*Long note at the end, I hope you read it*
~
I'm finally able to convince Lucy out of her room on the third day, and man it was a relief.
Not like she was acting as if she was never gonna leave her room ever again, but... I missed hanging out with her. Sure, I'd spend some time in her dorm, but that's not officially allowed so it was never for long. And come on, what's she going to do stuck in her room all day? Read? Pft.
We're taking a walk in the park, but in an area I've never been before. It's exciting, like an adventure! The trees are really thick here, and the grass is really green. Not many people must come here. I swing my arms like a little kid, smiling from the warmth of the sun poking through the branches.
"Ouch, Natsu! Don't swing so much." Lucy says, walking faster so she's right next to me. "Or did you forget you were holding my hand?"
I just smile. No way did I forget.
"I'm just glad you're finally outside. You can't stay shut in forever." I stop walking and look sternly at her.
"Says you," she says, looking at the ground before looking back up at me and sticking her tongue out.
"Hiding from people won't make it any easier. I actually learned a thing or two from our friends, Mira in particular. You know that phrase, 'kill 'em with kindness'? The worst blow to the people who want to see you down, is to put on a smile and have the most fun you've ever had. To show those people that what they say and do and think don't matter to you. That none of that affects you. Although, whenever Mira does that she gets a creepy smile... But that's not the point! The point is that I want you to have fun and grow stronger than everyone else." I take both her hands in mine and hold them to my chest, bringing us closer.
Lucy giggles a little, but her gaze is strong and earnest. "Natsu, I know what 'kill them with kindness' means." I start to lower my gaze, but she squeezes my hands. "That doesn't mean I don't appreciate what you said! It was pretty amazing actually. Thank you." Lucy steps back so we're no longer face to face, and she keeps walking. I walk steadily next to her.
"And since I'm saying such amazing things, I guess I'll be the one to say this." I look at the trees in front of us, the tiny flowers in the grass, anything but Lucy's face as I say, "we've both lost our parents. We've both lost family. But we're each other's family, remember? And we have amazing, crazy friends to be our family as well."
I can feel Lucy's eyes on me, but I don't look at her. She seems to examine me, or my profile, before speaking, one hundred percent serious.
"You know, mature Natsu is great and all, but he sure is a big change from the happy-go-lucky doofus I fell in love with."
My eyes widen, and I feel all the blood in my body rush to my face. I can practically feel Lucy's sudden shyness, so I turn to face her. The wind blows her blonde hair in front of her face, and I can only imagine she's glad for the cover. I reach a hand up and move her hair away from her face. Like I imagined, her cheeks are beet red and she won't meet my eyes.
"I... I... Iloveyou." I stumble through the words, feeling embarrassed until the end of time that I messed that up. I'd be surprised she even heard anything sensible from that.
"Did... did you just say 'olive you'?" She looks up at me, starting to laugh.
"N-no! I didn't! What does that even mean?" My reaction catapults her into even more laughter, and there's nothing I can do. "Stop laughing at me!"
"Come on," she manages to say through giggles, taking my arm and walking further.
~ i n t e n s e . t i m e . s k i p ~
"Okay, but what is the order? From strongest to weakest, go."
"Uhh.... Ionic, hydrogen, dipole-dipole, london dispersion?"
I give her the nod, and she falls back onto her bed in relief. I sigh in relief as well, just because I don't have to know this stuff. Lucy sits back up, filled with sudden determination to go through the rest of the material. Right now we're sitting cross-legged on her bed, textbooks, notebooks, and loose sheets of paper covering every inch between us, and resting in our laps.
"We'll get back to that later," she says, moving some different papers in my direction. "Quiz me on this next."
"Why get back to the... Inter-molecule forces? You seem to know that pretty well."
Lucy rolls her eyes. "Intermolecular forces. And I was kinda just guessing. Just bring it up again later to see if I remember it."
"Oooookay." I shrug, but place the new papers on top of the inter-whatever forces papers I was holding. I've never seen Lucy this way, but I don't know what I should have been expecting. I mean... Finals. At least she's not as freaked out as Levy. The last time I saw Levy she was running past me, holding an armful of rolled up posters. Lucy was walking after her, and when I raised a questioning eyebrow she just said, "old projects." I can't imagine how Gajeel is doing, trying to help that tornado study! Actually, now that I think about it, she's probably just re-teaching Gajeel all the material, and using that to study. Lucky!
"What is this?" I look at the paper in my hands and then back up at Lucy.
"Math."
"Yeah, but how am I supposed to quiz you on it?"
She shrugs. "I don't know, ask me about what each thing means."
I look down at the paper as numbers and letters stare back at me. Luce and I are in the same math, but her notes are so different than mine, I almost don't understand what I'm seeing at first. "Uh okay, describe a phase shift."
Lucy jumps into a description that I'm 80% is correct without even paying attention, so I don't. My gaze starts to wander behind her, and I spy a bulletin board on the wall behind her, next to the window and over the side of her desk. A small, colorful card held up by a clip catches my eye. I narrow my eyes a bit and read the words... UNLIMITED RIDES!
"Hey, Luce?" I ask, softly interrupting her explanation. She looks at me, startled, then turns to look where my gaze is fixed.
"Oh," she laughs. "You dropped the card that night as we were kicked out of the bumper cars. Nobody else noticed, maybe because it was so dark. I picked it up at first because I didn't want to litter, but I kept it..."
A small grin spreads across my face. "Good. I could have gotten arrested getting that card."
"Baka, you won that one from the darts game. You probably should have gotten arrested for destroying the ring toss though."
I lay the papers on my lap, glad to have a break in studying (even if I'm not the one studying!). "Speaking of, do you know if Loke ever heard from that girl?"
"Hmm, I don't know. I haven't heard from him in a while, but maybe I could ask Aries." Lucy looks lost in thought for a moment, before smiling like an insane person.
"What are you thinking about?" I ask cautiously.
She covers her mouth with her hands before placing them in her lap and saying honestly, "I was just remembering how jealous you were of Loke."
I open my mouth in shock, and then realize she's teasing me. "Puh-leez. I was not jealous of Loke."
"Uh huh. What was it you said...? 'My Luce'?" Her grin widens as I start to feel flustered.
"Wha- whatever. Maybe that wasn't fair of me to say then, but I'll say it now. I'll scream it from the roof of the athletics center."
She rolls her eyes. "You already screamed it in the cafeteria, or did you forget?"
"Oh god, I could never forget. That was a spectacle that I would not like to repeat ever. But I wouldn't take it back for the world." Lucy holds my gaze for a couple of wonderful seconds, before patting the books in between us.
"Just a few more minutes. Then we can go outside, or to the Rocket Palace, or check up on what our friends are doing, or go say hi to Happy, or-"
"Luce, from the sounds of it, it seems you're just as sick of studying as I am." With a sigh, she accepts the truth. "There's still days until finals. You've got the material down, and there's still time. Let's go do something fun."
~
Lucy, Happy, and I meet up with the rest of the gang for an early dinner picnic in the park. While Happy is far from well behaved generally, he'll sit when I tell him to, and always return to me if he wanders. Maybe he grew anxious from that time he ran away from home and got lost. This time Mira and Laxus are taking care of the food, so I really, really hope they know what they're doing.
When arrive at the spot with Happy in tow, everyone's there, sitting in an almost-circle on two large sheets.
"I don't know why we don't just eat on the tables outside the dorms," we hear Gray say as we walk up.
"Because that ruins the mood, the idea. And this is more like a large family gathering." Mira replies matter-of-factly.
"But they're called picnic tables for a reason," Gray reasons. Or, tries to reason, as we all know there's no reasoning with Mira.
"It's whatever, Gray. You can eat on a table anytime. But now we're outside, sitting in the grass and sunshine and breeze together." I say, sitting down with Luce in between Levy and Juvia.
"That makes no sense. We eat sitting down all the time. Hell, we're all together all the time."
"Well, that's what family does," I reply. Mira smiles in agreement, and starts passing out paper plates. I feel Lucy squeeze my arm for a second, before helping to pass plates. Mira opens her little picnic basket, which in my opinion looks more like a case for a heavy duty torture device, and reveals the meal.
"Raw hotdogs and hamburgers?" I ask skeptically.
"Idiot," Laxus mutters, before standing up and walking over to a park grill I hadn't noticed before. Laxus fills the grill with charcoal from a bag that I also hadn't noticed, and lights it with a lighter Mira hands him. Maybe I should be more observant...
While Laxus grills the food, Mira sets out some napkins, and all sorts of toppings. I spot a bottle of hot sauce and suddenly feel warm inside. She really does care.
"Guys, can you believe it?" Cana says to start conversation. "We're going to be seniors. That's crazy!"
"We have to get through finals first!" Levy says hurriedly.
"I'm not particularly worried about any of us," Cana says, eyeing me for a second. "We'll get past finals. But we're going to be the sunbaes." With her last word, Cana gets a certain glint in her eye that has me picturing hoobaes running around, serving her cocktails and rubbing her feet in class.
"Forget conquering the hoobaes," Mira says laughing (although we all know she's having the same thoughts). "What about after Fairy Tail? Do you guys know what you want to do?"
Everyone takes a second to think that over. What are we going to do after Fairy Tail High? (T/N: Sunbaes are upperclassmen, or people with more experience in a workplace. Hoobaes are their juniors)
The first to break the silence is Erza. "I'm probably going to attend Magnolia Community College." I raise my eyebrows in shock, and the rest have similar reactions.
"Erza, you're an amazing person with great grades. You could go literally anywhere. Why Magnolia Community College?" Gray asks.
"Jellal," Lucy blurts before Erza could say anything. "It just makes sense. I hope you won't miss us too much." Lucy finishes with a smile. The rest of us become familiar with the idea of Erza having an idea of what she's doing, and make similar comments.
"But what about the rest of us?" Levy asks. "We'll always be in touch, of course."
"Juvia doesn't want to leave any of her friends! Juvia has never had friends like this before..." The shy girl looks down at her hands, but looks right at Gray when he places an arm around her shoulders.
"Well, none of us are like, going across the country, right? I mean, it's okay if someone wants to. I just want us all to be able to keep hanging out like this," Levy repeats.
Cana sighs. "I've always been kind of unpredictable and free spirited. I'd like to travel. A lot. But maybe after college. I'll certainly let you guys know beforehand, so you don't randomly get a postcard from me in a different language or something!" Cana laughs as she finishes, and so do the rest of us, but I can feel it sinking in. The prospect of the future.
"Guys, we still have senior year together. Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Gajeel says flatly, bringing us to reality. The smell of the cooking meat grows stronger, causing my stomach to growl. Loudly. And with that, our conversation of the nearing future was over, but not forgotten.
When Laxus finally presents us a tray of food, I waste no time in piling every topping onto my hotdog, giving no concern to the flavor combinations. Once I have my masterpiece, I go about devouring it, and then reach for a hamburger. I just love how everyone's used to my antics that it goes without questioning. Everyone goes about the meal as we do:
Juvia is nibbling at her food while watching Gray out of the corner of her eye, because old habits die hard I suppose.
Gray is eating a cheeseburger with the works, somehow not spilling any of his toppings, nor getting it on his face.
Mira and Laxus are using the same plate for some reason, putting down their food and picking it up, not caring whether it was 'theirs' originally.
Cana is eating her second hamburger, her toppings fallen and forgotten on her plate, while her eyes dart to her bag. She usually has a flask of some sort, but the way she keeps looking over but not moving makes me think she didn't bring any alcohol. Shocking, and not sarcastically!
Erza is trying to be neat like Gray but can't seem to keep her toppings on her hotdog, so she has a pile of used napkins next to her, from picking up her toppings with her hands, then wiping them immediately so they don't get sticky.
Levy is eating a hotdog with ketchup and mustard, while Gajeel sneaks glances at her, his hamburger growing cold in his hand. I can tell by the way he keeps looking at the little spot of ketchup on her chin that he wants to wipe it off, but doesn't want to make that move.
Happy's sitting in my lap, nibbling at the fish-shaped catnip toy I brought for him.
And right next to me Lucy piled a burger high with toppings, but is studying it, trying to figure out how she can bite it without anything falling out.
This really is how a family eats together.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
This story really is coming to an end soon, I don't like this feeling of dragging it out that I'm getting. Also, this chapter went a lot of places.
One. I want to say a thank you and an apology to wendymarvel10 and any and all of my other readers. I apologize if there's something disappointing in the fact that I don't update very often, and I know those people might not be reading this right now, but I feel horrible if that makes you not want to keep following me or reading my work, because it feels so impossibly slow and agonizing. Believe it or not, it can be agonizing for me in the same way. I don't want to to go on and sound victimized or anything, because I'm not the reader and I already know the rest of the story (kind of). But it is a real problem for me to finish something that I've started, or to get started doing something I've set out to do. I love and appreciate everyone who reads and supports my work and myself, and I don't mean to torture you with long gaps that make it seem like I'm totally MIA.
Two. So I wrote the first part of this chapter, and then left it hanging with a timeskip. Sorry! But I thought the moment was cute, and they'll get back to that. Anyways, I don't know how many of you traverse and/or watch youtube as religiously as I do (or if any of you were on youtube when this was popular) but there is a youtuber who goes by the name Dave Days, and he was really popular around maybe 2008. He's a singer/musician who makes cover parodies. He had a whole comedy bit about Miley Cyrus going as well, long before she went off the deep end. He's still making stuff today, and has put some songs on iTunes apparently, but I hadn't even thought of him until today. So the 'Olive You' bit was inspired by an original song that he (wrote?) performed with another youtuber who goes by KimmieSmiles. The song is really cute, and I almost made it the media.
Three. The song in the media is Wings by Cimorelli. Also youtube singers.
Four. Sorry this is such a long note!! I'll see you guys in the next (last??) chapter, and will read your comments in between!
☆Shadow☆