AN: Hey guys! I'm starting up this set of oneshots that will be based on every day styled OTP prompts from the tumblr blog otpprompts and any others I think of. This first one came to my attention thanks to akela-nakamura. :)

The story will always be marked complete, the pairing will always be NaLu, the prompt will be included at the beginning (unless it ruins the plot line), and all of the chapters will be set in a 'modern AU' as in no magic.

Hope you enjoy!

zabeth

Prompt: OTP shopping for their first apartment and splitting up, but ending up lost in IKEA.

It took Lucy a full twenty minutes to pull her gluttonous boyfriend-soon-to-be-roommate away from the smells and tastes of the Swedish cuisine. He was flailing and reaching out towards the meatballs and cinnamon rolls as though he was parting from his one true love. And that thought, well, that thought made Lucy the teensiest bit angry.

As soon as they turned the corner, Natsu was only looking forlornly over his shoulder at the cheap buffet and Lucy was crushing her irritation down. Honestly, she probably should have just come by herself to get furniture for their new (first) apartment (together!), but when they'd heard about the wonderland that is IKEA, Natsu just had to tag along. His eyes had been so round and excited to help that she hadn't been able to say no.

This was probably the only time he would ever willingly go shopping.

"There's so many things here, Luce!" His attention was back to the store that was unfolding in one living room to dining room to the next. "I'm all fired up!"

"Of course! We have to find the coolest things for our apartment," she said, glancing up at him. He tore his gaze from the mix of bright and neutral colors to look down into her eyes. Unable to help himself, he threw an arm around her and squeezed her flush against his side. He smirked when her rosy blush began to creep up her neck. Was she still so embarrassed by his affection after all the time they'd been dating? "I'm going to, uh, go get a cart or something."

Lucy ducked out of his hold and he turned his attention back to the patterned throws and knickknacks, a smile still gracing his face. She made her way over to the carts and bags.

"Huh? Why does this cart look so weird?" The cart didn't have a basket except the kiddy seat and just stuck out with two metal bars. Lucy just stared at it, willing the answer to miraculously appear. And appear it did, in the form of another customer to her left. Surreptitiously, Lucy watched the man pull out a cart and hang one of the bags between the bars, or hooks as she now realized. She also saw them grab a measurement tape, pencil and pad of paper and decided to grab that, too.

Sighing as she made sure she now had everything, she started to push the cart forward. Shopping hadn't been this hard with her last apartment since it had been pre-furnished and before that, she'd lived in a big mansion, obviously furnished by her parents or some designer they'd hired. Lucy felt determination well up in her chest. She could do this!

She could do anything with Natsu by her side.

Wait.

Where was he?!

Natsu wandered through the next room; this one was decorated with big round paper lanterns and dark furniture. It was very modern and thin bookcases framed the TV console which had canvas drawers in it. The gray couch looked angular at best, but not very comfortable. He figured that Lucy wouldn't like it. Stepping through the open archway in the fake wall, Natsu found something much more Lucy-esque.

The walls were a light green and the furniture was a natural-looking maple color. The bookcases were wider and had a shelf in the center that had a glass pane in front of it. He could just picture all of Lucy's books fitting in that space and the little trinkets she had shoved to the corner of her desk behind the glass panels. The console was the same color and the coffee table that was paired with it was the same wood on the legs, but the table top was glass, tinted blue. The couch itself was what had initially drew Natsu's eye, as it was very plush and looked incredibly comfortable. It was a shade of blue that came out a little darker than the table against the cream carpet.

He snickered as he remembered when they first found the place they were moving into and Lucy had had to do the 'carpet test'. When the realtor wasn't looking, Lucy had quickly slipped off her shoes and sank her toes into the carpet approvingly. That carpet was just about the same color as this one, so he figured he'd just have to get a bucket of paint to cheer up the sandy walls of their soon-be-living room to make it complete.

Natsu stepped around the table, grateful that their layout was a little wider than the showroom's, given both his and his girlfriend's propensity for being clumsy. He took one last look at the couch and sank down. The reaction was instantaneous. Natsu slipped further into the couch, slouching and relaxing, his eyes falling closed as he released a sigh. It had to be criminal for a couch to feel this good.

He felt the twinges of sleep creeping into his eyes, but fought it off. Lucy would kill him if he fell asleep in a store again! The thought woke him thoroughly and he started looking around for his favorite blonde.

"Luce? Lucy?" Reluctantly, he got up. After not finding her in either of the next rooms, he grabbed the nearest patron by the scruff of their shirt, starting to feel dread edging in. None of the people in the immediate area were able to say they'd seen a 'blonde with big boobs' either because they'd instantly ran from the anxious rosette or they stuttered out a 'no, honest, we haven't seen anybody!'

Natsu just stood in the center of the aisle as people walked around him in a wide berth.

He'd lost Lucy.

"Oh hell."

Lucy was still a little frazzled around the edges, but had managed to find some solace in the vast cooking supply section. She'd checked her watch dozens of times, frustrated that she hadn't thought to make him bring his cell phone.

"We'll be together the whole time, he says! Who would I need to call when I'm with you, he says!" She angrily stowed a set of dragon shaped cookie-cutters in the bag. Pausing, she looked back at the item she'd just violently acquired. She could feel tears gathering as she stared at the majestic reptilian bakeware aide. Just where was he? They were supposed to do this together!

She scrubbed at her eyes and saw that some of the other patrons were looking at her funny. I mean, who cries next to the spatulas? Lifting her chin, Lucy moved to the next section, following the big yellow arrows.

After turning the corner, she saw row after row of beds. Pillow-topped mattresses to futons, as far as the eye could see. Okay, so it wasn't that far, but Lucy still felt rather intimidated by the sheer number of options. At random, she pushed her cart over to the foot of one bed and sat down on the right side.

She could feel her eyes burning again. How was she supposed to pick out a bed for their first apartment without him? Natsu was surprisingly picky about where he slept, considering he'd been using a hammock up until he'd started breaking into her own apartment. Flopping over to her side, Lucy slipped her feet out of her sandals and curled up.

This mattress reminded her of the one Natsu'd liked the best: the one furnished by her old apartment complex. It was soft and conformed to her curves, but it just felt too big when Natsu wasn't trying to be a human starfish to her left.

Natsu was definitely panicking now. He scurried section to section, trying to catch a glimpse of shiny hair swaying in a high ponytail, but had yet to find it. He'd even run down every aisle of boxes and bags in the store's weird warehouse-basement. He was back in the showrooms now, finding himself in a maze of kitchens.

Natsu didn't bother looking at the counters or cabinets anymore, just as he didn't bother asking people if they'd seen his girl. He vaguely registered the entirely metallic kitchen when the window over the sink caught his attention peripherally. Skidding to a stop, he back up until he could look through the window.

Natsu breathed a sigh of relief. There she was.

Weirdly enough, this window pointed straight into the bedding department and the bed right below the window contained his favorite person.

He stole a quick glance around before pushing the pane all the way up. Like hell he was going to try and walk around this crazy kitchens. He'd gotten lost once already and he had no desire to do it again. Besides, the best path to get to Lucy was the direct one. Quietly, he hopped up on the counter and slipped through the sill, jerking his center of mass up a little when the fake wall protested lightly under his weight.

Like he'd done many times before, he carefully landed on the bed and tucked himself around the blonde. He felt her flinch and try to squirm away, but he held firm, sinking into the mattress behind her.

"Mmmm, you picked a good one, Luce."

At his voice, she relaxed exponentially and released the breath she'd taken in to scream. She curled her hands around his wrists.

"I found all the kitchen stuff…" she murmured. He could tell she was a little upset, but figured it was just because he'd gone running off without realizing it.

"I found a living room. And a really, really comfy couch."

"Nap-worthy?"

"Definitely."

"Good. I found a dragon shaped cookie cutter."

Natsu grinned into her hair. His Luce was the best.

Just as he was about to turn her around and tell her so, with words or not, there was a loud sound of someone angrily clearing their throat from the foot of the bed. Natsu lifted his head and Lucy tucked her head down more to see a yellow-shirted employee with his arms crossed and tapping his foot.

Lucy bolted straight up, Natsu's arms falling loosely around her waist and lap. From his vantage point, he could see the rosy blush starting to inch its way up her neck. She was stuttering out apologies and hitting him, trying to get him to 'sit up, get up, move, idiot!' and it was just so cute. He rose to a seated position and placed himself between his embarrassed Luce and the employee. Baring a grin, he spoke.

"We'll take this one."

The employee may have scoffed and stalked off, but Lucy's mouth was still opening and closing, no sound coming out. The redness of her neck now dusted her cheeks. Natsu stood and pulled Lucy to her feet, ducking down to kiss her just on the corner of her mouth. Her flush deepened just a little, scarily close to the color of his hair when he got out of the shower, so he just grabbed her hand and firmly entwined their fingers. Pushing the cart with his free hand, he tugged her along.

"C'mon, Luce, I gotta show you our living room." He caught her looking at their hands and when she looked back up, he smiled. "It's always more fun when we're together, right?"

The smile she gave him back was every bit as bright as he'd hoped it would be and he felt the urge to kiss her again.

"Okay, now, where's the living room section, again?"

"You idiot."