"Hey, look at that one," Loke smirked at a woman that was passing by while the whole group groaned in unison.
It was probably the twentieth time in the past thirty minutes that he has pointed out an attractive female. If Erza hadn't stopped him, Loke would've ditched the crew a long time ago to go and flirt with almost every woman he found. Inviting Loke was Gray's idea, which turned out to be even more aggravating than Erza stopping fights between him and Natsu. Natsu would often glare, and gave Gray the middle finger, indicating that there would be a fight later over how much of an idiot he was.
Although having Loke as a friend was usually enjoyable, it was the complete opposite when he's around the opposite gender. When he wasn't around, Natsu would remark about him having some sort of incurable disease that made him crazy when he's around women.
"Can you shut up for once?" Natsu glared at the orange haired male. "You point a chick out every two minutes claiming she's the love of your life, and it's seriously gettin' on my nerves."
"For once, flame-for-brains is right," Surprisingly, Gray agreed. Even Erza was pretty annoyed, since she didn't accuse him of insulting Natsu in her presence, which was a shock.
"Oh, but I can't help it! It's like they're calling my name," Loke gushed, with a smirk crawling on his face.
"Gihi, in your dreams," Gajeel interrupted. "Come on, I'm starvin'. Hurry up so we can grab some grub at Fairy Tail."
The group continued moving through the crowded mall, having their own personal conversation with another in the group. Except for Natsu and Gray, who were quietly throwing insults at each other, so Erza doesn't hear, but still getting the point across that they hate each other.
"If it weren't for you, ice-brains, we wouldn't be in this mess. You know how Lo..." Natsu froze for a minute before Gray caught on. "Wait... where is Loke?" He questioned, cautiously.
"Oh shit," Was the only thing his rival responded with.
At his curse, the whole crew heard and turned to face the two boys, and widened their eyes when they immediately realized what had happened.
"Natsu, go find him," Erza immediately demanded.
"Come on, Erza. It was Gray's idea to bring Loke, so why can't he do it," The pinkette whined.
"No questions. Now go, that is an order!"
His rival snickered, and immediately Natsu whipped back and aimed his fist at him, but stopped when he felt Erza's cold, hard stare. Disappointed, he trudged off in search of the missing individual.
After searching for ten minutes in the busy mall, Natsu spotted the familiar bright orange hair. He stormed over to Loke, who was leaning against a wall, covering a blonde who he presumed was his next victim. His glasses glared from the light, and he had a smirk on his face which wasn't the least bit sexy like he was trying to accomplish.
Grabbing the attacker by the hood on his sweatshirt, Natsu scolded him. "Really, dickhead? Can't you go one day without trying to pick up a chick? You can clearly see she doesn't want you."
"Yeah yeah, whatever. I'll go back to Fairy Tail before Erza chops off my head," Loke did a half wave before turning around and walking back in the direction Natsu came from. Although it's no guarantee that he will actually make it back to the diner, it's better than nothing.
The pinkette turned back to the blonde that Loke was hitting on, and apologized. "Sorry about him, he gets a little..." Natsu paused and tried to find a word that wasn't too insulting. "crazy around the female gender."
After getting a good look at her face, Natsu realized that Loke's last victim was pretty attractive. More than that, actually.
"Thanks for that, if you didn't jump in at that time, I probably would've lost my cool and who knows what would've happened," The blonde joked. Natsu had a sickening feeling, like somehow he knew that if she got mad, she would probably end up being even scarier than Erza.
She held out her hand and gave a gleaming smile. "I'm Lucy, by the way."
"Natsu. Nice to meet ya', Luigi," He gave a toothy smile and shook her hand.
"It's Lucy, not Luigi," She reminded him through gritted teeth, trying to keep her friendly appearance.
Natsu only grinned in response. "How about this, I'll treat you to lunch as a thank you gift?" Lucy asked.
"Sounds good to me!" Natsu exclaimed. He pulled on her hand excitedly to the nearest restaurant.
"So Lucy, do you live in Magnolia?" Natsu asked, with food filled in his mouth so Lucy could barely comprehend what he was saying.
"Yeah! I actually just moved here," She told him. "Ah I love it so much here! And get this, I'm renting a pretty large apartment right in the middle of town, and it's only 70,000 jewels a month! What a steal, right?"
"Uh huh," He replied, occupying himself with eating at the speed of light.
"I heard there's so many amazing diners around here," She exclaimed, holding her hands to her cheeks and blushing. "There's this famous one, called Fairy Tail, that I really want to work at! I've heard it's amazing there!"
"That's great," Natsu replied, while taking a gulp of broth from the bowl of ramen, and slammed it on the table, causing it to splash everywhere.
Lucy picked a noodle that fell on her head. "Well thanks again for earlier. I've left some money on the table to pay for the bill, so I'll just be going now. See you!" She waved goodbye to Natsu and walked off.
Natsu furrowed his eyebrows, and remembered his previous situation with the blonde he met. He wanted to see her again, even though they were barely acquaintances. She was beautiful, no doubt, but it was more than that. A string of fate that was tied to them.
After their little meetup, Natsu went back to Fairy Tail. When he got there, he realized that Loke did actually make it back there, and was tied up in a chair due to Erza. She was too busy eating cake at the moment, so Natsu used this opportunity to clear his head by fighting with his rival. In the middle of having Gray in a headlock, Erza turned around. Fearfully, the two boys played it off cool, claiming to be best buds and were giving each other words of encouragement. Instead of continuing the fight, with the risk of Erza catching them in the act, he stepped out of Fairy Tail to get some fresh air.
When Natsu got out of the building, he spotted a familiar head of golden hair. She looked ridiculous, glancing at the Fairy Tail sign, turning around and took a few steps back, but then headed in the opposite direction back to Fairy Tail.
Walking up to Lucy, he casted a tooth smile and waved at her. "Yo, Lucy!" He called out to her.
At the sound of her name, she turned around to face the source. "Oh hello, Natsu," She smiled at him.
"Watcha doin' there standing around like an idiot?" Without giving her enough time for her to throw an insult back at him, he continued. "Come inside!"
She was bewildered. "Huh?"
"You want to work at Fairy Tail right? So let's go!" He grabbed her hand and ran to the doors of the diner.
"Right," She smiled back at him, a smile that can clear even the cloudiest of days, and ran alongside him.
Natsu was sure of two things, he was already falling for the blonde, and that this was going to be the start of a great adventure.
