"Cool!" my boss, Jason, shouted, eyes shut tight and fist pumping. I smiled politely, waiting for his final verdict. It was the third time in the span of ten minutes that he'd mentioned how "cool" he thought the article I'd written was, but I had yet to receive any actual criticism. Really, it wasn't that good. All I had done was interview one of the magazine's top models, Mirajane Strauss. It wasn't that big of a deal. We were friends, after all, so getting the interview had been easy. All I had done was sit in the bar she worked at and ask her questions as she served the patrons. Finally, Jason set down my article and looked at me. My shoulders tensed as I waited to hear what he had to say.
"This is really good, Lucy. You truly have a gift for storytelling. My favorite part was the story about Mirajane and her siblings at the beach!" Jason praised, causing me to shift slightly in my seat opposite him.
"Oh, it wasn't that good," I argued, giggling uncomfortably. "I'm sure there's something that could be improved on."
Jason's eyes met mine, eyebrow raising. "I'm telling you, Lucy, I loved the article. I'll make sure it makes it into the next issue." He sighed deeply. "I don't understand why you have to be so hard on yourself…"
I gave him another smile, shrugging. "I just believe there's always room for improvement. I did change up the wording a little. Maybe I should stick more closely to the way Mira told the story…" I trailed off, thinking of different things I could change about the article.
"Speaking of Mirajane and modeling," Jason began cautiously. My eyes snapped back to his. "We were given an offer for a joint shoot between you two. Don't worry, it's not another bathing suit shoot!" Jason explained quickly, cutting me off before I could argue. "Even Mirajane said she missed modeling with you. You seemed to like it, so—"
"Thank you for thinking of me, Jason," I interjected, cutting him off, "but I'm going to have to pass. Modeling just isn't something I really enjoy anymore. I prefer to be behind the scenes," I explained, pulling the sleeves of my turtleneck sweater a little farther down until the ends covered my hands. The less skin I showed, the better. "Thank you for your feedback. I need to pick some stuff up for dinner, so I'm going to head home." I waved to him as I stepped out of his office. I could still feel his concerned eyes on me as I closed the door behind me.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, signaling a text message. Smiling, I opened the message from my boyfriend, Dan.
Just got home. Where are you? he had written. I shook my head and typed a quick message back.
Got held up by my boss. He wanted to talk about the last article I wrote, I explained. I began to gather my things from my desk when my phone went off again.
Is that all you talked about? My blood ran cold when I read his message. No, no, please. Not tonight. It was our anniversary. I didn't want to fight on our anniversary.
Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I replied with a curt Yes, of course before I pushed my way out of the building and began my journey to the grocery store. I had almost made it when my phone buzzed again. This time, it was a phone call.
"Hey," I answered cheerfully, hoping that my text had placated him.
"Hi," Dan answered. No such luck. If anything, he sounded more irritated than I was expecting. My stomach began to knot up. "Where are you?"
"At the grocery store," I replied quickly. "I was going to pick up a few things for dinner. I wasn't expecting you to be home so early…"
"You weren't expecting me home? What, were you planning on spending more time with your boss?" He snarled out the last two words as if they disgusted him. I scrunched my eyes closed, tensing up. Wrong thing to say, Lucy. How could you be so stupid?
"No," I began calmly, hoping to salvage the situation somehow. "Of course not. I wanted to—"
"We'll talk about this when you get home, Lulu," Dan snapped. I flinched at his hateful tone. I had really done it now. Food wouldn't be enough to appease him anymore. I needed to get home. Now.
"I'm on my way," I assured him. He scoffed and hung up on me. Sighing, I walked out of the store empty handed, making my way home as fast as I could. Just as I was reaching the end of the street, I heard a familiar voice beside me call out, "Hey baby, you going my way?"
"Gajeel!" I squealed, walking up to his open window. He was a detective with the Magnolia Police Department. Dan was his partner, so I got to see Gajeel pretty frequently. He was gruff and mean at first glance, but underneath it all he was a total softie.
"Need a ride?" Gajeel asked, gesturing to the passenger seat of his car. I hesitated for a moment, knowing how much Dan hated it when I was around other men. I shivered as I recalled the last time I'd accepted a ride home from one of my coworkers. Dan had thrown a fit, convinced that I was cheating on him. But this was Gajeel. His partner. Of course he wouldn't believe that I was doing anything indecent with him. I grinned and climbed in.
Walking into the apartment five minutes later, I knew something was wrong. Dan was sitting at the kitchen table, watching me as I dropped my purse on the end table by the door and removed my shoes. Taking a deep breath and placing a smile on my face, I turned to face him. The expression on his face caused my smile to falter.
"Dan?" My voice came out much quieter then I had intended, so I was unsure if he even heard me.
"You're early," he ground out, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"What?"
"You're early! It should have taken you fifteen minutes to walk from the grocery store to the apartment, yet it only took you five. Who were you with?" he demanded, clenching his fists. I resisted the urge to take a step back. He may be super jealous and a little angry, but he would never hit me.
"I ran into Gajeel outside the store. He gave me a ride," I explained, praying he would let it go. It was Gajeel. His partner. It was just Gajeel.
"So, first you're sleeping with your boss, and now you're sleeping with my partner?" Dan growled. I crossed the room to him, reaching up to touch his arm.
"What are you talking about?" I crooned, knowing better than to angrily argue back. That only led to screaming matches, and I was in no mood. "It was just a ride home…"
"Oh yeah, and what did you do to earn that 'ride home'?" Dan spat, jerking his arm away from me. I felt my eyebrow twitch as the implication set in. My temper flared, and I snapped.
"It was just a ride home!" I shouted, throwing my hands up. "I didn't do anything! He was being a good friend!" I thought if I accepted the ride and got home sooner, Dan would be…maybe not happy, but definitely less angry. "And how many times do I have to tell you that I am not sleeping with my boss?" The final part came out as a shrill shriek; that was an argument we had frequently. I was sick of explaining it to him.
"Do not raise your voice at me," Dan hissed. He very rarely yelled. Dan felt that raising his voice above "appropriate indoor voices" was a sign of a lack of intelligence. "And I know something is going on between you and Gajeel. You were flirting with him the last time he came over for dinner."
"What?" I ground out between clenched teeth. He was crazy. There was no way anything like that would happen between me and Gajeel. "Are you fucking serious? Are you really jealous of your partner?"
"I don't get jealous," Dan argued pompously, waving a dismissive hand at me. "It's beneath me."
"And yet, here we are," I said, throwing my arms out to me sides. "Are you really sure it's so beneath yo—" I was cut off by a blast of pain cutting across my cheek, throwing me off balance. I stumbled, attempting to catch the table as I fell to the ground.
"You stupid bitch!" Dan screamed, bringing his foot down onto my stomach. "What gives you the right to speak to me like that? You think a filthy whore like you can talk to me like that? Huh?" He punctuated every other word with another kick. I cried for him to stop, tried to shield myself from the blows, but they just kept coming. Dan continued to screech and kick me, as if he was releasing something he had been holding back for a long time. Finally, after what felt like forever, the barrage of kicks stopped.
"Lulu…" Dan cooed, reaching down to cradle my head. "See what you made me do? I didn't want to hurt you. I'm so sorry! Please, please, forgive me…"
I had to get away from him. My phone was somehow still in my back pocket. If I could just get somewhere safe, I could call for help. Insulting me and putting me down verbally was one thing. I could handle that, but physically hitting me? That was way over my head. I took a deep, shaky breath, wincing at the pain in my ribs. They were probably bruised, but not broken. I was racking my brain for an excuse to leave the room when Dan stood up, yanking me up by one of my arms. I squeaked as pain radiated down my arm and into my side.
"Go get cleaned up, Lulu. I'll cook dinner. Don't worry," he assured me, "it won't happen again. I promise."
Like hell it won't, I thought bitterly. I stumbled over to the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it behind me. I yanked my phone from my pocket and dialed the first number I could think of. I worked on slowing my breathing as it rang.
Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up, I prayed in my head, rocking slightly as I waited. Just as I was sure the answering machine would pick up, a gruff voice sounded on the other end.
"Hello?"
"Gajeel!" I breathed, trying to keep my voice down. "I need you to get here as fast as you can. Please! I need your help!" I was wound tighter than a Jack-in-the-Box at this point, watching the bathroom door like a hawk. I hadn't thought to bring anything in with me to defend myself should Dan get a second wind, so I fumbled around, grabbing the first sturdy object I could find.
"Woah, Blondie. Calm down. What's going on?" Gajeel asked distractedly.
"He hit me! Please Gajeel, you have to hurry!"
This got me his full attention. "Who hit you?"
"Dan!" I hissed. A knock at the bathroom door caused me to jump, gasping.
"Lulu? Are you still in there? What are you doing? Are you talking to someone?" At his last question, Dan's voice took on an irritated tone again.
"Please hurry…" I pleaded, shoving myself between the shower and the toilet. Dan must have heard me, because he started pounding on the door.
"Who are you talking to? If you tell anyone about what just happened, I'll kill you. I swear I will, Lulu. Don't test me. Just open the door, Lulu. We'll kiss and everything will be okay again. Just open the door." Despite his soothing tone, Dan continued to pound on the door.
"The police are on the way!" I shouted back, then realized how stupid of a move that was. I could hear Gajeel reprimanding me over the phone, but I ignored him. "They're going to see what you did to me and arrest you! Being one of them won't save you! Stay away from me!" The pounding had stopped. I listened anxiously, trying to hear him moving around at all. I don't remember hanging up the phone, but I must have because after what felt like an eternity of nothing, I heard shouting and footsteps. I could hear Gajeel's voice from the other side of the door.
"Blondie? Blondie? Are you in there? Are you okay? Lucy, talk to me," his voice began to sound desperate, which gave me the motivation to drag myself over to the door. I have no idea how I managed to get to my feet and open the door. The last thing I remember before I passed out was Gajeel's worried face as I collapsed into his arms.
Hey guys! It's been forever, but I'm writing again. I just recently got into (and got caught up with) Fairy Tail, and decided to try my hand at writing a fanfic for it. This one was inspired by x-benihime's fic Heartstrung (which I HIGHLY recommend you guys read if you haven't already). I just couldn't get the idea of cop!Natsu out of my head, and this story was born. I'd been playing around with the idea for about a month before writing this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.