.

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Intoxicated

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Lucy collapsed on her bed and sighed, yawning and rubbing her eyes. It seemed like a good idea to sleep right now, after all the stress of the mission she had returned from this evening with Natsu and Happy, but if she didn't finish the next chapter of her story tonight, she'd have to work on it tomorrow, and she'd delay it until the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and–

She jumped out of bed when she heard her front door slam open.

Immediately, she grabbed her Keys and slowly tiptoed to the front of her house. Oh, how she wished Natsu or Levy or Erza or someone were with her, she thought as she took a deep breath, but she'd have to fend for herself.

No one was there. There was just an open door with a vacant spot on the floor where there should be someone standing there.

But just as she took a step forward, a familiar pink-haired male stumbled into her apartment and shouted, "Lucy!"

Oh.

Oh.

"Natsu?" she said.

And there he was, trying to walk to her, but ended up falling onto the floor. Lucy gasped and rushed to his side.

"Natsu, what happened this time?" she asked tiredly and sighed, turning him over to get a look at his face. An unusually wide smile was on his face, and his eyes seemed to be looking all over the place.

"Lucy, you're so pretty," he slurred, giggling. He reached up and stroked her blonde hair. "And your hair… it's so silky." A strange laugh escaped his lips.

Lucy raised a brow at him.

Another weird giggle. "Lucy, I like you a lot! You're my best friend. And you're so pretty. And you have pretty eyes. And pretty hair."

Something unusual started burning inside of her, but she dismissed the feeling.

Yep. Something was really wrong with Natsu.

She remembered him saying that he and Happy would hang out at the guild after they had returned from their mission, before Lucy had walked to her apartment, because Gray wanted to show Natsu something, and when Lucy asked what it was, he had said that he didn't know because Gray was keeping it a secret until Natsu returned from the mission. And she also remembered the way Mirajane had looked at him with that mischievous glint in her eyes as he was talking to Gray–

And suddenly, everything clicked.

"Gray got you drunk, didn't he?" she wondered out loud.

Natsu shrugged. "I don't know! Gray gave me all these drinks that tasted kinda funny. But I don't think I'm drunk. I'm sotally tober!"

"And how much did you have?"

"I don't know, either." He was silent for a moment. "Maybe several?"

Lucy sighed.

Not knowing what else to do, she hauled Natsu up onto her back and dragged him to her bed. After setting him down, she slumped against the wall.

What a great way to spend the night after such an exhausting day.

"Natsu, stay here while I take a bath, okay? I'll be back real soon."

"Okay, Luce," he mumbled into the pillow. He turned in his spot, his leg dangling off the side of the bed.

Lucy smiled at him. Despite his impulsive tendencies, he could be quite adorable at times.

She took her bath and got dressed, and when she returned to her bedroom, she found an empty bed.

Natsu was sticking his head out the window, shouting something at the top of his lungs.

At night.

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Lucy stormed up to him and pulled him back in.

He frantically turned around several times, a dumb smile plastered on his face as he repeatedly said, "Happy, where are you?" and "Stop hiding from me, Happy!"

He made a good point. Where was Happy?

That didn't matter right now. She gently guided Natsu back to her bed and helped him up.

"Now, you make sure you don't get up and do something… crazy, okay?" said Lucy, leaning over him with her hands on her hips.

He didn't respond, but she took it as a yes anyway. He continued to mutter things like "That stupid, fucking idiot Gray" and "Come back to me, Happy" and "Lucy is a very pretty girl."

Something stirred in her stomach at his last comment.

She started to make her way away from him so she could get herself a makeshift bed ready on the couch, but he immediately grabbed her wrist. She turned her head around and asked, "What is it?"

"Sleep with me, Luce!"

Her heartbeat immediately became twice as fast as it had previously been, and her eyes widened.

"What did you say, Natsu?" she asked, coming out as a whisper, her hands shaking.

He laughed. "Sleep with me, Luce!" He patted the empty side of her bed, almost like what he was doing was normal.

"Wha… What?" she shrieked, trying to take a step back, but his grip on her remained firm.

"What's wrong?" Before she could protest, he sat up and grabbed her sides, lifting her onto the empty side of the bed as she let out a yelp. He was literally only inches away from her, and she could feel his warm breath on her face, her neck, sending shivers down her spine.

Something about this felt so good in the most uncomfortable way.

"N-N-Natsu?" she stuttered. "I-I could sleep somewhere else, if you want. Like, on the couch. D-Don't you think that would be better?"

"Nah, it's nice to sleep next to you," he said casually. Too casually. He placed his hands on the small of her back and pulled her closer to him.

Lucy gulped.

Their bodies were actually physically touching.

She wasn't sure if she should have been ecstatic or terrified, but her pulse was accelerating.

And it was so damn hard to process what was going on as he clumsily, sloppily pressed his lips to hers.

Lucy didn't know where to put her hands. She should have shoved him off her, but she found herself running her fingers through his spiky, coral hair and her lips were moving in unison with his and apparently Natsu was making his way down to her neck and why did she let him do that when they weren't even dating? And she didn't know that her eyes were fluttering shut and Natsu shifted their bodies so he was lying on top of her.

Electricity coursed through her veins, and she didn't even realize that Natsu was playing at the hem of her shirt and fingering the line of skin she was revealing and Lucy couldn't believe she was letting herself do this because this was not right but yes it was so right and she wanted to gasp for air but she didn't and–

"Natsu, there you–"

And that's when reality finally sunk in.

Her shirt was already halfway up, exposing her stomach, and her skin started burning a beet red. She pushed Natsu off of herself and stood up.

Happy was standing there, his jaw slack and his eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"Lucy, were you and Natsu…" His arms were shaking as he pointed from Lucy to Natsu and back to Lucy.

"Happy, this is not what you think it is!" she cried, waving her arms in front of her face. "Natsu and I were not doing that!"

"Then why did I just see you two–"

They heard the squeaking of the mattress, and Lucy turned her head around to see Natsu rushing to the bathroom, a hand over his mouth. Seconds later, she heard the sounds of something disgusting, something she didn't want to think about, and the flush of the toilet.

"I'll go check on him." Sighing, she got up and made her way to the bathroom, and there was Natsu, wiping off the vomit on the corners of his lips and washing his hands with water.

Lucy slowly approached and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay now?"

"I think I am," he said. "Stupid Gray. I swear, I'm gonna go to the guild and make sure he gets what he deserves!"

He began to stomp out, but Lucy grabbed Natsu and said, "Woah, now. It's not a good idea for you two to always be fighting, you know."

"But–"

"And it's already really dark outside," Lucy continued. "Gray's probably not at Fairy Tail right now."

Natsu remained firm for a moment, but slowly let his body relax and his fists unclench. "Yeah, you're right," he admitted. He smirked. "I'll just have to fight him tomorrow, then."

She sighed, but let the matter go. She decided to change the topic, and her mind was suddenly filled with thoughts of the lust in Natsu's eyes as they were in her bed, and she wasn't aware of her blurting out, "About what happened… in bed."

Natsu's cheeks grew red, and he rubbed the back of his neck. Lucy could feel warmth rushing to her own cheeks. "Let's pretend that never happened," he said.

"Yeah," she agreed. "I… want to ask you something, though." She looked into his eyes, hesitant. "What you did back there was because you were drunk, right? Not because you actually do like me that way…"

"I don't know. I've never really thought about it," he responded, shrugging. "What about you?"

She couldn't stand to look at him, so she dropped her gaze to the ground. "To be honest, I'm not so sure, either."

They stood in silence for an eternity, with Lucy looking at the ground, Natsu looking at her in confusion.

And some strange impulse propelled her to bring her lips to his, but unlike the lustful, greedy kisses they shared in bed, this one felt more genuine, more real, and Lucy felt like she was in heaven.

She quickly let go, and Natsu's expression was one of pure shock and even more confusion. Lucy giggled. It was adorable.

"I'm sorry, I just… needed to try that," she said, not exactly sure what she was saying. "I needed to understand something."

"What do you mean?" asked Natsu, crossing his arms. "You aren't making any sense."

"I wanted to… how should I say this?" She leaned against the wall. "To put it simply, I wanted to see if… I actually think of you as more of a friend. If I have feelings for you."

"If you love me? Like Juvia and Gray? Is that what this is? Juvia always talks about her love for Gray but I never really understood it."

"…Yeah."

Silence. And then, "Oh." He shuffled on his spot. "So… do you?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not sure. But I do know that you mean a lot to me, Natsu."

"So you do love me?"

She hesitated. "Do you?"

He hesitated. "I don't know, either. But I know that you mean a lot to me. You're my nakama."

Lucy smiled. "Maybe we're just being stubborn idiots and we won't admit we like each other."

"I guess we are?" Natsu chuckled uneasily. "I don't understand what love is in the way you're talking about it, but I'll go with it."

She wasn't sure about what she was doing, but she leaned into him and buried her head into his chest. It felt unfamiliar, unusual, but right. "Maybe we can give it a try, to see if we do feel that way about each other. And if it doesn't work out, it'll be okay, because we're both Fairy Tail Mages and we will always be nakama, right?"

Natsu slowly placed his chin on Lucy's head. "Yeah. That sounds good." They remained silent for a while until Natsu said, "Lucy?"

"Yes?"

"Does this mean you're my girlfriend? Like how Juvia is Gray's girlfriend? That's what she calls it."

She froze momentarily. "I guess."

Lucy felt him smile into her hair. "Okay. I'm not sure what it means, but I like the sound of it."

She smiled even wider.

"Oh, and Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think there will ever be a time when I take off your shirt?"

Lucy scrunched her nose. "Where did you get that idea?" she asked as they let go of each other.

"Well, now that Gray and Juvia are together, sometimes I catch Gray taking off her shirt. And sometimes I see Juvia taking off Gray's shirt. So I thought that two people who love each other that way do that a lot."

Lucy sighed.

She and Natsu may be a thing now, but she still had a lot to teach him.

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fin

notes: To CeeCee for being an awesome beta and an amazing friend.