Apodyopsis

The act of mentally undressing someone.

"It's good to be back!" The blonde exclaimed as she stepped into the guild, arms outstretched over her head. Around her, people cheered, greeting her and asking about the mission with their usual wildness.

Gray waved from the counter, Juvia smiled, then glared, from his side, and Mirajane offered her a welcome, a strawberry milkshake already in hand.

"You were so slow…" Happy flew into her visual field, drawing out his vowels as he spoke. "We thought you'd died."

A weight settled on her shoulder and the girl took a second to look up at Natsu, the memory of their last encounter still fresh in her mind. The dragon slayer didn't seem the least bit affected, though, because he squeezed her against his side, grinning widely.

"He worried all your fish was going to rot, so we took it." Natsu explained, unaware of the faces his exceed made at her from behind his head.

Lucy felt her embarrassment morph into anger and she clenched her fists, glaring at Happy. The blue cat's grin slipped from his face when she tried to grab his tail and he flew higher, out of her reach.

"Natsu, Lucy is being mean."

The boy chuckled, the vibrations of it making her shoulders shake, before he went into a ramble about all the things they'd done that past week, which she had missed. Lucy leaned against his hold on her, confused about why he still hadn't let her go.

He laughed once again, breaking the girl away from her thoughts, and his eyes moved down to meet hers.

Lucy gulped down her anxiety, surprised by the intensity hidden in his gaze.

She was not used to being looked at like that, not by him, anyway. It made her wonder if she wasn't just imagining things, because there was no way that clueless, happy-go-lucky Natsu would be able to expressdesire.

It sent her back to seven days earlier, when she'd kissed him before boarding the train. In that moment, the stress of her first real solo mission – taking down a three headed monster that was bothering a village near Hargeon – and her already mixed feelings towards her best friend had resulted in the impulsive action.

The kiss was short and hard: she had thrown her arms around his neck, pushed their lips together, and then she had bolted, running to her compartment without looking back.

Lucy shifted her eyes to Erza, who had called her for some reason, and mumbled an apology to Natsu as she disentangled herself from him and walked to where the Titania waited. The older girl signaled to the milkshake Mirajane had made and started to ask about how the mission had gone, not noticing how the blonde glanced back at her partner every few seconds.

The celestial mage wondered if he was thinking about it, as well.

She sighed, resting her chin in her hands as she listened to Erza's most recent adventures with a reptile-like creature she had encountered while on a job.

"I was glad to dispose of it, but the tribe thought it would be adequate for me to take its ivory horn." The redhead nodded solemnly. "A gift I couldn't reject, of course. The material was useful for some of my weapons."

Lucy giggled, amused by her friend's actions.

"Here."

Erza had taken something from under the table and settled it right in front of the blonde with a loud clank that made Lucy jump away in surprise. She gawked at it, taken aback by the item.

It was a lance, obviously made in ivory, but with details in leather around its handle.

"It's beautiful, Erza!" She uttered after a moment of silently admiring the piece.

The other tilted her head to the side, a stern expression in her face.

"It's yours, Lucy." She explained when the blonde didn't move to take it. "A commitment present, of course."

Lucy blushed, and, from behind the counter, Mirajane chuckled.

"How are you making this all about yourself, again?" The white-haired beauty shook her head, smiling at the two girls.

The blonde wavered in her seat, protesting and mumbling about "What the hell had Erza meant?!" but she received no response from the two s-class mages, who were already invested in a conversation about other matters.

Lucy suddenly felt embarrassed and watched. She tensed, tracing the design of the indentations in the ivory; she recognized the symbols as an image from one of her mother's old books. The twin flames, the soulmates, energy wrapped in stardust, separated by fate only to drift back together.

The implication was not lost in her.

Just as the girl was about to get up, desperately longing for her apartment and the comfort of solitude, she felt a shift in her proximities. She turned to meet the burning eyes of her partner, dark and hot and fixed on her.

She didn't understand it in the least.

"Ready to go?" He asked, a grin spreading across his face with such ease that it made Lucy doubt what she'd seen seconds before.

The girl nodded, and they were outside the guild before she realized that Natsu would be accompanying her home. Even though it wasn't unusual, the idea of being alone with him didn't sit well with her in the moment; Lucy feared what he might have to say about her impulse back at the station.

"Won't Happy be coming?" She choked out, looking over her shoulder in an attempt to find the missing exceed. Inside Fairy Tail, people drank and laughed, but there was no sign of the blue fur-ball.

"He convinced Wendy to take him fishing, while you were with Erza." Natsu stated, his lips twisting into something akin to a smirk. "Oh, by the way, we can train with the lance tomorrow!"

Lucy chuckled, but there was no heart in it. She felt nervous about his closeness, about the way their hands sometimes bumped each other as they walked.

A new warmth in the tip of her fingers made her gasp, and she snapped her eyes back to his face, only to find Natsu looking at her again.

"You seem troubled." He pointed out, letting go of her hand once he had her attention. "Were there any problems in your mission? Mira said… She said you wouldn't like it if I appeared, that I would end up destroying things and taking your spotlight."

Lucy smiled softly at him, a light blush coloring her cheeks as a fresh surge of affection burst in her chest. It was little things like this that made her love him so much: how he could always tell when something was wrong, how he would go to any length to protect her.

She shifted her gaze back to the ground, trying to disguise her emotions from those penetrating eyes.

"It went fine. I'll have to thank Mira for holding you back." The girl giggled. "I'm just glad to be home."

Lucy skipped to her doorstep, shouting her greetings to the fisherman who were going down the river at that moment.

"I'm glad you're home, too."

She grinned but did not turn around, hiding her reaction to his words as she opened the door to her apartment.

In the blink of an eye, she was maneuvered into the room and against the door, which closed with the force. Natsu's lips found hers, coaxing them into movement as his hands dug into the soft flesh of her waist.

Surprised, Lucy gasped and grabbed onto his shoulders to keep steady. The boy took advantage of her shock and deepened the kiss, pushing his tongue in her mouth and grinding against her in a way that almost made her knees give out.

She responded with as much fervor as she could, wrapping her legs around his hips and pressing her chest against his, before lowering one hand to touch his abdomen. The dragon slayer let out an appreciative growl, taking her actions as all the encouragement he needed.

Natsu detached his mouth from hers but Lucy moved her lips to his neck, and then he took a shaky breath, hands going to the buttons of her shirt.

Oh, she though, that's what that look was about.

"Wh-" She started, gently pushing him away. "What do you think you're doing?!"

The utter indignation in her tone made him freeze and Natsu's eyes widened as he let go of her. She tightened her grip on his neck, having almost fallen to the ground. He grimaced.

"I- I thought that was what we were, now." He explained, somewhat relieved that Lucy hadn't untangled herself from him. "After you kissed me… And Cana said-"

A redness like no other took Lucy's cheeks, and Natsu had to stop himself from attacking her again.

"You told Cana about that?!" She shouted, all disheveled clothing and messy hair and swollen lips.

"No need to be so loud, Luce." He complained, pouting. "I just didn't know what to think. But the girls said you didn't take those kinds of things lightly, so it was more likely that you wanted…" He threw his head back, blushing. "You know. The whole thing. The commitment. And I was more than willing to give you that."

Lucy stared at him, joy filling her as she watched the discomfort in her partner's expression. She smiled, then grinned, then laughed.

"And this is your idea of commitment?" The girl grinded against his hardness for good measure, satisfied by the pleasure depicted in Natsu's features before he restrained himself.

"Cana said…" He took another breath. "She said this was part of it. I wasn't sure, initially, but then you came back and I just…" His hands went back to her waist as he dropped his head to the crook of her neck. "I just wanted it so badly. But I'd never do it if you didn't want to."

Lucy shivered, feeling the heat of his pants against her skin. She grinned, lowering her legs so she could stand and bringing her hands to the edges of his vest, pulling it off.

"I want to."

This was a prompt given to me on tumblr and I got really into it, so I thought I might as well publish it here. It was really fun to write.