Chapter Text
Lucy always felt herself fortunate to live in a city with a market as sprawling as Magnolia’s. Stalls of every type lined the streets every Saturday morning, and she and Natsu had made it part of their routine to roam through every week to see what was on offer. The selection never varied too much; the two usually found themselves picking up fresh fruit and baked goods to stock up their pantries for the week before heading back to the guild for the day, but today the weather was too nice and the sky too blue to not linger outside for a little while longer.
Her gaze passed over the various goods being sold at each stall, from crocheted toys to handmade jewellery and everything else in between. Her wallet, still strained from paying rent this month, urged her not to buy anything, but it couldn’t hurt to look. She wandered past each stall, taking time to look over the items, with Natsu following not far behind her. It was all brief glances, not wanting to take up too much time and certainly not wanting to talk herself into making any more unnecessary purchases, but she found herself stopped at a small stand selling various different types of magic lacrima.
She hardly ever used them herself, but the way the display was set up compelled her to stop and look. Lacrima of all different colours and sizes decorated the table, each tailored for a specific use. At the front of the table, in a wooden display box, sat a collection of lacrima, no bigger than a few centimetres each, arranged by colour in rainbow order: reds and oranges to the left, and purples and pinks on the right.
"I’ve never seen lacrima this small," Lucy commented to Natsu as she felt his shoulder brush against hers. "I wonder what you could use these for."
"They’re friendship lacrima," the vendor commented, drawing the pairs' attention up to him.
In his hand, he held up another lacrima that was attached to a chain; only this one seemed to glimmer and sparkle in the sunlight. Looking back down at the display, Lucy noticed that those ones were noticeably duller than the one he was holding for them.
"Friendship lacrima?" Natsu repeated, tilting his head slightly, not quite grasping what they were for based on the vague name.
"Each one is half of a pair," he began to explain, "you and a friend or partner can imbue your magic into it so you can have a part of that person with you at all times."
"That’s kind of sweet, actually," Lucy murmured, eying up the one in the vendor's hand.
That must have been why his was much more dazzling than the ones for sale; it was imbued with not only magic but the emotions of the person to whom the magic belonged.
"Does it do anything else?" Natsu asked, looking over the selection, his interest piqued by the description.
"No. They’re much like friendship bracelets," the vendor clarified, earning a mildly disappointed look from Natsu.
"How much are they?" Lucy asked.
"3000 jewel for the pair," the man replied.
Lucy recoiled slightly at the price as she recalled how much she had already gone over her budget for the day.
"I can’t really afford that," she murmured, carefully placing the stone back down on the display.
It was a cute concept, but really, she couldn’t afford to be spending money on silly, frivolous things that she would never use.
"Don’t worry about it," Natsu shrugged, his hand already rummaging through his bag to find his wallet.
Her mouth fell open to try to retort, to tell him that was way too much money to be spending on something as silly as this, but the words got stuck in her throat, and by the time she could feel them coming out, Natsu had already handed over the jewel to the vendor. She stared wide-eyed at him, baffled by how casually he could pass over that amount of money.
"Pick one," he prompted, gesturing towards the display and snapping her out of her bewildered state.
Slowly, her gaze moved down to the collection, and she felt herself gravitate towards a blush coloured one at the edge of the display. Natsu reached out to the middle of the display to grab a golden yellow lacrima, and Lucy looked up at him in mild surprise.
"They’re supposed to be friendship lacrima, weirdo," he commented, an amused smile on his face at her reaction. "What? Ya thought I was gonna let you have all the fun?"
There was no helping the stupid smile that broke out on her face, and before he had time to process it, she pulled him into a tight hug, causing him to stumble backwards slightly from her sudden force.
"Thank you, Natsu," she mumbled into the front of his jacket.
"Oh uh-" he fumbled over his words slightly, not prepared for the sentimentality she was showing. "Yeah, no problem, Lucy."
Their sweet moment was interrupted by the voice of the vendor, who spoke up to make an offer for them.
"For the happy couple, I’ll attach the chains free of charge."
Lucy blushed slightly at the implication of their relationship but made no comment, not wanting to sacrifice the free service, but also still too distracted from the high of the matching lacrima to correct him. Without comment, Natsu handed over the two lacrima for the man to add the fastenings to.
By the time he handed them back, the chains had been attached to the beads: silver for hers and gold for Natsu’s. She rolled her thumb over hers, admiring the beauty in it even before it was imbued with magic.
Her eyes flicked back up to Natsu, where she saw he had already put his on, dangling against his chest and peeking out just below his scarf. Deciding to follow his lead, she fastened the clasp behind her neck so they could match on their way back to the guild hall.
As they left the stall, ready to take the ever-familiar path back to the guild, Lucy let out a small sigh as she recalled the high price tag and the ease in which Natsu was willing to pay it.
"How do you have so much money to spend on stuff like this?" she asked, wishing she had that luxury after shelling out most of her money on rent and necessities.
"Good at saving," he replied with a shrug. "Don’t have to pay for rent, and I get to eat the stuff out of your fridge."
Clearly not the answer she was hoping for, Lucy gave him a firm smack on his arm, frustrated with his casual admittance of theft and riled up even further by the stupid grin on his face that told her that this was the exact reaction he was aiming for.
"You don’t get to eat my food! It’s not yours!" She reprimanded, knowing that it would simply go over his head and she would be facing the exact same problem next week based on the way he looked at her with that shit-eating grin. "You are such a pain in my ass," she grumbled.
"Hey, you can’t get mad at me; I got us those dumb lacrima things you wanted," he defended.
She looked down at the chain that hung around her neck before her gaze flicked over to the matching one around his. Maybe they were a little old for matching friendship jewellery, but Lucy couldn’t help the giddy feeling that bubbled up in her chest when she saw them.
Secretly, Lucy had always yearned for this as a child. Growing up, she would read novels that told of giddy friends with secret languages and woven friendship bracelets, but she never had anyone to share in that with living as isolated as she was. It wasn’t until she was 17 that she found herself a friend in Natsu, and looking back on that day, she never thought he would have such a profound impact on her life as he did.
She didn’t realise that she had gone quiet, having ignored Natsu’s teasing in favour of letting her sappy thoughts overtake her, until he spoke up again.
"Why’re you bein’ all weird today?" He asked her, poking her on the arm before correcting himself: "Weirder than usual."
"No reason," she smiled, "just thinking is all."
She couldn’t imagine anyone else she’d rather share this with than Natsu.
Even though she’d only had the necklace for a day, Lucy already had a designated spot for it on her vanity. She’d hung it over her mirror the night before to make sure that she didn’t forget to put it on in the morning. Not that she could forget. She’d been giddy about it like a schoolgirl the whole afternoon, constantly fiddling with it as she went about her day.
The sheer excitement she was experiencing over simply having the lacrima nearly overshadowed the entire purpose of it itself, and it wasn’t until Natsu reminded her when they arrived at the guild that they were supposed to be imbued with each other’s magic. Ideally she’d like to have waited until they were alone to do it, the process feeling a little too… intimate, to do in front of the rest of their friends, but Natsu had insisted that they get it done right away so he could see what the lacrimas looked like.
She recalled the way her heart pounded as she put her magic, her heart, her soul into his lacrima; her face most certainly flushed from the way it seemed like everyone was watching her, deeply fascinated by the concept. It was a little embarrassing to feel all eyes on her as she held his lacrima in her hand, filling it with her magic energy, her mind racing with all the love and admiration she had for Natsu, hoping her feelings would imbue themselves into the crystal for him to carry with him wherever he goes.
Though she thought she understood the appeal when they first saw the display, nothing could have prepared her for the way hers looked after Natsu had put his magic into it. Flecks of red and orange glimmered throughout the soft pink colour, flickering and glowing like his flames. And it was warm, almost hot to the touch; had she not already been used to Natsu’s heat, she might have recoiled at the feeling of it. It was almost like the lacrima knew that his magic would never hurt her.
Not much thought went into picking her outfit that morning; it was just sheer coincidence, or perhaps instinct, that she found herself wearing shades of pink that matched closely to the ones that shifted around in her lacrima. Deciding to lean into the idea of coordinating her outfit, Lucy found herself reaching for one of her pink hair ribbons to tie up into her pigtails.
She had decided long ago that blue and gold were her colours, sticking to her established colour scheme most mornings when she prepared for the day ahead, but looking at herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help but think that pink really seemed to suit her.
Once Lucy had made her entrance into the guild, she wasn’t even given the chance to greet her partners before Happy cried out for her attention.
"Lemme see it! Lemme see it!"
She had no time to react before the exceed was flying into her chest, dying for a chance to see the other half of her and Natsu’s lacrima pair. She stumbled back slightly from his force, but caught her balance and wrapped her arms around the excited exceed.
The lacrima looked more appropriately sized in his tiny little paws as he examined it, looking for every little detail held inside of it.
"Wooooaaahhhh," he swooned, holding it so close to his face that Lucy wasn’t even sure how he could still see it. "It really does feel like Natsu’s magic is in here."
"Pretty cool, right?" Natsu asked, tossing his arm around Lucy’s shoulder.
"Yeah, but Lucy’s magic looks cooler than yours," Happy casually admitted, dropping the lacrima and letting it fall back down to Lucy’s chest as he looked up at the two of them.
"Wh- Hey! What are you talking about? My magic looks awesome!"
Lucy hadn’t gotten much of a look at his since she imbued her magic into it, but she glanced over at it, swinging from his neck as she watched him and Happy bicker over it.
His magic glowed like a flame, but hers sparkled like the stars. It looked as though there was a liquid core of glitter flowing through his, like a golden galaxy held within the confines of the small bead. Natsu wasn’t a jewellery guy, and Lucy could surmise that if he were, something like this wouldn’t be his first choice, but he seemed to wear it with pride, tucked beneath his beloved scarf, proudly displaying his best friend’s magic within it.
"If I had known you guys were getting these, I would have come along," Happy pouted, seemingly having moved on from his spat with Natsu.
"Yeah, well, maybe you shoulda thought about that before you ditched us to go fishing," Natsu threw back, clearly not having moved on from their spat.
"I just wanted to drop by and check that we were still good for lunch today," Lucy interrupted, gaining the pair's attention and distracting Natsu from his wounded ego. "I have some errands to run this morning, but we can still meet at 12 if you want."
"We can just come with ya," Natsu suggested. "Not like we got much else goin’ on ‘til then anyway."
"Aye!" Happy agreed.
"It’s all sort of boring stuff," she warned them, "picking stuff up, shopping, all the stuff that you guys don’t like to do."
Natsu merely shrugged. "I don’t care. I don’t mind doing all that stuff if it’s with you."
"That’s… really sweet of you to say," Lucy admitted, a little bashful even though she knew the two of them would be happy spending any time with her, and knowing she felt the same in return.
"No time to be sappy," Natsu interrupted before she could get too emotional about it, "you’ve got overdue books to return."
"Wh- How did you know I had to return my library books today?" She asked, a little offended that he could so easily call her out on her bad habit.
"‘Cause I know you, and you’ve always got overdue books," he replied with a teasing flick to her nose.
"I do not!" Lucy retorted, "I only have overdue books some of the time..."
The gentle thunk of her books hitting the metal bottom of the return slot signalled that her first task for the day had been crossed off of her list. Swivelling on the balls of her feet, Lucy turned to face Natsu and Happy to let them know the rest of her plans.
"Now I need to head to the bookstore across town to pick up a book I ordered," she told them.
"You’ve just returned a book and now you’re getting yourself another one?" He asked, thoroughly unimpressed by the prospect of following her around just to add to her collection of unread books. "You don’t even read half the books you buy."
"If I knew you were going to be a pain, I wouldn’t have let you come along," Lucy huffed, walking past him with little regard for whether he chose to follow her or not.
"Aw c’mon, you know I’m just messing with ya," he teased as he jogged to catch up with her, her comment not effecting the grin plastered across his face. "Me and Happy will be nice, right, buddy?"
"No comment," Happy added with a mischievous glint in his eye.
"You two are a nightmare," Lucy sighed, rubbing her temples with the tips of her fingers.
"Yeah, but you love us," Natsu replied, tossing an arm over her shoulder.
"Not for long if you keep this up!"
"Too late, we already got matching magic lacrima, can’t back out now," he grinned, grabbing at the chain dangling around his neck to reinforce his point.
"Yeah well-" she paused to think of the perfect comeback for his remark. "You can take your stupid lacrima and shove it!"
Her retort did little to affect him, merely eliciting a cackle at Lucy’s poor attempt at vulgarity, amused by the implications of his usually sweet and polite best friend’s words.
"You’re gonna have to try better than that if you wanna get rid of me."
Their banter did not cease as they made their way across Magnolia, with Natsu and Happy not failing to take any chance given to poke and prod at Lucy along the way. Their teasing had since turned into idle chatter, calling for Lucy’s attention as they pointed out whatever caught their eye, commentating on all the things happening around them.
For as much as those two could be a pain in her ass, they truly were her best friends and she wasn’t sure where she would be without them. Her hand had found its home on the crystal hanging from her necklace, running it idly across the chain as she relished in the warmth emanating from the lacrima and the joy from her best friend beside her. She had hardly noticed that they’d arrived at the store until Natsu pointed it out; instead, she let her mind wander as she listened to him talk.
Natsu wandered idly around the store, seeking anything that could keep himself occupied while Lucy waited at the counter for the store attendant to bring out her new novel. She was giddy with excitement, barely able to keep herself still when the book was placed in front of her, ready to come home with her.
"This must be a pretty great book if you’re getting this worked up about it," Natsu commented as he approached behind her, looking over her shoulder at the novel sitting on the counter.
"Lucy’s picking up another horny novel for her collection," Happy chirped, before proceeding to dodge the swing Lucy made at him in response.
"I am not!" She snapped, trying to defend herself before hiding away the not-safe-for-work cover in her bag. "You don’t have to be so loud about it," she mumbled. Deciding it wouldn’t be in her best interest to argue and make a scene, Lucy decided instead to change the subject. "I have to pick up my dry cleaning, get some more shampoo, and then drop off my rent to the landlady," she listed, "but then we can go grab lunch. Sound good?"
Her suggestion was met, perhaps predictably, with raucous cheers from both Natsu and Happy, who were incredibly eager to get on with her chores so they could be met with a delicious meal at the end.
Lucy was pleasantly surprised by the lack of complaints throughout the entire process, even as she spent just a little bit longer picking out her new shampoo than she intended. Her eyes scanned the shelves for her usual brand, biting her lower lip in frustration when she couldn’t find it in the spot where it usually sat.
"Get this one," Natsu called out for her attention, and as soon as he had it, he tossed over a bottle of shampoo, which she caught with ease.
Lucy looked down at the bottle in her hands to find that he had passed her a lemongrass and bergamot-scented shampoo in a vaguely familiar-looking container.
"Why this one?" She asked, curiously turning the bottle around in her hands and examining the label.
"‘Cause this is the stuff you used to use before I started complaining about how it smells," he shrugged.
Glancing back down at it, she suddenly recalled the way he used to whine and moan about how the scent burned his nose, so as soon as her bottle ran out, she stopped using it to reduce her Natsu-related annoyances by at least 10%.
"I haven’t used this in years; how on earth did you remember that?"
"You said you liked the stuff," Natsu put plainly.
She opened the cap to give it a quick whiff and was suddenly overtaken with nostalgia for her early days living in Magnolia, until that was overridden by a sudden understanding of why Natsu hated the stuff. It was strong, even to her, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine how it smelled to her partner. Shutting the cap with a small click, she passed it back to him.
"Thank you, but I think I’ll find something else," she told him.
After a moment of searching, Lucy reached for a soft pink bottle adorned with a chain of flowers on the label.
"Cherry blossom and pomegranate," she read off the label. She opened the cap to smell it before holding it out to Natsu for his opinion. "What do you think?"
He leaned down to give it a sniff before hitting her with a nod of approval.
"I like that one," he agreed. "Suits you," he added.
"Alright then!" She said, "I’ve just got to pay for this, and then-"
"Food!" Happy cheered, "yummy, nummy, fishy, wishy!"
"My treat," she told them. "It’s the least I can do since you bought us these," she added, twirling her finger around the chain that hung from her neck.
"You’re gonna regret that," Natsu grinned.
"I know," she sighed.
Natsu practically had a skip in his step by the time they approached the café she had made them a reservation at. It was a little place that had recently opened just down the street from her apartment that all three of them had been eager to try out.
By the time they were seated, Natsu wasted no time in making the most of Lucy’s kind offer by ordering himself as much off the menu as she and the poor waiter would allow. Plates upon plates of food kept coming, and the dread of her slowly draining wallet was overridden by the way it reminded her of the day they first met.
Her own plate was neglected in favour of reminiscing about everything that had happened since their fateful meeting. Even though he could be a total pain in her ass, Natsu had well and truly changed her life for the better. He was her best friend, her rock, her home, and maybe a little something more than that. She wasn’t sure if she believed in soulmates, but she could believe that Natsu was hers, and she was his. If they could stay like this forever, she would be content with that. There was no need for anything more, even if maybe her heart had yearned for it, his companionship was simply enough for her.
"You not hungry?" He asked, gesturing to her still relatively full plate, looking a little out of place next to Natsu’s collection of bowls and plates licked entirely clean.
"Huh? Oh, no, I was just thinking," she replied, turning her attention back to her meal.
Natsu simply raised an eyebrow, a vaguely amused expression on his face. "You’re weird."
"And you, are insatiable and a menace to my wallet," Lucy quipped.
In response, he merely broke out into a wide grin before returning his attention back to his food, slurping it down in a way that didn’t even make Lucy grimace with disgust anymore. The silence (if it could be called that with the volume Natsu liked to eat at) between them was completely comfortable, each content to just sit and eat together. The two could talk all day about anything and everything if they wanted to, but they were comfortable enough to simply enjoy being in each other’s presence.
"You like it?" He asked between bites, breaking the silence.
"Like what?" She replied, tilting her head to the side slightly, taken off guard by his question.
"The lacrima," he said, "you keep playing with it."
She looked down only to find that her hand was on the crystal, dragging it idly along the chain. It was like it was instinct, that she was drawn to his magic, just like she was drawn to him.
"Do you like yours?" she asked, pointing to his own hanging over his chest.
"Course I do," he grinned, "it’s got you in it."
His answer made her heart thump—not that she was expecting him to disagree, but the idea that he liked it because it had a part of her in it still made her feel giddy, loved even. It wasn’t just her magic held within it; it was all her love, her feelings, her emotions. It was a piece of her held within it, now left with Natsu to carry with him for the rest of his life, and in return she had a piece of him, his heart, and his soul, with her wherever she went.
His gaze was soft—a rare scene from the wild and rambunctious Natsu—an expression he saved only for her, and she returned it with a gentle smile of her own. For a moment, she could almost swear she felt the heat on her lacrima increasing against her chest along with the thump of her heartbeat.
The tender moment was, of course, interrupted by Happy’s groans as he lay half hanging off the table, his belly swelling from the many courses of fish meals he had eaten on Lucy’s dime.
"I ate too much…" he whined.
"That’s what you get for running up the bill," Lucy replied unsympathetically, only to be met with another long groan from the exceed, who would otherwise be very willing to throw Natsu under the bus for it, were he not falling into a food coma of his own doing.
"Yeah, Happy, why’d you make Lucy spend all her money buying you fish?" He teased, poking the poor, pathetic-looking exceed in the belly.
"Oh butt out! You’re even worse than him!" Lucy shot back.
Choosing to ignore her blame, he reached over to steal some food off of her plate, undeterred by the way she attempted to smack his hand away.
"Have I ever mentioned that you’re the best?" He asked, vying for another bite of her meal since having cleaned up his final plate, only to find himself shooed away a second time. "C’mon Lucy, you’re not gonna share with you best friend?" He whined, placing emphasis on the best friend part, as he dangled his golden lacrima in a bid to convince her.
"No," she replied bluntly, thoroughly unimpressed by his attempts to eat her food after he had already drained her wallet dry.
"You’re so mean," he pouted, "right, Happy? Isn’t Lucy the meanest?"
"Ouuuuggghhhh…" Happy managed to croak out, whether in denial or agreement, neither of them were quite sure.
"Tell you what," Lucy began, "if you let me finish my meal in peace, I’ll get us a cake to split from the cabinet afterwards."
"Deal!"
Happy groaned once more, shifting slightly in Lucy’s arms to get more comfortable, his stomach churning with every step, and suddenly he felt like he could sympathise with Natsu’s motion sickness completely. Any protests he had were ignored as Lucy and Natsu continued walking through the streets of Magnolia, Lucy basking in the warm weather the day provided. The clear blue skies and bright sunshine completely juxtaposed Happy’s miserable mood, and it seemed that no matter how much he complained, his two teammates were determined to make the most of it for the rest of the day.
"It’s so nice out today," Lucy sighed. "I almost don’t want to go back inside."
"How ‘bout instead of goin’ back to the guild, we just stay out here?" Natsu suggested, arms stretched out behind his head as he enjoyed the way the sun hit his skin.
"Yeah, I think that would be nice," Lucy hummed.
Finding themselves an empty park bench, Lucy placed Happy down on the seat, who happily took advantage of the flat, stable surface by sprawling himself out to recover from his tummy ache.
Once they were seated, Lucy opened up the brown takeout bag they had received from the café and pulled out a decadent looking blueberry muffin. Splitting the muffin in two, she passed half to Natsu, who took it from her eagerly. Together they lightly tapped their muffin halves in cheers before digging in to their dessert.
"So good," Natsu moaned as he took his first bite, throwing his head back dramatically, prompting Lucy to roll her eyes at his antics.
"I can’t even look at food right now," groaned Happy.
The two of them snorted at the poor cat’s moans, Lucy only feeling a little bad after he had taken her lunch offer for all it was worth, but gave him a gentle scratch behind the ears out of pity. As she did, she felt Natsu’s gaze on her and looked over to meet it.
"You’re not looking to steal my muffin, are you?" She questioned, narrowing her eyes at him.
"No! I mean, not unless you’re offering," he replied, eager grin on his face.
"I am not offering! Stop trying to steal my food!" She cried as she playfully whacked him in the chest, eliciting a loud chortle from him, and she couldn’t help the way she laughed along too.
In the wake of him trying to get his grubby little hands on her dessert, Lucy resorted to shoving the rest of her muffin in her mouth, to which Natsu only laughed harder. She had to hold back her own laughs to keep herself from choking as he howled over her stupid move. She swallowed with a thick gulp, feeling it go down the entire way and almost regretting her choice if not for the way he was laughing along with her.
"Damn, you really didn’t want to share that muffin with me," Natsu commented. "Usually I’m the one doin’ stupid stuff like that. I guess I’m rubbing off on you."
He was smiling at her, an amused look on her face, which might have made her heart race if it wasn’t filling her with a sudden dread instead.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because you’ve got crumbs all over your face," he told her before reaching up to brush them off her face. Once he had finished cleaning her up, he held out what remained of his half of the muffin to her. "Since you seemed to like it so much," he teased.
Ignoring his teasing tone, she took him up on his offer, breaking off a piece of the muffin top before popping it into her mouth, allowing herself to savour the taste this time.
"Hey! That’s the best part!" He whined.
"I know, that’s why I took it," she smiled.
With a silly little pout on his lips, Natsu finished off the rest of his snack, a little dejected from the missing crunchy, crumby topping but not being able to stay mad at Lucy for it, especially when he knew he would have done the exact same thing.
He rested his arms on the back of the park bench, tilting his head back slightly as he let his eyes fall shut, lazing in the sun and enjoying the nice weather the day provided them. She noticed the way his lacrima perfectly caught the sunlight, making it shimmer and shine.
It looked really pretty on him.
He looked pretty, too.
It was like bathing in the sunlight was his most natural state, and she supposed that was appropriate. The way the light hit his face accentuated his jawline, and she almost wondered what it would be like to run her lips across it. As if he knew she was watching, he peeked one eye open to glance over at her.
She smiled at him, and he smiled back.
The remainder of their afternoon was spent basking in all Magnolia had to offer them, wandering the streets doing nothing in particular, just enjoying being together until well into the evening. By the time they made it back to the familiar building on Strawberry Street, the sun had long since set, leaving them lit only by the streetlights as they lingered outside Lucy’s apartment building. She felt that perhaps she could have stood there with him forever, not wanting to let him leave, but it was simply inevitable that they would have to part at some point, and choosing to draw it out would only be worse in the long run.
"I’ll see you tomorrow?" She asked, rocking on the balls of her feet, hoping that he’d instead invite himself in for the night without her permission, just like he always did.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow," he replied.
She couldn’t blame him for it; she very much valued her alone time, and she supposed he did too.
"See you tomorrow, Lucy!" Happy called out.
As she trudged back into her apartment, Lucy pulled her hair out of their pigtails, discarding the ribbons on her vanity, before stripping out of her day clothes and into her much more comfortable pyjamas to prepare to settle down for the night. Grabbing her new novel from her bag, Lucy made herself comfortable within the sheets of her bed, ready to get lost within the pages.
She had intended to make a start on it earlier, but she had instead lost track of time with Natsu and Happy. Not that she could find herself minding it; spending time with Natsu would always find itself at the top of her priority list, no matter the context. Even now, as she tried to flick through the first few pages of her book, she couldn’t seem to get her mind off of him. Her heart had begun to throb and ache, as though he had taken a piece of her when he left her side.
How could she be missing him when she had been with him mere minutes ago?
Of course she missed Natsu whenever he was gone; things were always more fun when they were together, but something about tonight, even though they had just spent the whole day attached at the hip, had her yearning to have him back with her.
Her hand once again made its way to her chest to hold the small lacrima that sat there, not having bothered to take it off earlier. The familiar feeling of his warmth made her feel just that little bit closer to him, offering some sort of comfort to her as she remained all by herself.
The walk back from Lucy’s apartment was a familiar one, a trail that the two of them had walked so many times that it had become second nature to them. It didn’t matter that the sun was long gone and the path was only lit by streetlamps; Natsu could walk this route with his eyes closed if he wanted to. That was just what made it even more strange when Natsu stopped dead in his tracks before they were anywhere near back home.
"Natsu? Everything okay?" Happy asked, looking back at him when he realised his best friend wasn’t at his side, concerned by his odd behaviour.
There was an odd ache in his heart, a feeling of emptiness, of longing.
Suddenly, he felt compelled to be back with Lucy.
"Hey Happy?"
"Yeah?"
"You head on home, I gotta-" he stopped mid-sentence, trying to collect his thoughts after this sudden intrusion to his brain. "There’s something I gotta do, okay buddy?"
"Are you gonna be home later?" Happy asked.
Natsu shrugged slightly, unsure of exactly what he intended to do or how long it would take. "Don’t wait up for me, okay?"
He hardly gave Happy time to respond before he made a mad dash back along the path they had just travelled.
The novel Lucy had been so excited to get through had now been long since abandoned, banished to her bedside table as she instead lay in bed, one hand clutching her pillow to her chest, while the other twirled around the lacrima on her chain.
This was all so stupid. She had just spent the whole day with Natsu, and she was certainly going to see him in the morning, so why did she feel as though she could cry at the prospect of being without him for the night?
Before she could find herself spiralling too deep within her thoughts, a knock at her front door grounded her back in reality. She thought she had imagined it at first, that her brain was just tricking her into thinking that Natsu had come back to her, and she decided to ignore it in favour of snuggling even closer into her pillow. That was, until it came again, and again, and again, until it was incessant knocking that she could no longer tune out.
She opened the door, only to be met with the same onyx eyes she had been thinking about.
"Hi," he breathed, not exactly knowing what to say or why he felt compelled to return to her.
"Hi," she squeaked back in response. "What are you doing here?" She asked, curious as to why he was suddenly at her doorstep, alone this time.
"Wanted to see you," he told her. He wasn’t sure why, but he was sure that if he didn’t see her now, that uneasy feeling in his stomach and that dull ache in his heart would never go away.
Hearing the words from him made her feel less insecure about the absurdity of her feelings, knowing he was feeling the same things she was.
"I wanted to see you too," she said, before adding, "I missed you."
"I missed you too."
"Did you know?" She asked.
He blinked, confused by her lack of elaboration. "Know what?"
"That I was... thinking about you," she admitted bashfully, her gaze dropping to the floor as she kicked her foot against the carpeted ground.
"No, I don’t think so," he answered honestly. Of course he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, especially when he wasn’t with her, but maybe that’s what that feeling was. Maybe the whole reason he felt compelled to come all the way back here was because some part of him knew that she wanted to be with him, needed to be with him. "Maybe I did."
Without saying anything, Lucy stood out of the way as if to quietly invite him inside, and he quickly joined her, letting her close the door.
As soon as she heard the click of the door shutting behind them, her arms were around him, her head tucked under his chin, and he didn’t hesitate to reciprocate, holding her tight against his chest, hearing the clack of his lacrima hitting hers.
All of their thoughts of feeling incomplete were dashed as they settled into each other’s arms, feeling as though they were finally right where they belonged.
He could feel the vibrations from her voice rumble through his body as her lips brushed against his chest and she uttered one word.
"Stay?"