One Year (Nalu AU) ✓

Chapter 22 - Snowball Fight

Natsu's POV

I opened my eyes to a face full of blonde hair, and it took me a moment until I finally remembered what happened last night. I began to run my fingers through her soft hair, and it still smelled so good even after everything that happened at her party. She had a very distinct scent of vanilla, that was one of my favorite things about her.

My bed was up against a wall, so it was hard for me to grab my phone or anything from the night stand. I didn't want to wake up Lucy, so I quietly snuck out of bed and put on a new shirt. I wanted to shower, but it was too risky leaving her alone at the possible chance that Wendy or Grandeeney could walk in at any moment.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and I knew it was Grandeeney. There was a knock on the door and I opened it just enough so that only I could be seen from outside. I could feel something soft brush against my leg and I looked down to see my cat, Happy, walking into the room.

"Yes?" I asked. She just stared at me suspiciously.

"Hmm, breakfast is ready" She said walking away. I'm just glad that she didn't start getting nosy.

I walked over to the sleeping Lucy and gently pushed her arm. She stirred and her eyes fluttered open. She brought her hands to her face, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. How could she be so cute in the morning? She was also greeted with a cat in her face as Happy jumped onto the bed.

"Oh hello, who's this?" she asked sleepily, looking towards me whilst petting the cat.

"That's my cat Happy, my sister has a cat named Carla"

"How come I've never seen them before?" She asked me, sitting up on the bed.

"Most likely because He sleeps all day and Carla is always in Wendy's room" I laughed quietly at her silly question.

"Well that would make sense" She said, also laughing quietly to be sure that nobody else in the house could hear our conversation.

"Breakfast is ready so I recommend that you get up and we can go explain the situation to my Aunt" I said, smiling at her.

"Sounds good to me" She stood up and realized that all she was wearing was an oversized t-shirt. She blushed, "Um, do you have pants that I can borrow?"

"Yeah just hold on a second" I ran to my dresser, opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a pair of grey sweats. I turned around and handed them to her. She grabbed them from me and proceeded to put them on.

Once we were ready, we headed down the stairs and immediately, the smell of pancakes filled my nose. We walked into the kitchen and Lucy was behind me, I could tell that she was nervous because she was clenching the sleeve of my shirt. Grandeeney and Wendy both looked up from what they were doing and it was my Aunt who spoke first.

"Lucy come out darling, there's no need to be shy." Lucy slowly slipped out from behind me, putting her hands behind her back nervously.

"G-good morning" she said forcing a slight smile.

"Good Morning Lucy. Now Natsu, care to explain why a girl spent the night without my permission?" She said, glaring at me and pointing her spatula in my direction.

"Can I tell you over breakfast?" I asked, unsure of what she was gonna respond.

"I suppose it's almost ready anyways, just sit down" she was definitely pissed off at this point, and I couldn't blame her, I just hope that she reacts well to the whole situation.

Lucy and I took our seats across the table from Wendy, and Grandeeney brought over plates and cutlery. She finished cooking her last few pancakes and put them on a large plate. She brought it over to the table, sat down beside Wendy and proceeded to prop her elbows up on the table, looking at each of us.

"Talk" was all that she had to say to put us on the edge of our seats. She is either super nice or super scary, there is no in between with Grandeeney.

"Okay, so at the end of the party last night, I was helping Lucy clean up her place before I came home..." We told her everything, and her face softened when I mentioned the incident with her father.

"Oh my, Lucy, please stay here as long as you need, you can use our spare bedroom." she smiled sincerely at Lucy.

"Thank you so much Grandeeney" Lucy said, smiling. We ended up talking more with Grandeeney about the situation for a little bit and when I went to go put our dishes away, I looked out of the window. The ground was covered in snow, we must have had our first snowfall last night.

"Hey Lucy! Come check this out!" She got up and looked out the window, her eyes widening.

"We should go out there" she looked up at me with her puppy dog eyes.

"Oh fine" I grunted. She jumped for joy, we quickly put our outerwear on, and went outside.

The snow was so perfect, I rolled up a snowball when she wasn't looking and threw it at her, hitting her square in the back. She turned around, whipping a snowball that she had made, and nailing me in the chest.

"Oh you're on" I smirked at her. We continued to throw snowballs at one another until we were covered in snow and out of breath. Before I could even take a moment to rest, I was knocked over by Lucy jumping on top of me, causing us to topple to the ground. I landed on my back and she was on top of me, laughing like an idiot. I just smiled at her, she was so cute when she was happy like this.

"Hey Lucy What's so funny?" I laughed.

"I don't even know, I just can't seem to stop laughing." she said through laughter. She froze when we made eye contact and began to blush. This made me blush, and she just started laughing again.

"Alright silly, we better go inside before it gets too cold" she slowly got off me, but slipped and fell onto her back in the snow. I stood up, offering her both of my hands as leverage, she grabbed them and I swiftly pulled her up to her feet.

We went inside and hung our coats up on chairs in the kitchen to dry. "Hey Natsu, could I take a shower?" Lucy asked me, shivering.

"Yeah sure, you can use my bathroom" She followed me upstairs and I grabbed her a clean towel from the closet on our way. She grabbed her clothes from in the spare room and stole the towel from my arms.

"Thanks so much" was the last thing that she said before disappearing into my bathroom to shower.