~ The Newest Bad Boy In Town ~

"Yup? What's up, Levy?" Lucy said as she brought her cell phone to her ear.

"You're half an hour late! Where are you right now?" Levy shouted.

Lucy tilted her head and held her phone between her shoulder and her ear. With both hands now free, she brought her foot up onto the chair and began to do up the laces of her high boots.

"At home," Lucy replied. "I'm leaving soon."

"What?! You're only leaving now!?" said Levy.

"Pass me the phone." Lucy heard in the background.

"LUCY HEARTFILIA! WE'RE ALL WAITING FOR YOU. I'M GIVING YOU TEN MINUTES, SO GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!" The next thing she knew, Erza was yelling into her ear.

Ouch! Lucy thought as she cringed. She finished doing up the laces for her other boot and retrieved the phone from her ear.

"Alright, alright, I'll be there in ten," Lucy said.

The line went dead as Erza hung up.

Alright, final check! Lucy stood before her full-length mirror now and looked at her reflection. White tube top that exposed her midriff, striking red cropped jacket unbuttoned, grey pleated miniskirt that was held up by a red belt, calf-high lace-up brown boots… Something was missing.

Oh! My ponytail! Almost forgot! Lucy realized and picked out a red hair tie from her drawer. Swiftly pulling some of her hair to the side, she tied her signature side ponytail.

Now, I'm ready, Lucy thought. She slung her brown bag over one shoulder and left the house.

It was a typical weekend morning. When Lucy finally arrived at Strawberry Street, she saw her friends gathered outside Magnolia City's seven-storey mega mall.

"Hey~!" Lucy waved gleefully as she bound towards her friends.

They all turned in her direction. The guys, Loke, Gajeel and Jellal, merely looked on. Levy and Juvia waved back excitedly, while Erza… The black look on Erza's face made Lucy's smile freeze.

"Ah~ the princess has finally arrived," Loke said half-sarcastically as soon as Lucy joined them.

Gajeel just grunted in acknowledgement.

"Lu-chan, you're slow!" Levy chided.

"Sorry I'm late!"

"Ho~? You're sorry? Really?" Erza's aura became more oppressive by the second.

Lucy tried hard to maintain the smile as she said, "H-Hey, Erza!"

"'Hey'? You finally show up after 20 minutes and you dare 'hey' me?"

Erza locked Lucy in a playful stranglehold and messed up her hair. "I told you to get your ass here in 10 minutes but you still sauntered and took your time!?" Erza shouted.

"Ahh! Stop! Stop!" Lucy cried. "Alright, I get it, brunch's on me!" Erza finally released Lucy, who quickly fixed her hair.

"Whew~" Jellal whistled. "Very straightforward! Nothing less from the filthy rich Heartfilia!"

"Of course it's on you, we had to wait for a total of 50 minutes you know," Gajeel said.

"Be grateful I only took half an hour to get ready this morning," Lucy retorted.

"And yet, you still manage to look as stunning as usual, as expected of my girl," Loke commented as he put his arm around Lucy's shoulders.

Lucy elbowed him away. "Who're you calling 'my girl'? Don't get too full of yourself."

The relationship between Lucy and Loke was an ambiguous one. First of all, Loke was a flirt. His glib tongue never failed to flatter girls and his polished appearance always charmed them. He was a playboy so Lucy doesn't take him seriously. When he had asked Lucy to be his girlfriend jokingly, Lucy agreed because she wanted other guys to leave her alone (Loke knew that). Besides, despite his philandering ways, Loke was actually a pretty good friend who was always there when it counts – just like a knight in shining armour. Only Lucy's closest friends could understand what went on between the two of them.

"Why'd you guys decide on Sunday brunch anyway?" Lucy, who was the type to sleep in, asked. "What's wrong with just having lunch?"

"Ask Erza, she's the one who decided," Juvia said.

With an indomitable expression, Erza held out two fingers and said, "Two words: strawberry shortcake!"

"Haah–?! If it's because of that, you could've just asked Jellal to accompany you right?" Lucy exclaimed.

"It's fine, it's fine! We all get to hang out together after all!" Levy smiled and said.

"Juvia thinks so too," said Juvia.

"Oi, are you guys done talking? Can we go eat now?" Gajeel curtly said.

Levy gave a light-hearted laugh at Gajeel's grumpiness and then Loke said, "Right, let's go!"

The gang went up to a restaurant on the 3rd floor of the mall called Wild Honey. The lighting was warm and the ambience was cosy.

"Table for seven?" The waitress asked.

"We have a reservation?" Erza was not sure and she looked at Jellal.

"Ah yes, under Fernandes," Jellal confirmed.

"Oh, I see," she quickly checked the reservation list. Then she grabbed seven menus from behind the counter and said, "Please follow me."

The group followed her to their seats and sat around a rectangular table. Juvia, Erza and Jellal sat on one side, Loke, Levy and Gajeel sat on the other, while Lucy sat at the head with Loke on her right.

The waitress laid out the menus before everyone and took her leave.

"Everybody, don't hold back now, order anything you like," Jellal was the one who said that even though Lucy was the one footing the bill.

"I'm going to order 10 strawberry shortcakes!" Erza shouted without even looking at the menu.

"10 slices? Are you sure that's enough?" Levy said.

"Not slices, I meant 10 whole cakes!" Erza said and the whole table displayed an expression of shock, except Gajeel who didn't have much expression.

"My, Erza, you… you really like strawberry shortcakes huh?" Loke said.

"More like love," Lucy said as she flipped through the menu.

"Erza, I don't think there's enough space on this table for 10 cakes," Jellal said. "And you should eat something else before dessert." Jellal opened up the menu before her.

"Oh, right." Not surprisingly, Erza had forgotten all about her main meal in her excitement over cake.

"Juvia has decided what she wants," Juvia set her menu down on the table again.

"Me too," Levy said.

"Lucy, have you decided?" Loke asked.

"Yeah, I think I'll have…"

"…the eggs Benedict," both Lucy and Loke said at the same time.

"I knew it," Loke said. "Right, shall we order?" Loke signalled for a different waiter to come over.

The waiter stood at the other end of the table, directly opposite Lucy. Being nice, Lucy smiled at him before she looked down at the menu again. The waiter, however, did not know better and read too much into it. He smiled to himself at the sight of the lovely Lucy.

Loke, the ever loyal knight, noticed this of course. He intentionally cleared his throat loudly and then put his hand over Lucy's. Lucy was totally oblivious towards the waiter.

The waiter, having understood Loke's intentions through his actions, clicked his pen and poised it over his little notepad. "May I have your order?"

Loke looked at his friends and waited for them to say their orders.

"English set, with more back bacon and sausages," Gajeel went first. "Goat's cheese omelette with lavender honey and a glass of orange juice for her," Gajeel gestured towards Levy.

"Belgian waffles with maple syrup and blueberries for Juvia please," Juvia spoke.

"Old-fashioned pancakes with maple syrup for me, and five whole strawberry shortcakes, serve later," Erza said her order. The waiter could not hide his surprise at Erza's order of five cakes.

"Brioche French toast with vanilla-scented mascarpone," Jellal said.

"Two European sets with eggs Benedict and…" Loke looked at the menu. "A hazelnut latte for everybody else?" Loke looked around the table and everybody nodded. "That's all," Loke ended.

The waiter then repeated everybody's orders, collected back the menus and left.

"So," Lucy started. "I see nobody's going easy on my pockets."

"Nope," Levy was straightforward.

"Yeah, why should we?" Gajeel said.

"Blame yourself for being late," Erza said heartlessly.

"Geez," Lucy pouted. "And to think we live in the same building… You guys could've at least woken me up or something." Loke was the only one who lived in the school dormitory; the rest lived at Fairy Hills.

Fairy Hills was a cluster of private apartments. Lucy's father, Jude Heartfilia, had kindly offered to pay their rent, and so they occupied the two penthouse suits on the highest floor in the executive building. The guys had one unit while the girls had the other. The location of Fairy Hills was a mere ten minute walk away from Fairy Tail Academy.

The school dormitory was a five minute walk away from the school but was in the opposite direction of Fairy Hills. Loke lived there because it was easier to get close to girls. It was a co-ed dormitory after all.

"No can do, we all have stuff to do in the morning," Levy said.

"Oh, really? Like what?" Lucy asked.

"Well… The new titles I've reserved were arriving at Book Land this morning so we went to pick them up." With that, Lucy understood Gajeel had gone along too.

"Juvia just came back from her parents' house in Oak Town," Juvia said. "Juvia came here straightaway when she got back."

Oh right, she left on Friday night, Lucy remembered. "What about you two?" She turned to Erza and Jellal.

"Student council meeting," Erza's response was short and sweet.

"Oh…" Lucy realized. She did not bother asking Loke next, because she knew he'd probably just spent the night with another girl or something so he couldn't drop by early. It was the weekend after all. For some reason, it seemed that only Lucy had nothing to do on weekends.

Well, it doesn't matter, Lucy thought to herself. With all the money Father gives me, I can well afford to pay for brunch. As long as everybody's happy right?

And so, another weekend quickly passed and Monday loomed once again. Little did Lucy know that she was in for a surprise that week…

The alarm clock rang in Lucy's room. She rolled onto her stomach and reached with her hand. She slammed it hard and silenced it before diving under the covers again. However, the luxury of sleeping in that morning was taken away from her the moment the door slammed open.

"Lu-chan, wake up~!" Levy's voice chirped like the morning songbirds.

"…ugh…five more minutes…" Lucy groaned and covered her ears with one of the many pillows on her enormous bed.

"Nooo…!" Levy whined. "It's 07:40 already, c'mon!" Levy pulled the covers off.

"Urgh, how can you be this energetic in the morning?" Lucy grumbled.

"If you don't get up now, we'll leave without you!" Levy threatened but Lucy could hear her friend smiling. She did not understand how Levy could be a 'morning' person.

Lucy didn't respond as she had already snoozed off.

"Erza! Come help, Lucy won't wake up!" With this yell from Levy, Lucy shot up, wide awake.

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" Lucy hurriedly shouted. She recalled the last time Erza had wrestled and tickled her mercilessly in bed when she had refused to get up. It was good fun but if possible, she would not like to experience that again.

Levy dropped the covers and put her hands on her hips. "Hmph, finally awake now are we? Get dressed in 5 minutes, we're leaving soon," Levy said and then she left.

Lucy washed up and got dressed at lightning speed. The cut of the school blouse and the design of the pleated skirt suited her every curve. In addition, she wore black stockings and accessorized with her favourite heart earrings. She turned heads wherever she went in that uniform. Then again, she always attracted attention wherever she went.

What colour should I wear today? Lucy pondered as she stared at her drawer full of hair ties. Hmm… Her hand moved over them as she struggled to decide. She was growing tired of the colours she normally wore but one in particular popped out to her today. Light pink it is! She decided.

"Lucy, are you done yet?!" A yell came from downstairs.

Lucy grabbed the light pink ribbon from the drawer and pulled her hair into a side pony tail in a hurry. She snatched up the schoolbag which lay on the floor and rushed down the stairs.

"I'm here!" She announced. She looked around to see that only Juvia and Levy stood in the living room. "Where's Erza?"

"Erza already left," Juvia stated.

"Huh?!" Lucy instantly looked to Levy for an explanation.

Levy gave a victorious smirk instead of a guilty look and said, "I had to lie otherwise you'd never get out of bed!"

"I would've gotten out of bed in 5 minutes!" Lucy argued back.

Levy took a bottled yoghurt drink from the fridge in the open kitchen and handed it to Lucy. "Drink that on the way. Let's go," Levy said.

As the three girls put on their shoes, Lucy asked, "Why did Erza leave so early?"

"Hmm… Apparently there are going to be two important new students today. Their parents are big shots so she has to attend to them, show them around the school and all that."

"Must be tough being the President huh…" Juvia said.

On that Monday morning, the girls strolled to school leisurely as usual.

Lucy and all her friends were second years but not everyone had the same class. The curriculum at Fairy Tail Academy was rather special and unlike any other high school in the nation. In Fairy Tail, students chose topics based on their future career choice so they didn't have to bother with subjects that didn't interest them or that wouldn't be useful to them in the future.

Lucy took a number of classes, including classic literature, writing and theatre. After two periods in the morning, she finally had a break. None of her lessons that morning had been with any of her friends. As she walked out of the classroom, she fished her cell phone from her bag. She touched the mail icon and began to compose a text.

Where are you now? She sent a text to Juvia, whom she knew had the same break as her on Mondays.

Just finished a lecture on jellyfish and squid anatomy, Juvia replied. She was an aspiring marine biologist. Meet you in front of Mavis' statue in the garden?

OK, Lucy texted back and made her way there.

Lucy's classroom was quite some distance from the Vermillion garden so she had to walk quite a bit. The guys, who Lucy walked past, found themselves staring. Lucy took no notice of any of them.

None of these guys see me for what I am beyond my looks, Lucy thought.

"Hey~" Lucy greeted Juvia who was already waiting in front of the pink marble statue of Mavis Vermillion.

"Good morning!" Juvia replied with a gentle smile.

"So… what should we do now?"

"Juvia doesn't know… It's only 10:30am so it's too early to have lunch…" Juvia looked at her watch.

"Hmm…" Lucy thought hard as she mindlessly walked down the cobblestone pathway. Juvia followed beside her.

"…And through here is the Vermillion garden, named after Mavis Vermillion, the founder of Fairy Tail Academy…"

A familiar voice travelled in the air and both Lucy and Juvia looked up. It was Erza accompanied by Jellal and two others. They were the new students.

"Erza!" Without a second thought, Lucy ran forward to meet her good friend. Juvia slowly walked.

"Oh, Lucy, it's you," Erza said.

Lucy smiled brightly and said, "Are you showing them around? Can I help?"

"Err… I think we should be able to manage by ourselves," Jellal replied.

"Juvia would like to help out too," said Juvia.

"Well, okay," Erza said. "I guess it's better for them if they make more friends. The two of you can be their first friends in Fairy Tail."

At that moment, Lucy noticed the new students' looks. One of them had pitch black spiky hair and dark blue eyes. He wore the school uniform untidily and had an overall dishevelled look. He kept his hands in his pockets as he looked around with a bored expression on his face. A necklace with a sword charm hung from his neck, another metal bracelet was around his right wrist, and a metal chain hung on his pants.

When Lucy shifted her gaze to the other boy, she caught her breath. He was seriously good-looking and insanely hot. Lucy could see how his uniform clung to his muscled torso. That guy had salmon pink hair which went in all directions and dark onyx eyes. He did not smile either but looked straight at Lucy with curious eyes.

"This guy here is Gray Fullbuster," Erza gestured and said. The guy in question merely acknowledged coolly with a nod. "And he's–"

"Natsu Dragneel," the pink-haired boy interrupted Erza and held out a hand to Lucy.

Lucy could not find the words to respond, which was unlike herself. She cautiously took his hand and the moment they touched, a jolt of electric current ran through their veins. Natsu grinned impishly and then deliberately pulled on her hand. Caught by surprise, Lucy fell forward into his arms.

With one arm around her slim waist, Natsu held her close. "To think my first friend here would be a beautiful blonde… I must be one lucky guy," he chuckled into her ear. His breath tickled her ear and she felt a tingle run through her. A blush now coated her cheeks.

What's up with this guy?! Lucy screamed in her head.

Lucy pushed him away immediately but the pace of her heart would not slow down.

"Keep your hands off me," Lucy stabbed a finger at his firm chest and warned. Natsu simply gave a nonchalant shrug which ticked her off even more.

"Now, now… Be nice," Jellal tried to calm the air. "Right, Erza? What's the next place on our itinerary?"

Erza had been holding herself back, resisting the urge to punch Natsu out. It was only the first day of school for him and she could not afford to mess up this important matter or Headmaster Makarov would have her head.

Erza looked at a piece of paper in her hands and read, "Underwater World. Hmm, it's lucky that we ran into Juvia huh?"

"Yes! Juvia will be pleased to show you around the Underwater World, Gray-sama!" Juvia promptly took the initiative. "Of course, Natsu-san is welcomed too."

Wait a second… why is Gray 'sama' while Natsu is only 'san'? Don't tell me… No, that can't be.

"You two are on your breaks right?" Erza asked just to make sure they weren't skipping lessons. The two girls nodded. "Great, let's go."

When they arrived at the Underwater World, they were attracting a lot of attention.

Ah, it's Erza and Jellal, the Golden Couple of the student council!

Look, it's Lucy! And Juvia too!

Eh, who's that pink-haired guy?

Whoa, that guy with black spiky hair looks so cool!

What's this? The blonde seems to be quite popular, Natsu deduced.

Lucy usually paid no attention to others, but somehow she could feel Natsu's eyes on her back and she became self-conscious under his unwavering stare.

The six of them stood on the conveyer belts that brought them through the tunnels. Juvia explained all about the aquarium that formed these tunnels and also, every now and then, she interspersed interesting facts about the various rare aquatic species that Fairy Tail's Underwater World reared.

As Juvia led the group, Erza and Jellal followed behind. The two of them only had eyes for each other and they managed to look like they were on a date (even though they were in a group with four others). Lucy walked alongside Juvia and was beginning to grow weary and irritated under Natsu's constant staring.

What does he want? That thought kept going through her mind.

When they eventually finished the main attraction of the Underwater World, it was about time for Lucy's writing lecture.

"It's almost 12, so I have to go soon," Lucy said. Natsu frowned at that sentence

"Oh? That past hour went by so quickly," Erza said. "What about Juvia?"

"Juvia doesn't have any lessons until 2."

"Then shall we have lunch together?" Jellal said.

"Yes! Juvia will be delighted to!" She eagerly replied.

"Do the two of you have any preferences for food?" Erza asked. "Our school has many different restaurants so…"

"Cold soba." "Spicy chicken wings." Gray and Natsu both said at the same time. Right away they both glared at each other.

"Must you always eat something cold, you perverted piece of shit?" Natsu said.

"I could ask you the same thing, burnt brains. Why spicy wings of all things?" Gray snarled.

"Because cold things taste disgusting!" Natsu retorted.

"At least it's better than spicy chicken wings," Gray rolled his eyes.

Lucy watched on and felt that their argument was going nowhere. "…I'm going now," she said quietly and walked off hastily. She didn't want to be late for her lecture.

Natsu, however, was not done with her, and he ran after her. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her round. In one swift action, he roughly pushed her against the wall and cornered her.

"Where're you rushing off to, princess?" Natsu's voice was deep and sent Lucy's heart racing.

"What do you want?" Lucy did not falter but looked straight into his eyes. He may be good-looking but he's full of himself, she thought.

"Nothing much, just…"

Lucy gasped sharply as Natsu grasped one of Lucy's breasts with one hand. Lucy's confident front crumbled in an instant as she turned bright pink and bashful.

"Wow– I was right, you really are a D-cup," Natsu said as he squeezed her boob twice.

"G-Get off me!" Lucy shrieked and shoved him with all her might. Instantly, she folded her arms over her chest, completely red with embarrassment and utterly violated.

Is that why he's been staring at me all this while!? What the hell is wrong with this guy?!

I was inspired after looking through NaLu pictures so I created this story. I won't be updating this story regularly though. I'll only write new chapters when I have inspiration because I am focusing on my other NaLu story.

Natsu may seem a bit out of character in this first chapter, but… all I can say is: wait and see!

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it ^^