Two: Pangs of Love

Lucy drew her comforter about her and tried to ignore the fact that Natsu was clinking about in her kitchen.

No biggie, Natsu had been in her apartment plenty of times before. What was so special about this time?

Perhaps it was because Natsu had kindly offered to take care of her since he was under the impression that she was sick. Or it could be that she had recently realized that her feelings for the dragonslayer were more than platonic. Or it could just be the fact that Natsu was attempting to cook.

Whatever the reason was, Lucy huddled underneath her covers telling herself over and over again to be calm.

Calm, calm, calm.

"Lucy!"

The girl threw aside her blankets at once and shot up at the sound of Natsu's voice, the picture of anything but tranquility. "Yes?"

"Where do you keep your mugs?"

"On the top left shelf, next to the spices."

"Okay, got 'em."

Lucy watched Natsu fumble around with the kettle as if it was a complicated contraption. Instead of being exasperated by his inexperience with kitchenware though, Lucy found him endearing and hopelessly adorable. How could the tough Salamander be in her kitchen, sweetly brewing tea for her and not out in the world taking down monsters and beating up the bad guys?

After several more minutes during which Lucy's thoughts had wandered from Natsu's strength to something more along the lines of how toned his biceps, triceps and other groups of muscles were, the dragonslayer finally turned around and headed toward her with a steaming mug cupped carefully in his hands.

"Here ya go, Luce. Drink up."

Lucy reached out and took the mug from him gratefully. She was aware that she was blushing but she didn't care- especially since Natsu stood before her smiling proudly at having "cooked" something and being so oblivious to her romantic feelings anyway.

Actually, that last thought was a little depressing.

Lucy's smile slipped from her face as she brought the mug to her lips. She ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach and decided to enjoy Natsu's tea for as long as she could. Taking a sip of what she thought would be perfectly brewed green tea, she was horrified to find that it most certainly wasn't. In fact, it wasn't tea at all.

"Agghhhh!!!" Lucy sputtered and spat out whatever concoction Natsu had put together. She held the mug at arm's length before bringing it closer to examine what was inside. "N-Natsu...what is this?" She looked at the brownish gloop and shuddered.

"What?" Natsu asked as he looked into the mug as well. "It's frog skins and orange rinds."

"What?!"

"Yeah, it's medicine," Natsu stated as he sat down on the bed next to Lucy. "Igneel use to make that stuff for me all the time."

"I thought you were making tea!" Lucy cried feeling the frog skin and orange rind juice about to regurgitate.

"Come on, don't be a baby," Natsu said in all superiority as if Lucy was overreacting.

"But I'm not sick!"

"Really?" Natsu furrowed his brows before leaning closer and looking at her. Before she could back away, Natsu put a hand on her forehead.

Her heart raced as Natsu pulled away and felt his own forehead comparing their temperatures. But then the romantic and tender gesture was promptly ruined as the dragonslayer repeated the same action over and over again as if he were swatting flies on their foreheads.

"I don't know, you seem to be burning up to me."

Maybe he was right. Maybe she was burning up- burning up with intense, heated, passio-

"Finish your medicine. It's getting cold."

And they were back at the disgusting juice. Lucy looked back into the mug and really couldn't bring herself to drink the stuff. It was revolting and bubbling and- was...was that a fish head she saw?!

"Please, Lucy."

The blonde looked over at her teammate and felt her stomach drop. She hated when he got all serious because she would go weak at the knees and would give in to anything. In this case, it'd be giving in to downing frog skins, orange rinds and apparently fish heads. Not exactly the love potion the girl had in mind.

"Cheers," Lucy toasted to Natsu before she drank the entire thing.

The girl found that she could deal with the bitter taste, the horrid stench, the fact that her head was spinning and just feeling plain awful as long as Natsu sat beside her happily smiling.

"See? Not so bad is it, Luce?"

"N-nope, not at all."

Later that night, Lucy hugged the toilet bowl and retched again and again. Each time, she vowed never to consume anything that Natsu made ever again.

"Lucy, are you okay?" Natsu asked gingerly as Lucy ducked in the bowl once more. He felt utterly abysmal seeing Lucy suffer on the account of his medicine. The only thing he could do now was to stand behind the poor girl and hold back her hair.

Lucy fell back to the floor gasping for air. She wiped the cold sweat off her face and turned around feeling slightly better since she had thrown up what seemed to have been anything and everything she'd consume in the last 48 hours. "Terrific."

How crazy could she have been to listen to Natsu about nutrition? He's the guy who would drink firewhiskey by the gallon and eat nothing but meat for days and call it healthy.

Lucy felt her hair fall back around her shoulders as Natsu moved to her side. She turned to him and saw that he had donned the puppy dog face. Probably not on purpose since Lucy was sure he couldn't fake emotion if his life depended on it. As usual, Lucy took one look into his depressed face and had a change of heart.

Natsu didn't even need to apologize- the guilty look on his face made Lucy forget her anger and want to kiss him on the nose for trying so hard for her sake. "It's okay, Natsu. I-!"

Feeling another bout come up, Lucy lunged forward and grab the sides of the toilet again.

"Lucy, I'm so, so, so, sorry!" Natsu clasped his hands together and bowed. Lucy tried to wave him aside but it was useless. "I'll never ever make you anything ever again! I swear!" The boy lowered his head to the floor not caring if Lucy heard him or not.

As Lucy finally came up, Natsu winced as he saw her pale face and haggard look. She took deep breaths and closed her eyes as if willing her stomach to cooperate and settle down. Then she leaned on the toilet seat over a slumped arm not saying a single word.

"What've I done?!" Natsu wailed as he straightened up on his knees ready to catch Lucy if she slipped. "I'm gonna have to go call the doctor. Yes, doctor! Or whaddyou call them...herbalists- yeah, those people should know what to do!" The boy stood and gently lifted Lucy from her position. He set her against the wall next to the bathtub before grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around her so that she slightly resembled a mummy. "Lucy, don't die, okay?!"

Die? What if Lucy did...?

The dragonslayer shook the thought from the his mind as he prepared to leave but as he turned, he felt a tug on his pants. Looking down, he saw his friend had opened her eyes and looked up at him wearily.

"Don't go, Natsu...," She croaked in raspy voice. "I'm fine. Just tired."

An immense relief washed over him as he saw Lucy smile slightly. "Y-you sure?"

Lucy mumbled something before letting go of him and closing her eyes. Natsu took that as an affirmative and immediately sat down next to her. He was wracked with guilt as he saw beads of sweat on her face. Determined to sit next to her all night and keep her company on the bathroom floor, Natsu was about to reach for a towel when Lucy leaned against his shoulder.

"What is it? You need something?"

He looked down to see if she could at least communicate with a look but found that she was fast asleep. A smile crept onto his own weary face as he reached up a hand and awkwardly patted her on the head.

"I gotcha, Luce. I gotcha." Natsu leaned her body against his chest hoping to keep the girl warm through the night. Doing that should be simple enough-even he couldn't botch that up.

He soon matched her steady breathing and felt rather comfortable despite the fact that they sat on the cold tiled floor. In a little bit of time, both the dragonslayer and the stellar spirit mage were fast asleep dreaming of things not concerning toilet bowls and frog skins.

A/N: If the latest extra chapter doesn't make NatsuxLucy canon, I don't know what will!! 8D

Check it out at onemangaDOTcom if you haven't already- it's under Fairy Tail. Keep those extra chapters coming, Hiro Mashima-- they are golden!