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tokkias · 7 months

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you're my heart shaker ship: natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia summary: Though a hopeless romantic at heart, Lucy had never felt herself drawn to the tradition of Valentine's and White Day. Love needn't be romantic for her to want to celebrate it but it just so happened that this year, the love she felt for Natsu toed the line between friendship and something more. She could only hope that come White Day, he might feel the same way. ao3

my half of a collaboration with @nostromo13 for valentine's day! second half coming on white day 🫶

Various shades of pink and red decorated many storefronts to celebrate the coming of February and the romantic season that came with it. The sickly sweetness of it all had once been enthralling to Lucy, drawing her in with the promise of eternal love and passionate romance, but over time she had become increasingly jaded by the holiday.

It hadn’t always been that way, of course—she had once adored the concept when she was young and inexperienced, and Valentine’s Day was just that—a concept. Grand romantic gestures, as it turned out, were limited to romance novels and films, not a real thing she would ever experience herself.

As she grew older, she came to the realisation that most people just… didn’t care that much. Valentine’s Day was little more than an excuse for established couples to plan dates or for confectionary companies to sell pink-coloured candies to those feeling obligated to give sweet gifts for the occasion.

Just as that thought passed her mind, a bag of pink and white candies was tossed onto the counter from behind her, and the cashier looked up at Lucy for confirmation before he scanned them. Glancing over her shoulder, Lucy came to see her best friend standing behind her, grin plastered across his face as he expectantly looked at her, waiting for some sort of affirmation that she would buy them for him. She shot Natsu what she had hoped to be an intimidating glare, but based on the unphased expression he met her with, it didn’t work as well as she might have hoped.

Though she tried to stand her ground, that stupid, goofy smile of his always managed to worm its way through her defences, seeping in through the cracks and going straight to her heart. He always seemed to have that effect on her.

“Fine,” she conceded with a sigh.

Natsu let out a short cry of victory as the cashier scanned them, snatching them up quickly at the earliest opportunity.

Usually she would have put up a little bit more of a fight, whine, or complain a little bit more before eventually caving like she always did, but her walls seemed to have crumbled around Natsu lately. Well, more than usual.

But he gave her this weird feeling in her stomach that only he seemed to be able to conjure.

They were seasonal, limited-edition colours, though something in her brain told her that that was not the reason Natsu picked them out. They were not unlike the chocolates she got Natsu on Valentine’s Day every year, not for romantic reasons, of course, but rather as a kind courtesy gesture she gave to all of her friends on that day.

She had only partaken in the romantic aspect of Valentine’s Day once in her life as a young, naïve middle schooler with a crush and a hope. Lucy’s talent with the written word was not one that appeared overnight; it was something she had carried with her throughout her life, one that she had used as both her weapon and, in this case, a show of affection.

A packet of candied chocolate and a sweet love note had ended up on the desk of the object of her affection, yet come White Day, her affections had been ignored and Lucy had been made a fool of.

It wasn’t that she had vowed off Valentine’s confessions perse, but she certainly wasn’t looking to go through that embarrassment again.

From then on, every February it had been a strictly platonic event. Love didn’t need to be romantic for her to celebrate it; she could just as well show her affections to those she held close in ways other than romantic. Come the fourteenth, every year, each of her friends would receive small bags of candy and a short, handwritten note, courtesy of Lucy. Nothing too much, but just enough to make sure they knew she cared. It was a small tradition that she had come to hold close in her heart—she didn’t need a boyfriend when she had friends like hers.

She glanced over at Natsu as they walked together, each step against the pavement in tandem with his own, in sync, just like they always were. He had stuffed his mouth full of candy and was eating while they made the ever-familiar trek to school—something Lucy would have found disgusting if it were anyone else but Natsu.

Over the years, she had found herself somewhat… endeared to his behaviour.

Though she didn’t say anything, Natsu quickly noticed her staring and didn’t let it go ignored.

“Didja want one?” He asked through a mouthful of candy.

She cringed a little as he spoke with his mouth full. Maybe not too endeared.

“No thanks,” she said, offput by the sight of chocolate shell flying out of his mouth and onto the pavement.

“Then why are ya starin’?”

“I wasn’t staring,” she lied.

She cast her gaze back at the path in front of them in an effort to try to avoid any further questioning on why exactly she had been staring. What had begun as quick glances every once in a while had quickly devolved into longer gazes of admiration, to the point where she had to remind herself to stop staring. More and more often, she found herself gazing in his direction, her mind transfixed by all the little details she seemed to pick up that she had never noticed before. The hard line of his jaw, the soft curve of his smile, the way his hair fell across his forehead, and the way those strong hands of his would always brush it away.

She had known Natsu for a long time, and though she had always known that he could be considered “conventionally attractive," she wondered just why it had only just occurred to her how handsome he was.

If it had only been this sudden realisation of newfound attraction, that could have been fine. Being attracted to your best friend was one thing, but having feelings for them was something else entirely and that was where her problems began.

That soft fondness that she held for Natsu had recently turned into something a little… less than platonic.

It had grown slowly over time—so slowly that she wasn’t even sure when her platonic feelings stopped and the romantic ones started. Everything she had grown to love about Natsu were things that had always been there, features that were so quintessentially Natsu that the fact that it had taken her so long to come to terms with these feelings was more surprising than not.

He was kind, he was loyal, he was silly and goofy, he loved with his whole heart and then some. Whoever he ended up with, if anyone at all, Lucy knew would be the luckiest person on the planet, and she tried not to wallow in the fact that it would probably not be her.

Usually she was able to push down those feelings, to lock them away in the very back of her head where they belonged, where they couldn’t hurt her or her relationship with Natsu. As of late, she had been a little bit less successful in that.

Romance was in the air, as they say—perhaps one too many love songs had wormed their way into her brain, but she couldn’t help the way her gaze lingered a little too long or how she no longer immediately scrolled past those fancy homemade chocolate recipes. She had always been a hopeless romantic at heart, and though she was entirely content with the relationships she had now, more and more she felt herself yearning for a different kind of relationship—a romantic one—with Natsu of all people.

It was so embarrassing to think of him in that way! That was her best friend, her partner in crime, and her confidant. He didn’t even care about that sort of stuff. The only reason he held this holiday in higher regard than she did was because of the cheap chocolates that came from it. He had no interest in romance or dating, so she needn’t entertain the thought of pursuing something like that with him.

She shook her head as if to rid her mind of the thought of it before she let herself get in too deep.

“Why are ya being so weird today?” Natsu asked, not letting her worm her way out of this conversation.

“You always say I’m weird,” she tried to deflect.

“Weirder than usual,” he clarified.

She glanced back at Natsu to find him looking back with what seemed to be a glimmer of concern behind his eyes, but she had no real excuse for her behaviour, or at least, not one she wanted to divulge to him.

“It’s nothing.”

There was a beat of silence for a moment where it seemed like Natsu was about to speak up, but he stayed quiet. Natsu wasn’t one to push. She knew he knew she would confide in him if she needed to. If she told him that she was fine, then she was fine, or at least, she didn’t want to talk about it at the moment.

If he was unconvinced, he didn’t mention it, opting to let the moment pass and allow her to bring her issues up on her own terms, should she ever choose to.

“Alright,” he shrugged, allowing Lucy to breathe out a quiet sigh of relief.

For now, the best she could do was to continue as she was, to keep sidestepping the problem, and to hope that whatever this ache in her chest was would fizzle away sooner rather than later.

The gentle tap of Lucy’s fingers against the keyboard was drowned out by hushed chatters in the classroom as the students worked on their group project. Glancing up to consult her partner on part of her work, she noticed that she didn’t seem entirely focused on the work at hand.

Levy wasn’t usually one to let herself get distracted while working, but that usually meant there was something she regarded as more important on her mind. Lucy leant over to catch a glimpse of what was on her screen. Over her shoulder, she saw a video of a girl decorating chocolate-covered strawberries with various pink and red heart-shaped sprinkles and candies. She couldn’t consider herself too surprised. This would be Levy’s second Valentine’s Day in a long-term relationship, so it wasn’t absurd to think that she would be preparing something for it.

“Are you going to make chocolate-covered strawberries for Valentine's Day?” Lucy asked from over her shoulder.

Levy let out a hum of consideration, her brows knitted together in thought.

“I thought about it, but Gajeel doesn’t really like sweets.”

Knowing Gajeel, he would eat anything Levy placed in front of him just because it was her.

“What about you? Do you have a special someone you’re going to celebrate this Valentine’s, Lulu?”

Her tone was teasing, knowing that, while a romantic at heart, Lucy had never partaken in the occasion as anything more than a celebration of friendship. That being said, she couldn’t help that the thought of Natsu crossed her mind, and there was no holding back the flush that began to grow on her cheeks.

This sudden change in her demeanour did not slip by unnoticed by Levy, who immediately perked up at the first sign of her friend being flustered.

“Lulu!” She exclaimed loud enough to get shushed by Erza on the other side of the room.

“What?” Lucy whined, trying to play it cool.

“Why are you blushing?”

“I’m not blushing,” she lied.

This all felt a little too familiar to her.

“Are you thinking of doing something for Valentine’s Day this year?” Levy asked, a gleam in her eye and a tinge of hopefulness in her voice.

Lucy bit down on her lip as she thought about it for a moment.

Sure, she had considered it, but never as anything more than a silly little wish fulfilment fantasy. Though it would be nice to let out all these feelings that had begun to build up in her chest, she couldn’t just confess to Natsu like that. They had been friends for so long, and they had built up something so good that to even think of risking what they had over a Valentine’s confession would be nothing short of reckless.

“I don’t know…”

Her eyes flicked up, and her gaze ran across the classroom to where she found Natsu and Gray working on their project, bickering back and forth under their breath so as not to alert Erza to their conflict.

Lucy let out a soft sigh as she watched Natsu, his brow creased in frustration as he argued with his group partner. She couldn’t help but notice how handsome he looked as the light from the window hit his face. It made her heart clench in her chest.

Natsu knew all of her secrets, but this one felt like it was a little too close to him for comfort. But perhaps that was all the more reason to tell him. Didn’t he deserve to know?

Pursing her lips, she looked back over at Levy in an attempt to clear her head, but even still, she couldn't help that the thought lingered in the back of her mind.

A soft squeal escaped Lucy’s lips as the heart-shaped sprinkles poured out of the container and scattered all over the counter.

She had picked them up on her way home from school, given that, even though they had a well stocked kitchen, Lucy did not come from a family of bakers. It had been a last minute decision, still leaving her questioning right up until she brought them to the counter but with Levy's word planted in her head, she was in much too deep now.

Lucy was no chef. With kitchen staff always on hand to make her a meal or snack should she ever need it, her culinary skills began and ended with boiling pasta and making tea. Granted, truffles weren’t exactly a complex dessert, but she hadn’t wanted to give it a half-hearted attempt either. At the very least, Lucy knew how to follow instructions, so with a good recipe and a little help from one of the chefs, she had made what she considered to be passable truffles.

Perhaps chocolate-covered strawberries like the ones she saw on Levy’s laptop screen would have been the easier option, but she wasn’t about to pick something easy for the sake of being easy. This was supposed to be special—a gift from the heart, something to show she cared about him. She could very well have just brought him the same candies she brought him and the rest of her friends every year, but it was slowly becoming evident that what she felt for Natsu was not like what she felt for the rest of her friends.

She’d made a little box for the truffles to sit in, each held in a little cupcake liner, to keep them from inevitably getting smushed together when Natsu inevitably manhandled them.

They were small, delicate little things—tiny little balls of fudgy chocolate, decorated perhaps a bit tackily with hearts and sprinkles, but certainly appropriate for the occasion. On top of each truffle sat one of the same pink and red candies that she had brought him no more than a few days earlier.

They weren’t perfect, but they held with them a certain charm to them, something that let the receiver know that this was made with love.

Perhaps more important than the contents of the box was the note that was stuck on top of it.

Every other gift came with a short note expressing how much the receiver’s friendship meant to her, but the one stuck to Natsu’s gift was a little different. She had expected to agonise over it and spend the whole evening searching for the perfect words to describe the feelings she had for Natsu, but they came to her surprisingly easy. It was as though they had been bubbling up inside her, just below the surface, just waiting for the right time to come out.

It was a little embarrassing reading it back now and seeing how she had poured her heart and soul into every word on the page. She worried for a moment that perhaps she had been a little too honest with her feelings, but she wasn’t given much longer to dwell on it before one of the kitchen staff shooed her out to prepare dinner for the evening.

Quickly, she placed her gift in her schoolbag so as not to forget about it in the morning, hoping she wouldn’t lose her nerve.

Lucy had made it well into third period, still having not given her Valentine’s gift to Natsu. It wasn’t for lack of trying. She had seen him several times already today, had been given plenty of opportunity to do so, but every time she tried to build up the nerve, she chickened out.

The prospect of rejection was already embarrassing enough, but somehow the prospect of getting rejected by Natsu was even worse. It wasn’t that she felt that her pride would be wounded if he didn’t return her affections (though that certainly didn’t help), but she just feared it would make things weird between them. She didn’t want him to feel like he needed to tiptoe around her feelings if he didn’t feel the same way.

Natsu was her best friend, and she liked the easy friendship they had, and she wouldn’t give it up for anything. A silly little love confession would be enough to make things awkward between them, and that was the last thing that Lucy wanted.

Still, her truffles weighed heavy on both her heart and mind. Sure, she could share them with her friends or eat them by herself, but neither option felt quite right. She had made them with intention, and it would be such a shame for them to not serve their intended purpose.

She let out a gentle sigh that went unnoticed by the others in her study period, who were otherwise too preoccupied with their own work to bother themselves with whatever Lucy was thinking. She was already caught up on her readings, her notes taken, and her assignments completed. The book she had brought with her didn’t feel quite compelling to her right now, leaving her alone with her own thoughts as she waited for the bell to ring. As much as she tried to avoid it, it was hard for her to think of anything but her Valentine’s confession.

Her fingers toyed with the pen in her hand, and she eyed up the pad of paper she had brought with her when an idea occurred to her. Hoping no one would look over her shoulder, she began to copy out the note she had written for Natsu using her left hand.

Though she was certainly not ambidextrous, her handwriting with her non-dominant hand was at the very least legible. It was nowhere near the neat and well-practiced cursive of her right hand, but in this case, that was exactly what she needed. She had rather distinct handwriting that Natsu would be incredibly familiar with after years of studying off of her notes instead of taking his own. If she left a note anonymously in his locker, he would quickly be able to link it to her by the distinctive neat and cutesy cursive. Her left-handed print, on the other hand, would hopefully be enough to throw him off her scent.

The bell signalling the end of class seemed to be timed perfectly with the end of her note; Lucy barely finished the end of her sentence as the rest of her classmates began to pack up for the break.

Natsu had rugby practice on Wednesday lunch periods, which left her ample time to put her little scheme into motion.

Once the hallways had cleared out, Lucy made her way to his locker and put in the combination with such confidence and precision that one might be able to mistake it for her own. Any misconceptions about the ownership of the locker space, however, would quickly be cleared up as bits of paper that had been haphazardly shoved in there last period fell out and onto the floor.

Yep, this was Natsu’s locker, alright.

Lucy quickly bent down to clean up his mess, so not to rouse suspicion, as she usually did when she found herself breaking into his locker. Usually, that was under much different circumstances, however. More often, it was when she was returning the textbooks he had “accidentally” left at her house the night prior or when she would wear sandals to school on days she forgot she had lab and had to return his gym shoes after borrowing them.

She cleared herself a little spot to place her Valentine’s gift on, moving his papers and books out of the way to make sure he couldn’t miss it when he checked his locker in the morning. Not that he could. That man could sniff out a snack a mile away and would no doubt get to it before the ants could.

A self-satisfied smile crept onto her lips as she realised she had gotten away with it until, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Gray walking towards her.

Normally that wouldn’t be an issue—Gray had seen her open up Natsu’s locker hundreds of times, so there was plenty of plausible deniability there, but Gray was on the rugby team with Natsu, and if Gray was here, that meant Natsu couldn’t be far behind.

In an effort to conceal the contents, she slammed the door, letting it shut with a loud clang. It was not the most subtle approach and brought more attention to her, if anything. In turn, Gray regarded her with a raised eyebrow as he approached, stopping for a brief chat with a friend.

“Hey Lucy,” he greeted, coming to a standstill beside the locker.

“Hi!” She squeaked out in reply.

There was no reason for her to be so nervous—it’s not like she was doing anything bad, but Lucy didn’t like lying, much less lying to her own friends. Though she was certainly no Erza when it came to being unable to conceal a lie, she was already skittish and jittery from the prospect of leaving a love confession in her best friend’s locker, and the threat of Natsu’s imminent arrival was no help either.

“What’s up?” He asked in an effort to seem unphased, but not quite concealing the confused curiosity in his eyes.

“Natsu left his textbooks in Mr. Conbalt’s room again,” she said, almost on instinct.

It certainly didn’t explain her urgency, but it was a common enough issue with Natsu that Gray didn’t seem to question it.

“Natsu didn’t mention rugby practice got cancelled,” Lucy mused, attempting to be inconspicuous.

“It wasn’t,” Gray replied. “Erza wanted my help putting up the rest of the Valentine’s decorations in homeroom. The rest of the guys are still at practice.”

“Natsu’s not coming?”

He shook his head.

“Not after he fell off the ladder and nearly concussed himself last time, Erza asked him for help. Dumbass.”

Yeah, that made sense.

She unclenched her jaw, knowing that Natsu wouldn’t be back any time soon, hoping that the relief wouldn’t be too evident to Gray.

In an attempt to divert attention and try to remain inconspicuous, Lucy scrambled the code on the dial to lock Natsu’s locker before turning back to Gray and offering a smile.

“I gotta go meet Levy, but I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah, I’ll catch you later,” he replied.

It wasn’t until he left without any further questions or suspicions did she finally felt herself able to fully relax. The tension in her shoulders loosened, and she let out a relieved sigh, happy that she had seemingly gotten away with it.

The shake of anxiety that had once been in her hands had mellowed out over the course of the day. Her mind had been occupied with classwork, leaving no brain space for thoughts about Natsu. She could have completely forgotten about her present altogether had it not been for the small commotion it had seemingly caused amongst their friend group after last period.

Familiar heads had all gathered around at their usual spot by the front gate, all looking incredibly interested in whatever it was that Natsu was holding.

As she approached, she caught a glimpse of the familiar truffle box open in his hands, everyone examining what was inside. It wasn’t until they noticed her arrival that anyone looked up from the box.

“Lucy! Did you hear?” Levy exclaimed, “Someone gave Natsu handmade chocolates for Valentine’s Day!”

It became immediately clear from Levy’s choice of words that no suspicion had been placed on Lucy, much to her relief.

“Do you know who left them?” She meekly asked in an attempt to play dumb.

“They didn’t say,” Natsu replied.

“Who’d be dumb enough ta make chocolates for Salamander?” Gajeel chimed in, earning him a jab in the side from Natsu’s elbow.

“They look so pretty,” Juvia mused softly. “Whoever made them must have put a lot of love into it.”

The box was still full, indicating that Natsu had held restraint until now—a definite feat when it came to his appetite. That didn’t last long, however, before he picked one up and popped it into his mouth.

Lucy examined his facial expression as he ate, her heartbeat growing faster as she awaited his reaction. Even if he didn’t know it was from her, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself if he didn’t like them.

“Shit, these are good,” he declared.

“Can I try one?” Gray asked.

“Nah-uh! Whoever gave them made them for me!” Natsu said, snapping the box shut and pulling them away from him.

The imminent fight that was about to break out distracted the group from the way Lucy’s hand came to rest over her heart, letting out a breath of relief. Not only had she been able to give her gift to Natsu, but she had kept her anonymity, and their relationship would be able to stay the way it was. She had been able to have her cake and eat it too.

Perhaps it was a little bit silly, but it felt like a weight off of her chest, like a burden she had been carrying had been lifted when she left that note in his locker. After so long of trying to obscure her feelings from both him and herself, he finally knew how she felt, even if it was under the veil of anonymity.

Presuming he had read it at all, anyway.

Amidst all the chaos, she caught Natsu’s eye for just a second, and a flush crossed her face. She had to turn away before he could get a good look at her face, lest he see something in her eyes that would give her away.

For now, what she felt would remain an open secret, of which only she held the key to the true meaning.

#fairy tail #nalu #natsu x lucy #fan fiction #mya writes things #healing my inner child who had no real friends by writing fanfiction with the friends i now have <3

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ssukidesu · 3 months

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what friends do

Fandom: Fairy Tail

Pairing: Nalu

Rating: T

Nalu Week 2024 ( @thenaluarchive @allaboutnalu )

Summary: Lucy gets a little too happy and does something (maybe not) regrettable.

Chapter 2: when friends return the favor (PDA)

Ch. 1 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 Ch. 5 Ch. 6

Read on AO3

Read under the cut

Maybe if I ignore them, thought Lucy, they’ll go away.

No dice. Happy was still floating in her face—such bad table manners he had, as the action put his rear end right over the food-covered table that she and the rest of their teammates were currently using—and Natsu was standing right at her side, having eaten an hour ago. She refused to turn her body on the bench to face him fully, but that didn’t stop Happy from trying everything in his power to hold her attention.

They both looked at her with sad eyes—which only pissed her off more, since she knew they really wouldn’t be that beaten up about it.

Maybe if I close my eyes…? If I can’t see them, they can’t see me, she hoped. She covered her eyes with her fingers in exasperation.

“Luuuuucyyyy,” whined Happy. “Please?”

What was it with them not taking “no” for an answer? Erza, Wendy, and Gray didn’t even seem surprised about it; in fact, they didn’t even bother coming to her rescue. They just kept on enjoying their meals, hardly paying them any mind. Hers was surely getting cold.

She pictured it: waking up at the ass-crack of dawn, making breakfast sandwiches with the rest of the food in her fridge, walking two whole miles to the river, and sitting for hours just for her to catch nothing at all while these two idiots flaunted their superior luck and fishing skills?

No thank you.

Lucy could count the number of times she’d gone fishing with them on one hand—but the few times she had, she’d been forced to the miserable conclusion that she sucked at it worse than a little kid practicing his cannon ball skills in between casts.

Fingers still shielding her eyes from their pouts, Lucy repeated, “Like I said, I’m no good at it. It isn’t fun at all for me.”

Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Even when she wasn’t catching anything, the knuckleheads at least tried to entertain her. She suspected it was always to cheer her up, but Natsu would often work a little harder than normal to make a fool of himself so that she’d laugh, and Happy always devoted a number of his catches to her.

“This one’s for you, Lucy!” he’d say.

And Natsu would pitch a jealous fit. “Hey! What about me? No fair!”

And then he’d set to work sabotaging Happy’s success—whether through baiting his hook poorly to ensure the fish would come loose (Natsu did, of course, have to bait Happy’s hook for him, as his thumbs were superior in mobility) or through raging himself up to leap into the river to “catch one first”.

Lucy would always feel better after that. It was hard to be sullen, after all, when your ribs hurt from laughing so much.

“Come on,” came a voice deeper and raspier than Happy’s. “Please? We’ll make sure you have fun even if the fish ignore you like before. Your bad luck has to run out eventually.”

Lucy frowned—not at his words, but at her own faltering resolve.

She sighed audibly and let her hands fall from her face. “…Fine.”

Before the syllable had fully left her lips, the two fools were shouting and punching the sky in celebration.

She crossed her arms indignantly over her chest, sulking in her defeat. Whether what Natsu did next was due to him noticing her sour face or not noticing it at all, she couldn’t be sure; all Lucy knew was that one moment she had been entirely in her own bubble, and the next…

Natsu’s hands were gripping both sides of her face and holding her into place, and his wet lips were smacking sloppily against her cheek.

Not even half a second—that’s all it was. A brief and flippant thing. But as Natsu and Happy continued their celebration on their way to the door and out of the guild hall, Lucy wondered why she could still feel him there.

And why her cheek was scorching hot. But then she realized it was probably her whole face that was burning.

“Um… Lucy?” asked Gray in a humorously tense voice.

Shit, she panicked. Forgot they’re here.

“What was that?” cried Wendy, already clasping her hands together in excitement.

“Uh—I…” she stuttered, eyes still glued to the guild doors, through which he had already disappeared. Her hand had come to cover where he had kissed it with a mind of its own, and she felt her skin’s violent blush. She saw no point in lying to them. “I might have told him that’s what friends do when they make each other happy…”

“Oh,” exclaimed Erza in a surprised squeak. Clearing her throat, she continued, “Well, I suppose that’s fine…”

Gray slammed his hands down on the table and pushed himself wildly to stand, startling everyone. “You mean that idiot is gonna go planting one on anyone who makes him happy?! Shit, Lucy—now I gotta make sure I never do anything nice to him ever again!”

Not appreciating the finger pointing, Lucy tightened her crossed arms over her chest and cringed. “You’re never nice to him, Gray. You’ll be fine.”

But Lucy suddenly felt even less fine than before. She hadn’t even thought about that risky consequence—that he’d go around kissing anyone who made him happy. Surely he wasn’t that much of an idiot… right? But she imagined him grabbing other people’s faces and smacking his lips on their cheeks the same way he had just done to her—and a rock formed in her stomach that she didn’t think she’d be able to medicate away. What if he did that to a poor clueless girl who would misunderstand it?

Lucy groaned. She would have to talk to him again, before he did something stupid and hurt someone’s feelings…

Like mine, a pesky voice deep within her said. She shoved it away, not even validating it with a response.

Well, she really did mean to take care of this misunderstanding sooner rather than later, but when she saw him the next day, he kept his lips to himself, even when she finally managed to catch a fish and made him smile so hard his dimples remained indented beside his mouth long after his smile faded. She wondered what it was about yesterday’s events that made him so damn happy that he considered his expression warranted, and after wondering and wondering during every second that she could spare, she decided that he probably wouldn’t be as liberal with it as she’d initially feared. Lucy decided that she would keep a close eye on him whenever possible, and if he did assault some poor unsuspecting victim’s cheek with a sloppy kiss, she would immediately take it upon herself to explain everything to them.

But in the meantime, she’d let it be. Maybe he’d forget about it altogether and never do it again—to her or anyone else.

The thought was initially comforting—but after Lucy returned home that night and readied herself for bed, something about it gnawed unpleasantly at her gut.

#first to chaps are def set up #ish gets more real in the next one #nalu week 2024 #nalu #nalu week #fanfiction #ao3

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