Hi All

A short (ish) NaLu Romance. Might continue on for a few chapters. Enjoy!

PS This story is anti- Lisanna. HISSSS

-Kami

Chapter 1 - Legacies and Beginnings

Lucy exited the bus last, and followed the group of girls in retrieving their things from the luggage storage. Her bag, like all of theirs, was a large duffel type, with a small additional combination lock holding closed the two zippers.

Lucy followed the girls over to where her coaches gathered them, and several girls began changing their trainers for cleats. Lucy sat by herself on a bench and did the same. Her mind wandered for a bit as she enjoyed the sunshine with a cool breeze hinting at the beginning of winter. The season was ending, and the inter school competitions were almost over.

On the other side of the field stood several four row bleachers. The opposition team sat here and their coach frequently pointed to their side as she talked. A clapping of hands forced her attention back to her own coaches. One male, one female stood giving a short speech about team play and etiquette before sending them off to run a lap of ball drills for warm ups. Lucy stood slowly and took the last ball from the bag before falling in line.

Though she was looking forward to this match to de-stress, she wanted this school year to be over. No one knew how frazzled her nerves were, how make up hid her tired eyes and how jumpy she was lately. Soon it would all be over. Lucy kicked the ball further ahead and picked up her pace.

"Lisanna, are you listening?"

"What? yes coach, I'm listening!" The light haired girl shot her friend an amused look with a roll of her eyes.

"No you aren't, pay attention or I'm going to sit you out for this game. Is that what you want?" The stern brunette with a ponytail tipped her baseball cap backwards and tugged on the whistle that hung from a thin cord around her neck.

"No coach." Lisanna sulked before sighing loudly.

"Then listen up. We have some strong players over there. See the girl in the blue top? She's their goalie. She has eyes like a hawk, and what she doesn't have in size, she will make up in speed. Don't dally in the goal, or she will be all over you. Got it?"

"Yes coach," the group of girls chanted while eyeing their opposition.

"The girl in the red and white shirt. She's their center midfield. Be careful around her, she shoots like a man and has the aim to back it up."

"She looks like a man," Lisanna muttered and two other girls giggled.

"Oh don't you worry about her Lisanna, you have bigger worries."

"What?!" Lisanna said, annoyed at the smug tone of her coach.

"See that girl with the black top?"

"The one with the huge knockers?" She said loudly enough for Lucy to hear. The blond turned briefly to glance at them. Lisanna's coach took off her hat and swatted the girl with it. "Yes, her."

"What about her?"

"That girl is the black death. She will out- dribble you, out- shoot you, out-run you and out- score you if you give her even the slightest chance."

An ugly expression settled on Lisanna's face. "Well then I won't give her the chance." She crossed her arms. "Isn't she a junior? How come she gets to play first string."

"Same reason Lisanna does." The coach said pulling a clipboard from her bag. "The girl has skills. Now I want ten jumping jacks, ten push ups, sit ups, ten thigh highs and ten butt kicks followed by a two laps, one facing inward and one facing outward, GO." The girls groaned and began doing the warm up exercises. Lisanna started with buttkicks and thigh highs, and as she ran on the spot, she watched the blonde across the way on the field with narrowed eyes.

"Good game Natsu." Lisanna approached the pink haired boy who straightened up from the water cooler and drank a whole cup of water before refilling it again.

"Thanks Lis. When does your game start?"

"In fifteen minutes. Are you going to watch me play?" She smiled coyly at him and he nodded. "Once coach says we're done, I'll come over and watch."

Lisanna grinned and ran off to start her match. When Natsu was done he took a seat in one of the bleachers beside Gray who had taken his shirt off. "I'm trying to distract the ladies." He explained with a grin.

"Well there's one you've distracted." Natsu said with a wink, nodding his head to Gray's left. Gray peeked over to find Juvia staring at his muscled sweaty torso. "She must be your biggest fan."

Gray shook his head. "Don't even ask me when that started, I don't want to know."

The crowd suddenly stood on their feet and applauded, and Natsu and Gray turned back to the field. "What? Did they score already? Wow Lisanna must be on her game."

"It's not Lisanna," Natsu said, his eyes caught by the long legs and voluptuous body of a different soccer player. She hustled back to her side and the ball was passed from the center circle again. Almost immediately, a flash of black shorts and top with a blue school logo whipped past the attacker, and with a twist of feet and legs, spun the ball away from her opposition.

"Who is that?" Natsu asked standing as he watched her.

Gray dug a program out of his bag. "Whats her number?"

"I'd like to know that too."

"No Flame Brain. Whats her shirt number."

"One."

"One? Then that is... Lucy Heartfilia. Holy Shit, she scored over 24 goals in the last season. This season she's up to 28 before this final."

"What a bitch," one of the girls muttered before grabbing a cup and helping herself to the water cooler.

"Good hustle girls. Don't let the score worry you, keep it strong."

"We're five points down. How are we supposed to 'keep it strong'." Lisanna said bitterly.

"Lisanna, good game."

Lisanna's head swivelled to where Natsu waved to her, and her face contorted in something between happiness and humiliation. The pink haired heartthrob grinned from where he sat on the bleachers, and Lisanna turned away and focused on her teammates.

"Lets get back in the game girls. Let's give miss big-tits a nice warm welcome."

"I could out shoot her."

"You're not that good nude freak." Natsu sat on the edge of his seat watching the long blond pony tail, whirl through the group of girls like they were standing still.

"I could totally..." he stopped suddenly as a gasp went up from the crowd. Natsu stood and Gray followed suit. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure."

The cluster of girls began pushing each other until a referee broken them up. Shortly after, Natsu watched as the girl he couldn't take his eyes off was led limping from the field. "Looks like she got hurt." Gray said sitting back down, taking his shirt off with a glance at the goth girl with blue hair sitting nearby.

Natsu didn't even notice, but hopped down the bleachers to where the girls were gathering around the coach. "Hey Lis. What happened?" One of the girls smirked and Lisanna turned to Natsu. "Beats me, she was probably prancing so much she fell flat on her face." The light haired girl turned back to listen to what the coach was saying, and a look of victory passed amongst them.

"What happened out there Heartfilia? This is not a time for weak ankles!" The woman crouched down in front of Lucy and her expression was not pleased.

"I don't know coach... I..."

"Did they trip you up? Then you need to take the fall and get us that penalty. Got that?" The woman turned away in disgust and focused on the rest of the game. The school nurse came over and took a look at her ankle. It was slightly swollen, but not very painful. The ice pack the nurse put to it helped ease the discomfort.

Lucy watched as her team slowly lost point after point. Her coach paced the edge of the field yelling instructions, but the opposition seemed to gain a new breath of life, zigging and zagging through her teammates. Lucy noticed the light haired girl weaving back and forth. For all her skill, she was a solo player. She never seemed to pass the ball and always took the shot on the goal regardless of whether a teammate was 'open'.

Lucy sat with her hands clasped in front of her, her heart in her throat. Suddenly the whistle blew. She let out a long sigh. They were tied 6-6 after overtime.

"PENALTY SHOOT OUTS. THREE." The referee jogged over to a goal with the ball. "Two players."

"Lucy, get in there." Lucy looked in shock at her coach.

"My coach, my ankle..."

"Heartfilia, suck it up. If we lose this final because you couldn't stand on your own feet for two minutes, how would your teammates feel?"

The male coach took her arm to help her up, somewhat roughly. "You can do it Lucy, just push through it."

Disgusted, Lucy hobbled to where the referee stood with Lisanna. From the other girl's smirk, Lucy was fairly sure she knew who had tripped her up.

"You all right to do this?" The referee asked looking at her ankle.

"Its ok, I can shoot with both feet." Lucy smiled and Lisanna scoffed and rolled her eyes.

The ref blew his whistle and the goalie took her position. Lisanna was up first, and after careful aim, ran up and kicked the ball hard. It flew low, and her team's goalie dived, knocking it away from the goal. She let out an annoyed sound and glared at Lucy as if it was her fault.

They swopped goalies, and after taking a deep breath, Lucy kicked the ball. It soared higher than Lisanna's ball but curved up. Their goalie managed to tip it up just enough that it flew over the top of the net.

"DAMIT." Lucy tried to shrug off her coach's angry expletive from the sidelines. "FOCUS HEARTFILIA."

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes and she took a deep breath to calm herself. Lisanna kicked her second ball and it went wide, earning a chuckle from the crowd and a mortified expression from Lisanna.

When it was her turn, Lucy took a deep breath and began humming a small tune under her breath. When the whistle blew, she flew forward and the kick felt good. The ball soared high, but tipped neatly into the right corner of the net. The crowd behind her cheered.

"THATS WHAT I"M TALKING ABOUT!"

Lisanna glared at her as her third and last ball was placed before her on the grass. Perhaps anger gave her focus, because this time the goalie could not stop the ball. They were tied, 7-7 and only her kick left.

Lucy shook her ankle gently. It hurt pretty bad now. She shouldn't be standing on it. Don't think about it. Just focus on the goal. She hummed the little tune, finding its rhytm in her heart and when the whistle blew, she was ready for it. The ball flew true, flying right, but then curving enough to edge into the net on the left side. The goalie misjudged the kick and had leaped the wrong way. Massive cheering exploded in the modest crowd, and her team hugged and yelled on the sidelines. Lucy smiled. It felt good.

She hobbled over to her team bench, and iced her foot some more, deciding to forgo the medal ceremony. Her coach however insisted she stand for the pictures, which she did reluctantly. As they were heading back to the team bus afterwards, Lucy stopped for one moment as a group of guys playing two on two caught her attention.

Three of them were shirtless, and as a result, a group of girls had gathered to watch them. One was the white haired girl whom she had beat. Lucy watched as two of the guys dribbled and kicked while the other two hung out in the goals, made of two bags roughly the same distance apart. Something about the sight made Lucy smile. They seemed so carefree. This is what soccer was meant to be.

The pink haired guy looked up and their eyes caught. Lucy's mistrust and shyness wanted to kick in, but a smile spread across his face. It seemed so genuine and a happy. He lifted one hand behind his head and grinned as if he too was taken by their connection. The light haired girl turned to see where he was looking and scowled at the soccer ball hit him in the head. Lucy ducked her head in a smile and hobbled over to the bus.

Natsu raged at Gray, and when he looked up, the blond haired girl was gone.

Hope you enjoyed it!

-Kami