It's always tough for me to run so many of the characters at one time, but I think I did okay in this one. Just a note about Juvia- she doesn't always refer to herself in the third person in the anime, so I don't always have her do it in my story. I just want to make a note here that I'm doing it on purpose, it is not a typo.
I'm planning their first big trip away soon, so I'm pretty excited about that! If anyone has ideas for fun places for them to travel to or interesting things for them to do while they're out and about, shoot me a message and I'll see if I can fit any of them in. If I do, I'll make sure to give you some cred in the chapter it shows up!
As always, thanks for the love, and happy reading!
Levy grabbed a handful of popcorn and threw it at Lucy as she and Cana continued to laugh. "You have no room to laugh, Lu!"
"She's right," Cana said. "You're in the same boat."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "For the last time, Natsu and I are just friends. I am not oblivious to any feelings because there are none to be oblivious about."
"You're being awfully accusatory tonight, Cana," Juvia added from her spot next to Levy on the couch. "Juvia saw you eyeing Bacchus last week when we were at the bar. Juvia would say you're just as guilty."
Cana laughed even louder. "There's nothing wrong with appreciating a good drinking buddy. It's rare that I can find someone who can keep up."
"Suuuuure," the other three said in unison.
"Whatever, he has nothing to do with the party, so I don't know why he came up."
"You were the one who suggested dates," Lucy reminded her. "Although, Levy never comes to our Friendsgiving, so I don't know why you singled her out first." For the past four years, Lucy had planned and hosted a Thanksgiving meal for her friends who had no family to spend the day with. The holiday was only a few weeks away, so she'd invited the girls over to help her plan while Natsu and Happy were out exploring the nearby towns.
"Actually, I'm going to be available to come this year," Levy said. "My parents are taking a long trip this month and they're not sure if they're going to be back in time for Thanksgiving. They're planning on celebrating the week after, so I'll be free to come this time."
"That will be fun! I guess Cana might be onto something, then," Lucy teased, causing more popcorn to be thrown at her. "Would you stop that! Otherwise I'll make you clean up after Plue if he eats any of those."
Levy stuck out her tongue in response before stuffing her face with a handful. Juvia sighed as she helped Lucy pick up the pieces before Plue could get to them. "So how many are you inviting this year? We should figure out a number before we plan out the food."
"Well, Mira said her brother and sister will be in town, and she's invited Laxus to her place, so those two won't be joining us."
"Ooo, does that mean they've finally gotten their shit together and are dating?" Cana asked.
"No idea, but I'm not about to interfere." Lucy dumped the popcorn she'd gathered from the floor onto one of the dirty plates before picking up her notebook. "Let's see, if we add Levy to the usual group, that brings us up to five. Gray said it was just him and his brother living here now, so I was going to invite them and see if the rest of their band wanted to come."
"I believe I remember my beloved saying that Jet is actually from this area, so he may already have family to spend it with." Juvia looked at Levy. "I don't believe I heard anything about Gajeel having family around, though."
Levy pointed a warning finger at her. "Don't you start, too."
Lucy made a note. "Alright, so assuming those three come, that brings us up to eight, maybe nine."
"Don't forget Natsu," Cana added.
"Yeah, it'd be hard to keep him away since he's staying here. Plus, I doubt he'd stay away from a holiday celebration that's so focused around a meal," Levy said with a laugh.
Lucy frowned to herself, but wrote the name down. Did demons celebrate human holidays, besides Halloween? They were right, she couldn't not invite him since he was living with her, but would he even want to celebrate with them? "I'll ask him when he gets back. In the meantime, does anyone-"
"Where is Natsu?" Levy asked.
"Yeah," Cana said. "I kind of expected him to cook for us again. How can he practice if he's not here?"
"He's just out exploring. It's been a while since he lived here last, so he went to some of the surrounding towns to see what other stores and stuff they had."
"Sounds kind of boring. Why didn't you go with him, Lu?" Levy tossed more popcorn in her mouth, picking up a piece she dropped.
"I figured this would be a good time to plan, and he was okay with going alone." She shrugged. "I don't know, it didn't seem like that big a deal."
"My Gray enjoys his peace and quiet sometimes as well, so Juvia doesn't see an issue with it."
"Alright, we're getting off topic," Lucy said, leaning towards her notebook again. "Since we have so many this year, I think we should do a turkey and ham this time." Before she could continue, there was a knock at her door. "Hold that thought."
When Lucy saw Plue jump down from his perch to head for the front door, she knew exactly who was on the other side. She unlocked the door and opened it with a smile. "Hey Loke! What's up?"
Loke was dressed more casually than usual, in dark pants with an orange T-shirt under his green jacket. He smiled as he leaned down to pick up Plue before he could stick his claws in Loke's leg. "Hey Princess, I was just stopping by to say hi."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "You can stop with the nickname any time, Loke. You wanna come inside? The girls are all here."
"Oooo, are you having a bikini sleepover?"
"Are those even a thing?"
"They could be," he said with his most charming grin.
She rolled her eyes again, but moved to let him into her entryway. "Well, that's not what's happening. They came over to help me plan Friendsgiving."
"Oh." He was silent for a beat before he shouted towards the living room. "Dibs on booze!"
"Hey, you can't do that!" Cana yelled back. "We haven't started choosing dishes yet!"
"Doesn't matter, I called dibs." Loke followed Lucy with Plue in his arms. "We all know what my cooking skills are like. Alcohol is the safest choice for me."
"Says the man who owns a restaurant," Lucy said under her breath.
"Cana's aren't much better," Levy teased with a smirk at the brunette. Cana stuck out her tongue and threw a piece of popcorn in response.
Lucy sat down to write down Loke's name, followed by alcohol. "Alright, so does anyone want to do the turkey or ham? I can do both if I have to, but it'd be easier for me to do one and then potatoes or something."
"I can do the ham," Juvia said. "I found a recipe a while ago that I'd like to try for stuffing as well."
"Awesome," Lucy said, adding the note. Plue, deciding he'd had enough of Loke's attention, hopped from the man's arms and curled into Lucy's lap.
Loke sat down next to Lucy on the floor as he spoke. "Do you want me to bring buns or anything as well? Maybe pickles or nuts or something to munch on in between?"
"Sure, that sounds fine," Lucy answered as she added to the list.
Cana spoke up. "I'll do the green bean casserole. I think I can manage to not ruin that. Even if I do, it's not a super important dish or anything, so no one will miss it." The rest of the group laughed a little as they continued to plan. As they finished assigning dishes, the front door opened, causing Lucy to bolt up.
As Plue got back to his feet from where he'd fallen, the blond quickly moved into the kitchen. "Hey, Natsu, welcome back!"
"Hey Luce! Did you know-"
"That I have a bunch of company over? I absolutely did!"
The group in the living room were all silent as they watched the pair whisper back and forth in the entryway. "Nothing going on, my ass," Cana whispered.
"I'm inclined to agree with you," Juvia said.
"Lu keeps denying it, but I can't help but think she's keeping something from us," Levy added. She turned to ask Loke what he thought, the words dying in her throat as she did. He was studying the pair intensely as they spoke to each other, a frown marring his usually happy face.
Everyone turned back towards each other as Lucy and Natsu finally moved to join them. "Hey guys, long time no see!"
Levy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's been hours since we were together. Practically forever!" The others laughed as Natsu chuckled at her.
"I just have to drop off these bags in my room and then I'll be back. You guys up to anything fun?"
"Just planning Friendsgiving," Juvia said.
"What's Friendsgiving?" he asked.
Lucy answered him. "It's our version of Thanksgiving, where all us friends get together to celebrate, since we don't have families around to spend it with."
"Yeah, and you fit that bill now, so you wanna come?" Cana asked.
The look Natsu shot Lucy was so fast, she almost didn't see it. "I don't know, maybe. I'll think about it." With that, he turned and headed down the hall.
"Does he not like us?" Levy asked with a frown. "He seemed hesitant to say yes."
Lucy shook her head. "He likes you all just fine. Maybe he doesn't like the holiday or something."
"Well, we invited him, so it's up to him now," Cana said. "Anyone know if Maker Magic is playing next Friday so we can invite them?"
"Not next week, but Gajeel and Gray have been showing up on some of the Fridays they don't play." Levy tossed a piece of popcorn to Loke as she caught his gaze. He caught it with a smile and wink as she continued. "We might see them anyway."
"I can shoot Gray a text," Lucy said, pulling out her phone.
A bowl hitting the floor caused the group to all look at Juvia, who spoke in a whisper. "Lucy has Gray's number?"
"Yeah, we traded numbers before he walked you home on Halloween, just in case."
"Lucy should not have the number of Juvia's love before Juvia does."
Lucy sighed. "I'm sure if you just asked him for it, he would give it to you."
Juvia muttered something, only the words 'love rival' loud enough for anyone to hear and understand, before she leaned down to clean up the bowl.
"Love you too, Juv," Lucy mumbled.
Natsu entered the room, smiling as he headed to the table to grab a handful of popcorn from the nearly empty bowl. "So, what'd I miss?"
"Nothing really, just finishing up our planning," Lucy answered with a quick look at Juvia. "Since we're done, anyone wanna play a game or something before dinner?"
"Oooo, what are we having?" Natsu asked.
"We?" Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We're ordering pizza," Levy said, catching a piece of popcorn from Loke before tossing another one to him.
"Ooo, I want an everything one," Natsu said, "with extra peppers. And anything else they have that is spicy." His face lit up. "Do we still have those really spicy peppers you got me last weekend? I can add those when it gets here."
"What were they? Ghost Peppers?" Levy asked, laughing when Loke hit her in the face. She chucked a piece at him as she picked up the one she'd missed.
"We got those a couple weeks ago. There are actually a few that are hotter than those," Lucy said. "I managed to find him some Carolina Reapers. They're the hottest peppers in the world."
"How hot are they?" Cana asked.
"Twice as hot as Ghost Peppers," Lucy said.
"Are you gonna try one?" Loke asked Levy.
"I'm not sure. The Ghost Pepper was pretty hard to get down."
"Wait, wait, wait," Natsu cut in. "You like spicy food, too?"
"I'm not winning any pepper eating contests, but I like really spicy meals on occasion."
"Then you are totally going to have a Reaper with me!"
"Woah woah, wait Natsu-"
"Come on!" Natsu grabbed Levy's arm and practically dragged her over both the coffee table and Loke as he pulled her towards the kitchen.
Loke flinched. "Guess I shouldn't have said anything. Whoops."
Lucy sighed. "I'll go try to stop him. Can one of you call the pizza order in? And throw in a supreme with all the peppers they have? I'll pay for the extra."
"You got it," Cana said, pulling out her phone. As she stood and walked towards the hallway, where it was quiet, Juvia turned towards Loke.
"Are you okay, Loke?"
Loke gave her his signature smile. "Of course, why do you ask?"
"I get the feeling that you don't like Natsu."
Loke raised an eyebrow. "A little while ago I got the feeling that you didn't like Lucy."
Juvia glowered at the back of Lucy's head. The blond was trying to stop Natsu from manhandling Levy and forcing a pepper into her mouth. "Lucy is Juvia's friend, but she is becoming too attached to Juvia's Gray. However, love rival or not, Juvia still likes Lucy." Her eyes cleared when she met Loke's gaze again. "Do you like Natsu? Do you consider him a friend?"
Loke turned to watch the trio in the kitchen. Lucy had successfully stopped Natsu from forcing Levy to eat the pepper, but Levy had started demanding that Lucy let her try one, annoyed that Lucy believed it was too hot for her. While Lucy tried to talk her out of it, Natsu was trying to dodge the blond's arms and give the pepper to Levy anyway.
"I don't know. I don't think we've hung out enough yet for me to really consider him a friend. At this point, I think he's still just a friend of a friend."
"Do you like him?" Juvia asked again.
Loke contemplated his answer in silence, watching the scene unfold in the kitchen. Juvia knew that because of her father, Lucy found it difficult to trust the intentions of the men in her life. She could still remember when Loke had first started trying to spend time with them years ago. He'd hit on Lucy almost immediately after meeting her, which caused problems for him for months after as he tried to convince her that he truly wanted to be her friend. Juvia had been surprised when Lucy had finally accepted that he was being sincere. She remembered when Loke had once confided in her, after getting completely wasted drinking with Cana, how happy he'd been that Lucy had agreed to be his friend, and how proud he was that he was her only close male friend.
Juvia looked up at the trio in the kitchen and then back at Loke as he studied the group. She wondered if he was jealous at all that Natsu and Lucy had grown so close after only a few weeks. Frowning, Juvia looked up to observe them for herself. She realized she herself found it odd how easily Lucy had accepted Natsu into her life. Even having known him as a child, her easy acceptance struck her as somewhat odd. Loke turning back towards her drew her out of her thoughts.
He grabbed another few pieces of popcorn as he smiled up at her. "I like him well enough."
As Cana re-entered the room, Juvia turned away from Loke, choosing to let him think she believed him.
Happy Easter everyone!
