Hi all, after not doing any writing for about 4-5 years, I've decided to pick it back up again. I started writing this story as a random throw something together kind of way, I have no idea which direction it's heading, with no plot to go on from. I'm just seeing where my imagination leads. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to leave a review- I'm not a professional writer so please bare with me on this!
Chapter One
What about us?
Music boomed in his ears, lights flashed before his eyes and the smell of the sickly sweet wine tickled his nose. He stood at the corner of the room, watching intensively with his arms crossed over his chest at the gathered people dancing on the lit up wooden floor, intoxicated with alcohol. In the centre of the crowded people danced Erza, dressed in her white bridal gown.
She swayed it back and forth, laughing with the widest smile she could beam as she twirled around the dancefloor amongst her friends. Beside her right was Bisca and to her left was Kagura, both dressed in the same midnight blue dresses that clutched to their sides and draped down their legs and stopped off at their sparkly glittered heels. Not that he paid much attention to them in particular, but rather the matching dressed blonde who was swaying back and forth while clutching hold of a child in her arms.
Natsu couldn't help but watch her as she danced along to the music, bopping the little girl in her arms along to the beat. A few strands of hair had now escaped from her updo bun as she shook her head to the rhythm of the song, not caring that her dress had slightly risen up from the grip of holding the toddler to her hip. Her creamy thigh was now revealed to him and the more he stared, the more the lump in his throat began to form.
He blinked, turning his head away slowly with a blush heating on his cheeks. He was thankful that the coloured lights were so blinding, it disguised his embarrassment for a short moment.
He let out a slight cough, tugging at the collar of his shirt. Was it him, or was it warm in here?
Feeling suffocating, he pushed himself away from the wall and charged towards the door leading to the fresh air. Shuffling through the crowds of people, he yanked hard at his midnight blue tie and groaned before feeling a firm grip hold him back from his shoulder.
"Where you think your going?" he gnawed at the inner of his cheek, greeting Gray's icy smirk. "You're not leaving yet, are you? You still got to drink with us" his cold grip remained on his shoulder as he directed him towards the quieter part of the hall, near the bar.
"Us?" Natsu repeated, his brows tensing over at the bar.
"Look at you all dressed up Natsu!" Cana waved him over, her dress now creased from the position she was in. She poured a bottle to her mouth and gulped hard. "Weddings suit you, when's yours?" she flickered her eyelashes briskly, as Natsu's lips twitched.
"She's messing with you, come on…" Gray urged him over to the bar and quickly called over for 2 fire whiskeys from Mira.
"I don't think this is…" Natsu paused as two glasses of brown sickly liquid were placed in front of him. "A good idea" he finished, staring at them both. "You're having one too right?" he looked to Gray who shook his head.
"You need to catch up, I'm already on my 4th bottle of rum" he pointed out his half empty bottle sat on the shelf behind the bar and smirked. "Come on Natsu, drink with me"
He shook his head, pushing the glasses away from him.
"The strongest wizard in all of Fiore…" Gray grumbled as he watched Natsu rise from his chair. "Since you got that title…you've changed, your…no longer fun" the ice wizard claimed.
"I am fun" Natsu bit back.
"You ain't, you've matured…" Cana piped up as she gurgled down the rest of her bottle. She slammed it to the table and smirked as she eyed the dragon slayer intensely. "It's not like you" he shrugged at her response.
"And?"
"You've changed" Gray admitted. "I mean…feel free to prove me wrong?" he cupped the whiskey with his two fingers and hovered it in front of him, urging him to take it. "Drink up firebrain, and we'll let you off for being a bore"
Natsu growled and without even thinking, he snatched the drink from his hand, swallowing it whole. Gray smirked. The brown burning liquid covered his throat, causing him to twitch at the harsh bitter taste. He didn't have much time to recover from it though as he received a sharp slap on the back from his icicle friend, followed by another drink shoved in his face. "That's the spirit Natsu! Get it down you"
"Are you trying to get me drunk?" the dragon slayer eyeballed him quickly, before collecting the 2nd whiskey and gulping it down and feeling it hit the pit of his stomach. He gurgled by the taste once more, his eyes flickering across the room to the dancefloor. In a split moment, he felt lost, like the 2nd drink had completely taken away his senses and to quickly bring him back to reality, he had to focus on something familiar. Or more like someone on his mind.
He could smell her scent from across the room, even amongst everyone else, her scent was there. Sweet like candy but fruity like a mix of berries, it heightened his senses more so as he buried his eyes into the crowd to locate her. She was still there, dancing. He smiled.
"You alright there flames?" Cana's voice pulled him from his trance, his head cocking over to acknowledge her. "You could do with another…here" she nodded her head across to his side where Gray was standing with two more glasses. But this time the brown sticky liquid had been replaced with a clear one. If Natsu's nose wasn't as strong as it was with his dragon senses, he would have believed it to be water, but from the sharp tang that came from it. He knew it wasn't. "Get a sambuca down ya!" Cana shouted as she raved her bottle in the air.
Natsu's nose twisted.
"That smells like cleaning solution" he admitted brazenly. Regardless of his lack of interest in the 'cleaning solution' or sambuca as Cana called it, Gray continued to place it in front of him, urging for the liquid to be drank. Natsu frowned, sealing his nose as he cupped the glass and took a mouthful. This one burned a lot more than the whiskey did, feeling like it had scorched all the back of his throat as he swallowed. He coughed heavily. "That's disgusting" his face wrinkled with horror, pushing the empty glass back into Gray's hands. "No more…"
"Come on, don't be a baby"
"I'm not a baby, that stuff was vile" he pushed himself away from Gray, moving further back to the dancefloor. His eyes squinted as he stepped back into the blinding lights of the raving party. The music blared into his ears, causing his sight to shake violently. He shuffled through the crowds of dancers, everyone pulling at him to dance.
"Dance with me Natsu"
"Join the party"
He swam to the other side of the wall and pressed his hands against hard, regaining his posture. He felt warmer than he did, like a burning sensation and not from his magic. He yanked on his tie harder, releasing it at the front so that he could undo the top button of his white shirt.
"Natsu, are you ok?" he choked, flinching by the sudden touch of his partner's delicate hand. He snapped his head over to her and croaked as she stepped back to give him some space. She gazed up at him worryingly, adjusting herself with the toddler still grasped in her other arm. He frowned. "Are you ok?" she asked again.
"Um, yeah…just warm" he tugged the tie once more, signalling his frustration. Lucy nodded, quickly understanding the dilemma. She span round quickly to Levy who was behind her dancing away, and shuffled the child to her arms.
"Can you just watch Ruby for a moment?" Lucy asked as she sided Levy's ear. The bluenette nodded, bouncing the toddler in her arms and singing away. Lucy smiled, her hand freely grasping Natsu's. "Follow me" she instructed him.
She trailed Natsu back through the crowd of dancing fairies and out to the other side towards the door to the outside. Opening it slowly, she escorted him out the door and followed behind him, shutting the door behind her. Natsu breathed out hesitantly, the cold air now circulating his body. "Better?" she asked. He nodded. "It's stuffy in there for me, let alone you" she admitted causally. Her eyes fell on his knotted tie and without thinking her hands rose up to grasp it. "Let me get this off you, you don't need it on now anyway" she untangled the tie from around his neck and smiled as she slowly pulled it away from his neck, causing him to relax.
"Thanks Luce"
She smiled brightly.
"Your welcome" she stepped back from his space and clasped her hands behind her back, her smiling warming. "So weird isn't it?" she mumbled. Natsu watched her as she anxiously twisted her heel to the concrete floor.
"What's weird?"
"That Jellal and Erza are finally married… with Ruby" she sighed, her smile quickly fading. "Gray and Juvia have Ren too. Levy and Gajeel are happy with Saito" she blinked with surprise as Natsu stepped forward. "Even Mira and Laxus with Trey! I mean, who would of guessed that" she laughed nervously, her hands reaching up to her arms to fight off the cold chill.
"Yeah, suppose that is weird" he shrugged slightly, to him it didn't faze him. He stashed his hands into his pockets of his trousers and looked away from her quickly, out at the streets lit up by the streetlamps. Just admiring the view. Since the war against Zeref, 3 years had really changed. Everyone was…growing up.
"What about us?" he twitched, hearing her voice mumble through the cold. He looked back at her with a frown. She was clutching herself, shivering from the cold air but her eyes were looking up at him with a glistening shine. Her smile had faded into a straight line, her cheeks now a blush pink from the shivering temperature.
Natsu croaked.
"What about us?" he repeated.
"Are we going anywhere?" she wondered, her eyes searching for answers. Natsu frowned harder, unsure what she was asking.
"If you want to go on a mission Luce, then we can go on one" he paused as she shook her head softly.
"I didn't mean like that, I meant between us" she explained. "Will we ever be…more than this?"
For a moment, a split second in reality Natsu's mind stopped. For every scenario played out in his head, unable to think or say what he wanted to say in that moment. Does he kiss her? Does he tell her no? Was this the affects of the alcohol suddenly overwhelming his thoughts and taking over. A rush of unwelcomed emotions battered his head, swirling him into a vortex of never-ending possibilities. His hand gripped his head, his eyes clouded as he watched Lucy slowly back away from him with regret.
With no answer, she slowly accepted her fate and nodded with agreement that nothing was going to happen. They were best friends, and nothing more. Nothing will ever be more.
"I get it, you're a free spirit. You don't want to be tied down" she sniffled softly, her hand wiping a tear that had escaped her eye. "But I can't wait anymore, I want…to move on" she faked a smile at him, before turning her back to head back inside the guild's building. The door opened and shut, and by the time that Natsu had finally come round to his senses, she was gone.
"Shit"
"Here's the Natsu we all know!" Gray huddled the pink haired slayer with one arm around his shoulder, while Natsu gulped down yet another shot of sambuca. He had forgotten how many he had taken since he came back in from outside, or how long he had been sat at the bar downing his emotions and looking for the courage to admit them. Cana had passed round her bottle of tequila at some point, Natsu had his mouth around that too, chugging it away and becoming no longer self-aware of what he was doing.
The party was beginning to die down by now and people were leaving. Lucy was one of them. She was already prepped to go, snuggled in her coat with her bag clutched to her side. She had quickly come over to bid the others goodbye, while strapping Ruby in her pushchair.
"Oh are you babysitting Lucy?" Cana asked as she clocked the sleeping toddler in her pram. Lucy nodded.
"Ruby's staying with me for a few days while Erza goes on her honeymoon" the blonde admitted sweetly. "I don't mind, I love spending time with her"
Cana smirked, her eyebrows flared as she slapped Natsu's back causing him to choke up on his drink.
"I bet you can't wait for one of your own, eh Lucy" she blurted, taking a swig of her bottle. Lucy blushed by the comment and quickly chose not to answer. She span round nervously, pushing the pram up and out the door. Cana smirked once more, as she leaned into Natsu's ear, all while watching Lucy struggle to get through the door.
"Are you not going to help Lucy get home? Surely you're not going to let her walk on her own with a child?"
Natsu's ears tingled from Cana's words. He flopped his head back and curiously stared at Lucy leaving through the door. He stood up bravely.
"I'll…walk her home"
"That's a good lad"
Natsu charged up from his seat, rushing out the doors in a panic. He chased the blonde down the street and stopped to her side. It startled Lucy for a moment, her eyes grazing over at him.
"What's up?" she asked briskly.
"I'm…walking you home" he demanded. Lucy frowned by his outburst as she watched him stagger beside her.
"You can barely walk yourself. How much have you drank?" she snatched his hand and placed it onto the pram's handle, helping him maintain his balance. Natsu tried to count up his drinks in his head, but responded with a shrug. "A lot then" Lucy noted.
"Yeah, a lot…" he smirked, gripping hold of the handle tighter as they strolled down the pathway.
"You know, you didn't have to walk us home" she admitted. "I am capable of taking myself home" she watched as his legs stumbled beside her, slowly giving away his weight. She groaned, swooping her shoulder under his arm to hold him up. "You could at least try to keep yourself up Natsu"
"I…can't"
"Well try!" she snapped. Natsu scurried his legs, lifting himself up to walk beside her. He muffled a soft apology as they continued to walk the track to Lucy's apartment. Relief was when they reached the building. Lucy carried the pram up the stairs and groaned as she looked back at the crawling sack of pink hair behind her. "Hurry up, I'll make you a tea when we get in" she encouraged him to climb the stairs himself, but finally left him behind as she reached the floor. She opened the door and let herself in, placing a tired toddler in the travel cot in her room. She then span on her heels and followed her tracks back, to help Natsu.
She found him draped along the steps, just outside her door with one hand reaching out and the other given up. She sighed, helping him up and bringing him into the lounge. She shut the door and threw him onto the sofa with a huff.
"You don't make things easy Natsu"
He gurgled back at her, his eyes bulging from his deep sockets. His arms pulled up, looking much like a fish out of water as he tried to get himself comfortable on the sofa. The corner of her cushions stabbed at his back, and the arm of the sofa felt too hard for him to lay his head. He groaned, wanting to sit up but feeling the rush of nausea overcome him. His hand reached behind him, his arm swinging the collection of cushions to the floor followed by an annoyed taunt before finally shooting up a stare as Lucy returned from the kitchenette with a cup of tea in hand. She placed it on the coffee table in front of him, along with a small white tablet. He eyed it carefully.
"Paracetamol…" she announced, pointing to the small drug. "Take it, it will help with the sore head"
"Thanks…Luce" he fell forward from his side, reaching across to grab the small tablet, popping it into his mouth and swallowing it whole. He cringed by the thickness as it crawled down his throat before grasping the cup of warm liquid and guzzling it down. The heat of it didn't bother him, if anything it soothed his burning throat from all that cleaning solution he had been drinking. Note to self… don't drink Sambuca.
"Better?" Lucy asked, as she watched him lay his head back down. He nodded. "Good, I'm going to change Ruby and then go to bed. You're welcome to stay here the night…" she paused, looking at him harder as he clicked his neck and padded the hard edge of the sofa. "On the sofa" she quickly added, watching him struggle.
"Wha?" before he could even protest, Lucy had already made her way into her bedroom, shutting the door closed quietly. Lights were turned off and he was stranded. Looking up at the ceiling, he placed his arms behind his head and sighed. The effects of alcohol was a curious thing, it made him see things differently. Like everything was moving, the room was spinning and he just couldn't get comfortable. He kicked his leg out, another groan as his foot connected with the side of the coffee table, but felt no pain. Instead he retracted, a small snigger escaping his lips instead.
Why did he start to laugh? He didn't know, but one thing was for sure. There was no way he was going to sleep on this sofa. The padding was lumpy, the sides were too hard and not to mention he felt a chill- and he was never cold. He continued to glare at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling with every deep breath he took. He felt sick and his head was spinning, his throat still burning from the after affects of the harsh liquid he was shotting.
He felt like he was getting agitated, fidgeting around in the sofa. Laying down was not helping him in the slightest. He needed to sit up, otherwise he would puke. With a quick push on his elbows, he forced himself up, feeling the nausea kick back in and the room to rapidly spin around him. He cursed himself, slowly rising from the sofa.
He wasn't sleeping on the sofa. No way, he was going to sleep where he always slept. With her. That's where he belonged. His knees clunked as he took a step forward, grasping hold of the sofa's back to keep him balanced. He was going to be sick, he could feel his insides turning around inside him, much like when he had been in a mode of transport. All he needed was Lucy to rub his head to calm his senses, that would do the trick. It helped when they were on a train.
He pushed himself off and away from the sofa, his legs giving way as he slammed himself into the wall connecting to Lucy's bedroom door. Did he make a lot of noise? Did he wake anyone up? Perhaps he should just check?
While digging his nails into the plaster wall, his free hand reached out, grasping the handle of the door and letting it release slowly. Quietly, the door opened and Natsu used all his strength to slither round and into the room. As he stepped in, he stared. His eyes shaking by the strange layout. She had obviously moved her chest of drawers closer to the bathroom door to make room for the strange large bin thing to go there instead. He frowned, wanting to investigate further. He shuffled his wobbly legs closer into the room and looked inside, catching the sight of a small toddler sleeping soundlessly inside. He frowned, since when did Lucy have a baby? Was his mind playing tricks on him?
Taking a deep breath in, he wondered his attention across to the bed on the other side of the room, under the window. The curtains were slightly drawn, allowing the moonlight to shine in through the small gap and reveal her sleeping form. Her leg had tucked under the duvet, hiding the other but allowed the rest of her top half to be visible. Her arms were close to her chest, with a hand cupped under her chin and the other grasping holding of the pillow her head was resting on, her long blonde hair drifting down and framing her posture. She looked like a princess.
And in Natsu's eyes, she looked beautiful. His heart throbbed as he watched her stir slightly. She moved, her leg now kicking straight and her body shifting so she was on her back. Her eyes still closed and completely oblivious to Natsu's admiring. He stepped forward.
Was this a dream? He peered back at the child and then to Lucy with a soft smile. This must be a dream? His heart raced as he leaned forward, reaching for the comforter. This was a dream, Lucy was his wife and that was their child. It made sense now. They were together, just like he wanted.
He made no effort in unbuttoning his white shirt, flinging it to the floor in a heap beside the bed along with the bottoms he hastily kicked off, before shifting himself onto the mattress and snaking his arm under her neck. She moaned softly, causing Natsu's head to spin. His confidence bloomed, his nausea now completely fading as he leaned over, inhaling her scent and beaming at her soft lips. "You're…so beautiful" he whispered, reaching down to her. "And...you're all…mine" he placed his hand on her cheek and smiled, hovering himself further as his lips pressed against hers. The explosion now erupting inside him as he enjoyed the taste.
"Hmm, Natsu…" she moaned against his lips, making him burst with energy. This was it. She was mine.
Thanks guys, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!
Stay tuned for more...
K 3
