Chapter 13

The group of four is now walking around the mall know, drifting from store to store when one of them sees something they like. When Lucy finishes telling Natsu of how she and Gray first met, he cracks up. "Bwahaha, I bet you felt so stupid!"

Gray merely rolls his eyes, mumbling a curse under his breath.

From laughing so hard, Natsu's face is now a bright shade of red. "And you"-he wheezes-"poked her!"

"We get it, Flame Brain," Gray grumbles.

Natsu wipes away a tear with his free hand since his other is preoccupied with carrying Lucy's shopping bags. "Just wait until I tell Lug Nuts!"

"Wait, he met Lucy before me?" Gray asks.

"I met Gajeel and Levy at Wendy's birthday party over the weekend," Lucy replies.

Gray looks taken back. "Whoa, they met her before me? But I'm your best friend!"

"Hey, when I tried telling you about Luce from the start you didn't believe me!" Natsu points out.

"First of all, it was weird you even showed interest in some hot girl you met because of a pizza delivery," Gray says to defend himself. "And then the next day you guys went on a date to Fairy Tail. Like, how probable was that?"

"Natsu even sent a photo of them!" Juvia adds.

"Which she totally could have been some random girl–" Gray begins.

"But I wasn't," Lucy interrupts with a playful grin.

"Yeah, you tell him, Luce!" Natsu cheers.

She giggles at him.

"So why Lucy?" Gray asks suddenly.

Natsu blinks. "Huh?"

"Why Lucy?" he repeats. "You were never interested in girls before her."

"Luce changed that." Then Natsu chuckles. "She changed all of that actually."

She looks down at her feet, attempting to hide her pink cheeks as her hair acts like a curtain to block the view of her face.

As though it is a natural thing for him to do, Natsu slips his left hand into Lucy's right, lacing his fingers with hers. "It takes a special weirdo to change that I guess," he jokes, adding humor in a typical Natsu fashion.

"Hey!" Lucy defensively, shooting him a look.

He simply laughs at her reaction.

"So where do we go next?" Juvia inquires, changing the topic.

"How about the book store?" Natsu suggesting, remembering it is on Lucy's list.

Gray nods. "I'm game."

"Then let's go!" Natsu begins tugging Lucy along, causing Gray and Juvia to keep up with them.

No one slows down until they reach Vermilion, the nation's largest and most popular retail bookseller. Gray holds the door open for everyone before bringing up the rear.

"What floor?" Natsu asks, looking at Lucy.

"Top," she replies, knowing the layout like the back of her hand.

So they make their way over to the escalator that will lead them upstairs.

Natsu points a finger. "Luce, look!"

She sees what he is pointing at and smiles. Next to the escalator is a promotional stand with many copies of Elvina. There are some spaces from where people have picked up their own copy.

Juvia gasps happily, grabbing one of the hardcovers for herself. "Juvia can finally have her own copy!" Then she leads the way up the escalator, her boyfriend right behind her.

With Natsu behind her, Lucy steps up after Gray when curiosity gets the better of her. "Do you like the author, Juvia?"

"She owns every novel by the author," Gray replies for her. "Every single one."

Squeezing the novel against her chest, Juvia looks back at Lucy as her face lights up. "Juvia thinks Ashely is a wonderful author! Juvia wishes to meet her someday!"

Natsu stifles a laugh. "She's closer than you th–"

Lucy subtly elbows his side, glad neither Gray or Juvia noticed what she just did.

Then Juvia's face falls. "Ashley had a book signing, but Juvia had work that she could not get out of…"

"Next time," Gray says to cheer up his girlfriend.

She nods. "Next time for sure!"

Lucy cannot help but smile. Juvia seems to be the type of fan she loves meeting at book signings and the like. Although, she is a little curious that Juvia has yet to mention the striking resemblance Lucy shares with Ashley. After all, they are the same person.

The group reaches the top floor and Lucy leads the way to the over to the section she wants.

"Paranormal romance?" Gray questions, not sounding amused.

"Oh, hush," Lucy says, her eyes scanning the wall of novels. It is possible for her to spend hours in a bookstore, but she does not want to take up everyone's time.

"Luce, do you read books with dragons in them?" Natsu asks, trying to contain his excitement.

She thinks for a moment. "There's one that I really like. It's by Sophie Jordan–"

Her own ringing cell phone interrupts her. "Whoops, I forgot to silence it." Lucy pulls out her phone and reads the name on the screen. "Actually, I have to take this…"

"By all means," Gray says.

Lucy steps to the side and answers the call, holding her phone up to her right ear. "Hello, Yukino."

"Do you have a boyfriend?" she squeals, unable to contain her excitement.

Lucy steals a quick glance at Natsu. "Uh, boyfriend?"

"Yes!" she gushes. "Do you have one? Ooo, you have to tell me how long you two have been dating!"

"I don't have a boyfriend though." She decides to leave out the part that she does not have a boyfriend just yet.

Yukino's excitement dies down. "Really?"

"Really." Then Lucy chuckles. "Where did you get that idea from even?"

"A blogger posted a video and a guy walked away with you at the end. He easily could have passed as your boyfriend!"

"Wh-what?" Lucy gasps, her heart skipping a beat.

"Everything okay, Luce?" Natsu asks, noticing her distress.

She focuses on Yukino's words instead of replying to him.

"Marvelous Millianna is the most popular Ashley blogger and she posted a video not too long ago. It was a little interview with you, but more importantly, there was a guy at the end. He totally whisked you away from Millianna!"

Lucy groans, clamping her eyes closed. "I'm sure someone is bound to recognize him eventually…"

"So who is he?"

"A friend."

"Not the crush you were talking about during the interview?"

"No."

"Is he a potential crush?"

"He already has a sweet girlfriend."

"Oh."

Lucy pinches the bridge of her nose with her free hand as she thinks. "I've got to deal with this quickly, huh?"

"It'll be best to put the rumors to rest as quickly as you can. Fans already have theories about who the guy is."

"He's just a friend," Lucy says defensively.

"But they don't know that," Yukino points out. "They think he is your crush or a secret boyfriend."

"That's totally far-fetched," she scoffs.

"But they don't know that. Hence the rumors."

Lucy thinks for a moment. "I'll find a way to address the matter. I have to make an official announcement or something."

"Let me know if you need help!"

She softly smiles, glad she has a supportive friend. "Thank you, Yukino."

"Bye, Lucy!"

"Bye!"

Lucy ends the call and slips her phone away, taking a deep breath. She looks over at her friends to discover they are all silently staring at her. She becomes frazzled at the attention she has been receiving without noticing any of it. "Uh, that was-How long have you guys been watching?"

"Everything okay, Luce?" Natsu repeats, genuinely worried about her.

"It's fine," she sighs. "Nothing I can't handle."

"Do you need help with something?" Gray asks.

She finds it ironic that he is the one offering help when he helped her in the first place with Millianna. "Unfortunately, I think I have to end our double date earlier than planned."

"Luce?" Natsu still is trying to grasp what is happening.

"It's, uh, work related," she says, wanting to be vague about things.

"Is it bad?" Juvia questions.

"It's more annoying than bad," Lucy replies honestly. Then a thought occurs to her. Should she inform Gray and Juvia about the situation? She does not want them blindsided when someone connected to them watches the video and starts asking question. "Actually, there's more to it than that…"

The three look utterly confused.

"Juvia, can I see that book?" Lucy asks, walking over to her.

With a nod, she holds out the copy of Elvina for her.

Lucy takes it and opens it to the back cover, holding it up to her face. It is easy to compare her face to the small picture.

Juvia is the first to react when he eyes grow wide. "A-Ashley… ?" She gasps loudly. "Juvia thought that perhaps Lucy shares a big resemblance to Ashley! Juvia never would have thought she is actually her!"

"Guess again," Natsu cackles, arms crossed over his chest.

Gray looks absolutely dumbfounded. "The girl you happen to fall for not only is real, but is a famous author under a penname?"

"Shhh," Lucy chides, hoping no one overheard him. She closes the book and holds it for Juvia, but looks at Gray. "And right now there is some trouble because you helped me earlier."

"Me?" Gray asks, pointing to himself.

"The girl that was interviewing me earlier posted that video," Lucy begins to explain. "She was still rolling when you came by and got me away from her."

Gray still has yet to connect the dots. "Annd… ?"

"Fans are starting to spread rumors and theories that you're my crush I talked about in the interview or you're my boyfriend," Lucy continues.

"Crush?" Natsu asks, only focusing on that. He seems rather excited that she openly admitted it in an interview even though she did not name a name.

Juvia looks back and forth between her boyfriend and Lucy. "B-but Gray is dating Juvia!"

"But other people don't know that," Lucy points out.

"So make a counter video," Natsu suggests, looking at her.

Three sets of eyes look at him.

He shrugs off the attention before continuing. "Have somebody film you talking about Milli's video and stopping the rumors. You can even have Ice Princess in it so he can back you up."

"Did you… just come up with a really good idea?" Gray asks with disbelief.

"Hey!" Natsu says, taking offense.

Lucy begins smiling from ear to ear. "Natsu, you're a genius!"

He looks pretty smug with himself. "Thanks, Luce."

"Will Lucy do the video now?" Juvia inquires.

She looks at Gray. "Are you up for it?"

He nods. "Let's do it."


A/N Part 1: Ayyy, y'all got some minor drama in this chapter (a one that's a wee bit longer than usual!). It'll be easy to resolve though :P And good call on those who thought the video would come back *pats on the back*

A/N Part 2: OHAYOCON WAS SO MUCH FUN. OMG. I really enjoyed myself! Best Ohayocon yet for me! And now that I'm back I was able to update, woo~

A/N Part 3: Just so share some joy of mine, two Thursdays ago (on Pre Ohayocon Day for me) my boyfriend had my friends and my boss work together behind my back. Cute/romantic story short, he proposed and we're engaged now! So that was a great way to kick off Ohayocon for me! :D


Jessyka: Hey, I'm glad you liked it enough to read in a sitting! AND THANK YOU SO MUCH :D More chapters to come for sureeeeeee! After all, I do really like this fic! It was meant to be a one-shot too XD

Guest: Aye, sir! That was one of the puns from last chapter XD And thank you!

Donut-Senpai: Yay, I'm happy you're enjoying it! I can promise that Dan won't cause trouble for NaLu because of that encounter with him.

Guest: I'm glad you enjoyed it :D Gotta love some NaLu :3 I thought it was nice adding Dan in. Shows Natsu won't let anyone get in his way XD

nalu lover girl: Gah, thank you! I'm glad you like it :3 Hey, all it takes is imagination and practice! The practice really helps!

Guest: (Chapter 1) Wooo, thank you!

Guest: (Chapter 4) I'm happy you love it! And thank you for saying that :D

Guest: (Chapter 7) I can feel it as well! #relatable Hehe, I love that Natsu is sweet with her too :3 Good NaLu feels allllll around!

Guest: (Chapter 8) I did have a wonderful user correct my French mistakes so that was helpful! And progress is always great!

Guest: (Chapter 9) Huggles alllll around :D

Guest: (Chapter 10) Bantering is always a great thing I think :P

Guest: (Chapter 11) I loved having Gray say that XD It felt like a Natsu kinda reaction, but it worked with Gray haha

Guest: (Chapter 12) I like that element about them :3 And now that another Ohayocon has come and gone, I'm able to get back to writing!

Blix: OH, WOW! THANK YOU SO MUCH! Hehe, that was just a lil' shout out XD And those who have read MTAP will understand it! And having read this chapter, that is a yes on Millianna XD