A bang yanks me from me my nap, I didn't even realize I fell asleep.

"Hold on." I free myself from Lucy's blanket prison and the door flies open.

"How's my best man doing?" Grey busts in with a twelve pack of beer in one hand, a magazine and a fist full of colorful squares in the other.

"what is that?" I point to his hand.

"Juvia wants me to pick a few color options for me out of the colors she already picked and look at what kind of suit I'll be wearing."

"A tux, right?" I look at the magazine under his arm.

"She said to pick a style." Grey shrugs and kicks the door closed.

"there's more than one kind of tux?" I ask.

"I know, right?" Grey plops down beside me. "how's the hand?"

"Lucy overacted." I tell him "She thinks it's her fault that guy was bothering her."

"That's a load of BS but she was okay, right?" Grey asks concerned.

"Yeah, he didn't touch her but… I didn't protect her, Grey." I shake my head "She needed me and I got myself knocked out." I sigh and comb my fingers through my hair.

"dude, yeah you got knocked out, but you still did something." Grey says.

"Yeah, soaked up spilled beer before I regained consciousness." I drop my head back and stare at the ceiling.

"Shut up." Grey says. "What you did took more guts than what I did."

"You mean actually save my girlfriend?" I mock myself. Grey punches my good shoulder.

"knock it off, I'm not in the mood." I grumble.

"I mean doing something even though you knew what was gonna happen." Grey clasps my shoulder "Of course it's easy for me to get into a fight, it's fun because I took eight years of judo. Fighting is easy for me." He sighs "it's not fun for you, it's not something you're good at-"

"Is this supposed to be making me feel better?" I demand.

"what you did took more guts than what I did." He pats me on the back "now quit giving yourself a hard time and help me figure this out." Grey pushes the magazine into my hand and flips the colorful squares back and forth.

"There's more than just one tux?" I ask again.

"I know, man," Grey cracks open a beer "that's what I said." He passes me a beer.

"You know Lucy hates day drinking." I remind him. He nudges it against my hand.

"You'll be sober by the time she gets back." Grey pushes the bottle into my hand, I take it.

"Think of it as a pre-bachelor party gathering." He takes another drink.

"I don't think that's going to make Lucy any happier when she finds out." I take a swig anyway, I'm not gonna get drunk or anything stupid like that.

I should really stop. I'm a little farther past tipsy than I meant to get. Grey is worse though. Lucy won't even know notice me with Grey here.

"Dude, this one or this one." Grey shoves the magazine into my face.

"not so close." I push the magazine away and hold it out to in front of me. There's a black suit on one page and a grey one on the other.

"I think…" I burp "I think you should definitely wear a, black one."

"I was thinking the sane thing, but Juvia wanted me to think about a grey one because she said she wants to wear a blush dress." Grey burps "so she said to pick a few black and a few grey ones."

"What even is blush?" I shake my head.

"Its like that really light pink color." Grey takes another swig.

"How do you even know that?" I throw back the rest of my beer and set it on the bottle on the table.

"I'm much more in touch with my feminine side than you and is offensive that you-"

"Juvia told you today, didn't she?' I interrupt him.

"No…" Grey cracks open another beer. "She told me yesterday when she handed me this magazine and told me to have options picked out by today."

"today is the first day you've even opened the magazine, isn't it?" I sit back and rest my arm in the arm of the chair. It aches inside the splint and it's starting to itch.

"Yep." Grey flips the page. He glances at my arm and points "How's it feel?"

"aches and itches." I look at his hand, its got a scrape and the knuckles are bruised. "How's yours?"

Grey smirks "better than that guy's face."

"Yeah." I chuckle thinking of the guy on the ground but then I couldn't have looked any better. My eye is throbbing and I don't really want to look at it.

"Hey, Grey." I begin more serious.

"What's up?" Grey hesitates, the bottle already on his mouth.

"You think you could teach me how to hit?" I glance down at my hand, who injures themselves more than the pain they're fighting?

"Hell yeah, man" Grey brightens and yanks me up by my good arm. "Stand here." Grey wobbles a little but I know he can drink way more than this and still knock someone out.

"don't tell Lucy about this." I glace at the clock she shouldn't be home for another three hours.

"I know." Grey rolls his eyes "don't tell Juvia I'm teaching you to fight instead of looking at the magazine she gave me."

"deal." I agree.

"Alright then." Grey rolls his shoulders "start with your stance." Grey steps his right leg forward "this is your lead leg, now get your hands up and let your elbows rest on your ribs."

I mimic Grey's stance and look to him for confirmation.

"good, now the shortest distance from point A and point B is a straight line." Grey's arm snaps forward.

"What does that have to do with punching?" I ask.

"It means punch straight." Grey rolls his eyes. "now try, but not too fast, Lucy will kill me if I hurt you."

"I'm more of a danger to myself." I scoff thrusting my fist out.

"Good, good but turn as you punch." Grey does a slow demonstration. I copy his motion.

"Yeah, that's it!" Grey laughs "now watch your thumb." Grey grabs my hand and adjusts my thumb.

"like this?" I ask thrusting my fist forward again.

"Yeah that's perfect," He slaps his hand between my shoulder blades "when your hands all healed up I'll take you to the gym and really get some power behind that hit." Grey snags his beer from the table. "but keep practicing form, it's important to get that right first so you don't hurt yourself."

I hold my splinted hand up "you mean like this?"

Grey takes a swig and nods "yeah." He cracks a smile "now come help me pick out some suits."

"Just flip a coin." I sit back down but I don't take another drink, Lucy really will be upset if she sees me drinking in the middle of the day.

"There's like a hundred suits in here, how does flipping a coin work?" Grey demands.

"Flip a coin for every suit; heads is yes, tales is no." I explain "keep doing it until you're down to six suits."

Grey looks down at the magazine then back to me "that's actually a good idea, give me a coin."

"I'm offended you say that like its so surprising that I have a good idea." I dig through my pocket for a coin.

"I mean, its not like it's common either." Grey snatches the coin from my hand.

"At least I had an idea." I laugh.

Grey turns to the first page and flips the coin into the air. I watch Grey turn a page and flip the coin, turn the page, flip a coin. Really it would have been faster to just pick a few at random but this is way more entertaining for me.

"Alright," Grey sits back with the final picks ripped out and piled on top of the magazine. "Juvia chore, done."

"Wanna watch a movie?" I ask

"Sure," Grey chugs the last beer.

"What are you up for?" I grab the remote from the table. "Comedy, action, horror?" I skim through Netflix "Grey, what do you want…" I roll my eyes, he's past out.

"I need to spend some time on my book anyway." I grab my laptop from my room and settle back into the couch.

"Alright, book two." I open the document and Word takes me to the last page I wrote. I stare at the screen for a moment and wait for inspiration to strike but this always happens just before I break a hundred.

"Okay…" I sigh "I need him to find out his brother was just taken and she has to find out that they're both in trouble." I tap my fingers against the couch. "how do I lead into that?" I drop my head back and stare at the ceiling. "stupid writers block." I grumble.

"Okay, just write." I tap the A key a few times "write anything."

I stare at the screen for a few minutes before I open my emails. There's an email from my grandma. I open it. Its this year's Christmas card, it reads;

You're invited to a Christmas dinner with the Dragneel family.

Please dress I semi-formal wear and bring a donation for the local food bank.

Please RSVP to this email address

With love,

The Dragneel family.

I RSVP for Lucy and me immediately, Lucy might not celebrate Christmas but she does like my family and she always has dinner with us. Maybe she'll wear a ring to it. I think of that ring I saw last night. I'd have to spend months working non-stop to afford it and even then I'd be pushing it. We make enough for bills and a little fun but nothing that much extra. I Swipe the screen back to my story and sit back.

"Just write." I tell myself. Finally, my fingers are typing. It's a stiff start but it's getting somewhere.

She passes out and her friend doesn't trust the other one but they don't have a whole lot of choice. She needs to wake up and find the non-trusted guys past and link to her. In the mean time her ex-teammate's brother needs to be brought in and both her and her ex-teammate needs to find out the brothers' been taken and… stuff… more stuff needs to happen and then she is going to leave and…

A knock saves me from actually having to think of what happens after that.

Opening the door reveals a gaunt looking man with sallow cheeks and sunken in eyes. I haven't seen him before but something about him is familiar.

"Hello…" I'm not really sure what to say to him because he's just staring at me with a not-quite-there-look.

"Can I help you with something?" I hope I don't sound half as unsure as I feel.

"Uh, yeah, hi, is um… is Lucy here?" He scratches at his arm.

"No but I can tell her you stopped by."

"Lucy!" He yells into the apartment.

"She's not here right now." I repeat "What did you say your name was?"

"Uh…Owen, I need to see Lucy." He darts his eyes back and forth and tries to crane his head around me. I step in his way. Grey is here if need him.

"Like I said, Lucy isn't here right now—"

"Who are you?" Owen interrupts me.

"Natsu," I try to draw myself up "Lucy's boyfriend." I stand a little taller. "How do you know Lucy?"

"Her boyfriend?" Owen looks genuinely confused. "She never mentioned a boyfriend."

"Who are you?" I ask again.

"I'll be back later." Owen walks away and I shake my head.

"That was weird."


Dear Peter?,

Not sure how smart it is to write to a boy who will never grow up but here goes.

I wrote one of my favorite quotes on the first page because I wanted this book to be about me being me and not having to take care of people who don't care about me. so here goes. I'm taking care of me. This is my adventure and my life and I am going to live it.

Lucy


Thank you so much for reading I hope you're enjoying this story and. I'd love to hear your thoughts and see where you think this is going.

As Always I will see you tomorrow

XOXO

P.S. If you follow my YT where I post text stories and such I may be making a Levy dress because I love her dress and since I have the dress I might have to cosplay her.