Episode 1: In which Gray doesn't get naked for Natsu while Lucy watches. No nudity here, nope.
Truth be told, Lucy hated figure drawing class. Staring at wooden figures and naked models for hours on end was not exactly her idea of a good time, and the angry old coot who ran the class made the entire experience ten times worse than it needed to be. The only saving grace was that her best friend was in the class with her.
Of course, the professor had to ruin that, too.
"Natsu Dragneel."
"Yes?"
The professor gestured to Natsu's drawing of the day pinned to the wall among all the others. Natsu's work always stood out during critiques. And usually not in a good way.
"What is this?" Professor Gaebolg said.
"Uh. What do you mean?"
"Look at the others' drawings and look at yours. Do you see the difference?"
Lucy's blood ran cold. Professor Gaebolg was infamous for his harsh and humiliating tirades against unlucky students, so if he was singling Natsu out, this wasn't a good sign. Until now, he had just glared at the offending drawings in gross distaste, but somehow today Natsu's drawing crossed a line.
"Mine's really bad," Natsu said.
The professor let out a long breath through his nose. "Bad?" he said quietly. His voice rapidly rose to a hysterical screech. "You call this bad?! Bad, he says! Bad! No, this is a downright disgrace. And you dare call yourself an artist." He spat the words as if the very taste of them disgusted him.
Natsu raised his hand a little. "I know I'm lacking. I'm taking this class so I can improve my—"
"So you can improve your drawing skills? You can't improve something that doesn't even exist. Even graphic designers need to be able to sketch; how do you plan on making it anywhere like this?"
The room was silent. No one dared to move. Even the hum of the air vents seemed too loud. Natsu acted unfazed, but judging by the way his clenched fist trembled on his lap, Lucy knew he was working hard to hold back his temper.
"No answer, huh? I asked you a question, boy. You dare to come into my class and—"
"With all due respect, sir," Lucy interrupted, heart pounding in her ears, "I haven't seen you once make an effort to give Natsu feedback. You give everyone pointers except for him. How do you expect him to improve when you ignore him during class? It is your responsibility to oversee and teach your students. His tuition money is paying your salary; the least you could do is treat him with the same respect you do the rest of your students." She mumbled an addition, "Not that you treat any of us with much respect, but that's beside the point."
Rant over, heat rose to Lucy's face under the stares of her fellow students. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one make a subtle silent clapping motion, which brought a bittersweet smile to her face. At least her sacrifice would not go unappreciated. She would go down a martyr.
"Miss Heartfilia, you may see me after class," Professor Gaebolg said after a short stunned silence. But it seemed her point got across, because he dropped the subject of Natsu's lacking abilities and moved on to discuss what they would be doing next class.
Lucy let out a long sigh. She was doomed.
While the professor was talking, Natsu sneaked a look over his shoulder and flashed Lucy a wide grin. She smiled weakly back. It was worth it to defend her friend, but damn if she hadn't just made her life in this class a lot harder.
Natsu was waiting for her when Professor Gaebolg finally let her go.
"How'd it go?" he said, straightening up from his position leaning against the wall.
Without a word, Lucy walked up to him and slumped against his chest, forehead resting on his shoulder. His chuckle was low and rumbly in her ears.
"That bad, huh?" he said, patting her on the back.
Lucy stood up straight. "He lectured me about talking back to figures of authority. I tuned out most of it." That wasn't entirely true. But she didn't want to think about how many times the professor brought up her family background, essentially calling her a spoiled brat with a superiority complex, an arrogant little rich girl who thought she could do whatever she wanted because of Daddy's money. She didn't have the energy to point out that she'd been an emancipated minor and was only attending college through a full scholarship from the university. He'd probably continue blaming her background for her attitude anyway, regardless of her current situation. The downsides of having a famously wealthy father.
"I should change my surname," she said aloud.
"You've been saying that ever since I've known you," Natsu said.
"One of these days I'll actually do it," she said.
Thankfully, he didn't press the issue of what had happened; he seemed to get the gist from the few words she did say. Instead they walked side-by-side back to the apartment building they both lived in, him chattering on about all the chores he had to do when he got home.
They were approaching the building when a light bulb went off in Lucy's head. She smacked a fist to her palm. "I've got it!" She pointed at Natsu. "I'm going to coach you."
"On what?" Natsu said blankly.
"Figure drawing! I should've thought of it sooner!"
"You have your own homework to do," he said.
"So? Not like I'm going to be able to focus when I'm busy being mad at him for calling you out at the crit today. If he refuses to teach you properly, then I'll do it instead and show him just how good you are. So? What do you say?"
"It sounds great and all, but we don't have a figure model. The school doesn't let us borrow those wooden ones."
"All we need is someone willing to take off a few layers for us. Who do we know who does exactly that on his own anyway?"
Natsu said the name at the same time as Lucy: "Gray."
"The question is how to convince him, though," Lucy said, tapping her lips with her pointer finger.
"Oh, that's no problem," Natsu said. "Leave that stripping bastard to me."
Lucy didn't know how he did it, but Natsu did manage to convince Gray to model for them. He sat awkwardly in the middle of his and Natsu's bedroom as Lucy helped Natsu set up his drawing board and pencils.
Natsu looked up. "You just gonna sit there? Hurry up and strip, you stripper."
"The things I get myself into," Gray muttered, grumpily pulling his shirt over his head and working on his belt buckle. He glanced awkwardly at Lucy. "Uh. Mind looking away for a sec? This feels weird."
"Nothing I haven't seen you do already," Lucy said, rolling her eyes but dutifully turning around.
"That means you too, idiot."
"I'm not even looking," Natsu said.
"Okay, done," Gray said after a moment. He kept his boxers on, but other than that, all his clothes were in a pile on the floor next to him. Lucy gathered them up and put them to the side. "So, uh, what do I do?"
"Just find a standing position that feels comfortable," Lucy said. "We're not trying to do anything fancy here, just going through some basics. Normally you wouldn't even need to take any clothes off, but we've been doing muscle studies in class lately and well, we need to see your skin for that."
"If that stupid professor did his job, I wouldn't be stuck doing this," he grumbled, spreading his feet apart a little and settling into a relaxed standing position.
"That's great, Gray," Lucy said, trying to be encouraging. He was obviously not happy to be here, and she couldn't help but wonder what Natsu said to get him to agree to this in the first place. "All right, Natsu, I'm going to walk you through this, so just follow my lead, all right?"
She walked him through the basic steps she'd learned in every figure drawing unit since high school, the same basic steps their professor should've at least mentioned or pointed Natsu to a resource for. But since it had come to this, what better resource than Lucy, whose favorite subject to paint was the human body?
After doing it together once, Lucy had Natsu do more sketches without instruction this time, and it was amazing how much he'd already improved with a little one-on-one attention. Sure, his drawings were still mediocre, but the proportions were better, and the movement of his hand a lot smoother and more confident. And that confidence would make all the difference.
Lucy didn't know how much time went by before the sound of a key in the deadbolt announced that someone was entering the apartment.
"Must be Gajeel," Lucy noted, head turned toward the source of the sound. Gajeel, Natsu, and Gray all lived together in this apartment. Gajeel had won the round of rock paper scissors that decided who got their own bedroom, so the perpetually fighting Natsu and Gray were forced to share. Still, despite all their bickering, the three were close friends.
"You guys still drawing?" Gajeel called.
"Don't you dare come in here," Gray shouted back.
The door swung open with a bang. "Too late!" Juvia sang, bursting into the room.
Erza soon followed. "Hello, Gray."
Gray turned a dangerous shade of red and scrambled to cover up. "What the fuck, guys?"
"Sorry," Levy said with a sigh from the doorway. "They insisted on coming along."
Gray groaned. "Really, Gajeel?"
Gajeel just grinned. "Gihi."
"Gray is modeling. It's interesting," Erza said.
"Awww, Juvia thought Gray would be naked," Juvia said, pouting.
"Like hell I'd get naked for that hothead," Gray said.
"Oo la la," Lucy teased, covering her mouth in a mock-scandalized fashion.
If it was possible, Gray got even redder. "You know that's not what I meant," he said.
"Sorry, Gray," Natsu said, making a face. "I don't see you like that. We're just friends, dude."
"I said that's not what I meant!"
Lucy laughed. Gray usually played along with this sort of teasing, but with only boxers covering him, he was embarrassed and defensive. Poor guy. Who knew the perpetually shirtless Gray Fullbuster actually had a sense of shame?
"I think we're finished for today. Thanks, Gray," Lucy said. She tossed Gray his clothes, which he immediately started to put on.
"I'm not done," Natsu whined.
"You really think you'll be able to get any drawing done with everyone here? Gray deserves a break, too. We've been at this for an hour."
"I'm a little stiff, but I can stretch it out," Gray said, pulling a shirt over his head. "Hey, is it just me, or is anyone else hungry?"
Juvia raised her hand. "Juvia thinks we should go out for pizza."
"All in favor of pizza say, 'Aye,'" Erza said.
"Aye!" everyone chorused.
As a part-time waitress herself, Lucy always felt bad for the wait staff who had to serve them when they all went out to dine together, but she wasn't about to pass up a pizza dinner with her admittedly rowdy friends. While the others left to get a table, she, Natsu, and Gray hurried to get everything cleaned up from the lesson. Lucy especially didn't want to leave Natsu and Gray's room a mess after she forced them into this whole figure drawing lesson thing.
Erza hung back with the three packing up. "Gray, if you ever need a break, I'll volunteer instead. Being a figure model sounds interesting," she said.
Lucy wondered what Erza's reaction would be to having Natsu render a poorly-drawn version of her in his sketchbook. She wasn't sure she wanted to find out. Neither did Natsu, probably.
He shared a glance with Lucy, fear in his eyes at the very thought of having Erza model. "Maybe next time," he hedged. "So, how about we get that pizza?"
Next class, Lucy and Natsu were buzzing with nervous anticipation as the class got set up. It was one of those days when a student would get in front of the class and have everyone draw them for half an hour before switching out with another student. Lucy always protested when a classmate volunteered her to model. She'd much rather draw.
On these days, Natsu always wanted to model to get out of drawing, but today he was uncharacteristically quiet when the professor called for volunteers. Class time passed by slowly. Lucy couldn't see Natsu's easel from where she stood, but she hoped his improvement from their little practice session was still obvious after the weekend.
She held her breath as Professor Gaebolg passed by Natsu's easel and paused, eyebrows raising by a hair. Natsu's hand stilled, sensing the professor behind his back. Time seemed to slow for a moment before Professor Gaebolg nodded once.
"That's more like it, Dragneel," he drawled, then moved on to the next student.
Lucy smiled so wide she almost cried.
Natsu turned around and shared an excited grin with Lucy. Wow. Had that really just happened?
That was the first time their professor had ever addressed Natsu while doing his rounds in class, and it was a compliment. Professor Gaebolg never gave compliments.
A little instruction went a long way. Lucy was still furious that she'd had to take it upon herself to help Natsu, but it would finally get through to the professor that his rather unhelpful approach to teaching was a detriment to his students. Maybe now he'd actually teach a little. It was a farfetched hope, but they'd managed to pull a compliment out of him, so who knows?
At the end of class, as all the students were packing up their supplies, Professor Gaebolg approached Natsu looking mighty awkward. Lucy pretended not to be watching, but she kept a careful eye trained on the two of them, as did the rest of the class.
"Dragneel," he said.
"Yes, sir."
"You did much better today. I see you took my words to heart."
"Oh, it was Lucy who taught me. She walked me through the basics of figure drawing, like the proportions and such. It makes a lot more sense now."
Professor Gaebolg glanced at Lucy for a moment, surprised, then turned away, He cleared his throat. "Well, if you should ever need further instruction, come to my office hours and I can help you."
Lucy's heart soared. Yes!
"Won't you be busy?" Natsu said. Professor Gaebolg was notorious for having other obligations during times he was supposed to have set aside to meet with students. And if it was a student he hated, like Natsu, he was almost always "busy."
"I won't be busy anymore," Professor Gaebolg said. "Not if you make an appointment. That goes for everybody," he added, addressing the rest of the class, who nodded in response. "Well. Good work today, all of you." With that, he swept out of the room.
As soon as the professor left, Natsu tackled Lucy in a side hug.
"Thanks!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. "I owe ya one!"
Lucy giggled and patted his arm. "You don't owe me anything. I did it for my own satisfaction."
"Nah, you stood up for me last class and even helped me get better so even Gaebolg had to acknowledge it."
"What you did was pretty impressive," added a classmate, Mickey.
"I've never seen Gaebolg look like that before," snickered another, Laki.
Natsu gave Lucy a hearty clap on the back. She stumbled forward. "You're a hero, Lucy," he said.
Lucy blushed. "I wouldn't say that," she said. The encouragement from her classmates was flattering and embarrassing at the same time, and Lucy's cheeks already hurt from all the smiling.
Natsu stretched his arms over his head. "I guess we can tell that bastard Gray that today was a success."
"He did help us out a lot," Lucy said. "Let's treat him to ice cream or something. We should ask him what he wants."
"You do it. If I ask, he'll just say something stupid," Natsu said.
"You're the one stupid enough to actually take him up on his ridiculous dares."
"He calls me a coward if I don't. There's no way I can let a coward like him call me a coward."
"And he counts on that faulty logic of yours. Well, he falls for it too when it's the other way around, so I suppose you two are alike in that regard."
"Hey, don't lump me together with that idiot."
"Pot and kettle, the two of you, I swear," Lucy said with a sigh.
"You're the one that needs the real thanks," Natsu said. "It must take a lot of patience to teach an idiot like me."
"You're no idiot," Lucy scolded. "Don't let Professor Gaebolg's treatment get to your head. He might treat you like an idiot, but he's wrong. You got so much better in such a short amount of time. In my opinion, that makes you a genius."
Throwing an arm around her shoulders, Natsu grinned. "Really, thanks, Lucy. For everything."
She smiled back. "Anytime."