Crystal: Sorry for the late update peeps! I was not only updating my other Nalu stories I was also in Mexico for some time in which I had no internet for a few days and no laptop and I was avoiding typing a chapter on my phone so without further delay here's the update.
[MUST READ: I honestly didn't like the way the chapter from before came out so I made some edits! GO BACK AND REREAD THE LAST PART OF THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER OR YOU'LL BE CONFUSED]
One of the reviews that I received made me reflect on the purpose of this fic and in the end I liked the idea this person gave me so yep. It is how it is. I hope it isn't too upsetting to some of you.
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Is this a dream?
The next morning, Lucy woke up and had completely forgotten the charade from the day before and without realizing had placed on her usual clothing. A large sweater, glasses, braid and jeans. She gave a large yawn as she had studied for their Pre-Cal test for longer hours than she'd expected. She'd gotten on her limo as Loke pulled the window from the front down. "Hmm…What happened? Was your new look a one day thing?" Loke asked amused. Lucy blinked confused and looked at herself. Her eyes widened. "I completely forgot about that! Shoot I can't go back home now! Eveyone will make fun of me", Lucy murmured almost sadly.
Loke hit the brakes almost making Lucy trip over her seat. "Hey! What's the big idea?!" Lucy yelled. Loke looked at her with a stern expression. "Will it matter? Isn't Natsu enough or did he make fun of you?" he asked her a bit harshly. Lucy flinched at his tone. Then she thought about it. Of all the time that Natsu knew her he'd never shown any interest in the way she dressed or even acted. But somehow she felt he's be disappointed and embarrassed to see her dressed like she usually did "He would never make fun of me and you know it", Lucy defended him. Loke sighed, "Look, Lucy, you've known Natsu for a very long time, and I doubt he cares how you look. You've never cared how others see you. You've confessed to me about liking him so if he doesn't judge you for how you dress, then you shouldn't care either about how you look", Loke explained.
"Y-You're right. I must be going crazy. Natsu, has never been one to care for appearances", Lucy slumped back in her seat trying to also convince herself that this was the case. But it still bothered her. Loke pulled at a sensitive topic in Lucy. He assumed that after all the time she's been paranoid on the way she's viewed had her on edge. She sighed heavily playing her fingers at her braid. Loke felt suddenly guilty. She trusted Natsu blindly with no doubts what so ever. And there he went breaking her trust in just a minute by asking a dumb question. He cursed under his breath as he drove her to the front gates. Everyone had yet again gathered to see her, but were surprised when she stepped out looking like she normally did.
She looked around to see Natsu pushing through the crowd excitedly. "Well here goes his reaction", she muttered under her breath. Natsu made it through and stared at her. She looked down almost sadly until he ran to hug her against him. "Morning Luce!" he chirped happily. Her heart thumped wildly as she almost felt stupid for letting her thoughts get the best of her. "Morning", she mumbled blushing. "You don't look so good", he muttered concerned. She looked up at him suddenly startld. "My clothes or something?" she asked feeling a pang in her chest. "No, silly,I meant you look really down. Did Lisanna or her gang do something to you?" he questioned. "No, uh, I'm just tired from studying for our math test today", she explained relief suddenly flooding her.
Natsu's eyes widened. "Shit! I forgot to study! Let's head over so I can cram some of that stuff into my head before the test!" he yelled grabbing her hand as he pulled her through the hall. "What's the deal with Heartfilia? She's not a babe anymore! Could that rumor that she paid someone to pretend to be her be true?" a guy whispered to a group of girls. "Why is Natsu holding her hand?" a girl fumed snarling at her. Natsu gave a long sigh before stopping. He looked at all of them with an angered expression. "This girl here is my best friend, and I don't want anyone trying some funny business. If you make her cry or hurt, I'll personally make sure to pound you into the ground. I can hold her hand if I want to because she's my best friend", he scoffed.
Lucy blushed in embarrassment as they all began to scream outraged. "That loser doesn't deserv Natsu protecting her!" girls yelled around them. "I bet he's only using her to cheat or make her do his homework", some guys snickered. 'So they truly believe that I paid someone to pretend to be me?' She thought angrily. She wouldn't allow that. Natsu had just defended their friendship and she was going to defend their pride. "I'll be there in a few, I'll just pass by my locker", she smiled at him. "You sure?" he questioned being hesitant to leave her alone. "Yeah", she laughed as he only nodded slowly as he ran down the hall. For some reason seeing him go away made her realize that she couldn't dare confess her feelings for him. Their friendship was like no other. Their bound was even stronger than that of family. She would feel like dying if he broke it off because he didn't feel the same.
She hadn't noticed a group of guys following behind her as she opened her locker thinking of what she would wear tomorrow. They suddenly pushed her to the side making her fall back. She groaned at the pain and looked up at the group of four guys. "Aww, was Natsu too embarrassed to walk you to your class?" one of them known as Bora, snickered. "Actually, I requested he head himself to class", she said almost defiantly. "Lookie here guys, she's acting tough now. What? Did you also pay Natsu to be your pretend friend? You sure did a good job paying that blonde chick from yesterday. She was way too hot to be a nerd like you. Big boobs and ass to die for", this time Cobra chuckled kicking her bag so the papers flew out.
Lucy's eye twitched in anger. First of all, they were basically insulting her beauty while also talking so disgustingly about her body. No way in hell she's let these pervert talk like that. "Gosh, if that chick were still here I'd probably make her mine easily. No chick can resist me", Cobra laughed pretending as if he were fondling boobs. Lucy was disgusted as she instinctively brought a hand up to cover her chest. "You don't even have boos, flat chest", Marco the third in the group teased. Lucy sighed not willing to hear more of their crap. She shuffled for her papers and shoved them in her bag. She huffed almost passing by them before Marco and Steven blocked her way. Marco reached to clutch her arm as he pulled her glasses and stepped on them until they were unrecognizable.
Lucy used her arm to cover her eyes, but Steven pulled at it until her arms were unable to move from being held out. Cobra came up and clutched her face and his eyes widened in pleasant surprise. "Shit, guys look", he said in awe. The others guy leaned in to look and gasped. Lucy pulled her arms away and let her braid go. "She is that chick", Marco yelled in realization. "I'm not going to ask again, but don't speak in such a lewd and disgusting way about my body. You sicken me", she hissed and pulled through the halls. Cobra licked his lips. "Lucy Heartfilia. You'll be mine before you can even blink", Cobra chuckled.
~~xXXx~~
Lucy ran down the hall to class in a panic. That guy Cobra, frightened her to no extent. His purple eyes were basically devouring her when he realized she was indeed the 'Lucy' from the day before. She was redoing her braid as she came in. Her face she could feel had paled and her heart was thumping like crazy. She'd avoid that guy at all costs now. The vulgar way he spoke of her made her skin crawl. She didn't even notice that she was being strange until Natsu grabbed her wrist. She looked up at him startled and flinched. Natsu blinked in confusion. "Hey", he muttered holding her elbows to notice her body was trembling. He pulled her to sit as she breathed heavily in and out.
"Lucy. Look at me", Natsu whispered gently. Lucy bit her lip meeting his eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked her in a serious tone. "Nothing!" she squeaked in response. "Where are your glasses?" he continued to pry answers from her. She touched her face noticing that in fact her glasses had been left on the floor from when they were stepped on. She tightened her lips not wanting him to make a fit if he realized what happened. "Lucy, what happened?" he questioned again his eyes narrowed with a dangerous glint. "Natsu, please", she begged. "I just want to know", he shrugged pretending that he wasn't about to go crazy. "If I tell you, promise you won't do anything", she said seriously.
His eyes returned to her that same dangerous glint in his eyes. "Okay", he said awfully calm. "In the hallways, I ran into Cobra's gang and they said some vulgar things to me after they shoved me on the floor", she whispered. Natsu's eyes widened and Lucy could see the burning rage rising in his emerald orbs. He began to stand clenching his fists. "Natsu, you promised", Lucy almost yelled. Natsu gave a long sigh his tense muscles softening as he sat. "At least tell me if you're alright now", he gave her that simple request. She nodded slowly as he passed a hand through his hair. For the rest of passing period, he wouldn't say a word as he crammed the math info into his head, but now and then Lucy caught his eyes meeting hers in extreme worry.
It was time for team sports and Lucy sighed at how heavy the day felt. From her exhaustion to this morning's incident, the day was really taking its toll on her. "At least this day can't go even more badly than it has", she sighed, but of course she had to jinx herself as Lisanna shoved into her harshly. "What is it now, Lisanna?" she turned to face the silver head. She was in no mood to deal with her bitching. "You know, you don't even seem like a big deal to me. Poor Ever and Michelle came crying to me about how you were pulling everything apart with your looks, but honestly you might have a cute face and money, but that's all you have. You don't even have a body or style under that disgusting sweater. You don't scare me", Lisanna hissed pointed a manicured nail at her accusingly.
"These kinds of comments would have surely intimidated me before, Lisanna, but at this point their overrated. I suggest you get your life together and find a new hobby. Being a prissy bitch just won't get you anywhere. Besides Natsu likes me just the way I am", Lucy smiled lazily. Lisanna grinned making Lucy nervous, but she decided not to show it. "Who said Natsu had anything to do with this? I knew you liked him, but I won't hand him over to you. So unless you begin to distance yourself from him I'll make sure he finds out about your little secret", she chuckled with clear amusement in her tone of voice. Lucy's eyes widened realizing she had just sputtered about Natsu, but she never said she liked him so it wouldn't count.
Lucy only shook her head with her own giggle. "Ah, Lisanna, I'm not like you, dear. Natsu's my best friend and I can talk about him if I please. I like him because he's my childhood friend and we've been to every school since we were children. You wouldn't understand how close we are and it's not like you can just come up to me and demand that I break our friendship because the obvious answer is 'No'. So instead of whoring yourself to get attention from him, why don't you truly start a normal conversation with him instead of flirting? Maybe then you'd get somewhere", Lucy said her tone taking a serious turn as she walked away. "Childhood friend?" Lisanna said caught off guard, and why was she helping her to simply get to talk to Natsu? She wondered.
Lucy herself didn't understand why she would give that advice to Lisanna despite also trying to insult her. But then again she understood what it was like to get everyone's attention, but yet not getting the attention from the person you yearn. It was like that with Natsu. At first, he had been the annoying one trying to get her to be his friend, but she would often ignore him. And now she was the one who would seek his attention. She would surely get it with benefits of being best friends, but she could never earn the romantic attention from him even when she had purposely flirted with guys in front of him in middle school, but he was simply off starting fights with Gray.
Maybe it was time she tried to get over him and let him find his own happiness. Even if she yearned to be his happiness, you couldn't just force the heart to love someone. She was a clear example of it. Loving Natsu and knowing well it could never be. She paused just before entering the gym. She clenched her fist. No. She wouldn't give up. The girls were using their time to get her with Natsu, and she was determined to sprout her way into his heart with the same positive attitude he used to become her friend and make her heart beat wildly.
She strolled in running into the restrooms without greeting him as she changed into her gym clothes. But now that she had realized her feelings and embraced them it was getting harder to look at him without feeling her face heat up. The girls had come in as she had her face in her hands. "Word around says you paid someone to impersonate you, isn't that ridiculous?!" Levy said angrily throwing her bag on the floor. "It sure is", Lucy laughed. "You seem awfully in a good mood despite the rumors, Lucy", Mira noted as she slipped on the red shorts. Lucy hummed recognizing that she was indeed in a good mood, but not even she understood why.
"Did a development with Natsu happen?" Levy snickered. Lucy shook her head as she fixed her shirt. "Oi, Luce, are you made at me or something?!" Lucy heard Natsu yell into the restroom. Lucy blinked in confusion. "No! Why would I?!" she yelled back. "Well…You didn't come say hi to me before you changed like you normally do!" he said sounding a bit sheepish. Cana smirked suggestively. "Seems like Natsu, actually does have feelings for our, Luce, here", she chuckled. Lucy blushed as she shook her head. "Come on, Lucy. What kind of guy worries about a girl being mad at him because she doesn't greet them like normal? A guy only does that with his girlfriend. And don't give me that gibberish about best friends because a guy best friend usually waits long after to ask what's wrong", Levy pointe out as the girls nodded.
"I got to say, she's right, Lucy. He's never been as caring with anyone as he is with you", Erza smiled knowingly. Lucy remained silent before they decided to get out for practice. As she exited, Natsu took her into a hug. "N-Natsu?" she muttered. Mira was just giving her a thumbs up as her face was bright with glee. "Don't be mad. I didn't go after them", he muttered almost depressed. "I'm not mad. I just wanted to change quickly so I could talk to you, but uh, the girls started a conversation with me", she half lied. Natsu separated from her and grinned. "Well, that's a relief. I could never handle it if you ever hated me", he smiled softly. There it was again. That smile he only directed at her. Her heart began to thump wildly as she tried to look away. "Don't be stupid. I could never hate you", she muttered.
"Well if you two, are done with your lover's quarrel, we have to take her to practice", Cana winked. "W-We're not l-lovers!" they both stuttered in unison. Lucy could have sworn that as she was pulled away, she saw Natsu blush. "Must have been my imagination", she thought, tilting her head. The girls began to practice their routine as they tried to do a lift using Levy as the most petite of the group. She was startled by a hand wrapping around her waist. She could feel a chill run down her spine from the breath of the person. She pushed at the person's chest to see Cobra standing there with a smug grin. "What are you doing here?" she asked angrily. "Well I came to see my girlfriend", he chuckled. "I'm not your girlfriend!" she hissed. "By now I made it clear that you are to the whole school", he said with a shrug.
"I'll make my point clear now. I will never be your girlfriend", the blonde glared at him as the other girls neared her with also glares directed at the purple eyed teen. He only smile. "You say that now, but I will surey find a way to get around to you. You'll even beg me to make you my girlfriend", he warned her as he whispered a future threat in her ear. "Get out", Lucy muttered. She saw Natsu out of the corner of her eyes approaching with a menacing aura around him. Lucy panicked, she didn't want to involve Natsu. Cobra perked up at seeing her looking at the pink haired boy with worry. "So it's him? The one you want to be with?" he asked reading her like an open book. "No! Leave Natsu out of this, you understand?" she dead panned. "Why are you here, Cobra?" Natsu growled as he grabbed Lucy's wrist.
"Just wanted to say hi, is all", Cobra smirked as he rested his hands in his pocket. "Well, now you've said what you had to. You can leave our class", the pink haired teen informed him. Cobra only smiled more pleased if he could as he looked at Lucy sending her a wink with a promise of torture. He was up to something and now he perceived she had feelings for Natsu. Knowing him, he could do anything to her best friend, and she was scared. "Are you, okay?" he asked softly. Lucy looked at him as she nodded. "I don't think you should have gotten involved", Lucy muttered silently. "But he was obviously up to no good!" Natsu challenged. Lucy was getting angry by the second. Because of her inability to get rid of Cobra fast enough, Natsu was now in the line of danger.
"I'm not a weakling, Natsu! I can protect myself without your help. You aren't anyone to get into my problems all the time!" she yelled before she realized her words. Natsu was stunned silent. Lucy shook her head wanting to apologize, but her words caught in her throat. She only wanted him to be out of trouble, but she had crossed the line. "N-Natsu…I", she began to say, but the look of complete sadness on his face froze her once more. "No…I've known that I've always been just a burden to you…It took me so long to get you to be my friend. I must have been forcing this friendship on you since the beginning. You're right. I'm not anyone to get in your business. I'm sorry. I won't bother you anymore, Luce. I mean Lucy", he said with such betrayal in his eyes.
He ran back as Lucy tried to reach for him. "Natsu, wait!" she called out, but stopped herself. Maybe this was for the better. "What did I do to deserve this. Notice me already!" she cried silently as tears poured down her face. Levy came up to her and hugged her tightly. They had heard everything Cobra had said and they knew Lucy didn't mean it. But was this really the way to keep Natsu safe?
Crystal: Sorry guys. I'm being a great disappointment with this story, but I tried to reevaluate the story and changed it to make it more interesting.