Hi guys, so I'm alive lol (✌ﾟ∀ﾟ)

If you're just joining, or have been reading, I just wanted to update you all and let you know this story is very much ongoing, I've just been struggling to find time to write and edit the chapters. However, I decided to upload as this chapter has been sitting on my computer 97% done for months... ( _ )

As always, I welcome comments & kudos (and any grammatical errors as I don't have a beta...)

Hope you enjoy╰(● ⋏ ●)╯

Chapter 6 – Friends in High Places

By the time Lucy and Natsu got to her room, their bags were already by the foot of Lucy's bed. Their bed. At least for the week. Natsu actively tried not to think about that and instead briefly wondered how on earth that Capricorn guy got them up there so quickly.

His train of thought quickly dissolved when Lucy unceremoniously dropped her bag on the floor where she stood and threw herself onto the bed. She lay on her back, one arm by her side, her hand playing with the neckline of her shirt, and eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Natsu watched as she let out a shaky breath. Her eyes were blinking way too much, her shoulders were wound up tight, and her breathing was too uneven. He knew when Lucy was upset. And even if he didn't already know her tell-tale pre-cry signs, he could've guessed from whatever that weird 'family' interaction downstairs was.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what to expect. Lucy made jokes every now and then about her family, always letting out a small tense laugh afterwards as if it would diffuse the weight of the words she spilled. It didn't hide the hollowness of her reassurances when someone called her out on it. Levy had almost gotten into an argument with Lucy over something she said about her dad whilst drunk. And he only knew that because he found Lucy upset and convinced her to tell him why. He didn't know the specific details of the argument, just that it had been enough to upset Levy. They eventually made up but he could guess from that alone that Lucy's dad wasn't like his own. That he didn't smother her with affection the way his own dad embarrassingly would have. Or stay up making up bedtime stories about tales of dragons and far away lands. Clearly, Natsu just couldn't relate, and he didn't have the ability with words like she did to be able to express that. The words he wanted to use to soften her hurt never came to him, not when he needed them anyway.

So, he did the next best thing he could think of. Leaving his bags beside hers, he flopped onto the bed to lay by her side and stare at the ceiling with her. The ceiling was a dark blue with what looked like flecks of paint spattered over it. As they continued to lay there in a comfortable silence, Natsu realised the ceiling wasn't solid blue. It had a purply pink gradient effect melted into it. And the random flecks might not be random at all.

He was looking at a painstakingly accurate rendition of the night sky. At stars. He let out a small puff of air at this realisation. Of course, they were stars. They were the constellations. Lucy had a hand-painted sky of constellations on her ski-cabin ceiling.

The small sound Natsu emitted seemed to break Lucy out of her reverie, as she let out a shaky sigh and gently cleared her throat.

"My mum painted this for me." She paused, lifting her hand to gesture vaguely upwards. "The ceiling."

Natsu let out a hum of appreciation but forced himself to keep quiet. It wasn't often that Lucy brought up her mum, and he didn't want to spook her by interrupting, so he waited for her to continue. Unaware he was tapping his fingers on the covers in anticipation of her story.

"When she found out she- she was sick, she painted my bedroom ceiling. Back at home. We started it together. She let me choose the dark blue, and a pink to add in those galaxy swirls." She pointed to different parts of the ceiling where colours merged to form loose galaxy swirls. "Every week we would add a different constellation, her recounting the story as I watched her paint these designs." She sniffed slightly, but Natsu could see the corners of her lips turn up as he turned his head to check on her.

"I didn't even know she'd painted the ceiling here as well until after she… until a few years after she died."

Natsu shuffled closer to her. So that their arms brushed against one another. If he couldn't comfort her with words, he could at least show her he was there. His hand found hers and he brushed his finger over hers before looping their pinkies together loosely. Lucy responded with a squeeze. They stayed in that comfortable silence for a while longer. Natsu felt his palms go slick at the contact between them, his cheeks heating up the longer they lay there.

It was ridiculous. It was a single pinkie. He'd touched a lot more skin than this. On their last beach trip Natsu had suplexed her into ocean whilst she was wearing nothing but a bikini, but he got all hot and bothered by their fingers lacing together? Ridiculous.

Before he could mull it over any longer, Lucy released his finger and brought her hands up to her face to slap her cheeks gently in one swift motion. She sat up, straight as a board, and swirled round to face Natsu. Her eyes were glassy, and her nose and cheeks flushed but she plastered a smile on her face and began to speak.

"Well, I'll tell you about it later." She hopped off the bed and began to open her suitcase, carefully moving aside folded clothes to reach the ones she wanted. Salopettes and a change of shirt. "First things first let's change. Then we can go get suited and booted for the slopes."

With clothes spilling out of her arms she moved to the ensuite to get changed. As she was about to close the door, she flicked her head towards his suitcase. "Might as well get changed at the same time." The door slammed shut.

Natsu followed her instructions opening his own suitcase and rifling through the clothes to find the ones he wanted. A black under shirt, charcoal salopettes, and of course his new fire-engine red jacket. He was just about pulling the suspenders of his salopettes over his shoulders when the click sounded from the ensuite, and Lucy walked out. The pink piping on her salopettes matched the coat she'd left out on the bed, and the black of the suspenders matched the hairband carefully pushing the blonde hair out of her face.

For some reason it always threw Natsu through a loop when he saw her in a different context. Like that first time he saw her in pyjamas at the group movie marathon. Or the time she had a brief placement in an educational psychology setting and he saw her in her work uniform. Not to mention the first time they all went to the beach during the summer. Each outfit brought out a different side to her. A new chapter to read. And each chapter he treasured.

"Ooh," She walked towards him. "don't you look like a walking advert for the slopes." She said gesturing for him to give a twirl. He spun mockingly, as if he weren't putty in her hands. She let out a small snort of laughter, followed quickly by another as he pulled on his jacket.

"You've left the tag on dumbass." She walked up behind him as he began to shuck it off. "Don't worry I'll get it for you." Her hands reached up to his collar where the tag was half tucked away. Natsu leaned backwards slightly to help her reach, in doing so she miscalculated the distance and the back of her fingers brushed against his undercut. He stilled. Lucy's breath fanned over his nape as she whispered out a quite 'sorry', concentrating on pulling the tag off as gently as possible.

"There you go." She breathed out, still at a whisper. It took him a few seconds to notice he was still holding his breath. As he decided to turn around, she firmly patted his shoulders and began to shuffle him out the door, ditching the tag in the bin, and grabbing her coat on the way. "Come on, let's get go get our gear."

They made their way to the rental shop, basking in the winter sun. Only a small queue had formed as they arrived, so they were able to get in and out with their ski equipment in no time. As Lucy clomped onto the snow in her ski boots, she faced Natsu, pointing her skis towards him.

"I know you've already told me, but I want to check. You've definitely done this before?" She became a little sceptical when he seemed to struggle clipping his boots in place in the shop. Rolling his eyes at her he continued.

"Yes, yes. Gray's family practically live on the slopes. It's just been a few years."

She narrowed her eyes at him and directed them to the training slopes areas. "And you've taken your antinausea top up?" Natsu looked at her confused. "For the ski lift?" She gestured just past the training slopes where the lift ascended up the mountain.

His eyes widened and he began to pale before Lucy rolled her eyes, stuck her tongue out, and threw a small packet towards him. She began walking in the opposite direction towards a small café when he recognised the packet as his pills. Natsu looked up in time to see her flick her head round to smile and say because she guessed that this would happen they could wait it out over a hot cocoa.

Dry-swallowing the pills, he hoped they'd kick in fast as he followed her towards the café. They placed their skis in the stand outside and took a seat at a table tucked away in the corner. Their jackets slung over the backs of their chairs as they waited.

Lucy was facing the slopes, looking at the small dots that were people seamlessly gliding in waves to the bottom. A waitress came over and promptly took their order. Lucy began to lightly chastise Natsu about having forgotten his pills and what would he do without her, when two figures appeared in the doorway to block her sight of the slopes. She frowned slightly as they took their time standing in the way, but as they took off their helmets her jaw dropped.

"No. Way." Pausing between each word. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

She ran up and gave the first person a hug as the other shamelessly flirted with the barista and ordered another two drinks to their table. Natsu turned in his chair to see her pushing out of the hug and Gray grinning back at her, before slyly meeting his eye over her shoulder.

"Wouldn't miss this for the world." Natsu felt his face heat with embarrassment. He knew he wasn't just referring to the skiing.

Loke smothered Lucy in a hug next. "I simply couldn't bear to be away from you Princess!" He confessed so embarrassingly loudly that the barista he'd been chatting up raised an eyebrow from behind the counter. A strong hand shoved Loke off as Natsu got up from their table and stood next to her.

"What are you two doing here?" He said, pointedly looking at Gray. That little shit. Leaving the house yesterday saying he was on a last minute trip. He wasn't fucking lying when he said he wished he could see.

Loke laughed as he brushed off his ski jacket, approaching their table next to theirs. "My dad actually called not long after you two decided your plan, said he had some kind of important merger for the business he needed me to be a part of." He turned to Lucy. "Probably to do with that meeting on Thursday?"

Lucy shuddered slightly just thinking about all of her dad's lecherous colleagues in one place. Luckily Loke's father was only about as dangerous as him, which meant not so much in reality. He was one of the nicer ones.

"I'd say so." She agreed, and delved into a conversation about what the meeting could be about as they sat opposite each other. Something about a new partnership between the companies and how the shares would be divided etc. Unbeknownst to her and Loke, whilst they were continuing to speak business, Gray and Natsu sat down and seemed to be having their own silent conversation over the table.

As their drinks arrived Natsu, very inconspicuously stretched his arm over the backrest of Lucy's chair, just 'making himself comfortable'. Gray raised an eyebrow as he did. Natsu felt his jaw tighten as the smug bastard then decided to throw a shit eating grin into the mix. This prompted a not-so-subtle glare and a mouthed 'fuck off' from Natsu. This then prompted a kick under the table from Gray, which prompted a kick under the table from Natsu.

Halfway through their violent game of footsie Lucy stood up abruptly stopping the kicking and announced it had probably been long enough for them to catch the lifts now.

"Can't waste any more time guys, it's already six o'clock. I reckon we can get a few runs in before dark and then we could go out!" She practically buzzed with excitement as she stomped her way to the exit, thanking the barista on the way out. "I've never really known anyone here before, so I've never been able to go out, but there's this night club like 20 minutes from the main resort and it's supposed to be a-may-zing!"

Natsu scrunched his nose up at the thought of clubbing after such a long day but followed Lucy regardless, Loke and Gray trailing behind.

The queue by the chairlift had dwindled down in numbers since they last approached. Most people seemed to be heading off of the mountain, making their way to their cabins to either spend the night in or go out in the nearby town. People glided past them as they shuffled in line until it was their turn to be swept up by the lift. Luckily, they managed to fit all four of them onto the same lift. Lucy was sandwiched between Natsu and Loke, whilst Gray was on the other side of Natsu, much to his chagrin.

"Luce," Natsu started, leaning forward so he could turn his head without bumping his helmet into hers. She looked at him to continue. "Do we have to go clubbing tonight?"

Lucy bottom lip jutted out slightly as she pouted. Natsu immediately felt awful for even attempting to ask but luckily for him Gray of all people piped up before he took back his question.

"To be fair Lucy, I don't think Loke or I would last out much longer tonight. We got a late night flight and arrived way too early this morning." Lucy looked to Loke to see him nodding along with the boys.

Lucy mulled it over for a few seconds before rolling her eyes and slumping back in the lift. "Fiinneee. I've waited for years; I can wait another measly day." She huffed as Natsu squeezed her into an attempted hug.

"We can go tomorrow night." He pulled his glove off and held out his pinkie finger towards her. She barely supressed the smile threatening to break through, before removing her own glove and joining their pinkies together. "Promise." They agreed.

As they rode the lift the rest of the way Lucy insisted that they do a blue run for the first day just to get back into the swing of things. The boys humoured her, and they skiied down the wide run yelling conversation to each other. As they made it to the bottom of the lift the sun was ever so slightly beginning to set, so they figured they had time for another quick run.

The second time, Natsu found his footing about half-way down and instead of neatly zigzagging across the run as Lucy and Loke did, he opted to race Gray by bombing it straight down. The wind bit into his cheeks and rushed through his hair as he sped up, only slowing near the end where the run started to veer off to the left. In their haste however, he and Gray ended up crossing skis as they slowed and tripped each other up, wiping out a few metres off-piste and into the piles of snow.

A couple of yells followed, before a clean spray of snow covered them. The quick unclicking of boots was heard and Lucy rushed towards them. Upon seeing no immediate injuries, bar red cheeks from the snow, she gave them both a smack over the head.

"You idiots. It's day one. PLEASE don't get injured today. Don't get injured at all." She huffed slightly as she yelled back to Loke that they were fine and to start skiing to the bottom. A quick glare back at Natsu and she followed suit, clicking back into her skis and following him down the run.

Natsu took the opportunity of the absence to grab a handful of snow and launch it towards Gray. "You ass. What the hell are ya doing here?" He began to stand up and dust himself off as a fistful of snow was thrown back at him.

"Seriously, I told you I wasn't going to miss this." As Gray picked himself up and walked back to the run. "Also, free skiing trip dude. Loke's family is loaded, and he said he needed a buddy here with him."

Natsu groaned as he clicked himself back into his skis and went to begin the descent. Gray stopped him before he could take off.

"Natsu, I don't know what this Thursday dinner shit is that they were talking about," He paused for a second and met his eyes. "But when he asked me to come on the trip, Loke looked genuinely worried about it for a sec." Natsu felt his brow furrow as Gray continued. "Only for a second mind you, but it's Loke. He's not gonna say anything. He and Luce are kinda similar that way when it comes to family. Their families are… different?"

Natsu scoffed in agreement as they took off down the hill. "You're telling me."