“Levy!” I looked up from the book I had been reading when my friend, Lucy Heartfilia, shrieked my name.

“What is it, Lu-chan?” I asked, noticing she looked excited about something.

“Guess,” she grinned, her entire face lit up now with excitement.

I shrugged. “You passed your chemistry exam?”

“My exam isn’t until next week,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You know that. Guess again.”

“I’m out of ideas,” I said, unable to keep a smile from my own lips as she practically radiated joy.

“I’m at two hours!!” She squealed, jumping up and down. “Look!” She held out her wrist, and the black numbers against her skin slowly darkened until I could see them. Indeed, she only had two hours, four minutes, and thirty-seven seconds left until her timer would be at zero.

“How do you feel?” I asked.

“Nervous,” she admitted, blushing a little. “I can’t imagine who my soulmate is going to be. I mean, I’m supposed to go—” She cut off with a gasp.

“What?”

“Levy, in two hours I’m going to be with you in your apartment!” She exclaimed.

“Lu-chan, I don’t think we’re going to be soulmates,” I teased.

“True, since your countdown clock still has a couple of years left, but what about your roommate? I finally get to meet him tonight, right?”

When I realized what she meant, I felt my heart fall into my stomach. That’s right. She would be with Gajeel and me for game night, so he’s really the only one she would be able to meet. But Gajeel told me he still had a while left on his clock. I frowned, remembering how he had answered me the day before when I had asked him how much time he had left. “Who knows?” Had been his answer. That could really mean anything, actually. Maybe he just didn’t want to tell me because he was trying to spare my feelings.

I was suddenly no longer in the mood for our upcoming game night. If I have to watch Lu-chan and Gajeel as their timers run out together, I don’t know what I’ll do. I clutched my wrist tightly. One thing was for sure, it would definitely break my heart more than it already was.

~Gajeel~

“Hey metal head,” Natsu Dragneel grinned as he punched me on the shoulder. “Are we still on for game night?”

“Yeah, flame brain,” I smirked.

“So, what’s your roommate like? The one you’ve been telling me about in class all semester.”

“Levy?” I asked, wondering why he cared. “She’s a Shrimpy bookworm. She has a big heart and is a lot prettier than she thinks she is. She’s kind of oblivious when it comes to that stuff, though.” Finding myself prattling on, I cleared my throat as an excuse to stop talking. “Why are you wanting to know what the Shrimp’s like?”

He grinned, holding out his wrist. “My countdown clock is at two hours. Seeing as how you still have a few years left, I assumedyou weren’t my soulmate. And Levy is the only other person who’s going to be at the apartment tonight, right?”

“Unless you count the cat,” I murmured, humorlessly.

“Well, at least now I know she won’t be bad to spend the rest of my life with. She actually sounds pretty cool.”

I couldn’t respond. I was focusing all of my energy on not punching him in the face. He honestly hadn’t said anything bad, but the urge was still there, and it nearly won. The thought of him being with Levy—kissing her, marrying her, having children with her—sent my blood boiling. I clenched my fists tightly, trying not to think about it.

“Are you ready to go?” Natsu asked, adjusting his backpack.

I nodded, shoving my binders into my own backpack before slinging it over my shoulder. This is going to be one hell of a long night, I thought to myself as we made our way to the apartment. Lily greeted us when we arrived, rubbing affectionately on Natsu’s legs.

“That’s Pantherlily,” I said, “the cat-child.”

“He’s cute,” Natsu chuckled. “I snuck in a cat, too. He’s a Russian Blue named Happy.”

“What a weird name,” I snorted.

Natsu smirked. “And isn’t Lily supposed to be a girl name?” I huffed, not having a comeback for that.

The two of us played video games while we waited on Levy to get home. I was glad for the distraction, not wanting to think about what was to come soon. When Natsu paused the game, I growled, looking over at him. “Why the hell did you do that?”

He was staring at his wrist. “It’s at one minute,” he said, getting to his feet. “She’s almost here.”

Shit! I’m not ready for this yet. I didn’t realize it was so close. I shouldn’t have been the one to feel nervous, but I did. I prayed that there was some kind of mistake as I stood and stared at the front door.

Please, it can’t be Levy. It was a selfish wish, but I made it anyway. I couldn’t stand to see Levy with anyone else. Even if we couldn’t be together, I would be content with how things were between us. At least give us more time. I knew that as soon as she came through that door and met Natsu, everything would change. We would no longer be able to live as we had been. She would most likely move in with Natsu, and then I would be alone.  She had been in my life so long that I would be lost without her.

As the door opened, I took a deep breath. Please, let it not be Levy.

~Levy~

“Let’s go!” Lucy said, grabbing my arm and dragging me down the sidewalk.

“Lu-chan, slow down!” I exclaimed, practically running to keep up with her.

“I can’t,” she told me. “There’s only a minute left, and something is telling me to hurry up.”

“We’re almost at the apartment, so you don’t have to worry,” I sighed. Gajeel will be there. He always gets home a couple of hours before me. I wondered what he would do when he met Lucy. Would the two of them end up moving in together? Then what would happen to me? Would I have to find another apartment, or would Gajeel just more out of ours?

Ours. It had been our apartment for over a year, and in high school we had practically lived at each other’s houses. Once he and Lu-chan both hit zero together, we won’t be together anymore. It will be Gajeel and Lucy…I won’t fit into that picture.

“Twenty seconds,” she said, stopping just outside of my apartment door. Her breathing was heavy, and her face was bright pink. She turned to me, panic in her brown eyes. “Levy, I’m so nervous!”

“You’ll be fine,” I smiled. “Gajeel is a great guy.” A knife went through my heart as I said it, but there was nothing I could do to change the facts. Gajeel and Lucy were soulmates.

“I’m going in,” she said, opening the door. “Something is telling me to go in first.”

“Good luck,” I told her, though I didn’t mean it.

She stepped inside once the door was open, and I looked in the doorway beside her, searching for Gajeel. Instead, I saw a pink-haired man standing there with an awed expression on his face. His onyx eyes were wide as she stared at Lucy, and he slowly stepped towards her. She did the same, stopping when they were only a couple of feet apart.

“H-Hi,” she said, nervously.

He grinned at her. “Hey.”

“I didn’t know you were bringing a friend with you.” Gajeel’s voice caused me to jump. I looked up, just realizing he was standing right next to me, staring down at me with an almost relieved expression. Yeah, right. Dream on, Levy.

“That’s Lucy,” I said. “I didn’t know you were bringing a friend with you.”

“That’s Natsu,” he nodded. “It was a last-minute decision, really. I asked him this morning through a text and forgot to tell ya.”

“So, it looks like they’re soulmates,” I chuckled, finally able to truly feel happy for my friend.

“Looks that way,” Gajeel grinned.

After a few more seconds of staring at each other, Lucy cleared her throat ad turned to look at me. “Levy?” She asked, obviously waiting for an introduction. That’s right, she must still think that Natsu is Gajeel.

“This is—”

“Natsu Dragneel,” he answered, holding out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you…”

“Lucy Heartfilia,” she added for him, turning back to him with one of the brightest smiles I had ever seen. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Natsu.”

“So,” Gajeel said, loudly, getting everyone’s attention, “are we going to play Monopoly, or what?”

“I call the shoe!” I shouted, running to the kitchen.

“Come on, Shrimp! You got the shoe last time!” Gajeel complained, following me. Lucy and Natsu came after him, and we all sat around the small round table in the kitchen as I passed out the money and game pieces.

I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Lucy and Natsu throughout the game. It was quite obvious that they were soulmates. I could see a lot of similarities in them, and I was happy that Lucy would most likely be very happy with Natsu when they decided to settle down.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” I asked Lucy as I hugged her. The game had gone until nearly three in the morning, but she insisted that it wasn’t too late to still go home.

“I’m sure,” she said, glancing timidly over at Natsu. “Natsu offered to walk me home, since it’s so late.”

“Oh,” I smirked, winking at her.

“Stop it,” she giggled, shoving me gently. “Good night Levy, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye,” I grinned.

“Later,” Natsu waved, following Lucy out the door.

“That went well,” Gajeel said, lunging on the sofa.

I nodded, shoving his feet over as I took a seat. “They seem to like each other.”

“Soulmates always do,” he yawned.

“Yeah.” I looked over at him as he laid there, his eyes closed and a peaceful look on his rugged face. With a sigh, I tore my gaze away from him and looked at my wrist, staring blankly at the zero. But I’ll never know, will I?