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"Hey, Natsu..." Lucy called beside him, voice uncharacteristically soft and uncertain, "why do you never ask me to spar with you?"
Natsu was grinning, having just finished another brawl with Gray, his blood still singing with adrenaline and mind fuzzy with victory, it took a moment for Lucy's words to sink in.
"Yeah, what of it?"
Lucy flushed the same color as his hair. "W-well, I just- you're always challenging Gray and Erza..." So why not me?
"Do you want to spar with me?" he asked, brows raised, an inscrutable expression on his face.
"N-no! But-"
"See?" Natsu shot her the expression he reserved for when she was being especially stupid. "Then what's the problem? It's not like I go around challenging Juvia or Levy."
Lucy blinked and laughed in slight surprise before grinning at him, worry gone from her visage. "Ah, right," she agreed, a hand waving in front of her face as if brushing away the last remnants of embarrassment. "Didn't know what I was thinking... See you later, Natsu!"
Natsu watched her walk away, a frown on his face. He knew that their last enemy had been goading Lucy on her strength and went as far as to use his challenges to certain people as an example, but he didn't know that she would be so affected by the words of a stalker.
They just didn't understand.
It wasn't that Natsu didn't want to fight Lucy because she was too weak. It was that he couldn't, and not because she wasn't his equal. She was, though he was stronger than her, but well...
Didn't Lucy know? Dragons were fiercely protective of their treasures.