About an hour had passed since school was over, and Natsu found himself sitting on a filthy old couch in one of the five rooms that made up his small home. Waiting for Lucy to get there was always a bore. He just sits there for hours, black and grey tabby sitting on his lap, waiting by the window and watching the world pass.
Boring.
But this time, his mind was occupied.
Lisanna is coming back. Lisanna is coming back. His mind chanted it like an irritating song that won't go away. Lisanna is coming back.
He should be excited, but he only felt stressful. Dreadful. It crushed him with bulldog teeth. Who is Lisanna? How can it still be her after she left him for two years? Could she possibly be the same person she was before?
His self control was lost; Natsu dropped the cat - Happy - to the floor and rushed into room number two of the five room house. Yes. He was gonna do that. In the kitchen, he swung the cupboard open reaching into the back. It was the second shelf to the top, and barely accessible to him. Lisanna is coming back. He didn't stop reaching until he heard a knock on the door. "Natsu?" Lucy called, and she knocked louder.
If you've ever drawn back a rubber band to shoot at something or someone, then consider the rubber band for a moment. Consider that this rubber band knows that they are going to fly through the sky. They know that they are going to hit some poor person and give them a stinging feeling on their arm. You were about to feel the guilt of hurting someone, but at the same time, the satisfaction of the prank. If you were that rubber band, and suddenly the person holding you stopped, let you relax, how would you feel?
Natsu felt like that. Like he was about to fall back, do something that would please him, but gnaw at him with guilt. Then the knock on the door stopped him. He carefully let the cupboard close, feeling allayed by the sudden disturbance. He left behind the kitchen, picking up Happy as the cat brushed past his foot. With a cat in his arm, he used the other to open the door for Lucy.
"You smell like pool water." Neither of them ever bothered with common greetings.
"You skipped school today."
"You're here early."
"You didn't do that."
It was at that point that Natsu decided to move out of the doorway and let Lucy in. Naturally, Lucy's first action was to snatch the tabby from Natsu's hands and take up the filthy red couch. "I called dad, he thinks I'm with Juvia, so we have the whole night," Lucy said. Natsu rolled his eyes and turned on the TV. Since he would be alone for the next week, he had no excuse to get Lucy to leave; there's a free room.
His silence must have gotten to her, because she didn't take her eyes off of him until she spoke again. "I'm worried about you, Natsu,"
Natsu sighed, but grinned at her, regardless. "Look, Lu, I'm fine! Do I look drunk to you?" he gave her the most sober smile he could. Was there even such a thing as a drunk smile? If he had ever seen one, he probably drunk the memory away.
Lucy didn't look pleased at all by his assurance. "You've missed five days in the past week!"
"Four days,"
"That doesn't matter!"
"It doesn't? Then why are you sitting here scolding me about it?"
"Natsu!"
Another sigh. She clearly was not in the mood for games that afternoon. What a shame! He loved playing with Lucy. He hated to see her looking upset with him.
It took Natsu a long time just looking at her before he finally got out what was on his mind - or a portion of that. In fact, the most urgent portion (or, at that moment it seemed like it): "Lisanna is coming back... Saturday..."
Lucy's jaw unhinged and she stared at Natsu for a moment. "But that can't be it... You liked Lisanna?" Lucy had heard all of his stories about a girlfriend from two years ago; Lisanna Strauss. She began to tease after a while, so he stopped to avoid the embarrassment. But never in her life had Lucy had a crush on someone, never anyone Natsu had heard about. Maybe she didn't understand how he felt about the whole ordeal.
You don't just walk away from a relationship for two years and then come back as if nothing has changed.
What if Lisanna changed? Why didn't she send him more letters? Emails? Did she have other boyfriends? Would she still like him? Would he still like her? Why did she forget about him for all that time and then suddenly decide to tell him when she was coming back? His questions got out of hand, making him itch for a drink. Lucy was staring at him. He must have been silent for too long.
"Yes I liked her!" he groaned finally, leaning back on Lucy. She would become his bed, and he would take satisfaction in the annoyed shriek that came from a teenage girls' mouth when a heavy guy used her as a pillow. Only Happy managed to escape him, leaping from the couch before he could be touched. "But the problem is, Lucy, that I haven't seen this gorgeous girl for two years now! There's so much that could be different now,"
It must have taken her a while to understand, because Lucy didn't reply to him for a long time. "Maybe..." she began, sounding thoughtful (funny that she could be so level-headed while her lap was being crushed by Natsu's lazy ass). "You should start by getting off me..."
Natsu sighed and did as he was told, then sat on the arm of the couch. It wasn't her lap, so Lucy didn't complain. She did shake her head, though. "When she gets back, just go back to being friends for a bit. Get to know her, see how much she's changed.. Maybe you two will get along better than you did before she left!" Her cheerfulness was inspiring. Natsu couldn't help but smile right along with her.
"Alright Lucy! I'll do what you say, and if that doesn't work, I'll hold you personally responsible for the failure of my love life!" he said in utter casualty.
"What?! I'm responsible?!"
"Uh huh!" Lucy raised her leg, only to kick him off of the seat and face first into the carpet.
Dear Mum,
I'm writing this from Natsu's house. Don't tell dad. You know from previous letters that Natsu and I have nothing going on.
But anyways, Natsu seems like he'll have Lisanna again, soon. I'm happy about it. But now who's gonna spend Christmas with me? It's a time to spend with a boy, but I'm not sure which boy... Maybe with Loke. He's usually not too bad. I'm sure he already has plenty of girls he would rather go with, than me, though.
Some girl wants to join the swim club with Juvia and I. It's not much of a club, and we do need more members.. But she is kind of odd. She acts creepy. And there are lots of scary rumours around her, so I'm not sure. But if you were around you would probably tell me something like "Don't listen to what other people say, Lucy! Make your own judgement of them," or something like that. I'm not too good with words yet, but I'll get better!
Natsu's worrying me again, though. He's skipped every day this week, so far. He's stressed about Lisanna, but I'm sure it's something more than that. I'm sure that Igneel will have something to do with that since he left again last week. I've checked the cupboard though, and I don't think he's touched any of the drinks in a while, which is good.
I'm staying with him tonight to make sure things stay okay with him.
As for me, I'm still not able to beat Juvia in a race, but I'm gonna make it soon! I'm sure of that! I'm always getting faster, and I can hold my breath longer than anyone else in my class. And I still haven't found a boyfriend... I just can't find any guys who are right for me.
- Love from Lucy
Natsu looked at the bright red numbers on the alarm clock. The time (6:02) stared at him like some sort of demon on drugs. It was daring him to go back to sleep. What a dick that alarm clock was, that even after he had hit it on the head to knock it out, it would continue to irritate him.
Natsu sat up, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes and discovered that Lucy had, yet again, fallen asleep at his desk. She was lying on top of a piece of paper covered in messily written words. Her pen was askew, and her mouth open as she snored lightly. At least her hair wasn't too much of a mess. If it was, she'd take forever in the bathroom. He needed some time to gel his hair, he couldn't do that with a girl taking up all the space. Natsu leaned over her, thinking Idiot... as he removed the piece of paper from her hands, satisfied to get it out from under her before she drooled on it.
"Another letter for Layla.." he murmured. The temptation to read it was strong, and he would be lying if he said he didn't take a sneak peek. Lucy wrote letters like that all the time and leaving them in front of him was almost too tempting. Guilt kept him from reading the whole thing. But words and phrases often liked to stick out like diamonds in the rough.
A smirk crossed Natsu's face, soon creasing into a slight frown. Stupid Lucy is worrying about me again... Maybe she really does need a boyfriend.
