AN: Hello everyone! Hope you guys are still liking the story so far! Next chapter is when the chapters start getting longer and when things start picking up! :D


Chapter 3

Chemistry

Beer, cigarette smoke, and boisterous laughter hit Natsu the moment he approached Fairy Tail. With a toothy grin plastered to his face, the boy happily waltzed inside, dodging chairs and bottles that were being thrown in one of the daily brawls. He'd definitely join in later after he had his fill of Mira's cooking.

Fairy Tail was run by a family that knew about and associated with immortals. The founder, Mavis, was an immortal herself, one of the first ones to discover her immortality. She and her friends of mortals traveled the world, searching for people like her to bring them to a safe place. With their connections, they managed to make Fairy Tail a home for those that lost theirs over the vast years.

Mavis handed Fairy Tail over to her friend, Yuri Dreyar, who was a mortal that cared about the wellbeing of everyone while she continued her journey to find more immortals. Once Yuri died, control went to Makarov, who was the current leader as of now.

People were born as immortals, but it wasn't passed down through genes. It was just an odd strike of luck- though, it was usually considered a curse to the people affected themselves. Mortals could give birth to immortals, and immortals could give birth to mortals, there was no guarantee.

Natsu didn't find out he was immortal until he was around forty years old, as he had stopped aging at roughly twenty-one. For the first few years, he had assumed that he had gotten his good genes from his father, Igneel. But once he was surrounded by his fellow forty-year-old friends, their faces adorning wrinkles while their hair was starting to grey, he knew something was off, but he couldn't put a finger to it.

He never expected the answer to be his body never aged. That is, until Makarov found him and explained the whole situation to him.

"My boy, just how old are you?" Makarov had asked.

Natsu arched a brow at the old man who had approached him seemingly out of nowhere. "Huh? I'm forty, why?"

"Surely you realize that you don't look it."

Natsu frowned, shoving his hands in his pockets. It was admittedly something he had been wondering about a lot. "So what? I got good genes." He moved to walk past the old man, when he froze at what he said next.

"Have you ever considered the possibility of immortality?"

Sharp laughter cut the air, Natsu peeling over and clutching his stomach. "Oh man, you're senile! There ain't no such thing!"

"If you believe that to be true, then go ahead and keep going about your day," Makarov said, giving him a hard stare. "But if you are hesitant as to why your body never grows or why your wounds heal at miraculous paces, come with me. There are others like you. You aren't alone anymore, boy."

Since then, Natsu was introduced to the world of the immortals. He learned of the networks, Fairy Tail, even more about himself.

Immortals all had what they referred to as their death day, the day that they stopped aging. Of course, nobody knew for sure what their death day was, considering that it was impossible to pinpoint the exact moment they stopped aging. But they could roughly guess the age at which their features stopped evolving.

In Natsu's case, it was around his low twenties, same as Erza and the others. Mavis' was in her mid-teens. Laxus', Makarov's grandson, was in his mid-twenties. There was no specific reason for people's death days, it was all arbitrary.

Natsu followed his friends behind the counter where only immortals were allowed. Past a hallway, there was a set of stairs leading to the large basement, full of pool tables, lounging areas, a large kitchen, and plenty of other amenities. The top floor was a coverup, a way to make money to help feed the immortals while the basement was for the immortals that couldn't roam around with it being too risky of a time period.

Though it sounded cruel to be stuck in a basement, it wasn't too bad. The people had plenty of friends and things to do to occupy themselves. Plus, they could leave the basement and go upstairs once the pub closed.

Cana sat at a table, clutching a barrel of booze to her chest. She had been an immortal longer than Natsu and the others.

"Oh, how was your first day of school?" she asked, her words slurred and her cheeks pink from the alcohol.

"Pleasant," Erza answered with a content smile. "Though I do wish professors went over more than the syllabuses on the first day."

"Nerd," Natsu muttered beneath his breath. A dark shadow loomed over him, his lifeforce seeping out of him under the harsh glare that Erza was giving him.

"Care to repeat that?"

"N-No, ma'am!"

Everyone laughed at Natsu's misfortune, save for the boy himself, who crossed his arms with a huff.

"Is Levy out with her friend again?" Mira asked, cooking up food in the kitchen.

Gajeel scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Yep. Shrimp never learns, and she's supposed to be the smart one."

"I actually met this Lucy girl today," Jellal announced. Everyone's heads whipped towards him, but he didn't fluster under the attention. "I sensed no malicious intent from her. It seems she's just a college student with a love for writing and books, which is probably why Levy took such a liking towards her."

Natsu's ears perked at the word 'writing', reminded of the girl he sat by in class and the story she was writing. Part of him couldn't wait for Friday so that he could read more of it. That is, if she continued to slack off from school and write more.

"I don't care what she's like," Gajeel retorted. "I don't trust her. There's something off about her, I just don't know what it is."

"I understand your suspicion towards mortals but-"

"That's not it. Yeah, I don't trust mortals, but I especially don't trust this one."

"Why?" Erza questioned, her need to protect flaring for their friend. "Has this Lucy girl done anything?"

Gajeel rubbed the back of his head. "Nah, not exactly. But there's something about her. If you met her, you would understand. It's just, whenever I look her in the eyes, it feels like she's hiding something."

"Perhaps we should all meet this girl."

"I don't know how Levy would feel about that," Cana said, wiping alcohol off of her chin. "She'll probably know that you're going to interrogate the girl. Probably scare her off in the process."

Erza shrugged. "Perhaps that's what's best."

"I think it's good that Levy has a friend she is close to, even if it is a mortal," Mira argued, her signature, pleasant smile glued to her face. "If Levy does agree to bring her friend, I want you all to be on your best behavior, got it?" Her face barely changed, but her smile suddenly felt sinister, like that of a demon.

"Fine," Erza agreed, crossing her arms. She glanced towards Gajeel. "Well? Think you can convince Levy to invite her friend over so that we can all see if she's a threat?"

The boy nodded. There was no way he was going to let his girlfriend dive too deep with the mortals and get hurt the way some of the others had. Some scars were too deep.


Sunlight filtered through Lucy's curtains that Thursday morning, to which the blonde tried to avoid by shoving her face in her pillow. As if on cue, birds began chirping their morning melodies, only making things worse for the sleepy girl. Knowing there was no chance of her going back to bed, she rose in a slouching position, glaring at the wall in front of her. She wasn't a morning person.

Glancing at the alarm clock that rested on her nightstand, Lucy's eyes widened, a gasp escaping her lips as she scurried out of bed. Her ankle was tangled in the sheets, so she ended up tripping and falling face-first onto the floor, but she ignored the pain and quickly got ready for school. Waking up late on the second day of school wasn't what she had in mind.

Her golden locks were thrown in a messy bun on top of her head and her clothes were haphazardly thrown on. Lucy frowned, knowing that she didn't have time to eat breakfast before bolting out the door.

Reaching the classroom just in the nick of time, Lucy collapsed in the nearest available seat and laid her head on the desk, not paying attention to who else was sitting at the table with her.

"Oi, why're you here?" a familiar voice questioned, quite rudely she might add.

Lucy swallowed thickly and dragged her gaze towards the harsh voice. Immediately, she was met with crimson eyes that felt like they could turn her to stone. "G-Gajeel. I didn't know you were in this class."

"Got a problem with it?" the boy asked, crossing his arms and giving her a look that could freeze all of hell.

"N-No, of course not!" Lucy glanced around the room, searching for another table she could sit at. It was clear she wasn't welcomed there, and she didn't want to spend the entire quarter by someone that hated her guts. Finding one in the opposite corner of the room, the girl rose. "W-Well, I'll just go-"

"Nonsense," a girl at the table interrupted. She was mesmerizingly beautiful with long locks of scarlet hair, her bangs sweeping to the side to cover one of her eyes. "You're welcome to sit anywhere you'd like. Ignore Gajeel."

"You two know each other?"

"Unfortunately."

"Oi! Why'd you hafta go and say that!?" Gajeel barked, though he went unheard.

Lucy, having a feeling that it would be rude to turn down the redhead's offer, slowly sat back down once again. With it being a chemistry class, they were in a lab with stations that had two chairs on both sides and then one on the end. She was sitting at the end of the table and felt like the odd man out.

To her left were Gajeel and the redheaded girl and to her right was a couple. It was obvious they were a couple with how the girl was clinging so tightly to the boy's arm. She had wavy blue locks of hair and was dressed for the winter, despite the warm weather. She had fair skin and her lashes were dark and noticeable. She was stunning.

Lucy's eyes widened and her mouth parted as she glanced towards the boy. To her surprise, it was the same boy that was late to her math class yesterday. She recognized his scar that ran along his forehead, not to mention the fact that his shirt was unbuttoned yet again.

"Hey, we're in math together," Lucy said, facing the raven-haired boy.

His browsed raised, recognition lighting in his eyes. "Oh yeah. You're the one that sits next to-"

"Love Rival," the girl next to him interrupted through clenched teeth. Her grip on the boy's arm tightened as her eyes shot daggers at Lucy.

"Th-That's not it!" the blonde denied. She really should've just moved to the other table.

"Ignore them, too," the redhead said with a sigh. "You must be Lucy." She could tell by the way Gajeel acted with her.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. How do you know my name?"

"We're friends with Levy."

At that, Lucy's features lit up. "Oh, really? That's great!"

"I'm Erza. This is Gray, and this is his girlfriend, Juvia. And you're already acquainted with Gajeel."

Erza studied Lucy. In truth, she seemed like a nice girl, but looks could be deceiving. She learned that the hard way. Now, there wouldn't be a need to have Levy invite Lucy over to Fairy Tail. Through dumb luck, she could watch over the peculiar blonde herself.

"Yo!" a sudden voice rang out. Everyone turned towards the front of the classroom to find a man in his mid-twenties strolling towards the professor's desk, placing his bag down. He was a peculiar looking man with red and white hair split perfectly in the middle. He wore a red button up shirt with a large collar, though just like Gray, he opted to leave quite a few buttons undone. "I'm Scorpio. This quarter, we're gonna be learning about chemistry. We are!"

"He's kinda weird," Lucy thought. "But at least he seems nice." She couldn't say the same for her last professor.

"Hope ya like where you're sitting, because from now on that's your assigned seat. We're gonna be doing a lot of group projects and it's just easier if everyone works with the same people every time."

Lucy suppressed the urge to sigh. She didn't want to work with Gajeel, or his friends for that matter, even if they were also Levy's. Aside from Erza and perhaps Gray, she didn't get a very warm welcome. The other two kept glaring at her the whole time, not even bothering to be discreet about it. Despite what class they were in, she did not have chemistry with these people at all.

Luckily, the class went by quickly as Scorpio used the time to go over the syllabus, as most teachers do on the first day of class. Lucy quickly packed her things and gave a hesitant nod as farewell to her new deskmates. With that, she was out the door.

Grabbing her phone, Lucy typed a quick text to Levy, careful so as not to trip or bump into anyone.

"So I met some of your friends today."

The reply she got was instant. "What? Who?"

"Erza, Gray, and Juvia. And Gajeel was there too. Turns out we have chem together."

"That's perfect!"

"Maybe for you but not for me. Juvia called me her love rival the entire time and Gajeel was being his normal lovely self."

"Sorry about that. Juvia is overly jealous and I try to talk to Gajeel but he's a hardheaded idiot."

Lucy couldn't help but laugh aloud at that text. Though Gajeel was a huge ass towards her, she thought his relationship with her best friend was quite entertaining. She found their bickering way more endearing than other couple's lovey-dovey statements. She momentarily wondered what she would be like if she had a boyfriend before shaking her head and staring at her phone again.

"It's okay. Maybe I can finally win him over now that we see each other twice a week!" Lucy texted back.

"How about we make it three times this week?" Levy replied. "Why don't you hang out with us tomorrow! It's a Friday, so I know you don't have to rush to do homework!"

Lucy stared blankly at the text. Hang out? With Levy's friends? "I don't know, Levy-chan. I had some stuff planned for tomorrow."

"You're a horrible liar, Lu-chan. C'mon! Hang out with us! It'll be fun! Please do it for me?"

Lucy sighed, knowing that she couldn't turn her down now. "Alright. Only for you, Levy-chan."

"Yes! You and I can go get smoothies after school and then I'll bring you to where we all hang out!"

"Where's that?"

"Fairy Tail!"


AN: So Lucy's school schedule is creative writing with Levy and Jellal and then math on MWF and chem with the others on TR! Hope you guys liked the chapter! Also I really love reading your guys' theories on this story omg. Some of you are really good guessers lmao I was shocked. But tell me some more theories you have I love reading them! :D

Thank you to those that reviewed: Rein Serenity, stranger1999, MasterGildarts, Guest, shootingstarssel (x2), Alexa60765, Tohka123, MissVarta, Kauia, Nalulove, Mannyegb, Soul Eater Maka, Firefly9917, ThaDesparado64. You guys are really kind. :')