oldtime friends and newtime lovers

"Time for a break, guys!"

Whenever Lucy stepped into a room, a weird sensation overcame Natsu. Or everyone, probably. It seemed just a little brighter, a little happier than before, as if the sun had decided to give it its all just for her.

Today it was no different. With her loose red silk blouse tugged into a leather miniskirt (no he was not staring, thankyou) and her golden hair tied into two pigtails, she looked positively glowing as she entered Iron Dragon Ink, bringing with her the scent of flowers and hot summer air.

A powerful gust of wind played with her top and shook one of the lids on the three cups of coffee that apparently hadn't been fixed properly.

He watched her mouth shape a perfect 'O' as the lid lifted and sailed to the ground before she could snatch it.

"No worries, at least you didn't spill the coffee. Gihi."

Both Natsu and Lucy looked at Gajeel in surprise. Sure, Natsu had noticed his boss had been more cheerful lately, but this took things to yet another level. Him greeting her first, reassuring her even, and then making this sound - it was so uncharacteristically cheerful and dorky, Natsu almost wanted to ask him to make it again. He exchanged an amused glance with Lucy, not missing the colour on her cheeks.

Quickly, she looked away, marching towards his boss instead, determination in her steps.

Natsu tried to surpress his grin as he watched her hand Gajeel the coffee, recalling the face she had made at him when he had come by yesterday evening to get back his best friend.

She had not approved.

When she had opened the door for the second time, with a pout and Happy still pressed against her chest protectively, Natsu had burst into laughter, forgetting the weekend's agitating events for the first time.

Then, like now, her face had been enough to lift his spirits in a heartbeat.

Not to mention her lips. He wouldn't even start thinking about her lips - or he'd not get much work done today.

When Lucy had supplied Gajeel with his coffee, she slowly made her way over to Natsu with the remaining two cups.

"Hi Lucy," he grinned, and she instantly turned red all over again.

"Hi," she smiled back. "Coffee?"

He rolled his eyes at the stupid question, taking the cup from her hand. "Thanks! Hey, remember how I told you some friends were gonna visit me soon?"

"Ah, I do! There was this one guy with a name like a colour, uhhh…"

Natsu chuckled evilly. "A stupid colour," he drawled. "You mean Gray. Him and Lis are gonna visit this weekend. They're both childhood friends."

"And you really want me to meet them?"

Lucy fidgeted nervously and brushed a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. Good. Natsu had barely been able to restrain himself from doing the same thing.

"Of course! Gray already said he wants to go to a club, so we'll probably do that on Friday. Do you wanna join?"

"Ehh? It's been a while since I've been dancing…"

"C'mon, it'll be fun! You can't be a worse dancer than me!"

He grinned brightly and wiggled his hips, making her clasp her hand over her mouth.

"You might be right about that," she giggled.

"Ouch. That was an attack on my honour! I will get revenge on Friday - we'll have a dance battle!"

"No way!"

But Natsu was already spinning her halfway through the room, only stopping when Gajeel's icy glare froze them on the spot.

"Anyways," Natsu scratched the back of his head. "You'll get along great with them, I'm sure. But Gray's a dick actually."

Lucy snorted. "That's probably what it takes to be your friend."

"Oi! Being cheeky, Miss Lucy!"

She poked her tongue out at him.

"Well… we were known as the rowdy trio as kids. But actually it was mostly me and Gray getting into trouble, and Lisanna was just dragged into our shenanigans. We were kinda wild kids. Her older sister Mira-" He shuddered. "-always punished us when Lis got into trouble aswell. She's kinda…overprotective."

"She sounds scary, if she can make even you tremble."

They both shivered.

"Good thing she's not coming." Natsu laughed. "Then we can have lots of fun without any reprimands!"

"I hope it'll be fun," Lucy laughed. "And that I won't stumble over my own two feet."

"Course it'll be fun." Natsu leaned in closer, his voice drawing to a hushed whisper. "It's always fun when we're together."

Lucy turned various shades of red as his breath tickled her earlobe.

"Eurghs. Natsu, get back to work before yer jump each other's bones."

They both halted instantly, slowly turning into the maliciously grinning man's direction. Lucy was the one who caught herself first, ignoring her flaming cheeks to actually gather enough courage to counter:

"Well you don't seem to be getting too much work done either. A little distracted? Maybe that has to do with a certain blue-haired-"

"Dunno what yer talkin' bout." Gajeel grumbled and promplty turned his chair back around.

With a victorious hand on her gips, Lucy grinned at the pink haired man that stood dumbfounded beside her, a flabbergasted smile playing around his lips.

"Oi, you gave him good," he grinned, seeming quite proud of her. "-and did you just admit that I distract you?"

The cheeky glint was back in his eyes. But it seemed she would retaliate this time.

Her second hand found her hips too, and she winked up at him with a challenge in hers eyes.

"No, I implied that you are too distracted by me to actually look at the clock." She pointed at the wall. Damn. He had forgotten about the time again. "Your next customer will arrive in 5 minutes, won't he?"

That shut him up. Really, she had a better overview of his appointments than he did. She grinned triumphantly. Damn, he wanted to kiss her right there an then. Run his hands over her flushed cheeks and through her golden hair. Bite her lower lip; inhale her sweet scent as he tasted her on his lips…

"Natsu?"

"Ah, yes…" he mumbled, only reluctantly leaving his daydream behind. "So… Friday is a date? Uh, I mean, not date date, not yet, uh - forget I said that! I mean, but, you know…yeah you know."

And he was back to a spluttering mess. Her hold on him was too strong. He just couldn't handle it when she was sexy like that. It made him lose all his overconfidence.

Lucy smiled knowingly.

"Yeah. Friday's a date."