i'll warm your body, you'll warm my heart
ship: natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia
summary: It's almost a given that Natsu and the cold don't get along, but there's at least one thing that comes with nights like these that lets him learn to appreciate the bitter chill of winter.
ao3
an ode to the first ever nalu fic i wrote, published march 26, 2015. 8 years later and still kickin
Perhaps it’s unsurprising that Natsu and the cold are two things that struggle to co-exist. He’s not quite Lucy bad—her teeth chatter and her body starts to shiver at even the slightest hint of the beginning of fall.
The cold doesn’t affect him in quite the same way, but neither is he too fond of it. Lucy once compared him to a reptile, always wanting to bask in the heat, and that isn’t something that he can argue with. Though his body regulates warmth just fine, winter brings with it a bite that he doesn’t quite appreciate.
The air in front of him fogs up with each breath, barely visible in the dark streets before him. He’d been cooped up in the guild hall all evening, forced to patch up holes and reassemble chairs that he swore up and down were not his fault. Whether or not it was the result of his reckless behaviour, he and Gray had been tasked with the natural consequences of their repeated actions.
With the sun long gone, there’s no shield from the bitter chill that comes with this time of year. Though it’s nothing he can’t combat, the discomfort it brings isn’t something he’s eager to tolerate for much longer. His back already ached from hours of reassembling broken furniture and arguing with Gray, whom he’s resentfully certain is revelling in this type of weather.
The trek back home isn’t sounding as appealing as it might have any other night. Though he loves his spot out in the woods and the solace it provides him, living so far out of the way is less appealing on nights like these.
He lets out a foggy and heavy sigh as he weighs his options.
Though his place is out of the way, Lucy lives a mere five minutes from the guild—something she loves to brag about on those days they had to meet at the guild in earlier morning hours.
She would be asleep by now, he’s sure. Lucy was one for a strict schedule, and she had a bedtime that she liked to stick to. She’d most certainly kick him out in the morning, but Natsu knows it would be worth saving himself the long, cold walk, with the bonus of being able to rest in the comfort of his best friend.
His decision comes quick and easy, his feet moving before he even mentally comes to his conclusion, almost as if his body knows what he wants before his brain does.
And why wouldn’t it?
The route to Lucy’s place was branded into his brain—he could walk it with his eyes closed, a skill that might come in handy considering the dark evening hour.
He likes his house, but he likes Lucy’s better. He can’t ever quite put his finger on why. Maybe it’s the proximity to the guild; maybe it’s the cosy environment that Lucy has created within it.
Maybe it’s the person who resides there, her scent permeating the apartment, her love and warmth radiating from every inch of it.
Yeah, it could probably be that last part.
The smell hits him the moment he lets himself in (courtesy of the key Mira “lent” to him), and he immediately feels himself at home.
The lights are unsurprisingly flicked off when he arrives, and he keeps them off out of courtesy, so as not to wake Lucy. He doesn’t need them—he knows the space better than he knows the walk here. He can navigate it without thinking; he knows where to step to avoid the couch on the way to her bed; he knows to step over the part of the rug that is never quite laid flat and somehow trips Lucy up every time. In recent years, he’s spent more time here than at his own home, a fact that Lucy pretends to resent, but he knows better.
When he makes it over to her bed, he sees that the cold night has affected Lucy much harder than him. The heating in her apartment has never worked quite right, and it’s never been more evident than now as she lays in a lump of seemingly every blanket she’s ever owned. The sight makes him want to laugh, but he holds back in fear of waking her.
He pulls his scarf off to prepare for bed, but as he does so, he notices the way that Lucy stirs. His ears tune into her breaths, and he notices the rhythm of each inhale and exhale doesn’t quite match up the way it does when she’s asleep, and his suspicions are quickly confirmed.
She rolls over to face him, and her eyes are open, her lips stuck in a pout.
He’s ready to be scolded, to be told to leave, go to his own home, and stop breaking into hers, but it doesn’t come.
“I’m cold,” she says instead.
He doesn’t reply, but he does regard her with a smile.
He knows what that means because he’s heard it a thousand times. Lucy likes to go on and on about words, about what they mean, about how certain word usage conveys certain things, about how sometimes it’s not what’s said but what’s omitted that’s important. She’s only telling him she’s cold, but he knows that it’s a silent request that he’s more than willing to fulfil.
“Your dirty day clothes aren’t allowed in my bed,” she mumbles as he pulls up the sheet to try and join her.
He rolls his eyes but obliges nonetheless. He sheds his shirt and kicks off his pants before she opens up her makeshift blanket fort for him, and he crawls inside.
She rolls back over to face the wall, and he takes that as his cue to pull her close to his chest. She tucks perfectly in his arms, the back of his knees slotting into hers comfortably.
There’s a brief moment where she’s still shivering, but it quickly dies down as his body heat emanates. It’s nice just holding Lucy like this, but it makes him feel good knowing that he can protect her from the cold the way he wants to protect her from everything else.
He warms her body, and she warms his heart.
Her hands are cold when they clutch against his own, but he doesn’t mind. The brief moment of discomfort it provides is simply his payment for her letting him in without argument.
It’s usually not this easy; it usually takes a moment of bickering if she even lets him share the bed with her at all. She’ll probably kick him out in the morning, the same way she always does.
Right now, he doesn’t mind.
He’ll take this moment for all it’s worth.
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