Lucy didn't really know when it started, but if she had to make an educated guess, she'd say it'd been somewhere around the end of the Grand Magic Games.
She hadn't noticed the difference instantaneously; they had been separated shortly after, after all. But ever since then, Natsu had been….different.
It started off small, like all things did.
It was in the way he'd never leave her side, the way he'd take a subtle step in front of her whenever he sensed danger. Never enough to be obvious, but enough to shield her from harm should it be necessary.
It was in the way half of his attention was always on her, noticeable in the way he was instantly by her side should she so much as give a soft gasp. Lucy remembered one instance where he'd been right in the middle of a brawl with Gray, yet when Lucy wasn't paying enough attention and misstepped, Natsu had still been there to catch her before she could fall.
His arms had been a warm presence around her waist, his gaze level with hers as he double checked to make sure she was alright while simultaneously ignoring the sh*t out of a still-fuming Gray and it'd probably been in that moment that Lucy noticed.
Natsu had grown insanely protective of her, to the point where it must have become almost instinctual to him.
And to be perfectly honest, Lucy didn't know what to think of it.
Nor did she know what to make of the insistent beating of her heart whenever she caught him in the act.
Natsu, to his credit, didn't really seem to be aware of his actions either.
At least she assumed he didn't, because there was no way he'd just pull her shivering body into his and hug her close if he'd at least been aware of his actions...right?
They'd been on a mission, having split up into three groups to gather intel. Happy and Carla; Natsu, Erza and Wendy; and Lucy and Gray.
That last one, for some reason, had Natsu protesting a lot. When asked why, however, he gave nothing more than a huff and a childish pout, followed by some BS about Gray only slowing Lucy down.
Lucy didn’t have to know him as well as she did to know that was a blatant lie.
She’d let it slide though, not naive enough to assume Natsu might spill if she pressed him enough. Besides, with the way Gray instantly went for the attack after that snide little remark, Lucy didn’t think she’d be able to get a word in edgeways.
After getting the two quarreling friends off each other - with just a little coaxing from Erza - Gray and Lucy set off towards the village at the bottom of the mountain. They’d split up initially, covering a lot more ground and questioning a lot more people in half of the time, but after a little mishap involving Gray losing his clothes at the wrong place and Lucy getting hit on one too many times, they decided to finish up the last stretch together.
That was, however, when the snowstorm hit.
Lucy felt the change instantly; the ice creeping around the back of her neck thick enough to make her mistake it for Gray’s magic if she hadn’t known better. With a soft hiss, Lucy cursed herself for deciding to wear a skirt and short sleeves that day as she curled in on herself, rubbing her shoulders in a vain attempt to get warm.
“Maybe we should head back,” Gray stated, after only one look at her.
“G-good call,” Lucy agreed, not so stubborn that she couldn’t recognize the fact she was at a clear disadvantage here. She wasn’t as frost-resilient as her exhibitionist of a partner, you see. Might as well stop now before it got any worse.
Only it did get worse. A lot.
"I'm sorry, Lucy." Gray shrugged off his shirt, gently tugging Lucy towards him by the arm as he helped her slip it on. "I can't really be of much help here."
Lucy could only nod, her lips almost frozen solid. She wanted to tell him that it was okay, that it wasn't his fault. She knew that just as Natsu ran hot like a furnace, Gray ran like ice, so there really wasn't anything he could do. Gray, however, was obviously still beating himself up over it.
"Y-you know," Lucy started, trying her hardest - and miserably failing - to sound optimistic. "I-if J-Juvia saw t-this, she might j-just kill me."
Gray cracked a smile. "I won't tell if you won't."
"D-deal."
"Lucy!"
At the sound of her name, Lucy looked away from Gray’s awkward smile and turned to face the source of the noise. Without even realizing it, they’d already been nearing the meeting point, and faintly, Lucy could make out the figures of both Wendy and Erza standing atop the shallow mountain, as well as the duo of cats hovering right beside them.
Natsu, on the other hand, was already barreling down the hill, using the momentum of the snow to slide right through and quicken up his pace. Lucy barely had time to blink- barely had time to breathe before he came crashing into her, arms wounding around her and lips at her ear, grumbling about ‘stupid Gray’ and whatnot.
“N-Natsu,” she breathed, the cold materializing in front of her face as she spoke. She was still shivering, even with the living furnace currently doing his best to hug her as close as humanly possible. His brows were furrowed, pinched together in what could be either annoyance, concern or poorly suppressed rage; possibly all three. If Lucy didn’t know any better, she’d say he’d been worried.
“Good for nothing popsicle,” Natsu muttered, growling mainly to himself and blatantly ignoring the noises of protests coming from their insulted friend. “Can’t even keep an eye on you- get rid of this.”
Without waiting for her confirmation, Natsu yanked Gray’s shirt off her body, unceremoniously throwing it back at his face and leaving her in just the top she’d been wearing when the trip had started. She felt the increasing number of chills creeping up instantly, but just as fast as they’d come, they were replaced by the feeling of flames licking up her body as her fire dragon tightened his grip on her shivering form, pushed her face further into that ever-present scarf of his and amped up the heat; enough to make her feel like she was melting and on instinct, Lucy snuggled up further into his warmth, not even thinking of the possible implications or how this may or may not look like to others.
“You really oughta start wearing thicker clothes,” Natsu commented, walking her back to where Wendy had set up the fire.
“D-don’t-” Lucy shivered again; Natsu only pulled her closer. “Don’t want to hear that f-from someone who w-wears sandals all the t-time.” She’d have commented on his outfit of choice a few years back, which consisted of just a vest with his chest on full display, but the bastard had gotten rid of that set ages ago, so sandals it was.
Natsu grinned, sitting her down close to the fire yet refusing to let go. He sat down right behind her, pulling her smaller form into his and allowing her to continue using him as a makeshift heater. Lucy closed her eyes with a sigh, falling back into whatever he offered and if this kept up, Lucy thought she might just be able to doze off like this. But then he did something unexpected.
The feeling of warm, soft lips making contact with her temple had her freezing all over again for entirely different reasons this time, and on instinct, Lucy stiffened, her eyes wide and confused as she tilted her head up to stare back at Natsu.
What she found didn’t make her internal crisis any better. He was staring at her with a soft look, all form of caution or his previous annoyance thrown to the wind. It was just him and her; just them, and when he caught her looking, his smile softened even further.
“Don’t scare me like that, Luce,” he told her. A statement, not even a whisper, and it was in that moment that Lucy really had to remind herself that this was Natsu and that he probably didn’t mean anything by it, probably thought that overly touchy concern and soft looks like that were just a thing friends did; that she had no place looking into it the way she was.
….right?
“So….Aquarius, huh?”
Lucy stiffened, having been right in the middle of slipping a shirt on, her arms still raised comically above her head, when he’d popped the question. After their meeting with Brandish and the subsequent embarrassment that had followed, the two of them had ended up at her hotel room; Happy having gone off to check on the others in the meantime, leaving them all alone.
Natsu had respectfully turned his back until she’d at least been wearing a bra and underwear (Lucy didn’t mind if he saw her in at least that much considering he’d seen her in far less countless times before). He’d been oddly quiet the entire time, and Lucy had felt that something was off, could read his moods no matter how hard he tried to hide it, only she couldn’t put her finger on what.
Now, however, it should’ve been clear enough.
Lucy tugged the rest of her shirt over her head and down her body. “What about her?”
“Don’t do that, Lucy.” Natsu turned to face her, something odd in his eyes, something almost...hurt. “You get this sad look on your face every time she’s mentioned, sometimes even downright jumpy.”
“I…” Lucy sat down on the bed, pants forgotten at the sudden turn this conversation had taken. “Have I?”
“Lucy,” Natsu stalked closer and she straightened up, her body tense. She didn’t know why she was so anxious, this was Natsu after all, yet the fact of the matter remained that the closer he got, the more she wanted to hightail it out of there and by the time he’d crowded in on her space, Lucy really was ready to jump.
Natsu rested his weight on the bed, hands on either side of her legs and essentially caging her in. His eyes, usually so expressive and sometimes even childish, scanning her face as if she were an enemy on the other side of the field until it softened. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
And Lucy couldn’t help it, couldn’t help the way her vision became blurry, the way the words clogged up in her throat and her heart burned inside her chest. As irrational as it was, she didn’t want to confirm nor deny his suspicions, but by the way his eyes grew wider for just a fraction of a second, Lucy figured her reaction had been enough of an answer.
“It’s…” Lucy swallowed, trying her hardest to prevent the tears from spilling. She refused to look at Natsu, choosing to watch her fiddling hands instead as she struggled to find the correct words. “It’s complicated.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was soft. Gentle, almost, but the irrational streak of anger she felt at his question was one she’d fought long and hard to keep to herself for as long as she possibly could, simply because deep down, she knew it wasn’t fair on him, on anyone but, well; that did it, then.
“Because you left!”
Natsu visibly recoiled at her outburst; at the sudden harshness of her voice. She was still caged in, still at his mercy, but just then, the positions were switched. And while Lucy knew she should stop here, knew that whatever came out of her mouth next would bring nothing but unnecessary hurt, she just couldn’t stop.
“I was all on my own,” Lucy started, her eyes on her favorite salmon-haired goofball but her mind on an entirely different place. “All of you were gone and I was all out of magic power and...and the only way to save everyone was to….to-”
Well, so much for holding back the waterworks.
Lucy honestly thought she’d cried and grieved enough in his year of absence, figured that’d been enough time to get over Aquarius’ sacrifice but once again, she was proven wrong. The tears she’d been fighting back so valiantly since the start of this conversation spilled over, her vision going blurry along with them, but it didn’t matter anyway because all she could see were Aquarius’ final moments, playing over and over on constant repeat. The pain she felt then, it seemed, was the exact same as the pain she felt now.
Natsu leaned back, his hands hovering awkwardly over the sheets as he stared at her, obviously uncomfortable. Fights and riots he could handle, but the sight of his best friend crying? That was a different story.
Lucy, however, wasn’t finished.
“I had to give up her key!” She cried, finally spilling the truth she’d so dreadfully kept to herself ever since his return. “I had no choice! It-it was the only way and...but then- but then you left and I… I just-”
Something guilty took place in Natsu’s eyes, but before Lucy had the chance to think too much about it, he’d reached out and pulled her in, his arms a solid presence around her as she sobbed into his shoulder.
And she hated it; she really did. Lucy didn't like this feeling of helplessness, didn't like being considered weak. It was especially daunting once you took note of the fact she was surrounded by powerful people.
Lucy wasn't oblivious to the opinions of the public. Her Sorcerer Weekly days had especially put it into perspective; the talk of her just being Fairy Tail's pretty face had been at their highest then, after all.
The comparison to Juvia, to Erza. How Mira had also modeled for Sorcerer Weekly yet was way more powerful than Lucy could ever be; how she just slowed Natsu down, how Lisanna or Evergreen or Cana or anyone would've been a much better fit for the team than her and her keys. She'd heard it all.
She'd heard it all and she thought it was bull. Lucy knew her worth, knew she was strong in her own way and that every one of her friends, her family would back her on this. But she also knew that first impressions lasted a long time, and hers, admittedly, hadn't been the best.
So she kept fighting. Lucy kept her head high, her smile sharp, and her attitude friendly. There was no time to waste on petty opinions such as these, yet sometimes...sometimes it got too much. With Aquarius gone, Lucy had felt as if her whole world had crumbled, had felt as weak as the public imagined her to be.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
And he hadn't been there.
"We'll get her back, Lucy." Natsu promised, his arms tightening their hold around her. He dipped down, face nuzzled against her shoulder; whether to comfort her or hide his face from her view, Lucy didn't know. "I swear to you right now, we'll get her back."
And all of a sudden, she was tired. Tired of her outburst, tired of crying, tired of being mad at him about something that really had been out of his control. She slumped into his hold, her hands coming up weakly to rest against his back.
Lucy sniffled. "That was the plan anyway, you doofus."
Natsu grinned. "Of course it was."
Later, he'd tell her about Igneel.
Lucy felt horrible.
It'd been a little after she'd turned back to normal that Natsu pulled her aside.
Lucy didn't remember much from her time as a yokai, not much other than the weird slithery feeling in her legs, maybe. But from what she'd been told, it hadn't been very pleasant.
Natsu told her she'd been weirder than usual and annoying to fight, while Aquarius made it a point to mention her apparent lack of clothing during her transformation, much to Lucy's own horror and embarrassment.
But after meeting up with the rest of the group and getting rid of that yokai lady, Natsu had been oddly quiet.
At first, Lucy had just chalked it up to exhaustion, but that was stupid. She'd seen him tired countless of times, each time more frightening than the other yet he never fell silent. Natsu had the tendency to push himself to his utter limits even when it wasn't necessary, coming back with that irritating, yet lovely boyish grin of his and a half-assed apology for scaring Lucy out of her wits. Sure, he'd pass out right after, but even then her firecracker managed to get some last few words in. Never once had he been silent.
Never once until now, that was.
They walked through the caves as a group, with Lucy and Aquarius in the front because the mage had opted to cling to her spirit the same way a child would to their mother. She'd missed her so much, she really couldn't help herself and for once, Aquarius didn't seem to mind the clinginess either. She hadn't made an attempt to drown Lucy yet, which was already a good sign, but sometimes, when she thought Lucy wasn't looking, she'd watch her with the softest, most tender smile and the blonde didn't know whether the sting she felt was from happiness or heartbreak.
Instead of thinking about it properly and settling her feelings of guilt like an adult, Lucy chose the cheater's way out; distraction. She glanced back at the rest of the group, having planned to start whatever random topic with the first person she saw, that person most likely being Natsu but when she finally turned, she found him all the way in the back of the group.
He had his arms crossed over his bare chest, eyes focused on the solid rocks kicking away at his feet, all by himself and locked up within his own mind.
Lucy let go of Aquarius immediately.
"I'll be right back," she gave as only explanation, sliding past Erza and Gray, and then Wendy and the cats, her worry for Natsu overriding her joy at seeing Aquarius again at that moment.
Her fire dragon was stupid; that much was a given. He was loud, obnoxious, didn't think about his actions nor his words and he especially didn't know of a little thing called 'personal space'. He was an absolute disaster, but as contradictory as it sounded; he was a smart one, too.
Sure, he didn't understand stuff like emotions and was slow to pick up on basic math, but he was perceptive. Just like she was able to read him like a book, he was able to read her when it counted. Natsu was the type to pay attention to everyone around himself but only spoke up whenever he deemed there was room for a stupid remark or badly-timed joke in order to lighten the mood.
Most of the time, at least. Lucy had to give credit where credit was due, of course, but there had also been plenty of times where he'd just been too clueless to realize that no, Natsu, now is not the time to start a fight.
He was, in one word, a walking contradiction.
A walking contradiction that, much to her chagrin, had an absolutely horrible habit of keeping his own troubles to himself. The revelation of what happened to Igneel had proven as much, as had the secret of E.N.D. and all of this is what ultimately had her worried because a silent Natsu meant a troubled Natsu and a troubled Natsu hardly had any interest in what happened to himself.
His most rash decisions had been made under pressure, after all.
The sound of her footsteps, apparently, had been enough to alert him to her presence because just before she reached him, Natsu looked up. "Lucy. What's wrong?"
He looked puzzled, his head tilted in a way that was almost childlike and plenty adorable. That was another one of his traits, the childishness he'd apparently never grown out of.
"I should be asking you that, I think." Lucy easily fell into step next to him, noticing that there was quite some distance between them and the rest of the group and she had to wonder if he'd slowed down his pace like this the entire time. "You're thinking too loud."
Natsu's lips curved, trying for his usual goofy grin but all she saw was the way his eyes flickered to the left for just the tiniest of moments and honestly, she knew him too well.
"You're imagining things, Luce. I'm perfectly fine!"
"No you're not, you've been silent this whole time."
"Well, you know, I haven't eaten in a while and-"
"If that were true, I'd have heard you complaining this entire time, Natsu, quit lying."
He sighed then, the stern tone in her voice apparently enough for him to give up on trying to convince her. "Why aren't you with Aquarius?"
"Because my best friend is being an idiot," Lucy scoffed.
Finally, Natsu stopped walking and Lucy, in turn, halted her pace along with him. She was about to open her mouth again, drill him on why he looked so down, so guilty. The Natsu she knew never went a moment without that stupid, co*cky grin of his. He thrived on the thrill of a fight and as such, was always looking out for one, even at the expense of their group because if he had to challenge one of his friends to a fight then damn it, he would!
So having him this quiet, this….thoughtful. Staring at Lucy like she had the power to break him was just wrong, all sorts of wrong.
But before she could speak on it, she felt his familiar heat crawling up her body as he grabbed her hand, his thumb slowly moving over her skin. "I haven't seen you this happy in ages," he confessed, dark eyes focused on their joined hands and Lucy was speechless.
She could read him, even prided herself on her ability to read him but right now? Lucy had no idea what the hell this man was thinking.
"Natsu…"
"It's a good thing," the thumb caressing the back of her hand stopped moving, his fingers turning her hand over to shift over her palm instead. "You really did weird me out a minute ago. I don't mind fighting you, but not like...that."
It wasn't hard to figure out what he was talking about. Her short-lived time as a yokai, the terrifying moment from which she remembered absolutely nothing and could only trust upon what she was told.
"I didn't...I didn't know how to- damn it." He cursed in irritation, the movement of his fingers momentarily stopping but Lucy just squeezed his hand in part encouragement and part wonder, urging him to go on because she realized that, for once, Natsu was actually attempting to tell her how he felt.
Lucy was sure she was going to die today. If Selene didn't show up within the next ten minutes to finish the job, she was sure someone else would.
"I tried fighting you," he said, brows pulled together. "I figured if talking to you didn't help then I'd just have to deal with the curse the usual way but...but then you'd scream and call for me and I just froze, I-"
He looked at her then, watched her stunned face, the dirt on her cheeks, the tears in her clothes. He studied the rat's nest her hair had turned into, the shine of her eyes and before Lucy could even bother to say something, could try to understand what in the hell he was getting at, Natsu cursed again.
"Damn it, Lucy, I told you to stop scaring me like that," he grumbled, his hand - the hand that was still holding hers - moving up to his face to nuzzle against her palm and yes, Lucy really did think she was going to die today.
There was something so soft in his eyes, so gentle and he-
He cared. He cared way too much. Natsu was insanely protective of his friends, so protective that he'd move Heaven and Earth just to ensure their safety. He was a little self-sacrificial in that aspect, likely due to his upbringing but damn it, this felt different. This felt so, so different and Lucy did not know what to make of it, nor did she know what to think of the insistent pounding against her ribcage.
He was her fire dragon, her silly bundle of chaos, her daily walking migraine. Lucy considered him hers in the same way she thought he considered her as his, but now….
Now she wasn't so sure they were on the exact same wavelength.
Ignia, it seemed, just had a way of pushing Natsu's buttons in all the wrong ways.
"I'm gonna kill him," Natsu growled, his fists already alight with fire.
Lucy stood next to him, dumbly blinking out in front of her and honestly, this was getting embarrassing. Natsu just kept throwing curveball after curveball, too rapid for her to properly keep up which led to her reacting to his actions much slower and it was just unsightly.
She hadn't done anything with the realization she'd had that day in the cave, too much of a coward to act on it or even straight out ask him upfront because there was always that one possibility. She'd misinterpreted his actions for romantic interest once before and that day had been humiliating, bad enough for her to lie awake for the following three nights. Lucy didn't want to risk it happening again, thank you very much.
Only...Natsu was making it insanely hard for her to work around it this time, with his ever-changing behaviour and continuous words and acts that she was certain he didn't even think twice about yet had her heart wishing it could explode from the inside out.
Like right now, for example, because the reason he was so pissed at Ignia was...because….
"Lucy, was it?" The fire god dragon drawled, his smirk a dangerous one and so much unlike Natsu's that it was jarring. Natsu's grin felt like home, as chaotic and dysfunctional as it might sometimes be. Ignia's grin had her fighting the urge to call for Loke or Capricorn to wipe that grin off.
"I didn't catch it the last time we met, but you really are a looker, aren't you?"
Hell, on second thought, she might just kick him in the face herself.
"The hell did you just say?!"
….If Natsu didn't get to him first, that was.
Ignia rolled his eyes, essentially ignoring the sh*t out of her fuming dragon - something which definitely wouldn't end well - in favor of keeping his eyes on Lucy in a way that was almost….predatory.
She had dealt with creeps before, of course. Had been forced to do so from a way too young age so she sadly had experience in the matter, but Ignia was different. He looked at her as if he wanted to consume her in a way that was all too literal and it made the fact that it was just her and Natsu standing before him way too real.
Lucy believed in Natsu's strength, believed in their combined strength especially. She didn't often fear for their lives when it was just the two of them, and even when she did, she'd keep fighting until the very end because that's just who she was. Lucy was stubborn, had been told so many times and she was proud of it too. She refused to cave regardless of the situation, a principle she'd stick by...and yet…
Ignia was one of the god dragons, one of the gods they'd been requested to hunt, one of the gods that had failed to be taken down in over a hundred years.
Not only that, but he claimed to be Igneel's son; a man that had raised Natsu into the unstoppable force that he was today, a man that had knowingly and willingly raised an actual demon into her idiot of a firecracker she admittedly held a little too much affection for.
Lucy felt she couldn't be faulted for being a little on edge around this guy.
So she ignored his advances, tried to ignore Natsu's loud and annoyed growls and took a step back from the other dragon in front of them.
"Star dress…" she swallowed. "Aquarius." Because one way she knew how to counter fire was with water, and considering Juvia wasn't present right now either, she would have to do.
Ignia, however, clearly took it the wrong way. He whistled low, the sound echoing through the empty valley the three of them stood in, eyes trailing over the newly exposed skin and it was then that Lucy realized that while her intentions had been well thought out, the fact that Aquarius's dress was basically a swimsuit had escaped her.
"I like the new look-"
"That's it!"
"Natsu, don't!"
But it was too late. Natsu had lunged long before she'd been able to finish her sentence and before she knew it, she was watching Ignia block and hold off Natsu's attack with just a single turn of his wrist; his predatory eyes still locked on Lucy.
The chills were worse than before now.
"Why's he so heated?" Ignia asked, almost bored. He shoved Natsu back harshly, sending him flying and Lucy had only that split second to call for Aries to cushion his fall, her heart still pounding in her chest. "You guys dating?"
"What?" Lucy screeched, her face impossibly red - because obviously that's what you did when faced with almost certain death; be embarrassed - as she tore her eyes away from where Natsu had fallen and whipped her head back to face Ignia at impossible speed. "Of course not!"
The thing is, Natsu chose that exact moment to answer Ignia's question with a definite, albeit loud "YES!" Followed by a confused, and maybe slightly offended "Wait, what do you mean 'of course not'?" And that was probably the moment where Lucy's heart and soul had just about given up on her.
“What do you mean ‘yes’?!” Lucy countered, definitely not in hysterics.
“Wait you guys aren’t dating-”
“ARIES!”
“I’m sorry!”
In the midst of the chaos and Lucy’s not-so-discreet emotional breakdown, Natsu was just staring at her incredulously, looking as if he’d just realized something himself and oh god, oh god, was this actually happening?
“I can’t believe this,” Natsu muttered, more to himself than to her.
Apparently, it was.
"Come on, princess," Ignia drawled, having chosen her frozen stupor as the exact moment to reappear because frankly, Lucy had momentarily forgotten he even existed. "See what I mean? Clearly you guys aren't working out, you can do much better than him."
And that's when Lucy got mad, when she got furious. The nerve to even insinuate that Natsu, her Natsu wasn't enough for her was enough for the blonde to see red. Because sure, he's an idiot, and sure, he had indirectly been the cause of many misfortunate events in her life but he would always be one of the best things to ever happen to her and Lucy would stand by that fact until her deathbed.
"No," she responded, just as Natsu was getting ready to attack again. "I absolutely can't."
Lucy reached for her keys, temporarily pushing the current issue of her ambiguous relationship status aside - something which they would definitely be talking about, by the way - in order to pinpoint her focus solely on their current enemy. The sooner they could get out of this with all their limbs still intact, the sooner they could figure out whatever the hell just went down between them.
"Open, gate of the lion, Leo!"
It seemed that Lucy hadn’t been the only one that had felt a talk was necessary, because as soon as the opportunity arose, Natsu had pulled her with him and dragged her into an empty room.
He’d been quiet this entire time, hadn’t said a word when they’d finally gotten away from the infuriating fire god dragon; hadn’t said a word when they’d met up with the rest of the group and hadn’t said a word when Lucy dared to ask him if everything was alright. He’d just been silently fuming, staring out in front of him, deep in thought, with steam - literally and figuratively - rising from his shoulders.
That last part was what tipped Lucy off on the fact that his current silence was a lot different from that day in the cave.
It wasn’t until they’d found a quiet little motel that he finally spoke up. Erza had just barely finished checking in before he’d snatched one of the keys and dragged Lucy off to what was apparently his room now.
The door had shut behind them for only a millisecond before he turned, arms crossed over his chest. “You didn’t think we were together.”
It wasn’t even a question, but a statement; a statement likely born from all that time he had spent silently pouting to himself. A statement that, much to Lucy’s chagrin, also had her cheeks flushing insanely red at an embarrassingly quick speed.
“You thought we were?!” she replied, her eyes wide with disbelief. Disbelief which was entirely warranted, if you asked her.
"I thought it was pretty obvious, yeah."
"Well, it wasn't!"
"How was it not?" Natsu asked, looking at her as if she was the one not understanding the most basic of things right now and dear God, Lucy knew Natsu could be dense sometimes, but this was just on another level.
"I- okay, okay, for the sake of my sanity; how long have we been together?" She paused, rethought her words. "According to you."
Natsu blinked owlishly, the answer coming to him almost too easily. "Since you got that award for your novel."
"Since I- that long?!"
"Yes!"
"You never showed interest in me!" And at this point, even Lucy was aware she was reaching. He had shown interest in her, she'd realized it herself. Only it had been much later than expected and Lucy herself hadn't fully wanted to believe it either in fear of getting her hopes up.
"I never- Lucy, what?!" Natsu, to his credit, seemed to catch on to her bullsh*t. "Do you see me spending time with- getting jealous over any other girls like this?!"
"I thought that was you just being overprotective!"
"Lucy, you are literally on my mind all the time."
She groaned, covered her face, paced the floor. "I know!"
And she did, she really did. She'd become a little suspicious of his behaviour in the past, but only after the Grand Magic Games had it become blatantly obvious that Natsu would put everything on the line should her safety ever be at risk. It had stumped her at first, even led to a solitary moment of sheer panic that wasn't unlike the one she was experiencing right now.
Back then, however, she had justified his behaviour as being leftover trauma from watching her future self get killed right in front of him. Natsu was stupidly loyal; a moment like that was sure to scar him for the rest of his life. It could have been literally anyone in her place that day and Natsu would've gone on to protect them.
At least, that's what she had told herself.
But this? All of this? This was different. Natsu wasn't just being protective, he was being caring, was looking at her as if she held the whole world and could destroy it just as easily.
Lucy was ecstatic, but she was also so, so terrified.
"Luce," she looked up, startled to find that in the midst of her internal crisis, he'd easily crossed the distance between them and was now standing directly in front of her. Instinctively, she wanted to jump back, mainly because she didn't think her overworked brain could handle him being this close and she was probably at high risk of spontaneously combusting, but before she could try and make her escape, Natsu had trapped both of her hands in his. "Look at me."
Mainly out of panic, Lucy did the exact opposite. She stubbornly closed her eyes and shook her head. "No!"
"Are you serious- Lucy!"
"I'm not going to- what are you doing?!"
At the feeling of soft lips lightly pressing against her knuckles, Lucy's eyes shot open wide, effectively coming face to face with the one person that had her heart doing somersaults far too often these days.
Natsu stared up at her, his lips curled into that soft, boyish grin she had never once been able to resist. "Made you look," he smiled and it was at that moment that Lucy decided this man held way too much power and that she might be a lot weaker to his charms - charms she didn't even know he had - than initially thought.
"I-" This couldn't be happening, there was just no way.
Lucy had dealt with a lot in her life. Periodical harassment just because she happened to be born into a wealthy family, rivaling guilds trying in vain to take down the behemoth that was Fairy Tail, a timeless war, a raging, murderous dragon. Lucy could and had dealt with all of that; had stood tall and proud during it all because she had never once been alone during that time. She'd always had her friends, her family, her spirits; had always had their unwavering support.
Which was nice and all, but apparently all of that could not compare to the sneak attack that was her best friend taking the next step- the best friend that Lucy had admittedly had a raging crush on for an embarrassingly long time and it showed because one look at those set of dark yet sparkling eyes rendered her weak to her damn knees.
"You drive me absolutely crazy," Natsu began, his eyes, once again, on their joined hands. "You do the weirdest, most reckless stuff sometimes and I don't know how to react."
"Hypocrite," Lucy breathed.
He chuckled, met her eyes for a split second. "Guess so. It's usually because of you though."
"Half of my attention is always on you, Luce. I worry when you're not near me; I worry when you are. I don't like it when you're sad, absolutely hate it when you cry or get hurt, I just- I wasn't kidding when I said you were on my mind all the time." He looked away then, almost bashful.
"You're blushing," Lucy realized, her mind admittedly working a bit slower than usual due to the multiple bombshells currently being tossed her way, but the way Natsu's cheeks tinted pink was undeniable. He was feeling it just as bad as she was.
Her little comment, however, only served to make the color to his face worse. "You're in no position to talk," Natsu grumbled. His eyes, so captivating and expressive only moments before, avoiding hers at all costs. "I still don't understand how you didn't think we were together."
Lucy bristled. "You could have just said it straight!"
"Why?" Natsu visibly cringed at the thought. Right, he hated talking about stuff like this. Honestly it was already a miracle they'd even come this far. "Seriously, how much more obvious could I have made it for you?"
"Well, if talking wasn't an option, you could at least have made an effort to show me in a way that isn't so damn cryptic-"
"Fine!"
Before Lucy fully realized what she'd said, what she'd insinuated, Natsu's hand had slid into her hair and pulled her in; their lips meeting in a firm kiss that cleared up everything she had apparently misunderstood about their relationship.
Natsu kissed her like he was drowning; like she was the last breath of fresh air he would ever get and her heart had stopped. This was Natsu, her best friend, her fire dragon, her Natsu and he was coming dangerously close to sucking her damn soul out via a kiss.
Death by liplock.
Seemed fitting.
Natsu pulled back, his hands holding her face, his eyes one, maybe two shades darker than before, looking just as breathless as she felt. He scanned her face, the lips he'd just devoured and Lucy figured that okay, she still wasn't in the wrong for this one, but god damn had she wished she'd realized it sooner. They could've been kissing like this for ages!
"Probably should've done that a lot earlier," Natsu admitted all of a sudden, looking a lot more sheepish than he had any right being.
"Yes," Lucy gasped, still trying to get her brain back on track. "You definitely should have."
"So….just to clarify. We actually are together now, right?"
Lucy smacked him over the head.
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