When Choosing Between

Point of View: Natsu

"Oof!" I say as I fall to the ground. I pop right back up and reach down to help whoever got knocked down too. Then I see who it is. "Hi, Luce."

She takes my hand.

"Uh, sorry for bumping into you." She says

"Nah, it's ok. I mean, hey, at least you bumped into me instead of say, Levy. Then I'd actually be insulted." I smile at her. She frowns.

"That's not funny, Natsu. Levy is my friend. Never mind, I don't expect you to understand that." She turns on her heal and walks away. I grab her hand.

"Wait, Lucy! That's not what I meant!" She whips around.

"Let go of my hand." Her face has pinkish tints spreading across it.

"Ok," I let go. "Will you listen to me?" I look her in the eyes. "Unless you need to head home. In which case I won't invite you over to my house at the end of my apologetic speech, and I happen to know you need a ride home."

She stares at me. Then walks away. I race after her. I catch up easily. She's at her locker now. I hide behind the same wall I had earlier that day to listen. We were probably the only people still at school.

Lucy opens her locker, and pulls out her phone, staring at the screen.

I have always had good eyesight. I could see that she was looking at a picture. The one she took when she first got her phone back in fifth grade. We were at my house and had been playing in the pool. So we were all wet, when Lucy asked my mom to take a picture of the two of us with her new phone. In the picture we were hugging each other with big grins on our 11 year old faces. That was 6 years ago.

Lucy looked towards the corner where I was. "I know you're over there, Natsu."

I walk out sheepishly. Then I grab her backpack and fetch mine from my corner and walk towards the door. She follows. I wait for her as she digs through her backpack and pulls out a jacket.

"Uh," I say, "Luce, you're gonna freeze." She looked at her outfit which consisted of a pair of pink sneakers, a white skirt and a pink short-sleeved shirt.

"Yeah? Well, no kidding." She looked at me and cracked a smile "I'm sure it's not that cold."

I walk out the door. Lucy followed. She let out a small gasp as the cold and snow enveloped us. It was a full out blizzard. I couldn't see Lucy.

"Luce! Follow my voice!" I shout into the snow. I know my way to my house; I could go there blindfolded. Luckily, that was the case.

"W-where a-are y-y-you?" Her voice came from my left. I lunged forward. I grabbed her, around her waist. My face flushed but she couldn't see luckily.

"You almost walked into the canal!" I say. "Gosh. Stay closer, Luce."

She tensed up "H-how d-do y-you k-know?" She stumbled almost falling. I lift her up again.

"It's hard to explain," I say. I start to feel the cold through my coat and shiver.

I see dim lights ahead. I open the door quietly and pull Lucy inside. She's shivering and her lips are blue.

My mom comes in.

"Thank Mavis! I was about to call the cops! Natsu Etherious Dragneel if you ever pull a stunt like that again, why I'll skin you alive and feed you to the vultur-" She sees Lucy. "Hi, Lucy. Come with me dear." She looks into the kitchen. "Igneel Dragneel! Get off your behind and give your son the what-for!"

"Yes, dear."

My dad walks out. "How was school?"

"I heard that!" My mom screeches.

Dad sighs "Fine." He puts on his stern face "Natsu Etherious Dragneel that was irresponsible of you to do that thing that I'm mad at you for, apparently."

I grin , then say contritely, "I'm sorry, dad." And then I start laughing.

My little sister walks in, carrying a mug of hot cocoa. She waves, then retreats to her room. She does this when I get into trouble. Which unfortunately is about every other day.