Lucy POV:
The constant annoying beeping coming from my pink alarm clock forces me to get up from my deep slumber.
Once on my feet, I stumble to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
After about fifteen minutes of pampering and preparations, I emerge out of the bathroom ready for school.
Finally slipping on my shoes, I quietly walk out of my room and down the stairs.
To my luck, my father seemed to still be sleeping, so I rushed out of the little dwelling I unfortunately call home.
As I begin to skip down the sidewalk I become excited to see Natsu.
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Natsu POV:
Closing the door behind me, I hop down the steps leading down to the sidewalk. I glance to my right to notice a joyful Lucy waving at me.
I wave back at her as I wait for her to reach me.
Once she does, I greet her with, "Morning Luce!"
She smiles and responds with, "Good morning Natsu."
We start chatting about little things before I blurt out, "I'm glad you had fun this weekend; I wanted to make you feel better because... I don't like it when you're sad."
My eyes turn to meet her surprised ones.
A blush creeps onto my face as I continue," I mean it... I love it when you're smiling and laughing. Please stay like that."
Still gazing into her eyes, I notice little tears forming in the corners of them.
A smile spreads across her face as she says, "It's all thanks to you."
She then suddenly wraps her arms around me.
Shocked and blushing even harder, I return her hug and softly say, "No problem Luce... anything for you."
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Lucy POV:
As I pull away from our hug and Natsu and I continue the journey to school, his words remind me what Levy told me.
"I believe love is when you would do anything and everything for that person, no matter what."
My heart beats rapidly and I feel my cheeks heat up, as I replay what he said in my mind.
"No problem Luce... anything for you."
"Maybe they're right... maybe Natsu loves me...but I can't just assume that! I mean... maybe? He's the only person who was ever nice to me when I was all alone... and he makes me so happy. Does that mean... I love him? Ugh this is so confusing!" I mentally argue with myself.
Natsu, noticing the strange expression I'm probably wearing, asks, "Luce, you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine! I was just thinking about... uh...the weekend!" I somewhat lied, I mean I did think about what Levy told me over the weekend.
He glances at me for a second before answering, "Okay!"
After about another five minutes of conversing, Natsu and I arrive at school.
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The school day consisted of the usual boring teachers, fun lunch antics, and going through most of my pencil lead as a result of all the assignments.
As I put my things in my locker, the final bell rings; dismissing us from the clutches of the school faculty.
Grabbing my bag, I head outside in the hopes of finding Natsu waiting for me.
A smile forms on my face as my eyes fall upon him standing by the gate.
I happily skip towards Natsu.
Once I get there, he greets me with, "Hey! Ready?"
My response is a quick nod.
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Once we start walking, I don't realize at first, but we're heading in the wrong direction.
"Hey Natsu, where are we go-"
"It's a surprise!" He interrupts.
I giggle before saying in defeat, "Okay."
Natsu then grabs my hand.
A blush creeps onto my face, but I don't mind.
"His hand is so warm..." I think as we continue walking to the unknown destination.
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After about twenty-five minutes, Natsu stops in front of a little building.
I look up at the sign to figure out what I have just arrived to.
"Strauss Ice Cream & Sweets" the sign illustrates with curvy letters.
Natsu and I, with our hands still interlocked, walk into the shop.
Inside the store is beautiful. The walls are painted in the pattern of yellow and white stripes and the floors are simple white tiles.
Some tables and chairs are placed throughout the small shop; each light marble table had two gray chairs with decorative yellow pillows on them, and on top of the tables lay a napkin holder and menus.
The first thing you see when you walk into the store is the giant display case that holds sweets among sweets.
Scrumptious chocolate and caramel covered fruit, delectable truffles and tarts, and deliciously baked cookies and cakes are just some of the many amazing desserts inside the case.
Next to that display case lays an even bigger one. Inside of that case sits tubs of a variety of ice creams.
Various options include: Superman, Rocky Road, Mint Chocolate Chip, and of course, the classics, Chocolate and Vanilla.
Next to the ice cream display case lies the cash register and some more tables.
Behind the display boxes are two beautiful girls; one has long white hair and the other has short white hair, and both of them are dressed in pretty yellow and white dresses.
When we walked inside they both greeted us with," Welcome!"
"Hey guys!" Natsu replies.
"Oh hey there Natsu!" The girl with short hair says.
"Oh I see you brought a friend! She's so cute! What's her name?" The girl with long hair asks.
"It's fine, they seem nice... I should talk."
"I'm Lucy." I happily say.
Natsu squeezes my hand and the smile on his face grows bigger.
"Aw, that's a pretty name! Nice to meet you Lucy, I'm Mira!" The long haired girl says as she introduces herself.
"And, I'm Lisanna, it's nice to meet you!" The short haired girl says with a smile.
"So what do you guys want?" Mira politely asks.
I scour the many options and go with the thing that sounds the most appetizing right now.
"Um, can I please have strawberry ice cream in a cone? Please?" I shyly ask.
"Oh my, you are just too adorable, of course you can!" Mira cheerfully answers.
"And I'll have a chocolate cone, Mira!" Natsu announces.
"Alright! Coming right up!" Mira says.
After Mira and Lisanna finished making our cones, Mira said, "And that will be $7.50."
As I was about to head in my bag for my wallet, Natsu hands a ten to Mira.
"I got it." Natsu says, while grinning and still holding my hand.
"Thank you." I say while blushing.
Natsu lets go of my hand to grab our delicious looking ice cream cones.
He hands me my ice cream and I immediately try it, but am a little disappointed that we're not holding hands anymore.
"Is it good?!" Lisanna excitedly questioned.
"Mm-hm!" I exclaim.
"Now you crazy love birds get outta here!" Mira shouted while laughing.
My cheeks quickly heat up even more. I turn over to see Natsu's cheeks are just as red as mine are.
After what feels like a very long moment of silence, Natsu says, "Okay, we'll be going! Bye guys!"
We head out of the store with our ice cream cones and begin walking home.
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Once we finished our ice cream cones, we started conversing.
"That's Mira and Lisanna's parent's store. Their parents are friends of my mom, so Mira, Lisanna, and their brother, Elfman, and I became friends. They're all so nice, and I wanted you to meet them." Natsu explains.
"I see. Oh Natsu, I have a question." I announce.
"Yeah?" he replies.
"Why did you squeeze my hand when we were in the store?" I ask.
"Because I was happy that you talked to them." Natsu answers.
"I didn't know how you would respond and I was gonna introduce you, but you surprised me when you introduced yourself; it made me really happy." He continued.
My heart beat picks up speed and blush creeps onto my cheeks.
I grab his hand into mine.
My eyes fall onto his as I admit, "Well, when I'm with you I have the courage to do anything."
His eyes widen and his cheeks become a bright shade of red.
I give a smile and squeeze his hand before saying, "I mean it."