Author's Note:
Hey all! Sorry for the super long hiatus.
Things sorta got a little too real, and my writing powers just decided to totally shut down on me for a couple months. The move really took it outta me more than I thought it would. And then, on TOP of that, right in the middle of it all, my kitty ended up going through another series of medical situations - and this time she didn't make it.
I won't go into details, but long story short, it hit me really hard.
So... I kinda went into survival mode. I threw myself into the moving aspect of things and basically put everything else on hold, because I just couldn't process it.
But hey! Now I'm back, and I'm starting to write again! It's been a little bit of a slow start, but I seem to be getting back into the groove of it finally. So I thought I'd go ahead and post this chapter, and hopefully I'll get the next chapter out within a few weeks. And we'll go from there. ;D
As always, HUGE thanks to all my wonderful reviewers out there. And thanks for being patient, you all. BIG hugs and kisses to: Byrd3-13, stranger1999, 19vanelkc, shrinemaiden05, SistershoOk, Copperreign12, valerioux, Springuest, sakshishetty3003, Cino2K, Lucinda, Starstruck-MJ, Moon'n'Tide, CathJorda, FairyTailxFanGirl, Ninja-Turtle Charlie, MillennialStargazer, Ferociana, and Natsulover89!
Alrighty! Hope you all enjoy the long awaited first date! It's gonna be a blast, I promise. ;D
Less than thirty minutes later, they'd ended up at a restaurant for breakfast. Natsu was stuffing his face with the wild abandon he usually displayed during mealtimes, while Lucy ate at a more reasonable pace. So far, it hadn't felt exactly the way she expected a date to feel like… but then again, this was Natsu. To expect a romantic meal by candlelight with a bouquet of roses would be silly.
Lucy was just happy to be out with the man she loved and thoroughly enjoyed their breakfast together – though she did scold him a couple of times for somehow getting food on her. It was honestly amazing just how far his food could fly when he was really going after it.
Once they had finished eating, he leaned back and belched, patting his temporarily distended belly.
"Oh yeah… that's the stuff…"
Lucy rolled her eyes and then quirked a grin at him. "What do you want to do now?"
"Now? Uh… I dunno. What do you wanna do?"
She thought about it, and after a minute, suggested, "Why don't we go for a walk around town? It's a beautiful day."
"Sure! Sounds fun to me."
With that decided, Natsu paid for their meal and they headed out of the restaurant and started ambling down the cobblestone street outside. Without thinking about it, she reached for his hand out of habit, but as soon as their palms met, she realized that this time was different than usual. Natsu wasn't dragging her along behind him… instead, they were walking along together holding hands like a normal couple.
Flushing, she automatically looked at him to see his response and was rewarded with absolutely nothing. He didn't react at all – just sent her a grin when he noticed her staring at him – and funnily enough, that miffed her slightly, and she frowned at him without thinking.
"What?" he asked, looking confused.
Realizing what she was doing, she quickly smoothed out her expression and faced forwards again. The last thing she wanted was to make this awkward or unpleasant for a stupid reason… even if it was slightly annoying that holding hands didn't seem to have any effect on him. She thought it was nice and wanted him to acknowledge it too.
Actually… it almost felt as though he'd issued her a challenge, and after a minute, she decided to act accordingly. With a little smirk – and a blush – she screwed up her courage and altered her grip on his hand, lacing her fingers through his. His hand flexed, and when she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, she saw him finally react the way she'd wanted him to before. His eyes widened, and he looked surprised…. and for a second, she regretted her spur-of-the-moment decision.
She didn't have a chance to worry about it for long though, because a moment later, he grinned, and his fingers tightened around hers in an obviously happy response. Relief loosened the small knot that had formed in her stomach, and she also smiled – satisfied and suddenly feeling very cheerful.
They stayed holding hands for the rest of their walk, and eventually started chatting about various things they saw as they ambled around town. When they passed by a music shop, the conversation took a turn, and Natsu brought up her harp.
"Hey, I was wonderin'… was this morning the first time you've been able to use your harp?" he asked as they continued walking past the storefront full of shiny wooden and metal instruments.
She winced a little at the reminder of this morning's awkwardness.
"Um, yes. That was the first time I was able to actually create a spellsong with it."
"Well, it sure was cool! That's an awesome power you've got there… you could probably make anyone feel anything!"
A thought popped into her head, and she wondered aloud, "Maybe that was why Lyra's test was so morally strenuous. Having the power to control someone else like that is a huge responsibility, and it obviously has the potential to be very dangerous – especially if I can't control it. Which we found out the hard way."
"Huh? Oh that?!" Natsu asked and then burst into laughter, apparently finding her last comment a lot funnier than she did.
She sent him a confused and probably slightly irritated glance, not really sure why he was so amused.
After a bit, he finally snickered, "Good one, Luce. I don't really think making me horny is dangerous though."
That explained why he was laughing at least…. The way he'd put it did sound funny. Of course, it also made her blush a little, but she ignored the slight sting of embarrassment for now and focused on countering him.
"Actually, that could be dangerous. Think about it, Natsu. If a rapist got ahold of my harp and used it… he or she could have as many willing victims as they wanted."
That example had popped out without much thought, and she cringed when she actually stopped to consider what she'd said.
Hurrying on before she could think about it too hard, she continued, "Being able to make someone euphoric, terrified, sleepy… That's something that could be very badly abused."
Natsu's eyebrows scrunched up with thought, and he looked a little perturbed. "Yeah, now that you mention it… that is kinda creepy."
After a second though, his face cleared and he added, "So it's a good thing that you're the one who's got that power!"
The sudden vote of confidence made Lucy's heart squeeze in her chest, and she flushed with surprised pleasure – thinking that Natsu had a ridiculous talent for saying sweet things so casually that it was almost easy to miss them. He also had a way of making everything sound simple, which never ceased to amaze and comfort her.
It took her a moment to figure out how to reply, but she eventually just settled for a warm smile and murmured, "Thanks, Natsu."
Naturally though, the romantic mood didn't last long, and he quickly went back to talking about her harp and magical powers.
"We should try it out again and see what all it can do!" he said excitedly, and she blinked, startled by his suggestion.
At first she thought he was suggesting that she try to do that to him again, but then she realized that he probably just meant practicing her harp in normal, non-sexual ways. It was still a surprise that he would want to participate though, since it definitely seemed like something that would bore him.
"It sounds like you're offering to be my guinea pig," she laughed – halfway joking and halfway curious.
"Sure! I think it'd be fun! But how about ya don't turn me on unless you wanna do something else afterwards… 'kay?"
He sent a teasing grin at her, which she replied to with a glare and did her best to ignore the way her cheeks were burning.
"Don't be an idiot! Of course I won't do that to you without permission again."
That got a laugh out of him, and thankfully the subject was dropped… and they went back to chatting about other things as the two of them continued their date exploring Magnolia.
…
.
…
Meanwhile, Natsu had a great time wandering around town with Lucy all day. They talked, laughed about random stuff, did a bunch of window shopping at some cool stores, bought lots of snacks at different food places, and he got to show her all his favorite spots in Magnolia.
When it was getting late, their last stop was a small coffee shop that she said had really good food and drinks. He hadn't ever been there… but the name was kinda familiarish, so he guessed he must've heard other people talking about it. Probably around the guild, since Luce mentioned some of the other Fairy Tail girls when she was recommending it.
It turned out there was a good reason for that, 'cause the place ended up having some really tasty-looking stuff. He kinda wanted to try everything, but settled on a sausage wrap thing, a sandwich, and a giant pretzel.
"Levy also said they have the best ice cream here…" Lucy mentioned next to him while she looked at some tubs of the stuff behind glass.
"Oh yeah?! I'll get a scoop of that too then!"
He added some cinnamon ice cream to his order, and she got a couple scoops of strawberry in a cone. His was in a cup, 'cause it'd melt if he tried to hold it.
Then, after the person behind the counter handed them their stuff, they went and sat at a tiny table that was almost too small to hold all his food. 'Course, that wasn't a problem for him, 'cause he wolfed down the pretzel and sausage thing in a couple of seconds.
It was all super good, just like she'd said.
"Wow! You were right, Luce! This place has got great food!"
"I know right?" she said back with a grin.
She was digging into her ice cream with lots of enthusiasm. Natsu left his till last, then inhaled it like the rest. Ice cream was a fun thing for him, but only when he was thirsty. It melted the second it went in his mouth – so it was sorta more like drinking than eating – but the feeling of it melting was pretty cool. He liked ice cubes even better for that though, 'cause they went from totally solid to totally liquid, and the mouthfeel was even crazier.
But he only did that kinda stuff occasionally. It got old pretty quick, and cold stuff wasn't really his thing. (Not that cold ever bugged him… it was just boring.)
This place's ice cream was pretty damn tasty though – the cinnamon had a serious kick to it. It wiped all the other flavors outta his mouth like a breath mint, in a good way, and he could definitely see himself coming back and eating it again.
Of course, he finished his way sooner than Lucy (she was a slow poke with her food), and then all he had to do to entertain himself was watch her. It was pretty funny the way she was being super methodic about how she ate it… she turned the cone and licked up the same way each time. There was a pretty impressive spiral goin' where she'd run her tongue every time.
It was innocent for about a minute, and then his brain checked into guttersville. He should'a known that staring at his girlfriend's tongue for a long time wouldn't be great for his sanity. That was kind of a no-brainer… but he still wasn't super excited when he sprouted a boner.
He tried to ignore it – and when that didn't work, he switched to something else.
"So, is the strawberry any good?" he asked her to distract himself.
"Yeah! It's the best I've ever had!" she said eagerly, but it actually sounded like, "Yeah! I's 'he bes' I've evuh ha'!"
He blinked and then snickered. "What the heck? You sound like you've got a lisp!"
"'he ifsh cweam iv co'd, jhuhk! Mah 'ongue ih nhum!"
It took him a second to translate that to, "The ice cream is cold, jerk! My tongue is numb!" – and when he did, it just made him laugh harder.
"You sound so dumb, Weirdo!"
His laughing cut off pretty quick though when a sudden thought popped into his head.
"Hey, I can help with that…"
"Hu-uh?!"
He leaned across the tiny table – he was glad it was so small now – and dragged her into a kiss. It was obvious she hadn't expected it, 'cause of the sound she made, and her mouth popped open on a gasp. Which was perfect for him, and he slipped his lip between hers and went straight to making out a little.
Her mouth was freakin' cold, she hadn't been kidding…. And she smelled like strawberries, which tempted him to stick his tongue in. It would've been really easy to do with her lips open like that.
But before he could go for it, somebody wolf-whistled, and she shoved him back.
"Nas'su! You can' jus' 'oo 'ha' here!"
(Natsu, you can't just do that here!)
She was still totally lisping, and he snickered at the sound of her fussing at him with it.
It was less fun though when she glared at him and went back to her ice cream, making it real clear that she wouldn't let him kiss her again while they were in the café.
His first instinct was to just drag her outta there and into the nearest alley, but then he noticed that she was almost done with her cone. Even better, he could see her shivering a little… and it was gonna be a lot colder outside, since the sun was setting. After kissing her a second ago, he decided it'd be even more fun to do it when her mouth was as cold as possible. Especially since he'd decided that he was definitely gonna go for tongue kissing this time. He couldn't wait to see what that'd feel like.
A smirk crawled on his mouth, and he covered it up with his scarf so she wouldn't see.
It was a real pain to wait, but he somehow did it without blowing his big plan. Normally, he didn't bother with this kinda stuff, but he did like to play badass pranks on people sometimes… and right now, he was channeling that kinda energy to make himself be patient.
The second her ice cream was gone though, he jumped outta his chair and started dragging her outside with him.
She protested a bunch (as usual), but he ignored her and focused on his plan. Mainly, he just had to find the perfect place… somewhere kinda hidden so she wouldn't freak out about people seeing them. And that didn't take too long, 'cause there was an alley between this shop and the next.
When he hauled them both into it, she started to lisp, "Wha' are you…" but cut off with a, "mph!" when he kissed her again.
That got him some wiggles and more fussing, and after a bit he muttered, "Come on, Luce. Your mouth is freezing… lemme fix it for ya…"
He didn't have the patience to stop kissing, so he just said it against her lips – which was kinda awkward, but also kinda fun. Her lips were super soft, and he loved feeling them rub against his.
She made cranky noises and squirmed for another couple seconds, but eventually she settled down and mumbled something that sounded like an okay to him. A zip of happiness made his belly tremble, and then it started burning.
Well… it'd already been burning – he was all kinds of fired up – but it got even hotter.
And he wanted to share that heat with her, 'cause she was as cold as he'd planned.
To help warm her up, he sandwiched her face between his hands and was rewarded by feeling her super chilly cheeks. That'd been a good idea. Meanwhile, his lips got real busy having a field day with hers… and he mentally thanked Cana again for her lessons on kissing all those years ago.
He'd gone to her for help with Lisanna when things went bad, 'cause he'd thought it was his fault. 'Course, it had been his fault… but for different reasons. Learning how to kiss like a pro hadn't helped him out there, but it'd sure come in handy these past weeks. It had been super fun to know what he was doing from the get-go this time, and he'd been dying to use more of what he knew on Luce.
Most've that would have to wait though… but now seemed like a good time to take the next small step. Especially with her kissing him back just as eagerly as he was kissing her.
He did all the stuff he'd already figured out she liked… long, harder presses mixed up with a few little ones that got super light. It was fun to keep her on her toes by switching up the rhythm, and it was also super funny to tease her with really light kisses that probably tickled her as much as they tickled him. If he did that for long enough, she'd start making hilarious growling sounds that made him wanna laugh… and kinda groan too, 'cause it was also sexy. Plus, she was always extra eager and met his mouth more firmly when he gave in and kissed her for real after that.
Personally, he liked biting, but he had to be super careful with that. It was really easy to get carried away and bite too hard… and he'd found out that she didn't like that. But he used it now to get her to gasp a little, which opened up her mouth.
He slanted his head a bit more and went for it with his tongue. Keeping his cool enough to not just shove it in was tough, but he knew she would probably freak if he did that. So, he went a little slower and shallower than he wanted to. She tasted great, like strawberries, and the inside of her mouth was way colder than the outside. Her tongue was literally freezing.
She immediately squeaked and tried to close her mouth, but that wasn't happening with his tongue in there. Unless she wanted to bite it off.
Actually, her teeth did bite down a little, but not super hard, and they released pretty quick when she realized he wasn't pulling out.
Then her tongue started pushing at his – probably trying to shove it outta her mouth – but he just used that as an excuse to rub his tongue against hers even more. The whole point here was to warm her up after all, so he was just doing what he'd promised to do.
It also felt way too good to stop.
He hadn't ever really liked this particular thing before, but he sure as heck liked it with her. Tongue kissing was turning out to be great… it was still all slippery and wet, but in a good, spine-tingly kinda way instead of gross.
In fact, it felt so good that he didn't even notice her squirming around and making sounds like she was weirded out and shocked. At least not until she shoved him.
He let her push him back a little, and panted, "Wha's wrong?"
"What are you doing?! Why did you… do that?" she hissed, also breathless and super red.
"Huh? You mean tongue kissing?"
"Tuh…tongue kissing?!"
"Yeah… you know, kissing with tongues?" he muttered and started closing the gap between them again.
He slid his fingers into her hair so he could cup the back of her head but left his thumbs in front of her ears. That gave him a better grip on her head, which he figured he might need. Maybe he was pushing his luck, but unless she really acted like she hated it, he planned to do everything he could to make her like it….
…
.
…
As for Lucy, she was thoroughly confused and disturbed. They had been having a bone-meltingly amazing kiss that made her forget her better judgement and actually kiss him back (eagerly) in an alley…. but then he'd slid his tongue in her mouth without any sort of warning, and she was left wondering what in the world was going on.
Her immediate mental response had been, 'Gross! What are you DOING?! That's disgusting! Get your tongue out of my mouth, Natsu! EWWWW!'
Kissing was one thing, but you just didn't go around licking people – especially not in their mouths. It was unsanitary! And nasty!
Luckily, he'd let her push him back – otherwise, she had planned to stomp on his foot next – but judging by the way his face started leaning towards hers again, he wasn't done.
She yelped, panicking ever so slightly, and sputtered, "Wait! You aren't planning to… Natsu! Stop!"
"What?" he asked, sounding extremely impatient as he paused a hairsbreadth away from her lips.
"What is tongue kissing? You aren't planning to do it again are you?"
"I already told ya, Luce. And yeah, obviously."
"But… why? It's gross!"
His deep chuckle sent warm, cinnamon-scented breath over her lips, causing her to shiver as she remembered how he tasted… and strangely, the thought didn't disgust her quite as much as she would've anticipated. In fact, it almost did the opposite and sent a warm coil of something into her stomach.
"I kinda thought so too at first. But try givin' it a chance. It feels good when ya get used to it."
"Give it a cha- mmmfff!"
Her protest cut off when he took advantage of her open mouth and slanted his over hers again.
This time though, she snapped her mouth shut in the nick of time and managed to block him. He huffed slightly in response, but unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how she looked back on this moment later), he didn't retreat as she'd half-way expected him to. Instead, his lips attacked hers in a kiss that was more aggressive than any they'd ever shared before.
Yet somehow… it wasn't unpleasant. She would have thought that a rough kiss like this would feel sloppy or like she was being mauled, but Natsu kept it under just enough control that it wasn't either of those things. All his movements were the same as before, just with increased pressure and a little more teeth and nipping. He even varied it the way he usually did – backing off from time to time to give her lighter kisses before digging back in with a vengeance.
It was all a little overwhelming… though not in a bad way.
She was quickly swept up into the kiss, to the point that her protests were almost forgotten completely. So, when his tongue snuck out again and licked along her bottom lip, her guard was down, and she gasped without thinking about how it would open her to invasion. Naturally, he didn't wait for an invitation and swiftly slipped his tongue inside her mouth again, sliding past her teeth before she could stop him.
'EW! Not this again…' she whined mentally, cringing. This whole tongue business was just nasty. Nobody in their right mind liked being drooled on.
Though… he wasn't exactly drooling. It was still definitely wet and somewhat slimy – which wasn't the best first impression by any means – but at least his tongue wasn't accompanied by the flood of saliva that she'd expected.
Her mind spun with thoughts of, 'Is this really something normal people do? Or is it just a weird fetish that Natsu has?'
Once again, she squirmed and protested a little, but this time he didn't let her get away… which might have made her nervous under certain circumstances. However, in this case, despite being unenthused about the kiss, nothing about it triggered her, and she trusted him enough to know that if she did kick up a big enough fuss, he would stop. So, even though it wasn't the most fun thing in the world, she decided to at least give it a try, like he'd suggested.
After the first thrust in, he had paused for a very short second – probably to see if she would truly freak out – but when she didn't, he quickly resumed his eager kisses.
For starters, he set about exploring the inside of her mouth, from the roof – which made her tremble and squeak from how ticklish and sensitive it turned out to be – to her teeth. Then, after tasting everything, the uninvited guest tongue started sliding against hers… slipping around, back and forth, in and out.
It felt very strange, to say the least.
However, as he continued to kiss her that way, her opinion shifted slightly, and she determined that his tongue wasn't slimy so much as slippery, with a slightly velvety texture on top that she hadn't expected. Plus, it was extremely warm, much more-so than his lips… and of course her mouth was cold from the ice cream, which made the temperature difference even more drastic (and surprisingly stimulating).
Actually, the longer it lasted, the less gross it felt. Her disgust had been mostly mental, and his kiss was steadily chipping away at all her reservations.
Maybe it was obvious that she was beginning to give in, because after a while, his technique changed. He withdrew his tongue – which gave his lips more room to move and kiss her like before – and then he started switching back and forth between the two, sliding his tongue into her mouth from time to time in rhythm with his kisses. Sometimes it was a brief stroke; other times he lingered and tangled his tongue with hers again.
At a certain point, she felt like he was just showing off his arsenal: from a brief teasing flick at the corner of her lips, to a series of slow laps that grew deeper and deeper and sent tremors through her body. He was shockingly skilled…
… Or else he simply couldn't make up his mind about how he wanted to kiss her and decided to do it all at once.
Of course, it didn't matter even if that was the case, because his lips and tongue still left her weak-kneed and panting for breath. Literally. She didn't know exactly when she'd started liking the new experience, but before she could really comprehend it, she had wrapped her arms around his neck and was kissing him back again.
Her heart pounded in her ears. Shivers ran up and down her spine, raising the hairs on her arms. A ball of pulsing warmth and tension wound tighter and tighter at the lowest point of her abdomen… similar to earlier but even stronger.
When she teetered a little, he grunted and grabbed her waist to help steady her. Then, after a second, he pulled back a little, chuckling breathlessly.
"I guess you liked it, huh?"
She really wanted to deny it, but that would have been ridiculous under the circumstances. There was no possible way she could hide how dazed and flushed that kiss had made her, so she didn't even bother trying. Instead, she buried her burning face in his scarf and worked on catching her breath.
"You're… a jerk…" she wheezed in a weak protest.
He laughed outright at that, though he also sounded out of breath… which made her feel a little smug. At least she wasn't the only affected by their passionate encounter.
Sneak Peek:
"Yo! What's up, Cana?" Natsu asked when they got to the bar.
"Here, this is for you," she replied somberly, handing him a letter. "Lisanna asked me to give it to you about half an hour ago…"
Lucy's first instinct was to ask how Lisanna had looked when she gave Cana the letter – whether she seemed upset or not – but she held off, because she was worried that it would only make Natsu feel worse than he already did. It was very difficult to tell that he was disturbed, but she knew him well enough by now to notice the way his posture stiffened and how his eyes tightened.
The biggest red flag by far though, was that he opened the letter without saying a word.
There was a long, tense silence as he read whatever was written inside, and his expression only grew stonier and stonier as the seconds passed. Then, he folded it up and shoved it in his pocket.
"Thanks, Cana. I ow ya one," he said, sounding almost normal… but Lucy could tell that his smile was fake and his voice was just a little too monotone.
Post Note:
Oooh, it looks like we might have a little upset in the works!
Don't worry though, it's nothing too major... and maybe, just maybe, this'll be a good opportunity for Lucy to comfort Natsu for a change. ;D