Chapter 43
With full bellies, Lucy and Natsu are walking hand in hand back up to their room. They are still on the first level and have yet to reach an elevator to ride up to their floor.
"Can we take a nap when we're up in our room?" Natsu asks.
"Is a food coma setting in already?" Lucy teases.
"Hey, you're lucky I'm still walking. You might have to carry me soon."
"Piggyback or princess style?"
"Whatever works best for you."
"Maybe it'll be best if I just drag you around then…" Lucy pushes the button for the elevator, and the duo waits. When it dings and the door slides open, they see a familiar face.
This is just like when Lucy is at the mall and notices a particular person or a group. Throughout her time at the mall, she always sees them. They are either in the same shop as her or just passing by on opposite ends. It is an uncanny ability she has.
Stepping out of the elevator, Nathan waggles his eyebrows at Lucy. "I do like the bikini look, but you still look beautiful."
She does not make a comment back while Natsu shoots him a look. "She's beautiful all of the time," he remarks. "No matter what."
An idea coming to mind, Lucy rolls with it. She wraps both of her arms around one of Natsu's, making sure to press her body against him. "Can we go to our room now? I want to be alone with you. So we can sleep together…" She does mean to just nap, but she is trying to be suggestive on purpose.
Of course, Natsu catches on to what she means. "The sooner the better." When he leads the way into the elevator, he intentionally knocks shoulders with Nathan. When the couple turns to face the doors, Natsu sticks his tongue out at Nathan right before they shut.
"Just how old are you?" Lucy chuckles, loosening her grip on her boyfriend.
"Old enough to sleep with you apparently."
"H-hey!" How dare he use her words against her?
"And by sleep with, I mean nap with."
"Maybe I'll nap on the bed and you can take the floor…" she threatens.
"Might as well sleep in the tub at that rate," Natsu jokes, and then grows a bit serious. "But you'd probably join me from getting lonely."
"Probably," she admits. Lucy does enjoy having Natsu by her side when they nap together. And not just because he is her personal furnace. He is a great cuddle buddy.
Natsu leans over to smooch Luce's head. "You know that I love you."
"Oh, trust me. I know."
"Hey, don't make it seem like a bad thing."
She looks over at him. "It isn't. It's a great thing."
After a quick walk to their room, Natsu kicks off his shoes and faceplants onto his half of the bed. His food coma is coming on strong now.
"Do we have plans for the rest of the evening?" Lucy asks, slipping off her shoes.
"I kinda just really wanna, like really wanna, be lazy the rest of the day and chill here," he admits.
"So you won't care if I get into my pajamas now?"
"Go for it."
She observes him for a moment. "You should, too."
"I'm too lazy to move now. I wanna nap first."
"You're going to wrinkle your clothes."
"Oh, well!"
Lucy gives up on trying to reason with him and grabs her pajamas out of her suitcase. "I'm going into the bathroom to change."
"So barge in without knocking when you least expect it, got it," he sasses.
She playfully rolls his eyes even though Natsu does not see. "Do that and you'll get a Lucy Kick," she warns.
After changing and removing her makeup, Lucy exits the bathroom. She discovers that Natsu, now lying on his back, is wearing athletic shorts and a plain tee. So he did change after all.
"Are you gonna nap, too?" Natsu asks when he hears her footsteps. He keeps his eyes closed since there is no need to open them.
"I'm not tired right now."
"Speaking of right, are you gonna write?" He silently pats himself on the back for his pun.
"Oh, I'm always up for writing."
"Then go for it."
"Really?" She did not think that she could have another chance to be on her laptop so soon.
"Yeah, I'm gonna be napping anyways. We should both do what we wanna do."
A few minutes later, Lucy is sitting in front of her laptop while mulling things over. "Hey, Natsu?" she asks suddenly, pausing a moment from using the keyboard.
He keeps his eyes shut. "Yeah?"
"When it comes to Brantley from Two Idiots and a Blonde, what second language should he speak?" She wants him to fluently speak another one in order to surprise Amanda and Corwin; the two people who will least expect it.
"Français," he replies with a grin.
She types it down, knowing why he said French. At least if she has any future questions dealing with French translations, she can ask Natsu about them.
This is a normal thing for them. Sometimes she asks him questions without giving any back story to see what he thinks or if she is stuck. She does give information if he asks, but he rarely does. Between the two, Lucy is thankful for his help while Natsu is secretly touched. She talks as though the people and places she creates are real just like her and Natsu. They are real to her. And they exist all because of her.
"You said that's the story with some romance, right?" Natsu asks.
Lucy nods. When she remembers that he is not looking at her, she vocally replies. "Yes."
"So who's got the romance?"
"Well, for starters, the fans of the three ship them all around." And yes, she has the different official ship names written down in a document all about the trio. "The two popular ones are Amanda with each of the guys. Brantley and Corwin is a ship, too."
"So which one is your ship?"
Lucy pictures the two in her mind, smiling a little. "Amanda and Brantley."
"Brantanda," he jokes.
"Amantley," she corrects, booping his nose lightly with a finger.
Natsu jumps at the unexpected touch before relaxing. "Looks like you have that planned out," he comments.
"For the most part." Some things still need pieced together, but there is time for that.
"So who crushed on who first?"
"I planned on Amanda liking Brantley first, but the more I think about it, I like him crushing on her first."
"That'll be opposite with what happened with us."
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't remember?"
She is slightly confused. "I don't know what you mean."
"The review you left."
"Hey, I never thought I'd see you again after that."
"But you made the first move."
"I just admitted that I found you attractive. I never said that I had a crush on you."
"You might as well have."
"If I made the first move, then you initiated things by texting me."
Lucy does have Natsu there. He cannot possibly argue that.
"Plus, you asked if I wanted to see you the next day."
"But you mentioned we should get food."
"I threw that out there as a suggestion since you suggested hanging out in the first place."
A pouting look comes across Natsu's face. "Quit one upping me."
"It's true!" she laughs.
Natsu thinks for a moment, face fixed in concentration. He needs to take the lead now. "Hey, but you called it a date! You were the one who totally called it a date first!" He even has the locked text message to prove it.
Oh, it is a competition now. It is so on.
"You admitting your feelings first when you brought me pizza," Lucy brings up.
"And then my old man interrupted us right before we kissed," he groans, recalling that moment. "Totally killed the mood we had going before."
"But we still kissed."
Natsu reaches for her with a hand, fingers grazing against her thigh. "Yeah, we did…"
Now Lucy is just in the mood for reminiscing over fond memories. "And the next day, you asked me to be your girlfriend. In the romance section of the bookstore."
"After we ditched Ice Princess and Juvia," he adds with a snicker.
"That was your idea." Lucy puts her hand over Natsu's hand that is on her. "Totally your idea."
"And you went with it."
Using her free hand, Lucy sets her laptop onto the nightstand by her before getting comfortable. She lies down and rolls onto her side so her back is towards her boyfriend.
Wasting no time, Natsu immediately scoots over to spoon her from behind. He loves snuggle sessions with Lucy. She is his designated cuddle buddy. His arms go around her, bringing them even closer together. "What happened to writing?" he murmurs.
"Eh, I can do it in a bit," she replies. "I need to recharge first."
"Recharge?" he snorts.
She grabs one of his hands to bring it to her mouth for a little kiss. "I have to get all charged up with love before writing."
"What about being fired up?" he jokes.
"That's your thing."
"You bet your cute ass it is."
She giggles. "You think it's cute?"
"Just like the rest of you."
"Well, you're not so bad yourself," she teases.
"Luce, I'm the best you've ever had."
There is no denying that since it is totally true. "You are the only one who I went on more dates with."
"I think the pink hair did it for you. You know, since it's a favorite color of yours and all."
"If it was pink and blue then you'd be all set."
"I'd have cotton candy hair then."
Lucy pictures him with pastel pinks and blues in his hair, laughing. "Now that'd be a sight to see!"
"Ain't gonna happen."
"It could happen."
"Never."
"Maybe."
Natsu uses a hand to tickle her side. "Never ever."
As her laughter fills the air, she starts wiggling to escape even though he has a good hold of her. "S-stop it!" Lucy kicks her legs around, not caring if she accidentally hurts him or not.
"So the magic word," he says.
"P-please!" she sputters, red faced.
"Nope, not the magic word!" He continues his tickle attack along her side, traveling to her stomach.
"I'm going to pee if you don't stop!" she warns.
So he finally lets up to give her a break.
Lucy is practically wheezing for air. "That"-she inhales-"was mean."
"It was funny."
"Mean." She goes back to normal even though her stomach still feels the aftereffects of being tickled. "You're lucky that I love you…" she chides.
Natsu smooches her cheek, cuddling closer to her if it is possible. "I'm incredibly lucky that you love me," he says in an endearing tone. "I think about that every day."
Pink tints Lucy's cheeks. "You're so sappy."
"I prefer the term cheesy. Like the kinda stuff you like on your pizza."
"Among other toppings."
"True."
She giggles. "You're such a weirdo."
"Hey, I'm not the only one in this relationship."
"Maybe that's why we get along so well," she muses.
Natsu yawns. "Whelp, it's officially naptime for me."
"Me, too."
"Sleep tight, Luce. Don't let the bed bugs bite."
A/N Part 1: I'll admit it, this chapter was for fluff. Because fluff is good, and I personally needed a good dose of fluff and happiness. After owning a brand new phone (that had all of my photos/memories on it) for not even 48 hours, it was stolen from me… That really brought me down. But writing this did help a bit! Anyways, next chapter will probs cue to the next day.
A/N Part 2: So two Mondays from now (the 17th), I'm having surgery to remove all four, impacted wisdom teeth... I dunno if I'll have time to update the day before, and I don't plan on rushing myself. If it happens that Sunday, it'll happen that Sunday. If not, well, the update will happen when it happens XD But at least there will be another update until then! I just wanted to give y'all a heads up!
Siren: Thank you! I like being creative and having a range for things :)
Flamexofxchaos: Ayy, it still works. My fiancé helps me write like that, too, so it made sense for Natsu to do it for Lucy! And NaLu is hella cute anyways :)
Anon: How dare I indeed :P All the FT chapters in general! THE FEELS! But I do realllllly love NaLu in this work :) The 3 works Lucy talked about in the last chapter are original works of mine, so they were easy enough to talk about rather than using a series that is published by someone else. And thank you for reading my work!
Nikita: Oh, more for sure :D
Fairy Tail Lover: Food is greatttttttttt :D
MariaLouisa: Well, thanks for giving this work a chance :D I'm still surprised at how long this work is turning out since it was supposed to be a one-shot XD But more to come for sure!
