Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Characters: Lucy Heartfilia, Gray Fullbuster

Requested By: Anonymous User

Alternatum to Keep Me Warm

"Stop right there, thief!" Lucy yelled after the cloaked man that was fleeing down the back alley in which she was standing. She crouched down beside the distraught jewelry store owner who was sitting on his knees in the gaping hole that had been blasted in the side of his building by the flashy burglar. His mouth hung open and he seemed to be too shell-shocked to care that he was breathing in the dust that was still raining from the crumbling bricks of his ruined wall, but when Lucy addressed him, he turned a hazy gaze on her. "Don't worry, sir! Fairy Tail won't let you down! Now come on, boys, let's catch that phantom thief!" she crowed and hopped to her feet while clapping her hands together, and as if she had summoned them like her Celestial Spirits, Gray and Natsu appeared on either side of her- with Happy of course flapping over Natsu's shoulder.

"Right! I'm all fired up! Time to earn us some dinner, 'ey, Happy?"

"Aye! Steamed fish! I want steamed fish!" the cat familiar squealed in response. Natsu grimaced in disgust as the little blue kitty began drooling all over his shoulder. He hastily pushed Happy a few inches to the side so the saliva would instead drip down his chin onto the cobblestone ground.

"Is the only thing you two ever think about food?" Gray snorted in derision, then grinned at Lucy while slamming his fist into his palm. "Whatever. Let's can this guy!" In unison, they took off down the alleyway after the cloaked figure. For a burglar, he wasn't exceptionally fast, and the three mages plus Happy were very quickly able to spy the edge of his hooded coat flapping around the corners of the labyrinthine arrangement of alleyways. As she dashed alongside the two boys, she yanked one of her keys from her golden keyring and pointed it out in front of her.

"Open, Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!" A white ball of light beamed on the edge of the key before exploding forth in streaming ribbons to form the familiar form of the archer man dressed in the comical horse costume. He came into existence running as well, his long legs matching Lucy's stride as he asked how he could be of service to her. At this time, the thief was in clear sight, and Lucy pointed to the large brown sack of stolen goods that he was hauling over his shoulder.

"Understood!" The Celestial Spirit quipped as he skidded to a halt and plucked an arrow from his quiver. The mages continued their hot pursuit as he notched it into the bow and drew it back over his shoulder in a powerful shot, one eye closed as he carefully watched his target and the pursuers to ensure a clear shot. Lucy heard the distance thwong of the taut string followed by the shrill whistle of the feathered projectile streaming through the air. It clipped a few of her blonde hairs as it shot over her shoulders, making her bark at Sagittarius in protest, before turning forward again to find that the arrow had successfully done its job. It had clipped through the fragile fabric of the cheap sack, and Lucy watched with a triumphant grin as the frayed ends rapidly came undone to split the sack in two. The thief exclaimed in alarm as his precious gold and silver and jewels spilled from the sack like custard from a squeezed pastry; they rained to the ground in a glittering parade, twinkling like beautiful bells to signal his defeat. No sooner had he skidded to a halt to try and salvage some of his lost cargo did Happy swoop down to pick up Natsu and bear him like a screaming bullet through the alley.

"Take this!" Natsu roared as his arm burst into intense red flames. Like they had a life of their own, they licked eagerly at the wall as he passed it, leaving burning soot marks in the surface of the bricks. Gray had stopped once he realized that Natsu could take him out in one hit, but Lucy kept running a few paces, just in case.

She soon realized her mistake.

"Lucy! You're too close!" Gray hollered as Natsu's flames burst into a very unnecessary inferno, taking the form of a massive draconic wing. As he jerked his arm back to prepare for a punch, the roiling flames swept back towards Lucy; with an alarmed shriek, she screeched to a halt and threw up her arms in some pathetic attempt to shield her head. She felt the searing (and unfortunately familiar) pain of his flames greedily biting into her skin all down her front. Thankfully, her arms and legs took most of the brunt, and even then, they were second-degree burns at worst. Her clothes shielded her more vulnerable areas from severe damage. As Natsu swung forward to slam the thick of his arm into the thief's throat and clothesline him, the flaming wing went with him and left Lucy in the cooling chill of the night air.

"Ungh!" she grunted in mild pain as she fell down onto her knees. She then recoiled as the now-sensitive skin of her anterior calves and knees met the harsh, unforgiving rough stone of the alleyway floor. The little gravel pebbles and gritty cobblestone bricks sank millions of pointy teeth into her seared flesh to send even more pinpricks of discomfort to her already overwhelmed nerves. She looked down at herself to assess the severity of the damage; her arms and legs were pink with burned skin but the flames hadn't penetrated but a layer of so; honestly, the worst part was that she was now down to her panties- the only remnants of her clothes were the shreds of fabric on her backside, which had not been subject to the intense fire. She was just tying off the salvageable strip around her lightly burned bust when Gray ran up and crouched down beside her.

"Lucy! Are you okay?!"

"I'm all right. Not even crispy."

"Natsu, you idiot!" Gray yelled at the dragon-slayer as if he had completely ignored Lucy's affirmation that she was just fine. "You shouldn't use techniques like that without warning us! You've gone and burned Lucy all up!" The pink-haired man looked over, momentarily distracted from holding the very crispy and unconscious jewelry thief by the collar of his clothes. Once he saw Lucy sitting on her knees and nearly naked, he dropped him and trotted over to survey the extent of her injury. He squatted down in front of her, looking her up and down, and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"Sorry, Lucy…"

"No! It's fine! I knew you were about to attack him; really, I should've known better and stayed back like Gray…" she apologized quickly while waving her hands in dismissal. Really, she should've known better; it was Natsu, after all.

"Hell no! Don't apologize to him, Lucy!" Gray grunted while continuing to glare daggers at Natsu. "He needs to take care to not get his comrades caught up in his attacks."

"I said I was sorry, so stop yellin' at me!" Natsu growled and stood up to push his face into Gray's. As their foreheads butted, a vein popped out in Gray's forehead, but he didn't back down.

"I'm not yelling! I'm talking loudly in your direction!" Lucy was sure the volume of his voice qualified as a yell, but she didn't say anything. The two continued to quibble back and forth, and she just let them; the jewelry thief was unconscious still, so he wouldn't run off.

She shivered, suddenly aware of how chilly the night was now that she had been reduced to only scraps of clothing. It was late in autumn, on the cusp of winter, and now that the sunlight had long since faded from the sky, there was no shielding from the brisk cool. She ran her hands lightly up her arms, ignoring the stinging for the sensation of immediate warmth that the friction between her skin was able to provide her. Still, she couldn't produce enough and so she grew colder, to the point that she was shuddering and her teeth had begun to clatter.

"Can you two knock it off and tie him up already? I'm cold…" She had meant to put some bite into her words, but she could hardly get them out of her mouth for how much her chin was wobbling with her shivers, and so she just sounded terribly pathetic. Natsu looked down at her before shooting one last glare at Gray before stomping over to the thief, who was just rousing. Natsu socked him in the face and he was out like a light instantly. Lucy pushed herself up to her feet, hoping that without the cobblestone sapping her body heat right out of her legs she would be able to warm up a little, but was dismayed to find that it only exposed more of her body to the breeze rushing through the backstreet. She debated curling up into a ball to thermate that way until she felt something soft and warm fall over her shoulders. "Eh-?" She then sputtered in confusion as something was pulled over her head. She wriggled around, hearing Gray's impatient voice to tell her to be still through the rustling of the thick fabric in her ears; she squeaked in shock as she felt his rough, big hands snap to her hips to spin her around.

"I said be still!" Absolutely perplexed but realizing she would just tangle herself up thrashing around, she obediently stilled her body so that Gray could shove the garment over her. Her head popped out and she looked down to see him wrestling her arms through the sleeves of his shirt.

"Hey, what're you-?" she pouted and began worming her arms through the sleeve holes. She was perfectly capable of dressing herself. Once her hands appeared at the base of the long sleeves, she attempted to smooth down the fabric embracing her midriff; though Gray wore a larger clothes size than her, her sizable bust still swallowed the fabric, making it a tighter fit than one would assume. "I'm not that cold…" she whined quietly as it finally clicked in her head that Gray was lending her his clothing, and a pink blush dusted her pale cheeks.

"Shut up. Yes you are," he brusquely refuted and leaned down to pull off his pants. Her blushed furthered down her neck and to the lobes of her ears as he so nonchalantly held them out for her to step into. It was kind of wild that him standing there in his boxers wasn't what fazed her. "Come on; your legs'll freeze off in this cold."

"What about you?" she asked though she knew it was stupid to.

"You know I used to run around in my underwear in blizzards," came the haughty reply. Lucy reached up to grip his shoulders so she did not lose her balance while stepping into the pants. They were much too long, requiring Lucy to kick them up her legs to allow her feet through, and she had to hold them up around her small waist while Gray crouched down to roll the legs up for her. She was going to do it herself but was having difficulty bunching all the loose fabric in one hand to tug at his belt. She blushed darkly when his head suddenly appeared at her stomach and his hands overtook hers, gently pulling away the belt to draw it tightly around her middle. "You really are tiny, Lucy," he mumbled, almost to himself.

If Lucy were any redder, she would win a tomato look-alike contest.

"Y-you don't just say things like that…" she grumbled. She averted her gaze as he stood up, holding his discarded coat in his hands as he did. She expected him to throw it on himself, since she was just fine dressed in the layers that she was, but to her shock he tossed it around her shoulders instead. His fingers danced a little over the chilled skin of her neck as he attached the clasp at her throat. Thoroughly embarrassed at the undeniably slightly erotic display, she just blushed brightly while he looked down at her in approval.

"There you go. Are you feeling warmed up now?" God, if you only knew… she thought while tugging at the neck of the shirt. He had her all hot and bothered that she would've sweated even if she were still nearly naked.

"Yeah… Thank you…" she answered with a small smile. Really, she was warmed that Gray performed such a gesture of kindness. His body heat still lingered in the clothing, and she wrapped her arms around herself as she felt it melting away what felt like ice crystals that had formed in her body. "I'm much better now." She looked down the alleyway to see Natsu hefting the trussed-up burglar over his shoulder.

"All right! Mission accomplished! Time for food! Fooooooood!" he crowed and pumped his free fist in the air. Happy had abandoned his wings and was skipping about around his feet with a similar chant for nourishment. Lucy snorted in amusement and looked to Gray with a smile as Natsu began marching off down the alley to find his was back to the jewelry store where the authorities would be waiting.

"Would you like to stop by the hotel on the way? You need to get yourself some clothes too. Even if you don't freeze, I'm pretty sure the phrase 'no shirt, no shoes, no service' applies to even wizards," she joked. He gave her a mocking laugh while running his hands through his hair and watched as Natsu turned the corner. As she went to set off after him, Gray suddenly grabbed her by the elbow, signaling for her to stop. She looked at him quizzically. "What is it?" He had such a serious expression on his face all of a sudden.

"Lucy… Are you really okay? Don't you think we need to treat your burns?" Her hand rose to curl over her heart as if that would quiet the frantic melody that his question had just sent it into performing. That haze of pink bloomed across her cheeks again, gracing the cold skin like the onset of spring during the cold of winter, and her brown eyes looked down because she couldn't meet his heavy gaze. A smile formed on her lips. He cares so much…

"Really, I'm okay. It happens more often than you might think, and they're not bad burns at all. They won't even scar."

"Stupid Natsu," he grumbled under his breath, still holding her elbow. Instead of retracting his grip, his hand slid down her forearm, tracing the outline of it before wrapping around her wrist. His name appeared on her tongue as a question but left her mouth as a small gasp as he pulled her hand to his mouth to press his lips against the area of her wrist where a burn was just peeking out from underneath the dark fabric. He held the kiss for a long time and she knew that he must've felt her frantic heartbeat pulsing in the artery there. "To help them heal," he flashed her a grin against her wrist. Lucy was as stiff as a board and was staring at him incredulously, both alarmed and mildly aroused.

The way he was looking at her, with the hint of affection and allure in his eyes, warmed her much more than his clothes every could. He still didn't relinquish the grip on her hand. As his arm dropped, hers went with it, and his hand slid down into hers to wrap around her freezing fingers. "Come on. Let's catch up with that knucklehead before he makes a mess of dropping off that thief," he mused.

"O-okay…" Lucy only whispered and allowed him to pull her along down the alleyway. The fingers of her other hand twisted into the fabric of the cloak and shirt over her head, and she pushed the bottom half of her face into the collar of the oversized coat to hide the permanent happy smile painting her mouth.

Gray… You sure did warm me up, for sure… she thought, closing her eyes and breathing in the scent of the man who filled her heart with an icy fire. It may have been autumn around her, but Lucy's body bore the comforting, gentle warmth of spring. I wonder… if I asked you…

Would you keep me warm forever?