The Fallen(Nalu)

17- Promise

"This food is great, Lucy. Thanks!"

Natsu blabbers on with a mouth full of food and I cringe.

"It's not like I really had a choice in the matter but your welcome."

I slowly pick away at the salad on my plate as Natsu tears through multiple meals quicker than I thought possible.

"You've treated me to a lot of meals since we met each other, Lucy."

I look up at him with an amused face.

"And yet you haven't treated me to one."

He chuckles and goes back to tearing through his food.

"-so much food."

My head perks up towards the noise and I look over to see two waitresses talking to each other not too far from my table.

"-such a waste."

I glance back at Natsu's many plates in front of him.

I mean it is more than necessary but it's definitely not being wasted...

"Man...do you remember the first meal you ever bought for me? Back when we met at Hargeon?"

I raise my gaze to Natsu and scoff.

"Of course I remember. You emptied my wallet."

He smiles proudly to himself.

"That was a crazy day. I'm glad Happy and I ran into you that day, though...and not just because Happy and I ate well that day."

I tense up slightly.

"Sometimes it makes me laugh thinking about when I first brought you to Fairy Tail. You were so overwhelmed. Everyone was super strong....but also super weird."

I chew the food in my mouth slowly.

"But it turns out you fit in just perfectly, Lucy."

I swallow and nod my head slightly, my body slowly relaxing.

"Yeah...yeah I did."

We're both silent for a moment as Natsu chews quite loudly in front of me.

"So, Lucy?"

I raise my eyes to meet his.

"Yeah?"

"What have you been up to these past few years? Anything crazy?"

I rest my chin in my hand and hum in thought.

"The craziest thing I did was go through a forest I knew was the home of packs of wolves and without a map of any kind..."

He waves a hand at me.

"I already know about that, though! What else have you done? It's been a long time...there must be some interesting stories."

My eyes slowly move to look out the window to my left.

"Honestly, I don't really remember much of what's happened. I just remember a lot of walking, a lot of small pay jobs and a lot of camping out in random places...nothing really sticks out except what's happened recently."

My cheeks flush up in embarassment.

Natsu was looking for some super exciting stories of my journies alone...

But I really felt...mindless for a lot of it. I wasn't really looking for anything interesting.

Honestly I feel like I was looking for the opposite.

These past few years I've been stuck in place.

How pathetic.

"Oh well. There's still plenty of time for more crazy adventures."

I glance at him out of the corner of my eye.

"I suppose you're right."

"Some day I'm going to ask you the same question and I expect a very long answer."

I continue watching him.

"Promise me, Lucy?"

I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Promise what?"

"Promise that the next time I ask you're going to have so many answers that you don't know where to start."

I nod my head without truly thinking about whether or not I mean it.

"Yeah, alright."