From Puppy to Prince

The Star in His Night Sky

For a little over a month now, Lucy and Natsu have made it a regular occurrence for them to leave the guild early together at the end of the week. Several of their guild mates have taken it upon themselves to tease them, the most notable being Cana, Mira, Levy, and Juvia. Those four had been letting their minds run wild with thoughts about the two friends becoming more than friends.

One day, Natsu entered the guild like usual, ignoring the jeers from Macao and Wakaba, and headed to his usual spot at the bar. After a minute of scanning the guild, he turned to Mira, "Where's Lucy? She's normally here by now."

"Oh! She told me yesterday that she wasn't going to come in, and to tell you not to worry. I'm sure she will be back tomorrow!" The take-over mage smiled at the boy and went back to cleaning a mug. Natsu sighed and laid his head on the counter. He'd had his eye on a certain mission for a week now, but it had been Lucy's turn to pick a job when he saw it. Today was the day he was going to do it with her, and he didn't want to do it with just Happy. It just wouldn't be the same.

Natsu rose from his seat and headed for the guild, a few members of the guild watching him. He was going stir crazy and couldn't sit there doing nothing any longer. He would have picked a fight with Gray or Gajeel, but both of his rivals were out on jobs. Happy flew overhead as Natsu walked down a random street in Magnolia, kicking a rock.

"Why don't we go hang out with Lucy? I'm sure she would rather have company than be alone!" Happy's logic seemed to make sense to Natsu, and he nodded his agreement, cutting through an alley to get to Strawberry Street. In minutes, they were outside her apartment building. Happy grabbed Natsu and flew him up to the window so he could open it.

Pulling himself inside the room, it was immediately evident that Lucy wasn't there. Natsu sniffed the air. Like he expected, while Lucy's scent was everywhere, making his head buzz just a little, there were no fresh scents. His shoulders slumped, "Let's go Happy. She isn't here."

Happy had landed on Lucy's bed and was sitting there gumming the fish he had brought from the guild. "Maybe she went shopping? She did say yesterday that we ate the last of her food."

"Good thinking Happy!" With renewed vigor, Natsu leapt out of Lucy's window, landing in a crouch on the ground, leaving Happy to close the window. Together, they ran around Magnolia to all of the shops.

Lunch time came and went, and they were still looking. By now they were in Hargeon, waiting for the next train to take them back to Magnolia. It surprised Happy when Natsu suggested taking the train to the port city. Yes, there could be a possibility that Lucy was there, since Hargeon had better shops, but for Natsu to actually suggest taking the train instead of begging the exceed to carry him was... Well it was unheard of! Right then Happy knew there was something different about Natsu.

As the train rolled into the station, Natsu paled to slightly green in color, but he forced his legs to board the moving death trap. Like he had on the train ride to Hargeon, once Natsu was in his seat, he lay down on his side as though he were laying his head in someone's lap. He closed his eyes and imagined fingers running through his hair just like what Lucy would do when they had to travel any way other than walking. Before he knew it, the conductor was calling out Magnolia station.

As they left the train, Happy noticed that Natsu was not nearly affected by the ride as he normally would be if they took the train alone. He made sure to ask him later, after they had found Lucy, but then his stomach rumbled. "Hey Natsu?"

"Yeah Happy?" The dragon slayer turned to his blue friend.

"I'm going to head back to the guild. I ate my fish for lunch, and I've been starving for a while now. And Carla and Wendy said they'd be getting back today from training with Porlyusica." The cat felt bad that he wanted to leave his friend to search for Lucy alone, but he really was hungry. They hadn't stopped for lunch or dinner, and his fish was gone. Plus Carla had been with Wendy for the past week, who was training her healing magic with Porlyusica.