Category: Mild Romantic Fluff
Characters: Lucy Heartfilia, Gray Fullbuster
Requested By: Anonymous User
Lucy's hands slid down her curvaceous sides as she smoothed out the fabric of the elegant chocolate-brown kimono hugging her body while she admired herself in the mirror. It really was a beautiful work of craftsmanship; though the earthy brown served as the base color for the clothing, it was accentuated with flower patterns made simply of thin lines, outlined in bright white and warm beige and sandy tan. The center of each flower was filled in with tiny beads to give the kimono a textural pop. The look was completed with a soft silk sash wrapped around her waist of white, a fashionable contrast to the darker tones of her look.
Lucy wasn't quite used to wearing kimonos, given the westernized, modern society of Fiore, but she found she actually appreciated the garment as comfortable and chic; on a recent mission, Wendy had visited a more traditional mountain village and had been enraptured by the fashion, and as a gift for her assistance they had presented her with a beautiful hand-crafted kimono. Wendy had been ecstatic but afraid that the garment would look very out-of-place in a contemporary place like Magnolia City, so Lucy had suggested the idea of their annual New Year's Party having a kimono theme. They all wanted to see Wendy happy, after all, and the little girl had been so overjoyed at her suggestion. So here Lucy was, turning this way and that investigating how the new piece of clothing accentuated her figure and nodded approvingly. She just loved nice-looking clothes!
"Hey, Lucy!" The blonde-haired girl smiled wryly at the reflection of the grinning boy with cotton-candy hair perched in her window, who was holding up a hand in greeting. Natsu's kimono was a fiery red with dappled salmon patterns across the surface like it had been sponged with paint, but not in a messy or unpleasing way. His obi was white, as well, to match the dragonscale scarf wrapped around his neck. As she turned around to greet him, Happy squeezed through the window to land on her floor with an oompf!; he hastily jumped to his feet to proudly display his own little custom kimono of sapphire blue patterned with jumping light gray carp.
"Lucy! Lucy! Does it make me look handsome?"
"You're the handsomest little man I've ever seen, Happy," she assured him with an endearing smile. He whirled around to Natsu puffing out his chest in pride, tail waving back in forth in a clear display that he was exceptionally pleased.
"She called me handsome! 3" With a snicker, Natsu hopped down from the window to scamper right to her bedroom door and throw it open, sniffing the air hungrily because he was without a doubt looking for food. Lucy sighed and threw her head back in agony, as she just knew it was going to happen.
"Natsu! You were supposed to bring food too, y'know!" she scolded him as he dashed down the hallway laughing maniacally. A half-ass apology drifted behind him as he all but dashed down the hall, and Lucy groaned loudly as she heard the distant clinking of ceramic and glass as he attacked the small array of party foods she had prepared for the evening. Happy stood in the doorway of her bedroom looking guilty, holding his paws together as he stared at the floor.
"I'm sorry, Lucy… I had fish crackers made, but… I got so hungry this afternoon that I ate them all myself!" he sniffled pathetically. Happy was making such a sad display that it was hard to be mad at him, and she wouldn't have been in the first place, because really it would have been the other Exceeds who had eaten the snack anyway. She smiled softly and walked over to crouch down and pat his soft little blue head.
"Don't worry, Happy, it's all right. There will still be plenty of food for everyone," she reassured him. He grinned widely at her and dried his tears right there and then before whirling on his paws and taking off down the hall shouting at Natsu to wait for him. Lucy breathed a deep sigh and rubbed at one of her temples; the night had only just begun, and she was beginning to question why she had agreed to host the gathering at her house instead of pawning it off on someone else…
It was no time at all before everyone arrived and the party was fully underway, several hours before the clock struck midnight and they would usher in the new year. Though Natsu had absorbed a notable amount of her freshly prepared food in his gullet in the short time it took her to walk down the hall, all it had taken was a whack to the back of his head with a wooden spoon to send him scampering to the couch whining like a literal wounded dog. He was even wearing a pair of glistening puppy-dog eyes, but unfortunately for him, Lucy was immune to such childish ploys. Unlike his forgetful self, the rest of the guests brought food for all of them to enjoy, so his dent really didn't end up cause much damage. The settled around her kotatsu table (that she had bought on sale from a local odds-and-ends furniture store to complete Wendy's vision of a traditional New Year) laughing and cutting up and enjoying the snacks. The time was about ten-thirty when someone (she honestly could not remember who) brought out the alcohol and things began to get a bit more raucous. Suddenly, a slightly pink-faced Levy who was snuggled in the arms of the much brawnier Gajeel gasped aloud.
"Oh, dear! We have to decide who each other's New Year's kiss will be!" she exclaimed. Her shoulders were falling out of her spring-inspired kimono, sky blue with colorful butterflies matching the ornament in her wavy blue hair, and with pursed lips Gajeel casually adjusted it for her. She giggled and lifted up her head to press a kiss against his chin. "Thanks, honey~ I mean for you guys, because obviously I have mine," she purred while sloshing around a bottle of sake. Gajeel blushed lightly and looked away, muttering something unintelligible.
"Yo, Erza, is Jellal stopping by?" Gray asked teasingly as he leaned onto the table with wiggling eyebrows. Erza turned the shade of her hair and looked down at her lap in complete embarrassment. Her hands dug into the fabric of her simple black kimono before twisting into her sunset-colored sash.
"I-I have no idea what you are suggesting! I-I mean… If anyone were to be my New Year's kiss, that would be- Ah! No! I don't have to talk about this with you all!" she wailed and buried her face into her hands with a mortified wail. Laughter erupted around the room; Gray's stopped short and turned into a grunt as Juvia threw herself onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Gray, my darling! Surely you will be Juvia's kiss, yes?" she purred delightedly while nuzzling the back of his head with her cheek. Her lavender kimono with accents the shade of her hair was a stark contrast to Gray's midnight blue one patterned with gray stripes, but they also complimented each other well. Gray didn't seem to think that sentiment extended to their personal lives.
"No way. I don't buy into that girly crap." He mumbled as he shoved a custard-filled confectionary of Levy's creation into his mouth. Juvia let out a wheedling whine and melted into a puddle-literally- behind him before slinking off in half-water form to seek comfort from a wine bottle. Wendy, who was sitting beside Lucy, fidgeted uncomfortably in worry.
"I don't have anybody to give me a New Year's kiss," she murmured miserably as tears welled up in her round eyes. Lucy tutted in a motherly fashion and wrapped her hands around the side of her head to pull her into a hug (more like squish the poor girl into her cleavage, but she was a bit tipsy already). Wendy's response was muffled as Lucy lovingly stroked her hair, which she had let flow free rather than contain it in pigtails.
"S'okay, Wendy! I'll be your New Year's kiss, don't worry!" Natsu laughed while waving around a bottle, and he hastily added with an affronted look and a blush, "I meant on the cheek; damn, guys, I'm not a creep!" Wendy's head popped out of Lucy's grasp to look at him with joyful, sparkling eyes. She clasped her hands together as she stared at him in total admiration.
"Really, Natsu, you mean it?"
"O'course! Why should you miss out just because you're a little younger than us?" he grinned and leaned over to throw his thick arm around her neck and snuggle into her affectionately. Happy tottered over to Carla with big, begging eyes, and the pretty white cat snorted in derision but obviously must've agreed because Happy crowed ecstatically, throwing his little paws in the air. Pantherlily looked disgruntled for a second before Carla nudged him in the shoulder and told him that she would give him one, too, and the buff black cat turned away bashfully, toeing at the fibers of the rug beneath him.
With all the talk about New Year's kissing, Lucy was suddenly very acutely aware that she had no one to give her a kiss, either. Something about that fact made her exceptionally depressed. Perhaps it was the alcohol; it always resulted in her having disastrous mood swings, if the stories that Natsu told her were true. It wasn't that Lucy thought that at this point in her life she would already have somebody to share such things with; after all, she was still young and had plenty of time to pursue romantic endeavors. However, seeing Levy and Gajeel and Gray and Juvia and even Erza and Jellal moving forward with their relationships (whether established or not) suddenly made her very conscious that she had nobody, nobody at all, she was even considering as a romantic partner. Her shoulders sagged a little as she pouted down at her little plate half-full of food that she now couldn't stomach eating. Not wishing to ruin the fun everyone else was having, she brooded in silence. The melancholy slowly swallowed her up like a gaping abyss steadily drawing her in with an unbeatable current, until she was stranded in the black depths with nothing but the sadness and crushing dark. As Levy gleefully announced that it was nearly time, Lucy quietly excused herself from the table to walk into the other room, where she stood in front of the window trying not to cry.
This is so stupid, she told herself bitterly. All this fuss over a kiss. Lucy wasn't quite drunk enough to be unaware of how pointless her roiling emotions were, but apparently drunk enough that the statement didn't keep her from sulking anyway. She knew there would be many more New Years' to come, and eventually she would be spending them with someone who loved her, but for some reason right now she was incredibly impatient. It seemed to her, in her sad, clouded mind, that everybody in the world had someone to share a kiss with at midnight but her. She knew that was entirely untrue, but alcohol made her so aggravatingly dramatic. She clenched her teeth as the first set of tears rolled down her cheeks, which were flushing red with frustration with herself. She pushed her hand into her face to try and catch them before anyone noticed. I can't believe myself! What has gotten into me?
She could hear them yelling as they counted down. "Ten! Nine! Eight!" She wasn't sure what saddened her more, the fact that they were all having so much fun and here she was being a stick in the mud, or that they hadn't noticed her disappearance. "Seven! Six! Five!" She should really go back in there, but she couldn't bring herself to. She was rooted to the spot with watery brown eyes staring through the glass, ever so lightly frosted by the chill outside. "Four! Three! Two! One!" Her eyes beheld the glittering expanse of stars. How she loved the stars. They always reminded her of her mother, softly flickering with an unwavering light… "Happy New Year!" all her friends screamed in the other room, laughing and sloshing alcohol all over themselves and her floor, giggling as they all partook in their New Year's kisses.
"Happy New Year," Lucy whispered miserably with a voice impossibly thick with longing.
"Happy New Year, Lucy." She whipped around with a small gasp at the gentle voice behind her, shocked to find Gray standing there with a softly sad smile on his face. Guiltily, she shrunk into herself, drawing her arms to her chest as if to shield him from her inquisition. The rest of the group was chattering loudly back in the room, seemingly ignorant of the two of them standing out there. He had his head tilted down knowingly as his stormy dark eyes looked at her as if he knew all her secrets. She felt her heart thump hard in her chest; there was just so something… evocative about the look he was giving her, so raw and powerful and dare she say, sensual.
"S-So, I take it Juvia stole a kiss from you?" It was her pitiful attempt to play off the situation. He shrugged with a boyish smirk.
"All it took was a little peck on the cheek and she fainted," he remarked casually. Lucy was beside herself suddenly; why was she relieved that Juvia and Gray had not actually kissed? All of a sudden it was like a flickering movie reel began to roll in her head, rapidly streaming through all of her and Gray's history together… Natsu was her truest friend, her partner, but… There had always been something bubbling at the surface with Gray too that she could never really name. Considering that Juvia was always there combatting for his affections and they were always embroiled in some momentous battle or another, Lucy had never really cared to name that feeling, but right there, as he crossed the short distance between them to gently take her elbow with one hand and sweep her blonde hair from her face with the other, she was beginning to think that mysterious flutter of unknown feeling was in fact the fledgling bird of love.
"Gray," she murmured pleadingly, though she wasn't really sure what she was pleading for. Instinctively, her body leaned forward to just barely press into his. His hand fell from her elbow to land at her hip, lovingly hugging the natural curve of her figure. Tears still glittered on her lashes as she blinked up at him imploringly, and they fell like fruit from a tree to roll down her cheeks, only for his thumb to gently sweep them away.
"I'm sorry it's not right on time," he whispered. There was a husky, desiring tone in his low voice that made Lucy shudder lightly. Their eyes remained locked in a smoldering gaze the entire time, never wavering. Fire and electricity bloomed over the sensitive skin of her cheek as the tip of his finger ever-so-lightly feathered over it, "but Happy New Year," he repeated in a whisper before his face enclosed over hers. Lucy's eyelashes fluttered shut in anticipation of his lips meeting hers, but nothing could physically prepare her for the feeling. His mouth melded against hers as if they were simply made to fit together, soft and pliable yet firm and sure. Lucy's hands curled into the fabric of his kimono over his chest in the instinctual need to ground herself, as something burst inside of her with the intensity of water surging through a dam. Sparked danced where his lips met hers, smearing the lingering taste of liquor over her lips for the aroma to waft up her nose. She wasn't sure if that or the act in itself was intoxicating her, but inebriated she became; her legs became wobbly and her mind fogged over with a thick mist that prevented her from thinking of anything else besides the man holding her and kissing her with a fervent yet tender passion. When he pulled away from her, she swore he took her breath with him, because she had to inhale sharply. Her eyes drifted back open to see him smiling warmly down at her. "Feel better?"
"Mhmm," she answered, suddenly shy. He sneered confidently at her in a dashing way that sent her heart to skittering like a pebble across concrete. Oh, dear, I have gotten myself into something, haven't I? she thought as she tried to find an expression to match what she was feeling, only there were so many emotions at once that it was just one confusing mess. Gray chuckled under his breath and pulled away, only grabbing her wrist to tug her back into the room. Lucy was not sure how to explain her sudden disappearance to all her friends, but Gray had it covered.
"Man, Lucy, how could you run off to the bathroom right as it turns midnight? You missed all the fun," he scolded her with a click of his tongue and a shake of his head. Everyone in the room jumped at her at once with New Years' glee, and Lucy laughed, glad again to be surrounded by all of them. Gray, standing at the other end of the table with a powered glass of sake, raised it to her with a wink. "To new beginnings."
"To new beginnings!" the rest of them cheered loudly and drank, though they had no idea of the message underneath that seemingly simple dedication. As she sipped at a cup of wine, eyes linked to Gray's the entire time, she nodded in understanding.
"To new beginnings."