NALU SLAYER

It wasn’t like they had never shared a bed together before now—many an inn they had stayed in provided them with only one bed, and that was on the nights where they could get a room at all. There were many nights that found them camping out somewhere instead, and sharing a tent was really no different from sharing a bed when Lucy had a tendency to seek out Natsu’s warmth. Though she had long since grown out of her aversion to sharing a bed, the habit of going for separate beds had still stuck with her, even though it was now without reason.

As they made their way to the room, Lucy's gaze flicked up to Natsu, who looked completely unaffected by the whole ordeal. If he had been overthinking about this as much as she had, it didn’t show on his face. She supposed she should have been able to guess that. Natsu didn’t worry over trivial things like that—he knew what he wanted, and he wasn’t going to beat around the bush for it. Tonight, he wanted to share a bed with his girlfriend.

Girlfriend…

It felt weird to refer to herself that way, as Natsu’s girlfriend. Not bad weird, but weird nonetheless. It was a good weird that made her stomach flutter and twist up in knots.

They hadn’t been together for very long, but in her heart, it felt like they had spent a lifetime together. Maybe it was because the line between friends and lovers had been blurred for so long that she couldn’t recall a time where their gazes didn’t linger a moment too long or where her heart didn’t skip a beat when she felt his hand brush against hers.

Maybe the label was new, but they had been lovers in everything but name for much longer.

Everything about their relationship was both brand new yet still very much the same at the exact same time. Maybe this wouldn’t be their first time sharing a bed together, but it was their first time sharing a bed as a couple—boyfriend and girlfriend.

When they arrived at their room, reality really began to set in. It looked no different from every other room they had shared together before now, only rather than two twin beds on either side, one queen bed sat right in the middle.

Lucy glanced over at Natsu to try and gauge how he felt about this, but before she could catch a glimpse of his expression, he had already made his way into the room, tossing his pack to the floor and flopping down onto the mattress. A relieved groan escaped his lips, no doubt happy to feel the soft mattress beneath him after several nights of nothing but a thin sleeping mat to protect him from the forest floor. Lucy was certainly relieved too, only she was much less dramatic about it. She simply dropped her bag by the door and tugged her hair out of its ponytail.

Her fingers toyed with the hem of her shirt, ready to shed the day's clothes, before she noticed out of the corner of her eye, Natsu staring at her with intense gaze.

“Turn around,” she demanded, which was met with a disappointed pout.

“Aw, come on,” he whined, as though some sort of plan had been thwarted. “But I’m your boyfriend,” he tried. “Not like I haven’t seen you in less anyway,” he added in a grumble.

“Don’t push your luck.”

“Fine,” he huffed.

Dejectedly, Natsu tottered off to the bathroom while Lucy changed, stepping out in his shirtless form only after she had already changed into her nightshirt.

By the time she was ready for bed, Natsu had already made himself comfortable beneath the sheets, snuggled up amongst the duvet and pillows. He held out his arms for her expectantly, and Lucy gave him a bemused expression.

“What?” He questioned after a moment of her silence. “Aren’t ya gonna join me?”

Was she? There was no reason why she shouldn’t, but sometimes she struggled to shake the idea that she and Natsu were just friends, even though that sentiment was long gone and probably had been for much longer than they had been conscious of.

She just had a tendency to overthink things when it came to him and everything that came with him for fear of screwing it up and losing what they had. She wondered if they were moving too fast, too slow—every little move, every little step was subject to scrutiny in her brain, as though one misstep was all it took to watch everything they built come crumbling down. She knew that what they had wasn’t quite that fragile, but nothing scared her quite like the prospect of losing him—losing them. Natsu was the beginning and end of everything good in her life. She wouldn’t let that slip through her fingers by stepping too far and letting the ice crack beneath her.

Based on the way he was looking at her, laying there, waiting for her to join him, it seemed as though joining him would not be a misstep. What he wanted right now was for her to slip into bed with him, and who was she to deny him such simple pleasures?

Carefully, she tucked herself into his side, his arms wrapping around her as she rested her head on his chest. She found comfort in the steady thump, thump, thump of his heartbeat.

They’d never cuddled before—not like this, at least. Not when they’d both been conscious and aware enough to enjoy it. The last time she had come to rest in his arms, the situation had been too dire to revel in the way his skin felt against hers. This time, though, they had all the time in the world to enjoy the feeling of their bodies against one another and the gentle comfort of his arms around her body.

The feeling of being in his arms, of laying against his chest sent tingles through her body and made her heart throb with a feeling that not even she could place a word to. It made her feel the same way that romance novels and love songs did, only this time it seemed to strike deeper in her chest.

She and Natsu had hardly been together long, but it was moments like this where she felt like this was it for her—that she had found her one. He placed a tender kiss to her temple, and she was certain in that moment that, for him, she was a goner.

Her hand ran across his bare chest as his ran gently up and down her arm as if to soothe her to sleep, and she couldn’t deny that it was working.

He was so warm in both body and soul. The feeling of the comforting heat radiating off of him was enough to make her eyes begin to droop, but she fought to stay awake to draw out the moment just a little while longer. Her eyes flicked up to meet his, where he regarded her with a sleepy smile of his own, as if to give permission to slip away into the clutches of nightfall.

To think of all the times she had slept at his side, unaware of just what she was missing out on by building up her little tower of pillows between them. It would do her no good to dwell on what she had missed out on until now—not when she could instead spend that time revelling in his comforting grip and heat. Instead, her mind lingered on the idea that somehow, someway, they would have ended up here anyway, in tangled limbs and stolen kisses beneath cotton sheets that didn’t belong to them. It was as though his arms around her had slotted a missing piece of the puzzle into her heart, as though this was always meant to be.

As she drifted off into sleep, there was only one thought that crossed her mind.