Pairing: Natsu x Lucy

Disclaimer: Do I need to? Haha. I don't own the characters used; they are the property of Hiro Mashima.

Drabble: Natsu and Lucy for cakey-cakey on tumblr (though slightly edited from that version).

Lucy sighed, resting her chin in her hand. Mirajane, who stood a few feet away, separated only by the bar, looked curiously at the blonde celestial mage. She'd been acting like that a lot lately, the eldest Strauss sibling had realized, and now she was starting to get a vague idea why.

Mira's blue eyes trailed across the guild to find a certain pink-haired mage. Natsu looked just as miserable as Lucy did; he was slumped over the table he sat at. He didn't even rise to the bait Gray was throwing at him, and it was drawing quite a lot of attention from the rest of the guild.

And then Mirajane caught it.

It was just the tiniest of movements, the minutest flick of the eyes—but Lucy had done it. She'd glanced towards the dragonslayer and her eyes looked troubled, confused, and most of all lonely.

The Demon emerged, grinning.

"Lucy…" Mira said, leaning down and catching the blonde's attention. She jumped, flushing a little, but tried to act casual.

"Yeah? Did you need something, Mira?"

The whole time, Lucy was repeating a mantra in her head that went thus: she didn't see anything, she didn't see anything, she didn't see anything. Mirajane most definitely did not see anything.

Mira grinned widely at the celestial mage, and Lucy felt the bottom of her stomach drop out in dread. Her mantra died in the middle of a repeat and she felt her heartbeat growing erratic. Just what would the white-haired cover-girl do now? She wasn't sure and she didn't know whether she wanted to find out.

"You and Natsu seem to be staying apart a lot lately," Mirajane finally spoke up, glancing back at the pink-haired mage. His ears twitched, and she caught his eyes flicking immediately in their direction. So he wanted to hear why, too, huh? "Did something happen?"

Mirajane certainly did not expect a blush to explode on Lucy's cheeks and what she really didn't expect was to see Natsu's face blooming into a fantastic shade of red as well.

"W-what makes you say that, Mira?" Lucy avoided eye contact with the blue-eyed woman, and Mira simply would not have that.

"You're avoiding each other," she pointed out, "and you both blushed when I asked."

Both of the people in question stiffened and Lucy turned around halfway to look at Natsu, who pretended to be tracing the grain of the wood at his table. His ears were now a bright red and Mira noticed that the back of Lucy's neck was turning color now, too.

When the blonde didn't say anything in response, Mira said, "You like him! And something did happen!"

"M-maybe," Lucy averted her gaze again, and Natsu lifted his head off of the table for the first time in days. Mira beamed at the flushing celestial mage, glanced towards the dragonslayer who was now standing up from his spot, and turned to serve someone else a drink while the two had their first encounter in a week.

It was well worth it, for when she turned around again about ten minutes later, Natsu had one hand on top of Lucy's on the bar, and they were leaning close and talking in hushed tones. And the best part was that they were both still extremely red in the face.

That's a job well done, Mirajane thought to herself with a satisfied smile.

End.

Hope you enjoyed it…haha.