#ft lucy heartfila | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

millennial-star-gazer · 2 years ago

Text

@goddesofimortality @dark0angel13 @genavere @dreamerandcrazy @dreamerft @keyvan-firedrake

what you mean to me ship: natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia summary: There are plenty of things Lucy would rather do than put herself back into the shoes of high society once more but it's nothing she can't tolerate with a few too many glasses of champage. Or, at least, that was the plan, until someone decided to take a jab at one of the most important parts of Lucy's life, and with the alcohol flowing through her, she was more than willing to go on the defensive. ao3

Lucy kept her gaze down, watching the bubbles of her champagne rise to the top of her glass, hoping that if she looked preoccupied with her drink that no one would attempt to bother her. She had always hoped that she would never have to step foot into a stuffy social event like this again. Those hopes had obviously been shattered when the guild received a request specifically requesting her team, and well, with a promised pay that large, who was she to say no?

They had been tasked with guarding a charity ball from a group of individuals who had been rumoured to be after a valuable piece of jewellery that was being auctioned off during the event. It would have been more tolerable had they not been specifically told to arrive in formal attire to blend in with the crowd and not draw attention to themselves or any potential troublemakers, lest they cause any panic during the event.

Lucy liked her pretty dresses, she liked her makeup, she liked getting herself prettied up for a night out, but the thing she liked about it was being able to do it of her own volition. Being forced into formal attire for events like this only served to remind her of her days back at the estate and the way her skirts were always a little too heavy and her corsets a little too tight.

Thankfully, the night had gone on uneventfully so far. The four of them had split up so as to cover more ground, but Lucy had yet to encounter anything of interest. She was content to keep her position and hope that no one approached her or caused any trouble.

When a waiter came past with another tray of champagne, Lucy replaced her empty glass with a new one from the tray before taking another sip. It was a little too classy for her tastebuds, which were used to the cheap liquor and boozy cocktails back at the guild, but right now she was taking whatever she could get.

Perhaps it wasn’t in her best interest to keep downing the stuff; she knew Erza would be unhappy with the way she was already starting to feel herself sway side to side, but she was just hoping that nothing popped up that the rest of her team couldn’t handle as she tried to distract herself from the unpleasant memories that this place dug up.

She glanced up from her drink, doing a once-over of the crowd to ensure there was no suspicious activity arising, only to be met with a flash of familiar pink hair making his way through the crowd with an armful of the mini cucumber sandwiches Lucy had seen a waiter passing around earlier.

Trying her best not to look suspicious herself, Lucy made her way over to him with the full intention of telling him off for slacking off while conveniently leaving out the fact that that was exactly what she had been doing too.

"Natsu," she hissed, shoving him slightly on his shoulder to capture his attention. "You’re not supposed to be in this section, and you’re certainly not meant to be eating all the hors d'oeuvres."

"The other guy in my area wouldn’t let me take any more food," he replied, shoving another cucumber sandwich in his mouth. "There was nothin’ going on there anyway, just a bunch of old dudes talking about money and stuff."

"Because that’s what they do at these sorts of events," she shot back. "It’s a charity gala, but all these guys are here for is money and social status."

Natsu didn’t reply, instead giving her a blank stare that gave her no indication of what the hell was going on in that brain of his.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Are you drunk?" He asked, gesturing to her already half-empty champagne glass.

"What? No, I’m not dr-"

"Well if it isn’t little Lucy Heartfilia!" A voice interrupted her from behind. "Not so little anymore now, are you?"

She turned on her heel, plastering on a fake smile as she came face to face with one of her father’s old business associates.

"I’d recognise that face anywhere," he said. "You look even more like your mother now than the last time I saw you."

"Yep," she politely agreed, forcing a smile on her face that was already beginning to hurt her cheeks.

"I’m sorry to hear about your father and his business; a real shame about that," he added, his tone unsympathetic and not at all matching his words.

The man whose name had been lost in Lucy’s mind to time continued to ramble on about his business, his relationship with Jude, and a multitude of other subjects that Lucy simply didn’t care to entertain. She nodded along to try and be polite, but this was exactly what she hoped wouldn’t happen tonight, and now she was trapped in the last conversation she wanted to be having.

"Enough about me; how have you been, Miss Heartfilia? What brings you to this gala?" He asked, snapping Lucy out of her bored trance.

She blinked at him, unsure of exactly what to say, and her mind began to haze over as she felt her last glass of champagne suddenly kick in.

"Oh well, I um-" she stuttered out, vastly unprepared to have any conversation tonight, especially not one with someone who she was supposed to be familiar with. "Well, I’m part of a guild now," she explained, clutching her glass tighter in her right hand and drawing attention to the vibrant guild mark that was stamped on it as she tried to avoid directly answering the question.

"Well, I wouldn’t have pinned you as the type to follow guild life," he told her. "You were always a very smart, delicate little girl—not built for that type of work. Everyone has their rebellious stage, I suppose."

Lucy tried to keep herself composed at his words and hide her discomfort. With the way she could feel the alcohol hitting her, she wasn’t entirely sure she was doing much of a good job hiding her uncomfortable expression.

"Who’s this guy?" Natsu butted in, clearly unimpressed with what this man was saying about his best friend.

"O-oh, right. Natsu, this is one of my father’s old business associates," she introduced, hoping that neither of them would bring up the need for the name that she had forgotten long ago. "And this is my partner, Natsu."

At the very least, having Natsu by her side made the whole situation a little more tolerable.

"It’s nice to meet you, Natsu," he greeted, to which Natsu responded with a curt nod rather than a verbal reply.

Her partner seemed entirely disinterested in the situation, clearly only hanging around to stick by her side as the man rambled along about days long past since he had worked alongside Jude.

Glancing over at Natsu, she saw his eyes were somewhere else entirely, focusing in on the trays of food being passed around the room rather than on the conversation that he had accidentally found himself in.

"Hey, I’ll be right back," Natsu declared before all but sprinting over to a waiter passing by with a fresh tray of appetisers.

Lucy opened her mouth to protest in hopes he would somehow give her an out from this stupid conversation, but he was gone before she could even speak. The man stood opposite her quirked an eyebrow at his odd behavior, and Lucy merely flashed him an awkward but apologetic smile, hoping he would take that as his cue to leave as well.

"He seems a little simple for a dignified lady such as yourself," the man commented. "Such a shame that you’ve had to settle for a boy as... fatuous as him."

"Excuse me?" Lucy replied. "What is that supposed to mean?" She asked, feigning ignorance despite understanding exactly what the man was trying to tell her.

He wasn’t even trying to be subtle or implicit. He may have tried to hide his insults behind his pompous vocabulary, but Lucy understood what he was saying loud and clear. Seventeen years raised in this hellscape were more than enough time to understand the self-importance and superiority that these men held over people like Natsu, and it was certainly more than enough time to vehemently disagree with that way of thinking.

Any other time she might have stayed quiet and let the comment slip by, content knowing that Natsu wouldn’t have known or cared that the man was trying to insult him, but perhaps it was the liquid courage flowing through her veins that had her more than willing to jump to his defence.

"Well, he just looks a little… obstreperous is all," he responded, seemingly taken aback by her response, clearly expecting the same little polite Lucy that she had been over a decade ago.

"And so what if he is?" She defended, her hand clutching the stem of her champagne flute so hard that she was surprised that it hadn’t already shattered. "That’s not necessarily a bad thing."

There was no reason for her to get this upset over his words; it wasn’t anything that she hadn’t already told him to his face, but hearing it from this stranger, who knew nothing of him or of their relationship, made her blood boil.

Sure, Natsu was an idiot, but he was her idiot, and she wasn’t about to tolerate anyone else degrading him for that when they knew nothing about all the good things about him.

They didn’t know that he was a good, kind-hearted person—someone who was deeply loving and fiercely loyal towards his friends and family. They didn’t know he knew all the ways to make her laugh and all the words to comfort her when she was down. They didn’t know he was her first point of comfort, that he was the one who held her when she cried, or that he would do absolutely anything for her, and in turn, she would do the exact same for him.

"I just think that-" he began, before Lucy swiftly cut him off, her hands shaking with anger at his audacity to continue speaking.

"Well, I think that you’re nothing more than a self-righteous asshole who thinks he’s exempt from criticism because he has money but feels as though it’s fair to offer out thinly veiled insults to those you see as below you, when really you have no idea what the hell you’re talking about."

The words flowed so naturally, as if he had caused some dam in her brain to burst and finally given her the courage to say everything she had wanted to say to this man and every other bigwig she had been forced to put up with as a child.

"Miss Heartfilia, I think it’s about time you lay off the champagne; you’ve clearly had enough to drink," he told her, trying to dodge her criticisms by reaching for her glass.

"I wasn’t done," she spat, pulling her glass away from his hand. "Natsu is one of the most incredible people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and you have no right to say those things about him."

The alcohol had clearly taken its hold on her by now; her voice was raised much louder than was perhaps necessary, drawing a crowd around them to see what was going on.

"Natsu is strong and kind and caring��all the things that your type would never be," Lucy declared. "And you may look down on him, but you will never be half the man he is."

Her words had clearly left him speechless, with his mouth agape as he tried to figure out where on earth her sudden anger had come from.

It didn’t matter that she had an audience now; all that was running through her head were thoughts of Natsu and how she would defend him to the bitter end.

"You say I’ve had to settle for him, but you’re wrong. I haven’t had to settle for anything because Natsu has given me more than anyone from my old life could have, and I am so lucky to have him by my side."

"You’re showing a lot of emotion over some… guild scum," the man managed to stutter out, no longer content with disguising his insults with complex words that he had hoped she wouldn’t understand.

Deciding that there was nothing more she had to say to this man, with shaking hands she took a step closer to him before dumping the remaining contents of her glass onto his shirt. The once quiet murmurs of the audience had turned to loud gasps in both horror and amusement at the scene that had just played out before them.

Before he had a chance to speak up, Lucy felt a hand grab her wrist, and her heart sank to the bottom of her chest as she realised that she was possibly about to get herself kicked out and ruin the whole mission for her team.

She whipped around to face her assailant, hoping it would be someone she could fight off or, at the very least, escape their grasp to run as far away from here as possible. Instead, she was met with the familiar face of the one who had inadvertently gotten her into this situation in the first place.

"Alright, time to get ya out of here before Erza finds us," Natsu said as he dragged her through the crowd.

She stumbled behind him, trying to keep her balance as the world started to blur around her, whether from the champagne or the feeling of his touch, she wasn’t too sure.

"I’m sorry…" Lucy murmured, her gaze stuck to the floor as the sudden shame and embarrassment over what she had done washed over her. "I’ve definitely screwed up the whole job for us."

"What? You don’t have to apologise," Natsu replied, stopping in his tracks, deciding that they were far enough from the scene of the crime to stop and talk about it. "That guy was a dick, sayin’ all that shit about you not being built for guild life."

She gave him a blank stare for a moment as she processed the fact that their distain for that man stemmed from very different origins.

"Woulda decked him in the face if you’d let me, but what you did was pretty funny too."

"That’s not what I was upset about," she clarified.

"Y’know, I don’t care about him thinking I’m obstreperous, whatever the hell that means," Natsu shrugged.

"I know, but I do," she replied.

Her face began to grow red as the realisation finally struck her that if he had heard that, he had definitely also heard everything else she had said about him.

"I just couldn’t stand there and let him say that stuff about you," she explained. "It wasn’t fair."

"Yeah, I guess I get it," he replied. "I probably woulda done the same for you."

She knew that he would have done the same for her; there wasn’t much she was sure he wouldn’t do for her, but it still made her heart beat just a little faster.

Looking down at their hands, Natsu dropped her wrist in favour of intertwining their fingers and giving her hand a slight squeeze. When his gaze flicked up to meet hers, he met her with an earnest smile, which she returned with just as much conviction.

The mood didn’t stay long, though, as Natsu’s gentle smile expanded into a wide grin and Lucy was filled with dread over the impending teasing she was about to be put through.

"You said all those nice things about me," he teased, using his free hand to poke at her chest.

Suddenly she wished she still had that drink in her hand so she could either distract herself from his antics or tip it down his front instead.

"God, if I had known you would be like this about it, I wouldn’t have said it," she grumbled.

"Too late, can’t take it back now," he replied, his wide grin not faltering for a second as he saw through her façade.

"You are so annoying," Lucy whined, giving him a firm whack to the chest, which merely resulted in a cackle from Natsu, clearly having gained the reaction he was looking for out of her.

The rest of the night was spent glued to each other’s sides, perhaps for the best considering the way Lucy was wobbling in her heels, clutching onto his arm to keep her balance and avoid embarrassing herself, deciding that she had already done enough of that for one night. Natsu didn’t seem to mind, finding himself thankful that she was only on the edge of drunk rather than in full kitty mode.

There was a silent breath of relief let out when the team reconvened at the end of the night, and it didn’t start with Erza hounding them for screwing the entire night up.

"It seems that everything went off without a hitch," Erza declared, seemingly happy with their performance on a simple, but albeit, rather boring job. "One of the guests complained that another guest poured champagne down his front, but I suppose that’s none of our concern."

Lucy pursed her lips and averted her gaze, having been fully convinced until now that that small detail of their night had managed to slip past Erza. Perhaps on a night where she had less alcohol in her system, she might have done a better job at hiding the guilt on her face, as she was quickly called out on it.

"Why are you two making those faces?" Erza asked, an eyebrow quirked as suspicions were raised that perhaps the two of them may have had something to do with it.

"It’s ‘cause Lucy’s drunk," Natsu blurted out before Lucy even had a chance to respond.

"What?" She cried, mortified that he would so shamelessly expose her like that. "No I’m not!"

"Oh yeah? Well, you definitely weren’t sober when you fell backwards into that waiter guy and I had to catch you," Natsu retorted, resulting in an embarrassed flush overtaking her face, reaching all the way to the tips of her ears.

"Is that true, Lucy?" Erza asked, turning to face her, though her question was already answered by the look of guilt on her face.

"N-no!" She tried to stutter out, but based on the look she was giving her, it seemed as though Erza remained unconvinced. "Yes…" Lucy sighed in defeat, hoping that the punishment for drinking on the job would be lesser if Erza simply didn’t know the extent of what her drinking had done.

"I see," she plainly replied. "I’m disappointed in you, Lucy, but seeing as the night went well despite your… accident… I’m willing to look past it."

The use of the word "accident" sent nervous chills up her spine, but she forced an awkward smile at her teammate nonetheless.

"But I do request that you lay off the alcohol next time."

"Y-yes!"

It was well past midnight by the time they made their exit, the moon and stars on full display in the sky and a gentle chill lingering in the air. The crisp, cold air was a welcome change from the stuffy and crowded ballroom they had been stuck in all night.

Lucy leaned her head back, taking in a long breath and letting her lungs fill with fresh air, hoping it would clear her head of the fuzz that had been lingering since drink number two. It wasn’t long before she felt a pair of eyes on her, and she glanced over to find Natsu at her side. He was giving her that look that she was ever-familiar with—the one that said you’re weird without him even having to speak. Lucy merely rolled her eyes, deciding that if he wasn’t going to explicitly say anything, then she wouldn’t waste her breath defending herself.

Instead, she let herself enjoy the quiet; her ears no longer abuzz with the surrounding chatter of hundreds of gala guests. It was just her, Natsu, and the stars above them, and she was content to share in that silence with him until he spoke up.

"Hey Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

He swung an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in closer, and even though she had enjoyed the coolness of the night, she relished in the warmth that he provided her.

"I’m lucky to have you in my life too," he grinned.

Not that she didn’t know the feeling was mutual, but hearing him say it made a warm, fuzzy feeling spread throughout her body that she was certain wasn’t the alcohol this time. In response she wrapped her arms around his torso, which he eagerly reciprocated as she nuzzled her face in his shoulder.

“I’m gonna need you to carry me home,” she murmured into the fabric of his coat, trying to hide the fact that she was partially holding onto him to keep her balance.

“You’re a pain,” he grumbled, but obliged nevertheless, hooking his hands under her knees and lifting her up.

“Yeah, but you’re lucky to have me.”

#❤️❤️❤️❤️#fairytail #ft 100 years quest #ft fanfics #nalu #natsu x lucy #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfila #others #kneel before the queue

95 notes · View notes