Chapter 4

"How ironic, that when she falls asleep...I'm more awake," mused a slightly irritable Natsu. The infamous "Natsu Special" had put Lucy to sleep a whole fifteen minutes ago and while it was HE who put all the energy into it, it was also HE who had eyes that were wide open. He could feel the aches of fatigue all over his body but as hard as he tried, sleep wouldn't come.

He turned his head to look at his snoozing teammate with an amused grin. Her head was cradled in the crook of his arm, his fringes of his scarf spread out above her head like a halo. Who could have known that she slept with her mouth open? What he would have given for a camera...But eh. This train of thought was taking him farther from the realm of sleep then he'd like. AND he didn't really care for trains...

With a slight scowl, he wiggled the tight muscles in his shoulders to get more comfortable on the roughly paved floor. He envied Happy and his full stomach and warm covers...but he was only slightly jealous. Maybe it wasn't so bad, spending a night in cave, sealed off from the world by an ice wall. Was it not so bad because of her? 'Psh, no way,' he thought, 'We're nakama. That's it. Plus, sleeping on the ground'll work out all the kinks in my back. Yep.'

Spending time alone with his female guild-mates wasn't new to Natsu, he'd done it before. There were the countless times he and Erza had fallen asleep on the ride home. Or rather, he was passed out and she was snoozing. There was even that one time he stayed up all night with Mira, Levi, and Cana playing Scrabble. But was Lucy any different? Erza, Mira, his guildmates, they were like his sisters. Lucy? She was a friend.

'A really pretty friend,' said a cheeky little voice in his head.

"FRIEND. The keyword is friend," Natsu argued. Of course, Lucy was his friend. And of course, he had always thought Lucy was...nice. Yes, nice was a safe term, he thought.

'Oh, come on!' said the little voice, 'I saw the way you looked at her. I wouldn't have guessed that blonde was your type!'

"Huh? What are you talking about?!" asked Natsu, embarrassed. He imagined himself building a mental wall between himself and that provocative voice he kept hearing.

'And I bet that by the way you two flirted, she likes you back!' Why did it seem like someone was playfully elbowing him in the side?

"Eh...whatever." He closed his eyes to block out the voice and he couldn't help but replay the night's events in his head like a highlights reel. She'd been smiling, laughing, teasing him all night. But weren't those things Lucy usually did? What was so different?

The voice snorted, 'This is what's different, pal,' as Natsu promptly shut his eyes in an effort to keep the images out, but they involuntarily began to use the inside of his eyelids as a projector screen.

'What the hell, this is freakin' ridiculous!' Natsu thought, as he saw blue skies and white clouds? Then someone laughed, an infectious, good-natured, happy laugh and he caught himself laughing too. Lucy? Lucy was laughing, the breeze was blowing her bangs out of her face and her hand was outstretched. She was waiting. Waiting for what? He sees his hand reach out and take hers and instantly, instantly a warmth spreads from his fingertips, making the tops of his ears tingle. Her grim is soft yet firm and she's tugging him forward. Suddenly, they're running and she's laughing, then she stops. She stops and he runs into her arms and his fingers are tangled in her hair and he can't help but notice how beautiful she is when she laughs. And then--

His eyes sprang open. The blue skies and white clouds had vanished, leaving him blankly staring at the dark clots of dirt hanging by root tendrils to the ceiling. Natsu took a deep breath, his head swirling a bit at the disorientation, his heart beating a bit faster then normal. 'What...what was that?'

'Eh, She's a good choice. She's got those pretty nifty keys. Not as cool as the chick with the swords and the disappearing armor. But she'll do.'

"I must be going crazy," Natsu said sighed loudly, but maybe a bit too loudly as Lucy uttered a disgruntled something in her sleep. She had managed to twist his scarf so that it pulled tightly on her neck. With his free hand, he eased the tension in the woven fabric, accidentally trailing a finger against the soft skin on chin. Almost instantaneously, he felt a rush through his fingers and his cheeks flushed.

'So...don't you want to kiss her?'

"What?! No, I don't want to kiss her. We're nakama." His brain begged to be turned off and his muscles throbbed with a dull ache. It took a lot of work to build the wall! That was a good reason to be delirious, right? But, actually, his brain was sending him the signal that it very much wanted to stay awake if he ended up canoodling her...so maybe it wasn't such a good reason after all.

'But--'

"NAKAMA. I don't want to kiss my nakama," he repeated forcefully as he imagined being slapped continuously across the face if suddenly woke up and didn't like it one bit. Natsu, You # pervert!

'Nah, it'd be more like this,' said the voice as images of an enraged, fire-breathing Lucy, her hands brandishing a dozen golden keys as she summoned spirits to behead him, her voice full of rage as she screamed, 'How dare you try to kiss me, you vermin?!'

Natsu's expression was grim as the voice cackled once or twice then was finally silent. 'Yep, not a good idea to kiss her,' he thought when all of a sudden, she mumbled something and rolled over, snuggling up to his shoulder with her face was angled towards his.

"Nakama nakama nakama nakama nakama," he chanted, turning his face away as far as he could because he could tell she used cinnamon scented shampoo and although he'd never mentioned to anyone, he was awfully fond of cinnamon.

But all he could think about was the way she laughed about freezing his arms in the ice wall, and the way her eyes twinkled underneath that blue sky, and the way her lips seemed like they were asking him to kiss them...

Then with a exasperated sigh, he expelled the doubts and gathered all the courage he could muster. He turned back to her gently sleeping face, closed her eyes and leaned forward, his lips parted slightly. He felt her warm breath on his cheek as she murmured something softly, but then suddenly, gravity overcame his eyelids, pulling them heavily shut. 'What?! I can't fall asleep at a time like--' But it was too late. Natsu swore he heard a disappointed groan from the farthest reaches of his mind as he felt himself drifting away from her, into an ill-timed but very relaxing slumber.

A/N: Whew! It feels like it's been forever. And no, I didn't forget. I'm taking yoga now, school started again (ugh, how sad), I got into Honor Society , and I'm knitting a Nautilus. I rather miss Lucy, I'm glad it'll switch back to her perspective next chapter.

I'm sorry this one is so short, but I guess it takes place in a matter of minutes so it's not so bad? Tell me if it seems kinda OCC, it's been so long since I've wrote Natsu dialogue, it probably is. Next chapter, they finally get to leave the cave! It's been 4 chapters, that's long enough. Hahaha.