Attractive Forces

Part III

With a soft sigh, Natsu rolled over, his arm automatically reaching for the warm, curvy body of his girlfriend. When he came up empty, his eyes blinked open, fuzzy with sleep and confusion. It wasn't often that he woke up alone. Often times, he was the early riser and he was the one to force Lucy out of bed in the mornings.

More recently, Lucy had decided to go to a community college to get her degree in journalism, so she had been the one to get up early and come to bed late. After the first few months, seeing how stressed she had become, Natsu had tried to convince her to take a lighter load instead of staying full time and taking shifts at the restaurant. But Lucy had been adamant in her desire to graduate on time.

"Why is this so important, Luce? Do you hate the restaurant that much?" Natsu asked after she had snapped at him for distracting her from her studying for her upcoming midterms.

Sighing in frustration, Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew that she wasn't truly annoyed at her boyfriend. Coming back to school had been much harder than she had anticipated and she unfortunately had taken to snapping at her boyfriend more often than not.

Getting to her feet from her desk, she walked forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, sighing with contentment when he automatically wrapped around her and pressed a kiss in her hair.

"It's not that I hate the restaurant. I just…" she paused, trying to think of how to explain her desire to really be something to him. "It's just that being with you, building this life with you has made me happier than I have ever been."

He smiled and tipped up her chin for a passionate but brief kiss. "You make me happy too."

She beamed up at him. "I know. And being so happy with you has made me want to be happy in every part of my life. And that means dusting off old dreams that I had put on the back burner when I left home. One of those dreams that I've had since I was a kid was to get a degree in journalism and one day open my own newspaper. I know that's a long way away but if I can start the steps toward it, then I'm that much closer to true happiness."

He seemed to consider her a moment. "That makes sense. I just don't want you to work yourself to the bone trying to get those dreams. Don't forget the here and now when you're striving for your future, okay?"

She leaned up and kissed him. "I could never forget you, Natsu. You're everything to me."

Since that day, Natsu had left her alone about her studying, but Lucy had also stopped snapping at him as much and knew to take frequent breaks when the studying got to be too much. But the last week, she had seemed a little off. A little quieter and she seemed to be…sad. Natsu hadn't asked her about it yet, but this was the third night in a row that he had woken to find her side empty. It was starting to get worrisome.

Rolling off the bed, Natsu ran a hand through his hair and shuffled out of the bedroom. Seeing the light for the living room on, he headed there. When he reached the doorway, he paused at what he found. She sat curled up on the couch, her knees tucked up into her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs and seemed to be looking at something on the television. Turning to see what she was looking at, he saw she had paused a video so that the screen was filled with the image of an older blond, mid laugh, with a small blond child wrapped in her arms grinning up at her. He was struck by the similarities of the woman and his girlfriend. They had the same long blond hair and bright, beautiful smile.

"Hey, what are you watching?" he asked gently, walking over to the couch and settling next to her.

She blinked and seemed to just notice him, reaching up to wipe a few tears from her cheeks. Looking over at him, she smiled sadly and moved to curl up against him.

"That's my mother. She died when I was ten."

He wrapped his arms around her, his heart squeezing at the raw grief he heard in her voice. She pressed her wet face against his neck and simply breathed in his scent for a moment. Natsu simply rubbed her back gently and let her compose herself.

When she pulled back and seemed to have calmed down, he finally broke the silence.

"She's very beautiful. You look just like her."

She beamed at the compliment, her eyes nostalgic. "She always used to say that beauty doesn't make a person and that all people, beautiful or ugly, had to work on themselves as people rather than how they look. She was a kind woman."

He paused for a moment before foraging on. "What happened?"

Lucy's smile fell and she leaned her head against his shoulder. "A car accident. There was a bad storm and she left to grab a few things from the store before we were stuck at the house and someone on the other side of the road hydroplaned and hit her head on. She and the other driver died instantly."

"I'm sorry, Luce."

She sighed deeply. "Her birthday is tomorrow. Every year, I remember a little less about her and so I watch the home videos with her in them over and over again until I can remember her voice like it was yesterday."

There was a moment of silence before Lucy grabbed the remote and hit play to resume the video. Natsu sat and watched the video with her three times before Lucy finally turned it off. They sat in the silence that followed for a few moments before she turned to look up at him. "She would have loved you."

Natsu looked down at her with a small smile. "If she's anything like you, I would have loved her too."

Lucy blinked back her tears and chuckled wetly. "I love you so much, Natsu. I don't know what I would do without you."

He pressed a kiss against her forehead. "You'll never have to worry about that again. I'm here until the end."

Lucy bit her lip and closed her eyes, a few tears escaping. Her whole life, it felt like it had built up to meeting Natsu and building this wonderful thing with him. Every part of her, everything that made her up, clicked with him. She had never really been one to believe in soulmates, but with Natsu it felt like when she saw him, she could breathe again. She had never imagined that she could love one person as completely as she did him. The best part of it was that she knew, just from the way he looked at her, that he was just as completely gone for her and she was for him. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, all the good, all the bad. She wanted all the children, the house, the aging, everything.

Opening her eyes, Lucy sat up on her knees and swung a leg over so she was straddling his lap. Reaching up, she framed his face in her hands, her eyes intent and serious on his. He smiled up at her, his hands rubbing up and down her back soothingly.

"Marry me," she whispered. "Will you marry me, Natsu?"

His eyes widened and his hands paused on her back. For a long moment, he didn't say anything, just looked up at her, his lips parted slightly and his eyes wide as they looked up at her. Finally, he blinked a few times and swallowed. When he spoke, his voice was rough with emotion, his accent thick with his surprise.

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" he rasped.

She smiled at him, rubbing her thumbs across his cheeks. "Well, it's my line now. So? Will you marry me, Natsu Dragneel?"

He pretended to pout for a moment, his eyes sparkling with happiness. "Where's my ring? You can't ask a man to marry you and not have a ring."

She shook her head at him, her smile big and bright. She could already see the answer in the way he tightened his grip on her and brought her a little closer and the way his eyes shinned up at her with love. "I promise I'll buy you the prettiest ring I can find. But you have an answer me first."

He threw back his head and laughed before he wrapped his hand around the back of her head and brought her forward for a deep, bruising kiss. "Of course I'll marry you, you silly girl," he whispered against her lips. "I love you."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed their lips together again, her heart beating a wild, happy rhythm in her ears. "I love you so much," she whispered between kisses. "You make me so happy."

He chuckled and lifted her shirt over her body and bringing their bare chests together. "Not nearly as happy as you make me, Luce."

(AN: I have no reason for this other than, after I wrote If Time Permits update, I felt unsatisfied and sad so I decided to write something for fun, and this popped into my head. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you to those of you that have enjoyed the story so far! I adore you all!)

Jane