nalu one-shots

sick dragon

"How come you don't treat me like that?" he snapped, his eyes narrowing slightly. Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Because you are not a cat, Natsu." She looked up at him, and seeing the expression on his face, she smirked. "Why? You're not jealous of Happy, are you?" Natsu's eyes immediately went up to meet hers, his cheeks switching from tan to red in an instant. He turned away from her, folding his arms stubbornly across his chest.

"As if." Lucy laughed at how cute he was when he was embarrassed. Natsu peeked at them through the corner of his eyes, just in time to see Lucy lean down and kiss the crown of Happy's head. "Tsk," he scoffed.

Lucky bastard.

The next day...

Lucy sighed as she stepped out of the tub. Nothing like a good hot shower to start the day. After she got dressed and left the bathroom, making her way toward the kitchen to get something to eat for breakfast, she heard a rushed tapping at her window. She looked up and saw a distraught Happy outside. Curious and concerned, she approached the window and opened it. "Lucy!" he yelled, flying into her chest.

"Happy, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"It's Natsu! Something's wrong with him!" Lucy's eyebrows furrowed. Something wrong with Natsu?

"Happy, calm down. What's going on with Natsu?"

"I... I don't know! He never sleeps in on a mission day! He's not even snoring! Just... come see him! Maybe you'll know what's wrong with him!" Lucy sighed. She really didn't want to go to Natsu's house right now, especially since this could be a joke. But when she looked into Happy's eyes, she realized that this wasn't a joke. Happy wasn't nearly a good enough actor to be so convincing. Something really was wrong.

"Okay, just give me a second."

Happy opened the door to his and Natsu's "lovely" abode and frantically flew inside. Lucy closed the door behind her and looked around the room, disgusted. Well... nothing had changed since the last time she'd been in Natsu's house. It was still as messy as ever. "Lucy! Quick, he's over here!" The celestial wizard carefully made her way across the clutter to the other side of the room, toward Natsu's hammock. Sure enough, he was there, on his side with his back to her. Nothing seemed weird or different about him other than the fact that he was almost completely quiet, the only sound being a soft rumbling in his chest rather than his usual obnoxious snoring.

As Happy sat nervously on her shoulder, Lucy hesitantly reached out a hand and touched his arm. "Natsu?" she called softly, giving him a light shake. "Natsu." He stirred and moaned. Lucy flinched away when he started to cough, and violently. His whole body jerked, causing the hammock to swing. Lucy began to worry. Hearing such a noise come from Natsu was a little unnerving. When he finally stopped and settled back into the hammock, he looked over his shoulder at her. He was sweating - actually sweating - and his bangs were plastered to his forehead. He had bags under his eyes and he looked exhausted.

"Luce..." he rasped, turning onto his back to look at her fully. His voice was scratchy, and sounded utterly strange coming from him. It sounded almost nothing like him.

"Natsu..." she said back, kneeling down beside his bed to be at his eye level. She reached out a hand and touched his forehead, only to retract it the second she touched him. He was burning. His body temperature was already hotter than normal, but this was something else entirely. He had a scorching fever. "You're sick."

"What?" said Happy. "He's never sick!"

Lucy snorted, ignoring the feline. "You look awful." Natsu rolled his eyes.

"I feel awful," he said, his voice terribly slurred. He turned his head away to sneeze. He sniffled and cringed. His throat felt like sandpaper.

"Lucy... can you do something?" asked the Exceed worriedly, sitting down on the Dragon Slayer's stomach.