Dawn of Adventure {Book One of The Paths We've Traveled}

Chapter Forty-Two: Old Faces

A week passed peacefully. To the seven Fairy Tail wizards, that calm week went by like an eternity of boringness. Well, the boys were bored out of their minds, and as the week dragged on, Erza slowly began to join them in their agony. It took everything she had to break up the constant fighting the boys were prone to instead of joining them in the chaos. But Lucy and Wendy enjoyed the break, and Happy took the opportunity to flirt with Carla as much as possible.

At the moment, Lucy and Natsu walked together behind the wagon, hands intertwined and silence stretching. But it was far from awkward. They had spent years together, years where they learned the other inside and out. And the last week only brought them closer. In fact, Natsu was taking the break in the conversation to instead stare at Lucy, looking for as long as he wanted to without any worry of what she might say or do. He liked to see how red her cheeks could get under his attentive gaze, as well as timing how long it took for her to get flustered enough to confront him.

Today it took less than ten minutes.

"Natsu!" She pulled her hand from his, covering her chest with her arms as if to hide the flush creeping down her neck. He grinned, throwing his arm around her shoulders and tucking her in close.

"What? I'm not doing anything." She wriggled against him as if to pull away, yet he continued to grin. He could tell she didn't really mean it. "I'm just taking in the view."

"You're so annoying," she muttered as his hand tightened around her forearm.

"Whoah, what happened to the Lucy who took every chance to have guys look at her?" He poked her in the ribs with his other hand, hoping to keep her agitated and flustered. It was certainly working. She squirmed against his side, biting back a giggle as his hand continued to tease the two inches of skin bared on her waist between her tank top and skirt.

She smacked his hand, trying to get him to stop. "That's different."

"How is it different?"

"Because!" Her cheeks were still flaming when she glanced up quickly at him, but he didn't miss the way her eyes locked on his lips for a moment. His grin widened ever further, and she knew she'd been caught. "Ugh, I miss the Natsu who was oblivious to what I meant," she mumbled as she finally stopped squirming and rested her head against his shoulder.

Natsu snorted. "Oh come on. You're the oblivious one here. It took you months to realize how I felt about you."

"Yeah, cause you were trying to hide it. I bet if you were more obvious about it, I totally would have figured it out earlier."

"Maybe I wasn't obvious cause I didn't think you felt the same," he muttered, feeling her tense slightly against his side. He shrugged self-consciously. "I didn't want to force you into something you weren't ready for. I didn't mind waiting if it meant you'd come to like me on your own terms."

Lucy stopped walking and forced Natsu to stop with her. She pulled out of his arms in order to face him straight on, eyes searching his face for something. She smiled lightly, placing her hand on his cheek and bringing his head down until their foreheads met. He snorted at the familiar gesture before locking eyes with her, realizing just how charged the moment was when they lost themselves in the other's eyes for several moments.

Then Lucy released a breath, eyes sparkling. "You grew up, Natsu. I don't know when, but you did. It's like I blinked and then..." She sighed and let a small laugh slip out. "You wanna know why it's different with you? Why knowing that you're looking at me makes my heart race and my hands clam up?"

"Oh I think I know." He grinned and began to lean forward before he stopped suddenly. Natsu pulled away and started hollering at the wagon which had pulled far away. "I'm buying you a pair of ear plugs!"