The next morning, Lucy woke up to numerous friendly morning greetings somewhere beyond her window in the form of chirping sparrows and a pleasant (yet a bit unwelcome) stream of sunlight. For the better part of a minute, she simply laid there in her bed, eyes shut with a small gracing smile. It was so peaceful, completely unlike her beloved guild (even if she loved its members to bits), not to mention a certain Dragon Slayer who banged on people's doors in the middle of the night just to ask them to teach him how to—
...Speaking of Natsu, was that steady warm draft tickling her neck—?
Maybe the worst part is that it's not even surprising anymore, Lucy thought wearily as she slowly opened her eyes to see, sure enough, the normally rambunctious Mage on the other side of her bed. His body was facing her and his face close enough for her to feel his exhales. He had some sort of mildly goofy grin on his face even as he slept and lightly snored, which prompted Lucy's expression to soften. He'd never change, and maybe she was just fine with that.
While Lucy continued to trace the contours of his facial features with her eyes, she arrived at the conclusion that at some point during the night, he had taken it upon himself to climb into her bed. Honestly, the thought didn't even faze her anymore; it'd simply become a regular occurrence that she didn't and couldn't fight anyways.
At some point during her observations, though, her sight was beginning to turn rein over to her other senses. That resulted in Lucy quickly realizing how the mild stench of alcohol Natsu was emitting had kind of taken over her bed. Although that wasn't a huge concern in itself, it led her thoughts to last night and what he had done because of said alcohol...
Lucy immediately shot up like a thunderbolt at the memory, cringing as all thoughts of how adorably puppy-like Natsu was shoved out of her mind. In the process, however, she instinctively hit the Dragon Slayer hard enough so that he tumbled comically out of her bed with a loud thud. Staring down at the boy writhing on the ground, Lucy could only begin lining up the potential apologies in her mind and watch with a slightly mortified expression as Natsu's brow furrowed and he began stirring.
"Aaah...Lucy...why'd you do that," mumbled Natsu, slowly shifting into a sitting position with bleary eyes half-open and a hand rubbing his arm.
"Sorry!" the blonde said immediately, holding up her hands in some sort of mock surrender. When the Dragon Slayer tried to turn his head to look at her and winced upon being interrupted by the morning light, Lucy quickly realized that there was no way he wasn't suffering from a hangover. As she moved to get off of her bed to head for her kitchen, she gave the boy a pillow and said, "Ah, Natsu, stay right there! I'll get you some water and pills."
"How'd I end up here?" muttered Natsu though loud enough for Lucy to hear from the other room. He tucked the pillow behind him, leaned back into Lucy's dresser, and closed his eyes.
In the kitchen, Lucy nearly fumbled with opening the bottle of honey in her hands at his words, but she caught herself just in time. Sure, he had said some outrageous things last night, but he was drunk and there had been a chance that he wouldn't have remembered what he did anyways. She should've at least expected a scenario like that.
"You don't remember last night?" she said back tentatively as she squeezed honey and poured lemon juice into a cup of water, unsure of whether she should help him remember or not.
"I remember finishing our mission...and going back to the guild to drink with Gray and Erza…" said Natsu slowly, "and then...I woke up with a massive hangover, ow..."
Lucy was silent as she set the glass of honey, lemon and water onto a plate along with a few small pain reliever pills. Carefully, she carried the entire plate back into her bedroom where Natsu was cradling his head in his hands and still on the floor. As she crouched down and gingerly set the hangover treatments onto the floor beside him, Natsu lifted his head slightly to examine the remedies.
"Thanks," he whispered hoarsely, the sound sending a brief thrill down Lucy's spine.
When he reached out for the pills and the cup, Lucy, still eye-level with him, said quietly, "So you don't remember anything after you guys drank?"
She waited a short moment for Natsu to pop the pills and down a fourth of the liquid with them. "Well...wait, I bet I came over, huh? And then...ahhh...I think you got nervous and askin' if something was wrong...and then I came in…"
Lucy's heart quickened. Maybe it was a bad idea to have pushed the Dragon Slayer one more time to try to remember.
"...And…"
Ohhh no God, Mavis, Zeref, wait, wait, wait, stop, this was not what she wanted—!
"Oh!" exclaimed Natsu, his face immediately brightening several megawatts and, for a moment, Lucy almost couldn't believe that he was currently the victim of a hangover. Even so, Lucy's heart dropped at the sight of Natsu's apparent realization. "That's right, I need you to teach me how to do it! From the meeting to the next morning!"
In brilliant contrast to Natsu's excitement, with a sigh and a slap of her palm to her forehead, Lucy said exasperatedly, "And do you remember what I said to that the first time?"
Natsu paused for a moment and scrunched his face up in serious thought.
"Not at all," he finally admitted with a sheepish albeit wide grin.
"'No'!" she snapped, putting down her hand so she could glare freely at the boy. "And I don't understand why you'd come to me of all people!"
"C'mon Luce, you're the best and only person I can think of!" whined Natsu. "You're the only one I can ask who won't kill me, you're a good teacher, you're my best friend…"
And with each listing, Lucy's heart swelled up a tad more. He didn't say these things often and yes, he was blatantly sweet-talking her but screw it if it wasn't working—
"...And, well, with the way you dress sometimes, a guy kinda assumes things, y'know?"
—On second thought, never mind, she thought angrily after abruptly crashing on her way up to cloud nine.
"Then why don't you just assume something like...like coitus?" the Mage snapped. At Natsu's confused expression, Lucy sighed and was one step closer to being defeated, even if by aggravation. "Why?" she tried again wearily. "I mean, something like that should be instinct, right?"
"Ha, well, you know, I'm eighteen and never done it before so...might as take the chance to get good and make up for lost time by asking someone I'm comfortable with to teach me what, er, you know, you guys like?" stumbled Natsu sheepishly with a cheeky smile, scratching the back of his head.
Lucy stared blankly at Natsu.
This was no doubt by far the most unbelievable, awkward, and crazy conversation she had ever had with him.
"...Lucy?" said the Dragon Slayer tentatively after a few seconds, peering rather concernedly at her. Geez, as if she was the one who needed their brain checked right now!
Said Celestial Spirit Mage stared down with creased brow at her fists, turmoil washing around in her like a storm. On one hand, this so-called "favor" was absolutely preposterous. "Favors" were tagging along on a mission, lending some extra firepower, paying for a drink because the other person had forgotten their wallet—not teaching one of your best friends how to have intercourse.
But on the other hand...maybe favors was a loose term. Maybe it included things that you really needed (or wanted so bad to the point of need), like getting you into the guild of your dreams or uprooting a damn rainbow cherry blossom tree just to relocate it outside your window. Maybe it also included things like saving your life several times and being an everlasting pillar of strength, inspiration, and solace. If things were put that way, then yes, a wave of indebtedness would no doubt come crashing down on Lucy and she would realize that she owed the doofus more than he probably even realized.
Another fraction of a second passed before a wave of indebtedness came crashing down on Lucy and she realized that she owed the doofus more than he probably even realized. Her answer along with its allied reasons was quickly shaping up solidly in her mind, though even with everything he had done for her, there was no way she wasn't at least slightly mental to about to agree to this.
Even if Natsu was the one suffering from the hangover, Lucy felt like she was the one who had ingested all the alcohol because really, if she wasn't drunk, then how and why in the world would she be throwing up her arms and surrendering hotly, "Fine! Fine, I'll do it."
Almost immediately, Natsu's face lit up even moreso than when he had remembered the events of the night before. A toothy grin he only ever reserved for the end of a hard fought battle graced his lips. In contrast, Lucy's expression was contorted into a stiff, unamused pout, but in the back of her mind, she mused that maybe, just maybe, it was okay to do something like this if it meant making Natsu as happy as his actions had made her over the past year or so.
"But on my rules!" she added hastily before he could get too far ahead of himself. "Number one, I'm the...the teacher, so I make the rules. Number two, I'm going to teach you my way and thoroughly, so we won't...we won't be waking up naked tomorrow together or anything...which also means that this is going to take time, and I'm not going to be sending you into the local Magnolia bar to hit on girls by tonight! Rule number three, nobody can know about this, and I'm going to tie myself to that, too, do you understand? That means nobody! Not Master, not Erza, not Gray, not Levy—"
"Not Happy?" interjected Natsu, looking slightly crestfallen.
"Especially not Happy," she grit out. When Natsu said nothing more and instead only gave her a contemplating look, Lucy took that as her cue to continue. "And...well, with things like this, when you're in the heat of the moment, sometimes, it can get a bit difficult to...stop. That's why both of us have to promise right here, right now, in addition to everything else, that if either of us are too uncomfortable at any given point, the other has to stop everything. Natsu, I'm...a little more experienced than you, but you're stronger than me by tenfold. That's why, for both my and your safety…" She had trailed off, hoping he'd get the implication while saving both of them further embarrassment. "Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I got it," said Natsu, smiling as he held out his pinky to the blonde. "I'd never hurt you, Luce. Promise."
Lucy beamed as a shy tinge of pink tinted her ears. Whether it was from the subject and general context of their current agreement or Natsu's genuine oath just now, who knew? Either way, it didn't really matter—what did matter was that she proceeded to loop her pinky around his, and then they shook on it with a tone of finality that only handshakes and pinky promises could offer.
"So when do we start?" Natsu asked eagerly after releasing her little finger.
With a small snort, Lucy gently pushed him back into the pillow and reinstated the glass of hangover remedy back into his hands. Ignoring the confused look he shot her, she said nonchalantly as she stood up and began ambling over to her bathroom, "I'm still not sure about all this, and even though I don't know where this came from, I'm willing to be serious if you're serious. So, if you do want to go through with this, then the first thing you need to know is that once you've set your mind to something, you have to go for it with everything you have." She chuckled and was a step away from entering her bathroom when she stopped. "I know this is already pretty much part of your ethics, but it includes defeating enemies, hard tasks, and pretty girls across the room."
And with that, a few seconds, and a door shut later, Natsu was staring at a wooden door with a goofy grin and the word "Yes!" echoing through his mind.
-*-x-*-
so hey did anybody get the implication (unintentional on Lucy's behalf but completely guilty on mine) at the end of the scene how Lucy was "(a pretty girl) across the (bed)room"? :)...huehuehue
Anyways, thanks for reading and reviews are super appreciated!
-Apheleia