Popping the Question

Frankly, Natsu would rather be anywhere else than here, standing in front of his maybe-future-fiancée's father's house in a rumpled suit jacket that he probably stole from Gray with a sad looking bouquet of daisies and lilies on one hand, the other tapping nervously against his leg as he debates whether or not e wants to ring the doorbell. In fact, he can think of ten different things he'd like to be doing right now. Like, being on a date with his gorgeous girlfriend, or being attacked by his neighbor's evil Pomeranian, Sadie. Even getting a lap dance from Gajeel would be better than this, and Natsu really doesn't want a lap dance from Gajeel. Like, ever. That would be horrible, honestly.

His lips pull back in disgust, a shiver running through him as he tries to erase the thought from his mind.

There has never been a time Natsu's needed his brain bleached more than now.

Well, maybe that time he walked in on Jellal and Erza, but that's a whole other can of worms that he doesn't want to get into.

Shaking his head, Natsu rubs his free hand across his face roughly, sighing in utter defeat before blindly reaching out for the doorbell. He misses the first time, but doesn't bother to open his eyes to make things easier. No, instead he just stands there on Jude's doorstep, mashing at the door in hopes of finding the button. Which sounds a lot like what happens when he and Lucy—

The bell rings, surprising him so much that he nearly drops the flowers—why did he even buy flowers in the first place? That was a stupid idea. Jude might not even like flowers. You know what, he's probably just fucked himself

The door swings open a second later and suddenly he's looking up at Jude Heartfilia, who looks less than pleased to see him. That's fine. Natsu doesn't need Jude to like him. Nope, not at all. It's not like he's here to ask for the man's approval or anything.

Fuck.

Jude glares—okay, it's not so much a glare as it is a what the fuck are you doing at my door you shithead, but whatever—down at him, brow raised quizzically as he looks from Natsu's face to his too large jacket to the flowers tucked under his arm. His eyes meet Natsu's again, even more confused than before, but he says nothing.

Natsu clears his throat, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Hello, Sir." He tries to smile, he really does, but his lips only twist into a nervous grimace.

Jude blinks at him and Natsu fights back the urge to comment on his pink bunny sippers.

"You do know that my daughter doesn't live here anymore, don't you?" Jude finally asks, slowly, squinting at Natsu as if the other man is completely clueless. And sure, Natsu isn't the brightest bulb in the pack, but he's not a complete ditz.

Natsu forces a grin. "I'm aware," he bites out sarcastically. It's not like he and Lucy have been living together for the past two years. It's not like they bought a house together and fixed it up. It's not like Natsu is completely clueless thank you Jude you bitter old man.

Jude nods, unaware of what's going on in Natsu's head—and thank god for that! Jude probably would have killed him years ago if he knew exactly what was going on in Natsu's head.

"And you do realize that you're not supposed to bring me flowers, right?" he says, gesturing to the rumpled flowers tucked under Natsu's arm. The lilies are drooping sadly and the daisies are practically falling apart, petals littering the ground beneath Natsu's feet. Great, now Jude can hate him for making a mess! That's awesome!

Natsu sighs. "I panicked," he admits, holding out the sorry looking bouquet, gaze falling to the ground. Dearly departed, we are gathered here today to celebrate the life and death of Natsu Dragneel, who died trying to talk his girlfriend's father into letting him marry her. It didn't end well.

Jude nods as he takes the flowers. "Want to come in?"

"No…" Natsu trails off awkwardly. Jude blinks at him and Natsu realized that might have been offensive. "I'd rather stay out here in case you try to kill me. It's easier to run."

Jude shrugs. "Fair enough." He leans against the doorframe. "Now, is there a reason you're here, or do you just enjoy wasting my time?"

Natsu really wishes he had made the crack about the bunny slippers.

"Well," he starts, "I was kind of going to maybe ask if you'll possibly let me marry your daughter?" You know, just maybe. Only if Jude is feeling up to it of course. Not that Natsu really needs permission, he just thought it was the nice thing to do. It's not like Lucy's going to say "no" anyway. He was just trying to be polite. Whatever, Jude doesn't even have to be invited to the wedding. Suck on that, old man.

"And what if I say 'no?' " Jude asks him curiously.

Natsu shrugs. "Then you're a dick and I don't need your permission to do anything."

Jude makes a face at him, crossing his arms across his chest. "Now why would I want someone that calls me a dick to marry my daughter?"

"Because I'm honest and not a pushover?" Natsu asks him, wondering if he should just grab a shovel and save Jude the trouble later.

Jude cracks a smile and Natsu thinks that might be a good sign that he's not going to die tonight. He wants a wedding, not a funeral, thank you very much.

"Maybe I want you to be afraid of me," Jude laughs—more like cackles. Natsu's going to have to ask Lucy if her dad's a witch, you know, assuming he lives—grinning at him.

"Trust me," Natsu responds, laughing back awkwardly, "I've been afraid of you since you caught me leaving your house in the middle of the night with lipstick smeared across my face." He gestures to his mouth, kind of wishing the ground would swallow him whole.

"Was that the night you told me you were showing her your hockey stick?" the other man asks him, lips twitching.

Natsu nods. "Yes, Sir, it was, and to this day I still think it would have been more beneficial if I had just grabbed a shovel and dug my own grave," he admits, laughing again. It's higher pitched than usual, nervous and Natsu's pretty sure Jude can smell fear.

"Oh, I think you did that just fine regardless," Jude tells him.

Natsu isn't quite sure if it's a joke or not.

"Thanks," he replies slowly, "that's very encouraging."

Jude nods once, then straightens. "Okay," he tells Natsu, nodding once more. Then he turns around and starts to shut the door.

Natsu's hand shoots out, grabbing the door and preventing Jude from shutting it. The other man looks back at Natsu questioningly, but says nothing as Natsu stares at him in utter confusion.

"Okay?" he echoes loudly, completely bewildered, hand slipping from the door.

Jude narrows his eyes. "That's what I said, 'okay.' " He tries to shut the door again.

Natsu stops him a second time. " 'Okay' as in, okay you can ask Lucy to marry you and I won't try to talk her out of it, or okay I've heard your point but my answer is no?" he babbles, trying to force the door open further, to no avail.

Jude shakes his head sighing. "I can't for the life of me understand how she puts up with your nonsense, but okay."

He shuts the door.

" 'Okay' what!?"

By the time Natsu returns home, he's more confused than ever. Jude adamantly refused to open the door and explain what exactly he meant by 'okay,' even as Natsu continued to bang on the door for nearly a half-hour before giving up completely. In hindsight maybe he should have called Gajeel. He's pretty good at breaking and entering. Though, that probably wouldn't be the greatest idea, considering he and Gajeel would likely end up in jail and he'd have to call Lucy to bail them out and he really doesn't want to propose to her from behind bars.

As hilarious as that would be, Lucy probably wouldn't be amused.

Gajeel certainly would, though.

Natsu sighs and shakes his head, shoving open the front door. It creaks lowly as he does, but Natsu doesn't mind. It gives the house character, after all. He grins. "Lucy! I'm home!"

He gets no response.

Frowning to himself, Natsu walks further into the house, about to walk upstairs before hearing a curse come from the kitchen.

And there's Lucy standing by the counter. And there's their little Russian Blue, Happy, sitting at her feet. And there's the ring, sitting on the counter where he left it.

And they're all covered in pink frosting.

Well, shit.

Lucy's head snaps up, eyes wide as she peers at him, looking very much like a deer caught in the headlights. Well, a very cute deer that's covered in bright pink frosting and doesn't look to be wearing any pants.

Not that he's complaining about that.

He can make due with no pants and frosting. In fact, that sounds a lot like the Christmas party last year, which was fantastic!

Lucy stares at him as he walks into the kitchen slowly, and Natsu can only blink back at her with wide eyes and a jaw slightly dropped, because wow there is frosting everywhere and Lucy is literally less than a foot away from the ring box. Great, so much for a surprise. Well, at least one of them is surprised. "You have frosting in your hair," he tells her, gesturing to the globs of frosting streaked through her blonde hair. That's going to be a pain to clean up later.

She gives him a strange look. "And you have pink hair," she huffs, shrugging and looking at him like she does when she's won an argument. Yeah, okay Lucy, you totally won that one.

He nods. "So…" he starts slowly, looking down as Happy walks up to him and begins to wind around his legs, smearing frosting against his pants. Awesome. "What exactly happened?" Actually, he probably doesn't want to know.

Lucy braces her hands against the counter, heaving a sigh. "Well," she says, "I found the ring on the counter about an hour ago, because you left it there. Nice job by the way," she jokes, grinning at him.

"Thanks," Natsu responds, sarcasm dripping from his tongue.

Lucy only smiles wider. "I was going to make cupcakes to celebrate, because it's not like I was going to say no, and there was a little," she wiggles her fingers at the mess, wrinkling her nose, "accident with the frosting."

He frowns. "A little accident?" he asks her lightly, peering around the room. He's not sure why that's what comes out of his mouth, considering she just said she wanted to marry him, but oh well! Too late now!

"Yeah," Lucy tells him, "just… tiny one." She holds up her finger and thumb for emphasis, holding them close together to show just how little of an accident it was.

He nods and steps forward, walking up to her and wrapping his arms around her middle. "I love you," he tells her, ducking his head to kiss her cheek, which gets him a mouth full of frosting, but hey, that's fine too!

She leans into his, turning towards him and looping her arms around his neck. "I love you, too."

Natsu smiles down at her. "So, I went to talk to your dad today, you know, about proposing."

"Ooh," Lucy winces, fingers slipping through his hair. "How'd that go?"

Natsu shakes his head. "I'm not entirely sure." Natsu's pretty sure it was a yes, but there's still a slight chance Jude might come after him with a chainsaw. At least Natsu will be ready when he does.

"Hey," Lucy whispers, tugging at his hair lightly. He meets her eyes again, and she gives him an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry about ruining your proposal," she tells him. "I should've just pretended not to see it."

Natsu shakes his head. "Don't worry about it," he whispers, kissing her forehead. "I probably would have found a way to ruin it myself." She giggles and Natsu laughs with her. Honestly, he didn't have much a plan. He was just going to get on one knee and blabber until she started crying and agreed to marry him. That seemed like the most solid plan.

"If it helps, I didn't open it."

Natsu laughs and disentangles himself from his girlfriend, sweeping the ring box off the counter and dropping to one knee in front of Lucy, staring up at her with heartbreakingly honest eyes. "Well, Lucy, we've been dating for six years now, and god that's kind of a long time," he marvels, trailing off. "Anyway! You are my best friend, my rock, and I can't imagine you not being by side for the rest of our natural lives." And takes a deep breath. "There's no going back for me—no walking away." His palms feel sweaty and gross as he reaches out for her hand, but hopefully she doesn't notice. He's not entirely sure why he's so nervous all of a sudden, considering she already said she'd marry him, but hey, Igneel always told him that if you're not nervous when proposing, you probably aren't marrying the right girl.

He takes a deep breath. "I know your favorite color is lilac, even though I honestly can't tell the difference between that and any other shade of purple." She giggles. "Why does there need to be fifty different names for colors? This is just like when we were picking out paint colors, because I swear there was absolutely no difference between—where was I going with this? Oh my god," he groans as he realized he was blabbering, rubbing his hand down the side of his face and releasing the most god-awful whale sound.

Lucy bursts into laughter, and admittedly he would've too if he wasn't, you know, proposing. Anyway, Natsu kind of wants to die right now, because he still managed to screw up the proposal. Well that's just great.

You know what, fuck it. He shakes his head and smiles up at her. "So, Lucy Heartfilia, even though this proposal was a complete disaster and we're both covered in bright pink frosting, I'm asking you to marry me." He wiggles his eyebrows at her and she shakes her head, laughing. "What do you say? Wanna get married?"

She laughs as she pulls him to his feet and loops her arms around his waist, giving him a squeeze. He grins and returns the hug. "That was a beautiful proposal, really," she tells him as he slips the ring onto her finger without a second thought. "How could I possibly say no to that?"

He ducks his head and presses his lips to hers sloppily, smiling against her as she rights their mouths, arms looping around his neck as she presses up on her toes, fingers tugging at his hair. He kisses her harder, his head practically spinning. Natsu's teeth nip her lower lip and she breaks away, breathing heavy as she rests her head against his collarbone, one of her hands slipping down to his chest, playing with the collar of his shirt. His arms wrap around her back, fingers tracing small circles against her spine gently.

She tastes like frosting, he notices. Sweet. Or maybe she's always tasted like that.

AN: This is the last of this three-shot... thing. Then again, that's probably what I said about the last chapter. Basically these one-shots are all birthday presents for people and I try to keep them connected.

Anyway! I hope to update a few more fics this week! I'm also starting my very first PJO fic, which should be exciting.

Have a great day everyone!