The Flat Friends (ROOM MATES BOOK 2)

Chapter 8 - new people, old faces

Lucy felt her heart beating in her chest as the pair made their way to the University's Cafeteria. She was about to see her old friends, but she couldn't help but feel absolutley terrified. What if they were really different? What if they didn't like her? What if. What if. What if.

Lucy hadnt even noticed they'd entered the cafeteria until her name flew from Mira's lips.

"Lucy! You came!"

Lucys eyes snapped up and her thoughts melted away as she saw the bright smile of her friend who was running toward her.

"And you came with... Natsu? ...You two know eachother?" She asked, looking dumbfounded as she led Lucy and Natsu toward the table.

The blonde couldn't help but be distracted from her question as she looked over to the table full of people she once knew, heart fluttering. She may of heard Natsu answer Mira's question for her as Lucy's mind wandered but she wasn't sure.

Mira's attention turned from Natsu to Lucy as they reached the table.

"So everyone, this is Lucy!"

Lucys eyes scanned the table over the familiar heads of blue, gray and black - but she did notice one person in paticular missing...

"Nice to meet you Lucy." Said a gruff voice off to the side. Gajeel.

Lucy smiled as she took in his appeareance. He was definitely different, looking a little nerdier than the 'bad boy' back in her memories.

"Hi, nice to meet you too."

"So thats Gajeel," Mira said, gesturing to Gajeel as she took a seat and patted the tables bench beside her. Lucy sat down, eyes scanning over the others on the table.

"This is Gray and thats Jellal." She continued, pointing to each of them as she went. Jellal was sat in his usual attire; a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. If Lucy were to say so herself, she'd say he looked pretty normal. But then there was Gray. The blonde nearly popped a laugh at the sight of her old friend suffocated in layers and layers of clothes. Surely he wasn't cold? The Gray she knew would use any chance he could to take clothes off not put them on.

"...And obviously you know Levy already."

Lucy moved her focus from Gray and looked around the table with a smile.

"Nice to meet you all." Lucy said, getting a kind 'Hello' from Jellal and a distracted 'Hi' from Gray - he seemed to be looking off somewhere else in the cafeteria. She went to follow his gaze but was quickly diverted.

Lucy's attention was drawn from her thoughts as a tray smacked loudy against the table.

"Todays lunch sucks!"

And an aggitated looking Natsu sat down beside her.

"They never do chili anymore." He huffed.

"Natsu! Stop complaining all the time and just deal with it." Levy snapped from the other side of the table, all eyes reverting to her.

"Ah! I'm s-sorry!" Yelped Natsu as sweat dropped down the side of his face."I j-just want a nice lunch!" He squealed. Geez he really gets scared fast...

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed today.. Gihi." Gajeel, sitting opposite Levy, laughed. "Actually you always get up on the wrong side of bed..." He continued, only leaving the bluenette to scowl.

"Tch~"

There was a short silence across the table, before Jellal started a conversation.

"So does anyone have more news about... her?" His voice was a murmur, probably in attempts to stay quiet so anyone not sat at the table wouldn't hear.

Lucy looked around in confusion as a few shook their heads. Who were they talking about?

"W-what's scary is she's still out t-there." Natsu's stutters echoed across the worrying silence across the table.

"Yeah... and who knows when she'll be back again." Levy added.

As another silence washed through the air, Lucy took an oppurtunity to speak up.

"Um, who is this 'she' we're talking about? Why are you guys so worried?" The blonde asked, all eyes turning to her.

She noticed as a few nervous glances bounced across the table, then a slight nod from Mira to Gajeel before he spoke up.

"Well, it's a long story..." He started, grasping Lucy's attention from the suddenly serious faces across the table. "But I guess we have time."

Gajeel went on to explain about the mysterious girl. She was a rival of FairyTail, a former student who left due to her hatred for the University's curriculum - it wasn't to her standard and ever since she has been trying to shut FairyTail down. Lucys brows furrowed as Gajeel told her the story, his monotone voice, serious and cold - he almost talked as if he was a news presenter... except lacked the enthusiasm.

"She's got close many times to closing down the school, but thanks to our constant switching of headmasters, theres no secure basis to shut us down on."

"Switching headmasters?" Lucy questioned, she remembered back in her 'life' only one Master and that being Makarov... was he not in this place?

"Well, the only way she has attempted in shutting us down has been through the fact we have no headmaster... but after her first attempt nearly a year ago, we got the idea of hiring new headmasters every term to act as dummy's." Gajeel rolled his eyes. "Sadly, they don't actually do the work any headmaster is supposed to."

"Wait, so all the teachers are in on this too?"

Mira nodded from the other side of the table.

"The teachers sort out the business, we just help with ideas and keeping her as far away from Fairytail as possible." Mira spoke, a few others on the table nodding at her input.

"So she just works on her own? How can she possibly shut down a whole University alone?"

"She's definitley not working alone, and she has her ways, her associates. One old geezer in paticular who she works with... He goes by the name Faust, but his real identity is ...hidden." Gajeel replied.

"So whats her name...?" Lucy asked. She'd been dying to ask the whole time but thought it would be best to undertsand the situation first.

There were a few more questioning glances around the table before Natsu, who Lucy least expected to talk, spoke up.

"We call her the F-Fairy Hunter..." he spoke, fear evident in his eyes just from the name.

"But her real name is... Erza Knightwalker."

-♡-

Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter!
If you have any requests of one-shots for my other book leave a comment ^-^