Snogfairy and Toxineena (both on tumblr) wrote Lucy-centric strip-poker drabbles after chapter 453 came out, so I decided to write a Natsu-centric version to complete the set.
You're My Will To Live, pt. 1
by hashtagartistlife
The world was ending, and Lucy Heartfilia apparently wanted to spend her last night on earth reading.
Okay, slight amendment: the world wasn't ending. Not exactly. Not yet. At least, he didn't think so. The First's account of her life and Zeref's motivations was long-winded and full of bombshell revelations, and somewhere in there he had heard Zeref was out to destroy the world, but not before he could get his hands on Fairy Heart and destroy their guild first.
So: the world wasn't ending, not quite yet. But it still could be their last night on earth, and Lucy was reading.
Natsu just didn't understand that girl sometimes.
"Strip poker! Strip poker, Natsu! Come on, sit down already so I can deal out your hand!"
"Yeah, in a minute, Happy," he replied absentmindedly, eyes still roaming over the figure of the girl on her bed, happily engrossed in a book. They traced up the long lines of her legs, swept over her lithe torso, along the curve of her shoulders and finally settled on her face, lips upturned in a half-smile and brown eyes shining at something in her book. The soft lighting in her room made her blonde hair look like a halo around her face.
She was so beautiful.
"Wanna play?" he blurted out before thinking, and held his breath as those pretty, pretty eyes turned in his direction. Lucy pursed her lips and tapped her chin with a finger, apparently thinking about it.
"Poker? Or strip poker?" she asked, eyes narrowing, and Natsu grinned roguishly.
"Strip poker, of course! Where's the fun in normal poker?"
"In the look on your opponent's face as they realise you've totally creamed them," Lucy said, laughing, and Natsu was momentarily mesmerised by the way her lips parted to frame her laughter. "And if it's strip poker, I'm not playing against you or Happy! Happy only wears a vest and you've got a lot more layers on than me right now, so it's not fair."
"I think Lucy's scaaaaaared," came the voice of the blue exceed from behind him, and Natsu mentally high-fived his tiny companion. Lucy just snorted.
"As if I'd fall for that, stupid cat. Who was it that crawled into my bed the last time there was a thunderstorm and you guys were sleeping on my couch?"
"That wasn't because I was scared! Natsu snores!"
"I do not!" What a ridiculous fucking accusation. Dragonslayers didn't do anything as undignified as snore in their sleep.
"Well, nice try, but I'm not falling for it. You guys play if you want," Lucy said loftily, and resolutely turned back to that book of hers. A vein twitched in Natsu's forehead. The world was ending, and he was second-best to a damn book?
"Fine, we will! And we won't let you play with us later on even if you beg!" he said, sticking his tongue out at her. Lucy just waved a hand at him.
Natsu sat down on her floor, internally shaking his head and smiling. She never changed, that girl. It was just so her to curl up with a nice book on the eve of the apocalypse and refuse strip poker (even though he'd already seen her naked, like, how many times now?) and lecture him about planting 'death flags'. She hadn't even wanted to hear what he was going to say to her after that, for fear it would jinx them or some such thing.
Of course, he understood her concerns. He did stupid things and said stupid things, but that didn't make him stupid. He knew she was just worried about the war tomorrow – heck, he was worried about the war tomorrow – and if anything would make it less dangerous for them out there, even if it was a silly superstition, she would stick to it like glue. That was just Lucy.
Him, he didn't give a crap about death flags, or foreshadowing or whatever other literary things Lucy came up with to describe their situation. If all his friends planted a million death flags tonight, he would break them all down. If there were a million pages of foreshadowing telling of his friends' deaths, he would rip them out and shred them. If fate itself ordained someone had to lose their life to secure their victory, he would crush fate and redesign it. They were fighting to live, not to win, and victory made no sense if it came with a sacrifice of his friends' lives. That was just how he was.
So he would keep his plans for a happy future to himself if it would appease Lucy, but he let them run wild in his head. Because the future was what sustained him; the future was what gave him strength. A future where the guild was safe, where his friends could live and laugh and fall in love in peace, and most of all, a future where Lucy was alive beside him. The future was his will to live.
She was his will to live, and he would let her know this as soon as the war finished.
