To be aggrieved is an understatement.
Lucy's cheeks inflame and it is a possible that steam can be whistling out of her ears because she is so goddamn angry that she may just explode to bits. So when she stomps inside of the Fairytail headquarters and shrieks Natsu's name, she draws the entire guild's inevitable attention to herself. Eyes glue on to her, but unlike the norm, she doesn't care. She is so furious that she has been stripped of any other emotion that can throw her off.
Nothing but the boiling lava in the pit of her stomach matters. She slices the air with her finger and points straight across the room to the idiot fire dragon slayer, who is lounging against the counter "You-" She stutters. The words are bouncing around in her mind and it's becoming an arduous task to just depict her own thoughts with her voice. She does her best to catch herself nonetheless, and she spits, "You are unbelievable, Natsu Dragneel!"
The pinkette says nothing in return because he's not paying attention. Or he's pretending that he's not, whichever one. Because of the declaration, Lucy's fellow guild mates stood back and unintentionally created a straight path that she could take towards him.
She takes a few harsh steps (with everybody still watching) and stops once she's only a yard away from Natsu.
Now that she has a very clear view of him, she can see that he is busying himself with drinking a milkshake. It's mainly a chocolate flavor with vanilla swirled in. The vanilla ascends along the glass in one thin spiral and it ends when it reaches the surface of the shake.
The fire mage has leisurely placed both of his elbows on the edge of the counter. His entire body is facing Lucy's, but his head is slightly turned. His onyx pupils aren't even centered on Lucy. They're shifted to the side or the ceiling, anywhere but Lucy.
Lucy suppresses herself from whacking the glass out of Natsu's hand. She doesn't want to create more work for Mirajane, but it bugs her to no end that he's obviously noticed her presence - that he hears every word she has uttered, that he is still ignoring her.
She grinds her teeth from the frustration of it all. The wielder of celestial keys tries again, maintaining a cross tone. "Are you listening to me?!"
Natsu feigns a look of disgust. He only lifts the glass to his lips and slouches so his neck is grazing against the edge of the counter.
"Lucy, I think he wants to be left alone." The bookworm treads beside Lucy and places a small hand on her shoulder.
Lucy barely acknowledges this act of comfort, brushing it aside. "I need to speak to him, but he's being stubborn. As always!" Lucy seethes sharply. She throws her hands up over her head, turning away. "Gah!"
"Lucy, what is it that you need to speak to him about?" Mira inquires with a worried furrow of her brow.
The stellar spirit mage drags her toe on the floor. "Something that he stole." She says, her voice quavering. She clutches her elbows, still glaring pointedly at the culprit before her. "He stole something from me." Just thinking about what happened makes her vexed and infuriated all over again.
Levy widens her eyes in disbelief. "Stole?"
Gray, who is in the stool next to Natsu's, yawns and stretches out his arms. "Please, that idiot's too dense to commit an act of stealing. Be real."
Natsu jerks up, his posture straightened within less than a second. "What did you say, STRIPPER?!"
"You heard me, bastard." The ice-make wizard says coolly.
"Why you-" Natsu leaps off the seat to his feet and Gray does the same. The fire dragon slayer swiftly moves his arm in attempt to slug Gray in the stomach.
A certain red-head flashes into sight out of nowhere and gives each of the men a good knock to the head.
They both collapse on the spot.
"Morons." Erza says distastefully. "Though I must agree that Gray has a point. I can't see Natsu stealing from anyone, especially Lucy."
"Well, he did. Natsu, I demand an apology." Lucy says haughtily as Gray and Natsu lethargically stand up.
"I didn't do anything wrong!" Natsu groans and massages a notable bruise on the side of his head. He then addresses Erza directly, "I didn't steal anythingf rom her! Luigi is just being paranoid!"
"Don't call me Luigi!" Lucy shrieks.
"Oh, enough!" The titania raves, shooting Natsu a threatening look. "Lucy, can you specify what he actually stole from you?"
Lucy takes a step back, anxiety instantly washing away her anger. "Oh, well - um - about that. . " She receives goosebumps on her epidermis as she thinks of a way to phrase her words correctly. "Erm - I don't really feel comfortable saying what he stole from me, ano-"
"You didn't steal her underwear, did you, Natsu?" Macao teases from the other side of the HQ. The guild bursts into loud laughter.
Lucy wants to crawl into a hole and hide in it so badly. Why did she not realize that her rash actions would lead to consequences? Embarrassing consequences at that.
Levy is blushing madly and standing off to the side, which makes Lucy feel worse.
"That's not it!" Lucy cries in a useless effort to stop the laughing.
"You wanna know what I stole?"
The celestial spirit mage whips her head around in astonishment to see that Natsu has said those very words.
This successfully makes the room quiet. All Lucy can hear is the ringing in her ears and pounding in her heart.
"I stole her celestial keys."
Silence.
Natsu rolls his eyes. "I have them."
Lucy releases the bit of air she held in her chest.
"They're mine." Natsu adds, though they're not. And everybody knows that.
"That's not true. They belong to me, Natsu. Give them back now!" Lucy takes the opportunity to rush up to Natsu to tackle him. He evades her by moving his body to the side and Lucy barely stops in time before crashing into the counter.
Natsu dangles the chain of glinting keys off of his finger, continuing to swallow the remains of his milkshake. "Nuh uh. I'm keeping them."
Lucy reaches, tip-toed, desperately trying to grab the keys out of his hand. "Natsu!" She starts to whimper, but it doesn't work, especially since there's a hint of a smile on his face now.
He tugs on her arm and draws her close to him, until his lips are only inches from her right ear. "If you get them back, I'm just going to tell everyone what really happened," He murmurs in his stupid raspy voice, immediately stunning his best friend.
The spirit mage wants to scream but she shuts up and turns away from Natsu, cursing him with every word she can think of in her mind.
"I'm going to get some air." She says bitterly, and takes the same path she used to come into the guild.
As soon as the doors shut behind her, Natsu rockets himself off of the seat and slams the keys onto the table. "I win!" He cheers victoriously, and dances a joyful jig with Happy alongside him.
"You're celebrating over stealing her keys. The fuck is that?" Gray says scornfully.
Natsu ends his little dance and begins to walk away from the bar, taking the keys along with him.
"That isn't it." He hums to his near-nude teammate and only him, leaving him more puzzled than ever.
Blinded by her anger, Lucy Heartfilia stomps across the bridge over the stream. It's still broad daylight and the rowmen on their canoe are eyeing Lucy warily. But this time they don't say anything.
"That dumb, stupid, asshole, when he comes into my stupid apartment I'm gonna slap him across the face!" She yells, shooting her arms into the air.
A few birds cry out from her echoing voice and fly off of the roof of a nearby home.
She stands there, silently fuming for a few more minutes.
"Oii, Lucy." A quick flash of pink air graces her eyesight before she blinks. The next thing she knows, she's moved her head and Natsu has taken her lips, kissing her so eagerly that she almost loses her balance.
"What the HELL?!" Lucy tries to rip her lips away and hit him at the same time. She narrowly misses his face and swats the soft fabric of his traveling muffler instead.
"You're too slow~" The pinkette grins childishly, with his sharp teeth peeking out. He's like a schoolboy who had just given his stupid crush a valentine, or something along those lines…
Lucy flushes, finding it so despicable that no matter how much she tries to ward off Natsu's advances on her, she's always drawn in by his dazzling smile and burning enthusiasm.
"You're terrible. You know that right? I can't believe you!"
"I can't believe it took you that long to snap out of it and finally come after me." Natsu tells her smugly, leaning against the bridge. "Looks like you wanted more."
Lucy opens her mouth, but she can't find the words.
She's not mad. Shock was her initial reaction, but it faded away into a bubbling, weird sensation in the pit of her stomach already. So how does she feel towards him currently?
He actually is no schoolboy. He isn't the type to write love letters or bring her gift baskets. He doesn't admire her from afar. He's Natsu Dragneel, the fire dragon slayer who's burned down every town you can count in Fiore. Natsu Dragneel, the one who got her into this wreck of a guild, fulfilling her dream to become a mage and more. Natsu Dragneel, with his bright smile and infectious laughter, who pulls bombastic pranks on her and meets her merciless flying kicks with no end. Natsu Dragneel, who took one of the prized sakura trees and placed it atop a rowboat on display so Lucy could see it shimmer from her window.
He's Natsu Dragneel, her best friend and confidant.
This morning, on the plains, he cheekily planted a kiss on her lips when she least expected it even though, looking back, the timing could not be more perfect.
So can she say, here and now, that she hates his fleeting warm touch? That she finds his dazzling smile despicable?
"I—ack!" She has so much to say but the words are jumbled, stuck in her throat. She settles on smacking Natsu's face with the flat of her hand. "Stop smiling!" She orders him.
"Does that mean you liked it?" He teases and the pink color on Lucy's own face spreads.
"No! I-I mean—" She releases a long sound of frustration.
"So yes~?"
She stares at him as he stands proud, no inkling of doubt clouding his disposition.
"Fine!" She straightens too and lifts her thumb and forefinger, permitting less than a centimeter of space between them. "This much! I liked it this much!" Oh Mavis, what was she saying?
The rosette tilts his head and makes another toothy smile. "Great~!"
"Natsu? Natsu?!"
He advances on her slowly and she scoots back until the railing of the bridge touches her skin. He's closing in, and his warmth is ghosting over her body and encasing her in a state of immobility. Their faces are soon mere inches apart, and he brushes his fingers against her nape. One push of his hand is all it takes to meet in the middle.
She's torn; half of her desires to take flight and the other half wishes that he would crush his lips against hers and drain out all of this adrenaline within her.
Unexpectedly, Natsu shows the keys he took from Lucy's belt. "Sorry for takin' em." They clink together when he holds them out for Lucy to retrieve. "It's fun to mess with you sometimes," He cracks a lopsided smile.
". . . . " She takes them and reattaches them to the sash surrounding her waist. Once she does that, her hands raise up and touch Natsu's cheeks, which are still a bit red from when she smacked him. Or, is he blushing?
"Cut the crap," she grumbles as she stands on her tiptoes and seals his lips with her own.
Boooy.
I've gotten sucked into NaLu garbage hell again. The worst part is that this fanfiction was started years ago but finished yesterday. Shit I can't even finish one-shots within a reasonable timeframe :(
Tbh, I've been drafting out a new multi-chap story. It's a wacky story about Lucy having the ability to lucid-dream but then Natsu waltzes in and wreaks havoc. I think I definitely have time to publish it and actually work on it after this November, since that's when most of my college apps are due. When December starts, I'll have so much more free time holy crap.
Thanks for reading!