Chapter Four - That Night in the Club

"Phew." Lucy started emptying the contents of their shopping bags onto her living room floor. "Mission accomplished I'd say!"

Natsu poured out the final bag as Lucy began comparing the items on her list with the items they had unceremoniously dumped on the floor. After a minute or so of rifling through things on the floor then ticking them off, she triumphantly raised the list in the air. They had everything they needed.

Most of the clothes on the floor were Natsu's. He took a look around at the clothes she had insisted she'd buy for him. He frowned whilst giving the red ski coat in front of him a light kick. "I still don't see why I had to get a new ski jacket. I'm sure I have one from a few years ago that I could have used."

Lucy sighed as she started rearranging the clothes in front of them into their respective owner's piles. "Natsu, we've already said. Nothing wrong with treating yourself every now and then." She picked up the red coat in question. "Plus, I very much doubt that coat from 'a few years ago' would fit you. You've filled out even since last year at Uni let alone years ago." She spoke very matter-of-factly, folding the coat and placing it in his pile.

Natsu felt his cheeks heat a little as she spoke. He didn't expect her to notice, but he took up going to the gym with a couple of friends outside of the martial arts club to let off a little steam. Clearly it was working.

Lucy noticed Natsu had gone a little quiet and turned to see him a little pink and scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Before he could see her own cheeks heat up at her careless chatter, she turned around and continued speaking. "Oh please, don't pretend you're shy about it now, you walk around topless almost as much as Gray does."

"Hey! You know I just run hot."

"Mmhmm, sure." Lucy raised her eyebrows and continued sorting through their new clothes.

Whilst Lucy finished what she was doing, Natsu flopped onto the sofa and helped himself to the snacks they bought earlier. He scrolled past a few combat videos on YouTube saving them to his 'Watch Later' list to veg out on that evening. As Natsu was scrolling he realised there'd been a niggling detail about this whole plan that Lucy had yet to bring up, and he kind of needed to know.

"So, like, what's our cover story? How'd it all start?" He asked.

Natsu watched in amusement as Lucy stopped sorting the clothes and froze in place. His grin only widened when he sussed out what this meant. "You mean to say," He pushed himself up on one arm. "Lucy Heart-freakin-filia didn't think of a backstory for this legendary plan of hers?" He prodded further as her shoulders tensed and she turned around to glare at him.

"Look. I didn't think we'd get this far to be honest." She placed down the clothes she froze holding, stood up, and sat down on the sofa next to him. "I thought it was a long-shot that you'd even agree so I didn't plan for anything after that."

Natsu hummed in agreement. "Fairs."

A few moments of silence filled the air before Natsu broke it again. "What kinda stuff dya think we need to make up?"

Lucy tapped her finger to her chin as she thought out loud. "I don't think we need to change how we met, its very 'meet-cute'-"

"How we met had literally nothing to do with meat Luce." Natsu interjected, his brows furrowed in confusion as he looked at her as if she'd grown a second head. "Are you hungry?"

"Ohmygod no you du- A meet-cute' is when-" She stopped herself from talking and inhaled to calm herself down. "You know what never mind its irrelevant. I think we just need to come up with a timeframe. Like when we got together, how we did, that kind of thing."

Lucy looked to Natsu for confirmation, he shrugged as he threw a few more crisps in his mouth and answered. "Well it'll hafta been sometime soon right? Wouldn't ya have told ya dad sooner otherwise?"

Lucy grimaced slightly. "We can just choose whenever… my Dad and I, we don't really keep up to date." Lucy saw his face drop one of pity and held up her hand to stop him right there. "So choosing when we got together is entirely up to you."

Natsu paused. He knew when he would choose.

He wasn't entirely sure when Lucy became so special to him, but he was sure when he became semi-aware of it. Unfortunately for him he wasn't faking the obliviousness in the beginning. He was just that dumb. But he supposed thatnight was the one that finally tipped him over the edge into self-awareness. Or rather a growing self-awareness for a certain someone and why he's become so intensely interested in her.

He hated to admit it sometimes, but when Natsu was younger he'd been pretty reckless. For lack of a better term, he was a car crash of a teenager. Not that it wasn't partly expected of him. Around the time he was seven his dad had disappeared without a word, without so much as a goodbye. He was taken in by his Uncle's family. He was angry at the world, and everyone in it. It took years of structured anger release through martial arts, and dedication from the teachers and instructors around him for him to feel comfortable with his temperament. He was now able to calm himself down and hadn't felt that level of lack-of-control for a long time.

Until that night in the club.

The usual lot started at Natsu and Gray's house. Levy, Lucy, and Cana had turned up as a trio after getting ready at one of their apartments. Loke had turned up with a six pack not long after.

The girls all looked nice but for some reason Natsu felt drawn to Lucy. His eyes glued to her. He even remembered the outfit she had on. She had worn a black long-sleeved high neck number that hugged her torso, and a matching black leather mini skirt. To top it off she wore these thigh high boots that nearly made them eye-level when they stood next to each other. She looked amazing. He wrote it off at the time as not having seen her in a clubbing outfit like that before. He was just impressed his best friend was so aesthetically pleasing.

They started off the night with Cana's party playlist and a declaration that they should play some drinking games to get ready for the night out. The commonly played games: Ring of Fire, Electricity, and Mr & Mrs were all contenders that night. Starting with Ring of Fire. At some point, instead of listening to the rules and watching people take their turns, Natsu had started to notice that every forfeit sip she took in the game was followed by the quick dart of her tongue over her lips, softening the pink lipstick she had applied earlier in the evening. He even found himself licking his lips a couple of times, mirroring her actions.

Not only this, but he kept accidentally meeting her gaze, and her eyes were more intense. Whether it was from the dark make-up she had on he didn't know, all he knew was it seemed different. This was only made worse by the fact that about half-way through Mr & Mrs she situated herself next to him on the sofa and started talking to him about something.

If he was being honest, he had no idea what she was saying. His brain was frazzled. Firstly, she had placed her hand softly onto his knee whilst she spoke, then she looked up at him through those long lashes, and finally, as she spoke, he felt her breath caress his neck and collarbones. Add to that his previous forfeit drink of cider, schnapps, beer, and copious amounts of vodka (curtesy of Cana) and he was done for. It started as a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach and the shock of that sent him reeling. He didn't know what would happen if he stayed there, so he dipped his knee away and volunteered them both for the next round of Mr & Mrs.

Lucy paused for a second and sighed. In no time at all she placed her hands on her knees and pushed herself up to join in the game.

Obviously they won, but despite this Lucy didn't sit back down next to him for the remainder of the time at theirs. Instead, she tapped Levy on the shoulder, and they both headed into the bathroom to reapply their makeup before heading out to the club. Cana joined the girls in the bathroom and after taking their sweet time they had finally finished their make-up. As they came out and asked if everyone was ready to go, Natsu noticed Lucy's eyes were a little bloodshot. He guessed the waterfall at the end of the Ring of Fire really caught up with her.

The queue was relatively short for a Saturday night, and they made their way into the club in record time. The girls immediately headed to the back bar to grab a shot and a VK. The boys did similar but chugged the first VK and took a second one onto the dance floor.

Now, Natsu wasn't a massive fan of clubs. The floors were always too sticky and not enough people had the common decency to wear deodorant. However, being there with friends he could get past all that and try and enjoy himself. The alcohol definitely helped with that.

Two hours passed by in no time, foreheads slick with sweat and voices hoarse from attempting to scream the lyrics of songs over the speakers. The song changed to a more recent dance track that Natsu wasn't too fond of, so he drank to last of his drink and placed it on the side. Here Natsu noted Lucy break away from the girls and head to the bar alone. Not something entirely out-of-the-ordinary, just not common for her. As everyone started bouncing to the track starting up Natsu made his way over to Levy.

"Is Lucy okay?" He yelled above the music. Levy's eyes quickly darted to Cana before replying.

"Yeh, she's good. She's just grabbing herself a water and taking a breather."

Natsu nodded at her reply and moved to join Lucy at the bar when Cana grabbed his arm. She rolled her eyes at him before speaking. "Lucy's a big girl Nats. She doesn't need an escort to the bar, give her a sec and she'll be back."

Shrugging her hand off his arm, Natsu frowned but let out a begrudging 'okay' and headed back to the boys. Despite it not being the best song, Natsu found himself moving to the music as the beat pulsed through his body. As if on cue, Loke appeared through the crowd with a round of shots and because dear Lucy wasn't there to take hers, Natsu ended up having two in quick succession. He hesitated at first as he was already feeling woozy from all the other drinks, but dismissed that thought and downed them both.

Natsu tried to enjoy the music with his friends, but his eyes kept drifting to Lucy standing by the bar. She was on her phone now, smiling at something whilst sipping from a plastic cup of water.

The black skirt she was wearing had ridden up slightly due to the dancing through the night and had exposed more of her thighs. For some reason, Natsu couldn't stop himself dragging his eyes over her, appreciating her good looks. He had to physically shake his head to try and the clear the alcohol induced haze he was clearly in. This was Lucy he was thinking about. His best friend. He'd known for a while that Lucy was objectively good-looking. Hell, the people around her gave that away in an instant. But, thinking about it, he'd never taken the time to properly appreciate her looks. Was it wrong of him to study how gorgeous she looked in this outfit? No. But it sure felt it.

Unfortunately, what broke Natsu out of his reverie, and dangerous spiral of thoughts, was not the tall rugby lad leaning over the bar a little too close to Lucy for comfort but the fact that Lucy had put away her phone to actually engage in conversation with him.

She never did that. Like ever.

Usually it was a polite smile, and a palm held up to show that she was busy. But not this time. Levy and Cana seemed to pick up on this too as Cana not so subtly turned to Levy and declared that maybe Lucy would 'finally get some action'. Levy's eyes met Natsu's for a split second and he felt a sharp pang in his chest. Weird.

His eyes remained fixed on her where she was currently giggling at something the guy opposite her had said. She looked down sheepishly as she moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. God, Natsu wanted to elicit that reaction from her.

When Lucy looked up and back at the man, her smile a softened and looked more apologetic than anything. She said something to the guy and turned to leave the bar area. She'd turned about halfway before the guy held her hand on the bar to stop her leaving. A frown flashed over Lucy's features, before she corrected it with a polite smile. Pulling her hand out of his grasp, she dipped her head and looked like she repeated what she had said before. More forcefully this time. His hand grabbed her wrist, and he forcefully held her in place. That was when she turned her head and her eyes caught Natsu's.

She was scared.

Natsu beelined towards her, watching as she ripped her arm from his grasp. He arrived in time to hear the words 'ungrateful bitch' and Lucy's short gasp as he shoved her away from him. Lucy winced in pain as her back hit the counter, and that was when he saw red.

Natsu's first punch connected to the guy's jaw with a crack. The guy barely flinched and a second later he was tackling Natsu to the floor. Fists flew and a small crowd began to form. Rushing blood filled his ears as he blocked a punch to his head. How fucking dare he put his hands on her. He blocked another few punches and an attempted headbutt before he went on the offensive again. Natsu managed to push his way on top and went to throw another punch when a small hand grabbed his fist midair. He flung his head round ready to fight whoever stopped him killing this douchebag only to see Lucy hold his hand firmly, tears threatening to spill over. The look on her face was the bucket of ice water he needed to pull himself out. He pushed himself off the floor and was immediately pulled into a hug by her.

Before he was able to return the hug, he caught sight of his hands. Red smears over his knuckles and still shaking out of anger. He couldn't hold her like this. His breath was heavy and sweat dripped down his back. He couldn't hold her like this. He couldn't be near her like this. He was so angry, and she had looked scared. He felt sick.

God knows how long they were standing there, but the others had reached them. It was Cana who stepped forwards, plucked Natsu's hands from the air, and pulled them round Lucy to secure her in a hug. She whispered for him to take her home and that they would sort out this mess.

As they were walking out Gray caught Natsu by the shoulder.

"You good man?" Natsu shrugged him off and gave a gruff 'yeah' before marching Lucy out of there.

They walked the 15 minutes to his in silence. When they finally got to the door Lucy asked if he had anything for her to change into and he grabbed her some old pyjamas from his room. She took them wordlessly from him and went to the bathroom to change.

Natsu swore in frustration. He balled his hands up into fists and felt the sharp sting of his nails digging into his palm. He had done so well. Why the fuck had he lost it now, and why the fuck did he do it in front of Lucy. Of all people. She didn't know him from before, he didn't want her to see him lose control. She was the last person he wanted to see him like that. The last person he wanted to scare.

Taking in a shaky breath he dropped himself down onto the kitchen counter stool and his head fell to the table. The pinprick sensations in the corner of his eyes told him those last two shots were a bad idea.

"Natsu?" A soft call from the doorway helped lift his head up, and he was glad he did. Though he and Lucy weren't far off from the same height Lucy was still swamped by his clothes. The shirt fell below her hips, and the bottoms were rolled up a few times at the hem.

"You-" He cleared his throat and tried to nonchalantly wipe his eyes with his arm. "You look-." Lucy cut him off with a tight hug.

"Are you okay?" She mumbled into his shirt. He echoed the question back to her, unsure of what answer to give her.

A soft 'not really' was her reply.

Natsu took a few seconds before humming in agreement. He mumbled out a small 'me too'; barely above a whisper. The two stood in the kitchen for what felt like forever, their breaths synchronising and their heartrates calming down. After feeling stable enough to release the hug, they wordlessly started setting up the sofa with blankets to sleep on. The silent agreement that they would both sleep there tonight. Glasses of water were fetched, sides of the sofa were chosen, and soft goodnights were spoken.

As the two lay on their respective sides, the low roar of cars on the nearby road and the humming of the fridge providing at least a little white noise comfort. The room was barely illuminated by the faint glow of the streetlamp out the window, but it was enough for them both to notice the other was still awake.

Lucy broke the silence. "What happened?"

Natsu took in a short breath. "I just- I don't know- I just-" Lucy shuffled from her side of the sofa to join Natsu on his, there was just enough room for her to comfortably fit between him and the sofa back, so she slotted herself in and bumped her head to his gently. She went to take his hand, and he flinched away.

"Nats, you don't have to tell me." Lucy whispered to him, moving her hand away. He gently took her hand back and held it. His palms were slick with sweat.

"No I- is just…" He struggled to put it into words. He wasn't the best with verbalising his thoughts or emotions at the best of times, and he was at least six drinks deep by now. "You looked scared o' me." he eventually whispered out, shrinking further into the sofa. His usually booming voice sounded... small and unsure. Very un-Natsu like.

Natsu feared the worst. He feared her flinching away when he reached for her, he feared her making excuses to not see him for their catch up before club meetings, and he feared losing her as a friend. He felt the familiar sting in his eyes as his brain whirled through all the negative possibilities that could come from asking that question and felt nauseous again. But instead, Lucy gently turned his head to face her. The proximity of their faces making his head spin (or was that the alcohol?).

"You could never scare me." She held his gaze, her face softened as his crumbled slightly. Pulled him into a tight hug, he choked back the quietest of sobs. He knew he should feel embarrassed, and maybe at any other time he would be, but the relief (and blood alcohol level) overtook that instinct.

As they hugged, a wave of exhaustion rolled over them. It had been a long night, they struggled keeping their eyes open as they adjusted into a more comfortable position next to one another and lay in a comfortable silence.

The soft light of a streetlamp from outside streamed in through the window, illuminating half of the room. Only the sound of their breaths filled the room.

Natsu broke the silence first, his voice gravelly with sleep. "When I was younger my dad disappeared." Lucy gave his hand a squeeze to let him know she was listening. "I didn't… cope with it very well and I was so angry. All the time." He paused, giving her a quick glance to see her listening intently. "I started loadsa fights and was a lil' shit to be around. My uncle di'n't really know what to do with me... so made me start seeing a therapist. Took a few months of some pretty ugly arguments. I even- I ran away once." Lucy tightened her hold on his hand and shuffled closer. "Eventually he got me to see one. She was the one that suggested he sign me up to a Martial Arts club to give me a constructive outlet for my 'pent-up energy'. That's where I met everyone. I got better at controlling it, the structure really helped. It- I haven't. It's been so long since I've- since I felt like I've lost control. I don' even know. I'm so sorry Luce."

He dipped his head towards hers as his confession hung in the air. Lucy spoke up after a short heavy silence.

"I ran away from home a lot. When I was little." Lucy whispered, Natsu bumped his shoulder to hers. "It didn't last very long, most of the time I would just hide in the grounds under some rough thicket or something. Longest was a month. It was..." She trailed off before continuing. "My dad he- he always hired someone to find me and bring me back home promptly. I kept trying for a few years till I realised it was pointless. I count my lucky stars he's even let me come to Uni to be honest. "

Natsu squeezed her hand back , hoping it conveyed the comfort he wanted it to. Lucy shuffled about a little bit, trying to get comfortable after sharing more than she had with anyone before.

"If- if I ever feel like I want to run away again, I'll come talk to you. Okay?" She let her question hang in the air until Natsu was ready to answer. He appreciated what she was doing. He could tell it was deliberate.

"Okay." He breathed out. "If I ever get- me too. I'll come find ya."

Lucy hooked her pinkie finger over his and squeezed gently. "Promise?"

Natsu rolled his eyes, a warm gooey feeling melting over the tightness in his chest before squeezing back. "Promise."

They fell into a comfortable sleep, dead to the world, and to the housemate that returned an hour later to see them cuddled up on the sofa.

When Natsu woke up that next morning, he quickly realised that the gooey feeling he started to get the night before was not just a result of the alcohol. It was very much activated by the squeak Lucy let out when she yawned. And when she clicked her tongue a few times before reaching for the glass of water on the side. And as she took a gulp of water, and a droplet escaped the glass and rolled over the plump of her lip, past her chin, and excruciatingly slowly down her neck.

Despite what his friends may say, and how he acts, he isn't a complete idiot. Between spilling his past to her and suddenly becoming self-aware about his fixation with her, he worked it out pretty quickly from there. And he worked out that he really, really liked her.

Natsu wondered if Lucy even remembered that night. It was one he held close to his chest and wouldn't really bring it up since it was kind of embarrassing to talk about. "I guess that night during Freshers week. Last year. In the club."

Lucy looked at him a hint of surprise over her features before her lips turned upwards into a small smile. "Yeh okay. The 'promise to talk' night." and held her pinkie in the air before wiggling it a little.

So she did remember.

That day became their anniversary, so it would be one-year since they had been together, and they quickly worked through the rest of their plan. It was fool proof. Nothing could go wrong.