Found & Forgotten

Chapter 16

"It was awfully nice of Akira-san to let me back into my room," Lucy remarked, as she pushed open the door to her old room.

"Aye!" Happy floated in after her, followed by Natsu.

"And it was very lucky that he decided not to do anything with this storey of the manor and to just live from the first floor," Lucy continued, setting her bag down on her bed and pushing the curtains back. "Don't you think, Natsu-san?" she inquired.

"Oh, uh, hai," Natsu agreed hurriedly. "Suzuki-san is certainly very...accommodating." Natsu's initial suspicious feelings towards the man had not worn off.

Lucy, who had been inspecting the books on her shelf, turned to him. "Why are you being so rude about him?" she probed. "Akira-san has been nothing but polite to us, especially since we intruded on his hospitality."

After explaining her situation to Akira, Lucy and Natsu had been welcomed very warmly indeed. It had turned out that Akira had also lost his father when he was in his teens, so he knew some of what Lucy was going through, although, as he had pointed out many times, his mother was still alive, so he couldn't possibly know the full extent of the pain she was feeling.

Natsu had felt very smug at this, for some reason. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt like he had to strive to outdo Akira in every way. So far, he was succeeding.

Lucy, who had given up on getting an answer from Natsu, turned instead to her wardrobe. Flinging open the doors she walked inside, gazing at the familiar site of row on row of formal dresses. Sighing slightly in happiness, she turned back to Natsu.

"Aren't they beautiful?" She exclaimed.

"Uh...they are pretty, I guess." Natsu replied.

"Aye!" chimed in Happy, stopping by a greeny-blue one that was shimmering, giving the effect of being covered in scales. "This one looks like a fish!"

Lucy ignored him and turned to Natsu.

"What do you mean 'you guess'?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.

Natsu raised his hands in a peace gesture and hurried to explain himself.

"Well, it's just that you hardly ever wear dresses...and you never wear these long ones." He told her.

"Oh," Lucy pondered this. "Well, I guess that must have started in the time I don't remember. To be honest, I don't really feel comfortably wearing this sort of thing." She gestured down to the shorts and tank top she was in.

"But that's just what you normally wear," Natsu protested.

"Well, now I want to wear this." Lucy said shortly and turned back to the racks of dresses.

Natsu, knowing Lucy as well as he did, knew she was angry at him about something. What he didn't know was what he had said that had made her so upset. Thinking hard over their conversation, he deduced that it had been when Lucy mentioned her memory loss that she had started to become angry.

What was it he had said to Gray just after Lucy had woken up? 'This isn't our Lucy?' Something along those lines. Natsu had been treating this new Lucy as though she was the Lucy he knew. That must have been what had annoyed her.

"Hey, Lucy?"

Lucy, holding a pink, lacy dress up to inspect it, didn't bother to turn to face Natsu. Instead, she merely hummed in a noncommittal invitation to continue.

Natsu, assuming it was OK to keep speaking, did just that.

"Listen, gomenasai about what I said earlier," he apologised. "It's just that it's a lot easier to treat you like you are the Lucy I know. But I realise now that you are not, so I shouldn't act like you are her."

Lucy, still facing away from him, felt her face heat up at Natsu's apology.

"You don't have to- I mean, I know it must be hard for you as well. I, I mean, the me I was, must have been close to you, and you obviously miss her-" Lucy rambled until Natsu's chuckle interrupted her.

She turned around to find him a lot closer than she'd been expecting.

"It's fine, Luce." He told her, taking the dress she was holding out of her hands and returning it to the nearest rack. "But pink's not your colour."

Again with that stupid shiver! Why did she react like this when Natsu called her by that nickname? It shouldn't have such an effect.

"Um, O-OK," she managed to stutter, stepping back so as to put some distance between herself and the pink-haired boy. "Then what colour would you suggest?"

Natsu thought for a minute. "Blue," he finally decided on. "Or white."

"Hmm, I think blues and whites are over here..." Lucy walked further into the wardrobe.

"Ah ha! I've found the perfect one!" She exclaimed.

"Let me see!" Natsu reverted back to his usual excitable child-like demeanour.

"Nah uh, stay over there! I'm going to change into it." Lucy told him.

"...fine." Natsu pouted slightly, moving back to his original position.

"Natsu, look, this dress has actual fish on!" Happy exclaimed, pointing at a dress printed with a koi fish pattern.

"Very nice." Natsu agreed.

"It looks yummy..."

Turning to the Exceed, Natsu saw that Happy's eyes were big and round, and he was stalking towards the fish dress with his mouth open.

"Hey." Natsu grabbed Happy and pulled him away from the dress. "You can't eat Lucy's dress."

"But it looks yummy!" Happy objected.

"That doesn't mean it'll taste yummy." Natsu pointed out.

"Since when are you sensible, Natsu?" Happy asked, mourning his would-be meal.

"Since the flying fish fiasco." Natsu answered.

"Aye!" Happy replied.

Natsu just grinned at him, even though Happy's typical reply made no sense in that context.

"Alright, I'm done!" Lucy's voice sounded through the lines of clothes.

Natsu put Happy down again and turned to greet her. Lucy, for some reason nervous of what Natsu would think of the dress she had chosen to wear, paused for a moment to gather her thoughts, under the pretence of fixing her hair into it's typical side pony tail with a spare white ribbon she'd found lying around. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed out her skirts and rounded the corner to face Natsu.

Mwahaha! That's where this chapter ends! I feel evil, although it's not that much of a cliff-hanger...

Anyway, what do you think Lucy's dress looks like? And what will Natsu make of it? I know there's not much plot in this chapter, but hey, it's not like I actually plan them. I just let the story write itself. *shrugs*

This is mostly Nalu fluff in this chapter. Hopefully next chapter will have something useful to the plot in it. And also it will hopefully be on the right day. I find I have less and less time to write as exams draw ever nearer...

Well, for now, I'll just say matta ne minna-san! Also, please COMMENT! I really want to know what you think of this!

AA