The Picture Frame

a Fairy Tail fanfic

by Rhov

Lucy knocked lightly on the door to Natsu and Happy's house. Uncertain whether or not this was a good idea, she twisted a wicker basket in her hands and waited for a reply.

Happy opened the door, peeked out, and his eyes widened in surprise. "Lucy! You shouldn't be here. Natsu is really sick. Porlyusica has set up a...a...kwar-uhn-teen." He pointed to a note taped to the door with big, red words. CAUTION: QUARANTINE.

"I know," she nodded. "I heard the news from Mira. It's scarlet fever, right? I had that as a kid, so I'm immune. It's okay. Um...are you going to be okay? I don't want you to get sick, too."

"Pantherlily said Exceed can't get Erza Fever."

"Not Erza Fever. It's scarlet fever." She heard a soft moan inside. "Is Natsu okay? Can I come in? I brought some fruits, juice, and ingredients to make soup. Also, I figured since Natsu never gets sick, you guys wouldn't have medicine."

"Only some syrup stuff for coughing," Happy mumbled, opening the door wider for her. "Can you watch him for a bit? We're out of fish, and I'm hungry."

"Leave it to me," Lucy smiled cheerfully. "You need a break. I'll take care of Natsu for now. Just be back before sunset. I don't want to have to walk home in the dark."

"Thanks, Lucy. No wonder Natsu likes you."

Lucy blinked at that, but the blue Exceed was already flying away toward Magnolia. Lucy shrugged it off and continued inside. Once again, the house was an utter mess. Dirty dishes had been stacked up. Clothes, both dirty and clean, were scattered all over, clean ones in baskets, dirty ones tossed on the dusty floor. It also seemed like Natsu had collected more memorabilia of his missions since the last time she visited his house.

"Boys are so messy," she sighed. "I'll have to clean up later."

She decided to check on her patient first. Weaving between piles of clothes, she finally made her way to Natsu's bedroom. The room was stuffy and simmering hot from the dragon slayer's fever. Lucy set her basket down and walked over to his bed. His scarf draped over the headboard, the covers were half tossed off, and Natsu slept fitfully. Sweat beaded on his forehead. As Lucy gently lowered herself onto the edge of his bed, she could feel the heat radiating off of his body, and she saw the scarlet rash that covered his skin. Happy had been using a wet cloth to help with the burning fever, but in his tossing, Natsu had knocked it off. When Lucy picked the cloth up, she swore there was steam coming from it.

Natsu groaned in his sleep, then slowly opened his eyes. "Lucy?" he asked through a swollen, scratchy throat.

"Don't talk," she whispered, smoothing his sweaty hair back.

He shook his head, delirious with fever. "No...you'll get sick...contagious...don't want Lucy sick...no Erza Fever for Lucy."

"I've already had scarlet fever. I won't get sick," she assured him. "I know just how bad this illness can be. You'll need to rest for a long time."

"Hate resting," he grumbled. "Wanna train. Wanna do missions with Lucy."

"Well, I'm on a mission, and it's to help you get better."

He coughed slightly, but winced at the pain in his throat. "Can't pay you," he hacked out.

She smiled and brought out her jug of juice from her basket. "Having you and Happy not eating up my food every day will save me plenty of money. Now, drink this. It's a special juice mixed with honey to soothe your throat. It should help, and you need the citrus."

Natsu took the jug and gulped it down. He flinched as his raw throat stung from all the citrus, but he knew that if Lucy said it was good for him, he should trust her.

"Good boy," she praised softly. "Now lie back and try to sleep more."

Natsu collapsed onto his pillows. Lucy went to the bathroom to wet the washcloth, then came back and laid it over the feverish boy's head. This time, steam really did come off the cloth.

"When you get a fever, it's no laughing matter," she muttered.

"Lucy," he mumbled, half asleep already. "Thanks. You're so sweet."

"Silly Natsu," she smiled, stroking his hair.

"Smell good, too."

She blushed a little. "Just sleep."

He was out fast. Lucy took the basket of goods into the kitchen, but she saw that there was no place to put anything. By the mold in one pan, Natsu had not done dishes for a few days even before he got sick. She sighed in resignation.

"I guess I get to clean up before I can make any soup."

The next few hours were spent cleaning the place, starting with the kitchen: dishes, cutting board, cabinets, refrigerator—she swore one of the molded lumps she pulled out talked to her. Finally, she had a clean area to prepare soup. She got a large pot filled with water, then set about boiling the chicken while she prepared the vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, spices, and some mix for dumplings. She deboned the boiled chicken, then added all of the vegetables and left the pot to simmer for a couple of hours.

While that cooked, she began cleaning the main room, straightening the clutter while trying not to misplace anything, dusting, sweeping, and removing the trash. She folded the clean clothes and set the dirty ones aside to be washed later. Then she moved on room by room.

She left Natsu's bedroom for last, hoping to let him sleep. When she finally entered, she realized that this room was hotter than all the other rooms. She opened a window to let out the intense heat. Then she replaced the wet cloth on his head. He did not wake up at all through this.

Lucy slowly worked on this room, dusting silently, picking up old clothes one at a time so nothing fell and startled her sleeping patient. She kept glancing at Natsu. He looked so helpless, and an instinctive part of Lucy wanted to stay with him and care for him through this entire ordeal. Not just a visit to make soup, but all night as well, in case he woke up in pain from the rash and fever.

She began straightening the nightstand by his bed so she could have some room for the medicine. A picture frame had been knocked over in his feverish fits. When she lifted it up, Lucy stopped and stared.

It was a picture of her taken for Sorcerer Magazine. From the look of it, the picture was cut out of the magazine, with slightly ragged edges and printing bleeding through from the back side of the page. She glanced down at the sleeping dragon slayer and blushed.

"A picture of me by your bed? That's...sort of sweet."

She looked down at the picture again. It was nicely done, if she did say so herself. She was wearing an outfit from the Spirit World, a bikini top with stars on the breasts and a short skirt that sparkled with sequins. She had her whip out, sparkling like a river of stars, and a devilishly seductive smirk on her face. As she recalled, the article had some misleading title like "Whip-Wielding Mistress of the Stars: Let Me Show You My Stellar Technique." Lucy had blushed fiercely when she read that title, but the article itself was good.

As she looked at the picture frame, she saw it was smudged. She decided to clean it, so she brought it over to the window to look at the glass better. That was when she saw what the smudge was.

A lip mark. No, not just one. Many!

Natsu had been kissing that photo every night.

Lucy nearly dropped the picture frame. She felt like she had discovered some deep secret about her best friend, and she really had no clue how to handle it. With huge eyes and a dropped mouth, she looked back over to Natsu. It looked like his fever was on the rise. His breath came in soft pants, and his face was tensing up while flushing.

She set the picture frame aside for now, sat on Natsu's bed, and felt his cheeks. They were much hotter. She went to find a cloth bag and wrapped some ice cubes in them, then set that on Natsu's forehead, holding it in place as he tossed in feverish dreams.

"Uuuuugh...Lucy," he moaned in his sleep.

"Easy, Natsu," she whispered, soothing back his hair.

"Don't ever leave me."

She smiled at his muttered words. "I'll stay the night, okay?"

"Mnnh," he grumbled. "Wan' you...to stay...every night."

Lucy's mouth dropped, but she reminded himself, he was delirious. He very well could be completely asleep and dreaming, although it was hard to tell.

"Mnnh...muv oo...Wucy..."

"Muv oo?" she asked, yet suddenly Lucy froze.

Love you? Did he really just confess to her in his sleep? No way! He didn't really say that, did he? It sure sounded like it, even through his scratchy throat. Maybe she was imagining it. But then, did that mean she wanted to hear him say he loved her? What would she do if he did? If Natsu was in love with her...?

All pointless! He was asleep anyway. The light snore was a sure sign of that.

She sighed in exasperation. "You idiot. You're supposed to tell a girl that when you're awake."

He was quiet for a while, and soon she heard his breathing settle down into solid sleep again. Seeing Natsu so helpless was heartbreaking, yet Lucy felt indescribable joy at caring for him. She wondered why tending to Natsu's sick self made her so happy.

Finally, she got up, finished with the soup, and by then Happy came back home. Natsu woke up with a moan as he tried to walk to the bathroom. While he washed his sweaty face, Lucy dished out some soup and let it cool off. When Natsu made it back to his bed, exhausted from just that little walk, she brought the fresh soup to him and helped him to eat it, blowing on the spoon to cool it off and wiping away any drips from his lips.

"Lucy, you should get going soon. It's almost dark," Happy said in concern.

"If it's okay with you two," she smiled, "I'd like to stay the night."

Natsu had a glaze-eyed smile, still too sick to act as exuberant as he normally would. "I'd like that," was all he said. "You make the whole house smell good."

"That's the chicken soup, silly," she chuckled.

"No, not chicken smell. Lucy-smell." Then Natsu curled back down into his blankets. "It's cold."

"Your fever must be going up. Time for more medicine," Lucy said.

"I hate Erza Fever," he grumbled sleepily.

"Aye," Happy agreed. "It's a scary fever, like Erza is scary."

"It's called scarlet fever, not...oh, never mind," Lucy sighed.

Two weeks later, Natsu was back to his wild, laughing self, although a little thinner and pale from being indoors for so long. Still, having been stuck in bed for so long made the dragon slayer even more eager to do a mission. It was not a hard one, Mirajane refused to let him take three different monster-slaying missions since he was still recovering, but fighting some bandits felt good.

He and Happy returned home in high spirits, with money for meat and determined that their next mission will definitely be a monster. Natsu managed to cook something easy, but while eating the fish and rice, he realized he missed Lucy's cooking. Somehow, what she made tasted a hundred times better.

"I want Lucy dinners again," Happy said.

"Yeah, me too," Natsu admitted, stabbing aimlessly at the fish. "Maybe we'll drop by her place tomorrow for some food."

"Aye, sir!"

Natsu got ready for bed, stripping down to his boxers and carefully hanging his scarf over the bedknob. He burrowed down into the blankets, cocooning them around him, and as he leaned over to turn off the lamp, he first picked up the picture frame. He did not know when he began doing this, but it was now part of his nightly routine: brush his teeth, dress for bed, hang up his scarf, kiss Lucy's picture, and turn out the light. Only this time, when he picked up the picture frame, it was a different picture.

No, it was the same, but instead of a ragged picture torn out from a magazine, it was a glossy real photo with Lucy's signature written inside a heart. Then he saw the note on his nightstand. In Lucy's cute handwriting was:

Natsu, I'm glad you're well.
Here is a gift to you for being such a good patient and taking your medicine.
Really, if you're going to keep a picture of a girl by your bed, make it a real photo, you dummy!

Natsu shrank down in shame. All through his illness, it never occurred to him that Lucy might see that picture and wonder about it. Still, this photo was now twice as precious. Not only was it his favorite picture of Lucy, but now it was a gift from her.

"Thanks, Lucy," he whispered, and gave the picture a lingering kiss. Then Natsu set the picture frame back beside his bed, turned off his lamp, and closed his eyes, knowing he would once again dream about his mistress of the stars.

The End