Key to the Flame's Heart

Chapter 3

Lucy shoved the dragon slayer and exceed out the guild hall with much force practically digging her nails into Natsu's vest. She could feel the heat rising to her head out of anger and embarrassment. All she had wanted to do was write her novel and now a small mess had unraveled before her. She was stiff closing the doors and relaxed a bit as they firmly closed shut. Letting out a sigh, she then glared towards the two of them making them both flinch. Her face relaxed once again and she turned towards them, avoiding eye contact.

"S-So, Lucy what did you need to talk about?" Natsu stuttered unsure if she was angry or just being weird.

"Eh? Oh yea..." Lucy started remembering why she pushed them out there in the first place. "Um... I'm not sure if you've heard anything about it but... apparently there have been some rumors going around the guild all morning." She felt her face flush, this was harder than she thought it'd be. Come on Lucy! You're a writer, how come I can't find the right words?

"No, I didn't come to the guild until just now. Are the rumors anything good?" Natsu started to rise in excitement of these rumors. Oh how he hoped they were about Gray.

"Hey Natsu! Do you think they're spreading rumors about our secret stashes in the guild?!" Happy panicked.

"Shit! I hope not!" Natsu yelled putting his hands to his head.

"N-No!" Lucy recaptured their attention, "That's not it..." She felt flustered the moment they focused on her again. Natsu tilted his head waiting for her next words. She shuffled all the possible sentences she could use to explain, the words fumbling in her head. Just spit it out! She mentally yelled at herself for hesitating so much. Taking in a deep breath she started to speak.

"They-" she was interrupted by a clap of thunder and the sky lighting up brightly with lightning. As she had remembered getting to the guild quickly so she could avoid the storm. A large gust of wind came surging through bringing large raindrops that felt like pebbles the moment they hit Lucy's skin. She brought her arm to her face trying to shield her eyes of any harm from the rain. She shuffled her feet back a bit trying to locate where she remembered the guild doors to be but then found herself being pulled by Natsu's strong arm around her waist. Her body was soon against his as he kicked the door open and guided her in with Happy dashing into the guild before the door was slammed shut.

Natsu let go of Lucy and glanced around the guild noticing all eyes on the three. He simply ignored them and turned his attention towards Lucy who was now stripping herself of her soaked vest.

"That came out of nowhere..." Lucy mumbled to herself as she draped the vest over an empty chair. These kinds of storms would come through at most twice a year and almost always around this time so it wasn't very unexpected that one had come through that day.

Natsu took a step toward her which regained her attention on him again. "What were you trying to say before?" He asked now standing directly in front of her.

"O-Oh yea.." she stuttered glancing around the guild and seeing the members' full attention on them. "I'll tell you later." She said as she backed away slowly then turned to walk to the bar. She could feel Natsu's gaze amongst the other guild members' stares as she reached the counter. Her hand reached behind and under the counter-top where she knew the towels were stored and grabbed three of the rough fabrics. A sigh escaped her lips as she walked back towards the pair, unfolding the cotton white towels.

"Here Happy." She said kneeling down and wrapping a towel around Happy. She rubbed the towel against his short blue fur making him giggle when she rubbed a ticklish spot. His fur puffed a bit but then went back to it's soft regular form. Lucy couldn't help but smile whenever he giggled and could barely contain herself when he puffed up. It was adorable, after all he was still a cat. She left the towel wrapped around Happy as she stood back up from the floor. She then wrapped a towel onto Natsu's hair and started to dry it.

"Uh-"

"Your hair is still spiky even when its wet." She commented as he simply stared down at her with a little pink tinted on his cheek. Lucy rubbed the towel through his rosy pink hair and she looked up to make eye contact with him. She froze for a second realizing her actions and quickly regretted them.

"U-Uh... uh..." she stuttered as she stood frozen, her face quickly heating up. What are you doing?! Just let go of the towel! Her hands finally listened to her and slowly released the towel from her grip pulling them back towards her. She took a step back, shifting her gaze down a bit. "Uh, you can do that yourself..." Looking down at Happy, he had put his paws up to his mouth and was smirking. She knew what would come next.

"You li-"

"Say it and I'll lock you back outside" She threatened with a deadly glare. Her own towel wrapped around her neck, she dried herself.

"My, you shouldn't be so lovey-dovey in public." Mira said in her usual tone with a smile planted on her face.

"WE AREN'T LIKE THAT!" The both yelled in unison.

"Now now, no need to go yelling about it." Mira pawed the air. Natsu let out a slight growl before calming down again.

"Anyway, how long do you think the storm will take to pass?" Lucy asked annoyed as she continued drying her hair.

"Dunno, but they usually don't last too long." Natsu answered removing the towel from his head.

"Good, I need to get back home soon"

5 hours later

The guild had returned to it's normal murmur of people talking with the rumor mostly forgotten by it's members. Erza and Gray had even shown up after the mission they had taken a few days before. They had missed the bustling over the rumor but it's surprising that they hadn't heard it once by anyone. It had become an afterthought. All they could tell was that Lucy was more annoyed than usual.

"I thought you said these storms don't last long!" Lucy yelled as she slammed her hand onto the table in front of him.

"I said usually" Natsu recalled his words earlier. He thought back even sooner to when she had dried off his hair. His eyes couldn't help but catch her blush and he undoubtedly remembered her hand rubbing his head softly like she was petting it. Has she always been so bashful? It was a lot different from her attitude now. She's usually a lot more aggressive when she's embarrassed. Has she really changed that much in a year (8 years)?

"Would you stop staring and start to actually listen?" She had apparently been talking while he was thinking.

"Huh..?" Natsu squinted his eyes, confused from not knowing what she had just said. She clenched her hand in a fist hard enough that her hand was pulsing.

"I said, I'll talk to you about the thing I didn't get to say later at my house." Her hand unclenched and she relaxed herself.

"Woah, you're actually inviting me over?!"

"It's better than you just randomly showing up." She started walking towards the door.

"Wait, you're leaving now?" Natsu stood from his seat.

"The rain's let up some and I wanna get back as soon as possible. I've already lost a lot of writing time." Lucy grabbed the handle.

"Why don't I just come over now then? It might get worse later!"

"Knowing you, you'd come over in any weather..." She sighed knowing with his weird personality, there could be a typhoon and he'd still get to her. She opened the door and started walking through the rain.

Natsu turned and grabbed his vest before heading back to the door. "Come on Happy!" He shouted to the blue exceed who came flying through the door with him.

"Aye!" And they ran to catch up with Lucy and go over to her apartment. They barely even noticed the rain anymore.