Nalu Week Prompt #1: One the Road

Professor: Happy Nalu Week everyone! Hope you all are having a great time! This is my first time officially participating in this. Anyway, hope you enjoy these one shots/drabbles. I do not own Fairy Tail.

"Wait! Slow down!" Lucy cried, desperately trying to yank her hand out of Natsu's.

"Can't!" he yelled back at her, "They'll catch us!"

"We've been running for over an hour! They aren't chasing us any more!"

"Natsu just likes holding your hand Luigi." Happy giggled as he flew above the two fleeing mages.

"Shut up you stupid cat! He does not! And my name is Lucy!"

Happy ignored her, choosing to continue laughing at the pair. Lucy just rolled her eyes and kept trying to keep pace with her new friends.

They were on some road that Natsu swore led to Fairy Tail, with Hargeon a destroyed mess behind them.

...Well, mostly just the port was destroyed. Aquarius had unleashed a lot of water, and therefore water damages, on the closest buildings to said port.

Lucy decided that she really shouldn't visit Hargeon for a long time.

Natsu especially shouldn't.

"Hey, you really that tired?" Natsu's voice broke through her thoughts. She turned to face him, more than a little startled, to find him looking at her curiously.

"Of course I am! We've been running for over an hour and, unlike you, I don't have unlimited energy!"

"Psh, you just need to train more." he scoffed at her.

"I train just fine!" she protested.

This time it was Natsu who rolled his eyes, although he did slow down to a walk for her.

"Thank you." Lucy panted out between breaths. She had never felt her heart beat so fast.

She gulped at the air greedily, trying to stop her lungs from burning. Until they had slowed down, she hadn't realised just how much the running and yelling had taken out of her.

Was her new friendship just going to be some constant adrenaline rush?

"You look like a fish." Natsu snickered.

"I do not!"

"The rare Lushi fish!" Happy proclaimed.

The two boys dissolved into laughter.

Lucy stopped walking and leveled her best glare at them complete with her hands on her hips and splotches of red on her cheeks.

Needless to say, this just made them laugh harder.

Lucy groaned. This was obviously going to get her nowhere. So, she went with the next best option.

Changing the subject.

"So, what do I have to do to actually join Fairy Tail?"

Natsu chuckled a little bit longer before asking, "What do you mean?"

"Well, some guilds are particular about who joins or how they join," she said, "So, what does Fairy Tail do?"

"N-"

"Well, it's a very difficult process." Happy said, interrupting Natsu quickly. When the Dragon Slayer tried to protest, Happy slipped him a sly wink before Lucy could see it.

Natsu's own grin grew as he joined in, "That's right. Not just anyone can join."

Lucy's face fell, she knew it couldn't be that easy.

"What do I have to do?" she sighed.

"Well, there are multiple ways to join actually." Happy said, flying over her head, "The standard fee of one million jewels-"

"I don't have that kind of money!"

"Well, you could just go through the obstacle course," Natsu offered with a smirk, "But it's really difficult."

Lucy groaned, "Please tell me there is something else I can do."

Happy nodded, "You have to get me 100 hundred fish!"

Lucy turned to Natsu with a raised eyebrow, "Is that really a thing?"

"I wish!" he said, mouth drooling at the thought, "We'd never have to buy food again!"

She rolled her eyes, ignoring Happy's cries of "Like I'd ever share my fish! It's mine!"

"So, is there anything else?" Lucy prepared herself for the fact that she was just going to have to go through the obstacle course. It was probably the hardest obstacle course in Fiore. It had to be, Fairy Tail was the number one guild, therefore they could only accept the best!

"Well, there is one more, but no one ever joins that way," Happy said, turning away from his argument about fish with Natsu, "You have to develop some sort of deep emotional connection to someone in Fairy Tail. We are going to be your family after you join after all."

"B-But it might take years to form that kind of bond!" she sputtered, "You can't control who you connect like that with!"

"Eh, relax," Natsu shrugged off her worry, "We'll just tell everyone you're my mate."

There was a moment of silence. Then, an ear splitting shriek rang out through the whole forest.

"WHAT?!"

"Oww!" Natsu yelled, clamping his hands over his ears, "You gotta scream so loud?!"

"I'M NOT GOING TO BE YOUR MATE!"

"I never said you had to be! We'll just tell everyone you are!"

"That's not any better!"

"Why not? Do you not like me or something?" Natsu asked her, doing his best to hide a smile.

"Wha- I never said that! It's just...well I…. shut up!" she sputtered, her face a bright red.

Happy covered his mouth with his paws, but couldn't stop the giggles that erupted from him in time.

Lucy's head whipped up to face the cat and at that point, he couldn't take it anymore. He actually couldn't even fly, he was laughing so hard, landing gently on the ground.

Natsu quickly joined in, "I can't believe you fell for that!"

"WHAT?! That was- you pranked me?!"

"Duh." he said.

"Dumb Lushi." Happy chortled.

"Shut up you stupid cat!"

Natsu smiled at her, "You don't have to do anything to join, weirdo. I thought we said that."

"You most certainly did not!"

"Oh well." he shrugged, grabbing her hand again before he kept walking down the road, "Let's go."

"Why do you keep holding my hand?! And I'm still mad at you!"

"Cause Happy was right, I like holding it."

"He liiiiiiiikes you!"

"Shut up!" Lucy yelled again before yanking her hand out of Natsu's and slapping him, "Don't say things like that so casually! Idiot!"

She stormed ahead of them, leaving Natsu looking confused behind her (and successfully hiding her blush in doing so).

Eventually he just scoffed, shook his head, and began following her, "Weirdo."

"You liiiiiiiike each other!"

"Shut up!" they both yelled at him.