Welcome Back... (NaLu)

All This Time

Lucy's POV

I still haven't told Natsu about everything, I mean there's so much to tell. I was surprised at first that he had birthday presents for me at my apartment, and I was touched that he remembered. Even while I was gone he didn't want to miss my birthday. I did the same even though I only missed one of his. I also wrote him a letter every day.

When we finally reached my apartment, I could definitely smell that he had been there a while. I could barely pick up my own.

"Hey, thanks for paying my rent by the way. I was so wrapped up with the fact I had to leave I didn't even think about it."

"Of course, maybe you could let me live here to pay it off!" he laughed.

"That's perfect!"

"I was kidding," he said, looking at me in disbelief.

"Well I'm not. If you want to, you're welcome to stay here to make up for the time I was gone." I smiled.

"Thanks Lucy," he smiled, his cheeks a soft pink.

I knew him well enough that he would take up that offer any day of the week, and I actually don't mind him staying here. I missed him, and I'll admit I do have a tiny crush on him. I guess that always have, and it broke me that it took me leaving him to realize that.

I turned back to Natsu as he pulled out two small boxes. Remembering I had one of my own, I pulled out his gift and the two large stacks of letters and put them into my bag. He turned around and grabbed his over coat, pants, and belt off of one of my chairs and went to the bathroom. With no time wasted, re-adjusting his scarf, he put the boxes in his coat pocket.

"Follow me." He motioned to the door and I followed no questions asked. We jogged to a hill a little ways from the apartment. I sat down setting into the grass, and Natsu stopped.

"What?" I asked.

He walked over to me and sat on his knees behind my back. As I turned to face away from him I heard him open one of the boxes. He moved my now super long pony tail over my shoulder. I felt a cold piece of metal on my chest and a chain around my neck, a necklace.

Once I felt him let go of the clasp, I slowly turned around to see him. Now sitting, he was holding out a smaller box. Before I could even think about the necklace, I looked at the box.

Now completely facing him, I gently took the box from his hands. I slowly opened it to see a shimmering ring inside. It was a red and pink gem and the band was a gold dragon tail that perfectly fit my right ring finger.

"Happy Birthday, Lucy." I could hear the big smile he had in his voice.

I looked at the necklace around my neck, it was a golden key. The top was a dragon head that resembled Igneel. The actual key mechanism had a similar tail to the ring, but was still fashioned like a normal key and shimered a light pink. I looked back at Natsu, he was looking at the ground, and the pink returned to his face. It felt like my silence was making him nervous.

"If you don't like them I can-" before he could finish I jumped towards him, knocking us both down.

"I love them you idiot! Natsu, they're beautiful! Where on Earth did you find them?!" I asked while getting up a little to look at him.

"I, uh- I made them.."

"What?! You made them!"

"Yeah," he chuckled, "I had a lot of time on my hands."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love them. Oh! I almost forgot!"

Natsu's POV

She jumped off me and ran over to her bag. She pulled out two huge stacks of paper, and a small, jewlery box.