075 : No Thank You

Lucy shivered as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms and then up and down her toned legs as to try and warm them up again before sitting down on the slightly damp hill.

"How are you cold Lucy? The sun only went down an hour ago!" Natsu laughed as he plopped down next to her on the grassy hill, eyes seeming to be alight even though it was in the middle of the dark.

The blond moved her eyes from her chicken skin to glare at his face, the moonlight helping her at least see his silouette to identify where he was.

"Well it wasn't exactly MY idea to go star seeing like YOU wanted," she growled as she continued trying to warm herself up.

"Since you got lost on the mission and didn't know where to go, I thought it might be helpful for you so next time it happens you don't freak out," Natsu snorted as he crossed his arms over his partially bare chest.

"And you're such an amazing star reader I'm sure."

"Igneel taught me LOTS of things."

Lucy sighed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, before asking him to start then. As he showed her the basics and how they moved, she found that he was actually very knowledgeable about this subject and that no, maybe he wasn't as dumb as she thought he was. But the problem was as they stayed sitting on their place by the bank, it seemed to get cooler every minute to the summoner. Soon her skin wasn't only on end but her open toes began to feel numb.

Yet as she watched her breath fog up in front of her, she looked over and saw that Natsu looked perfectly comfortable. He seemed to be nice and toasty warm. For a second, she had the urge to go right to his side and get some of that radiating warmth that she could feel even from their two foot space between them, yet she resisted. Sure, they were really good friends and had known each other for a while now, but hugging each other on a moonlight night while looking at the stars didn't seem like a really good option. Especially if someone they knew saw them.

But as her eyes moved from his energetic face that was still explaining things Igneel taught him, she noticed that famous silver scarf that was wrapped around his neck.

"Natsu, I'm cold. Give me your scarf," she managed to hold off her clacking teeth and not stutter. Sure it was demanding, but she was too cold to care for manners at the moment as she now couldn't feel some of her fingers and her cheeks, her feet were long gone.

"Hey! This is a very special thing from Igneel and I'm not about to give it away or loose it anytime soon!" He defended as he turned his head from the sky to Lucy's pale face.

"You didn't seem so interested in it when you were strung out on that aetherion you ate at Paradise Tower. You literally walked away without a care," Lucy pointed out.

"And then you washed it and it smelled girly for MONTHS."

"And I found you in my bed. I wonder which one is worse...?" She joked with a breath of laughter as she moved the short distance between them to knock shoulders.

"Ok, point taken." Natsu scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest, clearly annoyed.

"Anyway, scarf please?" Lucy requested gentler this time, with a pleading undertone.

"Fine, fine," he sighed as he unwound it from his neck to give to her.

All too greedily, she took the material and wound it around her neck, finding it long enough to even wrap around her shoulders and for the ends to wrap around her hands. She sighed as she was lost in the lingering warmth the scarf still held from Natsu.

"So Happy told me Igneel gave this to you?"

"Yeah, it was what he kept me warm with when I first started staying with him."

"Hm..." Lucy hummed, only half listening to his statement as she was loving the warm feeling she was getting from the silver thing.

"It's actually his scales, isn't that hot?"

Lucy blinked her hazel eyes. Did he just say...

"It's really straight from his body. That's why it can retain heat in so much."

"So he just...took this off of himself?"

"Pretty much. He just shed his skin."

Lucy gagged.

"Ya know, like snakes do."

Quickly unwinding the 'scales' from around her, Lucy shoved the scarf back at Natsu.

"Warm already?" He asked with a slight quirk of his head as he wound it back around himself.

"Sure," Lucy sniffed, not caring if her entire body went blue. She was NOT going to wear a dragon's skin.

A/N: Inspired by uniFsky's reveiw from chap 18, but can also be seen as a spin-off/continuation of the ending from chap 4. Because, like the rocket scientist I am, I forgot I had written this last month XD

IMPORTANT! I just made a community called NatsuXLucy : Burning Up and if you're interested in being staff or if you have stories to contribute, I'd love you a LOT if you sent me a message or tell me in your review :) I really hope you all help me cause I don't think I can do a whole community thingy by myself :dies: