Their first kisses were indirect. Lucy would have a drink in her hand and Natsu would steal it and drink the remainder of its contents. This resulted in much screaming on her part and a lot of apologizing on his part. Other times, he would ask for a sip and give it back. She would blush and give the remainder to him anyway. There were days where they had completed rather tough missions and Lucy's canteen would be empty. Natsu would give her his. As time went on, she forgot about it and they would share drinks back and forth, not even paying attention.
The second time, Natsu had sneaked into her bed again. He wasn't enjoying being alone at night with the anniversary of his father's disappearance quickly approaching. He should have remembered she was suffering around this time too. She woke up screaming from a nightmare that left Natsu coaching her back to reality. It was strange to be reversed in needing comfort. He forgot his pains quickly as he began comforting a crying Lucy. He held her close and let her cry, never saying anything, just being there. When she calmed down and they were both tucked back under the covers, she kissed him on the forehead in thanks. When July 7th rolled around, their positions had been switched. He was the one with the nightmare, she was the one comforting him. And just as she had done, he had given her a kiss of thanks on the top of her head. Only this time, he held her close and didn't let go. And she let him.
The third time was a painful accident. Lucy had been handling the underlings of a gang with Taurus and her whip. Natsu had taken the head honcho on by himself. Grey and Erza were on separate missions, which wasn't so bad, because really, they were doing just fine. Lucy had just finished tying up the last of the stragglers when she looked up to see Natsu flying in her direction. Natsu tried to deflect the impact to no avail. In the end, they were both seeing stars, Lucy thought her nose was bleeding, Natsu cut his lip on Lucy's teeth, and Lucy couldn't tell if she cut her tongue on his fangs or if he had bit down. Their lips may have met, but it was in no way anyone would count. At the end of the day, the gang leader was beaten to a pulp, thrown in jail with the rest of his gang, and Lucy and Natsu left for the hotel with cuts, bumps, and bruises, vowing to not let the guild know the entire details of this trip.
The fourth time, Natsu had begged and pleaded for Lucy to go to the fair with him, even though she knew what the outcome would be. She had finally relented, giving Natsu an energy boost to his enthusiasm. He picked her up, twirled her around, and placed a kiss on her cheek with a "Thanks Luce! You're the best!" She spent the rest of the night almost in a daze as she watched him try countless times to ride one of the rides without getting sick. When the day came to an end, and night began, Natsu led them down a familiar road, where he blindfolded her and led her around. When they came to a stop, and he undid her blindfold, she was left breathless as she stared at the rainbow sakura petals. She had completely forgotten it was on this day. She returned his kiss on the cheek with her "Thanks Natsu, you're the best." They spent the rest of the night reminiscing the first festival she had missed, as well as many of their favorite adventures.
The fifth time was a cleansing by coal. 'The Weekly Sorcerer' had once again shown light of Fairy Tail that was extremely biased. Stats like 'coolness,' 'most-liked by fans,' and 'most manly' accounts showed up, as well as a new spotlight update on Natsu. Oddly enough, no one from the magazine had even been by recently. Lucy had sulked walking home from the guild, mostly complaining about how her stats were ridiculous, as well as her updated sizes, which were false. Lucy had wanted to take a nice bath and forget. She hadn't expected Natsu to be in her bathroom brushing his entire mouth with one of her older toothbrushes she hadn't thrown out yet. Upon questioning the furry blue feline, he had merely stated a fan liiiiiked him so much, she threw her face on his. Translating the strange speech, Lucy had come to the conclusion that a rabid fan of Natsu's had apparently kissed him. Happy had flown out the window stating Lucy had gone mad as she had wound up on the floor laughing too hard. Natsu had been furious with her, claiming his first kiss was stolen, which caused her to laugh even harder. When Natsu had yelled at her, she had calmed down and told him she had thought he wouldn't have cared about first kisses and that Erza or Lisanna would have been his first. He had argued back that even though Erza was evil, she wouldn't have wanted to lose HER first kiss on either him or Gray. Lisanna had been a childhood crush that he never really invested into enough to actually fall in love with. She had been more of his little sister as opposed to Erza and Mirajane who were his older sisters. He had sat down next to her on the floor, arms crossed and a frown on his face. She had told him it wasn't his first if it had been with someone he had never met, or something to that extent. What caught his attention was her talking about how he would someday kiss someone and that his lips would be cleansed of the first awful one. Natsu had sat pondering her words while she had gone to start the tub. When she had walked out to get her pjs, Natsu had intervened and placed his mouth on hers. It was a short, firm kiss that ended with Natsu mentioning it was a lot better before he fled out the window. A week later Lucy had brushed it off as Natsu being Natsu.
Months went by without incident, even the swapping of canteens and stolen drinks had lessened a bit. If anything had changed between them, no one had noticed. Except Natsu. Lucy didn't walk home with him unless Happy was with them. They didn't hang out together unless Gray or Erza, or even Levy was with them. He noticed that it was never just the two of them. He waited as patiently as he could to snag a job just for the three of them. At least he could distract Happy at some point and spend some much needed time with just Lucy. If he had known what they were getting into, he wouldn't have done it. They had gotten separated, all three of them. By the time Natsu had managed to finish his job, he had found the remains of Lucy's work, but no Lucy. When he asked the men where she had gone, Happy had found him. When they found Lucy, she was alone, her eyes were closed, and there was blood. Natsu had panicked. He held her as close as she would fit as he screamed, shook her, and cried. He was still crying when Lucy found him, and slapped him awake. She had told him he had fallen into a trap. Lucy hadn't questioned what he had seen in his dream, if her wallet was any indication. Well, the emptiness of her wallet, plus the large hole where the downtown district use to stand. Also, his mood was extremely dark on the way home. All attempts at getting him to say anything or even act normal was thrown out the window. Even his motion sickness seemed to be quelled by his mood.
Lucy took Natsu straight home and sent Happy to the guild to let Mira know they were fine, mostly. They had both cleaned up, eaten supper and were finally tucked into bed when Natsu finally spoke. At first it was her name. Lucy had turned over and hugged Natsu in comfort. He placed his arms around her as he whimpered. "I can't lose you again. I don't want to watch you die ever again." Lucy gazed up into his burning eyes. "It's okay Natsu, I'm not going anywhere." They lay there in absolute comfort as Natsu pieced himself together. He sighed into her hair and kissed the top of her head. Lucy giggled as she looked up at him and told him, "You know Natsu, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you llliiiiiiikkkeee me." Natsu laughed at her joke as he wrapped his arms tighter around her. "No, you wierdo, I love you." Lucy shot up out of his arms. "You, you do?" Natsu sat up and leaned towards her, trapping her against the wall. The determination on his face was fierce. "Yes, Luce. I do." It was the first time he had really kissed her. It was the first time she kissed back. The rest of the night was lost in kisses.