I was currently smashed between a stranger and a wall, and it wasn't the most comfortable situation as you can probably imagine. Natsu had dragged me to a party that one of his friends was throwing for reasons unknown. At the moment, alcohol was thick in the air and marijuana was definitely among the cigarettes I thought I spotted through my foggy vision. I shoved out from between the random person and into a sort of open space, spilling a little of my drink. I was looking for Natsu but he was probably attached to some other girl at this point. My heart squeezed slightly in jealousy at the thought. What's this jealousy for? He's just my friend...with benefits...

My head spun but I continued to blissfully party with the complete strangers around me, who seemed to be having just as much fun as me, not caring that they had no clue who I was... unless they had overheard Natsu talking to his friend... Gray?... about me. I stowed away from the main group and went for another drink-I had lost count at five. I was sure that I would probably hit the floor soon but I didn't care, I was having the time of my life!

"Where are all my girls at?" I heard someone call and I joined the chorus of girls cries that went up. I made my way back to the main crowd and I talked sluggishly with a girl who had shoulder length blue hair. She kept droning on about the guy throwing the party and how amazing he was, and I eventually grew restless so I wandered towards the other group of people by the pool outside. After wiggling my way into some conversations I ended up leaning on one of the guys and he had his arm around my shoulder. Then as some people where leaping in the pool this guy lifts me up, making my plastic cup hit the ground. Pissed at first that my drink was now wasted, I didn't notice him turning towards the pool. Then right as I did and managed to shriek, he tossed me in and water poured into my mouth and slammed my nose, making it sting and ache terribly.

I flailed my arms and managed to get to the surface, and after a few minutes of struggling to coordinate my limbs I managed to get to the side of the pool; still coughing violently from the water in my lungs. My head was more dizzy than usual and my nose still burned. I clung to the concrete side of the pool, the other party-goers too drunk to notice me struggling to push myself up onto my arms and out of the pool. 

"Don't you think you should at least wear a swimsuit when you get in the pool?" A voice says from above me as I hear footsteps approaching me.

"Fuck off," I growl and attempt to pull myself up onto the concrete again.

"Do you need some help?" The voice asks with a small laugh.

"No! I said fuck off," I look up and see Natsu, arms folded over his chest and his typical smirk plastered all over his face. "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah, it's me, idiot. Now get the hell out of the pool, I'm bored of this place." He starts walking away as I push myself towards the ladder slowly, coughing again. I lose my grip a few times and I miss the rungs multiple times because I was drunk as all hell and couldn't see straight.

"Fuck! Oh that asshole is so gonna pay for that!" I curse as I finally shakily pull myself from the pool, taking off my heels and storming, er; stumbling quickly, for the guy who threw me in the pool. Just as I'm about to lift my heels and lug them at the unsuspecting fuck-face a pair of arms grab me from behind.

"Chill out, I'm sure he was playing around," Natsu pulls my arm currently aimed to launch; down.

"He made me drop my fucking drink! And then he just tossed me in the damn pool, I'm sure I look like shit now! And my chest and nose ache because of this bastard," I snap, yanking my arm from his grasp.

"Lucy, calm down! You look fine and the pain will be gone by the time I get you back." He takes hold of my arm again and pulls me towards the door that lead back inside. I looked at my plastic cup, still laying where it dropped with its alcoholic contents splayed out around it.

"Man, this night fucking sucks!" I whine as Natsu pushes me back through the house.

"Go to the car, don't do anything else. I need to talk to Gray for a minute. I better see your ass in that car-understood?" Natsu tells me sternly. I nod and as soon as he let's go and walks back outside I stop and watch him, curious. He calmly walks up to the guy I was about to attack with my shoes and grabs his collar. The guy freaks out as Natsu gets in his face. I turn away then, stumbling for Natsu's car...

・・・❦・・・

"You shouldn't have let yourself drink so much," Natsu sighs in the seat beside me as he drives, being the one of us who refrained from drinking.

"Who cares?! I was having a hell...of a time." I taper off, my words slurring worse and worse as the night drug on. Natsu shakes his head and I can see his pursed lips from the dim light of the controls and display in the car.

"Either way, you are calling in sick tomorrow. I know you had at least four drinks, but thats the only ones I actually can account for. Who knows how much else you drank." I stare out the window, playing with a lock of my hair that had fallen forward and was starting to air dry.

"So you weren't...attached to other girls the whole time?" My question is blunt but sluggish. Natsu looks over at me and sighs.

"No, Lucy. I wasn't. I may get with a lot of girls but I'm not a two-timer. That's...well that's Gray." He falls silent and I feel my face burning from embarrassment, or alcohol. Maybe both. I close my eyes and try to fall asleep to the sounds of the quiet car. When my eye's do re-open it's because Natsu is pulling me from his car and cradling me in his arms as he pushes the passenger side door closed with his foot. They almost immediately close again and I'm in the half-conscious state somewhere between awareness and rest. I heard the soft ding of the elevator and I am set down on the bed, sitting up.

"You need to get changed Lucy," Natsu tells me and with my eyes still closed I pull off my clothes and drop them at my feet by the side of the bed. "Arms up." He commands. I put them up weakly and I feel a shirt slid over my arms and head. Natsu pulls the hair ties from my hair letting the rest of it fall around my shoulders. He put a towel over my head and dried my hair as much as he could before pushing me down against a pillow and pulling his familiar satin sheets over me.

"Thanks.." I mumble before finally really falling asleep.

・・・❦・・・

I was slammed with the urge to puke first thing when I woke up. I raced to the bathroom and practically threw the lid of the toilet up. Then after releasing all of the sour contents of my stomach I fell back on my butt and leaned against the wall and held my head, cringing. I heard shuffling outside and soon felt a pair of arms beneath me, lifting me up.

"Before you complain, you where well aware that this would happen to you before you drank so much Ms. Bartender." Natsu's rough voice kept me quiet. I didn't have the energy or the will to come up with an adequate comeback.

"I know, I just wanted to forget some things." I find myself talking. I didn't say anything more and thankfully Natsu didn't pry me either.

"I called your work for you and informed them that you weren't feeling well today and that you where staying with me." He tells me as he lays me back down on his bed.

"Mmm, okay.." I sigh softly.

"No protests of any kind from you? You really must be sick. I've never heard you not have some comeback to something I say." I hear him say jokingly as he holds his hand to my forehead.

"Shut up before you give me a reason to make you," I grumble and he chuckles.

"Ah, there is the Luce I know."

"Yeah, yeah," I sigh. "I'm here and alive but my head pounds every damn second." before I finish the sentence Natsu has me sitting up and I open my eyes. The room is still dim and he hands me a glass of water and retrieves some pills from the bedside table.

"Take it easy today, okay?" He hands me the pills and saunters from the room, and it's only then that I realize he was still fully clothed. That was the first morning in almost three weeks that I had ever woken up to him and I having not slept together.