So, I asked for writing prompts a few days ago on Tumblr and Dark Shining Light responded with a couple of them for me. I tweaked this one a bit from her original request, but I hope she's happy with it. Oh, and there are spoilers for everything up to and including the Tartaros Arc and a little of it's aftermath. Enjoy!

Partners

Lucy stared at the fire, watching the flames dance in the light breeze. She flinched when a branch cracked in the fire, glancing at her companions to see if the sudden loud sound had woken them up. Wendy stirred but went right back to sleep while Charla and Happy seemed undisturbed. Natsu sat cross-legged on his sleeping roll nearby, as wide awake as she was, although probably for different reasons. He was staring up at the stars, rather than watching the fire, but he didn't react as the fire popped and cracked a couple more times.

They were only a couple of days away from Magnolia and, if their friends had received the letters she'd sent out, then most of the guild would probably be waiting for them when they arrived. That was a big "if", though, as far as she was concerned and Lucy was getting more and more nervous about what they'd find when they reached the city. Natsu, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any concerns about not finding anyone there. He was full of excitement and anticipation, looking forward to seeing everyone again. She envied his confidence in the resurrection of their guild and wished she could let go of her concerns and relax. Her thoughts kept running around in circles, making it difficult for her to sleep.

Wondering and worrying about what they might find when they finally got home also made her a bit nostalgic and she started thinking of other occasions when they had returned to Magnolia and not known exactly what they would find when they got there. Their returns from Edolas and Tenrou Island came to mind. Their return from Edolas, in particular, reminded her of their current situation. They'd at least had an idea of what they'd be walking into when they'd returned from their seven year absence on Tenrou, thanks to the friends that had rescued them from the island, but Edolas had been different. The entire town and all of it's people had disappeared into Edolas and for a few minutes after their return to Earthland, they hadn't known what to expect when they saw Magnolia again. While the destruction after the fight with Tartaros hadn't been near as complete, a lot of damage had still been done and she wasn't sure how much rebuilding had been done to the city in the last year. The dissolution of the guild so soon after the events of Tartaros had left her floundering, with emotional scars that she wasn't sure she'd ever completely heal from.

Natsu stirred, stretching and yawning loudly, distracting Lucy from her thoughts. "Hey, Lucy, you going to sleep any time soon? We still have a long ways to go tomorrow, you know."

She smiled softly at him. "Yeah, I know. Soon. I'm just enjoying the fire and thinking about how great it was, having the whole team back together again. We'll see the others again in a couple of days and, hopefully, the rest of the guild as well and I'm just looking forward to it."

Natsu gave her a toothy grin, obviously happy. "Yeah, I can't wait to see how everyone's been doing after a full year apart! It's always great to see someone again after so long, you know?"

Lucy nodded, chuckling at his enthusiasm. Looking back at the fire, she became contemplative again. His words and her earlier thoughts of Edolas reminded her of something she'd been wondering for a long time now and she decided that his comment was about as good of an opening as she was ever likely to get if she wanted to satisfy her curiosity about this particular subject. "Hey, Natsu?"

He'd stretched out on his bed roll and closed his eyes while she'd been thinking but he sat back up and turned to face her when she spoke. "What's up? You going to tell me what's been keeping you awake at night?"

She stared at him in surprise at his question, taken off guard. She hadn't realized that he'd been aware that she was having trouble sleeping lately. "No, that's nothing, really. Just excited about seeing everyone."

He gave her a skeptical look. "If you say so. So, what, then?"

"Well, coming back to Magnolia after everything that's happened, along with what you just said, made me think about something. I was thinking about that whole thing with Edolas and Lisanna's return."

He snorted. "What about it? You still haven't asked me a question yet."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Alright, alright. Sheesh. I was getting there. I was just wondering how you had felt about Lisanna coming back after so long. After being thought dead, especially. I mean, you had feelings for her, right? A crush, maybe?" She watched him carefully, curious to see how he would react to her question.

Natsu blinked at her in confusion and surprise, not having expected her to ask about something like his feelings for Lisanna. "I thought she was dead. She was my friend and I missed her, so I was really, really happy to see her alive and well." His eyes narrowed and he gave her a suspicious look. "You already knew that, though. What are you really asking, Lucy?"

Lucy shifted in her seat on her blankets, uncomfortable with the look he was giving her. She focused her gaze on the fire again and bit her lip, trying to decide if she really wanted to continue with her questions or not. Taking a deep breath, she looked at him again. "Natsu, you and Lisanna were really close before she "died", right? So, when she came back, why didn't you make her your partner? Why did you stick with me?"

Natsu's jaw dropped and he stared at her in disbelief. "What the hell, Lucy!? Where did that come from?"

Lucy was a little embarrassed by just how gratifying his reaction was. When Lisanna had first returned, she'd been more than a little uncertain about how the girl's presence might affect her relationship with Natsu and it had been an incredible relief when it soon became clear that Lisanna's return to Earthland didn't have any impact on Lucy's relationship with Natsu at all. His reaction to her question made it clear that replacing Lucy with Lisanna had never even occurred to Natsu. Realizing that Natsu was still waiting for an answer to his question, she stammered out, "W-w-well, it would have made sense. You hatched Happy together and were so close and all...I hadn't even been with the guild for six months yet when she came back home."

Natsu gave her an annoyed look and ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the strands in his annoyance. "You're so damn weird sometimes! Lucy, that was years ago. Why are you asking me about it now? Isn't it pretty obvious by now that that's not going to happen?"

Lucy flushed in embarrassment, clasped her hands together in her lap and let her eyes drop, unwilling to look at him. "Well, yeah, of course," she mumbled. "I just never understood why." She let out a startled yelp when Natsu suddenly appeared in front of her, dropping down on her blankets to sit cross-legged, facing her.

He reached out and grabbed her hands, holding them in his, and waited until she reluctantly raised her eyes to meet his. "Lucy, listen to me. You know about my history, right? How I didn't really have any friends in the guild or even much of a life besides fighting until Happy was born, right?" She nodded. "Lisanna was never my partner, even after Happy came along. She, Mirajane, and Elfman were a team. I wasn't a part of that and when she came back, of course she'd go back to her original team. Especially since they were also her family."

Lucy nodded hesitantly. That made sense, but it still didn't answer the question she was really trying to ask. "But, Natsu, didn't you want her to? Be on a team with you, I mean?"

He sighed and squeezed her hands lightly. "Lucy, YOU are my partner. You've saved my ass more times than I can count and you've saved so many other people, too. It was because of you and your interest in the keys that I chose the quest to Galuna Island. That whole thing fixed some crap for the Ice Princess and his past. Even that Phantom Lord fiasco that your father started helped Elfman get over his full-body Take Over problems and ended up with Juvia and Gajeel joining the guild, saving their butts. You saved Loki and he gave you those resort tickets as thanks. That led to the whole Tower of Heaven thing and Erza being able to confront her past, not to mention saving Jellal and the others there. There are so many times you saved our asses. Too many to even count. It was you that closed the gate, so that only seven dragons got through and you're the one that gave me the idea to eat Atlas Flame's fire. We wouldn't have stopped Future Rogue without Atlas Flame's help and don't even get me started on Tartaros."

Lucy looked down at their joined hands, a little self-conscious at his praise. "But you've saved everyone just as many times. Probably even more often, actually. And most of that stuff hadn't even happened yet when Lisanna came back."

He huffed at her and squeezed her hands again, prompting her to look at him again. "Lucy, I don't get what you're asking me here. Lisanna was never my partner. I had no reason to make her my partner when she came back, even if she wanted to be partners with me. I already had you. My life changed after I met you. I don't know exactly how it happened but I have real friends now, not just nakama. A lot of friends, too, not just one. The guild and my nakama were always important to me, but I didn't have as much trust in them as I do now. Even Ice for Brains. The bonds between us are stronger than ever, and a large part of that is because of you. You, Lucy, not Lisanna. Lisanna is a great girl and a good friend, but she's not my partner. You are. It's always more fun when we're together, remember?"

As he spoke, tears had gathered in Lucy's eyes and when he finally fell silent, Lucy flung herself at him, knocking him over backwards, with her on top of him. He simply lay on his back and held her as she buried her face in his scarf, letting her cry herself out. When her tears finally died down to occasional sniffles, he helped her sit back up and wiped the residual tears off her cheeks.

"Better?" he asked.

She nodded. "Thank you, Natsu," she whispered. "I really needed to hear that. I feel a lot better now."

He smirked and reached out to ruffle her hair affectionately, grinning when she swatted his hand away before he could actually touch her. "Well, it's not like I said anything you didn't already know."

She huffed at him, slightly annoyed at his teasing. "Well, it still made me feel better. Go on back to your own bed, now. I think I can finally get some sleep."

He smiled at her, that sweet, happy smile that was so rarely seen. "Alright, Lucy. I'm going to sleep, too." He jumped to his feet and took the few steps to his own bedroll, dropping down and immediately stretching out and closing his eyes. He started snoring almost as soon as his eyes closed.

Shaking her head at how quickly he fell asleep, Lucy laid down and closed her eyes. As she drifted off to sleep, warmed by his words and soothed by the way he'd held her, she hoped that his faith in the strength of the guild bonds was justified and that their guildmates would be waiting for them when they finally reached Magnolia. When they finally got home.

Owari

Thanks again to Dark Shining Light for the prompt! :)

Review please!