AN:

Not sure what to say, so I won't really say anything. Um thanks to everyone who has stuck with this story, it has been a long process. I am not done with it and neither should you be. Only 3 chapters left, and I am determined to finish it (even if it's taken me years to come back to it).

I hope you all enjoy Typical Stereotypes and continue to support everyone on this website.

Love you! (Also prepare for a long one cause this chapter is steep)

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Natsu's POV

"I'll just be outside in the gym area when you're done," I say as I quickly leave Lucy behind in the locker room.

When I reach the door, I stop and go to take out the wedge that keeps the door open. However, as I bend over to grab it, I glance up to see Lucy standing there still smiling at me. I can't help but quickly look back down to the ground as my cheeks become warm.

"Thank you!" She calls out when I finally leave the room.

I stand there just outside of the locker room in the eerily quiet gym. I take in a shaky breath as I rub my sweaty hands on my pants.

Damn.

I take in another deep breath while I hang my head, close my eyes, and shake it so that my hair falls into my face.

Everyday I'm growing closer to Lucy. Whenever I look at her, her inner beauty shines through and steals my breath away. How can a girl I've walked by in the hallway for years suddenly mean so much to me?

I take a steady breath and look around at the gym equipment. Another smile graces my face, and I let out an airy laugh. I swear Lucy has changed me so much. I never would have brought anyone here.

My safe place. My one escape. It's now hers too.

But if I'm being honest with myself, ever since that night when I had nowhere else to go, no one to turn to, Lucy has become my safe place.

She comforts me, she grounds me and accepts every part of who I am. She makes me want to be better. There's something about her that makes my insides flutter, my heart thump a little louder. I just feel more when I'm around her.

A noise comes from behind me and I turn to see that the door to the locker room cracked open. The hinges are pretty old and rusted, but before I can close the door again movement catches my eye.

It's Lucy. She's standing by the benches and holding up my old shirt. I gulp.

Before I didn't really pay attention to the fact that she was just in her bra. There were other, more important things to think about. But now, she's standing there and I'm suddenly getting really hot.

I can see smooth skin, stretched taut and glistening a bit from the sweat of the workout earlier.

I bet her skin is really soft, I feel my breath hitch a little. I suddenly have a strong eager to run my hands up and down her sides to feel the muscles and skin there. I wonder how—

"And what are you doing?"

"FUC-" I jump at least five feet in the air and my heart stops. A hand lands heavily on my shoulder as I whirl around to see who could possibly be in the gym.

Grey's trying to suppress a laugh as he lightly slaps my back saying, "Wow, Fire for Brains, what's got you all riled up?"

My cheeks burn as I try to get my heart rate under control, "Well Ice Bastard, I wasn't expecting someone to just turn up behind me considering I thought we were the only ones here."

"We?" Grey asks confused. His eyes shift from me to behind my shoulder.

"Oh, hi." Lucy stops at the door, surprised to see the two of us right outside of the locker room. If possible, my face grows even warmer. If my face gets any hotter, I swear my brains really will catch fire.

Embarrassed, I clear my throat. "Um, Lucy this is Grey, Grey this is Lucy a uh, friend."

Grey shoots me a look that I don't quite understand. I just smile meekly back as my hand comes up and rubs the back of my head.

Lucy's oblivious to the exchanges as she sticks out her hand and says, "Ah the famous Grey, it's nice to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you."

Turning his eyes on her, Grey beams and takes her hand, shaking it. "It's nice to meet you too Lucy. I think this is the first time I've met one of Natsu's friends," leaning in he adds, "is he threatening you."

Lucy giggles as I shove the idiot away. "Oi, who is threatening who here?" I say as Grey just moves out of reach.

"Well, I doubt this lovely lady would be the one threatening you." He laughs.

"Lovely lady, huh?" another voice says from across the gym. "Do I have a new love rival for Grey's affection?"

I stop as Grey beams broadly and makes his way over to a blue haired female, Juvia.

"That could never happen babe," he says as he kisses her and pulls her over to the group. With his arm resting comfortably around her waist, he introduces her to Lucy, "This is Juvia, my girlfriend—" "Lover," she interjects eyeing Lucy as Grey continues unbothered, "we come here often to spare with each other."

"Juvia, this is Lucy, Natsu's friend." At the news, she visibly relaxes and her stare changes from a suspicious one to that curious interest.

Lucy looks from Juvia and Grey to me, a little unsure, I send her a small smile and she smiles back before extending her hand to Juvia, "Hi it's nice to meet you, and can I just say that I'm loving the blue, it looks amazing."

Juvia grins widely at Lucy and, ignoring the outstretched hand, pulls her in for a hug saying, "Oh Juvia likes you. You know, I don't think Natsu's ever introduced us to a friend before, let alone a girl."

Great, just as my face was going back to a normal color, Juvia's comment made it heat right back up again.

"Yeah well, none of them was really worth introducing until now, I suppose," I say a bit heated as I gently pull Lucy away from Juvia's death grip.

Grey just rolls his eyes before asking, "So what are you guys doing here? I thought your school doesn't get out for another thirty minutes Tabasco Idiot."

"Well, Snowflake we just so happen to have left early today, and I wanted to show Lucy here some moves you know how it is."

"Oh, is he trying to get you to spar with him because he can never beat me?" He asks Lucy.

I laugh before replying, "Oh you wish Popsicle, you know that I wipe the floor with you every time we fight, which makes me wonder why you're here with Juvia? Another sparing session to find an edge against me, let me give you some advice it won't work."

"It's funny that you're acting all high and might, Lizard Brain."

Before I can reply though, I hear giggling. Me and Grey freeze as we look over to see Juvia and Lucy laughing at our antics. It's easy to see that they've become quick friends as they lean on each other and shake their heads at us. Whatever they were talking about obviously has both girls smiling mischievously.

Me and Grey glance at each other with warning in our eyes. Those two are a dangerous due for sure.

Grey walks over first, and I follow after. "Sorry about that ladies, we just get… overzealous sometimes."

"That's one way of saying it," Lucy says laughing, as Juvia just smirks before adding, "Don't worry babe it's nothing new and I'm sure Lucy knows what she got into when becoming friends with Natsu."

"Hey," I yell.

"Oh brother, I don't think even God himself knew what he was getting into when he creates Natsu," Lucy says.

"Hey!" I say even louder, betrayed. Everyone laughs as I cross my arms and pout.

Still smiling, Lucy makes her way to me and nudges my arm good naturedly.

"Oh, I like her. She can stay." Grey says between laughing breaths.

Following Lucy's lead, Juvia just rolls her eyes and grabs Grey's hand, pulling him toward the locker room, "Come on let's change so we can start our work out."

As they go, they both through Lucy one last smile and disappear into the other room.

It's silent once they're left.

Lucy just looks up at me as I still pout. I'm not really angry or anything but come on she should have been on my side.

Nudging me again, Lucy says, "I liked your friends."

When I didn't say anything, she just rolled her eyes and the pushed my shoulder. "Get that pout off your face, you know I love you."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth my eyes went wide. But nothing could compare to the look on Lucy's face. Her mouth stopped halfway open as if frozen mid-word and her eyes grow larger with each passing second. The color of her face become such a searing red that if I hadn't known any better, I would have thought she was sunburned.

"I-uh- I mean— you know wha— it was just—I was just—" Lucy was short circuiting and for a panicked second I thought maybe she was going to faint, before she stopped suddenly and took a deep breath.

Clearing her throat, she squared her shoulders and stared at my chest before saying, "I meant that as a friend thing. Friends love one another, I mean I certainly love Levy. And, yeah, I love you like a friend." It almost sounded like she was trying to convince herself, but I didn't say anything.

I was too distracted with the feeling that rushed through me when she said it again. It was like a swooping, thrilled sensation sharp in my gut. It felt like that wonderous, easy joy that makes your head light when you finish riding a roller-coaster. The time of lighthearted joy that makes you want to say, 'Let's do that again'. Lucy said she loved me. And for a moment I entertained the idea that it was more than friends.

I hadn't even realized I was just standing there with a goof smile on my face until Lucy clears her throat again and hits me in the arm.

"Ow, what was that for?" I ask rubbing the offended appendage.

"I thought you were going to finish teaching me some self-defense or something."

"Right, right," I say, for a second I completely forgot why we were here. "Well Juvia and Grey will be taking the boxing ring to spar, so let's head over to the punching bags. Trust me when you have pent up anger or need to think straight or not think at all, punching bags are your best friend."

After I help wrap her hands in tape and show her the proper way to hit the bag, I hold it for her.

"Now just let out all your anger and frustrations out on the bag." She nods and begins to swing. The low thud of fist hitting bag is soothing as she slowly builds up steam, striking the object harder and harder with each go.

Juvia and Grey started fighting a while ago and the gym is filled with soft sounds of bodies hitting equipment, grunts, and footfalls. I take a deep breath and feel relaxed. I watch as Lucy jabs at the punching bag, completely focused.

I didn't have the chance to really look at her before, but now I just stare. She looks so good in my t-shirt. It's too big for her and the collar keeps slipping off one of her shoulders, and I don't know why but it is so hot. She looks so good in my clothes, better than me even. How is that fair?

Her checks are red from the work out and sweat trickles down her forehead. Most of her hair is in a ponytail, but the loose strands stick to her neck and soft puffs of air escape her lips every time she hits the bag.

I stare at her mesmerized. She is beautiful.

I don't even realize she's talking to me until she moves away from the punching bag and over to the bunches, gulping down water.

I blink and damn it what did she say? She's staring at me waiting for a reply and I have no idea what she asked?! What was it? Should I just agree and hope for the best? But what if the answer is supposed to be no? What do I do?

I walk over to her slowly, trying not to betray my inner panic. She's still staring at me as she takes off the tape.

"Uh, yes…?" I say, I try for confidence, but it comes out more questioning.

She laughs and rolls her eyes, "I said Juvia and Grey invited us to join them for dinner, did you want go?"

Oh. Now that he thinks about it, the pair are no longer in the boxing ring and he can hear the showers going in the locker room.

"Right. Uh, yes, that would be fun… But only if you'd want to?" I say.

She beams, "Great, um in that case should we get a quick shower as well? I think Juvia said she had an extra shirt for me if I wanted to borrow it."

"Ok, yeah, let's meet back here in 20 minutes?" Lucy nods her head before heading into the bathroom. I lag behind for just a second and take a long breath. Today has been one hell of a day and it's not even over yet.

"Dude, you are so stupid!" I say as we walk along the pavement.

It's late evening by the time we leave the restaurant and I can't help the wheezing laughter that escapes me as Juvia tells us a story of how Grey fell off the ski lift while they were at the resort. Apparently, he face planted right into the snow without his shirt because it got caught on the lift's protective railing and he was moving around too much.

"Oh, shut up, you're one to talk." I don't reply, too caught up in laughing. I can hear Lucy trying to suppress a laugh by my side and I lean into her, to stop myself from bending over with the effort of laughing too hard.

"Anyway," Grey says annoyed, "have you heard from Erza recently?"

Whipping tears from my eyes, I shake my head still chuckling.

"Seems Jellal finally proposed."

"What really?! I'm so happy for them!" I yelling fist bumping the air.

Grey looks unimpressed as he says, "I haven't even told you if she said yes or not."

"Come on, it's Erza we're talking about. She loves the guy, of course she said yes."

He lets out a slow suffering breath as he looks at me, before nodding, "Yeah, that's true. But you know they're in their last year in university, so she said they're not going to have the wedding until after they've graduated."

"I'm happy for them," I say smiling, "though if he hurts her, there will be hell to pay –mainly by her."

"What university does she go to?" Lucy asks, still under my arm. I blink, I guess I never did remove my arm from her shoulder after leaning into her.

She doesn't say anything and neither do I.

"Fairy Tail University," Grey supplies.

Lucy gasps and I can feel the movement of it through her shoulders. "No way, that's where I want to go! I've applied there already and now I'm just waiting for an acceptance or rejection letter. Does she like it there, what's it like?"

My eyebrows raise in surprise at this new information. Grey's talking to her about the college, but I barely pay attention as I think about how I also applied to FT University. What are the odds?

I mean I applied because I know Erza is going there; me and Grey decided a long time ago that we'd go there too. Even Juvia said she's applied. But the school isn't ivy league so it surprises me Lucy would want to go there. She's so smart and could probably go to any university she applied to.

So why did she pick Fairy Tail Uni of all places?

"Is anyone in there? Or do you really have fire for brains?" Lucy says in my ear.

I jump and glance at her. Her heads turned to me and there's a smirk of amusement on her face. She's still tucked under my arm and I gulp.

Softly chuckling I try to clover my embarrassment and scratch the back of my neck. "Oh, don't you start too, Grey's an idiot."

She sighs contently and looks at the pair in front of us as they walk ahead holding hands. "I like them," looking back at me she says, "thanks for introducing us. Me and Juvia plan on meeting up sometime for coffee; I want her to meet Levy too, I think they'd get along. Besides It's nice to see you have friends outside of school who treat you the way you deserve."

I smile down at her. "I'm glad you had a good time."

She just hums back, and we fall into a peaceful silence.

She breaks the silence again after a couple of seconds, "you're the one who gave me that good time. Today started out horrible, with Sting… today could have turned out very different and it's thanks to you that it didn't. So, thank you, really."

And after a second of hesitation, she leaned up and kissed my cheek.

I froze and my brain stopped working.

Cannot compute.

Error. Error.

404 Not Found.

She's pulls away and looks anywhere but at me. Then, biting her lip, she takes a breath and glances at me from the side of her eye.

I'm still frozen in place as my cheek tingles and buzzes from the touch of skin. I want to touch the spot where she kissed and see if the skin there is just as hot as it seems. But I can't seem to get my arms to move and I just end up staring off in front of us with my mouth hanging open, still a bit in shock.

She laughs nervously and reaches up to close my mouth. As soon as my mouth is closed it's like everything comes crashing back into reality. My heart picks up pace and is beating loud. She kissed me. She really kissed me, well on the cheek but that has to count for something right? What does it mean? What does my reaction mean? Whenever Lisanna kissed me, I never felt like that even when we first started dating.

I blink a couple times before staring at Lucy. As soon as our eyes lock, she turns away staring straight ahead. I continue to stare at her profile.

After a second I take a breath to say something, when she clears her throat and begins, "Um so, yeah, thanks. And thank you for taking me to that gym, uh, what was it called again."

"Ice Make," I say still a little dazed and a bit confused from the sudden drastic change in conversation.

"Right. It was nice."

I shake my head and allow for the kissing incident to drop for now, I should probably figure out what I'm feeling first before bringing it up anyway. I take in our surroundings and can see Grey and Juvia still ahead of us with their heads bent close whispering about something that's just between the two of them. "Yeah, it's the one place I can go to just let it all out. When the world becomes too much to handle, or when I get angry or upset, I go there and let everything out, until I can barely move. Until I'm completely worn out, that's when I know that I'll be fine, and I feel better."

Shaking her head, Lucy chuckles. "So that's how you got all those wonderful muscles," she says under her breath, just barely loud enough for me to hear and I wonder for a second if I've heard correctly.

"What?" again I stare at her with wide eyes.

"Hmm, oh nothing," is her response as she pulls out from under my arm and walks up to Grey and Juvia, saying something that makes the two laugh.

For the second time in the last 10 minutes, Lucy has made my mouth drop.

By the time Juvia and Lucy have been dropped off at their respective houses, it's just me and Grey headed home.

It's nice to be around him and see how he's really been doing. We haven't spoken in nearly a week and I want to know how everything's been with Juvia. They seemed to have a great time on the trip and are closer than ever.

After a while, we fall into a companionable silence. Eventually though, Grey breaks it by saying, "I like her."

There's no need to ask who 'her' is; we both know he's talking about Lucy.

I smile softly and look up at one of the flickering lamps posts. "Yeah, me too."

Grey stops and tugs at my arm bringing me to a halt to face him.

"I mean it. She's amazing, she's witty and sarcastic, she knows when to back you up and when to tease you. Juvia loves her. And most importantly, she makes you happy."

"How do you know she makes me happy?" I ask, a bit shocked.

"Come on, anytime she's in the room you can't stop looking at her. You light up when she talks and when you're around her you smile so hard my cheeks hurt. Juvia thought it was cute, I just think it's disgusting, but whatever. I don't think I've ever seen you smile so much. She's so much better than any girl who's dated you in the past, so we approve."

I just blink as Grey starts walking again, taking off his jacket as he does so.

"Wha—? Me and Lucy aren't dating," I say confused.

Grey's head sharply whips to look at me, an expression of complete disbelief covers his features. "Hold up what the hell are you talking about?"

"Me and Lucy aren't dating." I say again with more confidence.

"And why the fucking hell not?!" Groaning, Grey suddenly rubs his face, "this is just like you. You are the biggest idiot I know. Idiot doesn't even seem like a good enough word to define the mush of stupidity that is your brain."

He runs his hand through his hair before looking back at me and asking, "please explain to me why you haven't asked her out? The last girlfriend you had you'd only known for 20 minutes before agreeing to date her. So why haven't you jumped at the chance to be with someone who's actually making you happy?"

"How do you know me and Lisanna broke up?" I ask defensively and quite honestly trying to deflect.

"There he goes again, being an idiot. Dude, you went out with her, slung your arm around her shoulder, leaned in close the whole time, Juvia saw her kiss your damn check, of course I thought you broke up with Lisanna! Besides you've never even thought about bringing Lisanna to the gym, this is the first time I've seen you bring anyone to the gym!" He was yelling now, obviously annoyed.

I roll my eyes, talking to Grey like this always got me heated and I yell back getting into his face, "Yeah, well you'd be wrong, genius! We're nothing more than just friends!"

"Well then quit being a coward and ask her out already because deep down you have feelings for her, you ass! And you better do it before another guy catches on and sees how great she is and takes her away!"

That did it, I hit my forehead against his as I seethe, "Shut. Up."

Grey pushes back, "Think about it, use your head for once because I know you can figure this out! You. Like. Her. So, man up, grow some balls and ask her out!"

"Argh! I don't know what I feel," I say as I push away from Grey and pull my hair.

It's silent in the darkened street with just the noise from electricity running through the streetlamp and ragged breathing. As my heart rate returns to normal, Grey's at my shoulder putting a hand there, causing me to look at him.

He has a saddened look in his eye and a small peace-offering smile on his face as he says, "It's obvious you're happy around her, and all I want is for you to be happy. She likes you too, so what are you waiting for? A formal invitation?"

I just sigh and let my head hang, shaking it a bit. "I don't know." Who I'm saying this to eludes me.

Grey just squeezes my shoulder and let's go, then starts walking again. "Well, I'd say figure it out before it's too late."