#I have no idea what young clive's shoes are supposed to be so I made a guess(tm)

[bakafurai]

today I bring you childhood friends clemmy. Tomorrow? who knows

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Candyman (1992)

All I know about Candyman is that I saw the movie cover innumerable times at Blockbuster as a child and it ALWAYS freaked me out. I think bees are involved? And a hook, and maybe a mirror? And the great Tony Todd, whom I know better from the Final Destination films, and whose voice is one of the all-time great voices in horror or anywhere else. With the new Jordan Peele-produced Candyman coming out this year (maybe...if, you know, movies ever come out again during the apocalypse), I wanted to watch the original for the first time, so I’d have an idea of what I was getting into. 

Basically a couple of grad students, Helen and Bernadette (Virginia Madsen and Kasi Lemmons), are studying local urban legends and folklore in Chicago when they find out about the legend of Candyman (Tony Todd), a murderous spirit that haunts the projects in Cabrini Green and the poor black folks who live there. As Helen digs deeper into the mystery, strange things start happening to her until she finally is forced to confront Candyman face-to-face and then things REALLY go off the rails. So is this a slasher movie filled with racial tension, the precursor to more cerebral horror fare like Get Out or Midsommar? Or is this more Eddie Murphy Vampire in Brooklyn 90s ridiculousness? Well...

Much more the former than the latter. There’s a lot of stuff going on here, and not all the ingredients in the smoothie work well together. There’s a lot of good - strong performances, some great set pieces, and some truly tense, nerve-wracking sequences. My 7-year-old self was definitely right to be super freaked out by that VHS cover.

Some thoughts:

Ok this Philip Glass soundtrack is already really unsettling and weird in a great way. It turns out the soundtrack is one of the elements that really makes this film memorable and stand out from typical slasher schlock.

Ah, it’s based on a story by Clive Barker, ok so this is gonna be violent and sexual and uncomfortable, got it. [Ed. note: this assessment was pretty accurate.]

I don’t understand in what universe you want to like, play a Bloody Mary type game when you’re about to have sex. Is that what turns some people on? I’m not here to kinkshame anyone, but I just feel like there are other ways to court a bit of danger during sex that don’t involve invoking a murderous mirror spirit. 

I am loving these oversized sweaters. Was any decade better for oversized sweaters than the 90s?

The set design is really incredible - this derelict building in the Cabrini Green projects is eerie, there’s an oppressive presence and an abandoned feeling to it all at the same time. And Wife pointed out that man, people really loved painting walls pink in the 90s, you just don’t see that kind of pink anymore. This movie has a really rich feel to it, like all the decisions were made with real craft and care. I can definitely see how this had ripple effects on other atmospheric horror, especially in urban settings, later down the road.

I can’t help but feel like our white woman protagonist is a tourist in a world she doesn’t understand. That sense of not belonging is a big part of the horror here, and at first I was very uncomfortable that this was playing into racist stereotypes of the young blonde white woman being threatened by all the big bad black people. But instead, the film humanizes and offers an air of protectiveness over the residents of Cabrini Green, and in many ways it is Helen who is shown to be the dangerous and harmful outsider.

The jump scares are real, and very effective.

Um what grad student has business cards tho, c’mon now.

Ah yes, the Clive Barker of it all arriving right on time with this completely unasked for child mutilation. 

I love Jake (DeJuan Guy) and his incredulousness. He’s a pretty fantastic and emotive child actor. 

Can I just say, Helen is really really out of Trevor’s (Xander Berkeley) league. I don't know what she sees in him. And it skeeves me out that he’s a professor and she’s a grad student because, although it’s never explicitly spelled out, I would bet a million dollars that she was his student. 

Man, Candyman looking fly as hell with that fur trimmed coat and those shiny black shoes. “Be my victim” ok, Tony Todd, ok, I’m on board!

OH NO THERE IS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE TO A DOG. IT’S VERY GRAPHIC AND SUDDEN AND UPSETTING EVEN THOUGH IT’S FAKE LOOKING.

There’s also a lot of tasteful sideboob if you’re into that sort of thing.

You know, grad school was a stressful time for me, but at least I can say I was never woke up covered in blood and was accused of murder. 

This dramatic motherfucker flying out the window backwards. Between this and the outfit, Candyman is extra AF.

I can’t get over how much Virginia Madsen resembles Gillian Anderson in early X-Files days. It’s similar facial structure and those big eyes, sure, but a lot of it is this hair as well. As any millenial lesbian can tell you, Gillian Anderson in early X-Files days was Very Important to our cause, so uh, I’m pretty into Helen’s whole vibe honestly. 

At first I thought this was going to be about racial symbolism and Candyman being a physical embodiment of the horrors inflicted upon the black community in urban environments, but thigs get muddy with this whole murder plot and framing of Helen as this victim of some supernatural conspiracy theory, and I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to take from it? But damn, this is compelling and stressful. 

OK but if she’s been in the hospital for a month, then this baby has been in this dirty ass room for a month with only a dramatic hook spectre man taking care of him? What did he feed baby Anthony?? I happen to know that he’s covered in bees and babies can’t eat honey. 

Why do they have a giant paperclip on their wall as decoration?

The actor who plays Trevor, Xander Berkeley, is so burned in my memory as the foster dad from Terminator 2 that I keep expecting him to make the same dumb face while he’s covered in blood (because let’s face it, I’m expecting EVERYONE to die in this movie, and he’s been particularly shitty) and ope time almost ran out but there it is! 1991/1992 were the glory days for this guy dying bloody in movies. 

Did I Cry? No, but I was VERY distressed about that dog :(

Overall, I can definitely see why this has entered the cult classic pantheon. Strong central performances from Virginia Madsen and Tony Todd carry a lot of this film, but there are elements that I’m still confused about, mainly due to a muddled and overstuffed plot. The racial injustice and lynching feels like rich material to draw from but then why is the belief in Candyman yielding the murders of other black people living in Cabrini Green? I would think the vengeance would be on the heads of the folks who actually did the lynching. Why did he have to kidnap the baby? Was it for leverage to get Helen to do what he wanted? Surely someone she had a stronger personal connection to - Bernadette, probably - would have been a wiser choice? And if, instead, this is all some Dracula-esque plot to reconnect with the reincarnated spirit of his long lost love, what on earth was all this other bullshit about? It’s a movie that works best when you don’t ask too many questions about it, and the soundtrack and visuals - especially that mouthful of bees - are ones that are going to stick in my memory for a long time. 

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[miss-zei]

Anathema - Chapter One

Rating: T+ for swear words, and suggestive situations.

Pairing: NaLu

Story summary:  As the daughter of a devout martial artist, Lucy Heartfilia works hard to become strong enough to carry on the name of the Heartfilia dojo. Things become… complicated when a certain pink haired tornado blows into her home and completely turns her life upside down.

A/N: This is the kind of AU where Ranma and Akane are basically Natsu and Lucy. Of course... there are differences in personality amongst other things to keep the story still somewhat my own c:

Prologue | Current Chapter | Chapter Two

--

"You did what?" Lucy demanded as she stared into her father's stoic face, not entirely sure she had heard him correctly. She couldn't have.

"It was something we had discussed long ago." Jude explained, "You weren't even born yet. Your mother thought it was a good idea at the time as well." He grimaced in response to the glare that his daughter sent his way. "He is a very strong and capable young man! He will help to make the dojo strong. Your mother-"

"Don't." Lucy warned, holding a finger up as she struggled to contain her anger. "Don't you dare bring mama into this, dad. I'm only seventeen!" She stood up from the table and her glare hardened further, "I know mama wanted the dojo to be strong. I know that. But how could you just marry me off to some boy that I have never met? Some boy that you have never met!" She folded her arms across her chest and stared expectantly down at her uneasy father who remained seated.

"Well, Lucy… we just believe that it will be in both you and Natsu's best interest."

"That's another thing!" Lucy shouted as she waved her hands in the air, as if to exaggerate the point that she was about to make. "I've never even met this Gildarts man! The only thing I know about him was that he and mother traveled together, training under grandfather." She frowned, "Yet the man didn't even come to her funeral! How could somebody who was so close to mama not come to her funeral?" Lucy couldn't bring herself to even try to understand.

Jude held up a postcard that had a very cute panda on the front of it, and pointed to said card. "Well, both he and Natsu have been in China for a little over a year now. I don't think he even knows about Layla's passing. They will be arriving today." Thunder rumbled immediately after that statement and it began to rain quite hard.

Perfect weather for the mood that Lucy was in.

"I can't believe this," Lucy groaned before she moved to the back door and leaned against the frame and could actually appear to be mournful as she watched as large raindrops began to pelt their koi pond.

The teenager didn't want to believe for a second that her mother would have agreed to marrying Lucy off to somebody whom she'd never met before. Especially when she had no idea what kind of person Gildarts' son would turn out to be.

Then again… Layla had to have been quite young and perhaps even impulsive back then. Lucy had no idea what kinds of things her mother would have said or done. There was a very good possibility that her father wasn't just saying all of that stuff.

"Put me down! don't make me do this!" Someone began shouting towards the front of their house and Lucy felt herself bristle immediately in response. Laxus was at her side in an instant, his expression was difficult to read.

"That must be them!" Jude exclaimed excitedly, getting up and hurrying towards the front door. Wishing to be the one to welcome Gildarts and his soon to be son-in-law into the Heartfilia residence. Lucy was almost positive that she'd never seen her father move so quickly. She supposed that she must have underestimated the friendship that he'd had with her mother's old friend.

"Don't worry," Laxus said after Jude's figure disappeared from their line of sight. "I am sure that grandfather will not accept this," he tried to reassure the brown-eyed young woman and she sighed softly.

Their grandfather had been gone for a few weeks now, talking about some business he'd needed attending to before leaving without any other means of explanation.

A bloodcurdling scream almost immediately drew both of the teenager's attention and they were about to hurry to Jude's aid… before he came running into the room and hid behind Laxus as though he were a large shield.

A panda, carrying a red-haired girl entered the room and stared at the three of them intently, with eyes that seemed a bit too self-aware to truly belong to an animal.

Then, he calmly set the squirming girl down in front of them and pushed her forward.

"Um… I'm Natsu Clive." Her gaze found Lucy's shocked expression before she looked away, "I'm uh, I'm sorry about this." The other girl looked extremely flustered and embarrassed.

"Wait… you are Natsu?" Jude asked incredulously. Natsu quite clearly was a female, Even the baggy black chinese shirt that she wore couldn't necessarily hide the relatively large breasts that were hidden by the thick material. "Where on earth is Gildarts? I don't understand..." Jude stared at Natsu unabashedly before slowly turning his attention onto the Panda that continued to stand on his hind legs. He was also staring at Jude with an equal amount of intensity.

Lucy, of course, was thrilled by the news and moved forward. "Hello, I'm Lucy Heartfilia. You don't need to apologize for anything, it is our fathers who should be apologizing." She sent a pointed look to Jude who only continued to stare at the panda in a state of perplexity. "They are the ones who messed up after all." Lucy laughed softly, and Natsu hesitated before nodding in agreement.

"You just came from China, didn't you? Would you like to spar a little?" Lucy was already dressed in her Gi, having been in the dojo before her father had asked her into the living room so that they could talk about something important.

So much for that.

"Oh well I don't know, I'm not sure I really wanna spar right now…" Natsu trailed off, scratching the back of her head anxiously.

"Oh come on, please? I only ever get to spar with my cousin, but he never takes me seriously. I love him… but boys just really piss me off lately."

Natsu laughed at that, a very bittersweet sound before finally agreeing and willingly followed Lucy when she began to lead the way towards the dojo.

"I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am that you're a girl," Lucy said as they walked, "My dad only just told me about the little arrangement he and your father had." They turned a corner and found another long hallway. "I don't think he was expecting for you to be female." She then quickly waved her hands around. "Not that there is anything wrong with same sex marriage of course!" She felt quite embarrassed for her words all of a sudden. "I'm just straight!" Lucy then smacked her forehead, "I have a gift at making things worse than they already are." she sighed and Natsu laughed loudly at the blonde's display.

"Don't worry, I am too." Another laugh before she looked around a little bit, "You have a really big house." She observed, "Your dad isn't a martial artist, is he?"

Lucy shook her head, "No, he owns a branch of department stores." She shrugged, "He does a lot of his work at home though. Paperwork and all that. I can't even imagine doing that kind of thing for a living. It seems so boring." she shook her head and quickly added, "Of course, I do enjoy writing stories on paper. That kind of paperwork I wouldn't mind."

Natsu continued to look around with large, emerald eyes. Lucy wasn't entirely sure that the strange girl was even listening to Lucy anymore at that point. It appeared as though she had never been in such a large house before. Lucy herself thought that it was unnecessarily large. But this was the home that her mother and father had lived the entirety of their married lives in. So Lucy never said anything about it to her father.

When they finally made it to the dojo, Lucy already felt so much better as she breathed in the dojo air deeply and slipped off her shoes.

"Um listen, I'm really not sure about this." Natsu said slowly as she watched while Lucy began to stretch her weary muscles. "Maybe we should wait a little bit for this? Um…" The redhead really didn't seem to want to spar and Lucy felt a small pang of guilt for insisting so much

But only a very small pang.

"I promise I'll go easy on you," Lucy said as she dropped into a ready position and held her hands up defensively, "we don't need to go all out right away. I know you must be tired from your trip here. We don't even have to go very long, how about we just try to knock the other down?" Natsu sighed before nodding.

Lucy waited for the other girl to get ready, but Natsu only stood there and smiled as she watched Lucy. So, the blonde decided to make the first move. She ran at Natsu and began to throw a few punches and kicks. Definitely going a bit slower than she usually would with Laxus or the Master. The last thing she wanted was to actually hurt the other martial artist, especially so soon into their relationship. Though it quickly became clear that this wouldn't be an issue. Natsu evaded each of Lucy's attacks easily. Too easily.

So the blonde picked up the pace, but as her attacks moved quicker… so did Natsu's dodges. It was apparent that Natsu was at a much, much higher level than Lucy. Her gaze darted to the other girls black chinese shirt. She hadn't noticed earlier because it kind of blended in, but Natsu wore a black belt.

It was then that Lucy lost her footing and fell backwards when Natsu reached forward and lightly poked Lucy's forehead, easily pushing her off balance.

Lucy, stunned, fell onto her backside. This girl could probably give even Laxus a run for his money. That was amazing.

"You're really good," Lucy accepted the hand that Natsu had extended to help her up. "I wish I had your reflexes. You must have been training your whole life in order to achieve such a fluidity with your body."

Natsu nodded, "Yeah, pop and me have been traveling and training as long as I can remember."

Lucy then blinked when she realized something, "Right… speaking of your dad. Where is he?" She also thought about the panda that had come with Natsu.

How strange.

Natsu grimaced and opened her mouth to answer Lucy's question before a fairly large and very wet man ran into the dojo with his arms open wide.

"Lucy!" He shouted, immediately taking said girl by surprise. She'd never seen that man before in her entire life, though for some reason his face did look a little bit familiar…

Fortunately for her, Natsu was not phased by the strange man's antics and stepped in front of Lucy and punched the guy square in the face without any sign of hesitation, effectively deflecting him.

"Ow!" He shouted, rubbing his already reddening cheek, "Natsu! Is that any way to treat your poor father? I just wanted to greet Lucy properly!" The fully grown man folded his large, muscled arms across his chest and actually appeared to be pouting.

"Oh I didn't know that a 'proper' way of greeting somebody was to attack them without even introducing yourself." Natsu groaned loudly before gesturing to the mumbling adult. "This is my pop." She said with a grimace and Lucy looked the man up and down, curious.

"So you're Gildarts." Now she knew where she recognized his face from. A photo of her mother, grandfather, and three other men that she'd never actually met before. She definitely recognized this man as one of those other people in that photo. "So you traveled with my mom, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Gildarts smile faded, "I had no idea that Layla…" he shook his head, as if to ward off any of the sadness that was beginning to affect his mood. "I'm sorry for your loss. If I had known how bad Layla was getting…" He looked to Natsu, "We probably wouldn't have gone to China."

For some reason… those words seemed to hold a weight to them. More weight than Lucy could understand.

"I'm sure mama wouldn't have wanted to get in the way of your training." Lucy said after a long moment of watching Natsu and her father hold each other's gaze with a matching expression on their faces that she couldn't read.

These two were… strange.

It was then that Lucy noticed how wet the two were and she immediately felt guilty as her attention returned to Natsu, "I'm sorry, I should have taken your state into consideration before I asked for a spar." she gestured to Natsu's wet clothes. "I'll go get baths going for the two of you, if you leave your clothes outside the bathroom doors, I'll have one of the maid's get them clean for you. I should have thought of that first." She laughed as she bopped herself on the forehead, "My brain is all jumbled up because of the whole 'engagement' thing." She then began to leave the dojo, "I'll have my father or somebody come get you when the baths are ready. You can continue to use the dojo if you'd like." She then left the two to their own devices.

Her face slowly fell into that of pensive focus as she walked through the house. So much had happened since she woke up that morning, too much actually. It was so frustrating that her father had waited so long to tell Lucy of her betrothal. She didn't want to be angry at him, because she knew that he'd never been very good at talking about things that may upset her.

Ever since her mother died, Jude had been especially wary of Lucy's feelings. With Layla's death having been expected for so many years… the man had the time to accept the fact that he would need to carry on raising Lucy without Layla's help. It was because of how hard he'd been trying that Lucy didn't want to get too angry with the man.

Lucy entered the first bathroom and began to run the bath. She set out a clean towel for whoever would use that bathroom before she turned and began to head towards their second bathroom.

She supposed having a large house was good for an unexpected houseguest or two.

It was as she was entering the second bathroom that she ran into her father who seemed to have had the same idea as she. "You must be feeling quite silly, father." Lucy scoffed as she passed him and did the same with the second bathroom that she had with the first. Although the only clean towel in that bathroom was one that had her name sewed onto it. She was sure that neither Natsu nor Gildarts would really care about such a thing.

She certainly didn't mind.

"Well… Lucy…" Jude hesitated as she passed him once more upon leaving the bathroom, "Listen…"

"Papa, I'm gonna get started on dinner, please show our guests to the bathrooms, they should still be in the dojo." The blonde spoke over her father, not wanting to snap at him because of her salty mood.

It was when she entered the kitchen that she began to wonder about that panda again. Where on earth had it gone?

More importantly… why did she feel so unphased by a panda striding into her home like it owned the place? Maybe the news of the engagement had affected her more than she'd initially thought.

She sighed softly and took her apron off of the hook that it hung from beside the refrigerator and put it on. She would cook dinner… and then things would begin to return to normal.

At least… she hoped so anyway. But something told her that things weren't going to be quite that simple.

[miss-zei]

Anathema - Chapter Three

Rating: T+ for swear words, and suggestive situations.

Pairing: NaLu

Story summary:  As the daughter of a devout martial artist, Lucy Heartfilia works hard to become strong enough to carry on the name of the Heartfilia dojo. Things become… complicated when a certain pink haired tornado blows into her home and completely turns her life upside down.

A/N: Here we are, a day early! Because I got 10 reviews on the last chapter~ The next chapter will be out next Tuesday <3

Prologue | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Current chapter

--

As Lucy had suspected, the Clive’s visit would last much longer than just a few days. In fact, both Jude and Gildarts  had decided that the wedding would certainly happen. Neither one of them seeming to care much at all about how Natsu or Lucy felt on the matter.

Lucy would be lying if she said that she was surprised by her father's behavior and his decision to push forward with the engagement. Jude Heartfilia would more than likely do anything if he thought that it was something that would please his late wife. He’d even attempted to learn the art several times in the past. Although he certainly had the passion… his body was somewhat feeble. Making it impossible for him to get very far at all.

The teen had just gotten downstairs after getting dressed in her school uniform, which consisted of white blouse and sky blue dress combo.

It would be her first day to school since Natsu had joined the Heartfilia’s, because he’d arrived on the first day of her summer break. She was a little bit excited for a break from home, if she were being completely honest. Even training in the dojo didn’t feel quite like an escape since she often found Natsu lurking nearby. He would often offer to give her pointers, though she hadn’t taken him up on that offer yet. Mostly because she was too stubborn, a fatal flaw that she hoped to get over before too much longer.

“Lucy, show Natsu the way to school, okay?” Jude asked at breakfast, casually. “He’ll be attending Furinkan high with you from this day forward, so make sure to introduce him  to all of your friends! Gildarts has already enrolled him in all of your classes, so make sure to be a good guide alright?” Lucy blinked at the new information.

“What?” She asked, “Natsu is going to go to school?” deciding that was a ridiculous question, Lucy decided to rephrase it. “Natsu is going to go to school here?” She supposed that she really shouldn’t have been surprised, especially because of how pushy their dads were being. They brought up the engagement at least five times a day, Lucy had gotten so accustomed to it… that it was quite easy to ignore it. Although, Natsu didn’t seem to be having such an easy time.

“Dammit pop!” Natsu’s feminine voice came from the  direction of the backyard and Lucy noticed the steaming kettle that sat beside her father, he’d been expecting this. Lucy could understand why. Every day those two got to sparring, and it almost always ended up with a trip to the bottom of the koi pond. Ultimately resulting in many heated up kettles throughout the day.

The mumbles and growls that followed Natsu’s exclamation told Lucy that Gildarts had also been hit by the pond water.

“I don’t care what you have to say about it!” Natsu shouted over Gildarts’ retorts, “All of this doesn't matter right now anyway! What we should be doing is finding a cure in China! Now you want me to start going to school? What the hell old man?!” A series of thwacks and slaps  followed by a loud splash told Lucy that somebody had taken another swim and she glared at her father.

“You want me to take him to school in this condition? He is going to be soaking wet by the time we get there! And if I don’t want to be late we need to leave now.”  

“Natsu!” Jude called just as the red-head popped back up to the surface of the pond, “Come get changed back, Lucy is going to take you to school now!” Lucy watched as Natsu glared daggers at his father who waved smugly.

Natsu let Jude dump the contents of the steaming pot over his head and Lucy watched with mild interest as he changed from girl to boy. She had a feeling that it would never get old, she especially found it interesting since both his eye and hair color changed as well. Was this what the girl who had drowned in that spring looked like? Lucy found that hard to believe because even in his female form, Natsu did somewhat look like Natsu. Save for the complete change of figure, his face looked pretty close to the same as when he was a boy.

Natsu still had a sour look on his face as they walked her usual route to school. Natsu had leapt onto the fence and walked along it easily, amazing Lucy with the incredible control he had over his body once more. A small pang in her heart made her grimace and look away. She was jealous. She’d been training a very long time as well, yet she was nowhere near the level that he was. It definitely got on Lucy’s nerves, but she would do her best to keep from taking out her frustrations on Natsu. It wasn’t his fault that he was pretty much a master of the art at such a young age.

“You could try to think of it as another form of training,” Lucy offered from where she walked beside the fence, casually swinging her book bag, “I’m sure it’ll be a challenge for your patience levels, from what I seen so far… you don’t really have a whole lot of that.” she giggled softly and Natsu scoffed  as he looked up at the cloudy sky. “School honestly is pretty fun. I’m sure you’ll see that when you start going.” Lucy tried to get him to stay positive.

“I’ve gone to school.” Natsu frowned down at Lucy, “It just has never been a huge part of my life. Pop never showed any interest in my schooling either. The only reason I went at all was because we had to settle down for a little while because he was too sick to train with me. I honestly didn’t like it at all. It was time that I could have spent honing my skills.” He groaned and ran a hand back through his still-damp hair. “Pop teaches me all that I need to know, I don’t need school.”

“Well most teenagears our age go to school, and I think it would probably be really good for you to try to get used to the idea.” Lucy may not be interested in getting engaged, but Natsu did seem like a decent enough guy. She was a little bit concerned about his development in other aspects of his life that weren't martial arts related. While he certainly didn’t appear to be unintelligent, Lucy was positive that he needed to go to school.

“Besides.” Natsu began, slicing through Lucy’s train of thought,  “I’m going to open up my own school of martial arts one day. I don’t need to go to school for that.”

“I could argue with that statement.” Lucy turned her attention forward and stifled a groan when she recognized a silhouette on the horizon, right in front of the school gates. The blonde cursed under her breath softly before stretching her arms a little bit, careful to not smack herself in the face with her school bag as she did so.

Natsu, having heard her, looked down at Lucy before turning his gaze forward to try and see what she was glaring at. He jumped off of the fence and walked beside her,  “Who is that?” He asked as he squinted in an attempt to get a better look.

“Nobody. Hold my bag?” Lucy didn’t wait for a response before she threw her school bag at Natsu and took of running towards the silhouette. The pink haired boy easily caught the bag before he really knew what was going on. He ran after her after the initial shock wore off.

Lucy didn’t show any sign of hesitation before attacking the man who held a bokken.

“Oh my darling Lulu! Today  is the day I will get you to date me!” The brunette held his arms out wide, as if to accept an embrace, before Lucy’s foot met with his left cheek and he was thrown backwards, a smile still on his lips, and tears streaming down his face.

“I don’t think so Dan,” Lucy took only a moment to straighten her school uniform before she turned to Natsu who had come to a stop right beside her. His eyes were wide as he stared at the unconscious student. He wore traditional Japanese garb, and paired with his bokken... lead Natsu to believe that this guy had to be in the kendo club. “Come on Natsu.” Lucy urged as she took her book bag from him. “We really are going to be late if we don’t hurry.”

Natsu didn’t seem satisfied with the guys state of unconsciousness. “Hey, what kind of guy asks something like that so early in the morning?” He poked the guys reddened cheek with the tip of his chinese shoe and Lucy groaned when the guy sat up and rubbed his cheek.

“Now you did it.” She pinched the bridge of her nose as if in an attempt to ward off the headache that she knew would be coming before too long. A headache was almost always guaranteed after a certain amount of time spent in the presence of Dan Straight. He was a very, very loud guy.

“Lucy Heartfilia!” Dan exclaimed, immediately jumping to his feet. “That was a great kick! Now--” He immediately cut himself off when his eyes landed on Natsu, who now stood a little bit in front of Lucy, almost defensively as he folded his arms across his chest. “Who are you?” Dan demanded, clearly fully recovered from the kick to the face. “How dare you block the way to my darling Lulu?” He rose the pokken and pointed it at Natsu’s chest. “I’m afraid that there is no chance I can let this offence go without punishment.”

Natsu raised an eyebrow and stifled a laugh with one hand as he turned to look at Lucy, as if to ask if this guy was for real and the blonde only groaned before nodding her head, clearly ashamed. “Just ignore him, we are going to be late--” Lucy was cut off by a horrifyingly sharp battle cry and she grimaced as her gaze returned to Dan, who was jumping towards Natsu with his sword raised.

A smile spread across Natsu’s lips as he turned in time to narrowly dodge the attack.

“Now this is what I’m talking about! If school is like this I might not hate it so much!” He dodged another couple quick-paced sword attacks and watched as Dan’s confident expression gradually morphed into confusion as he was unable to land a single hit on Natsu. He released battle cry after battle cry as he thrust his bokken towards Natsu.

Finally, as he seemed to tire out… Natsu began to fight back.

Lucy watched in silent amazement as Natsu easily knocked Dan unconscious.

Her knocking the guy out was one thing. He was madly in love with  her, no matter how many times she knocked him out… he always came back for more. When he attacked her, it was completely non-aggressively. Dan was actually the captain of the school's kendo club. His skill was actually parallel to none of their rival schools. So it truly was impressive that Natsu was able to take Dan out so easily, without even breaking a sweat.

It was just as Natsu was turning to face Lucy again that a flash of lightning made itself known to the world, barely signalling the downpour that followed mere seconds later.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” Natsu’s voice went from masculine to feminine within that sentence and Lucy threw her hands up in the air, defeated.

“Well we can’t have you go into school as a girl on your first day!” Perhaps she should consider bringing a thermos of hot water to school every day? It seemed to Lucy as though the curse ran deeper than it seemed on the outside.

She’d never met anybody who got hit by cold water as much as Natsu and Gildarts.

Almost as though merely thinking about him could summon the beast of a man, Lucy noticed a panda running in their direction. A panda with a kettle. Without hesitation, that panda scooped Natsu up into his arms and rushed towards the protection of the schools overhang. Natsu was a boy again in seconds, yelling about how it had been ‘too hot’, but Gildarts was already rushing off.

Lucy watched, entirely baffled.

She wasn’t sure if she should be impressed by Gildarts’ swift save, or mildly creeped out over the fact that he had known to come in the first place.

“Lucy!” Natsu shouted and the blonde turned her brown eyes onto the boy who had begun to wring out the ends of his shirt. She couldn’t help but find the way he pronounced her name… cute. Lu-shi. Why she found it cute? She wasn’t entirely sure. “You really shouldn’t stand in the rain like that, you could get sick.” The girl blinked and realized that she’d yet to move from where she’d been standing when Gildarts came.

She was drenched.

Natsu laughed as Lucy yelled at him about how it would be completely his fault if she did get sick because of how he had gone and picked a fight with Dan when it had already been taken care of.

Lucy apologized profusely to their mildly irritated teacher for being a few minutes late, though he let it slide since it was Natsu’s first day.

Natsu introduced himself as a martial artist, naturally, before he took the seat that was beside Lucy.

Classes ran slowly, mostly due to the fact that Lucy had to constantly make sure that Natsu didn’t fall asleep in the middle of a lesson.

It wasn’t until gym that he became completely attentive. Mostly due to the fact that he was very interested in showing off his impressive stamina and strength. As he had phrased it to Lucy before running off to join up with the other boys who were getting ready to do their activities for the day. Meanwhile, Lucy still needed to get changed into her school’s gym uniform. She headed to the locker room and tried to make quick work of changing.

“So… are you going to explain to us why you showed up late to class with the new guy?” Lucy grimaced as one of her friends, Erza, draped an arm over Lucy’s shoulder just after she’d taken off her school uniform’s top. Erza was quite topless as well, although she’d already changed into her sports bra. “The two of you seem pretty familiar with each other…” Erza winked at Lucy and the latter's face did an impressive shift from pale porcelain to brilliant crimson in seconds.

“I-It’s not like that!” Lucy was quick to dismiss her friends suggestion before shrugging off the others arm, “He is just… staying with my family for a little while. That’s all.” Lucy didn’t even want to imagine the discourse that would ensue if even one person from her school found out about her engagement with Natsu.

Much to Lucy’s chagrin, many of the guys in the school pursued her.

Which might have been something that she’d have enjoyed… back in middle school. Now though, it was mostly exhausting to have so many guys--who didn’t even know her, for that matter--be constantly trying to gain her affections.

None of them even tried to get to know her. Lucy supposed that was the part that irritated her the most about it.

“Oh, didn’t you hear Erza?” Levy McGarden peeked over from behind a row of lockers, “They’re engaged!” Both Erza’s and Lucy’s jaws dropped at the declaration made by their small, blue haired friend who casually went back to changing.

“What?!” The both of them demanded and Erza’s eyes were on Lucy in milliseconds.

“I-It isn’t what you think!” Lucy quickly waved her hands around, her face somehow managing to attain an entire level of redness. “Levy! You can’t just go around saying stuff like that! You know how the people in this school are!” Lucy looked around quickly a couple times, it seemed as though it was just the three of them left in the locker room. But there really was no such thing as ‘too careful’ in this kind of predicament.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure everybody already knows.” Levy finally walked around the corner and folded her arms across her chest. Levy often opted to change away from her two… bustier friends. She was quite a self conscious girl. “Laxus was talking about it with his little group and well… you know how big of a mouth Evergreen has… I’m pretty sure word spread around like a wildfire. I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it, I’m positive I heard people talking about it in class.” Levy’s eyes then found Erza’s shocked expression, “And you should have been one of the first to hear about it Erza, you are in Laxus’ class.

The two blinked at the new information and Levy facepalmed. “My goodness, the two of you can be as dense as bricks sometimes.”

“Oh… well…” Erza’s cheeks were then red, “I was a little bit distracted in class today.” she admitted sheepishly as she played with her hair, though quickly her easy-going expression turned stern as her eyes fell onto Lucy and she pointed at the blonde. “You are too young to be engaged! What are you thinking Lucy? You need to focus on your education! On your martial arts!”

“I’m telling you!” Lucy felt like she would cry of embarrassment, “It is not a decision that I made! Our dads set it up! Apparently it was some kind of crazy thing they’d decided on before I was even born, it is honestly not something I really want to talk about.”

“Oh.” Erza blinked before pulling her gym shirt on over her head, “An arranged marriage, huh? I didn’t think anybody did those anymore.”

“They don’t.” Lucy sighed loudly before pulling the side pony-tail out of her hair so that she could pull all of her long, blonde hair back into a high pony-tail, not wanting any of it to get in her way during gym. “Our parents are… special cases.” She shook her head, letting a few stray strands of hair fall to frame her face. “But we should really get going, they’ll be picking the captains for volleyball soon.”

Despite the fact that both Erza and Levy clearly wanted to talk more about Lucy’s personal life, they concurred and the three of them left the locker room together. Thankfully they hadn’t been late, though almost the second that her foot touched the gymnasium floor… Lucy could have sworn all eyes fell onto her and chills ran up her spine.

“I’m pretty sure everybody already knows.” Levy had said, and her words echoed in Lucy’s brain as she walked to stand in the line that the other girls had formed for when the team captains would be picked. Already Lucy could hear the hushed whispers and she felt like crawling under a rock.

She was going to kill Laxus when she got home.

A loud whistle sounded in the gym, effectively silencing all of her female classmates and drawing their attention off of Lucy and onto the gym teacher who stood with two volleyballs in hand. “Scarlet, Narsa.” After he spoke each name, he tossed a volleyball at mentioned person. Erza caught hers easily. “You are today's captains, pick your teams and warm up. We start a match in ten.” He then left the girls to their own devices so that he could tell the boys what they would be doing that day.

While Furinkan was definitely a co-ed school… it was a little bit behind in the times when it came to gym activities. The class was always divided between girls and boys.

“Lucy.” Erza said first thing, without even a moment's hesitation. It wasn’t surprising to the blonde, Lucy was almost always first choice when it came to teams. As a martial artist, her reflexes were good and she was very fit. So naturally, she was pretty good at most sports.

By the time the teams were split up, Erza had managed to snag Levy and quickly got everybody to start stretching.

“So Lucy,” the girl beside her, Cana Alberona, sent a sly look her way. “I hear you’ve already snatched up that handsome new kid.” She wiggled her eyebrows and Lucy turned her eyes upwards as she switched the legs that she was stretching. “Engaged huh? How does it feel to be the first girl in school to be engaged? Have the two of you already…?”

The suggestiveness in her tone took Lucy by surprise and she nearly fell over.

Lucy had a feeling that it was going to be a very, very long day. And of course, as most of her instincts have been as of late… she was right.

She was asked about her engagement to Natsu many more times throughout the day, she didn’t even want to know about the earful Natsu must have been getting. Truthfully, she wasn’t looking forward to talking to Natsu after all was said and done. But of course, she was going to have to. Especially because they lived together.

When their final class wrapped itself up, Lucy said goodbye to Levy before sending a look to Natsu, who had been talking with a couple of the guys in their class and he stood up.

They didn’t speak until they were outside.

“You’re pretty popular,” Natsu mused casually and Lucy groaned, “You should have heard some of the things that the guys were telling me…” he trailed off and stuck his tongue out playfully at Lucy, though frowned when he saw that she was definitely in no mood to tease. “What’s the matter?” He asked curiously.

Lucy refused to look at the boy beside her. “Aren’t you embarrassed? Or angry that something so personal got spread around the school on your very first day?”

Natsu shrugged and Lucy finally looked over at him, his arms were crossed behind his head and his gaze was on the finally clear sky above them. “Why would I be embarrassed? You’re probably one of the most popular girls that goes to school here, you’re… pretty.” For a moment, Natsu’s cheeks seemed to be a slightly darker shade than they usually were. But he shook his head and grinned at her. “And I get to fight anybody who wants to challenge me, so of course I’m not angry. Maybe going to school here won't be a completely horrible thing.”

For some reason… his words made her laugh. Which seemed to surprise the guy.

“You’re not a very complex person, Natsu.” Lucy laughed again, “There is something somewhat… refreshing about that.” She then took off running, “I’m still gonna kill my cousin though, you can help if you want!”

Natsu was left to watch the girl run off for a moment before he grinned and tore off after Lucy.