A/N: OMG guys….I'm SO stoopid. Remember way back when I was all like "Yo how do you add the 'official' author notes on here"…like how most errrrybody's look? With the nice, clean, line divider and shit? Dude. You have to add the freaking line deal on the editor thingy on da websitttteee. *MAJOR FACE PALM* I bet you all were like "Wtf is she talking about".

Yep. There's not an official author note button. Okay. Yeah… Anyway. Figured it out.

Here's the next chapter, hopefully there's not too many typos. Fell asleep writing this last night.


"Alright boys, listen. You know how it works, Gajeel and Gray will start off in the ring. Two minute rounds. Once the round is up, Gajeel will step out and Natsu will go in with Gray, then after that round, Natsu stays in and Gajeel enters again. And so on. Let's just keep to three rounds each for everybody." Erza directed.

Gray and Gajeel murmured in agreement. Natsu was standing close by, gearing up his hands with a pair of bright red boxing wraps.

Lucy was sitting on a small bench that was next to the shelf with all the different gear, sitting in line of the ring.

Lucy watched Natsu as he weaved the fabric around his wrist and fingers. He wasn't wearing headgear yet, so Lucy could see his face. Something about his demeanor had changed in the last…what, two minutes? He appeared significantly serious. He wore a stone-faced expression almost, showing no emotion.

Suddenly she felt someone slide next to her on the bench.

"Watching these guys spar is always fun!" Levy said to Lucy. "These guys are three of our top fighters here at Fairy Tail."

"Oh really? Wow…" Lucy looked back to Gray and Gajeel as they were entering the ring.

"Have you ever watched Natsu box before?" Levy asked.

"Oh, no…I haven't. We only just met a couple days ago."

"Ahh gotcha!" The blunette perked up, tilting her head with a warm smile. "Well, you are in for a real treat, Natsu is very good!"

Lucy smiled back and then turned her attention to the ring. She never would have guessed she'd be able to see Natsu box today. Then again, she hadn't really known what to expect.

Erza walked over to a box that looked similar to a speaker that sat on the ground next to the ring.

She hit a button and an intruding two beeps sounded through the whole room. Lucy knew it as the timing bell.

Lucy's gaze shifted to Gray and Gajeel, the round began.

She watched as the two started out a little slow, casually throwing back punches. They kept their shots precise and technical from her perspective, and each throw was blocked accordingly.

Perhaps after half a minute, it started to pick up. Lucy saw Gray start throwing longer combos and then he'd step a ways back keeping his guard in check. Gajeel, on the other hand, appeared to focus on power and defense. Lucy studied his movements, his guard was solid and even with a multiple hit combo from Gray, it didn't seem to phase him. Every now and then he threw a hard shot at Gray, slightly shifting Gray's balance. Though his guard was good too, Gajeel just had a bigger build.

Erza came to stand next to where she and Levy were sitting. Her eyes were locked on the two inside the ring.

"Gray, stay in your boxing stance!" She instructed.

Erza crossed her arms and sighed, "He never stays down in his legs."

"Hmm…his punches are fast though." Levy chimed.

"That's true, but they'd hit stronger if he stayed in his stance."

A few more seconds passed by, and Lucy continued to watch.

The thirty second timer bell went off, resulting in Gray and Gajeel picking up the speed once more. Gray took the lead, directing several jabs at Gajeel's forehead, making Gajeel hold his hands up in front.

Lucy watched as Gray quickly brought up his right hand and he swung a clean hook on Gajeel's head, causing him to stumble back.

Lucy heard him grunt at the contact.

"K-Keep your guard up, Gajeel!" Levy exclaimed.

Gajeel started to shuffle forward to his opponent, however, before he could throw any counter, three beeps echoed in the room. That was time.

"Time! …Not too bad. An okay technical round overall." Erza stepped forward to the ring to address them head on. Gray was slouching over the ropes, panting, as Gajeel slid through the ropes to sit out.

"Gray, if you stay in your boxing stance more and lower your legs, you'll have more power in your shots." Erza explained.

Gray spit out his mouth piece in his glove, "Erza, the dude is a good foot taller than me, if I stay too low, I'll end up punching him in the nuts!"

Erza replied with a stern voice, "He is not a foot taller and no, you won't. It just means you must aim higher. To aim higher requires more arm strength, the more tired you get, your punches start to drop. Perhaps you aren't as strong as I thought you were."

Gray just stared at her and said nothing in return. She turned heel to go talk to Gajeel, leaving Gray to stand there on his own. He continued leaning against the ropes and shifted his gaze to Natsu, who was tightening on his headgear.

"She may seem harsh, but no one can inspire us more than Erza." Levy whispered to Lucy.

Lucy looked at the girl beside her, unsure what to say, "Oh…no, I wasn't thinking that was harsh." Well, maybe a little bit?

Levy giggled softly, obviously not convinced, "Pretty much any new comer or even the members here are all intimidated of her and scared of doing wrong in front of her. But…her words aren't intended to bring down; she just won't blow steam. She doesn't give false praise because she genuinely wants us all to improve."

Lucy gazed at the red-head in question. She spoke softly, "She's a very special person then. I mean, not many people are like that. It's common for people to give false realities or hope in fear of harming or hurting a person…."

Levy finished her thought, "But in the end, that tends to do more harm than good, doesn't it?"

Lucy smiled and shrugged, "That's usually how it goes."

The ringing of the next bell brought their attention back to the ring.

Gray stepped toward Natsu, eager to begin. His hands up and his boxing stance lower than before. Boy was not playin'.

But then, Lucy's eyes fell on Natsu.

Her mouth slightly opened in confusion. Never in her life had she seen that in boxing. His hands were ready and on guard. His eyes locked onto Gray. But, as he eased forward in such a fluid and light movement, Lucy saw that not only was his boxing stance especially low and sharp...but he was holding his weight on the tip of his toes. Every step was relaxed and also perfectly set up for a powerful shot.

Lucy remembered Loke telling her that nearly everyone at Heartfilia Club pretty much had struggles with balance, technical stances, and relaxed movement in the ring. Though it sounded simple, Lucy knew it was harder than it seemed.

Natsu's whole body seemed to rock forward and back slowly as he watched Gray's movements. Gray was throwing punches here and there, but not in a rush to overpower. Each punch Natsu would either snap up his hand and deflect or slip to the side with ease.

That wasn't how Natsu had "fought" the other night against the idiots form Raven Tail.

"It's pretty different, huh?" Levy chuckled at Lucy's expression.

Lucy eyes snapped to Levy, "Huh? Oh, no! I mean, it's so…" A loud noise of a clean hit to the head brought her attention back to the ring. Gray was against the ropes, Natsu hovering in front. Natsu threw a combo to the body as Gray tried to catch them on his sides.

With difficulty, Gray pivoted out from the ropes and shuffled around toward the middle of the ring where he was back to facing Natsu.

"Watch his movements, Gray! You're not tired, it's all in your head." Erza encouraged him. She was standing on the outside corner of the ring.

The thirty second bell went off.

Gray moved forward confidently; he threw a several hit combos starting at the head to the body. Natsu blocked all of them except the last two shots to the body, the blow caused him to stumble back.

Gray took that as the opportunity to go in further. He threw a hard-cross shot that landed right on Natsu's face. The sound of the impact made Lucy jump. She knew it was a hard hit, but he didn't seem too bothered.

Instinctively Lucy blurted out, "Natsu, slip-counter when he throws!"

Lucy felt Levy's eyes on her, however, she ignored her.

Instantly, Natsu gained the offensive ground again with an effortless pivot turn and an upper cut to follow.

Lucy grinned at his clever movement, she leaned forward on the bench, immersed in round. She was completely overtaken by the individuality of Natsu's style. He hadn't gone out of his low but elevated stance the entire time.

Lucy was so absorbed she almost frowned when the bell went off three times indicating the end of the round.

Both boxers inside the ring touched gloves as a peace making and then slouched over the side ropes.

Gray was the first to speak after he'd taken his mouth piece out again, "Dude, you should look at your face."

Natsu spit his mouth piece into his glove, "What the hell you talking about?"

"Your nose."

"Huh?" Natsu tried to look down at his nose not seeing anything. He then took the bottom of his red T-shirt sleeve and brought it up to his face.

"Damn it!" Natsu complained.

Both Lucy and Levy rose from the bench. They walked closer to the side ropes, Erza and Gajeel came forward too.

"Looks like blood to me." Gray smirked.

"Oh shut up, it was literally from that ONE hit. And it's not even that much!" Holding on to the edge of the shirt, he pushed out the fabric showing a slight stain. "See? You can barely see it!"

Gray scoffed, "Yeah that's just 'cause your shirt is red too, genius."

Natsu groaned, "Whatever. Erza?" His eyes pleaded as he looked to her.

"You know what Master always says." She told him.

"Aww man! Come on…"

Natsu began unbuttoning the headgear and slid it off his head. His pink, scruffy hair fell out. The tips were slightly damp with sweat.

"Nice shot, Fullbuster." Gajeel snickered.

"Shut up, iron brain."

"Natsu, you did well, but that's enough for you today."

"Yeah, I know.." He replied.

Lucy watched as Natsu sauntered over to stand next to her, she offered him a small smile. He returned it with a small shrug. Lucy could see more blood slightly trickling down from his nose.

"You should put pressure there; it's starting to come out more." Lucy inspected his nose.

"Oh, no I'll be okay. I've had a lot worse." He shrugged it off, proceeding to take off his gloves and toss them to the ground beside the ring.

"Listen to Lucy, Natsu." Erza let out a small chuckle.

Levy added, "Lucy, take him to the locker room and make sure he gets that to stop bleeding!"

"Yes, good idea. Lucy, do you mind? He's too stubborn to do anything about it, so make sure he gets fixed up."

"Oh, yeah sure." She looked at Natsu expectedly for a comment, his eyes studied her for briefly and then he looked at Erza and Levy.

"You guys are overreacting…but I won't argue." He amused with a small grin.

"Good boy." Erza shared back her own smile. "We'll be here when you get back, I want Gajeel and Gray to go a few more rounds."

The two other guys in question, were now just standing in the ring.

Lucy looked to Natsu for directions, he gestured toward an opening doorway on the opposite side. Lucy hadn't noticed it when they came in.

The two of them made their way to the locker room, once they were out of earshot of the others, Lucy glanced at Natsu again. He was now holding the bottom of his shirt to his nose, blocking anything coming out.

Lucy caught glimpse of his lower, tight abdomen, she immediately looked away and did not allow her eyes to linger. She'd die a million deaths if he noticed.

She quickly lifted her eyes to his face, he glanced back at her expectantly.

"Does it hurt?"

He laughed, "Nah, not really."

She lifted a brow, "The sound of the hit alone was enough to make me cringe."

"Hmm, guess I'm just used to getting hit."

His playful tone made her roll her eyes as she decided to play along, "That's a good thing?"

"It is in boxing." He laughed. His voice was slightly muffled under his shirt.

"Not always, it isn't."

They were coming into a decently sized room with lockers filing along the walls. Natsu nodded at a couch and coffee that occupied a small corner.

"Okay then, explain why." He put on a smug smile as slumped on the couch. Still holding his shirt to his nose.

His abs were practically fully exposed, causing Lucy's heart to skip a beat. It's not like she hadn't seen a guy without a shirt before, it was just something about it being Natsu caused her to feel...embarrassed? Or nervous? Nervous was maybe more accurate. Lucy shoved all thoughts aside, deciding to fix the situation.

"Nope, not until we get your nose to stop bleeding." She crossed her arms, leering down at him on the couch. "Where's the tissues?"

Natsu raised a brow in question, "You sure are a bossy nurse."

"I'm only a bossy nurse to bad patients." She jutted out her hip slightly, glaring at him.

Natsu chortled, "Keep saying things like that and people will get the wrong idea, Luigi."

Lucy's cheeks flared with overwhelming heat at his comment. Her mouth dropped open, but no words came out.

Her obvious flustered reaction made Natsu burst out laughing.

"You should see the look on your face, you're too easy to mess with Lucy." His laughter died out slowly, but the smile was still in his voice.

"Ha-ha. You are too clever. Now tell me where the damn tissues are!"

"Right away, oh golden nurse!" He slightly bowed his head, which in turn earned him another glare in his direction, which only widened that stupid grin on his face. He pointed to a cabinet next to the doorway and Lucy scurried over to it.

She returned with the box in hand and after chucking it at Natsu, she huffed down on the couch beside him. She refused to look at him, more so for the sake of not blushing again. But he didn't need to know that.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…" He clicked his tongue. "An abusive nurse too? Not good, Lucy, not good."

Damn him. And his stupid charm.

This was clearly going to be challenge.


A couple things:

Sorry if the boxing/sparring bits is kinda boring to read. It was a bit difficult for me to write in an exciting way. I definitely didn't want to write out every single movement/swing they were throwing. I feel like that'd be exhausting to read lol and I'd probably not be able to write it out well. SO, hope what I did was enough to show a little bit of action as well as keep it flowing.

I will explain more on Natsu's form next chapter.

Thanks so much to tinybumblebee and aliciacevbra for leaving me a review last chapter! It means a lot and it reminds me that some people are actually reading this, haha! Much love to you guys! And thanks for pointing out some typos, Bee! You've been a lot of help.

Feel free to review to anybody else out there! Def would like to hear your thoughts/comments/construct crit...any of that jazz. Or if you don't know what to write, answer this:

Who do you think would come out on top in a battle?

Gray Fullbuster or Shoto Todoroki?

Reaaaddy, set, GO.

*sitting anxiously on couch eating popcorn waiting for reviews*