Chapter5

The pink haired girl stared at the large board that they had in their guild. She was confused of these kind of jobs and found nothing to fits her. She let out a long sigh as she rubbed her head but stopped when she was interrupted by the girls who suddenly came to see what she was doing. "Natsumi…" the redhead mage said as she gave her a smile. "What are you doing?"

"I wanted to take a job but I can't find a perfect one," Natsumi said disappointed as she gave another sigh.

"Really?" the blue haired young lady said as she advanced to see the jobs. "This," she grabbed a paper and waved it Natsumi to see it. "I think this is a perfect one."

"This city is too far with the train and I get sick from far places. I prefer walking!" Natsumi smiled as she grabbed the paper.

"If you are going to walk, you will reach next year." Erza hit her on the head and took the paper away from her hands. Natsumi frowned as she rubbed her head disappointed.

"Then I should go find another work that won't allow me to ride train." She sighed and started to walk away from them. While she was walking towards the door bent over and has a very depressed look. She amended her standing position when she was surprised that the blonde just came from the door and standing in front of her. Her sweat dropped as she looked away in surprise.

"A-Ah, you came?" she said as she rubbed her back head.

"Yeah, I came." He answered as he stared at her keeping the silence. They both stayed silent waiting the other to talk first but no one took this step until they were interrupted by the young mage who came smiling.

"Lucas-san, good morning!" she greeted him as she got a smile from him.

"Good morning," he said looking at her face and then he leaned his head to look at the redhead who was staring at the board to find a perfect job. "What are you doing guys?"

"We are trying to find a perfect job for Natsumi-san." The sky dragon slayer stated looking up at the older one. Lucas moved his head to Natsumi.

"Natsumi," he caught her attention to look up at him. "Why are you always a problem?"

"Shut up!" She crossed her arms looking at the ground ignoring his gaze at her. They were normal because both of them agreed in being just friends.

"I need a job as well, let's search together." Lucas suggested as he started to walk towards the quests' board. Natsumi followed him as she put her soft hair behind her ear.

"Let's see," Lucas said as he stared at the papers in front of him. Erza looked at him and then looked at Natsumi feeling that something was suspicious between the both of them. They were acting normal and that was really strange. She gulped and looked back at the quest board. "This," he gestured with his index finger on the quest.

"Find a stolen treasure?" the white cat said as she flew next to the blonde mage.

"Take that," Lucas gave Natsumi the paper then he looked back at the board.

"Where's that?"

"It's not so far from Magnolia." Erza answered Natsumi's question.

"Then why don't the four of us go?" the blue haired young suggested as all their heads her. "Alongside Gray-san like old days…" she continued as all of them gone silent. Seconds later both Lucas and Erza's heads moved to Natsumi and she was surprised by their acting.

"Huh? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's yours, you give us the permission to come or not." Lucas answered as he stared at the salamander with a normal face. But Erza's reason was actually different from Lucas's reason because she was only worried about her friend who never speaks her heart out.

Natsumi stared at the paper between her hands and paused. She actually wanted a job to clear her mind but it would be more fun with all of them and that only problem she won't give it a damn. Natsumi grinned as she raised her head to look at them.

"Let's go together!"

Natsumi, Happy, Erza and Gray were in the train station waiting for the rest to come back and all of them were busy doing something. But the blue exceed was busy glaring at the pink haired dragon slayer as she felt uneasy being stared at like that. She moved her head to look at him and gulped.

"What's wrong with you?!" she snapped at him. Unfortunately, he didn't answer and kept staring at her coldly.

"Stop that, Happy! You are giving me creeps!"

"I just don't understand," he finally spoke as he kept staring at her. "Where were you last night? Don't you know that the word is too dangerous for a girl like you to be sleeping away from her home?!" Natsumi's eyes widened as she was speechless because of what she heard.

"Don't worry, Happy." Gray interrupted in as he took steps to the spots that they were standing in. "She is a monster, she will beat them to pulp before he could talk anything." Gray laughed as he looked at the pink haired who was still unable to say a word.

"Yeah," Erza followed the ice mage. "Natsumi is pretty strong she will just beat him until he dies to regret thinking of doing that to her."

"Hey, don't you realize that you are talking about me!" Natsumi finally snapped at them after thinking of their words. "I'm not a monster, I'm a human!"

"Yeah, yeah… a human monster," Gray answered. He was about to continue talking but stopped when he saw that the rest of the team finally arrived.

"What were you talking about?" Lucas said as he looked at his friends that were all focused in something he didn't know.

"I was just warning Natsumi that the world isn't as innocent as she thinks." Happy said as he crossed his small hands around his chest. Natsumi felt annoyed about how childish they take her. She knows that, she knows that pretty well and can defend herself. She let out a sigh as she raised her head to look at them to be surprised that the blonde was staring at her. Her sweat dropped as she looked right and left to make sure that he was actually looking at her.

"W-What?"

"Happy is right, there are a lot of people are bad." He said as he kept staring at her.

"I-I know that, you don't need to tell me." She answered and then looked at the train, "Come on, we need to catch the train before it leaves." She said as she tried to change the top as fast as possible because she always hated to be under the spotlight.

After sitting in their cabins, everyone became busy doing several things but for Natsumi, she just stared out of the window that was beside her. She didn't know what was wrong with her lately. A lot in her mind confused her and it wasn't only because of the blonde who wouldn't leave her head. Natsumi let out a sigh as she watched the people who were running two catch up the train. What will happen to her afterwards? Will she be spending her life like that? Will she just keep watching him from faraway? Won't her mind stop bother her with thinking of him? Won't her heart stop aching whenever she heard his name? She moved her eyes to look at him from the corner to find out that he was so focused in the book. She rested her head on the arm of hers as she kept staring at him. Why is love so hard?

She kept thinking of him until the train finally moved as she started to feel dizzy and started to vomit from the window next to her and they were comforting her.

"The job wasn't hard as I thought it would be," the blue haired started as she looked at the adults that were surrounding her. She smiled as she hugged her white cat tighter.

"That's bad," Natsumi said annoyed as she buried her hands inside of her sweater she wore. She looked at the sky closing her eyes feeling the soft breeze hitting her skin. She smiled and then opened her eyes to look at her friends. "Hey, an idea just stroked my head."

"What's it?"

"Why don't we camp in this area," Natsumi stretched her arms out while looking to her right and left seeing how wide this area was. They were walking in the forest. "It's already the noon and we won't be able to catch the train, anyway." She continued excited to sleep in this area.

"She has a point," Gray stated as he looked at his friends and got nods. She jumped in the air happily and then started running in the area happily of how refreshing this camping will be.

"Natsumi-san, don't go far away!" the sky dragon slayer said as she ran after her being followed by the both cats.

"What the hell? She acts like a little child." Gray said as he buried his hands in his pockets.

"You can't blame her being happy after so much time," Erza stated and then paused realizing what she said and in front of who.

"After so much time?" the blonde finally spoke as he looked at the redhead who was nervous and confused of what she said. Erza knew that Natsumi was pushing herself in this year because she was in so much pain and she tried to talk to her several times but couldn't. "What does that mean?" he continued as he was concentrated in her but she couldn't answer.

"She means when her dragon left her." Gray answered in her place looking at the blonde from the corner of his eyes. Erza's eyes widened at that lie Gray spoke and thanked God because she didn't have anything to say but started to think how on the earth did Gray know about that?

"Is that so?"

"Y-Yeah," she said having a sweat dropped down her face. She gulped and moved her head to look at the pink haired girl who was unpacking her things to get ready. The blonde looked at Natsumi and sighed. She was making all the people around her worries even when she is just doing nothing except smiling.

The night came and all of them were sitting around the fire Natsumi made with her magic. They were silent not talking except for enjoying the beautiful. The redhead took a deep breath and sighed smiling.

"This is so refreshing," she stated looking at her friends who were busy eating.

Natsumi took a bite from the meat in she had in her dish and looked at the redhead chewing. She swallowed and smiled.

"See, I was right."

Lucas was staring down at his food sinking in his deep thoughts. Is he bad person? He asked himself that because he started seeing things he couldn't see before. He was seeing Natsumi was trying to do something but he didn't know what. He was seeing her different from before. Different from those days she was treating everyone coldly and even different from the past before meeting him. He sighed and raised his head to look at her to find that she was busy chatting with the blue haired young lady. He sighed as he looked back at his food taking a small bite from the meat he had.

"You seem down?" Erza looked at the blonde who spaced out not knowing where he spaced out to. "Is there anything wrong?" Lucas paused looking at her and then chewed the rest that he had in his mouth and swallowed it.

"No, no I'm fine."

Natsumi looked at him and stopped eating. She stared at him and didn't know what to say as she felt that something was up with him since he came back. He wasn't Lucas she knew a year ago. He is a different person she never got to know. Natsumi swallowed her food and looked at the dark blue sky. She was trying to pretend that everything is fine but her heart betrayed her. She let out a sigh and let go of her food then she stood up to get the attention to her.

"What are you doing?" Erza asked. Natsumi smiled and took a step to the front.

"This place is so beautiful; I need to take a tour around the place." She said and then started to walk away from the group and then Gray looked at her and spoke.

"What if you lost?" he stopped her. Natsumi turned her body to look at him and smirked.

"I would follow your stink smell." She mocked and then started to walk away again burying her hands inside of her sweater and looking at the sky.

"You-!"

Hours passed and everyone was already preparing for sleep but the blonde was drinking beer he brought with him and staring at the sky. Erza looked at his back and wanted to talk to him but didn't know what to say. She just let it slide and looked away from him entering her tent that blue haired girl and the cats slept in. Gray was already inside of the tent but he wasn't asleep. Actually, he couldn't sleep because his mind was busy thinking about many things.

Lucas was a little drunk but he was aware of what's happening around him. He let go of the bottle as he stood up as he scanned the place if there was a flash of the pink hair or not. But unfortunately, he couldn't find anything. He took a deep breath and bent down to take the bottle once again and then started to walk in order to search for the dragon slayer. While he was walking away from the place, Gray got out of the tent to see what's happening.

"This guy is going to kill me! If you love her just tell her that." he said with enough voice to make the girls hear but for Lucas he didn't hear that. Erza got out from her tent and stared at the black haired guy with a little surprised reaction. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You know about his feelings for Natsumi?" Erza asked in a shock to realize that he was taken aback a little and he crossed down his legs in his spot.

"W-When did I say something like that?!" his sweat dropped and he looked at the other direction but then realized something and then asked himself how could she knows something like that. Gray turned his head back to Erza, "Hey wait a minute… h-how do you know about it?!"

"A-Ah,"

"When? Why?"

The both of them were shocked and couldn't help saying anything but this and stare at each other.

"A-Ah, answer me first I was the one to ask first!" Erza crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Ssssh!" Gray hushed her as he looked a little nervous. "Wendy and Happy might hear you out!"

"Don't worry, they are already sleeping… come on tell me." Erza answered back.

"Did you forget that she has sharp hearing?" He answered back to be able to escape the situation but he got one of the deadly glares of Erza's. He gulped and opened his mouth to speak again, "Ok, ok come with me!"

And with that the both of them walked away heading to some quiet place.

Nastumi was sitting by the river as moving her hands with the light waves that were made. She was satisfied of how beautiful this view was. She was happy and glad she came here. She started to ignore everything around her so she can get healed because she gave up on love and wanted to start a new start. She was imagining that Lucas wasn't around her so she can be better. She let out a sigh as she looked at the trees that were in front of her. When she thinks about that, she tells herself that it's better to be like that since the things that she cared about was taken away from her. Igneel and Lucas, they cared about her but didn't give her the chance to payback. Natsumi sniffed and found out that the blonde's smell was near her. She turned her head quickly to look at the other direction to find him standing there, putting his left hand inside of his pants' pocket and smiling. She smelled alcohol coming from him and then realized that he was holding a bottle of bear.

"Lucas…" she stood up from her place to look at and check on him.

"Natsumi…" he started as he took steps to the front. "What's with drinking bear these days?" he laughed and then stood directly in front of her and she felt a little worried so she looked up at him with innocent face. 'You look beautiful, more than last year.' He was thinking as he stared at her face.

"Why are looking at me like that?" Lucas put the bottle down on the ground.

"I'm worried, you are drunk." She said as she crossed her arms.

"Worried… about me?" he smiled as he put his both hands on her shoulder as he stared at her eyes. 'I want you to be mine,'

She stared at him waiting him to continue his sentence. "After what I did… a year ago?" the blonde said with a very sad tone as he took a step to the back. She didn't answer as she kept staring at his face trying to push the thoughts away so she wouldn't get herself pained. Lucas took a deep breath from his mouth as he raised his face to look at the sky thinking about what is he saying. He looked back at her as he let go of her shoulders as he got serious.

"Natsumi about what happened a year ago…" he started as his sweat dropped down to his face. Natsumi took a step to the back as she brought her hair to the back and opened her mouth to speak. He was feeling guilty and wanted to apologize but Natsumi didn't let him.

"Don't say anything, we talked about that already and we decided to act like friends," she said with a very cold tone.

"I know that but, I can't just stand the pain I caused you!" Lucas answered back as he tried to defend himself. Natsumi didn't answer him as she kept staring at him while he was staring at her in back.

"I didn't tell you to care about that. It all happened in the past and if you want to stay my friend you shouldn't bring your past on your tongue once again." Natsumi turned her body as she started to walk away from him with no emotions. She suddenly stopped as she stared at the space for a moment, she moved her body to look at him for a once to see that he was still staring at her.

"If you want to apologize just to make yourself feel better, I'm not letting you do it."

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