Lucy had had a long day and she was, quite frankly, more than a little grumpy. Fairy Tail had decided to go on a much needed vacation after the whole mess with Zeref, the Spriggan Twelve, Alvarez, and Acnologia. That was all great and fun, but Lucy was finding herself trying to figure out what Fairy Tail's definition of vacation was.

Not only had she spent most of the day trying to stop Natsu from burning down Akane Resort, they were dangerously close to being blacklisted, she also had to stop him and Gray from fighting before Erza chopped their heads off with one of her many swords. It was like they hadn't all almost died in the battle. Lucy swore that she was dealing with children and that Wendy was the most mature one out of the lot.

That aside, she had to console a crying Happy because he thought that Lily and Carla were spending just a little too much time together when all that happened was that they floated a little too close to each other in the wave pool.

Lucy, with the help of Levy, then had to make sure that Natsu and Gajeel didn't puke up their lunches because they just decided that it would be a good idea to accompany the two girls down the largest waterslide in the park. That, in turn, triggered their motion sickness and Natsu had been one dry heave away from ruining Lucy's new swimsuit with a real heave. It had been a long day.

Lucy sighed and shook her head, making her way to her and Levy's room. When she approached the hotel room door, there was a 'Do Not Disturb' tag on the door handle. Lucy was mildly perplexed and searched her bag for the room key.

"Ah, crap. Levy has the keys..." Lucy knocked on the door tentatively, "Lev! Can you let me in, I don't have my key!" Lucy waited for a response and she heard what sounded like hurried shuffling around and shushes. Lucy frowned; she had no idea what Levy could be doing. Levy eventually made her way to the door and opened it, wrapped in a white robe and her hair disheveled.

"O-oh, hey, Lu! W-what are you doing here?" Levy questioned her and Lucy refrained from letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Levy, I'm staying with you in this room. You have both of the keys and I want to go to bed." Lucy stated in the most even voice she could muster. Levy's eyes practically bugged out and she looked panicked for a moment.

"U-um, I'm so sorry Lucy, is there any way you could stay somewhere else?" Levy pleaded with her silently and Lucy heard a faint sigh from another person within the room. A very male sounding sigh. A very Gajeel sounding sigh. Lucy's face flushed and she began to feel very uncomfortable in the presence of her friend.

"Levy!" Lucy hissed in shock and Levy wrung her hands together. Lucy knew that she and Gajeel had sort of a thing going on, but she never imagined her to do that while they were on vacation.

"I'm sorry, Lu! Don't hate me... Let me grab your stuff!" Levy promised and eyed Lucy. She sighed and looked down at Levy and couldn't help but smirk.

"Fine, but you owe me." Lucy smiled as Levy broke out into a huge grin and clasped Lucy's hands. Lucy was incredibly happy for the pair for sure, but she was cranky when she was tired, especially after the day she had. She hadn't even gotten to enjoy a damn snow cone like she wanted to! As happy as she was, she wasn't sure how she felt about helping her best friend getting laid via Fairy Tail's resident 'shoobedooba!' guy. Lucy shook her head, nah, Gajeel was a good guy.

"Here you go! A-and thank you again!" Levy placed a quick kiss of appreciation on Lucy's cheek and Lucy laughed. "Oh, I bet Erza would let you stay with her!" Lucy nodded and slung her backpack over her shoulder, heading across the hall to where Erza was staying with Juvia. However, when Lucy got to the door, there was an identical 'Do Not Disturb' sign on her door. When Lucy got a little closer she realized that it certainly was not Juvia in the room with her, and Lucy had a sneaking suspicion that a certain illusive blue haired man may or may not have made an appearance. After all, Jellal and Erza hadn't actually gotten to truly just talk after the war and Lucy was sure that they had some catching up to do.

Lucy's patience was running thin and all she wanted to do was sleep. So, she did the only thing that she could think of and that was knock on the door next to her and Levy's room.

After waiting a few moments, a bleary eyed Natsu opened the door and looked at Lucy curiously.

"Huh? Lucy, what are you doing?" He yawned and rubbed his eyes and Lucy tried to avoid the fact that he had no shirt on and was just in his low rise baggy pants.

"U-um, well, you see..." Lucy wasn't sure how to word her situation and just ended up heaving a sigh of tiredness and exasperation. "I'm supposed to be staying with Levy next door, but she's a little preoccupied and needs the room..." Natsu looked at her curiously as if he didn't get it and Lucy resisted the urge to punch him square in the face. "I was going to ask Erza if I could stay with her, but it seems like she has a guest. Anyways, can I stay here for tonight?" Lucy rushed out her words and Natsu frowned a bit.

"Were they just gonna let you sleep in the hall?" He scoffed and opened the door a bit wider for her to step in. "Yeah, c'mon in!" Lucy looked at him gratefully, but then panic started to set in. Natsu and Gray were sharing a room, Mavis knows why, so where was she to sleep?

"Dunno where Gray is, I haven't seen him since this afternoon so there's a free bed anyways." As if Natsu could read her mind, he gestured to the empty bed after leading her further into the room.

"Oh? Where could he be...?" Lucy pondered and then realized that, if Erza isn't with Juvia, then where could she be as well? "Ah, oh well I guess!" Lucy said quickly before she could delve deeper into that conversation with Natsu. "So, uh, where's Happy?"

"He's spending some time with Wendy and Carla I think. There was some sweets shop that Wendy wanted to check out so I'm guessing they're there."

"So that's where Lily must be..."

"Why would Lily be with them, wouldn't he be with Gajeel?" Natsu questioned looking perplexed.

"O-oh, no reason! I-it was just a guess." Lucy's face burned and she scurried over to Gray's empty bed.

"You're actin' weird, Luce." Natsu eyed her suspiciously and Lucy busied herself with unpacking her bag.

"No, I'm not. I'm just a bit tired is all!"

"You're such a weirdo and you don't even know it." Natsu snickered and Lucy shot a glare behind her. She couldn't keep the face long because she found herself blushing for an entirely new reason and that was because she was never one to be able to resist bed-head Natsu. His hair was adorable messy and tousled, hanging over his eyes. He had his familiar lopsided grin on and still sported tired eyes. Lucy quickly looked away and shoved her feelings down her throat like she had been doing for who knows how long.

After the war, Lucy had practically told Natsu how much she loved him. She couldn't hold it any longer and she had just spilled her feelings to him. Lucy knew that Natsu cared for her deeply and had told her that they'd be together forever, however, that was after Lucy thought he was going to kiss her. Yeah, that didn't happen. Either way, things were different between her and Natsu, but in a good way. They were still best friends, but there was an air of something more between them. Lucy often wondered if that something would turn into what she knew she wanted, but that was up to Natsu; she had already made her feelings abundantly clear.

"So, w-what have you been up to then?" Lucy asked as she turned around only to realize that Natsu had passed back out on his bed, snoring and all. "Of course..." Lucy pouted a bit and got herself ready for bed. She finally was able to take a nice, long shower, brush her teeth, and put on her adorably comfy pajamas that had little starts and moons on them. When she walked back out of the bathroom, she covered Natsu back up with his comforter, and snuggled into Gray's unused bed. Lucy was just reaching for the light when she heard a muffled groan and a bang against the wall.

"Oh my fucking lord." Lucy heard herself mutter out loud. There was no way that she was hearing her friends having sex through the wall, right? Nope, no way. "Damn you Natsu, getting to sleep peacefully." Lucy cursed the boy to the left of her and tried to drown out the sound with her pillow. That was working great, surprisingly, and Lucy was just on the brink of sleep when suddenly Natsu shot up, awake.

"What the hell?" He croaked out and Lucy sat bolt upright in fright from his sudden outburst.

"W-what?" Lucy gulped and Natsu's eyes looked wild. Lucy switched on the light, to which Natsu practically hissed at, and eyed him suspiciously. His eyes were wide and, if Lucy didn't know better, it looked as thought there was a blush on his cheeks. "What on earthland is wrong, Natsu?" Lucy groaned and Natsu slowly turned to look at her.

"Nothing." He answered quietly and sat on his bed staring at the wall opposite of himself. "You should go back to sleep."

"Geez, talk about being weird." Lucy huffed and Natsu shot a scowl at her. "What's your deal?" Natsu was silent for a few moments, looking more than a bit uncomfortable under Lucy's gaze.

"It's nothing." He repeated and Lucy rolled her eyes, sighing loudly.

"Well, I'm awake now and-"

"You're not gonna want to be awake." Natsu huffed out and Lucy stared at him perplexedly.

"No, I didn't want to be awake, but your sudden outburst brought me here." Lucy grumbled and Natsu pouted a bit. Lucy was about to ask him, for a third time, what was wrong when she heard another bang on the wall and muffled sounds of love.

"Oh for fuck's sake..." Natsu winced and Lucy blushed; it was not something that Lucy wanted to be experiencing with Natsu.

"Oh!" Lucy squeaked out and Natsu looked at her sheepishly. "Yeah... About that..."

"So that's what Levy's doing." Natsu swallowed hard and Lucy fought the urge to draw her blankets over her head out of embarrassment. "With metal head? Does she have no taste?" Natsu snorted and Lucy could have sworn she heard a growl of disapproval from the next room over. Natsu's sly smirk proved her theory right- he had pissed off Gajeel. Of course he heard him, dragon slayer hearing and all.

"You've got to be kidding, of course it's with him. Haven't you noticed that they've always been closer than 'just friends'?" Lucy scoffed and Natsu looked at her dumbfounded.

"I guess now that you mention it... Ehh... I don't know..." Natsu scratched the back of his head in thought and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Geez, you are oblivious! And I suppose you think that Gray doesn't love Juvia back as well?"

"Well, I got that one just now because I can hear them fucking down the hall." Natsu stated bluntly, though a hint of a blush dusted on his cheeks.

"Natsu!" Lucy gasped at his vulgar choice of words, though she wasn't surprised. Neither of the fact that Gay and Juvia were hooking up or his poor choice of vocabulary.

"And... Gross." Natsu placed his hands over his ears and Lucy folded her arms over her chest. What were they supposed to do, listen to their friends getting it on all night?

"I bet all you can hear is them," Natsu jabbed a thumb to the wall behind him suggesting Gajeel and Levy. "But no, I need to hear Gray and Juvia as well as them. Not to mention the worst of all..." Natsu shuddered and Lucy eyed him in horror. "Erza and Jellal are into some weird fucking shit." His face looked paled under the yellow glow of the lamp between them, and Lucy was trying to decide if it was from the lightbulb or whatever he was hearing from Erza and Jellal's room.

"Oh god..." Lucy groaned out.

"Yeah, been hearin' that a lot." Natsu quipped, a sick look on his face. Lucy glared at him and whipped a pillow at his head.

"Totally not what I want to hear right now!"

"You don't want to hear what I'm hearing right now!" Natsu shot back. "This is like hell."

"Well, honestly, what do you expect? There's been sexual tension between all of them for... for ever!" Lucy spluttered and Natsu looked at her uneasily. "It was bound to happen! Gajeel and Levy have been in love with each other for ages now, Jellal and Erza have been in love since day one, and Gray and Juvia have totally had a thing going on for a while, but Gray was too much of a tsundere to admit it until now! All of them, apparently, needed to almsot die multiple times to admit their true feelings for one another!" Lucy was almost out of breath, here little outburst had gotten her heated.

"Uh..." Natsu looked uncomfortable and not sure what to say.

"Don't you get it? Things are different now and people have deeper bonds than before... It happens when people care deeply for each other." Lucy said quietly and Natsu swallowed and looked away from her slightly. His face was shadowed by his hair, the one lamp, providing the only source of light, created intense contrasting shadows over Natsu and the room.

"Of course I get it. I mean, not fully, I guess, but I understand why." Natsu murmured and Lucy was taken of guard when he turned back to her, his face more red than before.

"Then let them have this. It's awkward as hell, but... I don't know. It's sweet knowing that our friends are happy." Lucy told him quietly and the moment was quickly broken when Gajeel's gruff voice broke through the wall.

"Yeah, let us have this, Salamander!"

"Gajeel!" Came Levy's embarrassed response and Lucy felt like imploding in on herself.

"Ugh..." Lucy groaned and flopped back down on her pillows. "When people care deeply for each other and have a relationship, this happens."

"You don't need to give me the sex talk, I get it." Natsu dismissed her, sounding embarrassed. "Yeah, I got a whole lot of it from Gildarts a while back."

"That's super, because I totally wasn't going to have the sex talk with my twenty one year old best friend!" Lucy snapped out of embarrassment and relief over the fact that she actually didn't have to talk to him about the birds and the bees. There were a long few moments of silence between the pair, Natsu occasionally wincing after hearing something particularly bad, and Lucy feeling her blush getting more heated.

"So..." Lucy began out of curiosity. "What is Erza into then?"

"Is this really something we're talking about?" Natsu replied, his voice a few octaves higher than usual.

"I'm curious!"

"You're a pervert! I was right, you're a perv!" Natsu shouted and Lucy threw her remaining pillow at his head, hitting him square in the face.

"Am not!"

"She has armor called 'punishment armor', is that enough for your perverted mind?" Natsu threw her pillow back at her and dodged it just before it hit her. "Or are you not satisfied?" A devious smirk played on his lips; he looked almost dangerous with the light being thrown across his face.

"I'm not a pervert..." Lucy wailed and Natsu snickered. "Trust me, I don't care what our friends are doing, I'm just glad that they're... I don't know... Happy..." Lucy sighed and the room got quiet once more. "They got what they wanted after waiting so long, right?" Natsu didn't reply, he just sat in the middle of his bed, cross legged and silent. Lucy figured she'd try to get some sleep and leave Natsu to his suffering if he was going to tease her. She was about to close her eyes when his raspy voice broke her concentration.

"I know that you're happy for them... But I think you're jealous."

"Excuse me?" Lucy retorted and sat up. Natsu was looking wistfully at the wall across from him, a small smile playing on his lips. "What does that mea-"

"You always wanted something like that, right? You always wanted to go on dates and all that dumb stuff." Natsu chuckled lightly and faced Lucy. She placed a scowl on him, though it was more so directed at his forehead, she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes.

"So what? It's not dumb. People like that, people like being in relationships and romance. It's not uncommon." Lucy huffed and looked down at her bed sheets. "I'm happy for them..."

"I know you are, but I know you Luce. I know what you want." Natsu replied, his eyes searching for her gaze which she had not given him yet.

"If you know so well, then why didn't you do something about it?" Lucy blurted out and her eyes shot open wide. Natsu looked slightly surprised, but a little grin spread across his face. "I, uh, didn't mean anything..!" Lucy's cheeks burned and Natsu crossed the distance between them, sitting down on her bed by her feet.

"Weirdo." Natsu grinned at her, but Lucy couldn't muster up a smile back. She was jealous, at least she could admit it to herself. She thought that things would be different by now. She knew Natsu was a bit different in his ways than the other guys in the guild, but he was still human. Yes, he was undoubtably human.

"Never mind. It doesn't matter. I mean, so what if romance is something that I want, I'll find it one day, right?" Lucy chuckled sadly and looked up at Natsu only to be surprised when he looked hurt. "What?"

"I know what you want..." Natsu began, a blush creeping its way down his neck and to the tip of his ears. "I know... But you don't need to search for it." Natsu swallowed and Lucy felt her skin prickling with a feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on. Expectation, perhaps?

"I don't know what-"

"I'm sorry." He interrupted her words and Lucy looked at him in confusion. "I just- I just don't know how to do this whole thing." His eyes looked at her pleadingly and Lucy frowned.

"Do what?"

"Ugh..." Natsu groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't want you to go looking for romance with someone else..." Lucy was just bluffing when she had said that, but she didn't know it would bother him so much.

"Well, it's going to happen eventually. It's something that I-"

"You want." His dark gaze fell on hers and Lucy fought the urge to look away.

"Natsu...?"

"Every one of my friends is special to me. Everyone has their own unique smell and meaning to me. Then there's you and I don't know how to put it because I'm no good with all of this crap." Natsu frowned and Lucy held her breath a bit. It was unlike Natsu to talk things out, he was more of an 'action now, talk later' kind of guy.

"You said what you needed before, right?" Lucy smiled sadly at him. "We'll be together forever. We're best friends."

"That's not what I meant!" Natsu sounded exasperated and Lucy was almost taken aback. He sighed and rubbed his head. "I didn't know what to do in the moment. You thought... I was going to... I was..."

"You were?" Lucy's heartbeat hitched up a notch and Natsu's eyes widened a bit.

"Maybe..?"

"Then why...?" Lucy whispered out, tears threatening to invade her sight. "What were you going to do?"

"You didn't need to thank me for everything in our past, it's what made us who we are." Natsu's gaze flicked to the bed sheets. "I do well with action, I can take on Zeref or Acnologia, but I'm scared of..." He trailed off and Lucy drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly.

"I'm scared of what you want." Natsu swallowed and a pang of something like hurt went through Lucy's heart.

"It's not your burden to bare then." She replied sourly and Natsu shook his head.

"What scares me the most is what I want." He gripped the scarf that hung around his neck and stared off somewhere behind her. "Geez, Luce. Why couldn't you be some bad guy that I could beat the shit out of?"

"Er..."

"That came out wrong..." Natsu laughed lightly. "What I'm sayin' is, you mean a lot to me." Natsu flashed his grin that she had grown to love. "And I was totally gonna kiss ya like you thought, but I chickened out." Natsu admitted through his grin, his voice in a whisper. "I don't want Gajeel to hear me." Lucy took a moment to stare in shock at Natsu and then, she was sure of it, her entire being lit up in the worst blush she had ever had.

"W-wha- y-you were! Y-you knew that... I-I thought that... Ah..." Lucy was on the verge of wailing and Natsu looked at her curiously. "Oh my god."

"Like I said, I guess I'm just a little bitch when it comes to romance and crap." Natsu chuckled and Lucy swallowed hard. "I... Sorry, I just need a little more time than everyone else." He admitted and placed a soft gaze on her. "But you should know by now how much I love ya." Natsu grinned, his eyes almost squinted shut. Lucy sat for a long moment absorbing everything in and trying to feel like she wasn't on fire. After much deliberation, she did what she thought was best, and quickly leaned in kissing Natsu fully, and quickly, on the mouth. His eyes shot open wide and his mouth hung open a bit after she pulled away, his blush becoming more prevalent on his tanned skin.

"S-sorry... Roles were kinda reversed... U-um... You did all the talking so I took the action..?" Lucy breathed out and after a moment, Natsu burst out laughing. "Natsu...?" Lucy was afraid that she had actually broken him.

"Luce..." He chuckled and then leaned in, grabbing her face, and kissed her more deeply than before. It was an inexperienced kiss, on both their parts, but it was wonderful nonetheless. Natsu finally pulled away leaving Lucy unable to get her thoughts together. "I'm sorry I couldn't do it before. I wasn't ready to be honest." Natsu admitted and Lucy nodded her head.

"I-"

"I meant it though, we will be together forever." Natsu smiled brightly. "So... I hope that's okay with you, because you're stuck with me!" Lucy couldn't help but laugh, and the tears that had threatened to come before spilled down her cheeks. "Whoa, w-why are you crying?!"

"I'm just happy, Natsu." Lucy smiled as she wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. "You don't need to apologize for not being ready... I'll love you no matter what." Natsu took a moment and then broke out into another one of his infamous grins.

"Are you sure this is okay for now?" Natsu asked quietly looking a slightly worried.

"We've got forever to figure it all out, right? Of course it's okay. I couldn't be happier." Lucy smiled, brushing her hand across his cheek. He leaned in to it, nuzzling closer to her fingers.

"You sure you don't wanna do-"

"I-I only just kissed you, I-I'm not ready..!" Lucy blushed furiously by Natsu's innuendo and he laughed loudly.

"You're such a weirdo, Luce." He smiled fondly at her and Lucy flung her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you..."