Lucy had moved in next door when they were both five years old.
Natsu hadn't hesitated to stomp up the Heartfilia's porch steps, force his clammy hands into a little fist, and knock out a tune on their wooden doorway. Lucy's father had answered the door, his lips instantly twisting into a little grin when he saw the messy haired boy bravely staring up at him.
The boy stuck his sticky hand out. "I'm Natsu," He'd said, oddly charismatic for his age. "Nice to meet ya."
Jude had crouched down, amused by the youngster. He shook the boy's hand. "My name is Jude. How old are you, Natsu?"
The pink haired boy stuck his hand up, fingers spread wide. "Five and a half."
"Want to know a secret?"
"Yup."
Jude smiled at him. "I have a daughter, and she's the exact same age as you."
Natsu's eyebrows rose, and he stood on his tippy toes, trying to peek into the house behind the man. "Well, where is she?"
"She's a little shy," Jude explained, chuckling at the boy's excitement. "How about this: you go home and ask your parents to come over for dinner, and then you can meet Lucy."
Natsu had grinned up at the man. "Her name is Lucy?"
"It sure is."
The boy hopped off the porch, giving a wave of his hands as he rounded the sidewalk back to his own house. "I'll talk to my folks!"
He'd come back a while later, mother and father in tow. His father had brought a bottle of wine, and his mother held a homemade pie; Jude greeted them in the doorway. He'd invited them in, sat them down in the living room, made small talk.
Little Lucy, shy as ever, eventually came down from her room. She had her short blonde hair in pigtails, and she wore a lacy white dress.
Jude brought Natsu over, introduced the two children, and then returned to his seat to chat with the fellow adults, leaving the kids alone with one another.
"I'm Natsu," The pink haired boy had said loudly, not a hint of shyness in his tone.
The girl's cheeks had gone pink. She looked at her feet. "My name's Lucy."
"Well, aren't you gonna show me around?"
And so, she did. She showed him the entire house, taking him up to her room last. The entire room was covered in pink and purple flowers, with pretty princess dolls sitting daintily on the perfectly made up bed.
"No way!" Natsu cried, dashing to the window, resting his elbows on the sill. "That's my bedroom!"
Lucy stood beside him, their elbows touching. "It is?"
"Yeah," Natsu responded. The houses were close—living in the city gave you pretty small yard space; the houses were practically on top of one another—and the two childrens' bedrooms faced one another. Natsu figured that their rooms were so close, he could craft them a make-shift telephone out of two cans and a string. "Cool, huh?"
And so, they did just that. And by the time they'd made the telephone, it was time for Natsu to go home; as soon as he stepped foot in his own house, he raced up to his bedroom.
Lucy was sitting at her window sill, waiting for him; she waved, smiling. She opened up her window and tossed him a can, his side of the telephone. He caught it easily.
They talked all night on their little telephone. It didn't take them long to become best friends.
By the time they were six, they spent every minute possible with one another. The moment one of them woke up, they'd be shouting into their can telephone, telling the other to get up; they'd groggily chat until it was breakfast time. After breakfast, they'd meet up and walk to the bus stop together. They'd sit on the bus, chatting and joking the whole time. Neither of them were shy—not anymore. They got along too well to be shy with each other.
By the time they were seven, everyone at school was aware of their special relationship. Normally, a fellow would be teased about liking a girl if he even gave her a glance—in a regular situation, Natsu would've been hounded by the other boys. But no one made fun of Natsu and Lucy. No one teased them about having crushes on one another. It was just understood, right from the get go, that the two of them were absolutely special to one another. No one, not even for a second, thought they liked each other—they were far too comfortable for it to be a mere crush. No, these two...they were family.
And by the time they'd hit middle school, Natsu had influenced Lucy greatly.
She'd become a regular tomboy. The lacy dresses and the girly bedroom were long behind her, now; she'd tossed her clothes and redecorated, opting now for posters about her favorite athletes or action movies. Her wardrobe consisted mainly of baseball tees and grubby jeans or sweats. Now, she'd spend most of her time with the boys—Natsu, Grey, Laxus and Gajeel—hitting some baseballs or tossing the football or digging in the swamp for tadpoles.
Her father was never pleased; he'd intended on raising a well behaved princess. At first, he hadn't raised any eyebrows—she was just making friends. And then, once she'd started wearing baseball caps instead of headbands, he still hadn't said anything. After all, Natsu was over day and night. He was bound to influence her a little.
And then, it seemed, his princess was completely gone.
He'd tried coaxing her back to her sweet girly ways subtly, at first. Buy her a pretty doll, the one that was sold out in stores all across the country. He'd set her up on playdates with other little girls, hoping they'd rub off on her. When that didn't work, he tried harder. He'd buy her dresses (that she never wore). He'd shipped her off for a weekend with her auntie, which still seemed to have no effect.
Once she'd hit grade six, he spent most of his time talking about this school—an all girls boarding school way up in the mountains. It was like a normal school, but specifically geared towards females—particularly girly females. Horseback riding, beauty classes, courses about proper female manners. Sexist, maybe, but there was no doubt in his mind that it would straighten her back out, return her to her formerly girly self.
It wasn't that he didn't like Lucy being a tomboy—of course not, he'd always love Lucy no matter what. It's just...he'd always imagined her as his little princess, always wearing lacy dresses and tiaras and pearls around her neck. Maybe it was because that was what her mother was like. And he missed Layla so much...
By grade six, Lucy and Natsu's relationship had only grown exponentially.
They'd walk to school together, go to class together, share their lunches; they'd play games together, compete together, everything. They'd walk home, chatting about whatever came up that day—they didn't get tired of each other's presence.
And they'd tell each other everything; they were each other's only confidant. They'd help each other through their lives, holding the other up when things got too hard.
When Natsu failed math, Lucy stayed up with him every night that week and tutored him. By the next exam, he was scoring solid A's. To thank her, he'd bought her an icecream cone. They shared it.
When some girls were picking on Lucy—making fun of her for having no girl friends, only hanging out with the boys—Natsu stood up for her. He'd been heading to Lucy's locker after school, like he always did, so they could walk home together. He'd found Lucy cringing against her locker while three girls laughed, calling her a loser and saying she had no friends and that she needed to get a life. Natsu had snapped, swearing at the girls and telling them they were useless; the girls had ran off, upset—Natsu was the most popular boy in school, after all—cheeks red. Natsu had asked Lucy if she was okay, and she'd cried; he'd hugged her tight, telling her that those girls were dumb and that Lucy had all the friends she needed.
He'd walked her home, arm tight around her as she sniffled. He'd hauled her up to her bedroom, plopping her down on her mattress. He'd wrapped her blankets around her tight, cuddling her up in a little burrito of sheets and covers, and sat beside her. She'd cried, and he'd hugged her tight. They'd stayed there all night—Natsu had called his parents, saying he was staying the night over at Lucy's—her crying sadly and him desperately trying to cheer her up. And as the night faded to darkness, he'd managed to get her to stop crying. And then he'd managed to make her crack a smile. And by the time they were falling asleep, they were both grinning, sides hurting due to their nonstop laughter.
They had sleepovers a lot—nearly every weekend. Sometimes even on weekdays. They'd stay up late and pig out on chips and chocolate and watch scary movies in Lucy's bedroom on her laptop. And they'd fall asleep like that, smears of food on their cheeks, legs entwined together.
And on the nights they didn't sleepover, they'd still chat until the sun went down. They'd talk through their windows—they were only a couple feet away after all, and all they had to do was open their windows to chat. And when it got too dark for them to see each other properly, or when their parents had to sleep and they couldn't talk loudly, they'd both cuddle into their beds and talk through their can and string phones.
They'd go to every school dance together, spending the whole time fooling around and dancing like idiots. They didn't care what people thought; they only cared about each other.
And in grade eight, at the end of the year dance, when some boy named Brad tried to confess his love to Lucy, Natsu had gotten mad. The boy was awkward and was sweating profusely, and he'd asked to talk to Lucy in private—Natsu had refused. The boy had grumbled out that he'd had a crush on Lucy all year, that he thought she was beautiful. Natsu had snapped; he'd told the boy to leave, that Lucy wasn't interested. When the boy didn't leave, Natsu resorted to threatening him violently. The boy ran off pretty quick.
Lucy had looked at Natsu, a frown on her face. "What was that for? You didn't need to be so harsh."
Natsu had shrugged. "You're out of his league."
Lucy looked at her best friend, noticing the slight pink shade in his cheeks. Sure, he'd gone a little overboard with the intimidation, but she didn't mind; she hadn't been interested in Brad, not even a little bit. Besides, the idea of Natsu protecting her...well, that made her stomach flop a little bit, but she wasn't sure why.
And with that, they returned to the dance, spending the rest of the evening twirling each other through the dance floor; they took a couple short breaks to head to the snack buffet, where they filled up on chips and fruit.
By the end of the night, they were exhausted; they walked back to their houses side by side.
"My feet hurt," Lucy complained, tugging off the stupid flats she'd worn—her dad refused to let her go to a dance in sneakers.
So, Natsu carried her the whole way home, piggy back style. He carried her up to her room, then dumped her on her bed. He turned, about to leave and head to his own comfy bed, but Lucy spoke up.
"Hey, Natsu?"
The room was dark; they hadn't turned the lights on. "Yeah, Luce?"
"Wanna stay?" She wasn't sure why her heart had been pounding so hard.
He'd given her a glance, still frozen in the doorway, before he turned back and hopped onto the bed beside her. He'd snuggled under the blankets, ripping them away from her and stealing them, like he usually did; Lucy laughed as she wriggled into her own side.
They fell asleep like that, feet and elbows touching.
And, yeah, maybe that meant something to Lucy.
And whenever Lucy thought about her mom too hard, or whenever it was the anniversary of the day her mom passed, Natsu would come over with flowers and chocolate. They never said a word about it—Natsu knew talking about it made Lucy cry—but he'd hold her when the memories hit her too hard and he'd pop a movie in to distract her. And then they carried on, because that's just the way they were.
And things stayed the same for the two of them for a long while. They were still Lucy and Natsu, the bestest friends in the whole wide world. They still told each other everything, they still had sleepovers, they still went and bought milkshakes every Friday night.
And whenever Lucy and her father got into a nasty disagreement—it happened often, mostly due to him pushing the thought of her going to an all girl's boarding school—she'd talk to Natsu through her can, whisper to him, tell him everything that happened.
And every single time, he'd tell her to come over. So, she'd haul herself over to his house, not bothering to knock—they were like family and there was no need for such formal actions—give his parents a wave, and then go up to his room. And he'd ask her if she was okay, and she'd cry every time.
Natsu would reassure her, tell her everything was fine. She didn't need to be girly—she was perfect the way she was. If her father couldn't see that, then screw him.
She'd stay the night and they'd watch gory movies filled with car chases and gunfire.
And one night, when they were sitting in his room after she'd gotten into it particularly badly with her father, she'd looked at her best friend. Her heart was aching and her stomach was fluttering, and she whispered, "I love you, Natsu."
The boy had grinned back at her, looking happier than usual. "I love you too, Luce," He'd whispered back; Lucy's heart leapt. "Like a brother."
She'd frowned, the butterflies in her chest dying on the spot. "Like a brother?"
"Well, yeah." The pink haired boy had shrugged. "You're more like one of the guys than a girl. You're like a little brother."
Lucy fell silent, watching the movie quietly. The thought irritated her.
As time went on, the fluttery feelings in her chest only grew when she was around Natsu. She'd begun to notice girls whispering about how cute he was, about how he was the hottest guy in school; Lucy would blush, knowing that he was that popular and that he was her best friend.
Girls would whisper about Lucy and Natsu's relationship, and Lucy would go red. It was flattering, really. But the idea of her and Natsu being together like that—romantically—started to grow on her.
And when they played baseball, she'd start to watch the way his arms flexed when he swung the bat. And when they had sleepovers, she had to stop herself from blushing when he tugged off his shirt. And when they spent every minute together, she had to remind herself that they were simply friends—it wasn't romantic in any way. She was getting ahead of herself.
Regardless of Lucy's newfound feelings for her best friend, they continued on like they always did. They were the best of friends, and she did whatever she could to hide any inkling that the sight of Natsu made her heart pound. She didn't tell a single soul. She barely even admitted her feelings to herself.
And everything was fine.
But then, there was one event that changed things. One single event that altered the course of their relationship. One single occasion that completely disrupted everything.
The grade ten spring formal.
A/N: It has come to my attention that my work (and this story in particular) has been stolen and reposted by others saying that it belongs to them. I want this to be very clear: this is MY story, this is MY work, and I will not allow someone else to take it from me. I love having my work shared--when I am properly credited. Please don't take someone else's writing and try to spin it as your own. I nearly don't want to write anymore. If you love stories, if you love people writing fanfiction...don't steal it. If you do, you don't deserve the creativity others put out there.
I've decided to upload all of my work onto Wattpad to try and prevent someone else from uploading it here and claiming it as their own.
This is my only Wattpad account. If you see someone else sharing my work saying they have created it, report them, call them out, and please let me know. It breaks my heart to know that someone is stealing my stuff.
Thank you to all who are on the look out for stuff like this. I love all of my readers who respect the time and effort I put into things. Thank you so much. Every story is dedicated to you.
(For those that are wondering: wattpad user "crestoflife" stole the first few chapters of this story and uploaded it as their own. They even added their own author's notes to the story to...I don't know, seem more legitimate? Either way, it was a bizarre and odd thing to come across and I really don't want that to happen again.)