Title: Yousei Gakuen School Festival
Summary: Lucy's assigned task for the School Festival is to make sure Natsu doesn't cause any trouble during the event.
A/N: This one is set in OVA 2's world though I changed some of the character backgrounds for the story.
This was Lucy's first school festival at Yousei Gakuen. She was supposed to have fun and enjoy herself in different booths for the first time in her life. Her previous school was a very strict female-only academy; they did not hold events like school festivals. That school focused heavily on their academics. So when she transferred, she loved the amount of freedom the school gives to its students. She loved everything about her new school… Well, except for one thing.
"Natsu!" she smacked his hand away from the popcorn cups.
Natsu rubbed the hand Lucy just hit. "Ouch." He whined.
She glared at the pink-haired teen. "We're supposed to give them away, not eat them."
"Just one cup?" Natsu pleaded, giving Lucy that puppy-dog look with his olive brown eyes. "Please?"
Lucy shook her head and sighed. She hates it when he gets like this. "Fine, but this will be the last one okay?"
Natsu's face brightened as he grinned at her. He draped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. "Thanks Lucy! You're the best ever." He laughed heartily as he popped a kernel to his mouth. "You should try them too." He got another kernel and steered it close to her mouth.
Lucy blushed at the sudden intimate gesture. She shook her head, refusing his offer.
"C'mon Lucy, open up!" He pushed it closer to her face until she had no choice but to eat it. She looked at Natsu, who was grinning widely again. "Happy now?"
Natsu nodded and removed his arm from her. He resumed his task: greeting visitors and offering popcorn cups to them. Seeing that he's back in action, she also resumed her task.
Yousei Gakuen's School Festival theme this year is "Carnival Fun". The food stalls were assigned to the sophomore classes. They were to serve Carnival food to the visitors. A lot happened before their class decided on their final menu. Too much name-calling and hair-pulling was involved. In the end, their class came up with a selection of choco bananas, candied apples, cotton candy, caramel popcorn and apple cider.
It was a tradition in this school to treat the event as an inter-class competition. So naturally, the class representatives were especially fired up, eyeing the "Best Booth and Best Sales" awards. Erza was not an exception. She pushed the whole class to work even after class hours for their classroom set-up while letting Mira handle the recipe testing for their menu. To say that their class worked hard would be an understatement. It was more like they slaved thru their preparations.
Finally, the School Festival came. Everybody was excited, especially Lucy. Levy and Cana told her about their previous school festival and looked forward to this year's event. Unfortunately, due to Erza's fierce competitiveness, she was assigned to gather guests with Natsu around the school. All of her plans of enjoying the school festival were ruined. Erza and Mira asked them to give away popcorn cups to visitors around the school and direct them to their classroom. Further questioning Mira revealed that her real task was actually to make sure Natsu doesn't cause trouble during the event. He caused a lot of trouble with Gray during the preparation week; Erza was not amused at any of their pranks. So it was decided that they would be kept apart during the event to avoid any trouble. Currently, Gray is serving as a waiter in their classroom while she's stuck with Natsu giving away food samples.
The task wasn't so bad, actually. After all, she gets to spend her first school festival with Natsu. True, he may be a troublemaker, but there's never a dull moment around him. He was the first one who treated her normally when she transferred, unlike the others who initially fawned over her. They became seatmates on her first day in school and from then on, their friendship took off splendidly. In just a short time, she developed a huge crush on her new friend. Not that she was gonna admit that to him or to Levy and her other girlfriends.
"You're gonna scare the customers away if you look like that." Natsu teased, as he popped another kernel to his mouth.
Lucy snapped out of her reverie and glared at Natsu. "Shut up, Natsu." She pouted.
Did she mention half of their friendship is mostly bickering? Natsu would tease her endlessly at every opportunity he gets. Levy once commented that it was their roundabout way of flirting.
Natsu laughed heartily at her. "Let's go to the freshmen's classrooms." He pulled her arm and started walking. "I heard they have game booths over there. I wanna try them!"
"I'm not playing hooky with you, Natsu." She pulled her arm back. "We need to bring in customers to our own booth or we'll never hear the end of it from Erza and Mira."
"We're not playing hooky!" He retorted. "We'll go and bring these popcorns to the visitors there. The place is all game booths and everybody there would be hungry! Besides, Erza and Mira didn't say we're not allowed to try the other booths right?"
Lucy considered what Natsu said. Indeed, there's nothing stopping them from trying out booths since the real objective of her task was to watch over Natsu. And they could bring in more costumers to their own booth if they move around the campus. She looked up at Natsu and smiled. "Fine, you win. Let's go booth hopping!"
"Alright!" Natsu pumped his hand in the air. He pulled her hand again and they both started to run to the freshmen classrooms.
Lucy and Natsu first played on the balloon darts booth. Natsu surprised her with his pinpoint accuracy, popping all six balloons. Natsu gave her the bunny plushie prize then moved on to the next booth: Ring Toss. Natsu laughed so much at her when she knocked the bottles with the rings instead of tossing them on the bottles. Things got a little messy when they challenged the paper fishing booth, both of them splashed with water and no goldfish.
"That's was fun!" Natsu said as he squeezed the end of his uniform.
Lucy nodded, as she wiped her uniform with her handkerchief. "Where do you want to go next?" They finished giving away their popcorn samples before they started playing on the booths so now they got nothing to do until the festival ends.
"Wanna go see the Seniors' play? I think they will play Frederick and Yanderica." Natsu suggested.
Lucy pretended to think about it for a few seconds. "Hmmmmm. Okay!"
They spent their next hour standing in the gymnasium, laughing together as they watched the play unfold. It was a genderbent play. The senior playing Yanderica hobbled in his ball gown around the stage while Frederick kept on flapping her cape. They were laughing from start to finish, their tummies almost cramping from too much laughter.
"I did not know Jellal-senpai would look good in a dress." Lucy commented as they walked back to their own classroom. She giggled when she recalled Jellal's acting.
Her pink-haired companion chuckled as well. "And Ultear-senpai was very manly playing Frederick!"
"Lu-chan, Natsu, welcome back!" Levy called out from their classroom entrance.
"Levy-chan!" Lucy greeted her blue-haired friend. "How is it going?"
"We're doing great!" Levy answered. "I heard from Erza that we're currently on top for the Best Sales award."
"Do we still have food? I'm hungry again." Natsu cut in, rubbing his tummy.
Levy nodded and pointed inside with her thumb. "I think we still have some choco bananas and candied apples inside."
At the mention of candied apples, Natsu dashed inside their classroom, leaving Lucy alone with Levy.
Levy noticed the stuffed toy clutched in Lucy's arm. "Where did you get that bunny plushie, Lu-chan?"
Lucy showed the bunny plushie to Levy. It was white and was wearing a pink dress. "This one? Natsu gave it to me. He won first prize on the balloon darts booth."
Levy smirked at the information. "Soooo, your date went well, huh?" she teased.
"Da-date?!" Lucy blushed furiously, cheeks, ears and neck all red.
Levy grinned, white teeth flashing in victory.
"Did you, Erza and Mira set me up with Natsu?" the blonde asked, wishing that it wasn't the case.
Levy nodded slowly, exaggerating her movement. "You're welcome."
"Levy-chan!" Lucy complained loudly. "It's not a date!"
But it was, Lucy realized. They had fun together in those game booths. He gave her a gift, although it was really just a game prize. Then they watched a play together. She'd be lying if she'll say her heart did not enjoy those little moments she shared with Natsu.
Levy snickered at her. "Your face says it is, you know."
Lucy bit her lip, embarrassed at Levy's teasing. "Yo-you didn't have to do that." She looked down and played with the hem of her skirt.
"Students and Visitors, we only have 30 minutes until Yousei Gakuen's School Festival officially ends. We thank all the visitors for your patronage. We hope to see you again next year."
"Ooops, there goes the announcement. I have to get back inside to help Erza tally our sales." Levy started to tidy up her desk, gathering paper and pens in her arms. "Feel free to continue denying that you didn't spend your School Festival in a date with Natsu!" she winked at Lucy and dashed inside the classroom.
"Levy-chan!" shouted Lucy.
After thirty minutes, the students started to take down their classroom set-ups. The class representatives were called in a meeting to submit their sales. Lucy helped out her classmates in a daze, her mind still reeling at the set-up date.
"Students, please gather around the parking lot for the announcement of winners and campfire dance."
The whole student body gathered in the parking lot as the principal announced the winners. The first award, Best Booth went to the Fortune Telling booth of one of the senior class. Erza cried when the Best Sales award was announced. It was their class who won. Everybody in their class celebrated, jumping and pumping their hands in cheer.
"A school festival isn't complete without its annual campfire dance." The principal said over the mic. "So boys, this is now your chance to ask out the girl of your dreams! Let the campfire dance begin!"
Students cheered as the campfire began to burn, warming the chilly twilight air. Carnival music blared on the school's sound system as student couples began to dance around the campfire.
Lucy was with Levy as they watched their friends get asked out one by one. Mira was the first in their class, invited by Laxus of the Senior class. Next was Erza, asked out by Jellal.
"Look at Mira and Erza go." Lucy cheered. "Do you think we'll get asked out too?" Lucy asked innocently.
Levy smirked. "I doubt you'll be asked by another guy on this dance. Almost everybody saw you with Natsu today."
Lucy sighed. "I hate you more and more for setting that up, Levy-chan. Now I won't get a chance on this since I doubt that person would think of dancing with me."
"We'll see." Levy grinned.
"Can I have this dance?" A gruff voice asked behind them.
They turned around to see their classmate Gajeel, blushing slightly as he held out his hand to Levy.
Lucy giggled as she pushed Levy into Gajeel's arms. "This is for that set-up." She whispered to Levy.
Her blue-haired friend was quickly whisked away to the dance floor and Lucy was left alone, watching as couples twirled around the campfire.
"Lucy!" a familiar voice called out. She looked up to see her best friend Natsu smiling at her.
"Hey Natsu." She smiled back.
"Wanna dance?" he asked quickly.
Lucy blinked, surprised at the sudden question. "I'm sorry?" she asked.
"Err," Natsu stammered, "do you wanna dance with me?" he asked softly, barely enough for Lucy to hear.
"Why?" Lucy asked again. She did not expect this, so was having difficulty processing that her crush just asked her out for a dance.
"Well, we're close friends." Natsu started. "And we had fun together today. I thought I'd want to end the school festival with you too." He looked up to her, his face slightly red. "Lucy?"
Lucy grabbed his hand and ran to the campfire, laughing softly. Natsu followed her lead until they got into position and joined dance circle. They twirled, hopped and jumped to the cheerful music playing around the campfire. By the time the song finished playing, Lucy and Natsu were tired. They left the dance floor as slow music started to play, giving the place a romantic ambience.
"Wow, I'm tired." Natsu panted softly, grinning at Lucy.
"Me too." Lucy said as she tried to catch her breath.
Natsu sat on the grass to rest. Lucy quickly sat beside him.
"Today was the best school festival I ever had." Natsu stated. "I had so much fun with you, Lucy."
Lucy nodded. "I had fun too. Though, you mostly ate our popcorn."
Natsu chuckled. "It's free food and I was hun—"he stopped talking when he felt something wet and warm on his cheeks. Actually, it was Lucy's lips.
"Thank you Natsu." She whispered to him and quickly stood up.
Natsu touched his cheek where her lips had been in a daze as he watched her run away from him.
"Lucy, wait!" He called. "Come back here!" He almost tripped when he stood up to run after her.
Lucy turned back at stuck her tongue out. "Come and get me!"
A/N: Thanks for reading my first piece for NaLu week 2014! This was first posted on my tumblr account on June 16.
I'll try to update every day for each prompt, from Day 1 til Day 7 and on the second bonus day prompt.
For EmilyLovesManga, I'll work on your requests soon promise! I went into a writer's block for sometime, but now I'm back in action.