A little bit of flufflestuff I've had in my head lately that needed to get out, so here it is! R&R, lovers! xx
Rating: T – Feel-good fluff, but maybe a little suggestive at the end.
Teeth chattering, Lucy rolled over and peeked over the edge of her sleeping bag. The fire at the centre of their makeshift camp had gone out, the coals barely even glowing. She moaned a little in distress. It was too cold to get out of her sleeping bag and re-kindle the fire. She wriggled around a little more, trying to stop anymore cold air from leaking in while she looked around. Erza lay a few feet away by the wheels of her ginormous luggage cart, completely bundled up in her numerous blankets, completely unaffected by the cold. Almost directly across the dying fire was Gray, his sleeping bag not even covering his naked chest as he slept, even less bothered by the cold than Erza. Lucy tilted her head back a tiny bit and gasped as the cold air reached her neck. A few feet away on her other side, Natsu was sprawled out under his blanket, taking up a ridiculous amount of space as usual and also unbothered by the cold.
"Psst!" Lucy hissed. "Natsu!" She kept her voice low so as not to wake the others. Natsu slept like the dead, but she had discovered that, at the right pitch, she could wake him up with a whisper. "Natsu! Wake up."
He grunted and she saw the top of his head move as he rolled to the side.
Lucy growled in frustration. If it wasn't so cold out, she would throw a rock at him. "Natsu!" Her teeth were chattering so loudly she was amazed the sound of them hadn't woken everyone up. "Natsu!"
He grumbled something completely unintelligible, but Lucy didn't let it deter her. "Natsu, can you light the fire again? Please?" She shuddered as a cool breeze blew through the camp. "I'm freezing over here."
He grumbled something in response, and it took Lucy a moment to figure it out. "Shoulda dressed warmer."
"Hey!" she hissed as indignantly as she could through her chattering teeth. "I dressed plenty warm enough! It's, like, minus a hundred degrees out here." Maybe a slight exaggeration – it hadn't even started snowing yet, but she guessed it wasn't far off. "Please, Natsu!" she begged.
He grumbled a bit, but the fire flared and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief, wriggling herself closer to the flames. "Thank you," she whispered.
Natsu muttered and rolled over again. Lucy ventured a hand outside her sleeping roll and reached it towards the fire, sighing again as the delicious heat sank into her. But then, barely a minute passed before Natsu started snoring again, and the flames went out.
Lucy bit back a yelp as the cold bit into her hand and she pulled it back into her sleeping bag as quickly as she could. "Natsu!" she hissed. "Natsu!"
"Wha'?"
"The fire went out again."
She heard him groan. "No fuel."
Her teeth chattered so hard she nearly bit her tongue. She remembered the job she, Natsu and Happy had taken at Mount Hakobe to find ice that replenishes magic power. They had gotten lost in the maze-like ice caverns and had relied on Natsu's fire to keep them warm and alive. The only problem was, without some external source of fuel, his fire went out whenever he fell asleep or lost consciousness. She groaned in despair. "It's too cold," was all she could say. She felt like crying because she was so cold.
"We used everything we had before we went to sleep." Natsu's voice was gravelly with sleep and he kept his voice low as well. Lucy knew it was only because he feared Erza's wrath if he woke her up. "There's nothing left."
Lucy whimpered, trying to curl herself into a tighter ball to conserve body heat. She wanted to beg him to stay awake so he could fuel the fire with magic, but she knew it wasn't fair to ask that of him. He had expended a great deal of magic power on their mission already. But she was just so cold. She pulled her sleeping bag tighter around herself, pulling it up over her head. She focused on breathing, willing the air around her to get warmer.
When the zipper on her bag opened, letting in a rush of freezing cold air, she nearly shrieked in desolation. Only nearly, because Natsu's warm hand clamped down over her mouth.
"Shhh!" he hissed. "You'll wake Erza!"
She pulled his hand off her mouth, instantly regretting it as the cold air sucked away his lingering warmth. "What are you doing? I just told you–"
"That you're freezing; yeah, I get it." He sat down next to her and shoved his feet into her sleeping bag. Lucy's eyes nearly popped out of her head at his audacity. "What are you–?"
"You want to be warm, don't you?" He flung his blanket over the top of them, but Lucy shoved at his chest.
"You can't sleep in my sleeping bag, Natsu!"
"Would you quiet down, already? Erza'll be pissed if you wake her up with all your carrying on. Come 'ere."
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest. She tried to resist, adamant that he get out of her sleeping bag, but he was much stronger than she was and he was warm. So, so warm. Her feet were already toasty. "Fine, you can stay," she muttered. "But just this once." She pressed her palm to his chest as he chuckled, taking in his delicious heat and tucking her head against his shoulder. Her eyelids were already getting droopy as sleep crept upon her. A thought occurred to her. "Where's your tunic?" she asked sleepily. Her fingers traced lazy patterns onto the smooth, warm skin of his chest.
"Basic survival, Luce." His voice was low and husky. She felt him turn his head and felt his breath on her hair as he said, "Skin-on-skin is better to keep up body heat. You should try it – you said you were freezing."
Lucy dug her knuckle into his chest and he chuckled as he flinched away from her, yet still managing to keep her tucked tight to his body. "Pervert," she muttered. But she was smiling as she fell asleep, completely unaffected by the cold.