Category: Romantic Fluff
Characters: Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia
Lucy's eyes were lidded with sadness as she sat curled up among the roots of the towering tree, one of many sheltering her and her friends within the kingdom of Stella, which had so quickly turned into a hostile environment after their attempt to secure the Dragon Cry. As their enemies hunted them, the haggard wizard party had fled into the safety of a nearby forest, hoping that the darkness of night and the shield of the thick canopy of leaves and interwoven branches would be enough to hide them from prying eyes, at least until they were ready to try once more to steal the staff. However, even that was no longer so simple; if they stole the staff, the kingdom would be destroyed as the cosmic energy absorbed by the crystals over hundreds of years burst into powerful force, thus erasing it from existence. As she bit down on her bottom lip as it threatened to wobble, unsure of what the right thing was to do, she pulled her knees tighter to her chest, nearly suffocating herself with how tight her body was pulled; not that it mattered, because her chest was already a tight knot of worry, making it hard to breathe. What do we do…?
"Lucy? Whatsa matter? Can't sleep?" Leaves fluttered down to the dank forest floor, already littered with many fallen brethren, as Natsu's head pushed its way through the thick blanket of leaves. He was flitting through the canopy like some sort of monkey, a ball of endless energy as always. Lucy exhaled slightly as she turned to glance over her shoulder at him, trying not to seem as bothered as she was.
"I only just got off of guard duty," she answered simply. Natsu blinked at her in response, and somehow this compelled her to continue talking though she had not intended to in the first place; turning her head back to the loamy soil, her face fell once more into its crestfallen state. "I know our mission is to get the Dragon Cry back, but if we do, this kingdom will probably disappear…" Her melancholy words hung in the air like the speckles of dust flittered about, only visible in the patches of moonlight that spilled down from the night sky hidden behind the protective layer of green above her head. Natsu did not respond. Though he pretended to be his usual, unbothered, energetic self, Lucy had no doubt that it weighed heavily on his own mind as well.
"Come up here." Lucy had expected him to say something at least a little reassuring, not ignore her altogether, and her sadness was briefly replaced by irritation; she whipped her head about to flash him a dour frown.
"No! I'm in a skirt!" she protested with a huff.
"Come on," he insisted before disappearing once more into the sea of green. Lucy's nose twitched in displeasure, and she tossed her head again with another huff, her long blonde hair lashing at the sturdy tree trunk like a whip. She was perfectly content to continue sitting on the ground… or at least, she thought so. Her body began to twitch slightly as she wrestled with the abrupt end to the conversation and the curiosity of what Natsu wanted to say to her exactly. Before she knew it, she was digging her fingers into the moss-covered bark of the tree, scowling as she attempted to climb the tree in an outfit that was certainly not suited to doing so.
"What do you want, Natsu?" she called up to him in a grunt as she pulled herself up onto the nearest sturdy branch. Natsu hopped through the boughs with ease above her head, rapidly leaving her behind. "Hey! How much farther?" she complained with a glance down at the ground below; she was already several yards up, the ground a dirty smudge of brown soil and patches of green grass dyed blue by the gloom of night. Lucy spit her hair out her face as she turned her head to return to the task at hand, slowly but deliberately hauling herself into the canopy. Natsu had vanished above the greenery, but she could spy his feet, balanced easily on a branch only just thick enough to hold his weight. Lucy approached the thickly packed swathe of leaves and pulled them apart with her hands; dew smeared across her hands, milky as the light of the moon danced over them; she thrust her head through, blinking momentarily as her eyes were blinded by the surprisingly intense light spilling from the heavens above, and immediately turned to Natsu. "What is it?"
"Here, let me lend you a hand," he said as he flashed her that roguish smile of hers. Lucy's eyebrows were slightly knit as she pondered what he could be up to; he was calm all of a sudden. Though he was smiling, she could see he had a serious, contemplative aura about him; she knew him well enough to sense those subtle changes in him. He extended his hand to her, and Lucy slipped her own into it, allowing him to gently pull her through the thick layers of leaves. As he did so, Lucy's eyes were suddenly called to the night sky, and she ceased her movements altogether as she was immediately overtaken by the magnificent spectacle above her head.
The black sky was dyed sapphire by the brilliance of thousands of stars dotting the expanse, accented by lavender clouds drifting lazily just above the horizon. They twinkled like diamonds as they bathed Lucy and Natsu in their ethereal glow, clustered together like a collection of wildflowers in a meadow of blue grasses. "You said you wanted to see the stars." In the distance, Lucy could see the brilliantly glowing crystals of Stella; they burst in magnificent rays of purple and blue and white as they vigorously absorbed the light spilling down from above, and the stars seemed to shine all the brighter lest their graceful light be diminished forever by those crystals.
"They're… magnificent," she whispered. She had never been so overwhelmingly awed by something before. She was overtaken by a bizarre emotion and tears flooded through her brown eyes, though if it was happiness at the fact that Natsu showed her this or sadness at the fact that this beautiful sky would cease to be if they carried out their mission, she was not sure. Perhaps it was a combination of both.
"Eh. I don't think they're that special."
"Natsu!" she cried in shock and a little bit of anger, pulling herself through the green leaves that hugged her body like mud to stand at equal level with him. She put her hands on her hips as she glowered, offended by his lack of appreciation for the spectacle. He flashed her that cheeky, confident grin of his, so confident that the glare fell off her face, replaced by an expression of confusion.
"If I wanted to see the stars, I would just have to look in your eyes, Lucy." Her mouth parted, then shut again as she swallowed slightly; the way he was looking at her was different than he ever had before. There was something burning in his eyes, but not like usual. It wasn't the intense inferno that alit Natsu's eyes when he was ablaze, but a soft simmer of embers, soft and yet no less intense. He raised her hand to lay it against her cheek, and she felt his soft warmth spread across the skin that she didn't know was chilled in the first place. "Those stars will beat Stella's any day, in my opinion." His normally loud, boisterous voice had hushed to a low whisper full of feeling. Lucy's hands were clasped in front of her chest as if to contain her heart which had begun to beat wildly out of pace. He stepped across the branches to stand right in front of her, nearly chest-to-chest to where she had to crane her neck back to keep eye contact with him, and he stared down at her for a moment; his pink hair absorbed the moonlight and starlight, washed in whiteness like a halo around him. Lucy then tensed as his face drew closer, and Lucy had no doubt that in her moment that her eyes widened, they did contain the stars, capturing the glitter of the celestial bodies above to glimmer with a beauty all their own.
Natsu's mouth enveloped hers like a gentle embrace. Lucy squeezed her hands against her chest as something that she had not noticed had been hiding there exploded into being like the birth of the star: love. The stars blinked out one by one as Lucy's eyes drifted shut, leaving herself at the mercy of Natsu's kiss and this feeling of hers. His fingers teased a strand of her blonde tresses, while his thumb swiped across her cheekbone like the barely perceptible kiss of a breeze, but it made Lucy's nerves explode with electricity. As his lips moved against hers so effortlessly, like they were meant to, her trembling hand left her chest to stretch out and land against his own, her fingers fanning out as if to hold him there forever.
Natsu pulled back, but only slightly; his eyes were still only a few centimeters away as he smiled gently, still continuously stroking the side of her face. "Don't be sad, Lucy. I'll protect the stars, both Stella's and yours. I haven't failed you yet, have I?"
"No," she smiled warmly back. "And I'll be right beside you."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Lucy never told anyone what transpired under those stars that night, but she always remembered. She took some of those stars with her, holding them in her eyes and her heart for Natsu to have forever and ever…