I'LL HELP YOU IF YOU HELP ME

CHAPTER 1

Hey all, this is my only contribution to NaLu week, it's something I've been working on for a while so I hope you'll like it. This is a 2-shot, so look out for the final chapter tomorrow XD

I dedicate this to McGardenManiac who chose this fic, zooeyandvincy who gave me a heart-warming review, and my twin RockingCas12 just coz XP

Enjoy!

High school has always been known to have its ups and downs, and they would always be different for different people.

Some might have problems with classes, others with making friends, and there was always the so-called social food-chain that played a role as well.

For these two people though, they were not satisfied with their downs of High school, or High school in general, but they had no idea how to change it.

Until they met each other in a fateful encounter that would change their lives in ways they never even imagined possible…

Lucy opened her locker after a long, stressful day of class, there was just something about having history class at the end of the day that always left her drained.

She didn't particularly have any problems with the class, it was just her teacher had a tendency to ramble about crap he saw when he was their age.

As she reminisced about her last class she failed to notice the sheer amount of paper that was shoved into her locker and came tumbling down on her and the floor. You'd think with the fact that Lucy was a beautiful girl that they were love-letters or something along those lines.

Well, they weren't

Go die!

Slut

Please slit your wrists

I'll bet the only reason you get good grades is coz you're fucking the teacher!

Nobody would care if you dropped dead right now

Lucy sighed in annoyance. Ever since she had transferred to this school last year this had been the norm for her.

So she was blonde, had a figure most models would die for, and was smarter than most people, why was that a crime?! Not to mention she's also a virgin, not that it's anyone's business in the first place.

She tried to keep her reactions to these things to a minimum, but they were affecting her mentally, if only slightly. Nobody likes to be told that they should die, and she felt like nobody had the right to dictate who deserved to live or die.

She huffed and knelt down to pick up the mess in front of her locker; coz if she didn't the janitor would give her death glares for weeks. Just then the locker next to hers was opened.

Natsu opened his locker with a rough tug, his day had sucked since he woke up at 10am. Once he finally got to school he got called into the Headmasters office and was scolded for missing about three classes, and that wasn't even the worst part. No, the worst part was when he got a written letter for his father saying that if he didn't improve his grades he would have to repeat his senior year. Natsu loved his dad and all, but if he ever read that letter Natsu would need to find a new place to live.

He glared at the letter angrily. 'Stupid Headmaster, stupid grades, and stupid letter' he thought angrily.

Lucy had finally managed to gather all the hate notes neatly off the floor and stood up to close her locker. How many people arranged their hate mail neatly only to throw it away later? She felt like such a weirdo.

She checked to make sure she had everything she needed from her locker and once she was sure she did she slammed it shut.

But at the same time Natsu; her locker-neighbour, slammed his shut as well.

Shocked by the unexpected slam they turn and look at each other with mild curiosity. Lucy had never actually seen her locker neighbour before, and Natsu hadn't seen this girl before either.

Lucy was not gonna lie; this guy was pretty hot, and to top it off his hair was cherry blossom pink, which just happened to be one of her favourite colours. He seemed like he was pretty built too-

'Oh My God! This is that delinquent guy everyone talks about!' thought Lucy in shock.

See, Natsu was one of this schools delinquents, who was known for being a pyromaniac and liked to answer problems with his fists instead of his head, apparently he had even been suspended once for beating up a guy so bad his bloodied body had left a mark on the school wall; sounds like something that came directly from an anime. He was constantly being reprimanded by the student council president; Erza Scarlet, which doesn't sound scary until you see that her version of reprimanding is literally beating the school rule book into your head; and it's a pretty thick book, like dictionary thick. So you really don't want to be on her bad side.

A real bona-fied badass if she ever saw one, and this was the first time she had actually seen him in person.

Natsu didn't know many people in this school, there were only a few people whose names he would even bother remembering; like the scary redhead who tried to shove the school rule book in his head through his ear every time he pissed her off. He shuddered involuntarily at the memory. Then there were the guys he would hang with during lunch and very rarely after school like Gajeel, Jellal, and even Gray, who he considered more of a rival than a friend.

So of course he wouldn't know who this blonde haired girl was next to his locker, but he was genuinely surprised he had never noticed her even once. She was extremely pretty; she had one hell of a figure, her skin was milky and it looked like it felt like silk, she had a gorgeous face and her blonde hair was long and shiny. But the best part of her were her eyes; they were a light shade of brown, and Natsu felt that if he looked into them for too long they would be able to dig into the deepest parts of his soul.

He was starting to think he should show up to school more often if he got to see this pretty face every day.

Lucy suddenly felt nervous under his gaze and looked down. Just then she noticed the piece of paper in his hands, and since she was curious she tried to skim the contents.

Natsu's eyes were roving down Lucy's figure, so sue him she was hot and he's a teenage guy with hormones, it's only natural right? When he noticed the papers she held loosely in her hands.

His eye's widened when he saw the contents on the paper, what did this girl do to deserve so much blatant hate mail? She seemed like a nice person, what was wrong with the people in this school?!

When he looked up to her face he noticed that her eyes were glued to his hand and it looked like her eyes widened after a bit too. He glanced at his hand and finally realised what she was looking at; his warning letter.

Embarrassed he quickly stuffed the letter in his pants pocket. He glares at her for reading it clicks his tongue in annoyance and walks away.

Well it wasn't like he wasn't doing the same when he read the papers in her hands, but still, she crossed a line.

Just as he was about to walk out he felt a snag on the back of his shirt.

He looked back over his shoulder and saw the blonde girl, she was holding his shirt and staring at him with a look of pure determination. He rose a brow in curiosity and wondered what she wanted.

"U-um, I-I think we can help each other out" she said nervously.

Now she had his full attention.

"Hah?" he asked as he turned to face her fully. What did she mean by that?

Lucy took a deep breath to calm her nerves, she knew she would be asking for something crazy and she was worried about how he would react, but she felt like this was a golden opportunity that she just couldn't pass up.

"Look, as you can see I have a little problem with bullies, and it looks like you have a problem too" she said while crossing his arms as she slowly gained more confidence.

Natsu scowled, she was implying the letter, where was she going with this? Was she gonna try and blackmail him or something?

"If you can protect me from my bullies until graduation, I promise you that I will get you to pass all your classes with flying colours and graduate too" she said strongly, her eyes gleaming with determination.

Natsu had to wait a few seconds to absorb what she just said. Did she really mean that?

He weighed his options; either tell his dad; Igneel about his failing grades and risk getting kicked out… or he could let this chick teach and prevent him from repeating a year while stopping her bullies at the same time…

Well… it wasn't like he had any better options…


There were a few things Lucy had come to expect when walking her way to school. There would be the occasional group of girls who would snigger and mock her just loud enough for her to hear but 'soft' enough to give the illusion of a whisper. There was even one time when someone had actually taped a 'kick-me' sign on her back; which many people enjoyed.

But nothing had prepared her for what she saw in front of her locker that day.

Leaning against her locker with the deadliest glare she had even seen was Natsu Dragneel. It was like he was emitting an aura that just screamed danger if anyone got too close.

Lucy's eyes widened at this, how long had he been standing there? Was he doing this because of the notes he saw yesterday?

She was so deep in shock she forgot how to move, when his head suddenly turned in her direction and they made eye contact. He nodded his head in acknowledgement which finally made her jump out of her stupor.

She walked towards him to greet him.

"Sup" he said with a yawn; he didn't remember the last time he woke up this early… maybe middle school?

"H-How long have you been standing here?" she asked in bewilderment.

Natsu moved to the side so that she could access her locker and shrugged his shoulders in indifference.

"I aint all that familiar with your bullies schedules' so I got here around… seven-ish?" he snickered a little.

"You shoulda seen some of the faces those guys pulled when they saw me standing here… it was so worth waking up early, they just about pissed themselves" he said with a laugh as he wiped a tear from his eye.

Lucy's mouth was agape; while he did agree to her deal she never thought he would take it this seriously, she was actually very impressed.

"I-uhm…" she was at a total loss for words, she was just too surprised.

"You gonna keep your mouth open weirdo or are you gonna open your locker?" he asked with a smug grin; her face was hilarious.

Lucy snapped her mouth shut and scowled at him "You're the last person I want calling me weird Cherry-head" she said with a huff while putting in her locker combination.

"Oh, it makes jokes! Well at least I know you have backbone now" he said with a cheeky grin.

Lucy puffed out her cheek in annoyance and opened her locker to get her books. And for once she didn't have to worry about an avalanche of notes falling on the floor, in fact there weren't any at all.

Lucy's eyes widened at this and she sent a surprised look at Natsu, who also glanced in her locker to check for notes. He grinned smugly at what he saw and crossed his arms over his chest with pride.

"Chicken-shits, too wussy to get near me I see" he said proudly.

Lucy smiled softly at this, even though this was a small start she still felt happy. Looks like asking Natsu for help was a great idea after all.

Natsu glanced from the locker to Lucy's face and saw her smiling face. He was a bit taken aback; she was actually super-cute when she smiled. Suddenly feeling nervous from her gaze he turned his head away from her and coughed nervously.

"W-Well hurry up already, I aint gonna stand here all day waiting like an idiot for you" he said as he made his way towards the classrooms.

Lucy giggled softly at his reaction.

'So he has a shy side to him huh?'


In all honesty Lucy wasn't quite sure what to expect from Natsu when it came to her bullies, especially considering that they were in different classes. Since her grades were so high she was in the 'A' class, while Natsu was stuck down in the 'E' class. Some moron once gave Natsu the nickname E.N.D, to mock his intelligence. Clearly the guy wasn't smart enough to know when to keep his mouth shut; he ended up with multiple facial fractures and a few broken ribs.

Lucy finally made it to her class, fully expecting Natsu to bid her goodbye and go wherever he felt, but he stayed by her side as she walked in.

Lucy sighed as she took in the state of her desk; someone had decided to dump their garbage all over it this time.

'Well at least they didn't hide my desk again, it's such a pain trying to look for it and then bring it back' she thought with a heavy sigh.

The people in her class were sniggering, like they had accomplished some great prank or something. Lucy rolled her eyes at this 'Well they say small things amuse small minds' she thought bitterly.

Natsu looked over Lucy's shoulder and saw what he figured was her desk, covered in trash. He felt his eye twitch in annoyance. He glanced down at her and noticed she had a tired expression on her face, he wondered how many times she's had to put up with this until now.

Natsu huffed in annoyance and walked past Lucy to stand in front of the class. It suddenly became eerily quiet and Lucy knew the whole class's attention was focused on him.

'Is that Dragneel?!'

'What's he doing at school?'

'Did he walk in with Heartfilia?'

And those were only some of the whispers she could pick up. She wondered what he was planning to do up there in front, it wasn't like he could stay in class with her until school was over, the teacher's wouldn't tolerate it, and he couldn't afford another suspension at this point either.

Natsu crossed his arms over his broad chest, taking a deep breath he fixed his most lethal glare on the students, making them pale in fear of what he might do.

"Listen up you fucked up pricks. That girl over there-" he said as he pointed at Lucy without taking his gaze off of them.

"-Is under my protection. So if I find that she's being harassed in any way, or even if you look at her wrong, I will find you, and you'll wish you ended up like the guy I hospitalized. We clear?!" he yelled threateningly.

Convinced that his threat was undeniably true, they all furiously nodded their heads in fear and backed away from her to maintain a 'safer' distance.

"Good" he said with a nod, and made his way put the classroom while walking past Lucy; who had her mouth open in shock.

"Oh, and the shithead who put all that stuff on her desk… I suggest you clean it up right now. I don't care if you're a chick or a kid I will kick your ass" he said as he glared back to the class.

A scream was heard, and suddenly Lucy's desk was cleaner than on her first day.


"Are you out of your mind Lu!?"

Lucy left class and was on her way to the library for lunch when she was tackled by her only friend in school; Levy McGarden.

Levy was pretty short for a girl her age. Her size coupled with her slender figure have led many to think that she was a middle school student much to her chagrin.

Her shoulder length blue hair was pulled back with an orange bandana, and her hazel eyes shone with concern for her best friend's safety.

"I don't see why you're so freaked out about this Lev. I thought you'd be happy that people are leaving me alone now" said Lucy in confusion as they continued towards the library.

"While that part does make me happy, I'm just not so sure about the person making it happen. He's not exactly known for being gentle Lu, what if he tries to hurt you?" asked Levy in concern.

"I told you Lev, I made a deal with him, and he can't afford to hurt me while I'm the one helping him with his grades. Plus I don't think he's that kind of person, if anything I think he's just… misunderstood" said Lucy with a thoughtful look.

Levy stared at Lucy with suspicion, it was making Lucy a little uncomfortable but Levy eventually sighed in defeat and looked ahead.

"Well if you say so, just don't blame me if you get kidnapped by him or something crazy" she said with a small grin.

Lucy laughed at this and locked her arm with Levy's "Oh don't be silly, I'm sure he's not gonna do something like that" she said with a smile.

"Found ya"

"Kyaaa!" screeched Levy and Lucy in fear at the sudden voice behind them.

Both turning swiftly to the source of the voice they were both surprised to find an amused Natsu looking at them, or more specifically Lucy.

"What the hell Natsu!? You scared the crap out of us!" yelled Lucy angrily as she held a hand over her heart. Levy was trying to regulate her breathing back to normal.

"Yeah yeah, quit your squealing. Let's go" he said as he grabbed Lucy by the wrist and dragged her off.

"Eh? Wha-? Bu-? Huh?" she said in shock as she just let Natsu drag her away.

"Lucy!" yelled Levy as she stuck her hand out in Lucy's direction with a shocked expression.

"Levy!" yelled Lucy returning the gesture, comical tears running down her cheeks.

"Man, you are such a weirdo" muttered Natsu as he dragged Lucy away somewhere.

"You're the last person I want to hear that from!"


Lucy had never been more uncomfortable in her entire life, and she once had her butt groped by an eighty year old man.

Right after she was 'kidnapped' by Natsu, he dragged her up to the schools roof where she was met with the rest of his friends who were just as confused by her presence there as she was.

Then Natsu had the audacity to look at her like she was the crazy one and say "You're eating lunch with us from now on, duh" like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

He didn't even bother explaining anything to his friends who also looked at him like he was crazy, then looked at her like she was an item from outer space, and it made her want to turn invisible.

"Are ya gonna stand there all day or sit down and eat something?" asked Natsu with a raised brow.

Jumping at his statement, Lucy snapped out of her stupor and moved to sit down next to Natsu awkwardly with her lunchbox in hand.

Natsu's friends also snapped out of it when Lucy sat down and bombarded Natsu with questions.

"Whoa whoa whoa, what the actual fuck pyro?!" yelled his friend with shaggy raven hair, for some reason his shirt was unbuttoned exposing his extremely muscular chest, making Lucy nervously avert her eyes.

"Yeah, you can't just bring a girl up in here like it's nothing new and expect us to go along with it!" yelled his other friend with waist length black hair and piercings for eyebrows, and a few in other places too.

"Why in the hell not?" asked Natsu with a bored expression as he unwrapped his store-bought sandwich.

"For starters you could tell us who the fuck she is! I know she's not your girlfriend, and she's too hot to be related to your dumb ass" said the short haired friend; who was now removing his shirt entirely.

'Is this a normal thing? Does he not know he's taking his clothes off?' thought Lucy with a blush.

"Hey! The fuck Gray?! You trying to start a fight?!" yelled Natsu angrily while waving his fist in the air.

'Ah, so his name is Gray… is he unbuckling his pants now?!' thought Lucy in shock as he in fact did start unbuckling his pants.

"Oi stripper, put your clothes back on before bunny girl here screams or something. Your about to take your pants off" said the long haired boy without a care as he took a bite out of his lunch.

"Ah crap!" yelled Gray while gathering his clothes in a rush.

"Bunny girl?" asked Lucy in confusion.

"Ah, it talks" said Gajeel in amusement.

"Fuck off Gajeel. And why the hell are you calling Lucy 'Bunny girl'?" asked Natsu in annoyance.

"Well for starters; you never introduced her to us you retard, and second; her lunchbox's got bunnies all over it, the name was inevitable" said Gajeel like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lucy flushed in embarrassment, so what if her lunchbox had bunnies on it. Bunnies are cute!

She then glanced at Gajeel's lunchbox and raised a brow at what she saw.

"Are you seriously judging me for having a lunchbox covered in bunnies when yours is covered with kittens?" she asked with an amused look.

Natsu and Gray burst out laughing while Gajeel flushed in embarrassment and growled angrily.

"I forgot to clean the dishes and this was the only one I had left! I didn't have a choice!" Gajeel defended angrily.

Lucy tried to stifle a laugh, "Whatever you say; cat-boy" she said with a giggle.

Natsu and Gray fell over they were laughing so hard while Gajeel looked like he wanted to kill someone.

"If you're looking for a beating Bunny girl keep going. I aint afraid to hit a girl" he said menacingly while lifting his fist.

Lucy swallowed nervously and went back to nibbling on her lunch.

"Oi metal face. Threaten her again and I won't go easy on ya" said Natsu who suddenly sobered up from his laughing fit and glared threateningly at Gajeel making him flinch.

"Tch, whatever" he said with a scoff and scarfed down the rest of his lunch.

Gray was still chuckling a little and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

"Ah man, if she can rip into Gajeel like that then she can hang with us no problem" said Gray as he sent a smile in Lucy's direction.

"Since flame brain didn't introduce us; Hi, I'm Gray" he said as he stuck his hand out for her to shake.

Lucy hesitantly took it and smiled softly "I'm Lucy"

"Don't hold on too long Lucy, his stripping habit is contagious" said Natsu with a grumble.

"Oi!" yelled Gray angrily.

"Actually, maybe you should hold on longer" thought Natsu out loud with a pink face.

"You pervert!" yelled Lucy in embarrassment as she smacked his shoulder.

They all started laughing then, and for the first time Lucy found herself enjoying the company of other people. She smiled softly.

"Lucy!?"

Suddenly the door to the roof was slammed open and standing in the doorway was a panting Levy, looking worried and terrified.

"Oh Levy, you found me" said Lucy with a smile.

Levy immediately glomped Lucy and held her so tight she was struggling to breath.

"Oh thank God, I thought he was gonna rape you or something!" yelled Levy with tears going down her face.

Natsu spat out his food and looked horrified at Levy.

"What the fuck!? What kind of guy do you think I am?!" yelled Natsu indignantly.

"I don't know! What was I supposed to think when you suddenly dragged my friends off to some undisclosed location without a word!? It was a perfectly logical conclusion!" yelled Levy angrily while she held on to Lucy.

Natsu blanched at this "W-Well, I wouldn't do that to her so there!" he said childishly.

"Why you-"

"Hey don't I know you?" asked Gajeel curiously.

Levy looked at him and blushed madly while fidgeting with her hands.

"Nooo…" she said softly as she turned her head in embarrassment.

Gajeel was staring at Levy with a hard look, as if trying to remember something.

He snapped his fingers suddenly.

"Your that shrimp that fell on me in the library the other day!" he shouted in realization.

"Oh God kill me now" said Levy covering her face in embarrassment.

"What's he talking about Levy?" asked Lucy in confusion.

"And since when do you even know where the library is?" asked Gray with a raised brow.

"Piss off ice boy" said Gajeel angrily.

"Well, I was trying to get a book from the top shelf, and you know how rickety that ladder can be. I almost got the book when the ladder suddenly collapsed and I fell off" said Levy nervously.

"Oh my God" said Lucy in shock.

"Only instead of hitting the floor I fell on top of him" she said while pointing blushingly at Gajeel.

Gajeel grunted "Your just lucky I saw you falling in time" he said with a smirk.

"Well if you knew how to catch a person properly then maybe I would consider it luck!" she yelled in embarrassment.

"Not my fault your butt ended up on my face" grumbled Gajeel as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh God, can we please stop talking about this!?" yelled Levy in embarrassment.

"So that's why you never mentioned it" muttered Lucy with a sly smirk.

"It's not funny Lu!" yelled Levy angrily.

"He didn't see your underwear did he?" whispered Lucy with a curious look.

Levy only answered her with a full blown blush, it could be compared to the student council presidents hair her cheeks were so red.

Lucy squealed in shock and Levy just covered her face in embarrassment.

"I still don't know how you ended up in a library, were you lost or something?" asked Gray in confusion, oblivious to the girls' conversation.

"Why I was there is none of your business stripper" said Gajeel with a grumble.

"Guess I'm gonna have to beat it out of you then" said Gray as he landed a punch on Gajeel's face suddenly.

"Fuck! You bastard!" yelled Gajeel as he punched Gray in the face.

They continued to brawl while the girls just looked at them like they were crazy and Natsu just carried on eating his sandwich like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Is lunch always this crazy with you guys?" asked Lucy curiously while leaning in to Natsu.

Natsu chuckled and sent her a grin that made her insides feel tingly "Yup, better get used to it".

"Wha-?"

"Well you're gonna be hanging with us during lunch, it's the best way for me to protect ya" he said with a smirk.

Lucy was wide-eyed, for him to go this far to protect her… he must really want his grades to go up if he's this determined, that's the only reason… right?

Lucy shook her head at her crazy ideas and just smiled at Natsu gratefully.

Natsu blushed slightly at her smile; it was so cute he hoped she would do it more often.

"Your friend can come too, since she's already so close with metal face anyway" he said with a cheeky smirk.

"Oh God, I wanna die!" yelled Levy as she hid her face behind her hands.

"Screw you pyro!" yelled Gajeel as he punched Natsu in the face.

Natsu cackled and joined in Gray and Gajeel's fight that lasted until the bell ending lunch rang.


Lucy found herself smiling as she made her way back to class, not only did she have lunch without worrying about people 'bumping' into her and making her food fall on the floor but for once they weren't even trying to trip her in the halls, or make eye contact.

Levy would admit she was impressed by how well Natsu held up his end of the deal, and admitted that she may have been wrong about him earlier.

Maybe this would turn out even better than Lucy thought it would…

"So let me get this straight, THIS… is your house?!" yelled Natsu in shock.

"Yeah… Levy had a similar reaction too…" said Lucy sheepishly as she punched in the code for her hom- MANSIONS, giant security gate.

Lucy had told Natsu that they were going to start his study session at her house after school, and he was more than happy to comply. He wanted to know more about Lucy, she seemed like a great person and her reactions to his shenanigans- as she called them- were just hilarious, he wished he knew what was wrong with the people from his school, if they had just taken the time to get to know her they would see that what they were doing to her was just awful and undeserving.

The walk to her place was long so he decided to entertain himself by telling Lucy all the corny jokes he knew- a lot surprisingly- and trying to get her to laugh. He couldn't help but find the sound of it enjoyable as well as contagious.

She was in stitches by the time her mansion was in sight, Natsu thought they were lost when he looked around the neighbourhood; it was obviously catered to the more wealthy social groups and he gaped at every house they walked by, and when they finally got to Lucy's house his jaw practically fell on the floor; it was the biggest one there.

Suffice to say his reaction to her house made her sober up from her laughing fit real quick and shifted to reserved and silent.

"Well, come on in" she said without enthusiasm as the gate opened.

Natsu; still stupefied, followed her in and up to her front door.

"Are you like, related to the King or something?" he asked after his long silence as she opened her front door.

"No, but I am friends with Princess Hisui" she said like it wasn't a big deal.

Fiore was one of the few countries on the world that still had a monarchy. They live in the countries capital, Crocus, and are very well loved amongst the people.

"What?! That's so awesome!" said Natsu with an excited look as he walked through Lucy's front door.

Lucy giggled at his excited reaction, it was better than having him freak out about her connections and being afraid of her. The last time that happened Lucy never saw that person again.

"Well here we are, Case de Heartfilia" she said with a wave motion of her hand.

"What?" said Natsu with a confused expression.

Lucy sweat dropped at this, teaching him might be a lot harder than she thought.

"I think we should start with your foreign languages first" she said as she grabbed his wrist and pulled him upstairs to her room.

"Uh, sure" he said as he marveled at her house while letting her drag him.

While her house was huge and fancy he noticed that it was too much for so few people. There was nobody around; it just felt so empty and lonely.

'Does Lucy have to come home to this every day?'


"So, where are your parents?" asked Natsu as he sat a little awkwardly in the middle of her room by her desk.

Lucy was shuffling through her closet for something- Natsu had no idea what- and glanced at him.

"My dad's out of town on a business trip for about a week, and mom died a long time ago" she said the last part sadly as she grabbed a shirt.

Natsu's eye's widened slightly; he was not expecting that at all.

"Ah, my bad" he said awkwardly. What are you supposed to say in situations like this anyway?!

"No worries. Ok, I'm just gonna change real quick and then we can get to studying, alright?" she asked with a small smile.

While she wasn't comfortable talking about her mother with just anyone she was glad he didn't say the clichéd 'I'm sorry for your loss' to her.

"Sure, take your time" said Natsu with a grin.

Lucy nodded her head and made her way into her bathroom to change.

Natsu sits around for a while just glancing around her room. It was pretty big but not unnecessarily so, she had a large bookshelf on one side of her room that was filled with tons of books it could pass for a small library. Her closet was pretty big too but Natsu expected as much from a girl anyway. She had a large queen sized bed next to the window that looked extremely comfortable that Natsu wanted to jump in and sleep in it right then and there. Then there was a drawer next to her closet that held God knows what, and her desk that Natsu was currently sitting by.

Unable to control his curious urges he got up from his seat and went straight for her drawer.

'Let's see what we've got hiding in here' he thought with a mischievous grin.

He regretted his action immediately after opening the first drawer. Why?

It was her underwear drawer.

He blushed so hard he was sure that steam was leaking out of his ears. These were no cutsie panties that he figured she'd wear, oh no. These were lacy provocative panties in all colours, red, black, white, and purple. It was too much for him to take in. After a minute he snapped out of his shock and slammed her drawer shut, if he stared at them any longer he would be branded a pervert for the rest of his life. He was kind of nervous to check the second and third drawer but Natsu was not a quitter!

The second drawer wasn't much different from the first much to Natsu's dismay, as it was where Lucy stored her bras, and each one matched a pair of her panties. This time Natsu slowly closed her drawer and took a small step back from it.

To suddenly crouch down and start scratching his head vigorously.

'Aaahh! I am never gonna get that image out of my fucking head! Why did I have to keep looking!? Just what bra size is she?!' he thought in embarrassment.

Deciding that maybe just once in his life he'd give up on something, he went back to her desk and sat down with his hands covering his face in embarrassment.

'To think, I was defeated by lace of all things' he thought completely horrified.

Taking a breath he glanced over the contents of Lucy's desk, he wasn't afraid of finding anything weird there, I mean what could he possibly find on a girls desk, right?

He saw a stack of papers and picked then up to see what they were, thinking it was school work or something. Only he found the first page was some kind of working title for a story.

'The Journey for the Clock?'

Natsu skimmed through more pages and for once in his life he found himself interested in a book. The main protagonist was a guy who could use fire magic and he was trying to save the girl he loves who got kidnapped for some evil scheme to manipulate time or something. The main character; Haru was super awesome in Natsu's opinion, although he seemed pretty dense when it came to Ellie; the girl he loved.

'Can a guy really be that dense when it comes to chicks? It's so frustrating to read about these guys, are they gonna get together in the end?!' thought Natsu as he read through the notes.

He then hears the door to Lucy's bathroom open and sees her walk out in her casual clothes that somehow managed to make her look even cuter, in Natsu's opinion.

Lucy looks up and sees what's in Natsu's hands, dropping her uniform on the floor she screams, making Natsu wince.

Next thing he knows, she's running towards him and punches him square in the face, grabs her papers and clutches them to her chest like they are her greatest treasure.

"Ouch! Fuck Lucy, you didn't have ta punch me!" yelled Natsu as he held his throbbing cheek. He was surprised she could hit so hard, she was a lot tougher than he originally thought.

Once he recovered from the shock he takes in her appearance; she was blushing, cheeks puffed up and she was glaring at him like he committed a crime.

It was the most adorable thing he had ever seen.

"Like hell I didn't! Don't just go around reading other peoples personal private things!" she yelled angrily as she glared at him.

"I don't see what the big deal is. It's very good, I'm impressed you write so great, is there more?" asked Natsu enthusiastically.

Lucy blushed hard, this was the first time someone besides Levy had complimented her writing, but for some reason when it came from Natsu it made her heart flutter and her stomach twist.

"Th-thank you, Natsu" she said with a shy blush as she averted her gaze to the floor.

Natsu cleared his throat feeling nervous all of a sudden "Sure, no problem" he said bashfully.

They stay in their places for a while, awkward tension filling the air, neither one knowing what to do now.

Lucy suddenly clears her throat and rubs her arm awkwardly.

"We should probably get started with your studying. I need to have some idea of what I'm working with" she said with a small smile.

Natsu grins sheepishly and nods his head in agreement.

"Yosh, I'm all fired up now!" he said with an enthusiastic fist pump.

Lucy giggled at this and made a mental note to save that expression for her novel; it was pretty catchy.

"Ok, let's begin"


Lucy could not believe how bad Natsu's grades were!

No wonder they wanted to hold him back, and he had the attention span of a squirrel!

"How did you even make it to senior year?" she asked incredulously.

Natsu shrugged and turned his head in embarrassment "Just lucky like that I guess, maybe I was related to some genius in a past life or something?" he thought out loud.

Lucy deadpanned "If that were true you could sure use those genes right now, coz you have your work cut out for you" she said exasperatedly as she went through his answers for the worksheet she compiled for him.

Natsu mumbled something incoherently and folded his arms with an annoyed huff.

"Well, it's not that you don't know the work that much, the problem seems to be your lack of focus on the paper in front of you. If we work on that and a few fundamentals you should be able to get your grades up in no time" she said with a smile.

Natsu was in a state of shock, she didn't call him an idiot, or a moron. She just said that he lacked focus; that meant he was sort of smart but just lazy, right?

It was the first time someone had said that to him. He felt his heart start to speed up suddenly and his face heat up at her words.

"You really think I'm not stupid?" he asked in a low tone with his gaze focused on the floor.

Lucy looked at him questioningly, then smiled softly at him.

"While you are probably the most crazy person I have ever met, 'stupid' is not a word I would use to describe you. All you need is motivation, like for every correct answer you get a piece of candy or something you like to eat and I can prove to you just how smart you really are" she said with a determined grin.

Natsu blinked and then cracked a bright grin that made Lucy's heart flutter again.

"You're really nice ya know Lucy?" he said with pink tinted cheeks.

Lucy blushed and turned her head away from his heated gaze.

"A-Anyway, let's pick up from where we left off…" she said nervously.

They got back to work studying, but each had one thought floating in the back of their heads that just wouldn't go away.

'How is it that you make my heart beat so fast when I've only known you for two days?'

Chapter 2 will be up tomorrow, in the meantime please tell me what ya thought so far with a review, love ya! ^3^