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kaleidoscope77 · 9 months

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arbitrary anniversary ship: natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia summary: Lucy really, truly wishes that when Natsu had offered to plan their date, that she could simply relax and not worry about it. Unfortunately, there's that little itch in the back of her brain that's telling her that there's something that she's missing about this. ao3

Nalu Week 2023 Day 1: Anniversary @allaboutnalu @thenaluarchive

It was a rarity for Natsu to plan their dates, and even rarer that he had insisted on doing so. In the eight or so months they had been together, it was mostly Lucy who had put together their date nights. It wasn’t something she minded; Natsu had always been passive in her planning, willing to go along with whatever would make her happy.

He wasn’t a traditional romantic, not fond of candlelit dinners or bouquets of roses, and while maybe that was the type of guy she had always dreamed of as a little girl, she couldn’t imagine herself spending her life with anyone else.

That was why it came as a surprise when he wanted to plan their next date night.

She was all for it; it was less work on her plate, and she trusted Natsu truly and fully, but he had been going to strange lengths to ensure he kept everything about it under wraps, and it was almost... unnerving.

They didn’t keep anything from each other. Secrets did not exist between them, but Natsu had insisted this wasn’t a secret; it was a surprise, putting particular emphasis on the difference between them and justifying his vagueness with any details.

At first, Lucy found it cute and endearing, but as the days passed by and he continued to be giddy about his plans but vague about the details, Lucy began to worry that she had blanked out on a very important date in their relationship.

"I think it’s cute," Levy reassured as Lucy recounted her woes to her, tucked away in a corner table of the guild. "It’s Natsu, he gets excited about things."

"I know," Lucy sighed, nails anxiously tapping the glass of her drink as she spoke. "But he’s almost too excited. He keeps saying that he has big plans but won’t tell me what they are, and I feel like I’ve forgotten something."

"Like what?" Levy prompted.

"Birthday? Anniversary? Other significant date?" She listed off in reply.

Her birthday had already passed, and Natsu’s wouldn’t be for another few months. They were still a few months away from their anniversary, as far as she was aware. She had spent the past few days wracking her brain to try and figure out what other significant dates Natsu might put this much weight on, but continued to come up short.

"Maybe he’s just being romantic," Levy lightly suggested, offering her friend a reassuring smile to try and bring her down from her spiral.

"It’s Natsu," Lucy replied. "He doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body."

"The same Natsu that dug up the cherry blossom and sent it down the river just for you?" Levy teased, a light smirk creeping up on her face. "That Natsu?"

"It’s different," she sputtered back, her face heating up at the memory. "Natsu’s the reckless, spur-of-the moment kind of romantic. He only ever plans things out when it’s really important to him."

"You’re important to him."

Lucy pursed her lips slightly, having no rebuttal for her statement. That didn’t stop the nervous energy that coursed through her veins.

"Why are you so worried, Lulu? It’s just a date."

"Because if I’m forgetting something important, then it makes me a bad girlfriend," she sighed.

Natsu may not have been the dream boyfriend her mind had conjured up as a girl, but he really was the most incredible boyfriend she could have asked for. What he lacked in romance, he more than made up for in other areas.

He was surprisingly attentive. Natsu had a reputation for being careless and forgetful, but when it came to the things that were important to him, he never let the small details slip by. Every important date was burned into the back of his mind, with no need for reminders; her birthday, the day she first joined the guild, the dates both her parents passed, even down to the day her book first got published.

He remembered little details she mentioned in passing: her favourite flowers, the one particular flavour of gummies she liked, the way she prefered oat over soy milk but always got soy because the best coffee shop in town didn’t stock it. It was always things that she thought he would never think twice about, but he remembered, and whenever she asked why, he would simply hit her back with, because it’s you.

He was so good to her, and if he was putting all of this effort into a special celebration of something she couldn’t even recall, then did she even really deserve him?

"I don’t think that Natsu will be upset," Levy justified, and to be completely honest, she was right.

Natsu could barely hold a grudge against anyone, let alone her. If he did get upset, it wouldn’t last the night.

That didn’t stop the guilt from gnawing away at her insides.

"You’re right," Lucy conceded, realising her venting would get her nowhere.

She flashed a half-hearted smile to her friend, who returned it with a sympathy-ridden look.

She couldn’t continue to wallow in her own guilt and worry for much longer, or she just might explode.

If there was some sort of motivation behind Natsu’s strange behaviour, she would just have to find it herself.

"You’re right," Lucy repeated, with more conviction this time, her words more addressed to her inner dialogue than her friend’s statement. "I’ve gotta go," she declared, standing up with newfound resolve.

Levy raised her eyebrows in confusion as she watched Lucy’s behaviour change dramatically in little more than the blink of an eye.

"I’ll see you later, Levy!" She called out, already out the door, before Levy even had a chance to figure out what was going on.

It wasn’t often that Lucy found herself at Natsu’s place, but she had the path there memorised for emergencies, and this, she thought, definitely counted as one.

Natsu and Happy had gone out for an overnight job the day before, leaving her ample opportunity to do her fair share of snooping. Just to be sure, she did a light rap on the front door, only to be met with silence.

Perfect.

She reached for the door handle and found they had left it unlocked again. Any other time she would have scolded the pair for being so careless, but right now she was thanking all the stars that they had left her the perfect setup for some snooping.

That feeling of relief left her quickly the moment she stepped inside, and she soon became overwhelmed, not knowing where on earth she would start.

A calendar would be her best bet, or some sort of notebook where he had maybe written these important dates down, but the place was predictably an absolute pigsty, and she had no idea where she would even start. There was no rhyme or reason for where Natsu put things, and as well as she knew him, she could never quite get into his head when it came to figuring out where he might have left something.

Stepping over a pile of… something, he had left on the floor, Lucy scanned the room looking for any place to start but ultimately came up short. With a sigh, she contemplated the only real option that was presenting itself.

She was going to have to clean his damn house again, wasn’t she?

In all fairness, the cleaning very much went hand-in-hand with the snooping. In doing so, she found a small journal, perfectly cat-sized and decorated with little fishies, multiple letters (rightfully) accusing Natsu of destruction of property, and several pairs of panties that she had thought she had lost long ago.

Partway through her mission, she spotted a pile of recent job requests sitting atop his coffee table, and in her effort to clear it up, she picked the leaflets up with the intention of pinning them to his board, only to promptly drop them when she saw a calendar sitting beneath it.

She had been beginning to lose hope because her brain was beginning to ask why on earth Natsu would own a calendar, but it seemed all her worries had been for nothing.

Reinvigorated by her find, Lucy flipped it open to the date of their date, only to find it and the rest of the page blank. Upon further inspection, she found that the thing was three years out of date.

With a huff, she slammed the thing back down on the table in frustration.

Stupid Natsu and his stupid hoarding tendencies

"Whatcha doin’?" A voice came from the doorway, and Lucy immediately whipped her head over to find that she had been caught red-handed.

Natsu seemed unphased by her intrusion as he tossed his overnight pack carelessly to the side, letting it flop down onto the floor as he walked in.

"Nothing!" She replied, a little more defensive than she intended, causing Natsu to give her a surprised look. "I was just waiting for you, is all."

"Lucy’s been snooping!" Happy butted in, noting the way things had been moved from their original spot.

"I have not!" Lucy spat out in a blatant lie. "I’ve been cleaning," she justified, which she supposed was a half-truth.

It wasn’t like she was here to reveal her true intentions just because she had been caught.

The both of them glanced around the room to find that she had done a rather… unconventional job of it, with certain areas looking spotless while others looked like they had been ransacked, which, to be fair, wasn’t too far off how it had looked before she had arrived.

He shot her a sceptical look, to which she stuck out a pout in response.

"Hmph, maybe I just want to find out something about our date," she huffed, arms crossed over her chest as she carefully danced around the specifics.

Natsu simply chortled in response.

"You’re still on about that?" He teased, clearly feeling at least a little pleased that his surprise plans were getting under her skin. "Can’t you just accept a surprise as a surprise?"

"Wow, Lucy’s so desperate she’s resorted to breaking and entering," Happy sniggered, clearly just in it to get a rise out of her.

"Oh butt out Happy! You two do it all the time!" She snapped back, giving him exactly what he was looking for.

Before any more venom could be spat between them, Lucy felt Natsu’s hands rest on her arms, drawing her attention back to him.

"C’mon, just trust me here, Lucy," he grinned down at her, clearly not upset by her scepticism but not wanting her to worry about it nonetheless. "It’s gonna be great; you ‘n’ me can celebrate together. It’ll be fun."

He was doing his best to reassure her, but his downfall was that he had no idea what he was actually trying to reassure her about. Instead, he had struck fear into her heart with just one word.

There was no longer any benefit of the doubt; he was planning this to celebrate something, and she was still none the wiser as to what exactly they were meant to be celebrating.

She tried to play it cool, to hide her worries from him, but instead her voice got stuck in her throat, and all she could do was flash him a weak smile and hope that he didn’t notice when it didn’t reach her eyes.

Their date was in approximately three hours, and Lucy was no closer to figuring out what the hell they were supposed to be celebrating with it. That was not for lack of trying, of course. She had tried to worm any information out of Natsu, but he would simply shut her down every time with that stupid, cute grin of his that made it hard for her to be upset with him about it, no matter how frustrated she was getting.

He had left her no clues or hints as to what it was that this date was for—he’d hardly even given her a dress code. She was well and truly at her wits end trying to figure out this stupid date.

He had gone to all this effort to plan what he had promised her would be the perfect date, and yet she couldn’t even figure out what the occasion was.

Was she supposed to get him a gift? Would he be mad at her that she didn’t? Would she be able to play it off like she knew what was happening, or would the guilt simply eat her whole?

Perhaps most importantly, did all of this make her a bad girlfriend?

Natsu asked for so little in their relationship compared to what he gave her. If she was forgetting something that was apparently so important to him that he needed to plan a whole date around it.

Lucy wasn’t an insecure person, but sometimes Natsu was so good to her that she felt undeserving of it.

It wasn’t until she got to the final hanger in her closet that she realised she hadn’t been paying any attention as she flicked through her options. Not knowing anything about what they were doing or where they were going had made it difficult to pick out what she was supposed to wear.

She didn’t want to show up underdressed, but she didn’t want to be overdressed either, lest she find out that Natsu had planned on taking her on a spontaneous hike or something like that. It was early afternoon, and it would still be light out when he had told her he would be by, which did her no favours in figuring out where the hell they were going or what the hell they were doing.

Hangers and dresses began to pile up on her bed as she sorted through what she had, feeling as though nothing would be adequate. She tried to concentrate on picking an outfit, but in the back of her mind, all she could do was worry.

It was so stupid. She knew Natsu better than to worry that he would be upset with her, but he had sounded so excited when he talked about this date that she worried that she would hurt his feelings because, in her ignorance, she couldn’t share his enthusiasm.

If she didn’t know what they were supposed to be celebrating, she supposed she would just have to pretend.

She was still putting in her earrings when she heard a knock at the door—a rarity from Natsu but appreciated nonetheless.

"Coming!" She called out as she put in the backing and gave herself a final look over in the mirror.

She had settled on a light blue sundress that hit just above the knees and was decorated with pink and gold flowers that accented the gold stars dangling from her ears.

Grabbing her purse, Lucy finally made her way to the front door, where she came to meet her boyfriend, beaming back at her.

She was relieved to find that, at the very least, she had dressed appropriately for the occasion, finding Natsu donned in a red button up and dark jeans, of course accented with his scarf hanging around his neck.

"Hi," she greeted, her voice soft as her legs practically turned to jelly in his presence—a response that had never really gone away in all their months of dating.

"Hey!" He replied, with that big Natsu smile of his plastered across his face.

He held his hand out for her, which she took in her own, letting their fingers intertwine as she stepped closer to him, basking in the comfort of the familiar heat emanating from his body.

"So, are you going to tell me where we’re going?" She asked, ready to cut to the chase now that the day that had been plaguing her with anxious thoughts had finally arrived.

"Nope!" He simply replied, his smile not wavering even as she huffed in response.

"Please?" She tried, trying to give him her cutest pleading face, but she should have known that Natsu scarcely gave into her charms.

Instead, he leant closer to her, and she was almost certain that he was simply going to cut her off with a kiss before he stopped when their noses bumped together.

"What part of surprise don’t you get?"

When Lucy only replied with another pout, he moved backwards, stepping away and leading her out of her apartment doorway.

"You’ll find out when we get there," he reassured with a smile.

Lucy had expected the when they get there, to come much sooner than it actually did. Instead, she was met with a walk through Magnolia that had gone on much longer than she had expected.

As they were walking down the stairs of her building, she noticed his daypack tossed over his shoulder, which was her first indicator that they weren’t going on a traditional candlelit dinner night. Not that she expected it from him in the first place, but considering she had zero clue what his plans were for the night, being able to rule anything out was a win in her book.

As they strolled through town, hand in hand, they made idle conversation, Natsu not once mentioning what the occasion was. It instilled a certain sense of relief in her, thinking that maybe he would simply not bring it up and she could let herself enjoy the date.

With that little voice of anxiety gone, Lucy could finally let herself relax and enjoy Natsu’s presence, laughing along to his stories from his latest solo job while she shared her own and proceeded to laugh at the silly pout on Natsu’s face upon mentioning receiving the whole reward with no costs for destruction of property.

She didn’t even realise where they were headed until they reached the very outskirts of Magnolia, and her suspicions were piqued again. She shot Natsu a confused look, hoping he might elaborate, but he only looked back at her with that grin that had accompanied every I’m not telling up until now.

It only took a few minutes before she recognised the familiar path they were taking out of town and through the woods lying just on the outskirts. Her suspicions were confirmed when they arrived at a little spot that had become increasingly familiar to her over the years.

The little river, not too far from Natsu and Happy’s house, was a picturesque location, something that Lucy had repeatedly mentioned each time she was dragged here, but her comments were quickly brushed off in favour of what they considered to be the biggest appeal of the place: the vast amount of fish swimming through it.

She just hoped that wasn’t what they were here for today.

Leading her over to one of the trees that stood several feet away from the bank, Natsu dropped his pack on the floor and began to rummage through it before pulling out a well-worn picnic blanket and spreading it out across the grass.

Her expression softened when he looked over, and she realised what he had planned for her.

He may not be the traditional romantic, but he was sweet and thoughtful with everything he did for her, and moments like these made her so grateful that he was hers.

As he was unpacking their dinner from his bag, she caught him off guard with a gentle kiss to his cheek. His eyes widened in surprise, and his cheeks grew a rosy hue as he looked at her, and she had to hold back a giggle at the sight.

She made herself comfortable on the blanket as she watched him set out sandwiches, cheeses and deli meats, and little chocolate-covered strawberries, which he neatly arranged on a little plate for them. Her heart swelled with affection as she watched the little wrinkle of concentration form in his brow as he made sure everything looked perfect for her.

When he was satisfied with its presentation, he shuffled over to join her, a satisfied look on his face as he looked over his work. Looking back over at her, he smiled when he noticed the look of adoration painted across her features.

"Did you make all of this?" She asked, looking down at all of the options he had laid out for them.

He nodded in response, a proud look evident on his face.

"Mira helped me make it," he explained. "Well, she made most of it, but I helped," he corrected, his voice barely more than a mumble as he tried to conceal and exaggerate the part he played in it.

"Thank you," she breathed. "It’s perfect."

"It’s no biggie," he shrugged, though the pleased look on his face not leaving for a second.

Before he had the chance to say much more, Lucy’s hands were resting gently on his face, and she pressed her lips against his in a soft, thankful kiss. She could feel his smile against her lips; he was clearly proud of how it turned out, and rightly so.

She was fully prepared to take back every time she had said that he wasn’t romantic, because this was everything she could have asked for and more.

They were both panting for breath when she finally pulled away, only barely sated by the taste of his lips, but her plans to kiss him more were stifled by the way her lungs cried out for air.

He grinned at her, cheeks flushed and lips swollen, before he finally spoke up.

"Soooo… can we eat now?"

Lucy rolled her eyes at his very predictably Natsu statement but nodded nonetheless, just as eager to dig into their picnic dinner.

She sat comfortably in his lap as they ate together, enjoying each other’s company and the delectable food Natsu had brought along.

She laughed when he moved his head suddenly as she tried to feed him a chocolate strawberry, resulting in a brown smear of chocolate across his cheek, which he, of course, promptly wiped off with his hand and then licked clean, not about to let any of their food go to waste.

A content hum passed through her lips as she rested her head in his lap, enjoying the peaceful sounds of nature surrounding them; the rush of the river, the songs of the birds, and the rustle of the leaves as a soft breeze passed them by.

All her worries had been for nothing. This was perfect.

Perfect.

He ran a hand through her hair, the gentle scratch of his nails against her scalp calming her body before he began to coax her off of his lap. She sat up and opened her eyes, letting Natsu lean over to his pack as he reached inside.

"I got us one more thing," he told her as he carefully brought out a pristine, white dessert box from his bag.

Once he placed it down on the blanket in front of them, he opened the lid to reveal a cake decorated with blue icing and gold rosettes piped around the border of it. Across the top were letters sloppily scrawled across it, which, after a moment, Lucy surmised said Happy Anniversary, and her heart dropped.

Up until now, she had thought that it would never be brought up and that, in her bout of overthinking, she had misheard him when he said they were going to celebrate.

Between then and now, she had checked her calendar again and again and again, but she was certain that today was not a significant milestone in their relationship, so what the hell was Natsu on about?

"Mira ran out of time, so I had to ice the words on, but I think it looks pretty good," he said, admiring his hard work before looking back over at Lucy, who could do nothing but gape at the cake, looking truly and deeply distressed. "Lucy? Is everything okay?" He asked at the first sign of her panic. "You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to; I just thought it’d be nice."

If she were any quicker on her feet, she would have said something earlier and played it off like she knew what was going on, but the moment she saw the cake, it seemed that her brain had turned off altogether.

Her lack of response caused panic to arise within Natsu, who was desperately trying to find out what was wrong.

She wanted to say something to reassure him, to let him know that all of this had been perfect, and to gently explain that she had no idea what anniversary this was, but she still appreciated all of his effort, nonetheless. Maybe she could have if it weren’t for her brain running a million miles per minute, making it hard to pin down any words and form them into coherent sentences. All she could do was stare at the cake, completely taken aback, until she managed to babble out one sentence.

"I’m the worst girlfriend in the world."

"What? No, you’re not," he assured, worry sparking behind his eyes. "Lucy, what’s wrong? Do you not like the cake?"

"I feel so stupid," she sobbed, bringing her hands up to cover her face and hiding herself in shame. "I’m sorry."

"I don’t know what you’re apologisin’ for," he frowned, his hand resting on her knee in a bid to comfort her. Please, Lucy, ya gotta tell me what’s going on."

With a fair bit of coaxing, she finally managed to look Natsu in the eye, who was looking back at her with a concerned gaze. Her eyes flicked down to the blanket below them, not having the courage to look him in the eye when she finally spoke up again.

"I have no idea what anniversary we’re celebrating," she admitted.

Natsu was silent in response, and suddenly she was overcome with nerves and worry that she had upset him. She had tried convincing herself that he wouldn’t be upset with her, but now that it was happening in real time, she wasn’t too sure.

She glanced up at him quickly, trying to gauge what he was feeling, expecting an expression of anger or upset, but was instead met with a look of confusion on his face.

"You don’t know?" He asked, his voice soft as he spoke, and Lucy’s heart couldn’t take the guilt as she realised that she may have hurt him.

She shook her head.

"Our one-year anniversary isn’t for another four months," she tried to justify, scrambling to save his feelings.

"I know that," he replied, brows furrowed.

"Then… what are we celebrating?"

"Eight months ago, you and me had our first kiss, right here," he explained, which was met with a stunned silence from Lucy. "You don’t remember?" He asked, a twinge of hurt marking his voice.

"Of course I remember," she assured, bringing her hands up to cup his cheeks as she began to recall that moment. "You and Happy took me fishing for a date, but I complained the whole time about how unromantic it was, so you let me sit in your lap while you fished," she recounted. "And then when you finally hooked something, you got so excited that you kissed me for the first time."

Her heart fluttered as she thought of the memory. It wasn’t the perfectly romantic first kiss she had thought she wanted, but it was perfect for them, and that was all she could ask for.

"Yeah, and then you fell into the river," he added, not wanting that seemingly important detail to be missed.

"I didn’t fall. Happy pushed me," she sneered, unimpressed by his reminder.

"Maybe. But however you got in there, you looked real cute clingin’ onto me when I pulled you out."

His smile was so wide as he talked about that memory that every single woe she had instantly disappeared at the sight of it. She let out a breath of relief now that she knew that he wasn’t upset about her not remembering the exact date.

"I want to be so mad at you right now because you made me so nervous thinking that I had forgotten something important, but I can’t because it’s just so cute that you want to celebrate the eight-month anniversary of our first kiss."

"Is it not important to you?" He asked, cocking his head slightly to the side in confusion.

"No! It is important to me; it’s just…" She trailed off and paused for a moment as she tried to think of the right words. "Eight months is kind of a weird milestone to celebrate."

He blinked at her, his expression blank as he tried to process her words.

"Is it?" He replied, not quite understanding where she was coming from.

"Yes, you weirdo, it is."

He hit her with a sort of sheepish, almost embarrassed smile as he registered why she had been so confused.

Well, can we at least still eat the cake?" He asked, glancing over at the box with his celebratory dessert inside.

"Yes, we can still eat the cake," she smiled, which was met with an enthusiastic yell of delight from Natsu.

He had thought far ahead enough to bring them plates and cutlery to eat with, but that didn’t stop him from demolishing his first slice (and each subsequent one) with his hands and encouraging Lucy to do the same. It was only a small little thing, but the two layers made it difficult to fit the whole thing in her mouth when she tried, resulting in frosting being smeared across her lips.

"You got somethin’ on your face," he grinned before leaning in closer, and Lucy was almost certain he was about to lick it off, but instead she was caught off guard when she felt him gently press a kiss to her lips.

When he pulled away, he had not in fact cleared the icing off her face but had instead transferred it to his, and she let out a loud cackle at the sight of it.

"What?"

"You look silly," she laughed, before running her thumb across his lips to wipe the frosting off.

Wiping the icing off of her own face, she leant in to feel his lips against hers once more, barely pulling away after, their noses brushing against each other, their breaths grazing one another’s skin.

"So," she began, endeared by his idea of an anniversary. "What anniversary are we celebrating next?"

"Nine months?" He suggested, his smile wide and so endearing that she couldn’t do anything but laugh.

Nine months sounded good.

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