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Lucy’s hand was warm- it was always so warm. And Natsu loved to hold it.
He wasn’t sure when it started if it had ever started at all, but every time he found himself by her side (which was on the brink of always), their hands seemed to become connected. Like magnets. Her hand in his.
They were tiny, of course. Miniscule even, compared to his. And he knew that his hands were big. Sometimes, if she had had some time to herself, he would see that her nails were painted. They were never really just one colour. Sometimes they would be bright yellow, like the sun, or more like a ripe lemon. Sometimes, she just painted them a simple red. Then, it always reminded him of Erza’s hair, glossy and just the right shade. But his favourite had to be the brilliant colour of baby pink, or what he liked to call salmon. She had that most of the time, on every nail. And whenever he noticed that it was chipped, the next day it would either be replenished or gone. He wasn’t fond of there being no colour on her nails.
On one day, when the sun was at its highest and there was nothing to do but rest and heal after a job gone slightly wrong, he was just lying in her bed. Not doing anything, just lying and watching her on her sofa, humming quietly to herself, with her knee raised and her hand flexed and paintable. Her hair was pulled into loose pigtails and wearing shorts and some baggy t-shirt with some band name that Natsu had never heard of, and wasn’t interested in. Happy snored loudly behind him, bathing in the afternoon sun, resting curled up like the cat he was supposed to act like.
She stopped humming, put the cap onto the polish bottle, and blew lightly on the nails, making all the bubbles disappear into the flat. She peeked over at him and smirked.
“Are you going to keep staring?” Lucy placed the handle with the brush back into the pot of polish and looked up at Natsu. Her eyes were soft, and she was flapping her hand wildly to make it dry quicker, but she made it look majestic and softer than it was. Natsu looked away quickly and sighed, trying to brush it off.
“I’m not staring,” he said quickly. But then looked back up at his teammate. “My bandages are itching.” He shuffled around, flexing his forearms and groaning restlessly. “I don’t like being locked up like this.”
Lucy shook her head. “It’s not like I’m keeping you here, Natsu.” She opened the varnish again, dipped the brush into the bottle again and gave him a scrutinising look. “But Mira did say to you to keep still in case you irritate it even more.” She looked back down at her other hand, but then swore a little when she made a mistake. Natsu smiled a little. She was cute when she got all flustered.
“It’s not my fault that that chicken focussed on me,” Natsu kissed his teeth. “Damn talons, feels like it ripped out my spine.”
“It was a Griffin, not a chicken, and besides,” Lucy smirked. “It was funny.”
He shot her a glare and jolted up a moment before hissing in pain. “Holy shit, that hurt- “ he winced and dropped back onto the bed, back plummeting onto the mattress. He sighed a little in relief; Lucy’s bed fixed all ailments, he stood by it. It was his lore.
“Maybe instead of lying on it and getting irritated, you should sit up,” she said. “Focus on something else, maybe read a book.” Natsu mimicked her, purposely making his voice high and pitchy with his hand making a sock puppet posture and rolled his eyes, dropping his arm down beside him.
“You could always come and do this for me.” She raised her hand, suggestively. Natsu thought for a moment. Just lying here wasn’t doing him any favours and he needed to do something, his legs were beginning to twitch from being full of too much energy but his arms were feeling too dead to move. At this point though, the idea of painting Lucy’s nails (or getting that close to her) seemed very tempting and Natsu was already sitting up to sit next to her.
Lucy’s couch had always been very comfortable. It was new, she hadn’t had it for a while, and even when she did acquire it Natsu refused to sit on it for a while. Something to do with the mass of change, he wasn’t fond of change. He argued that everything looked right where it was, no need for moving things around because she wanted another sitting space- they had the bed, for crying out loud!
But after Erza gave him a cruel look, he had deflated and given in, helping her and Grey lug the thing up the stairs and pivoting around the bends, flipping it on his side to try and fit it through the door.
Now, he sank into the cushions and hesitantly took Lucy’s hand in his.
It was warm, and she flexed it playfully, showing him the job she had already accomplished. It was green today, a nice new shade of emerald, and it didn’t swap into his favourite. His favourite was still the salmon, closely followed by the yellow.
She quickly walked him through it. “Just dip the little brush into the bottle, and try to not get the varnish onto my cuticles-” she fixed him with a stern glare. “Or my new sofa, otherwise you aren’t setting foot in this apartment again.” He swallowed. Although the threat was hollow, she was still a little intimidating when she stared. A little section of him was proud of her since she had picked that up from their teammates and himself (clearly, because Levy wasn’t going to scare people into submission by evil glowers).
He kissed his teeth, rested the ope bottle on his knee and gently held her hand in his big one.
It was so dainty and soft from the hand cream that she used. If he had leaned in then he would have been able to smell the ginger-lily hand cream she used every day and every time she washed her hands. Compared to his calloused palms, and the stubby nails which he was forcefully reminded to clean and trim once and a while by Lucy after the Phantom Lord fiasco. Now though, he just did it without needing to be asked, but it didn’t mean he was good at it. So his nails, though clean, remind a little slanted or off from where he did it in a hurry.
Natsu hadn’t realised how close she had gotten as he dedicated all his attention to doing them just right until he felt her sigh onto his nose and he looked up quickly. She was leaning in and watching him intently, a small curve on the corner of her mouth. “Don’t forget to try and get most of the surface area covered,” she said, fondly. She looked up and properly smiled at him. He loved that smile so much.
It didn’t take him long to finish, but enough time to make sure they were perfect and smooth. Lucy grinned widely. “Thank you, thank you!” She giggled, looking closely. “Wow, you did it so well Natsu.” He capped the bottle and set it on the coffee table.
“Really?” He asked, frowning a little. “I got some on your pinkie, and-”
She flapped her hand and rested the already done one on his knee. Electric shots honestly ran straight up his spine, and he held back a grin. “Natsu, it’s brilliant.” She smiled softly. “Who knew you could be so gentle..”
The Dragon-Slayer rested back into the sofa, the back cushions comforting his sore back. Lucy bounced back down next to him, resting her feet folded on the table in front. He huffed. “I can be gentle, really gentle.”
“Sure, Mr ‘I-DESTROY-CITIES!’,” she laughed and he kissed his teeth and folded his arms. She gasped. “I’m joking, Natsu!”
“Sure you are,” he said grumpily. He wasn’t sulking. He knew it was true, she didn’t need to lie to make him feel better. He knew he wasn’t gentle, god he was the least gentle guy probably in Fiore. He looked away, back at Happy. Even when he was hatching one of the most precious things in his life he was still rough.
“Look at me, Natsu,” he didn’t but then felt soft hands on his jaw, pulling him to the left and his eyes met brown ones. They were created, from frowning, and he felt immediately sorry. Because he hadn’t meant to make her feel- however she felt. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
“Nah, Luce,” he said and hesitantly lifted his hand to rest it on her’s cradling his jaw. “Because you’re right, I have-” he breathed a chuckle and shook his head, looking down at the space between him and her. Lucy was crouched on the sofa, knees only centimetres from touching his thighs. “I have no self-restraint… I don’t know what being careful is.”
She sighed and tutted, shifting from a crouch and now her thighs were pressed against his, resting over them and he held himself back with so much force from stiffening because there was no need to get all rigid when it was just Lucy .
Then she shifted his arms from being held together into almost a bone-breaking fold, which he hadn’t realised he was doing and pulled them around her. They were heavy, he knew they were because his muscle weight was much more than hers. Yet, she pulled them around her anyway, tightly and she wrapped her hands around his right arm and draped the other over his waist.
And then tucked her head on the crook of his neck.
From there, he was sure he would hear his heart beating like the drums of the south or the lap of the tides. It felt like, with her tucked up against him, all snuggly and tight, it felt like she would now be able to know everything about him. Not just how he liked his coffee in the morning, or that he hated taking boiling hot baths and preferred ice showers. Natsu felt like, with her here, that she could listen to the beat of hi heart and run her brilliant, soft fingers through the river of emotions that was racing through his bloodline.
With her here, he was scared. Scared that she would figure out the things that he had figured out himself, but was too scared to admit. Scared that she would know that he-
She looked up from his neck, and into his bewildered eyes. “Look, Natsu.” He was looking, he was looking very intently.
“Yes, you’re not gentle,” she stated bluntly. “Instead, you’re boisterous, constantly happy, you just-” she rested a hand on his hand. The green of the nail polish shone against the sun. “You’re just perfect in the way that isn’t conventional.”
He wondered if the words were even getting through to him.
“You’re not quiet, but that’s ok because it means I’ll never lose you. You might have no self-restraint but you are caring and comforting and so loving that it makes me jealous with how much you just shine.” She shook her head and laughed a little. “You are Natsu- and I don’t want you to change- not for the life or love of me,” she said. “Because if you did, then I have no idea what I would do.”
She gestured to his hands around her. “And you are gentle, see? You make me feel safe.”
Natsu exhaled, realising that he had been breathing quicker and quicker as the seconds passed.
The few seconds happened in a flash because one moment he was looking at her, all other, and then the next his forehead was resting onto hers and she was breathing slowly and he was trying to catch his breath because the world was spinning round and round and round and round and round.
“Never leave me, Luce.”
“I don’t plan on it, Salamander.”