The story takes place after the Grand Magic Games arc, and after the special episode/filler where Natsu and Lucy babysit Aska. I've seen a couple other stories about dragon slayers and their marl or whatever, but I don't read the manga so I have no idea if it's cannon. Anyhow, enjoy, and no spoilers please in the comments! Thanks!

A Warm Heart

~ Magnolia Hot Springs

"So, Lu Chan, did Natsu really try to kiss you? Happy was talking to Carla about it earlier today. Apparently you were on a mission with Natsu and Asuka, and she told him to kiss you. Care to elaborate?" Lucy sunk in deeper to the steaming hot springs. With only her head above the water, Lucy looked across her fellow guild mates who were all giving her a deadly stare while awaiting her answer. She didn't mind the quality time she got to spend with her fellow female guild mates, but she hated how the topic of the conversation always manages to gear its way towards her and Natsu.

"Come on Lucy, out with it. You two have been watering at the mouth for each other for some time now. Besides, I'm starting to crave another drink or two so stop stalling." Lucy turned her head away from Cana, who was well past the safe level of intoxication.

Lucy let out a sigh across the spring water. "Well I don't think he meant anything by it. Besides, he was just keeping his word to Asuka. I doubt he would try to kiss me if the circumstances were any different." Lucy's voice trailed off as she wondered if she was trying to convince her friends or herself about the meaning of Natsu's action.

Standing up, still dressed in her standard armor, Erza put her hand on the blondes head and brought her face into contact with her breast plate. "If there is anything we all know about Natsu, it's the fact that he's always intense with anything when it involves you Lucy." Trying to ignore the throbbing sensation of pain emitting from her face, Lucy pushed her self off of Erza's chest. Lucy knew that there was some truth to what Erza said. Thinking back to Natsu leaning close to her, with his eyes closed, his face so peaceful, and his lips puckered ready to embrace her own lips, Lucy started to blush and sighed.

Mira moved through the water to draw closer to Lucy and tilted her head to the side and let a wide smile spread across her face. "Well did you want him to kiss you? You two are awfully close as it is. He spends the night at your apartment all the time. I would have figured the two of you would have already kissed by now. In fact I'm surprised that the two of you haven't…" Knowing what Mira was going to say next, Lucy jumped towards her and covered her mouth.

With her face steaming red and her voice filled with a combination of rage and embarrassment Lucy screamed out, "I would NEVER do that with Natsu! We're just friends and were partners! His attempt at a kiss didn't mean anything!"

Not buying Lucy's rant at all, Levy, the bluenette, let out a high pitch chuckle. "It's okay Lu Chan. Even though Natsu is kind of wild and destructive you don't have to hide how you feel about him."

Lucy had heard enough. She stood up and covered her chest with her arms. With more frustration and irritation in her voice, Lucy scolded her friends. "SO Levy, why don't we talk about how you totally have a thing for Gajeel, and Erza, did you forget that Natsu has incredible hearing skills? He told me, Happy, and Gray everything about what he heard from your little episode with Jellal before the Grand Magic Games." Feeling that she had successfully gotten even for her friends embarrassing her, Lucy walked out of the hot springs and into the ladies dressing room.

The blonde took out two towels from her locker and used one to wrap up her body and another to warp up her hair. She reached for her clothes and her gate keys, but she saw the tattered leather book she had been carrying around for a few weeks now. She had been filling the book with everything she could remember about the book she found lying of the ground during the battle with the dragons. The book that belonged to her future self.

Not that she wanted to relive or remember the experiences if that horrific event. Rather she wanted to remind her self how lucky she is. She watched herself die, for the sake of protecting her future. She saw how Natsu reacted to her future self's death. The look in his eyes, his words, and the way he fought to protect her future. Lucy wanted to remember just how precious her life is, and how hard her best friend tried to protect it. She wanted to be able to remind herself, how lucky she is to be able to be a part of Fairy Tail and to be able to have all the friends that she has.

When she came across the book during the dragon invasion, it clarified a couple of her thoughts. Her first thought, was that in her future self's timeline, Natsu died. The way that future Lucy looked at him, the way she reacted when Natsu talked to her, and how quickly she was over flowing with tears after he thanked her for saving his future, it all pointed towards the truth that "her" Natsu had died. While reading the book, Lucy read the words from her future self that vividly described the death of her best friend. How he fought off dozens of Dragons while forcing her future self to run. How her future self witnessed him get impaled by a poison dragon, and died from the impact.

Her other main though, was that Fairy Tail had fallen during the battle with the dragons. Seeing the empty hand of her future self proved that. While she read the book, she read the detailed deaths of nearly all of her friends. The deaths of Erza, Mira, Cana, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel and many, many more. The thought of losing any of her fellow guild mates nearly brought Lucy to tears, but it gave her incentive to spend less time devoted to herself and more time with her friends.

That's how she ended up at the hot springs with all of her fellow lady friends. But, it somehow turned into a gossip festival that was trying to create something out of nothing with her best friend, yet she still felt bad for getting mad at her friends for some light teasing. Lucy sighed and got dressed. She tied her keys onto her belt and tucked her book under her belt. She put her hair up into pig tails, and decided that she should apologize.

Lucy left the locker rooms and slid open the door that led to the hot springs. Before she could say anything, she noticed all of the girls swarming around Erza. Lucy assumed they were all pestering her about Jellal. Lucy stated to laugh under her breath and waved bye towards her friends.

"Bye everyone I'm heading home for the night!" Lucy turned and started to walk away and her guild mates shouted out a synchronized "Good night Lucy!"

~On the way to her apartment

The night sky was illuminated with countless stars, and the town was started to grow quite as it drew late. Lucy sighed and decided to summon up Plue to keep her company as she walked.

Balancing on the ledge by the river than ran through Magnolia, Lucy walked with Plue trailing close behind.

"Am I overreacting Plue? I mean, this is Natsu were talking about here. Sure he's done a couple of sweet things for me. But, he couldn't actually have like real feelings for me. I don't think he even knows what it means to kiss someone. He's just so oblivious about some things. I doubt he's even mature enough to understand how relationships work."

As if asking her to elaborate, Plue responded with a simple "Plue?"

"Well, he's not totally immature. Just a little wild. The whole thing where he let Bisca's daughter beat him at shooting was pretty sweet of him. Then there's the way he protects everyone in the guild. Wait, why am even talking about him like this? UGH!" Lucy flailed her arms and almost fell into the water.

Two men on a small boat called out to Lucy, "Be careful Lucy!" Lucy looked up towards the men and sighed as they floated down the river. The only thought running through her mind was how she let Natsu control her evening and night when he wasn't even there.

Having reached her apartment, Lucy sent Plue back to the celestial world and opened her front door.

~Lucy's room

After changing into her pajamas, which consisted of an oversized button up pink long sleeve shirt and a pair of small black shorts that weren't visible due to her shirt. She let her hair down and reached to turn off her light lacrima. She walked over to her bed and slid under the covers. She tried to pull her blankets over her body, but they were stuck on something. While trying to pry her covers free, she heard the sound of someone snoring. Knowing just who it was, Lucy pulled her covers off of the bed only to find Natsu sound asleep under on her bed.

Well, that's it for chapter one! Main pairing is going to focus on NatsuxLucy with some minor GajeelxLevy, GrayxJuvia, and JellalxErza. The plot is going to expand from just small story with Natsu and Lucy, and I want to use a protagonist that's not an OC. I only watch the anime so I'm thinking of using Zeref and creating my own ending to Fairy Tail with him as the final antagonist. How does that sound? Well leave comments and I will update again this week! Probably going to stick with two chapters a week, and I'm thinking of starting a Sword Art Online Fan Fiction as well!