"Not the same, duh." He gave her a casual eye roll indicating the answer was obvious. With impeccable timing, his stomach gave a rumble. "I'm starving! What's for breakfast?"
"Let me guess…" Lucy turned to look at him incredulously from his spot on the bed. "You expect me to go make you food, right?"
"You don't have to," Natsu started, suddenly realizing how sore and tired his muscles had become from sleep. He stretched his arms high above his head and closed his eyes in a yawn. His back arched slightly and he groaned appreciatively as the stiffness dissipated. He spoke again, eyes too tired to open while continuing his movements in an effort to wake up his half-asleep body. "But do you really trust me in the kitchen?" Hands clasped together and dropped behind his head. The muscles of his biceps tightened as he forced his elbows back slightly in another stretch. The final action released the last of the tension from his tired shoulders.
His arms went limp and dropped onto the bed by his sides with a muffled thud. When his eyes opened again it was with the intent of possibly catching a smile, or maybe even giving himself enough time to block a Lucky Kick. However, he hadn't expected to see her eyes quickly dart away. Were her cheeks more red than normal? Maybe she had put on some makeup in the bathroom and that's what had taken so long.
"Fine," she hurried from the room and left the very confused partner behind her. He took his time heading to the kitchen, pausing again to stretch when he finally stood from the bed. Even though he had slept really well, the short time he had been on the couch had taken a toll on his back. Hopefully Lucy would realize that clearly no harm had come from him sneaking in the bed and she'd just let him sleep there from now on. It was pretty dumb, if he was being honest. She didn't even notice he was there so it really wasn't a big deal.
When he finally entered the kitchen, Lucy was bending over with her head buried in the fridge. She seemed to be filtering through the things he had brought from his house. Her voice was loud, clearly thinking she still needed to reach him from the other room. "Seriously, Natsu? Why would one person buy so much bacon? You have 8 pounds here!"
He wasn't really sure why, but his eyes were drawn to her bent over form. The back of her pink tank top had ridden up a few inches, the exposed skin of her lower back peeking out at him from above her denim shorts. He shook his head to clear his confusing thoughts and headed behind her to look into the fridge.
"What? Bacon is delicious!"
Lucy jumped when she realized he was now standing directly behind her. Her body shot up and she clutched the package of bacon to her chest, almost like it would act as a shield to protect her. "What the hell, Natsu?!" She swung the bacon across the very small gap towards his chest and hit him a few times. "Don't sneak up on me like that! You scared me!"
"Whoa, easy Lucy!" His hands reached out, one catching her wrist and the other grabbing for the package of bacon. "It's not the bacon's fault!"
"I know it's not!" She tried to continue using her weapon of choice, but he tugged it from her grasp and raised it high above her head and out of her reach. She foolishly stretched with her free hand to try to snatch it back, even though she knew their height difference would keep her from achieving her goals. She could have easily jumped to get it, had it not been for his fingers on her other wrist keeping her in place. "You're the one who snuck up behind me, this is just the first thing I could grab!" Her eyes met his in determination as she tried to work out a plan.
Knowing it would likely be ineffective before even trying, Lucy attempted to hop up to grab the cold plastic package. A smirk crossed his lips as he turned his wrist, allowing it to raise even further from her grasp with minimal effort on his part. This just frustrated and fueled her more. She tilted her head up so that their eyes could meet. The more she glared at him, the wider his smirk became in response. Moments of silence passed in their stare down until he couldn't take it any longer. If he didn't speak, he would likely burst out laughing right in her face instead.
He dropped his head slightly to allow their faces to come closer together for dramatic effect. He didn't notice the panic that flashed across her face because of his sudden descent. "Wow, you're awfully grumpy today." His eyes lit up with excitement and he leaned further in to whisper in her ear. "What's the matter, Lucy? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"
Lucy's mouth dropped open, and of course his response was for his head to fall back in a full belly laugh.
Oh no the hell he didn't!
"You little…." Throwing caution to the wind, Lucy resumed her jumping. She lunged forward and grabbed for the bacon with a vigor. Although he still had a firm grip on her wrist, she shoved her hand against his bare chest to allow her leverage. She pushed herself up and closer to the prize. What she didn't account for was that he would be too distracted laughing his ass off to realize that she would be putting all of her weight against his chest.
What was intended to give her an added boost, actually turned into a forceful shove. Natsu fell backwards, and thanks to his fingers gripping her wrist, Lucy was coming with him. The hand that was previously above his head instinctively wrapped around her waist to protect her in the fall. The package of bacon was now pressed against their sides, the chill from the refrigerator still present and cooling his skin.
Lucy's eyes squeezed shut as she prepared to fall, her free hand tucking in to rest on his chest next to the one still trapped. She braced for an impact that never really came.
His back landed with a thud that was barely audible due to the loud laughs that had not waivered, even when he realized they were falling. Lucy landed safely on top of him, her body completely tensing in fear. When no impact was made, she peaked her eyes open and noticed her current predicament. She surveyed the scene before her and, for the second time in the short span of a few minutes, her mouth hung open.
Her body was laying completely on top of his with her hands resting on his chest. His protective arm was pressing her body firmly against his own. Their faces were inches apart. His eyes were closed as his obnoxious laugh caused his body to shake. She couldn't help but appreciate the rarity that was him actually relaxing and letting loose a little. They were always so busy with missions and saving Fiore that they hardly ever had time to stop and have fun like this. She might even describe seeing him like this, letting his guard down and enjoying the moment, as cute. Hopefully this break from everyday life would allow them a little more time like this.
When he felt the small hands on his chest add pressure, he peaked his eyes open to meet her very close ones. He instinctively tightened his grip around her waist to avoid her pulling away, although he wasn't sure why he cared if she did. He did a quick once-over the parts of her he could see to make sure she was okay. When it seemed that no damage had been done, he smirked again. His voice still kept an air of playfulness, clearly very amused by their situation.
"So this is the thanks I get for bringing you so much bacon? You tackle me?" He shifted the cold package and pressed it against that gap of skin on the small of her back that for some reason creeped back across his thoughts when he realized their closeness. It had felt so soft on his arm when he was holding her a second ago. "Guess I'll just save it all for myself."
The gasp that escaped her lips was different than any he could remember hearing from her before, but he didn't have time to process because soon she was wiggling in his tight grip to try to escape the cold. He wasn't really sure, but for some reason the action of her wriggling form against his body was really distracting. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't able to focus on anything else, or where his thoughts were trying to wander. Hell, he couldn't even figure out what exactly would be 'distracting' about their situation. All he knew was that the movements were pulling all of his attention.
She tried hard to escape the cold and he couldn't help but notice the goosebumps that were appearing on her skin. His thoughts didn't even register that she was shrieking while squirming to get away, trying to do her best to convince him to stop torturing her and to remove the bacon pressed against her skin. Her pleas fell on deaf ears. Or rather, "distracted" ones.
When she noticed his focus wasn't on the game anymore, she reached with her free hand towards the package behind her back. Her fingers had barely skimmed the plastic when she felt it being tugged from her grasp. "Nope! My bacon!" His hand held it above their heads again, only this time his arm was resting on the floor.
With a huff she realized that she needed to change her tactic because she wasn't sure she could take being put in another awkward situation. Two could play at that game. "Fine" This time it was Lucy who leaned in, mimicking his actions from earlier. Her lips neared his ear and her voice was barely above a whisper. "Have fun making yourself breakfast!" With another shove, she pushed off towards the side, fully expecting him to let her go so she could roll off of him. Her plan was to walk away and make him see the err of his ways.
What she hadn't expected was for him to keep his grip and roll with her.
His body was now hovering over her. His legs had somehow come to kneel on either side of her, boxing her in. Her wrist (that he was still annoyingly holding) was now pinned by her head. Panic crossed his face, her threat clearly having the desired effect. However, she definitely hadn't predicted he would follow her like that.
"Nooo, Lucyyyy!" His voice came out in a pout, clearly oblivious to how her body had tensed and heated up at a combination of their closeness, the possessive grip he still had on her wrist, and the sound of her name on his lips. "Please don't make me cook!"
As much as she wanted to come up with a smart remark, she was finding it hard to concentrate when he was staring down at her with so much hope and need. Granted, it was a totally different type of need than normally accompanied such an intimate position, but it was need for her in some way nonetheless. Wait, why was her mind even going there in the first place?
It could also have been because it was the first time that she noticed his attire, or lack thereof. Now that she was able to see a little more of him, she noticed that he was still wearing only the boxers he had thankfully slept in. His chest was completely bare and his scarf was missing, granting her the very rare view of his neck.
Her eyes couldn't help but wander, no matter how much her mind berated her for the action. She allowed them to linger for much longer than they should have, but for some reason she was having a hard time focusing. It took everything in her to resist reaching out a finger of her free hand to lightly trace the scar on the side of his neck that she had only seen a handful of times.
When her chocolate orbs finally made their way back up to his face, she noticed that his onyx eyes seemed to have been distracted as well before meeting hers again. His cheeks seemed to be tinted pink. Maybe it was just the light playing tricks with her eyes and reflecting his hair across his face? Surely it couldn't be the alternative...right?
Panic sent in and her internal alarms started blaring. Escape! Escape! Escape!
She snatched the bacon from his distracted hand, finally claiming victory. But it didn't stop there. Taking a second for some much needed revenge, she pressed the cool package against his bare neck and shoved him quickly off of her when he gasped in surprise. The cold must have felt even more shocking against his heated skin.
"Karma!" You could hear the smirk in her voice when she spoke. Once she was finally standing, she bent down to snatch the bacon from his grip again. "The only reason I'm doing this is because I don't want you to burn down my apartment, just so you know."
"Thanks Lucy!" He threw her one of his lazy smirks and stood up from his spot on the floor. He rubbed at the cool spot on his neck where the bacon had been and settled down at the table. "I really appreciate you cooking for me even though you lost!"
She made sure to turn towards him so he could watch her roll her eyes dramatically, but didn't stop her movements. Setting to work, she mentally set their menu of pancakes, eggs, and bacon and began preparing.
There seemed to be an unspoken agreement to not talk about what had just happened. They each assumed it was because the other didn't want to risk stirring the pot, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The silence on the topic was due to their mutual confusion on what had just happened.
Lucy's mind kept replaying that final look. She couldn't understand how the playfulness that she had been admiring earlier could have shifted so quickly. As much as she tried to justify, she couldn't shake the feeling of how different those last few moments had been. She clearly must have been confusing the situation, because she would have bet anything that his cheeks had been the same color as his hair. Why would he have been blushing? It just didn't make sense. Her hands were moving on their own, reaching for the griddle that she kept on the top shelf of her cabinet. She was cooking on instinct now, her mind elsewhere as she tried to process why the closeness had affected her so much.
Meanwhile, Natsu was struggling to understand why her damn clothes just couldn't stay where they were supposed to. What's the point of wearing a shirt that's meant to cover your skin if it was going to fail at its job with every little movement? He watched her reach on tip toe, her faulty shirt raising again and exposing even more of her milky white skin. It was like a beacon, pulling his attention although he couldn't really explain why. The majority of her outfits showed a lot more than those few inches peeking out at him, which made it even more confusing that he was struggling to look away.
His thoughts drifted to their morning so far. Although he'd sparred before, it had never been like this. There was no real training happening, and they definitely weren't working on any new skills, so by definition it was a pretty useless sparring session. What had him the most bewildered was that, despite their being no objective at all, he actually had a lot of fun. He didn't even need to get fired up! They'd definitely have to try that again sometime, although next time he had no intention of losing.
Lucy asked him a question and, in his distraction, he hadn't even registered what she had said. His eyes finally left her back and raised to look at her face, hoping that she hadn't noticed him staring. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and gave her a confused "Huh?"
She shot him another dramatic eye roll before repeating herself. "How do you want your eggs?" They quickly fell into casual conversation about nothing in particular. They both still avoided talking about what was consuming their thoughts, whether that be due to confusion or fear of what it really meant.
A short time later, she set a plate of bacon smugly on the table. His eyes locked on the plate and his mouth watered at the deliciousness just waiting for him. With a smirk, she grabbed a particular crispy piece and brought it to her lips. She bit into it with a crunch and sent a wink his way as she walked away to grab the plates of pancakes and eggs. His eyes lingered a little longer on her retreating form than normal. He raised his eyebrows in confusion before chalking it up to starvation and helping himself to the majority of the plate of bacon.
They ate, again keeping up a casual conversation. They used the time to reminisce over past missions and speculate what life would look like when things started to return to normal. Once she was full and pushed her plate away, Natsu saw that as the all-clear and finished off the last of the food. She grabbed the empty plates from the table, mumbling something about a "garbage disposal" while loading the dishes into her dishwasher.
By the time she turned back around, Natsu was gone. She quickly scanned the room and a moment later saw a mop of pink hair pop up above the couch. When she noticed he was kneeling in front of the recently moved end table setting up the LV, she couldn't help but squeal with excitement. He turned at the sound, his trademark grin reaching his eyes. "Ready to watch a movie?"
A/N: Sorry that it's a little longer between updates, but this chapter is almost twice the length of the others, so I hope you like it! A special thanks to jazzymay377 who suggested seeing some of Natsu's internal thoughts. I tested out some here and would love to know what you all think! How am I doing with keeping them in character? I want this to be as accurate as possible and would love feedback or reassurance! :)
I also have to tell you guys my struggle! I have SO many ideas of things I want to cover! I keep starting chapters, intending them to be the one I'm uploading next. However, the chapters take on a mind of their own and lead to opportunities for more relationship development than I'm ready for at this point in the story, so I table them for now and then restart a chapter to post. I almost did that with this chapter but figured it might be a good starting point to see where they're at starting out.
Because of this, I have the bulk of 3/4 chapters pretty much ready for whenever they naturally fit! I have no real map for this story so I couldn't even guess how long it will be. Given how many amazing ideas you've sent already and how many chapters I already had planned, I'm thinking we could be looking at a 20-30 chapter fic minimum! Sorry for those of you who don't like long fics, but I'm hoping to really put the slow in slow burn! ;)
Please keep sending some suggestions in your reviews! I am loving and planning on using all of them! More suggestions = longer fic! Your reviews make me so happy and get me excited to write! Here are my responses to my 6 amazing reviews! :)
Lucy H Lover: You're awesome! That's exactly my plan! :) I actually wrote a wardrobe malfunction, and the realized it would be better when he'll actually realize what he was seeing, so I'm saving it!
jazzymay377: Thank you SO much for saying they are spot-on! I've been so nervous since this is my first Fairy Tail fic! I LOVED your idea for his internal dialogue! Did I do him justice? I just wanted to try it out here to see how it went over! If it worked, I'll keep adding some in!
Amanny: Love the idea of a breakfast chat! I was going to put that in here, but put them in an awkward situation, so figured I'd save it for "tomorrow".
Copperreign12: Your reviews always warm my heart so much! I started writing one of your fitness chapters today! Starting with Natsu working out first! I probably won't use it for a bit because I want her to have more time to start realizing how she feels so she'll really appreciate his flexing muscles, but I was too excited about it to wait any more! I'm absolutely the same about binge reading/watching! I'm narrowing down the show they're going to watch together!
Guest: I really appreciate that! I relate so much to Lucy, so I feel like I'm just writing how I would react. Because same lol
XFangHeartX: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're liking it so far!