Boundaries

This takes place, like, directly after the magic games and when everyone arrives back home. A little jealousy and touchy feelings.

Natsu strutted down the street with the same confident walk he always had, his arms crossed behind his head as he stared up at the night sky. But despite the confident steps he was taking, most people that were still out on the streets of Magnolia were deducing that the Dragon Slayer had been drinking. They were correct. But he wasn't drunk, he really couldn't get drunk. His magic always burnt the alcohol out of his system before he became out of control, but that didn't mean that he didn't get a little loopy for the first couple minutes of drinking out of his fire whisky bottle.

When they got back from the Magic Games, their Guild being restored by the amazing townspeople of Magnolia, a large party had been thrown in celebration. Sure, the ball had been fun, but now that they were in the solitude of their own home, the walls of their Guild, they could party however they wanted without the royal guard on their tails about following rules inside the palace. And that party had been going on for at least a week, and still going strong. The other guilds, the ones they had befriended, from the Magic games had been invited over and they were partying along with the Fairies.

But Natsu didn't need alcohol to enjoy himself, sure, it was a nice way to boost his spirits higher than they already were, and it sent a nice warmth in his stomach, but it wasn't necessary. He had been drinking and eating nothing but fire whiskey and flaming chicken for the past five days, and he could use a break from all the dancing and fighting. And the one place he could actually find himself completely relaxing at was the small apartment of his best friend and partner, knowing that she'd have something in her kitchen that would appeal to him. Not to mention a place to sit down without worrying about having a chair accidentally smack into his face or spilling Cana's booze in an incident that involved chickens, guitars and a turkey boaster.

It's been a wild week.

Lucy had gone home earlier that day, having a slightly lower tolerance with alcohol and eccentric people than Natsu, so he knew that she was there. So he wasn't surprised to see the light of her bedroom on, but what had surprised him was the smell of another presence there in her apartment. A particular scent that he had grown accustom enough with to be able to identify who it belonged to.

What was that dragon slayer doing at his Luce's apartment?

Natsu narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he leapt up to the window, easily perching himself on the sill and peeking in through the glass. She wasn't in her bedroom, and the bathroom light wasn't on—plus, what would they be doing in the bathroom together—so they were either in the living room or the kitchen downstairs. Natsu pried the window open easily, Lucy never locking it—knowing that Natsu would just end up unintentionally breaking any locks on it when he wanted to get inside—and slinked into the room, closing it behind him silently. He could hear the voices now.

"I'm really sorry Sting-kun, but I'm really worn out from the party and I'm not really in the mood for company at the moment." He heard Lucy say, her calm, silky voice coming from down the steps. She did sound tired—but that should mean that she's irritable, why was she being so polite to this dragon slayer when she was so mean to him. She was politely asking Sting to leave, but she didn't even hesitate to try and physically kick him out? Natsu pouted, but then a smile grew on his face. In his mind, it only meant that she was more comfortable with showing her less attractive (though he found it to be rather intriguing and sorta adorable) personality show with him, while he could tell she was forcing herself to remain calm and formal with the white dragon slayer.

"I understand, Lucy-san, but I was just wondering if I could come in and take a rest. The walk to our hotel is really far, and I just wanted a place to rest my legs."

"But my apartment is farther from the Guild than your hotel, ya know." Lucy mumbled more to herself than the blonde haired man before sighing. "Well, I suppose for a few minutes."

Natsu decided now would be a good time to make himself known. So, he walloped down the stairs, tripped over his own foot and landed in an unceremonious heap at the foot of steps. Not exactly the grand opening he had had in mind, but it at least got their attention.

"Aaaand another Dragon Slayer in my house." Lucy sighed, pressing her palm against her forehead before standing straight with her hands on her hips. "Natsu, what are you doing here? I thought you would have stayed at the Guild at least until tomorrow."

"Trying to avoid Cana's wrath—you have any idea how many times we've made her spill her booze?" He chuckled, jumping back up to his feet and stretching his arms above his head.

"Why don't you go back to your own house?" she pouted at her friend, her attention completely diverted from the white dragon slayer that was standing silently behind her.

"Cause I'd be alone and I don't I have food." He said, strutting up to the blonde female and slinging an arm around her shoulders, leading her towards the kitchen and away from the other dragon slayer.

"Sting-kun, would you like, um, something to eat—or drink?" Lucy asked, sweat dropping as she managed to pull Natsu to a stop long enough to look back at the blonde haired male.

"Oh! No thank you, Lucy-san."

"You sure? Luce here makes a mean hot chocolate." Natsu said, looking over his shoulder also to give what Lucy saw as an innocent smile, but to Sting it was a feral warning grin.

"I'm sure, Natsu-san, I just came to—"

"Rest you legs, yeah, I can get that. Our guild sure knows how to party, eh?" this time, Natsu's grin was genuine, just thinking about his nakama put him in a better mood.

"I'm going to set up the tea kettle." Lucy said, stepping out from under Natsu's arm and towards the kitchen, deciding that she would need an energy boost if she was going to survive this visit conscious.

"Ewwww, tea? It's so blaaand. Hot chocolate!" Natsu whined, turning to face Lucy again with a begging face. "Choc-late, choc-late!" He chanted, pumping a fist in the air as if to hype Lucy up for the idea of the beverage.

Lucy sighed again, closing her eyes to try and block out the headache that was already beginning to form. Being shouted at and shouting right back at her friends to be able to be heard over the loud music that had been playing was taking its toll on her brain. Hot chocolate was good for an energy boost, but tea had a more soothing effect … hot chocolate it was, if just to keep Natsu content and not pester her about making it later.

Natsu '"Yosh"ed in triumph before turning back towards her living room, jumping over the back of her couch to lie down and making himself comfortable. Sting sat down on the chair on the other side of the coffee table, sitting back but trying not to make himself feel too comfortable, or to get used to the homey feeling that the small apartment gave off.

"So, you enjoyin' Magnolia?" Natsu asked, his onyx eyes completely focused on Sting. There was no more hostility in his essence, just mere curiosity, cautiousness and … friendliness.

"It's quite the town, Natsu-san. Everyone's really friendly here." Sting smiled back, happy to know that his idol didn't seem to harbor any hard feelings for him. He was just … curious about Lucy. She seemed like a very nice person and he felt a little guilty about what Minerva had done to her during the Games, he and most of the rest of his guild supporting the cowardly woman and laughing at the obviously kind girl's pain. And plus … she had a glow to her that attracted him to her. He knew he was trekking into dangerous territory, trying to get closer to the girl and possibly more, especially with how close she and Natsu were.

"Oh yeah, this is the place to be. Never a boring day around here."Natsu said, smiling up at the ceiling. "You have any idea where you're gonna settle down your new guild?" Natsu asked, not removing his stare from the ceiling, but it was obvious he was paying very close attention to the blonde man.

"Not yet, we're trying to find a place that everyone agrees on, but we haven't had much luck yet."

"Try Hargeon. Plenty of trouble down there and I'm positive they'd appreciate the security of a magic guild in their town." Natsu offered after a moment of thinking, his mind going back to the fact that he had met Lucy in the very town. It had been a little over a year, er, eight years(?), since he had taken her back to the guild, but it feels like it's been so much longer than that. They've all just been through so much in that small amount of time. It feels like he's almost known her his entire life, even though the very idea was ridiculous. They knew each other very well, but there were things about her that kept him guessing, and there were definitely things that she didn't know about him. He didn't share much about his past with anyone, but the little that he had shared … had been with her. But … he didn't really know much about her past, other than she had had an unhappy childhood thanks to her mother's death and her father cutting himself away from her—but everyone knew about that, since the Master had requested she share the reason Phantom was after her during that period of time. Other than that … he really didn't know much.

"… Natsu-san?" hearing his name brought him out of his thoughtful reverie, snapping his head back in surprise and looked over at Sting.

"Sorry, smelt the hot chocolate." Natsu said smoothly, coming up with the excuse on the spot—well, not entirely lying, since the smell of boiling chocolate was prominent in the air of the small apartment. It made the room smell even better, mixed in with Lucy's scent. Sure, chocolate mixed with peaches, vanilla and stardust would smell weird to any normal person, but Natsu tended to smell the better sides of things—unless it was Gray, then he purposely pointed out how he had the smell of a frozen/soggy banana peel.

"It does smell amazing in here."

Natsu glanced at the man out of the corner of his eye, half-mast in suspicion.

"What do ya smell?" Natsu asked, curious to see if she smelt any different to Sting than she did for Natsu. Sting seemed to take a moment, as if pondering over what was overwhelming his nose. The first thing he picked up on was Natsu's scent. It filled the room—no, the entire apartment, and was blended together with vanilla and peaches.

"Well, I definitely smell you—everywhere. And vanilla mixed with peaches. And of course the chocolate since she's making it now."

Natsu merely nodded. Good, cause that was exactly what Wendy and Gajeel had said when they named off what she smelt like. They couldn't pick up on the stardust like him—him already knowing what it was. It was her Magic.

It took Natsu a while to figure it out, why he couldn't ever really place the scent, but it was because it had just started off as this weak barely there smell, that progressively grew stronger and more noticeable. But apparently, no one else could pick up on it, other than him. He knew why, of course, but … he wasn't sure if he was ready to accept it yet. They were fine how they were now, they didn't need a drastic change like that yet … but he might have to move a little faster if this third generation Dragon Slayer was planning on sticking around.

"Hot chocolate's ready." Lucy said, breaking through Natsu's thoughts when she first entered the room. She carried a tray with three mugs on it, setting it down on the coffee table gently. "And Natsu, if you must put your feet on my couch, can you at least take off your shoes?" she pouted.

Natsu just grinned up at the girl, shifting himself into an upright position in one swift move, crossing his legs as he dropped his sandals onto the floor in front of him.

"This one's yours, Natsu." She said, picking up one of the mugs and holding it out to him. "I made it extra heated so you don't have to set my mugs on fire anymore."

"Ah, you know me well, Luce." He said with a laugh, inhaling the steam coming from the mug that was so thick, you couldn't even see through it.

"I accidentally made too much for two people, so I hope you don't mind that I poured you a mug, Sting-kun." Lucy said, turning to smile at the white dragon slayer with a fatigue-ridden expression. The poor girl looked like she was barely conscious.

"Thank you, Lucy-san!" Sting said, an exuberant smile spreading across his face as he accepted the cup from the girl. It wasn't very full, reaching a little over the halfway mark, but her story was proven true with the amount that was in her and Natsu's cups, filled almost to the rim. Even though hot chocolate wasn't his absolute favorite drink—since everyone else in their guild were atrocious cooks, he had tasted some pretty messed up beverages that couldn't even resemble what they were supposed to be—but it smelt too good to turn down.

Natsu had pretty much chugged his mug, the boiling chocolate the perfect temperature for him as it gargled in his tummy, satisfied with the flavor. He had been licking the inside of the cup, trying to get the left over residue of the chocolate powder when he noticed that Lucy was still standing, well, barely. She was swaying slightly on her feet, her eyes barely open as she stared down at the remaining mug on the tray.

"Why don't ya sit down, Lucy." He said, setting his mug down and shifted across the furniture to reach for the young celestial mage. He grabbed her hand and gently pulled her over to the couch, his touch jolting her from her semi-sleep slightly. The moment her rear hit the cushion, her eyes snapped shut, her mouth dropping open slightly as she sagged against Natsu. Natsu just chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a more comfortable position but leaving her against his side. "Looks like she's out for the night."

"I'll take that as my cue to leave. It was nice talking with you, Natsu-san. And thank Lucy-san for her hospitality when she wakes up." Sting said with a smile, waving at the pink haired fire mage before turning and walking to the door.

Once the door shut behind him, Natsu's shoulders relaxed, not even realizing that they had been tensed almost the entire visit. He looked at the girl that was leaning against him, a small amount of drool starting to dribble out of the corner of her mouth. Oh, it would be fun to see the reaction on her face when he tells that that.

Picking up her untouched mug, he stuck his finger into the chocolate and heated it up to a temperature closer to one he liked and chugged that one, too. She obviously wouldn't be missing it, since it didn't seem like she would be waking up for anything for a while. Licking his lips to rid himself of the mustache the chocolate had made, he looked back down at Lucy and smiled. Shifting his own body so she'd fall into his lap, he caught her shoulders in one arm and brought the other one to cup the back of her knees. Heaving her up against his chest, he stood to his feet and started to make his way up the stairs he had fallen down. Lucy weighed more than she usually did, but he would just put the blame on the fact that Mira had been shoving food into everyone's mouths ever since they got back from the Games. Natsu was positive that he'd have to get a job or work out if he wanted to stay fit—even though any fat that he managed to build up was usually burnt away within seconds.

When they reached the bedroom, Natsu shifted the blonde girl to one arm, while using his semi-free hand to pull back the covers on her bed. When that was done, he plopped the girl onto the mattress and tugged the covers up over her as far as they could go—Lucy really knew how to tuck the corners into the mattress.

She curled up into a small ball, a content murmur slipping past her lips as she hugged the blanket around her. Natsu chuckled with a smirk as he walked over to the lamp she had lit on her desk, flicking it off with a single finger. The room was engulfed into a comforting darkness, the only sound being Lucy's soft snoring. Natsu shed his jacket, tossing it over the back of her desk chair, leaving him only in his puffy, Arabian pants and scaly scarf. Stretching his arms above his head, he walked towards the side of the bed that Lucy didn't inhabit and slid effortlessly under the covers.

He twisted onto his side so he was facing Lucy, a content smile growing on his face. He always loved her bed, how soft and comfortable it was, but it was her scent that made it so tempting to sleep in it. Her scent just put his mind at ease, helped his body relax and put him to sleep faster. With a quiet hum, he tossed his arm over her waist and tugged her closer to him, making sure to grab onto the corner of the pillow to pull along so he'd have somewhere to put his head.

Sinking deeper into the mattress, Natsu rested his head on the plush pillow, his forehead pressed gently against the back of Lucy's head as he gripped her tightly. He knew he'd have hell to pay tomorrow, but all he wanted was to slip into a deep sleep with the girl he might-have-more-than-platonic-feelings-for right beside him. Taking a deep breath through his nose, inhaling the scent in her hair, he felt his eyes drift close, his mind fuzzing over as his consciousness slipped away.

-()-

The next day at the Guild, Natsu and Gajeel sat at one of the booths, glaring at one another and tossing back insults when they were supposed to be having a conversation about the dragons showing up after the Games.

Lucy and Levy were seated at one of the smaller tables in the middle of the large room, chatting eccentrically about the novels that the two of them had missed out on when they had vanished on Tenrou Island. Levy was farther ahead in the series than Lucy was, not even needing the special glasses since she was naturally a fast reader. And the two females were now talking about the plots, and the latest characters that had been added into the story line—both of them agreeing that the prince was a giant jerk for just running into the castle and trying to dismember the dragon that had been guarding the treasure.

"Lucy-san! Levy-san!" they both heard, turning in their seats to face the doors of the Guild where Sting and Rogue stood. Though they obviously meant no harm to anyone in the Guild, both the girls couldn't help but tense the slightest bit.

"A-ah, hello Sting-kun, Rogue-san." Lucy waved awkwardly, Levy also waving slightly hesitantly as the two approached their table at an alarmingly speedy pace. They didn't mind the Dragon Slayers' company, but it's been two weeks since the big party had came to an end and the Saber Tooth Guild had yet to leave magnolia. And to be completely honest, the constant presence of the twin dragons was beginning to grate on the two bookworms' nerves. And it didn't help that their own dragons hadn't really been around as of late because the Master had been sending them on missions to help them coordinate better.

"Hey, shorty, I need you to get something for me." Gajeel's voice suddenly came from behind the small blue haired Fairy, making the poor girl jump.

"G-Gajeel! Uh, what is it?" she asked, turning slightly to face the towering black haired iron dragon.

"I'll show you, just c'mon. You're puniness will come in handy." He said, suddenly grabbing onto her tiny hand and tugging her off of the bench and away from the table. Lucy silently cursed Gajeel for taking her away, leaving her alone with the two slayers. She turned to look up at the two of them, Sting about to say something but was promptly cut off by none other than the fire dragon himself.

"Luuuucccyyy~" he sang, throwing his arm over her shoulders and hugging her to his side almost too tightly. "How 'bout we go get some ice cream? I'm in the mood for some." Natsu said with a wide grin towards the girl.

"A-actually …" the two best friends looked up at the blonde dragon slayer, finding him looking slightly hesitant at first, before the will ironed in his eyes. "I was about to ask Lucy-san out to some coffee." He said, deciding that he would have to make his intentions clear if he wanted things to start to get in motion.

There was a tense silence between them, Rogue having the sense to slowly back out of the group and possibly find a quite place to rest. The smile that had been present on Natsu's face dropped within a heartbeat, but was quickly put back up before anyone else could notice.

"Yo, Sting. Remember how I said we should fight again? Why not now, huh? We both obviously have some free time." He said with a feral smile, stepping away and in front of Lucy to stand before Sting, not at all intimidated with the fact that he was a bit taller by a few inches.

"Oh, uh, I guess—"

"Great! Let's go!"

"Natsu! Try not to destroy the city! They were nice enough to rebuild our guild for us!" Lucy called after the two boys—one of which was more or less being dragged by the back of the neck. Knowing that her words were mostly ignored, she turned back to face forward with a sigh. "I hope Natsu can contain himself a little. I'd rather we didn't have to deal with Guild difficulties before we go get ice cream." She smiled to herself slightly, before looking over to see Levy smacking Gajeel's arm with a burning red face.

Gahhhhhh, again, liked how it started, had a vague idea how to end it, but it just didn't turn out how I really wanted it to. And honestly, I need to get some of these one shots out of my system so I can focus on Exceedingly Adorable without all these different story plots smacking around in my head.