THE SHRINE MAIDEN AND THE DELINQUENT
CHAPTER 1
[A/N: So yeah i decided to write another one, i'll update my 'will you be my hero' fic some time soon, got a little writers block with that one, hope you enjoy, i had a dream about this story so i decided to publish it and see how it goes, dont forget to leave a review ;D]
In some part of modern day Japan, we see a teenage boy with salmon-coloured hair running like his life depends on it. This boy's name is Natsu Dragneel, a well-known delinquent at his school and neighborhood.
Why was he running you ask?
Because he thought it would be a good idea to pick a fight with his schools biggest rival; Sabertooth Academy, a prep school in his neighboring town. Now he's finding that it wasn't a smart move to try and take on 10 well-built football players at once just coz he was in the mood for a fight.
Natsu liked to keep to himself and didn't want to have any close friends for some reason, the only people he kept close to him was his little sister Wendy and his pet cat Happy.
People also tended to avoid him because of his violent nature, there were only two people in his school who he would even give the time of day to, an annoying stripper who he loved picking fights with; Gray Fullbuster, and the demonic student council president who always broke up their fights; Erza Scarlet. In a way he considered them friends but would never admit it out loud.
Now Natsu wasn't running away because he was outnumbered in terms of skill, in fact he has had several years of martial arts training, no he was running because a few of the guys from Saber decided to bring metal poles and wooden sticks into their fight, and he now had a broken rib and blood running down his head.
He had no idea where he was running to, he knew he was in the opposite direction of his neighborhood, but he didn't know any of the buildings around him. He could still hear the Saber guys chasing him and his rib was hurting even more from all the running he was doing, his head was killing him and his vision was becoming blurry.
He guessed that the blow to his head was harder than he thought.
Suddenly he saw a long flight of stairs, they seemed to be leading up to a large building, he turned around and noticed that his pursuers were a few feet away from him and figured he could find a place to hide up there.
The building was surrounded by bushes and trees, and he figured if he couldn't get into the building itself he would just go hide in the bushes.
It was only when he got to the top of the stairs that he discovered that the building was in fact a shrine, and if he remembered correctly shrines had storage rooms.
He looked around until he found an empty looking building, and thought that it must be the storeroom.
He was just about to open the door when all of a sudden his vision blurred even more and his legs gave out, then all he saw was black.
When Natsu woke up he thought he'd still be lying on the concrete floor outside a storeroom, or at least in a hospital from being beaten half to death, but no, he found himself on a bed in a small room, the shelves filled with little figurines and candles, a small coffee table in the middle of the floor, and a nightstand next to him.
The first thought to pop into his head was that he was kidnapped, but quickly dispelled that thought when he realized he was being paranoid.
He tried to get up but his head hurt too much so he just stayed put, he noticed a wet cloth was placed on his forehead, and a small bowl of water was on the nightstand, next to it was a glass of water which he quickly gulped down, not realizing how thirsty he was.
He pulled of the cover of the blanket and looked down at his chest, he noticed that someone had bandaged him up (and that his shirt was missing), and his ribs were feeling much better.
Suddenly the door to the room he was in opened up, he couldn't see the persons face clearly because of the lack of light outside.
"I'll be inside in a minute, I just need to make sure everything's closed up first father!" yelled the person.
It was then that Natsu realized that the person was female, and she sounded a little panicky, the person was holding a tray of something and was fumbling to close the door behind her.
"Oh, I see that you're awake, thank goodness" she said with a sigh of relief.
Once she got close enough Natsu could see her face and held his breath.
She had golden blonde hair tied in low hanging pigtails, doe brown eyes, and the most gorgeous face he had ever seen, and she was dressed as a shrine maiden.
Natsu was dumbstruck, he had never seen such a beautiful girl before in his life, her outfit was baggy in some places but from what he could see she had a great figure too, not to mention her chest was slightly exposed.
Natsu could feel his face warming up and quickly looked away from her as she knelt down in front of his bed. She placed the tray she was holding next to her as she sat on her knees.
"I was really shocked when I saw you passed out in front of our storehouse, I didn't know what to think, but when I saw your injuries I carried you here as fast as I could, are you feeling any better?" she asked with a smile.
Natsu glanced at her sideways, his face felt like its normal temperature again so he turned to look at her.
"Yeah, I'm fine, my heads killing me though" he said as he placed his hand on his head and groaned at the pressure.
"Well I guess that's to be expected, it looked like you got hit over the head with a steel pole or something" she said jokingly.
Natsu cringed, she hit the nail right on the head, when she noticed he wasn't laughing she realized that what she said was true, and her face turned from amused to worried.
"Oh my gosh you were, I'm so sorry that was so insensitive of me, are you in trouble, is there some kind of gang after you, are you being hunted by the mafia, or being bullied in school!?"
She just kept on rambling, not even giving Natsu a chance to answer her, he was just watching her ramble and thought it was hilariously cute; she sure did have some wild imagination.
"Um, no, it's nothing like that, I just got into a fight with a bunch of shitheads that decided to fight dirty, no gang or anything was involved" he said the minute she stopped talking.
She blinked a few times then let out a sigh of relief and placed her hand over her chest "That's a slight relief, sorry if my rambling freaked you out, I've been told I have an overactive imagination, my dad scolds me about it constantly" she said as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, a slight blush present on her cheeks.
Natsu had to turn his head again to avoid her from seeing the blush on his face; her face looked so cute just then that he couldn't fight off his own reaction.
"Uh, n-no its cool, I thought it was kinda cute" he said, he mentally slapped himself in the face for saying that last part out loud, he hated himself for being such an honest person.
"E-eh? N-nobody's ever said that my rambling was cute before, th-th-thank you, ehehe…" she said as she fidgeted with her hands.
Natsu glanced at her quickly to see what she was doing, and noticed her face was red like a tomato, she was pretty easily embarrassed, he couldn't help but wonder how much fun she would be to tease, her faces were so cute.
"So… you mind telling me where I am exactly?" he asked.
The girl looked up from the floor and looked at the boy with a mortified expression "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I should have told you straight away, I mean, it must be scary waking up in a strange environment suddenly, please forgive my insensitivity!" she said as she bowed her head.
"Ah, n-no you don't have to apologize, please get up, relax a bit, I'm not gonna yell at ya or nuthing" said Natsu trying to calm down the panicked girl.
She sat back up and nodded her head, placing her hands in her lap "W-well, your at my family's shrine; the Stellar Spirit shrine to be specific, its in the middle of town" she said looking at him.
Natsu nodded his head, he remembered hearing something about a shrine nearby, but he'd never actually been there before, maybe when he was a little kid, but not since then.
"Ok, um, who fixed me up?" he asked while pointing at his chest with his brow raised.
"O-oh that was me, you seemed like you were in a lot of pain, and luckily I have first aid training that came in handy, but you should still go to a doctor though" she said with a small smile.
Natsu thought this was the perfect opportunity to tease her "So, you took off my shirt and wrapped bandages around my chest while I was unconscious, wow how bold of you" he said with a smirk.
The girls face turned beet red and Natsu swore he saw steam coming out of her ears.
"W-w-what, n-n-n-no, I j-j-just, I mean, th-th-there were no, that is, I had no ill intentions, I-I w-was just t-trying to help, I wasn't doing anything dirty!" she said while looking everywhere but at Natsu.
Natsu couldn't hold in his laughter anymore, she was just too easy to tease; her reaction was too much for him.
"Calm down, I was just messing with ya" he said while trying to calm down his laughter.
Once the girl saw Natsu laughing she puffed out her cheeks and huffed in annoyance.
"That wasn't nice, maybe I should have just left you outside then" she said as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from Natsu.
"Aaaw no don't be like that Blondie, I'm sorry" he said with a smirk.
The girl got ticked off and looked at him angrily "Don't call me Blondie you pink-haired jerk!" she yelled.
"Hey hey, don't yell, I don't know your name so what else am I suppose to call you?" he said while raising his hands in a defensive motion.
The girl recoiled, her face had a pink tint to it when she realized that Natsu was right, and she didn't know his name either.
"M-my names Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia" she said shyly.
Natsu smiled, now at least he knew her name "Well its nice to meet you Lucy, my names Natsu" he said with a grin while pointing to himself with his thumb.
"N-nice to meet you too… oh I almost forgot" she picked up the tray she carried in and lifted the cover that was on it to reveal a plateful of food, Natsu was drooling the second he saw it.
"I wasn't sure if you were going to be awake anytime soon, but I made you some dinner in case you got hungry when you woke up, I hope you like it" she said with a smile as she placed the tray on Natsu's lap.
He was so happy to see food that he had tears in his eyes, this girl just kept on getting better and better.
"Itadakimasu!" he said and started wolfing the food down, it was gone within a minute.
Lucy was in a state of shock, she had never seen someone eat so fast her whole life, she was grossed out yet flattered at the same time, if that was even possible, she just figured it meant he really liked her cooking, she smiled as she watched him eat the last bits of food on the plate.
"Whew, that was awesome, you're a great cook Lucy!" he said as he finished his food.
"Ahahaha thank you, I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat my cooking as fast as you though that was pretty impressive" she said as she rubbed the back of her head shyly, his complement making her blush slightly.
"Ehehehe, sorry, I eat like a pig dying of starvation, or so I've been told" he said scratching his nose, his cheeks a light shade of pink too.
"Well while I'd call that an accurate description, its good to know that somebody appreciates my cooking so much" she said with a smile.
Natsu was in awe, normally when a person saw him eat they'd walk in the opposite direction of him and sneer disgustingly, but Lucy, she didn't mind, she actually took his eating habits as a complement.
"You now, your kinda weird" he said with a smile.
Lucy's eyes widened, she felt embarrassed at his comment, until he finished what he was saying.
"But a really good kind of weird"
[A/N: So much blushing! aw i wish Natsi was always this cute, so what ya think, should i keep going? Review, review, review! XD]