AN: This was a PAIN to write! Mostly because I had an idea of what I wanted, but didn't know how to go about it. But I've finally finished it just in time for you guys, so I hope you all enjoy! As always, thanks for the reviews and overall support of this series! We've got one more chapter until it's done! ^^

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. Otherwise, Natsu and Lucy's relationship would be extra cheesy with a good helping of fluff.

Natsu took a deep breath. His hands were sweating, which was odd because he rarely ever sweats unless he undergoes intense training or was worn out from battle. He gulped and gave a determined stare at what was in front of him. He could do this!

"I…I love you, Lucy."

There was silence, Natsu's own reflection staring back at him. There was cackling laughter on the other side of the room as he turned his gaze from the mirror to his blue partner.

"Wh-What's so funny?!" he asked, an embarrassed flush painting his face.

"It took you twenty minutes to say that?" Happy laughed, tears falling from his eyes, "Wow, Natsu, that's pathetic!"

The boy swiped at his best friend, "You aren't helping!"

The Exceed ceased his laughter to give the Dragon Slayer a blank look, "Why are you practicing so much just to say three little words? Wouldn't it be easier to just tell Lucy and get it over with?"

"It's not that simple!" he exclaimed, "It's as if every time she looks at me, the feeling in my chest gets worse and I realize I can't breathe anymore. It's weird, and Lucy's weird for making me feel weird!"

Happy contemplated his words and gave Natsu a serious look, "Sounds like you're nervous, Natsu."

Natsu scoffed, "Pssh, that's a laugh! As if I'd be nervous of telling Lucy I lo… That I lov…erm…" He gulped. Why couldn't he freaking say it?!

"That you love her." Happy finished for him.

"Y-Yeah, that."

This was going to be a challenge…

"I can do this." Natsu said to no one in particular as he stood in front of the guild's doors, "Just gotta go in there and tell her. No sweat! I'm all fired up!"

"Aye! Do your best, Natsu!" Happy cheered as he opened the doors and flew in, practically leading his best friend to the object of his affections.

Lucy was sitting at her usual seat at the bar, drinking a milkshake and chatting with Mirajane. When she saw Happy land next to her, she bid him a hello and rubbed behind his ears. She turned to her partner.

"Hey, Natsu! How are you today?"

Natsu gulped. He was confident before, but now that he was standing there in front of her—her doe brown eyes gazing at him with all of her attention—it was making confessing harder for him…

"I-I'm fine." He replied and mentally kicked himself. 'Don't stutter, you idiot!'

"Hey, listen Lucy," he began again as he tried to ignore the flips and turns his stomach was making as he watched her cock her head to the side in an impossibly cute manner, "I need to tell you something."

"Oh, okay. What is it?"

"I—" he started but suddenly stopped. This isn't good…

'Don't choke, Dragneel!'

"You…?" Lucy drawled out, trying to coax him into finishing his statement. Behind her, Happy was trying to encourage him along with mouthing the words, "Say it! Say you love her!" Dammit! Why'd she have to have this effect on him? This isn't supposed to be hard! At all!

Natsu gritted his teeth, let out a long breath from his nostrils, and set his determined gaze on Lucy, "Lucy, I need to tell you that I really, really lo—"

"Yo, Flamebrain!" a voice interrupted him. Gray came over and smacked the Salamander hard on his back, "What's with your composure? You look constipated."

The pink haired boy growled and—without even looking at his rival—punched Gray square in the jaw.

"What was that for, you ass?!"

"You bastard! Do you have any idea how close I was?!" Natsu yelled as he punched on the Ice Mage, causing another one of their daily brawls.

Lucy and Happy stared at the spectacle; the former blinking in confusion while the latter shook his head in disappointment.

"What just happened?" the blonde asked the cat.

"Plan A's failure."

"…What?"

"Here, Natsu, try this!" Happy exclaimed as he presented his friend a large fish tied with a big red bow.

The two were outside the guild. After Gray and Natsu started their fight, a lot of other guild members joined in too. Unfortunately, it got a little out of hand which involved a table, a half full tankard of booze, one of the instruments from the stage, and the Titania's favorite dessert. The experience will make Natsu shudder for months.

"What's with the fish?" the Dragon Slayer asked with a raised brow.

"Well, when I want to show Charle how much she means to me, I give her a fish! If you give this to Lucy, she'll see how much you love her!" Happy said, looking proud of his plan.

"But Lucy hates fish…"

"Eh?! How could she hate fish? You're in love with a weirdo, Natsu!"

"I know that already!"

"Eh? You plan on giving that to Lucy? Oh, Natsu, don't show a girl your love with that thing!"

Natsu and Happy turned to see the cheerful face of Lisanna. In her hands was a bright bouquet of roses with a ribbon that says, "I Love You."

"Give her these!" she said, thrusting the bouquet in his hands.

"Wha—? Lisanna, do you always carry around flowers or something?" Natsu asked, smelling the roses experimentally. They did smell nice, kind of like Lucy but not as good. Nothing, in his opinion, smelled better than Lucy.

"No, silly!" she giggled, "Those are from one of Sis's admirers. She told me to take them home, but since you need them more than she does, I think it'll be alright if you used them to give to Lucy."

Natsu took a moment to process what his childhood friend was saying to him. A huge grin overtook his face, "Are you serious? You're the best, Lisanna!"

He then crushed her with a hug, which she gladly returned. However, their good mood was shattered when they heard a piercing gasp.

"Oh, my… Has it finally happened?" the three mages turned to see Laki at the guild doors, wide eyed and open mouthed.

"Have the 'Childhood Friends' finally confessed their unyielding affections for one another?" she rhetorically asked as she kept staring at them.

"What?" Natsu asked, dumbfounded. Happy and Lisanna began to panic, the white haired girl waving her hands frantically.

"No, Laki! It isn't—"

"And here I thought our Natsu's attractions lied with Lucy. I supposed we were all jaded with a fleeting hope…"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"I must go and tell the others of the great news!" with that she ran back inside the guild. While Natsu didn't quite understand Laki's odd sense of wording, he did understand one thing: she thought he confessed to Lisanna! And she was going to tell the whole guild! The guild where the real person he loved was!

Like hell he'd let that happen!

Shoving the flowers back to Lisanna, he sprinted into the guild just in time to hear Laki call out, "Hey, everyone! Natsu and Lisanna are—mmph!"

"Just fine and dandy and in good health!" Natsu finished for her, laughing nervously. "Great friends and nothing more!"

While some blinked and gave the two curious looks, other just brushed it off as one of Natsu's antics and went back to their business. Natsu sighed in relief and removed his hand from Laki's mouth.

"They were for Lucy," he told her when he saw her open her mouth. It instantly snapped close as a look of understanding flashed across her face.

"Ah, I see. My apologies."

"Yeah, whatever." He sighed and watched her leave. He was about to go back outside and retrieve the flowers from Lisanna when Lucy suddenly popped up to his side, making him jump.

"Guaah! Where'd you come from?"

"You were acting kind of tense, so I went to see if everything was okay. I also accidentally overheard you say that something was for me?"

Oh shit…

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"What did you get me?"

"I…I got you a…uhh," crap there were those damn nerves again! There needs to be a potion to get rid of those! Unless there already was a potion like that, then put in an order for him, please!

"You're acting stranger than usual today. Are you sure there isn't anything wrong?"

'Yes, Lucy, there is something wrong. My heart is about to explode out of my chest because you keep looking at me with those stupid, weird puppy dog eyes! Just close your eyes or something so I can properly tell you I love you, okay?'

"Nothing's wrong, Luce, I promise!" he said, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring grin, "I actually remembered that I need to take care of something. See ya later!"

He rushed out of the guild, leaving a thoroughly confused—and a little hurt—Lucy in his wake.

Outside, Lisanna and Happy gave the boy un-amused stares.

"Don't look at me like that! You two would do the same if she looked at you with those damn eyes of hers!"

"Natsu Dragneel, you've got it baaaaaad." Lisanna said with a smirk.

"Aye."

"Alright, Natsu, this plan is guaranteed full-proof!" Happy assured him as he held up a notebook.

Natsu blinked at the item, "I'm going to give her this to show my feelings?"

"No! You're going to write your feelings. Since you, you know, can't say them."

"Oh, shut up!" he said as he snatched the notebook from the Exceed's paws, "This'll be a piece of cake."

"That's what you said about the other attempts…"

Ignoring his partner, Natsu walked into the guild and after asking Reedus for a (non-magic) pen, he made his way to where Lucy and Levy were having a conversation.

"Lucy!" he called out, wishing for his heart to stop beating so hard and the heat to subside from his face.

"Natsu, there you are!" Lucy turned to him as she stood up, "You were gone for a while. Are you sure you're okay?"

'Once I tell you these stupid feelings, I will be more than okay!'

"Of course I'm fine, Luce!" he said. He then opened the notebook and began writing his feelings about her while also trying to keep his blonde partner from looking over his shoulder.

"Since when did you write?" she asked after failing to see what he was doing.

"Since now." He said as he finished and gave the notebook to Lucy, "Now read this!"

There was silence as Lucy read. Natsu's already jumpy nerves were getting worse as he noticed Lucy's expression. It was excited, teary-eyed, or even blushing! And Lucy always blushed! Does she not return his feelings?

'I knew it was too good to be true!'

"Uhh, Natsu?"

Her voice was uneasy and Natsu looked to her, in fear of the oncoming rejection, "Y-Yeah?"

"What did you write?"

Wait, what?

"What?"

"Your writing. I can't read it." She then showed the collection of papers back to him and Natsu looked at it thoughtfully. Well he could read it, but then he realized that his handwriting was a lot sloppier than Lucy's. Hell, now that he thought about it, he realized his handwriting was sloppier than everyone's!

"Oh. Oops." That was really all he could say in this moment.

"Let me look!" Levy piped up as she bounced over to the two and swiped the notebook from Natsu's grasp. "I'm pretty good at distinguishing bad handwriting."

While Natsu would rather have Lucy only read his confession on paper, he guessed Levy would have to do since she was an expert in this particular area. Anything was better than a spoken confession.

After a while, Levy furrowed her eyebrows before lowering the paper. Her eyes began to water.

"Ahh, Levy! What's wrong?" Lucy asked as she tried to comfort her friend.

"I… I can't read it!"

There were gasps all around as the petite girl sobbed about what a failure she was. Natsu tried to keep himself from beating his head against a pillar. Who knew his handwriting was so bad a known specialist couldn't read it!

Natsu snuck out for the third time that day during the commotion that was the guild trying to comfort the blue haired girl. It was too bad he missed the longing look the person he'd been trying to confess to all day was giving him.

"Charades?!"

"Aye!"

"What kind of idea is that, Happy?!"

"It's the only one I've got left! I don't see you coming up with anything, Mister Nervous!"

"I'm not nervous!"

Happy gave him a no-nonsense look, "Take it or leave it, Natsu. Otherwise you're on your own."

Natsu sighed in defeat. It was his only shot left. Lucy would be leaving for home soon.

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Great! Now go and get her!"

He walked into the guild and spotted Lucy at a table with the rest of Team Natsu. He rushed over. 'It's now or never!'

"Hey, Lucy, wanna play a game?" he asked as he plopped on the bench with her.

Lucy gave him a disbelieving look. "Seriously? First you start a brawl; then you get me something but refuse to tell me what it is; then you make Levy cry; and now you want to play a game? What is up with you today, Natsu?"

"I agree," Erza said. "You have been rather odd."

"Odder than usual." Gray commented.

"No one asked you, Popsicle!" Natsu yelled, but shook his head. He needed to focus!

"Come on, Lucy, just one game and then I'll leave you alone," he pleaded. Thankfully, her features softened and she nodded.

"Oh, alright. What game do you want to play?"

"Charades!"

The blonde blinked, "That's…random."

'Tell me about it,' he thought, but didn't let his annoyance show. "Yep! I'll act out something and you'll guess what it is, okay?"

Lucy nodded, "Sure, sounds fun!"

"Great!" Natsu said, starting the game by holding up three fingers.

"Three words," Lucy observed. Natsu nodded and continued by pulling his ear, "Sounds like…"

Natsu pointed to his eye. Lucy was about to reply when Erza cut her off.

"Cornea."

There was a long pause.

"Eh? Cornea? Erza, that's stupid, it's obviously pupil!" Gray said as if that was the most logical answer to Natsu's miming.

Natsu wanted to smash his team members' heads together. This was supposed to be his and Lucy's game!

"Err, guys," Lucy interrupted the banter, "I think he means, 'I.'"

Natsu could kiss her right now (actually he wanted to kiss her all the time but that's not the point). He nodded enthusiastically as he reveled in Erza and Gray's grumbling looks.

"Alright, Natsu. 'I' what?" Lucy asked, actually looking excited with the game.

In reply, Natsu formed what he thought was a heart with his hands. Unfortunately, before Lucy could give her answer, his nosy teammates interrupted once again.

"Circle!"

"Erza, that looks nothing like a circle! It's a triangle!"

"Triangle?" Cana popped up, drunkenly looking at Natsu's hands, "Gray, honey, it points downward right there. It's an arrowhead!"

'An arrowhead?' Natsu thought. Where did she even come from? Pretty soon all the guild members were joining the game, guessing from simple to downright weird things Natsu's word could be.

"It's a man!"

"No, Elfman, it obviously isn't!"

"Maybe it's a bird?"

"I'm telling you guys, it's a triangle!"

"Gray, put your clothes on and guess something practical!"

Natsu couldn't take it anymore. Slamming his hands on the table, he shouted as loud as he could, "YOU'RE ALL WRONG!"

There was silence before Erza huffed, "Natsu, you aren't supposed to talk during the game."

Natsu cried out in frustration, fire spewing from his mouth, "FORGET IT!"

He stomped out of the guild.

"What's his problem?" Cana asked, not bothering to comment further when she and everyone else saw Lucy run after her best friend.

Outside the guild, Natsu was kicking up dirt and rocks and punching the nearest light post he could find. Happy looked at his friend in worry.

"There's always tomorrow."

"Just forget it, Happy! If I couldn't tell her today, there is probably no way I can tell her tomorrow! I've tried four different times and have nothing to show for it! This is so frustrating!" Natsu yelled, wanting to pull his hair out and burn something (particularly his guildmates since they kept ruining his moments).

"Natsu."

The two friends looked toward the voice and found Lucy giving him a worried look, "Are you okay?"

"Look at the time," Happy said, looking at his paw as if he had a watch on. "I've got to go. Bye guys, see you later! Good luck, Natsu!"

With the cat gone, it was just Natsu and Lucy. Alone.

Lucy was still waiting for Natsu to answer her question. He gave a tired sigh.

"I'm just frustrated and really pissed off right now. Sorry."

"It was just a game, Natsu," she said as if the stupid game of charades was the root of his entire problem. He chuckled bitterly.

"No, Lucy, it isn't just the game. It's this whole day that pisses me off!"

"What do you mean?" she asked, her pretty, pretty eyes practically burning into his soul. 'Now or never, I guess…'

"All day I've been trying to tell you something, but all day I've kept getting interrupted. First it was Gray, then Laki and Levy, and then pretty much the entire guild! I've faced worst than this, so it's frustrating that telling you I love you is so hard for me."

"I love you, too."

"And if I'm not getting interrupted, I get nervous! Me, Lucy, nervous?! That's crazy!"

"Natsu, didn't you—"

"You have this powerful effect on me, Lucy, and I don't know how you do it! If it isn't your eyes, it's your smile! And if it isn't that, then it's your body or your scent or your—"

"Natsu!"

"What?! Can't you see I'm trying to tell you my problems?!"

His answer came in the form of Lucy kissing him square on the lips. After processing what was happening, Natsu gave in and kissed her back. Oh, yes, this was what he wanted for so long!

When they parted, Lucy giggled, "If you had stopped talking for five minutes, you would have heard me say that I loved you too, stupid!"

Natsu blinked and rethought what he had said in his rant, only to blush when he realized he slipped in his confession.

Lucy laughed louder at his expression. She entwined their fingers as she led him away, "Come on, Mister Nervous, let's go get something to eat."

Despite her teasing nickname for him, Natsu grinned and started running, dragging her along with him.

"Great! I know the perfect place, too!"

The newly established couple ran off, laughing and blushing and happy together. They didn't notice the blue Exceed watching over them with a giddy grin on his furry face.

"I knew he could do it!" he giggled, "They love each other!"

AN: 5/6/18 - Some years after I wrote this, it came to my attention that Natsu actually has neat handwriting (as seen in Natsu's House Omake where we see his handwritten note on the wall). So yay, inconsistencies with canon! OTL

Hope you all enjoyed reading it! Tell me your thoughts, okay? See you guys for the last chapter!

Revised 5/1/18