Summary: Determined to save herself and the rest of the guild, Lucy teaches Natsu how to play billiards properly…

Pairings: Natsu/Lucy, implied Cana/Lucy friendship, implied Juvia/Lucy friendship, implied Gray/Natsu friendship, and lots of other friendship-y feels within the guild. But mostly just Natsu/Lucy.

YouTube Prompt: Natsu/Lucy video to 'The Way You Make Me Feel' by Michael Jackson.

When a billiards ball almost hit Lucy's head she snapped and decided enough was enough.

"NATSU!" she shrieked. "FOR GOD SAKE JUST STOP!"

Lucy leaped through the flying balls and somehow, luckily (as Gray got a black eye, Happy was knocked out, Wendy now had a round bruise on her leg, and a few other members who were new quit right there and then) avoided to be hit by them, as she then grabbed Natsu and tackled him to the ground.

Natsu stared up at her with wide eyes as he realised she was now straddling him. Lucy blinked, flushed a bright pink, and hastily stood up as she flattened her skirt to her legs.

"If you want to play," she said coolly, "then at least let me teach you properly."

"Huh," Natsu blinked. "You know how to play, Lucy?"

"Well," Lucy said sheepishly. "It's not really for ladies. So of course I made sure I knew how to play."

"That makes no sense!" Gray and Natsu shouted.

"Actually it does," Juvia said understandingly, she had a similar background to Lucy and knew about all the social rules just as well. She knew just as well as Lucy that only men were allowed to play billiards in the den with the smoking and brandy drinking. "Lucy-san is a rebel remember? Anything to upset her father."

"Lucy, a rebel?" Natsu snorted.

"Not likely," Gray agreed equally derisive.

A dark, angry, aura not unlike Erza's, surrounded Lucy as she glowered at Natsu. "Do you want to learn or not?!" she hissed menacingly.

"Aye, Sir!" Natsu squeaked.

"Right, first you hold the cue like this." Everyone gathered round in interest as they saw Lucy set up the billiards table once more, and then, uncharacteristically, grab Natsu from behind and placed him behind the white ball. "Then you measure up the line like this, no like this Natsu." A few people's jaws dropped open (including Happy's) when Lucy pressed her breasts against Natsu back as she bent him over the billiards table, her arms above his as she showed him how to hold the stick properly. From an outsider's view it looked very much like Lucy was doing something incredibly inappropriate.

"Why is Lucy sexually harassing, Natsu?" Wakaba asked loudly. "Shouldn't it be the other way round?"

"Nah," Macao waved dismissively, "always knew she was the dominant one, what with her whip and all that. Way to go Natsu! You let her bend you over that table!" he cat-called much to Romeo's embarrassment.

"Dad!" he hissed.

"Perverts," Laxus grunted before he put his headphones back in and ignored the rest of the world.

Natsu took the shot but, much to his disappointment, the ball didn't go very far. "Eh," Natsu said unimpressed, "are you sure you know how to play? Because that was crap!"

"Yes," Lucy growled, "that was very impressive for a first shot, now then-"

"I think Lucy is lying," Natsu stage-whispered, "she obviously doesn't know how to play."

"Aye" Happy agreed in an equally loud whisper, "Lucy is such a terrible liar!"

"Why you little-"

"Morons," Cana snorted as she smacked Natsu on Lucy's behalf, "that is how you play billiards properly. And Lucy would know, after all she's won every billiards competition held at those posh fancy parties."

Lucy blushed at that. "Do you have to keep re-reading those articles?" she bemoaned.

"Eh," Cana shrugged, "everyone needs a hobby and it helps the hangover. I liked the one where you managed to get all the balls in with one shot."

"WHAT?!"

"It wasn't like that!" Lucy blushed even more at the sight of Gray's, Natsu's, Happy's and Wendy's gobsmacked expressions. "A waiter accidentally tripped up my competitor just as I was taking a shot and he landed onto the billiards table and knocked all the balls in."

"Lucky Lucy," Happy murmured in awe.

"Why is it that you're always lucky like that but whenever it comes to something serious like a fight you instantly become unlucky?" Gray asked curiously.

"I have no idea," Lucy shrugged.

A sad look crossed Lucy's face as she inevitably thought about her poor luck of surviving Tenrou only to find out she missed her father by a month, her terrible luck of getting captured, her nastier luck that she survived an attack on her life because her future self took the blow instead….

Yukino knew nothing of bad luck like Lucy had.

Natsu noticed the look on her face and frowned. He had a strong temptation to punch Gray's fucking lights out for causing such an expression but somehow (and not just because Mira quickly whispered it in his ear) Natsu knew that wouldn't be the key to cheering Lucy up and decided on distracting her instead. "C'mon Luce," he nudged her, "finish teaching me how to play."

"Hm?" Lucy blinked, she took in Natsu's eager face and the way he was waving his stick about excitedly, and couldn't help but smile fondly. "Sure. Now back to the position we were in before…"

And so the rest of the afternoon was spent in a rare peace as Lucy had her arms wrapped round Natsu the entire time, no matter how many times he kept accidentally elbowing her in the face.

(And if bets were made on how soon Lucy and Natsu were going to end up together, and if Mira took a picture of Lucy wrapped round Natsu and stuck it on her wall of shipping fluff, and if Happy kept giggling and telling everyone that 'they liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike each other'….well neither Lucy nor Natsu cared as they had the best quiet afternoon in a very long time.)