His apple dropped to the floor and rolled towards mine and Natsu's feet. As far as I was aware Sting was supposed to be at boarding school right now, so what was he doing breaking in to our house? I watched Stings face turn from shock to anger and I took a step in front of Natsu to separate the two of them. They hadn't been shy of fighting eachother in the past and things were probably no different now. "Sting, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Me? What's he doing here?" Sting hissed through gritted teeth.

"It's not what you think." I said, but honestly it was a lot worse than he was probably thinking. I took a quick look at Natsu behind me, who was staying surprisingly quiet. He didn't look in shock or angry in any way, he was just standing there.

"What I think is, I come home to find my family has changed the locks on me and then my sister comes down the stairs with the one guy I cannot stand to even look at." Sting took a heavy step forwards.

"He, uh... We were just-" I tried to explain myself, but I couldn't. There was nothing I could say that wouldn't send Sting in to a complete rage.

"You have ten seconds to get out of my house." Sting said to Natsu over my shoulder.

"No, Natsu. You don't have to go." I turned my back on Sting to face Natsu.

"I should go." Natsu said to me.

"No, I don't want you to." I said. I knew I wasn't helping the situation, but I hated that Sting felt like he could always boss everybody around.

"Lucy." Sting's hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me backwards, away from Natsu. I stumbled back and grabbed the sofa to keep me on my feet.

"Hey. Don't push her around like that, man." Natsu said, now with an unmissable anger running through him.

"Ten, nine, eight." Sting began to count down. Natsu took another step forward and the two boys were now nose to nose, staring at eachother with complete disdain. There shoulders were risen and their fists were clenched, each of them ready to throw the first punch. "Seven." Sting said, raising his voice. Natsu peered over Sting's shoulder and looked at me. It was like he was waiting for me to tell him what to do.

"Maybe you should go." I said sadly. Natsu turned his attention back to Sting and began to smile slightly.

"You better get used to this face 'cause I'm sticking around this time." Natsu said. And with that, Stings fist rose in to the air. I hurried forwards and grabbed his wrist before he could hurt Natsu in any way.

"Get out." Sting hissed again. Having had his fun, Natsu turned and left the house. It was now just Sting and I. As soon as the door shut behind Natsu, the mood in the room immediately became lighter. For me at least. Sting, on the other hand, was still angry. He yanked his wrist out of my grip and span on his heels to look at me. "What the hell, Lucy." He said.

"I'm the one who should be angry here." I said with my hands on my hips. Sting raised his brow and laughed at me. "You smash a whole through the door and then ruin a perfectly innocent night between friends." I huffed.

"Perfectly innocent? It's 1 AM and the two of you were upstairs in your bedroom." Sting pointed out.

"Okay, so to the naked eye it might look a little bad but I swear we weren't doing anything." I said and it was the truth. We had just been laying there talking until Sting burst in.

"You remember who that is, right? Flame Brain, the guy who ruined my life." Sting said.

"He didn't ruin your life." I sighed. I had heard this rant from Sting so many times now.

"He was the reason I couldn't play anymore." Sting said, raising his voice again.

"Sting, he broke your ankle. He didn't cut off your foot. You could have continued to play once your ankle healed but you chose not to." I said, raising my voice to match his.

"He took the captaincy from me." Sting said.

"So? You could have won it back eventually." I said.

"I can't believe you're taking his side." Sting did one of those angry laughs that people do emphasise their disbelief.

"I can't believe you're still this upset over something that happened ten years ago." I said.

"The day he broke my ankle was the day everything went downhill for me, you know that." Sting said. I rolled my eyes. Aren't the younger sisters supposed to be the overly dramatic ones?

"Look, Sting," I began.

"Don't say it." Sting shook his head, he knew what was coming.

"I really like Natsu." I said.

"Goddammit!" Sting kicked the back of the sofa, but it didn't bother me. I was used to his tantrums by now.

"He's going to be around for a long, long time." (nine months at least) "So I really need you to try and put this whole football thing behind you." I said with a small smile.

"No way." He said.

"Please, Sting. For me?" I asked.

"Sorry, Lucy. I just can't let you be with him." Sting sighed before slinking away and heading up the stairs.

"Can't let me? I don't need your permission, Sting." I yelled up the stairs.

"Yeah, you do." He yelled back before shutting his bedroom door behind him. I took a deep breath to calm myself and took a seat on the bottom step.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked myself as I stared at the broken glass on the floor.

The next morning I decided to lay in, since I wasn't all too excited to have Sting around the house. I headed downstairs at around 12PM. He'd cleared up the glass at least, although there was still a whole in the door. I wondered in to the kitchen to find Sting making a sandwich. He didn't say anything to me, he didn't even look at me. I poured myself some cereal and sat at the kitchen table. "So, what are you doing here?" I asked after a few more minutes of silence.

"I live here." Sting said trying to be clever. He joined me at the table and gave me his signature grin.

"You know what I mean." I said.

"I couldn't take it anymore, okay? Boarding school my ass, that place is a straight up prison." He said.

"So you ran away? How did you make it all the way back here?" I asked.

"The guy I shared a room with always had his mate, Rogue, visit. I made pals with the guy and told him I wanted out. So, one night he pulls up outside the school, I sneak out the window and the two of us hit the road." Sting explained, looking rather smug like sneaking out of school was something to be proud of.

"Mum and dad are just going to send you straight back when they get home." I said.

"Trust me, I won't be welcome back there." Sting said.

"You're an idiot." I said, shaking my head.

"I'm actually going to need a favour from you." He said, pulling the crust off his sandwich and chucking it in to the kitchen bin. I watched him congratulate himself with a small fist pump.

"You need a favour from me? After last night you can forget it." I said.

"What happened last night?" Sting asked innocently.

"I hate it when you do this." I huffed.

"Do what?" He grinned.

"You do something completely out of line, piss everybody off, then go to bed and act like you did nothing wrong." I said.

"I never do that." He lied.

"You know what, Sting? As far as I'm concerned, you're not even here." I said, getting up from the table and heading for the front door. If only ignoring him was that easy though. He immediately followed and grabbed me by the wrist.

"Lucy, wait." He said.

"No, I have to meet someone." I said. It was a lie though. I just wanted to get away from him.

"Please, just do me this one favour." He begged.

"Only if you apologise to me for last night." I said. His eyes widened a little but I could see he was considering it.

"Ugh." He moaned and flung his head back as if he was in severe pain.

"Fine. See ya'." I shrugged.

"Okay, okay!" He said. I turned to face him with a small smile. "I'm sorry for..."

"For?" I urged him on.

"I'm sorry for being a dick last night." He said, hanging his head low.

"It's not perfect but it'll do." I smirked.

"Can you please help me now?" He asked, looking rather defeated.

"Fine. What is it?" I asked.

"I need you to ring the school, pretending to be mum, and tell them I won't be coming back." He said.

"You're joking." I said.

"Not joking." He said.

"Sting! I can't do that. What if they start asking me questions?" I panicked.

"Just tell them I wasn't happy and you're going to make other arrangements." He said.

"Other arrangements?" I asked with a narrowed brow.

"Please, Lucy?" He asked me and I could hear the desperation in his voice. He really didn't want to go back. I sighed heavily, feeling myself being swayed by his sad eyes.

"Okay, fine!" I waved my hands in the air and began mentally preparing myself for the awkward phone call ahead.

Sting ran to grab the phone and excitedly began dialling the school's number. He handed me the phone and the two of us waited for them to answer. My stomach was churning. Everything inside me was telling me this was a bad idea, but I didn't want to be the reason he was sent back to a place he hated.

"Willow Hill Private School, how can I help?" A woman answered after several rings.

"Oh, yes. Hello." I stuttered.

"Tell them you're mum." Sting whispered.

"Uh, right. I'm Sting's mother." I said, trying to put on my poshest accent. Sting rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, who?" The woman asked.

"Sting Heartfelia. This is his mother, Layla Heartfelia." I said.

"Ah, yes. We've been expecting your call." She said.

"You have?" I asked.

"Well, yes. I assume you're calling about your son running away again." She said calmly.

"Again? So, this isn't his first run away?" I asked, shooting a disproving look at Sting who was clearly regretting this decision.

"Apologies Mrs Heartfelia. Do you not remember our last phone call?" The woman asked me.

"Yes, yes. I remember now. These things tend to slip a busy woman's mind." I laughed.

"Wrap it up!" Sting ordered, but I waved him off.

"Of course, Mrs Heartfelia." The woman agreed.

"Please, remind me. How many times now has my son run away?" I asked.

"This would be the fifth." The woman told me.

"The fifth? Oh my." I said watching Sting begin to panic. I knew Sting. He did things like running away just to get attention. He'd run away once and then find something else to do. But to run away five times? That's not like him, he must really hate this place.

"If this continues, we won't have any other choice than to expel him from our school. There is a long list of students who would happily take his place." The woman said.

"Yes. I understand. Well luckily for one of them I will be removing my son from your school as of today." I said, shooting Sting a thumbs up.

"I'm sorry, what?" The woman asked, briefly losing her posh manner.

"If it wasn't clear after his first runaway that your school is not the place for my son then surely by now it's painfully obvious that he does not belong at Willow Hill." I said.

"Willow Hill is one of the best schools in the country. I'll remind you, Mrs Heartfelia, that we were doing you a favour by enrolling your son. No other school will accept him, let alone tolerate him." The woman said coldly.

"Excuse me? Any school would be lucky to have Sting. And if you're school was so great, why on earth would my son have escaped from it five times? That's right, I said escaped. Because as far as I've head, you're school is more like a damn prison." I began to raise my voice. Maybe being pregnant brought out my maternal instincts, because I suddenly felt nothing but rage towards this woman for being so rude towards Sting. I know he isn't the best student, but he's my brother and no stuck up woman is going to bad mouth him to me.

"What are you doing? Hang up!" Sting tried to grab the phone from me but I pushed his hand away.

"We'll send you you're final bill at the end of the month. Consider Sting officially removed from our school." The woman said.

"That's all you have to say, huh? Be prepared for the worst Yelp review of your life, lady."

"Goodbye, Mrs Heartfelia."

"Good-fricking-bye to you." I said and ended the call.

"What the hell was that?" Sting asked angrily.

"What? I got you out of that school, just like you asked." I said.

"There's no way she believed you were mum. You called her school a damn prison, Lucy!" He ran his hands through his hair and began pacing the floor.

"She believed it, okay? She said she's sending us the final bill and that you're officially removed from the school." I said with an accomplished smile.

"Wait, really?" Sting turned to me.

"Yep." I nodded.

"No way."

"Way."

"Oh my god! Thank you, you stupid idiot!" Sting pulled me in to his arms and gave me a tight squeeze, which wasn't like him.

"You're welcome." I said as he released me. A part of me worried that he'd feel my bump, but then I realised I didn't even have one yet. I'd start to show soon though, better keep everyone at least an arms length away from me. "Anyway, I have to go." I said, flattening the wrinkles in my shirt.

"Go where?" Sting asked, narrowing his brow.

"Out." I said.

"Let me come with you, I wanna celebrate." He said.

"Not a chance. You need to fix the whole you smashed through the front door." I said as I made my way out to the the front porch.

"Hey, Lucy." Sting called out as hopped down the porch steps.

"Yeah?"

"Now that I'm back, I've got my eye on you." He said, leaning against the frame of the front door. I rolled my eyes, knowing that he wasn't lying. He would be watching my every move from now on, especially since he now knows how close I've gotten with Natsu. Hiding my pregnancy is starting to feel like an impossible task.

I had left the house with no actual plan, I was just trying to get away from Sting, but I soon found myself heading towards Natsu's house. He hadn't contacted me all morning and I was starting to worry that Sting had scared him off. Just like usual, Wendy answered the door. "Lucy!" She exclaimed with a smile.

"Hey, is your big brother home?" I asked as Wendy stepped aside to let me in the house.

"Yeah. He's making lunch in the kitchen." She said and showed me the way. Natsu was stood at the stove flipping pancakes. He wasn't dressed yet, he didn't even have a shirt on, just a pair of pyjama shorts. "Lucy's here." Wendy announced as we entered the room. Natsu turned around and smiled. He placed the frying pan back on the stove and made his way over to me. He held my shoulders and ran his hands down my arms. "You okay?" He asked. I could only assume he was referring to last night.

"Yeah. Everything's fine." I said with a small smile.

"He didn't push you again did he?" Natsu asked, looking me deep in the eye.

"No, no. He'd never do that. Last night just got a little out of hand." I reassured him. Sting would never intentionally hurt me, I knew that for sure.

"What are you two talking about?" Wendy asked. I guess we had forgotten she was still in the room.

"Oh, nothing." I smiled at her and took a step back from Natsu, breaking away from his touch.

"Wendy, why don't you lay the table? For three of us." Natsu said as he returned to the stove. It was weird, their Gramps wasn't home again. I still hadn't met him. Every time I came by he never seemed to be home. I hope I get to meet him soon.

The three of us enjoyed our lunch together. The atmosphere at Natsu's house was always so much nicer than at mine. I always felt so much easier in Natsu's home, I wished I could live here with him. "Can we hangout tonight?" I asked Natsu while we washed the dishes at the sink and Wendy watched cartoons in the next room.

"I wish I could." He said. "But I'm starting my tutoring job tonight."

"I didn't know you did tutoring." I said.

"The school said I'd have a better chance of getting into my first choice college if I had something like tutoring on my school record." He explained. It was weird hearing him talking about college. Maybe it was wrong of me to assume, but I had thought neither of us would be going to college after having a baby. I mean, I probably won't even graduate high school, let alone be going to college. Was I going to be looking after the baby alone whilst Natsu left for college, only coming home for the holidays? This was obviously something we needed to sit down and discuss, but now wasn't the time so I just smiled and nodded. "You okay?" He asked, obviously noticing my smile was slightly forced.

"Yeah, I'm fine. All good." I lied.

I left Natsu's house not long after that. I didn't want to go home but I didn't really have anywhere else to go. I walked as slow as I possibly could as I made my way back home. "At least he's fixed the door." I said to myself as I unlocked it. The television was on and Sting was sat on the sofa with a girl, his arm wrapped around her shoulder. Seriously? He's barely been back a day and he already has a girl in the house? "Ahem." I loudly cleared my throat and gave the door a swift kick shut behind me. Sting and whoever this girl was jumped and little and turned their heads towards me. I immediately recognised the girl. "Levy?" I gasped.

AN:

Thank you so much for reading this chapter! I'm sorry you had to wait so long for it, I will hopefully be updating this story much more frequently from now on. Let me know what you think and if you have any hopes for this story :) Thanks again for reading ***