THE SHRINE MAIDEN AND THE DELINQUENT
CHAPTER 15
AN: Thanks for all your support guys, and to the guest reviewer, you know who you are, thank you for all those kind reviews, if I could, I would have loved to message you my thanks.
And so, after so long, here's the next chapter! XD
Mermaid Heel Academy has a very strict drop off policy for when an event takes place away from school grounds.
That being; all students are to be dropped off at their homes directly after the event, to ensure the safety of the girls.
After all, having teenaged girls walking home late in the evening would be immoral.
Lucy's home was the last to go to, since she lived further away than the rest of the girls. Levy and Juvia prayed that Lucy's dad wouldn't freak out about her ankle, or the fact that she would now have to go to a different school, that had boys, on a weekly basis.
Lucy sighed in defeat, there was no way her dad wasn't going to freak out, in fact he may just use this whole fiasco as an excuse to stop her from going anywhere with her friends.
AKA; his own form of grounding.
"Lucy-san?" said Mira.
"Yes Mira-sensei?" she answered.
"I'm really sorry about all this, I know how strict your dad can be. I feel like I somehow created a punishment system for everyone" said Mira in a sad tone.
"Its fine, I know for a fact that none of us blame you for what happened. It all just spiralled out of control somehow" said Lucy kindly.
Mira smiled softly "You really are too forgiving Lucy, I hope no boy tries to take advantage of that" she said with a cheeky smirk.
Lucy cheeks went pink, and she was about to protest until a thought came to mind.
"Um, Mira-sensei?" she asked.
"Nani?" said Mira.
"If… If its not too much to ask… um, what happened between you and that blonde sensei? I understand if you don't want to tell me, I mean after all I am just a student, and I know I shouldn't pry into your private life and all-"
"Ara ara, calm down Lucy-san. You're rambling" said Mira with a slight giggle.
Lucy snapped her mouth shut instantly "Sorry" she said.
"It's alright. It's natural to be curious when you're exposed to something strange like that" she said with an understanding smile.
There was an awkward silence and Lucy thought that Mira was going to let her question go, which is why she was surprised when she started talking again.
"Well, I can't really go into specifics about what happened, but I guess there's no harm in telling you the short version" she said.
Lucy felt happy, her favourite teacher was opening up to her a little.
"Thank you Sensei" she said with a smile.
Mira giggled at Lucy's cute behaviour.
Mira thought to herself about where a good place to start her conversation would be.
"Well… I guess I should start with the fact that I've known him since High school. His name is Laxus Dreyar, we both attended Fairy Tail Academy actually" she said with a giggle.
This was news to Lucy, for a number of reasons.
"I'm sure you've heard the rumours about how I was a pretty crazy kid in High School right? Well this guy, he and I used to be rivals" she said with a small laugh.
Lucy's jaw dropped to the floor, 'Crazy' was an understatement when you described Mira in her high school days, she wasn't nicknamed 'The Demon' for nothing. And to hear that not only did she have a rival, but that her very rival was an incredibly well-built guy, who looked like he had a bad attitude as well?!
How had Fairy Tail managed to survive?!
"Those were some pretty crazy times for us. But it was also the most fun I've had in my life. And when we went from rivals to something more… well, I had never known such happiness" she said with a small blush and a soft-hearted smile.
Whoa, did that mean that Mira and this 'Laxus' guy had been an item once? Talk about a bombshell, there was a guy out there that could handle Mira?!
In all the years that Lucy has known her, she had never seen Mira out on a date, or even discussing her own romantic life at all. Now that she thought about it, Mira did always seem to be really curious about other people's love lives…
Lucy always just thought that Mira was just extremely pure, besides the whole 'High School demon' thing.
"Things happened, and our relationship progressed. I thought we were both happy together until… well, let's just say we had a falling out of sorts, mostly because he did something stupid. And I haven't been able to face him without wanting to strangle him to death ever since" she said angrily, gripping the steering wheel until her knuckles were white.
Lucy felt so sad for Mira, to have something like that happen the way it did…
Sure she didn't understand most of it because Mira made it so vague, but it was clear that whatever happened between them had hurt her a lot. She wondered if Laxus regretted it, she didn't portray him as a complete villain, but he didn't exactly sound like Mr Nice guy either.
"Wow, I'm so sorry Mira-sensei. That sounds so tough" she said sadly.
"I'll tell you what's tough, if I have to go see him at that counselling thing, someone better strap me to a chair or at least keep him out of my line of sight, or else we might end up doing this three times a week" said Mira with a laugh.
Lucy giggled, Mira didn't like people worrying about her much, so she tried to lighten the mood.
"Maybe this way you guys could work things out?" asked Lucy hopefully.
"Hmm, I wonder…" said Mira softly, a sad smile decorating her face.
"Oh my, already at your home? I guess we must have lost track of time somehow" she said with a surprised face.
Lucy's face paled, she was so lost in Mira's story that she completely forgot about her dad, and their soon-to-be discussion. She knew she was gonna be in for a rough night.
"Any chance you could come in with me?" asked Lucy with a nervous smile on her face.
Mira giggled "Now now Lucy-san, if the other girls could handle it I'm sure you can. Just try to look as innocent as possible and I'm sure he won't freak out as much as you think" she said with a reassuring smile.
Lucy dropped her head in her hands "Those girls don't have crazy dad's waving katanas at every guy that walks by" she said nervously.
Mira sweat-dropped, Lucy did have a point there. When she heard about that she was very surprised, but at the same time she laughed her ass off, I mean, who wouldn't right?
"W-well… um… good luck?" said Mira half-heartedly.
"That's all you have to say?!" whined Lucy.
"Sorry, see you at school!" said Mira as she drove away quickly.
Lucy just stood at the bottom of the stairs that lead to her family's shrine, her bags in hand as she watched Mira's car fly away.
A blank look was on her face; one akin to shock and disbelief.
"D-did she just run away and ditch me?" she asked herself in disbelief.
She turned to look at the many steps that led to her home, a feeling of dread creeping up her spine and in her gut. She swallowed nervously.
"W-well, it's not like I can just run away from this anyway. M-might as well get it over with" she said nervously, as a way to instil some courage in herself.
So with slightly shaky legs she trudged up the stairs where she knew her dad would be waiting for her, and she had a feeling he was not gonna be smiling when she saw him either.
When Lucy reached her front door she was both nervous and sweaty, and not from the long climb up the stairs.
She was trying to work up the nerve to open her door, but her arms just would not move. It was like her body wouldn't let her go for the sake of her sanity.
She took a few calming breathes before she managed to regain control of her right arm and finally slide her front door open.
And she noticed that her dad wasn't waiting behind it like she had originally feared, which surprised her.
She slowly walked further in and took off her shoes very cautiously.
"T-tadaima…" she said nervously as she put her house slippers on and walked further inside her house.
It was eerily quiet, all she could hear were the sounds of the clocks, and maybe the dishwasher. This only made her feel even more nervous; like those scenes in horror films when you know that there's something bad behind the door but that stupid girl would always open it to look anyway no matter how loud you screamed for her not to…
Yeah, Lucy felt like the stupid girl now.
After a few moments of silence she started to think that maybe she got lucky and her dad was still busy at the shrine, which meant that she might have just enough time to make a nice dinner to distract him. Genius Lucy!
She smiled to herself at her brilliant idea and made her way to the kitchen, only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw who was sitting at the dinner table.
"Okairi Lucy…" said Lucy's dad.
His hands were folded and his elbows were on the table, like he was about to have a business meeting.
Lucy remembered that pose from when she was a small child, it wasn't a time she wanted to remember very much. Her dad was a different man back then.
"O-Ohayo… Papa…" said Lucy timidly.
"You know what we have to discuss right?" he asked her in an authoritative tone.
"H-Hai…" she said nervously staring at the floor.
Lucy's dad sighed exasperatedly "Lucy…" he said.
She gulped nervously, who knows how this was going to go.
"… I thought I asked you to call me when you finished today!?" he said with tears in his eyes.
…
Huh?
Gone was the domineering father that she saw just seconds ago, and now a sad sappy overprotective dad had taken his place. Talk about pulling a 180, and was that the only thing he was worried about?!
"Do you have any idea how worried I was when you didn't call me, and to top it off to have your principal call and tell me about this ridiculous inter-school counselling nonsense because of some debacle at some other school!? I was ten minutes away from calling the police to find you and bring you home!" he yelled overdramatically, wailing his hands around.
Lucy's face paled, she figured he'd react like this, but seeing it herself was just too much.
"G-gomennasai Papa, I-I guess I forgot" she said while sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
"Those ruffians at Fairy Tail didn't hurt you did they?!" he asked as he got up and placed his hands on Lucy's shoulder.
Lucy's eyes darted to her ankle for a second before she redirected it to her wall that she suddenly found interesting "U-um, well I… the thing with that is-"
"What happened to your ankle?!" he yelled worriedly, when he noticed that she looked down he looked as well and noticed the bandaging over her ankle.
"Nothing! Nothing to worry about, I was just clumsy and tripped is all! It wasn't anybody's fault but mine!" she said defensively.
Knowing her dad, if he so much as thought that someone had harmed her he would bring out something a lot worse than a katana.
"My sweet Lucy to think you got hurt and I wasn't there to help you. Papa is so useless~" he said as he fell on his knees to the floor in shame.
Lucy sweat-dropped.
'I wonder if there are other girls out there who have to deal with overbearing dads?' she thought to herself.
"Achoo!"
"Cana, are you ok?! Are you getting a cold?!"
"Oh would ya just knock it off!"
"I-its ok Papa, the second I got hurt I was taken to their schools medical room" she said in attempts to reassure her distraught dad.
Lucy's dad looked up at her with hopeful eyes, unshed tears on the corners.
"R-really? Y-you were properly taken care of?" he asked hopefully.
Lucy nodded her head fast "Of course, he was nice enough to carry me and bandage me" she said with a smile and a small blush at the memory.
"… 'He'?" said her dad questioningly.
Oh crap!
Lucy's eyes widened when she realised her slip up.
"Y-you were carried… by a b-b-b-boy?!" he yelled like an insane person.
"N-now Papa… calm down a sec and-"
*THUMP*
"Papa?!"
Lucy's dad feinted from shock.
"Papa, snap out of it! Papa!" she yelled while softly slapping his face to wake him up.
"My little angel was touched by a demon… ahh… this must be a nightmare~" he mumbled in his sleepy state.
Lucy sighed exasperatedly.
'This is gonna be an annoyingly long night'
Natsu was not a morning person; this everyone knew.
But this particular morning Natsu felt like he was the walking dead.
He had dark rings under his eyes, which were heavy with sleep. The buttons of his shirt were hideously mismatched, and his hair looked more like bed-head than usual.
To put it bluntly; he didn't get much sleep last night.
No, not like that you pervs.
If you had seen what he had been up to last night, you would shake your head in sympathy:
After the mentally scarring encounter with his dad, Natsu made sure he locked his bedroom door, and for good measure he put a chair under the knob as well.
Once he was sure that he was alone, save for Happy who was staring at his master like he was crazy, he punched Lucy's mail address in his cell and saved it on its memory.
He was feeling oddly giddy about the whole thing and he couldn't stop grinning. He suddenly realized that he was acting like some boy-crazed teenage girl, snapping him out of his happiness.
"Gaaaah! What the hell is wrong with me?!" he yelled while scratching his head in frustration.
"Ayyee" meowed Happy; poor cat had a nasal condition, so his meow was a little weird. But Natsu liked it, he always said it was what made Happy unique… well besides the fact that his fur had a blue tinge to it, the brightest shade ever seen on a Russian Blue.
"Happy, why am I acting like this over one chick. This has never happened to me before" he asked in confusion.
"Ayye"
Natsu sighed depressingly, while Happy was a great listener and agreed with everything he said, an advice giver he was not.
Natsu lifted his cell so he could stare at the screen, where he had his mail open and Lucy listed as the recipient.
After five minutes of staring at the screen and not doing anything, he got fed up and bashed his head into the wall by his bed.
He had a way of contacting her; great, but he had no idea what to say to her!
He could start by saying 'hi' but that would be so bland, and way out of character for him.
So many ideas were swimming in his head but none of them felt right to him!
Maybe if he sat at his table and wrote them down, he could find something he could use?
And that's exactly what he did… till 4am.
When his mother woke him up, she was surprised to find him sleeping at his desk, with paper stuck to his face, and his rubbish bin filled to the brim with crumpled pieces of paper.
Normally she would have given in to her curiosity and read what was on the paper, but her son was running late and she was in a hurry.
So being the loving mother that she is, she got a bucket of cold water and poured it over her sons head; she was in no mood to struggle with his stubborn sleep, so she took the short-cut.
Natsu shrieked and fell off his chair, landing flat on his face on the floor.
"Oh good, you're up" said Grandine with a smile.
"What the hell mom!? Ya trying ta drown me!?" he yelled angrily, while coughing water out of his lungs.
"Come on, hurry up and get dressed, you're going to be late" she said while leaving her sons room.
"Don't pretend you did nothing wrong!" he yelled angrily…
Suffice to say he was not having the best of mornings; all thanks to a certain blonde haired vixen that snuck her way into his head.
Not to mention the fact that he had less breakfast than usual, only serving to add to his bad mood.
"What I would do for a piece of bacon right now" he mumbled sleepily as he made his way to school.
"With the way you eat I'm surprised you're not a walking balloon right now"
"Gaah!" yelled Natsu in surprise.
He angrily turned his head and saw a smirking Gray, trying not to laugh at his reaction.
"Dude, you should have seen your face" said Gray with a snicker.
"Bastard" grumbled Natsu angrily.
"Well I was walking behind you for ten minutes, I'm surprised you didn't notice me sooner" said Gray with a shrug.
"Whatever" grumbled Natsu and he continued walking to school while Gray was stunned still at his lack of reaction.
Gray ran to catch up and walk next to him, when he noticed how crappy he looked, he had never seen Natsu so out of it before…
This could be fun.
"Hey Flame-head, I forgot my lunch at home, give me some of yours later" he said teasingly.
"Uhuh" said Natsu uncaring.
Wow, Natsu really was out of it if he was giving up his food so easily. Oh was Gray gonna have fun with this. But just to be sure, he took out his cell and went to his record app and switched it on.
"Natsu, will you give me 1000 yen tomorrow?" he asked, then he directed his phone's speaker to Natsu.
"Sure…" he said, his eye lids drifting slightly.
Oh man, this was too easy.
"Ultear wants me to help at her part-time job, but I have other plans, will you go instead?" he asked again.
"Fine…" said Natsu with a yawn.
Perfect, he hated being used as slave labour by his sister, and Natsu has just secured him a 'get out of jail free' card.
Now… how far could he take this?
"I heard from Erza that you got that blonde chicks email, would you give it to me as well?" he asked with a smirk.
Hey, what can he say, he is a teenage boy with hormones, and she was pretty.
"Whatever man I- wait, what?! NO WAY IN HELL YOU NAKED BASTARD!" yelled Natsu.
Well, he was awake now, there goes his fun.
And what did he mean by 'naked'?
Gray looked down and noticed that he was stripped down to his boxers and socks.
"Son of a- how do I not notice?!" he said, running back to grab his discarded garments.
Natsu was officially awake now, how dare that Popsicle-freak try to get Lucy's email, he'd die before he'd let that happen.
"Fuck, did Erza tell EVERYONE!? She needs to get a life!" yelled Natsu in annoyance.
First his family and now Gray, the whole school probably knows about her now. If Erza weren't… well Erza he'd beat her up.
"Try telling that to her face man" said Gray as he came back to walk beside Natsu, fully clothed again… for now at least.
"And I was just kidding, you were just so out of it I had to take advantage of you" he said with a smirk.
'If Gray ever has any girl problems he can forget about getting any help from me' thought Natsu bitterly.
"I hope you drown one day" said Natsu angrily.
"Hey, you'd do the same to me if I were acting like you" said Gray with a shrug.
Natsu thought about it for a moment, and he guessed Gray had a point, it would have been super weird if he didn't do anything.
"Point taken, now… how much did you get out of me?" he asked with an annoyed glare.
"Your lunch, 1000 yen, and you're helping out at Blue Pegasus on Saturday" said Gray, ticking each off his hand.
Natsu groaned in annoyance, anything but Blue Pegasus.
"Dude, why would you make me work in that host café? Those guys weird me out!" he said in annoyance.
"No choice man, Ultear wants a day off and I don't like the owner. I saw it as a moment of opportunity" said Gray defensively.
"So now I have to suffer coz your sister treats you like her personal slave?! No way in hell Ice-boy" said Natsu.
"I have a recording on my phone that says you agreed, want me to take it to Erza?" Gray threatened while waving his cell.
Natsu stopped in his tracks, glancing back with wide eyes filled with surprise and slight fear. Erza was a well-known stickler when it came to promises, and since Gray had a recording of him agreeing, and if he went against it… there was no telling what she'd do if he didn't follow through.
"Y-You wouldn't…" he said nervously.
"I'm desperate, so yeah, I would" said Gray determinately.
…
It was a stand-off; Gray and Natsu were staring each other down with heated glares, neither one wanting to back down.
"You won't have anything to show Erza if I smash your phone" said Natsu, eying it in Gray's hand.
"You won't be able to smash my phone if you can't get a hold of it" said Gray tucking his cell in his pants pocket.
Natsu smirked, the second Gray stripped his pants off without knowing; the phone would be his.
Gray noticed his smirk and made a conscious decision to tighten his belt another notch, ignoring his discomfort at the unfamiliar tightness as he did so.
The stare-off continued, each one waiting for the first person to make a move…
With a great battle-cry, Natsu charged and ran towards Gray at full-speed, he would have that phone if it was the last thing he did.
Gray turned tail and ran straight for the school as fast as he could.
"Get back here Frosty!" yelled Natsu.
"Over your dead body Pyro!" yelled Gray.
Those two chased each other down until they reached their homeroom, and then started tossing the chairs and tables at each other, not bothering about the other students that got hit in the crossfire.
"This is so un-MANLY-"
"Elfman got hit again!"
"Why does he even bother?"
"What's got them so energetic this early!?"
"Could it be about that girl Natsu likes?"
"So she did tell everyone!" yelled Natsu angrily.
"I thought Gajeel was lying about that?"
"Metal-face too?!" yelled Natsu.
A chair hit Natsu square in the face, which only served to heighten his anger.
"Ok… that was the last straw…" he growled, while pulling out a lighter from his pocket
Everyone froze in place, nothing good happened when Natsu had access to fire, many of their teachers would vouch their eyebrows on it.
"O-oi… don't be stupid man… Erza will kill you-"
"Shut up Gray" growled Natsu with a glare.
Oh he was pissed now, nothing was gonna calm him down.
Natsu was just about to flick the lighter on, everyone's breath hitched in fear and anticipation.
…
Until a savior came and knocked the guy unconscious with a good bonk to the head
"What the hell do you think you're doing so early kid?"
"Gildarts-sensei!" screamed the class in relief.
Natsu was knocked out on the floor, his leg twitching slightly. Gildarts yawned and rubbed his head; looks like he wasn't awake just yet.
"Someone put this moron into his chair… wherever it is" he said as he finally registered the state of his classroom.
He noticed that Gray was holding a desk in his hand as well "Fullbuster, put everything back before Erza gets here, I'm in no mood to explain anything to Makarov today" he said while rubbing his face tiredly.
Gray's mouth hit the floor in shock, Natsu gets a power nap and he has to clean up the classroom. Oh he was so gonna get back at him.
"Ne Cana, why is your dad so tired this morning?" asked Kinana.
"Huh? Oh, he got on my nerves last night, so I made a bet that if I beat him in a drinking contest he would leave me alone while we're in school for a month" she said with a tired smirk.
Ah, he wasn't so much tired as nursing a hangover, shoulda seen that coming.
Kinana laughed nervously, someone should talk to Gildarts about his parenting methods.
Meanwhile Natsu was having a very interesting dream while he was on the floor, his grinning face letting everyone know it was definitely a happy one.
"Curry flavoured… how did you know Lucy~"
O_O
"WHAT THE HECK IS HE DREAMING ABOUT?!"
[A/N: And done! Hope you all liked it please tell me what you think in the review box below… guys I have almost reached 300 followers… wow, so happy right now! XD]