Sorry for taking so long to get this updated. As always, editing has to be done, and the interconnections of these chapters have to be perfect. And I have to set up later chapters, especially for when the plot begins to thicken, so this story is taking a while. Do enjoy, and do review!
-Elament79
"Lucy! Lucy, wait for me!" He stumbled out of the room after her, awkward in his new clothes and favoring the less injured leg. Lucy ignored his calls as she strode purposefully away from him.
The Dragon suddenly yelped and Lucy turned back just in time to see his wing smash into a statue, knocking it to the ground where he then tripped over it. As he was falling, his other wing sliced straight through the painting on the opposite side of the wall and knocked the frame to the ground. He landed with a loud THUD and cried out. One of the gashes on his arm reopened and began to bleed.
Lucy's mouth fell open and her eyes widened in horror. She stared at the rip in the painting. Did . . . did that really just happen? She bit her lip and clenched the fabric of her dress in her hands. Yes . . . yes it did.
Lucy was seven years old. She was out walking with her mother, hand-in-hand, in the countryside. The spring chill was still going strong, but it wasn't cold enough to freeze the river. The old knight was walking beside them, his grandson off doing whatever it was he was doing. Even though it was probably too cold for them, Lucy had demanded they go turtle searching that afternoon, and who was her mother to say no? The more time outside, the better, according to the Queen. She let Lucy run to the edge of the river, where she and the knight sat and watched the water.
There was a painter who lived across the water from where the two royals were walking and several months later he presented a painting of the three of them to the Queen as a birthday gift. In the painting, Lucy's mother was standing behind the two, arms out and smiling up at the warm sun. She looked like an angel standing behind her daughter. When her mother died, Lucy hung the painting up outside of her room. Everyday when she walked out of her room she would see it and remember. It was of the most peaceful memories of her mother and the knight, who was also gone now. Not dead, just . . . gone.
And now, yet another memory of them had been destroyed.
The Dragon pushed himself back onto his knees and wiped off his chest. He glanced to the reopened gash on his arm and started licking it. Lucy would have marveled at how improper that was if she wasn't so upset. Finally he stopped licking himself and stood to look over the mess he had made.
"Um . . . whoops?" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Levy and Juvia were in the hallway now, stunned. They both knew of the importance of the painting to Lucy. "Sorry, Lucy, I didn't mean to do that."
The Dragon stood and dusted himself off, glancing at his wings to make sure they weren't hurt. When he was done he smiled at the girl, but then frowned at her pale face.
"You okay?" A choked sob echoed in the hallway. Lucy pressed a hand against her mouth, shaking.
"How could you?" She whispered, bangs covering her eyes.
"What?" The Dragon reeled backwards at her question.
"That was a painting of my mom. A painting of my mom who is dead." The Dragon winced and his tail and wings drooped.
"O-oh." He looked to the painting and reached to try and fix it.
"DON'T TOUCH IT." Lucy snapped. He jumped away from the painting like it had burned him and waited. Lucy wiped away the faint tears from under her eyes then turned to her friends, trying to present herself professionally through her turmoil. Faintly, she whispered, "Could one of you find someone to fix the painting? If they can repair it, I'll pay them whatever they want. But if they can't . . . can you just send it to my room?"
"Of course, Lucy-san." Juvia replied. Together the two girls picked it up and began down the hall with it. "Juvia and Levy-san will help escort you to breakfast." Lucy nodded and started off after them.
The Dragon watched them go. He looked to the wall where the painting used to sit, eyes guilty and heart heavy, then turned back to his people.
He picked up the statue and righted it, then followed after them.
Breakfast was tense.
Lucy was seated directly across the table from her father, who was sitting at the opposite end of the room. He was regarding the Dragon, who had been forced to stand far behind Lucy against the wall. The servants were eating in the other room, unseen by the royals, but the Dragon had been kicked out when he nearly demolished the table in an attempt to get to the food. And this was only the first offense. The servants had tried to bring him something to eat at the King's command, but were scared out of their wits. Every time someone got near him he would puff out his chest, bring his wings and tail up and stare them down.
Of course, he only had to do this once before the servants figured to just leave him be, and simply left the plate of food several feet away from him and hightailed it out of the room.
Getting the Dragon over to the corner in the first place had been a catastrophe. First, he had complained loudly to Lucy that there was food on the table and he was hungry, so why not eat the food? Of course she was the only one who understood what he was saying. Everyone else was apparently hearing loud obnoxious noises. The servants had covered their ears, and the King had watched the interaction between the two with a displeased and disappointed look on his face.
Second, the Dragon had glared at the King. Lucy's father had gotten angry quickly at the Dragon for not going to the corner when his daughter had told him to, and had waved one of the servants to go get the rune mage to withhold the Dragon, which had forced Lucy to both try to talk her father out of doing that and try to force the Dragon into the corner at the same time. Needless to say, that had not worked well. It was only when her father got angry with her that the Dragon got angry. But she wasn't quite clear on why he had gotten so mad at her father in the first place!
The third (fourth, technically, but it was the third in the sequence of things that went wrong while attempting to get the Dragon to the corner) offense was when Lucy had finally snapped and screamed at the Dragon to "GET IN THE CORNER RIGHT THIS INSTANCE OR ELSE I WILL PUNISH YOU, AND I SWEAR YOU WILL NOT LIKE IT!" It was not technically the Dragon's fault that she had lost her mind, but Lucy still blamed him anyways. She thought of herself as having very good self-control. Most of the time.
The only good thing that came out of the whole operation was that the Dragon did eventually go to the corner and leave the royal and servant breakfasts alone. By the time Lucy sat down, she was a jumble of nerves. He had to make a good impression on her father. The King would gladly send the Dragon to the laboratory without a second thought if he believed something wasn't working out.
Lucy's hands were shaking. The emotional turmoil of forcing a wild creature under her command (she mentally snorted at this; he didn't seem like the type to submit to anything, magic spell or no magic spell) had been sent into even deeper depths. Add to last night's anxiety the anger and hopelessness of loosing the painting, the embarrassment of waking to being groped, the fear that the Dragon would be sent to the laboratory, and the anger she felt for her father's need for control . . . Lucy was pretty sure she was close to a meltdown. The tight fabric of the corset didn't help either.
She took a shaky breath and peered back at the Dragon. He was sulking in the corner, crumbs stuck to his cheek from his meager breakfast. She turned back to her food, but couldn't bring herself to eat; she was too worried about what her father would say. He had watched Juvia and Levy walk by with the painting, and Lucy had seen his eyes harden into spheres of ice. The King hadn't heard that the Dragon had also knocked down the statue, but Lucy didn't think he would care as much. The guard that had left his post to get Juvia and Levy had also confessed that Lucy had not let him in when he sensed she was in danger. Then there was the whole display before breakfast, where the Dragon hadn't actually listened to her until she demanded he remain stationary. The King could very well interpret that as the spell not working. He wanted an obedient Dragon, not a destructive one.
And the things the King didn't know about, like her getting the key, waking to the Dragon right beside her, him watching her get dressed . . . these secrets only made her more anxious.
Lucy bit her lip and drew blood. Nothing seemed to be going according to plan.
The two monarchs sat in silence, one eating, one staring at her lap.
Finally the King spoke. "You're late for breakfast, Lucy." Lucy flinched inwardly, but schooled her expression to remain passive.
"Yes sir." She said loud enough for him to hear, but not too loud. She heard the Dragon shift around behind her.
"And why is that?" Lucy shuffled in her seat and looked down at her food. What should she say? He would know if she lied. Maybe if she . . .?
"There were . . . complications, this morning. I was unable to dress in my room without a curtain to block the Dragon's sleeping quarters from my own." It was the truth, but not the whole truth. The Dragon had made "complications", but she had not dressed in the washroom like she was implying.
The King slammed his hands onto the table and violently rose out of his seat. The teacup next to his plate rolled off the table and hit the floor, sending tea and china skittering across the ground.
"DID HE SEE YOU?" The King roared. The Dragon's footsteps slammed against the ground as he came right up behind Lucy's chair. His wings wrapped around the seat and legs of the chair and the tips rested against her ankles. He folded his arms and placed them on the back of the chair. He snorted angrily, but did nothing else. He probably didn't understand why her comment made the King so mad. Lucy reminded herself that he could only understand her. He probably didn't even know who the King was. Lucy took a deep breath and raised her head. It was do or die.
"No sir. I dressed, with the help of my handmaidens, in the washroom. He saw nothing." Lucy stared at her father, expression carefully innocent yet also serious. The King stared back. The Dragon stared at the King. Her lie solved two problems. One was she needed an actual excuse that the King would believe. Lucy refused to tell him about the Dragon seeing her dress, or waking up beside him, or getting the key. He couldn't know about these things. But it also solved the problem of getting dressed without him seeing. The King would be forced to get curtains for her.
Finally her father's eyes left hers to go to the Dragon's. There was a vicious snarl when their eyes connected. Slowly the King sat. He stared at the two for a moment, eyes glancing back and forth.
"Servant!" The King snapped his fingers at someone who dashed to his side. "Curtains must be installed immediately to avoid this problem. I cannot have my only daughter be impure for her wedding night." The Dragon growled when the King spoke and Lucy whispered "Relax." to him. The growling died down.
The King surveyed the two for a moment then spoke back up. "I was initially planning on sending him off to the laboratory this morning when I heard the news of the painting and saw his own barbarism myself." Lucy sucked in a breath and tensed. She felt the Dragon behind her tense as well; she could feel that he was coiled like a spring. The King took a sip from the newly deposited cup of tea and wiped his mouth on the napkin. Two women were cleaning up the cracked cup right beside him.
"But I see he is quite quick, protective, and intuitive of you." There was a lengthy pause. The Dragon didn't move a muscle. "And I believe he could yet be a great asset to the kingdom. If he learns his place, his manners, and how to treat the royalty here, he may stay." Lucy, feeling boneless, leaned back against her seat and took a deep breath. The Dragon peered over the seat at her. "But! If he proves to be able to learn nothing, he goes." Lucy nodded. The Dragon would need to learn how to treat the King – and quick!
"Go back to the wall." She said quietly and he un-enveloped himself from her chair and walked backwards to the wall. Lucy stood from her seat and acknowledged her father. "Thank you, sir. May I go to my studies?" He nodded and gestured to a guard.
"Bring a guard with you." The guard stepped forward rather hesitantly and walked beside the princess as they exited the room. The Dragon followed closely behind them.
Lucy did not see him spare the King a warning glance.
At the end of the day, exhausted by the constant vigilance of the Dragon, Lucy collapsed on her bed. A different guard (they were everywhere) walked in with the Dragon and strapped him, after much yelling and growling, to the chain. He left the room with several scratches across his breastplate and closed the door behind himself on the way out.
Lucy wondered what it would be like to live in a normal monarchy.
She waited a moment before getting sick of the man's whines to let him out. Rolling off the bed in a very un-lady-like matter, she noticed there were thick curtains on the glass doors now. The balcony doors were thrown open and Lucy knelt beside him. She pulled her key off her collarbone and unlocked him.
"What's your name? I'm tired of calling you 'The Dragon'." Lucy asked and draped the key around her neck once more. He hesitated and scratched the back of his head. "You do have one, right?"
"Well . . . I guess?"
"What is it?" He hesitated again, but gave in.
"Natsu."
"Natsu?"
"Oh, you can pronounce it?"
"Its just Natsu."
"Yeah, but you say all of you people are speaking English, yet I hear Draconian from you and something weird from all the others. So I didn't know what a name in Draconian would sound like in English." He smiled then stood and darted inside.
"Where – no. No. You are not sleeping on my bed again." Lucy whispered angrily. She was still mad at him about how he had acted that morning. His behavior in her lessons was better, but the man could not sit still to save his life. All of her teachers had thrown a fit at some point.
Natsu groaned.
"But Luce!"
"SHH! There's a guard right outside." Lucy flopped onto the chair before her desk and fingered the tucked jewelry. The two were quiet, listening to the sounds of the wind in the trees.
"So . . . I was wondering." Lucy glared at the man across the room. "Did . . . did they manage to fix the painting?" Lucy's gaze fell. She was silent for a moment, thinking about it.
"I don't think they will. Levy asked the royal painter, and he said to just give up on it. Juvia went to get the back of it taped so at least it won't flap around. She said she would bring it by later."
"I'm really, really, really sorry Lucy." Lucy smiled bitter-sweetly at him.
"It's okay."
"It's not! I ruined something that reminds you of someone you care about! And it can't be fixed! And I peeped on you, and called you a bitch, and totally screwed up in front of that guy at breakfast and he yelled at you! I've made you cry, and I've made you embarrassed and mad and upset and I'm ruining your life, but I'm not trying to. And I don't want to do that to you, 'cause I like you and I don't want to hurt you. But I probably will, Luce . . . I am a Dragon, after all."
He sounded so broken that Lucy's eyes began to water. He knew what he had done after all, huh? She leaned her forehead into her palm. He was a Dragon. He was made to fight and fly and be free . . . and the castle had robbed him of all three the moment they captured him. But Natsu had forgiven her. He'd never stated this outright, but Lucy would never forget the devastation he had shown the night before. Maybe he hadn't forgiven the people who had captured him, but he had forgiven her for her part in it. He said he "liked" her, which was the closest she was probably going to get to forgiveness from him. He was apologetic about his wrongs, things that he shouldn't have had to do in the first place; he belonged in the wild. And if Natsu could find it in himself to forgive her of keeping him tied down in the castle as a servant, then she could find it within herself to forgive him for the emotional roller coaster he had put her through.
A tear dripped down her cheek. Everything would be okay.
Natsu sniffed the air and sent her a panicked look.
"No, no, no, no, no, don't cry!" He flew off the bed and squatted in front of her. He rested the tip of his tail against her foot while his hands hovered over her face, not sure if he was allowed to touch her or not and also afraid his claws would hurt her.
Lucy smiled at him gently. "It's okay, Natsu. I'm okay."
"But you're crying!"
"Because no one understands anymore." She looked up into his eyes and smiled. Natsu leaned away from her, stunned at the beauty that was her smile. "No one understands how to care about another. No one understands sentimentality. No one understands forgiveness, humility, pride or pain. And yet somehow . . . you do. I don't know how you knew what to say, or what to do. I don't know how you knew how to comfort me, and I don't know how you've managed to forgive me for what I've done to you. I don't understand. But I can understand that you did. And I can learn to do the same." Natsu's mouth fell open at her words. "My father - he's the King - and all the other nobles . . . they don't understand why you don't know how to act in the castle. They know how to. That's all they've ever known. But they don't know how to forgive, be humble about the right things, or feel empathy. They think their actions, their wealth, are more important than the feelings and trials that make us really human. And you, Natsu . . ." She stroked his cheek, not caring how wrong it was for her to touch a man like that, "you're more human than them because you understand what it is that makes someone good." Natsu stared at the woman before him in awe. Just stared. Lucy wrinkled her brow and pulled away from him.
"Sorry . . . did that not make any sense? Or did I offend you by calling you human? Ack! I'm sorry Natsu, I didn't mean to-"
"Of course I forgave you." Lucy froze at the whispered words.
"What?" He licked his lips in embarrassment and his cheeks had a faint pink dust to them.
"I said of course I forgave you." He looked at the ground and fiddled with his hands. "You didn't actually do anything to me."
"But I'm the princess, and it's my dad who call-"
"Yeah, but did you ever want me here?" Lucy tugged on a strand of her hair.
"W-well, no, but now I'm afraid to let you go. He wants to send you to the laboratory, a place where some mages do really illegal and painful and gross stuff. And I don't want you to go there."
"Then I can definitely forgive you." Lucy frowned.
"How-"
"Just shut up." Lucy puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms. Natsu laughed at her lightly. The two sat together in silence for a while, just reflecting. The sun began to go down, casting orange and pink shades across the walls of her room.
Lucy heard shuffling and turned to see her Dragon pull off the vest. He had shed the article of clothing multiple times that day, saying he didn't like the feeling of it. Only once had he tried to get rid of the pants and overcoat, but the guards and Lucy had had a fit. Lucy wondered if it was weird that she already seemed used to seeing him shirtless.
"You're not supposed to take your clothes off in front of a lady."
"And where's the lady?" He cheekily replied.
"Har har. Seriously. Put your clothes back on." He grumbled out something but pulled the vest back over his shoulder blades. Lucy looked at where the wings protruded from his back. It was a wonder that he didn't seem to be in pain from dragging those extra pounds around all day. Natsu scanned her right back.
She looked to the hole in his wing. It wasn't going to heal over, she could already tell. But the hope was still there. She slid out of her seat and walked to the bathroom, bringing out bandages and a bowl of warm water.
"Why don't you sit on the bed?" Natsu dragged himself off the floor and onto the mattress and stretched out, leaving his wings to fall off either side of the Queen sized mattress. His tail looped around one of his legs. Lucy began to unwrap the measly bandages on his body. Natsu allowed her to.
She used the washcloth to wipe away the dirt and blood that had accumulated under the bandages from the multiple quick fights he had with guards during the day. They must have used a magical healer to make sure none of cuts were infected (because some of them were when she first saw him) and that he wasn't sick. But they had done a poor job of wrapping the wounds.
Lucy rewrapped the worst of them then moved on to his wing. She stared at it for a moment and Natsu sat up.
"It's not going to heal over."
"It might, it's possible-"
"It won't. I've seen this happen to other Dragons before. They never heal." Lucy looked to his face. The sadness and fear from the night before was there once again. It made her feel even more insecure.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You weren't the one who did it."
"But my people did."
"No, your dad did. Those stupid guards did." Silence.
"Why was he so mad at you?"
"Who?"
"Your dad."
"Because he loved my mom." That didn't really explain it, but Lucy hoped it would suffice. More silence. Then- "We'll fix your wing."
"How?"
"Don't know. But that's not gonna stop me from trying." She smiled at him.
"You're not really all that princess-y, ya know that?"
"Shush. It's not all it's cracked up to be." Natsu nodded like he understood.
"Can we go outside tomorrow?"
"I'll ask my father."
"Okay. Do you have to ask him about everything?"
"Most of the time, yeah." Lucy watched him for a moment. Then she stood and brought the medical supplies back to the washroom. She came back out and sat in her chair by the desk. She spun ideas around her mind. Finally, she spoke out something she'd been thinking about all day.
"Can we . . . can we not let them know that we can talk to each other? It can be our secret. I'm not allowed to talk to other people in ceremonies or stupid events, so it get's really . . . boring. But if we can talk to each other and no one knows we're communicating . . ."
"Whatever you want, Luce. It's not like I can tell them you can understand me." Lucy chuckled. They began to listen to the night birds. Natsu claimed he could hear the townspeople, but Lucy told him she thought that was complete hogwash.
What she did hear were the soft footsteps in the hallway. She turned to Natsu, but he was already rolling off the other side of the bed to hide in case someone walked in.
There was a soft knock on the door and Lucy called to come in. Levy opened the door and allowed Juvia in before shutting the door tight behind her.
"Juvia tried to fix the painting. We taped the back, but you can still tell it's torn." Juvia placed the small painting on the desk Lucy was still sitting at.
"Thank you. It means the world to me."
"We know, Lucy." There was a pause as the girls reflected on their own memories of the Queen.
"Lucy-san? Where is the Dragon?" Lucy nodded to the side of the bed. Natsu peeked his head out and crawled onto the covers, surveying his company.
"His name is Natsu." She told them. They both nodded.
"They found someone to work with him." Levy spoke up. Lucy grasped her friend's hand at this statement.
"Who?"
"It's a man, of course. He's been in battle, and is a well known, strong, and respected fighter."
"What's his name?"
"Erza Scarlet."
After Levy and Juvia had left Natsu had pulled all the blankets, pillows, sheets and anything else he could find that was some sort of cloth (she made him put back one of her dresses) and threw them onto the bed. He collapsed on top of the mountain of stuff and sighed. Then he began to burrow. So as not to rip the cloth with his talons, he curled his hands up into fists and began to smooth out of the blankets. He pushed the pillows to either end of the bed, stacking them up far too high. He grabbed three sheets and fluffed them up in the center of the bed.
He paused and looked to Lucy, who was sitting at her desk across the room. She was watching him from her desk with a notebook in front of her. The painting was now hanging on a hook directly in front of her desk.
Natsu frowned.
"Are you going to wear that to bed?" He gestured to the cherry red dress she was still wearing. She'd forgotten to ask Juvia and Levy to help her out of it. Some dresses she could get out of herself, and some she couldn't. She hoped she could get out of this one herself.
"No. I just haven't changed." Natsu nodded, then went back to his work. Lucy watched as he grabbed a thick blanket and shoved it up against the pillows at the headboard.
"What are you doing Natsu?" He sent her a glance then rocked back on his heels on the bed.
"Making the bed. Duh. I didn't get to do it last night cause you were so worked up, so I'm doing it tonight."
"The bed was made both times. You just tore the thing apart."
"What? No. Last night was nowhere near comfortable, but I couldn't just leave you. Trust me. It'll be more comfortable tonight." He grinned, but didn't look at her and continued on his mission. He shoved a small piece of cloth (Lucy recognized it as a hand towel) into a crook between two pillows.
"Alright fine. Do what you want." Natsu nodded absently. Lucy turned back to her writing and ignored his shuffling. She had only written about three paragraphs when she heard something weird.
"What are you doing, Natsu?"
"I don't like the position of this bed."
"What do you mean?"
"It's too open. If someone came in from the balcony, they would see the bed immediately. If someone walked in from the hallway, they would see the bed immediately. I want to move it."
"You can't move it, it's too heav-"
"There!" He crooned and Lucy turned around. He had moved the bed to the other side of the room. Before, her bed had been next to the door leading to the hallway. If someone were to open the door, all they would have to do to find the bed was turn their head to the right. Because the door was indented into her room, they would be right next to her torso instead of her head. Natsu had moved the bed across the room to nestle it into the corner against the side of the small, only dresses-for-the-week wardrobe. The end of the bed was pressed up against a wall of the bathroom. If someone walked into the room from the hallway and then turned to the left, they would see the front doors to the wardrobe. If they looked past that, only then would they see the end portion of the bed as it was now. From the balcony doors, you could see the wardrobe and the door to the bathroom, but not the bed itself. To see that, you would have to walk farther into the room. Natsu had somehow managed to nestle the bed into that space. It did look more hidden than where it had been before.
Lucy's mouth fell open. "How did you move that by yourself?"
"I'm strong!" He exclaimed and joyfully bounced onto the bed. His tail whipped back and forth rapidly as he finished arranging the blankets around him. His injured wing rested atop the pillows, but that was all she could see of the man from where she sat across the room. She snapped out of her stupor and rubbed her eyes. Lucy picked up the notebook and placed it in her desk.
"I'm going to change."
"Okay." Lucy walked out of the room and into the washroom. She began to untie the ribbons and strings that hooked the top layer onto the dress. She managed to pull it off and lay in on a chair. She unpinned her hair next, leaving the pins and other things that were stuck in it on the counter of the marble sink. She turned around to look at the laces of the corset.
"Oh . . ." She had great difficulty with corsets. Levy, Juvia, and Cana had always been there to help her or do it for her. It was too late at night to call the girls back to help her, and she didn't want to wake them up. They needed their rest more than she did.
"Um . . . Natsu?" It was worth a shot.
"Whaaa?" He called back. Probably still working on the bed.
"Can you help me?" Lucy's face flushed red. It's not like he hasn't seen you in less, he saw you in your undergarments this morning, Lucy.
"With whaaa?" She heard the blankets shift around and footsteps trotted up to the washroom door. She opened it for him and turned her back to him. God this was so embarrassing!
"Can you untie it?" He didn't move.
"What is it? I saw the other people-"
"Juvia and Levy."
"-put this thing on you this morning. It doesn't look very comfortable."
"It's a corset. It's supposed to make a woman look like she has more curves than she actually does. The more curvy, the more likely she is to get married to a wealthy family."
"What the hell? But it made you gasp and turned your face red! Can you even breathe in the thing?" Natsu fingered one of the straps on the corset and Lucy swatted his hand away.
"Um . . . kind of."
"It's stupid. Why should it matter what a woman looks like under the dress? If you like someone you like someone. Their shape shouldn't have so much to do with it." Now that she thought about it, corsets really were stupid. Just another thing to control people.
"C-can you just . . . take it off?"
"Yeah. How?"
"Just undo the strings." Natsu used his claws to unhook the little pieces of leather and let them part. Lucy sucked in a lungful of air and swayed in her spot.
"Whoa! You okay?" He grasped her arms and held her upright.
"Y-yeah, I'm good."
"Sheesh." He finished unhooking the corset and tugged it up and off her body. Lucy moaned.
"What?"
"It feels so much better." All shame exited her system. Lucy brought her arms over her head and stretched. She bent from side to side, cracking her back and neck.
"I'll be on the bed." Lucy nodded and Natsu left the room, closing the door.
Lucy shimmied out of the last pieces of the dress and draped it over the chair as well. She grabbed the nightgown and pulled it over her body. It felt so much better to not be strapped into her clothes. She braided her hair to the side and then stepped out to go to bed.
Natsu was underneath the covers, completely hidden by the blankets. An eye peaked out and squinted at her.
"Get off."
"But I want to sleep with you." Lucy's face flamed bright red and she swatted her cheek.
"You can't sleep in the same bed as me."
"But I made the bed!"
"You destroyed the bed."
"You let me!" She faltered at that. She had.
"Why don't you bring some of the blankets and pillows somewhere else where you can sleep? I'm not sleeping on the ground, and you're not sleeping with me." Natsu pouted and grabbed one blanket from his pile. He shoved it off the bed where it landed on the floor, then grabbed two of the pillows and pushed them off as well.
He slid himself onto the floor and curled himself around the stuff. He stared at his person when he was done.
"That's all? You can take more from it."
"No. I made the n- . . . bed. I made the bed for you." Lucy ignored the slip up and glanced to the bed.
"Alright Natsu. Alright." She slid onto the blankets and wrestled herself beneath them. Natsu watched and he adjusted his own position to allow his injured wing to rest on a pillow. He didn't look very comfortable.
Lucy, however, was in heaven.
"How'd you make it so comfortable?" He grinned at her with pride.
"I'm good at making beds!"
"Whatever you say."
"Good. Now go to sleep. I'll watch over you."
"Are you comfortable?"
"Yes." She knew he was lying. "Comfy?"
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"Goodnight, Natsu."
"Night, Lucy."
And they slept.