Chapter2

The both teams split into two and stood in their side as they kept staring at each other. Natsumi didn't stare at anybody because she wasn't able to see but what she was doing, she only thought of winning. She didn't want to lose and especially from the blonde and the black haired guy. It was like she vs her past. She took a deep breath from her nose and let it out looking up high since the ball was coming from up high. She needed to focus on how rounded the ball was. She kept looking at the sky waiting for the moment to see a vision of the ball. When the ball finally came, she went to where it was not even realizing that it wasn't her direction so she collided with the mighty man Elfman making both of them miss the ball as it fell down to the ground. As she heard that sound, she immediately knew it was the ball. She raised her hand and rubbed her neck as she became nervous about what she did.

"Natsumi!" she heard Elfman's voice calling her. She moved her head to his direction but kept looking at the ground. He sighed and looked away from her.

That was also Gray's team turn to serve as it was Lucas's turn to serve. He walked to the back of the court and grabbed the ball spinning it between his hands. He kept looking at the pink haired all the time. It was his turn to serve so it's up to him to choose whoever he sends to. He threw the ball in the air and hit it with less force to where Natsumi stood. Natsumi saw the ball coming to her so she gave it a high toss to whoever can reach it and luckily, Erza stood near her so she stroked it to the other's side and it touched the ground.

"Yes!" Erza said as she looked at Natsumi and when Natsumi heard her voice a smile formed on her lips. "Good toss, Natsumi." She patted her head.

"Yeah,"

The match continued as this rate the rest of the time but it was sadly because Natsumi's team lost the match because of what happened to her. She walked out of the court heading to everyone but tripped and fell down on the ground. Everyone hurried to her to check on her but then she sat up on the ground like nothing happened.

"It's pathetic; we can't accept this win after all. The main player was handicapped how could we accept a win like that?" Gray stated smirking raising his voice to tease Natsumi. She ignored him and kept looking at where her eyes landed.

"Hey shut up Gray!" Elfman spoke glaring at him. "Natsumi wasn't the only one who was playing though. We have only 5 points difference. It's not that much!"

"But if Natsumi was okay, you wouldn't have lost like that!" Gray answered in back. He looked back at Natsumi to see that she didn't give a damn about what he was doing.

"Elfman is right." Mira finally spoke as she looked at Gray. "We admit that we lost so you to have accept your win and order one thing from each of us already!" she said that and then stopped talking glaring at him waiting for him to get the point. He was scared from her because she looked at him with scary eyes.

"Can you stop from arguing? I'm very hungry and I need to eat!" Natsumi spoke.

"I will bring you something to eat, wait here." When everyone became busy in what they were doing, Natsumi took a deep breath through her nose and let it out. Losing wasn't a beautiful thing to her, she is depressed to lose though but what's she going to do? She didn't see and she tried her best to win but couldn't and now she will wait until she will be able to see and some of them will ask for a favor or the right thing is order. She will die if it was Gray to ask for it. She closed her eyes feeling the soft breeze hitting her skin taking a breath smelling the fresh smell of air. The sun was hitting her skin but it wasn't so hot to burn it, it was enough to calm her up and warm her. She loved the sun and liked the idea to have it on her skin though. But suddenly, the sun was blocked and that forced her to open her eyes to look at that mystery person to find a scrambled vision. She sniffed and then got to know that it was the blonde Lucas. Her legs were crossed then she raised them to hug them to her chest. Lucas sat in front of her crossing his legs and looking at her. She felt uneasy even though she didn't know what exactly he was doing. She moved her eyes to the ground.

"Are you going to stare more?" She said as she felt him with his sense. It was like she saw him and saw his reaction on his face but without her eyes but with her heart.

"You are just… strange." He finally broke his silence looking deep in her eyes.

"Strange?"

"Yeah, strange." He answered. "Because someone in your place would rest and calm down but you did the opposite though."

"I hate losing." She answered. "…That's all." Natsumi paused for a little while then opened her mouth to speak. "I lost once and I don't want to lose again." Lucas stared at her as he kept silent after hearing the word 'lost'. What did she lose? What doesn't she don't want to lose?

"Then," he spoke again catching her attention. "Since we win the match, can I ask you something and the answer will be my reward?" he looked at her deep eyes. And she paused unable to answer him. He wanted to ask something and that will be his order to her. She didn't expect for him the one to order though. Natsumi lowered her head to stare at the ground.

"It's up to you, ask one question and the answer will be your reward."

"Okay then," he took a soft breath from his mouth and then let it out clearing his throat. "Have you overcome my love?" asked the blonde Lucas as he kept staring at her eyes. She froze; she didn't know what kind of question is this. And why is he asking that though? She raised her head to look at him and closed her mouth. She wasn't seeing him, she wasn't even sensing him. She didn't know what to do? Was he even is still there sitting in front of her? Why is it so hard? Why is it being this difficult? What did he really want to know?

"You… forgot my love? Are you fine?"

After a long pause and silence, there wasn't any choice for her to choose. She can't just pretend that nothing has happened and she can't also appear weak in front of the very first man she shouldn't be weak in front! So, lying was her only choice.

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine. And that's… thanks to your message."

He didn't spoke as he kept looking at her with no reaction drew on his face. He was silent and that was the best in him now.

"That's… that's great thing, you know." Nastumi forced a smile on her lips to hide her feelings from showing. She heard him taking a deep breath and letting it out. "That's just perfect, you know you made me feel better." He continued letting a smile.

"What about you?" she asked without any warning. They were really talking very simply like they haven't been hurt from each other at all. He looked down at the ground and smiled.

"We did win, not you!" he grinned and then found a light smack on the arm from the pink haired girl. "Okay, okay… but by the way, if I answered you, I will order something else." He heard her groan but then stayed silent.

"…Okay."

"That's just perfect."

"So," she said again moving her head to his direction. "Are you fine?"

"What do you want to hear?" he asked escaping from the question by another question.

"What are you escaping from?" Natsumi stared at the blonde flash she saw.

"Just answer my question already, Natsumi." He said with a serious tone.

She didn't answer as she kept looking at him with dead eyes and no reaction at all. What does he want from her? Why is he asking these questions? And what will he get when he knows the answer? She didn't understand him at all.

"I will be happy if you don't have feelings for me anymore so we could be friends like we used too." She said focusing in that vision she saw. "But if you do have feelings for me… I won't give a damn about you." This sentence was an arrow to his heart. She didn't care about him anymore and it hurts so much. But, he can't say anything to her since he was the one left her in fairy tail alone and went away. He can't regret it and keeps asking for her to love him. He doesn't have the right to do anything anymore. He smiled and looked closely at her.

"We can… we can be friends again."

She stared at him with no reaction on her face but inside of her was burning like hell. She can't say anything to him after what she said about not giving a damn about him. She can't disagree since she is nothing to him now. And also, he broke her heart two times. The first one when he did that in the past and the second when he left her alone with only a message telling her that it will be to her good. How good it was leaving a person who loved you without a word? How good it was to suddenly wake up without finding him around? How good it was to cry the whole night without making a sound? How good it was to become workaholic in order to forget feeling the pain?! Natsumi had her enough since he left and really wanted to have Alzheimer to forget about him and his love.

Mira and Erza were watching both of them from far away wanting to see something more than just talking. They held a lot of hope but it wasn't that much to hold into. There was something wrong with when they actually believed that the stubborn Natsumi would easily lean into something like that. But, Gray was eating a sandwich as he moved his head to suddenly fell his eyes on them and finding that both of them were talking normally. He started to walk to them and didn't care about what they talked about. He just wants to interfere. Gray wasn't jealous nor did he still have feelings for Natsumi. He just wants to protect her that's all. She was a dear friend to him and he didn't want to see her broken once more. He walked the way to them and stood in front of them as he stared at Natsumi.

"No Gray!" Both the redhead and the white haired mages whispered as they wanted him to stop and leave them into the moment.

Natsumi looked up at him after sniffing the air and finding that he was actually close.

"Gray?"

"Yeah, I'm actually Gray." He sat down beside her and glared at the blonde who didn't know the reason behind being treated like that.

"What's wrong, Gray?" Natsumi said as she moved her head to his direction. He kept staring at the blonde taking a bite from the sandwich and chewing it and swallowing it as he looked back at her.

"I just wanted to remind you about your loss because I'm going to give you an order after you become able to see." Gray stated.

"You are too late, Gray." He heard Lucas says as he smirked. "I'm the one who is gonna order her around." Gray's eyes widened as he looked at the person before him. Why? Why would that girl let him do something like that? Did she forget what he did in her or what?! He then looked at Natsumi with a sharp look but he didn't talk holding the anger inside of him. Lucas stood up cleaning his clothes but then he looked back at Natsumi.

"I'm going to eat, should I bring you something to eat?"

"No, Mira is going to prepare something for me. She should have finished been finished by now." She smiled at Lucas as he left the spot. As soon as the blonde left, Gray looked to Natsumi grabbing her arm tightly.

"Ah, what's wrong with you, Gray?!" she asked feeling pained because of his grip.

"I should be one to ask you this!" she stayed silent unable to understand what he actually said. "What's wrong, Natsumi? What are you doing with that guy? Did you already forget what he did to you?" he didn't know what he was telling her but, he only wanted to talk about what his heart held, that's all. Natsumi didn't answer as she kept staring at the same spot feeling her vision is getting better little by little and now she was able to see the green color of the grass better. She moved her head to look at the black haired mage and was able to see a little of his features. She didn't know what to answer because she didn't understand what he was talking about. She knew that he was talking about her and Lucas but she didn't understand what exactly he meant by that.

"I… I really can't understand." She said. "Did I do something wrong by talking to one of my friends?!"

"Friend…" Gray's eyes widened at hearing that word coming from her mouth. "Do you think I'm an idiot to not be able to understand what happened through this year away from that bastard?!" Gray continued as kept staring at her eyes.

"What? What happened?" Natsumi looked innocent and all but anyone hears her words now would think the opposite of that. He would think that she is acting but unfortunately, she didn't act because she really didn't get any of this.

"Natsumi," Gray called her as he kept his sharp look. "I knew you loved Lucas and you know that. I know that you were pained because of him through all this year." Natsumi stared at him as she finally understood what was happening. "I know that you wanted to forget and how hard you tried to do though but you failed to do that!"

"You… knew?"

"Yeah, I knew how pained you were. I knew how much you have suffered and how you tried to overcome." He answered her as he looked at the ground and let go of her arm. "I knew that you became a workaholic so you can ignore your pain."

Natsumi grabbed her hurt arm as she kept looking at the ground. She never knew that Gray actually could understand her that much even after what she did to him. She was alone this period as she tried to do everything herself without anyone's help. How many days she stayed awake for work and how many days has she slept after being overworked?

"I don't want you to see you again like that Natsumi." He looked into her eyes with gleaming eyes. "I don't want for my rival to be that broken once again." He stated as he finally finished his lecture waiting her to answer. She smiled and raised her head to look at his face with more figures this time.

"Don't worry about me, Gray." She finally spoke earning his shock. "This year taught me how to take care of myself. I can control my feelings and I can make it through the pain." he didn't actually believe that he was hearing that coming from her mouth. She stood up from her place as she kept staring at him.

"Thanks for taking good care of me."

She smiled and left him staring at the space. Was she actually saying that? Natsumi Dragneel, right? May be yes, she grew up but he was still worried about her. He was sure that Lucas and Natsumi still loved each other but the both of them were dense to know that. Both of them will suffer because of something like that and will never rest. He moved his head to look at the pink haired girl to find that she was making some movement with his hands he didn't understand. His sweat dropped as he shook his head because of her. She will never change because she is acting stupid all the time. He sighed as he looked back at the ground. He guesses it's alright, she can manage it out. She is Natsumi after all; she just can't let someone insult her without paying.