notes: the boyfriend material sweater thing always gets me. not even joking.
dedication: for mimichan55. because we were discussing cliche pickup lines, and i got this idea.

disclaimer: own nothing

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{I saw you across the room, and I knew}

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He was bored.

The loud music was blasting through his skull and rattling his brain, effectively giving him a headache. Intoxicated teens were swaying to the pumping bass around him, and he was trying his best to avoid them. It wasn't like he'd wanted to come to this party, more like, he'd been invited.

Or dragged along.

He was going to go with dragged along.

As captain of the soccer team, he was popular, yes. But that didn't mean he wanted to be out partying and getting wasted until three in the morning. That just wasn't his thing. Besides, it wasn't like he cared that he was extremely popular among his fellow student body, or that girls fawned over him when he walked by or even when he didn't.

He had his group of friends, and that was enough for him.

Now, it wasn't that Natsu Dragneel was unfriendly. No, that wasn't it. He was nice to most everyone, it was just that he felt more comfortable around people he knew. Well, that wasn't entirely true either…he just liked his friends. That was it.

But right now, as the bass blasted through his ears and he was trying to fight a mass of sweaty and really tipsy teens, he wasn't feeling very friendly towards two of those friends.

Loke Celeste and Gray Fullbuster had broken into his house a few hours earlier, while he was contentedly watching Deadliest Warrior reruns and eating an enormous bowl of popcorn. His two so called 'friends' then proceeded to drag him out of his house against his will, the popcorn being thrown everywhere in the ensuing struggle, as well as furniture being knocked over.

Oh man was he ever going to get an earful from his dad later.

At least his cat—Happy—would hopefully eat the popcorn off the floor and remaining upright furniture. However, the feline always did prefer fish to anything, and Natsu didn't flavor his popcorn with fish. Just regular old butter and salt. Lots and lots of butter and salt.

Dammit, now he was getting hungry.

This was not how he planned spending his Friday night. This wasn't how he wanted to spend any night ever.

His stomach growled, causing him to frown deeply and glance over at the 'buffet' table. A large half-empty bowl of punch—which had obviously been spiked at some point—and red plastic Solo cups took up most of the space. There were a few plates of food, mostly empty now, and what was left was mostly stuff he wouldn't eat. Like sweets. The rosy-haired teen didn't do sweets.

His frown deepened into a scowl and his mood became worse.

Natsu fought his way through more teens, most of which were carrying cups full of spiked punch and sloshing it everywhere. He let out a low growl when one particularly tipsy girl tripped on the floor rug and spilled some of the alcoholic drink on one of his favorite shirts.

His onyx eyes scanned the large room, landing on his redheaded friend who was chatting up a pretty brunette—who he recognized as Cana Alberona—and Natsu felt a sense of contentment when she scowled and abruptly turned away from Loke, instead walking toward the table where the spiked punch was.

He couldn't see Gray, but he had seen the dark-haired teen's shirt strung over a tilted lampshade. More likely than not because of his weird stripping habit.

Natsu considered his options as he pushed his way through the remaining crowd of teenagers. He could stay, maybe try to tolerate the gross drink on the table their host called 'punch', or he could try and slip out the door and go back home to his fully stocked refrigerator and reruns of his favorite TV shows. Of course, he'd have to do a bit of cleaning and rearranging his living room furniture before that…

He opted for the second option, deciding cleaning and rearranging was better than drunk kids and loud, blasting music.

Honestly, he was surprised the cops hadn't shown up yet.

Another reason to hurry and get home, because his father was on the police force. And while Igneel Dragneel was a detective and didn't normally handle disruptive disturbance calls, he had friends on the force who did, and the man had told them to inform him immediately if his son got into any trouble.

Yeah, no. Natsu would rather take his chances with the disaster that was probably his living room, rather than his detective father.

The pink-headed teen sighed in relief as he finally emerged from the large crowd. He turned back to give them one last glance, swearing to himself that he hadn't thought that that many kids went to his high school. Actually, he was pretty sure all those teenagers weren't from Fairy Tail Academy.

He adjusted his white scarf as he walked toward the front door, ready to get out of there. But a flash of yellow caught his eye. He turned his head in the direction he'd seen it, dark eyes searching. They landed on a girl.

The prettiest girl he'd ever seen in his whole life.

She was sitting off to the side, most likely as far away from the intoxicated teens on the 'dance floor' as she could get, with a few other girls who looked like they didn't want to be there. His brain briefly reminded him that those two girls were Juvia Lockser and Levy McGarden, Gray's not-so-secret admirer and his cousin Gajeel's almost-girlfriend. Almost because the idiot hadn't gathered his courage to ask her out yet, even though they both obviously liked each other.

But it was the blonde who took up his full attention after that.

She was flawless, was the thought running a marathon through his head. Her big chocolate-colored doe eyes were shy, but they had a pretty sparkle in them. She had the longest eyelashes he'd ever seen in his life, and when she laughed—it sounded like tinkling bells to him—they dusted her cheeks when she closed her eyes. Her smile could light up the whole room, at least he thought so. It was much better than the low lighting he'd just barely become accustomed to since arriving at this poor excuse for entertainment and fun.

She was dressed in a pretty pink sundress, a frilly white cardigan covering her arms and bare skin to protect her from the chilly autumn air. A section of her blonde hair was pulled up into a side ponytail, and she brushed some of her bangs behind her ear every once in a while as she talked with what he assumed were her two friends. She was holding a cup of punch, but it hadn't been touched, and he couldn't really blame her.

He'd seen her around school, she had just transferred a few weeks before, but he hadn't gotten a chance to talk with her yet.

But did he ever want to.

Loke had hit on her almost every day, but she always seemed impervious to his flattering comments and overused pickup lines. The soccer captain had to hand it to her, because most girls fell over themselves and anything nearby when the redhead spoke to them.

Natsu inhaled deeply in an attempt to calm his breathing.

Maybe his messy living room and reruns could wait a little while longer.

He swallowed the lump that had lodged itself in his throat when he'd spotted the pretty blonde, and started over toward her.

He could do this. Loke did it all the time, even Gray on occasion. It was simple. Just drop a few pickup lines and if you did it right and you were to their taste, you'd have yourself a girl. And Natsu wasn't one to brag about his looks, but he had been voted one of the best-looking boys in the Academy for the past two years now.

But Natsu was horrible at picking up girls. He'd never even had a steady girlfriend before. Or a girlfriend at all. For any amount of time. Not even five minutes. Hell, Sting was even better at this than he was, and the blonde couldn't work up the nerve to ask the girl of his dreams out even though he'd been trying for five months.

But if anything, Natsu was determined, and he would at least talk to this girl.

"—I called Gajeel, and he's coming to pick me up." Levy spoke softly, though it was her usual tone of voice. "If you want, he can take you home too, Lu."

The blonde gave her a small smile. "Oh, that's okay Levy. I don't want to get between you two."

Juvia started to giggle, covering her mouth with a pale hand as the short blunette turned a bright pink.

"T-that's not-! I-it's not…i-it's not l-like t-that!" she stuttered, holding up her hands and waving them around frantically.

Her blonde friend smiled. "Sure, sure."

"E-excuse me?"

All three girls turned from their private conversation to see Natsu, who was trying to look cool, but it just wasn't working for him. At least that's what he thought.

"Oh," Levy smiled, "hi Natsu."

He stuck his hands in his jean pockets, not knowing what else to do with them. "H-hey, Levy."

The small blunette noticed that most of his attention seemed to be focused on her blonde friend. "If you're looking for Gajeel, he didn't come tonight, but he's on his way to pick me up."

"H-huh? Oh, no. I wasn't looking for that metal head." Natsu replied, suddenly focusing his attention on the blunette.

Juvia smiled knowingly. "Is there something Juvia and the other can do for you, Natsu?"

He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Actually," he turned to the blonde girl and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. It seemed in that moment, he forgot every pickup line he'd ever heard in his life. And being friends with Loke that had been a lot.

The blonde looked up into his eyes, waiting for him to continue. She smiled a little, and his brain almost fried itself because it was already in overdrive trying to remember what he was going to say.

Juvia and Levy were grinning and giggling quietly off to the side, whispering to each other.

Natsu just couldn't do it. His normally tan complexion had a red hue mixing with it now, and he closed his mouth in embarrassment. He looked away quickly toward the door, seriously considering making a run for it, but gulped and turned back to the still waiting blonde.

He gave her a small nervous smile. "Sorry, you're so beautiful I forgot my pickup line."

A light pink blush dusted the blonde's cheeks, but she couldn't fight the smile pulling at her lips. "T-thank you," she looked down and started to fidget with the hem of her dress. "U-um, do you…do you want to sit…and maybe…talk with me?" she glanced back up with a small shimmer of hope in her eyes.

Natsu smiled and pulled an empty stool over to her side. "I've seen you around school before, but I never got the chance to talk to you," he looked away again, rubbing the back of his neck nervously once more. "So um, I was wondering, what's your name?"

"Lucy. My name's Lucy." she smiled. "And your name's Natsu."

He turned to look at her, raising a brow.

"Oh um!" she started to wave her hands in a similar style as Levy had earlier. "I-I mean, I know that because you're the captain of the soccer team!" she explained hurriedly. "E-everyone knows who you are…" she added the last part lamely.

To her surprise, Natsu started to laugh. "You're funny, Luce!" he grinned at her.

She looked back down at her lap, face burning.

"So why're you here? From the looks of things, you'd rather be anywhere else."

Lucy laughed a little, looking back up at him. "Yeah well, I was dragged here by Cana. Levy and Juvia shared my fate," she brushed a few strands of blonde hair behind her ear. "In truth, I'd rather be at home, reading."

Natsu leaned back and smiled. "I was dragged here too. I was making my escape when I saw you, and I decided to try and talk to you," he blushed a bit. "S-so yeah."

The blonde giggled. "I wasn't sure what you were going to do," she grinned. "So I was surprised at…what you said…" the pink tint on her cheeks reappeared.

"Hey Lucy?"

She glanced up. "Yeah?"

Natsu nervously tugged at his scarf. "Um, do you…do you want to come back to my house? I mean, I was just watching TV and stuff before my friends dragged me here, and if you'd rather stay here I understand and everything. But I just…thought…"

Lucy smiled. "That sounds nice."

Natsu felt a wave of relief. "R-really?"

She nodded, and jumped off the stool she had been sitting on, setting her untouched cup of 'punch' on the side table next to her. Natsu stood and walked over to the door, opening it for her.

"Hey Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"What's even on at one in the morning?"

"Uh…M*A*S*H reruns…I think."

"I don't care, that's better than what's going on here."

"…Hey Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime, Luce."

"Hey Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"If I were to ask you out on a date, would your answer be the same as the answer to this question?"

"Hmm...yes."

"...Hey Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

Lucy glanced down at the sidewalk and smiled to herself. "Kiss me if I'm wrong...but dinosaurs still exist, right?" she looked back up at him.

Natsu's eyes widened, before he grinned. "Sorry Lucy...you're dead wrong." he mumbled, before leaning down and capturing her lips.

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end notes: i'd rather watch deadliest warrior and mash reruns instead of going to a party. i'm such a loser.