"Oh no," Lucy froze in her kitchen, hair in a messy bun, and clad in a black cami and gray sweatpants. She strained her ears for a moment, hoping that she was wrong, but was met with the hushed giggles coming from Levy's room, the soft bedroom voices that would only get louder within a short amount of time. "Damn it!" Lucy groaned, accepting her fate. Levy had her boyfriend Gajeel over and usually that meant incredibly loud sex that would interrupt even the loudest of music.

Lucy cursed the two of them, and quickly gathered any dirty laundry that she could get her hands on to have an excuse to leave the apartment that she shared with her blue haired best friend.

"Why is he even over? Levy usually warns me…" Lucy pouted as she threw her clothes into her hamper angrily. Just then, realization hit her like the horrid brick it was- it was Valentine's Day, that's why. Lucy groaned loudly, though it would go largely unnoticed by the very busy pair. "They're going to be at this all night!" Lucy whined and hurriedly got her clothes together. She grabbed her small brown bag with her keys and wallet inside, hamper on her hip, and made her escape to the laundry room.

It took everything for Lucy not to stomp down the steps to the laundry room. It's not that it was really her business if Levy and Gajeel had sex or when they had sex, and it wasn't that she was bitter about Valentine's Day, in fact, she couldn't care less about the corporate holiday. But she would have enjoyed the quiet night to herself to work on her novel or just snuggle up with a good book. It would have been a great Valentine's Day with just she and herself, but clearly that was not the case for her evening. So, down she trudged the slightly dark and creepy stairs that led to the laundry room. She had brought a book, that she had been hoping to snuggle up in her own bed rather than amongst washing machines, so that she could hopefully drag out the time she spent down there for a few hours.

Practically flinging herself through the doorway of the laundry room, Lucy huffily plopped her hamper down in front of one of the many empty washing machines. She busied herself by shoving her clothes in; some may have said that she should be separating delicates, whites, and what-have-you, but Lucy was not one to be fussy. And so, everything was shoved thoroughly in. She turned to sit in a nearby chair, when a figure, seated across from her, startled her.

"Holy sh-!" She gasped, but the pink haired boy didn't respond. He had big headphones, with red and orange flames licking up the sides of them, over his ears. His hands were pressed on the ear pieces as if to drown out sound even more so. His elbows rested on his knees and his head was pitched forward, eyes trained on the ground before him. Lucy could not see his face, but from everything else, she guessed that he was at least somewhere around her age. Lucy was curious, so she placed her hamper next to the empty chair, slung her bag over her shoulder, and tucked her book under her arm, walking up to the mystery man. She lightly tapped his shoulder trying not to startle him too much.

"Hey, are you okay?" She questioned. Her light touch, however, had not been too little to not startle him, and his head jolted up while one hand ripped the headphones off his ears.

"Holy fuck you scared me." He yelped out, his voice deliciously raspy- yes, Lucy's brain had thought that the guy's voice was absolutely and indisputably, deliciously raspy.

"I-I'm sorry!" Lucy squeaked out while giving him a once over. His dark, slate green eyes were wild, his pink hair even more disheveled than she had originally thought, and his features was boyish, but he had a strong, defined jaw. His eyebrows were knitted in worry, one hand dramatically over his chest, and the other still gripping the headphones that were now around his neck.

"W-what's up?" He asked awkwardly and Lucy realized that she had been staring at him for far too long, without any conversation, to be normal.

"O-oh, um, you just seemed bothered. Just wanted to make sure you were okay." She let out a little awkward chuckle and, surprisingly, the guy broke out into a warm smile.

"Thanks for checkin'!" He grinned and leaned back in the chair he was seated in. "Just trying to escape some asshole and his perverted night…" He grumbled, half to himself and half to Lucy.

"Er, sorry?"

"Oh, my bad, I mean my asshole of a roommate." He clarified, smile still bright as can be as he insulted the mystery roommate. "I'm Natsu by the way." He stuck out his hand and Lucy grasped it hurriedly, realizing that she hadn't even introduced herself after interrupting him.

"Lucy! I-I'm Lucy. Sorry." Lucy slipped her hand back and nervously tucked a few strands of hair that had fallen loose from her bun. "So… Why are you trying to get away from your asshole of a roommate? And… Why is he an asshole?"

"Because he's fuc- er, I mean, he's loving his girlfriend very loud and I happen to have very sensitive ears, not to mention the walls are paper thin in this shit hole." He grumbled and Lucy let out a surprised laugh. "What, you think it's funny? 'Cause it ain't, try gettin' sleep that way, it-"

"No, no, I'm just laughing because I'm doing the same thing." Lucy managed to giggle out.

"Eh?"

"My roommate has her boyfriend over and, well, things get pretty loud between them sometimes, so I just needed to escape it. Especially since it's Valentine's Day and all, they're probably going to be at it for a while."

"Aw hell! It's Valentine's Day? They're gonna be at it all night!" He wailed in despair, throwing his face into his hands.

"That's what I just said," Lucy snorted. "I guess it's kind of sad that I've resorted to holing up in the laundry room on Valentine's Day." Lucy mused, folding her arms over her chest.

"Hey, I'm not doing much better, right? But who cares about a shitty, money sucking holiday anyways?" He brought his head up and smirked, nearly taking Lucy's breath away with the mischief in his eyes.

"Right? I just wish that I could have had a quiet night with my book." Lucy pouted, glancing down forlornly at her romance novel she was reading, starring Haru and Elie who are hopelessly in love with each other. On second thought, maybe a romance novel on Valentine's Day wasn't the best choice.

"You're tellin' me, all I wanted to do was eat dinner and relax, yet here I am." Natsu growled out, scowling. The pair were quiet for a few moments and Lucy contemplated just going back to her empty chair, when Natsu spoke up. "Well, wanna go grab dinner?" Lucy nearly choked.

"H-huh? D-dinner?"

"Well, yeah." Natsu leaned back, hands behind his head resting against the wall. "Might as well do somethin' together rather than spending our time in the nasty laundry room." He grinned and Lucy couldn't help but smile back.

"Really?" Lucy asked quietly. She hadn't been on a date in ages and, even though it obviously wasn't a date, her heart was fluttering away. Lucy glanced down at herself, suddenly hyper aware of how she was dressed. "I-I can't!" Natsu looked taken aback, almost hurt in a way.

"O-oh, yeah, no problem." He managed to give a tight smile in response.

"N-no! I mean, I can't because I'm dressed like a slob!" She yelped out and Natsu quirked a brow at her.

"Seriously?" He scoffed and Lucy nodded, eyes wide. "You look fine, c'mon, I know a great place! We'll have a pajama party dinner!" He grinned and let out a snicker as he stood up, showing off his own gray sweatpants, his black t-shirt clinging to him, showing off his toned body. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her along out the door.

"B-but what about my laundry?" Lucy protested, though the thrill of the boy in front of her was too much to ignore.

"It'll be fine! Live a little!" He laughed as he dragged her along. "And quit worryin' about what ya look like! You look cute in sweats." He grinned at her easily as if the statement was a fact and not a compliment.

"Okay!"

Exactly One Year Later

"Look out losers, it's our turn now!" Natsu kicked open the door to his apartment where his roommate, Gray, and his girlfriend, Juvia, were seated on the couch.

"What the hell?" Gray huffed out, jumping up from the couch. "The hell are you talking about?"

"First, we're gonna do it really loud in here so you guys have to suffer," Natsu gestured between himself and Lucy.

"Natsu!" Lucy protested, a mortified blush painted on her cheeks.

"Then," Natsu continued, ignoring Lucy's embarrassment. "We're gonna go to Lucy's apartment where Levy and asshole two, you're asshole one by the way, are gonna be, and we're gonna do it really loud there as well!"

"Oh my god…"

"He's not serious, is he?" Gray questioned and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"No, he is."

"Why shouldn't we? We had to listen to all of you do it, it's our turn to shine now!" Natsu cackled and Lucy couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Gray-sama, Juvia thought they couldn't hear us!" She turned to Gray, lightly smacking his chest in embarrassment.

"Don't worry, Juvia, Gajeel and Levy are just as bad." Lucy offered in consolation, but the blue haired girl looked horrified.

"C'mon Lucy!" He pulled her along, their laughter filling the hallway leading up to Natu's bedroom. He pulled her close to him, kissing her fervently, needfully. "I love you." He said to her huskily and Lucy pulled him down for another kiss.

"Happy Valentine's Day." Lucy replied, smiling up at him, thanking the day a year ago that she went to the laundry room.

"Yeah, happy Valentine's Day, assholes." Gray called as he turned up the volume on the television.