Growing Up

Chapter 1

NaLu
Rating – K+
Genre – Romance & Friendship
Word Count – 1,782 Words

"Hey, Lucy. If I get to be this tall," Natsu held his hand over Lucy's head, but she cut in.

"You mean taller than me?"

Natsu nodded. "When we're older, will you marry me?"

Lucy laughed at her partner in crime, a hand covering her mouth. "I don't think you'll get that tall Natsu."

"What?" Natsu was red-faced and had his hands in fists at his sides, his cheeks puffing out. "I can be taller than you, you'll see."

Lucy pursed her lips. "Okay then."

—

Natsu turned around, completely unaware of the implications in his previous statements. Well, he knew what the words meant, what the acts were, but he didn't know his younger friend would take it seriously. He didn't know she would hold onto it until they were older. The taller girl had laughed at him. She had claimed him to have determined an unreachable feat, and he hadn't thought about it in years.

Now, here the girl was, finally shorter than him, even in the two or three inch heels she was wearing. He had moved away when they were still young, to the town of Magnolia. His partner stayed in their hometown. They still talked every day over the phone, at least, they did until her mother died. Then he was lucky to get to talk to her once a week, and she was always sounding very quiet.

Natsu remembered one night he had been on the phone with her; they were seventeen then. "Hey, Luce, how are things there?" He missed seeing her, and even though they had met up once in the past nine years, he had still been shorter than her. He also remembered seeing her hollowed out eyes, not showing the joy she used to have.

"They're great!" He could hear the false joy in her voice before hearing a quieter voice in the background.

"Lucy!" Natsu could immediately tell it was her father. "Either stop talking to that pink haired idiot or be quieter! You know I'm in a business meeting."

Lucy's voice was a hushed reply, one Natsu could only just make out. "He's not an idiot, but I'll be more quiet, sorry father." At this, footsteps were heard and Natsu decided it was safe to speak up again.

"You always call me an idiot though."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean it's okay for him to call you an idiot." Natsu had smiled at her declaration, and their conversation from then on was a bit more hushed.

By the time Lucy had reached nineteen, and Natsu twenty, they hadn't seen each other again, but Lucy called him maybe once a month. However, she always answered when he called. There was one particular night, when Natsu had gotten drunk and called her. He wasn't so terribly drunk that he didn't remember their conversation. No, it was worse. He had just enough of the so-called liquid courage that he made the call, but he remembered the entire conversation perfectly.

Normally she called him on a specific day every month, but she had missed it that month. The dial tone rang twice before she picked up with a high pitched, "Natsu?"

"Luce. You missed our call date."

She sounded tense when she replied. "Yeah, sorry about—" She was interrupted by another voice on her end of the call.

"Who the hell is calling you at this hour? Come back to bed." For one second, Natsu thought it was her father, but quickly realized it wasn't.

"Luce," Natsu seemed to sober up pretty quickly after that. "Who's that?"