50 days • {Nalu}

Day 17

Lucy snuggled her face deeper into the comfort of what she thought was a blanket. But then, she remembered how she had went on a job and had to sleep in a cave. Where did this blanket come from?

Blinking her eyes open, she was welcomed by a white scale like scarf and a snoring, drooling exceed by the name of Happy near her.

"Aw, I see you're awake. How's the ankle?"

She jolted up right when she heard a voice from the entrance of the cave. Lucy grabbed hold of the sleeping exceed, using him in a shield-like manner. "Who are you?"

"I'm Natsu. I'm a part of Fairy Tail as well," he pauses to show her his guild mark. She slowly sets Happy down in her lap, finding that he means no harm. "I was coming back from a job when I found you two asleep in here. After taking a look at your job request and tending to your wound, I headed out to retrieve the herb for you. You can't really walk on that ankle, can you?"

Lucy blinks, a bit shocked that this guy, who she doesn't know, went out of his way to basically do the job for her. He even wrapped up her wound!

"Thanks, Natsu. I'm Lucy, by the way." she smiles kindly at him. Lucy picks up the scarf and looks back over at Natsu, "Is this yours?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. You looked a bit cold when I found you, so I threw it over you to warm you up. We should probably start heading back now. The sun isn't at it's highest yet and we don't want to walk in the heat." he suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea." she nods. Lucy then proceeds to grab the small backpack, that she doesn't recall bringing with her , and opens it to find a few water bottles and fruit packed inside.

"Hey Natsu? You want an apple and a water?"

"Sure! Toss it." he grins.

"I have really bad aim, but here goes nothing." she mumbles to herself, tossing the apple first and then the water bottle. With a swift motion of his hand, Natsu caught the both of them. He then took a bite of the fruit and sighed in peace.

Lucy did the same while gently shaking Happy to wake up, yet he stayed asleep only to mumble things regarding fish. Once the two had finish their small breakfast, Natsu came over and crouched in front of Lucy once more.

"I'll carry you down the mountain since you can't walk on that foot." he explained. Lucy nodded and climbed on his back after hitching the backpack on her shoulders. Natsu stood and then turned towards the still sleeping Happy.

"Happy! Wake up or we're going to leave you here!" He bellowed. Happy jolted up, "Aye sir!"

Happy grabbed Natsu's scarf off the floor of the cave and handed it to his partner. Natsu wrapped the scarf around his neck, along with the help of Lucy.

"Hey, so where did you put the herb I had to get?"

"You didn't notice it in your bag?"

"Oh, that's why it was smelling different. Thanks again, Natsu." she smiled, laying her head on his shoulder while her arms hung loosely around his neck.

They began to walk out of the cave and start their journey down the mountain. Lucy wasn't sure how long it would take them to reach the bottom, seeing as she couldn't remember how long it took them to get up to where they were as it is.

A few minutes into the walk, Lucy grew bored. Happy was eating a fish while he flew, so he was content. And Natsu was just paying attention to the trail and trying not to fall off the side.

Sighing, Lucy lifted her head up and brought her hands to Natsu's hair.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked, finally breaking the long silence.

"Braiding your hair." Lucy shrugged her shoulders as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"May I ask why? And is my hair even long enough to do that?"

"Because I am bored and surprisingly, yes it is. They won't be long braids, just short ones. And I promise to do only one."

Natsu just lets out a sigh but slowly nods his head in agreement. In fact, he enjoyed the feeling of having his hair played with. It was relaxing, no wonder girls love this he thought to himself.

A few more minutes passed by before the sensation stopped. He pouted slightly at the loss of contact while Lucy cheered, "All done!"

"Does it look dumb?" he asked.

"Anything looks dumb on you, flame head."

The two looked over to see Erza, Gray, and Wendy, with Carla in her arms, standing a little ways down the path.

"What are you doing here Ice Pants?" Natsu tsked.

"Checking up on you two, duh."

"Carla! Oh, how I missed you!" Happy cried before flying right to her.

"Happy, you were only gone for one day." the exceed replied. She had her arms crossed, resting on Wendy's crossed ones, and huffed.

"One day is too long to be away from my love." Happy expressed. His fish was long forgotten as he began trying to get the attention of the female exceed. Carla blushed slightly at the comment but brushed it off before anyone could notice.

"Carla, are you feeling okay? You just got warm all of the sudden." Wendy noted.

"Well it is quite warm out; I wouldn't blame her for heating up randomly like that." Erza cut in. Carla breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why would you guys need to check up on me? I've done jobs by myself before." Lucy finally said.

"Just making sure. No harm in that right?"

"Why is Fire Idiot carrying you anyway?"

"I twisted my ankle and Natsu found me resting in a cave on the way back from his own job. Wendy, can you heal it once we get off this mountain?"

"Of course!" Wendy says smiling at the blonde.

"And you just decided to let him help? What if he tried to hurt you or something?" Erza asked.

Lucy looked down, "Natsu wouldn't do anything like that."

"What makes you think that? You guys just met, right?" Carla asked to which Lucy nodded.

"Because," she whispered before resting her head back on his shoulder and tightening her grip on him, "I trust him."