Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.

Chapter 4

Judgement Day

Less than a tenth of Natsu's burden was lifted after he finished the quiz. Tomorrow the scores will be handed out and he still had Lucy's wrath waiting if he failed her expectations. But at least it was enough to restore his mood, as now he was back to his ritual of fighting with Gray.

Lucy and Erza was walking through the hallways when they saw Natsu and Gray fighting.

"Shut up, ice queen."

"What was that tabasco freak?"

"Oh, you wanna go popsicles?"

"Bring it on, flamehead!"

Erza let out a small cough before she asked the pair. "Is everything okay, Natsu? Gray?"

Natsu and Gray, realizing who was the speaker, had their arms slung over each others shoulders in a split second.

"L-Let's get along today, N-Natsu!" Gray stuttered, sweating bullets.

"A-Aye!" Natsu's voice cracked, similar to that time when Lucy tutored him. Erza simply smiled.

"It's nice to see you be friends." Was her only response, and Lucy and Erza walked towards the garden. Lucy could swore that Natsu and Gray fought again the moment she and Erza was walking away. When they arrived at the garden, they found Levy, Cana, Juvia and Lisanna already sitting there. They joined them and ate their lunches. They chatted about boys and stuff.

And Lucy had to lie again about her relationship with Natsu.

After school, she was lucky that Natsu's already gone somewhere over the rainbow. But when she was walking towards the school gate, Erza approached her.

"Say, Lucy..." she said in a low tone. "Would you come with me?"

"Of cou—"

Before she had the chance to finish her sentence, Erza already dragged her to a nearby clothes store.

"I-I w-w-was w-wondering if y-you can help me p-pick out a dress f-f-f-for a d-d-d-d-date..." she stuttered. Lucy blinked in disbelief as she tried to decipher Erza's line. The great Class President Erza Scarlet was stuttering chronically. Lucy, finally understood what she said earlier, snapped her fingers.

"Of course! Wait, you're dating someone?" Lucy replied. Erza nodded shyly, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing furiously. "Who is it?"

"J-Jellal from Crime Sorciere High..." she mumbled. Crime Sorciere is an elite school located in the border of Magnolia.

So Erza tried a mountain of clothes until she found a beautiful black tube dress with a slit on the thigh. It fits her perfectly, and she bought it. She also bought a necklace with a butterfly pendant to complement the dress. After that, they stopped in a bakery.

"What would you like to order?" the waitress asked.

"A fruit tart and a cup of tea, please." Lucy said, tracing her fingers on the menu booklet.

"10 strawberry cakes, please." Erza replied simply, without even looking at the menu. The waitress's eyes were the size of dinner plates. Erza glared at her. The waitress ran to the kitchen, and disappeared.

"So, Lucy, how long have you been dating Natsu?" Erza asked.

Lucy was unaware that she was blushing. "I don't know, maybe three days?"

"H-Have you been to a date with him?"

If tutoring was considered a date then I have, Lucy thought. "Nope. Not yet. You nervous for your first date?" Erza averted Lucy's sly gaze and looked at her tiptoes instead.

"It's not like that, but I was just wondering... You never accepted anybody's confession before. Why Natsu of all guys?"

Uh oh. It was a direct strike to her heart. Darn it! Erza's so sharp. What to say, what to say...

"I don't know, I felt my mouth purring something and before I knew it I'm already his girlfriend..."

Yes. Lucy was a really bad liar. She was lucky that Erza dropped the Natsu-Lucy relationship topic when her cakes arrived. After a few girl talks and finishing all ten plates, Erza decided to go home to get ready for her date.

Lucy was walking home when she thought of Erza's question. She couldn't say that Natsu saw her other side and blackmailed her, of course. Fuck Natsu, fuck Erza, and fuck everybody else in the world.

Then suddenly she bumped into someone and they both fell.

"Ah, sorry..." Lucy said, standing up, dusting dirt off her skirt and extending her hand to help the person. "Are you o—"

Lucy stopped midway and retracted her hand. It was Natsu. Of all people, why did I have to bump into this idiot...

Lucy turned away and walked as fast as possible, but she was stopped by someone who held her wrist. She didn't even bother to turn.

"What now, pinky?"

"Nothing, want me to walk you home?"

Lucy released herself from Natsu's grasp and ran as fast as possible to her home. She didn't want to see him. But she felt something weird in her stomach when his hand was finally not grabbing hers. She ran, ran, and ran, and when she was close to her mansion, she tried to regain her breath.

Finally, she arrived at home, greeted by her maids and servants. She smiled back at them, and hurried to her room and get changed. Actually it was a boring day, and every five minutes Natsu just plopped onto her mind. She tried to forget about him, so she read some books, practiced karate, played tennis, but he would just appear from nowhere. Giving up, she went back to her room.

She threw herself to her bed, canning the urge to grab her cellphone and call the pinkhead. She didn't even know why she wanted to hear his voice. A few seconds later, the phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, but all she could see were numbers. She picked it up anyway.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hiya Luce!"

"NATSU?! What the—How the hell did you get my number?" Lucy yelled at the phone.

"Huh? Levy."

Darn you, Levy. Lucy sighed loudly and fell back to her bed. "So what's up, flamehead?"

"What, I can't call my girlfriend whenever I want to?"

Thump. Thump. Lucy felt like her heart was riding the world's fastest train.

"And that Gray, he taught you to call me flamehead, right?..."

All of a sudden Lucy felt like seeing his face.

"...That bastard... Luce, you still there?"

Lucy was still stuck in her thoughts.

"LUCYYYY!"

Natsu was yelling—no, more like roaring. It was so loud that Lucy dropped her phone and rubbed her left ear in pain. She then regrabbed and positioned the phone in her right ear.

"What was that you bastard?" she asked with evident traces of anger in her voice. She can hear Natsu's mischievous giggle from across.

"Nothing, I thought you fell asleep."

"Then why? You called all of a sudden and you thought I wasn't sleepy?"

"It's still 8 p.m, weirdo."

"Whatever, I hate you!"

"But I like you."

Lucy felt like the world and time stopped, leaving Natsu and herself still in motion. Her heart was about to explode. Her cheeks was so red and hot as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

"You fell for it! Luce, I can feel your cheeks, they're so red and hot!"

"ONE MORE WORD AND YOU'LL BE BALD, PINKY. AND MY CHEEKS ARE FINE."

Lucy heard Natsu gulping. She smiled mischievously, and continued, "Is that the sound of fear I heard?"

"I-I'm not frightened—"

"Natsu, you're a bad liar."

"I call bullshit. Oh, and you're a worse liar than me."

They were on the phone for about thirty minutes until Natsu decided to hang up ('I'm hungry and apparently Wendy had leftovers of the pie dough she made for Romeo. See ya tomorrow!'). She smiled and for no reason, tears slid down her cheeks as she slowly shut her eyes. She knew that it wasn't tears of anger or sadness, but tears of happiness.

"Natsu, I hate you..." She mumbled before falling asleep.

Technically, today was Natsu Dragneel's Judgement Day.

Math scores. Yes. Natsu feared Lucy's wrath more than anything now, more than Erza's certain-kill glare or losing to Gray. Last night he called her to drop the punishment, but to no avail. Instead, she came with another proposal.

"Salmon, why don't we make a bet?"

"A bet? For what?"

"You got less than 85, I'll tutor you for a whole week with no mercy. But if you got more than 85, I'll treat you to your favorite food."

"CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! BRING IT ON, LUCE!"

"STOP ROARING IN THE PHONE, YOUR VOICE IS SO FUCKING LOUD!"

That's what she offered. Natsu, upon hearing the word 'food', accepted the challenge nonchalantly. He then regretted his words, knowing that he's simply foolish to accept it.

You can tell Charle-sensei's face was expressionless when she entered the room. This made Natsu shaking—yes, the fearsome Dragneel was shaking. He tried to inhale as much oxygen as possible, trying to avoid rumors that he wasn't the school's number one delinquent again.

"Natsu Dragneel?" Charle-sensei called his name. Natsu, still stuck at his train of thoughts, didn't notice that the teacher had called his name. Lucy nudged his arm, and he was brought back to reality. He almost jumped out of his chair from pure shock, but he held back and walked to the teacher's seat.

He grabbed his paper, looked at the score, and his eyes were now the size of dinner plates.

Author's Notes

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE CLIFFHANGERS

Btw i'm sorry for not updating in days, I was so busy with everything that I had only 1-2 hours a day to update my stories-_- anyways, i hereby present the fourth chapter!