"Natsu! Who knew you could be such the romantic type?" Mira gushed after Natsu told her of his idea.

"You sure? It's not stupid or anything right?" he asked, a bit uncertain.

"No, not at all! Girls love these kind of things, and if I know Lucy, which I do, she will adore it!"

"What's all the commotion?" Erza asked as she made her way over.

"Natsu came up with a great idea to make Lucy fall in love with him!" Mira squealed.

"Mira!" He whined, cheeks reddening.

"Oi! I wanna hear what hot head has planned." Gray said, butting into the conversation.

"There's no way I'm telling you ice prick!"

"Fine, I'll just have Mira tell me." Gray shrugged and headed over to the group of girls surrounded around Mira. Juvia, Wendy, Lisanna and Levy joined Erza after she asked Mira to tell her Natsu's plan.

They were all eager to find out if Natsu really had a romantic side. Natsu just groaned and ignored them squealing over what Mira was telling them.

"Wow, didn't know the hot head actually had it in him. Are you sure you're not the one in love?" Gray teased with a smirk.

Natsu said nothing, but his cheeks still began to redden once again.

"Ah! He's not denying it! Natsu, do you like Lucy?" Lisanna joined in on the teasing.

"Or is it love?" Levy added.

"Can you guys just leave me alone?!"

"Not until you admit it."

"Admit what?"

Erza rolled her eyes at Natsu's stubborness, "That you love Lucy."

Natsu sighed and looked away from her before grumbling, "I'm not sure how I feel yet."

"Why was that?" Wendy asked.

"She makes me feel weird now."

"Weird how?"

"Like, I get this warm, fuzzy feeling when I'm around her and I feel happy. I always want to see Lucy smiling and laughing, and when she's hurt, I feel hurt too."

"Awww." the girls cooed.

"Flame head is totally in love." Gray patted his shoulder and smiled at his friend.

"Shut up."

"So when does this plan of yours come into action?"

"I'm planning on starting tomorrow, and hopefully, I'll be able to do it everyday unless we go on jobs."

Just then, the blonde celestial mage walked through the guild doors. A small smile was playing on her lips as she made her over to the crowd hanging by the bar.

"Morning!" she chirped.

"Good morning Lucy! Meet Natsu." Erza introduced the two as she saw Lucy look curiously at him.

"Hi Natsu." she smiled kindly at him. For a minute, he froze. Sure he had seen this smile many times before but this time, something was different. He felt a flutter in his chest.

Could he possibly be falling for Lucy? He shook his head to rid of the thoughts before looking up at Lucy.

"Hey." he grumbled back. He quickly regretted his tone of voice as he saw her eyebrows knit together in confusion. His grumpyness wasn't aimed towards her but more at himself for being so unsure of how he felt.

She shrugged it off before turning to Mirajane.

"Hey Mira, have you seen Bisca? She asked me the other day to watch over Asuka so her and Alzack could go on a job."

"Oh they just walked in! Looks like little Asuka is ready to hang out with you." Mirajane smiled as the small girl ran up to Lucy, her parents following behind her.

"Thanks for doing this Lucy." Bisca said.

"No problem! You know I don't mind. Good luck on the job!" she waved them off before turning to Asuka. Everyone else went off to do their own things for the day. Of course, Natsu and Happy stayed where Lucy was since they were so accustomed to always being with her.

"Are Natsu and Happy gonna play with us today too?" Asuka asked.

Lucy looked up at Natsu, who looked quite gloomy and deep in thought, before turning back to the small girl.

"I think we should. Natsu doesn't look so happy so let's cheer him up, Asuka." Lucy smiled.

"How do we do that?"

"We do something fun!" Asuka thought it over for a minute while wearing a cute expression on her face. Her lips were pouting and eyebrows furrowed together until she broke into a grin and ran over to Natsu.

"Natsu! Happy! Come play with me and Lucy!" she cheered. Natsu looked down at the small child and blinked.

"What are we gonna play?"

"We're gonna have a race! A three-legged race! Happy will be my partner." she smiled sweetly, just as Lucy came over to hear what she had in mind.

"A three-legged race?" she pondered.

"Why can't Lucy be your partner so it can be boys against girls?" Happy asked.

"Think about it Happy. You and Asuka are the same height whereas Natsu and I are kind of the same height. Plus we take bigger steps and I don't want to end up dragging Asuka beside me while racing."

"Good point. I'm in! What do you say Natsu?" The exceed asked his pal. Natsu looked at the group who was smiling at him, awaiting his answer.

"Let's race, Asuka! If you win, I'll buy you that stuffed bear you've been wanting." he said.

Asuka's eyes grew wide in glee along with her smile. She gave a firm nod, "Happy and I are gonna kick your butt, pinky!"

"It's salmon!"

Lucy giggled at the two. "C'mon. Let's go to the park to have this race." She grabbed Asuka's tiny hand in hers before walking out of the guild. Natsu and Happy jumped up to follow them, "Wait for us!"

Asuka pointed out the different types of flowers and pretended to shoot at the clouds with her toy gun the whole way to the park. When they finally arrived, they went to an unoccupied space on the field.

"We start here and race to that tree. Whoever gets there first and back wins!" Asuka said.

Lucy pulled the ribbon out of her hair and tied Asuka's left leg to Happy's right. Natsu undid his scarf and did the same thing except to his and Lucy's leg.

"Wait! Open! Gate of the Archer, Sagittarius!"

"Moshi-Moshi! What can I do for you Lady Lucy?" the celestial spirit asked.

"You declare when the race starts and the winner, if that's okay." she smiled at her spirit.

"Of course!" he waited for the pairs to get into position before saying, "Ready, set, go!" with a shot of his arrow.

They both began to race and of course, Natsu being the big competitive kid he is, put much distance between him and his competition.

"Natsu! Slow down!" Lucy complained, trying to keep up. They were already at the tree and, he began turned around to head back but his foot pivoted the wrong way.

He felt himself fall over and saw Lucy falling too. On instinct, he pulled Lucy towards his chest as he was falling backwards. He wanted to break Lucy's fall so she wouldn't get hurt. Once his back impacted on the ground, he groaned. Lucy blinked her eyes open after having them squeezed shut from fear of falling.

She felt her face heat up once she found herself face-to-face with Natsu's bare chest (thanks to his open vest).

"You okay?" he asked.

She scrambled to get up and fell back on her butt.

"I'm fine. Thanks for breaking my fall. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, never been better." He sat up and grinned at her.

She saw his scarf had come undone from their legs, so she picked it up and handed it to him. "Here."

"Thanks. Looks like we lost though." He told her, nodding his head towards the over estatic Asuka running towards them. He put his scarf back on and got up, reaching his hand out to Lucy. She gladly accepted it and dusted her self once she was stood. She realized Sagittarius had went back to the celestial realm and then heard a small giggle.

"Lucy almost ate dirt." Happy said between giggles.

"Happy." she said in a stern voice that shut the exceed up.

"Natsu! Lucy! We won! You owe me that bear." Asuka cheered.

"I guess I do. Let's go get it!"

He gave her a pat on the head and they began to walk to the store with the bear. Lucy walked a ways behind him, feeling awkward about the fall. At first glance, she didn't notice how attractive Natsu was but now...

No, Lucy! You just met him! she thought to herself. She lightly smacked her puffed up cheeks and shook her head. Natsu looked at her while she was doing this and chuckled at her cuteness.

After the fall and feeling the warmth of her against him, he knew. He was falling for Lucy. And tomorrow, Operation Make Lucy Fall in Love With Natsu commences.

*****

this chapter shouldve been up yesterday but i was busy and got sidetracked. But i hope you enjoy this chapter. it has not been proofread so sorry for typos or anything.

btw! i realized this got 100 reads so thank you all so much for that!!!