My husband and I are expecting our second little one in December (yay!) and now that I'm finally through my first trimester and our son is sleeping better, I don't feel quite as tired all the time, so today I skipped nap time to finish this up for you all. I think you'll like it.
As always, thanks for the love and happy reading!
"What do you mean you're afraid of heights?"
Lucy continued to keep her face covered as she shook her head. It was bearable as long as she didn't look. If she didn't look, she could pretend that he was just carrying her. While bouncing up and down for some reason.
Natsu sighed. "Lucy, if that's all it is, I can help."
"No, Natsu, it's fine. Just put me down."
"I can't do that, Luce."
"Natsu-"
"Really, Lucy. Do you want me to lose you, too?" Lucy didn't say anything, but slowly, she began to shake her head. "Alright, now don't freak out."
"About what?" she whispered.
Instead of answering, Natsu just squeezed her a little closer and asked, "Do you trust me?"
Lucy didn't even have to think twice. For the first time since they got into the air, she moved her fingers so she could see him. She was close enough that her vision was completely filled with his face, and as she looked into his eyes she nodded. Once he began to grin, she quickly moved her fingers back in place. She felt a tingling sensation where Natsu's arms were wrapped around her, and suddenly, she didn't feel the rocking motion from his flight, or the cold wind against her skin.
As she opened her eyes again, she was standing on a beach. She looked around and saw that it was empty except for a few groups of chairs spaced out near the edge of the trees, and Natsu, who appeared to be standing right next to her. "Natsu… what did you do?"
"It's just an illusion," he answered. "Don't worry, I'll remove it as soon as we're done, but this way you'll hopefully be more comfortable while we're in the air."
As Lucy looked around, she felt her panic increase at the thought that she didn't know what was happening to her body, but as the Natsu beside her took her hand and gave her his signature grin, she felt herself growing more comfortable. "Okay, I'm willing to give it a shot. Just… don't drop me, okay?"
The Natsu beside her laughed as he pulled her forward. "That is never going to happen, Lucy."
For the next hour, Lucy ran around and laughed and enjoyed her time on the beach with the illusion Natsu. They swam in the surf, laid in the sun, and even drank from coconuts that appeared like magic on a tray.
"So, how exactly does this work for you?"
"What do you mean?"
Lucy gestured at him. "How much of the illusion is really you?"
A large beach ball appeared in Natsu's hands and he tossed it her way. "Well, physically, I'm not doing what you see me doing. The illusion is created by my magic, and my clone acts the way I would act. I can't see what you see, so if you asked me to do something, the illusion would act according to how I respond. The only part of it that's directly me is my voice."
"Do you only do beach scenes?"
The illusion before her tossed the ball high, making it more difficult for Lucy to catch. "No, I can do others. I can do pretty much any place I've seen before." The illusion dodged the ball as Lucy chucked it at his head. "Is there a place you wanted me to show you?"
Lucy lit up, the answer coming to her immediately. "Can I see your home?"
The illusion and Natsu's voice both paused for a long moment. "Why… would you want to see that?"
She shrugged, her natural responses still occurring even though Natsu couldn't see her. "I'm just curious."
The ball disappeared. "Do you mean the demon realm or a house?"
Lucy hesitated a moment as she considered his words - a house instead of my house. "The realm. You said humans wouldn't survive the heat there, right? Well I think I can handle an illusion."
Illusion Natsu continued to look uncomfortable. "I guess, if you want, I can show you sometime." Suddenly, he lit up. "I found it! Do you want to see or should I wait until I land to remove this?" Illusion Natsu gestured around himself.
"When you land, please," she responded. While she waited, Lucy allowed herself one more long look at the half naked Natsu in front of her. He really was spectacular. She'd had to catch herself more than once to keep from touching him too much while they played.
Before she could lose the chance, she threw herself forward into fake Natsu's arms and hugged him. The illusion hugged her back, hard, and swung her around before putting her back on her feet. He only grinned as she slowly pulled away, her hands covertly running over his chest and stomach.
His reactions reinforced that she was in an illusion. She had no doubt if she had done the same thing in real life he would have laughed, maybe even called her a weirdo. She grinned up at him and patted his cheek.
Fake Natsu raised an eyebrow at her, but she only smiled wider as she removed her hand. "I'm excited to go back." There was no response for a moment, and Lucy began to worry. "Natsu?"
Natsu fought to find his breath as he landed more roughly than he'd intended. He found that he almost regretted loosening the restrictions on the illusion at the end. Once he'd seen the lodge, he'd opened the connection between the two of them to conserve some of his magic. He'd allowed her body to respond some to her actions in the illusion and cut off the physical block between himself and his illusion self. He'd been so surprised by the hug she'd given him, both in the illusion and in the physical world, he hadn't known what to do.
On top of that, the hand she'd laid on his cheek had been… surprising. Surprising and soft and what he wanted more than anything at that moment was to prolong the contact between her skin and his. She said his name a second time and he almost cursed himself for telling her he'd found the lodge.
Lucy said his name again, her worry obviously growing, but instead of dropping the illusion, he asked her, in a voice that was more hoarse than he'd ever admit, "Can you… do that again?"
Lucy looked confused. "What do you mean?"
He swallowed as he considered his response. "Whatever you just did… I think I might have felt it. It was kind of weird, can you do it again? I wanna see if I was imagining it."
Lucy stared up at illusion Natsu and quickly considered her options. She had been certain that he wouldn't feel anything she did. He'd said that physically there was no connection, otherwise she would have kept her hands to herself. If she did it again, and he did feel it, what would he think? She'd never touched him in such a way in the real world, so he would be sure to want answers, but did she even have any to give him?
Illusion Natsu grabbed her by both shoulders and looked down at her with the most intense look she'd ever seen in this Natsu's or the real one's eyes. "Please, Luce?" Lucy gulped, but decided that she had no reason to be scared or nervous, so she reached up and carefully placed her palm against his cheek.
Natsu couldn't help himself. He adjusted his grip on Lucy and raised a free hand to cover hers, not knowing or caring if the action caused his fake self to do the same as his eyes fluttered closed and he leaned his face into her touch.
He felt so strange as he stood there with her hand on his face. A touch had never affected him so much before, for as long as he can remember, a touch had always just been a touch, but now…
He'd never felt so at peace, never felt so centered, never felt so… good.
Whatever magic was at work was affecting him in a way he'd never been before. He caught himself before he could start purring, a surefire way to let Lucy know something was up. Much sooner than he would like, he let her hand go and pulled back.
After a moment, Lucy cleared her throat, her glazed eyes focusing again. "So? Did you feel anything?"
Natsu couldn't seem to find the words to respond to her. He found he didn't want to talk about it, not yet, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to her. It might have been a cowardly move, but he decided to distract her instead of answering. "Get ready. The transition is going to be a little rough."
"What do you me - holy shit is it cold!" Lucy was suddenly thrust back into her regular body, where she was surrounded by cold and snow and a fully dressed Natsu. "Holy crap, I forgot how cold it was."
"That was the other reason I sent you to the beach. I know you like warm places more than cold. I thought it would be a treat."
Fully distracted from their strange interaction, Lucy began to hop up and down in place. "So, where is the lodge? You said you found it."
Natsu nodded as he pointed. "It's a little ways passed that hill. I couldn't land too close because there are people skiing over there."
Lucy didn't have to be told twice. Without even waiting for him, she began to quickly make her way through the snow in the direction he'd pointed. It took them almost half an hour before they finally crested the last hill and found the large log building again.
"Oh thank god," Lucy whispered as she jogged the rest of the way to the front door of the building. Natsu followed close behind, reaching the door just before her so he could open it. Once they were inside, Lucy went to stand next to the fireplace where there was a fire already burning. Before Natsu could join her, the man at the desk drew his attention.
"You're back!" He quickly rounded the desk and came to stand in front of Natsu. "When no one checked you two back in last night, we had to search for you on the cameras and then sent out a search party to look for you! The storm forced them to return before they could make much progress but they went back out this morning as soon as the sun rose to continue the search! Where on earth did the two of you go?"
Natsu was flabbergasted as to how he should respond, not having been aware the lodge kept such a close eye on their guests, but before he could respond, Lucy had joined them.
"We're really sorry," she said, hands clasped together in front of her chest. "We decided to try out one of the less travelled paths and got a little lost. We found a cave to stay in during the night and then managed to find our way back this morning. I didn't have my phone, so we had no way to reach out. I apologize for the inconvenience."
The man waved away her apologies. "It's really no problem, miss. Our first priority is to our guests and their safety, so our time is never wasted so long as you make it back here safe. We recently had a series of storms that knocked down many of the signs scattered across the mountain, so the trails are harder to navigate while we work on getting them put back up. Please, allow me to comp your dinner this evening, as an apology. Either as room service or in the restaurant, whichever you would prefer."
Lucy glanced up at Natsu. "Oh, I don't know if-"
"That sounds great," Natsu said quickly. "I think room service, if you don't mind. This little lady needs to get into a nice hot bath and warm up." When both the young man and Lucy blushed slightly, Natsu wondered what he could have said to cause such a reaction, but Lucy interrupted him before he could say anything more.
"We'll probably order something soon. We're both pretty hungry."
The man nodded. "Excellent. I will make a note in your file. You won't have to do anything more than give them your room number and they will know not to add it to your bill. Please again, accept my apologies on behalf of the entire lodge. I hope the remainder of your stay is a pleasant one."
"Thank you," the pair said before moving towards the elevator. As they left, they heard the clerk return to his desk and make a call.
Lucy sighed as the doors closed. "I wasn't expecting to be bombarded like that as soon as we returned."
"I wasn't aware they kept such a close eye on people. It makes sense, I suppose, but I just didn't expect it."
Lucy hummed as she leaned back against the wall of the elevator. "I'm really excited for a bath."
Natsu chuckled. "I can imagine. Do you want me to help warm it up? I'm much faster than a heating system."
She shook her head with a grin. "I think I can wait a little longer to make sure it's not so hot I boil."
"I would never do that," he reassured her. The elevator pinged and opened on their floor. As they both exited, Natsu began to dig in his pockets for his keycard. "Besides, I've felt the steam coming out of the bathroom when you've been in it before. I'm not so sure you're not already trying to boil yourself."
"Ha ha," she said, pulling out her own card and opening the door as they reached it. "Now if you'll excuse me," she said, yanking off her outerwear, "I'm going to go take a bath. Please don't order more than five entrees and two desserts for yourself. I'll take something with chicken and noodles."
Natsu saluted her as she headed for the bathroom. "You got it, master." He chuckled when she stuck out her tongue in response before closing the door behind her. As Natsu changed his clothes to something more comfortable, he made his way towards the desk and picked up the menu to scan the options. Lucy had said only five entree…
Grinning at the challenge, he eagerly he pulled a notepad close to him and began to eliminate options.
As the door closed, Natsu began lifting lids on the food in front of him. "Lucy, the food is here!"
Lucy responded, but he didn't hear what she said. Once he found her tray, he picked it up and went to the bathroom door. "Luce? Want your food?"
"It can't wait," she said.
Natsu's brow furrowed as he called again. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Okay." Still a little uneasy, since she'd never allowed him to enter in the past while she'd been in the bathroom, he twisted the knob and opened it, plate carefully balanced in one hand. "I just wanted to make sure before-"
"NATSU!" Lucy's screech echoed around the room, but the noise didn't stop Natsu's eyes from finding what she was hastily trying to cover.
Her pale, wet naked body.
