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Wheels of Fire	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 22712 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima. I make no money, I just do this for my own pleasure.

Chapter List
- 11
- 12
- 13
Chapter 12
Fireball's Ingenuity
Two days later, much later than she had hoped, Lucy returned to Magnolia and trudged wearily back to her house on Strawberry Street.
"Leopard-print boots my ass!" she grumbled in simmering anger. She unlocked the door and entered. "I'm home," she called out, smiling to herself as she wanted to hear someone respond "Welcome home" like a happy couple.
Instead, there was silence and a ticking clock.
"Fireball?" she called out worriedly. She looked at the time: ten o'clock in the morning. "He can't be asleep at this hour." She saw the shikibuton folded with the blankets placed neatly on top, just like how he left it every morning. Suddenly, Lucy had a suspicious feeling. "Did he take my bed? Well, I didn't say he couldn't, but…"
Her bed was crisp, blankets tucked up tightly, everything precisely how she left it. She realized that perhaps she should have let him have a real bed, at least for the two nights she was gone. She felt a small bit of shame that she had not thought about that, ignoring her duties as a hostess and treating her guest with honor. Instead, she had shoved Fireball to a mattress on the floor. Although shikibutons were touted as being good for the posture, surely it was not the most comfortable place to sleep. She decided she would not blame him for wanting a soft, raised bed, and maybe she should even offer to take the shikibuton for herself, at least for a day or two.
"So where is he?" Another thought came to her. "Did he decide to stay with Lisanna?" That thought troubled her heart, but she tried to shove the pang aside. "It's fine. After all, I told him to call her if he needed anything. Maybe we ran out of food, so he's staying with them."
Lucy decided to get settled in, unload her supplies, and then head to the guild. Someone there might know where Natsu Dragion went. She unpacked her dirty clothes, including those cursed leopard-print boots that had given her perverted client a hoot. She wished Natsu Dragneel was there so he could burn those shoes. Then Lucy took out the bag of money she received for her mission. It was not much, but it would pay for food that month. She checked her kitchen and made a list of things to buy. She decided to make a shopping trip first before going to the guild.
"I might as well let him have as much time with Lisanna as possible. They are friends, after all."
The back of her throat still felt bitter, but she swallowed down those feelings. They were useless, anyway. Fireball would probably be leaving in a few days.
She had just put her shoes back on when she heard a loud crash outside. Worried, she rushed out and around the corner of the building. In the back was a small area of grass and flowers that usually got ignored, although the landlady kept it mowed and tended. Now, the grass was cluttered with scrap metal, and someone had brought a work bench back there. A person wearing a soldering mask hunched over some metal slabs he was connecting with the blast of a blue-flamed soldering torch. Lucy paused to watch the person at work, melting the steel to connect joints to some sort of metal box. At her approach, the flame went off, the mask was shoved up, and she saw Edo-Natsu grinning with a sweaty face.
"Princess! Look what I'm making," he cried out like an excited child showing off a toy he built all by himself.
Lucy approached with apprehension. She looked at the pieces of twisted metal, a seat that had been ripped out and placed to the side, a steering wheel leaning against a flowering bush, and in the middle of the metal mayhem was a chassis with four wheels.
"A … car?" she asked in a mix of shock and worry.
"After I … uh … borrowed that prototype vehicle," he said awkwardly, yet he moved past that shameful incident, "driving it got me thinking. Earthland cars are a lot like my four-wheeler, but they run on a wizard's magic. However, you guys have lacrima crystals, just like we did. I was looking around town, and I realized that non-wizards can use items with lacrima. They don't need magic within themselves. It's precisely how Edolas did things. So all you need to do is build the car in a way that uses liquefied lacrima rather than an SE-Plug." He held up the box he was soldering. "It's a magic-to-energy converter. This is precisely what my car back home has, although I had to build it from scratch. Isn't it great, though?" he cried out cheerfully. "If this works, I could drive a car here."
"Wait, wait," Lucy cried out. "Where the hell did all this come from? How did you buy these things?" She suddenly remembered him mentioning that Igneel taught him about hot-wiring automobiles. "Don't tell me you stole a car."
"Stole? N-no! I … well…" Now the timid side to him reemerged. "You left me food money. I didn't really need it. Lisanna was making me dinner, we had enough stuff for breakfast, and I managed somehow for lunch. Soup kitchens, mostly, but sometimes people gave me their leftovers at the guild. So I … um … took the food money and bought a junker."
"You bought a car?" she screamed.
"It was a really good deal," he insisted in a panic. "Only ten thousand Jewels because it was missing an SE-Plug, wouldn't run, pretty much useless. But see, I didn't need an SE-Plug. I can't even use it. I got the parts for the converter from a junk yard for under a thousand, and I'm borrowing the soldering iron from your landlady. I … I'm sorry," he wept, covering his head as he cowered down. "I shouldn't have done it. It was your money, but … but it would have just gone to food, right?" he reasoned, glancing up at her with every bit of courage he could muster. "I don't need to eat, but … a four-wheeler!" His face lit up, and all timidity vanished in the bright light that shined through his eyes. "This is my life, Lucy! If this works … if it works," he said in dreamy euphoria, "I could drive again. I could sit behind the wheel, feel the road under me, the sense of freedom, being in control, being alive! I'd have transportation, and with a world filled with magic, I wouldn't have to worry about lacrima as much as I did back in Edolas. I could drive for as long as I want. You … you have no idea what this means to me, Princess. You have … no idea." He suddenly choked up with emotions as tears built up in the corners of his eyes.
Seeing him so excited and passionate about this project calmed Lucy's anger that he had used the last of her funds for some pieces of junk. She walked around the work bench, looking at the piping he had built, checking out the progress he made, while turning her back to him so Edo-Natsu could wipe aside the tears without being shamed.
"You made all of this?" she asked in surprise. "In two days?"
"It was a pastime of mine as a kid," he said, drying his face with a work rag. "My dad taught me how to rebuild an engine when I was only seven. Since we were a dark guild, I couldn't just bring my four-wheeler into a garage and have a mechanic fix it, so I learned how to do my own repairs. Since this car needs a fuel tank and fuel line, which Earthland cars don't have, I had to build that. Then I realized that the standard SE-Plug line isn't big enough to allow the amount of lacrima fuel needed to keep the engine going, so I have to customize the engine I've got. The current fuel injection won't work at all with liquid lacrima, so I'm redesigning that, and it's best to have a lacrima filter, which I'm still trying to figure out how to make that with Earthland parts. Then, to fit all of that into the car, I had to strip the whole engine compartment to make room for the tank, line, converter, and new parts."
"You're building it from the ground up," she realized in awe.
"Well, I kinda have to," Edo-Natsu admitted with a shrug. "With the fuel tank and new engine parts, the entire engine compartment has to be redesigned. If this works, it's precisely how vehicles in Edolas run, using liquefied lacrima as fuel and converting that into energy for the engine. This way, anyone can drive, so long as they can afford liquid lacrima. I went to a store to buy some, but I decided to wait until I actually finish the car. That stuff is sort of expensive, you know."
"Fireball, this…" Lucy looked at the chassis, the engine, the pipes, the tank, and the converter box. "This is crazy! It's brilliant! I don't think anyone has ever thought about making a car like this. Transportation would no longer be for wizards only. Anyone could own a car. Imagine, a world where any person can travel anywhere they want. This could revolutionize transportation in Earthland."
He grinned at her happiness, relieved she was not angry anymore, but then Edo-Natsu's face faltered in sadness. "That's … that's great for Earthland," he muttered, "but Edolas is still stuck. There are scientists looking into ways to use combustible oil as a form of energy, but that's also a limited resource. Once all the oil is used up…" His face looked immensely troubled.
"Why use something so limited?" Lucy asked.
"We use what works. Sometimes it's just a quick fix, a temporary substitute to mimic what we used to be able to do with magic."
"And this combustible oil is going to run out so fast?"
"No, they say it'll last us for centuries, but what if they're wrong? What if we all get our hopes up and then the oil vanishes too? What if it's super expensive, like magic was? We'd have wars over oil, just like we had wars over lacrima. That's why King Jellal isn't giving any funding to research oil-based engines." Tears began to pool in his eyes. "Princess, you have no idea what a world without transportation is like. Especially … especially for me," he whispered, and she saw him shiver. "That's why I want to build this. I want to feel secure again. I want to drive, to be free, even if only for a short time."
"Fireball," she sighed. Lucy wrapped him into a hug to reassure him. "I wish there was something Earthland could do. I feel a bit guilty that all of your magic was sucked away to this world."
"We were the ones hurting you," he muttered, blushing as he nuzzled into her hug and felt the softness of her breasts against his chest. Lucy Ashley had crushed him into hugs many times, but the leather she wore made her breasts feel stiff. Lucy's clothes were soft and smelled good. He tried to ignore those buoyant mounds and focus on the conversation. "All of your friends were turned into lacrima crystals. Now I wonder, when we used magic, when we liquefied it to make fuel, when I filled my tank with it and sped off without thinking of anything but the freedom of the road … what … what if … those were Earthland people?"
Lucy drew back in horror. While in Edolas, she had also used items that required lacrima crystals. She never thought to put it together. Edolas had been using Anima to siphon magic from Earthland for years, turning all magical things, including people, into crystal.
"We were killing Earthland people," Edo-Natsu whispered. "When I think of that, it makes me so … so … angry!" For once, the timid boy showed a spark of aggression. It lasted only a couple of seconds before slipping away into sadness. "It was King Jellal's decision to siphon all magic away so we'd stop hurting you guys. It returned all the Earthland people, including your friends, and who knows how many others. We don't deserve any pity from Earthland. We … we deserve to be punished."
"Oh, Fireball," she said softly, patting his arm in a comforting gesture. "None of you knew. You're not at fault. Only those who knew about Anima and Earthland can be held accountable."
"It still sickens me," he muttered.
When he glanced up, he saw sadness in Lucy's eyes. It was an expression he never thought he would see in that face: pity, sympathy, concern, emotions that Lucy Ashley never showed to anyone. Or if she did, she punched them in the face afterward so they would forget what they saw.
"Please, Princess, don't worry about it," he said, feeling like he was the one who had to reassure her. It was an awkward and slightly disturbing feeling for the timid boy, but it reinforced in his mind that this Lucy was definitely not the one he knew back home. "I want to have some fun while I'm here. You know," he said lightly, turning back to the machine, "I wasn't just a great driver back home; I was a pretty good mechanic too, since I had to fix my own four-wheeler most of the time."
Lucy saw some pride in his face. It was definitely a transformation from the trembling boy who landed into her life just a couple weeks earlier, and it made her whole body heat up with a tingling feeling of happiness mixed with pride.
"I was thinking," he muttered, "I don't know when I might be able to go home. If Fairy Tail is on the run, it could be months before Knightwalker catches up with them. I don't want to be nothing more than a freeloader. I could probably get a job here. It'd help out with food. I could be a mechanic like my grandfather."
"Your grandfather?"
"Ah!" he cried out with a jolt. Edo-Natsu suddenly realized that it was Porlyusica who told him about "the other Dragion" in Edolas whom she had known, the husband of her sister, who was quite possibly Natsu's grandfather. It was not for certain, but Fireball had already grown to like the idea that his grandfather was also into cars.
Lucy replied, "It sounds like something you'd like to do. However, you shouldn't give up hope so quickly."
His head dropped. Lucy had not given up hope of getting her Natsu back, but already Fireball was wondering if he really wanted to return home. He deeply missed his guild, but he had made friends here also. Especially if this project worked, if he could make a car that he could drive … but only with liquid lacrima. He could only use the car in this world. It was a good reason for him to want to stay, and it troubled his sense of loyalty to his guild and his friends back home.
"I'll help you," Lucy decided. "I have no clue how a car engine even works, but maybe I can do something to assist. We'll build this car together, and then we'll take a ride somewhere." She loved to see his green eyes light up like a surprised child on Christmas. "Let me change into some work clothes."
"Gee, thanks, Princess!"
The huge smile on his face was more familiar, and it was comforting to Lucy. Seeing such happiness in Fireball's eyes made her blush a little, so she hurried into her house to hide away from the troubling emotions. First, she splashed some cold water on her flushed face, trying to calm herself. She dug into the very back of a dresser and pulled out some old clothes she used for painting and housecleaning. As she undressed, Lucy heard Edo-Natsu singing outside.
Drive me down that sunset road,
Down that road that leads to home.
Drive me fast, don't drive me slow.
Drive me where you wish to roam.
She pulled the threadbare shirt on and went to her window to gaze out as she fixed the buttons. Below in the garden, she saw the pink-haired man working hard. She had noticed before that his muscles were not as huge as Natsu's, but as she saw him pull off his shirt, bend over a huge metal pipe, and hoist it up, she realized that he was not some weak man either. Her fingers fumbled unheeded, missing the button, as she gazed at the sweat gleaming on his bare torso. Unconsciously, she licked her lips, and her eyes lingered on his bronzed skin.
"Learned how to rebuild an engine at the age of seven, huh?" she mused. "That's impressive."
Edo-Natsu seemed to be finished with one stage of the repairs. He brought a hoist up to the engine, secured straps around the huge metal contraption, and cranked a handle to lift the engine block. As he did, the muscles in his arms flexed and pulled. His singing stopped from the strain of the work, until the massive engine was suspended in the air. Then Natsu arched out his back and wiped some sweat off his face. As he did, he glanced up at Lucy's window and saw her watching him with her shirt only halfway buttoned.
Lucy pulled back with a soft gasp, moved away from the window, and flattened her back against the wall. Her heart raced and her throat felt dry. In belated embarrassment, she yanked her shirt completely closed and covered her breasts.
"It's only Fireball," she whispered to herself. "He's probably down there blushing like an idiot." That made her chuckle, but she heard nervousness in her laugh. "Dammit, Lucy, you need to stop this. He's not from this dimension."
She finished getting dressed and pulled her hair back tightly into what she hoped was a sassy ponytail to keep it out of the way. She walked out into the summer heat again. Natsu had leaned over the inside of the car, into the area where he was about to reconnect the engine block. She heard a hammer hitting metal, and she stared at his half-naked body folded over the rim of the engine compartment. She looked aside with a blush when she realized his pants had slipped down, and the crack of his butt was showing.
"Um, Fireball?"
He rose so suddenly, he slammed his head into the suspended engine. Edo-Natsu hissed at the pain and rubbed out the crack.
"Is there anything I can do?" she asked with a timid yet eager smile.
"Do? Y-yeah, yeah!" He looked around frantically. "Um, I've never really worked with a partner, so … um … let's see. Oh!" He walked over to the seat that had been pulled out. "This is pretty trashed. I'm no good at upholstery work, so if you could fix the seats, that'd be a huge help."
"I have a sewing kit," she offered. "Hey, while I fetch that, can I get you something to drink? You look hot. I … I mean … y-you…" She stuttered as she blushed crimson. "You look … um … you're … How about this weather, huh?" She grinned overly wide with an awkward lilt to her voice. "It's been an exceptionally warm summer, wouldn't you say?"
Edo-Natsu stared at her silently with a raised eyebrow, wondering if she had gone insane. Slowly, a thought dawned on him, something so utterly unthinkable that it took a long time for his brain to process it.
Lucy thought he was … hot?
Her nervousness, the stutter in her words, that tense smile, all tattled on her inner feelings. Fireball wondered how he should respond … if he should respond! He suddenly felt nervous and awkward again.
"I think … not that it matters what I think … but, well, um, y-you lo- … -ook … um … lo- …you … You know, lemonade is always good in hot weather, if we have any."
He wanted to smack himself for missing this opportunity to tell her that he thought she looked fantastic wearing those working clothes, with her hair pulled back and the beaten up plaid shirt tied in a knot just above her belly button. However, he honestly had no clue how to react to this new revelation.
Lucy felt excited to help. "Lemonade and a sewing kit, coming right up!" She practically ran away to vanish into her kitchen and mentally thrash herself for acting like such an idiot.
Evening arrived too quickly. Natsu showered the black grim off his body while Lucy put away her sewing project and bought some groceries. They cooked dinner together, moving around the kitchen in perfect unison, just like a couple who had known one another long enough to anticipate the other's actions.
At the small dining table, Lucy and Edo-Natsu ate their meal in silence. All day, as they worked together, she told him about her mission, followed by him telling her about buying the car and his plans. Now, it seemed like there was nothing more for them to discuss, so the meal went by awkwardly. She kept glancing up at him, just brief peeks between bites. She could not look for too long or her mind wandered, remembering how those muscles under his shirt were taut, although not hulking. He was a thin boy, but definitely not the weakling she had assumed him to be.
Dinner ended quietly, Edo-Natsu cleaned up while Lucy sat at her desk to write, yet there was nothing coming to her pen. What she wanted to write about, she could not risk putting to paper where Fireball could read it. Every time she thought back to him hoisting the engine, her throat went tight and her palms began to sweat. It made holding her pen difficult.
"Are you okay?"
Lucy jolted at the sudden question. Edo-Natsu had finished cleaning the dishes and watched her now with his brows lowered in concern.
"You're unusually quiet, and you look like something is bothering you," he explained. "Your face keeps going distant, then blushes. Was it that pervert who hired you? You said he tried to grope you and wanted to kiss your boots."
"He just had a shoe fetish, that's all," she dismissed with a blithe wave. "I can take care of myself."
"Did he … do anything?" Fireball asked softly. "I mean, you don't have to say anything if it was traumatizing or if you feel ashamed, but sometimes talking about it—"
"Natsu," she said, interrupting him. Hearing his own name froze Fireball's thoughts completely. "He touched my leg a little, but when he tried to grope me, I whipped him. Sadly, I think he liked that," she grumbled.
Fireball's eyes still burned with anger. "I hate those types of guys, vile men who force themselves on women. I should have gone with you. Maybe he would've behaved if a man was there to protect you."
She scoffed softly. "I don't need a man to protect me. I'm not a fragile little girl; I'm a member of Fairy Tail."
He grinned with pride. "Yeah!" Then the smile faltered. "I … I wish I was part of your Fairy Tail."
"It doesn't matter which dimension you're from. Fairy Tail is always Fairy Tail."
"Except you aren't a dark guild," he mumbled. "You aren't on the run from the king. You aren't hated by the public. You aren't led by a sadistic dominatrix."
"Instead, we have Erza," she added faster than she could think. Thank goodness Erza was nowhere nearby! Still, Lucy pouted at hearing his dissatisfaction. Was he truly unhappy in his guild? "Do you want to leave Edolas' Fairy Tail?"
He paused, thinking it over. "I've considered it," he admitted. "I'm useless to them right now, just another mouth to feed. They don't want me to go, though. Each time I mention leaving, Gray begs me to stay, and that guy is so awesome, I just can't say no to him. Leaving my friends would be the hardest part. If I walked away and found myself all alone, I don't think I'd like it one bit. However, if I could … maybe transfer."
"Transfer?" she asked in confusion. She had never heard of wizards transferring from one guild to another. They either quit their old guild and joined another, they started their own guild, or like Gajeel, Juvia, and Wendy, they joined because their old guild was dissolved.
His hands twisted together nervously. "Like … like staying in Fairy Tail, but moving locations … to here."
Lucy wondered what he meant, then something dawned on her. "Do you want to stay in Earthland?" she exclaimed. He gave a tiny shrug in reply. "But Fireball, I'm sure your friends miss you."
"I'm useless to them," he mumbled. "Even when I try to fight, I end up in trouble and Lucy has to come save me. Then that makes me feel even weaker."
"That sounds familiar," Lucy mumbled. It was impossible to count how many times Natsu Dragneel had saved her life. Each time she had to rely on him or the others, it made her feel like a helpless weakling.
"I love my Fairy Tail, I really do," he insisted loyally. "My friends mean everything to me, but I want more in life than just sitting around, unable to help them, unable to do anything at all. I want to be useful. I want the freedom of the road, and I simply can't get that back home. If this car works, then I just know I'll never want to leave."
"And if it doesn't work?" Lucy asked, not doubting his mechanical genius, but simply curious.
His eyes dropped sadly. "Maybe I could still be useful here … to you." He glanced up only briefly before ducking his head down. "Or … or are you and Salamander sort of … together?"
Lucy felt her heart pounding hard, her blood thrumming through her ears, at just what he was asking. "No … n-no, we're not. I mean, he's my best friend, but together as in romantically … no, we never had something like that." She paused for a moment, then asked back, "What about you and Ashley?"
He laughed wryly at the very thought of it. "Not a chance! She's said many times, she'd never go for a weakling like me."
"But you're not weak," Lucy mumbled so quietly, Fireball hummed in question, not catching her words. "My Natsu also said something like that. Not that I was weak, but … well, during that fight when you arrived, just before the two of you switched, Natsu told the enemy something like 'Who'd want to go out with her?' Jerk," she grumbled.
"I would," Fireball said without thinking. Lucy looked up in shock, and a moment later he realized he had said his inner thoughts out loud. He leaped back in a panic attack. "Ack! I … I mean…" He began to tremble. "I didn't mean … well, I did mean … but I didn't…" He began to hyperventilate in terror, then shielded his head with his arms and bawled, "Don't hit me!" He leaped from his chair and ran away in a wild scramble to the bathroom.
"Fire-…" but she stopped when the bathroom door slammed shut.
Standing by the sink, Edo-Natsu stared at the reflection of his wide-eyed self. "Oh God, oh God, what did I just say? Did I really say something like that? I'm an idiot. She's gonna hate me. She's gonna kick me out. She'll never want to talk to me…"
"Fireball?" came a whisper at the door.
"Kyaa!" he yelled, leaping away. "I'm sorry! I'll keep far away from you. I won't talk to you. I'll just sit in a corner and—"
"Will you shut up?" came an annoyed tone.
His throat clenched tightly. He knew it, he just knew it! She was pissed.
"Look, I don't mind that you said something like that. Maybe … maybe we could try it."
It took him a moment to moisten his lips and get his throat to work. "Try what?"
"Dating. I mean, I'm not asking you to be my boyfriend, but maybe we could try going out, just the two of us. It's the same thing we've been doing, but this time as a … a date. Look, this is really hard to say with the door closed and I can't see you."
Slowly, the bathroom door creaked open, and wide green eyes peeped out. Lucy tried to give the shy boy her most amiable smile.
"Do you want to try it?"
"Not like that," he muttered. That made Lucy pout. She had really hoped they could go out together and have some fun. "If we're gonna go out on dates, it should be done right. That's what Igneel taught me. You don't go out with a girl unless she's your girlfriend or wife. Or mistress, he usually added, but I don't want a mistress."
Lucy smiled craftily. "Does that mean you want me to be your girlfriend?"
Still hiding behind the door, he pulled back until he could just barely see her. "M- … Ma- … Maybe?" he whispered in shivering confession.
"Then I accept," she giggled. "We'll go out on a date tomorrow, just out for ice cream or something, to test it. If it doesn't work out, we'll still be friends, and you can still stay here. I don't want anything awkward between us anymore. It's better if we say how we really feel, right?"
He opened the door a little more. "What will your friends think?"
She knew he had a point. Everyone in the guild figured that when Dragneel came back, Dragion would leave. Cana and Levy had been warning her about that inevitable end practically since Fireball first arrived. But what if he could stay? She missed Natsu, she wanted the pyromaniac back, but she was not ready to face the possibility of giving up this Natsu as well.
"We can keep it a secret for a while," she decided. "Just until we know for ourselves if this is something we want. A trial period. When you finish rebuilding that car, we'll take a drive, a proper date, and we'll decide then."
He supposed it was a good compromise. Speeding into a relationship is like steering toward a cliff, Igneel used to say. Of course, his father usually added, And marriage is driving off that cliff. Edo-Natsu learned at a young age that his father's advice on women was not always the best.
Finally, he stepped out of the bathroom and stood in front of her. Edo-Natsu was not that much taller than Lucy, but still, when he stared down at her gentle face, Lucy felt tiny under such intense eyes. She knew this face so well, yet the person behind the pink hair was completely different. Looks didn't matter!
For Edo-Natsu as well, her face was one he feared, except when they had those eyes, so innocent and expressive. Her skin was flawless, her hair long and gorgeous, and her lips … inviting!
"Princess," he said in a low, slightly husky voice. "I … I'm going to kiss you. Please don't slap me."
She laughed at his warning. "I won't," she promised.
Then Edo-Natsu began to lean down into her face. Lucy tilted her chin up, and their lips met. It was a soft kiss, something they could barely feel, except for the hot breaths coming from their nostrils and tickling each other's faces. They held still like that for a moment, like testing out a new car, just sitting in it, not touching anything. Then Fireball's hand stretched out and caressed her hair. His fingers glided through the golden strands, feeling the softness, enjoying the berry scent that wafted off her scalp. His fingers slid down her neck in a tickling caress, and his thumb traced the shell of her ear.
He pulled back, surprised a bit when their lips made a pop as they parted. He gulped, worried that maybe he had done it all wrong. Everything he knew about love and romance was what Gildarts Nash told him when he was younger. Of course, that flirtatious, womanizing romance novelist, famous throughout Fiore for his risqué stories like Fifty Hues of Silver and the notorious Hanny Fill, was hardly the best person to teach a young boy about the ways of a woman's heart. Everything Gildarts Nash talked about was rosy and perfect: candlelit dinners, bathtubs with flower petals floating in the water, red satin sheets on a four-post bed, painting chocolate on a lover's body and then licking it off. Edo-Natsu knew he could never treat a woman so perfectly as Gildarts expounded, but he sure wanted to give it a try. Especially the chocolate. That sounded yummy!
"I'm surprised," Lucy said. "You must have kissed a lot of girls."
"Umm … no. A couple, maybe," he admitted sheepishly. "Why?"
She blushed brightly. "You … you kiss really well, like you know precisely what you're doing."
Edo-Natsu decided it was probably best not to tell her he read Gildarts' novel The Art of Kiss twenty times.
"Well," she said in embarrassment, "we should probably leave it at just that for today."
"I guess so," he said reluctantly, although his mouth craved more kisses.
"You'll be sleeping in my bed tonight."
His eyes went huge, and he squeaked a little as he found breathing to be an impossible task.
Lucy realized what she said a moment too late. Her face went from cutely pink to unhealthy scarlet-purple. "No, I … I mean … I'm taking the shikibuton, you're taking my bed. Oh wow, that sounded so wrong," she laughed, admitting to her slip so it would no longer be an issue.
"No, you sleep in your bed and I'll stay on the mattress," he insisted.
"But you've been sleeping on it for almost two weeks. It's only fair that you get a good bed."
"That's kind of you, and maybe earlier I would have appreciated it, but I can't take a warm bed away from my girlfriend."
They both froze when he said that.
"That … felt weird to say," he admitted.
"But it was nice to hear," she added coyly, and said sternly, "You're still taking the bed."
"I won't—"
"That's an order," she insisted, stomping her foot.
"Eeeeek!" he squeaked, cringing back.
"Get to bed, now."
"Yes, ma'am!" He scurried off, but paused at the curtain separating the bathroom hallway from the rest of the house. "Princess," he called back, and Edo-Natsu gave her a timid smile. "Thank you. You're always so sweet. I knew if I fell in love, I'd never want to go home. Now, all I want is to stay here with you."
She was touched by his tender words, but she had no idea what she could possibly say back to him. All the usual saccharine phrases lovers used, which filled the pages of trashy romance novels Erza enjoyed so much, seemed too bland. Although she was a writer, maybe if given a day to think about a scene like this, she could have come up with the perfect reply. Sadly, real life is never as perfect as a novel.
"Sweet dreams … Natsu."
His face lit up at hearing her call him by his real name. "Sleep well … Lucy."
They gazed at one another in the evening dimness, then some magic spell broke between the two. At the same time, both said: "That sounds weird!"
Lucy looked aside and laughed. "I half expect flames to shoot out your mouth."
Edo-Natsu also laughed. "And I want to run away in fear that you might put me into some torturous headlock. Still, it's nice to hear you call me that."
"Yeah, same here," she said happily, feeling like melting at just how sweetly he said her name.
He gazed at her, momentarily overwhelmed by everything that happened that day. First, showing her the car that he was resting all of his hopes and dreams upon. Now … boyfriend and girlfriend! A dream come true! Well, provisionally, at least. Still, he felt something stir within him, a desire to love her and protect her that began to burn away the barrier of bashfulness.
He tipped his head at her with a warm smile and deep emotions in his narrow eyes. "Good night, Princess."
That look, one she saw from Salamander plenty of times yet only from Fireball when he was on transportation, sent a shiver through Lucy's arms and down her spine to the base of her stomach, making it coil slightly. She gulped hard under that devilishly handsome gaze.
"Good night, Fireball."
He closed the curtain, and Lucy let out a sigh. She knew she would not be able to sleep tonight.
On the other side, Edo-Natsu leaned back with a long exhale. It was sweet of her to give him her bed, but it was a pointless gesture. His mind whirled like the smoking tires of a race car. Being in Lucy's bed, surrounded by Lucy's smell … how was he supposed to sleep in a situation like this?
Unknown to either of them, they said at the same time: "What have I gotten myself into?"
End of Chapter 12
A/N: This is the chapter where I show my love for cars. My father was a semi-truck diesel mechanic, my father-in-law is an automobile photographer, and my husband and I love attending classic car shows. I can tell you the year of a Chevy from the 1950s just by looking at the front grill.
Yes, I borrowed from "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "Fanny Hill," two vastly different examples of erotic literature.
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Wheels of Fire