Natsu falls into his and Lucy's room, hanging onto the doorknob for dear life as Lucy giggles behind him. Neither of them are drunk, but Natsu ate far too much at dinner, even for him, and he's paying the price for it now. He doesn't even lean down to pet Happy on his way over to his bed, and so the blue cat heads to Lucy for his attention. Plue is already asleep on the couch.

"This is the real reason fate was kind enough to give us two beds," Lucy says as Natsu lands face-first in his pillow. "It's so you don't end up puking all over me in the middle of the night."

Natsu simply groans in response, shifting so he's lying on his side. Lucy isn't in her bed. Instead, she's rummaging through one of the inner pockets of her smallest suitcase, and in the dim light, Natsu can make out shampoo and conditioner. He resists the urge to groan again when he realises he'll have to take a shower before going to bed. He's already too comfortable to move.

"Don't these places come with free hair stuff?" Natsu asks, voice muffled by his pillow.

Lucy sends him one of those 'you clearly wouldn't understand' looks as she stands, towel and pyjamas draped over one arm. "My hair is long, Natsu. Those tiny little bottles of tiny little shampoo wouldn't even last me one shower. Besides, mine smells nicer."

Natsu nuzzles his pillow. "Whatever, I dunno anything about those name-brand things, anyway. I just use the supermarket one."

Lucy sighs, already halfway to the bathroom. "I'll be out in a bit."

The bathroom door closes and Natsu hears the faint sound of rushing water about half a minute later. He's tempted to fall asleep, but it isn't that late, and so he flicks on his bedside lamp and pulls out his script. He's been reading at least one scene every night before bed as some sort of memorisation tactic, and it seems to be working so far. He starts from where he and Lucy finished and reads his lines at least three times each, imagining how he should say them, muttering them to himself to test different inflections.

When he reaches the last scene of the film, he stops. This isn't the first time he's read through it, but it's the first time his co-lead has been in the other room, and he remembers Freed telling him earlier that Lucy had wanted to change the last scene so it was a hug instead of a kiss. It hadn't bothered him at the time, but now he wonders if there was a particular reason that Lucy was so adamant.

He's up to the very last line when the shower stops, and he places his script beside his pillow, knowing he'll lose it if he doesn't. Happy is curled up by his stomach, eyes closed. He gives the cat a soft scratch behind the ears as he waits for the bathroom door to open. Lucy emerges a minute or so later with wet hair and silk pyjamas, and she's surprised to see him awake.

"I thought you'd be in a food coma by now," she says, dumping her old clothes inside a different suitcase than the one from before.

"Nah, I was reading lines," Natsu says. He watches her for a moment, as if her body language will give him an answer to the question he wants to ask, but when it doesn't, he speaks anyway. "Hey, Lucy, can I ask you something?"

Lucy doesn't look at him as she slides into bed, a book in her hand. "Sure, what is it?"

"Why did you wanna write the kiss scene out of the movie so badly?" he asks, and he swears she freezes for a split second. "Freed told me, and I was just wondering. You don't need to do something you don't wanna do."

Lucy traces the spine of her book (an old classic he's never paid much attention to). "It's nothing to do with you, if that's what you're worried about."

That isn't really an answer, but that calms his worries. Just a little. "It's not that. I was just curious." When Lucy doesn't respond, only frowning at her book, he continues. "Okay, what if I guess what the problem is?"

That gets her attention. She looks up at him with an expression mixed with confusion and exasperation, but that's enough for him. "You're going to what?"

"Is it because you've never been kissed before? Is that it?" he asks, rather than responding to her question. He assumes it was rhetorical, anyway.

Lucy drops her book on the bedspread and glares at him. "I have been kissed, thank you very much. Any other genius guesses?"

Natsu already has his next question in mind, but he pretends to seriously consider it, rubbing his chin with narrowed eyes. Then he says, tone completely serious, "I know exactly what it is. You're a horrible kisser, aren't you?"

He drops the act as Lucy makes an outraged sound, laughing as she chucks a pillow at him. He catches it effortlessly. "That is not the case, you ass! I've been kissed by several people more than once, so your theory is complete and utter trash."

His laughter continues. It's so easy to tease Lucy, and it's quickly becoming one of his favourite pastimes. "Alright, alright, I'll take your word for it. For now. We'll see what the verdict is when we have to do that last scene, huh?" She narrows her eyes at him and Happy mews, as though telling her to calm down. Natsu likes to think that that's what's happening, anyway. "So, what? What's the problem?"

"I thought you were gonna guess?" Lucy grumbles, bringing her knees up to her chin.

"I couldn't think of anything else," Natsu says. "Nothing that would make you react like a crazy lady, anyway. It's not something like being camera-shy, is it? You're a natural, remember? I told you that before."

Lucy sighs and lies back on her remaining pillows. "That's different. I'm just being myself there. I'm not acting, and I definitely don't have to portray a love story. I chose the celestial princess because I love stars and I thought she sounded like a really cool character, but I don't know if I'll be able to do everything right."

Natsu is tempted to tease her again, but then he sees the worry in her eyes, the way she's pulled her bedspread so it covers half her face, as if to hide. This is something she's really struggling with, it seems. He doesn't quite know what to say, but he has to say something, and so he opens his mouth without thinking (as usual, but hopefully something good will come out of it this time).

"Hey," he says, softer than before. "You're Lucy Heartfilia and you're a badass in front of the camera, okay? You're gonna be the star of that film - no pun intended - and you're gonna be amazing, because that's how you are in front of a camera, and that's not gonna change 'cause you have a script. You wrote that script. No one can play the princess nearly as well as you can."

Lucy slowly lowers her covers so he can see her whole face. She's smiling. "Thanks, Natsu. That means a lot."

Before he can say, 'you're welcome' in return, he yawns. "Shit, I'm tired. Bedtime."

He switches his lamp off and Lucy abandons her book before turning hers off as well. They settle into their beds and Natsu closes his eyes, but is very aware of Lucy's presence on the opposite side of the room, barely an arm's length away. The only sound he can hear is the sound of the wind and the sea outside as well as the vibrant hum of the guests in the restaurant.

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I have my pillow back?"

"Nope."

"I hate you."

"No, you don't."

"Ow!"

"Stay still."

"I would if you'd stop stabbing me!"

"It barely touched you, you big baby."

Natsu swears that Lisanna is doing this on purpose at this point. She's in the middle of fitting his costume, which is taking forever because so much goes into it, and the longer it takes, the more opportunities Lisanna has to accidentally poke him with the sewing pins. Or 'accidentally', in his opinion. Lisanna isn't that clumsy. She's enjoying this, he knows she is.

It's only the two of them and Mira in the room. Juvia is helping with the costumes, too, but she's gone to hunt down Elfman and Evergreen, who have mysteriously disappeared before their fitting was due to start. Natsu can't blame them. If he'd known that Lisanna would take the opportunity to make fun of him the entire time, he would have hidden away somewhere, too.

Still, with just Lisanna and Mira in the room, he can ask for advice, preferably without being made fun of. At least for the most part.

"Hey, guys, can I ask you something?"

Lisanna doesn't stop pinning bits and pieces of his costume, but Mira looks over from the sewing machine. "Of course, what is it?"

"What do you do when someone you're working with is nervous about something, but there's no way to change it, so you wanna make them as comfortable as possible with it, but you don't know how?" he asks all in one go, and he takes a deep breath once he's finished.

Lisanna actually looks at him this time. "This is about the kiss scene with Lucy, isn't it?"

Natsu coughs, but he can't deny it. "How'd you know?"

Both Lisanna and Mira give him a look as the latter says, "It was obvious. Besides, I was there when Lucy was talking about it to Levy and Freed, so it wasn't that hard to guess. Did she talk to you about it?"

"We talked about it last night, yeah." Natsu had been the one to bring it up, but he wasn't about to mention that. Perhaps Lucy hadn't wanted to tell him in the first place? That was plausible. "She said there was nothing in particular she was worried about, just the fact that she's not used to acting in front of the camera rather than being herself."

"I have an idea," Mira says. "Remember when we were all at the orphanage and we put on all those plays to raise money?"

"And you and Erza kept arguing over the lead role? Yeah."

Mira decides to ignore him. "Remember how Lisanna and I made those scented flowers for everyone, the one with the calming aromas, and we all used to keep them with us before we went onstage, and the entire backstage was filled with that calming scent, so we were able to stay focused? What if I made one of those for Lucy?"

Natsu grins, and if Lisanna wasn't holding a pin right by his collar, he would run over to Mira and hug her. "That's a great idea! Could you do it by tomorrow night? I think that's when we start shooting."

"Of course, they barely take ten minutes to make."

"Thanks!"

The door bursts open then, and Juvia appears in the doorway, Evergreen and Elfman behind her with red faces. "Juvia has apprehended Evergreen and Elfman!"

"And where were you two?" Lisanna asks, momentarily looking up from Natsu's costume. "You were supposed to be here an hour ago!"

Evergreen holds her head up high. "We - we just got sidetracked, that's all."

Lisanna narrows her eyes. "With what?"

Both their faces grow redder and Elfman bellows, "Nothing!"

The following night is when they start filming. Laxus and the rest of the film crew had been out there the previous night, getting in some landscape shots and blocking various scenes, searching the location for the best spots for different scenes. Everything is mostly set up when Natsu and Lucy arrive. Gajeel and Reedus are messing about with one of the tripods, and Lisanna is putting the finishing touches on Cana's costume. They're filming the celestial princess's arrival tonight as well as the fortune teller's scene. Natsu only came for moral support.

Once he's sure no one is around to disturb them, Natsu leads Lucy off to the side where some equipment cases are stacked, and he sits on one while she sits on another. She takes a moment to ensure her costume doesn't crinkle.

"What's up?" she asks, and while she smiles at him, he can tell she's nervous by the way her shoulders are up high, her feet constantly moving.

Taking the flower out from his pocket, he places it in the palm of his hand and offers it to her. "Here, this is for you. To help your nerves. Mira made it. She used to make them for all of us when we had to perform to raise money for the orphanage and we'd get nervous."

Lucy takes the flower, treating it with care as she brings it to her face and breathes in the scent. "It wonderful, thank you," she says, and Natsu is happy to see her shoulders relax. When she looks at him again, though, she seems confused. "You guys were in an orphanage?"

It takes Natsu a moment to catch up. Of course Lucy wouldn't know. He's so used to everyone else on the channel knowing about their circumstances, even those who weren't there in the orphanage days, that he forgot that no one had told Lucy. It's not public knowledge, and when they're asked in Q&As how they know each other, they just say that they're all childhood friends. There's no way she would know.

He responds casually, though. "Yeah, a lot of us are. That's how we all met and why we started the channel. Gramps suggested it to us when we were bored one summer, and the rest was history. Now it's a business, but we have fun."

Lucy's smile widens the slightest bit, and she twirls the flower around in her hand. "Well, thanks for telling me. It's nice to be trusted with stuff like that."

Natsu just smiles as Lucy is called over to begin shooting. "Of course! What are friends for?"

sorry for the late update! things will be slow going for a bit, since i'm writing something for nanowrimo (which happens to be a fairy tail next gen fic, though it'll probably be rushed and atrocious, so i'm not sure whether i'll publish it or not). this chapter is also shorter than i'd like it to be, but it seemed like a good place to leave it off!