One Year (Nalu AU) ✓

Chapter 18 - Introductions

Natsu's POV

I spent most of the day stressing about meeting all of Lucy's friends. What if they don't like me? Then I would be screwed. But, they are friends of Lucy so they are a friend of mine too.

Gray and I met up with Lucy at her locker after school and I knew that she could tell I was nervous.

"Dont worry! My friends will love you, stop being so nervous" she lightly slapped my shoulder with a chuckle.

We walked out of the school and I saw a group of people. I recognized a few of them because they hang out with Lucy a lot. There were a lot more people than I thought there was going to be, there was a petite girl with blue hair standing beside a tall guy with lots of piercings and long dark hair. Beside them there was two girls, one with bright red hair and the other was a bluenette wearing a winter hat. The last two people I saw standing there was a brunette girl who was wearing the littlest amount of clothes that she could get away with, and also a guy with orange hair... and sunglasses? Why is he wearing sunglasses? It's winter for crying out loud!

We approached the group and as they saw us coming over they all turned to look at us. I didn't like all of the eyes that were on me, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that Gray was nervous too, but he was doing a way better job at hiding it than I was.

"Hey everyone I would like you to meet Natsu and Gray" Lucy said pointing at me then gray. Everyone waved and we both waved and then Lucy began introducing everyone. "Now we have Levy, Gajeel, Erza, Juvia, Cana and Loke." she said pointing at everyone as she went around.

We began talking and just starting to get to know each other when I noticed that Lisanna wasn't here.

"Gray, where is Lisanna?"

"Oh she said she couldn't come and that she had other plans" he said, slightly annoyed "She is probably with Sting"

"Yeah most likely" so that's why she didn't come, and Sting obviously wouldn't be here because he is Lucy's ex boyfriend.

Gray and I walked together to the diner and Juvia was walking in front of us with Erza. I nudged him in the side and used my head to nod towards Juvia in front of us and smiled at him. When he finally clued in, a light pink color rose to his cheeks.

"You should sit with her" I whispered so no one else would hear.

"No way isn't that too obvious?"

"Not at all" I winked at him and then Lucy came up beside me. Then, a brilliant thought came to my mind. If Gray isn't going to make the first move, we're going to have to force them to sit together. I whispered my idea in her ear and she smiled.

"That would be perfect, I totally ship it" she whispered to me and began to laugh.

"What's so funny?' Gray asked, obviously annoyed that we weren't telling him what we were up to.

"Oh nothing" I said and then turned to wink at Lucy.

At the diner we began sitting down at one of the larger tables making sure that there was enough seats for everyone. Juvia sat down and I sat down leaving a chair between me and her just for Gray.

"Hey Gray sit down here! I said waving him to sit between us. He can't escape now! I smiled to myself as he groaned and sat down.

"I hate you" he said glaring at me.

"You'll thank me later" I said with a smirk.

(A/N: Just so that you guys know, the table is set up like this:

Lucy Natsu Gray Juvia Loke

TABLE

Levy Gajeel Cana Erza Jellal

Jellal isn't actually there yet, we know. But he will be coming in soon)

We all continued talking to one another and looking at the menu. We were all going to get milkshakes because apparently this place has the best milkshakes in Fiore. I guess that I'll have to wait and see for myself. We all agreed not to order until Jellal showed up, I don't really know who he is besides the fact that he is Erza's college boyfriend.

"He said that he was on his way ten minutes ago so he should be here any minute" Erza said with a smile.

"Speak of the devil" Cana stated looking up at the door. All of our heads turned towards the bluenette who had a large red tattoo over his right eye. He smiled at Erza and took his seat beside her.

"Hello everyone" he said looking around the table, his eyes landed on Gray and I, "Oh, I haven't ever seen you guys before, I'm Jellal" He smiled at us as we both introduced ourselves and then conversation continued as normal. We had all ordered our milkshakes and I have to agree with everyone, it was the best milkshake that I've had in awhile.

"Ok everyone! Now that we're settled and we all know each other, I have an announcement" Lucy said grabbing everyone's attention. "So I know that Christmas is in a month but over our winter holidays I would like to have a Christmas party at my house" Everyone's face brightened at this idea. "And I want all of you to come!"

"Oh sounds like fun" Levy said, ecstatic.

"When will it be?" Erza asked.

"I'm not too sure yet but I will know in a week or two so I can text you all the details then" Lucy answered, obviously excited about the party.

I just got invited to a party. My year just keeps on getting better and better. After Lucy's news, the party is all that we talked about. Everyone was super excited. We all headed our separate ways afterwards and all that I could think about how excited I was for Lucy's party.