She was happy to have shared a part of her existence with him, even if it was for a painfully fleeting period of time. The hole that John's absence left within Isabella's heart, though gaping and wide, was one that Isabella knew she had the strength to fill up again someday, and it was John who had given her that strength.
An audible sigh could be heard from the apartment of 18 year old Lucy Heartfilia. The blonde-haired mage closed the book in her hands, having finished yet another sappy love novel. Sad love stories always had a way of getting to her, even if they were somewhat predictable. Looking up from her book, Lucy noted with amusement that her vision was a tad blurry. Blinking out some tears and wiping them away with her hand, the Celestial Spirit Mage giggled to herself. The contents of that book definitely did not warrant tears, but she just couldn't help herself sometimes. Besides, a little emotional release was good from time to time.
I sure as heck don't get that with Natsu, the blonde caught herself thinking, before shooing away those thoughts from her head. Emotional release with that dolt? She couldn't imagine having a heartfelt cry on his shoulder or better yet, into his chest with him holding her. Lucy blushed a little at the thought, before groaning at herself. She was starting to notice that a certain Dragon Slayer would preoccupy her thoughts whenever she finished a sappy love novel, lately. The blonde-haired girl shivered a little, adamantly telling herself that it was because of the cold, and not because of her mushy thoughts of her partner. To remedy the coldness, she pulled her covers tighter over herself, only for the book she had just finished to drop to the floor below. Letting out an exasperated "Grr!", the Celestial Spirit Mage was about to pick up the book when she suddenly felt...something. She couldn't put her fingers on it, but there was a sense of something coming.
Right on cue, Natsu Dragneel suddenly appeared right in front of Lucy, momentarily scaring her out of her mind. The Dragon Slayer leapt through his partner's window, as he had done many times before, his signature wide, fang-baring smile illuminating his face. Despite how his smile had a way of driving her crazy sometimes, Lucy was about to object to his sudden dynamic entry, when she noticed her partner's expression change into one of shock. Lucy couldn't tell what had suddenly made her best friend so surprised, but it was definitely apparent that his astonishment had made him forget to put the brakes on his jump through her window, as he completely overshot the bed and fell flat on his face.
As Lucy peered down at the fallen dummy beside her bed, the Dragon Slayer immediately shot up to glance at his partner again. The two looked into each other's eyes, and the Celestial Spirit Mage was the first to break the silence, breaking into a fit of giggles at the bizarre scene that had just unfolded before her. However, she was soon given another shock that night as Natsu suddenly reached out and grasped one of Lucy's hands into both of his. What the heck is he doing? along with a million other thoughts were racing through the blonde's mind at her partner's sudden gesture, but what came out of her mouth was nowhere near as coherent.
"Na-Natsu?" was all Lucy could say, her mind short-circuiting as her partner continued to grasp her hand close to his chest.
"Lucy, what's wrong?" the pink-haired mage asked, concern evident in his voice. As Lucy was about to ask him what he meant by that question, Natsu spoke up again. "You're crying."
Lucy blinked a little before remembering that the book she had finished earlier had managed to get some tears out of her. The fit of laughter she just had at Natsu falling flat on his face probably brought some tears to her eyes as well. Lucy attempted to try and explain this to her partner, but was cut off yet again by the always excitable Natsu Dragneel.
"Who made you cry?" the Dragon Slayer asked, his tone frantic. "I'm gonna kill whoever it was." he proclaimed, looking at his partner for an answer, only to find a rather amused look in her eyes.
What's wrong with him? the Celestial Spirit Mage thought to herself amusedly, as she observed her partner. He wasn't the most sensitive guy in the world, but she couldn't deny that he definitely cared about her. It was much too adorable the way he was trying so frantically to find out the cause behind her tears. She wanted to speak up and tell him the truth, but Natsu...fawning over her? How many times would this realistically happen during their lifetimes? Lucy figured that some teasing couldn't really hurt.
"No one made me cry, Natsu." Lucy said plainly, wanting to see how far she could keep Natsu interested in the matter. "I'll let you take a guess as to why I was crying, though." she offered, a soft smile gracing her features. The blonde was given a quizzical look in return from her partner. Natsu was having a tough time understanding why Lucy wouldn't just tell him outright.
Girls are weird, was his take on that matter.
"Umm..." the Dragon Slayer started, moving his face much too close to his partner's for comfort. Lucy blushed at the proximity between their faces. Suddenly, Natsu let go of his partner's hand which he had been holding the entire time, and opted instead to grasp onto her other hand. Lucy could only wonder what Natsu was attempting to accomplish with this. He sure likes holding my hands today, she thought to herself. It feels kinda nice. Wait, ugh! The Celestial Spirit Mage scolded herself inwardly for thinking that thought. Of all the people she could be falling for, of course it would be that crazy pyromaniac she called her best friend.
After holding onto his partner's hand and staring into her eyes for a few moments, Natsu seemed to have come up with an answer.
"Is it because you're cold?"
Lucy felt her eyebrow twitch at Natsu's guess. Had he seriously just held her hand to see if she was cold? Feeling as if her brain was about to short-circuit from how awful his guess was, Lucy prepared to speak up and tell Natsu he was wrong when, all of a sudden, the pink-haired mage again held Lucy's hands, this time each of her hands finding a home in one of his.
Before she could ask her partner what in Mavis's name he was doing, she felt a certain warmth emanating from her body. Sure, she was rather flustered by the sudden obsession with hand-holding that Natsu seemed to have developed overnight, but not even her blushing could be causing this sort of heat. She looked up to find Natsu staring at her intently, before the Dragon Slayer gently put his forehead against hers, smiling softly as he did so.
Lucy could do nothing but smile shyly back at her best friend as she basked in his warmth. She couldn't recall ever doing something so...affectionate with someone before. Certainly not with another man. But Natsu wasn't any other man...as evidenced by the fact that he could selectively use his magic to heat up his body, thus warming whatever he was holding onto as well. Besides his obviously unique Fire Dragon Slayer qualities however, there were a lot more reasons why Natsu wasn't any other guy though, Lucy thought to herself. Who else but Natsu could come to a conclusion so ridiculous, that somehow the cold had made her cry, only to do something so ridiculously sweet for her right afterwards. Right now, having Natsu by her side made her feel like an awfully lucky girl, but she had to let him know that this guess was way off base.
"Not even close, silly." Lucy giggled. She felt some alarm, though, when Natsu's arms relaxed and moved downwards. "I didn't say you could stop holding me." she reprimanded playfully, sticking out her tongue at her partner.
Natsu grumbled at Lucy's words. Partly out of disappointment over not having gotten the cause of her tears right, but also partly to distract himself from how Lucy was starting to make him feel. Being this close to his beautiful blonde partner was something he could really get used to.
"You were...sad?" was the Dragon Slayer's next feeble attempt at a guess.
"That's why most people shed tears, Natsu." the Celestial Spirit Mage retorted. "I guess you got that part right, though." she conceded.
Letting go of one of her partner's hands, which was met by a rather disappointed sounding growl from the pink-haired mage, Lucy reached down to pick up the book that she had dropped right before Natsu himself had dropped by, landing them in their current situation. Lucy handed Natsu the book, which once again elicited a growl from the Dragon Slayer. The blonde noted with amusement how Natsu hurriedly flipped to the end of the book, and glanced over the final lines on the page. After taking a moment to digest what he had just read, Natsu closed the book and looked directly at his partner.
"I guess that's kinda sad..." Natsu admitted. "I didn't think that'd be sad enough to make anyone cry though." he added, looking straight at Lucy.
The blonde sighed at Natsu's words. "You're probably right." she conceded. "Love stories have a way of getting to me tho -" the Celestial Spirit Mage attempted to explain, but apparently Natsu decided that he had heard enough.
Lucy felt all her senses leaving her at what her partner was currently doing. He had reached out with both hands to cup her face, and he was...kissing her. Not on the lips or anything like that, but instead, softly peppering her neck and her cheeks and her face in general with short, feather-like kisses. Lucy could hardly breathe as the Dragon Slayer's kisses began to get a little rougher, and linger a little more each time. Before she totally lost herself, Lucy decided that she definitely needed to know why he was doing this. The blonde quickly put her hands on Natsu's face, looking into his surprised eyes.
"Why are you...kissing me?" she asked, her voice soft and breathless.
"Well, at the end of that book, Isabella felt lonely because she didn't have John around anymore." Natsu started. Lucy had to admit she was impressed at Natsu's accurate take on the last part of the book. "So if Lucy's lonely, I'm here to remind you that you'll never be alone. I'll always be here for you." Natsu concluded, his voice firm to emphasize his sincerity.
The Celestial Spirit Mage blushed a bright red at her partner's sweet words. "I'm counting on it." she said softly, pulling Natsu into a tight embrace as she rested her head against his chest. A familiar warmth spread through the pair again, though part of it was Natsu's body reacting to his friend's hug. He reached up to gently stroke Lucy's blonde hair. Feeling completely at ease, perhaps too much so, Lucy mumbled something that she immediately hoped the Dragon Slayer hadn't picked up. She looked up to find Natsu giving her somewhat of a bemused look.
"What was that, Luce?"
Curse that ridiculous hearing he has, Lucy swore to herself. "Did I say something?" she chuckled nervously, trying to get away from the topic at hand.
"You said you loved me."
The blonde froze. So he heard me after all... she thought wistfully. She couldn't deny that she was probably madly in love with the pink-haired dummy at this point, but she certainly didn't want anything to come between the best friendship she'd ever had in her life, either.
"Well, I love you more." Natsu proclaimed, causing Lucy's eyes to widen in shock. In typical Natsu fashion, he'd manage to both turn love into a competition, and also treat it as one of the most casual things in the world as well. In fact, he'd said that so casually, Lucy didn't believe that even the person who'd made that remark fully knew what he was saying.
"Natsu..." the blonde started shyly, looking down to hide her blush. "Do you know...what kind of 'love' I'm talking about?" she asked, wanting there to be no misunderstandings about their relationship.
There was a slight pause before Natsu reached down to cup Lucy's chin, coaxing her face closer and closer to his. The two stared into each other's eyes intimately, before Natsu pressed his lips against Lucy's, effectively making him her first kiss. The Dragon Slayer eventually pulled away, giving his partner one of his trademark smiles.
"I love you, Luce."
Well, I guess there aren't any misconceptions between me and that dummy this time.
Short little fic from an idea that popped into my mind as I was about to go to sleep the other night. Everyone's feedback really does mean a lot to me, so read, review, follow, and favorite if you enjoyed. Also check out my other fics in my profile if interested.