UNEDITED

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[1 year ago]

he walks into the club, a cigarette in one hand, and a bottle of vodka in the other. with each heavy stride he takes, his hair ruffles with the wind blowing at him full-force. he sees a man he recognizes as his polar opposite, worst enemy and, although he wouldn't admit it, best friend.

"gray, you bastard." he scoffs.

the black-haired man was with another woman. once again.

unbelievable.

as soon as natsu's presence gets noticed, he stops talking to the girl – who natsu doesn't recognize – and says, "i'll get back to you in a minute." his eyes land on the pink-haired man, and the unknown blonde walks away, a flirtatious look on her face.

"what the hell is juvia gonna think?"

"none of your damn business, dragneel." gray's face hardens.

natsu raises his hands in fake surrender, "jeez, chill dude."

gray looks at him for a second, and then sighs, pulling out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. he offers one to natsu, who gladly accepts.

"i got your texts," says natsu. "so what do you need?" usually, the two would get into a fight by now. but they were simply too overwhelmed to get into their childish shenanigans at the moment.

"i need you to get me a new dealer. my old one got caught and arrested."

"...and why would i do that?"

gray smirks, "if you give me your dealer's number, i'll get you a hot lap dance from that chick," he points to a stripper on the stage.

natsu rolls his eyes, "no thanks. a glass of whiskey will do."

the black-haired man shrugs his shoulders, "suit yourself."

X

natsu stumbles down the steps, a wide grin on his face. it was half past midnight, and he was already out of it.

when he finally gets near the street, a taxi pulls over – he supposes it's the one gray called for him. getting in, he tells the driver where he needs to go, and closes his eyes.

only a few minutes later, natsu jumps up as the vehicle comes to a sudden halt. realizing that he was outside his apartment building, he pays the man and leaves, walking into the complex.

the first thing he hears when he enters his apartment is shouting.

"where the hell were you?!" lucy yells, at the top of her lungs, "it's already 1:00 am, and you didn't answer any of my texts, calls, voicemails—"

natsu groans, covering his ears. not this shit again...

"do you know how worried i got?! i thought you were mugged or something! i was going to call the polic—!"

"shut up, you whore." at the moment, he had no regrets.

lucy's eyes widen, but her face quickly morphs into and expression of anger. "what did you just call me?" she dares him to say it again, following him into their room.

he accepts her dangerous challenge as he shuffles through his drawer, looking for something. "i called you a whore," he repeats, as if the words were nothing.

the blonde finally snaps. "that's it!" she exclaims, frustrated and mad. she goes to her closet and begins to grab her clothes. she starts to stuff them into a backpack.

natsu spins around, and fire engulfs his eyes. "what the fvck do you think you're doing?" he says in a dangerously low tone, as he stomps over to lucy.

she quickly swings the bag over her shoulder, "i'm leaving you!"

he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "no, you aint!"

she rages onwards, as if she didn't listen to a word he just said.

"come back!"

she still doesn't respond.

finally, he stomps to her, getting pushed over the edge. he grabs her wrist violently, "don't you dare!" he screams.

lucy reaches the final straw, and does something she'll regret for the rest of her life.

she slaps him. real hard. right across the face.

as soon as her hand comes in contact with his soft skin, she instantly regrets it. she knows it wasn't right – but she was just so angry. natsu's been coming home drunk every night; she finally reached her breaking point.

but that didn't make things any better.

she hurt him. she hurt the one person she cared about most.

for a moment, natsu is left in shock. he doesn't believe that just happened; but the sting on his left cheek tells him otherwise.

anger quickly fills his body, as he goes full-on. pining her up against the wall, the blonde screeches, not excepting that. balling up his fist, his hand was so close to her face – luckily, lucy shifted her head quickly, and he punched the wall, creating a huge hole in it.

that's the first time they ever laid their hands on each other.

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POSTED: Friday, 19th August, 2016