Love of my Life

Chapter 4

Lucy pushed herself up quickly, color blossoming in her cheeks. "Why... how did we... why didn't you wake me up sooner!?"

"You looked comfy," Natsu said simply, sitting himself up. He stifled a yawn.

Lucy was at loss for words. She climbed out of the fort and made her way to the bathroom as quickly as she could, desperate for Natsu not to see that her face was the color of his hair. She closed the door with a sigh and looked at herself in the mirror. Her blond hair was sticking up every which way, and despite several splashes of cold water, her face remained pink.

She sat down on the toilet and buried her hands in her hair. She didn't understand how Natsu could be so oblivious. Why was she getting so worked up, but he seemed just fine?

Taking a deep breath, Lucy stepped out of the bathroom and bumped into Aimi.

"Good morning!" she said, smiling.

"It really is, isn't it?" Aimi said happily. "I feel like something amazing might happen today."

"Let's count on it!"

Aimi made her way through the hallway, but stopped in front of Haru's room. "I almost forgot," she turned to Lucy. "You said you couldn't find anything because of the mess, so I cleaned Haru's room for you."

"That's great!" Lucy peeked into the room. Aimi had scrubbed it spotless, leaving no dirty clothes or food behind. "I'll go get Natsu and we'll start looking."

Aimi beamed and hurried off to the kitchen.

Lucy found Natsu laying on the couch with Happy curled up on his stomach.

"Get up you two," she said, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at them. "We've got work to do."

"Five more minutes," Happy said sleepily.

An idea popped into her head. "It's alright, you can sleep more." Lucy sat down on a chair across from them. "I wonder how Gray and Erza are doing?"

Both Natsu and Happy sprung up from the couch.

"I almost forgot about those two! Lucy, Happy," Natsu cracked his knuckles. "Let's get moving!"

"Aye sir!"

"We can start by looking through Haru's room again, now that it's clean."

"We're on it!" Natsu and Happy sprinted towards the bedroom.

Happy began to examine Haru's desk while Natsu stood in the doorway. Lucy appeared next to him.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Now that the mess is gone I can smell something weird," Natsu said, sniffing the air.

"Hey guys, come look at this!" Happy stood on the desk and pointed at its surface. Engraved in the dark wood were fingernail scratches that lead to the window. Lucy examined them more closely and found the window frames were scuffed up as well.

"Well, looks like we're dealing with more than a runaway, right Natsu?" she said, turning to face him.

Natsu was still sniffing the air. He entered the room slowly, sticking his nose in every nook and cranny he could.

"Wow, the smell is that strong?" Happy asked. Natsu ignored him and walked over to the desk, where he straightened up promptly.

"Let's get going," he said, putting one foot on the windowsill as he started to climb out of the house.

"Wait, hold on! We can't leave right now!" Lucy protested.

"Yeah! We haven't eaten breakfast yet!" Happy added.