#NaLu One-shot

[kaleighkarma]

Happy NaLu Gift Exchange 2023!!!!

I did my piece for @smappybubbles where I imposed their nalu day art and embroidered it. I’m not great at drawing or writing but I wanted to challenge myself and enter the community in some way so here I am doing my best. I hope you love this piece as much as I do because I worked on it for about 2 weeks straight. Transferring curves was the hardest part but I loved your art so much it was so super worth it!

I love these idiots and I love this art and I love this community.

Thank you @allaboutnalu for setting this up! This was so fun and I’ve loved everyone’s entry and I can’t wait to see the rest!!

Also a special thank you @tokkias l for being my number one supporter and encouraging everyone to do their best. I don’t think I could have done it without you 💛

Anyways I’ve rambled enough so if you have any questions my DMs are open. I hope you all have a lovely day!!!!

#nalu #my art #fairy tail #nalu gift exchange 2023 #I really hope you like it #Kaleigh’s Crafts #idk I just made that tag I’m sure this won’t be the last because it was lots of fun and I know Mya will convince me to do more 🥰🥰🥰 #and yes I took these shots at golden hour in the fall because the leaves were so pretty #I wanted to make sure I got this done done #also I love you Mya!!!! I’m so super proud of you!!!! I cannot wait for the next one!!!!

[teleiapotami]

Synched Calendars

Fandom: Fairy Tail

Ship: Natsu x Lucy

Tags: Fluff, One Shot, Modern AU, Best Friends

Summary: The dangers of sharing a calendar with a man with no boundaries are varied.

Notes: Fluffy little one-shot to cleanse the palate during think Kinktober.

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Natsu’s ears twitched at the sound of Lucy’s gentle giggle. He glanced back from his spot in line, frowning slightly when he saw a green-haired stranger leaning against the wall, flirting with his best friend. Worse, Lucy was covering her mouth with her fingertips, stifling the genuine laughter the man was drawing from her. It was a habit she fell into whenever she was trying to be cute.

He pushed the jealousy from his mind and focused on his task. Stepping up to the counter, he ordered the snacks Erza had sent him to fetch, then stepped out of line to wait some more. Lucy’s giggle floated across the room to him again. His brow furrowed as he watched the two of them trade phones. “Aw, what the hell,” he grumbled.

Unbidden, Gray’s most recent advice floated to the front of his brain. “You gotta speak up man. Lucy’s too smart to wait for you forever, and sooner or later, someone will snatch her out from under your nose.” Natsu crossed his arms, his frown deepening.

“Sir? Your order is ready.” Natsu shook himself out of his thoughts and looked up, grunting his thanks to the clerk. She gave him a wary smile before turning back to her work. Natsu rejoined his friends, pushing his irritation aside. The stranger was gone, and he refused to let his existence ruin a movie night with his friends.

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“I don’t know, I thought it was pretty scary,” Lucy argued, still keeping her arms wrapped around herself where they’d been since the first jump scare of the movie.

Natsu rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but you get scared when your curtains blow too hard.” Lucy smacked him, laughing.

“Oh, hang on, sorry,” she mumbled when her phone dinged. She turned away from the group, leaving them to argue over the predictability of the outcome. Natsu watched her smile slightly and type something into her phone before she returned to the conversation.

“Everything okay?” he asked when she returned to his side. She nodded quickly, waving him off. His own phone dinged with a calendar alert, and he dug it out, glancing at it.

                Synched Calendar Update!

Saturday, 4 P.M.

            Date with Noah.

He frowned, swiping his phone open and punching the calendar app. The event was colored soft pink, marking it as one of Lucy’s events.

“Natsu? Come on, we are heading outside,” Erza called.

“Huh? Yeah, I’ll be right there. I just need to run to the bathroom,” he called, shoving his phone into his pocket. He watched the group move on, shooting Lucy a grin when she glanced back at him before following Gray out into the parking lot. Scanning the room, he found the green-haired head easily and made his way over.

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Natsu rejoined the group, grinning brightly. “Hey, sorry. Line was longer than I expected,” he offered, stepping up beside Lucy. “So does anyone else want to go get something to eat?”

Lucy wrinkled her nose at him. “You literally ate two extra-large popcorn and three boxes of Hot Tamales!”

“So?” He didn’t see her point. She made an annoyed sound in the back of her throat. Her phone rang suddenly, pulling her away from the group again. He tried to listen to her conversation, but Gray grabbed him in a headlock, digging his knuckles into his scalp.

“Really? No, I didn’t mean to keep a secret…it just….I wasn’t sure myself. Well, thanks Noah….yeah.” Lucy hung up with a sigh, then turned and glared at the puff of dust that had become Natsu and Gray.

“Natsu! Can I talk to you?” His scruffy pink head popped up and he shoved Gray away, jogging over to her.

“What’s up?” he said innocently. Lucy grabbed him by the elbow and dragged him around the corner to the relative privacy of an alleyway.

“Natsu, did you just tell Noah that we are dating and cancel my date?”

“Yeah, why?” He crossed his arms and cocked his head. Lucy’s eyes flashed angrily.

“Why would you do that?!”

“What do you mean? Because you shouldn’t go out with other people when you’re already mine, obviously,” he said matter-of-factly. Lucy growled, pushing him.

“When exactly did we start dating?! I don’t remember ever saying I wanted to be with you!”

Natsu smirked at her and stepped closer. “Don’t you though? Cause I want to be with you,” he said quietly. Lucy took a step back, finding her back against the wall. He cupped her cheek gently and leaned down slowly. Lucy’s breathing hitched and she trembled.

“N-Natsu….don’t,” she whispered, covering his lips with her fingers gently. “I…I need time to think, okay?” He stepped away, swallowing his disappointment, and nodded once.

“Sure…yeah, I get it. Sorry. Find me later if you need to talk I guess,” he said softly, then left her alone, returning to the group. Lucy watched Gray elbow him and asked something, which Natsu shrugged off.

Of course she wanted to be with him. She had for as long as she could remember, but the idiot never seemed to notice her. Her hesitation was based solely on the fact that he had gone out of his way to cancel a date without talking to her about it at all.

Turning her options over in her mind, Lucy unlocked her phone and looked down at the calendar. She could call Noah back and explain the situation, going on the date with him solely to punish Natsu….or she could be with the man she’d wanted for years. Sighing, she swiped on the event to edit it.

Across the lot, Natsu dug his phone out once again, opening the notification.

Synched Calendar Update!

Saturday, 4 P.M.

            Date with Natsu.

Lucy’s delicate fingers slipped between his own as he read the update. He glanced over at her and smiled, leaning down to kiss her golden head. “Thanks…for giving me a chance.”

#fairy tail nalu #fairy tail fanfic #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #natsu x lucy #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #creative writing #archive of our own #fairy tail #one shot #nalu fluff #fluff

[kiliinstinct]

One-Shot Master List

┈➤ Table of Contents ◬Mature ✮Featured

◘ Fairy Tail

➸ One Shots

Primal: ◬

Soft Caress: ◬

Dancing Flames: ◬

Tease: ◬

The Mood: Rekindled: ◬

What Doesn’t Submit:

Progression of Attraction:

Don’t Think About It:

Under The Starlight: ◬

None The Wiser: ◬

Under The Table: ◬

Wash Away My Tears:

The Matching Scale: ◬

Settling With Insecurity: ◬

The Morning After: ◬

Then It All Flips:

A Moment In Time:

Mindsplitting:

Mistletoe Claim:

Sun In The Rain:

Difference In Opinion: ◬

All In: ◬

Fire Sprite No. 5:

The Concept of Ready:

M.U.T.B:

Warm Comforts:

Untitled Guardian Angel AU:

Have You Missed Me?: ◬

Brother’s Wingman:

In The Garden:

Stood Up:

EOTW:

Refinement:

Transient -

The Secret -

A Slushie a Day

The Forbidden Temple

Taste Test -

In The Closet ◬

His Sun and Stars

Hand of Sorrow

Hyper Focus

Side-Lines

Closure

Snowflakes on Shadows ✮

A Celestial Promise ✮

◘ Genshin Impact

➸ One Shots

Of Rumors And Almond Tofu

Magnetism ✮

◘ Misc.

➸ One Shots

Our Hearts Talk On The Ice - Yuri on Ice 

A Realization From Ice Cream - Yu Yu Hakusho

Before The Storm - Legend of Zelda

➨Return to Master List ➨To Multi-Chapter List

#Fanfiction Masterlist #One-Shot List #Nalu Fanfiction #Fairy Tail Fanfiction #Genshin Impact Fanfiction #fairy tail #natsuxlucy #ft fanfiction #Genshin Impact #Xiaother Fanfiction #having up to update my fanfiction lists because tumblr link rules suck

[tokkias]

we should just kiss like real people do ship: natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia all the fear and the fire of the end of the world, happens each time a boy falls in love with a girl. happens great, happens sweet, happily, i'm unfazed here too. or: a series of interconnected one-shots following Natsu and Lucy's budding relationship through the letters of the alphabet. ao3

chapter 1. a - aquarium

The glass fogged up with the warmth of their breaths as their noses pressed up against the barrier separating them and the fish. There’s a sign not even five feet from them that states in bold letters PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS, but Lucy simply assumed they had either ignored it, or saw it and took it as a challenge to make as much skin-to-glass contact as they possibly could.

"You’re not supposed to touch the glass, you know," she scolded, as if her pointing it out would stop them.

The two of them were getting weird looks, and they were definitely going to get in trouble if they didn’t stop any time soon, but Lucy didn’t have it in her to reprimand them too much because it was honestly kind of endearing.

"If I didn’t know any better, I would say you two had never seen a fish in your lives up until now."

She wasn’t too far off in her observation; the aquarium they’re in is certainly larger than anything Natsu and Happy had seen in their lives. Every tank was filled to the brim with different exotic-looking fish, the likes of which the two had never seen before, and by the looks of things, it seemed as though they were trying to burn the image of every new creature into their brains.

Even though she had lived in Crocus for a year, Lucy had never been to the local aquarium herself. She’d known of its existence, of course; it was a big tourist draw for the city outside of Grand Magic Games season, but she had never felt compelled to visit herself until now. At the time, she thought it might have dredged up memories of her partner that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with. Going there would have only reminded her how much he and Happy would have adored a place like this.

It seemed that her assumption was correct based on the way the both of them ooh-ed and ahh-ed at each passing fish.

Deciding that her attempts to stop them from trying to become one with the glass were futile, Lucy instead joined their side in hopes of figuring out what all the fuss was about. Admittedly, she understood their fascination. Coral and creatures of every colour practically glowed under the blue lights, flowing through the water with ease. They needn’t worry about anything, perhaps unaware of their enthusiastic observers as they continued to glide along in their inclosure. It was calming, borderline mesmerising to watch.

"This is so cool," Natsu declared, drawing Lucy’s attention away from the water and over to him and his wide grin. "Thanks for bringin’ us here, Lucy."

What had begun as his typical, unrestrained Natsu grin had softened into a gentle, genuine smile, going all the way up to his eyes, where he looked at her with all the adoration in the world.

"Yeah, it’s no problem," she affirmed, trying to keep herself from melting into an ooey, gooey mess right in front of him.

He didn’t give her much time to recuperate before her hand was in his, and he was dragging her over to the next tank that caught his eye in a not-so-romantic reminder that this was technically a date. That reminder was affirmed when they finally made it to the exhibit Natsu had his eyes on, and he still kept her hand held safely in his own, his thumb dragging across the back of her hand in an act of silent affection.

While his gaze was fixed on the new species of fish that filled the overhead tank, Lucy’s eyes trailed down to see where their bodies met, fingers intertwined together.

It wasn’t anything new; they’d been together romantically for several months at this point, and they’d been best friends for even longer. It was a comfortable transition, easing into it so naturally as though fate itself had placed them together.

She liked it like this.

She liked being best friends who went on silly aquarium dates where they held hands in the shark tunnel.

She liked watching his fascination with all the sights and sounds.

She liked him.

A lot.

In a soft moment of adoration, she squeezed his hand.

He squeezed hers back.

Looking back up at him, his eyes were still fixed on the display, watching a stingray glide past overhead. He let out a soft breath of awe, and she, in turn, breathed out a gentle giggle that captured his attention.

"What?" He asked, his attention now on her as he gazed down at her.

"Nothing," Lucy hummed, her lips pursed together to hide her amusement at this softer, cuter side of Natsu.

He wasn’t given the chance to interrogate her further before Happy’s voice called out to them from further in the tunnel, beckoning the pair to his spot.

"Wo-oah! Guys! Come look at this!"

His little paws pressed against the glass, clearly having not learned his lesson from before, as he watched a shark pass him by.

"Look! A real-life shark!" He exclaimed, practically shaking with excitement. "Oooohhh, I’ve never tried shark before, but I bet it’s so yummy~"

Lucy rolled her eyes, unsurprised that this was what had been on his mind the whole time.

"Nah, the skins probably too tough to get through," Natsu dismissed.

"You probably shouldn’t be talking so loud about eating the animals," Lucy added. "Besides, I think a shark is more likely to eat you," she pointed out.

Her words caused Happy to shudder slightly in fear, and Natsu chortled at his reaction, his laughter causing her heart to skip a beat in her chest.

He and Happy continued to chat away about the display of fish, with Natsu’s hand never leaving hers. Lucy held little interest in what they were talking about; their words little more than background noise in her head as she watched on. The blue and green hues of the water surrounding them rippled against the floor, the colour distorted light, defining Natsu’s features as he spoke.

It wasn’t until Happy flew off to follow a particularly tasty-looking fish that Natsu noticed she was staring.

"Are you having fun?" She asked, trying to divert attention from the fact that she had just been caught.

"Are you kiddin’? This is the best date ever," he grinned.

Something akin to pride swelled up in her chest. Perhaps it wasn’t the most romantic of dates, but Natsu was happy, and that was enough for her.

He looked at her for a moment, and almost as if he had read her thoughts, he brought his hand up to cradle her cheek before dipping down to join his lips with her own. It was short and soft but didn’t fail to leave her breathless, just like he always did.

"There, that romantic enough for ya?" He asked, barely making it through the sentence before Lucy’s hands were on his cheeks, pulling him down for another.

#nalu #fairy tail #fanfiction #fan fiction #mya writes things #i have never posted anything with multiple chapters on tumblr before so uhhh #please forgive the weird formatting i have no idea what im doing #im testing the water with a low stakes one shot collection #before i actually start posting my first real multichap hehehehehe :]

[xxnashiraxx]

Nalu One-Shot - Baby Please Come Home (Christmas Special!)

Hello again! I've created another one-shot (boy I'm kicking these out) to celebrate the holiday season! Please, take a look if you're willing, and enjoy a little sample below- it's a small one, but the fic sure isn't!

“Thank you, Lucy…” He mumbles and she trembles at the vulnerability of it. Her heart slams into her ribs as he runs his hands up and down her back and in the most selfish part of her mind she revels in his embrace, so overwhelmed by his soft touch and sweet acceptance of her gift.

“Merry Christmas,” She smiles when he pulls away and she’s surprised when he doesn’t let go, their noses only a few inches from each other. She reaches a hand up to stroke the tears off his cheeks, and that seems to break some kind of wall down between them as he leans in closer, a sliver of air separating them. She doesn’t speak, afraid to break the spell on him, too ashamed to admit she wants to eliminate the barrier altogether. She licks her lips, legs quivering when he follows the motion, and a pressure on her chest steals the breath from her lungs- scarcely breathing at the sight of whatever new fire starts to smolder in his eyes.

#fairy tail #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #nalu #anime #boost #fanfic #christmas #holidays #one-shot #they're so cute I can't #really #i'm starving for feedback #please feed me!

[tamibae]

Things I'd do for the smiles-

#just look at how wholesome they be lookin' #esp natsu MY GOD why tf we don't get to see him smile like this more often #i mean we've got so many badass natsu shots but pls THIS one #fairy tail #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #nalu #natsu x lucy

[the-writing-trash-panda]

The Children of Fairies|| Fairy Tail Next Gen

Chapter 10: Duck Tape

{Kids}: Jessica Fernandes- 8 Storm Fullbuster- 7 Nashi Dragneel- 7 Ella Redfox- 7

The Dragneels were getting ready to go on a family vacation and Nashi was so excited that she had run off to the guildhall to tell her friends. She told them about how she was going to a beach and amusement park, and wouldn’t be back for a whole month. She was about to say more when she felt herself being lifted up. Before she knew it, she was taped to one of the trees outside of the guildhall.

“What are you guys doing?!” Nashi yelled, kicking her legs in hopes of escaping.

“You’re not allowed to leave, so we are making sure you can’t move,” Ella said, sitting down in front of the tree.

“Don’t worry we will bring you food and play with you.” Storm said, smiling up at the Dragneel girl.

“This isn’t funny, I don’t want to be stuck to a tree,” Nashi whined, her eyes filling with tears. The other kids just ignored her and brought out some apple slices for her. By this point Nashi was having a full-on meltdown, thankfully for the little girl her parents had come to the guildhall to get her, and upon hearing the cries coming from his daughter Natsu ran to the back to rescue her.

“Hey stop trying to kidnap my daughter, you little brats!” Natsu yelled, causing the three kids to go running into the guildhall, screaming their heads off.

“Natsu, why are there three kids saying that you are going to kill them?” Lucy asked as she walked out, her question was answered when she saw the state her daughter was in. After untapping Nashi, Lucy led her back inside and had her tell the other kids that she forgave them. Natsu however did not forgive them and was now fighting Gray, Gajeel, and Erza.

“Well, I don’t know what I expected,” Lucy said, watching as Erza beat Natsu to a pulp.

#fairy tail #fairy tail next generation #fairy tail fanfiction #next generation #fanfiction #oc #one shot #nalu #fairy tail nalu #gruvia #fairy tail gruvia #jerza #fairy tail jerza #gajevy #fairy tail gajevy #nalu kid #gruvia kid #jerza kid #gajevy kid #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #nashi dragneel #storm fullbuster #jessica fernandes #ella redfox

[gymjunkie412]

📖Nalu one shots📖

.

Pied Piper is about Lucy as a siren and Natsu as a demon. It's like a folk lore story kinda thing, but it tells about how powerful Lucy's voice when attracting creatures to have her meal. Tbh, I wanna know what happens after her incident with Natsu hihi. Highly recommend. It's a long one-shot, too 😌

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Just a scratch tells how important it is to not get lucy injured (I think) or else you have to face Natsu's wrath. The panel I drew is when Lucy and Gray are having a stroll and just having a buddy moment, which fills my graylu brotp heart😩😩😩

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Her answer in a capsule. Oh, this story deserves a series, imo 🤩but I kinda like it being a one-shot too, so I don't mind. I haven't reread it as I'm posting this, so I won't give too much detail. Definitely go and check it out, hihi 👍🏻

.

This is your pilot speaking. I laugh so hard reading this fic. My god, it's hilarious 😂 It's a crack fic, and I highly recommend you guys to read it for laughs and giggles, hahaha. Gray is also involved in this story, and his bater with Natsu is just 😂👍🏻

.

The author has many more fics in her account, but I can't remember how many they wrote. I think they have other fandoms as well. I had fun doing this piece and my most favourite fanfic from their work.

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Author : Black7kunoichi

Source : FF.Net

#fairy tail #nalu #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #hiro mashima #natsu x lucy #gray fullbuster #fairytail #my art #nalu fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction #fanfiction

[parsimonius]

Does anybody like fairy tail anymore I swear to gods please I need nalu fics plsplsplspkspksspls

All I want is a nalu fic that isn’t a school AU please you can do so good with the magic system😞🙏🏻🙏🏻

All I want is badass Lucy and Natsu and happy following her like lost puppies because let’s be real that’s all of what fairytail is I swear, please I just want badass woman POV I’m willing to let Natsu be the pov but he’s a man please please please let me have Lucy being amazing and so cool and it’s a cute romance with her himbo dragon please

anyways, I did, in fact, write a small one shot on them but it’s an AU but that’s irrelevant, if anyone is writing currently and wants help on their fic, beta reader, or even just moral support hit me up this was my first fandom I was ever in I deserve to have fics that are not from 2016 pls I read those already okay 😞sorry for the ramble that has nothing to do with DC please hit me up guys please

Edit; I would also love to see gray/Erza being brother/sister to Lucy LET ME SEE THEM AS FAMILY PLS GUYS

#fairy tail #fairy tail nalu #nalu #nalu fanfiction #wendy marvell #lucy heartfilia #natsu x lucy #natsu dragneel #gray fullbuster #erza scarlet #lucy fairy tail #natsu fairy tail #happy fairy tail #anime #anime fic #anime fanfic #fanfic #fanfic recs pls omg but stuff recent I’ve read everything #guys you don’t understand I’ve read everything other than school AUs #I had a wattpad in 2016 and wrote fics on fairytail couples #trust me please I need a life #ao3 writer #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity

[kaleidoscope77]

Make Me (NaLu One Shot)

Summary: Fed up with his antics, Lucy plans to get Natsu to apologize. One way or another.

Rating: T

Word Count: 1057

A/N: This was originally meant to be posted on NaLu day but then my power with out. :) yay for me!

----------------------------------------------------------

Lucy took a deep breath as she closed her apartment door behind her. As much as she loved being a guild wizard, sometimes the work could get exhausting. She could really go for a warm, soothing bath and a day off.

As she made a beeline for her dresser so she could get her coziest pajamas ready, the sound of her bedside window opening almost went unnoticed.

Almost, had it not been for the noise of surprise she heard from the pink-haired intruder sliding in.

Lucy's eyes locked with Natsu's, and the blonde knew that scolding him would be futile at this point.

"Sure, Natsu, come on in. Thanks for asking politely and using the front door," She chirped sarcastically as she continued searching through her dresser, "You always impress me with your manners."

Natsu stretched nonchalantly as he settled on her bed, "Didn't know you were here already."

"What, so you planned to just break in while I was away?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Lucy puffed out her cheeks and glared at him, to which a grin spread its way across his face. He couldn't help but to mess with her when she gave him cute reactions like that.

"You should really start locking your window," Kicking off his sandals, Natsu reclined on the bed and folded his arms behind his head, "'Might help."

"If I did that, you'd probably just end up breaking it open anyways," Lucy smiled to herself when she finally found the silk pajama set she'd been looking for, and turned to give him a pointed look, "Where's Happy? You normally commit your crimes with him with you."

"I think the job really wore him out. I didn't wanna wake him, but I'll be back at my place before he's up."

With an understanding hum, Lucy sat on the side of the bed and nodded, "Yeah, I'm tired too. I could imagine the toll it took on the little guy," She started to yawn, but choked halfway through when a thought struck her, "Wait, so you came to be alone with me..?"

Natsu's eyes widened, and he looked away. The color in his cheeks was a good indication of whatever was on his mind.

"You wanted to be alone? Together?" Lucy reiterated, shifting to face him and feigning innocence in the way her fingers grazed the side of his hip.

It looked like he had no intention of saying anything, but when Natsu's eyes flitted back to hers for a split second, he caved, "Obviously…"

Lucy could help the small laugh that escaped her. It was always so fascinating when he got like this, suddenly so coy. She never would have thought he could be so cute, and she definitely planned to milk this.

"Maybe I can forgive you for climbing through my window, then," Her hand came up to rest on his cheek, rendering him unable to look away. She glided her thumb along his lower lip, causing him to lean closer, his tongue poking out to swipe along where their skin met. The way her hand moved to grasp his jaw had him letting out a surprised whine. "Maybe. If you say you're sorry."

It took a second for Natsu to remember what she'd been talking about, and he glared at her, "What?"

"Apologize for breaking in unannounced! Then I will forgive you," Lucy smiled triumphantly as his frown depended, slowly caressing his jaw until he grabbed her by the wrist.

"No."

"No? Are you sure?" Ignoring his grip on her, Lucy squeezed his cheeks in her hand, giving him the cutest looking pout, "You're not gonna like it when I don't forgive you."

"Lushi," With his face smushed, Natsu's words came out slurred, "Lemme go."

"Apologize."

Her grasp tightened, but Natsu held his ground, "Make me."

Admittedly, Lucy was impressed by his ability to remain competitive in a position like this. It was to be expected, though.

She shifted so that she hovered over him, using her hold on his face to shove him down against her pillow. He had that surprised look on his face again, yet he made no move to overpower her. Perhaps this was what he wanted.

Planting her knee between his thighs and ducking her head so their noses were only centimeters apart, Lucy tried not to let the blush on her own face lower her resolve. "Last chance. Apologize."

Natsu's eyes flashed with something serious, like he wanted to challenge her. But with one look down at her lips, his eyebrows furrowed and he tried to turn his head away. "Okay, okay. Sorry."

Surprised that she actually got him to do as she said, Lucy slackened immediately and abruptly sat back in his lap, earning a strained hiss as she realized what she sat on a bit too late.

He looked positively annoyed, but was blushing brilliantly, and Lucy couldn't stop herself from leaning down and giving him a peck on his nose. "See? That wasn't so hard. I forgive you. This time," She winked, and squeaked in surprise when he grabbed her by the hips to lift her slightly off of him.

She bit her lip at the way his forehead creased as he slowly exhaled, and now it was her turn to avoid eye contact.

"I, um, was planning to take a bath…" She glanced at him for a second before turning to look at the wall, "Do you wanna… join me?"

"Yes," Suddenly, Natsu sat up, almost making her fall had it not been for his hold on her hips. He let go of her for long enough to slip his scarf off and hastily undo the first few buttons of his coat, earning a breathless laugh from the woman on top of him.

Lucy helped him with his buttons, and as she reached the last few, he grabbed onto one of her hands to get her to look at him.

Their eyes met in a silent stare-off, Natsu's eyes softening as they filled with desire. He raised an eyebrow, being clear enough about what he wanted for Lucy to be able to catch on.

With a humored roll of her eyes, she closed the distance between them to plant a kiss on his lips, his other hand at the base of her neck stopping her from pulling away too soon.

#fairy tail #lucy heartifilla #nalu #nalu fairytail #nalu fanfic #fanfic #oneshot #natsu x lucy #natsu dragneel #my wriring #nalu day #nalu fluff #fluff #kisses #banter #teasing #nalu fanfiction #fanfiction

[dootznbootz]

Hi there! :D As the title says, "I absorb everything in sight" AKA I love a lot of different things and I love reblogging things I love. This is just my little scrapbook of lovely things

Can call me "Mads" or my url. I don't mind either way! :D

I'm into so many goddamn fandoms and I'll even slap-up things I just simply find pretty/interesting but probably the main ones as of now are:

Greek Mythology (Mostly Odyssey) MAJOR hyperfixation now. I am in love with Penelope

Fairy Tail

Legend of Zelda

Those are the main ones you'll find BUT like I said, search for something and you'll find it.

Avatar (both Last Airbender and Legend of Korra)

Fullmetal Alchemist

Pokemon

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I wasn't on Tumblr for years but trying to get back on it. Sometimes I'll be dumb. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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I'm also an incredibly silly person... There's going to be silliness

Link to my "Odysseus was afraid the entire year on Aeaea" essay

Link to help Palestine

Fuzzy worm above was done by the lovely iroissleepdeprived !

#Mad rambles #shot by odysseus #my headcanons #Mad writes #essay #Water Wife #Mad character design #GIFT

[fairydares]

Reminiscing on the Hard Road (A Gruvia Fic)

Rating: M

Summary: While on his way to a mission, Gray reflects on the hardships, tears, battles, and triumphs which led to him and Juvia finding their happiness together. (Or: the story of how they finally, officially got together told through memories).

AO3 Link ; FFNet Link

Words: ~8,000

Warnings: Please read with caution as this contains adult themes & situations (though nothing explicit). Also swearing and allusions to mental illness, dissociation and depression symptoms especially. Man this feels like the end of a drug commercial. Enjoy!

AN: I realized how long it'd been since I updated Chasing Tails and was feeling really bad about it. I'm so sorry, guys! I've just been really busy! I don't have time to get Chapter 5 up tonight, but I do have the time to share this Gruvia piece I wrote a while ago as a karmic sort of apology.

With that in mind, this is a bit of a rough, long one-shot. It comes from a chapter in a larger, mostly Nalu-focused fic which I may or may not ever actually finish writing. Sooo it's not even really a one-shot so much as it's, like, a segment of a chapter from one. I also barely had time to clean it up ever so slightly.

However, I thought Gruvia fans would appreciate anyway. Maybe one day, I'll write the whole thing because I honestly think it could be a story, or maybe a series of drabbles? This is all you kids get for now, though, lol. no fucks given (just kidding this will keep me up nights.)

o(O)o

Ignoring Natsu's whining about still being motion sick from beside him, Gray buried his hands in his pockets and let his eyes engage in their favorite past-time: roaming the curves of the blue-haired woman walking in front of him.

Him and Juvia had officially been together for over half a year, but his eyes still snagged on the same places they always had. The sway of her blue hair, now long enough to partly obscure the pinch of her waist and flare of her hips with each swish. The pretty, cute flush that lived on her cheeks as she listened attentively to Erza, who was chattering about a famous desert shop in the area. The way shadow and light shifted over the curve of her rear. And—forever his most favorite—the exposed skin of her legs. Long, toned, moon white...and fucking perfect.

Gray felt his cheeks heat, but couldn't find it in himself to drag his eyes away. The solidness and length of their relationship did absolutely nothing to diminish the novelty of her beauty, like he might once have feared it would. Instead, it hypnotized him more surely than ever. Noticing all the men drooling over her figure as they walked past, Gray was aware of the sting of possessiveness and annoyance which rose in his chest, but was also easily able to ignore it.

He was as comfortable as any guy with a stunning girlfriend could be in his own jealousy, these days. More shockingly, so was Juvia, a fact that was plain from the way she shot only perfunctory glares at the women eyeing him and whispering to each other as they passed.

As he stared at her back, his lips quirked ever so slightly. It had taken time, tears, and work—more work than he could ever have anticipated—to get to this point in their relationship. But work had never been more worth it.

His mind wandered to reminiscence. To where it had all started, when they had started, after the 100-Year Quest had ended and he'd finally—with Lucy, Levy, and Erza's help—managed to ask Juvia to be his girlfriend.

"Not just 'yours'," Levy had insisted, explaining that phrasing would confuse her. "Your girlfriend."

He'd actually fought them on it. Not really because he had a problem with commitment anymore (okay, it was a little embarrassing, but not too much) but because the words "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" felt ridiculous, considering everything they'd been through. How deeply he cared about her. For crying out loud, they'd tried to kill themselves for each other. He'd kill for her, die for her, and—most importantly—he would live for her. Beyond making his ears feel like they were going to melt off, the word "girlfriend" felt trite.

But when Lucy and Levy demanded to know if that meant he was going to propose, he'd balked. Actually, having the m-word shoved right up against his nose kind of made his soul flee his body. As ready as he was for a romantic relationship, he wanted to go through the actual experience of having one. Like, with all the steps involved. In order. He was at the point in his life that he wanted it more than anything.

More importantly, he wanted to give Juvia that experience. He was determined to do right by her.

With the girls' reality check, and the point they'd made that ambiguity might make Juvia jump to the wrong conclusion or even hurt her, they'd convinced him. He'd been committed to making his long-awaited confession as special for Juvia as possible, complete with saying any embarrassing words she wanted to hear.

Gray still hadn't felt worthy of the love she gave him. He still struggled to believe he was a man who could protect her. But after everything he'd been through during the 100-Year-Quest, seeing how much she'd missed him the whole time, and his talk with Juvina-sama, he'd understood it was completely unfair to ask Juvia to wait for him to decide he was worthy enough to love her openly. He also wasn't above admitting that Juvina-sama's suggestion that she wouldn't wait forever had disquieted some irrational part of him enough to make him antsy, impatient to make absolutely sure they were exclusive.

He'd been completely flustered throughout his confession, but known it had gone as right as it could. Lucy, Levy, and Erza—who thought they'd been slick, hiding in a nearby bush to watch him confess—had agreed. (Lucy had annoyed him to no end by teasing him over how "adorable" he'd been.)

And yet...Juvia's response hadn't been quite what Gray hoped. Lucy hadn't noticed it, but he had. He didn't know exactly when it had happened, but at some point, he'd learned to read the Water Mage like an open book. For how sincere a person she was—a trait he was all too familiar with—Juvia could also be surprising, even mysterious. As transient as water, with hidden depths you'd never know a thing about unless you were willing to dive beneath the surface.

When Gray confessed, he'd braced himself for joyous screaming. He'd planned to freeze a literal flood of tears before it could wash them both away. He'd been prepared to get a concussion from how hard she'd glomp him in the street. But while she had said yes, demurely accepted the roses, and hugged him plenty tight...her response had been subdued. In hindsight, he could see the pattern her reaction fit: the way her gaze had dropped to the street despite her happy flush, the hesitant, nervous gleam in her eyes, the limited verbal response.

The only times she'd ever acted that way had been when he actually reciprocated some of her affection. When he'd promised to give her a straight answer, after he defeated END. When he'd given her a one-armed hug and said he was glad her "body" was safe, after he'd saved her from that wood bastard.

Something had been wrong. But when the girls who'd spied on him only gushed afterwards, not seeming to have noticed anything off, he'd shrugged off his concerns, assuming it was his own lack of romantic literacy. He'd been nervous, but also really excited to learn.

But as their relationship officially began...it quickly became obvious that there was a problem, and that a one-sided approach to fixing it just wasn't going to cut it.

Juvia had always been prone to mood swings severe enough to make Gray's head spin, but as soon as they started dating, her mood seemed to sink. He'd try to ask her about it only for her to put on an obviously fake, cheery front and insist she was fine.

At first, he was sure it must be his fault. He'd had no idea what he was doing wrong. At that point, the guilt he felt for not taking Juvia's feelings seriously for so long, for abandoning her in Amefurashi Village, and for nearly letting her die in an attempt to save him had been taking a serious toll on him. The guilt had sometimes left him ragged. Every time she seemed down, he beat himself up and tried to do better. Talking, dates, spending time together (even when it meant ditching missions he really wanted to go on with the team), accepting her gifts and acting happy about them (no matter how much they creeped him out).

But the more he'd tried to make up for everything, the worse it seemed to get. He watched her frustration rise as he tried to be more openly affectionate, her denials that she was frustrated getting louder. More and more, she gave, but when he gave back, she'd look ready to explode or burst into tears.

What had made everything come to a head was the sex. A surprise in itself. For all the ways their relationship had suffered, sex had never been one of them. It'd started back in the cabin they shared in Amefurashi Village. From the first night they'd moved in together, Juvia had not-so-surprisingly tried to edge her way into Gray's bed constantly. She'd use excuses of cold weather, make puppy eyes, and sew nauseatingly pink coupley bed sheets to try to lure him (when, he still had no idea).

Meanwhile, he struggled more and more to pretend he didn't find (most of) her antics adorable. Not to mention incredibly tempting. Things escalated to where he'd feel his excitement rising towards the end of their daily training sessions, to the point his body became conditioned to react when he saw the damn sun set.

He also felt increasing dread at the notion of having to turn Juvia down—and for having to sneak out in the middle of every night to "take care" of the problem she always left him with (cold showers didn't exactly work for an Ice Wizard).

Finally, one night, she'd pouted and whined that she was sore from training and begged for a massage. Gray didn't know if it was the fact she was asking him for something instead of offering; the unbelievably cute, sparkly-eyed, hopeful glances she kept sneaking at him; or the fact he could tell she actually was sore from the way her face would pinch as she attempted to stretch provocatively in front of him, but his resolve had shattered.

Before he could think and without a word, he'd lifted his covers and held her gaze, not bothering to hide the dark promise in his eyes.

Her reaction had been priceless. He'd never forget it.

His acceptance seemed to knock the breath straight out of her. Her eyes had gone round as saucers, staring into his eyes like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Her cheeks had darkened. She'd stood stunned for so long that he'd started to get nervous, wondering if she'd only been being playful all this time, not really meaning to come on to him or maybe not expecting him to ever accept. But just as he'd been trying to field the disappointment sinking his heart and trying to think of how to promise he wouldn't do anything she didn't want, she'd hesitantly approached the bed, trembling.

After giving her the massage she'd asked for, he'd rewarded her bravery three times over.

After that, for the very first time, the dynamic of their relationship shifted in one, important way—the one which would force him to finally confront his own heart:

In terms of their physical relationship, he became the more dominant one. In this one aspect of their shared life, he chased. Gray flustered Juvia. He hadn't been able to get enough. What had once been a relentless, one-sided pursuit (one where she had, admittedly, been gaining on him without his notice) became a dance which had addicted him before he knew it.

The notion of reciprocating her feelings had once had him running for the hills. So it had been a huge shock to learn just how much he liked it.

She was so obviously happy and disbelieving that first time he slipped her clothes off in the moonlit dark, cursing over her beauty. Utterly awestruck when he'd seen to her pleasure (twice, he still liked to remember proudly) before even considering his own. Sex was the first time he heard her speak in the first-person, the first time she said his name without adding "-sama" (since that battle in the rain, anyway.)

It was when he lost himself in her soft skin, her passion, and her pleasure that some part of him was able to accept the truth she'd had the grace to surrender to from the very beginning.

The shift in their sex life was also when he'd started to twig something wasn't right between them. After Alvarez was when he'd started it back up. His plan had been to wait until he was able to reciprocate her feelings verbally, like he'd promised, but almost losing her had broken him in a way some part of him would never truly recover from. Between that and his final, full acceptance of his own feelings, there'd been no restraining himself. He'd come onto her with all the subtlety of a freight train the second they were alone.

Even then, something hadn't been quite right. She hadn't been herself, quiet enough that—even as...compromised as his critical thinking skills had been, at the time, and even in his heightened emotional state—he'd noticed. He'd pulled back and asked if she was okay, but when her response had simply been to drag him back in for a kiss that made his knees weak, he'd taken it as a yes and matched her passion enthusiastically.

She kept staying quiet in bed. It bothered the hell out of him, and he badgered her about it more than once, but would ultimately let it go when she insisted she was fine. In his defense, there had been a lot of reasons she could've become subdued. They had just fought a war. They were all exhausted from fixing the town and working to build peace in Fiore.

But after the 100-Year Quest and after his confession, she got even weirder. He noticed it all the time, in every aspect of their relationship, but it was especially noticeable in bed, when they were so close to each other, both completely vulnerable.

When they'd cohabitated, he'd almost always been the one to start something. He'd enjoyed that. He'd even (hell, especially) enjoyed the way she'd flirt, pretend to be oblivious to his advances, pout and blush and make him impress her, coax him to the brink of losing his mind before finally caving to both of their desires. Those times where he went from prey to predator had balanced their entire relationship, satisfying both of them.

Gray wasn't some slimeball who needed sex, but he did need some balance in their dynamic. The private, physical side of their relationship was just where it'd happened to play out. It could've played out anywhere in their relationship, if they were off sex for a while for whatever reason.

But as soon as they became official, it became clear she'd fight tooth and nail to make sure that never happened.

She came onto him. Every. Single. Time. He'd been a little surprised, but happy enough. At first. But as he pushed her to talk to him harder and she denied louder, he'd started to guess that something was genuinely, really wrong.

She didn't speak in the first-person when they were intimate, any more. She didn't drop the "-sama." Even worse, he started to suspect she was seducing him even when she wasn't really in the mood. Almost like she felt like she had to.

It had been one such time when he finally flipped his shit. Even now, walking behind her and appreciating her curves, the memory made his mood falter a little.

He regretted how he'd handled things. It shamed him to remember how he'd all but shoved her off him and refused to do anything else with her until she was ready to tell him whatever the hell was going on inside that crazy, watery head of hers. It was an ultimatum. A cruelly-put one, at that. He hadn't realized just how hurt and angry he was until the words flew out of his mouth.

Juvia had opened up, alright.

In fact, she'd exploded.

They'd screamed at each other, horrible things Gray could hardly stand to repeat even in his own head. She'd demanded that he quit wasting both their time and leave her again, like they both knew he would. He'd asked how stupid she could be to think he'd do that, when he was obviously dedicated enough to put up with her psycho stalker gifts. She'd retorted that her "psycho stalker gifts" didn't seem to have any affect on his libido. He'd yelled that she was the one jumping his bones, ever since he'd asked her out. She'd said that was because she actually cared about his happiness, implying that was something he'd never understand.

She'd ended the black, ugly fight with four hoarse words that ripped his heart out of his chest: "This is over, Gray-sama!"

His apartment door had slammed behind her.

He'd been too shocked and devastated to do anything but watch her go, not even managing to stagger to the door and chase after her until she was long-gone. Black curse power had swirled across his skin as he pelted to the guild, growling in frustration when he didn't find her there. Then he'd run all the way to the female dorms at Fairy Hills only to be deterred by Erza, who met him at the gate. She hadn't known anything about his and Juvia's fight, but she'd been drawn by his yelling.

His older sister figure had knocked him out "for his own good."

The next afternoon, Gray had woken up in his own bed. Not bothering to see if he was dressed (it would turn out he wasn't) he'd booked straight to the guild only to be devastated by the news that Juvia had taken a long-term S-class quest just that morning, news which was delivered by a sympathetic Mira.

Sure that it was over, that he'd ruined everything, he'd drunk himself sick—then kept drinking, swinging fists at anyone and everyone who tried to console him until, finally, in the wee hours of the next morning, Gajeel managed to knock him out of it.

The hostility, Gray had expected. Gajeel was Juvia's best friend; of course he was angry to learn that Gray had done something to upset her so much, she'd left for a Quest that could take months or even years to finish without so much as a word to Gajeel or any of their other comrades.

What did surprise Gray was the understanding Gajeel eventually showed.

Gray got his ass knocked flat by the Iron Dragon Slayer. From his back on the ground, he started to spit out what happened. With each word, the larger man had visibly calmed. After enough had come out, he'd awkwardly helped Gray to his feet (his own, gruff brand of apology.) He'd helped Gray sober up, then he'd given him a pep talk.

He'd refused to explain his own guesses as to what was going on with Juvia, insisting "who knows what goes on in that water witch's head." But he'd also insisted that whatever was going on, it for damn sure wasn't what Gray thought, which was that he'd hurt her too badly for her to love him anymore.

"She's obsessed with you," the man had said, scowling in disgust. "She's always been obsessed with you. She's way too stubborn to let it go that easy. It's annoying."

By six AM, Gajeel Redfox—of all people—had talked Gray into chasing after the love of his life. He'd even used his Iron Magic to create a lockpick which got them into the archive room, where they'd found Mira's records...and Juvia's location.

He'd barely had the time to register the irony of her quest's location before he was gone, shooting Gajeel a gruff "thanks" over his shoulder and running home to pack.

It'd been raining when he finally walked into Amefurashi Village.

He hadn't consciously known where to start looking when he arrived, but his feet—following some combination of muscle memory and the fate he'd fought for so long—had carried him to the place where the word "home" had changed for him: the cabin he and Juvia had shared. Where they'd grown together. Taken care of each other.

Where he'd left her. Hurt her. Even if most of the reason to do so was because he wanted to protect her, he couldn't stop hating himself for that.

She was standing outside the place, drenched and shivering, when he got there. As if sensing his arrival as surely as he'd known where to find her, Juvia had turned to look at Gray with eyes that were glassy above flushed cheeks. She'd wavered on her feet.

As soon as she'd whispered his name, she'd toppled. Gray's bag had landed in a puddle with a splashy thunk. He'd lunged to catch her like his life depended on it.

Shouting her name had earned him no response, but pressing the back of his hand to her forehead had been enough to convince him that she had a seriously high fever.

Strangely, as worried as he'd been about her, he hadn't even thought to bring her back to Wendy or seek a nearer healer. In hindsight, he was sure that deep down, he'd realized it would do no good; she wasn't physically ill, but heartsick, just as he was. He'd felt lower than the mud gathering around his boots.

He'd been surprised to discover that he had to break into their old home, and rapidly deduced that Juvia hadn't been staying at their old cabin even though she'd been standing outside of it, both from that fact and the fact that none of her stuff was there.

As soon as he lay her in the bed which had once been his before becoming theirs, she'd begun shivering. For the first time in his life, Gray cursed that he was an Ice Wizard instead of a Fire Wizard.

He'd run outside, grabbed his bag, then come back in—only to curse again when he unclasped the bag only to discover that all its contents were soaked. Thinking quickly, he'd stripped his wet clothes, then hers. He'd climbed into bed with her.

"'M sorry, Gray-sama..." she'd slurred her sleep. "Juvia's so sorry...Juvia had to...I just had to..."

He'd shushed her, rubbing her arms to try to warm her up. "It's okay, Juvia. I know, my love. It's okay..."

He'd kept holding her and whispering soft comfort to her until she'd finally stopped shivering, at which point his frantic worry had abated enough that he could fully admit to himself how good it felt to have her in his arms, her skin against his. How warm she was. How perfectly she fit against him. How much he missed her. She was right there, as close as another person could ever be to him. Yet with how things had been between them lately and how lost she was to fever, he'd never felt further away.

Apparently, he'd fallen asleep at some point, because when he awoke, it was to the rising sun blazing at him from the center of the cabin window. Ignoring his body's reaction to waking up in the arms of the very naked, beautiful woman he happened to be in love with, Gray had instantly dropped his hand to Juvia's forehead, sighing in relief when it became clear her fever had reduced. She wasn't better, but she was getting there.

Quickly figuring out what needed done, he'd dropped a tender kiss to her warm forehead, murmuring a threat against her sweaty hairline: "You'd better not even think of running away again, crazy woman. We are going to talk when I get back."

Gray had dressed, glanced back, and left. He'd met up with he client—a rich and unfortunately good-looking asshole about Gray's age who was way too disappointed Juvia, herself, wasn't the one who'd shown up. Through gritted teeth, Gray informed the bastard it would be a couple days before he and his partner (he was sure to emphasize those words several times) would be able to begin investigating the dark guild threatening the area, as she'd fallen ill.

It annoyed him to no end that the creep seemed genuinely concerned about this, trying to insert himself, demand to see her, and attempting to coax Gray into revealing her location (Gray couldn't help the pleasure and hope which rose in his chest, when he learned she hadn't told this guy wherever it was she was staying; obviously, she'd had no interest in sharing that information.)

The client had thrown a rich boy tantrum when Gray refused to tell him anything, but ultimately let him go when Gray promised Juvia would be there in a couple days (not bothering to mention that he would absolutely be there, too.)

He'd gone to pick up medicine and food. He'd grabbed all the ingredients he could remember for something hearty, mild, and delicious she used to make him when they lived together, a chicken stew that tasted like something he could remember from childhood. Those ingredients, medicine, ginger tea...anything he could think of that might help her feel better, he purchased, barely noting price.

Juvia had been waiting on the porch wrapped only in a blanket when he returned, flushed with both fever and anger.

They'd both been pissed at each other. While Gray locked horns with Juvia's amorous creep of a client, she had apparently been discovered by the landlord who owned their old cabin and only barely managed to talk him out of his anger, ultimately having to pay double their old monthly rent to keep him from calling the authorities—all while wrapped only in a blanket.

A brief yelling match had ensued. It ended when Juvia began coughing rather violently, Gray dropping his groceries in the mud to run to her. Even as she insisted she was fine, he'd ushered her into the cabin, forcing her to sit before he went back out to grab the food he'd bought.

Her face had gone funny when he began grouchily unloading chicken, rice, broth, veggies, and herbs. When he (somewhat defensively) asked what the hell she was staring at, she'd haltingly asked if he'd bought all of that for her. Exasperated, he'd told her of course he had, she'd had him worried sick.

The groceries had been abandoned when she burst into tears.

It had taken several minutes of heart-wrenching sobs on Juvia's part and coaxing on Gray's for the conversation to actually begin.

During their ugly fight in his apartment, she'd exploded.

Here, in the lonely home they'd once shared, she imploded.

While the groceries thawed and dripped on the kitchen counter, Juvia sobbed the whole, messy, painful truth into his chest. She told him everything. She told him how, deep down, she'd always known she wasn't worthy of having her love reciprocated by him. It had been true from the moment they'd met, when she'd been part of Phantom Lord, but remained true no matter how long she'd been at Fairy Tail. That was how she'd put it: "I always knew I wasn't worthy of Gray-sama's love." Not only because of her past, but because of how annoying she was. How gloomy. How creepy and obnoxious.

Gray hadn't even had time to express his horror at the fact she thought those things before she'd been plowing on, her tears only getting thicker and her words only making his heart sink lower.

She said knowing she didn't deserve his love had turned to knowing she didn't deserve to love him at all, when she'd killed Keyes to free Gray's father from his undead life. But even though "Gray-sama had been wonderful enough to forgive Juvia," she'd continued to hate herself, deep down.

She told him that sharing a life in the cabin they were currently in had, for her, been the sweetest kind of torture. That she'd never been so happy—and never felt more undeserving. For the first time, she told him that she'd only had one lover before Gray, some piece of shit named "Bora" who'd never cared about her or her pleasure. Gray had been nothing like him, attentive, caring, and as invested in her pleasure as he was in his own. At first, feeling so cared for had been as overwhelming as it was amazing, but by the time Gray started to pull away from her for his mission, the overwhelmed feelings had slowly begun to fade, letting her forget everything but the happiness she felt with him.

Juvia told him that the day he abandoned her to infiltrate Avatar, everything which she'd started to believe could feel right began to feel wrong, and everything which had felt wrong began to feel right. She'd never felt she deserved to be loved by Gray the way she loved him. Being left by him had, in a horrible way, made her feel like the world was how it was supposed to be.

But it had also ripped her apart.

It had destroyed any confidence she'd begun to gain in herself.

She told him that she resented being abandoned. Resented not being told about his mission to infiltrate a Dark Guild, not just because of their relationship, but because she had once been in a Dark Guild, and could potentially have helped his and Erza's Mission. She'd not only felt betrayed on a personal level, but disrespected as a Mage with no small amount of skill and experience.

It was a side to the issue which he had, shameflly, never considered.

He was mortified when she'd finally let herself chastise him for this—especially when he'd tried to defend himself by bringing up details of his mission only to be instantly struck down and ripped apart by someone who was, in fact, very obviously more knowledgeable about the inner workings of Dark Guilds than either he or Erza ever had been. Hell, Juvia could probably have run the mission almost as well as Jellal had.

For the first time, he saw just how beneficial it would have been to have her on board, despite Erza urging him not to get her involved. He should've gone against her orders, asked forgiveness instead of permission. Over the course of that one conversation, it was clear that having her on board would have shortened the length of their mission by probably several months.

But worse than the benefits they'd missed out on, in infiltrating Avatar, worse than the fact that she resented him, was her admission that she hated herself for that resentment.

She'd apologized. So many times. Too many times to count. Each apology was another crack in Gray's heart. He'd tried to ask her to stop, but they'd just kept slipping out anyway. It was like she couldn't help it.

She'd told him that over time, as she got to know the other women in Fairy Tail—Lucy, Cana, and Levy—she'd realized just how unworthy she was of the care Gray held for even just his friends. She just hadn't been forced to confront her own lacking sense of self-worth...until he openly reciprocated her feelings.

She said that the second he confessed, part of her felt wrong. Like she'd donned someone else's skin—someone who was worth being loved by Gray. Her guilt, her knowledge that she wasn't worthy of him, her bitterness, her self-hatred...all of it had come rushing to the surface.

She told him that, as unworthy as she'd felt, she'd been too selfish to reject him. Too angry at the thought of him being with someone else. Her own selfishness made her feel even worse than before. She'd been determined to be worthy of him, and so she had sought to pay every ounce of love he gave her three times over. At least.

It hadn't made her feel any better. No matter how hard she tried to be sure to pay him back, every time Gray took her on a date or made love to her, it made her skin crawl, because she didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve his love, his affection, or even his attention. He deserved better, and she was nowhere close to deserving him. She never would be.

If there had been even one last, single sliver of a doubt as to how he felt about this woman, it died then and there. Nothing—not his own guilt, being screamed at, or being broken up with—nothing could hurt worse than being made aware of what a hard time she was having. Learning just how badly she'd been dissociating during all their most precious moments. How much pain she was in. How little she thought of herself. How deep her scars ran.

He'd have given anything to take her pain away. He'd have given anything to change it. Right then, he couldn't think of a single thing he wouldn't have done to make her see herself as he saw her: the energetic, caring, fierce Mage he'd come to know. The woman who always eclipsed everything else for just a second, the first time he saw her every day.

He'd wanted to tell her all that, and more. He wanted to apologize. He'd wanted to tell her how badly he missed her after he'd left her here, that this place had been home for him, too. He'd wanted to tell her how much she meant to him, that no day without her smile even felt real, but his voice had been stuck behind a lump of misery and all he'd been able to do, for a very long time, was lay in their bed and hold her while she cried the rest of it out. He wasn't too ashamed to admit he lost a couple tears in her hair, too.

Over the twilight of time it had taken for her sobs to turn hoarse, then to whimpers, then sniffles, guilt, emotional exhaustion, an anguish washed over Gray in their turn.

Until finally, he hardened all of those feelings into resolve.

"I'm really thankful that you're here. For always being beside me..."

Those were the words Gray had said to her before Alvarez, and he'd meant them. For years, Juvia had done nothing but be there for him. Even when he didn't want her there, she stayed right next to him, quietly piecing together his heart and his trust. It killed him that the woman who'd confronted him with her love, made him face down his own weakness, always thought of him, and helped him so much more than he could ever truly thank her for had been hiding so much of her own pain. He wished she would have told him any of this all the times he'd pushed and asked.

But he couldn't blame her for that. Maybe she hadn't opened up to him before then, but her mentions of her days in Phantom and of that shithead ex of hers had driven home, with stark clarity, a realization he wished he'd made a lot sooner: Juvia didn't know how to open up like Gray had tried to demand, because she hadn't grown up somewhere like Fairy Tail.

Unlike Gray and Natsu and the others, she hadn't been taught to bare her pain, hadn't always known there would be someone to listen to her, cry with her, be on her side. While Gray had been fought, teased, and accepted for exactly who he was (more often his whole self than not) Juvia had been abandoned by every single person in her life except Gajeel and those who'd wanted to use her for their own ends. Gray abandoning her had only confirmed what she'd been taught was inevitable.

But the Ice Mage wouldn't linger on that. He wouldn't give any more time to despair.

It was his turn now, he realized. His turn to stay beside her even when it was hard, and do the work. Now, he just had to figure out how. But while he'd been trying to do that, had been gathering his words, Juvia had recovered enough to speak once more.

She'd apologized again. She'd told him that she knew this was too much, that all of this was too much...that she was too much. For the times they'd shared, she thanked him quietly, eyes bright with yet more tears and refusing to meet his as she continued that she'd had to let Gray go because she wanted him to be happy, and she'd finally, finally realized she could never do that for him, not really. Then she'd tried to push him away, and as Gray had tightened his grip, he'd realized he didn't need to figure out what to do, what to say, or how to love her.

She'd been showing him all along.

After a deep breath, the words had come low, and easier than he'd thought. He told her she was right, all of this was a lot...but also that he was so, so happy she'd finally told him what was really going on. He'd been as gentle as possible when he told her he could see how difficult and scary it had been for her to open up about all this and that he was proud of how brave she'd been for doing so, but she'd started crying again anyway, so he'd had to carry on with a shakier, hoarser voice.

He'd apologized. For everything. For not taking her feelings seriously for so long, for not seeing her when she needed to be seen, for leaving her behind and hurting her so badly she'd gotten sick. He hadn't been dismissing her abilities as a Mage so much as he'd been trying to protect her, but that was no excuse. "High-handed and cruel" was a generous way to describe his behavior, and he finally saw that. He'd told her that if he could take it back, he would. But he couldn't. He could only promise to never, ever leave her like that again, and he was more than ready to make that promise. He had been for a long time, since well into the 1oo Years Quest. If she'd only give him another chance, he'd show her.

At this point, Juvia had obviously started to twig that this conversation wasn't going to go how she planned, with Gray accepting she was too burdensome and unworthy for him and leaving her alone like everyone else had left her, because she'd started kicking up a fuss, forcing him to hold her there again.

"Let Juvia go, Gray-sama!" she'd demanded shakily, sounding like she was barely clinging to her determination. But Gray had refused. He refused to let her go like this, not until she'd heard him out.

As brief as the ensuing argument had been, it was also one of the most frustrating conversations Gray had ever taken part in (and he'd fought Natsu on basically every cock-and-bull-ass plan he'd ever come up with.)

He'd tried desperately to insist that while Juvia could be creepy and he did find rain somewhat gloomy, she was not worthless or annoying or obnoxious. He'd tried to tell her that she did make him happy. He'd tried to tell her how he felt about her.

Juvia had not responded well.

A wall had slammed up in her eyes, the same blank one he'd met on that fateful, rainy day so long ago. As she'd kept denying, and he'd kept pushing, their voices had gotten louder. Eventually, Gray had realized it was raining outside the window next to their bed again, and that was the one thing that had forced him to take a step back from his own frustration. Lucky, because if he hadn't, he might have flown off the handle and ruined everything all over again.

Looking down at her, he'd forced himself to cool off and realized he was being unfair; he was asking her to take an entire journey in one leap, to unlearn a lifetime's-worth of lessons about her own worthlessness over the course of a single conversation. No one could do that. It was an unreasonable thing to ask.

And so, when he'd finally gathered his wits and perspective enough, he'd said, "You don't have to agree with me. You don't have to agree with my feelings for you. But you have to believe that they're real...and you have to at least consider my side."

Juvia's eyes had gone wide. As they regained their sparkle, he'd refused to break eye contact. Slowly, the rain had stopped, leaving them in the silent hut.

After what felt like years, she'd shakily whispered, "O-okay."

And Gray had known that they were finally, finally getting somewhere.

Quietly and slowly, with their hands intertwined between their chests and their foreheads pressed together, they'd pieced together a fragile plan. They would stay together and be as they had been, but from now on, they were both going to make a concerted effort to be honest and rebuild trust. Gray started by admitting that missing out on Quests with his team had really started to bum him out, and while this seemed to sadden Juvia at first, she admitted after some thought that in being with Gray, she hadn't been nurturing her own friendships with her friends like Gajeel and Meredy. Lucy had also asked for help training her in Water Magic, and Juvia had declined so far even though she was interested in having someone to teach.

Gray had encouraged all of this...and he'd encouraged her to visit Porlyusica, too, when they got home. The old lady was hardly a Mental Healer, but she'd hopefully be able to help them find someone who was, someone objective and removed from the situation who Juvia could talk to openly. One thing which had sunk in fully for Gray over the course of Juvia's heartrending speech was that it was going to take a lot of time, work, and love to get Juvia to a better place. There was no way the two of them could do it alone.

They'd talked and planned until their voices were hoarse...and then they'd not talked for even longer. Juvia once again dropped the "-sama." She let him come to her. She didn't just surrender herself to him the way she had when they had each other before in their cabin, she'd given him even more—in his arms, she'd bared a small and precious part of herself Gray had never even realized she hid from him.

Over the course of the month they spent in that cabin, he'd cherished everything she gave him more than most men could've in twice the amount of time. How they'd managed to deal with that Dark Guild months and months ahead of schedule, he would never understand, because his head had never been less in the game. Neither of them had been able keep their hands off each other for more than an hour when they were alone together.

Neither had been particularly disappointed when that crotchety old landlord refused to give them back any part of their months' rent. Instead, they'd stayed till June was up breaking the place in thoroughly.

"It's payback for him being a jackass to you!" Gray had once playfully defended against her neck, pinning her against the kitchen counter and grinning as she gigglingly scolded him.

He only prayed no one ever took a UV Lacrima to the inside of that place. They'd go blind. He'd taken her on the couch, over it, against the walls, on the counters and tables, and in more positions than he'd previously known existed in that bed. When they returned home, a bunch of people had pointed out that they both looked like they'd lost weight. Gray didn't doubt it, after all the—

"...seriously, none of you know what it's like, every time we travel...OI, STRIPPER, YOU MAYBE WANNA QUIT EYE-FUCKING YOUR GIRLFRIEND WHEN WE'RE IN PUBLIC, YOU GODDAMN PERVERT?!"

The absolute last voice Gray wanted to hear when he was thinking about such great, intimate things yanked him out of his reflections in the most unpleasant of ways. An expression crossed between a scowl and a grimace consumed his features.

"Gray-sama!?" Juvia spluttered, craning her neck to peer at them over her shoulder with wide eyes. She looked half-scolding, half...affected as her cheeks went rose red.

Gray felt his own face grow hot as he turned to glare furiously at the pink-haired, disgusted-and-disgusting-looking bane of his existence.

"Would you keep your voice down, Dragon Boy?! I was not 'eye-fucking' Juvia!" His cheeks burned hotter as an elderly woman passing by shot him a deeply disapproving look.

"The hell you weren't!" Natsu snapped, drawing even more attention. "I could see all your gross, perverted thoughts right there in those droopy eyes of yours!"

"ARGH! So what?!" Gray just wanted this fight to be over, and figured that sort of admitting to what he'd been doing was the quickest way to make that happen. "Can't a guy even look at his girlfriend without pink-haired, flame-brained losers getting involved?!"

"THE HELL YOU JUST CALL ME?!"

"OH, SO YOU'RE DEAF AS WELL AS BRAINLESS, NOW?!"

"THAT'S IT, I'VE HAD IT! YOU'RE DEAD, YOU ICY BAS—"

"That's enough."

Uncharacteristically subdued and uninvolved though Erza's command was, it was enough to have both Natsu and Gray cringing and sweating in fear almost instantly.

"A-aye!" they squeaked, then sighed in relief as she shot them one last glare and clanked away.

"Ah, it always goes this way." Happy folded his little blue sausage arms over his chest and tsked. "If only Gray had kept his perverted eyes on himself, we wouldn't even be talking about this."

"And just how the heck is one supposed to 'keep their eyes on themselves', huh?" Gray growled up at the floating Exceed.

"By not being you, apparently!" he cackled back, Natsu soon joining him in his obnoxious guffawing.

"Why, you—! Get back here, you little shit!" Gray made a random grab at the little creep only to curse as he missed his tail by about a centimeter.

Meanwhile, Juvia clasped her still-red cheeks with her hands and donned an all-too-familiar, starry-eyed expression. "Juvia does not mind at all if Gray-sama...covets Juvia in public! How Juvia adores Gray-sama's passion!"

Gray flinched as if he'd been whipped in the back. In a second flat, he was blushing again. "O-oi, Juvia—!" he started, scrambling to find a way to get her to calm down before she came onto him in public.

(Again.)

"However," she continued before he figured out how to distract her, turning to look at him with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "If Gray-sama is going to covet Juvia on a public street, Juvia thinks he should at least wear clothes."

"Wha—?! CRAP!" Gray shouted as soon as he realized he'd stripped down to his boxers. "When did that happen!?"

Juvia wrinkled her nose cutely and giggled while he scrambled for his clothes. When he was finally yanking his jacket on, he shot her a playful glare only for his lips to quirk when she winked and sauntered after Erza.

That little...she'll get it later, he thought with a huff before shoving his hands in his pockets and strolling after her. He was well aware that he was full-on grinning, now, and didn't care in the slightest.

Little interactions like that...those were the fruits of all the hard work they—especially Juvia—had done when they got back from that S-Class mission. Gray had been prepared for it to be grueling and difficult, to fight. "Relationships take work" was a piece of advice he'd heard plenty, since he started asking for advice about how to love Juvia.

But what he'd never expected to find was that, while it was hard sometimes, it was work he was all too willing and capable of doing, because it was for her. For them. And what no one had told him was that, while loving someone meant their pain became yours, it also meant that their triumphs became yours, too.

Some days had been worse than others. Even though she'd been talking to a friend of Porlyusica's and made an impressive effort to spend more times with her friends, there were moments where Gray had felt like Juvia was back at square one. But he'd been there beside her, encouraging her every step of the way while she healed, learned that he wouldn't leave her again, learned that she was worth all of it. And slowly but surely, she'd healed.

That was what no one had told him: that every time she huffed at him to do his own laundry, teased him, sassed him into taking her on a real date, and even turned him down for sex, that he would feel such a huge rush of pride and triumph.

It was true that the road had been hard, but Gray had walked it with Juvia, and that had made every step worth it.

o(O)o

AN: Ah, sorry I don't have the time to edit this now and make it more cohesive! Also that I can't publish my next chapter of Chasing Tails just yet! I definitely, definitely will come back to edit this piece one day and make it better after I've done that. In the meantime, Happy Belated Gruvia Day!

P.S.: Fun Fact! I named this partly after one of my all-time favorite fics from a completely different fandom. The Hard Road by wthtonibelle, a Kacchako fic (from the My Hero Academia fandom) which is written in a similar way and has similar themes, only it's longer and better lol. check it out if you're so inclined!

#fairy tail #gruvia #gruvia fan fiction #gruvia fanfiction #fairy tail fanfiction #fairy tail fan fiction #gray fullbuster #juvia lockser

[xxnashiraxx]

Nalu Oneshot - Spectrum

Hi! I'm new here to Fairy Tail fics! If you like Nalu, please enjoy this fic I just wrote! There's a little slight lemony action, but overall it's more tame than some other things I've written! If you like this, I'll be writing a big multi-chapter Nalu fic that I'll release close to March 2024 on AO3 as well, so stick around and enjoy the one-shots I post till then! See a little sample below!!

“Okay, I found a good one! It’s a bit simple, but I don’t think you’ll get too bored!” He focuses his eyes on her, catching on her long blonde hair. She doesn’t have it twisted up in a ponytail today- rather, it’s half down, with one side pulled into a bow like the day he’d first met her. His gaze lingers on it, imaging brushing his fingers against the soft blue satin and silken locks.

“Hello? Natsu?” She huffs, waving her hand in front of his face. “Geez, did you even hear what I said?” She rolls her eyes, her coral lips turning down in a pout. The shimmer on them pulls him closer, vision tunneling into a point.

“Sorry Luce,” Natsu grumbles, sinking back onto the bench where he’d risen off it a few inches.

“Seriously, what’s with you? You’ve been off in your own little world for the past few days… are you okay?” Her tone changes from irritation to concern like the flip of a coin. “We… we’ve barely talked since everything… happened. Do you want to take a few more days before starting up? I know you said that you were ready, but if you want a longer break-”

“No, it’s fine.” He plasters a grin to his face, trying to dissuade her from poking around in his head again. After the battle, when he’d come home with her and she had let him sleep in her apartment, his emotions were running high and she’d almost pressed his deepest secret out with no more than the back of her hand on his scarred cheek.

“If you say so,” She smiles soothingly, the smallest of dimples forming on her right cheek. “What do you think about this one, then? Want to take it?” She pushes the flier across the table so he can read it. It’s simple enough, and with a curt nod he stands.

“Let's get going, we’ll want to get there before the day’s over.”

#Fairy Tail #Nalu #Fanfic #One-shot #Natsu Dragneel #Lucy Heartfilia #Romance #original work #Writing #I'm desperate to share this #Love you all!

[shelbyshoe]

Looks Like Rent Is Due

One-Shot

Fairy Tail (NaLu) Lucy is fired, again. Saving the day with psychic abilities isn’t as rewarding as you think it is. Down on her luck, and with only half rent, she strikes a deal with her landlord’s brother, a vampire named Natsu. Free rent for free blood. At least it’s a trial run, and he’s incredibly hot. Rated E (smut, vampire bites, blood) Words: 7398

Based on this amazing post.

AO3

FFN

“You’re fired.”

“What? Can I at least get a two-week notice? I have people to feed,” Lucy said. Her manager narrowed his eyes and slapped an envelope onto the counter.

“First, you are the only person you’re feeding. Second, this is the rest of your paycheck. Feel free to leave.” He didn’t wait for her to convince him that she was a great employee and that she needed the money. On his way to the back room, she caught his brief thought.

Thank gods she’s gone.

The front door to the Seven Eleven rang as she walked out of the store for the last time toward her apartment building. The summer humidity settled over her skin. Some of the hair that had escaped her ponytail stuck to the sides of her face. This wasn’t the first time someone had fired her. That’s what happened when you had psychic abilities and just so happen to stop a man from abducting a child at a Seven Eleven. Alright, she could have stopped him a bit less aggressively. But come on. It was either she allowed the man to walk away with the kid or she kicked him in the face to give the kid some time to get the heck out of there.

Lucy was a magnet for disasters. She had stopped two kidnappings, a robbery, a drug deal, and stopped a surprisingly sneaky old lady from pickpocketing everyone that passed by her at the local coffee shop. Every time, she’d had to intervene without a good reason. No one would believe that she could read people’s thoughts.

She’d tried to tell herself that it was none of her business what people thought about. Their evil intent had nothing to do with her. But when she kicked that man in the face today, that little kid appeared so relieved. It made it worth getting fired. Except, she now had to find another job. The Seven Eleven gig was already a miracle. Managers knew her as the girl that kicked the shit out of customers. No one would take her.

Lucy stood in front of her apartment building with a sinking feeling in her stomach. The small apartment she’d moved into had the usual amenities, leaky faucets, missing cabinet handles, and of course the loudest neighbors in town. The ones below her sounded like two giraffes scraping their heads on the low ceilings, and the ones above had two dogs who had zoomies all night. The outside of the building let her know that she lived in a Junji Ito novel. The lock to the gate had long broken, left wide open for anyone to get through. The building itself needed a new paint job, and the banisters had rusted, just begging for someone to fall. But at least it was cheap.

She trudged up the concrete stairs to her second-floor apartment. The little old lady that lived next door sat in the breezeway in a little chair. She cradled a steaming cup in her hands and smiled at Lucy’s approach.

“You’re home early,” she said.

“Fired again.” She pulled out her house keys from her bag as she approached her door.

“You’re young yet. You’ll find another one. I believe in you, Heartfilia.” Ms. Sato took a sip of her tea and closed her eyes in bliss. If only Lucy’s life could feel that good.

“Thank you, Ms. Sato.” She pushed open her door and slipped inside. There wasn’t much to her apartment, maybe that was best in her situation. She pulled off her shoes in the tiled genkan, passed the little kitchenette and the door to her all-in-one bathroom, and dropped her bag on the floor before she sank into her two-seater couch. She had plans to get a new TV to fill the empty space in her living room. That was until she lost her job, again. Now she had to save every penny. She didn’t feel like she had needed one before. There was a used bookstore down the street, so she had piles of mass market paperbacks stacked just below the window in the way she’d seen on Instagram. Lucy’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She found a text message from her best friend lit up the screen.

Levy: Want to come out tonight?

Lucy leaned her head back on her couch cushion and stared up at the water-stained ceiling. Either this was a girl’s night, which she couldn’t afford now that she had no job, or Levy had asked her to be a third wheel again. Levy had acquired a new boyfriend and loved to drag Lucy along to try and find her one too. Her tired body begged her to stay home, take a hot shower, and crawl into bed. Her weary mind wanted to drink and forget her loss of a job. Ah, decisions.

Lucy: Who’s coming?

She hoped that was a hint to leave the boyfriend at home. With her luck, Levy would insist that he join them. Their honeymoon phase was cute and all, but Lucy didn’t want to date while in crisis. Did she even have enough money to go out? She leaned over, pulled her bag into her lap, and took out the envelope that her ex-boss gave her. Inside was a stack of cash. He had counted the exact amount that he owed her for her final paycheck. It included a copy of an official notice of termination. Great. Might as well add them to the pile. Her phone buzzed again. She expected to find her answer about Levy’s plans.

Scumlord: This is your reminder that your rent is two days past due. If it is convenient for you, submit your payment through the client portal. If you are using cash, please slip it under door 101. No checks or money orders. Thank you.

Fantastic. Just what she needed in these trying times. Another message lit her screen.

Levy: Just me and Gajeel. You’ve been working so many hours. You should take some time for yourself!

Lucy: Maybe next time! I’m exhausted.

If Lucy’s calculations were correct, she didn’t have enough money for rent. She needed money or time to find a new job. She stared at the landlord’s message. She had cash at least. Maybe she could go down to 101 and convince whoever lived there to take an IOU. Or she could run down to Seven Eleven and beg for her job back. She devised a plan to tell the manager that she’d heard the gross guy, that she kicked to hell, tell that kid some dirty things or something. Though she doubted that made a difference. She still kicked a customer, and corporate only cared about the money in their pockets. The next time she saw something weird, she’d ignore it. Lucy hated her little gift of reading minds. For her entire life, it had only brought her trouble.

“What people think is none of my business.” If she said it enough, she could feel better when she inevitably allowed things like kidnap to happen. Might as well—

Someone knocked at Lucy’s door. She stood and slipped her phone in her back pocket. She peeked through the peephole and found nothing on the other side.

“Who’s there?” she called.

“Here to collect rent,” a low voice said from the other side of her door. Lucy had met her landlord on a few occasions. He was aloof with longish black hair, owned multiple properties, and was ruthless with rent. He had enough money to live somewhere other than the Junji Ito horror apartment building. This person at her door must be whoever lived in apartment 101. Now was her chance to convince whoever was on the other side to allow her to pay half.

Lucy opened the door with an entire spiel about rent rattled off in her head. All of which evaporated as soon as she got a good look at 101. He stood off to the side and leaned against the metal railing. He braced himself on the rail. The drapey gray sleeveless shirt helped display his perfectly toned tanned arms and broad shoulders.

“I can’t.” She hadn’t meant to blurt it out. To her credit, her brain had run on fumes all week and clearly no longer functioned like an adult.

“You can’t pay?” The man in front of her lifted himself off the rail. Her eyes followed his movement. Bad idea. Now, she couldn’t stop staring at his arms.

“I can do half.” She held up the white envelope.

“No can do.” He crossed his arms over his chest. This was not the time to lust over a random man at her door to collect rent. “When can you have all of it? I was explicitly told by my shitty brother not to accept more than full payment.”

“Look, you seem nice. I’d hate to put you in a bad spot, but I only have half. I just got laid off and need to find another job,” Lucy said. He whistled low and shook his head.

“That’s a bummer. But I still can’t take half.”

“Wait, you’re the landlord’s brother?”

“Unfortunately.” He grimaced and peered down the breezeway.

“What brings you to this dump?” It helped the situation that the hot guy sounded like he hated her landlord as much as she did. If she could soften him up a bit, and get him to talk freely, she could convince him to take half the rent payment.

“Dropped out of college and needed somewhere to go.”

“Man, your brother must hate you to send you here.” Lucy leaned against her door frame and tucked her envelope in her back pocket.

“Probably, but I’m not planning to stay. What brings you here? I was expecting drug dealers and gang members.”

“What makes you think I don’t deal?” she said. His eyes widened before he broke out into a soft laugh. The sound made her want to hear more. “I’m kidding. I’m strapped for cash.”

“Clearly, but I meant that you seem like you belong in a high rise somewhere, not here.”

“It’s a long story. What made you drop out?” she asked.

“It’s a long story.” This time when he smiled, his canines stood out to her as particularly sharp. Either Lucy was extremely lonely, or she’d unlocked a new turn on.

“Well, if you don’t want this money, I’m going to grab a drink with it. You are welcome to join me.” Lucy ducked back into her apartment, grabbed her bag, and slipped the envelope inside.

“I’ll take you up on that,” he said as she locked the door.

They fell into step with each other down the stairs and to the sidewalk.

“So, what is your name, 101?” she asked.

“101? Oh, Natsu.” He lifted his arms to secure his hands behind his head while they walked. Lucy found him oddly relaxing to be around. “What about you, 204?”

“I’m Lucy.” They waited at a pedestrian light and waited for cars to pass. Natsu moved to turn the corner, but Lucy took his arm before he could move on.

“Nope, not that way,” she said.

“There’s a Seven Eleven down this way. It’s not that far,” he said.

“We’re going to the Lawson down the road. I was fired from that Seven Eleven.” When the crosswalk signaled them to go, Lucy stepped off the curb and tugged him in the same direction.

“How did you get fired from a Seven Eleven?” Natsu asked. This was the problem with superpowers. She didn’t know how to tell someone that she could hear people’s thoughts. Most freaked out or believed she was crazy.

“I apprehended a criminal,” she said. The cicadas whined in the lush green trees as they passed a small park. A couple kids laughed with each other on the swings. All the sounds of summer played out in a lull around the neighborhood. Even their chatter matched the ambient sounds of the city. If she wasn’t in such a tight spot financially, she may have enjoyed it.

“Fighting evil by moonlight?”

“I’m the one named, 204.”

“But seriously. What did you do? Attack someone in the store?” His tone implied sarcasm, and Lucy wished she could laugh it off with him. On another timeline, she’d still have a job and could have met Natsu under better circumstances, all bills paid. Her fantasy of a better paycheck loomed over her. Natsu’s smile fell, and he leaned forward to get a better look at her face. “You’re kidding. You attacked a customer? No wonder you got fired.”

“He was being a pervert to some kid! I couldn’t stand there and let him abduct children.” The need to validate her actions made her chest tight.

“You didn’t have to beat him up either. Though I don’t blame you. He sounds like he deserved it,” Natsu said.

“I didn’t beat him. I kicked him.”

“What’s the difference?” he said as they rounded the corner to the Lawson. They passed below its blue and white striped sign and into the air-conditioned building. Lucy followed Natsu to the back of the store and stood with him in front of the wall of refrigerated drinks.

“Beating him up implies that I hit him more than once,” she said and browsed the shelves. Her usual green tea caught her eye. Natsu picked up a bottle of cold coffee and eyed the back of the can. What was he thinking? Wait. What was he thinking? Lucy concentrated on his energy but came up empty. Until now, she’d yet to meet a person whose mind she couldn’t read.

“What? Can’t decide either?” He took up a different coffee from the shelf and meandered toward the alcohol. Either she was finally free of her powers, or Natsu’s mind was as dry as the Sahara Desert.

Damn it, she’s here. The thought had dripped in malice and entered her mind at top volume. Lucy glanced over her shoulder to find the man she’d kicked the hell out of eye her from the register. He narrowed his gaze in her direction as the clerk, oblivious, rang him up. Just what she needed, drama to follow her while she browsed a Lawson with her landlord’s brother.

Natsu had moved away from the drinks and strolled the aisle of snacks.

I’ll kill her. The man’s thought sent a chill down Lucy’s back. She turned back to the drinks, grabbed her usual green tea, and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them, she prayed the man had disappeared. Lucy jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“It’s on me.” Natsu held up two beers, a bag of Calbee chips, and his coffee tucked under his arm. “What?” He followed her eyes to the cashier behind the counter on their phone. “Miss your job already? Don’t worry! You’ll find another one.” He took her green tea and added it to his stuff. She followed him to the counter and surveyed the store for signs of the man. Maybe she had imagined him. Natsu swatted her hand away from the bag when she tried to take it from the counter.

“I got it,” he insisted. The summer air, while tepid, made her feel better. The streets were desolate behind them. “Looking for someone?” Natsu asked. Lucy shook her head and adjusted her bag on her shoulder as they walked back. They turned to the street where their apartment building loomed. When she realized Natsu was no longer with her, she made it to the staircase. He squatted on the corner of the street with a shoelace in each hand. He had placed the bag down beside him to tie his shoe. She crossed her arms over her chest and opened her mouth to make a snarky comment when she heard the voice again.

There she is. The man’s voice was unmistakable. Lucy took a step toward Natsu, who kneeled far from her by the street with his other shoe’s laces in his hands. The man jumped out from the shadows. Lucy stepped back into the massive crack in the pavement. She fell over her own feet to the concrete and lifted her hands in front of her face to block an imminent blow. A wall of darkness blocked the final rays of sunlight. Natsu had stood in front of her, bags dropped at her feet, with his hand clutched around the man’s throat. How had he gotten there so fast?

“You may want to rethink that.” Natsu lifted the man up. His feet jerked around as they left the ground. One of his shoes clattered to the floor as he clawed at Natsu’s grip to no avail. “If I catch you anywhere near my friend again, I’ll have to do more than choke you. Got it?” A grin spread across Natsu’s face, and his eyes lit up. While the man gasped for air, he nodded in Natsu’s grasp. The man crumbled to the ground and coughed. His hand had wrapped around his own throat, now an angry shade of red, as he clamored away. “You forgot your shoe!” Natsu picked up the shoe and threw it at the man. It hit the back of his head so hard that he hit the floor. The man grabbed his shoe with wide eyes and ran from sight. When Natsu turned and held out a hand to help her up, she flinched.

“Don’t worry, I don’t think he’ll be coming back any time soon.” Natsu helped her off the floor and took the bag again. Without a second glance, he trotted merrily up the stairs with their goods. Lucy followed behind him with her heart still in her throat. As not to incur his wrath, she quietly opened the door and allowed him inside. Natsu set the bag down on her coffee table and sagged into the couch. “I think your apartment is bigger than mine,” he said.

“What did your brother put you in? A sardine can?” she asked. Her apartment was already tiny. She couldn’t imagine something smaller.

“Basically, a closet compared to your place.” He leaned forward and took out his can of coffee. His fingers snapped back the aluminum tab. His casual posture did not read as someone who would murder her, but she found herself on edge.

“Are we going to talk about what just happened?” she asked.

“I think he followed us from the Lawson.” Natsu took a long sip of his coffee and leaned back on the couch. “I like your couch too. Need a roommate?” he teased.

“Are you on drugs?”

“Drugs? Where did that come from?”

“I’m serious. What was that?” she asked. He eyed her for a moment and tapped his index finger against the can.

“You are kind of odd yourself, being a mind reader and all,” he said. Lucy’s blood ran cold in her veins. She took an involuntary step back toward the door. Natsu held his hands up in front of him. “It’s cool. Your secret is safe with me.”

“How did you know?” she asked.

“You probed a few times,” he pointed to his head, “but I have guards up, sorry.” He downed the rest of his coffee, placed the can on the table, and leaned into the bag for his chips.

“You’re a psychic? But that doesn’t explain the speed.” Lucy slid her bag from her shoulder and set it down on the floor beside the table. Natsu munched away on his chips, and Lucy sat opposite him on her little pink sitting cushion.

“Not exactly. But I’m not allowed to talk about it. Chip?” He held out the open bag for her. She took some and pulled out her cold tea from the bag. They sat in silence munching and enjoying the air conditioning that she turned on with a little remote.

“Why aren’t you allowed to talk about it?” Lucy had never met anyone like Natsu before. Granted, she’d yet to meet someone like herself. “Is your brother psychic too?” she asked.

“Nah, he didn’t get the gift.”

“Does he have your speed?” Lucy’s phone buzzed in her bag, and she reached over to grab it. A text lit up the screen.

Levy: When was the last time you were outside of that apartment, aside from working? You deserve a night out. She practically heard Levy’s voice through the text. Unless she had an alibi, Levy would insist she join them.

“He does.” Natsu sifted through the shopping bag, pulled out one of the beers, and popped the tab.

Lucy: Just now, actually! I’m hanging out with a neighbor. Her phone buzzed immediately.

Levy: A hot neighbor? Her text included a very suggestive emoji.

“What?” Natsu asked from the couch.

“Nothing. Texting a friend back.” Lucy turned her phone face down beside her and sipped on her tea.

“I’m faster than him,” Natsu said. It took her a moment to remember what she had asked him before.

“Your brother?”

“I mean, he tried to beat my speed, but I always have the fastest time.” Natsu grinned to himself and took a drink of his beer.

“I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me. Let me get this straight, my landlord is a super speedy guy, and his brother can read minds but isn’t allowed to talk about it,” Lucy said.

“Look, I’m not allowed to talk about it with just anyone, but you clearly are just as weird as we are, so I’m sure he’d let this slide,” he said. Lucy’s heart raced in her chest. She didn’t expect the excitement that came with those words. Would she feel less alone if she could finally talk about her gifts with someone like her?

“We’re vampires,” Natsu said. The world dropped beneath her. She needed to get this clearly delusional drug addict with brother issues out of her apartment. She lifted her phone to check it and gave herself a moment to escape.

Levy: Lucy Heartfilia! Do not leave me hanging or else I will call you!

Lucy: He is good looking, but he is my landlord’s brother. It isn’t what you think. She hoped that was enough to keep her from calling. Now was clearly not the time.

“No, I’m not a drug addict with brother issues.” Natsu rolled his eyes and finished off his beer. “Do you recycle?” He crunched a can in his fist and pointed to his empty coffee.

“Stop reading my mind! And yes, the cans go in there.” She pointed to the kitchenette. “There’s a bag under the sink.” Her phone buzzed in her hand. Natsu got up with the cans in his grasp.

Levy: Ohhh free rent? Lucy had almost forgotten about her rent problem. Natsu’s relaxed demeanor and possible insanity really put a wrench in her plan to talk her way out of paying in full.

“Ah yeah, the rent,” Natsu said from the kitchenette.

“I said don’t—”

“Read your mind. Yeah, I got it.” Natsu waved her off and sat back on the couch. Lucy leaned back onto her palms. “Well, now that you know I’m a vampire, maybe we can make a deal for rent.” He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands steepled together. From her angle, Natsu resembled a movie villain.

“A deal? Look, I tried to get you to take half the rent. I can get the rest by the end of the week if I can get another job.” Lucy didn’t want to make a deal with a drug addict, but her back was against a wall here.

“I’m not a drug addict.”

“How am I supposed to believe that you’re a vampire? That’s crazy.”

“You’re a psychic and you don’t think vampires can exist?”

“Fine, I’ll bite, what kind of deal?” Lucy heard her phone buzz again but left it alone. Levy could wait.

“I feed from you, and you get free rent. You can use the money to take a vacation or have more time to look for a new job. I get fed, which I’m currently having a hard time doing since the blood bank is low on supply. A win-win if you ask me.” His grin revealed the sharp canines from before. Could he really be a vampire?

“Feed? As in bite me? I’d rather not go to the hospital for an infected human bite.” She sat up and drank more of her tea.

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not human then.”

“I’m going to be honest with you because you can read my mind.”

“That’s fair.”

“I think you’re a lunatic.”

“I’ve met lunatics and I can assure you that I am not one of them. But my offer still stands. My brother clearly stated he will not take half rent.”

“You couldn’t just ask him to take half?” she asked. Natsu tossed the empty bag of chips into the plastic shopping bag and stood.

“When I say he won’t take half, I mean it. That man will not budge on something like this, trust me.” He threw the trash away in a bag under the kitchen sink.

“Do you mean that, or do you just want to bite me?” she asked. Natsu leaned on the entry to her small hall and laughed.

“You really are fun to be around, you know that?” He ran his hand through his messy pink hair. She had to admit that she hadn’t lied to Levy. The man was hot. If only he wasn’t crazy. “I mean it though. He won’t take it.”

“But you’re so convinced that he’ll let it go if you get to feed from me?”

“Yeah. If he thinks it’ll get me closer to getting a big boy job and out of this apartment, he’d allow it. Saving money on blood supply would do that.” He pushed away from the wall, his eyes lit up, and he snapped his fingers. The gesture was so comical she expected to see a little light bulb above his head. “I have an idea.” Natsu bounded back into the living space and crouched next to her. He sat on the heels of his feet and draped his arms over his knees. Lucy leaned back at his sudden closeness.

“I’m afraid to ask,” she said.

“Why don’t you try a trial run?” he asked.

“Come again?” Close up, everything about Natsu remained pristine. The flawless skin and attractive turn of his lips made her rethink his immortal status.

“We can do a monthly trial,” he said, “I take your blood, and you keep your money. If you don’t like it, then you can go back to paying for rent the old fashion way next month.” His excitement was infectious and terrifying. The truth was, she had no idea where she was going to look for a job. She couldn’t go back to the convenience stores. Retail was hell and she had a better chance of running into people with malevolent intent. If she took this little trial, she could stash her money away and buy her time to find a job in another industry, something quiet.

“How do I know you’ll keep your end of the bargain?” Lucy couldn’t believe she entertained the idea.

“I live downstairs from you. Even if I didn’t keep my end up, you could find me easily and kick my ass,” he said.

“Do we have a contract or something?”

“I’m fine with your word.” Natsu shrugged and gave her a million-watt smile. She couldn’t help the way her stomach flip flopped. Either she had reached the limit of her loneliness, she had lost her mind, this man had mind control over her, or it was truly a good deal. Either way, she took his offered hand and shook it.

“It’s a deal then,” she said. He dropped her hand but made no move to stand up. “Uh, when did you want to start?” Her heart hammered in her chest as he leaned in and sank to his knees in front of her.

“Now, if you’d like,” he said. If she moved mere inches, she’d be able to kiss him. The idea rattled around in her head but all she could do was nod. Had he heard that little thought? Natsu moved her hair over her shoulder, leaned in with both palms pressed to the ground on either side of her, and hesitated at her neck. “I did hear that.” First, she felt his warm breath against her neck, then the exquisite sensation of his lips against her skin. She melted into him.

“You should stay out of my head,” she said.

“Do you want in mine?” Natsu took her arms in his grasp and pulled her against him. Lucy’s breath caught in her throat, and with apprehension, she concentrated on his mind.

Beautiful. The first word she’d picked up from him made her heart flutter. Hold still, Lucy.

When his fangs pierced her skin, she balled his shirt in her hands. The pinpricks were followed by the most overwhelming lust she’d ever felt in her entire life. A soft moan slipped from her lips, and his grip tightened around her arms. Her sex clenched painfully with need. A long draw of her blood forced another moan to tumble from her lips. Her whole body pulled taut and teetered on the edge of orgasm from his mouth alone. Natsu’s chest vibrated with a deep groan. He slid his hands onto her backside and dragged her into his lap. His thick arousal pressed against her core. He pulled away from her neck and lapped at the mark. Lucy’s head lulled to the side and her body thrummed in her haze.

Natsu palmed the back of her neck and dragged her lips to his. Their kiss was like lit propane. His taste mixed with the metallic tang of blood that rolled over her tongue. She thrust against his length, determined to relieve the ache. The clothes felt too heavy, too imposing, against her skin. As if to answer her thought, he pulled her shirt over her head and unclasped her bra. The air was cool across her heated skin. He took her lips again and trailed kisses from her jaw to her breasts. Lucy slid her fingers through his hair when he took possession of her sensitive nipple. He rolled the peak between his deft fingertips, and his eyes never left her as he swept his tongue over the breadth of the other.

The loud buzz of her phone cut off the curse that rolled off her tongue. She groaned when he squeezed her breast in his hand and sucked harder on her skin. The phone stopped and then started again. This time, her groan was because of the sound.

“Sounds urgent,” he said against her nipple, “you can answer it.”

“I can’t.” Her voice came out as more of a whimper than she liked.

Just tell them you’re busy and hang up. His hand that cupped her ass tugged her against him. She’d give anything to take the rest of her clothes off. The phone continued its demand for her attention. Better answer it if they want to talk to you that bad.

You just want me on the phone while you do this. She made sure that her voice came out snarky in her mind.

I wouldn’t say that. But it’s going to keep ringing. He grinned and released her nipple from his mouth with a wet suck. His dark eyes flickered up to her as he lapped at the flushed skin. Her phone started up again.

“Fine.” Lucy leaned back to reach for her bag. Her arm dug around for the damn phone. She wrapped her hand around it like treasure and answered.

“Lucy! What is going on? Did your hot neighbor leave?” Levy spoke loudly to the receiver. Her voice slurred slightly, and other voices mingled in behind her. A bar maybe?

“No and I have to go.” Lucy worked to keep her voice steady.

“He’s there with you?  Did he get you free rent or something?” she asked. Natsu took that moment to sink his fangs into the supple skin of her breast.

“Yes.” She bit her lip to keep from crying out in Levy’s ear.

“What? What does he get in return? Surely, they wouldn’t let you get away with a whole month for free.” Levy was clever. Lucy feared that her intelligent friend, even tipsy could hear what the man in her arms did to her.

You taste amazing. Natsu groaned low against her skin.

“I really have to go.”

“Are you alright? You sound out of breath,” Levy said. Lucy had a few choice words for Natsu, but her brain had barely processed her phone conversation, her telepathic one was out of the question.

“Just ran to the store. I’ll call you after, I promise.”

“After what?”

“Come on, Shrimp. You’ve had too much and it’s time to go.” Levy’s boyfriend’s voice sounded further away. If it weren’t for her predicament, Lucy would thank Gajeel.

“Talk to you later!” Lucy hung up the phone, tossed it on the couch, and let out a long moan. “Why did you have to bite me while I was on the phone?” she asked. Natsu gave another hard suck and groaned against her breast. Her pleasure sent stars across her vision. No matter how good she felt, or how close to the precipice she was, her orgasm didn’t come. Something about the bite itself could not bring her over the edge. He laid her back against the floor and pulled back. A bead of blood traveled down the side of her breast, and he followed it with his tongue before he licked the bite.

They fumbled to get the rest of their clothes off. His erection sprung free, and precum shone from the head of his shaft. In Lucy’s haze, she looked her fill, unabashed by her greedy gaze. Natsu did the same and languidly stroked himself at the sight of her.

Where have you been all my life? Did he even know she could still hear him? Natsu lifted her legs over his shoulders and clutched her thighs, lowering himself to the floor. His warm breath stroked her core.

Please. Her sex glistened with how wet she’d become.

Someone else liked the phone call too. His voice and soft chuckle bounced around her head. Natsu trailed his lips along her inner thigh toward her center. She wiggled with impatience. His deep green eyes flicked up to her. Looks like you loved it. He reached one hand over and ran his thumb up and down her damp slit. Her legs shook as he skimmed the pale skin of her thigh with his teeth. When he bit down, he pushed past her folds with his thumb and slid himself deep into her. Her moan was so loud that she was sure that the little old lady next door heard.

Lucy grabbed a fist full of his cherry hair and tugged. The growl of pleasure shook against her thigh. He pulled his thumb out of her and rubbed her aching clit with her own slick heat. Lucy writhed beneath him. He sucked hard and plunged two fingers past her soaked lips. This time, she felt her pulse race with her impending climax. The harmony of their heavy breaths and the slick sound of his digits moving in and out of her filled the room.

Can’t get enough of you. His voice was velvet and through their mental connection alone, he made her feel as though his hands pulled her hardened nipples. A curse left her lips in surprise. He pulled his fingers out of her and began to vigorously stroke her sensitive bud. The friction mounted enough to make her eyes roll back. With one last suck, she found rapture in her release. No man had ever made her cum so hard in her life.

Natsu slowed his pace and pulled away from his bite. He lapped at the skin there and moved her legs from his shoulders. The absence of him made her skin feel cold, and her sex tightened without him inside her. With the slickness of his hand, he stroked his length. A low hiss escaped him as he did. She could only imagine the discomfort he felt then. Even so, she found the look of his hand wrapped around his shaft, the definition of muscle across his arms, and the aching way he gazed at her body sexy as hell.

Lucy attempted to sit up, but dizziness made her fall back. Natsu stilled and leaned over her.

“Are you dizzy? I’m sorry, I may have taken too much from you.” He pressed his palms on either side of her and leaned in to take her lips.

“I’m fine,” she said into his mouth. His tongue moved over hers as though he’d never taste her again.

“Can I?” Natsu clutched his thick erection and poised himself over her damp curls.

“Yes.” Lucy squirmed beneath him with need. He grinned down at her and spread her lips with the head of his cock.

Hold tight. He steadily sheathed himself into her. She arched against him, and her legs spread wider. He cursed as he plunged himself inch by inch. Her walls stretched deliciously to accommodate him; the feeling so exquisite that her legs shook. He clutched her thighs, sat up, and peered down at the way their bodies met. You wanna try something? She barely registered his husky voice in her head.

Try what? Lucy had no clue what he wanted to try, but she knew she’d say yes.

Remember how I touched you telepathically before? He took a long breath out. Her walls gripped his length as he slowly moved out of her. Both groaned with the sensation.

“I remember,” she said.

“I’ve never had a connection like this before,” he admitted, “Concentrate on that link, the way you do when we talk.” At first, she felt skeptical. Part of her didn’t care about anything but the pleasure, but she obliged him. Their eyes locked as he thrust deep inside her. Lucy grabbed his arms like an anchor. Instead of pulling out, he rotated his hips so that he could stroke her clit.

This is the best sex I’ve ever had. She hadn’t meant to “send” that thought, but from the wide grin on his face, she knew it was too late to take it back. Their connection felt like a line between them, only stronger as they came together. She held onto that line. Then she felt it. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened. Natsu thrust into her at an easy rhythm all the while she felt his teeth gently tug on her nipples, even with his mouth far from her. How? The mounting feeling in the pit of her stomach started again. Her mouth hung open with cries that never came.

He bit his lip as he surged forward. He moved his hand to her ass and pulled her hips higher. The angle was her catalyst. The head of his shaft grazed a soft spot inside her with each thrust. Lucy came undone in his hands.

Yeah, just like that. A small trickle of blood rolled down his chin from his teeth clenched against his flushed lip. Her orgasm ripped through her. Could he feel it? She concentrated on the way they spoke to each other, that thread pulled taut. Natsu’s moans mingled with hers and he screwed his eyes shut. Is that your— Fuck, Lucy. Is that yours? The waves of her orgasm ebbed, and her mind reeled.

Maybe. Served him right for using whatever this was on her first.

I guess I have to return the favor. He pulled out and flipped her onto her stomach. She made a sound of protest but quieted when he lifted her hips up for his cock to slide back into her from behind. Lucy gasped at the movement. But it wasn’t until his orgasm reached her through their connection that she knew what he meant by “return the favor”. A litany of curses tumbled from her mouth. So much for a good repour with her neighbors. His climax ripped through her so hard that she thrust in the air around his dick that rocked into her. He moaned her name like a prayer. Their essence ran down her leg as she reached down to stroke herself as he came.

When their movements became languid and her muscles ached, he pulled out of her. They lay on the floor out of breath.

You said you’ve never had a connection like that before? Her exhaustion made it easier to ask in her head.

“You’re the first psychic I’ve met.”

So, you’ve never done that mind thing with another woman before?

“Never. This was the best sex I’ve ever had.” He turned his head to meet her eyes. Didn’t know it could be that good.

“Neither did I,” she said.

“We’ll need to work on this connection thing.”

“Why?” She sat up slowly. Natsu followed her movements and held out a hand in case she fell back again.

“We keep reading thoughts that we don’t mean to send. Are you dizzy?” he asked.

“Not as bad,” she said. Natsu stood and took to her little refrigerator. It was bizarre to see a hot naked man casually in her fridge.

“Ah, ha.” He pulled out a bottle of juice and came back with it. “Drink this. You should probably eat something too. I’m sorry about that.”

“Got a little carried away?” She popped the top off the drink. He messed with the back of his hair and didn’t meet her eyes.

“It seems like it.”

The two of them cleaned up and dressed. Natsu waited until she finished the rest of her juice before he offered to grab her food. She told him she had leftovers, and he didn’t have to worry about it.

“Can I ask a question?” she asked later as she walked him to the door.

“Sure.”

“Why are there no marks?” She noticed in the bathroom that none of his bite marks had stuck around. Another reminder that he wasn’t human.

“Why? Want them to show?” He wagged his eyebrows at her suggestively. She playfully swatted at him. His ability to bypass awkwardness with mischief was amazing to her. Nothing appeared to faze him. Who was this man?

“No, I was just wondering if that was why you, you know, licked them.”

“Yeah, that helps them heal as fast as I do.” Natsu leaned against the closed door with his arms crossed over his chest. “Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?”

“I’ll be fine. I appreciate it,” she said. Natsu nodded and opened the door to reveal Levy on the other side. Her fist raised to knock. “Oh, looks like you have a visitor, Lucy.” Natsu extended his hand. “Nice to meet you. Levy, right?” he asked. Levy nodded with her mouth slightly open. “Well, this was nice. Same time next month, Lucy?” At that moment, Lucy wanted to kick his ass. She’d save it for next month.

The weeks passed quickly. Without rent looming over her head, she found a pep in her step. It didn’t hurt that she had great sex. Yet, she debated another meeting with Natsu. They’d seen each other in passing. One time she caught him in the hall, to which he whispered in her mind. Looking good, Lucy.

Her body craved him and his bite. She found that she’d pleasure herself more with thoughts of him. Occasionally she’d bite her own arm as she did so. She never broke her skin, and it never felt the same.

The day had come, and Lucy stood in front of apartment 101. Instead of knocking on the door, she focused on that connection, that thread they shared, and sent filthy images of everything she’d fantasized about. The door pulled open and Natsu’s dark eyes met hers. He had nothing on but a towel over his waist and droplets of water rolled down his body from a shower.

Looks like rent is due.

#nalu #fairy tail #nalu fan fiction #fairy tail fan fiction #ft fan fiction #looks like rent is due

[the-writing-trash-panda]

The Children of Fairies|| Fairy Tail Next Gen

Chapter 4: Birthday Party Gone Wrong

{Kids}: Storm Fullbuster- 4 Nashi Dragneel- 4

It was a beautiful day and nothing could go wrong, except everything had gone wrong. Nashi and Storm shared a birthday and in the past, it had been fine but today they were arguing over who got to open presents first and who got to blow out their candles first. The fighting had turned physical pretty quickly and now Lucy and Juvia had to hold back their kids so that no one got hurt more than they already had. It seemed as though they were calming down, but then Lauren had gotten to both cakes and took a handful from each to try. And thus screaming and crying began once again and all the parents were about ready to end the party and take their kids home. The only kids who had not done anything were Kate and Nito, they sat next to their parents watching as their friends acted crazy.

“Nashi Dragneel you stop this behavior right now or I’m taking you home and you don’t get to open your presents until tomorrow.” Lucy scolded her daughter, setting her on a table and looking straight into her eyes.

“But, but mommy! I wanted to, to open presents first but Storm wouldn’t let me. And then, Lauren eat some of my, my cake!” The pink-haired girl said through sobs. 

Lucy was not having it, so she handed Nashi to Natsu, picked up the little girl’s presents, and led her family home.

“Mommy, since Nashi has to go home, can I have more of her cake?” Lauren asked Cana, her face still covered in crumbs and frosting.

“No sweetie, it’s not your birthday,” Cana said, pulling her daughter’s hair back so that it didn’t stick to her face. It didn’t take long for the other families to go home and for Mira to clean up the guildhall. 

Later that night Nashi had decided that she wanted to apologize to Storm and so she snuck out and ran to the Fullbuster house. When she got there she knocked on the door not thinking about the fact that it would be either Gray or Juvia that answered the door.

“Nashi, what are you doing here? It’s way too late for you to be out on your own.” Juvia said after opening the door and seeing the Dragneel girl.

“I wanted to say sorry to Storm,” Nashi explained, looking up at the water mage.

“Well he’s asleep but why don’t you come in well I call your mom.”

“No! Don’t call my mommy, she will get even madder at me!” Nashi said, shaking her head quickly to emphasize her fear.

“Well I need to let your parents know you’re here, you don’t want them to worry do you?” Juvia asked, leading Nashi to the couch.

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. Juvia answered it, letting Natsu in.

“Alright pumpkin, let's go home. Your mommy is really mad, but I’m sure you already know that.” Natsu said, picking up his daughter and taking her home.

The next Nashi was the first one to wake up and so she was the one to answer the door when there was a sudden knock. Outside stood Storm and Juvia, and they were holding party stuff.

“Good morning Nashi, sorry about yesterday I was being a bad friend.” Storm said, looking down at the ground in shame.

“I’m sorry too, we were both bad friends,” Nashi said, wrapping her arms around Storm in an effort to hug him.

When Lucy came down she asked what was happening and Juvia explained that Storm had wanted to apologize and asked if they could have another party but only them.

“Well I suppose that’s okay, come inside you two and I’ll make pancakes.”

#fairy tail #fairy tail next generation #fairy tail fanfiction #next generation #fanfiction #oc #one shot #nalu #fairy tail nalu #gruvia #fairy tail gruvia #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #gray fullbuster #juvia lockser #juvia #nashi dragneel #storm fullbuster #nalu kid #gruvia kid #the children of fairies

[teleiapotami]

Can you write an enemies to lovers NaLu one shot (or however long you would like)?!

I'd love to! Only question I have is....should I keep this sfw, or let my smutty lil heart go wild?

#fairy tail fanfic #ask response #fairy tail #fairy tail nalu #creative writing #talking teleia