Light My Fire [Nalu] {The FT Love Chronicles; Book 3}

Chapter Thirteen

~Natsu~

“WHAT?!” After he and Happy had rushed to the guildhall to meet with Lucy for breakfast, she had told him everything that had happened to her the night before. He couldn't believe she was putting herself in so much danger, just for one person—who he trusted even less now that he had heard the story.

“Natsu, it's not that big of a deal,” Lucy told him. “I'd really like your help with this.”

“Where would we even start?” He asked, knowing it wouldn't do any good to argue with her. Lucy didn't change for anyone, and would never abandon one of her spirits, so he knew it would be better to help her than to try to convince her otherwise.

“I'm going to do some research on old dark magic spells with Levy this afternoon,” Lucy said. “You can come if you want.”

“Eh,” he shrugged, “I don't think I'd be much help reading a bunch of books.”

“You're probably right,” Lucy giggled. As they sat quietly to finish their breakfasts, Natsu's thoughts drifted to their confession from the day before. He suddenly felt embarrassed, sitting so close to Lucy at the table. He wanted to scoot over, but didn't want to draw attention to the fact that their legs were touching underneath the table.

“Natsu, is everything ok?” Lucy asked, frowning at him.

“Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't it be?” He said, stuffing his face to avoid looking at her. When he heard her chuckle, he paused and looked up at her. “What?”

“You're pigging-out more than usual,” she grinned.

Natsu shrugged, looking back down at his food.

“Hey, about yesterday,” Lucy began, causing him to look back up at her, “sorry if I made things awkward.”

He felt bad for getting so worked up, and put his hand over-top of hers on the table. “You didn't.”

“O-oh,” she said, blushing. “It's just, well...you were acting weird this morning, so I thought... never mind...” She shook her head, smiling at him. “So, what now?”

“Huh?” Natsu wasn't sure what she meant. When she raised an eyebrow, he got what she meant. His eyes shot to where his hand held hers, and he felt heat rush into his cheeks. He released her hand and cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to cover up his own embarrassment. “I—I suppose we're an even better team now.”

She sighed, laughing quietly at him. “I suppose we are.”

“She's your girl-friend,” Happy giggled from the seat beside Natsu.

“Are you?” Natsu questioned, looking at Lucy.

She began blushing fiercely, looking cute as her face turned redder than Erza's hair. “W-well, d-duh,” she huffed, turning away from him as he chuckled at her.

“Hey, Lucy, are you ready to go—am I interrupting?” Levy stopped upon reaching their table, grinning knowingly at the two of them.

“N-no!” Lucy snapped. “You're just in time. See ya, Natsu!” She grabbed her friend's hand and drug her away, still scarlet in the face.

Natsu watched as she left, then sighed. “Way to make things more awkward, Natsu,” he grumbled to himself.

~Lucy~

“So, what was all that about?” Levy asked with a small smirk.

“W-what do you mean?”

“With Natsu,” she giggled. “You were holding hands, and your face was scarlet red!”