Summary - Lucy Heartfilia, strict owner of the Fairy Tail restaurant, meets her match in the unusual employee Natsu Dragneel.
The Pastry Princess and the Cookie Cutter
Lucy had never, prior to his ruining her highly-calculated life, heard of Natsu Dragneel, but as she quickly learned, he had a way of making his presence known in the most destructive manner.
She was the manager of the renowned five-star restaurant Fairy Tail, and though she would have preferred a less jocular name, it had already been set by the previous manager, an eccentric old man named Makarov Dreyar. The building was made up of grey stones with fairy sculptures over the door, designed to resemble a castle of older, fantastical times, and inside was full of linen-clothed tables lit by little iridescent will-o'-the-wisps of Macao Konbolt's special "rainbow lights." The place ran like clockwork, methodically and smoothly, and though they had many disconcerted customers due to the "special" staff, there was not one complaint about either the service or the food.
That is, until that spring day in year X791.
The spring menu was slightly different than for the other seasons', as since most had allergies acting up, the options were milder, with less spicy choices and more soups and meats available. She was sitting in her office behind the kitchen making the final adjustments to the Eastertide menu when all of a sudden the door slammed open. She looked up with a frown at her newest intruder. "Gray, I told you to knock before you—"
"I didn't want to waste the time," Gray Fullbuster interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest. He was excellent with the chilled dishes, such as the iceberg lettuce salad and desserts, although he did have a problem with clothes—read: he basically never kept them on. At that moment, the only article of clothing on his pale, toned body was his white toque.
"Gray, please, if you don't start wearing clothes while dealing with the food—or walking in front of the customers, matter of fact—then I'll fire you." She didn't mean it, though—he was the best at what he did, even if he did it in his birthday suit.
"We're not here to talk about that—you know it's out my control anyway. Look, I've got a few words about the new guy—"
"What? What new guy?" she probed. Her question was answered straightaway by a crash from the kitchen. Gray moved aside as she stormed past him, bursting through the double doors of the kitchen to find—
"Oh, oh, oh!" a salmon-haired man exclaimed, waving a flaming toque in the air. The other staff moved away from him as he ran past, dunking it into the sink, although his efforts immediately became futile as his chef's coat caught ablaze next. He shouted and made a general ruckus until Juvia Lockser finally had brains enough to blast him with the sink's hose, the pressurized water slamming him into the tiled wall so hard the pots and pans next to him jangled. His senses returned to him moments later while he was standing there, dripping wet and with burnt patches on the expensive white coat, staring at an open-mouthed Lucy through his wet pink fringe.
"Who the hell are you?" Lucy demanded. The others retreated to the storage room in the back immediately and through its door into the parking lot, sensing danger. The man smiled helplessly, pushing hair from his eyes with a hand.
"I'm Natsu Dragneel," he said with a very juvenile grin. "I'm working with the kitchen staff from now on." His easygoing demeanor pissed her off; he behaved as if he hadn't just decimated several hundred Jewels' worth of kitchen property. On top of that, she had no recollection whatsoever of hiring his incompetent ass, not in the slightest. Her cheeks flushed red as she directed narrowed eyes to his wide and innocent ones.
"You," she hissed through her teeth, causing him to blink and point at himself, puzzled. "Yes, you, Dragbert or whatever. My office. Now."
"It's Dragneel," he mumbled, but, detecting a dangerous enemy, he complied and followed her back to her office. There, she collapsed into her leather swivel chair, rubbing her temples. Awkwardly, he followed suit and slid into one of the beige armchairs adjacent her mahogany desk. Water dripped from every square inch of him (and that was a lot considering his height and build) and was probably ruining her carpeting as they spoke, so she sought to make their word quick and to the point.
"Where did you come from?" she grilled after regaining her bearings. Sharp eyes raked over the many portraits of previously Fairy Tail managers before he responded:
"I live on the border of Magnolia. In a forest shack."
"Oh, great, a Wildman," she muttered. He obviously had better hearing than most people because he grimaced. "Why did you come here?"
"Well, I want to become a chef," he replied. "I like to flambé, ya know—"
"Do you have any recommendations?" she interrupted. "Any past work experience? Something but the skin of your back and the dye in your hair?"
"My hair is natural," he mumbled. He apparently had no idea how to lower his voice, because Lucy still heard him perfectly. "Well, yeah, I don't know if this counts as a recommendation, but my old man, Igneel, was a chef here." She instantly sat up straighter.
"Your father is Igneel?" He was legendary, even to a new worker like her. He was recorded as Fairy Tail's ultimate chef as his food was always cooked to perfection, never too burnt or undercooked, and his signature dessert, the Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame—a cream dessert dyed and molded to resemble a fire-based dragon that popped with heat and yet melted warmly into the customer's mouth—was so popular they received dozens of orders per shift. He retired a decade ago—said he wanted to take care of his new family—and she heard he had passed away a year or two ago.
"Yeah." He did resemble photographs of Igneel, from his spiky, unkempt hair to his empty-headed grin.
"Well, I'm sorry for your loss."
"'s alright," he said, dropping his eyes to his fingernails, which were the stubby, cracked ones of a fighter and not a chef, although Gajeel Redfox had similar hands and he was surprisingly good at making toffee with Levy. "Anyway, can I get the job?"
"Well, even if you say that your father was a great chef, it isn't a guarantee that you are, and Fairy Tail has high standards to live up to, if you hadn't noticed."
"No, I'm aware," he said, raising his head with his eyes wide and full of virtue. "That's why I wanna help…to maintain that image, y'know."
"Yes… Although I'm usually a person to reserve judgement entirely on one character despite…pressing appearances," she said slowly, getting a more reserved yet still decidedly crooked grin from the pink-haired cook, "I have to say this: you look like you are unable to boil even the smallest microbe of water. Even if I was to, in fact, overlook that to judge you not by assumptions, you've also made one—excuse my language—hell of an impression so far by not only torching the two thousand Jewel coat and toque, but also damaging similarly-expensive kitchen property." His face fell with each word until he was looking as a child berated for breaking their toys, pushing his index fingers together. "And other than that, you've shown me that you're clearly a fool."
"Is that it?" he inquired awkwardly. She leaned back in the chair and rested her hands on her desk.
"Yes, that's it. Any words in your defense, Dragneel?"
"Natsu is fine," he said. "Well, I wanted to say that yeah, I look and act like a total idiot, and sure I haven't given you a reason to think that I'm competent in any way, but… My dad told me that this restaurant was a place for those with heart, not just those who could cook. He said that anybody that had heart could do anything, and even a brute like him that used to pick the fingernails off his enemies could cook a deliciously sweet cake that everybody loved with those same hands. I just want to be a part of that legacy—it doesn't get more innocent than that." He ended with a shrug, turning his palms out.
"Maybe your intentions are innocent, but I can't—" He clapped his hands together, interrupting her, and bowed his spiked head.
"Please, Luce?" She broke into a mad splutter at the over-familiarity.
"Luce?" He raised one eye to her, that goofy grin still splattered all over his face. What was that supposed to be, anyway? Predatory? Did his canines look unusually sharp as well?"
"I think it's a nice nickname. Don't you?" She was still trying to wrap her head around the man.
"I-If you do somehow work here, I am your boss and not your friend, therefore you will refer to me only as Ms. Heartfilia." He snorted, irking her further, then he caught himself and smiled apologetically.
"That's so stiff."
"It's called professionalism. Maybe you wouldn't know about that, dying your hair the color of cotton candy," she said sardonically. His brows furrowed as he had obviously heard the jibe before.
"It's my natural— You know what? Never mind." He lowered his head a little, burying the bottom half of it in his white scarf, which looked very warm for that time of year. "Like I said, I wanna help keep Fairy Tail's good name good. If it helps, I have this…" He went into his coat's inner pocket before handing her a crisp white envelope. She took it, careful to avoid touching his fingertips, and stared at the wax sealing it shut. She hadn't seen a wax seal in a while and especially considering the day and age, but there was one man that she knew who frequently used them—the little dragon's head engraving was also very distinct.
Well what do you know…he's actually related to Igneel.
She carefully broke the seal before drawing a pale pink letter from the envelope, smoothing it out on her desk. "To Whom It May Concern," it read, "if you're reading this letter, then I'm unable to be there in person to defend my, err, unique chef of a son. Maybe I've met an early demise, or maybe I'm just busy—which is highly unlikely, but whatever—but whatever the case, I want you to know that while Natsu has most likely already pissed you off to the seventh level of Hell (What do you know, he was clairvoyant too, Lucy thought with a pointed glance in Natsu's direction), he is a man with a heart as great as a stomach. Maybe he seems to be a moron, which me and his mother will reluctantly agree to, but he has the passion, cheer, and persistence to make up for it. He may not embody cooking as well as a cook should, ironic as it is, but even if he has to work his way up from cleaning the scraps on the ground, he'll do it with a smile on his face. He's surely not what Fairy Tail wants, but I, Igneel Dragneel, being of sound mind and body why does this sound like a will now?, know for a fact that he's what it needs, trite as it sounds. Take my word for it, eh?"
"What's it say? You were giving me a stink look the whole time," Natsu asked. Lucy sighed and stored the letter in her drawer before drawing out a blank sheet of paper.
"You've already filled out the necessary documents?" He nodded with vigor, obviously enjoying the turn that the conversation was taking. With a sigh and a meaningful glance towards whatever god existed, Lucy wrote her final say down before signing the bottom of the paper and handing it over to a beaming young man. "Congratulations, you're our newest janitor."
"Janitor?" he repeated, face blank.
"Start from the bottom and you work your way up. That's how it was for everyone else, including me."
Suddenly he split into the widest, sharpest, most brilliant grin she had ever seen, eyes sparkling. She wondered if Igneel happened to have been drunk as he wrote that letter, because every fiber of her being was telling her that that Natsu Dragneel was a total moron and shouldn't have been cleaning the windows, let alone handling the smallest microbe of food. Still, she had to take Igneel's word for him, but if he ended up proving her wrong…well, she'd best leave that to him to discover.
"Okay!" Lucy called, clapping her hands to catch the staff's attention. They hushed their mindless chatter and cooking activities to look over at her standing in the archway of the employee lounge, hands on her pencil skirt-clad hips as she let her eyes rake over them polishing up the last of their cooking for the day. Gray was setting the leftover desserts out for grabbers, which they always had an abundance of, and otherwise prepared food was also left, however it didn't have nearly as many takers and doubly as many females as Gray's. (He was awfully popular to Juvia Lockser's extreme dismay.) Elfman was cleaning up bits of raw meat from his station with Evergreen making sure it was sparkling, Cana was checking the wine cellar (which strangely ended up a few bottles short every time), Mirajane and Erza were turning in their serving platters and carts, and the young prodigies Romeo and Wendy ceased speaking to each other about the work day.
"I'm done!" Natsu announced, catching the eyes of her workers. Annoyed, she watched him throw his arms in the air and whoop excitedly when all he did was swish a mop over the tiles. Somehow, Gray was the only one aside from Lucy that was irritated by his behavior, taking the remaining dough and refrigerating it. He grinned over at Lucy while wiping his cheek, inadvertently smearing some flour there from the uncleaned countertop.
"A-nyway," she said through her teeth, catching their attention again. He mouthed an Oh before facing her as well, a semi-serious expression on his face. "Good job as always. I expect no less from my staff. For the new guy," she continued, pointedly avoiding his name, "we've a custom of dining out in the city every Friday night to celebrate a good week of work, and as it's two days away I want you to mark your calendar."
"Roger!" he exclaimed.
"And in other news, a special party will be dining with us tomorrow."
"Who?" Gajeel asked. "Ain't nobody important enough for us ta show out." Levy punched his upper arm, which had about as much effect on him as a zephyr.
"I just wanted to alert you all," Lucy said in a sharper tone. "Even though I don't expect our food to ever be less than exceptional, I want for you all to keep it in mind. The leader of the party is Sting Eucliffe, one of Fiore's more prominent MMA fighters," she explained briefly. A few of the rough-'n'-tough members started whooping and slapped each other shoulders. "And if any of you men even think of challenging him to a fight might as well sign your name on your one-day notice now." They still laughed but calmed down on the challenges. "And that's all. Have a good night," she said stiffly before spinning on her heel and turning towards the exit. She burst into the cool night air, feeling it gently caress her skin with a sigh as she passed through the parking lot. She walked up to her red two-door and shuffled through her purse for her keys, swearing silently to herself as she dropped them.
"Here ya go." A larger, tanner hand reached down and snatched them before she could move, and she raised her narrowed gaze to see that same grin plus its owner dangling them in front of her face. She snatched them away without vocal gratitude, jamming them into the lock. "How'd I do?" he asked innocuously, hands locked together behind his head and one foot behind the other.
"Can't say," she held, and that was the truth—the reason, on the other hand, was another story. Every employee she had so far, even the determined ones such as Erza Scarlet, all, for lack of a better word, sucked in the beginning. Gray froze everything he touched, Elfman pummeled the meats too thin, and Max constantly misread party names so terribly she doubted that he had even a middle-school education. Natsu, on the other hand, started strong at six-o'clock in the A.M. hours, working to carefully scrub the linoleum and every flat surface in the building. He then went on to help wherever else he was needed with almost a religious fervor. He had that sort of burning passion she hadn't seen in a long time. All in all, he was a great, if childish, employee, and that utterly pissed Lucy off.
"Aww, c'mon," he begged, yet his tone was mischievous as she pulled her door open.
"Don't you have a family to get back to?" she quizzed. For the first time that day, the grin slipped off of his face and he honestly looked uncomfortable.
"A house, yeah," he supposed. "And a cat," he added. "His name's Happy. He's a weird blue color—"
"You don't have a family?" she interrupted, uninterested in his pets. "What are you, eighteen? Nineteen? Did you move out?"
"…Eh, something like that." He shrugged and avoided her gaze, his sandals digging little trenches into the loose gravel. She pressed her lips into a firm line before giving him a small nod.
"You did a good job for your first day. Congratulations," she said pithily before sliding into the car. She was inches from closing the door when Natsu stopped her with his fingers.
"Thanks," he replied, then paused for a moment as he scratched his head awkwardly. Lucy let her eyes run over his worn Hargeon Cooking Academy hoodie and jeans before bringing them back up to his face, which was all angles and sharp, onyx-black eyes, and she noticed his large Adam's apple bob as he swallowed. "Is there, uh, something on my face?"
"No," she said, snapping herself out of her daze. "Now, if that's all…" He swallowed again before backing away, hands up in surrender. "I'll be seeing you bright and early tomorrow morning. Five a.m. Don't forget, Dragneel." He nodded as she shut the door and turned on the ignition, and with a small, reserved smile in her direction, he was gone, his silhouette dark against the grand building of Fairy Tail.
The drive back to her house felt a lot shorter than usual as Lucy thought hard about that man. He was unremarkable and remarkable at the same time, if that made sense. If anything, he knew how to make a first impression, as she didn't think she could ever forget that face he made as he waved the flaming chef's equipment in a mad attempt to staunch the flames. She landed back at her apartment before she could finish her odd train of thoughts, greeting the landlady as she went up to her place. There, she ate dinner, soaked in a hot bath, wrote a little for her secret novel, then she slid under her covers with a sigh. Tomorrow was going to be interesting, that she could be sure of.
Her head count came out exactly as she expected it at five-oh-one before noon: one head of pink hair short. Ensuring that they knew their appointed tasks for the day and that nobody would screw up their important reservation, both for the sake of the compensation and the always-appreciated boost to Fairy Tail's reputation, Lucy stood outside of the employees' entrance, just between the parking lot and the front entrance. At exactly six a.m., Natsu Dragneel appeared from down the corner, running down the sidewalk with a blue-furred cat clinging to his head. She wanted to raise her eyebrows at the sight but held her stern expression, arms crossed over her blue blouse as he came breathless and red in the face to the building.
"You're late," she said in a clipped tone as he doubled over to catch his breath. A few customers glanced at them as they entered, causing her to reprimand herself for making such scene outside. Natsu recovered after a moment, the cat meowing at her in greeting.
"I… I can explain…" he panted, eyes wide enough that she could catch some green in their dark depths.
"No need. I gave you an order and you didn't adhere to it."
"I-I'm sorry, M-Miss Heartfilia." He was still out of breath as he lowered himself to his knees and bowed his head. "Please, I'm sorry, so don't f-fire me."
"Meow," his cat pleaded along with him. She was tempted to—no one else messed up on the first damn day—but she remembered Igneel's last wishes, and no matter how much they clashed with her common sense, she owed it to him.
"Get up, you're making yourself look like an idiot—well, more so."
"R-Right, sorry." He stood up in a hurry with his cat complaining. She pointed at it and he laughed a little. "Happy didn't want to see me go for some reason."
"No pets in the restaurant."
"It's okay! He has all his shots and he doesn't shed." He tried to sweep past her but she blocked him with an arm.
"You already tested my patience for today, Dragneel. Do you really want to try me twice in a day? Most people have enough common sense not to."
Natsu gently took his odd kitten from his head and set him on the ground. The cat whom he referred to as Happy meowed at him before setting off, apparently to home. Then he straightened up and opened the door, but he made sure to give her a coronary with one more good-natured statement: "No offense, Miss Heartfilia, but I really think that you need to get laid A.S.A.P."
She legitimately felt a molar crack from the force with which she clenched her jaw. That Natsu had balls of absolute steel, that was for sure, but she was going to find a way to bust them.
Lucy sunk into her couch cushions with a defeated sigh, feeling more brow-beaten than she could remember. Her disciplinarian father couldn't quell her spirit, neither her sharp-tongued mother, nor any teacher she ever had, but Natsu damn Dragneel managed to in an eight-hour workday and it was…unbelievable, to say the least.
She made him clean toilets at first, which the others referred to as the pits of the job, and any normal human being would've been at least somewhat displeased at the task, but he came out still grinning and told her that it was done, that within the hour he had cleaned every restroom in the building, which Gray and Gajeel quickly confirmed. So she was forced to move him up to dish washing, and although she expected him to break every single plate he landed his hands on, he cleaned them in such a way that even their customers gave plenty of praise. Then she made him a waiter, and his popularity improved as the customers found his easygoing personality "endearing" and he did not botch one single order.
"Why are you so happy?" she finally had to ask when his whistling and near-skipping and maddening grin were giving her diabetes.
"I mean, I don't see a reason not to be," he answered before getting back to work. The final job she could give him was cookie cutter, because it wasn't like he was going to run out of cookies to cut by the end of the workday, but considering that he'd blazed past toilets and dishes, she wasn't going to put it past him. The only thing she could've held to him was the altercations he started with Gray, which evolved into everybody turning into unintelligent apes, but the thing was she couldn't fire everybody, so she settled with an hour of overtime. She came out of her office at the end of that overtime and found them all laughing—laughing with the pink-haired cretin.
"What is so funny?" she probed, practically steaming through her ears. Natsu turned that full-wattage smile on her again, his eyes sparkling with childish endearment.
"I told 'em some stories about when I was a kid with Dad."
"I ain't know Igneel was such a riot!" Macao called from the back of the crowd, nudging Wakaba with another holler. "Natsu, tell the one about the rubber duck again!"
"Okay! Luce, do you wanna hear—"
"No, no, I'm good," she interrupted flatly. "And don't the rest of you have homes to be at? Overtime's up."
"Really? Time flies," Natsu said, taking off his apron and lining up to fold it neatly with the others. Gray shuffled past her with a wave—remarkably, he always managed to find his clothes as they left, but somehow they phased out of existence during the work day—and Levy gave her a shy smile as Gajeel bad-temperedly pushed her towards the door.
"See ya tomorrow, then, Miss Heartfilia," he said. She just gave him a curt nod as he left.
And not to mention the reservation with Sting Eucliffe.
Things were looking good at first. He'd shown up with a plus-one, his best friend Rogue Cheney, but it was an easy accommodation. Everyone was on their best behavior and performed at Fairy Tail standards, even the rougher around them, and their special guests passed on compliments at the service and presentation. Close to closing time, Sting and Rogue had just been given the bill and were about to leave when Natsu approached them. Lucy, standing a bit away from the kitchen doors, saw him through the window and gritted her teeth. "What is he doing?" she hissed, watching him approach Sting and Rogue.
Natsu said something that caused Sting and Rogue to exchange a look, then they went into a more heated conversation. At that point the rest of the staff was huddled around Lucy trying to see as well as the conversation escalated to the three of them standing and gesticulating passionately. Lucy thought that everyone behind her was just about to pass out from holding their breath when, out of freaking nowhere, Natsu threw a punch at Sting. Sting blocked it and kicked Natsu back into the table, which smashed in two at his weight. She was damn near trampled as Gray and Gajeel pushed past her to stop the escalating fistfight, pulling Natsu and Sting apart. Natsu had a black eye and a bruise on his cheek, probably more on his back, but Sting had a broken nose and a split lip, and—he was laughing. Like, dying.
"You're good, man!" he said, holding out his bruised fist. Natsu bumped it with his own even as Gray held him back from the other man.
"Hey, you too! Think I could be an MMA fighter?" he asked.
"Sure. Couldn't take my place though." His friend, Rogue, spotted Lucy and approached her with a slightly embarrassed look.
"He does this often," he told her as she tried to reign in her suspension of disbelief. He handed her a business card and added, "You can send him the bills."
"Thank…uh…I'm so sorry for my employee," she said, but he just waved her off. He grabbed Sting by the arm and shared some choice words with him as they headed through the doors past an awestruck Max.
"I'll be coming back here for you, Natsu!" Sting's fading voice called.
Gray let go of Natsu then, and he laughed for a few seconds more until she grabbed hold of his wrist with fire in his eyes. His laughter stopped cold as his expression dropped. "Kitchen," she said aloud, and the others took their cue to get the hell out A.S.A.F.P. "We're going to have a talk, okay?" she said sweetly, squeezing his wrist.
"Talk," he repeated.
"Yes, talk. The only reason I won't fire you and send you out on your ass is because you seem to have turned all of my employees against me, and somehow made yourself the fan-favorite of that man. I just don't—understand—how!"
"How…what?" he probed cautiously, sensing a bomb about to go off. Lucy threw her hands in the air as she turned away.
"In just two days you've turned every freaking person to your side. In the two years that I've worked with Igneel, he had that same weird ability to just befriend anyone and everyone… I just don't understand it, is what I'm saying." He sighed through his nose, scratching his head awkwardly.
"We're just…nice, I guess."
"That's not an answer." She paced across the carpet of the dining room, feeling the soft fibers tickle her feet through her heeled sandals.
"It's the attitude, I guess," he said. She rounded on him, ready to repeat herself, but his wince stopped her. She remembered that he was just in a fight and sighed.
"You should go to a hospital."
"What? Why?"
"Why," she repeated dully. "Are you serious?" He pressed his lips into a flat line.
"I'm…not a fan of hospitals… I just go home and Happy licks my cuts and it really does make them feel bet—"
"Family bathroom," she ordered. He opened his mouth but stopped as he saw her expression. "Now." He followed her to the large bathroom and blinked in confusion as she shut the door. She reached up to a shelf near the door and pulled down a first-aid kit. As expected, most of it was burn cream, but she dug a bit to find a bottle of peroxide and cotton balls, kneeling down on the waxed tiles. "Sit," she told him. He groaned but complied, sitting cross-legged with his back to her. She could see some splinters stuck in-between his shoulder blades alongside more scratches, but mostly it was just more bruising. "You're such an idiot. Why did you do that?"
"Punch him? I wanted to see if I could take him." Natsu's shoulder's tensed as she none-too-gently pulled a splinter free. "Ouch! Gimme a warning, please."
"Three, two—" She pulled another free and he yelped again.
"More warning, please!"
"You wanted to see if you could? What kind of response is that?" she pressed. He shrugged a shoulder.
"I went to culinary school, but that wasn't what I was all about back in high school. I was always gettin' into brawls like that… I wanted to see if I could hold my own against the—owwie!—the real thing. Sorry if you were expecting a real reason—I'm really a heat-of-the-moment guy."
"That's not a good thing," she said in response to his tone. He chuckled a little.
"Well, what about you? Why are you so, uh…? No offense."
"It's a hard job," she said after a moment, pulling the last of the splinters free and beginning to apply the peroxide. He hissed through his teeth at the sensation. "I've got to be the hard one, because otherwise who else? Not Gray, not Gajeel, not Levy, not even Macao and Wakaba, the only real adults here."
"Real adults?" he repeated.
"Compared to me. I'm only twenty-five."
He hummed, turning his head enough to show a bit of his grin. "Me too." She applied the first gauze pad with too much force.
"Why are you so happy about it?"
"Oof," he complained. "I'm always happy, and you should be too. Sure, they work hard when you beat 'em down, but did you ever try laughing with them and seeing what they're all about? I did, and I was only here two days. Did you know Gray's old man drove an ice cream truck around a few countries? or that Mirajane was a popstar one time? or even that Wakaba cross-dresses on weekends?"
"I didn't want or need to know that," she said deprecatingly. Natsu laughed aloud and despite herself she smiled a little, which he picked up on immediately.
"Aha! So you can smile." He grunted as he shifted to face her, his thighs brushing hers through her jeans. "And it makes you look real cute too…yeah," he said, the edges of his grin softening. They were just two feet apart—she could see his face in all detail, like the soft pink strands falling lightly across his forehead and the faint similarly-colored stubble around his chin (well, that was his natural color after all) and those eyes, the black with just a bit of green like the deepest undersea trench— "Lucy? Yoo-hoo, Luce," he said, snapping his fingers in front of her face. "I lost you there for a second."
"What?" She blinked slowly as blood flooded her face from the neck up. She bowed her head to hide it, letting her bangs obscure her eyes. Natsu chuckled and she hit his bruised shoulder. "Turn around, I'm not done yet."
Lucy remembered that workday in vivid detail, blushing and all, and she had the haunting feeling that there would be more days like that to come. Except she wasn't quite dreading them—to her curiosity/horror, she looked forward to seeing Natsu Dragneel at work again the next day.
Three weeks later, Lucy hurried through her door and slammed it shut behind her, and not a second too late. He knocked on the other end, calling to her as she locked it and collapsed onto her couch, her burning face buried in her throw pillows. Then, to her continued horror, she started crying, which quickly turned into loud sobbing.
She had tried it—three weeks ago, she began interacting more with her employees, and it did pay off. Erza's chilled exterior melted away and she became just a tiny bit too comfortable with Lucy for her liking, but she turned out to be a good friend outside of work with an interestingly strong sweet tooth, namely with strawberry cake that she protected with her life. Lucy and Gray also started hanging out more as he introduced her to obscure music stores and new bands she had never even heard of and avant-garde genres. Elfman liked animals, Levy loved to read, Freed fenced, Alzack and Bisca ran a western-style shooting range…
"Good morning," Lucy said as she walked into work that cursed day. The others greeted her enthusiastically, and the first person to hound her was Levy.
"Lu-chan! Did you finish your novel yet?" she grilled. She had been asking that question ever since she heard Lucy wrote in her spare time.
"Not yet, Levy. Remember, when I'm done, you'll be the first to read it."
"I better be!" she said with a glint in her eye. Lucy looked around to ensure their conversation was private before leaning in closer.
"But ah, in other news…" Levy turned red, already knowing the course of their conversation.
"Y-You know, I still have vegetables to wash…!" Lucy caught her small wrist as she tried to escape.
"Uh-uh, Levy, you're not running away today!" Lucy grinned as she spun her around. Levy's face darkened as she fiddled with the sleeves of her orange dress.
"He, uh… Askedmeoutyesterday," she whispered. Lucy squealed and gave her a hug, catching Gray's attention.
"Oh my gosh Levy I'm so proud of you!"
"L-Lu-chan! C'mon!" She pulled away and went back to the sink, but Lucy noted Gajeel's subtle pat on her head as she passed him. Gray caught her eye as she walked towards her office and motioned her over.
"Have you seen Natsu?" he asked. "We were supposed to meet up for drinks after work yesterday but he didn't show."
"He didn't clock in the last few days," she said, feeling her heart ache at the thought. "He's probably sick."
"Him? He's so slow, it'd take a cold a few weeks to catch up with him," Gray snorted. "I wonder, though… We've been back-and-forth'ing for a couple of weeks now, and he's been to my place a few times, but I don't even know if he lives in the area. He doesn't talk about himself much aside from his weird blue cat—did you see the cat by the way?"
"A couple of times, yeah. He said that he spilled blue ink on Happy?"
"Well that's beside the point. I think he's hiding something."
"Do you think he's a serial killer?"
"No way," he said without hesitation.
"Then I don't see why it's important. What kind of life he lives outside of here isn't my business." Gray, in the middle of knotting his apron, stopped to fully face her, resting his hands on her shoulders to bring her eyes to his.
"It wouldn't be if you had a strictly boss-employee relationship, but that's not the case. You like him, and don't argue otherwise, it's all over your face whenever you see him or even talk about him," he interrupted as she opened her mouth. She shook her head and gently pushed him away.
"Gray, please. Just get to work." She went to her office before he could continue, but as soon as the door was shut she went rooting for his files. She emptied out several drawers' worth of envelopes before she found it, and it turned out to only consist of his application and an old car insurance bill as proof of address. She looked closer and didn't recognize the address at all, even though she'd been through almost all of Magnolia. She decided to pay him a visit…because bosses could be concerned about their employees. Yeah, that was a thing. Not because she was worried for him and wanted to see his smile again. Not at all.
But when her break came and she was driving down the highway with her phone's GPS as a guide, she knew she was lying to herself. She had become closer to all the others in the last three weeks, but Natsu was a completely different stories. He took her to a bunch of cute little cafes and notches around Magnolia to introduce her to new tastes, and similarly to movie theaters and hidden locales with breathtaking scenery, and she could remember the exact moment that she started thinking of their "outings" as "dates"—the moment when, sitting at the edge of a pier in Hargeon, watching the sun play a kaleidoscope of red on the ocean, his hand rested atop hers. He didn't look at her, but she could tell that it was deliberate, and she turned her hand over to intertwine their fingers, and then he smiled and his eyes sparkled and—
She had completely fallen for Natsu Dragneel.
She accelerated just a little, watching the green of Magnolia fade into an obscure outskirt town with smaller buildings melded into Magnolia Forest, which stood between them. Her phone directed her near the heart of the city, and as she drove through the single-lane streets she saw the two-storied homes dwindle to boarded-up one stories. Her heart raced alongside her car as the GPS grew closer…closer…and then it beeped and alerted her that she was there. She slowed to a stop and looked over at the house number marked under Natsu's name. Not only was it boarded up tightly like the others, but it also looked to have been uninhabited for months, a year at most.
Natsu…why did you lie?
She pulled to the curb and threw the car in park, then she dialed his number and waited. It went to voicemail, the sugary one she had gotten used to and even laughed at most of the time: "Hey, you reached Natsu and Happy… Happy, say hi. 'Meow.' Okay, okay. So I'm not here right now, leave me a message and I'll get you, 'kay? Bye!"
"Natsu…" She cursed herself for how sad she sounded, but another try made her sound even worse and she gave up. "Natsu, where are you? Why did you lie about where you live? What are you hiding?" She hung up after that and rested her forehead against the steering wheel. Her eyes just began to burn when her phone buzzed with a text message. She almost dropped it as she fumbled to open the message.
CARDIA CATHEDRAL
It was short without any of his usual emoticons or bad text speak, which struck her as odd. She put the car in drive and turned around, back onto the highway, her heart pounding each mile she drove. The drive back to Magnolia was dizzying and seemed to finish sooner than she expected. She hurriedly parked in front of the church and hopped out. The doors were open, and when she passed through she saw Natsu sitting in one of the front pews. His head was down in his hands but his shoulders tensed as she approached.
"I'm sorry I missed work," he said in a rougher voice than usual. She tentatively sat next to him, so close that her bare thighs brushed against his cargos, but he didn't react. She tried touching his hand next and he pulled away. Even though it wasn't a hurried jerk, it hurt all the same. "I had three sick days, right?"
"Well…right."
"Then I'll be back tomorrow." He didn't seem to want to talk, but Lucy knew he needed to if he wanted to feel better.
"Tell me what's wrong. Please, Natsu." She rested her hand on his shoulder and he visibly relaxed.
"This place calms me," he said in a soft, reverential voice. "I remember when Mom died, I came running here in the middle of her burial… I was just five. I barely knew what was going on. But this place, the stained glass, the quietness… It made me feel better. I thought it would work again today, but apparently not." He fell silent again and she squeezed his shoulder encouragingly.
"I lost my mother and fathers years ago," she told him. "My mother died from sickness when I was just a little kid… My father died from overwork when I was in high school."
"I guess you had to grow up fast. It explains why you were so…disciplinarian."
"I was an adult when others were still teenagers, yes. It wasn't fun at all."
"I can imagine." He exhaled and dropped his hands to his knees. His eyes were pained and he was biting his lip so hard his teeth were slightly stained with red. "Mirajane told you about her sister, right?"
"Yes. Lisanna, was it?" He nodded slowly, taking a deep breath.
"We were a thing back in high school," he started slowly, pulling away from her hand to turn to her. "On-and-off, mostly for sex… We were dumb teens and didn't think farther than that. College happened, then university…we drifted. I didn't see her again until Dad…until Igneel died last year. I…It broke me. He was all I had, all I knew as family… I lost my job because I couldn't focus, and I didn't have money so I lost my place too, and I was just a mess. It took me too long to get over myself—I had already jacked up my life. Then Lisanna came back to help me on my feet, told me to get a job as a cook because I'd already went to school for that, and I figured why not at Fairy Tail? You guys loved Igneel back in the day."
"That address you gave, was that the house you lost?" He nodded.
"The car insurance was for a car I lost too. I'd been staying with Lisanna since then, and she helped me out more than I could believe, and I became able to walk around grinning and making jokes and I thought I could turn myself around."
"But?" she asked quietly. Natsu stared down at his sandals.
"She kissed me yesterday. Said she regretted never getting a real relationship with me back in the days and that she'd still want me if I still want her." Lucy's heart felt like it had been set on fire. She put a hand to her chest as she looked at him, the tears from earlier returning.
"Natsu, don't tell me…" He simply turned away.
"She was my first love."
Lucy was on her feet then, because she couldn't stand to sit there. "I-I'm…" She couldn't get any more words out past her tightening throat and turned away, willing herself not to cry in front of him. Natsu was up as well, but he couldn't catch her as she rushed to her car in record speed. She shut the door just as he came out of the cathedral and reversed out of the parking lot. He met her eyes with a determined expression as she pulled out onto the street, her hands gripping the wheel so tightly it hurt as she kept her eyes and mind on the road. The road, the road…
She got home and collapsed on her couch with Natsu behind her—he was a fast runner, then again she didn't drive too quickly for fear that she'd crash in her state. She just sobbed into her cushions, wondering why, why he was acting that way…as if he liked her…when he had another woman—when he was living with another woman that he loved.
"Lucy? Lucy, open the door!" he yelled, banging his fists against it. "Please! You need to listen!"
"You told me the whole story!" she choked out, wiping her eyes furiously to no avail. "I don't need the gory details."
"No, Luce, jeez—"
"Go away!" she shouted with more venom than she thought she could muster in her state. There was one last bang and he went quiet.
"I'll… I'll, uh, come back when you calm down, okay? I'll tell Gray you don't feel good and won't come back. I'm sorry." There was a softer thud, and if she was hopeful she would've thought he banged his head against the door. "Sorry, Lucy."
She made it to work the next day and even managed to interact with everyone with a convincing fake smile—well, everyone except the obvious. An almost corporeal wall stood between Lucy and Natsu as they worked; they avoiding eye contact, physical contact, and even saying one another's name. They stretched it out for a week until something came up where she had to see him. As the others filed in through the back door into the kitchen, Levy reminding her about her novel and Gray giving her an odd look, she grasped Natsu's shoulder to stop him from entering. Both tensed at the contact, the first in seven days, and when he looked up to meet her eyes, his were so sad.
Sad about what? It's not his fault he fell in love…but it's his fault for leading me on.
She bit down her thoughts and pulled him aside, keeping her head straight as she nodded and greeted everyone else in turn. When the last of them were inside she pulled Natsu along with her, shutting the door. She felt his inquisitive eyes burning holes through her pink button-down as she led him to her office. She told him to sit down as she shut the door and he complied, albeit quietly, for the better part of twenty seconds.
"The last time you ordered me around like this," he said, his voice just a little hoarse, "was after I got my ass kicked by Sting. It's a little nostalgic." He gave her a smile that she didn't return as she sat opposite to him at her desk. She held up his employee file and his eyes widened slightly.
"Since the address listed here is no longer valid, I'll need to update your information." She kept her voice tight, uniform.
"Mm… Yeah, sure, I see." He took out his wallet and pulled his driver's license free, handing it to her. She let her eyes linger on his photo for a moment—just as funny and jovial as he always was—before scanning his listed address. Lisanna's address. She copied his license in her printer, then she changed the address in his paper file and on her computer for security measure. He kept his eyes on her the entire time, which she pointedly ignored, but she could sense his frustration growing by the second. She had learned a lot of him in the last month, which included his very easy emotional tells. Lucy checked her contacts list to get his phone number, which reminded him of the dozens of texts he'd sent her asking them to talk before he gave up. She was just about to type it into the system when he grabbed her hand. The feel of his calloused skin against her palm was dizzying, as was his stoic stare.
"Natsu, let go of me," she said, her voice hitching a bit. He shook his head slowly, biting down on his lip.
"You didn't let me finish, Lucy."
"You told me everything, Natsu."
"Obviously not, because I said let me finish," he said with a slight grimace, gripping her hand tighter so she couldn't pull free. "Lucy, you probably know me better as a person than anyone else still alive—you should know that I wouldn't have thrown you around and played with your feelings."
"I don't know you, Natsu," she said quietly. "You never talked about yourself before, not ever until we were in Cardia Cathedral, and you know almost everything about me."
"Almost?" His lip curled as he fought a smile. "You were also a rich kid but decided money wasn't gonna make you so you left your hometown and moved to Magnolia when you were sixteen. You wanted to be a journalist but you decided working here would pay better, but you still write stories and books. You also love cute things, the color pink, cheesy pop songs, and…me," he said in a quieter voice. She felt her face burn with embarrassment and shame.
"Now you know everything," she whispered. He suddenly pulled away, going towards the door, and she thought he would leave until he pounded his fists against the wall so hard they legitimately left cracks.
"Mistake," he groaned, dragging his hand down his face. "It was a mistake." Her heart dropped as she stood.
"What was, Natsu?"
"Everything," he supposed. She felt tears roll down her cheeks and turned away.
"Then you should do what you want," she snapped, expecting him to go running back to Lisanna. "Go do whatever the hell you want if all this was a mistake."
"Really? You're giving me permission to do what I want?"
"I don't know why you need my permission."
"Because I don't think you'd appreciate what I want to do in this state, but whatever." She heard him cross the room and his rough hands were on her face, turning it back to him. His eyes were alight with fire as he gave her a nervous smile.
"Lisanna was my first love," he repeated the words from before, but before she could speak he quieted her—by pressing his lips against hers. She was so stunned that her every muscle locked up, allowing him to drop his hands to her waist unbidden. "First love, Luce. You're my second, my present."
"N…Na…" she stammered, overwhelmed, tears still running down her cheeks. He frowned as he wiped them away with the sleeve of his jacket, which smelled like smoke and the forest.
"My mistake was not telling you," he continued. "I didn't want to tell you, then you'd find out about Lisanna and freak out… Well, you already covered that, but that isn't saying that not talking to you was a bed of roses… Wait, Lucy, stop crying, please," he pleaded as she cried harder. She hiccupped, then she clenched her fist and decked him in the face, throwing him backwards and onto his behind. "Wha—?" he gasped. She sighed and hit herself next, probably bruising her cheek. "Lucy!"
"You were an idiot," she supposed, "not telling me and going off somewhere and missing work, but so was I by running away instead of hearing your story and believing in you, so we both deserved a good punch."
"Oh," he said, then he burst out laughing. "Oh, wow, Luce, you got a helluva arm! Never would've thought! I'll never do that again if you're gonna hit me another time, that's for sure." He looked unharmed though as he stood, still chuckling, and he held out a hand. "Friends, Lucy?"
She stared at his hand for a few seconds before crossing the room and, balling up fistfuls of his worn polo shirt, stood up on her toes to kiss him, forcing him backwards until his back collided with the door. He started to melt into it when she broke away with a grin. "Is that really all you want to be, Natsu?"
"I didn't, uh, think you'd want to, err— No, not friends," he answered after getting his thoughts together. His hands went on her shoulders, bringing her face back to his. "Definitely not friends."
They were content to stay like that for a while, but Lucy remembered that they were working. She pushed him away as he groaned in complaint, and to her surprise, as soon as she opened the door, a dozen bodies fell through onto the ground in surprise. "You all are lucky you came to work early," Lucy reprimanded.
"We are lucky… We got a free show on the job!" Cana said. Lucy noticed Mira and Elfman pulling Natsu aside from the corner of her eye, but she was immediately restricted by Levy clinging to her.
"Oh, Lu-chan, I'm so happy for you!" she gushed.
"You think we can go on double-dates now, Levy?" Lucy laughed. Gajeel, within earshot of them, looked up with a grunt. Levy flushed slightly and pulled away, allowing Gray through.
"Hey, I'm just glad you feel better now," he said. "It wasn't fun watching the both of you ghost around like zombies."
"It wasn't fun feeling like that either, but—" She stopped for a moment as Erza clapped her on the shoulder, gave her a very serious look and thumbs-up, before walking away. "—but things worked out well enough. I'm glad that they did." Gray nodded and walked away, which was when she noticed that their little exchange happened while he was stark-naked. Gross.
"Lucy," Mira said, suddenly coming to her side and taking her hands. Her blue eyes, usually mirthful, were grave. "Please take care of him."
"Wha…? Of course." Mira squeezed her hands before going away with Elfman, leaving the two of them alone again. Natsu grinned and rubbed his hands together as he stalked towards her.
"So, Luce—"
"Ah-ah." She blocked his incoming lips with her hand. "Work. Remember that, Natsu? It's why we're here." He pouted before smirking, kissing her palm.
"Then I'll see you right after." He stood to face her, that bright and sparkling and annoying grin on his face, his pink hair slightly disheveled, and she felt herself flush as she smiled back at him, and they held their gazes for as long as they could.