A/N: Dauwz comin' at'cha with a new story that's sure to blow your socks off. Oh God, that sounded so damn horrible. Anywho, before anyone begins reading this, I stress that this story will have some incredibly foul language, which is part of the reason why it's rated M. The other part of said reason? Heheh.
Yeah, this will turn lemony. Eventually. Also, this will gradually get dark. A dark that the setting permits, anyway. Whatever, hope you enjoy the read.
Do review if you liked it. Or, well, didn't. Doesn't matter. It keeps me motivated, whether it's hate or love.
Hangover
"Oh God damn it."
He was going to die.
He knew it.
He just knew it.
He was finally going to bite the dust.
And from what?
A damn hangover.
"Never again am I entertaining the thought of partying on a Wednesday."
He coughed.
Almost puked on himself, honestly.
"Fucking idiot."
His head pounded and spun. His stomach churned, making him feel nauseous. Hell, his hands shook like they had been subjected to sub-zero temperatures for years. And of course his throat had to feel like the damn Sahara desert, regardless of the fact that he had drank over three gallons of water already.
He swore he hadn't had one this bad since his freshman year. And that was one hell of a year.
"Natsu?" A voice called the pink haired man, his head slowly jerking to look up at the person who called him, his eyes squinting as the light in the lobby invaded his private space. He couldn't help the growl that escaped him due to this, and he wondered if he looked like an animal on the verge of death, or just a random hobo angry with everything that was life.
"What?" He barked, feeling his headache intensify. He managed to make out a mop of short white hair, big blue eyes staring back at him with amusement, curiosity and what seemed to be a small tinge of worry that he was all too used to seeing.
"You look like crap." The female voiced out, her voice seeming much too amused for the Dragneel's liking, though there wasn't much he could do about it given his situation. He'd probably just end up hitting the ground face-first since he was obviously in no condition to even stand.
"And my breath stinks as though a group of skunks had an orgy in my throat. What else is new?" He grumbled with a roll of his eyes, rubbing his forehead as he blinked a couple of times, trying to make his eyes adjust to the annoying lights around him and regain his bearings, "What do you want, Lisanna?"
"The heck did you do yesterday?" The girl questioned, though she didn't really need an answer considering this was really not the first time she'd seen him in such a sorry state. She then fished out a couple of pills out of her bag and handed it to the guy together with a bottle of water, "Aspirin." She said, some color returning to the pinket's face as he nodded eagerly.
"Thanks." He said with a gurgle as he swallowed the pills and chugged down on the water provided. He then crushed the plastic bottle in his hand and later threw it over his shoulder and right into the trash bin, smirking slightly when he hit his mark, still got it.
Lisanna, on the other hand, simply frowned, "Hey, I was going to keep that bottle."
"I don't care." He stated absentmindedly before standing up and stretching. He then groaned, supporting himself with a hand to the wall as he still felt like he was on some obnoxious merry-go-round, "Mavis, I feel like someone threw me into a blender together with Gray and fucking Loke and just laughed at my misery."
"Yeah, well, you definitely look like you've been in a war or something."
"That's what they keep telling me. And I swear that's what it was." He sighed, realizing that he hadn't exactly picked the best outfit for this weather. He was sporting a simple black T-shirt, a dark gray-ish hoodie, the hood remaining draped over his head loosely. He also wore white tight-fit sweatpants and red Jordan high-tops.
And it was raining like a motherfucker today. Combined with a wind that made him wonder if they called a typhoon warning on the news
"I just… yeah, I woke up today, feeling like complete crap, looked at my jeans and other shit I'd normally wear and just noped the fuck off. Not today."
The white haired girl chuckled at his antics, figuring it was just like him, "Come on, we've got class."
"Fucking political economy."
They talked for a bit as they made their way to class, Natsu explaining to her how he ended up going to a bar with Cana, Bacchus, and some other idiots those alcoholics called friends. He was only there to talk to the bartender because she had promised to help him with a certain project but he ended up drinking with them. Being a heavyweight that could hold his liquor with the best of them, Natsu managed to keep up.
Until the Jager bombs started, of course.
And the tequila.
And the Absinthe.
He was pretty sure he almost had sex with Cana after that.
Holy Earthland.
Lisanna just laughed at his misery as he plopped down on one of the chairs in the classroom lazily, his limbs sprawling into every direction as his eyes avoided every light source like it was an STD. A whole hive of them. Natsu groaned in annoyance when someone poked him in the shoulder from behind, and he swore he would've elbowed the guy square in the face if he had any energy to spare. Hell, if he had any energy to even survive.
"No." He fired with a harsh breath, not even bothering to look back at the chuckling Gray behind him.
"Had a bit too much yesterday, eh, pinky?" The brunet sitting behind him smirked to himself, finding Natsu's whole predicament amusing as he had already talked to Cana on the phone who… let's just say was still drunk and was extremely enamored with his size, something Gray really didn't want to know.
"How about you go fuck yourself, stripper?" Natsu growled out, feeling annoyed by his longtime friend.
"I'm not a goddamn stripper!"
"Oh yeah? I don't even need to turn around to know you already lost your shirt."
"Gray! Clothes!" Lisanna hissed when she was curious enough to check if what Natsu said was true, the aforementioned pinket chuckling to himself knowingly as he heard Gray curse under his breath, muttering a quiet not again! to himself as he searched for his top. Typical.
Natsu's brows furrowed as he realized the professor finally entered the rather small classroom. He groaned to himself quietly, pulling his hood over his head a bit more before closing his onyx orbs, figuring he'd try getting some shut-eye as he ignored the usual pointed glare from the older female. He leaned back in his seat and made himself comfortable, something he'd gotten really good at doing on these godawful chairs over the years.
Okay, so that's not happening.
The pinket sighed to himself after several minutes, realizing that his head was spinning way too much to even think about sandman's land. He grabbed his phone out of his sweatpants' pocket and quickly went to Facebook, scrolling along his news feed in the hopes of finding something remotely amusing to pass the time. Kim Kardashian has now- no, fuck off.
Dragneel continued scrolling just to scroll, finding that it was honestly better than seeing Kim's ass again which, frankly, by this point was something probably even his four-year-old neighbor had seen. Numerous times. Goddamn attention-whoring trash. Eventually he stopped at a post that checked them into Eclipse at 1:34AM yesterday, well, today, technically. The post stated on to our 26th shot, still going strong!, written by Bacchus. He noticed that he was among the five people tagged, and his finger really itched to untag himself.
But then again he didn't really care enough to go through the trouble. Not now.
Quickly closing Facebook, the pink haired man turned to 9GAG for amusement. However, he quickly realized that wasn't going to work either since he had already looked through most of the funny posts already. The rest were either some motivational crap or sob stories from guys who kept using the forever alone moniker.
The world hates me today.
His eyes scanned the classroom as he yawned, his breath hitching when his gaze set upon a certain big-chested blonde who was doodling on her notes absentmindedly. A small smirk made its way to his lips as he opened up Messenger on his phone.
Natsu Dragneel: Sup, blondie?
Natsu had to force himself to suppress a howl of a laugh when her phone rang as she got the message, the blonde being startled before muttering a quiet sorry to the professor who seemed annoyed by the noise, having repeatedly attempted to implement her phones on silent! rule. He then saw the blonde in question turning her phone's sound off before she tapped away at the screen, smiling ever so slightly, the action piquing his curiosity.
His phone buzzed.
Lucy Heartfilia: Nothing much. You?
N: Trying to not die. Hasn't been going so well.
L: What do you mean?
As he tried explaining without making any typos – failing miserably, by the way – he thought back to what made him think Lucy was so interesting. They had done a project together for Political Economy where they had to visit various homeless shelters - don't ask how that makes sense, he didn't know himself. The two of them knew each other before that, often hitting each other up over papers and other shit during their freshman year, but they never really got the chance to properly talk – mostly because she was busy with academics and Natsu was either playing basketball or just killing time at bars with his 'bros'.
His stomach twisted at the thought of Gray being one of those.
The two of them somehow clicked, which was beyond his understanding since they weren't exactly alike in any way imaginable, and they hit it off easily enough. He'd started messaging her on a regular basis just to mess with her recently and, to his surprise, she didn't exactly mind it.
Hell, she was smiling most of the time she talked to him.
And Natsu found that very enticing, strangely enough.
N: MASSIVE hangover. Mavis, I think my liver is failing.
L: So you got drunk yesterday. Big surprise.
N: What's that supposed to mean?
L: Absolutely nothing~ :p
Natsu's onyx eyes went from his phone to inspect the blonde, noticing how her smile grew even wider, a quick and amused breath leaving him.
N: Yeah, our resident alcoholics tricked me into doing a shot war with them. It was… it was bad.
L: Cana and co.?
N: Exactly. Those same dumbasses that thought asking the Dean out for a drink was a good idea.
L: He outdrank them, right?
N: Horribly. Erik still has nightmares about taking that drunk a Cana home.
He heard a quiet chuckle, the sound making him smile, even though he was feeling thoroughly done with life by that point.
N: Anywho, keep smiling, it makes me feel better.
N: Though I feel weird staring at you.
N: Like a fucking stalker.
The next reply didn't come for a while as he noticed she was taking down some notes. His brow twitching, he tapped at his phone.
N: Smile, damn it.
Lucy checked her phone, her head slowly turning to him to give the nicest grin he'd ever seen. Both of them chuckled to each other before she went back to her devices. And Natsu was glad she did because he swore he would've had the most massive blush on his face if it hadn't been for the hangover.
What the fuck?
N: I'm tempted to scare the living shit out of you by whispering "smile" in your ear in a scary way. I'm weird when I'm hung over.
L: I can feel that.
The pinket grinned.
N: No, you can't. Not yet. :p
She chuckled again.
L: Come on you drunk.
N: Ayyyyyy, I'm not drunk. I'm half-dead. There's a difference, okay?
L: Okay :D
Seconds later his phone buzzed again.
L: I already had one person with a hangover sit next to me in Local Civ History. The stench was horrible. Vodka and something else, making me feel drunk.
N: Well boohoo. Guess it's a good thing I didn't come sit next to you. You'd have died of alcohol poisoning.
L: Natsu Dragneel not taking the chance to make me suffer? What happened?
It was his turn to chuckle this time.
N: I'm not that bad of a person. Well… sometimes. But not always. I swear.
L: But you like to make fun of me a lot though.
Natsu didn't know what the heck had gotten into him, but he so quickly typed up the next message and sent it with so much confidence that it even scared him.
N: Only because you smile when I do.
Shit, he cursed under his breath before his eyes stole a peak towards the blonde haired woman. His onyx orbs widened when he noticed her leaning back into her chair, trying to hide a blush behind the collar of her jacket.
N: Holy shit, you blushed.
N: That's so cute.
L: Natsuuuuuu!
N: What? : D
L: I don't blush!
N: Bullshit.
L: Seriously.
N: Okay, challenge accepted then : D
L: What?
N: Exactly what I said.
L: …what?
N: I'm taking your words as a personal challenge to make you blush.
L: I like challenges, I guess…
L: Wait, no. I mean you like challenges. Yeah, you. Not me. You.
Natsu chuckled.
N: Yeah, whatever you say, blondie.
The pink haired male sighed tiredly as he leaned even further back into his chair, almost lying on it by this point. His head had suddenly started spinning even more, and he was pretty sure he was about to empty the contents of his stomach all over the sorry sod sitting in front of him.
That or he'd just turn to Gray.
Yeah, that sounded like the better option.
Shaking his head to get out of his weird alcohol-induced stupor, he picked up his phone again and went to Messenger.
N: I love how composed you are even though it seems as though I'm stalking you with the way I keep staring.
He saw the smile on her lips grow.
L: I'm just trying to look chill because I'm sitting alone in the first row. : D
Now that he thought about it, she was sitting alone. He'd often notice it, but he never really paid any real attention to it. Why was she by herself all the time, anyway?
N: …which looks so damn sad, by the by.
L: But I don't really care, so whatever : )
N: And you really shouldn't.
Natsu bit his lip slightly, feeling awkward now. Thinking to change the topic, he punched in another message, which honestly made no damn sense.
N: So you're one of those cool chicks.
L: …what do you mean? Because I don't have friends? : D
Goddamnit woman, Natsu knew she was joking by the way she kept smiling, but he still felt somewhat out of place talking about it. Like it wasn't his business to know, which it really isn't.
N: You're that "I don't give a flying duck, I look awesome" type.
L: Duck. The struggle is real.
N: Fuck auto-correct.
L: Yeah.
N: I would pretend that it wasn't auto-correct and was on purpose, but I sick at lying.
N: Suck, samnit.
L: Hahaha.
N: AAAAAAAAARGH
A certain idea popped into his head. Now, normally, he wouldn't be so nonchalant about it since, well, he wasn't drunk. It wasn't that he lacked confidence, but more so he had some form of tact and subtlety. Being hung over was somehow helping him with his confidence, though.
He reckoned it was because the list of "what I give a fuck about" was so damn small during a hangover.
N: Anyway, I remember you didn't really want to hang with your roommate's parents on Saturday, right?
L: That's why I'm most likely to go home.
Natsu scowled slightly at this. "Home" for Lucy was out in Bosco. Granted, it wasn't too far away - about a four hour drive - but he didn't exactly have a car, and, hell, him showing up at her doorstep so out of the blue would have been weird to begin with.
N: Awww, and here I wanted to ask you out for coffee.
Moments passed – nothing. Not even that annoying "seen" notification. He stole a glance at her, puzzled, and she caught his gaze. She pointed to her phone and later ran a finger horizontally over her neck, as if slicing it, indicating that her phone died.
He growled, some embarrassment finally catching up with him.
The world really does hate me today.