AN: Here's chapter 2! Thanks for reading! (Even though I write crap and just ugh haha)
(c) Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail
And have you seen chapter 393? I can't even fangirl and be sad at the same time gdi
CHAPTER 2
"OH MY GOD I CANNOT BELIEVE I RAN 15 KILOMETERS IN 15 MINUTES!"
Lucy Heartfilia almost cried as she fell down on her knees by the classroom door due to exhaustion. Her classmates just sweatdropped in response to what happened to the blonde. Lucy was never late– Well, they thought maybe today's just not her lucky day. It's weird because their Lucky Lucy never has bad luck.
"Lu-chan! Are you okay?" Ami, her seatmate and close friend, patted her shoulder as Lucy was still trying to catch her breath.
"I-I think I'm okay now. Thanks Ami-chan!" She smiled sweetly at the brunette.
"My, my. Dear Lucy, if I had known, I could've fetched you on your home." A raven-haired boy smirked at the blonde.
"Oi Lester, shut up." Lester just laughed at Lucy's remark.
Lucy met Ami at the first day of classes. They were seatmates: Ami sat near the window while Lucy was on her right. They both love books and when the girls knew about their common interest, they just clicked. Ami has brown hair in a bob cut with ribbon clips on both sides of her hair. Her eyes are green and her lashes are naturally long. She is petite and quite short.
Lester on the other hand, fell in love with Lucy at first sight (but was also rejected immediately at first attempt on flirting with her—she was saying something about not being interested in the romances) but they became friends after that. Lester has short hair with gray orbs. He is very tall and is the ace of the school basketball team. He had a lot of fan girls but when Lucy arrived, he kept on 'pestering' her so he kind of…lost his charm?
Anyway, these two people were Lucy's common confidants in school. Yup, even if Lester has his own tendencies, there's still Ami to keep the balance and both of them kept Lucy at home in school Although according to Lucy, Lester's getting annoying with his antics.
"Lu-chan! Could you tell me another story from your novel?" After returning to their seats, Ami turned to Lucy with sparkles with her eyes. 'I guess I have to make up some more stories. This girl is so greedy for stories!' Lucy chuckled and put her bag into place. "What kind of story do you want, Ami-chan?"
"One of those Fairy Tail stories that you have! I wanna hear more about Natsu!"
Lucy sighed in defeat and scratched her head. "I can't really resist you, Ami-chan but—"
And then Lucy was interrupted by a sudden announcement. "First period's a self-study period because the teacher's absent!"
"—I suppose we have enough time for a story, am I right?" Lucy smiled.
"Yay! I love you Lu-chan!" Ami moved her chair closer to Lucy so that she could hear her best friend's story.
Natsu Dragneel is a salmon-haired (take note: not pink but SALMON – It's different according to the boy.) fire dragon slayer at the Fairy Tail guild. Oh, a dragon slayer is a mage who was taught magic by a real dragon. Natsu's dragon and foster father was Igneel. Unfortunately, he went missing on July 7, X777. Anyway, Natsu has pointed eyes with onyx orbs. He wears a dragon scale scarf on his neck. Him, together with his flying blue cat, Happy, goes on different jobs to have adventures and some jewels for food money.
Natsu is a happy-go-lucky person. He gets involved into a lot of fights in the guild (especially with Gray Fullbuster, an Ice-make mage – a person who molds ice to create anything out of ice) but that's pretty normal in Fairy Tail. They're a rowdy bunch and that what makes it Fairy Tail.
But recently, the fights have receded because… Natsu was acting strange.
Ever since his female partner in Team Natsu disappeared, he became gloomy. He always takes missions alone (without his blue feline, Happy) and is only back for a few hours. Sometimes he goes back to the guild in a mess but he never minded the pain. He'll sit at the bar, ask Mirajane for a meal, grabs a mission then leaves for a few days. Before he wouldn't even eat but Erza beat him to pulp when she found out so he had no choice but to have proper meals. And then it became a routine.
"That flame-brain's in real deep shit." Gray mumbled. Miraculously, he still had his shirt on. He has developed a habit of stripping because of his training for his magic. But ever since their blonde team mate disappeared, his habit has decreased. Beside him was the water mage, Juvia Lockser who was looking at Gray lovingly. She treated that person as her 'love-rival' and was her very first friend in Fairy Tail. But she's getting worried at Gray's gradual change.
"Oh, you mean the whole guild's in deep shit." Cana, a card mage and daughter of Gildarts Clive who was the strongest S-class mage in Fairy Tail, retorted after gulping wine from her barrel. "Ever since she disappeared, he's been like that. And we've been miserable."
The whole guild became tensed and the mood became sour. Mirajane sighed as she looked at the guild's current appearance.
'Look at what happened to us, Lucy… I hope that someday you'll….' Mira shed a tear.
Meanwhile with Natsu, Happy has been trying to talk to him.
"Ne, Natsu…"
"Yeah?"
"Do you want to go to Lucy's apartment?"
"…"
Natsu stopped walking as if he was nailed in place.
"Sure, buddy." He patted the feline's head.
They headed for Strawberry Street to visit his partner's abandoned apartment. Lucy has been missing for a year. After they took a mission to defeat a dark mage named Kyrios, Lucy disappeared. They had defeated the dark mage but at the last minute when Team Natsu let their guards down, Kyrios casted a final spell on Lucy that made her disappear without a trace. Nobody knows what happened to Lucy since then. The guild was frantically searching for ways to contact Lucy but they always failed to find a proper solution. Months went by and the guild was running out of ideas on how to get their beloved celestial mage. Not long after, the guild was beginning to lose hope in finding their beloved nakama and stopped trying eventually. Except for a few people.
Natsu and Happy opened the door to her apartment. Lucy gave him a spare so that he'll stop coming by the window but he haven't used it much to Lucy's annoyance. Natsu chuckled at the memory of him being hit by Lucy's infamous move, the 'Lucy-kick' because he never used the door when coming to Lucy's apartment. She accepted the fact that they will go to her place unannounced but she really hoped that her team would use her fucking door. It's there for a reason, you know?
He stopped reminiscing and closed the door behind him after Happy came in. He carefully scanned the room for any signs of disturbance. Her things were untouched as proved by the accumulated dust by her workstation. Well, her bed was a different issue though.
"It…still smells like her even after a year." Natsu reached for her bed sheets and sniffed it. A single tear fell from his eyes as he clutched the fabric tightly. "Luce…I really, really miss you."
Happy cried silently as he watched his best friend cry.
And then-
"What's wrong Lu-chan?" Lucy's storytelling was interrupted by her female close friend with worry evident in her voice.
"Eh?" Lucy looked at Ami in confusion.
"Why are you crying?" Ami frowned as she wiped away Lucy's tears.
"E-eh?" Lucy's eyes widened as her fingers touched her face to check whether she's really crying. "W-Why?"
Ami hugged her while patting her back. "Thank you for your story, Lu-chan. I was really saddened by what happened to Natsu… so I guess you were carried away by it. But it'll be okay, right?" Ami grinned at her best friend.
Lucy blinked a few times and tried to avoid the gaze of her friend. "I'm so weeeeird. Sorry, Ami-chan. I'll compensate later, okay? I'll excuse myself so that I could fix myself in the bathroom, haha! I'll be fine, don't worry!" Lucy grinned back and hurriedly walked out of the classroom.
'Why the hell can't I stop crying?'
She reached the bathroom and locked herself inside a cubicle. She tried to stop herself from crying but flashes of the scene from her story have been affecting her too much. "Happy…"
She pictured the winged blue feline snuggling on her chest whenever he greets her. She imagined how his big eyes produced large droplets of tears as he watched Natsu cry in Lucy's bed.
"Natsu…"
Natsu was…crying. He really missed Lucy. The strong and brave dragon slayer is now…at his weakest point. And Lucy did not know why she was affected by her own characters in her novel. By her own imagination.
"Ah…maybe I'm becoming crazy…" Lucy closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh. "I don't even know anymore…"
After 15 minutes, Lucy returned to the classroom. Even though she cried a lot, he tried to hide it by applying foundation on her face to cover the evidence. She waved a hand at Ami who smiled at her.
"Are you okay now, Lu-chan?" Ami asked with a hint of worry on her voice.
"Yup! Don't worry, that was nothing. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes I really get too engrossed by my stories that I kinda uhm…mixed my life with it haha… I even named one character the same as mine! So don't freak out the next time okay? Hey uhh are you weirded out with me?" Lucy laughed as she poked Ami on her cheeks.
"Oh Lucy, that's what I like about you!" She hugged her friend. "It's okay! We get too emotional sometimes when we read books, right? So no biggie!"
Lucy smiled as she pulled away from the hug. 'If not because of this girl…I wonder if I'm still sane? I'm glad that we're friends…'
Suddenly, static noises were heard all over the campus. It seems that there's an announcement from the broadcasting room.
"Students of Yousei Gakuen, Please stay calm after this announcement. An intruder has entered the school. The administration is now calling the police to handle the situation. Please stay on your classrooms and wait for your teachers for further instructions."
"Hey guys, there's a weird looking man at the school grounds!" One of Lucy's classmates who sat by the window called the attention of the class. "I think he's the intruder!"
The classroom became rowdy because people wanted to see the appearance of the intruder. Since Lucy sits near the window (After Ami), she had to leave her seat to give way to her curious classmates. She didn't want to pry anyway. She's over and done with intruders due to personal experiences. Ami, on the other hand, was very curious on who the intruder was. Since she has access to her own window, she got a VIP pass.
"Where is he?"
"There! On the grounds!"
"He's kinda impossible to miss because of his weird clothing!"
"I know right! Is he a cosplayer?"
Ami saw the intruder and her eyes widened as he scanned his features. 'One-sleeved black dress shirt, white pants, sandals…scaly scarf…pink—' "No, it's salmon." She whispered.
"L-Lu-chan! " Ami tried to call the attention of Lucy who was currently bugged by Lester. Despite that, Lucy heard her friend call her name and quickly came into her direction. Lester came along. "What's wrong, Ami? Did you see him?"
Ami nodded vigorously and spoke, "I think the guy is awfully familiar!"
"Why?"Lucy's eyes were wide as saucers. "Oh dear Mavis, don't tell me someone's after you—"
"Who's Mavis? Anyway, NO! See for yourself!" Ami pulled Lucy's hand so that she could get near the window. "Oi! That's my spot, scoot over!"
Lucy sweatdropped at her bestfriend's behavior and finally, she got into the window.
"Where is he?" Lucy asked her friend.
"There!" Ami pointed out to the intruder.
Then a random classmate shouted, "Who chooses pink as their hair color!?"
"I HEARD YOU! IT'S SALMON DAMN IT AND I WAS BORN WITH IT!" Lucy's classmates were freaked out by the intruder's reply. How the hell could he possibly heard that? They were on the fourth floor!
Lucy's mouth dropped in shock as she finally caught sight of the 'intruder'.
"He looks like the Natsu from your story Lu-chan!"
AN2: My country got hit by a typhoon pretty badly but we're recovering. Electricity's not stable so I haven't been able to continue writing this. I hope it'll be okay starting tomorrow so that I could post the next chapter asap. Thanks again for reading! :)