Chapter 12
Lucy snorts at his reaction to her. "Where you expecting something else?"
"I thought Flame Brain was going to try and pull my leg," the guy explains. "Like he was going to show up wearing girl clothes to pretend to be you or something."
She laughs at the mental image that pops up in her mind. "He might be a model, but I doubt he could work my clothes the way I do."
"That's the truth." Then he holds out his right hand. "I'm Gray by the way."
She takes it. "Lucy."
He jerks his head towards the doors. "Want to get out of here? I think we're in the clear now."
Lucy nods. "Sure. And thanks again."
The two leave the store and go the direction Lucy came from, towards the food court down at the other end.
"I guess it was a good thing I was walking by," Gray muses. "We ended up meeting."
"You're right! I realized Natsu never told me names or gave me numbers so I couldn't contact you and your girlfriend that I was here. I tried reaching him on his phone, but he didn't answer."
Gray groans. "He's a real idiot at times."
She giggles in agreement. "Although, he's–"
"A love rival!" a voice gasps with shock.
The duo looks over to see a young woman making her way towards them. To go along with her dark sapphire blue eyes, she has pretty blue hair falling in thick beach waves down to her shoulder blades. Her pale figure is slender, but she has curves in the right places.
"Juvia!" Gray says warmly.
She walks up to him and holds onto his right arm with both of hers, pressing it against her body. She gives Lucy a firm look. "Love Rival cannot have Gray! Gray is with Juvia!"
And now Lucy has officially met the girlfriend.
"This is Lucy," Gray introduces. "She's Flame Brain's date today. Lucy, this is Juvia."
Juvia's exposure completely changes and now she is all smiles. "It is a pleasure to meet you!"
Lucy returns the smile. "You, too!"
"I suppose we are all waiting on Natsu now," Juvia muses.
Gray takes out his phone to check the time. "He should be here soon since his shoot is over by now…"
Oh, so he had that kind of work earlier. Lucy originally guessed it was for Makarov's Pizzeria.
"Was his shoot not far from here?" Juvia inquires.
"Not really," Gray replies, and then he shrugs. "I guess we can chill until then."
"If he doesn't get here soon enough, I'm getting food," Lucy announces.
"Might as well head to the food court and have him meet us there. I'll let him know." Since one arm is still occupied, he only uses his free hand to text.
Juvia looks at Lucy. "Where does Lucy want to eat at?"
She thinks for a moment since she really is not sure what she wants. She just knows she wants something to eat. "I guess I'll think about it on the way there."
So the three begin to make their way over to the food court. All along the way, Lucy keeps her eyes peeled for Millianna. She really does not want to be ambushed by her or anyone else for that matter. She just wants time to relax and be with the people she just became acquainted with.
Having decided she is in the mood for subs, Gray and Juvia wait in line with her to get some food as well. Once they have their meals, they choose a spot and sit down to eat. The couple sits on one side of the square table while Lucy is by herself.
Before Lucy can take her first bite of food, someone stops her.
"Lu Lu!" a familiar voice shouts.
She cringes at the nickname because there is only one person who calls her that. "Why is he here?" Lucy groans, and looks over.
Sure enough, Dan Straight is heading right for her with a huge grin on his face. The young man with tanned skin has reddish brown hair and dark eyes. With an arm above his head, he is waving her down in a busy fashion.
"Who's that?" Gray asks.
"Trouble," Lucy grumbles, setting down her sub.
"He's loud," Juvia comments.
"He's probably worse than Natsu…" Lucy comments.
Gray's eyes grow wide with surprise. "Worse? How can somebody be worse than–"
"You're as beautiful as ever, Lu Lu!" Dan compliments, stopping in front of the table. "As beautiful as the starry sky!"
She sighs, thinking his lines are far too cheesy. "Sure I am…"
Thinking he belongs with them, Dan slides into the free spot next to Lucy that is reserved for Natsu whenever he arrives. He looks at Gray and Juvia who are sitting across from him. "The name's Dan Straight. Lu Lu is the love of my life and I'm going to marry her someday!"
Lucy covers her face with a hand. "Not even if you were the last guy on this planet…"
"Uh, do you mind?" Gray asks, coming to the rescue. "We're trying to eat while we wait on her boyfriend–"
"Boyfriend!" Dan's jaw drops open before he looks over at her. "Boyfriend?!"
"Yes, boyfriend," Juvia says to back up her own boyfriend.
"But, Lu Lu!" Dan places his right hand on her left shoulder. "I thought we–"
A hand appears on his left shoulder and he is jerked back, falling onto the floor.
"Hiya, Luce!" Natsu greets warmly as though he did nothing wrong.
Dan jumps to his feet. "What was that for?!"
There is a slight height difference between them so Natsu has to look slightly up at him. He simply shrugs. "You were in my way."
"From what?!"
"My girlfriend," he seethes, glowering at him menacingly.
Dan looks at Lucy before looking back at Natsu. "You're the boyfriend?!"
He flashes him a toothy grin and proudly says, "Damn straight!"
"B-but"-Dan turns to look at Lucy with pleading eyes-"I thought we had something!"
"The only thing we did have was some classes together," she informs him. "That's it."
No one can hear Dan's heart break in two, but they do see his eyes grow misty. A second later he becomes a blubbering mess, balling his eyes out. "I'll al-always be w-waiting for you, Lu Luuu!" He turns to go, leaving a scene in his wake.
Natsu blinks. "Did that really just happen?"
Lucy waves the thought away. "He's always like that. He'll be fine when he sees a girl he can crush on. Give him a minute and he'll bounce right back."
Claiming his rightful place, Natsu sits down next to Lucy and slings his right arm over her shoulders. "The gang's all here now!"
"How did your shoot go?" Juvia inquires, and then taking a bite of her sub.
"Not bad," he replies. "It was slower than I thought."
"At least you have the rest of the day off," Gray points out.
"And I'm spending it with some awesome people," he adds.
Lucy picks up the half of the sub before she slides the other half on the paper towards Natsu. "Sub?"
His face lights up. "Thanks, Luce!" He is already munching away before Lucy has a chance to take a bite of her half.
"So where do we want to go first when we finish?" Juvia inquires.
"Is there a place somebody needs to go to?" Gray adds.
Lucy thinks for a moment. "I'd be up for the bookstore outside of the mall."
"Popcorn!" Natsu says randomly.
Three sets of eyes look at him. "Popcorn?" Gray inquires.
He nods. "There's a popcorn vendor on the lower floor. I wanna swing by there so I can get some popcorn."
"You want popcorn after having some of a sub?" Lucy questions.
He does not seem phased in the slightest. "Yeah!"
Gray rolls his eyes. "Can't you be normal for once?"
"At least I don't have your stupid face!" Natsu jokes, being totally off topic.
One of Gray's eyes twitch with irritation. "I bet the agency wouldn't like if I messed up your ugly mug!"
"No fighting," Lucy and Juvia both chide at the same time.
"How did you two even get along as roommates before?" Lucy adds in all seriousness.
Gray shrugs. "Sometimes I acknowledged his existence."
"He was pretty easy to ignore," Natsu replies.
Juvia giggles at a thought that occurs to her.
"What' so funny?" Lucy inquires.
"They may not get along at times, but they are really good friends," she replies. "After all, they've already agreed to be one another's best man when they get married!"
Now the two guys will not even look at each other.
Lucy giggles. "Well, I think that's super sweet of them."
"Flame Brain will hold up his end of the deal first though," Gray comments.
Juvia's face flushes at his words. "B-but we are not even en-engaged yet!"
"Yet," Gray agrees. "But Flame Brain doesn't even have a girlfriend!"
"Grr, you wanna go, Ice Princess?" Natsu demands.
"Bring it, Flame Brain!" Gray challenges.
Lucy groans. Not once did it cross her mind the double date to even end up this way. Although, she has never been on a double date before so she cannot say much.
Natsu immediately looks away from Gray, giving Lucy his attention. "Everything okay?"
Juvia gasps, hands covering her mouth, while Gray's jaw drops open.
"What's wrong?" Lucy asks, wondering what is happening with the couple.
"He stopped arguing with me," Gray says matter-of-factly.
"Annnd?" Natsu urges.
"You always fight with my darling Gray," Juvia states. "You never let yourself become distracted when you both are arguing with each other."
Natsu shrugs it off. "I had to make sure Luce was okay."
She cannot help, but smile at his thoughtfulness. "You're sweet."
He flashes her a grin.
The couple across from them looks at each other to talk, not even bothering to keep their voices down "She has to be a witch," Gray begins. "She must have put some kind of spell on him."
"Or maybe she is a siren and has enchanted him!" Juvia suggests.
Lucy laughs at their imagination. "I'm just a human, guys."
"You must be a special human then," Gray comments.
"Very special," Juvia adds.
Unbeknownst to the others, Natsu laces the fingers of his right hand with her left that has been on her lap. He gives her a little squeeze. "It doesn't hurt that she's cute as fuck, too."
A/N Part 1: This chapter was kinda filled with puns… I might be watching too much Miraculous Ladybug and Chat has rubbed off on me XD But y'all had a little Dan action! I thought about having Loke, buuuuuuut he is gonna pop up later! As of now, not sure if the date will continue on in the next chapter since I'm happy with the way things ended. I do have a plan though! *cue evil laughter*
A/N Part 2: I'm sooooo excited since I'll be attending Ohayocon this coming weekend! I'll be cosplaying as Asuna from SAO (and the boyfriend will be Kirito!) :D If someone is going and you happen to see me, feel free to say hi! Also, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to post another chapter (same goes for MTAP) until after con, but make sure to stay tuned for more!
IrrelevantGirlie: Thank you! I'm glad you think so :) I'll try and not letcha down!
Flamexofxchaos: Yay, I'm happy you enjoyed it :) Hopefully that wasn't tooooo long of a wait :P
Guest: Wow, I'm glad you're liking it so far! I personally loved Gray's reaction in the previous chapter XD And hopefully that wasn't too long of a wait for you!
wishyouweremedontya: Aye, sir! I plan on a time skip at some point. And after that skip, GrayLu shall be a BrOTP :D (good catch on that video…)
