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Arson

The crime of willfully burning one's own or another's property.

It was time to go home. Or rather, it was time for Lucy to relocate to her new insurance-issued home where she would be staying for the next few months. She would be living there while she searched for a new place. An investigation on the fire would be launched and more than likely last a few months. Natsu wasn't concerned by the insurance details, assuring her that even while most cases did not cover arson, hers was a special case.

The slash across his right shoulder stung where the stitches held his skin together. His left side itched where his old scar had been stitched back together. Natsu was going to need a new tattoo for his opposite shoulder, that was for sure.

He was thinking something new.

Maybe a fairy, or something stylized like one.

After all, he owed the 'fairies' his life.

He nearly groaned as he remembered Erza's gentle ribbing over how he had called her a fairy for nearly fifteen minutes straight after inhaling too much smoke. He rubbed his fingers over the gauze covering the stitches, the desire to scratch it off nearly overwhelming.

A gentle hand caught his wrist and he looked over to see Lucy pouting at him. Soft eyes were giving him a severe look, her lower lip pursed and the curve of her nose was pointed up towards his face.

"Don't mess with them, otherwise you'll be back here to have the doctor put them back in if they pop off," She covered his hand in hers, and he couldn't help but marvel at the way her slim fingers skated over his rough knuckles.

His breath caught, his eyes warming to her and a smile quirking his lips, "What're you going to do to stop me detective - whip out your cuffs?"

"Maybe."

Oh.

Oh shit.

He took it back. That was when all breathing stopped in his chest and a surprising jolt of heat burned through him. Considering his past with the police and being in cuffs more times than he could count, Natsu wasn't sure he could ever find the idea of being at someone's mercy like that appealing.

But Lucy as usual proved to be the exception to the rule.

His gaze slanted to her mischievous smile, an answering one quirking at his lips as a shiver ran down his spine. She really was going to be the death of him one of these days. Through the time he had known her, the sassy detective had destroyed parts of himself that were dark and ugly, broken through layers of walls and barriers he threw up to try and protect himself.

She tore those walls down brick by brick and ground each stone into dust, leaving him vulnerable in the light. No longer shadowed by the memories that held him back.

He still had his secrets and his shortcomings. Natsu would never be good at sharing his feelings, even with Lucy. But he knew with her patience, he could get better at it.

Not perfect.

But better.

Diving his nose into the weight of the familiar scarf, draped loose around his neck, he breathed in its fresh scent. Recently washed. He knew he had barely washed the thing when he had it before, but he guessed he liked it clean and white.

A new start.

Something precious to protect.

His eyes flashed over to Lucy, Gray's words coming back to his mind. His heart hammered in his chest when he saw how she was craning her head around the corner, looking for the taxi ready to take her away.

Who knew for how long.

The thought seemed unacceptable to him, and he felt the wrongness of her leaving caused his heart to arrest in his chest. He didn't know what to do, but a crazy thought sprang to his head and lodged there before he could think to plan it out.

"Lucydoyoumaybewanttomoveinwithme?"

And there went the last of his dignity, because apparently where his brain failed, his mouth soon followed after. He swallowed thickly as he stared at her, Lucy staring at him as if he had grown three heads and an extra arm out of each new forehead. Natsu just prayed she wouldn't understand what he had asked of her.

But alas, his detective was smart.

Good with deciphering words too apparently.

"You want me to move in with you?" She asked, a warm flush working over her cheeks. Her teeth bit into her bottom lip like they habitually did whenever she was thinking about something. The sunlight caught across her iris, casting a honey brown glow in her eyes, and Natsu had to take a moment to marvel at how such a simple thing could stop him in his tracks.

His brain thankfully realigned before his thoughts could turn into complete poetic mush, a nervous smile curling his lips up. Uncertainty gripped him, but he tried not to let it show.

"I- yeah," Natsu's cheeks went red, his hands dipping into his pockets and his gaze averting, "I mean, I know your insurance set up a nice place for you, and we haven't known one another long."

"And my place is kind of a shit hole, and I don't even have a real trashcan or more than two chairs," He was babbling now, and Natsu prayed the ground itself would swallow him up and sink him into the pits of hell. "I'm a slob and I can't cook worth a damn, I don't have a washing machine or a dryer, and I'm pretty sure there's bats or something in the dishwasher. Not like I got any plates for the stupid thing," he rambled on, scratching the back of his neck.

Lucy only gaped at him, her mouth dropping.

And he launched into another cluster of hasty words breathed out on a single exhale. "But, it's big enough for two people, and Happy'll have a field day with all the wood he can scratch up, and we can probably fix it up or something. It's not much, but it's all I got, and…" Here he paused, swallowing. "I don't know, I want to share it with you… Is that weird? Too soon? Jesus Christ, I don't even know what I'm doing - "

But then there were hands cupping his cheeks, blonde hair tickling his neck, and a warm mouth on his own. Lucy effectively silenced him with the sweetest of kisses, her lips coaxing the very breath from his lungs.

Natsu wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into his body.

Only then did she pull away with a giggling sigh, and look up at him through long, thick lashes that should have been illegal. "Natsu," she whispered, "nothing would make me happier than to share your house."

His heart nearly stopped.

Had she...just agreed?

"But a shower is non negotiable," Lucy added, her brows lowering as she pointed a finger at him. The tip of it rested just under his collarbone and he glanced down at it, remembering with a sinking stomach, that his shower was still demonically possessed and no longer functioning.

"So why don't you come with me?" Lucy asked, her eyes lifting up to his face. He didn't think he could imagine the suddenly bashful image she made. After the complete ass he had made of himself, it astounded him that she was even a little nervous.

The woman's bottom lip was pressed between her teeth, but Natsu's heart was busy cartwheeling into his ribcage. She wanted him to come with her? To wherever her insurance company was going to dump her?

"It's not mine or anything like that," Lucy breathed out in a rush, and Natsu felt as if he had stepped into some surreal twilight zone when she started to babble, "It's only temporary lodging, so it's probably not as homey as your place is. And yeah, I know your place doesn't have that many things in it, but they are your things. I don't really have anything anymore, everything I have left is in some security box in a bank."

"I don't have anything left from Strawberry Street," Lucy finally looked up at him, her cheeks rosy from where she had spoken in a frantic rush, just as he had moments earlier, "But…"

The yellow cab finally made its appearance. Idling by the curb as it waited for its occupant. Natsu was reminded of that first day he met Lucy, all over again. How she had climbed into that cab alone after that not-date.

This time her hand wrapped around his. The softness of it was like a balm against the hard edges of his palm, pressing their fingerprints into one another's skin. They did this as if they could brand their touch into one another, with something as simple as a caress.

This time she wanted him to come with her on whatever adventure came next.

"I want a fresh start," She gave him a nervous smile, "I think that's what the fire gave me. Like your tattoo, right? A new beginning from the ash?"

Natsu rolled his shoulder at the mention of the tattoo. None of the phantom pain from his scar made his shoulder pull tight. It was something new. Something different. He took it as a good sign.

"I would like to start over with you," Lucy waved at the driver to let him know she was coming. Her eyes drifted over to Natsu and she held a hand out to him, "What do you say Natsu?"

This time he knew exactly what he wanted.

"It's always more fun when we're together," He responded, taking her hand in his to put her nerves to rest. Who would have thought she would be even a little anxious when he was the one who nearly devoured his own foot not five minutes earlier.

He opened the taxi door for her, the expression of pure joy on her face letting him know her enthusiasm for this wild adventure was true. Excitement poured through his veins as he wondered where this new campaign was going lead them.

One thing was for certain. If it was with Lucy, it would be worth it. Always.

"Let's go home, Luce?"

She pulled him into the back of the cab with her, drawing her clever hands around the back of his neck, drawing him down into a kiss so sweet, he could still taste the sprinkles of Juvia's cookies clinging to her lips.

"Yes," She stared at him, her hands dropped into his scarf, and Natsu found that he liked the way it felt for him to get pulled towards her. She stared into his eyes, a single word passing through her lips.

It left a smile on his face, one she reflected. It was one that had endured the hottest temperatures in a trial by fire. Thrown face first into an unrelenting heat, in a battle and fight against an enemy that knew neither pity or restraint.

Together they had found themselves through the fire, smoke, and ash.

That word on its own came to mean so much between the two of them. Something they had found in one another.

"Home."