NaLu Week bonus prompt: Shine (FT-verse)

Word Count: 1,169

"Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light."

"Yo, Flame-Brain, where's Lucy?"

Natsu looked up to meet Gray's eyes. He'd been sulking at the bar for the past hour.

"She's at home. She kinda kicked me out."

Gray didn't miss the melancholy tone the dragon slayer had adopted. Or the fact that he'd ignored the insulting nickname.

"What, set the bed sheets on fire again?"

"No! And that was one time!" Natsu slammed his forehead against Gray's, fists aflame.

Mira quickly interrupted the almost-brawl, "Why did she kick you out Natsu?"

He sighed, and slumped back to the bar, "She's not feeling well. Told me to quit hovering before she Lucy Kicked me to the guild herself."

Gray slapped his knee in laughter, while Mira smiled sweetly.

"You may live together now but you still need to give Lucy some space, Natsu."

"I know, I know. She's just been…different lately."

She raised an eyebrow in question.

"It's hard to explain."

Mira continued staring at him, waiting patiently, her smile not quite meeting her eyes; the telltale sign that promised punishment if he didn't elaborate. He should have known better than to say anything at all.

"Ugh…okay. It's just…she looks and…smells different. But a good kind of different. I guess." He crossed his arms, irritated at having to try and explain the weird feeling he'd been having.

It was something that had been bothering Natsu for a while. It was like everything about Lucy had been amplified.

Ever since he'd met the celestial mage she'd had this glow about her. A light that gleamed and shone with every sparkling smile and tinkling laugh.

It was radiant and warm and pulled Natsu in and there was nothing he could do to resist.

She was his Sun. He thought it fit her perfectly. The brightest and largest star in the solar system. A glowing, golden, ball of light. The sun is the source of all life…who had told him that?

And then there was her scent. It had always attracted him…but now it was stronger and a little…off. Like a mixture of his smell and hers. He figured it was inevitable; they'd been living together for three months after all. But there was something else mixed in too. When he smelled it, his heart fluttered and he wanted to throw his arms around Lucy and make sure she was safe. He felt the need to be near her constantly.

It was getting on Lucy's nerves.

He just wanted to figure out what had changed. She was her same normal self. She was always avidly discussing her new favorite book with Levy, yelling at Happy when he teased her and threatening Natsu with physical harm whenever he did something she deemed irritating.

So what the hell was it?

It was starting to piss him off, so he did the one thing he always did when something bothered him.

"Hey ice-freak, your face is stupid!"

"Look whose talkin' ugly!"

That's all it took for the guild to explode into a swirling cloud of fists.

The scene that greeted Lucy and Happy as they entered the guild was a normal one. Tables overturned or just torn to pieces and Mira happily humming a tune as the bodies sprawled on the floor groaned in discomfort.

Lucy hardly noticed. She was on a mission. She needed to get to the bottom of this. Her magic had been going crazy the past few weeks. The celestial mage could feel it pulsing through her veins and pounding in her head. Normally, it felt like a low hum in her chest, now it was a constant vibration on every surface of her skin. It left her slightly agitated and it didn't help that Natsu wasn't giving her a moment's peace.

She couldn't even shave her legs this morning without the idiot bursting into flames and splattering the shaving cream over every surface of the bathroom. She couldn't really complain though, he was her idiot.

"Hey Lucy! Feeling better?"

"Not really Mira…" Lucy sat at the bar and tapped a foot against her barstool in an agitated manner, "Have you seen Levy today? I wanted to ask her about something."

Before she could answer, Wendy hopped up to her, "Lucy, I heard you're sick. I can see if my magic will help."

"That's nice of you Wendy, maybe-"

A loud crack resonated across the guild hall. Elfman had just been thrown into a row of tables, sending chairs flying in all directions.

One headed straight for the small group. It would have hit Lucy if a sudden, blinding light hadn't engulfed her, causing the chair to burst into tiny pieces at her feet.

"Whoa!"

"Did Lucy do that?"

"What happened?"

Lucy still sat on her stool, eyes wide in shock and hands outstretched, in a feeble attempt to protect herself from the flying furniture.

"Uh…um I don't know what I did. It just happened."

"Lucy are you okay? I sensed a sudden burst of your magic," Loke was hovering at her shoulder, while the rest of the guild members jostled each other to get a good view of the charred chair.

"Hey everyone! Back off!"

"Natsu please don't shoot fireballs. You know how Master gets…"

Once everyone calmed down, Lucy was able to ask Loke, "Since you're here, do you sense anything different in my magic? It's been acting strange lately. Exploding chairs being the most drastic."

"Now that you mention it, yes. We've all felt it in the Spirit Realm…"

Natsu was getting irritated at all the people hovering around his girlfriend. In his frenzied state, he'd shoved Gajeel, knocking him into Wendy and in turn sent the young girl crashing into Lucy's lap.

Wendy's nose twitched as the celestial mage pulled her closer to stop her from being flattened by the two older dragon slayers now rolling on the floor.

"Lucy what's that smell?"

"Huh?"

"Your tummy, it smells different from the rest of you."

"She smells like the flaming idiot to me," Gajeel had launched Natsu across the guild and, dusting himself off, went to sniff Lucy as well, "I didn't wanna say anything but you look different too. Kinda…bright."

"You mean it's not just me? I thought I was going crazy!"

"Hmm now that you mention she looks like she's glowing a little. I have to squint to see it though."

"What are you talking about?!" Lucy screeched, making everyone cover their ears. It was incredibly irritating they were talking all cryptic about her when she was sitting right there! And sniffing her too!

"Well that might explain the change in your magic…" Loke was almost talking to himself, but Natsu managed to catch it.

"Her magic is changing? What would cause that?"

"Well…um…" The normally eloquent spirit was fumbling around his words.

"Just spit it out!"

"Alright alright! It er- usually happens when a celestial spirit mage is pregnant."

The guild went suddenly very quiet –for about half a second. Before a giant ball of flame burst through the ceiling and into the atmosphere.