The thought hit him spontaneously one day. He had no idea, no inkling of how it came about, but before he could process it, the words had escaped his mouth and entered her awaiting ears.
"You're really cute."
The blonde mage looked up from the pages of her book, quirking an eyebrow at him. "D-d-id I just hear you correctly?" she asked in astonishment, her jaw hanging off its hinges.
Natsu, not one to back down, shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly in response, "Yea, so what?" he replied, ignoring her baffled look and getting up from his seat next to her in the guild and walking over to pick a fight with Gray for absolutely no reason other than to blow off steam for letting such an idiotic comment slip from his mouth, in front of Lucy no less, who already thought he was a complete idiot sometimes.
Lucy watched his retreating back with a small smile and pink blush on her cheeks. She looked back at her book, attempting to pick back up where the fire mage had successfully distracted her, but to no avail. She closed the book, setting her face onto the cool surface of the table to calm her red cheeks. The celestial mage sighed. Natsu's random comments didn't usually throw her for a loop like that and it was an odd feeling for Lucy to be stunned and left confused by his commentary.
A few days later, a similar incident occurred, however on Lucy's part. They had both finally gotten over their awkward stage after the first incident and were both sitting at the bar. Lucy was chatting away with Mirajane while Natsu inhaled food, Happy faithfully by his side.
Mira had just excused herself from the conversation, off to entertain some other lonely mage, when Lucy glanced over at Natsu. She giggled at his expression, the sorrow on his face when he found no other food on his plate to satiate his never ending hunger.
The fire mage looked from his plate to her, giving her a confused expression. "What?" he asked defensively, crossing his arms, Happy mimicking him.
Lucy shook her head, continuing to giggle as she did so, "You just had this really adorable look on your face." She answered shyly.
Natsu's cheeks burned a slight red, and once Lucy realized what she had said her cheeks burned the same color. Happy suppressed his own laughter while watching the two. To the blue cat, this was absolutely hilarious, one because it was always funny when Lucy was embarrassed and two because it was humorous when Natsu was embarrassed because it rarely happened.
"Do you guys like each other?" he asked slyly, putting a paw up to his mouth to cover his hysteria.
Their cheeks turned shades deeper at the question, and continued to do so as they answered in unison, "What? Huh? …No."
Happy continued to laugh uncontrollably as the mages looked at each other in bewilderment.
What was happening to them?
"You know," Gildarts said one day, having come back from a tiring mission and drinking at the bar, Natsu by his side, "it's okay to have a crush on your best friend."
Natsu comically choked on his drink, coughing numerous times in order to breathe regularly again. "'Scuse me?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard the question correctly.
"You heard me," Gildarts said, looking over at the celestial mage who was currently collaborating with Levy on a number of ideas she had for her novel, "It's okay to have a crush on Lucy, even love her."
"Love, isn't that a strong word?" Natsu squeaked, his voice cracking under the pressure Gildarts unintentionally put on him. He was aware that he felt something else for his best friend, but love? He knew he loved Lucy's smell, and the way she always had a cute bow in her hair, or the way she crinkled her nose or chewed on her eraser when she was frustrated or confused. Those were all things he loved about her, but did that all amount to one big feeling of love for everything about her? And that didn't even encompass everything he had been feeling for the past couple of months.
"Well, sure it is, but it's the only word I can use to describe what is between you two. Maybe you don't see it, but I certainly do, and I've been with many women over the years, and I've only ever loved one, and since then, I've been able to tell when someone is in love and boy, you've got all the telltale signs."
"Are you serious?"
"Dead serious, Natsu."
"Well, crap, guess that means I gotta do something about that."
"That might be the best idea."
Lucy was in her apartment, she was settled into her couch, revising chapters that she had written early that day. The celestial mage had just finished editing the last sentence of the chapter when her door flew open, causing her to drag ink all across the page. The blonde jumped from her spot instinctively, gripping her keys and ready to tell off whoever had burst into her apartment when she noticed that it was Natsu in the doorway, breathing abnormally, feet planted and fists clenched.
"Tell me that you love me." Natsu said his face blank of any emotion.
"Huh?" Lucy asked, baffled by his statement.
"Just," Natsu sighed, his body relaxing somewhat and running a hand through his messy hair, "tell me that you love me."
"But… I-"
"'Cause I know for damn sure that I love you." He supplied, walking up to her, each footstep filled with purpose.
"Natsu, I-"
"'Cause I think about you all the time, and I need you, as much as you needed me when you jumped that one time, and I feel like I'm in some crazy dream and-"
He was interrupted by Lucy shaking his shoulders.
"Natsu!"
"What?" He blinked, this thoughts a jumble from his tangent and her interrupting said tangent.
"Can you let me answer?"
Oh, right, answering. He forgot that part about confessing. He blushed slightly, rubbing the back of his neck, something he tended to do when embarrassed and looked downward, afraid to look into her eyes.
"I love you."
That caught his attention. He looked up.
"Huh?"
"You heard me, dummy, I love you." Lucy smiled, her eyes shining like a thousand stars. "I love you, I love you, I love you!"
"Well, this is awesome," Natsu muttered, his confession being returned tenfold.
Lucy giggled, while Natsu's arms wrapped around her figure, bringing her closer to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, as they rocked back and forth in the middle of the room.
"Well, if it wasn't obvious before, I love you too." He murmured into her ear.
Lucy laughed, picking her head up and looking into his eyes that were filled with love and happiness. She smiled widely, as if to assure him that this was all real, but in reality only made it hard for Natsu to contain himself and took her lips for his own. No, Natsu definitely was not dreaming.
I really have no idea where this came from and I don't think I will ever be able to figure it out. I'm assuming it's coming from the lack of Fairy Tail in the past few weeks, just a hunch. Woot! First fic of 2012! :D Hope you all have a fantastic year, and please review!