Good morning my faithful followers. So, you may have noticed but when this story started it was a little similar to Keys of Fire. That is because I loved it a lot and I couldn't help myself. However, I promise that I will not steal any plot ideas or anything that is very clearly not my idea. As you can tell, this story has already veered off into a different direction and it won't come close to KoF.

So, that would be it for the questions and concerns. On to the story!

Disclaimer: I only got the storyline.

~Chapter 12: Natsu's POV~

Today was nothing like I thought it would be. It was absolutely terrible. So terrible that I can't even really understand it no matter how many times I think back to it. I truly thought it would be a good day. I thought that nothing could go wrong. How wrong that was. Everything was fine, but it somehow all turned to mush. It had completely snowballed and now I felt like I was drowning in wrong answers, bad moves and all of my mistakes I had made recently. I could pinpoint where it started but I wasn't sure where it was going to end. How did everything go wrong in the span of a single hour? How was that fair.

It started at the guild hall where I thought everyone was ready to meet Lucy. It had been awhile since her first encounter with the gang, and I could only hope that they had gotten used to the idea that I had a new best friend. When they arrived, I had expected the large reaction from the guild and acted accordingly. I also expected for my two top members would be the ones to come and re-meet her. Gray did fine, but Erza... Erza failed the test miserably. Sure, I know she didn't mean to, but Luce isn't one who will respond to her "authority" voice very well at all. It was amazing how she didn't shut down immediately. Which, of course after she used her "authority" voice, I had to use my "boss" voice to make her calm down. I only used it when we were doing gang activities but I was hoping I wouldn't have to show it to Luce yet. She wasn't ready for that type of thing. Then came us storming out since Erza blew the guild's chance at meeting her for several more weeks. Maybe. I didn't even realize that I was still fuming when we left the guild until I refocused on Lucy... and her multiple repetitions of the word, "no".

I then stupidly tried to snap her out of it with a bit more force than I needed to and that is where it all turned to shit. How was I supposed to know that she was going to flip out at me? I had no way of knowing that was even a freakin' possibility! Then with the whole, "I'm sorry for taking you away from your friends" bit? I hardly like those people anyway! They always got on my nerves! And sometimes, for no reason! Luce was by far the much better choice and I would rather live my whole life without knowing Fairy Tail if Luce had been in my life instead. Of course, I didn't really have time to say that when I was stunned into silence in the first place. Why did she think that I would rather spend more time with them than her? Where had those thoughts even come from? There was nothing I ever said that even came close to that. Sure I said I missed them but I wasn't all that excited to see them again. I did have Luce to take care of. She was my first priority. She came first and everyone else could just go fly a kite. I didn't need them anyway.

Somehow, by the time I managed to shake the shock from my body, my favorite girl had up and disappeared. Why the crap would I hate her? It didn't make any sense! The freak man! It was completely ridiculous and right when I was about to burst out laughing, she was gone. Now, I couldn't just set off in a random direction and hope to find her. What if I missed her and I never saw her again!? What would my life come to then! THERE WOULD BE NOTHING! MY LIFE WOULD BE EXPONENTIALLY WORSE AND IT WOULD BE THE GUILD'S FAULT! I really didn't want this to happen so I picked the place where she would most likely be. After all, if she thought I hated her, she might try to run away from me too. History does like to repeat itself.

The first clue I found was all of Luce's school stuff messily scattered across her bed. Clearly, she dumped out her backpack and aimed to stuff it full of things. Looking around her room, she hardly took anything. It was possible that she was trying not to make it seem like she was here but I had no idea if she was still here or not. The best I could hope for would be to search every single gap inside our house and hope that she was still here somewhere. The first place I checked was Luce's room, obviously, then my room. I don't know why she would be there but I was checking anyway. Then I searched the bathroom and the living room. Nothing. Next was the attic and roof. Another place I don't know why she would be there. She needed my help to get to the roof last time. Surely she wouldn't be up there now. She wasn't. Man! At least there weren't that many places to search left. I'm pretty sure that there were two bedrooms and the kitchen left... I was wrong. There were only one bedroom and the kitchen. The bedroom was empty, like everywhere else, and now I was sure that she wasn't in the kitchen either. However, I still needed to look. Just to be sure.

The first place I looked was under the table. It was a pretty lame spot but she wasn't there anyway so I guess it didn't really matter. Next came the pantry. I opened the door slowly for some reason and guess what? I found... nothing. Nothing at all. How cruel could the world be? Walking across the kitchen I open the second pantry, which was across the kitchen for some odd reason, faster and a bit harder than the last one, and froze in my tracks. I honestly couldn't believe it. Lucy, my Luce... had stuffed herself under the lowest shelf in the pantry and had pressed her back into the wall. Her eyes were squeezed shut and it seemed that she was curled tightly into a ball around the backpack I got her. One of the first questions that crossed my mind was, "Why the crap was she under there?" Apparently, and as always, my mouth worked faster than my mind and I ended up asking loudly,

"Why the crap are you under there?" She squeaked, almost screamed, in surprise and immediately started blubbering. From what I could tell it sounded like,

"I'm sorry I'm still here, I'll leave as soon as possible." There were some other words mixed in but she spoke too fast for me to catch them all. However, from what I understood, I knew I had to do something or I would lose her forever. This was something that could never ever happen. Ever. So grabbing her arms, I pull her from the pantry floor and throw her over my shoulder and walk to the living room. She kicked and screamed, and tried to wiggle away, but I held her tightly. I wasn't about to let her go yet. When we get to the couch, I move her so that she is on my lap when I sit so I don't hurt her but even then she still tries to wiggle away. This resulted in me pinning her legs under mine and crossing my arms over hers.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Let me go and I'll leave! I promise!"

"Why would I want you to leave?" I ask calmly. I figure that if I was going to get her to stay, only a calm tone would soothe her fried nerves. Of course, this was only a theory and I had no idea if it was going to work or not. I was actually quite glad when she froze and answered in a very quiet voice.

"Because... I took you away from your friends?"

"Ha! You know that's crazy right?" I felt her body start to grow rigid. Was that a good sign or a bad sign?

"No, it's not! I did take you away from your friends! I did! I did! I did!" Ok, that was a bad sign. She started yelling again as well as restarting her struggling.

"No, you didn't," I answered back. "I don't even like most of them anyway." Her struggling slowed a bit after this.

"R-really?" She twisted her body to look at me and I could see the tears forming in her eyes. Letting go of her arms, I brush away the tears that were already falling.

"Yes, really. I will gladly not spend time with them as long as it means that I can be with you," I smile at her. Apparently, that wasn't the right answer, or any other thought came to her mind and her body grew rigid again.

"That isn't right! You shouldn't think that!"

"Why not? They aren't that great anyway! When I first was spending time with you, they didn't even bother to find me. It was what a week before they showed up and it was to fend off some girl who's been after me for years? Then, rather than try to get to know you when they saw you for the first time, they intimidate and accused you!"

"Did they?"

"Intimidate you? Yes. Accused you? I'm not all that sure on that one. Anyway, when I gave them the chance to redeem themselves, they did even worse than the first time! You are my best friend, Luce. No one even comes close."

"How can you say that! We haven't known each other that long! How can I be your best friend?" she tried to protest.

"Because you understand me like no one else does."

"Y-you're serious?"

"Totally. So, what's this about you leaving again?" A pretty pink blush color rose to Luce's cheeks and slowly began to spread as she tried to explain.

"W-well, I-I thought you hated me. Even if you didn't, I wasn't about to risk it and I was trying to leave before you got home. I guess that didn't work out too well." Turning all the way around once I freed her, she now straddled my hips as she looked down at me. I could get used to this. It was nice that she was breaking her own bubble for once. Not that she had once when it concerned me.

"I'm glad it didn't. I don't want to lose you, Luce. I don't know what would happen if I did." As if to demonstrate our always non-existent personal space, I nuzzled my face into her neck. She simply giggled and ran her fingers through my hair repeatedly. It was actually a nice feeling and I could feel a deep rumbling deep inside my chest. I honestly have no idea how long we sat there for, but I could feel myself slowly drifting to sleep. From what I could tell Luce was already sleeping as well. Her head had dropped to my shoulder and her body had shifted downwards so now she was no longer sitting above me. I nudged her, trying to wake her up but that didn't go the way that I planned. She simply groaned and nuzzled her head against my neck and settled once more. She was a weird one, wasn't she? That aside, there was still the matter of what I had to do next. As carefully as I could, I heaved my body off of the couch and readjusted the girl in my arms.

If she was going to fall asleep on me then I was going to decide where we were going to sleep. It was really a matter of my bed or hers and it wasn't like we were going to do anything besides sleeping so it wasn't a big deal anyway. There was also the fact that we had already slept in the same bed together so there wasn't anything new there either. The final decision ended up being my bed and Luce was nowhere near awake enough to protest. I liked my bed better than hers anyway. There was a possibility that my favorite bed could or would change at a later date but now really wasn't the time to worry about it. Right now was a time for sleeping and I would be getting some sleep. Chasing after an emotional blond and making sure that she didn't make a rash decision by leaving was actually really exhausting. Like you wouldn't believe. However, tomorrow would be a different day. It would be a better day. It would be a relaxing day. Tomorrow, neither of them were going to school and instead of spending the day with each other and not worrying about leaving or friends or opinions, or anything. After a day like today, both teenagers really needed it. And nobody, not even Erza, Gramps, or the police would stop them.

This would be longer if it weren't for the fact that I have plans that have to take place in Lucy's POV. So, eventually, we'll get to that. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to tell me what you think.

P.S. Sorry about switching between 1st and 3rd POV. I'm not used to writing in 1st. Once this story and I'm the Mafia are done then I won't be doing 1st person anymore. Sorry about that. Till next time!

~Brought to you by Jazmin Gato

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~Peace out!