And since that day, Leo had been showing up constantly, even when Lucy had no need for his presence. And yet every time he showed up unexpectedly and unannounced, her heart beat fast and she felt herself enjoying his company. He was still the same pervert though, but he did stick to his promise of not intruding in her house. But he did show up there sometimes, and the two of them would talk about everything and anything at the same time, just enjoying each other’s company. One night while they were talking, just as Leo was about to leave, Lucy grabbed his hand and pulled him a bit closer to her. She leant forwards and kissed his cheek, a blush flooding her cheeks as she pulled back and looked away from him. She felt Leo behind her as he leaned close to her and whispered, “Thank you… Lucy”, before he disappeared into the sky.
After that, Lucy felt somewhat empty, unable to admit that though he'd only been gone for a few moments, she already missed the light he seemed to bring. She refused to admit that she was in love with him though, refusing to admit that she'd given someone her heart. Her eyes darkened as she put a hand on her chest, wondering why her heart was beating so fast. After a few minutes she curled up in her pajamas and fell asleep, unable to think of anything else to do. Before falling into the soothing embrace of sleep, she made a mental note to start on the next chapter in her story tomorrow.
Lucy awoke sometime later, having fallen asleep to the melodic sound of the water outside. If one were to listen closely, the waters in the river nearby would make a soothing lullaby. Lucy yawned and tied up her hair, not noticing that she had a few unwelcome visitors in her house. She was just about to undress and step into the bathroom when she froze, spinning around as she faced some unannounced visitors. “W-what are you doing here?!” Luckily for her visitors, she couldn’t find anything that she wanted to break, which she could throw at them. Gray yawned, clothed only in his underwear he looked right at home in Lucy’s house. Natsu was next to him, but he was asleep on the floor, Happy with him. “Stupid Fire-breath insisted on checking on you in the middle of the night…” Gray sounded like he had just woken up, which she guessed he had.
“And you tagged along?” She couldn’t help but seem a little but surprised, it was Gray after all. “I was worried too, you know?” his voice was muffled slightly by a pillow, for he had landed on her bed, all set to return to sleep. “Also…” she looked so calm until she shouted the next sentence. “Why are you naked and in my house!?!” Natsu and Happy both awoke with a start. “You’re awake!” Natsu seemed oblivious to the fact that Lucy was on a bit of a rampage, the fact that she was reacting like this only confirmed that she was part of Erza, Gray, Happy and Natsu’s team. “Well duh! What are you? Some kind of perverted creep? What are you all doing here?!” she had calmed down a bit, but she still eyed her surroundings for a book to throw. “We wanted to make sure you were okay… Gray saw this weird guy following you and I followed him” Natsu said, looking quite childish as he rubbed his head and gave Lucy one of his bright smiles.
“What happened to just waking me up?” Lucy had lost all her anger, she just sighed and sat on her bed, next to Gray. "You'd have just thrown stuff at us" Gray said, covering his face with her pillow as he turned on his side, obviously wanting her to shut up so he could sleep. "That doesn't explain why you are only wearing boxers Gray..." Lucy said with forced calmness as she ripped the pillow from his grasp. "Okay, okay! I might've gotten into a little fight..." he muttered, shrugging it off as Lucy gave a stricken look, her whole demeanour changing as she looked him over for any wounds. "You could have said something earlier..." Lucy forcibly controlled her temper, taking a few deep breaths as she decided to drop the subject in favour of a hot bath. “Peek and I’ll kill you” she said, stepping into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. She leaned against the door for a few moments, smiling slightly as all of her annoyance slowly left her body. She ran her bath, letting the hot water’s steam fog up the mirrors, before she stripped off her clothes and lowered herself into the bath slowly, a small sigh escaping her lips. She summoned Plue who seemed happy to be in the bath as she instantly felt better, watching as Plue splashed her a bit, as if to tell her to cheer up and relax.
Lucy could hear the boys move about her house, obviously making themselves right at home as she eased the tension out of her muscles in her bath. “I wanna turn! Get off Slant-eyes!” Lucy winced, unable to help but smile as she listened to the two of them bickering. Happy was being oddly silent, she thought that maybe he had returned to sleep. “Back off Fire-breath! I’m sleeping!” Bit by bit she could feel herself relaxing as she lowered herself further still, into the bath, keeping a watchful eye on Plue. “Plue” she laughed as she picked up her little friend and hugged him. “Come on, let’s get you dry…” Sometime later, Lucy was out of the bath and busy drying Plue when Natsu barged in. “Your house is awesome!” He had said this on quite a few occasions, so she couldn’t understand his need to suddenly barge in, although she was still on a bit of a high, so she didn’t feel the need to tell him off. “Yeah, yeah… just don’t wreck anything…” she said with a sigh, allowing Plue to go back to the spirit realm as she stepped out of the bathroom, yawning. Gray was sound asleep, his argument with Natsu obviously disregarded and forgotten as he lay, curled up on her bed.
