NaLu

NaLu is the het ship between Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia from the Fairy Tail fandom.

Canon
Natsu and Lucy are the primary duo of the series. They share an extraordinarily close bond that has remained strong since they met. Although no direct romance has been made apparent between the two, they regularly blush over one another from time to time and often get teased about how close they are by the other members of the guild, with some outright stating that they are couple and in love.

The pair are frequently seen together throughout their time at Fairy Tail, often going on missions together with just the two of them, along with Happy, or as a much larger team with Grey, Erza and later Wendy and Carla. Whenever manga chapters, or episodes, are focused on other characters, Natsu and Lucy are always seen together, be it eating or wandering around Magnolia. When it comes to missions, despite being separated, they tend to find themselves reuniting and working together, and as a result, they have developed a great sense of team work. They are occasionally the victims of other guild members’ teases, such as Juvia, Cana, Levi, Mirajane and Evergreen. Even Erza, who is normally disinterested about such things, has noted that if you ever want to find Natsu you just have to go to Lucy’s place. Furthermore, Happy has regularly teased that both Natsu and Lucy love each other and one of Lucy’s Celestial Spirits, Virgo, has teased her over the same thing.

Lucy feels a strong connection to Natsu and believes him to be responsible for fulfilling her dream of joining the Fairy Tail guild. She met him whilst in Hargeon after Natsu inadvertently stopped the effect of Bora’s Charm Magic on her. Feeling grateful, she decided to treat Natsu and Happy to some dinner. Whilst at the diner, she tells Natsu about her dream to one day join Fairy Tail, having great admiration for the guild and its numerous members, including the notorious Salamander (completely unaware that Natsu is the infamous Salamander), after paying the bill she says her goodbye to him. She is immediately courted by Bora who insists he is a member of Fairy Tail, is the one known as Salamander, and convinces her to join him on his yacht after he promises to help her join Fairy Tail. After Bora reveals his true colours and that he is in fact a slave trader, Natsu arrives and ends up saving Lucy, destroying the coastal town in the process. Happy informs Lucy that Natsu is actually the real Salamander and that he and Natsu are members of Fairy Tail. Following his victory, he grabs Lucy by her hand to escape the town before telling her to come with him so she can join Fairy Tail, leaving her overjoyed.

From then on, Lucy and Natsu have been inseparable. It took a while for Lucy to adjust to Natsu’s bombastic and outgoing personality but now sees it as one of his most endearing traits. Over time, she grows close to Natsu and develops a deep trust in him. She told him, before he goes off to fight Sting and Rogue, that she will always have faith in him. Whilst recovering, she whispers Natsu’s name in hopes of his victory over the pair. She often reassures Happy over Natsu and tells him that he will return to them whenever he has gone off to fight someone or is recovering. Although she gets incredibly annoyed whenever Natsu breaks into her room, she grows accustomed to it and soon finds it lonely when he isn’t around. On occasion, she has allowed Natsu to sleep in her bed or in her room whenever he has fallen asleep. The night before the impending attack of the Alvarez Empire, she chose to spend her time with Natsu in her bedroom. When Lucy met a young boy, who asked her out on a date, she chose not go and instead set him up with Cana so she could go on a mission with Natsu. Prior to this, Cana had used her fortune telling abilities to predict that Lucy would have a fateful encounter, and although initially believing that it was the boy she met, she now believes that her fateful encounter was meeting Natsu after hearing him say that it is her one year anniversary since joining Fairy Tail, causing her to almost cry.

She has saved Natsu’s life on numerous occasions, such as when she grabbed onto him as they were taken away by rapid currents in a river and held onto him tightly as they fell off a waterfall. After Natsu seemingly defeats Hades, she catches him before he can fall before smiling at him for his victory. When Natsu was put on the brink of death, following his transformation into E.N.D, she cuddled up to him, naked, as a means to warm up his freezing body, hoping that he will wake up from his coma. Such is her dedication to Natsu, she rewrote the Book of E.N.D, incurring great pain onto herself, in order to separate Natsu’s life force from Zeref, thereby freeing him. When she believed Natsu had died after he mysteriously disappeared, following his victory over Zeref, she breaks down in tears and cries out for Natsu. She then played a key role in helping Natsu defeat Acnologia, breaking him free from the time rift he was trapped inside of. Natsu, and the other Dragon Slayers, then fall from the sky, with Natsu landing on top of Lucy, reunited.

Lucy does her best to take care of Natsu whenever he has been hurt or has fallen sick. Whilst Happy carried Natsu back from his first encounter with Zeref, he had fallen unconscious, causing Lucy to become agitated, and later distressed when she could not hear a heart beat. In tears, she begged Brandish to save his life by shrinking the ‘tumour’ inside him. Subsequently, she stayed by his bedside whilst he recovered, even falling asleep next to him. Due to his motion sickness, Lucy has rest Natsu’s head on her lap whilst traveling on lengthy train journeys in Guiltina. On one occasion, after being annoyed by his actions when he burnt her clothes, she teases him after he gets motion sickness once the train starts moving before bringing his head onto her lap so he can rest. After discovering that Natsu is E.N.D, she defends him from Dimaria, telling her that Natsu does not have a dark side to him. Later on, after retrieving the Book of E.N.D, she cries in front of Grey over the idea that Natsu is a demon despite him being just a normal boy. When Natsu decided to leave Fairy Tail to train for a year, Lucy became completely distraught and ran all over Magnolia, in tears and under the pouring rain, to find him. She cursed him for not being aware of how much his actions devastated her and would occasionally believe she had seen him in a crowd only to be disappointed she hadn’t. She smiled at Natsu after finally being reunited with him but still held a grudge and eventually confronted him for leaving her, asking him if he had any idea how that made her feel.

She sees Natsu as a comforting presence and will always count on him to save her. When she was captured by Phantom Lord, she jumped out of a tower after believing she heard Natsu’s voice nearby, having complete faith that he will catch her, which he successfully does. Whilst being assaulted by Gajeel, she remained defiant towards him as she knew Natsu would come and save her and was overjoyed when he finally arrived. When Hades survived Natsu’s onslaught, and unleashed his magical power, she clings onto Natsu in fear before he helps her find the resolve to face him head on. When Acnologia arrived on Tenrou Island, Lucy became distressed at the group’s impending doom only to regain her composure when Natsu grabs her hand and reassures her. Following her defeat at the Magical Games, and facing the onslaught of the crowd, she was able to find her determination again after Natsu comforts her. She then quotes one of Natsu’s catchphrases whilst still in tears. When Future Rogue was defeated, and the disaster that Future Lucy had warned them about had been prevented, she found Natsu looking up at the night sky before running up to him to cuddle him from behind, with Natsu taking in Lucy’s embrace under the moonlit sky, and thanking him for everything he did for her future self.

Natsu is very protective of Lucy and is furious whenever someone tries to harm her. When he heard she had been kidnapped by Phantom Lord, he took one of their guild members and constantly burned him until he revealed where Lucy might be, eventually arriving just in time to catch her after she jumps from a tower before carrying her back to the guild. After being imprisoned on Edolas, he threatened a guard that he would burn them all to ash if they laid a hand on Lucy. Whilst watching Lucy being beaten up by Kain he becomes distressed and begs Lucy to run away, but she refuses, stating that she would rather stay with him, which upsets him even more. After watching Minerva brutalise Lucy during the Magical Games, he dives in to catch her before preparing to attack the Sabertooth Guild member but was stopped by both Sting and Rogue. When he witnesses Future Lucy get killed, he becomes infuriated and violently attacked Future Rogue, in tears, for taking her life, telling him that he took something precious away from him and that he will protect present Lucy’s future from him. Natsu is able to wake up from his coma and save Lucy just before Jacob attacks her, allowing the knife he threw to pierce his hand.

He values her as a close friend and guild member. After defeating Phantom Lord, Natsu became worried that Lucy was contemplating leaving Fairy Tail and rushed to her family home, along with Grey and Erza, to get her back and was reassured that his fears were not true. When Lucy proved to be too sick to attend a festival and see the Rainbow Sakuras, Natsu, who recalled Lucy being excited about seeing the famous tree, uprooted the tree and sent it down the river outside Lucy’s house so she could see it, causing her to smile and thank him the next day. Due to his attachment to her, he has projected his feelings for Lucy onto Future Lucy, which led to him trusting her implicitly, despite her outlandish claims and having only known her for a very short time. He also comforted Future Lucy when she began to cry at the tragedy she experienced in her own timeline. When he finally reunited with Lucy, following the time skip, he was amazed to find she had done her best to keep track of various Fairy Tail Guild members in the hopes of restoring the guild, and decided to take the initiative with her and help find all the guild members. Natsu has also shown signs of jealousy, as whilst exploring a town in Guiltina he attacked numerous men who attempted to flirt with Lucy, inadvertently burning her clothes in the process.

Natsu, although unaware, has developed an emotional reliance on Lucy. Whenever he has became infuriated by surrounding events, or become lost in his magical power, Lucy is the one that can calm him. Whilst on Edolas, Natsu grew furious when their friends, who had been transformed into magic crystals, were being chipped away at a public gathering and only calmed down after Lucy embraced him. When facing the Water God Dragon, Natsu became lost in Igneel’s Flame and was prepared to destroy the dragon, and everything else with him, but was able to come to his senses after Lucy grabbed him from behind and told him that she is here for him. When he believed Lucy had died, he transformed into his E.N.D form in a fit of rage and ended up fighting Grey, who also believed Juvia had died, and shouted at him that nobody can stop him now before he remembers finding Lucy’s unresponsive body. Soon after coming out of his E.N.D form, he fell to the ground before Lucy wrapped her arms around him to comfort him. When he stood next to Lucy’s ancestor, who had briefly raised him and the other Dragon Slayers, he notices that Lucy has a very similar scent to her and comments that it explains why he feels so comfortable around Lucy.

At one point, Lucy contemplates Natsu as a romantic partner when Mirajane teases her over the possibility. Although she tries to brush off the suggestion, the rumour that Natsu apparently wants to confess to a girl causes her to become flustered and nervous around him. She blushes in his presence and occasionally sees him as overly good looking. Although she tries to brush off her thoughts, she ends up fantasising being in a relationship with him and having children that all look like Happy. After Natsu asks her to meet him under a tree at a certain time, she becomes even more nervous and frantic. She ultimately intends to turn Natsu down when he confesses to her, but when getting ready, she tries to claim she can just wear her usual outfit but starts dressing herself up hoping that Natsu will like her appearance. In the end, she gives in and turns up under the tree all dressed up for Natsu. When it turns out Natsu was not going to confess to her, and instead just wanted her help to dig up a reported treasure chest under the tree, she became annoyed and punched him before leaving.

Following Fairy Tail’s victory over the Alvarez Empire and Acnologia, she meets Natsu in her room and tearfully thanks him for everything he has done for her whilst hugging him. When Natsu says her name and grabs her arms, she starts to blush and braces herself for some kind of confession from him, only to be upset when he chooses not to say anything but was comforted when he tells her that they will be together forever. For a day, Natsu is tasked with looking after the young Asuka, with Lucy choosing to help him. Throughout the day they are portrayed as parents with their child, with Lucy admiring Natsu for his fatherhood sensibilities and how caring he is with Asuka. At one point, Asuka reveals that she believes Natsu and Lucy are a couple like her mum and dad and demand that they kiss. Although Natsu is fine with it, Lucy becomes flustered and nervous, and although she braces herself for him to kiss her, she ends up grabbing Happy for Natsu to kiss instead.

A running gag between Natsu and Lucy is how often Natsu has seen her naked. Throughout their time together, Lucy has found herself naked in front of Natsu numerous times, and even in lewd positions with him, either with his face in her chest, him groping her or being trapped together whilst she is naked. For the most part, Lucy dislikes this, often becoming flustered and hitting him. However, she also has seemingly adjusted to these moments as she tolerated Natsu groping her chest for an extensive amount of time when he landed on top of her. When Jacob revealed that he was uncomfortable that Lucy’s body was exposed and tried to look away, Lucy took advantage of this and proved to be comfortable enough to allow Natsu to talk, lustfully, about her body as a means to distract him. After her chest was burned from hugging Natsu, whilst he was being consumed by Igneel’s Flame, Natsu lifted up her top to check if they are fine and Lucy, notably, did not hit him for it. For Natsu, he is mostly nonchalant about it, as he stated to Jacob that he has seen Lucy naked so many times that turning her clothes invisible does not make him uncomfortable. He also chose to cover Lucy’s chest by grabbing them, not out of lustful desires, but to genuinely try and help her keep her modesty. Nonetheless, he has been seen blushing whenever he catches her naked and, at one point, wished to check on Lucy after he realised she is in the shower, but was stopped by Erza. Lucy has also seen Natsu naked, although very rarely, and blushed profusely when he has been fully exposed to her. After she arrived home, drunk, from a party in her honour she felt comfortable enough to be naked in bed with Natsu and cuddle him.

Fandom
NaLu is one of most popular ships in the entire Fairy Tail fandom and regularly top popularity polls. Their main shipping rivals are NaLi and LuLo.

Among NaLu shippers, they celebrate NaLu Day on July 26th with the author of Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima, celebrating NaLu Day on his twitter account.

Trivia

 * Natsu and Lucy's relationship is frequently paralleled to other relationship within the series, including canon, semi-canon and fanon. A major example is that of Grey and Juvia, with both members being best friends with their respective counter-parts.
 * During the Alvarez Empire Arc, Natsu's dedication to Lucy is identical to that of Grey's dedication for Juvia. Both men believed that their respective 'partners' had died, sending them both into a rage which eventually led to the two clashing. After Erza's intervention, both Juvia and Lucy arrived on the scene to comfort Grey and Natsu respectively.
 * On the cover of chapter 532, titled "I Can no Longer See Love", Natsu and Lucy are seen sleeping together in their own panel, with the other panels showing canon couples such as Grey and Juvia, Gajeel and Levy, Erza and Jellal, and Zeref and Mavis.
 * The author of Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima, whilst attending an anime convention in France, stated that, if he had to choose who to pair Natsu with, it would be with Lucy.
 * In the afterword of Fairy Tail S Volume 1, author Hiro Mashima stated that he originally intended to write Lucy and Natsu as just friends but that the fans took it in the opposite direction and now he writes them as "more than friends, but less than lovers." and that he likes their relationship.