Chapter Five
Gajeel and Natsu were still arguing when the police chief came back into the room and watched the scene a few minutes before making his presence known. He casually strolled to his desk before plopping down and waited for the arguing to stop. It was the blonde who noticed him first and she pulled on the blue haired girl's sleeve a bit to gather her attention who in turn noticed the older gentleman and hissed at the burlier boy that was in the room before finally yanking on his long black hair. The chief raised his coffee cup to his mouth to hide his slight amusement of the whole thing. He felt better now that he had his coffee.
"What the hell Shrimp?!" Gajeel turned onto the little bluenette. Levy rolled her eyes at the tall boy before casually pointing to the police chief who was still nursing his cup of coffee. Gajeel turned to the graying man and smirked a little. "So how long is Salamander going to be in jail?" He asked casually.
"God dammit Metal Head! It was a fucking accident!" Natsu wailed beside him with a growl.
"That depends on the owner of the car and whether or not they decide to press charges." The chief replied, shrugging.
"Who's the owner anyway?" Levy asked curiously, her eyes darting to Lucy who wasn't paying a bit of attention as she looked at Natsu. Lucy of course couldn't help herself, not only was he the one person she always wanted to meet because he was the lead singer of her favorite band, but also because she could immediately tell that his pink hair was all natural! She thought he was just dying his hair for his image for 'Roar', guess she was wrong. She tuned back into the conversation at hand only to notice everyone staring at her.
"Uhh..." She stuttered a bit. "What? Did something else happen?"
"The Chief here just told us the name of the person that the car is actually registered too." Levy casually spoke up, a mischievous glint in her eye.
"Who?"
They turned back to the police chief who cleared his throat, a smirk on his face. "A Miss Luigi Heartfilia..." He finally stated proudly.
Lucy blinked a bit before she felt a burning sensation spread across her cheeks. She opened her mouth, a retort on the tip of her tongue but a loud voice interrupted her.
"Luigi?!" Natsu guffawed. Tanned arms clutched his stomach as loud snorts and laughs escaped him, his body shaking. "W-who in their right mind would name their kid L-Luigi?!" He continued to laugh, not even noticing the dark aura emanating from the back of the group. "They must have hated their k-kid!" Natsu laughed some more.
That was the last straw for Lucy as she whipped her head to look at the pink haired boy, a glare on her beautiful features. It was also at that moment that Natsu noticed her, like, really noticed her. The girl had long blonde hair that was flowing down her back, reaching her waist, it looked like spun gold and sunshine in his opinion. Her eyes were like melted chocolate, so warm and inviting; except for at that moment. Her eyes, as she stared him down, a scowl on her full lips were cold and harsh like a storm. Her brown eyes holding disdain and a hint of embarrassment. Natsu cocked his head to the side, loving how her little pert nose scrunched up in anger. Despite the fact that the girl looked as if she was about to unleash a bottle of rage on him, Natsu couldn't help but grin at her. She was just so cute!
"My parents didn't hate me!" Lucy snapped at the pink haired boy before turning to the police chief, an almost proud tilt to her head as she stared him down. "My name is Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia." She stepped forward from the back and met the man at his desk.
"Lucy?" The chief looked at the girl who had a frown on her face as she nodded. The chief frowned himself, "I said Luigi."
Lucy's right eye twitched as she opened up her wallet and took out her driver's license. "I assume you have the driver's license and all the information?"
"I do."
"Then compare it to this. I can assure you that the name on that paper is a typo because my name is Lucy!"
She then tossed her driver's license down on his desk and the chief picked it up, comparing first the photo to the copy he received and noticed it was the same girl. Gulping a bit he checked the ID number and noticed that it was the same too. Finally he checked the name and indeed the names were the same! The police chief flushed, his cheeks burning. He had read her name wrong! It wasn't even a typo!
"It uh... seems... I was... er... mistaken..." The police chief grumbled.
"I'm sorry? Could you speak up a bit?" Lucy questioned with a sickly sweet voice.
"I stand corrected!" The officer glared at the blonde haired girl. "I misread the name, it is indeed Lucy Heartfilia."
Lucy nodded and then turned around to give Natsu a glare, watching as he gulped a little, a tiny grin still on his features. Lucy sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming on.
"She's not broken again is she?"
"Gajeel!"
A resounding slap alerted Lucy to her new friends and she couldn't help the giggle that escaped her mouth. Her eyes widening, she slapped a hand to her mouth when another giggle escaped her. Moments later, Lucy was full on laughing at the whole situation. A smile graced her face as she walked up to Natsu and held out her hand. She watched as he hesitantly grabbed it, a curious look on his face.
"It's nice to meet you, my name is Lucy Heartfilia, the owner of the car you stole."
"Natsu Dragneel... the person who stole your car..." The pinkette shook her hand before she swung around and looked back at the chief.
"Could you let him go please? I won't be pressing any charges." She casually strolled back to the desk and grabbed her driver's license, watching as the chief sputtered.
"No charges? Excuse me ma'am but he stole your car!"
"And you have retrieved it." Lucy shrugged. "I don't want to press any charges." She repeated.
"He still resisted arrest!" the police chief said proudly. "That's a misdemeanor!"
"Um... but from what I understand..." Levy spoke up. "You have to charge him with it and he spends a night in jail unless someone posts bail, and then they just wait for their court date."
The police chief's face grew to a bright red, and then to purple as he looked at the group of people and finally sputtering out. He sighed heavily before standing up with his keys and unlocking the cuffs on Natsu who immediately stood up with a grin, silently rubbing his slightly red wrists. They all watched as the chief went back to his desk and brought out a pad of paper and wrote some things down on it before tearing it free and handing it out to the pink haired boy who grabbed it. "Bail is 10,000 dollars! What the hell man!"
"You're famous." The chief shrugged, a slight smirk to his features. "I'm sure you can afford it."
"Why you-"
"I can pay." Lucy spoke up surprising all of the occupants.
"What?" The chief and Natsu said at the same time and then glared at each other.
"I said," Lucy cleared her voice a little. "I can pay. All of it actually."
"All of it?" The chief asked quietly.
Lucy smiled, a teasing glint in her eye. "All of it."
"Woohoo! Freedom!" Natsu screamed out as he ran away from the police station.
"Natsu! Don't forget about your court date!" Levy called out to the pink haired boy. The group saw him wave indicating that he heard before he disappeared around a corner. Levy then turned around to face Lucy, an apologetic smile on her face. "I apologize about him... he doesn't think before acting... I'll let Erza know about what happened today."
"Erza?" Lucy questioned, remembering Gray had mentioned the name earlier.
"The band's manager."
"But I thought Gray talked to her already?"
An amused snort escaped Gajeel finally. "Stripper talk to Scarlet? Doubtful, he's terrified of her. Salamander is too."
"Why?" Lucy questioned looking between the two.
"You would have to meet her to understand." Levy smiled again at Lucy, when a determined look entered her eyes. "Hey Lu-chan?"
"Hmm?"
"May I have your phone please?"
"Uhh... why?"
Levy rolled her eyes. "So I can put my contact info in of course! Mine, Gajeel's and I'll put Gray in there too! Just in case you can't reach one of us!"
Lucy smiled brightly at hearing what Levy declared. It kind of made their new friendship permanent and in Lucy's case of not having a whole lot of people that she can say were her friends, was ecstatic over the new prospect of gaining three. She handed over her phone to Levy who immediately put in her, Gajeel and Gray's numbers and quickly sent a message from Lucy's phone to Levy's so that she had Lucy's number as well. She then handed the phone back to the blonde who took it gratefully and looked at the new contacts on her phone, another smile lighting up her face.
"Thanks Levy." She gave the pixie like girl a tight hug. "Well I better get going, I have to do a bit more paperwork to get my car back!" She strolled back up the stairs before waving back at the two. "Thanks for all of your help!" She called back before going inside the precinct and heading to another office.
Within another twenty minutes, Lucy had her keys back and she was walking towards where they had towed her car after finding it. She quickened her pace once she saw it in it's place but stopped a few feet away as she saw someone sitting on the hood of her car. She couldn't really believe it and she blinked confused a few times before she actually processed what she was actually seeing.
"Yo, Luigi!"
She sighed heavily, her eye twitching a bit again. "My. Name. Is. Lucy! L-U-C-Y! Lucy!" She snapped at the pink haired boy who grinned at her cheekily and just shrugged at her little outburst.
"I was only teasin'."
Lucy sighed, and just looked up at the darkened sky where she could see a few stars peaking out. "What are you doing here?" She finally questioned.
"Well, I got home and realized I never thanked you for helping me out earlier. Seriously, if it wasn't for you, I would probably be in jail right now. So here." He thrust some papers into her hand. Lucy frowned as she grabbed them quickly and looked them over curiously only for her eyes to widen and she looked back up at the boy in question. That's when she noticed the light blush staining his tanned cheeks and she couldn't help the giggle that escaped from her mouth. Natsu flushed in embarrassment and tried to hide his face in the scarf around his neck. "Look, ya don't have to use 'em if ya don't wanna..." he trailed off.
"You're so weird!" Lucy laughed out.
"Wha?" Natsu sputtered. "If anyone is weird here it's you, ya weirdo!"
Lucy stopped laughing to sputter herself at Natsu's declaration. "I'm not weird!"
"Yeah ya are!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
Lucy scoffed, "Whatever! Even if I'm considered weird, you are way more weird than I am!"
Natsu mock gasped. "I am not!"
"Are too!"
"I am not!"
The two bickered back and forth until both of them were red faced and out of breath from yelling at each other. Staring at one another, each panting a little, Natsu cracked a grin first before he snickered, soon Lucy followed after and they were both found laughing. A rather loud 'meow' interrupted their laughter and Lucy looked down as a blue cat started wrapping itself around Natsu's ankles.
"Awww, how cute! I wonder if he's lost..." She murmured to herself but she heard Natsu snort as he picked up the cat.
"He's not lost, but he's not at home either." He grumbled as the blue feline started purring and wrapped itself around Natsu's neck. "Oi! I told ya not to do that anymore!"
"You know who he belongs to?" Lucy questioned, taking a step closer to the pinkette. The cat then looked up and looked directly at her only to meow cutely in her face and in that instant Lucy was petting the feline. That put her in direct contact with the lead singer of her favorite band who stiffened a bit as he caught a whiff of mint and lemon. It was such a unique and new smell for him, a breath of fresh air, and he found himself leaning closer to the female in front of him and inhaling her scent deeply. Lucy's voice penetrated his slightly foggy mind.
"Huh?"
"I asked what you were doing... Were you smelling me?"
Natsu flushed but luckily she couldn't see since it was so dark and he was close to her so instead he just shrugged. Lucy, decided not to look too deeply into his motions and just continued to pet the cat a little bit more when the cat suddenly jumped from Natsu to her and cuddled himself into her generous bosom. She laughed and cuddled with the cat.
"You are so cute! I wonder if Plue would like you." She held the feline closer to her face. "Do you get along well with dogs?"
"H-hey!" Natsu stuttered a bit with jealousy. "Gimme back Happy!"
"Happy?" Lucy questioned. "You mean the cat?"
"Yeah, my cat."
"Ohhhh." Lucy grinned and looked back at the cat with newfound interest. "So you're Happy, the cat that Levy told me to be wary about... you seem harmless to me."
Natsu frowned hearing that, usually Happy didn't like anyone and would hiss or scratch anyone besides himself, and yet he had gone straight up to Lucy. It was odd and he would have guessed that Happy was just having an off day except for the fact that the feline was purring up a storm and looked like he couldn't get enough of his cuddles with the blonde. Happy was a great judge of character, in his opinion and it just made Natsu grin as he came to a decision involving the blonde.
"I've decided!" He called out, startling both his cat and the blonde.
"Decided what?" Lucy asked almost scared to know what the answer was going to be.
"We're gonna be best friends!"
"Friends?"
Lucy sighed heavily as she finally opened her apartment door and trudged through. It had taken her extra long to get home. After Natsu's sudden declaration of them being best friends, he had almost immediately begged for a ride so he didn't have to walk. She had immediately told him no and in turn Natsu had started whining about how she wasn't being a very good best friend which of course made her aggravated because she barely knew him and he had caused quite a lot of trouble that day. Lucy yawned widely as she walked into the kitchen to grab an apple to eat for her dinner. She was starving but after the day's events, she was more exhausted than anything. Especially after she saw that Natsu had started following her after she drove off. She ended up going down a couple of alleyways and different streets to avoid him knowing where she lived. If she didn't know any better, she would have said that he was being a stalker which was odd because it would usually be vice versa. He was a famous person after all, and knowing that he was chasing after a normal girl like her made it a little more on the weird side.
Finishing off her apple she threw the core away in the trash before walking into the living room only to see Plue sleeping comfortably on her couch. She frowned because he knew that he wasn't allowed on the furniture unless invited, but shrugged it off as she moved closer to her bedroom. She couldn't help the smile that stretched across her face as she saw her plush bed with all of it's white furnishings. No offense to Levy, her home was wonderful, but for Lucy she was most comfortable in her little apartment. It was like her little sanctuary away from all of her worries, especially when she wrote her stories, then she was worlds away from everything grounding her.
Too tired to take a shower, Lucy immediately changed into her pink pajamas and was about to hop into her bed when she saw something sticking out of the back pocket of her jeans that she had been wearing moments before. Quickly remembering what it was, she retrieved the papers from her jeans and another smile graced her beautiful features. Natsu may have been weird, especially when she caught him sniffing her, but he was also extremely thoughtful as she looked at her apology from him. It was a bunch of tickets, and a special VIP lanyard. He had basically given her an all access pass to any and all of the concerts where 'Roar' was preforming around Magnolia. The first one was scheduled later that week, and a shiver of excitement coursed throughout her body as she thought of seeing the pinkette again.
He annoyed the hell out of her, he was loud and boisterous, as well as careless, but she knew that she wanted to see him, even after everything that he had put her through. She didn't know why but she looked forward to what else he had in store for her. Lucy shook her head at her thoughts and calmly placed her present on her desk in the corner of her room, and then proceeded to get in her queen sized bed, groaning as her tired and sore body relaxed upon contact. She glanced at the tickets one last time before shutting off her bedside light and going to bed, a smile on her face.