On the first day of class, I noticed him as soon as he walked in. Seriously, with hair that shade of pink, everyone's eyes at the very least flickered over to him as he plopped down in an open seat in the front row. Apparently he knew the girl he'd sat next to, she had long straight scarlet hair, but that was all I could make out, from all the way back in the fifth row, of the lecture hall.

I'd always been more of a back row kind of guy, where the teacher would be less likely to notice if I ended up spacing out halfway through class. However, when I'd arrived, the last couple tiers of seats had already been filled in so I made do with what was left.

I wasn't surprised at the number of people crammed in the room considering it was an introductory level human anatomy class, yet, it still seemed a bit overwhelming when I looked around. Growing up in such a small town, I really wasn't used to having so many people around to distract me during lecture.

However, out of everyone in the room, my eyes drifted down to him. Even when our professor began explaining the syllabus, I couldn't help but fixate on the pen he was spinning over his thumb or how his head moved side to side every so often. It was like watching a little kid trying to sit still after eating a bowl of ice cream.

When class finally ended, he was the first one to hop up and dash from the room. I figured his next lecture must have been far away or something for him to take off like that and smiled to myself at his energy level as I gathered my things together to shove into my backpack. Luckily my next class was only two rooms away so I had plenty of time to make my way down the hall.

Waking into my human physiology class, I was rather shocked to see the pink haired guy was staring down in my general direction from the second to the last row. Why had he run out of class for a less than a minute walk? Shrugging to myself, I took a seat in the row behind him and was thoroughly pleased to be in the back.

Even I was closer to him for the next hour, my eyes easily looked past the pink hair and focused on the PowerPoint up on the projector. If I let this guy distract me in every class, I knew there was no way I was going to maintain my scholarships, so I made sure to pay attention. At least I did a pretty good job, until he turned around.

His mossy green eyes were as bright as the grin stretching across his face. Wondering how anyone could be so genuinely happy about passing someone an attendance sheet, I could only manage blank stare as I accepted the paper from him. The fact that he still had roundish cheeks was adorable.

Handsome, but cute…exactly my type.

As he turned back around I noticed a long jagged scar peak out from above the scarf wrapped around his neck. I wondered briefly about how someone could get injured there before almost smacking myself for not paying attention, again.

When the clock hit three and the teacher finished up class, the guy in front of me jolted out of his seat just as before and jumped down the stairs two at a time on his way out of the room. I sighed as I watched him disappear through the doorway. If he ended up in the same labs as me, I was seriously worried about my grades.

That night, after grabbing some dinner and finishing up on some reading for class, I decided I should probably go workout. I'd been pretty active in high school with soccer and tennis which made me even more determined to avoid the freshman fifteen that everyone preached about.

It wasn't too chilly outside, but the sun had set long ago so I went ahead and walked to the university's recreational center. The place was a pretty good size with lots of workout machines, weights, and an eighth of a mile track that stretched the periphery of the main room.

After chucking my stuff in a locker, I headed straight for an empty treadmill. Not feeling particularly motivated, I started off at a fast paced walk as I scrolled through playlists in my phone. Nothing really sounded good so I wasn't really off to a good start, but I settled on something with a descent beat before setting the phone down and focusing on moving.

Looking up, there was a flash of pink running past me. It was that same guy again rushing around the track! I didn't see much of him the first time he came around but as he circled by I could tell he was really going all out. His baggy sleeveless shirt was sticking to his lean frame and his skin was flushed red from exertion.

For some reason, seeing him sprinting around was exactly the motivation I needed.

Hitting the stop button on my treadmill, I leaped off and headed over to the track. Patiently waiting for him to make the trip back around, I instantly took off to match his pace when he ran by. Probably too caught up in his music since he also had ear buds in, he didn't notice me for the first lap we did together, but the second time around, he looked over in surprise.

"Hey!" he spoke a little too loudly from not being able to hear himself, "You're the guy from phys!"

I nodded once with a slight smile. There was something endearing about the determination in his eyes.

"Think you can keep up with me?"

Nodding again, I sped up my footfalls and pulled ahead of him. Eyes narrowing at my challenge, he lengthened his stride to quickly make up the distance. Both of us knowing what this was turning into, I completely stopped caring about energy conservation and shifted into full gear while he continuously fought beside me.

The concept of time was gone to me as my lungs greedily gulped air and my feet thudded against the rubbery padded floor. We could've gone five laps, twenty laps, two laps, I had no clue how many curves we'd slowed for or how many straights I'd tried to dash ahead on. All I knew was that I would win this race, even if we had to run a marathon-length distance.

Forcing my legs forward despite their inability to move any faster, my competitor's heavy breaths suddenly disappeared from my left. Confused, I slowly jogged to a stop and looked back to see if he'd given up or something.

"Natsu what have I told you about racing around the track like a crazy person?! How can anyone use it when they'll be too afraid to get trampled by your idiotic version of exercise?! If you can't keep yourself from challenging people then you need to take it outside!" shouted a red headed girl,that I recognized from my anatomy class, as she dragged him off the track. Her hands were clamped around the pink haired guy's shoulders as she shook him back and forth while chastising him. His eyes were wide with terror as she finished her lecture and turned to me.

Concerned for my safety after seeing him get harassed, I approached them gradually.

"I don't believe we've met," she said rather formally for someone our age. "My name is Erza."

"Gray," I replied hesitantly. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise, I'm assuming you already know Natsu here."

Natsu timidly gave a half wave from beside her since I'm assuming he hadn't quite recovered from Erza's unexpected attack.

"Kind of, we're in the same anatomy and physiology classes."

"Anatomy too! Sweet we can totally study together!" I scratched the back of my head as I wondered how I was supposed to study with him, when I could barely keep my eyes off him during lecture.

"Oh yeah, have you gone over the first chapter of phys? It seems pretty basic so far."

Natsu gave me an odd look, "You're already studying on the first day?"

I laughed though I was a little out of breath still. "Yeah I like to go over the material again after class since it's still fresh in my mind."

"That makes sense," Natsu agreed. "I guess I should look over stuff tonight." He frowned which made me wonder if he would even open his textbook.

"You mean you're going to study as soon as you get back to your dorm," said Erza as she crossed her arms over her stomach.

"But Erzaaaa I'm hungry."

"Then maybe you should've eaten dinner instead of running for two hours."

"Two hours?" I questioned because I wasn't sure if I heard her right.

"Yeah, I love running," exclaimed Natsu with a little hop.

I tried not to blush at how adorable that was.

Then my competitive side realized that had he not been working out for such a long time, he could've beaten me during our race. I was seriously going to start some hardcore endurance training if I was going to keep up with him.

Wait, just how often was I going see this guy?

"Yeah I noticed. Well, I'm going to hit the showers. I'll see you guys around though," I said with a wave as I turned to head to the men's locker room. Part of me just wanted to walk back to my dorm and shower there but I couldn't ignore the feeling of sweat dripping down my skin. Glancing over at the clock, Natsu had gotten me to run pretty hard if I was this gross in only thirty minutes.

"I'm going to call it a day too," I heard Natsu say before he appeared beside me. We walked in an easy silence to the locker room or rather, I walked and he half skipped. How could he still have so much energy?

We both grabbed our shower stuff out of our lockers, that I was glad I'd brought just in case, and headed over to the shower stalls. I pulled my curtain shut before I stripped and turned on the water. The chilly water felt like heaven as it washed over my heated skin.

"Aaaak! That's fucking cold!" shouted Natsu from the shower next to mine. "How's your water?"

"Mine's great," I replied as I lathered up my body with body wash. I washed my hair that morning so I really only had to worry about getting the sweat off me. As I rinsed off under the cool water, I sighed as I felt the layer of salty grime wash off my skin. Turning off the facet, I dried myself off and wrapped the towel around my waist as I pushed back the shower curtain.

Standing in front of his shower, was Natsu with the biggest pout on his face. He had his towel wrapped around his hips too but he was dripping wet from jumping out from underneath the shower spray. My eyes curiously watched a few drips as they ran over his chest and down his abs. I'd assumed he was pretty toned if he was a runner and it showed in his legs, but I didn't expect him to have such a solid six-pack!

Why did he have to be so perfect?

"My water won't heat up," he mumbled with one hand currently testing the water's temperature. He flinched back from it immediately, so it must've been pretty cold still. "If you're done I could just use yours!" he exclaimed with newfound enthusiasm.

I was going to tell him I took a cold shower, but I didn't have the heart to break it to him so I just headed back to my locker to redress.

I'd only pulled my boxers on when I heard him scream again.

"What are you a snowman?!" he accused from the shower. I guessed he was trying to bear with it long enough to wash up and he was pretty speedy too because he was out before I could even get my shirt on, which was probably good timing since his eyes dropped from my face.

I smirked and I couldn't resist asking, "Like what you see?"

He blushed with wide eyes and quickly looked away before padding across the tile floor over to his locker. I didn't look as he pulled on some basketball shorts and a plain t-shirt while I slipped a hoodie over my head.

Grabbing our gym bags, we headed out of the rec center and out into the night.

"I live in the Fairy Tail dorm so I'm headed this way."

"Seriously?" said Natsu with a huge smile and started walking the same direction as me. "I live there too! What floor are you on?"

I was pretty amazed that out of the ten dormitory buildings we lived in the same one.

"Third."

"I'm on the first, Erza lives right across the hall from me." That explained how the surprisingly strong, red headed girl knew him so well already.

"She seems a little intense."

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, but it's just because she's looking out for me."

We chatted about random things as we walked across campus, but when we reached the dorms, Natsu stopped abruptly.

"Hey give me your phone."

I wasn't sure what he was up to but I handed it over anyways. As he typed away, I admired the cute way his lips puckered as he focused on the phone screen.

"Done!" he announced as he gave it back to me shot me a regretful look.

"Well I'm going to grab some dinner." He jabbed a thumb over at the small convenience store on the other side of the next hill. "But I'll see you tomorrow?" he said with a hopeful inflection.

"Sure," I agreed.

He smiled at me one last time before quickly kissing my cheek and running away.

"Bye Gray!" he yelled over his shoulder while waving his entire arm.

After I recovered from his sneak attack kiss, I looked down at my phone and saw that his number had been added to my contacts.

Shuffling into Fairy Tail Hall, I couldn't fight back the grin that popped up on my face.

This semester was turning out to be way more exciting that I thought.

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