"But why do you care so much about what me an' Lucy are gonna do tomorrow?" Natsu took another long slurp of his beer as Mirajane polished the bar. "It's just another day."

"Just another day?" Mira tilted her head and looked owlishly at the dragon slayer. "How can you say that? It's Valentine's Day!"

"Yeah?"

Happy dropped beside Natsu and sighed. "Ne, Natsu! It's a super important day for couples!"

"Couple of what?" Natsu blinked at his exceed and then Mira. "Why would it matter to Lucy what happens tomorrow? And why do you guys care so much? What are you gonna do tomorrow, Mira?"

"We're not discussing me and Laxus. I'm trying to help you, Natsu."

Happy looked around the guild hall. "I'm going to get Charle a fish and serenade her."

"So I was right." Natsu laughed, slapping his knees. "It is another regular day. Happy, you try to give Charle fish every day."

Looking affronted, Happy pouted. "But it'll be wrapped in red ribbon and imma give her a card!"

"What's she gonna do with a business card?" Natsu drained his beer and scratched his head. "Since when do you have business cards?"

"A Valentine's card!" Happy shouted.

Mira closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's all about the romance."

"Romance?" Natsu furrowed his brows and slipped off his bar stool. "You guys are talking crazy. Lucy doesn't care about romance - she's one of the toughest wizards in our guild."

"A-ha!" Mira pounded her fist on the counter. "You totally thought about Lucy after I said 'romance.' It's proof!"

"But you asked me what me and Lucy were planning to do tomorrow?" Natsu did his best to smile at Mira (who was acting even more weird than usual) when all he wanted to do was escape. "I guess we'll hang-out or find a job. I don't think we'd do anything out of the ordinary."

Happy rubbed his forehead and sighed, addressing Mira. "Forget trying to help Natsu. He's hopeless. Instead, why don't you be my wingman and tell Charle all about my good points?"

Torn between pumping Natsu for more information and assisting a legitimate love-lorn friend, Mira decided to cut her losses. "Okay Happy, what are your good points?"

Lucy barely looked up from her parchment as Natsu entered her apartment from the window. "I thought we agreed to meet tomorrow morning?" Her pen kept scratching as she wrote - but slower. "And did you remember to bribe Happy?"

"I did." Natsu moved to behind Lucy, his hand lightly resting on her shoulder. "I got him to distract Mira at the same time too!"

Lucy laid her pen aside and hummed as Natsu rubbed her shoulders. "That feels nice." She let her head dip, her chin pressed to her chest. "So good!"

"I have better things planned than this." Natsu leaned closer and purred into Lucy's ear, "I'm gonna show you stars."

Lucy writhed pinned under Natsu's warm body, hips arching up desperately as her lover refused to give her what she'd been begging for what seemed like hours but had only been a scant fifteen minutes.

"You're not ready yet - relax." Natsu threaded his fingers with Lucy's and kissed down her arm. "I need you to wait."

"Dammit, I'm ready!" Lucy squirmed, panting. "Why are you being such a tease?"

In answer, Natsu only smiled, taking control of Lucy's mouth in a deep kiss. He tasted Lucy's hunger and fed her passion, stroking her tongue with his. He wanted to drive her to the absolute pinnacle of desire before granting them both the release they craved. "I have it under excellent authority that today is a super important day for couples." Natsu winked.

The roguish action only made Lucy more frustrated, and she opened her legs wider, imploringly. "My half of this couple is getting crazy from waiting!" Lucy stared into Natsu's eyes and gave him her best begging puppy dog look. "I know you want pleasure too, the sweet bliss of release…"

"Lucy, I know what you wrote in your last story." Natsu almost laughed from the comical embarrassed blush and rounded eyes Lucy sported. "You wrote three pages about delayed satisfaction."

"It was a story!" Lucy wriggled with renewed fervor, Natsu's erection was driving her insane, so close to where she wanted it, and once she had her hands free - she'd be able to touch and stroke his delicious body. "I've written all kinds of stories - you don't see me recreating all of them!"

"Just the fun ones, right?" Natsu's smile was sinful. "You never seem to mind when I give you ideas either." He kept hold of Lucy's hands and buried his face between Lucy's breasts, skilfully unbuttoning her shirt with his teeth. "You write about clothes being ripped off more than I burn things."

"Th-th-that's different!" Lucy moaned as Natsu licked the tops of her breasts and nosed the straps of her bra down and off her shoulders. "People expect that sort of thing -"

Natsu growled low in his throat, nipping the soft patch of skin at Lucy's neck and then biting - hard enough to bruise. "I want to mark you soul deep."

"What are you talking about?" Lucy vaguely realized Natsu had released her hands. "Are…are you talking about bonding?"

"What if I am?"

Enthralled with Natsu's glowing emerald eyes, Lucy smiled. They flashed bright and his usually boyish good looks sharpened with mature desire. She ran the tip of her tongue over her teeth, imagining Natsu's own sharp canines nibbling freely all over her flesh. "We've talked about taking that step, but -"

"I said I needed time." Natsu started to shrug and then opened his arms expansively. "Bonding's been on my mind ever since that conversation, Lucy. I always knew we would bond, I didn't know how much I would crave it after you agreed."

"And I meant that, Natsu." Lucy pushed herself upright, ignoring her open shirt, rubbing her hands on Natsu's upper arms. "I don't want to rush you. I know it took a lot for you, heck, for me too, to talk about something we can't undo." She smiled softly and continued, "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Nothing. I would never jeopardize what we have by rushing -"

Natsu silenced Lucy with another fierce kiss, delving his tongue deep, clasping Lucy's face with his hands. He broke the kiss, a long, thin strand of saliva bridging the two sets of lips. "Rushing? No, we've been moving at the right pace - and I want to cement what we have with the bond."

"Okay."

"Yeah?"

Lucy smiled - and it was bright and warmed Natsu more than any fire he'd ever consumed. "Let's bond."

Beautiful incandescent flames engulfed the couple - rendering their clothes into ashes but leaving the bed intact. Natsu moved to kneel in front of her and Lucy copied his pose. He nipped his wrist, opening a small wound that bled. Lucy held out her wrist and Natsu bit it; lapping the small amount of blood and kissing it healed. Lucy drank Natsu's blood, feeling a strange rush as it hit her system. She closed her eyes to better concentrate on the changes she felt; a sudden sensitivity to heat and then a kind of acceptance. Lucy could hear everything - and then she regained control. Smell amplified and subsided as her other remaining senses magnified and returned to normal.

It was the blink of an eye - and somehow subjectively longer - Lucy and Natsu bonded. Natsu could feel the effects of Lucy's celestial magic, how it felt added to his own magic. He made peace with the change and his consciousness swam with Lucy's in the dark velvet world they'd made together.

Was it minutes, seconds or hours later? It didn't matter. Not one iota. Lucy and Natsu woke to reality at the same moment. The physical desire they'd started before bonding was still a raging inferno. The only difference was now they could feel exactly what the other felt as their bonding tether was open and receptive.

Natsu grinned at his bond-mate and let his hand cup her chin gently. "Lucy, thank you for making me the luckiest person."

"Natsu,-" she smiled, her expression showing how much love and desire she held, "-thank you for making me the luckiest person."

Their first bonded kiss was hot, wet and almost as anxious as the first kiss they'd ever shared. Lucy pushed Natsu onto his back and straddled his hips. The only thought in her head was how much she wanted to show her desire. Lucy pressed her naked flesh against Natsu, as eager and ardently as Natsu grabbed her ass and squeezed.

"Damn, Luce - you are workin' some serious magic on me!"

Panting loudly, Lucy gasped as Natsu's fingers now stroked her cleft. "I could say the same…"

"Shush, we don't need to talk with words when our bodies can communicate." Natsu licked his fingers clean, his smile widening as Lucy bit her lips at the erotic sight. He gave her a wide fang-tipped smile; this smile told her everything she needed to know - tonight would be wild and sensual. There was nothing to do but submit to pleasure, this night and every other - for now, they were bonded. A bond born in the fires of desire and love, forged into an unbreakable commitment - endless as their love.