Author's Note: This is probably one of my favorite one-shots, and I hope you like it too! Please leave a review, and enjoy~
Summary: Natsu and Lucy compete against their friends in charades, coming out on top and having fun every second of the way
Lucy watched with mild amusement as Erza flailed her arms around, trying desperately to convey her meaning to Jellal. He stared back at her, and Lucy could practically hear the gears turning in his head as he scrambled for the correct answer. "Scared?" He asked her, and Erza shook her head, frustration on her beautiful features. "Fear? Terror? Jellyfish?" He listed quickly, but Erza turned all of them down.
Before Jellal could continue, Gajeel's loud voice cut through the air. "Time's up!" He boomed, a smirk on his lips as Erza sent him a murderous glare. With a sigh, the anger drained out of her and she dropped her arms to her sides, her shoulders losing their tension. She took her place next to Jellal on the sofa, resting her head against his shoulder mournfully, her disappointment evident.
Jellal wrapped an arm around her her shoulders and squeezed her comfortingly. "It's alright, Erza," he reassured her, but the scarlet haired girl didn't look any happier. "What was it, anyways?" He asked, curious as to what thing Erza had picked.
"Club dancing," she informed him sadly, and Lucy's eyes widened in disbelief. How was that dancing? She yelled internally. She was waving her arms around like she was on fire! She turned her head to look at Natsu, and caught his gaze. His face was full of severe skepticism, and he gave her a look that said 'seriously?' Lucy nodded in agreement, raising her eyebrows slightly to express her opinion on just how bad Erza's acting was. She might be one of Lucy's best friends, but she couldn't even pretend to say that her acting skills were good. She'd be lying through her teeth, but not that Erza needed to know.
Next up it was Levy and Gajeel's turn. The petite girl played out her noun immediately, a plan forming in her head the minute she read the word. She acted it out perfectly, and it took Gajeel only two tries per word to figure out that she had picked 'The Time Traveler's Wife,' a book Lucy had yet to read. Lucy guessed it helped that Levy had an engagement ring on- all she had to do was to point at the sparkly diamond band Gajeel had given her three months prior and then herself, and he had instantly known what it was. They finished before the tiny hourglass had emptied, something Natsu had picked up on as well, if the narrowed glare he sent the plastic piece was anything to go by.
Lucy patted his thigh, drawing his attention back to her. She stood and rolled her shoulders like she was warming up for a competition- which she was, in fact. The winning team got to be taken out for dinner anywhere they wanted once by each of the other teams. Gray, Gajeel, and Natsu absolutely despised the idea pay for one of their meals, and were determined to win. Jellal was much more mature and didn't share their petty qualms, but his pride drove him and his superb acting made him a difficult foe.
"It's our turn, Natsu," she told him, excitement lacing her voice. Her eyes twinkled as she looked at him, anticipation and nerves twisting her stomach, despite her eagerness for her turn.
Natsu nodded seriously and grasped her hand. "Do good out there," he ordered her gravely, and Lucy had to suppress a giggle at his tone.
"I will," she vowed, squeezing his hand softly. Natsu nodded in satisfaction and released her hand so she could turn to the little table. She walked up to it, taking a deep breath and picking a card from the little box the sat on it. 'The Good, the Bad, the Ugly' it read in italics. Lucy didn't recognize the title, figuring it must be a movie she's just never heard of.
She stared at the card intently as she thought, trying to come up with possible moves to help get the words across to Natsu. After she finalized her ideas, she nodded to herself and set the card at the back of the pack, nodding at Gajeel to flip the hourglass.
Lucy immediately jumped into action. She held up three fingers and put another horizontally underneath it, indicating three blank spaces. Natsu instantly recognized it, as it was something they had used in past games. "The," he stated, nodding along. Next, Lucy folded her hand under her chin and beamed, trying her hardest to come off as innocent and pure. Natsu frowned at slightly, before asking hesitantly, "Innocent? Good?" Lucy nodded at his second offer, and then Natsu put together the two words. "The Good?" He asked, and Lucy nodded.
She did the three blanks motion again, but afterwards, she took her finger and swept it under her right eye, along her cheekbone, willing Natsu to understand with her gaze alone. Thankfully, he did. "Badboy?" He questioned, recalling the photoshoot he had done a couple months before in which he had 'badboy' written along his cheekbone in black capital letters. Lucy motioned for him to repeat, and he did, slowly, drawing out the syllables. "Baaad…" He started, and Lucy cut him off with a slice of her hand. "Okay. The good, the bad. Next," he commanded.
Lucy repeated the blanks motion again and held her right hand horizontally under her chin. She then splayed the fingers of her left hand over her face before taking that hand and flipping it over the line of her right. Her eyes bore into Natsu as he struggled to come up with something, willing him to remember her vanity, but dropping her hands after a second. She pointed to her face, batting her eyelashes and tossing her hair over her shoulder, than repeated the flipping motion with her hands. "You're the attractive? Sexy? Pretty?" At the last one, Lucy snapped her fingers, indicating that it was the correct one. "And the opposite is… ugly! The Ugly!" Natsu shouted. "The answer is 'The Good, the Bad, the Ugly!"
"Yes!" Lucy yelled, jumping up in the air, hands thrown up in joy, her loose, cropped sweatshirt floating momentarily in the air. Gajeel checked her card and made a mark under 'Team Nalu' a bit of reluctance, grimacing at the amount of points the pair had racked up. Lucy skipped back to Natsu, giving him a double high five when he held his hands out for it.
"Great job, Luce!" He congratulated, his forest green eyes bright with happiness and excitement. "We finished in even less time than Team Gajevy!" His grinned at her, and Lucy felt her cheeks pinking slightly at his praise.
"You did half the work, you know," she told him, her arm slipping around his back to hold him loosely, his arm coming to rest on her shoulders.
"You're right," he replied, grinning. "We worked together. Great teamwork as always, Luce." With that, they fistbumped, and turned back to the game. It was Juvia's turn to go, but she was having a tad bit of trouble getting Gray the understand. He was yelling off words at random, desperate to find one correct one, least they fall behind even more than the already were. Soo enough, the timer went off without a single word guessed. Juvia sat down with a sigh next to a downtrodden Gray, revealing her word to be 'Lady and the Tramp.' Lucy smiled a bit as she remembered the old movie, a favorite of hers that she had made Natsu watch with her on more than one occasion.
It was Gajeel's turn, and, while he was great with hand signals, as his job as a cop forced him to be, Lucy had found out the charades was definitely not a strong suit of his. He tried in vain to help Levy understand, but his waving arms and frustrated grunts weren't much for her to work with. Even Erza was better than him, and that was saying a lot. But by some miracle, Levy figured it out, the two close enough that she had learned to decipher his craziness.
Jellal went next, absolutely smashing the competition with perfectly executed moves that Erza was able to figure out within seconds. Lucy was truly amazed at his skill- despite his usual distance and reservedness, Jellal was phenomenal when it came to acting. It was kinda scary, how easily he spun complex lies as easily as he turned Erza into a blushing schoolgirl- which was a feat he could achieve by merely smiling at her.
Jellal took his place by Erza's side with a self satisfied smile on his face. Erza was less discreet in her pride- a smug smirk curved her lips, a challenging gleam in her dark eyes.
Lucy grabbed Natsu's face in her hands, forcing her to meet her gaze. "This is our last turn, Natsu," she reminded him sternly. "Don't screw up." Of course, it didn't matter if they didn't get this point, as they were in the lead by four points. Team Jerza was in second, but they just took their last turn, so the win was already theirs. Still, their pride demanded they finish strong.
Natsu nodded and Lucy let go of his face, watching as he picked a card from the set and too time to think it over. She crossed her bare legs and held her ankles, toying with the gold star anklet she wore on her left leg. Her chocolate eyes tracked him closely once he set down his card and nodded to Gajeel, tensed and ready to receive his clues.
Natsu started off by holding up their 'the' sign, and Lucy nodded for him to continue, not wanting to waste time. He spread his arms out wide, like he was trying to hold an enormous yoga ball. "Huge? Large? Big?" She offered, and Natsu nodded excitedly at the last one, Motivated by her quick work, she grinned, her knee jiggling just faster than her heartbeat, adrenaline making her hyper.
Next, Natsu fisted his hands and bent his arms so his forearms stuck out in front of him, and then pulled them back, thrusting his hips forwards in the same motion. Lucy furrowed her brow. "Sex? Having sex?" She questioned, confused as to how it related with 'big'. Natsu tilted his opened hands in an 'eh, kinda,' motion, encouraging her to continue with the last one. "Banging?" He nodded vigorously, then drew his thumb and index through the air like he was highlighting something, then slicing his hands horizontally in an underlining gesture, holding up three fingers and chopping down. Get rid of the last three letters of the word… "Bang?" She asked. Natsu beamed at her, and then tapped the side of his head. She paired the words she had already found: 'The Big Bang'. Using that, she deduced the last word immediately, not needing to think too hard. "The Big Bang Theory!" She yelled, and Natsu clapped his hands together,
"Yes!" He shouted in glee, throwing his fist in the air. He jogged to his spot, wrapping her in a bear hug and drawing her into his lap. "We got it!" He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, giving her a gentle squeeze. Lucy held onto his forearm, laughing delightedly.
They couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces throughout Gray's attempt, which, to his sorrow, was nothing more than that- an attempt. Despite his ability to manipulate words, he was useless in silent games like this.
At the end of the game, Gajeel took his time counting up all the points, even though it was glaringly obvious that Team Nalu won. With a sigh, he announced the winners. If you could call it that, anyway. "Salamander and Bunny Girl won," he mumbled gruffly, pretending that saying it quietly would change the scores. Natsu clearly picked up on this, a devilish smirk stretching his lips, revealing sharp white teeth that gleamed in the soft light of Lucy's apartment.
"What was that, Gajeel?" He asked innocently, tilting his head towards the bulky man.
Gajeel glared at him. "You won," he repeated, this time a bit louder.
Natsu's smirk widened and his eyes flashed with mischievous glee at the blows to Gajeel's pride each word caused. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you," Natsu told him, cupping his ear in an exaggerated fashion, trying to be as antagonizing as possible.
Gajeel's eye twitched at Natsu's antics, knowing full well that he was only trying to rile him up. But of course, being Gajeel after all, he took the bait. "I SAID YOU WON, DAMNIT!" He yelled, furious.
Natsu cackled. "You didn't have to yell," he told him lightly, snickering, and Gajeel shook with restraint.
"Let's go, Shrimp," he growled, standing up and taking Levy's hand, pulling her along as he stomped out of the apartment.
"Bye, guys!" She called out, smiling despite her fiancee's grumbling.
"Bye, Lev," Lucy replied, smiling brightly and waving to the petite bluenette.
Erza sighed, standing with Jellal. "We should be heading home now," she told the blonde, and Lucy nodded, glancing at the clock. It read ten fifty-five, and they had work tomorrow.
"We best we going as well," Juvia agreed, a pouting Gray holding onto her.
"Alright then," Lucy told them. "Get some sleep, and we'll hang out again soon," she promised them. They nodded and bid her farewell, Juvia having a bit more trouble, as she had to drag her whining boyfriend along. Lucy rolled her eyes at Gray- he was usually so mature, but competition brought out his childish side.
Soon enough, it was just Lucy and Natsu in their apartment. Lucy turned to him, smiling. "Well, I must say that we did rather well tonight," she announced smugly, a satisfied smirk blending with her smile, her eyes twinkling.
Natsu grinned at her, his eyes glittering in triumph. "I'm going to have to agree with you there," he responded, keeping up the fake modesty. After a moment, the two burst into laughter, their peals of laughter echoing slightly in the now empty apartment. Natsu drew her into a tight hug, pressing a kiss to her head, and Lucy held him close, her arms curling around his back and shoulders, burying her head in his chest. They stayed like that for a bit, expressing their affection for each other in a simple hug that mean more than it seemed.