A/N: And so, drum roll please… THE SECOND CHAPTER OF TIUSOF! Woohoo! Are you as excited as I am? I hope so! But I really need a better acronym than TIUSOF. –sigh-

Anyways, as always, let me know what you guys think of my story! You can PM me with questions or just review. Please…? -pouts- Lol.

Hiro Mashima Owns Fairy Tail

The Incredibly Unpredictable Strings of Fate

Chapter Two: Tease Me and Regret It

Lucy's POV

Mira was staring at me with a devious smile as I looked at the two men behind me. Of course they heard what I said. Laxus was grinning cockily, and Sawyer was muttering about how people shouldn't judge someone based on their friends. Before I could say anything, Laxus spoke.

"So, your perfect guy, huh?" He raised an arm and flexed it, causing Cana to groan. I shot her a look of pure annoyance before looking back at the cocky blonde.

"Physically, you're nice on the eyes. But my perfect guy has to have some faults – that's what makes humans amazing." I had finally snapped out of my stupor, but I was still embarrassed. When I get embarrassed, I get snappy. Sue me.

"Oh, Laxus has plenty of faults. He stares at himself in mirrors all the time, he's always trying to sleep with different women, and he spends way too much time at the gym." Sawyer commented, sending his cousin a glare. I slid a look to him, his pout making me laugh. He was a cute kid, all right.

"I like looking good, and women want me. That isn't a bad thing," Laxus snapped back, returning Sawyer's glare with his own.

They argued back and forth for a while, completely forgetting me and my friends. Slowly, I looked back at Mira, murder in my eyes.

"You. Knew. They. Were. There?" I seethed. She just giggled and nodded, thinking if she acted cute, I wouldn't be as mad. How wrong she was. "You will pay for this. Remember, I know who a little white haired take-over mage has the hots for. I wonder if how he'd like to know that she's been the one sending him love letters for the past year."

Mira's face paled and she bit her lip. She knew I would never dream of telling Freed about Mira's near obsession with him, but I could play around with her. "Oh, Lucy, please don't. I'm sorry! I'll never try and set you up on another blind date again, I promise!" She was begging.

I pretended to take a moment to decide, before a huge grin appeared on my face. "Fine, no more blind dates, and your secret is safe with me." I laughed maniacally, finding this conversation had worked out in my favor ten fold. She just glared at me and pouted, a slight shine of amusement in her eyes.

Eventually Laxus and Sawyer came to sit with us on Levy's insistence, the little blunette moving across the booth to sit with Mira and Cana. The three of them were having the time of their life watching the two men argue over who sat where. Traitors. Unfortunately for me, Erza had to head out shortly after her first coffee.

I had one guy on either side of me, and that was where I made a huge mistake. For some reason Laxus thought trying to pick me up was funny – well, Sawyer's reaction to Laxus trying to pick me up was funny to the giant mage. So every once in a while, Laxus would move his leg to touch mine and flex it, letting me feel all of his tight and delicious muscles. The movement would cause me to blush and scootch over more, but that put me deliriously close to Sawyer. Sawyer would then lean a little against me, so his arm would touch mine, and he'd keep it there.

Obviously that would cause me to blush, and scoot back over by Laxus. The girls were howling at laughter at this, causing my good mood to plummet. I hated being the butt of the joke, and this was getting ridiculous.

"Oh Lucy! Either way, you'd be having cute blonde babies!" Squealed Mira, my good mood falling to the seventh ring of hell. I glared at her and crossed my arms, sitting between both men with a scowl on my face. If this is how unwinding after work would be with the girls, I'd rather be home.

The thought of home made me check the clock on the wall, and I groaned – it was 4AM. I couldn't be more thankful to have the next three days off after working my ass off constantly, but I still wanted my sleep.

"Hey, I think I'm going to head home. It's late." I threw a thumb over my shoulder to point at the clock.

Sawyer, who was sitting on the edge of the booth, looked at me with a little frown. "Well, before you go, can I talk to you?"

It caught me off guard, but I nodded. He stood up and I followed, waving goodbye and blowing kisses at my friends. Mira winked at me, Levy was blushing, and Cana was hooting something about 'blonde babies'. I rolled my eyes and waved to a smirking Laxus who ended up winking at me too.

Sawyer and I walked out of the diner, and stopped a few feet in front of me. He was shuffling his feet and looking down, acting a bit fidgety. "Hey, uh, look. I just wanted to say that Marco and I have been friends since we were kids. Even though he's a bit crazy, he's still my friend and I'm the one that reins him in." He looked up to make sure I was listening, and I nodded.

"Okay?" I prodded, trying to figure out what his angle was.

"That being said, I really like you. With the whole fiasco, you noticed I wasn't one of the people participating in bothering Levy. You knew that I wasn't that type of person, you even told me I was a good guy." He was blushing a bright scarlet now, and eyes were looking anywhere except me. "What I'm trying to get at is.. uh. I appreciate you not lumping me in with everyone. And inviting me back to the Dollhouse. Maybe… Maybe we could get dinner sometime?" He rolled his eyes up so he was looking at me through his lashes, head still tilted down. The kid was so nervous, and it made me think again about how a football player for the famous MU could get this awkward over asking a bartender out on a date. We had to be the same age, but our differences were stark. Either way, he was really cute, and I appreciated the guts he had for coming back into the place his friend had ran rampant in.

Instead of answering, I leaned into him, putting my hands on his chest, and kissed his cheek. I could hear him let out a relieved sigh, and felt a smile form on those amazing lips. Pulling back, I finally said, "I would love to. I'll give you my number so you can text me when you plan on taking me out, okay?" Grabbing a pen from my purse, I grabbed his hand and wrote a string of numbers on it. As I was getting to the last number though, I felt a pair of hands around my waist.

And then I was being picked up and dropped a few feet away from Sawyer. I blinked at the huge man that physically removed me from his cousin's proximity, getting angry. Poor Sawyer looked like he was about to blow up on Laxus, who just kept laughing.

"God, look at your face!" Laxus was clutching his stomach, eyes shut and head back.

Which was probably why he didn't see my high-heeled foot zeroing in on his shin. With as much force as I could muster, I kicked him and yelled, "LUCY KICK!" At least his laughing stopped as he clutched his shin, bending over at the waist to see if there was any actual damage. I hoped there was. Even though I was upset, I couldn't help but notice the muscles on his chest bunching and pulling as he moved. He ran a hand up and down the spot I had kicked, making his arms tense every moment or two when he found the sore spot. The man was hot, that was for sure. But if there was one thing I hated above all else, it was being manhandled.

My eye was twitching as I looked back at Sawyer, who was just watching the show with an evil grin on his face. "Where'd you learn to kick like that?" He asked, looking at me and then back at his grimacing cousin.

"After being a head bartender at one of the most popular bars in Fiore, you gotta learn self defense."

Sawyer was still enjoying what had happened, but slowly an angered Laxus stood back up, eyes locking onto me. "You're going to pay for that." A glint of amusement flashed in his eyes before he took a step towards me. I took a hesitant stop back, trying to figure out what he was going to do.

"Wait, Laxus. Just one second, okay?" Sawyer ran up to us, who had managed to get a few yards away from his stepping forwards and me walking backwards. "I don't have the last number?"

I watched the center of Laxus' tense body, waiting for a muscle to twitch so I'd know when he was going to move. I barely heard Sawyer, my attention all for the grinning man in front of me. Even when he looked like he was going to enjoy making me regret kicking him. "…Seven!" I yelled, using that moment to turn around and sprint towards my apartment. As ridiculous as this all was, I couldn't help it when laughter bubbled out of my throat and into the open air around me. I could hear Laxus and his long legs slowly catching up to me, laughter echoing mine escaping from him.

"Give up, Blondie! You're in heels, and my legs are longer," He said, surprising me with how close he was. I could barely feel the heat of his body before I sharply turned another corner, laughing all the way.

"I'm used to running in heels! You, on the other hand, are looking a bit red. Not used to running?" I turned to look at the man behind me, sticking my tongue out at him as I whipped by another corner.

Since the diner had been right on the edge of MU campus, we had somehow gotten lost in the maze of buildings. A few students were out at this time of night, and seeing a giant blonde man chasing a tiny blonde woman was fairly shocking. I heard a woman yell, "Work for that ass! Make him deserve it, honey!" which nearly made me trip I was laughing so hard.

Turning another corner I slowed down a bit, from full out running to walking pretty quickly. My legs burned and I was sucking air in greedily, and I could hear Laxus doing the same. We were in a random alleyway, between what looked like two classrooms. I leaned on one of the brick walls and bent over, a goofy grin on my lips. I looked up at my pursuer, who was on the other wall in front of me, leaning against it and trying not to wheeze like I was.

"God… Damn… You're a… Fast little…. Shit." He said, breathing deeply after each set of words.

I started softly. "I didn't want to pay for that kick. You'd break me in half." Finally getting our breath back, we just stood across from one another. His usual cocky smirk was there, but it felt more real that it had before. Less like a mask, more of his actual emotion. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out what I was thinking. "I like your smile."

This seemed to catch him off guard, making him look up at her with wide eyes. After a moment he pushed himself off the wall and began stalking towards me again, the smile growing bigger. "I don't think my idea of payment and yours are the same. Although, I wouldn't mind seeing if I could break you.." He ended up right in front of me, our chests barely touching. I had to crane my neck to look up at him, and I was startled by how tall he actually was.

"What's your idea of payment, then?" I whispered, not moving an inch. My back was against the cold bricks and he was less than an inch to my front. Before I knew it, he put his arms on either side of my head, fingers splaying on the alley wall. I couldn't help but study his face; he was so close, and so handsome. It should be illegal to be that good looking, I thought off hand. I could finally see that his eyes were an intense blue, with specks of gray dotting here and there. The effect they had on me was instantaneous, the look he gave me had heat pooling in my lower half. I bit my lip to refrain from making any noise, our eyes locked the entire time.

He leaned in close enough so his nose brushed mine, his back arched so he could reach me. His lips were so close that if I even twitched, we would be kissing. A mental image of us fucking against the wall flashed in my mind so fast, I ended up moving forward and sealing my lips against his by accident. Or, I think it was an accident. I wanted to kiss him bad enough that it could have just been my body taking control.

In an instant, Laxus pressed me against the wall and moved his hands down my ribs, then my waist, my hips, and finally he hooked my knees and pulled them up. Instinctively I wrapped my legs around his body so he was holding me up with his hands on my hips. His kiss was fierce, mouth dominating mine – and that was before his tongue snaked into my mouth. When I let out a small whimper when his tongue brushed mine, his grip tightened on my hips to show his approval. It became like a battle between the two of us, trying to see who could use their tongue to make the other make a noise. I pulled my mouth away from his to take a deep breath, chest heaving against his. He took that time and attacked my neck, nipping at the smooth expanse and then licking or kissing the sting away.

He ground his hips against mine and I moaned, feeling a massive bulge beneath his pants. My hands buried themselves in his hair, pulling the roots lightly to get him to look at me. As soon as he did, I slammed my mouth back onto his, biting his lower lip and then sucking it into my mouth. A growl came from Laxus – Wait, no, that wasn't him?

I pulled away to look at my surroundings, finally noticing a pink haired man standing at the open end of the alley. His fists were clenched and fire was surrounding them, onyx eyes glaring at Laxus. "What are you doing to Luce, you bastard?"

"Oh god!" I wiggled my way back onto the ground, pushing Laxus away and I started hurriedly making sure my work uniform was still covering everything. My skirt was hitched up to my waist and I squealed in embarrassment, which ended up making both Natsu and Laxus look at me. Laxus was grinning from ear to ear, and Natsu was just enjoying the show.

"Black lace again, Luce? I thought you got rid of all your lacey underwear after that one incident." Natsu wagged his eyebrows at me, making me blush harder as I straightened the micro skirt. He was of course referring to when we had gone out drinking, and I drunkenly confessed to Natsu about how uncomfortable lace panties were. I vowed I'd throw them all away and just wear granny panties for the rest of my life.

"I was drunk, and you know that. But what are you doing here? You have class in the morning!" I was pouting, trying to ignore the curious glances Laxus kept sending my way.

"Mira called me when I was asleep, saying you and your future baby-daddy took off this way. She wanted me to check up on you to make sure everything was all right. But I guess from what I walked in on, she didn't have to worry." Natsu walked over to me and slid his arm around my shoulders, finally turning his attention to Laxus. "Who are you?"

"Like you said, I'm her future baby-daddy." Laxus laughed, winking my way before he started to walk away. I was momentarily stunned. A flash of lightening made me jump, and I winced because the noise hurt my ears. Natsu tensed up next to me and before I knew what was happening, he began to pull me out of the alley. Turning towards my house, he moved his arm to link with mine.

"What do you think you were doing, Luce? You don't know that guy," He was mumbling, sending me weird looks.

"We have had this discussion before, Natsu. You may be my best friend, but I'm a grown woman. If I want to talk to someone in an alley, I can." I was blushing, not wanting to admit I'd just made out with a stranger. A really, really, really hot stranger, but still.

After a few minutes of silence, we finally got to my apartment. Natsu and I walked in and started going up the stairs since the elevator was broken. More silence as we got to the third floor, and even more as we got to my door. I grabbed my key and unlocked it, opening the door and walking inside. I was about to grab some food when I realized Natsu was still outside the door, looking grumpy.

"Come on in, Natsu. I'll make breakfast, okay?" I smiled at him, but he just shook his head. His hand went to scratch the back of his head, and his frown deepened.

"I don't like you kissing other guys, Luce. Especially strangers."

"Natsu, you're dating Lisanna now. You don't get to tell me if you like or don't like it. I'm sorry to say this, but you busting in on us earlier wasn't cool. What if I did that to you and your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend anymore. She left me, Luce.." He finally walked in and plopped down on my sofa. I stood there in shock for a minute, my mind racing. They were the perfect couple, and she left him? Natsu would do anything for her! I walked over to him and sat down next to him, forgetting the food completely.

"What happened? Why did she leave?" I asked gently, laying my hand on his shoulder. He tensed up before he slouched down, his head going in his hands.

"She told me she found someone else. Someone that she loves more, and could treat her right. She told me that I wasn't good enough anymore." He whispered, and I could see the tears falling from his hands to his trousers.

I slid my hand around him so I was hugging him tightly, my eyes tearing up because his were. We had been best friends for the past three years, never leaving one another's side unless we had to work or class. A year ago he had met back up with his childhood friend, and things were going well. She had transferred schools to go to MU, moved in with him, and he had been talking about proposing recently.

I couldn't wrap my head around the fact she would do something so horrible to Natsu. She had always raised a fuss about how she thought he and I were sleeping with each other behind her back, so she never liked me too much. She'd put up with me, but I always ended up hearing about how trashy my clothes were that day or how immature my job was. But I put up with it for my best friend.

"Look, she obviously didn't understand what a great guy she had. It's her loss! You'll find the girl of your dreams and live on to have little dragon babies, and you'll forget completely about that bitch." As I snuggled closer to him trying to cheer him up, I didn't expect him to shoot up and grab me. He walked us into my bedroom and ran out, putting away all the food I had gotten out. I smiled and walked over to my dresser, grabbing some comfortable pajamas, then went to the bathroom to change.

When I came back out, he was curled up in a ball on my bed. He was always sneaking in here to sleep since we met. Of course, when Lisanna came into the picture he didn't unless they had a pretty bad fight – but it had been awhile. I had honestly thought things were going well for Natsu.

I shook the frown that was forming off, replacing it with a smile as Natsu looked up at me from under the covers. He moved over so I could have a spot, and as soon as I laid down, he grabbed me and snuggled into my back.

We both let out a small sigh of contentment.

"Don't leave me, Luce. I don't know what I'd do without you." He whispered, holding me tighter for a second.

"Never. We're best friends until the end," I promised, falling asleep soon after.