Authors Note:
For t hose of you who have been reading thank you, Sorry for the super sad ending last time. Also thank you to so who have started following this story! Well I do not own Fairytail or any of its characters.
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Natsu's thoughts
"Natsu talking to you the reader"
Actions
Last time on TLOFTSP:
Natsu gets up and walks out, leaving Lucy with her hand out stretched toward the direction he left, with tears rushing down her face.
Chapter 4
At the soccer field around 4pm
Natsu is busy doing last minute practicing on his shots before tryouts, He missed and gritted his teeth.
"God damn it all! Why do I keep missing! I'm about 20 yards out, this should be an easy shot for me! UHHHHHH!" Natsu grips his hair in frustration, and falls to his knees.
Damn it, it is probably because I'm still thinking about how I left Lucy….
Flash back 2 hours earlier
Lucy has her hand out stretched to Natsu's back, and she is crying. Then Natsu walks out the door and breaks into a run, and he is crying as well.
Present
Damn, I know she is sad right now, but this is for the best. I'm a way better friend than boyfriend for her, it is better this way. Natsu now sitting on the ground with the ball about 10 yards behind him, and he is lost in thought.
Man I wonder if Gray,or Jellal can help me out, Laxus and Gajeel are too dumb for this kinda thing. Uhhhhh-
Out of nowhere the ball he was using flies in a perfect knuckle dip into the top right corner from the left side of the field. Natsu quickly turns.
Who was that, and where did they go? Huh? What's a little kid doing here? Natsu approaches a boy about 4 years younger than him, with dark purple hair, and the Fairytail Academy Logo on his shirt.
Huh, so he goes to our school, wonder who he is. Natsu approaches the young boy
"Hey squirt, was that you who took that shot?"
The kid looked from side to side and pointed to himself, asking silently if Natsu was talking to him or someone else.
What the? Who else would I be talking to kid? "Yea I'm talking to you kid!" The kid justs nods shyly, and Natsu smirks and waves him over.
"That was one heck of a shot you did kid, what's your name?"
The child smiles proudly "The names, Romeo, Romeo Conbolt, I hope you haven't forgotten me Natsu?"
What the, how does this kid know me? Now that he mentions it Conbolt does sound familiar somewhere… OHHHHH YEA!
"Oh my god Romeo, how has it been?! Is your old man still the Principal of Fairytail middle school?"
Romeo nodded "Yea he is, busy as ever with the paper work and stuff, but yea everything is good."
"That's good to hear little buddy, well you're not little no more huh? What grade are you in now, 7th or 8th?"
Romeo seemed a little pissed by the remark "Well you see, I started freshmen year at Fairytail Academy a week ago, so I guess that makes me a freshmen then huh Natsu?"
Natsu just laughs "Oh yea I forgot you are only 3 grades behind me, whoops aha. Well, Romeo what brings you out here?"
Romeo's eyes narrow a little "Well you see Natsu, I'm trying out for the high school team."
Natsu gets a smile on his face "That's good, you look like you would make a great rotation player, or even a sub."
Romeo shakes his head 'no' in response, Natsu now confused "No Natsu I'm here to try out for the first team. I'm here to take your spot on the right wing!"
Natsus face goes blank for a few seconds… Then he bursts out laughing. "Hey, what's so funny Natsu?"
"Hey salamander you okay? I knew you would be here early so icame to the field to challenge you, and I find you laughing your ass off what's up? And who is the shrimp?"
Natsu and Romeo turn to see Gajeel approaching, Natsu stifles his laughs to a light chuckle and wipes a tear away from his eye.
"Oh Gajeel, great you showed up early, because here is my new replacement as staring right wing, Romeo Conbolt. Ahahahahahahahah!"
Gajeel bursts into laughter "OH ahahahahaha that's funny! Dang kid I know Salamander is stupid sometimes, but dang I have to admit he is probably the best right wing FTA has ever seen."
Natsu smirks "Yea Romeo, I'm not trying to put you down, you will probably start some games and maybe even sub in for me when if I get tired or injured. However, you are a couple years short of surpassing me shorty."
Romeo now glares at Natsu "Then explain why my childhood idol couln't put the ball into the goal from a messly 20 yards out, huh Natsu?!"
What childhood idol?... Well now that you mentioned it Romeo was at all of my games when I played Freshmen year, and he always asked me to train him too? But damn he is right I can't even score on an open net right now. I'm total trash, maybe he has surpassed me?
Natsu's eyes are foreshadowed by his pink locks, and Gajeel looks from him to Romeos pissed face. They both have tears slowly coming out their eyes. Then Gajeel goes over to Romeo as whispers: "Hey squirt, Natsu is not himself right now, why don't you go get out of your uniform and ready for try outs since other people are starting to show up eh?" Gajeel points his thumb behind him and Romeo looks to see other players starting to show up and get ready.
"Well alright Gajeel, if you say so. And Natsu you better bring your best game to try outs or else I will take your spot as best right wing at this school." Natsu slowly nods not lifting his face, and Romeo turns and walks away.
Gajeel what are yo-
Gajeel turns around and punches Natsu across the face, Natsu just takes it and falls to the group eyes still foreshadowed.
"What the hell Salamander?! Levy told me everything! You know I would have been the first one to hear of anything this shrimp and bunny girl are best friends. Now why the hell did you reject, break up, or whatever to bunny girl?! We all put our best efforts to help you, and you go and throw it out like it was nothing?!"
At this Natsu just stands up and looks at Gajeel in the eyes "Because I don't want to hurt her, and honestly she deserves better th-"
Gray now comes in and smackes Natsu across the back of the head. Jellal and Laxus also show up with pissed off expressions
"Flame brain I swear you are the densist most idiotic person I have ever met! You are so focused on 'protecting Lucy' or whatever you don't see that she is head or heels in love your dumbass!"
Natsus eyes are as wide as dinner plates, but then go back to normal size What does he mean head or heels in love with me?... Anyways it doesn't matter I'm not good enough for her anyways.
"Well are you going to say something Natsu or am I going to have to Erza out here to get you to speak, because you made Lucy cry and that means Erza is mad, which is bad for all of us, but mostly me." Jellal stated as he turned to look Natsu in the eye.
Well alright they wanted to hear it… "Guys it is fine, sure she will be upset for a little while, but she will get over it. I'm just her best friend, I'm meant to be there for her, and make her laugh when she is sad, not to be her boyfriend when she suddenly gets a crush on me."
All the guys turn to look at Natsu in the eyes to see if he is serious. Then Gray speaks up
"Are you really that dumb to believe that bull shit, or are you looking for excuses to get yourself out of trying to make yourself happy for once?"
Natsu gets a confused look on his face What is the icicle dick talking about now?
Gray gets pissed off seeing Natsu's confusion.
"Oh don't you dare and try that 'I don't know what you are talking about' crap Natsu! We all know that you always give up what you want to make others happy! For instance When Lucy was dating Dan, she wanted to go to winter formal with YOU, and you said no because that would be cheating."
Natsu nods and looks down Laxus now speaks up "At that time Dan was out of the country and couldn't go to formal. So Lucy wanted you to take her but you still refused."
Gray now continues yelling at Natsu "Sophomore year Lucy wanted to date you! The star of the soccer team who was only a Sophomore! But you said no, because you were trying to get with Lisanna! We all know that Lisanna and you are strictly friends since she has been on and off with Bickslow for the past 3 years!"
"Lisanna is a girl with short white hair and bright blue eyes. She is Mira's youngest sibling, she is 11 months younger than Elfmen, and he is 11 months younger than Mira. Anyways Lisanna was a child hood friend of Natsu's and she is in the grade under him, and she has had a thing with bickslow since her freshmen year."
Natsus eyes shot open and he looked up at all the guys since he was still sitting on the floor. "What? How? How did you guys find out?"
Gajeel spoke up "Well you see Laxus is dating Lisanna's older sister, and shrimp is pretty good at getting information no matter, who or what it is about so we found out about 2 days after you told bunny girl that."
Natsu looked down "Well that doesn't change the fact that I'm not good enough for her. She was happier with Dan."
Gray glared at him and then sighed, "Natsu do you know why she was so happy with him?"
Natsu shook his head 'no' "It is because Dan was her old playmate that moved, and he is her… Gay bestfriend."
Natsus eyes shot open and then confusion struck him. Why would she date a gay guy?
"Natsu, she pretended to date Dan so she could talk to you about things, because she wasn't sure how you felt. So she pretended to date another guy to see if you would get Jealous or not."
Natsu's eyes widened and then he looked at all the guys individually "Do you guys really think I'm good enough for Luce?"
They all nod, and then Gray speaks up "Why don't you ask her yourself flame brain?"
Natsu shot up and looked around. "where is she?! I gotta apologize to her?!"
Gajeel grabed him and slung his arm around him "Hold up salamander, bunny girl will be here with the other girls, for the final scrimmage tonight. This gives you and the rest of us a chance to show off Gehe!"
Jella interrupts "But most importantly, a chance for you and Lucy to talk things out. Also, for you to make it up to her for helping you with your homework."
All the guys smirked and looked at Natsu as he laughed nervously with a blush. But then his eyes narrowed as he got serious. "Alright guys, I know what I have to do."
"Alright flame brain, let's hurry up before Gildarts gets pissed! It's already 4:50, tryouts starts in 10 and we still need to change!"
9 minutes later
Gildarts is standing with a group of about 70 boys around him, and he is looking at his watch.
"10… 9… 8-"
"Hold it we are coming old man!" Gildarts looks up to see Natsu and the rest running to him
Gildarts glares at them and yells "WHO THE HELL YOU CALLING OLD YOU DAMN PINK HAIRED BASTARD?!"
Natsu gets in his face with the other guys now joining the rest of the group
"WHO THE HELL YOU CALLING PINK YOU DAMN GEEZER?!"
"YOU PINKY, AND WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE CALLING A GEZZER?!"
"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!" They both turned to see the re4st of the group yelling at them they both sigh and start laughing.
"Ahahah well now that the greetings are all done, let's start with introductions. I am Gildarts Clive, you guys can call me Gildarts or coach out here, but in the classroom it is formalities. Got it you bunch of bastards?"
"Yes coach!"
"Alright, so today we are doing tryouts for the men's soccer team, just so you newbies know, I ain't no easy coach. You can ask the veterans, and they will confirm it." Gildarts sticks his hand out to Natsu and his group, and they all nod.
Natsu then speaks up "We may mess around a bit, but all of us, especially Gildarts, takes football seriously so we come out have fun, and try our best to make ourselves better." Grays slaps his back and smiles "That's kinda hard when you have no skills at all Flame brain." Gray smirked and everyone else laughed.
Gild arts then spoke up "Alright if I call your name, you will be helping me evaluate players, but also doing your try outs as well, each of you will run a station I deem you professional at, but you must complete the others."
Everyone nodded, then Gildarts called out "Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus, Gray, Jellal, and… Freed"
Everyone looked around and Natsu started laughing "Gildarts I understand the rest of us, but why Freed?"
Gildarts smirked "Glad you asked, Come up front Freed." Freed came up and stood by Gildarts
"You see since our old Goal keeper, Jellal's older brother, Mystogan graduated, I was on the lookout for a new one, and Freed just happened to have the reflexes and the ability to read the game, and he turned into a magnificent goal keeper under my training." Gild arts is now beyond smirking, his ego has become the size of the moon.
"Okay old man, so what are we gonna do today?" Gildarts turned his head slowly to the culprit of his annoyance.
"Well pinky if you don't watch your mouth you and the whole team will run til you drop, and then run some more." Everyone's eyes glared at Natsu, and he gulped nervously.
"Ahaha just kidding coach, so what will we do today sir?"
"That's more like it. Well you guys today, I just want to see your own personal skill as an individual player."
All the players nod their heads, Gildarts grabbed his clipboard and hat, and waved for everyone to follow him. They are now right next to the goal
"Okay Gray this is your time to go, show the boys what they gotta do."
Gray nodded and took his ball to the line by the goal.
"Alright guys this is simple but complicated task, you gotta juggle the ball from this line to the edge of the penalty b-"
"Wait Gray before you start, is there anyone trying out for Goal Keeper with freed?"
6 guys raise their hands.
"Okay you guys plus Freed will be joining coach Reedus!" All the players turn to see the art teacher Reedus.
"Well, well took you long enough Reedus." Reedus laughs and rubs the back of his head
"Well you see, I was so busy grading I forgot what today was, and when I looked at my phone for the time, you had sent me a text asking where I was, and well here I am!"
"Well better late than never as I always say. Well Reedus," Gildarts points to the 7 goal keeprs
"they are all yours, go to the other side of the field so we don't get in your way." Reedus nodded
"Alright keepers let us make this an artistic afternoon shall we?" All the goalies groaned at his corny joke and followed him to the other side.
Dang I feel bad for Freed, that art teacher is a weirdo.
"Ahem, you may continue Gray."
"Okay… Where was I? Oh yes! Okay so you juggle to ball over to the edge of the penalty box and then back okay? Any questions?"
A couple hands went up
"Okay you first what is it?"
A guy with a smirk on his face, about sophomore age "Well what if we are too good for this stupid drill, we can already juggle so why-"
"Hey bastard, what you say?" Laxus now looked a little pissed because of the boys arrogance and lack of respect for Gildarts and Gray.
"Hey, hey Laxus calm down, let him be." Gray just stated just shrugging off what the kid said.
Damn Gray bravo, but I gotta teach this kid a lesson of respect. Natsu stepped forward "Hey Gray I'm gonna teach this kid and his buddies a quick lesson of where they stand alright?"
Gray just covered his eyes with his hands "Alright, alright, just don't overdo it alright?"
Natsu nodded, and then pointed to the kid "You, me, one on one free style comp. now."
The group of about 60 guys then began to encircle the two as several "OOOOOOOOO" and "Oh shit, its going down!" went around
"Well alright pinky, but I'll Start."
Gray then stepped in "For those of you who do not know how this works, each player is given 5 rounds as too try and out do the other. The one who does not out do the other loses and if the limit is reached it becomes a sudden death pana battle. Oh, and the rating of the tricks are decided by the audience."
Everyone nodded as the crowd cheered, and Gray gave the ball to the kid.
"Well Pinky, it 's gonna be fun making you look stupid."
Natsu smirked Man, this kid doesn't know who he is talking to.
"We will see kid, now start."
The kid pulled the ball back with his left foor and poped it up with his right and started juggling. Just hitting the ball up and down with his left and right foot, the kid suddenly hit it up a little higher and then lowered his body and caught the ball on the back of his neck. He stayed and then rolled the ball off and onto the floor. Everyone stared, Natsu still smirking.
"How was that pinky, scared yet?"
"No not really, now give me the ball."
The kid passed the ball to Natsu, the kid passed it a bit fast hoping to mess him up. However, Natsu just poped the ball up with his right foot, spun around in a circle and started to juggle without the ball dropping. Everyone, except those who knows Natsu's skills, eyes are like dinner plates. Natsu then pops the ball up and catches it on his back like the kid did. People began to boo for copying, but then Natsu slowly lowered himself into a push up position and started doing pushups. After about 10, he slowly got back up into his crouching position. Everyone clapping because Natsu looked to be done, but then he poped the ball up with his back, and turned himself over, and caught the ball on his chest. Everyone now astounded, he then slowly rolled the ball onto his left foot where he balances it. Man if you guys think that was good, just wait for this. Natsu then popped the ball up and then moved his left foot over the ball and back down in time to catch it. After that display he passed the ball to the kid.
The kids mouth gaped open "That was an 'around the world'? How am I suppose to top your combo in one go?"
Natsu smirked "You better or else you lose kid."
The kid just stood their dumbfounded "Well I guess I lose because I got nothing."
The kid stepped out and Gray stepped in "Now let's get this training started."
Everyone cheered and began to do the training.
1 hour and 30 minutes later
We find Gildarts talking to the whole team.
"Okay boys now that we have gone over basic skills such as ball control with Gray, Defending with Gajeel, Shooting with Natsu, Passing with Laxus, and player movement with Jellal we are now gonna join with the goal keepers and scrimmage. Okay so separate into 7 teams of 9."
Everyone begins separating into teams, and Gildarts gathers Natsu Gray and the others together.
"Alright I wan you boys to be With Freed since you guys are the basis of the team this year. Put players on your team who have pretty much made it, got it?"
"Okay old man, but don't get mad when we kill everyone."
Natsu and Gray have formed their 9 man team, being Natsu, Gray, Laxus, Gajeel, Jellal, Loke, Elfman, and Jet.
Well damn we are still short one… "Hey guys we are still miss-"
"I will be your guys 9th man." Natsu turned smiling recognizing the voice.
"So you decided to come and try and show me up on my own team, huh Romeo?"
All the guys looked behind Natsu to see a freshmen aged kid with purple hair.
Gray spoke up "Hey! That's the kid that megged me in the defending session!"
Everyone started laughing and Natsu wrapped his arm around the kids shoulders.
"Well I say he is in."
Everyone agreed with Natsu. They all then circled up for positions from Natsu.
"Okay we will have Freed in Goal, Gajeel and Elfman as center backs. Jet you go on the left side, and Jellal on the right. I want you two to use your speed to help with the attack got it? Both nodded Okay Laxus you play center mid, Loke on the left, and Gray on the right. And Romeo, He looked up to Natsu You and me are strikers, try to keep up okay?" Natsu then received a high five from Romeo
"You better watch out pinky or else you will be the one catching up.
Everyone laughed, then Natsu smirked "You guys all ready to kick some ass?!"
They all replied "YEA!" But then suddenly it all died down and Gajeel pointed behind Natsu.
"Whats wrong guys? If it's coach don't worry abo-" Natsu turned and was dumbfounded.
There in front of him was the last person he expected to see that day.
The person that had caused him so much heart ache recently.
The one person he couldn't let near Luce, his older brother Zeref.
Natsu's eyes narrowed "What the fuck are you doing here asshole?!"
Zeref then smiled and waved "Long time no see little bro!"
Author's Note:
Thanks again for all the reviews! And sorry about the cliffy again!