dinner with the dragneels

Ⅱ

wendy's face brightened. "wait, really?"

"yeah, so i was maybe your age, and-"

an uneasy sensation hung in the air as breakfast continued, but lucy was determined to shake it off. she would investigate more later, but for now, distracting wendy was her first priority.

to her surprise, natsu slid into the seat next to wendy. "hey."

wendy jumped. "you have to stop doing that."

natsu poked her cheek. "finish your food."

wendy stared down at her half-finished waffle. "you sound like dad."

"and dad is a very smart man," natsu returned, digging a spoon into his cereal.

"have i mentioned i'm fluent in wafflese?"

"really?" wendy and natsu chorused.

"yes, and that waffle is suffering. you have to-"

"finish it off, yes, i know," wendy promised, sticking a fork into the waffle.

"effective," natsu noted. "i'm going to use that to get you to eat more."

"you can't say that!" lucy snapped. "then she'll know and it ruins the efficiency! find your own way to get your sister to eat her breakfast."

"you sound like you've done this before," wendy noted after swallowing a bite of waffle. "do you have siblings?"

"no, but i used to babysit the kids of my father's friends," lucy said, staring down at her scrambled eggs. "because they all used to be away for so long, they'd group us all together and have one nanny to watch us. but the nanny was never really effective, so i ended up taking care of everyone, because i was usually the oldest."

"your dad sounds like he didn't know how to take care of his daughter right," natsu noted, scooping more cereal into his mouth.

"natsu!" wendy hissed, slapping his arm.

"well, i-" lucy looked baffled. no one had ever sympathized with her before. it was always 'oh, he cares about you deep down inside' but no one ever acknowledged that that didn't matter. whether or not he cared, he still did a shit job of raising his only child. no amount of caring was going to change that impression of him.

"ow! you brat!"

"rogue!" wendy wailed. "natsu just called me a brat!"

a black-haired boy roughly natsu's age stood up. "natsu said what?"

the boy sitting next to him had blonde hair. "rogue, love, we've talked about this." that must be rogue and his boyfriend, lucy thought.

"but she hit me," natsu wailed.

"deserved," called someone from down the table.

"gajeel!" a petite girl with blue hair hissed. "that's your brother!" gajeel and his crush.

"he's a shit excuse for a brother," gajeel retorted. "look at him! he spent all of dinner last night making heart eyes at fucking blondie over there-"

"i have a name!" lucy called.

"language!" wendy yelled. 

"fuck shit fuck fuck," gajeel snorted. "shit fuck fuck shit hell fuck hell."

wendy's face went red with rage. "you!"

"aw, sh- heck, pipsqueak, i didn't mean it," gajeel said, his shit-eating grin falling. "i'm sorry."

"that's what i thought," wendy crossed her arms and stuck her nose up.

"wait, wait, can we address the fact that we have a new blonde in the house?" rogue's boyfriend pointed. "oi! fellow blonde! hi!"

lucy grinned and waved. "fellow blonde! hello!"

"what's your name?" he called.

"lucy."

"sting! we should form, like, a blondes only club," sting declared. "who else wants to join?"

"we're- we're the only blondes in the house," lucy began.

"we will make you honorary members!" sting amended.

"i wanna be an honorary member!" natsu raised his hand. "me me me! salmon is close enough to blonde."

lucy studied him. "that's just a fancy way of saying pink."

"well, first of all, i am very fancy," natsu sniffed. "and second of all, it's not pink."

"that is totally pink."

"that's what i've been saying!" gajeel cheered. "you!" he pointed. "i like the way you think."

"uh, anyways, natsu! with the power vested in me, i pronounce you honorary member of the blonde club."

"we should get t-shirts with the logo on them," lucy continued, warming up to the idea.

"t-shirts!" sting and natsu cheered.

"wait, shouldn't rogue-nii be an honorary member, too? because he's dating one of the founders and all."

"ooh, that's true," sting tapped his lips. "do you want to be an honorary  member?"

"the idea sounds intriguing," rogue said.

"hey, why don't you call me natsu-nii?" natsu whined.

"because you're mean to me," wendy stuck out her tongue.

"then why don't you call lucy onee-chan? she's nice to you."

"ooh, lucy-nee has a nice ring to it," wendy hummed.

"you- you really don't have to," lucy promised.

"lucy-nee!" wendy cheered.

"look what you've done," she glared at natsu.

"i was making a valid point," natsu held his hands up in surrender. 

and thus breakfast came to a close, and the rest of the day was a blur. lucy spent her hours getting lost, retracing her steps, and then getting lost again. there seemed to be hundreds of different places to explore. at last, her feet became sore, and her eyes became droopy, and she found a maid to escort her back to her bedroom.

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

wc ;; 1,384
a/n ;; okay this is a VERY short chapter but that's just bcs i'm trying to figure out what to do with this tbh </3 i want it to be more angsty and have a deeper plot but i can't figure out how. and also i felt like i owed u guys an update for all the support recently <33 BTW where did all of u come from ?? omg?? thank u all for sticking around it means the world to me <3 ily guys :D