I have no excuse. I present the Pocky Game :p

Lucy should've known better when she saw the sandals on her doormat. She had been irked, her eyes tracing the tacky, yet suede-like shoes. What were they doing here? She had wondered, as she pushed the door to her apartment complex open. She was 100% sure she had seen them before, but she couldn't precisely place a finger on the memory. She shrugged it off too quickly, entering the room without another thought.

She immediately shrieked, the plastic grocery bags plopping on the floor with a thud. Two apples rolled out of one of the bags, and they rolled towards the across the rug carpeting and onto the tile floor of the kitchen.

"NATSU!" She screamed, clenching her currently empty hands into tight fists.

Natsu nodded his head off, which had been resting on the edge of his palm. "Hah. . . " He said, eyebrows furrowing. The fool was somehow unaroused. He was only tossing and turning on the chair, clearly uncomfortable.

Lucy huffed, her cheeks burning. She stomped over to him and flicked him on the forehead with her index finger and thumb.

Natsu's eyes flashed open instantaneously. "FIRE DRAGON'S-" Fire had begun collecting on the tip of his tongue (Lucy could tell, because his jaw was wide open and revealed), but the flames extinguished as soon as they appeared. He seemed to survey the scene before him, turning his head side to side. He faced Lucy. The blond cringed from his intense gaze. Natsu grinned suddenly.

"Hey, Luce."

It was already bad enough that the fire dragon slayer had barged into Lucy's room WITHOUT HER PERMISSION, but breathing fire in her home?! She knew the landlady would freak out from this. Lucy could already visualize herself being kicked out along with her suitcases and clothes.

Lucy palmed her own face. "Please tell me how you got in here." She grumbled against her hand.

Natsu placed his arms behind his head, squinting, trying to grasp at the thought. "I was hungry. . . ." He recalled jovially, grinning once more.

"Do I have to repeat this many times to get it through your thick skull?" Lucy snapped on cue. "Sneaking into people's homes is wrong. I don't care how hungry you were."

Natsu rolled his eyes, peeving Lucy greatly. "Yeah, yeah. What do you have?"

Anger vanished, Lucy blinked twice and regarded the fallen grocery bags. "Oh, right. . . "

Gosh, darn. She scurried over to the bags and examined its contents, hoping they were unharmed. Let's see. . . She dug out vegetables and sealed, frozen meat, putting them aside. She aimlessly grabbed for something and her fingers brushed against a flat surface. She pulled it out, wincing as she silently read the label to herself.

Pocky.

Everything rushed through her head; Bisca's cheeky advice, the pocky. . .

You know you want to. . . The sharpshooter had cajoled, moving the case back and forth in front of Lucy's eyes as if she were trying to hypnotize her. With a box, for Mavis's sake.

It's dumb. Lucy had scowled, waving it off. Only somebody desperate and foolish would do something like that.

Bisca had shrugged indifferently then, but a smile had still lingered on her lips. Take it. Think it over.

Agh. . . She had to resist the urge to get up and stash the pocky deep in a cabinet and forget all about it. She admittedly had feelings for Natsu, but something as mediocre as a game wasn't particularly a technique she wanted to use on him. But. . . .

If the results came out well. . .

Because she was Lucy Heartfilia, and Lucy Heartfilia did not want to go to the headquarters and deal with Bisca guffawing at her cowardice, she warily got to her feet and approached Natsu.

His eyes were closed again. Before Lucy could prepare herself to flick him again, one eyelid fluttered open. "Food?" He asked rather lazily.

Lucy swallowed and shook the box, its insides rattling. "Pocky." She didn't realize she was trembling until she felt her fingers vibrate against the surface of the box.

Natsu opened his other eye and snatched the box, attempting to read it. "This looks so light thoughhhh!" He whined, shoving it back into Lucy's hands half a second later.

This was it. She could take the opportunity and toss the box in the trash can. Who cared what Bisca thought, Lucy wasn't prepared to do this in a million years.

"It'll. . . fill you up, I promise." Lucy said, opposing her thoughts. "And. . . do you want to play a game with it?"

Natsu's expression sparked with interest. He jumped to his feet, his spiky salmon hair flickering as he moved. "Yeah!" He rubbed his hands together, now fueled with determination.

She opened the box, lifting the flap. In the inside was a thin, white packet - full of Pocky, no doubt. She peeled one side, fingers trembling. Stick-like biscuits coated in a solid strawberry cream came into view.

Something tickled Lucy's neck and she said, "Natsu, you're breathing on my neck. . "

Natsu snorted at this and leaned back, planting his hands on either side of his waist. "Take it out already!"

"Right." Lucy squeaked. She carefully drew out a stick of Pocky and held it out for Natsu to see. "Okay, so here's how the game works." She said slowly, allowing Natsu to absorb every word. "You face me. I put this stick of Pocky between our lips." She let her teeth catch one side of the biscuit.

"You do the same to the other side. Carefully. Don't eat it or I'll kill you." She instructed harshly, her voice cracking in the middle of her sentence. Seriously, the jitters were getting to her.

Natsu took the other side with a strawberry tip. He gently bit into it, to Lucy's surprise. "Then what?" He said through his teeth, his voice sounding nasal.

Lucy breathed at a steady pace, counting constantly in her head.

1, 2, 3, 4, breathe, 1, 2, 3, 4, breathe. . .

She continued the exercise as she said, "So now you can start eating it, and if one person-"

Way ahead of her, Natsu was chomping ferociously on the biscuit. Lucy's eyes must've been deceiving her, because when she blinked, Natsu's lips were only an inch away from hers.

Crap. Lucy sweat dropped. This definitely wasn't going according to plan.

"Now what?" His voice had dropped a pitch; he didn't sound as loud as before.

Lucy found herself getting lost in his sable eyes without realizing it. "You did it wrong!" She gritted out, trying to evade the awkward situation.

This was too much. Forget it, let Bisca laugh at her. She herself was already aware that she was a chicken, so what was wrong with Bisca confirming it?

"No I didn't." He said smugly, his upper lip curling. In fact, he sounded amused! Was he completely unaware of what was happening?!

"Ugh, start over or something! You didn't let me finish my instructions!" Lucy's teeth let loose the small piece of pocky left over, ready to give up and she turned her head away.

Unfortunately, Natsu consumed it with inhuman speed and leaned in.

Lucy shut her eyes at the last minute, squeezing them tightly. Was he actually going to kiss her? It was too good to be true. . .

Warmth enveloped her as she felt something soft crush against her own lips.

Just kidding.

Empty air met her lips, though.

Confusion washed over her.

Immediately, she blinked them open.

Natsu was pumping his fist, cackling. "I WON!" He was prancing around the room, laughing so loud that possibly all of Magnolia heard him. He even yelled out the window to the village folk, "I won the Pocky Game!"

And Lucy was left stunned. Her nose then twitched and she screamed, "YOU DID IT WRONG!"

The idiotic dragon slayer whipped his head around to face Lucy and his forehead wrinkled. "Whatdaya mean? I did it! I ate all of it! That was the objective, right?"

"NO, YOU MORON!" Lucy shrieked, picking up the Pocky box that was lying on the floor (for some reason) and throwing it at Natsu. It hit him square in the nose and he toppled backward and out the open window.

FIN~