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Finally, I can go home. I had a long day today, even though I didn’t go on a job. The guild was as loud as ever, and the normal chaos all culminated when the game of pool almost became deadly. I just want to cook dinner, relax in the bath, and change into pajamas. I walk along the canal, ignoring the calls of the men on boats to ‘stay away from the water!’. I get to my apartment and unlock the front door. Finally home.
“Hi Lucy, how’re ya?” I startle at the sound of Natsu's voice and am shocked that he is here, inside my previously locked apartment.
“What are you doing here? I know I locked the door,” I ask, obviously irritated by the lack of privacy I have. He said that he was out all day, dealing with some Vulcans in the East Forest. It was an easy enough job, but it would take all day for just Natsu to do it.
“Oh, I finished that up ages ago,” he replies, like surprising your best friend after breaking into her apartment is normal behavior.
“Then why are you here? You have a perfectly good house yourself.” I let the anger I feel into my voice, trying to get him out.
“I like your place, it’s all clean and tidy,” he replies
“I don’t care if you live in a pigsty, please just go,” I say in a no-nonsense tone, pointing behind me to the door.
“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow Lucy!” he says as he climbs out of my window.
“Use the door next time!” I yell in reply.
Finally, I am alone. Luckily, he didn’t insist on staying all evening like he has done before and didn’t derail my plans. I start cooking up some veggies for dinner and eat. I work on my novel for a few minutes, then take a piping hot bath before heading to bed.
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My entire body hurts today. I went on a solo job that I thought would be easy, it was just grabbing some magical honey for an elderly lady but I ended up running into a Wyvern. I was able to use Taurus to fight it off, but during my mad dash into the forest, I tripped and rolled down a gulch, bruising every part of my body and gaining a couple of new scratches. I put my key into the lock and walk in, only to find Natsu at my desk, reading what looks like my manuscript. “Put that down! You know nobody is allowed to read that!” I yell, snatching it out of his hands.
“Sorry, I just got so bored waiting for you to come home I picked up the first thing I saw!” he says, looking apologetic.
“Wait, how long have you been waiting here for?” I ask, worried about the answer.
“Happy and I came over after lunch, but he went home about an hour ago,” he says “By the way do you have any food? I’m starving,” all grins and cheekiness.
“No, sorry,” Why am I apologizing? He’s the one who broke in. “I ate at the guild hall before coming here,”
“Ah, well, I might as well go there for dinner,” he says, jumping up as he heads out the door. “Want to go on a job with us tomorrow? It pays well for what it is,”
“Sure, as long as it isn’t an overnight trip,” I say, thinking about how nice it would be to go on a job with someone else for the first time in a while.
“It isn’t, I’ll come pick you up around 9 tomorrow,” he says, walking out the door and waving goodbye.
At least he used the door.
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“Hey, good morning, sleepyhead,” I wake up to a voice in my room. Someone was standing over me as I slept. I bolt upright, trying to orientate myself in the early morning light, wondering who my assailant is. Of course. I flop back down onto my bed. It’s Natsu and Happy, who really shouldn’t be here.
“Jeez, what time is it?” I ask. They wouldn't listen to another reprimand today, and Natsu did say that he would pick me up this morning.
“It’s around 9:00, do you not remember the job?”
“I do, just let me shower and I’ll be ready to go,” I get out of bed, take a hot shower, and grab a bagel before heading out the door with them.
“So, what’s the job?” I ask, realizing that Natsu hadn’t told me the night before.
“Taking care of some bandits in Roseville,” Happy says, naming a town about 5 miles from Magnolia. “They’ve been causing some trouble for travelers, and we are being offered 100,000J to take them to the constable,”
“Sounds easy enough, how are we gonna catch them?”
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This is humiliating.
I can’t believe I agreed to play the part of a helpless, lonely traveler. The boys put me in a full-length dress that I can’t even properly fight in, and are currently hiding in the back of a wagon we borrowed. “This isn’t gonna work you guys,” I say, twitching the reins to keep the horses on the road.
“Of course it is, you just need to lay it on,” I hear Happy mumble.
“Fine. Only because I need the money for rent,” I take a deep breath and remind myself that I have done much more embarrassing things to keep a roof over my head. This has nothing on Duke Everlue’s mansion. “Oh no, poor me, all alone in this scary forest, just out where the bandits and thieves can grab me,” I feign being scared and nervous, hoping for this all to be over quickly.
We carry on in that fashion for a few more miles, and just as I am about to give up, a man steps out into the road. “Ok guys, we have company,” I whisper back at them. I get a groan out of Natsu in return. Crap. I can’t believe we forgot about his motion sickness until now. “What do you want?” I call out to the man, who has been joined by two more people.
“I want the stuff in the back of your wagon, missy.” So these people are the bandits we are supposed to catch.
“Sorry, no can do,” I say, grabbing my keys and summoning Cancer, just as Natsu recovers enough to jump out and start throwing fire everywhere. Typical . We subdue them quickly, throw them in the back of the wagon, and take them back to Roseville. The constable is so thrilled that we caught them that he adds another 25,000J to the job. Not a bad day at all. We go back to the guild hall and grab a celebratory drink before I head home. By the time we were ready to go, it was dark, so I got Natsu to walk me home. Once there, I promptly fell asleep.
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“Hey Mira, how are you today?” I ask, taking a seat at the guild’s bar.
“Good, why are you here so late?” she hands me a juice, then turns to keep cleaning
“I think Natsu is waiting for me at my apartment, and I don’t want to deal with that tonight. I’m trying to bore him out.”
“Really? I thought you two were always together,” she says, giving me an innocent smile.
“Typically, yes, but I need my alone time, and not constantly being badgered about the next job or what I’m making for dinner. I don’t even know how he manages to break in. ” I sigh and take a sip of my drink.
“I have no clue how either,” she says, turning away again and drying a glass as if trying to avoid suspicion.
“Wait. Do you still have that key I lent you for emergencies?” I ask, hoping my hunch is wrong.
“No, I seem to have lost it a little while ago.” Mira is still drying off the same glass she grabbed a minute ago.
“You gave it to Natsu, didn’t you?”
“No. Happy stole it one day during a fight over a game of darts,” she says, finally putting the glass down.
“That stupid cat! I knew they had a key from somewhere. Well, I’m going to go home now, they probably left by now.” I say goodnight and go home.
When I get there, I see, to no surprise, the still form of Natsu asleep on my couch. I sigh and decide to let him stay the night. I grab a blanket and drape it onto him. You know, he really is kinda cute when he’s sleeping.
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I wake up as the sun hits my face. I allow myself a few minutes to soak it in before my day officially has to start. As I roll out of bed, I remember that I let Natsu sleep here the night before. I start to make us some pancakes for breakfast before I head off to do some errands. I start grabbing some ingredients and turn on some music as I start on the batter. Natsu stirs in his sleep, then a few minutes later I see him all bleary-eyed and barefoot in my kitchen. ‘’Good morning, sleepyhead. I’m making pancakes.” He says thanks, grabs a few plates, and sets the table. We make idle conversation as I finish up and we eat, then he leaves to go home. I busy myself around town, buying groceries and window shopping before I head home and add some words to my novel. It’s coming along now, and I can see the end goal in my mind. I’m completely immersed in my world until I hear the sound of a key sliding into my lock. Nobody has a key to my apartment except… Natsu. I hurry to the door and open it before he can, catching him completely off guard and almost making him drop the carry-out boxes he was holding. “Um, hey, I brought you some food?” He looks a little guilty after being caught, but he brought me takeout from my favorite restaurant, so I'm not too mad.
“Why don’t you come in?”
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Somehow, Natsu remembered my food order, months after we ate at this restaurant. We were soaked from the rain and didn’t want to go all the way to the guild for food. We ate and went to my place afterward to play card games and hang out. I felt like something clicked that night. Maybe I didn’t love Natsu just as a friend. Maybe the warm, fuzzy feelings I had were love in a romantic way. I couldn’t confront those feelings then, so I pushed them down and away. But seeing him breaking in almost daily, remembering the little things that I like and dislike, and always being there for me reawakened those feelings. So, I’ll let him keep breaking in, and let him stay the night more. Maybe he feels the same way, I don’t know, but I’m willing to take the steps to see.
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Later, I gave Natsu some blankets and let him stay.
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I walked into my apartment after hanging out at the guild, until I got bored and left. I hadn’t seen Natsu for the last hour or so, and I didn’t want him to get lonely at my place, where he was bound to be. Ever since he brought me takeout, he has stayed at my place more than his own. I don’t think Happy minds too much, but if he asked, he could stay too. I open my door to see Natsu there, holding a picnic basket and rifling through my linen closet. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“The weather is really nice today, I was thinking that we could have a picnic in Southgate Park,” he says, finally finding a blanket suitable for a picnic.
“That’s so sweet, thanks.”
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We walk over to Southgate Park, reminiscing about all our past adventures here. Aquarius standing in as a fountain, Happy being chased by dogs to the point of never coming here, and the multiple picnics and games held by the guild. We eat and I spy a couple standing for what looks to be engagement portraits here. The girl is grinning from ear to ear, and the boy seems to be holding back tears. The painter is highlighting the ring on her finger above all. “I wonder if that’s in the cards for me one day,”
“What was that?” Natsu said. I didn’t mean to say that aloud.
“Nothing, ignore me,” I say, glancing up at the couple one more time. He seems to follow my gaze, his eyes finally landing on her ring.
“They must have gotten engaged recently,” he said. So he did notice. “Good for them.”
“I guess, they look really happy together,” I say, letting out a small sigh. “It’s getting dark out, we should probably go,” he says. We walk home, and Natsu goes to his house for the night. As I drift to sleep, I can’t seem to forget the couple and how familiar they looked. It isn’t until late at night that I realize they remind me of Natsu and me.
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Natsu dragged me along shopping with him today. I don’t know why, I’m just a cat. I like fish and don’t really need anything, so I typically don’t go. But he was insistent on having me go, so here I am.
“C’mon Happy, the shop’s down this way.” Natsu seems more nervous than normal and is acting impatient.
“What has your tail in a twist? You never buy anything that isn’t a necessity.” I just want to go home and eat some fish.
“I can’t tell you, but it is really important. Here it is.” He stops in front of a sign that says Magnolia’s Jewels. He is looking at something through the front window, and I jump up to see what it is. I see a ring, with diamonds in the shape of a star. It’s a ring that would be perfect for… Lucy.
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I had just finished up some shopping and was headed home to grab lunch when I noticed my door was unlocked. Natsu was probably inside, he never remembered to lock the door. “Hey, Natsu,” I say as I walk in.
“Hi, Lucy,” he says, suddenly dropping to one knee and pulling out a box, “Will you marry me?”
My head is a flurry of thoughts and realizations, and I stand there, too shocked to speak before choking a “Yes,” out through my tears. He stands up, wrapping me in a hug, unlike anything I had ever felt, all warm and love and sweetness. We take a step back, looking at each other through open eyes for the first time.
“I love you. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner,” he says through his tears, slipping a ring onto my finger. He touches my cheek and kisses me.
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The next day, as I walk into the guild, everyone is quick to notice my ring. The party lasted long into the night, and I have never been happier. Gray was happy too, as Cana made quite a large betting pool years ago. “I guess you can officially have a key to my apartment now,” I whisper to Natsu, smiling ear to ear.