Chapter 5

Nowhere to Hide

Lucy woke up with a startle, she gasped for air and clawed at her neck as she slowly realized it just another night terror. She was quite familiar with them by now, after Alex took in Lucy, they were a nightly occurrence. Alex became so worried for her he opted to sleep on the couch in her apartment for the first few weeks, that way he could be there to wake her up if she had another and then calm her. After a month or two the night terrors seemed to subside a bit and Alex let up a little.

Alex was fully aware of what had happened to Lucy, when she finally opened up to him about it and showed him her back, he had no words. She was a child, a fucking child, yet had endured hardships many grown adult never had nor would. But what made Lucy feel so safe with Alex was his response, he didn't pity her, instead he told her how unbelievably strong she had been. "It takes strength to go through what you went through and still be so willing to trust and love, thank you for sharing this with me, I can't imagine it was easy." He had said to her after showing Alex her marred back.

Unfortunately, Lucy didn't think herself as a strong person, she didn't believe bad things made people strong. Bad things force people to be strong, there is no other choice in the matter. Thus, she hated being called such because to her it was basically congratulating her on surviving something that never should have happened in the first place. None-the-less, she knew Alex's comment was coming from his heart and she accepted it with a simple, "thank you."

Lucy, snapped out her thoughts by a tap on her window, hopped out of bed. She slowly walked over to her window to see the one and the only, Natsu Dragneel. Lucy opened her window, letting the cool breeze of the September morning greet her hello, before yelling to the Pinkette below.

"So you're a stalker now? How'd you know where I lived?" She asked while rubbing her eyes.

"Found your address in your school file after school yesterday, I was trying to find your number to text you but there wasn't one listed, so I headed over figuring you must've lived in one of the leftover apartments above the restaurant." Lucy's eyes widened, "Aren't student files private?!" she thought to herself. She sighed; he was resourceful, she had to give him that.

"Come on up, restaurant doors are already unlocked." Natsu nodded and as he headed up to Lucy's apartment, she quickly changed into her school uniform and ran a brush through her hair. Natsu came in just as she was tying it into 2 French braids.

"So, Luce, wanna walk to school with me today?" He asked casually while parking himself on her couch. She laughed.

"Well, you're already here, I don't think I can say no." she walked to her kitchenette and filled her kettle with water before setting it on a burner.

"Wow, I walk all the way to your house and that is how you respond, smh how rude." Natsu feigned hurt.

Lucy rolled her eyes to his response. "Do you live far from here?" She asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Actually yeah, I live a block over, your kinda on my way to school." He said happily, now he had an excuse to walk with Lucy to school everyday, something that made Natsu's heart skip a beat when he thought about it.

"Oh great, well we can walk together every morning then." She said aloud, as if she had read Natsu's mind. Her kettle started to screech as the water boiled, she quickly removed it from the burner and poured the water into her mug with a teabag.

It was at this moment Alex ran through the door with a bat. "LUCY ARE YOU OKAY. I SAW AN INTRUDER COMING UP HERE. DON'T WORRY I'LL PROTECT YOU."

Both Natsu and Lucy stared at Alex, both trying with all their might not to laugh at Alex. His hair was going every direction, he had massive bags under his eyes, and it looked like he had spilled coffee or something on his uniform as there was a big brown splotch on it.

"Wait a second, Natsu? Why the Hell are you here?" Alex asked after regaining some composure and placing the bat down.

"Came to walk Lucy to school." Lucy's heart did a flip at his comment, she took a sip of her tea hoping it would calm her excited little heart down.

"Alex, why do you look worse than yesterday, did you go out drinking again last night too? Did your hangover yesterday teach you nothing." Lucy face-palmed, some days it seemed like Alex had collectively two brain cells, both of which he never used.

"You know what the best cure is to a hangover CeeCee? Its more drinking, cures it right up. Unfortunately, it's a temporary fix." He said running his hands through his hair, he felt even shittier than yesterday.

Lucy rubbed her temples, she started to question if he even had a brain or if his head was just full of hot air. "Sure, big brother, how's that working out for ya?"

"Yeah, yeah whatever child, your lunches are on the counter downstairs. I'm gonna go do some paperwork in the office." He said

"So, your gonna take a nap?" Lucy said, calling his bluff

"You know me better than I know myself." He replied sarcastically. He gave her a kiss on the forehead and nodded to Natsu before heading to his office across the hall, leaving the bat at Lucy's door.

"Well," Lucy said placing her mug down, "Lets get a move on." Lucy grabbed her backpack from her room and Natsu followed her out the door and down the stairs to the restaurant.

Like Alex had mentioned, two brown paper bags sat on the counter with a note that said, "If he's gonna eat your lunch I might as well pack him one too. Have fun at school CeeCee." Lucy laughed at the note and handed Natsu a paper bag. He looked at her with eyes as big as saucers.

"Alex made me lunch too?" He said astonished, this was his dream come true.

"I told him yesterday how you ate the rest of mine… guess I won't have to share now that you get your own."

Natsu was pretty much kissing Lucy's feet the entire walk to school. He was so excited for his lunch that Lucy had to convince him not to eat it on the walk there.

The two quickly made it to school, they walked to chemistry together, basically she followed Natsu as she was oblivious to how to navigate the school. Lucy was so in her head she didn't even realize that Natsu sat down next to her, "Wait since when are you in my chem class?" she asked him while setting down her bag

"Always, I just didn't show up yesterday, quite frankly I pretty much never show up to my first period classes, I've done this so much the past few years here that the teachers assigned me for first period don't even call my name for attendance, or so I've heard, like I said I was never there." He said with a smile, proud of his reputation.

Levy strolled into class and her jaw almost hit the floor when she saw Natsu. She ran up to him and put her hand on his forehead.

"Hmmmm, your not running a fever, tell me do you feel dizzy? Nauseous? Chills?" She asked him while eyeing him with concern.

"Hands off dwarf, I'm not sick, why do you even think that." He swatted at her hand as she continued to try to check for a fever.

Levy kneeled a bit to get to eye level with Natsu as he sat at his desk. "Natsu… do you know where you are right now? Your at school… before 10am, are you aware of that?" Levy said, ignoring his questions.

Natsu, getting annoyed, responded with a simple, "Yeah, I am aware dumbass."

Levy turned to Lucy and whispered, "He must be really sick, no way would he willingly wake up early enough for first period, hell most days he'll even miss second." Natsu deadpanned, obviously hearing Levy's terrible attempt at whispering.

"Shut up Levy, you know I can show up to first period, right? I am capable of doing so." He said to her with a ticked-off glare.

"You can, but you don't. Are you being forced? Has someone threatened you? OMG blink twice if your in danger." She said the end in another terrible whisper to Natsu. He rolled his eyes so far back he swore he could almost see his own brain.

"Levy, I am fine, No one has threatened me. I mean how could they? Have you looked at me? I'm 180lb of pureeee muscle." He said while flexing one of his arms with a snarky grin.

It was now Lucy and Levy's turn to roll their eyes. Lucy finally chimed in, "I see your reputation proceeds you, Natsu." She laughed.

"It takes dedication, time, and my very own terrible sleep schedule to keep up a great reputation like this one, it speaks greatly to my character." Natsu said arrogantly, definitely not something to be proud of, but nonetheless he sure as hell was.

"Not sure I'd say it speaks greatly but it definitely does speaks to your character." Lucy said in retort. She began to pull out her notebook and a pen to start writing notes for class.

"Anyways," Lucy said, changing the subject. "Do you know who your chem lab partner is yet? First lab is next Tuesday."

"Haven't gotten a clue, I'll go check." Natsu stood and checked the door. Lucy sees his evil smile as he turned to stare at her. "Your not gonna believe this one Luce." He said maniacally. Lucy shivered; this wasn't good.

Yup, as you expected, they were assigned lab partners, basically Lucy was working alone. Considering Natsu slept through the rest of class, she knew that he would have no clue what the lab would be on, how to do it or how to do the lab write up. She internally groaned, somehow Natsu's inability to not sleep in class had become her downfall.

Soon the bell rang, students began to file out as Lucy scrambled to finish her notes on Benzene. Natsu's head shot up as the bell rung, he looked around crazily, where the hell was he? Where was his bed!

He then remembered he actually showed up to school on time, he face-palmed, the idea of walking with Lucy sounded great in retrospect. He doubted that plan now that he had a kink in his neck from sleeping on his hard desk. "I guess its finally time to face it, I have to sleep my sleep schedule. "He thought. He was grossed out by the prospect; the idea of going to bed early and loosing good video game time didn't really interest him, but if he wanted to walk to school with Lucy, he would have to sacrifice for it.

He slowly rose from his desk and stretched, turning his head side to side to ease the kink he had in it. He walked up to Lucy's desk and grabbed her bag for her. "Ready to go Luce?" He asked with a tired smile.

"Yep." She said as she stood from her desk, she turned Natsu around so that she could unzip her backpack and shove her chem notes inside.

They walked into their music class and immediately headed to the soundproof room. Natsu flicked the switch to show the room was currently occupied and they both sat the piano.

"I figured we run through it once then write out the sheet music to hand in to Mira before class ended." Lucy said. Natsu nodded and they played the intro to the song together.

Lucy began to sing and Natsu sucked in a breath, her voice was angelic, he came too as lucy nudged him to start singing the chorus. Too bad his mind was blank.

"Uhhhh." Lucy stopped playing and stared at him.

"Natsu, its like 4 lines, how do you not remember." She laughed. Natsu could be so smart when he wanted to be, he just regularly chose to be an idiot. She sighed as he nervously laughed and pulled the lyrics, that she wrote out the night before, out of her bag. She plopped them on the piano.

"From the top." She said and both began to play.

Natsu had to actively try to not zone out, Lucy's voice had the ability to take him on a journey. It was as if he could see inside her head as she sang, he could feel the emotions in the words, like the lyrics had been carved from her happiest memories of the past. He wondered how the lyrics truly came to her, he wished he could do it too. It was as if she had a special machine in her brain to convert all of her soul into a song.

They managed to finish the song without any more bumps on the way. They then sat down and started to write the sheet music. Natsu excelled at this part, he had almost perfect pitch. While the wrote Natsu started up their game from yesterday.

"So, what's your last name mean?" He asked. He had seen it when searching her school file. Helianthus, what a unique word, was it French? Latin?

"It means sunflower, I think its Latin." She said not looking up from her paper.

"That's cool…Luce Sunflower." Natsu said to her.

"Yeah, sunflower was my moms nickname for me. They were her favourite." She smiled.

"So, what's the rest of your family like?" Natsu asked trying to keep the conversation alive. Lucy stopped writing abruptly, she looked at him which shock for a split second before returning to her calm demeanor.

"Oh, you know, typical." Lucy said, she didn't like this conversation, so she changed the subject. "How did you write most of the songs sheet work already?" she scooted over to him to see he had everything, but the bridge done.

"I've got an ear for it, I guess. If you play a note, I can tell exactly which one it is. Well, most of the time I can at least." He said.

Lucy decided to test this, she jumped up and sat at the piano bench again. She began to play random notes.

"E flat…. A minor…. middle C… seriously Luce? Middle C, at least try to test me." He said smugly as he continued to write the sheet work down. She scoffed with a smile and proceeded to push almost every key on the piano, he got every single one right.

"Damn, you are good." She sighed in defeat.

"Glad you have accepted how amazing I am, you know the first step is acceptance." He said smugly as he went to sit on the piano bench with her, he had managed to finish the rest of his and Lucy's sheet work while she attacked him with piano notes.

Lucy rolled her eyes but jumped a little when she felt her braids coming undone. Her eyes fixed on Natsu's hand, holding her 2 elastics.

"Hey what the hell Natsu, put them back right now." She said while trying to hold the semblance of braids in her hair as they unravelled. But the damage had already been done and her hair had completely fallen out of them.

Natsu looked her in the eyes, "Your just really pretty with your hair down." Lucy blushed and proceeded to playfully push him, he didn't even budge. That made her blush even harder.

Before Lucy could even respond, she was cut of by the bell.

"Oh, thank God! Lunch time, I thought I would starve to death before it would come." Natsu complained. Lucy rolled her eyes, again. She grabbed her backpack and handed Natsu's his. They turned in their work to Mira and strolled out of class.

As they walked into the cafeteria, Lucy stopped dead in her tracks. Natsu looked at her confused. But before he could open his mouth Lucy began to shake, she rubbed her neck and back subconsciously. She couldn't move, her mind screamed at her to run, but she stood there, paralyzed.

Her breath hitched, her eyes began to water, by this point her group of new friends had spotted her and Natsu by the entrance, theirs eyes trained on her as they watched in confusion.

Levy went to stand up and see what the hold up was, but as soon as she stood, Lucy ran. She ran for her dear life.

This wasn't another bad dream; she would not wake up from this. It was real…

Laxus… he had finally returned… and there was no where to hide.

Authors Note: Hey everyone! Hope you all have had a good day. I figured I had prolonged a plot twist long enough so here ya go. Ill post the next chapter tomorrow so you won't be left hanging… for long at least lol. Anyways Imma be real for a moment when I admit I don't really know where I am going to go with the story. I promise I do have some plans, I'm just not sure how I will get to them, not yet at least. Anyways I hope you enjoy the long ass chapter! Imma go catch up on all the homework I've been procrastinating on *sigh. Cya!

I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS; I simply write the plot. All rights are reserved by the creators of Fairy Tail