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teleiapotami · 9 months

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NaLu Week Day 7

Prompt: New Adventures

The Grand Magic Games are over and Fairy Tail is back at home. In the aftermath of Future Lucy's death, Natsu is loathe to let his Lucy out of his sight. Cuddling can be platonic anyway, right?

@allaboutnalu @thenaluarchive

Lucy tilted her head out through the canvas of their covered wagon. The ride back to Magnolia was a long one, and even she was beginning to get tired of the constant rocking and jolting as their cart rumbled along the uneven path home. The sun on her upturned face brought a warmth to her that she hadn’t realized she’d been missing. Natsu let out another low moan, drawing her attention again. He was slumped over against Wendy who was pressing against Lucy’s side, trying to escape the jerks and twitches that kept wracking Natsu’s frame.

“Come on Wendy, I’ll trade you spots. You feel bad enough without having to deal with his sweaty mess up against you.” Lucy giggled at the badly concealed look of relief on Wendy’s face and stood up to switch spots. She leaned down to Natsu’s level and brushed her thumb over his cheek.

“Sit up a bit and I’ll let you lay on my lap Natsu,” she said softly. He let out a whine but shifted his arm under him to lift himself just enough so she could slide under his head. The moment she was beneath him he let himself flop back down onto her legs, making her yelp and glare at him with annoyance. Still, his misery pulled at her sympathy, and she let her fingers begin their usual dance along his scalp.

The events following the games had been intense, and though peace had returned, Natsu wasn’t sure he would ever feel entirely at peace again. Certainly not until he managed to avert the future that led to Lucy’s death. He wanted to sleep, to escape the pains he was experiencing from the movement of the torturous vehicle he was trapped in, but every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was the blood spraying from Lucy’s body as it was pierced by Rogue’s projectile. He saw her collapse into her own arms, and he watched her die over and over again in his dreams.

He buried his head into her lap, choosing to deal with the pain instead of the nightmares. At least while he was awake he could feel her warmth against his skin as life pulsed through her, and her scent surrounded him, untainted by the cold, metallic undernotes of death and blood.

Once Magnolia’s homecoming parade was over, the members of Fairy Tail went their separate ways to recover, rest, or return to work. Happy flew off with Carla and Lily, leaving Natsu and Lucy to walk toward her apartment together. Natsu was grinning with his hands behind his head as they walked along the canal.

Lucy smiled at him. “You certainly look like you feel better.” He just grinned at her brightly, making her heart skip a beat. “Well, good. After all, you achieved over the last two weeks, you deserve to be happy.”

“Pretty sure we both do, Luce. Cause there’s no way any of us would have survived if it wasn’t for you……er…her? Both of you.”

Lucy nodded solemnly. “Yeah….She was pretty amazing, huh? I’m not sure I could have done what she did….Losing the guild….Losing you…and still finding the strength to look for some way to fix it?” She wasn’t sure of her own strength, but she knew without a doubt that her Natsu would die for her, just like the other Lucy’s.

“Well, good thing I made sure to smash that gate to bits, so it’ll never happen. And I’m gonna keep on protecting your future, just like I promised.” He didn’t feel like he could tell anyone what else Future Rogue had warned him about. Not even Lucy. She smiled softly and wiped her eyes where tears were threatening to form.

“Thanks, Natsu. Hey, let’s grab some food and stuff and have a sleepover tonight. What do you say?” Natsu punched the air with a fiery fist and whooped. She giggled at his infectious enthusiasm. Natsu wasn’t ready to let her out of his sight yet anyway. A sleepover just meant he wouldn’t have to break in later. He held out his hand to her with a toothy grin. The moment she took it he took off with a cackle, dragging her along to the restaurant district.

“And that is why I think Cana should be the centerfold instead of Mira,” Natsu crowed triumphantly. He shoved another muffin into his mouth whole.

“Natsu…. Gildarts wouldn’t come to fight you just because Cana modeled. She’s been in Sorcerer Weekly before, remember? Besides, why would he fight you and not Cana or even the magazine people?” Lucy twisted a lock of her hair around her fingers, trying to figure out his logic.

Natsu sat back and stretched out. “Ah fon hink oo—” he swallowed hard and started again, “I don’t think you understand how much he loves those bikini girls. If Cana was the only girl in those things, Gildarts would come straight home to make her stop. And then Cana would tell him it was all my idea and BAM! Gildarts gets a beat down.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “You’d think after all those battles we just survived you would think about something other than more fighting.” When he didn’t respond she looked up from her hair twisting. He was staring at the wall with a faraway look that hurt her heart. “Natsu?”

“Yeah,” he murmured. “I’m here…” Wherever he was, it was certainly not next to her on the couch Lucy knew. She scooted over and leaned against his side, nervously pushing a piece of cookie around her plate.

The sudden contact startled him, and he looked down finally. Finding her curled against him as though she was made to fit there made him happy somehow, and a contented hum resonated through his chest.

“Natsu…” Lucy spoke softly, “We’re just friends, right?”

“Uh, as far as I know…why?”

She giggled softly at his response, then continued, “D’you think you could….maybe come to bed with me tonight? You know, platonically.” The words tumbled from her mouth a bit faster than she intended.

“Er- What’s that mean again?” he asked with a grunt.

“Platonic means just as friends. Not romantically,” she clarified.

“Oh, sure. I don’t mind if you don’t. To be honest….I don’t want to be too far away from you right now…. you know…” he trailed off.

Lucy nodded and laid her head against his neck. “I get it, and I feel the same.” She let herself snuggle deeper into his warmth and tugged the blanket off the back of the couch over her legs. “Start the movie. Unless you have more to say about Cana in bikinis.”

He chuckled and did as she asked, settling into his role of warm pillow. Even though he had been the one to choose their movie lacrima for the evening, he found himself far more interested in the way the lights danced across Lucy’s face. Her expressions were more adorable than he’d ever realized. Especially the way she scrunched up her nose at certain moments. He was always the one in her lap and now that the roles were reversed, he wanted to enjoy it. With that goal in mind, he gently slid his fingers through her golden hair. It was like silk, slipping between his fingers easily. Lucy made a small sound of contentment that made him smile. Following an instinct he couldn’t explain, he tangled his fingers into the hair at the back of her head and gave it a gentle tug.

Lucy let out a gasp and a soft moan escaped her before she pressed her hand over her mouth and glared up at him angrily as she sat up. He smiled sheepishly, holding up his hands in surrender. “Sorry…I just wondered what would happen.”

She pouted at him warily. “Not nice, Natsu.”

“I dunno, the sound was pretty nice. I won’t do it again, promise.” He shrugged and chuckled at the blush that colored her cheeks. She tried to hide it from him by returning to her position against his chest. They finished the movie in comfortable silence. Natsu busied his hands drawing slow patterns lightly along the exposed skin of Lucy’s midriff. Another action that drew adorable shivers and squeals from her every so often, he noted.

Later in the evening, Lucy sat curled up in her bed reading a book. Natsu pushed out of the bathroom with her towel wrapped around his hips. He crossed the room to her dresser without a word. “What are you doing Natsu?” she watched him over the edge of her book.

He opened her underwear drawer and replied without looking up. “Grabbing my spare pants, obviously. Why has your panty collection gotten even bigger?? Who needs this many? Ooh, that’s a new color, I bet it looks great against your—”

“Natsu!! Get out of there! You don’t have any pants here!” She launched off the bed and tried to snatch the sapphire pair of lace panties off the finger he was dangling them from, but he held them above her.

“Shows what you know. I hid some here weeks ago for when I sneak—I mean when I stay over.” He continued digging through the drawer, letting her grab her undies out of his hand when he pulled a pair of black sleep pants out from under the mountain of her lace collection. “Haha! See?”

Lucy wasn’t paying any attention to him now, as she stuffed her clothing back into the drawer he had so rudely invaded. She turned around to scold him some more but was met with Natsu’s completely naked backside as he dropped the towel and pulled up his pants. She yelped and covered her burning face. “NATSU!”

“What now?” he whined.

“You could have done that in the bathroom!”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like we didn’t just spend ten minutes bouncing around Crocus in a bell together while you were naked. This just makes us even.” He laughed at the horrified expression on her face. “Don’t tell me you forgot about that!”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. “I was trying to. You are seriously making me reconsider having you stay over.” He laughed and pulled her against him for a hug.

“No, come on. Let’s go lay down and be…pantolic or whatever.” He flopped onto her bed and patted the spot beside him. Lucy snorted as she followed him. “It’s platonic, Natsu.”

He shook his head with a grin. “It’s cuddling Lucy.” He laid back against the pillow and stretched out his arm, giving her a pointed look. With a roll of her eyes and a stifled giggle, she crawled up the bed and settled into his side with her head on his bare chest.

They lay quietly together for a while, the sound of Natsu’s heartbeat drowning out everything else around her. Then his chest rumbled, and he started telling her about dragons. Did she know his dad was known as the Fire Dragon King? She shook her head gently in response and he continued. Most of what he said she had heard before, either from him, Mira, or Erza, but she let him talk. As he did, she trailed her fingers over his skin, tracing the line of his collarbone and down the center of his chest. She paused at the beginning of his abs and looked up at him, but he was still talking, looking at the ceiling.

He was telling her about his uncle now, Atlas Flame, whom he’d apparently met during the dragon battle. Lucy listened with more interest this time but resumed her tracing of the lines along his muscled stomach. She sat up on her elbow to follow the line until it met his pants, then dragged her fingers along their edge to the pink skin of his newly healed wound from Rogue. His breathing hitched and he paused in his story to glance down at her fingers against him.

“Sorry,” she said hurriedly, and made to move her hand away from him, but he caught her wrist. He pressed her hand flat against his skin again. “Don’t stop. I like it when you touch me.” Her hand twitched under his as her cheeks warmed, but she didn’t pull away. When he released her and returned to describing the taste of his uncle’s fire she resumed her tracings. She followed the line of the scar down to trace along the lines of his exposed hip bones, then followed his pants back across his belly to begin the journey back up his body in reverse.

Natsu felt like her fingers were leaving trails of sparks dancing along his body. He felt every brush of her skin against his more intensely than he had ever felt any attack in all his life. He finished telling her about Atlas Flame and fell silent, closing his eyes to bask in the sensations her fingertips were leaving behind them. He jumped a little when she began to outline the features of his face, and when she reached his lips he licked her hand with a grin.

Lucy recoiled instantly and wiped her fingers on his chest with a disgusted sound. Natsu cackled gleefully. “That’s what you get for tickling me.”

She glared. “I wasn’t tickling you, and you said you liked it either way.”

“I did. Still tickled.” He mirrored her position, sitting up on his elbow and facing her. “Your turn. Lay back and tell me a story. We’ll see if you still think it wasn’t tickling,�� he challenged. Lucy frowned a little, feeling distinctly baited, but she refused to back down from a chance to prove him wrong. She rolled onto her back and studied the ceiling. “Tell me how you ended up naked in that bell, I bet that’s a good story,” he teased, laughing at the pout she put on again.

“I’ll tell you, but you don’t get to interrupt to make fun of me.” After securing his promise, she relaxed a bit and settled into telling him what happened to her after they parted ways. Natsu settled in beside her as she had, and traced his finger around the shell of her ear, then down along her jaw. He followed the line of her throat down, then came back up her collarbone. He found himself mesmerized by her lips as he let the backs of his fingers trace down her arm.

Lucy shivered under his gaze but tried to stay focused on her story. He returned his focus to his hand and walked his fingers along the bottom edge of her cropped sleep shirt, smiling when her breathing hitched momentarily. Her skin was so smooth under his fingers that he worried his rough hands might irritate it, but she didn’t seem interested in stopping him, so he continued.

He followed the centerline of her stomach to the waistband of her shorts. Following the same path she did, he traced the edge to one hip, then back across to the other. She squirmed under his touch slightly and he grinned. He sat up and shifted to sit at the foot of the bed and pulled her legs up to rest in his lap.

“Natsu?” Lucy paused in her story to give him a curious look.

“Keep going.” He waited until she resumed her story before he dragged his fingers slowly up from her ankle to the gentle bend in her knee. He traced the lines of her kneecap before switching to the other and following the same path back to the ankle. He caressed the top of her feet, then returned slowly to her knees. Lucy trailed off as she finished sharing and watched him, her lips parted slightly.

He glanced up at her. “I can stop.”

She shook her head, blushing. “I like it…w-when you touch me.” He wet his lips and let his fingers continue their gentle exploration up Lucy’s outer thigh. Again, he followed the bottom of her shorts around to her inner thigh and trailed his fingers back down. He repeated the action on her other leg, smirking when she trembled against him.

“Told you it tickled,” he said as he shifted her legs back down and crawled over her to lay down beside her again. Lucy couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Platonic or not, his fingers felt good against her skin, and she didn’t want them to stop. As though he could read her mind, Natsu murmured against her, “Sorry. I ran out of places to explore that aren’t under clothes.”

Lucy smiled and made to settle against his side again, but he rolled over and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her even closer. Finding her face pressing against his throat, she turned her head slightly and nipped at his collarbone, making him grunt and loosen his grip just a little. She looked up at him just in time for him to press a soft kiss on her forehead and bury his nose into her hair. She closed her eyes contentedly.

“God Luce, you smell so damn good. It drives my instincts haywire when you’re so close like this.” Lucy felt her pulse speed up a bit and she tucked her head under his chin again. With her ear against his body, she could hear his heart thudding almost as fast as hers.

“You could let me go then if it bothers you so much,” she said. His arms tightened again, and she giggled, pressing a kiss to the base of his throat. She was so comfortable curled into his embrace, his warmth chasing away the chill of the night air creeping into her window, that it wasn’t long before she felt herself begin to doze off.

Natsu felt her lips against his skin, he felt her body grow heavier as she relaxed, and he felt her breathing slow to the steady rhythm of sleep. Relaxing his grip, he rolled onto his back and looked down at her, studying her. Natsu, we’re just friends…. Her words echoed through his mind. It was a true statement, though they had never said it aloud before. Once it was out there, Natsu realized that it didn’t sit right with him anymore. Lucy was much more than his friend. But if he didn’t like the idea of them being just friends, then what did he want?

Lucy let out a soft moaning mumble in her sleep and he glanced down at her lips. He wanted to be more than friends…but what exactly did that mean? He began to study the relationships of those closest to them for some clue as to what he wanted. Levy and Gajeel were more than friends, but that seemed to be the same situation he was in now. Neither of those two had made any move to change their relationship one way or the other. His thoughts turned to Bisca and Alzack. They had always been awkward around each other, and everyone had known that they would be together eventually. Come to think of it, wasn’t that what he’d overheard said about him and Lucy anyway?

He thought about Biscan and Alzack’s relationship overall. They were married and had sweet Asuka, who brought more light and joy into the guild than Natsu had ever felt before. Was that the more than friends he wanted? Having kids was not something he was ready for yet, but spending his life with Lucy was something he liked the idea of. He rolled over to wrap her in his arms again and let sleep claim him at last.

Several hours later Lucy jolted awake when something shook her sharply. She sat up quickly and looked around. Natsu was beside her, his legs tangling in the sheets. His face was twisted in a grimace of pain and anger, and his arm came up as though he were trying to grab something. All he managed to do was hit Lucy in the lip. With a hiss at the pain, Lucy tried to shake him awake but it didn’t help. Her shaking only seemed to upset him further and his legs began to kick.

Relying on her instincts, Lucy ducked under another swipe of his arm and swung her leg across his hips to pin him down. She caught hold of his face and shook him again. “Natsu! Wake up, please! Natsu!!”

He jolted under her and sat up suddenly. She yelped and grabbed his shoulders to keep from falling off the bed when his momentum threatened to dislodge her. He caught her by the hips and settled her back against him. “Luce?” he blinked up at her.

“You….you were having a nightmare,” she mumbled, running her thumb over his cheek gently. His eyes were still slightly unfocused, and she wasn’t sure if he was even seeing her properly. “Natsu, are you okay?”

His fingers tightened on her hips, and she felt his finger slip under the waistband of her shorts slightly. “Lucy…” he murmured, letting his head fall forward to rest on her shoulder. She could feel his pulse pounding against her where her arm was resting against his neck. His voice was hoarse when he spoke again. “I love you.”

She thought he was talking in his sleep until his arms slid up her back to pull her against his chest and his lips found the hollow where her neck met her shoulder. His tongue darted over the sensitive skin there before he kissed it gently, sending shivers up her spine. Her skin broke out in goosebumps under his hands. She licked her lips lightly and tried to swallow the trembles that his tongue was trying to draw out of her. When he bit into the soft flesh, she lost her concentration and moaned, dropping her head back.

He sucked gently there for a moment before moving his mouth up to kiss along her neck slowly. Lucy squirmed as his breath tickled against her but went still when she felt something hard beneath her. Natsu let out a low groan and his hips lifted against hers slightly. She whimpered when he bit into her neck again, sucking harder this time. “N-Natsu….”

In the span of a heartbeat, he rolled them over, pinning her beneath him. Her legs wrapped around his hips instinctively, and she rolled her hips up to meet his again with a gasp of his name. His tongue traced along her collarbone, and he nibbled at it the way she had at his just hours before. “Natsu…..t-this is all….starting to feel – ah!

His hands slid up her sides and under her shirt to rest against her ribcage. She didn’t know anymore whether she wanted him to stop or keep going. His teeth dragged along her neck until he bit her earlobe and tugged lightly at it. “This doesn’t feel…very platonic anymore….” she breathed. He drew his nose along the shell of her ear before pulling back. He gazed down at her. “I already told you I don’t know what that means.”

He leaned down to meet her lips with his softly. She let out a breathless giggle and he pulled back to look at her. “I’m not sure I remember either anymore …” She pulled him down to kiss him again. There would be time to figure out their relationship tomorrow. If meeting Future Lucy had taught her anything, it was not to waste any of the time they had together.

A/N: And there you have it! I had such a great time working on my first NaLu Week, and I hope you all enjoyed reading!! <3<3

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