Chapter Five: The Salmon-Haired Boy (Part Two)

"No, I'm not."

A grim, yet teasing expression crossed Natsu's face, as he continued brushing his hungry lips across Lucy's cheek, while slowly working his way towards her lips. A soft groan emitted from her lips, indicating that she definitely wanted more. She knew she shouldn't even be here - exposing her vulnerability to someone she had barely known. But, she wanted to do it anyway. She wanted him to kiss her again, and she wanted him to make her forget every bit of sadness or guilt she was feeling that very moment.

Natsu brought his face back in front of hers; their noses were barely touching. "Come with me."

He entwined his own hand with Lucy's, and pulled her onto his motorbike. This time, she didn't object.

...

"Watch your head!"

Natsu and Lucy had ridden to a closed park, which was decently fenced up for the night, However, a small area of the park was just badly fenced enough for someone to go through after hours. There weren't many cars around the field since it was closed, making it easy for Natsu and Lucy to sneak past the towering chain-links. Natus had grabbed a six-pack from a nearby liquor store, and took it with him as Lucy and him were making their way to the fields.

"So, tell me…" Lucy said, as she tore a bottle of beer from the pack and opened it, "... what's your story? Why were you so upset?"

Natsu laughed, as he took a sip from his bottle. "Well, I could ask you the same thing, but since you wanna know first, I'll grant your wish." He placed the bottle gently on the grass, and sighed. "I was dumped this morning."

"Oh…" Lucy mumbled, as she crossed her legs, and placed her bottle in front of her. He had his heart shattered not too long ago, and him and Lucy had just made out. She was starting to feel a strange pain in her chest - a pain that made her feel that maybe their kisses held absolutely no meaning with him. She was beginning to believe Natsu may not have any genuine interest in her…

… but if he didn't, why would he invite her out here?

A sudden ring interrupted her thoughts, and had startled Natsu as well. Lucy's cellphone had begun ringing, and when she took it out of her pocket, she noticed that Juvia had been calling her. Not wanting to completely ignore her, she answered the phone. "Yea?"

"WHERE ARE YOU?! Gray and I were getting worried SICK!"

Lucy let out a soft giggle, which made Natsu smile in return. "Don't worry about me. I just got bored of the party."

"But why didn't you come find me?! You just disappeared!"

Lucy's giggly and seemingly happy face turned to guilt, and regret - which Natsu took notice of. She didn't want to tell Juvia why. She couldn't. One would lead to another question, and that question will lead to one more. It would keep going and going, until Juvia could finally put the pieces together Lucy didn't want her to put the pieces together. She couldn't let anyone put the pieces together. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

"Umm… I needed to get a drink. I was parched. But don't worry about me. I'm fine."

"Well okay… I'm gonna head home then. I'll see you in class after the long weekend!"

Lucy sighed, as she hung up the phone. She shoved it back into her pocket, and grabbed her beer bottle, after taking a glance at Natsu's curious face. "So, about this girl that seemed to have crushed your heart…"

Natsu's expression changed quickly, as he placed his finished beer bottle in a nearby garbage can, and lit a cigarette on his short way back. He crossed his legs also, as he exhaled the smoke. "My heart had been crushed multiple times by her. I don't know why, but we just never seem to work, yet we keep going at it. Relationships suck."

Lucy pulled a cigarette from his case that had been resting on the grass alongside the beer, and lit it. "So, are you guys getting back together again?"

"No way," Natsu groaned as he took another puff, "I'm not going to put myself through that again. God, girlfriends are such a nuisance. I've had my fair share, and no matter what I do, I just can never please them. They always want more, and whatever I can give them isn't enough. I don't think any girl wants to see me for who I am, and that's fine. Fuck that, to begin with!"

Something about that broke Lucy's happiness. She felt for him - she knew. She knew how he was feeling. She knew the pain of judgements, and she knew the feelings of never being good enough. A part of her felt terrible for him, and a part of her wanted to shed a tear for him, because she knew how he felt.

"But hey, enough about my boring life." Natsu laughed, with a hint of sadness as he put out his cigarette. "My turn. What was going on with you? You looked like you were forced to go to that party."

Lucy chuckled, as she fixed her body so that she was lying down on her stomach - cigarette in hand. "No, I chose to go. I just didn't think I'd feel like shit a few minutes into being inside." Lucy took another puff of her cigarette, and closed her eyes, "My first day in Magnolia High... and this is what happens."

"Say," Natsu proceeded to say, as his glance towards her strengthened, "You have Calculus with me, don't you?"

"Hah, I'm surprised you just realized that." Lucy said teasingly, as she drank what little beer she had left in her first bottle. "The only reason I knew you were in that class was because Juvia told me." After finishing her bottle, Lucy reached out to the pack and grabbed another one. "Say, how do you guys know each other?"

"I met Juvia after Ice-Princess introduced me to her."

"Ice-Princess…? You mean Gray?!" Lucy said, with an 'unbelievable' expression flowing within her tone.

"Yea. I fucking hate that guy. I don't know why, but something about him just irks the absolute shit out of me."

Giggling for a good few moments, Lucy put her cigarette out, and took another sip of her second bottle of beer. A feeling of tipsiness had been coming to her head, but she shrugged it off. Natsu had also reached for his second beer at this point, with both of them drowning their sorrows with nicotine and five-percent alcohol.

"You never really talked to anyone in the class. I would've gone up to talk to you, but I was afraid you were gonna run away." Natsu joked, as he drank his second bottle.

"Well, you've been paying close attention to me during class." Lucy sat up, and brought her knees closer to her chest.

"Can you blame me?"

"Actually yes, yes I can."

"Well, how about you try and blame me for this."

And without any further explanation, Natsu got himself closer to Lucy, and gently pushed her down onto the grass. Natsu loomed himself closely over her, and once again, crushed his lips onto hers. He took both of Lucy's hands into his and brought them above her head, brushing them across the soft grass. Lucy kissed him back with starvation - she had been waiting for him to kiss her ever since his lips parted his back at the house party.

"I can't blame you for that."

With that, they continued kissing against the park fields. Natsu trailed his lips back down to Lucy's neck, and when she heard a groan part from his lips - the same groan that she had emitted back when they had made out on the side of a van - she knew he was feeling something. He felt the same lust that she was feeling - and maybe the kiss did have some meaning towards him. His lips pressed against her neck as her back arched, and he continued up her throat and towards her lips again.

The kissing went from passionate to intense.

Natsu let go of Lucy's hands, and placed them on her hips.

The touching got more vigorous.

The beer bottles were forgotten about, as Lucy and Natsu kissed each other with everything they had.

What had happened during the next hour, was something the cigarettes and the alcohol - as well as their vulnerability - could take the blame for.