AN: GUESS WHO'S BACK!
I'm really sorry about the lack of updates over the past two weeks, the wifi at our campsite was horrendous.
Anyway, I feel like I've been getting everyone's hopes up on fast updates, actually the only reason I've been uploading stuff so quickly is because all of these one shots were pre written from ages ago and I was uploading all of them at once because I was intending to use this fic as an archive for all my one shots and stuff. I've still got a few more things to upload, but when that happens I'm afraid that the only time I'll be postiing anything is when I write something for a request on her or tumblr or I get bitten by a merciless plot bunny that won't let go of me.
On a more positive note, this was written for bieber-bower on tumblr's birthday, and is a sequel to my other fics ASOMUE and Early Morning Blues. I hope you all enjoy it!
SUMMARY: Natsu and Lucy are sent of by their friends to collect firewood, and... things ensue. (But then again, don't they always?)
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Mud squeltched over her wellie boots as Lucy made her way back to their tents, pushing her dripping hair out of her face and cursing loudly when she nearly slipped. She pulled her damp coat tighter around her body in an attempt to block out the chill and sighed, wishing that she was anywhere in the world but where she was at that moment.
When her classes had finished for the mid term break, Lucy hadn't expected to find herself being dragged along by her friends on a camping trip, least of all to a muddy field in the middle of nowhere that Gray claimed to have stayed in once. And yet here she was, cold and wet and tired and carrying a bundle of sticks back to their campsite to be used as firewood, because *someone* (coughNatsucough) had forgotten to pack charcoal for the barbecue.
She made it back to the tents and dropped the sticks in a pile beside the barbecue. "Here's your bloody firewood," she said, slumping down in one of soaking chairs as she spoke.
"Someone's in a good mood," Natsu Dragneel muttered from where he was croutched beside the barbecue. He rolled his eyes and reached for the sticks, pausing when he grasped the nearest one. "It's wet," he snarled irritabily, staring up at her. "How the fuck do you expect me to build a fire with wet firewood."
"Of course it's wet dofus," she retorted, crossing her arms defensively. "Incase you didn't notice, it was raining earlier, and rain is often known to make things get wet." Raining was an understatement actually, it had been absolutely bucketing for their entire journey down, turning the field they were supposed to be camping in into a sea of mud and leaving not one dry stick in sight. Lucy had done her best to find some vaguely dry firewood, but when mixed in with the pile those few sticks had become just as damp as the rest.
"Stop bickering you two." Levy was siting nearby, examining the manual on how to put up the tent and occasionally shouting instructions to Gajeel and Jellal, who were both wrestling with the monstrous piece of canvas. "I hate to say it Lu, but Natsu's right. We're gonna need dry wood if we want to build a fire."
Lucy pouted. "Maybe we can just do without one then."
"Of course we need to have a fire!"
Lucy jumped at the indignant voice of her other friend, who had appeared behind her out of nowhere. Natsu glanced up, and Lucy noticed him shudder slightly at the sight of an enraged Erza. Gajeel and Levy both nodded hastily, mumbling hurried apologies, and quickly returned to their work, but Jellal was unfazed.
"You just want to toast marshmallows," he sighed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.
"That may be so." Erza's voice was as brisk as ever, but when Lucy turned around she though she caught a hint of pink in the redhead's cheeks. "And we'll need a fire to do that. Natsu, Lucy, you two can go off and collect more firewood."
Natsu looked horrified. "Why me?" He moaned. "Isn't their anyone else who can do it?"
Erza glared at him. "No there isn't," she said sternly, "Gajeel, Jellal, Levy and I are putting up the tents and Gray and Juvia are filling up some water bottles."
Gajeel snorted. "I'll bet that's not all that they're doing," he smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. He paused, and grinned wickedly at Natsu. "Go on Salamander, you should be good at this, considering how skilled you are at burning things down."
Levy was opening her mouth to chastise him, but Natsu cut her off, raising his hands in the air as a sign of defeat. "Okay okay," he said. "I get it. You are all jealous of my superior wood collecting skills and want the master go and show yous how it's done."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't put it exactly like that," she muttered under her breath.
Natsu ignored her. "Come on Luce," he said, getting to his feet and walking over to the edge of their campsite. "If we head deep enough into the forest we should be able to collect some dry sticks."
And with that, he strode off to the edge of the woods, leaving Lucy with nothing to do but follow.
.
"I'm freezing," Lucy moaned again, blowing on her hands and shivering in her damp coat. She quickened her pace slightly, taking small hurried steps in an attempt to keep up with Natsu's long strides.
He didn't even bother turning around. "So you've said," he retorted, and Lucy could hear the irritation in his voice. "Hurry up," he added briskly. "The sooner we collect enough firewood, the sooner we can get back."
"But we've been walking for ten minutes already," she complained. "And we've past plenty of wood. Look there's a tree." She pointed to a tree as they past it. "And another one. And yet another one. Wow, what an abundant supply of firewood, ripe for our taking."
He rolled his eyes. "But it's all still soaking," he explained, rubbing his hand across the bark of the nearest tree. "The further we get into this forest, the thicker the folage gets, and therefore dryer the wood underneath. Jeez Luce," he smirked. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one."
Lucy ignored his jibe at her, and instead focused on something else. "Why do you always call me that?" She asked, curiosity seeping into her voice.
"Call you what?" He replied, glancing back at her.
"Luce."
He shrugged. "Why not? Levy and Gajeel both have nicknames for you, and I don't ever see you complaining about them."
That was slightly incorrect. While Levy calling her 'Lu' occasionally didn't bother her at all, Gajeel's pet name 'Bunny Girl', a reference to the first time he met her, was a different story entirely.
"I wasn't complaining!" She retorted, a little too quickly. "I was just, er, curious, that's all."
He nodded, understanding, and the two of them continued to walk in silence, lost in their own thoughts or listening to the sounds of nature around them. Twigs snapped under their feet, droplets of rain splashed through the canopy of leaves on to the forest floor below, mud squelched as they stepped in it, and the occasional flutter of a bird's wings could be heard in the distance.
"I like the sound of it," Natsu blurted out, breaking the silence between them.
"Huh?" Lucy had been so caught up in her own little bubble that she hadn't heard him properly, and what she thought she had heard him say didn't really make much sense.
"I like the sound of it," he repeated slowly, rubbing his neck and turning to face her slightly. "Your nickname. Luce. It think it sounds, em... better. It just rolls off your tongue easier. Luce. I kinda like saying it really."
She stared up at him, and for a moment he heald her gaze, looking into her eyes so intensly that Lucy thought he might bore a hole through her skull. He glanced away quickly though, turning his head to observe the forest in front of him, but Lucy thought she could see a hint of blush appearing on his cheeks.
"I can stop calling you it if it annoys you," he said quietly, fixing his gaze firmly ahead.
"You don't have to," she replied, shocked at his sudden willingness to, well, actually consider her feelings for once. "Like I said before, I was just wondering." She trailed off, not having the courage to add that she kindasortamaybe liked him calling her it too.
The silence between them was deafening, and Natsu cleared his throat awkwardly in an attempt to break it. "I think we've probably gotten far enough into this forest to start collecting sticks," he said, coming to a halt.
"Yeah," she responded quickly, grateful for the change of subject.
They split up, beginning to collect sticks and place them in a pile in between them. Despite how tiring the work was, Lucy was grateful at the distraction it was giving her from the awkward silence that had begun to grow again between her and Natsu. Soon however the collection of sticks had grown so large that adding too many more would make it impossible for them to carry the firewood back.
"D'ya reckon that that's enough?" Lucy questioned, dropping a few more twigs on to the pile.
Natsu glanced up from where he was squatted beside a log. "I think so." He paused. "Anyway, if our so called friends are unhappy with the quality of this wood, then they can damn well go and get their own."
Lucy nodded absent mindedly, neglecting to remind Natsu that it had been him who voiced the original complaint about the firewood she had collected. A thought struck her, and she cursed herself for not having realised it earlier. "How are we going to get all this wood back to the campsite?" She asked, annoyance colouring her voice.
Wordlessly Natsu got up and wandered over to where the wood had been piled up, crouching down beside it and pulling a penknife and a piece of rope from his pocket. As Lucy watched, he fiddled about with the items for a few minutes, managing to fashion a crude handle around the bundle, which he slung over his shoulder. "Voila," he said, grinning and making an extravagant jesture with his free hand. "The master firewood gatherer strikes again. Bow down to my awesomeness and superior firewood gathering skills."
For a moment Lucy grinned back, shaking her head at his antics, but now that she had stopped moving the cold had begun to set in again and she shivered, crossing her arms and rubbing her bare hands up and down her body in an attemot to generate heat. "Come on," she said, her teeth chattering noisily, "let's hurry up and get back to the others before it starts raining.
As if on cue, the sound of droplets of water hiting the canopy of leaves above them filled the air. Natsu looked up with a half annoyed half amused expression on his face. He smirked. "I think you jinxed it."
"God fecking bugger damn it," Lucy swore. "If there is one thing that could make this bloody camping trip even better, it is definitely rain." She lashed out, kicking the nearest tree in a fit of anger, and Natsu's smirk widened as he watched hop around, clutching her injured toe and cursing even more.
"I take it you don't like camping then," he said, folding his arms and observing her anger from a safe distance.
She stopped hopping around and glared at him. "It's not don't like it, it's just that I don't well... uh, like it."
He raised his eyebrows sceptically. "Well put," he snorted.
"Shut up!" She replied, her voice embarrassingly high. She stopped and took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. "Look," she said, managing to sound calmer, "it's getting quite late, we should probably head back now."
He nodded. "Yeah you're right, it's getting quite dark." Lucy could still hear the amusement in his voice, but at least he wasn't outright laughing at her any more.
She glanced around. He was right. Although it couldn't be more than seven o'clock, the days were getting shorter as he winter rolled in, and because of the thick folage above them there was barely any light seeping in. On the bright side, the leaves were also preventing the rain from getting through and, apart from the occasional large droplet, the forest floor was mostly dry.
"Okay," she said, "let's go!" She spun round and began to trudge back to the campsite, only to promptly trip over a root and go sprawling to the ground. She swore loudly, but her cursing turned into a strangled cry of pain when she landed awkwardly on her ankle.
Natsu's laughter filled the air and he doubled over, clutching his stomach and wiping away the tears that were streaming down his face. "That was smooth Luce," he gasped in between bursts of laughter, "real smooth."
"Stop laughing and help me up," she growled, trying unsuccessfully to push herself to her feet. "It's not funny," she added indignantly when he was overwhelmed by a fresh fit of laughter.
"Yes it is," he replied, grinning cheekily at her. He cast the bundle of wood to the ground and strode over, taking her by the hand and pulling her roughly to her feet. She stumbled into his chest, crying out again as she put her weight on her injured ankle, and he caught her by her arms.
"Asshole," she muttered as he set her down again, postioning her so that her back against a nearby tree and her ankle was stretched out in front of her.
He ignored her comment, frowning as he noticed how damp her coat was. "Jeez Luce," he muttered, glancing at her briefly. "No wonder you're so cold. Your coat is absolutely soaking."
Lucy huffed, rolling her eyes. It wasn't her fault that the only godforsaken coat she had brought with her wasn't waterproof.
Well, actually it kind of was, but that's not the point.
"Here."
Lucy looked up to discover that Natsu had taken his own jacket off and was now offering it to her. "Won't you get cold?" She asked, confused at his sudden act of kindness.
He smirked. "The day I get cold is the day Happy learns to fly," he said confidently. He hesitated, noticing the look she was giving him, and sighed. "Seriously Luce, I'll be fine. You look like you need it more than I do."
Lucy nodded, and began to undo the buttons on her coat. It was a slow and difficult process, seeing how numb her fingers had become, and she had to stop several times to blow on her frozen hands. By the fourth button it was clear Natsu's patience was growing thin, and after watching three failed attempts on her part to get it undone it had worn away completely. "Let me do it," he snapped, brushing her hands away and quickly popping the rest of the buttons open.
Lucy's face reddened at the implications of what he was doing, and she turned her head away to try and hide the blush creeping into her cheeks. She was alone in a forest with Natsu Dragneel, who, by the way, was currently undoing the buttons on her coat. Mind you, it was for a completely innocent and totally plausible reason, but even so that didn't stop certain... naughtier parts of her mind from drifting off on their own paths.
You're alone with Natsu, a part of her whispered. Anything could happen.
His free hand trailed down her side, resting on the earth beside her hip and Lucy's stomach fluttered as she realised how close he was kneeling. He finished the last button and glanced up, and suddenly his face was only a few inches from her own, so close that their noses were practically touching, and that annoying part of her couldn't help but think about how easy it would be to close the miniscule distance between them to press her lips against his,
No, bad Lucy.
Natsu pulled away and stood up, breaking the spell between them and taking her jacket with him while simultaneously dropping his own on her lap. She shrugged his jacket on, noting how cozy it was and how nice it smelled, and looked up at him, watching as he yawned and raised his arms above his head. His t-shirt rode up his stomach as he stretched, and Lucy caught a glimpse of the toned abs beneath. In fact, she was so caught up in staring at his exposed muscles that it took her a moment to register that he was speaking.
"It's to dark for me to have a look at your ankle," he was saying, and Lucy found herself nodding to show she was listening, "but if we can get you back to the campsite I think one of the girls has a first aid kit with them." He paused, looking down at her with a tired expression on his face. "I think we've already deduced that you won't be able to walk that far, so I guess I'll have to carry you."
Unbidden, an image of Natsu carrying her bridal style through the forest popped into Lucy's mind, and she had to fight to keep the blush on her face from darkening. "Carry me," she said slowly, doing her best to keep her voice from wavering, "as in-"
He sighed. "I'll give you a piggy back ride."
Relief coiled in Lucy's stomach, grateful that he had offered to give her a piggyback over the more... intimate alternative. Wordlessly, he crouched in front of her, offering his back for her to climb on to and, after much struggling and cursing from both of them, Lucy finally managed to get herself into a decently comfortable position on his back. Natsu hooked his arm through the rope that held the bundle of sticks together and stood up, groaning as he adjusted to the weight in his arms.
"Are you sure you'll be okay walking back like this?" Lucy asked, concern creeping into her voice. "I mean, well, I could probably manage to get back on my own, if you want to go on ahead." She tailed off, realising with a jolt that she did not want to be left in this forest on her own, even if the alternative was being carried back by Natsu. While she was grateful for his efforts, being given a piggyback by her supposed 'worst enemy' and still-definitely-not-massive-crush through a forest could come off as rather, well, humiliating.
Not to mention the fact that she could actually feel his muscles through his t-shirt, making her feel quite uncomfortable while also forcing her to try and resist the urge to grope them a bit.
Still she'd take this over the alternative any day.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Natsu said lightly, in response to her earlier question. "I'm not sure you'd be able to make it back on your own anyway, and Erza would kill me if I left you to die in the woods." His tone was casual, unconcerned, but there was a edge to it, one that Lucy was having a hard time identifying, and the way his muscles had clenched at the mention of leaving her to die in the forest had given her a fluttery feeling in her chest.
Their progress through the forest was slow, Natsu trudging along diligently while being careful not to trip over anything, lest he fall and end up injuring both of them. It had grown even darker, and Lucy found herself wondering how he was managing to see the ground without a source of light when she could barely see ten feet in front of them. She would have asked him, but he seemed lost in his own thoughts and she was quite enjoying the silence anyway.
She leaned against him, lifting her head up and watching the trees go past. The piggyback was surprisingly comfy and, despite the painful throbbing of her ankle, she was actually quite enjoying herself. Her eyelids were beginning to grow heavy, and she found herself beginning to fall asleep.
Lucy yawned, snuggling closer to the Natsu's back and resting her head against the bottom of his neck. She closed her eyes and smiled, stifling yet another yawn. When had she gotten so tired?
For a while she resisted the urge to sleep, but the sooting rocking that came with Natsu's long strides combined with the snugness of his jacket and the heat of his body pressed against hers was making it hard to do so. She borrows deeper into his back, curling round him even tighter and absorbing even more of his warmth.
So... tired...
Maybe she could just nap for a couple of minutes.
And as Lucy Heartfilia gave up and fell into her slumber, her last conscious thought was that maybe camping wasn't so bad after all.
.
Natsu smiled to himself, listening to Lucy's adorable little snores and picturing what her face must look like right now. She had fallen asleep about ten minutes ago and, while he was obviously going to tease her mercilessly about this later, for that moment he was quite content to let her sleep. In fact, he had slowed his walking pace considerably in the hopes of prolonging the journey back and, despite the ache in his arms, he would have carried her around like this for the rest of his life if he could.
His smile widened as she murmured something in her sleep, squirming slightly and nuzzling closer to him.
She was going to kill him later, he mused, for teasing her or not waking her up or some other far fetched reason that they both knew was total bullshit, but it was totally worth it.
After all, she looked so cute when she was mad.
Humming quietly to himself, Natsu listened to the breathing of the girl he loved against his neck, hitching her up his back slightly and sighing to himself.
Yup, no matter how much she got angry at him, no matter how much she cursed and shouted and stomped her foot like a child, moments like this were always worth it.
And as far as Natsu Dragneel was concerned, they always would be.
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AN: I love camping, so don't think Lucy's views in this reflect mine at all
