"Oi! Ice princess! Come fight me!" It was a phrase Gray heard regularly, though this time was different, it definitely didn't sound like Natsu, the voice sounded strangely… feminine. The voice was a shock enough, but what really dumbfounded the ice mage was the face he was finally able to put to the voice as he turned around, falling off his chair. "I know you heard me, snowcone! I said fight me! And put on some clothes while you're at it!" The swift crack of her whip hitting inches away from his face pulled him back to reality. Lucy had a devious grin on her face, nearly matching that of Natsu himself, aside from the lack of sharpened canines.
He quickly rose from his spot on the floor to stand face to face with the alarmingly aggressive and completely out of character blonde. "What the hell did you do that for? And why are you acting like flame brain? What'd ya lose all your IQ points or somethin'?" Gray knocked on the side of his friend's skull which almost instantly set the girl wobbling from side to side.
"No fair! You're fighting dirty! Fight me like a real ma… *hic*… man!" The girl wobbled unsteadily, causing her to lean on the bar to regain her balance.
"Are you drunk?!" Quite a few members were following the scene from their varying spots in the guild by now, watching the drunken girl.
"I'm not drunk; I'm just getting fired up!" The girl steadily brought herself back to her fighting stance and promptly gave the ice mage a quick Lucy Kick that caught him so off guard it sent him flying. The guild deadpanned in complete and utter shock as the girl turned and took a step forward, preparing to challenge the next victim. "Alright who's ne…" the blonde began to wobble suddenly, her own feet and consciousness beginning to fail her, "next…" all at once the girl's eyes shut and she fell backwards, crash landing on the pink haired dragon slayer passed out at the bar.
"Agh! Who?! What?!" the dragon slayer yelled as he jolted awake from a blunt hit to his back with a resounding THUD! as the celestial mage hit the floor. As quick as Natsu had caught his bearings and turned to see what hit him, the rest of the guild was flying to the area to check on their now unconscious friend. "Who the hell threw Lucy at me?"
The whole guild was now surrounding Lucy, completely ignoring the fire mage, but it was Mira who checked her pulse and her head before answering. "No one threw her at you Natsu, she had a little too much to drink and fell."
"Oh… okay. Is she alright?" The dragon slayer asked and looked to Mira with obvious concern in his features, the guild all chiming in with various forms of 'Yeah is she okay?', 'Looked like a hard fall.', and 'Guess she can't handle her sake.'
"Yes, but she could use a good night's rest. Oh, Natsu, why don't you take her home?" The white haired mage looked to the dragon slayer with both a sweet and demanding expression.
He shrugged as he picked up the sleeping girl and positioned her on his back, "Alright. Come on Happy!"
"Aye, sir!" The blue exceed flew to his side as the crowd went back to what they were doing, chuckling about what had transpired, some even wishing Natsu a 'Good luck!'
As the pair made their way out of the guildhall and began their trip to Lucy's apartment, Natsu turned to his furry friend, "So what happened, Happy?"
"Oh, well I guess Lucy got super wasted with Cana and then decided to pick a fight with Gray and totally creamed him, it was scary! You should have seen it, Natsu! But then she just fell asleep and crashed into you."
The dragon slayer couldn't stop his roaring laughter at what his friend told him, "She kicked his butt, huh? Go Luce!" He shook his friend a little on his back as his sign of congratulations to the sleeping blonde. As the blonde mumbled in her sleep, the two conscious friends laughed all the way to her apartment.
After a struggle to get the sleeping girl to let go of his neck, Natsu had finally gotten the girl into bed, maybe not in the most comfortable sleeping position, but he knew trying to move her would be a futile effort only ending in the unconscious girl latching back on and causing another struggle. Honestly, Natsu wouldn't mind just lying next to her and letting the girl latch on to him, but the last thing he needed was Happy pestering him about it with his usual 'You liiiiiike her'. Well maybe I do 'liiiiike' her. A lot. But she's drunk. Natsu let out a long, drawn out sigh as he remembered the last time he saw her this drunk , the first night of their three month 'training' before the Grand Magic Games. At least she's not like THAT this time.
He hadn't even noticed that he'd been standing next to the bed staring at the girl for a while until Happy chided right in his ear, "You liiiiiiiiiiiiiiike her!".
"What?" a small blush formed on his face as he fled toward the kitchen, away from his accuser, "I don't know what you're talking about, Happy."
The blue cat snickered, "Of coooourse not. You totally don't looooooooove her, that's why you were staring at her so long."
Unable to think of a way to deny his friend's claims as the blush on his cheeks spread across his face, he simply waved off the blue cat behind him and redirected his attention to the contents of the fridge. Still snickering to himself, the exceed flew over to Lucy's desk while his friend ate, hell bent on finding something juicy in Lucy's journals. It hardly took much effort to find the girl's most recent writings, her newest novel in progress was lying alone on the desk and her more private works were tucked away neatly in the desk's main drawer. After a few moments of searching, the furry companion had found what he was looking for. "Oh Naaatsu, I think you should read this, Lucy was writing about y-"
"Fight me… stupid… cat… don't… tell him…" both exceed and dragon slayer quickly snapped their attention to their, now, half conscious friend as she began to sit up. For Lucy, the mere seconds it took her to make her way across the room to the confused dragon slayer were the longest of her life, and to top it all off, her head was still spinning from the sake. She knew what she needed to do. This isn't just because of the sake is it? Maybe? Oh who cares, it's not like I only want to because I'm drunk. Maybe it's just the push I need. Well, here goes. Lucy stopped in front of the fire mage who had, thankfully, stood and walked the rest of the distance between them to hold her steady. "Natsu…"
He looked at the girl with concerned eyes as she shook herself and blinked her eyes open more, "Something wrong, Luce?"
"Yeah, shouldn't you lay back down Lucy?" the exceed had now flown to her side.
"Happy, I know what you read; I'm handling it now, okay? There's fish in the fridge." Knowing exactly what the blonde had meant, he raced off to the fridge giggling like a schoolgirl. She took a few short breaths and began again, now looking directly at the man in front of her, her face flushing as she spoke, "Natsu… I… uhm…" Losing her words in his eyes, she simply cupped his face in her hands and met his lips with her own. He froze, but only for a second, as he realized what was happening his body instantly relaxed and warmed as the flush on his face turned the same color as hers and he closed his eyes. She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck as he brought one hand to the nape of her neck and another to the small of her back. Forgetting time completely, they stayed like that, only moving to pull back for gasps of air between kisses.
Only when Natsu realized Lucy was crying did he break away to place his forehead on hers and wipe away her tears. "Luce? Why are you crying?"
She gave that smile only she could give; even her eyes seemed to smile back at him. "Because I'm in love with an oblivious dummy like you." She laughed as she kissed him one more time and pulled away, stealing his hands in her own. "And because now I think I'll actually be able to get some sleep."
He turned and chuckled, "Looks like Happy already beat you to it!"
"But that's my bed! Stupid cat!" In a swift motion, she was swept off her feet, Happy was nudged to the edge of the bed, and Lucy was wrapped in Natsu's arms as they tumbled onto the bed and he refused to let her go.
"Guess you'll just have to share it for now." He smiled and loosened his grip enough for her to nuzzle her face into his chest, falling into sleep with his words of, "I love you too, weirdo."