YOU ARE ALL THE BEST AND I JUST CAN'T!

XOXOX

"So how was the sleepover?" Lucy messaged the group chat when she awoke the next morning.

"What sleepover?" Erza inquired.

Oh right…Erza wasn't up.

"Everyone was up last night voice chatting," Lucy explained, bringing her laptop to her bed so that she could lay down on her stomach in front of it, "so they called it a sleepover."

"Really?" Erza wrote. "That sounds like fun."

"Yeah, it was pretty fun," Lucy replied, though she wasn't on for that long…

"And it also sounds very irresponsible. Sleep is important," Erza had continued typing.

Lucy sweated, "True."

"That's funny coming from you, Lucy," Natsu suddenly typed.

Minor shock that Natsu was online flooded into her and then out of her as a vein throbbed on her forehead, "What's that supposed to be mean?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Erza asked as well.

"Lucy kept me up all night," he simply messaged.

"DID NOT!" she pounded each key.

"Did too!" he typed back.

"Lucy," Erza wrote. "That's not very nice."

"HAH! YEAH, LUCY!" Natsu mocked. "NOT VERY NICE!"

"BUT I DIDN'T!" her face warmed up. "HE'S THE ONE WHO KEPT ME UP!"

"Pshh, don't believe her, Erza," he typed. "Lucy falls asleep on me all the time, like I could possibly keep her up."

"BUT YOU DID BECAUSE YOU SENT ME THAT VERY ROMANTIC MESSAGE!"

"Romanic message?" Erza questioned.

"IT WASN'T ROMANTIC AT ALL!" he wrote. "WHY WOULD I EVEN SEND YOU A ROMANTIC MESSAGE?!"

"Like I would know!" a smile grew on her cheeks. She loved this. The random teasing that will literally get either of them nowhere.

"You two are certainly interesting," Erza messaged. It was the last thing Lucy read before she got ready for school.

XOXOX

After finishing all her homework, Lucy decided to start her first multichapter fic.

She had the plot and everything all planned out. It was going to be a Haru x Elie alternate universe, where they met through a prank text, but somehow Lucy ended up on Tumblr.

"Do you have any hidden talents?!" someone asked HopelesslyInLoveWithLucy.

Lucy grinned, biting on her bottom lip.

She absolutely loved his new URL.

Natsu had replied to the ask, "I can eat and breath fire :D."

"No way," Lucy said aloud and then she commented on it, "Prove it."

Instead of replying on Tumblr, he messaged her on Skype, "Alright."

She was then sent a video chat request.

Her heart raced like it always did when she was about to see him. Her hands trembled slightly as she picked up her phone to look herself over on the camera before accepting his request.

"Yo, Lucy!" he cheerfully smiled, his pink hair was extra spikey today. She couldn't help but wonder if Natsu noticed the little things about her; such as her different hair styles? Like today she had a lock of hair tied up on the side of her head.

"Hi," she smiled back.

"You ready to see a real dragon?" he asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

She giggled and rolled her eyes, "Of course."

"Gimme a sec," he said as his body covered the webcam. "Just need to bring my laptop outside 'cuz I'm not allowed to do fire tricks inside the house."

"Well obviously," Lucy laughed as she watched his chest since she had nothing better to look while he walked with the laptop. He was wearing a plain, navy blue tee-shirt that crinkled with each step.

She could hear a sliding door and then the laptop was turned around, revealing a lush, green yard.

It was spacious, with nicely mowed grass and pretty hedges. She could also see a little bit of what was an in-ground pool.

"Alright," he walked in front of the webcam, capturing her attention.

He was holding two torches in one hand and a lighter in the other and a container. He placed them on the ground and then he pulled off his shirt, revealing his nicely toned body.

Lucy sucked in a breath just as he sent a scowl at her with his pointer finger up wagging in the air, "Don't you dare call me a stripper. I'm only takin' my shirt off as a precautionary!"

With an amused smile, she said, "I wasn't going to say anything."

"Good," he said with a tone of approval. "Okay so first I'm gonna eat fire." He bent down and grabbed a torch and she watched as he dipped it into the container. Then he grabbed his lighter.

She raised a brow, "Can't wait."

He lit the torch and a glorious blaze of embers roared. He held it at arm's length as he tucked the lighter into the pocket of his shorts.

"Ready to be amazed?" He grinned, showing off his pointy fangs.

"Actually, I'm ready to call for help," she winked.

"Oi!" he glared, swaying the torch all around, she almost screamed when the flame almost licked his face, "Have some faith in me!"

"Sorry!" she blushed.

He held out his right hand with his palm facing upwards and he lightly tapped it with the flame of the torch.

Lucy gasped, "What are you…"

He held the flame on his palm while grinning at her through the screen.

She tried to speak, but no words would come out as she stared in wonder at the dazzling flame.

He, then, closed his fist, snuffing out the fire, "Cool, right?" He put out the flame on the torch as well.

All she could do is awe at him.

"Lucy?" he blinked at the screen. "You okay?"

"How-How were you able to do that?"

"Do what?" he cocked his head to the side as he lit a new flame, "You mean this?" he tapped the fire to his palm again, and just like last time, he was holding the flame as though it were nothing.

"THAT!" she exclaimed, jumping out of her seat, just as her heart jumped out of her chest.

He closed his fist again, putting out the flame and shot her a lazy grin, "That's nothin'." He put the flame out on the torch again and then relit it. "Check this out!"

He stuck his tongue—which was pretty long—all the way out.

She placed a hand over her mouth and let out a muffled, "You're not going to—"

He touched the torch to his tongue.

"Oh my God," she ogled at the screen with her hand still covering her mouth.

He removed the torch and a brilliant flame danced upon his tongue.

He looked genuinely pleased with himself.

His eyes were shining brighter than both the flame on his tongue and the flame on his torch combined. Lucy found that her heart was racing, not from the fear that he might really hurt himself, but from something else.

After what was only a couple of seconds, Natsu retracted his tongue, with the flame still burning brightly, back into his mouth.

Did he just…

She took a sharp inhale of breath. "You-You…!" she sputtered, unable to get the words out.

He opened his mouth wide, sticking his tongue back out with a wicked look in his eyes.

His mouth was not on fire…

"You ate fire…Oh my God."

"Pshhh," he waved her off. "That was also nothin'. Now it's time for my real trick." He wrapped his hand around the burning torch to put the flame out and then he dipped it into the container before he lit it back on fire.

"What else could you possibly…OH MY GOD!"

He stuck the fiery torch into his mouth and closed his lips around it, looking as though he was drinking it in and then he pulled the torch out.

It was no longer on fire.

"You are the real life Haru…" was the only thing she could say.

"I know," he beamed, putting the torch out again and he relit it, "What do you think of this trick?" He titled his head all the way back and dipped the blazing torch into his mouth and then pulled it out slowly with it still lit. His mouth was still open and she watched as a flame blew out of it, making him look like a human candle.

"Whoaa," she gaped. "That's so cool."

He picked up his second torch and dipped into the weird container that must be fuel or something. He tapped his tongue with it and then he tapped it with the flaming torch.

His tongue was on fire, once again, and with the torch that wasn't already on fire, he taped it.

Lucy watched in amazement as the flame transferred from his tongue over to the torch.

He put out both flames and then asked, "Ready to see some fire breathing?"

"Yeah!" a huge grin was plastered on her cheeks.

He grinned back, "Yosh! Here we go!" He picked up the container he had been dipping his torches in and poured it into his mouth.

Then he lit his torch on fire and angled it close to his lips.

Natsu, then, spit the liquid, that was in his mouth, at the lit flame and a roar of fire blazed out from his mouth like Haru's Karyū no Hōkō.

And then he did again, and again, and again, until no more fuel was in his mouth.

"You're amazing," she said with a dumb smile on her face.

He smiled back at her in response and she noticed that his cheeks had flushed up and for some reason, she didn't think that it was from the heat of the flames.

He went back to placing the fire on his hand and then he placed it on his arm, making him look like a human torch.

"Natsu," she dreamily sighed while holding her head up with her palms. His head snapped to the screen as she praised him again, "You really are amazing."

The look he was giving her…It was something she had never seen before. His expression was completely unreadable and his eyes were looking at her with this intense wonder.

Her cheeks flushed up.

Had she said something bad?

And that's when something went wrong.

Suddenly his face twisted up and he let out a loud, "AHH FUCK!"

He had forgotten his arm was on fire.

He dropped his lit torch and flailed his arm all over.

The grass was now burning up thanks to the torch. "SHIT!" He dove for the ground, throwing his body over the flame. He snuffed it out and then he rolled around, trying to put his arm out.

"Natsu!" Lucy was horrified as she watched the pink hair boy tumble around in agony, "Should I call for help?!"

"No!" he yelled. "I'm—SHIT—fine!"

Her face turned skeptical, "You sure?"

He rolled onto his back, his arm was no longer on fire. It looked terribly injured as he grasped it, "Yeah, totally—FUCK—fine! Doesn't even—GAHH—hurt—ARGHH—one bit!"

He rolled onto his stomach and buried his face into his grass and let out a muffled scream.

"Good thing…it's only…my right…arm…" he grunted out a laugh.

She blinked, "You're a lefty?"

"Nope," he shot her a smile before he threw his face back into the grass to continue stifling his screams.

And to both Lucy and Natsu's surprise, she broke out laughing.

The whole thing was ridiculous.

He stood up onto his knees, still gripping his burnt arm. He looked at her and with gritted teeth, he asked, "What's so funny?"

"You—You…set…your arm…on fire!" tears blurred her vision.

He buried his mouth into his elbow bend and let out another agonizing cry before growling, "Lucy, I think—AHH—you're a sadist."

"Am not!" she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"…all your fault…" she could just barely hear him mutter as he crawled towards the laptop.

"Should I call for help?" she asked as concern once again washed over her.

"Nahh, this is nothin'," he smiled through the pain. "Gonna go shower…to wash away…the smell of my burnt flesh."

And then the video chat ended.

XOXOX

A couple of hours went by and Natsu was still missing.

Her stomach churned for the worse…

So Lucy let the the group chat distract her from her worrying.

They were all busy teasing Gray about Juvia for that she made a Follow Forever post and the only person on it was Gray.

She even made her banner one of Gray's shirtless selfies.

Gray, of course, was flipping out and Mira kept squealing, Gruvia.

And finally Natsu was online.

Lucy let out a breath that she didn't realize she had been holding.

And surprising herself, she sent him a video chat request.

"Do we really have to video chat right now?" he asked the second the screen loaded. His hair was no longer as spiked up like it had been earlier, for that now he had a full set of bangs.

She frowned at his words, "I was worried about you…"

"I'm fine. See?" he shot her a cheeky grin, holding up his bandaged arm. "The burns weren't so bad."

She felt so relieved. She would have never forgave herself if something severally bad had happened to him because he was showing her something…

"So how were you able to do that with fire?" Lucy inquired. "You know, without getting burned...well until the incident happened..."

"Temperature lag," he said. "The longer the fire burns, the hotter it gets, so for those few seconds I can hold it without it really burning me."

"You're crazy," she shook her head.

"I know," he boasted.

"Now you match Haru," she giggled.

"Hmm?" he tilted his head to the side.

"His right arm is bandaged," she explained, "and now your right arm is bandaged."

His face immensely brightened, "You're right! YOSH! NOW I HAVE THE ULTIMATE COSPLAY FOR CON!"

And Lucy's face fell as it always did when Comic Con is bright up.

His face scrunched up, "What's with the weird face?"

"Don't call my face weird," she glowered, sinking back into her chair.

"Is this about Comic Con?" he asked.

"No," she averted her gaze from the screen.

"It's not that big of deal that you can't go," he said gently. "'Sides, who wants to go some big nerd gathering anyways?"

Me, she thought as her lips quivered.

Natsu's slanted eyes bugged, "Gahh don't make that face!"

"Sorry," she whimpered.

"Don't apologize!" he rubbed his forehead with his left hand. "You're makin' me feel bad!"

"Sorry," she said again on reflex.

"STOPPP!" he groaned, covering his eyes with his good arm. "LUCYY, YOU'RE MAKIN' IT HARD TO BE ANNOYED AT YOU!"

That snapped her out of her sadness, "Why are you annoyed at me?"

He pouted, looking away from the screen with his left arm rubbing the back of his neck, "'Cuz you're the reason my arm was set on fire."

"How am I the reason?!" she exclaimed, no longer sad, but livid, "I didn't do anything!"

"You…" a blush colored his cheeks, "distracted me…"

Her heart fluttered, "Did not."

"Did too!" he scowled. "If you weren't looking at me with that cu—YOU'RE ANNOYING AND I WANNA PICK A FIGHT WITH THAT ICY BASTARD SO I'LL TALK TO YOU IN THE GROUP CHAT."

And the video chat ended.

Lucy awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, "I think he's the annoying one, right, Plue?" she glanced down at the iguana's cage. She placed her hand to her heart, "Making my heart race like this…"

XOXOX

*mentally scolds myself* adaskfsdk I stayed up late again to write this…

But you cuties are worth the lack of sleep :'D

Thanks for reading!

Please don't actually try to play with fire like this!

Hope you all have a lovely day!