A/N: Little late, but a fanfic for NaLu week. Enjoy! :3

...

It was an ordinary day. But as most of these stories go, ordinary days don't stay ordinary. Lucy sighed and leaned against the counter of the bookstore. It was empty and quite as usual and what made her boredom worse was her partner and best friend was out sick with a really bad stomach flu after eating some bad sushi. The sun was starting to go down so it was about time to close shop. Lucy took her name tag off and stored it in the drawer and locked it then locked down the shop for the night.

"'Celestial & Script Magic Tomes'." a smug sounding voice read, "Interesting name."

Lucy whipped around to see a man with a smug grin and a small tattoo over his left eye. Lucy raised an eyebrow at the strange man.

"If you're interested in looking at our selection, you'll have to wait until tomorrow the shop's closed." Lucy stated.

"Im sure you can...make an exception." He grinned dangerously, moving closer to Lucy, "How 'bout you come on a date with me and let your hair down."

Lucy swatted his hand away as it snakes towards her hair that was pulled back neatly in a ponytail. She tried to move but her feet were glued to the pavement. Her eyes drifted to one of the many rings on his finger. One pulsed with a dull pink light. A charm ring.

It was an illegal magic, forbidden by the Magic Council. And this guy was using it to make her stay still so he could...no. She couldn't think like that. Lucy fought hard against the spell and reached for the ring of gold and silver keys on her belt, but the charm wizard spotted her movement and snatched the key ring before she could reach it.

"Ah. So that's where the 'Celestal' bit of the name came from. You're a Celestial Wizard." He mocked, thumbing through the keys, "Useless to a flame wizard like me."

He tossed the key ring over his shoulder and towards the river by the store front. All Lucy could do was watch in horror as her precious keys sailed through the air towards the river. But then a hand reached up and plucked the keys from the air and looked at them with mild interest.

"You say you're a wizard?" The man who caught Lucy's keys asked, slightly aggravated, "Cause all I see is a wanna-be-predator."

The tattoo guy seemed to not take kindly to that. He turned away from Lucy and faced the shadowy man.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" he growled.

"No. And I don't care. You shouldn't pick on innocent people."

"I'm the Salamander!" He shouted shooting a jet of sickly pink at the man. He didn't even move even as the flames concealed him. Salamander laughed evilly, but then they started disappearing. The man was EATING THE FLAMES! Lucy's jaw dropped in shock and so did Salamander's as the flames disappeared.

"You sure you're a flame mage? These are some nasty flames!" He exclaimed while eating them.

In the light of the flames, Lucg could make out some of his features. Rosy pink hair and hard, slanted eyes. A scarf whipped against the updraft created by the heat of the flames. Lucy twitched her fingers. The spell had almost worn off.

"Okay. Now or never." She muttered to herself, "LUCY-KICK!"

Lucy swung her leg with as much strength as she could muster and nailed Salamander in his manhood. He fell over and there was silence. That was broken by the other mystery man bursting out laughing. Lucy stared at the stranger with wide and confused eyes as he walked up to her and deposited her key ring in her hands.

"Here. Try not to loose these again. They're valuable." He said.

"Yeah. I know. Thank you for helping me, I'm not sure what would have happened if you didn't come when you did." Lucy said, clipping her keys on her belt again, "I'm Lucy. Um...what's your name?"

"Natsu."

"Right. Natsu, is there anything I can do to thank you for helping me?" Lucy asked.

Thr pink haired boy was silent for a moment, then a smile spread across his face. "Yea. There is something. It's an odd request though."

"That's fine. I'm used to odd."

"Good. Meet me at the outskirts of the forest tomorrow morning at 5."

"5 AM!?" Lucy exclaimed, "That's crazy!"

"Hey, you're the one who asked if there was anything you could do to thank me. This is it." Natsu said waving over his shoulder as he left, "See y'ah in the morning, Luigi."

"IT'S LUCY!" She shouted.

Natsu just scoffed and disappeared around the corner. Lucy growled and kicked the man in front of her one more time for good measure and left for her apartment.

"Ugh! I'm gonna have to tell Levy I can't be at the shop tomorrow!" Lucy exclaimed to herself, "What did I get myself into!?"

What indeed.

next morning

The next morning Lucy's alarm went off at 4 in the morning. She groaned and slapped the alarm clock until it shut up. After crawling out of her oh-so-comfortable bed she pulled on some cute clothes and did her hair in a tiny side ponytail. Lucy peaked into Levy's room and grinned at seeing the sick Solid Script Mage was still fast asleep. Lucy grabbed a banana and snuck out the front door.

The forest was nice and cool that time of day. But it was eerily silent. No birds sung in the branches and no little woodland creatures scurried around the ground. More importantly, there was no pink-haired boy waiting for her. Lucy snickered. She's beat him to the forest.

"What took you so long?" asked an impatient voice from above.

Lucy looked up in the tree above her. And low and behold. Natsu was sitting on the tree branch lazily leaning against the trunk with his hands laced behind his head. Lucy was too shocked for words as he leapt down from the branch and landed in front of her.

"I'm surprised you came Luigi. I wasn't sure if you were serious or not."

"First, it's Lucy. L-u-c-y. And second, what could you possibly need help with in a forest?"

Natsu stayed quiet as he walked into the forest. Lucy had no choice but to follow the hot-headed pinkeette. Despite her protests, he didn't slow down or stop. He didn't even look over his shoulder or say anything to her until they reached a large, sheltered clearing. He whipped around and grasped Lucy's shoulders before forcing her to sit on a rock before squatting in front of her.

"This is gonna be hard for you to wrap your head around." He said.

"What is it?"

"I'm not human."

"Way to be direct, and WHAT!?" Lucy exclaimed.

"I'm a dragon and I need your help to get my wings."

"Isn't that an angel thing?" Lucy asked.

"Well...I'm half dragon on my dad's side. And half dragons don't get wings unless they 'unlock their hearts' as my dad put it."

"Couldn't you just ask your dad to help you?"

Natsu's eyes darkened. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"He disappeared. 7 years ago. Without a word." Natsu said sadly.

Lucy was shocked. She felt like a jerk for asking that. Lucy slid down off the rock to Natsu's level and hugged him.

"I'm sorry I asked about that." She said.

"It's okay." Natsu said, his voice breaking, "It happened a long time ago."

Lucy wasn't sure how long they stayed like that. Just hugging. It felt...nice. Wait a minute. What was she thinking! She just met this guy, why was she thinking these things about someone she just met last night! Heck, he wasn't even human!

"Thanks Lucy. I think I'm better now." Natsu said, pulling away.

Strangily, his face was tinted pink slightly.

"Are you sure you're okay Natsu? Your face is red."

"No it isn't!" He protested childishly.

Lucy laughed. "Hey, that was actually the first time you said my name right."

"Ha ha. So funny Luigi."

"Are we seriously going back to this?"

"Yep."

"Anyway, back on topic, how do we get your wings to come out?" Lucy asked thoughtfully, "And how exactly can I help?"

"Wait. You believe me?" Natsu asked surprised.

"It's a big pill to swallow, but after what I saw last night, I'd believe just about anything."

Relief washed over Natsu's face...for a reason Lucy didn't understand. Lucy chuckled at his childish expression as he stood up lighting his fists on fire.

"Alright! I'm all fired up! Let's do this!"

"Okay! We're gonna get you your wings!"