Disclaimer: If I were a mangaka, I'd be chilling with the cool kids in Japan. Or maybe hanging with Bones. I do love me some FMA. Whoops, off-topic Idon'townFairyTail.

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Lucy should have been anxious. Her Fairy Tail family had been targeted at the center of a full scale, intercontinental war, after all. The town of Magnolia had been evacuated save for the mages of the guild, and the eerie quiet should have put her on edge.

As she walked home to her apartment with one Natsu Dragneel, however, her nerves tingled for different reasons.

"You know," she said, after listening to Natsu go on about how much he looked forward to having the war done with. "There's a phrase people use when someone fixates too much on the future like that." She tapped a finger to her lip as if thinking about it. She rolled her eyes up and over toward the fire mage. "I think its called tempting fate?"

Natsu scoffed, lacing his hands behind his head, which Happy had chosen for a perch.

"Whatever," he said, kicking out his feet with each step. "Igneel told me to live for the future."

He flashed Lucy her favorite grin.

"So that's what I'm gonna do."

Happy gave an affirmative, if drowsy, 'Aye'. Lucy covered the smile growing on her face with her hand. She almost felt it ridiculous how easy Natsu could get that reaction from her. She pulled out her apartment keys as they neared the door to her building.

"Well, I guess that's fine too."

Lucy felt familiar hands catch her by the waist and she yipped when Natsu caught her legs into his arms.

"Just once, you gotta try this."

Given no time to protest, Lucy clutched Natsu's neck as he jumped up the two stories to her apartment window. She squealed, laughter both nervous and exhilarated escaping her as he let go with one hand to hang from the wall. He opened the window from the outside, his grip never loosening around her waist. She heard Natsu chuckle before he lightly tossed her onto her bed and rolled in next to her.

"You idiot!" She shouted, slapping his chest even as he laughed. She pretended the flush in her cheeks came from outrage rather than excitement. She lasted about fifteen seconds before she broke down laughing with him. Happy hovered in a moment later, grumbling about the sudden movement of his nest. The blue cat tumbled inside and landed in a crook behind Natsu's leg.

"Admit it," Natsu said, bumping his forehead against hers. "You enjoyed that."

Lucy tried to pout- it proved difficult given the smile that refused to leave.

"I guess. I still don't see the appeal it has over the front door."

Natsu poked her face.

"Liar~"

She puffed out her cheeks against Natsu's finger. Her favorite fire mage nuzzled his forehead against hers. They lay in relative silence like that for a few moments before Natsu plopped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer. He closed his eyes and rubbed noses with her. She smiled at the pure contentment on his face and slid her fingers into his hair. She giggled when he purred and she kissed him. The celestial spirit mage found his strange mannerisms growing on her. She made a game out of provoking various responses from him.

For whatever reason, Lucy only felt comfortable with experimenting like that when they were in a bed together. In any other setting, she'd feel something resembling uncertainty as to her intentions and desires. She knew it sounded a bit silly- most women would have the exact opposite problem. The bedroom often associated with the part of a relationship when a couple had reached the highest level of physical intimacy. The spirit mage and her dragon slayer hadn't gone that far.

But, she supposed, their relationship had become official in the bedroom, though they hadn't given it a proper name yet. And Natsu had been making himself cozy on Lucy's mattress long before then anyway. Perhaps, she mused, playing with his pink locks, that explained why she felt the most confident and at ease here. Natsu was obstinate about using her bed, of course, but he'd never once tried anything perverted with her.

She smiled and kissed him again, lingering this time. She may have learned in the last couple days that the dragon slayer's mind wasn't always quite as innocent as she believed, but she trusted him so much that she wouldn't- couldn't- fault him for that. Natsu hummed against Lucy's lips, bringing a warm hand up to hold her neck. She felt his other arm snake under her and loop around her waist. Heat seeped through her clothes onto her stomach from his fingers.

A snickering sound from lower on the bed prompted her to snap her eyes open and remember Happy's presence. Heat of another sort singed her cheeks up to her ears. The blue Exceed seemed more alert than a moment ago, holding a paw to his face. Natsu's hands didn't move.

"What's so funny, Happy?"

Lucy pulled her hand from Natsu's hair to cover her flushed face. She closed her fingers together over her eyes.

"She liiiiikes you!"

The celestial spirit mage felt an overwhelming desire to throttle a certain blue cat. She heard Natsu sigh. She didn't miss the mild irritation in his terse tone.

"So what," he asked, the hand he had on her neck pulling back to push up her hair. "We went over this already. I like her too."

Lucy tensed a bit, forgetting her blush for a moment. She peeked at her favorite fire mage through cracks in her fingers. She noticed the light dust of color matching his hair on his face, but his expression held typical sincerity. He took the hand she hid behind in his and brought it under his nose. Natsu sniffed it and pressed his smiling mouth against her guild mark. The celestial spirit mage felt her heart rate quadruple.

She had to admit she was pretty far over the edge.

Happy, who'd stopped snickering and apparently gotten bored of teasing, pawed at Lucy's leg.

"Lushii," he whined. "I'm hungry. Do you have any fish?"

"Weren't you exhausted a minute ago," Natsu grumbled.

"I took a cat nap!"

"What does the kind of nap have to do with anything?"

Lucy sighed.

"Yes, I have some," she said, sitting up. "Give me a minute."

She started to get out of bed only to squeak when Natsu yanked her back down. The dragon slayer hopped over her onto her floor.

"Nah," he said, stretching. "I'll get it."

Lucy couldn't find it in herself to protest. She swatted at Happy when he commented on the 'weird face' she made while she waited.

"Luce," he called from her kitchen. "You want tea?"

She paused in her banter with the Exceed.

"Um, sure," she said, propping up on her elbow. "Do you know where it is?"

A chortle came in the wake of her question.

"'Course I do."

Moments later, the pink-haired mage appeared with a raw fish in one hand and cup of water in the other. A teabag hung from between his fingers. Happy jumped to nab the fish. Natsu held his palm out under the mug and summoned a brief spike of fire to heat the water. He dropped the teabag inside and handed the cup to Lucy.

"Thank you," she said, sitting up and hanging her legs over the edge of the bed. The temperature of the water felt perfect. She let the tea saturate a few moments before taking a sip. She sputtered and almost spilled it when she opened her eyes; Natsu had taken to sitting on her floor, cross-legged with face in hand, staring at her with a slanted smirk and half-lidded eyes.

Lucy sipped at her drink, hiding the renewed flush in her cheeks. That look Natsu gave her drove her crazy. One of his sharp canines showed in his lazy smile, and the dragon slayer's tongue flicked in front of it. Lucy gulped. He was playing with her.

Well, she didn't have the same competitive streak, but she did have pride as a Fairy Tail wizard. She couldn't just let him get to her.

She put on a smirk of her own as she set her drink down on a bedpost. Her body tingled with anxious anticipation at the reaction she'd get from her favorite fire mage. She swung her legs up behind her so she lay on her stomach on the mattress. Reaching her arm out, she snatched the end of Natsu's scarf and brought it up to her face. The dragon slayer's smug expression faltered a bit.

"Luce?"

Said spirit mage closed her eyes and took a deep, drawn out whiff of the scaled, white fabric. Natsu's scent flooded in, filling her mind with vivid images- true wilderness, campfires, charcoal, smoke, danger, adventure. She moaned, soft enough to indicate pleasure but loud enough to be heard. She fluttered her eyes open, taking a coy peek at Natsu from under her lashes. She smiled and made an internal crow of victory at the way his jaw hung agape and the red that ran down his forehead to his neck. Her dragon smelled like and lived for everything she hadn't been allowed to have during her childhood; he shared all of it with her without a second thought.

And she loved him for that.

"Hey, Natsu," she said, twirling a finger around the hairs of the scarf. "What did you want to do so badly after the war?"

Natsu clamped his mouth shut and swallowed. She watched him take a few seconds before he started to answer.

"I"

A cacophony outside cut him short. The fight had come to Magnolia.

Natsu gave himself one more, lingering look at Lucy before he snuck out of the guildhall with Happy. The dragon slayer knew where to find Zeref thanks to figuring out Warren's Magic Radar. He knew he had the power to cut this war short before any more fights could happen that would put his family at risk. He'd been training for this for a whole year. Once things went back to normal for Fairy Tail, he could do what he'd wanted to do with Lucy since he came back.

Natsu and Happy appeared over Zeref and his army in minutes. The fire mage brought down a sheet of flame across the land beneath him. He landed in front of the immortal dark wizard. He smirked while he unwrapped the bandage on his right arm- he'd end emperor Spriggan for good.

"You are E.N.D."

"Bullshit!"

Natsu couldn't breathe. He fumed at the dark-haired wizard that just regarded him with infuriating calm. He ran to attack again. Zeref dropped the book of E.N.D. and zapped it with magic. Natsu stumbled. He felt that. Oh Mavis, that meant-

"You may be powerful enough to kill me," Zeref said. Natsu grit his teeth, muscles tensing at the sad look on his opponent's face. "But you were created by me."

The world around the dragon slayer seemed to stop spinning.

"If I die, you will perish as well."

Air. The world didn't have enough air in it to sustain the inferno that erupted from his body. He roared, the heat from his magic power exploding all around him. Natsu charged ahead, fist ready.

"Who the fuck cares?"

He came to finish the war. Kill the conflict before it got out of hand and endangered the people he cared about. Fulfill part of Igneel's will; take out the demon he hadn't been able to. Even if that demon was him, his family would be better off this way. Wendy would grow into a beautiful and powerful dragon slayer, can opener would still be a prick, ice princess would fess up to Juvia, Mira would gush about how many babies they'd have, Laxus would take over Fairy Tail, Erza would become a funny Wizard Saint, Lucy would light up the world with her writing and-

And he wouldn't be around to see any of it.

Natsu's momentum faltered. He almost stumbled, sudden realization and understanding crashing over him. He'd be dead. He couldn't avenge Igneel, couldn't play pranks with Happy, couldn't do the things he wanted to do with Lucy. The dragon slayer stopped altogether, letting Happy whisk him away. He didn't even hear the Exceed's tears. He just watched Zeref grow smaller while they flew away, feeling Igneel's last gift of power to him vanish.

Shit.

Natsu woke up in the guild infirmary, a light pressure on his leg. He winced at the dull pain that pervaded throughout his body when he shifted his weight. His favorite blond wiped sleep from her eyes. Natsu felt a stab at his heart when he saw the tear tracks on her face. He'd made her worry about him. He tried to grin, but the hurt in his face turned anything more than a wan smile into a cringe.

"Yo Luce," he said. She didn't smile back at him, only sniffed and stood, locking her fingers with his.

"Hey," she said, reaching to hold his face before placing her other hand on the pillow instead. Natsu remembered the warmth she gave him all over again- she was being tender with his injuries. She kissed him. He felt a familiar spark charge through his senses, something wonderful mixing with and, for a moment, causing him to forget the pain. It came right back when cold tears hit his face. "You had me scared to death, you idiot."

Natsu had to force himself to keep his eyes on hers. Lucy's tears always provoked an almost primal instinct to do whatever necessary to make them stop. He brought a hand up to hold the back of her neck and pressed her forehead to his. He told her without words that the contact didn't hurt.

"Sorry," he whispered. He splayed out his fingers against her skin, wrapping his thumb around a few stray strands of her hair. "Didn't plan on it."

Lucy let out a brief, wet laughing breath. She pulled back, and as much as he relished the feel of her on his callous hand, he let her. She sat down next to his bed, and used the hand not holding his to dry her eyes. The celestial spirit mage looked at him for a few minutes before she spoke.

"Happy told me what happened."

He stiffened. He glanced around the room to try spotting the little traitor. They had agreed on the way back to the guild, before he passed out, that they would wait to explain things to everyone. Great. Now he just had to sit with dread constricting his throat and clouding his mind until the spirit mage brought it up. Lucy squeezed his hand tight. He brought his gaze back to her.

"You should have told me," she said.

"Happy can't carry two people."

"That's not the point," she said, more than a little irritation in her tone. She groaned. "Communication, Natsu. That's what was missing. We've been over this."

The dragon slayer gulped and looked down the bed at his feet. He couldn't argue with that. Nonetheless, he mumbled something of a counterpoint.

"What?"

"I said I wanted the war over and done with. The sooner the better."

Lucy sighed. Natsu squirmed on his cot. Why did she drag things out? He just wanted to get the disgust and repulsion addressed and out of the way about what he couldn't do, about what he was.

"By yourself?"

Fuck it. He figured he had imminent doom and the worst day of his life in his immediate future, he might as well play along since it seemed determined to go for a slow build.

"I wanted things to go back to normal, Luce," he said. Natsu took a deep breath. He didn't have any intentions of holding back now that he had committed himself to his fate. "I want our old Fairy Tail back, without the constant threat of bloodshed looming over us. I wanna go back to givin' shit to all the pricks out there, and I," he paused, making a conscious effort to ignore the flush that ran up his neck. "I wanna take my princess out of her tower."

He glanced up at Lucy to see her reaction. She just sat, one hand still holding his. She seemed captivated. He counted that as a good thing.

"I know we've gone on a ton of adventures together already," he said, scratching his head with his free hand. "But I wanna do more with ya. I wanna go on enough jobs to save up money as fast as possible, and then go away for another year. And take you with me this time."

Natsu turned over the hand he was holding, using his fingers to draw imaginary maps and mountain ranges and all the things he wanted to show Lucy on her soft palm. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. He just knew that she'd be sick to her stomach hearing things like that from him. He squeezed his eyes shut. He'd come this far; he might as well tear off the bandage.

"But I couldn't do it, Luce," he said, pressing his thumb into her palm. "I'm greedy, and I couldn't do it. I coulda saved everybody a lot of trouble and pain, but maybe that's just something that comes from being a demon," he spat, bitterness and venom at the term surrounding his tongue. "Guess I am some kinda monster."

Despite how much he didn't want to, he released her hand and lay back against the cot. He felt like he might retch up his internal organs and hawk up broken pieces of his heart, but he'd dealt with it.

"Natsu," Lucy said, something laced in her whisper that he couldn't identify. "Where do you hurt?"

Wait. What? He hadn't seen that coming. But then, Lucy was still Lucy. He had to think about her question for a minute.

"Um," he said, focusing back in on the vague sensations of discomfort that escalated to pain when he tried moving. "Most of me."

"Does your face hurt?"

He didn't think about it.

"No."

Natsu heard a resounding smack that coincided with sharp stinging on his left cheek. His hand came up to his face. Okay, that he did sort of expect. He had the beginnings of tears forming in his eyes when Lucy surprised him again.

His favorite celestial spirit mage mashed her lips to his. She clutched his head hard in her hands. The gesture may have been aggressive, but amazing regardless. She kept at it, gradually softening the intensity and humming into it. He tilted his head to press back deeper, even though he already had trouble finding air. Lucy kept her face close when she initiated the break.

"Natsu," she murmured, still holding his head, albeit now with a much gentler touch. "A bit of advice; don't follow one of the sweetest things you've ever said with the dumbest shit I've ever heard."

The fire mage cringed and grimaced, lowering his eyes to the floor. Lucy never swore. Even more than crying, foul language signaled that he'd screwed up. Lucy's palms pressing into his cheeks called his attention back to her now glaring expression.

"Okay?"

He nodded.

"Right."

She relaxed a little, stroking his jawline with her fingers.

"You're not a monster, Natsu," she said, running a soft hand through his hair. "No one here cares what you are. We're your family, and we love you."

The glare came back for an encore.

"It would have been selfish if you did kill yourself just to beat Zeref."

The chocolate orbs the fire dragon slayer adored twinkled with humor while she placed another short kiss to his lips.

"Who would protect me if my dragon disappeared?"

Natsu gave himself an internal lashing. Lucy's logic made sense to him, and seemed so simple. Mavis, he felt stupid.

"Sorry, Luce," he said again, eliciting a squeak from her when he caught her around the waist and lifted her onto his cot. "I promise I won't leave ya hanging again."

The celestial spirit mage lay stiff while Natsu rolled onto his side to accommodate her addition to the bed.

"I thought you said you were still hurting?"

He closed his eyes and smiled, running one hand up and down her back.

"I was," he said. "Ain't now."

Natsu pulled Lucy toward him, burying his nose in her hair. He inhaled long and deep, sighing with the rush of her natural smell. It brought to his mind strawberries, dusty books, sunlight and safety, home. He reveled in the feeling of her nuzzling her nose against his neck. The celestial spirit mage reminded him of the sort of security and belonging that he'd only known with Igneel. Lucy provided all that for him without even trying.

And he loved her for that.

A familiar giggling brought him back to the present, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Happy chortling as usual.

"Where'd you come from?"

The blue Exceed landed on a bedside table.

"I was hiding under the bed!"

Natsu, still holding Lucy, raised an eyebrow.

"Why were you down there?"

A shocked, mortified expression replaced the cat's usual nonchalance.

"Because Lushi is scary~!"

Natsu chuckled. He should have figured his favorite blond would have had to interrogate Happy to make him break his promise. He turned back to her, giving her side a teasing tickle.

"What'd you do to my cat?"

She stifled her giggles and pleaded with him to stop.

"He wouldn't tell me anything!"

"Hey," Happy said, materializing on top of Natsu's head. "Are you boyfriend and girlfriend now?"

Lucy froze in the middle of cuddling with her favorite dragon slayer. Happy's question was innocent enough, but it made her realize again that she and her partner still hadn't named whatever they had. She felt Natsu's eyes on her, and, peeking up from under his chin, she looked back at him. She felt his chest rumble with a deep hum before he huffed.

"Nah," he said. Lucy felt a small crack in her heartstrings. Did Natsu not see things the way she did? She couldn't imagine it, but anything was possible. "That's boring!"

Lucy sighed a breath of partial relief and partial exasperation, more with herself than her dragon. Of course he'd reject a normal label for their relationship. His entire being radiated adventure, after all; nothing that fit the norm suited him.

"We're mates!"

Lucy opened her eyes to regard his onyx orbs. She melted a little inside at the tooth-filled grin that made her heart stop every time she saw it.

Mates. The term seemed so appropriate for Natsu it almost made her laugh- definite, no room for confusion or mistaken meaning, somewhat animalistic.

And permanent.

While Lucy lay there, reveling in the proximity and feel of being in her dragon's embrace, she pondered things. She'd been raised to believe that a lady grew up for the sake of whoever her parents deemed fit for her. All the decisions belonged to her as far as Natsu was concerned. And she realized the idea of mutual belonging, with him as her partner, didn't bother her in the slightest.

The concept sounded like her favorite kind of adventure.

"Yeah," she agreed, looping a careful arm about her favorite fire mage and wrapping her legs around his. The war be damned, she savored and enjoyed the contact with Natsu too much to care who might walk in on them or what they would think. "We're mates."

And she wouldn't have it any other way.

A/N: And CUT!

Here we are! This one took a bit longer than the others, mostly since I was trying to come up with something that amounted to Lucy's reaction to Natsu's actual response to Zeref's ultimatum/reveal. I got over the hurdle once I remembered how boring that would have been. This is fan made, after all! Anywho, for those who don't know, due to my work with Mutual Burns, I've sworn off reading any of the new Fairy Tail chapters beyond 470-something, where I last left off. I did this because otherwise MB would be in constant flux and never get done. Unfortunately, that also means I've more or less 'run out' of Nastu-Lucy scenes to create alternate versions of. So, for all intents and purposes, this story is now complete. I realize I've pulled this stunt twice and it didn't stick, but I don't want to jinx things. So I'll leave it at complete. Those who want more could conceivably help me by reading and reviewing Mutual Burns to encourage me along so I can read the manga again! Hahahahahah- shameless self-plug!

TL;DR, this story is now over unless I say otherwise because reasons!

If you enjoyed this last bit, leave a review! If you didn't, read my other two FT fan fictions and talk about them in a review post here in an attempt to confuse me! Thank you to all those who have been reading and reviewing this story! I'd say it's been a fun journey, but that'd be incredibly pretentious sounding since I started this less than two weeks ago! But I did have fun with this! Hope you have fun reading it! Shadic out!