Author's Note:

Hey you guys! I'm an avid reader, writer, and consumer of stories in many forms. This is my first fic on this site, so I'm super excited!

I discovered Fairy Tail about a year ago and fell in love with it. There's a little OOCness here (I'm personally of the belief that Natsu is a hell of a lot smarter than he acts), but my friend sent me this hilarious pin on Pinterest about Lucy asking Natsu to buy tampons. Thus, this story was born.

Special thanks to star-eye for sending me the pin and beta-reading for me. She's great!

I promise I won't always have such long ANs, but I wanted to introduce myself a little.

Catch you later, lovelies!

-FD

Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima created Fairy Tail and all its characters. I just play with them.

Natsu smelled blood.

It wasn't such an uncommon scent in the guild. In fact, it was a rare day when he didn't. But there hadn't been any fights, another uncommon occurrence.

And worse, the blood was Lucy's.

He could tell as soon as he kicked open the guild doors. He froze for half a second before nearly flying over to the bar. He pushed Levy off the stool next to Lucy.

"What happened to you?" he yelled.

"Don't yell in my face, moron! What's wrong with you?" Lucy pushed past him to help Levy off the ground.

"Who hurt you?"

"No one, I'm perfectly fine."

"I can smell blood on you. You haven't been out on a job and there haven't been any fights. How did you get hurt?"

Lucy's face softened in understanding. "No one hurt me, Natsu."

"But you're bleeding!"

Mira and Lucy exchanged a wary look. "Natsu, has anyone ever told you about girl's time of month?" Mira asked hesitantly.

"What? Girls get their own time of the month? That's not fair!"

"Well, I've got tables to wait on. Lucy, you can take care of this." Mira hurried off, barely suppressing her laughter.

"What's she talking about Luce?"

"Well, you see Natsu," Lucy stammered. "That is—you know that boys are different than girls are, physically, right?"

Natsu sat next to her. "Yeah, girls have boobs."

Lucy rolled her eyes and turned to Levy. "Help me out here."

"I can go get you a book from the library. But other than that, I am staying out of this conversation."

"Why does everyone hate me?" Lucy pouted. "Can't you just accept that I'm not hurt and leave it at that?" she asked Natsu.

"No! You're bleeding and you won't tell me why." He slammed his hands on the bar.

"I tripped?"

"That's not what you said before. You said it was a girl thing. What girl thing?"

"How come you haven't noticed this before? Haven't you smelled blood on the other girls without a reason before?"

"Well sure. But it didn't matter so much. I figured they just fell over or something."

"Why didn't you think that about me?"

Natsu shifted his weight uncomfortably. "It's different with you, Luce. I smell blood on you and my mind goes straight to the worst possible situation."

Mira let out a short squeal, quickly returning to cleaning the bar when Lucy glared at her.

"Will you please tell me what's goin' on, Lucy?" Natsu pleaded. "I hate not knowing."

"Well, girls have different reproductive organs. And well, once a month, we bleed."

By now a crowd had not so subtly gathered around the bar. Not because they wanted to learn anything. They were feeding off the awkwardness of the situation. In fact, Cana was taking bets about whether or not Lucy would chicken out and when Natsu would get too grossed out and run away from the conversation.

Natsu's eyes widened. "What?"

"Girls bleed, Natsu. It just happens."

"Where?"

"What?"

"Where do you bleed? I don't see any blood."

Lucy squirmed in her seat. The watching crowd held its breath, sure she was going to bail out of the conversation or punch someone. She glared at them before turning back to her curious partner.

"That doesn't really matter." Lucy laughed nervously, hoping more than ever that the discussion was over. But she knew her hard-headed best friend better than that.

"Yes it does. Where are you bleeding? Maybe I can help you feel better."

The mouthful of beer Cana had just taken shot out her nose as she howled with laughter.

"There's really nothing you can do to help, Natsu." Lucy's eyes darted around, possibly looking for the nearest window to jump out of.

"I can get bandages for you! Then the bleeding will stop."

"You can't stop the bleeding. We just have to wait for it to be done."

"Would you please just tell me where you're bleeding? I want to help you!"

"Yeah, tell him Lucy," Cana slurred.

"We bleed between our legs," Lucy finally muttered, face bright red.

"What?!" Natsu jumped up, knocking his stool over. "That's awful! What if you have to pee?"

"Do I really have to answer these questions?" Lucy whined.

"When will it stop?"

"What do you mean?"

"When does the bleeding stop?"

"You mean this time or for good?"

"This time?" Natsu asked uncertainly.

"Well, it usually lasts between four and five days."

"Days?!" Natsu was yelling again. "You bleed for days? I thought it was just a couple of minutes! It doesn't hurt, does it?"

"Well, girls often experience back pain, stomach cramps, and bloating," Mira chimed in, "not to mention mood swings." Lucy was about to thank her for helping her out when Natsu leaned in close to her face.

"Do you have any of those things right now?" His dark eyes were serious.

"That's really none of your business Natsu. Girls don't like to talk about those things," Lucy hedged. "It's not polite."

"If you're hurting, I want to make you feel better. I don't like it when you hurt."

At that statement, all the girls who were listening sighed, their eyes starry. The men groaned, realizing that, consciously or not, Natsu was one-upping them. Majorly.

Lucy stood up, slowly backing away. "I'm fine. But I think I'll go take a nap. Just to be sure. I'll talk to you guys later, okay? Okay. Bye!" With that she turned and nearly sprinted out of the guild hall.

Natsu stood uncertainly, trying to decide whether or not to follow her. He finally sat again, huffing out a breath. He folded his arms on the counter in front of him, laid his chin on his arms and looked at Mira with a pitiful expression. "Help me."

"God, flame brain, are you still confused about what's up with Lucy?" Gray sneered.

"No!" Natsu replied indignantly. "I get it! I just don't know how to help her." He slumped down again. "I just want to help her feel better. I don't like it when she hurts."

"Aw, you really care about her, don't you?" Levy asked with a wink.

"Of course I do. She's my partner. Knowing that she's hurting makes me feel sick."

A dangerous glint entered Mira's eyes at the possibility of the pair in romantic situations. "Well, Natsu, there are lots of things you can do. You can bring her favorite foods to her, give her some time off of doing jobs, or just hang out in her apartment with her."

Natsu stood up, looking much more lively. "That's easy! I can totally do that!" He paused. "What are Lucy's favorite foods?"

Gajeel snickered. "Shouldn't you know that? You're her partner, ain't ya?"

"Natsu doesn't pay attention to her when we're eating," Happy said seriously from beside Carla. "He's too busy stuffing his face to notice what Lucy eats."

"Do you know what she likes Happy?" Erza asked.

"She doesn't like fish. Other than that, I think she'll eat anything. That's how she got so fat," Happy giggled.

Erza glowered at the blue cat. "Your first lesson: Girls become exceptionally emotional during their time of month. You must take extra care not to insult them. Am I understood?" Happy gulped and quickly nodded. "I, for one, find that strawberry cake makes me feel a hundred times better."

"I always want chocolate," Levy added.

"Ice cream's always a safe choice," Bisca said.

"And cookies. Or even just plain cookie dough." A dreamy look crossed Lisanna's face. "Mmm…cookie dough. Do you have any in the kitchen, Mira?"

"Yes, but you can't have any."

"Take her booze!"

They all ignored Cana's suggestion.

"Oh, I almost forgot! The best way to make a girl feel better at a time like this is cuddling with her," Mira said a little too sweetly. "And rubbing her back."

"I'm all fired up now!" The words were lost in the air as Natsu raced out of the guild.

"Well that was oddly considerate of him," Gray said slowly.

"We all agree that this is going to end in a disaster, right?" Everyone nodded at Cana's words and began placing new bets, this time about all the ways Natsu's attempts at being helpful could go wrong.

In the end, Mira collected piles of Jewels with a smile. Lucy came storming back into the guild within an hour, muttering darkly about "stupid dragonslayers" who tried to "fatten her up" and called her "emotional and unstable". The guild members did their best to seem uninterested, not willing to risk her wrath by admitting their involvement.

Natsu came in not long after Lucy, following her around and trying to say sorry. It wasn't very effective, though, as his apologies were interspersed with "what did I do wrong?"s and "it's not my fault your crazy girl thing has you acting all psycho!"s.

At those words, Lucy froze. She turned to face Natsu, her face dangerously blank.

"What did you say?"

Even Natsu, dense as he was, could sense when he was in danger. "That you're a wonderful person?"

"LIAR!" Lucy kicked him so hard he flew out the guild doors, barely missing Gray, who was walking in.

"Geez, watch where you're flying, ash for brains!"

"Get outta my way, ice princess!" The two started exchanging punches.

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief as Natsu got into distracted from his pitiful attempt to make her feel better. Hopefully in the future, she wouldn't have to deal with his misguided help.