Summary: Lucy was supposed to be out shopping, buying a birthday present for a friend. She didn't expect to be roped into a game of Dungeons and Dragons when she entered a tabletop store out of mild curiosity. Modern AU. Eventual NaLu with other minor pairings.
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13654039/1/
Word count:223k
Chapters:28
Chapter One
Prologue
Saturday, August 1st
Lucy Heartfilia was feeling at a loss. She had been out in town all afternoon, trudging from store to store trying to find a suitable birthday gift. It wasn't normally this much of a struggle but trying to find a gift for one friend in particular – Loke, was not an easy task as she soon discovered. The man was already well off financially and she always preferred to buy things for people that actually meant something, that had sentimental value to them.
So she tried every shop she could think of that might have had something appropriate and now her feet were beginning to hurt. She was currently walking down a quieter street that was a bit further from the center of town, away from the crowds of happy shoppers. She was about to call it quits for the day and telling herself she still had a few weeks to find something when she passed an unusual store that she hadn't tried yet.
It was definitely different from any of the stores she had already been too. The shop window was decorated with logos of various brands she didn't recognize and beyond the glass were shelves of comic books, board game boxes, figurines and unfamiliar merchandise which she suspected might be related to video games. Overhead, there was a large red banner with the name of the shop 'Strauss Games and Hobbies' followed by a description 'Tabletop Games, Books and Accessories'.
Thinking it couldn't hurt to at least have a look as she had tried everywhere else, Lucy approached the entrance, a little bell rang as she opened the door.
"Really Natsu? He doesn't even send me a heads up?" Gray spoke with clear irritation, rubbing his forehead in frustration.
"Yeah, well, he told me to tell you," Natsu nonchalantly replied as he sat himself down at the table, scattering various bags of snacks in front of him.
Gray continued to set up the table, placing his screen in front of him, concealing anything he placed between it and himself as well as taking various colored dice out (although most were in shades of blue). Finally, he took out various, finely painted miniatures on squared paper in the center of the old, rectangular table in front of him. He looked over at his pink-haired companion who had now opened a bag of chips and started munching on them loudly, crumbs spilling everywhere.
Gray sighed at the sight of his messy friend before delving into his sudden issue. "And why did you say he was dropping out again?"
"He wanted to hang out with someone else on Saturdays," Natsu responded, placing his food back down and leaning back in his chair, with his hands behind his head, seemingly unbothered by the unfolding predicament.
"He's your brother, why didn't you say something sooner?"
"I ain't his keeper, ice prick," Natsu retorted in annoyance. "Besides, he was really excited about whoever it was he was hangin' with. Mavis or something."
Gray huffed as he peered at his notes. "Yeah, okay, that's nice and all but now we need another player. I set up this campaign for four players minimum."
Getting fed up of Gray's fussing, Natsu stood up, peering around the room. "It's no big deal, we can just ask someone around here to play."
"You serious?" Gray asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah…? Why not?" Natsu deadpanned, his eyes scanning the vicinity for anyone hanging around.
"Good luck with that," Gray answered sarcastically.
Natsu ignored him and focused on looking for someone to fill his brother's place at the table. There were a few kids eyeing up the video games of course but a bit too young to be playing D&D on Saturday evenings.
There was Lisanna or Mira who ran the place but they had jobs to do. Of course, there were the usual nerdy-looking types loitering around the board games but he was specifically looking for someone that would fit in with their group.
It was a bit of a tall order but if he could spot someone who maybe had a similar interest to what he or maybe one of his group's members, it could work out? Not spotting anyone immediately left Natsu starting to rethink his idea already.
However, it was the sight of someone near the manga section of the shop, browsing some of his favorite shōnen that caught his attention. Before Gray could protest any further to Natsu's 'great idea', Natsu promptly left the table, approaching the person whom he quickly realized was a woman, probably around the same age as him and noticing that her long blonde hair in a somewhat frazzled lopsided ponytail as well as the obvious short skirt. Not the attire of someone who usually frequents the place he thought but she was browsing one of his favorite sections so surely they had to be interesting enough to investigate regardless.
"Yo!" He casually greeted, causing the blonde to turn towards him with an embarrassed expression on her face as if she had been caught with something she shouldn't have. In her hands, she was holding a copy of the latest 'Eden's Zero' – one of his favorite manga and he couldn't help but warmly smile at her. Surely someone with the same taste as himself would want to at least try out Dungeons and Dragons, right?
"That series is awesome," he stated, pointing at the book.
She grinned back shyly but returned the book to the shelf, "I've never read it. I'm just trying to find a gift for my friend but I don't know what to get him."
Natsu felt a little disappointed. The woman now seemed nervous and out of her comfort zone. Perhaps it was asking too much to expect the first person he approached to be a good fit for the group and that's if she even wanted to try playing in the first place. Then again, she was shopping for a friend? In the manga section? Perhaps he shouldn't give up just yet. Giving up wasn't really in his nature either.
"I mean erm…" She suddenly continued. "I'd just thought I would at least look at what these were. I've never read these kind of books before. I prefer novels myself." Her eyes darted over the shelves and shelves of manga books and Natsu can see that her curiosity has definitely perked despite her statement.
"What kind of novels?" He blurted out without thinking. He wasn't a reader and it really, really wasn't his thing at all. Natsu wasn't even sure why he felt the need to ask and he hoped she wouldn't start blurting out the names of books he'd never heard of. Manga and comics were his preferred choice over paragraphs of writing. None the less, that part of him that was curious about her kept him engaged. Something about her told him that she would be a good fit, he'd just have to find it.
"Oh, well, fantasy novels, occasionally sci-fi," she responded with a flicker of excitement in her large, brown eyes.
Natsu couldn't help but feel a little victory in his heart. A bit of probing into those genres would tell him everything he needed to know. He just hoped by 'fantasy', she didn't mean those sucky teen romance books about vampires or some shit.
"Oh yeah?" He said with a smile, "You mean like Lord of the Rings and all that?" He was hoping for a yes. He had never read the books but he loved the movies, having lost count of how many times he had seen them. There were plenty of other movies he definitely liked too: the ones that included his favorite mythical creature topping that list.
To his relief, she nodded with a smile back at him, "Yeah. A Song of Ice and Fire is also pretty good too."
Natsu had to quickly wrack his brain for that one. It sounded really familiar but he took a moment to place it. Then it finally clicked. "Oh! You mean Game of Thrones?"
"Yeah, that's the first book!"
"I've only seen the TV series."
She didn't respond to this with anything but a small smile but the way this woman's eyes lit up over their brief discussion had pretty much told him what he was looking for. She liked fantasy, she liked stuff with dragons in it and she looked happy talking about it. He decided to just go ahead and ask. If she told him no, then there was no harm done right? Although it wouldn't be fun to put up with Gray calling him an idiot afterwards for even trying.
"Right, so, well this is gonna sound a bit random but..." He began but struggled to keep going as if he suddenly realized this was more awkward than he anticipated it to be. He decided he would just outright say it, "Do you wanna try out playing Dungeons and Dragons with me and a few others over there? It's a homebrew campaign and we could do with another player." He flicked his thumb over his shoulder to where Gray was sitting, indicating what he meant.
The blonde woman seemed confused and shifted awkwardly for a moment. It occurred to Natsu that maybe she was just a bookworm and she had no idea what he was asking of her. That was okay though, if she was interested, he could just show her how to play. If there were some books he had read in his lifetime, it had been the ones that told him everything he needed to know of how to play that game.
She wrinkled her brow, looking uncertain. "I don't know… I'm not even sure what that is exactly."
Natsu brought his hand up and absently minded gripped his chin as he thought about the best way to describe the game to her. He thought back to when Erza tried to explain it to someone once and that person was totally overwhelmed with information that she gave them. He needed to make it sound fun if he had any hope of convincing her to play.
"Uh, you make an adventurer with a story and you go on quests and stuff in a fantasy world with different races and magical creatures like dragons and unicorns," Natsu then tried to explain although he knew it was more of a ramble. He wasn't really a man of words and wondered if that was enough to convince her. "And I can help you out with getting started!" He added, but she still didn't look convinced.
"You use your imagination to play mostly," He tacked on at the end for good measure.
It wasn't clear what she thought of his explanation. Her eyes darted over to the table and back to him a few times as her facial expressions looked as if she was having some kind of indecisive, silent argument with herself internally. When she finally looked back at him again, he couldn't help but offer her another friendly grin. He didn't expect her to suddenly twist her gaze away from him as if she were now suddenly shy. She was definitely weird.
Natsu was pretty sure she was going to say no at this point. No doubt she had better things to do. She did say she was shopping for something earlier. Well, at least he tried-
"Yeah. Sure. I can try it." She quickly said, as her eyes snapped back to his with a sudden sense of determination and maybe a little excitement. He had to admit he kind of liked that look.
Natsu was not only little astonished but also kind of impressed with himself that he had convinced a random girl to play.
"Great! You're totally gonna love it if you like all those fantasy books." He didn't know her name yet. He probably should have asked that first. "I'm Natsu by the way."
"Lucy," She held out her hand in a friendly gesture. Did she want to shake hands?
Natsu obliged her weirdness and wasn't surprised when her gentle hand pulled back quickly from his. He had a tendency to do that to people as she no doubt felt his 'higher than average' temperature on his palm. He didn't really know why people said that about him, he never felt as if he were any warmer than anyone else. Except for that popsicle, Gray of course.
"Right then, Lucy." Natsu directed her over to the table, where Gray was still neatly assembling his materials, notes and bags of dice and looking fairly methodical about it. Everyone that played in their group had their own set of dice but Gray always had extra sets. All Lucy would need is a pencil, a copy of a blank character sheet and to have a look at what kind of character to make in the player's handbook.
"I guess you're sitting here next to me then!" He announced probably a bit more enthusiastically than he intended. He could help her out better if she sat nearby and she wouldn't have to feel intimidated by his other two friends when they showed up.
He pointed to his brother's empty seat which was beside Natsu's on one side of the wooden table. Erza and Gajeel always sat opposite of him and Gray always set himself on the end, partially hidden behind his screen. It had been that way for years of visiting this place.
Lucy didn't sit down straight away. She looked over at Gray who was looking flabbergasted at the situation unfurling before him that made Natsu feel just a little bit prouder of himself. Natsu could tell that Gray had not foreseen this happening in the slightest.
"Gray, this is Luigi. She's gonna see if she likes the game," Natsu said fairly smugly, causing Gray to frown slightly at him.
"It's Lucy actually…" Lucy meekly corrected although neither of them looked at her.
"Seriously, Natsu, that actually worked?" His question was rhetorical as his eyes darted between the idiot he called his friend and the attractive blonde that suddenly was looking awkwardly out of place. Gray looked her over, uncertain if she was really the type to want to play a tabletop game.
Before Gray could ask her if she really wanted to play, Natsu cut in. "Yeah, so stop whinging and let's help her make a character already."
With their attention finally back on her, Lucy gave Gray a little wave, clearly feeling a little awkward as she fidgeted on the spot.
Gray stood up to reach out and shake her hand at least. It only seemed right to be polite after Natsu had just brought her over here after only a few minutes of conversation. Personally he would have preferred to figure out if this woman was gonna be a good fit for his campaign but as usual, Natsu thoughtlessly went right over his head on that one.
Her eyes suddenly widened as her gaze dropped downwards, before she hastily looked away, a tinge of faint pink sweeping across her cheeks.
"Dammit, Gray! Stop taking your clothes off!" Natsu yelled out, pointing towards Gray's lower half. It was just his luck to find someone who agreed to play only for Gray to strip in front of them. After all that convincing, it was gonna be straight back to square one again wasn't it?
"Shit! Sorry," Gray freaked before desperately looking around for his pants. "It's a bad habit… I'm not a pervert, really…" He muttered although it wasn't very convincing and he knew it.
To Natsu's surprise, Lucy didn't bolt from the shop but merely shielded her eyes until Gray was no longer in a state of undress.
Once Gray had composed himself, he turned back to Lucy with an apologetic look on his face. "Really sorry about that! Look, let me start over… Hi. I'm Gray and I'm the dungeon master."
Realizing how that sounded to someone who was going to try the game out for what was presumably the first time, Gray slapped a palm in his face. He was usually cool, calm and collected but this whole situation had thrown him off.
Natsu stepped in at this point, growing more impatient and diverting Lucy's attention away from his bumbling friend. "A dungeon master runs the game. He's kinda the organizer of everything and creates the world we're gonna play in."
Lucy seemed to take in everything that Natsu said with ease, remaining quiet and nodding in understanding. He felt himself take an internal deep breath of relief to see that she was still interested.
"… That's a surprisingly good explanation coming from you Natsu," Gray snidely commented.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Means I didn't expect you to explain anything coherently."
"You wanna take it outside, frost face?!"
The bell that hung over the front doors of the shop let a sudden, harsh ring and the three of them whipped their heads over to the distraction.
"Are you boys fighting, again?!"
Natsu grimaced, shutting his trap immediately at the sight of the mean-looking red-haired woman at the door. The nearby clock that hung over the store counter began to chime loudly, informing him that his other companion, Erza had arrived precisely on time as she usually did. If he was worried about Lucy bolting before, he really hoped that seeing Erza wouldn't intimidate her too much.
A quick look to his side revealed Lucy was still there, her expression more confused than intimidated. He said nothing but he really hoped she would stay despite the off-putting introduction to his friends. He really did think she was going to fit in, if he couldn't quite explain just why just yet.
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13654039/1/