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bumblebeehug · 28 days

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Hike in Heels

Summary: Natsu takes Lucy on a surprise trip to Hargeon, where they relive their first encounter. Notes: (At the end) Ao3

***

“Please, please, PLEASE, let me take a break!” Lucy almost sobbed as she took another step. A two-day trip to Hargeon was not the best way to break in her new heels, and she honestly never would have picked those shoes if she knew that the “quick walk” Natsu had been talking about, was in fact a hike and not a leisure stroll.

“Come on, you already know that it’s only another 30 minutes, you can manage!” Natsu slowed down briefly at first but came to a complete halt when he looked down at Lucy’s foot, that she was now massaging tenderly. They had a scary amount of red, inflamed looking blisters, and he almost winced at the sight.

“Does it look like I’ll manage?” Lucy sneered back. Natsu frowned at her foot at first, for making Lucy suffer, and then at the shoes that were the very cause of her suffering.

“Hop on my back,” he said, crouching down in front of her. Lucy would normally decline offers like that, but she had already used up too much of time on Horologium’s schedule, so borrowing him for a ride wouldn’t be possible, and though she could walk barefoot the last bit, her feet could really need the relief from all the pressure. That, and the path they were walking on had surprisingly sharp pebbles – something she learned from another unfortunate pick of footwear.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, annoyed that her pride had even allowed her to get her feet this bad in the first place. Had she asked him for his help earlier, she would probably have only half the number of blisters that she currently was cursed with. If only Wendy or Shelia was nearby to relieve her from it.

After climbing onto Natsu’s broad back, they were once again on their way. The immediate relief from pressure helped Lucy truly relax, urging her to use Natsu’s left shoulder like a pillow. He could act really heroic when he wanted to. That’s of course until he starts complaining about her weight, which he usually would do as soon as she mounted him. Though, today he’s unusually quiet, leaving the air around them only filled with the sounds of his rhythmic steps against the gravel and the birds chirping.

“Why are we even going to Hargeon in the first place?” Lucy asked for the tenth time this day, knowing she probably wouldn’t get a proper answer, but still hoping that she was wearing that secretive shield down.

“I told ya’ it’s a secret,” Natsu answered, still not faltering. At this point Lucy didn’t know whether she should be excited or worried for this trip – for all she knew, a horribly embarrassing job with little to no pay could be waiting in the town they were heading towards. That, or Lucy had once again underestimated Natsu’s kindness, and some nice surprise was waiting for her. You never knew when it came to Natsu.

Perhaps that unpredictable nature was part of why Lucy still felt like their friendship was as fresh as it only could be in the beginning – in its honeymoon phase, one might say. They never tired of each other, not really, despite what it might seem like when Lucy kicked him and Happy out of her apartment for the hundredth time in a week, or when she scolded them twice that amount. When they first got to know each other, the small fights were actually based on real discomfort – who wouldn’t be shocked when a guy you practically just met used your bath with his winged blue cat without even locking the door? Though as the time went on, her crazy reactions felt more like acting, rather than something based on true discomfort. She would put on her loud voice, yell out something witty and then a ‘get out!’ and then watch as Natsu and Happy would giggle while scrambling to her hallway, and she’d watch them do this with a smile on her face. It was their running gag, something that reminded them of where they started and where they are now.

Well, unpredictable friendship or not, Lucy wasn’t sure if this little hiking trip Natsu had brought her along to was worth it. Those blisters already looked unreasonably red and angry, and they sure felt like they were angry too, stinging even at small winds.

“You know I won’t be able to fight properly like this, right?” Lucy told Natsu, kicking her feet in front of him.

“Well, you won’t have to fight.”

“Hah! I got a clue!” Lucy burst out, celebrating her success at wearing him down. “So, no fighting… Does that mean I’m just here for company for a job? Or maybe the job just requires one of my spirits… or! Maybe we’re just here for a retreat!”

Natsu sighed and readjusted his hold of her. He had accidentally told her just a little too much – not enough for her to figure it out, but still enough for her to speculate. He was fine with her talking, but he was a little afraid she’d make him say too much again, maybe even make him spill everything, and then he’d let all his work to keep the secret go to waste.

“Not telling,” he just told her, trying to keep his ground. He made his mind up to only answer her if she talked about unrelated topics – otherwise he would definitely spill everything. Luckily for him they would reach the edge of the town in just 10 minutes as long as he kept a good walking speed.

“Don’t you think you owe me a proper clue? After all, you didn’t tell me that we were going to walk for hours! I would have changed shoes if I’d known, you know!” Lucy poked Natsu’s cheek repeatedly. Maybe she could annoy an answer out of him.

“I already gave ya’ one,” Natsu tried.

“Noooo, I decided that it was a clue, you didn’t give it to me out of free will!”

“So you want another clue?”

“Yes!”

“Well, my clue is that you won’t have to fight.” Lucy pouted.

“You already gave me that clue.”

“So you admit it was a clue?”

“Natsu!”

***

“I can’t believe you won’t tell me anything!” They had finally arrived, and Lucy was walking barefoot on the cobblestone paths that covered the coastal town. She had insisted on walking by herself when they started meeting people on the way, saying something about it being embarrassing to be carried when she was a mage with reputation. Natsu couldn’t understand how being carried would affect her rep, since she was in a team that destroyed everything in its path, but he complied.

“I just think you’re making it bigger than it is,” Natsu shrugged. His surprise wasn’t really that big, and this build up certainly wasn’t giving him any favours.

“I’m not making it bigger than you are. You’re the one that won’t tell me about this small surprise.” Natsu knew that Lucy was stubborn, but this was reaching new heights.

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you!” he once again defended himself. “I just don’t want you to think it’s some amazing, cool thing and then be all disappointed.”

“I’d never be disappointed,” Lucy promised. She knew however that Natsu didn’t believe her – he had that peculiar look on his face that showed when he was doubting something. They continued this bickering for a few minutes, until Natsu finally came to a halt.

“We’re here.” Lucy looked around. The street was familiar – if she remembered correctly, this was the street where that wizard, Bora, had been scamming people. Which also, coincidentally, was the street where she and Natsu first met.

“Hey, I remember this,” Lucy said, not concealing the fondness in her voice. “This is where we met for the first time.” Lucy was smiling, and Natsu already felt like he had succeeded. For him, the hours of complaints were all worth it as long as she had this expression. But he knew Lucy would be annoyed if they had gone all this way just for a tiny peek into memory lane.

“Do you remember that there was this big crowd of girls just over there?” Natsu smiled.

“Yes, and I was in it.” A small grimace crossed Lucy’s face, until she started talking again. “I was completely charmed by Bora. Or, well, his ring at least.”

“The great salamander and his charms.”

“But hey, I did get to meet the real salamander! He was just naïve enough to think that Bora was a dragon in the middle of the town.”

“How was I supposed to know?” Natsu defended himself. Lucy raised her eyebrows.

“A dragon? A huge, fire breathing dragon, smack down in a town with crowded buildings and humans everywhere? It didn’t take a genius to figure out that things weren’t adding up.”

“Hey, me not being a genius led to us meeting. I wouldn’t change that, ya’ know.” Another soft expression graced Lucy’s face, and he had to hold back from giving her a big hug. “Anyways, I thought we could stay here for the weekend. I’ve booked a room, and just across the street there’s a place that’s got lots of cheap food!”

“You really thought this through, didn’t you?” Surprise didn’t begin to describe how Lucy currently felt. She didn’t think that Natsu would be so perceptive, though if she actually thought back she should have known. He had always been sentimental, if that wall of memorabilia had anything to show for. Hell, he even got himself a mannequin so he could display the maid outfit Lucy had dressed up in, way back for their first mission. Naturally he’d remember the date and location of their very first meeting.

“Since I prepared all this I’ll let you pay for the food,” Natsu said, snickering at her with a sinister grin. Right. There’s the catch.

Though since there wouldn’t be any crazy amounts of orders on raw fish, calculating the lack of exceeds in the company, maybe the bill wouldn’t be too severe. And with exceeds on the topic, Lucy sort of missed having the blue pal around. She could name a thousand annoying traits Happy possessed, but when it came down to it she wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world. He was her best friend, they bantered and had fights, sure, but the bond she shared with him was irreplaceable. Which is why she felt like there was a void present - they were missing a part of their team.

Lucy hadn’t gotten any explanations on why Happy wasn’t around today, but she knew that Natsu knew. Hadn’t he known, he would have complained the entire outing. Still, Lucy was curious about what kept Happy away today.

“Where did you say Happy was today by the way?” She had first asked him an hour into their impromptu hike, but had only gotten a vague mumble as an answer. This time she was ready to drill him – after all, she was paying for their food.

“Oh he had this… thing? With his parents and the rest of the exceeds. I don’t remember what exactly.” Lucy found his answer a tiny bit suspicious, but didn’t dig deeper. Surely there was a reason behind the vague answer – maybe Natsu had promised to keep a secret. Happy had recently gotten more serious about his feelings towards Carla, so maybe it was related to that.

“Right,” Lucy said, now feeling her stomach rumble. “So are we checking in at the Inn or eating first? I’m starving, but I think I’d like to freshen up a bit before we go eat.”

“Yeah sure, let’s make a stop at the room.” Natsu’s compliance was also a bit suspicious, Lucy thought. Though she didn’t mind it of course – maybe this was a part of the anniversary treatment.

She should have known something was up when Natsu had booked the room. The Inn was nice and clean, the staff was nice and she was delighted to hear that breakfast was included, but the first red flag was when there was only one room key. Lucy’s face had turned a light shade of pink at the thought of sharing a room – not because she wasn’t used to it at home, but because of the implied intimacy between her and Natsu. They were known to be “only friends” back in Magnolia, people barely batted an eye when they did almost-coupley-things (like walking home with arms linked, always sleeping at Lucy’s apartment, Natsu resting his arm on Lucy’s shoulders at the farmer’s market – all things that had been written about, and then been unbunked in Sorcerer’s Weekly), but in Hargeon their unique friendship wasn’t as widely known. So when the receptionist smoothly added that all their rooms were sound proofed, Lucy could only smile politely and nod.

The room itself was as stunning as the rest of the Inn. It was embellished with cute, golden, swirly details in every corner of every object, and the walls had a stunning tapestry with light blue flowers scattered across an eggshell-white base. There was a body length mirror with a dark wooden frame just to the left as you walked into the room, and to one of the walls there was a pretty wooden dresser. Everything looked handmade, and Lucy couldn’t help but awe at every detail.

See, the room was so pretty that Lucy hadn’t noticed that there was only one bed. When she did notice, it was only because she was admiring the bed frame – of which there was only one. Had she turned light pink before, she could guess that she was sporting a rosy red on her cheeks now. Truth was, she and Natsu had never shared a bed alone in another place than her apartment. Happy had always been a barrier between them, even when a similar occasion had occurred with there only being one spare room for the night. This time however, Lucy and Natsu hadn’t arrived with a third party. And this time, the room wasn’t the “only one available”. Natsu had been the one who booked it, and he clearly didn’t care about their reputation.

This entire thought process had taken maybe a second in the real world. See, Lucy didn’t really believe that Natsu didn’t care about “reputation” and silly things like that. She knew that Natsu didn’t see this sleepover as anything different than when Happy was around, and how the Inn-staff interpreted their relationship was simply not in Natsu’s equation. He had just wanted to make this a memorable trip, and sharing a room was just more economical, and really the only reasonable option when it came to the two of them. They were already sharing Lucy’s twin-size bed at home, so why bother booking two separate rooms when Natsu probably would end up in Lucy’s bed no matter what.

So with a deep breath, Lucy turned around and grabbed her bag where she kept her necessities.

“I’ll take a quick shower, is that fine with you? Or do you need the toilet?” Natsu could see a quite violent blush on Lucy’s cheeks as she tried to act unfazed. He covered up an amused smile with a yawn.

“No, you go ahead.” As Lucy closed the door he allowed himself to chuckle. She was really an open book.

***

“Good evening! Table for two under the name Dragneel?” A chipper waitress welcomed Natsu and Lucy into the restaurant. It was one of the perks of being a well known face in Fiore.

“Yes please,” Lucy said, minding her manners more than usual. She had thought that Natsu would leave the food aspect to Lucy, since he had joked around about her paying for him, but to her surprise he had led her here – to a nicer restaurant than they usually ate at. Well, they usually ate what they hunted in the woods, but even when they went through towns on missions they normally ended up in some cheap diner. This place was no five stars, but it was more than she had expected. She almost felt a bit self conscious in her simple dress.

The two of them were led to a table by a window that had the perfect view of the harbour.

“Hey that’s where we met for the second time!” Lucy exclaimed, pointing towards the horizon. “I thought you were such a loser for getting seasick,” she snickered, giving Natsu a provoking poke on his arm. He was nicely dressed up, wearing a navy dress shirt and black tailored pants.

“And I thought you were stupid for falling for Bora’s trick twice,” Natsu joked back with a smirk. Then he surprised Lucy for the third time in one day, fourth if you count his nice clothes. “We’ll take a bottle of the house’s red, assuming you want a meat dish?”

Lucy almost dropped her jaw, only giving a dumbfounded nod as an answer. As the waitress fetched their first order Natsu started to browse the menu.

“Hey what on earth was that? Who taught you wine-etiquette?”

Natsu shrugged his shoulders.

“This lamb looks good, doesn’t it?”

Lucy scoffed, but she was honestly impressed. It showed that Natsu had put a lot of thought into this day, even if he had played it off as a simple trip down memory lane. She opened her own menu and gave it a quick scan. He was right, the lamb did look really good, but at a closer look she could name multiple meals Natsu would prefer – he had mentioned the lamb as a recommendation to her.

“Yeah, I think I’ll take the lamb,” she slowly said. “What are you having?”

“The firecracker beef,” he said, pointing at the five chilli peppers on the side of the dish, symbolising how hot it was.

“Oh, fun!” Lucy praised.

As they waited for their wine they fell into a comfortable silence. Lucy had a million things to say, to commend him for. Well, minus one since she still felt her feet ache from the long walk. However, as soon as the waitress had taken their new orders, Natsu spoke up.

“This is a special town, dontcha think?” Lucy nodded. “I know Erza, Gray and Lisanna told you already, but before I met you I was really grumpy.”

“You don’t say?” Lucy giggled, thinking back on his curt behaviour before they formed a team.

“Hush,” he smiled, “I’m going somewhere with this.” Lucy made a zipping-motion with her hand over her mouth, and let him continue. “Anyways, I was a real bad-tempered kid, didn’t exactly like to hang around people other than Happy, and well, he’s a cat.”

Natsu seemed different today. Other than his odd sentimentality, Lucy thought he looked mature in his proper clothes, with a glass of red wine in front of him. Had she thought two times further she’d get flustered by how much this dinner seemed like a fully fletched date. Luckily Natsu continued speaking before she got there.

“There were all kinds of circumstances that made me behave that way, but in hindsight I kinda boil it down to searching for Igneel and losing Lisanna. Either way, I was having a tough time back then, especially when guild members didn’t take my search for Igneel seriously. Though, it was thanks to them we even met at all, since I followed one of the leads.” Natsu started looking around, losing the thread. “Well, I guess I wanna say I’m sorry for acting like a brat back then, I was really dismissive of you despite how friendly you were. Hell, you even got me and Happy lunch, we were seriously saved, I had to spend that lunch money on an extra train ticket.” He gave up a pained laugh from the memory of being stuck on that train ride. Lucy was amused by the picture he painted – even back then he didn’t manage motion well. It was sort of comfortable to know that some things would never change, no matter the adventures they went through.

“Either way, I would not change a single thing that day, the extra train ride made me meet you! Though meanwhile you were getting charmed by Bora.” He once again laughed at the memory – her eyes had practically been hearts. “And look what I brought, by the way!” From the backpack he had carried (against Lucy’s wishes) he pulled out the white cardboard paper that was signed by Bora, or Salamander as he had conned people to believe back in the day. Lucy yelped.

“I can’t believe you kept that! Eugh, it still gives me the creeps,” she shuddered and showed her arm where goosebumps had appeared. Natsu just laughed loudly – a heartfelt laugh that Lucy had heard countless times before but never got tired of hearing.

“What can I say, it’s a souvenir!” He was still laughing when he put it back into his backpack.

“Gross,” she muttered, but a smile was creeping across her face. She could never stay upset, even on pretend, when he laughed like that.

“Anyways, I just thought I’d tell you my side of the story of how we met. Though, you know the basic facts already. I just remember thinking that you were really weird.” Natsu was leaning his forearms on the table, suddenly feeling very close.

“I knew that much already,” Lucy teased. She was no longer fazed by his “weird”-accusations – they kind of cancelled out when you considered who was speaking.

“Yeah, well that wasn’t all I thought of you.” Lucy’s interest was piqued. Natsu’s eyes were dark in the dim light, and though his mouth was turned to a smile, he looked very serious. “Other than weird, I found you dumb, for paying for my food, loud, for how you spoke while paying for my food, endearing for how you spoke about Fairy Tail.”

Lucy felt her face get warmer. He had told her that she was weird, dumb and loud before – all while joking of course, but she had never heard him call her endearing.

“Then, when we met for the second time during the same day, I thought you were special. Then I got motion sick, so I mostly felt nauseous,” Lucy giggled before he continued, “but when you brought out Aquarius and helped me out, I knew you were special. I had never seen anyone converse with their magic the way you always have – mostly literally, but also figuratively. Happy told me the same night that he saw you find Aquarius key almost telepathically after you dropped it in the ocean. We both knew you were special. Are. You are special.”

Lucy felt like her face was on fire at this point. She had never heard Natsu be so straightforward before. It was strange, in a very good way.

“Oh Natsu, gosh, I don’t know what to say,” she breathed. It was rare to hear these sorts of words from anyone, aside from maybe Loke. “You flatter me.” She laughed, fanning herself to cool her head.

“I don’t do it nearly often enough,” Natsu argued boldly, only making Lucy blush more. “It’s just, I have so much to thank you for. My life has been pretty awesome if I may say so, but the truth is, it’s all thanks to you. I wouldn’t have had the amazing team I have today, I wouldn’t have made it out from any of the countless life threatening situations I’ve been in, if you weren’t there to save me. I owe everything to you.”

“That’s my line,” Lucy smiled, holding back tears of gratitude. “I would have roamed the streets still if we hadn’t met.”

Natsu smiled. “I doubt it. I would have picked you up along the way a hundred times if I could.”

Lucy snorted.

“That’s an awful pickup line!”

“Yeah, that was bad, wasn’t it?” He grimaced. “Though I can’t stop it with the sappy stuff until I finish what I started saying earlier.”

“About what you thought of me when we first met?” Lucy asked. She had sort of mastered the art of following Natsu’s train of thought, so she was spot on.

“Right, I think I mentioned weird, dumb, loud, endearing and special.” He regained his serious look, the one that made Lucy feel like she was the only one in the room, nay, the world, that mattered. “I also remember thinking that you were, and are, pretty.”

If Lucy could burst into flames of embarrassment, she would have. Except, she couldn’t say anything. If she said anything, she would wake up from this wonderful dream, and everything would go back to normal.

“I don’t tell you nearly enough,” Natsu said with a sheepish look. He was blushing for the first time since he got into puberty. It would take a lot for him to repeat these words. It was somehow comforting to hear Lucy’s heartbeat patter like a scared rabbit – like she didn’t hate hearing it from him, rather, the opposite.

It was however even more comforting to be interrupted by plates of food arriving. It was a natural ice breaker after the hot tension Natsu’s sentence brought. Lucy could utter a thanks to the waiter, and when her seal was broken, so was Natsu’s. Except, they didn’t address the elephant in the room. Natsu had called Lucy pretty, and Lucy liked hearing him say it. If any of them even mentioned it they feared a bomb would set off - a bomb they would have to clean up after in public. It was a silent agreement that they wouldn’t mention it before they were alone. Meanwhile, they had food to eat and a bottle of wine to finish.

***

The walk back to the Inn was quiet. Lucy walked slowly, partly to not strain her feet, but also because she needed the air to cool her head. Natsu naturally adapted his step to hers. Once they had walked in their own paces, unapologetically, but since quite some time back it had gone without saying that they were meant to be by each other’s side.

Natsu glanced over to Lucy. She had her eyes turned towards the skies, as she usually did when the sun had gone down. It was like she was acting on instinct, searching for the small, twinkling stars that were her good friends. Today however the lights in the town dulled the night sky, to both of their disappointment. Lucy’s skin had a special glow at night. It was like she was meant to be looked at by the moon, because Natsu could swear he saw a light sparkle, almost too faint to be there at all. Even the man in the moon showed Lucy his best side, Natsu realised, and felt his heartstrings tug. What a woman he had met.

If he looked into her eyes at night he could see the stars reflect in them. It looked like the night sky was swimming in dark chocolate, doing their best to stay afloat in her deep gaze. And not to mention how her light blush from the cold made her look ethereal, how her lips turned into a light purple when they no longer had the warm light of the sun shining on her, and how her golden hair almost turned white, following the colours of the sun and the moon on the night sky.

Calling her pretty was an understatement, yet it seemed like she didn’t really believe him when he had told her. At that realisation, Natsu got an overwhelming urge to tell her again. He wanted to tell her how gorgeous she was, inside and out, and he wanted to hold her tight and never let go. Carefully, he grazed his finger on her hand. Light enough to seem like an accident, put listening closely to the signs she gave. If she pulled away, so would he. Except, she didn’t. So he grazed it again, this time longer, making his intentions clear. Still, no movement from her, aside from the slight bobbing of their walk. On his third attempt he carefully braided their fingers together, relishing in the cool temperature of her soft, small hand in his.

He glanced over at her again, trying to read her emotions. She seemed happy, like he had just told her she would never have to pay rent again in her entire life. He caught himself with the same stupid smile, and decided to only look on the road ahead from now on. Whether he decided literally or metaphorically, he didn’t yet know.

***

Lucy was sweating. She cursed herself for it, because when Natsu had taken her hand, he had seemed so nonchalant, just acting like it was the most natural thing for the two of them in the world. And the fact that he hadn’t let go of her hand when they entered the Inn made Lucy beyond flustered. She had held his hand before, in fact, she had held it many times before. None that had felt so meaningful though. The light touches before he actually grabbed her hand, the way he had held it like it was the most fragile, yet important hand in the universe – the intention had felt romantic. And that’s when the day caught up to her.

Natsu’s nostalgia-trip had been like a weekend retreat for couples. It had felt like a long date, with marriage in mind. Though of course she didn’t think he’d propose – even he knew there were steps to take beforehand in their relationship, but today had indeed felt like a long list of steps to take before a proposal. Not that it felt staged in any way, but it was clear that he was advancing their relationship, whether he knew it or not.

Eventually Natsu had to release Lucy’s hand. He wasn’t successful in finding the key with one hand, so reinforcements were necessary.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Lucy said her first words in 30 minutes.

“I’ll just take a shower.”

And 10 minutes later, Natsu copied her.

When Natsu came out of the bathroom, they were both still in their bath towels. Lucy had managed to dry her hair halfway, but didn’t get farther before Natsu suddenly was standing in the archway between the bedroom and the hallway, his towel hanging dangerously low on his hips. She quickly turned off the hairdryer.

“So which sides did we settle on?” She kept the topic safe, or, at least as safe as it could be when she soon was to share bed at an inn, with no one present but her and her crush.

“Whatever you prefer,” Natsu answered. He would cling to her no matter which side they were lying on.

With all safe conversation topics exhausted, Lucy swiftly changed into her pyjamas. Natsu was lucky that she always carried her essentials – toothbrush, hairbrush, moisturiser, a couple of panties and a tank top, because otherwise she would either have to sleep in her outside clothes, or naked – both terrible options in Lucy’s opinion.

Natsu had known what the weekend had in store, but he hadn’t felt compelled to pack a pair of pyjamas anyways. A pair of boxers were enough in his opinion. As soon as he turned off the lights, he joined Lucy in bed. Once again he found himself looking at her in the dark. This time the light was so faint he could barely make out her contours, but he saw her there anyway. Her bangs had fallen to the side of her head, and he saw her entire forehead. It felt holy, in a way, because when he saw her wholly he felt like he could see everything about her. Her thoughts, her opinions, her memories. He knew that he couldn’t tell her this, because Lucy would think he was making fun of her big forehead. Little did she know that all his teasing, all his little jokes, were based in admiration. He had to keep talking to her to convince himself he was speaking with a human, and not an angel.

That’s when she opened her eyes and met Natsu’s gaze. At first Lucy’s heart skipped a beat – she hadn’t been prepared to be so intensely stared at. But then she allowed herself to be. She thought, just because she could see him watch her, it didn’t mean he saw her any differently to when she was unaware he was looking. And even if he understood her differently, did that telepathic thing where they spoke through glimpses and glances, he still saw the same woman he had always seen.

“What are you thinking about?” Lucy dared to ask, in a voice that barely counted as a whisper. He had been looking so intensely, like there was no tomorrow, yet he had an indescribable look on his face. Like he was troubled and content all at the same time. Stuck in admiration and puzzling.

“That you’re pretty,” Natsu said. And it was true. The way Lucy looked in the darkness, when Natsu barely could make out her shape, was captivating. He could easily lighten up the place with his fire, make every pore in her face visible as day, but barely seeing her was seeing her in a new light. He couldn’t get enough of her. It was like he was seeing her for her – not in the lights and shadows of a campfire in the woods, not under the light of her booklamp that she used every night. She wasn’t reflecting any light at all - yet somehow she was. If it was the faint light from one or two stars that peeked out behind the curtains, or if it was the faint glow of her own magic power, Natsu didn’t know. All he knew was that he couldn’t get enough of her. He had to feel her, taste her.

So he did.

He started with feeling. Grabbed her hand, this time with more determination. He grabbed it with both hands under the blanket, tracing her joints and feeling her smooth fingernails. It felt surreal to be touching this work of art he was watching. Then he traced up her arm, along her shoulder and neck, and soon enough he was tracing her face. Feeling the soft, thin skin across her eyelids, brushing up her eyelashes. Feeling her breath under her nose, the warmness of her lips. With every light brush his fingertips made, the more of her he smelled. He didn’t know if it was some sort of instinct, that he could smell her better the closer they were emotionally, all he knew was that he almost went dizzy from the sweetness, the realness she smelled. “Bunny” crossed his mind before he started combing through her hair.

“So pretty.” He had said it out loud before he registered the thought in his brain, but somehow it didn’t feel as smothering as it had in the restaurant. And that’s when he bent forward and kissed her. Softly, lightly on her lips. Her lips had fluttered slightly at his touch, but he noticed that she had closed her eyes on instinct. So he did it again, slightly firmer this time, pulling her body close along with the kissing motion. It felt like the ultimate sign of intimacy – like an embrace out of pure love, except amplified.

When they pulled apart for air, Natsu only had one thought on his mind.

“We can take the train back tomorrow if you want. No more hiking in heels.” And in the middle of a giggle, Lucy pulled them together again.

***

Notes: Over a year late to this nalu week prompt lmaoooo and it's 2am so I should really go to sleep. Hope you liked it! I'm just glad I didn't kill any characters or make them fight. I've written real angsty fics lately (and there's more to come, lol)

Anyways I hope you had as fun reading it as I had writing it! Xoxo

#bumblebeehug writes #fairy tail #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #nalu #fairy tail nalu #nalu fic #fanfic #fanfiction #fairy tail fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction #nalu fanfiction #nalu fanfic #nalu fandom

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tokkias · 2 months

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down bad ship: natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia summary: There's nothing special about the day that Natsu first notices. It's a day like any other he spends with Lucy, but maybe that's the reason why, because he can see himself doing this with her for the rest of their lives, and he doesn't even mind that he's already wading in far too deep in the ocean of love. ao3

happy nalu day!

There’s nothing really different about the day Natsu first notices. It’s not like the sun shines brighter or the birds sing louder than they do any other day; it really is just one like any other. He rises with the sun like he does every other day and cobbles together some passable breakfast for him and Happy before they take on the day.

It’s a nice day outside—warm and sunny but with enough clouds that Lucy won’t spend the day complaining about her decision to not wear sunscreen that day. It would be the perfect weather for a day job, but it's the last Friday of the month, which means it’s errands day for Lucy. With rent taken care of for the month, she makes sure to take care of any other tasks she needs to deal with by the end of the month, and taking menial tasks around town is the perfect chance for Natsu and Happy to follow her around all day. She complains about it every time they do, but makes no real effort to stop them and even treats them to lunch on occasion. It’s become something of an unspoken routine for them, and there’s nothing really unusual about today. It truly is routine.

She’s just coming out of the building when the duo arrives because they’ve done this so often that their internal clocks seem to have synced. She seems to light up when she meets his eye—or at least he thinks she does. Lucy’s always been the type of person to perk up around her friends, but he selfishly hopes that the little glimmer he sees in her eyes right now is reserved for him.

“Natsu! Happy!” She calls out, raising her hand to wave to them as they walk over.

“Hey, Lucy,” he grins.

She doesn’t usually dress up for the occasion because there is no occasion to dress up for, but she’s always well put together. Her ponytail is slicked up and falls in tresses over her shoulder. Rosy blush accentuates her cheeks, and her lips have a slight gloss to them that makes Natsu lick his own. She looks really pretty today. Granted, she looks pretty every day, but he’s never really given much thought to it until now. Lucy being pretty is just a fact of life that he has come to accept, so he doesn’t pay it much mind, but today she just looks like she bathed in sunshine before she showed up, and he feels inclined to take any chance he has to look at her just a little bit longer. There’s no real tangible difference that he can put his finger on why today is different because she doesn’t look any different from normal, but he feels he just notices it more. He feels like he’s being discreet about it, but it doesn’t slip by Lucy unnoticed.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Looking at you like what?”

“I don’t know! Weird! You’re looking at me weird! Do I have something on my face?” She asks, her brows knitted together in concern.

He doesn’t think he’s looking at her weird, or at least he doesn’t mean to.

“You just look nice today,” he tells her.

He can see in her expression that she’s taken aback by his casual candour. He’s not usually so sweet, and he knows she would be the first to notice. The look of surprise on her face quickly turns into one of annoyance.

“Are you making fun of me?” She accuses.

“What? No! Why would I be making fun of you?”

She narrows her eyes at him slightly and doesn’t reply right away, as though she’s weighing up whether she should believe him or not. When it becomes clear that he’s being sincere, she seems to soften a little bit.

“Thank you,” she says, her voice quiet as she bashfully averts her gaze, but he hears her as clear as day.

They don’t have to talk about their plans for the day because they’ve done this a million times before. It’s all boring, menial stuff, but it’s not boring if he’s doing it with Lucy. They make their way around Magnolia, past places he remembers introducing Lucy to for the first time, but are now familiar stops on this route she’s come to know like the back of her hand. She takes them to the bank, the post office, the pharmacy—places he probably never would have gone to before meeting her, but he now holds a fond familiarity for. They exchange pleasantries with the workers they’ve come to recognise, who know their routine just as well as they do. Natsu’s never been one for strict routine, but this is one he doesn’t mind. It feels somewhat… domestic. Domesticity wasn’t something Natsu ever saw for himself until it seemingly fell into his lap, and he finds himself comparing antihistamines with Lucy on a Friday afternoon.

He doesn’t mind it—if anything, he likes it. He looks forward to their errand day and enjoys the time he gets to spend with Lucy. He would never enjoy doing this stuff on his own, but when it’s with Lucy, it doesn’t matter what they’re doing as long as they’re together. He makes it a point to call attention to silly things he finds as they walk the aisles of stores. She smiles, and then she laughs, and Natsu doesn’t think he’s seen anything quite that bright in his life. He would be happy if the rest of his life looked just like this.

Their reward for being Lucy’s pack-mule for the day—the thing that had Natsu and Happy first tagging along all those years ago—is the prospect of lunch in the middle of all this. It’s a quaint little place in the middle of town that they’ve become regulars at. Natsu’s memorised the whole menu at this point, a feat that may come in handy if Lucy ever followed through on her claims that she’d like to try something new the next time they came, but she always ends up with the same order as last time. The waitress flashes them a smile, and they don’t even have to say anything before the barista is already fixing up Lucy’s chai latte. Déjà vu hits him when the same granola bowl that Lucy orders whenever they come is brought out, topped with yogurt, sickly sweet honey, and fresh, juicy berries. He, on the other hand, chooses to switch things up and orders something new this time—it’s the biggest burger they could possibly serve him with so much cheese that it drips down onto his plate when it melts, and a side of fries to boot.

He has better table manners now, at Lucy’s insistence. She’s loosened up since they first met, but she’s still drilled the rules into his head. Sit up straight, no elbows on the table, knife in right hand, fork in left, no licking the knife, and absolutely no burping at the table. He certainly doesn’t follow them all the time, but in Lucy’s presence, it’s a small sacrifice he’s happy to make. It’s a little hard to keep good manners when what he’s eating is as messy as this, but he tries his best, and Lucy sees and appreciates it.

Between bites, he notices her eyeing up his fries. She’s not one for greasy foods like him, but she’s not immune to the delectable aroma of his well-seasoned fries and the various dipping sauces that come with them. Even if she tries to hide it, he notices the temptation in her eyes, and she soon caves.

“Can I try some?” She politely asks.

If it were him, he wouldn’t have asked permission and would have instead gone straight in, but Lucy has always had better manners than him.

“Yeah, sure,” he answers, not giving it much thought.

It’s not until she is already taking from his plate that he considers that Lucy is the only one he would even consider letting do that, and then how easy it is for him to say yes. He shares everything in his life with her, so there’s no reason to stop at food. He’d give her everything and the clothes off his own back for her, so letting her eat off his plate is merely a small blip in the grand scheme of sacrifices he would make for her. He watches her take a bite, and her eyes light up, and she can eat the whole damn plate if it means he gets to watch her smile like that. She offers him some of her food, but he doesn’t take it, instead nudging his own over to her in an unconditional offer. She pretends she’s not interested in it for a brief period, but when she realises he sees right through her, she gives in. He doesn’t even mind that she eats nearly all of them.

Their final stop takes them to pick up groceries for the next week. Natsu’s in charge of pushing the cart—a privilege he’s had to earn back after crashing one into a stack of cans one time, but he has better special awareness now. He still rides it down the empty aisles, but as long as he doesn’t cause any trouble, Lucy pretends not to notice. Happy sits in the cart seat and relishes in all the attention he gets when fellow shoppers coo over just how cute he looks. They look like a happy family, and it almost feels like they are one too.

They’re shopping for Lucy’s groceries, but they’re just as much for Natsu and Happy as they are for her, even if she doesn’t want to admit it out loud. The implication of admission comes when she asks for their opinions—what do they want for dinner next week when they inevitably crash at her place, what brand of pasta sauce do they prefer, what snacks should she stock up her kitchen with for them. She always claims she’s not buying anything more than they need, but Natsu knows how and when to flash her his puppy dog eyes to convince her to buy him a little snack for the way home.

Magnolia is awash in an orange early-evening glow when they finally make it back to Strawberry Street. Lucy walks along the side of the canal, just like she always does, and Natsu is content to watch. The sun highlights her golden hair as it falls across her shoulders, where it frames her face perfectly. His eyes are drawn to her lips, which are quirked up in a small smile as she looks in front of them. As if she notices his gaze, she looks up to meet it, and he gets to see that smile in all its glory. It makes his heart tighten in his chest, and all he can do is smile back.

Carrying her groceries up to her apartment for her is his least favourite part of the day, and it’s not because he doesn’t like being her pack mule. If he minded carrying her stuff around for her, he wouldn’t be doing it all day, but when he lugs them up the stairs, it signals the impending end of their time together, and it never fails to bum him out. He takes the last precious moments they have together, taking his time as he helps her put her groceries away. When they’re finished, she rewards him with a hug, her arms wrapped tightly around his torso and her head resting against his chest. He reciprocates eagerly, his chin resting atop her head. Happy only pretends to retch in disgust a little bit.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” She says, hand resting against the doorframe as she sees them out.

“See you tomorrow, Lucy!” Happy gleefully replies.

Natsu leaves her with one final grin before they descend down the stairs.

“See ya tomorrow!”

When he gets over the initial wave of grief that comes with leaving Lucy, there’s a sense of contentment that overflows him. His heart just feels so… full. Even though he was just with her, there’s this ache he feels in his chest of sheer excitement for the next time he gets to see her. Natsu’s never really been the type who was incredibly in touch with his emotions, but what he’s feeling right now—not even he can deny. He flops down onto his hammock, his gaze up at the ceiling as a smile crosses his face.

“Hey, Happy?” He calls out, attracting the attention of the exceed.

“Yeah?”

There’s a moment of quiet between them—just a beat as he gathers his thoughts and considers the way the words might feel on his lips.

“I think I’m in love with Lucy,” he finally says.

“Yeah, I know,” Happy replies.

His little buddy’s reply causes his lips to quirk up slightly at the corners. He supposes it’s something they’ve both known for a long time now, but it’s just taken him a while to fully put the pieces together. Even though it’s seemingly not a surprise to hear, it feels good to say it out loud.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

He’s giving him a look as though it were obvious, and maybe it is, because Lucy is the easiest person on earth to love, and he doesn’t know how he didn’t realise it earlier. He’s always been a man who’s full of love, but the love he feels for Lucy is different and fulfilling in a way he can barely comprehend. As he lingers on it, he realises he gets to spend every day with her for the rest of their lives, and he feels like the luckiest man alive.

There’s a large, dopey grin on his face as his brain is plagued with all thoughts of Lucy, but it feels so good that he doesn’t even mind when Happy teases him about it the rest of the day.

#nalu #natsu x lucy #nalu day #nalu fanfiction #nalu fan fic #nalu fan fiction #nalu fanfic #mya writes things

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ellssbellss · 3 months

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day 1

prompt: cuddling/nightmares

- @allaboutnalu - @thenaluarchive -

-> word count: 3.5k

-> summary: after a long solo mission, natsu collapses onto his hammock, ready for the day to be over. but his body won't let him rest, his mind instinctively drifting to a certain blonde mage. of course, he knew spending the night apart from her would stir up some longing in him, and that it would ignite his insomia into full flames.

but did he really want her with him so much that he conjured her into his living room?

natsu is always sneaking into lucy's bedroom, but what happens when the roles are reversed?

.oOo.

restless

Before he even opened his eyes, Natsu was awake.

Which sucked, because considering he could hear the soft snores of his little buddy in the hammock next to his, he wasn’t supposed to be. Happy had always been the early riser between the two of them, knowing that the best time for fishing was when the sun was just barely dragging over the horizon.

Still, he couldn’t help it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake the feeling of sudden alertness that had taken over his body. Slitting his eyes open, he stayed in the comfort of his hammock, ratty and worn and his. Having been sleeping on his side, he kept his arms around the pillow he was cuddling while surveying his environment.

Growing up in the forests of who-knows-where ever since he was little blessed him with the instincts he carries with him today. He knows what it’s like to feel danger when it’s drawing near; a buzzing, hardening rock in the bottom of his stomach.

This wasn’t that feeling.

It was more of an excited awareness that had buzzed up to his brainstem. His gut told him something was coming, but he didn’t have to worry. He just needed to be awake when it arrived. Or, if it was already inside this hut he called a home, he needed to notice it.

Sleepy emerald irises pondered over the rickety, cozy space he had previously labeled his safe haven. The dragon slayer could make out his clothes strewn over the couch and his dining chairs– well, chair– or the charred-over pieces of floorboard that peeked out under a rug that Lucy had picked out for him, saying that it would brighten the place up a bit. Some might disagree with him, considering the shoes on top of his kitchen counter and the pile of dry goods in his closet, but nothing seemed out of place. Not to him, anyway, because he knew where everything was.

Huffing a breath of smoke, Natsu shrugged. Maybe it was his insomnia, rearing its ugly bed head for the fourth time this past week. It was a battle he never truly won. Being an energetic, sparking fire wizard who practically embodied the concept of carpe diem, sleep wasn’t something that came easy to him. Now, as the war of Alvarez ended with him questioning his own sense of identity and new nightmarish images of a certain celestial mage, it was practically nonexistent.

The only way he got a goodnight sleep was when he was at Lucy’s apartment.

Not only was her bed expensive, big, and soft as hell, but it usually came with a sleeping, safe key holder by his side. One that he could bring close to his chest when she was unaware, hearing her heart drum steadily in her chest under the moonlight that cascaded through her french window. Her scent drifted off of her in constant, jasmine waves; twisted with all kinds of perfumes and soaps, of course, but it was still her.

Even just the thought of her sent his mind into a drowsy, dream-like state, and he stuffed his face into the pillow in his arms, already regretting his rash decision to not walk the rest of the way to her apartment.

The mission he had gone on was long, sore, and without the blonde Heartfilia. So when he realized that the walk back would take him right to his own little hut that he had abandoned for an apartment building on Strawberry Street, his heavy legs brought him through his own front door. Placing the fur ball that was snoring on his head into well-worn blankets, Natsu took little time to kick off his shoes and fall into the bed of rope string, out like a light as soon as he hit the pillow.

He, like always, would see Lucy in the morning.

Closing his eyes, Natsu willed himself to relax. He had slept in this hammock many times, and it had been comfortable to him. Before he met Lucy, he was proud of the way the woven, coarse fabric dug into his skin, even if it itched throughout the night. Now, it simply didn’t feel right.

He scoffed at the thought, shifting again over the rough strands. Right, before he met Lucy. Because everything about his life had changed after.

Images of golden blonde raced into his mind, and he flipped onto his back, letting the sway of the hammock rock him back into his dreamless sleep, before that sense of alertness came back full force.

And it brought a scent with it.

Opening his eyes with a new surge of what the fuck?, he sniffed the air again, inhaling the faint trails of vanilla, morning dew, and jasmine that swirled into his home. Mavis, had he really been thinking about Lucy so much that he was imagining her smell, too? Had he hit his head too hard during his mission yesterday?

He made a note to see Wendy tomorrow, see if she could find anything screwed up in his brain. Granted, that wasn’t already there.

But then he heard a branch crack outside his window. Sensitive ears picked up crunching leaves and rustling dirt, and suddenly he wasn’t scared that he was crazy.

Watching out of the corner of his eye as his front door creaked open gently, he wondered if Lucy was the crazy one.

Clearly, she was trying to sneak in. His partner tip-toed in, highly aware of the rotting condition of his home’s structure. A sliver of moonlight followed her tense shoulders as she squirmed her way in, and he swallowed his laugh at the way she winced as the door shut behind her with a soft click.

Immediately, her wide, doe eyes shot to him, lying on his back with a pillow under his head and arm, and he stayed incredibly still. When she saw he didn’t move, she relaxed against the doorframe, and he realized that she didn’t want to be caught.

Lucy Heartfilia, proud provider of a Lucy Kick! whenever he so much as thought about sneaking through her window, was inching across his floorboards, her bunny slippers catching on the splintering wood.

Oh, this was gonna be so good.

He evened out his breathing, barely fluttering his eyelids so that he could see the shadows of her movement in the darkness. To her, he probably looked serene, totally unaware of the way she avoided the spots in his floor that were weak, practically hopping around in her loose sweatpants and small tank top.

But little did she know that he was just waiting for the perfect moment.

He couldn’t wait to see her face when he jumped at her, screaming something like “Gotcha!”...or “Fooled ya!”...or something. Whatever, he’d figure it out in the moment. Point is, it would knock her off her ass, and he’d have teasing material for days.

The silhouette of the celestial mage continues her hopscotch across his living room, getting closer and closer to the hammock strung in one of the corners. She was coming over to him? Even better! Now he’d be able to see her up close when he pulled his joke.

But he waited patiently, watching as she made her way over here. Gently hopping over a dip in the wood, she seemed to slip on one of his vests, and the smallest squeal left her lips as she nearly crashed to the ground.

“Shit.” She breathed, her arms flailing as her body teetered. With incredible balance, she swayed on one foot until she was stable again. Hands over her mouth, she looked at Natsu first, finding he hadn’t moved an inch. Then, her eyes fell on Happy, who truly was out for the count. Nothing but a fish hand delivered by Carla could wake the exhausted Exceed before he chose to be.

Natsu watched as her shoulders relaxed, long blonde strands brushing against the exposed skin as she made her way to him. He switched his positions casually, going back to laying on his side so that he could see her better, and relished in the mini heart attack it gave her before he settled in.

Another relieved breath left her lungs, and she whispered into the darkness. “How does he do this every night?” She mumbled, swallowing nervously as she took one big step over a large pot with questionable liquid inside. “And didn’t I just clean this place up?”

The blonde mage uttered angrily once more, and Natsu resisted his smirk as his name was half-heartedly insulted under her breath. Her words meant nothing when she was literally sneaking into his house to be near him.

Or to tell him something. Or to yell at him? The dragon slayer swallowed softly, resisting a confused glance at his partner when he realized he didn’t know why she was here.

He had been so excited to see her, and to mess with her, he failed to question it.

Was she angry at him? No, did she find the underwear that he had accidentally singed in his and Happy’s recent game of ‘Panty Ball’? He thought he hid it well, stuffed between the wall and her dresser where no one could see. It was her fault for coming back so late, leaving him with nothing to do.

Internally, he groaned, noticing her form was just inches away now. Well, at least he’d have one moment of glory before he was banned from her apartment for life.

Finally, her slippered feet made their way to the edge of his hammock, and his ears perked up at her sigh of relief. His barely open eyes watched as she ran her fingers gently over the fabric of his bed, so close to his skin but never touching it.

She did it with so much tenderness that his plan to jump out at her was delayed, his curiosity taking over his chaotic urges.

Moonlight cascaded through the window, giving a spotlight to her form as she looked down at him, or he assumed, as he could only see her legs from this angle. Was she just gonna stare at him all night? She was so weird.

Then, she unknowingly answered his question as she carefully knelt beside him.

Under her weight, the floors detested softly, and her neck came into view through his slitted lens. And his stomach launched into his throat as her hand gently, nervously, placed her delicate fingers over his heart.

Her touch was soft but sure, and she made sure to only touch her fingertips to his sculpted skin, right where his pulse was the strongest. He watched as his best friend’s throat bobbed with a swallow, her attention on him as she watched his chest rise with each breath.

Everything about her was so hesitant, so quiet and contained that he felt that alertness again, but this time it wasn’t a peaceful nudge into consciousness. It was a feeling of worry and slight panic.

Then, through blurry focus, he saw her bottom lip quiver gently as the smell of salt filled the little air between them, and the feeling grew tenfold.

Silently, Lucy was crying.

All plans to prank her were thrown to the wind that blew lamely through the air. After a sharp intake of breath, Natsu grabbed her hand that was against his chest, the one that held her guild mark, and opened his eyes wide, sitting up with a jerk.

“Lucy…” He hissed, crushed at the wetness in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Her brown eyes were blown wide, and she ripped her hand from his grasp as she fell back onto her butt, a loud ‘KYAA’ echoing into the forest.

“Natsu! You scared me!” Following the silence of the midnight air, her voice fell into a hushed nag, and he cocked an eyebrow at her. Her voice started shrill, but then she lowered it as Natsu put a quick finger to his mouth, gesturing to the sleeping cat a few feet away.

“Really? You sneak into my house, and start accusin’ me?” He lowers his finger, as well as his tone. “Why’re you cryin’, Luce?”

She swallowed wetly, scurrying back onto her feet as she hastily wiped at her eyes. “I’m not! And I didn’t sneak in, the door was unlocked, so…”

“Lucy.” The longer he looked at her, pale skin bathed in moonlight and shadows, the more he saw the redness of the corners of her eyes and the tips of her nose. He hears her hitched breaths, or how she sniffles wetly while tucking a hair behind her ear. It’s not that she’s crying now.

She had been. For who knows how long.

“Please, I won’t even ask why you’re here. I swear.” He looks up to her as he leans on his elbow. “Just tell me why you’re cryin’.”

Lucy’s weight shifted, her left foot behind her and the other one forward, as if she was ready to run away at any moment. She fidgeted with her hands, looking into his eyes for a moment before blinking away her tears and shaking her head. “I…wow, I shouldn’t have come here.”

Her shoulders shake with her pity laugh, and she runs her fingers through her yellow locks. “I’m sorry for waking you Natsu, I didn’t…I mean, I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea.”

Before she turns on her heel, Natsu’s hand shoots out, stopping her in her tracks. She doesn’t turn around to look at him, but he still sends her a pleading pout anyway. He throws off his blanket, sitting properly on the swinging hammock underneath him.

“Luce, stop.” His plea gets a turn of her head, a shudder of breath from his teammate. “C’mon. You know I won’t be able to sleep now, not after seeing you like this.”

Her brown eyes finally meet his green ones, the hue catching onto the shine of the moon so perfectly because of her tears. There is so much yearning in her gaze that she can’t seem to put into words, so he makes it so she doesn’t have too.

Pulling on her wrist, he brings her closer, and she doesn’t resist. Trudging towards the small hanging, woven canvas, Natsu helps her sit next to him, her feet dangling off the side.

“Can we just…sit here for a second?” She asks quietly, looking straight ahead.

He doesn’t take his eyes off her. “‘Course we can.”

They fall back then, letting the hammock catch their backs, the force swaying the rope back and forth in a gentle motion. But when he goes to pull his hand away from her wrist, she grabs it. She brings his hand closer to her, her fingers wrapping around his wrist, and her thumb pressing into his pulse point.

His own touch finds her other hand that’s curled into her side, and they sit there, looking up at the haphazard, but stable, roof overhead.

Natsu counts about seventeen beats of his pulse against her skin before she takes a breath.

“You didn’t come over tonight.” She says, barely above a whisper.

“I got back from a job that kinda wrecked me, and this house was closest on the way back.” He explained, his own voice gravelly from sleep. “Figured I’d spend the night here and find you in the morning.”

“Sorry I woke you then. Sounds like you need your sleep.”

“Don’t be.” Natsu shook his head, squeezing her hand. “I couldn’t sleep anyways.”

He felt her nod sympathetically, her thumb pressing deeper into his wrist. “Me either.”

The dragon slayer looked back at her, watching as her eyes flitted over the dust particles flying across the moonbeams above. His eyes traced over her cheeks as she worried the inside of them, clearly debating whether or not to say more.

So he decided to give her a push. “Why not?”

Her head rocked from side to side. “It’s stupid.”

“Probably,” She shot him a glare only to see his crooked smile. “But give it a try anyway.”

A long breath blew past her lips, and she looked down at their conjoined hands, watching as Natsu’s thumb absentmindedly ran over the pink symbol tattooed on her skin.

“I,” She laughed wearily into the night air, seeming to already beat herself up for even saying this out loud. “I had a bad dream, so I didn’t want to be alone.” Lucy’s eyes rolled in their sockets, annoyed. “Like a child.”

The fire dragon slayer hums next to her, facing the front. He knew what bad dreams were, what they meant to the wizards of his guild. They meant being surrounded by grief and loss; by scary amounts of blood that you just couldn’t stop, no matter how hard you tried. Especially after the war, he walked into the otherwise lively guild hall to see more and more tired faces, his family trying to process the emotional toll that his brother’s actions had taken.

His jaw coiled as Lucy sniffed wetly. Natsu never wanted Lucy to go through that. If he had the choice, he would take every ounce of her hurt, every iota of fear and suffering so that she wouldn’t have to carry more pain then she already did.

But he’d accepted long ago that she was a warrior who fought in the same battle he did, on his side no less. Without her, he wouldn’t be alive. He wouldn’t be able to hold her hand like this, swinging in the hammock of his makeshift home, surrounded by her constant irritated glances and unconditional love. Natsu roars through human lungs because of her; he loves through a beating, bloody heart because of what she did for him.

So, if she had nightmares, or any other obstacle she couldn’t face alone, it didn’t matter what he wanted. He would give her what she needed. A dragonslayer by her side, ready to fight whenever she called.

Her soft voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he squeezed her hand to let her know he was listening. “But I couldn’t help it. I saw you…you…”

Lucy breathed a shuddering breath, and Natsu knew there would be tears in her eyes if he looked her way. So he didn’t. “You were gone, and I couldn’t bring you back.”

“So, I had to come here, to see you and make sure that it wasn’t real. That your heart was beating and you didn’t leave me again.” Her voice dropped off at the end there, and his teeth almost broke with the crack in her voice.

They swung there for a moment before the fire mage spoke again, his eyes tracing the brick of his roof.

“You’re right,” The rasp in his tone was more pronounced, rumbling in his chest. “That’s pretty stupid.”

Before Lucy could whip her head to him so hard her neck would crack, he broke his hand out of her grasp and placed it on her head. He pulled her into his chest, making sure her ear was right over his heart so that his partner could hear how loudly it drummed.

The pink-haired boy heard her gasp, and he felt the cold of her tears dripping onto his skin, which evaporated almost immediately after. His other arm came around her shoulders, and he leaned back. Natsu adjusted them so they laid long ways in the hammock, pulling his blanket over them as he settled the celestial mage on his chest.

“I told ya, Luce,” He reminded her, placing his chin on her hair. “We’re gonna be together from now on. So no one’s leavin’, alright?”

Lucy froze in his hold before melting slightly, kicking off her bunny slippers as she molded herself to her partner’s torso. “Yeah, alright.”

She snuggled into him more, clearly not in the mood to fight, or yell, or whatever weird thing she did when he brought her this close. Her skin was cold from her trek into the forest, so he pulled her closer, making sure the cheap quilt reached over her shoulders.

Lucy fit into him with ease, like the shining, perfect key in his tarnished lock.

His pillow that he was holding earlier in the night also fell to the ground, being replaced with an exhausted star spirit wizard, and he mentally slapped himself in the face for picking his ratty old apartment over the beauty and comfort in his arms. Slowly, they swung, until Natsu chuckled into the darkness.

“We really gotta work on your sneakin’ skills, Luce.”

She slapped his chest, her voice slurred. “Shut up. Your floor is too crowded, there’s nowhere to step. You live in a pigsty.”

“You gotta be stealthy. Like a ninja.”

She pulled on his scarf, and his cackle bounced off the poorly-constructed walls. “Shut up and go to sleep, Natsu.”

Despite her tone, she snuggled into him more, her nose tickling the crook of his neck. “You’re such a pain.”

He just laughed, letting one of his legs drop out of the hammock, making room as he pulled her even closer.

When Happy woke up the next morning, with sunkissed colors of pink and gold streaming through the windows, he put his hands over his mouth at the sight, an evil laugh whizzing by his whiskers.

hope you loved it as much as I love them lol, stay tuned tomorrow!

day two

#nalu week 2024 #nalu week #fairy tail nalu #natsu x lucy #natsu dragneel #fairy tail anime #fairy tail #fanfiction #fanfic #oneshot #writing prompts #writing prompt #fic prompt #cuddles #cuddling & snuggling #dreams #nightmares

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parsimonius · 7 months

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omg hi I haven’t written in a lil I’ve been busy freaking out over legit everything but I wrote a little more of my dragon Natsu and princess Lucy fic that I refuse to post bc I’m nervous it’s boring

………

“Can you grab the bandages, Natsu?” She asks, completely forgetting to add Prince to his name until she looks up. But he’s already tossing the empty stick that once held her fish into the flames, moving to grab the bandages next to Gray.

He finds it after a second, grinning before tossing it towards her. She catches it (somehow), before unraveling and sticking it to her leg. It’s sloppy, and nowhere near as perfect as Lokes, but it’ll do for now. It helped that this..Wendy girl—was great at making salves. She couldn’t even feel the slight stinging sensation she had gotten used to since this morning after falling.

She finishes up, giving it back to Natsu, who seems to have fun tossing it until it hits Gray in the head, who turns to glare before looking away quickly because her pant leg was still up.

“You can look, boys,” She says as she rolls her eyes, pulling her pant leg down. Gray and Gajeel sigh before their heads turn back towards her and Natsu. She glances at Natsu. “If they turned to look away, why didn’t you?”

Natsu looks at her; confused. “Why would I?”

Gajeel laughs, “He ain’t got a single shred of respect nor dignity in that ol’ lizard brain Princess. That’s why.”

“Hey!” Natsu yells, going to stand up, his fist turning to flames in the span of a second. Lucy jumps in surprise, but Natsu must notice, because the flame is quick to go out as he slumps back down on the log. ‘Tch.”

Gray yawns, rubbing his eyes. “While I’d love to watch Natsu get his ass beat, I’m tired. Who is first watch?”

Gajeel yawns at the same time. “Natsu and the Princess can. I doubt he’ll sleep for a while.”

“I am right here,” Natsu crosses his arms. Gajeel raises an eyebrow before he turns to go towards one of the three tents set up where Gray is already moving towards, waving his arm lazily. “Whatever…”

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ssukidesu · 3 months

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what friends do

Fandom: Fairy Tail

Pairing: Nalu

Rating: T

Nalu Week 2024 ( @allaboutnalu @thenaluarchive )

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

Chapter 6: what counts as a cheap shot (injury)

Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 Ch. 5

Read on AO3

Read under the cut

1… 2… 3… 4…

Shit, shit, shit!

Lucy’s mind raced through her options and found them limited, to say the very least.

The man pinning her front to the floor was laughing cruelly. His knee was on the center of her back, and her hands were pinned together beneath it, right on the meat of his calf. She felt a bead of sweat drip onto her neck from above.

5… 6… 7…

Options… options… what were her options? She could try to dig her nails into his hands, but that almost never worked. She could try to buck him off, but she could tell he was pushing almost all his body weight onto her back—she had no shot. She could…

Aha!

He was leaning on her from her right side, and the leg that wasn’t digging into her back had to be bracing somewhere for balance. From what she could tell, it was probably somewhere by the bottom half of her legs. If she could just…

8… 9…

In one movement, Lucy bent her right knee and swung back her foot—and prayed. Thankfully, her toes clipped his shin, and she managed to sweep his leg off the ground, throwing off his balance. Immediately, the weight on her back lessened, and she rolled onto her back. He still had her hands gripped together, but the momentum of her movement ruined his balance even more, and she landed her knee right into his stomach.

With the wind knocked out of him, she could yank her hands free and scramble back to her feet.

Fists poised near her face, Lucy bounced on her toes.

And smiled.

“Damn, Lucy… really thought I had ya there,” said her sparring partner, Natsu, who was flicking the sweat off his bangs and shaking loose his stiff fingers. “And at the last second, too!”

“What can I say?” she bragged. “I’m getting better.”

Natsu and Lucy began to circle each other again, both trying to spy an opportunity to lunge.

This scene was becoming a more frequent one lately. No magic, no tricks—just pure, hand-to-hand sparring. It was Lucy’s idea; Natsu was always asking her to fight him, but she knew she had no shot in hell if it was a real spar with magic. So, after coming up with some stipulations, she proposed this compromise.

While the rules were appropriately adjusted for a male-versus-female fight, she knew he’d never go easy on her. Yes, the requirements were that he had to pin her for ten seconds while she only had to pin him for three—but no one would be fooled to think that he was being nice.

The evidence?

…She had never won.

Don’t misunderstand—she’d gotten close, a few times. But it was just like him to pull through in the last moment and, if anything, manipulate his previous vulnerability into being an advantage in the very next moment. She’d complain about it, but, well… would she love him if he were any different than how he was?

Lucy pursed her lips and blew a puff of air upward to get her bangs out of her eyes. She knew he’d come at her any second, and that would be her moment to attack. There’d be no openings until then.

His expression was concentrated—it was confident and competitive. He knew he had the upper hand, as he always did, but Lucy recognized that Natsu truly did find joy in making her stronger—in testing to see if this time was when she’d finally beat him.

He lunged. He went for her middle, his shoulder lowering so that he could get her around the waist. He was fast, but she was hoping he’d make this move; it was one with which he’d defeated her many times before.

Yes—this time, she was ready for it.

She went lower. She was almost on the ground; if he was a taller man, she wouldn’t have to sweep so close to the floor to avoid his arms. She passed by him on the left, clipped his foot with hers, and reveled in the sound of his body thunking heavily on the mat. His momentum had already been moving forward—he’d normally be too sturdy to trip outright, but his own shifting body weight worked against him.

Now behind him, she moved like lightning to grab his right leg. She gripped his ankle with her right hand, then threw her entire body over his shirtless back so that his ankle would be lodged over her shoulder. She had no hope of holding it with just her hand, but if she could manage to keep her own body down, she might be able to hold him in place.

Her left hand perhaps pulled a cheap shot—but those were allowed for her (with obvious exceptions, such as his eyes and his family jewels). She tangled her fingers into his hair at the base and clenched her fist. She wasn’t mean enough to pull his hair, but this, she hoped, would provide a big enough distraction from the rest of his body that the three seconds could pass.

1…

Since his hands were free, his first instinct was to grope at the hand in his hair. He was muttering all the while, “Shit… Lucy—” in a gritty voice that might have made her stomach flip.

2…

But he was a quick thinker. Noticing the mobility he still had with both hands, he pushed his torso off the ground—much like a regular push up—and to get his leg and back free of her, he tucked to crash down on his left side. Lucy went with him, of course—and unfortunately, it jostled her off his back.

Ugh! So close—!

But she couldn’t dwell on that now: she was still on the ground, and he’d be a fool not to take advantage. She was propped up on her side, but as he flung himself to grab her, she learned that he was set on forcing her on her back. In a flash, he had her wrists in his left hand, her hips pressed down under his right forearm, and her two legs raised so that her hamstrings were pinned under his thighs. She could move them slightly and straighten her knees, but that sort of thing didn’t matter. With her hips pinned down, she wouldn’t be able to buck him off.

Well, she thought—his hot, panting breaths washing over her face—this is a new one.

1…

There’s no way I can get out of this one, she thought, trying desperately to wrench her wrists from his grip. He smiled pridefully at her fruitless efforts.

2… 3…

He’s so close. Their eyes were locked—hers wide in panic, his half-mast in arrogance. If I wanted to, I could…

Wait.

…That might work.

Let it be known that, for the record, there was a lot of blood pumping into Lucy’s brain at that moment, and whether this idea was a reasonable one would be an object of her own future scrutiny.

“I really do appreciate this, Natsu,” she muttered, her lungs tight from her raised arms.

4… 5…

He blinked, pupils dilating. Their faces might have been three inches apart. “‘Course,” he said amiably, though his brow quirked in suspicion.

6…

“I’m happy that I’m getting stronger because of you,” she mused.

His breathing halted. His eyes widened, and he froze.

7…

Her blond hair was splayed out beneath her. It had shaken so loose from its ponytail that it might as well have not been tied at all. With the little mobility she had, she raised her chin and lifted her head off the ground. His eyes widened further, but he didn’t pull himself away.

8…

Her lips pressed against his cheek, close to his jaw. It was covered in sweat, but not the kind that made his skin slick. It was sticky, and the tender skin of her lips clung to the touch in a way that made the action seem even more intimate than it was.

Or maybe that was due to the fact that he was pressed quite thoroughly against her in a manner that was more than a little suggestive.

9…

She pulled away, and his half-lidded eyes were fixated on her mouth.

She felt his grip on her wrists weaken.

In one mighty test of strength, Lucy jerked her hands from his hold, placed them on his head for leverage, and pushed herself upward just enough that her legs were freed from the hold of his own. She gripped the wrist of the arm that had been below her stomach, hooked the underside of her knee around his torso, and heaved until she’d flipped them both. At the end of it, he was on his back, and she had his right arm bent behind his back—just shy of the point of dislocation. Her legs were on either side of him; she’d sat herself just below his groin.

Lucy was relieved to be free, but she knew her success would be short-lived; there was no way she could keep him in this hold. Other than her body weight on top of him and his one (much stronger) hand in the grip of her own, she had no way to secure him.

So why wasn’t he moving?

1…

Natsu was just staring up at her, lips parted and brows furrowed. His left hand, which was completely free, was splayed out to the side, motionless.

2…

Lucy wondered if she’d hurt him in the movement somehow—but she scratched away the thought just as quickly. This guy could take a boulder to the skull and break the boulder; surely there was nothing she did in that tussle that hurt him.

Well, except maybe one thing…

“Three,” she breathed.

Neither moved. She watched a couple different emotions flash over his face; first, confusion—as if he wasn’t sure what she was talking about; then, self-abhorring displeasure. He exhaled loudly through his nose and let his head drop an inch to rest fully on the ground.

His lip curled, and his eyes narrowed. “Ouch.”

Lucy released a single laugh. She let go of his arm and brought both of hers to brace on his chest. “What, did I hurt you somewhere?” she asked doubtfully.

“Nope,” he huffed. “Just my pride.”

She smiled with her tongue between her teeth. “Finally,” she giggled against his skin. “I finally won!”

Natsu scoffed, but he brought his newly-freed hand to play with her hair, which had devolved into tangles around the elastic band. He fumbled to loosen it, but gave up after figuring it was a lost cause.

Lucy rolled off of him and stood before offering him a hand. He took it despondently, and they made their way to the bench.

“I think we should add that to the list of cheap shots you aren’t allowed to take,” he grumbled, chugging from his water bottle.

“Don’t be a sore loser,” she drawled. “I was just thanking you for all your help. What’s cheap about that?”

He gave her a flat look that seemed to say, You know exactly what was cheap about it.

Lucy shrugged. “I guess I might have been hoping it’d throw you off…”

“Hoping? Lucy, it wasn’t fair! You’d be saying the same thing if I’d done it to you!”

Lucy had to take care not to choke on her water as she took a sip. The image of him kissing her on the cheek in the middle of any of the positions he’d had her in before…

Well. She supposed she understood his point.

She watched him tug his shirt back on, and she threw the strap of her bag over her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Natsu,” she began, as cute as she could manage. She walked backwards to look at him as she led the way out of the gym. “What can I do to make it up to you?”

Natsu always liked questions like that. His lips tilted into a smirk. “Cook me dinner.”

She should have known he’d say that. Rolling her eyes, she turned her back to him and pushed open the door. “Fine,” she said sulkily.

But the stubborn grin on her face wouldn’t go away.

#nalu #nalu week #nalu week 2024 #final installment tomorrow babes!!!#i’m so blown away by the support for this fic!!#fanfiction #ao3

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atthestarlite · 21 days

Text

ch.5 of one more, one more

in which natsu has a very bad day

rating: E

relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia

summary: When Lucy’s lead actress drops her directorial debut show less than two weeks before it goes up, Lucy must step in to replace her. In the process, Natsu -- the lead opposite her -- and Lucy must grapple with their intense chemistry and what it means for their longtime friendship. -- college theatre!au. nalu.

---

In the university’s costume shop, Lucy stood with Mira’s costume half on her and Aries playing with the lace ribbons tying her corset around her. Already, she knew the clothes wouldn’t fit, what with Mira being four or five sizes smaller than her, but Aries and Cancer needed to figure out how much to pull out the stitches on the corset, as well as whether or not Mira’s skirts were salvageable or if they’d need to make or buy a whole new one. At least, Lucy still had some costumes from a production of Measure for Measure she acted in her first year, which gave Aries and Cancer, her two co-costume designers and co-hair stylists, more to work with.

When Lucy grabbed her phone, messages from Levy and Natsu popped up:

levy mcgarden 💕 [10:07a]

Hey, I don’t know what Natsu’s told you, but we should grant him some leniency over the next couple days with rehearsal times & behavior – I know you’re stressed, but he’s solid already. We can have a longer discussion about this, but there’s been a family emergency on his end. I don’t want to share more because it’s not my place, but it’s something to be aware of.

natsuuu dragneel [10:14a]

im not getting my haircut today, something came up. i’ll get it done b4 the show tho, dw

natsuuu dragneel [10:14a]

i’ll b at rehearsal tn

natsuuu dragneel [10:23a]

pls dw i’m ok

This sounds bad, she thought. Before the nerves could overtake her, Aries said: “Can you step to the platform?”

---

to read this chapter: ao3 ff.net

to read from the beginning: ao3 ff.net

#fairy tail #ft fanfic #fairy tail fanfic #nalu fanfic #nalu fanfiction #nalu #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia #natsu x lucy #ft #one more one more fic #star.talks #my writing #fanfiction #manga

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fics-n-stuff-n-stuff · 4 months

Text

Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser Levy McGarden/Gajeel Redfox

all fairy tail characters basically - CharacterAlternate Universe - Modern with Magic Follows Fairy tail but with my own twists set in modern day Fluff and Angst Romance Friendship developing feelings

Summary

Lucy is thrown into a world she didn’t know existed. Join her as she unravels this new world full of magic that brings adventure, romance and destruction along with it.

———

Just a modern re-telling of Fairy tail following its arcs with a few twists and turns along the way💞

You can also read it here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/49084309/chapters/123834469

—————————————————

Chapter 22

Feeling more drained than he can remember being in a long time, Natsu moved as if on autopilot.

Picking up Lucy from the bed and carrying her out of the infirmary, he started walking toward his favorite spare room in the guild.

There was a lot of noise coming from downstairs where Mira and Wendy were probably filing everyone in about what they knew, but he didn't have the strength or concentration to try and make out their words.

With how tired he felt, he didn't care what they were saying.

It was just noise at this point.

They can all wait till tomorrow.

When he walked into the room Natsu moved to the bed and carefully unfurled the covers with one hand, before laying Lucy gently on the bed and tucking her in.

As he took a step back he couldn't help but notice how unnaturally still she was as she slept, it was not the usual tossing and turning he could hear when sleeping over at her place, and something about her stillness bothered him.

Because it reminded Natsu that she wasn't just sleeping, she was unconscious. Her stillness remained him that Lucy had almost died; her body and magic were working to restore themselves.

Shaking off those thoughts before he could spiral again, and pushing down the emotions that accompanied them, Natsu moved back from the bed and walked towards the dresser.

There should be some clothes here that were his, and Wendy was right, he did need a shower.

This room was the one he used often when he was too tired to go back home after a particularly long job, but that was before meeting Lucy and deciding that her couch was much better, so some of his stuff should still be here.

Unless Gramps had someone clean it out, but they would have told him, probably.

There were a few shirts, underwear, and a pair of pants left in a drawer, and Natsu took them before moving into the bathroom, but not without looking back at the sleeping blonde one more time before closing the door.

As he moved to look at himself in the mirror, Natsu saw how bad he looked.

No wonder Wendy and Mira looked so worried back in the infirmary, and even Erza seemed to feel bad for pushing him so hard.

His skin was paler than normal, and the bags under his eyes were more prominent than ever, his hair was disheveled, and he felt like he was a few seconds away from falling over.

Natsu sighed as he moved away from his reflection and towards the shower. No use in brooding over how bad he looked, better to get clean and try to get some sleep.

He stayed under the spray of water for a long time.

Now Natsu isn't the type to spend hours in a bath as Lucy could, usually, he was in and out in ten minutes, but in this moment, with the water coming down on him,

It felt nice.

It helped him relax and clear his head.

They were home, they were safe.

Lucy was going to be okay.

Natsu was eternally grateful to Wendy and Mira for stepping in with Erza and Gray the way they did.

Being forced into telling their misadventure again, and having to tell all of the story with Lucy lying there unconscious... it was too much for him at the moment. Most of the past 48 hours still didn't feel real to him, more like a series of hazy moments and a lot of panic.

Probably because of the exhaustion.

Heaving out a sigh, Natsu turned off the shower and moved to put on his clothes, feeling more sluggish with every move he made.

All he wanted to do was sleep.

Walking back into the room, he was only half surprised to see Happy sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for him.

Lucy was still in the same position he left her in, tucked into the bed, lying on her back, and he could see the steady rise and fall of her chest.

"I just wanted to see if we're going home." The exceed asked as he saw Natsu exit the bathroom.

"I was planning on sleepin' in the chair. I have to be here when she wakes up." He told the blue fur ball as he made his way to the bed.

They had a lot to talk about, and Natsu had to be there the moment she opened her eyes. He needed to be there, in part to assure himself that she was, in fact okay, and because they had a lot to talk about.

The unspoken bond that has been growing between them since they met, the link he has somehow managed to create in a desperate move to save her life, and most importantly how she's never allowed to scare him like that ever again.

Happy looked at him for a moment before nodding his head. "Okay, we stay here till Lushi wakes up." The exceed said with a smile and Natsu smiled back at him.

He was glad that his little buddy would be here with them. "That's the plan, how's everything downstairs?" Natsu asked as he sat in the chair next to the bed.

It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it wasn't even close to the most uncomfortable place Natsu had slept in, so it would do.

Happy settled near Lucy's legs, folding himself in like the cat that he was before speaking. "Everyone is confused and worried, and Gray is beyond pissed that Erza let you off the hook!" He snickered as he told him about the ice prick, and it brought a smile to Natsu's face.

"Well, I'm always glad to annoy him, even when I'm not there." He said in a teasing tone as he moved to rest his head on the bed next to Lucy's hand.

"Was it scary?" Happy's asked after a beat of silence. "You looked really panicked when you got to the guild." His voice was small as he spoke, and Natsu thought about his answer for a long moment.

"It all happened so quickly." He mirrored what he said to Mira when they talked on the phone because in his mind it all happened in a flash. "And I didn't realize till it was too late."

He didn't really answer the exceeds questions, but Natsu had no more strength left in him and found himself slipping into slumber.

* ********* ********** ********** ********* *

As Natsu slowly woke up, the world around him felt foggy and distant, his head was pounding, and having to reel in all the sensations surrounding him was a major pain at the moment.

Adjusting his heightened senses to his surroundings after he pushed his body to the limit was worse than the usual practice.

And even though it was more his mind that was pushed than the body, it was a pain all the same.

Natsu wasn't sure how long he was asleep and was only about fifty percent sure where he was, but he knew with absolute certainty who he was with.

There were two heartbeats in the room apart from his own, and he could smell lavender with a hint of sage and fish.

Lucy and Happy.

The more he stirred awake, the more aware he became.

The ticking of the clock in the room, his friend's steady breathing patterns, the birds chirping outside, the fridges buzzing downstairs.

As Natsu focused on all the sensations surrounding him, he started to slowly reel them in, and as he was sorting through all his senses, Natsu realized with a start that there was a light, almost tingly feeling that was flowing through him, making him feel bright like he was basking in the sunshine.

It feels like when he's close to Lucy while she's using her magic.

It took him a few tries to open his eyes and when he did, he stretched out like a cat, letting out a small noise as his stiff muscles moved and cracked after being in such an uncomfortable position for so long.

As he sat up straight in his chair, Natsu looked around at his surroundings.

He was in a spare guild room, Lucy and Happy were sleeping on the bed, when he went to check the clock on the bedside table he saw that it was half past six in the morning.

Too early for anyone to be at the guild yet.

He sighed as he moved his hands through his hair, hoping to tame the ends that were sticking out in the wrong direction.

He really should've done this last night while it was wet.

After a few attempts, the stubborn hairs were fixed and Natsu turned to look at his sleeping partner.

Lucy was still in the same position he placed her in last night, it didn't look like she moved a muscle.

The only thing indicating that she was alive was the steady rise and fall of her chest and the bright tingling of her magic he could feel flowing through him.

Porlyusica said she needed rest.

But how long will she be asleep? He could feel her magic more intensely now than yesterday, and it gave him hope that maybe Lucy would be awake soon.

He needed her to wake up soon.

Moving his hand to hold hers was not a conscious act, it was driven by the usual need to touch her in any way he could.

Natsu was shocked by a spark that jolted through him as he threaded his fingers with hers, and he let out an involuntary gasp at the unexpected sensation.

Would it always be like that from now on?

Natsu wondered as he looked at their intertwined hands. Would she feel the same spark when they touched, or would it be something else?

The bigger question was how this bridge will affect them in the long run.

The old witch said to contact her as soon as Lucy was awake and Natsu had a feeling that she knew more than she let on.

Looking at the sleeping blonde he wondered what her reaction would be when she found out how exactly she was still alive.

They don't know the consequences of this new link between them, this bridge that he's managed to make in order to save her life, but he couldn't find it in himself to regret his decision.

He would do it all over again.

As long as she was still breathing, any consequences would be worth it.

Natsu started to feel a headache forming from all the questions and thoughts that wouldn't seem to slow down. He felt like he was going around in circles in his head. There were too many things that he didn't understand.

He couldn't help but notice that Lucy's hand was colder than her usual body temperature as he tenderly stroked her hand with his thumb, and he was sure that it would stay that way until her magic was back in full.

Another reminder of how close he was to losing her.

Shaking his head to get rid of his thoughts Natsu let out a sigh and bowed his head.

It was too early for this much thinking, and he needed to eat before he could do any more. Mira should be coming in in the next fifteen minutes or so, and after that, he was sure with everything that happened yesterday, everyone would be coming in early today.

He had to tell them today, he knew that.

Natsu would have to be the one to relay to the whole guild what had happened to them in Sakuramori Village and the surrounding forest.

That is not going to be a fun conversation, for anyone.

The previous two days were still somewhat a blur for the fire drakon, but at the same time, it felt like he could never forget what happened in that forest, and he especially didn't want to relive it by telling the whole guild.

Sighing out loud, Natsu lifted his head to look at the peacefully sleeping exceed on the bed and smiled at his furry friend.

'At least Happy will be there to support me. Mira and Wendy too, hopefully.'

There was no getting out of it. He knew that the guild needed to know. Natsu had a feeling that he still hadn't fully grasped the magnitude of what happened with Lucy in that clearing.

The power she radiated, and the fact that she was able to mend a broken key. He still doesn't think he understands what that means, but the fact that the King of the Spirits appeared when it happened?

They didn't even know there was a king for her spirits! They barely know anything about the spirit world.

This was a big thing.

The magical power that she radiated while mending the key was bound to be felt by mages of all kinds.

They might not know much about Lucy's magic, but they do know that Zeref was the one responsible for eradicating the Spirit Summoners, and one of his demons was possessing a poor woman trying to get to a broken spirit key.

They have met a few of the dark mages' creations in the past few months, and Natsu didn't think it was a coincidence.

What would they do to get someone who can use the keys? Natsu had a feeling that this would only bring them trouble, one way or another.

His dark train of thought was cut off by a flash of light that enveloped the room suddenly and Natsu was startled for a moment, blinking a few times so his eyes could adjust to the sudden light, only to see Leo standing in the middle of the room, without a word or glance at the fire drakon, the spirit moved closer to Lucy's bed.

"Are you crazy?" Natsu let go of Lucy's hand as he shot up from his chair, making sure to keep his voice from rising so he wouldn't wake Happy. "She's still recovering from exhausting herself, almost dying so she could help you! And you being here isn't gonna help her magic replenish!"

Leo looked away from Lucy's sleeping body to Natsu, the spirit's face shifting from concerned to the same unimpressed gaze as last time. "Tch, I'm not stupid. I came here using my own magic." The spirit shot back at him and Natsu felt his fire bubbling with anger.

How the hell was he supposed to know that? And what was the spirit's problem, it was starting to piss him off.

"Why are you here then?" He decided to ask instead of picking a fight with the spirit.

Natsu had a feeling that Lucy wouldn't like that, even if the lion deserved it.

What did Natsu ever do to him?

"I came here to check on my new holder; as you said she has freed me from my curse and has hurt herself by doing it."

Leo said in a matter-of-fact tone, his gaze softening slightly as he looked back at the sleeping blonde before turning back to Natsu, his eyes hard and piercing. "I am also here to warn you Natsu Dragneel. There is danger coming her way, and no gods will help us if they succeed in their mission."

"You cannot let them get her."

The spirit's tone was grave, but that didn't mean he didn't make his distaste towards Natsu clear.

Leo crossed his hands and looked him up and down before continuing. "I cannot believe that I'm saying this, but you actually might be her only hope." There was a deprecating laugh that followed those words and Natsu was confused by this whole conversation.

What was with Lucy's spirits always speaking in riddles? It was beyond annoying and he's getting a bit pissed off at that too.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, you're not making any sense." Natsu said before the lion could go on spouting more confusing and frustrating warnings or worse, snarky comments.

He didn't understand why this spirit hated him so blatantly, he didn't do anything to him. All of Lucy's other spirits were fun and weird, just like her.

And while Natsu wasn't close with most of them, he was sure that a few liked him enough to call him a friend.

Virgo, for sure, maybe even Cancer. Not even Aquarius, with how mean and scary she is, actually hated him. At least he didn't think.

To have this supposed leader of the Zodiac hate him without having known him prior confused Natsu, but he didn't care about any of that at the moment.

"Look I don't know what you're talking about or what you have against me." Natsu said as he moved so that he was standing in front of the spirit, his eyes glaring at the orange-haired man.

He really has had enough of the spirit's attitude, Natsu was not known for his patience, being a fire mage and all, but he stuck it out for Lucy as long as he could.

But the lion needed to know where they stood. "I don't know what your stupid riddles mean or even what you're getting at when you say that some kind of danger might be coming her way. But we have to get one thing straight between us."

The spirit was taller than him by a few centimeters but that didn't stop Natsu from coming off as intimidating. Leo was under the impression that something or someone was coming for Lucy, and he's had a knot in his gut that left him on edge since their run-in with Phantom Lord, feeling like something was coming.

Maybe it was the same threat and maybe it wasn't, but either way something in Natsu's gut told him that things wouldn't be peaceful in Fairy Tail for a while.

His posture was rigid, gaze intensified as he glared at the zodiac leader, needing to make sure he understood how serious Natsu was.

"I would burn this world down into ashes if it meant keeping her safe." It was a resolute and unwavering statement that made Leo frown, and there was a look in his eye after the words sunk in that just pissed Natsu off.

"That's the problem, isn't it?" His voice was quiet, but nothing is quiet for a drakon and Natsu heard it anyway. "I hope, for all of our sakes that it will never come that." And then the bastard was gone in a flash of golden light, leaving Natsu confused, angry, and with even more questions bubbling in his head.

He let out a string of curses and raked a hand through his hair as he paced the few steps back to the chair.

'What the hell was that? Stupid overgrown cat with his stupid riddles!' Cursing the spirit in his head Natsu settled back into the chair.

"Natsu?" Happy's groggy voice brought him out of his thoughts and Natsu looked up. "Good morning bud, did I wake you?" He asked as he watched the exceed stretch.

"I heard voices, were you talking to yourself again?" The cat snickered as he asked, making Natsu throw his head back, barely suppressing a groan.

"No, one of Lucy's spirits wanted to check on her." He decided to leave it vague and shook off his anger towards the ginger spirit.

"How'd ya sleep?" Natsu deflected instead, hoping that if he kept the conversation going he could avoid questions from the exceed for now.

He really doesn't want to re-tell the story more than once.

"It was good, I had a dream I was a lord of the seas and people would bring me fish as offerings!" There was a glazed look in the cat's eyes as he talked about how many fish there were in his dream and it honestly made Natsu feel lighter.

The simplicity of it made him pretend for a moment that Lucy was still sleeping from a rowdy night at the guild and Happy and Natsu were causally waiting for her to wake up.

And it worked, for about forty seconds, and then he heard commotion coming from the kitchen and it brought him back to reality. Mira must have come in while he was talking with Leo.

And it seems that the spirit pissed him off enough for him not to realize she arrived while they were having their standoff.

But the smell of coffee and food cooking was undeniable.

"That sounds like one hell of a dream buddy! How about we go downstairs and see if Mira has a fish for you?" He asked as he stood up and his words made Happy jump into the air, white wings appearing in a flash as he made his way out the door while excitedly chanting 'Fish'.

Natsu was shaking his head and chuckling at the exceed's antics as moved to look back at Lucy.

Her skin didn't have its usual warm glow about it and he knew it would be cold to the touch. He didn't want to leave her here alone, but he also knew that if he didn't the whole guild would find their way into the room one way or another, or even worse, Erza would come to drag him out of it.

Violently.

Shuddering at the thought, Natsu spared a final glance at the sleeping blonde and resisted the urge to kiss her forehead before walking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

He could see from the balcony that Mira was behind the bar, with Happy sitting at one of the stools chatting away and munching on a fish.

With a deep breath, Natsu moved down the stairs "Morning Mira." He called as he pulled up on a stool - Lucy's stool - and sat at the bar.

"Good morning Natsu, did you manage to get some sleep?" The white-haired mage turned to smile warmly at him and he smiled back.

"Yeah, I, uh, took Wendy's advice and showered before passing out on the chair next to the bed." He ran a hand through his hair as he looked up to the second floor. "I think Luce would kill me if I stunk up the room." He scrunched his nose at the thought of her shrieking at him about proper hygiene.

"Good call." Mira said with a laugh as she put a plate of food in front of him.

It took him half a second to process that the food was for him (he hadn't ordered anything, but then again there was no one else but them here) and after that, it took about a half minute to process that she'd made his favorite breakfast.

And not the usual he would order nowadays. No, Mira had made him the breakfast he used to order as a kid, especially when he was sad and missing Igneel.

Natsu had almost forgotten about it. There was bacon and scrambled eggs slathered in Mira's special homemade hot sauce, a giant stack of pancakes topped with syrup, the same hot sauce, and a few bacon strips that made a smiley face on top of the stack.

There was a tug in his heart at the realization that Mirajane had remembered his favorite comfort breakfast after all these years when he forgot about it. But it shouldn't be that surprising if he thinks about it.

Mira had always been a big sister to not just her siblings, but everyone in the guild that was around their age. Even Erza, after they got over their rivalry.

And Natsu might not have always been as receptive to her sisterly love, but he always appreciated it.

Especially yesterday and at this moment.

He realized that both Mira and Happy were looking at him with weird and worried expressions and it took him a second to realize a few tears were streaming down his face.

Gods he was a mess.

"I.. thanks for the food, Mira. It's been a while since I had this. Though maybe you forgot about it." Natsu deflected his feelings once again. There was so much going on that he wasn't ready to delve into it right now.

The smile Mira offered him in return only made his heart clench. She's been a little weird since yesterday, and it made him wonder what happened to prompt this sudden shift.

Not that she hasn't always cared for him. Everyone in Fairy Tail is family. And the younger bunch basically grew up together so they were even closer.

But Natsu always put himself on the sideline. He was there and not at the same time. It wasn't till Lucy got to the guild that he really started spending proper time with them.

Not just the occasional brawl with some of the members *cough* Gray, or the more often scolding from the Master, Erza, or even Mirajane.

It was honestly a little weird for Natsu to think about a time before Lucy was in Fairy Tail.

"You're never around long enough for me to make you some. Always coming for lunch or dinner these days." She shrugged it off with a smile and pulled out a plate for herself.

Natsu shoved some of the eggs and bacon in his mouth, savoring the taste. "Well, I'm usually having breakfast at Luce's apartment when we're not out on jobs." He tells her through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah, Lushii makes the best breakfast! She even made me fish pancakes." Happy added to their conversation with a nod.

"Well, I can't be mad if that's the case." Mira said as she started eating, and there was a gleam in her eyes that Natsu didn't like one bit.

* ********* ********** ********** ********* *

It took about an hour and a half for every guild member not currently out on a job to come in. That was probably some kind of record for them, but Natsu doesn't feel like mentioning it right now.

He doesn't feel like talking at all, really. The moment people started trickling in he felt a pit in his stomach, and it's been growing steadily since.

Wendy went to check on Lucy the moment she arrived, but Natsu didn't follow behind her. He wouldn't go back to the room until he talked to the guild.

If he went back up, he wasn't coming down till she was awake.

Now Natsu has never disliked being the center of people's attention, good or bad, but they say there's a first time for everything right?

And sitting on a bar stool as all eyes in the guild were trained on him made him feel more than a little uncomfortable.

"Now that everyone has arrived and settled, how about you tell us what the hell happened Natsu?" Erza prompted as she took a seat between Wendy and Gray at the front.

Most of the members were scattered around the tables in the room and all eyes were trained on him, with Mira and Happy sitting on either side of the bar, and Natsu was grateful for their support.

"Luce and I, we, went on a job to Sakuramori Village." He stopped as soon as he started, he didn't know what Mira and Wendy told them yesterday, but he was going to start from the beginning.

Seems like the best option.

"We were supposed to get this magical item that was displayed accidentally in a museum. But when we got there, the woman that was possessed, she's like the manager of the museum, when we talked to her she seemed unaware of our world." Natsu couldn't smell any magic on the woman that morning and wondered how or when the demon possessed her.

Leo said it's been weeks if not months, so why couldn't he smell the magic on her?

"We called Mira to double-check the job details, and while waiting for her to call us back, Luce wanted to see some of the exhibits." There was a slight quirk on his lips as he remembered how excited she was to look around the museum.

"That's when we saw the key." If it was possible to hate an inanimate object with a burning passion, Natsu was definitely succeeding.

He was kinda starting to hate the spirit attached to it too.

"It was a broken spirit key, just displayed there for all to see. Lucy recognized the constellation, and she could feel magic coming off of it so we came up with a plan to remove it from the museum. Mira helped us with a part of it." Natsu turned to glance at the white-haired mage for a second before continuing. "We managed to swap the key with a fake after the museum closed, and that's when everything started going downhill, I guess."

Natsu paused the story there for a second, taking a deep breath. "The key, it was- it had this pull on Lucy the moment she touched it." He could see several confused eyes looking at him as he said that and tried to explain it better.

"There was magic coming from the key, and it was pulling her somewhere, or more accurately, towards something. And we decided to follow it." He shook his head at the thought, there was nothing that could've stopped Lucy from following that damn key piece.

"We trekked through the forest for hours following it before coming into that clearing." The walking had felt endless, and Natsu wondered more than once if they were being led to a trap.

He was half right.

"There was a waterfall, with this rock right at the edge of it, and we found the second half of the key buried there beneath the earth in a gold box." He paused for a second to collect his thoughts before continuing, it was a wonder no one had interrupted him so far, but everyone seemed focused on his story.

"We were about to head back into town and get some sleep when I finally caught a whiff of two people coming our way." And that seemed to be what pushed Erza and a few others over the edge.

"Two people?" The redhead asked with other members backing her question.

"Yeah, I could smell what we assumed was a woman based on her perfume, and someone gravely injured and dying coming after us so we decided to stay in the clearing and wait them out instead of going back into the village and risking them following us."

Not to mention that the council won't fault them for destroying some trees, but buildings and memory-erase spells were a different thing entirely.

And when Fairy Tail is fighting, buildings are definitely going down.

"Lucy was having trouble with her spirits all day. None of them wanted to come out when she called for them and she was left with only her defensive shield spirit, so I took point, and when the Museum lady showed up it was easy to see she was possessed."

A shiver ran up Natsu's spine as he remembered the voice that addressed Lucy. "The demon knew who Lucy was and wanted her to hand the key over. I managed to knock her out and subdue her without much damage and then we were left waiting for the second person following us."

Natsu remembered the hobbling figure that approached them through the tree line looking like he could collapse at any moment.

"He appeared looking like death himself. Tattered clothes and half dead. He introduced himself as Loke and claimed that he was the one who sent the fake job to the guild hoping Lucy would come and find the key." The frown on Natsu's face deepened with the reminder of the Lion spirit, he had felt bad for the man at first.

"Loke seemed to know a lot of things, like which demon was possessing the Museum lady, and who Lucy was, said he heard a rumor of a spirit summoner in Fairy Tail and hoped they would come to collect the broken key so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands." He shook his head and wondered if it would've been better if they just left the key where it was.

The thought was gone as quickly as it appeared and Natsu shook his head for a moment, clearing his mind. He knew that Lucy could never, would never do such a thing and there was a pang in his chest for even thinking it.

"There was a lot of bullshit said, a lot of riddles and half-truths from the man. But Lucy was having none of it. And she got him to confess the truth pretty quickly. Loke was Leo." He paused for dramatic effect, but the blank stares he got in return made him realize he never mentioned what key they found in the Museum.

"Leo's key was the one that was broken, and the spirit had been cursed for killing his previous master." That caused gasps all around the guild, and he could hear several members mumbling to themselves.

"The actual story turned out to be somehow, worse." Natsu continued speaking, thinking about how it must've been for Lucy to learn the real reason behind her mother's illness and death. Even if it is a small part of it.

"How could it be worse?" Lisanna's voice carried through the crowd of mages.

"Because the mage in question was Lucy's mom." The words seemed to have stunned the guild into silence, which is a very hard thing to do, but Natsu didn't feel good about it.

He didn't feel good about any of this. It felt wrong. He shouldn't be telling them all of this, it wasn't his story to tell. It wasn't even Lucy's, but at least it was about her mother and their spirits.

Natsu resisted the urge to look up at the second floor, to the room where he knew the blonde was peacefully resting.

Unfortunately, he had no choice in the matter.

The shocked and sad looks from the Fairy Tail mages made his heart clench uncomfortably. "But it wasn't really like that. There was some kind of spell that needed to be cast, I don't really remember the details, and Lucy's mom had to cast it but, it was a forbidden spell."

The atmosphere was tense as he spoke those words, it had been tense since the first few members started coming in, but now everyone seemed on edge.

Forbidden spells were forbidden for good reasons.

"Leo helped her cast it, and if he hadn't Lucy's mom would have died on the spot. Instead, she got sick and died a few years later. But Leo's key was broken and he was left to slowly wither away and die."

There was sadness at the thought of Leo spending years slowly dying and blaming himself for something that wasn't his fault.

Natsu could relate to half of it.

"When Lucy heard the whole story, she was pretty pissed." He took a deep breath to help steady himself. "She was furious, screaming that it was unfair and wrong to punish Leo for that, demanded to know who made such a decision in the first place and she said she refused to let him die."

There was a barely noticeable shake to his voice as he continued the story, wanting to get through with it as quickly as possible.

"She, she started pooling her magic, unknowingly at first, I think. And it was like nothing I've ever seen or felt before. The power she radiated.." Natsu stopped for a moment and it was like he could feel the magnitude of it in the room.

And it was, but not in the room, it was under his skin. He could feel the gentle hum of her magic, it was a little stronger than when he woke up this morning and it gave him a little hope that Lucy would wake up soon.

Ignoring the new sensation and pushing those thoughts away, Natsu went back to talking. "All of her spirits appeared around her the more magic she channeled and she started concentrating her magic into the key, trying to fix it." The sight of it was almost too much for Natsu to watch.

It felt like staring into the sun.

"Leo was on his knees by that point, begging her to just let him die and I just stood there."

He felt like his feet were sunken into the soil and he couldn't move. Didn't know what he could do if he did. Lucy was determined to fix Leo's key and there was nothing that was going to stop her.

So he chose to support her instead.

"She managed to do it, there was a shockwave as the key mended together and I managed to catch her before she could fall, and she looked fine. A little tired maybe, but.. she was fine." The shakiness in his voice was more noticeable this time around, and Natsu didn't know if he was trying to convince them or himself.

"And then out of nowhere time literally stops, and this huge crack appears in the sky with a giant mustache man glaring at us." The words come out a little jumbled as he says them, knowing how insane it sounds, even to a group of mages.

"A giant mustache man?" Cana slurred the question slightly.

"A crack in the sky? Natsu are you sure you got enough sleep?" Macao asked that one with several members mumbling their agreements. "Did anyone check his head when they came in yesterday?" Wakaba provided that jab, and Natsu rolled his eyes at them.

"I slept just fine! And there is nothing wrong with my head." He glared at Gray who opened his mouth to comment, but Erza's elbow was in his ribs before he could get a word out.

"The King of the Spirits didn't like Lucy badmouthing and questioning his decision so he decided to come and talk to her." He snapped at them before anyone could say anything else, his fuse was short on a good day, and in these past two days, he has been rattled more than ever. It was a wonder he's managed to keep talking this long.

It was a good thing that they weren't interrupting him often.

"King? The spirits have a king?" Levy asked curiously.

"I guess yeah, and he was kind of pissed at first and then he said some stuff about how no one had managed to make a key since the first summoner and he let Leo stay with Lucy." The Spirit King turned out to be a cool dude, even with everything that happened, and this was more information they'd gotten about Lucy and her magic since she arrived at the guild.

"And I'm sure Luce can fill you in on all of it a lot better when she wakes up." He stopped for a second to catch his breath.

"Wow, so, Lucy's like, really powerful then? If she managed to do something that badass, and stand up to the King of the spirits." Happy chirped in for the first time since he started telling the story.

"Yeah bud, Luce is super powerful." Natsu said as he turned to pat Happy on the head, the exceed immediately leaning into his touch.

"So what happened next?" Gray asked, the ice mage had been surprisingly quiet the whole morning and the sound of his voice made the corner of Natsu's right eye twitch.

He took a steadying breath and forced himself to look back at the crowd and finish his tale. "It all happened so fast, but somehow it felt like I was in slow motion."

Natsu didn't know if his words made sense, that's how it felt. "One second everything was frozen and the next the crack in the sky was gone and the spirit king was nowhere to be seen. Before he left, he said something. He called me the son of Fire Dragon King Igneel."

The were several gasps and mummers around the guild at his words and Natsu decided to keep talking instead of giving them a chance to ask questions.

"I was shocked by everything that happened, and hearing him say that... I asked Leo what they knew about the dragons, and it wasn't even half a second." His breath hitched at the last word and he let his gaze fall to the floor, he couldn't look at them.

Not when he didn't know what his reaction would be to retelling them how Lucy almost died in his arms.

"Half a second and she was down. Collapsed right into my arms. I didn't even know what was happening. She was pale, so unnaturally pale. And I- I could barely feel her magic, it was fading so fucking fast." He stopped himself to catch his breath and without him noticing the movement, he felt Mira's hand cover his own shaky ones and give him a supportive squeeze.

"She was dying." He gasped out, not really crying, more like choking on his breath. Then image of Lucy pale in his arms made him feel cold.

"And, I- I didn't know what to do, so I just tried to give her my magic." He kept going, taking ragged breaths between sentences, not caring if they made sense.

It was a little cruel of them to make him do this. Not even 24 hours after it happened.

"I cradled her in my arms and willed my magic to work with her fading one and I don't know how long we were connected like that, but in the end, I could feel her magic and mine together helping her recharge."

The silence somehow enhanced the other sounds in the room and the refrigerators buzzing were almost making him dizzy for a moment. Natsu could tell half the guild was holding their breath at his words, while the other half seemed shocked and breathing heavily.

It was five seconds of silence before everyone exploded as if they all registered his words at the same time like some sort of hive mind.

"What do you mean she was dying? She's sleeping right upstairs? That shouldn't be possible!" Gray exclaimed as he jumped to stand, his shirt was lost sometime during his little retelling and now he was fumbling with his jeans.

"Gray! Your clothes!" Mira yelled at him and the ice mage scrambled to find his shirt, pants half unbuckled.

"You managed to jump-start her magic with yours?" Levy asked, sounding astonished at the mere thought of such a thing.

"I guess, I don't know what happened. It, it's..." Natsu stumbled over the words, not knowing how to explain that he knew it would work because he could somehow always feel Lucy near. Her presence, or magic, that he can tell when she's in danger.

It was weird. He knew that. And they haven't talked about it, so telling everyone without her felt wrong.

"I was desperate." Natsu settled on following Leo's steps and telling half-truths. He was desperate. "And I didn't know what else to do, I can't do healing magic. So I just, willed my magic to work the way I wanted it to." He finished with a half-shrug, gazing back to the floor.

"So, what does that mean exactly?" Erza asked.

"I feel like Wendy could explain that part better. She is the healer." He felt like he was throwing the young sky drakon under the bus in a way, but a glance at the girl told him that she was more than happy to help.

"I'm going to go upstairs." Natsu said in a final tone as he went to stand. There wasn't anything else that he could tell them that Wendy or even Mira couldn't.

And he was done talking.

His hands were still covered by Mira's and he turned to look at the white haired mage. She squeezed his hands before releasing them and offering him a small smile. "I'll bring you some food later." She whispered as he stood from the chair.

"You can't just drop a bomb like that on us and then leave." Gray yelled at him and Natsu turned to look back at his Nakama.

Maybe it was unfair, they are just as worried about Lucy as he is. But Natsu didn't care, he was drained and this conversation was over.

"There's nothing more I can tell you that Mira or Wendy don't know." He said as he made his way up the stairs. No one made any more comments his way and Natsu practically ran for Lucy's room.

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spot-of-tea · 5 months

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Okay so this is my first bit of worldbuilding for my fic, I'm gonna do a family at a time.

So as a preface the fic starts a few years after the end of the main story. it's all canon to the fic and I like to think that 100 yrs quest is canon too but I don't really follow it so it's just in the background.

The main bulk of the fic takes place about 25-26 yrs after the end of the main story so the main cast are in their late 30's, early 40's by now and have mostly had kids.

So the first family is:

The Dragneel-Heartfilia Family

Natsu takes his sweet time asking Lucy out to begin with but when he does it's because of his own misunderstanding that they've been dating for a long time already. The two eventually tie the knot and Natsu refuses to let Lucy give up her name because Lucy being anything other than a Heartfilia would just be too weird to him and instead decide to let their kids choose whichever last name they want.

Which leads us to:

Luna Heartfilia

The eldest daughter of Natsu and Lucy, born with her mothers looks and brains she's a Heartfilia through and through with a dash of her fathers passionate personality. While she appears to be very independent and strong-willed she is also fiercely loyal to her friends and exceptionally protective of her younger siblings. She eventually learns Celestial spirit magic so that she can continue the family legacy and is the current holder of Aquarius, Capricorn, Gemini, and Loke along with several of her own silver keys which she has collected herself.

Nashi Dragneel-Heartfilia

The middle child, often regarded as Natsu 2.0 she's loud, reckless and overall a destructive force of nature. She has her fathers hair and her mother's eyes. Nashi was named after her Edolas counterpart, Nasha, when Natsu and Lucy couldn't think of a different name that would suit the young girl. Nashi has formed her own team along with Storm Fullbuster, Yajeh and Shutora Redfox, and Simon Scarlet. Nashi has learnt the basics of Celestial spirit magic from her mother but never quite took to it like her sister, while she does have a couple silver keys that she can use for utility purposes her main magic is (and points for if you saw this coming) fire. Nashi learned fire magic from her uncle Romeo as a way to surprise her dad, he definitely didn't cry (he so did) when she showed him.

Igneel Dragneel

The youngest of the bunch, Iggy has been considered something of an oddity in the family. While Iggy looks more like his father than his mother he actually has neither of their colourings. He instead bears a striking resemblance to his only biological uncle. Bubbly and determined Iggy takes most things that come his way in his stride with a smile. Iggy has become something of a powerhouse in his own right, with both sides of his families culminative magical prowess all coming together with him. Instead of learning a specific set of spells from one magical branch he prefers to pick and choose, sometimes creating his own spells to suit his needs.

#wow so I guess I'm really doing this #let me know what you think #I'm gonna do more families over time #and really build up the fics world #fairytail #fairy tail #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #nalu #natsu x lucy #worldbuilding #fairytail fanfiction #fairy tail fanfiction #fanfiction #tswwid au #tea speaks #tea writes

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petri808 · 9 months

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@allaboutnalu Gift for @genavere If you have an AO3 account let me know the user name and I can tag you there. Thanks!

Happy Holidays! 🤶🏻🎄🎁 Hope you enjoy!

For being Christmas Eve, the weather is semi-warm compared to the meteorologist’s news report that morning. Not that it mattered too much, as Lucy rolls her blouses long sleeves up to her elbows, because she always wore long sleeves, long pants, or long skirts anytime she left her apartment. People often stare as they pass to the strange young blonde wearing such warm clothes during the scorching summer months, so the autumn and winter months give her a reprieve from those second glances. But she’s gotten used to the attention or at least has learned to ignore them.

Today’s outfit consists of a dark-reddish-colored, soft cotton, long sleeve, loose-fitting, high-necked turtleneck top that covers all the way up to the jawline, paired with dark gray yoga pants, and fur-rimmed, mid-calf boots. Casual, nice, but not too attention seeking. Oh, no, attention is the last thing Lucy wants from anyone. She isn’t quite an agoraphobic, but close enough. Lucy works from home as an independent contractor editor and article writer for field journalists, a ghost writer who takes all their notes and information and writes a draft that she sends back to the journalist for publishing. Her one condition is to not be listed in the article as a contributor. Most of her groceries are delivered and she doesn’t travel unless necessary.

One of the few times she leaves home during the week is to eat at a restaurant when she’s tired of cooking and since it’s Christmas, why not splurge a little instead of getting fast food. Which is where she’s heading now, to an upscale but family-friendly type place, the staff has always been nice and accommodating due to her circumstances. It’s a bit sad to be eating out on Christmas Eve alone, but as she walks in on this Wednesday early evening, the server, recognizing her, immediately guides Lucy to a booth in the back corner of the restaurants dining room. It’s her favorite table because the booth partially faces away from the other diners and it’s not near a street-facing window. The few times that it was already taken, and she had to sit at a different table, it was uncomfortable to eat with the feeling of eyes boring into her back. Whether or not people are looking, past traumas have Lucy always in an anxious, self-conscious state of mind, and it’s only when alone can she relax.

As she waits, Lucy notes the festive decorations they’ve added all around the room. It’s a mix of tradition and modern chic, perhaps professionally done, to match the fine dining restaurant. There’s a red-tinged, flocked, Christmas tree with slow-pulsing white, fiber-optic lights next to the host stand at the front, decorated with silver, black, and red glass ball ornaments, and topped with a silver star. Over every other booth along the walls there is a green holly bough with red and white berries, short silver pick sprays that are sparingly pierced between the leaves, and finished with a black velvet ribbon where the top meets the hanging wire. On each table, the normally white napkins are replaced with a red one that has an embroidered silver bell on each corner. Last year, the napkins were green with white snowflakes.

About 15 minutes later, the server brings Lucy’s meal. Her choice of dinner is a shrimp scampi with linguini noodles and side of garlic toast, the best she’s tasted out of any other restaurant’s recipes. After a few bites and a sip of wine, she’s slowly easing up in the quiet place. Soft spoken conversation can be heard around the room along with typical restaurant sounds, clinking dishes, register beeps, order up calls, and the faint sound of the cars driving by on the street next to the building. It’s only 4:30 pm, not even dark yet, but the dinner rush diners are starting to trickle in, causing the servers to pick up their paces. Lucy’s looks at her phone as she finishes up her meal. She’ll leave within the next 30 minutes to get away before it turns into a full house.

Everything is going smoothly when suddenly, Lucy’s ears perk up to a rising sound of abnormal noises she’s never heard in the restaurant before. Guest’s closer to the front are starting to look around and the conversation tones grow in both volume and tone. Banging sounds, dishes falling and crashing, Lucy hears a scream and a thud, and then— “FIRE!” She hears. Again, the domino of screams, fire, fire, evacuate! Oh, God, she can smell the smoke! Panic grips the restaurant and all hell break loose as patrons and employees are running for exits, people and tables are being knocked over, trampled, and pushed around in their bid to reach the door.

A loud whooshing roar fills Lucy’s ears and her vision somehow shifts back to the living room of her old home, sending her pulse into a sprint, yet every muscle in her body grinds to a screeching halt, a fork gripped in mid-air, eye’s wide and mouth agape. This can’t be happening! Every second counts when there’s a fire, something she knows better than most, but her legs refuse to move. She doesn’t even know where the fire is coming from, so what if she leaves the current safety of the booth and burns before she can reach the front door?! As tears stream unencumbered Lucy finally gathers her strength, only to slip underneath the table.

It’s no use, all she can hear is the phantom crackling of a fire burning its way through a structure. Trapped. The smoke is growing thicker. ‘Get down, get down,’ her dead mother’s voice rings in her ears; they can’t get out of the house! Lucy pulls her legs to her chest and wraps her arms around to protect them, head down, resting her forehead in the slight space above her chest. She fights a losing battle to slow her panic breathing despite it getting harder to breathe as the smoke envelopes her in a black, greasy haze that with each choking cough burns the throat and stings the eyes. ‘It hurts mama! It hurts!’ The scars throb on the left side of her body, burning from the phantom heat, and a phantom smell of burning flesh and hair are all Lucy can perceive, swallowing her back up again. This is it. Fate has come to finish what it started; she muses as the smoky darkness chokes the life out of her.

The street outside is cordoned off by the police to keep spectators out of the way of the emergency services. Fire trucks arrive within five minutes of the call and immediately speak to the chef and staff who explain the fire is in the kitchen. The kitchen staff has tried their best to put out the grease fire, but the flame-retardant spray couldn’t reach far into the vent above the grill where the buildup of goopy grease and oil from not being cleaned properly cling to the sides. So far, the flames are isolated to the kitchen, but the oily black smoke from the burning grease has turned into a layer of grimy fog that burns when breathed in or gets into the eyes. That stinging pain is what ultimately drives the cooks out.

While firefighters rush towards the kitchen, one is tasked to do a sweep of the building. Even though the waitstaff believe they’ve gotten everyone out, they can’t take the chance of anyone being left behind. It’s now been about ten minutes since the 911 call, so the clock is ticking against anyone trapped inside. The smoke can easily suffocate, and the oily air could do lasting damage to the throat and eyes.

Natsu Dragneel starts by checking both restrooms for guests, then sweeps his flashlight beam under each table and booth as he passes by, meticulously one by one, left, right, left, making his way towards the rear of the dining room. As a firefighter his concerns are life first, property second and each time they are called to a scene with potential people inside, his fear is being the one to find someone he cannot save. It’s the fear of every emergency responder not to be that one and just as he’s about to breathe a sigh of relief to reach the last booth without a victim, his heart stops cold when his light falls on a curled-up body under the table.

“I’ve got one!” Natsu quickly screams into his radio to put the EMTs on notice. It’s a young woman and based on the soft rise and fall of her chest she’s still alive. “She’s unconscious!”

The space under the table is a bit tight for him to get under with all his equipment, so he drags the table from the booth and shoves it out of the way. He then sweeps the limp woman into a bridal carry and rushes out of the building to an awaiting ambulance, placing her onto the gurney. As the EMTs immediately get to work, Natsu finally has a chance to see what the woman looks like. Spots of blonde hair gleam in the sunlight through the patches of greasy soot clinging to strands and skin. She looks around his age, average height, and weight with a beautiful figure, maybe a bit younger but it’s hard to tell with the oxygen mask obscuring some of her facial features. Something catches his attention, partially blocked by her hair, but if he’s not mistaken there’s a patch of distorted skin peeking out from the turtleneck along the side of her neck, perhaps a burn?

She’s breathing normally with the help of the mask but is still unconscious and the EMTs are not quite sure why since there doesn’t appear to be anything else physically wrong with her aside from some redness in her throat and eyes from the carbon monoxide and smoke. Since the fire never reached her, there’s also no burns. Why didn’t she evacuate, Natsu wonders. He checks the crossbody purse on her body and finds a wallet. ‘Lucy Heartfilia,’ he reads off her I.D. Most people’s reactions to a fire are to flee, but there are some who freeze, so is that what happened to Ms. Heartfilia?

“Oi! Dragneel!”

“Huh?” Natsu is so wrapped up in the mysterious woman that he’s forgotten he’s still on the scene. “Oh. Yeah?” He yells back to his boss Captain Guildarts.

“You, done with the vic’ yet?” The captain questions.

Natsu returns the I.D. back to her wallet. “Yeah, why?”

Guildarts points up. “Go check out the roof vent, see what condition it is for the report.”

“If it’s been cleaned or not?” Natsu clarifies. While the grill hood should be cleaned once a month, the whole venting system in a kitchen should be cleaned out fully at least once a year. Even aerosolized grease and oil can stick to the smooth sides of the metal duct work, which can catch fire under the right conditions and threaten the entire building.

“Yeah.” The captain responds.

“Got it boss.” Natsu starts off towards an access ladder on the side of the building, but his boss isn’t finished. He pauses.

“And Dragneel. When you’re done with that, go on and check on the victim at the hospital,” Guildarts winks knowingly.

It makes Natsu flush. “T-Thanks,” he fumbles, then breaks into a gaily sprint.

That Guildarts, Natsu muses. The guy is always chasing women, so no wonder he caught on to his intrigue. Nothing wrong with wanting to check on a victim, public service is their duty after all. Oh, who is he kidding himself, the pretty blonde has caught his eye, and he wants to learn more about her. Why was she eating alone at the restaurant? Her hair was up in a messy bun, but that only added to her charm, and the blue cat earrings were cute. It’s a warm day too, yet she’s wearing long pants and a long sleeve high turtleneck top. That’s unusual, and he just happened to notice no ring on her finger. How is someone like her single? … Wait. Natsu stops moving and looks around. He’s standing on the roof in front of the vent, but all he’s done is zone out thinking about the woman. Back in your pants, Dragneel. He shakes it off and gets back to work checking into the vent duct. It’s dirty, but not too bad. He’ll tell his boss to recommend they get it cleaned anyways and make sure to be more stringent in their cleaning schedule. Okay, now, back to the station to change, shower, then head to the hospital. ‘I hope she’ll be awake when I get there.’

When Natsu arrives at the hospital, he uses his privileges as a firefighter to get in to see the woman. The rules are only family members during non-visiting hours, but buttering up the nurses isn’t difficult considering he’s showing concern for a victim. He sneaks a peak at her charts and sees her prognosis. Smoke inhalation, elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, redness in the eyes from the smoke, they believe she passed out from hyperventilating, unsure of why she is still unconscious, but overall healthy and will hold overnight for observation. She’s hooked to an IV drip with some antibiotics to ward off potential infection and has a nose tube set up just to assist. He mumbles to himself. “Next of kin contacted,” the notes say, but doesn’t report if the person answered, and obviously the room is empty except for him. Add another check mark to the mystery woman.

‘She just looks like she’s sleeping,’ he notes her relaxed brows, ‘peaceful,’ really, like the day’s events were just an illusion. Natsu sits down on a chair next to the left side of the bed closest to the window simply observing, but that’s when something on her neck catches his attention. Right, and now that he can see it better, it’s definitely a burn, a large burn that travels up into the hair line at the back of her nape and down, disappearing into her gown. “Whoa…” he breathes out. That’s a serious injury, it must have something to do with her reaction at the restaurant. ‘I wonder how far down it travels…’ Natsu’s curiosity grows. He looks up from his seat to see if anyone is walking by the room, and when the coast appears clear, he slowly, gently lifts the blanket that covers her arms and body. It does in fact disappear into the gown where he can’t see, but what is revealed is more burn scars on the upper part of her left arm above the elbow and smaller groupings on her legs. He can’t see above her mid-thigh how high up the scars go, but there are also varying sized spots on her calf, shin, and ankle.

A small cloud of moisture gathers in Natsu’s eyes as he slumps back into the chair, realizing just why she wears clothes that cover so much skin. This poor woman, Lucy, has been through a bad fire before, no wonder she panicked in the restaurant. Everything makes sense now. The hyperventilating, increased cortisol, freezing and hiding under the table. Even though the fire hadn’t reached her, she reacted to it. Likely the smoke alone set her off. Natsu reaches under the blanket and takes hold of Lucy’s limp hand. So small and delicate in his larger hand that it swallows hers up. The fact that she’s been through such a harrowing event before and still carrying on sits well in Natsu’s heart. Lucy probably covers up in shame, but to him, they’re a survivor’s badge of honor, and there’s nothing ugly about that. He rests his arms on the bed and puts his head down for the time being to get some rest too. Since no one else is here for her, he’ll be the one she wakes up to.

By the time Lucy wakes up, the sun has risen and brightly shines in through the sheer-curtained window on her bed. ‘Huh? Bed?’ The last thing she remembers is passing out in the restaurant, yet now here she is feeling refreshed. How many hours has it been, at least 13 or 14 based on it being night anymore! The brilliant white room is silent except for the soft whirring sounds of the breathing machine and light beeps of the heart monitor. She can feel the small sting of the IV line stuck in her arm and the stranger sensation of the nose tube, but other than that, the only other discomfort is a mildly irritated throat and burning sensation at the corners of her eyes— Eh? And a weight on her hand? Why is hand heavy? Lucy tries to move her hand, but something not only holds it back, but squeezes! Quickly, her eyes pop open, looking towards the source.

“Eeek!” Lucy squeals and yanks her hand away, the loose nose tube pulling off her face as she scrambles against the headboard from the strange man sleeping next to her bed! “What are you doing in my room!”

The shrill sound so close to his ear woke Natsu with such a start, he’s instantly awake and jumps out of the chair. “A call?!” He thinks it’s the alarm at the station alerting them to another fire. “I’m up! I’m up!”

“Who are you!” Lucy snaps again. “Why are you in my room?!”

“Oh, shit, yeah,” Natsu stumbles over his words as his brain gets back on track. “Sorry,” he plops back onto the chair. “Didn’t mean to scare ya, but I’m the guy who pulled you out of the restaurant.”

Oh? Oh… “Firefighter?” She asks hesitantly, or could it be a cop?

“Yeah!” Natsu smiles and nervously scratches the back of his neck. “That’s me.”

But still, “why are you here?” It’s hours later! “Is it normal to check on us?”

“Not normally,” he admits. “Just… well, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Kinda had me worried a bit ‘cause the doctors said you should’ve woken up a lot sooner, and I wondered if it has something to do with that,” he points to her neck. “This isn’t your first fire, is it?”

Stunned, Lucy is not sure how to respond. This guy is a stranger, so why would she talk to a stranger, and yet he seems so earnest to have waited all this time for her to wake up, on Christmas of all days! She relaxes back into a cross-legged position. “What’s your name?”

“Oof,” duh, “sorry,” he apologizes. “Natsu Dragneel.”

“Lucy Heartfilia,” she reciprocates, “and yeah,” her voice softens, “years ago when I was four.”

Natsu’s shoulders slump and gaze lowers, eyes softening and shining from the gathering moisture, as his tone fills with genuine despair. “I’m really sorry you had to go through that. No one should have to.”

“Hey,” Lucy reaches out and places her hand over his. “It’s okay, you saved me, right? Twice now a fireman’s pulled me out of a fire, so don’t feel so bad, ‘cause you’re an angel to me.”

That heartfelt appreciation pulls Natsu to look up and what he sees makes his heart skip. Lucy’s big, almond-shaped brown eyes are teary-eyed too, but her face is graced with such a beautiful smile that’s haloed by the sun’s rays as if the angels themselves are besotted. This woman has faced death twice that he knows of and yet here she is comforting him, even though he’s perfectly fine. The sound of trumpets sounds off as his brain instantly short-circuits and quick as a flash, Natsu turns over his hand to take firm hold of hers, “Be my girlfriend!’ He blurts out with eyes flashing in excitement. “I-I mean, truth is I’m here ‘cause I’ve fallen for you, a-and— yeah,” he stammers, scratching his head from nervous energy, “sorry, I’m an idiot, but I think you’re really cute and something just makes me want to wrap you up and protect you so this never happens again…”

Though thoroughly surprised, this man’s enthusiastically embarrassing cliff jump is so beautifully endearing that her anxieties disappear— but is also so absolutely amusing, that Lucy bursts into a side-splitting laughter that brings out the happy tears. She squeezes his hand back. “Okay,” she chuckles, “I’ll be your girlfriend.”

“Hell Yeah!” Natsu loses himself and pulls her halfway off the bed into a bear hug. “Best damn Christmas gift ever!”

#nalu #secret santa gifts #nalu au #fireman Natsu #nalu fanfiction #secret santa #nalu fan fic #fairy tail

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scarletgray · 6 months

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xanvasofxords · 7 months

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“If anything, you’re the biggest pervert here!”

“Me?!” Natsu snaps, smashing his forehead against Gray’s. “How am I a pervert when you’re the one getting naked all the damn time?!” The ice mage tackles him backwards with double force. The temperature around them simultaneously rising and falling because of the polar opposite magics clashing together.

Lucy assumes it’ll take her thousand years more to get used to them. Just when she thinks ignoring them is the ultimate solution, not even a feet away, a chair crashes into the floor so loudly that she drops her book with a yelp. A vein pops on her head.

“Cut it you two!”

The blonde complains, picking the book up and closing it to glare at them. There’s absolutely no way she can finish the novel like this. She hasn’t had the chance to read it in peace at home- thanks to Natsu and Happy messing around with her all morning. And now the two of them are trying to kill her!

Unfortunately, the boys don’t even spare a look at her as they continue with their fight.

“Oh yeah? Better than looking up a girl’s skirt,” Gray shouts while giving sideways glance to Lucy. “Or shoving a hand down her cleavage!” Both Natsu and Lucy turn their heads at the remark and for the first time in his life, the pinkette doesn’t seem to have any proper response to the raven haired mage’s insult.

Gray takes it as a sign of his victory and takes off his underwear with a shrug, standing completely naked. But nobody complains because the other two people are too embarassed to speak. There’s a long pause before Lucy clears her throat. Gray smirks at the pair.

#this was the start of a oneshot i had planned to do lmao i forgot #though im not a fan of pervy natsu its fun writing him at times #will do the oneshot some other time #maybe #fairy tail #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #nalu #natsu x lucy #fairy tail nalu #ft nalu #fairy tail 100 years quest #nalu fanfic #nalu fanfiction #nalu fan fic #nalu fan fiction

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bumblebeehug · 1 year

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Gave him her heart

Ship: Natsu Dragneel x Lucy Heartfilia Summary: Lucy worries about what to get Natsu for his birthday, not knowing how ridiculously easy it actually is. Day 5 of Nalu Week 2023 - prompt: gifts Ao3

***

Natsu was a good man. He was wild, fun, crazy, but most of all: good. Lucy was very aware of this and knew that such a good man truly deserved the best. So, naturally she felt slightly panicked when she realised his birthday was coming up.

Lucy liked to believe that she was good at giving gifts. She was observant, both on the battlefield and off, so she knew what people looked a little extra at when they browsed shops or went by markets. Wendy turned to sweets, cute dresses or jewellery, something Lucy was relieved over when she noticed it – Lucy was nothing if not good at picking clothes and accessories, and Wendy was transparent with her tastes (sweet = good, savoury = fine, if there was a good reason to why it was gifted, otherwise a little weird, and sour = danger zone. It could be risky, but citrusy tastes were appreciated in sweet desserts). Erza was also easy to please with gifts – either go the sword and armour route, or go the girly route, possibly with some suggestive books. Gray appreciated nice soaps and clean décor for his house, and if she wanted to be funny with him she could always gift him underwear, seeing as it was the only clothing that stayed on for a while (though since him and Juvia got together it wasn’t really an option – Juvia didn’t care too much about what Lucy gave him, underwear or not, but Lucy herself felt weird about it, so nowadays she kept to soaps). Carla liked tea and pretty dresses as well, but appreciated flowers and other handmade things, and Happy was never happier than on his birthday, when he practically could get buried in the number of fishes he’d be given.

Natsu, however? Lucy wasn’t too sure what she could give him. He liked loads of things – food, fights, adventures, funny hats, board games: few things were off the table with that guy. If she gave him a bouquet of flowers he’d probably smile and say thanks (and maybe he’d try to eat them once he got home), if she gave him tea, he’d probably set the leaves on fire and accidentally get high or something – she didn’t want to risk it either way. He’d be thankful for any clothes she would give him, but would most likely only wear them when he really had to, or to sleep if they were comfortable enough. He really liked his special made ones, that managed to stay intact no matter how hot his fire was. He would definitely try to eat the soaps, and that wasn’t worth it in her opinion, and if she gave him a fish he’d very likely think she was either giving Happy a gift through him, or that she was confessing her undying love for him, since that’s what it meant when Happy gave fishes as gifts to the opposite gender (of the same species, might be important to add).

Point is: giving Natsu gifts was hard when you knew him too well. She had even considered giving him jewellery that matched with the ones she had gotten from him recently, but it once again came down to him only wearing them as a chore, and her pride couldn’t really take that. She would have to put a pin in this challenge though, because she was expected at the guild to help cover a shift for Mira as she dealt with one of her requested missions.

As she entered the guild hall, she was relieved to see that it was rather empty. It had its perks, working at a bar in the middle of the day, and since she saw some of her closer mates, she knew she could take her chance to dig around and find out what others would be gifting him.

“Hi Master,” she greeted Makarov, still using the title he had tried to give over so many times already. Though technically he was still in charge, so Lucy thought it only appropriate to keep calling him master until he truly was off the position. “I’m covering for Mira this afternoon.”

“I heard,” he grumbled from his position in the wheelchair. “You’ve been behind the bar before, so you know the drill. In fact, could you bring me a plate of fried squid and a beer? Just put it on my tab.”

Lucy took his order and sent a note into the kitchen per his request. Normally Mira would help out in the kitchen as well, but since Lucy had limited experience with cooking the meals they were serving, she was excused to just manage the drinks and easier snacks, like nuts and chips. As she waited for the staff in the kitchen to finish the order, she poured a glass of beer for Makarov. Half with light alcohol, half with none. He was currently cutting down on his alcohol intake, Porlyusica’s demand, but to not make him fall back immediately from quitting cold turkey, they slowly made him drink lighter and lighter.

“So, Natsu’s birthday is coming up,” Lucy said, trying to cover it up as small talk, but realising it was obvious what she was trying to do.

“I’ve heard.” A smug grin graced Makarov’s face. The relations between the mages in his guild were always amusing, especially in the stage that Lucy’s and Natsu’s had been in the last couple of years.

“I’m a bit curious…” She gave him his order. “What do you think he wants? You’ve known him for longest.”

“Child, I’m too old to remember all my guild members’ gift preferences, and I’m definitely not rich enough to give away gifts like it’s nothing. For a long time now, I’ve allowed myself to forget who likes what.” Lucy smiled, ready to brush the topic off and take another order across the hall, but he continued. “I do, however, know that you could give him a stick or a pebble you found on the sidewalk, and that boy would treasure it like it’s his most sacred, most valuable item in his possession. Do what feels right, Lucy.”

She thanked him, but within she felt like she was back at square one. She knew he would be happy about getting any gift, but she didn’t want to give him just any gift. She wanted it to reflect how much she appreciated him and their friendship, and she wanted it to stick out. Maybe it could even suggest that she appreciated him more than a normal friend, but only if he started overthinking the gift (which she doubted he would do anyways). It was meant to be subtle, but not subtle enough for it to never be discovered by him. And if it needed to be discovered by him, whatever this little message it was she was trying to convey to him, then it would have to be flashing in neon lights above his bed when he woke up in the morning.

So, she spent a few hours continuing to ponder on what to do, as she was taking more and more orders as people kept dropping in. At around 6:30pm her true saviours arrived at the guild hall. Her team, plus a few other closer friends and minus Natsu and Happy, who were camping today and tomorrow, were back from one of their shorter missions, and they were probably starving for some dinner. Lucy was quick to come over and take their order, also grabbing her chance to question them about their thoughts on this conundrum.

“Hi guys, did the mission go well?” She greeted them, preparing her notepad.

“It went great!” Wendy beamed, and Lucy made a quick mental note to ask about the mission more in detail at a later date. She must have done a good job if she allowed herself to be this proud – Lucy always thought she was too harsh on herself when they fought on missions.

“Gray even kept his clothes on,” Erza added, praising the man on her right.

They took a quick moment to chat, and as they finally decided on what to eat, Lucy seized her moment.

“So,” she started, already knowing she would never live down asking a question like this, considering that many of the people at the table were quite transparent on their opinions on Lucy’s and Natsu’s relationship, “Natsu’s birthday, huh?”

The silence her sentence brought made her regret it immediately. She could already see how their brains were working on new ways to tease her for whatever she was going to say next, but she would have to swallow her pride once again. It’s for a good cause, she kept telling herself.

“Have you gotten your presents yet?” She chuckled awkwardly, hoping their answers would be enough to inspire her, so she could get their food and forget she ever brought it up in the first place.

“Mhm.”

“Yep.”

“I have too.”

“And I’m with Wendy on her gift,” Carla added, still making it painfully obvious that nobody was elaborating their answers. They were making Lucy work for it; she just knew it. They loved grabbing their chances to make her say embarrassing things, and today was no exception.

“Really…” She forced out a laugh. “So, what have you gotten him?” She tried again to prompt anyone at the table to speak up, but they knew she would have to continue pressing, and that it would sound more and more desperate the less information they gave her, so after they all stayed silent for another minute, Lucy gave in.

“I’ve just completely blanked out; I can’t even remember a single thing he likes! Please, help me! Give me some inspiration!”

Erza exchanged a glance with Wendy before she answered.

“Well, he likes fire.”

“And fighting.”

“And ugly tourist shirts,” Gray chimed in. Lucy groaned.

“I can’t exactly give him a clip card for sparring matches, and I’ve already considered a bonfire, but I wanted to have a get together later with all of us where we make a bonfire and drink hot chocolate and stuff.” She spared Gray a short glance as well. “And he only wears his special made clothes, so I can’t give him a shirt to frame for 200 jewel.”

“Then we can’t help you,” Erza said, flipping her bangs as she always does when she lies. Lucy pouted.

“I’ll get you your food, please help me afterwards?”

“Deal.”

After 30 minutes she finally had four hot plates balancing on her arms, ready to serve to her stubborn teammates. They were chatting along just fine now, so hopefully the would have forgotten their silent agreement to keep themselves clammed about their gifts. Lucy hurried to place out their food, hoping that they would notice her way of bribing them by giving them extra big portions.

“Now please...! What should I give him?” Lucy sat down at the table. She wasn’t going anywhere until she got an answer she was pleased with.

Wendy gave her an apologetic smile.

“Well… We can tell you what we think, but don’t you think he’d like it better if it truly came from you?” Erza nodded along.

“I’m going to give him a sword that’s enchanted with endless fire,” she revealed. “But you know, it’s not really a gift that screams ‘Lucy’.”

“Erza’s right. I’m giving him some scrap wood I found in the woods because I can’t really bother, but no gift we tell you to get will be as appreciated as the one you come up with,” Gray said, taking a sip from his beer.

“And we’re getting him a small cupon at a restaurant,” Wendy added.

Lucy sighed.

“I know it won’t be the same, but my creative well has completely dried up. Nothing I think of feels like enough. If I get him something I’d appreciate it would be like I don’t know him at all, and that doesn’t feel fair.” She started to feel hopeless. She didn’t like how drained she got from worrying about this – she loved Natsu! And she would love to properly show him how much she loved him, because he truly deserved that. Platonic or not.

“Hey, you look like you’re giving up, that’s not like you! Think of it like this, we’ve all combined our own interests with Natsu’s interest: Erza with the sword, Wendy and Carla with the food, and me with the scrap wood that shows that I have zero interest in him. Why don’t you write something to him? It may not look like it, but I think he know how to read. At least simple words.” Gray gave Lucy a half-hug from his seat in an attempt to comfort her.

“So… you think I should write him a letter? Would that be enough?” She felt sceptical, but it could work.

“You spitting on him would be enough,” Carla snorted, almost offended by her obliviousness.

“Carla!” Wendy burst out, not before Lucy raised an eyebrow in confusion. Her gut told her not to ask, and for once, she decided to actually follow that gut feeling.

“Do you really think a letter would be enough though?” She asked.

“How about you give him an experience? A friendly date of sorts,” Carla suggested.

“An experience?”

“Like going to the movies, or to a restaurant, or maybe picknick or stargazing?” It was Erza who spoke up this time, and Lucy thought she could see a sparkle in her eye. If she didn’t know better, she would almost think that Erza had been on dates like that herself.

“Hm… I guess you’re right. If he doesn’t like it, I’ll just have to ask him directly, I suppose.”

Lucy stood up from her seat at the table and bid farewell to her friends, along with her thanks. A letter would have to do, and she had a gut feeling that told her that she would figure out a good topic to write about. She hurried to end her shift so she could get to her gift-making. A good idea rarely stayed for long in one’s head.

When she finally sat at her desk, pen in her right hand and paper in front of her, she knew this was the right thing to do. What better way was there to tell Natsu how much she appreciated him, if not through words on paper? It was her speciality, after all. She had even lighted some candles to keep her company, since she knew she would sit there for a while. There was a lot of things she wanted to tell him and thank him for, and the letter would be the perfect way to convey these feelings. Right. Feelings. That could include her less platonic ones, and even if this was a great opportunity for that as well, she didn’t know if she was quite ready to go that far yet. In the meantime, she would just have to tell him she loved him in every way except the straightforward one.

Four hours and 16 pages later, she had her letter. It was ridiculously long, she knew that, and he probably wouldn’t be able to read it in one go, but her heart felt light. A letter was the perfect gift. She had even included multiple invites to ‘experiences’ she wanted to give him, and if he took as long to read it as she thought he would, then those experiences would be experienced with about one week in between them. Lucy gave the thick envelope a quick lick to seal it, and after that she couldn’t help but to give it a soft kiss. She had poured her heart out, and though it would be embarrassing for her to know that he would read such things, it also felt very right. It wasn’t a love letter, but in a way, it felt like it was. She had told him all the things she loved about him, all the moments she especially appreciated him being there, and how great her entire life was thanks to him. If read with the intent of reading a love letter, it could very well translate into one, and maybe, someday in the future, he could look back at it and see the hints she left him.

Lucy leaned back in her chair with a big yawn. It was well into midnight hours by now, and she really needed a refreshing shower. A thought went to how Natsu and Happy were having it right now, in a tent somewhere in the woods. Though she was happy to get to sleep in her soft bed, she was missing them. Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough. To speed time up she hurried to the bathroom so she could get into bed as soon as possible – her apartment wasn’t the same without those two.

Lucy cursed herself. Why, why, why had she written that letter? It was the most obvious love-confession anyone could ever read, how on earth had she not realised that when she read it through yesterday? She was dragging her feet behind her, because if the embarrassment wouldn’t kill her when he read it later, she would have to kill herself, and no one non-suicidal would ever look forward to something like that. So, her feet dragged. The letter felt heavy in her hands, and she knew that as soon as it would be opened, she would feel naked. Her gut was begging her to turn back, but her heart told her that celebrating Natsu today was more important than her pride. Him and Happy were coming back from their camping trip, and they promised her they would stop by the guild to say hi before heading home, and that’s when they would be surprised with a small celebration. Nothing like other events, where people went completely wild, but a celebration big enough to show him some appreciation.

Checking the clock one last time, she made sure that she was there before they arrived. They woke up pretty late generally and their favourite camping spot was about an hour into the woods. 10am. Maybe they hadn’t even woken up yet, but Lucy didn’t want to risk it. She wanted to prepare and decorate the guild, and then she would grab something to eat, considering she hadn’t eaten any breakfast yet.

As she entered the guild, she was relieved to only see her team and a handful more people. They were chatting and blowing up balloons, and they had turned one of the tables into a gift-table. Lucy hurried to put her letter amongst the others, eager to get the gift out of her hands.

“Good morning, Lucy!” Levy greeted her with a hug. “You’re pretty late, did you stay up last night?” Lucy chuckled lightly.

“Yeah, I had something important to finish.” She felt her team’s eyes in her back – they knew she had stayed up writing, and though Lucy knew she hadn’t written a love confession of any sort (other than platonic) she still managed to feel a blush creep onto her cheeks.

“So, do you need help with the balloons?” She offered, greeting the rest of the group.

“It’s fine, you go ahead and grab some breakfast instead,” Mira smiled.

“How did you know I haven’t eaten?” Lucy sat down at a table.

“You have a tendency to forget to eat when you have other things on your plate,” Mira just answered, placing down a yoghurt bowl with homemade granola and fruits. Lucy could only smile sheepishly, slightly embarrassed how obviously nervous she was about this event. She was sure Erza had told her about her moment of weakness yesterday, so she reminded herself to try to keep herself under the radar. She’d just be here, sing a happy birthday song, eat a piece of cake and watch Natsu open his presents, then the day would be over and the whole Lucy-confesses-her-feelings-though-a-letter thing would be over! No unnecessary teasing from her friends, if all went well.

“I’m back!”

The guild door shot open with a noise loud enough to give the untrained ear a heart attack. Lucy however had a trained ear, so she just turned her head and met Natsu’s happy gaze, her heart fluttering at the fact that his eyes immediately searched for her and no one else.

“Happy birthday!” The guild cheered. Lucy stood up from her place at the table, not really knowing why until Natsu stood in front of her, just an arm’s length away. If she reached, she would be able to bring him into a hug, and it truly itched in her arms to do exactly that.

“Hey,” Lucy smiled softly. “Happy birthday.” Watching Natsu’s smile go from surprised and generally happy, to soft and caring made Lucy lose what little control she had, and she caved into her needs to hug him. As soon as she felt him hug her back, she knew that whatever the others thought about the content of her letter contained, as long as Natsu read it and took it to heart, all would be fine.

“Thank you,” he whispered, tightening the hug for a second before he went ahead and thanked the rest of his friends, never straying far from Lucy.

The birthday party was overall a quite big success, everyone had a great time, and Natsu, who not so secretly had been itching to open the presents, finally gave in and announced what he was planning to do.

“Time to open the presents!” He cheered, almost jumping in place in excitement, clearly not representing the age he was turning (400-something years old) but making everyone smile regardless. Everyone except Lucy, whose heart flew up in her throat, suddenly getting the strongest urge to grab her letter before he got to it so she could throw it away or burn it. Not because she didn’t want him to read it – she would just prefer it if he read it somewhere more private, where the burning eyes of her much beloved friends could read it and jump to conclusions. So, she hurried close to whisper her plan to Natsu – despite him being the cause of these nerve-racking feelings, he was still her partner in crime, and she knew he would break his neck to achieve whatever she asked him to do. This time, what she asked him not to do.

“Psst!”

Natsu shot a glance to Lucy, who was whispering just quietly enough that no one else would notice, unless they had dragon ears and paid attention to her. Lucy, who saw that he had heard her, hurried to shoot her shot.

“My gift is the letter, I would kinda like it if you read it after the party instead? It’s just – it’s quite long and it won’t be any fun if you sat down and read it here, you know?”

The ball was in the air, and now she could at least sleep well knowing that no matter the outcome, she did try her best to steer the situation into best case scenario – all to her means of course.

Natsu, the king of pranks and someone who was surprisingly good at sneaking around, despite his usual love for the “let’s just barge in and fight anyone who tries to stop us” approach, still managed to keep up his gleeful demeanour as he had listened to Lucy’s request. He once again met her gaze and gave her a quick nod, ensuring that she had scored. The rest of the evening would manage to stay calm and uneventful. All thanks to their ways to keep down low. It was really convenient to have dragon hearing at times like these – though usually she had that thought on missions, and not happy, meant to be uneventful celebrations and parties.

The birthday boy himself didn’t mind opening Lucy’s gift later. In fact, he was just happy he was getting something at all from her, considering how stressful most birthdays could be for her. Sure, she already knew what genre people liked, but getting down to picking the actual thing and managing prices was a hard task for Lucy to tackle without stress. So instead, he went ahead and opened the elongated, wrapped gift that said “Happy birthday, from Erza” on the card. He would make sure to ease Lucy’s mind today, considering how stressed she clearly had been the last couple of weeks.

Natsu couldn’t stop grinning. He truly had the best friends ever, and despite him not being a big birthday celebrator when it came to himself, it felt good to be appreciated. There had been good songs playing, yummy food to eat, and most importantly: good company. He especially loved the presents he had gotten, since they clearly were gifts that his friends had carefully thought through and taken into consideration before giving them – yes, even Gray’s gift was appreciated, because though it seemed silly, he did sometimes need firewood after hard missions to speed up his recovery. Everything was dear to him, so when he finally got home with that thick letter in his hands, he couldn’t wait a second more to open it. This, you see, might be the dearest gift of all.

The softly written “To: Natsu Dragneel” on the front of the envelope made Natsu’s heart beat harder. He knew that the content in it probably wasn’t anything out of the ordinary stuff the two of them said to each other, but still. He liked that Lucy had put extra thought into whatever she had written. Or, at least he hoped she had, seeing as he didn’t actually know what the letter said yet.

Happy peaked over Natsu’s shoulder, closing the door behind the two.

“So, what are you waiting for? Open it!” Happy urged, eager to see what Lucy wanted to say to him, but clearly couldn’t since she had to write it down. In his opinion a speech would be quicker, knowing how slowly Natsu read.

Carefully Natsu parted the sealed wax from the paper, making sure not to tear anything. If he could make some space, he’d want to hang everything on his memory wall later, and in that case he didn’t want to ruin it.

Still standing just inside the door, Natsu began to read. The letter started out rather normal. She was writing the obligatory happy birthdays and saying hi to Happy, who she knew would read over Natsu’s shoulder despite it being a private message. That part piqued Natsu’s interest a little extra. What did she have to say to him that not only had to be written, but wasn’t meant for Happy to know? It sparked some hope in his heart that she possibly could feel something special about him – special-er than what they already had. He continued down the page. She started reminiscing about the past, and about halfway through the second page, Happy gave up on Natsu’s slow reading and told him he’d simply read it after Natsu was done with it. Natsu took a seat as he joined Lucy’s trip down memory lane, enjoying the new information on how she saw him when they first met, during their first missions and more. He especially liked learning that despite his foul mood the first days together, she still had fond memories of him, like when he included her in his list of friends when they fought Macao (before they knew it was him, since he had turned into a Vulcan) and how the reason she didn’t refuse to get along with him after he had seemingly deceived her for a mission, was because he had managed to get a few lucky words in. Something like “because we thought you seemed nice” had made her stick, and Natsu could only thank his past self for accidentally pressing the right buttons.

As he continued reading, he was struck by the wonderful realisation that he truly mattered to Lucy. It’s not like he didn’t know that she enjoyed his company, but seeing in in black and white was completely different. It wasn’t just that she had written something along the lines of “I care about you, your existence matters to me” (though that would have worked as well), but the fact that she could remember so many small details of what he had said and done, that she may as well have written a complete book with all those moments, and it would probably be at least 200 pages long. He knew she had been cutting down on what memories she brought up in the letter, because enough talks with one person made them show how much brain capacity they had, and Natsu knew that her brain capacity was way longer than a 16-page letter. This was her way of being concise. Yet she still managed to bring up moments he only vaguely remembered, sharing almost exact quotes of what was said and by who. Mostly the who was either Natsu or Lucy, but it was still impressive.

Natsu had never been interested in reading. It was a chore he had to go through to get the money he needed for food, had never been any more interesting than that. Except for two occasions: Lucy’s first published book, and this letter. Sure, he had been reading it for almost double as long as it probably took to write it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t interested. This letter was so far the greatest thing he had ever received, which wasn’t an easy thing to manage.

At 4am had he gotten to the last line of the letter. His eyes were trying to force him to rest, but his mind fought it like never before. He had skipped dinner for this, and he was not planning to give up last minute, just to succumb to something so superficial, boring and unnecessary as sleep. No, he gathered up some extra will power and pulled though. “Though you probably understand this after reading this letter, I am simply eternally grateful for everything you are, and what you’ve just read is the best I could do at describing my gratefulness in words. Thank you for all you’ve done, and for being unapologetically you. No one else could make me as happy as you have, so once again: Happy birthday, Natsu Dragneel.” She had signed it with her signature at the very bottom, ensuring that all he had just read was completely and wholly from Lucy. After reading the whole thing, he felt his legs itch. No, maybe it was his arms. Feet, hands? No, it was most definitely his soul that had started to climb inside his body. He wanted to go to her, and he wanted to see her. Preferably five minutes ago. He threw another glance at the clock. 4:50am. He had been tossing around, unable to even do as much as close his eyes, for the last 40 minutes, and he knew he wouldn’t feel better until he was within a 20-meter radius of Lucy. Or rather, 2-meter radius.

Not bothering to sneak around the heavy sleeper that the exceed was, Natsu jumped out of the bed and pulled on his slippers. In less than 3 seconds he was out the door, and in another 3 he noticed that he was running. He wasn’t quite sure what he would do when he saw her, especially considering that she most likely was asleep in this hour, but he simply had to get to her, quickly. The time was ticking, like he was a bomb soon to explode, like he was going to run out of time if he didn’t arrive soon. Wind blowing in his ears, he could barely make out the sound of his heavy breathing. He hadn’t run this fast in Mavis knows how long, and he might actually had made it outside her apartment in record time. His chest rising and lowering in big breaths, he managed to make something of a sigh in relief to see her window slightly opened. Climbing the wall quietly was no challenge with Natsu’s experience, so he swiftly pulled himself up, making sure to fully open and enter the window as quickly as possible – though this time with less success since he didn’t have as much experience with that part. Usually he just barged in after scaling the wall, seeing as the time he did it at was most often a time where Lucy either was away or awake.

Either way, he didn’t manage to sneak in as stealthily as he’d like. The window creaked and his body almost fell limp after getting a whiff of Lucy’s calming scent – that he had been running like a maniac to get there didn’t help either, and after a loud, nongraceful landing, Lucy was already awake.

“Natsu? ‘s that you?” She mumbled, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“Yeah, sorry for waking you,” he whispered, finding his balance on his legs again as he stood up.

“No worries.” Lucy had now swung her legs over the edge of her bed and sat in a more upright position. “Did you need anything? Is Happy alright?”

“Yeah, he’s at home sleeping. I just felt like coming here,” Natsu said, full transparency.

“Alright,” Lucy said, now taking a better look at his face. He looked red and flustered, but with his heavy breathing it might just be the fact that he ran to her place.

“I read it.”

Lucy’s face started getting hot as well.

“The letter?”

“The entire thing.”

“Wow. Uh, so what do you think of it?” Had the hour been normal she might not have asked him such a bold question, but something about the way the streetlights and moon illuminating the room made her feel brave. Perhaps she still thought she was dreaming, but this felt much too real to be just a dream.

“It’s perfect.” Natsu took a few steps closer. He could now make out most of her facial features, sleepy yet alert of his presence.

“I’m glad.”

A few more seconds went by, though it felt like minutes.

“Is it true?”

“Is what true?”

“All of it. All the things you wrote?”

A soft smile graced Lucy’s lips.

“Of course. I would never lie about those things.”

Natsu knew he could be dense in most situations. He couldn’t always read the room, and he wasn’t good at subtext. This time however, he had felt something the whole time as he read that letter. Maybe it was what other would call “reading between the lines” but he suddenly had great confidence in something that could change their relationship forever. Of course, it was a very long shot, but perhaps the adrenaline from all that running was just what he needed to gather the courage to take it. He did, however, decide to test out the water first. Running headfirst was usually his go-to method if he could choose, but he wasn’t blind to the delicacy of the situation he was putting himself in.

“Can I assume things?” He tried.

“Assume things? From what I wrote?” Lucy asked, curious where he was leading this conversation. She was very aware of her heartbeat, but she didn’t know that she didn’t have to be this time, considering that all that Natsu was hearing was his own.

“Yeah.”

“It depends. What do you want to assume?”

Natsu swallowed. Did he always have this much saliva? If so, maybe something was wrong with him. He swallowed again, clenching and unclenching his fists. Had he ever been this nervous in a situation as calm as this? No bandits, no monsters, no big wild animals – not even an annoyed Erza was around.

“That…” he started, his tongue thickening as he spoke. Not literally, but it sure felt like it. He could barely concentrate on what he wanted to say, gazing into those doe eyes. She was so, ridiculously pretty. He knew that before, of course, but he almost found it unfair. How could he think of any words when she sat there, looking all nice and pretty. “That you like me?”

He had said it as a question, though it sounded more like a statement right now. Lucy’s heart must have skipped a beat or two. She was still sleepy, but the tiny possibility that this wasn’t just a perfect dream made her stop herself from straight up answering yes.

“Well… I hoped my letter was clear on that. You’re my best friend in the whole world, how could I not like you?” She let out a small chuckle at the very idea of disliking a friend. She didn’t, however, predict what he would say next.

Natsu reached out his left hand, touching a piece of her hair that had fallen out from behind her ears.

“But can I assume…” He put it behind her ear, “that you like me more than a friend?”

Natsu’s eyes were darker than usual in the dimmed light, but Lucy saw clearly that he was being serious. Though, this exact facial expression was one she had never seen before. She had seen his tender look, his soft look, his happy look, his loving look, but she had never seen this combination of all. And it was her he was showing it to. In fact, maybe it was exactly this expression that made her admit the truth for once. For so long she had been scared that he would feel bothered or surprised by the very idea of “liking beyond friendship”, or love, as she would prefer to call it. She had been afraid that he would find her fantasies of the two of them living their life together as a couple weird, or even mildly repulsive. That her confession would lead to their friendship breaking apart forever. That, however, could no longer be the case. Lucy wasn’t blind, and she certainly wasn’t dumb. If Natsu looked this… happy? To even assume that she likes him beyond friendship, then the outcome from telling him the truth couldn’t possibly be bad. She tilted her head lightly towards his hand, sharing another smile.

“Yeah. I do like you more than a friend, or a best friend.” Natsu took another step closer, now close enough to make her feel his hot breath on her face that he had tilted upwards, towards him.

“Then…” He bended down slowly to come closer to her sitting position. “Can I kiss you?” His words didn’t come out louder than a breath, but Lucy knew what she heard. Her heart had never danced as wildly as it did when she nodded and closed her eyes as Natsu closed the space between them.

The kiss itself was probably nothing special to someone watching. It was plain and soft, just two mouths pressing against each other. For them, however, it was nothing short of magical fireworks. Lucy’s cool, soft lips against Natsu’s hot, slightly rougher ones sent shivers throughout both of them, as if the small touch had opened a completely new door, a way for them to connect and become closer than ever.

Inexperienced as they both were though, they soon had to break it off to breathe. After less than 20 seconds, Lucy pulled their faces together again. How could they have been missing out on this awesome experience for all the years they had known each other? Natsu knew that this already had topped the list of his favourite activities – even placing higher than eating and fighting. The next time they went up for air, they couldn’t stop themselves from giggling.

“Can this count as a birthday gift if I haven’t slept since yesterday?” Natsu asked, more energetic than reasonable after his long day.

“If that makes you happy,” Lucy smiled, giving him another peck on his lips. Whatever they decided to do from this point on, Lucy knew they would figure it out. After all, if they had managed to overcome the obstacle of going from friends to whatever this was, then they could definitely manage anything and everything else thrown at them. What’s important was that they from this point out, took on every challenge together.

#fairy tail #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #nalu #fairy tail nalu #fairy tail fanfic #nalu fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction #nalu fanfiction #natsu x lucy #bumblebeehug writes #yay i'm posting my fics on tumblr #thanks to mya's advice :)

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