Safe and Sound | Nalu

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty: Box
Despite All - Lyric Video
- Yoe Mase
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Lucy had a tendency to bottle up her feelings and try her best to keep them in. But sometimes, even the slightest bit of leaving that bottle ajar, and it becomes a wild, untamed hurricane of mixed emotions.

Her hurricane of emotions was caused by other people. People she cared for, made memories with-all that seemed to be small storms adding to an even bigger one. It wasn't often you'd meet someone and feel some sort of connection. But when that connection is ripped, torn from your fingertips, you can't help but let that hurricane loose.

She was stuck in a box. A box with a hurricane of emotions even she couldn't control anymore. And there was no way out for her to escape.

Lucy stared out the window of the room, staring at the small drops of rain on the glass pane left over from yesterday. She sighed quietly, unaware of the bell that dismissed class had rang already.

"Lucy?"

She couldn't tell if today was going to be better than yesterday, or if it was going to be worse, but she definitely wasn't too eager to find out.

"Lucy!" Levy grabbed her shoulders, shaking her back to reality. Lucy blinked consecutively, focusing her chocolate brown eyes on the petite girl in front of her.

"What happened?" Lucy asked, looking around the empty classroom.

"Class ended two minutes ago. We need to hurry if we don't want to be late. You know how crabby Ms. Aquarius gets about that," Levy rushed, pulling Lucy to her feet and beginning to drag her towards the door.

"Right, let's go," She nodded, trailing behind Levy as they headed to class.

As soon as the two hurried into the auditorium and snuck into the closest seats, the bell rang. Ms. Aquarius cleared her throat and began speaking. "Get into pairs, people. You have half an hour to come up with a routine that you think expresses the song you and your partner are assigned."

Before Lucy could ask Levy, Gajeel popped up out of nowhere and asked her to be partners with him.

Lucy huffed quietly, looking around for anyone she could be partners with. A slight shiver ran down her spine as she felt a familiar pair of onyx eyes on her. She shook it off, seeing Sting nearby.

"Hey Sting, want to be partners?" Lucy smiled at him. She tried not to look back at the pink haired boy.

"Yeah sure, Lucy. But wouldn't you rather be with Natsu? You know, your super hot boyfriend who I'd totally go gay for?" Sting asked casually. He pried his eyes away from her to look at him. The two stared at each other for a brief moment before Sting looked back at Lucy with a slight frown. "What happened?"

She pressed her lips together, sneaking the quickest glance over her shoulder. She met his eyes for a split second and hurriedly looked at Sting again, taking in a deep breath. "It's nothing...I just thought, 'Why not partner with someone else this time around?'"

Sting looked at her incredulously before nodding. "Alright, I won't push the subject. So what song do you think we should do?"