Peace and quiet enveloped the forest, as a pair of exhausted mages had fallen asleep, waiting until sunrise to resume their trek back the guild.

*yawn*

Well, it was still somewhat peaceful as least.

"Natsu-san," began Juvia Lockser shyly, not wanting to rile the Fire Dragon Slayer's notorious temper. "It can't be that hard to fall asleep after all the monsters he and Juvia had to fight." the Rain mage reasoned neutrally, as she sat up on the ground.

"My bad Juvia, did I wake you up?" the pink-haired mage asked. "I can go farther away if you want, I'll just keep guard over there." Natsu proposed, not wanting to keep his teammate awake with his incessant yawning. Still, though, why -

"Why is Natsu-san struggling so much to fall asleep?" Juvia asked, her question mirroring Natsu's thoughts. "C-Could it be because Juvia is being noisy? Juvia can go someplace else if she is being noisy!"

Natsu stared at Juvia's panicked expression, before breaking into a fit of laughter.

"Nah, it's got nothing to do with you." the Dragon Slayer said, chuckling. "I don't know why this is happening myself, to be honest with you." Natsu admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Perhaps..." the water mage began, racking her brains for a solution to her teammate's sleeping problem. "Perhaps Natsu-san isn't as comfortable sleeping in these conditions as he is back home." she offered.

"That can't be it." Natsu said, waving his hand in dismissal of Juvia's suggestion. "I've always slept just fine outside like this after missions." he concluded, even as yet another yawn escaped his mouth.

"Well, it isn't just about physical conditions." the blue-haired girl insisted. "Maybe there's something about home that Natsu-san misses."

"I don't even sleep at home that much anymore." the Dragon Slayer groaned. "I'm always over at -"

"Lucy-san's." Juvia concluded for him.

"Well...yeah, actually." Natsu admitted, taken aback by Juvia's knowledge of his sleeping habits. He knew that he shouldn't really be be surprised, given how much the girls liked to talk amongst themselves, but this was kind of personal! He'd have to make sure to talk to Lucy about this when he got back.

While Natsu was lost in his thoughts of Lucy's apparent blabbermouthing, an idea suddenly occurred to the Rain mage beside him.

This could be my chance to eliminate my Love Rival from being in contention for Gray-sama's heart once and for all!

"Natsu-san..." Juvia began, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

"What's up?" was the response from the salmon-haired mage, none the wiser to what the girl next to him was plotting.

"Juvia would like to know why Natsu-san likes sleeping at Lucy-san's so much." the Rain mage questioned. "If that's not too much to ask." she quickly added, trying to feign mere curiosity to mask her intentions.

"Well..." the Dragon slayer began, as he tried to think of why exactly he did prefer his best friend's home to his own when it came to sleeping. Juvia's question was one that he was finding surprisingly difficult to answer, and not because of a shortage of possible reasons. Rather, his mind was being absolutely flooded with too many reasons why Lucy's apartment was perfect for him.

"It smells nice." Natsu offered weakly, not wanting to delve into the deeper reasons that had come up in his brain. It was all kind of overwhelming for Natsu himself, actually. He'd never actually thought about why this simple night habit was what it was. He couldn't help but notice the funny, fuzzy feeling that was stirring up in his belly. This was definitely why smashing things up is ten times better than thinking about things, the Fire Dragon Slayer adamantly reassured himself.

He looked down, only to see a disappointed frown etched on his teammate's face.

"What?..." he asked, not liking the fact that his answer was seemingly deemed unsatisfactory.

Rather than answer his question, Juvia simply continued to frown, which only served to irritate Natsu even more, until he reached his breaking point.

"Fine, fine! I'll think of something better. Jeez."

Juvia knew that her conversations with Lucy-san about Natsu-san's weaknesses would pay off one day!

"When I'm at Lucy's place..." he started over, noticing how Juvia's eyes seemed to light up at his renewed attempt to answer her question. Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to regret this? the pink-haired mage thought to himself, a sinking feeling in his stomach. Nevertheless, he decided to press forward. For both Juvia's sake, and strangely enough, his. "When I'm in there, I feel safe. And complete. Like nothing could possibly go wrong as long as I'm there. With her." the pink-haired mage concluded, adding that last part rather sheepishly.

Juvia had to repress the urge to squeal at her teammate's confessionals. And the light pink blush that had formed on his cheeks. Who knew that this side to the Dragon Slayer existed? Well, Lucy probably did, to some degree. Regardless of how cute she was finding all this however, the blue-haired mage resolved to see her plot through.

"Juvia thinks Natsu-san likes Lucy-san." she stated, simply. Natsu began to try and make a remark about how that was obvious given their friendship, but the Rain mage had long anticipated his doltish way of thinking. With more resolution than anything Natsu had ever seen her do before, Juvia got right up in his face, causing the pinkette to gulp nervously. "A lot." she finished, emphasis placed on those simple words to make sure that not even someone like Natsu could misconstrue her meaning any longer.

Juvia's words hit the Fire Dragon Slayer like a ton of his bricks, as his eyes widened at the suggestion that he was at all romantically inclined towards his best friend.

"She's a total weirdo!"

"And Natsu-san isn't?"

"Well..."

"Juvia sees the way Natsu-san's eyes get when Lucy-san comes back with an injury from a mission. Juvia sees how Natsu-san is always trying to find ways to spend time with Lucy-san, even when she screams that she doesn't want to."

Left speechless at his teammate's bold words, the salmon-haired mage could only stutter and stammer as he tried to come up with a retort.

"Juvia even sees the way Natsu-san looks at Lucy-san when he thinks she isn't looking." the Rain mage stated, her eyes looking intently for her teammate's reaction. Much to her pleasure, the Dragon Slayer looked away, visibly flustered as a pink hue once again invaded his cheeks.

"If Natsu-san likes Lucy-san as much as Juvia thinks he does," she began again, noting with amusement the wide-eyed look on the pinkette's face as he hung on her every word. "Then Natsu-san should make his feelings clear, that is, unless he isn't scared that someone else might steal Lucy-san's heart."

If words were capable of physically hurting, Natsu definitely wasn't aware of it until today. He felt his chest begin to constrict at the implication behind Juvia's words. The thought of some other man being as close, or maybe even closer, to Lucy as he was stirred up feelings which resembled motion sickness within him.

"Anyway, Juvia is tired. Good night, Natsu-san." the Rain mage said casually, though a smile played on her lips as she turned away from the Dragon Slayer and laid down on her side.

Lucy... no one's going to take you away from me. You can bet on that.

Sorry for the super late update, guys! I've been very busy, lately. As always, follow, favorite, and please do review, if you like. They mean the world to me! I will try my hardest to start writing again more frequently!