Chapter One: The Start of Something New
Now who'd have ever thought that
we'd both be here tonight?
Oh yeah
And the world looks so much brighter
with you by my side
The music pounded through Natsu's veins as the last notes of the song faded away and the crowd erupted into a series of screams. The band members on stage smiled as they tossed various mementos to their mud-splattered fans; picks, drumsticks, water bottles. Hands groped desperately at the air, his own among them.
He wasn't really paying attention. His own voice joined in with the noise as he let go of all the energy the atmosphere of the festival has stirred within him. His head tipped back and he squeezed his eyes shut as he cheered.
When the band finally left the stage, Natsu looked around. He stood on his tip toes, trying to find Gajeel's unruly mane of black hair in the sea of sweat-soaked festival-goers. When Natsu couldn't spot him, he decided to head back to the tent.
Still on high from the previous band's performance, Natsu made his way almost absently through the crowd. Most people lingered, waiting eagerly for the next act to come on, leading him to gently push a few people out of his way. Some people decided to sit during the break, not caring about the mud beneath them. Others remained on the shoulders of their friends, basking in the heat of the sun that had come and gone for most of the weekend.
One of the shoulder-riding music lovers caught his attention.
She was perched on someone a few people in front of him, and she was stunning. He altered his route in order to take in more of her. She was screaming as though the band were still on stage, making rock signs with her fists as she waved her arms in the air. Her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail, but strands fell loosely on her sunburned shoulders. A pink crop-top exposed her stomach, where someone had painted a peace sign in neon green paint around her belly button.
He grinned as she wobbled on a dark-haired boys shoulders, but the blonde's own expression turned from laughter to panic as she lost her balance.
Instinctively, Natsu pushed through the crowd and got to her just in time to soften her fall with his own body. The two of them fell to the ground in an ungraceful heap.
"Oooooowwww," The blonde groaned from on top of him.
She raised her head, and a splotch of mud had somehow made its way onto her cheek. Natsu stared at her in bewilderment as she looked at him, eyes wide, then giggled.
He could feel the heat in his cheeks as he became aware of her body pressed against his. He'd thrown his tattered shirt away long ago, and surprisingly he didn't feel self-conscious going shirtless among the energetic crowd. Especially not now that the pretty blondes' hands roamed over his bare chest. Natsu quickly sat up before he became too absorbed with her wandering hands, tightening the scarf around his neck before helping her up and sheepishly apologising.
"No, no, no," She smiled at him, "Don't be sorry! It was Gray's fault. He's so meeeean."
The girl pouted and Natsu felt a smirk pulling at his lips. He had no idea who Gray was, but he was very glad that they'd chosen to shrug her off their shoulders, for whatever reason.
Seeing his smirk, the girl's laughter died off and she bit her lip in thought. She stepped closer, invading his personal space. His breath hitched when she placed a hand back on his chest.
"Thanks," She told him, her voice low, before leaning up on her tip-toes and placing a light kiss on his cheek.
Her lips were sticky with pink lip gloss, and he found himself wondering what they tasted like when she drew back.
Her hand remained on his chest.
"Y'know, you're pretty cute," She mused aloud.
"Erm…" He had no idea what to reply. He'd never been called cute before.
Before he had chance to formulate a reply, the girl stepped forward once more. Her arms snaked around his neck, and Natsu quickly discovered that her lip gloss was cherry flavoured.
She kissed him deeply, her tongue tracing the seam of his lips before delving into his mouth. He wound his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him as he returned her fervent kisses. The feeling she gave him far excelled that of the music ringing in his ears, or the way bass shook his bones when the band had been on stage. He had no idea who this girl was, but suddenly he felt like this whole weekend had been leading up to meeting her.
The girl twined her fingers in his hair, and just as her nails began to scrape against his scalp in the most teasing way, the kiss ended. The girl was pulled away from him and Natsu was left gasping for air. When he looked up, she was pressed against the bare chest of the dark haired boy whose shoulders she'd been sitting on earlier, an arm wrapped protectively around her waist.
"Geez, Lucy," The dark haired boy scowled, "Can't leave you alone for two minutes."
The girl- Lucy- stuck her tongue out at him, laughing when his frown grew. She removed his arm from her waist, her gaze turning back to Natsu with that dazzling smile as she stumbled back to him.
The boy grabbed her wrist.
"C'mon Lucy, we have to go."
"Graaaaaaay," Lucy whined, squirming in his grasp, "You're acting like my daaaad."
"Your dad thinks we're at a budding entrepreneur's conference," Gray scowled, "I think I'm showing you a pretty great time in comparison to him."
Natsu watched with raised eyebrows as Lucy tried to dislodge herself from Gray. He would have intervened, but it was clear other boy was being gentle with her, despite her protests. Natsu wondered at the nature of their relationship, praying he hadn't just made out with someone else's girlfriend.
Eventually, Gray grew tired of Lucy's protests and slung her unceremoniously over his shoulder, much to Natsu's shock.
"It's not what it looks like!" Lucy called back to him as Gray carted her away.
He watched her disappear into the crowd, banging her fists against Gray's back even has her protests died off into laughter.
Natsu's lips tingled.
The rest of the weekend was spent looking for her between sets, or hoping to catch a glimpse of her in the queue for a hotdog. Her name rang in his mind like a song. He wanted to see her again.
He wanted to thank her for his first kiss.
Natsu shook the memory from his head and returned to the task at hand.
Packing for camp.
God, how long had it been since that kiss? Two months? No, he was sure it was three. Every day for three months, his thoughts had wandered back to that kiss. To that girl. He'd even wrote a few songs about it, much to his own embarrassment. Not that he'd ever shown anyone of course. And he was pretty sure he'd throw himself out of a window if Gajeel ever found out. Mostly because Gajeel believed that Natsu had hallucinated the whole occurrence, despite the fact Natsu repeatedly assured him that he had not been on drugs.
Speaking of the devil…
"You packed all yer shit yet Salamander?" Gajeel asked as he barged into Natsu's tiny bedroom.
"Almost," Natsu reassured him before turning to back to his bed to pack his last item.
Tenderly, Natsu plucked it from his bed. His most prized possession. A gleaming red fender squire, with custom artwork of a dragon on the neck. A gift from Igneel on his birthday last month. His precious, his baby. Fervor.
Gajeel said it was dumb- Fervor the fender. But Natsu liked it. Sure, the name sounded funny, but the word itself appealed to him. It meant earnestness of feeling, but it also meant intense heat. The word had instantly caught his attention when he'd first learned it in English class. He wanted his music to make people feel things. Real emotion. And every time he delved deep into his own little world of creation, he felt as though every note burned within him, burning to be realized. Fervor was the perfect name. It was everything he wanted his music to be.
Plus, he called her Fev for short.
He lowered the guitar into her case gently and closed the lid before handing it to Gajeel to go put in Igneel's trunk. His dad had taken the day off flying to the rescue in his helicopter to see them both off to camp, and Natsu was grateful.
"Careful with her!" Natsu chided Gajeel as he heard the case hit the door on his cousin's way out.
Chuckling at his cousin's foul-mouthed reply, Natsu picked up his duffle bag full of clothes before casting one last look around his room. A few posters were hanging limply off the walls, and would no doubt be on the floor when he got back, but everything else seemed to be in order.
From his basket in the corner, Happy let out a curious meow. His blue cat stared at him, as though daring Natsu to even try to leave without him. He didn't want to leave the little guy, he really didn't, but…
Natsu bit his lip and groaned. He stormed over to Happy, kneeling in front of him and opening his duffle bag.
"Alright get in you ol' sour puss," Natsu helped the feline into the bag, "But keep quiet until we get to camp!"
Once Happy was safely tucked inside his bag, Natsu left his room, slamming the door shut behind him. Making sure to brush any incriminating cat hairs off his black skinny jeans as he headed for the kitchen, where he found Igneel searching for his car keys.
Igneel was an impressive man, Natsu knew. He was "built like a brick shit house", as Uncle Metalicana so eloquently put it, and his crop of red hair was truly striking to see. Despite being impressively sized, however, Igneel was obviously exhasuted. Natsu's father worked long hours as a helicopter rescue pilot. Those long hours could prevent them from running into each other for weeks at a time, but Natsu understood. He knew Igneel still loved him.
"Heeeey, what's this?" Igneel asked, coming towards him with a devilish grin.
Natsu had a brief moment of panic. Had he been caught cat-napping already? His fear was quelled when Igneel merely swiped the grey beanie from Natsu's head.
"Daaad," Natsu chuckled as he reached for his hat, "give it back!"
"No!" Igneel laughed as he held the offending item out of his sons reach, "You wear this damn thing all the time. You're not taking some smelly tea-coasty to camp!"
"Awr, c'mon Pops!" Natsu whined, still reaching for his hat, "You know I hate my hair!"
"And why's that son?" Igneel asked just as Natsu finally managed to tear the hat from his father's grasp.
"Because it's fucking pink," Natsu stated as he shoved his hat back over his hair.
Igneel swatted him over the head for his bad language, causing Natsu to straighten his beanie once more. He grinned sheepishly up at his father, nervously fiddling with the studs in his ears as Igneel scowled at him.
"Yo' old man," Gajeel's head popped into the kitchen, "We leaving or what?"
Igneel sighed, shaking his head as he patted himself down, still searching for his keys. Natsu laughed openly before retrieving them from the fruit bowl on the kitchen bench and offering them to his dad.
He'd sure miss Igneel over the summer, but for some reason, he couldn't wait to get to camp.
"Jesus, Lucy, I'd like to leave for camp today at some point!"
Lucy smiled to herself as the wind carried Gray's complaints up to her open window. She cast an eye over her neatly packed suitcase, mentally checking things of her list, before zipping it closed and skipping over to the window.
"But my case is so heavy," She pouted as she hung out of the window.
From the driver's seat of his beaten up Ford Escort, Gray rolled his eyes. Lucy laughed as she watched her grumpiest friend pull himself out of the stuttering car and slam the door behind him. He stomped up her driveway, muttering as he went. It wasn't long before she heard the front door open. She waved to Loke who sat in the backseat of Gray's car before coming away from the window.
Lucy couldn't help her excited smile as she flung her satchel over her shoulder, swinging open her bedroom door in order to pull her case onto the landing. She met Gray at the top of the stairs.
"Excited?" He grinned at her once he noticed her smile.
"Yes!" She beamed back, "I just want to be on the road already!"
"We would be if someone didn't take so long getting ready," Gray joked as he pried her suitcase from her, grunting when he hoisted it up in order to carry it down the stairs.
"Excuse me, but we both know you're the one that's running late."
"Actually, that was Loke's fault," Gray informed her, slamming her case down at the bottom of the stairs with little regard for the recently polished hardwood floors. "It took him a good twenty minutes to say goodbye to all those girls at his door."
Lucy laughed at the thought. She was glad she hadn't been there to fall victim to Loke's… entourages' jealous gazes. She was just about to tell Gray as much when her father walked in.
"Ah, Mr. Fullbuster," Jude Heartfilia greeted, "I trust you will take good care of my daughter while the two of you are at Business Camp?"
Jude Heartfilia was many things. A wealthy business man, the owner of a rather impressive moustache, unable to properly show emotion. He was a little awkward as a father, like he'd never fully adapted himself to the role, but he was loved by his daughter. And above all, he was incredibly easy to fool.
As the heiress to the Heartfilia fortune, Lucy's father had set notions as to what her life would be like. He wanted her to blossom into a successful business woman so that when the time came, she was ready to run the family company. Did Lucy want this?
Hell no.
Lucy had felt a deep rooted passion for music since her early days. She'd danced to her mother's records and begged every birthday for singing lessons. It was all she had ever wanted to do. But Jude, like most parents these days, did not deem the arts a worthy career path for his daughter. Before her mother had died, Lucy had managed to persuade him to allow her to attend piano lessons. He'd only agreed because he believed it showed discipline, something that was encouraged in the world of business. But as she became more skilled on the piano, her unyielding desire to be a musician only grew.
Unfortunately, Lucy's path to becoming a musician had been halted abruptly. She had joined an orchestra- allowed because it demonstrated the ability to work in sync with others- but had only been part of it for a year when the tragedy struck.
She and Gray had quit orchestra after that. It was what had brought them together, but they had no passion for it anymore. Not after their mothers had died together in a car accident. Gray had abandoned his violin completely. Its case gathering dust in the loft of his shared apartment, untouched in years.
It had been hard, but together, they found new passions.
Gray had taken up the drums while Lucy found herself writing songs. When the words had begun to spill forth onto the page, Lucy had found herself able to return to the piano again. The words were nothing without the music to go with it.
Throw in two new friends and the taste for adventure and where did they all want to go?
Fairy Tail.
The best music orientated summer camp in a hundred mile radius; a place dedicated to helping young people find their sound and hone their talents.
Would Lucy's father allow her to go to a music orientated summer camp?
Hell no.
Those had been his exact words. And so, Business Camp was born.
"Don't I take care of her always?" Gray joked to her father. Lucy noticed him trying not to wince when Jude firmly shook his hand.
"Son, in that outfit, you look like you're about to kidnap her."
Jude raised a scrutinising eyebrow at Gray, who looked down at his faded Fall Out Boy t-shirt and laughed nervously. Lucy felt sorry for Gray, truly she did. But honestly, after his extreme emo phase a few years back, she wondered how her father could protest to anything Gray wore now.
"You won't make a very good impression turning up to Business Camp like that," Jude berated him.
"I know, Sir. This is just for the drive," Gray grinned, "Lucy will be changing too."
Lucy looked down at her own attire. A t-shirt so big on her it hung off one shoulder tucked into denim shorts. She looked back up and echoed Gray's nervous laughter from before.
"Obviously," She smiled at her father.
Jude seem to approve of their decision. After checking his watch, he gestured to Gray to continue hauling Lucy's case to the car –much to Gray's annoyance- while he said farewell to his daughter.
"Have a safe trip," He smiled before pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"I will Father," She waved as she retreated to the door, "Don't work too hard while I'm gone!"
She heard Jude laugh as she closed the door behind her. She felt bad for lying to him, but her excitement blotted out the feeling. Gray was slamming the trunk closed as she skipped down the stairs.
"Business Camp, here we come!" Gray raised a fist in the air.
Lucy laughed as she opened the passenger door and scooted in. In the back seat, Loke was sprawled out and cradling his guitar as though it were a lover.
"Shouldn't you make room for Cana?" She suggested as she fastened her seat belt.
"We're meeting her there. She left early with Gildarts," Loke explained, "Man, I can't believe he got us reduced fees because he's teaching. Cana's dad is so awesome."
"He said it was his present for the two of you graduating," Gray said, his voice muffled by the shirt he was pulling off.
Lucy groaned.
"Gray, must you?"
"C'mon Lucy, you know the AC doesn't work," Gray complained as he forced the car to shudder to life, "Would you rather I do it while I was driving?"
"Hey," Loke interrupted, leaning forward so that his head was between the two front seats, "Does your dad still think the four of us are going to Business Camp?"
"Yup," Lucy laughed as Gray pulled away from her house.
She didn't even look back.
"Man, your old man sure is gullible," Loke slumped back in his seat, "I mean, really, Business Camp doesn't even sound real. And if it was, I can guarantee you that Cana wouldn't go. Not even if you paid double her weight in booze."
"I can guarantee none of us would go," Lucy assured him.
As they drove out of town, Lucy retrieved Gray's iPod from the glove compartment. Loke strummed idly on his guitar while she leafed through the music, looking for the song she knew would fit their mood.
When she found it, she plugged it into the speaker and hit play.
Gray groaned.
"What is this?" He gestured to the speakers as the music flooded through the car, "2009?"
"Graaaaaay," Lucy whined playfully, "You know you still love it."
The song continued as she watched Gray trying very hard not to look at her. Behind her Loke was biting his lip to keep from grinning. When the chorus kicked in, just as she'd guessed, none of them could fight it any longer.
No one is as lucky as us
We're not at the end, oh, but we've already won
No, no one is as lucky as us
Is as lucky as us
The three of them screamed the lyrics together through their laughter as they sped down the highway. Lucy knew right there and then, laughing and singing in their incredibly environmentally unfriendly car, that she was lucky. She was spending the summer with her three best friends in a place she'd always dreamed of going to.
Who knew what adventures awaited her?
"Lucy wake up. We're here."
Gray kept shaking her until she eventually opened her eyes. His words hadn't fully registered, so when the car passed under an arch bearing the Fairy Tail symbol, she jumped up so high she almost banged her head.
"We're here!" She squealed.
"I literally just said that," Gray scowled.
Lucy was practically hanging out of the passenger side window trying to get a good look at the place. The camp was surrounded by a large lake on one side and trees on the other. The excited chatter of other new arrivals drowned out the sound of the birds flitting through the trees, but Lucy still caught glimpses of them in the afternoon sun light. Gray parked in the gravel parking lot outside of the Reception cabin before she could get a better look at the place.
As the three of them got out of the car, the doors to the reception cabin burst open, drawing everyone in the parking lots attention. Parents of the camps younger attendees stared in shock as an older camp member burst through the doors wearing only a bikini top and cropped jeans. Lucy laughed at their expressions.
"Hey ass-wipes!" Cana called from the top of the steps, "Who's ready for two months of drinking, partying, drinking, and getting laid!?"
"I thought we were here to learn the true meaning of music?" Loke replied skeptically, ignoring the horrified glances of nearby parents.
"I know I'm here to party and show off my drumming skills," Cana winked at them. She drew out the 's' on 'skills', making Lucy suspect she was a little tipsy already.
"And I'm here to show you what a real drummer looks like," Gray called back, gesturing to himself.
Cana stuck both her middle fingers up at him, completely oblivious to the heavy parental presence in the parking lot. Lucy shook her head in exasperation. Cana and Gray's drumming rivalry was almost as infamous back at school as Cana's drinking habits. Almost.
The fourth and final member of their notorious clique barrelled down the steps as Lucy stepped forward to properly greet her. Cana tackled her in a bear hug, making Lucy squeal and laugh.
"Me and my girl are gonna get us some nice tail," Cana muttered to herself as she squeezed Lucy, "Some hotties. What are you into Lucy? Singers? A bassist? Maybe a cello player?"
"Cana," Lucy whined, "Get off!"
"What?" Cana laughed as Lucy disentangled herself, "I know all the guys at camp are gonna love these."
Lucy felt her face turn red as Cana groped her boobs. She swatted her friend's hands away, but it was too late. Parents were already shielding their children's eyes.
"Aahh, you guys are here!" Another voice called from the reception cabin.
At the top of the stairs stood Cana's father, Gildarts. Lucy had always liked Cana's father. Now even more so since he got them reduced entry to Fairy Tail. A part of her wondered if he had taken the job here over the summer because of how much he knew his daughter and her friends wanted to go. It seemed like the sort of thing he would do.
"Hey Mr. Clive," Lucy smiled at him as he reached the bottom of the steps.
"Lucy, how many times? Call me Gildarts," He smiled in return. He then turned his attention to Gray and Loke, who still had yet to unload the car, "You guys unpacked the ladies luggage yet? C'mon, I'll show ya where you can take her stuff, and then I'll show you where you guys are at."
"We do we have to lug around Lucy's stuff?" Gray frowned, "Have you actually lifted her suitcase? I swear she packed her whole wardrobe!"
"Be a gentleman!" Gildarts scolded him as he opened the trunk, "And put a damn shirt on, you're giving that girl over there a heart attack!"
Lucy and Cana turned to where Gildarts had gestured to. Sure enough, across the parking lot a delicate looking blue haired girl was staring at Gray's bare chest, her face completely red. When Cana burst out laughing, the girls blush only deepened.
"C'mon," Cana beamed when she finally got her laughter in check, "We'll head over to the auditorium while your chaperone is sorting your shit out-"
"I'm not her chaperone!" Gray called from behind them.
"-My old man says he's got a heck of a show planned for orientation," Cana continued, ignoring Gray's outburst completely, "I wanna get front row seats."
Lucy let Cana pull her along with a smile on her face. This was it! Once orientation was over, she'd be an official Fairy Tail Camper! Along with a couple hundred other kids. She'd have to make friends in the crowd.
Natsu shuffled awkwardly as more and more people filed into the outdoor auditorium. He was anxious for this to be over. It wasn't that he didn't want to be here- of course he did, he'd been waiting for this for months- it was just that he was anxious to get to his cabin. They'd been intrusted to leave their bags at reception, to be taken to their cabin during orientation.
Happy was still in the bag.
He'd managed to hold on to one of two of his most prized possessions he'd brought along though. Apparently, instruments didn't count as luggage. Or the camp managers understood how precious they were to their players. Either way, Fev was strapped safely to Natsu's back in her padded case.
"Excuse me," A soft voice tapped his shoulder. "Can you take that off? It's kinda hard to see."
Natsu turned to see a small girl with wild blue hair smiling at him brightly. He muttered a few apologies and took his guitar from his shoulders, resting it against his feet instead.
"Thanks!" She grinned, and then gestured to the figure standing beside him, "Anything you can do about that giant?"
Beside him, Gajeel turned and scowled at the girl.
"Ain't my fault you can't see, Shrimp."
The girl pouted at the back of Gajeel's head as he turned away from her.
"Unfortunately, no," Natsu sighed. "But if you can find a hack saw, I'll be willing to make him short for you."
The girl giggled, the sound turning into a laugh when she noticed Gajeel's annoyed glance.
"I'm Levy," She introduced herself.
"Nice to meet you," Natsu smiled shyly, "I'm-"
But he never got the chance to introduce himself. The giant speakers by the stage sent a crackling sound out the audience, effectively silencing them. Everyone gathered waited a moment, and then a voice drifted out. A voice Natsu knew quite well.
Is this real life?
Or is this just fantasy?
"Dude," Gajeel grasped his arm in a death grip, his eyes fixed on the stage. "It's not."
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.
"Dude," Natsu began to grin, "it is."
Open your eyes,
"Oh my god!" Levy squealed behind them, "I love this song!"
Apparently, everybody else did too. The music drifted out from the speakers, and the longer the song went on, the more people began to sing. By the time the second verse was over, over half the auditorium was singing.
At the third verse, Natsu and Gajeel's attention was drawn from the stage when Levy began to do her own dramatic rendition.
"Mama, just killed a man," she sang along dramatically, her arms making wild gun gestures, "Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead."
Natsu glanced at Gajeel to see his cousin watching her with a strange mix of horror and fascination. Levy didn't even notice him staring at her, she was so absorbed in the song.
By now, everyone who knew the song was singing along. Some of them doing so a lot like Levy. The people who weren't singing along mostly consisted of younger kids who had no idea that they were listening to one of the greatest songs ever made.
His own voice joined the crowd and Natsu couldn't help the giddy feeling that rose in his chest. This. This was what he lived for. That feeling that music gave you, like you were a part of something. Something very alive.
His fingers twitched as the guitar solo begun. He was concentrating so much on mimicking the notes against his thighs that he almost missed the appearance of a man on stage. He was a pretty big guy, his muscled chest clearly defined by the shirt that clung to him. He was grinning cockily as he brushed back some of the brown hair off his face.
"Are we ready for this kids?" He spoke into the microphone over the last notes of the solo, "Are we ready?"
The air was practically humming with energy and excitement when the guitar stopped. The piano picked up. Natsu grinned as everyone seemed to be bobbing their heads in time with the notes. When the vocals kicked back in, the man on stage waved his arms dramatically and pointed the microphone to the audience.
Everyone screamed the words at him.
I see a little silhouette of a man,
SCARAMOUCHE, SCARAMOUCHE, WILL YOU DO THE FANDANGO?
The man on stage gestured for certain parts of the audience to sing different parts of the song. Everyone became carried away with the music. Natsu forgot all his nervousness about starting camp and just let the music guide him. He was singing dramatically with strangers throughout the whole song. Even Gajeel seemed less intimidating when he was screaming Bohemian Rhapsody at you. Well, Levy seemed to think so at least.
When the song was over, people cheered despite their breathless laughter. The man on stage gave an over exaggerated bow and then laughed into his microphone.
"That was amazing you guys," He said, and Natsu was included to agree. "My name is Gildarts Clive. Welcome to Fairy Tail!"
This got another cheer, perhaps even louder than before. This Gildarts guy sure knew how to get things going. After introducing himself, he went on to explain that he was the camp's residence guidance councillor, and that he could likely be found in his office should anyone ever need him. After explaining where his office was, Gildarts then asked them to bid a warm welcome to the man in charge, Makarov Dryer.
Natsu still couldn't believe it. He'd been to Fairy Tail a few times now, but this was the first time the director had been well enough to personally be there. It was one of the biggest draws for the camp; that Fairy Tail was ran by the infamous Makarov Dryer, the former guitarist to legendary band: The Ten Wizard Saints. But reading about it and actually seeing a living legend in the flesh were to entirely different things.
Reading about him was more impressive.
Somehow, all the photos didn't manage to translate how tiny Makarov actually was. Natsu could barely see him from this distance away!
"Jeez," Levy whispered behind him, "He's shorter than me!"
Natsu bit back a laugh as Makarov welcomed them all and explained how things went down here at Fairy Tail. He wasn't nearly as interesting as Gildarts had been, and Natsu soon found himself wondering if Happy had suffocated in his bag yet.
The next thing he knew, the show was over and it was time to make their way to the cabins. Natsu and Gajeel had been lucky enough- to use 'lucky' as an extremely loose term- to be roomed together, so he simply tried to follow his cousin's unruly mane of hair through the crowd. Unfortunately, with all the people pushing and shoving, Natsu managed to lose sight of him pretty easily.
He stopped at the open field near the auditorium, standing on his tip toes to look over the crowd for Gajeel. Natsu's grip was tight on the straps of his guitar case as people jostled to get past him. Where had that bastard run off to?
A weight collided with his back and he stumbled slightly.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" A light voice cried worriedly as slim fingers clasped his arm to steady him.
Natsu turned to tell them it was fine, but his breath stopped short when he realised who had bumped into him. Pale skin, blonde hair, even those damned short shorts.
"Lucy?" He breathed.
This couldn't be happening. It was a miracle. The girl from the festival. His first kiss. She was here.
Lucy cocked her head to the side slightly, a small furrow appearing between her brows.
"Do I know you?" She asked politely.
His heart sank.
"I-I-" He stuttered.
"God damn it Lucy!" A skimpily clad brunette appeared from the crowd and grabbed her arm, "Hurry up! I want us to be sharing a bunk!"
Lucy laughed and let herself be pulled along, no doubt desperate to get away from his blubbering idiocy.
"See ya around!" She waved at him.
Natsu just stood there in shock.
He couldn't form the words. He couldn't even feel satisfied that he could prove to Gajeel that the girl he'd been pining over for months was actually real. The girl he'd written countless songs about was at Fairy Tail. His muse.
But she didn't remember him.
A/N: Hello and welcome to the band camp AU! THIS IS A COLAB WITH NOT-JUST-ANY-FANGIRL so send her some love for this (if you love it) too! If you expect teenage dorkiness with some classic songs thrown in there then you shall not be disappointed. We've made a playlist to go along with this fic on spotify, and you can find a link to it on both mine and not-just-any-fangirl's tumblr! We hope you enjoy this story!
- HN & NJAF