Meant To Be: Chapter Two
Summary: Destiny is a funny thing, and in this series, Natsu and Lucy find that out first hand. Be it they meet in a club, a bus station, an amusement park, or somewhere completely random. Because even in some of the most ridiculous situations, something's are just meant to be. Array of One shots/genres/ratings! All Nalu! Minor Pairing ahoy as well!
Prompt 43: Silly
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings: Natsu/Lucy
Rating: K
Time: Two hours max.
Disclaimer: I don't freakin' own it! GOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHhhh!
Authors note: I would like to thank all my readers for the lovely reviews, favorites, and alerts. I've decided that instead of responding toreviews, I will spend my time reviewing other stories instead and writing fanfiction. So my response to my glorious reviewers is the update to a story!
But there was one review by an unsigned reader that I want to address. They were confused as to if my last chapter was complete or not, and in theory, it is. But this is a oneshot series, or a series of oneshots. So each chapter will hold a different plot, different setting, different everything. The only thing they have common is Natsu and Lucy. So yeah. I hope that clears it up!
His best friend must be among the oddest, strangest, weirdest people in the world. What type of person goes up to someone, pulls them away from a conversation (without uttering a single word), and shoves them in the direction of another hallway. Then, when they come to a stop, she just stands there playing with her hair and avoiding eye contact. Really, he had better things to be doing. For example, the conversation she interrupted was him trying to get free food from the cafeteria today. Lisanna was so about to offer to buy him lunch. Curse this blonde girl and her craziness! He swore that if she didn't start talking soon he'd make her buy him lunch later today.
"Lucy, what's the big deal?"
The girl in question mumbled something, but he didn't catch it. The only thing that made it to his senses was the scent of toothpaste that cleansed her breath. He moved closer to her, and oddly enough she backed into the row of blue lockers behind her, eyes wide with
emotions that were foreign to her face. Her mouth flopped open, like she was about to say something, and then it clicked shut just as fast as it opened.
Furrowing his brow, Natsu leaned his shoulder against the locker and faced her, even if she was still turned away from him. "Is something wrong? Are you ok?" The questions flew from his throat quicker than he could have thought of them. Yes, Lucy had a tendency to be weird; her antics always seemed to baffle him. But these actions, filled with such hesitation, were an all new type of weird. "Did someone hurt you?"
A funny look passed over her face. It looked like almost amusement, but laced with a bittersweet smile. "No, not yet." She spoke…shyly?
"What do you mean 'not yet'? Do I need to beat some jerk up for you again?" No one, he did mean no one, would ever make his best friend, his self-proclaimed little sister, his Lucy, cry. No one would lay a single finger on her little blonde head if he had his way.
But then she chuckled at him, and he felt a bit of his worry fade to the back of his mind. It mustn't have been something horrible, like he originally thought, because when Lucy smiled like that it meant he was being an idiot again. "No Natsu, you don't need to beat anyone up." She turned to look at him, and he noticed her pale complexion gathering color in her cheeks.
If she was having boy problems again, he might just bash his head against the lockers.
"I need to talk to you about something. I'm not sure what to do." Her eyes darted to the ground, and her cheeks puffed out in obvious aggravation as she exhaled a shaky breath. Tucking a stray strand of her bangs behind her ear, she continued her thought. "I need your advice."
Natsu's head landed with a metallic 'thunk' as he lulled it to the locker. "Again? This must be the third time in three weeks." Really, he should be counting his blessings. Last year around this time she'd asked him for advice at least two times a week. Curse prom, and the stress it brings to him every year. It wasn't like he didn't want to help his friend find the perfect date. It wasn't like he didn't want her to have a good time at her senior prom. In fact, he wanted all of that and more for her. He just wished that he could be the one to make her happy instead of all these good for nothing, hormonal, teenage boys.
Granted, that is not to say he was no better than these 'hormonal teenage boys', but unlike them, he knew every little quirk and flaw that Lucy tried so hard to hide.
"I promise, this will be the last time I'm asking for your advice for the remainder of the year. I know you don't really care about my love life, but you have to help me out with this one!" She seemed desperate as she spoke.
He scoffed, peering down at her. "Right, how many times did you tell me that last year? Six…seven?"
Lucy looked sheepish as she kicked at the floor. Her head ducked down, bangs hiding her face. "Yeah I know, but this times different."
"How so?" He didn't believe her. There was one thing about Lucy that never changed, and that was her love of the chase. He could picture her seducing and flirting as an elderly woman. Surprisingly, the thought wasn't as disturbing as he thought it would be. She would make a pretty cute granny.
"This will be different because I'm no longer running away." She peaked up at him through her hair, and he noticed that she looked legitimately frightened. Maybe he'd judged her too soon.
"Running?"
She cleared her throat, and rubbed at her eye bashfully. "Yeah, running. All these guys, all those horrible dates, they were just me trying to forget one person," She laughed a bit there, the sound anything but sweet, "In the beginning I only dated those men to try to make him jealous, but he didn't seem to care. So I tried to move on. Yesterday, after my date, I realized that I was no longer trying to move on, or make him jealous, I was running away."
Pretending to itch his bare calf, Natsu ducked down to get a better look at her face. She looked conflicted, wide brown eyes wide with fear, mouth set in a thin frown, and cheeks flaring a deep red that put his hair color to shame. She wrung her hands in front of her, and Natsu smiled at her.
He remembered the first time, when she was five and he six, he saw her doing that. His father had caught her in the fridge looking for chocolate after her bed time and scolded her for it. She doesn't remember even to this day that he was the one who asked for the candy, and she offered to get it. He planned on her never finding that out.
"Lucy," He spoke, his voice cracking. He would blame puberty, but as an eighteen year old boy he liked to think he already hit it and was done with it, "I'm all ears. But you better be serious about this being the last one!" He tried to lighten the mood with a wide smile, but it didn't quite reach his ears, and she seemed to notice.
"It will be. I plan on asking him to be my date to prom, and if he says no, then I'm done with guys for now." She straightened up a bit, her words seemingly giving her confidence.
"Alright, lay it on me." The warning bell wrung, sending students running to class in fear of being late, but he ignored it and so did Lucy. Luckily he had a study hall A period, so he didn't have to worry about getting a tardy.
"I've liked this guy for quite a while, and I've watched him talk to a lot of girls. Some obvious platonic, others obviously not. Sometimes I wonder if he actually realizes how flirtatious he can be, but that's beside the point. I know he's not going to prom with anybody yet, and I feel like I have to act fast because I know of a couple people who are planning on asking him—
"Ask him then, don't lose your chance." Seriously, what was so hard about that that she couldn't figure it out herself?
"—but it's not that simple! What if he doesn't feel the same?"
"So what? Nothing bad is going to happen. And even if something does, then do you really want a relationship with him," He drifted off into thought momentarily, mulling over an idea before voicing it, "or a friendship in this case, because from how it sounds you've known him for a long time."
"I can't!" Lucy cried out, her wide eyes swirling with something foreign, something so out of place that it made him chuckle.
"My, my, my, pigs must be about to take flight!" Natsu joked, "Could it be that Lucy Heartifilia is actually scared to ask a boy out?"
Lucy smacked him in the shoulder, pouting at him. "Natsu!" She squeaked, an embarrassed blush spreading from her cheeks down to her neck. If he didn't know any better he'd say she would burst from the heat.
"I'm not scared," He pinned her with an incredulous stare, one pink eyebrow raised. She glowered at him, and continued her reply, "well…fine, I'm a littler nervous. But that is completely beside the point! I need a serious answer from you!"
"I already told you what I thought."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to go up to him and just declare my undying love for this guy. Knowing him, he'd think I'm kidding or something."
Scratching his head, he scoffed at her. "You're making him sound like an idiot."
She didn't even hesitate before retorting. "He is an idiot." Even though the words were harsh, her gaze softened and she let a small smile pull her lips up. Natsu liked it when she looked like that.
She must really, really like this guy a lot. That bothered him. "So who is this guy anyway?"
She flushed again. "That's for me to know, and you to find out eventually." She fiddled with her hands, her fingers pulling at the rings on her left hand.
He huffed and crossed his arms. What was so…different about this guy that she wouldn't tell him who he was? Was he that important to her? Or maybe it was because she was embarrassed, and didn't want to admit that liked a complete dork. Yeah, that had to be it; it must be someone like Gray or something. Yeah, that stupid face was definitely an idiot.
For someone reason, that conclusion didn't make him feel any better.
"Look Lucy, if this guy won't take you seriously, then why don't you just go up to him and kiss him. If he still doesn't get it, then forget about it. There's other fish in the sea." He ruffled her hair, smiling down at her, "Now I have to get to study. I've got German homework due next period."
He waved good bye offhandedly as he passed by her, but only made it a couple steps before a small hand wrapped around the underside of his forearm. "Natsu, wait." The tone of her voice stopped him in his tracks. She sounded so…unsure. Lucy never questioned herself.
She he turned, ready to give her whatever comfort he could offer. Her other hand gripped his scarf, pulling it so he was at eye level with her. He was mildly surprised to see her blushing so hard that the heat radiated off her and smacked him in the face. Her browns eyes looked at him from underneath hooded eyes, and man, he'd never seen her look like this.
If she was any other girl, he probably would have backed her into a locker and kissed her until her lips were bruised. But this was his best friend, and he certainly couldn't do that to her without—
She was moving forward, all evidence of hesitation gone. Her eyes slide closed, and as her lips brushed his in the faintest of touches, his own eyes snapped closed. She lingered for a while, and he just concentrated on not scaring her away. She pulled away only a fraction, and Natsu longed for the touch again. He wanted more heat, he needed more contact, or else he felt like his world would crash down around him.
So he followed her, pressing his lips to hers more firmly. He moved his lips, coaxing her to do the same. His hands rested on her hips, pulling her closer to him as he deepened the kiss. His tongue touched her bottom lip, and she jerked against him. In mere seconds her tongue was touching his in response.
"Ahem…" Lucy broke away from him, whirling around to see the principle standing behind them with his arms crossed in all of his short glory. Although his posture screamed of disapproval, his expression seemed somewhat pleased.
"Makarov…." Lucy whispered, obviously mortified. Natsu came up behind her and draped an arm around her shoulder, grinning down at the older man.
"Hello Gramps! Is there anything we could do for ya?" He asked.
Makarov shifted so he stood taller than his normal hunched form. Even if it was only by an inch, he still seemed a bit more intimidating. "Natsu, Lucy," He nodded at both of them, a mischievous glint in his wrinkle surrounded eye.
Lucy nodded back, and a euphoric feeling over took Natsu when she stayed under his arm, not even attempting to slide away.
"I do believe there is a time and a place to do what you were just doing, and during the first period of school in the hallway is not one of them. I don't want to write you guys up for skipping class, so hurry along." He winked at the two and continued his way down the hallway. Natsu turned to watch him, and thought that they had the coolest principle in the world. A lot of teachers would have written them up not only for skipping class, but for PDA as well.
"Uhh…Natsu?" Lucy was now kneeling down on the ground. She busied herself with picking up her books and stuffing them into her messenger style bag. She looked like she wanted to say something, so Natsu waited for her to pull her thoughts together.
"W-will you go to the senior prom with me?" She asked, her eyes not meeting his. Usually, she would ask the guy out on a date first, just to make sure that she would at least have fun with the guy at the dance. He felt kind of honored to be the first to break her rhythm.
"Sure," but he figured that if she had a good system going, why should she change it, "But on one condition!"
She looked surprised, but went along with it. "And what is this condition."
"You buy me lunch later today."
She laughed, and stood up. Hooking arms with him, she nodded her head.
He fell into step beside her, content. Not only had his silly, silly best friend finally seen the light, but he now had someone to go to prom with.
Not to mention he also got his free meal.
Ahhh, Life was good.