This is my first attempt at Nalu, hope you all enjoy! Reviews are always appreciated(:
Disclaimer: I do not own anything
"Come on, Natsu!" The girl would fervently deny the almost whiny tone her voice was taking on, "Please? I want to show you all that I'm not as weak as you think I am!" Her hands were coiled into fists, resting on her hips.
"Ehh, not weak." Happy floats, well, happily around the pink-haired boy's head. "A little dumb, maybe, but not weak."
The boy shrugs off Lucy's shouts directed towards his little buddy. "No one thinks you're weak."
The blonde's shoulders slump, her posture becoming cringe-worthy. "You know what I mean," she pouts.
Natsu folds his hands behind his neck. "Well, what do you want me to do about it?"
"Fight me."
The boy outright guffaws, shaking his head and causing a few pink strands to fall in front of his eyes. "No way, Luce," he chuckles, "I'm not fighting you."
"And why not?" She demands, brow furrowing.
"We're partners, for starters! You don't hurt people in your own team!"
"You and Gray fight all the time!"
"Yeah, well," he falters, but only slightly, "Gray's a bastard!"
"Leave me out of it!" Said boy shouts from across the guild's common room, grumbling something incoherent as he slumps back on one of the wooden benches and resumes his conversation with Elfman.
"Would it kill you to keep your shirt on for longer than five minutes?" Kana grumbles into her fifth mug, before tipping it back while Gray scrambles for his discarded clothing.
"You've fought Erza!" Lucy argues, ignoring the antics of the rest of the guild and focusing on the topic at hand. "Come on, Natsu, please? I'm not asking for an all out battle, I don't have a death wish, I just want a sparring match."
"You know, really, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea." Erza speaks up from a neighboring table where she picked at her food. "It might help us if Lucy knew how to defend herself better. She can't always depend on her keys. I think you should fight her, Natsu."
The boy shoots a glare at the redhead, "Shut up, no one asked you! And no, no way in hell."
"I'm tired of being the stupid damsel in distress!" Lucy resists the very strong urge to stomp her foot.
She drops her gaze to her now slightly scuffed boots, lowering her voice to where only the pink-haired boy can hear. "I'm tired of not being able to save myself."
Natsu looked away from her somber expression, arms still crossed as he grumbles. "I don't mind saving you, Lucy."
The girl blushes. "That's not the point. I'm tired of being in situations where I need to be saved in the first place." She frowns, "I didn't join Fairy Tail just for a glorified team of body guards."
The boy grimaces, awkwardly trying to comfort his friend. "Come on, Luce, you're more to us than just that…"
Turning, her posture stiff and her head down, she mumbles, "Doesn't feel like it."
Natsu, flustered, watches as the blonde hurries out the front doors.
"Way to go, moron." Natsu grunts as someone slams his head down on the wooden table.
"See Gray," he mumbles, sounding resigned, though it was hard to tell since his voice is slightly muffled from being crushing into the tabletop. "This is why you're a bastard."
She didn't let the subject drop.
The girl sits on the plush stool in front of her vanity, carefully applying mascara with an ease only possible after years of practiced precision. Her mouth was slightly open as she placed the bristles against her lashes, rolling the applicator up-
It took only one out of place shadow by her window to make her jump out of her skin and send her makeup flying.
"Natsu!" Without thinking, she flings the mascara tube at her friend's head. Used to the blonde's antics, he easily catches the offending makeup and drops it carelessly onto her nightstand as he flings himself onto her bed.
"Nice to see you too, Luce."
"Why the hell can't you just use a door like a normal person."
He shrugs, "I don't think normal people can eat fire either, but I do that."
Lucy glares, "You're just lucky I didn't stab my eye out when you scared me like that."
Natsu rolls onto his back on the soft pink comforter, looking at her upside down with a puzzled expression. "Why were you scared?"
She falters for a second in picking up the scattered beauty products, but only a second. "Well, it's not that big a deal. I guess. If you would teach me to fight though-"
"No."
She continues as if he hadn't interrupted, "then I wouldn't have to be so scared when you sneak in."
"You don't have to be afraid of me." She swallows hard when his voice sounds almost hurt at the accusation.
"You know I don't mean it like that." Lucy says softly, sighing and disregarding the mess, knowing she'll have an even bigger one to clean up once her friend leaves. She plops herself back down on the stool, resting her head on her hand as she regards the boy's heavy eyelids.
She wonders when the last time he'd had a full night sleep.
"What if you aren't the one sneaking in?" She asks, only half serious. It's something that has had her worried before, though now she doesn't say it meaningfully. The fight in her on the topic has faded for now, being replaced with worry for the dark circles under those onyx eyes.
He snorts, grinning. "Then I'll beat 'em up! Or if I'm not here," the girl gives a little start at how he just automatically assumes he'd already be here if a break in were to occur, "then just scream really loud and Happy and I will come running." He gives her a toothy grin, "I keep telling you, Luce, you don't need to learn to fight if I'm around."
He flops onto his stomach now, breathing deeply before finally allowing his eyes to close.
Lucy allows the subject to drop for now, watching the boy's back rise up and down before it finds a steady rhythm, and that's when she knows he's fallen asleep.
"Idiot," she mumbles softly, shaking her head, but had anyone heard her they could not deny the fondness found in her tone.
"Lucy," his voice is gruff, and she shakes her head. It's easy for her to ignore the tears sliding down her grimy cheeks, but Natsu finds himself having a harder time.
"Shut up," she demands around the large lump in her throat. Her actions betray her harsh tone, however, as she gingerly wraps his gashed arm in their last roll of bandages. It would have to have a couple stitches from what she could tell, but he wouldn't bleed out over night.
She sniffs, pursing her chapped lips as she struggles to see in the dim lighting of the cave they decided to set up camp in until morning. "If I was more useful-"
"Lucy, stop," his tone is almost pleading. He struggles to sit up, brushing off her hands insisting he lay down. Resting his back against the cool cave wall, he lights a small flame on the tip of his finger so they both can see better.
They each watch as the flame flickers and casts shadows across the other's face, illuminating features that neither had either really taken the time to notice before.
He lets his head fall back against the wall as well. "I don't know where this little self-esteem issue you've been dealing with lately has come from," he says softly, shaking his head when it looks like she's about to argue. "My turn to talk."
He waits until she shuts her mouth completely. Instead of attempting to argue back, she chooses instead to comply for once and cradles his injured hand in her lap.
"You aren't useless, Lucy," he insists. It surprises her that he sounds so serious, something that's usually out of character for the rambunctious boy. "It's thanks to you we're even alive in the first place! If it weren't for your spirits, you'd still be tied up in that bandit camp and I'd have been tramped in that ravine."
He wrinkles his nose at that. "If I hadn't have been so damn sick from that boat ride then it wouldn't have even been a fight, but those bastards did their homework."
Lucy looks up at the pink haired boy through her lashes, finding it difficult to look him straight in the eye. "You could have been killed."
He purses his lips, breathing deeply. "You almost were."
More tears slip down her dirt-covered cheeks. "I feel so useless." She grips his hand that's lying in her lap, careful to avoid the bandages stretching from his wrist up to his elbow.
He weighs her statement carefully, his consideration again taking her slightly off guard. As dimwitted as he can come across as, he isn't exactly as dumb as everyone takes him to be. In other words, he knew what she was asking without her having to actually say it aloud.
"Luce," he says softly, sounding pained. "I can't teach you how to fight."
"Why not?" She sniffs.
"I've almost destroyed an entire city before just by sneezing, not even because I was trying to. What if I screw up?"
She blinks, "Natsu," she breathes.
"What if I hurt you? Badly?" He grimaces.
Lucy grips his hand in her own, her guild mark illuminated by the dull flame. "You won't." She grins for the first time since they'd found the cave. "Natsu, I don't think you could hurt me if you tried."
He frowns, "That's not what you said when I told you your butt looked big in that new skirt-"
Deadpan, she replies, "Hurting feelings and hurting someone physically are two different things, you dimwit."
He shrugs, grinning at her lazily, before taking on a somber expression.
"I'm sorry, Lucy. But I'm not going to teach you."
She shifts her position to where now her back rests against the cave wall as well, her shoulder bumping his.
"Can you just tell me why?"
"I've told you before," he yawns, letting his head fall atop hers, eyes drifting closed. "I don't mind saving you."
The girl rolls her eyes, but allows her head to fall onto his shoulder. She shifts and allows herself to settle in for the night, getting comfortable. He's so warm that the slight chill to the cave is easy to ignore. "The whole princess and dragon cliche is a bit overdone, wouldn't you say?"
"It's my favorite cliche." He hums, grinning.
It's such a surprising answer that Lucy wouldn't be shocked if he were half asleep when he said it.
His quiet snores filled the cave a few moments later.
"Natsu, I'm not o fight this battle for you." Erza states simply, tacking on a 'literally' after thinking about it for a moment and grinning at her own humor.
Natsu groans, letting his head fall into his hands. "Please, Erza."
"I don't understand why you don't just teach her yourself. It's obvious she wants you as an instructor, why not do your best to just make her happy?"
The boy feels his shoulders slump. "What if I screw it up?"
Erza blinks.
"I mean," he continues, "you and Gray have your powers to protect you, and I'm not saying Lucy isn't powerful too, because she is!" He's scrambling now. "It's just, she only has her spirits and her keys wouldn't help her in a sparring match and what if I get carried away and hit a little too hard that isn't like hitting you or that bastard Gray it might really hurt her and-"
The redhead gives him a gentle, or what she considers gentle, smack upside the head to stop his blabbering.
"Natsu," she offers him a rare grin. "You have better self control than that."
"You really think?" He asks, rubbing the now sore spot on his head.
"Sure, and if you need an incentive," Natsu swears the girl's aurora just became ten times scarier than normal, "If you hurt our dear Lucy, then that pink mop on your head will become a new trophy beside my collection I keep in my room. Is that understood?"
Eyes wide, he swallows hard. "Yes ma'am."
Part 2 coming soon