A/N: AW, thank you all so much for all your reviews/favourites/alerts guys! Thank you so much for taking a chance on this story.
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Chapter One
"Step on the brake, Lucy," Jude cried. "Don't tickle it!"
He had believed that would be his final words.
After stalling the engine four times (three in his daughter's opinion), Jude had pleaded with Lucy to pull over and let him finish the journey to the school himself. But the second she found her bearings, she was off, and poor Jude was left with nothing but nail marks in his leather seats and a whole load of regret.
The car thundered down the street, sailing through the air with every dip in the road. At least, that's how it had felt, and as far as Jude was concerned, if he made it to the school alive, that was exactly how he was going to retell the story during his lecture on road safety.
"You know," he began, eyes trained to the road as the school finally came into sight. "You would think that after almost killing a boy this morning, you would be a little more. . .aware of speed."
Scoffing, Lucy smiled. "Puh-lease, that was totally, one hundred percent, that guys fault."
Slowing the car, she gently came to a stop outside the school, the grounds flooded with students reuniting after a blissful eight-week break.
Letting go of a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding, Jude felt his grip on the door handle slackening, his shoulders slumping as his daughter looked on at him in amusement.
"Enjoy the ride, dad?"
"Never again," was his shell-shocked reply as he slowly patted down his jacket. "I'm getting too old for this."
She laughed, handing the keys back to her father before looking out at the old sandstone building. Smile falling into a pout, she groaned, making no move to get out of the car.
"What if I just came and worked for you?" She suggested, eyes wide and hopeful. "I could answer the phones and get the coffees; I make a great cup of coffee."
"That's a wonderful idea," Jude concurred, smiling as Lucy beamed with delight. "We take on apprentices who are tenacious. Passionate and motivated."
"This is great," she exclaimed with excitement. "I am all those things!"
"But," he cut her off, holding a finger out to stop her, "who also hold a high school diploma."
Once again, her smile dropped.
"That's just mean."
She scowled, and sighing softly, Jude reached over and took her hand, offering a small smile in the hopes she didn't hate him completely.
"Lucy," he began, as she lazily turned to look at him. "I know that things have changed since I was your age. Gosh, I can't even begin to imagine how much harder they are in this world of social technology that we're living in. What, with things like Facepaint and Instaspam."
She couldn't help but smirk, and whether he had meant for her to or not, was irrelevant.
"I guess what I'm trying to say," he carried on, "is that life will continuously throw things at you that will make you want to run away. Don't let them win."
Squeezing his hand, Lucy smiled, a reluctant roll of the eyes letting him know that he had made sense to her. With an exaggerated huff, she unbuckled her belt and reached for her bag.
However, it wasn't until the familiar burning in her hand started again, did she shoot back up.
She didn't mean to ignore her father as he began to make plans for that evening; fishing his wallet out to hand her a twenty for the day. But the second she saw him standing outside the school, scanning a piece of paper as a cigarette hung loosely from his lips, did she know that the burning was no longer a coincidence.
And he must have felt it too, because with that same knowing smile as before, he slowly lowered the paper, and turned to look at her.
Her breath caught in her chest, and like a siren, she was drawn to him. A magnetic pull between two strangers.
Turning to see what had captured his daughter's attention so fully, Jude caught the smallest of glimpses of the pink haired boys smile before he turned and headed up the stairs into the main entrance.
"Oh, no," Jude smirked, turning back to face her. "Please don't tell me that after all that effort to stop you from dropping out, I've now got a boy to sit and worry about."
Snapping out of her stupor, Lucy looked at her dad, quickly composing herself with another roll of the eyes and a smile of her own.
"Yes, dad," she blushed, reaching up to tighten her ponytail. "We've looked at each other twice in twenty minutes. The next natural step would be to allow him to impregnate me."
"Lucy," Jude scoffed, his nose scrunching up at the thought. "Are you trying to give me an aneurysm today?"
Laughing, Lucy ignored his question before leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for letting me drive."
"The car, or me up the wall?"
Opening the car door, she got out as her father did the same. "I don't know, a bit of both."
Shaking his head, Jude swapped over to the driver's seat; Lucy shrugging her bag onto her shoulder as she watched him climb in and wind down the passenger window.
"Now, in case you didn't hear me over the sound of your beating heart," she blushed as he slipped on his shades, "it's Chinese for dinner."
"Affirmative," she replied with a mock salute, gently rocking on her heels.
"Now, try and have a nice day and . . . make good, pure, non-life-changing, choices."
Chuckling, Lucy waved her goodbyes, her father throwing his own over his shoulder as he pulled out from the curb and drove off, the roar of the Porsche's engine his final farewell.
It wasn't until he was out of sight that she felt the eyes boring into her, and whether it was to do with the car or the whole fountain incident, she couldn't quite tell. Head down, her grip on her bag tightened as she hopped up the steps towards the main entrance.
Thankfully, it didn't take long to pick Gray and Levy out from the crowd; Gray sitting on the railing attempting to look cool, and Levy on the step at his feet with her nose buried in a book.
Gray noticed her first, bumping Levy's foot with his as he jumped down from his perch. Packing her book away, Levy gave a sympathetic smile as Gray helped her to her feet.
"Oh, Luce," she smiled, a twinkle in her eye. "I take it your dad wasn't for the whole 'never returning to school ever again' idea, huh?"
Sighing dramatically and throwing her head back in anguish, Lucy let out a loud groan. "No. He had to go and make sense."
Giggling, Levy came to her side, linking arms with her as the three made their way into the main building.
"Hey, did you guys see the new kid?" Lucy questioned as Gray held the door open, a group of squealing girls cutting in in front of them before jumping into a group hug with their waiting friends.
"Oh, yeah," was Levy's wide-eyed reply, ignoring the escapade before them. "Is he a cutie, or what?"
With a scoff and roll of the eyes, Gray led them further down the hallway until they came to the doors of the auditorium, the 'welcome back' banner hanging haphazardly over the stage, leading the students to the bleachers.
"Or what," he answered through a mutter. "He had pink hair, Levy."
In his opinion, that was all the information they needed on the new boy, but linking her free arm around his, Levy playfully rested her head against his shoulder.
"There, there, Gray," she cooed, causing Lucy to laugh. "Deep breath and let the big moody moods out."
Ears tinged scarlet, Gray cleared his throat and carefully shrugged the small girl off him before burying his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans. The small smile he tried to fight back didn't go unnoticed by Lucy, however.
He led them up the old rickety stairs of the bleachers, squeezing into a space in the sixth row where the girls followed.
"Well, pink hair or not," Lucy said, dumping her bag at her feet, "I am more than willing to let him take over the role as 'new kid', and I'll just go back to trying to navigate my way through high school with as little attention as humanly possible."
There was a hum of agreements from the friends before the familiar gut wrenching, barf inducing giggle rang out. Turning in her seat, Lucy was less than thrilled to see Evergreen sitting behind her, her smarmy smile reigning down upon her.
"Now, that's a bit unfair to the rest of us Lucy," she said, having eavesdropped on their conversation. "I mean, you just make it so incredibly easy for us to notice you. Nice car by the way, did daddy buy it for you over the summer."
Eyes like slits, Lucy felt her fist tighten. One punch. That's all it would have taken to shut her up, but then again, the whole 'destined to protect by The Keepers' and blahdy, blahdy, blah, instead had her plastering on a smile.
"Evergreen," she practically sang. "It's so good to see you. Did you have a nice break? Ooh, nice nose by the way, did daddy buy it for you over the summer?"
It didn't mean she couldn't be petty, however.
Ending the conversation with a smile, Lucy turned back to face the front, Evergreen's scoff enough to satisfy her in that moment.
"Better?" Levy giggled.
Sighing, and straightening in her seat, Lucy nodded with a small smile. "Better."
Students continued to file in left, right and centre, Lucy, Levy and Gray keeping themselves amused by playing a game of hangman as the teachers all began to gather on the stage.
"So, what big changes do you think are happening this year?" Gray asked, leaning in and adding a leg to the hangman.
Looking up at the stage, Levy spotted two women who she had never seen before. One with long white hair who seemed to have a permeant smile, and the other, a redhead, who stood with her mouth in a firm line and her arms crossed scanning the students.
"My guesses are the usual," she shrugged, looking back at their game. "New year, new expectations, new staff. Let's make everyone feel welcome, yada, yada, yada."
"So much cynicism for someone so tiny," Lucy smiled, nudging her friend slightly. "I think one thing is for sure though, absolutely nothing exciting is going to happen this year."
Leaning over with her pen to put the final leg on the hangman after guessing wrong, Lucy winced at the sudden burn she felt in the back of her hand. Dropping the pen, it rolled down the floor of the bleacher, stopping when it hit the battered converse of the person standing over her.
Not daring to look up, Lucy watched as he bent down, his pink hair once again falling into his eyes as he picked up her pen and handed it back to her with a smile.
"Hi," was his simple greeting as he knelt in front of her.
"Hi," she blushed.
His smile grew. "Is this seat taken?"
She couldn't even reply before Levy poked her head round, a beaming smile of her own almost splitting her face in two.
"Not at all!" She answered for Lucy, encouraging the boy to sit.
Sitting back in her own seat, and ignoring Lucy's glare, Levy whispered a simple 'you're welcome'.
Clearing her throat, Lucy turned back to the boy, amazed to find that he was still staring at her, smiling a smile so bright, it could put the sun to shame. Without prompting, the boy dropped his tatty black shoulder bag to the floor and offered a hand to her.
"I'm Natsu," he said as she slowly shook it.
"Lucy," she breathed out.
Gaze never dropping, Natsu gave a small nod, his grip on her hand tight, yet gentle. As if he didn't want to let her go. As if part of him had waited a lifetime to hold it. To hold her.
"It's nice to finally meet you, Lucy."
That's when the burning stopped.
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It coursed through his veins like poison, his grip on the side of the pool tightening with each beat of his heart. An anger so strong, the very thought of them had his fingers breaking away at the tiled edge.
Head dipped, his long hair fell into the blood he bathed in, the lifeless faces of the corpses that lay scattered around the pool caught in a forever horror. Throats open wide.
"The Fates are at work," he growled, slowly releasing his hold on the pools edge.
She walked out from the shadows, naked and unashamed, stepping into the pool with a confidence he had admired.
"I felt it too, my Beloved," was her sighed reply as she glided towards him. "A heaviness has come upon me. The hate I feel. . .well, it's almost too much to bear."
Reaching out, his hands found rest on her shoulders, the blood rolling down her porcelain skin as he pulled her closer.
"They've found each other," he spat with venom. "And now it's only a matter of time until they come for us. All of us."
Hands coming to his chest, she stared up at him in wonder, her eyes pleading with him to stop it all. "Who are coming?"
"The Slayers."
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A/N: I promise, the chapters will get longer.
Please let me know what you all thought! Thank you all so much.