Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, nor any of its characters. All rights belong to Hiro Mashima.

Date With A Salamander

Chapter Three: Where Does The Time Go?

Natsu was now dressed, and ready to go as Lucy was changing. He had been eager to go, so this time he had woken up on his own. He had woken up Lucy at 5:30 which annoyed her to no end. She complained it was way too early, and went back to sleep for two more hours.

Natsu had pondered what to do, and had settled with playing with the fireplace which was ablaze in the kitchen/living room. Being Natsu, he had almost started a fire, and ended up eating it up off the carpet which had proved to be quite clean.

"You ready?" asked Natsu for the seventh time.

"Yes, after having to answer your constant questions, and blow drying my hair I've managed to clothe my self," she said. She was wearing a colorful outfit today, a blue skirt, with a red blouse.
"Don't you think thats a bit much?" he asked with a bored face.

"No, as a matter of fact, I think its a perfect way to dress for our final day here, unlike you who just wears the same outfit over, and over."

"I do not! I have plenty of these!" he yelled, taking it as an insult. He grabbed Lucy by the hand in a rough manner, but not enough to hurt her. He dragged her to his closet in his room, and slammed it open. He pointed to at least twenty identical outfits to his everyday outfit.
Lucy's jaw dropped at this, as she always thought he wore the same outfit. "Well um sorry Natsu."

Natsu forgave her, and said they should hurry up if they were to get to the amusement park before it got too crowded, and had to wait in line to get in. After scarfing down their breakfasts, they were off.
The amusement park was almost directly outside the hotel, well the entrance anyway. Lucy was looking at the map of the place, and saw thirty different types of rides, mostly roller coasters.

Natsu was raring to go on all thirty, but Lucy knew it was impossible to do that due to the amount of time each ride took, and the amount of time they had until the park closed. Each ride took about ten to fifteen minutes, and thirty times that was equal to about three hundred minutes which was five hours, and the park closed in four.

Not wanting to see a downhearted Natsu, Lucy kept this info to herself. She figured let him have his fun, although he would be sad not being able to ride all of the rides.
They noticed a crowd of people outside the entrance to the park, and they looked and sounded angry. Lucy asked a random man what was wrong.

"They're saying the park's closed because some employees aren't here, and then the operating rides would too busy, thus resulting in many people not being satisfied with their day here."
Natsu, and Lucy then looked at each other, and then nodded. They made their way to the front of the crowd.

"Look people, the park is closed today," said the man with the megaphone.

"Excuse me sir," said Lucy trying to sound polite.

"Look the park is closed!" he yelled, obviously not hearing Lucy.

"Sir!" she yelled this time.

The man this time heard her, and said "What is it miss? I'm trying to calm this crowd."

"Can you take us to the owner's office please?" she asked.

The man didn't see a problem with it. He let Lucy, and Natsu through the yellow line which separated the crowd, and the man. It was a magic line that kept people out unless invited in.

After a good thirty minutes of walking, they finally arrived at a big building at the very center of the park. The man led them through the building while passing various office people. The man stopped in front of a door which had a gold bar that read "Director".

The man knocked, and a rather happy voice said, "Come in"

The man opened the door, and said without looking in, "These two would like to speak with you sir. I'm going back to the entrance, and try to calm the crowd." He waved goodbye, and started to walk off leaving Natsu, and Lucy staring at his back.
"Well don't just stand there come in, come in."

Natsu, and Lucy did as the voice asked. They walked in to see a lavish office. There was a aquarium to their right full of exotic looking fish, a very fine looking leather couch, a well crafted coffee table,and in front of the coffee table, and couch which faced it's back to Lucy, and Natsu was the man's desk. The owner was rather plump looking, was kind short, and had a weird patch of hair that was pink that was shaped like a swirly ice cream. The owner wore a yellow jacket, with a white undershirt, and yellow pants. Lucy, and Natsu got closer, and noticed that there was a window behind the man's desk, and you could see the hotel, and the front part of the park Lucy, and Natsu had been guided through.

They both noticed that the carpet was a dark tint of blue, while the walls were plain white.

"So what can I do for you two young people?" asked the man whose eyes appeared to sparkle.

"We were wondering why the park was closed just due to a few rides not being opened," asked Lucy.

"Well you see the last time I opened the park without a few rides being opened a lot of people were upset that they didn't ride the rides they truly desired. I created this park to make people happy, not angry nor sad. I just truly want the people who pay to come here to have the best times while they're here," said the man who had gotten up, and was now staring out the window with his back to Lucy, and Natsu who were still standing. The reflection of the man's face now showed sadness.

Natsu was about to say something, but Lucy felt it might be something to provoke the man, which Natsu usually ended up doing, so she covered it. Natsu usually would give in, and let Lucy control what he said, but this time he felt it might help.
He moved out of range of her hand, started to speak.

"Why not just let us operate the rides? We're mages," he said and finished just as Lucy got a hold of him again, but released her hand. For once Natsu had said something smart. Although they didn't know how to operate the rides, they might be able to do it magically.

"I wouldn't be comfortable with making you work."

"Don't worry just leave it to us. We're from Fairy Tail, so they're is nothing we can't do," said Lucy which surprised Natsu as he was usually the one to say things like that. Lucy must really want to help the man he figured.

"I've heard that speech somewhere before, and for some reason just as last time, my heart is saying lets believe them," said the man as he turned around, again with sparkles in his eyes. "I'll let you do it, however if one person gets hurt, I'm closing down the park for the rest of the day. My name is Mr. Peach by the way."

Lucy, and Natsu saluted Mr. Peach, and then began to speak about the rides that didn't have operators for the day.

"The rides that are down are the log ride which requires quite an amount of water to push, the flaming roller coaster which requires pure burning fire to run, and the hoop it goes through must be on fire for a full appreciation for the ride, our most unique ride the Spider Swinger, which requires a very high amount of magic to run, usually a mage would run it, but today hes out also, and our final ride the ferris wheel which you need quite a bit of physical strength to operate," said Mr. Peach while wiping his head from the sweat from talking so much.

Lucy, and Natsu looked at each other as if this was to be no sweat. "Whats with those faces?" asked the owner.

"Just that Lucy, and me both have the necessary things to run two of those four rides," said Natsu showing off a bit of muscle.

"Just leave it to us Mr. Peach. Go ahead, and open the park. We only need thirty minutes," said Lucy while Natsu walked out of the room, and she shortly followed out.

Mr. Peach laughed, and said to himself, "Now I remember who said that. A Fairy Tail mage who came here a couple of years ago with blond spiky hair, and those green sunglasses. He operated every ride as he had all those women also mages ironically, who helped him. He said the exact thing as she did, and then I gave him those tickets for helping me."

After thirty minutes were up, a swarming crowd of people ran in. The man who had let Natsu, and Lucy had to run to the side of the entrance to avoid being trampled. He prayed to god that the day went without a hitch.

Natsu was at the flaming roller coaster, and watched as the ride quickly filled up. Cracking his knuckles, he asked if everyone was ready, and they replied in a hurried yes.
Breathing in a huge amount of air into his chest, he blew out a huge, and I mean huge amount of fie towards the back end of the ride. A little meter to the side which read energy levels, low, medium, high, and very high skyrocketed to the very top, and blew off as the people screamed at the sudden jolt.
"Time for the hoop," said Natsu with a sigh as he had a ways to get there as the ride was about ten minutes, and it took a while to get to the hoops.

Meanwhile, Lucy was operating the log ride. She was the place where the water was kept, but noticed none of it was going out. She remembered that the water had to constantly pour out at a great speed. She took out one of her Zodiac Keys, and cried out, "Open the door to Aquarius!" In a few seconds, the water bearer zodiac appeared with her usual grumpy look.

"Why have you called me this time?" she said in a grumbled voice.

"I need to stream the water out, at a great speed too, and keep it for ten minutes." she told the Zodiac spirit.

"Fine, but for this, you are not to call me out for a whole week, and for nothing, and I mean nothing." she said. Lucy made a mental note to not to call out Aquarius for two weeks, as she knew the water sign hated to work, and it would take two weeks for her to fully calm down.

The water bearer did as she was commanded, commanding the water to gush out at an amazing speed."Alright keep this up for a few more hours, and we're good," said Lucy giving her Stellar Spirit a thumbs up. The sign just looked at Lucy menacingly as she hadn't been told about the hours part. As the water sign switched her attention to the job at hand, Lucy left as she knew the Stellar Spirit wanted to kill her right about now.

Natsu was now at the very top of the coaster's tracks, and looked down. "Wow, sure is a long way down," he said while pressing his hand to his head to scout out the area below. He heard screams, not of torture, but of joy, coming closer.

"Alright show time."

As the coaster was only a few feet away, Natsu built up air in his chest, and let out a streaming circle of fire, setting the hoop ablaze. He smiled as he saw the coaster go through the hoop, and a few people actually screamed out of being scared, while a few out of joy.

Lucy was now at the Spider Swinger. She saw it was a giant mechanical body spider, and with eight swings attached to it. It's head was pretty much the symbol for the ride. Lucy sighed as having Aquarius would cost her a lot of energy, and this ride would take nearly all the remaining magical energy she had.

Seeing the line of people, she pulled out her Zodiac key, and held it up. "Open the door to Leo!" she yelled. In a puff of smoke, appeared the Stellar Spirit, Leo, or as Lucy, and his fellow guild mates called him, Loki.

"What is you called me for princess?" he said with a glinting smile.

"You've been talking to Virgo haven't you?" questioned Lucy with a dead look on her face. "Anyways, I need your help." She would have said more, but Loki put his hand up.

"I already know this place, as I had to do this last time I was here. Ah great memories. Anyways, let me do most of the work Lucy, I already sense Aquarius nearby, and know that'll require a lot of energy from you to maintain while I"m also out." Lucy blushed at the concern her spirit had for her, but she wasn't gonna give in to being beaten, which really wasn't the case.

After letting on the people, Lucy, and Loki went inside the one door that let inside the ride. Seeing the device, which was a helmet of sorts, that allowed them to pump their energy into the machine, they put them on. "Alright on 3. 1, ..2, ...3!"

The two of them pushed with their minds, pushing the magical energy out of them, and into the machine. They felt the machine come to life, and start to operate. They knew it was working as they heard shouts of joy outside of being swung around, high in the air.

Natsu was now at the ferris wheel. The roller coaster would be closed down for 30 minutes, so that it could cool down. He saw what Mr. Peach had meant by needing physical strength. The crank which operated the ride, was very hard to push. He had tried, but not with all of his strength.

People now formed a line outside the ride. Natsu started to turn the crank with all his strength. Even then though, he still found a hard time turning it. He still had to make it go a little faster as most ferris wheels were way faster than what speed Natsu was going at. Feeling the line of people's glares on his back, he started to huff, cranking harder, and harder.
"What kind of person operates this type of ride!" he yelled out of frustration.

"Obviously, a very muscle toned person," said a voice behind Natsu.

It was Lucy, who looked exhausted. Her hair didn't look too great, and she kind of slouching.
"Whats wrong with you?" asked Natsu.

"Lets just say having two Stellar Spirits out, and giving up almost all of your magical energy gets you quite tired," she said. "I'm about to call back Aquarius as its almost closing time for the log ride, thank Kami."

"So what? I doubt you could move this crank, I can barely do it, and the people are staring at me," he said as he continued to crank. People would board the carriages as they got to the point in a hurry. Natsu would have to stop at this point, and start again.
"Well, I could offer you some help. You remember Taurus?" asked Lucy with a smile as she leanded against a nearby railing.

"Yeah, the perverted cow with a giant ax." said Natsu who was having a hard time talking, and cranking now.

"Yep, and you know hes strong. He'll be able to help." said Lucy while looking at her watch. "Yes! Come back Aquarius!" exclaimed Lucy with joy as she held out Aquarius's key. She felt the presence disappear.

After Lucy had summoned Taurus, things had gone smoothly. Natsu had been able to get the ride fully going with the help of the bull, who all to happy to please Lucy.

"Aren't you supposed to be more tired Lucy?" questioned Natsu.

"Why should I be?" asked Lucy who was drinking a can of something.

"Well, two spirits, and giving up nearly all magical energy, you should be dead on your feet, about to pass out, but your able to summon Taurus, and keep him here?" he said. "Its a bit weird in my opinion."

"Well its actually thanks to Loki. He gave up all of his energy while operating the ride for so long." she said as she remembered. They had done the ride about 8 times, but Loki hadn't seem phased. Maybe it was the years he'd spent in the human world that gave him his stamina as she remembered about the poor spirit's past.

A big shadow came up behind Lucy, hugging her. Lucy screamed, and Natsu let go of the crank to turn. It was Mr. Peach. "Thank you!" he yelled which hadn't seemed possible due to his size. "Thanks to you, the park didn't have to close for today. We also got a lot of good comments on how well today went. Usually, at least one person gets hurt on these rides, but none today."

Lucy, and Natsu looked at each other a bit bewildered. They thought the rides were completely safe, but apparently they weren't.

"Anyways, I just wanted to thank you two. I know you two wanted to probably ride most the rides here, but sadly its almost closing time," said the owner, pointing to the sky which was now a deep orange. "However, I can give one thing that most people don't get to do without a large amount of money. The ferris wheel all to yourselves. How about it?"

Lucy, knowing Natsu was probably saddened by the news, looked at the Salamander, only to find him smiling.
"You mean we get to ride it alone?" he said. He must have really liked the idea of having one ride all to himself to overcome the sadness of not being able to ride the rests of the rides.

Having Taurus operate the ride, Lucy, and Natsu got in the carriage. They were both amazed as they went up to see the beach sunset.
"Today was fun Lucy." said Natsu as he turned back to the Stellar mage.

"How was it? We only got to ride this, and we had to work?" questioned Lucy.

"Well, think about it. We got to help lots of people, and we had a bit of fun, admit it," said Natsu with his eyes closed, and wide smile covering his face.

Lucy laughed, and said, "Alright, it was pretty fun. You do have a point there Nat-"

Lucy had been about to say more, but was cut off as Natsu had pressed his mouth against hers which formed a kiss.

As he sat back down from bending over, Lucy was left blushing. Natsu was also, but only a light shade.

"What was that for?" she asked in a stunned and angry voice.

"That was for me. I've been holding that back all this time we've been here," he said while turning his gaze towards the hotel.

"You mean, you've felt this way for a time now?" asked Lucy while stammering, and a blush across her face still.

"For a while now yes, and I was hoping you would too, but it doesn't seem so," said Natsu as he turned to Lucy, with a truly sad look on his face.

"But Natsu, I do like you."

Natsu was a bit stunned by her sudden confession, and his face turned to glee.

"You mean it Lucy?" he asked jumping up, but hitting his head on the roof of the carriage. He sat back down clutching his head, but still looking at Lucy.

"I was gonna wait until the ride back to tell you, if I thought you felt the same. Thats what I meant by what I said yesterday, if thing had changed," said Lucy while looking dreamily at the sunset which was almost gone.

"Well then, hwo about another kiss?" he asked while letting himself up.

Lucy was blushing due to his straightforwardness, but agreed by saying sure. This time though Lucy leaned in, and Natsu also. Their lips met, and it was like a scene from a movie with the sunset's glare against them. Natsu's lips were warm to Lucy, as hers were sweet to Natsu. Their kiss ended just as the sun disappeared. They noses touched each others, and were looking at each other with love in their eyes.

After having their things packed, they were on their way to the port, but not without holding hands. The old woman had returned which surprised Lucy, but was glad to let the old woman see what she had gained.

As they got on the cruise ship, they looked back at the ferris, which might just be their most favoite new memory of all now. As the ship pulled out, and it's weird signal let out, Natsu sat back against the railing, with Lucy encased in his arms. He had her with his arms wrapped about her waist, and Natsu had his face on her shoulder. Lucy couldn't help it, but blush and smile at the same time.
She knew she some things to say to her guild mates when she got back, as they would be looking for answers, and gossip about the new couple.

A/N: The end ^_^ Finally done! I enjoyed the ending scene of this, the one scene I had planned all along ^_^ Its so vividly in my head :o. I wanted a sunset, but I figured let that be with the ferris wheel scene. Review please, and sorry this took so long to write.