Chapter 3: The Greatest Vocation

Natsu Dragneel eyed the room cautiously. Then looked at the clock on the wall and let his eyes travel around the room once more. His hands started turning wet and a traitorous bead of sweat made its way down the man's back. For the first time since he came to Kanashimi Natsu wish he had his normal clothes on because it wasn't cold here anymore. Natsu felt he was going to boil. The pink-haired man gulped, then loosened his tie. For the first time in his life Natsu Dragneel was nervous. And he had good reasons for that too. The clock showed 8.20 am – 10 more minutes before the class began – and everyone was already sitting in the room. Usually Natsu was late for any type of class, but today he figured he had to make a good first impression, so he came earlier. And stress was all he got… All the students were present. They all sat still and eyed the new teacher curiously. No chatter, no laughing, no one absent. Natsu gulped again.

'Should I go out for the remaining 10 minutes or stay and start the lecture already?' the man thought fumbling with the list of students. 'What kind of teacher is this Gerard anyway? I never had as much students present…' Natsu grunted, cleared his throat and went over to the blackboard to write down his name.

Meanwhile a purple-haired tanned student turned to his weird-looking friend with a raised eyebrow: "Midnight, the guy has pink hair… Is that alright for a teacher?"

"You're one to talk, Cobra. Besides Gerard-san has blue hair and Erza-san – red. Guess it's typical of teachers," the black-haired student snorted with irony, playing with his pen. The silent dialogue was suddenly interrupted when the weird new teacher started talking.

"Good morning, everyone," Natsu tried to sound as cheerful as he could, "you probably wonder why Gerard-san isn't here to deliver a lecture as usual. Well, that's because we kind of switched places for the term and you'll have to bear with me for this period of time," the pink-haired smiled but earned himself brief nods of acknowledgement that made him sweatdrop, but never let his smile fade. "Good then. My name is Natsu Dragneel I'm a history teacher at Kofuku University. Ever heard of that one?" some students nodded to this, others shook their heads, but no one ever said a word. No questions, no remarks, no reaction at all. 'Are these people even alive? They look like robots… differently dressed robots…' the man's thoughts were interrupted by one seemingly annoyed robot.

"Dragneel-san, maybe you should start with the lecture already? Time is running out you know?" the sentence was uttered by a boy sitting somewhere at the back bench. Natsu took a close look at him, or was it her? Sure the voice was male, but the appearance was that of a… goth? Natsu almost laughed at the irony of a strict institution like Kanashimi University allowing their students to dye their hair white and black and moreover paint their lips purple. This guy was a weird and cheeky one. He made Natsu grin. Negative reaction was still a reaction and he needed one to get his senses back, so he was thankful to the goth-guy and announced the topic of the lecture.

"Ok, today we will start speaking about The Wars of the Roses." And momentarily everyone bowed their heads and started writing. This was going to be a tiresome lecture.

Meanwhile Gerard Fernandez wasn't having it any easier in the sunny Kofuku. In fact he was having it a lot worse. Entering the medium-sized room that could have enough seats for only 60 people from the 100 on the list, the blue-haired man frowned when he saw about 30 people present. He looked at his watch that showed 8.30 sharp, then at the present students, who were either lolling back in their chairs or laughing and chatting as if it still was break time, then eyed the list and the schedule – yes this was the sophomore group and there had to be 100 students present. So why were there only thirty?

"Good morning," Gerard called for attention clearing his throat rather loudly. No one seemed to hear him. He cleared his throat again. "Excuse me!"

"Huh?" a tall guy with white hair asked turning slightly to meet the newcomer. "You want anything?"

Gerard frowned. "I believe it's already the beginning of the class. And I am your new teacher, so you should…"

"New teacher?" the boy gaped and all the rest fell silent, stopped chatting and turned over to eye the blue-haired imposter. Yep, that's exactly how they saw him. "What happened to Natsu-san? Did the old geezer fire him? That is soo un…" –fair the boy meant to say, but was interrupted with a raised hand, a gesture Gerard often used to calm people down. No one knew how he did it, but somehow it always worked on students.

"Calm down, everyone," he reassured. "Natsu-san was not fired. I am simply standing in for him since we both took part in a teacher exchange program between Kofuku and Kanashimi University. I will be your teacher for the term, while Natsu-san will be teaching my students in Kanashimi," he explained and hardly had a chance to finish, for the reaction followed immediately.

"Whoa? That's the University Natsu-san wanted to apply for a job at, but some bastard got the place…" a small pink-haired girl shouted with excitement.

"Erm… Meredy," Lyon elbowed his groupmate, "this might be the guy…" he whispered, but of course as much as students would like to have it the other way, teachers always hear everything.

Gerard just sweatdropped. Regaining his senses he made the last attempt to start this lecture: "Please calm down, everyone. My name is Gerard Fernandez and today I will deliver a lecture on the preconditions of The Wars of the Roses. So please put the topic down."

Unwillingly the students did start writing and Gerard was already about to give out a sigh of relief when suddenly a hand shot up. It was the same pink-haired girl.

"Yes?" Gerard asked, thinking that she was probably going to ask him to repeat the topic, but what she said caught the man completely off guard.

"Gerard-san, why do you have a tattoo on your face?"

The blue-haired teacher just sweatdropped again. Not for the last time that day.

Natsu grunted gathering his papers. He let the students go earlier today. Why? Because they were so damned passive! In Kofuku Natsu usually left about 10 minutes for questions at the end of each lecture and that was never enough! Sometimes his students got late for the next class because they spent the whole recess asking stuff like 'what was that army dressed in?' or 'did the colonel have a wife?' or even 'how do you think was it a good move or not?' Natsu enjoyed it. He was asking them questions in return and that stimulated their logical thinking. Logical! Whereas these kids… were crammers. Ok, not all of them but most of them were. And Natsu hated crammers. The only thing they asked during the lecture was: "Natsu-san, but you just gave us a different definition of (this or that) term… What's the correct one?" That made him want to shout: both, are you morons? A person is pretty much capable of infallibly formulating the same ideas with different words!

'Wait! Infallibly formulating ideas? Oh, God, I started talking smart! I need a drink… Where's Gray when I need him?'

Sighing and packing, Natsu went out of the room, never noticing a single student in a cap leave through the back door of the room.

Gerard was literally panting and sweating. These kids gave him a hard time… Not only did he fail to manage to give them all the information, but he also got problems explaining things. The students kept asking him to explain a definition rather than dictate it. They were of the opinion that saying something in their own words would show a better understanding of the subject at the exam. 'Whoever gave them that idea?' Gerard asked himself rhetorically. 'Sure there are a lot of things to tell with your own words but how can one explain dates? There are things that just have to be memorized, don't they understand it?' the blue-haired man finished gathering his papers and took out his cell phone. He just had to call her. NOW!

"Hello?" Erza said answering to a call from an unknown number.

"Hello, am I speaking to Erza Scarlet?" a polite male voice spoke from the other side of the line.

"You are," she confirmed. "Who is this?"

"My name is Seth Smith. I am an administrator at 'Blueberry Hotel'. I believe you made a reservation earlier?"

"Yes-yes, I did," the woman spoke remembering the name of the hotel.

"I am calling to inform you that one of our guests left earlier than expected and we have a vacant room, but a lot of people willing to have it, because of the annual Autumn Parade…"

"I see your point," the woman cut him short abruptly. "I'll take it."

"Very well. Are you willing to pay in by a credit card?"

"Give me your account number."

Several minutes later everything has been settled. Sitting in her office Erza wondered if she had done the right thing. Sure having an unknown male around was weird and could cause rumours to spread, but still…

'I wonder how he's doing after that awful lecture,' Erza thought sighing. 'Like I thought they made fun of his hair… Figures.'

Erza was there from the start. She was sitting behind Midnight and Cobra and heard all what they were saying. She wanted to smack them at times. Like when Cobra said: "Ok, he already said that, but in a different way… Doesn't he have a lecture plan or something?" or when Midnight got bored and fell asleep. Cobra tried to wake him, but the latter just snorted: "He's not giving precise information. I better read the book later." Those comments made a vein pop on Erza's forehead. The students at her University were showing disrespect. Sure this Dragneel had methods that differed tremendously from those of Gerard, but still… She didn't find the lecture boring, or uninformative. The pink-haired just gave history some flavour, tried to make the students imagine the events rather than give them bare, dry facts.

'They just got used to Gerard, that's all…' the woman thought and a sudden shudder spread across her body. She stiffened not sure what caused it and held her breath. 'What was that all about…? I'm not used to Gerard! I'm in love with him!' she said to herself rather angrily and as if by magic her cell phone started ringing again. This time she knew the number pretty well.

"Hi, honey," pause. "W-what…? H-hold on! Gerard speak slower, will you?" another pause. "Uh-huh… Uh-huh…" she laughed. "They really asked you about the tattoo? Ok, sorry, sorry…" while Gerard was into his frustrated complaining, Erza heard a knock on the door. "Hold on, someone's knocking. Who is it?" Erza asked turning to her formal voice.

"Erza-san, may I come in?" Natsu Dragneel said with a small smile, opening the door.

"Good morning, Dragneel-san. Do come in," she motioned for him to sit down on the chair, while whispering: "Call you later, ok? In ten minutes, maybe… Uh-huh. Bye!"

Then the lady turned to Natsu and eyed him with what he perceived as… concern?

"How was your first day?" the scarlet-haired lady asked leaning with her hips on the table and with arm crossed under her chest.

The sight was… obviously distracting him from gathering any useful thoughts, so Natsu just mumbled something like: "It was ok." Liar.

"Really?" Erza raised an eyebrow at him. "That is good to hear. So… no problems at all?"

"Not a single one," the pink-haired teacher said with a smile. Liar.

Erza just smiled herself. "Then why did you come here? I'm of no help when it comes to history, so…"

"I just wanted to ask you a favour."

"Which is?"

"Could you give me the keys to Gerard-san's room in here? I would like to check some books for the next lecture, since…" he wanted to say something like 'since the robotic students would want dictating!' but decided to mild it down with another lie: "…I forgot one of my books at home and I really need it for the next class."

Erza pondered over the request and nodded after several seconds, fumbling in her purse and fishing Gerard's keys out.

"There you go," she said handing them to the pink-haired and jerked her hand back as his fingers shot her with electricity. "Ouch." They both said and smiled.

"S-sorry… I guess it's because of the suit," Natsu suggested, taking the keys to his pocket. "When should I return those?"

Erza just shrugged. "Keep them as long as you stay. Just don't let anyone else in and don't mess with his stuff too much, alright?"

Somehow Natsu felt like saying 'Aye, sir!' but he only nodded instead. He was already about to leave when Erza remembered one more thing.

"Dragneel-san?"

"Yeah?"

"I have confirmed your hotel reservation. You may sign in today. Don't worry all the expenses are on the University."

"Oh…" he muttered. "Thank you. I'll… I guess I'll just get my things and sign in today."

Erza nodded looking at him with interest. Was he… sad?

"Bye then," Natsu waved and went out of the room a little too quickly in Erza's point of view. 'Shit, Natsu! Don't show her you're sad! Why would you be sad? I'm definitely drinking tonight! Days like this one make me remember why I hate Mondays!' the man thought making his way to Gerard's office but involuntarily walking right in the opposite direction.

The doors closed and Erza was alone again. Walking to the window she looked outside at the wonderful scenery of colourful leaves. She smiled. The scarlet-haired lady picked up her phone and meant to call Gerard like she promised, but somehow didn't feel like talking to him right now. Besides she still had to figure out a way to punish Cobra and Midnight for their lack of respect to teachers. Yes, she would think about that now.

A lot of blah-blah-blah again I know and I'm sorry! But trust me two more chapters like this and then things will get very interesting ;) But as always I'm not promising fast updates, because I'm stuck with a LOT of paperwork T_T and I can't seem to sort it out… Till then, my friends. I wish you all the patience in the world with me :3