"Ugh..." Lucy groaned into her folded arms while Mirajane and Cana, who had fast become her friends in the wake of the past few months, respectively patted her head and stared at her exasperatedly.
"Lucy, this is your fourth time this month that you've been here... You know you can't push these kinds of things." Mira told her gently and Lucy felt her throat clench.
"You need to get a grip, girl. We can only do so much." Cana sighed and Lucy eyed her scornfully from behind her hair that had fallen over her face. Cana's gaze softened a bit and she continued. "Besides, Mira is right, you really can't rush this process. We can only help a little, this is a natural thing."
"I know, but..." Lucy groaned again and sighed in defeat. There she was, in all her hopeless romantic glory, at the 'Soul's Destiny' soulmate locater. How lame is that?
Soulmates were of prevalence in the world that Lucy lived in. Lucy spent most of her adult life watching her friends find their soulmates while she was left cheering them lamely on and biting her tongue to keep herself from cursing the ground that her soulmate stood on. She was twenty three and already decided that she was, in fact, going to die alone.
The only way to know if you have found your soulmate was to hear them speak; it was a different reaction for each pair, so Lucy didn't entirely know what to expect. She talked to a lot of people because of this, she was a natural chatter box in the right setting, but still she sat there, alone, in the agency once more.
She knew that Cana and Mira were just being polite, but she pestered them an awful lot. The three had become close friends, it was actually one of Lucy's other friends, Erza, who had introduced her to the duo that ran the agency. Since she had an in, Lucy took full advantage of it and ended up really clicking with the two older girls.
"Trust me on this one, you've just got to give it some time. If you keep thinking about it, it's going to consume your brain, and that's not healthy." Mira fretted and Lucy lifted her head up to meet their gaze.
"I know, I know, but it's so hard seeing everyone so happy. I mean, you have Laxus! And Cana has Bacchus no matter the fact that their relationship is fueled by alcohol."
"Hey! It's fueled by the love of alcohol." Cana intervened and Mira gave her a patronizing glance. "And the love we have for each other."
"Either way, I think that it's just not going to happen." Lucy threw her hands up, "Whoever my soulmate is can choke on it." Lucy glared at the mahogany desk the two girls were sitting behind.
"You don't mean that..." Mira soothed her and Lucy felt like throwing herself on the ground and having an adult fit.
"You're only twenty three, Lucy, chill." Cana pointed out and Lucy felt panic rise in her chest.
"Only?! That's practically thirty and then I'll be expected to have kids! But if I don't have my soulmate by then, I won't be able to have kids unless I adopt or have artificial insemination! And if I don't do any of that, I'm bound to die an old hag! I am screwed."
"Geez, are all writers this dramatic?" Cana scoffed and Mira looked as though she were biting back a laugh of her own.
"Lucy, Lucy, calm down. You are not going to die an old hag, you're way too pretty to be a hag anyways, but that's not the point." Mira patted Lucy's hands and Lucy tried to steady her breathing. "Why doesn't Cana read your cards once more?"
"Aw hell..." Cana groaned and Lucy started to feel terrible.
"N-no, it's fine. I'm just going to go home now." Lucy sighed and smiled at the girls. "You two are great, thanks."
"Wait! Let me do one more reading..." Cana shrugged and pulled out her tarot cards. There was some magic behind what Mira and Cana did to help people find their soulmates. Cana had a natural gift for tarot card readings, but she strictly stuck with being a matchmaker. She didn't do readings outside of that, like telling people the goods and the bads about their lives. She didn't want people to blame her for anything terrible that happened to them, and she also didn't like seeing something terrible in the cards for someone. Mira used a special lacrima orb that helped her catch glimpses of what people's soulmates may look like. Sometimes it was the color of their eyes or hair, what gender they were, and even what they smelled like, but it was never what their voices sounded like.
"Huh, that's weird." Cana muttered as she flipped over her cards. It startled Lucy's thoughts and she quickly flicked her gaze over to the brunette.
"What is it?" Lucy asked eagerly and Cana frowned down at her cards.
"Well," She began, fixing the cards so they were perfectly lined up with one another, "You've conjured the 'Suit of Wands'."
"And that means..?"
"It represents the element of fire. The Suit of Wands tarot is associated with primal energy, much like fire, spirituality, inspiration, that's good for your writing, determination, strength, intuition, creativity, ambition, and expansion. The wands can represent the times in your life when things just seem to fit together perfectly, almost uncannily." Cana stared down at her cards in wonder, she always looked so full of mystery when she did a reading. "I think this is an extremely fantastic reading, Lucy. It's hard to get the full Suit of Wands to come up in a reading. I think this is very good."
"R-really?" Lucy's heart fluttered and Cana broke into a broad smile, nodding. "That's great!"
"That sounds wonderful, Lucy! Thank you Cana." Mira clasped her hands over her chest and then stood up, disappearing in their back room through the tapestry that hung in the doorway. "I'd like to take a look in my orb one more time to see if anything ties with Cana's reading." She called and Lucy smiled softly; this was why she came to the girls, they were an amazing team.
Mira hastily returned, biting her bottom lip, her brow creased. "Well, I did get something." Mira started and Lucy found herself leaning in in anticipation. "I get the feeling that there is a strong relation between your soulmate and one or two people that you know in your life... But that's all that I really was able to see." Lucy pondered the thought for a moment, she'd need more time to think that part of it over.
"That's great, thank you both!" Lucy hugged the girls tightly before setting out to leave.
"Don't come back here anytime soon!" Cana waved and Lucy giggled.
"I hope I won't have to!"
"We'll see you next weekend, right?" Mira questioned and Lucy nodded not forgetting the plans that they had made with everyone.
"Of course!"
"And that's how my day went." Lucy sighed and sprawled across the couch, Levy staring at her in amusement.
"Well, you certainly had an interesting day bothering Mira and Cana again!" Levy giggled and sat next to Lucy. "But I'm happy that something finally came through for you!"
"Yeah, me too. But you know, maybe I shouldn't be so obsessed with finding my soulmate, maybe I am jinxing it by harping on it so much. I mean, everyone has a soulmate, right? There's no reason for me to be so worried since it will happen one day."
"Well, someone is awfully optimistic after hearing such promising news from the girls! But I wouldn't dare say that there's a connection between the two..." Levy snickered and Lucy threw a small, decorative pillow at Levy's blue haired head. She quickly dodged it and it flew past her, just in time to hit Gajeel in the stomach as he was walking into the kitchen.
"The hell?" He grumbled, his wild black hair even more messy from the nap that he had been taking. He worked long hours at his dad's tattoo parlor as an artist and piercer, and he had finally had a day off, opting to spend most of it sleeping. "You guys tryin'a pick a fight?" Lucy let out a loud laugh as Levy tried to stifle hers; he was even aggressive when half asleep.
"Good afternoon sleeping beauty." Levy greeted him with a peck on his cheek making the grumpy man blush ever so slightly.
"I was assaulted with a pillow, I think that's grounds for a fight." Gajeel grumbled.
"Yeah, those dangerous pillows." Lucy scoffed and aimed to throw another at his head causing him to practically growl. "You know, you're not very tough with pajama bottoms with little cats all over them, pfft..." Lucy snickered, just noticing the patterned pants.
"Hey, that's Lily's face on them!" Gajeel snapped, but a hint of mischievousness flashed in his eyes, and in an instant, the pillow that had previously hit his stomach was being hurled in Lucy's direction.
"Hey! That was really hard!" Lucy exclaimed having just barely dodged the projectile.
"Wimp." Gajeel chuckled and Lucy scowled.
"Children, children! Let's make peace and have some dinner, shall we?" Levy compromised and Lucy and Gajeel grumbled in agreement. It had been just Lucy and Levy sharing an apartment before she met Gajeel. Levy had gone into Gajeel's dad's parlor, accompanying her friends Jet and Droy who wanted to get tattoos. They wimped out, of course, but Levy was intrigued and decided that she was going to get a tattoo then and there. It was Gajeel who took her in, and of course after they spoke to each other... Well, the rest is history.
Gajeel moved in with them a few months later, which Lucy had no objection to. It was actually nice having the scary looking guy hanging around their place, no one dared mess with Lucy or Levy, and Gajeel had quickly become a brotherly figure to her. That was years ago now and the trio lived happily together with Gajeel's cat, Pantherlily.
"Oh, Gajeel, you have a message by the way. Your cousin called and said he was coming for a visit and to see his dad, and was looking for a place to stay. I told him that he could stay here." Levy informed her boyfriend who choked on his ice water.
"Wait, you're not talkin' about Natsu, are ya?"
"Yes..." Levy started carefully while Gajeel practically shook with horror. "I know you two don't get along very well, but your dad and Igneel run the tattoo shop together, and he's your family. You can make peace with him for a week."
"A week! Holy fuck, a whole week! Lev! Are you trying to kill me?" Gajeel's deep voice seemed to rise a few octaves.
"Uh... Can I intervene here? What's going on?" Lucy questioned and Levy turned to her, ignoring Gajeel's protesting whimpers.
"You know Gajeel's uncle, Igneel? The one who runs the shop with Metalicana?" Lucy nodded. "Well, he has a son, Natsu. He's the same age as Natsu and the two babies go way back when it comes to fighting and bickering with each other, apparently. Or so Metalicana and Igneel have told me."
"I see... So, this Natsu guy, he's staying here?" Lucy mused and Levy nodded.
"Yeah, I figured he could stay on the pullout. A week won't kill him." Levy decided and Lucy nodded again.
"But I will..." Gajeel stated darkly, his knuckles turning white from gripping his cup so tightly.
"Okay, let's just, let's do this," Levy slowly uncurled his fingers from the cup and gently set it on the table. She then stood on one of the dining room chairs so she could be eye level with him; it truly was a sight to see and Lucy was biting back a fit of laughter. "Now, you will behave, this is not the end of the world." Levy pat the top of Gajeel's head, his face a mixture of anger and blankness.
"W-when is he coming?" Gajeel finally spluttered out. "And why couldn't he stay at Igneel's house?"
"The day after tomorrow and there isn't enough room since Grandeeney and Wendy moved in." Levy answered simply and hopped off the chair. Lucy could have sworn she saw Gajeel's tear up and he only regret was not filming the whole ordeal.
Luckily Natsu wasn't coming until Sunday which meant that Lucy and Levy entirely had Saturday to clean and get ready to have company. Gajeel mainly moped around until he had to leave for work where Lucy was sure he'd bitch to his dad.
"Geez, he really does not like his cousin, does he?" Lucy stated as she swept the linoleum floor of the kitchen.
"Nope. But they're family, it's really not as bad as Gajeel makes it out to be."
"Why do he and Natsu get along so poorly?"
"I think they're both hot heads from what I've heard, that never mixes well. But I think that one time Natsu caught Gajeel's hair on fire... Well, apparently Natsu catches a lot of things on fire. The kid has this knack of being an accidental pyromaniac. I do not know how one becomes that, but he has." Levy sighed, straightening her back up after fluffing the couch cushions.
"That's... Really weird." Lucy laughed sending Levy into a fit of giggles.
"Yeah, I really hope he doesn't set anything on fire while he's here." Levy shuddered.
"Oh, who are Grandeeney and Wendy?" Lucy questioned having heard the mention of them the day before.
"Grandeeney is Igneel's fiancé. Wendy is Grandeeney's daughter, I guess that Wendy, Natsu, and Gajeel have all known each other since they were little since their parents were all friends. Apparently Grandeeney and Igneel have always had a thing." Levy explained. "The two of them were married previously, to their own soulmates actually, but they ended up dying, like Gajeel's mom. I didn't press too much about it thought."
"That's terrible!" Lucy exclaimed. "But I'm glad that they all have each other and that Igneel and Grandeeney were able to find solace in each other."
"Yeah, it's really sweet, isn't it?" Levy smiled and Lucy grinned back.
"Hey, do you know what this guy looks like? I want to see who's going to be living with us for a week." Lucy pondered after a few moments of silence and Levy smirked.
"You just want to know if he's cute or not." Levy teased and Lucy blushed heavily.
"N-no! Not true!"
"Liar!" Levy sang and flopped down on the couch, bringing her laptop up onto her thighs. Lucy watched over her shoulder as Levy brought up Facebook and quickly typed in 'Natsu Dragneel'. "Okay, here we go." Levy directed the computer screen more towards Lucy as she joined Levy on the couch. Levy had brought up his profile and Lucy's eyes almost bugged out of her head.
"Holy shit!" Lucy couldn't stop herself from exclaiming. "He's fucking hot!" Levy snorted and Lucy felt her face heat up once more, but didn't take her eyes of the guy's profile picture. He had peculiar pink hair, but Lucy thought it suited him. He sported a gold septum ring that was complimented nicely with his tanned skin. His eyes were a grayish green that looked playful, and his smile showed off his abnormally sharp canines. Tattoo sleeves extended from both of his shoulders down to his wrists; from what Lucy could make out, he had a design focusing mainly on a fiery red dragon down his right arm, and a phoenix design, mimicking the dragon, on his left.
"So, piercings and tattoos run in the family, check." Lucy noted and Levy snorted.
"Well, Gajeel and Natsu both have dads that work in the same tattoo and pierce shop."
"Well, it suits the hell out of this guy." Lucy flipped through more of his pictures noting that, while he wasn't the type to post shirtless pictures, there were some nice ones of him at a beach.
"Don't accidentally like something while you're drooling over him." Levy snickered and Lucy scowled, though not able to rip her eyes away from Natsu's profile.
"Shut up, I'm not going to like anything." Lucy scoffed. "Well, I am liking what I'm seeing, but I won't do it digitally." Levy snorted out a laugh as she made her way to the kitchen, taking out ingredients to prepare dinner.
"You've got it so bad for him, Lu! You haven't even met the guy! He could be as much of a dick as Gajeel makes him out to be." Levy advised and Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Gajeel's an ass and yet you're still with him." Lucy shot back and Levy chuckled.
"Yeah, but he's my ass of a soulmate."
"That sounds weird." Lucy giggled and Levy ignored her making fun and busied herself with cooking. Lucy continued scrolling through Natsu's profile before she finally decided to tell herself that it was, in fact, creeping to stalk their guest that deeply.
"I guess that he and Lisanna were really good friends when they were little. Natsu has been traveling for about a year I guess and decided it was time to come back home to good old Magnolia." Levy shrugged.
"Oh, Mira's sister? That's nice to know that more people know him, it makes him feel more familiar."
"Yeah, I guess so."
Sunday came quickly and Lucy found herself anxious. She didn't know what to expect from Natsu being a pyromaniac and having Gajeel at his throat, and all. She didn't know why she felt so nervous, it's not like he was coming here to visit her, he was going to see his dad. Lucy huffed, she was started to annoy herself being so self centered.
"So... When is he supposed to come?" Lucy couldn't stop herself from asking the question as she, Levy, and Gajeel sat in their living room.
"You sound eager, don't you Lucy?" Levy openly teased her in front of Gajeel, but he seemed to pay no mind to their banter.
"The dick texted me a little while ago, he should be here within an hour." Gajeel muttered and Lucy felt her heart flutter in anticipation.
"Why don't I make some food? What kind of food does Natsu like?" Lucy asked Gajeel who eyed her suspiciously.
"What are ya tryin' impress him for?" Gajeel grunted and Lucy's cheeks burned.
"I-I'm not! I just want to be hospitable." Lucy reasoned and Gajeel scoffed.
"Well, if he's anything like Gajeel, I'm sure he loves food."
"I'll make tacos for dinner then, we haven't had those in a while." Lucy decided and busied herself in the kitchen, seasoning beef, and rummaging through the cupboard for taco shells.
As Gajeel had promised, within an hour there was a knock at their apartment door. Lucy thought it was just in time because she had just finished chopping vegetables and setting the table, with Levy's help.
Gajeel grudgingly got up to answer the door and Lucy quickly stripped the pink apron that she was wearing, and scurried over with Levy to greet their guest. The door was open by the time Lucy made her way over revealing the same man that she had stalked on Facebook. Gajeel grunted at their guest in greeting and Levy rolled her eyes.
"Hi, Natsu! I'm Gajeel's girlfriend, Levy. I was the one who spoke to you! This is my friend Lucy." Levy smiled and Natsu grinned brightly. Just as Lucy was saying hello, Natsu greeted them with a 'Yo!'.
His voice hit her like a train, the raspiness of it, the deepness of it, it all fit his outer exterior. However, the sweetness of his voice was choked off and he doubled over, and Lucy didn't need to ask what was wrong because she was in an identical position. She let out a a cry, drawing her arms to her stomach. It felt like liquid fire was coursing through her veins, white hot pain was searing her insides, and tears spilled from her eyes.
Natsu's own cries mixed with hers as he fell to his knees in front of Gajeel and Levy, who both looked on in horror at the pair on the floor.
"What the fuck?!" Gajeel cried out, "Are you guys okay?!"
"Lu! What's wrong? Lucy!" Levy yelped and rushed to Lucy's side. Lucy was too busied with the fury raging in her body to respond. Her gaze found Natsu's, the eyes that she had thought were so lovely the day before looking so pained seemed to hurt her more, tears rolling down his tanned cheeks.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on, should we call an ambulance?" Gajeel focused his gaze on Levy who looked helpless. Then, as quickly as it came, the pain stopped completely leaving Lucy crumpled on the floor, and a little sweaty.
"What... the fuck..." Natsu gasped out, his gaze burning into Lucy's. "I didn't think it'd be that painful, fuck."
"M-me either..." Lucy's face flushed at the realization of his words.
"Can someone let me know what's going on here!?" Levy yelped, her voice higher than normal, and her cell phone in her hand ready to call an ambulance. Natsu grinned as he finally stood up, Gajeel's face a mixture of confusion and irritation.
"Whew! It's nice to meet you two!" Natsu barked out a laugh and Levy looked like she was going to pass out.
"What the fuck..!" Levy yelled, her outburst even startling Gajeel.
"I didn't know that finding my soulmate would hurt so much." Natsu admitted sheepishly and Lucy felt her heart flutter for the umpteenth time since she had heard about Natsu.
"What?!" Levy cried out. "What do you mean 'soulmate'?"
"I-I guess we're soulmates..." Lucy was sure her face was red, but if anyone pointed it out she was sure to blame it on the pain she had just endured.
"W-what do you mean? It didn't hurt when Gajeel and I met! A-are you okay?"
"It felt like fire burning through my veins..." Lucy whispered out and Natsu perked up again.
"Yeah, that's exactly how it felt..."
"Probably because you're a damn pyromaniac!" Gajeel scoffed. "The fuck are ya doin' hurtin' Lucy just because you're a shit head?!"
"N-no, it makes sense actually!" Lucy suddenly realized. "Cana's cards... The Suit of Wands represents fire... Mira said it'd be someone who had relations with a few people I know..." Lucy was whispering to herself, ticking off the things the girls had said on her fingers.
"Er... Did you go to one of those lame soulmate finders?" Natsu snickered and Lucy frowned.
"Hey, they're my friends, and they're right!" Lucy retorted and Natsu burst out into laughter. Lucy relished in the sound of his voice, the voice that opened a new door in her life, the voice that she had suddenly, and all at once, fell in love with.
"This sucks!" Gajeel cried out and Levy looked at him incredulously. "Now he's gonna be around even more!"
"Oh, for gods' sake, Gajeel!"
"Yeah, I think I will be." Natsu sent Lucy a sly smile and she giggled feeling warmth spread through her body. "You have a really pretty voice by the way."