A/N: quarantine has me inspired

23

Say my name

Previously, on "How to Seduce a Lady": "Not as a maid, not as a cleaner, not even as a temporary roommate. Not until you find a better place, and not until school is over. I mean the real deal."
"Move in with me, Lucy."
On the bedside table, the lamp flickered to a stop.

I rested my head against the window, the way I'd seen her do a few times before. Streetlights floated past us, illuminating the interior one strip of light at a time.

Even though I'd promised myself I wouldn't stare and be creepy, I still peeked toward her.

She was a walking mystery.

I'd spend the last few months sharing the same house as her but when it came down to stuff like this, I really had no clue as to what sort of person Lucy actually was. There were so many things I didn't know about her, and yet there were so many things she knew about me. The unfairness was clearly visible.

For example, I didn't know she could drive.

She'd been in my car enough times and yet I didn't know that she knew how to drive a car. I'd never thought to ask, and she wasn't the sort of person to go around flaunting every little bit of information she had. And yet, just watching her right now—even though I was desperately trying not to—she looked as though she'd spent half her life inside of a car. She was careful yes, but she could also speed up a bit and give me an adrenaline rush. I just couldn't believe that I'd been with her this whole time and I'd barely even scratched the surface of her being.

When we left the hospital she offered to drive because I was in an uneasy state of mind, and because she wanted me to eat as fast as possible. I must've stared at her for quite a while because she got worried I might be spacing out.

"If you keep staring at me like that I'll crash the car and give you something to really look at."

I tried to laugh but I was still confused. And a bit jealous. Yes, the almighty Natsu Dragneel admits to being jealous. But how couldn't I be? She had my life story practically spilled in her hands, and I didn't even know something as basic as the fact that she had a driver's license.

"So," I mumbled, picking at the remains of the burger on my lap, "I didn't know you could drive."

"I guessed by the way you're staring at me." She replied, not taking her eyes of the road for a single second.

The car grew silent again, and this time I forced myself to look out the window. I didn't want to seem too interested in everything. Just play it out casually. Oh my God this is so not the kind of person I was trying to be when I was picking up all those girls.

"Not too bad." I said.

I could just feel her eyes turn to look at me, "For a girl?"

"I didn't say that."

"You were probably thinking it. But it's okay. It's not the first time and I don't really think it will be the last time someone says that to me."

"No, please," I turned, letting my left hand fall on her leg, searching for some sort of way to reach out to her, "I really didn't mean it like that. You're overreacting."

She continued to stay silent.

"Have a bit more confidence in yourself. It's like you want people to treat you like a weakling."

When I noticed that she wasn't going to reply to me, I let go of her leg, and shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I really hadn't meant to say anything about girls being bad drivers, but the fact that she was so sure that I did… made me realize the sort of person she thought I was. The sort of person I'd actually been.

"Well, well, well, if I didn't know you I'd say that The Natsu Dragneel was giving me a compliment." She said, passing it off as a joke.

I shook my head, trying to clear all the depressing thoughts away from my mind. I was probably really confusing her these days. One minute I'm joking and flirting with her, the next I'm sad and depressed about my family life, then there I go again teasing her, and then I turn around asking her if she wants me to kiss her.

"I've been a real pain in the ass."

"Your words, not mine."

I changed the channels at rapid speed, not even seeing what was on one of them before I changed to the next one. Lucy had been in the bathroom for a while now, taking a well-deserved shower, and I was trying to get today's events out of my mind.

I called Gray and Juvia over to try and distract myself, but there was still an hour before they arrived.

Lucy's light footsteps came from the hallway, and I picked a random channel just so she wouldn't walk in thinking that I had completely lost it.

"Oh my God!" She shrieked, raising her hands up to cover her face completely.

I swallowed hard. The sight of her bathrobe excited me to no end, all pink and soft and fuck I wonder how comfortable it would be to jump on top of her right now and see just what she was hiding underneath. I felt my cheeks redden, all the blood I had rushing toward them. Well… rushing toward two places, to be completely honest.

She was still shrieking.

I shook my head to try and calm my imagination down. Why was she even screaming like that in the first place? Why would she come in the living room if she wanted privacy?!

And then I noticed the tv.

Of course it had to be porn.

I scrambled for the remote, trying to ignore the "ooh" and "aah" coming from the tv, and instead dove around the couch to try and find the remote as fast as I could. My hands grasped around, but of course it took me too long to find it in that sort of situation.

"Wait!" I shouted, getting up to frantically move everything standing in my way, "it's really not what you think!"

And finally, I felt it stuck between the cushions of the sofa, and pulled it out, wasting no time in turning it off as fast as possible.

We stood there facing each other, both our cheeks ablaze, the temperature in the room rising by the second. She removed her hands from her eyes, her expression a mixture of confusion and embarrassment. Her face reddened considerably, her eyes widening even more and her lips plump and trembling.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I tossed the remote somewhere behind my back and practically ran to where she was standing. "Lucy, I—"

"No, I should've knocked—"

"No." I closed the door, picking her up as though she was lighter than a feather. With my free hand I cleared the clutter away from the couch, not blinking an eye as my phone fell down on the ground with a loud thud. I set her down, climbing right on top of her. "You shouldn't knock." I brought my nose close to her wet hair and almost went crazy because she smelled oh so good and oh so inviting. "You can just come right in any time you want, okay?"

"Y-yes, but—"

"When I asked you to come live with me back in the hospital, I wasn't joking."

She stared up at me, the blush on her cheeks stronger than before, even though I'd already turned off the tv. "Why didn't you say anything back then?"

"I didn't want to be a burden."

My forehead touched hers, one of my hands sliding down her waist to grip her thigh. The bathrobe was as soft as I imagined it to be but by then it wasn't enough. I needed skin on skin. I needed mouth on mouth.

"Don't say that."

"But I don't have the money to pay rent, and I have nothing to give you—"

"I didn't ask for shit," I said, already impatient, my grip on her thigh even stronger than before. I lightly brushed my mouth off of hers, sliding down so that I could kiss her chin instead. I waited for her to push me away.

Nothing.

I moved lower and worked on her neck, one small kiss at a time. The bitemark I'd made that day in Fairy Tail was completely gone. She needed a new one.

My instincts were taking over.

"Tell me Lucy," I mumbled against her skin, licking the spot I was planning to attack, "who taught you how to drive?"

I could feel her hesitate. "D-dad?"

"Wrong answer."

I bit down hard, but to her credit she didn't scream. Instead, her hands found their way into my hair, tugging and caressing. It turned me on even more.

"Fine!" she mumbled, "It was him."

I stopped biting, instead coming up to inspect the damage. If she was going to wear clothes out in public I wanted them to leave this spot open for everyone to see.

"Say his name." I said, looking back into her eyes.

"Wh-why?" She managed, one of her hands coming down to touch the spot I'd bitten.

"Lucy." The name still burned on my tongue, "Say his name."

She shifted uncomfortably, her legs brushing off mine. I risked a look lower and nearly ripped her apart when I saw that the bathrobe had slipped a bit and was now uncovering the entire side of her leg. Just one touch. "Say his name."

"Loke."

I was beside myself with anger. I looked back up and let my hand rest on the edge of the robe, threatening to uncover her chest. Just the thought of that was enough to drive me wild.

That bastard.

Before I even understood what was going on, I felt her hand cup mine. She moved the fabric herself, sliding it down enough so that the top of her breasts were uncovered, just like she had put on a shirt with a deep cleavage. I still couldn't see everything but it was a start.

It was an invitation.

I looked and looked but I couldn't understand. Just how much was I allowed to explore? Which part of her was okay for me to touch? To grasp? To taste.

Not wanting to exceed her limit and earn myself a slap, I didn't touch anything right away. My left hand was still on her hip, and my right took hers. I squeezed her hand as a form of question. She squeezed back.

Fuck.

I slowly kissed her neck, letting my tongue slip down until it reached the beginning of her breasts. "You aren't allowed to say that name any more." I muttered, my words barely audible against her skin, but I felt her head nod.

"Now," I said, trailing kisses along the top of her breasts, "Say my name."

"—tsu."

I felt my chest tighten. "Again."

"Natsu."

I went wild. I bit down. She gasped.

Just one small gasp. Enough to drive me insane. Never. I'd never felt this sort of desire in my entire life. All the girls I'd been with were now meaningless. Nothing mattered anymore. Not one thing. Not one girl.

My hand left her palm and I trailed my finger along her lips.

I wanted to taste them. To taste her.

To my great dismay, my mouth her go of her skin, and I leaned into her, my hips pushing on hers, and my head spinning from her scent. Her scent. Intoxicating. I felt like a wild animal.

I'd been trying to restrain myself from kissing her. I wanted to reach an agreement. I didn't want it to be one-sided.

"Do you want me to kiss you?" I asked, my mouth just an inch away from hers.

Her breath felt hot on my skin, "What do you think?"

I clutched the cushion under her and dug my nails in to try and keep myself from overreacting.

"I don't know what to think," I mumbled honestly, closing the space between us so that our lips were finally brushing together. I still didn't dare move. "Tell me. Do you want this?"

I could feel her smile, "You didn't ask me that before you did everything else."

I tried to laugh, my voice raspy, "You let me. You even helped."

"Why don't you kiss me then?"

"I want to do it with your permission."

She licked her lips, her tongue touching mine for a small second. I almost died in anticipation. I had to close my eyes to try and control myself. Focus on anything except my desire. "Weird to see you ask for permission. Didn't it used to be a lot easier with other girls?"

I ran my hand through her wet hair, small droplets sliding down her neck. I wanted a taste.

"Come on Lucy," I mumbled, my breaths low and shaky, "do I have to beg?"

Her hands tugged on my shirt.

"That would be interesting."

And just like that, it ended.

The fucking doorbell. I'd never needed a time machine more in my entire life. To just go back in time and uninvite Gray and Juvia.

It took every last ounce of my mental strength to pull away from her. I scrambled to my feet, looking around the living room in desperation. I needed to put everything back in its place and cool off. I watched her leap to her feet in an instant, ready to help. We tidied the place up in less than a minute, picking up all the objects I'd scattered around the room when I tried to fucking jump her earlier. So much for that idea…

"I'll go change in my room and you get the door."

I scowled, switching the tv on to some random channel in case they started wondering what we'd been doing before they got here.

I really regretted not kissing her.

"Hey," she shouted from the door, "At least you got your way for a minute there."

"Lucy if I had my way you'd be in my room screaming the way the girl on tv was screaming."

I'd never seen someone blush so hard in my life.

And of course, the door slammed hard.

I couldn't get her out of my mind.

Even after letting my friends in and joking about how long I'd taken to open the door. Even after they asked about Lucy and I explained that she was changing her clothes because she'd been in the shower, and Gray and Juvia teased about me wanting to go into the shower with her. Even after I went to the kitchen to get some drinks and snacks.

She'd been gone for more than fifteen minutes, and although my friends were having fun watching funny videos on tv, I was still thinking about her. Why wasn't she back yet?

I mumbled out some lame excuse about going to the bathroom and quietly slipped out of the room. I checked every last bathroom in the house and decided that she was probably in her own room.

I knocked softly before entering.

And there she was, dressed up in her pajamas, stretched out on her bed, reading a book. To say I was confused would be an understatement. She stared at me in surprise, before deciding that she probably needed to bookmark her book and give me her full attention.

"Did you need something?"

I was dumbfounded. What was going on?

"Uh, why are you here?"

She raised a confused eyebrow, waving the book in her hand. "I'm reading?"

"No, I mean, why aren't you downstairs?"

She blinked a few times, then set the book down on the bed, and sat up, patting the space right next to her. I ignored my inner voice telling me that my friends were down there waiting for me and did as she instructed.

"Listen," she began, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. I noticed it was still damp. "We never sorted anything out. In the last couple of months, whenever someone came here they saw me by mistake and I couldn't hide anymore. But whenever one of your girlfriends showed up I felt compelled to hide, like that one time when I accidently walked in on you and that—"

"I get it, I get it, okay." I waved my hands, not wanting to continue down that path. My past mistakes were starting to catch up with me.

"And then you took me to that bar because you were afraid of the sort of relationship you might have with them, but now that that's all settled with, I really don't see the reason why I'm needed."

I took her hands in mine, surprising both of us. "Listen, I don't need you there, I want you there. I know it looks like I always need you to help me with something, and most of the time I do, but we haven't really talked about anything concerning the two of us, have we?"

She shook her head.

"Okay, I promise we'll figure it out. But for now, let's just do it one step at a time."

"Okay."

"Come down with us?"

"Fine! But you have to go out and let me change my clothes. I can't go out looking like this."

"Ohh! Want some help?"

"I've heard you're good at taking clothes off Dragneel, but I'm not so sure you can put them back on."

"Hey you can walk around naked if you ask me."

"Well," she pushed me toward the door, "It's a good thing I'm not."

Lucy and Juvia were still as close as ever, and I silently thanked Gray for finding a girl that could fit in with us so easily. Her accent was still a bit weird to me, but she had a good heart and that was all that mattered.

When I saw that they didn't even notice that the bowl of popcorn I'd put out was nearly empty, I took it to the kitchen to get them some more. The smile hadn't left my face ever since that idiotic couple got there.

"My eyes must be deceiving me."

Gray waltzed in like he owned the place, something I'd already gotten used to. He leaned against the fridge and watched me put a bag of popcorn in the microwave.

"Anything wrong with a guy making popcorn?" I asked, turning to give him my full attention.

"Well if it's this guy, then yes."

I raised my eyebrow, crossing my hands out of habit. "And why is that?"

Gray watched me silently for a few seconds, then let out a small chuckle some girls might even call cute. "Why are you so tense? I'm not here to argue or anything."

"Yeah but you look serious."

He sighed, "I just wanted to talk about Lucy." My ears perked up at the mention of her name, and he grinned. "I love how you tense up even more just by hearing her name."

"Come out and say it, Gray. Say what you want."

"Jeez calm down man," he shrugged, "Like I said, I'm not here to argue. I just wanted to ask you again, since some time has passed."

"Go ahead."

"What do you feel toward Lucy?"

A direct hit. I knew he'd be after that but I didn't expect him to just say it out of the blue like that. I shifted around in my spot, paying attention to anything other than him. I felt a slight blush creeping up on my cheeks and turned towards the microwave just so he wouldn't see it. I pretended to be very interested in the way the bag turned around inside.

"If you're trying to hypnotize yourself to escape from this conversation it's not going to happen."

"I don't want to say it." I mumbled.

"Aright then, let's try a different approach. Why is she still in your house?"

We could now hear slight popping coming from the bag. I concentrated on counting the sounds in order to calm myself at least a little.

"Because she doesn't have anywhere to go."

"Is that the truth?"

"Yes."

"Then how about she stays at my house?"

My head snapped toward him, and I felt my insides rage. I clenched my fist, "What did you say?"

Gray simply shook his head, "See? You're acting like a possessive freak. You know I have a girlfriend and you know I have brotherly feelings for Lucy and yet you let those words enrage you so much."

I let out an exasperated sigh, "I have no idea what's gotten into me honestly."

"I think that you need to set things straight. You probably haven't even established your relationship, am I right?"

"Y-yeah." I stuttered, feeling like a complete idiot. "I can't stand losing sight of her. I just got used to the idea of having her around all the time, and it's making me feel comfortable. I can't imagine waking up one day with nobody to say 'good morning' to."

"But you don't want it to be a random hoe?"

"I don't want it to be a random hoe."

"Then what's holding you back?"

The sound of the microwave suddenly went off, loud beeping indicating that the popcorn was done. I used the sound to my advantage, "I'm afraid."

The beeping stopped. I wasn't even sure he'd heard me. We stayed silent for a few minutes, and I was getting impatient. I just wanted to get this conversation over with.

"Alright fine, you want me to talk? I'll talk." He widened his eyes, leaning his head against the fridge.

I took a deep breath. "All I'm good at are hook ups. I'm good at getting a girl's number or getting a girl to take her clothes off. I can take them to bed, fuck them and never call them again. I know how to make them feel good. But I don't know how to make me feel good. Actually, I thought the whole 'one night stand' thing was working for me for a while, and then I just had to run into blondi—Lucy and have my world crash down. Suddenly, I can't do shit. I can't even make out with a girl without feeling anything but disgust. Do you know what that meant for me?! I had to go all the way back to square one. And what's amazing is that I didn't even figure out that it was because of her! It took me a month to figure out that I wasn't getting some sort of deadly disease that makes me hate girls, but that I caught feelings. Can you imagine that? Me?! Catching feelings?"

He rolled his eyes.

"And then I get this stupid idea and I invite her into my house?! Out of the blue like that! And she said yes and I thought 'oh well might as well use her' and now I can't form one single rational thought without her name popping up in my brain!" I started hyperventilating, "And what can I do?! I want to just pack you and Juvia in a bag and ship you to God knows where so that I can just barge right into the living room and just sink my teeth into—"

"Alright I get it!"

"No you don't!" I almost screamed, "She told me everything about that Loke dude and even though she went through such a horrible time with him the only thing I can think of is how he was the one who taught her how to drive and not me!"

"She told you about—"

"And whenever I get some alone time with her I feel like I can't control myself. But we still haven't sat down to talk and figure out what's going on between us because I'm fucking afraid she's gonna dump me before I even get to ask her!"

A smile creeped up his lips, "Ask her what?"

I felt sweat rolling down my forehead and I could almost feel steam coming out of my ears. By then I was sure that my cheeks were completely red with embarrassment. "You know."

Gray shook his head in disbelief, not expecting such an avalanche of words to come out of my mouth. I was just as surprised as he was, if we were being honest. I took deep breaths to steady myself. I needed to calm down.

"Listen Natsu, I think your problem is the fact that you don't have any clue what you're doing. For example, if I was in the same situation, I would probably react the same way. Everything someone else said about the girl I love would piss me off to no end, but since Juvia is my girlfriend, I feel more at ease. People know that she's mine and I don't have to freak out every time someone mentions her name."

"I never said my plan was to make Lucy my girlfriend!"

"So what, you want to lock her up in your house and keep her here so that nobody can lay a finger on her?"

"I want to own her."

"She's not an object, Natsu." He slapped his forehead in desperation, an everlasting feminist, "Man I've forgotten how thick that skull of yours is." He opened the microwave to take the popcorn out. I completely forgot about them. "The closest you'll ever get to making her yours is if you ask her to be."

I actually started pouting.

"Man you should see your face!"

Ignoring all of his comments and laughter, I busied myself with looking through the fridge to find some soda or something, just so I wouldn't have to listen to any more life advice from him. He got the message and shrugged, ready to leave the kitchen with the popcorn in his hand.

He hesitated at the door, leaving it open enough so that we could hear the girls laughing in the distance but not enough so that they could hear our hushed conversation. "Listen Natsu, I asked you a few minutes ago, and I'm gonna ask you again: what do you feel toward Lucy?"

I slapped my cheeks in an attempt to block out any other sound and calm down. "I don't know Gray, what do you want me to say?! I love Lucy?"

And that's when I noticed her hand.

She had placed it on the wall next to the doorknob, pushing against the door to get inside the kitchen.

And she heard everything.

The room around me darkened until I couldn't see anything anymore.

"Aw fuck."

A/N: What an emotion-packed chapter !

I put my feelings toward the whole text. Hope u like it ^^

Anyway, how's everyone doing with the whole coronavirus thing? My entire country's on lockdown and it's pretty boring. Plus uni's been piling up more and more assignments and work for me. I'm in over my head. I don't even know what's going on in the world but I hope we all get through this thing together!

Don't panic, only 0.004% of the world's population had been infected. And the mortality rate is 4.39%

We can do it!

Take a deep breath, remind yourself that you come first, and enjoy!

(I started writing the first chapter for my new fanfic, I hope I can publish it soon!)

Thanks for reading!

with keys, through flames! aye!