A couple days passed with Lucy being extremely bored with worry, anxiety constantly building up inside her. The level of stress she felt was beyond incomparable.

She was mostly demanded to stay in her room, and she hasn't had any contact with Natsu or the crew ever since.

Lucy currently sat at her makeup stand, putting her hair up in her usually high side ponytail, wearing the same white dress as before. She heard a knock at her door, and she opened it to see another guard standing outside.

"The King would like your presence."

Lucy nodded and quickly made her way to her father, praying that it was a final decision. She couldn't be sure what to expect, he didn't have any mercy when it came to Fairy Tail.

"Father, you asked for me?" Lucy peeped in to see Jude sitting on his throne like usual. She slightly raised her eyebrows as a smile was upon his face.

"I'll just keep it short and sweet; I've been truly thinking about everything--" Lucy's eyes started to widen, a hopeful smile starting to appear on her rosy lips. "--and I did talk with Natsu Dragneel after you."

She anxiously pressed her lips together, her brown orbs eagerly glistening. "Yes?"

Jude tiredly sighed, but continued. "I set the crew free."

Lucy jumped in excitement and covered her mouth with both hands, letting out happy squeals. "Father, thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me!"

"I just told them if they even dare to use you, I'd come after them. I'm leaving you in their responsibility to keep you safe. They're in the main courtyard as we speak." Jude smiled and lightly laughed as Lucy took off at full speed to the wondrous, beautiful area.

Lucy didn't bother trying to hold back her smile anymore, her pearly white teeth glistening in the sun rays once she reached the outdoors. Her feet quickly ran across the marble pathway, beautiful blossoming roses and plants everywhere in sight.

After taking a quick left turn, she could finally see the group all standing, jumping, talking amongst themselves in the large circular marble paved area. Her heart soared in joy from seeing how happy they were.

"I'm a real man for surviving that!" Elfman shouted, letting his voice echo throughout the air. A few nearby guards eyed him suspiciously, making Mira tug him by the ear downwards.

"Don't let them think we're crazy!" Mira aggressively whispered, making a face at her brother. Elfman winced at the stinging pain shooting throughout his earlobe where Mira pinched it tightly.

Lisanna giggled, glancing at the Captain next to her before her eyes scanned the path. She gasped as a familiar blonde was running towards them, a smile arising on her face.

Natsu raised an eyebrow at the whitenette next to him. "What is it?" She didn't reply, so he followed her eyes slowly, turning his head towards the direction.

"Lushee!" Happy yelled, flapping his wings excitedly behind his back, grabbing everyone's attention. The crew started cheering, raising their arms high into the air.

"I call dibs on getting a hug first!" Levy yelled, jumping out in front with her arms stretched wide open. Lucy laughed as she let the shorter girl tightly bear-hug her, happy tears arising to both of their eyes. "You did it! I thought we were going to be stuck there forever!"

"I wouldn't have let that happen, you're my friend." Lucy replied, gleefully smiling and letting go of the almost-suffocating embrace from her close friend.

Juvia waved her right hand in the air, while hugging Gray with the other. "Juvia thanks you for saving Gray-sama as well!"

Gray had a spasm of cold shutters flow through his body, trying to inch away from her grasp. "Y-Yeah-"

Lisanna couldn't help but smile as everyone gave her hugs and compliments, giving the dedicated, strong celestial spirit one herself. "Thank you Lucy, you're amazing."

"I don't know what I would've done without you guys, don't worry." Lucy replied, returning a happy smile to Lisanna. The celestial mage hugged her tighter as if she was releasing her stress, with the whitenette happily returning it.

Lisanna and Lucy glanced down to see the scarlet-haired woman bowing down on one knee, her eyes closed while holding her sword out on the ground in front. "Uh, Erza? You okay-"

"I must repay you with my life, Lucy Heartfilia!" Erza shouted, cutting off the blonde's question. "I owe you great debt for saving not only my life, but the crew's too."

Lucy sweatdropped as the whole crew silenced down to stare at the scene, almost circling around them. She awkwardly fidgeted with her fingers, trying to keep her composure from all the staring. She was never good with crowds, being easily embarrassed.

Erza picked up her sword with both of her hands, holding it up to Lucy. "You must take my place as co-captain-"

"No no no! That's not necessarily, please!" Lucy waved her hands in front of her, bending down on her knees. "Erza, it's because you're my friend. You don't owe me anything."

A few lighthearted laughs were spread from the crew, more laughs coming from the Captain.

"Shut up, flame brain." Gray muttered as Natsu had a smirk on his face, trying to hold back more laughs racketing in his body. The ice mage shoved an elbow into the other mans' side, trying to give more signals.

Erza looked up to see Lucy right in front of her. "Are you certain?" She asked, lowering her weapon down to the ground again.

She nodded, smiling at Erza. "Yes, it's nothing of it. Take this as my gratitude for letting me board your crew." She stood up and held a hand out, which Erza confidently took.

The warrior put her sword back in her sheath, nodding her head. "Thank you Lucy."

The crew started their own conversations after the scene, most conversations about Erza and her funny proposal herself.

"Hey Captain what do you-" Lisanna stopped her sentence when her and Gray were slightly nudged out of the way, blinking as Natsu quickly passed them.

Gray smirked as he saw Natsu head towards the blonde maiden. "Guess he couldn't wait." He crossed his arms in front of his chest, ignoring the fact that Juvia was clinging onto his side while watching.

Lucy brushed off her knees and turned around, her eyes widening in surprise as two strong arms tightly wrapped around her waist, lifting her up. Her toes weren't touching the ground, automatically lightly swaying them.

"Natsu...I'd hug you back but I can't move my arms." Lucy barely squeaked out, feeling her feet placed back onto the ground for a moment.  Natsu flushed with a side grin, rubbing the back of his hair.

"Sorry Luce, I was just excited-" Lucy jumped and wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling into his shoulder.

The Captain tightly embraced her, lifting her off the ground again. "I don't know how you did it, but you're somethin' else." He chuckled as he nuzzled his nose against her cheek. One hand caressed the back of her head, holding the dazzling blonde closer

Lucy's face blossomed a rosy pink. "It's nothing at all." Her heart once again started racing after his embrace, something she wasn't used to. She could never control the blush arising to her face. All she knew was that she felt happier with him.

Natsu set Lucy back on her feet, still keeping his arms loosely around her. A tint of red dusted his cheeks and nose, but still gazed down at her. She held him tighter, shutting her eyes, reminding herself that he was going to be okay. She couldn't thank her father enough for somehow coming to his senses to let him free.

Both kept holding each other in the embrace, secretly smiling for unknown reasons. Natsu couldn't wrap his mind around his emotions stirring, somewhat wanting her to stay in his strong hold.

"Sorry to ruin the moment but I have the best news for you Lu. It's way more important than what Captain has." Levy snickered, grabbing the pairs attention. Lucy laughed while Natsu's face darkened to a tomato red.

Lucy withdrew her arms from around his neck, resting them casually against his chest like it was an ordinary thing. "Hmm?"

"Remember what I was tellin' you about, girl? The festival's in a couple days, we get to stay here and just hang out!" Levy cocked a hip to the side and winked, obviously excited about it.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. It's going to be fun, I can't wait." Lucy giggled and looked up at Natsu, who looked more confused than a puppy looking for its toy. "Even if you're the Captain, I'm still letting everyone have their relaxation time."

Natsu cocked a smirk. "Oh, so you're giving orders now?" His hand snaked smoothly from her back to her hip, temptingly.

"I don't see why not, I got you out of being sent to your death after all." Lucy sleekly replied, a sneaky and luring grin growing across her lips. "You don't have to come, you can just hide in your office admiring your earrings."

Levy cracked a laugh as Natsu playfully glared at her and shook his head, some light pink locks of hair brushing against his forehead and eyelashes. Her laughs immediately got cut off from being swept off her feet, being toppled over the shoulder of a certain dragon slayer.

"Hey! Put me down! I didn't ask to be picked up, you hammer-eating person!" Levy shouted, slamming her palms into his flexed, muscular back.

Gajeel snickered, walking off. "Shut your trap, shrimp. You can talk about your girly things later, I'm hungry." He effortlessly continued making his way somewhere further away, with a rattling small woman hunched on his shoulder. He secured her with one built arm around her lower waist.

Lucy watched until the two were mostly out of view, smiling at the unpredictable scene. "How long have they been like that?" She interestingly wondered, a smirk apparent.

"Long time, he just won't man up about it." Natsu chuckled, glancing back at the young lady still in his arms. "Anyways, I'd be willing to take you, Miss, out for brunch?" His words smoothly left from his lips, catching Lucy off-guard.

"Do you think it'd be safe for you to be in the wide open?.." Lucy asked, taking precautions before proceeding to his invite.

Natsu nodded assuringly. "Your father would spread the word that we're not threats...at least not yet." He playfully mocked, earning a frustrated sigh from her. The cocky grin only grew from his ego.

"That's not particularly safe or promising." Lucy mumbled in a low voice, taking her hands off his chest to cross her arms.

Natsu's hands caressed on her hips, tilting his head to the side just a little bit. "I was just kiddin' Luce. I'll make sure nobody does something stupid like icicle would." He felt satisfied after getting her to peek a smile from his absurd comment relating to Gray. "My brunch offer still stands though."

Lucy tapped her finger on her chin, casually pretending to think about it. "Hmm...I may have plans, you know being a princess, there's many chores needed to be done on the ship-" a low growl aggressively came from the Captain. "It's a lot of work being me."

"I'll just give your shifts to someone else." Natsu husked deeply next to her ear, his hot breath tingling the tip of her ear.

Lucy's face burst with shades of pink, giving in to his luring voice, biting her lip anxiously. "I'd love to, I didn't get a chance to eat anything today anyways."

The young man played a smile on his lips, turning around to see the crew members screwing off like usual. "Hey! Make sure your dumbasses don't do anything stupid for the guards to send you back to prison."

"Laxus won't come with me to eat!" Freed cried, his body shriveling up and sinking to the ground depressingly. If he was a log that was completely burnt, his ashes would've been blown away by the breezes.

Laxus facepalmed, continuing to run his hand up through his hair. "I already have plans, stupid." The green haired man continued to lay limp in the ground as Laxus and Mira walked away.

"Gray-sama and I have plans too-" Juvia cheekily squeaked, but her eyes fell glaringly at Lucy. "-Love Rival!" Her voice was demonic and harsh, sending shivers up both Lucy and Natsu's backs.

"W-W-Wait, I didn't agree to this!" Gray helplessly shouted, being dragged away by the wrist while his body scraped against the ground. "Flame brain, help me!"

"I'd rather not..." Natsu lowly mumbled, not moving a muscle to help out his fellow comrade being dragged way, definitely not swept off his feet like in the normal tales.

Lucy barely let out another laugh before Natsu took her arm gently into his, leading her into the opposite direction. "I'm sure I can find a good cafe to eat at, Sohona's pretty large after all."

"The view's amazing from the room I was in, you could see for miles." Lucy commented, her mind flashing back to when she stood out on the deck in her room. The urge to lean closer into his arm was growing, almost tempting to be within embrace.

"Oh really? You should've seen the view from my room out the window." Natsu sarcastically mentioned, letting his fingers graze against hers. His other hand reached to his cheek where the lash wound was still blatantly visible to the open. The skin underneath it was definitely bruised along with the injury across his chest.

Lucy shook her head, making the gap between them expand when she drifted from his touch. A sad frown was replacing her usually glimmering smile, something Natsu easily picked up on. His hunch automatically screamed signals that something was bothering her judging from her awkward quirks arising.

"Hey, it wasn't that bad." Natsu stated softly, letting his hand freely hold hers delicately. His thumb moved in slow circles against the back of her hand, her creamy tanned skin smooth as silk.

Her shoulders stiffened, eyes saddening at the scene playing in her mind when she saw him strapped awfully. "You don't understand how much it broke my heart to see you like that." Lucy mumbled, the words clearly making Natsu pause.

A tightness in his chest pounded, heavenly shocked by her words. "You mean it?" He asked, his eyes glimmering, taken aback from her. The soft smile he received made him blurt out. "-I-I mean, I'm just a Captain anyways." Natsu pondered, ripping his gaze away from the beauty towards the other direction. His eyes scanned the waters and city.

His fingers squeezed her hand. "I spoke very highly of you to my father, and they weren't lies." Lucy moved her hand within his, grabbing his attention. "And I'm sure I won't get lost in the crowd this time."

Natsu mischievously had a sudden smirk replace his flushed expression as if nothing happened at all, a red dust still tinted across the bridge of his nose. "Well Luce, is like to know what you said about me that made me sound so appealing."

Their sudden closeness made Lucy's pupils expand. "Um..good things?"

"I obviously know that." Natsu chuckled, drawing back from her personal space. "I wanna hear what you think of me." He bit the inside of his cheek, his heart racing to know how the blonde mermaid thought of him from her cocoa brown eyes. It pondered his thoughts, caring more from what she saw him as than anyone else.

Lucy bit her lip, quickly hearing her own words ring like a bell inside her head.

"He's been nothing but a generous, helpful, protective man of me! There's something about him that's different from everyone else!"

"If you met him, if you even talked to him like a regular human, you'd see he's an honest man."

"He's helped me every way possible, he took me here knowing that his life was in danger!"

"Natsu isn't like that, he promised me he'd never use me for what I was worth. He's treasured me for who I really am excluding my physical traits and status."

A few moments of silence passed as they walked, Natsu wondering if she was just thinking the words in her head. The anxious feeling heating up, thinking if she didn't see him the way he hoped made him feel uneasy. His eyes gloomily roamed down, not expecting an answer.

"You're a strong but genuine man," Lucy started, smiling at the ground. "You always put others before yourself, you're someone treasury. You came here just for my sake, and I'll still wonder why."

Her words left the Captain flabbergasted, obviously not expecting such a depth response from her silence before. His gaze softened, glancing at her beaming smile from the side as she talked about him.

She was describing him.

Something he'd never get tired of smiling about. He wore a smile that was destined to be in an art museum.

Lucy took her chance to see his relaxed expression, the sun rays outlining his body with his hair softly tussling in the breeze. She lightly hummed as they finally reach a main portion of the city, hundreds of people passing by.

Roads were larger than she's ever seen, horses passing by with fancy carriers that higher class people rode in, wearing expensive jewelry and clothing. "Wow..." She breathed, amused and enchanted at the same time.

Natsu looked around, his eyes falling back to the blonde on his left. He was intrigued by how fascinated she was by discovering new places, cherishing the way her soft pink lips outlined her pearly white teeth.

His eyes glanced right behind her head to see a few men his age looking towards their direction, but it was clear they weren't eyeing him. Piercing onyx orbs narrowed as the three men were definitely checking out the young woman next to him.

Glowing sun-kissed skin radiating like highlights, golden streams of blonde locks cascading from her ponytail, rich large cocoa-sweet eyes that glimmered under any starlight. Her white dress was just riding her high thigh, flowing delicately with each wind. It wasn't exactly the most covering, knowing from scanning her whole body beforehand.

Natsu could almost hear their thirsty voices eating away in his ears, trying not to imagine what they looked like up close staring at her.

A low growl rose from the back of his throat, his protective instincts flaring up.

"Hey Natsu, what's wro-"

"We're going this way." Natsu deeply husked, his tone showing irritation with the way he spat those words. He grabbed her arm and tugged her along close to him, almost dragging her in the opposite direction. The disgust he felt when he spotted those freaks was beyond comparison of envy.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" Lucy sputtered, glancing back to see if any trackers of some sort were tracing her again. He'd only do this for her protection, right?

Natsu fiercely shook his head. "Absolutely nothing, Lucy."

"Could you at least stop holding my arm so tight, you've got a strong enough grip."

He immediately paused in his tracks, feeling Lucy accidentally walk and bump into his back from tripping. He didn't mind much of it, choosing to turn around and glare back to see if those idiots were still hungrily eyeing her.

Lucy rubbed her throbbing nose, about to give him a lector until she saw his lowered piercing stare straight above her head. His jawline was accented along with his collarbone, each detail twice more definite than usual. The body language he gave off was stiff and protective, an arm around her waist.

She turned back to see anything unordinary, throwing back a conflicted but annoyed look at Natsu. "I don't see anything, I just informed you to stop holding my arm that tight because it hurt."

Her tongue clicked on the roof of her mouth when he didn't make an attempt to reply. He was clearly ignoring her, and it made her itch for his attention.

Lucy took a deep breath in, almost letting out another lengthy sentence until she just held her breath, a conflicted thought coming to her mind.

Why are you acting like this?! It's not you at all to want attention!

"It was just some creeps." Natsu grudged, quite ticked off from the three bozos that he still scanned for. His blood boiled, but wouldn't feel unsatisfied if he could land a punch in each of their faces. "C'mon."

Lucy followed him from his back, still questioning his preservative actions. "Why were you so--so I don't know?" Her hands flipped to her sides, staring at his body structure.

"Don't worry bout it." Natsu lowly grumbled, wishing she'd forget about what happened. He couldn't stand to see their eyes roaming her body like she was free, his territorial dragon slayer instincts kicking in. It made the fire burning inside him flicker violently, knowing that their eyes weren't worthy of her heavenly, curvaceous figure.

He couldn't describe the way he looked at her so differently compared to everyone else, but it was hard to pry his gaze away. In fact, it was tempting not to scoop her up in his arms protectively.

The strides got quicker, his pace gaining an ounce of speed. Lucy huffed annoyingly, trying to stay as close to his figure as possible to keep from being swallowed into the people passing by.

Right as she opened her mouth to speak, a bulky man's elbow accidentally took a shot right into her petite body, almost making her topple over.

"Ow!" Hissing under her breath, the sharp jagged elbow that hit her side shooting pain in that area. How painful can an elbow even be?! Her mind cried as she looked up and saw that the pink haired Captain was no where in sight.

Oh no... Lucy gulped as realizing that shove completely thrown her off track, and she wasn't the tallest person in the world. Her height was average, but most people that wondered around hat large poofy hats she couldn't see over.

"Natsu? Natsu!" She called out, trying to swim her way in a random direction through the mob of citizens. As she worked her body through, she could finally see many glances from people she passed by.

She dryly swallowed as many men her age took second glances at her, which she wasn't surprised. It's not her fault that the dresses weren't the most covering, but they were flattering on her figure.

"Hey, you look real good sweetie; want a puff?" A young man, around her age it seemed, commented from the side. He had a cigarette between his fingers, a little bit of smoke rising from his mouth.

She quickly shook her head in denial. "No thank you." Quickly peeping out before skittering through the crowd again.

Hell, she couldn't see anything. Lucy tried looking over the mounds of heads and through the gaps, but fluffy salmon hair wasn't peeking out anywhere.

He couldn't be mad at her? The posture did show his dominance with his unapproved glare. She couldn't catch onto what made him so pissy.

While Lucy struggled to even walk by people, Natsu still furrowed his eyebrows angrily, striding by people. Everyone made sure to get out of his way indeed, nobody was going to take the bait to step in front of the handsome, toned young man.

He stopped at some average sized cafe, deeply inhaling and letting out a dramatic exhale. He roughly spun on his heel, hoping that maybe eating something with her would lighten his mood-

Oh no.

Two onyx eyes snapped wide open, hectically scanning everywhere around him to realize she wasn't even near him. "Luce! Luce!" His voice echoed through the sky, every passenger around him quickly glancing at him before picking up their pace to go around.

"Fucking hell-! God dammit!" Natsu atrociously snapped at himself, harshly yanking his salmon locks in frustration. From his childish behavior of practically stomping off, he didn't bother to check to make sure she was still with him. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" The string of multiple other colorfulcurse words followed, not caring who was around to hear it.

"Hey momma, what does fuck mean?" A little boy asked as he stared at the swearing pinkette haired man while walking by, holding onto his mothers hand. Drool seeped from his mouth as he held out his lollipop with his other hand.

The mother gasped, quickly covering her sons ears. "Honey! Don't listen to him, he's saying absolute nonsense." She shot a look at Natsu before turning her back to hurry her innocent son along.

Natsu angrily growled at himself, more worried about Lucy's disappearance over anything. He was always knowing when she was near from her natural heavenly fragrance he breathed in. His pissed-off attitude was definitely the karma smacking him in his thick skull.

He practically wanted to rip his scarf off from his stupidity.

The cafe door swung wide open to reveal two members of his crew, but it wasn't the warmest welcoming.

Natsu shot a glare at Bickslow as he walked out with Lisanna, another factor aggravating his negative vibes. He couldn't look at the taller man without feeling disgust from their ugly past.

"Woah man! You look hella pissed, somethin' wrong Cap'n?" Bickslow questioned, the whitenette dryly gulping on his side. She quickly dropped his arm, hoping Natsu wouldn't pick up on the feeling that they were on a date because it wasn't at all.

"It's nothing!" Natsu loudly roared, swinging his foot back to kick the nearest object; a wooden stool. It crumbled into pieces, splinters flying everywhere. He ignored the tiny shots of slight pain stab in his foot as he crossed his arms, his lips tightly pressed together.

At the moment he didn't care if he was making a scene; he was mad. He was mad at those gross, nasty guys that salvaged and feared their eyes over her, he was overly frustrated with himself for losing her. A few sweat drops formed on his forehead from his temperature steadily increasing, his anger slowly becoming uncontrollable.

Lisanna took a step back, her eyes shaking at Natsu. Why was he so livid? He lashed out like he lost Lucy-

Didn't he ask her to eat out with him?

"Captain, where's Lucy? I thought I overheard you ask her to have brunch with you." Lisanna asked, his conflicted and nasty glare meeting her eyes.

"I was being a dumbass, I got pissed off and I lost her without even noticing." Natsu regretfully admitted, his voice painfully obvious of his frustration. Muscles in every part of his body were too tensed up.

Lisanna fondled with her fingertips. "I'm sure Lucy's okay-"

"It's a huge city though! We'll start lookin'." Bickslow interrupted, grabbing an arm from both of them and start dragging them along.

Natsu ripped his hand away from the man he despised, even if no romantic feelings were existent any longer for the whitenette. "I can walk without your assistance." He hissed, keeping a fair distance between them.

Lisanna's eyes saddened, the situation all too awkward for her to comprehend. She only said yes to Bickslow because Natsu asked the golden blonde, dreadfully craving that attention she used to get.

She sighed, at least hoping Lucy was okay.

Natsu ran both of his hands through his hair, blaming his own rushed stupidity actions. They've never been here before, and Lucy hadn't been on any other island her whole life until she boarded his ship.

Mavis, he was worried about her. His mind was scrambling with different words of apologies, the way he acted just from envy wasn't bearable for him.

Natsu especially hoped those jackasses wouldn't find her before he did, or else he'd smash them into piles of ashes.

___________

Haha--this is definitely a filler chapter

Tried to include as much precise detail as possible.

I thought I was going to write the festival part in this chapter, but it's gonna have to wait.

Thank you for reading as always ❤️💕

FYI who loves the picture I used for the chapter at the top :)