Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy Library.

With floor to ceiling bookshelves, the library contains thousands of texts on a variety of topics. Some of the books are even said to have been around since the founding of the Academy. I would spend all day there if I could. Just imagining all the things I could learn makes me excited.

"What? You got caught after all but didn't get in trouble?"

It was after class the following day that Natsu, Happy, and Lucy met up in the courtyard again. This was the arrangement they had agreed upon for the tutoring sessions. Or rather, it was more like what Lucy had forced them to agree to. She had really meant it when she said she wasn't going to let him out of it; not just for his sake but for her own. If his explosive display of magic yesterday was anything to go by, then he definitely had a lot to teach her too.

"Yeah, she let me off the hook when I told her I was just trying to explain my magic to you so you could 'better tutor me.'" Natsu said, snickering at the last part.

"We seriously thought that Prefect Erza was going to skin us alive but then she calmed right down." Happy laughed.

Lucy frowned. Even if Natsu could be of help to her, she didn't want to think what would happen if she somehow got roped into his shenanigans and got seriously in trouble for it. She could be expelled before her two months were through if she wasn't careful.

"I think that was the first time she didn't go ape on us." Natsu said.

"Aye."

"Lucy must be our good luck charm." Natsu joked, good-naturedly slapping the girl on the back. "I guess we'll have to keep her around, huh, Happy?"

"Hey!" Lucy protested, her cheeks tinting pink. Natsu only laughed in response and she rolled her eyes. "Alright, enough funny business. Let's get on with the lesson."

That dreading expression returned to Natsu's face and his shoulders slumped. "Do we have to?" At the look Lucy gave him, he groaned but conceded. "Fine, fine. What do we gotta do?"

"That's better. Now, do you want to begin out here or do you want to go somewhere else?" Lucy asked. Staying outside in the courtyard would be safer should Natsu let loose his magic again but it wasn't the best environment for learning incantations.

"Why don't we go to the library?" Happy suggested.

Lucy perked up at this. "There is a library?"

"Yeah, a massive one. We've hid there from Erza a couple times." Happy said. He was all too oblivious to the shining look Lucy got in her eyes then. If there was one thing Lucy loved most in the whole world, it was books. She had been so caught up in thoughts of making it as a student she hadn't even thought of the possibility that the Academy had a library, let alone a large one!

"Let's go there!" She said excitedly and Natsu startled at her sudden enthusiasm. He stared at her for a moment before a wicked smile grew on his face. It was gone before she was able to catch it though, being quickly replaced with a bored expression.

"It's this way." He said unenthusiastically.

Natsu and happy lead her from the courtyard to the library, the trip only taking a few short minutes. Lucy could hardly wait to see the library and when they arrived, it exceeded her expectations.

"It's three stories tall!" Lucy exclaimed, forgetting her surroundings. Several people glared in her direction and she gave them an apologetic look in return.

Natsu grinned. "You like?"

"Yes!" Lucy quietly yet nonetheless eagerly replied.

They continued their way down past several large tables and rows of tall book shelves, Lucy reading some of the titles with curiosity as they passed by. There had to be hundreds of books in the Library just on the first floor alone. Just the thought of having access to such knowledge made Lucy giddy.

When they reached the furthest table down the line, Natsu took a seat and Happy joined him. "I'll wait here if you wanna look around." He said. His intentions were a little suspicious but Lucy hardly noticed in her excitement.

"Alright, I'll be back." She agreed easily enough. "I'm going to try and find some tomes with easy incantations we can work with." She set her bag down in the seat across from him to hold her place and headed towards the rows of shelves.

In her search she came across a variety of different books and tomes. Some were about the different effects certain wand designs had, one about taming a wild familiar, and many about the history of the Academy. She pulled one of those off the shelf and flipped through it. The inside was filled with illustrations of the Dragon of Time, all of which resembling the many statues that were around the academy. In the library Lucy had even seen one, sitting perched up on the second floor. But despite all the pictures, there wasn't a lot in the book that told her about the Dragon other than it turned itself into stone to protect the academy. "I wonder what it was protecting it from." Lucy mused, returning the book to its place.

She wandered over to another shelf and this time found some on incantations. She plucked several off the shelf that seemed like they would be easy and headed back to their table. When she returned, Natsu was leaning back in the chair with his feet on the table and his eyes shut. He cracked an eye open at the thud she made by setting the heavy stack of books down.

"That's a lot." Happy said from his seat beside Natsu.

"Some are for incantations, others are just some I picked up for myself." Lucy explained. She moved her bag aside and took a seat. From the pile she pulled out a smaller book and held it out. "I want you to read over this one for starters. I think it might help."

Natsu sat up properly, his feet returning to the floor. "You want me to read the whole thing?" He asked incredulously, taking the tome from her. He flipped through some of the pages, grimacing at them.

"Yep." Lucy said and Natsu groaned.

"What are you going to do?" He asked.

Lucy smiled, grabbing another book from the pile. "I'm going to do some reading of my own."

"About?"

"Using magic, of course."

"Wasn't I going to help you with that?" Natsu asked, a brow raised.

"Well, it can't hurt to read up on it." Lucy shrugged and opened her book.

Natsu sighed, slouching in his chair like a child. "Whatever."

She shot him a warning look and he sat up again and opened his book. Satisfied, she turned to the tome in her hands and quickly became absorbed. Only when she felt eyes on her did she glance away from the text and jumped when she found Natsu staring.

Her cheeks flushed red. "What?" She demanded.

Natsu continued to stare blankly at her, his gaze unnerving her more and more with each passing second. Finally he broke out into a grin. "You just had a really funny expression on your face. You must really like reading." He said.

That made her blush more. "What do you mean by that?!"

"Nothing." He laughed and added, after a pause. "We should probably get going though."

"Huh?" Lucy's brows furrowed. "But we've only been here for a little bit. Did you even read the book I gave you?"

"Only a little bit?" Happy pipped up. "We've been here for hours."

"Hours? That seems like a bit of an exaggeration." Lucy said, feeling miffed. Were they already trying to get out of her tutoring?

"Not really." Natsu said and he tilted his head to the left. Lucy followed the direction he was pointing to the large window on the back wall and was surprised to see the pink hue of the sky outside. Without her even realizing, it had become evening.

"Oh no." Lucy mumbled. She felt embarrassed having become so absorbed in her book. It had been the longest time since she had time for reading and now she had over-done it.

"It's about dinner time. Let's return these and we can go eat." Natsu said as he stood up.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I lost track of time." She too got up and grabbed a few of the books, while Natsu took the others. There was a cart nearby where they returned the books to be sorted by the librarians and headed for the exit.

"Just what was so interesting about what you were reading, Lucy?" Happy asked as he hung from Natsu's shoulder.

Lucy lit up at the question. "Well, it had a lot of interesting things in it! It talked mostly about balancing your magic levels and also mentioned how you need to keep focus when casting the spells otherwise it might not work out right. It wasn't necessarily relevant to me but I think it would be interesting to keep in mind anyway. I'd like to go back and check the book out later on and see what else it has to say on the subject. For that matter, I came across quite a few books I'd like to borrow and–" She stopped mid-sentence at the looks the two were giving her. "What?"

"You talk a lot." Happy said, his eyes wide with amazement.

"I-I do not!"

"You do."

"Not!"

"She does, doesn't she, Natsu?"

"Maybe." Natsu laughed and Lucy frowned and crossed her arms, which only made her laugh more. They stopped at the end of a hallway that lead to the courtyard and where they would leave on their separate ways for the day.

"Sorry I got so distracted." Lucy apologized again. "Our lesson wasn't too successful because of me."

"Nah, I knew bringing you to the library was a good idea."

Lucy tilted her head in confusion at the mischievous grin he gave her. "What do you mean?" She asked.

His grin only grew wider but he didn't answer the question. "See ya tomorrow, Lucy." He only said, heading in the direction of the boy's dorms with Happy. The cat waved his goodbye and she could only stand there dumbfounded trying to understand the meaning to Natsu's words. Then, long after he had disappeared around a corner, did she realize. Somehow, that sneak must have known before evening going to the library that she would become distracted by those books and they wouldn't be able to get any tutoring done.

"He did it on purpose...!" Lucy gasped, not quite sure if she should be angry he had tricked her or embarrassed that he had read her so well. In the future, she vowed to be more careful not to be so easily deceived by him again.

And here it is, chapter 4! Thank you again for your continued support. Next chapter should be out in a few days.