Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me, and unfortunately, I can take no credit for the quote either. This is made for entertainment purposes only, and not to make any profit whatsoever. The only thing I own here is my imagination.

Summary: There were two things Natsu would not quite believe himself capable of doing. One was being jealous of water. The second was watching his teammate bathe. And liking it. What was that saying again? The road to hell is paved with good intentions? [Complete.]

Pairing: Natsu x Lucy

Rating: T

Word Count: 2,421

Title: Hotsprings

by

oh-woah

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

"No, Natsu!" the blonde shrieked, a hot blush on her cheeks. "You will not go into the onsen with me."

She threw a shirt at him, and it fell harmlessly to the floor as the dragonslayer side-stepped it.

"But - "

"No," she stomped her foot, which Natsu found incredibly cute. He berated himself for the strange thought, even as he watched Lucy cross her arms and frown and - oh, Kami-sama forgive him, but she just looked so attractive right now that he just wanted to...

He blinked, and then felt horrified at himself. Natsu desperately hoped none of his traitorious emotions had shown on his face. He tuned back in to what Lucy was saying.

"...need some private time." The blonde looked at him expectantly, and then pouted for extra effect. "Pleaaase, Natsu? Promise not to go near the hotsprings?"

Dammit. That pout. He felt himself weakening against it, and Natsu knew he had lost the argument.

"Fine," he sighed.

She instantly brightened - "Thanks!" - and slid out the door to make her way to the open hotsprings.

He slumped onto the couch in defeat. Natsu wasn't dense - he understood that she needed alone time, and yet he felt irritated that she couldn't understand his way of seeing things. After all - earlier today Lucy had nearly been sexually assaulted!

And it wasn't just once, it was multiple times! This was a shady town and he knew it; he chose to ignore Lucy's comments of him being over-protective. Natsu knew he was not over-protective. Those slimy bastards dared to look at Lucy the wrong way - one even went so far as to grope her ... it wasn't his fault that his temper exploded. Lucy was his. No one else's. The dragonslayer could feel himself getting worked up all over again as he thought of the day's earlier events.

Moments later, when Happy arrived with food in tow (he was pretty good at getting people to give him what he wanted - for free) the blue cat found his long-time partner and brother sitting on the couch, arms crossed, and seething at a picture on the wall. If looks could kill, Happy was positive the harmless photograph would have exploded into tiny fragments long ago. Lucy's pajama top was on the floor.

"Natsu? What happened?" No response. Happy tried a different approach. "Where's Lucy?"

The blue cat had abandonded his usual taunt of, "You liiiiike her!" long ago. It was obvious the dragonslayer was seriously aware of his own feelings. Instead, Happy decided that supporting his brother-figure in his quest to conquer the stellar spirit mage's heart was the way to go. Besides, it was infinitely more fun now to watch the dragonslayer blush and fumble like a schoolboy.

"She went to take a bath." The pink-haired man scratched his neck. It seemed like an innocent enough, but Happy knew him well. That movement usually meant that he was uncomfortable, unsure, or irritated at something. Occasionally it was all three. Combined with anger, the blue feline knew it was a deadly combination.

If something was not done soon, he was sure that his pink-haired partner would explode. As entertaining as that would be, Happy would much rather enjoy his free fish. So he did what made sense in his tiny feline mind and said, "Baths? I thought I saw someone suspicious over there..."

Happy put on his most innocent face, and somehow managing to look both innocent and worried. Before he could get out another word, Natsu was on his feet. He was a blur to Happy as Natsu disappeared though the door in three seconds flat.

The exsheed snickered into his paw deviously, wondering what this turn of evens would create in Natsu and Lucy's developing relationship.

The hotel was certainly lovely despite its small size. Unfortunately, Natsu had no time to appreciate the scenery - it was likely that he wouldn't appreciate it, even if he did have the time. That was something that his blonde partner was more likely to do.

Speaking of things his blonde parter was more likely to do, Natsu could bet his scarf that it was also likely that Lucy would not particularly pay special attention to her surroundings - espically once she was comfortable in the hotsprings.

It would have been dangerous to remain unguarded, defenseless, and alone on a regular day - but now that Happy had mentioned seeing some weird figure around here somewhere, Natsu was positive that it was doubly dangerous for the stellar spirit mage. And so the dragonslayer took it upon himself to guard her, just to keep her safe from potential creepers. After all, that was what partners did for each other, right? They kept each other safe from harm.

The pink-haired mage felt justified in his actions, despite the promise he had made to Lucy earlier.

If there was some sneaky bastard crawling around here and watching Lucy bathe, Natsu would find him in a heartbeat and beat the living daylights out of the unfortunate bloke.

The open air baths were fenced - it was high enough that someone wouldn't be able to jump and see the girls, but low enough for those who sincerely tried their best to get a peek. From where he stood, Natsu could clearly hear the splashes of water, as well as the soft humming Lucy made from within the hotsprings. Natsu listened very, very carefully - and then assumed that there were no other girls in there with Lucy. Knowing her rather friendly personality, the blonde was sure to be making light chatter should there be another person in there with her. So she was alone. And if Natsu could hear her, he knew that if he made loud enough noise, Lucy would be able to hear him as well.

With as much stealth as he could manage (because he did not want to alert Lucy to his presence) the pink-haired mage circled the rather large onsen once, before concluding that there was no one in the immediate vicinity. Paranoid, Natsu told himself that maybe he had missed something and went around another time. He opted to go a different way, circling around the open air baths closely. Even then, there was still no sign of a man lurking outside to catch a lady unaware.

Giving a silent grunt of frustration, Natsu decided that his best course of action would be to wait until Lucy's bath was over. There was no way that he would leave Lucy alone - not now. He still felt distinctly unsettled, and Natsu would never forgive himself if he left and then Lucy was taken advantage of.

Despite his unease, it was actually quite a beautiful night. They were far away enough from the city that the stars shined more brightly here, and the air was clear and warm. A small splashing sound directed Natsu's attention to the onsen, and he knew that the feminine sigh of satisfaction was from Lucy.

A briliant idea hit him as he circled around a third time and once again ran into a tall tree near the onsen.

He would climb the tree and stay there, Natsu reasoned, to keep an eye out for suspicious men, as well as to keep an eye on Lucy. She was rather clumsy, maybe she would fall asleep in the bath and drown - and Natsu would be there to save her. It was perfect, and definitely not perverted behavior because he was doing it for good reasons.

Once he leapt into the tree and settled down, Natsy glanced over at Lucy. She was submerged in the water, her head titled back in obvious pleasure as she sat in the warm water. The slightly tanned column of her throat was exposed tantalizingly, as well as her shoulders. The rest of her body was submerged in the water.

A minute later, Lucy opened her eyes and stood up, wading around the area and exploring her surroundings.

Natsu bit his tongue and forced himself to look away from her delicious curves, and redirected his gaze to a bush of flowers near the entrance to their rooms. Only when he was certain that Lucy was no longer exploring did he return his gaze to her.

At the same time, Lucy dunked her head into the water and emerged, her hair soaking wet. Her blonde hair was a darker shade now, trailing down her shoulders to float in the water around her. As a dragonslayer, he had stronger senses than the average person - and most of the time it was useful. But now, Natsu wished he did not have such strong eyesight when he caught beads of water making its way down the blonde's slightly tanned skin.

They gathered at the hollow of her throat, and then dripped down over the top of her ample breasts and back into the water. His eyes followed the way some of the water dropplets provocatively disappeared into her cleavage.

There were two things Natsu would not quite believe himself capable of doing. One was being jealous of water. Water was related to ice, which was connected to his rival's magic powers. So, no - Natsu had never found himself jealous of that particular element - not when fire was so much better anyway.

The second was watching his teammate bathe. And liking it.

Of course he had popped into Lucy's bathroom a few (read: many) times over the course of their friendship. But while those times had been on accident, this event, Natsu knew - was not.

And yet here he was, appreciating her curves and not giving a damn about the consequences - Lucy was beautiful. While he had already knew that before, it only fully sunk in now. Natsu knew that his attraction wasn't purely physical - he loved her smile, yes. But he also loved her courage, her loyalty, the way she cared for her nakama, the way she would lose her temper but never hold a grudge. He loved her - every single part.

As he came to that realization, Lucy stood up and wrapped a towel around herself. At the same time, the sound of bushes rustling below him caught his attention. There was a man standing there, his hair shaved so thin it looked like he was bald.

"Hey man, mind sharing the view?"

For some reason, Natsu felt extremely irritated that his epiphany had come to such an abrupt end. It felt as if the man was intruding on a rather intimate moment (Despite Lucy not knowing he was here. Natsu chose to overlook this tiny, yet important fact.) Why, of all times, did that bastard have the worst timing? Why had he chosen to show up now? Where had he been hiding? Natsu had looked for him in the entire area, to no avail. To think someone could so easily escape his senses irritated Natsu beyond belief.

So this was the bastard prowling around the hotsprings. Recoiling at the man's lecherous tone, Natsu growled, "Piss off, you perverted bald-head." And then Natsu leapt from the tree preditorially, catching the man off guard. They tumbled into the bushes, and Baldy fought back once he realized what was happening.

Lucy must have heard the sound of them fighting, there was the rapid sound of light feet padding across the stone floor to the changing room. Feeling vaguely horrified at the prospect of being caught around the hotsprings by Lucy, Natsu gave one desprate, hard punch to the man's jaw and sent him into unconsciousness.

Deeming it safe now that the culprit was out cold, Natsu high-tailed it out of there as soon as possible - there was no way he wanted to be caught by Lucy.

Safe, he thought. Lucy was safe as well. He could not repress the heat that flooded into his face when he recalled his earlier epiphany, right before the stupid Baldy had interrupted his thought process. As Natsu speed-walked through the corridors, he ran a distressed hand through his hair. He felt a mix of embarrasment and arousal when he remembered the Hotsprings.

Despite all the mortifying things he had gone through this evening, Natsu knew that he would not forget this event - no, not for a long time.

End.

A/N: Okay, that was incredibly fun to write.

Little bit of a drabble. And slightly inappropriate. I've been spending too much time with my guy friends.

Oh, Happy, you devious thing. I love you so much.

And about that quote. See, I was in English class and we were talking about this quote, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," and this idea just popped into my head.

Of course, while Natsu has not done anything bad enough to be on his way to hell, I thought it would be funny to show how his original purpose was to keep Lucy safe - and then how it went downhill from there. He had not really planned on watching her. He would hate to have Lucy find out that he had been - erm, studying - her more than necessary, so that was why he ran. LOL.

Besides that, I'm incredibly sorry for not updating my other chapter story! I feel bad, lol but I couldn't get this out of my head. I'm also incredibly busy with school - SAT stuff coming up, as well as colleges. D:

Also please excuse me if there are any errors. I feel too lazy to proofread - I have no beta and I just want to publish this thing and get it out of my head, LOL.

SO, yeah. If you guys enjoyed reading this, please leave a review and tell me what you think!

- Elle