•••

A dazed Lucy slowly made her way to Fairy Tail Inc., her mind preoccupied with the bizarre events of the morning.

The conversation with Natsu from before played over and over in her head, like a broken record, stuck at a particular point.

"Ughhhh!!!" She groaned, clutching a handful of her blonde hair in frustration. Several passerby's stopped and glanced at her in concern, but she could care less in that moment.

True, priorities change over time.

And Lucy's just took a drastic turn.

"Hey! I don't want you to repay me or anything! I never did. I just helped you out of human decency. You aren't obligated to pay me back or anything!"

Natsu grinned, showing off his unusually sharp canines.

"No can do. It's my duty and I have to abide by it."

"But..But.."

"No buts! I'm staying here until I get to save your life and that's final!"

All Lucy remembered next was just a whirlwind of colours. She was so frustrated and so angry, that she left him sitting in the dining room all alone in a fury. She wasn't ready to face him, and he didn't bother coming after her.

The one thing that she was grateful for.

Deciding that going to office and surrounding herself with people was better than just staying home with him and moping, she hurriedly finished off her morning routine and left the house.

'I hope he didn't see me.' She prayed. 'Because if he did, I'm pretty sure he'd follow me, and I don't think I'm ready for that yet.'

And so, 20 minutes later, here she was, standing absentmindedly in front of her tall office building, until a familiar voice called her out.

"Lucy?"

Erza was standing a few feet behind her, looking as poised and professional as ever in her smart brown dress coat.

"Erza!"

In an instant, Erza's aura changed from professional but approachable to dark and intimidating.

"E-Erza?"

She walked towards her, and poor Lucy was scared to death. Didn't she have had enough for a day?

"What part of 'text us when you get home' do you not understand?" Erza asked in a booming voice, her tone accusatory.

"Uh..I.."

"You made me wait. Not. Smart."

"Erza I Uh.."

"Aww c'mon Erza, cut her some slack!"

"Gray!"

And sure enough, Fairy Tail's best photographer stood out in the September cold, sporting just a thin T-shirt and jeans, with his beloved backpack.

Lucy shivered slightly, despite dressed in a thick coat herself.

Seriously, this guy is never cold. Just looking at his wardrobe choice makes her shiver.

"I heard that you girls went drinking yesterday to celebrate Cana's promotion."

"Yes." Erza answered, unfazed.

"Ouch! That hurt." He replied, putting a hand over his heart in mock hurt.

"Don't isolate us guys you meany!" He whined.

Lucy giggled slightly at his childishness but covered it up quickly with a cough when Erza flashed her a dark look.

Gray noticed this too.

"Hey Erza. Don't be mad at her. You know what a light drinker she is! It must've been a struggle for her to even make it to her apartment awake!" He laughed.

Lucy rolled her eyes at him.

"Thanks for the help, ice jerk!"

"Anytime!" He winked.

However, Erza seemed to take heed to his words. Thinking for a moment, she finally sighed and her dark aura was gone.

"I suppose he's right after all. Entrusting you to actually remember to do anything after drinking is futile at the most. So I guess you're in the clear for this one."

"Hey! That's not true!"

"Yeah, Yeah.." Erza rolled her eyes. She then put her arm around Lucy's shoulder and the three of them walked inside.

"Whatever you say Lucy." She laughed.

They separated when they reached the main floor, each headed to their own departments. Erza headed over to the conference room for a meeting while Gray rushed to his own office room, eager to meet up with Loke and compare their captures. As for Lucy, she just sighed, watching them rush off and made her way to her own office room.

She entered the room, which had a wall bookshelf filled with Lucy's favourite works. Her collection was so huge that she couldn't fit it all in her apartment, so the owner of the company, Makarov Dreyer, happily obliged to provide her with her very own office bookshelf.

Lucy smiled slightly at the thought of it all. Everyone here, despite being co-workers, were more like family.

She loved it.

In contrast to her sparklingly clean office room, her work table was messy. Pens and papers lay scattered, some folded and others crumpled up in general. The cleaner would've cleaned it up, if given her way, but Lucy strongly opposed, insisting that the papers were of utmost importance and she cannot let anyone handle them but herself.

She settled herself comfortably on her chair, intending to start working on her latest story. It was about a girl, Iris, who goes on epic adventures with her friends.

She grabbed a sharpened pencil and a paper, and started to write.

Except that nothing came to mind.

For the longest time, Lucy just sat there, staring blankly at the paper, forcing something, anything to come to her imagination.

However, nothing came to pass.

Sighing irritably, she got up, and strolled over to her book shelf.

Good thing that it was filled with some of her favourite works.

Grabbing one of the books from the series about a magical universe, which can only be saved by a boy who mysteriously survived a death curse, Lucy decided that reading might help her get some much needed inspiration.

She sat back down, flipping through the pages to her favourite parts.

Seconds turned to minutes, and then to hours. However, Lucy stayed put, with the book in her hand, totally engrossed in her imagination.

"Aghhhh..you're so boring! Just do something risky already!"

The sudden voice so close to her ear scared her to death, and she jumped violently, the book falling from her hand.

A strangled shriek escaping her was no surprise either.

"WHAT TH—?"

She quickly turned around, only to find a snickering Natsu.

"Your face..haha..priceless!"

He was roaring with laughter, so much so, that at one point, he had to clutch his stomach.

However, the same could not be said for Lucy.

She was red, but not from embarrassment, but from being furious. She was way past the point of 'pissed off' now.

"Y-You!" She began.

"Me" He replied, amused.

She was so angry that she found it difficult to form words. All that came out were incoherent sounds.

This caused the dragon slayer to laugh even more, and be blissfully ignorant of Lucy's dark aura.

He was sooooo dead.

•••
Yikes. It was one big chapter. Well, too bad, they are all gonna be this long more or less.

Oof, Lucy is going to annihilate him.

But no worries, I won't let that happen. We still need our NaLu ;)

I watched the new episode of FT and I'm like 😱
Shit is getting real.

Anyway, please vote, comment and share the story! Spread the word!^.^
Love
Belle 🌸
🔥❤️🔑