"No Levy, it's too late for you to come up." A blonde woman walked through the open door of the house. Boxes were piled in every corner, and there were men taking furniture up the large staircase to the second floor rooms. The blonde sighed internally with relief, this move had been dragged out for the past month and was finally almost finished.
"But Lucy, it's only a half hour away by train, I can be there in an hour." Levy. her best friend since high school, said, with a pout that was much too obvious in her voice.
"You have finals this week." Lucy sighed and placed the box down on the island in the spacious kitchen of her new home. "Besides I'd like to have the place in some sort of order before you come over. That way we can spend time together inside of just unpacking boxes." Lucy went to the large french doors leading to the modest backyard and looked out at the yard, maybe she could start a garden...
"Alright Lucy, but you know i wouldn't mind helping you unpack some things…" Lucy could hear someone yelling in the background, sounding annoyed. "I will see you in a week after these finals! So you had better finish unpacking everything by then!" Lucy smiled as she heard more yelling followed by Levy grumbling, "Okay, I have to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye, bye, Lu!"
"Bye Levy." Lucy chuckled and hung up the phone. Placing the phone in her pocket, she went back out to the truck to grab one of the few remaining boxes, noticing that the movers had also put the last bit of furniture and placed the rest of the boxes in the doorway before leaving, Lucy locked the door after checking for any stray boxes. Moving into the kitchen, she began looking at some of the takeout menus at the realtor had left for her.
Once she had ordered her food, she set to work opening and putting away the boxes marked kitchen. As she put the glasses in the cabinet Lucy realize how empty the house seemed. The silence was deafening. Lucy had to put her arms around herself as she felt the goosebumps run up her skin. "This house is just too big for just me…" Lucy glanced at the clock, noting the time, and decided that after the food arrived would be a good time to turn in for the night.
And for great timing, the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the her awaited food. She grabbed the money she had set aside for the delivery guy and headed to the front door. The doorbell rang again causing her to hurry and call out, "I'm coming!"
Lucy resisted the urge to jump back from the man that stood on her doorstep. He was a tall man, with long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail tucked under a black cap. His bright red eyes drew her attention away from the piercings that were all over the man's face.
"That'll be $12.48." The man's voice was gruff and his expression wasn't exactly...friendly. Lucy was taken aback for a moment causing the man to push the bag towards her and repeated the price one more time.
"Oh, sorry. Here, and your tip is there too." Lucy gave him a small smile while handing him the money, taking the bag of the food with her free hand.
Gajeel grinned then, his smile, while seemingly a nice gesture, made his face more sharp and dare Lucy say...scary. "Thanks, you must have just moved here."
Lucy blinked, a little thrown off by his statement, "Why, yes. I just moved in today, and if i may ask, how did you know?"
"I live next door to with my roommate." The tall man pointed towards the smaller blue house a bit down the street off to the left. "I'm Gajeel, I work most nights so you'll see me around during the day unless you order some take out." His expression slowly morphed into a more friendly one, making Lucy loosen up as well.
She held out her hand, proud of herself when she didn't flinch at the force Gajeel grabbed her hand with, "I'm Lucy." She introduced herself.
Gajeel released her hand, tipped his hat and turned to leave, "Well, I'm sure I'll see you around." He gave her another quick smile and started to walk down the sidewalk.
Lucy twisted the bag in her hands and before she could even think about she called out, "Hey!" Lucy bit her lip and quickly asked her question before she could chicken out, "What would you do to make a house less lonely?" Lucy could really smack herself, it was such a weird question and in what world was it okay to ask a complete stranger that odd of a question. Now he would think she's a weirdo and tell his roommate-
"Get a dog." Gajeel said, going down the rest of the sidewalk and getting in his car, leaving a perplexed Lucy as he drove away.
"A dog, huh?" Lucy mumbled, standing in the doorway for a moment before shaking her head and going back inside.
...
"Lucy." Levy stood in the doorway of her friend's home. "What did you do?"
The blue haired woman was currently having a stare down with a large four-legged slobbering mutt, with soulful brown eyes that her best friend wildly decided was a good idea.
"I got a dog?" Lucy said sheepishly, standing behind the wiggling mass of fur, "His name is Plue."
"Plue?" Levy snorted, breaking eye contact when the canine sneezed loudly, "What made you think this was a good idea?"
"What?" Lucy frowned, "I like the name." Plue was a perfectly fine name in her opinion...
"No Lucy..." Levy sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Getting an animal! You've never had a pet before!"
"I know Levy," Lucy also sighed, taking a sip from her cup. "But the house seemed so empty with just myself!"
"So get a goldfish, not a dog." Levy set her bag down, walking into the kitchen, eyeing the furball that had settled himself smack dab in the middle of the doorway. "Can't you take him back?"
Lucy gave her best friend the most dramatic gasp she could muster, "No! I can't just take him back!" Lucy snapped her fingers and Plue came up to Lucy. She picked him up under his forepaws, placing her head above Plue's, giving Levy the puppy dog eyes. "Look at this face Levy..."
Levy crossed her arms, trying not to look at the two. She glanced at them out of the corner of her eye, oh they were so cute...
"Nothing we can do about it now." Levy dropped down to the floor and held her arms out to gather the happy dog for a good belly rub, "He is cute."
…
Levy had decided that if Lucy was going to take care of this dog, she would need to make sure she was capable of taking the dog for a short walk around the block, getting used to the leash and Lucy's inexperience with such matters.
And for the first half of the walk everything went fine. Levy waved at the two from her vantage point on the porch, pleasantly surprised at just how well it seemed to be going. That is, until the front door of a small blue house next door opened.
A man with pink hair came out, and from what Levy could tell he was cute, and he walked down the sidewalk and what Levy didn't notice was the small blue furball that was trailing behind him.
However Plue noticed right away.
Levy cringed as Lucy was roughly yanked forward, completely losing her balance and took a great fall onto the asphalt. With her attention on catching herself and not hurting herself too much, Plue's leash completely slipped from her fingers, leaving the dog to chase the object that had caught his attention.
Plue raced after the small feline, completely Lucy's shouts for him to stop and come back. Lucy winced as she returned to her feet, brushing the pebbles that were slightly embedded into her skin. She jogged over to her dog, giving the man a sheepish look as she gripped Plue's collar. "What has gotten into you?" she mumbled to the dog. Plue didn't budge and continued to bark at something in the tree. Lucy looked up into the tree, finally noticing the hissing ball of fur on one of the lower branches. She glanced back to the pink haired man, who was also looking up at the tree.
Great. Her new dog just chased her neighbor's cat up a tree. What a wonderful way to make a first impression. Man, she sure was nailing them. The pink haired man caught her gaze and started to laugh. Lucy gave him a confused look and was rewarded with with laughter.
From Levy's spot on the porch she sighed, she has seen everything unfold and was about to go help her friend when a voice to her left spoke.
"Leave 'em be."
Levy whipped around to face the man that the voice came from, and stepped back as Gajeel jumped over the porch rail.
"Hot head can handle Blondie and her new pooch." The grin he sent her did not make her heart skip a beat, honest. "The name is Gajeel, I live next door with that guy." He pointed to the man laughing boisterously with Lucy.
"I'm Levy. I'm Blondie's best friend." She turned away, finding that her cheeks were a bit warm, probably from the sun she thought. "I cant believe she got a dog." She said with mild amusement watching as Lucy struggled to pull Plue away from the tree, causing a fresh bout of laughter from the pink haired man.
"Yeah, I didn't she would take me seriously." Gajeel said, not noticing how Levy's head turned in his direction. "So this is your fault?!"
"Gihi?"
…
Lucy cursed the long haired new neighbor for even putting the silly idea in her head, not that she regretted getting Plue, but as her current situation of trying to pull the dog away from the tree he was lunging at was starting to make her reconsider her life choices. The man laughing at her situation didn't help either.
"Plue!" Lucy cried out pathetically, and struggled once more to tug the dog away, when a tan hand reached out and overlapped hers, easily pulling the dog away. The cat saw the opportunity and bolted towards the safety of the house, barely squeezing through the small cat door equipped to the front door. Plue jerked, as if to make chase after the feline, but the man's grip stayed strong, causing Plue to cough from accidentally choking himself.
"I'm sorry!" Lucy apologized, feeling completely embarrassed. "This is my first day with him, and we're still getting used to each other." She rambled on, looking up at the man, he was taller than her by a fair bit.
"Don't sweat it!" He grinned at her, helping her up onto her feet. He leaned in close and whispered to her, "Between you and me, Happy could use the exercise, he can barely fit through the cat door anymore." He smiled at her and backed up a bit, hauling Plue into his arms effortlessly, which made Lucy's jaw drop. "Let's get this guy back inside! Where do you live?"
Lucy pointed towards her house, "I live right next door…"
"Oh, awesome! I'm Natsu, I live next door with my metal head of a roommate." He gave her a grin full of excitement, one that may have made Lucy's heart beat faster.
"I'm Lucy." She said, her lips automatically returning the grin with a warm smile.
Maybe getting a dog that chased her new neighbor's cat up a tree wasn't entirely a bad thing, in fact maybe it was the beginning of a good thing. A whole new adventure.
"Welcome to the Neighborhood!"
...
A/N: Thanks for reading! This has been sitting around for ages and I finally decided to uploaded it!
TTFN~ Ta ta for now~
xoxo
Marina Rose