#alcohol-free twice | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tokkias · 1 year

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alcohol free ship: natsu dragneel x lucy heartfilia summary: All it takes is a few drinks for Lucy to start doing things she knows she might regret in the morning, and unfortunately for Natsu he's the one designated to pick up the pieces. ao3

In all his years in Fairy Tail, Natsu had learned to hold his liquor. A couple of shots and plenty of beers had done little to faze him over the course of the night.

He couldn’t exactly say the same of his partner, though.

She was only halfway through her second cocktail when Lucy started to feel the effects of the alcohol hit her, and with Mirajane keeping them coming, well, that was a recipe for disaster.

Any other time, Natsu might have stepped in before she got to that point; drunk Lucy was… sloppy, to put it kindly, but after a few weeks of rough jobs, she deserved to let loose a little. Still, he knew he best keep an eye on her, lest she get herself into trouble. Or, at least, that was the plan.

He had only looked away for a moment, but in that time, he had lost sight of her within the sea of rowdy, boozed-up guildmates. Slight panic set in as he scanned the room for her, worried about what sort of trouble a drunk Lucy could get herself into. Thankfully, a flash of golden hair hobbling towards the bar quelled his nerves.

"Ah~! Another drink, please, Mira!"

Her face was flushed a deep red as she swayed from side to side, trying to keep her balance in her drunken state, before ultimately grabbing hold of Natsu’s shoulder in an attempt to stay upright. The last time he had seen her this evening, she was a little tipsy, but now, she was absolutely hammered.

Figuring that tonight was his turn as the responsible one of the pair, he spoke up before Mira had a chance to respond to her request.

"No. I’m not letting ya drink any more tonight," he told her firmly, deciding that if he wasn’t going to put his foot down now, she would make it both of their problems for the rest of the night.

"You’re no fun," she whined, a pout making its way onto her lips as she leaned in closer to him. She was so close that their noses were almost touching, her expression inscrutable, and he flinched back a bit as he was hit with the pungent smell of alcohol on her breath.

Mira’s voice would snap her out of her little trance: "I think Natsu’s right, Lucy. I’m going to have to cut you off for tonight."

Natsu silently thanked every god, deity and star there was that Mira wasn’t going to enable Lucy to make the rest of his night absolutely miserable. He didn’t like it when she got like this. Sure, Lucy was weird, but drunk Lucy was weird weird. She’d get all affectionate and emotional with him, and he never really knew how to respond to it. Sober Lucy had firm physical boundaries with him, but as soon as she got a little liquid courage in her veins, she would be all over him. If Lucy remembered some of the things she’d done while drunk, he thought she might have sworn off drinking altogether out of pure shame and embarrassment.

He couldn’t earnestly say he disliked the attention and affection she gave him while drunk. The way she swooned over him, the way she draped himself over him, the way her brain seemed to become nothing more than Natsu, Natsu, Natsu, Natsu, always had him feeling some type of way about her. He recalled a night where he had allowed her one too many, and she eagerly spent the rest of the evening running her hands across his arms and chest, admiring his form in a way that was a little more than friendly. The memory of it had been burned into his brain; her touch scorched into his skin, leaving mental marks that he would simply never forget.

To be honest, he liked the way she felt against him, but there was just one problem he had with it.

This wasn’t his Lucy.

His Lucy would be sure to give him a smack across the head if his hand trailed too low down her back for her liking, not clinging to him the way she was right now.

She had since moved on from her prior woes and had instead found herself attached to his side, her arms wrapped around his, pulling it into her cleavage as her chin rested on his shoulder.

"Naaaaatssssuuuuu~" she purred, "come dance with me~"

"No," he rejected point-blank, not wanting to entertain drunk Lucy’s antics tonight.

He’d watch over her, make sure she was okay and taken care of, but he refused to let himself be dragged into her drunken whims.

That plan shattered to pieces the moment he spoke, and Lucy’s bottom lip began to quiver and her eyes became glassy with true, genuine tears. As soon as he saw the first tear run down her cheek, Natsu knew that he had royally fucked himself.

"Is it because you hate me?" She whimpered, pulling away from him to hold her hands in her face, weeping into her palms.

"No, Lucy, I don't--" Her sobs and wails were beginning to draw much unwanted attention their way, and Natsu rested his hand on her shoulder in a bid to do some damage control. "I don’t hate you. Fine. Fine. I’ll dance with you."

That was one thing drunk and sober Lucy had in common: for her, he would cave so easy.

Eyes immediately lighting up, Lucy pulled him over to the centre of the guildhall with more force than he thought possible from her, joining them in the fray of guild members drunkenly bopping along to the music over the speakers.

Natsu didn’t dance. He was happy to sit on the sidelines and drink until the inevitable fight broke out, but he didn’t dance. Or at least, not in the way that Lucy wanted to. He really had no idea what to do with himself, but it seemed that no one else in the crowd cared that much, though most importantly, it seemed that Lucy didn’t care that much. She was happy to drunkenly move along to the music, throwing her head back and her arms into the air before pulling them back down and running her hands sensuously down her body as Natsu stood there and gawked like an idiot.

Judging by the stench of alcohol and the familiar company he was in, Natsu figured that he might just be the only sober one among them, and he wasn’t sure if that made this whole scenario better or worse.

Lucy didn’t give him much time to ponder before she forcibly captured his attention once more by wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her, and making him sway alongside her in time to the music. Her body was pressed up against his, her lips so close to his that he worried she was going to kiss him. And god, yes, he wanted to kiss her so badly, but not like this. Not in the middle of the guild hall with everyone watching, while she’s absolutely drunk out of her mind. Not when she wouldn’t remember it in the morning.

He’d always heard the whispers about how oblivious he must be to not notice just how damn attractive his partner was, but what they didn’t know was just how much he knew about her body. He was intimately familiar with the way her skin felt under his hands—with every curve and dip of her body, every scar, every mark. Natsu was well aware that Lucy might damn well be the most attractive girl he’d ever have the pleasure of meeting, of touching, but he just never felt the need to let his attraction be known to anyone, much less her.

They were best friends; nothing about that needed to change just because the image of her—her laugh, her smile, her golden blonde hair falling over her shoulders, her perfect pout, and her soft rosy cheeks—were all burned into his brain. Any way he might have felt about her that was anything but platonic had long since been locked away in the deepest depths of his brain.

The pungent stench of alcohol on her breath was unavoidable in their close proximity, but the way her lips were pursed like she wanted him to lean down and capture them with his own was much more distracting.

She was looking up at him, almost expectantly, waiting for him to do something that the both of them might regret in the morning. It was almost enough for him to disregard all his time spent locking away his feelings for her, as if she alone held the key to his heart. Any other night he would have let his resolve crumble beneath him with just how easy it would have been to tilt her chin up and press his lips against hers, but the part of him that yearns for her wants to taste Lucy, not the long island iced tea’s she’d been downing all night.

Her deep chocolate eyes bore into his soul, demanding all of his attention, all of him.

He dropped his head back slightly—anything in order to avoid her intense gaze—and sucked in a deep breath to clear his head.

"Alright, I think you’ve had enough fun for tonight," he told her, interrupting whatever moment she was trying to create between them. "It’s time I get you home, Lucy,"

For once in his life, Natsu chose his words with purpose, so neither she nor anyone else could choose to misinterpret his intentions.

Ignoring the deep pout on her lips, he detached her body from his and grabbed her wrist, pulling her away from the crowd.

"Leaving so soon?" Mira chimed from her spot behind the bar as she saw the two making their exit.

Not bothering with a verbal answer, Natsu simply gestured his head towards Lucy, who had found herself clinging onto his arm to keep her balance as she stumbled alongside him to keep up with his sober pace.

In response, Mira flashed him a weary smile that he could only assume was her way of wishing him luck on making it back to Lucy’s apartment.

Lucy stumbled along behind him, struggling to keep up with his fast pace as he practically dragged her along the streets of Magnolia. All he wanted was to get her home safely, put her to bed, and be over with this whole mess. He didn’t want to think about the way that she looked at him anymore, lest he let all the work he had done pushing away his feelings unravel like a sweater with a loose thread.

It wasn’t until a stray crack in the pavement caught the toe of her boot that he found himself looking back at her as his instincts kicked in, catching her in his arms before she could fall to the ground.

He paused for a moment to settle his racing heartbeat from her close call before having to remind himself that she was still very much drunk and struggling to balance herself. Even though drunk Lucy wasn’t his favourite, he still wasn’t about to let any harm come to her.

Making sure she could stand on her own, he tried to let her go so she could walk on her own, but she didn’t take kindly to his attempts, clinging even harder to him as he tried to pull her away from him, her forehead firmly pressed against his shoulder.

"Carry me," she murmured into his chest.

Deciding it wasn’t her worst idea of the night, Natsu obliged, turning away from her and crouching slightly so she could crawl onto his back. He stumbled forward slightly when Lucy chose to throw her full body weight onto his back, but he quickly found his bearings for her sake, catching her legs and adjusting his grip so he wouldn’t drop her. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she nuzzled her nose into the back of his neck, taking comfort in his familiar scent and the soft warmth of his scarf.

With sober Lucy, he would have jumped at the opportunity to tease her about how heavy she’d gotten, even though she was just as easy to carry as the last time, just to goad a reaction out of her, but right now he needed to get her home with as few interruptions as possible. As much as he might have liked to run down there, he kept a steady, even pace to avoid jostling his partner too much, fearing what would happen if her stomach were to become unsettled from the movement and the alcohol.

She had settled down a little since leaving the guild; perhaps her weird drunken behaviour was enabled by the weird drunken comrades she had surrounded herself with. It came as a small relief to Natsu, knowing that she would hopefully be easier to get in to bed in this state so he could finally be free from the curse of drunk Lucy.

He didn’t need to think much about the path he was taking; he had walked it so many times that it had become muscle memory, even with the full weight of his best friend on his back. It wasn’t long before the ever-familiar building came into sight, and he nudged the door open before trudging up the stairs.

He always kept the spare key Mira gave her in his pocket, but usually that was reserved for when he was here against Lucy’s will, and in her current state, he wasn’t about to search her pockets for the main copy. Lucy let out a soft whine when he placed her down before fumbling with his keys. Thankfully, it didn’t take long before the familiar click of the lock turning rang out, and he opened the door, guiding Lucy inside before closing it behind them.

His suspicions about her settled state were confirmed when she let out a soft yawn, rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands as she did so.

"Can you help me put on my jammies?" She asked, stifling another yawn with her hand.

Knowing that she probably wouldn’t take no for an answer, Natsu begrudgingly rummaged through her dresser to find some appropriate sleepwear. He lifted her shirt over her head, throwing it on the floor to collect in a pile that Lucy could scold him about tomorrow, before pulling a fresh shirt back on her.

He knew that if some of the guys at the guild found out about this, he would never hear the end of it, but it really wasn’t like that. There was nothing sexy about it. He was just doing his duty as her best friend to take care of her. She was drunk, falling asleep in his arms, and he wasn’t going to let her go to bed in the shirt that she had definitely spilled her (or someone else’s?) drink on. He eased her onto the edge of her bed, pulling her skirt down and discarding it with her shirt before slipping her feet through the leg holes of her favourite pair of sleep shorts.

"There. Now ya can go to bed," he told her, giving her a gentle pat on the head.

Lucy stuck her bottom lip out in a pathetic little pout at the prospect of losing his attention for the night before grabbing his wrist to pull him a little closer.

"Tuck me in? Please?"

Just as he was about to tell her to do it herself, he met her pleading gaze and realised that he was truly fucking whipped.

With a defeated sigh, he pulled back the sheets for her to crawl into before pulling them back up to her chin and tucking the excess fabric falling off the edge beneath the mattress. She looked so comfy and content laying there, tucked in nice and tight beneath her soft sheets, and Natsu couldn’t help but smile at the sight, even after all the grief she had put him through.

All in all, he was just happy she had made it home safely and through the night without incident.

The sun had set many hours ago, and while he knew he could make it home fine on his own, Lucy’s couch seemed like the comfier, lazier option, with the added benefit of making sure she didn’t get herself into trouble when left alone. She would yell at him for crashing here in the morning, and in turn, he would brush it off like he did every other time.

Taking off his scarf and jacket, he tossed them over the back of the couch before making himself comfortable, rearranging the cushions as he saw fit to rest his head on through the night. His eyes fell shut rather easily, comforted by the soft cushions that his body sank into and the familiar smell of his best friend lingering all around him.

Sleep did not come to him before Lucy’s voice did, ringing out through the air, signalling that something was wrong.

"Naaaaatssssuuuuu," Lucy called out to him in a high-pitched whine, "I need yooouuuu-"

Deciding ignoring her pleas would only prolong her cries, Natsu pulled himself off the couch to make his way over to her bedside, where he sat himself on the edge of her bed next to where she lay.

"Yeah? What’s up, Lucy?" He asked, willing to indulge her while she seemed to be acting somewhat normal.

"I love you," she mumbled, her eyelids heavy, lashes fluttering as she let them fall.

Her sudden declaration did little to catch him off guard. They’d exchanged dozens of I love you’s in the past because it was true. He loved her, and she loved him—the same way she loved everyone else in the guild. Of course the words held weight for them, but not any more than they should have coming from any other member of their family.

"I love you too," he replied, brushing her fringe out of her eyes.

"Noooooooo," she whined, "I’m in love with you." Her eyes fluttered back open to meet his, and within them, he was met with a sincerity that he wasn’t sure he was able to comprehend. "It’s different."

His hand still rested atop her head as he tried to process what she had just confessed.

Lucy was in love with him.

His Lucy, the one who could have anyone she wanted with a bat of her lashes and a pout of her lips, was in love, with him.

There was something wrong about her saying it.

Not because he didn’t believe her, not because he didn’t think that he was deserving of her love, but because she was still utterly inebriated.

"You’re just sayin’ that ‘cause you’re drunk," he replied, playfully flicking her nose in an attempt to lighten the mood and calm his racing heart.

"No I’m not," she murmured, "I knew I was in love with you when we were on Tenrou, and I was afraid we were all going to die, but then you held my hand and I-" Lucy paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts, remaining as eloquent as her sober self even after far too many drinks. "I remember thinking, wow, Natsu really is incredible."

Her eyes were trained to the ceiling, a dreamy look in her eyes, no longer acknowledging his presence even after she had just confessed that she had been in love with him for years now.

Natsu couldn’t bring himself to do anything but sit and stare. He remembered that moment. Of course he did. He remembered the helplessness in her eyes as she sobbed, remembered the way she looked up at him when he held her hand in his own.

He remembered how it tore his heart in two to see her like that, because it was in that moment that he finally thought he understood what romantic love was.

He just didn’t think that she was feeling it as well.

His mouth dropped open to say something, but all the words got stuck in his throat. Sure, he’d thought about what might happen if she felt the same way, but he’d stopped considering that scenario long ago, happy and content with the way their relationship was. Now that it was coming true, he had no idea how he was supposed to respond.

"You don’t have to say anything," she murmured. "I just didn’t have the confidence to tell you while I was sober."

When her gaze finally met his own, he could see that the soft smile on her lips made it all the way up to her eyes, relief sitting behind them as though a large weight had been lifted off her chest. There were no tears, no grief that he still couldn’t muster the words to tell her how he felt; she was simply at ease.

"Thank you," she said, breaking through the silence that had been left behind by his inability to find the right words.

"For what?" He asked, taken aback slightly by her choice of words.

"Taking care of me," she replied. "I know you don’t like me when I’m drunk."

"I like you all the time," he told her, giving her a poke to the chest. "I just prefer ya when you’re sober."

She exhaled softly through her nose with a gentle smile on her lips in what he could only assume was a show of her vague amusement at his jab before quiet befell them once more.

"Hey Lucy?"

"Mm?" She hummed, her eyes having fallen shut once more as sleep began to take its hold on her.

"How ‘bout you tell me again tomorrow, y’know, when you’re not drunk," he suggested, hoping this conversation would not be lost on them in the morning.

"Okay," she breathed, her content expression still remaining as she began to fall into the depths of sleep. "Goodnight, Natsu."

"G'night, Lucy."

#nalu #fairy tail #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #fanfiction #fan fiction #mya writes things #wow fancy new spacer #and the twice title reference #because it's such a banger song #lucy is def not alcohol free in this fic tho

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