From Puppy to Prince

I'll Always Catch You

"Hey Luc-.... Huh? She's not here." Natsu had burst through her window, only to find the blonde mage not in her apartment. Like the goofball he is, Natsu looked everywhere for her, but not in normal human-shaped spots. He lifted her pillow, looked in her drawers, even in the cupboards in the little kitchenette. Pouting a bit, Natsu sat cross-legged on Lucy's bed.

He had been hoping to go on a job with her. He knew her rent was coming up, to which it made no sense to him why she would refuse his offers for her to live with him. He basically lived with her, except he had a house he owned. Yeah, sure, he liked her, but if she lived with him, he would be able to protect her better. The incident with the girls that had been fawning over his excerpt in Sorcerer Weekly the month before had really bothered her. If he had been there, maybe those girls wouldn't have said anything.

A light breeze blew through the room from the window he had left open. The sound of fluttering pages caught Natsu's attention, and he turned to its source. On Lucy's desk, there was an open book. Natsu glanced around the room, making sure Lucy really wasn't there, then an evil grin grew on his face. He darted to the desk, turning the pages to the front.

It didn't take him long to realize this was a diary. "That's odd, I thought her letters to her mom were her diary..." Natsu had read one such letter before, and it gave a general account of what happened during the time she was writing about. But this diary, it held more personal thoughts, things you wouldn't tell a parent, or at least Natsu figured that since he never got to experience that.

"That's odd..." Natsu flipped through more pages, skimming them, "Nearly all of these are about me..." It didn't take him long to realize that. But the more he read, the more he noticed that around the time of the Puppy Potion job, the one they had taken almost three months ago, she started to write about weird feelings when around him. Things like butterflies in her stomach, or her cheeks burning. Slowly, Natsu realized he had felt, still felt, all those same things when he was around her!

There was one entry that caught his eye. It was dated from that morning, explaining why the diary was on her desk in the first place. Natsu read the entry, his eyes widening with understanding. This one entry told him everything he needed and wanted to know.

Natsu grabbed the book moved to the window, launching himself out of Lucy's window. He ran the entire way to the guild. He had to find Lucy!

The doors to the guild burst open, revealing a harried looking Natsu. He nearly ran to the bar, "Mira! Do you know where Lucy is?!" The white-haired take-over mage shook her head.

"Sorry Natsu. She came in earlier, but she was only here for a few minutes. She and Levy talked, then Lucy left. Maybe you should talk to Levy?"

Natsu didn't thank her as he hurried to the blue-haired girl beside Gajeel. "Levy, you talked to Lucy this morning, right? Do you know where she is?"

Gajeel scowled at Natsu, but sensed something was up, so he stayed silent. "Yeah, Natsu, she came and told me she was going to Hargeon. She said that her 'memories caught a hold of her' and that she needed to go there. She wouldn't explain past that, just that she would be there. Do you know what's going on?" A concerned look crossed Levy's face.

Natsu smiled at her, knowing just where Lucy had gone. "Don't worry, everything is fine. And it may get better!" Turning, he left the solid-script mage baffled, running out of the guild to the train station.

A blue flying cat flew by Gajeel and Levy, but an iron-hard hand plucked him out of the air, "Nuh uh Happy, let him go. This is between him and Lucy."

"How do you know Gajeel?" Levy looked up at him, and Happy looked just as curious.

Gajeel held up his hand, "Remember that book he was holding?" They both nodded. "It had Bunny Girl's scent all over it. My guess is it was her diary." Levy's lips made an "o" with understanding, while Happy was just as confused as before. The small girl smiled and explained what Gajeel was implying to him. After that he didn't want to follow Natsu.