Chapter Text
An excited cackle ripped out of Natsu’s chest as he threw Gray off of him to slam into Gajeel a few tables over. The mages tumbled in a tangle off of the bench, sliding into the next table over and spilling most of its contents. Before long, the vast majority of the guild was scrambling to land a hit on the person closest to them. The air filled with good natured ribbing and the crashes and bangs of tables folding under various members’ weights. Despite the destruction, everyone was careful to avoid any remaining injuries (though there weren’t all that many left at this point, a month after the final battle with Acnologia– thank you, Wendy).
It was all for fun. Just a good time amongst friends, a well-need break from relief efforts.
Natsu’s grin was so big it felt like his face was going to split in half. This was exactly how his family was meant to be.
Alvarez hadn’t been enough to tear them down. They were going to be just fine.
The participants in the brawl slowly dwindled down until Erza finally rose from her seat and put an end to it.
“This is meant to be a celebration,” she declared, clapping one arm each around Natsu and Gray’s shoulders. “It is not the time for us to be fighting like dogs.”
Natsu grumbled under his breath but acquiesced under the force of her glare, rubbing the sore spot where her hand had squeezed the meat of his shoulder as he turned away to find Lucy. It only took one whiff of her scent to realize that the alcohol had been flowing far too freely while he had been distracted. He groaned in exasperation when he spotted his partner sitting across the bar from Mira, right next to Cana. Lucy was hunched over the counter with an arm stretched out so that her fingers dangled into Mira’s drink-making space, flushed cheek pressed into her bicep while her other hand clung limply to her elbow. Her hair splayed loosely behind her head, clearly having fallen– or been tugged– out of its ribbons long ago.
She was plastered.
Mira had her hand over her mouth, blushing and giggling over whatever drunken mumble Lucy let out last. Cana, on the other hand, guffawed outright, swinging a leg around her barrel as she looked smugly down at Lucy from her perch on the bartop. The brunette tried to slip another drink across the counter, but Mira grabbed it away with a gentle scolding that Natsu could hear as he got closer.
“Cana, I think she’s had more than enough,” the takeover mage was saying. Natsu considered himself blessed. He knew he would have to be the one to take care of Lucy after this, and, though it was a party, he knew she wouldn’t find the hangover worth it (which, of course, she would make his problem as if it was his fault she was a lightweight). Besides, she always said such confusing things when she had been drinking. He hardly wanted a repeat of that one Christmas (a shudder ran down his spine).
Cana clearly did not agree with him, if her dramatic slump and groan were anything to go by. “Come on, Mira,” she whined. “She’s barely had four drinks, and she’s obviously having a good time.” The card wielder tried to reach out for the colorful, probably deceptively fruity glass. Mira held it over the sink. Cana gasped at the blasphemy. “Let the woman drink!”
Lucy drawled, “Yeah!” with a frighteningly long ‘eah.’ She leant harder into her arm as if to get closer to the alcohol, eyes half-lidded. “Lemme dr’nk.”
Mira smiled kindly down at her, shooting a semi-glare Cana’s way for a brief moment when she tried to swipe the drink again. “After that last comment, you are clearly not aware of anything that you’re saying anymore,” Mira insisted. “I know you wanna have fun, but I think this is enough for you.”
Natsu could see the moment he got close enough to catch the barmaid’s and alcoholic’s attention. Mira grinned far too stiffly to be sincere as she met his eyes. Cana started laughing all over again with gusto. “Why’d you let her drink?” he complained.
Lucy’s head perked up at the sound of his voice, lifting just a bit off of her arm to flash starry, excited eyes at him. “Natsu!” came her quiet slur, a sultry grin already spreading.
“It’s a party,” Cana spoke over her. “You got your fight, she can have a little drink,” she reached down to pat Lucy’s red cheek, “you know, as a treat.”
“Natsu,” Lucy murmured again.
His eyes flickered to her before going back to Cana. “‘S not a treat if she’s just gonna regret it again in the morning.”
Cana shrugged noncommittally, the strap of her checkered bra threatening to slip down her shoulder. “Should’ve built a tolerance, then.”
“Natsu!” his partner demanded. She tried to sit up, but swayed dizzily enough that he stepped closer to stop her tumbling off of the stool.
“What?” he finally responded. He adjusted his grip as she leant her head on his shoulder. Her eyes fluttered under the weight of the alcohol in her system. He huffed at her, “Geez, Lucy, you’re such a lightweight.” He had had his own fair share of fire whiskey tonight, but she really couldn’t handle more than a glass of wine at any given time.
“Natsu, let’s–” she interrupted herself with a hiccup, twisting on the stool to face him fully and bringing floppy limbs up to grip the front of his jacket– “We sh’d get– hm– wha’s the word?” She dropped her head to rest her forehead against his chest.
Mira tried to interject, “Um, Lucy–”
The blonde sat upright (totally ignoring Mira’s increasingly frantic stare and the way Cana’s laughter had increased), though she kept her hands clutched tightly in the fabric of his jacket. “Right!” she cheered. And then, all of a sudden, her face sobered slightly. Or, rather, she dropped the happy, flirty side of her drunkenness. Her right hand ( her writing hand, the one with her guild mark, the one she used to save him– ) crept up to hold his face. So, maybe the flirtiness hadn’t been dropped. He found himself softening under her touch anyway.
“Lucy–”
She used the hand on his face to draw him closer. He barely noticed the way Cana’s laughter faded, the way Mira gasped. Her brown eyes glittered with intensity despite the drunken flush heating her skin. “Married,” she said firmly, not a stammer or alcohol-induced drawl in sight. “Let’s get married.”
Natsu tried to bury the laugh bubbling up in his throat; he knew it would only end in tears. The statement certainly explained a lot. She must have asked Cana before he showed up, that would be why the card mage had been losing her shit so severely. “I think Mira was right to cut you off,” he said.
Lucy’s face scrunched into a pout. “No, no. I wanna m’rry you,” she slurred, hand slipping to fall to his chest once more.
He let a small snort out to cover the way he was trying to stamp out a flicker of hope in his chest. “No, ya don’t. That’s the booze talking, like always.” He looked up to Mira’s (twitching?) eyes and then out to the guild hall where the rest of their friends were slowly-but-surely passing out. He met Lucy’s offended eyes. “Alright,” he said. Her expression shifted into something like shock. Then, he couldn’t see her face anymore, could only hear her shriek as he tossed her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. “Time to go home.”
Mira waved cheerfully, whatever worry she had apparently forgotten. Cana grinned cheekily at him as she bid her own goodbye, laughter echoing anew by the time he reached the doors and stepped out onto the streets.
(Lucy gratefully accepted the milkshake Mirajane passed her two days later.
“Feeling better?” the bartender asked kindly. She sat a glass and her dishrag down behind the counter.
Lucy dropped her head to the bar. “I am never drinking that much again,” she whined. It had taken a full day for her headache to die down enough to be tolerable. It was miserable, even with Natsu being weirdly and compassionately quiet. His uncharacteristic silence didn’t last long, of course. As soon as she woke up feeling even a little better he immediately began poking fun at her for being a lightweight, but his day of cooperation was not unappreciated.
Mira’s sweet laugh was overpowered quickly by Cana’s teasing. “Hmm,” the brunette hummed as she sat atop the counter beside them. She grabbed Lucy’s left hand and turned it this way and that. She sighed. “Nothing to show for the other night? Shame.”
Lucy pulled her hand back, not quite understanding Cana’s sudden interest but not liking it one bit. “What are you talking about?”
Cana simply raised an eyebrow and leaned in with a cocky, shit-eating grin. “What? You don’t remember?”
Those words sent a spark of panic through Lucy’s gut. “What? What did I do?” she asked frantically, looking between the two girls.
Mira giggled slightly. “You were very forward with a certain someone,” she claimed.
Lucy’s eyes widened so far she was sure they would fall out of her skull alongside the heart beating out of her chest. “Huh?”
Cana just nodded with that stupid smirk as the takeover mage continued, “I was worried he would accept when you couldn’t remember, but he didn’t take it serious at all.” The words were hardly reassuring.
Lucy resisted the urge to slam her aching head into the bar (it would only make tolerable intolerable again). Instead, she slowly curled forward until she could wrap her arms around her head and hide. How did this happen every single damn time? Why couldn’t she just treat him normally?
That was it. She was never getting drunk again.)