chapter one

in which lucy is stressed about blocking and natsu has a 3pm deadline

note: minor edits for continuity's sake. also, fyi, some other mild headcanons i've sprinkled into this fic are: freckled! lucy, mid-size! lucy, punk! natsu, and brown-skinned! natsu. i aim for accuracy in their characterization though, i just personally like those headcanons :)) also, always happy to explain them too !

When Lucy had first gotten her production of Othello approved for production, she did not imagine her past week. She had imagined herself fully prepared and in fact, ahead of schedule. She imagined her actors would have their lines memorized, the production team would have all their designs done and the necessary equipment ordered, the set would be finished and ready to be assembled in the theater. While she had not thought that Othello's Tech week would be stress free, she had imagined herself feeling at least somewhat confident in the show's success. She did not imagine that, three days before Tech week started, her set would only be half done or that her sound designer, Erik, would still not have submitted his designs nor have the right speakers. Nor would she have imagined that her Desdemona, played by the lovely and talented Mirajane Strauss, would have to leave the show, due to an emergency health problem her younger sister was experiencing.

This is not to say Lucy was angry with Mirajane for leaving – far from it. In fact, she knew that Mira was the primary caretaker for her siblings and also barely keeping up with classes as is. The non-mandatory show for the nursing major was the natural thing to drop. But it was two weeks to Lucy's show and the only person, who could reasonably step in as Desdemona, was Lucy herself.

So there Lucy was, in a sweltering hot theater with no air conditioning, running scenes with Natsu, her Othello. They had been in the theater since mid-morning, trying to get all the blocking done and rehearsed before a different show that night. Technically, they weren't supposed to be there, but Levy, her producer and the theater's usher manager, managed to sneak them in. Her actor's had drifted in and out of the theater through the hours, depending on when they woke up and when they had class. But Natsu had stayed throughout the day, either practicing scenes with her or serving as an unofficial Assistant Director. If there was ever a time Lucy wanted an Assistant Director, it would be then, but Natsu tended to have good judgment on what worked and what didn't.

But at 2pm on that Thursday, only she and Natsu were left in the theater for the blocking of the scene, in which Othello kills Desdemona. Juvia, who played Emilia, had offered to stay and skip her work shift, but Lucy had refused, knowing how much Juvia needed the money. Part of her wished Juvia had stayed, if only because Natsu and her could not seem to get that most difficult scene right – not if the recordings on her phone were any indication.

"Maybe we should just move on," Natsu said, interrupting Lucy's pity party. His hand squeezed his shoulder in comfort.

"I just don't understand why you're doing the monologue differently."

"I'm really not." At Lucy's silence, he sighed and continued. "We should just film my monologue to show to Levy and ask her if it's good. We need to finish by 3pm, so I can pick up Wendy from the high school."

Lucy turned to him. He bit his lip ring, a gesture that betrayed his worry.

"You really need to cut your hair," she said, running her hands through his shaggy shoulder-length hair. Dark roots betrayed the pink dye and her fingers ran through sweat. I'm not mad, this gesture said though. I promise.

He smiled an it's okay, I know. "I'm getting it cut on Monday."

"It'll be weird seeing you without your trademark hair."

"I don't think an army general would have pink hair though. Or piercings." As he said that, Lucy ran her fingertips over the silver bulbs at the tail of his left eyebrow and her eyes went to the snakebites on his lips. His arms snaked around her waist at her movement closer.

"Probably not," she said. "At least, Cancer isn't having you take off your earrings though, then you wouldn't look like yourself at all."

"I'd look just like Othello." Natsu grimaced. "Or my brother."

"You look nothing like your brother, don't worry. You're cuter for one."

Natsu gave her a soft smile and pressed his nose to her cheek. "Thanks, Lu."

She returned his smile. "Anything for a friend."

His hands tightened around her waist and (although she could've imagined it, the theater cast odd shadows after all) his smile faltered as well. Before she could think too much on it though, he let go of her waist and went to where their phones were. He tapped his phone to check for texts and then moved to where her phone was set up for recording. He fiddled with it, picking it up and placing it back down against her water bottle on the white table, presumably checking what was in view of the camera.

"Wanna run the scene one more time?" he asked.

Lucy nodded and Natsu started the video, as she walked to the blanket on center stage right they were treating as the bed. Her eyes closed, mimicking the deep sleep Desdemona would be in at the beginning of her scene, but she listened to Natsu's slow steps over the wooden stage to his mark, his deep breath, then silence. Then, sudden:

"It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul!"

Even listening, Natsu's skill struck Lucy, his intense switch between the tired tone of before to a grieving commander. Caught in his emotions, she barely heard his footsteps towards her, but she felt him kneel by her side.

"When I have pluck'd the rose –" His calloused hand stroked her cheek and, continuing his lines, it drifted down to her collarbone. "I'll smell it on a tree," Natsu stage-whispered.

He kissed the corner of her lips.

Lucy fought to ignore the tingling over where Natsu had touched her. She almost missed her cue to wake up – "I must weep" – she was so distracted,

"She wakes," he said and she sat up.

"Who're there? Othello?" she called sleepily.

He looked at her gravely. However intense he sounded, locking eyes with him amplified it by ten. Fear buzzed through Lucy

"Ay, Desdemona." Then, quicker than a second, he was Natsu again. "So, Levy, how was that? Can we keep it?"

Lucy shifted up, to her knees, and then the balls of her feet.

"Pass me the phone, will you?" Natsu did so, and as she turned the video off and sent it to Levy, she said: "I know I said this earlier, but since we're moving into the most difficult scene, I thought I should just say again that you are completely free to play around with blocking, including with touch. I feel comfortable with you and, as long as you don't touch my breasts or my butt, I'm fine with whatever you do."

"You're in director mode again."

"Well, we don't have the Intimacy Coordinator, so we have to do our own, uh, coordinating." Lucy placed her phone on the table and looked closer at Natsu and his glistening cheeks. "Are you crying?"

Natsu's eyes widened and he wiped his eyes. "I got into the scene."

"Do you want to take a break?"

"Let's just continue."

While worry turned in her throat, she didn't want to push him, not with the rough year he was having. So they ran through the remaining blocking, up until Othello suffocates Desdemona.

"I think I have a handle on it," Lucy said. "Let's try from 'Who's there?', but fully in character this time."

Natsu nodded and stood at the foot of the bed. They ran through the scene, as Desdemona realized her fastly-approaching doom. Lucy moved to run, as they blocked, and they struggled against each other, as they'd blocked, and then, as they blocked, Othello spun Desdemona into an embrace, gripping her hands tightly and his head on her shoulder.

"Peace!" he said. "Peace!"

Then, where the strap of her tank top met her skin, he kissed her freckled shoulder.

Lucy froze. That was not in the blocking.

"Lu?" Natsu asked. "Are you good?"

She snapped to attention, turning away from the less-than-professional heat swirling in her stomach. "I'm fine! Just forgot a line, that's all. Can we run that again?"

They did so and at the embrace, he kissed her shoulder again. It was gentle, barely a whisper, but still, her mind stopped. That same heavy desire twisted throughout her body at his hands tight around her waist and his breath hot on her shoulder.

"Your line, Lu."

"Fuck. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." He tightened his arms as a comfort and her stomach jumped pleasurably. "Let's try it another time."

It happened again.

"Seriously, Lu, are you okay?"

It felt like her body was on fire in the most delicious way and she could not be having those feelings at that moment. It's bad enough he was her actor, but he was also her closest friend. Why couldn't she keep herself together for the rest of Tech? She did not need to complicate her and Natsu's relationship with her most-likely-stress-induced-but-also-not-really feelings.

She didn't say that though. Instead, she said: "Why are you doing that? You never kissed Mira's shoulder."

Natsu shifted uncomfortably. "Is it not okay? Because I can stop, if –"

"No, no, I just want to know why you're adding it."

Natsu avoided her eyes. "Well," he said. "It just seems right to kiss you– Desdemona's shoulder. Or your Desdemona."

"My Desdemona?"

"Well, yeah. Mira played Desdemona as an ideal wife and I was playing Othello, as an archetypal soldier. How Mira and I interacted was more along those tragic archetypes. But when we play Othello and Desdemona, they feel more like real people." Lucy must've made a face – after all, does that mean her direction wasn't good? – because Natsu backtracked. "That didn't come out right. With Mira, I couldn't picture Othello being super affectionate. She was just an ideal and sure, Mira added this playful quality to it, but it didn't seem like we loved each other."

Lucy interrupted. "But I thought you guys were doing great! I picked you two because of your chemistry."

"I'm not trying to insult you! And I couldn't see how we acted, but I'm sure what we were doing was good. You're our director after all. But so much of what we did fell in line with those archetypes. I was a noble, angry general, who must execute his wife for her sins of infidelity. He wouldn't kiss her shoulder. But with you, we're not doing that. I'm still angry, but we're also husband and wife and I love you and I don't want to kill you, but I also feel that I must. Those two sides are fighting in this entire sequence and that kiss on your shoulder is a goodbye and also, an attempt to comfort you."

Lucy wasn't sure how to respond. It was a good justification and it certainly would make the scene sadder; yet, there seemed to be more behind his words that she couldn't quite parse.

"Alright," she eventually said. "We'll keep it then." She put on her director-voice to hide the uncertainty she felt. She was sure Natsu saw through it, but either way, he didn't comment. He simply returned to the foot of her bed, as she chattered nervously. "I'll keep what you said in mind. In later rehearsal's, we can work what you said into the earlier scenes' blocking."

But, as she got into the bed, she looked at Natsu. He seemed torn, his teeth sucking on his lip ring. "Are you listening?" she asked softly. "I know it's been a long day."

"I'm listening," he replied. "Just thinking too."

Her heart fluttered at the care in his eyes. She was caught in them and maybe he was too, because neither spoke for what seemed to be ages. "Do you wanna start?" he eventually asked.

They began. They conversed and she fought against Othello and he spun her around and kissed her soldier. Still, her desire overcame her, but this time she turned her head. Natsu looked up from her shoulder and they locked eyes again.

It was his turn to freeze. His eyes darted down to her lips. His breaths became more shallow.

She didn't move.

"I really want to kiss you right now."

Lucy swallowed. "Me too."

His hands tightened around her waist. "Please," he breathed.

She nodded, ever so slight. His lips pressed hers lightly, as gentle as his first butterfly kiss to her shoulder. It was an awkward angle for both of them, her head facing the left near ninety degrees and him kissing her from behind. But still – want roared inside her.

When he pulled away, his black eyes stayed on her lips. They were stuck on … something, she didn't know, just waiting for the other to move.

But then, Natsu sucked the hoop on his lip and a dam broke inside her. All of that want and desire and does he like me? Am I imagining things? Am I just lonely? He touches me and I am on fire rushed to the top. She spun around. He let go, eyebrows furrowed, but she placed one hand on his cheek and the other in his hair and pulled him down to kiss her.

He returned her kiss eagerly, pressing close to her. His palms cupped her cheeks and his lips moved against hers. His warm hands, rough with callouses, held her face with an unbelievable tenderness, even as she swiped her tongue over his lip and then sucked it into her mouth.

He groaned and God, that was the hottest noise she had ever heard. When she let his lip go, he deepened the kiss further, sliding his tongue into her mouth. His hands danced down her sides, before resting at the base of her back.

She wanted more. Yet, he seemed to be holding back, his hands still chaste around her waist.

"You can grab my ass, you know," she muttered.

"Thought that wasn't allowed," he said. "No breasts or butt, remember?"

Oh, she thought, to herself. She hadn't even been thinking of the earlier Intimacy Coordination.

She grabbed his wrist and moved his hand down, his fingertips just barely grazing the hem of her daisy dukes. "That's just for when we're acting," she said.

He smiled against her mouth and palmed her ass. "Table," he said in between kisses.

"Hm?"

"I want you." He kissed the corner of her mouth and then, pulled his lips away, barely an inch. "Go to the table."

"Don't stop kissing me," she breathed. He laughed and gently guided her backwards, until her hips bumped against that white plastic.

His hand left her hip to feel for the ridge of the table top. He grabbed it and leaned against it, trapping her between him and it.

"Sit," he said. Without waiting for her movement, he picked her up by her thighs. There, she spread her legs against the cool plastic for Natsu to rest comfortably between them. His boner pressed against her and she rolled her hips. He shakily exhaled. "Fuck, Lu. Keep doing that."

She laughed and he took that opportunity to move lower to her neck. As he kissed and sucked her neck, her brain stopped. All she could focus on was his warm mouth on her skin. When he sucked at a particularly sensitive spot near the base of her neck, she moaned. He smiled against her skin at the sound, before nipping the spot again.

He shifted lower. He licked and kissed over her collarbones, his fingers drifting to the hem of her tank top.

"Natsu, I–"

A phone buzzed with a call.

Natsu paused. "Whose phone is that?"

Lucy sighed and looked at the two phones on the table. "Yours, it's – oh, shit. It's Wendy."

Natsu pulled away. "Oh, fuck." He stood up and grabbed his phone off the table. "Hi, Wen! Yes, I know, I'm sorry – Lu and I just" –He glanced at her on the table, legs spread. His cheeks flushed before looking away– "lost track of time. Tech and all that. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry, I'll be there soon. Love you. Bye."

Natsu turned to Lucy. "Sorry," he said. "I, uh, lost track of time."

Lucy raised her eyebrows. "You said that already."

"I need to pick up Wendy from school, but we never finished the blocking. I can, uh, come by your apartment later."

Disappointment turned in Lucy's stomach, but based on the way Natsu's eyes darted down her body, he also didn't want to leave. She gave him a small smile. "I'm free in the evening today."

He licked his lips. "Great. I'll text you when I'm heading over."

She watched him pack up his stuff and, when he finished, he paused for a couple moments, before going over to her and pecking her lips. "I'll see you around," he whispered.

She nodded and he left, the backstage door slamming behind him. Only at the door's slam did she realize what had just happened.

Fuck.

just a heads up: if you are in theatre and a director, please do not make out with your actors. for the most part, i cannot advise making out with production team members as it is very messy. especially during tech. save that for the cast party. also, please take advantage of intimacy coordinators when doing theatre. we love intimacy coordinators in this household.

n e way i will step off my soapbox. this will be a chapter fic! so please follow and comment if you enjoyed this chapter :)) comments especially give me life and motivation to continue 33