The Scent Of Lucy
"Do you really think that I should get this?" Lucy Heartfilia asked her best friend, Levy McGarden, holding up the bottle. They were at a make-up store, stocking up on supplies. They were currently in the perfume section and Lucy was holding up the pink bottle that her friend had handed her. The magenta bottle and the liquid inside looked innocent enough and the rich, floral scent was amazing, but Lucy had balked when she saw the name written in plain, gold printing upon the label: Pure Seduction.
"Of course. Lu-chan. It smells great, the name is just a way to make it seem more appealing. Besides," she had a sly smirk on her face. "It might get you noticed by a certain pink haired dragon slayer." Lucy felt her face heat at her friend's words. Levy was the only one Lucy had told about her crush on her partner, Natsu Dragneel. Levy had been very understanding, having a crush on a certain iron dragon slayer, herself. Of course, that didn't stop her from teasing Lucy about it when she got the chance; Lucy did the same to her. Lucy glanced down at the bottle in her hand.
"Do you really think so?"
"Dragonslayers do have a heightened sense of smell, after all." Lucy tightened her grip on the bottle, deciding right then and there to buy it. Natsu was the oblivious person she'd ever met and needed all the help she could get to get his attention. Normally she had no problem getting men to notice her (a fact that she'd used to advantage more than once!), but Natsu was immune to her feminine charms. The boy had seen her naked, slept in her bed, and had had his face shoved right into her cleavage, and he still refused to see her as anything more than a partner! Lucy was getting desperate. She marched to the counter, not even caring about the look on the check-out lady's face when she saw the perfume, determined to get that son of a dragon to finally make a move on her!
The next day, before she went to the guild, Lucy made sure to spray on her new perfume. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open her door and started walking to the guild. Along the way, she noticed that men were staring and call out to her. This was not unusual. She was a young, attractive girl, with, admittedly, rather large breasts. She was approached and stared at on a regular basis, but today it seemed like this was happening on a much larger scale. For Pete's sake, that man in the ridiculously tight, pink pants had to be gay. What was he doing calling out to her! Lucy brushed them off and continued on her way. None of them was the one she wanted to notice her, anyway.
Lucy arrived at the guild and pushed open the doors. As she walked in she noticed that a majority of the male eyes flew to her. Lucy felt uncomfortable, looking around to see if she could spot Natsu. He was nowhere to be found. She sighed dejectedly and went to go sit next to Levy at the bar.
"Hey there, Lucy!" Nab said as she passed by the request board. Lucy put on a smile and greeted Nab in return.
"Hi, Nab. Any good jobs?"
"Still looking. If I find a good one, how would you like to come with me?" Lucy's eyebrows shot up her forehead. He had never shown interest in her like THAT before!
"Uh... No thanks, Nab!" Lucy hurried over to the bar, wanting to escape the awkward conversation as fast as possible. She passed by Warren, Max, Laki, Alzack, and Bisca. 'You look great Lucy! Want to go somewhere? Now.' Warren said in her mind. 'Get Out Of My Head Warren!' Lucy said, angrily, in her head. Max and Alzack didn't say anything, (thank God!). It seemed that nearly every man in Fairy Tail who wasn't in a relationship was hitting on her as she walked by. Wakaba had the audacity to slap her butt as she walked by, earning him a Lucy kick right into Macao's pervy face. What was wrong with them! Lucy had never been sexually harassed on THIS level at Fairy Tail, they respected her more than that. Or they had! Lucy sat down at the bar with an angry huff.
"What is wrong with everyone today?"
"What's wrong Lucy?" Mirajane said sweetly.
"Almost every guy in here has hit on me today!"
"Really?"
"All the ones who aren't dating anyone!"
"That's not good. Do you want me to get Erza to stop them?"
"I'm almost to that point! If I get one more guy making a pass at me I'll scream!"
"I Love You, Lucy!" Loke said as he appeared in a puff of smoke, hugging her from behind. Lucy screamed and Lucy kicked him so hard that he broke the wall he landed in.
"GO BACK TO THE SPIRIT WORLD YOU PERVY LION!" Loke had never seen her look so pissed at him for declaring his undying love for her and decided that taking her suggestion was the best plan. Lucy sighed as he disappeared.
"Wow, Lucy! That was harsh." Levy said.
"I'm just so sick of this today."
"I wonder why this is happening."
"I know. I didn't do anything different today. Well, except use that new perfume."
"Wait, Lucy," Mira said jumping in. "What kind of new perfume?"
"Pure Seduction." She said with a blush. Mira nodded in understanding.
"I know what's wrong. That's from a line of magical perfumes. It's designed to make a woman sexually appealing to every man that smells it. Even a faint whiff and he wants to go home with her. They really mean 'Pure Seduction'." Lucy was in complete shock. No wonder she'd been receiving more attention than usual.
"But, not EVERY man has been hitting on me. I walked right by Max and Alzack and they didn't try to hit on me, not that I minded it."
"It doesn't work on men who are in love. They just see you how they normally would." That explained it, Alzack was married and Max and Laki had been dating for the past few months. This was good news for Laki, at least, but all Lucy wanted to do was go home and wash this awful stuff off. Just then she heard the voice of the person that had started this whole mess.
"Hey, Luce!" It seemed that Natsu had finally shown up.
"Hi, Natsu." Lucy knew that this would end one of two ways: Natsu would fall under the spell and she'd have to turn him down (she wanted him to love her as much as she loved him on his own, not because some perfume made him want to nail her) or he wouldn't be affected and she'd know that he was in love with someone else (which would break her heart). Either way, this did not end well for Lucy.
"Hey Luce, there's something weird about you."
"Lucy's always weird." Happy chimed in.
"No, I mean weirder than usual." Lucy felt her anger rising. Why did he have to say the most annoying things right now?! "I got it! Lucy smells different!"
"Do you like it?" Levy said, asking the question that Lucy was too scared to ask. Natsu shrugged.
"Not really." Lucy's heart plummeted. He would have liked it if he wasn't in love with anyone.
"I guess I'm going to go home and wash this off then," Lucy said, standing and leaving before anyone could say anything else. The tears didn't start until she was at home, safe behind her closed bedroom door. Natsu was in love with someone else, he would never love her the way she wanted him to. She'd let herself succumb to the sadness today so that tomorrow she would be able to go back and have him treat her as his partner, all she'd ever be to him. She'd be happy for him when they got together because she was his friend. That was what friends did; friends were happy for each other, even when it was killing them inside. Lucy knew that she would have to be satisfied with only being Natsu's friend because not having in her life was so much worse than only having him as her friend. She just had to let the sadness out this one day and then she could move forward. So, she cried.
"Geez, Luce! Just because you smell weird doesn't mean you need to cry about it." Lucy looked up through her tears to see Natsu silhouetted in the window. Ugh! Why did he have to show up now of all times? She cried harder, him being here just made the pain of it worse. She couldn't even make enough of an effort to kick him out like she usually did when he broke into her room unexpectedly. "Hey! Don't cry! You don't smell that bad! I promise!" Lucy started laughing through her tears. Natsu could always make her laugh, even when she was upset. "Okay, Luce, you're starting to scare me. You're acting weirder than usual. Is this because you smell weird?"
"NATSU! YOU IDIOT! I'M NOT CRYING BECAUSE I SMELL WEIRD'!" Natsu was confused.
"Then why are you crying?" Lucy shook her head. "C'mon, Luce! You can tell me! We're partners! Nakama!" Lucy cried harder hearing that. "NO! NO! STOP CRYING LUCY! I'M SORRY! WHATEVER I DID I'M SORRY! I'M NOT GOOD AT THIS! YOU KNOW THAT!" Lucy knew that there was no way that she was going to be able to get out of telling him, now. He wouldn't leave until he knew why she was upset. He may be unbelievably dense at times, but he was not so dense as to not be able to understand that she was upset and it had something to do with him.
"It's not your fault. You can't help being in love." Natsu turned redder than Erza's hair.
"W-w-wh-WHAT! YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT!" Lucy nodded regretfully. Natsu deflated some, still blushing madly. Lucy thought he looked cuter than ever. "How'd you find out about it?" Lucy stood up and walked over to her vanity, picking up the bottle of perfume that had started this whole mess.
"I got this perfume yesterday and I didn't know that it was magical." She handed it to Natsu. "It makes every guy who smells it want me. Except it doesn't work on men who are already in love and since you didn't seem to want me like… that. I knew you were in love." He looked as embarrassed as she felt. "I don't mind! Really! I'm happy for you!" she said hurriedly. He looked more confused than ever.
"Then why are you crying?" that was the exact thing she'd hoped he wouldn't ask.
"Because I..ov..ou," she mumbled staring at the ground.
"What?"
"I…ov…you!"
"What?"
"I LOVE YOU!" she screamed. Lucy clapped her hands over her mouth. She hadn't meant for it to come out like that.
"HUH?"
"I love you and that's why I got that stupid perfume in the first place! Levy said that dragon slayer have a heightened sense of smell and that you'd noticed me if I wore it, but then it was magical and all those guys were hitting on me, but not you and I knew you were in love with someone else because you didn't try that and I'm cool with that! I really am! I just needed to be sad and I'm sure she's a great girl! And I can't wait to meet her-" Natsu cut off the fast stream of word flowing from the celestial mage's mouth.
"Wait! What do you mean I'm in love with someone else?"
"That's why it didn't work on you. You're in love with someone else and-"
"It didn't work on me because I'm in love with someone else. I just didn't like the way it smelled." Now Lucy was confused.
"But, you wouldn't have thought that if you were in love."
"Listen, Luce. Dragonslayers DO have very sensitive noses, we can smell the difference between people's smells easily, or that's what Igneel said. And we can, also, smell our mates. They have this special smell that's better than anything or anyone else's. That's how we know when we've found them. We fall in love with that smell before we even fall in love with that person." Why was he telling her this? "The reason that perfume didn't work on me was that I'm already in love with your smell and I didn't like that the perfume was covering it up." Lucy was stunned.
"You mean…
"You're my mate, Lucy. I knew it when I met you in Hargeon. I wasn't sure until after that fight with the not Salamander guy. That's why I told you to come with us and why I made team with you. Because I knew you were the one for me. We only get one mate, Luce, and you're mine. I love you." Lucy was stunned. There was no way that this was real. She had to be dreaming. "Luce?"
"I'm dreaming."
"Huh?"
"There is no way that this is true." Natsu sighed.
"I guess I'll just have to prove it to you." Lucy was so in shock that she didn't even notice what he was doing until his he had pulled her into him, putting a hand on the back of her head and another on her waist, and had her lips firmly pressed against his.
Lucy quickly recovered from her shock as she felt the way his lips were moving on hers. It felt so good. She closed her eyes and began to kiss him back, enjoying the feel of his lips moving in sync with hers, his rough hand in her hair, and how soft his own spiky, salmon locks felt in her hands as she ran them through it. He was so warm, and soft, and rough all at the same time. It was better than anything she'd ever felt before. She never wanted this moment to end. Unfortunately, they did have to come back up for air at some time. They broke apart gasping for breath. He caught his first.
"Believe me now?" Lucy nodded enthusiastically. "Good. Hey, Luce. Could you do me a favor?"
"What?"
"Could you wash that perfume off? No offense, but I still don't like the way it smells. Besides," he said with a sly smirk. "You smell WAY better without it!" Lucy laughed and went to the bathroom to wash off the perfume. For an idiot, he could say some pretty sweet things.
When she came back out, no longer smelling of that awful perfume, she found Natsu burning something.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
"Burning that awful perfume stuff. I don't want you accidentally wearing it and having other men going after my mate. I'd have to burn them all to a crisp!"
"NATSU! That stuff was expensive!"
"Too late!"
"You are so annoying!"
"But, you know you love me anyway!"
"I changed my mind!"
"Too late! You're stuck with me!" he said, embracing her and burying his head into the crook of her neck, inhaling her sweet scent deeply. As Lucy hugged him back she decided that she wouldn't want it any other way.