Chapter 6
As soon as Lucy parks her car and turns off the engine, she grabs her phone. After ending the navigation and before she can even text Natsu, the front door swings open. He happens to step outside. She notices the movement out of the corner of her eye and is slightly surprised to see him.
He merely waves, proceeding to meet her as he steps off the front porch.
Grabbing the gift, Lucy steps out of her vehicle and locks it behind her. "How did you know?" she asks.
"My Natsu sense was tingling," he replies with a grin.
She arches an eyebrow at him.
"I was totally just looking out the window when I saw your car pull up." He stops in front of her. "Sooo did you have fun at your thing?"
She hands him the gift and smiles. "I did."
Together, they walk up to the house. It is a modest, two-story structure with flowers and cut lawn. It seems cozy with its red brick exterior that has black trim and shutters.
"Is everyone else here?" Lucy inquires.
"Yep! The whole family is inside. Well, except two people. They're on their way though."
"Family?" she squeaks.
"Yeah, all family today. Well, except Lug Nut's fiancée and you."
She becomes flustered he left out that rather specific detail. "You totally didn't mention that before!"
"I didn't think it mattered…" he admits sheepishly.
Lucy stops on the front porch. "I would have been able to mentally prepare myself for meeting them."
Natsu smiles and places a hand on the handle. "You'll be fine, Luce."
She takes a deep breath. "I hope so…"
He opens the door and gestures for her to walk inside first.
She steps over the threshold and glances around for shoes. "Is there no rule about no wearing shoes inside?" she asks after not being able to find any shoes on the floor.
"It's whatever you want. There is some stuff out in the backyard so people are keeping 'em on."
Lucy opts to keep her shoes on. Voices from down the hall attract her attention and she gulps.
"Don't worry, I told 'em I was having somebody over," Natsu assures her. "Not like it's a surprise."
She doesn't step forward until he nudges her a little. When the duo enters the kitchen that also has a table for eating, three different sets of eyes look over.
The muscular man has dark red slicked back hair and dark eyes. He has tan skin and a build big along with two visible scars on his face. Making his overall image seem intimidating, the first sliver of a scar is along is right eye while the one is above the right side of his lip in an x-shape.
The slender woman has sweet blue eyes and somewhat curly white locks that are pulled back in a low ponytail. With fair skin, she stands close to a foot shorter than her husband and has a caring nature about her.
The teenage girl has long dark blue hair down to her waist and a pair of russet brown eyes. She is petite in size and easily more compact than the woman she is standing next to.
"Family, this is–" Natsu begins.
The girl Lucy is assuming is Wendy gasps loudly, eyes impossibly wide.
"What's wrong?" the woman asks.
"A-A-Ash–" she stutters.
"Ash… ?" the man questions.
Lucy smiles a little. "It's nice to meet you, Wendy."
She gasps again. "You know my name!"
"Well, duh," Natsu says. "I told her about you."
Wendy looks at her brother with amazement. "How do you know Ashley?"
"Whoa, Ashley?" He turns to Lucy with a confused look. "Ashley?"
"That's the pen name I use when I write."
"Oh. That's also the name of the author Wendy really likes. Huh, what are the odds of that?"
The man facepalms. "He certainly didn't get his brains from me…"
"Welcome to our home," the woman says warmly, ignoring her spouse's comment. "My name is Grandeeney and my husband is Igneel. You already know our son, Natsu, and apparently you know of Wendy, our daughter."
"It's a pleasure," Lucy says.
"And she's Lucy," Natsu introduces. "And I guess she's Ashley, too."
She looks at him. "So the thing I had earlier was a book signing. A book signing where I was the one signing books. For a book I recently published under the penname of Ashley. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I just wanted to keep that a secret for a little bit."
Natsu blinks at her. "So you write books… And sell books…" He is still trying to wrap his mind around the concept.
"She is a famous best-selling author, Natsu," Wendy explains. "Her books are highly popular and have sold around the world."
"She's famous?!" Natsu questions, eyes wide with shock. Obviously he didn't know what he could be getting himself into that time he decided to text her.
Lucy chuckles. "Says the model for a company."
"I don't do international stuff!" he argues.
"Wow, that's a big word coming from you," Igneel teases. "I'm proud."
He points a finger at him. "Hey! Watch it, old man!"
"What's going on in here?" a somewhat familiar voice asks.
The five look over as two others stroll into the kitchen from the family room with a dropped floor. Lucy instantly recognizes them from the book signing.
"Ashley… ?" Sting practically whispers in a hushed voice.
"Hello," she greets a second time today.
With that, he loses it and faints.
Rogue is quick to catch him before he can even hit the floor.
"Is he all right… ?" Lucy inquires with worry, not sure if she should phone for an ambulance or not.
"I guess he wasn't prepared to see Ashley twice in one day," Rogue muses. Then he picks up the unconscious young man and manages to carry him into the family room.
"Oh, speaking of that!" Natsu holds out the gift. "Special delivery!"
Wendy's eyes light up. "Thank you!"
With a grin, Natsu slings an arm over Lucy's shoulders. "Well, I had help."
"Thank you, Ashley! Err, Lucy." She has a mini internal struggle with which name she should use. "Um, which do you prefer?"
"Lucy is fine," she replies.
"Can she open it now?" Natsu asks eagerly, looking at his parents. "Pleaseeeee?"
Igneel shrugs. "I don't see why not."
"Do it!" Natsu urges. "Do the thing!"
With a smile, Wendy tears away the wrapping paper and grows excited when she sees the hardcover version of Elvina. She looks up at the two, hugging the book to her chest. "Oh, wow! Thank you!"
"Open it," they say in unison.
She does and reads the writing in blue ink, her smile growing bigger and bigger. When she finishes reading the message, she rushes up to the duo and hugs them. "Thank you so much!"
"You're welcome," Lucy says.
"And happy birthday, Wendy," Natsu adds.
Suddenly, the front door opens up. "Oi, we're finally here!" a deep voice announces.
"Sorry we took so long!" a higher voice adds.
The trio breaks apart and moves to the side so the newcomers can walk into the kitchen.
Two more familiar faces enter the room. It is almost hard for Lucy to believe two others from the book signing are here.
"Shrimp was so excited about meeting her favorite author that she left Wendy's gift back at the apartment," Gajeel explains as he looks at the married adults.
As soon as the young woman sees Lucy, she freezes and clutches onto her fiancé.
He looks down at her. "What's wrong?" Noticing where she is looking, he looks over. "Oh. It's you. Hey, Shrimp, it's–"
"Ashley!" she interrupts, not meaning to be rude. "Oh, my goodness! Ashley is here!" She pauses for a moment. "Wait, why are you here… ?"
"Natsu invited me," she replies. "And feel free to call me Lucy. I only use Ashley as my pen name."
Getting over her star struck moment, she smiles. "I'm Levy, and this is Gajeel."
"Nice to meet you," Gajeel says. "Again."
"You, too," Lucy says.
Natsu nudges her. "Hey, wanna check out outside? I'm sure Uncle Metalicana is almost done grilling."
"Oh, yeah. Uncle Weisslogia and Uncle Skiadrum left while we were walking up to the house," Gajeel says. "Apparently neither of them brought buns because they thought the other one was gonna do it."
Igneel shakes his head. "Leave it to those two."
"At least we'll start eating when they get back," Grandeeney points out.
Suddenly, Lucy feels something soft snaking around her bare ankles. She looks down and sees a blue cat much to her surprise. He is wearing a green bandana and looks up at her with dark feline eyes before meowing.
Natsu grins. "Hey, Happy likes you!"
She bends over to pick him up, holding him close. "Why is he blue?"
"He got into some paint and we're having difficulty washing it out," Grandeeney replies. "He's a little troublemaker."
"Much like Natsu," Igneel adds with a laugh.
"Hey!" he says defensively, shooting his father a look.
Happy meows again before headbutting Lucy to the best of his ability.
"He's a talker, that's for sure," Natsu chuckles.
"Carla is a quieter than him," Wendy says as she picks up a white feline with a dark pink collar. "But she still voices her opinion."
Gajeel studies Lucy and Happy closely. "Why does something 'bout this look off… ?"
Levy snaps her fingers together. "Normally Happy only lets Natsu hold him."
"Really?" Lucy asks as she continues to pet his white underbelly.
Wendy nods her head. "Definitely!"
"Maybe he'll end up liking her more!" Igneel jokes.
"Happy wouldn't betray me like that!" Natsu says.
Everyone laughs.
Lucy takes a moment to glance at those around her. She hopes all will go well while she is here. It has been ages since she has been with company like this.
A/N: More to come in the next chapter for sure :) I hope y'all are enjoying this fic so far! Rather than having a 1k minimum word count, I plan on bumping it up to 1.5k since I finished another fic.
Edited as of 1/31/2017
