Lucy went back to her class and silently sat down at her desk, all the time with her head hanging low.
"What happened to Blondie?"
"I heard that she went to the principal's office."
"Hmmm ... Maybe Makarov asked her to give him a little show, Tehehe"
"Gray?"
"Yeah, rubber head?"
"Shut the fuck up." Gray was taken aback by Natsu who got up to his feet and reached Lucy. Now the boy, who was sitting in front of Lucy's desk was so used to him taking his seat that he could feel Natsu's presence right behind him and he was already rolling out of his seat.
"Hey, is there anything wrong?" Natsu asked, sitting down on the chair and holding his face with his left palm on Lucy's desk. The girl who was still holding her head down, ignored him. She managed to take a pen and with a trembling hand she started drawing random circles on a blank note.
"L-Lucy-... y?" He asked, moving some locks of her bangs out of the way so he could look at her face. His eye widened when he saw her eyes wide open staring at the notebook in front of her.
What in the world happened to Lucy, the famous ice princess, to make her look at her notebook scared shitless for her own life?
The last period bell rang and Lucy jumped from her seat, took her bag which she closed up, let's say 2 minutes before the lesson even begun. She went towards Loki and took him by the tie pulling him out of the room quickly.
"H-hey, Lucy! Wait-"
"We don't have time to wait."
"Huh?"
"I'll explain everything when we get home. Now run!" The two teenagers ran as if they were followed by some crazy killer and once at home Lucy fell to her knees on the ground while Loki closed the door behind him and glided down along it.
"Why ... -Gasp- ... Did we ... -Cough- ... Run like crazy?" Loki said, putting a hand on his chest, trying to balance his breathing.
"Have...Have you talked with the others?"
"The others?"
"Spirits."
"No. I didn't have time to run away from school, we're in the same classroom, you should know that."
"Right..." Lucy said, standing up and going into the living room to sit in the armchair with her eyes closed, putting her arms on the armrests.
"So? Can you tell me that story now? All of it." The blonde girl opened her left eye to watch Loki sitting down on the couch with one leg over the other. A dead serious expression painted all over his face.
"Everything ... Everything, may be impossible."
"Why?"
"There's not enough time and it would only be a stupid waste of time." The boy frowned, feeling a little angry as Lucy straightened her position in the armchair.
"Listen to me, Loki. From now on you can't go back, anymore. Got that?" Loki nodded without saying anything else.
"Like I said before, you stellar spirits are temporarily safe with me but at the same time in a huge danger. I'm trying to protect you from someone ... A man. This man wants to use your powers, of the 12 constellations, to revive a dead person. "Lucy said, crossing her fingers under her nose as she seriously watched Loki swallow and look at her in surprise.
"B-bring back to life a dead person!?"
"Yes. In other words, he wants to sacrifice your lives together with that of a living human, which I fear is me, to bring the dead back to life."
"B-but, it's impossible!" Loki yelled, standing up with a clenched fist in front of him.
"You can't bring the dead back to life!"
"Well, it appears that in the end it's not so impossible." Lucy said calmly raising an eyebrow.
"There's a very old ritual in which, by grouping all the 12 keys and having a body with which to make the spiritual exchange, it is, indeed, possible to bring back to life the dead." She said, standing up and walking towards the library next to the fireplace. Her finger slid down some books before she stopped on a particular red one.
"To do this ritual, the spirits and the human body aren't enough. They also need the 12 stones representing constellations. Ram: Amethyst. Bull: Emerald. Twins: Topaz. Cancer: The moonstone. Lion: ... " And at this point Lucy stopped to look at Loki, who looked at her with trembling eyes.
"...The diamond. Virgin: Opal. Balance: The rodonite. Scorpion: Ruby. Sagittarius: Turquoise. Capricorn: Onyx. Aquarium, Sapphire. Fish: Hyaline quartz. Nowadays some stones, are very rare. I managed to hide the fish's Hyaline quartz, but I'm sure they would do anything they can, even travel around the world just to find a small piece of that particular rock. At any cost. "She said bitterly, closing the book and putting it back in his place.
"W-what does that mean?"
"That as long as they don't have all the stones, they won't come for us. Therefore we must put our plan in act before them, and destroy them as soon as possible."
"And how we do it?"
"I already have an idea, but it's dangerous." Loki looked at her, furrowing his eyebrows. As if all this story wasn't already sounding dangerous and crazy, but what followed out of Lucy's mouth, left Loki speechless.
"We'll wait for the right moment and I'll use Urano Meteoria to keep him away. While I keep him busy, you'll run to take the stones and destroy them. If by chance something goes wrong ... No ... I'll make sure that nothing goes wrong. My comrades' lives are on the line. I can't afford to lose them. Thank you, Virgo. "Lucy said seeing Virgo put a cup of tea on the coffee table.
"You're welcome, Princess."
"... Comrades?"
"... Yeah. I don't like to associate the spirits, to shields. I think they have feelings of their own...like everyone." Loki watched Lucy amazed, as she sipped her tea before looking at her cup in her hands with a sad look.
"I ... I don't want other people to lose their lives because of me ..." The boy glanced at Virgo who was behind the armchair with the tray in her right hand looking in front of her blankly. Come to think of it, it's the second time that he sees a spirit pass through its gate freely.
"Since when do you live alone with your spirits?"
".. Since ... A long ... A long time ago... However it's not important. I just want to know if you're going to accept your assignment." Lucy said seriously, raising her head and looking right into the guy's eyes.
"If you don't want to, I can freely go there myself and destroy the stones."
"W-well, I ..." He said, scratching his head and looking away from her.
"I need time to decide ..."
"... It's fine. I don't want to push you. When you've made your choice, tell me. But I heard ...that the other party has already started to make their moves." Lucy breathed, getting up and silently leaving the room.
The blonde went up to her room and threw herself, back first, on her immense cream colored canopy bed, with her left arm covering her eyes.
"Mama ..." Lucy whispered, biting her lip.
With a heavy sigh, the girl rose from the bed and began to undress. She went to her wardrobe and took a pair of tight blue jeans, an oversize one shoulder white t-shirt, with a black panther's face in the middle. She tied her hair in a messy bun on the left side of her head. She wore her black leather boots with 10 cm heels and she put on her beautiful blacks sunglasses, signed Gucci before looking in the mirror.
"Shit ..." She swore, starting to undress again.
Me and my stupid fashion tastes! Lucy thought muttering strange noises as she took off her shoes and threw her shirt somewhere in the room. She wore a pair of simple black sneakers. Okay, not so simple, they had a leopard pattern. A simple white tank top and on top of it, an old blue hoodie that reached her mid-thigh. She pulled the hood on her head and looked in the mirror again.
"Better." Coming out of her room she quickly ran down the stairs.
"Hey, Loki, I'm going out. Is there anything you want me to buy?"
"Ah, yes. I want some sugar popcorn, Coke, and-"
"Do you want me to buy the freakin' whole store?" Lucy glared at him, with one hand on her hips while the other was on the handle, eager to get out.
"Ehehe, no. I'm fine."
"And I would like those strawberry or orange flavored candies, that melts in your mouth, princess.." Virgo said from the living room. She watched as Loki screamed and threw some cards into the air. Apparently they were playing poker and Virgo was kicking Loki's ass.
She didn't go back to the stellar world? Lucy thought, confused.
"O-okay... see you later..."
"Bye!" Lucy closed the door behind her and putting her hands in her hoodie's pockets, she checked if she had her house keys, phone and her Celestial Spirit keys. Sighing, she came out of her small garden closing the gate behind her before walking down the street in order to go downtown.
There's so many people... Too many. Lucy thought, but it was normal that Magnolia's center, around that hour, was always packed with people from all over the world. But knowing all the streets, since by now she's been there for more than a month, she took a short cut that led to another main road yet not as overcrowded.
"Hey, Natsu. Isn't that Blondie?" Gray asked pointing with a hand holding a can of coke. The said boy suddenly turned towards where Gray was pointing and his bored expression immediately turned into a foolishly happy one.
"Natsuuuuu! Don't look at other girls, I'll become jealous!" Said a girl, who was tightly embracing Natsu's torso. Natsu looked down at her in disgust, while saying:
"Get outta my face, you're too damn sticky." At those words the girl ran away in tears, hurt by the teen's harsh words.
"Hey, Natsu you didn't have to be so harsh!" Gray snapped at him, putting his arms around two girls who were pulling on his shirt.
"Get lost, Gray." Natsu growled, putting his hands in his tight ripped black pants, moving the chains attached to his belt. He wore a pair of black riot boots, a plain black top that clung to his chest, perfectly showing his amazing abs and pecs. A cross necklace to top it all. And of course let's not forget about his typical scarf which was destroying his image, of a typical rebel.
Lucy went into a mini supermarket and took what they asked her to buy with a lost look. Finally her turn at the till showed up and the blonde put the stuff down on the counter. She reached for her jeans' back pocket to take her wallet and realized that she had forgotten it at home.
"Shit ..."
"Popcorn, candies and Coke. Hmm, something tells me that tonight you're gonna enjoy yourself a lot in front of the TV." Lucy jumped when she heard a voice whisper to her, next to her left ear. Looking back, she saw Natsu straighten up and smile at her.
"W-w-what are you doing-?!"
"Mister, put this too. I'll pay for everything." Natsu said putting a can of beer on the counter next to the other things.
"Wha-!?" Lucy couldn't speak anymore because the pink-haired rebel hushed her with his right hand's forefinger, while with the other free hand he took the bag.
"H-hey!"
"C'mon, Luce. Bye Mister."
"Goodbye, ehehee, youngsters these days.." Natsu left the shop, pulling Lucy's arm and waving at the old cashier.
"Pinky! Stop pulling me- Woah!" The male teen, forced the blonde girl to sit down on a bench in the middle of a park, before he, in turn, sat down beside her with his right arm on the bench behind Lucy's back and his right leg above the other, as he watched her amused.
"W-what?"
"Pff! I wouldn't have ever imagined to see you, go out shopping without your wallet. With what did you wanted to pay with? Your clothes ? Ahahaha."
"Enough. This is it." Lucy said, reaching her limit, before standing up just to be pulled down again by the wrist.
"Don't go. I didn't mean to insult you."
"Yeah, sure. You reaaally didn't mean to..." Lucy scoffed sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from him.
"Soooo." Natsu started to talk, leaning his head on his right palm, the one that was on the bench, and looked at her with a calm and soft gaze that held a strange glint.
"What's a stunningly beautiful young chick, doin' out in town, at this hour, hmm?"
"Definitely not flirting with an idiot who looks like he ran out of a madhouse."
"Hey!" Natsu said, feeling insulted.
" I didn't run out of no madhouse!"
"Oh, yeah? Said the one with pink hair and dressed like a maniac."
"For your information it's not pink! It's salmon, plus I'm not dressed like a maniac! This is my style. Hey, tell me. I look badass, don't I?" Natsu said showing his biceps. Lucy turned towards him and her chocolate brown eyes wandered from the top of his hair half way down his chest, focusing on his well-defined abs.
"Hey, earth callin' pervert. My eyes are up here." Natsu said after a couple of seconds, making Lucy get out of her temporary daze.
"W-what? Me? P-pervert? Hah, said the one who goes around with a simple tight tank top. You're just screaming for attention..."
"One, you're the one who looked at my abs with a creepy hungry stare. Two, I'm not the only one who came out in a tank top, even you are wearing one. And three. Tell me." Natsu said, approaching Lucy's face.
"What were you thinking while staring at me?" The blonde teen swallowed and backed away a little, blushing a really hot pink, like Natsu's hair.
"N-nothing ..." Lucy stammered, looking away from the guy in front of her.
"Hmmm? Ehehe, pervy Lucy." Natsu said, taking her chin between his thumb and forefinger and so turning her head toward him.
"Hey, Luce ..." He began to whisper, moving closer to her face.
Lucy was petrified. She didn't even dare to breathe, because being so close to him was already too much. Feeling his warm breath reaching her plump pink lips, almost made her go insane.
"You ..." He slowly said in a long breath, just above Lucy's lips.
At that moment everything stopped. Lucy's heart that not long ago was practically jumping in her throat, her surprised big brown eyes and her shy and frightened breath that, every so often, came out of her desiring, partially open, mouth.
Just another inch and their lips would have touched.
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"Y-ya want something to drink? I'm goin' to get something." Natsu said suddenly, moving away from Lucy at arm's length, without making eye contact. He quickly stood up and went towards a vending machine.
Lucy was still frozen in that position. With a trembling hand she laid the tips of her fingers on her glossy pink lips, finally breathing. If she could have seen herself now she would have sworn that was at least 50 shades darker than Erza's hair.
K-kiss ... He was about to k-kiss me ...? Lucy thought running her fingers on her lips sheepishly, still feeling the warmth of his oddly hot breath.
On the other hand.
"Stupid!" Natsu growled, punching the machine and making it wobble. He then slammed his forehead on it, clutching his racing heart in his chest with his other free hand.
"W-w-what was I about do ..."