Stars and Roaches
Ship: Natsu Dragneel x Lucy Heartfilia
Summary: When Natsu starts behaving differently, Happy takes Lucy along to investigate.
Day 4 of Nalu Week 2023 - prompt: shenanigans
Ao3
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“Dear Lucy, please come to your living room 14:30 sharp. There is something that needs to be discussed. DON’T BE LATE!! /Anonymous”
Lucy blinked as she read the bright orange post-it note again. To be honest, when she woke up this morning, she hadn’t expected to open her eyes to that neon-coloured paper. The person who wrote it must have managed to sneak in sometime during the night, because when she woke up it had been stuck onto her forehead. Clearly this person meant serious business, and though Lucy would have been scared, or at least a little nervous, knowing someone had broken into her house in the middle of the night, she couldn’t bring herself to even feel surprised. The letters on the tiny paper were just messy enough to only be possible to belong to one person she knew – and that guy just happened to leave evidence that solved the mystery immediately - some blue hairs on the sticky part of the post-it.
Knowing she couldn’t leave Happy hanging when it came to this urgent matter, she decided to stay in this morning, and spend some valuable time writing on a draft to an article Jason had offered to pay her for. The article itself wasn’t very urgent, but she never complained to get work done beforehand whenever it was possible.
Just as she had finished the first rough draft, the sound of pebbles smattering on her bedroom window filled the room. The clock on her left arm said “14:38”, so clearly the “sharp” part hadn’t been as serious as it had seemed.
“I’ll be right there!” She shouted, not bothering to hurry to let her guest in. She wanted to properly close the bottle of ink and clean the pen, and if Happy was around, she’d probably get to the task hours later, which sometimes harmed the pen and always spoiled the ink. So, she took her petty time cleaning up, ignoring the continuous knocking on the glass.
Before she opened the window, she took another glance at her clock. “14:45”. Oh well, she would just have to apologise by buying him some fresh fish at a later date, if he bothered to remember it that long. When she finally unlocked the window, not without using some force, she was met by a frown.
“You took AGES to get here, didn’t I say 14:30 sharp?!” He scolded her.
“Oh, I thought so too, but then you were 8 minutes late, so I thought I could take my time. Sorry, Happy.” She tried to feign her innocence, but failed, feeling a smile creep on. “So, what’s the urgent matter? You wanted to discuss something?”
Happy sat down on Lucy’s table, beside the article she had been writing on. To get herself closer to his eyelevel, she decided to sit down on the chair in front of him.
“Right. Well, you know Natsu?”
“I’ve heard of him, yes.”
“Yeah, so, I heard he’s been planning something big for tomorrow.” Lucy couldn’t keep her poker face when Happy himself looked so serious. A few chuckles slipped out before she regained control. He was being adorable, she thought, taking this planning thing seriously enough to bother making anonymous notes regarding it.
“And why do you think that’s weird?” She asked, allowing herself to feed this little fantasy. “Doesn’t he just say that sometimes, like when he’s saved up enough money to treat himself to a 20-course meal at a restaurant?”
“Well, I thought so too, until I saw him wrapping up a present. But listen, it wasn’t a good present at all, because the box was really small, so the fish inside must be tiny! And quality over quantity might work with other things, but fish are a lot better when you can take more than one bite.” He crossed his small arms as he thought about this puzzling situation.
“Do you know if it’s someone’s birthday?” Lucy asked, now slightly more interested in this mystery.
“No one at all comes to mind. I think he’s been meeting someone in secret.” His words struck through Lucy’s body like lightning. Could that be true? He had been slightly off lately, and a lot more laid-back regarding missions. She shifted her seat uncomfortably.
“Do you really think so?”
“It’s the only explanation.”
“No, but maybe he’s celebrating some date we’ve forgotten. What date did the three of us meet again?” She was getting desperate to solve this conundrum.
“I’m telling you that’s not it, Lucy. I’ve checked all our calendars, that’s why I was here last night.”
“Not to stick post-it’s on my forehead?”
“That became the aftermath of not finding any reasonable explanation to his behaviour. Have you even noticed that he hasn’t been at your apartment as often?”
“Well, sure, but I thought he just had something else to take care of… But what are you saying, do you think he’s been meeting some secret person… romantically?”
“Of course not, where did you get that from?” Happy deadpanned. Lucy ignored the feeling of something heavy getting lifted off her chest and continued talking.
“So, he’s just up to weird stuff, is that what you’re implying?” She sat back in her chair and took a deep breath to regain her critical thinking skills, that for some reason got turned off when Happy brought up that hypothetical person.
“Yeah, but the fact that we know nothing about it makes it really weird, don’t you think? We don’t have secrets, so why is he suddenly breaking that rule?” Happy stood up and starting walking across the table and back. He seemed really puzzled, but Lucy knew it was concern in disguise.
“It is weird… You’re right. But why can’t we just ask him about it? I’m sure he’d gladly tell us about whatever he’s doing.”
“Ask him… That’s right! I haven’t tried that yet! Let’s go there immediately and ask him!”
He hadn’t even asked Natsu about it… It took Lucy great amount of power to not smack her palm to her face. Sometimes she worried about the lack of problem solving Happy showed, but since he’d made it this far in life without it, she couldn’t exactly rewire his brain suddenly to live his life differently – though surely it would make his life easier.
Not wasting any time, she grabbed her jacket and headed out the door, right after Happy who urged her to go faster. As they made their way over to their house, Lucy tried to wrap her head around this whole thing herself. It was certainly true that Natsu hadn’t hung around Lucy’s apartment as often, but she hadn’t thought of it since Happy made sure to visit regularly enough. They did that sometimes, so she didn’t think anything of it. Plus, if Happy was right about that whole present thing, the size of it sounded too much like a box that held jewellery, which, whether Happy liked it or not, could only mean that there WAS a secret romantic special someone. And though it wasn’t any of Lucy’s business, she felt like she had failed him, because she truly wanted him to be able to share things with her. Had they really started to grow apart? And how could that be possible when she felt like they had been closer than ever, when they actually DID hang out?
She stopped herself from eating her heart out regarding this topic. It would be silly if she spent all this time worrying, just for it to be explained with the simplest reasoning as soon as they asked. But then again, she still had to prepare for the worst.
“Are you sure he’s home?” Lucy asked as their house started to emerge in front of them.
“Aye,” Happy said, flying slightly ahead. As he entered, the door flew up with a loud bang, which surely would scare any living resident to death, if said resident hadn’t already both heard and smelled them coming.
“What’s up?”
Natsu smiled broadly, surprised but pleased with this unexpected company. Lucy immediately felt calmer when she saw him. There was no way he held some big secrets from them, their Natsu just wouldn’t do something like that.
“Nothing much,” Lucy smiled, taking off her jacket. “I just haven’t seen you in a while, so I thought I’d pay you a visit. What have you been up to?”
“Oh, well… Nothing much. I’ve just been hanging around, did some trainin’ and stuff.” Had he told Lucy this yesterday, she wouldn’t have bat an eye, but since she now paid more attention, she noticed that he glanced around, as if he was stopping himself from telling too much.
“How nice.” She didn’t want to come off as if she was interrogating him, so she played innocent while she prepared herself to confront him. “You guys still got some tea, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll fetch it for ya.” As he went into the messy kitchen, rummaging the higher shelves, Happy shot Lucy a meaningful glance. She understood he was getting impatient, but she ignored his sense of urge and continue taking this slowly.
“Thanks, Natsu,” she said, tilting her head slightly to further prove her innocence. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary for her to act like this, but she allowed herself to go the extra mile this time, to get him to obey her later. She hurried boiling some water and preparing three cups with teabags so she could get to business.
Meanwhile, Natsu had noticed that something was off with Happy.
“What’s the matter bud? You’ve been awfully quiet since you got here.”
“Yeah,” Lucy added, “are you feeling alright?” She sometimes wished he could practice his poker-face, because right now he was looking both guilty and secretive.
“Uh…”
“Maybe your stomach is hurting from the fish I gave you earlier?” Lucy was lying, because she definitely hadn’t given Happy a fish, but she hoped he’d get the hint to continue this small lie.
“No, that’s not it.”
Lucy sighed before she repeated herself.
“I said: MAYBE your STOMACH is hurting from the FISH you ate earlier?” This time she sterned her eyes into his – she couldn’t be more obvious than this, and she honestly worried Natsu would see through this act they were putting up.
“Oh! That fish! Yeah, now that you say it…” Happy chuckled nervously, now glancing over to Natsu, who looked like he started to find them suspicious.
“Well, the tea is ready, let’s sit down.” Lucy got both of their attention, and hopefully Natsu wouldn’t ask further about it. Well, he wouldn’t need to when they unravelled this little secret he had, because after that she would make both of them vow to never keep secrets from each other again. At least no romantic secrets, because no matter what Happy said, she couldn’t think of any other reason Natsu would own a ring box.
When they all sat by the messy kitchen table, Lucy once again tried to invite Natsu to tell on himself.
“So, what do you do when you’re not hanging around my place nowadays?” She asked, this time trying to point him in the right direction. ‘What is so important for you that it lessens your time spent with me?’ she actually tried to ask, but all she could do was hope he understood what she meant.
“As I said, I’ve been trainin’ some. Nothin’ interestin’, I’ll tell ya that.” She followed his movements as he readjusted his seat, sitting back and resting his arms behind his head.
“But tomorrow! You told me you’d planned something for tomorrow!” Happy busted out, no longer having the patience to sneak around the subject.
“Happy!”
“Tomorrow? I didn’t think you’d remember I mentioned that.” Lucy swung her head around to look at Natsu again.
“Aha! So there is something planned tomorrow!” She had to admit that she wasn’t too proud of how intense she became, but clearly there was no point in going around the main subject.
“He told you?!” Natsu exclaimed. “Oh well, I guess I’ll just do it today. Though I had it all planned out…” He mumbled the last part of his sentence and walked away, seemingly to fetch something. When he came back, he held that small package that Happy had been talking about. Lucy felt her face heat up, because clearly it was meant for her.
“I wanted to have some privacy,” Natsu shot Happy a meaningful glance, ”but I suppose I’ll just have to do it like this.”
The box was wrapped in silvery paper, with a golden ribbon holding it together. It looked odd, coming from Natsu’s hands, since it wasn’t exactly his type of gift, yet she still couldn’t look away from the sight. If this turned out to be a meaningful moment between the two (now three, she supposed) of them, then she wanted to remember every single second.
“I don’t know if you remember, Lucy, but almost exactly five years ago, something happened that changed our relationship forever.” She held her breath. “I think you’ll understand when you open this, but we haven’t exactly celebrated it before so no worries if you don’t.”
Lucy looked up at Natsu. He looked so sincere, almost shy, and she took an internal picture so she could save and savour this moment forever. She thought she saw a faint blush, like a watercolour wash, paint his cheeks, which she only found fitting considering her own bold, red face.
“Natsu…” She began, accepting the gift and looking over at Happy quickly, not wanting to miss out on his expression. Happy looked really invested, and maybe slightly uncomfortable, like he was intruding on an important moment. Natsu didn’t seem to mind his presence too much though, so she turned back to the item in her hand.
Giving Natsu one last thankful smile, she unravelled the bow and opened the wrapper. The box itself was a gorgeous red, only comparable to Natsu’s deepest fire, and it was clad in a soft velvet, making it feel ethereal in her hands.
“Oh, Natsu,” she said again, too flattered by his thoughtfulness to even open the box. “I feel so bad, I can’t remember what we’re celebrating at all!”
“No worries! I’m telling you, it’s nothin’ special, really. I just wanted to bring some light to what happened five years ago. I promise, you’ll remember as soon as you open it.”
“But I have nothing to give you back! Especially nothing as gorgeous as this… Can I really accept it?” She felt really bad, because no matter how hard she thought, no date or anniversary came to mind.
“If you really wanna make it up to me, you can do it later. Just open it!” Natsu was clearly getting impatient, so she gave in to his request and slowly opened it.
“EEEK!!!” Lucy flew up from her spot by the kitchen table faster than lightning, throwing herself backwards. Happy did the same, still not knowing what was in it, but trusting Lucy’s instinct (and getting startled by her sudden reaction).
“WHAT, WHAT?! WHAT IS IT?” Happy shouted, shielding himself from the apparently evil red box that still laid on the table.
“C-… COCKROACH!” Lucy screed, shielding her face from the disgusting critter she apparently had seen in the gift she once was so happy to receive. Not until now did she hear the silent laughter coming from her pink haired companion. “You! What on earth is that supposed to celebrate, you vile human?!”
Natsu threw his head backwards as he let out a roaring laugh, all the way from his toes.
“THE-… THE FIRST TIME I PRANKED YOU!”
“Oh my god!? Natsu! Did you seriously show me a DEAD COCKROACH for a PRANK?!” Lucy, who had scooted closer to Natsu, still trying to stay far away from the disgusting insect, hit his arm for revenge.
“HAHAHA!”
Since there was no way to get through to Natsu while he still bathed in the success of the prank, Lucy threw a glass over the box, just in case the critter would come alive or something. Happy, who only was scared because of Lucy’s sudden freak-out, started laughing as well. Lucy sighed in despair, though that was probably a dramatic description of her current feelings. She didn’t feel despaired – just shocked and a little embarrassed. She had really thought Natsu would give her something nice, maybe along with a long-awaited confession, so she had behaved all thankful and sentimental. Knowing he only meant to prank her all along, made her feel like she was made a fool of.
“Hey, explanation please?” She said, crossing her arms as the laughter died down. Natsu, who now seemed to have calmed down enough to take in what was happening around him, started laughing again as he saw the glass over the box.
“HAHAHA, you CONTAINED the BOX?!”
“Well, cockroaches are known for never dying! How do I know you killed it properly?” Lucy defended herself, pushing Natsu lightly to extend her point. Finally, he managed to properly stop laughing, drying a tear in the corner of his eye.
“Because I didn’t have to kill it! It’s plastic, silly!”
“You’re calling ME silly? YOU’RE the one who put a ROACH in a RING-BOX!” Lucy started walking around to try to calm her own heartbeat, which still was high from the initial shock.
“But you didn’t look behind it!” Lucy stopped herself in her movements.
“Sorry, I was busy following my instincts,” she glared, not happy with how he was pointing out the obvious.
“But there IS a proper gift there as well. Look again!” Natsu lifted the glass from the table, picked out the scarily realistic cockroach (she still wasn’t sure if it really was as fake as he claimed it was) and gave her the box again. Lucy looked at Natsu one more time, with a warning glance, before opening it again.
Inside was a small charm, maybe the size of half a pea, that was meant to represent a small, silver star, which despite its rough edges, looked beautifully handmade.
“But- why?” She managed to say, picking it up and observing it from every angle.
“Consider it my apology gift,” Natsu grinned, giving her half a hug as they both looked at the shiny charm in the light.
Happy, who decided he was done with this disappointing ordeal, drank the rest of his tea, that now had gone cold, and went over to Natsu. Without missing a beat, Natsu handed over the cockroach, still making small talk about the star, talking about who made it and which necklace or bracelet she should put it on, as Happy dropped it into her teacup. They loved her to death, both of them, but sometimes she just made pranks so incredibly easily accessible, and despite what they thought, Lucy didn’t mind at all, because that just meant there never was a boring moment with them. Though this time she wouldn’t make the mistake of letting the cockroach out of sight twice.
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