Heeeey readers ! At last, the eleventh chapter ! I'm so sorry for the late... But actually, I was very busy and lazy and even more because it's only a NaLu and a Mira x Freed chapter (ans very very slight Juvia x Lyon)... So now I wish I had not added those couples... But on the other hand, I preferred writing chapters with just them and then, focus on GrayZa (there will be a little part about one of those couples in the next chapter but after that, I won't talk about them before a few chapters). So sorry for those who wanted a story which didn't focuse on Grayza, but from now on, there won't be other couples (and maybe they will be dating overnight because they would live their lives and we don't care about them anymore. I let you imagine what you want for them ;)).
By the way, I wanted to specify something about My neighbour is a playboy – Yeah, and mine is a snobby smartass. I wrote several times "bump into" but I meant "come across" (especially when Erza met Gray), because otherwise, I would totally understand why Erza hated Gray if everytime they met they banged into eachother... Sorry for the mistake.
Absolute-ZERO999, thank you :D I'm glad you liked this part because it was very difficult to keep the ambiguity because what coul be equivocal in French wasn't in English...
The awesome Indian Girl, merci beaucoup, ça me fait plaisir de savoir que des français lisent ma fanfic et que ça te plaise autant :D
Chapter 11
The third day of the festival, Juvia was sauntering between the stands, hoping to come across a certain raven haired young man. She had not been able to spend the previous day with him because of that guy with white hair. Of course she had been able to spend some time with the guitarist, but it was always in the presence of a third party, even though Erza had tried to leave them alone. She had been able to sit down next to her Gray-sama in the ghost train and had even had the occasion to grab to him (or squash him).
Juvia thought back her tender moments with him, his endearment and his attentive and sweet gestures toward her. She was over the moon... But of course, that white haired guy had to break the atmosphere when they had finally been able to spend some time like a couple, just the two of them (because Erza had been too busy thinking or keeping a close watch on some students). He was handsome, she couldn't contest that, but too clingy (yeah, it's a bit hypocritial). He had prevented her from enjoying the attraction alone with her dear and loving soon to be husband. Once they were in front of the swans (it was the tunnel of love), she had tried to get paired up with Gray, but that Leo guy or God knows what his name was, had wanted to be with her. Thus, the people who were behind them had lost patience and had pushed the two young men in the same swan. She had had to do the tour of the attraction alone (that's what happens when you try little stratagems like that, you just have to ask Gray). She had not even been able to admire her Gray-sama from his back because by the time she had regained her composure, another couple had sat down in the swan that followed the two boys. So she had been two swans behind Gray. Let's just say that it was impossible to see him. Concerning the second turn of the attraction, she had narrowly held Gray back, though he had rushed toward the exit because she had jumped out of her swan before it had even stopped. She had quickly sat down in another swan but when she had turned her head around, Gray wasn't there anymore. Actually, he had tried to make a U-turn and go out of the attraction but he had not been able to do it because of all the people who were there. So of course, that white haired yound man sat next to Juvia instead of Gray, who had had to sit in the swan that was behind them...
But this time she would succeed in spending some time with Gray, one-to-one. She had gained self-confidence since the ghost train and now she was ready to roll. Juvia decided to go where she had seen Gray and Erza the previous day, hoping that he would pass over there. After a few minutes, she finally caught sight of him on her way. But he wasn't alone... he was talking to a girl. A girl ! But not just any girl, it was Lucy. Juvia started to see red. She was right; Lucy was trying to steal her Gray-sama from her since the beginning ! She observed them and Gray started to leave while running, to her utter relief. But... what was Lucy doing ?! Why was she running after him and... What ?! She was grabbing his wrist ! She told him something and he smiled to her while nodding.
Juvia was boiling. She had become all red and people almost could see the smoke that was coming from her ears. When Gray left, she headed toward Lucy, ready to charge at her. The blonde saw her and her eyes widened while her face became distorted.
"J-Juvia... That's not what-"
"How dare you ?! You ? Juvia's friend ? Since when did friends steal their friends' soul mate ?!"
"Juvia, listen to m-"
"Juvia should have known. Juvia should have been more suspicious. All those disputes we had in the past to know who the more handsome member of the Ice Dragons was, were actually just debates to know who knew Gray-sama better!"
What ? Where was she getting all this ?
"You're mistak-"
"Juvia doesn't consider Lucy as her friend anymore !" Lucy was unable to get a word in edgeways. Juvia wasn't willing to listen to anything and was shouting her head off. People were fixing their gazes on them, asking themselves why a high school student was shaking her arms in every directions while yelling until she lost her voice.
The bluenette turned on her heel and walked away, dumping Lucy who was speachless.
Juvia wanted to be alone but in the middle of the festival it was pretty hard. So she ventured around the whole campus, looking for a deserted place. After a while, she finally found an empty room. She entered it without asking herself if she was allowed to do or what the room was for. She sat down and slumped on a table, her head in her arms. Suddenly, the door opened. Juvia didn't feel like raising her head to see who it was, so she didn't move. But the new comer didn't say anything and apparently stayed immobile. Thus, she had to raise her head in order to tell that person to leave her alone and to beat it, when she saw who it was. 'HE !'
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Lucy was fed up. Juvia could be sweet as she could be annoying. The blonde hadn't been able to get a word in edgeways when her friend had inundated her with reproaches. Plus, those reproaches were totally unjustified. But even if she would have been able to get a word in edgeways, she wouldn't have been able to tell her the truth; it would have annoyed her even more. What's more, Gray would have been mad at her, even though he hadn't mentionned that he had wanted her to keep quiet. Actually, he had just asked her a question, but that simple question had said a lot to her. So no, Lucy could obviously not tell the truth to Juvia (at least, if she had had the occasion to do it). Thus, she decided to buy some takoyakis, once again, because the last time she had bought it, she hadn't been able to eat it because half of it had fallen on the ground and she had given the rest to Natsu. This time, she didn't charm the vendor (and anyway, it was a girl) because she wasn't in the mood for it. She headed toward the park and caught a sight of a pink haired boy who was staggering. She rushed toward him to help him.
"Are you okay Natsu ?"
"Huh...? I... hmm..." He rushed toward the closest bin and spilled out all his guts.
"Natsu ?! You should go to the nurses' office..." He waved at her to tell her that he didn't need to go.
"But you're probably sick..."
He stood up straight and faced her, "Nah it's okay, I'm used to it,"
"What do you mean ? Do you always just throw up in the middle of the morning ?" She asked him, sceptical.
He stared at her for a few seconds, hesitating to confess why he didn't feel good. He knew that she was one of the Ice Dragons' fans. He also knew that she liked gossips and that she loved talking about them (dixit Erza), but he knew as well, according to the same source, that if someone asked her to keep quiet, she could hold her tongue, especially if the secret could cause harm to the person who had confided it to her. It wasn't a big secret in itself, but even though he didn't care about his image (or at least, less than Loke or Sting), it was still ridiculing. Moreover, Gray wouldn't hold back to take the mickey out of him even more than usual because his secret would have been revealed. Though he wasn't the only one who had that "problem", he would never say that Gajeel and Sting were like him, as a friend and by the oath of honour (and also because otherwise, they would kill him).
"Promise me that you won't tell anyone ?" Natsu asked Lucy.
She looked at him, worried. What could make him in such a state for him to ask her to not say anything ? She timidely nodded. If he was a girl, Lucy would have feared that he would say he was pregnant. But Natsu being a guy, it was not going to happen. She imagined the worst things imaginable but little did she know what he was going to confess to her.
"Promise me that you won't laugh," he said with an insistent tone.
It started to really worry Lucy. But on the other hand, if he asked her to keep her seriousness, it shouldn't be so serious. So she nodded a second time, without a word.
"I have motion sickness."
Lucy's eyes widened. Had she heard well ?
"Sorry ?"
"I have motion sickness." He repeated, still with the same seriousness.
She stared at him for a few seconds, gaping. So she had heard him correctly. Suddenly, she burst out laughing. Natsu fixed his gaze on her then made her a sign to laugh less loudly.
"You promised you wouldn't laugh !" he reproached her while puffing his cheeks.
Lucy calmed down and while she was wiping a tear in the corner of her eye, she apologised, regretting having behaved like that.
"Sorry. I didn't laugh because of the reason that made you so sick, but because you're making a mountain out of a molehill. It's not very serious. Look, I have a phobia of frogs,"
Natsu looked at her weirdly. "Of frogs ?"
"Yeah, because when I was young, I played a trick on one of my teachers with my cousin. Our parents wanted us to have lessons to learn good manners but we really didn't want them, so we decided to drive our teacher crazy, that way she wouldn't feel like teaching us anymore. We put some tadpoles in the teapot for teatime, but during the wait, they became frogs. They leapt everywhere in my room and invaded it..." She trembled at the memory.
"And then ?" Natsu asked, interested.
"Then, they snaked in and out in my dresses and between my cuddly toys... They were everywhere ! We managed to shoo them away apart from one. It smelt bad in the whole house and when I was sleeping during the night, I felt something on my face... It was the remaining frog ! It was right on my mouth and was cawing, taunting me !"
Natsu burst out laughing, which pleased Lucy. Even if she thought it was better to laugh about his motion sickness rather than be ashamed of it, she perfectly understood why he was reluctant to talk about it. Sometimes, what seems anodyne to others was important to you.
"But, tell me Natsu, why did you get motion sickness in the middle of a festival ?" asked Lucy.
He looked at her and started blushing.
"I wanted to do this attraction," he pointed out a university attraction that displayed a big poster which said that if someone managed to do at least eight tours of the attraction in a row, the winner would have a golden ticket as a reward, allowing him to eat food from any stand of food for free. The food... of course... The number of tours wasn't huge, but for that attraction, it would be miraculous if someone could do at least four tours of it in a row (eight and four are my favourite numbers ;) ). The student who had built that attraction had really outdone themselves. It even appeared that some amusement parks had been interested in their final work. The loops and the screams of the clients didn't stop, all the more so as the attraction's tour was in reverse... So that phenomenal attraction combined with Natsu's motion sickness, it was absolutely normal that the latter was not in tip-top condition (what a soft euphemism). He hadn't risen above the first tour mark... The students had had difficulty pushing him out of the wagon without him pucking on them.
"Why the hell did you go on an attraction which is worse than a tour in a car ?" asked Lucy.
"I thought that it would be okay and that it was less violent than the vehicles..."
She sighed. Sometimes, Natsu didn't think at all... But she liked him. Maybe he had become her favourite member of the Ice Dragons... She coudn't get over it. She, who had always thought that the members of the band were not comparable between themselves and were on same level, now preferred one of them !
"Maybe we should walk a bit, that way you can feel better ?" She proposed him.
Natsu smiled at her and energetically nodded (at least, as energetically as he could). Thus, they set about doing a tour of the festival, for the second time.
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Mirajane was waiting behind the dojo of the kendo club, in order not to die of suffocation by the crowd because the fourth day of the festival was the day when the kendo club had the most visitors, to such an extent that the dojo was jam-packed. Actually, it was one of the two principal reasons why she wasn't waiting inside, the second one being the most important : she was waiting for someone. Or rather, she was waiting for that someone to pass at the back of the building. Given the hour, that person wouldn't be slow to arrive. She patiently waited until someone arrived behind her.
"Mira ?" The young woman turned around and faced a breathless Erza in a princess dress. The president of the student council was as red as her own hair and seemed to have difficulty breathing, not only because she seemed to have ran in a hurry, but also because her dress was really not appropriate for running, without talking about her shoes that wouldn't have helped her to snake in and out through the crowd. Erza smirked, seeing her friend. This time, it was her turn to tease her. "Let me guess, you're here to cheer me on ?"
Mirajane blushed and nodded slightly, "Yeah... Of course. After all, you're my friend, "
"Drop it Mira, I do know that it's not the case," said Erza, still smirking.
"Of course it is !"
"Really ? It's not to cheer a certain young man with green hair on ?"
"No, it's not for Freed that I came,"
"Freed ? I haven't talked about Freed, as far as I know. There is also Nanagear (though he still thinks that we're a music club)." Erza said while chuckling. She understood why Cana and Mirajane spent their time teasing her. It was pretty funny.
"You insinuated it !"
"Anyway, it's a good thing that you didn't come for him because he couldn't come..."
She let her sentence outstanding in order to see her friend's reaction, which worked perfectly because the white haired girl hastened to ask, "Why ?"
"He has a date with a certain Evergreen, I think..." Erza coolly said while observing Mira's reaction out of the corner of her eye. Her teasing remark worked. Mirajane was in the same state as her during the first day of the festival when the white haired girl had spoken about the so-called kiss of Gray and Lucy. While she was smirking, Erza saw someone who was arriving behind her friend. She started chuckling and said while turning around, "I'm leaving you, I'm late," Mirajane looked at her disappearing inside the building when she heard a voice coming from her back pronouncing her name. She turned around and ended up nose-to-nose with Freed. Her eyes widened and even more when she realised what she probably looked like after her little conversation with Erza. Erza ! She had lied to her, saying that he wouldn't come ! Or else, she did it for her sake to not let her see Freed with another girl...
"-jane ?"
"Mirajane ?" She startled, taken away from her thoughts.
"Is everything okay ? You're all red..."
"Yeah... You should go back with her..."
"Her ?"
"Yeah, your girlfriend,"
Freed looked at her, taken aback. He frown and then told her, "I don't see what you're talking about, but I have to go; Erza will kill me if I'm late," He headed where Erza had left and disappeared in turn. Mirajane stayed there for a few minutes, cursing Erza and herself. The red head had pulled her leg and she had stupidly fallen into her trap ! But well, on the other hand, she had asked for it, teasing her friend with Gray, so it was only fair...
Mirajane headed towards the front of the dojo and followed the movement of the crowd. She sat down in the tier and was almost immediately joined by the members of the Ice Dragons. She quickly greeted them and Erza made her entrance. When the latter saw her friend with silver hair, she smirked but she didn't seem to have noticed who she was with.
The fights came one after another and Mirajane was clenching her fists like a little girl full of excitment when it was Freed who fought. The more difficult parts were all the times he had faced Erza. The captain of the kendo club was up to her reputation and gave all the members a hard time. As soon as the demonstrations took an end, Mirajane rushed toward the exit, in the hope of coming across Freed "by chance" when he would go out of the dojo. She headed toward a tree and sat on the low wall that surrounded it. While whe was waiting, the crowd started emerging from the dojo and she heard some comments which both pleased her and pissed her off like, "Oh my god ! That Freed guy was just sensational !" or "The president was incredible, but the vice captain and that guy with green hair were really awesome !" or "Did you see Justine and Takeda's lovely ass ?!" (they were talking about Naito, the vice captain). Of course, this comment made Mirajane mad. She clenched her fists and looked daggers at the girls who had said that (people could almost see the lightning bolts that were springing from her eyes). Suddenly, a male hand landed on her shoulder. She instantaneously turned her head, hoping to see Freed, but she quickly understood that it wasn't him, seeing the way the hand in question was grasping her shoulder. It belonged to a fishy guy with a quite perverse look. Then, Mirajane felt other presences which were approaching her. She was now surrounded by a few guys who were the same kind of guy as the one who had "placed" his hand on her shoulder, though they seemed to be the henchmen of the "gentleman".
"So, cutie pie, were you waiting for us ?"
Cutie pie ? Repugnant, coming from a guy like him. Mirajane didn't answer him and didn't look at him either. She would surely not waste her time talking with those guys surrounding her, who ganged up to "hit on" a girl and who said the typical sentences of guys in heat who thought more with their muscles than with their brain. The leader started to lose patience.
"Hey ! I talked to you, bitch !"
"Sorry, but I'm waiting for someone," she told him with her habitual smile, though it meant "Leave me alone or you will regret it", but the delinquent in question absolutely did not understand what she wanted to say through this smile.
"Really ? And who is more interesting than our boss ?" (Yeah, I know, I show an incredible originality...)
Mirajane restrained herself to answer that anyone was more interesting than their "boss", but nevertheless, she replied, "I'm not intersted. Now sirs, would you be so good as to leave me alone ?" They all were red and started to deploy their muscles. How did this bitch dare treat them like that ? However, seeing the smile she had on her face, the leader tried to convince her again (not because he was a gentleman or something, but in order to gain her trust).
"Come one baby, have fun with us," he whispered in her ear and then, took her wrist.
"That guy you're waiting for won't come, he stood you up. Or he's too afraid of us to come,"
That was the straw that broke the camel's back...
.
Freed was washed-up. He had just done several matches, including one against Erza. Their captain hadn't held anything back and he had probably never fought that much. Even if the president of the student council had a very busy schedule and had to run everywhere in the festival, she had been up to the public's expectations. A little too much, by the way... Even though it was the festival, she had fought him as if they were right in the middle of a championship... And an Erza in the middle of a championship was redoutable and unstoppable.
Freed sighed. Nevertheless, a smile appeared across his lips. Kendo was something that he loved, for a certain reason, and he enjoyed practicing against Erza or Takeda. Just like them, he had many fans but he didn't care. All he wanted was to practice and protect people who couldn't protect themselves. Sometimes, some of his fans faked to need his help and even paid some guys to fake an altercation. He always helped them without asking himself any questions because if he did, the girls in question could be in trouble if they weren't faking it. Thus, he came to their rescue and sometimes he had the bad surprise to discover that it was all fake, but all he could do was reprimand the girls. He couldn't tell them that next time, he wouldn't help them because if they really needed his help, it would be like the boy who cried wolf and he would blame himself for that.
He left his stuff in his locker at the dojo and went out through the back of the building. There were a few fans of his but he merely greeted them, not wanting to spend all his time being propelled in every direction from one fan to another. Then, he heard voices coming from the front of the building. As the demonstrations had finished, the crowd had started to draw away, which enabled him to hear some snatches of conversation. Apparently, it was a group of guys who were laying into a girl.
Freed regretted having left his shinai (bamboo sabre used in kendo) in the locker room because he wouldn't have the time to pick it up. But he did know how to fight back with his bare hands without problems so he hurried to go to help the young woman in question... But he didn't really need to do so. To his big surprise, the girl in question was Mirajane (which made him hurry even more) but he didn't have time to do anything because when he was about to intervene, he saw the young woman boiling in anger. It looked like a kind of black aura was emanating from her (not as demonic as Gray, but it wasn't so far off it). Freed had the impression that she had become another person, a sort of demon... He even thought, 'She could rival Erza... By the way, Erza seems to have softened up since the arrival of the Ice Dragons...' He quickly analysed Mirajane and the gang of aggressors while moving forward toward them. But before he could even lift a finger, Mirajane had already beaten three of the thugs. Another one was about to catch her from the back but she violently thumped him in his plexus with her elbow, vehemently stood on his toe, hurt him on his nose with her elbow, and finally, she kicked him on his family jewels. The leader of the gang was enraged and rushed toward her but she quickly reacted and whacked him right in his crotch with her knee.
In only a few seconds, she had beaten all of them and the whole gang was unconscious, on the ground. She released a small sigh and dusted her clothes. And that is when she felt observed. She lifted her head and saw Freed. He had seen everything. She furiously blushed, cursing herself. She hadn't been sufficiently vigilant and had showed him her demonic side. Why, out of all the people who were in the campus, had it been him who came upon her while she had been steamrolling a whole gang of thugs ? Yet … she had promised him...
Eventually, she noticed that Freed seemed mad while he was staring at her. She was about to leave while running but then she saw that his face softened little by little.
"I'm glad that you're okay," She had expected all but that.
"Aren't you mad or shoked ?"
"Why would I be ? You're fine,"
She really was lost. So he was not mad, seeing that in the end, she was not that innocent and incapable of hurting a fly ? He did not feel deceived by his partner of science ? Her thought were quite ridiculous... That's true, why would he have been angry ? They were not dating, they didn't have to account to each other... In fact, anyone would have been scared, seeing her fighting like that...
They stayed face to face in silence for a moment. It was quite a clumsy and awkward silence.
"Hmm... How do you feel about walking around the festival ?" timidely proposed Mirajane. He agreed and they left the club (leaving the crooks lying on the floor).
"I didn't know that you knew how to fight so well," said Freed to break the uneasy silence that had settled between them. She blushed, trying to not cross his path.
"Let's say that it's been a while since I did it,"
That's when she noticed that he was deep in thought. She wanted to ask him a question which had tickled her curiousity for a few years but which she had always restrained herself to do so.
"Freed ?" He didn't answer. She called him a second time, in vain. Then, she patted on his shoulder and he eventually realised that she was talking to him. "Yes ?"
"What made you want to do kendo ? I've heard people saying that you were not into violence or hurting others," Actually, she hadn't heard people saying that; she knew it because she had heard it from him, a long time ago.
He looked at her, surprised by her question.
"When I was in middle school, I met a girl who was in a poor condition after having fought. Since then, I said to myself that if I could fight, girls like her wouldn't have to do it and they wouldn't get hurt,"
'So that's the reason why he was mad... Because fought alone,' Mirajane thought. She was eased. She had just learnt why he had been angry, but also that he didn't hold a grudge against her because she wasn't the person he thought she was. And most of all... he remembered it. But she suddendly realised something.
"So you hate that kind of girls ?" she asked, her face worried.
"No, why should I ?"
"Well, they don't think and act on impulse. They force you to put yourself in jeopardy,"
"In some ways, it's probably better than those who only count on me to protect them. They say to themselves that they can do everything they want because in the end, someone will be there to fix it. They deliberately 'put me in jeopardy' and use me as a shield. Those are the kind of girls who act sweet and innocent while they really aren't,"
Mirajane understood an innuendo when there wasn't one. Since she had dropped delinquency, she had become sweet and nice. It was not a facade or anything like that, but what if Freed considered her like that ? After having seen her fighting, would he think that she was deceitful ?
"So... Do you hate me ?" His eyes widened. Why the sudden question ? Admittedely, this question was the kind of typical sentence that you could find in corny movies, but there next to him, she really looked like she was about to cry. He would have never thought that he would be in such a situation right from a novel for lovesick girls, especially with Mirajane.
"No, of course not ! Why should I hate you ? You're sweet, smart, loyal, generous, attentive, extraordinary, beautiful..." He stopped. He had drifted, trying to comfort her. "I mean, not that I'm attracted to you or anything like that..."
Mirajane's eyes widened and tears started to run. Freed suddenly realised what he had just said. While he might be one of the smartest in the high school, sometimes, he could really be stupid.
Before ha had time to correct himself, she had already left. On one side, it was better for him to not say anything else, given that he kept aggravating the situation by wanting to correct himself.
He tried to catch up with her but the crowd was too dense. Therefore, he capitulated, cursing himslef for not understanding girls. How had they come to this situation ?
Yeah, the part with Mirajane and Freed was very corny... But I'm not good with this kind of thing... I don't really like this chapter (since there is not Grayza) but the next one is better (or less rubbish). Anyway, I hope that you didn't run away before the end of the chapter !
Oh and Happy New Year to all of you with late ! :D
