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By the time his head hits the pillow, Natsu is out like a light. The bed at this inn isn’t quite as comfy as Lucy’s back home, but the way his body sinks into the mattress, combined with the wave of exhaustion following the first day of their job, makes him feel like he’s about to have the best night’s sleep of his life. Sleep takes him quickly, and he welcomes it with open arms.
He feels like he’s been out for a good few hours before he feels himself being shaken, and he hears a distant voice calling out to him.
"…atsu? He…y …ake …p."
The sound is familiar, but in his drowsy state, he just can’t quite put his finger on who it belongs to.
"Natsu? Natsu, wake up."
It becomes clearer as he begins to realise that he’s not dreaming and his body pulls his brain back to reality.
It takes a few seconds, but eventually his eyes adjust to the darkness and he sees Lucy standing over him. He had assumed that maybe he’d slept in late, but by the looks of things, it’s still dark outside, and Happy is still peacefully snoozing beside him. If he had to guess, he’d say it was two, maybe three in the morning, but at his bedside, Lucy is fully dressed, jacket and all, looking like she’s about to leave somewhere. There had been no discussion of leaving the inn before morning, so the sight before him leaves him mildly confused.
"Lucy?" He manages to croak out, his voice still hoarse with sleep, "somethin’ wrong?"
"No, no, nothing’s wrong," she assures him, "I was just going out stargazing and... I thought I’d see if you wanted to come."
He blinks at her, quiet as he tries to process what’s going on. Maybe it’s the sleep still maintaining its grasp on him, or maybe it’s the way the moonlight streams in through the curtains behind her, but he can’t help but think she looks almost angelic standing over him, and he wonders if he still might be dreaming.
She shrinks under his gaze a little, almost embarrassed that she bothered to ask considering the blank stare that he’s giving her.
"You don’t have to come, I just thought I should ask," she murmurs, her hands fidgeting slightly, feeling completely awkward for suggesting it in the first place. "Sorry for waking you."
She’s already walking towards the door by the time his brain catches up to him and he realises that this isn’t a dream, and he bolts up so quickly that it startles her.
"No, I’ll come," he says, already pulling himself out of bed, careful not to wake Happy as he scrambles to find some clothes, figuring that maybe his half-dressed state might not be appropriate to join her.
Considering his initial reaction, she’s a tad bewildered watching him stumble over himself to pull on a pair of pants as fast as humanly possible, but that feeling quickly fades into amusement as she watches him hop on one leg, trying to pull his foot through the other, clearly still not fully free from the clutches of rest.
Once he’s done making a slight fool of himself, Natsu joins her at the door where she’s been waiting for him. She pauses as she reaches for the door handle, glancing back at the snoozing exceed at the head of the bed. "Should we wake up Happy?"
"Nah, he’ll be fine," Natsu shrugs, "we’ll be back before he wakes up."
The village they’re staying in is a small, quaint place, so it comes as no surprise when they’re the only ones out at this time of night. There are no streetlamps to light their path, but the cloudless night allows the moonlight to wash over the streets, so they’re not completely engulfed in darkness.
Even in the dark, Lucy seems to know where she’s going, so he doesn’t ask questions and simply follows alongside her, glancing at her from time to time as he wonders what she must be thinking right now. She’s not impulsive like he is; she doesn’t have the taste for risk or spontaneity like he does, so it sort of comes as a surprise to him that just a few minutes ago he was asleep in bed, and now the two of them were walking through a strange town they had never been to in the middle of the night at her request. Lucy is the level-headed one of the two, the one who always thinks before she acts. It's something that he loves about her, something that he would never change for the world, but he can admit that this is a nice change of pace.
Before he can get too lost in his thoughts, he notices that Lucy has stopped, and they’re standing in a small clearing just outside of the village. Out of her small bag she pulls a blanket he recognises from her apartment back home, and she rests it out on the grass before beckoning him over. She’s sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and her gaze to the sky, and he joins her, laying on his back at her side, his arms resting behind him to cushion his head.
They’re so far out from any major city that the galaxy shines brilliantly, uninhibited by the light pollution that prevents it from sharing its beauty with the world.
"Gemini and Taurus are out tonight," she says, her chin resting on her knees as she looks up at the night sky. "See those two bright stars up there?" Her finger grazes over the sky, pointing up at the stars: "That’s Pollux and Castor, the heads of the twins."
His eyes scan the vast sky before them, but there’s so much to look at that he doesn’t even know where to begin to look for what she’s referring to.
"I can’t see it," he says, brows furrowed as he tries to follow her finger but comes up empty-handed.
"Here, maybe this will help." She lays down beside him, resting the side of her head against his to try and see what he’s seeing, before placing her hand over his to guide his finger towards the stars she wants him to see. "It might be easier for you to find it from Orion," she tells him, moving their hands together to point out the constellation to him. "That bright star over here is Rigel, the sixth brightest star in the night sky, and that’s Orion’s left foot. If you look up, you can see the three stars that make up Orion’s belt, and then if you go even further, you can see Betelgeuse, which is his right shoulder.
Natsu squints his eyes, as if that might help him try to figure out what she’s talking about. He thinks he can vaguely make out the belt she’s talking about, but his attention is focused more on how soft the palm of her hand feels against the back of his.
"You can use Betelgeuse to find Gemini and the belt to find Taurus."
She takes his hand from Orion and moves it up to Pollux and Castor, where he finally thinks he can make out what she’s talking about.
"It looks like they’re holding hands," he murmurs.
"Yeah, that’s them," she confirms, flashing him a soft smile before her attention turns back to the skies. "Now, if you go back down to Orion’s belt and follow it up northwest, you can see the body of Taurus."
He tries his best to follow along, but there are so many stars that he finds himself lost again. Rather than following along, he turns his attention to Lucy and her enraptured rambling about the stars. She looks cute like this, he thinks, completely consumed by her fervour.
"Taurus is one of the oldest named constellations, you know. He was used to mark the location of the sun during the spring equinox." She explains. "Because of his horns, lots of cultures independently surmised that he must represent the bull."
She seems to know what she’s talking about, but it all goes over his head, because all he can really see is a bunch of dots on a black background that he can’t possibly imagine being interpreted as anything more than that. It doesn’t really matter what he thinks, though, because in her voice, he can hear all the love and passion she holds for the skies, the stars, and her spirits in which they represent. He hums along to acknowledge each fact that she sends his way, her eyes never leaving the stars and his never leaving her.
Her hand still rests atop his, and she doesn’t make any complaint when he adjusts so their fingers are intertwined.
When she runs out of things to tell him, they lie together in a comfortable silence, and everything about this moment just seems right.
"Hey Lucy?"
His words capture her attention, and her gaze moves from the sky to him.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks."
She tilts her head slightly, confused by his sudden thanks after minutes of uncharacteristic silence.
"For what?"
"For bringing me out here," he replies.
"O-oh. Yeah, no worries." Even in the darkness, he can see the light flush that spreads across her cheeks as she replies. "Thank you for joining me. This is just… something I wanted to share with you."
As much as he values his sleep, Natsu doesn’t mind being woken up if it’s for her. Lucy is his best friend. She’s his rock, his light, his guiding star. She’s kind, and smart, and caring, and full of love. Lucy is everything that is good in the world, and really, he doesn’t know where he’d be without her (but he doesn’t want to find out either).
He doesn’t know if he believes in soulmates, but he is almost certain that she is his and he is hers.
When a cool breeze passes them by, Lucy instinctively moves closer to him, seeking out his warmth, which he is more than happy to provide. He tosses an arm over her, before pulling her closer, and he laughs at the surprised squeak she lets out in response. She adjusts herself slightly in his arms, but eventually nestles her head comfortably in his collarbone before letting out a long yawn. The sound of it elicits a yawn from Natsu as well, and suddenly all the tiredness from waking up in the dead of night hits him all at once. Before he succumbs to rest, he catches one last glimpse of the galaxy watching over them.
He has no need for the skies, because in her eyes he sees the stars, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.