1. Game Night

Lucy felt like she was floating, rather than walking, lately. Her steps seemed to carry so much less weight now that her feelings were out in the open. The happiness in her heart must have served as a metaphorical handful of helium balloons, tugging her upwards into the night sky. If she thought about it, it made sense. A heavenly feeling like love, pulling her to the heavens. The idea made her giggle.

As a labour of love, her apartment had undergone a very thorough clean over the last 3 hours. Every surface, from the counter to the curtains, was exposed to powerful vacuums, lemon-scented chemicals and a vicious scrub, courtesy of a floral tea towel. The end result had left the blonde exhausted, but it was well worth it.

It had also left Lucy with less than half an hour to get ready. She looked down, noting the coffee-stained shirt and track pants, then squealed loudly. She bolted back to her dresser, feverishly digging through the neat draws. Garment after garment was flung back onto the freshly-cleaned carpet, while Lucy searched. She clutched at the fabric of a soft blue cardigan, and then took a moment to inspect it. It was nice and casual, but was it too casual? She chewed her lip, before placing it at her knees. It would do for now. Maybe she could wear it with something a bit more glamorous?

The cardigan was the joined by a white tank top and a light pink mini skirt. Lucy added a few silver bracelets and matching sandals to her ensemble, and looked proudly over her outfit. She smiled, before freezing up again. She'd missed one key component of clothing here, one that was pivotal when hanging out with your boyfriend.

She gulped. Underwear. At this exact moment, it was an old sports bra and mismatched panties, which was completely unacceptable. With shaking hands, she opened her underwear drawer. She had never known clothing to be so intimidating.

Silk or lace? Skimpy or classy? Light or dark? Lucy had no idea. What did he like? What about red? Red was sexy. Red was romantic. Lucy fished out a matching set of red lace underwear. Black stitching decorated the material in a simple, floral pattern. The thong was skimpy, though. Was it too skimpy? Would he think she was a slut, if he saw?

Lucy squeaked again. Deep down, she knew he'd never judge her like that, but that didn't ease the anxiety. Her nerves had turned to absolute jelly, though she wasn't quite sure why. Everything had been so perfect as of late. Each day was like a passing dream, pleasant, almost fuzzy, and blended together into a perfect state of bliss. Maybe that was why she was so nervous. Something had to go wrong. Life couldn't continue on such a wonderful track forever, could it?

The next pair of undies Lucy fished out were pink, with thin, white stripes. White lace lined the cups of the bra and the edges of the thong. She analysed this set, before relenting and adding it to her stack of clothes. It'd have to do.

Lucy stripped quicker than she had thought possible, and started to redress. The 'cleaning' clothes lay discarded on the floor, looking out of place in the otherwise meticulous apartment.

Lucy shrugged the cardigan on, and her gaze was drawn back to the angry, red scab on her shoulder. It was healing up nicely, considering it had been only a few weeks since it had been inflicted. Her fingers brushed over the rough, brown surface. It didn't even hurt anymore. You could say whatever you liked about Porylusica's temper, but her healing abilities were phenomenal.

Lucy pulled the fabric over the wound, obscuring it from view again. She looked down to her leg. The scar there had healed much faster. It was a much shallower gash, so all that was left was a dark, pink mark on her upper thigh. In the right light, it wasn't even visible. Lucy doubted the scars would ever really heal, but she didn't mind all that much. Yeah, they brought back some bad memories, but they brought back some not so bad ones as well.

She smiled as images of a pink-haired, dark-eyed mage came to mind. In just a few short moments, he'd be there. Lucy was yet to spend a day without him, which was really nothing new. What had changed was how they spent their time together. When he'd break into her room in the morning, he'd eat breakfast with her instead of being kicked back out the window. When they were at the guild together, they spent more time sitting and chatting than browsing missions. And when Natsu announced he was 'hanging out' with her tonight, her thoughts immediately jumped to 'date'.

She still had no idea what they were doing or where he was taking her. It had taken long enough for them to work out a time. All she knew was that in a few, short seconds, she would be re-united with her boyfriend for a mystery-date.

Somehow, dubbing it as a mystery-date made things all the more exciting. Lucy grinned to herself and stalked over to the couch. She curled herself into a neat ball, and exhaled, hanging her head. When she looked up, her gaze didn't shift from the shaker panels of her door.

Natsu wasn't big on knocking, nor was he big on romantics. After walking all the way to Lucy's apartment from his own house, he didn't really feel like climbing all those stairs to reach her third storey apartment. Without a bouquet or a box of chocolates weighing him down, he decided to go with the obvious alternative.

Natsu rolled his shoulders, before stepping up onto the window sill of the first storey. From there, he could almost reach the next window. Scaling the side of Lucy's building had become so normal, so easy to him, he didn't even hesitate when he reached that next jump. Natsu lunged for the next grip, hauling himself up with ease.

When he reached the third storey window he knew which corner would give way under his touch. He pushed it roughly open, before climbing through. As his boots hit the carpet, he heard a delightfully familiar voice cry his name.

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted, running over to give him a hug. It occurred to her how strange it was to speak so nicely to him after breaking into her apartment. It almost felt alien; to hug him instead of scream profanities and boot his ass right back from where it came. Even if it was weird, Lucy liked it. It was more fun to greet someone happily than in a fit of mock rage. It was… refreshing.

The intruder in question felt a bit weird too, but Lucy was always weird. So instead of commenting on it, he just smiled. "Hey Luce," he said, words muffled into the hug. "You look smell pretty."

A pink blush spread over her cheeks. "Thanks." Lucy pulled away, smiling at Natsu. "So, uh, what are we doing?"

Natsu's brow's knitted together. "Hanging out?" he asked, frowning. "What'd you think we were doing, weirdo?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "I meant 'where are we going to hang out'?"

"Oh!" Natsu said with sudden realisation. "Uh… I don't know."

The stellar spirit mage baulked. "What do you mean you don't know? It's a date, Natsu, you need to have a plan!"

He frowned, moving to collapse on her couch. "No one told me that. What were we meant to do?" he asked, kicking his legs up on the arm of her sofa.

"I-I don't know! Go out to dinner, see a movie… Um, hell we could go swimming, or have a picnic, just do anything!" she rambled, counting off examples on her fingers. "It's common sense to know we have to do something!"

"Well, if it can be anything, why don't we just hang out here?" he suggested, shrugging. Lucy's jaw dropped. Was he really that clueless?

"B-Because that's not how it works!" she fumed, hands fisted at her side. "We need to go somewhere!"

"Why?"

Why. That key word. Lucy opened her mouth, then closed it again. In truth, she didn't know herself. Why was it always 'tradition' to go out and eat dinner, see a movie or have a picnic? Why didn't couples just stay at home? The unwritten laws of dating decreed it taboo for some reason, but what authority was that? And what did it matter anyway?

Lucy sighed, before joining Natsu on the couch. She couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. She didn't realise how much she was looking forward to going out with him.

A set of warm arms wrapped around her, as if sensing her change in mood. Lucy leaned back into Natsu's embrace, staring at the light pink wall opposite her.

"You know, we could just stay here," she murmured, toying with the idea as she spoke. There was nothing wrong with sending the night in her apartment. In fact, it could actually be fun. There was still one thing bugging her, though. "But what would we do?"

"I don't know," Natsu replied. His warm breath tickled her neck, making Lucy smile. "What do you usually do for fun?"

"Well, I usually read, but I don't think that'd be the best way to spend our time." She thought to herself for a moment, unsure what to do. Natsu definitely wouldn't want to read. She had nothing to cook for a decent dinner in the next ten minutes. She didn't have any movies worth watching.

"Maybe we could take another bath?" Natsu suggested. Lucy's cheeks and neck flushed a very noticeable shade of pink.

"M-maybe later," she stuttered, fighting off the urge to squirm.

Since the first, magical night in her bath tub, the two mages had returned to Lucy's bathroom with lustful yearnings three times. Each time was better than the last, and even though Lucy was gaining a bit more nerve about sex, she still struggled when talking to her boyfriend about it.

Natsu, with his natural lack of shame, had absolutely no trouble inquiring about another round. It amused Lucy to no end that he was so bold about the subject, and yet seemed completely unaware that you could have sex in more than one place. Either that, or he preferred to remain in a territory he'd already… conquered. When things were getting hot and heavy on the couch, he insisted on whisking her away to the bath, then waiting until the tub was full and steaming before continuing their romantic endeavours. It irritated Lucy that she had to wait to quell the building heat, but she had to admit; it was always worth the wait.

"Well, do you have any games?" Natsu suddenly asked, sending Lucy crashing back down to earth. She blinked for a moment, before smiling.

"Actually… Yes." She got to her feet, and stalked over to her drawers, where she'd been frantically pulling out clothes only a few minutes ago. She dug through the drawers from a moment, before finding a few dusty boxes buried under a small mountain of skirts and jeans. "Let's see," she murmured, chewing her lip. "I've got… Monopoly? No. Chess? No. Scrabble? Uh…"

She turned her head, looking over to Natsu. "Do you know how to play Scrabble?" she asked, holding up the box for indication. He gave her a blank look, but took the box from her grasp anyway.

"Nope," he said simply, analysing the worn corners. "But I can learn. What is it?"

"It's a word game," Lucy replied, before turning back to her drawer. "I can look around a bit more if you like. There's bound to be some more games in here."

"Nah, it's ok. We'll do this one. Just show me how to play. I'll pick it up."

"If you're sure," she shrugged, pushing the drawer back in place. "Here, I'll set it up for you." Lucy pulled the top off the box and laid the board out on the carpet. She fished out a tattered bag, filled with tiles, and placed it neatly in front of her. "Ok," she said. "Start by taking seven of the little tiles from this bag."

Lucy drew her own letters, before dropping the bag into Natsu's hand. He looked at it for a moment, before picking out a handful of his own. He held one up between his thumb and forefinger, frowning.

"Why do they have letters on them?" he asked, lining his tiles on the rack like Lucy was doing. The blonde just shook her head.

"I told you, it's a word game. You just have to spell a few words out using the letters on the tiles. The little numbers in the corner are added to your score as you put down words. Whoever has the biggest score at the end wins. It's actually quite simple. Here," she said, rearranging her tiles as she spoke. "I'll go first."

Lucy plucked a line of letters from her collection, and positioned them neatly in the centre of the board. Shine. "You see how I arranged them in a straight line, going downwards? There are only two ways to write words; vertically and horizontally. Once you have a word, join it to mine through a common letter. Do you need help?" she offered, while drawing five replacement tiles.

Natsu stared at her for a moment, looking completely blank. "So… Can I do this?" He lined up a set of his own letters, stemming from 'e'. Luce. The stellar spirit mage turned pink.

"Y-you know that's not a real word," she mumbled. Natsu took no notice. He was fishing around in the box, pulling out used score sheets. He read over one, and then frowned. Then, without any warning, he set it on fire. Lucy squealed.

"What the hell are you doing?! Put that out!" She screamed. Natsu gave her a weird look.

"Why?" he asked, but complied anyway. The blackened paper was discarded, falling back in the box. Lucy's eyes were just about popping out of her head.

"Why? WHY? Why would you even set it on fire in the first place? You could've burned down my apartment!" Lucy fumed, fists bunched at her sides. Natsu just shrugged.

"Levy won," he explained. Instantly, her rage transformed into confusion.

"What the hell are you talking about," she muttered, picking up the burnt score sheet. The numbers at the top of the sheet were completely indiscernible, but the bottom scores were still legible, as was a chibi Levy caricature at the bottom. The speech bubble blooming from her oversized head said 'I WIN! I WIN!'

Lucy frowned, looking over the scores. She remembered this game, albeit it was months ago. Levy was one of the only people who could beat her at Scrabble. When the solid script mage had slept over one night, the two friends had pulled out the game and Lucy had her ass kicked 523 to 349.

Realisation hit Lucy like a sledge hammer, and her cheeks flushed pink yet again. "You burned it because… I lost?" That's so sweet! And stupid! And adorable! And irrational! And endearing! And dangerous! And thoughtful! And thoughtless!

Her thoughts (and her heart) came to a screeching halt when he nodded. "She has a real issue with gloating, you know. When we were little, she had a victory dance whenever she won a game. Actually, Gajeel reckons she still has a victory dance, but he won't say when she does it or how he knows…"

Lucy had tuned out by that point. She'd interrogate Levy about her victory dance later, in addition to Gajeel's knowledge of it. She looked back to the game board, reading over the connected words. Shine, Luce. A swelling, giddy feeling grew somewhere in her chest, and she smiled to herself. She couldn't be certain, but it looked like Natsu had left her a message there, cheesy though it was. She didn't know if it was intentional or not, but it still made her ridiculously happy.

Lucy's slim fingers slid around his, and she leaned into her boyfriend, resting her cheek on her shoulder. His rambling story cut off for a moment, and his spare arm welcomed her into a hug. He seemed so clueless, and yet, somehow, he knew better than anyone how to make her feel special.

"Natsu," she whispered. "Let's play a different game. In the bath, this time."

I'm back! And so is my internet... I'm sorry this was so late! I was cut off from my laptop for a horrific 4 days while we had to paint and put down new carpet in the house. It was miserable; no internet, paint stains on my favourite top, and toxic fumes stinking up the house. Not fun.

Anyway, enough about my boring life... Let's get back to Natsu and Lucy's! After my delay in posting this, I don't want to set another deadline. So, instead, I'll just say that the next chapter will be up within a week or so. Theoretically, I should be able to get it up within 2-3 days.

The next chapter will be 'Girls Night'. I got it into my head that I wanted a '*blank* Night' theme for this book. I have planned out 10 chapters, but I may go a little overboard if I think of another theme that I really like. Feel free to suggest anything that comes to mind!

Love, Maddie :)

P.S. I'm starting work on a GaLe fic that should be posted after the conclusion of this series. Or maybe during. Who's to say? Anyway, that'll be coming... eventually. When it is posted, I encourage you guys to check it out! It should be along a similar time line to these stories.