Chapter 2

True to his word, Natsu showed up at my house the next day.

He happened to arrive right as my parents and I finished up breakfast and started clearing away the table. The doorbell rang right as I put my plates in the sink.

"I'll get it!" I said quickly, rushing out of the kitchen.

"Is that Natsu again?" I heard my mother wonder aloud as I left. "He seems to have an awful lot of free time."

"Don't be silly, Layla," my father said back to her. "It's summer; kids their age don't know what to do with themselves without school."

I ignored them and answered the door. Natsu was standing right outside, his clothes and hair unusually scruffy, looking abashed.

"Um, sorry," he apologized, his eyes briefly darting in the direction of the kitchen. "Did…did I interrupt your breakfast?"

"No, we just finished," I reassured him. "C'mon in."

He stepped inside wordlessly. He looked listless somehow, even though it was still early, and that worried me a little. I didn't get a chance to ask about it before my parents came into the living room.

"Good morning, Natsu," my mom greeted him with a smile. "Good to see you."

Natsu smiled politely and bowed his head a little like he always did when he greeted adults. "Good morning," he said in return. "I'm sorry for dropping in so early like this."

"Nonsense," my dad said easily. "It's a pleasure to see you children making use of your time. More plans for today, I presume?"

To my surprise, Natsu shook his head in response. He looked solemn as he said, "No, sir; I won't be staying long. I just want to, uh, talk with Lucy about a couple things before I leave."

The cryptic way he worded his statement sent me into a silent yet frantic panic attack. He wasn't planning on leaving this city, was he? Or…could he possibly be here to break up with me? I had to fight the urge to slap myself out of those thoughts. It was crazy; he couldn't be breaking up with me…right?

I shook my head internally to clear away the thoughts. No, that was too outlandish of a possibility. I was letting my paranoia get away from me.

"Well, then; don't let us keep you if you have places to be," my dad said, drifting away to his workroom. "Have a good talk."

"Thank you," he answered gratefully, bowing his head again. Then he turned to me with a surprisingly nervous expression and said, "Let's go to your room, Lucy."


It was a long time before Natsu actually got around to saying anything.

We did go into my room for privacy purposes, but he just sat in my chair and stared out my window for several minutes. I wanted to interrupt him to get the conversation started, but that nagging feeling that I shouldn't disturb his peace again won out over my impatience.

So I curled up into a ball on top of my bed…and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"Sorry about yesterday," he said suddenly without taking his eyes away from the window, startling me. "I—I didn't plan on leaving you guys like that. Something came up."

"Oh, uh…i-it's okay," I stammered, trying to regain my bearings. Wow, this is the first time he's apologized about leaving out of nowhere like that… "I'm sure you had your reasons."

He finally tore his gaze away from the window to smile at me. "Seriously, Lucy; you're too nice sometimes," he remarked, slight teasing in his tone. "You'd probably forgive me even if I committed a crime against you that landed me in jail."

I let out a weak laughter in defeat. "Yeah, I probably would," I agreed

"You're always asking for trouble."

"Well, ha ha." I leaned over to him inquisitively. "So, what did you want to talk about in the first place?"

His eyes lit up in realization. "Oh…right. Almost forgot about that."

I sighed resignedly. Natsu was prone to memory lapses. If it wasn't so inconvenient, I would find it funnier.

"Actually, it's, um…kind of the reason I left yesterday," he confessed, staring at the floor. "I didn't really have a way of telling you then, since it was on short notice, so, uh…that's why I told Sora to let you know I was coming today."

"Oh, it was?" I said in surprise. "What is it, then?"

"Well…" He scratched his head, clearly uncomfortable. "See, there's this…event going on at South Gate Park tomorrow. It's a 'raise awareness' type of thing. I was just wondering if you, y'know…thought about going there."

"An awareness event?" I was pretty sure I heard about it during the last week of school, but I couldn't remember what the event was for—I never really paid attention to the announcements. "What's the event raising awareness about again?"

"You'll see if you go." He then looked at me imploringly. "So, will you? It'll mean a lot."

Something told me that I'd really hurt his feelings if I turned down the invitation. To be fair, though, I was still trying to absorb the shock of Natsu inviting me to go somewhere. From the day we'd started going out, I'd been the one who had to drag him to places to hang out—and it wasn't an easy job, either. He normally didn't like going out in huge public places, so Natsu asking me to attend what would definitely be a huge public event with him (especially at such a touristy destination like South Gate Park) was something totally out of left-field. I'd been so blindsided by that that I almost forgot to answer him for a moment.

"Uh, sure; no problem," I answered him at last, feeling thoroughly confused. "But what brought all this on? Did something happen?"

"I…I just have this feeling," he replied as he nervously tugged at his scarf, his eyes downcast. "I decided that it was about time that I opened up about myself, and…stopped hiding things from you."

He—wait, what? "W-wait a minute…I mean, that's great to hear and all, but—but why then, of all times? And why at a public awareness event?"

"Because," he said shortly as he rose from the chair and turned to leave, "that's the right place—and the right time."

I had no idea what he was saying. "Natsu—"

"I'll see you then," he said abruptly, his hand on the doorknob. "Don't forget. It's tomorrow, at ten in the morning, okay? If you don't see me when you get there, just go and sit down until the event starts. Don't ask anybody about the event. Don't take any pamphlets or whatever merchandise they'll be selling. And don't wait for me." He turned the knob and pulled the door open, and without turning back to look at me, he added, "You can invite Sora and Kairi to come along with you, if you want…since they're your friends, too. Later, Lucy."

He then left the room and closed the door behind him, leaving me seated on my bed and trying to organize this new torrent of questions in my head.

I really wished that I knew what I was supposed to be feeling right now. I'd never been so confused in my life. But I did know that there was no possible way I could get through that event on my own.

I grabbed my phone off of my table and hit Kairi's speed dial.