Magnolia was experiencing a devastating heat wave this week. Temperatures have reached 110 F (43 Celsius) in the daytime and drop to 80 F (27 C) at night. Many of the citizens either retreated into their houses for most of the day or went to the beach or the pool to cool off. And it was expected to last another brutal week.
Fairy Tail was no different when it came to beating the heat. Many of its resident mages were suffering under the sweltering heat. Gray, who would normally be suffering heat exhaustion, found relief thanks to his girlfriend of three years, Juvia. They found that the best way to cool off was to fill their basement with ice water and stay there until the heat broke. Erza had to forgo her usual armor in favor of a white blouse and skirt. The famed Titania normally didn't mind wearing this outfit but being without any sort of armor for days on end drove her up the wall. She couldn't wait for the heat wave to die so that she could go back to wearing some. Happy had to shave his outer coat because of the heat. Of course, the blue Exceed did it himself which resulted in very bad nicks that were quite painful. You can bet that the next time he has to shave his fur, a professional will do it. However, the resident Stellar Spirit was suffering the worst of it. The reason Lucy is because of her boyfriend of close to two and a half years Natsu Dragneel.
Let me explain.
We all know that Natsu is a Fire Dragon Slayer. What you may or may not know is that because of this, his body temperature is much higher than it is for the average mage, which means he also gives off much more body heat. Now this isn't a problem during the winter time. In fact, when the weather starts getting colder, Lucy instinctively seeks out Natsu to "warm her up" in several senses of the words. It's when the weather gets hot that it becomes a problem.
Another thing you need to know about Natsu is that he loves to cuddle. He is a physical man, through and through. He loves to hold, caress, kiss, nip, cuddle, spoon and whatever other physical word you can come up with. Actually, all Fairy Tail men love to cuddle. (With Gray, this was an unspoken fact but not something he would admit to. Gajeel would rather die than admit it. And Elfman would shout out at the top of his lungs that cuddling is MAN.) And he loved cuddling with Lucy. Natsu loved the way that her body instinctively molded to fit his, how their arms and legs tangled so deliciously, how her hair smelled of the conditioner and gel that she used before she went to sleep, how her large breasts pressed against his bare chest, everything. Lucy-cuddles, as the Dragon Slayer so aptly named it, was tremendously enhanced after a night of nocturnal activities.
And though Lucy would get red in the face if this fact was ever brought up, the blonde loved this kind of affection as well. Being in Natsu's strong made her feel warm and safe, like nothing could hurt her. She loved every minute of it. But not during this heat wave. In fact, ever since it started getting hot, Lucy forced Natsu to sleep on the couch. Normally, when the pink haired mage was forced to sleep on the couch (which he hated because it was too small and lumpy in all the wrong places), it was because he did something to piss of the Stellar Spirit mage. But she was making him spend the night on that lumpy abomination for something he really couldn't control.
Poor Natsu! He was suffering from Lucy-cuddles withdrawal syndrome and he didn't like it. He wanted to hold her in his arms while he slept. He needed to do something about this.
This was the mindset that the Dragon Slayer was in on day four without Lucy-cuddles. He was sitting with his head slumped on the table he was sitting at. The Fire Dragon Slayer was not a happy camper Across from him was Gray who was also sitting with his head slumped against the table. His reason for this was that he was freakin' hot. Today, neither Natsu nor Gray had the energy to fight each other.
A strange thing happened in Natsu and Gray's "frenemy" relationship as they got older. They actually started fighting less. I know! It seems impossible. But ever since they started dating Lucy and Juvia respectively, they had stopped fighting every day. It became once every other day and then once a week and then once every other week. Some Fairy Tail mages had theories as to why this was but Cana probably had the best. She said that ever since Natsu and Gray hit puberty, they suffered from too much testosterone and sexual frustration that the only relief was pounding each other's faces. But now that the Fire Dragon Slayer had his Stellar Spirit mage and the Ice Mage had his Water Mage, they now had an outlet for their frustration which helped to calm them.
