Operation: Too Many Boyfriends

Confession?

"Spill it, Grey," Lucy growled. Natsu stood behind her, his arms crossed, staring at Grey. Secretly, he was proud of Lucy's growl - he must really be rubbing off on her!

"Listen," the ice mage said, rubbing the back of his neck, "Mira thought that if you had all these guys after you, Natsu would get jealous, realized he had a thing for you, and you two would be together. That's why you were featured in Sorcerer Weekly."

"What a load of bull!" Natsu exclaimed, looking at Lucy. Like he needed guys to be jealous about to know how he felt about Lucy!

Lucy glanced at Natsu, hurt by his words. Was he saying he wouldn't feel that way about her?

"It's the wanna-be mages outside," Grey told him. "Just past the flowers, near the bar, Mira's entertaining a whole bunch of mages from different guild that have come to see you."

"No!" Lucy whispered, her face going red. So many guys were that interested in her? What the heck? She couldn't help but glance at Natsu to judge his reaction.

He stood there, no expression on his face, trying to peer around the flowers to see who Mira was with.

"I know some of these guys! There's the Blue Pegasus one that helped you with your spell - Hibiki something? Is that Orga and Sting from Sabertooth?" Natsu bust out laughing.

Lucy's cheeks reddened. "Natsu, it's not funny!" she cried. "What am I going to do?"

"I have a suggestion," Grey spoke up. "Why not just announce that the two of you are dating and that'll get rid of everyone? Plus, it'll make Mira happy and she'll get off your back."

"But, we're not dating!" Lucy and Natsu said at the same time.

Grey rolled his eyes. "Just pretend! It isn't that hard, is it?"

"Oh, like you pretend you don't love Juvia!" Natsu exclaimed with a grin, accompanied by a mischievous chuckle.

"Hey! Don't turn this on me, flame brain!" yelled Grey. "I was just trying to help!"

Lucy put her hand on Natsu's balled up fist. "He's right," she said. "Are you okay if we do this?" She blushed. "I wouldn't want to keep you away from anyone you truthfully liked."

Natsu grinned at her, slinging his arm around her shoulder. "Not a problem, Luce! Let's go get 'em!"

They walked towards the bar, Lucy quickly trying to come up with a speech that would convince the others she and Natsu were telling the truth - that they were actually dating.

"Hey, listen up all you jerks!" Natsu yelled out to the crowd of non-Fairy Tail members. "Lucy is off the market! She's MY girlfriend so get lost!"

Ugh, why did she bother?

Mira started jumping up and down, squealing.

Erza requipped and stood with sword in hand. "You heard Natsu. Party's over boys!"

A lot of the mages looked wide-eyed at Erza and took a couple steps back.

"Um, sorry?" Lucy spoke up to the crowd. "And, uh, thanks for the interest?" She blushed.

Erza herded the mages outside and then announced to the waiting men the same.

"Can we do something about these flowers?!?" yelled Elfman, sneezing again.

As people bustled to move the flowers out of the guild, Lucy looked at Natsu, leaning towards him and whispering, "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

He grinned at her. "Of course! It's what friends are for, right?"

"Yep," she managed to smile and not sigh, "friends."

"You okay, Luce? You kinda look....down."

She rubbed her forehead. "Just a headache. Elfman might be on to something - too many flowers," she replied with a smile.

He grabbed her hand and went to sit at their usual table. Mira bustled over, grinning from ear to ear.

"Congratulations, you two! I knew Nalu would happen!"

"Nalu?" they both asked.

"Oh, you know - Natsu + Lucy equals Nalu! It's your couple's name!"

"Um, okay," Lucy answered, letting the takeover mage have her fun.

"Now it's on to Gruvia, Elfgreen, Bixslana, and Gale!" she exclaimed, ticking the names off her fingers.

"Good luck with that!" Lucy smiled at her. After Mira left, she leaned over and whispered to Natsu, "Should we warn them?"

"I don't even know what the heck she's talking about!" Natsu answered, confused.

"Aw, Natsu's gone and hurt his brain again!" Happy declared, flying over. "Lucy, now that you two are dating, you shouldn't make him think so hard!"

Lucy ignored him and saw Levy walk in with Gajeel. "I need to go talk to Levy," she told Natsu.

"Sure! Hey, order a hamburger for me, will ya?"

She nodded, gave his order to a still smiling Mira, as well as a strawberry shake for her as well, then walked over to where Levy and Gajeel were sitting, arguing about something.

"Um, hey, Levy? Can I talk to you about something?" Lucy asked, hating to interrupt, although it seemed the fight was over since both mages refused to look at one another.

"Gladly!" Levy huffed, sending Gajeel a glare.

"What's that about, or do I want to know?" asked Lucy in a low voice as the two girls moved to another table.

Levy rolled her eyes. "Typical sexist male remarks!"

"Okay then." She leaned closer to her friend. "Levy-chan, did you know about Mira's plan to, um, hook Natsu and I up?" She used Grey's term for lack of a better one.

Levy's eyebrows raised. "You know about that?"

Lucy nodded. "Grey accidentally told us - but don't tell Mira that! We walked into a huge mess and, well, to make a long story short, Natsu and I are pretending to date to get Mira off our back."

Levy had perked up when Lucy had mentioned dating, but then slumped when the whole sentence hit - "pretend" seemed to be the key word.

"Whose idea was that?" she asked carefully, knowing how Lucy felt about Natsu.

"Grey's, and believe it or not, Natsu agreed to do it!"

Levy sighed. "Lu - have you ever thought Natsu might have agreed because he actually might like you in the same way you do him?"