Ahh! I'm so happy you guys like it so I'm updating again!! Hopefully you all enjoy!

"Yeah, she likes to decorate her ride for every race. I don't know why, her husband doesn't decorate his - it must be a chick thing."

Lucy's eyes narrowed at him with his thought. When she huffed outloud, Natsu stiffened and tried to keep a small smile on his face as he reached over to his radio and turned up the volume. "Oh, look. Music. Heh..."

"Turn left."

Natsu blinked and took a peek to the hardened woman with a raised brow. "Huh? What'cha say, Lucy?"

Raising a pointed finger, Lucy dragged her hand over to an upcoming intersection. "The map said you can take a left over there into that street, where there is a block of alleys. By the sounds of it, everyone is gonna be heading straight, which I think I saw cops there earlier today."

"Really?" Natsu blinked.

Lucy simply shrugged out of mere annoyance. "No one is slowing down, so I doubt anyone is going to -!"

Natsu stomped on his brakes at the light, screeching his tires as he spun his steering wheel to turn the car on it's side. Lucy's side slammed to the door, her face smushed by the window as she muttered curses as they turned left and into a new street, then creeping another sharp turn to the right to enter the alley Lucy was speaking of. With that force, Lucy nearly slipped out of her seat belt and landed on Natsu, yet it didn't stop him from his driving.

"Sorry 'bout that, Luce!" Natsu apologized, yet made no move to push her off, keeping both hands on the wheel. "If I knew I was havin' a passenger, I would've replaced the belts with something more suitable."

Forcing herself to get off, Lucy's arm brushed the knob of the radio station, overhearing the voices of Erza and Gray conversing. "Oi! Where are ya guys?" Natsu said in a cheerful tone.

"Natsu? Where did you go?" Erza asked with genuine surprise in her voice, making Lucy think at how motherly she sounds. "We saw you turn."

"The fuck you goin', tabasco sauce?" Gray shouted at him. "Ya scared of Juvia and Gajeel throwing shit at ya?"

"I ain't scared of your girlfriend, Gray!" Natsu growled back, swerving around the alley and coming to an opened parking lot, where a ramp stood open for him to go, but Natsu stopped his car. "Shit!"

"Juvia's not my - ! What now?" Gray blabbed loudly, and Lucy watched and followed Natsu's peek over the dash. "You crash, or something?"

"No, man, there's spikes! Bigass ones blocking the ramp!" Natsu fumed and slapped his palms on the wheel.

"Most likely Gajeel's spikes," Erza suggested. "Just turn around and go back, Natsu."

"But that'd put be in last place!" Natsu cried, slapping his forehead on his window. Lucy blinked and kept her stare on the spikes. "Where are ya guys, haaah?"

"I'm right behind Gajeel," Erza explained carefully. "I'm about twenty feet and we're about to enter the lot to the docks, and Gray is tied with Juvia behind me as of - Oh, wait."

"God damn it!" Gray howled in the distance, a faint noise of tires screeching in the back. "She pierced my car! When did she install a sphere in her backseat? No fair!"

"Juvia is in third now. You okay, Gray?"

"Drive over them, Natsu," Lucy said to him in a confident voice, ignoring Gray's rambles about how unfair it was and Erza stating that she was just doing her job. Silence took over, and Lucy simply sat back and looked to the driver with a cool demeanor. "You can drive over them. They're fake."

"Hah?" Natsu squeaked. "Are ya serious?"

"Your wheels are much more thicker," Lucy stated, crossing her arms. "The spikes there are made of plastic; they won't damage your wheels whatsoever."

"Natsu, who is that in the car with you?" Erza asked, being ignored overall.

Natsu didn't answer as he did as he was told by Lucy, driving over them and hearing little snaps of plastic breaking underneath as he drove over. Eyes widening, a weird, gurgling sound erupted from his throat as he hit the gas and sped up the ramp with full force.

"Natsu, are you even listening to me?" Erza spoke a bit louder out of the radio. "Who is in the car with you, Natsu?"

"Hahaha! You're a genius!" Natsu cheered brightly to Lucy, reaching the top and back into the street that remained empty, but sounds of cars could be heard. This caused the blonde woman to blush a little and look away. "Sorry, Erza, I'll see ya and ice princess in a bit!"

"Natsu, don't you -!" Erza's voice was shut when Natsu changed the dial to a hard rock song and turned up the volume, letting the vibrations spread throughout the car and making Lucy look back to him.

"We got this, Luce!" Natsu cheered and stomped of the gas, swerving around the empty street as he followed the mental map inside his head. Ahead of them, there was a leveled spot of the street came to a dead end, fenced off with simple wired fence. The docks were on the other side of the fence, where it would have been a little bit longer to the finish line.

Lucy blinked and looked to Natsu, who had a hard gaze set ahead. "Natsu..."

He kept up to the speed, no intentions of slowing down or stopping the car, which made her throat feel thick and her heart hammer in her chest. "Natsu, don't you even think about it."

"Hah, I dunno what'cha sayin'," his eyes hardened and a grin stretched across his face. Ohh, the little brat knew what she was saying!

"Natsu!"

"I've been through tougher material, this is nothing!" Natsu laughed brightly as he kept going, making Lucy whimper and cover her eyes with her hands.

However, she peeked through her fingers and watched how Natsu's hands tightened on the wheel as he broke through the wired fence and practically flew to the lower level ground, jerking around within the car. It took him a second to gain control of the wheel and keep on when he caught sight of the cars whizzing past them, then catching back onto the trail just as easily.

Lucy yelped when the glove box clattered on the landing and a few sharp items fell out, her legs curling up to the seat as she complained to the driver who only kept his sights ahead, where he caught sight of two cars. Slipping his right palm to the pad of the wheel, where tons of decorated buttons glowed in the dim light inside the car.

"You're crazy!" Lucy exhaled, and she swore to herself that she didn't laugh in delight of her adrenaline rush. The smile, though, was a lot tougher to hide from him. "You're an idiot!"

"That's why you're a genius, Luce!" Natsu chuckled cheerfully, jutting a thumb behind them before putting it back on the pad. "Take a look at where we are! Oh? Hey! That's Erza and Gajeel up there, Luce!"

Lucy dared to take a peek and see the remaining contestants' headlights blaring at them at top speed, making her jaw drop. "So...that means we're third?"

"Probably," Natsu grinned, flipping open a cover for a red button to light up. "Let's see if we can catch up to them."

"What?" Lucy sat back.

"Fuel is ready," a robotic voice erupted from the radio, stopping the music completely. "Please press the button to ignite."

"Ignite? Ignite what?" Lucy shivered.

"My secret weapon, Luce! Watch this!" the young man sang as he slammed his thumb on the button, an odd noise of what seemed like a click or pop triggered something under the hood and dash and a zipping through the whole car to the back...and then a rumble. "You should hang on to something!" he cooed in an excited voice, making Lucy flinch.

"To what?" she seethed.

She wasn't ready, but she did hang on to something. And that something just had to be Natsu, since he doesn't seem to be struggling to hold himself in place.

Both her arms and a leg wrapped around him, Lucy in no terms held back her scream as she felt her insides lift from the immense speed of the roller coaster. It blew her mind, her gut and probably Natsu's eardrums at the volume of her scream as time seemed to be in his control, and space did not matter anymore.

Her heart stilled, eyes relaxing as she slowly fell silent and watched in the rearview mirror of Natsu's expression. It stunned her, really, at how he looked. His dark eyes opened and focused with the determination of someone who has worked in his life; his jaw tight and the small sight of his upper teeth biting his lower lip as he gripped the wheel so tightly that his tanned hands bleached at the knuckles and joints of his fingers. Brows furrowed and shoulders hunched to the point that his muscles rippled under his skin, Lucy saw someone completely different from the guy who rolled down his window when she sat on the bus bench.

It seemed different for her now. Instead of fearing for her life and looking around at the true power and amazing feel of her heart becoming part of the car, too, Lucy could breathe fresh air. Air that wasn't like when you take a step outside...

Not the air of going away from polluted cities and into the countryside...

Not the scent of the beach, the smell of freshly cleaned laundry, flowers, baked sweets...

Lucy inhaled and exhaled, her nerves relaxing and all the troubles she previously thought were erased as she tasted the air with a soft breath. Blinking, Lucy unconsciously rest her head on top of Natsu's hair, her eyes softening as they passed between the two cars with ease.

'It's like...when Mom was alive,' Lucy thought softly, changing her gaze to the sight of the crowd of people growing at each second she could conjure in her mind. 'When we use to run in the hallways back at the manor and pretend to race...'

Blame it on her senses being heightened by her adrenaline rush, or even herself going crazy, but Lucy swore that it smelled and felt like home.

"AND THE SALAMANDER HAS WON!"

Time reverted back to its place, bringing Lucy's attention to the present as she realized that Natsu's car slowed down to a stop. Slipping back to her seat, Lucy looked out of the tinted window to see Jason screaming into the megaphone with wide eyes; people crowding around the car, slamming their hands onto the car and windows and cheering at the top of their lungs as everything came together.

"Oh...you won, Natsu," Lucy spoke quietly. "Do you go by Sand Blaster..? No, it's Salamander, right? It's like the lizard! Ohh, they're kinda creepy, but cute at the same time!" Lucy laughed lightly at the little memory of seeing them in a book and thinking at how adorable and silly they looked. "Is that really your...street name..? Natsu, you okay?"

Her driver - Wait, the driver, had his hands hovering above the wheel, where they had only moments ago held on for dear life. His face, too, looked to be more in shock and utter disbelief as he stared at his hands. Jaw dropped and cheek twitching, Natsu shakingly turned his head to look at Lucy.

"Natsu, what's wrong? You look like you're going to pop," Lucy blinked and leaned away from him. "Did I hold on too tight? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

He said something then, but Lucy couldn't hear a single word he said. She leaned her head to him, trying to hear a bit better. "What did you say? Speak up a little, Natsu..."

"I won...?" he whispered, but she could hear it this time. Barely, but still, she could hear him a lot better. "I won? Did I just win the race?"

"Uhm, yeah, you did," she nodded to him, now just as confused as he is.

Natsu's head turned back, blinking a few times and Lucy swore that tears were starting. "I can't believe it..."

"What's wrong?"

"I won..." Natsu smiled, his eyes shiny with a little shake of a giggle in the back of his throat. "I won my first race."

"Huh?" Lucy blinked. "What do you mean by that? I thought you raced a lot before tonight!"

"Yeah, but...this is my first race that I've actually won, or even placed as top three, Lucy!" he said softly, his brows creasing and frowning for a second. A dry laugh barked out of his mouth as he suddenly grinned even bigger than before. Dark eyes snapped to Lucy, bright and cheerful, like a child.

Kinda like when Lucy was a kid, and it made her chest tighten on the inside.

Their eyes held, and Lucy could feel the excitement on the outside. But, inside the car, just the two of them was much more quiet and calm. Still feeling the joy, but this was much more different to Lucy.

"I won my first race," he exhaled. "I won because of you! I officially recruit you to Fairy Tail, Lucy!"

Wait, what?

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Thank You So Much For reading this chapter!!!!