Stolen Kisses

All their friends thought they were in love, which they strongly denied from the start. But, as time passed and they got teased even more, Lucy noticed that Natsu didn't care. He didn't yell at them like she did. He didn't deny the rumors like she did. Sometimes he even went with it and confirmed the false accusations, much to Lucy's bewilderment. After a while, she noticed that he seemed uncomfortable when she denied those things strongly. He sometimes even seemed… disappointed. Lucy thought she was just over-thinking things and didn't pay much attention to the small changes in Natsu's behavior. She was definitely caught off guard by the things that occurred later on.

The guild seemed to be getting more jobs recently, much to everyone's delight. Natsu, Lucy and Happy were always working, although Happy sometimes joined Wendy and Carla on their missions. As Natsu and Lucy were departing for their job to defeat a monster alone for the first time in a while, Natsu seemed more excited than usual. He didn't even fight with Gray before they left, which surprised even Gray.

As they were fighting the monster, they both took quite a few hits, but were more or less okay. The monster gave them a hard time, but they managed to defeat it at the end with joined forces. They were both jumping out of joy when they finished their job, and Natsu pulled Lucy into a tight hug. Lucy blushed, her breath hitching in her throat as Natsu hugged her even tighter. When they pulled away, Natsu put his hand up. Lucy thought he was going for a high-five so she raised her hand as well, but she definitely didn't expect Natsu to intertwine their fingers and bring his face right in front of Lucy's. He smiled and Lucy's heart skipped a beat. And then, he… kissed her.

Lucy's eyes widened. She couldn't move, she couldn't think, and she couldn't even breathe. It felt like the kiss lasted hours, but it only lasted a second, as Natsu quickly pulled away and started making his way back. Lucy still couldn't believe what had happened. She didn't know if she should be happy or angry. Should she run after him?

Natsu stopped in his tracks and turned around, raising an eyebrow as he noticed that Lucy hadn't moved at all.

"Coming?" he asked, like nothing had happened. Lucy looked puzzled, but nodded and ran after him. He waited for her to come closer, and then he intertwined their fingers again and kept on walking with their hands linked. Lucy couldn't control her blush and her heart racing, so she quickly avoided Natsu's puzzled look.

A couple of days passed since that incident and nothing else had happened between Natsu and Lucy. They both acted like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and that confused Lucy. Did Natsu… like her? She couldn't deny that she had feeling for him, but she wasn't sure if he felt the same way. Had that kiss just been a friendly one? Natsu was pretty dense, so it wouldn't have surprised her if he didn't think much of it. It was just a friendly kiss, that's all.

Two weeks after the incident, Natsu invited Lucy to go fishing. Lucy was ready to reject the offer, but after listening to Natsu whine for two hours, she decided to go. The weather was nice and they were having a pretty good time. They laughed and Natsu pranked her a couple of times, like he always did. Everything was normal.

When sunset came, they both got quiet and looked at the beautiful scenery. A few minutes passed and Lucy noticed that Natsu was looking at her. She blushed and kept on looking at the sunset, but Natsu grabbed her hand and she slightly jumped in surprise. He laughed and Lucy looked at him pouting. He pinched her cheek, which made her chuckle. Then, he quickly pecked her on the nose and pulled away.

Lucy was puzzled yet again. That definitely hadn't been friendly. No one had even pecked her on the nose before, not even Levy, her best friend. Was Natsu just messing with her? If he was, she would've been incredibly upset, as she hated it when people messed with someone's feelings. 'Natsu wouldn't do that', she thought. 'He doesn't even know I like him.' When Natsu kept on acting as if he hadn't kissed Lucy, Lucy decided that Natsu was doing these things as a friend, nothing more. He probably didn't understand how someone would feel if their friend kissed them. It was all good. They kept on joking like they always did.

After a couple of weeks, Lucy couldn't take it anymore. Natsu had been stealing kissed from her the past few weeks and she was done with it. He had kissed her in the library when they were looking for a book they needed for a job, he kissed her when she got angry because he broke into her apartment again. He even kissed her when they were taking a walk, just… because. If he wanted to date her, he should've just said so! Lucy decided to take the matter into her own hands and confront Natsu about this problem.

As they were coming back from another job, they were both silent. Lucy cleared her throat and she blushed immediately at the thought of what she was about to say.

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?" he looked at her quizzically.

"Why do you… do these things?" she asked, fidgeting.

"What things?" he looked incredibly confused. 'Does he really not know what I'm talking about?' thought Lucy, as she tried to think of what to say exactly.

"Why do you always… k-… k-kiss me?" she asked, looking down at her feet. Natsu stopped walking and turned to look at her.

"Because I like you." He answered.

Lucy's head began pounding. What sort of like did he mean? Did he mean he liked her as a friend, or did he want them to be… something more?

"What… do you mean?" she managed to say.

"When I look at you, I wanna kiss you. But you would probably get mad at me and hit me if I ask you to kiss you, so I just… did this."

Lucy couldn't believe her ears. Her heart wouldn't calm down.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked, pouting. "I'm sorry I kissed you. I won't do it again if you don't want me too."

His voice sounded sad, which seriously surprised her. She managed to lift her head, look him in the eyes and muster a small smile.

"I'm not mad. I don't… mind you kissing me." Natsu's eyes widened and Lucy was forced to look down so as not to die from embarrassment. Natsu placed his hand on her face, lifting it to meet her eyes. Lucy expected him to kiss her, but he just stayed there, looking at her. She mustered up all her courage and slightly lifted herself on her toes as she placed a kiss on his lips. This time, it was Natsu's turn to blush.

They both smiled as Natsu pulled Lucy into a hug. They stayed like that for a while, both content with the way that things had turned out.

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading this short one-shot! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Please let me know what you thought about this in the comments. Have a good day!

PS: You can now follow me on Tumblr! My username is jess542

Author's Note 2: I have reuploaded this chapter because people have told me that it's unreadable :") Thank you all for letting me know!