Camp Crush |✔️|

The Stolen Marshmellows

"Lucy, you made it!" Erza grinned, elbowing Gray, who looked up, a grin spreading across his face at the sight of Lucy walking towards them through the woods.

Lucy smiled.  "I skip one week."

"Yeah, well, someone was asking about you," Erza said cheekily.

"Every five seconds," Gray added under his breath for Erza's benefit, and Erza chuckled, patting a spot beside her on a split log that served as a bench.

"Who?" Lucy asked, plopping down beside Erza.

"Natsu.  Who else?" Erza teased in a sing-song lilt.

Lucy rolled her eyes.  "Oh please."

"Oh please nothing.  He's so into you."

"He's into all the girls.  Including you," Lucy pointed out.

"True," Erza admitted, a twinkle in her eyes nonetheless.  Because she knew what everyone but Lucy seemed to know: yes, Natsu Dragneel was a flirt, but in his eyes, Lucy was special.

"All right, who's got the goods?" Lucy asked, looking around curiously as she casually changed the subject.

"That'd be me," Gray said jovially, producing several bags of marshmallows from his rucksack and passing one of them in Lucy direction, sending the rest around the campfire so everyone could grab a few.  Erza, meanwhile, snatched the bag from Gray.

"What about the important stuff?" she demanded, fishing in his bag and letting out an excited, "Aha!" when her hands closed around several king sized Hershey bars, and she pulled them out, followed by some graham crackers.

"Save my seat, Erza.  That was what I said," Natsu announced his presence with an accusing note in his voice.  "You had one job."

"Natsu!" Lucy burst.  "Sorry!  Were you sitting here?  I'll just—"

"Sit, Lucy," Natsu's hand was already on her shoulder to stop Lucy from moving, sending a rush of heat through her, emulating from his touch.  He was giving her a laid back smile.  "I'm just giving Erza a hard time.  That for me?" he asked, plucking a marshmallow from her hand and popping it in his mouth, winking at her when she huffed in annoyance.

"Are we gonna get this fire going or what?" someone asked from across the pile of wood  waiting to be lit.

"Yeah, it's starting to get dark," someone else agreed.

"I'll do the honors," Gray said pleasantly, grabbing his pocket knife and pulling a keychain of flint out of his pocket, heading toward the fire, where he started working with the kindling.

Natsu, instead of taking Gray's seat, took a seat in the dirt by Lucy's feet, leaning back against the log easily, shoulder brushing against her leg.  She caught her breath.  She really wished he would find another target.

Natsu watched Gray strategically pile tinder and eventually get a small flame burning, gradually feeding it until everyone's face was glowing from the firelight.

It being teenagers after dark around a campfire, it was no surprise that, like most bonfire  nights, things gradually took a turn towards telling scary stories.

Erza was laughing good-naturedly, totally unaffected, but Lucy couldn't help her over-active imagination getting the better of her, not to mention her nerves were shot because Natsu was still leaning against her leg, hours later.  For a while he had been toying with the shoelaces on her sneakers, untying them, retying them, untying them again and then tying them together—until she smacked the back of his head in remonstration, and he retied them correctly one last time.  She could see the corner of his smirk even from her position behind him.

After that, he'd settled for wrapping his arm around her ankle, hand resting on his stomach, and settling in more comfortably, stretching out his legs and occasionally stealing marshmallows from her.

Why me, Lucy groaned internally.  Is it literally because I'm the only girl here not openly swooning for you, Natsu? Because that's the dumbest thing! I'm not going to admit I like you just for you to do a little victory dance before you lose interest.

She jumped nervously, hand shooting to Natsu's shoulder for balance, when the boy telling the story suddenly yelled out loudly, imitating the monster in his narrative.  "Oh my God," she muttered, rolling her eyes at herself and quickly retracting her grip from Natsu's shoulder.  She expected him to tease her for getting scared, but instead he ran his hand over her shin reassuringly before giving her ankle a gentle squeeze.  Her heart fluttered.  It would be so much easier not to like him if he weren't so...so... Natsu Dragneel.

She could see Erza giving her the side-eye, smirking away like an insufferable know-it-all, but Lucy just bit back a frustrated sigh.  She was not interested in being Natsu Dragneel's flavor of the week.

But his soft caresses were slowly turning from reassuring to seductive, his fingers ghosting up the back of her calf to the crook of her knee, and her breath hitched in response.  Because okay, maybe being Natsu Dragneel's flavor of the week would make for a really great seven days.