Celestial Queen {A NaLu Story}

9: Nice One

Lisanna immediately passed it back to Evergreen who quickly moved the ball to Romeo's feet.

"Push up! Lucy, Natsu!" Erza's demand turned me into a full sprint towards the boy. My eyes trained at the movement of his feet, anticipating the next move he might display for us to counter.

Suddenly, a flash of pink covered my eyes as someone else was already trying to pounce on the boy.

Natsu went up to Romeo's face, ready to take the ball.

Just one thing wrong.

He's too close for what Romeo had planned. 

Not only that, Romeo was able to calculate the stride of Natsu's run and easily slide the ball between his feet before moving his way around the bigger man's body and continue on his way.

Too bad for him, I was there to cover Natsu's stupid mistake.

Before the mid-fielder can get comfortable with the ball again, I was able to easily snatch it out of his grasp.

"Damn!" Romeo said.

I passed it back to Wendy for a different plan of attack. Clearly being all up in our opponent's face isn't the way to go.

Natsu stood where he was, cursing under his breath.

Back then, I would've patted his back; tell him to jog it off and be ready for another attacking execution but we're not exactly on speaking terms so I just took my next position for an attacking mid-field play. 

Wendy managed to get Bickslow off her back but Lisanna and Evergreen were already on her back. It's way too early for any sort of attack at this moment since all the defenders on the Subs side are still in a rock solid position. We need to do this a different way and we need to do it quick. 

"Back, Wendy!" I shouted the call.

The girl, with her amazingly nice ears, immediately heel-passed it to Erza who was holding a more defensive posture behind our side of the field. She gave me a quick look of gratitude for the call before having to pass the ball of again since Evergreen was making a mad charge towards her.

Just as the pass connected with Cana, however, Lisanna was suddenly there. Cana never even had a chance.

And in a blink of an eye she easily shot the ball, full force towards her brother standing at the entrance of the goal. Elfman couldn't even move fast enough to catch the striker's shot and the ball kissed the net smoothly.

Mira blew the whistle.

It's 0-1 now. Subs are leading.

Two minutes in.

What. The. Hell?

As the Subs celebrated, I stayed rooted at my spot. It was my call that made us lose that one goal. I thought defensive play was the way to go since both defenses were still tight. 

I guess I underestimated Lisanna. She really has gotten better in the past year.

"Shake it off, Fairy Tail. Next one is ours!" Erza shouted. 

Elfman retrieved the ball and sent it flying towards the center.

"Nice one." A seething voice chilled my bones from behind and a shoulder pushed mines a little aggressively as the person ran by.

And just as Natsu ran back into his position, a hand clasped mines.

"He's an asshole. Ignore him." Gray's voice came through my ears.

"It's kinda hard since I have to rely on him to get goals." I mumbled.

"You got me on your other side, Lucy." I could feel his confident smile. "It's just one goal. We'll get it back right away, no worries. The game plan is look my way for a bit until Natsu gets his head out of his ass and I'll set you up."