Souls Entwined: Remake

Chapter 8

Waking up the next day was a little difficult for Lucy. It was so hot in her room, she hadn't accidentally put the heating on or something, had she? A quick look to her left revealed a head of pink hair and the mystery was solved. She groaned at him and pushed him away from her, causing him to roll off the side of the bed and onto the floor. Lucy laughed a little as she heard his own groans of pain. That's what he deserved for sneaking into people's houses and crawling into their beds without their permission. A little intrigued, she leaned over the side of her bed to be glared at by Natsu. She only grinned at him but soon felt herself be pulled onto the ground as well.

Lucy frowned and hit Natsu on the arm, "That wasn't fair!" Natsu shook his head, "You pushed me off first!" Lucy rolled her eyes in return, "Because you came into my bed uninvited again." Natsu shrugged, not caring about his actions or how they affected Lucy and her personal space. Lucy continued to bicker with the pink-haired man before he got up, "I'm hungry Luce, what's for breakfast?" Without Lucy's permission, he headed towards her kitchen to start looking through all of her cupboards and her fridge. "Get out of my kitchen. If you want food, go to the guild." Lucy's complaining was only half-hearted at this point. It was far too often that Natsu felt the need to invade her house and take what he wants. The rest of her team did this as well but mainly just Natsu and Happy. Remembering her friend's Exceed, she asked, "Hey Natsu, where's Happy?"

Without even taking his head out of one of Lucy's cupboards, he replied, "Oh he stayed with Wendy and Carla last night. He thinks he's finally getting Carla to warm up to him." Lucy could only pity the poor feline. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see that Carla wasn't going to be interested in Happy that way. Ever. A small vein on Lucy's forehead started to appear. Natsu was making too much noise from banging her cupboards and it was getting really annoying. She slapped him across the back of his head and pushed him towards the living room area and onto her couch. "Sit there and wait. I'll get dressed and go with you to the guild. Don't touch anything." Lucy stormed to her bedroom and closed the door, locking it. Natsu had a terrible habit of appearing in front of Lucy at the worst possible times.

Calming down a little, Lucy went ahead to pick her outfit out for the day. Summer was nearing so it was quite a warm day today and Lucy decided to dress accordingly. She chose to put on a white halter top, a light blue asymmetrical skirt that was shorter at the front and longer at the back. She then put on a pair of white ankle strap heels. She wrapped her belt tight around the hem of her skirt and tied her hair up into a tight bun so it wouldn't fall out. She left her fringe out in front of her face though. She wasn't going to put any makeup on because it would be too hot to stay on. She checked herself over in her mirror before heading out of her room to see Natsu unsurprisingly snooping around in her drawers. Luckily, there was nothing in there out of the ordinary. Sighing, she reached over and grabbed his arm to pull him out of her house so she could lock the door behind them. They walked to the guild together with Natsu going on and on about finding a new mission that they could all do together. Lucy didn't feel up for another mission so soon but she didn't want to burst his bubble.

Reaching the guild, Natsu completed his daily task of kicking the doors open to get everyone's attention. Lucy rolled her eyes at him and walked past him to get to the bar. Mira's eyes lit up when she saw Lucy coming towards her. The eldest Strauss sibling clapped her hands together and gushed, "Wow, you look really pretty today Lucy. Are you trying to impress a special someone?~ or two people perhaps?~" Lucy felt her face heat up and she sat down, putting her arms in front of her face to hide her flushed cheeks. She groaned, "Can you just get me my smoothie please Mira?" Lucy waited until Mira was gone before she took her hands away from her face. A quick look around the guild showed that there wasn't many people except from her team, Levy, Gajeel, Juvia, Max, Jet and Droy. Many of the others started to fill in around noon, if they weren't on a mission of course.

Surprisingly, Lucy found herself hoping either Cobra or Bickslow would walk through the guild doors. On the other hand, she wasn't sure if she could handle seeing either of them after her dream yesterday. Just thinking about it made her blush once more. Of course, this was the moment that Mira came back with her smoothie. The white haired girl smirked slyly, "Thinking about your lover boys?~" Lucy groaned and took the smoothie, moving away from the bar to get away from the chuckling Strauss sibling. Lucy glanced around the room and chewed the inside of her cheek. She didn't want to sit with Team Natsu at the moment and Levy wasn't here yet. Natsu was preoccupied with the youngest Strauss sibling and Gray was trying to fend off Juvia's advances. There was no way that she wanted to go back to bar to be teased endlessly by Mira. Left with no choice, Lucy sat in the only empty corner of the guild and brushed her fingers against Virgo's key, summoning her without speaking the incantation. Lucy had been training to do this with all of her spirits.

The stoic maid stood next to Lucy. "How may I help you, Princess?" Lucy smiled at her, "I'm sorry to bother you Virgo, but could you possibly bring me a book from home?" Lucy always felt bad for asking her spirits to do such menial tasks but Lucy knew that Virgo didn't mind. She was a maid after all. Virgo disappeared for a few moments and came back holding a book that she had taken from Lucy's small bookcase. "Thank you so much!" Virgo bowed at her Princess' praise, "But of course. Do you need anything else, Princess?" Lucy shook her head and Virgo swiftly returned back to the spirit realm. Happy that she had some form of entertainment, she started reading her book. Due to how quickly she became engrossed in the book, she didn't notice the arrival of Bickslow along with the Thunder God Tribe. Bickslow had wanted to go towards Lucy but he was overcome with nerves. He wasn't sure why he was suddenly so scared to approach her.

Laxus was quick to notice this and pushed the Soul Mage in the direction of Lucy. Bickslow had already got Lucy's attention before he could turn around and leave. The blonde Mage raised her head from her book and blushed a little just from the sight of him. This gave Bickslow the confidence he needed to sit opposite Lucy and it swelled his ego just a little as well. "What are you reading there, Lucy?" He had remembered the way that she had blushed when he said her name, so he did it again to get her reaction. Expectedly, Lucy's cheeks turned a deeper red and her blush started to creep down her neck. She cleared her suddenly dry throat, "Oh it's just a book about a man that falls in love with a princess. It's quite a cliche but I like it." Lucy sighed a little when she looked at Bickslow's mask. It didn't feel like she was talking to another person when he was wearing it. She bit her lip in nervousness as she asked, "Do you ever take it off?" It was clear what she was talking about so Lucy didn't need to explain.

Bickslow nodded, "Yes, at home. I've been told that my eyes make people feel uncomfortable so I wear it to make sure that nobody is scared to look me in the eye." Lucy frowned a little but quickly composed herself, "Do your teammates have a problem with your eyes?" Like Lucy expected, Bickslow shook his head to show that they didn't. She carried on, "And you have full control of your magic?" She heard a small chuckle, "Yes I do, Cosplayer." Lucy shrugged, "Then I don't see why you should care what other people think about it." There was a small pause before Lucy mumbled out, "Will you take it off? I'd like to see your eyes." Bickslow was stunned. He couldn't believe that she was okay if he took his mask off, nevermind that she asked to look at his eyes. Bickslow didn't make a move for a couple moments, out of shock, but then hesitantly started to lift off his mask and headpiece. His face had an unsure expression as he waited for Lucy's reaction.

The girl in question just rested her chin on her palm and stared deep into Bickslow's dark green eyes. She gave him a warm smile, "They're beautiful. You shouldn't hide them to satisfy the ignorance of others." Now that his mask was off, Lucy took the time to study his face, taking in everything about him. She thought that he was one of the few people that could pull off a face tattoo/marking. Bickslow was a very attractive man and as much as she didn't want to admit it, it upset her to see him cover his face every day. Listening to Lucy's kind words, Bickslow was almost sure that he was in love with this girl. His heart swelled and he had a warm feeling in his chest when she said that she liked his eyes and didn't want him to cover them up. To be completely honest, Bickslow wasn't a huge fan of wearing the mask but he didn't want people to be uncomfortable around him. This time, it was his turn to blush and Lucy could only smile wider. She felt that same warm feeling in her chest as she watched him get embarrassed by her words.