Hello again, precious cuties! Sorry, it took so long again! I get really busy and sometimes I just get so tired that I fall asleep right after school! But yeah, hopefully y'all like the new chapter! Psst! This chapter's pretty fluffy!

Enjoy!

~

Wow, I really didn't get any sleep...

Twice, the blonde had fallen asleep standing up. It felt like gravity's pressure was even heavier on her as if Libra herself was trying to flatten Lucy the ground. Her thoughts were muddled as she walked, using muscle memory as she was dazed. The cobblestone ground stared back up at her as she concentrated on making sure that she made it home to her comfy bed... She finally opened the door with her key after a few failed attempts for she kept nodding off. Wandering up the stairs, she opened the door to her room, threw her bag on the floor and dragged herself to her bed, and crawled in.

But suddenly she was squeezed tight against the surface...

By large strong warm arms...

The arms of her favorite person.

Her favorite person hummed contentedly, rubbing circles up and down her back. Lucy squealed as she felt pressure on her hairline, most likely her favorite person's nose.

"'Mornin, Luce," he mumbled softly though it still sent shivers down her spine.

Natsu.

Lucy's face could've been mistaken for a bright red rose. She loves yet also hates when he does this. He was so warm, making her more comfortable than she's ever been. She loves how he's holding her as if she's the most precious thing in the world. She just wanted to snuggle up with him and stay there forever...

The reason why she hated it though is the fact that she doesn't know if maybe she is his most precious thing in the world. So with him sleeping here, with her tucked so gently in his arms, confused her. With him doing stuff like this, it got her hopes up, making her feel as if maybe, just maybe, he feels the same love that she felt for him. But if her hopes got up, the more it'll hurt when he loves someone else...

So she did what she always did.

"Natsu," She said in a voice as sweet as honey as it always was in his ears, still tucked in his arms.

"Mmm, yeah Luce?" He smiled softly, contented with being lucky enough to be endowed by the most wonderful angel in his arms. Although he was in her home while he slept, where her scent was everywhere, he had had a very restless night. Off and on, tossing and turning, and when he would finally actually get some sleep, he was only to be awakened maybe a half an hour later by dark dreams. Only she gave him the total bliss and peace that he needed.

"WHY ON EARTHLAND ARE YOU IN MY BED?!"

Okay, maybe not total peace but bliss, yeah.

Suddenly she tried to yank herself from his captivating embrace by pulling herself backward only to take the rose-haired boy with her. Making her now straddling him with his arms wrapped around her.

"Ugh, Luce," His smirking face now shoved under her chin, purring in delight. He squished her closer while one of his hands played with the end of Lucy's messy blonde braid. It's only been a short while but wow, had he missed her. "You're so loud~."

"Yeah, I'm loud! Now, why are you here?! You said you were going home! So why are you here?!-Oh my Mavis! You're only in boxers?! Fucking Perv!" She pinched his cheeks and pulled at them painfully, knowing that he hated it.

Natsu yelped, his cheeks stretching dramatically. He just wanted to cuddle with her like they were just moments before. Was that so hard? He knew very well that she could beat the everloving shit out of him if she wanted to, what she was doing right now was just horseplay. When he had had enough of her pulling and yanking on his poor aching cheeks, he grabbed her tightly clenched hands and put them behind her back, holding tightly enough to make sure that her cute hands didn't get away, but loose enough so that it wouldn't hurt her, then he pressed her against himself.

Lucy squeaked and felt like she was going to faint. Not only was pressed flush against his bare and toned chest, but she was also straddling him. She tried wriggling away, only for him to bonk his forehead against her own, noses barely touching. Her brown eyes crossing just to look at him straight. Only a few more inches and their lips would be touching...

"Oi, quit shouting, I'm trying to sleep." He whispered. Wow the morning breath!

"N-no but..." Her blushing face more rosy than ever and even with all the excitement, her eyes kept closing on her. She wanted to sleep so badly, this was infinitely better than the piercing cold she felt at Fairy Hills. Damn his warmth and comfiness...

"Exactly, you're sleepy too." He grinned and leaned back on the bed. He took Lucy's cute tiny hands out from behind her, left them loose and again wrapped his arm around her petite waist as the other hand weaved through her hair on her head, cupping it gently. He could tell that she was so close to sleeping. She was nodding off as we speak.

"Bu...But this is my...my bed..." She said sleepily, which was fuckin' adorable. Her beautiful eyes that he was always happily lost in were slowly being covered by her eyelids, eyelashes fluttering. Natsu swears that her lashes could blow houses down with how long and lush they were. They already blow him away with each blink. Her head was now resting against his chest, right where his beating heart was. His purring could easily be heard and was like a soothing lullaby to her ears. She slowly relaxed in his arms.

"I guess..." Her eyelids felt as if there were weights on them and could barely keep them open. She gave up, she was so fucking tired. And as much as she didn't want to admit it, she didn't want him to leave in the first place. "I guess you could stay..."

"Yeah," A soft smile was spread across his face. In his eyes, was love so rare and so warm that it would melt everyone's hearts only for everyone to realise that that love from those dark green eyes would never be for them.

That love was only for the heavenly girl in his arms.

He made no movement to keep from disturbing the beautiful mage in his arms. When it seemed the coast was clear and that she would not wake up, he started to settle himself down to-

"You just gonna forget about me or what?"

Natsu jolted and looked toward the noise and found a very annoyed Happy staring back up to him from the couch. His tiny arms were crossed and he tapped his little blue foot.

"Oh, sorry Happy. What'cha doing on the couch anyways?" Natsu whispered. He relaxed as he saw that it was their friend who was speaking and not some sort of threat.

"Because you-!"

"Shh!" Natsu said quietly, pointing to the sleeping girl in his arms. "You'll wake her."

"Oh, sorry," Happy said, now coming up to the bed. He hopped up and started walking up the blonde's back where he started to knead his paws on her shoulders. She stirred only a little with the new weight on her, stilling the two boys. When she did not move again, Happy whispered, "You kept on moving around in your sleep! You kept rolling over and squishing me! And then I slept on the side of your pillow, and then you kept mumbling and shouting, and then-then you finally pushed me off! So I moved to the couch..."

"Oh," Natsu said, pink tinting his cheeks. He knew he got weird in his sleep when she was gone, but he never actually knew what he did. He idly twirled a lock of Lucy's hair around his finger, marveling at how soft and pretty it was and gently tucked it behind the girl's ear. "I'm sorry buddy, you know I'd never purposely hurt you..." His hand then went to scratch behind the blue exceed's ears, his favorite spot to be scratched.

The cat smiled and purred, leaning into the pinkettes hand while still kneading the girl's back. "Don't worry, I forgive you. By the way... What were the nightmares about this time?" Natsu sighed, his hand that was petting Happy went back to it's place, weaving his fingers through her hair.

"The usual," he mumbled into her hair to which Happy only nodded in reply.

When Lucy was gone Natsu was left alone with terrifying nightmares. Although they were usually different places and people, they always had the same ending: Someone he cares about dies or gets hurt. It wasn't always the same person, though it usually was Lucy who was in it. A few times he's had where Happy is missing only to find him dead. He's had a few where Gray finally goes through with the "Iced Shell" and dies. He's had nightmares where Erza is absorbed by etherion back at the Tower of Heaven and never returns. Some have Igneel being killed by a black and blue dragon. That's to name a few of the mild ones. Thoughts like these were constantly on his mind, didn't matter if he was asleep or awake. It spurred him on to do more, to be more. If he couldn't save the people that he cared about then why bother?

Natsu looked back at the girl, his thumb now lazily stroking her soft cheeks. He chuckled lightly as she murmured and leaned into his hand. Her pretty lips were parted in her sleep, her breathing slow and even. Happy always liked to tease Natsu for his snoring and Lucy for her drooling. Natsu didn't mind though. It was Lucy after all.

The dragon slayer closed his eyes and shoved his face near her hairline once more, inhaling her scent that calmed him like no other. It was his favorite by far, outshining all others. The very reason why he found her the first time back in Hargion was because she smelt like home. Only Igneel's scent had made him feel at home during all the years before he met Lucy. That 'home' feeling was what he had been using to track Igneel only to find Lucy instead. But the scent of comfort that day was different from the Igneel's scent he knew. Igneel smelt like smokey evergreen and something that was uniquely him. The scent he had been following that fateful day smelt like vanilla, raspberries, apples, and any other sweet thing all mixed in one. He just thought that maybe Igneel became some sort nutritionist at the time.

That's the thing about his senses. They were so enhanced that when most people heard a droplet of water he heard a waterfall. He could distinct every single scent in the room even if it was filled to the brim. He could see in the dark and quite far, although he will admit that he cannot see as well as Sting, Rogue, and Gajeel can. He knew that he had the best sense of smell out of all of them. Wendy had the best hearing, being able to depict airflow and all. Dragon slaying senses were a curse and a blessing all at once. A curse because of the fact that it was sometimes overwhelming, like when Macao gets gassy. Sometimes Natsu thinks he could pass out from how potent the stench was! A blessing because he is very good at hide and seek and knew where the good food was and much more.

Relaxing, both in mind and body, he opened his eyes to look at the girl that he held so dear one last time before he would sleep again. He stared at her features that he knew in incredible detail. Although he was anything but an artist, you could ask him to paint a portrait of her and even if he had not seen her for centuries, he could remember each and every minuscule thing about her. From the 17 freckles she had across her nose and cheeks, to the large circular scar that was on her knee from when she said that she jumped off her playhouse when she was 6 because she wanted to "fly". And every one of those details was perfect to him.

Something wasn't right though...

Something about her face, although still stunningly beautiful, it was different. He stared at her, trying to figure out what it was that was so different. Only when he took in another sniff of the air, he came to the horrifying conclusion of what it was.

"She's been crying..." Natsu whispered, his voice straining a bit. His hand yet again going to her cheek underneath her eyes.

"Huh?" Happy now curled up on Lucy's back asked, surprised. He had just gotten settled completely on Lucy's back but stretched nonetheless and yawned to see what his friend was muttering about.

How could I not see this before? She had the faint scent of salty tears all this time. And her dazzling chocolate eyes were not glimmering as much as they usually did and they were red and puffy. Her angelic voice that was usually high pitched was low and she sounded like she had a cold when spoke.

The pinkette faced the blue exceed who was now walking over Lucy's shoulder to see what he was talking about, panic written on his face. He whispered, "She's been crying, Happy!"

"What?!"

The cat immediately crawled completely over the girl's shoulder to get a closer look. He softly pawed at her cheek and sure enough, he saw the evidence too. Although she had been sleeping which made her eyes look less puffy, her cheeks were still red. Even before she was blushing they were red.

"Oh, Lucy..." The tiny blue cat then looked over at the man, looking near to bursting into tears. "Natsu, what do you think made her sad? I don't think she's injured anywhere... Do you think the other girls were saying mean about her? You know what?! I think it was Erza! Why, I oughta teach that big bully a lesso-"

"No. Erza may be a bully to us but she'd never do something to Lucy," Natsu answered. He was thinking long and hard about what could've happened that would've made her upset. Although Lucy was a sensitive, overly-kind, nervous person, she didn't just cry over nothing. That was the thing though. She just was so nice. She worried about things that were such little things. She worried about if she upset or hurt someone and had a habit of asking "Did you think I said or did anything that was bad?" She did everything for others. She thought of others way before she thought of herself. Something that annoyed him, she needed to care for herself too. And she was so hard on herself...

"Natsu?"

"Huh?" The pinkette answered, startled out of his thoughts.

Happy shuffled his feet as he laid across Lucy's back in some sort of hug fashion. Happy's bottom lip now trembling.

"Do you think... Do you think that we made her sad?"

Natsu's eyes widened as his mind was derailed at that moment. It had never occurred to him that they could be the ones behind Lucy's tears. The mere thought of it infuriated him. He was supposed to be one to make Lucy feel happy. He was supposed to make her feel safe. He cheered her up when she was sad and pulverized the good for nothing dipshits that made upset in the first place.

What the fuck was he doing if he himself was making her cry?

He cursed himself severely under his breath. "I don't know, Happy. But guessings not gonna get us anywhere. We're gonna find out though...Just go back to sleep now, buddy."

Happy sniffled once. "Okay..." He rubbed his cheek against the blonde's affectionately in the usual cat fashion. The blue cat padded back up Lucy's back to go back to where he slept before.

While Happy settled down to rest once more, Natsu brooded. How could anyone want to hurt the precious celestial mage?

Although Natsu did not know the reason behind Lucy's tears, the sleazy motherfucker would not go unpunished. The dragon slayer growled lowly and tightened his hold on the beautiful girl.

Even if it was himself.

Bleh!

So here you go guys! Hoped you liked it!

So I just wanted to explain how they feel for each other in my opinion:

For Lucy: Okay, so for her, she's definitely in love with Natsu and she's accepted it too. It's just for her, she's just really trying to make it go away. And she pushes away the mere thought of confessing because she's so afraid that he won't love her back. And you know her with her active imagination and all, she's thinks that everything will go to worse even if she simply tries to show how much she cares for him. Even though sometimes she lets it slip every once in awhile, she denies and scolds herself for thinking or doing whatever she did. She also thinks that she is not good enough for him. (Which is partially because of what people say to her) So basically that's why you don't see many fluffy moments from her point of view. Think of it like "I won't say I'm in Love" from Hercules.

For Natsu: This doofus is just head over heels for her if you have not seen that already. He knows that he's damn well in love with her too. He isn't trying to deny it like Lucy is though or trying to make it go away although he does not think he is good enough for her like she does. He's heard of how Lucy wants a "knight in shining armor" (Even though she doesn't want that obviously) and so he "strives" to be that knight as best as he can (even though Dragons are better) So in the beginning when he first met her, he knew that she was special and that she was his favorite person (Note: Favorite person, not favorite cat) but then around the galuna arc, he's kinda like "Shit, I like...like like her" but then after the Phantom Lord Arc "Fuck I love Lucy... welp guess this is my life now!" and he's been like that ever since.

But yeah!

Please comment what you think!!! It really means a lot to me when I hear from you!

See you later, Precious cuties!