"Natsu."

The bar had all of a sudden become quiet and still from her presents. Although the looks some of her friends were giving her were a dead give away that the pink haired idiot was back in town.

Said idiot was still talking to Grey when he gave a look towards her, one of which looked apologetic; did he know Natsu was coming back? Either way Lucy was just going to ignore him until he spoke to her, it looked like he was in the middle of telling one of the many stories of his travels anyway. Drink was going to be needed; a large one at that if she was going to be able to be in the same room as him.

"I thought you would be pleased to see him back?" Mira whispered as she passed a large glass of vodka and orange to the blonde, who happily took it in to her hands.

"I am. Can you not tell?" She replied, smiling, hoping the platinum haired girl would not notice how put on it was.

"I know you're lying. You never really did say how you felt when he left," Lucy sighed, Mira was too good at her job of knowing her friends too well.

"It's not like he gave me a choice was it? Or more to the point, he didn't give anyone a shot at telling him anything. He was gone by the time we all had the message."

Mira sighed and nodded in agreement. It was Natsu; the guy who hardly got conversations about love or in fact never really showed much of an interest in them, and would order a whisky and coke, always. The guy never thought at all. How he got through university and school was a mystery to a lot of their friends.

But it was the friendship he shared with Lucy that had bewildered everyone. She was smart, top of the class in subjects and everyone loved her; well they loved Natsu too but Lucy was kind and caring and would never hurt a fly. Unlike their pink haired friend who would start fights - mostly with Grey over nothing. But he was loyal to his friends, always, and never broke or went back on a promise.


Natsu and Lucy were best friends, even a stranger could tell that they meant the world to one another, Natsu, Lucy, Grey and Erza were the four best friends and such a tight knit group it was impossible to picture them with out having the others near by. But everyone could see the damage that Natsu's leaving had done; it broke the young blonde's heart. The fact he never even spoke about it to anyone, not even Lucy was a shock to everyone. And that hurt Lucy the most.


"Well, maybe you could talk to him about it now?"

"I doubt it Mira," Lucy sighed "In all honesty I just came here to see if it was true. I would rather be back home reading."

Mira gave a small smile back to the blonde, understanding her hurt right now. And the fact she was still nursing the drink she had been given and not touched a drop.

"Okay, if you're sure —"

"Sure on what?" Both girls froze, one girl more than the other was more than surprised to hear that voice so close to her. Mira quickly got over her shock and gave off a smile that Lucy knew she was dead.

"Well, Lucy here was just saying how she wasn't really feeling up to staying here and was about to make her way back home." Lucy could have murdered Mira right there and then, but she didn't have the heart to, nor a weapon…

Natsu looked over to Lucy, he had to admit those years of travelling had really changed her; her blonde hair was now a little longer, and a womanly figure had taken shape on her body. But her brown chocolate, tempting eyes had never changed. When did she become this beautiful?

"Really Luce? You're leaving already?"

She winced at the nickname he had always called her, "yeah, call it an early night. I've been so busy lately that it's all caught up on me…"

Now, Natsu may have always been stupid and have the attention span of a fly at school, even outside of school... But looking at Lucy and knowing her so well he could see straight through that lie. He was sure she was hiding something from him, and he was more than sure there was something in her eyes, an emotion he couldn't place.

"But I haven't got round to saying hi to you yet!" The inner child was leaking out through him, and Lucy had to hold back a smile. It seemed he hadn't changed that much then.

"Well, we can meet up at some point if you want to. Everyone's here for you so you may as well hang with them for now," she blinked a few times at the end of her words. It sounded so harsh towards her poor dense friend.

"Sure Luce…"


She felt bad. The look Natsu gave her was heart breaking to her and made her feel a thousand times worse than what she already did. What made it worse was the look Mira gave after he had walked back to her friends. She knew Mira had heard every word said and that didn't help the matter anymore than what it was.

Once setting her keys on the side of her desk, Lucy made her way in to her bedroom; the sun had already set and the room was already filling with the moonlight. Already Lucy's phone had begun to flash with messages from Levy asking if she was okay. Which meant that soon enough there would be more than enough texts to freeze her phone from the other girls, meaning Mira had told the girls what happened.

Great.

Deciding enough was enough of the day and wanting it to be another day where she could focus on never leaving the comfort of her room, Lucy went under the covers of her duvet and slept, forcing back the tears.

Natsu was back and things were going to become a lot more crazy.