You and I

Author's Note: Haha, so this chapter is a little slower but that's because I have something planned for Chapter Seven, which I am almost done writing as I post this chapter! Most likely I will try and get a chapter up a week. I'm trying to finish a chapter before I post the previous chapter just so I have something ready in case something happens. Anyway, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! I've gotten a lot of questions about how Lisanna and Natsu will break up, but no worries, I already have that planned out pretty well and I don't think it will be too painful. Onto Chapter Six!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Chapter Six

What the hell was he doing texting her? And what the hell was he thinking texting her acting as if he really was on a business trip? She found that anger bubbled up amidst all the pain she still felt. Closing the text, she settled back onto her bed, making herself comfortable and again closed his eyes, willing her mind to forget what she just read.

The nerve! She rolled around in bed, squeezing her pillow to her chest. The only good thing she could see from this was that he was still unaware that she knew what was going on. She took a little bit of comfort in knowing that she still had the upper hand. While a part of her felt bad, knowing that she would hurt him, a bigger part of her did not feel bad at all. In fact, that part of her was glad that she could exact some kind of justice, for herself.

It was still hard for her to believe that she had been duped for so long. Given that Loke's personality was a flirtatious one, she hadn't thought that he had the balls to actually act on his impulses. She had been proven oh-so-wrong on that point.

It was times like these she wished her mother was still alive. Her mother, Layla Heartfilia had died when Lucy was still a child, but she still remembered what she looked like. It was a little uncanny to know that she looked so much like her mother. Lucy sighed, she had been doing that a lot lately, and sat up, grabbing her notebook and a pen. Whenever Lucy went through a hard time, she penned a letter to her mom. It helped ease the burden quite a bit.

Hunkering down, Lucy just let her thoughts flow onto the paper. The ink flowed smoothly and Lucy's neat, swooping handwriting quickly filled several pages. She poured her heart out onto the paper, letting her mother know everything that had been going on. She noted the fun times with Levy, the first DragonSlayers performance she went to, all the way to her annoyance at Natsu for breaking her phone, her heartache as being betrayed, and finally the calm she felt after having gone to the lake with Natsu. As always, she signed her letter with love and as always, afterwards, she felt better.

"Thanks, Mom," she whispered, holding the letters close to her chest for a moment before folding them up carefully. Reaching for her special box, she opened it and carefully placed the letters inside. The box was a simple wooden box with a heart carved on the lid. It had been her mother's when she was alive and it was one of the few mementos that she still had. Hearing a knock at the door, she left the box on her bed and went to answer it.

"Lulu! Hurry up!"

Levy. Right on time. Opening her door, Lucy watched as Levy made a beeline for the bathroom. "Uh, Levy?"

"Talk later."

Lucy chuckled softly at her friend's antics. Leave it up to Levy to be so preoccupied about getting here that she would even wait to go to the bathroom. While her friend was taking care of her business, Lucy took it upon herself to bring in Levy's overnight bag. Maybe it would be a good idea to start leaving a couple items of clothing at Levy's and Levy could do the same at her place so they could just sty over without needing to worry about a change of clothes. Setting the bag on her bed, she closed the box and set it back on its place on the bookshelf.

"Writing again, Lulu?" Levy walked into the bedroom just as Lucy turned around. She hadn't even heard Levy come in!

"Yeah, I thought I'd tell Mom what's going on."

"Are you feeling better?"

"A little. The trip to the lake helped."

Levy smirked. "Aha! So a visit from Natsu always helps huh?"

Lucy shook her head. "Levy. . .Natsu and I are just friends. Besides, he has a girlfriend."

The bluenette scrunched up her face. "Yeah I know." In fact, she had seen Natsu's girlfriend a couple of times at some of their performances. She had been a short, petite, white-haired, blue-eyed beauty and her face had a gentleness to it which told Levy that she probably was a nice person. Regardless, she wasn't really pushing Natsu and Lucy together. . . okay just a little but it was mostly teasing. She knew that Natsu was probably good for Lucy since he seemed to be so blunt and didn't mince his words at all. He was all around happy-go-lucky most of the time and especially in times like these, Levy knew it was beneficial for Lucy to be around someone like that. "Hey Lucy?"

Lucy looked to her friend, waiting for her question. "Yeah?"

"Wanna talk about it?" Levy had to be careful how she asked her questions. She didn't want to push Lucy into a depressive state again. The past few days had been tough when the blonde and even ignored her best friend. It almost killed Levy that she could do nothing to help ease her friend's pain. They were almost like sisters and when once was hurting, the other hurt alongside.

There was a moment of silence before Lucy spoke. "Levy. . .do you know what it feels like to have your heart put into a blender with the speed set to high? Then take that beat up heart, stomp on it, rub salt into the wounds, stomp on it some more before throwing it into the ocean. That's what I feel like right now." Levy didn't really know because her breakups had all been mutual and amicable. She stayed quiet after shaking her head 'no'. It took Lucy several deep breaths before she could start.

"Loke. . . he's been seeing some other woman…I went to his place after you told me. I heard him telling her he had to make a phone call. I was hiding when he called from the hallway. He called me and. . .told me that he was going on a business trip." Tears pricked the corner or her eyes but she forced them back. She had shed enough tears over this, over him. She then told Levy how she had heard the sounds through the door and after that, she just fell apart.

The blue-haired bookworm listened intently, unconsciously balling her hands into fists. She had never wanted to punch anyone so badly in her life, except maybe that bully in elementary who stole her crayons and then broke them! On purpose! Her gut feelings about Loke had been right. Lucy had been too good for him and now her friend was suffering because he couldn't keep it in his pants!

"Ooh, I'm gonna punch him so hard his ancestors will feel it!"

"Levy. . .that's a quote from a movie. . ."

"Yeah but it fits!" Movie or not, it was a genius line and it was perfect for this scenario. Yeah, Loke may have been good-looking but that didn't give him the rights to act like a douchebag and even less of a reason for him to act like a scumbag. Especially when Lucy was his girlfriend, Levy knew that Loke had zero excuses.

Lucy had always gone out of her way for her boyfriend. She knew that her best friend stayed up in the late hours keeping him company when he had been stuck at work. Lucy always tried to make something for Loke to try and even went over to his apartment after a long day of school to make sure he came home to a hot meal, even if it was just take-out from the local pizzeria or Chinese restaurant. Levy knew that Lucy even helped clean his apartment and drew a bath. The blonde was one of the best girlfriends to ever have.

Levy also saw that Lucy worried about Loke and constantly thought about him but because she was so kindhearted and thoughtful, she tried to limit her interference with Loke's daily life as much as possible. There had been countless times where she saw Lucy playing with her phone and argued with herself back and forth about whether or not to call him or text him. Most of the time, it ended up with her tossing her phone to the far side of the bed and engrossed herself in her books or whatever movie they were going to watch that night.

Caring, thoughtful, pretty Lucy just had to meet a dirtbag like Loke. He really didn't deserve Lucy. The blonde was much better off now that she saw him for who he really was.

Lucy could see that Levy was still steamed, it was practically pouring out of her ears. Reaching over, she pulled her best friend into a hug. "Thanks Levy," she murmured. "For being my best friend."

Levy just stared for a moment before her expression softened and she hugged her friend back, tightly. "Forever til the stars stop shining!" She could feel wetness dripping onto her shoulder and she just held Lucy, patting her back softly.

Lucy swore that she wouldn't cry anymore but the hug from her best friend felt so good that her resolve broke and down came the dam. The tears flowed freely once more, a crystalline river full of pain, doubt, regret, and guilt. Pain from having learned about her boyfriend the way that she did. Doubt about her feelings and her actions henceforth. Regret having been dragged on so long by Loke and finally guilt about her cowardice at facing Loke. She was stronger than she felt. She had to be independent at a relatively young age and could take care of herself. It had been a little bit of a challenge when Loke stepped into the picture and wanted to protect her and take care of her instead. She had to learn to give up some of her control and when she did, she felt like she was relying too much on Loke. The latter had said it was fine and that it was what he had wanted.

In hindsight, giving up the control and relying on him, it created a void that Lucy wasn't quite sure how to fill it just yet. She would figure it out when she went to have a talk with Loke. Oh right, the text. . .Lucy pulled back and wiped her eyes, sniffling. "He sent me a text right before you got here. He said he's still on the trip and wants to see me when he gets back."

Levy's eyes became stormy. "He's not even on a business trip!"

"I don't know. . ." Lucy hadn't really cared at the time. Maybe he really did have one, just he wanted to have sex with his other girlfriend first.

"What, you think he really left?"

"I don't know anymore." She had thought she knew the man and look where that landed her; broken-hearted and played like a cheap violin.

"Whatever. Deal with it when you want to," Levy said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Right now, let's just focus on Operation: Make Lucy Smile!"

"We aren't in the military, there's no such operation."

"Lulu! You are such a sour octopus!"

"Uh…isn't it sourpuss?"

". . .TICKLE ATTACK!" The bluenette lunged at the curvaceous blonde, knocking her backwards, hands tickling her mercilessly on her sides. Lucy was a very ticklish person but she kept that fact only to herself and Levy. Anyone else would use it to their advantage and it was a dangerous weakness. Lucy squirmed under Levy's assault until her own hands found their way onto Levy's sides and she started her counterattack. A squeal from Levy told Lucy that it was working. The both of them didn't let up until they both fell into a pile of giggles.

Laughter really was the best medicine.

Natsu lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, his hands resting beneath his head. He had heard from Luce's friend that something happened with her boyfriend. Natsu had to say that he was surprised that Lucy had a boyfriend, even though realistically it wasn't that much of a stretch. Lucy was good looking and any guy would be stupid to turn down what she had. He wasn't just talking about her body but the qualities she possessed. Even though he hadn't known her for very long, Natsu could already tell what kind of person she was and he liked it. It was really reminiscent of Lisanna but while Lisanna was caring and gentle like the moon, Lucy seemed to glow like the sun.

Despite only knowing certain things about Lucy, Natsu already considered her a close friend. He was like that. He made friends with anyone and everyone. He was goofy and messed around a lot but if anyone dared to hurt his friends, there would be hell to pay. It was the same for his bandmates. They were kind of like a dysfunctional family but in their dysfunction, they were perfect.

Laxus was definitely the older brother in the group, exerting control if any of them stepped too far out of line. Natsu wasn't ever going to admit it to the Lightning Rod but it aged him. Whatever though because Laxus was still as popular with the girls as the rest of them. Natsu had tried to pull pranks on Laxus but for whatever reason, they always seemed to backfire horribly. Maybe the drummer had some kind of magical shield or something. Natsu one time had scurried across the carpeted floor, building up the static electricity. Grinning, he waited until Laxus walked out and went to touch the spikey blond. Laxus' longer legs carried him faster across the room and Natsu ended up touching the metal on the doorknob which jolted him pretty good. Gray had walked in after and laughed at him, teasing him about his hair, which had been sticking straight up, just like Laxus'.

Gajeel was the weird one in the group and Natsu was sure that he liked eating rocks. That was the only explanation of why every time the bassist cooked, everything was as hard as a rock. Rice and noodles were still crunchy and eggs were blackened until they were unrecognizable. Bread was tooth-chipping to say the least, and that had been store-bought. Gajeel had effectively been banned from the kitchen.

Gray was the annoying brother. He and Natsu were the one that constantly got into fights. When they were younger, Natsu had accidentally set Gray's pants on fire and the keyboardist had gotten him back by throwing frozen water balloons at the lead singer, one hitting him in the head hard enough to knock him out for a few minutes. From then on, they pulled pranks on each other whenever they could. The latest one, Natsu had poured an entire bottle of hot sauce into Gray's bottle of fruit punch and watched, while clutching his sides in laughter, as the keyboardist proceeded to down a whole gallon of water to try and quell the fire.

Natsu chuckled at all the reminiscing. Lisanna had been part of their little group since they were small. She always tagged along with Natsu no matter where he would go. Natsu always thought of Lisanna as being a part of his life. When they had been little kids, barely in elementary school, Lisanna had been bullied by some punk who thought it was funny to grab her coloring page and rip it in half. Natsu made sure to rip his page back and then gave Lisanna his own page to color. It was then that Lisanna blurted out that she wanted to be Natsu's wife when they grew up. Natsu, wanting her to stop crying, grinned and agreed to do exactly that if she'd stop. It had worked.

At that time, it wasn't a big deal but as they grew older, Natsu had started to see Lisanna as more of a sister than a potential girlfriend. But then Lisanna disappeared for seven years, her family moved away and she went to study somewhere else. She had come back after those seven years and the first thing she had asked, after giving him a big hug, was if he remembered their promise. Natsu had been stunned to see her after so long since he had no idea that she had even come back to Magnolia. It had been right around the time they started up the DragonSlayers.

"Natsuuuuuuuu!"

Something small and white came barreling towards him and hit him square in the chest. Natsu was forced back a few steps, his arms automatically grabbing at whatever, or whoever, assaulted him. "What the-! " He looked down and a pair of very familiar blue eyes looked back up at him. "Lisanna?!"

A giggle came from his childhood friend. "Yup!"

The pink-haired vocalist grinned back. "Ya didn't even tell me you were comin' back."

"I wanted to surprise you! See? I'm all grown up now!" She pulled away to spin in a full circle so Natsu could see how tall she had grown.

"You did grow taller!'

"You did too!"

"Welcome back, Lisanna!"

"Thanks Natsu."

It wasn't long after they had reunited did Lisanna officially become his girlfriend. There were no questions like 'Wanna be my girlfriend?', it was more of a mutual understanding that they were now "going out." The actual event had been when Natsu and the rest of the band had a rough night and Lisanna had been there to comfort him and cheer him up. Natsu had asked if Lisanna was okay with them being together and Lisanna had just smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

Natsu rolled over onto his side, staring at his guitar which sat directly across from his bed. His mind drifted from memories to the present. A part of him wondered if the blonde was doing okay. Lucy had seemed like she had a lot pent up. It wasn't good to keep it all inside; she'd probably explode! But at least when he left her, she seemed to be in a better mood.

He grinned to himself. Getting that phone had been a really good idea. So it really did mean Levy was Lucy's best friend because she knew exactly what Lucy needed. The blue-haired student was a little pushy when it came to picking things out (man she insisted that he come along and even reprimanded him when he said she should give Lucy the phone) but he had to hand it to her that she knew what would make her friend smile.

Natsu and Levy had seriously spent the afternoon shopping for a new phone (with each paying for half of it). Natsu was never one to like shopping. Yes, he did accompany Lisanna on her shopping trips most of the time, but Lisanna wasn't a big shopper. And Lisanna certainly wasn't Levy. Apparently the woman had it in her mind to get an exact replacement, even going so far as getting her phone charms. Women and their phone charms! Natsu understood if it was just one but three? Wasn't it annoying? Bah, he would never understand women and their 'oh my god it's so cute!' on every single thing.

He had to admit that the Exceeds were a little cute and he could see the appeal it had on girls but wasn't a real cat even better? Maybe he would get a blue cat and name it Happy. Then, for fun, he would give it wings and stand it up on two legs. A real Happy, not a stuffed animal one. He was sure Gajeel wouldn't mind one. He had seen the bassist's lingering glances when they walked by a petshop at the kittens. Natsu had teased him about it and all he got in return was a gruff 'shut up'. Ah well, the important thing was getting that smile back on Lucy's face. He didn't do well with crying, especially crying females. He was awkward and wasn't too sure what to do.

Natsu had only heard a little from what Levy told her. Something about her bastard of a boyfriend cheating on her. Even though Natsu wasn't the best boyfriend, he was actual clueless on a lot of things, he knew that cheating was never okay. No matter what the situation was. A growl escaped the vocalist. Lucy's boyfriend needed some sense knocked into him and needed a be taught a lesson.

"Yo, flame breath." Stupid Gray had to pick this time to show up and annoy him.

"What do you want, ice prick?" Natsu turned to find the keyboardist walking around in his birthday suit. It was strange habit that Natsu wasn't sure where he had picked it up from but some of their fans seemed to like it. A lot.

"Laxus wanted us to have a meeting."

Natsu groaned. It was either a meeting discussing their schedule or someone was getting a lightning bolt to the ass, meaning Laxus wasn't happy about something. Natsu hoped it was the former. Last time Laxus lightning bolted Natsu's ass for skipping practice.

The eldest member of the group hated when they slacked off. They all had to work hard to make a name for themselves and they were getting somewhere. Laxus wasn't about to let a lack of discipline hurt their chances at making it big. Laxus wasn't a stick in the mud by any means. He enjoyed the occasional day off himself. He could finally get some time to himself. Despite his popularity with the ladies, he wasn't attached to anyone yet and he would rather be by himself than associate with those just trying to get into his pants. He had standards.

Natsu pushed himself up with a sigh. It was better now than later to go see what Laxus wanted. "Oi, ice ass."

"What, flametard?"

"Put on some clothes. No one wants to see that!"

"Oh shit! Where're my clothes?!"

Dumbass.

Both Natsu and, a now clothed, Gray trudged down the stairs, fighting over who would be first. They still had childish competitions that would often get on Laxus' nerves but they were too stubborn to let it go.

Laxus was already waiting for them in the living room. They all stayed at Laxus' grandfather's house, one Makarov Dreyar. Since the old man was constantly at the Academy, they had the house to themselves. All they needed to take care of was the shopping and occasionally cleaning. A house with four guys tended to get pretty dirty pretty quickly. Laxus' room was the exception. He was meticulous about everything so his room never needed attention, apart from the occasional vacuuming but that was it.

Natsu's room was constantly hit by a hurricane. There were wrappers everywhere, papers strewn all about, and pencils hidden within the mountain of papers ready to jab an unsuspecting foot. Everyone one had been a victim of The Pencil at one point or another. No matter the amount of nagging, Natsu rarely picked up anything. To him, there was a meticulousness to the chaos. A controlled chaos that only made sense to Natsu.

Gray's room looked like a tornado hit it. Most of it was sheet music but he did own quite a collection of water bottles too. There was one space in the middle of his floor that was devoid of anything. He used this space to practice some dance moves, not that he would ever admit it to anyone.

Gajeel's room was full of weights. The man had a problem with working out, and even lifted when they had a meeting. Natsu seriously thought Gajeel was in love with iron. Maybe he would end up marrying his weights. It would be a hilarious wedding.

"Yo Laxus, what are we meeting for?" Natsu plopped himself on the loveseat, making sure there was no room for anyone else to sit. Laxus was sitting on a recliner. Gray made himself comfortable on the three-seater, putting his feet up on the coffee table. Gajeel took the seat on the other side of the three seater a few moments later. It was apparent from his sweaty face that he had been training with his weights again. Yep, wedding with the weights. Iron weight babies.

The eldest member cleared his throat. "We're doing a gig at the university."

"The university? Something happening?" Gray asked.

"Open Campus."

Open Campus was one weekend every year where various clubs would put on performances out on the quad and there were mini-games to play for prizes. There were food stalls from the various student associations as well as local restaurants. It was almost like a small festival held on campus and everyone from the city was invited to attend. The DragonSlayers were invited to be one of the musical guests.

"Cool! Now we can pretend to go there," Natsu said, grinning.

"Yeah cuz we all know you're too dumb to actually go," Gray said with a smirk.

Natsu bristled. "Say that again, ice stripper!"

"You. Too. Dumb. To. Go." Gray said, enunciating each word. "Flamebrain."

Natsu was about to jump over the table and smack his fist right into Gray's face when Laxus cleared his throat. "It's in a week." The tone of his voice couldn't be any clearer. 'Practice your asses off or else.'

"We got this, better get workin' on those lyrics though," Gajeel piped up.

"I've got half of one. . ." Natsu muttered. There really wasn't inspiration to keep going but he would have to find some, soon. Okay, maybe right now. A week wasn't that much time to put together a show.

"So why are you all still sitting here?" came Laxus' response. It took maybe 0.23 seconds for the room to clear. Laxus let out a tiny smirk. It was good to be leader.

Author's Note: Please read and review! Chapters tend to get written faster that way!