The new boy. That was what Natsu was. He always hated change and this was no different. He just moved to Magnolia with his dad and sister. Natsu was unique. He was ruggedly handsome but everyone, all his life, made fun of him. More importantly, his hair. His unusual coloured hair always drew the attention of everyone, but not in a good way. His hair was cherry blossom pink. He's never dated anyone because they all thought he was either gay, eventhough he specifically clarified it to everyone that he wasn't, or he was a delinquent. But over time, he actually became one. A delinquent, that is. His sister on the other hand was a sweetheart who loved everyone and everything and even wanted to be a doctor when she grew up. Everyone loved her because she was so cute and small. And then there was their father, Igneel. A handsome man with a dark red hair, and a very toothy grin. Natsu looked much like him, though their attiudes were completely different. Igneel was like Wendy, loved everyone and everything, and loved by all.
Natsu lay in his new room on his new bed, staring up at the ceiling. He sighed as he pushed himself up and grabbed his school bag. If he lay there longer, he was going to be late. He placed his beanie on his head, with some of his hair poking out and wrapped his lucky scarf around his neck. He was definitely going to need it, if he wished to survive the day.
"Are you going to school, Natsu?" Wendy popped into her brother's room. She smiled sweetly at the teenager in front of her.
"Yeah, do you want me to take you to school?" Natsu asked his sister.
"No, it's fine. Dad is taking me, but thanks for the offer. Hope you enjoy being a senior" Wendy answered back with another smile and left the room. Natsu sighs as he exits his new home and jumps into his car. He starts his engine and leaves to go to school.
Ten minutes later, he finally arrives and parks his car. He walks towards the office, knowing he has to get his timetable and a locker. As he walks by, people stare at him, though he is unaffected. Natsu knows they're staring at him and the whispers are most likely about his hair but there's no stopping them. He's fought so many people over the matter, he grew used to it. He also grew used to not having any friends too. This caused people to be afraid of him. He was a loner, and he was fine with it. It used to bother him but not anymore. It's just how peple were. He was reaching the office when suddenly, a person runs into him, knocking them both over on the floor, causing paper to fly everywhere. Natsu opened his eyes to find a blonde girl lying on top of him. She had big, round glasses on but Natsu recognised them to be fake, mere glass. Her eyes suddenly flew open as she realised what she was doing. She jumped off the surprised boy and her face was VERY red.
"I'm so so so sorry. Please forgive me, I was rushing to the library and didn't look where I was going. Are you ok?" She asked with a concerned and caring voice. Natsu was silent, frozen in spot, looking at the blonde."So? Are you ok?" She asked once more. Natsu had finally broken out of his trance.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine." He said quietly, surprised that she wasn't looking at his hair, that she even dared to speak to him. He was used to being ignored, even if someone bumped into him. But her, she is apologising and asking if he was ok. She was picking up her papers but there was a lot so Natsu decided to help her. They picked up the rest and she neatly shaped them together to their orginal way.
"Thank you so much, and once again, I'm so sorry." She said, looking at the floor.
"No problem" Natsu said quietly, still looking at the girl. She started to walk away and Natsu couldn't help but ask.
"Hey, what's your name?" She stopped in her tracks and turned around hesitantly.
"I'm Lucy. And you?" Lucy asked. Natsu gulped and for the first time in a long while, grinned.
"I'm Natsu. Nice to meet you. I guess I'll see you around." Natsu said, his grin not leaving his face. He headed towards the office, grinning like an idiot. Not a care in the world. For a long time, no one bothered with him, but she made him feel accepted. As he reached the office, a group of girls walked by him, giggling at something. Natsu chose to ignore them but when someone tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around quickly.
"Are you the new boy?" A blue-eyed girl asked him. Her voice was quite high and he found it a little annoying.
"Yeah, why?" He asked blankly. She smirked at her friends and tured back to Natsu.
"I'm Lisanna Strauss and you'll be my rebound." She said with a sly voice. Natsu's face scrunched up at the thought of her being his girlfriend.
"Yeah, no thanks. I'm better off by myself. Go find someone else." He said with a smirk as he turned around and continued towards the office.
"You will be mine." She screamed back to him as he just walked forward. He was laughing at how she sounded like a little kid, wanting a toy. But he wasn't a toy. He was a human being and just because he was hot, he didn't want someone to be with him just because of his appearance.
"Hello dear, are you new here?" The office lady suddenly broke Natsu out of his deep thought.
"Yeah, I came to get a schedule and a locker." He replied as he faced the young woman.
"Okay, let me just get it printed off." She said as she typed on her keyboard. Natsu sighed and started leaning on the table.
"Here it is. Now for your locker... there, locker 18L" She gave him the combination and handed hm the timetable. As Natsu began to walk away, the woman stopped him in his tracks.
"Wait, I'll need to send you to a guide, someone who will help you find your way through the school." She explain to the pink haired senior.
"That's ok, I can find my way around." He said.
"Nonesense, the school is enormous. you should find Lucy Heartfilia and give her this note." Ahe said as she scribbled something on a small post it note.
"Wait, who?" He asked once more.
"Lucy Heartfilia. She'll be in the library right now. There is still 10 minutes 'till lessons start."She said with a smile as she gave him the note.
"Lucy? Huh?" He mumbled as he walked away.
"You will regret ratting me out Heartfilia." Natsu heard the faint voice of a guy as he entered the library.
"Please, Sting. I'm so sorry. I didn't know that it was you." He heard the sobbing voice of a girl he made out to be Lucy. He paced towards where the people's voices were coming from, finding three people in the furthest corner of the library. He hid behind a bookcase to hear more of the conversation.
"You stupid little, fat bitch. I'll ruin you. Your reputation is already low but the number of your friends will decrease so low when I'm done with you." The blonde guy, Sting, Natsu guessed, said to the crying Lucy.
"Please, Sting, Rogue. I never wanted to cross you. Please don't hurt me." Lucy whimpered once more as the two guys were going closer.
"So, what's the plan Sting?" The black haired guy, Rogue said to his asshole friend.
"Well, we'll dump paint on this little rat and then, we'll post it all over social media with the comment 'colourless bitch, not so colourless anymore'." He said proudly. Natsu started laughing at this and all of them turned around to look at him.
"Who the fuck are you and why are you laughing." Rogue asked Natsu with a confused tone. Natsu continued to laugh at Sting's plan.
"That plan... it's so stupid." Natsu laughed on as he felt tears coming from his eyes. He was very amused.
"Who the fuck are you?" Sting asked with an angry tone. Natsu's laughter died down as he started leaning against the nearby bookcase.
"I'm Natsu Dragneel. Problem?" He asked with a smirk. He was gonna have fun scaring the living shit out of these bastards.
"Yeah I got a problem. You interupted my time for revenge. You're gonna pay too." Sting said with a serious face. Natsu straightened up and walked over to Lucy.
"You ok?" He asked calmly. Lucy looked surprised, surprised about how the new boy was defending her, and now, asking her is she is alright.
"Y-yeah." She mumbled as she looked down at the floor.
"So, you two shit sticks, what the fuck could have this innocent girl done to you that was so bad you want to humiliate her so... badly?" Natsu asked with a serious tone. He hated bullies. Especially when the other person had no way to defend themselves.
"Why do you wanna know?" Rogue snapped at the pinkette. Natsu gave them both a death- stare before giving them a grin.
"So at least I know why you two are harrassing her before all your teeth are scattered in this room." He said, still grinning. Lucy's head turned to look at him with fear in her yes.
"You little douchebag, you think you're high and mighty but that pink hair says something else, you queer." Sting spat out. Natsu's grin disappeared and his expression changed. He wasn't amused anymore. They were now attacking him too, and that topped it all off. He swung his fist and hit Sting square in the jaw, knocking him on the floor. Lucy yelped at the sight of blood coming out of Sting's mouth. She quickly realised Natsu was serious. Waiting for a blow to arrive to Rogue, Lucy shut her eyes as tight as possible, but nothing hapened. Rogue was helping his friend up, both leaving the library cursing. Natsu turned to Lucy who was now staring at him in amazement. No one has ever stood up for her like this. No one has ever fought for her. He dug around in his pocket and pulled out a clean tissue, and handed it to Lucy. She took it and gently wiped her eyes.
"Are you ok? Did they hurt you in any way?" He asked, looking at her wrist which was red.
"Sting grabbed my wrist pretty strong so I think I'll have a mark but nothing else happened. Thank you. Thank you so much for helping me. I don't know what I would have done if you weren't here." Lucy said with a sniffle. Natsu sat down on the floor and looked at his knuckles which were becoming red.
"I promised my dad I wouldn't get into any more trouble and here I am, punching a dick for harrassment." Natsu said to Lucy as he took his cold bottle of water out and wrapping it in his clean PE shirt, handing it to Lucy.
"You shouldn't let it swell up. This'll help." He said as Lucy took it. She sat down next to him.
"I'm sorry if I caused you trouble." She said, while putting the bottle on her wrist. The cold felt good and she let out a sigh.
"Can I ask you a question?" She turned to Natsu. Natsu shrugged.
"Yeah." Lucy sighed once again, preparing to ask her question.
"Why did you help me? I mean, you could have just walked away before you got into trouble too. So why stay and defend me?" She asked. Natsu closed his eyes, ignoring the pain in his knuckle.
"I couldn't just leave an innocent person behind. You didn't look like someone who did bad things to people on purpose. And you were crying, which meant that he was scaring you and you didn't feel safe. No matter what people say, doesn't matter if you are a girl or a boy, a child or an adult, I can't just ignore a cry for help." Natsu said as Lucy listened. Tears started to pool in her eyes and before she knew, she was crying. Natsu jumped up and took out more tissues, hurrying.
"Here, take some tissues. Is everything alright? Was it something I said? Please don't cry." He rambled on as the crying Lucy curled up into a ball.
"No one has ever been so nice to me. I have no friends to help me or protect me and here you are, the new boy, a stranger helping me and protecting me. Do you want something from me? Money? Test answers. No one is nice to me just because. They all want something." She continued. Natsu sat back down and without thinking he put his arms around the girl. Lucy was hesitant but she placed her arms around him, nuzzling her face into his shoulders. She felt safe and happy, right there. Her tears stopped and her breath went normal again. She let go of the teenage boy but he held on. Suddenly he spoke.
"I'm just the same. I've never had any friends and everyone always bullied me. The only time they'd talk to me was when they made a comment about my hair, so don't worry. I know and understand your pain." Lucy just listened to him and suddenly he let go of her. "Can I ask you a question?" Natsu looked at his hands.
"Sure." Lucy responded.
"Why do you wear fake glasses and stuff you shirt?" Natsu said as he looked into Lucy's eyes. Lucy's smile turned into a surprised face.
"How did you.. When? How?" She couldn't make any normal sentences. "When you bumped into me in the corridor, I had a good view of your glasses and they were just mere glass, meaning they're fake. And now when we... hugged, it didn't feel natural, there are pads in your shirt to make you look bigger. So why? Why do all that and put up with bullying when you would probably be the most popular girl in school." Natsu told Lucy his observations. Lucy was speechless. No one in two years has ever realised what was actually going on.
"It's because, umm. Can you keep a secret?" She asked him, whispering.
"I don't have friends to tell so what have you got to lose." He answered.
"I was the popular girl in my other high school, Lamia Scale but a guy made a bet that he can get into the pants of me and my best friend, Sherry. He succeeded with Sherry and I was next, he tried to come onto me but I pushed him off of me and told him he was a douchebag. The next day, Sherry hated me because she heard from someone that I tried to hook up with her new boyfriend. Everyone in the school thought I was a whore and no one talked to me anymore, so I moved schools but never wanted to be a popular girl again, so I took action and pretended to be fat and I hid my face with big glasses." Lucy shared her story with Natsu. He just sat there, not knowing her past was just as bad as his.
The bell ranng, telling the whole school to get to class.
"What do you have now?" Lucy asked the still frozen in spot guy next to her.
"English with Mr Loki." He answered.
"Oh, me too, I'll take you." Lucy said enthusiastically.
"Only if you're okay walking with a friendless loser like me." She added. Natsu whipped his head to turn towards her.
"You're not friendless, you got me. And sure, let's go" The delinquent corrected the blonde. She smiled as bright as the sun and said,
"Ok, let's go!"