'Sup.

I'm back with new and refreshed manga addictions. Yes, I know I fell into a lull with my two running fics, but reading new manga series has rejuvenated my love for writing, well, manga fan fic writing. As Natsu would say, I'm all fired up!

1: Best Friends

"Lucy, Lucy…Wake up. It's morning."

"H…Huh?" Lucy murmured groggily as she felt tiny paws nudge her shoulders insistingly.

Brilliant sunlight poured in through the open window of Lucy Heartfilia's bedroom. She instinctively brought up a hand to shield her eyes from the morning. Peeking through her fingers, she blinked against the light and a single thought came to her mind: What time was it?

She could hear the sounds of birds chirping gaily outside her window. A rooster's crow rang out in the far distance….

Clearly it was too damn early.

"Mmmm…5…more…mins…"Pulling the thick blanket tighter around herself, she snuggled further into her bed, enjoying the cool feel of the blanket around her bare skin. Thank God it was raining last…night…the room was cold…and ch…..zzz…

"Lucy! Wake! Up! We're supposed to go shopping together! Natsu, you too!"

"Happy…Go away…and let me sleep…snore…"

N…Natsu? Since when did she acquire a roommate? And come to think of it, her alarm clock never talked…

Lucy sprang up from underneath the blanket, her eyes wide open. Hovering above the bed with an annoyed expression on his face was Happy, the winged blue Exceed. Gripping her blanket tightly, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. If Happy was here…

"Gyaaaaaa!" Lucy leapt off the bed with a speed that would otherwise be considered inhuman, or at least Erza-like. "W-what...Natsu! When did you get here?!" She yelled, her body shaking with righteous fury.

From underneath the thick, white blanket, a mess of unruly pink hair popped up, its owner's face scrunched with sleep as he slowly rubbed the tiredness from his eyes. Ruffling his hair, Natsu grinned at her with an exuberance that was way too unnatural at such an ungodly hour. "Ohayoo, Lucy! Did you sleep well? Ah…Happy! You're up early!"

Natsu excitedly jumped and stood up where he had been laying, oblivious to Lucy's jaw-drop as she stared at the muddy stains from his boots now marring her once-clean bed. "Happy! Today's the day right? Max mentioned that we might be able to see Igneel today?" "Aye!" His feline best friend replied enthusiastically, being also blissfully unaware of the girl steaming in anger beside them. Natsu turned around to ask Lucy if she was planning to accompany them when he suddenly noticed the death aura emanating from her, a dark shadow illuminating from behind her body. "Geh!"

"Since when did my room become a hotel for you two idiots?!" Lucy hissed. Natsu fell back down onto the bed, his face cringing in fear of his female best friend. Happy, now aware that he was in a very dangerous situation, zoomed towards Natsu, his tiny paws outstretched to fly his best friend to safety, but alas, an angry Lucy reached speeds that could rival Jet. With a fierce glare, she grabbed the squirming cat by the tail and tied him up with Fleuve d'étoiles.

Seeing that Natsu was also about to make a hasty retreat out her open window, she flung her pillow at him and "Hmphed" when it hit him squarely in the back of his head. Natsu plopped back down onto her bed, steam hissing out from where he had been whacked.

Satisfied with herself, she disappeared into the bathroom for a shower, but not before warning them that she wanted them gone by the time she was out.

Lucy Heartfilia stripped herself out of her clothes, sighing when she realized that there were patches of mud stains on her calfs and upper arm. "How on earth does Natsu sleep if he managed to get his foot anywhere near my arm?!" She muttered to herself angrily. Stepping into the stone bath, she forced herself to relax as the warm water lapped at her bare skin. Gently soaping herself up with a sponge, Lucy tried to recall if she had seen Natsu anywhere near her house the night before. If he had managed to sneak into her bed, he must have been lurking around somewhere nearby…but then again, she was pretty tired after returning from yesterday's quest.

What was supposed to be a simple mission that she had decided to undertake herself had elevated into a huge mess when Natsu, Happy, Erza and Gray had decided to tag along because they were bored.

Sinking further into the bath water, Lucy blew bubbles as she recalled the disastrous events. All she had been tasked to do was retrieve a runaway pet horse from the meadows outside of Magnolia, but even that had to be ruined when Natsu and Gray started competing to see who could catch the horse faster and ride on its back. Natsu of course, cheated by getting Happy to fly him so as to allow him to catch up with the animal faster. And unsurprisingly, as soon as he was on the horse's back, his face bloated up in a ghastly shade of green. A horse was after all, a form of transport.

Gray, seeing his chance, had leaped up into the air and with his Ice Make magic, hammered Natsu off the poor beast. Unfortunately, due to the skittish horse's sudden rearing up, he missed, and the animal, together with Natsu flew towards the nearby café...where Erza was chillaxing with a plate of freshly baked strawberry sponge cake…

And then the situation just got a whole lot worse… Lucy felt goosebumps prickle her skin just thinking about how close Erza had come to destroying the entire café. In the end, Lucy had ended up taking home only a third of the original reward as the owner had held back the rest for the vet's treatment. She sighed again, she adored Natsu and the rest dearly, but did they always have to be so reckless?

Standing up, she rinsed off the soapy water and drained the tub of the muddy mixture. Toweling herself dry, she wrapped the fluffy cloth around her body and stepped out.

"Yo! Lucy! You sure took your time!" "Aye, Lucy! You're so slow!"

"Gyaaaaa! I thought I told you two numbnuts to leave! And... you finished off the cheese I had prepared for breakfast! What am I going to eat now?"

Natsu and Happy looked at each other, a guilty look on their faces. "I suppose it can't be helped…Happy! Go get some more cheese!" "Ehhhh! But Natsu you ate it too!" Natsu made a tsking sound at the protesting Exceed, "You can get back faster than me. Hurry, before Lucy gets mad and kills us both!" "Aye, sir!" Happy zoomed out of the window, on his quest to find the store that sound that delicious cheese.

"There, Happy's gone to get you more cheese. Ok now?" Lucy shot him a killer glare. "You were supposed to leave too." Natsu looked up at her with puppy-dogs eyes, "I thought you were joking. After all, you love having us around!"

She sighed loudly. "Ano-neh…Get this into your heads. I don't! Now get out so that I can change in pea- Ah!" While she had been standing there, water had dripped off her body and pooled around her feet. As Lucy turned sharply around to head towards her clothes cabinet, she slipped, her arms flailing wildly about.

"Lucy! Look out!"

A loud thump reverberated throughout the room.

"Owwww…" Groaning in pain, Lucy opened her eyes to a sharp pain in her butt from where something hard was pressing into the soft flesh, and immediately turned a furious shade of red when she realized where she was.

"Ouch ouch…my head…Lucy, are you alr… Eh."

Natsu eyes widened when he realized where he had caught her. When he had slid his arms around her waist, he had dislodged her towel. The fluffy strip of cloth now lay draped across the lower half of Lucy's body. However, instead of grabbing her waist, his arms were now tightly wrapped around the fleshiest part of the girl. Natsu felt himself tense up at the closeness of the bodies.

Her cool, damp skin was pressed firmly against his bare arms and he could smell the aroma of strawberry emanating from her wet hair. Coupled with the tantalizing scent of peaches radiating from her skin, he found it difficult to move away. Damn his keen sense of smell. Out of male curiosity, he found himself peering downwards over her small shoulder, and his heart nearly leaped out of his throat at the sight of her fleshy mounds, wet from the shower, pressed against his own darker skin. Sure, Lucy had the habit of wearing revealing clothes, but the sight that lay before him was far beyond comparison to her in her typical blue midriff baring tee and short skirt.

"Why wasn't he moving away?!" Lucy screamed in her head. She was positive that he could feel her heart racing in her chest. She had been caught in numerous embarrassing situations with Natsu before, given how much time they spent together, but nothing could beat the current state they were in. Natsu had been wearing his gold-trimmed vest without an undershirt again recently, and through the direct contact of her back against his chest, she could feel the wild thumping of his heart. So he was affected, she thought. Somehow the idea made her shiver.

The movement seemed to snap him out of his trance. In a hurried move, Natsu unwound the scaled scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around Lucy's torso. He scuttled off to the other end of the room, his back facing hers, as he muttured an embarrassed apology.

The sudden movement left Lucy bereft of the warmth of his abnormal body heat, and she shivered again, this time from the chill.

"Lucy, I won't look. Grab your clothes and change before you catch a cold."

Smiling at the back of her best friend, Lucy disappeared back into the bathroom with a dress in hand.

Upon hearing the door close behind him, Natsu released a breath that he hadn't even realized he had been holding in. His face burned with embarrassment and his mind was a blank. What was he doing, holding her for so long?! Natsu had always considered himself to be a guy whose only passion was fighting, but on numerous occasions, Lucy had made him question that, starting from when she had leaped out of Phantom Lord's sky prison and squished her breasts against his face when he caught her. Thankfully that moment hadn't lasted too long.

He felt a pang of guilt in his chest. Lucy must have felt so embarrassed. When she came out, he was…

"Is Happy back?" He jolted upright with a start, turning back to look at her surprised expression.

"No, he…"

"Natsu! Lucy! I got the cheese!" Happy flew straight into Lucy's chest, waving the hunk of cheese excitedly.

All throughout breakfast round 2, Happy shared his story of how he badgered the cheesemonger awake, all to make Lucy happy. He was rewarded when Lucy dug up a can of sardines, and his eyes immediately rounded into double hearts. "Sakana! Lucy, arigatou!" Giggling, Lucy patted his head. "Hai hai." All the while, Natsu ate in silence, which Happy picked up after a while. "Natsu. Are you not happy with the cheese? Ah! It must be because you don't have any sakana! Want some?" Happy thrust the half-eaten can at his best friend. When he refused, Lucy glanced at him, a worried expression on her face.

"Oi! Fire-breath! Are you here? Max is looking for you!"

"Ice-head? You're here too?"

Lucy shrieked when a half-naked Gray popped his head into her window. "Pervert! Put your clothes on!" She stood up, gripping her chair above her head, her face a furious shade of red.

"What are you talki—Geh?! Lucy! Lend me your shirt!"

Natsu wouldn't have thought it possible for her to be redder any she already was, and somehow the fact that she was made him want to punch something, namely Gray. Which he did.

"Ice-pervert! Stop scaring people early in the morning!" "What the hell?! What the heck are you doing here so early then! You must have freaked Lucy awake!" Natsu cringed, and kneed Gray in the chest.

"Pervert!" Kick! "You-! Shitty flame!" Punch! "Ice for brains!" Bish!

Lucy face-palmed as another one of their petty arguments devolved into a meaningless tussle, with both guys yelling childish insults whilst socking each other. But still, she glanced up at the ball of dust that was Natsu and Gray. She was glad that he was fine again, since he had been on edge even after she had come out fully-clothed.

"Crash!" Eh… "My vase! Natsu! Gray! GET OUT! NOW!" With a furious kick, she sent both idiots soaring out the window.

And finally, Lucy Heartfilia got to sit down to her long awaited peaceful breakfast, Happy still indulging in his sakana next to her.

The End.

Hahahaha! Naah. That was a joke... Look forward to the next chapter!

Faie.