Technically, this is the final Prompt for the Nalu Love Fest! There's another Bonus prompt that I'll be doing, but I figured this was a fun one to write! I had initially planned for it to be rather smutty.. I mean.. sexy needs to be sexy right?

Instead I wrote this..and I feel it most accurately describes the way I see Natsu and Lucy's romantic progression as well as how Natsu feels towards attraction and the opposite sex. In a way, this one has struck a chord with me far more than any other submission I have made so far, because it fits me almost just as much.

Please enjoy!

-CGP

The Steady Progression of Attraction

Prompt 7: Sexy

Attraction was something Natsu never understood. He knew that there were aspects of another person that could make a man or woman blush, or even like- but understand it? No. It made no difference to him if a man or woman were over large, tiny, or marred with scars. It never even registered that he should pay attention to such things.

What did men even find so great about breasts? Because they bounced? He found that amusing, personally, but not enough to talk about it constantly. Or a man's biceps and butt So what? He was stronger than most anyway and what's good about someone's backside aside from the usual jaunt to the bathroom?

He just didn't get it.

Having Lucy join his team was a strange wake-up call to the power a woman's body could have over men. It was exasperating and confusing to see men lower prices just at a flash of cleavage or an eye flutter from his blonde partner. When she paraded her body around like a trophy, it did nothing to his senses, so why did everyone else start to go crazy? It was weird. She was weird.

Oh, but there were just as many times when her antics never worked. He still cackled at the memories of them -even if a small part of him still pondered to the aghast reaction she gave each time her womanly wiles failed-and it only proved to him that he was right; using the body in such a strange way was a complete waste of time.

It never even occurred to him that these feelings would change up until the day he was watching Lucy write at her desk and the glow of her skin from the sun in her window made him realize she was pretty. Where had that come from? He couldn't say and he quashed the thought just as quick as it had come. It was obviously her weirdness rubbing off on him.

Another thought struck him months later, after an extremely grueling job that had left he and the rest of his team completely exhausted. He and Happy had snuck themselves into Lucy's home, as usual, just in time to catch her exiting the bathroom in her towel. It was one of those rare occurrences when she didn't realize his intrusion immediately. Natsu had time to study her as she hummed, drying her hair with a smaller towel as she walked across the room.

The fluffy cloth had clung to her tightly and rustled with her every move. Water still clung to her neck and fell in rivulets down her skin If he looked hard enough, he could watch the droplets fall beneath the edge of the towel and the steam of her bathroom still drifting off of her.

She wasn't squashing her breasts between her boobs, talking in a higher-pitch or fluttering her eye lashes. The poses meant to entice men were not prevalent in her movement and yet he couldn't take his eyes off the sway of her hips: how gently she moved.

It was the first time he realized how hypnotizing another human body could be.

The moment had been ruined of course. Happy made a comment about her being oblivious and he had waved hello soon after. She had kicked them out and her shrieks of anger echoed in his ears for days.

And suddenly, Natsu couldn't keep his eyes off of her. On missions, he always checked her position when they were near. At the guild, he was always aware of her location. He never treated her different, never did anything so out of his own character that the changes were hardly noticeable, but he knew. The cross of her legs while sitting at the bar had slowly turned magnetizing until he realized he had begun wondering what her skin would feel like under his fingers.

When she laughed, heat swelled within. A good heat. A very happy sort of heat that spread from the chest and outward until he, too, was dizzy with laughter. Lucy couldn't do anything without it effecting him in some small way emotionally and as the months passed into years, he began to notice the increased effect she had on him physically

He wanted to see her. All of her. Clothed or no, there was something enchanting about the thought of seeing her when no one else could. Her flirtations for discounts had slowly begun to disperse and though she still wore clothes as revealing as her underwear, the fact she no longer spent her time fluttering those thick lashes at another man pleased him. Lucy's entire focus had turned to her guild, to her team, towards her friendship with him. That's how he liked it.

Except... was friendship truly what he felt when he crept into her bed? When he sought out her scent to calm himself or when he felt the unfamiliar urges to taste her with his mouth?

Many of his fellow guild members would claim that it took him long enough to understand how attraction worked. Natsu would tell them it happened too fast. Perhaps he really was oblivious, but for him it felt almost as if his sudden need for Lucy had sprung up over night.

It wasn't even a physical need. Well, it was, but that came last. He just wanted to be near her. To spend as much time as he possibly could with her. The more adventures, the better. If that led to him finally learning what it would feel like to kiss her, so be it. He'd embrace the new adventure with open arms and take her with him much as he did the day they met in Hargeon.

What was puzzling was when he realized she returned the feelings. It wasn't often spoken of, but they just understood each other. They knew it like a promise. It's more fun when we're together. He couldn't have agreed with her more the day she had said that. So when the day had finally came that her body had curled up against his in her bed instead of kicking him from it, he didn't question it. When he wrapped his arms around her in response, it was an acceptance that grew slowly.

Their first kiss was something neither had planned. It came from a comfortable morning waking up in each others arms. She had just looked so pretty, hair askew and smiling sleepily a him. Natsu hadn't realized he had moved until the electricity of his lips on hers coursed through him. He had almost pulled back, confused by his own actions- but Lucy, just as red as he felt, had only brushed her lips against his again and suddenly, everything was okay.

He didn't try to think of the changes happening between them any more. Didn't try to understand it. There was no need to. Their connection had always been there since the beginning. It should have been no surprise when his friendship had grown to something far more. It was there, and with each new day he accepted it. With new explorations he learned of her in ways he had never considered before, and learned what it felt like to be explored. The fire in his belly roared to life any time they were together until it he never wondered what the point was anymore.

Instead, he memorized the quiver of her body when he touched her. The gasps emitted from her when he dragged his teeth down the expanse of her throat and the feel of her hips as they joined with his. The taste of her skin became a drug and the feel of her surrounding him when he possessed her was an excruciating pleasure that consumed him. Like his fire, he breathed her in and she stoked his flames.

Natsu still never understood why men went ga-ga over breasts or why women felt it was needed to flaunt themselves to get what they wanted. But if he ever was ever asked what was the most beautiful, attractive, sexiest thing he had ever seen. His answer would always be the same.

Whether she was wearing his shirt, a towel, lingerie, or a new outfit- Lucy always made his mouth run dry.

Just sighing in pleasure from stretching was far more tantalizing to him than any eye lash flutter she could do.

Her scent alone sent his mind reeling.

It would always be Lucy.

I swear I'll get back to the dirty stuff soon, seriously! I don't know what's up with me, but my fingers just keep typing all this cute fluff! I don't mind it really. The last Prompt is the Final Bonus Prompt: Breasts/Muscles. It will be my final submission to the Nalu Love Fest and trust me when I say it's going to be intense! At least, as intense as I can make it!