Lucy burst into the infirmary, shoving past several people to collapse on the side of Natsu's hospital bed, wrapping her arms around him as she buried her head into his shoulder to hide the tears in her eyes, although Natsu could smell them anyways.
Team Natsu had been on a pretty simple mission. They just had to defeat a giant octopus monster.
Of course, Natsu being his stupid, reckless self, had launched into battle without paying attention to anything, and his instincts hadn't saved his ass that time. He'd been grabbed by one of the octopus' tentacles before anyone could react and was raised almost 20 feet into the air before being thrown harshly on the ground.
He'd gotten right up and continued fighting, scoffing at the rest of his team's wondering if he was truly fine. Lucy had had a tiny inkling that he wasn't fine, but she'd decided to trust him in knowing his limits.
That had been stupid.
As soon as the octopus had been defeated, they'd given a celebratory cheer. Lucy had turned to Natsu just in time to see him stumble and then collapse on the ground, passed out cold.
"Natsu, you idiot!" she'd cried, darting to his unconscious body to help Wendy turn him onto his back. "I knew he was hurt! Why didn't I stop him!?"
"Lucy, it's not your fault," Erza had reassured.
"He shouldn't have been a major fucking dumbass," Gray had added.
Wendy had stood up after checking his vitals and performing a bit of magic on him. "He's not in fatal danger, but I want to get him to the guild as soon as possible."
Happy had chimed in, "We aren't too far from Magnolia; Carla and I can fly Wendy and Natsu to the guild faster than if we all tried to take the train." Carla had nodded her consent to the plan.
"You sure you won't get too tired!?" Lucy had asked with concern. "You won't accidentally drop him on the way!?"
Erza and Gray had both rested a hand on her shoulder in comfort. "Natsu will be in good hands," Erza had reminded her as the exceeds nodded their confirmations.
Lucy'd been antsy the entire half-hour train ride home, Erza and Gray's words of solace offering little to no consolation. She'd darted off the train as soon as it pulled into the station, forgetting or perhaps just not caring about her bit of luggage still on board. Surely her companions would grab it, anyways.
The people at the train station and throughout Magnolia had seemed to notice the celestial wizard's distress, as she'd easily been able to forge a path through town and to the guild hall.
Which brought us to now, Lucy crying on his shoulder as he hesitantly brought his own arms around her. "Luce..."
The few other guildmates that had still been in the room chuckled at the scene, wondering if now was when something would finally happen between the two who'd been dancing around the line of friends and lovers for ages.
"He'll be perfectly fine; just needs to rest for a few days and let his body heal itself again," Wendy made sure to tell Lucy, who nodded in response against Natsu's shoulder, still hiding her face. Wendy gave a smile to Natsu before ushering out the remnants of the guild members and to meet Erza and Gray at the door to give them the news.
Natsu and Lucy were silent for a bit, the only sounds in the room being Lucy's sniffles and the ticking of the clock on the wall.
"Luce..." Natsu started again, not sure how to approach the situation.
"What were you thinking, you idiot!?" she cried, her head moving into the crook of his neck, bare, since his scarf was on the bedside table to prevent it from getting in Wendy's way.
Natsu gulped. He'd never been good at dealing with Lucy like this, but things had always interrupted these conversations before. Now... it was just them. No one around to interrupt. He could smell Wendy at the infirmary door, probably making sure that Natsu and Lucy could have this moment.
"I... Lucy, I'm fine," He told her, nuzzling his nose into her hair and breathing in to take in her scent.
Lucy sniffled again and moved even closer to him, if that was even possible. "But you might not have been..." he heard her say quietly, barely a whisper.
"Luce, don't-" he started, meaning to give her words of comfort, but the way she'd suddenly raised her head and the look in her eyes told him it hadn't been.
"Don't tell me not to worry, because I'm going to do that anyway."
Natsu was stunned for a few seconds, his mouth agape, before he let his head fall back on his pillows, looking away from her so he wouldn't have to endure her fierce stare. He took one of his hands from her back to scratch at his scalp.
"Well shit, Luce. I don't know how to respond to that."
"Natsu, I'm never gonna stop worrying about you. Every time you go off and do something stupid like that, I can't help but worry."
She hadn't said it, but Natsu knew it wasn't just today she was talking about. Lucy was talking about every battle of his that she'd witnessed him be reckless in, and more importantly, she was talking about when he'd left for a year. When he'd done the stupidest thing he ever could've done; leaving her behind to suffer.
They'd never truly talked about it. He'd always meant to apologize after he'd realized how much she'd been hurt, but... it was hard. He wasn't good with the words, so he'd tried to act accordingly, tried to show her that he'd never leave her side again.
Natsu cupped the side of her face in comfort, which Lucy leaned into, closing her eyes. Natsu stared at her features, studying them. Long, beautiful eyelashes that bordered the chocolate-colored eyes that he couldn't see at the moment; soft, smooth cheeks that felt just right in his hand; pink, luscious lips that begged for him to kiss them...
He'd always held back his urges to kiss her, too scared to change or ruin what they had. But this moment... it felt like the only thing he should do was kiss her.
"Luce," he started, hoping she'd open her eyes. She did, and when she did, Natsu sat up a bit, forcing Lucy to also sit up, but Natsu never once let go of her cheek. He leaned forward, also pulling Lucy's face towards him, and before long, their lips met in their first kiss.
It didn't last long. Natsu watched as she pulled back, her eyes unblinking and full of stars. She brought a hand to her lips and touched them, as if she couldn't believe what had just transpired.
Lucy then collapsed against his chest again, newfound tears falling down her cheeks and soaking the bandages Wendy'd wrapped around Natsu's torso. "Natsu, I love you! That's why I worry so much! I wouldn't have to worry near as much if you didn't always go off and do stupid, reckless crap!"
"Luce... I-" he gulped again. "I'm sorry..."
Lucy raised her head and stared at him for a few moments before a giggle left her lips. "You're such an idiot," she told him again. "You make me worry too much."
"Well, at least it's mutual, then," Natsu sighed. "Because I can't help but worry about you every time we get in a fight." Quickly correcting himself before Lucy got the wrong idea, he continued, "It's not that I don't think you can handle yourself, it's just..."
"Yeah, I know."
Lucy brought Natsu to her lips for another kiss, this one lasting just a bit longer.
"Luce?" he said against her lips, earning a hum in reply. "I love you too."
She nodded slightly as she kissed him again and made herself more comfortable on the bed, her hands going into his hair to anchor herself in the kiss and bringing her legs up from the floor and straddling him with them. "Natsu? Let's worry about each other together from now on, okay?" she offered against his lips.
"Yeah," Natsu agreed before taking her lips once again, this time it becoming deeper as they opened their mouths up to each other and their tongues softly met before Natsu's easily dominated hers and began exploring past her lips.
As their private moment continually escalated with no interruption, it became just a bit less private with how loud they became, but the guild left them alone. Most of them were just glad that the two were finally getting their shit together to seal the deal. And although Wendy would've recommended they wait a few days before doing anything... physically exerting, she also knew they probably wouldn't have listened anyways.
A/N: This was a request I got on Tumblr with the prompt: "Don't tell me not to worry, because I'm going to do that anyway."
Thank you for reading!