TO MY READERS: I hope you enjoyed Monday's chapter because here is Chapter 12! I can't believe how much of this story I've written and how many people are actually reading it and loving it. Reading all your guys' reviews, seeing how many views each chapter gets, and the subscribers this story has gained is absolutely mind-blowing and is exactly the kind of encouragement I need to keep writing. Thank you all so much for your support and for sticking around despite my unplanned "break" last week. I love you all so much!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN any of the characters or places mentioned in this story. It all belongs to the original creator, Hiro Mashima.

XII - Lessons From the Sky Sisters

That Friday Lucy spent most of the morning in pain and covered in sand. After having fallen for what felt like the twentieth time, she sighed and let her upper body collapse onto the ground to stare up at the ceiling. It wasn't long before Carla's face came into view as she stood above her new student.

"C'mon, Layla," she said, hands on her hips. "If you can't get the round off right you won't get a good side aerial!"

"Can't I just take a short break?" Lucy groaned. "We've been at this for hours and I'm just not getting it right!"

When Lucy first began with Wendy and Carla she was told there were three important gymnastic moves in learning a side aerial: a cartwheel, a dive cartwheel, and a round-off. Fortunately for Lucy, doing a strong cartwheel had come relatively easy since she had done them as a little girl. The dive cartwheel proved to be a bit more difficult and took her a good while until she was able to do it without breaking her wrists.

Now they were working on the round-off and Lucy had fooled herself into thinking it would be a cinch. She could not have been more wrong.

"I think taking a break would be a good idea," Wendy suggested, appearing beside Lucy as she continued to lay in the sand. "If she keeps going at the round off with negative results, it won't help anybody. Especially not Layla." Carla sighed and stepped back, giving Lucy some room to sit up.

"Alright. Maybe a short break would be best," she agreed reluctantly.

"Thank you," Lucy sighed, picking herself up off the sand and walking towards Natsu. He had come with her that morning to watch the practice and Happy had stayed back at the tent with the crew who were working on repairing the burned spot on the stage. All by himself, he was leaning up against the fence, sipping his coffee from the dining hall, and observing avidly.

"How you doing?" he asked once Lucy jumped onto the top of the fence and grabbed her water bottle to take a drink.

"Pretty good for someone who's come very close to breaking her ass," she laughed, gulping down her water. As if being put through a tough regimen of gymnastics wasn't bad enough, but Lucy was dressed in a very uncomfortable outfit. Right when she had walked into the Sky Sisters' tent four hours ago, they broke the news she would have to wear their uniform: a black leotard and white tights. Apparently, Cana's tight white undershirt and black leggings weren't going to cut it for her first day of gymnastics.

"Don't worry," Natsu said, bumping his shoulder against her. "You'll get the hang of it soon. And we still have plenty of time. You don't have to learn this side aerial thing all in one day, you know."

"I know that," Lucy said with a small smile. "But things have usually always come so easily to me."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, when I first learned about astrology I caught on really quickly and it simply became second nature to me. Almost as if it was a natural born gift. And I've always been fairly good at my studies. I don't know. I guess this is the first time in my life I haven't been able to catch onto something so easily." Lucy turned to Natsu who sat silently for a moment before finally speaking again.

"I think that's just a part of life," he said. "Nothing in this world can just be easily achieved, ya' know? Some things take a long while to learn before you finally get it and some things you just have to struggle for."

"What do mean?" Lucy asked.

"I mean, if you really want something and you truly cannot live without it, you have to fight like hell for it."

Suddenly, something clicked in Lucy's mind. The words of both her mother and now Natsu rang through her head like a mantra: follow your heart and fight like hell for it. The phrase floated through her head, her mother and Natsu giving her the best advice she had ever received.

There must have been a visible change on Lucy's face because Natsu laid his hand on her shoulder. It took her a moment before she finally realized he had touched her and she slowly turned to him, confusion written all over her face.

"What's the matter?" he asked, concerned. It seemed to Natsu Lucy had abruptly been trapped in her mind for a moment and it worried him. But when he saw the smile break across her face, he relaxed a bit more.

"Nothing," she said, a small glistening appearing in her eyes. Tears, he thought. "It's just, you sounded so much like my m— I mean, someone I knew." Lucy had to noticeably choke back on the word mother before it escaped her lips and she bit the inside of her mouth.

No, she said to herself. You will not cry in front of him. Don't bring him into your mess. You'll be gone soon anyways so there's no need for it.

"Someone you knew?" he asked, attempting to pry something more out of her.

"Oh, well, um…"

"Layla!" called Carla. "Are you good to start again?" she asked, waving her over. Lucy let out an audible sigh of relief and hurriedly capped her bottle to get back to her lesson.

"I gotta get back," she said all too cheerily. Before Natsu would say anything more about the topic, Lucy jogged over to Carla and Wendy as fast as possible, hoping he would soon forget her small slip of the tongue.

It's not worth it, she thought to herself. You'll be gone in nine days. It's just not worth it.

Despite all she did to try and convince herself she was right, Lucy still felt the aching pain of living such a huge lie. Though she revealed everything to Cana and she could be herself around her, Lucy sometimes forgot it was only Cana who knew who she really was. And keeping such a big secret was turning out to be extremely difficult.

"I hope you got enough rest to clear your mind," Carla said gently. "Let's just try this again like we did earlier. I'm sure you'll get it soon enough. And even if you don't catch on today, there's still plenty of time." Lucy nodded as she got back into place in front of the blue mat that had been recently set down for her.

"Just to prevent any further bruising," Wendy said with a small smile. Lucy groaned as she felt the twinge of pain in her butt but repositioned herself to begin once again.

"Here we go…" she whispered to herself.

Lucy's arm rose in the air completely upright and she started the round-off like she would with a regular handstand. Coming down on the ground, she pressed her left hand to face away from her towards the wall over on her right ride and her right hand faced the direction she had come from. With her legs turning up above her—almost into a handstand—she brought them both together above her and popped her shoulders upward, sending her body backwards onto her feet again. Once her feet touched the ground and her arms came up, she jumped up into the air and landed gracefully, arms over her head. Astonished, Lucy looked up with her mouth rounded in an O and her eyes practically bulging in her head.

"Oh my god," she said, her arms still above her head. When she shifted her eyes to face Wendy and Carla, they seemed just as surprised as her.

"That was…" Carla began, clearly still stunned.

"Layla, that was beautiful!" Wendy exclaimed. Lucy snapped her head to her and smiled like a goof.

"Really?!" she asked excitedly.

"Wendy's right," Carla agreed with a kind smile. "That was absolutely perfect. Your form was excellent with your legs and arms straightened just right. Maybe that break was what you needed." Lucy was still laughing like an idiot and then she turned her head to Natsu who had started clapping.

"Natsu!" she shouted to him. "I did it! I finally did!" Natsu laughed and continued to clap.

"That was awesome, Layla," he replied. "Maybe that's a good way to end the lesson for today, girls?"

"Absolutely," Carla agreed. "It's best to leave a difficult lesson with something great and this was indeed great. Wonderful job today, Layla. Tomorrow we'll work on the side aerial and maybe the basics of the front flip if you'd be up to it."

"Okay," Lucy said, covering her mouth to keep from smiling so widely. But she couldn't help; she had finally done it! It felt incredible.

"I'm gonna go check on Happy to see the progress he made with helping the stage crew fix the floor," Natsu said.

"You're not going to the dining hall for lunch?" Lucy asked, jogging back over to him before he could leave.

"I'll probably catch up later but I wanna see how the stage is coming along," he said. He pushed himself off the top of the fence and stood in front of Lucy, gathering his water bottle and handing her her clothes to change back into. "But you did a fantastic job today," he smiled.

Lucy glanced up at Natsu with disappointment. She had wanted to go to the dining hall victorious with Natsu beside her to retell the gripping story of how she had mastered the round-off, the last move in gymnastics in learning a complete side aerial. But when she looked into Natsu's eyes, she saw the small sparks were beginning to dull in his irises. Glancing over his entire face, she noticed there were the slightest hints of pain in his expression. Why is he so sad all of a sudden? she wondered.

"Enjoy your lunch," he said, grimacing and turning his back to her. Lucy uttered a small sound of protest but Natsu had already jumped over the fence and was hurriedly moving towards the exit. With his back to Lucy, Wendy, and Carla, Natsu allowed the smile to fall from his face.


Why does my chest hurt? Natsu asked himself as he began walking back to his tent. Ever since he'd left the Sky Sisters' tent with Layla still inside, he noticed his entire chest area was throbbing with pain. It felt like a sick ache but for some reason, Natsu knew it wasn't because he was catching a virus.

Something was wrong with him. Terribly wrong. He had never felt this before and he didn't know what to do with himself. After having seen Layla's exhilarated expression when she landed the round-off, the pain in his chest started.

No, he thought. Don't start this. She'll be leaving soon. Forget about it.

Finally, Natsu arrived back at his tent, clenching his heart with his hand and practically staggering into the tent. Luckily, the stage crew he and Happy had sent for earlier that morning had left and Happy was the only one inside. Upon noticing his friend's arrival, he glanced up from a single player version of go fish and smiled. But when he saw Natsu's pained face, he scrambled off the stage and rushed to his side.

"Natsu, what's wrong?" he asked. Natsu laughed and sat down on the nearest bench, not wanting to walk any further.

"My chest is killing me," he replied.

"Why?" Happy asked, kneeling in front of him.

"I don't know," he continued. "Layla landed her round off and when I looked at her… I don't know, my chest just started hurting really badly." When Natsu lowered his eyes to his friend, he saw Happy's face had turned to one of sympathy.

"What?" Natsu snapped, not liking the look he was receiving.

"You like Layla," he said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Natsu laughed. "No, I don't. That's crazy!" Happy stood up and stared down at him.

"You guys are spending too much time together," he said. "This isn't good, Natsu."

"You don't think I know that!" he answered with a sigh. He buried his face in his hands and shook his head. "I don't want to feel this way but… There's just something about her."

"She's only going to be here for nine more days, Natsu," Happy said, attempting to knock some sense into his friend.

"I realize that, Happy. But I can't just stop feeling." Happy sighed, arms crossed over his chest.

"Maybe this whole assistant thing isn't going to work out so well," he suggested. Natsu shook his head immediately.

"No," he replied. "I'm not going to give up just because my chest hurts when I see her. We can be friends. It'll be fine, Happy." It was Happy's turn to shake his head.

"This isn't good for you," he said. "You should just stop it now. Go to the Master, tell him this whole thing isn't working out, and get her sent home. She's been here long enough."

Though Happy's idea had its appeal, Natsu thought back to how cheerful Layla had become since going the circus. When he had first caught her almost a week ago trespassing, she seemed so sad and lonely to him, almost like her negative feelings were emanating from her like a pulse. But now, after having spent so much time with everyone, her mood had improved ten-fold.

He couldn't just send her away because he had the smallest bit of feelings for her. It wasn't fair to Layla; she would be devastated. And she would hate Natsu for it.

"No," he said. "I can't do that. It's selfish. I won't do that to her." Happy sighed and shook his head, staring down at his lovesick friend hopelessly.

"Then you better find a way to stop this," he said. "If she were a permanent member, I'd say go for it. But it's only going to leave you both heartbroken when her time here is up." Natsu nodded in agreement but remained seated on the bench. When Happy became aware he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon, he walked to the stage again to go lay on the couch and left Natsu to dealing with his emotions.


"That's incredible!"

"Oh, you must be so proud, Carla!"

"Congratulations, Layla."

The words of praise filled the table after Lucy had retold her story of landing her round off. But even with everyone smiling and congratulating her, she couldn't help but miss Natsu.

"So does this mean you'll definitely be performing with Natsu-san in his shows?" Juvia asked. "Juvia doesn't think he would spend all this time working with you if he didn't want to showcase you."

"I suppose so," she said, plastering a fake reassuring smile on her face.

"That's fantastic," Erza said. "I think you and Natsu will make a great stage couple." Everyone nodded in agreement and Lucy found it difficult to keep her heart from thrumming when Erza mentioned the word couple.

"Speaking of which," Gajeel said, "where is Salamander, anyways?"

"Oh, he said he wanted to go check on how the stage repair was going," Lucy said. "He'll probably meet up with us later."

"Forget about that," Cana interrupted, taking a sip from her flask. "Layla, there's something the girls and I wanted to ask you." Instantly, Lucy felt herself blushing, wondering if they were going to bombard her with questions about her and Natsu. What am I going to tell them?!

"Usually on the weekends when we travel to different towns, we end the Saturday showings early so we have a longer night to ourselves," Cana explained, relieving Lucy of her tension. "Tomorrow night, the circus will be closing at five instead of ten and Sunday we'll be closed as a day for everyone to rest and have some fun. We were wondering if you'd like to go shopping with us tomorrow night after the Goodnight Ceremony."

"Shopping?" Lucy asked. "For what?"

"We all want to go to the beach on Sunday and we don't have any swimsuits with us," Levy chimed in. "We want to take you swimsuit shopping if you'd like to go."

Lucy stared in awe at the girls, their faces so warm and welcoming. Lucy hadn't ever been shopping with a group of girls and finally being invited to one was sort of thrilling. She smiled and nodded.

"Yes! I'd love to go with you!" she replied. The girls smiled but Lucy immediately frowned. "Except, I don't have any money."

"Don't worry about it," Erza said. "We'll pay for your swimsuit if you choose one you like."

"No, I couldn't ask you to do that for me," Lucy said, shaking her head.

"Oh, c'mon, Layla," Cana said, resting her hand on Lucy's. "It's just a bathing suit. It's not we're buying you a whole wardrobe." Lucy glanced up at all the girls with questioning eyes.

"Are you sure it's okay?" she asked.

"Positive," Erza replied. Lucy sighed but she couldn't help a smile breaking across her face.

"Thank you all so much," she said, her throating constricting with tears. Not since her mother died had Lucy been treated so kindly. And it made the sakura tree blossom even more.

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to leave a review and Chapter 13 will be up next week.