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Natsu loves watching Lucy, he thinks.
Not in a weird, creepy way, of course. More-so in the rare downtime he’s not a spitball of energy needing action and constant movement and, in those rare moments, he finds it fun to observe things... but Lucy has to be the most fun to watch. Though, implying she’s a ‘thing’ sounds a bit odd to him, so he really means she’s his favourite person. To observe, he quickly corrects his mind before he has to confront the implications that run deeper beyond that.
It’s fun for many different reasons. First, he can find the weird little quirks she does and use the newfound knowledge to tease her about later on. Things like her scrunched up face when she’s thinking too hard, the way she quickly slaps her hands to cover her face when she’s flustered or embarrassed, and the way she rambles— HEAVILY, when she’s nervous.
He knows she always rolls her eyes at him whenever he does something stupid, shaking her head and muttering to herself, but she's not very good at hiding her small smile as she turns away from his antics. It makes him feel weird. She’s so weird.
He notices things physically too, beyond the easily visible features like her light hair and dark doe eyes, that others might not notice. Natsu knows and remembers the stray moles that litter her skin, such as a small one below her right eye and another one under her bottom lip, one under her neck and upon her shoulder, one in the curve of her chest, and, well, all the others he has engraved within his memory.
She has soft, plump skin which he’s memorised from the many times they’ve embraced either accidentally while naked or intentionally while (mostly) clothed. Natsu knows Lucy’s hands are the softest, especially compared to his dry and calloused ones. Her hands smell heavenly due to the specific brand of hand cream she regularly uses in her nightly routine, which he sometimes uses for himself much to Lucy’s annoyance. They're not as soft as they used to be, which sorta makes him giddy and proud as it’s due to the many times she’s thrown herself into battle, sometimes for his sake.
It’s crazy, the way she makes him feel when they touch. It makes him feel funny, like there’s a frog stuck in his throat and the way his stomach feels like he’s on a moving train, but kind of in a good way.
Maybe it’s because she’s so bright, in all the ways possible. Logically, she should resemble that of the stars that she came from, but sometimes he thinks she's exactly like the sun, too bright to look at directly because it would hurt him. Even if she were the sun he would brace himself to blind himself for staring at her, if it would make her happy.
Saying that Lucy is just so… ‘Lucy’ makes sense to him because it’s all he’s ever known her to be. She has always been selflessly kind AND she’s like the smartest person he knows, it blows his mind constantly, and she— in return— knows about all of his unique quirks like the ones he knows about her.
Natsu knew he wouldn’t ever be able to compete with her, knowing that she was able to rewrite his existence in a loving dedication to their friendship, partnership and everything beyond. The fact that every time he breathes is through Lucy’s hands and through her fingertips that spilled onto his pages should make him feel lost within his identity, but it only makes him feel that more secure. He would trust her with writing libraries full of words within books that make up his entire being, his entire soul.
In return, Natsu will dedicate his lifetime to making sure Lucy is happy and healthy for as long as he lives. He’s not a very good writer after all.