Backbone (NaLu one-shot)

B- Backbone

Gray's laugh was really annoying him. Not that it didn't normally annoy him, but today it seemed even more grating. Natsu scrunched his nose and glared over at the ice bastard with hate. Usually he would snap at him to shut up, followed by a very prompt fist-fight, but today he didn't have it in him. Because starting a fight would mean taking his eyes off of the intriguingly sickening sight across the room.

Natsu snorted in irritation before turning his gaze back to the scene he'd been watching for the past hour. An hour. Loke'd been at it for an entire hour.

Natsu snarled to himself as he watched the lion smirk down seductively at the blonde sitting on the barstool next to him. He reached down toward Lucy, placing a finger underneath her chin and tilting her head to look at him. Lucy frowned before smacking his hand away and muttering something which Natsu couldn't hear. Gray let out another round of guffaws at this.

Natsu's hand clenched into a fist, "Would you shut it?" he asked impatiently, his eyes flicking to Gray and then back to Loke. The lion hadn't been deterred in the least, instead leaning in even closer.

Gray snorted, "Why, you don't find this entertaining?" he asked, gesturing over at Lucy as she glared at Loke before lightly pushing him away from her.

"No," Natsu replied shortly. No, he didn't find this entertaining. He found it beyond annoying. This act that Loke had was getting old. Very old. The lion hit on his master every day, and because he was strong enough to summon himself, he didn't leave when she told him to. Instead he stayed, taking her rejection easily and trying again.

"Aw c'mon, Flame Brain, this is hilarious. Look at her face… look at his face!" Gray let out another laugh, leaning back in his seat and laughing at the ceiling.

Natsu frowned deeply. Those two things were what was bothering him. Loke was so smooth, so romantic; he could so easily sway women, and so that look on his face was really getting on Natsu's nerves. He hadn't paid much attention to Lucy's expression, mainly because he was a bit afraid he'd find some sort of compliance. How long could she take the continued assaults before she gave into him? Natsu was afraid it wasn't much longer.

And for some reason that made him angry. Why was that? Was he angry because Loke was basically pestering Lucy into dating him? Was it because Natsu, as Lucy's friend, wanted her to date someone because she liked him, not because she wanted the guy to leave her alone? No, that wasn't it. Natsu didn't like it because he couldn't do what Loke was doing, and it killed him inside.

Of course the Dragon Slayer would never admit it. He couldn't charm women; it just wasn't something he did. He knew that if he tried he'd probably make a fool of himself and that was the last thing he wanted to do with the guild watching, so he had kept to himself.

He wanted to get up the courage to walk over to Lucy and talk to her like Loke was. Tell her how pretty she was and that he wanted to take her out on a date. Yes, those were the things he wanted to say. But he had never done so, his inexperience with women and his crippling fear of being rejected always keeping him away.

So instead he kept as her friend and partner, glaring from across the guild whenever Loke would pop up out of thin air on Friday nights, holding out his hand and asking his master, whom he called 'Princess' if she wanted to have dinner with him. Every single Friday night he would appear, and every single Friday night Natsu would sulk.

Lucy had never accepted Loke's offers, and for that Natsu was grateful; but he wasn't sure when that defiance would come to a close. Eventually she'd give into him, wouldn't she? They were close, very close, and Natsu figured that somewhere maybe he even thought they would be good together.

He clenched his teeth. Maybe they were good together, but surely he was better. He was the closest to Lucy, and so surely he was the best suitor for her. But instead of gaining the courage to ask, he sat, watching as his only chances slowly spiraled down the drain. If she gave into Loke before he ever bit down his pride and asked her, he would have lost before he even began.

A few times he'd stood up with confidence, his fists clenched at his sides as he stalked toward her and that lion. He had visions of shoving Loke away and asking Lucy the exact same question the lion just had, except she accepted his offer and had declined her spirit's. Yes, Natsu would ask Lucy out on a date right in front of Loke and she'd accept and he'd have won.

But when he'd hit the halfway point across the room he'd chickened out. Sure he could ask her, but he could never ask her like Loke did. Loke'd brush a chunk of hair out of her face, caressing her cheek before proposing in a husky voice that they should get out of there and do something more exciting. Natsu didn't know how to do that. How would he even go about coming up with something enticing like that?

He'd gone over options in his head, none of which sounded quite right. 'Hey Luce, get out of here.' 'Let's go someplace darker, I can't see you.' 'Wanna go get dinner, it's hot tonight.' Nothing ever sounded right, his words and phrases jumbling with each other until they no longer made any sense.

So even if one day he got the courage to walk over there and ask her, he wouldn't be able to get the words out. He had no idea how to romance a girl, and if he went over there and made a fool of himself, he worried Lucy would laugh. She would laugh and then agree to go to dinner with Loke after she realized what bumbling idiots other guys were. That would be the worst.

Gray let out another round of laughs and suddenly Natsu couldn't handle it anymore. Without taking his eyes off of Loke and Lucy at the bar he stretched out his right arm, punching Gray square in the cheek. The ice mage tumbled off of the bench and Natsu couldn't help but smile to himself at the thud he heard. It had sounded painful.

"Oy," Gray groaned. Natsu could feel him scrambling to his feet beside him but didn't turn, his eyes instead narrowing at Loke's latest advance. He'd touched her lips. She'd violently smacked him away, shouting a nearly incoherent, "Wh-St-Why-St-Don't do that!" Natsu was glad that she had again rejected him, except her stumbling made him think that maybe she was just embarrassed.

Natsu froze. He'd never thought about that before. Maybe Lucy was telling Loke 'no' only because she was embarrassed. Maybe she really did like him but was too bashful to admit it. That added another layer to Nastu's worry and he collapsed face-first onto the table with a groan.

Gray plopped down on the bench next to him and glared down at the back of his head. "What's with you?" he asked, "Making fun of Loke's rejection is great; you should try it."

Natsu shook his head slowly, "Dun wanna," he sighed, closing his eyes. There was a long and suspicious pause from the idiot beside him and he began to worry. What was Gray thinking? Silence was never a good thing.

After a few minutes he heard an amused snort from the ice bastard. "You're worried she's gonna give in, aren't you," Gray sneered.

Natsu shot up in his seat and glared over at Gray. It was true, but he'd never admit it. Although Natsu figured that his furious expression had given him away as Gray's sneer grew into a full-blown smile. Natsu briefly noticed that Gray had somehow lost his shirt between the time he'd faceplanted into the table and now. Now was not the time for stripping.

Gray's smile faded as he shook his head in what looked to be exasperation, "Don't worry, man. Look at her," he said, sloppily gesturing over to the bar.

Natsu followed Gray's gaze hesitantly. She looked the same as she gave Loke a disbelieving look as he once again tried to swoop in for a kiss. "Yeah, what about her?"

Gray sighed, "Does that look like the face of a girl who wants to go on a date with him?"

Natsu squinted at Lucy's face, "I don't know. Is it?" he asked quickly, looking back to Gray with a sense of panic. Natsu knew he didn't know much about romance, but was he really dense enough to not recognize enjoyment. He thought Lucy looked a bit annoyed but maybe to others she looked like she really liked Loke. That would be the worst.

Gray gave him a disbelieving look before shaking his head, "No, you idiot, she looks like she wants to throw herself off a cliff. She doesn't like him like that, calm down."

Natsu frowned at Gray, "Okay, say she doesn't. Eventually she's gonna give into him. He's been pestering her about dinner for an hour already and he isn't showing signs of stopping," he hissed, "She's gonna hit her limit soon."

That was when Gray burst out laughing again, that bastard. "Give Lucy more credit," Gray chuckled. "She's got backbone. I think he'd have to mess with her for much longer than a few hours before she would give in."

Natsu eyed him carefully with suspicion. Was the bastard serious, or was he just deceiving him? He squinted at Gray harder and the ice mage shrugged. "Whatever, don't believe me. Just sayin' she's stronger than you'd think."

Natsu's gaze wandered back to the blonde at the bar who had her cheeks puffed out and her hands on her hips as she glared up at Loke. Maybe Gray was right. Maybe she was strong enough to stand up to Loke for a long time, maybe even forever. But that still didn't help with the fact that he didn't have a backbone of his own. Maybe she had one, but he didn't.

Almost as if Gray had read his mind, the dark haired male spoke up. "Hey, she may reject him, but if I were you I'd give it a shot. It's worth a try."

Natsu didn't look back at Gray; out of embarrassment over the fact that he really did want to approach her, or because he was afraid of the mocking look he'd inevitably find on the ice mage's face, he wasn't sure. He'd never listened to Gray in the past, he shouldn't now. But he couldn't deny exactly how much Gray's words were making sense. He should just do it. Don't think too much about it; just do it.

"Hey wait," Natsu heard Gray say quickly as he stood up from his seat abruptly. "What're you doing?"

Natsu looked down at his rival and smiled a bit, "Taking your advice. If this goes badly, I'm blaming you." He turned on his heel and began stalking over toward the bar. He'd blame Gray if she said no or if he stumbled over his words and made a fool of himself. He'd blame the ice bastard externally, but he'd beat himself up internally. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that he was going to actually do this, and do it now.

He stomped over to the bar, words and ways to ask Lucy swirling around in his head. He barely even noticed it when Loke looked over his shoulder as he heard Natsu's loud stomps, instead shoving the lion out of the way once he had reached the bar and steeling his gaze against Lucy's surprised eyes.

"Natsu?" she asked, blinking twice.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, and instead of trying one of Loke's fancy tactics, he tried his own. He told her straightforward. "Lucy, have dinner with me."