Bloody Love [A NaLu Fanfic]

Chapter 11: Luuken

So this chapter has a couple of NaLu moments to kind of break up the anxious tension from previous chapters ;) It also introduces a new character who will appear again! Enjoyy~

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"Tell me why we chose a MODELING job again?" Natsu grumbled as they got off the train. "Blargh!" he gagged as his motion sickness got the best of him.

"Lucy wanted a quick job that would get her enough money to pay rent. Besides, our guild is in enough debt right now from the destruction that YOU --" as Erza thought about the incident two months ago -- when Natsu almost died -- a shadow fell over her face and she stayed silent. A silent gloom spread across the group, and none of them said anything.

When they arrived at the modeling agency, they were greeted by a dashing young man with tousled auburn hair, clear blue eyes that glinted mysteriously, and a confident smile that would make any girl fall to her knees. Erza and Lucy gawked a little as he spoke.

"Welcome! Thank you so much for taking up our request promptly. I'm Luuken, pleased to meet you lovely ladies." Luuken bowed to Erza, and took up Lucy's hand and kissed it gently. Natsu stiffened at the gesture.

"Our theme for the shoot is 'Mages in Love'." Natsu and Gray gagged a little. Why was this not mentioned in the job description? Certainly then they would have known to turn down this job. "How lucky that you arrived in pairs! Well I'm not really sure what to do about that cat, but..." Luuken glanced at Happy. Happy stuck his tongue out at him.

"All right! Let me get y'all in position. I suppose we can have lovely miss blonde here with pink spikes, and beautiful miss scarlet with... the other guy." Natsu and Gray glared at Luuken for being referred to this way.

"ERZA WITH GRAY?" a voice suddenly shrieked out of nowhere. All six of them jumped in surprise. "Only Juvia belongs to Gray!!" Juvia leapt out from the shadows and tackled Gray onto the ground. "Juvia will participate in the photoshoot in Erza's stead!" Why is not only Lucy, but also Erza now Juvia's love rival??? Juvia thought to herself sadly.

Erza, Lucy, and Gray sweatdropped. Luuken laughed heartily. "Well either miss scarlet or miss bluenette will do for this shoot. I'm glad to see such enthusiasm!"

"Juvia may take my place, it's quite all right," Erza smirked knowingly.

"Er... Juvia, how did you know where we were anyway?" Gray mumbled.

"Where Gray is, Juvia is!" Juvia replied passionately.

As Luuken photographed Juvia clinging onto Gray enthusiastically, another photographer positioned Natsu and Lucy.

"Our first scene will be a cafe scene. Let's have you two sit at this table across from each other. Now Miss Lucy smile at him while stirring your tea -- yes, good --"

As Lucy and Natsu stared into each other's eyes, she thought, wow, you know what, he looks good today.

"Now let's move over here, and have the miss lean her head on your shoulder, sir -- yes, like that -- now hold hands -- okay good hold still --"

As Lucy sat with her head on Natsu's shoulder, his arm around her, her poor heart -- what was left of it, anyway -- fluttered helplessly. What was this warm feeling -- being in Natsu's arms, even if it was just pretend, was a warmth that couldn't be replaced by anything else. She looked up at his face. Natsu looked back at her, and smiled. Lucy looked down quickly and blushed. But this isn't real, she reminded herself. And I can't be with him.

"Okay now let's move over to the sofa. Miss, if you would lie down here --" Lucy obliged. Then the photographer made Natsu position himself over her, close enough but not touching. Lucy's eyes widened and she blushed furiously with Natsu's face so close to her own.

She suddenly thought about the scene in the cave of mirrors, when she was lost under the streets of Caligo, the scene where Natsu was kissing her. She gulped nervously and tried to push that vision out of her head. This was just a photoshoot, Natsu would never think of her that way. It was best not to let her emotions get the best of her.

As Natsu stared into Lucy's eyes, he saw a spark of something in them that he hadn't seen before.  Involuntarily, his gaze traveled from her eyes to her lips, and he found himself staring at them, unable to look away. He reached up with his free hand to push a stand of loose hair away from her face. Impulsively, he wanted to... to--

"Okay, the sofa scene is done!" the photographer declared. "We got some good pictures today. Thank you for your cooperation!"

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"Here is your jewel compensation for your time today," Luuken handed the mages their reward for the job.

"It was nice working with all of you," Luuken said, "especially you, Miss Lucy." Luuken winked at Lucy. Lucy blushed. "Here's my business card. I have a feeling we will meet again."

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"Eh, I don't like that Luuken fellow," Natsu scrunched up his nose as the band of six walked back to the train station. "Something smells off about him."

Lucy pfft-ed. "He's harmless, Natsu. Are you sure you aren't just jealous?"

"What do I have to be jealous about?" Natsu snorted. Lucy just laughed.

Today was a good day, Lucy thought. I'm glad this mission went well. If only every day could be like this. Laughing and taking on jobs together with her friends.

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Hope you enjoyed this break chapter away from gloom-and-doom! And the cute Nalu moments >.< !!! But we haven't found out how Lucy's going to deal with her problem yet! Stay tuned!