Since its NaNoWriMo, I'll be writing quite a bit. I've got this story and a 30 day prompt challenge that I'm attempting to complete! I'm almost positive I'll pass 50,000 words ehehe
I really hope that you guys enjoy this story! Please be sure to review if you do! I thrive on feedback~
I also would really like to thank the guest who reviewed the last chapter and Mazelover, who also reviewed! For some reason I can't see the reviews on the site, but I saw them in my email! I'm really happy that you both like the story so far and I hope that you continue to enjoy it c:
"Guys," Lucy whined indignantly, "why do you always do this? Can't I get a little bit of peace around here?" The young woman stomped over to where Gray stood near her desk and swiped the paper that he'd been holding from his hands.
"Hey!" He protested, "I was just getting to the good part! Why are you so self conscious about this stuff? You're actually a pretty good writer." The young man stuffed his hands into his pockets when Lucy glared at him and moved to see what Erza was looking at instead.
The celestial spirit mage sighed softly before she looked down at the pages that Gray had stolen from off of her desk. Her cheeks felt a bit warm from the compliment, though she forced herself to ignore it. It was her writing. She couldn't help it, Lucy had always been a little bit on the overly critical side when it came to the things that she created.
That's just how she was.
Despite that, she couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride swell within her breast at the fact that Gray actually enjoyed reading her stories. That was pretty much what she always walked in on him doing anyway, whenever he was there.
"We found a job and wanted to see if you'd join us," Erza explained finally after several long moments of Lucy's question being unanswered. The redhead had been distracted by a somewhat raunchy novel that Lucy had left on her table. Her cheeks were flushed slightly as she cleared her throat and turned her attention onto the blonde fully. "The pay is pretty high, even when it gets divided between all of us. I heard you saying yesterday that you might not make rent this month, so I thought it would be a good idea for us to do this one together."
Natsu moved to stand beside Erza as he grinned and gave Lucy a thumbs up, "Besides! It's never any fun to go on a mission without you, Luce!"
Lucy could feel all of her frustration melt away as she listened to her friend speak and she sighed softly.
It was difficult to stay mad at a group of people who cared about her so deeply.
Besides, she really didn't mind all that much. She secretly kind of liked all of the attention that she got from her guildmates, she liked the fact that they were so open with their feelings when it came to each other and her. They made her feel wanted in a way that she never truly felt during the years that she spent alone with her father.
Sure she had Spetto and the others… though it was a whole other feeling to actually have friends.
"Yeah, okay. Sounds good! I just wanna take a shower and then I'll be good to go." Everybody nodded in understanding and continued to lounge around. A vein popped on Lucy's forehead and her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "That means you guys gotta get out! I'll meet you at the guild when I'm ready!"
Erza nodded in understanding and turned to face Gray, Natsu, and Happy. "You heard her, you guys better get moving."
"That goes for you too Erza!" Lucy's voice became high pitched as her agitation returned and everybody begrudgingly left her apartment, causing the blonde to sigh heavily when she was able to go through the motions of getting ready for a shower.
She removed the blue tie from her hair and let her long tresses fall down her back.
It had really grown out, she kind of liked how her hair looked when it was long. She couldn't help but believe it helped her overall appearance when it came to catching the eye of attractive males. At least, that's what she thought since she noticed that she was getting more and more attention lately.
She shrugged at her internal thoughts before she began to remove her clothing, soon she was topless and had just begun to work on taking off her blue skirt when her door flew open and a certain ice mage strut in like he owned the place.
"Lucy! I forgot to mention tha-" The raven-haired mage choked when he saw Lucy and her current state of undress and quickly halted his advance. His entire face turned beet red and he spun on his heel so that he could no longer look at her naked body.
"G-Gray!" Lucy exclaimed indignantly, "Doesn't anybody around here know how to knock?!" Lucy's face was also red as she hurriedly pulled the skirt up from where it had fallen to her ankles and threw her shirt back on over her chest.
She supposed that she should be grateful that she at least had been wearing her good lingerie.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't think you'd have stripped down so quickly!" Gray sounded completely embarrassed as he spoke and the blonde could tell by his body language that he was ashamed of the fact that he hadn't knocked first.
"I'm dressed," Lucy muttered as she folded her arms defensively across her chest, "What did you forget to mention?" She wanted to hurry and get to the point so that she could actually take a shower and wash off all of her own embarrassment.
Slowly, Gray turned to face her again. His cheeks still looked fairly warm and definitely was avoiding looking at her as his gaze found the ceiling.
"Um…" Gray trailed off, it appeared as though he'd forgotten what it was that he had come to say, "Oh." His gaze moved from the ceiling to lazily meet Lucy's chocolate orbs. "I wanted to say that I really like the direction that your story is going, I think that you should definitely have the princess and the knight get together. I know it's kind of cliche… but I kind of like the idea of the knight and the dragon fighting for her hand. For the knight to win, I kind of like happy endings."
Gray allowed a lazy grin to touch his lips before he waved and turned his back to Lucy once more, "Of course, I'll enjoy whatever you decide to do. I'll see you at the guild." Then he was gone.
Lucy blinked in shock, not entirely sure if she was understanding what had just happened. Gray barreled into her apartment for that? To tell her what he wanted to happen in her story?
Slowly, she reached up and clutched at the material that covered her chest.
Her heart felt as though it was beating a mile a minute. What was going on? Why was she having such a reaction to something that Gray of all people had said? Granted, she knew that it was probably because she didn't often get recognition for her writing. Levy was the only person who seemed to be avidly interested in the things that she wrote.
It felt strange to have a second fan. For somebody other than her blue-haired friend be so invested in the things she wrote.
Biting her lip, Lucy quickly shook her head and slapped her cheeks in an attempt to snap her out of whatever kind of daze she was going through.
She really needed to take a shower and clear her head! So that was exactly what the young writer did. This time, she was sure to lock both her door and window before stripping down. Though really, she knew by now that Natsu more than likely had a key to her apartment. So locking the door probably wouldn't do much good if he wanted to get in.
She didn't take too long, she really didn't want to make the others wait too long. By the time she got to the guild, tables were being thrown and she could hear the familiar sound of Natsu and Gray brawling.
"If you two don't stop right now, Lucy and I are going to leave without you!" Erza shouted as she approached Lucy who still stood in the doorway of the guildhall.
That seemed to shut the boys up effectively.
Soon, they were boarding the train much to Natsu's chagrin. Lucy let him rest his head on her lap as she watched the scenery fly by. There were a couple of times that she noticed Gray watching her while she was doing this, though every time she looked over he would avert his eyes.
Lucy was suspicious of the behavior, but before she could bring it up, Erza would start talking.
"So, are there any special rewards once this job is completed? Or is it all jewel?" Lucy found herself asking after a little while, she was a little bit surprised she didn't ask sooner.
"Oh." Gray's eyes were on Lucy again and she blinked at him, "I don't know why we forgot to tell you, there is also a key as a reward."
"What?! Why didn't you say something earlier?! What kind of key?" Lucy felt shocked that this little fact would have been left out, especially when they were trying to convince her to join them on this job. She would have dropped everything if it meant that there was a key involved.
"I don't know," This time it was Erza who spoke, "The flier didn't give a whole lot of detail on much of anything, this whole thing is a bit of a gamble to be honest. Though we kind of figured that you'd refuse to go if you didn't know what to expect, even if a key was included." She held up her hands and offered an apologetic smile, "Sorry Lucy, hopefully the key will make up for this."
Lucy threw her arms into the air in exasperation.
"You're all so lucky that I love you." she stated before she folded her arms across her chest and puffed out her cheek as she pouted while looking out the window once more.
Though she was beginning to feel more excited about the job, no matter what kind of key it was… Lucy would love it. That much she knew for a fact.