Chapter 12: Natsu and Soda
"Hey Juvia! Wake up, would ya?" Lucy slapped her friend's knee. "We're taking a break stop."
With a groan, the water mage didn't even open her eyes, "Already? We've only been driving for like 30 minutes!"
"Yeah but we need to stop for some food just in case any of you get hungry," Erza looked at Juvia through the rear view mirror, "Also, Jellal and I planned to drive until we reach the edge of California so no more rest stops until."
"What if you need to charge the car?" She finally sat up.
"We're charging it now," Erza answered. "While we and Natsu and Gray get a bathroom break, Jellal will charge the cars and watch them."
Juvia sighed as she opened the door and blinked at the bright 7-11 lights. Lucy got out in front of her and shut the door, "Come on, there might be a line or something."
"But it's only 4 in the morning, Juvia can't even see the sun," she questioned.
With a shrug, Lucy followed Erza inside. Beside their car, Natsu got out complaining on the early stop, "We should keep driving! We have plenty of time for stops later!"
"Yeah but if your bladder's full it's on you and we're stopping in the middle of the desert for you to pee," Jellal argued back, unwrapping the cords.
Natsu didn't give up, "I can hold my pee in for more than two hours!"
"We didn't need to know that, Natsu. And you're doing pretty well considering we were in a car for more than two minutes." Lucy said. She then noticed an elderly couple watching them. Of course it's so weird, a whole bunch of kids at a 7-11 this late at night. Lucy could see the fear in their eyes at the bizarre hair colors and Jellal's tattoo was just visible under the sign lights.
"Sorry if we're bothering you," Lucy smiled with a wave. "He tends to be like this. Go on your way."
With a small nod from the old lady, the couple dashed inside the store.
Erza, who noticed the couple, yelled at Natsu for scaring people, "You know if we can't even go inside that store now, I swear I will rope you down on top of the car and you'll be eating bugs for the whole ride!"
Natsu shivered as he lowered his head and obediently went inside the store without a word.
"I guess the motion sickness took over," Gray came out of the car.
"Why were you in there the whole time?" Jellal asked.
Gray yawned, "I was asleep but when that lizard brain started yelling, it woke me up."
"Why don't you hurry up and go on inside?" Jellal said, taking Erza's cord.
With a nod, the four teens headed on inside and headed towards the bathroom. As Gray opened the door, he saw a beat up Natsu by the sink and a few creeped out looking guys.
"What happened to him?" Gray asked the nearest guy, a man with long blonde wavy hair.
"I don't know, he just came in here and collapsed on the sink looking like that," the man answered.
Gray lifted the dead Natsu, apologized to the guys, and dragged him into a bench outside in the store.
Meanwhile, Lucy was washing her hands with Juvia next to her.
"Wah, so refreshing and I guess I was wrong about that line," Lucy dried her hands.
"Juvia was right, see?" Juvia smirked. "What happened to Erza anyway?"
"Dunno, she finished way before us and ran outside, you wanna go and see?" with a nod, the girls exited the bathroom.
…..
Erza dropped a bag of Corn Nuts on Jellal's dosing off head.
"Nice way of waking somebody up," he smiled as she settled beside him.
"You welcome," she opened her bag of sunflower seeds and popped one in her mouth.
"I'll take over if you need to go do your business," she said.
With a shake of his head, he answered, "I went when we left the apartments."
When an awkward silence fell, Jellal felt his phone vibrate. Reaching into his basketball shorts' pocket, he pulled out his phone and saw a text.
Jellal! I know it's late at night but I just can't hide this anymore! I really, really, really, really like you! And I was wondering if you would go to the formal with me! Please, please answer before you see me tomorrow, please?
"Who was that?" Erza asked.
He cracked a smile, "Stephine Chavez. She just asked me to go to the formal together."
"Doesn't she know that we're 'dating'?" Erza air quoted dating with her right hand.
"I don't think so because she didn't mention you once," Jellal put his phone back in his pocket but Erza stopped him with a grab on his wrist.
"What do you think of her? If you like her, go ahead. I mean, 'us' is only a mere rumor," Erza felt her heart harden as she spoke to him.
Never losing his smile, Jellal answered Stephine with a simple, Sorry. I already have someone I want to go to the formal with.
"What did you tell her?"
"Only that I already have somebody else I want to go with," he replied.
"And who might that be?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
He leaned in and brushed his lips against her cheek, "You can go ahead and guess."
He left a blushing Erza and went inside to find himself some water. However, when he entered he saw the rest of his gang trying their best to keep Natsu conscious.
We made a mistake taking a road trip, Jellal thought as he made his way over to the table.
"Is he alright?" the mage asked.
"He just needs some water is all," Lucy said with an unsure smile. "Quick, can you grab him some water."
With a nod, Jellal rushed down the freezer aisle and grabbed a random bottle of water. He walked over to the annoyed cashier and paid him for the bottle
"Here," he unscrewed the lid. With the help of Gray and Juvia, they managed to open his mouth as Jellal poured the liquid down his throat. As he closed the bottle, Juvia and Gray closed the dragon boy's mouth and leaned his head back as he chugged down the water.
Within seconds, Natsu's eyes shot open and he opened his mouth, gasping for breath.
"Why is he getting so hot all of a sudden?" Gray exclaimed.
Lucy glanced at the bottle of water and her mouth opened as she saw 'Sprite' written across it.
"Quickly we need to get out of here before he burns this place down!" she grabbed his arm and nudged Gray to help with the other.
Apologizing to the cashier for the noise and commotion, Lucy and Gray dragged him out of the 7-11 while Juvia and Jellal stayed behind to clean up any mess.
Erza looked up from her sunflower seeds to her teammates, "W-what happened?"
"Jellal accidentally fed him soda! We need to get him far away from the gas and a little far away from the store, like now!" Erza jumped up and the three dragged the dragon boy across the street to the dark plains across the huge street.
"We can let him go, now," Lucy, Gray, and Erza backed away from the dragon slayer just in time as his mouth exploded with fire shot straight to the sky.
"That was close," Lucy let herself breathe as Natsu released the heat.
"I still don't get why he has to breathe fire every time he has soda. It such a nuisance if he got caught or anything," Gray had his arms crossed.
Lucy explained, "Well, Natsu and I went out to lunch with Skylar and Ryan once and well he had some soda. I guess you can call it luck when I saw him stop talking and quietly gagging. I dragged him out back and his mouth exploded. Since then, he's avoided having soda. I'm thinking because it stings his throat."
"And that idiot can drink alcohol," Gray sighed. He then noticed something and turned back to Lucy, "Hold on a second. Ryan Bricker is our small forward on the team. Isn't Skylar Clove on the cheerleading squad?"
When Lucy nodded he continued, "Well, they've been dating since freshmen year and whenever they go out together, they usually don't take friends just for the fun of it. Instead, they enjoy going on double dates."
"And?" Lucy could tell she's not going to like the ending results.
"And, you and Natsu already been on your first date," Gray concluded.
Erza turned her head to Gray who had a big smirk on his face to Lucy who had her mouth wide open. With a smile, she patted the blonde's shoulder, "It's alright. Some people just can't tell the difference between a date and a simple hangout. So in technical terms, you two are dating."
Lucy looked at Erza with her mouth opened. Natsu and I? Datin-
She didn't even finish the thought, "No you guys got it all wrong! It wasn't a date! Ryan and Skylar just wanted to hang out during lunch one day and we were just there so we decided to tag along to the Burger King, okay? There's nothing going on between us! Final!"
Erza only laughed, "Normally, I would let it go but there's no denying this. That was a double date."
"But-"
"No buts Lucy. You are dating Natsu and there's no denying it," Gray replied.
Before she could continue protesting, Natsu made his way over to his friends, "That was a lot of fire but I feel so much better. Can we just head back to the store already? It's too dark to see anything here and I think I scared all the possible wildlife in the area."
"Very well," Erza took the lead as she headed towards the light across the street.
Lucy found herself walking behind her friends with her head down and thinking, what if Erza and Gray were right? What if that really was a date? But I don't consider anything a date until the guy asks the girl verbally instead of just pulling you along because he didn't want to be a third wheel. It wasn't a date, they have no idea what they're talking about.
When they were safely on the other side, they could see Jellal and Juvia talking while leaning against the cars. Their faces lit up when they saw Team Natsu reemerge into the light of the gas station.
"Everything okay now?" Jellal asked.
Titania nodded, "We're ready to set off again. We've caused enough damage here already."
Jellal nodded but his eyes moved from his friend to Lucy. He saw how her eyes were lost somewhere and not even at their current location.
"Lucy? Everything alright?" he asked.
She looked up and gave him a small smile, "Fine, just thinking about something."
Gray laughed, "About your da-"
Before he could finish, Lucy grabbed her keys and pointed Sagittarius's pointy key at Gray's throat, "One word and I will get you with this."s
Only when he held his hands up in surrender did she put her keys back in their poach, "Right, so how about we just be on our way?"
Without another word, the six mages piled into their cars and pulled away from the 7-11 without a word.