Natsu's POV
He didn't know why Lucy's comments about his destructiveness had hurt but they had. He knew that she hadn't meant any harm by it, that she was just teasing, but for some reason he felt embarrassed and hurt. He was embarrassed because he didn't want Lucy to think of him as a destructive idiot, and it hurt t because he knew that his lack of self-control would sometimes cause her to lose rent money due to the damages he caused. He knew that it was sometimes hard for her to pay her rent and pay for all the other necessities that she needed. In the past when he'd gone overboard and they had had their reward reduced to pay for the damages, she would get upset and sometimes cry, making him feel awful. He had been trying hard in recent months to keep himself from causing unnecessary destruction in order to keep her happy. He wasn't sure exactly why he did it, but he liked to see her smile. She had a beautiful smile that seemed to light up the world, and caused everyone around her to smile in turn.
"-su-nii..."
Why was he always trying to make her smile? What was it about her that made him want to try his hardest to keep her from crying?
"Natsu-nii!"
He snapped out of his thoughts and turned his head to see Romeo looking at him curiously.
"Huh?"
"I was just saying that you look like something is bothering you Natsu-nii," said the younger mage. Natsu sighed. He wasn't sure if he should tell Romeo about his confusing thoughts but he didn't think that it would hurt if he did. The young mage was smart, he may even have his own opinion on the situation and could possibly help Natsu.
"I've just been feeling confused lately," said the dragonslayer, raising his arms and holding the back of his head and staring up at the sky. "I'm feeling all these weird emotions that I've never felt before and I don't know how to handle them." Romeo listened patiently as Natsu said this and waited for him to continue. They walked on a little further before the older mage spoke again.
"It started a few weeks ago...."
{Flashback}
I wonder if Lucy wants to go on a job today?
Natsu wandered the streets of Magnolia, making his lazy way towards the apartment of his best friend and teammate. He was alone, Happy had wanted to go find Carla and see if he could persuade her to accept his latest fish offering, so he had decided to pay Lucy a visit. He felt very relaxed as he walked along the busy streets, the smells of many delicious foods wafting through the air and the cries of small children playing in the streets reaching his ears. He liked the walk to Lucy's place. It took him through the town's markets, and he almost always made stops at his favorite stands to make purchases or simply to chat with the locals. They all knew the pink-haired man well, and they knew how he had protected them many times in the past. They appreciated all that he did for their town and because of this they forgave him when he occasionally burned down a building or destroyed something during the many fights that he had with his guildmates or with rival guilds.
Today however, Natsu merely waved at the vendors he passed. He was eager to get to Lucy's so that they could go on a mission together. He had started to enjoy being alone with her recently, and he was excited to get the day started. It only took him five more minutes to reach Lucy's apartment, and once he was there he lept up to her open window. She had realized that even if she locked it he and her other teammates always found their way into her apartment (thanks to the spare key that Mira was always willing to lend them), so she had recently begun to leave her window open.
Lucy wasn't in her room when he stepped down from the windowsill. He could hear the sounds of running water coming from her bathroom and he reasoned that she must be taking a shower. A faint blush tinged his cheeks when he thought of the busty blonde in the shower. That was a new feeling to him as well. Before Lucy had arrived at Fairy Tail he had never really thought about what a woman's naked body looked like. Sure he had bathed with the other members of his team when they were children, the memories of bathing with Gray and Erza still made him rather nauseous, but he had never really been bothered by nakedness. However, after Lucy had joined the guild and he had begun to hang out at her apartment, he began to be more aware of what a woman's body looked like. Not just any woman's body. Lucy's in particular.
He really didn't know what it was. In the beginning seeing her in a towel after she emerged from the shower hadn't affected him much at all. But lately... He found himself hoping that she would be showering every time that he chose to come by her place. He felt kinda like a perv for wanting to catch a glimpse of her in nothing but a towel, but still he felt drawn to her apartment. Seeing her long, smooth legs dripping with water and her hair slicked back from the shower, stirred something inside of Natsu.
There were some sensations he did understand. He completely understood the tightening in his groin every time he was lucky enough to come by when she was exiting the shower. He was a man and he knew that his body appreciated the sight of a shapely woman in nothing but a towel. But there were some emotions that he couldn't easily identify...
Natsu flopped down on her bed and waited for her to emerge from the bathroom. He really hoped that she would be willing to go on a mission today.
A quiet noise startled him from his thoughts. A low, breathless moan had come from the closed bathroom door. The sound caused Natsu's body to stiffen and heat up. A faint blush began to appear on his cheeks. Had Lucy just moaned? He slowly got up and crept to the bathroom door, desperately trying to make no noise. He pressed his ear gently to the door and waited.
Another moan, louder this time, came from the closed door. Natsu's blush deepened. Something was making Lucy feel very good indeed. He sniffed. There were the typical scents coming from her bathroom. The strawberry smell of her shampoo and the vanilla of her body wash... But there was a heavier, headier smell coming through the cracks around the door today...
Natsu breathed in deeply, the scent filling his nostrils and making his head spin. It was a marvelous scent. It caused heat to shoot through his body, particularly to his groin. He felt his pants begin to tighten as his member stiffened a bit. It smelled like Lucy, but a richer version of her smell. It made his mouth water.
"N-Natsu....."
His eyes widened. It wasn't just a moan that time. She had moaned his name. He had to get out. He couldn't stand this. It took all his strength not to open the door and see what she was doing in there. He decided that he would wait at the guild for her. As he stepped up onto her windowsill he looked back longingly at her bathroom door, where he could still hear faint noises. He sighed and jumped down to the street below.
As Natsu finished his story, he looked over at the younger mage. Romeo's face was a deep shade of red and he looked a bit uncomfortable.
"What's wrong?" asked Natsu. They younger boy blushed deeper and looked at his feet.
"Well I think I understand the feelings that you're getting Natsu-nii..." he started. Natsu realized what he meant.
"Oh wow.... Yeah... I hadn't realized that I had focused mainly on those emotions..." He had meant to talk more about the really confusing feelings that he had been experiencing but he had gotten side tracked on his memories of Lucy. "Those weren't the feelings that I was talking about. I know about those, Igneel taught me a little about them and the rest was explained to me by the older men in the guild." He vividly remembered the older men calling all of the boys in the guild to a talk once they had all reached a certain age. It had been a very uncomfortable afternoon while they had had the birds and the bees explained to them. Romeo looked relieved.
"Well then what kind of feelings do you mean?" he asked. Natsu sighed.
"I just feel...drawn to Lucy. I'm always thinking about her even when she's not around. I can't explain it very well. But I always want to make her happy and I want to impress her all the time. I also hate how I sometimes cause her to lose reward money when I break stuff," he said, kicking a rock and looking embarrassed. Romeo smiled sympathetically.
"I know the feeling," he said. "I get the same feeling about Wendy." Natsu looked at the younger mage in surprise.
"You do?"
"Yeah. I really like her," said Romeo, blushing. Natsu stopped.
"You like her? That's what those feelings mean?" he said, sounding confused. Romeo halted as well. They had stopped at the riverbank, where they often came to train.
"Well, yeah... I always want to see Wendy and I'm always wanting her to notice me," said the young boy, blushing again. Natsu sat down on the ground, a puzzled expression on his face.
"So... Does that mean that I like Lucy?" he asked. Romeo laughed. He knew that Natsu wasn't good with emotion but sometimes it really amazed him exactly how bad the older mage was with them.
"Everyone in the guild thinks that you do. You were never this way with any of the other girls, not even Lisanna. You treat Lucy differently. I know that I'm not very experienced when it comes to this sort of thing since I'm so young...but it really seems like you love Lucy," he said, smiling at his older friend. Natsu just stared at the water of the river flowing by, his mouth hanging slightly open.
Do I love Lucy?