The cup of tea was so hot it kept burning Lucy's hand as she held it. Natsu wasn't drinking, though. Maybe he just didn't like tea.
The blonde sat on the couch, curled into the corner of the sofa with her knee to her chest. The other man, however, sat on the edge of a recliner as if he was too tense to relax. Lucy couldn't blame him.
"I asked you first." Lucy said. It may not have been fair, considering all she had put him through, but hearing his story was most likely going to make hers easier to tell.
Natsu nodded slowly. His mug of tea sat on the coffee table between them, steam pouring up into the air. "Alright." He shrugged, looking across the room at Lucy.
Just that one look made her skin tingle. She shifted in her seat as he started speaking. "You want to know about Loke?"
Lucy nodded.
"We-well, Gray and me-we met Loke when we were in grade school. Like first or second or something." Natsu's sad eyes said that he knew a more exact date when they met, but Lucy didn't want to interrupt. The date wasn't important.
"Loke was a new kid at our school, and a lot of people liked him. Me and Gray always got along, since he was the quiet and angry one and I was bouncing off the walls." Natsu smiled softly, and Lucy couldn't help but mimic. "Gray thought Loke was pretty cool, and they ended up hanging out more often.
"It was a few years later when Gray got really distant. He and Loke did everything together. One day, I just stopped hearing from either of them. Loke was at school but wouldn't talk to me, and Gray took a month off."
Natsu's feet shuffled over the floor like he was trying to distract himself. "I saw Gray a week after, and he looked awful. He was tired, and he had gotten into a few fights, at least. He wouldn't talk to me about it. When he finally came back to school, he wouldn't even look at me or Loke.
"Loke and Gray got into a fight during our ninth year. We just started high school, and it was barely a week into the start of school when teachers had to pull them off each other after fighting." He said, and his voice dropped as if he decided he was done talking.
Lucy shifted in her seat. The story had been more intriguing to her than she expected, and she almost hated the way she was so amused by their past. "And?"
Natsu just shrugged his shoulders lazily. "I don't know. I met Erza later that year. She was Gray's class mentor, keeping him out of trouble in stuff. Me and her were in a class together, and one day she stayed after school to help me with a project and Gray stayed along with her."
The blonde furrowed her brows as she didn't quite understand, but Natsu only mimicked her confusion. "Erza made friends with Gray, and after I made friends with her it was like the three of us just made some random pack together. I never asked Gray what happened."
Lucy wanted to believe she would have asked more if she were in Natsu's shoes; if she were him, she would have gone non-stop to get Gray to talk. But after so long of being alone, you learn to accept what you're given.
"Does Erza know, then?" Lucy asked. They story had dropped off on a cliffhanger, and she couldn't be more dissatisfied.
Natsu shook his head. "She might. She doesn't gossip, though, so I know better than to ask her for secrets. She's a vault." Natsu sighed. "Surrounded by a minefield."
Lucy laughed softly at the analogy, and Natsu smiled as well. He leaned back in his chair, staring at Lucy expectantly. "Your turn."
"Already?" Lucy asked, chuckling quietly.
The pink haired boy rolled his eyes and nodded. Lucy set her tea down on the table, rubbing her hands together nervously and picking at the threads of her sleeve cuff. Before she could say anything, Natsu got off his chair and walked beside her.
He sat down on the edge of the coffee table, right in front of Lucy. His closeness had her by surprise, but she wasn't going to complain. His obsidian eyes stared at her with a puppy-like look, and she turned her gaze back to her sleeve to avoid it.
"I don't like when people touch me. I never really have." Lucy murmured, but Natsu didn't let up. "I was engaged."
Natsu's eyes widened, and Lucy cringed a little knowing how stupid she must look in front of him. He realized his mistake and shook his head, gesturing for her to continue. "Sorry."
Lucy waved away his apology. "He's was my dad's co-worker. I was an only child, and both my parents were rich, so they had a lot of these business parties and mergers at our house. I was fourteen when I met him."
The pink haired boy went a little pale. "Fourteen?"
She ignored him again. Looking at his downcast eyes only made her more uncomfortable. "Every time my parents held these parties, he would-he would always look around for me. It was nothing at first, just making conversation. He kept getting closer each time."
Lucy's voice trailed off, and she paused to wipe at her eye before Natsu could say anything. "He came to three parties in a row and tried to kiss me. He always took me to where the crowd at thinned out, and we stayed there for a few minutes with him just holding onto me."
Her lip quivered, and she bit it to keep from trembling. "He wouldn't let go of me."
As soon as she said that, Natsu pushed himself off the coffee table and crouched down at her feet. He grabbed her hands in his, and the warmth made her palms begin to clam. His solemn expression made her eyes water. Why does he have to care so much?
Lucy swallowed down a sob to keep talking. "After that third party, I didn't go to them. I stayed upstairs in the maid's quarters to hide from him. But, a-all the maids were down stairs tending to the party, so he went upstairs and found me alone."
Natsu's hands tightened on hers, the last straw between her and hysteria. Lucy burst out into tears. "I never should have tried to hide."
She fell forward, and Natsu caught her in his arms. He wrapped them around her as she buried her face into the crook of his neck. Her tears were warm, her breath humid as she kept muttering those seven words over and over.
Natsu crouched down in front of her as she cowered deeper into him. He was so gentle-like always-no matter when or where they were. His fiery touch made her spark when he was around. She didn't need to touch him, even; just being close was enough to feel the burn of his affection.
"I'm sorry, Luce." He cooed, but his jaw was clenched tight with anger. He moved his arms away from her and rubbed her calves in a minute loving gesture instead. "I'm so sorry."
Lucy closed her eyes, reveling in being so close to him. "He took pictures of me that day, when he-" her voice broke off as she didn't want to say it. "-and he threatened to show my family.
"He told me to marry him, or he'd show everybody them anyway." Lucy's hands clenched onto Natsu as she managed to stop crying. "When I told my family we were engaged-god, they hated me. He was an older man, and they thought I was such a tramp."
Lucy could feel Natsu's body going rigid underneath her, his hands along her legs still rubbing tenderly. "He left those photos in the maid's hall. They didn't find them until a few weeks later, but it didn't help. It didn't even look like rape. It just made me look like a tramp."
The tears burst from her eyes again. "My family hates me. I ran away as soon as I was old enough and enrolled in college here. They're still at home, Natsu. They're still sitting there thinking about how their little girl became a tramp-"
"Lucy," Natsu turned his face to her, his lips barely brushing over her ear and she kept her head buried into him. "You're here with me now. You're safe."
The blonde shook her head. Chocolate eyes shut so tightly that a few tears rolled out the edges, as they had no place left to go. They were kept inside so long it was impossible to detain then any longer. Streams of the water fell faintly down her round cheeks.
Natsu smiled sadly. That smile could set the ocean on fire. He leaned forward, pushing Lucy gently away and placing small kisses along her leg. She leaned back, and he felt them tense up at first, fearing pain rather than pleasure. He ran his hands up and down them as if she was just cold and he was trying to warm her up.
"Please don't be scared of me." Natsu pleaded softly, his lips brushing over her knees. Lucy cowered into the corner of the sofa as he wrapped his hands around her calves, gently pulling her legs into his chest.
Lucy sniffled quietly, crossing her arms over her chest protectively. "I'm not scared of you."
Deep set onyx eyes stared harmlessly up at her from between her legs, shining with a wet sadness that made Lucy start to cry even more. Those eyes weren't meant to hold such hurt. Natsu spoke lowly, his lips soft and steady as they formed trails over her body. "I'm not going to do that to you."
Lucy turned her head to the side, stifling a sound foreign to herself. Ever since she was a kid, she let no one touch her. And here she was, so grown up and so beautiful, shaking with fear as this man held her like she thought no one ever would.
"I'm scared of this." Lucy whispered, her voice breaking into something short of a moan as Natsu kissed the inside of her thighs. "I always will be, Natsu."
Natsu didn't look up at her; he kept going down further between her legs, stroking her thighs until he became dangerously close and backed away. She let out a small and muffled cry as Natsu squeezed her thigh.
"I know he hurt you. He just didn't love you." Natsu mumbled quietly. Each time he spoke, his fingers inched closer to the mound between her legs. Her body trembled.
More trails of tears rolled down Lucy's cheeks, realizing that every word he said was right. They hadn't loved her; no man could make the woman they love feel so much pain for so long. Natsu would be no different.
No matter how manny kisses he laid on her skin, no matter how many times he said he'd be there for her, he'd leave. They always did.
"They just didn't love you." Natsu repeated. His hand rose up to her waist, where his fingers threaded themselves through the belt loops on her pants and firmly tugged her body closer to his.
"They didn't love you, and I'm so sorry." Natsu whispered, his heartbeat staggering as his breathing became heavy. "But I love you."
Lucy stopped crying, the tears staining her cheeks. Her body relaxed little by little as Natsu crouched between her legs, pulling her to him with a protective desperation.
"And I'm going to make sure you fall in love with me."
Nalu Lemon Novel
Exy Koroleva © 2016
Thank you for reading.
Some triggering scenes
to be included, so please
do not report. Comments
& votes are appreciated.