"Lucy!" Natsu called excitedly, flinging an arm around the blonde's shoulder just as she was taking a drink from her mug at the bar. His grin stretched wide across his face as the celestial spirit mage choked and sputtered in surprise at his sudden attack. "Let's go on a job today! There's some really good ones on the request board ever since we won the Grand Magic Games, and isn't your rent due soon?"
Gasping for air and trying desperately to calm her racing heart, Lucy turned to face her friend and struggled to hide the blush she could feel creeping into her cheeks. She gave the dragon slayer a slight shove and avoided his eyes as she said, "I can't today, Natsu, I have a - uh...I have plans." She glanced up at him through her bangs, trying to covertly gauge his reaction.
Natsu looked confused for a split second before grinning widely again and saying simply, "So cancel them! Or if it's something important you can always reschedule. Don't wanna miss out on all the best jobs!"
This time she could do nothing to hide the blush as she looked him right in the eye and said, "Not this time, Natsu. Maybe tomorrow," before getting up from the bar and walking away and out of the guild. Natsu tried to go after him, but Mira caught him by his scarf and slid him a mug of flaming liquid. She smiled in that strange way she had like she knew something he didn't...and it was juicy.
"Oi! What'd ya try an' stop me for, Mira!?" Natsu snapped irritably as he leaned over the bar, glaring at her suspiciously. "Something wrong with Lucy? She's always complaining about needing money for rent, and this time I offer to help her out and she says no?" Mira just smiled brightly and Natsu flopped down on a bar stool, grumbling under his breath in between sips of his flaming beverage.
"Oh, Natsu, you are just too cute sometimes!" Mira gushed, bringing her hands to her cheeks as she giggled. Natsu muttered something about dragon slayers not being "cute" and Mira replied, flashing a devilish look his way, "Dragon slayers are especially cute when they are jealous."
This time, it was Natsu's turn to choke and sputter on his drink. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head and his jaw dropped in shock. "Whaaaaat?" he barely managed to choke out.
"Oh, Natsu, you are just too cute sometimes!" Mira repeated, patting him on the head and giggling even more. "The girl you like turns down spending time with you in favor of keeping plans with someone else! Of course you are jealous!" At this point, her gaze turned sympathetic and she moved to pat his back comfortingly, instead of his head. When she put it that way, his chest gave a painful twinge and a strange heat flooded his face.
"Oi! W-who says I li-" Natsu stuttered, but was abruptly cut off as Mira suddenly grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him half way over the bar towards her.
"OhmygoshNatsu!" She looked at him with wide eyes now, worry all over her face, "What if Lucy has . . . a date?"
The blood drained from Natsu's face and he felt that pain in his chest again, as if someone had a fork in his chest and was twirling it like spaghetti. A date? No. Lucy didn't go on dates. She complained about it, sure, but that was just to fit in with the other whining girls. They all sat around complaining about their love lives. That's just what girls do. Doesn't mean she actually wanted to go on dates. If that was the case she could have easily gotten any guy to- NO. Not any guy. Just let that ice bastard try and take Lucy out on a date! Or the metalhead, or any guy in Fairy Tail for that matter. They were all nakama, sure, but that didn't make them good enough for Lucy.
He was shaken from his trance by Mira, still holding him with both hands by the front of his shirt and practically shouting. "What are we gonna DO, Natsu?" The pair were beginning to draw a lot of attention, and Levy joined the two at the bar, trying desperately to calm the situation. She had a pretty good idea what all the commotion was about, and knew her best friend would NOT want the whole guild knowing about her date.
"Hey, calm down you two!" she teased lightly, "You want the whole guild to think you are having some kind of lover's quarrel?" Nervous laughter filled the awkward silence as the two froze for a moment before jerking back to reality. Mira dropped Natsu back onto his seat and directed her attention to Levy. Natsu went back to nursing his drink, more grumpy than ever as he listened in to Mira and Levy's whispered conversation.
"You" Mira pointed a finger in Levy's face, "You know what Lucy's "plans" are, don't you?" The bluenette was suddenly regretting her decision to intervene. "Tell me, right now. Did Lucy turn down Natsu so she could go on a date with some other guy?" Mira's demonic side started to bleed through her sweet exterior as she spoke, causing Levy to throw her hands up in defence and lean away from her.
"I-it's not like it's h-happened before…" Levy stammered. Natsu spit his drink out again, this time turning his incredulous face toward the the shrimpy girl sitting next to him. "He has been really persistent a-and he seems really nice, not to mention handsome..." Levy sighed and smiled a little to herself. Natsu could see red eyes flash behind her, and knew that Gajeel's sensitive ears heard every word she was saying, and the iron dragon slayer didn't like her tone one bit.
"I m-mean, Lucy has been turning him down for weeks now, I guess he finally just wore her down." She smiled sheepishly at Natsu and Mira deflated a little, returning to her usual self again. "She actually seemed pretty excited about it this morning. We even went shopping for a special outfit for tonight!" She paused again, this time glancing at Mira, who was solemnly wiping out a dirty glass. "I know she didn't want everybody to know, because she was afraid we would try to follow her and spy on them. She wouldn't even tell me where or when they are going!" The solid-script mage looked a little miffed by this last fact and crossed her arms over her chest.
Mira sighed and said, "She does know us well…"
Natsu was being abnormally quiet, just staring into the bottom of his now empty mug. "Weeks…" he muttered to himself. "She has been turning down dates with this guys for weeks, and I didn't even know." He looked up at Levy now, "What kind of friend am I? I thought-" he cut himself off, not wanting to voice what he was thinking. Some guy had been harassing her for a date for weeks and she hadn't trusted him enough to even tell him about it.
A petite hand patted him on the back comfortingly and Levy's gentle voice chimed in, "Hey, don't be upset that Lucy didn't tell you about Evan. The only reason I even found out about him was because he approached her while we we out book shopping the other day." She looked at Natus a little sadly, "I could tell something was going on between them, but she turned him down when he asked her to meet him for dinner. It took a lot of questioning and investigating for me to get the whole story. She didn't want to trust me with this either, you know."
This wasn't exactly comforting. If she hadn't been confiding in anybody, who would know if something went wrong? What did she really know about this guy? What if he tried something and Lucy got hurt? No. Lucy was strong, she could take care of herself. She had more than proven that over the course of their friendship. Still, he worried about the celestial spirit mage. Finally he came to a decision and abruptly stood from his seat at the bar.
"Natsu? Where are you going?" Levy asked, seemingly concerned about what he might do.
"Lucy's house," was all he said as he marched determinedly out the front doors of the guild, Mira suddenly perking up behind the counter.
"Yeah! Go get her, Natsu!" Mira called after him cheerfully, leaving Levy to stare after him in shock for a moment before a sly grin worked its way onto her face. "Maybe that goofball isn't so clueless after all." Both girls giggled and the doors to guild slammed shut behind it's fire dragon slayer.
Thank you for reading the first chapter of Mr. Brightside! Before you ask, yes, this story was inspired by the song by The Killers (especially the first few chapters). I already have a large chunk of the story written and my hope is to have everything finished before I go back to school on the 4th. I do not have a plan yet as to how quickly I will be releasing new chapters, but a lot will depend on how far I get with the rest of the story before my break is over, as well as how high demand is for new chapters. Please review and let me know what you think. It has been a long time since I have written anything like this, and I am pretty rusty. Also, I don't have a beta readers, so if you see anything that needs corrected let me know so I can fix it. Thank you, and hope to see you back for chapter 2!