Natsu began to pour shots and explained the game quickly to Lucy. "For every discard you want to make, you gotta do a shot. We play for points - first person to five wins. Each round is worth a point, the strongest hand winning after two sets of discards. Who ever wins the hand gets to make a rule that's binding for the rest of the game, like saying two's are wild. All other poker rules apply. Easy, huh?"

Lucy sat rubbing her thighs together as she took the words Natsu had just spoken with innocence and began imagining what she'd do to Natsu with some cord binding. She was shaken back to herself after Natsu leaned forward and thrust his face into hers and snuffled. Lucy pulled back, locking eyes with Natsu and answered, "Sounds easy enough."

He grinned after settling into his seat and shuffled the cards. "You still gotta tell me what you want in exchange for the bedtime story. We should have a forfeit for the game too!"

Your hot naked body - spread eagled on my bed, at my mercy. Lucy licked her lips, sucked back into her bondage fantasy. It took Natsu snapping his fingers in her face to pull back from her happy place. "Sorry! Just considering my options!"

A look of almost animal cunning crossed Natsu's face. It seemed every time Lucy got lost in thought, her alluring scent would intensify. He savoured the warmth permeating his nerves, the odd tingles that raced with the pulses of blood in his veins. Natsu had an understanding of adult matters, a haphazard collection of lessons gleaned from Makarov, Gildarts, Macao and Wakaba. Perhaps not the best and brightest of models to glean sex education from - but, they were men in fact who had had intimate physical contact with assorted females. (And in Gildarts' case, multiple serial trysts with an ungodly large number of women.)

Natsu had a biased view of human copulation, courtesy of his male guild mates. The slayer also had a dragon's view of mating; one special person who would become his and his alone. A strong female who would allow him to join her nest, prove to her his strength, and take control and instigate the mating process. Dragons had the right of this messy and confusing process. The female surely should and would tell their prospective mate when and where they would consummate their relationship.

Snippets of conflicting advice ran through Natsu's head; falling back on his instincts, he decided to follow Lucy's lead and respond to her overtures when she finally decided she would claim him. With another guileless grin, Natsu dealt out the first hand of the card game.

Levy rolled the words Gajeel had just spoken around in her head, How bad do you want to know? His touch on her elbow was embarrassingly arousing. The petite bluenette considered breaking Gajeel's hold on her arm, but the skin on skin contact was too enjoyable. "I guess that depends on what sort of quid pro quo you have in mind, Gajeel." Levy was proud to note her voice didn't shake or waver.

Deciding two could play, Levy turned to look up into her companion's eyes. "I confess, I don't even know, what could you want from me?"

The slayer's grin widened even more at Levy's riposte. "Let's get out of here and feed you supper. We can have a loooooong chat about what I want."

Only half way through the movie, Gray was in a state of arousal. Juvia kept burrowing into his side, clutching his arm and inadvertently rubbing her breasts on his arm. She kept making cute whimpers that just tugged at his heart strings. After another main character got bludgeoned on screen, Juvia pressed her face into Gray's shoulder and moaned piteously. The ice mage paused the movie. "Juvia, are you okay?"

"Juvia will be fine once the movie is over." Her words were barely understandable, seeing as she was face planting herself against his body. "Juvia is really having a good time, Gray-sama."

With a sigh, Gray turned the lamp on and disentangled himself from Juvia. "You can be honest, you don't like horror movies. We don't have to finish watching it."

The water mage pulled away slightly and hugged herself, rubbing her upper arms and then dropped them on her knees. "Perhaps Juvia could learn to like scary movies." She gave a hesitant smile to Gray, ducking her head and blushing when he smiled back.

"Let's do something else. At the restaurant you said I'd have to try to make you melt. Are you ready to train some more?" Gray allowed some of his wolfish feelings to come out in his grin. He moved himself on the couch so he was facing Juvia more and trapped her hand under his. Juvia trembled lightly but remained solid.

"You okay?" Next, he slid his fingers over the delicate skin of her wrist and skimmed it over her sleeve clad arm. Juvia was staring at Gray's hand as it traversed up and up and gently ghosted to a stop over her collar bones. She couldn't believe Gray was touching her and giving every appearance of enjoying it.

Bemused with focused look in Gray's eyes, Juvia sat still and tried to commit to memory the myriad sensations she was feeling. Five heart beats later, his fingers were on the move again, teasing Juvia's lips. Her cheeks flared with pink, and Gray's cocky smile was growing.

He leaned closer, inch by inch. Gray skimmed his hand over Juvia's cheek, marvelling at the softness of her skin. He searched her eyes, trying to discern any of her thoughts. Her lashes fluttered down.

"Don't hide from me."

Juvia pulled back the slightest amount and that was all it took for Gray to act impulsively. He placed his other hand on her upper thigh. "What are you going to do?'

"Juvia is strong. Juvia will remain solid!"

"And if I do this?" Gray moved his hand on her thigh higher.

"J-juvia will remain solid."

Slowly, his hand moved to the slit in her dress and made contact with bare skin. He rubbed circles into her flesh as she fought valiantly to not liquefy. Her eyes popped back open to see Gray staring blankly, seemingly lost in thought.

"Luce! Wasn't this the best card game ever?" Natsu grinned drunkenly. "It was fun, right?"

"You're only saying that because you won," Lucy grimaced. "I can't believe my streak of luck had to run out after you made your last wild rule. Or am I so lucky, that you won and get your forfeit?"

"I don't know Luce, all I know is you gotta read me two bedtime stories. I'd like to know what you want in return." Natsu capped the sake and started collecting the cards into a neat pile. "When I think about it, this coupling thing seems kinda hard and easy at the same time."

Lucy burst out laughing and tried very hard to rein in her guffaws. "Natsu, coupling works best when it's hard." She went beet red and tears ran down her cheeks. "You really gotta stop with the 'coupling' word, it makes me think wrong things."

Abandoning the cards, Natsu took another strong inhalation. "But we have to practice coupling! We're the best partners and I don't wanna lose to Gray or Gajeel. I'm taking this seriously. You need to tell me what you want from me."

Lucy picked up the last of her shot glasses and tipped back the remnants of the sake. She licked her lips and nodded resolutely. Natsu merely watched her with a mild questioning look on his adorable face. Aware the drink was loosening her inhibitions, Lucy tried again to squash her desires. Looking at the slayer in his open vest and low slung pants was proving too much a distraction.

"You sure you want to know what I want?" Lucy was almost as surprised as Natsu at the emergence of these belligerent words. "Because I don't think you're ready to hear it."

Natsu took another deep breath, inhaling Lucy's intoxicating scent and hissing the breath out from his mouth. "I'm ready."

"Well, come over here and sit beside me." Lucy patted the sofa cushion. "That's if you want to be able to beat Gray and Gajeel."

Levy was in a hyper state of excitement. She'd finally started to flirt with Gajeel in the manner she'd always wished to, and it seemed he was reciprocating. Right now they were walking towards some exclusive restaurant and Gajeel was going to give her the inside scoop on the art they'd examined in exchange for some quid pro quo Levy was only too anxious to allow. "Gajeel, where is this restaurant? We're heading into a residential neighbourhood."

The slayer squeezed Levy's hand and blushed mildly. "I never said it was a restaurant, did I? I mentioned the chef took requests and it was exclusive." Gajeel started walking a little faster, forcing Levy to almost trot to keep up. "We can train in the comfort of my house just as well as in a restaurant."

Levy smirked, "We can train all night long if that's what you want."

Gray wasn't even aware he was breathing heavy. He still had one hand on Juvia's upper thigh and the other gently touching her cheek. His eyes were intensely focused on hers. His calloused fingers trailed back to Juvia's lips. "What are you going to do?"

A deep sigh was forced from the water mage. "Juvia is strong. Juvia will not melt!"

The ice mage leaned closer, the same imp of impropriety that decided Gray should place his hand on the bare skin of Juvia's upper thigh also determined he should invade her personal space. "I think I can get you to melt." His voice was husky and made Juvia weak in the knees.

"Juvia is p-prepared, Gray-sama!"

Even in his slightly drunken state, Natsu moved to the couch full of animal grace and brash assurance. Lucy's mouth dried up. Her stomach felt tied in knots and her inner sultry devil was cart-wheeling and planning the debauchery of her partner. Lucy couldn't help but let out a pleased sigh as Natsu's heat enveloped her.

"Now what?" Natsu looked expectantly at his best friend. "We should do something from your first list. You had an awful lot of things on it."

"Huh?" Lucy wasn't sure if the alcohol she'd consumed had made her crazy drunk or if the unrelenting lust storms had stolen her brains. "You want to do something from my first list? You have no idea what I wrote down, do you?" She slid her hand into her pocket and felt for the folded paper, relaxing as soon as she felt the edges.

"Of course I don't! But you always have good ideas, so why not?" Natsu squirmed a little closer to Lucy. "I'm doing my best to couple with you - so in the interests of 'honest communication', I think I need to know what sorts of things couples do." He grinned and quickly burrowed his hand into Lucy's pocket. He ignored her shrieks and held it triumphantly aloft.

"Natsu! Give it back!" Lucy was so overcome with mortification she started trying to climb his torso in order to reach her paper. Natsu stood up with Lucy clinging to him and tried to shake her off. Still being a bit drunk, he misjudged his ability to balance and fell backwards.

Natsu grunted as the air in his lungs was knocked out by Lucy landing solidly on his body and also because her bountiful chest was making friends with his face. Lucy took this opportunity to snatch and crumple her paper into a ball, compressing it savagely. "Why did you do that?!" She pushed herself up and off his face as she realized Natsu wasn't moving or yelling back at her. "Are you okay?"

"M'okay Luce."

"You don't sound so okay." Lucy flushed a deeper red as she realized she had her knees on either side of his hips now.

"If you wanted to play rough, you coulda said so." Natsu grinned up at the blonde.

"No, I don't want to play rough. I just don't want to share what's on my list. It's personal." Lucy pouted and began to get up off Natsu.

The slayer frowned, confused. "Isn't all coupling personal?"

Falling back on anger and misdirection, Lucy let her words get louder. "Would you stop using that phrase? I need a bath and then some sleep. For trying to steal my list, only one bedtime story."

"Aw Luce!" Natsu pushed himself upright and made his sad face. "But I won the card game."

Lucy shoved the balled up list back into her pocket and glared at Natsu. "You're lucky I'm not kicking you out. Try not to burn down my apartment while I bathe."

"Okay," Natsu muttered to Lucy's back. He got up from the floor and made tracks for Lucy's bedroom. He stood in front of her bookcase and searched for her book of bedtime stories. Finding it fairly easily, he put it down on her bedside table. Natsu stripped off his vest and neatly folded his scarf, placing it on Lucy's dresser.

About to turn around and hop into bed, the open edge of her top drawer caught his attention. The merest scrap of black lace was peeking out. Natsu concentrated, he could hear splashing from the bathroom, the neighbours' rhythmic squeaky bed (and accompanying heavy breathing), a toddler wailing for his binky and nothing much else. Before he could talk himself out of it, Natsu began exploring Lucy's collection of panties. Ten minutes later, he'd catalogued his favourites and ranked each pair in terms of easiest to remove.

Becoming restless and more than a bit bored, Natsu wandered back over to Lucy's bed. He removed his pants and left them on top of his crumpled vest. Feeling suddenly tired, he crawled under the comforter and waited for his best friend to come to bed.

Lucy stomped into the bathroom, stripped off her clothes and dumped her most relaxing bubble bath into the tub as she ran the water. Grumbling to herself, she remembered the crumpled paper in her pocket and had to go through her clothes to find it. Now glowering, Lucy held her naughty wish list in one hand and rummaged through her medicine cabinet to find her matches.

After the paper was reduced to naught but ashes, Lucy slipped into her bath. She sat and tried to relax. Her imagination was busy conjuring lurid fantasies. Natsu wrapped in ribbons, mmmm - make that naked, on his stomach and his bare ass just waiting for a smack from my hand...let him roll us over and press his whole body against mine...

Lucy rose out of her fantasy as the water began to cool off. Sighing she dressed in her pyjamas and towelled her hair dry. Carrying a glass of water, Lucy headed to her bedroom, hoping that Natsu would already be asleep.

The blonde pushed the door open and sighed. Why must I be so tempted? Natsu had kicked the comforter off the bed. He was clad only in his boxers, his limbs sprawled across the whole of the bed.

"Natsu! Stop hogging the bed!" Lucy ordered. "Move or you'll regret it."

"Make me."