Thanks for all those reviewers (especially Dog's Paw Burning in Hot Ash!)

Prologue Chapter 4: Fifth and Sixth Grade

Sixth grade: kings and queens of the grade school…and Natsu had become hopelessly stupider. We were placed into the same class, along with Gray and the other guys, and so he started to hang out with them a lot more than was usual. So, in despair, I found myself a few other friends to talk with. For a while, Natsu and I lived side by side in peace, although, romantically, I didn't. He was still a complete IDIOT (need I say more?) when it came to love. Seven years ago, he had told me in his four-year-old voice that we couldn't be a couple.

Surprisingly, though, he had become quite popular with the girls. And all because of his extremely talented skills at baseball. He told me, with a smirk on his lips, "I'm going to be in the baseball club for junior high next year."

I, on the other hand, had settled for tennis club. Over the years, I had refined my Western and Eastern grip on the racket, and had improved my footing as well.

One day in our sixth grade year stands out the most, and thinking about it now still gets me fairly upset.

Just after the bell rang, signaling the end of school, Levy came up to me, and beamed, her hands shoved deep into her pockets.

"Luuuucy," she drawled, "we're on locker room patrol, remember?"

"Don't I ever," I replied, picking up my school bag.

The blunette wrinkled her nose, pointing to my pack. "Maybe you should leave it there. I've heard it gets reeeally dusty in the locker rooms when it hasn't been cleaned for a while."

I glanced down at my bag, freshly cleaned from last weekend. "Maybe you're right."

"Let's go, then."

"Hold up."

I turned my head, looking for that pink head in the midst of crowding girls and boys. Opening my mouth partly, I called, "Natsu! I'm going with Levy on locker room duty!"

Gradually, the boy's face came into view, and his happy expression slackened as he looked at me. "Oh, yeah. I'll be here with the guys on classroom patrol."

He ducked his head back down, and I scowled in his general direction before I followed Levy out the door. The blue-haired girl eyed me for a moment, before shaking her head.

"What?" I asked in frustration.

"I cannot believe you've fallen in love with your childhood friend."

I tied my hair into a ponytail, then – trying to be straightforward – I spluttered, "Well, why can't I?"

Levy wrinkled her brow, pulling out a jawbreaker from her right pocket. She popped it into her mouth after having it rejected by me. "Well, 'childhood friend' is a really old relationship, you know? It's hard to see pass that for most people."

Thinking back on Natsu's denseness, I couldn't help but agree. My lower lip quivered in agony. "Well, yeah, I can't argue with that. But your crush is hard to get, too. I mean, Gajeel is so…prickly."

My friend waggled her finger at me, her lips pulling down into a soft frown. "First of all, he's not a cactus; second of all, I do not like him.

"Then…why do you defend him first?"

Levy groaned as I giggled. We turned sharply around a corner as we met the locker room door; reluctantly, we pulled it open, and stared in shock at the musty lockers, the slightly moldy benches, and the floor littered with gum wrappers and…well, gum.

"For a place where the floor is where you put your bare feet for a few minutes on…it's sooo disgusting," Levy moaned, nudging what looked like a half-eaten chocolate bar with her toe. I bent down to get a closer look at it, then stood up immediately when it quivered slightly.

"Maybe," I said, gulping, "we should get started."

I grabbed a broom from the corner of the room, and screamed as a blanket of cobwebs fell around my face and arms. Levy stared on as I hopped around, smashing the might-have-been-chocolate-candy-bar, wiping off some bench-mold with my pants, and slamming into the lockers. She finally sighed as I stopped, falling to the floor in a reproachful heap.

"This is going to take some time."

"That was horrible," Levy groaned as she rubbed her arm. I glanced at her, and smiled when I saw a patch of dirt on her face.

"You've got something right there."

She clapped her hand to her face and rubbed, but she only succeeded in smudging the mark. "There. Better?"

"I think you better go to the bathroom to wash it off."

She sighed, crossing her arms moodily. "No way. We've wasted enough time as it is."

I laughed as we made our way back to the classroom. When we got there, I reached out to take the handle, but Levy stopped me abruptly.

"What-?"

"Shh!" she hissed through her teeth, and I obliged. Inside the classroom, I could hear the muttering of the boys.

"Did you hear something?"

"Nah. Gray, you're being too paranoid."

Carefully, the two of us looked through a crack in the door to see what was going on.

"I swear I heard something," Gray was saying. His shirt had mysteriously gone somewhere, and so had his pants.

"Who should be next after her?" asked Droy, his arms crossed thoughtfully. Natsu was sitting at a desk, slouched, and biting a pencil at the eraser.

"Who have we got so far?" Jet queried, coming over to see the paper. Natsu looked down and said, "First is Mirajane, then Yume, next is Haruka, after that is Sakura, and then it's Yae, after her it's Levy, then Cana, Wendy, Carla, Sachi, Aiko, Nana, Nene, Rio, Shion, and Misaki."

"That's perfect!" Lyon drawled, his eyebrows knit together in careful concentration, "Mira is definitely the prettiest in the whole class."

"They're ranking girls," Levy whispered under her breath in disgust. I had become completely still, not allowing myself to think about what had just happened.

"Hey, didn't we leave Lucy out?" Grasy asked, smirking. I clenched my teeth at his attitude.

"Oh," Natsu said absentmindedly, "So then she goes at the very bottom."

The boys around him started to laugh. Jet wiped his eyes and said, "I can't believe you left your very own childhood friend out."

The pink-headed boy wrinkled his nose. "You can't blame me. Luce isn't that pretty. I mean…she hasn't gotten any of those even though all the other girls have."

At the word 'those', Natsu lifted his hands to his chest and made a curving gesture – up, curve, down. I felt my face go hot with embarrassment as it was mentioned.

"Mira's is like…" he continued, "huge."

Before Levy could stop me, I slammed the door open, my face alight with fury. All the boys whirled around to face me, their laughing expressions frozen on their faces.

I marched towards my desk, grabbed my pack, and turned towards them with disgust written all over my face. As I walked to them, they cringed away; only Natsu stayed where he was at, chomping on a Pocky stick nonchalantly. He was spinning his pencil with his right hand, and as he looked at my face, he actually smiled. That dumb idiot actually smiled!

"Yo, Luce," he said, lifting his hand in greeting. "Did you eavesdrop on our conversation?"

His eyes slid downward until they rested...you know, that place under my chin but above my stomach.

"Maybe now you could take a hint, and try to drink more milk?"

I ground my teeth together, grabbed the paper on his desk, and ripped it in half, quarters, microscopic pieces, until the names written out on it disappeared.

"Natsu Dragneel," I growled, "You are probably the stupidest person alive to mess with a member of the Heartfilia family."

As I said so, I brought my fist crashing into the underside of his jaw. His chair rocked backward, and he crashed into the floor, where he lay there looking up at me incredulously.

"Just so you know, you'd be at the bottom of the girls' class ranking list too, you freakin' ugly flamebrain!"

I stormed out of the room, with Levy trailing behind me. All I could really remember was the raucous laughing of the boys as Natsu called after me from down the corridor.

"Lucy, honey," Layla called, opening my bedroom door. "Natsu's here to see you."

"Tell him I've gone to Alaska, or something."

"That doesn't exactly work when I've heard you speak."

I groaned as Natsu entered my room, and Mother left us to ourselves. I was seated at my desk, my back turned to him, and I made no effort to turn around.

"Luce, look at me."

I did not heed, but continued in my mission to complete my weekend homework.

"Luce…c'mon, don't be mad."

I slammed my pencil down on the desktop, and whirled my chair around, opening my mouth to scream, "Don't be mad!?" but stopped abruptly when I got a face full of flowers – roses, to be more specific.

"What the-?"

"You like them, don't you?" Natsu asked me, shoving the bouquet into my hands. I peered above the multitude of flowers to peer at the boy. He had his back turned to me, his hands shoved into his pockets.

"I heard your mom saying that you do…"

I didn't say anything in return; I only kept staring at him.

"Luce, don't be mad at me. I'm sorry about earlier…actually…" he turned, revealing a bandage where I had punched him earlier, "…and I'm only saying this once, Luce!"

He hesitated, then said, "I actually think you're really pretty."

My mouth fell open, and his cheeks went red; he spluttered, "Well you know…not like a guy finds a girl hot, but like a friend finds another friend not bad-looking!"

I fingered a rose petal, sighing. What Natsu had just said to me would be the closest thing to a romantic line he could utter. I smiled at him, standing up, and gesturing towards the open bedroom door.

"Want to head down for some cookies?"

Natsu looked at me before breaking into a grin, "Yeah."

To be mad at Natsu, hit him, and then forgive him…was just another one of those daily things.

Diary Page 24:

While that was the closest thing to a romantic line Natsu would ever say to me, this kind of thing would not apply to someone else a year later…

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Now that I've fully finished their naive childhood days, I'm finally going into the heartbreak and dramatic happenings! Hooray! Thanks for those who have stuck throughout the slow process of these last chapters!