Please note that there is some swearing.

"Oh my God," Lucy cried as she, Gray, and I sauntered down the hallway. "Just. Ugh. Oh my God!" She waved her hands around excitedly. "I can't believe this. Hey, so, Jellal," she started, turning to me, her blonde hair flying, "I bet you're in at least one class with me, right?"

I had no idea, but I nodded just in case she wanted to check my schedule. I was far too lazy to go back the way I came from to get it for her. "Y-"

"Okay, whatever then!" she interrupted cheerily. I made a face. "God, let's just go back to the cafeteria! Mira had better have my cake, because holy fuck, if she does not have my cake, I am so gonna go all rage-mode-y."

"Jeez, Lucy," Gray interjected, "why so excited?"

Lucy looked at him like she was those kinds of guys who're hermits that've come out of their caves for the first time in forever, all squinty-eyed and incredulously staring. "Holy crap," she stared at him, "what is wrong with you, Gray?! It's cake we're talking about here. Caaaake. Like hellooo, have you been living in a cave for these past few years? Don't tell me you forgot what Mira's cake tastes like! And her brownies. Shit, food porn. Ugh. I'm getting all salivated just thinking about it." I hid a smirk. Talk about ironic, although my sense of irony is kind of off.

"Okay!" Gray surrendered, holding his hands up. "Yeesh. Fine, let's go get cake."

"Um..." I narrowed my eyes in the blonde's direction as she bounced off ahead of us.

"Don't get me wrong," Gray interjected, "but Lucy has her high moments too."

I'd predicted that classes would be a cinch or something, but apparently I was dead wrong. The teachers here were not only strict, but often gave us plenty of homework and essays. There was many an occasion that I thought I would fall right asleep at my desk. But still, I suppose not everything was bad. I wasn't failing any subjects or anything—my grades were never bad—and I had started fitting in rather nicely. And I was in two or three classes with Lucy, and a bunch of others with Gray or some other guy or girl who was at the table on the first day I'd arrived.

I turned onto my side as I smushed my face into the pillow, and ever-so-slowly cracked open my right eye. It was so silent that I could clearly make out Gray's inhaling and exhaling as he slept peacefully on the bunk above me. Stretching, I sat up and wondered why I had even woken up in the first place, only to stop mid-stretch when I heard a faint plucking sound coming from down the hallway.

The clock read 4:05 A.M. as I carefully opened the door, pulling a clean white shirt on drearily, and started stumbling down the hallway to where the music came from. I had no idea what was compelling me to even care—for all I knew, it could just be some random dude making another of those crazy scientific invention projects—but it had sounded so peaceful, so calming, that I couldn't help myself.

Before I could recognize and stop to think the situation through, I found myself face-to-face with a now-familiar door. The sounds could be heard from the other side of the wood. I sighed, exhaling deeply, and raised my fist once more, but lowered it as the voice from inside drifted out from inside. "Just come in."

Obligingly, I turned the knob and poked my head in slowly, afraid that I might be interrupting something; then again, there couldn't possibly be anything to interrupt at four in the morning. The room's messiness and clutter had not been tidied up at all, although there was a shortage of empty cans. In the center of the floor sat Lucy, cross-legged, absentmindedly plucking out a peaceful tune on a large, decorated guitar that was strapped onto her back and staring off into space and at the wall. Beside her lay a plate with a small piece of unfinished chocolate cake. The blonde turned her head toward me wearily, her eyes half-closed. I stepped inside.

"How long have you been playing?" I questioned her. She glared tiredly at me.

"What, no hello's or any 'hey, Lucy, you're sure lookin' mighty fine today's?" she proposed sarcastically.

I sent a yawning grin her way. "Sure," I replied, but in all honesty, even sitting on the ground with messy hair and just ultra-short shorts and a thin, cropped tank top on, I thought she looked gorgeous. "Sure." Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I know I look like crap, thanks," she mumbled, her head lolling backwards with her eyes closed. She patted an empty spot beside her. "'Kay, whatever. Come on in and sit over here." I sat, and she held up the plate of cake to my face. "Care for some cake?"

"Why not?" I shrugged, and gratefully accepted the paper plate. I turned to her once more. "Um, any forks?"

Lucy glanced at me sideways, and chuckled. "Gee, your mind's already running, huh," she remarked, "even at four in the morning. Smart boy. My own brain doesn't even turn on until class starts." She ruffled my hair. "I think my spare disappeared, so just use mine." I felt myself suddenly craving the chocolate cake that she had left, so I complied and pulled out the tiny plastic fork wedged partly within the spongey chocolate layers.

"Yeah, okay." We sat in silence for a while, just the two of us leaning against a large, tomato red bean bag cushion, when a couple more questions suddenly came to me. I straightened. "Hey," I started, drawing Lucy's attention.

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you have an extra?" I motioned at the fork in my hand.

"Oh," Lucy muttered. "Who knows. I think Mira said something about you coming over to steal some cake."

My brows creased in confusion. "What? Why?"

"Ugh, who knows." Her fingers half-heartedly brushed over the strings of her guitar, letting out a series of soft intonations that resonated in the air around us quietly. I set down the plate.

"Hey," I repeated, "your guitar."

"Oh, yeah?" She straightened up too, her legs uncrossing. She repositioned the instrument snugly in her lap.

"Can you play something? Like, what you just played?" I requested. She broke into a smile, looking at me amusedly.

"Alright, sure then, mister," she replied, and started slowly plucking, her eyes still focusing on me. The atmosphere around us seemed to be filled with the music that she was playing, and I leaned back once more, resting my head on the bean bag. "Nice song," I remarked. "What's it called?"

"I dunno," she responded, staring up at the empty ceiling. "I... never bothered to find out."

"Really? That's it?"

"Yep. Expect any more?"

"Well," I concluded thoughtfully, "it's a nice song. Either that, or you're good at playing, but it's a nice song. Keep on playing?"

"Forget it," Lucy shook her head and set down her guitar. "We were almost finished anyway."

"Oh." I rested my head against the saggy bean bag. "Where'd you get this song though?"

"Somewhere." Lucy let out a long exhale. "I will also tell you that in the future. What time is it?"

I pivoted my head around, suddenly feeling exhausted once more, and squinted at the clock torturously, as if my eyes had suddenly become crossed over the past few seconds. "Oh. It's 4:25," I informed her, and flopped back down into my previous place. Lucy scooted a millimeter closer to me, her thigh pressed against my outstretched leg. I swear I was blushing, but I don't think she noticed as she averted her gaze to my face. "Classes are starting soon."

"What, in like, five hours? Yeah, sure, Mister Nerd Boy, go ahead and ditch me for your damn boring classes with Mr. What's-His-Name. Sure, sure. Shoo then." She lightly pushed me, but I still fell onto my side, chuckling. She ruffled my hair, her tongue stuck out as she uncrossed her legs and threw her instrument aside carelessly. I stopped.

"What're you doing?" I acknowledged cautiously, sitting up. She eyed me and offered her hand as she moved into a squatting position, and let out an exasperated sigh when I raised a confused eyebrow. I could literally hear her mentally facepalming. Whatever she does.

"God, Jellal," she grumbled, "let's go!"

"Huh?" Lucy yanked me up and tugged me towards the doorway, but I stopped her briefly. She swiveled around and expectantly grinned, "Yeees?"

"N-Nothing." I didn't get where the heck we were going, but I followed her through the door and down the hallways. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Nothing could go wrong.

I ducked under the low arch of a weathered stone bridge to avoid getting a mild concussion—we were moving at a relatively fast pace—as Lucy ran in front of me, her sunshine yellow flip flops crunching against the small pebbles and who-knows-what-else that could be located in a now-dry stream. It's weird; you can't exactly see sunshine or anything, because it's just light, and you can't exactly see light, but we know that it's there and shining down upon us. It's not like the Sun is completely yellow or anything, but when we talk about the color yellow, we describe like sunny. I wonder why. And I wondered why I was even thinking these thoughts just by looking at some random girl's pair of foamy, sunshine-y flip flops.

An immaculately sexy girl, at that.

And there I go again with the sunshine and sexiness. I really don't know.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Lucy slapped my chest excitedly and gestured to the sight in front us.

It wasn't some grand, magnificent spectacle like I'd expected—although I should've made sure to lower my expectations anyway—just a teeny tiny lake with somewhat clear water and stale yellow grass. I swore I could see my runaway train of thought chugging away down a line of imaginary tracks at top speed. Oh well. But instead I turned to Lucy, who currently was standing with her legs spread wide apart and with her balled hands on her hips like she'd conquered the land and was now standing atop a hill watching the rotting dead bodies of the enemy with a victorious smirk plastered onto her face, and asked quietly, "So... what's this?"

She groaned, pretending to claw at her face in frustration. "Oh Jellal," she muttered, tutting, "my dear, dear Jellal. This is not any lake you see here."

"Well, of course not," I remarked sarcastically. "Because obviously nothing in this entire universe is exactly the same."

"Oh, sweetie," she drawled, and I could hear the dry condescending-ness dripping so loudly that I swore it could have created water waves on the pond. Yeah. Just that effective. "You're getting there. Unfortunately, poor wittle Jewall is still rather immature and baby-like—" I scowled at her. "—to understand something this simple about something as beautiful as this lake."

Unfortunately for her, the only thing beautiful here was... her. Oh. Well, that was smooth. "So?"

"So," Lucy started loudly, "just look." I looked, everywhere, but saw nothing particular. "Um? What?" I questioned as she stood with her army-battle-victory pose once more. She groaned obnoxiously loudly.

"As you can see, Jellal, this is no ordinary lake. Honestly, it's special because it's not special. There's nothing beautiful about this lake—" She plopped down on a conveniently large stone nearby. "—but that's exactly what makes it beautiful. People only tend to find beauty in things that stand out. But I mean, beauty doesn't exist, really, does it?" She plucked a few longer grass strands and started nimbly threading them through one another, and reached out for several pure, white daisies. "We'll never see something like this. There's nothing unique here. The water? It's not even that clear. The woods? They don't even have inhabitants, really. Or maybe that's just because it's so quiet over here that the little squirrels and birds all flew away to somewhere more fascinating. You see? It's special. We'll never get tired of it because there's nothing to get tired of."

"I..." I remarked, but found myself at loss for words. I was stuck between understanding and complete oblivion. "Well."

As if she had never mentioned the previous essay-worthy mass of words, Lucy crawled onto her fours and reached out for a smooth, round pebble. She clambered up, and brushed herself down. "Hey, you know how to play skipping stones?" At seeing my blatantly blank expression, I could swear that she thought I was really a Neanderthal in disguise. Not even at the homo sapiens level. "... Oh my God."

I shrugged. "We have other things to do back where I came from."

The blonde didn't bother to hide her open-mouthed stare as she arched a delicate eyebrow. "Pffft," she snorted. "You have 'other things' to do at home? Why am I not seeing that?"

"That's mean." I glared at her.

"I take pride in that," she responded quickly. "I'm not usually mean to people. Aw, that must mean that I like you."

Honestly, I had mixed feelings and thoughts to how to comprehend what she had just said, but I decided to let it go for the time being, seeing that it was Lucy saying all this. Gorgeous, smart, fascinating Lucy. Yep, that's right. A moment of silence passed between us, and I found it as comfortable as I had back at home.

"So," Lucy began, a gleam creeping into her eyes, "let's talk about your girlfriend."

"Again," I enunciated, and sat down beside her with a sigh, "Erza is not my girlfriend, okay?"

"Right, Erza was her name. Tell me about her, then. I'm interested." The subject of Erza—now commonly (and very embarrassingly) referred to as 'the smoking hot chick I was about to bang right there on the sweaty, carpeted floor of our dorm room, had Gray not interfered'—had been lightly tossed around as if it were a wad of scrunched up notebook paper amongst Gray and Lucy's groupie of friends. Lucy dropped a few strands of grass in my lap.

"Um..." Where would I start with this? "Well. Erza is... unique. She's smart—extremely smart." I gazed out across the lake, mentally conjured up an image of Erza, and let myself get lost in my own thoughts. "And... well, she's our student council president. She's sweet, kind, protective and fiercely loyal to those she loves—" That thought made me flush, thinking that I, out of all the possible suitors she could've had, was the one she had chosen to kiss, "—and she's perfect. Literally. Flawless. And she's the most beautiful girl in the world," I admitted. It was strange how openly I could talk about my feelings around Lucy, but, to my gratefulness, she had remained silent for the most part of my small speech. A small, serene smile spread across her face and graced her features.

"Yeah?"

"... Yeah." I let that small moment of complete tranquility settle over us like a quilt—which, technically, isn't the best comparison, seeing that it was sweltering hot in Magnolia.

"I'm glad that you feel that way about her," Lucy remarked. Her eyes glimmered, and suddenly I felt rather uneasy—all this talking about feelings about one girl I'm sure I'm slowly falling head-over-heels for with another drop-dead gorgeous girl who I feel like has an unknown connection with me was disruptive, I suppose. And I meant 'connection' as in... on a spiritual level. Okay, that was lame. Then again, I was always lame.

"Yeah," I confirmed, after a second of silence. "Yeah."

"You know," Lucy bounded back up again, as if her energy had suddenly flown back into her, "I think you're a pretty decent guy."

"Well," I ventured, after another moment of blankness, "thanks. I guess."

"Mhm." She didn't look at me, but instead resorted to gazing out at the lake spread out in front of us like a murky blue canvas. I noted how ugly a shade of blue the water was, and wondered when I'd become that kind of person. Determining things by color... that was so typically Lucy.

Not that I minded.

"I should write a book," is the first thing Lucy declared as she strode straight into our dorm room without even a bother to knock. I'd been taking off my sweater—I wondered where I'd gotten the silly notion to even wear that thing, in respect to the deathly weather over here—and as she nonchalantly paced through the doorway, leaving a resounding slam in her wake, I yanked the hem of my shirt back down over my abdomen with unintended violence and accidentally shoved my discarded article of clothing off the edge of my bunk. Lucy stopped then and delicately raised a brow at me.

"Damn," she made a face, "who knew that under all those baggy layers of disgusting PE shorts and skin and bones, Jellal Fernandes would have some bulk?" Coyly, she sent me a wink, but stuck her tongue out all the same.

"Ha, funny," I threw back, with slight indignation. I mean, I'm sure I had reason to. Blood rushed up to my face. "Though I, as one of the two residents of this room, would appreciate it if you knocked before entering?"

"Pfft," Lucy blew me off like a bug (and I did not like that mental analogy—stupid, stupid me). "Well, appreciate the snarky comments I send your way," she responded, "because there may or may not be compliments. Anyway, where's the future stripper you call your roommate?"

I gestured vaguely at the closed bathroom door the moment our dark-haired accomplice yelled over the sounds of shower water from within, "I'm wounded!"

"I can tell!" Lucy shouted back, and my eardrums began their next throbbing session. I reached for my pillow.

"If I were, theoretically, to grow up and be a stripper, I wouldn't even be here!" Gray continued, rather unnecessarily.

"Well, you're pretty much one already, seeing that you're stark naked all the time!" Lucy flicked the frosted glass window on the bathroom door. I bit back a remark about how, well, that was school property, so no, Lucy, you couldn't go around banging and possibly cracking everything in our dorm room, please. But, of course, I instead flopped down onto my mattress with my pillow over my face to block out their sensitive conversation.

"Look at what an innocent little boy you seem like, Jellal," Lucy quipped, her focus now on me. I shifted and sat back up. "Relax. These conversations are really very normal. And plus, we're gonna be late for class."

"Well," I commented, much to even my own chagrin, but began slouching towards my pile of classwork and textbooks, "look who's talking, Miss Who-Cares-Let's-Wake-Up-The-Entire-Neighborhood-At-Four-And-Not-For-Classes."

"You come up with the best nicknames," she snickered.

"Indeed I do. Gray, are you done?" I called to the other, taking note that the shower water had ceased its running. The door flew open, and a towel-clad Gray shuffled out, his hair dripping and sticking out in the most omnidirectional way possible. He grinned and reached for the drawers, very obviously taking his time. Lucy seemed oblivious to his bare abdomen, which somehow made me feel much more reassured than I felt was healthy.

"Yeah, I'm done," he mumbled, smirking as he fumbled through his piles of clothes.

As if she read my jumbled mind, Lucy added, "Not to pile onto the novelty or anything, but this—" She gestured at Gray. "—is a pretty natural occurrence."

"You make me sound like a delinquent," Gray groused.

"Oh, trust me," Lucy offered a rueful smile to no one in particular, "I've already seen far more than preferable. Now let's get to class."

Hey guys! I am so, so, so, so sorry for making you all wait. I've really had no inspiration for varying periods of time, but I've updated. I'll be updating my Graylu prompt story (even though it's been months since I've updated that, too) also.
P.S. if anyone could think up of a nicer name for this story, I'd really really really appreciate it. If you have suggestions, please feel free to leave them in a review or anything!