Lucy slowly sat up, blinking and rubbing out the crust that had appeared in her eyes during the night. A tired yawn managed to escape her lips before she could check the clock. 7:30 in the morning. She groaned to herself. She fell asleep late last night, not being able to drop the book she was reading, and barely getting 6 hours of sleep made her feel cranky. As if that wasn't bad enough, the sun wouldn't rise in another two hours and the temperature outside made her house feel colder than usual. It was an abnormally cold winter, rarely rising above -10 degrees Celsius, and due to her not paying enough rent last month, the landlady had cut down on her heating. Usually that would be fine, since Magnolia's weather was quite warm most of the time, but without the blessings of a merciful winter and without her human heater constantly hanging around, the apartment got ruthlessly cold.

In an attempt to properly wake up she placed her bare feet on the floor. Leaving the warm comfort of her bed was unappealing to say the least, and feeling the coldness against the soles of her feet made her cringe. Without bothering to put on slippers or socks, she hurried to the bathroom. A warm, long shower was the only salvation this morning could have. As she entered the bathroom she once again regretted the lack of socks, since the tiled floor was multiple times colder than the wooden floor in her bedroom. With goosebumps all over her body she sped up her movements, turning the knob in her shower to the highest heat.

Another mistake, she soon learned. After having stripped down she felt the water with her hand, and the dropping temperature of the high streaming water only meant one thing - the hot water had run out, rapidly changing to cooler and cooler degrees.

"No, no, no!" In an attempt to savour the last bit of barely comfortable water, she immediately jumped in the shower, focusing on just wetting her hair so she could pour shampoo into it and rinse it out before she turned to an actual ice block. No matter if this day seemed to have everything against her, she was determined to get clean - even if that meant cutting down her shower time from 45 minutes to 5. Every muscle got stiff as she hurried to lather her hair, and breathing became a chore for her frozen body. Even concentrating to the fullest, she felt the lungs move in spasms.

Lucy had never been good with the cold. Not even after living on the streets for a year after running away from home, had she gotten used to the fierce sensation of getting robbed off her body heat. On the other hand, warm weather had never been a challenge. Anywhere with a hot climate was the ideal vacation spot for her, since she'd much rather sweat like a pig than not being able to feel her hands and feet from being so cold. Maybe her body's natural agreement with warmth was one of the reasons she and Natsu got along so well. Though, given that he wasn't here to heat up the apartment at the moment, he wasn't on her best side currently.

As soon as she felt the lathered shampoo leave her hair completely, she turned off the tap and practically pounced her fluffy towels. From the last few weeks she had learned that any body part left wet would be freezing cold if she didn't wipe herself dry the second she came out of the shower. She was in fact so fast at drying herself off and getting clothed today that she probably beat a personal record - and luckily for her, she could still use her hair dryer, so no cold, wet, dripping down her back today.

Though, just as things were starting to look up, she encountered yet another problem as she stepped out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. The dishwasher hadn't gotten turned on last night, so she had to hand wash her cup before using it, which usually was a manageable job, but that became tedious now that she had no warm water. To add to that, she was fully out of oatmeal which meant that she'd have to go out to buy more when the stores opened in a few hours. Even if she didn't have to plough through snow, the strong winds and the frosty air was more than enough to go through even her thickest, warmest jacket, and if she were to actually arrive at the market, there was no telling if they'd be open today. A lot of fresh fruit didn't handle the cold well, and anything tightly sealed into glass bottles would likely expand and explode if they didn't stay inside.

Since Lucy had nowhere close to enough energy to deal with that now, she decided to grab her kettle, make it across the kitchen towards the stove, and OUCH!

"Shit, crap, fucking ass- fuckhorse!" Lucy howled as she jumped around on one leg, trying to get her big toe on her second leg to stop pulsing. "There's no fucking way this is happening to me today!" She stumbled across the room once again, this time aiming for the kitchen table so she could sit down and inspect the injury. The kettle was forgotten the second she put it down, and she immediately threw off her slipper and her sock that she had properly remembered to put on after the shower..

Just her luck. She was bleeding under her toenail, which meant weeks of taking care of this insignificant but maddening injury. Wendy was about as locked inside as Lucy was, so no magical cure for this one. At this point she was holding back tears. Nothing could have prepared her for how unlucky she was today. Yesterday had been a good day, same as most of her previous days, where she enjoyed the stillness of being alone with her own thoughts in her apartment. No jobs or missions to rush to, no worrying about destruction and lack of payment, no Natsu to burn her couch and no Happy to scratch her walls. She ate good meals, played music and danced, and now this - no heat, no warm water, no clean dishes, out of her favourite breakfast and now an injured toe. It felt like the spirits were against her. The mixture of exasperation and exhaustion made her throat thicken, and the pressure from holding back tears made her head hurt. It was still early in the morning, and she already wanted to go back to bed and sleep until the next day - or better, she could sleep until spring and skip the depressing gray life that came with the winter months.

As Lucy's nose started getting stuffy, an angel sailed down from heaven and sang the most beautiful melody known to the human race. Well, no, her doorbell rang, but it was practically the same thing, because she sensed from the reckless stomping up the hallway that her hot headed best friend had decided to come to visit.

"Lucy? Ya home?" Normally his cheery voice would feel like a punch to the gut after having a bad day, since any sign that people could live happily while bad things happened only to her, would feel like mockery. Today however, she was just glad to no longer be alone with this dull atmosphere dragging her down.

She hurried to the door, not without limping a bit, to unlock it for him. As the door swung open, Lucy couldn't stop her lip from quivering, threatening to burst out into tears just from seeing his face. She was so, so, happy he was here.

Natsu himself however felt his grin fade the moment their eyes met.

"Hey, what's the matter? Did anything happen? What's goin' on?" Lucy barely noticed him dropping off two grocery bags by the entry, before he gently grabbed her arms. The tender look in his eyes was the final blow for her - she felt so angry and sad at the world, yet she had never felt so seen and cared for as she did when Natsu came. The dam was broken and the waterfalls were set loose, and she was hiccuping and hulking like a child failing to communicate its emotions.

"My… my…" she began, "My toe huuurts" She couldn't stop herself from crying out, unable to form any other words to explain her out of place behaviour.

"What?"

"My- my- my thoe-" With sobs cracking through her voice it was hard to talk any clearer, but luckily for her she didn't have to explain any further.

"Oh my god- Lucy, you're bleeding! Hey- come here." With a swift motion he scooped her up from her feet, immediately heading for the bathroom. "How did things end up like this?" He wasn't expecting an answer - not yet anyways. Inside of the bathroom he sat her down on the toilet lid, immediately tending to the swollen toe.

At the same time Lucy was trying to collect herself. It was embarrassing enough that she had broken down like this in front of him, but now he probably thought she was weeping over a stubbed toe. It really wasn't fair, she thought, because she wasn't crying because of her frustration. She was incredibly happy right now, to have Natsu there to help her cope with her unfortunate day. If he had caught her just a moment earlier she wouldn't have broken down like that - she'd be upset and short tempered, sure, but nothing like this.

Thanks to her manual breathing, she calmed down significantly. Not enough to actually stop the consistent flow of tears, but now she wasn't gasping for air in panic anymore.

"Thanks for helping me," Lucy sniffled. "And sorry for scaring you."

Natsu, who just finished putting a bandaid around the now purple nail, looked up at her with a gentle smile.

"No worries. Stuff happens, right?" Though his words told her that he was fine not knowing what was going on, his face was clearly searching for the explanation to her behaviour.

"Well," a sob slipped out, "I guess it does." She wanted to tell him about her morning, she really did, but right now she just wanted to get comfortable and warm in her bed. Truth is, she really wanted Natsu to lay beside her - not only for the heat, but for the comfort of human contact as well.

"Wanna check out what I got for you?" It took a brief moment before Lucy understood he meant the grocery bags that almost were forgotten in her hallway.

"Does anything have to go in the fridge or the freezer?"

"No… Why?" He stood up from his squat, cleaning up the small mess he had made rummaging through her cupboards.

"Then… Can we rest for a minute?" Lucy took a square of toilet paper to wipe her tears. "I don't have any energy to… do stuff right now."

"Yeah, sure, no problem. Can you walk fine?" Lucy nodded, the toe wasn't that injured - she had gone through way worse, though those times her body was pumped with adrenaline. Natsu helped her up anyway, held her close to him as they headed to the bedroom. Lucy might not be hurt physically, but she rarely broke down to this extent emotionally, so of course he was still worried.

"Isn't it kinda cold in here?" He always thought Lucy's apartment felt colder whenever he hadn't been there in a while, but wasn't this way colder than usual?

Lucy didn't answer. She only had one goal ahead of her, and that was to get into those sheets and get some well deserved rest. Besides, she could tell him all about her day later, they weren't in a rush. So as soon as she could she crawled up on her soft bedding, and without a moment of hesitation, she dived in under the comforter. She had her back turned towards Natsu, but before shutting her eyes, she turned slightly and lifted the duvet, giving a clear invitation for Natsu to join her. The mattress sunk behind her as he laid down, shuffling closer and embracing his position as the bigger spoon.

"The landlady cut off the heating a few days ago. That's why it's cold here," Lucy explained, her voice cracking meekly. Natsu pulled her closer, making sure his body heat warmed up the bed for her. He properly felt bad for her - clearly the cold and the stubbed toe weren't the only reasons why she cried, so she probably had a really bad day overall. Whether or not she had been having nightmares or bad memories from her past, or if built up sorrow and anger just let loose, he didn't know, but he knew that Lucy would tell him when she was ready to. His hand reached over her upper body in search of hers, and as he found it he gave it a supportive squeeze.

"That's not all though," she continued after a deep breath, "I also barely got any sleep last night. Totally my own fault, cause I went to sleep really late, but the cold made me unable to sleep in." She spoke softly and rubbed her thumb across the palm of Natsu's hand. "And then I went to take a shower, except the warm water had run out."

"So you took a cold shower? You? Lucy Heartfilia, master of turning up the heat until not even I can stand it?" Chuckles filled his lungs, because he really found it ironic. Understandably annoying and upsetting for Lucy of course, but ironic nevertheless.

"Yes, and you bet I'll never do that again. It felt worse than getting in the middle of a fight between Gray and Lyon. Look, my fingernails are still purple!" She shoved her free hand up in his face, attempting to display the cold, stale fingertips, but accidentally smashing them against his cheek in the process. After a quick apology, she continued. "As if that wasn't bad enough though, my dishwasher didn't start last night, so all my dishes are dirty, which wouldn't be a huge problem if I didn't start washing them in that cold water, only to learn that I'm out of oats!"

Remembering her streak of unluckiness made her heart drop slightly again, but surprisingly she had already gotten in a better mood. As she shared her burdens with Natsu, she felt a weight lifted from her chest. She even got in a good enough mood that she could initiate chuckling at her mishaps.

"Hold on a minute," Natsu intervened, "didn't I tell you only last week not to delay grocery shopping?" They had already been through a similar scene where Lucy had procrastinated going outside for so long that she started using normal hand soap on her body instead of her usual body wash.

"I knooow," Lucy grumbled, "but it's so cold out! You know I don't have proper clothing for this weather! And I have plenty of food for lunches and dinners, just not for breakfast…" She tried to defend her actions, but she knew Natsu was right. Laziness would always come back to bite her in the back if she didn't deal with things properly.

"Good thing I know you too well." Natsu had a smug grin plastered on his face, the type of grin she'd usually want to wipe off with a kick. Overconfident Natsu wasn't pleasant to hang out with, mostly because he got them into trouble when he acted like that. Today however, he looked like a saint. "I went shopping yesterday and thought you could use some food to stock up on."

"No, you didn't." She turned so she laid on her back, head facing Natsu. She tried to look for any sign that he was pranking her, without any luck. "You bought oats?" He nodded proudly, teeth flashing through his cheeky smile. "Thank you." She dug her face into his chest, hugging him as tightly as she could.

"But I bet the lack of oats didn't make your toe explode, so how did you get hurt?" Even though Natsu suspected that he had an understanding of what had happened, he wanted to hear it from her.

"I stubbed it really hard against the leg of the kitchen table when I went to boil some water," she explained with a muffled voice. There was really nothing more to it, which kind of felt embarrassing now that she had said it out loud. She knew she was blushing, but since Natsu couldn't see it she didn't mind.

"I guess I came at the perfect time," Natsu joked, now taking the liberty to rub Lucy's arms up and down.

"You really did. Thanks." She lifted her head to meet his gaze, giving him a thankful smile before going back to hugging him. See, what they were doing right now was weird. As in, actually odd behaviour considering their relationship. Except, despite acting weird, Lucy found great comfort in the warm touches of Natsu's hands, which still roamed her chilled body. She would never allow this to happen if the circumstances were different, because friendship simply couldn't cross those lines. It would only end in disappointments when she learned that he didn't feel the same way. Today though, she just wanted to indulge in their overly close relationship. Just their torsos touching didn't even feel like enough, so she gathered some courage and moved closer. Playing it off as an attempt to warm her feet, she tangled their legs together. Natsu didn't have the heart to tell her that her cold feet felt incredibly uncomfortable against his calves, so he decided to persevere. After all, he knew his discomfort was far from what Lucy was experiencing, injured toe and all.

The air under the blanket was finally starting to heat up, making Lucy even more grateful for Natsu's presence. He must've acquired some 6th sense that told him whenever she felt lonely - a Lucy-radar if you want, because he always managed to come to her exactly when she needed him. But no matter if it was thanks to supernatural senses or if it was just pure dumb luck, she was currently content enough in their situation that she had the courage to do things that she normally wouldn't do. Her fingers took the liberty to trail his muscular arms, slowly following the dips and bumps that made out his figure. Natsu, who couldn't say he was used to this bolder personality Lucy sometimes showed, got goosebumps from her touch. Nice goosebumps though, the type that leaves a warm feeling in his heart. And with Lucy touching him freely, he took the chance to caress her in return, his hands moving from her upper arms to her back and ribcage, then continuing down the curve where her waist dipped the deepest. Lucy's breathing got slow and relaxed with every stroke he made, so instead of stopping at the small of her waist, he slowly continued the quiet exploration of her body, moving down to her hips and then her thigh. He suddenly felt a huge craving to grip the soft flesh that hid under her long pyjama pants, so he grabbed her leg and pulled it over his own, also making them move closer in the process.

Lucy, who had moved on from her previous place as well, was giving Natsu's shoulder a light massage, stroking the stiff musculature. She hid further into the shirt that clothed his chest before she collected some courage to speak.

"Did you know?" She began.

"What?"

"In the Best Friends Rulebook, the first listed rule is that best friends must have clear boundaries when it comes to physical contact."

"What a dumb rule. Who came up with that?"

"Everyone agrees on it. You wouldn't want to be cuddling with Gray like this, would you?" A disgusted sound made its way out from Natsu's lips. No, he definitely wouldn't want that.

"You know it's different with you," he began, trying to defend their actions. He didn't get further in his explanation though, as Lucy's fingertips grazed the side of his neck.

"I know. But we can't do stuff like this if we go by the Best Friends Rulebook. Though… there is a way to make it work." Natsu waited silently in anticipation of hearing her solution. "We could change the rulebook."

"Are we still talking about books?" Natsu asked. He knew what metaphors were and how they worked, but dragging them out like this made him lose the thread.

"No," Lucy answered bluntly. "I'm talking about you and me." She was incredibly happy he couldn't see her face right now, because even though she felt like they were on the same page with their feelings for once in their lives, being this open with her emotions made her embarrassed, and frankly, a bit nervous. Any sign of rejection would cut deep, now that she was this vulnerable. But she continued. "Best friends might not be able to act like this, do these things, but… when they're not only best friends, but also…"

Her heart was beating so fast now, to the point that she wondered if Natsu could even hear what she was saying over the loud heartbeat. She had to continue though, this was the moment of truth. Her hand, that hadn't stopped moving across his shoulders, arms and upper back, gripped his T-shirt in an attempt to calm herself - or to at least make sure she wouldn't float away from all the air she was holding in her lungs.

"Also lovers… they can do this." There. She said it. Knowing she couldn't change the outcome no matter what at this point, she looked up at Natsu again, determination flowing in her eyes. And Natsu… he looked normal. He didn't look surprised, sad, confused or angry - just like his normal, easy going self. She would have felt offended when his ribs started shaking in a lighthearted chuckle, except she really couldn't get upset with him when he looked so thoroughly happy. He took her face in his hands and gave her forehead a soft kiss.

"Then let's change to that other rulebook," he said, continuing to kiss her left and then her right cheek, before giving in to what could only be described as cute aggression, showering her face in quick, sloppy pecks. Lucy, who was surprised by this sudden affection, couldn't stop her bubbling laughter from spilling out of her mouth. She was so relieved that he understood the implication. She had told him that she wanted them to be lovers, and he had accepted. In fits of giggles she tried to bend away from him so she could properly look at him. She failed, at first, due to his constant moving, but after a second try she could pry herself away from his smooching-rifle. Natsu looked so joyful as he looked at her, that she fleetingly wondered how they ever could have gone as only friends for as long as they had. She grabbed his face in the same way he had grabbed hers, and felt an overwhelming amount of love pulse through her veins.

"Natsu Dragneel, I love you. I love you so, so much," she confessed. She had dreamt about this moment for way too long, and even if it went nothing like she had expected, she felt like the happiest girl on earth. Give it to Natsu to solve the challenge of making Lucy's days better, no matter what she goes through, because he has always known exactly how to cheer her up, even when he didn't know it himself.

"I love you more, Lucy." She could no longer wait, so she smashed their lips together, allowing them to mould into what could only be described as a perfect kiss. Natsu moved his hand away from Lucy's cheek and into her tangled blonde hair, deepening their connection. This certainly wasn't what Natsu had expected waking up today, and he had definitely not expected it after seeing her cry like she did, but nevertheless he was happy with the outcome.

Happiness has always been known as a short emotion, sneaking up in pulses, giving people licks of serotonin during the long winters of their emotions. Happiness has that in common with a lot of other emotions - anger comes in upset explosions, sadness waters the grieving fields of memories, only for the rain to cease after short periods of time. Jealousy comes as a storm, ripping up carefully planted and cared for greenery, only to leave the vaguer emotions like confusion to deal with the aftermath. Love, however, enters lives slowly, growing stronger for every kind and selfless act between the pair, staying unnoticed until the deepest feelings of frustration destructs the surroundings. Only then do they truly notice what amazing powers come with love - it heals, evolves and comforts.

In spring love blooms, in summer it sweats, in autumn it plays, and in winter it warms. Lucy and Natsu experience love all of the time - they have felt love for friends, family and even enemies at times, but most importantly, they have felt love for each other. The seasons have tested their resilience, gotten them through many trials and errors, but even the feeling of love comes to a consensus once in a while. Today it came in the act of showing up, tomorrow it might come in the act of keeping a distance. But they continue to love nevertheless.