Also I've re-written and finalized this fanfic so um if the comments don't match the story—that's because those comments are meant for the old draft
"Wait, Hold on. Okay—300mg of water. Ok, ok. Check. Some basil? BASIL?? What's basil??" I say, writing down the ingredients for Sting's 'hangover purification potion' his words not mine. He sighs on the other line on the phone. "The leaf. The goddamn green leaves Natsu. Those. Remember this is a tea so make sure you warm it up real good—"
"Yeah okay. I get it." I say, craning my phone into my neck and ear as I fill up this tea thing with cold water as I place it on the stove ready to boil it. Zeref is humming and loves to torture me and my dizziness hangover right now as he nags
me on about cleaning the bathroom later. "You drink. You puke. You clean." He says, sipping his morning coffee as he places it down and gives me that older brother look.
I put all the ingredients on the table. Rolling my eyes. I leave the kitchen with the tea in my hand. The bathroom door is a few inches open. I walk in and see Lucy half-asleep on the toilet.
"Lucy? Lucy! Lucy! Wake up—I've already drunk some. It's helped. It'll help you too. C'mon wake up." I spoke softly at the end as I shook her shoulders as she's on the floor right by the toilet. Her arms on the lid and her eyes closed as she's slept on the toilet. She puked. I puked. End of story no need for details.
She frowns while fluttering her eyes open. Then she groans out in pain. "Natsu—what is this again?" She says as I shove the mug of tea into her hand. She drinks it down as I explain it's what Sting uses for hangovers, the thing she drank last time. And then she nearly spits out as soon as I said that. But she kept herself together and chugged it down.
I take the mug from her hand. "Better?" I say, worried.
As I bring my hand to her forehead. Could she still be dizzy?
"Does this mean I can go back to sleep now?" She says, her eyes almost crossing as she knocks herself out back onto the side of the toilet.
"Yeah. But not here. Stand up." I grab her wrist. She stumbles as I grab her around her waist and drag her back into my bedroom. She's a lot weaker to stuff like this. I'm hungover too. But I'm not that clumsy.
"God, why won't it work faster?" Lucy complains holding onto the sides of her temples, as she settles herself down on the bed. As I just released her I put the empty mug on the nightstand besides her.
"It takes time. Don't worry. It'll work." I kiss her on her forehead as I lean into her. She instantly smiles and wraps her arms around me pulling me down on her.
"Lucy?" I laugh.
"Stay with me. We can nap together." She says, her big brown eyes are almost closed they have that pleading look in them. That drives me in.
"I can't. Unfortunately." I huff, trying to look anywhere but at her. "Zeref will be all over me if I don't clean that bathroom. He's a clean freak. You know he is."
"Okay..." Lucy frowns, but her eyes still manage to look starry. Her lips form a weak smile as she tugs me closer. I allow her to. And I'm not afraid to say I love it. "Just come back after..will you?"
"Yeah. Of course. After." I grin, she lets me go and shifts comfortably back to sleep.
As I'm cleaning the bathroom I think of last night. Sting falling out of his chair everyone laughing at him. Lucy taking those shots. Jellal and his ear bleeding taste in music. Also Jellal later on almost at midnight drunk with the half of us and stripping down naked on this counter table. Waving around his shirt like some stripper, or was that Gray? I think it was both of them. Sting took the place of the DJ and switched to better music.
Lucy, Erza, Cana, and Lisanna cheering on the guys. Juvia went up on the counter and tried dragging Gray down but he refused and pushed her away. So now Juvia's probably angry with him. Yet again. All the staff had already left and warned us if anything was damaged we'd have to pay.
Something still stirred in me when I watched as Lucy drunkenly cheered on the guys. Swaying to music with Cana and Erza laughing.
I drank a bit more by myself on the stool by all the drinks and remember wiping my mouth with my wrist.
Wanting to drag Lucy away from them.
From everyone. I was drunk and remembered thinking about Lucy and how I just wanted her all to myself.
I crouch down, my knees bended over. I'm hovering over the bottom of the bathroom sink. As I take all the cleaning supplies and I carefully rearrange them neatly away. Because if I don't Zeref will wake me up at one a.m just to get my ass up to rearrange them. That's how much of a clean freak he is. When a jolt of pain goes through me. I grab my hair and rub my head.
Oh my fucking god. I did take Lucy away from everyone. I did. I dragged her from her by the wrist away from Erza and Cana. They didn't even notice because they themselves we're dancing to music and taking videos of the naked trio giving them a show on top of the counter.
I took her to another part of the building. Where we stayed alone. I remember beginning to kiss her neck and her giggling non-stop. Then soon kissing her all over. I rub my eyes and stand up and splash my face with cold water. "Yeah. Right." I snort at myself as I turn off the running water. I close the light and leave the room.
"Smells as fresh as a daisy. Happy?" I say, Zeref is digging into some oatmeal breakfast. I notice Mavis isn't here and he takes a cup of blueberries pouring them into the oatmeal as he looks up at me in surprise. "Good. You can go sleep all you want now. That's all I wanted. My little brother cleaning up after himself. That's all." He shrugs his shoulders at me. I chug down orange juice.
Straight from the carton. "Yeah." I said before I took a long drink.
I'm still drinking after he glares at me. "Are you serious?"
"Hey, I cleaned up the bathroom." I say, closing the carton and putting it back in the refrigerator.
"So what? You were suppose to do that anyways."
"Where's Mavis?" I say, sitting across from him.
"She had some stuff to do. She's got a job too you know. She's a hardworking girl. She loves what she does."
"Oh. She's over there. Well I'll be sleeping now. Lucy and I will probably sleep until afternoon. We stayed up really late last night. It was her birthday after all." Before I leave he tells me: "Uh-Uh-Uh Hold it!"
"What?" I said. Grabbing the wall next to me.
"I—got you a gig. As a wrestler. You start tomorrow. Gildarts—he helped me get some connections. He's close friends with one of the wrestling referees. They're professionals. So not anyone can just get in with them that easily. You should know that it took a lot of convincing and you better not say no."
"W-WAIT ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" I nearly shout. "You're not serious? Are you??"
"Does it look like I'm joking? You know I don't joke around like an idiot. I'm not Sting." The look on his eyes tells me he's not joking.
"I can't believe this! I can't wait. I'm so—I'm so fired up!" I grin, spreading my legs apart and positioning myself about to fight an invisible foe.
"There's just one thing. It's pretty far. Like real far. So if you leave—"
"Oh fuck. What about college? The week is almost over. I've already been accepted. And I can't—leave Lucy. Or all my friends here."
Zeref looks at me with sympathy. "Oh shit. Sorry. Natsu I didn't think about that. College all that. Well it's your choice you know. If you want to do that instead. It's all up to you. But I'm just gonna tell you this is a big opportunity. And it's something you love to do. Something you grew up loving even. It's your decision, little brother."
I rub my eyes, thinking hard. "I can't. I can't miss this opportunity. I'm sure everyone will understand. They're my close friends. My family, I'm pretty sure they'll all cheer me on. I know that...but there's no doubt they'll miss me."
"What will Lucy say?" Zeref abruptly said. And I look up at him and groan.
"Oh Jesus Christ. What will she say? I don't know if I should tell her. But if I leave it will be for a very long time."
I run my hand through my hair. "No. You know what. I'm not gonna tell Lucy about this. She might not understand. Zeref." He looks at me, because I'm staring at him with a serious expression. "I'm gonna do this. 'Cept don't tell Lucy about it. Just tell her—I don't know. Just make something up. Make sure she doesn't worry. Whatever you do respect my wish: don't tell Lucy about this. Got it?" I arch my eyebrow at Zeref.
He looks like he might disapprove but he slowly nods his head. His hand locked around his mug of coffee. "Alright. But if she beats me up and I don't answer your calls, you know you'll have to live with yourself for leaving your poor older brother with your crazy girlfriend, Lucy."
"She's not crazy." I chuckle. "She's just a tough cookie. If you think she's crazy you should see Erza. Have you forgotten every day after school she would come over and chase me and Gray with a pair of scissors to get us to stop fighting. Hell she was trying to kill us!" I laugh.
"True. Can't forget about that brand of crazy that is Erza. She was probably at Lucy's birthday party wasn't she? Tell her to visit some time. She could bring her new boyfriend over too. I'd like to meet him some time."
"Hell no! Only her. That prissy prick of a boyfriend of hers is the worst! God, I hate that guy. He thinks he can call Erza's bluff just by smiling like some sneaky little raccoon that's only planning to get in my sister's pants."
"Oh, Natsu." He laughs, almost spitting out his coffee as he stifles his throat with a cough. "That bad? Huh? You hate the poor guy that bad?"
I stare at the wall and glare. "I do."
I close the bedroom door and sigh as I see Lucy's fast asleep. Rising and falling. I feel a bit guilty for just leaving her. Here I was just talking with Zeref about leaving for this wrestling gig somewhere far. Not knowing when I might be able to see her again. I crawl next to her. As I pull her by the hip closer to me. She responds sleepily, "Hey."
I don't say anything. I just breath into her ear, feeling sleep take over.