Happy April Fool's Day! Did you guys get fooled today? :-)
I wanted to write something April Fool's related, but it just didn't happen. I guess I'll just have to wait until next year, lmao.
I don't know about you guys, but I feel like this fanfic is extremely slow. It's bothering me so much. So, starting from now, things will be speeding up a bit!
Which means relationships will start to grow and that also goes for feelings as well. ;] I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.
I don't think I can thank you guys enough for reading this, tbh. It means so much to me and all your reviews really make my day.
Enjoy this chapter, everyone. See you later!
Lucy and Lisanna exchanged several blinks as they stared at each other with confusion.
"Lucy?" Lisanna tilted her head, her index finger lifting up in the air to point behind Lucy.
"Y-Yes?" Lucy stammered while shifting closer to the door to block her view.
She had no idea if Lisanna could see inside their apartment; she desperately hoped she couldn't.
"What is Natsu doing inside your apartment?"
Lucy didn't think her eyes could widen any larger, but oh, they did.
"Lisanna?" Natsu asked, peeking over Lucy's shoulder. Lucy scooted closer to the doorframe so Natsu could have more room.
"Natsu, what are you doing in there?" Lisanna frowned.
"In here?" he inquired smoothly. "I came here to borrow some sugar."
"With Happy's cat food in your hand?" she raised a brow.
Lucy immediately felt awkward at the silence she was standing in between. With a cough, she opened her door forLisanna.
"C-Come in," she waved her hand inside.
She couldn't tell if Lisanna was furious or not as she entered the apartment with folded arms across her chest.
"Natsu is living with you, isn't he?" Lisanna inferred instantly.
Lucy and Natsu gave each other a look as though they had both committed a crime together; they had no choice but to confess.
And lying about the situation was incredibly exhausting to Lucy. After a few moments, she sighed.
"Yes," Lucy stared down at the floor. "Natsu and I are living together."
She prepared herself for the worst, counting down from ten. How was Lisanna, Natsu's best friend, going to react?
"What a relief!" Lisanna exclaimed.
"What?" Natsu and Lucy questioned simultaneously.
"You had me worried sick when you told me you were going to live by yourself," Lisanna explained to Natsu. "I thought you were going to burn down your whole place in one day."
"She won't let me," Natsu chuckled, nodding his head to the side at Lucy.
"Why didn't you tell me you were living with Natsu, Lucy?" Lisanna tilted her head.
"I thought it would be troublesome if everyone found out," she laughed nervously, averting her gaze.
"Who else knows about you two?" Lisanna continued with her questions.
"You and Gray," Natsu informed.
"Erza hasn't found out?!" she gasped.
"Lucy is good at keeping it a secret," he grinned at his roommate.
"I'm surprised Erza hasn't found out," Lucy admitted.
"Is she going to find out?" Lisanna blurted out. "I mean, are you going to be telling everyone about this?"
Lucy felt her mouth get dry at the question. She had been dying to tell everyone, but she couldn't bring herself to.
"Someday," she ended up answering. "I'll tell everyone when the time is right."
"Natsu, what about you? Do you want to tell everyone?" Lisanna asked.
"I'll tell everyone when Lucy does," Natsu responded with a shrug.
Lucy glanced at Natsu with a smile, feeling a faint warmth swirling on her cheeks.
"I won't say anything then," Lisanna guaranteed with her own smile. "My lips are sealed."
"Thank you so much," Lucy sighed in relief.
As the trio shared a smile, a couple of knocks on the door interrupted them.
"What's taking you guys so long—"
"Who said you could come in here, Ice Princess?" Natsu immediately quipped.
"The door was unlocked," Gray replied plainly, noticing Lisanna in seconds. "Oh, she found out?"
"Of course I did," Lisanna playfully boasted.
"It was about time someone figured it out," he stated with a scoff. "Well, anyway, how long do you plan on taking to go to Fairy Tail?"
"We're going right now," Lucy answered as she went for the door.
Natsu and Lisanna followed suit, shutting the door behind them.
"How was your walk?" Lucy questioned as they strolled to Fairy Tail.
"It was good," Gray said. "I wish I had someone with me, though."
"Why didn't you invite me then?" she lightly scolded while giving his elbow a nudge with her own.
He opened his mouth to reply, but a pair of hands pulling them apart didn't give him the chance to.
"Whoever gets to Fairy Tail last has to pay for all our food!" Natsu shouted as he sprinted in between the two.
"Natsu, hold on!" Lisanna yelled, dashing past Gray and Lucy.
Lucy turned to Gray; the glint in their eyes identical.
"You get Natsu," Lucy began.
"And you catch up with Lisanna," Gray finished.
With that, they darted to Natsu and Lisanna as fast as their legs could take them.
It didn't take long for them to catch up with Natsu and Lisanna. By the time they reached the restaurant, Lucy and Lisanna had laughed so much, they were both teary eyed.
"That wasn't fair at all," Natsu grumbled while stomping inside Fairy Tail last.
"You didn't say I couldn't hold you back," Gray remarked with a smirk.
"I thought I could trust you, Droopy Eyes," Natsu shook his head in disapproval.
"Good luck paying for all the food," Lucy teased.
"Can we at least help him a little?" Lisanna requested.
"Nope," Lucy and Gray answered together.
"What happened with you guys?" Levy questioned once the four joined the table.
"Natsu has to pay for all our food," Lisanna revealed.
"All of it?" Erza asked, in the middle of popping another piece of strawberry cake in her mouth.
"Even the drinks?" Cana added.
"Thanks," Gajeel sneered after Natsu unhappily nodded.
Much joking around and eating later, Mirajane handed Natsu the bill.
Nobody had the courage to see how much all their food cost, but after Natsu forced himself to view the slip of paper, his cringe showed it all.
"M-Maybe we should help him," Lucy suggested.
"Y-Yeah," Gray agreed.
"Thanks, guys!" Natsu grinned at them when they all donated several jewels.
With the bill being paid for, the remorse on the group's chest faded. They stood outside Fairy Tail, enjoying the fresh air.
"See everyone on Monday!" Levy started to wave.
"It's Friday?" Natsu inquired.
Lucy sighed, not bothering to deal with just how clueless Natsu was sometimes.
As they separated off into their own directions—Lisanna sending Lucy a wink before she left—Natsu and Lucy trotted together to their home.
"So, two people know about the apartment now," she stated with her hands laced behind her back.
"There's no rush to tell everyone else," Natsu assured.
"Right," she nodded, pressing her lips together to hide her smile.
Natsu exposed his sharp pearly whites before they stepped inside their apartment.
"I'm going to bed," she announced. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Luce," he replied.
Lucy didn't look back as she closed the door behind her. Before her legs gave out, she fell into her bed.
"He's so unfair," she spoke into her pillow.
Her hammering heartbeat was the only thing she could hear as she tried to calm down. But with all the expressions she was able to see of Natsu flashing through her mind, she knew she wouldn't be able to.
Natsu was just too unfair and both of them knew it.
Waking up on her own the next day, Lucy felt more relaxed than ever.
Natsu playing video games until breakfast was made, Happy purring when Natsu passed a level, and the morning birds chirping loud enough for Lucy to hear was incredibly soothing.
Lounging around for the whole day was something she never wanted stop doing.
"Summer break is going to be soon," she mentioned some time during the day. "Are you going to be doing anything?"
"Nope," Natsu answered. "What about you?"
"Same here," she kicked her legs up in the air as she lay on the couch. "We're going to be stuck here together the entire break?"
"Sounds like it," he smirked.
Lucy smiled with content at the ceiling. After a while, a random question popped into her head.
"Is your birthday in the summer?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" he inquired.
"When is it?" she asked.
"July 2nd," he responded.
"My birthday is July 1st!" she exclaimed, swiftly turning her head to him.
Her eyes widened at how close Natsu's face was to hers as he sat on the floor while leaning against the edge of the couch.
If she moved any closer, her nose would be pressing against his cheek. She quickly turned back to the ceiling before he could say anything.
"We can celebrate our birthdays together then," Natsu stated, not noticing just how close they were seconds ago.
"I get to pick the cake," she declared.
"You're going to pick vanilla, aren't you?" he muttered.
"Always," she grinned, picking herself up.
"Are you going to get me a present?" he paused his video game to look at her.
"Are you going to get me a present?" she retorted.
"If you get me one, I'll get you one," he promised while raising his pinky in the air.
"Okay," she said as she locked pinkies with his.
"What?" he raised a brow after Lucy's face scrunched up when shaking pinkies.
"Your pinky is sweaty," she frowned.
"You know what that means," he began, slowly rising from his position.
"W-What?" she stuttered, cautiously backing away.
"My whole hand is sweaty, too," he sent her a devilish grin.
Lucy had no time to react as Natsu placed his damp hand on her cheek.
"Natsu!" she whined while jerking away.
"My left hand should be sweaty, also," he added, raising his hand in the air for emphasis.
"Don't you dare!" she shrieked.
Before Natsu could put another hand on her already tingling face, Lucy scurried away to her room. She locked the door as soon as she could. If she hadn't locked it so fast, Natsu would have chased her inside.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" he called out.
Lucy giggled, shaking her head. "Does he think he's a villain or something?"
"Yes, I do," he answered.
Her mouth fell at the response; she wasn't aware Natsu was able to hear her inside her room.
"Can you hear me?" she asked softly. She stared at her door as she waited for the possible response.
"I'm not deaf, you know," Natsu chuckled.
Lucy bit her lip to prevent herself from laughing. It wasn't until she realized that there were times where she spoke to herself aloud.
She didn't want to know if Natsu had heard her or not. She would die of embarrassment if she found out.
Though now that she knew Natsu's birthday, she absolutely couldn't wait. All she wanted now was for July to hurry up.
With Natsu forgetting about touching Lucy again with his clammy hands, the weekend soon came to a close and everyone eventually returned to school.
Days quickly became a blur and every day seemed no different than the one before it. But once the weather started to warm up considerably, that's when everyone noticed summer was arriving soon.
"Everyone should all go to Lu-chan's house when the first trimester ends!" Levy proclaimed as the group gathered before lunch ended.
"Everyone?" Lucy repeated, trying not to ask too frantically.
"Can we not?" Cana narrowed her eyes at her.
"T-That's fine," she stammered. "Everyone can come."
"Since you live alone, we won't have anyone trying to kick us out when it's late," Lisanna said.
Lucy nodded, understanding what she meant. She wasn't going to deny that she wanted people to come over.
"I want to go to Natsu's apartment one of these days," Erza spoke.
"No girls allowed," Natsu stated.
Lucy stifled a laugh along with the others in the group.
"I want to go to Lucy's apartment," Gray revealed.
"No boys allowed," Lucy responded jokingly.
Though as the words left Lucy's mouth, she could tell that Gray was being serious. And just like that, he had invited himself to her home.
"Too bad we're going when the trimester ends," Jellal pointed out.
"Please don't make my apartment a mess," Lucy pleaded.
"I won't, but I'm not sure about those three," Jellal said, referring to Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel.
Lucy eyed the three boys anxiously, not having any idea why they were competing to see who could break the most pencils in half with two fingers.
Sitting back in her seat, Lucy sighed. With just a few more days until the first trimester was over, she knew she needed to prepare for what summer break was going to bring.
Maybe, just maybe, she could tell Natsu everything she had been feeling over the past couple of months some time over the summer.
But she knew that something like that would never happen.
Unless the time was right, these feelings that seemed to grow each day were going to be kept inside of her.
However, something in her told her she wouldn't be able to contain these feelings much longer.