((A prompt I wrote for a user on Tumblr.
Sorry guys i have no plans to continue this at the moment. However if anyone is interested in writing a continuation, feel free to do so!
All I ask in return is that you give me a heads up when you do so, so that I can contact the original requester!))
Stress was, sadly, not an unknown feeling to Zeref.
It was actually horrifyingly common.
He didn't ask for much.
All he wanted was to run a nice organized club, hang out with his brother and girlfriend, and spend his school days peacefully. But it wasn't meant to be. For one, he was in charge of what had to be the most dysfunctional science club on the face of the planet.
"UGH Ajeel could you keep your dirt samples off of my work table?!" Dimaria looked about ready to sweep the neat piles of dirt right off of the table and onto the floor.
"Don't you fucking dare!" Ajeel was in her face in a second. "You know how long it took me to get those samples?! No fuckin way are you screwin with 'em!"
Dimaria reached her arm out behind the samples.
"Don't you fuckin do it!"
She gave him a grin to rival the cheshire cat.
"DON'T YOU FUCKIN-"
"Stop screaming in the science room," Zeref interjected authoritatively before things got out of hand. He had already been dragged in front of the administrators after an incident involving Serena's chemistry set and Invel's fridge of dry ice resulted in half the power in the school being taken out. And he did not desire a repeat of the incident. "Dimaria don't screw with Ajeel's samples, Ajeel put your samples in a plastic bag or container or something. I'm sick of having to stop people from wrecking your samples."
The two did as they were told.
Any teacher who had either Ajeel or Dimaria in their class would have been absolutely floored at how easily Zeref had handled the situation.
But to both Ajeel and Dimaria Zeref had something that none of the teachers had. And that was an absolute air of authority. Oh sure the teachers had the authority of position, but Zeref had the actual skills to back it up.
Though if the young man himself had been asked, he would have simply have said that it was just like dealing with children. Crazy, violent, children with extremely short fuses.
You just had to figure out what made each of them tick.
Wahls most recent mechanical invention wreaking havoc on the school's internet?
Threaten to cut all funding for the robotics division of the science club for the rest of the year.
Brandish decking the science room out with tacky oversized chess pieces and tiny versions of national monuments?
Tell her to pick one or two or everything goes into the incinerator.
Invel freezes the school's entire stock of pudding for the rest of the year?
Give him a firm talking to and he won't ever do it again.
It all really wasn't that complicated. The key was to back up your threats with actual action.
There was no point in threatening to send a child to their room if one didn't follow up on the threat immediately after.
And yet the teachers never seemed to pick up on the tactics and just kept throwing all their problem children into the science club. Whether they belonged there or not.
Like, Jacob. Oh, he was gentlemanly enough, but he had a terrible sense of humor and a violent side. That and he was an absolute nut about ghosts and supernatural phenomenon that he happily treated like every other science and studied heartily.
Zeref didn't have the heart to point out that that was all pseudoscience and just let the man carry on with his daily activities.
The strain of having to deal with all these trouble-makers put a mental strain on the president and stressed him out to insane levels.
In order to ensure that his blood pressure didn't rise to unhealthy levels, Zeref had decreed to the club that every Thursday after school the head of the science club was to be left alone.
No phone calls, no questions, no petty squabbles.
Thursday was Zeref's day off.
And anyone who forgot that was a fool.
However as it wasn't Thursday. It was Wednesday. And like a magic spell that would speed up time Zeref repeated in his head over and over, Eight hours. Just eight more hours and it will be Thursday. My nirvana.
The last week of club activities had been particularly trying, leaving poor Zeref to slump over his school desk staring tiredly out into space.
Just eight more hours. He repeated to himself. Just eight more hours until Thursday.
A hand placed itself on his shoulder. Zeref tiredly looked up and saw Invel staring down with a placid look on his face and a glint of worry in his eyes.
"Are you alright sir?"
Zeref was thankful for Invel. He was a steady, obedient, and level headed man. The perfect vice-president for the science club.
Rubbing his eyes tiredly Zeref responded, "I'm fine. Just a bit stressed."
"Do you…" Invel began. "Well… I mean… I could give you a massage?"
Zeref stared at Invel with a serious look on his face. "No."
The other man flushed with embarrassment and stuttered. "O-Of course sir. I-I'll be going then sir."
Invel rushed from the room while still somehow looking like he wasn't rushing at all. It was an entertaining display. Glancing up at the clock on the wall Zeref's stood as his mantra changed to, Seven hours and thirty minutes until Thursday.
His walk home was entirely uneventful. The weather wasn't particularly nice, nor was it particularly stunning. All the people he passed were busily focused on their own affairs, but not so much that they ran into the tired eyed boy drifting along the street.
Finally coming to his apartment he forced himself up the stairs, pulled out his house keys, unlocked the door, closed the door carefully behind him (tiredness was no excuse for irresponsibility), and collapsed instantly onto the couch.
Sighing Zeref closed his eyes and allowed a small smile to crawl onto his face. He was safe within his castle. His domain. Everything was nice, neat, and quiet. So very very quiet.
Too quiet.
Sitting up he peered around the apartment suspiciously. Was it this clean when he left this morning? Carefully he categorized every aspect of the room and compared it to his memory of that morning.
The shelves had all be dusted, the dishes had been washed, the floors cleaned, and with a sniff, Zeref was sure that someone had sprayed Febreeze or something recently. Normally such a nice clean environment would have brought the young man comfort. But that was when he cleaned up the room himself. As far as he knew there was only one other person here today.
And Natsu NEVER cleaned.
It wasn't that he didn't know how. He most definitely did. But Zeref's younger brother was a slob by nature. Any attempt to impart any kind of organizational system on the teenage boy had ended in failure.
It could have been Natsu's girlfriend Lucy, who was so meticulous that she had cleaned the apartment before. But she was on a week long school trip with her friend Levy, or so his brother had depressingly told her when he found Natsu slumped over the couch on Monday bored out of his mind. And Mavis was out because she had gone on that exact same school trip.
Suspicion filled Zeref's mind instantly as he got off the couch and went straight to his brother's room. Natsu had only cleaned the house a few times before. And every time it was done to butter up his older brother before he told him something that Natsu was sure would upset him.
Tomorrow was Thursday.
Thursday was Zeref's day off.
It wasn't just a day off from his club but from everything. Everyone Zeref was close to knew this. Even Natsu. So clearly his brother knew what was coming.
Zeref almost opened his brother's door unannounced. But stopped himself short.
As hurried as he was to get whatever it was out of the way, it was no excuse for rudeness. Natsu deserved privacy, even now. So with an irritated sigh (Zeref found that he was sighing a lot lately) he rapped at the door.
There were sounds of rush inside of the room. Bumping into furniture, things being shuffled about, and grunts of hurry.
After only a minute Natsu opened the door.
He put up a casual act. A very bad casual act. Zeref loved his brother dearly but Natsu couldn't act to save his life.
The pinkette was leaning against the doorframe just a bit too casually, his breath was too controlled, and the look on his face was too natural.
"H-How's it going, bro?" Natsu asked.
It was a dead giveaway.
Natsu had never, in his seventeen years, ever called him bro.
Zeref narrowed his dark eyes at his brother. If Natsu insisted on playing around, then the game was on.
In the most casual way, he could muster the older boy entered the room and sat on the bed and conversationally asked, "How was school?"
He could see the gears slowly turning behind his younger brothers eyes. Slowly surveying the situation while still trying to keep up his rather weak act of normalcy.
"Okay." he answered simply.
"How much homework do you have?" It was the same question he asked Natsu every day. Perfectly natural.
"Not a lot."
"You sure?"
"Y-yeah."
They went back and forth like that for an hour. All the while Zeref had a perfectly pleasant look on his face. And as time went on Natsu got more and more off his guard.
Finally, the time came for the older brother to pounce.
"Oh, by the way, Natsu." He began allowing the smile on his face to grow to an almost unnatural size. "Thanks for cleaning the apartment."
Natsu's body stiffened from his place on the floor.
Getting off the bed and draping an arm over his brother's shoulder he went on, "No I mean it. Thank you, Natsu."
"Uh, n-no problem." He whimpered.
Thrown off his guard. Perfect.
"You know you're a great help to me." Zeref deliberately pulled Natsu closer to him. "I mean that."
The pink haired boy was clearly uncomfortable. He shifted in an embarrassed manner.
Almost there. Just one more push.
"You know," Zeref went on in the most dramatic way possible. "I really do trust you."
Natsu's iron-clad willpower crumbled. He broke out in a cold sweat and his eyes darted around the room uncomfortably.
It was all too easy. Zeref's brother had always been an absolutely terrible liar. That had less to do with brainpower and more to do with the fact that the boy was, to put it simply, naturally honest.
Natsu never lied if he could help it. He kept promises better than most people two or even three times his age. And for the most part, he was open about almost every emotion he had.
As a result, it was easy to tell when he was keeping a secret. And all it took was a bit of prodding about how honest and trusted he was before the floodgates opened and it all came pouring out.
"S-so uh… Z-Zeref?" The pink haired boy looked pale and shifty-eyed.
"Hmm?" Zeref hummed curiously in response.
"I, uh… I gotta tell you something…"
"And what's that?" The black haired man smiled kindly at the only boy, quite genuinely this time. After all, how bad could it possibly be?
"I…" Natsu began and stopped before starting agian. "I, uh… I might've…"
Zeref stared at the boy expectantlly.
"I might've… lost a bet."
Zeref blinked. "A bet? What kind of bet?"
"W-well… I sort of bet Gray that I could beat him in a milkshake drinking contest."
"Of course you did." He sighed. Natsu hated cold foods. And yet he would gorge on icees, blizzards, milkshakes, and entire bags of ice if it meant challenging Gray. "And you lost?"
"Y-yeah."
"What'd you lose?"
"I… I really thought I was going to win this time." Natsu refused to look Zeref in the eyes.
"Natsu." Zeref's voice took on a serious tone.
"I mean sure milkshakes are cold but they're basically just frozen milk right?"
"Natsu!"
"It would have been a sure win if Gray hadn't insisted on having three rounds-"
"NATSU!"
The younger boy stiffened instantly.
Zeref stared at his brother intensely. "What did you bet?"
Natsu flushed and twiddled his fingers before finally pointing.
Right at Zeref.
"Y-you…."
For once Zeref didn't have an immediate response.
He managed a quiet, "What?"
"I-I bet you in a competition."
"What do you mean you bet me?!"
"W-well…" Natsu licked his lips and rubbed the back of his head. "Gray bet that if he lost I'd get Lyon for all day Thursday, and I… I kinda bet the same for you. Soooo, tomorrow after school Gray kinda gets you for the day."
Zeref eyes widened. "YOU DID WHAT?!"