Author's Note:
(alternatively known as 'No Means No! and Gray Makes a Mess…')
Alrighty! It's Sunday! And happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it!
As always, humongous, wonderful, fluffy thanks to all my wonderful reviewers! Big hugs and kisses to: SistershoOk, 19vanelkc, NaLuAlways26, Anna5949, valerioux, Obliterate16, BearPlusCat, Jazminee18, Karmitara, GothBanshee, aliciacevbra, stranger1999, quidditchChick6, OhtaSuzuke, MysteryReader7311, dani-yell10, HotvampGurl23, illleashya, iamanimefreak13, blue02eclipse, thetrywriter, and Lucinda. You guys are all amazing!
I promise to properly respond to all of your reviews for chapter 3 tomorrow. Normally, I read and respond to all my reviews when I post the new chapter, but I'm literally falling asleep right now, lol. Still, I wanted to at least post the new chapter while it was still Sunday (I mean, technically it's past 12 am...but close enough right?) XD
Anywho, on with the chapter! And stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek of next chappie! ;D
As expected, it had taken Lucy a very long time to get to sleep. So, when she finally did, her slumber was very deep out of pure exhaustion, and thankfully it was dreamless. That helped her realize what was going on a little more quickly the next morning, since she didn't have to shake off the remains of another Natsu dream. Therefore, unlike yesterday morning, she immediately knew that the person currently coiled around her was the dragon slayer.
Sometime during the night, those pillows she put between them had been relocated, so now there was nothing separating them but thin nightclothes. He was just as tangled up with her as yesterday, if not even more so, and she had a hard time identifying just what was where. She was sort of halfway on her stomach cuddling a pillow with her right arm, while her head was cranked all the way to that side and was pillowed on her left arm. Based off his breath on the back of her neck and the weight on her left shoulder, she could tell that his head was resting there, and she was pretty sure the reason for her sore scalp was that her hair was tangled around both their left arms. Meanwhile, his right arm draped loosely over her waist like a heavy band of heat, and his forearm lay on top of the same pillow she was hugging – which meant she was also cuddling his arm. Downstairs, her left leg was stretched out straight, while her right bent at the knee and hiked up a bit…. and naturally his mimicked hers, which meant his right leg was hitched over her left.
Once she'd taken in the situation, she scrambled mentally to try and remember how to route her brain away from thoughts of Natsu and how he felt against her. However, her sleepy state made it significantly more difficult to maintain any kind of emotional or mental distance from the current state of affairs, and that was really not good.
It quickly became clear that she needed to go with the next viable option and remove herself from the problem entirely. Of course, her body and subconscious had come to that conclusion much faster than her higher thinking, and she was already responding in the habitual manner.
Lucy squirmed violently, trying to throw him off her like yesterday and the day before that. However, it wasn't working this time around and he stayed heavy on top of her, so she commenced thrashing around in an attempt to worm her way out from under him as quickly as possible. Her efforts utterly failed though, because he tightened his grip on her with a low growl of displeasure and pulled her right back to where she'd been. Then, he scooched up her body and burrowed his head much further into her neck and shoulder than it had been before.
The soft purr-like rumbles escaping him on his exhales said that he was either still mostly asleep or else very, very content.
Before she could rally her senses, lips had found her skin and were pressing against her – though she once again tried to convince herself that he was just nuzzling her with his mouth and not kissing her. It was pretty hard to do though when his lips parted and moved against her in ways that were definitely kiss-like, and she finally gave up entirely on the farce when she felt him creating gentle suction from time to time, sealing the deal that he was definitely kissing her.
And then he took it a step further. His mouth opened wider and she felt hot moist breath accompanied by teeth as he nipped at her with surprisingly sharp canines. The pressure of his teeth on her skin was so different from his lips, harder and sharper and more…dangerous somehow. His bites weren't particularly hard, they were more like nibbles than anything else, but it sent an unexpected thrill through her that she didn't know what to do with.
It was definitely way, waaaay over her comfort line…. especially since it felt so good.
After freezing in stunned disbelief for a moment, her brain came back online with a resounding roar and she sprung into disturbed action. Lucy was no stranger to kicking Natsu out of bed – usually in a relatively violent manner – so her body easily reacted to her freaked out mindset with the appropriate series of movements.
Her left elbow jabbed back – aiming for his head – as she wrenched her torso upwards. Her right hand grabbed the wrist of his restraining arm and threw it off her, and then she immediately slammed her elbow back into his ribs to finish knocking his upper body off her. Her hitched knee dug into the mattress to try and get under her, while her left leg curled up and tried to do the same, and she bucked her hips up hard to knock him off her lower body.
She managed to almost get on all fours, but Natsu wasn't having it. With a loud snarl, his right arm curled back around her, which stopped her upward momentum very quickly. His right leg hooked around both of hers and yanked downwards, which pulled her knees out from under her. As her lower body went down, his grip on her torso tightened and he gave a rough tug, which toppled her over completely. She landed back on her belly and planted face-first into the mattress with a grunt. Shockingly, his left hand immediately landed on her head and his fingers tangled in her hair, holding her down with a dominating grip that could come across as either very sexual or very mean…neither of which seemed Natsu-like in the least.
"Natsu! Hey, let me up!" she protested – loudly – and continued to struggle, offended and more than a little disturbed.
In a different situation, his handsiness might have struck her as a turn on, but at the moment she was trying very hard to keep her mind out of that particular gutter by strictly focusing on her irritation. Thankfully, it was working pretty well so far, and she'd managed to get herself thoroughly worked up.
"Not yet…wanna sleep sum'more…." he grumbled into her shoulder, part of the words coming out mushed together.
"You can, but let me go!" she growled, still squirming to get free, but then suddenly froze as she came into abrupt contact with something she shouldn't have.
"I can't sleep without you…"
She didn't even hear his last comment because she was too busy mentally kicking herself and cussing quietly into the pillow. If she hadn't been wiggling around so much, she may have never felt the hardness now digging into her hip. It was definitely a sensation she didn't need burnt into her memory, though she secretly admitted to herself that it might come in handy at a much later date when she had some personal private time. But at the moment it was utterly embarrassing.
Then, she kicked herself yet again when Natsu apparently overheard her quietly muttering, "…shit-shit-shit-shit…" to herself.
"Wha's wrong Luce?"
"Nothing!" she squeaked, blushing hot and trying to hide her face in the pillows.
"You're a terrible liar." he grumbled sleepily, obviously not buying it.
"I…I'm…could you please just move?"
"Why? Do ya haf'ta go pee or somethin'?"
Seriously, someday Natsu needed to learn the word 'tact.'
"Natsu! No!" Well, now that he mentioned it, yes actually. But she wasn't going to admit to that. "Just move!"
"Don't wanna…"
At this point, Lucy had to make a decision. Did she just lie still and put up with the feeling of his hard-on pressing against her for an unknown amount of time, or did she do something about it? So far, she'd been able to overlook the sensation to a certain extent thanks to her being freaked out and irritated, but she knew good and well that she wouldn't be able to ignore it for much longer. Already she was fighting to keep her attention elsewhere instead of focusing on his junk and analyzing the feel of the experience.
What was worse? Forming a mental image so detailed she'd never be able to get it out of her head? Or dying from humiliation right now? The decision was made for her when Natsu shifted closer and unintentionally ground into her hip. Was he even aware of it?!
"Natsu! Stop!" she squawked again, the exclamation coming out before she could stop herself.
An irritated huff across the back of her neck said that Natsu was losing what little patience he had. "What's the problem?!"
"You don't know?! Come on…please don't make me say it…"
"What're you even talking about?"
Hiding her face in the blankets, she mumbled, "You're stabbing me in the hip."
"I'm stabbing you…?" He seemed utterly confused and she could feel his weight shift as he lifted up and apparently looked down at the situation. "Oh…"
A slightly awkward chuckle escaped him, but she thought he should sound a lot more embarrassed. Then he proceeded to continue surprising her. "What's the big deal? It's morning. I'm a guy. It happens."
If her face wasn't already pressed into the pillow, she would have face-palmed. "What's the problem?! Seriously?! That's…you…you're…I'm…could you just…Natsu!"
As her protest devolved into a senseless jumble of words, he groaned and finally leaned his body away from her. But before she could escape, he was back and had shoved a pillow between their lower bodies.
"There, does that fix it?" he grumbled as he plopped back down on top of her.
She was still too shocked to move or really speak, and before she'd gathered her wits, a soft rhythmic rumble said that he had fallen back asleep without waiting for her response. For a long moment she stayed stock still, stunned by what had just happened.
How was she going to recover from this? She had just gotten a good feel of what he was packing, and she knew she'd have a hell of a time looking him in the eye without blushing…probably for a while. Would their friendship survive? Seconds after that thought, she scoffed, knowing that their friendship could survive anything. He probably wouldn't even be fazed in the slightest… it was her squeamishness that would cause any kind of problem.
If she didn't want this to affect their friendship, she just had to try and pretend this whole thing hadn't happened to the best of her ability. Still…she wasn't quite ready to face Natsu yet. She had some compartmentalizing to do. So, for a while, they continued to lay there while she worked on sorting herself out properly.
After an indefinite amount of time though, her bladder demanded attention and could no longer be ignored.
This time she went a different route. Instead of trying to shove him off her, she rolled over on top of him by abruptly pushing really, really hard against the mattress. He grunted as they flipped positions and ended up with her full weight landing on top of him. She kept going, digging her hand and the heels of her feet into the mattress to keep her turning and flailing with her right hand until she'd managed to snag the edge of the bed.
She kept pushing and pulling until they finally toppled out of bed together in a tangle of blankets and pillows. Natsu yelped various expletives in her ear as they fell and then landed in a heap. Thankfully, his confusion and the impact had distracted him enough that she managed to free herself, and she tossed the blankets off with a dramatic flourish as she stood – dropping them back on top of him to make her point.
He was still struggling and grumbling as she strode to the bathroom and locked herself in with a sharp snap of the door. Only then did she finally let her imperious annoyed façade drop and leaned back against the door weakly, panting a little. Her palm pressed to her chest and felt how fast her heart was beating.
They were going to have to have a conversation about boundaries, otherwise this was never going to work.
"What the heck was that for Luce?!"
When his voice came through the door, so loud that it sounded like he was pressed up against the barrier, she nearly leaped out of her skin. She covered it though by making her voice extra snappish. "You know why! It's not polite to hold people down without their permission!"
"Oh…"
"Yeah! Oh!"
She fumed her way through the rest of her morning routine. Thankfully, by the time she was done, she'd managed to mostly get rid of her uneasiness and replace it with the normal mixture of exasperation, feigned platonic-ness, and mild amusement. Really, if she couldn't laugh at Natsu's antics by now, she would have gone mad a long time ago. At least this problem didn't require her to deal with an enraged property owner who's building had just been burned to the ground.
He was also predictable, so she was ready for him when she exited the bathroom. As expected, he was leaning back against the door and pounced as soon as she opened it. However, this time she met him with a hand to the face, stopping him in his tracks. She hadn't slapped him or anything, she just met his advance with a palm out at the correct height, and his face had landed right in her hand.
His eyes immediately slammed shut when her splayed fingers connected with his face, and his momentum dramatically slowed, but didn't stop completely. He ended up leaning backwards at a rather harsh angle as his head was kept at arm's length, while his lower body sidled a little closer. One burning hand landed on her shoulder while the other snagged the elbow of her raised arm, and he squinted the eye uncovered by her fingers to peer at her with confusion.
"What're you doin?"
"We need to talk." she said seriously, holding his gaze – such as it was. "You need to let me go if I ask you to, otherwise this arrangement might need to be changed."
His one eye sobered and he took a full step back, though it looked like it pained him. "Sorry Luce…I'll try my best, but…sometimes I may not be able to. Especially when I'm half asleep or…"
Almost as if on cue, his head whipped around and a deep snarl ripped from his throat. The sound and his instant change in posture startled Lucy so much that she flinched back from him violently.
"What the…Natsu?! What's gotten into you?!"
He didn't answer, just put himself between her and the door and assumed a very aggressive looking stance, as if he expected an intruder. He stayed frozen like that, and she was just inching up behind him to maybe try and get his attention when there was a knock on the door.
"Um…I'm just gonna get that…" she said and hesitantly edged her way around him.
He was so tense that he was practically shaking, and she only got a couple of steps before he was lunging for her. His hand snagged her wrist, and he ground out, "Don't!"
She almost didn't when she caught a glimpse of his wild eyes, but then the knocking turned to pounding.
The sound of Erza's voice snapped her head around to face the door. "Are you alright Lucy? I heard what sounded like an animal in there…should I break down the door?"
"No! Uh, I'll be right there, hold on!" she called quickly, already able to predict a bomb. Then she turned to Natsu and murmured, "I'll just answer the door and get her to go away. Okay?"
She pulled her hand free and made it a couple more steps before he lunged at her. One arm wrapped around her waist and the other clamped on her hip so tightly she worried she may have a bruise. His momentum also forced them to stumble forwards a couple of steps into the nearest piece of furniture, which was her kitchen table. The legs made a horrific screeching sound against the floor and several of the chairs were knocked over with a loud clatter.
It all startled her so much that she unintentionally yelled in surprise and then cussed loudly as her toe stubbed painfully into the leg of the table.
Then an even worse situation presented itself when Gray's voice bellowed through the door. "Oi! What was that?! You sure you're okay in there?!"
Natsu's temperature dramatically shot up and she winced, concerned for the furniture as well as her own health.
"Um! I'm fine! I really can't get to the door right now, could you guys just leave please?!"
That only seemed to increase their suspicion though.
"Is there someone in there with you? Are they threatening you?" Erza asked, and Lucy could already hear danger in the tone.
"Oi! We ain't goin' anywhere till we're sure you're safe!"
She cussed once again as she realized that the only way to get them to leave would be to answer the door, and she slowly started tugging Natsu in that direction. He snarled and pulled back.
"Damnit Natsu, if I don't answer the door they're liable to break it down!"
He growled some more, but somewhere in there he must have heard her, because he stopped trying to drag her away from the door. However, he did dig in his heels, and she really had to buckle down to tow him along with her to the door. It got harder and harder to move him as they drew closer, but somehow she made it before either of her friends decided to bust into her apartment.
She put one hand back to ward off Natsu as she fumbled with the lock and cracked the door just a hair so she could peek through.
"Hey guys, sorry, but seriously you've got to go. Natsu's going through some kind of dragon slayer illness and I'm the only one that can be around him right now, so…"
"What? That was Natsu making all that racket?" Gray asked, and he leaned in, trying to look through the crack.
Apparently that was too much for Natsu, because he lunged with a vicious roar, and Lucy suddenly found herself shoved up against the doorjamb as he leaned over her. Fire licked through his teeth and poured through the open gap in the door as he growled, which must have startled Gray.
The other man yelped, "shit!" and she could hear the scuffy sounds of someone backing up quickly.
Before the fire could catch, Lucy hurriedly jabbed her hand up and slammed it into the bottom of Natsu's jaw, cutting off the flame with a click of his teeth.
"Seriously guys! You're making it really difficult to deal with him! Just get out of here before he burns my door down!"
Apparently Erza was able to pick up the sincerity of her tone, because she said, "Very well. But if you need anything, don't hesitate to call us."
Based off the following sounds, she had to drag Gray away.
With a relieved groan, Lucy slammed the door shut and locked it again. Then she gasped as Natsu's grip on her changed and he spun her around roughly before slamming her back into the wall. It wasn't quite hard enough to hurt, but it was dangerously close and definitely alarmed her. Fear ran cold in her veins when she looked into his face and saw unnaturally golden eyes that no longer looked like they belonged to Natsu, though not just because of the color change. It was much more than that…there was a wildness in them, a strange burning that made them look like they were the eyes of a feral animal.
She started edging to the side to try and get away from him, but he growled and wrenched her back. At that, she froze, even more frightened than before.
What the hell had she gotten herself into?
His head landed in the crook of her neck, and suddenly his bruising grip loosened a little. She could feel and hear him breathing heavily against her collarbone, and then the tiniest sound crawled out of his throat. Her eyes widened when she realized what it was, and her arms instantly wrapped around him, one hand burrowing into his hair to pet him the way she always did when he was motion sick. That little pained whimper had told her that he was dealing with something not fun at all, and she lost all form of fear and simply focused on trying to soothe him.
After a moment, his legs gave out and they both ended up sliding down the doorjamb to the floor. He practically crawled into her lap, getting as close as he possibly could, and then he started rubbing against her. His hands slid up and down her arms, his face nuzzled her face, neck, and shoulders, and his chest pressed against hers. After a moment, he started working his way down… hands stroking her sides while his face burrowed into her chest. Before she could get overly embarrassed about him nosing at her boobs, he was already moving on to her stomach and had wrapped his arms around her hips.
They ended up almost halfway lying down with his face buried in her middle, his chest between her legs, and his arms clamped around her hips, while the rest of his body awkwardly crunched up under him, huddling as close as he possibly could. His face kept rubbing against her, almost like a cat, and after a while of holding her, his hands started scrubbing at her legs, just like they'd done to her arms.
"Natsu…what are you doing?" she eventually murmured, her fingers lightly tugging at his hair to suggest he look up at her.
He tilted his head up, leaving his mouth and nose partially buried in her shirt while he met her eyes with his own, and she was relieved to see they'd gone back to their normal dark color.
"I…I dunno. I can't help it…I feel like I've gotta cover you in my scent."
Well that explained all the rubbing. And now that she thought about it, she strangely did smell him really strongly right now, as if he was emitting his normal scent at almost cologne-like levels. She would have thought that would be kind of gross, like BO, but it actually wasn't. He did have a very musky smell, sort of a mixture of salt, smoke, and… well… Natsu…but it wasn't bad at all.
If anything, she found herself really liking the smell. Which was weird.
After the interruption, he eventually shifted back up her body – much to her relief – and when his head ducked back down he was just nuzzling her neck again. His arms wrapped back around her and he pressed close, holding her in a tight embrace that was almost soothing, though her heart continued to pound hard in her chest. If they'd just stayed like that – locked in a warm hug – her heart and breathing might have slowed back down and she might have even allowed herself to enjoy the closeness.
Except then, his body shifted over hers. It was a small motion and she thought nothing of it at first, but when it repeated…and then repeated again, she started to take more notice. Soon, he was moving back and forth over her, rubbing his chest and stomach against hers as much as he could in their cramped position. She was sure it was just an extension of what he'd been doing before – rubbing up against her to cover her in his scent – but this felt a little different.
However, no matter how much her mind tried to go there, she absolutely refused to compare the motion of his body to something else that would be very easy to do right now. There was absolutely no thrusting going on whatsoever…. Nope. None.
After a few minutes of moving against her, he experienced some kind of full body shudder and all motion stopped…. which made it amazingly hard to keep her thoughts clean. In response, she forced her brain so far away from the gutter that SOAP became her new name.
A moment or two later, he reluctantly pulled back, and even he looked a little embarrassed and awkward about what had just taken place. His cheeks were ever so slightly pink and his eyes skidded away from hers instead of having his usual dead-on stare.
"Sorry Luce. These urges…they're getting a lot worse than I thought they would. It's actually kinda freaking me out a little…"
"Yeah, I was scared there for a moment too. You seemed really…out of control."
He grimaced. "I think it was mainly just…him. If he hadn't come here, I don't think I would have lost it like that."
"Well, you did say that you might get territorial and aggressive towards other males… and you don't even get along with him very well on a good day. So it makes sense."
He nodded. Then, for a long while they were both silent, up until Lucy's stomach audibly rumbled. She jerked and looked down, having forgotten that they hadn't even had breakfast yet. The notion was reiterated much louder by Natsu's stomach, which roared in comparison to her grumble.
At that, she couldn't help but laugh, and soon a lot of the tension had eased between them.
"Alright, I think it's time for breakfast, how about you?"
He nodded eagerly and followed her as she stood and headed towards the fridge.
Sneak Peek
Before, he'd practically been wrapped around her while she cooked, and every time she stopped he would cuddle up to her. Now, he was actually putting some space between their bodies… though he still stayed close enough for him to keep one hand on her at all times.
In one way, it was a lot less pushy and he wasn't in her personal space nearly as much, which made her wonder if maybe he was coming out of heat. It would be a lot earlier than he had predicted, but perhaps it was possible.
However, what had happened earlier made her think that wasn't the case. He'd reacted way too strongly for him to be coming out of heat…which suggested that something else was going on. Perhaps this new behavior was an indication that he was entering a new stage? Though she wasn't sure why a more advanced stage would result in him having less contact with her.