Lucy was new to town. She had recently moved there for graduate school. She wasn't entirely sure of the neighborhood, and going out at night was slightly terrifying for her because she didn't live in the safest neighborhood in town. That's why she kept a can of pepper spray on her keys, the keys which were currently clutching to her chest as she walked down the deserted street. She was already jumpy, she'd knocked over a trashcan when a cat had meowed at her. It was not her proudest moment. All she wanted was the walk from work to be over and to be on her couch watching Voltron Legendary Defender on Netflix. She had to find out about Pidge. With that thought in mind, she plucked onward towards her apartment.
"Come on, Lucy, it's just an empty street. It's not that scary," she told herself. The streetlight she was coming up to suddenly flickered and went out.
"That's slightly scary…" she murmured. She saw an alley coming up on her left.
"No, no, no, no! Not an alley!" she whined. Her pace quickened. She wanted to get out of there fast. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black mass came out of the alley towards her. Lucy was terrified. She screamed and sprayed her mysterious assailant with her pepper spray.
"Ah, fuck, my eyes!" the voice cried out in pain. The streetlight chose that moment to come back on and illuminated the unfortunate victim of Lucy's s wrath. To her dismay, he wasn't some scary murderer. Instead, he was an attractive boy with pink hair and… now really red eyes.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to spray you," Lucy frantically apologized.
"What the hell was that for anyway? And what do you mean you 'didn't mean to spray' me? If you didn't mean to then you wouldn't have done it!" the man replied.
"I thought you were an assailant."
"Do I look like an assailant?" he asked incredulously.
"No… " Lucy replied and looked at her feet.
"Who has pepper spray in their hand while they're walking anyway?" he asked.
"I'm new in town and it's kind of scary walking around here at night alone."
"Yeah, I can see that. If I could see right now," he teased.
"I'm so sorry! Please let me make it up to you," Lucy pleaded.
"Alright. What's your name anyway? I'll have to put you on the ban list for pepper spray," he smirked.
"Lucy. My name is Lucy. There's a coffee shop around the corner. We could go there and it'll be on me," Lucy suggested.
"The name's Natsu, and alright. Lead the way, Luigi!" the pink haired hottie said as Lucy started walking.
"It's Lucy!" She corrected. He just smirked in response.
They walked into the coffee shop, Fairy Tail, and ordered something to drink before sitting down at one of the tables.
"So, you're new in town? Why'd ya move here?" Natsu asked.
"School. I'm going to Magnolia University for my masters degree," Lucy told him before taking a sip of her Chai tea.
"What's your major?"
"Education. I want to teach English," she explained.
"Well, good for you," he told her.
"What about you? What do you do?" Lucy asked.
"I'm an arson investigator. Not terribly interesting, but I like it," Natsu explained.
"What do you do for it? I've never really understood how they worked," Lucy sheepishly said.
"Well, I'm a firefighter technically, but after the fire is out the real work begins and I try to figure out what started the fire in the first place," Natsu continued.
"That's so cool!"
"It's a living," he replied as he stretched back in his chair. They continued talking for a bit before Lucy looked at her phone.
"Oh my gosh! It's already eleven pm. I have a class at eight am and a paper to write. I really should get going," Lucy said before gulping down the last of her tea and moving to stand up.
"Wait! How about I walk you home? I wouldn't want you pepper spraying anyone else tonight," Natsu chuckled.
"Alright. Thanks," Lucy smiled. Natsu offered her his arm and they walked home, arm-in-arm. Lucy never had to walk home alone in the dark again.
A/N: So, my mom bought me pepper spray for college and it caused me to think of this.