honey-scented letters. fruit yogurt. smoke and earth. only an office romance between these two could tie all these things together.

.

.

.

Kissing was never as good as it seemed. People never said it — about how there were no butterflies or sparks or any such thing, about how instead it was more of a smush of lips, sometimes wet, sometimes not — like a press of someone's arm against yours when cramped in a shuttle. It wasn't good or bad, just so extraordinarily plain that the entire act slipped your mind a few minutes later.

Perhaps this ideal was biased to Lucy. When she kissed people, she never had any expectations of anything better. For a while she did, when she was young and naive, without so much as a hug from a boy to set her straight. She learned soon that the lead up to the kiss was the real kiss. The fantasized kiss everyone imagined, with the pounding heart and tingling fingers. After that moment ended and the smushing of lips commenced, was the downfall. The utter dissatisfaction Lucy could taste.

She didn't know what she expected, but it wasn't that.

In all honesty, without any romantic exaggerations, this was how Lucy felt when she kissed Natsu for the first few times. However, she despite the plainness of the exchanges, she found herself pining for the short moments she had on the way to the communal kitchen.

The first time she was caught in the fridge, pressed up against the cold shelves that held yogurts and sodas with names written on them with sharpie marker. The next few times skipped around the room, the table, the back counters, behind the door when they had almost got caught by someone wanting a snack. Maybe she liked the intensity of an office romance, but in all reality, she knew that no one would give a shit if it came out that she and the mail guy from floor B2 were hooking up.

Lucy wasn't usually one to go looking for stupid things like this: random make out sessions, tripping over herself to check out a guy that hadn't even caught her eye, becoming so twisted up about him that she worked twice as hard through the day so she wouldn't be behind on work when it came for her 'snack break'. The fact that she's done this so many times that she knew how to manage her time around it.

Now, she felt it. When she kissed him, she felt the twists softly pinch her stomach. It was vague, barely even something in all truth, but it had her thinking that maybe there was such thing as a good kiss. One that had her knees quaking, her bones jelly. It boggled her that this was the man to have her thinking such irrational things.

To explain, it's best to back up.

There were certain things Lucy was good at: criticizing and writing. So, in her luck, she found herself a job where she could politely critique others and write at the same time: the Magnolia Tribune, where only the best newspaper authors came to write. Now Lucy wasn't in charge of anything quite yet, though it was a wish of hers. She was one bee in a giant hive, doing her part of editing articles she did not write, sitting at a desk for seven hours and perfecting her grammar skills.

Boredom was inevitable. Her friends were more like acquaintances, good for small talk but not much else. As naturally observant as she was, it was nearly impossible for her to not notice the new blood walking around the 8th floor. Granted his arrivals were rare, Lucy's bother to care even rarer, but as enough time passed, the more her curiosity grew.

Natsu was an eye catching man. No, in brutal honesties, he wasn't some incredibly good looking, sex god like how these stories go. He wasn't bad looking, but he wasn't a guy any girl would be crushing over either. Despite, he was unforgettable. What caught him most his looks was his hair—wild, frilly locks that spiked out like flames of a fire. The most unusual shade of bubblegum pink.

Lucy watched them, travelling up and down the aisles of cubicles, a smudge of pink in the corner of her eye. Sometimes it was pink, sometimes it was something else; someone else, another mail man that was even less noticeable than him. Every few times a week he delivered the floors mail, pushing along a little cart, butchering the pronunciation of every name he read. For the first couple times, she was Luigi Heartfilia, Magnolia Tribune, Editor.

"It's Lucy," she would always say, but he was gone and passed before the words could even fully pass her lips, swerving down a corner as a stack of letters lay on her desk.

She didn't even think he heard her those days, until he finally got it right.

"Lucy right?" his voice was scratchy, rough. But, deep and rich. Lucy didn't recognize it was him saying her name; she'd never heard it from him before. She looked to find him resting over the wall of the cubicle, a few letters in his hand.

"That'd be me," she said, pleasantly surprised. She took the letters and was offered a closed smile she wasn't sure was half-hearted, or simply crooked. He carried on without a beat, rounding that corner. At later exchanges, she began saying 'thank you's', just to have something to say other than 'that'd be me'.

Every thank you earned her a smile, that she learned was both half-hearted and crooked. He made friends easily around the office, and during the times she tried her best not to eavesdrop, she witnessed Natsu in a state she would probably never see: him joking around, laughing, grinning a grin that damn well split his face in half. Sometimes he skidded down the aisles like children did with carts at the grocery store.

She tried not to let him catch her laughing at him, although she wasn't really laughing at him—she was laughing with him, as the phrase went. Though that idea didn't really apply, because there was no 'with' with them. There was no Lucy with Natsu, because that didn't exist. They still exchanged three to four words a day, eight to ten weekly.

She didn't know when the urge came to see more of him. It was gradual, slow. It didn't hit her all at once, because he wasn't a 'hit all at once' kind of guy. As the days passed one would notice Lucy craning her neck more often, eyes scouring out of her cubicle, over walls, around the 8th floor. And the more times her eyes found Natsu, the more, she noticed, eye catching he became. It was as if every laugh that bubbled from him shifted a puzzle piece into place. It clicked with her, something new for every day.

His skin is nice. All tanned.

He has really nice teeth.

His smile is quite cute.

I wonder if he works out. He looks like it.

It didn't make any sense, she knew, but the more she saw of him, the more she saw of him.

Things progressed slowly, until they didn't. Lucy liked having her breaks in the communal kitchen. No one else really did. It was small and cramped and bleak, but Lucy liked any excuse she could have to leaving her cubicle. She knew that after passing out all the mail for the floor Natsu liked to hang around before moving on, but she was still surprised to find him stumbling across her in the break room.

Again, few words exchanged, but eventually they pushed past that stage. He would come in for something from the vending machine, and she would always have her yogurt brought from home, with the fruit bits she didn't like at the bottom. She always left first, throwing away the cup in the trash next to him while he waited for his drink to thunk to the bottom.

Small voiced goodbyes, and half-hearted smiles.

This became routine, strangely enough. Stumbling in on each other in the forgotten break room, small talks and nice chats. Advice over how to keep the vending from eating money, or the snacks from getting caught on the wire. Lucy leaving first and Natsu following suit not long after.

One day Lucy could tell he was getting tired of eating the same junk food everyday. He was stuck staring at the machine as if the contents would magically transform into something new. She fiddled around with the strawberries and blueberries at the bottom of her cup, knowing she wasn't going to eat it, but excusing some extra time to reconsider it.

"You might try the others, if nothing in there looks good," she suggested from behind him.

A glance. "Nah, this one has the best stuff. Already checked the other twelve floors."

That earned him a small laugh, one he didn't fail to notice. He sighed. "Only reason I stay up here so long."

Lucy had hoped it was because of her, but she was too dense at this moment in the story to realize that was the reason behind her disappointment.

"You should write a strongly worded letter," she said, attempting a joke. "Deliver it personally."

Natsu gave up trying to renew his interest in the vending and finally turned to her. His eyes were alight with humor, flattering Lucy. "Well," he replied, "delivering letters is a special skill of mine."

They shared silent smiles. After a moment Lucy got up, and passed him to go to the trashcan.

"You know, I never got why you always eat fruit yogurt, but not the fruit." he said to her.

Lucy glanced in her cup and then to him. "You want it? I didn't touch 'em."

Natsu shrugged and took the cup. He didn't mind using her spoon, instead of getting a new one in a basket next to him. Lucy didn't think much of that exchange afterwards, so she went back to work, still disappointed but unsure why.

In fact, she was too busy being disappointed to wonder why Natsu noticedshe never ate the fruit bits at the bottom of her cup.

It wasn't until a very slow day that Lucy began to feel bold. As much as she loved getting her payment checks during work, there were other letters in Natsu's stack that she didn't love as much. More specifically, the love letters of a too clingy ex-fling, who was blocked from everywhere online and so was now forced to confess his love via UPS. Usually Lucy didn't care, she knew it would blow over in a few weeks, but finding her boredom getting the best of her good judgement, she found herself pressing the B2 button in the elevator.

She wasn't going for Natsu purely, but she can't say if it were any other mail guy scheduled that day she would've even bothered with the memo.

After getting lost for a few moments, Lucy finally found herself tripping along stacks of mail and overflowing bins. The tribune really did get a lot of fanmail. With enough wandering, Lucy was asked by another mail worker just what she was looking for all the way down here.

"Natsu?" she asked. It dawned on her then that she had no idea what his last name was.

The old man's face crinkled with irritation. "He's outside," was all he said.

He brushed past her, his old arms pushing a mail bin across the room and Lucy followed his path to where some other men were shrugging on their coats. They pushed a steel door open to the snowfall in the back courtyard.

When Lucy came out, the first thing she noticed was the unpleasant smell of the trash bins a few feet away. The second was the dirty footprints left in the trace amounts of snow on the concrete, all patterned different types that led to the third thing: several pairs of eyes staring at her blatantly, Natsu among them.

Lucy couldn't feel more out of place if she tried. Apparently, outside was code for smoking break. Puffs of white clouded around the workers, and Lucy was sure it wasn't cold breaths from the temperature. People were huddled around the stairs down to ground level, sitting on mail baskets and broken office chairs. Some standing.

She had interrupted in the midst of a joke, quickly killing the laughter amongst the group. Now Lucy was obviously no hot shot of the company, but compared to these folks, she might as well be.

Only Natsu was the one to wave at her, speaking around a rolled cigarette (or possibly something else) between his lips. "Lucy, hey."

She felt mightily uncomfortable, and was beginning to regret her entire idea. "Hey," she said back. "Sorry, I didn't know you were on break. I was just—"

Lucy hesitated, not really willing to spill to the whole group she wanted to reject some sappy love letters from ever reaching her.

"Lookin' for me?" he questioned, harmlessly. A few smiles and snickers had her cheeks heating. She nodded faintly, and Natsu was up, dabbing his cigarette against the brick wall and flicking it into an old coffee can. He sprinted up the stairs, blowing out the last few traces of smoke from his lips and offered Lucy a completely clueless smile. She appreciated that very much.

As they returned to the mail industry room Natsu had asked what brought her down there. It took Lucy a second to remember the lines she didn't realize she'd been rehearsing since she stepped off the elevator, and was led to the workspace belonging to Natsu. It wasn't a cubicle, it was more open and accessible in case others needed things that he had as he sorted through the mail for those in the upper floors.

"I just wanted to ask something about my mail, actually? I figured you were the best person to go to about it," Lucy spoke.

"Sure," he replied. Brushing past Lucy, he left a trail of smoke and earth to fill her nose and hopped up to sit on a cluttered desk. Lucy found herself stepping closer subconsciously, finding she rather liked that mix of scents.

"This isn't a complaint is it? 'Cause I swear, it was Gray who's been sticking those stupid letters between my mail with that picture of me."

"Uh, no."

Natsu looked relieved, "Oh. So what's up then?"

Lucy couldn't help but smile at herself then, finding what she was doing rather childish. "Okay well, you know those letters I get every week or so? The…scented ones? From a guy named Dan?"

Natsu had to think a moment, "Yeah. They smell like honey, but I figured it was an accident."

"No," Lucy sighed, "It's on purpose. He's a guy I had this thing with that I ended, only he doesn't know that we ended it. Something to do with me being the nectar of his life?"

Natsu sputtered out a laugh. "Seriously? That's what all those letters are about?"

Lucy felt embarrassed, but smiled anyways. "Yeah. I blocked him from everywhere online, so this is the only place he knows where he can reach me. He tried messaging me through PlayStation once."

Now they laughed together.

"I was just wondering if it would be any easier for you to just throw them away once you get 'em? You know, don't even bother with it." Lucy asked.

"I can do that for you," Natsu said. He left no room for doubt in his voice. His eyes seemed bright with something Lucy couldn't identify.

"Really?" she chimed. It was then she noticed she had nearly drifted between his legs, and planted her feet to the floor.

"Sure," he said easily, "Don't mind it for ya, you're pretty nice."

The crooked, half smile that he had crawling on his lips had a twang strumming in Lucy's stomach. His smile was quite cute, she thought again.

"Are there people not being nice here?" she questioned, humor on her tongue.

Natsu scoffed, and Lucy watched his smile spread from something soft and friendly to some wild, untamable laugh. "Hell no! Everyone down here treats me horribly. That's why I like you so much."

Lucy couldn't tell if he meant to be complimenting her so much, whether it was a game he was trying to play or if it was just him, being sweet and incredibly dense at the same time. She found later that she didn't quite care.

Lucy said her goodbyes after that and went back up to her unedited articles, wondering the entire way if she stupidly had just cut off his one reason to come and see her every other day.

She hadn't. Natsu still had her weekly checks to deliver and piles of junk mail, mostly magazines she subscribed to for shoe deals. She never got another letter from Dan again.


Natsu wasn't the mysterious type, but he didn't fail from stirring Lucy's curiosity the more times she discovered something new about him. He was the kind where you didn't realize you knew nothing about him until you knew something more.

Lucy had no idea who he was, but also she did, in a way. She knew he liked jokes and pranks, how he favored spicy over sweet, how his hatred for some guy named Gray grew weekly. What she didn't know was his last name, or what he did when he wasn't at the office, sorting through mail bins, which accounted for over half a week of free time.

Natsu was an unknown character.

While Lucy had the intention of learning more, things had progressed so quickly she hadn't the time. The days grew to where Lucy worked harder so she could enjoy a longer break in the communal kitchen. They also grew to where she felt bolder with her words, chiming out tones to test the water of his interest. It hadn't occurred to her she was willingly flirting with him.

After all, he was only a little cute. There were little things about him that were attractive, not to be seen with a single glance, but noticed over time of observations. The way he smelled, the different laughs he owned with different jokes, the way his eyes were the deepest of greens, only able to be seen if accidentally bumped into his chest while getting up for the bathroom.

It was a medley of colorful swirls that made him what he was, not one reining characteristic. That was what captured Lucy so dizzily. She couldn't think of many people like that—who evolved with time from something so plain to something to fascinating, by doing nothing at all.

Lucy's likeness of this fact is what led her to being caught between the kitchen counter and Natsu, his hand on the cabinet beside her, keeping her trapped like a bunny in a cage. He had a peculiar way of kissing—it was in such a way one couldn't tell if it was his first or hundredth. Another thing about him that was doomed to be unknown. How was it possible someone so open could be so hard to know?

If Natsu wanted something he took it. If he was feeling some certain way, he didn't hide it. That was why when the time came, he admitted his disinterest in the fruit cups she always offered, and he always ate, and put the cup on the table to be forgotten. Lucy could still remember the cold refrigerator shelf against the skin of her thigh as she reached for a water. How the next second she was witnessing the dark green of Natsu's eyes.

"You know, I don't even like blueberries that much." he had spoken. Lucy was frozen, speechless, and kissed a second later.

Kissing still wasn't as memorable as she remembered, but the bone-chilling shudder of him approaching her, encapturing her, was a perfect substitute. The real, true feeling that she had read about came much later, after days of meetings in the forgotten kitchen. It was something about the way he held her, like she was dangling off a cliff and he was the only thing keeping her from falling, his arm circled her waist. How she could feel the curve of his grin against hers like nothing was ever as serious as it had to be. Like nothing ever had to matter.

It came to when she craved feeling his smile more than the actual kiss. Supposedly, she was weird like that.

It was a time to remember, because of course, as all nice things went, it had to blow up at some point or another.

For Lucy, it was the afternoon just a month after the previous exchanges. She learned that day that ignoring your problems did not just mean they went away, so when Dan Straight came booming into her office, she could say truthfully she had no idea what to do.

Lucy and Natsu had to shuffle from the break room to see what the commotion was on the 8th floor, flattening hair and tucking in shirts. They arrived in the midst of—

"There! That's him!" Dan had barked. His finger was pointed straight at Natsu, crossing the entire room. Behind Dan was two very under-qualified security guards, who looked more than doubtful about the accusations thrown. He whipped to them. "Well? Get him!"

The two guards did not hurry with coming at Natsu, but Natsu sure did hurry with running away from them. Lucy was left in a trail of wind as a chase commenced, and gaped backed to Dan by the elevators. "Dan? What the hell?"

Dan stomped his way over, footsteps hard, like he wanted to show Lucy just how upset he was with every step. He stopped with a huff in his chest. "He's the one that's been intercepting all my letters! You haven't gotten a single one have you? I knew it, and now I know why—" a single glance over Lucy's rumpled clothes that she scurried to adjust, "You've been cheating on me Lucy?"

Another gust of wind; Natsu zipped down the aisle of cubicles past the two, the guards hot on his tail. A grin had formed on his lips.

"We're not together Dan, I don't know how else to explain this." Lucy hissed, "Get it through your skull that if a girl happens to block you from literally everything in her life, she doesn't like you!"

Laughter erupted from Natsu somewhere in the office—then a grunt. Bodies thudded to the ground behind a cubicle wall.

Dan's face had grown to an explosive red. "Doesn't matter Lucy, your boyfriend's going to jail now!"

"Jail?" Lucy and Natsu echoed. He was in the process of being handcuffed at that moment.

"Oh what?" Dan turned to Natsu, "Did you forget that throwing away someone else's mail is illegal?"

That was something Natsu should probably have known, given he works in the mail room, but did not. Neither did Lucy, so both shared an equally ~fucked~ glance.

"Dan please," Lucy sighed. "Just get over this. We're done, you don't have to do this."

Tears swam at the corners of his eyes and Lucy grimaced. "At least let me go in dignity," he uttered. Lucy shrugged; she couldn't keep him from that.

As the guards led Natsu into the elevator, Lucy and the rest of the 8th floor could only watch. He waved a shackled hand to her, his grin whispering a comforting don't worry into her ear. The list of people Lucy had to talk to that day just extended by about 10 people: the first, the very confused boss she later had to beg to not fire her, or Natsu.

The rest of the list involved the police, for many stressful hours. Eventually she was allowed to visit Natsu in captivity. He was chained to a desk when she walked in, ankles shackled to the floor—he's obviously been quite a case to handle.

"You know running from those guards probably wasn't the best idea," she found herself saying to his grin. She sat down across from him at the table.

"Force of habit," he shrugged. He found the perk in her expression humorous.

"Running from the police? Wow, just who did I get mixed up with?" she questioned. "Don't tell me you're some international criminal after work hours."

"I wouldn't go as far as criminal," Natsu implied, "But I do know some good friends internationally." He more pissed people off than got into any actual trouble.

They shared a smile, softly.

"So?" Natsu had to ask.

"No jail~" Lucy sang, tired, "I had to explain to them that I gave you permission to throw out the letters. Had to pull the stalker card, which wasn't really a card to be perfectly honest." she sighed. "Might be fined a bit though."

"That's okay," he sniffed. "I have some stacks of cash buried underneath my house."

Lucy hit his shoulder, erupting in laughter. She was suddenly thankful then, that he wasn't as angry as he the right to be.

"Sorry I got you arrested," she murmured. A pout took on her lips.

"Ah, don't be," Natsu exhaled, falling back in his seat. His shackles jangled loudly. "If someone didn't try to put me in jail at some point I'd think they were up to something."

Lucy smiled.

"I'll be out of here in a little while. Maybe a few days after I find some witness for me." he went on. Lucy raised an eyebrow at the expertise he certainly had in this situation. She rested her cheek in her palm sadly, poking at her bottom lip.

"I really did fall for a criminal, didn't I?"

Cufflinks jingled as he shifted in his seat, a sharp curve of a grin cut into his mouth. He attempted a modest look, but said nothing.

"Well I'm gonna go ahead and go," Lucy said, standing up. "Someone's gotta convince the old guy to throw out the fine, and I just so happen to be very good at reasoning with people."

Lucy's fingers went to the rubber band in her hair, pulling it loose to drop to her shoulders. Then she tugged at the collars of her shirt. Natsu was suddenly grateful for Lucy's presence, watching with pleasantries.

Feeling an urge now, he stood up to lean over the desk. Lucy dipped her face back though at the look in his eye, checking the one-way mirror with a split glance.

"I'm not about to kiss you like some prison wife! Look at you!" she scoffed. Natsu's hands were still cuffed to the table, jangling as he tugged at them. Lucy saw the chain connect to his ankle bracelets beneath the table.

"Come on, I just wanna say thank you," he chided.

Lucy hesitated. Natsu could see her mulling it over.

"Come on," he trilled. His fingers tapped on the table, as if beckoning her. The eager light in his eye sparkled at her frown.

He had just enough chain length to tug at the hem of her shirt, pulling her to the edge of the table. A smile had slid it's way across his lips like a snake, forcing one of her own. His scent of smoke and earth drifted to her, one she found she liked more than she by the small specks of green she saw, Lucy closed to the space.

When he couldn't use his hands, she did in his place, the fine traces of his jaw trailed underneath her nails.

"Thank you," he voiced, deep in his throat.

Lucy pressed her lips together, teeth grazing the skin of her bottom lip. She felt the skip in her stomach flood upward—this was not something she had felt before.

"You can thank me later," she spoke. "After I get your ass out of jail."

Natsu didn't seem to mind that idea. He watched as Lucy packed up her things, slinging on her coat and purse.

"See ya, prison wife." he called, clinking back down in his seat.

The glare he received over her shoulder was enough to last him one dull night in a jail cell, until he had to go back to work for another, not-so-secret meet up in the forgotten break room.