Traitorous Cat

{A soulmate is someone who appreciates your level of weird}

Chapter Three

It took Natsu a second to get his brain to process the blonde's words, but after he did he was just plain baffled. Who the hell falls on someone and just introduces themselves?! No "I'm so sorry", no "Excuse me".

"Um...Hi?" Natsu said, but it came out more like a question then a statement. "Uh, hope you don't mind me asking Miss, but would you mind getting off of me?"

Said girl looked down at her hips straddling his, then at his face, then back at their hips. As she slowly looked back up at him, he could tell she was positively mortified. She quickly hopped off of him and smoothed down her skirt, avoiding looking at him the whole time.

"Sorry, I'm kinda new to this whole social interaction thing." She said, peaking up through her bangs to look at him.

Natsu just scoffed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He questioned snarkily.

The strange girl, Lucy, put her hands on her hips and looked up at him, not trying to avoid eye contact anymore. "Don't use that tone with me, Mister. That's a mean tone!" Lucy exclaimed, wagging her finger in Natsu face.

Natsu's eyebrows furrowed. Was she serious right now? "Hey, I'm not a child y'know."

"Could have fooled me…" Lucy whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

"Hey!" Natsu yelled, thoroughly annoyed now. Lucy just giggled, seeming to take pleasure in aggravating him.

Natsu just groaned. This was going to be a very, very long day. "What do you even want, Blondie?"

"You shouldn't use that nickname, it's very hurtful." She gasped, "And, well, I'm here because long story short, my friend kinda ditched me for a date with her boyfriend- who I couldn't even meet by the way- so you can just imagine me walking around friendless and just when about to give up and go home, I see you!"

"Oh, thank Mavis, that you did find me." Natsu said, his voice full of sarcasm. This was really what he had needed. A crazy blonde chick knocking him over. Perfect. Just what he'd asked for.

Lucy didn't seem to take note of his very apparent sarcasm, though. "Aw, that's sweet. Anyway, I recognized you from literature class."

"How the hell did you do that?!" Natsu asked. Now he was scared. There were like two hundred people in that class. How had she pinpointed him? Did she have some kind of photographic memory? Was she looking for him? Was she hired to track him down and kill him? What the actual hell had he done? Even though none of these assumptions made any sense, Natsu just kept running them through his brain like a tape that just kept replaying.

Lucy just smiled softly, though. "Well, it wasn't that hard. You sit pretty near the front and your the only one in there with pink hair."

"It's salmon!" Natsu seethed.

"Sorry, it's just very memorable!" Lucy explained, holding her hand over her mouth in order to try and hide her giggles, but her shaking shoulders gave her away.

Great. Now she was laughing at him. Sadly enough, though, that's how a lot of people remembered him. To those who didn't know his name, he was "the dude with the crazy pink hair". It was not flattering to say the least.

Lucy's giggles slowly died down, her face etched into a warm smile. "Don't worry. I like it. Pink's my favorite color."

Natsu just groaned. This was going to be a rough day.

"Sooooo, where are we going?" Lucy asked giddly, practically jumping up and down.

"We are not going anywhere. I will be getting some lunch." Natsu stated, hoping the blonde would get the cue.

She didn't.

"Well, then, I'll come with you!" She said, "I'm a bit hungry myself."

Natsu rolled his eyes. He guessed he was going to have to be straight forward and harsh with her. "I. Don't. Want. To. Eat. Lunch. With. You." He drawled as slowly as he could muster.

Lucy looked a little shocked, and then very, very offended. "Well, excuse you! All I wanted was a new friend. Is that too much to ask for?! I should have just listened to Levy and not 'go up to random strangers', or whatever."

Wait...She knew Levy?! This crazy ass chick was friends with sweet, shy little Levy? Perfect, just perfect! Levy was going to be so mad at him, which actually wouldn't be that bad (Levy mad was like when a kitten got mad, it just made it even more adorable). The issue was that Gajeel would be mad. That, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it, was scary. Really scary.

Well, he should check just in case. "Is this Levy of yours possibly- oh, I don't know- short, blue haired, with a horrible stutter." Natsu asked, practically biting his nails awaiting her answer.

"Well, I wouldn't call her stutter horrible. It was pretty bad at first, but she warmed up pretty quick." Lucy answered simply, tapping her index finger to her mouth in thought.

"Ugggh. Fine, fine!" Natsu shouted finally deciding that he wouldn't risk a mad Gajeel. "Come on. Let's go."

Lucy's head whipped up to look him in the eye, her face practically glowing with triumph. She would have looked angelic if it wasn't for the evil smirk the crossed her face. "I knew you would cave." She stated as she flounced on by him, leaving him with his mouth hanging open. Oh, this girl was definitely starting to get on his nerves.

"Well, are you coming or not?!" Lucy shouted. "You know that I don't actually know the way, right?"

This was totally Natsu's idea of fun.

Gajeel's hand gripped even tighter onto Levy's. They had just come back from a little bakery that Levy had been wanting to visit for weeks. The sweets were actually pretty good and Gajeel had mentally noted to listen to his girlfriend way more often.

Even though the bakery was really great, Gajeel was still not in a good mood. He was too worried. That pink haired bastard even refused to go to Fairy Tail today! Not that he worried a lot about that ridiculous Salamander or anything.

"Gajeel, stop worrying." Levy interrupted his thoughts.

"I wasn't-"

"Gajeel, you think I don't know when you're worried by now?" Levy asked, "Jeez, you've got lots of faith in me."

"No, but-"

"Don't worry, I sent someone to help with the situation." Levy stated confidently.

Gajeel just laughed. A good hearty laugh. It felt good; he hadn't laughed like that in a long time. "How the hell did you get anyone near Salamander? His frown screams 'stay away from me or I'll cut you'." Gajeel said, thoroughly confused on what in the world Levy had done to make some poor soul get near Natsu.

"It was actually pretty easy, I just told her to not talk to him." Levy answered, getting a strange look from Gajeel. "She's just one of those people. Tell her to do one thing, she'll do the opposite."

"And who is this special person who listens to no one?" Gajeel asked, actually curious on who this strange person could be.

"Actually I just met her today. Her name is Lucy. You really need to meet her. She's really friendly and positive, but she can be a little overwhelming. I'm just hoping that's what Natsu needs." Levy said, twirling her blue hair on her finger in thought.

Gajeel grunted in response. He sure hoped Levy was right.

Natsu was just trying to get through the walk to Fairy Tail. He would think just get to that plant, and once he did he would find another thing to get to. It somehow made the walk more bearable.

Lucy had tried to start up a conversation with him, but Natsu had shut her down every time. He didn't really know why he always refused conversation with her, he just felt like he hadn't quite figured her out yet. Even though most people thought Natsu was pretty dumb( which he was most of the time), he could definitely read people. He could tell if they had low self confidence, family issues, or even financial problems. But, her? He couldn't see a single thing. It was like she could pretend all of it wasn't there and just live with the hidden core of misery in the pit of her stomach. It creeped the hell out of Natsu. Keeping sadness bottled up was not normal nor healthy.

"Why won't you talk to me?" Lucy grumbled, startling Natsu out of his thoughts.

Natsu was conflicted on whether to tell her the truth or not. He really didn't want to hurt her feelings. Finally he decided that maybe a little combination of the truth and a lie would be the best option. "I just don't have anything to say. I don't really know you." He answered. Sure, he didn't know her, but he did know what he wanted to say. 'Why are you so not normal?'.

"Well," Lucy said, while beaming once again, "I can surely fix that."

Ten things Natsu has learned about Lucy Heartfilia.

She loves to read and write.

She wants a puppy.

She's one year younger than himself; 24.

She likes to shop (like almost every freaking other girl Natsu had met.)

She likes the color pink.

Speaks her mind no matter the consequences (like seriously. No filter.)

She doesn't seem to get many social cues.

She hates being alone.

That he was the weirdest person she had ever met (Weird. He thought the same of her.)

She was going to be an author no matter what.

Well, she was definitely a little spitfire, that's for sure. Nothing about the world scared her. Not the fact that it might all go wrong. Not the fact that she might get hurt. Not even the fact that she might fail. It shook him to the very core. Not because he'd never met anyone like that before, but because he used to be that person.

This girl was dangerous. She could be contagious. She could infect him with all the happiness that he used to have on his own. It wasn't a risk he was willing to take. For now all he wanted to do was stay in the shadows, not step right into the light.

That was going to be quite hard, though, seeing as this girl was practically the sun.

Natsu looked at said girl as she was talking about her insane first encounter with a dog. Apparently it had only been a few weeks ago, and she had desperately wanted one ever since.

Natsu unconsciously smiled as she got to the part in the story when she practically yelled at the owners to tell her exactly where they'd gotten their "strange furry creature".

Natsu didn't realize that he'd been staring until Lucy had called him out on it.

"Hey! Earth to Pinky. Is there stuff on my face or something?" Lucy asked, waving her small hand in Natsu's face.

"Uh, N-no, no. Um...I just saw something behind you is all." Natsu said, mentally slapping himself. Worst lie in the history of ever.

"Oh, ok." Lucy murmured. "I just thought you were staring at me."

Well, yes. He was, in fact, staring at you. Natsu Dragneel had never been more embarrassed. He was blushing like a schoolgirl for crying out loud!

Natsu just mumbled obsectites under his breath for the rest of the walk to Fairy Tail.

Sooner or later they made it to the big, wooden doors of Fairy Tail. The building stood tall and proud for everyone to see. Ivy climbed up it's big stone walls and the great bronze bell on top rang loud an clear, marking the time as 1:00 pm.

"Wow," Lucy whispered just loud enough for Natsu to hear, "It's beautiful." Her eyes shined and face practically glowed.

Natsu just groaned. This girl was going to be the death of him. He didn't say that her eyes were beautiful when she smiled, though. Nor, did he say that her elatedness seemed to be seeping into him. Not even the fact that when she laughed everything seemed to stop. No, instead he settled for something else.

"Weirdo."

HI! I'm back! REVIEW!

So, per request I tried to make this update a little longer than my previous ones have been.

Many of you thought this would be love at first sight or that Natsu would suddenly change because of Lucy. Ha, you thought wrong! I want this be do be a more progressive love story. Happy will probably be in the next chapter as well for those of you who were wondering. I squeezed the tiniest bit of Gajeel x Levy in there; sorry that it was so short.

Anyway, I would love suggestions and tips.

Thanks to:

KarinStalker24, Kakashi500, A. Marcus, nikkiw67, JustSomething, Firefly9917, KatanaNoNeko, booksandanime17, Enderking101!

(Oh! I changed my pen name!)

~TheBrokenAreStars