Our Story | Nalu - Rewritten

thirty-two

        "I'll admit, this tastes pretty good," Lucy chuckled as she poked at three bow-tie pastas to stack so she could eat them all at once. "You didn't overcook it."

    Natsu stopped. He slowly looked up from stuffing his face with pasta and asked, "You can overcook pasta?"

    Lucy shot him a concerned look. "Well you can freeze it back if you accidentally do to get it back to the right texture."

    He glared at her, mumbling, "I don't believe you," before finishing up the rest of his pasta and standing up from the kitchen table to take his bowl over to the sink.

At that moment, Lucy's phone went off. She peered over at her phone on the table and saw it was Makayla calling, quickly picking it up answering it before placing it against her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, sweetheart, I stopped by the supermarket to get some groceries and my hands are a little full. Could you open the door?"

"Oh, um, sure."

Lucy stood up from the table, ignoring Natsu's curious gaze and heading for the front door. As she pulled it open, Makayla quickly burst in, carrying three bags in one hand and two in the other. "Michelle's still asleep in the back. Could you wake her up?"

"I thought you were going to stay at the hospital?" Lucy asked, turning her head to watch Makayla hurry over to the island table and plop the grocery bags down on top of it.

"I'm heading back to the hospital later. I had to pick up Michelle from her friend's house because apparently her friend isn't a huge fan of Plue," Makayla rushed out. "Could you watch her for tonight? I can take you to the hospital tomorrow."

    "Yeah sure."

    Makayla's gaze landed on Natsu, causing him to visibly stiffen when she squinted, glancing back at Lucy and raising an eyebrow as she shot her a sly smile.

    Lucy felt her cheeks heat up, her eyes widening as she pressed her lips together and shook her head twice, as if saying, "Not now."

    Makayla shrugged and turned back to Natsu. "Could you help me put the groceries away? Lucy, Michelle."

"Oh, right," Lucy mumbled as she walked out the front door and over to the car, opening the passenger door. The noise startled Plue since he had been resting in Michelle's arms. He looked up at Lucy curiously before barking excitedly. His barks woke Michelle, the girl yawning and rubbing her eyes.

"Lucy?"

The blonde showed her a smile and said, "Come on, let's go inside." She unbuckled Michelle's seatbelt for her and moved back to let Michelle step out of the car. "Natsu's here."

By the mention of his name, Michelle's eyes instantly lit up, gasping in excitement as she ran into the house. "Natsu!"

Lucy shook her head in amusement, closing the passenger door and heading back inside herself. She closed the front door behind her, seeing Natsu crouching down before Michelle, a big goofy grin on his face. "Hey pipsqueak. Haven't seen you in awhile." His eyes shifted down to the small samoyed in Michelle's arms, brightening as he gasped. "And who's this?"

"This is Plue! Plue, meet Natsu." She grabbed his tiny paw with her hand and held it out for Natsu to shake. As Natsu shook Plue's paw, she said, "Natsu is Lucy's boyfriend."

Makayla let out a snort as Lucy froze, her eyes slowly inching over to Natsu to see his reaction. Natsu met Lucy's gaze with a small smile on his face until Makayla stepped into their line of sight to talk to Michelle. "They're not together, honey. I told you before."