Natsu was sitting next to Lucy on her couch, deep in thought. He was trying to figure something out.
"Hey, Lucy? What is love?"
Lucy jumped, thinking that Natsu had been sleeping, then looked at him in a mixture of confusion and uncertainty as she put her book down. Where had this come from? "What do you mean? Like platonic love?" Lucy didn't think that's what Natsu was asking about, but she really didn't know how to answer his question.
"Uh... What's that mean?"
"Platonic love would be the kind of love we have for Fairy Tail; for our family." Lucy gestured towards their guild marks.
"Oh. Well, then that's not the kind of love I'm thinking of. What's the kind of love that..." Natsu searched his mind for an example. "Alzack and Bisca have? The kind that makes you get married and have kids?"
"That love is... It's hard to explain. I'm not sure how to describe it easily." Where are these questions coming from? This is so awkward!
"Okay, but how do you know when you're in love?" Natsu's eyes held sincerity. He really wanted to know.
"That's another tough question, but people say that you know it when you feel it..." Lucy trailed off and began to think about some of her own feelings, but Natsu interrupted.
"Really? But how would you know once you're in love if you don't understand it...?" He asked, partially rhetorical.
"Hey, Natsu? I have a question for you." Lucy paused. "Why are you asking me about all this?"
"'Cause I think I might be in love," Natsu blurted out. The air grew tense when the words left his mouth, and he regretted saying it to Lucy a little. Lucy's heart pounded in her ears.
"What... makes you think you're in love?" Lucy hesitantly asked.
Natsu looked nervous, a light blush tinting his cheeks. "Well, Whenever I see y..." Natsu's eyes swept over Lucy, then met her own eyes. "...her, I get... Excited, sort of, and happy, and... Relieved, I guess, and a bunch more feelings that I can't really describe..." Natsu paused, his thoughts getting all jumbled together in his brain. He couldn't keep everything straight, so he decided to just keep talking without thinking. "And when she smiles, my heart starts beating really quickly and loudly, and my chest starts feeling really, really warm, and it feels like everything is perfect in the world and nothing can ever go wrong again..." He looked up at the ceiling, having trouble continuing to look Lucy in the eyes.
"And when she cries," he continued. "I hate it! I get mad and wanna beat up whoever made her upset, which is normal for me, but I also want to hold her close, and tell her that everything will be okay!" Natsu's eyes snapped back to Lucy's. "I'm not someone who really does comforting a whole lot, Lucy! But with y-" Natsu gulped as Lucy grew wide-eyed. He looked away from her. "But with her, I do! I do whatever I can to make sure she's not sad anymore!" Natsu took a deep breath to recollect himself as he looked back at her. "And I always wanna protect her, and I get kinda mad and... jealous when someone like Popsicle or that playboy Loke saves y- er, her, because I kinda feel like it's... My job, you know?" Natsu took a deep breath, then continued. "But then, when she saves herself, I have an entirely new problem, because I also feel really proud of her and lucky to... I guess have fallen in love with y- her mixed in with the bitterness that I didn't save her..."
Natsu sighed. "And sometimes, a lot of times, actually, I have this weird urge to... kiss y-" Natsu gulped again, but with each of his words, he gained a little more confidence. "Kiss her. On her forehead..." Natsu moved his fingers across Lucy's forehead, "y- her hair..." he combed his fingers through her hair, "y- her hand..." he held one of her hands within one of his own. "your- her cheek..." he cupped her cheek, "and your lips..." Natsu began to very slowly lean closer to her, his breath tickling Lucy's lips. Her heart was racing. It was glaringly obvious to Lucy that she was the 'her' in Natsu's declaration, but was he really going to kiss her? Not that she would mind. Had it been Lucy talking about her feelings, then Natsu would've been the 'him' in her story. Natsu was nervous, Lucy could tell. He was moving very slowly, perhaps waiting for Lucy to stop him, and not really sure of his action. He then stopped just short of her lips.
"Natsu... "
"Am I in love, Lucy?" He asked very quietly, although he had already figured it out.
"You and I both." And Lucy closed the distance between their lips, her eyes closed and her hands on his shoulders. Natsu didn't know how to react at first, but then he closed his eyes and just went with instincts. The kiss was sweet, but still passionate, and a kiss that they would both remember for the rest of their lives.
"Natsu, do you really feel all that? What you said was beautiful," Lucy asked once they separated.
"You think I could make all that up? I love you, Lucy! I really do! It just took me saying all my feelings out loud to really know what they were for sure."
"And I love you, Natsu. When I see you, I get the same feelings of excitement, happiness, and relief. When you smile, it's also the same. It seems like nothing can go wrong ever again. And I also get hope. Hope for us, hope for Fairy Tail, hope for Fiore, and hope for this world and every other one. That grin has gotten me through tough times."
"And when you're injured to the brink of death like you so often are, then I want to comfort you, which is normal for me," Natsu smiled at the allusion to his words. "but I also want to kick some ass. I get angry, and want to do anything I can to get revenge for your injuries. I want to return what our enemies do to you tenfold." Lucy sighed. "Of course, that doesn't really work out, and usually it's someone else that does the butt-kicking. Sometimes even you." Lucy continued. "And when you're near me, I know that everything will be fine. You've saved me on so many occasions, and I know that you'll never abandon me. I still try to rescue myself, though, because I don't just want to be a 'damsel-in-distress'. I want to be able to rely on myself, not just you, and I want to be able to save you when you get into trouble. That's why I've secretly kind of liked that you have that terrible motion sickness. It gives me the chance to help you."
"And I have the same urge to kiss you. Almost every time you saved me, I had to stop myself from doing so, but it's not just then that I want to kiss you." Lucy kissed Natsu on the lips. "It would be kind of hard for me to kiss your forehead or your hair, but a lot of the time, I want to kiss your neck," Lucy kissed his neck, "your cheeks," she kissed each of his cheeks, "and your lips," and she leaned forward, stopping just before their lips could meet again.
"Lucy..."
"I'm in love, Natsu." She said very quietly.
"So am I," Natsu said, also quietly, and then he made their lips meet again. The kiss started sweet, but grew into more. There were no tongues involved, but the kiss was still passionate and fiery, much moreso than the last. Neither wanted to separate, but they eventually did have to breathe.
"Wow..." Lucy said, catching her breath. "Who'd have thought that Natsu Dragneel, supposedly the most romantically-dense person in Fiore, would be such a good kisser?" She laughed.
Natsu shrugged. "Well, you tend to make me do the best I can do!" He laughed, then continued. "And everyone thinks that Lucy Heartfilia, beautiful celestial wizard, is a good kisser, but I'm the one that gets to kiss her!"
"Yup! And you're also the only one who's ever gotten to kiss her!"
"I was your first kiss, too?" Lucy nodded, and then Natsu pulled her into a hug. "I love you so much, Luce!"
"I love you too, Natsu." They kissed sweetly again, and then Lucy spoke up.
"To answer your question from earlier, Natsu: this. This is love."
A/N: This was originally a scene in another story I'm working on, but I decided it didn't really work for it. I didn't want to completely scrap it, though, so I polished it up into this.