#so boys
Length: 1433 words
Genre: fluff / romance
Rating: K
Pairing: Natsu x Lucy
Summary: The dorm battles it out for the magnificent, three-person bean bag left in their building - friendships and relationships are testing in the name of comfort.
Author’s Note: so like… i ain’t coming back or anything i just wrote this bc im tired of doing my entire genetics project by myself n i deserve a break also it’s been so long i forgot how to add those lil horizontal lines and what the rating system was lmaoooo
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“Alright, I’m starting!” Levy yells, her hands covering her eyes.
They scatter like their lives depend on it, everyone rushing to find a hiding place before she hits zero. Natsu knows exactly where he’s going - no has ever found him in his perfect hiding place before; the nook at the back of the pantry always goes unnoticed, the shelves hiding it from view. He grins, already thinking of the prize - the massive three-person bean bag they found in the basement, left behind by one of last year’s dorm residents - and the cause of the series of competitions they’re doing.
Hide-and-seek is the last game, and Natsu has the lead. He dominated the speed-eating competition, the fastest-getting-ready competition, and, surprisingly, he won the plate race by a landslide. Everyone was amazed when he arrived in the kitchen with all twenty plates balanced on one hand; knowing him, he should’ve broken at least two before the contest even began.
All he needs is this last point to secure his position on top, and the bean bag will officially be his. He rounds the corner of the pantry, grinning, and stops dead.
Lucy’s surprised face looks up at him from her position in the corner of the pantry - his corner. He can only dimly see her in the darkness, her gold hair catching whatever measly light reaches them from the hallway.
“Luce!” Natsu whisper-shouts. “This is my hiding spot!”
Her expression of surprise morphs into one of indignation. “What? No!” She replies, whispering furiously. “This is my spot! I got here first, and I’m not letting you beat me!” She glares at him, pressing deeper into the corner.
“And zero!” Levy’s voice calls, distant. Shit.
He squeezes in the tiny space, smushing Lucy and effectively smothering her protests against his chest. “Shh!” He whispers worriedly. He can hear Levy start moving around, her little feet the only sound in the dead-silent dorm, everyone trying as hard as they can to not be found.
Lucy plants her hands on his chest and shoves, gasping for air. “Hey!” She yells, quietly. “You’re crushing me!”
“Oh. Sorry.” He leans down and wraps an arm behind her legs, looping the other one around her back, and lifts her so her face isn’t pressed against his chest and she can breathe. He shushes her squeak of surprise as she wraps her legs around his waist because oh my god Levy just walked by.
They wait in heavy silence until they hear her footsteps fade, and then Lucy turns her glare on him. “What are you doing?” She demands, her arms wrapped around his neck. “Go find your own hiding spot!”
Natsu shakes his head. “No can do, Luce. This is the best one there is, and I ain’t giving it up.” He raises an eyebrow at her. “If I get caught, we both do.”
Lucy presses her lips together. They’re tied; she won the lights-out competition, the box moving competition, and the fitted-sheet competition. Natsu’s never seen someone so tiny lift so many mattresses before. Together, they hold six of ten wins between them - a bit of a feat - but the fight for the bean bag has thrown their friendship out the window. They mean business. Levy’s shout of victory as she finds her first victim drives that message home.
He grins. Got her.
She shoots him a withering look. “Fine.” She pauses. “Wait, not fine. How are we gonna break the tie?”
Oh. He hadn’t thought of that. “I dunno. But let’s win this first, and then we’ll like, do a tie-breaker or something.”
Lucy considers this, tilting her head. “Okay, fine. But I’m gonna forgive you for costing me an easy win.” She rests her head on his shoulder and sighs.
Natsu’s grin widens. “Seems like you forgive me already,” he jokes.
She pokes him in the neck with a nail. “Not a chance,” she murmurs, her breath hot against his skin. He settles around her, resting his cheek on her head, and ignores the beat of her heart against his.
——————————–
Fifteen minutes later, and he’s starting to think Lucy might have fallen asleep. Usually, fifteen minutes would’ve led them on a tangent so full of twists and turns that whatever was around them would melt away in the deep moral arguments about pineapple on pizza and which way the toilet paper roll should face. The tiny threat of Levy finding them kept them silent, though, and they stood - well Natsu stood; Lucy was half propped against the wall, half leaning on him - in comfortable silence, trying to make the most of the cramped little corner.
“Hey, Luce,” Natsu whispers, jostling her a little. “You alive?”
She hums and shifts. “Yeah. Just plotting on how to win that bean bag.”
He snorts. “Of course. Don’t think too hard though, princess, because I’m gonna win in the end.”
Lucy straightens to look him in the eye, and arches a brow. “Really?” She asks, bemused. “I’ve been thinking this whole time about what the tie-breaker could be, while you’ve probably been thinking about dinner.”
“Well,” Natsu says, grinning. “You’re not wrong. I was thinking we should do Chinese tonight. The place down the street has student discounts on Saturday nights.”
A smile breaks across her face. “Of course,” she laughs, just a little too loudly. Both of their eyes widen and they still, listening for footsteps.
“Keep yellin’ like that, Luce, and Chinese will be the only thing we’re gonna get. Frostie’ll get the bean bag, or Metalhead, or worse - Erza’ll get it,” he berates, shivering at the thought of their dorm proctor getting the prize. Any of the second-placers getting his well-deserved prize makes him cringe.
Lucy smiles. “Well, neither of them are gonna get it, because I’ve been keeping track, and the only ones left are you and me. And, if I’m being honest, I’m down for Chinese with you if we don’t get the bean bag,” she tells him. “And if we do, too.”
“‘We’?” Natsu asks, cocking his head in question.
Lucy looks at him like he’s stupid. “Well, obviously,” she says. “We both know we’d share it either way. It’s just matter of who’s room it goes in.”
He smiles his crooked grin. “Obviously.” He leans forward, and kisses her.
He hears her breath catch and feels her golden eyes widen, feels them because he’s always been more aware of her than of himself. Then she’s leaning into him, her arms tightening around his neck, and kissing back. There’s gentle passion between them, the kind that best friends hold for each other when they’re more than best friends - and knew it for a while, too. They pull apart, and Lucy settles back into the crook of his neck.
“So,” she murmurs, “how much is the discount? I’m starving, and don’t mind splurging to celebrate us.” The second meaning was there, but not forced, just like every other aspect of their relationship. Natural.
“Thirty percent off beef dishes, and forty percent off chicken ones. I was thinking we get General Tso’s, some chicken lo mein, orange chicken, and definitely dumplings,” he says, having already thought all of this over.
Lucy purses her lips as she contemplates. “Don’t forget at least two boxes of scallion pancakes, and beef and broccoli. Oh, and their crab rangoon slaps.”
Natsu nods his approval. “For sure. And we’re gonna have to ask for chopsticks, too, because last time I ordered they didn’t give me any. I had to eat my noodles with a fork.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Uncultured swine,” she laughs, and they talk and talk, making up for the fifteen minutes of silence.
They’re blinded when Levy flips the switch, Natsu’s too-loud laughter revealing their hiding spot, and she finds them smushed in the corner of the pantry, entangled and smiling, all rivalry forgotten. When they tumble out, sore and needing to pee, they address their dormmates as the victors.
“We’re not gonna bother with a tie-breaker,” Natsu says, his arm slung over Lucy’s shoulders. “We’ll just share the bean bag.”
She nods. “Yeah, he spends half the time in my room anyway, so we’ll just keep it there.”
Natsu frowns. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he says, pulling away. “We never agreed on that.”
She squints up at him. “Technically I won,” she says. “That was my hiding place.”
“What? No! I thought of it first!”
“No you didn’t - I was literally there before you were!”
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘so?’ I won!”
“That’s it. I’m not sharing my dumplings with you.”
“That’s so unfair!”
And then the bickering continued.
