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Disclaimer: The ownership of Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me.
For the second time in the past week Lucy woke up to the sound her annoying cell phone. She groaned as she stretched her arm out, patting around her bedside table to find the device. Her fingers just grazed it but weren't able to grab it. Her fingers pushed it off the table, the phone clattering to the floor. Cursing a few words, Lucy leaned down to try to reach for it, but instead she just fell off her bed with a loud THUMP.
"Ow ow owwww," she whimpered. The phone paused for a moment before starting the same blaring again, as if it was mocking her pain. Lucy glared at the device; sadly it didn't burst into flames like she wanted it to. She gave up and decided to answer it.
"Finally," Levy grumbled on the other end. She sounded worse than Lucy did, probably due to the insane amount of alcohol she consumed the night before. The drunker Levy had become the more frequently she reached out her glass for a refill, and no one was brave enough to stop her while in the happy drunk zone.
"What's up?" Lucy, still chilling on the hard floor of her apartment, asked curiously. Levy was similar to her in that she hated technology, so she seldom used her cellphone. Something really weird must have happened if she was calling so early with a hangover.
"Should I be worried that there is a large pile of money and clothes on my kitchen table?" She asked. In the background Lucy could hear her friend shuffle something and whispering numbers to herself. Probably counting her spoils from poker the night before. If Lucy could remember correctly, that involved about fifty dollars, two shirts and a pair of boxers. Who knew the metal studded joker had hearts on his underwear?
"You owned everyone at poker last night," Lucy stated absentmindedly, staring at the knots in the wood on her nightstand. She never noticed before, but they all formed a series of demented hearts, making her wonder if it was made that way or if it was a coincidence. She started to think that it was divine intervention trying to tell her something (which is impossible because there wasn't a boy on the planet that would voluntarily ask her out) when she realized that her friend was speaking again.
"Wish I could remember it. All that comes to me from last night was the urge to get some piercings," Lucy rolled her eyes at her friend's desire. Levy was always out for some adventure, though you really couldn't tell from her outside appearance; she was a small, fragile looking girl that worked as a public librarian and had two friends that hung around her, obsessing over her safety. Their faces if they found out Levy got something pierced would be hilarious.
"That would freak Jet and Droy out for sure," She offered, imagining the wicked smile she knew Levy was wearing. Lucy's eyes wondered to her clock and found the time to be ten in the morning. "Hey, Levy, weren't you supposed to be at work an hour ago?"
"...SHIT!" Levy screeched and hung up. Lucy laughed to her empty room and lazily got up. She realized that she had to get to work tomorrow and pick up more letters for her job as a columnist; she read letters that people wrote about anything, and if there were ones that she wanted to talk about she picked them out and wrote about them. It was her dream job to be writing and reading all day, even if half the time she was reading whiny complaints. Once in a while a really good letter slipped through and shone some light on her faith in humanity.
"Hello?!" Someone knocked on the door. Startled, Lucy crawled over to the barrier and silently stood up to look through the peep hole. Outside her door stood a white haired woman in a post uniform, tapping her foot and clenching a letter in her hand. She made an agitated face and raised her hand to knock on the door again just in time for Lucy to open it.
"Can I help you?" Lucy asked through her half opened door. The woman straightened and wiped the agitated look off her face, replacing it with a familiar looking, cheerful smile. The change in expression made Lucy nervous. How can a person change an expression in a matter of milliseconds ? Did people always play this lie, going through life never knowing how someone really thinks by the way they acted?
God, I am so over thinking this, Lucy thought to herself.
"Yes, I have a letter for Lucy Heart-" She held out a crisp white envelope to the blonde, who quickly grabbed it out of her hand.
"Yes, that's me," Lucy interrupted. A questioning look was shot her way but Lucy ignored it. That particular part of her name was a sore spot that brought up many unpleasant memories she didn't feel like going through.
"Sign here," Lucy signed off on a clipboard and handed it back. The woman gave another sunny smile. Lucy gave another awkward response. It ended with another door closed on Lucy's chance of a social life. Well, She thought to herself, at least there is a good chance I will never see her again. She turned her attention to the letter in her hand, flipping it over and over as she took it to her desk. The stamp had a familiar crest on it; two golden keys facing each other with a third golden bar connecting them to look like an H, with a red heart on the end of each of them. The letter was from "home" then.
"Well, only one place for this," Lucy grabbed the unopened letter and walked over to her fireplace. She struck a match and let the flames dance across the paper. She placed it into the pit and watched, mesmerized, as the fire consumed the fancy paper and reduced it to ashes within minutes. Her phone started to ring once again, making Lucy groan. Who could it be now?
Natsu woke up to a demon's bellow.
Well, okay, that sounds a bit misleading. The demon was Mirajane, a nickname that survived her days as a powerful wizard, and her bellow was more like her disciplinary scolding than an actual roar. Either way, it was one of the most scariest sounds Natsu had ever woken up to in his life.
"NATSU, GET IN HERE!" Mira yelled. Natsu rolled out of his bed onto the ground and crawled into the kitchen, stopping next to a bored Gajeel and a very confused looking Gray. He looked up at the woman in fear, wondering what he did to make her this angry.
"Why didn't you guys tell me?" She fumed. Natsu searched his memory for what she was referring to, but then he remembered what had happened last night. Mira was at the House, but she acted like she never seen the boys in her life. They looked at each other as the thought dawned on them. Maybe she was a better actor then they thought she was. And maybe they were really screwed.
"Sorry, Mira." Natsu apologized cautiously, his voice ending with a tilt to make it sound more like a question than an apology. "We didn't want to tell you because we were embarrassed."
"Why would you be embarrassed? I think it's cute!" She hoisted him up and gave him a suffocating hug. Over her shoulder he gave his friends a what-the-hell-is-happening face, and they shrugged in response. Okay, so she's happy we all work in a host/strip joint? He thought.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD A GIRLFRIEND?!" She screeched in his ear, making him wince. He probably won't be able to hear out of that ear for a couple of weeks now. Her words registered finally in his head and he hopped out of her arms, embarrassed and mortified. He looked at his two friends for help. All he got was a shrug from Gray and a smirk from Gajeel.
"...What are you talking about?" He scooted away from Mira in case she tried to do something crazy. Her smile dropped quickly, and she stared at him in disappointment.
"You don't have a girlfriend?" She asked sadly. Natsu shook his head "no" and walked even further away from her. "But, Gajeel said you were up at 3 AM talking to a girl. No one can interrupt your sleep unless they're important!" Natsu shot a glare at the studded man, who returned a wild smile, and thought desperately for a way out with the least amount of questions.
"I'm just helping some girl get back to normal. She isn't a 'special someone'," Mira crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, not believing his story for a second. It wasn't her fault she couldn't believe it; it was rare for Natsu to do something other than work, eat, sleep and train, much less help a random girl out.
"I swear on my fire that the second I start dating someone, I will tell you," he added to make her happy. Strangely enough it worked, and with a happy smile Mira skipped out of the door. Everything was so still it was as if time stopped. Did she seriously come to their apartment just to ask him about his romantic life?
"Well, I'm off!" Gajeel booked it out of the apartment, the sound of this thudding footsteps echoing through the building. Natsu weighed the pros and cons of running after him while Gray stared in, still confused as to what just happened. Natsu remembered that he had something that needed to be done and so decided that revenge would have to wait.
"What just happened?" Gray asked. Natsu turned on him and cleared his face of all emotion.
"Nothing. Nothing at all. This is all a dream," he stated in a mysterious voice. Backing up slowly towards his room, Natsu waved his arms and slammed his door closed. He heard Gray break out of his daze and start knocking on his door for an explanation but ignored the loud banging. Instead, he took out his cellphone and scrolled through his recent calls for the number he was looking for.
"Hello?" Lucy's annoyed tone answered.
"Normal lessons commence at 1600," Natsu started in his best spy voice, "Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to become a normal person capable of human interaction."
"...what are you talking about?" She asked, confused. Natsu almost face palmed as he realized the girl had probably never seen a spy movie in her life. She really needed help; it would almost be a crime not to help her.
"Never mind. Just meet me outside Jackson Library at four. Bye," He hung up without another word, looking at the clock to note that it was three, and opened his door. Outside it was deadly quiet, and as Natsu put his foot outside of his room a flash of pale skin appeared in the corner of his vision. Gray tackled him to the ground but Natsu was able to punch him in the gut and wriggle from his grasp. He sprinted out of the small apartment, never stopping until he couldn't hear his enemy's protests with his super hearing.
Lucy was left very confused. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. What do you do in a situation such as this? Get a present? What would she get a person she knew almost nothing about?
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
Natsu fidgeted on the bench and looked at the time again. His watch had to be wrong; there was no way one minute had passed since the last time he had checked the time. It was 4:20 and there was no blonde in sight. He flipped his phone in case there was a missed call or something. There was nothing on the screen.
This didn't really hit him as a surprise, of course. Natsu was pretty sure the shy girl would be able to convince herself that this whole idea was a bad one. He knew that he was going to waste the half hour of his life waiting for someone who wouldn't show up. Once again he was presented with the thought that maybe regular people aren't as cowardly or selfish as he thought, only to be proved horribly wrong. Even though he knew all of this, but there was a small disappointment inside of him that wouldn't go away.
"Time to go," he got up and started to walk away.
I wouldn't put Lucy down so quickly if I were you, Natsu. You never know what might happen...
MUAH HA HA HA-
oh, ehem, sorry. Evil laugh got the better of me.
And, in case you were thinking, "Wow, she leaves us with a strange filler/cliffhanger that looks to have no point?" I am here to tell you that this chapter just set up some good things for later on. You just really need to look for them. Yeah...that's what I keep telling myself, at least.
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