Disclaimer: Fairy Tail does not and sadly will never belong to me but this plot does! I'll sue you if you attempt to steal it haha ^w^ *LOL*
(A/N: Welcome back minna to D2L (Dared to Love)! My extremely late update has an extremely valid reason so kindly refrain from hating me because I love you all lots! Thanks a lot for reading this and to all those who reviewed and follow/favorite-ed! Kindly leave a review after you're done! Yosh, ikuzo!)
He watched her retreating figure… then coming out of his thoughts, he ran after her.
"Luce! Lucy! Wait!" He called out but she didn't listen, she just ran faster. Speeding up a little, he was able to catch up to her and grab hold of her arm, spinning her to face him, resulting in her stumbling on him. For a moment they both just stared, searching each other for something unknown to they themselves, before finally Gray spoke, "I didn't mean to hurt you or anything…" Lucy looked at him with eyes that showed pure hatred.
"Yeah… you guys never say or do anything to hurt people… people just enjoy getting hurt regardless if it was called for or not" She said coldly in total sarcasm before beginning to turn away but he held her back.
"It's like your hatred is mainly directed towards the male population" He said in somewhat of a teasing tone. She turned her head back to face him,
"No. It's not that my hatred is mainly directed towards males – my hatred is ENTIRELY directed towards males" She stated with a cold glare and pulled her arm away from him before walking away.
Gray just stood a bit dumbstruck.
'Ugh… that's enough of drama queen for one day. The bell's about to ring for lunch time, thank god for that.' Gray thought and he headed back into the library, put all the books in their places and waited for the awaited sound of the period bell.
-Cafeteria, Lunch time-
The entire cafeteria was packed as it usually was at this time of the day. All students gathered at their usual tables and began the chitter chatter…
"…so this is the cafeteria" Levy casually said to Lucy, both carrying their tray of food.
"Oh there's an empty table" Lucy stated happily and began walking towards it to sit but Levy pulled her back.
"Lu-chan you can't sit there" Levy said
"Why not?"
"That's the Raijinshuu's table" Levy informed her, "they're all seniors and heads of the student committee. One of them, Laxus Dreyar is even the principal's grandson. There's Evergreen, Freid and Bixlow." Lucy listened carefully. This group was one group she didn't want to mess with. Next Levy pointed at a table right next to the Raijinshuu's, "that table is where the most horrible people you'll ever meet sit. Flare and her maniac ravens. They're commonly referred to as the Raven tail gang…" She explained.
"So everyone here has a fixed gang and a fixed table…" Lucy concluded and Levy nodded.
"If ever a person leaves their table to sit with another, it is assumed that there was a fight or something of the sort. I, on the other hand have two tables where I can sit – there's the one with the usual gang of Erza, Gray, Natsu, Lisanna, Gajeel, Mirajane whenever she's around, Loke, Cana, etc. and from time to time I sit with my library duty colleagues – Reedus, head of the art club, Jet, captain of the track team and Droy who's just a really big foodie." Levy told her.
"There are so many tables… so many people… yet everyone just limits themselves to a certain group? Isn't that just entirely pointless?" Lucy spoke her thoughts.
"Well, welcome to Fairy High?" Levy replied in an unsure but playful tone.
"And THAT, right at the middle is Fairy High's Fairy Tail." Levy said pointing to a large table at the center of the cafeteria.
"Fairy High's 'FAIRYTAIL'?" Lucy asked confused.
"Fairy Tail is what the gang is called. Well, I have no idea where that name came from…But what I can think of is that this gang is probably the most popular gang in Fairy High"
Suddenly a voice spoke from behind the two, "Levy, maybe you're exaggerating a bit much on the 'most popular' thing"
The blonde and blunette turned to face the owner of the voice – Gray.
"Gray! You totally scared me there" Levy shouted in an annoyed manner and pouted. Gray patted her head playfully and they both approached the table – Lucy just watched their backs in a trance…
'They look so…chummy…and happy.' Lucy thought. Somewhere she felt jealous because she would never be able to be so carefree and trustful towards any guy ever again.
'She just hasn't ever felt the pain of betrayal…' she thought, trying to convince herself.
"Lu-chan! Where're you spacing out to? Come on, I'll introduce you to the gang" Levy called out to her and Lucy followed.
There were lots of people at the table and Lucy just felt completely nervous. She wanted to make new friends but she had just lost her touch for gelling in with people. There had been a time when just her sunny smile would have her win new friends but that time was long gone now… Lucy watched as Gray patted the girls on their heads in a kind of greeting, bumped fists with all the guys and took a seat beside a stunning scarlet.
"Hey guys" Levy greeted them all and responses like, "Hey", "Hi" and "Yo" came from the occupants, "This here is Lu-ch – I mean Lucy. She's that new transfer student that transferred here last week from this really awesome prestigious school back in Hargeon. Let's all make her feel at home ne?" Levy did the intro.
"Lu-chan, this here is Erza Scarlet. She's the student council president, president of the kendo club, vice president of the dojo club and she's also the seniors' class representative."
Lucy couldn't believe how long that introduction was! How could one person be so active?! She could already feel the respect she was beginning to have for the scarlet. She sounded so reliable and responsible and…mature.
"Ooh and she's got a sweet tooth so beware of her favorite strawberry cheesecakes" Levy warned and everyone showed how much they agreed, "Ok next! She's Lisanna Strauss. Sophomore year. She's vice-president of the school drama club" Lucy smiled in greeting.
"And the raven-head beside Erza I'm sure needs no introduction… he's Gray Fullbuster. Your literature seat mate AND every girl's fantasy… Apart from that, he's the football club's captain and he's even part of the art club, the dojo club, the kendo club and the student council." Lucy had lost her thing for being surprised now. I mean it was like every one of them was a captain or president or vice-president of SOMETHING!
"Art club?" Lucy asked confused. Somehow out of the full never ending list, the art part just didn't fit.
"Oh Lu-chan you haven't seen Gray's Ice sculptures right? He's like a master at those! Their just so amazing!" Levy praised.
"Like I said, you exaggerate way too much" Gray said.
"But I think your sculptures are really amazing and beautiful too." Erza insisted.
"Ok enough of Gray; the brunette beside him is Cana Alberona.
"Well if you look at her you'll probably see this really sweet, sensitive and innocent girl but – " Levy began and was interrupted by a guy with long, spiky, black hair.
" – but, Cana is our number one kickass chick. She's like a devil in disguise" he completed.
"AND she has this drinking fetish too…she also bunks lots of classes" Erza said.
"You guys praising me or insulting me?! No one mentioned Erza's anger issues" Cana said.
"And THAT is Cana's laid-back persona" Levy said.
"Hey but she's got her own angel side too. Cana's into outside school social work. She takes care of this orphanage that's not too far from here. But personally I think her Devil side is loads of fun" Gray said and Cana bumped fists with him.
"And there we have the triplets" Levy whispered to Lucy.
"What do you mean?"
"Those three are like best of friends. Gray's really protective of those two."
'Protective huh?' Lucy thought…
"Ok then, that Salmon head who's fast asleep is Natsu Dragneel. He's really friendly and all… he's like the school's number one prankster."
"He's totally the biggest idiot too" Gray added in.
"Then next is Gajeel Redfox. Just like you, he's also a new transfer student. He transferred here last term and well, he's completely and outrageously rude and also a total rebel but at the same time he's also really kind when he needs to be." Levy said, "So that's it for the intros…"
Levy took a seat beside Gajeel and Lucy felt a bit lost. Where should she sit?
"Hey Lucy there's only one empty seat" Loke reminded her, "Gray won't you be a gentleman?" he said to Gray playfully with a wink that went unnoticed by Lucy. Gray stood up from his seat with a chuckle, getting Loke's message and pulled the empty seat that was beside Cana.
"This is actually where Mirajane sits but she's out of town." Gray informed Lucy and Lucy silently took a seat. Throughout Lunch she was somewhat lost. The Dragneel boy had woken up and greeted Lucy warmly and then a blue-haired guy who was really charming and a girl with long ebony hair, just as charming and beautiful, walked over to their table. The girl walked ahead slowly putting a finger at her lips as a signal for the ones opposite Gray who could see her, to help conceal her presence. The girl had a playful smirk… Lucy watched as she got closer and closer behind Gray and Gajeel suddenly had this smile on his face that was nowhere near friendly.
Then the girl quickly pulled both Gray's ears and Gray's entire face turned red like a tomato, making everyone on the table crack up.
"ULTEAR!" Gray shouted angrily and she quickly backed away giggling.
"Oh when did you get back? You had gone to Galuna for some paperwork right?" Erza asked and the blunette boy covered her eyes from behind.
"I'm back too you know" he said and Erza's face turned an equal shade of red but unlike Gray, this was more likely blushing. Lucy felt the tinge of jealousy again…
'They just don't know betrayal so they can trust so easily and feel these frivolous emotions with no boundaries… They know nothing…' she thought to herself.
"J-J-Jellal?! B-but you weren't supposed to come back for another two months!" Erza exclaimed.
"The work I had left for got over sooner than expected" He replied and behind the scenes Gray was ruffling Ultear's hair and Ultear was complaining.
"Oh I see we have a newbie" Ultear commented and immediately Levy went on with the intros.
"This is Lucy Heartfilia, new student, transferred last week. Lu-chan, this is Ultear Milkovich. She's president of all student club activities and vice president of the student council. And that's Jellal Fernandez, well there's too much to say about him so let's just leave it at that"
Lunch went on that way with the chitter-chatter. Soon Lunch was over and classes begun once again. Lucy had made new friends today and to say the truth, she actually really liked them all… It wasn't hard to believe that they were indeed the most popular gang seeing as how the members were all so involved in the school activities and each was so perfect in their own way.
-After school-
Lucy was walking back to her apartment, lost in thoughts, when suddenly her leg got caught in something and she fell – "Ow!" she yelped and watched as some blood began to flow down her knee. It was difficult to move and her apartment was nowhere nearby…Being from such a rich heritage, her father insisted she stay in only the best of apartments which in Magnolia was located pretty far away from her school. How convenient huh? NOT…
She couldn't even expect to get any help here because the path she was currently on was mostly solemn and it was absolutely rare to find any citizens passing by. It was generally a shortcut she had been taking for the last three days. A jolt of pain surged to her wound and she winced, it was truly painful. A tear dropped from her left eye…
'Lonely again… just me and these tears… it's always been like this hasn't it?' Lucy thought, closing her eyes and letting the tears drop.
Out of the blue, Lucy felt something warm rub her tears off her cheeks. She opened her chocolate orbs only to have them meet with dark, intense, midnight blue ones. Her cheeks flushed realizing it was Gray and not just that, he was so…close. She could smell his perfume…
"What? You falling in love with me already?" He teased and winked. On the inside she was squirming with anxiety but on the outside she just glared.
"Ok, ok…no jokes." He mended and tore a piece of cloth from his shirt and began to tie it around Lucy's wound. Lucy felt a bit warm towards him at that moment… it was just that she felt so safe. A feeling she hadn't felt for way too long.
"Y-your shirt…"
"Oh don't worry… it's just a shirt… I've got many of those back home. Plus, I can just put on my jacket to hide the tear till I get home." He assured her, "By the way…" he began and Lucy looked into his eyes "sorry about today. That time in the library, I really didn't mean to hurt you" Lucy felt warmth flood through her.
"Can't we be friends?" Gray asked holding out his hand. Lucy slowly took his hand and he pulled her up, "Um, Luce, you okay?"
"Yeah. I can walk just fine." She assured him and then suddenly she realized her shoe's heel was broken.
"I don't think you can get anywhere with a wounded knee and a broken shoe." Gray concluded the obvious, "Come on, I'll take you shopping" he laughed. And if only for a moment, if only just a small curve of her lips, Lucy smiled.
'Great…' Gray thought 'first step cleared.'
(A/N: YOSH! Chapter 4 completed! Gomen for updating so late but I've been really lost on how to make this chapter. This was the fifth attempt! It still isn't what I hoped for but since it's already gotten so late since I last updated, I just decided to give up and update it. I promise, this time really, the next chapter is going to be juicy and I have it all planned out. Please wait for it.)
I'd really appreciate some encouragement so please leave a review. Constructive criticism is always welcome.
NEXT CHAPTER: IS IT JUST ME OR…? (This one'll be really juicy so please stay on the look out for it! Follow/Favorite this story to stay in touch)
Kindly take a look at my other stories as well: 'Mystery Lovers', 'Destined' and 'Delirium of the Secret of Life'.
Also I want to request you all to support SakuraTree999's latest stories… They're worth checking out! ;D
UNTIL NEXT TIME MINNA~,
JA'NE!