"You are doin' great, but you just gotta move faster," Natsu sighed, scratching the back of his neck as he paced slightly. "If your opponent gets the chance to hit you under the leg, it's gonna trip you up bad and you're a goner."

Lucy breathed out slowly through her mouth. They'd been working on this one move for nearly an hour, and Natsu was not yet satisfied with the progress. While he was encouraging, that didn't mean his expectations weren't high. Not to mention, the Grand Ninjitsu Games were drawing scarily close. "Alright… I guess I just need to stretch more."

"Maybe. Okay, give it another try - I'll focus more on your extension…"

Evening her breathes with her motions, did the movement again, kicking high above so that her food could hit the head of a tall opponent-

"No, nonono," Natsu interrupted, marching forward. "Don't twist your foot like that - you'll sprain it. Try stretching upward again and keeping your balance. Then we'll speed it up again."

"Okay," she muttered. Slowly, she lifted her leg upwards to stretch by her side and-

"Get used to pointing it forward," came Natsu's voice from behind her, and she let out a small shriek when he placed his hand under her thigh to turn it. It was warm and tingly and so not okay.

On pure reflex, she shoved backwards with her elbow, hitting him square between the eyes. With a dog-like yelp, he stumbled backwards, clutching his face. "OW! What the blazing hell, Lucy!"

"You do not touch girls there!" she screeched, fists at the ready and cheeks blossoming with heat. "It is an inappropriate, sensitive area!"

"You have clothes over it - why can't I touch it?!"

"Because it's inappropriate!" Lucy snapped.

Hands on his hips, Natsu scoffed, "I was just showing you how to move your leg!"

"You could've done that without touching it!"

"Yeah, well, maybe you're a hands-on learner or somethin'!"

"In this situation, it sounds very wrong when you say it like that."

He only groaned. "Sometimes you make no sense, Lucy."

"Okay, we're done with training for today," Lucy demanded, glaring pointedly and stripping off the Gi over her sports bra and shorts. "I'm giving you a lesson on proper touching."

After hurried showers, they were in the usual spot of Lucy's bed, sketchbook out as she sat in his lap. She settled back into him and his Fleetwood Mac tank top comfortable with his arms hugging around her bare waist. "Okay, draw the body outline of a girl. I'm going to color-code it for you."

"This is stupid."

"I don't remember asking for your opinion. Draw it."

Grumbling darkly, it only took him moments to trace the outline of a woman with the pencil she'd given him. She was prepared to criticize unrealistic size, but she was pleasantly surprised when he drew the true, average woman's body shape.

"Good. Now I'll make a key. Blue is where your body can touch when giving hugs or friendly cuddling. Yellow is where you can touch with your hands if a girl isn't squeamish about personal space. That'll overlap. Red is no touching with hands ever."

"What about touching with my feet?"

"Shut up, Natsu."

Soon, she'd colored in most of the upper body with the blue, the arms, shoulders, waist, and head with the yellow, and everywhere else was red.

"This is dumb," he stated yet again as he eyed her beautiful diagram. "I've kicked girls in all those places when sparring."

"That's different. Wait, you've kicked a girl in the boob? That's cruel."

"She was asking for it! She thought a thirteen-year-old couldn't beat her. But I found out that a girl's boobs were their weakness."

"It doesn't matter how evil the girl is," chided Lucy, turning the sketchbook to a blank page. "It is always the most evil move to kick them in the boob."

"Okay, Lucy."

Absently reaching up to ruffle his hair, she put a pencil to his hand again. "Will you show me how you draw a dragon?"

"Sure, Lucy."

After he gave her a little ruffle of the hair in response, he began to sketch and fluidly, tightening his other hand around her waist.

Watching his hand move gently across the page was almost mesmerizing, separate shapes somehow forming themselves into a magnificent creature…

Probably due to training exhaustion, Lucy soon found herself lightly shaken awake, having fallen asleep back against his scarf. "Hey, I'm done. And look! I drew you one you can color in!"

Groggily blinking her eyes awake, she squinted down to see a roaring, detailed dragon, and a little cartoon one on the next page. She let out a weak giggle. "Hmm… I think I'll make him pink."

He wordlessly passed her the colored pencil, and they began to color in their respective dragons.

Lucy sighed, smiling at the feeling of his heart beating against her back. It was quiet moments like these in which she fully understood just how much she was in love with him. And just how much she wished she could just stay here and feel his chin down on her shoulder to see his drawing better, hear him hum as he colored with red, relax at the light circles he was tracing in her waist with his thumb-

"Lucy, this poem is totally ridiculous - can you tell me what it means- oh."

Gray had wandered in, not knocking, of course. They both froze in mid draw, watching Gray blink several times.

"Ah, I'm sorry." He was slowly growing this large, sly grin. "Am I… interrupting something?"

"Gray," Natsu said in a warning tone, but he only waved them off.

"Really didn't mean to barge in on ya - please continue to make out. I'll be out here- AGH!"

Lucy, having had enough, pounced, tackling him and shouting at him to shut up. With a strangled kind of shriek, Gray raced down the stairs, followed closely by Lucy, brandishing her whip and cussing him out to high heaven.

Natsu stood, grinning, up to the banister, watching Gray bolt across the hall being chased by his partner. While he stood there, Warren slowed to a stop beside him, raising his eyebrows at the scene below. "I think you're a terrible influence on that girl, Natsu."

"She's amazing," Natsu sighed, setting his elbows against the rail and gazing downward.

"She is a nice girl," Warren admitted, "but you're rubbing off on her."

"I'm gonna marry that girl."

"Okay, Natsu. Okay."

"I think we'd make cute babies. Do you think we'd make cute babies?"

"That was too much information. I'll be downstairs bleaching my brain."

"Have fun."

"Yeah, I know you will," Warren scoffed, quickly striding away.

The two dragons they'd created in the afternoon hung above Lucy's bed as she read him a bedtime story. Levy was already fast asleep on the other mattress, Lucy laying down and facing him as she read from the desk light.

"He ran forward and… and…" Lucy yawned, causing Natsu to raise a hand and close the book.

"You're tired," he stated, pulling the blanket further up over them. "I think that's good for tonight. Sleep?"

Nodding slowly, she snuggled more into her pillow, wondering if he was going to go back down onto the beanbags or…

But no, he scooted closer and fell into a rather fast sleep with his forehead against hers. She rolled her eyes, but she wasn't about to push him off, so she sighed and tried to make the most of it, closing her own eyes while tentatively lacing her fingers with his.

"-you think we should leave them?"

"Nah, Lucy would want to see…"

Lucy's mind swam back into consciousness when she heard the voices around her bed. Her eyes didn't want to open yet, but she listened.

"But they're so cute! I'm gonna take a picture." Mira?

"Are you all unconcerned as to whether or not they're wearing clothing?" That was Gray.

"I think they are… OH MY GOSH DO YOU THINK THEY-" Maybe Warren?

"Shhh, you'll wake them before my picture!" Surely Mira again.

"Nah, they didn't do the do. I'd be able to tell." The deep voice of Laxus.

"Yeah, he's right." Definitely Gajeel. "And Salamander and Bunny Girl aren't the type to do it before marriage."

"How could you possibly be sure?" asked Gray's voice incredulously.

"The nose always knows," Laxus said simply, and Lucy heard a chorus of 'eww!'s erupt about the room.

"C'mon, guys, we should probably just get them up already - we don't want Erza to see them like this, and I wanna get to the roof already!" Levy's voice.

The full meaning of their conversation hadn't hit Lucy until her mind had started to more fully function, and she bolted up in her bed, gasping for breath and stumbling to get herself away from one of the most embarrassing situations yet.

There were giggles as Mira steadied Lucy by the shoulders. "Heeey Lucy. Sorry to be a cockblock, but it's a special night!"

"Sh-shut up!" Lucy squeaked, hugging herself in her nightgown. "It's not like that!"

With a tired moan, Natsu rose to a sitting position in the bed, stretching his arms. "Oh yeah… I forgot that was tonight."

"What's…" she yawned, squinting around at the mass of guildmates crowded in her dorm room. "What's tonight?"

"You'll see." Taking her hand, and tugging, Natsu urged, "C'mon! To the roof!"

Whispers passing around excitedly, the members surged up the stairs until they reached the top, tripping with drowsyness. Crowding around the stairs to the rooftop, they climbed up one by one, several carrying blankets and pillows, including Natsu.

When Lucy reached the top, she gasped, staring upward. Every star in the sky must've been visible, spanning the great dome and sprinkling the heavens with a healthy glow. All the lights of Magnolia had been turned off, reducing the light pollution to zero.

"Meteor shower," Natsu whispered in her ear. "The mayor asked for a stargazing night."

She could only gaze upward, speechless, as he pulled her over to a secluded spot in the corner where he laid the quilt and pillows, literally pushing her to sit down. Happy, crawling out from who-knows-where, curled up between them. The other guild members picked spots, speaking very softly.

"Lucy?" came a small voice a few feet away. "Can you show us the constellations?"

It was Wendy, sitting with Charle, Levy, and Gajeel on a nearby blanket. Smiling gently, Lucy said, "Of course."

Soon, all of her friends were gathered around, listening and watching avidly as she pointed out the stars and told their stories, starting with the zodiac and her favorite minor formations.

By the time she was done, shooting stars were streaking across the full length of their sight. The guild laid down to watch them.

They were quiet for a long time, admiring the natural night sky. But Lucy remembered one point at which Natsu fingered her wrist, saying, "Make a wish."

She closed her eyes after seeing the biggest star fly by yet. She cheated, though.

She made a second wish: she wished that Natsu would wish for the same thing she had.

And from the warm smile he graced her with afterwards, she had a small hope that maybe, just maybe, he had.

Heya loves!

A oneshot I wrote up for day two of Fairy Tail Fluff Week, prompt: Starlight. TKOF universe.

This was a part that I cut out of the story because I already had enough parts distracting from the plot, but I thought it fit the prompt, so I went ahead and wrote it for this. Hope you enjoyed and it held you over until the next TKOF chapter! I'm catching up in schoolwork, so it's still being put off.

Mizpah,

~LoneStorm