A/N: Came from mautrino on tumblr - the prompt "You're the only one I wanna wake up next to."

I really like how this one came out, I think.

Natsu sighed in contentment as sleep unclouded his mind and he slowly became aware of his surroundings. The woman next to him, his girlfriend of nearly two years, was still sleeping, lightly snoring. The glittering beams of sunlight streaming in through the window made the woman nearly glow with radiance, her blonde hair looking more beautiful than the most pure of gold and her skin looking softer than the finest silk.

It wasn't Lucy's looks that made him fall in love with her, but they certainly did a good job of capturing his attention ever since he had. In that moment, she looked like an angel, a goddess, and he didn't know how he'd managed to make her his.

Of course, her personality was quite distanced from "angelic". Sure, she was compassionate, loving, and caring, but there were certain… sinful things about her, too. The matching love bites on their necks could vouch for that.

Usually by this time, Natsu would be getting up, eager for a great breakfast or to get to the guild for a good fight, but he really didn't have any excess energy, it seemed. It made sense, though. They'd gone particularly long last night, but it had been fantastic according to the fleeting memories coming back to him.

Mornings like this were always amazing. After a long night of reinstating their love, they were always drowsy the morning after. Just so intimate and cuddly, and more than once it had brought on a bonus soft and gentle session.

Suddenly unable to keep his love for his girlfriend contained, Natsu pressed a kiss to her forehead. When she started to stir, he cursed internally, realizing he'd been the reason for her waking.

"Mm… Natsu?" she blearily questioned. "What are you doing?"

"Just thinking," he responded as he watched her yawn and move closer to him.

Lucy opened her eyes as she giggled. "Well that's dangerous."

"Hey!"

"Teasing."

"I know."

After kissing him softly, the blonde sighed happily as she laid against his chest. "So what were you thinking about?"

"You know. Things. How beautiful you are, how fucking great last night was, how lucky I am to have you," he said with a toothy smile.

Lucy grinned. "Yeah? I think about how lucky I am to have you quite a bit, as well." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his collarbone. "Hmm, and last night was great. But I really like these mornings, Natsu," she confessed.

"Yeah," Natsu grinned wider. "So do I. I love waking up next to you. I always have, even before we were together."

"I know that, Natsu," she reminded him. "You always snuck in my bed."

"Yeah…" Natsu chuckled as he started remembering their other mornings together, before and after their first kiss and confession. "Yeah…" He gave a toothy grin down to Lucy again as he combed his fingers through her hair. "I wanna wake up next to you for the rest of our lives," he suddenly told her without thinking, the words just falling from his lips. Lucy looked at him with wide eyes before just laughing lightly and burrowing into his neck, hiding a blush she thought Natsu couldn't see. But Natsu was blushing, too, so maybe it was just as well that she was hiding.

"I didn't exactly mean to admit that," he laughed. "But it's true. You're the only one I ever wanna wake up next to."

Lucy squeaked from her position on him and brought her hands up to cover her face further, the blush only going further. "I… You're the only one I wanna wake up next to, too," she confessed quickly, finally raising her head to look at him, but still covering her furiously red cheeks. "But stop teasing me!" she whined playfully while nuzzling one of his own pinker cheeks. She wouldn't normally get so embarrassed over his affections, but there was just something about these mornings.

"I know you love it," he teased more, earning another squeal. "And I love you even more."

This time Lucy didn't get embarrassed, but gave him a watery smile as she tried not to tear up. That was another thing she loved about these mornings. She didn't know if it was just the sleepiness, but it seemed like everything Natsu said to her during these times just made her heart melt. It wasn't that they didn't confess their love with frequency, there was really was just something special about these mornings.

"We should probably start getting ready to go," Lucy told him after glancing at their clock. "Erza mentioned wanting to go on a job today." Natsu hummed, but didn't make any moves to get up, simply holding her tighter. "What, not eager to go fight Gray?" Lucy teased.

"Not yet, just wanna hold you for a while."

"Well, you won't hear me arguing."

Although it wasn't long until Natsu did start to feel restless. He squeezed her one last time and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Fuck, I wanna marry you," he said quietly before sitting up with a yawn.

Lucy was silent for a moment as she watched her boyfriend stand up and stretch. "What did you say?" she tentatively asked.

"Hm?"

"A- a moment ago, what did you say?"

Natsu furrowed his brows in confusion before his eyes suddenly widened. "Shit, did I say that out loud!?"

Lucy gave a shocked chuckle that turned into a smile as her heart seemed to both stop and beat a million times faster, and this time, her eyes really did tear up. "Yes, you did."

Natsu laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "Well crap, I meant to tell you, you know, with an actual proposal all planned out. Romantic, y'know?"

"I'd say this is pretty romantic," she told him with a grin. Natsu stared at Lucy for a few seconds before laughing nervously, paired with his own grin.

"Wait a bit, okay?" Natsu told her, turning around to get into the closet.

"Natsu, what are you…" he was shuffling around with stuff on the very top shelf. The shelf she couldn't reach and he could barely reach.

And then he finally emerged, holding a black, velvet box in his hands.

"Oh my God," Lucy whispered, her hands clasping over her mouth in shock as more happy tears flooded her eyes. "You have a ring," she cried happily when he kneeled in front of her and opened the box. "How- How long!?"

"A couple months now," he laughed. "I wanted to just ask you simply like this since the beginning, y'know, not make too big of a fuss, but Mirajane and Erza both yelled at me and said it had to be really romantic and that I had to, like, bring you out for a nice dinner and get dressed up and stuff. I've just been trying to figure out how to make it super romantic like that."

"A proposal like that might've been fine," Lucy responded, "But it wouldn't have been very you. We've gotten dressed up and gone to a nice restaurant maybe once and we both agreed the date had been awkward." Natsu chuckled at the memory. It really had been weird. He'd been in a suit, for crying out loud! Any restaurant where he couldn't pronounce the names of any meals was not a restaurant he enjoyed going to, date or not. "It doesn't matter how you do it because I love you and would say 'yes' anywhere, anytime."

Natsu laughed, pushing aside his sudden desire to kiss her again. "I think I'm supposed to ask you the question first, Luce," he teased. Lucy just giggled, her vision blurring with even more joyful tears that had begun to fall. "Lucy, will you marry me?"

Lucy nodded eagerly, slipping off the bed where she was sitting and wrapping her arms around Natsu as she kissed him. "Yes, yes, yes!" she continued, still nodding. "Yes, I will marry you! Oh my God, we're getting married!"

Now it was time for Natsu to nod eagerly, the realization that he'd just proposed and they were going to get married hitting him full force. "I love you, Luce."

"I love you too," she whispered softly. "Put the ring on?" she suggested, pulling back from their tight embrace. Natsu nodded, taking the ring out of the box and doing just that.