As always, Natsu went on his late night drive, passed a few villages and through the countryside, his favourite places to be.
Tonight felt different, it felt darker, the rusty pick-up truck seemed empty and loud, even though there was no music, and there most certainly no room for more then three people, so why did it feel different?
Natsu continued driving again until he stopped at an unknown gas station.
His feet tapped against the concrete floor as he watched the meter go up and tsked as it went over by 1 penny.
"Typical." He groaned going inside the unfamiliar place. It truly was in the middle of nowhere and that's what he liked about this. It was truly his own place.
The pink-haired man kept his head down low as he entered the automatic doors with a ten pounds and one pence scrunched in his fingers, it still felt different and it annoyed him to no end, even more so he couldn't figure out why.
"I'm gas pump six." He said staring at the money he placed on the counter.
He heard a gentle gasp and looked up, feeling familiarity sink in with the doe brown eyes that met his own dark ones.
"Luce?" His words came out choked and in shock, is this why it felt so different?
She blushed and quickly scrapped up her money into her still delicate fingers and placed it in the till, pulling her mandatory hat down just to cover her eyes.
"Thank you and please com-" She softly gasped again when he grabbed her hand and forced her head up using his free one.
He grinned toothily and let her hand drop before running around the counter and tackling her into a hug, almost knocking cigarettes off the shelves.
"Natsu pl-" He cut her off for the second time by kissing her with as much passion as he could, he needed to show her how much she was missed but was stopped by a slap across his tanned cheek "Would you listen for a second!" She shouted making a customer who walked in, walk immediately out.
The two stood up and dusted themselves off and a man came out of the staff room yawning.
"I swear to fucking god Lucy, if you fuck up, I'll-" The man stared at Natsu "Who's this? Why is he behind the counter?"
Natsu glared at the man and his wrinkled features, smokers breath and disgusting, greasy black hair.
"Michael leave him alone, he's an old friend." Lucy whispered putting her hand on his chest and he grinned down at her and grasped onto her hips.
"So he won't care if I do this?" The man smirked at Lucy and then to Natsu, seeing both of their obvious anger.
Natsu rolled his eyes and pushed passed the two and quickly walked to his car where he flung open the door and slammed it shut.
From where he sat, he could clearly see Lucy slapping Michael and throwing her hat at him before running out with tears in her eyes, he stayed in his car and knew she was running his way so he waited until she climbed in.
When she was buckled up, he started driving and both stuck their middle fingers up at the asshole in the store, he for sure wasn't going back there.
Natsu gripped his steering wheel tightly and looked to the side to see her staring at the rings on his fingers.
"So is that all I was? A friend?" He blurted out.
She rolled her eyes, crossing her frail arms over her chest "You know that's not what I meant."
For the rest of the drive, they stayed in silence,the awkward air was stuffy, so when they arrived back at Natsu's house, it was amazing to feel the cold Autumn air.
Nothing was said as the two headed upstairs and into Natsu's room, she just taken off her work top, which revealed to have a vest under and her leggings were mandatory anyway so she was ready for bed.
So she climbed in and zoned out immediately.
But Natsu watched her as she slept, she faced towards him, her lips pursed in a silent thought in dream he'll never know, her hair framed her face and her cheeks were tinted pink, she smelt like him, why did she smell like him?
"Nat..su." She mumbled shuffling closer to him before opening her eyes "What?" She mumbled again slowly opening her eyes drowsily.
Was she actually asleep or had it been a few hours that he was staring for?
He stared for a second, unsure if she was actually awake or not "Are you awake now Lucy?" He whispered.
Her small head slowly nodded "Ye-ah.. Bad dream." She sat up, letting the duvet fall off her slender body "I wanna go for a walk."
"You can't Lucy, not yet." He calmly said, sitting up and used his hands to let her lay back down slowly "We can go for a walk tomorrow morning."
Refusing to lay down, she sat back up but with more force, she had tears in her eyes "I want to go for a walk." She said standing up.
She threw on his jacket and got into some boots and went downstairs and he reluctantly followed.
"Hold up , I'm coming with you!" He said grabbing her arm and she turned around and smiled.
They walked the path beside his house and like always, it was lit up by the street lamps, it was early December and freezing "You sure you ain't cold Lucy?" He asked nudging her shoulder.
She nodded and stared at the sky "Natsu, it's snowing." She muttered putting her hand out to catch the first flake.
Her eyes lit up and she grinned up at him "Isn't it beautiful?"
"Yeah, with how pale you look, you look like you could fade away into the snow." He said cupping her cheeks.
Her brown orbs softened and she leant her head into his warm hand "I'm sorry." She whispered.
"Why?"
He let go of her cheeks and she leant against the raining that was oddly placed either side of the pathway "I left didn't I, for four years I left you alone, no explanation."
"It's okay, I understand why." She looked at him, her elbows going cold from the rusting metal "You were dealing with a lot, almost got married to some old dude, you wanted to escape."
She bit her lip and nodded "Yeah."
Natsu unravelled the scarf he wore and put it around her neck "You'll get cold." He simply said before releasing a breath of steam "I wanted to do the same, run away n' stuff but I couldn't leave the house."
"I wish I had stayed with you." She muttered loving the warmth against her neck.
Lucy noticed that he tilted his head to frown down at her and she nervously chuckled "I loved you so much, my heart ached everyday, I'd wake up cold, hearing nothing but the loud talking of Brandish."
He let out a tentative sigh "So you're saying you don't love me anymore?" He asked twirling the ring on his finger.
"I still love you, I never stopped." She croaked out "And I'm sorry for the pain I caused." She cried clutching his jacket closer to her body "I feel like such an idiot."
The man beside her laughed and she glared at him before he kissed her again "I love you so much Lucy, so so much."
She sniffled and cried "I-I wish I could go back and fix e-everything I've ever done!" She whimpered falling onto the cold floor.
Natsu dropped next to her "Luce, I know right now, everything seems broken, you want to say goodbye to a dad you should hate, you want to make sure your mother is safe but you can't." He stood her up and wiped some snow off her shoulders.
"You need to understand that I am here for your future, I will make you happy and you will make me happy." He smiled and she smiled back at him "I know that we haven't had the most straight forward relationship but I want to be with you."
She grabbed his warm hand and kissed it "I want to be there, I will be there."
"Does this mean you'll tell me everything?" He asked squeezing her hand and smiled when she nodded.
The two walked back to the house, hand in hand, they were definitely not the most stable couple but as long as they had eachother, they will be okay, they will make it.
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Sorry for spelling mistakes and grammar errors and such, my life has been busy with my mother and the hospital but I'm hoping to be updating quicker now.
Next chapter will most likely be a lemon, so you can ignore it if you're not comfortable with it.