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vannahfanfics · 5 years

Text

Keep Me Warm

Category: Romantic Fluff

Fandom: Fairy Tail

Characters: Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia

Thump. Thump. Clang! Thump, thump, thump. Crash! “Dammit!”

Lucy groaned loudly as the ambient noises echoing through her small apartment dragged her unwillingly into consciousness. Not quite willing to relinquish the peaceful embrace of sleep, she yanked her comforter over her head and snuggled into her pillow in an attempt to return once more to its arms. Bang! Clatter! With an irritated growl, she flung back over and grabbed her alarm clock, peering in the gloom as her eyes struggled to adjust to its glaring neon numbers. 2:36 in the morning? What the hell is all this noise?! She fumed silently. Lucy had just returned from a rather perilous mission with Natsu- when were they not perilous when he was involved- from the mountains. The exhausting aspect aside, Lucy was fairly certain that she was coming down with a cold from the adventure and was hence trying to sleep as much as possible to stave off falling ill. She crunched her alarm clock in her hand before slamming it back down on her bedside table, her mood soured by the assault on her attempt to stay healthy.

She was still too groggy to recognize that the sounds were coming from within her own home rather than out in the street, so that is why her first instinct was to climb out of bed and march over to her window. She angrily threw it open, recoiling for a moment as the cold, harsh night wind blasted into her room. She was only dressed in a tank top and a pair of short-shorts, and she tried to ignore the icy breeze as it danced over her bare skin with eager fingers while she leaned out of the window to glare down at the cobblestone streets, attempting to find the perpetrator and give them a proper scolding.

“Huh? There’s no one there,” she mumbled and blearily rubbed her eyes. The pale moonlight shining down upon the street revealed nothing but shadows and a skinny cat skulking along the wall that overlooked the bay. In her sleepy delirium, Lucy paused a moment to admire the way the white light scattered across the shifting surface of the ocean, looking like diamonds sparkling in a field of blue flowers. “Pretty…”

Craaaaaash! “Owwwwww, ow, ow, ow, owwww!”

Lucy leaped nearly a foot in the air as the resounding clamor blasted through her apartment, and all traces of sleepiness immediately left her when she came upon the frightening realization that someone was in her house- a clumsy someone, but a someone nonetheless. Too concerned with her own safety to bother with appearances, she snatched her Celestial Keys off her nightstand and opened her bedroom door to peer out suspiciously into the night. Light glowed softly at the end of the hall in the direction of her kitchen, and she could hear hushed voices floating down the hallway, though she could not make out who they were or what they were saying. She held her keys tightly in her hands to keep them from jingling as she crept through the shadows, drawing closer to the intruders apparently raiding her refrigerator. She hid behind the ajar kitchen door to eavesdrop.

“Ooh! Chocolate chips! Whadaya think, buddy?”

“Nah! I want peanut butter.”

“What? Peanut butter sucks! How could you say that?”

“How could you say that? … Why don’t we do both so we’re both happy?”

“Ah! Great idea! You’re a genius, Happy!”

Lucy’s shoulders hunched up to her ears upon realizing just who had snuck into her house in the middle of the night. Of course. I should have known. Of course it would be those two knuckleheads! She thought bitterly as she stepped out from behind the door and into the threshold to gaze upon the disaster they had created. Lucy’s pots and pans had been dragged out of her cabinets, and presumably since they were located on the bottom shelves near the floor, Natsu had bumped his head on the jutting countertop trying to claim them, judging from the goose egg sticking out of his wild pink hair. Similarly they had raided her pantry and fridge for things like flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and the like, all of which were emptied of their contents and scattered across the kitchen, both their containers and the substances themselves. Natsu and Happy had apparently had particular fun making footprints and handprints all over the place with the flour before returning to their task at hand, which Lucy had deemed to be making cookies.

“Wanna tell me what you’re doing in my kitchen at three in the morning?”

As Lucy spoke up from her spot in the doorway, it was the boys’ turn to jump a foot in the air. As Natsu whipped around, spastically stirring a bowl of cookie dough, he grinned sheepishly at her.

“Oh, hey, Lucy. We wanted cookies, but we didn’t have the stuff to make it at home, so we came here~ Ya want some?” A pained groan slipped out of her mouth and she shook her head wearily while she face-palmed. There wasn’t going to be any explaining to them that it was socially improper to break into someone’s house in the middle of the night because they wanted to bake cookies for whatever reason, so she resigned herself to the fact that they were going to be hanging out in her house for the next hour, if not sleeping there because they were going to be too full to go home. When Lucy looked up, Natsu had somehow silently closed the distance between them, and she went bright red at his close proximity. “Hey, aren’t you cold, wearing so little?” He nonchalantly took the spatula out of the mix and licked the cookie dough off of it while staring into her eyes, which just made her flush darker.

“I was sleeping! Gah! Don’t look!” She wailed, having suddenly realized how provocatively she was dressed- more than usual, anyway- and turned around to fold her arms over her bust. It didn’t help that she had left the bedroom window open, and the night air was rapidly spreading through the apartment, making her shiver slightly. I’m cold now, because you mentioned it… Everywhere but her face, at least. She twitched as Natsu leaned over her shoulder.

“Hey, your face is really red. You’re not running a fever, are you? You said something about getting a cold in the mountains, right?” Lucy shook her head emphatically and stepped away from him, blushing further. Normally his lack of personal space didn’t bother her, but perhaps since she was still so tired, her mind just couldn’t process it like it normally could. As she did step to the side, though, Lucy suddenly had the bizarre sensation that she was falling, and her vision blurred before her eyes. What? She thought weakly. Her mind was falling too, into a trancelike state where she couldn’t process anything but the rushing of wind, though she wasn’t sure if that was in her head or in the apartment. Instinctively, her hands groped for something to steady her fall, and one of them found the solid muscle of Natsu’s upper arm. Just grateful to have something to anchor her to reality rather than plummet into the chasm that had formed into her mind, the rest of her body followed suit and she fell against the dragon-slayer. As she came out of the strange spell, she found that she was panting heavily and was shivering. “Hey! Lucy! Are you okay?” Natsu asked her worriedly. He was holding the bowl of cookie dough above his head, because she had nearly knocked it free, but his other arm was wrapped securely around her waist. Lucy could have lied, but she was too tired to.

“No… Natsu… I don’t feel good…” Somehow a switch had flipped in her, and all her energy had dissipated in that very moment. It was hard for her to even stand, she was so weak, and so she just clung to Natsu for support. She was also too tired to care about what a compromising and embarrassing situation she had landed in, and the warmth radiating from his body was oddly comforting. It feels so nice, she thought absently as she pressed her cheek against his chest, her eyes fluttering as she struggled to keep them open. She felt like she could fall asleep right there.

“Lucy! You’re really pale now!” Happy cried while clambering up onto her kitchen table to stand next to Natsu. He put a little blue paw against her forehead, the recoiled with a yelp. “Yowch! Lucy, you’re running a really high fever!”

“Here, Happy, hold this,” Natsu ordered and unceremoniously dropped the bowl onto Happy, who caught it with all his weight by essentially being trapped beneath it. His little limbs and tail flung about as he struggled to get out from beneath it, while Natsu, too concerned with Lucy to notice, put his hand under her chin to tilt her head up and pressed his forehead against hers. Even in her confusion, she did have the wherewithal to blush then, and she had to wonder how much that heat would contribute to the fever. “Mhmm. Lucy, you’re really sick,” Natsu confirmed. As he pulled away, Lucy had to fight the urge to pull him back, because something about that closeness was so important to her right then. That moment was ruined when she abruptly sneezed.

“Aw, Lucy, your sneeze is so cute!” Happy laughed as he popped up from behind the bowl, having finally made his harrowing escape. “Do it again!”

“Happy, I-“ Though she wasn’t, her body was more than willing to acquiesce to his request, and she covered her face as she sneezed again, this time a few times in a row. When her body settled, she was left feeling weaker than before, and her nose and face uncomfortably clogged. “Ugh…”

“All right, all right, enough of that,” Natsu scolded Happy, who flattened his ears to his head with a sheepish grin. “Lucy needs to rest.” I was resting until you so rudely interrupted me, she thought, but she strangely wasn’t so bitter about it. Somehow Natsu being there was comforting. Still, she had to get back into bed, so she begrudgingly pried herself off of him and attempted to walk down the hall back towards her room. That was a spectacular choice on her part that resulted in her flopping roughly against the wall and smacking her head on it so forcefully that a few of the pictures hung there shook.

“Ow…”

“Lucy!” Natsu was at her side in an instant, catching her under her arms as she slumped backwards; it was like he was magnetic, attracting her frail body back to him though she tried to separate herself. “Don’t push yourself.” She was about to utter some stubborn remark and reattempt the endeavor, but her words and her will suddenly vanished as Natsu easily scooped her up into his arms. The heat of embarrassment joined that of the fever in her face, and she hurriedly buried it into his shoulder so that he wouldn’t see, though he would likely assume the redness was a result of her ailment, anyway. She wasn’t sure why she was so flustered, anyway. She had ended up in a lot of compromising situations with him across their adventures, and being carried around like a princess was certainly on the lower end of the scale. So why is my heart beating so fast? Butterflies began to flutter in her stomach in tune with her elevated heartbeat, leaving Lucy in a twisted symphony of anxiety.

“Natsu, you can put me down…” she protested weakly. Natsu, of course, adamantly shook his head while marching down the hallway. With a resigned sigh, she just curled up in his arms, admittedly lulled by that ever-present fiery heat of his and the rhythm of his heartbeat. It wasn’t beating wildly like Lucy’s, but soft and slow, strangely meshing with her own frantic melody. “I’m sorry…”

“What’re you apologizing for? I’m the one who broke into your house and made you wake up while you were sick.” So he admits it, she thought wryly. He nudged her bedroom door open with his toe and carried her into the room, then shifted her so he could support her with one arm while he threw back the bedsheets. Lucy found that positively breathtaking for some reason, that he could hold her with one arm like that so effortlessly, but that thought soon passed into embarrassment. Ugh, what’s wrong with me? Natsu can beat up dragons; of course he can hold me in one arm. Half the guys at the guild could! But the fact that Natsu could and Natsu was made the fire on her cheeks burn all the brighter.

“I don’t know. I’m not used to being catered to like this, I guess,” she sighed as he gently set her down on the bed. She looked up at him bashfully- if she had been cute, her body ruined it with an ugly, congested sniffle- and squirmed slightly on the mattress in quiet discomfort. Natsu was her friend, so of course he would want to take care of her while she was sick. She just didn’t know why the whole situation was driving her so crazy. It’s just Natsu! Normal, everyday, brave, strong, handsome Natsu… Wait. She put her hands on her face, trying to hide the expression of acute mortification on her face, but Natsu just thought she was trying to warm her face up.

“Here, Lucy, lemme do it.” She squeaked in alarm as he pried her fingers away from her face and squatted down to lay the backs of his hands against her cheeks. It did feel crazy good; as the warmth chased away the ice in her skin, she slumped slightly in relief. Her face shone with a thin sheen of sweat, but if he was bothered by it, he didn’t show it. He just stared into Lucy’s face with this oddly serious expression, his eyes searching hers for something, and though she didn’t know what he was looking for she didn’t want him to find what was hidden in the depths of those pools, and she dropped her gaze, unable to continue to meet his. Not to mention the gloom and moonlight were playing all kinds of tricks on her eyes, casting his fluffy hair in silver in such a way that she wanted to run her fingers through it, defining his muscles more sharply to where she could hardly look away, and his face- “Lucy, it’s okay. I don’t mind taking care of you at all!” She betrayed herself by looking up at him, and he was the same as ever, giving her a big, cheeky smile, the one that made his eyes scrunch up. Whatever had been there before had disappeared. It’s just my Natsu…

When had “just Natsu” become “her Natsu”? It was too much for her to think about right then, so she abandoned herself to whatever had come over her and sank into the comfort that Natsu was.

“Okay… I guess it’s a good thing you broke into my house,” she chuckled weakly before falling back against the pillow. As he pulled the blanket back over her, she was reminded of how chilly she was, and as she shivered violently, she tried to cocoon herself in the sheet and comforter. As Natsu walked over to the window to close it, she stared at his back, a question hanging on her tongue. It jumped out before she could even decide whether she should ask it or not. “You’ll stay with me all night, right?”

“Of course!” That was her Natsu, without a second thought. His scarf fluttered as he whirled about and trotted over to sit on the edge of her bed, cross-legged and framed by the white moonlight. “I’m not leaving until you’re better.” Lucy’s heart swelled, with happiness and something else too, something she couldn’t identify- or was afraid of identifying. Not caring anymore about the riddle that was happening in her head, and desperate to chase away the chill that was seeping into her bones, she scooched a little closer to him in the hopes of basking herself in his warmth. She was shaking so hard now that the bed trembled along with her, and her teeth were slightly clattering together. I’m so cold… She squeezed her eyes shut as she buried herself further in the blankets, trying to conserve what little warmth she had. She knew she must have felt hot on the surface, because sweat was pouring off her so profusely that it puddled around her hair on the pillow, but it was like the drops of moisture were stealing all her heat. She felt Natsu get up, and go rifling around in her hallway closet for a few minutes, before she heard his soft footsteps coming back in and felt him draping another thick blanket over her. “Better?”

She wanted it to be, but no matter how many layers of blankets there were, it didn’t stop the warmth from leaking out of her body. It felt like she was freezing to death. The tremors wracking her body had actually increased in ferocity, and she couldn’t speak because her teeth were clattering together so hard, she thought they might break, and her breath was shaking, too. She slipped back into delirium again, this time her mind a slave to the cold. It felt like her brain was freezing, too, crystallized on one thought. Natsu… I want Natsu… Natsu’s warmth… Despite her shivering she managed to slip an arm out of her fluffy cocoon and groped around in the dark for him, though she couldn’t see him. Even her vision was filled with snowflakes, dancing in the dark and clouding her eyes like a blizzard. Suddenly she became overwhelmingly terrified that he had left.

“N-N-nat-s-su… Wh-where a-a-are y-y-you?” The words were next to impossible to get out, but she was desperate for him, her Natsu, who was always there when she needed him. Even if she wanted to think about how she felt about him then, she couldn’t, as her mind fell deeper into the icy hurricane. Natsu…!

“I’m here, Lucy.”

At once, the blizzard ceased, and Lucy felt the soothing sensation of warmth flooding back into her body. She gasped slightly as she felt something soft slipping around her neck, wqamring her further. She raised her hand to slip her rapidly thawing fingers into the fabric; it felt odd, woven of scales but yet undeniably soft and comforting. Natsu’s scarf… It was quite too big for her, and was wrapped several times around her neck and covering her mouth. It smelled like Natsu, too, and as his scent wafted up her nose she felt all kinds of things, comfort and embarrassment and happiness and all things between. She felt tears forming in the corners of her eyes, so overwhelmed that he would give her his most prized and precious possession, even if only temporarily. Her eyes fluttered open, a gratuitous remark on her tongue, but it jumped back down her throat when she realized that Natsu had crawled into the bed and was currently holding her tightly within his arms. “Natsu…”

“You did this for me once, didn’t you?” That’s right, she had, during the decisive battle with Zeref. Natsu had been so deathly cold, and she had been so frightened that he would die. Her cheeks flushed as he smiled brightly down at her. “I figured the least I could do was return the favor. Are you better now, Lucy?” Lucy was mildly distraught to be in such a situation, wrapped up in Natsu’s embrace, but he was viewing the entire thing in that innocent way of his, and besides, she sure as hell wasn’t going to go back to freezing like that.

“Mhmm. Thank you,” she sighed quietly and, admittedly wishing for more of his body heat to warm her, pressed herself a little closer to him and laid her head in the crook of his neck. Perhaps she imagined it, but she felt like Natsu stiffened up a little then. She felt his hand twitch, and then slowly slide his fingers to the back of her head to gently caress the tangled, blonde tresses. Silence descended, and the soft rhythm of Natsu’s breathing and the gentle comfort of his warmth and the repeated touch of his fingertips through her hair soon lulled Lucy back into a drowsy state. As her eyelids were drooping and her consciousness once more fading, he spoke up.

“Hey, Lucy?”

“Hmm?” He squirmed uncomfortably, and once Lucy realized that he seemed to be struggling with what he was going to say, she propped herself up so that she could look down at him. It was hard to tell with the way the moonlight was spilling across his face, but she thought she could see a pink haze across his cheeks; he was avoiding eye contact, too, looking off to the side with an uncomfortable curl to his mouth. “Natsu?” Her eyes widened as his arm tightened around her.

“Can I… hold you like this… even when you aren’t sick?” The question threw Lucy for a loop, and all she could do was stare dumbly down at him with her mouth hanging open. No, it couldn’t possibly be. Natsu? No, their relationship wasn’t like that… But yet, she thought of him as her Natsu, so really, was it so impossible that he thought of her as his Lucy? She tensed when his gaze flicked back to meet hers finally, and Lucy saw a fire burning there, but it wasn’t like the fire he normally had. It was soft, smoldering, and yet held more intensity than the burning flames that appeared in his highly emotional, battle-ready state. The flames jumped up as his hand untangled from her hair and slipped down to cup her cheek. “Heh… Your face is warm now,” he joked quietly, but he didn’t lose that oddly intense expression that was making Lucy’s heart beat like a war drum. Locked in his gaze, prisoner to that burning fire, possibly insane from her present illness, Lucy realized the undeniable truth then.

She loved Natsu.

Natsu loved her.

She found her words.

“Yes, Natsu.” They came out a whisper, shy but not hesitant. He finally smiled, that crooked, boyish smile that she loved so much. When he pulled her against him, like he wanted every inch of them to touch, she found that this time his heart was beating in a wild melody, too. His hand slid to the back of her head against, holding her gently as his eyes searched her face for a moment. This time Lucy was not afraid of what he might find.

“I love you, Lucy.”

“I love you too, Natsu,” she answered, and the sheer joy that filled her when she uttered those words was unlike anything she had ever felt. It was like she had been holding it in, desperately building a wall to contain feelings she was afraid of having, and now they had broken free to spill freely through her. Natsu smiled brightly at her again, and then he leaned forward to gently kiss her, softly but with an incredible amount of feeling. Once again Lucy felt warmth burst inside of her, this time from the unmistakable fire of love burning deep inside her heart and soul.

She was his Lucy and he was her Natsu, and nothing could ever come between them.

Except Happy, apparently.

“The cookies are doooooone~!” They sprang apart as the little cat hopped up onto the bed precariously balancing a tray of freshly baked cookies over his head. He wobbled back and forth as he tottered over the thick comforters to plop down on Lucy’s side, his little tail waving in glee. “Oh, Lucy! You look so much better! Want a cookie?” he asked and set the tray down to pick one up in his little paw and hold it out to her. Lucy couldn’t be mad, and was actually grateful he seemed oblivious to how intimate she and Natsu were just being, so she took the cookie with a small laugh.

“Thanks, Happy.” She took a bite of the cookie, then nearly choked on it when the cat inquired why they were in bed together.

“I was warming her up, Happy! Just like that time she did me, remember?” Natsu grinned and hugged her tightly, rubbing his cheek against hers. Lucy was too busy on the border of fainting from sheer mortification to pay much notice.

“Oh! I see! I wanna warm Lucy up too!” Happy laughed and plopped the cookies on the nightstand before forcing Lucy to lay back against the pillow and curling up against Lucy’s neck. “Is it working?” Red-faced, Lucy sighed deeply but reached up to pat his head affectionately.

“Yes, thank you, Happy.” The winged cat gave a joyful trill before snuggling deeper into his bed, which now consisted of Lucy’s hair. It took him all of a minute to begin snoring. Little furball, she thought, but with no shortage of affection. She looked down when she felt Natsu bury his face into her other shoulder, his mess of pink hair lost among her own blonde strands. “Hey!”

“What? If he gets to do it, why don’t I? By the way, you smell good. What kind of shampoo is this?” Lucy groaned loudly, but allowed it. She smiled as she felt Natsu smiling against her neck, and his arms wound themselves tightly around her middle; how could she not be happy, with the way things had developed? Natsu mumbled some form of “goodnight” before he drifted off too, and every soft breeze of his breath against her neck sent little tingles across her skin. Warmed from head to toe, embraced by the man she loved, and elated to even have little Happy peacefully curled up beside her head, Lucy closed her eyes with a tranquil and relieved smile.

Like this… You could keep me warm forever, you know.

“Goodnight… my Natsu.”

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

#fairy tail #natsulucy #lucynatsu #nalu #canon compliant #post-ending #romance #fluff #cutesy #oneshot #oneshot collection

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