Spending the night at a male strip club isn't exactly how Lucy thought this night would pan out. But life is full of surprises.
She sits in the corner trying not to attract attention to herself, sipping on a cup of room temperature soda and feeling so out of place that she has to stop herself from getting up and walking out about a hundred times. Her friends seem to be having a good time, though, so she'd hate to spoil their fun. She'll just have to grin and bear it - for a little longer, at least.
Jessie comes back from a pit stop at the bar with a drink that looks fruity and very heavy in alcoholic content and shoves it into Lucy's spare hand. She nearly dumps her 7up all over herself. "Drink up, birthday girl," Jessie coos with a wide cheshire grin.
Lucy hesitates before placing both glasses on the table in front of her gently, "Sorry, I don't drink," she says with an apologetic smile.
"What, not interested because it's legal now?" Megan asks, coming up behind her to wrap her arms around Lucy's shoulders, " 'Cause I totally get that."
Lucy shrugs. They both reek of alcohol and a part of her is hoping that they get too drunk to function so she'll have an excuse to get out of here.
Sarah, the final member of the group out tonight arrives with a man in tow. A man with pink hair. A man with pink hair and very little in the way of clothing. "Lucy, this is Natsu. Natsu's gonna dance for you."
Lucy tenses, a blush crawling up her cheeks, "Um, no, I think that's alright," she says, scrambling to get out of her seat.
Jessie rests a hand on her shoulder, "Calm down Lu, I'm sure he doesn't bite."
The man with pink hair puts on a wolfish smirk. He winks, "That costs extra."
"I'm not really comfortable with..." Lucy begins, but the words are lost beneath the pounding music and the gears are in motion. Jessie's hand is heavy on her shoulder and 'Natsu' has one wickedly warm palm on her thigh and the other on his, well...
Lucy flushes all the way down to her toes. Natsu curves in closer, his face even with her's, bare chest almost touching her. She can smell his cologne, muted by sweat and the the musk of the club. She meets his eyes, dark like black holes, like the emptiest parts of the universe, and her panicked gaze is met with confusion. Suddenly it's all too much.
She shoves him off. "I have to go," she gasps out in a rush. She sprints for the door, leaving behind three shocked friends and a flabbergasted stripper.
Definitely not how she expected the night to go.
Sarah, Megan and Jessie have called her at least ten times. More than once as a group. Lucy's inbox is full of messages asking why she bailed and busting out baffled apologies. Lucy knows they mean well, and she feels so awful for ignoring them. But she needs some time away. A second to catch her breath.
She heads to work in a daze
It's a slow night. Tuesdays usually are. Lucy is pretty content with just staring off into space until Natsu, the stripper with the pink hair walks through the door. He spots her at the bar and heads over. Lucy pays extra care to the glass she's shining, resolutely avoiding eye contact.
"About the other night..." Natsu begins, slipping onto a stool in front of her counter.
"What about it?"
"I'm sorry if I scared you, or something. I'm not real used to... whatever that was."
"Discomfort?" Lucy offers, still shinning her glass.
Natsu grunts. "Yeah. That."
Lucy trades the clean glass for another. She squeezes her rag, trying to dispel some of her shakiness before going through the motions again, "Well, don't worry. That was just my friends messing with me a little."
"You have some pretty crappy friends," he says, running a hand through his pastel locks.
"They're alright," she returns defensive and quiet, "They don't mean any harm."
"Well, I'm sorry anyway..."
She looks up for the first time and offers him a small, uneasy smile, "Thanks, then." It's not his fault she freaked out, anyway. That's probably never happened to him before. She appreciates the apology, anyway.
"So are you like that with all guys, or just the ones about to take their clothes off?" he asks. She starts, but quickly centers herself and goes back to polishing with vigor. He waves away the thought, "Sorry. Personal. I get it."
They sit in silence for a moment after that, and she feels his eyes glued to her the entire time. Somehow, his scrutiny feels more like a simple nuisance than a threat. She wonders if he's really as harmless as he seems.
"Why don't you drink?" he asks, breaking her out of her trance.
She frowns. She hates that question. More often than not she ends up giving some noncommittal nonsense answer. "Why do you?"
He gives her an odd look, somewhere between curious and accusing, and ignores her counter, "Why's the girl who doesn't drink bar tending, anyway?"
"I need money. And it's something to do, I guess."
"Pretty odd hobby," he says. It feels a bit like an accusation the way he says it.
"So is stripping," she snaps back with unintentional ire.
He cocks his head and frowns at her with eyes squinted in concentration in one of the stupidest expressions she's ever seen, and Lucy thinks he's definitely more nuisance than threat. Finally he sits up right and a slow smile spreads over his face and it looks like he's come to some sort of decision. "It's somethin' to do."
She almost smiles at that. Almost.
He's back the next and he's got a girl with him. She is pretty and small in a way Lucy has never been and she feels a pang of envy upon seeing her enter that is quickly dispersed as Natsu comes in after her. They are quite the spectacle with blue and pink hair.
"Lucy!" Natsu greets, he grabs the little woman's wrist and pulls her over to the bar, "This is Levy. She's nicer than your mean friends."
Levy smiles sheepishly, "I assume I don't have to apologize for his behavior?"
"Not unless you're dying to."
Natsu grins, looking happily between the two of them, "Well, now that that's all taken care of, I have to be going."
Levy gives a little wave as he turns to leave. She slips onto a bar stool she has to jump a bit to get to. Even then she's still a bit shorter than Lucy. "Would it be cruel to ask you to make me a martini?" she says, smiling sheepishly, "It's been a long day."
Lucy smiles back in response, and starts fixing the drink. "Work trouble or boy trouble?" she wonders.
Levy groans, slumping forward onto the counter, "Both. It's like herding cats. I can't get those idiots to do anything," Lucy pushes her drink towards her and she sighs gratefully as she takes a sip, "And Natsu is the worst. They're going to run that place into the ground, I swear." She shakes her head.
Lucy smiles sympathetically, ignoring the questions burning on her tongue. She decides not to pry. It's none of her business. None of this is.
"He likes you," Levy says, taking another sip, "He talks about you a lot."
"Too much, I'm sure," she pauses, looking down at the warped wood of her counter. Finally she looks back up, "Why is he doing all this?"
"He feels bad about making you uncomfortable," Levy grins, "and he likes you. Natsu gets very attached to the people he likes. He's a greedy hoarder. It's a bit creepy sometimes but he's harmless, really." There it is again. That word. Harmless. Lucy isn't so sure. Levy gulps down the rest of her dink, "Anyway, enough about that fool, lets talk about us. Hi. My name is Levy and I like books and happen to work for a lousy strip joint. What's up with you?"
The next time he comes alone. "Natsu," she begins as soon as he sits down, "I don't need any new friends. I appreciate the gesture, but really..." she shakes her head.
Natsu frowns, sitting down in front of her, "Well, what do you need, then?"
Lucy thinks about telling him the truth, about the bad things, about the things she really needs. She thinks about telling him all the things she never wanted to put on other people. But just for a moment. She starts wiping down the counter. "A cup of coffee, my next paycheck, a nice book, maybe..." she sighs, "I dunno' , a lot of things."
He comes the next night with a paper cup of instant coffee and a copy of Twilight that she doesn't spend too long trying to figure out where he got. He's trying, she thinks, admittedly a little fondly, she'll give him that much.
She's surprised when Natsu stays until closing considering his work is mostly a nighttime affair, but she supposes she really has no idea how strip clubs work and who gets off when. He waits as she answers a phone call, trying not to listen in as she whispers harshly into the receiver. She sounds furious. She hangs up the phone without saying goodbye and starts to close up the bar with jerky, angry movements. He walks her home.
She's tense and at first Natsu thinks it's because of his presence but he notices that she's jumping at every sound and every shadow and every person they pass by. She actually takes his hand eventually and grips it tight in hers. Natus tries to feel bad about her apparent issues with the dark, but she is warm beside him and he can smell her vanilla shampoo beneath the heavy musk of the bar and her tiny hand wound around his is making him a little dizzy. He wonders if the rest of her is so soft.
He asks her things, about her life, about herself. Her responses are brief and more often than not don't actually answer his question, but at least its something. It feels like progress.
There's a dark car parked outside her apartment when they get there and she pauses at the sight. She thanks him quickly and tells him he should get going.
"Who is that?" he asks, looking past her.
"No one," she assures him. She puts on a smile that is most definitely fake. He nods slowly, unconvinced, and watches as she walks away and into her building. He wonders if it's really none of his business. He decides he's going to start walking her home a lot more.
The car leaves as soon as she's inside.
Her friends stop calling and Lucy briefly considers letting them out of her life for good, but that feels a bit extreme so she calls Megan up and suggests coffee at one of their usual places. She sounds confused and nervous, but agrees nonetheless.
"I'm sorry it got out of hand," Megan tells her. She hasn't even touched her latte, "I didn't know you..."
"It's okay," Lucy says, "I'm fine, really."
Talking to her feels a bit nostalgic, and Lucy can't figure out why. Its almost like reminiscing as they discuss events that happened just a month or two ago. They spend half an hour catching up before Megan has to go. She has a a date with a guy, the third one, and she thinks there will be more to come. Megan smiles at her before leaving, and Lucy considers this the end of an era as she watches her go. She doesn't call Megan again.
She's an hour into her shift that night when Nastu comes in with a gaggle of noisy people tailing after him, and she recognizes Levy and a few strippers she'd seen once upon a time. Lucy watches them curiously for a while before returning back to her work. She thinks he's going to go with his friends, but he sits at the bar with her and watches her while she cuts the limes. Lucy considers the group again. "Who is that?" she asks, tilting her head towards the black haired giant sitting in the booth with the others, a man she'd never seen before.
"Gajeel? That's Levys fiancee," Natsu answers absently "He doesn't strip." He leans forward and takes one of her lime slices, sticking it into his mouth and sucking. He stares at the rack of tumblers behind her.
"You okay?" she wonders. She looks around the bar. The place is filling up for once. She won't have much time to mess around with him.
"Yeah," he answers quickly, "Yeah, I'm all good." He looks back at the booth with his group before turning back to her and nodding down at the line of waiting customers, "Go on. Be the bar keep extraordinaire that you are," he shoots her a grin that doesn't reach his eyes.
She moves down to the other end of the counter, keeping an eye on Natsu as she serves the crowd. A little later he flags down Mira, the other bartender, and asks for vodka. A lot of it, apparently. Too much, Lucy finds out eventually as she watches Natsu slump forward in a drunken puddle. By the time she closing up, Lucy is sure he won't make it home on his own. She decides, after a few minutes of deliberation, to take him to her place, just for the night.
She doesn't live far, but walking home with a shit faced Natsu isn't easy. He leans on her heavily, his feet dragging on the ground as he walks. She barely saves him from tripping a few times. "You owe me big time, Natsu," she mutters, mostly to herself.
He grins sloppily at her, "Come to the club and I'll make it up to you."
She doesn't respond to that and his grin falls, "You don't like it, do you. You don't like that I strip."
Lucy lets out a little sigh of relief when they reach the door to her apartment, "Doesn't matter what I like."
Natsu grunts, struggling to keep upright as Lucy hauls him inside. He seems to forget what she'd said immediately, inhaling deeply, a content sigh easing out of him. He looks around a bit, another sloppy smile coming to his face. It's a pretty apartment, filled with little comely touches. Just what he'd expected, he recognizes, even in his drunken stupor. The whole place smells like her, like vanilla and home. "It's nice here," he tells her, his speech groggy and slurred, "I like it."
He hangs heavily on her, pulling her into his arms and squeezing her with a yawn. Who knew Natsu was a sleepy drunk? He lets go of her and before she can say anything he lumbers into her room and collapses on her bed. His words are muffled by her thick comforter, "I like it here. I should come more often."
"No. No more drunkards in my home."
"If I stop drinking can I come?"
"Alright. If you stop drinking, you may come over occasionally."
" 'm never gonna drink again."
Lucy is about to speak to that but stops at the sound of snores. She'll sleep on the couch, she guesses. Oh well.
Levy sinks into the barstool with a huff and Lucy starts fixing her a drink without being asked. "God, what a nightmare," she sighs, taking a big swig of the cocktail as soon as Lucy hands it to her. Lucy leans forward onto the bar, ready for Levy's onslaught of complaints.
She'd started showing up a few times a week after Natsu first brought her. She always had something to say about something going wrong with the strip club and Lucy had become fond of her long winded stories. "This move is going to kill me, I swear."
"Move?" Lucy says, frowning slightly.
Levy quickly masks her surprise, "I figured Natsu would have told you," she says, "We're moving the club to Cali. Business is real good up there."
Lucy tries her best to sound cool and collected, but she's sure Levy hears the waver in her voice, "Oh, um, I didn't know."
She nearly flinches at the look of pity Levy pays her, but the other girl quickly brushes through the awkwardness and continues down the list of Things That are Going to Kill Her (her words), and Lucy tries to be interested in the frat girls and money going missing, but she feels a little bit sick and excuses herself for the night as soon as Levy leaves.
It's her first night off in a while and she didn't really expect Natsu to be a part of it. He shows up on her doorstep anyway. It's his night off too, apparently.
"Where are you going?" he asks, considering her ready-to-leave state for a moment.
She looks at him for a second before coming to a quick decision, "Come with me?"
The grin he gives her is almost blinding, and she smiles back, leading him to her car. With him and her gear loaded in, she starts driving. He doesn't even ask where they're going.
The valley isn't very far away, but it feels like a million miles with him sitting in the passenger seat next to her. She can almost feel the antsy energy coming off him in waves. She feels a distinct lack of anxiety in bringing him with and she wonders if that's progress or regression, but decides she can't be bothered to care. It's her night off and the sky is clear and dark.
She pulls to stop on the side of the road at her spot and takes a breath before getting out. Natsu follows after her quickly, watching as she takes her telescope out from the trunk and carries it with her into the field. She picks a nice, soft looking spot on the grass and sits, stroking a hand over the golden telescope.
Natsu just watches her for a moment, surrounded by the valley and the stars. This feels sacred, he thinks, this feels like hollowed ground. Lucy moves so practiced and so carefully, like its ritual. She motions for him to sit, and he considers this moment a baptism. He feels welcomed into her world, her light. It's so, so warm beside her.
"This was my mother's favorite place," she says, but she's looking at the sky, not at him, "She wanted me to be an astronaut."
"What happened?" Natsu asks quietly.
She turns to smile at him, a little sadly, "I became a bartender instead," her voice is a whisper, a passing ghost, "but I never stopped wanting this."
Lucy keeps the telescope tucked against her chest, but doesn't touch it anymore than that. She leans back and starts pointing out constellations, her voice dreamy and far away. He listens to her, every word she says heating his entire body and he realizes, as he watches her watching the sky, he's a little bit in love.
"That big bright spot is mars," she says breathlessly, looking up with eyes glazed over in adoration. Natsu wonders if she'll ever look at him like that.
He wants to do something normal, he tells her one night. He says 'normal' like the idea is something foreign and new to him. So she asks Mira to cover the rest of her shift and brings him to her house. She sits him on the couch and puts on a dumb comedy she rented last week and never got around to seeing. Natsu sinks into the cushions, watching the screen intently. He cheers internally when she sits in the middle of the couch, half a seat away from him instead of at the other end.
"This is good," he says halfway through the movie, "I like this. We should do this more."
Lucy smiles softly at him, "If you want," she tells him. She's quiet for a moment before speaking again, "It is good," she agrees, "Domestic suits you."
He grunts at that, and goes back to watching. He gets up to leave before the movie ends, and when she asks where he's going he says "work" like it's toil instead of the wild party she thinks of it as. She listens to his footsteps until they're gone and then forces herself to finish watching. She still has no idea how it ends.
She doesn't see him for a few days. It feels like something's wrong as she goes through her daily routine without his lunacy to liven things up. She goes to sleep wondering if he moved without telling her and wakes up at the sound of her door slamming. She could have sworn she locked it.
Lucy climbs out of bed still half asleep but terrified nonetheless, only to find Natsu pacing in her living room. Suddenly all she feels is anger. "Natsu what the hell?" she hisses. She flicks on the lights and gasps at the sight of him. His clothes and covered in dirt and his face is bruised and freckled with a smattering of tiny, mending cuts. "What happened to you?" she asks, a bit more gently, coming over to prod at his healing wounds. He grabs her wrists to stop her, but keeps her hands suspended in the space between them.
"Fight," he grunts out.
"With what, a bear?"
He drops her hands and steps back, pointedly not looking at her. She places her hands on her hips. "When?"
"Wednesday."
She looks at him as he starts pacing again, like a caged animal. She sighs and lowers herself onto the armrest of her couch. All the ire has drained out of her. She's half asleep again. "So what have you been doing for the past three days then?"
"Packing."
That hits her hard, and she tries to be subtle as she wraps her arms around herself protectively. He looks at her when she doesn't respond. "I didn't tell you because I wasn't so sure," he says. He comes to stand beside her, looking down as she curls further into herself. Sure of what, she wonders. When he speaks again, its only a whisper, "Come with me."
"No," she says just as softly. She can see he's about to argue so she continues, "Is this really who you want to be, Natsu? Is this how you want to keep living?" she scrubs a hand over her eyes, feeling the weight of the last few days collapse on top of her, "It's not what I want."
He frowns at her, his dark pin her down and she feels like she's staring into empty galaxies. It's suffocating. He's an abyss. "This isn't- I'm not," he runs a hand through his hair, takes a deep, ragged breath, "And what do you want, Lucy? Not a dirty old one horse bar," his face is pleading, "What about the stars, Lucy?"
She stands and shakes her head at him, and he feels her disapproval like a dagger in his chest. She turns and starts walking back towards her bedroom. "Do what you want then, Natsu," she says without looks back, "But I can't keep up with this."
She's not sure when he leaves that night, but he's not there when she wakes up and she is filled with the sensation that something is wrong again. She's becoming disgustingly intimate with the feeling.
AN: Welcome back for another hot mess story. A stripper au loosely based on Magic Mike because I'm a total dork who likes bad movies. There should only be one or two more chapters for this, but the rating will most definitely go up. Reviews are love. Thank you reading!