The Heartfilia and The Dragneel

Chapter 2

My alarm wakes me up extra extra early and it makes me want to scream in frustration. I'm on kitchen duty today. Man I hate kitchen duty. You basically have to help the extremely bossy chefs prepare meals for our masters, and then serve the meals to them. Last time I was on kitchen duty I tripped and spilt Igneel's roast beef down his favourite suit. We don't talk about that.

I yawn and stand up slowly, rubbing my sleepy eyes. I watch my fellow maids still asleep in their beds, envying them.

Levy is curled up in a little ball, clutching her cuddly toy. A little black cat with white fluffy wings. I've always thought it's really cute.

I see Juvia, a pretty young woman with long blue hair and pale skin laying on her stomach, hugging her pillow so tightly I wouldn't be surprised if it popped.

In the bed opposite her is Erza, a beautiful red haired lady. She's a good friend of mine, but she's still really scary. She's even scary now, in her sleep as she snores violently.

I carefully pick up my uniform, as I don't want to make a noise and wake the others, and tiptoe to the bathroom.

Once I'm dressed and ready to go, I exit our room and arrive in the long hallway. It's still dark, as the sun hasn't come up yet and I shiver slightly. I've never liked the dark. I walk down the corridor towards the kitchen, because quiet so I don't wake anyone up. But as I turn a corner, I'm faced with a dark figure. I trip forward in complete shock and gasp loudly. The figure catches me before I hit the ground, and covers my mouth with his hand. I'm freaking out. My heart is beating out of my chest.

"Lucy? Is that you?" A familiar voice whispers.

I nod quickly, knowing that the owner of the voice was none other than Natsu Dragneel. He pulls me up and takes his hand away.

I don't hide my rage. "What the hell are you doing wandering the halls at night, Jesus Christ man you almost gave me a heart attack." I whispered angrily.

"Yeah sorry about that, I was hungry and I needed a snack."

I sigh, "Well lucky for you I'm heading to the kitchen right now."

His face lights up. "Okay then! Lead the way Luigi."

"It's Lucy you idiot"

"I think Luigi has a much nicer ring to it."

The pointless conversation kept going right until we got to the kitchen. I open the door, and flinch as it creeks loudly. Natsu on the other hand isn't making an effort to keep quiet. He just wonders in and sits himself on the counter and clicks his fingers.

"Come on Lucy, you're my maid get me something to eat I'm starving."

I clench my fists. "Excuse you, I'm not your personal maid, you're not important enough to have one of those." I smirk as I see his jaw drop.
I smile sweetly and sarcastically articulate, "So what would you like to eat sir?"

"Pancakes! With maple syrup and chocolate sauce." He jumps with excitement.

I get started on making the pancakes, and I turn my back to him. About a minute later I feel him stand right behind me. I take a quick intake of breath when I feel his hand touch my hip.

"You know Lucy," he purrs in my ear. "Your maids uniform is very short. In fact-" I can feel his warm breath on my neck.
"Yesterday when we were walking upstairs, I saw right up that small skirt of yours."

I blush violently out of embarrassment. That little shit. Does he have a split personality or something? One minute he's excited about pancakes and the next he's holding my waist and evilly whispering things in my ear. My train of thought crashes as I feel a hand lightly touch my ass. I jump forward and spin around with rage.

"Look mister. You must have all the girls wrapped around your little finger, but not me. I'm not like other girls, and I'm certainly not interested in a pretty boy like you." I slam his pancakes down on the surface.
"Good day. Sir." I say sharply, and storm out of the room.

The nerve of that guy, ugh. As I walk angrily down the corridor, I bump into Elfman, the main cook.

"Lucy! I've been looking for you, you're late." He boomed.

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again." I murmur.

"Thank you for apologising. That's the sign of a real man!" He grins.

I sigh. Today is going to be a long day.

~•~•~•~

I sigh as I finish cleaning the floor at last. I flop down onto the nearest chair and place my face in my hands. I haven't worked this hard in months. It's nearly nine, so that means I've been working for about 14 hours. The thought makes me shudder. I move the loose strands of hair out of my face, and drag my tired feet out of the kitchen and up the stairs. All i want to do now is sleep. A door opens to the left of me, and my head maid Mira jumps out. She looks out of breath, like she's been running.

"Lucy! There you are, I need to ask a favour."
Oh no.
"You see, tonight Natsu's friends are over" God no.
"And Juvia was meant to be looking after them but sadly she's fallen ill and won't be able to do it."
Oh lord above please hear my prayers. "So I was wondering if you could step in?" She smiles her sweet smile at me.

I take a deep breath and force out a grin.

"I don't see why not," I wipe my sweaty forehead with my sleeve as I watch the excited woman jump up and down.

"Yay! Thanks Lucy you're a saviour! They're all in Natsu's room, so go up there and see what they need."

"Will do," I murmur sleepily.

She thanks me again then skips away. I bang my head against the wall. Why me?

I stumble up more flights of stairs and finally reach Natsu's room. I lightly tap on the door, and soon enough it opens. When Natsu sees me his onyx eyes widen.

He smirks at me and leans against the door frame. "Hey Luce. What you doing here then?"

"I've been ordered by Mira to look after you and your friends," I tell him in a monotoned voice.

He nods and backs up, "Come in Luce." I follow him in his massive room, and as the door closes behind me I feel uneasy. Trapped. Especially after what happened this morning.

Natsu puts his arm round me and raised his voice. "Guys this is Lucy," he squeezes my arm.

"Lucy I'd like you to meet Gray, Gajeel, Jellal and Loke." They all nod at me, looking me up and down.

I feel self conscious again with them all staring at me. The first boy Gray, is sat in just his trousers. He's shirtless, with just a silver necklace on his bare chest.

The next guy who is called Gajeel I think, is covered in piercings. He has long black hair and  he does look really menacing.

Jellal has a weird tattoo thing on his face, and some really cool bright blue hair. He smiles at me warmly. Thank god at least one of them seems nice.

And the last guy Loke. There's something about him. I can't put my finger on it. With his gingery orange hair and his glasses he looks like a gentlemen. But there's a glint in his eyes that makes me not want to trust him. He reminds me of a sly fox.

I sigh, "so do any of you want anything?"

~•~•~•~

After running around for the boys for a couple of hours, I'm well and truly exhausted. I won't be able to keep this up. I stumble into the hall and slide down the wall to sit on the floor.

A few minutes later, the boy called Loke walks smoothly out of the room. He sees me sat on the floor and holds out his hand. "Thank you for your hard work today Lucy." He smiles.

I take his hand and he pulls me off the ground. Rather aggressively may I say, as I end up falling onto his chest.

I look up at him, and the glint in his eye is still there as he smirks. Hmm, maybe he's not a fox. He looks more like a lion. A lion that's about to strike. My vision blurs from my exhaustion, and I black out. The last thing I see, is the glint in the lions eye.