Prompt: Clothes

Title: Virgo, The Nalu Shipper

A/N: So, something weird happened yesterday when I posted my 'fired up' prompt. It let me post a new chapter, but it didn't update properly. So, be sure to read the previous chapter if you didn't read it yesterday.

Not a future fic, I'd date this one to that short time between Edolas and Tenrou. I also believe the 'Welcome to Natsu's House' omake can be dated to this time according to Natsu's clothes (i.e. he was still wearing his open vest in it). I only mention this because it's important for the events of the story.

This one is not smutty at all, but I hope you'll enjoy it all the same.

Natsu was mildly confused.

It was strange enough to be woken at five in the morning to someone pounding on his front door. He didn't usually have visitors. The few people that knew where he lived, once stepping inside his house, were always very reluctant to come back.

He knew why, of course. His house was a mess, plain and simple.

Not that he cared if others came to see him in his home. It was really just a place to sleep, to prepare food at when he didn't feel like going to the guild, to store his money and clothes and his few other belongings, and now to display the rapidly growing collection of mementos from his adventures with his team.

He'd much rather hang out elsewhere—sleep over at someone else's house (and in their much more comfortable bed if he could manage it), eat all their delicious food, mess with their weird girly clothes and junk. He didn't know why it was, but that apartment on Strawberry Street (and the celestial mage residing within) had a draw on him, he just never could manage to stay away for long.

So, it was especially strange to him to open his door that morning not only because of the rare visitor, but because of just who it was that was standing outside to greet him.

"Virgo?" He was more than a little puzzled as to why one of Lucy's spirits would be visiting him, especially with Lucy nowhere in sight.

"Is Lucy okay?" he asked, instantly worried that something horrible had happened to her and that's why the zodiac spirit was there.

Virgo gave him a small smile; it was hard for him to read, the maid spirit was so weird (just like Lucy and the rest of her spirits), that he wasn't sure what it meant.

"Hime is fine." Virgo reassured him in her usual monotone voice.

Natsu relaxed immediately, loosening muscles that he hadn't even been aware that he'd been tensing in his agitation. Still, though, why was Virgo here then?

"O...kay...soooo...what's up?"

Another indiscernible smile greeted him.

"Hime cleaned up your room."

"...Yeah?" he asked slowly, glancing over his shoulder at the odd sight of his house being relatively clean for once, all thanks to Lucy's efforts. It really was a pretty cool surprise when he came home to it. He had laughed at the time; only Lucy would break into someone's house to scare someone and end up cleaning it.

"You have her maid costume from your first mission." she stated, still smiling that incomprehensible little smile.

Natsu startled slightly from that. Was Virgo here because of the costume, thinking he had a thing for maids?

"I have something that only Master Natsu can appreciate." she followed this statement with an eye waggle so unexpected and discordant with her delivery that it was extremely jarring. It made Natsu feel incredibly uncomfortable.

"Wha-what...is it?" he asked, his voice higher-pitched than he would've liked.

"This." She said, reaching into her cleavage, and before Natsu had time to stop her or even close his eyes, she had pulled something out of the space.

It looked like...clothes?

The maid spirit quickly shook out the material she was holding to reveal that it was indeed some clothing. In one hand she held a tank top and a short jean skirt, the other a very familiar-looking bikini and skirt wrap.

One sniff of the air around them and he was certain.

"Lucy's clothes?"

The celestial spirit nodded, that same smile on her face. Was she..teasing him?

While Natsu looked at her blankly, Virgo went on to explain.

"This is what Hime was wearing when I changed both of your wet and torn clothes. I mended them." Here she lifted the arm holding the tank top and skirt. Vaguely, Natsu remembered that that had indeed been the outfit worn by Lucy before they both went over that waterfall and subsequently woke up in matching outfits provided by Virgo.

"This one" she continued, now holding the other outfit up, "was worn in Edolas."

That he already knew. How could he ever forget that one? He had personally picked it out, completely satisfied with how it looked on Lucy.

She had looked hot.

He still didn't understand why it hadn't worked on Hughes.

There was silence for some time, Natsu thinking over what could've gone wrong in his strategy, and Virgo thinking who knows what.

"So, which one Master Natsu?' Virgo asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Which one what?" Natsu asked, confused.

"Which one do you want to own, of course. And you may only pick one."

This time he knew the zodiac spirit's smile was a teasing one.

"Wh-what?!" he answered, a little panicked. "I-I couldn't! Those are Lucy's!"

"Come on. I know you want to. I won't tell." Virgo said in a sing-song voice, or at least as much as she could manage with her vocal limitations. It was a really weird effect.

"B-but..." Natsu began again only to be cut off by Virgo.

"They smell like Hime." Virgo said, pushing both outfits forward so they were directly under Natsu's nose.

Natsu couldn't help but breath in the scent permeating Lucy's clothes, not when they were so close to him. It was so her, he could smell the body wash she had used, the floral perfume she preferred, even the smell of her magic, which he supposed had been strengthened by Virgo carrying them where she had. There was also sweat and something else; he could definitely smell some of Lucy's natural body odor on her clothes.

"Did you wash these?" he asked the spirit maid.

"No." she said, and this time instead of that teasing smile, she gave him a wink.

Natsu gulped. Should he or shouldn't he? Lucy would surely kill him if she ever found out. On the other hand, he might be less inclined to sniff her laundry if he had something of hers at home...

Virgo waited patiently, holding out both outfits, that teasing smile of hers back on her face.

Natsu shakily pointed to his choice, and Virgo, handing it over to him, returned the other outfit to her cleavage.

Virgo turned to leave, only for Natsu to call out to her.

"Wait! You don't want something in return? Why are you doing this?"

"I have my reasons." she answered, soon after returning to the celestial spirit realm.

Natsu was still staring confusedly at the spot she had been, puzzling out her actions, when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Natsu? Who's at the door?" Happy asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "What's that in your hands?"

"Nothing! It's nothing!" Natsu answered, quickly smashing his new acquisition into a ball in his arms and running to the bathroom.

Happy just shrugged, shut the front door, and returned to bed.

A little later, in Lucy's apartment, the resident of said apartment was just waking up from a dream in which she was pretty sure that her and Natsu spent the whole day together. She couldn't quite remember what had happened, but she knew it had been fun. For some reason she also had the oddest sensation that she could smell him, and she had liked it.

It had been a very nice dream.

She shifted under her covers, grasping the edge of her blanket to hold it close to her face. Instantly, she smelled it. Natsu!

She sat bolt upright in bed, screeching out his name, ready to Lucy kick that idiot for daring to sneak into her bed again.

When he wasn't there, she was more than a little confused, to say the least.

"You screamed his name with such passion. You do liiiiike him, don't you?"

Lucy screamed and started to aim a kick at the uninvited guest in her home. She barely had time to stop herself when she realized it was only Virgo.

"What are you doing here?!" Lucy asked and sighed in exasperation at Virgo's disappointed face. Why her maid spirit wanted to be "punished" so badly, she'd never know.

Since Lucy was already up and out of bed, she decided she might as well get ready for the day. She went back to her bed with the idea of straightening the covers only to be met with a strange sight.

Natsu's cloak, the one he had given to her straight off his back when they had returned from Edolas to a cold, miserable rain in Magnolia, was now laying on her bed where her blanket should've been. Her usual comforter lay folded neatly on her couch nearby.

She whipped her head around to stare questioningly at Virgo, who only looked hopefully back at her.

Lucy sighed. "I thought I asked you to return this to Natsu for me."

"Master Natsu doesn't need it. He doesn't get cold. You do." The spirit reasoned. "Doesn't Hime want a memento from her boyfriend? Master Natsu has items belonging to Hime."

Lucy instantly reacted, trying to convince her spirit that Natsu was only a friend to her. However, all of it went unheard by Virgo, who somehow had gotten Lucy wrapped up in the cape again.

Damn if it didn't smell nice though. Woodsy and like campfires, and something most definitely male.

"If Hime would prefer, she could have a full outfit instead?" Virgo asked, gesturing to two mannequins next to her, both displaying articles of clothing belonging to the dragon-slayer.

"Where did you get Natsu's underwear?!" Lucy asked, embarrassed that such a thing should be presented to her. As if she'd exhibit that in her house!

"In your closet."

Damn Natsu, probably left them there after one of the times he had tried on her clothes.

Virgo, of course, ignored Lucy's protests explaining what probably happened, the maid spirit teasing her, making several comments about Lucy having a "secret affair" with Natsu.

In the end, Lucy chose neither outfit, the other being the clothes Virgo dressed him in during the Nirvana incident, mended after the damage inflicted on them in his fight with Brain/Zero. She did, however, decide to keep the cloak for her own use.

It was quite warm, and it was true that Natsu wouldn't need it. It might be nice to spend some of her December and January snuggling under it with a book and a cup of hot cocoa. The fact that it still smelled like Natsu had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

Satisfied with her accomplishments, Virgo arrived back in the celestial spirit realm, whereupon she was instantly accosted by Loke.

Slinging an arm around the maid's shoulders, he addressed her, "Tell nii-san, Natsu picked the bikini, didn't he?"

Virgo pulled out the remaining outfit from her visit to the dragon-slayer's house: the tank top and skirt.

She quirked an eyebrow at him, and Loke, knowing what she wanted to ask, answered her unspoken question.

"Natsu's a budding pervert with a great sense of smell. Which one would you pick if you were him?"