note: Okay, this ended up creepier than I thought.
note2: I dunno. It just makes me shiver a little, and I'm the author.
note3: I just wrote this today, and I am proud at how this ended up :)
note4: This is second one of the day!
disclaimer: I don't think I'm an adult—or at least, not that I'm aware of—therefore I am not Mashima-san.
summary: This was, by far, the weirdest birthday gift she has ever received.
Lucy's 18th birthday had been normal enough, to say—it was extravagant, yes, like any other Heartfilia celebration, and she had been happy, yes, but it was normal in the definition that there hadn't been any weird events blown into cosmic proportions happening on this very day (don't blame her for wanting everything to be absolutely mundane—there was her fateful 17th birthday, when some weird people showed up with swords and ice powers and transformations and started recruiting her to their 'guild' that she had to hide from the lunatics for at least 10 hours. There was also her 15th birthday, but that was slightly milder.)
So when she walked into her room, exhausted and tired but in bliss, she hadn't expected a man in her room.
A man with pink hair and only her soft, cotton blanket to cover that.
"Happy birthday, Lucy!"
She shrieked.
.
.
.
•-•-•
Surprise.
•-•-•
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.
.
The floor felt hard under her head—that was the first thing she noticed when she regained consciousness. The headache was next, pounding when she got up too fast. What was she doing on the floor? And what was that weird dream about?
"Had a good night's sleep, Lucy?"
Immediately, she froze like a bucket of cold water drenched her from head to toe, and, almost mechanically, she turned her gaze towards the direction of the voice, almost hoping there wasn't anyone there and she was just going insane.
But it seems like the world was ungiving, even on her birthday.
The pink-haired man still sat on her bed comfortably, looking unfazed with his blatant nakedness (save blanket). There was a bright grin on his face that only made her conclude that this man was not right in the head.
"Who are you?!" she asked, shouting louder than she would in hopes that someone in her large, large house could come to her rescue. "What are you doing here?!"
The man looked at her with a puzzled expression, as if she was the one not making any sense. "I've always been here."
Her eyebrows rose, disappearing so far into her hairline in disbelief. "I think I would've noticed if there was a man in my room all these years." When the man opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off. "Are you one of my past dates or something? Because that gives me all the more reason to call for security and have you kicked out of this house."
To her surprise, the man whined, making him seem much younger than his age (which, she didn't know, now that she thought about it). "Luuuccccyyy!" He looked at her with a pleading aura around him and the biggest puppy-dog eyes she has ever seen. "Why are you kicking me out of my own house?" As she made to protest, the man pouted and looked away from her, crossing his arms over his chest with indignation. "And no, why would I be one of your asshole dates? You were always mad or crying after every one. I would never make you mad and definitely not make you cry."
She didn't know what came over her, and she didn't know how in the world he knew all that, but she believed this man, no matter how weird that sounded. She must really be going crazy. "Do I know you?"
The man looked at her with a smile. "Who else do you know has pink hair?"
The scream made its way out of her lips for the second time that day, and she wondered if this was the weird curse on her birthday that she had always dreaded (or not).
.
.
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•-•-•
Did you expect this?
•-•-•
.
.
.
"So how did this happen again?"
They both sat on her bed, the blanket soft and dipping down but still not in the least bit comforting considering where exactly it had been.
The man, now fully clothed (thank Mavis), spoke with much excitement, very much obliged to repeat his story again. "Remember when you met that man when you were a kid? You know, that short, balding man who asked you what you wished for the most? Well, you got it, now on your 18th birthday."
Her stare was blank, unconvinced but believing this man at the same time. "So you're telling me that you're Natsu."
"Yep."
"My stuffed toy who I've had since birth."
"Yep."
"And you've come to life because I wished for it when I was six?"
"Yep, that's right."
There was a beat of silence in the room as she absorbed the thought and processed it. After a while of the thought sinking in, her eyes widened in horror. "You know how creepy this seems right now?" she screeched, cheeks flaming with unbridled embarrassment. "I've been hugging and kissing you since I was a kid! Hell, I sleep with you!"
As expected, Natsu's as dense as she had always thought him to be. "You make it sound like it's a bad thing."
"It is a bad thing!" Natsu winced (probably at the volume of her voice—he had always had a sensitive sense of hearing). "It's bad because—because—" After a minute, she stopped trying. There was no use explaining to Natsu because he wouldn't understand anyway.
"You know what? Maybe you should just lie down and sleep." Natsu pushed her back down gently and brought the pillow under her head. "You're tired."
"Which is why I'm seeing things," she said, almost warily.
Natsu chuckled, the laughter rumbling his chest. "No, Lucy." There was mirth in his eyes that, in a sleepy haze, she didn't have the strength to decipher.
Before her eyes fully closed, she picked up something he said, but she couldn't, no matter how much she tried, trap it in her deepest memories.
.
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•-•-•
I'm real.
•-•-•
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.
She awoke with a start, abruptly sitting up on the bed. Her chest heaved with heavy breaths, and she ran a hand through her blond locks absentmindedly.
From beside her, the figure followed suit and got up, most likely roused by her sudden movement. Even in the dark, she could see the worry in his eyes. "You okay, Lucy?"
Still slightly shaken up—but already calming down—she nodded, a combination of a sigh and a groan escaping her lips. "I dreamt about my 18th birthday again."
The man gave a hearty laugh, and she couldn't help the glare she directed at him for being amused at her suffering (well, suffering was too strong a word). "That time when a weird man broke into your room?"
"And I lost my stuffed toy somehow!" she added, feeling a bit depressed. That was her most favorite stuffed toy!
The man's eyes never lost their mirth. "Maybe he took it with him."
She fumed silently. "Well, Natsu, if I ever find that man again, I will demand he bring my stuffed toy back!"
Natsu laughed, low and warm. "That man should be scared," he said, teasing. "Although he's lucky, because you don't even remember his face."
She puffed her cheeks out. "If only I did."
"Well, it's all in the past now," her husband said, laying her on their bed with him. "You should sleep. But don't worry," he gave her a smile (though it seemed like there was something deeper underneath—although that could just be her imagination), "I'm your stuffed toy, right?"
"Yeah," she mumbled sleepily into his chest, sighing in comfort, "A stuffed toy I could hug and kiss that would hug and kiss me back."
As she drifted off to sleep, his voice said something in her ear, but she was too far gone to hear.
.
.
.
•-•-•
Isn't that what you wished for?
•-•-•
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note: I'll leave it up to you to believe what you want to believe. I'm not gonna say anything.
note2: Did you get some of the creeps? Just curious.
note3: Review! That would make me very happy :)
note4: And if you know me, you know that when I'm happy, I write more angst ;) (Whoa, that's like a lose-lose situation for you) jk I write angst and fluff!