Chapter Text
When one of Horologium’s keys had first come into Lucy’s care, he’d had multitudes of keyholders before, of course. He had never come across a Holder quite like Miss Lucy, however. A Holder who cared so deeply about her spirits and respected them and their contracts so thoroughly was incredibly rare. He was rather fond of her, at this point, and made sure to keep a watchful eye out for whenever she might be in true danger in the event he might be able to intervene in time. Using up all his magic energy this way so frequently for just one Holder had certainly gotten him a bit of a scolding from Horologium Super in the past, but he could not bring himself to mind much, not when he saw so much value in assisting her in any way he could.
Over time, their strong bond led to Horologium being quite in tune with any changes to his Holder’s wellbeing in general, not just her immediate danger levels. As such, he was quite early in his realization that the relationship between Lucy and Natsu had finally begun to deepen into something more than friendship, starting from just after they returned from the war. Natsu was clearly deeply moved by what she had done for him, rewriting his fate, and Horologium was acutely aware that she had only been able to do so in the first place by drawing from their deep bond and understanding of each other. Obviously, these feelings were nothing truly new, but Horologium could practically see the lightbulb click on above each of their heads as they each came to that realization on their own.
Horologium found himself once more frustrated by how little time humans had, and how much they tended to squander that time with silly things like “wondering if they feel the same.” He watched them spend months still after their mutual realizations, dancing around each other with blushing faces and stuttered excuses. Horologium would never admit it, but he may or may not have tried to usher things along by appearing when not strictly necessary to and confining them both to his chamber for a bit.
After all, Horologium quite liked Natsu - he found he rarely needed to step in if Natsu was around, as the dragon slayer was always keeping an eye on Lucy on the battlefield and would do pretty much anything to keep her ultimately safe, even if often he took a more roundabout approach than Horologium would prefer. He held very few reservations about this burgeoning development. Similarly, he knew the other Silver Keys also approved, as it had been a topic of frequent discussion amongst them.
Plue’s approval was never in question - he doesn’t really understand the whole human “dating” thing (or much of anything really), but knows that Natsu-Lucy-Friend is Nice. And Lucy-Owner Likes Natsu-Lucy-Friend. So that’s the end of the story for him, really.
Pyxis had been firmly in Natsu’s camp ever since he very calmly suggested his key be used while Lucy had a bit of a mental breakdown over being lost in the woods during an “easy” mission gone sideways. (She’d been pulling extra hours finishing up her book, and that had been the final straw for her sanity, it seemed). Pyxis valued both Natsu's even-keel and his memory.
Lyra was also easy to win over simply because Natsu never failed to remember her scheduled days when they happened to have downtime that coincided. He would suggest she be called while Lucy worked in particular, because Lucy loved her music and it helped keep her focused. What he didn’t realize was that her music was feeding entirely off of their feelings - she considered the two of them to be wonderful muses.
Crux barely woke up long enough to get an answer out when Horologium asked his thoughts once. A simple, “He’s a good one,” and he was back to snoring in seconds.
The Golden Keys, however, were a different story. They were fiercely protective of their Holder, even more so than Horologium sometimes, and with them all being much more involved in Lucy’s day-to-day life, it would take a bit more to convince them that he was “boyfriend material”.
‘Ah well,’ he thought, watching through his Earthland window as Lucy opened the door to Natsu and was quite adorably shocked by the handful of clearly freshly-picked flowers in a death grip in his hand, ‘I best warn them the time has come before they find out on their own.’ He closed his window and headed to call Virgo in order to get the word out in the most efficient way possible.