Lucy POV
After the whole gym incident and we all served our detention, Mira thankfully wasn't mad that I was late to work and when she heard it was Erza's fault she somehow understood the whole situation. Over the course of the week Loke kept popping up randomly all over the school and scaring the hell out of me. He kept professing his attraction for me and kept asking me on dates but I guess he really can't take a hint. Gray and Natsu were usually the ones to scare him off whenever that happened and they were around.
Wednesday I pulled into school and saw something I'd rather have not seen. Natsu and Lisanna became official that morning. How do I know? I saw them kissing. I'm happy for him, really. It threw me off guard is all, yeah. I try not to let it get awkward at work now and he seems to still act normally around me so that's good at least. He seemed happy so that was good too. Lisanna came in to see him when he was on breaks and such, I definitely didn't miss the small subtle glares she sent my way when I would be serving tables. Like seriously, you have the guy, don't worry about me. I know how to leave a taken man alone. Don't even get me started about sitting with her in math class. I mean I'm glad she cares about losing Natsu but she can stop any time now.
Loke eventually discovered that I work at the cafe. Which also eventually turned into a nightmare. Mira was essentially guarding the entrance to behind the counter after he managed to find his way into the lockers. Where he once again scared my soul out of me and Natsu dragged him by the collar of his shirt and threw him out the door. He comes to the cafe just about every day, and eventually he's going to figure out my schedule. Just great. At least since Mira knows we've known each other for a long time she keeps mine and Natsu's schedule the same.
Sting had been coming to the cafe more often too as well as taking to me more in school. He often sits with me and the rest of us during lunch. Surprisingly unlike Gray and Natsu, Gray and Sting get along well. Even Erza was relieved that she didn't have yet another person to punch when they almost get into fights. Sting usually helped Natsu throw Loke out of the cage when he was there. Although I could see some tension growing between Sting and Natsu. I couldn't understand why because as soon as I would be near them they'd act fine.
Today was Friday and it was after lunch, I was walking into my science class and Natsu and Sting came up next to me at the same time.
"Hey Lucy!" They both said at the same time, which led them both to glare at each other.
"Hey, guys." I nervously laughed as I sat down at my desk with Sting.
"After school do you wanna come to my place to start on our English project?" Natsu asked. We were both off this afternoon.
"Uh, yeah sure! We've got all year but why not get started now. I've already got ideas."
"I'll see you later then!" He smiled and walked to the back of the room to sit next to his table partner.
"So, I see you're busy tonight but what about tomorrow?" Sting asked.
"Huh?" I questioned looking at him.
"Uh. I was wondering if you wanted to catch a movie sometime this weekend?"
I couldn't answer. I was genuinely surprised. I felt like I was gawking like an idiot and soon regained my composure.
"Are you? Asking me on a date?"
"I mean yeah." He laughed nervously. "It doesn't have to be tomorrow or anything it could be next weekend too. Whenever you're free really"
"Yeah, I'd like that. I'll be free tomorrow after work. I get off at seven so maybe we could catch a movie for eight or nine?" I asked.
"Why don't we aim for nine and I'll pick you up like eight thirty?"
"That sounds great!" I smiled.
I felt someone staring at me and that's when I realized I completely forgot that Levy and Gajeel were at the tables to the side of us and Levy was giving me a huge smile and looked like she was about to burst from happiness that I just got a date.
Natsu POV
When the bell rang I was going to walk Luce to her next class but before I could catch her she was already out the door with him. So I walked to gym. I'll just catch her before she gets to her car later. I was soon shoved against the wall after which I heard a signature snicker.
"What the hell metal face?"
"Come on you know I'm just screwing with you."
"Yeah, yeah."
"Did you hear what happened in class?" He asked.
"Hear what?" I asked back.
He was quiet for a minute as we walked into the gym.
"You'll find out soon enough." He said as he walked off to a corner of the gym.
When I had stayed the night at Grays and Gajeel was there we all kinda had a heart to heart the three of us. Gajeel confessed he liked Levy, Gray confessed he likes Juvia which Gajeel didn't take lightly and I had to restrain him from killing Gray. I admitted my feelings about Lucy. But this was before school and I'm with Lisanna now. Even if those feelings are still there, I buried them to be with Liz. So if it's about Lucy, unless it's somethings serious like something going on and she's upset, I don't really care.
I walked over to where Gajeel had walked off to and we just sat down on the bleachers while we waited for our perverted teacher to get things started and the rest of class to file in. Soon enough he walked in and for some reason he looked so proud and smug. Him and his stupid one earing. I mean if you wanna have piercings or one earring fine. But don't be weird and wear one and look stupid. Gajeel has a bunch of piercings but at least he looks decent with it.
Sting just sets me off in a way I can't explain. Not in a way as if I'm jealous of him. More so like he's just not, good. I really don't know what it is about him but he just smells like trouble. I knew even Gajeel could sense it. Sting caught me looking and he sent me a wink. What the hell?
"Alright class!" Gildarts yelled after he blew the whistle getting our attention. "It's time for dodgeball!"
***************
"Natsu!" I heard my name be called when I walked out of gym to see Liz running towards me
"Hey!" I greeted her as she jumped into my arms, she gave me a peck on my cheek.
"What are you doing after school today?" She asked as I intertwined our fingers and I walked her to our last class of the day.
I noticed Sting lean against the wall near the doors of the gym instead of leaving. What's he doing?
"I'm meeting Lucy when classes get out and we're going to my house to start on our English project."
Liz stopped walking and when I looked at her she looked incredibly mad. Did I say something wrong?
"Why can't you guys work on it during study hall? Or during English?" She said snarkily.
"We're not allowed to work on it at school, and my sister wants to meet her."
Lisanna pouted.
"Liz come on, there's nothing to worry about. You're my girlfriend and she's my best friend. Wendy heard a lot about her from me when she first got adopted and that's why she wants to meet her." I told her as I hugged her.
"I still don't like it." She crossed her arms.
"Everything will be fine. Trust me." I said kissing her. I'm glad I asked Lisanna out. Being with her is fun. I feel like I could really fall in love with her.
I took her hand again and took her to class and then went to my last class of the day.
Lucy POV
When I left Art class it was time for gym, the last class of my day. I was walking down the hall after I put my folders away in my locker and upon turning the corner where the doors to the gym were I saw Sting leaning on the wall near them.
"Hey, what are you doing? Shouldn't you be going to class?"
"I will. I wanted to see you first. I remembered you said you had gym last period." He said standing up facing me.
"You wanted to see me?" I asked.
"Yeah, so I could do this." He said as he stepped forward and hugged me.
I was taken by surprise for a second but soon returned his hug. He smelled like sweat mostly because of gym class, but also somewhat like sage. I felt him place a kiss on my forehead which once again left me feeling weird. We came out of the hug and gave me his cell number so we could text about when and what movie we would see over the weekend and the said goodbye as he went to his last class. I stood there thinking to myself and I could feel my face heat up and the small smile forming on my face.
"What are you all red for?"
I turned to see Erza looking at me strangely.
"Oh, uh, nothing." I said. I'll tell her about it at some point, that or she'll hear about it from Levy.
Went into gym and soon discovered it was dodgeball day. Great.
Once gym was over and I felt like I got hit with a ball far too many times and watched Erza and Gray get majorly over competitive, I slowly walked out of school to my car. Did I mention they were on the opposite team?
"Luce!" I heard Natsu's voice yell to me.
"Hey." I said tiredly.
"Are you okay?"
"Me? Yeah. I just was on the other end of the dodge ball than Erza and Gray." I laughed.
"I'll rip them a new one next I see them. They should've gone easy on a friend." Natsu said as he lifted my arm and put it around his shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"Helping you to your car? They clearly gave you a run for your money."
"Thanks Natsu." I smiled as I dug my keys out of my pants pocket.
"We don't have to work on the project today if you really don't want to. It's fine."
"I'll be okay in a bit. I think I really just need to walk it off." I told him as I unlocked the door to my car.
"You remember where the house is right?" He asked.
"Of course I do, how could I forget." I said reminiscing.
"I'll meet you there then, I have to go pick up Wendy and then I'll be there." He said as he waved and walked to his car to leave.
The drive to his house was short maybe only ten minutes. I recognized the old mail box at the edge of the driveway and pulled in to see the color of the bricks on the house have faded a bit over the years. It all looked the same. Natsu and his sister have even kept up their mothers flowerbed at the edges of the porch. I parked and stepped out after turning the car off and walked up the steps to the porch and noticed the old porch swing still sitting there against the railing. I sat down and started to swing a bit. It squeaked loudly as if it hadn't been used in years but if I remember correctly it used to do this even back then.
The fabric was worn and faded but it was still as comfortable as I remember. I leaned back and kept swaying while I waited for Natsu to pull in. Enjoying the breeze and the smell of the flowers below. I remember Natsu and I would sit out here talking to his parents. Igneel would be sitting in one of the chairs with a table and Grandeeney would bring us out some type of sandwiches and lemonade and she would sit in the other chair next to Igneel as Natsu and I sat on the swing.
I was taken from my memories as I hear Natsu's car pulling into the driveway. As soon as he parked a darker blue haired girl jumped out of the car and ran up the porch and sat next to me, hugging me making me jump in surprise.
"Hi! You must be Lucy! I'm Wendy! I've heard so much about you! You're really pretty! Prettier than Lisanna." She mumbled the last part. Just her bubbly personality was making me laugh
"Well hi!"I said returning the hug. "I've heard a lot about you too."
"Wendy! You can't just run up to people and attack them like that! What if that wasn't Lucy? Do you know what could've happened?" Natsu said as he walked up the porch.
It was weird hearing him talk to her like a father and listening to them bicker a little about her being too excited. I couldn't contain my giggling which soon caught their attention.
"Come on guys, let's go inside." Natsu said as he unlocked the door.
Upon walking inside more memories flooded my brain as I scanned the area. I walked into the living room and looked at all the pictures that were hanging on the walls and on the mantle to the fireplace. I saw pictures of Igneel and Grandeeney, Natsu and what I assume must be Wendy by the blue hair. I also saw the many pictures of Natsu and I when we were kids. I was after all like the daughter his parents never had. I picked up a picture of Natsu and I on the swing out front. We both had big smiles and looked like we were laughing.
"You wanna know something I never noticed about that picture until after you left?" I heard Natsu ask behind me.
"Hm?"
"Look closely, we're holding hands. I think that's why my mom took that picture." He smiled.
I looked at the picture to see we were indeed holding hands. We had to be about seven in the picture. I laughed as I put it back on the mantle.
"So Lucy?" Wendy asked who appeared next to me. "Did you and Natsu really fall in love when you were my age?" She asked with stars in her eyes.
"Wendy!" Natsu exclaimed in surprise.
"We were just kids Wendy, your age." I laughed. "Sure we felt what we might've thought was love for what we knew it to be. But we don't actually know that. We were too young to understand it."
I felt weird to say that to her although it had a shred of truth to it. Yes we were young, we didn't know what love was and only knew it to be what we thought it was. But that's where the weirdness of telling her that lies. Just because we didn't know what love was, didn't mean we didn't feel it for what we thought it was. What we felt we felt wholeheartedly. Natsu soon cleared his throat.
"Why don't you go upstairs to your room and do your homework. Lucy and I have some work to get done too." He said shooing her up the staircase.
"So, do you want a drink or anything?" He asked walking into the kitchen.
"Sure, I'll take a glass of water." I answered following him. "So, what do you want our story to be about. We can't just start writing randomly and hope it makes sense."
"I'm not sure. Do you have any ideas? I mean you are the one who reads more than I do." He asked handing me the glass and I took a sip.
"Hm" I thought as I started to walk around the kitchen looking at things that have changed. "What if we write a horror story! It could be a loud this girl that gets kidnapped and-"
"What's wrong Lucy?" He asked.
I put the glass of water down on the counter and opened the sliding glass door to the backyard and slowly walked outside. I could hear Natsu waking out behind me, but my focus was elsewhere. While I was walking around the kitchen I happened to look out the window and that's when I hardly saw it. Still nailed into the trunk of the large tree that stood in the backyard, the wooden blocks we used to climb up. I came outside because I needed to see it to believe it. The old tree house. It still sat in the tree, but now there was moss growing on the edges of the tree house. I continued walking to the tree and slowly traced my fingers against the first block and before I knew I was doing it I was climbing.
"Lucy! Be careful! You always had a hard time climbing those!" I heard Natsu yell from below.
I didn't care, I kept going. I soon reached the door which I had to somehow use my shoulder to shove at a few times and hope I didn't fall before it finally opened. Upon hoisting myself up I was met with all the old children's drawings on the walls. There were crayons and markers strewn across the floor and in corners of the room. Paintings on the glass windows Igneel put into the tree house. Our old sock puppets still sat on the sills of the windows. The pile of pillows were still set against the trunk of the tree, across from the white sheet that was hanging up on the wall. Even the movie projected still sat in the middle of the floor propped up by all the old coloring books.
I was taken out of my trance upon hearing the creak and slam of the tree house door being shut. When I turned around Natsu was there with an expression I couldn't quite read.
"Everything is..." I started.
"I haven't been up here since that day. I couldn't bring myself to. Not after everything that happened right after. It felt like I'd be bringing a taboo in here, and I just couldn't.. I couldn't shatter that moment." He said softly.
He came forward and wiped a tear I didn't feel slipping and I saw him smile slightly.
"I even forbade Wendy from coming up here. She's never seen the inside of this. I feel bad because when she was younger she always wanted to play princess and the dragon and she always thought this would be their perfect tower. But I told her she couldn't ever come in here."
I was quiet, just remembering the words, and the many different emotions that happened in this small area. It was then that I noticed my head was almost touching the roof of the house, and Natsu was actually bent down a little bit as to not hit his head.
"Why did you say that stuff to Wendy? We meant it back then. I meant it back then." Natsu kept his hand on my cheek but I hardly noticed. Everything was flooding back like a river.
"I meant it too Natsu, I really did. I told Wendy the truth. We were kids. We only knew what we thought was love." I told him as I subconsciously put my hand on top of his while it still rested on my cheek.
"Then what was that phone call about last week? Did what we said mean anything? Don't tell me you don't remember. I know you do. You said you missed me. You said you loved me. I admitted I lied at lunch."
"I know I did." I answered quietly.
We were slowly leaning in, just like before. And just like before he pushed me away.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring any of that up. That was before I was with Lisanna. I won't betray her." He said to me with a pained look on his face.
I just nodded.
"Let's get out of here. It can't be easy for you to be up here when this is where you were told about your parents." He said turning around, opening the door and climbing down. Taking one last look around the tree house I began climbing down too.
When I reached the bottom he took my hand as I got off the last step and then let go, walking back into the house. I closed the glass door behind me and took the water I left on the counter and followed him into the living room, opting to sit on a recliner rather than with him on the couch.
"So, story ideas. What were you starting to say before.. before that happened." He said trying to change the subject.
"Oh! I was thinking of making a horror story. What do you think?"
"I don't know Luce, like I said you're the one who reads more than I do. You know what's best. You can take the lead on this but I'll obviously still help. I know I'll probably be bad at writing but I'll try." He said leaning his arm on the arm of the couch, placing his chin in his hand.
"Hmm." I thought. "Wait I know! It's perfect!"
"What is?" He asked, his attention peaked.
"Our story. What if we each take turns writing a chapter. But we don't read the others chapter that we wrote. And when we're done writing the story we get to read the story from the other persons view on how the story went." I said excitedly.
"Sounds cool, complicated but cool. What's the story going to be though?"
"Why don't we write it about us?"
"What?" He asked confused.
"We could call it When we meet again. The story of two friends who were separated due to unfortunate events when they were young, and then reunite in their teens. But we write each chapters as our own perspectives. We wrote about when I came back to town and what happens during the school year. And then when we finish the book we read the chapters we wrote. I'll read yours and you'll read mine after Mira reads and grades it." I explained.
"That's actually a really good idea!" He said excited. "We should start writing right now!"
"I forgot my notebook." I pouted.
"Why don't we just go buy a few for each of us, and we can get a big binder and then put the paged in when we finish writing them and we can make the cover a picture of us?"
"That's perfect!"
He jumped up off the couch and ran upstairs and I heard him talk to Wendy about something. He came bolting back down the stairs grabbing his keys as well as me and we get into his car racing of to the store.