Lucy squealed when the strong warm arms of Natsu wrapped around her lithe body lightly lifting her off her feet. He let go of her and grabbed her hand carefully before pulling her into the kitchen again. Upon entering he saw his friends huddled around what seemed to be a large paper with colours and scribbles. "What are we looking at?" Natsu asked letting go of her hands in order to look over the shoulders of his mother who in turn covered the writing. Lucy joined trying to get a peek at what they were hiding however failing and leaning back to her original position.

"Nothing you can see yet." Ava spoke teasingly turning to look at her son frowning. She giggled and reached a hand forward ruffling his pink head of hair.

Natsu huffed and crossed his arms, "Whatever." and looked away feigning sadness.

Lucy giggled, "I am guessing these are plans for Natsu's birthday ball?" she asked pointing at the counter.

Ava nodded and excitedly gushed, "Yes they are! I cannot wait for my only son to be twenty-six. And for him to get married. And to be a mother-in-law. And be a grandmother. An-"

"Okay dear, let's calm down," Sometime into Ava's gushing, Igneel had walked in and decided he would finally stop her from going too crazy, "I'm sorry about that," turning to look at the two new arrivals he continued, "Good afternoon, Gajeel. Gray. I didn't know you guys had arrived yet. Are you guys settled in yet?"

Gray responded smiling, "Of course Uncle Ig, we already set up shop." Gajeel nodded in agreement.

Lucy cocked her head to the side confused, "Uncle?" She asked confused.

Everyone turned their heads to face her and Natsu spoke up, "All our dads are cousins of some sorts." Lucy nodded in understanding.

Chapter 10:

Scary

After they had chatted for a while, they ate and it was once again only Natsu, Lucy Gajeel and Gray. They sat in a spacious brightly coloured room. Lucy had come to learn it was the piano room, it was lavishly decorated, ornaments and tapestries hanging from the large expanse of walls. An unused easel sat on the far corner beside the window closely placed near a worn out reading area, only a few books littered around the cosy chair. Of course, a tremendous piano placed directly at the far end of the room and at the side a small book shelf containing multiple music sheets, books and pens.

On a large messy table placed right at the center of the room sat the three boys who all adorned bored expressions while Lucy sat at the reading corner silently listening to the them and reading.

"So, when are the others are getting here?" Gajeel asked

Natsu shrugged, "I heard some of them are coming a couple of days but mostly on the day."

Gray let out a sigh, "We came here to hang," dropping the pen he was forced to hold he dropped his head onto the messily written piece of work he was doing, "not to study." from underneath his hands his voice was muffled.

Natsu groaned, "I know, I can't believe my parents shoved us in here," He sat up and picked up his empty sheet of paper, "I haven't even started on this yet."

Gajeel joined too after writing two words, "I hate this," looking over at the neatly completed sheet of paper Lucy had left behind two minutes after they had been locked in the room, "how did bunny girl finish this so early?"

Lucy humphed, gently put her book down and stood up with her hands on her hips, "I have a name, for your information," Lucy walked towards the trio and took back her work, "and I, unlike you three, like writing." she smiled when she noticed Natsu trying to focus on writing.

Gajeel rolled his eyes while Gray sighed and tried to continue. Lucy sat down beside Natsu and watched as his eyes scrunched in concentration as he thought of what to write. He ran a hand down his face and sighed. Lucy giggled and rested her face in one of her hands, Natsu turned to look at her and pouted, "Don't laugh at me! I don't get this like you do."

Lucy covered her mouth, "Sorry Natsu, if you want I can help you," she asked and watched as his face lit up. She picked up the book he was supposed to have read and written about, she smiled when she realised it was one of her favourite books. She knew the story like the back of her hand, "Okay Natsu, have you read this story before?" Natsu nodded, "Okay that's good, so what is it about?"

Natsu thought for a second before speaking, "Well it starts with this lady, she's out exploring all by herself when she comes across a man with a flying cat, turns out he's looking for his dad who's actually a dragon and she's trying to escape from her dad. She tags along and they have all kinds of adventures, they practice their magic and find themselves in a massive fight. When they're fighting they find his father but he's already been dead but was inside him all along. During the fight his father leaves forever. And the lady, she had lost someone close to her but told no one."

"The man leaves with his cat for a year and when he comes back he finds his whole family split apart and with the lady they bring them back together. There's another fight, an even bigger one against his brother. With all the help of his friends and family he beats him. The lady finally tells him about the loss of her mother-like friend so the man tells her they'll search for her together. They call it the 100 year quest," Natsu looked up her and nodded, "Yeah, I like the story."

Lucy smiled, "See Natsu, you know the story. All you have to do is write it down."

Natsu nodded, "That's all?"

Lucy nodded, "Yeah, although it would be good to write your opinion about it too."

Natsu smiled, "Thanks Luce." Lucy watched as he continued to write until his entire page was full proving he was done. He then looked up and presented it to Lucy who read it.

"This is great Natsu," Lucy smiled and looked over at the two other men on the other side of the table and noticed one had passed out with only half of his page filled and the other doodling all over his page. At this point Lucy was getting annoyed, she had finished her task at least twenty minutes before Natsu and the others had barely started, "Are you kidding me?" she asked, anger present in her voice.

Natsu immediately straightened up, his eyes wide, "Uh- Luce..." he awkwardly trailed off, unsure of how to take her sudden outburst.

"Are you serious?"

This time Gajeel paused and slowly raised his head in fear.

"Do you know how long I have been sitting here? I sat here for twenty minutes waiting for you halfwits to finish yet you still have not written anything! I have read-" Lucy paused, picking up the brightly coloured book she had previously been busying herself with and slammed it shut jolting a sleeping Gray to pop up and tumble to the ground. After finally getting his attention she continued, "-Hansel and Gretel three times!"

All three men now sat with their backs straight, eyes wide and mouths agape. They watched as Lucy took a breath before blushing and suddenly becoming embarrassed, "Sorry, I didn't mean to call you halfwits. My anger got the best of me. I apologise."

Natsu dropped his face, smirked and started laughing, "That was awesome Luce!"

Lucy blushed further and cleared her throat before looking back to the other side of the table and realised the two men still hadn't moved since her outburst.

"You know you sound just like Erza." Natsu said bringing back her attention.

Lucy frowned, "Whose Erza?"

"Oh she's a scary Lady." Gray suddenly spoke shivering despite him not ever feeling the cold.

Lucy scrunched her brows in confusion, "Are you calling me scary?" She asked accusingly.

Natsu stiffened, "No."

Lucy rolled her eyes and looked back to the men and saw they still hadn't moved an inch, "Why aren't your pens moving?"

Almost instantaneously the men scrambled for their equipment before they scrawled down whatever they could, avoiding Lucy's glare anyway possible.

The broad door opened revealing Ava who found herself shocked, "Lucy, my dear. How on earth did you manage to get them to do their work." she asked peering down at the work Gray and Gajeel were attempting to complete. The watchful eyes of Lucy causing them to sweat just a little. Ava left and said they would be allowed to leave in ten minutes.

Lucy soon left the room pleased with herself. Natsu close on her tail following her dreamily while Gray and Gajeel trailed behind still wary of Lucy.

How was that guys? Did you like the Erza mention? For this chapter I decided to have a little bit of Lucy's personality shine through. I'm hoping Natsu's story explanation sounds familiar. I tried to make him seem kinda excited about the story so some of the details might be a little skewed.

Any way, here's the sneak peek.

Sneak peek:

Natsu groaned, "Why would you wake me?" he frustratedly asked her.

Instantly he regretted this as he suddenly felt himself getting lifted by the front of his shirt, a demonic chill grazing his soul, "What did you say?"

Natsu peered up to her face to see her eyebrows scrunched, her face in a scowl and he swore her eyes had turned red, "Nothing." he let out weekly.