My Heart Talks About You
"My heart talks about nothing but you."
— Albert Camus, The Just Assassins
Natsu was never one to lose his patience.
Well, maybe yes. His short temperament was the main cause of all the troubles he got in, after all, and there were always people to remind him of that. Because of his non-existent patient, he'd got into fights that left him in the bridge between life and death, into accidents that made people get mad at him.
But with her, he thought he had all the patience in the world.
Because she was worth it, because she was her. He wasn't sure. Probably her calming, delicious scent of vanilla helped him calm down unconsciously.
There were a lot of facts and reasons of why she was special. If he were to list them all, he'd never finish.
Natsu sighed as he sat on the stairs of the sidewalk, snow gracefully falling down from the sky. It felt as if every snowflake remembered him of his failed plans to get her to notice him as… something more than a friend. Who could have guessed that the girl that lived between fairy tales was as blind as a brick when it came to real life romance?
And as much as Natsu wanted to hate that part of her, he couldn't help but find it cute as the rest of her. He was so doomed. Everyone knew it -but her.
Happy, his loyal friend, meowed by his side and caressed his leg with his soft purr. Natsu couldn't help but smile, even if only a little. His cat still chased Wendy's female cat around, only to be rejected over and over again. Or, that's what Natsu understood of their cat language.
"What can I even do now, buddy?" Natsu whispered to Happy, hoping no one was listening, or else he'd have to go to the hospital for talking alone with an animal. "It's not like I'm smart enough to come up with another plan."
He felt both content and disappointed when Happy meowed and hopped over his lap. It's not like he was waiting for an answer -probably.
Maybe only a tiny signal would do, but his luck had been going downhill since he realized, months ago, of his feelings for her best friend.
Lucy Heartfilia was one hell of a girl, with the appearance of an angel.
She was going to be his end, even without knowing it. Life was so unfair it hurt.
His phone rang inside his jacket pocket. He took it out curiously, because it was weird for him to receive calls, since most people usually just sent text messages. Looking to the screen, he saw a call from his cousin Alzack, which made sense.
"Yo," Natsu greeted, putting the phone near his ear. Vapor came out of his mouth as he spoke.
"Natsu, oh God, thank you for answering," Alzack said. He sounded as he was in a hurry, his voice wheezy.
"Oh… sure, what's wrong?" Natsu asked, frowning.
"Can you please, please take care of Asuka today? You know, it's Valentine's and I wanted to take Bisca to a lot of places and then dinner, but the babysitter got sick…"
Natsu melted in misery as he remembered today was the day of love, for couples and cuteness, and he was bond to spend it taking care of a little kid. Damn his friends for already having plans with their girls. He'd never admit it out aloud, but he missed the days where they went to parties and hang out together. It was fun and kind of a distraction from Lucy.
At least Asuka was a sweet kid, even with her weird ideas.
"Sure thing," Natsu finally said. "I'm free today."
"Of course you're free," Alzack said, his voice now mocking. "If you had the guts to confess to that pretty blonde friend of yours… what was her name…"
Natsu's face turned bright red.
It's not like he didn't have the guts to do it… he was just really bad with words, so how could he confess? Lucy, as an aspiring writer, always scolded him for his petty vocabulary.
"Ah, yeah, Lucy!" Alzack said. "Asuka really likes her too."
Everybody liked Lucy.
"Shut up or you'll have to go get another babysitter, y'know," Natsu said.
"Sorry, sorry," Alzack chuckled. "I just don't like to see my little cousin alone. Even Zeref asked Mavis out the other day…"
"Yeah, that was surprising…" Natsu agreed. Who could have said that Zeref would get a girlfriend before him? He was by far staying back in the game.
"True. Can you come pick Asuka up, or…"
"No, it's okay, I'll go. I'll be there in five," Natsu said, picking Happy up under his arm and standing up. His whole body was practically freezing, and he now noticed how stupid of an idea was sitting under the snow for hours. "Have a cup of hot chocolate ready for me."
Alzack chuckled, and Natsu could almost see how he was shaking his head in disbelief. "Really? Are you that cold?"
"Probably."
"Natsu, Natsu!" Little Asuka cheered, jumping up and down in the snow as she held Natsu's hand not to slip off and fall. "Where can we go?"
Natsu tried not to laugh at the excessive attire of the little girl. Half of her face was hiding behind a fluffy pink scarf, while she wore also a hat over her braided hair. She wore a large jacket and boots. Bisca and Alzack were overprotective parents, but it showed off how much they loved their kid.
"I don't know," Natsu said. "Where do you want to go?"
Happy walked right beside Asuka, making her overjoyed. "What about an amusement park?"
Natsu facepalmed, chuckling nervously. "I don't think those are open now."
Asuka pouted. "What about the park?"
"Isn't it too cold for that?" Natsu said.
"No!" Asuka said. "I want to build a snowman!"
"If you get cold your parents are going to kill me…" Natsu said, pulling the end of his scarf. "Do you want to go to my house? You can play with Happy as much as you want!"
Asuka pouted and crossed her little arms. "Boooring."
Natsu gasped in horror. "How can you say that?"
If little kids could scare with their looks, Asuka would have practically killed him. "I don't want to play with Happy today."
"You hurt my feelings." Natsu said.
"Will you cry?" Asuka asked, her defiant face now turned into one about to cry. "Big brother Natsu, don't cry!" She wrapped her arms around his leg and buried her face in it.
Natsu ruffed her hair and smiled contently. "I'll not cry! Big bro Natsu doesn't cry!"
He laughed and lifted her over, sitting her on his shoulders as he always did. Her little hands grabbed his hair immediately.
"Natsu, can I have your pink hair?" Asuka giggled, her little hands playing with his mane, making it worse than it already was.
Natsu growled, but ended up sighing. "No, you can't. Asuka, you know what? I know a really good place to play!"
"Really? Yay!" Asuka cheered.
"Yeah," Natsu said, grinning mischievously.
She sure was going to get a big surprise.
"So," Lucy repeated, her brown eyes watching them in a mix of 'I'm done' and 'What did I expect'. "You thought it'd be a good idea to bring a kid to my house in my free day?"
Natsu laughed. "What free day? You never do anything anyways,"
Lucy puffed her cheeks angrily, her whole face turning bright red. "That's not true! I was busy with my writing,"
"When you write," Natsu started, already knowing he'd win, "you write two words, go make a cup of coffee, write two more, call Levy for three hours at least, write five more and then you give up for the day. You're not busy."
Lucy's neck and ears turned red as well, as she tried to find the correct words to defend herself. "I…"
"You…"
"I was feeling inspired today, but now you cut it off." she said, crossing her arms and avoiding his eyes.
Natsu smirked. She was as easy to read as a kid's book, at least for him. Lying was obviously her weakness since she was little. After all, Layla and Jude's education was rigid, even if they were actually pretty cool.
"But it's Asuka," Natsu said, lifting the kid in his arms, "you can't say no to her,"
Lucy opened one eye, only to find Asuka's puppy dog eyes. He knew Lucy had already given up the moment they appeared through the window of her room.
No one could win against Asuka's eyes.
"Urgh," Lucy groaned. "Fine."
Asuka and Natsu cheered at the same time. Chilling at Lucy's was definitely Natsu's favorite thing to do, and little Asuka loved Lucy as her own sister. Happy meowed and curled up near the room's heater to warm up, ready to take his own nap.
"Yay!" Asuka cheered.
Natsu put her down on the floor again, when she immediately started jumping up and down in circles. "Lucy's the best!" Asuka smiled.
Natsu couldn't agree more.
Lucy sighed and smiled at her, "Hey Asuka, do you want some cookies? My mom just made them for me."
Asuka's whole face lit up in excitement. "Cookies! Cookies!"
Lucy chuckled, oh that so sweet and melodious laugh that only could belong to her. "Follow me!"
Lucy took Asuka's hand in hers and they both exited the room. Bored, Natsu put his arms behind his neck as he followed them. Layla's cooking was gold, after all.
The delicious scent filled his nostrils as he stepped into the kitchen. A whole plate, full of homemade vanilla and chocolate cookies waiting to be eaten. But he didn't miss one fact.
"Hey, your mom made chocolate ones. But you don't like them…"
And he also didn't miss the way she once again became as red as Erza's hair. Her laugh came out nervous and awkward, as she sat Asuka in one of the tall kitchen chairs.
"Eh…" she said, turning around to him and scratching the back of her head, wearing a nervous smile on her face. "My mom… was sure… that you'd come."
It took him a couple of blinks to finally realize what the Heartfilia's ladies were thinking. His whole face turned as red as Lucy's now, and he tried to brush it off by hiding behind his scarf.
"Your mom is weirder than you…" he murmured.
Lucy frowned and pointed at him. "I am not weird."
"Whatever you say," Natsu said, sitting next to Asuka. "Give me those cookies specially made for me. Never let them go to waste."
Needless to say, neither of them noticed the curious glances of little Asuka as they argued and laughed.
"Geez Lucy, you still suck at this!" Natsu's laugh filled the whole room, the sound of their video game only a background.
"Shut up!" Lucy squealed, biting her lip in concentration. She was determined to win, even if he was far ahead. Her frown showed just how focused she was with the task at hand.
It was not fair that Asuka had casually picked the only game Natsu was good at. Just because she wasn't good at destroying buildings down didn't mean she wasn't a good player -in fact, she was sure she'd won every time they had a match against each other.
But now Natsu had Asuka over his lap, and she was sure he couldn't see very well his joystick, so he was more likely playing on instinct.
"Yay! Natsu is winning!" Asuka clapped her hands, her sweet laugh making Lucy all the upset.
For Natsu, it was rather amusing. Lucy was always the best at everything, except probably cooking and this specific video game, so it felt good to see her in despair.
He grinned mischievously as he pressed the button to put an end to it.
"No! Wait!" Lucy yelled, but the game over was already displaying on the screen.
He shot her a smug smirk, which made a vein throb funnily at her forehead. "Ugh, I hate you!" she said, punching him in the arm, hard.
"I won fairly!" Natsu defended himself, grabbing her wrist.
Her eyes showed off her annoy, shining as bright as ever. Her little nose was scrunched up, her golden bangs framing her delicate face. It was not long after when her cheeks started to turn pink, and then red.
Her face was so close he could even spot the small sparks of gold in her irises.
But then Asuka started to cry. Like, really loud, with countless tears streaming down her face and uncontrollable sobs shaking her body.
"A-Asuka?" Natsu asked, shocked.
"Asuka, are you okay? What happened?" Lucy asked picking her up in her own lap as she sat down next to him on the floor.
"I-It's my fault!" Asuka cried, her hands covering her eyes.
Natsu shared a worried look with Lucy, before returning their attention to the kid. It was just so random, she was practically laughing and cheering him as they played seconds ago.
"What's your fault?" Lucy asked, her motherly voice soothing Asuka's sobs.
"You were fighting…" Asuka cried, her eyes fixed on the floor.
"What are you saying?" Lucy said, smiling sweetly. "We weren't fighting seriously!"
"True!" Natsu helped, smiling and nodding eagerly. He was always so bad at cheering kids up. It was pretty helpful that Lucy had that mother instinct, or else he'd be doomed.
"But… you said you hated Brother Natsu!" Asuka cried, her eyes red and teary.
It broke something in Natsu's soul.
"Ah… I was just kidding! I don't hate Natsu!" she said. "I never could…"
"It's because I'm amazing, isn't it?"
"Shut up."
"Then are you going to kiss?" Asuka said, shifting her gaze between the both of them.
"..."
"..."
"What?" Natsu and Lucy yelled in unison, their faces as red as the blood in their veins.
His heart started to beat as fast as it always did whenever the thought of tasting Lucy's lips crossed his mind. It was only bad that every time it happened more frequent than before, making him think his chest would explode and turning his lips dry.
"Papa always kisses Mama after they fight," Asuka explained, "he says it's to make up for the bad moment he made mom go through,"
"We didn't fight…" Natsu said, gulping down.
"Yes you did!" Asuka insisted. "It doesn't matter if it's a big or small fight… a fight is a fight!" she crossed her tiny arms over her chest, and for a moment Natsu thought that six years old was wiser than him.
"But…"
"Besides, Mama told me today is the day of love! So there can't be any unsolved fights!"
"Why do you even want us to-"
His sentence by cut off in the middle by Lucy's lips, now pressed against his in an awkward position. Both were really tense, their mouths still against each other.
Natsu blinked, realization slowly sinking in.
But when it hit, it hit hard as a forehead bump against Lucy.
"Ow," she said, pressing the palm of her hands against her forehead.
Natsu mimicked her actions. It had hurt, pretty badly. "What the heck…"
When he got a sight of her, he realized she was even redder than before, trying not to make eye contact with him.
He could even hear Asuka's shocked gasp as she eyed them carefully, but Natsu's whole attention was in one thing for once. But if he was honest, he always gave his whole to her, even if she never knew it.
"She… Asuka wouldn't stop insisting if we didn't do it!" Lucy squealed. "So shut up and ignore me."
At that, Natsu couldn't help but laugh. Even when her eyes threw daggers at him, he couldn't stop thinking about how amusing all of this was. Here he'd been a coward for years now, and she was the one to give the first step.
Lucy was so much braver than him.
"It's okay… even if that was a weird first kiss." he mocked.
"Shut up!" Lucy said, biting her lip. "It was my first, you know,"
"It was my first too," Natsu reminded her.
"Then you have no right to laugh at me because-"
"But we can help each other gain more experience,"
"Are you…"
"Yes,"
"..."
"..."
"Okay."
Asuka didn't have the need to ask them to kiss anymore. Now they did it willingly, and it made Asuka happy.
Because as her Mama said, today was the day of love.
Word Count= 2790. Oops I forgot to post this one for Valentine's Day, but I still hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading, reviews are highly appreciated!