The second time he notices New Girl Lucy is a few days later when he is furiously necking a gasping upperclassman, as they fumble their way to the roof of the school. Lips against skin, the shivering contact and Loke pushes open the door and emerges onto the roof, hands firmly planted on her hips. A flash of yellow catches his eye. He pauses his after-school activities long enough to notice a yellow haired girl leaning against the rail with her back to them.
He lets go off the girl beside him absently and looks curiously at the blonde girl. He thinks she looks strangely familiar. "Oh," he murmurs to himself in recognition, "New Girl Lucy." The upperclassman beside him is forgotten. For some reason, he feels no need to resume his amorous exertions. The girl waves an arm in front of him impatiently, one hand planted indignantly on her hips. "Loke, you utter cock, you were the one who wanted this. What is even wrong with you?"
Loke however seems to be transfixed by New Girl Lucy and brushes his earlier companion aside. "I'm sorry, Sylvia. Maybe you should get going now." The girl, Syliva, contorts her face into one of disgust and stalks off before sneering at him and casting an infuriated look at Lucy. Loke realises somewhere in the corner of his mind that he is being terribly ungentlemanly, but he simply doesn't care anymore.
Perhaps, it is because his subconscious grasps the immensity of the situation - that New Girl Lucy slows time down for him.
Despite the commotion, and Syliva pointedly slamming the door shut as she leaves, Lucy doesn't look back. She doesn't acknowledge the presence of another so Loke doesn't utter a word either. It's a strangely liberating, almost companionable silence.
The sun sets slowly, painting the azure skies a million different hues of red, gold and blue. And New Girl Lucy stands perfectly still, hands tightly gripping the railing, face slightly raised upwards. A few metres behind her, Loke leans against the wall, fingers pressing against cold cement as he feels the gentle trot of time beside him. Perhaps this is the sole reason he refuses to move. After all, he has not a personal interest in New Girl Lucy. There is just something about her that calms him, calms the wings of time around him. With Lucy around the urgency he so glaringly feels, fades away.
An hour passes by, or is it two? Loke cares not. But a while later, she turns around, blonde hair whipping backwards against the motion of her body and she sets eyes on a orange headed boy staring intently at her. Her expressions flicker from surprise to confusion to a vacant sort of friendliness.
"Hello?" She asks uncertainly, "I'm Lucy."
Loke stares at her in reply.
"And your name is?" She prompts, smiling in a manner that suggests she really doesn't care about his name at all.
.
"Oh, right, " and Loke recovers enough of his inherent jauntiness and cheekiness to shoot her a smirk, "Loke Celesté at your service."
She smiles at him and walks away.
And that is how Loke finds himself hiding behind a week-old newspaper while not-quite-surreptitiously following New Girl Lucy on her way. If someone had pulled him by the scruff, stuck a microphone beneath his nose and asked him what on earth he was doing, Loke Celesté, Playboy of Fairy Tail High, would've honestly been lost for words.
Among other important self-discoveries that he makes in the span of his Lucy-shadowing, he realises he would've made a bloody awful spy. As he crashes into a passerby for the umpteenth time, he wonders how he hasn't been found out yet. But then again New Girl Lucy always seems so caught up in her own thoughts and Loke thinks he would like to know what thrives behind her uncommunicative mask.
He watches her as she walks swiftly past the crowd, arms swinging gently from side to side, back straightened, stance firm. She walks with quiet confidence, yet infinite sadness. It is a curious combination of qualities and Loke struggles to understand her.
She strides into a shop and Loke hangs around outside, looking up at its broken signboard that proclaims 'Boutique de Fleuriste: Finest Flowers in All of Magnolia'. He slips over to the glass window and from behind the safety of his upside-down newspaper, he peers into the shop and notices New Girl Lucy animatedly talking to the florist. It's the first time Loke has ever seen her quite so enthusiastic and he stops for a moment, for in the heat of her vibrancy, she looks almost beautiful. For a delicate tint of red pools through her white cheeks, strands of glistening blonde hair sweep over her eyes and her fingers earnestly scrawl her emotions in the air. In her lively happiness, Loke finds a curious sort of happiness as well.
A package of white flowers is handed over to her. She smiles gratefully before completing the payment and strolling out. There is a spring in her walk, life in her eyes and Loke finds that he is strangely proud of her for goodness-knows-what. He wonders however who the flowers are for, whether or not the person to whom she would later give these flowers, is responsible for her sudden vitality. Then he wonders which flowers Lucy likes best.
He walks behind her all the way to a little apartment on Hibiscus Street. She cradles her flowers in one arm while jostling open the door with another and in a swift motion she vanishes into her home. Loke stands still, framed against the light of the moon ascending higher into the skies. "Bye Lucy," he murmurs as he walks away. And time has stood beside him like a faithful friend in the course of the day.
That night Loke dreams of dilapidated flower shops and blossoming white flowers. He dreams of setting suns and rose-tinted cheeks. He dreams of a quiet girl who throws her head back and laughs. The laughter echoes in the crevices of his mind and he sleeps with a smile on his lips. In his dream, he walks up to her and tells her that she's beautiful. In his dream, the quiet girl is Lucy.
That night passes in a slow trance; a deep rich sleep that he hasn't experienced since he lost sight of true beauty.
A/N: Thank all of you awesome awesome people who fav-ed, reviewed and followed this. Asdfgjkil you guys are so sweet! Boutique de Fleuriste sounds so frickin cool right credits lucyglitter11. I should just make her my co-author or something.
