Characters: Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragneel, Happy, Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet

Genre: Romance, fluff

Rating: T

Summary: Cheek pulling and wrestling lead to quite unexpected results. Well, unexpected for Natsu and Lucy, anyway.

Notes: Based on Mashima's recent, beyond adorable Twitter doodle.

Warnings: Word vomit, FLUFF

Extra notes: And thank you all so, so much for 100 reviews! As amazing follows and favourites are, I feel reviews are the best because they're the only way one gets to know what exactly their readers thought. So for every single one of you who took the time to review any of these drabbles - my sincerest gratitude. You awesome. :D

"You guys lost," smirked Gray.

Knowing exactly what that'd do to Natsu.

"You don't have to keep repeating that ice-face!" he yelled snappily at the smug mage.

"Gray is correct," Erza said sagely, from where she was perched next to Gray on the hotel bed, though it wasn't hard to notice how she was gloating as well. "And so you have to face punishment set by us!"

"N-now now," said Lucy, seated on the floor next to Natsu, holding up her palms in a placating manner, "we don't have to get too excited over the punishment."

"Yeah, but we still are," said Gray, not taking his amused eyes off Nastu's huge pout. "You didn't reach the mayor's office first, we did. And the spoils of war go to us."

"What war? It was just a race!"

"Spoils of the race, then!"

"I don't think that - "

"Would you just tell us what it is already?!" yelled Natsu, unable to stand another second of Gray being any kind of winner.

Gray and Erza exchanged a not so subtle glance at each other before nodding.

"Well this is gonna be exciting," muttered a very excited Happy from behind his paws.

"You two," said Erza grandly, "have to be close!"

"Well that's stupid. We already are, she's my beat friend," said Natsu, missing Lucy's flushed, but pleased smiled.

"What she means to say is, you'll have to be physically close," said Gray.

"What!?" yelled a now very obviously flustered Lucy. "That's - no - you can't - I'm not - this - rude - "

"Woah, woah! Lucy, why'd you head go straight to the gutter?" teased Gray.

Lucy stilled and took on an even brighter hue. "W-well you said…"

"Sit on his lap," commanded Erza. And no one refused an Erza command.

Sighing deeply and wondering why such things only happened to her, Lucy gingerly got off the floor, turning towards Natsu. It really didn't help her situation when he only leaned back, smiling, resting his weight on his palms as if offering his lap saying - 'Come here, it's all yours.'

Somehow she managed to sit daintily, doing her best to not put too much of her weight on him. The only positive she could find was that with her back facing him, Natsu couldn't see her expressions.

"That looks really awkward," Gray commented, titling his head to one side, as if judging a painting.

Erza and Happy nodded their agreement with equal seriousness, heads titling as well.

Lucy was about to made a snide remark at them when she felt her entire seated self being lifted into the air.

Natsu, in an act of weirdly good non-combat coordination, turned her around to face him, before placing her back onto his lap.

Much to Lucy's only growing embarrassment.

"That's much better!" Natsu declared cheerfully.

In the background now, Erza, Gray and Happy were all exhibiting varying levels of interest at the scene before them.

"N-no it's not!" argued Lucy in a soft voice.

"How come? You're sitting more comfortably now and I can see you!"

"Don't you see how close this is? How inti - oh, never mind," she gave up, rolling her eyes before dropping her face into her palms.

"Hey now," he said softly, "don't be like that." He drew her hands away from her face and held her chin, titling her head towards his own.

Lucy flushed.

Erza was scarlet.

Even Gray turned slightly pink -

Happy wondered where he could get fish flavoured pop-corn for this.

And Natsu simply pulled Lucy's cheeks. Wide.

"Hahahahahahaahahahahahaha! Oh man, Lucy you look so funny!"

And everyone deflated, hopes of anything fluffy happening to their secret ship now leaving them. Except a now pissed Lucy.

"Oh yeah? Let's see how you like it!" she challenged, pulling at his cheeks while he was still laughing.

With his moving and her practically leaping at his face, her hand happened to misfire, and ended up hooking a cheek.

Not one to go down over a blooper, she dug her other thumb into his mouth as well, before quite genuinely laughing at what she had made of Natsu's face.

"T-that's even funnier!"

"Wha the he' Luhee, wea sahosed ta be a 'eam!"

"Well you did it fir-"

Natsu took his chance to hook her cheeks as well, thus beginning a tug of (cheeks) war between the two.

Meanwhile, the rest of their team were looking on in quiet disappointment laced with a smidgen of disbelief at the two, and how they chose to respond to sitting so intimately together.

"Well what did you expect," Gray finally said to Erza. "They're as daft as they come."

Erza was now in the very depths of self-battering hell. "It was because I didn't try hard enough. I should have committed fully to the endeavour. Should I asked them to have taken their clothes off? Set a part of Lucy on fire for the appeal? Maybe - "

Gray, horrified with where Erza was going with this, decided that she needed to get away from her match-making efforts.

Match-making? Mira. Another bet maybe? Oh jeez.

He nodded to Happy and they both gently lifted Erza off the bed and outside for a walk that they hoped would do her (and Natsu and Lucy's chances at a long life) some good, leaving behind the two wrestling best friends, not bothering with notifying them.

"Le' goh oh ma sheeks, Nahshu!"

"Nah unlil you do ferse!"

"You - ouch!"

And Natsu knew what had caused that yelp of pain. Immediately, he let go of her cheeks, and let her hastily withdraw her own hands as well.

He always forgot his fangs had potential to hurt. And now thanks to that Lucy had quite a nick on her palm.

Without much of a thought, he did what he always did - what came first to mind.

He licked it.

Lucy's entire frame froze and he felt it. Looking up through his lashes - while still tending to her wound - he took in her wide eyes and pronounced flush.

But that was not all.

There was the subtle swallowing. The soft gasp. The quickened heartbeat. The dilated pupils.

Deciding to test his theory, he continued to maintain eye contact, making a slow deliberate line across her wound with his tongue.

All the symptoms - clearly not figments of imagination - were now far more intense.

But she didn't seem to notice herself. All she seemed to see was…him.

Natsu jolted internally as he read her eyes - usually so warm and happy, now molten and dark.

And it was him she was looking at with that sultry gaze.

He slowly raised his head from her palm to his usual seated height, slow because he didn't want to stop… whatever it was that was happening, just because of his own haste.

With ease that didn't belie his own frantically beating heart, he cupped Lucy's soft cheek - one he had been furiously pulling only moments ago - and gently drew her closer to him.

And she allowed it.

"So you're not talking to each other now, I take it," said Gray, bored, as he stepped back into the room. Neither of them replied.

Lucy and Natsu were on their respective beds (Natsu on his sorry excuse for one actually), facing away from each other.

Understandably so, Gray believed. Only an idiot would want to see that flame-brain's face before sleeping, ugh.

Erza came in behind him, much quieter but also far less frantic.

Both mages quietly changed and went to bed as well, Happy curling at Nastu's feet.

Which, later on in the night, caused Natsu quite a bit of trouble - what with him trying to get off his travel futon without waking the little guy up.

But he eventually managed to, and made his way out of their room to the lakeside nearby.

Soundlessly, he sat on the one bench there, facing the calm water sparkling in the moonlight.

It wasn't long before her scent came.

He didn't turn to look at her, not when she emerged from behind the bench, nor when she took a seat right beside him.

The moon was too pretty, and his heart too frantic for that.

They sat there in quiet, only slightly uncomfortable silence for a little while.

"So… Gray's timing was… something," Lucy managed, mentally kicking herself for her eloquence.

"Yeah," replied Natsu, with equal brilliance.

It took a minute, but then he realised how silly they were being. They were Lucy and Natsu. Best friends and partners.

They could go through thick and thin together - God knew they already had. And whether things "worked out" or not, they would still always be Lucy and Natsu.

Smiling, Natsu turned to look at Lucy, not realising how his feelings for her reflected clear as day in his eyes.

Lucy blushed as she read it, but didn't say away when Natsu leaned in once more.

On the contrary she leaned towards him with equally cautious enthusiasm.

And with happy hearts and fluttering tummies the two finally shared their first kiss.

"Ah ha!" Erza whisper-exclaimed from where they were hiding, careful to be both downwind and outside Natsu's nasal radar.

Gray only smirked, with barely concealed happiness for his teammates. "Yeah, it worked."

"Yes, yes it did. I cannot wait for Mira to find out. Ooh, it's payback time."

And in stark contrast to the warmth and fuzziness the two lovebirds were so obviously experiencing, the temperature really did dip around Gray. It was the first time the ice-mage ever really felt the chill.

Happy, however, was just plain happy - hovering over the group. Until he realised in despair - "I have to come up with a new tagline to tease them with!"

Ahh, it's been a while. Again. I hope those of you still reading my trash are having fun! ^^

As always, special thanks to NaluhasNashi, True Love's Rose, FireDragonPhia, thebooknerdgeek, Juliastes, DarkShiningLight and KaUia, and to all those whp favourited and followed! :D