So I was browsing through my old stories and found this chapter done and completed and I thought, "Huh. I didn't post this?" I felt bad since it'd been a long time since I last updated this story so here it is!
Also, expect an update regarding my WIPs on my account profile sometime next week! Thanks y'all for supporting me even after all this time! :)
Everyone steered clear of the pacing redhead whose fierce expression froze all who were unlucky enough to see it. Levy and Cana exchanged nervous glances, one pushing the other to come forward and ask Erza what was bothering her. "You do it," Levy hissed.
"Hell no! I think she's still mad with what I said about her morning routine."
"That was two weeks ago!" Levy groaned, smacking her palm against her face. She began to look around, searching desperately for a certain blonde. "Lucy, where are you, we need your help."
"What's wrong with Erza?" a heavenly voice asked, nearly prompting the two girls to fall on their knees in gratitude.
"Lucy!" they cried, wrapping their arms around her torso.
Lucy awkwardly hugged them back, confusion clear on her eyes. "You alright there, guys?"
"We need your help," Cana said, pointing to Erza who was now glaring at a poor freshman who had unwittingly crossed her path.
"Um... why don't you guys do it instead?"
"I tried!" Levy said. "But she just glared at me instead."
"Levy, I'm disappointed," Lucy teased. "I thought you'd be a bit braver than that."
"It's Erza! Besides, you've known her longer, you do it."
"Scaredy-cats." The two bristled at the insult, but Lucy was already walking towards Erza, and there was no way they'd stop her for that.
Safety over pride, ladies and gents.
"Erza!" Lucy sang, and everyone within the vicinity froze, gaping at the blonde and wondering if she was either really brave or actually really stupid, her ranking of being second in their class be damned. Her arms wrapped around the redhead's torso, and everyone's eyes bulged out of their sockets. Her head snuggled against Erza's shoulders, eyes wide and pleading. "Is everything alright?" Lucy asked with a pout, and everyone with a working heart in the area melted at the sight.
Erza stared down at her friend blankly before gently prying the blonde's arms away from her body. She pinched her nose in frustration. "I messed up an order," she admitted. Everyone listening in on the conversation gasped— that is, until Erza sent all of them a glare, to which they all turned back to their assigned jobs.
"Oh no!" Lucy said, her eyes widening comically and her hand covering her mouth in a dramatic manner. "Pourquoi?"
"Because I was an idiot!" Erza huffed, throwing her arms in the air. Her brown eyes squinted at the blonde, taking in her maudlin stance. "Lucy, what the hell are you doing? You look like a melodramatic dumbass."
Lucy flippantly waved the remark away, saying, "I'm not Natsu, Erza. Please don't insult me in such a degrading manner." Erza's mouth twitched despite herself. Lucy immediately straightened, her eyes alight as she gave Erza a two-fingered salute. "Anyways, I am here to offer you my services!" Anyone still eavesdropping fainted, now lost in their own perverted imaginations.
A tick appeared on Erza's forehead, and the redhead once again pinched her nose. "Did you really have to say it that way...? Ah, anyways, yes, I do need your help." Lucy nodded, allowing Erza to continue. "So, the custom balloons I ordered turned out to be complete crap—"
"You can customize balloons?"
"—and I panicked and looked everywhere for new balloons, and I saw that there was a sale in one store, and the balloons there were being sold for a really cheap price, and I bought all of them, and now I don't know what to do with them!" Erza wailed before pausing to cough delicately. Gaining her composure, she continued in a cool voice, "And yes, you can customize balloons. There's a website for that."
"You know we can just draw on the balloons after blowing them up?"
With her hair now covering her face, Erza's reaction to Lucy's idea was still pending, and everyone held their breaths, leaning forward in anticipation. In one dramatic swoop, Erza flipped the hair out of her face, her eyes shining with gratitude. Her arms wrapped around Lucy, and the poor girl choked from the sudden lack of air that had been cut off due to the dangerous death grip of Erza's hug. "Lucy," she whispered, "I am forever indebted to you."
Somehow managing to pat her friend in return, Lucy whispered back, "N-no problem, Erza." The redhead only tightened her hold, and Lucy released an odd sound reminiscent of a goose on its way to the chopping block. Her head turned toward Cana and Levy, her arm slowly stretching out to them in a desperate plea. "H-help me..."
"Erza, what are you doing to Lucy? You're choking her half to death," a deep voice— now Lucy's savior— said. Distracted, Erza loosened her grip on Lucy as she turned towards the male, and now free to do whatever she wanted, Lucy mirrored her actions.
"Jellal!" Lucy sniffed, recognizing the man standing before them. "Thank you so much for saving my life." The blue-haired male only grinned back.
Erza blinked as she gave the man a sideways— awkward, super awkward— hug, asking, "Fernandes, what are you doing here?"
Jellal only shrugged, eyes straying to the people covertly watching them and smiling in return. "Mira said you needed her help for the festival, but that she was too sick to go and asked if I could go in her stead."
Erza frowned. "But she sounded fine when I asked her..."
"You know how Mira is."
"Not really. She's crazy," Erza muttered under her breath as she thought of her enemy-but-kind-of-friend
Jellal threw his head back and laughed. "So are you!" he teased, poking her gently in the ribs. At the soft laugh from Erza, a familiar evil expression made its way on Lucy's face, and she exchanged mischievous looks with Cana. Execution of Operation GEWJ commencing in 3, 2, 1...
"Erza, you're a great artist!" Lucy said, Cana suddenly by her side. "Plus you know what kind of design you want on the balloons, so why don't you work on the balloons with Jellal?"
"Why don't you help me instead?" Erza retorted, seeing through their plans immediately.
"I'm rubbish at art, and besides, Jellal's an art major," Lucy said.
"Art history—" Jellal interjected.
Speaking over Jellal as if she hadn't heard him, Lucy continued, "Levy, Cana, and I can overlook the other jobs for you while you two... get some supplies and draw. Don't worry about us. I'm the one with more experience with cultural festivals, after all."
Erza's eye twitched, annoyed at herself that she was so easily beaten by Lucy's flawless and cutthroat logic. 'Damn you, Lucy Heartfilia!' she thought. Turning to Jellal, she sighed, gesturing for her to follow him. "Come on Jellal, balloons are in my car."
"Roger that, milady."
"... call me that again, and I'll tickle you to death."
"Aww, Erza, you don't mean that~!"
Lucy and Cana whooped once the couple were no longer withing hearing range, giving each other high fives. "Go flight, Operation GEWJ has taken off!" Lucy crowed.
Levy eyed her friends. "Um, first off, what's Operation GEWJ? Second, Lucy, you do realize that you volunteered us to basically babysit the entire senior class?"
"... Oh, shit."
"Why do you insist on making my life hell, Fullbuster?" Natsu groused, glaring at the passing buildings. "I really do not wanna— glurgh." Natsu's sentence garbled considerably when Gray pressed on the gas pedal despite the speed bump close by. "What the fuck, porn star, drive carefully! I don't wanna get in any accidents, dammit!"
"Maybe that's what I'm trying to do," Gray said under his breath, giving Natsu a dirty sideways glance.
"What was that, stripper?!
"You heard me, stinky breath." Checking to make sure there were no incoming cars, Gray jerked the steering wheel to make a hard turn, the car's occupants moving harshly along with the force. Natsu cursed, grabbing hold of his seat.
"What the fuck, Gray!"
"We're late," he sang, a wide, insane smile on his face.
"So what?! I'd rather face Erza's wrath than die?!"
"Same difference!"
Natsu opened his mouth to retort before his eyes darted to the side, wide and panicked. "Oi, dumbass, you're going to miss the turn!"
"Oh, will I?" Gray asked lightly before pressing the gas pedal once more and making a sharp turn. Not soon after, Natsu fainted. 'Final-fucking-ly,' Gray thought, rolling his eyes. 'Some peace and quiet.' He slowed down, finally matching the speed limit. His eyes strayed to the clock, cursing when he realized that they were thirty minutes late. "Erza's going to kill us," he whined and shot the unconscious boy next to him another dirty look. "Fucking Natsu and his hair. Who does he think he is, Justin fuckin' Bieber?" He paused before sighing. "I shouldn't curse so much... dammit, Natsu, you dumbass, I hang out with you too fucking much."
Five minutes later, Gray arrived in the large parking lot of their school, and still in a mean mood, he played the loudest and most annoying song he could find and placed it directly on Natsu's ear. Jerking away, Natsu flailed his arms, screaming like a little girl and cursing like a sailor. Gray grasped his stomach, doubling over in laughter. "What the hell, Gray?!"
"We're here, flame brain. Let's go, we shouldn't have wasted this much time." Natsu grumbled, fumbling with his seat belt, and upon throwing Gray's precious car door open rather carelessly, spilled out onto the ground in a unceremonious heap. "You deserve that," Gray said, hurriedly inspecting the door that very nearly scratched the car nearby. "I shouldn't have taken you with me," he whined when he saw the small scratch across his very new and very badass paint job.
"You shouldn't have offered," Natsu retorted.
"Grandine asked me to!" 'Plus, she scares me,' Gray added— but no way would he admit that to Natsu of all people. "Hey, airhead, where the fuck are you going?"
"Isn't setup at the gym?"
His eye twitched. "Do you really expect that we'd hold a fucking festival in the gym? Especially when we have a game tonight, too?"
"Oh yeah..." Shaking his head, Natsu turned to Gray. "Then where's setup, huh? Oi, Gray, I'm talking to you!"
"I honestly wish you weren't. Just hearing your voice lowers my IQ."
"Good thing it isn't very high, you haven't got much to lose." At that, Gray whirled around, a lazy smile on his face.
"Goodness, Natsu, did whatever came out of your mouth actually make sense?" Gray widened his eyes before leaning in conspiratorially, whispering, "Have you been... reading?" By now, the two were practically at each other's throats, teeth bared as if they were dogs fighting over territory.
"Yeah, got a problem with that, pansy pants?"
"Why you—"
"Hey Gray, Natsu! Are you here to help Erza out with setup?" a familiar voice asked, and upon hearing Erza's name, the two friends— enemies, frenemies, whatever the hell they were— separated, their arms around each other in a fake display of affection.
"Hey, Jellal, how are you?" Gray said, waving his free arm.
"Hey, Erza, fancy seeing you here!" Natsu said in tandem to Gray, the smile on his face practically cracking it into two.
Erza's eyebrows rose, crossing her arms as her eyes narrowed. "You were supposed to be here thirty minutes ago."
"Oh, you know, traffic and all that," Gray said, forcing himself to laugh as he squeezed Natsu's shoulders, keeping in mind the scratches the pink-haired male got from his little tumble from earlier.
"Aw, Erza, give 'em a break." The two boys inwardly cheered when Erza's glare softened, praising and thanking Jellal and his angelic patience.
"Besides, you can always make them run an extra lap or two during practice tomorrow."
Never mind angel, the man was the devil himself! The two boys hugged each other when Erza and Jellal gave them both wide, saccharine smiles. "Anyways, Erza and I have to deal with some decor mishaps. You should check in with—"
"Jellal," Erza interrupted, tossing him the keys to her black Audi, "can you start my car and bring it to the front? I need to talk to these idiots for a bit."
"Sure thing."
'Wait, don't leave, Jellal, we need you!' But Gray's mental pleas were unheard, and both he and Natsu were left with Erza. "Is something wrong, Erza?" Erza didn't reply, her eyes focused on Natsu, who began to sweat bullets. 'Thank the lord this isn't about me...' Gray thought.
"Natsu," Erza began, her voice as sharp as steel. "I expect you to be in your best behavior." She neared the boy like a predator on the hunt. "Lucy's in charge and if I hear that you give her any headaches, there will be hell to pay, Dragneel." She emphasized her words, grabbing Natsu's collar and shaking him for good measure. "You will listen to her every word. You will be civil to her, just this once. And you will not ruin any of the work we all put in this afternoon. Do you understand that, Dragneel, or should I come down to your level of communication and punch you in the face instead?" Gray whistled at Erza's threat, seeing full well that she truly deserved the awe and respect she received.
"Fine," Natsu grumbled and shook her off him.
"Good." Erza turned to Gray, the glint in her eyes much softer. "Gray, I expect that you keep him disciplined."
He saluted her almost playfully. "You got it, class prez."
Rolling her eyes, Erza muttered, "Idiots," and walked away. "Natsu, Gray, I'll see you soon."
Gray fought off the grin and insult waiting at the back of his tongue, knowing that it would only worsen Natsu's mood. "Come on, Squinty Eyes, you heard Erza."
As soon as they reached the field, Gray's eyebrow raised, amazed at the progress everyone accomplished in thirty minutes. Scanning the field, he spotted Lucy with a clipboard, her two friends, McGarden and Alberona, by her side, not far from where he and Natsu were. "Lucy!" he called, waving his arm lazily in greeting. "Need any help?"
"Gray!" Lucy said, grinning. "Nice to see you here." She paused, finally seeing Natsu behind him, and forced an uneasy smile in his direction. "Dragneel. So, um, right now..." She flipped through the papers in her hands, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. "Alrighty, so Sol and Juvia are setting up the pool for the Water Olympics. Wanna help them out with that?"
Gray shrugged. "Yeah sure."
"If they don't need the extra help, you can always come back here." Gray nodded, walking past her towards the cluster of classrooms where the pool was near by. Lucy turned to Natsu, her eyes still furrowed. "Dragneel, Bisca and Alzack need help with..." She paused again, her eyes zeroing in on one duty that yet needed to be fulfilled. "Okay, never mind that. So I need someone to work with the pyrotechnics for the fireworks show. Gajeel, Jet, Droy, and Levy will be setting up the platform for the fireworks once shot put is done practicing, but we've still got a spot for setting up the fireworks themselves. I know you're really good with timing, considering your drumming background, and we need someone who can really help with how the fireworks show goes, too. The thing is, we're planning to have it at the end of the festival, so you might have to work a little overtime. Willing to give it a go?"
Natsu shrugged, placing his hands behind his head. "Yeah sure. Will I be doing it with someone else?"
Taking a deep breath, Lucy nodded. "Yeah. Me."
