orange juice
When Lucy awoke, she immediately wished she hadn't.
Her eyelids felt as if someone had dumped bricks on them, but not without first besprinkling them with sand, effectively drying up her eyes. She groaned lowly.
What had she done to deserve waking up like this?
Then, she remembered.
In an instant, she was sitting upright in her bed, heart hammering in her chest. However, the fast movement had not been a wise decision, and she held her stomach as she slipped her feet from under the cozy warmth of her cover.
Water. She needed water.
Standing up on two shaky legs, she wobbled over towards the door. But a thought made her halt in her tracks.
Would he still be there?
Would Natsu await her behind this door, or had he left? An uneasy feeling settled in her stomach, and she couldn't decide which option seemed likelier, or even which one she preferred.
With a deep breath, she opened her bedroom door and scurried along the short corridor, peeking around the corner. She could only see the back of the couch, but as she perked her ears, she could hear the occasional snore.
He was still sleeping.
Natsu was still here.
Now that it was a truth, she realized it made her happy. With a sigh, she relaxed.
But curiosity got the best of her.
Just a quick peek before going to the bathroom.
She didn't even want to know what she looked like. If it was only half as bad as she felt, it would still be a natural desaster.
Could she even rescue anything about her face?
Maybe he should have left after all.
But of course the thought was dismissed quickly, and she tiptoed over towards the couch with excitement spreading through her.
There he was.
How he had managed to sleep in this position was a mystery to her.
Half his body had slipped off the couch, and he lay spreadeagled, not slipping completely only because of the foot that he had at some point thrown over the backrest. His mouth hung wide open.
With a tiny pinch of disappointment, she realized that the hairtie had slipped because of his movements, lying beside his head as his hair fell into his face.
The image made her smile.
This was something she could get used to waking up to.
The thought came before she could stop it, and she blinked, shocked.
She should probably go shower and brush her teeth now. Or he would be the one to regret waking up here for sure.
The hot water soothed her skin as she stood beneath the stream, and Lucy ended up forgetting the time, reveling in the hotness of the water massagng her shoulders.
By the time she stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy white towel, she could hear he was awake.
"Morning," she called after a second's hesitation, and then rushed inot ehr bedroom before he could get any ideas.
"Mrnin'."
Oh dear. There was only one remedy for a hangover like theirs.
Breakfast.
The delicious smell of fried onions filled the air while she gulped down her third glass of water. Natsu had volunteered to fry the eggs while Lucy had busied herself with laying the table, and she was grateful.
Grateful, that is, until smoke filled the air and the stinging smell of burnt food made her wrinkle her nose in dismay.
"Aaaahh! Lucy!"
Before she even had been able to spin around his desperate cry reached her ears, and now, as she finally turned, she could see why he had sounded so distressed.
Flames.
The gas stove was doing its best to empty itself, and a big explosive flame had wrapped the pan in a flash of red and orange, licking at the fume hood.
"WHAT THE HELL!"
As she darted to the rescue, turning down the heat (which immediately calmed the raging flames, to her relief) and throwing the pan into the sink, Natsu watched anxiously, hand back in his hair.
"Sorry…" he mumbled, guilt-ridden. "Never really got the hang of those stoves."
In disbelief, Lucy gaped at him for a few seconds.
"I hope you have an electric stove at your place."
"I don't."
"How are you even still alive."
"Fair enough."
"Just… sit down."
He did, and it took Lucy only a few minutes to fix the mess he had made. Luckily, she had been shopping on Friday, so her fridge was still well-stocked. As she put the pan with fried omelette on the table, Natsu's eyes grew wide in anticipation, and a loud growl filled the air, originated in his stomach.
He didn't even wait until she was sitting to dig in. However, he was nice enough to throw a bun onto her plate with an almost proud smile.
"You like those, right?"
Despite herself, Lucy smiled. He remembered her favourite buns were those with poppy seeds. Her mind drifted back to the daisy sketch he had shown her.
He remembered a lot of things she had not thought he would. Little, insignificant details.
Maybe that meant they weren't so insignificant to him.
Her smile grew, and when he noticed her staring he grinned back, omelette between his teeth. She simply shook her head in surrender, hoping her blush wasn't too obvious.
"Lucy, you okay?"
"Eh? Oh yeah, I'm fine!" she hastily said, but then she remembered her aching muscles and dry eyes. And the thirst burning in her lungs. She was so thirsty. "Actually… I'm maybe not so great. I need more water."
"No no."
"Eh?"
"You don't need water. You need orange juice!"
She simply stared at him, puzzled.
"It's the perfect remedy!"
"Is it."
"Do you have some?"
Without waiting for a response, he jumped up, shuffling over to her fridge. He stopped to admire some of the postcards plastered onto it before he pulled open the door.
No, Lucy decided. He really had no sense of boundaries.
Was he whistling?
Seriously, it was like he owned the place. And like he had never even been drunk. Where did he take the energy from? Because she'd like some too.
He returned with an orange carton decorated with a nice, very orange - well - orange. It even had a cartoon face on it, describing how delicious it would taste. A little morbid, if you thought about it.
He filled her glass to the brim, and the liquid swished against its restraints from the force of it, spilling onto the table.
"Jeez, can you never fill a glass without spilling it over," she scolded, remembering the gin on her living room table. Then she remembered what had followed after, and her head turned red.
But he just looked at her blankly.
Wait… it couldn't be… oh but actually, it could.
He didn't remember.
The thought slapped her across the face, and she was surprised she didn't fall off her chair then and there.
"Drink up!" he beamed.
Lucy tried to ignore the sudden pang in he r heart. Her body moved on autopilot, and, a little flabbergasted, she simply followed his order, gulping down two large sips. He kept watching her attentively, and she became weirdly aware of her movements. How did she look right now? Probably not very dashing. As she put her glass down, juice trailed along her chin. She felt like a child.
"Oh, wait a sec-" he spoke while still chewing on some bacon. "You got some juice there."
As his hand lifted and crossed the table, Lucy's mind kept screaming at her, yet not reaching a single conscious thought. Her eyes were transfixed on his fingers, that now found her chin.
A shudder travelled through her as his calloused fingertips dragged across her skin, involuntarily pulling down her lower lip.
She couldn't care less about the juice.
No, she didn't care about food at all.
What she wanted to offer him for breakfast was herself.
What she wanted him to do was ravish her right here on this table, making her arch her back between the jellies, the butter and the bread and the bacon. Wanted him to slant his lips over hers and take her for dessert.
Lucy blinked dumbly, but then her eyes lifted off his hand and onto his face, and any tardiness was gone in an instant.
Because if his look was anything to go from, he wanted the same thing.
His eyes had darkened again, much like yesterday when he had leaned towards her, taking her breath away. It was impossible to look away, and so she held his gaze, staring right back with his hand still on her chin.
The air was tangible.
And then the moment was over.
Natsu pulled back with a small harrumph. He curled his fingers into his palm, trying to keep himself from repeatedly slapping his cheek.
For some reason, a small aprt of his mind registered, her eyes grew twice their size as he licked the juice off his thumb.
How many more times did he have to tell his stupid body to stop?
But he couldn't get the image out of his mind, even as he continued to indulge in the omelett on his plate. Her eyes had been deep and bright, a starlit sky for only him. He had felt her lip tremble as his thumb had brushed it.
In that moment, it had taken all he had to not lean over and kiss her.
It had taken his everything to not clear the entire table with a swipe of his arm and lift her up onto it, spreading her legs while his hands caressed her body and his lips finally tasted her for the first time.
But he could not do it. He could not do it because he didn't know if she wanted him to.
He cleared the last crumbs off his plate and reached for the jam and another bun. Damn, this was just what he needed. He could feel life returning into his aching body.
Still, this simple breakfast managed to lift his spirits higher than he liked to admit. Because he knew his mood had little to do with the food. Well, the food was great. Incredibly delicious, even.
But nothing compared to her company.
And that meant a lot, coming from him.
He chuckled, and found her staring at him on confusion.
"Really," she mumbled. "And you say I'm the weird one."
He grinned in response. Of course she was the weird one.
She hadn't brought up anything about last night, so he guessed there was nothing she wanted to talk about. Maybe she wanted to forget it altogether. He wouldn't blame her. They'd gotten rather drunk, had they not?
Parts of the evening had gotten rather blurred.
He shook his head, dismissing his thoughts. No use looking back. It couldn't be changed; it didn't matter now.
What mattered was that Lucy was still sitting opposite of him, slurping on her juice and not looking cross at all. He had feared she would kick him out right away, but to his relief it seemed like she wasn't in a hurry to get rid of him.
Good.
Because Natsu didn't want to leave just yet.