Happy Valentine's Day!
There's a fan theory happening that Fairy Tail is actually a written fantasy series by Lucy about how she met Natsu (so I changed the names a little? I mean Lucy's canon name entirely implies that she's a romantic and that it's another world full of tons of races of people). And I thought "What if America or England? Hmn."
It's Valentine's day. I was listening to dubstep remixes of Cosmic Love and R.I.P. (I did not realize I liked Rita Ora until dubstep). Here you go.
EDIT: I had to fix this, I'm sorry. It was kind of all over the place.
The young woman elicited a squeak as she fell to the ground. Natsu spared her a glance before realizing he had knocked her down. "Ah, shit I'm sorry. I was just on my way to the bike shop to pick him up." He offered her a hand, a bright smile hovering on his features.
She glared a little, disgruntled of course, but not entirely angered and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "Him?" She brushed her blue pencil skirt off, searching for imaginary dirt. Her white blouse billowed in the spring winds. "Well, thank you, but I have a signing. I'll be late for the bus if I'm kept any longer, so if you'll just…" She shouldered a fallen messenger bag and started up the paved hill to the bus stop.
Natsu followed her excitedly. "A signing? Are you a celebrity?"
"A celebrity that you don't know about? No, only a small-time writer." She beamed. "I have a good fanbase, though…Wait don't you have to be somewhere?" Her delight slipped off her face.
His hot pink hair whipped around his face in the breeze, irritating him. He pulled a rubber band from his wrist to tame it. "Nah, Happy won't mind. I can pick him up later."
"…at the bike shop," she reiterated dryly as he sat beside her. It was cooler in this spot, on the bench beneath a maple tree.
"Yeah, he got some work done. The pressure valve was messed up on my last cross-country delivery and I decided to add some wings to his paint design. So, what do you write about?"
"Well right now, I have my long-running urban fantasy Rave series out. I published Monster Soul most recently. A two-part novel that explores racism and prejudice and the destructive impacts it has on society. Like, there's a real dichotomy that can be explored in contemporary fantasy and I just think…" Natsu had stopped, staring at her. He looked more than a little puzzled. "What?"
He grinned. "You're really smart."
"Well, yeah. I'm a writer. We're supposed to know what we're writing about. We're supposed to make art with words." She sat on the bench under the shade, waiting for the bus and patted the seat beside her. "Why?"
"I've never met a girl who looks…and talks…Ah, I don't know." He rubbed his hands on his patched jeans and sneaked a glance. He liked the look of her, curvy and cute, wide brown eyes, sun-kissed hair. She wasn't intimidatingly intelligent, or at least, she didn't flaunt it and was affable enough. "What are you doing later? My friend owns this ice cream parlor with his girl and I was going to visit later with Happy and Cana but it wasn't set. I'm kind of hungry now. Wanna go now?"
A thin eyebrow rose. "So you want to eat ice cream? Which is completely not filling? And when I have to get to my signing?"
"No." Yes. "Okay, after. After the signing. The place my friend owns is called Juvia's." He was already standing and walking away, scuffing his boots on the ground. "At two p.m. See ya."
"Alright then." She smiled, vaguely amused. "What's your name?"
"Natsu. Hasegawa Natsu. You?"
"Lucy. Lucy Hartford."
The signing was exhausting, but rewarding, so getting a ride from a taxi was a small luxury she afforded herself. Lucy loved that the fans of her novels were so avidly curious. They would ask "What inspired you? Did the characters come from real people? Is Musica based on your ideal man? Did you know someone like Haru? How did you come up with Rave as a tool or a magical property?"
Yes, she had gotten her inspiration from real life. Yes, she was working on a new project. It was still an idea really. A mage-guild and the story of everyone in it. But how to put that together? How would she really make it explode, make it pop, make it a story that was truly individual? That was probably the most frustrating parts of being an author.
Still, she adored it even if her father thought she would never be able to make it big or earn what he earned. Never mind that working from your imagination and running an empire business mogul were completely different things. Lucy had never really been good at business anyway. Her father constantly fought with her whenever he called, sometimes only to criticize. It was exhausting and had been happening for years. When she had gotten out of high school, she needed time to do what she wanted and had chosen a college as far from her father as she could, gotten a job at a magazine while in school, and worked her way up from there. And once her mother died, relations grew brittle and cold.
Perhaps this was why they were estranged.
As the driver rounded the corner she spotted a silver and indigo themed ice cream parlor. Juvia's. She saw the lively Natsu who spoke to her this morning through the large window. He was already sitting at a chrome-lined table, talking animatedly on the phone.
Lucy stepped out of the car and thanked the man for driving her, adjusting her hair and her clothes surreptitiously the building next door before walking out. The deep bells on the door jarred and alerted the man tending to the counter to her presence. He grinned and gestured to Natsu's table. "He's been waiting a while. He got here early."
"Oh." She grinned, pleased. "Thanks."
He nodded and shooed her.
"Hey!" Natsu looked at her as she plopped down next to him. "How was the signing?"
"It went well. It's a small following but a dedicated one. I love them all. It's just really great people can appreciate your work or that it can spawn so much enthusiasm. Thanks for inviting me today, Natsu."
He shrugged, sipping at his root-beer float. "Well, I wanted to see you," he said, fiddling with the studs in his ear, "so I asked. I'm glad you're here."
"Me too." She flashed him a warm smile, holding his gaze for just a minute longer than was appropriate. There was something interesting about his eyes or the heat that seemed to emanate from him. He had an energetic vibe, an explosive feel to him that felt spontaneous and possessed an air about him that was sociable. Getting to know him felt right. "I like your shirt."
"What? Oh, the Sex Pistols?" His grin was wide and warm and she watched as his entire body shifted. "They're my favorite musicians. A lot of people like their newer stuff but their first few vinyls just really... I'm losing you. I'm sorry."
"No, it's interesting. Maybe I can listen sometime?" She was enjoying how close they sat, leaning closer imperceptibly.
"I'd like that."
They spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of the city, ducking into shops. Lucy had been right about his energy. Natsu was constantly moving, even when still. His foot would jiggle or a finger would tap and the way he watched her gave her a rush deep in her heart. She could not help but laugh at his silly jokes or smile when he took her hand or put an arm on her shoulder – he was incredibly casual, but she enjoyed it. Conversation was long and fun. She learned so much about him; he enjoyed math but had trouble with writing and words, and the first time he moved down was from Chicago.
Upon nightfall, he was kind enough to take her home and escorted her safely to the door, laying a quick kiss on her cheek before darting away.
She sat at her deck at twelve sharp that night, tapping her pen against the desk. Her monitor stared frustratingly back at her and she clenched her teeth angrily. What was she doing? Maybe she just had her run with the Rave books or the Monster Soul trilogy. Unbidden, Natsu's face swam to the surface of her brain and suddenly, she knew her characters. She wrote their ages, their pleasures, their pain, their background. The guild story would center around the adventures of a hapless young woman waiting to be molded into a powerful mage. She would make a lifelong friend in a dragon slayer. And it would be called Fairy Tail.