"Happy, I found Lucy's stories! She's totally gonna kill me after this one," Natsu grinned as he pulled out a folder named "My Adventures!" from Lucy's middle draw.
"Aye!" The blue cat flew towards the dragon slayer and took a seat on their friend's desk.
"It's 7:30 so we only have half an hour until she's back. I can't wait to see what fancy words she threw in this thing, it's huge!" He exclaimed with his sinister smile creeping back up.
"But I was supposed to go see Carla in 5 minutes!" Happy cried out.
"Don't worry, I fill you in on all the details after. You better get going, buddy," he waved the exceed goodbye and watched him fly out of the window.
Natsu wanted to see what she thought of everyone or more particularly, him. It wasn't exactly a secret that he liked the blonde in a way that couldn't be described as just friendly. So, with half an hour to kill, he flipped through the pages, reading some and skimming through others.
"January 20th was nothing special. Me and Levy just read together in the library"
"July 9th Wendy fell into a puddle on our mission and the client laughed at her. Poor girl... The client was incredibly rude I'm suprised he didn't get punched"
"February 28th Gray accidentally knocked the cake out of Erza's hand, had the beating of a lifetime and is going to spend the next few missions carrying Erza's luggage"
Throughout the full 20 minutes it took him to finish it, he could only recall about 6 times he was mentioned. She had recorded atleast one sentence to describe each and every day yet he almost didn't make the cut. They hung out almost everyday and he barely even got a name drop.
Feeling the upset rising in his gut, the boy had to put the folder away before the sadness started pouring out of him. Who even cared what draw he put it into? Knowing he wasn't important enough to be in her writing left a sadness inside him and when Natsu got sad, he appeared angry.
The draw he opened was the bottom one, the one Lucy told him never to open. She got bothered about the others but that one most of all. In all his snooping he'd never go as far as to look in it until now. What he saw was an unnamed book with some pretty looking cover.
Despite knowing it was the wrong thing to do, he dropped the organiser of memories he once held and picked up the mysterious book before him.
If she didn't feel he was important enough to be mentioned then her privacy wasn't important enough for him to respect. Again, it wasn't right but he opened the first page up to find a selfie of her with him in the background of it.
He flipped again to somewhere in the middle to find two pages full of writing. It wasn't even paragraphed like the rest of Lucy's work that she put so much effort into. When he began reading it, it hit him. It's all one paragraph.
"May 30th, Natsu took me stargazing today. Isn't he as sweet as ever? I think I spent most of my time looking at him like he was a star with his own light that shined down upon me, a light I could only admire from afar."
The page ended with, "And then he turned to face me and I swear if he looked at me with those eyes a second longer I would've fainted on the spot! I think stargazing has moved up on my list of hobbies."
That page should've been enough to satisfy his ego and the blush on his face usually would've had him gasping for air but this time it only made him want to read on. What else did she write about him or even think about him?
Another flip and he landed on a page with a poem on one side and more photos on the other. All of the pictures had him somewhere in. It couldn't exactly be classed as a coincidence any longer.
"At the end of the world
You'd be the last thing I see
No matter where you go
I'd gladly let you guide me
If it meant we'd stay together
I'd follow you forever
But I think I'd do it anyway
Because in my mind, every second I spend with you is on replay"
Usually Natsu would laugh at Lucy's poems but this was a private poem that was oddly romantic and next to a photo with him in once again. It was almost like she liked him. This was Lucy though, it couldn't be! And so, he flipped again. This time it was a more recently written page. Infact, it was something from a few days ago he remembered.
"November 29th, Natsu and Gray were fighting at the guild today as always. They stopped when Erza came in but he spent the rest of the day with his arm draped around my shoulders and even fell asleep at some point. Whether he's a fire mage or not, I might've overheated in that scenario. He's k̶i̶n̶d̶-o̶f̶ super cute when he's sleeping. He called me a wierdo when he caught me looking at him. I don't know when I stopped taking 'wierdo' as an insult and started thinking about everything he says whether it's an insult, compliment, or even something entirely gibberish!"
Ok, this was a new development. Now he definitely couldn't deny that this entire 3,000 page book was about him because most of the pages he flipped to had a picture with him in and as for the ones with writing, he didn't need to read to know they only spoke of him.
Natsu could only think about what to do with the newly found information of his friend's 'obsession' if you could call it that. Nevermind that, he knew perfectly well it was a crush.
You know what, who cared? He had 5 minutes to regain his composure. He thought he had 5 minutes atleast. The sound of Lucy opening the door 5 minutes early made him jump out of his skin.
The Salamander rushed the books into the correct draws and almost slammed himself into her bed to hide the fact he ever looked through it. When he closed it, he thought he saw a page at the end with a few suggestive words on it but he'd rather not let his imagination run rampant.
"Natsu? Happy? I swear if you guys have been looking through my stuff I'm gonna throw you out the window!" She yelled.
Well, what do you do when you're trying not to get caught? Ah, right, he closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. Then, his face went red again remembering everything.
"He's k̶i̶n̶d̶-o̶f̶ super cute when he's sleeping."
New strategy; turn over with your face in a pillow so she can't see your face but still thinks your sleeping. Natsu could only hope she wouldn't notice anything.
"Ah," Lucy sat down next to him on her bed and began stroking her hands through his hair, "you're asleep again. One of the last times you fell asleep on me you started yelling Gray's name and tried to punch me in the face. I think I better get to bed too."
Now this was strange. Had she been letting him sneak into her bed all those time she awoke to him beside her? For the first time in a long time, Natsu shut down.
Ofcourse, the very next morning, she kicked him out again as if she wasn't the one who let him lay there next to her.
--------
Yesterday's revelation made Natsu think differently on the fine winter day it was; especially when she pulled out that book about him as she shoved him out the window. Lucy was writing about him again, he knew it.
Maybe he wanted to test her, maybe he just wanted to read her fantasising about him again. Who knew?
When she finally got to the guild, he dropped Gray whom he'd previously been fighting and walked over to her table.
"Ooo! Looks who's here to see you, Lu-chan!"
"Hmm?" Lucy turned to see him as he sat down and lay his head against her shoulder. She looked away but he was certain he got a reaction out of her that left her cheeks red.
"Luce, ya wanna go for a walk?" He asked.
"In this weather? It's freezing outside," Lucy responded.
"I could always warm ya up."
Levy gave her friend a knowing look, as if she knew something. Natsu now understood what she meant whenever that happened. Lucy was again blushing.
"Uhm," before the blonde could muster up the right words to say, her fire dragon had stood up, grabbed her hand and dragged her outside.
"Oh, come on! I left my coat," complained the celestial mage. Usually, this would end up with Natsu unknowingly giving Lucy a page worth of writing inspiration but now he knew, he payed more attention to it.
He knew wxactly what he was doing when he slung his arm around her waist and brought her close. He brought her so close their foreheads were touching.
"You gonna write about this one too?"
There was that burning feeling in her cheeks again. Lucy didn't realise at first but then it struck her.
"What?"
Natsu moved even closer, if it was possible. It was now or never for him.
"Did you-"
Her anger was cut off by their lips colliding. He wasn't good with words. He couldn't even find the words to describe her beauty the way she could him.
But if there was one thing he could do,
It was action.
And that was what he did.
The two fell back into the snow still holding onto eachother and went straight back into a kiss.
"Lu-chan, you forgot your- nevermind..."