Gajeel and Natsu's relationship before Wendy joins is largely unexplored grounds of 'I have this very specific sort of grief regarding my parent who disappeared without a trace and the only person who understands what thats like is this fucking guy.'
Every part of Vegas feels like it's pulled out of fiction and is Incredibly off-putting. It's a major city in the middle of one of the world's most inhospitable deserts
Its famous for recreating other world landmarks on a small scale. It uses this as a trap to bait people into making life ruining decisions. It's motto is essentially "never speak of what happened here". Fucked up
Thanks to Happy, Natsu has a semi-solid idea of flirting and what it entails. Is he going to succeed? Maybe not in the exact way he hopes to, but then again, when has anything regarding Happy, Lucy, and Natsu ever gone according to plan?
heavily inspired by this lovely fanart from @ sporkteeth on tumblr and twitter!
ch.1 here
♡ words: 1,562
♡ rating: T+
♡ author's note:
what a delight this has been to write! it's been so much fun to get back into writing silly nalu's again. this final chapter is a little more sappy & serious, but i can't resist. i need mashima to address natsu's one year absence Immediately
thanks so much for reading along! all your support has been so endearing, and i can't wait to write more nalu's <3
♡ ao3 link: here
They’ve only been back from their mission for one week before Natsu gets restless again. He wants to go on another one, maybe this time with the entire team, but Lucy insists on waiting, claiming Levy is due any day. Which is fine, he can wait, except he’s so bored.
He stands, slamming his hands on Lucy’s table. She jumps. “Happy, let’s go train.”
The cat perks up. “Aye, sir!”
“Wait,” her eyes peek up from the book she’s reading, nuzzled in the armchair, “you’re leaving?”
“I’m bored, Lucy,” he whines. “Happy’s beat me in dominoes three times already.”
“Four, actually.” The cat adds. Natsu ignores him.
“I wanna go,” Lucy says, and Natsu’s about to say she’s more than welcome to, but her eyes flicker to the communication lacrima she got from Levy, “But…”
“Yeah, yeah,” Natsu grins. “You gotta be on stand-by, I know.”
“How long will you be gone for?” She asks.
“I dunno. Few hours, maybe?”
Lucy’s brow furrows. A tight frown lines her lips. “Few hours?” She questions.
“Maybe more, maybe less.” Natsu shrugs. It mostly depends on when he and Happy got hungry, honestly.
Lucy stands, shutting her book with a snap. She hums, nodding, but Natsu can still see a thin line creasing her brow. Unnoticeable to most people, but he’s not most people.
“It’s okay, Luce,” he says, “you’ve been training with us a lot. It’s okay to take a day off.”
She smiles and nods her head again, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Doesn’t quite crinkle them the way it usually does. She looks towards the window, sighing.
“You’re right,” she says. “Maybe I’ll go to the guildhall for a bit; see what ruckus is being caused today.” She laughs, but it sounds a bit forced. Natsu’s concern rises, up through his chest, and usually he can crack Lucy’s moods, but something is off today. Something that’s new and frightening, something that’s disrupting their usual easy dynamic. He looks to Happy, who shares a worried look with him.
“Are you okay?” Natsu asks before he can help it. It’s not the most careful way to go about it, but he can’t tip-toe around the issue. He never could.
Lucy looks towards the two of them, shock lining her features. Happy flutters up to her and says, “You’re scaring me Lucy, and not in your normal scary-Lucy way.”
This brings a genuine laugh out of her, but it’s true; Lucy is being scary right now – for the life of him, Natsu can’t understand her melancholic mood.
“I’m okay, you dorks.” Lucy reaches out to ruffle Happy’s fur. “Go train; I’m leaving for the guildhall.”
Before Natsu can protest, she grabs her purse and is out the door. “Have fun; please don’t burn down Magnolia forest. Again.” She calls out, letting the door shut behind her.
And with that, Natsu and Happy are left alone in the apartment. They look at each other.
Natsu thinks about running after her, forcing her to tell him what’s bothering her. But that’s never really worked for Lucy. She’s like low simmering pot of water; she refuses to acknowledge anything is wrong, until at last the water bubbles and boils over.
So Natsu shakes his head at Happy, and grabs his backpack to leave.
Training does little to qualm the anxious feeling running through Natsu’s veins. As he pushes himself to near exhaustion, he can’t get the worried line of Lucy’s brow out of his mind, or the far-away look in her eyes. He and Happy train for two hours, maybe three, before calling it quits; Natsu’s heart wasn’t really in their training, and he could tell Happy’s wasn’t, either. Their concern over their celestial mage’s mood only grew.
The setting sun casts an orange glow on the cobblestone as they walk back into town in silence. Natsu’s hand incessantly taps against his thigh.
“I wonder what’s bothering Lucy,” Happy murmurs. “She’s being weird, and not her in usual weird-Lucy way.”
“I know, Happy,” Natsu replies, “I’m worried, too.” They arrive at her apartment. From the street level, Natsu can tell the lights are off, and the shutters drawn. His tapping on his leg grows.
“I’m gonna check if she’s here,” Natsu tells the Exceed. “You wanna check the guildhall?”
Happy nods, summoning his wings to fly away. “Let’s just make sure she’s okay, okay?” Natsu murmurs an agreement before the cat flies off.
He jumps onto the windowsill, balancing on the thin ledge. He goes to open the window before discovering, for the first time in a long time, that it’s locked.
Natsu frowns. It hasn’t been locked in years.
His fingers fiddle with the edge of the window frame, looking for the slight notch he discovered years ago. Did Lucy forget I used to break in all the time? Natsu wants to snort. He finds the notch, shimmies his shoulder against the left pane, and pop, the lock comes free. He gently opens the window.
“Lucy?” He calls out into the dark apartment. It suddenly feels very lifeless with the lights turned off and the absence of Lucy’s footsteps. He hates it.
He hops past the window’s threshold and lands softly on the ground. Best not to startle her, Natsu thinks, just in case she’s sleeping. It’d be an odd time for a nap, but he wouldn’t judge.
He calls out her name again to no response. Maybe she is at the guildhall, he wonders. But his eyes catch on a form huddled in the armchair, the same armchair she was curled up in earlier. He gently walks over, careful not to disturb her sleeping form.
And she is sleeping, curled up in her blanket, but as Natsu peers closer, something is very wrong. He smells salt in the air, and sees tears dried on her cheeks. Panic strikes through his chest, sharp and anxious.
“Lucy,” he starts, “hey, Lucy.” He shakes her awake; he can’t wait for her to wake up, no, he needs to make sure she’s okay this very instant.
Lucy stirs, just barely. “Natsu?” She murmurs, blearily blinking at him. She struggles to do so, her eyelids slightly crusted with dried tears. It breaks his heart, just a little bit.
“Hey,” he whispers, “wake up, please.”
She obeys, stretching her arms in her chair. His hands stay on her shoulders.
“What’s wrong?” She asks him, which honestly, is very Lucy-like, to have cried herself to sleep and to wake up asking him what’s wrong. It’s so Lucy-like it hurts, wrenches his heart and squeezes it dry.
Without thinking, he licks his thumbs and swipes them across her cheeks, wiping the salt off and smearing it from the air. He can’t stand the smell of it.
“Nothing’s wrong, Luce,” he says, “why’re you crying?”
She blinks at him, sleep still dragging her eyelids down. “I’m not,” she says.
“Don’t lie,” He says softly, “you were crying.”
At this, she looks away. She fiddles with the blanket in her fingers. “It’s nothing,” she claims.
Natsu scoffs. Lucy was, and always will be, an awful liar.
“It’s not nothing,” he says, “what’s wrong?” He wants to shake her, wants to shake a smile onto her face, wants to shake whatever bad thing is making her frown out of this world entirely.
She purses her lips at him. “It’s just–” Her lip begins to wobble. “I just… I get afraid sometimes.”
“Afraid?” He murmurs.
“I get afraid you’re going to leave me again.” Lucy whispers, looking down. She picks at a frayed thread on the blanket. She continues, “And I know, it’s unfair of me to feel that way, to try and keep you by my side all the time.” I want to be there all the time, Natsu thinks, desperately, but Lucy keeps going. “But I just… I can’t handle it again. You and Happy and everyone leaving me behind, all over again. It hurts to think about.”
And oh, if heartbreak is real, Natsu’s sure that’s what he’s feeling now. Guilt and self-anger take place within his muscles, within his bones, and his chest feels as though it’s being torn in half. It’s my fault, he thinks, it’s my fault Lucy is crying. He can’t even think of what to say as he stares into Lucy’s watery eyes, normally so bright and yet they’re filled with nothing but sorrow. His mouth opens and closes.
Lucy finally looks up at him. “Don’t look at me like that,” she whispers, “it’s okay. I’ll get over it.”
“It’s not,” Natsu’s voice comes out as a rasp, “it’s not okay.” His fingers are all but clinging to her shoulders. He can’t bring himself to move.
“You’re crying,” he continues, “that’s not okay.”
“You know me, I cry a lot.” A humorless chuckle leaves Lucy’s lips.
“Listen,” he starts, “I won’t ever up and leave again, I promise, okay?” And truth be told, he had to leave for that year, he had to leave for Igneel, and he hates it and hates how it’s affected her. He hates how if he could go back in time, he would make that same choice. Because he had to. There wasn’t really a choice.
But leaving nothing but a letter behind was shitty; he knows that.
So he can promise her this, now. “Believe me, me and Happy will never leave you like that again.”
“Okay,” she murmurs, and she doesn’t say it, but Natsu’s quite sure she doesn’t really believe him.
“Hold on, okay?” And it pains him to leave her, but he pads across the room to riffle through his bag. He’s been waiting for a good moment to give this to her, but he can’t think of anything else to help her believe his promise. He grabs the box tucked within his bag.
Natsu returns to her side. “Look, I bought this for you a while ago.” Lucy looks up, shock lining her features. He doesn’t give her a chance to speak as he kneels by her and opens the box. Inside is two rings, one a thick band and the other a thin, dainty piece.
He grabs her hand, sliding hers on. It fits perfectly on her ring finger. The stone gleams in the center of the ring, catching the last few rays of daylight from the opened window.
“It shows you where I am at all times, see?” He explains as he taps the stone. It lights up, before a low golden light begins to point from the ring towards him. Natsu originally bought it for their missions, in case they ever got separated, but this reason seems much, much more important. “Now even if I did leave, you’d always be able to find me.”
Natsu looks up to find fresh tears in Lucy’s eyes. He slides the matching ring onto his finger, tapping the stone to show a matching light beaming towards her.
Lucy throws her arms around him. He catches her, falling back onto the floor. Natsu lays there feeling incredibly guilty as she cries into his shoulder; this was all his fault, after all. He has to fix it, fix Lucy’s fears, somehow.
“Thank you,” Lucy chokes out, “thank you, Natsu.”
He doesn’t really know what to say. “Of course, Lucy.” Is all he can offer. He’s never been the best at comforting others, so in the absence of words, Natsu rubs soothing circles into her back.
Lucy sits up, blonde pieces of hair sticking to her wet cheeks as she stares at her ring. Natsu absentmindedly swipes the strands of hair off, wiping a few stray tears as he does so.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmurs. And maybe the rings are beautiful, Natsu doesn’t really know (he just trusted the shopkeeper’s advice), but he’s far too distracted by the serene smile on Lucy’s face to give a damn. And he makes up his mind.
It all seemed too complicated before; how to win Lucy’s heart, how to carve a path towards something beyond the borders of their friendship. But Natsu stares at her now, the light shining from the ring softly lighting her eyes, and he knows.
It’s always been easy. He’s just been too afraid.
So he leans up, Lucy’s eyes only briefly meeting his for a split second before his lips capture hers. Natsu relishes in the kiss, the feeling of her on his waist, the soft oomf that leaves her mouth as his lips touch hers. He relishes in it even though he’s so afraid, even though he’s sure his heart is about to burst out of his chest. He relishes in it because he’s not sure how long it’ll last, considering Lucy is frozen on top of him.
He pulls back. Lucy stares at him, eyes wide and watery and cheeks flushed. She stares, and stares, and stares.
Natsu gives her some time. It’s very Lucy-like to need a moment to process.
“More,” she whispers, “I want more.”
He brings his mouth to hers once more, relishing in the fact he gets another one. Her lips are soft against his, hesitant (very Lucy-like to overthink kissing), but after a few stiff moments she loosens up and leans fully into him. Into his mouth, prompting his tongue to brush her lips, a sneaky escapade she willingly allows. It’s all so new, so thrilling, that his veins feel like liquid fire.
“More,” she says, breathing heavy, “More.”
So he kisses her again, and again, and again, until they’re curled around each other on the floor and breathless from the effort. Natsu kisses her one more time for good measure before planting his forehead against hers.
“Do you believe me now?” He asks. Lucy nods. She’s much more convincing, this time.
“Good.” He kisses her forehead, then her cheek, then her other cheek and her chin and her neck until she’s on the floor, giggling from the excessive kisses. She pushes to get him off, and he blows a raspberry on her nose before relenting.
“Natsu!” Happy’s voice calls, “I couldn’t find Lucy! Did you–”
Natsu turns to find the Exceed frozen midair, staring at the two of them. For a moment, none of them move. The cat bursts into a grin.
“I told you it would work, Natsu!” Happy proudly exclaims.
“What would work?” Lucy asks, sitting up. Natsu pointedly ignores her searching gaze.
“Flirting, duh!” Happy flies over to the two of them, depositing himself in Lucy’s lap. “I told Natsu he should try actually flirting!”
Natsu swallows. He wasn’t planning on exactly telling her. So much for being subtle.
Lucy sighs, clicking her tongue. “I guess I shouldn’t have expected any less.” She grins cheekily towards Happy. “You couldn’t have told him any sooner?”
“In my defense, I thought I was flirting this whole time,” Natsu grumbles, “I didn’t know I had to act like a character in one of your movies.”
“You never had to,” Lucy leans over, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “But I’m glad you did.”
With his cheek burning, Natsu thinks he should have tried a hell of a lot sooner.
Sapphic Drarry, been a hot moment since, I miss them much, artstyle has changed quite a bit since last drawing them :]
(Hopefully for the better)
Working on another cannibalism involved AU with the gals, this time Harley will initiate it :P
Why is it that every time I google something like "Are olives poisonous to cats" the top results are always like "Fun fact: Cats are carnivores! This means that they eat meat. There is no reason to include olives in a cat's diet. You should feed your cat cat food, which is dry or wet food especially designed for cats. You can purchase this at a store." like is there a single person alive on the planet who's googled "Are blueberry muffins safe for cats" because they're planning on switching their cat to a muffin-only diet??? No, I'm asking because the little bastard somehow popped open the packet while I was putting away the groceries and dragged one under the couch before I could react and now I need to know if I should call the after-hours vet. "Cats should not eat spaghetti." NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!!!! "Try to keep human food away from cats." i live in a studio apartment with a completely silent and permanently hungry apex predator who has the intelligence of a toddler and the desperate Machiavellian cunning of a creature who spent his formative months on the streets. He can already open doors and he is this 👌 close to learning how to open the microwave. He is stronger than me and covered in knives. So im gonna do my best but for the moment i just need you to tell me whether this yoghurt is going to kill my son y/n
I've been using the pet poison hotline's poison list cause it has a search function. It also tells you whether something is mildly, moderately, or severely toxic which can be very handy! It doesn't contain like everything but it might be a good place to start, it also includes plants for fellow houseplant lovers <3
Explore Pet Poison Helpline®s vast knowledge on poisons by reviewing our pet poison list. Explore our top 10 poison and holiday poison lists
For plants specifically, there’s also a wildly detailed set of posts and listings about toxicity on the old, wonderful, Plants Are the Strangest People blog
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