Natsu places the cup of coffee in front of Lucy, snapping her out of her thoughts. She thanks him and takes the cup as he sits opposite her. He studies her as she takes a small sip of her cup and looks everywhere but at him. "Did I do something wrong?" he asks, trying to figure out why she was acting weirder than normal. As far as he knows, he didn't do anything wrong so why is she like this all of a sudden?
Startled, she looks at him. His eyebrows knits together, his jaw is set, a small frown on his lips and his eyes holds so much confusion and regret, it makes her realise that this was all her doing. She needs to let the conversation she had with Erza go, because it is her fault for making Natsu feel like he had done something wrong. He hasn't done anything wrong.
He has done everything right so far. From walking her to her classes even if he doesn't have classes at the time or even if he is late for his class to his impromptu visits through her window. He has brought a smile to her face with just his actions and he has annoyed her with is words. But mostly, he's the first friend that she had made when she came to this college and he stuck with her, even though he calls her weird so many times. Thinking of this brings a smile to her face.
Lucy smiles at him and he notes that it wasn't the same smile that she had given him back at the student lounge. This smile is her true smile, one that shows no lies. "You did absolutely nothing wrong, Natsu," she assures him and takes a sip from coffee. He sighs in relief. It feels as if a big weight has been lifted off his shoulder now that he knows that he didn't cause Lucy's displeasure.
Lucy sees him deflate like a balloon in his chair and she giggles softly to herself. Maybe being just friends isn't such a bad thing.
"Erza Scarlet?" Erza stops heading to the door and looks back at Professor Evergreen. "Here," the professor says, giving Erza a paper. "Well done."
Erza watches as Professor Evergreen makes her way back to her desk before exiting the lecturing hall. Erza looks down at the paper and the first thing that catches her eye is the mark allocation. An A- for the project that was broken. She knows that she shouldn't get a mark like this since she hasn't fixed the project yet. She was going to do it later that day. Not liking the feeling of confusion bounce around her head, she makes her way back to the hall.
"Professor, what is this mark for?" Erza inquires as she strides up to the desk.
Evergreen looks up at Erza and answers, "The project that you handed in. Excellent work, even though I never thought that you would put the project together that quickly. I fully expected you to come back later on and take it to finish it off tonight. You never cease to surprise me, Scarlet. Getting that new student to get it for you while you were in class so that you can quickly do it in between classes was a brilliant idea." As the professor smiles at Erza, the pieces start to click together. She wipes the surprise off her face and sets her expression firm.
"Thank you, Professor. Enjoy your day," Erza greets and exits the hall, making a beeline for Natsu's dorm.
Knocking four times, she opens the door and mentally notes that she should scold Natsu for leaving the door unlocked. As she opens the door, the heavy smell of detergents enters her nose and she brings her arm over her face so that her inner elbow covers her nose.
"Hello? Natsu! Gray!" she calls into the empty dorm. No answer comes back. She makes her way over the discarded items and into the passage. Behind the vacuum cleaner, she sees a mop of dark hair. Walking forward, she sees Gray passed out against the wall with an elbow resting on a bent knee and a cloth hanging from his outstretched hand. Taking note of all the cleaning equipment lying around and the source of the detergent's smell coming from the bathroom, it appears that Gray tried to clean up some of the mess in the bathroom. Erza knows how difficult it is to clean up Natsu's mess. The last time she attempted to help clean, she had to call for a professional cleaning crew.
Erza ties up her hair, rolls up the sleeves of her jersey and takes the cloth from Gray's hand. "I guess it's the least that I can do," Erza says and walks into the bathroom, steeling herself for what she is about to do.
Waking up to the sound of loud humming, Gray groans and looks in the direction of the noise. It seems to be coming from the lounge. Gray looks around him and sees that the passage that he is sitting in is clear of any items, the bathroom doesn't seem to reek anymore and a small blanket is put over him. Pulling the blanket to the floor, gray gets up and makes his way to the lounge.
His eyes widen at the sight before him. He can see the floor, he can see the couch, he can see the windows and bookshelves. The room is clean. Erza was vacuuming and has her back towards him, so she hasn't seen him yet and he is grateful since he really looks stupid with his mouth agape and eyes wide as saucers from the shock of the room being clean. It took him at least an hour to clean what he could in the bathroom, but the detergents were too strong and breathing the fumes in while cleaning gave Gray a terrible headache. So he decided to take a short nap, but he woke up to nearly the whole dorm that has been cleaned by someone else other than him. He can't have slept that long, could he?
Erza switches off the vacuum cleaner and wipes her brow. Now that she is done with the last thing, which is the carpet, she can head back to her dorm to study. Since today is a lazy day (she only had to attend one class, which was Professor Evergreen) Erza's not to worried about her time management of the day. If it were any other day, she would've left the dorm the way it was and not bother helping. "All done," Erza says and smiles. Turning and about to walk out the dorm, she stops and stares at Gray.
He scratches the back of his head in nervousness and approaches Erza. "Thanks," he mutters and shoves his hands into his pockets.
Erza crosses her arms and replies, "Now we're even. I don't owe you and you don't owe me." His eyebrows rise in surprise. So she figured it out, huh? He sighs. "Yeah, I found out about you doing my project for me and saying that I had done it between classes. A flaw that I shall point out - I only had one class today, and if the professor finds out that you had lied, I'll be expelled."
The tone that she is using on him is stern and to the point and Gray hates it. It makes him feel as if he is a child and his mother is scolding him again. "It was the least that I could do, since I was the one that broke your project," Gray stated indifferently, hoping that she could get the message and change her tone. He did nothing wrong, so why was she treating him like a kid?
"Well, I don't need your help. I could've fixed that project on my own," she states stubbornly. She could've done it on her own, she didn't need help. If she needed help, she would've asked someone more reliable like Levy or Lucy. "How do I know if you have put the model back together correctly? If I had done it myself, I could assure myself of the mark that I have gotten, but since you had done it for me," Erza accuses with narrow eyes, "I am unsure of the marks. I could've gotten higher than I have gotten."
"Or lower," Gray adds with a shrug of his shoulders.
"What?" Erza snaps. Did he just doubt her? "Did you just say that I would've gotten lower marks if you didn't do the project?" When Gray shrugs his shoulders, Erza starts to feel her anger boil. How can someone feel so nonchalantly about something this important? Does he not see that her school career – her future – rides on the current topic that they are discussing? "Is that so? Care to explain why?"
Gray sees her lips pull into a straight line and her jaw clenches in anger. Deciding on the calm approach to the conversation, Gray has known that it always angers demanding people like the redhead in front of him. And if she realises that she is blowing up at him, she would be too embarrassed to do it again. Gray sighs and answers her in the same indifferent tone that has used in the whole conversation, "Well, you were trying to prove that viruses are non-living. I explained from an overall approach, stating facts from both side whereas you were just stating from the one side. Viruses are both living and non-living organisms due to the fact that their bodies have the components of a living organism, but needs a host to survive. Therefore, it is both living and non-living," Gray says, then smirks when he knows that he is right. "Admit it, you wouldn't have gotten those marks if it wasn't for me."
That last statement sends Erza over the edge. Her hands ball up and she starts to approach Gray, just about to make him a non-living organism before a shout is heard from Erza's right. "That's enough!"
Turning, both Gray and Erza are surprised to see Lucy walking towards them with Natsu following. With eyebrows furrowed, Lucy looks at the two in front of her in disappointment. "You hear what you are both arguing about, right?" Lucy asks and shakes her head. Gray and Erza's eyes widen at her question. "Marks that can't be changed." She looks at Gray and says softly, "Look, I know that you just wanted to fix what you have broken, but you can't do another student's work for them. People over here are very proud of their work." She looks at Erza next and her tone hardens, "Can't you at least say thank you? He went out of his way to help you out."
"But-" Erza starts but Lucy cuts her off.
"No 'buts', Erza. You can't go crying over spilt milk," Lucy takes a deep breath after she says this. She knows how Erza can be, and it is almost impossible to get an apology of a word of thanks out of the redhead.
"How long have you been here?" Gray asks Lucy and gives Natsu the stink eye. It was Natsu's fault why the dorm was in a mess and he didn't even stay behind to help clean.
"A few minutes ago," Lucy answers and folds her arms in front of her. She had basically seen the argument start. "You guys were too busy arguing to notice that we were standing in the doorway. We could hear you both from the student lounge." She looks around the room and sees that everything is clean and tidy. She nearly explodes when she sees Natsu take his jacket off and just dumps it on the floor next to the couch. "Natsu..." she seethes and Natsu flinches when he hears her warning tone, stopping in his track. He turns back to her slowly, looks to where she is pointing and laughs nervously. "Gray and Erza have worked hard to get this dorm how it is now. The least you can do is keep it that way!" Lucy yells and Natsu tries to make a quick getaway when he sees the murderous intent in the blonde's eyes.
Watching the scene unfold, Erza realises that she was the first at fault in the argument between her and Gray. She looks at him and grits her jaw, hating that she has to apologise first. Gray looks at her with a steady gaze and sees that she is uncomfortable with whatever she is thinking about. When she opens her mouth and words fail to make it out, Gray knows what she is trying to do. He shakes his head and she looks at him curiously. "Don't worry about it," he says and gives her a small smile. It was partly his fault why they were arguing, he shouldn't have done her project for her. He turns and goes back to his room, stepping over a half beaten Natsu and closes his door.
Erza tilts her head curiously at Gray's retreating back and wonders how he could be so nonchalant after an argument, and he just blew off her apology like he knew what she was about to say. "At least do the dishes when we leave," Erza hears Lucy shout as she stares at the space in front of her. "Come on, Erza. Let's go get cake, I'm in the mood for something sweet," Lucy says and grabs Erza by the wrist, walking out the dorm and shutting the door.
Erza doesn't like how Gray can be so nonchalant about everything where the rest of them have to stress about schoolwork, sports or life itself. She intends to make sure that Gray will realise the stress that the rest of them have so that he doesn't assume that everyone can be like him and get into this university just because parents have the money. Gray hasn't worked for his spot in the university and if he wanted something, he would have to work hard for it. Erza will make sure of that.
Hi everyone. Well, here is another chapter. I would like to dedicate this chapter to an awesome person, Janell Harris, for the first review for this story. It really means a lot, thank you. To all of you reading this, thank you for sticking with this story, it is my first story on FanFiction and i was very nervous to post it. I do appreciate that you are reading my story and giving it a chance. Anyway, please enjoy the rest of your day!