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In Lucy's room, the sun would hit the top of the bed. Usually, the place was where her head was. Usually.
But when Lucy woke up, the lids of her eyes were still dark, not red from the light that usually shone onto her. She frowned, opening them slightly, letting her eyelashes only just cover her actual eyes so that if the Dragon Slayer turned out to actually be awake, then she wouldn't be embarrassed for almost, maybe probably ending up watching him sleep.
She wasn't surprised, this happened a lot. She would wake up in the night, maybe just push him away, sometimes if he was snoring in her ear then she would kick him out entirely. Sometimes, he was never there (which Lucy would perhaps sometimes be disappointed about).
It was weird really- because it seemed whenever they were out on the road, he snored incredibly loudly. So loudly in fact, that sometimes Gray would fall asleep holding his hand underneath his chin just to keep him quite so they could fall asleep (but he stopped doing that after Natsu had jumped awake and early bit his hand off in fright). Yet, here and now, as the sun silhouetted his hair, making it almost glow in the noonlight, he slept so silently that you would have thought that he would have been put under a spell.
He shifted under Lucy's gaze, like he knew she was staring at him (openly now), and she stiffened when she felt his arm wrapped around her waist. The fire mages arm spread further down the curve of her back and his hand somehow found it's way under her t-shirt. Just lightly, his fingertips were lightly dusting over the parting where her body met the mattress. He was so warm that she relaxed again- but then froze up again as she pulled her back towards him, making her almost get a facefull of pillow (if she hadn't of lifted her face).
And now she was stuck. Their noses were almost touching, and his mouth was slightly parted showing off his slight fangs. His breath oddly smelt nice, like peppermint- she blanched because unsurprisingly that was Lucy's toothpaste. His hair was tousled over his forehead and his eyes were closed. Lucy smiled a little- he had never actually realised that his eyelashes were this long. Black, unlike his salmon hair colour. And... he had freckles. Little dots of them, just over his cheeks. They were just there- like constellations. Lucy herself had freckles, but they were barely noticeable unless you properly looked close enough, and during summer. And they were mostly in unnoticeable places like just on the curve of her shoulders and her forearms. If she had been sunbathing, occasionally they'll appear on the small of her back.
She gulped, closing her eyes tightly and wished for a moment. That this was a dream (that she didn't want to wake up from, honestly, truly, never), and that at any moment something will happen, something will change-
Natsu let out a small sigh, and began to stir and all of Lucy's courage drained out of her, and she began to immediate regret ever wishing what she had-
He opened his eyes slowly, and fluttered them a little, looking down, not at her face but more at her neck, like he was avoiding to look at her properly. But once, he looked up, their eyes met and Lucy could eel her cheeks being bright red. Her ears and her cheeks were burning badly, and she felt like she could finally breath with the way that he watched her but also couldn't breath at the same time, his gaze suffocated her and pinned her down all at the same time.
Natsu visibly gulped, and she felt his hand slightly shift on her back, like it had no idea what it was doing, not like it had a couple of minutes ago. But Lucy wasn't really paying attention to that- what she paying attention to was the blush on his cheeks.
He let out a shivering sigh and looked up at her, blinking slowly. It seemed like he was stumped for words, but he still didn't move. Lucy was sort of glad, now she had felt the warmth from him on her she was certain that if he ever let go she would freeze to death. She knew now what she needed.
The dragon slayer finally opened his mouth, like he was about to speak, but it still seemed like he just had nothing to say. A little breath rushed out, flushing Lucy with that peppermint, and from underneath the covers, his hand emerged. His fingers curled, and Lucy watched softly as he gently began to stroke her cheek with his knukles. Pushing away any of her loose strands of hair, kindly staring into her eyes with the deepest sincerity that she had ever seen within the Dragon Slayers eyes.
"What does this mean for us?" He whispered. Lucy's heart stuttered at the croakiness of his morning voice, rough from the misuse an from the screaming from the battle he had the previous day. She sighed, and shrugged.
"What do you want it to be?" She asked back. Natsu's lips turned upwards as he chuckled a little, making the feeling in Lucy's chest begin to bloom and grow through her ribcage and passing through her stomach.
She sort of leaned into his palm, resting her cheek in his hand with trust. Not trust that he wouldn't let go, she knew that he would let go of her any moment now, but that wouldn't mean letting go of her for good- only keeping his hand in hers. Metaphorically.
"I want this to be everything Luce," he told her, giving her a cheeky grin. "I want this to be everything that we can have, everything that makes us, us." She nodded and their eyes met again.
Nothing else was said that morning, the just swathed each other in their comfort, and Lucy rolled over, and knew the next time that she would wake up, they would be them. And that would mean they would be everything.
And she loved that.