6 Chapter 6

Lucy enjoyed her time with Natsu immensely despite any concerns she might have had beforehand.

He was excited about a ton of things, including - for some reason - the fact that she was willing to walk everywhere rather than drive. She'd questioned it, but she hadn't pushed when he'd refused to answer. Every now and then, he'd fidget with his scarf, and Lucy finally asked what had been nagging at her mind as they wandered among the trees in a park in the middle of Magnolia.

"Where'd you get your scarf?" she questioned. His gaze snapped to her face. "I haven't seen one like it before."

"Uh…" He blinked, screwing up his face as he thought about whether or not he wanted to answer her question. Finally, he shrugged and said, "My dad. Gave it to me a while ago." His hand reached up to tightly grasp it. "He's gone now...dunno where he went. Disappeared into thin air about...what, seven years ago? Was twelve, maybe thirteen when he left."

Lucy's gaze softened. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, "I didn't mean to pry-"

"Nah," he interrupted, crossing his arms. "S'fine."

They walked in silence for a few moments before Lucy said softly, "I know how you feel." He glanced sharply at her, confused, and she gave a tight smile as she continued. "My mother died. Years ago. I'm not saying your father's dead," she said hurriedly, as if worried he'd thought she was suggesting such an idea, "But I know how you feel when it comes to missing your parent." She didn't bother to mention her father. He wasn't much of a father to begin with anyways.

Natsu snorted softly. He opened his mouth to say something, then stopped dead in his tracks, inhaling sharply. Lucy watched, confused as he tilted his head back, breathing in deeply, as if he was scenting the air. And then his head snapped over his right shoulder. "...the hell?"

"Natsu?" she said uncertainly.

Onyx eyes darted to meet hers for a moment before he quite literally growled. "C'mon. This way. Stick close." She didn't bother to question it. He had saved her once before. She quickly stepped to his side, arm nearly brushing his as she let him guide her through the trees of the park they'd stopped in.

"Natsu?" Lucy repeated, nervous now. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," he muttered, "Now shut up."

She puffed up in anger - until she noticed the dark look on his face. He glanced around, his body tensed, as if he was ready for a fight. He'd sniff the air every now and then - she decided not to question it, trusting him for whatever reason - and even change directions at some point.

Until they reached the streets.

Quite suddenly, Natsu relaxed. He flashed her a huge toothy grin, pretending he hadn't just scared the hell out of her. She jumped when he dropped his arm around her shoulders in a friendly way, giving a final suspicious look around them before muttering. "Sorry, someone was following us."

Lucy stiffened, shrugging his arm off to glare at him. "What do you mean?"

"Like I said," he answered with a shrug. "We were being followed. Happens sometimes… Some people don't like our, uh, group. Might have been that someone thought you were part of our group after hanging out with Levy yesterday...it would explain why you were attacked."

"Now you tell me," Lucy gritted out. "You could have said something about that earlier. Jerk. Or even last night, after I was attacked."

He shrugged, rubbing the back of his head, mussing his pink hair even more. "I didn't think about it," he said honestly. He suddenly gave her a fairly suspicious look and Lucy fought back the urge to roll her eyes. What reason did he have to be suspicious of her when he was the one spitting fire in front of her? "...you do something that might get you killed?"

"Uh, not that I can think of." She'd done something that might explain why the one from last night would have been after her though. Not that he - or any of her new friends - needed to know that. Lucy sank her teeth into her lower lip. "Anyways, have any other cool place to show me? We can't just wander through the trees for six hours...it gets boring. Trust me, I've done it."

Natsu wrinkled his nose, and Lucy tried not to giggle at the expression on his face. "I don't usually go out into town," he admitted. "I'm usually working, at my house, or hanging out with the gui- uh, group."

"Fairy Tail, you called it...right?"

His gaze snapped to hers, wide with shock. Lucy shrugged. "Last night. You mentioned it. And when I was first messaging Mira and Levy, their little addresses had it in them. Sorry if I'm wrong."

"Nah," Natsu said hesitantly. "It's what we call ourselves. There's a bunch of others, too. Sabertooth...Blue Pegasus...Lamia Scale… Those are the other main ones, anyways. There's a bunch of other smaller ones, but…" He shrugged. "Can't really remember what they're called."

Lucy cocked her head. "And how do you get to be a part of these groups? Not that I'm interested," she hastily added, flushing when he shot her a surprised look. "I'm just curious...I've never heard of them until recently."

"You wouldn't. We try to keep ourselves out of the papers."

"Yeah," Lucy mused, remembering just how much had been in the papers about the explosion that she was certain Natsu and those other two were behind. "I bet. But how do you get in?"

"Difficult to explain." Natsu shifted, uneasy now as he shoved his hands into his pockets. He puffed out a little breath of air, smoke drifting out of his mouth along with it, but he didn't seem to notice. "Mira would be better at it. Or Levy. I suck at it."

Lucy furrowed her brow, slightly disappointed. "Oh, well." She cleared her throat. "Anyways. Where do you want to go?"

Natsu gave a huge grin, one that seemed like it was going to split his face in two, and Lucy couldn't help but smile back at him. "I'll show ya one of the other parks in Magnolia…"

Lucy locked the door behind her upon entering the hotel room she was staying in, sighing softly in exhaustion. Natsu had dragged her to every park he could think of, nearly cost her a fortune when it was time for some dinner, and had been eager to try and do strange things she never would have thought of doing on a regular basis.

But she'd grown fond of the strange pink-haired guy. Whenever he did do something stupid, he'd always made sure she wasn't going anywhere before doing it.

Like when he'd decided to jump out of the top of a tree.

"Hey, Luce!" he'd shouted, grinning down at her, somehow managing to balance on the thinner branches. Lucy had been standing at the base, head cranked back to watch him with wide eyes. "Watch this!"

And then the idiot had stepped right of the branches. She'd had to stifle a cry, clasping her hand over her mouth in shock as he seemed to tumble through the air, laughing as he flipped before landing lightly on the balls of his feet in front of her, breath washing over her face as he laughed, teasing, "Did I scare you?"

She'd smacked the back of his head as hard as she could, earning a yelped protest until he saw her glaring at him furiously as she'd hissed, "Scare me? I thought you were going to kill yourself, you moron!"

In other words, she'd enjoyed herself. Long gone was the annoyance with the idiot she'd nearly hit with her car.

...speaking of which, she still needed to learn his excitement over the lack of using one…

He'd even gone as far as to walk her back to her car, telling her he didn't feel like chasing off anymore attackers.

She'd been fine with that.

Lucy dumped her purse on the couch, humming to herself as she went to fix herself a cup of tea. The day had been fun, even with the reluctance she'd first shown towards agreeing to hang out with Natsu.

She was in the middle of putting sugar in her tea when her phone first went off. She answered without bothering to look at the caller ID, placing it between her cheek and shoulder so she could stir the sugar into her drink. "Hello?"

"Lucy!" Mirajane said happily into the phone, her voice full of eagerness. "Natsu just stopped by…" He did, did he? Lucy blinked. That was certainly fast...maybe Mirajane lived near the hotel she was staying in? "He said you were probably back by now?"

"Yep," Lucy answered, dumping the spoon into the kitchenette's sink. She took a sip of her tea. "Just got in a few minutes ago, safe and sound."

"Good," Mirajane said pleasantly. "I'm glad...did you have any more issues today? When you were out?"

Lucy thought back to the one Natsu had supposedly thought was following them, deciding against telling the silver-haired woman about it. It was no big deal...the person was gone now, anyways. "No, no issues. I think Natsu's company would have kept anyone away. Lisanna certainly seemed eager to get back."

Mirajane giggled. "Yeah, sorry about that. It's really hard to get this place clean when he keeps trying to fight everyone. And when he starts fighting, the place usually ends up...ah, how do I put this...destroyed. It's usually pretty destroyed by the time he's done."

"I can imagine it." Lucy wandered back into the other room, tea in one hand and phone in the other. She set her tea down on the sidetable beside the couch, seating herself down and rummaging in her purse for the list of questions that Mirajane had answered for her. "I think I spent all of my spending money on that guy's meals…"

"Oh, dear...I'll pay you back for that,"she promised. "He does eat a lot...I'll have a talk with him about that tomorrow, or send Lisanna and Elfman out to do it. If it makes you feel any better, he seemed to like you well enough." Mirajane laughed softly, sounding amused. "I swear, he's like a child in the body of a twenty year old… He said he was very excited to see you again tomorrow."

Lucy heard the sly, hinting tone in her voice and knew immediately what she was thinking of. Damn, you knew a person for less than a week, and they were already planning to set her up with someone...what was it about her that screamed at people to do that? Not that Mirajane would force her into marriage like certain other people that could be mentioned… "I'm glad. We didn't really have the best meeting ever...I nearly hit him with my car a few days ago, back in Crocus. That's how we first met." Lucy cringed at the memory. "Was pretty sure he wanted to throttle me."

"So you're the one who almost ran him over…"Mirajane gave a laugh, amused. "He mentioned that when he got back. He was anything but happy about it. He seems to have forgotten about it, though… He does have a really short memory of some things…"

Lucy grinned. I'd say. "So he's the one hanging out with me tomorrow, then?"

"Yes," Mirajane confirmed. "Him, and maybe one or two others. Erza, the one who can usually keep his wild tendencies under control, came back, and she usually likes to be able to keep an eye on him and another one of our members at the same time."

"Alright. Just let Natsu know that I'll be at the same place at the same time."

"Sure thing, Lucy. Bye!"

Lucy hung up, let out a soft sigh, and then shook her head. She was glad Natsu had decided she was a friend, but...damn. She really didn't need to be set up with him. She glanced at the clock, then groaned. She'd look over Mirajane's answers tomorrow morning, when she had some coffee in hand.

Tonight, she was going to sleep. Spending the day out with Natsu was exhausting, and she needed sleep to be able to handle another day out with him, even if there was someone else there to help keep an eye on the wild guy.

Lucy changed quickly into some comfortable sweatpants and a large T-shirt after finishing her tea, set the mug in the sink, made sure everything was suitable for the upcoming day.

And before long, she was curled up in bed, her eyelids fluttering shut as she fell into the world of sleep.

The next morning found the sun shining brightly. People bustled busily throughout the town of Magnolia, just as they had done every day. Occasionally, something small would happen, such as a bicycle zooming past, or a dog stopping to sniff at shrubbery as their owner tried to haul them forwards.

Normalcy was evident in the Rozlyn Cafe, as well. People came in, eagerly ordering drinks and food. They sat, sometimes alone, a book or newspaper in hand, and sometimes with others, chatting excitedly about their plans for the upcoming weekend or for the upcoming Fantasia Parade that was thrown every year.

Yet nobody took notice of the small things that were different.

Nobody seemed to realize that a purse with belongings spilled across the floor had been left abandoned at an empty table. What looked like a scrap of torn cloth lay on the floor next to it. A wallet was lying open on the floor, abandoned. A few chapsticks had rolled away, a pair of discarded earrings tangled in the material of a rug beneath the table nobody seemed to notice.

A phone, open, with a cracked screen and what looked like half-dried blood spotting its surface, buzzing furiously as a text came.

Yo! Luce! Got your number from Mira...something big has come up. Can't tell ya what, sorry. Fairy Tail business. Go ahead and explore without us (Erza and the Ice Princess were gonna come, too). Dunno if any of us will be able to hang out again before you head back to Crocus. Lisanna says to tell you that we're all sorry.

Natsu

The fun begins! :D Just some Natsu and Lucy chill time before things really start moving. There's barely a peaceful moment after this! Hope you're all ready! Discovered Noragami recently...in love with the series. It's a good one. Thanks to all those that reviewed, favorited, and followed!