She was the last person he expected to run into, but, alas, there she was.
She stood in front of him, in all her perfect makeup and matching clothing, with a Captain America pin on her surely over-priced purse, next to one featuring Johnny Blaze, of all things, and one with the sign of SHEILD. She looked surprised too, to see him here, but it took only a few moments before her face lit up and she grinned. "Hi! Natsu, right? I didn't know you like superheroes."
He nodded. "Since when have you?" he asked, a little accusing. This was his world after all, and he didn't want to share it with the newest, but already popular, girl in school. She didn't seem to notice.
"Well, my mother loved them, Ghost Rider the most, but anything Marvel was great," she explained. "She gave me my first batch of comics, and I ate them right up." Lucy sighed, as if remembering. "Then I moved here, of course, and I met Romeo! You must know him, he's my neighbor."
"Yeah, he comes here all the time." The little traitor. He didn't understand that the casual observer could not just come into the greatest comic book shop on earth, or at least, as far as Natsu was concerned. The boy had a real love of the genre, but wasn't the best judge of whom else did. Natsu watched as she leaned down to read the cover of the newest volume of "Fantastic Four."
"He caught sight of some of my drawings and suggested this place to me." She straightened up and took a deep breath, as if tasting the comics in the air, closing her eyes. "And it's great." He felt his defenses begin to crumble at her smile, just a bit, as it was so honest.
"You draw?"
"Mhm!" Her hand went to her purse, and she glanced around, as if about to tell a secret. "Do you…" She looked really nervous, all the sudden, and he remembered that no matter what appearances, she was the new girl, with no friends to her name. "Do you want to see?" she offered.
"Sure," Natsu said, and she slipped a sketchbook out of her bag, flipping it to a completed page of a hand-drawn comic, inked and colored and all. He leaned forward, careful not to touch the paper, because that was a sin above all sins but spoiling. She was good, he admitted. "What's her name?" He gestured to the one that was obviously the main character, with long blue hair and a power quite obviously related to water from the panels.
"Aquarius," Lucy said, leaning over to point to spots on her paper. "And he's Scorpio, kind of an anti-hero. Everything is based off of the zodiacs." The passion was clear in her voice. Natsu was a fan of passion.
"Who's this one?" He pointed. She didn't seem to quite fit in with the others, a blond in a simpler outfit, though seemingly the brains of the excursion. She was in headquarters, but her impact on the story was clear. Lucy swallowed before smiling, if a little duller.
"That's Layla. She has cancer. She's named after my mother."
The unspoken message clicked in Natsu's brain. "Umm…"
Lucy turned away, towards another new release. "I haven't read this one yet."
"How about this?" Perhaps he had judged her wrong. Maybe he wouldn't mind if she came here more often, to escape in the world of superheroes.
And maybe he'd show her his comic, one day.