's mind?
"Only if you wanted it to. I mean we never even actually did anything, so we could forget this whole thing happened and move on." Lucy wasn't sure if she was understanding what the man was getting at, she wished he would just blurt out what he wanted.
"I don't... Want to forget about it, do you?" Natsu seemed like a completely different person in the way he was handling the situation. He seemed less confident than he usually is.
"I... Don't either." What is happening right now?
"So..." Natsu stepped closer to her, but he wasn't able to look her in the face.
"So..." Lucy also stepped a bit closer, this cause Natsu to look up, their eyes locked onto each other.
"Um..." Natsu wasn't sure what to do.
"Um..." Lucy moved her face closer to his, the dragon slayer didn't seem like he knew what to do now.
"Now what?" He was pretty sure he knew the answer, and so he inched closer.
"This..." And with that, Lucy helped close the gap that was between them, FINALLY. They were only focused on each other in the moment, they hadn't even noticed Mira a couple feet away watching the whole thing play out. The white haired mage had a devious grin on her face, she let out a small evil giggle before heading back to the guild, most likely to tell everybody, and to collect her winnings from the bet everyone else in the guild had made.