"Ah, it's boring without you around," I said aloud, as if to my ceiling. "You idiot! After all that we've been through, you up and leave. You hardly even took the time to say goodbye, and you didn't even say where you were going! And to top it all off, you said you'd be back in a couple of months. It's been two years! I think it's been long enough. When are you coming back…?"

The ceiling didn't answer me, but I hadn't expected it to, so I wasn't really disappointed.

"I have something I want to tell you, you know?" this was softly spoken. "I didn't really figure it all out until after you left. But I guess it would be stupid to say I didn't subconsciously know it all along, because how could I not fall for that grin? Jeez, you'd better come back soon, you idiot. I want to tell you so bad that it hurts sometimes. And you're the one who promised that you wouldn't let me get hurt anymore! Now you're the one causing it!"

I laughed a little here.

"I'm not mad at you, though," I grinned, reaching out to the ceiling as though I could touch him. "I know you had to do it. I just miss you, Natsu."

A sigh escaped my lips once more, and I finally decided to get up and get ready for the day. I was running close to my deadline again and needed to take on a job. Even if all of them seemed out of my league I'd have to pick one today and do the best that I could, since Gray and his girlfriend, Juvia (she was happy about that, let me tell you! "Gray-sama picked Juvia over Lucy!" she said) were out on a mission together, and Erza had actually been granted permission to go see Jeral in his cell and I would swear there was something going on there, too. Happy was off with Lisanna on a mission, even! Where was the love for the poor, forgotten celestial mage that is me?

I wasn't mad at them, though. I knew they were just coping with the emptiness in their own way. Without our energetic Salamander, teaming up just wasn't quite the same. Not that we didn't still do it occasionally, because we did when Erza walked in and demanded that Gray, Happy, and I accompany her on her job. I actually enjoyed teaming up with Erza, on the few occasions that it was just us, because I always strive to get stronger so I can actually do something. I want to be someone who can be proud of being part of Fairy Tail's strongest team, someone who can be credited with helping out instead of just being credited as a cute tag-along (that had been the case before. I'd seen several articles, and I was mentioned as the "cute, busty cheerleader"). Needless to say, I'd gotten the drive I needed to get better, get stronger, so that I could be worthy of teaming up with Erza and Gray and Happy and Natsu.

Stretching, I changed from my pajamas into a tube top and a miniskirt. I slipped on a belt, too, hooking my key ring and whip to either side like usual. I forewent a pair of heels and put on a pair of boots that went almost up to the knees instead. Those would be more practical for a job than the heels, anyway.

With that done, I left my 70,000 jewel apartment and headed over to the guild to scout out a request that I could handle myself.

The trek to the guild went by just as it normally did. I was warned by the nice men on their boat to be careful, and I smiled and cheerfully waved back, just like every day in the three and a half years since I'd moved to Magnolia and become a part of Fairy Tail. I stopped for a moment in a few spots, reminiscing on the good days when Natsu had been following me home one time trying to be sneaky, or had slipped on a patch of ice in the winter and immediately ran back to the guild blaming Gray and just aching to get in a fight with him, or had just walked home with me because he didn't want anything to happen to me, since it was already dark.

I made fairly good time, entering the guild to a greeting from Mira, which I returned as I made directly for the request board.

The one for the least reward was still up at 160,000 jewels, but I read it and decided that I should be able to handle it, so I took it down and headed over to Mira to formally accept it.

"Ah! The Roadway Bandits request! Are you sure you want this one, Lucy?" she said, glancing at it.

"Yeah," I slid into a seat at the bar and rolled my shoulders a little, "I'm at the end of the rope for paying my rent as it is, and I haven't had a job in about two weeks. It's getting a little boring, so I decided I'd just do one on my own."

"You know the leader is supposed to be a pretty strong mage, right?" Mira asked, giving me my usual glass of orange juice. As she still paused on marking down my acceptance.

"He can't be that good," I said, shrugging, "and besides, if I get beat up a little it'll just piss me off and I'll beat the hell out of him. It's as easy as that."

Mira giggled, writing it down as she said, "If that's the way you think, then I guess you can handle it. You know why?" I shook my head, and she grinned. Then she continued, " It's because you sounded a little like Natsu there. Did you realize that?"

I blinked, and kind of smiled as I took a sip of my juice and replied, "No, I didn't notice it at all. But I guess…Natsu just kind of rubs off on you after a while, y'know? It's almost too quiet here without him around."

"Yeah," Mira looked out the window as she slid me the request form over the bar and went to wiping out a glass. "You are absolutely right about that."

We fell into a silence, although not an uncomfortable one, as I drank my juice and Mirajane went to serve a few other people. I took this time before heading out on the job to re-read the paper sitting beside me.

"Looking for a capable mage or group of mages to take out the Roadway Bandits terrorizing the way from Hargeon to Magnolia and capture their leader.

The Roadway Bandits are a group of two or three dozen thieves who have been attacking travelers for a few weeks now. Their leader is a mage known only by the codename 'Bear' and is reportedly dangerous.

Please deal with them as quickly as possible!

Reward of 160,000 jewels if successful."

It sounded as if the person who wanted help didn't know too much about them himself, so I would have to be doubly careful when facing them. If his guess was off by more than a dozen it could be bad for a single, fairly cute blonde celestial mage like myself! Especially if there were more men than he had said. It would almost be too easy if there were fewer than that.

Almost before I realized it, I had finished off my orange juice and consequently decided it was time to go. I picked up the request and shoved it in my small travel bag that I'd brought to the guild with me, standing and swinging the aforementioned bag onto my shoulder.

"I'm off, Mira!" I said, waggling my fingers in a little wave. "Wish me luck!"

I got good luck wishes from more than just Mira. Cana, who was drinking at the bar, wished me luck, as well as Nab (by the request board as usual), Warren, Max, Wendy, Charle, Levi, and the master. I waved at them cheerfully as I headed out the door, starting the walk to the train station. I would take a train to Hargeon from there, meet with the person who'd sent the request in person, stay the night there, and then start walking back to Magnolia and enter the Halfway Inn on the way. This inn was where the bandits had taken refuge and where they attacked weary travelers who just wanted a good night's rest.

As I settled into my seat on the train, I let myself reminisce a certain someone's hilarious cases of motion sickness, and how, funnily enough, his Edoras counterpart thrived on driving vehicles.

Hargeon was exactly as I remembered it from my second visit there. The first time I'd been there, the port had been destroyed because that was the very first day that I met Natsu and the first of many times that he was there to watch my back and save me when I needed it. I smiled at the memory and made my way to the place where the man who would pay me when I was done with his job request lived.

I had kind of expected the treatment I got. The man was skeptical of me because I was a girl. No doubt he thought I was some big-breasted blond bimbo that he could just insult and send home, or send in the wrong direction, but I just sat there and took the disrespect. He'd know differently soon enough. I would see to it that I completed his job tomorrow when I went to the Halfway Inn, and thus prove the rude thoughts he was probably thinking about me entirely wrong. I was a mage from the best guild around, and here he was treating me like I was a child in a world made up entirely of adults. It was admittedly frustrating, but I put up with it and breathed a sigh of relief after he gave me the information and I headed to my hotel for the night.

For once, I could change and bathe and do all of the things I usually did without the fear of someone bursting in on me. After Natsu had left it had admittedly slowed, but it was as if my friends in the guild picked up on the little bit of loneliness I was leaking and they started showing up. First off, it was a slumber party initiated by Erza, and the girls were all there. Levi, Wendy, Juvia, Mirajane, Lisanna, Erza herself, Cana, Lucky, Evergreen…and then I had come home one day a week later to find Gray, practically naked, snoring in an armchair. Happy frequented my apartment, sometimes with Lisanna tagging along. Mirajane stopped by a lot, and sometimes when she couldn't she sent either Elfman or Lisanna. But here, in my hotel room, with the door and window locked and curtains pulled closed, I felt I could relax without worrying about random intruders.

I still kept my keys right beside the bath while I was in there, anyway.

Once that was out of the way, I crawled into bed around nine with a Kemu Zaleon novel in hand. I was rereading it for the fifth time, but it never got any worse - in fact, it probably got better because I picked up something I'd missed on almost every time through it. I planned to read three chapters and then go to sleep, and that's just what I did. Who knew how much sleep and energy I might need for the job ahead?

…

The next morning I was on my way, bright and early, walking the path back to Magnolia. If my figuring was right, I'd reach the Halfway Inn by ten o'clock in the morning (it was seven, now) and be out of there with plenty of time to get back with the leader in tow, collect my reward, and hop on a train. I would be back to the guild by six at most. With that optimistic thought in mind, and the thought of paying this month and next month's rent up front, I walked almost with a bounce in my step.

I reached the Inn at about the time I thought I would, give or take fifteen minutes, and didn't hesitate to go in.

"Hello!" I said, wiping sweat from my brow as I cheerfully stood at the entrance. "What's a girl gotta do to get a drink of water around here?"

The hand with my Fairy Tail marking was the one against my forehead, effectively hiding the fact that I was a mage. My keys were in a pouch on my belt, which also helped to hide the fact that I was a mage. The only weapon I had in plain view were my hands and feet and of course, my whip. Now, if these people had just so happened to see my recent spread in the Weekly Sorcerer, my cover was blown, but I could hope, right? And if they did, I'd know to start utilizing the transformation magic that Mira has been so diligently teaching me even after my first failed attempt.

"Come on in!" someone said, just as cheerily as I had spoken, "I've got you a glass right here!"

I smiled at the man behind the bar, spotted the trademark earring of the bandits I was after gracing his left earlobe, and put my right hand in the pocket of my miniskirt. Then I sauntered over, for lack of a better word, and sat on the stool right in front of him, leaning up to say, "Thanks," in a sultry tone before taking the glass and raising it to my lips. I had examined the faces of men around me as I did this, and it wasn't encouraging. I caught the pungent whiff of sleeping drugs and, in one fluid motion I held the glass out to the side and tipped it upside down.

"Hey!" the man on the stool beside me snapped, the tampered water splashing his shoes. "Watch what you're doing!"

"I wasn't aware that proper conduct when dealing with a guest was to slip a sleeping drug in her glass of water," I said, watching the last drip roll around in the bottom of the glass before letting it fall and shatter on the floor. I then leaned forward on the bar and asked, "Where did you learn your manners as a barman from, exactly?"

"Sleeping drug?" he feigned innocence. "What sleeping drug?"

I snorted, forcing it to seem condescending as I nonchalantly rested my chin in my hand - the one with my guild marking on it. There was already a key there.

"Don't play dumb with me," I said, lifting my head and waggling my key before dragging it down through the air and calling, "Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!"

"What is my punishment, Princess?" the spirit asked as she appeared atop the counter.

"There isn't any," I said, rolling my eyes as all the bandits in the room scrambled at me, "at least, not if you help me take these guys out."

"As you wish, Princess," Virgo bowed, but went for the bartender first, who had pulled out a handful of knives. I grabbed my whip and started exacting my own form of punishment on all the guys around me. After the man behind the bar had been dealt with, Virgo leapt out and helped, using the dirt floor to her advantage. We had three to go when a voice shouted in irritation.

"What are you great ugly lugs doing down there? Shut up!"

"Boss! Help!" the very last one managed as he went down to Virgo.

Footsteps from upstairs stomped to the top of the stairs, and there stood the one known as 'Bear'.

I scrunched my nose up in disgust. He was pretty ugly. He had black hair, and it was everywhere. There were tufts growing out of his ears, and even out of his nose, and he had a great ugly black beard and mustache, and the sideburns to go with it. His shirt was unbuttoned halfway, as though showing off the black hairy monster that was his chest hair would attract someone. His eyebrows were the bushiest I'd ever seen. The backs of his hands had visible hair, and I could tell by how his tight shirt ruffled and bunched on his arms that they were just as hairy as the rest of him. I wanted to barf.

"What the hell happened here? Who are you?" he said in his gruff voice, and with a single movement he shot a blast of air at me. Virgo intervened, but I was still buffeted back against a table by the force.

"Did you do this?" the idea seemed to dawn on 'Bear'. "These idiots got their asses kicked by nothing more than a few little girls?"

"The name's Lucy," I said, gripping my whip, "and yes, we did this."

"Should I punish him for attacking you, Princess?"

I shook my head no even as I said, "No, Virgo. We'll punish him together."

Virgo bowed, and together we charged at the mage. Virgo attacked first, but was flung aside almost effortlessly by 'Bear'. I was halfway up the steps and didn't particularly want to fall down them, but kept going anyway, letting out a "Yeargh!" as I struck out at him with my whip. His air caught it and pushed it away from his body, but I was able to reach him and strike him across the cheek with my fist while he was distracted. It didn't do as much damage as Erza would have done with just a punch, but it did do more than I would have done with that stunt before.

I flew down the steps, landing and overturning three chairs and a table as my body made a loud, painful thump. I felt a trickle, and reached my hand to my lip. As I had suspected, I was bleeding.

"I hate to do this to you," I said, standing up as he came down the stairs. His eyebrows contorted in fury.

"Do what to me, exactly?" he scoffed. "I'm a mage, little girls, not a worthless piece of trash like the rest of these idiots."

I had another key in my hand as I grinned and flashed the back of my hand at him.

"I'm a mage too, if you hadn't noticed. And Virgo here is one of my stellar spirits. I'm about to introduce you to another, and I don't think he's going to be so nice," my grin widened, and the man lunged. "Virgo, hold him off for a second!" I shouted, then slashed the key sideways through the air and called, "Gate of the Lion! Loke!"

I never said 'Leo' when I called the spirit, because I knew him best as Loke.

"I was waiting for you to call me," he cracked his knuckles, glasses flashing as he immediately lunged for the wind mage that was attacking Virgo. "Next time, don't wait so long, Lucy!"

I rolled my eyes, freeing my keys from the pouch and hooking them on my belt while my two friends had the mage occupied. I tossed the pouch on the ground, making sure to put Loke's key back on the ring as I called, "Virgo! That's enough for now, you can go back!"

"Yes, Princess," she bowed obediently as she faded into the spirit world.

"Gate of the Bull! Taurus!" I called then, even as I quickly refastened the key to the key ring and charged at the mage with my whip at the ready. The perverted bull eyed me as I went right for the wind mage, but then he too joined Loke and I. I was lagging the tiniest bit from having two spirits at the same time and having called out three of them already, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle anymore. I'd trained myself to get stronger.

And so I fought for a good ten minutes, side by side with Leo the Lion and Taurus the Bull until a pretty beaten up 'Bear' cried out in frustration as I latched my whip around his upper arm and blasted me pretty hard with a gust of wind. I crashed through the wall of the Inn, but gave my whip a hard yank and the mage followed me through, actually flying farther than I did.

"Duck!" Loke yelled, and I did so as he flew overhead with his Regulus Impact and Taurus came barreling around me to get in one last hit. I pulled my whip free as I stood up.

"Thanks!" I said to them, grinning as I noticed the unconscious bandit leader. "You can go back now! I can handle tying them up myself. Then I might call one of you to carry him back, okay?"

"Any time," Loke said as he faded. Taurus's response was perverted, but he allowed himself to be sucked back into the spirit world anyway.

I stretched my arms above my head and sighed, "That's a job well done!"

"Holy shit," a voice said from behind me, "Lucy?"

I spun around and promptly dropped my whip, staring and staring until finally I just burst out laughing and ran to the new arrival. I threw my arms around his neck as he started laughing, too as he hugged me tightly in return.

"Natsu!" I said, releasing my tight hold. "You're back! Where the hell have you been? Are you hurt? Oh my God, you're back!"

I couldn't stop laughing. I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying.

"What have you been doing here, Luce?" he asked, holding me at arm's length. I took a few seconds here to appreciate the results of his two year long absence. His more defined pecs and abs, the more matured shape of his jaw and chin, the calluses on his fingers that I could feel on my bare shoulders…since when was Natsu this hot?

"I had to take a job," I said, stepping back, "because I only have a few days to pay my rent. And you just reminded me that I have to tie that" I gestured to the hairy man, "up and take him back to Hargeon. Then I was going to tie up all his men inside and leave them there until I can tell the authorities and have them come pick them up. But that's enough about what I've been doing! You didn't answer my questions!"

I put my hands on my hips and gave him a fake pout. He laughed.

"C'mon, I'll help you tie them up and then I'll tell you. Is that fair?"

"I guess," I heaved an obviously fake sigh and Natsu flashed his childlike grin. Swoon. At least that part of him hadn't changed, because I would've missed that cute little grin of his. I'd always thought it made him so adorable, even before he turned into…well, before he turned into this Natsu. "Let's get to work!" I rubbed my hands together and reached into my bag for the rope I'd bought before I left Hargeon in the morning. The laugh that came out of his mouth made my heartbeat skyrocket.

Natsu was true to his word. First we tied up 'Bear', who Natsu found to be really called Eugene Bucksnort and laughed until he cried after he found the man's identification, and then we headed inside to round up the twenty-nine men that Virgo and I had taken down on our own.

The dragonslayer beside me let out a low whistle.

"Damn, Luce. You've been training, haven't you?" he said, surveying the room, "Did the dumbbells I gave you for your birthday that one time have anything to do with it?"

I snorted, then giggled.

"Sorry, Natsu," I shook my head, "I did it without really working out. I tried to lift them once and nearly broke my foot when I dropped one on it, so I gave up."

He looked sheepish and said, "Oops?"

I laughed and stood on my tiptoes to ruffle his pink hair. So soft!

"It's fine. Now, about where you've been…?" I prompted, perching on a barstool and leaning back on the bar after we tied the men up. "I'm curious to know why you ran off for a whole two years without telling anyone where you were going."

"I found him," Natsu leaned against the bar, looking off into the distance. At his words, I sat up quicker than I would have thought possible and stared at the man in front of me.

"What?" I asked, surprised. "Igneel?"

A huge grin spread across his face, and he glanced at me.

"Yeah."

"So…?" I prompted again, eager to hear about it.

"I just found him a few months ago," Natsu said, turning to stare at nothing again, "and spent them learning more from him, but then he said I had to leave again, so I wandered around for a while, wondering if maybe I could find Metallicana or Grandine for Gajeel and Wendy, but then I decided that they could find them if they wanted to, y'know? They'd probably have a better idea of where they'd be than I would. So I headed back, and here we are!"

"I'm glad you're back," I said after a few minutes of silence. I nudged him teasingly to get his attention and when he looked, I winked and said, "You can drag Eugene back to Hargeon for me!"

He laughed but agreed. When I told him I was kidding and asked, "Don't you wanna go back home?" meaning to the guild, he just grinned that cute grin of his.

"I want to go back with you, Luce! And isn't traveling with your best friend so much more fun than just walking around on your own?"

I could have kissed him, but I refrained.

And so we walked back to town together, but I asked him to wait out of sight of the house that the man who had requested the job lived in. Of course, being Natsu, he asked why, but for once he actually got the idea that I felt I needed to prove myself when I had explained the situation. I called out Capricorn, deciding to let Loke and Taurus rest, and asked him to carry the hairy mage the rest of the way.

"Mr. Tanaka!" I called after the butler had let me in. I was getting a little impatient, and the beast-man in Capricorn's arms was stinky, and I just really wanted to get back to Natsu and catch up some more. "I've finished your job!"

I heard the man huff as he hit the stairs, most likely in disbelief, but the man was unmistakable because he fetched his younger sister, the wife of the true owner of the Inn, and the owner himself, to verify 'Bear's' identity.

"I must apologize," I bowed to the owner, "but there's a bit of damage to your Inn. I'm afraid I got a little roughed up before I took him out," I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "He knocked me through the front wall, so there's a hole there, and there are a few broken chairs and tables from his twenty-nine men and I."

"Then I'll keep fifty thousand jewels to pay for repairs!" said Mr. Tanaka, frowning at me.

"Nonsense!" his sister said, shaking her head at her older brother. "If you do, I'll take fifty thousand of our own and give it to her! She did absolutely nothing wrong! We asked her to take out the bandits, and she did! Of course there was going to be a bit of damage!"

They went on for five minutes before Mr. Tanaka agreed. I tried to agree with him, but his sister would have none of it, and soon I was able to let Capricorn go back to the spirit world and leave, my wallet 160,000 jewels heavier and head to the authorities, this time with Natsu beside me, to tell them about the others. It was two in the afternoon by then, and I hadn't eaten since before I'd left the hotel.

"Hey, Natsu," I said, stopping by a restaurant, "you hungry?"

"I'm always hungry," he grinned again, and I laughed. "Let's go in!"

Excitedly, he grabbed my hand, which made me flush, and pulled me into the restaurant. He picked a table for two back in a corner and dragged me to it. The look that a couple of old ladies gave us made me blush even more, because you could just tell what was going through their heads. The traditional sigh, and the remark, "Young love," as they watched the younger generation going about their day.

"What are you gonna get?" he asked, looking at the menu already laying on the table in front of us. "I think I want this…and that!…oh, that looks good…"

I hid my giggle behind my hand and smiled softly at the familiar antics of my long lost nakama. Then I said to him, "I'll just steal some of what you order. I'm sure you'll pick something I'll like."

He looked up at me, wide-eyed, then once more gave that cute, childish grin that was probably going to make my heart melt pretty soon. What he did next made my blush, which had finally vacated my cheeks, return with a vengeance - Natsu Dragneel reached across the table and flicked my nose. And then he finishes it off by saying, still with that grin, "I'm sure you'll like something, 'cause I plan to order one of everything! And don't worry about the money, because I'll be paying this time. 'Kay?"

"Oh, um…okay," I managed to squeak out, and then I grinned, "It's only fair, since you've always been a moocher when you come to my apartment."

"Exactly!" Natsu leaned back and relaxed in his seat and I rested my elbows on the table in front of us and my chin on my hands. I took the time to once more give him a good look. There was a slight scar on his chin that wasn't there before, but it wasn't very noticeable and looked like it would go away in a few months. His scarf looked like it had been through hell and back, but it was only to be expected. It still wasn't seriously ripped or torn, though, just dirty. The red Fairy Tail insignia on his right shoulder made me grin a little, oddly remembering the first time I'd ever seen it.

After about a minute, and after giving our order to a waitress who came by, Natsu finally said, "Whatcha lookin' at?"

"I just can't believe you're back," I replied, pulling my attention up to his eyes and giving him a soft but heartfelt smile. "It feels so surreal to be sitting here with you after all this time."

He blinked, surprised, but then a softer, more subdued smile than his childlike grin spread across his features, and he said, "Yeah. I know what you mean," and then, after another pause, he also said, "Have I mentioned yet just how much I missed you, Luce?"

"No," I said, flushing and getting very tempted to look away. Something in his eyes just kept my attention, though, and I couldn't break eye contact with him. "No, you haven't, but believe me when I say that I missed you probably about as much, if not more than you missed me."

"I believe it," the corners of his mouth turned up just a little bit further, and he leaned the few inches between us to kiss me on the forehead before saying, "I missed you so much, though, that it's hard to think that you might have missed me more. Actually, Luce…"

I didn't find out just then what he was about to say, because our food arrived and he was temporarily distracted. I chuckled a little, and stole something off of several of the plates before he could completely demolish the meal. I ate slower, and we punctuated the meal with just a little bit of conversation. I got a dark look from the owner of the restaurant when I pulled out some matches, but Natsu's eyes grew bright and he thanked me with his mouth full of four different things before promptly striking a match and igniting the chicken leg he held. He ate the flame from the match, dropped the useless stick on a half empty plate, and devoured his fiery chicken without further ado.

"Now I remember why I always kept matches on me," I said jokingly, referring to his taste for flames. I got a toothy see-food grin, and rolled my eyes.

I couldn't stop my own grin from forming.

When we finished eating and Natsu actually did pay, we were politely ejected from the restaurant, laughing about it the whole time. The complaint of the owner was that we were being disruptive with igniting our food and eating it whilst it was burning. I had pointed out that it was Natsu's doing, not mine, and that had pretty much sealed the deal. And he pointed out that I was the one who provided the matches, but that's kind of beside the point. The main point is that we got kicked out of a restaurant because Natsu likes his meals hot. Hotter than hot. Like him…wait, wait, wait! I didn't say that!

To get my mind off of that, I said, "So, Natsu…are we walking back or taking the train?"

He gave me a playfully dirty look, put his arms behind his head and said, almost as if he was bored, "If you're in a big hurry to get back, I'll put up with a train for you, but if it's fine, I'd rather just walk. If you're not too tired from earlier. But as long as I'm with you, I don't really care how we go back. Y'know?"

I hid my newest blush and replied, "Yeah. I know," then I smiled and said, "so walking it is!"

The smile that broke out across his face was worth it, and so after buying a few bottles of water, we were off, back down the road we'd walked on earlier. I learned of his most recent battles, and some of the things he learned in his brief reunion with his fatherly figure, and some new tricks he had up his sleeves were hinted at, and I told him all about some of the jobs I'd been on with Erza ("Just Erza? And she didn't kill you on accident?"), and that Gray and Juvia were a couple, that Happy had been gone on a job with Lisanna when I left for my job, and how much everyone had missed him. I even told him what Mirajane had told me the day before, that I had sounded like him, and he laughed and dropped an arm around my shoulder. That last action prompted me to ask him about what he'd been about to say before our food came, about two hours ago by then.

"Hey, Natsu?" I questioned, looking up at him.

"Yeah?"

"You were going to say something, back in the restaurant before our food came. Now I'm really curious about it!" I scratched the back of my head, almost a little sheepishly, as we came to a halt in the middle of the road. "I mean, if you forgot it's okay, but it just came back to me and I couldn't help but ask about it. You seemed really serious!"

The chuckle that left my lips almost sounded nervous.

"I didn't forget," he said, looking away, "I couldn't forget that. It's just…I dunno how to say it, Luce."

"Say what?" my curiosity had almost outgrown my patience.

I was pulled into another hug, then, and I returned it almost immediately, letting his warmth engulf me. It was so nice, being so close to him after all this time, that I almost forgot he was trying to tell me something until his chest rumbled as he started speaking again.

"I missed you so much, Luce," he mumbled into my hair. "More than I can describe. While I was out there, when I was trying to go to sleep at night or just make it through one more day of walking nowhere to get somewhere, the first person I thought of was you. Then Happy. Happy's like my son, or something, y'know? So I normally would've thought about him first, but I didn't. And when I found Igneel, the first thing I said to him was, 'You should meet Luce sometime', and I meant it. I think you'd like him. You could get all sorts of stories from him, and maybe you could write them down and it could help you with your stories. And I think Igneel would like you, too, because you're so smart and you can put up with me when others can't, and…"

"Breathe, Natsu," I laughed, looking up at him. "I get it. But you're one of my best friends, how could I not put up with you?"

"That's not it," he said, taking a deep breath. "At least, not for me. Luce, you mean so much to me that I don't think I can ever accept 'just friends' from you. It's…I mean…"

He was stumbling over his words, but the blush on his cheeks let me know I'd heard him right, so I threw caution to the winds and picked myself up onto my toes, clutching the back of his vest for leverage as I did the one thing I'd been dreaming of for years.

I kissed him.

I kissed Natsu Dragneel, Fairy Tail's own Salamander, and first dragonslayer.

The best part about it was that the minute our lips touched, his arms tightened around me and pulled me closer as he kissed back. He kissed me back!

When I dropped back down, flat on my feet and detached myself from him, the look in his eyes sent my head reeling and my heart pounding.

"That's exactly what I was trying to tell you," he said, smiling that same subdued smile from earlier that made my heart beat just as hard as his childlike one, or as the way he was looking at me, did. "Gosh, Lucy, I missed you so much."

I laid my head against his chest and mumbled, "You've said that already, idiot," but the insult was only halfhearted and he knew it. I felt him leave a kiss on my hair and I looked back up at him. His grin was back, but it wasn't quite as childlike as before.

"Does that mean you'll be my girlfriend, Luce?"

I took his hand, smiling back at him, and said, "Let's go home, you big idiot," while tugging him toward Magnolia.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"I meant for you to."

…

When I threw open one of the doors to the guild, quite unceremoniously, at around eight o'clock that night, I gained everyone's attention. They were all pretty surprised when they saw that it was me, because I never was one for the flashy entrances. I wasn't even quite as conceited as I knew I used to be, not anymore.

"Lucy! Welcome back," Mira smiled at me from the bar. "I guess you did fine on your job, but what's all the noise for?"

"And why are you hiding your arm, Lu-chan?" Levi, always the tone of worry, noticed that my right arm was hiding behind the still closed door. I'm willing to bet all the jewels I'd earned on that last job that no one expected the huge grin that spread across my face. Gray, who was back and seated with Juvia, looked at me like I'd contracted some kind of disease, and Erza's eyes widened.

"I've got a surprise for everyone," I said brightly, and I squeezed the hand that my hidden hand was holding as the signal for him to open the door. "I ran into him on the road. Who would've guessed, right?"

"Laying it on a little thick, aren't you?" he practically beamed at me in excitement as he put his hand on the door, then he shoved it open just as dramatically as I'd done mine and said to the guild at large, "Hey, everyone. I'm back!"

The glass Mira was wiping fell and shattered as she gasped; Erza promptly dropped the sword she was sharpening (it clattered on top of the swords that lay beside her that she had yet to sharpen); Gray fell off of the bench he was on, taking Juvia with him (not that they would mind the new compromising position); Lisanna had to lean against the bar for support; Happy tumbled out of the air and landed on the bar beside Lisanna; Elfman had to sit down; Cana's barrel of alcohol rolled across the floor, sloshing as it did so; Levi almost fainted (but, suspiciously, Gajeel was there to catch her before she fell); Macao and Wakaba stared, jaws dropped…there were other reactions too, like Lucky accidentally making a wood table explode and throwing Max's beer in Warren's face and Nab falling into the request board and making it fall to the ground…but Natsu's grin never faded, and if anything it grew wider as he sighed, stretched his free arm into the air.

"Man," he said with the biggest grin yet, "it's good to be back!"

I couldn't help thinking that yes, yes it was good to be back. Especially since he was right there beside me again, and everything was how it should have been and how I desperately hoped it would stay for a long time to come.

And just as the thought went through my mind, he turned and tilted my face up so he could kiss me again. It wasn't the first time since the first time out on the road, but it might have been the best.

If I wasn't so happy that he was back, and that he was so exclusively mine, I might've hit him later that night when he said he was 'staking his claim'. Instead, I just kissed him to silence so he wouldn't say something even stupider.

…

Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia belong to Hiro Mashima, as well as all other Fairy Tail characters. Mr. Tanaka, Eugene Bucksnort, and whoever else I may have randomly made up are my characters. But who cares about them, right?

This is a random NaLu that had been itching to be written so I wrote it, and here it is! I hope you liked it!

R&R, if you feel like it. ^_^

A/N: Sorry if you like 'Gerard' or 'Jellal' better than 'Jeral'. I go back and forth with which name I use, too. But I have to use Gajeel rather than Gazille or I'll go crazy. Hehe…