Hello, everyone !
I'm back with the fourth chapter :D
Enjoy reading~
Disclaimer: I only own Haru Heartfilia and the plot
This was a normal interview, but Gray couldn't pay attention to the questions. Ever since he stepped into the room and saw the interviewer, Lucy Heartfilia, he put his attention solely on her.
No, he didn't fall in love at first sight.
He was studying her.
Appearance-wise, she was cute. Even though for him Juvia was the best, but he'd got to admit that Lucy was truly beautiful and cute. Her long blond hair and her chocolate orbs were truly captivating. Her voice was as clear as a bell and she had a different charm as a capable interviewer compared to Minerva. Gray could see why she made an impression on Natsu.
He then glanced at his best friend who was actively answering Lucy's questions and furrowed a bit. Well, it didn't seem like Natsu was interested on her. But what's with his obvious attention on her? Gray was pretty sure Natsu hadn't completely moved on from Lisanna. Not when he was actually still placing their photo together on his nightstand.
Gray looked back at Lucy who was busy interviewing his bandmates. She was totally different from Lisanna, but she did somehow remind him a bit of Lisanna. Especially the way her brown eyes would light up in excitement whenever she asked some questions about Fired Up! and got to learn more about the band and its songs. The way her brown eyes glittered reminded Gray of Lisanna's own blue orbs during their first year as a nameless school band. Lisanna was a part of their mental support ever since the beginning, before she decided to quit.
Gray suddenly remembered how broken Natsu was on the day he broke up with Lisanna. He remembered that Natsu suddenly called him and told him he was staying over on that night. It wasn't weird for Natsu to stay over at his place, but Gray immediately realized something was wrong when he saw how Natsu forced out his smile. He asked him what happened to him, and Natsu immediately confided in him.
Even though he didn't cry when he told what happened between him and Lisanna, but Gray could see from Natsu's eyes just how painful it was for him. Lisanna was his first girlfriend after all, she held a special place in his heart.
A thought suddenly crossed Gray's mind. Could it be…? Did Natsu find Lisanna's image on Lucy which was why he wanted to connect with her?
Pfft., Gray instantly laughed at himself inwardly. What the hell am I thinking? She's just an acquaintance, why am I so bothered with this?
"Okay." Lucy's voice brought Gray's trail of thoughts back to the track. "I think that's all for our interview today. Thank you so much!"
"Great job, everyone!" Jellal clapped his hands in appreciation while Gajeel stretched out his back while sitting.
Loke made his way to the band while carrying five bottles of mineral water.
"Thank you so much for this opportunity." Lucy smiled gratefully at Loke.
"Thank you as well." Loke chuckled. "Finally they've got to see someone else apart from Minerva for their interview with the Sorcerer's Weekly."
"By the way, I haven't formally introduced you to the rest of us, right?" Natsu said as he stood up and walked towards Lucy. He then pointed at his manager and his bandmates one by one while telling Lucy their names. "This is our manager, Loke. Then this is Gray, Gajeel, and Jellal."
"She knew us already, dimwit." Gajeel scoffed. "Isn't now too late for an introduction?"
"So what?" Natsu nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. "Better late than never."
"It's a pleasure to meet you guys." Lucy smiled at them.
"Now I'm curious." Loke raised an eyebrow a bit. "How did you know Natsu? I heard you're his acquaintance."
"I've told you we met at a park." Natsu answered.
"Hold up!" Loke immediately cut. "Didn't you say that she didn't know it was you at the park because you were wearing your disguises?!"
Natsu's eyeballs nervously rolled to a side slightly. "Oh, that's…"
"I accidentally found out!" Lucy readily answered. "At first, I truly didn't know it was him, but I accidentally found out somehow. I'll keep my mouth tightly shut, though. Don't worry."
"Thank you for your understanding." Loke sighed softly in relief. "As you know, it'll be quite chaotic if the media know that you're actually acquainted with Natsu outside of the working field."
"Of course." Lucy smiled.
"By the way, we'll be having our lunch shortly." Jellal suddenly said. "Do you want to come with us?"
"Just come!" Gray suddenly added. "Minerva also sometimes ate lunch with us."
Their request sounded so absurd that Loke was about to tell them to drop the idea, before a thought suddenly crossed his mind. Jellal had always been the smarter one among the four of them, him bringing up the idea first must have meant something. And Loke could roughly guess the implied meaning: he wanted to get to know more about this acquaintance of Natsu's. If the other band members deemed that Lucy wasn't that trustworthy, they would definitely come up with a plan to somehow silenced Lucy's mouth so that she wouldn't babble about how she got acquainted with Natsu.
Being a celebrity sometimes meant being suspicious and overly cautious, while at the same time trying to figure out what was lying beneath like a detective.
"Thank you for the kind offer." Lucy politely rejected. "But I need to return to the office as soon as possible."
"Too bad." Jellal said in understanding. "Next time, then?"
"Of course, next time." Lucy agreed. She then tidied up her papers and put it back into her bag. "I'll be going first, then. Once again, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity."
She then bid her goodbye with the other crews, before heading back first to the office. Once she was totally out of sight, Natsu turned his body around and faced his friends.
"Okay, fess up." Natsu demanded. "What the hell is going on with you guys?"
"What do you mean?" Jellal nonchalantly asked back.
"You think I didn't notice?" Natsu scoffed. "You asked her to have some lunch with us because you were trying to dig around about her, right? And, Gray! You don't think I didn't notice how quiet you were during our interview, right?"
"That's normal, Natsu." Loke said. "I mean, you met her at the park and she accidentally found out about your identity? We've got to be extra careful with her."
"Especially because she's a reporter." Gray added. "And to be honest, Natsu, it's weird to see you making acquaintances with a girl."
"Hey!" Natsu protested.
"We have to be careful, Natsu." Loke said. "She's a part of the media, we have to prevent any weird news about the two of you."
"You didn't protest when we treated Minerva this way, so why are you protesting now?" Gajeel asked.
"Because she's actually someone I know." Natsu answered blatantly.
"All the more reason for us to be more careful with her." Loke reminded.
Lucy stretched her back on her seat as she smiled in satisfaction. She managed to finish her interview article with the Fired Up! right on time, so she didn't have to work overtime. Lucy sent her article to the editing division via the email, then turned her computer off. She currently is the only one left in the reporter division, so the office was pretty much empty. Lucy wasted no time and took her bag along with her mantle, then walked out of her office.
If she hurried home, she could still make it right on time to put Haru to bed.
Once Lucy was out of the building where the Sorcerer's Weekly's office resided, she was greeted with a surprising view.
"Yo."
Lucy blinked her eyes in an attempt to process. A man was waiting right in front of her office while his back was leaning onto his Porsche's door. His dark black hair shone under the nearby streetlights and his equally black eyes greeted her with a familiar warmth.
And that voice…
"N…Natsu-san…?" Lucy squeaked, careful enough to keep her volume as low as possible.
Natsu let out his toothy grin and gestured at his car with his chin. "Hop in."
"What?"
"Hop in." Natsu repeated. "I'll take you home."
"What?!" Lucy yelped a bit. "But that's…"
"Hurry up, miss interviewer." Natsu chuckled as he opened the door for the seat beside the driver. "Before someone notices I'm here and who knows what kind of articles are going to pop out tomorrow."
Left with no other choice, Lucy hurriedly walked over and entered the car. Natsu closed it gently and then walked over to his own car seat's door and walked in. After they strapped their seatbelts, Natsu turned on his car and drove it away from the building.
"How did you know I'm here, Natsu-san?" Lucy asked in curiosity and confusion.
"Just Natsu's fine." Natsu said. "Pretty sure we're the same age."
"How did you know that?" Lucy asked again.
"Gut feeling." Natsu grinned. "It's pretty trustworthy, too."
"That's a pretty weird reasoning." Lucy commented.
"What? Don't tell me you're older than me?" Natsu raised an eyebrow.
"No!" Lucy said. "You're right, we are the same age."
"See? Told you my gut feeling is pretty trustworthy." Natsu said. "By the way, how long have you been working at Sorcerer's Weekly?"
"I'm on my way to the second year." Lucy answered.
"I see." Natsu lightly nodded. "I heard it isn't easy to be employed there."
"Yeah. I started there as an intern back in college." Lucy said. "Although I still had to go through a strict selection process even with that experience."
"But I'm sure it felt wickedly satisfying when you got accepted." Natsu said.
"Absolutely!" Lucy's tone of voice became excited. "When I receive the announcement, it felt like I want to shout it out to the world! Working there has always been my dream and it finally comes true! I was so happy that I—uhm… Sorry. I got a bit too excited, aren't I?"
"Nah, it's fine." Natsu chuckled.
"By the way, you haven't answered my question." Lucy suddenly remembered. "How did you know I was still at the office? Don't tell me… You waited at outside?"
"Unfortunately, no." Natsu reassured. "I just listened to my gut feeling."
"I'm being serious here." Lucy raised an eyebrow.
"So am I." Natsu laughed. "Like I said, my gut feeling is pretty trustworthy. Come to think of it, am I driving towards the right direction here?"
"You didn't ask me for directions at all, though?" Lucy asked back. "Is this also one of your gut feeling's words?"
"Sort of." Natsu admitted.
Lucy chuckled. "I've got to admit that it is indeed pretty trustworthy. We're at the right direction."
"Oh, really?" Natsu's was surprised at his own gut feeling. "I was actually driving towards the park, since I thought you might be living nearby."
"Yep." Lucy nodded. "I do live nearby. Ah, turn there."
"You live somewhere around here?" Natsu turned the steering wheel and raised an eyebrow as he came to a familiar neighborhood.
Lucy nodded. "I'm just two blocks over from the park."
Natsu's heart skipped a beat somehow when he heard Lucy's answer.
Hey, she lives pretty close to me!, he said excitedly inwardly.
As the car entered Lucy's neighborhood, Natsu came to realize something. For someone of his age with a three-year-old toddler, Lucy was actually a pretty well-off woman. Although this neighborhood wasn't as elite as his, but it was still a neighborhood for middle-upper class. Her husband must be someone quite successful.
A bit of tightness clenched Natsu's heart as he thought of Lucy's husband, but he quickly shook it away. He wouldn't have any special feelings for the woman beside him, he wouldn't ruin her marriage. Even though he felt comfortable being around her—something that he knew was odd, because the only girls he was feeling comfortable to be around with were Juvia and Erza, as well as his ex—and even though he was attracted towards Haru since the first time he saw him, he was still a gentleman with a moral. He wouldn't destroy Lucy and Haru's family.
"We're here." Lucy's soft voice broke his trail of thoughts. "Just drop me off here, I'll walk inside."
"I can drop you off right in front of your house." Natsu offered.
"No, it's okay." Lucy smiled and took of her seatbelt. "It'll be quite a gossip if my neighbors saw me coming back home in a car they have never seen before. Who knows, maybe there's someone who recognizes this car as yours—oh my gosh. Natsu! What if someone recognizes this car?!"
Natsu laughed a bit upon seeing Lucy's panic which came out a bit too late. "Relax. This is my manager's car which he rarely uses anyway. Sometimes we use this car if we want to go somewhere alone. This car rarely hit the spotlight, so it's pretty much unrecognizable. Besides, I'm wearing my disguises."
"You need to get out of here as soon as possible." Lucy said. "Thank you very much for taking me home. Now, go!"
"Are you shooing me away?" Natsu raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah! I don't want to take any chances of having anyone recognizing you!" Lucy said.
"No one will, Lucy." Natsu scoffed.
"Still not taking any chances." Lucy sternly said. "But I really thank you for driving me back home."
"Alright, alright." Natsu said. "Say my hello for Haru."
"Sure." Lucy opened the door and stepped out. She then bowed her body and smiled at Natsu. "Thank you, Natsu!"
Natsu.
How come the way his name rolled out of her mouth sounded so different from the way other girls addressed him? It was even different from the way Lisanna called him.
And the best part was, she called him that way twice already today.
A small smile made its way to Natsu's mouth's upper corner. "Sure, Lucy."
"I'm home!"
"Mommy!" Haru peeked his head at the doorway.
"Hello, Haru!" Lucy crouched down to ruffle her son's hair. "Are you a good boy today?"
Haru nodded his head. "Haru had his nap without a problem today!"
"Oh, really? That's great, Haru!" Lucy praised.
"He's getting smarter every time I saw him."
"Levy-chan!" Lucy greeted her long-time best friend since college. "Thank you very much for looking after Haru."
Levy McGarden smiled, her wavy blue hair swayed as she shook her head. "I'm happy I can help you, Lu-chan. Besides, Haru is such a sweet boy! I really like taking care of him!"
"Wait for me at the living room, I'm going to take a quick bath and put Haru to sleep." Lucy said.
"Okay. I'll make us some tea. Have you eaten dinner?" Levy walked towards the kitchen.
"Not yet." Lucy admitted.
"I'll make you something quick then." Levy chuckled.
"I'm really blessed to have you in my life, Levy-chan." Lucy sighed in relief.
"Haru is blessed too to have Mommy in my life!" Haru butted.
Lucy laughed and ruffled Haru's hair affectionately. "Okay then, Mommy will have a quick bath and then Mommy will tuck you into bed. How's that sound, Haru?"
Haru nodded his big head immediately.
Twenty minutes later, Lucy came out of the bedroom in her pajama. Levy was waiting for her at the living room already with a hot plate of dinner and two cups of warm tea on the table.
"Is he asleep?" Levy asked.
Lucy nodded and sat down. She took her dinner and started to munch down immediately. "Thank you so much for this, Levy-chan."
"Hey, eat slowly." Levy chuckled. "I don't want you to choke."
Within minutes, Lucy had finished her dinner out of hunger. She put down her plate back onto the table and sipped her tea. She then looked at Levy and smiled.
"Okay, time to spill it out, Levy-chan."
Levy was startled at Lucy's words. "A—about what?"
Lucy smiled knowingly. "You not going straight home after I'm back home can only mean one thing, Levy-chan. You want to have a 'girl's talk' with me."
Levy smiled sheepishly. "You know me too well."
Lucy laughed. "So, what is it about?"
"That's…" Levy nervously put her teacup back onto the table. "Well… There's this cute customer at the café…"
"Hohoho, and this cute customer managed to grab the manager's attention, eh?" Lucy teased.
"He's totally my type, Lu-chan!" Levy squealed. "His big body and piercing gaze… He's basically the epitome of my ideal type!"
"What's his name?" Lucy asked curiously.
"I don't know yet." Levy sighed. "Besides, we could only chat for a short time, and only twice so far. The café is constantly full of people."
"How were you able to strike a conversation with him?" Lucy asked in confusion. "You're the manager, weren't you supposed to stay in your office?"
"We lack a part-timer." Levy said. "It's been a month and I've been taking over the vacant spot until we found someone."
"Hmm…" A small smile made its way to Lucy's mouth. "I guess now no part-timer is needed anymore, right?"
Levy's face instantly blushed. "Stop teasing me!"
Lucy laughed. "Well, since we're already 23 this year, love is indeed something we need in this life."
"Isn't it weird for me to… You know, having a crush on my own customer?" Levy asked.
"Of course not!" Lucy said. "The rule in your café is that no dating your colleague, right? He's definitely not your colleague, so it's fine!"
"You think so?" Levy asked. "Do you think he might like me too?"
At Levy's second question, Lucy broke into a soft smile. Levy had always been quite a nerd since college and she was shy around strangers, which was why she had never been in a relationship before. She also had a bit of insecurity regarding her physique, especially if she was to compare it to Lucy's own curvaceous figure. Her insecurity was also another reason why Levy didn't have any relationship before.
Lucy hugged her best friend. "If he's the right one for you, he won't like you, Levy-chan. He'll love you."
"You really think so?" Levy hugged Lucy back.
Lucy nodded. "Get know him better, Levy-chan. Who knows? Maybe your first boyfriend is your fated one."
Lucy stared at Haru's sleeping face in silence. Levy had gone home,—she lived not too far from her—leaving Lucy and Haru alone as usual in their apartment. Lucy stroked her son's spiky hair gently and suddenly remembered about a particular someone's own spiky hair.
She then closed her eyes, allowing her brain to replay one of the happiest memories in her life.
Lyon Vastia.
Lucy's first boyfriend ever. She met him at the college, he was her and Levy's classmate in the journalism major. He was one of the popular guys in college, because he was strikingly handsome with his muscular figure and spiky silver hair. When he confessed to Lucy and asked her to be his girlfriend, Lucy felt like she was over the moon.
He was a quite big part in Lucy's life, for he was her biggest support—beside Levy, of course—in pursuing her dream as a journalist. He was a good listener to her story, the place she would seek first to confide her problems in. He was also a good friend for Levy, for he gave her his objective opinion when Levy told them she wanted to change her major. The three of them started together as journalistic students, but only Lucy graduated in that major.
At the end, Levy graduated from the management major, while Lyon graduated from the music major.
When Lyon told Lucy he wanted to change his major to music, Lucy instantly cheered on him. She knew how much he loved playing music and how great his skills in playing guitar were. Just like how he supported her dream, Lucy also did the same thing. And to her surprise as well as delight, the couple had their first kiss right on then as Lyon's way of expressing his happiness for her support.
Haru's sudden snuggle to her broke Lucy's trail of thoughts. She looked down at him and smiled lovingly. She then laid down on the bed properly, scooping Haru into her warm hug and closed her eyes tight.
"Good night, Haru." Lucy whispered softly and kissed his forehead.
Done !
I'm trying to not draw a connection right away between Natsu and Lucy, and I hope I managed to convey that right through my writing *haha* I normally go with a 'love at first sight' thing, but I want to try something different for this fic.
What do you think about this chapter ?
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