"Don't be so reckless. There are a lot of people here!"
Natsu sounded a little dissatisfied, though hearing that from him felt strangely odd…
Lucy reached back and rubbed her own back, then smiled. "Forget it. She probably has something urgent."
Looking at the cute girl who had fallen to the ground and was staring blankly at them, Lucy did not know why, but a strange affection rose in her heart.
She kindly helped the girl up.
"Are you okay? Is there something urgent?"
Naciel stared at Lucy in a daze for a long time.
When she heard Lucy's question, she quickly shook her head.
But perhaps because she was too nervous, her stomach suddenly let out a sound for no reason…
"Aye, you're hungry!" Happy said, blinking his big eyes with a smile.
"If you're not in a hurry, we can share some food with you!"
Natsu's instinct told him this girl was strange.
The feeling she gave him was like…
The feeling he had when he first met Lucy.
Naciel wanted to refuse, but looking at the faces before her, which were so familiar yet carried a trace of unfamiliarity, she still swallowed and nodded.
'Mom and Dad when they were young…'
'Learning a little more about them, without saying too much, probably would not affect the future, right?'
And so, the group, all of whom were naturally good at getting familiar with others, sat down at the table.
Seeing the girl boldly grab meat and devour it, Lucy could not help laughing.
"Haha, it's rare to find someone whose eating style can compare to Natsu's!"
Happy nodded and raised a paw in amazement. "And this girl looks a lot like Lucy, aye!"
"Now that you mention it… she really does…"
Lucy rested her cheek on one hand and curiously examined the girl's appearance.
Her eyebrows, eyes, and face shape were obviously very similar to Lucy's at a glance.
But compared to Lucy, she carried a slightly more dashing, lively aura, which was very much like Natsu.
Her hair color was a softer pink, a little lighter than cherry blossom pink, like a gentler version of Natsu's hair color.
Combined with her outfit, which was quite similar to Natsu's, she looked almost like a female version of Natsu who had grown in Lucy's direction.
Naciel choked on the food in her mouth and grew nervous again, worried the two of them might recognize her.
But after thinking about it, that might not necessarily happen…
'Mom was a little airheaded and probably would not think too deeply. Dad's instincts were sharp, but without evidence, who could possibly imagine that his own daughter had traveled through time?'
Naciel relaxed.
Looking at the young version of her father, who was currently eating beside her, she introduced herself openly.
"Da—brother, sister, my name is Naciel. Thank you for treating me."
"It's fine. I feel like we have some kind of connection too," Lucy said, waving her hand, her eyes curved with a smile.
Strange.
The more she looked at this child, the more she wanted to get close to her.
Maybe this was what people called instant affinity?
Naciel scratched her head in embarrassment. Beside her, Natsu also tilted his head and studied her, though no one could tell what he was thinking.
"What is it, Natsu?"
Happy asked while holding a fish.
Naciel happily picked him up, pressed her cheek against his belly, and laughed. "Happy, so you were already chubby even now!"
Happy looked deeply wounded. "Eh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Natsu, however, noticed the important point and asked curiously, "You know Happy?"
"Uh…"
Naciel paused, then hurriedly explained, "I'm a Fairy Tail fan. I want to join Fairy Tail in the future."
Because Naciel was wearing gloves, Natsu had not noticed the guild emblem that was already on the back of her hand.
"Oh, no wonder~"
After hearing Naciel's words, Lucy became even happier.
She nudged Natsu with her elbow and smiled. "Looks like this child is just like me."
Lucy had joined Fairy Tail because she loved the guild and was later invited by Natsu.
Looking at Natsu and Lucy chatting and laughing, Naciel's heart stirred, and she could not help but ask, "Hey~ Are you two dating right now?"
Lucy's little face turned pink, and she quickly waved her hands. "N-no, we're not."
'Strange. They were not together yet?'
'But Mom always used to say she had Dad completely wrapped around her finger…'
'Was she bragging?'
Unwilling to give up, Naciel asked, "Is it because Mo—because Lucy-neesan doesn't like him?"
Lucy began poking her fingers together in a rather pathetic way, lowering her head and muttering a whole bunch of words that no one could understand.
Seeing that Lucy would not answer, stubborn Naciel immediately turned to the other person involved.
"Then what about Natsu-niisan? You don't like Lucy?"
Natsu froze for a moment, then raised the corners of his mouth in a bright, open smile and said without any hesitation, "Of course I like her."
"Ehhh?!!"
The only one at the table who was shocked was Lucy, whose head immediately started steaming again.
Happy covered his mouth and snickered and Naciel felt completely satisfied.
'Confirmed. Mom was definitely bragging…'
"They loooove each other~"
The next moment, the comfortable Naciel and Happy clicked their tongues and laughed in perfect sync.
"What… what do you mean, like… that…"
Lucy looked as if her brain had short-circuited. Natsu, on the other hand, glanced at her strangely and said.
"I liked you from the start, so I asked you to team up with me. Isn't that obvious?"
Lucy lost the ability to think.
She had a feeling that the "like" Natsu was talking about was not quite the same as the "like" she was imagining.
But…
For Natsu, there was no essential difference between the two.
Unlike Gray, Natsu's inner world was purely a one-way road.
Like meant like. Natsu generally did not lie. Ask him, and he would say he liked someone. Even if he really felt embarrassed, he would not deny it.
A person he liked was someone he wanted to stay with, and staying together, in Natsu's mind, was the best way to express that "like."
This was probably also why Natsu kept throwing straight balls, while Lucy never managed to react properly.
And perhaps this was also why Natsu sometimes seemed to have high emotional intelligence, yet the things he actually did always looked incredibly blunt and dense…
Between these two, the first problem was that Lucy really was a little too dense.
The second was that Natsu simply did not have the ordinary person's concept of a romantic process.
If he had that concept, Natsu would have already gone through dating, gifts, and confession in one smooth sequence, and the NaLu shippers would have graduated ages ago…
Of course, that would not be very Natsu-like.
His good buddy Gray, on the other hand, was different.
Because Gray had been raised by Ur, a single mother figure, his inner world was much more complicated, and he thought about many more things.
For example, right now…
...
Gray and Grinju were sitting side by side on a bench beside a fountain.
The two of them just sat there awkwardly, with a strange chill in the air.
Just now, Grinju had unexpectedly run into Gray and Juvia.
Then Grinju had seen from afar that his dad was impatiently trying to make his mom, who was clinging to him, go away. He had immediately rushed forward in anger.
The result…
Gray knocked him down with one punch!
Fortunately, after an explanation, Gray learned that this kid had thought he was bullying Juvia and had only tried to step in because of that. Only then did Gray let Grinju go.
Because Gray's punch had grazed his face and broken the skin slightly, Juvia hurried off to buy medicine, leaving first.
That left the father and son sitting together in an atmosphere so silent and awkward that their toes could probably carve a castle into the ground.
Grinju felt uneasy.
He did not dare speak because his father had seemingly always treated him this way since he was little.
They had never had much to talk about, and every time Gray came home, the two of them would just stare awkwardly at each other like this.
Occasionally, if they could spar with magic and he received one sentence from Gray—"Not bad"—that alone could make Grinju happy for a long time.
Grinju did not know what to say.
As for Gray, whose face was currently serious and expressionless, what was he thinking inside?
Gray's face was as calm as a still lake, but his heart was rippling slightly.
'This kid… is actually kind of handsome…'
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