Caught
Chapter 1
"Welcome back, Master!" she greeted with a smile.
The young man in front of her returned the greeting rather bashfully before she encouraged him to step in and take a seat.
"Today we have our special Titania Strawberry Cake and our Happy Blue Pancakes," she said as she handed him one of their decorated menus. "However, if you're looking for something more savory, I highly recommend our Salamander Stir Fry."
"T-thank you," he replied as he took the menu from her hand as he avoided eye contact with the blonde.
"Would you like anything to drink?" she asked with a smile.
"O-orange juice."
She wrote down the order in her little notepad. "All right, I'll bring your juice and be right back to take your order, Master," she said before bowing slightly and walking towards the back.
When she reached the safety of the kitchen, she let out a deep sigh. It had been 3 month since Lucy had joined Fairy Tail Café. At first she had thought that the job consisted of the waitresses dressing up as characters from fairy tales, that thought had been quickly destroyed when she was hired on the spot and given a maid outfit.
It wasn't her ideal job, but she needed the money to help pay her apartment. It had been 5 months since her father lost everything and went into a slight depression. She says "slight," but truth be told she had to make sure he ate before and after she got home from school and work. She had never seen her father so thin before, and that said a lot considering he didn't eat much before due to his job.
She let out another sigh, this one louder than the one before.
"Is everything alright, Lucy-san?" asked the head cook as he expertly placed a slice of their famous Titania Strawberry Cake into a small white plate.
"Yeah," she replied with a small smile.
"If you need to take a break, I can always ask Mira to take over your tables," he said as he added a perfect scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.
"Thank you, Freed-san, but I'm okay."
"Are you sure?" he asked as he handed the order to one of the other maids.
She nodded.
"Excuse me, Lu-chan," said the maid holding a tray with the cake and a cup of dark coffee.
"Sorry, Levy-chan," she said as she moved out of the way and towards their drinks area. She poured in a simple glass some orange juice for her "master" and was about to go back out when she heard another voice.
"Hey, Luce," said Natsu as he prepared their Salamander Stir Fry. "Aren't you worried someone from your school might see you?"
She shook her head. "No, the school is on the other side of city, I doubt anyone lives around here."
"You sure?" he asked as he pushed the rice into a plate. "If anyone from your school finds out…won't you be expelled?"
She paused on her way to the curtain that separated the kitchen from the main area. "I know," she said before turning around and giving him a smile. "But don't worry, I'll be fine."
She kept her smile on as she walked out of the kitchen even though her thoughts were plagued with worry.
She had had a couple of close calls before. A good majority of them had to be with her friends when she came up with excuses as to why she couldn't hang out much. However, most of them had been with the Student Council – more specifically, the Student Body President, Gray Fullbuster.
She didn't know what his problem was, but the older teenager wouldn't leave her alone.
It had all started when one of the buttons from her blouse had come off. She had seen her trying to cover area near her chest where the button had come off. For whatever reason, he had found it completely normal to take off his shirt right then and there and handed it to her. Of course, she should also include the fact that this had happened in the middle of a crowded hallway.
Her friends had teased her, saying that "Fullbuster-senpai" had a thing for her. Naturally, she reattributed by saying that it was impossible because the "Ice Prince" (as the female population of the school had nicknamed him), wasn't exactly nice.
She had, however, been embarrassed when she had given him back his shirt the next day. Of course, she hadn't had the guts to go to his class or the Student Council room to give it back to him, so she simply left it inside his shoe locker when no one was looking.
After that, Mr. Ice Prince could be found in every corner she turned. As calm and relaxed as she acted on the outside, inside she was freaking out and she couldn't help but feel her heart beat faster whenever she saw him.
She shook her head as if trying to erase the thoughts that had popped into her mind. "Here you go, Master," she said with a smile. "Is there anything you would like to eat?"
"N-no, t-thank you."
She gave him a small smile before bowing lightly and walking towards the main door where she saw the couple she had been attending to earlier on in her shift ready to pay.
"Thank you, have a safe trip," she said with a smile as the couple left happily. She busied herself by looking around the small café. She saw many customers smile at the service they received. Sure, most were males, but that didn't stop a couple of girls from coming in and even dragging in their boyfriends.
The place itself wasn't large, but it was getting more and more popular with each passing week. The owner, Makarov Dreyar, had said it had been because of the beautiful girls they hired. Although she had to admit that the food here was top notch and very similar to watch she used to eat before. And the best part? It was all at a nice price range.
The ringing of the bell on top of the door rang and she turned around with a smile to greet their customer.
"Welcome back, Master!" she said before freezing in place.
'No way…'
One second.
One second was all it had taken for the young man in front of her to recognize her. Gray Fullbuster aka Mr. Ice Prince was staring at her with large eyes and an opened mouth.
Lucy couldn't believe her luck, of all to people to find out about her part-time, it had to be him, Gray freaking Fullbuster. She stood staring him like a deer caught in headlights; she made no movement of any sort, waiting for him to say something, anything!
Gray on the other hand couldn't believe that "Princess" Lucy Heartfilia was in front of him dressed in a somewhat conservative maid outfit. He hadn't exactly planned to come to this particular place, but he was hungry, there was no one at home to cook him dinner tonight so he had decided to take a stroll and see if there was something that caught his eye – or rather his stomach.
He tried to say something, anything, but nothing would come out. He didn't know what to say. Should he say "hey, it's good to see you, Heartfilia-san" or reprimand her by saying "part-time jobs are forbidden, quit now or I'll have to report you?" Either one sounded like a horrible idea, no matter how he said it.
After staring at one another for a good while, Lucy swallowed back her nervousness and proceeded to continue with her work.
"A-are you alone tonight, Master?" she asked trying to keep her voice from shaking too much.
Not trusting his voice to say anything, Gray simply nodded.
"Right this way," she said with a very well-practiced smile as she led him towards one of the tables that didn't fall within her serving area.
When he sat down, she said, "I'll go announce Master's arrival to Levy-chan, she'll be here with you shortly."
And before he could even say anything, Lucy had dashed out of his sight towards the kitchen. Near her destination she bumped into their newest addition to the group, Juvia, and making her drop a plate on her tray onto the ground.
CRASH!
The sound of tableware breaking brought the attention of everyone in the café and towards her.
"I-I'm sorry," she apologized before kneeling down and picking up the broken pieces carefully and putting them on her tray. Luckily for her, the plate Juvia had been handling had been empty. "I-I'll go throw this away," she said and without waiting for a reply went towards the kitchen.
"Is everything all right? I heard a crash," said Natsu approaching her. "Luce, is everything okay?"
"Y-yeah," she said as she moved around him and threw away the broken pieces in one of the trash cans. "I'll make sure to pay for it," she said.
Natsu looked at Freed for assistance and when the older man shook his head lightly indicating not to push further, he didn't. "All right," he said before taking her hand and dragging her towards their breakroom.
"N-Natsu!"
This was bad, if Lisanna walked in and saw them, she would definitely take it the wrong way.
"You have blood on your hands, relax," he said as if reading her mind.
She scolded herself silently as she finally felt her fingers sting from pain and the warm liquid tracing around her palms.
As they sat in the middle of the breakroom, she couldn't help but apologize. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.
"It happens," he said as he delicately and clumsily put a bandage on her left thumb. "At least you'll still be able to write," he said with a small chuckle.
She let out a small giggle. "Yeah." When he was done, she pulled her hand back. "Thanks, Natsu."
She stood up and made to leave the room until Natsu called out to her.
"You sure you're okay?" he asked concerned.
She turned around and gave him one of her perfect smiles. "Yep," she said and left the room before he could say anything else.
Throughout the rest of her shift, Lucy avoided looking anywhere except her customer's faces when she went out. She made sure to apologize to Juvia once more when she saw her again in the back when she was getting her orders.
Levy made no comment on Lucy placing Gray in her area even though she had been the one to greet him; after all, if all the tables in their area was full, they had to seat their "Masters" in an open table.
"Thank you, have a safe trip!" she heard Levy wish off one of her customers. She couldn't help her curiosity to see if it was him, so when she turned, oh how she dreaded her decision.
His dark blue eyes met hers steadily before turning to Levy and thanking her for the service. Then, he was gone.
She let out a sigh she didn't know she had been holding on. Knowing that he was not around and even more so out of the same space, she relaxed and went back to her job as if nothing had happened and that he last 30 minutes hadn't felt like torture.
At the end of her shift, she waved the staff goodbye as Erza came in and took over. She let her long hair loose from the confinement of her twintails as she stepped out from the back area of the café and was greeted by the sight of a young man leaning against the wall.
"K-kaichou!" she exclaimed when she finally recognized the person before her.
"About time you got off," he said as he pushed himself off the wall and started walking.
Lucy looked at his retreating back with blank eyes as her mind tried to processes what was happening.
"Oi! You coming or not?" he asked as he turned around when he noticed that she was not following him.
"Y-yes!" she replied and jogged to catch up to him.
Neither said anything as they walked through the crowded street. Every once in a while she would glance up at him, expecting him to say something, anything! But he said nothing, he simply followed her home, he even went as far as taking the train with her.
She hadn't noticed that he had followed her all the way home until she reached the small apartment complex she now lived in with her father.
"Ano…"
Great, she wasn't sure what she was going to say now.
"T-Thank you for bringing me home," she finally managed to say after much consideration and bowing really low.
"It was no problem," he said as he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
She lifted up her head and nodded. "Well, goodbye," she said before walking towards the doors of the lobby.
"See you tomorrow," he said as she walked inside.
She turned back around surprised by his words. She wanted to say something back, but he was already walking back to his own home probably.
Hello! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter ^-^ Chapter 2 will be posted tomorrow!
~Karie
