The Game for Natsumi's Heart
The bet was to win Natsumi's heart, but who the hell keeps foiling their plans?
AU. NaLu. [One-sided Gratsu!Najeel!Sting x Natsu!]
Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, I do not.
"She's cool ain't she?" asked a dark haired boy called Gray, who fiddled with the buttons of his shirt. His two companions nodded their heads in agreement as three pairs of eyes followed the swift movements of a pinkette named Natsumi who was currently playing an intense game of football. All three of the young teenagers had made a goal to win the attention of Natsumi Dragneel, but the right opportunity never came. Boys have never been the most patient creatures and they knew they would have to sort this issue out soon.
"How about we make a bet?" A scruffy-looking, pierced guy suggested, folding his arms across his chest. The others perked at the idea, the blue-eyed blonde smirking slightly.
"I quite like that idea, Gajeel. The winner is the one who Natsumi chooses to date." Gray shrugged, now randomly topless, which was nothing new.
"Easy as pie. I'll win easily - no one can resist my cool charms." Gajeel snorted.
"Don't get too cocky, Fullbuster."
"Yeah Gray. After all, I don't want any hard feelings when I crush your ego when I win the bet."
"Like, no offence Sting, but I doubt she digs blondes."
"I AM THE GREAT STING EUCLIFFE! No underling like you can outshine my brilliance!"
This of course, started an argument between the trio, and the game for Natsumi's heart had begun.
Little did they know, someone had overheard their conversation and a small smile appeared on their lips.
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
"Hey there Natsumi," Gray casually sauntered up to the pinkette during free period, a slushie in his hand, "it's pretty hot today, do you want this?" Natsumi scrunched up her nose and shook her head vehemently.
"No, I don't like cold things." Gray stood their awkwardly for a moment, before walking away, utterly confused. He was sure the mysterious note in his locker said that Natsumi loved icy drinks like slushies. Surely he hadn't been set up by his own friends - they wouldn't stoop that low, would they?
Meanwhile, Natsumi felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to meet friendly, chocolate brown eyes.
"Here, I have an extra Firestick, you can have it if want." Her charcoal eyes brightened and she accepted the spicy-goodness gratefully, a wide grin on her face.
"Thanks!"
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
Natsumi skidded on the floor, the hard impact shredding the skin on her knees and hands. She whipped her head round to glare at the bastard that dared trip her, eyes flashing dangerously as the temperature around her drastically rose. Gajeel witnessed this and decided to try his luck at being her knight in shining armour.
"Oi, Salamander," Gajeel wasn't very good at talking nicely to girls and called Natsumi by her nickname, "I'll take you to the Nurse's office." He extended a hand and just as she was about to take it, a stray, flying football crashed into the side of his head, which pissed Gajeel off greatly.
"WHO FUCKING KICKED THAT?!" He roared. Many momentarily froze before scattering, no one actually owning up so Gajeel decided to chase after the most guilty looking one, leaving Natsumi by herself. The star athlete felt a presence beside her and saw the same boy from before, rummaging through his bag and bringing out a mini medical kit.
"You scraped your hands and knees pretty bad." The chocolate-eyed boy disinfected her cuts and layered her scraped knees in plasters before bandaging her hands. Then, he randomly stuck an unneeded plaster to her cheek which caused Natsumi to tilt her head in confusion.
"I don't have a cut on my face." The boy smiled.
"I know. I just think it looks cute."
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
The teenaged girl wiped the sweat off of her forehead, her cheeks slightly flushed from the continuous exercise, and she sat down on a bench to cool down. Thoughts of that guy passed through her mind and her flushed face seemed to rosy more in colour. She spotted the vending machine in the corner and decided that a refreshing bottle of water would be good right now and fished through her pockets for change, but she could not even find a measly one pence.
"Hey Natsumi~" Said pinkette looked up, hoping it was him and did her best to hide her disappointment when it wasn't. Sting leaned against the wall, some change in hand. "You must be pretty thirsty right? I'll buy you a drink." She was about to protest but the arrogant blonde had already sauntered over to machine and tried to insert 50p. He stopped and frowned, brows knitting together.
"What the hell, someone's jammed the coin slot." He peered into the slot and upon closing inspection he could see that someone had deliberately stuffed some chewing gum down there. Sting raked his hand through his hair in frustration and turned to the girl who had now walked over to him.
"Wait here, I'll go to a different one." The captain for the boy's football team raced round the corner to find the next vending machine whilst Natsumi was wondering why she was getting so much attention from guys recently. With a mutter under her breath she turned her head only to be whacked in the face with a bottle of water.
"Oops, sorry." A familiar voice called. Natsumi looked up at that chocolate-eyed boy. She never realized it until now, but he always seemed to be there when she was in need of help. She had to admit, it was a pretty good quality of his. Natsumi grinned.
"Nah, it's alright. Just pass me the water before I die of dehydration." With a soft chuckle, the boy passed her the bottle which she gulped down greedily.
"Thanks for the water! I feel like we should hang out more often." He smiled a bright smile. Natsumi really liked that smile.
"Sure."
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
Natsumi slumped over her desk, her stomach demonstrating the sounds of a dying whale.
"Uggghhh...I'm sooo hungryyy..." she whined, cursing herself for forgetting her lunch and having no money (again) to buy food from the cafeteria. Gray inwardly grinned at his new opportunity and slid into the empty seat next to her as everyone left the classroom to go to the dining hall.
"Hey Natsumi, I packed a lot of food today so there should be enough to share, if you'd like?" She straightened up in her seat and stared at him with hopeful eyes. With an unseen, satisfied smirk he opened his lunch box to find...nothing. It was empty. HOW WAS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?! He specifically remembered packing his lunch that morning. Natsumi stared at the emptiness of his lunch box with a depressed look and Gray jumped up from his seat.
"H-hang on...I'll get something from the cafeteria." He dashed off, hoping that the queue wouldn't be too long.
As soon as Gray disappeared from view, the classroom door opened, revealing Natsumi's new best friend.
"Oh, you're still here Natsumi?" He asked, walking over to her desk.
"Yeah...I forgot my lunch," she sighed, "anyway, what are you here for?"
"I normally eat in the classroom, the cafeteria is too noisy." He took the seat beside her and opened his lunch box which was jam-packed with food, at which Natsumi's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Woah...surely you don't eat that much? Where'd you get all the extra stuff from?" He fidgeted nervously, not looking her in the eye.
"I, uh, well..." The chocolate eyed boy was interrupted by a growl of Natsumi's stomach.
"Never mind that, just eat before your stomach caves in." Natsumi decided to let the matter go and ravaged the food, mumbling her thanks.
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
Natsumi's stomach heaved as she slouched in her seat, face pressed against the window as the scenery blurred past. She hated school trips. They caused her to suffer so much and all because of her ridiculous, severe motion sickness. She gagged as the coach hit a bump in road, clutching her stomach, her face sweating and sickly. Gajeel, who had somehow managed to become her seat partner, watched her with understanding - he too had motion sickness but thanks to his travelling tablets he was able to overcome it.
"Salamander, I have some tablets if you want 'em." She didn't answer, in fear of throwing up, but the look in her eyes were pleading. Gajeel reached down to look through his bag which lay at his feet, searching for the blessing that had been bestowed upon him by the local chemists. He would have to take another anyway as he could already feel the medicine wearing off.
...
Gajeel began panicking. Where were they? He frantically searched through the contents of his bag, the familiar feeling of nausea creeping up on him. No..no...NO! The studded man clamped a hand over hid mouth as he grabbed his last resort - a sick bag - and threw up the contents of his stomach. Gajeel had to practically crawl over to the spare seat next to the teacher's when they beckoned him. He saw in the corner of his eye someone sliding into the seat next to Natsumi and allowing her to lay her head on their lap, stroking her hair, but his blurred vision could not pin an identity to the person.
"Here, lay on my lap Natsumi." Natsumi readily complied, slouching down onto her best friend's lap, inhaling his fresh, pine scent. Through her sleepy state, Natsumi relaxed when she felt his fingers comb her hair and he massaged her scalp which eased her headache. She softly smiled, trying to ignore the fact her heart was racing wildly...most likely because she was sick, right?
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
"Happy! Come down from there!" Natsumi called up a towering white oak tree at a silvery-blue cat, gripping onto a branch for it's dear life. Happy the Blue Russian cat mewed down at his owner, his dark eyes dilated with fear. Natsumi grumbled to herself as she jumped in attempt to grab the lowest branch, which was still to high for her. Happy was her beloved kitty who loved to climb trees, honestly the way he climbed so quickly made it seem as if he were flying. Happy never had a problem with getting back down though, which is why she wasn't too concerned when she saw him up the tree, but she now realised that he couldn't get down and she was too short to grab onto the lowest branch. Great. What was she supposed to do now?
Sting had been strolling through the park, hands in pockets, trying to think up of new ways to win Natsumi's heart as well as the latest love confession from a girl named Yukino. He'd acted nice of course but he wasn't really interested as he was dead-set on the bet with Gray and Gajeel. So, Sting had been lost in his thoughts when he heard a stream of curses and desperate grunts which made him turn his head to see Natsumi, trying to grab a tree branch. Curious, Sting strolled over.
"Yo Natsumi," he greeted. She looked at him, opened her mouth to say something but then a small mewl came from above them. He craned his neck to see a fuzz ball of a cat clinging to a branch. "Are you trying to rescue him?" The blonde asked.
"Yeah, but I'm not tall enough to climb onto the first branch." Her forehead was creased with worry, her deep, charcoal eyes the reflection of her concern. Sting flexed his muscles, puffing up his chest.
"No need to fear, milady. I, Sting Eucliffe shall rescue that cat." Sting easily pulled himself up onto the first branch and teetered slightly as he stood up. Woah...why does it look so high from up here? he wondered as he hugged the tree and tried to wrap his leg around to reach the next arm of the tree. However he lost his grip and fell, the bushes beneath barely cushioning his fall. Sting groaned, seeing stars. He slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his head and looked at the pinkette who was openly laughing at him. Sting felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment.
"Uh...you know what, I'll go and get a ladder. That'll probably be best. Wait here for a few minutes, 'kay?" He took off, desperate to impress Natsumi.
"Hey Natsumi, what's up?" Said girl nearly jumped when she heard his voice.
"Oh hi, I'm just waiting for Sting to come back with a ladder because Happy is stuck up the tree." He looked up at the tree with a pondering gaze, before handing the leash of his Bichon Frise to Natsumi. Effortlessly he overcame the first obstacle and carefully edged his way round to reach up and hold onto the second branch, pulling himself up. He continued his climb up the tree with ease and agility, until he finally reached Happy and coaxed the cat to let go of the branch and come into his arms. Then like Tarzan he swung through the branches and landed on his feet when he reached the ground, taking the dog leash from Natsumi and placing her beloved kitty in her outstretched arms.
The pinkette grinned, feeling a flutter in her heart, snuggling into Happy's silvery-blue fur.
'I wonder how many times I'm going to have to thank you.'
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
"Natsumi!"
"Salamander!"
"Natsumi~"
Said girl glanced behind her to see Gray, Sting and Gajeel march up to her. They shifted awkward glances to one another before Gray nodded, took a deep breath and began talking.
"Natsumi, we've all been trying to win your feelings for quite a while now..." The dark-haired boy trailed off which allowed Sting to butt in.
"Just tell us who you chose!"
"Who do you like better, Salamander? Me, the stripper or the egoistical prick?" Gajeel's friends protested about the labels Gajeel gave them. Natsumi swept a dark, bored gaze over them and as she walked away, the pinkette answered,
"None of you."
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
Not long after that, the star athlete walked hand in hand with her new boyfriend, Luca Heartfilia. They become the couple everyone wanted to be so the trio couldn't help but look on with sour thoughts.
"Can you believe it? She's going out with the pretty boy." Gray muttered.
"Didn't see that one coming." Sting agreed.
"Gihi," Gajeel chuckled with his creepy laugh, "I knew it all along."
"Huh?" They turned to look at him with confused expressions.
"I guess you guys are too slow. You never realised that there was another competitor on the playing field?" Two pairs of eyes began to widen in realisation.
"We probably had no chance, the Prince is way too smart. At first I totally thought he was a wet towel but I like that mastermind of his."
Everything pieced together. Sting and Gray face-palmed hard, gritting their teeth.
"GOD DAMMNIT!"
|The Game for Natsumi's Heart|
"Hey Luca, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but before you and I started dating there were these three guys acting really weird," Natsumi mentioned one evening as she and her boyfriend cozied up on his apartment sofa, watching a movie. A grin made it's way onto Luca's lips as he turned to look at the pinkette with an unusual mischievous smile.
"I know." Natsumi tilted her head questioningly. The blonde couldn't help but laugh at the memory.
"Well...let's just say I had something to do with their failures." Everything came back vividly as if it had happened just yesterday. Luca had just been walking around minding his own business when he overheard three guys talking about Natsumi Dragneel which he immediately disliked as he had been keeping an eye on that girl for quite a while now. Once he had eavesdropped on their plans Luca immediately set out to sabotage them. Luca was the one that planted that note in Gray's locker. Luca was the one that kicked the ball at Gajeel (with his trademark "LUCA KICK!"). Luca was the one that messed with the vending machine. Luca was the one that stole Gray's lunch. It turned out that Happy was very compliant when offered fish and Luca was the one that might of accidentally taken the travel sickness tablets out of Gajeel's bag. Every failure had been planned by the (slightly evil) genius known as Luca Heartfilia, the Prince of Fairy Academy.
"So I was right! You just pretend to be all innocent n' stuff but really you get all jealous and go all crazy-villain mode, don't you? I guess that makes sense since you're such a weirdo Luca." Luca smiled, not even caring at that moment about being called weird and ruffled up his girlfriend/best friend's hair playfully.
"Since I'm the prince and the villain does that make you the princess then?" He asked, despite knowing what Natsumi's answer would be. She grinned that sharp-canined grin.
"Hell nah, I'm the dragon!"
Well then, as you can see this is not my best work but I remember being bored, one rainy day (as it usually is in the UK) and I suddenly really felt like doing a genderbend with some sort of competition for Natsumi's heart. And this is what my muse chucked out.
Again as you can see, I failed pretty bad at keeping them all in character but it's an AU so I think it's okay-ish.
So yeah, I didn't really put a 100% effort into this one-shot BUT I'm quite interested in the idea of turning this into a two-shot, the second chapter being all in Luca's perspective.
So, if you guys liked this story, feel free to tell me which scenario (or is it scene?) that you liked best :D
Mata aimasho!
`Lottie-Blue
*! SPOILER FOR CHAPTER 444 !* -ish
OMFG! I did not see that coming! O.O *mindblown* But if you've read Fairy Tail Zero, I guess it'd make sense why Zeref could possibly want the Lumen Histoire.
