I've been too focused on pairings other than NaLu lately, so it's time for a one-shot!
"Shit, shit, shit..." His was panting so loud, Natsu was afraid they could hear him. He imagined being a robber as a child, the adrenaline and the rush knowing they were after you – but that was just a simple game of cops and robbers. Now he really wished he was just playing one of their old games of tag.
The teenage outlaw glanced back at the beige leather bag that held the whole reason he was being chased down in the first place. Why couldn't impressing a girl be as easy as giving her a stupid macaroni necklace or something, he could make that work! Anyways, it happened in movies and books all the time, so why the hell doesn't it work in reality.
Oh yeah, cause its reality.
Move an inch and they might pounce on him, don't move and this'll all be for nothing. The pinkette's hand slowly reached towards the bag, wary and extremely nervous. If his panting wasn't loud enough, the sound of his heartbeat would probably do it. He grunted.
The more he moved his hand rather than his body, the more the wound that stretched from his palm to his bicep opened. Natsu had to bite down on his scream, the pain was overwhelming, and it definitely helped that his vision was starting to blur. It wouldn't be long before he could only make out shapes, not that colour would help too much at this point.
He shifted to the left to try and get in range of the bag, cringing from the throbbing the wound caused. Never would Natsu forget the day he tried to rob a jewellery store, and had to deal with the violent old geezer that pulled out a pocket knife and started swinging away at him.
Sure he still managed to get out alive with the old man's trinkets, and that it was amusing the short mustachioed man scared away all his clients, but he didn't know if it was going to be worth it if he was going to die in the middle of a trashed, and beaten up alleyway.
And I won't be able to tell Lucy. She'll be married off to some snobby rich bastard, and I'll be regretting everything in heaven – or wherever I end up.
Natsu didn't even want to think like that. She would end up with him. Fall in love with him. Have kids with HIM. The pinkette grabbed the bag with his other hand and flinched. "There." The thief whispered, relieved.
Natsu had to slam his foot against the wall in order to get himself up, both his hands already full with their own problems. The self trained teenage criminal struggled to stop himself from whimpering after he counted how many throbs he could feel in his hand.
I've been weeping here for ten minutes, if I don't get off my ass soon, they'll find me.
The pinkette shot up and took his first few steps down the dark and damp alley. Then, he froze. "That little brat ran off with enough money to buy himself a fancy mansion."
He should've sprinted into a run the second he heard the old man grumbling to his giant acquaintances. "What is wrong with kids these days?!" The geezer growled. Natsu snickered, picking up the speed on his tip toeing. The boy looked forward towards the end of the passageway, and he felt a churning in his stomach. Dead end.
That's it, I'm screwed.
Unless Natsu could scale the wall. But with one hand clutching the beige sac as if he was holding onto dear life, and the other bleeding enough for him to paint a house red – there was no way he was going to get out of it.
"Yup, I'm screwed."
"Something we can agree on."
Natsu didn't need to turn around to know who it was, neither did he want to turn around. The old man glared at him with a smirk of victory, what an ass. "I'd like that bag, please." Natsu just wanted to wipe that smug look off the old man's face with his fist. He would have. If only his huge bodyguard wasn't there.
"The jewels and the bag. Now."
"Bag? My, why would I -an innocent college dropout- have a bag full of jewels?" The pinkette taunted. His arrogant grin, something Lucy thought was adorable, was coincidentally a reason for the old man to beat the life out of the thief.
The short frail male jerked his head at Natsu, and the large, tan, white haired assistant rushed for the bag. Natsu barely got it out of the gargantuan man's reach before throwing the sac upwards.
When he heard a clink, he knew exactly where it had landed. Kinda...
"Whoops." The teen shrugged, staring down at the jewelry store owner. "Maybe a cat will buy himself a nice Kitty Mansion with it now." Elfman, the white haired accomplice (Idk, can this be considered a crime?) could see his boss' irritation. Anyone could.
Elfman swooped down and grabbed Natsu, who stayed cool and collected, by the collar and frowned. "You're a real pain." His voice was as deep as Natsu expected. "So I've been told." He shrugged as best he could, though it wasn't very comfortable considering the man was almost holding him up by his neck.
Here's my chance.
Natsu brought a fist to Elfman's jaw, unprepared and extremely shocked, the blow was more effective than it was suppose to be. Despite the hard punch to his jaw, his grip on Natsu never loosened. So, again. Natsu kicked and struggled, and finally got a harsh strike on the tan male's stomach.
Makarov, the old store owner watched. Not surprise the pink haired boy fought back after taking into consideration how violent and aggressive Natsu was.
It wasn't worth losing his good back and a few years of his life by trying to thrash against the thief. So he gladly watched Natsu run off with a speed only caused by fear and excitement. What was a few diamond earrings, some rings and a pearl necklace worth anyways, right? Reality punched him hard.
Makarov looked down at Elfman, who laid on the floor with a new bruise on his chin. Makarov refused to look at the purple and black blotch, and stared at the male's eyebrows instead. When he found that he was finally used to the pain, Elfman spoke.
"Ojichan. Why the hell?" The broad man stopped his own sentence when his Grandfather-like figure only chuckled. He decided it was all for a reason, and didn't bother digging for an answer. Leaving the mustachioed man in silence, Elfman hurried back to the old jewelry shop they left unattended to chase after Natsu.
With Elfman long gone and out of the way, the old man sighed.
Just this once, boy. Just this once.
After an hour of waiting around to see if the two went up to find the beige bag and bring it back to the store, he was more than relieved about the fact that they never came. Natsu skipped towards it in victory. Yet, he still never forgot about the pain in his arm.
His thrashing had only made the injury worst, yet miraculously the blood had dried and stopped bleeding. Not that the pain had subsided at all.
He raced towards the stairs that would get him off the building's roof, and into the streets of Magnolia. With his eerie blue cloak pulled up to cover his face and more importantly his arm, Natsu navigated through the other citizens of the city, in and out of the shadows made by cafe umbrellas and alleys more beaten up than the one he was in.
He could already imagine Lucy answering the door when he arrived at her home. Hair let loose without the normal blue ribbon she kept in it, her reading glasses on, book in hand, with a look that says 'what-the-hell-do-you-want?'.
The pinkette passed by a white duplex with the next one painted gray.
He could see his blonde friend through the window, doing exactly what he thought she'd be doing, concentrating on her novel, the blonde didn't bother to look up and acknowledge him. That, or she didn't notice his swift shadow passing by the window.
He'd been infatuated with her ever since she declared that pink was her favourite colour in third grade, and shot him a look right after that. Sure, it didn't mean it was really because of him, but it was a sign. In Natsu's head it was.
Natsu had thought of it as an invitation to make a move on her and he had tried to a few years after, but when she refused his kiss - Natsu convinced himself to stay friends with Lucy. With that, the pinkette remained friends with her for another ten years.
Being friends with Lucy was anything but difficult though, she was always kind to him, or usually, since she couldn't help but crack a joke about how dense he was every once in awhile.
Arriving at the front entrance, Natsu knocked on the window on which Lucy leaned on, captivated by the thrilling book. Or that's how it looked to Natsu, every book you handed to the blonde would be considered thrilling once she reached the tenth page.
Lucy jumped at the vibration, and whipped her head to face whoever was knocking. When her eyes spotted a few strands of pink jutting out of the blue hood, she rushed for the door.
"Morning, Natsu." While he slowly reached for his hood, and pulled it off, he grinned cutely. "What gave it away?"
"The pink." Lucy laughed. The blonde opened her book to what looked like page 287 to Natsu, and placed a pinkish blue bookmark into place. With a not so great arm, the beauty threw her book towards the glass coffee table where it landed right where she wanted. Before it slid off and onto the marble floors with a screech when her bookmark scraped against the table's leg.
"Ha ha... Right where I wanted it." It took Lucy everything she had to not blush. But when that failed, she pulled him into the house and shooed him onto the couch. When Natsu spotted a large dent in the sofa, he chuckled.
"How long have you been sitting there?" He pointed to the butt mold. If she sat there any longer, the dent would've been permanent. "Awhile."
Blushing again, she pushed Natsu onto the couch and turned away. The pinkette pulled her down with him, making the blonde land on his lap. He refused to let her stand up and move to the spot next to him, before she actually reacted, Natsu hugged her from behind playfully and tightly.
Lucy scolded him, and Natsu claimed it was 'just a friendly hug'. She turned around, feeling him searching threw his back pocket for something, and she had an idea of what it might of been.
My third present this month.
"Luce, I got you a present." The jewel thief finally announced, pulling out a gold ring from the beige bag that he hid behind his belt. There was small writing inside the ring, and Lucy could barely read the letters. She made a mental note about going back to that later.
There was no gem in the middle, or anywhere, but it was still simple and elegant. "Oh my god. Natsu..." The blonde placed them on the glass table, and grabbed him by the shoulders into a hug. "My magic powers." He answered her mental question jokingly.
Then her smile faded, into what looked like a disappointed grimace. Oh boy. "Natsu." She combed his hair with her fingers. It was so smooth, and untangled. Surprising since he was a robber who was always wearing a cloak. Then she sighed. Lucy slipped off his lap, and turned into her kitchen. Natsu could hear her shuffling through trinkets and cups, then going through papers and -most likely- books.
Then he feared for the worst. She knew. She knew that he had been robbing jewelry stores to get her these gifts, because there is no way in hell there's any other news that would make Lucy grimace like a mom scolding her child.
Lucy brought out a newspaper, and he hoped that it was just news about her pops being found dead or something, he didn't want to be found out yet, he didn't want to be found out at all. After the thought flew away and popped like a bubble, he just wanted to kill himself - for more than one reason.
Dear Lord, I know I haven't talked to you since third grade. Or second... But please, have mercy on me. Do me this ONE favour and tell me someone's cat died o-or Lucy's favourite author fell into a coma! Please...
Natsu quickly did the sign of the cross, and said another quick prayer. This one was not so civil.
"What are you doing stealing from stores?" She threw him the folded paper that had doggy ears on every corner. His body refused to let him read the paper that would destroy everything he's ever done to try and get Lucy.
But...
Curiosity killed the cat.
On the gray paper, large bold letters made up the headline, and Natsu could just curl up into a ball and weep till he was completely dehydrated.
WANTED: THE PINK HAIRED THIEF
Sure he kind of wanted to laugh about the fact that he was being called 'The Pink Haired Thief'. But the glare his blonde crush sent him - he just couldn't laugh his way out of this one.
"That's not me." He lied. "No one in the city has pink hair except for you. And Natsu-" She took the newspaper out of his hands and flipped the picture towards Natsu. "I can see the charm." She smiled slightly, pointing at the bracelet with a fairy-like figure dangling off it peaking out of his cloak's sleeve. Something she had gotten him a few year ago.
"Luce..." The pinkette grabbed her hands and pulled her back down onto his lap, now so that she was facing him. "I'd like to see you find an excuse for this." The blonde sighed. She folded her hands together behind his neck and closed her eyes. She felt tired and could've sworn she felt a migraine coming on. Interrogating her best friend wasn't helping it at all.
"Because of you." Natsu finally answered - and she had to admit, she half expected this.
"It's all fucking your fault." He cursed. "For using your stupid fairy magic to get me infatuated with you." He lifted both hands to caress her pink tinted cheeks. Lucy knew pretty darn well that Natsu was head over heels for her. Never did she think that he would steal for her though.
"My fault?" Her voice was so soft, she wasn't even mad. No doubt it made the pink haired male feel guilty.
"Yes, your fault!" Natsu felt his hands being slapped away from her cheeks as if an invisible person had swatted them away. Why Natsu just yelled at her? No idea. But it felt like a punch in the gut.
"I wish I told you this before you went around thieving jewelry."
That you love me back? Oh, that's precious. He growled inwardly, and tightened his hands into fists.
"I can definitely believe you're a thief, because after ten years, you've managed to steal my heart."
Someone better remind him to thank Makarov. Man, the ending is really. REALLY. REAAALLLLY. Mushy. Also sorry that the fight scene wasn't very good, I'm not really an action person. I hope you enjoyed, I was going to add a kiss, but... That's such a cliche, why not just leave that out? Sorry that Natsu's OOC, but I needed him to fit a witty jewel thief. Y'know?