A/N - For the NaLu fansl enjoy!

Chapter 3 – Fire and Fish

Lucy burst into her apartment, slightly out of breath, and hastily looked around her apartment. Once she had determined nothing was on fire, she breathed out a sigh of relief. It was a constant paranoia that whenever she approached her home by the river she thought she could smell burning. She recently had taken to filling up a bucket of water by her bed… just as a precaution.

Lucy walked over to her bed and collapsed on top of it, passing a weary hand over her eyes. With all the requests and jobs and running around all the time she barely had any time to relax properly on her own. Lucy smiled to herself as she thought of nice evening where she might actually be able to have a bath without something terrible occurring. After another minutes thought, Lucy decided that was exactly what she was going to do and headed to the bathroom, taking in her nightie to wear whilst waiting for the bath to fill.

As she hummed happily as her bathroom started to steam from the heat, she realised she had left her window open. Not that she wouldn't mind Natsu walking around in her apartment but she did not want a naked encounter… at least not yet. Blushing furiously, she marched out in her nightie to the window and slammed it shut, muttering a contented 'ha' under her breath. Spinning around she marched back into the bathroom and locked the door behind her, stripped and turned off the tap and climbed in, sighing as the hot water met her aching bones.

In the kitchen, Natsu and Happy wearily poked their heads out from the kitchen where they'd been hiding.

"Natsu, she looks kinda angry…" Happy said worriedly as he glanced behind him at the fridge where several raw fish were concealed.

"Yeah; she does looks a bit troubled" Natsu agreed, scratching his head thoughtfully. He didn't want Lucy to be in a bad mood, especially when she was already going to be mad at them for storing their fish in her apartment again. His ears still throbbed at the memory of her shouting at them when she had come home to discover the smell of fish flooding her apartment. Despite all the windows open the smell had taken a good few days to completely disappear.

"Do you think she'll be in a mean mood?" Happy said worryingly as he eyed the door to the bathroom carefully.

"Don't worry Happy I'll cover for you – I'll explain about the fish, you can go back to the guild… see if Carla is still there" Natsu suggested cheerfully, noting how much Happy's eyes lit up at the thought of seeing Carla again.

"Aye!" Happy chirped as Natsu opened the window and he flew out, leaving Natsu alone. Natsu carefully shut the window and made his way back into the kitchen, trying to keep quiet. Wondering what to do, his eyes fell on the fridge as an idea struck him. Clapping his hands together excitedly Natsu found Lucy's apron for cooking and tied it around his waist.

Meanwhile, Lucy was just finishing off her bath, the bubbles having almost disappeared due to the amount of time she had been in. She smiled contentedly to herself and closed her eyes, dunking her head under the water. She forced herself up however, slightly coughing, when she heard her fire alarm go off.

Alarmed, Lucy grabbed her nightie and quickly tied it around herself, unlocking the door and running out of the bathroom. A thin layer of smoke greeted her and she started to cough.

"It's okay Lucy I've got it under control!" yelled Natsu as he emerged from the kitchen with a charcoaled fish in his hand whilst looking very pleased with himself.

"OPEN THE WINDOW YOU IDIOT!" Lucy screamed as she made her way to her bed, where she pulled out her bucket of water, throwing out the fish that was inside it. Running to her oven, she threw the water over the source of the flames as they were extinguished, and leant back on the kitchen surface opposite and tried to breathe normally. This led to another coughing fit, causing Natsu to poke his head warily from around the wall.

"Hey, I was going to eat those flames!" Natsu complained, shutting up as Lucy shot daggered looks at him. She walked over to the window and sat on her bed, trying to breathe in as much fresh air as possible. Natsu joined her, trying not to sulk.

"Natsu, why were you cooking? We have a rule about cooking!" Lucy lectured, casting her memory to the time where Natsu had suggested cooking which Lucy had quickly overruled, cooking the fish perfectly and causing Happy to fly off crying that she was 'mean'.

"I know, I know – but you looked so cross when you stormed out of the bathroom so I thought I'd cook you dinner to cheer you up!" Natsu started to close the window until he noticed Lucy's face widened as she realised she was wearing a very damp and therefore see-through nightie.

Lucy shrieked, pushing Natsu head first into the covers of her bed. "Don't look at me!" she shrieked as she leapt up and surveyed her room for something she could cover herself in.

"Why not? You look nice!" Natsu's muffled voice sounded confused as Lucy blushed at the simple compliment in the context of the situation and raced into her other room where she found her pyjama top – she quickly changed into it, glad that it was one of the larger ones which acted almost as a very short dress.

"Natsu, don't move" Lucy shouted as she peeked around the corner. Natsu still had his head in the pillows so Lucy deemed it safe to race across the room. Unfortunately the fish that Lucy had cast out of the bucket earlier changed this as Lucy slipped on it and smashed into the wall, crying out as her head collided with full force against the wall.

"Lucy?!" Natsu's head shot up and turned bright red as he saw Lucy was kneeling away from him, clutching her head, with the t-shirt a bit higher than its already short length.

"DON'T LOOK YOU PERVERT!" Lucy screamed as she ran from the room and barred herself in the bathroom, quickly changing into her clothes and placing her hair in a towel. When she came out a few minutes later, she discovered that Natsu had moved the fish to the sink and was sitting cross-legged on her bed, his face still slightly pink; a slight resemblance to the colour of his hair.

Natsu shuffled anxiously for a moment before saying "Sorry about the fish…" dejectedly, avoiding looking at her. Lucy inwardly cursed at seeing Natsu look sheepish for the first time. She admitted that she had imagined Natsu seeing her in just a t-shirt before but this wasn't quite how she wanted it to work out.

She walked towards him and sat next to him, giving him a quick one armed hug before casually replying "Sorry for pouring water over your dinner…" The two of them looked at each other for a split second and then burst out laughing at the memory of the charcoaled fish, all previous awkward encounters forgotten.

"Hey Luce, is your head okay?" Natsu asked worryingly, moving closer to try and check her head.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me" Lucy said dismissively, cautiously feeling the side of her head before continuing "is Happy going to be upset that I stepped on his fish?"

Natsu thought for a while and suggested mischievously "I'm sure Happy won't be able to taste the difference…" before catching Lucy's eye and burst out laughing again, causing Lucy to laugh as well.

As Lucy laughed, she noticed that a bit of Natsu's hair was burnt slightly black and realised it must have caught fire before. She reached out with her hand and carefully examined it, explaining "Natsu, you've burnt some of you hair", before realising what she was doing and how close Natsu's face was.

Natsu didn't blink as he watched Lucy examine his hair, and barely heard her over the sound of a beating in his ears. When Lucy looked at him, the beating increased and Natsu found himself staring at her. He watched as her lips said the word "Natsu?" whilst she looked confused; her hand still absent-mindedly in his hair.

THUD.

Natsu and Lucy jumped apart as Happy flew full speed into the half open window, almost knocking himself out in the process. "Happy!" Natsu exclaimed as he hurriedly opened the window and snatched Happy inside. "You okay?!" Natsu shook Happy slightly as Happy's eyes rolled around.

"Aye…" Happy said weakly as he struggled to walk in a straight line.

"I know what will make you feel better! Some iced fish!" Natsu bounded off towards the kitchen, leaving Lucy to keep a careful eye on Happy. Her thoughts were elsewhere though at the memory of her hand resting on a certain pink haired boy's head – she almost didn't notice Happy shake his head and glance in the bucket beside her bed.

"Where did my fish go?" Happy asked despairingly, his lower lip starting to tremble.

"Here they are Happy!" Natsu's voice emerged behind a stack of several fish as he carried them into the living room. Lucy laughed as Happy's eyes widened as he forgot his injury and joyfully leapt at the stack of fish. As Lucy headed into the kitchen after putting her foot down on Natsu's protests to cook again, Lucy found the fish she had slipped on still in the sink. As she heard an argument on how to cook fish start between Happy and Natsu, she smiled briefly and laughed to herself as she found herself wondering if she had hurt herself and was overdramatic like Happy, if Natsu would care enough about her to bring her fish.

Reviews always appreciated - let me know how you want things to develop! :)