notes: apparently i needed a break from writing angst-ridden pieces. this was supposed to be cute, light, and fluffy with a hint of mischief. it did not turn out like i thought it would.
pairing: natsu ო lucy
disclaimer: own nothing

more notes: will proofread and whatever tomorrow.

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revenge, lucy heartfilia style

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{my mind keeps saying, "run as fast as you can"}

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Looking back on it now, maybe she didn't mind Natsu breaking into her home and invading her privacy by slipping under the comforter beside her. He was like a freaking human heater, after all, and her bedroom did tend to get unnaturally cold in the winter. He didn't thrash around much or cause problems, really, but there was just something about the whole situation that didn't seem right.

Or fair, considering she ended up taking the couch most of the time. And if her room got cold during Magnolia's winter months, her living room took on the temperature of Mount Hokabe's tallest peak.

Then again, there was also that whole deal with the 'breaking and entering', 'intruding on her privacy', and 'sleeping with her', thing.

And that is exactly when Lucy realizes that her current actions are probably justified and totally called for.

Okay, maybe not in those terms, considering that she's on her way to her partner's house in the middle of the night to do the exact same thing she's accused him of, but. There are more important matters at hand to deal with rather than her nagging conscious and the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Of course, she laughs nervously and thinks, that could be because she's out in a relatively unfamiliar forest late at night. Or because she's technically about to commit a crime, even though she's sure Natsu won't press charges. And really, he's asked for what's about to be delivered.

Hopefully, she'll at least be able to scare the living hell out of him. Maybe even so much that he won't break into her lovely cottage on Strawberry Street ever again. She rubs her hands and grins gleefully at the thought, although something deep in the back of her mind informs her that she doesn't actually want that to happen.

Um, shut up. I'm pretty sure I totally do, the blonde rolls her eyes and pulls her jacket tighter around her shivering frame. Okay so, maybe I'm regretting this whole venture for justice aka revenge just a little bit. It's freaking cold and dark out here. Then again, not my fault that Natsu lives in the middle of the woods that become some kind of creepy, foreboding forest at night.

Lucy freezes when she hears the snap of a twig a few hundred yards away from her, and lets out a string of nervous laughter. "Okay, Lucy. Everything is fine. You are fine. It was probably just some squirrel and not a serial killer, right? Right."

Slowly the celestial mage resumes her trek and mission, barely suppressing a shiver of terror as she walks. Thick, dark clouds have rolled in so the full moon is no longer visible. There isn't a star in the sky to help guide her way either, and suddenly she wishes she'd never come. Then the recent memory of being forced out of her bed at an unholy hour makes her narrow her eyes, and she sets her jaw.

"I'm being ridiculous. There is absolutely nothing out here that can get me. I'm completely safe."

The pitch of her voice rises two octaves near the end of her sentence, and for some reason she feels like she's lying to herself.

Oh who am I kidding? There could be rogue dark guild members, bandits, monsters, wild animals, and Spirit King knows what all out here.

The blonde gulps and casts a paranoid glance around her surroundings. All she's met with are towering trees, a black sky, and silence besides the occasional gust of cold air.

"This was a terrible idea," she mutters, eyes narrowed and rubbing her arms in an effort to keep warm.

Several long minutes and dumb scares later, she finds herself at a fork in the road. It's been a while since she's been to Natsu's cottage—that time she basically had the same mission, but ended up cleaning of all things, because the dragon slayer's home looked like a stage four disaster zone—but she remembers the way like it'd been yesterday.

Lucy smiles to herself and takes the branch that will lead her to her destination, and decides to go over her plan. It's a simple one, really—sneak into Natsu's house, give him a taste of his own medicine (metaphorically, of course), scare the crap out of him and maybe Happy too, and then bask in the feeling that is victory and success.

She nods to herself as the cottage comes into view, and a sly smile spreads over her face. Quietly, she approaches the old home, acutely aware of Natsu's superb dragon slayer senses, especially his sense of hearing.

He sleeps like the dead though, so I should be okay. I'd probably still better be careful though. You never know what could be lurking around here.

The former heiress sticks her tongue out in concentration as she kneels before the door. Her eyebrows furrow and she reaches out to grab the knob as she pulls two bobby pins out of her hair. She's read about picking locks in books, so surely it can't be that hard, right?

She barely suppresses a scream of surprise when she accidentally turns the knob, and the door swings inward. The blonde teeters on the brink of falling on her face before she steadies herself, eyes wide and breath ragged.

"What kind of idiot," she mutters harshly under her breath, "leaves his door unlocked at night?"

She turns and looks at the tall, foreboding trees swaying in the wind that surround the clearing, and decides that no sane thief or criminal would even try to break into a house in the middle of this place. Taking a deep breath, she stands and steps inside, praying the ancient floorboards don't creak and moan under her weight.

It takes a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, and she still has to squint to see anything. There's a crackling fire in the hearth, but it's low and only provides a small amount of light. She doesn't move until she can see the outlines of most of the basic furniture—because she does not want to trip over some souvenir or knick-knack from a mission and fall and kill herself. It would defeat her whole purpose of coming.

Lucy pushes the door shut behind her, quietly, so as not to wake either of the cottage's sleeping residents. For a brief, short-lived second, she basks in the warmth of Natsu's home before heading straight to his hammock.

She sheds her jacket and slips off her boots along the way, deciding to make herself comfortable—like her so-called partner always did (seriously, she's woken up to find him shirtless on more than one occasion)—and partly because she was raised with manners.

So, a few short yet terrifying seconds later—seriously, the boards near where his hammock was hanging were suspiciously creaky—she stands over the sleeping dragon slayer, feeling completely like a creeper and a trespasser.

He looks so peaceful when he sleeps, like he's years younger and hasn't been through everything he has. She already knows this, because she's seen it before. But there is something decidedly different this time. The dim golden light from the fire he undoubtedly started himself reveals things about him that Lucy's tried to force to the back of her mind on several occasions.

In the past few months, she's wondered when he got so handsome. When the boyish features in his face changed into a strong and chiseled jaw, sharp eyes, and a very kissable mouth. She wonders when she started regarding him as more than just her partner and best friend, and sometimes she catches herself thinking, it's always been that way.

He still has the same bright grin that gives her butterflies, the same sly and suggestive smirk that has her trying to catch her breath and blushing, and the same determined scowl that always assures her and gives her strength. He's still Natsu, but she finds that he's become so much more.

Lucy hesitantly reaches out and places her hand against his cheek. Sometimes, she feels the need to just touch him, before mentally berating and beating herself over the stupid thought. She's never given in before, until now, and suddenly she finds herself nervous.

Her eyes trail downward, to the slipping blanket and his exposed chest and she has to close her eyes tightly and force them upward again to keep her thoughts from straying to places they shouldn't go.

Too late, she thinks, and suddenly she doesn't think she can get into bed with him.

But wasn't that my whole purpose of coming here? What the hell did I think I was doing, anyway? This is insane. I can't do this. Screw revenge, I can't stay here. What if he…what if he wakes up and sees me just staring and touching him like a creeper? No. Oh no. This was a bad idea. I have to go. Or he will see me and I will die of embarrassment. And then it will say on my tombstone, 'Here lies Lucy Heartfilia. She was completely stupid, a creeper, and died of her own mortification and inability to cope. She had it coming.'

The blonde's russet orbs widen in horror and she snatches her hand back and slaps it over her mouth. Natsu is completely still, sleeping in ignorance and bliss.

"Holy shit." Lucy whispers to herself. "What have I gotten myself into?"

She takes a step backward, preparing to flee, when Natsu stirs. She freezes. Slowly, her eyes trail over to Happy's empty hammock, and between her horror at the discovery, and bafflement at how dumb she was not to notice that earlier, she sees Natsu moving from her peripheral vision.

This is it. I'm done for.

But he never actually wakes up, and instead only settles back down, and Lucy is left wanting to cry and hit something. The blonde realizes that she's running from her own problems—yet again—and that she doesn't do that anymore. She is brave and courageous, dammit. She should be able to handle something like this.

Of course, it would probably be infinitely easier if she didn't have feelings—more specifically: if she wasn't in love—for Natsu. That being said, she was probably screwed either way.

Okay Lucy. Toughen up and take it like a man, she inhales sharply and almost trips when she realizes that she's so tired she sounds like Elfman. This whole situation is doing funny things to my head.

And to her heart, too. But she doesn't want to think about that.

Lucy places one hand on the edge of the hammock and closes her eyes. Then, in one swift and cautious—rather, haphazard—movement, she slips in beside the sleeping dragon slayer.

The world and Lucy's heart stop for a moment.

Natsu doesn't wake up.

She rejoices internally, thanking every deity she can remember the name of even if she doesn't believe in them, before her brain registers something very important.

Wait. What am I supposed to do now?

Her joy quickly turns into horror as soon as she realizes that she has no plan. Her mind shuts down and goes into panic mode, and to top it all off, Natsu starts stirring again. Her whole body goes tense when he throws an arm around her and brings her closer to him. The celestial mage curls her toes and screws her eyes shut because she can feel his chest and his abs under her fingertips and dear Mavis someone help her.

"Mmhm…L..uce?"

Lucy lets out a strangled and hushed cry when he mumbles his nickname for her.

(It's something she loves, but just does not want to hear right now.)

I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I AM GOING TO DIE AND IT IS NO ONE'S FAULT BUT MINE.

Natsu cracks an eye open. "'hat 're you doin' 'ere?"

Lucy's stressed out mind formulates a plan. "Ehrm…this…this is a dream. Just a dream! That's all. Everything is fine and I did not sneak into your house at one in the morning to get revenge on you for always breaking into my house or anything don't worry and wow. Did you know that you are hot in both a literal and figurative sense because, I sure did….not. I did not. You're also really muscly and it feels really good. So if you could just, close your eyes and go back to sleep that'd be great. Thanks. Ahahaha."

He blinks, and Lucy watches in dismay as any and all traces of sleep leave his eyes.

Oh, just…kill me now. Seriously.

Then, Natsu smirks that wonderful sexy and tantalizing smirk and Lucy discovers that she is unable to swallow the lump that has suddenly lodged itself in her throat.

He lowers his head and she feels her fingers twitch as his hot breath hits her ear. "You think so?" he whispers, all husky and alluring and Lucy feels herself teetering on the very edge of hysteria.

"If you mean that I think it would be great if you went back to sleep, then yes."

She hears him snort in amusement, but he doesn't pull back, and she swears she can't feel any of her limbs. They've gone all tingly and numb.

"Why did you come here, Luce?" he breathes, and she lets out a small cry when his lips brush the shell of her ear. "Especially since we're all alone. Happy's gone on a last-minute mission with Wendy and Charle. Guess you must of missed that when you left the guild in such a hurry this afternoon."

Yes, she'd definitely missed the memo. And that was probably her first mistake. Or maybe that was actually coming up with this crazy idea in the first place.

This cannot be Natsu, she tells herself while resisting the urge to grab some of his salmon locks and tug just to see what would happen. There is no way.

She closes her eyes and tries to push back the thoughts of, come on just kiss me already and put me out of my misery away before she makes any bad decisions.

Then again, she's probably already made several tonight.

She keeps waiting for him to pull back and flash her that blinding grin while howling with laughter and yelling, 'Ha! Just joking! I got you good! You should have seen your face!' but he doesn't. Instead, she's overwhelmed with his scent—a unique mixture of smoke, embers, pine needles, and just Natsu—and her brain promptly decides to shut down any form of logical thinking the rest of the way.

So, with all caution and common sense thrown to the wind, she reaches up and pulls his head down. It's a crazy kind of first kiss—she doesn't even know what's she's doing anymore, and Natsu seems a little startled but it sure doesn't take him long to respond. When her brain finally catches up with her, she pulls back in mortification and stares at him with wide eyes.

(And pointedly ignoring the trail of saliva she brushes away with her sweater sleeve.)

"I-I'm sorry I just…I wasn't thinking, like, at all. And I mean, I love you and everything, but what right does that give me to kiss—," she stops short, does a mental check of what she's just babbled on about, and promptly turns a nice shade of pink.

Natsu grins at her, though, and she swears she hears him laugh under his breath. She narrows her eyes, that bastard, taking amusement from my misery how dare he—

Her train of vengeful thinking quickly comes to a halt when Natsu kisses her, soft and sweet, like a reassurance.

"It's okay, weirdo. I'm kinda glad I'm not the only one."

She stares at him.

"…what."

He smirks playfully at her. "Oh c'mon Luce. I thought you were supposed to be smart. Do you need me to spell it out for you?"

Lucy lies there and thinks for a moment.

Or five, but.

"…are you saying that you love me back? If so, your confession is lacking decorum and procedure and seriously what the hell, Natsu. You kiss me senseless and then expect me to understand what you mean from that?"

"Like you care," he breathes, threading his fingers through her hair.

She contemplates for a moment.

"Just, next time you say it, at least tell me properly. A girl can't live on half-assed declarations like that."

Natsu grins at her, and Lucy tucks her blushing face into the crook of his neck.

"Whatever, Luce."

And she decides that maybe this home invasion wasn't such a bad idea after all.

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fin

end notes: and then they went to sleep, the end.