Hey guys!

I've been gone a while, but I have a whole month off for winter break, so that will definitely be changing! Those of you who read Frozen In Time, the third chapter will be up by the end of this week, and expect more one-shots to be coming out at alarming rates because I have lots and lots of ideas!

Enjoy!

Lucy loved the way their laughs mixed together. It was the greatest sound in the world, Natsu's laugh, and to hear it's messy, throaty, snorting boisterousness weave in and out through her own melody was something she would never tire of hearing everyday. Every time she ended up in the side-splitting giggles that they were in now, she was reminded of that word: together.

Sobering up a little, her shoulders still jumping with soft, remaining chuckles, she stood from the table, gathered up both her and Natsu's plates, and elbowed the sink on to begin washing. It had been another one of those good, normal nights where she felt happy. Just like every other one of the nights that had passed since they'd moved in together. Her skin was buzzing with energy, her cheeks warm with the blush of laughing and the one and a half glasses of wine she'd had throughout dinner, and her heart was beating fast. She wondered if she'd ever get used to this. To being with him. Together.

As she ran the sponge over the plate in her hands—making sure to scrub extra hard at any particularly saucy spots—Nastu was heard behind her dumping the leftover spaghetti into a Tupperware container and shifting things around in the fridge, trying to fit it in. When he was done, he picked up their wine glasses and set them down beside the sink so she could wash those as well. Usually, he'd walk back to the living room to put on a movie for them to watch when she was done, or go to the bedroom to get ready for bed if he had an early work day, but that night he just leaned against the counter, crossed his arms, and watched Lucy be elbow-deep in bubbles.

Even though he wasn't even doing anything, Lucy still felt heat creep up her neck and her limbs go weak under his gaze. She could see him out of the corner of her vision, his onyx eyes lazily sweeping over ever inch of her body, a small smile hanging on his lips. It was rare to see him so reflective, and it was doing weird things to her breathing. Finishing up scrubbing the first plate, she rinsed it off and quickly toweled it dry before placing it on the other side of the counter.

"What?" she asked, turning to him, smiling. "Something wrong?"

He shook his head. "No. Just lookin' at you."

Her smile broadening, she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and leaned towards him, hoping for a kiss. But then something flashed in his eyes and the corners of his mouth twitched, and that was when Lucy realized his reflective expression was sad, and he though he was staring at her, he looked very far away. Her smile vanished. She took a step back.

"Natsu?"

Something in the tone of her voice must have gathered him back to her. He shook his head again, more forcefully this time, and turned his body so that he was no longer facing her, but rather staring out the entrance of the kitchen, into the living room, where their cat, Happy, was probably curled up on the couch, purring away. After a full minute of silence had passed, Lucy decided to turn back to the dishes and let him think.

It wasn't the first time he'd done this—standing there beside her in silence. The past five years had been really rough on Natsu, with his father passing away the same year that his fiancé had gotten hit head-on by a semi while driving to work one morning. It had taken him up until the time he'd met Lucy to truly move on from losing the two most important people in his life, but some days were still hard for him, and he would get that far away look in his eyes, like what he had now. The way he had explained it to her once, he had said that he was too proud to ask for help, but that was okay, because just being around her was help enough. And so she let him be, sneaking peeks at him as she washed to make sure he was still doing okay.

When she was drying the dish, he spoke.

"It's just—" He tugged at his father's scarf around his neck, still not looking at her, and sighed. "You kept tucking your hair behind your ear tonight and it—she would do that—Lisanna—it reminded me a lot of her."

At the mention of his fiancé, Lucy fumbled with the plate and dropped it, sending shards scattering around the floor. Natsu's head snapped towards her, eyes wide, and she blinked down at the mess at her feet.

"Oh, Mavis," she groaned. "Look what I've done. Could you go get me a bag and the broom?"

Lucy wouldn't look at him, but she heard his grunt of an acknowledgment as he walked out. Her hands were shaking as she gathered up the larger pieces into one big pile, and her heart thudded unevenly in her chest.

Natsu had only spoken of the white-haired beauty twice before, and once he had shown her a couple of the pictures he still had of her and of them together. Her blue eyes were always bright, and the couple always looked happy. How could they not? When he had first told Lucy about Lisanna, Natsu had described what they had together as perfect. They never fought. They had bought Happy together and named him after what they felt. All of their friends, who were now also Lucy's friends, had loved them together.

It wasn't that Lucy was jealous of the girl, or that she hated her. No. How could she? How could she hate something Natsu had loved so dearly? And she knew that if she had ever met the girl, they would have been great friends, what the way Natsu had described her. She would have loved Lisanna just as much as Natsu had.

But a tiny part of Lucy, throughout the one year that her and Natsu had been dating, had always felt hurt whenever Lisanna was brought up, whenever she would catch Natsu looking at the childhood picture he had of him and Lisanna on his desk. Lucy knew Natsu loved her, but that part of her always wondered if Natsu loved Lisanna more. After all, Lucy and Natsu's relationship together could hardly be described as perfect.

They fought a lot. And about stupid stuff. Him not turning the TV off when he leaves the room, him not putting his dirty clothes away, him using all the hot water in the shower so her bath was cold; her taking too long to get ready, her trying to dress Happy up in cute outfits, her ignoring him so she could work on her novel even though he'd been gone since five that morning. Not to mention they were complete opposites in more ways than one. Different tastes in music and movies, different levels of energy, different temperaments. She could go on for days.

And on top of all that, she wondered if Natsu even found her as attractive as Lisanna. It was a shallow thought, but Lucy could never seem to shake it. Lisanna was gorgeous, after all, with big, bright blue eyes that sparkled even in photographs, and a perfect body. Not to mention flawless skin and the perfect height for Natsu. Lucy's eyes were just a plain brown, she had a couple of pounds she could probably lose in the midriff and thigh area, her skin was oily, and she was only an inch or two shorter than Natsu.

In her eyes, he could definitely get someone better suited to him. Someone like Lisanna. She wondered if Natsu would have even looked at Lucy twice if Lisanna was still alive.

Lucy didn't notice Natsu had come back even though he had dropped the broom and had shouted her name twice. It wasn't until he placed his hands on her shoulders and called her name a third time that she realized he was there, and immediately she felt guilt rush in for the thoughts that she had had while he was gone.

"Lucy," he said for a fourth time, taking one of her hands in his, "what're you doing picking this up with bare hands? Look at how much you're bleeding!"

She looked down and saw that he was right—her hands were littered with tiny cuts, streams of blood flowing between the creases of her palm. The tears that had been welling up in the corners of her eyes since he'd left finally spilled over.

"I'm sorry," she choked out. Only she knew that she meant it both for her carelessness and for the thoughts that she'd been having.

Natsu's eyes and grip softened as he stood. "Why're you apologizing, you weirdo?" A second later, she was scooped up bridal-style into his arms. She buried her teary face into the material of his scarf. "Let's get you cleaned up."

He sat her on the edge of the lidded toilet seat in the bathroom and bent for first aid kit. Lucy, no matter how hard she tried, couldn't get her tears to stop flowing, nor her sobs to quiet down. She was a hiccupping, trembling mess, and it only became worse as she watched how gently he treated all her wounds. She was a terrible girlfriend for thinking all that she had—for still thinking it. She didn't deserve him.

When he was done stroking on the last band aid, Natsu put aside the first aid kit, then pulled Lucy off the toilet seat and into his lap on the floor. He rested his back up against the tub and buried his head into the crook of her neck, rubbing soothing circles into her skin.

"Lucy," he whispered against her, "Lucy, what's wrong? Why're you crying? Your hands are all better, see?" He picked up a hand and kissed every one of the band aids. "Is it the plate? Because I'll buy you a hundred of them, just stop crying."

The pads of his thumbs ran swiftly along the underbellies of her eyes and along the plumpness of her cheeks, trying his hardest to catch up all the new tears and erase all the old. It calmed her a little, toning down her sobs to random hiccups and whimpers. He was frowning, and there was a sadness in his eyes that was not unlike the one she had seen in the kitchen right before his confession. The thought made fresh tears well up again, her lower limp trembling wildly.

"Lucy, please." His voice was begging now. "Just tell me what's wrong and I'll fix it."

"D—Do you love L—Lisanna more t-than me?"

Natsu physically flinched back at the question, his shoulders slumping, and a million emotions scattering across his face all at once until it was twisted in a weird, shocked sort of way. "What?"

"Do you love her m-more than me? D-Do you wish you could have her back instead of me?" The words were less garbled and choked this time, but tears were still running down her face, and she could feel her chest getting tighter with every second. Her hands shook where they were fisted in his scarf, but she didn't draw back. She needed to feel grounded to him in that moment, needed to feel like he wasn't slipping through her fingers right before her eyes.

Natsu took her face in his hands suddenly, and then his lips were pressing rushed, frantic kisses over every inch of her face. In between these he said, "No, never. Never would I wish you away, never in a million years, Mavis, Lucy, never." He pulled back, still holding her face in place so that she couldn't look away from his burning eyes. "Do you understand me? Never."

"But you two were perfect," she whispered, "and we're such opposites, and we argue all the time, and she's so pretty and—and—and—"

Natsu kissed her on the lips once, a slow, lingering press of his mouth that made her heart squeeze painfully.

"Lucy," he said, "I'm going to explain something to you, but you're going to need to listen, okay?"

She nodded.

"Okay." He licked his lips and took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second before looking back at hers. "I love Lisanna. She was my fiancé, my childhood best friend, and the only girl I had loved up 'til that point. You're right—what we had was perfect, and she was beautiful, and I miss her every day. After I lost her, I didn't think that I'd be able to love again.

"But you, Lucy Jane Heartfilia, made me realize that I absolutely could love again, and much more than I had ever loved before. Lisanna and I may have had something perfect, but I don't want perfect. I want us. I want you yelling at me over stupid things and me teasing you when you get too drunk at parties. I want me begging you to give me more attention and you slapping Happy and I out of the kitchen when we come in before dinner's ready. I want you to disagree with me on what movie to watch and you to tell me when I'm being an idiot and you to stick your tongue out at me whenever I call you a weirdo.

"Because I never had that with Lisanna. We never challenged each other. We never grew up from the childhood sweethearts that we were. If I could have Lisanna back, I would jump at the chance, but only as a best friend. Whether she was here or not, whether Lisanna and I had gotten married or not, I think that in the end, I would have ended up with you. I love Lisanna, but I'm in love with you, and would have fallen in love with you the moment I met you no matter the circumstances."

Natsu rested his forehead against Lucy's and shut his eyes. He was breathing heavily and his shoulders were trembling the tiniest bit.

"So don't you ever for a second think that I would wish to trade you. You're the light of my life you aggravating, irritating, loud, weird, caring, selfless, strong, beautiful girl. I love you so much."

Tears were streaming down her face again, but this time it was for an entirely different reason. She threw her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck, whispering, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," over and over again as she kissed the soft skin there. He buried a hand in her hair, squeezing her to him as if he thought he'd lost her.

Eventually, their ragged breathing quieted down and their grips on each other turned less fierce and more tender. Without saying anything, Natsu picked Lucy up and carried her into the dark bedroom where he laid them both down. As she tangled her legs with his in just the perfect way, he brought the sheet up from where it had been kicked to the edge of the bed that morning, and wrapped it around them. He kissed the crown of her head and stroked her hair and told her once more that he loved her.

"I love you, too," she said, burrowing into him as close as she could.

There, tangled up in the sheets with him as the moonlight danced off his wild pink locks, his scorching touch lingering wherever he brushed his fingers against her, she couldn't believe that she had ever once doubted him. After all, at the end of the day, for the rest of their lives, it would be him and her together, and that was all that mattered.

This was only supposed to be around 500-700 words and then somehow 2.6k happened o.o

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to Review!

-Jess