Voiced Thoughts [NaLu AU]

Chapter 4

~Lucy's POV~

I sighed in contentment as I walked to my dorm, "School is done. Now I can sleep." As I walked, I was suddenly hit with a burst of energy, making me stop walking. "You know what, forget sleep." It didn't take me long to rethink that statement. "Well, no. Sleep is great, what am I saying?" I said in disgust at my outburst. "But right now, I wanna do something fun." Fun didn't come to me often. Probably because I hardly ever tried having it. "Why would I want to have fun all of a sudden?" I asked myself.

As I walked, I looked around, taking note of some places that I might go. "Clothes shopping?" I pondered, "No." I shook my head. "Oh, there might be something good in that bakery," I thought, that was until I saw the swath of red that sped from each side of the room to the next and the small speck of blue right in the middle of it, like a tiny blue island in the middle of a scarlet ocean. "Retreat! Retreat! Bad idea!" I said as I remember Levy's promise to Erza. People gave me weird looks, but I ignored them.

And then, I saw the one thing that gave me life. "COFFEE!" I shouted, unable to control myself. And I thought the earlier looks were weird. I know I said I felt a "burst of energy" earlier, but one could not just pass up coffee.

I ran without hesitation straight into the coffee shop, immediately demanding whatever item had the most caffeine. I was in such a trance of my need for caffeine, that I didn't notice that the person I ordered from was someone I knew. "Lisanna!?" I burst out. "Since when do you work here?"

She smiled at me, "I've always worked here, Lucy. Mira and I are the ones who own it." Mira was Lisanna's older sister, they also had a brother named Elfman, who was notorious for his displays of "manliness." I shivered remembering them. They all shared the same snow white hair, and Mira and Lisanna both had the same clear blue eyes. Really the only difference between the sisters in appearance was their hair length, Lisanna's being short and above the shoulders, while Mira's flowed to her waist.

"Oooh, really? I guess I really don't get out much, huh?" I drooled at the smell of coffee, "I know I sound like a child right now, but I really don't care," I explained unintentionally. "But really, what kind of human being doesn't have moments where they act like a two year old?"

"I know Mira has more of those than I can remember," Lisanna said, laughing as she called out my order to Mira who was working at the back.

"I do not," Mira retorted stubbornly.

"That just proves my point." Lisanna smirked at her older sister while Mira pouted.

I laughed under my breath at their childish banter, "It's not like you aren't acting childish right now, Lisanna." I realized what I said, "I'm sorry," I said, frantically trying to apologize. "I didn't really mean that. You're actually very mature?" It came out sounding more like a question than I intended.

"Don't worry about it, Lucy. I'm very aware of my childishness and I'm proud of it." Lisanna grinned.

I smiled, "Now, where's my coffee," I demanded before covering my mouth in a weak attempt to muffle the words. "Sorry that came out wrong."

"Here it is," Mira sang, putting my order in front of me on the front counter. "Hope you enjoy."

"Thanks. Anyway, if you don't mind me asking, what were some of the things that Mira's done that were childish?" I hadn't really meant to ask, but now I found myself curious. I waited for an answer, my head cocked. I noticed their hesitation as they glanced between each other, Lisanna jerking her head towards me, giving her sister pointed looks while Mira kind of played with her thumbs awkwardly. "It's okay," I said, realizing the reason for their hesitation. "You don't have to tell me, I shouldn't have asked. I'd probably just repeat anything embarrassing to the whole world anyway," I said bitterly.

I didn't wait to see their reaction before looking down to pay and then walking away with a fake smile on my face although I knew my muttered words of dejection and sadness said otherwise. I picked a seat in the very corner of the shop, my burst of energy having vanished, and stared out the window. I forced myself to think of happy, positive things and glanced at a pink flower glowing under the sun outside, which happened to remind me of the person that I met just today.

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~Mira's POV~

I knew I should have told her, not even necessarily what she asked, I should have just said something, but Lisanna embarrassed me, and being the childish person that I knew I was, I hadn't wanted to tell Lucy for fear that others would find out. I really regretted that now. So what if people knew about one small embarrassing thing I had done? Everybody who knew me knew most of them anyway, and I knew a lot of people. Losing a tiny piece of my dignity would have been a small price to pay compared to what Lucy's gone through. I knew she tried hard to hide her thoughts, but for her it was literally impossible. And I was about to go over and tell her my most embarrassing story of all time, when on the way over I heard her talking.

And let me tell you, Lucy was literally the hardest person not to eavesdrop on. Especially for someone who loved eavesdropping in the first place. So I did the only thing I could've done.

I waved Lisanna over and hid in the booth behind her, menus covering each of our faces.

Lucy was talking about something that made me immediately happy I had chosen to listen in. Boys. And one boy in particular. Apparently his name was Natsu—never heard of him—and for some reason that I would have to find out later, the word pink kept coming to the front of Lucy's mind. It was somewhat difficult to decipher because her sentences had no structure and didn't really form full coherent thoughts; because who thinks in perfect sentences? In fact, a lot of the things people thought about couldn't even be put into words. In that, I think she had a gift. But I really think the curse outweighs that gift.

I never took Lucy to be the type to crush on anyone, but I could tell from her thoughts, even if she didn't know it herself, she was really crushing on this guy. It sounded like she had met him in band and she had never seen him before. Must be the new kid Master was telling me about. I also never thought Lucy would be the type to admire anyone in the way a child admires their parents, but Lucy was thinking of this boy in a sort of heroic light, as if he had saved her, which I soon found out that to her, he had.

This boy, Natsu, had been the first person since the tragedy she had gone through that knew everything about what she was and what she might do, and didn't care. Instead of pushing her away for what she was, he had embraced it, the way Lucy had always wanted—needed—someone to do for her.

The way we, all of Lucy's "friends," should have been doing from the start.

In their five minute conversation, Natsu had gotten closer to Lucy than any of us had gotten in three years. And it made me sad. Sad to think that I was one of the people who knew what needed to be done, but was too scared to do it. Sort of like the way people know what's happening to our planet, and know what they could do to help stop it, but still we plow down rainforests and burn through oil faster than you could say "Nalu," because we're scared. But now I saw an opportunity to help fix our mistakes, and this boy had given me the excuse to do so. Screw fear. I was gonna do this.

I had heard all I needed to hear. I pulled Lisanna to the back kitchen quietly, not disturbing Lucy's train of thought and said five words that I knew she would understand.

"MISSION NALU OTP is underway."

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(A/N) Hey guys! Anyway, let's get to the point. I'm really sorry about being gone so long, but I was really busy getting ready for school and trying out for sports etc. Then when school actually came I told myself I would write, but that was before I knew I would get homework on the second day. Oh, I also got concussion number 2 a week before school at soccer practice—not even a game—and wasn't supposed to read or even look at my phone. That sucked. It wasn't nearly as bad as the first one though, thank god. So yeah, just know I'm sorry and updates should become relatively regular again. Thanks to anyone who read this.

~Alpaca