Eyes Are the Window to the Soul

"Partner Quiz" was written on the board when they walked into Monsieur Jonah's room. Levy knew she should help Laxus, or Evergreen would skin her, but she decided to take her chances.

"Want a partner?"

"No, but I gotta," Gajeel replied. Once he was out of gym class, he would be more open to help because it wasn't outright connected to his brawn. At least, that's what Levy hoped.

"If I give you the answers on this quiz, will you let me tutor you so you can do the next quiz yourself?"

"How 'bout you give me the answers and we'll see, Shrimp."

"Agreed," Levy sat down in the chair next to him. She glanced over at Laxus, who was sitting near the windows. He was looking back at her with a scowl.

"Oi, number one?" Levy was knocked out of her gaze by the lug next to her. She looked down at the paper. Part 1 was vocab, part 2 was culture, and part 3 was verbs. Levy read and wrote the answers on her paper at top speed.

" D."

"Damn, Shrimp. You fluent or something?"

"If you got to French 5, you should be nearly fluent." He grunted in return. They finished the quiz together in relative silence.

"52," Gajeel said. Levy turned her sheet over.

"The quiz ends at 30."

"No, that's my grade."

"Oh."

"Not what the valedictorian would get, huh?"

"It's higher than I braced myself for. I'm free for school tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays," Levy said as she walked back over to her seat. She wanted to leave the invitation open, instead of making him feel like she was forcing it. She put all her books together and put some in her bag and the bell rang. She didn't see Gajeel leave in the blur of people, but she did feel a hand squeeze her arm as it pulled her out of the room. She was put between a huge guy and the lockers and her arm was nearly thrown back at her. She half expected the man was Gajeel, which scared her. She looked up and found that it was Laxus instead. She looked at his face and saw his eyes. They looked like they were trying to erase her.

"You're supposed to be my partner. Not some scumbag's."

"He helps me with gym, I wanted to help him out in French for once."

"Yeah? Well how about since you were being a saint, I don't tell Evergreen this time. But next time, she's getting an earful."

"Yo, Laxus. What the hell, man?" Natsu and Lucy came out of their double lab a bit late. Lucy came up beside Levy and pulled her out of the way, behind Natsu.

"You're seriously gonna corner her like that?" he asked.

"Isn't this the guy you're tutoring?" Levy asked. Lucy nodded.

"It's none of your business, Dragneel," Laxus replied.

"Yeah. That's why we were in class late, Conbolt wanted to talk to us about it, make sure we both knew about the arrangement," Lucy replied to Levy.

"Just leave her alone, okay? Don't make me tell Gramps," Natsu said. Laxus scowled. He walked away after that.

Natsu turned around, "You're okay, right?"

"I'm fine," Levy replied.

"Good. Now, we gotta get to if he bothers you again, tell me."

Levy looked at the ground, "Uh, yeah. I will."


Levy and I walked to the library together. It was the Tuesday after the Homecoming dance and the Pep Rally. I told her about the game already, but I wanted to keep the parts about the dance to myself until we were alone.

"So, you know how I told you I met the new girl, Juvia, at the homecoming game, right?" I asked. Levy nodded.

"Kind of. Sorry again that I couldn't go. But I feel even worse about not going to the dance with you. I totally forgot it would be your first homecoming."

"Don't worry about it, it's not a big deal. But I wanted to tell you about… something."

"Go ahead. Did you dance the night away with a knight in shining armor?"

I blushed, "No! I… I did dance with Natsu, though."

"You what?!" Levy yelled, "I knew you were more than just tutoring partners!"

"Shhh! We danced together during one dance. And we are more than partners, we're also friends, but that's it! Anyway, I went to the game and I think you and Juvia could be good friends, too. What I was getting at was Juvia and I are going shopping sometime this weekend and we wanted to work it out around your schedule, if you wanted to go."

"How about Saturday afternoon?" Levy asked. I nodded and smiled.

"Perfect! I'll text her now," I said as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I flipped through my few contacts to find her name.

"So, Lucy. Tell me more about the dance?"

I was distracted texting Juvia back and she caught me in a moment of weakness, "It was actually really great." My head snapped up as I heard her squeal. I realized what I said and blushed- a lot. She started to giggle a little, but I stopped her in the middle of the hallway. I wasn't going anywhere just yet.

"Oh, god, Levy no! That's not what I meant. It wasn't even a dance really. We just started talking, and a slow song came on and Juvia shoved us together onto the floor, and then Juvia disappeared and we had nothing else to do. And I was blushing like crazy but he was fine and we just kind of talked the whole time about like school and stuff and he doesn't even know I got to the football games after his recommendation and Levy, oh my god, stop laughing!"

"So, what's the problem?" she asked through the giggles.

"There isn't one! That's the problem. Shouldn't there be something weird here or whatever?"

"No. You didn't go to homecoming together. You just had one dance. It's not that big a deal."

"Okay. Good," we started walking again.

"So now that that embarrassing story was shared, we can go tutor in peace."

"Agreed," Levy said with a giggle. We pushed open the double doors to the library. We had to get there early, but our students should be arriving shortly. Levy and I sat at different tables almost across the room. She was getting her papers together while I went over to the textbook section of the library and picked out the Anatomy book. I opened up to the right chapter, and started going over it, so I knew what to point out. I didn't have much time. I saw a body plop down next to me and put his backpack on the table.

"So what's for today, Luce?" Natsu asked. I looked up and smiled.

"Cells."

"Uggh. Isn't that Bio?" he asked.

"Yes, but it's also Anatomy. So suck it up."


Across the room, Levy was going through her French notes, waiting for Gajeel. This wasn't a "half of her knew he would be there" moment. Levy knew with all of her being he wasn't going to show, but she did hold out hope. More and more hope fluttered away as the minutes ticked on. But, when she was about ready to help another student, a tall figure loomed over her. He hesitated to sit, but he did.

The first thing he said was: "Not a word 'bout anythin' but French."

"You got it," she said with a smile.


"This unit is about the head. Today we are learning about the eye and how it is connected to other organs. This lesson may leak to our next day of class, which is Monday. Page 101 in your textbook," Mr. Conbolt said.

"Yo, Macao- can I get a pencil?" Natsu called from the seat next to me. I quickly slapped him on the arm.

"You don't do that," I hissed. He just shrugged as a pencil flew at Natsu and hit the cabinet next to him.

"Natsu, just because you're my son's assistant coach, that doesn't mean that you can call me by my first name in school."

"Nice spiral, Mr. C," Natsu replied with a smile as he picked up the pencil.

Mr. Conbolt looked at me next, "You're his tutor- rein him in."

"Got it," I agreed. I glared at Natsu.

"You won't be able to stay angry for long," he whispered with a wink.

"Who takes Psychology?" Mr. Conbolt asked. A few people around the room raised their hands. I would have liked to take psych, but it was the same period of creative writing.

"What about Forensics?" he asked. Surprisingly, almost the same amount of hands were raised.

"Well, then you should know a little bit about the eye by now," he said, "The eye that you can see is made of the cornea, iris, and pupil. The layers, in order, are the cornea, aqueous humor-" Mr. Conbolt went on about the eye and brought up a powerpoint of the various parts of the eye and their functions. After the whole of this section, there was a picture of a dissected eye. Mr. Conbolt forgot to warn us.

I found myself staring at the slide and I couldn't look away. I felt my skin heat up and I was suddenly sweating. I heard Natsu ask if I was okay from far away. Finally, I looked away, and at him. He sat up quickly and put his arm around me. My cheeks burned further, but from blushing, which really didn't help. I started to feel dizzy. I coughed and felt something dislodge.

"Whoa, seriously, Lucy. You don't look good at all. What's wro-" he barely jumped back. I felt something come up and I threw up on him. He tried to get out of the way, but he moved a little too late. He didn't seem to mind and was more worried about me.

"Shit, Luce. You okay? Well, no you're not, but is it gonna go again?" I shook my head and he whispered, "This was a new jacket, too. And leather." I felt worse after that, but it sounded like he didn't really want me to hear it. Natsu stayed by my side, especially when Mr. Conbolt called me out, after he changed the slide.

Everyone was looking at me and Mr. Conbolt recovered from his shock enough to yell, "Lucy! Why would you sign up for an Anatomy class if you throw up at the sight of blood?"

I whispered to Natsu just before he jumped up, "She just gets sick around displaced eyes." I tried to pull him back down, get him to stop, or something. It wasn't that big a deal and if it was, I could handle it. Well, maybe not in this state, but I would let it roll off my back.

He seemed more than a little angry, though, and yelled for me, "There was no blood in that! And it's your responsibility to tell us if you're going to have something like that on the board! This is your fault!"

"Dragneel! Sit down. This isn't your issue."

"I'm the one with puke all over me!" he yelled back.

From the other side of the room, a girl with short white hair got up as well, "Will someone please just take her to the nurse? She needs some kind of medical attention!"

"I'll take her," Natsu said. He helped me up and didn't bother signing out or talking to the teacher. He simply grabbed a trash can and ushered me out into the hall. When we got out of earshot, Natsu put down the can and reached out to touch my cheek. He looked into my eyes and I looked back and blushed.

"What?" I asked.

"You're okay?"

"Yeah, I am. And thanks."

"For what? I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, you did."

"Nothing extraordinary.

I rolled my eyes, "Just accept the thanks."

"Alright."