Lucy woke up (in her bed thank the gods) with a splitting headache and no memory of what the actual hell happened after Levy pulled out the Fireball last night.

She slapped a hand to her forehead, both as a result of the sudden pain rattling her skull and her knowingly going past her limit and drinking more than she knew she could handle. She had only blacked out once before, and that night had resulted in a long string of consecutive drunk decisions so mortifying they had to be burned from memory.

Lucy had vowed then to never drink past her limit ever again, because people always kept their alcohol induced promises, right?

It wasn't like she could remember about five other mornings in which she made that very same vow.

She buried her head underneath her sheet and groaned, only to jolt right out of bed and straight to the toilet when the horrid sensation in her stomach suddenly increased tenfold.

She hoped no one could hear her very attractive coughs and gags as all the contents in her stomach were emptied into the porcelain bowl. Once she was sure it was over she slouched against the bathroom wall, in the same clothes from last night, desperately needing a shower. And a toothbrush.

She was never drinking again.

"You're still not gonna tell me what happened?"

"What?"

"You were acting so weird yesterday!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

An unimpressed look was shot in a certain pinkette's direction. "I know you're not that much of an idiot," Gray chided.

Natsu chose to ignore the ice block in favor of aimlessly scrolling through random social media on his phone, his mind a jumbled mess.

While he was trying his best to be casual about everything, he couldn't stop replaying the events of the previous night in his head. If there was anything he was not expecting to happen on this trip, it was this. And he had no idea what to do now.

Last night they had all been hanging out in Cana's apartment before Erza went off to Mavis knows where, Wendy left to get some sleep and Gajeel just walked out with no warning. Cana had gotten a text from a friend at about nine inviting her to some costume party, where she, Natsu and Gray had decided to go because why the hell not.

Already buzzed, they arrived about an hour late and found themselves immediately heading to the dance floor. After greeting a couple friends, Cana and Gray wandered off to find where all the booze was being kept and left Natsu on his own.

That was when he saw her.

Half of her face was covered by a mask but he had no doubt in his mind Celestial had been on the dance floor mere feet away from him.

Natsu had tried to play it cool, but he couldn't stop himself from stealing glances until she finally caught him looking at her. He gave an inward Fuck! and quickly looked away not wanting to seem like the biggest weirdo, but when he noticed she wasn't looking away and was even smiling all his doubts were thrown out the window.

By the end of the night he had gotten a kiss from her.

In the drunk moment he had been over the moon, but as his head settled he was able to think more clearly about what had happened.

Natsu had come to realize two things. First, there was no way Lucy had been in her right mind at the time. Her wobbly movements and the strong taste of alcohol he got when he kissed her made it quite clear she had been very drunk that night, and if he hadn't also had too much to drink that night to make proper judgments, he would have stopped it before anything could happen. Second, she probably had no idea who he was at the time, which kind of bummed him out. He wasn't trying to brag or anything, but he was positive she knew who he was and would recognize him. Considering she mentioned him in her video from a couple weeks ago and their awkward encounter in the hallway yesterday, he felt like she would have had some kind of reaction if she did know that he was the face behind the scarf.

It wasn't like Natsu expected a lot of people to know him well. He was just some guy who talked about anime on camera with his friends. He was popular, but he wasn't really raking in the attention of the masses with his content. That was totally okay with him. But because the anime YouTube community was so small, and she had shouted him out in a video, and they had had a previous interaction before, he was almost certain Lucy would have said or done something, anything if she ever saw him again. Although, Natsu didn't really peg Lucy as the type to kiss random strangers at parties. But that could be blamed on the alcohol. But it also could have been the alcohol that gave her the confidence to approach him when she couldn't the other morning. But it was also really dark. And his face was covered. And-

His thoughts were a complete mess.

Ultimately, judging by how nervous she was when she saw him in the hallway, a full blown kiss was probably not something she would do, even drunk. Which is why a large part of him just wanted to forget it ever happened and go home with everything just like how it was before.

His thoughts and Gray's complaining were interrupted when a knock at the door caught their attention. Gray gave Natsu one last look before turning to open the door to their shared hotel room, revealing a happy looking, fully dressed Erza, with Wendy in tow.

"Good morning!" The redhead said cheerfully with an uncharacteristically wide grin.

"Uh…" Gray raised an eyebrow, "Morning?"

"Why are you so happy? Are you drunk?" Natsu asked bluntly, earning an irritated eyebrow twitch from Erza.

She ignored him. "Wendy and I were going to make a stop by Starbucks and take a walk around town, would you both like to come?"

"Yeah!" Natsu answered for them both, eagerly jumping at the chance to go outside and escape his overthinking and eat.

"I don't mind," Gray agreed, but not before giving Natsu another look he ignored while they grabbed everything they needed to leave. He sighed. Natsu was stubborn, but he was gonna get information out of him one way or another.

Lucy pulled the hoodie of her black pullover lower over her head as she waited with Juvia and Levy in the Starbucks line. She couldn't be bothered with makeup or anything to make her look any less dead inside with her head still reeling the way it was, and it was just their luck that they had run out of coffee in their apartment days ago and were too lazy to go to the store and get more.

It didn't help that Levy and Juvia had been acting strange the whole morning. They refused to tell Lucy what exactly happened last night, insisting it was best if she remembered on her own. It made absolutely no sense to her, and in fact made the pit in her stomach even worse, but she couldn't be bothered to argue or do anything at all until she got some coffee in her.

"So Lucy," Levy sang with a smirk. "Remember anything yet?"

"No," she sighed. "Just tell me what I did, please."

"Do you really want to know?"

The way Levy said that had her suddenly second guessing everything. Did she want to know how she probably humiliated herself last night? "Well now I'm not sure I want to know," she groaned.

Levy giggled. "You didn't do anything bad," she said.

Lucy immediately let out an inner sigh of relief.

"... But you're gonna freak the hell out once you find out what happened."

"Okay okay just tell me!"

Levy laughed again. "Fine. You're not at all ready for this but—"

She was cut off by a squeal coming from Juvia, who was currently pointing at her phone with barely hidden enthusiasm.

"Gray just posted a photo! He's here!"

"Yeah, we've seen them here before," Levy said with a raised eyebrow.

"He's here. He just posted a picture by the cute bench right next to this Starbucks!"

Despite her headache and exhaustion, Lucy's eyebrows rose into her blonde bangs as her jaw dropped. She quickly moved over to Juvia's side to observe, nearly snatching the phone out of her hands in her excitement.

Sure enough, in front of her eyes was an aesthetic picture of the park by the very coffee shop they were currently in. You could even see the building slightly coming into the frame on the right.

"Oh my God!" Was it taken some other time and posted now? Or did he post it right after taking it? Was she feet away from Fairy Tail right now?!

Her inner questions were instantly answered when the Starbucks door was swung open.

Like some crappy high school movie, the whole thing seemed to go in slow motion. With Erza Scarlet in the lead, Gray Fullbuster, Wendy Marvell and Natsu Dragneel walked into the shop and began walking towards the line where Lucy and her friends were. Natsu was laughing at something one of them had said, his bright white smile lighting up his whole face as he walked. In a clean loose white t-shirt and crisp fitted black jeans, Lucy was ready to melt on the spot.

Juvia wasn't any better, turning around in the opposite direction in a flustered frenzy as soon as she spotted Gray walking in, looking fashionably put together as always in a striped button-up and dark skinny jeans rolled up slightly at the ankles. She threw a hand over her mouth to muffle her involuntary squeal at the sight of seeing the love of her life in broad daylight.

Lucy snapped back to reality and immediately tore her eyes away from her approaching internet crush when she remembered just how much of a mess she looked like right now. She only had the strength to throw on some dark track pants and a black pullover hoodie when she got up today, not to mention her face was completely bare and she was currently letting her hair sit in a messy ball behind her head, hidden under the hood of her sweatshirt. She cursed inwardly and hoped he didn't notice her as they got in line. There was no way she was letting him see her looking like personified death a second time.

Oh but for Mavis' sake they were right there!

"Next customer please!"

It was finally their turn to order, and an overly excitable Juvia and Lucy somehow managed to shakily recite their drink orders to the amused cashier while an equally tickled Levy watched, trying her hardest not to burst out in laughter in the middle of Starbucks.

Figuring they were in the clear, they both breathed sighs of relief only to tense up once more when they realized the bar where you pick up your drink just happened to be right where the end of the line was. They would be waiting for their drinks directly in front of them.

Oh happy day.

Keeping her head turned the other way and her hoodie as low as possible as they walked over, she prayed to all the gods Natsu wouldn't be able to see her. At this point Lucy was so overwhelmed with nerves she just wanted to forget about her overpriced drink and leave.

"They're right behind us," Levy whispered to her from the right. "You should say something!"

"I really can't," Lucy replied honestly, her breathing getting quicker with every passing moment she spent directly in front of her idols. "I'll freak out. It'll be bad."

Levy gave the nervous blonde one more look over before giving a final sigh in defeat. She knew how troubled Lucy could get in situations like this, and was certain Lucy would internally combust right now under the pressure of meeting not one, but four of the people she'd been looking up to for several years.

"Juvia thinks it's time to leave right now," a flustered bluenette whisper-screamed urgently. "Juvia can't handle this situation right now."

Lucy quickly nodded in agreement, completely forgetting about her drink as she slowly began to walk to the door of the Starbucks they were in. "Agreed, time to go," she said quietly, motioning for the others to follow her and escape the situation.

Levy gave one more sigh of disappointment and turned to follow the blonde out the door.

So much for my drink.

She was sure Lucy would regret this later, but for now she would respect her wishes in favor of preventing another heart attack.

A couple more days passed, and eventually came Juvia's last day on campus with Levy and Lucy. Lucy had been able to escape several more near-encounters with her YouTube crush, cursing herself every time for her lack of balls every time she dodged out of Natsu's line of sight. She'd gotten a couple weird stares and was almost noticed when she jumped into a nearby bush in a panic, capturing the attention of the other YouTuber and nearly being caught.

That day they escaped Starbucks, Lucy had learned some very interesting, exciting, shocking, mortifying things about what she had done the night before. Levy and Juvia had to forcibly keep her away from any electronic device for several hours to stop her from deleting her YouTube channel. And her Twitter. And all her social media. Liquid confidence had led her to doing something she could never, ever do if she was in her right mind and all Lucy wanted to do after finding out was crawl into a hole and never come out until it was 50 years later and no one remembered or recognized her. Or maybe move to a faraway island where she could live her life amongst the tree people and never have to interact with anyone ever again. Or just disappear into oblivion altogether so she wouldn't ever do anything so embarrassing for the rest of time.

She kissed Natsu Dragneel.

Looking back, she could see the obvious signs it was him behind the scarf poorly wrapped around his head. Even in the dim lighting, she could recall the wild pink hair jutting out of the scarf in various places, and she could even remember the deep green of his eyes that would become visible with every flash of the strobe light. Back then, in her drunken stupor she had written all these features off as afterthoughts, the only thing coming to mind was that he was attractive and she wanted to dance with him.

She had made a video confessing how she felt about him, and then proceeded to go and make a move on him at a party, all while she had barely ever made an effort to say two words to him.

Thinking about it made her want nothing more than to just crawl into a hole for the rest of her days once again. What if she came across as desperate to him, or worse, what if he was creeped out by her actions and wanted nothing to do with her?!

She was moving to Pergrande and changing her name to Ashley.

"Lucy?" Levy questioned from her spot beside the dazed looking blonde in their art history class. Professor Reedus was going on about his own art again, so everything he would be saying until the end of class wouldn't even be worth taking notes on anymore. "Everything good?"

"Everything is fine," Lucy said quickly, though the panicked look in her eye told Levy otherwise. Knowing exactly where her friend's mind had drifted again, Levy rolled her eyes and nudged her shoulder, grabbing her full attention.

"It'd be wise to forget about that, you know," Levy sighed. "After all, you have much more important things to worry about today."

Lucy gave her a curious look.

Levy eyed her incredulously back. "You seriously forgot?"

Lucy raised a brow and pulled out her phone from the pocket of her large sweatshirt, pressing the home button to check the date. A wave of realization poured over her like a bucket of cold water and her mind was successfully taken from her overthinking.

"The Smash Bros tournament!" She all but squealed, earning a few stares from nearby classmates, not that she paid them any mind. I can't believe I forgot!

Every semester, The HU video game club would host a tournament where participants battled it out in Super Smash Bros, hoping to come out on top and win the grand prize given to the player who could beat everyone else.

Only the best survived.

Lucy participated every year, and every year she always won first place. Always. All the years she spent hiding from the persistent maids at her father's home playing the battle royale game on her DS in the closet paid off here, and she could surely beat anyone and everyone that challenged her title as number one Smash Bros player in the whole school. As soon as the date for the event was announced at the start of the semester, she was one of the first people to sign up, more eager than usual to play and win once again this time.

The prize this year was the complete collection of any manga of your choosing. Every single volume from beginning to end, courtesy of the anime club.

She owed it to her Fairy Tail loving soul to win this.

Her previous feelings of embarrassment were immediately replaced with determination, and Levy grinned excitedly when she spotted that familiar glint in her friend's eyes, more intense than it usually got during this time.

The tournament was gonna be especially interesting this year.

"Smash tournament?" A certain black-haired male questioned, smirking. "Sounds fun, where do I sign up?"

"Are you sure you can handle it?" His friend remarked with a challenging stare. "I beat your ass in Smash all the time, droopy eyes."

The members of Fairy Tail sat in a nearby park by their hotel, enjoying the rest of their time in the town of Hargeon before they had to leave in a couple days.

"Shut it, you damn pyro. You just get lucky," Gray shot back.

"I'll sign up too," Natsu said, never one to skip out on a good competition.

"Great, because I already signed you both up as soon as Cana informed me of it," Erza gave a small smile to her two friends who were already giving each other competitive glares. "I would love to participate as well, but I will unfortunately be busy tonight," she added. The boys both turned their heads toward her at that.

"Doing what?" Gray asked, raising a brow.

"Aw, there goes my actual competition," Natsu sighed disappointedly.

Everyone ignored Gray's offended scoff, though Wendy couldn't hold back a small giggle. "I would sign up too, but there's no way I'm good enough to beat any of you," she admitted. "I'll cheer you on from the sidelines with Cana!"

"Is there a prize?" Gray asked excitedly.

"The first place winner will receive the complete manga collection of your choosing." Erza informed with a grin. "So I'd say it is in your best interest to win this, boys. How long have we been discussing owning all of Fairy Tail?"

They both sat up straighter at this.

"That's so exciting!" Wendy chimed. "Good luck guys!"

"Yeah, I'm winning this," Natsu declared confidently. "I'm all fired up!"

"Maybe I should just give up now," Gray muttered under his breath.

That night, the large lecture hall hosting the semi-annual Smash Bros tournament was teeming with spectators and participants, filling the large room with chatter while people waited for the event to begin.

Lucy stepped into the hall with hesitance in her step, knowing as soon as she walked in all eyes would fall on her, the first place winner of the tournament every time it came around. As she walked through the doors, the whole room went quiet, and Lucy wanted to run away into a corner right then and there.

After a moment, the silence was instantly replaced with cheers from the audience, and shouts of encouragement filled the space. She smiled shyly, gaze stuck to the floor as Juvia and Levy gave both her hands comforting squeezes before they had to separate from her.

"Good luck! I can't wait to finally see this," Juvia piped from the girl's right.

"I already know where we should display that collection when you get it," Levy said, giggling before the two blunettes headed deeper into the hall to find somewhere to sit amongst the other spectators.

The participants were to sit at the very front rows, in front of a smaller table where two game system controllers rested. A projector displayed the Super Smash Bros menu, the screen taking up a large part of the wall facing everyone in the room.

She began to move to take her seat, but the glimpse of pink she saw in her peripheral vision had all her thoughts coming to a screeching halt.

She turned her wide eyes slowly towards the entrance, already knowing what she'd find but not being able to run away this time.

Natsu Dragneel had just walked into the hall, and he was staring right at her.

Several hours after finding out about the tournament, Natsu ended up finding his way to the lecture hall a bit earlier than the others, too eager to get there and win the first place prize he was almost certain would be given to him.

The first thing he noticed when he walked into the large room was how unexpectedly populated it was. He didn't really mind, but it did come as a shock to him to see this many people at a tournament like this. Not that mattered. This just made things more fun.

The second thing he noticed was the head of blonde hair mere feet away from where he stood.

He paused, not expecting this at all, and straight up froze when Lucy suddenly turned to meet his gaze and visibly tensed. Of all places to run into her! He remained where he stood, not sure what to do until he noticed her face was gradually shifting into an expression of panic. Before he even realized what he was doing Natsu found himself making his way towards her. Much to his relief she didn't make any move to run away, and he soon found himself giving her an easygoing grin in greeting.

"Hey! I know you," he said with a small laugh, knowing how shy she was by now and being careful to not give her a reason to want to escape the situation again.

Her gaze had shifted downward to the floor. "Y-yeah," she stammered. She didn't say anything more, suddenly seeming very interested in a spot on one of the floor tiles.

"You here to see the tournament? I'll be winning first place this year," he stated proudly, unable to help himself.

All at once it seemed like some sort of a switch had been flipped in her brain, and Natsu was surprised to see her slowly lift her head to finally look at his eyes. He couldn't really put his finger on it, but there was a new spark to her gaze that nearly had him wanting to run away and give up on the tournament completely.

Was Lucy secretly Erza 2.0?

"I'm sorry," she began, and Natsu could've sworn her eyes had narrowed slightly. "What was that?"

"Uh," he was suddenly kind of nervous, his self-assurance wavering under the intensity of her stare. "I'm winning first place this year," this time when he said it, it sounded more like a question than a statement.

Something flashed in her eyes, so brief he almost didn't catch it, and the corners of her lips suddenly turned upwards in a seemingly innocent grin. "I see. That's interesting."

"How so?"

"Because I'll be winning first place today."