Lucy typically loved class, especially astronomy, but today she could feel the ice in the room as if someone left the windows open for the cold air to blow in. She wouldn't be surprised to see snow on the lecture seats that tiered like a mini amphitheater.

He sat in her usual seat about right in the middle of the room for all the session. The short white-haired girl sat a seat over, and once again Lucy had that intrigue to talk to her, yet her artist's mind convinced her that watching from afar was much more beautiful than being up close.

In the seats in front and thus a little below Lucy sat Lyon. He looked a bit nervous and still just as bruised up as Gray. A thousand questions popped into Lucy's head like an investigator trying to interrogate a witness, but again, her mind told her to sit back and shut up.

Lucy turned her head a bit to watch the white haired girl; she had a thick grey poncho on that almost looked like a cape but also very warm. The girl was doodling something on a loose leaf paper with a pen during the last few minutes of cram hour.

It wouldn't hurt to say hello just once. Perhaps she'd be able to make a friend before winter break. The blonde opened her mouth, scooted a bit to the side-

"Hey, you're Lucy, right?" Suddenly a body came between her and the other girl, leaning over the table from the other side. Lyon's baggy blue and silver coat fell over the table like a blanket as he propped himself on his elbow.

Lucy tried her best not to sigh with disappointment in her failed social attempts. "Yeah. You're Lyon?"

The white haired male nodded, his smile sweet yet cocky at the same time, reminding her of a vaguely more sociable version of Gray. "I'm sorry about the other day when I broke your bag."

With a shrug of her slender shoulders, Lucy waved it away. "Don't worry about it. "You were in a hurry." A hurry to go fight my friend.

Lyon's smile was weak and nervous. "It was rude of me. Besides, it wasn't that important."

Lucy didn't like to pry into other people's business, but technically it was her business. It involved Gray and therefore it involved her. That's what friends were for. "It seemed like it was."

"Nah, it was just over some stupid girl." Right after Lyon said that his eyes widened. "She isn't stupid, but the whole event was stupid. You know what I mean."

"I get the gist." Lucy cracked a smile. "I hope she was worth it."

That was when Lyon grimaced. He hopped over the table and took the empty seat between Lucy and the white haired girl; the other girl glanced over just for a moment to see what kind of idiot was jumping tabletops before resuming her doodling.

"She thought I was an idiot." Lyon confessed.

Lucy formed an O with her mouth in faux-shock. "So you didn't exactly sweep her off her feet, huh?"

"Hardly." Lyon cleared his throat as if he was about to go through with a five-minute long speech. "See, she's in love with this other guy."

Lucy's conscious lit up like a lightbulb. Gray, of all people, in a fight over a girl. A true idiot he must be. "Let me guess, even with your efforts to woo her she still doesn't appreciate it?"

Lyon nodded his head appreciatively. "Exactly. She just wastes her time gawking over this guy who comes in to the café she works at and orders a coffee every day just to tease her or some shit. I mean, everyone knows she's in love with him. Only an asshole would play her like that."

Before Lucy had anything even slightly comforting to say, Lyon rambled on. "You know what's worse? The guy hardly even wears a shirt. He's so damn vain he must be a model or something vapid like that."

Lucy laughed weakly. "Something like that."

Lyon laid his chin in his hand while his other hand smoothed along the tabletop out of boredom. "I'm sorry your bag became the victim of my selfish love affairs."

They both smiled vaguely. "It's not a good love story if a couple things don't get broken out of desperation or spite."

"Also true." Lyon nodded his head before one corner of his lips pulled up in a half smile. "You, Lucy, are a very wise young woman."

The blonde bowed slightly in her seat. "I try my best."

As much as she wanted to defend Gray, the weirdest friend she has ever had, she found it hard. Their clique of friends when to that café so often that even Lucy had gotten used to all of Gray's to-go cups with a handwritten heart where the A in his name would usually go. Sometimes that blue haired barista's phone number would be scribbled on the bottom, but those were for rare occasions.

"You want to know what I think?" Lucy offered after a moment of silence. She turned to Lyon and took up the same slouched position as he.

The young man nodded and turned to her as if sharing top secret information. Lucy continued: "If she'd gawking over some other guy, forget her. One day when she realizes that guy isn't right for her she'll come to want a guy like you."

Lyon sucked in a deep breath, his lean chest puffing up in exasperation. "How do you know they won't run off together and fall in love?"

Lucy truly felt bad; Lyon was a hopeless romantic. And, as much as he would disagree, so was Gray. Gray, however, was so quiet and passive that he convinced himself he wasn't, just as Loke had. And Lucy wanted to make sure Lyon nor anyone else would become that emotionally oppressed.

"That's always how it works out." Lucy turned away from Lyon and stretched out her limbs a bit. A little flash of orange hair worked its way into her peripherals and Lucy secretly hoped Loke had heard every single word of their conversation. That ginger was a sly young man, so hopefully he wasn't as dense as Natsu or Gray.

"Where were you to give me advice last week?" Lyon wondered aloud before sighing almost dreamily.

Lucy tapped her fingers along the table in thought. "Probably home alone eating soup and watching sitcoms."

They both laughed quietly. "A perfect way to spend time if you ask me." Lyon said approvingly. "Well then, what other advice do you have for me, fairy godmother?"

Lucy didn't want to give just advice; she wanted to smack near he and Gray and Loke upside the head and tell them to grow up and deal with it. But for now, she just smiled. "Wait until she's ready to handle you. You can get swept off your feet and realize you can't handle the weight, so just wait until she's ready for you to appreciate her."

"Then what?"

"Well then appreciate the crap out of her and don't let her go." Lucy said immediately.

Both her and Lyon's lips pulled into the widest of smiles until their cheeks hurt. It was random and perhaps inappropriate for strangers to be so personal so soon, but Lucy loved it. Judging by the grin on Lyon's face, so did he.

"You look a little too eager to leave." Lyon noted after a moment. Lucy had her bag packed up and her coat on already.

She shrugged her shoulders simply again. "I am. I have a date." Lucy said rather shamelessly, yet she didn't say anything else; how rude it would be to talk about that after everyone Lyon had been through.

Lyon grinned anyway, and rather excitedly too. "I hope they're worth the adrenaline rush."

Lucy's cheeks warmed up. "Me too."

The clock on her phone struck the even hour and Lucy felt so free to leave that she stood up immediately. She could have left early but it would have been pointless; plus, she had hoped to make conversation with that other girl. Instead she got Lyon, who was not so bad.

Lucy and Lyon pushed in their chairs, and she tossed her bag over her shoulder so excitedly that it swung and hit Lyon on the arm. She went to apologize, but he just laughed and said, "Consider us even."

Lucy pulled her knit gloves on over her hands and skipped down the stairs towards the exit door. "It was nice talking to you! Have a good winter break!"

She waved slightly to Lyon who raised his hand in a salute as well. "I'll see you later, kid. Have a good date."

Lucy's ears reddened heavily. "Thank you!" She shouted again.

She pushed open the doors to the cold outdoors, but not before she heard Lyon shout a few more words of wisdom: "Appreciate the crap outta them and don't let 'em go!"

And she had every intention to do so.

Lucy met Natsu outside their usual café downtown. He wore that same checkered scarf, his nose buried inside it to keep warm. When he saw Lucy, he lifted his head to reveal a broad smile and a nose pink like Rudolph.

"Sorry my lecture took so long today." Natsu apologized right away. His hand slipped into hers like it was a natural instinct by now.

The blonde waved it away dismissively. "It's alright. I was waiting around so I just talked to a new friend anyway."

"Awe, Luce made a new friend?" Natsu pouted his lips teasingly, one hand reaching up to give her a condescending pinch to the cheek which she smacked away quickly.

She shook her head before cracking a smile. "Why did you drag me out here, it's freezing. I want to go home."

"You go downstairs to get the mail and still say you want to go home, Luce. There is a word outside your apartment." Natsu assured her.

Lucy scrunched up her nose passively. "Hmm, no. I don't think so."

Natsu had nothing to say back; he just smiled and squeezed his hand around hers to make sure they would not let go before beginning to walk down the street. "I promise you'll like it."

There was a ninety percent chance that Lucy would not like it, but if she was with Natsu then she could not complain. Sure Natsu was easily entertained, but how bad could his idea of a date really be?

Turns out, quite bad. He lead her down the sidewalk past a row of tightly packed together shops until they came to a stop in front of the last place Lucy wanted to be: a tattoo parlor.

Natsu opened up the door and a little bell rung, giving off a high pitched sound that was much too cute for the dark interior. Lucy tugged the pink haired boy's hand. "Natsu, I-"

"What? We should totally get matching tattoos!" Natsu's smile lit up his entire face.

For a moment, Lucy actually believed him. With a smile like that, he could probably say 'let's jump off a bridge' and make it sound like the best idea in the world. It was dead silent for the longest ten seconds of Lucy's life before Natsu burst out laughing.

"I'm kidding. I thought you might find that funny." Natsu's smile faded awkwardly after a second or too. "Forget that just happened and follow me."

Lucy couldn't quite process his 'joke,' and she expected him to turn around and lead them back outside. Instead he walked further into the tattoo parlor, pushed open a door reading employee's only very clearly, and tugged Lucy with him.

There was no way Natsu worked at a place like this, and her sense of proper behavior had her screaming at herself to run away as if the sign had said caution: toxic chemicals inside!

However, toxic chemicals were definitely not inside; it was so very empty if anything. The door to the back room closed and Natsu let go of Lucy's hand to grab a bin and step up on it, trying to reach something high up.

"Natsu, whatever this is, can we go? It's making me uncomfortable." Her arms crossed over her chest tightly.

She couldn't see his face, yet he shook his head and grabbed a knob on the ceiling like the entrance to an attic. This keeps getting better.

Natsu pushed open the hatch to the rooftop and light from outside flooded in. The air quickly grew cold. Before she could protest, Natsu had pulled down a ladder and climbed up onto the roof.

Lucy stood there grumbling to herself like a child. "Next time, I'm picking the date."

Reluctantly, she grabbed the bars and climbed up one after the other. It was cold up on the roof yet she had nowhere better to go. Now that was sad.

Lucy huffed softly as she pushed herself off the last rung of the ladder and up on the roof. It was cold, but it was beautiful.

The ground was strewn with blankets like this was just some makeshift picnic; the cooler in the corner gave the same impression. Natsu closed up the rooftop hatch and immediately plopped down on a sleeping bag he had spread out. He patted the seat next to him.

"I know it's cold, but there's a better view of the stars out here than from the window of your apartment." He said casually.

Lucy stood there with her hands clasped tightly together, too stricken to really move. It was hard to let someone sweep you off your feet; although it gives your heart wings, who knows if they can handle the weight.

Nalu Lemon Novel
Exy Koroleva © 2016
Thank you for reading.
Some triggering scenes
to be included, so please
do not report. Comments
& votes are appreciated.