I was amazed at how much business the mall got, there were people pouring in and out all day. I worked in the cafe until lunch time, when I was finally on my lunch break, I thankfully sank down in a seat in the front of the cafe.
"Lucy!" I heard Mira call. I swore under my breath, I couldn't have been sitting down for more than five minutes.
"Yes, Mira?" I got up and shuffled behind the counter.
"I'm so sorry, Lucy, but I need you to do one more thing before you take a break,"
"What is it?"
"I need you to take this to the owner of the Dragon Fire Arcade on the second floor," she held up a plastic bag with a takeout lunch inside. "If he's not at the front counter, you can just leave it there, he'll find it,"
"Okay," I took the bag and started to drag it upstairs. When I glanced back at Mira, I saw the scariest facial expression upon her face. She found two people to match together. Matchmaker Mira was the scariest Mira there was. Scarier than an angry Levi, and that was terrifying.
I made my way to the second floor, I took the escalator up and started to look around for this 'Dragon Fire Arcade', why did that sound so familiar? Like it was on the tip of my tongue, yet I couldn't force it out. I finally found it about six minutes later. I walked through the open door, the arcade was dark, the only lights that were on were that of the games and a few ones on the floorboards. I walked up to the front desk and looked around, there was no one there, so I just set the bag down as Mira had instructed me to, and looked around the arcade for a bit. It was quite roomy, and had a lots of games in it. But what drew my attention the most was a large group of people grouping around one of those dancing games. It looked as if two people were having a duel. People were cheering and screaming for the two. I wanted to look, but I didn't want to have to squeeze between thousands of people just to get a glance of two idiots in a dance fight. I decided to play 'PAC-man' in the corner instead. I put in my quarter and pushed the 'go' button. I played that for a while before moving onto 'Donkey Kong'. Goodness, I loved these old things. I used to go to arcades all the time with my first boyfriend.
I started to think about that boy as I moved onto another machine. I hadn't seen him in years.
'I wonder where he is now' I thought as I pushed a quarter into a racing game. I frowned when the quarter went through and the game wouldn't start. I pressed the play button again, but it told me to insert another coin. I did so but got the same results. I frowned. That was fifty cents down the drain. Sure it wasn't much, but I wasn't one to waste money. So I went to go find the owner and get a refund.
I looked around to find the one Mira told me about. I had no idea what he looked like, so it would be hard to spot him. I glanced over to where the crowd started to disperse from the dancing game. I recognized Gray stepping away from the game, his head hanging low. The other man who I guessed was playing, was a man in a black hoodie, jeans and converse. He was rejoicing and gloating in Gray's face. Gray almost swung at him before he exited the shop. The man turned around so I got a clear view of his back. His hoodie had a logo on the back, it read, 'Dragon Fire Arcade' in bright red next to an orange arcade machine.
'He must be the owner,' I concluded and went to tap him on the shoulder. Once I did, he stopped his rejoicing and turned to face me. His hood was zipped and pulled up, and he was much taller than me, so I could only see his mouth. He was grinning. As he looked me over, his grin faded.
"Lucy...?" He asked.
I cocked my eyebrow at him, "How do you know my name?" I asked the man, instead of answering me, he locked me into a hug and spun me around. "Excuse me! I don't know you, get off me!" I screamed at him. He let me go instantly.
"You don't recognize me?" He asked in a hurt tone.
"Should I?" He said nothing then snapped his fingers, then flipped down his hood to reveal a mess of pink hair and a white scaly scarf around his neck.
"N-Natsu" I stuttered as I looked over the man, he was much taller than I remembered. Either that or he grew, that was likely. Before I could restrain myself, I jumped up to hug him.
The world works in mysterious ways, ne? After all, I was just thinking about this guy and he popped up right in front of me.
"How are you? I haven't seen you in forever!" I exclaimed as I let go of him.
"I'm great, and oh, hey," he put his hand up like I was going to give him something, "You owe me twenty dollars." he said. I gaped at him. He wanted what?!
"And why is that?" I put my hands on my hips.
"We made a bet that I would never open this arcade. The bet was for twenty bucks, now pay up." He shook his hand as he wanted a hand out.
"You really think that I would give you twenty dollars out of the blue because of a bet the made fifteen years ago?" I scoffed.
"I'll play you for it, double or nothing!" He declared as he neared the dancing game again.
"That's suicide! I can't play you for anything! You would always win!" I flailed my arms in the air.
"Fine." He huffed and then sniffed the air. "Hey! Mira must've delivered lunch! We'll take this up later," he said as he dragged me to the front counter. He pulled the paper cardboard takeout box out of the plastic bag and set it on the counter.
"I delivered that actually," I told him as he started to open the box. He looked me over once more and eyed my uniform.
"You work for MiraJane now?" He asked with a chuckle.
"For the time being," I sat down in a chair by the door, exhaustion finally taking me over.
"What does that mean?" Natsu asked me. I looked over to him as he scarfed down what looked like spicy chicken.
"I just transferred here and I need something to do until I get something more permanent." I told him as I closed my eyes.
"Why did you transfer?"
"Very sucky personal reasons," I answered truthfully. He nodded and finished scarfing down his meal.
"Have you eaten yet?" he asked me, I looked over to him and raised my eyebrows.
"Nope, in fact I haven't" My hands went to my stomach that chose that exact moment to growl.
"If you wanted a bite, you should have said so." He stated.
"Yeah right, even I had, you still would have scarfed it down before I had the chance to get a bite," I pointed out. "Well," I started as I stood up, "I might as well get going, I got to get back to work."
"Hey, I'll join you," He said as he stood up.
"You gonna go work for Mira too?"
"No, I need more food, she usually gives me more than that, but I guess she's being stingy today," he whined. I rolled my eyes. It's always about food with this guy. "Romeo!" Natsu called, almost instantly, a twelve year old looking boy appeared with a salute.
"Aye sir!"
"I'm going to Mira's for a while, you know what to do until I get back."
"Yep!" the boy exclaimed.
Natsu linked my arm with his and he dragged me out of the arcade.
A/N I am very excited for the next chapter... LASERS! ...Oh, *Ahem* You didn't hear that...
So, what do you think? Suggestions? Comments? I can't promise I'll use any of them, but I might!
ANYWAYS! Review, 'kay? 'Till next time, Loves-
Ally-chan Ravenwood :-*
