Updated: September 9, 2023
Chapter 10: Saturday
"Do the right thing, be the best guy for your girl," Natsu mumbled to himself as he walked around his room, gathering up his things for training.
"Do the right thing, be the best guy for your girl," he whispered to himself as he strutted down the stairs with his gym bag over his shoulders, "I'm heading out!" he shouted before he opened the door to their house and left.
"Do the right thing, be the best guy for your girl," he mutters once again as he closes the gate and begins to walk their street, "Good morning, Mr. Yuki!"
"Ah, good morning Natsu!" The elderly greets, smiling back at the pink-haired teen, "You seem full of energy!"
"When was I not?!" Natsu joked along with the elderly before he waved goodbye and sprinted out of their street, "Do the right thing and be the best guy for your girl,"
Early Saturday morning, Natsu had woken up for their basketball training in school with more energy than he had yesterday. After that conversation with his mother, he knew he had to change some things. He won't say he agrees with every bit of what his mother told him, but his mom had a point.
This is his situation now, he is in a relationship with Lisanna and Lucy is just a friend. Nothing more, nothing less. But that doesn't mean he had to support Lucy-Sting tandem. He just can't go with it yet. Maybe not ever.
"Do the right thing, be the best guy for your girl," Natsu mumbles to himself again as he tries to shake off the annoyance he was feeling at the thought of Sting.
"Natsu!" a voice called, making the pinkette stop in his tracks and turn to look at the back.
To his surprise, Natsu saw Lucy, who was now skipping towards him.
"Do the right thing, and Lucy is just your best friend," Natsu mutters as he watches the blonde come closer.
"Ohayo!" Lucy greeted as soon as she was close by, "Are you off to school?"
"Yeah…" Natsu suddenly raised a brow, "Where are you going? It's too early to shop, Luce," he suddenly grinned when the blonde rolled her eyes at him and playfully attempted to smack him.
Flinching backward as he laughed, Lucy then chuckled along with the pinkette, "I'm not going to shop, baka. I'm heading toward the school too,"
"School?" Natsu repeated as he and Lucy began to walk side-by-side, "Since when did you join a sports club?"
"Who said I joined a sports club?"
"Well, Saturdays at school are usually for training sessions." Natsu then bumped her on the shoulder, "Don't tell me, you were going to surprise me with your support?"
Lucy laughed heartily as she bumped the pinkette back, "It would be ridiculous to make it a surprise if I called you just now,"
Natsu then teasingly scrunches his face in disappointment, "Tsk, then who did you come for?"
"Sting," Lucy quickly replies before looking back at her best friend, whose face turned stoic, "Oh come on, don't feel bad. You always know that I'll root for you,"
"Tsk," Natsu jokingly whipped his head away from the blonde, making the girl chortle in amusement, "Still, you're rooting for someone else now,"
Lucy happily shook her head, "Oh, Natsu, you've never changed,"
"Really?" Natsu beamingly looked at her, feeling a little elated to hear that despite the various changes he had been feeling between them.
"Yeah," Lucy teasingly looked at him, "You're still childish," she then laughed out loud before she sprinted when Natsu realized what she had said.
The two played cat and mouse for a few moments before Natsu expertly caught the blonde and trapped her in his embrace. Leaving his arm draped over Lucy's shoulder, the two slowed down in their laughter while they resumed their walk to school.
A comfortable silence fell on them, as they walked close to one another. Sighing in relief, Natsu felt like he could breathe again after a long time.
"You know what's odd," Natsu mutters, making the blonde look up at him as she keeps her arm around his waist. When Natsu knew Lucy was looking at him, he continued, "We have never walked together again since school started,"
Lucy took that in and realized the truth of it, making her huff in resignation, "Well, a lot of things happened lately…" Lucy smiled softly before looking back at the pinkette, "I missed doing this, us just hanging around,"
Natsu smiles back at the blonde as he slowly squeezes her shoulder in agreement, "I do too,"
As the two best friends headed their way to school, they immediately fell to their usual antics. They laughed, joked around, teased one another, and bantered about anything. As they stopped to cross the street, Natsu unconsciously lanced his hand with Lucy's, which the blonde didn't mind as it was their typical habit.
Crossing the street, Natsu looked at Lucy and smiled at her, feeling comfortable with their closeness. It was something that he had missed with the blonde. He had always felt more comfortable with physical affection with Lucy than with Lisanna. He doesn't realize this but he always felt it.
As the two kept their hands entwined while they neared the school, they suddenly jumped when a voice called out to Lucy. As a reaction, the two immediately drop their hold on one another, making them feel a little disappointed as if their connection had been snapped off.
"Hi, Lu-chan!" Levy races toward them from the other side of the road, "Hey, Natsu! You both came together here, that's nostalgic," she joked.
The duo laughed at the reality of it, "Well, I saw him with his gym bag so I decided to walk with him,"
Levy laughed, "Right, their famous gym bag," she then tapped the pinkette's bag, which was similar to Gajeel's bag.
Lucy laughed but then sounded a little forceful. Suddenly, she stepped away from the pinkette and looped her arm to the blunette's, "Why don't we head on first? I need to get something from the SC office,"
"Like what?" Levy then yelped when Lucy pulled her to walk faster.
"Bye, Natsu! See you later!" Lucy waved before looking back at the blunette and whispered in her ear.
Natsu suddenly stops in his tracks as he dumbfoundedly waves goodbye to the two girls. As he was left alone by the entrance of the school, he suddenly looked down at his hand that held Lucy's hand moments ago.
He was silent and almost glared at his hand as if he was mentally scolding it for acting without his consent.
Suddenly, he jumps when a hand clasps his shoulder, "Oy, Natsu, what are you standing there for?"
Natsu looked up and saw Loke chuckling at him, making him snap out of his thoughts.
"Come on, Captain! Let's go!" Loke cheered before he walked ahead of the pinkette.'
"Yeah, I'm coming!" Natsu shouted back before looking down at his hand and shook his head.
Soon enough, Natsu walked into the school, mumbling to himself again, "Do the right thing, be the best guy for your girl…Lucy is just your best friend,"
The school gets busy that Saturday morning with many athletes practicing for their respective games for the upcoming school festival. It gets even more crowded when typical students and other outsiders begin to come in to watch some practice game.
Lucy, Levy, and Erza were no exception from those watchers. Each of them came today as a way to support their special someone. Although for Lucy she wouldn't say Sting is her special someone yet, but rather a good friend. She knows that allowing Sting to court her means spending time to get to know one another and that's what she is trying to do. She tries to convince herself that it is time to drop her emotions for Natsu and move on to a guy who likes her. After all, anytime soon, Lisanna and Natsu could be official and it would be awkward for her if she held on to the hope that something would change.
"So, why did we rush out to leave Natsu by the gate?" Levy questioned as they slowed down when they entered their school building.
Lucy drops her hold on the blunette and lowers her head. She suddenly sighs in defeat, "I'm such a weak, fragile, helplessly still…" Lucy trails off and huffs instead.
Levy raises a brow at the adjectives used by the blonde. A smirk slowly appears on the blunette's face, "You are using synonyms of fragility out of nowhere. What is going on?' she gently nudges the blonde to look back at her.
Seeing her friend's teasing look, Lucy's shoulder shags in defeat. She felt like admitting it but refused to give in as she thought that saying it out loud would make it more real.
"Nothing," Lucy grumbles to herself, "It's just I'm here for Sting and I'm doing it because…I want to get to know him,"
"Well," Levy considers that thought as she reminds herself that Lucy accepted Sting's request to ask her out, "That is the point of being asked out. You try to get to know one another…" Levy then waited for the blonde to speak up but she didn't add on. Seeing the blonde fumble with her hands, Levy knew, something was bothering her.
"But something is bothering you…" Levy then loops her arm to the blonde's arm as they step out of the building and head toward the gymnasium where the basketball team is going to practice.
"There is…" Lucy finally admits but purses her lips as she holds the details back, "And I hate going back to square one,"
Levy watched the blonde twiddle with her hands as her expression shifted from agony to sadness to frustration. Hearing what the blonde had said should have been confusing for the others, but Levy knew what Lucy meant. It was about Natsu again.
... ... ...
As the clock shows 8:26 in the morning, Natsu begins to jog into school to enter the gymnasium. The practice hasn't started as their coach hasn't arrived yet. But as reminded by his coach yesterday, he was to lead the warm-up as soon as the team was nearly complete. Seeing that the majority of the team was already there, loitering around and chatting with other students in the bleachers, Natsu figured it was time to start.
"Alright, guys! Let's gather up now for warm-up!" Natsu shouted as soon as he was in the middle of the court. Players took notice of the pinkette and followed through.
Natsu drops his gym bag on the bleachers and suddenly pulls his shirt off over his head. Being focused on his task, Natsu stood there shirtless as he unzipped his bag and grabbed his jersey shirt. He barely heard any gasps around him as he put on his jersey shirt and began to put on his rubber shoes, hastily tying his shoelaces.
As soon as he was set, Natsu stood up and called on his teammates, "Alright! Find your spaces and let's start warm-up! Fullbuster, front!"
When the basketball team began their task, people around the gymnasium began to disperse from the court and settled in the bleachers. Levy quickly settles down next to the blonde who is blushing intensely.
"Hey, Lu-chan," Levy chimed as she gently nudged her, "What's with the red cheeks?"
"Huh?" Lucy snaps out of her thoughts and focuses on the blunette, "Red cheeks?" She then cups her face and suddenly felt it warm, "Oh, my…my cheeks are warm,"
Levy sniggers at the comment, "Yeah, as in red tomato. What's got into you?"
"Uh…nothing!" Lucy averted her gaze to the blunette and suddenly her focus was on the back of the pinkette who was bending down on the floor. Lucy gasps again in surprise as she stares at the firm backside of the pinkette.
Hearing the blonde, Levy follows her gaze and out of the blue chuckles at the sight. "You're blushing because of Natsu,"
"No, I'm not!" Lucy quickly denies it as she slightly glares at the petite girl. But it didn't faze the girl and just chuckled at her reaction, "Seriously, Levy-chan! I'm not blushing because of him…I-it's not like I haven't seen him half naked before or-or seen him—bend with his ass out!"
Levy and Lucy then gawked at each other when Lucy realized her voice was getting louder. Natsu who got distracted by Lucy's voice suddenly turns around to look at the blonde.
"Yo, Luce!" Natsu called, making the blonde stiff for a moment before turning to look at him, "You okay?"
"Yeah!" Lucy abruptly replies before waving her hand to the pinkette and making him turn back to his task. When the pinkette nods his head and begins to warm up again, Lucy sighs in relief.
Levy chuckles at the weird interaction and even tumbles to the blonde as she tries to contain her laughter. "My goodness, Lu-chan, that was so close—!"
"Hi, Lucy, you came," A voice suddenly interrupts the blunette and steals the attention of the blonde.
Lucy and Levy turns their head towards the intruding person and sees it is Sting.
"Oh, hey, Sting," Lucy softly smiles at the blonde player, "Came to support you…as promised,"
Sting smiles happily at that as he puts down his gym bag on the bleachers, "Thanks, I didn't expect—"
"Eucliff! Hurry up!" Natsu bellowed, cutting off the male blonde, "You're late already and you're still yapping there,"
Levy suddenly leans to the side and stares at the team captain. She couldn't help but snigger at the annoyed look on Natsu's face. Even without asking, she knew Natsu wasn't fond of Sting. For what reason, she wasn't sure, but she had theories.
"Sorry, Lucy, gotta go," Sting suddenly replies as he winces at the loud voice of the pinkette before turning his back to Lucy and jogging up to his own space.
When the two were left alone again, Levy suddenly leans to the blonde and whispered, "Is it just me or Natsu seemed pissed off with Sting?"
Lucy looks at the blunette with a neutral face, "Stop insinuating, Levy-chan,"
"I'm not saying anything," Levy teasingly says as she tries to hold back her smile.
Lucy gives a hard look at her best friend, "Don't you have a baseball game to watch?"
Levy sniggers at the attempt to change the topic, "Nope…not until it's 10 AM. I'm pretty sure Gajeel is still at home snoring away,"
Lucy grunts and rolls her eyes, making the blunette even more laugh.
It would be naïve of Lucy to say that Natsu wasn't annoyed when he called out Sting. She couldn't deny that Natsu was mad at the blonde boy for some certain reason. But for what reason, she wasn't sure. She didn't want to assume.
"Okay! Water break!" Coach Scorpio exclaims after whistling, "Then line up and do 20 laps around the gym!"
The athletes all dispersed and headed for their bags to get some water. As Natsu and Gray headed toward their things, the pinkette looked around the gym to spot a certain girl with white hair. Surprisingly, Lisanna was not found anywhere. Natsu didn't know exactly how to feel about it. He felt oddly relieved but at the same time, his brain was telling him that he should be disappointed but couldn't bring himself to be.
"Who you looking for?" Gray suddenly comments as he looks at the wandering pinkette.
"Juvia," Natsu retorts back before he looks down at his best friend.
Gray snappily looked at the pinkette before turning around to see for himself. The pinkette then snickers at the lad before shaking his head and taking his seat next to him.
"You do know that your girlfriend is also training today at the pool," Natsu nonchalantly says as he grabs his water bottle and chugs it down.
"I know that idiot," Gray grunts before drinking his water. When Natsu suddenly snorts, spilling a little water on him, the raven-haired lad glares at the pinkette, "What are you laughing at?"
"So, you admit that Juvia is your girlfriend?" Natsu teased as he looked at the boy, "I didn't use her name, idiot,"
"Shut up!" Gray grumbles as he nudges at the pinkette hard, making him tumble off the bleacher, "She's not my girlfriend,"
Natsu just continued to laugh at the boy but quickly slowed down when he noticed Sting walking in front of them. He then stopped a few meters away from them to talk to someone sitting behind them. As Natsu looked over his shoulder, he suddenly realized that the blonde boy was talking to Lucy again.
They were animatedly talking, making Natsu growl softly in his seat.
"Have you told her yet?"
Natsu suddenly snapped out of his anger and stiffly looked at the raven-haired player. Sitting up straight, he contemplated his best friend's question before peeking over his shoulder to look at his girl best friend.
"No, I haven't," Natsu muttered before looking away and deciding to take a sip of his water. When no water comes out, he suddenly grumbles as he shakes his bottle hoping for some drops of water.
"You do know that the longer you keep that up, nothing good will come out of it," Gray comments as he watches the pinkette get frustrated with his water bottle being empty.
Natsu suddenly stopped shaking his bottle and stared at the boy next to him, "Are you talking about the water bottle or—"
"I don't know, it's up to you," Gray cuts off with a shrug of his shoulders. He briefly smirked at the conflicted pinkette before he stood up and grabbed his water bottle, "I'm going to refill,"
"Refill mine too!" Natsu suddenly bellows but the raven-haired lad just raised a brow before he shook his head and walked away.
"Piece of shit," Natsu mumbled as he watched Gray walk away.
"Hey, Natsu," A familiar voice suddenly grabs Natsu's attention and sees that Lucy is walking toward him. Abruptly, he stood up and walked toward the blonde.
"Yeah, what's up?" Natsu asked as he stopped quickly when he nearly bumped the blonde.
"Levy and I are heading towards the field," Lucy looked at Levy who was on the phone then looked back at the pinkette, "She's going to watch Gajeel play,"
"What about me?" Natsu immediately asks with a teasing voice, making the blonde snigger, "Can't you stay?"
"I'll be back," Lucy replies before looking behind the pinkette, "I told Sting I'd watch the game too,"
"Again, what about me?" Natsu asks for the second time, but with a tinge of annoyance in his tone, "I thought you'd root for me too?"
"I am…" Lucy then swallowed hard as she felt her heart beat a little faster, "I…I am rooting for you…and Sting,"
Lucy could hear the faint sound of a disappointed click of the tongue from Natsu but she chose to ignore it as she didn't want to label it as a sign of jealousy from the pinkette.
"I'll be back, promise," Lucy then gave a tight-lipped smile before turning away. But before she could leave, Natsu suddenly grabbed her wrist, stopping her.
Looking back at the pinkette, Lucy raised a brow at him and asked, "Yeah?"
Natsu was stunned for a second, completely lost as to why he suddenly stopped her.
I should tell her…
"Um, can we talk?" Natsu nervously asked, not letting the blonde go.
Lucy could feel how his hands were shaking but trying his best not to falter with his grip, "Uh, yeah, sure. Now?"
"Uh…" Natsu was suddenly out of breath as he didn't know what to say next. I should tell her…I should…, "Maybe later…after the practice." Natsu then gave a weak smile as he dropped his hold on the blonde.
When her wrist dropped to her side, Lucy couldn't help but feel a little uncertain at the sudden change in Natsu's vibe. It felt like he was going to say something important, making her feel more nervous than she should.
"Okay…" Lucy returned the weak smile before swiftly turning around and walking away and following the blunette out of the gym. She knew in her guts, this might not be good.
To be continued…