Game Mode Zero (NaLu // AU)

Game on

That was not what he'd expected. He actually expected nothing. Possibly one machine or two. Definitely not a whole collection. It was a huge room filled with machines. There was everything from A to Z. From Asteroids to Zarzon. Even the Claw.

"Where should we begin?" she leaned against Pac-Man, arms crossed, as If to mark it as her territory. He didn't know that he was the first person to ever enter this particular room.

The ground was covered in colorful carpet and the walls were almost black. Here and there were a few posters and photos, most of them of her holding the price cup of the competition she participated in.

"Where are your trophies?"

She pushed herself off the machine to stand straight. She nodded to his right. There was an enormous shelf filled with cups and medals, certificates and a small golden Pac-Man. How did he miss that?

"Sweet!" He hummed. He snapped back to reality when the first game came to life. She had started Centipede. "Come on, Dragneel. We've got a lot of work to do."

It took him a few minutes to understand how to use the trackball correctly. At least he had fast fingers using the button to shoot.

She did the right choosing centipede as his first game. It was a fixed shooter so he didn't have to concentrate on moving that much. Once he got the hang of it his score raised rapidly. She even was surprised when he almost reached one of her former high scores. Of course she didn't tell him. That would've pushed his self-confidence too much.

"Looks like you aren't as bad as we thought you'd be." She admitted.

"You mean as you thought. I know I'm great." He grinned widely showing his white teeth.
If it wasn't him she would have melted on the spot. He looked so innocent but little did she know there was more about him. She dozed of wondering. She really was weird, wasn't she?

Natsu was about to turn around and start a new game when he realised something was off. Lucy was staring at something behind him. He turned around several times and back to look at her to understand what she was thinking about until he realised she wasn't staring at anything particular.

"You know, I was a little bit surprised when you decided to join after all. Just a little bit, because I already knew you couldn't withstand me." He tried to downplay the fact that he was really glad and she knew it.

But she wasn't even listening.

Her thoughts wandered to her conversation with Lis. Were they dating? Stop that Lucy don't think about him like that. As If to shrug it of she shook her body. That brought her back to reality.

Natsu stood in front of her barely five inch away he was about to touch her face, one hand raised and ready to poke. A smug expression plastered on his face. "Tell me, Luce" he stressed her nickname to provoke her. And it worked so he decided to continue teasing her. "What were you thinking so deeply about. You even missed me complimenting you."

She turned around as fast as she could to hide the red blush not bothering to hide her embarrassment. She just didn't like the idea of any obscure jock seeing her blushing because of him.

"We should take a break." She muttered.

He realised he made her uncomfortable and slightly regretted teasing her. Slightly. To tell the truth he enjoyed her weird behaviour more than he should. He thought about something to ease the mood.

"Then what about you and me grabbing some ice cream?"

Ice cream. Not very inventive.
But it worked.

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They went to the park. Even though she complained he paid. The tense atmosphere from before vanished completely and they talked about the most usual things. Like weather and shopping. She even enjoyed his company. Something about him made her lose track of time. It was already dark and they still sat on a bench talking. 

"I should call Levy." She felt guilty for not thinking about her. Well, she did think about her friend but she didn't feel the need to call her. She wanted to keep talking to Natsu.  He told her about dyeing his hair pink, because Gray and him had a bet. Either pink or silver. And he really didn't want to look like Haru. Sometimes she would laugh, sometimes just smile. She didn't say much but it was enough to keep him interested. 

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Is she your babysitter?" She knew he was joking but she looked down at her lap anyway. "Sometimes." 

He waited a second before he burst into laughter. 

"Are you serious? And I'm the one that has to grow up? Damn girl, why are you so weird?" 

"I'm not weird!" She denied imitating him with a high pitched voice. "You are!" 

"Am not!" He pouted and it broke her - she started to laugh with him. She poked his cheek admiring his soft skin. Did he even have to shave? He really was the baby of them two. 

"Go on, call Levy. But don't expect me not to tease you about it." 

She giggled slightly trying to calm down a bit before dialing Levy's number. After the first ring she stood up and gestured Natsu to wait. "Hey Levy? Yes, it's me. I'm sorry I didn't call you sooner. I went out with Nats- No, no date. Just ice cream. Yes. No... maybe" she giggled again  and Natsu wondered what they were talking about. "Hm, yes , see you there. Bye bye" 

"Who still says bye bye these days?" She gave him a meaningful look but he didn't miss her smile. "Now, you gonna tell me what all this giggling was about?"

She shook her head no. "But I'm gonna tell you about our first team meeting." 

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It was almost noon when they arrived at the arcade. Erza and Gray were already waiting at the bar. They looked up the moment Natsu and Lucy made one step trough the door. "Hey there, lovebirds." Gray greeted and Erza slapped his back of the head. Smiling widely. 

"Hey there, Ice Princess." 

Lucy searched the room for Levy, but she wasn't there. She gave Erza a questioning look. "She went with Jellal and Lis. She said she was really tired and could finally go to bed."

Natsu patted his frenemy's back smiling compassionately and yawned. "So what's this all about?" 

"I made some calls. Seems like the message spread pretty fast. Everyone wants to compete against Fairy Tail." Erza said. 

"Awesome." Gray and Natsu hummed in unison. Then looked at each other, disgusted. 

"I denied all of them." 

"Why?" they whined together again. Then looked at each other, disgusted agin. 

"Because we're not ready yet." Lucy interfered. "But I guess you wouldn't call us for nothing, am I right?" 

Erza gave her a proud smile. "Apparently, there are some underground games going on. And there happens to be a team called Phantom Lord claiming to be the best team Magnolia has to offer. Maybe we should pay them a visit once we're done training." Her smile turned from proud to smug and Lucy became a slight idea of why they called her "Scary Erza".

After an hour or so of planning, laughing and discussing they parted ways. Erza said Jellal would be waiting for her and Gray said he'd meet some guy called Musica. 

Natsu brought Lucy home. When they  said good bye to each other, too, he passed her a toothy grin. "Game on." And gave her thumbs up.

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~ 1282 words