She's relaxing in a steamy bubble bath when he comes crashing in through the bedroom window with an obnoxious shout of her name. Her first instinct in the past would've been to splutter flustered shouts and censored curses, and although irritation pricks at her because of Natsu's disregard for privacy, she calls out to him that she'll be out in a minute and sinks lower into the water.

And it's not that they're a couple or anything – no, it's nothing like that. She's just grown so used to his habit of breaking in that it doesn't quite bother her like it did before. Not to mention, Natsu's grown a little more mature, and he knows not to just barge into the bathroom if the door is closed.

Most of the time.

Sure, he has those moments when realization really kicks in, and he'll make a few teases about how he'll walk in if she doesn't hurry, and she does recall a few times in the past when he does just march in without a care – and Lucy believes that it might just be because he's rather comfortable with being around her, even in such an embarrassing state. And if asked, Lucy will be the first one to admit that they're like best friends, even closer, and with all the time that's passed, she's grown to get less upset by his childish behavior. It's just the norm.

So no, it's not because they're a couple that she's fine with him popping in whenever. It's simply that they've grown so much closer over the past few months, though they've had a strong bond since their first meeting. Natsu's an idiot, and sure, he's groped her a few times – and although she isn't sure whether he did it on purpose with an innocent act in attempt to get away with it, or if he really was that naïve, she really does trust him.

Really.

But she's suddenly frustrated with herself for putting so much faith in his common sense; he should be waiting for her in her room, or maybe raiding the fridge – which still irks her, but it's really nothing new. Then again, of course Natsu isn't going to wait patiently for her without causing trouble – how foolish could she be to think he would? While she's nose deep in cherry-blossom scented bubbles and trying to savor her last few minutes in the warm, relaxing water, Natsu practically kicks down the door to her bathroom, flames sputtering in the air before vanishing all together.

Okay, so Lucy isn't the brightest crayon in the box. The moment the door comes flying open, despite having every pure part of herself hidden in a mix of water and thick, high bubbles that nearly spill out of her claw-foot tub, she sits bolt upright with a startled shriek and pretty much just puts her plump breasts on display for the pink-haired boy; what's even worse is that he's staring with wide eyes and a faint blush tingeing, which takes her a moment to realize, and she screams again before she even thinks to bring an arm up to shield herself from his view.

It's been weeks since Natsu has burst into the bathroom when he knows she's busy and most likely naked, and she's never seen such an anxious, hungry look in his eyes unless he's about to jump into a battle. And unless it involves food, fighting, or a chance to prove himself, he's rarely just so impatient – because really, he has grown a lot over the past few months. That's a thought she'll stick beside.

And Lucy isn't exactly a genius, but she doubts she's someone he wants to fight, and he has nothing to prove to her, and damn, the refrigerator is ten feet from the window he broke in through, so he could've gotten all the food he wanted. And with those conclusions settling in her mind, she can only wonder why the hell, for the first time in so long, he's too anxious to wait five short minutes for her to finish her bath.

Cheeks flushed with embarrassment, Lucy leans out of the tub to grab for her towel, one arm squishing her breasts firmly against her chest and keeping them mostly out of his view. "I thought you learned better–"

"This is important!" he tries to defend himself, and he crosses his arms. His lips are pushed together into a pout, eyebrows turning downward as his gaze flits away from her to glare off to the side as though giving her a moment to cover herself. "And you were taking forever."

"I was not!" Standing up and quickly shielding her body with the soft white towel, she moves her foot to pull the plug and let the water begin to drain. She didn't have the chance to wash her hair, so only the lower part of her blonde locks hang over her shoulder in wet clumps. Tucking the towel tightly around her breasts, she wrings out her hair.

"You still are!" Natsu retorts. Darting forward, he snatches her by the wrist and makes an attempt to drag her out of the tub, but Lucy shrieks, stumbles, and nearly falls against his chest, feet still in the now ankle-deep water.

The blonde wrenches herself free from his grasp, continuing to swat him away despite that, and she straightens up, fixing her towel, afraid it might end up falling from her body with all of the movement. "Do you mind!?"

"Not at all." The pink-haired boy stares at her for a long moment, gaze blank, before he huffs. His lips form into a childish pout as he realizes what she expects from him, and with a slight roll of his eyes, he looks away from her. It's not that he's a pervert or anything – he's just seen her naked a lot, and quite frankly, doesn't understand why it's still such a big deal to her. "Just hurry up, Luce; this is very important."

"I'm sure it wasn't so important that you had to interrupt my bath." The water swishes as she steps out of the tub and onto a mat on the floor. Giving a slight shake of each foot, Lucy turns her back to Natsu, just to be safe, and opens up her towel, swiftly moving it over her skin to dry herself. Natsu casts a curious glance over at her as she bends to dry her leg.

"I wanted you to play a game with me," he admits, and Lucy fumes, whirling to face him as she clutches the towel in front of her breasts again.

"A game!? This was all for a game!?"

"Well, yeah!" With a brief burst of laughter, he closes his eyes and shows his teeth in a wide, innocent smile, and Lucy's cheeks take on a rosy tint as her face warms.

It's so like Natsu, and really, she's a bit curious why he finds this 'game' to be so important. She supposes it's wrong to be mad at him for getting excited like he tends to so often. After all, things would be going so much smoother right now if he didn't end up getting himself an eyeful, or if he let her have a few more peaceful minutes in the tub. If that had been the case, she wouldn't have hesitated to play.

Really, it's mostly just that he's managed to push all of the wrong buttons in such a short period of time.

Having given it a moment's thought, Lucy nods. It might be fun, and it's not like giving one of his silly little games a try will have a bad outcome. Well, that's another foolish thought on her part, but as long as they stay in her apartment, it's not like they can do much damage. Right?

"Just let me get dressed first."

"Alright."

They stand in silence for a minute, Lucy's chocolate gaze holding his; she notices that blank look in his eyes again, as though he doesn't see the problem with her changing right in front of him – and sure, she's done it before, but that doesn't make it any less embarrassing; and the times before were absolutely necessary, anyway.

She's unable to bite back the mild irritation creeping up into her voice. "…That means leave, Natsu."

He almost has a disappointed look, but with a faint "oh," he turns to exit the bathroom, and Lucy quickly shouts after him, "And try to shut the door!"

Try, because he pretty much ripped the damn thing off its hinges earlier.

Left alone, Lucy drops her towel, letting the white fabric pool at her feet, and begins to put her clothes on right away. With Natsu, she can never be sure when he'll decide to run into the room again. Not to mention, her cheeks are still flushed from the earlier encounter, and her hands shake as she begins to wonder what the odds of him just throwing the door open while she's busy hiking up her panties or trying to clasp her bra are.

Pretty great, honestly.

But then again, she does feel a little guilty, because it seems like she upset him just a bit – and she hates that. Being the reason for one of her best friend's foul moods isn't something she enjoys.

She leaves the bathroom using her fingers to brush out the knots in her hair as she steps into the living room where Natsu is actually waiting in silence for once in his life. Lucy stops, blinks as she stares at the back of his head as though trying to process what this newfound patience in the sakura-haired boy is, and then rounds the corner to the front of the couch. As she sits down next to him, she inquires, "Where's Happy?"

Natsu's reply is immediate. "With Wendy and Carla, of course."

"Oh." Lucy nods a few times, clasping her hands together in her lap and twiddling her thumbs. The two are totally and completely alone, and if that isn't a good enough sign that this may be leading somewhere intimate, then Lucy really needs to learn how to use common sense.

With no other idea of how to bring up the object – or origin – of this new game, he starts with a simple, "So, I saw Laxus and Cana today."

"Oh?" Blinking, the blonde turns to look at him with interest despite not knowing what this has to do with that 'game' he mentioned earlier. She finds it intriguing because they seem to have been sneaking around a bit; they at least aren't hanging around the guild quite as much anymore. Some of them have begun to suspect something. "Together?"

"Yeah…Not at the guild, though. But that's not the point." He glances down at his hand, clenching his fingers into a tight fist before he turns to Lucy and meets her gaze. The excitement is crawling onto his face again, and she can see his lips twitching into a grin. "Well, they were playing this weird game." He leaves out the fact that they were probably both drunk at the time and had no idea what they were doing.

"What kind of game?" Lucy raises an eyebrow; this must be where he got the idea from. Now it's falling into place in her mind, however slowly.

Natsu snorts, his nose wrinkling into a grimace as he looks off somewhere ahead of himself as though recalling the images from earlier that day of the blonde and brunette's activities right outside of the bar. His expression worries her a little, but she stays silent as he answers with, "Laxus called it something stupid, so I'm gonna call it Fire."

"Fire?" Now she's really confused; she's never heard of a game like that. Lucy wonders what it's really called, but she decides to trust in Natsu's choice to call it what he does. Her head tilts to the side to emphasize her bewilderment when Natsu doesn't respond. "Laxus and Cana were playing?"

"Yeah. It was weird, because I never thought Laxus would be that kind of person." Still staring off into space, one of Natsu's eyebrows arch up in consideration of his own statement, and of all of the other vague information he's given her, that's exactly what puzzles – and worries – her most. But before she can open her mouth to explain her doubts, Natsu looks to her again, and he's serious. Like, dead serious.

And it's been a while since she's seen him like that unless it comes to protecting those close to him.

Lucy feels the warmth spreading through her cheeks as she stares back into the pink-haired boy's eyes, and it's intense; she finds herself leaning away from him with a slight pickup in her heartbeat. She attempts to stammer out words – she doesn't know if they'll be an excuse, or an acceptance to play, or even something completely irrelevant, at this point. She just knows that her voice won't work, because Natsu is eyeing her in a strange way that she doesn't think she's ever seen from him before – there's hunger, and so much care behind his gaze.

And honestly, she has no idea what this is about, why he's acting this way.

"Wanna play it with me, Luce?"

Really, Natsu's not trying to be creepy or anything; he just wants to know and understand for himself why Cana and Laxus seemed to be enjoying themselves so much. He recalls the exact words Laxus said to her before he began, and Natsu will say the same to Lucy; he'll make the same movements as well. That way, he knows for sure he'll be playing correctly; he's never heard of this game, either. He wants to know why it looked so fun to the other couple.

However, he only stayed to witness what happened between Laxus and Cana for a short while, and not even a small fraction of his mind held the thought that perhaps their game had gone a little farther than what he assumed was the extent of it.

The blonde hesitates for a long moment, a simple "e-eh…" being all that she can manage for a long moment. And it's mostly the look in his eyes that's causing her to fall into that kind of reluctant attitude.

Then, Lucy holds up her hands as though to gesture, 'No, no thank you,' but the words to leave her mouth are, "Y-Yeah…sure…" She's surprised at herself for a moment, but that mild surprise grows into utter shock when Natsu slips off the sofa and into the floor without warning. Is this part of the game? Confusion etched into her features, she leans against the back of the sofa, waving her hands in a desperate attempt to get him to stop without saying it. "Wh-What are you doing!?"

The dragon slayer positions himself in front of her, his hands lightly gripping her ankles and spreading her legs apart for him to situate himself between them. He looks up at her, and she considers kicking him away, because he's far too close, but it only takes her a moment to realize that he's not trying to be a pervert here; he doesn't even have a mischievous glint in his eyes. He's sincerely curious.

But she can't take this. She really can't. There's a strange flutter deep within her chest despite the quick pace of her heartbeat.

Thoughts buzz in her mind and collide with one another; she's not sure what kind of things she's supposed to be thinking right now, but part of her feels like she's been waiting for this all along, like perhaps she's wanted Natsu's attention in such a way for a while now. But thinking practically, they're pretty much like best friends, and she thinks lowly of herself for even okaying this in her mind for a moment.

"You're supposed to tell me when you feel the fire." His warm fingers glide up her ankles, a slow and soothing motion as his hands slip behind her calves with a light squeeze. Lucy whimpers quietly to swallow back a confused stutter as he trails his calloused fingertips up to her knees with an unfamiliar tenderness. She's feeling something, alright; it's a strange heat creeping up through her veins with every gentle movement of his hand. Perhaps that's the fire, forming and spreading?

Heart pounding in her chest, she watches him through half-closed eyes as he drags his hands farther up her legs, resting them on her thighs. Her skin is warm at his touch, and he feels his own cheeks splashing with color when she mewls softly and twitches at his actions; this isn't exactly how he thought it would be, but it's not so bad. His eyes are fixed on her long, slender legs, following the trail his fingers have made up to her hips, touching her over her skirt.

Lucy's toes curl as Natsu's hand sweeps over her navel, and she thinks that's the very moment she feels the fire he's talking about. Her stomach is nothing but butterflies, warm tingles shooting up her spine. Her heart has never beat so quick; her breath hitches in her throat as she quietly tells him, "I-I…can feel it…"

Natsu perks up, his hands remaining on her hip and stomach. His eyes are wide with interest. "You can? Already?" It's clear that he initially expected it to take a little bit longer, and he wonders if that means he's good at this game, to make her experience it so quickly.

"Y-Yeah…" She offers him a faint smile, blushing darker under his gaze and squirming in a half-hearted attempt to get away from his touch; it's only making her feel warmer. Lucy wants him to let go; this is weird, embarrassing, and she's in such a compromising position!

Watching his expression transition from a bubbly happiness to a slightly puzzled one, realization dawns on her that he doesn't understand how it's supposed to feel or what the experience is like at all. She guesses she's a bit stupid for not noticing that right away; after all, he clearly told her he'd never played before. "…You haven't felt the 'fire' before?"

"No." He blinks, absentmindedly circling his thumb over her flat stomach.

She doesn't think there's a problem with her offering to help him understand at all. After all, they're such close friends, right? Only friends? So it's perfectly okay. It won't make things any more awkward than they already are, right? And it's only polite to return the favor!

That's what she tries to tell herself, at least, as she straightens up instead of leaning against the back of the couch for support. Another small part of her reminds her that she just might really like him, and that she just doesn't want such a moment to end. Trying to keep from melting at his ministrations, Lucy stammers out, "…Want me to…uh…try to make you feel it?"

"….Sure."

EDIT AS OF JANUARY, 16, 2015. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Also, thanks to the Anon who gave me ideas on how to fix this. NaLu wasn't a favorite ship of mine at the time, and Lucy was one of my least favorite characters when I wrote this, so I did struggle with it. I tried to add a bit more to it though now that I'm really into NaLu, to make it better! Let me know what you think!

(:Mizune