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Thick snow blanketed the cobblestone streets as dainty snowflakes fell steadily from the overcast sky. Yep. It was officially winter in Magnolia. Lucy was sat at the guild’s bar, sipping from a warm cup of chamomile tea and hoping in vain that she would warm up soon.
Despite being sat in the heated guild hall and wearing her thickest coat, she was freezing. She swears that if it was a little bit quieter the entire town might be able to hear her teeth chattering.
Mira was beginning to give her worrying looks that she waved off with a shaking hand.
Maybe she was coming down with something.
A sudden yell and crash from behind her drew her eyes away from her tea. Gray had seemingly gone flying through the guild hall doors, leaving a Gray-sized hole in the solid oak. Lucy cringes, that had to hurt.
“ALRIGHT DRAGON FUCKER” Gray shouts as he stomps back through the hole, less clothed than when he flew out “YOU ASKED FOR IT”
“Bring it on ya pervy popsicle” Natsu snarks
Lucy rolls her eyes as the two go at it once more. If she’s seen one fight between those two knuckleheads she’s seen them all, she simply turns back around to sip some more at her hot beverage.
A sudden chill wracks her body, causing a few droplets of liquid to spill over. That’s right, there’s a fucking hole in the door now. So any hope she had of warming up was quickly dashed by the snow that was now gusting through the hall.
The sound of Natsu and Gray’s fight was amping up behind her, and all she could do was sigh and lay her head down on the table. She curled up as much as she could on the stool to conserve as much heat as she could. She briefly considered snuggling up on the floor until she remembered that A.) she has manners, and B.) who knows what’s been on these guild floors.
Even the heat from Natsu’s stray flames isn’t helping her warm up and this is when she decides she might need to do something about it. When raises her head to ask where Porlyusica keeps the cold medicine, something soft and warm falls around her neck.
From the scent of smoke and pine trees, she knows immediately that it’s Natsu’s scarf. Despite the fact that it’s a small article of clothing it warms her to her core. Or maybe it’s the full-body blush that does that. She’ll never truly know.
She looks up at him questioningly, cheeks red as cherries.
“You were cold” is all he says, his smile wide as always.
He leaves the scarf in her care and runs off in the direction of Gray, shouting that he needs to fix the “idiot-shaped” hole in the door. Gray not so calmy reminds him that he’s the one who threw him into it in the first place and then they’re fighting again.
Lucy lets an amused huff at their antics and pulls the scarf tighter around her. The door may not get fixed for a while but she’s suddenly not that cold anymore.
_____
By the time Lucy was about two blocks away from the guild hall she could hear the absolute madness going on. The brawls usually consisted of the same people every time, but the sheer noise led her to believe the whole guild was fighting. She was watching for smoke in case the whole building came down right before her very eyes.
As she got closer she could hear Natsu’s distinctive “FIRE DRAGON ROAR” echo off the suddenly empty streets. The citizens are probably hiding from the hullabaloo, Natsu can be scary when he wants to be.
It’s the next voice that gives her pause, Romeo’s quieter but just as passionate “BLUE FIRE” attack surprises her.
Followed by chants of “GET HIM ROMEO”
“C’MON KID”
“TAKE HIM DOWN”
“YOU GOT THIS”
Huh, she thinks, Natsu and Romeo must be squaring off. Not surprising considering the kid idolizes Natsu, and when he was that age all he wanted to do was fight Laxus and Gildarts. It’s a form of love in this guild and Lucy’s come to accept it.
She braces herself for the chaos and opens the guild doors. Unfortunately, she had no clue they were fighting in front of the door.
“FIRE DRAGON ROAR”
“RAINBOW FIRE”
She has no time to shield herself. Luckily their flames aren’t burning hot enough to maim, just enough to singe… AND TO MELT THE CLOTHES OFF HER BODY!? How does THAT work?
She screams in mortification.
“Oh shit, Lucy!” Natsu runs up to her, Romeo following suit
When the smoke clears all of her concerned guildmates get a good look at her. Natsu stops in his tracks and then whirls around to the rest of their gaping friends.
“Everybody turn around!” he snarls, and it’s kind of comical how they all obey him like puppets on strings. She’d laugh if she wasn’t naked.
“Can I turn around Lucy? I have something to cover you up” Natsu asks her
She nods and then remembers he can’t see her, “Yeah, it’s okay”
Natsu nods once and turns around, shrugging off his coat and scarf as he walks.
“Why does he get to turn around?” Macao mumbles, probably hoping no one will hear him. “SHUT UP” Lucy and Natsu shout at the same time. Their combined force is enough to silence him with a loud gulp.
Natsu drapes his coat onto Lucy and politely looks away as she slides her arm through the single sleeve.
“Um Natsu” Lucy says hesitantly “How am I supposed to keep this thing closed? It’s not exactly made for me…” she trails off
Natsu ogles her body in his coat for only a second and then shakes himself out of it “Ah, that’s actually what this is for!” he holds up his scarf to show her and she tilts her head confused.
“What-“ her sentence is cut off when he loops it around her waist and pulls her in so they're nearly chest to chest. She looks at him with wide eyes, her mouth suddenly dry.
“I don’t really know how to do all the fancy bows and stuff, but I can tie it in a good ol’ fashion knot” he grins cockily at her and then cinches the scarf around her waist causing her breath to leave her. For more than one reason she thinks distantly.
Natsu steps back to admire his handy work and under his scrutinizing gaze and in his clothes it’s a miracle she hasn’t spontaneously combusted, requiring yet another change of clothes.
“Looks good” Natsu says finally “You guys can turn around now”
A wolf whistle breaks the silence she hadn’t realized had fallen “Nice scarf bunny girl” Gajeel laughs and Levy elbows him with a scold to quit teasing the two of them, whatever that means.
The novelty of Lucy wearing Natsu’s clothes wears off about 20 seconds later and everyone goes back to doing whatever it is they do all day long. In Nab’s case, it’s standing by the request board and looking busy, but she digresses.
“Lucy?” Natsu’s voice catches her attention once more “I’m sorry” he says, his eyes apologetic and his tone solemn
“It’s okay Natsu” she says “I know you guys were just messing around. Besides, your flames would never purposely hurt me, so I was never scared of that” she explains truthfully
Natsu cracks a smile, it’s contagious “You wanna help me with Romeo’s training?”
“Sure” she says excitedly “but I should probably change first, right?”
“Nah” he says firmly “You look kickass in my shit”
It takes everything in her not to scream.
_____
The battle had been going on for quite some time now and Lucy’s magic was waning and she could tell Natsu’s was too. These guys were supposed to be some low-level bandits who had been steadily stealing from the town’s banks. Apparently, they didn’t get all the information.
Unfortunately, it was only the two of them because Natsu had said “Wow, look Luce, a super easy score to pay rent!”, well Natsu, SUPER EASY SCORE HER BUTT!
The bandits had more members than they anticipated, and the fight was taking longer than either of them thought it would. There were no fire types either so Natsu couldn’t even gain any strength back. It was a shitty situation all around, and that was before one of them started firing off magic bullets.
At first, they didn’t care, they could usually deflect them with no problem, but these were magic-piercing. So of course they started caring a little.
They hunkered down behind somebody’s woodshed to come up with a plan.
“Here, take this” Natsu huffs, exhaustion making itself clear in his voice. He drapes the scarf over her head before securing it in a twist around her neck “The dragon scales are strong, it’ll take a hell of a lot more to pierce them than that guy and his wimpy bullets”
She’s almost speechless, almost “What about you?” she asks, fear creeping into her voice “what are you going to use for protection?”
He lights his fists on fire and then says “Righty” he holds his right fist up “and Lefty” then he holds his left fist up. He punctuates his stupid sentence by thrashing his fists together in one big blast.
Lucy laughs lightly “You’re such an idiot Natsu”
He grins at her and then turns a little more serious “Okay, so we’re gonna come up from behind and pick them off one by one”
Lucy opens her mouth “Don’t say it” Natsu interrupts “I know I usually go in guns blazin’ but I can have a little tact once in a while” he rolls his eyes at her playfully
Lucy mimes zipping her lips and throwing away the key and Natsu continues “Like I was saying, I think once we pick off the small fries, the heavy hitters will be easier to focus on. There’s fewer of them anyway”
Lucy nods “Sounds good. Go in quietly and hit ‘em hard”
Natsu gets an excited gleam in his eye “Ready?”
“Yep” they move to run, and Lucy fastens the scarf around her a little more tightly. Just in case.
True to their word they take out several of the weaker bandits immediately without catching the attention of the pack leaders. It’s only when Natsu lets out a taunting shout does the man with the magic bullets turn and realize he’s practically alone. While he’s been staring at the vacant woodshed for the last 15 minutes, they’ve been taking down his reinforcements.
He's quick with his draw, maybe faster than Bisca or Alzack. Which is probably why it catches Natsu off guard when a bullet tears its way through his shoulder.
His scream of agony is one she’ll never forget.
How the fight ends is a blur, all she knows is that her Leo Star Dress is covered in Natsu’s blood so she must’ve summoned it to finish the fight. She looks around frantically only to sigh in relief when she sees the unconscious body of the bandits’ leader.
She diverts her attention back to Natsu who’s draped across her lap
“I guess it wasn’t me who needed the protection after all, huh tough guy” she sniffs lightly, tying his wound off with the scarf she’d unraveled from atop her head.
Natsu winces when she tightens the makeshift tourniquet “Yeah well, it made me feel better to know you were protected. It didn’t matter if I was protected”
She raises an angry brow “Of course it matters, you matter!”
Natsu’s eyes widen in shock, as do her own “I mean- no I do mean that” she states firmly “You matter to me Natsu, I love you” she breathes out, suddenly very close to Natsu’s face.
It’s him who closes the gap, pushing their lips together despite his injury. It’s not the best first kiss, Natsu’s in pain and Lucy is exhausted, but it’s still theirs and she’ll cherish it forever.
When they part, Natsu takes a moment to speak “I love you too Lucy” he says adoringly, then his pained grimace immediately shatters the moment.
“Oh god, you’re still bleeding out” Lucy panics, flailing her arms in true Lucy fashion “We gotta find you a doctor!”
Natsu merely groaned
_____
Natsu was not having a good morning. First, Lucy left him early this morning to go help Levy with something at the guild hall, and second, he can’t find his scarf anywhere. He’s turned the apartment upside down twice and no dice. He’s growing increasingly panicked.
He figures the only other place it could be is the guild hall so he stomps his way there, feeling almost naked without the warm material around his neck. He bursts into the guild and only feels a little bad when he scares a few people, but only a little.
He jumps straight to the point “Has anyone seen my scarf?” he grouches
The few mumbled no’s do nothing to lighten his mood. He can’t find Lucy either but he can smell her so she must be upstairs in the library. But she’s not in his direct line of sight. Thus, the mood.
“Whoa, who shit in your scrap metal?” Gajeel asks as he passes by
“Not in the mood” he replies shortly
“Jeez, okay then” Gajeel mutters “HEY SHRIMP, WHERE ARE YA”
Natsu let out a sigh and dropped his head on the table, prepared to spend the rest of the day in a bad mood when
“Hey Natsu, I found your scarf on the floor last night” Elfman bellows out, the scarf dangling from his massive hands
Scratch that, his day just got terrible
“Why do you have that?!” Natsu screeches, lunching for Elfman’s stupidly large hand
“I just said I found-”
“I don’t care give me that!” He shouts, ripping it out of Elfman’s claws like a disgruntled toddler who doesn’t want to share his toys “and there’s a stain on it!” he hollers when he takes a closer look
“Whoa I didn’t mean to-”
“What’s going on out here?” Lucy’s demanding voice interrupts
“Lucy! He messed my scarf up!” Natsu says, tone bordering on a whine
“What? No I didn’t!” Elfman tries to defend himself
Lucy holds her hand up in a ‘stop’ motion “Boys, please” they both fall silent “Natsu let me see it” she holds out an expectant hand and Natsu places the scarf in it with no fuss
“I can get this out, no issue” she says
“You’re the best ever!” Natsu says leaning in to kiss her, but a palm to the face stops him in his tracks
“Yeah thanks, but if you ever act like a toddler again I’ll choke you with this scarf. Understood?” she threatens
“Aye” he says weakly, trailing dejectedly behind her as they make for the wash room.
Elfman is left standing flabbergasted “Did no one else see that?!” he asks desperately “Natsu almost flame-broiled me for even touching that thing, but then he just hands it over to Lucy??”
Mira pats him sympathetically on the shoulder “Oh brother, one day I hope you grow out of the denseness”