Lessons in Love » NaLu A.U.

chapter » nine

The cup of tea was so hot it kept burning Lucy's hand as she held it. Natsu wasn't drinking, though. Maybe he just didn't like tea.

The blonde sat on the couch, curled into the corner of the sofa with her knee to her chest. The other man, however, sat on the edge of a recliner as if he was too tense to relax. Lucy couldn't blame him.

"I asked you first." Lucy said. It may not have been fair, considering all she had put him through, but hearing his story was most likely going to make hers easier to tell.

Natsu nodded slowly. His mug of tea sat on the coffee table between them, steam pouring up into the air. "Alright." He shrugged, looking across the room at Lucy.

Just that one look made her skin tingle. She shifted in her seat as he started speaking. "You want to know about Loke?"

Lucy nodded.

"We--well, Gray and me--we met Loke when we were in grade school. Like first or second or something." Natsu's sad eyes said that he knew a more exact date when they met, but Lucy didn't want to interrupt. The date wasn't important.

"Loke was a new kid at our school, and a lot of people liked him. Me and Gray always got along, since he was the quiet and angry one and I was bouncing off the walls." Natsu smiled softly, and Lucy couldn't help but mimic. "Gray thought Loke was pretty cool, and they ended up hanging out more often.

"It was a few years later when Gray got really distant. He and Loke did everything together. One day, I just stopped hearing from either of them. Loke was at school but wouldn't talk to me, and Gray took a month off."

Natsu's feet shuffled over the floor like he was trying to distract himself. "I saw Gray a week after, and he looked awful. He was tired, and he had gotten into a few fights, at least. He wouldn't talk to me about it. When he finally came back to school, he wouldn't even look at me or Loke.

"Loke and Gray got into a fight during our ninth year. We just started high school, and it was barely a week into the start of school when teachers had to pull them off each other after fighting." He said, and his voice dropped as if he decided he was done talking.

Lucy shifted in her seat. The story had been more intriguing to her than she expected, and she almost hated the way she was so amused by their past. "And?"

Natsu just shrugged his shoulders lazily. "I don't know. I met Erza later that year. She was Gray's class mentor, keeping him out of trouble in stuff. Me and her were in a class together, and one day she stayed after school to help me with a project and Gray stayed along with her."

The blonde furrowed her brows as she didn't quite understand, but Natsu only mimicked her confusion. "Erza made friends with Gray, and after I made friends with her it was like the three of us just made some random pack together. I never asked Gray what happened."

Lucy wanted to believe she would have asked more if she were in Natsu's shoes; if she were him, she would have gone non-stop to get Gray to talk. But after so long of being alone, you learn to accept what you're given.

"Does Erza know, then?" Lucy asked. They story had dropped off on a cliffhanger, and she couldn't be more dissatisfied.

Natsu shook his head. "She might. She doesn't gossip, though, so I know better than to ask her for secrets. She's a vault." Natsu sighed. "Surrounded by a minefield."

Lucy laughed softly at the analogy, and Natsu smiled as well. He leaned back in his chair, staring at Lucy expectantly. "Your turn."

"Already?" Lucy asked, chuckling quietly.

The pink haired boy rolled his eyes and nodded. Lucy set her tea down on the table, rubbing her hands together nervously and picking at the threads of her sleeve cuff. Before she could say anything, Natsu got off his chair and walked beside her.