Hello, and a big thank you in advance to those who read and enjoyed this story. This marks the final chapter of Bad Behavior.

If any of you NaLu fans out there are interested in a NaLu fan zine, please check out this Tumblr project: naluzine.

Also big thanks to the band The Maine, as well as Hiro Mashima sensei, whose work brought so many people around the world happiness.

When Lucy wakes, her peripheral is full of Natsu. His nose, almost touching hers, his messy pink hair, tickling her bangs. It feels like the first time in a while that she's been this close to Natsu, but she doesn't mind; what really throws her off is how immobile she is, trapped in between one of his arms stretching from under her cheek as a pillow and around her back, and the other draped over her ribs, hard and weighty. Lucy doesn't quite remember ever waking up trapped like so, on all those nights he's snuck into her room without asking. But then again, she faintly recalls that it might be her fault, since she chose to use his arm as a pillow, first.

It embarrasses her but Natsu doesn't have to know that, so Lucy moves on, trying to loosen herself from those folded arms at her back. She peeks up, past the spiky pink strands of Natsu's head, and tints of pale yellow and gray tell her that it's early morning.

The tough encasement of Natsu's upper body feels too warm to simply give up, but Lucy pulls out anyway, pressing on his chest lightly to hoist herself up. She accidentally knees him in the thigh, and he lets out a slurred "Ow," blinking his eyes open.

Straightening Natsu's blazer around her shoulders and running her fingers through her hair, Lucy calls, "Natsu, it's morning."

He rolls onto his back, stretches long, and bounces up, sitting cross-legged. "Did we sleep that long?"

Lucy stands, shaking feeling into her arms before putting her hands out, waiting for Natsu to grab on. He does, and it's not like she wasn't expecting him to play that same old prank, but Lucy still staggers and almost falls on him again, when he pulls with his strength instead of getting up like a good boy.

So instead of answering his question, Lucy huffs and picks up Virgo's blanket, the empty bottle, and the two glasses, making her annoyance toward him plain as the waking lashes of daylight.

"Clean up after yourself, Natsu," she flips her hair at him with a big motion as she makes for the ladder.

The clock tells them that they slept on the rooftop a little over an hour. Most of the bodies strewn about the guild are still out, snoring. Except for the few female guild members, Lucy expects the lot of those bodies will be there, lifeless until well after midday. Typical, Fairy Tail goes wild and the aftermaths.

Natsu fetches a sleeping Happy from one of the tables, while Lucy smiles as she passes funny faces of her guild members, asleep without a care in the world. Tiptoeing by a large mass covered in a wool blanket, she suppresses a spurt of giggles with all her might. Jagged tips of blue and black hair and a dark cat's tail grow just beneath the wool edge, and Lucy has to fetch Natsu to point the endearing sight out to him. He just sticks his tongue out, before they step out into the full daylight.

That's when the drunk fatigue of magic wine really hits her. Lucy slouches, letting her forehead fall with a light thump right on Natsu's red insignia.

"Can we go get some decent sleep at home first, and then get ready to leave?" She mumbles into his arm.

Natsu yawns big, like a silent roar, as his response. "I'd better walk ya home, so you don't fall asleep in the middle of the road."

"Thanks… but you're not allowed to come inside. I want the bed to myself."

"So selfish, Lucy!"

She shoots him her best death glare with half-lidded eyes, but he starts ahead of her, which means her forehead loses its nice resting place. She chases after him, blinking away the sunlight, but tucking away the comfortable, sleeping faces of the guild members into her memory.

They talk mindlessly about what to pack, where they might start, which friends they might visit on the journey. Even in her sleepiness, it excites Lucy. Because as far as she can tell, this next adventure doesn't sound dangerous, doesn't sound life-threatening, doesn't sound like Lucy will have to worry about Natsu burning down things he's not supposed to. No desperate fighting to protect the name of the guild, no fear of having to protect each other from harm, no insecurities of a tomorrow that might never come.

And the comfort and assurance of a safe, hopeful, exciting new adventure to go on, wouldn't be possible without the rugged, pink haired fire dragon slayer, walking by her side. Lucy watches him while he goes on about eating fire in faraway lands. She takes him in like a fresh breath of air, quietly relishing in his presence, even as she nods or comments on his eager chatter. A glimpse at Happy, tucked away under Natsu's arm, and then back at each of Natsu's features, wondering if she'll ever see those glittery pink flames lighting up his skin again.

When they trail off the topic of their trip, Natsu starts humming the tune to Mira's "Hey Nineteen" absently. He's a terrible singer, and Lucy can't exactly say any better for herself, but she feels like singing along to the words anyway. The lyrics are carefree, like Natsu's toothy grin, and Happy adds the perfect little "Aye~" in between pauses, even in his sleep.

They arrive in front of Lucy's house, and she'll admit, she's a little disappointed. The night they both wanted to last forever is finally at its end, and the disappointment is a stubborn, annoying tickle in her chest. More so, because even though he's the one who said he didn't want the night to end first, Lucy can't find the slightest trace of regret in Natsu's alert eyes.

"So, I'll come pick you up in the afternoon?"

Lucy nods, trying and failing to hide a ridiculous pout in her lower lip.

"Alright! Then good night, Lucy! I mean, good morning!" He gives a little wave, turns, and is off.

Lucy turns to the front door, sticks her key into the keyhole, then leaves it. Instead of turning the key and heading up to her room like she's supposed to, Lucy finds her ears full of a distant, off-beat hum. It's Natsu, humming the guitar's chords and the drum's rhythm, calling on a swarm of black butterflies in her chest even though he's getting further and further away with every breath. The butterflies flap their wings and steal her voice and her sight until Lucy realizes how she's turned back the way she'd just come, running. He's still close by. His sloppy, wide-legged footsteps never did let him stray too far.

When Natsu hears the shuffling behind him, he looks back, not quite comprehending. Lucy reaches him in no time, pauses for a second to catch a big breath.

"Did you forget something, Lucy?"

She slaps her palms into his shoulders for a stronghold, searching for the right words. Waiting for the right words. It would all be a shocking wave of deja vu, except there's no fire flickering over his eyebrows this time. So Lucy makes up for it with a strange fire of her very own. She angles her face up, eyes focused, and meets him at the lips. Her mouth is a little dry, but so is Natsu's, and Happy is caught sort of in between them but it doesn't matter.

Lucy holds on long, summoning a burning boldness she didn't know she had. Natsu makes a muffled noise and that little accident somehow brings their lips into a perfect fit, where Lucy ponders how gentle his mouth is, every ridge and calloused patch of it. She manages to cling onto the boldness even as she breaks apart, letting their fitted mouths loose with a swift gasp. Natsu's face is a pale, dumbfounded wall - a look she's never seen on him before. It makes her laugh, even as an inexplicable spot of moisture tickles the corner of her eye.

"Lu…cy?"

She doesn't respond. She doesn't even bother to calm her bubbling laughter. She pulls up, kissing him again so that her loud laughter fizzles away in between them. He opens up to her, a hesitant couple of fingers ghosting at her neck, and she feels it. He's trembling. Natsu Dragneel is trembling! The little distraction is blissful, but Lucy decides to set her focus back on the cushion of his soothing lower lip. And then his upper. Then teeth, and pushing, and pulling, and wrinkling his dress shirt under her fingers, feeling the slightest of tremors on his chest and collar. He's so warm, at his lips and under his shirt and at the hands lost in her neck, and then, Natsu breaks free from her first, fighting for air.

She's just as out of breath as he is. Through all the panting, of untangling her fingers from his crumpled shirt and inching away until there's some room for fresh air between them, his eyes never leave hers. Lucy challenges him on, unblinking, and surprisingly enough she finds that there isn't much to be said after that. Nothing concrete comes to her mind, and not thinking, not panicking, just holding her partner's gaze; it calms her. Fades the disappointment away, bringing the night to a pause, but not an end.

One thing, does come to her mind. Words and phrases from the song they sang on their walk. She pulls on his hands, examining them, the rough and the scarred surface, and recalls the feeling of them trembling at her neck. It makes her spew the ugliest sort of a snort, which in turn makes Natsu blush and snatch his hands away.

"You weren't playing fair, Lucy! That… caught me… completely off guard! It's not like I was scared or anything! I was just way too thrown off by your little sneak attack!"

Lucy licks her lips and slides the big blazer she'd been wearing all night, off her shoulders. Smirking, letting velvet color her teasing tone, Lucy answers, "Here's your blazer back, Natsu. Thank you for letting me borrow it."

"You're… uh… welcome."

He stands there, not knowing what to do, fisting his blazer.

"You were humming, right?" Lucy dips her head, catching his gaze, her lips tickling when she sees the lingering flush at his cheekbones. "You're… terrible at humming, Natsu."

That does it for him. A fire dragon's pride overcomes all of his little trembles and blushes, and he turns on his heels with a huff loud enough to echo across town.

"Sorry my humming bothered ya! See you tomorrow! I mean, today!"

Lucy watches that jagged pink head of his blending into the sweet hues of the morning sky, growing smaller and smaller, for a long time before she finally finishes her night in the comfort of her dark room, sliding into her covers.

Dreams and re-living the playful exchange of soothing lips, intermingle in the fuzziness of Lucy's thoughts. She welcomes the sugary slumber, the peaceful wait for her next adventure.

It's difficult to hear own hums in the stuffy, foggy bathroom, and opening the door to let the fresh, cool air in makes Lucy sigh long and content. She tightens her towel around herself, picking back up mid-chorus, doing a little shimmy of a walk to her drawers.

Her ears pick up the second, lower tone of humming, matching her melody, before she catches the splash of pink hair and blue fur.

"Yo, Lucy!"

The anger rushing through her forehead can't be healthy, especially for someone who just walked out of a very warm place. "Cover your eyes! I'm a woman who just got out of the shower, for goodness sake!"

Lucy snatches up the nearest thing within arm's reach and chucks it in their general direction. Natsu catches it, frowning at the tiny text on the bottle.

"Ooooh, look Happy! It's a magic serum for making wrinkles go away!"

"Let me try it!"

He squeezes a palm full of the creamy liquid, half-ing with Happy and lathering it on his face, no doubt mimicking what he's seen of Lucy's own skin care routine.

"Stop it! That serum is worth more than your heads, you dumbos!"

Lucy darts toward them, struggling to keep her towel secure around her while her free arm reaches for her very expensive serum bottle.

Natsu lengthens his right arm back long behind him, giving Lucy an odd, judging sort of look. She stretches over him and that's when a leg comes around her, knocking on the back of her knees. Her legs give, Natsu hooks his free arm behind her and pulls so she lands sideways on one of his pointy knees, and he meets Lucy's burst of a gasp with his open, prying mouth. They fit against each other and close together, familiar movements of a few hours ago kicking in on instinct.

Lucy jerks when his tongue slides across hers, flailing away. Shoving back and standing, her wobbly footsteps take her one, two, three feet backward. With a start, she glances at Happy, who has his eyes closed, rubbing too much serum into his short blue furs.

Before Lucy can put her thoughts together, Natsu stands up, placing the serum bottle in her hand. "I thought about what you said, you know, when you were talking about the whole repaying me back for all those times I teased ya." He turns casually and sticks his head in her closet, fishing out her travel bag.

"At first I didn't think you'd be able to do it in one lifetime, but then you got me real good earlier this morning! So I had to get you back by playing the same trick. Did it work? Did it make you all shaky and embarrassed?" The next moment he peeks his pink head out of her closet, Natsu's hands are full of Lucy's winter coats, her boots, and mismatched sets of her travel outfits.

"Natsu, how do you know where all of my travel stuff is?! Hey wait, that shirt doesn't match with those shorts at all!"

Fanning her face and huffing, Lucy stomps toward him and points to the correct pairs of outfits. With annoyed eyebrows and some shrugs here and there, Natsu generally follows Lucy's directions, packing the outfits accordingly in her bag. In the midst of pointing to the last shirt plus skirt combination, he stops her hand midway, unfolding her fingers out and laying them in his palm.

"Huh? No fair, you're not even that shaky…"

He lets her hand go, his lips twisting in a childish frown. Lucy hides her hand behind her back before he can catch the sporadic, unnatural tremor. The heat surging up her face is harder to hide, but Lucy does her best to cover it with thick, wet hair, and a rapid turn, stalking back to finally fetch some underwear.

"Eh? Natsu? Did you do it already? Did you kiss Lucy? Did she get really embarrassed?" Happy floats toward Natsu, the fur on his face matted from too much serum.

"I don't think I did it good enough. She didn't get super jittery or red."

"Aw, I missed it! Next time, you have to do it when I'm watching, Natsu! That'll make her even more embarrassed!"

Lucy just about chucks her serum bottle at those idiots again, but stops herself just in time. Best not to waste an expensive product on such… animals.

"Quit planning out how to embarrass me when I'm standing right here, you two!" Lucy yells as she heads for the bathroom, a change of clothes finally in hand. "And even if I close this door, I'll still be able to hear you!"

She rushes through everything. Dabbing on lotion, putting on her clothes, brushing her hair. She can't help but clench her eyes shut, expecting the worst for when she walks out, like finding her room half trashed or splattered with all kinds of her expensive makeup and skincare products. So when her forehead runs into something hard after her first two footsteps, it takes Lucy a good minute to recover, blinking her eyes open.

"I packed all your clothes!"

With narrowed eyes, Lucy peers past Natsu's shoulder, to where Happy is swimming in her open underwear drawer, trying some of them on over his ears.

"Lemme… just… okay you know what, thank you. Natsu. I'll just finish grabbing my toiletries, and then we'll pop our heads in the guild before catching a train…"

It doesn't even humor her anymore, how tired she is when they haven't even left on their next "mission" yet. She pads over to her bed, inspecting the contents of her bag, mostly full now. It turns out Natsu has a pretty good idea of the clothes and underwear she prefers during her lengthy trips.

It's still relieving, that instead of making a big mess in her room like they're accustomed to, Natsu and Happy opted for helping Lucy pack her bag. Even while she finishes tucking away the smaller necessities in the corner pockets, Natsu and Happy behave for the most part. She makes sure to take a clean washcloth and rub off some of the gooey serum from Happy's face, then digs out a pair of blue underwear from the cat's little travel sack. Flicking the little cat in the forehead for swiping.

"Alright! I'm ready to go! Let's stop by the guild and let the others know we're off!"

Natsu raises his head from where he's been crouched at her desk, nose scrunched in concentration. "Go to the guild? I was just gonna leave a note here." He holds up a piece of paper smudged with large, red letters.

"Natsu, that's not a pen. That's my lipstick."

"It still works."

"Give me that!"

Lucy ignores Natsu's pout and discards his lipstick letter. He'd managed to fill up the whole page with nothing but three words, anyway. She grabs a fresh, new sheet, an actual pen, and shoos Natsu away, taking the chair for herself. He stands over her and digs his chin into her right shoulder, and Lucy has to stop a moment to complain about how hard his chin is. Happy flies off, announcing that he has to go check Lucy's fridge for any leftover fish they need to take care of.

When Lucy finishes the letter, Natsu asks her to read it out loud for him. She's a little timid, but it's Natsu, so she does it anyway. And then, the lost, faraway look in Natsu's eyes after she finishes, lets bloom a little dot of uncertainty in her own mind, even as she's searching his gaze for something she recognizes. Fire.

"Natsu?"

"Huh?"

"Are you sure you want to go on this trip? Are you sure about being away from the guild for this long?"

He looks down at her in her chair, and somehow he seems so much bigger than he really is. Lucy's uncertainty grows a little bigger, because they're members of Fairy Tail after all. Leaving family behind is something she'd never imagined Natsu Dragneel approving of.

He puts a hand on her shoulder then, smiling. A flash of the setting sun caught in the corner of his eye. He bends down, touching his mouth over hers. Lucy's mind dissolves into ashes and light. He breathes, and she breathes against him, closing down on the gentle bottom lip. He opens and runs a light tongue along the corner of her mouth. He's a fast learner, too fast for her to keep up with, and she lets him have the upper hand through a quiet whimper before pulling away.

She doesn't understand what the tears in her eyes mean. She blinks them away furiously, putting her palm on the back of his hand, still resting on her shoulder. "Something's changed about you. About us," she breathes.

Natsu reaches past her, grabs her letter and some tape, and puts out a hand to help her stand.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don't know Lucy. I don't particularly feel any different about you. I think…"

He slings his huge bag over his shoulders, then waits for Lucy to grab her bag. Lucy gives her room one last sweeping check, making sure all of her belongings are cleaned up and in the right places. In the last minute, Lucy grabs the envelope with about four months' rent ready, to drop off at the landlady's mailbox.

By the doorway, Lucy shuts off her lights, and they stand there in the dark. One of Natsu's hands on the doorknob.

"I think what you wrote in the letter, is just what I feel right now. I don't know about change and all that fancy stuff. I don't really know if three or four months, if that's really as long as you keep saying it is. I just wanna talk to you for now. Gray, Gajeel, Laxus, Elfman… if I'm around them, I'll just wanna pick fights. But I don't wanna do that. I wanna talk to you more!"

She can make out his smile, full to the brim with his crazy, honest sense of joy, even in the stuffy darkness. She feels the tug on her cheeks, the smile stretching across her teeth, big and maybe even a little ugly. But she understands what those tears meant. She understands.

The door opens from the outside, bumping into Natsu, and Happy pokes his head in. "I ate the fish and the pudding you had left in your fridge, Lucy!"

"That's… good." With a finger, Lucy flicks away the little tears, because they don't need to be there.

Natsu pulls on her by an arm. "Are you ready to go then?"

"Let's go!"

Lucy locks her door firm and tight, Natsu tapes their letter on the front right below her room number, and they drop off Lucy's rent money. They have to break into a run when they realize, they're running late for their train.

She's off, on her next adventure with her best friends, and it's useless to fill her head with worries about the guild members staying behind, or the cool air left lingering on her lips from Natsu's kisses, or anything so foreign and far off in the future as… marriage. Lucy is lucky to have a lot. She's just as lucky to have nothing much to lose. And losing a little bit of the track of time, or the pale and unsightly shades of blue uncertainties, surely is no big loss at all.

Lucy and Natsu's letter to the guild members:

"Dear Erza, Gray, Wendy, Juvia, and/or anyone else who might come and find this letter,

We've decided to go off in search of Aquarius's key. We plan on searching as far and as wide as possible, even outside of Fiore if we have to. We don't know how long we'll be gone. Maybe three, maybe four months, maybe up to a year. But we trust that we leave Fairy Tail in good hands.

Congratulations on your engagements again, Elfman, Evergreen, Erza, Jellal, Levy, and Gajeel. No matter what you hear, please do not believe that we chose to go away now to avoid getting involved in the stressful, arduous, nerve-racking, heinous process of arranging and planning for weddings. It is not true. We're definitely not leaving without even saying goodbye because we don't want to become enslaved for the sake of Titania's grandiose, three-couple, magic wedding. We're leaving now, because, we actually have some clues as to where Aquarius might be! It was Scorpio, yo know Aquarius's boyfriend, told us that he heard a rumor that Aquarius's key might be in… Alvarez.

We will miss Fairy Tail very much while we're gone, but with so many reliable members, we are sure that the next few months of wedding planning and preparations will be full of true happiness and fun for you all. Don't worry about us. We'll do our best to stay safe on our journey, and it's not like Natsu is going to die without Wendy around to relieve his motion sickness. He's lived through it all these years.

Don't look for us. We have no idea where we'll be, and it would be a waste of the valuable members' time to come look for us. We'll send postcards instead! And when we return, Natsu requests a duel with Guildarts, Laxus, Erza, Jellal, Gray, Gajeel, Mirajane, Wendy, and every other member of the guild. Happy requests that Charla go on a fishing date with him. And for me, I would like to request that the guild not sell any unapproved, weird photos of me to magazines without my consent!

Also, we hope to meet some nice new members when we return! We'll be back soon!

With love,

Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragneel, and Happy."