Sweetheart

93

Natsu instinctively slammed himself in the small crack of the open door to try to block out the very noticeable person standing in the middle of his apartment, but the damage had already been done. Aina didn't move. Her eyes were wide, her heart was sprinting inside her, and her fight or flight response kicked in a second later.

"You've just done the impossible dude," Bickslow started. "Who knew you would hold on for this long."

"No kidding," Gajeel taunted. "Man, you really stuck with it."

At this point, Aina had regained her senses, and she did what seemed to be her only option - scurry back into the bedroom and slam the door. Pounding, panic.

"Fuck," she whispered.

Natsu raked his mind for any possible excuse to explain the sight that they had been caught in, but nothing was coming to him. At least, nothing remotely believable.

"Fuck," he quietly cursed.

When he looked back over his shoulder, he found the bedroom door closed. His head slowly turned back to meet his friends' entertained looks. And those feelings of dread and anxiety came flooding back.

"Was it worth it?" Gajeel spoke, holding a smirk that had been familiar on his face in the time that Natsu had known him.

"Dude," Natsu scolded.

"What? It's a very relevant question."

"Yeah Dragneel. You've been working on this all year."

Natsu groaned and looked over his shoulder again when he heard the small creek of the hinges on the door, and soon Aina reappeared wearing her own clothes.

"We were just doing homework and I needed a shower," Aina quickly explained, fully believing it would work.

Natsu pinched his nose, and turned towards her, commenting, "Really? You couldn't come up with anything better?"

"What? It's true!" She pushed.

"Sorry salutatorian, that shit is the most pathetic fake excuse there is," Gajeel responded.

"Alright," Natsu drew attention. "We obviously have a problem here, so why don't we just keep this betwe--"

"No way Dragneel. Everyone needs to hear this shit."

"Please don't, Gajeel," Aina weakly pleaded.

"What's wrong, salutatorian? Afraid of your reputation being ruined?"

"Shut it, Bickslow," Natsu cut in.

"Whatever man," he dismissed.

"Yeah, don't worry," Gajeel snickered. "We'll be leaving so you two can get back to fun."

Natsu had (rather roughly) herded his two friends out of the doorway and closed the door to see Aina standing in the middle of the room with her head hung. He sighed and stepped towards her, and it was then that he could see that she was crying.

"Sweetheart--"

Her whimpers didn't stop, and it had soon turned into a full-out sob. And then, just as quickly, she slunk to the ground. Natsu caught her before her knees slammed onto the floor. The events of the last time darted into his mind, and her struggling for breath was the sign that the events had triggered another panic attack.

Nothing was going through her mind. But yet, at the same time, everything was. She couldn't even focus on breathing, which in turn caused her to become light-headed. Her whole body was shaking, and Natsu's blankets did no good this time. What was she going to do? What would they say? All she could think about was how awful the rest of high school would be once this was revealed. The teachers would look down on her, her classmates would lose all respect for her. This was the perfect opportunity for constant mocking and harassment by the other students. Especially in the way that she was sure Bickslow and Gajeel would retell their findings.