Hi everyone! Welcome to chapter 10! :D Only one more to go before I can finally be caught up and upload the new chapter! *fangirls* ahem sorry haha I'm just so friggen happy to be almost caught up :D
Also I did do more editing to this chapter so it fits in more with chapter 16! Check it out! :D
Well that's all enjoy people
Getting ready for holiday exams; classes seemed to drag by for eternity due to all the boring worksheets the teachers made them do.
However the school day was finally nearing it's last few minutes, and as it was, Lucy could only shake her leg under her desk nervously. Lucy was going to meet Natsu's dad today. Why did Natsu want her to meet him? Well she did say she hopes to meet him someday, but she didn't think that the day would be today. Lucy anxiously viewed the clock and her stomach turned a little and filled up with butterflies when she realized she was in the last few seconds.
What if Natsu was wrong and he didn't like her? What if he hated people with blonde hair? What if he couldn't stand brown eyes? Spontaneously overwhelming herself with her thoughts Lucy didn't even hear the bell ring.
Still fidgeting in her seat, Lucy almost jumped in surprised when a figure towered over her. Slowly looking up to see a tall, raven-haired man, Lucy knitted her eye brows together from the unsuspected man.
"Gray?"
"You seem a bit lost you okay?"
A brief moment of silent swept through the two, before Lucy noticed, that aside from her and Gray, the classroom was empty; Lucy blinked a few times then dropped her gaze to her desk and shoved her things into her bag while stood to her feet.
"Are you in a rush to go somewhere?" Gray asked as he smoothly caught a small red notebook, that slid out of her bag, then handed it to her.
"Actually I'm not in a rush." Lucy bit her lip and smiled gratefully taking back her notebook.
"Where are you going now?"
Lucy shot Gray an inquisitive look before answering.
"Well I was just going to meet up with a friend"
"Would you like some company?"
"What?" Lucy knitted her eye brows together confused by Gray's random act of kindness.
"What?" Gray said equally confused.
"Gray, is something bothering you?"
"Why would something be bothering me?"
"Because you never wanted to walk me out before, now all of a sudden you do?"
"What a guy can't with a girl out of class without her thinking something is up?"
Lucy shot him a disbelief look which caused Gray to roll his eyes and shove his hands in his pockets before scoffing under his breath.
"Alright you caught me, I just needed to talk to you about something"
"What is it?"
The two walked side by side as Gray talked. Out of the classroom, down the noisy hall, and finally out the school building.
"And then she just follows me"
Lucy shifted her head to look at the man.
"So what are you coming to me for?"
"I mean I see you hanging with Juvia all the time. You guys are close?"
"Yeah I guess you could say that, she's on my top five, why"
"I just need you to tell her, that I'm not interested!"
"Why do I have to break her heart?"
"Because she doesn't listen to me! No matter how many times I tell her to leave me alone, she never leaves"
"I think that's cute! You should be glad"
"Glad to have a stalker?" Gray hissed shifting his head to the blonde
"No, glad to have someone so loyal to you. Juvia doesn't mean any harm, she's a really sweet girl once you get to know her"
"She's so damn clingy"
"What's wrong with that?" Lucy lifted a brow to him.
"Would ya just tell her I'm not interested?!" Gray growled.
Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Fine, I will talk to Juvia. But my advice to you; Just give her a chance"
"Well, I didn't ask for your advice"
"Jerk"
"So I've been told"
Lucy rolled her eyes again and before she could say another word, the blue-haired girl made her way up to Gray and Lucy.
"Hi Gray-sama, Lucy. What are Gray-sama and Lucy doing together" Juvia asked with a smile trying to stay calm.
Gray averted his eyes from Juvia and nudged Lucy's side, causing her to jump a bit and dart her head in his direction while rubbing her side. Gray turned his head to look at Lucy so he can beckon Lucy with his head; signaling her to go ahead and talk to Juvia already. Lucy exhaled and looked at Juvia with a smile.
"Juvia... look" Lucy began but was quickly interrupted by an irritated voice calling out her name.
Lucy shifted her head, once again, to the direction of the voice and caught sight of Natsu making his way to her in the distance.
'oh shoot Natsu' Lucy thought to herself.
With Gray distracting her, she forgot that she was suppose to meet Natsu by the school sign.
When Natsu reached her, he impatiently hovered over her, making her breath hitch slightly.
"H-Hey Natsu" Lucy stuttered
"Don't 'Hey Natsu' me! Where were you? I was waiting for a whole ten minutes at the sign for you."
"Hey hot head stop yelling you're giving me a headache" Gray fussed using is index fingers to plug his ears.
Natsu swung his head to look at Gray.
"What did you say ice freak"
"You heard me!"
"You wanna fight!?" Natsu hissed bashing his head against Gray's
"Gray-sama shouldn't fight on school grounds" Juvia said as she wrapped her arms around his waist, holding him back.
"Bring it on! Anytime anyplace" Gray hissed thrashing his arms up and down viciously
"Stop it!" Lucy yelled grabbing Natsu under his arms and holding him back by locking his arms in place
"Let's go right now!" Natsu roared kicking his feet in the air.
Five minutes pass of the two flailing around until they both finally come to a stop after realizing Juvia and Lucy weren't going to let go.
Once Lucy felt Natsu calm down; still holding him in a secure lock; she dragged him a few feet away from Gray.
When Gray realized he was once again alone with Juvia he sighed under his breath and shoved his hands in his pocket.
"You can let go of me now" Gray spoke with an attitude
"Juvia doesn't want to! Just a few more seconds"
"Let me go!" Gray broke his way from her grip.
"Can Juvia walk with Gray-sama"
"No"
"But why not?"
"Because I don't like you!"
Juvia pouted for a second and the smiled.
"Okay, well Juvia got Gray-sama a flavored ice cone"
"Why?" Gray lifted a brow looking at the cone suspiciously
"Gray-sama said he likes them" Juvia smiled holding the cone at arms length.
"You actually remember stupid stuff like that"
"It's not stupid if Gray-sama likes it"
Gray rolled his eyes as a slight blush appeared.
"It doesn't have some love potion crap in it does it?"
"No of course not dear"
"Prove it!"
"How?"
"Eat it!"
"But Juvia is already in love with Gray-sama if Juvia eats it, what will it prove?"
"Eh good point" Gray sighed and grabbed it from her and ran up to a random guy.
"Hey I need you to try this!" Gray dug a spoon into the ice and handed it to the brown haired man.
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
The man shrugged and popped the ice into his mouth and swallowed. knitting his eye brows together from the intense stare he was getting from Gray, he shifted his eyes side to side before shrugging.
"Okay now what?"
"You don't feel funny?"
"No?"
"Are you dizzy"
"No?"
Gray pointed to Juvia triggering the brown haired boy to look at her.
"Do you feel anything for that girl?"
The man studied her for a moment. Juvia stood still feeling a little uncomfortable.
"No, I don't know her. Look can I go now?"
Gray sighed while straightening his back before nodding letting the man walk away.
"Alright fine you win this one Juvia" Gray said digging his spoon into the ice
"Wait Gray-sama!" Juvia hollered running up to him and taking the spoon away from him.
"What?!" he yelled.
"Juvia has an extra spoon Gray-sama can use"
"Why?"
"That spoon has germs on it!" Juvia spoke in disgust as she gave Gray another spoon
Gray rolled his eyes again before popping some ice into his mouth.
XOXOXO
Natsu and Lucy walked side by side, getting closer to the school sign. When they arrived Lucy felt her stomach flip again, so she took a breath before softly speaking.
"Hey Natsu?"
"Yeah what is it?" Natsu craned his head to view the blonde
"Are you sure your dad is going to like me?"
Natsu studied Lucy's sulking face that focused on the ground for a while before a smile formed his lips.
"What if he doesn't like people with blonde hair and brown eyes"
Natsu's smile faded while he wrinkled his brows together squinting his eyes at the blonde. Lucy shyly returned his gaze by peering up at him through her eye lashes innocently.
"Luce, my dad doesn't have a problem blonde hair and brown eye'd people. You're worrin' too much"
"I guess I am" Lucy bit her lip narrowing her eye back to her feet.
Natsu placed his hand on her shoulder causing the blonde to jump a little and look up at him.
"Look, ya got nothin' to worry about" Natsu grinned reassuring Lucy.
XOXOXO
After a long walk, Lucy scanned the area and noticed Natsu led her to an abandoned street. Feeling her heart sink to the lowest part of her stomach, the blonde moved closer to Natsu and continued walking apprehensively.
The path they walked was much darker than it should have with the day still awake. Howls from wolves were heard in almost every direction for a second, before it went silent and the only thing that was heard, was the echoing of their own footstep.
"N-Natsu? are you, um, sure we're going the right way?"
Natsu sideway glanced at Lucy and stifled a laugh.
"I'm pretty sure I know where we're going, ya know I've only been down this road a hundred times"
Lucy remained quite as she nervously dragged her feet behind Natsu.
As the continued the path, a evil smirk stretched Natsu's lips. The pink haired boy stopped short causing the girl to bump into his back.
"Ouch… why'd you stop all of a sudden? Are we there?" Lucy asked, rubbing her aching nose.
Natsu quickly spun around, throwing his arms in the air, roaring as loud as he could.
Lucy screamed from the top of her lungs; stumbling a step back from the man. Upon seeing Lucy's shaking body and her wide tear filled eyes, Natsu clutched his stomach and began roaring with laughter.
"You're face... hahah priceless" Natsu tried saying in between laughs.
"Y-You jerk!" Lucy shakily slapped him.
"What are you so scared about?" Natsu tried to stop laughing.
"W-Well, excuse me for being alert on a road I've never been on!" Lucy hissed crossing her arms together and turning her body to the side.
Lucy's pale puffy face, tears formed in the corner of her eyes, shaking body and the sound of her pounding heart, made Natsu's smile grow bigger.
Even as angry as she was, Natsu couldn't deny that he just wanted stand there and stare at her longer.
Shrugging it off quickly the boy extended his hand, grabbing ahold the small trembling one.
The sudden warm hand caused Lucy to jerk her head up to Natsu, meeting is heartwarming gaze. Natsu squeeze her hand gently before whispering tenderly.
"Don't worry… I will protect ya, kay?"
Lucy blinked a few times before her cheeks warmed up and a smile spread across her lip.
"Okay"
After another couple minutes of walking Natsu pulled Lucy through a graveyard. Lucy felt chills run down her spin while she looked at all the tombstones she was walking in between.
"Natsu! Why are we going through here?" Lucy tried to keep her breath steady.
"It's a short cut" Natsu grinned.
Taking a few more steps, Natsu and Lucy came to a stop in front of a tombstone.
"Natsu?" Lucy viewed his solemn face.
Natsu's suddenly turned to Lucy; still holding her hand he used his free hand to point to Lucy. Lucy lifted a brow and was about to say something but Natsu beat her to it.
"Lucy, this is Igneel, Igneel this is Lucy"
Lucy watched Natsu point, at first confusion washed through her body, but realization suddenly hit and upon seeing the name 'Igneel' in graved on a tombstone, her theory was proven.
Lucy's mouth dried up as a big ball of guilt clogged up her throat, she could feel her chest become heavy as her heart once again sank to the lowest part of her stomach.
"Y-Your dad… is dead?" Lucy squeaked out
"Yeah, lost him freshmen year..." Natsu put his free hand on the stone and smiled
"I am... so sorry" Lucy squeezed Natsu's hand tighter.
Natsu craned his head to the side to glance at Lucy, however when he did, he noticed Lucy was staring at the stone intensely. Her eyes were glossy as if she wanted to cry.
"Lucy?" Natsu let go of her hand and stepped in front of her trying to look into her now hidden eyes.
"Natsu..."
"You are amazing"
Natsu knitted his eye brows together and shook his head a little as a blush slightly warmed his cheeks.
Natsu already knew he was amazing, he tells everyone that everyday, so why, why does hearing it from Lucy make him feel peculiar.
"I know what it's like to lose someone you care for; but for you to have lost so recently, to be able to still smile, joke, and be as care free as you are. I think that's really admirable" Lucy looked up to meet his eyes.
Natsu blinked before swinging his hand behind his head.
"I don't know if it's all that admirable."
"What do you mean?"
"When I first lost my dad... I pushed everyone away for years"
"You shouldn't be sorry for that?"
"Huh?"
"You were hurting right? Sometimes that's the only thing we can do when we've lost someone special. Trying to cope with a new found emotion that you have to experience first hand to understand. The important thing is you don't drown yourself in the 'what if's' or why. Keep some doors open so that new friends can come into your life and ease that pain."
There was a long pause, the two friends stared hard at each other before Natsu opened his mouth to speak.
"I never told anyone about Igneel before."
"What? No one?"
"Well, other than Gray when it first happened"
"Really? You mean Erza, Levy? Gajeel and Juvia? They all don't know?"
"Nope, I'm not really comfortable talking about it with anyone"
"Then why did you tell me?" Lucy asked feeling her heart rate increase
"Well, I don't know. I guess cuz it was a few years ago and I feel comfortable around you. More so than anyone else"
"R-Really?" Lucy blushed.
There was another quick pause. Lucy eagerly waited for him to speak but when he did, she could feel a huge block of disappointment swirl up in the pit of her stomach.
"I'm hungry" Natsu sighed holding his growling stomach.
"Of course you are" Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Hey! I know just where to go!" Natsu cheered
"Oh yeah?"
"Have you ever been to the Fairy tail bar?"
"Fairy Tail bar?" Lucy echoed.
Natsu beamed brightly, grabbing Lucy's hand again and pulling her back the way they came.
"W-Whoa slow down Natsu" Lucy said almost losing her balance. Lucy looked over her shoulder at the tombstone that was slowly getting smaller.
"Good-bye Igneel! It was nice meeting you!"
Natsu's heart sank a little at her words and he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Did that just make his heart flutter? Shaking it off Natsu continued to pull Lucy back towards town