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?"
"Yes!" Lucy clapped her hands together excitedly and rushed to plop down on the couch. "What are we watching?"
"I'll grab the LVD box and we can pick one out!" He stood and headed towards the pile of his things. They still lay where they had left them on the floor after sorting through them the night before.
Her eyes flicked to follow him and lingered there for a minute before jumping away in embarrassment.
The chiseled muscles of his back were slightly flexing while his arms swung naturally by his sides. She watched his legs tighten as he squatted down to rifle through the last of his bags. It was when she noticed just how much of his toned thighs were visible, and the defined muscles of his calves as he rested on the balls of his feet, that she panicked.
"N-Natsu! What are you doing?" Although it was unavoidable, she tried to keep her voice steady to hide how flustered she was by his appearance. "You look like Gray!"
His head spun in her direction. She noticed him looking at her out of the corner of her eye and turned back to face him. It took all of her willpower to keep her focus on his face. Mentally berating herself for checking out her partner earlier was a necessity to keep her cool now.
You see his abs and at least one of his arms almost every single day. This really isn't that different. You've essentially seen him naked before. Pull your shit together Lucy!
"WHAT?!" The disgust was apparent on his face and in his voice. "I'm not like that stripper!"
Her eyebrows raised in doubt, "Really? You sure about that?" She planned on giving his body a quick once-over for dramatic effect so that he would take the hint, but she clearly misjudged her self control. Her eyes wandered down to his boxers and accidentally stayed glued there. Flashing back, she thought of a few hours ago when she had stared intently at his body to determine if he had slept naked next to her in her bed. A naked Natsu was NOT what she should be thinking of. Even though she willed herself to not think about it, her cheeks tinted at the rose bordered images that started to flood her mind. Damn, Mira! Somehow this was her fault.
"What? I'm wearing boxers!" His words were spoken as if she were still crazy and questioning her mental stability. Nope, there was no way that he was the crazy one, despite the fact that he was standing in a girl's apartment in only his boxers defending his attire. "I didn't strip? This is what I wore to bed."
When he noticed her face becoming more flushed by the second, his worry started to grow. "You feeling ok? Your face is getting all red!" He stood up quickly with the LVD box in hand, closed the short distance between them, and kneeled down in front of her on the couch. He set the box next to her. One hand gently brushed her bangs aside while the back of his other pressed against her forehead. "You're kinda hot!" Her body had gone completely rigid, and he would bet jewel that she was warming by the second. "You're not getting sick, are you?"
His thoughts wandered to the first time she had been sick all of those years ago. She had missed the Hanami party. It was all she talked about for weeks, and she had gotten sick just in time to miss it. Even Wendy couldn't help her. She'd been so excited for the celebration and he just couldn't find joy in joining in with the others when he knew she wasn't there with them. As much as she'd been looking forward to it, he'd been looking forward to seeing how happy she'd get over something they took for granted. He'd never admitted it to anyone, but he had always felt so guilty knowing that they had left her alone when she wasn't feeling well. He'd sent the tree down the river for her, knowing he'd get yelled at for uprooting it from its permanent home. Knowing that she had seen it, and that it had brought a smile to her face made it all worth it. He couldn't have handled knowing he'd left her alone AND that she had missed seeing the rainbow cherry blossoms.
His thoughts were derailed when she smacked his hand away from her face. "I'm not sick!" It took every ounce of her concentration to calm her cheeks. He didn't mean it like that. You know dense Natsu didn't mean it like that. He was talking about your temperature! Definitely not the other meaning.
"You sure? Maybe you should eat some soup or something?"
"Ugh, Natsu! I'm fine!" She took a deep breath and let it out slowly to clear the last of her unwelcome thoughts. "Besies, we literally just ate breakfast, how could I eat soup already?" When he opened his mouth to respond, she spoke again to stop him. The question was rhetorical. He could probably already eat again, given the bottomless pit that was his stomach. "I meant your lack of clothes. Don't you own pajama pants or shirts or something?"
He looked down again, shrugging his shoulders. "You decided to wash all of my clothes, remember? I don't have anything else to wear."
"Shit!" Lucky hung her head and dropped it into her hands. This awkwardness was actually her own fault. "I completely forgot about your laundry!"
"It's fine, really." He stood up a little from where he knelt and slung his body to the side to plop down next to her on the couch. "My body's always heated anyways so I don't really need clothes."
"People need to wear clothes, Natsu." Determined to escape the debate, she pushed off of the couch and headed towards the washer. She wasn't about to argue with him about if he needed to wear clothes, especially when a part of her was starting to side with him. What could she say? It was a pretty nice view.
The load of still-damp clothes was shifted to the empty dryer and, with the push of a few buttons, the machine started to lightly vibrate from the bulk of tumbling fabric. The last of his clothes would make up another load. When she opened the duffle bag, she panicked. The maid uniform was still lying there on top of his dirty clothes. She turned her head quickly to see what he was doing and noticed that he seemed to have busied himself flipping through the LVD box. Making quick work, she shoved the outfit and the rest of his clothes in the washer. There was no easy way for her to get the stolen article into her room without being noticed, so she'd have to find a way to distract him when the second load finished in the dryer. After adding the laundry detergent and fabric softener, the machine whirred to life again.
Although progress had been made, there was still an issue. His clothes were still in the dryer so she had nothing for him to put on now. She'd have at least another hour or so of him being pretty much naked until she'd have something to give him. Taking a deep breath, she mentally prepared for the idea of watching a movie sitting on the small couch with her buff, almost naked best friend.
"Want anything to drink?" As soon as he heard her request from the kitchen, he turned to respond. They quickly locked eyes before she turned towards the fridge.
"A soda'd be great!" Just when he was about to turn away, like she had, he noticed the fridge door open. His eyes were locked again as he watched her bend into the fridge for the second time that day. That damn shirt. Maybe her stupid dryer had shrunk her clothes and that's why it was malfunctioning. He really hoped the same wouldn't happen to the clothes she'd just put in there for him.
When she stood up, cans in hand, she turned her body slightly towards the couch as the door closed behind her. Her focus may have been on shifting the cans into one hand, but his eyes stayed glued on her bare skin. Because she was now facing him, he was granted the first view of her partially bare stomach. Had she been training more than usual? Granted, he was pretty sure a bunch of her outfits had an open midriff, but he had never really paid it much attention to say for sure. For some reason, the skin peeking out when it wasn't supposed to was drawing him in.
Her delicate fingers gripped the bottom edge of her shirt with her free hand and tugged the fabric down. He used this as an excuse and his eyes darted back to the box in hand.
When she approached him, she passed a can his way before setting her own down on one of the coasters on the side table. Because the other side table was currently being used as an LV stand, there was only a table on what had been unofficially assigned as his side. He was pretty excited about the arrangement, especially because then it meant easier access to drinks and snacks for him!
He had just finished turning to also set his can down on one of the other coasters when he felt a bulk of fabric hit his face. The pile landed in a puddle on his lap and he looked at it curiously.
"Your clothes aren't dry, so you'll have to cover up with that for now." Deciding it was best not to fight it, he shrugged her suggestion off and swished the blanket open to spread across the whole couch. He pulled the fabric over his legs to comply with her request. She sure was being weird, but at least she must be feeling better. Her face didn't seem as red anymore. Maybe she had just needed to walk whatever it was off and that's why she was suddenly better. "What movie are we watching?"
"Dunno" he casually shrugged his shoulders and pulled the blanket back that had covered her spot in an effort to make room for her. When she finally sat down, he watched her curl her legs under her body and lean back against the plush cushions. He flicked her part of the blanket back over her legs and handed her a box from the case. "I was thinking maybe this one."
Trying to ignore the fact that she was now sharing a blanket with the almost naked man, she grabbed the movie from his hands. "Jurassic Park?"
The front of the rectangular box mimicked a wooden gate and featured a logo with what looked like a large skeleton. She turned it over, noticing that there was a short description on the back. She skimmed it, getting the general idea for the movie and already predicting that there was no way there would be romance or a happy ending. "Sounds...interesting?"
"I know! Maybe they'll have a dragon in it!" His grin was so wide that it forced his eyes to squeeze shut. With how excited he seemed, there was no way she could tell him no. Besides, any movie would be better than no movie at all.
"Yeah, maybe." With a click, the case popped open. She retrieved the disc from inside and handed it to him. "Let's give it a try and find out."
When he reached to move his half of the blanket to stand, she quickly dropped her eyes so as to not be distracted by his body again. Instead she concentrated on pulling the large box of movies onto her lap. She began shuffling through the various titles, surprised by the collection. "Wow, Natsu! You've got quite a stash already!" She was surprised to see he had movies of every genre, including some romantic comedies and chick flicks. This was definitely not something she had expected. A smile spread across her lips as she pictured Natsu and Happy holding each other and crying while watching a sappy movie. "Have you watched all of these?"
"Nah, we actually hadn't used it yet." Her eyes darted up and she noticed he was putting the disc in the magic movie box. He grabbed the remote and turned to head back to the couch. Not wanting for him to think she had been staring (even though she had), she quickly looked back down at the cases. "I was waiting for Happy to get back from his mission to use it, but…"
When his voice trailed off, she could sense how sad he had become. "Oh" she started lamely "I'm sorry, I'm sure he will love watching movies soon!"
"Yeah, probably" The smile on his face was visibly forced. The heartbreak over his foster son being away was easily apparent. Neither wanted to consider how that 'soon' would actually be at least 2 weeks.
"We'll have to pick out our favorites and watch those with him first!" Lucy was doing her best to be positive and moved the blanket for him as he approached, just like he had done for her earlier. When he sat back down, she flicked the fabric to cover his distractingly bare legs again and continued looking at the movies. "You've got so many options here! You guys must have spent a fortune!"
He shrugged off her comment. "Eh, the LVDs aren't that expensive. We just bought a bunch of movies, and the sales person that was helping us suggested some things too. We didn't know what we'd like, so we got some different stuff."
Natsu turned to pop the tab and take a long sip of his soda while Lucy started to try to organize the cases by genre. When he leaned back against the cushions, she took that as the cue that he was ready. She set the box down on the floor by where her feet would have been, had they not still been curled under her. Following his lead, she sank back into the back of the couch with a contented sigh. "Ready when you are."
With the click of a button, the screen sprung to life. As much as he really missed Happy, it meant so much to him to have Lucy there by his side. She was really trying to make him feel at ease without his little buddy and he appreciated it, even if he didn't necessarily say it. He'd have obviously much rather had him there too, but realization dawned on him that this might have been the first time that just the two of them had spent time together.
Slow whimsical music played from the speakers as a few introductory lines appeared on the screen. The words had started to shift when Natsu grabbed for the remote, which he had discarded on the side table, and paused the movie. Something had been bothering him and he just realized what it was.
"What's wrong? Change your mind on what to watch?"
His head shook as he stood, the pink hair shaking slightly with the motion. "Nope, just setting the mood!"
Luckily for Lucy his idea of setting the mood was to flip the light switch and close the curtains to darken the room. Had there still been light filtering in the room from anywhere other than the LV, he'd had definitely noticed how flustered she had become. She was starting to wonder if he had any clue how his words could be interpreted.
Distracted by her thoughts, she almost hadn't even registered when he sat back down and covered his legs again. What she definitely had noticed was that he actually seemed to be a little closer to her than before. She wasn't sure what would be more awkward: pointing out how he was closer, or revealing that she was paying attention to the distance between them. She decided she was overreacting and just ignored the situation.
"Much better!" She could hear the smile in his voice and felt one of her own spread across her lips. She had to admit that it did feel more immersive with the new darker atmosphere. He pressed a button on the controller and a second later "Jurassic Park" faded onto the screen in red and yellow font.
A/N: I am feeling SO loved after last chapter! You all are way too good to me! :) Thank you so much for your support and feedback! My heart is so happy!
I'm sorry that not much happened here plot-wise, just a few little fluffs and awkward moments. I promise the fluff will get to Aries level fluffy soon(ish)! I had every intention of writing the actual movie chapter here, but had an idea. I've been doing a lot of story planning and realized I'm going to use movies some of you may not have seen. I decided that I'll be giving you guys a heads up of the movies they'll be watching so that you have time to watch them if you'd like (if you haven't seen them already) before next week's chapter! There will be some I just casually have them watch, but any I'm going to go in depth with/will cause relationship development, I'll let you know ahead of time! Granted, most people have seen Jurassic Park, but still…
:) Please keep sending me movies/shows/situations you want me to put them in! I love the challenge to make them fit and I'm excited to see what you all come up with!
Copperreign12: You made my whole day saying I have a perfect internal Natsu! Hopefully I keep that going, especially as I start adding more of him in these. Your reviews are always so kind and detailed! I really appreciate you and your support!
NatGamingCo: Thank you! I'm so glad you like it! :)
XFangHeartX: You read my mind! I promise to throw a little mini cuddle in here for you soon! I'm always cold so I would love to have a life sized furnace around. She'll definitely use that to her advantage too….soon ;)
Amanny: Plenty of awkward situations are planned! I feel like they're really just a bunch of little awkward moments that are all happening in an extremely awkward bigger situation!
Lucy H Lover: I threw in a little midriff here for you! ;) I'm excited for when the tempting is intentional!
PinkPolkaDot: Thank you so much! I definitely want to share more of his struggles as he navigates his feelings. It's all so new to him, so it should be fun!