EDIT: I looked back at this and put some more stuff into it because I had a random inspiration moment. It made the ending even worse... Oh well.
I'm not exactly sure what this is really... It's not really a one-shot more of an intro for a longer series. But I'm not going to write any more on it, so yeah...
"It's always better when we spend time together, right Lucy?" Natsu yelled with a smile, not needing a response from her. Rolling her eyes the blonde grinned and continued walking. It was their first day of their senior year of high school, and she was ready to see all of her friends again. Outside of school you have to make a lot of effort to get together with your friends; without school you could very well never see them again.
Her eyes clouding over for a second they brightened when she saw one of her best friends, a redhead named Erza Scarlet. Jogging over and leaving Natsu on his own she greeted the taller girl.
"How are you? Do we have any classes together?"
"Almost all of them," Erza murmured as she compared their schedules. "And my break was wonderful." A gentle expression crossed her face, one rarely seen on the tough redhead's visage. "Jellal finally confessed to how he felt about me. Of course we've both known for years, but hearing it out loud made it more official somehow."
"That's great!" Lucy congratulated her friend, ecstatic that the tall boy with the scarlet tattoo had finally owned up to his feelings. Erza had been dreading the possibility that he might never say a thing to her, and that she might have to make the first move. Normally the Heart Kreuz fanatic was anything but shy, but when it came to Jellal she got strangely quiet and meek.
Then she was shoved sideways by Natsu, who had sprinted over to say hi to Erza and had been unable to stop in time, as was typical for his hyperactive personality. Pushed up against a cement pillar Lucy growled and playfully shouldered the boy sideways, right into Erza's waiting fist. She didn't hit him hard; her blow was softened to the point where it did practically nothing. His head spinning Natsu whined and apologized to Lucy, as well as complained to Erza.
"There was no reason for that… It was an accident…" The crimson haired girl rolled her eyes.
"Forgiven," she replied with good grace before noticing Jellal walking over to what appeared to be his new locker. "See you two later!" She said before walking over to the tall boy. Smiling playfully she shoved to make him turn toward her and they started talking almost immediately.
Lucy tapped Natsu's shoulder to get his attention. "I'm going to find my locker and first class now, see you at lunch in the usual place." That place was out near the edge of their campus in the center of an overgrown patch of invasive blackberry bushes. Freshman year they had hollowed out the area in the middle of the brush because they wanted some "secret hideout." Of course they were more mature now, but the small clearing still served as a quiet place for them to eat lunch or hang out together undisturbed.
"You sure Luce? There's plenty of time left before we have to get to class. Besides, I want to make sure your locker mate isn't an idiot like last year. That guy… How could they have put you with such a sadistic punk? I'm sure that he's on in a gang, doing drugs and whatever else…" Her friend's face darkened as he thought of the metal-obsessed thug she had been forced to share a locker with last year. Actually she ended up sharing with Natsu the entire year, not wanting to demand a locker change yet also not wanting to associate with that gang member. Thankfully his assigned partner had moved right before the school year started and they hadn't given him another one.
"It's fine." She said to console him. "I'm sure that won't happen again this time. I really appreciate what you did for me, and I don't know how to make it up to you…" Lucy frowned, looking uncertain.
"No," Natsu whispered as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "I would do it again if you needed it. Don't be scared to ask me for help." Wrapping his arms around her in a quick hug he flashed her his signature smiled before waving goodbye and walking in the opposite direction.
"See you later Luce!" Said girl looked after him, rejoicing that she had such a great friend. She really didn't know what she would have done last year if he hadn't relinquished part of his locker to her. This year was going to be different though. It appeared that Jellal's locker partner was a chipper girl with pink hair. Something in Lucy's mind recognized that her name was Meredy.
'Wonder who's with Erza then… Not me, she checked. Who am I with anyway?' Puzzled she searched around for her number (793) in the row of identical lockers. Eventually she found it near the back of the hall, completely isolated from where she knew a lot of her friend's lockers were.
"Hey there bunny girl, are we sharing again this year?" A deep voice said from directly behind her. Suddenly Lucy was assaulted by the smell of iron and a few other rather questionable things. "You never really came around, so this would work out great for me," he practically hissed into her ear.
"What number are you?" Lucy asked softly. It was all she could do not to sound frightened by their encounter.
"791," he answered shortly.
"I'm 793, you must be with someone else," she replied, attempting to keep relief from lacing her tone. Ignoring his odd laughter she twisted the lock back and forth, listening to it click as she put in the combination. When the blonde finally pulled the door open it creaked, but though she would have found it ominous a few seconds ago it meant nothing now. Whoever she was sharing with would doubtless be a nicer person than him.
"Hey, you locker number 793?" A different person asked from behind her. Smiling Lucy turned. She knew who it was.
"Looks like we get to share this year Gray," she laughed back at him. She had known him since they were in sixth grade, and even though he had some interesting clothing habits they were still good friends. "I'm surprised Juvia isn't glued to you yet, did you scrub her off on someone?"
"Na, she's fighting with flame-brain over who gets the top shelf," he replied in a bored tone. "Sounded like it was going to take a while. Barely even a 'Goodbye Gray-sama' for once." Giggling Lucy imagined the two fight over the shelf. They were as good as opposites, like fire and water. She could almost hear the "love rival" now as she stood next to Gray.
"Oh wait, where's their locker? I have second class with Natsu and I told him I would meet him there."
"It's across the hall from Jellal's. Coincidentally Erza and Kagura's is a few to the right from theirs. It seems like we really got the short end of the stick." Rolling her eyes she nodded.
"Yeah, but that's fine. I mean it's not like we'll spend all of our time here. And put your shirt on." Another moment of almost being dress coded passed without incident, thankfully. It was only the first day, so it would have been terrible to already have to visit the counselor.
"What do you have first?" Lucy muttered as she shoved some of her things into the bottom of the locker. Gray was taking over the top shelves, so she would commandeer the lower section.
"Anatomy, you?"
"Great class, I'm sure you'll be great at it," she joked. "And I have Calculous. Yuck… First thing in the morning," she groaned.
"Hey, at least you don't have to worry about having trouble with Erigor this year," Gray commented. "I heard that he got sent to a private school this year to tune him up for a military college, so he's as good as gone."
"Oh, yeah that's good. He was a real bully." The previous year he had always tossed things at her hair in class, and she had ended up having to cut it once because she couldn't get the tropical fruit gum out. "See you later," she said as she turned to walk away. "Don't leave Juvia hanging at lunch, okay?"
As she walked down the hall she passed her friend's lockers and laughed as she saw Natsu and Juvia facing of for the shelf of choice. What the merit of it was she didn't know and couldn't guess, but it was funny to watch them battle for it. Smiling offhandedly the blonde walked through the generic doorway and into her math classroom. Had she sealed her fate? Was her entire year now set in stone with dreadful classwork and a nasty instructor? Maybe. She could always choose to see a counselor and change her schedule, but never once had Lucy done such a thing. Why start senior year?
xXVXx
After the dreaded math class she shuffled over to Natsu's locker and leaned against it, waiting patiently for him to get out of class and get his things. One thing about him was that he was, and always had been, a wild card. Nothing about him was predictable besides his knack for creating fire with only primitive tools consistently. Finally his bright hair and energetic posture stood out in the sea of students as he meandered his way toward her.
"Hey Luce! How ya doing?" He practically shouted in her direction. Grimacing she answered at a normal volume, sure that he would be able to hear her even in the racket that permeated the hall.
"I'm fine, let's go too lit now. Hurry up; I don't want to be late on the first day. I want to talk to Erza before class starts to; she's got it with us." Grabbing his arm to urge him on she was struck by how warm it was. For some reason Natsu had always been unnaturally warm, but doctors claimed that his natural body temperature was just high for some reason. It never bothered her, but every time they touched she was reminded of his interesting condition.
"Come on Luce, don't be so uptight. It's only the first day, not like there's anything special waiting for us besides the syllabus. And besides, we're seniors! Live a little," he laughed.
"Natsu! Our grades and reputations matter more than ever now! The colleges are looking," she admonished as she yanked him through the crowd toward the correct building. But she was smiling, and he knew it.
"Another great beginning of another great year," he crowed triumphantly.
Rolling her eyes Lucy looked back at him, then replied back in a playful tone,
"Of course, what else would you expect? The day's only just begun."