It's been two months! I'm so sorry! I've been working on this chapter for a few days. And I was working on the end half of this chapter for a good half hour today when suddenly...I accidentally pressed a key, and the page changed and all the words I had written were GONE. I stared at my screen in horror and anguish, and collapsed in utter defeat and frustration. But I've finished (this chapter)! And I really hope you absolutely awesome readers enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Fairy Tail!

"And why not?!"

Natsu backs away quickly, his eyes widening in horror as if Lisanna had suddenly burst out into flames. Frankly, the white-haired girl, usually nothing more than a smile or an occasional scowl, is horribly frightening at the moment. Her crystalline blue orbs tremor in fury, and her jaw is clenched so hard, Natsu is scared that her teeth will fissure and break apart. Her delicate hands are balled up into tight fists at her sides, and a vein throbs faintly on her right temple.

"Please keep your voice down," he begs, glancing around nervously at the classroom. If Lisanna's voice rose any higher, students and instructors would pour out of classrooms, and Natsu didn't want to think of the unfortunate consequences when his homeroom teacher – no, Erza - caught him. Gray would do back flips if Natsu managed to get on Erza's bad side once again.

Despite the fresh thought of Erza thundering down a hallway with a steamroller in her tracks (with the intent to flatten him), Natsu believes that that is the least of his worries at the moment. His childhood friend looks ready to grab him by his hair and shove his face into the nearest wall – repetitively.

And yet, Natsu stares absentmindedly at her shiny eyes. The only times where Lisanna's blue, blue eyes were that resplendent were when she was about to cry.

Lisanna, ignoring his request for her to quiet down, turns around in an exaggerated circle. Then, she turns back to him abruptly. Her face is burning with indescribable fury, and something else. For a moment, all she does is open and close her mouth, trying to find the right terms to call him, trying to write up an eloquent speech about how pissed off she is, and how to correctly convey her emotions without coming across as extremely needy and horrible. "I get it," his childhood friend says, her throat croaky.

Her thoughts and words and ideas were all jumbled up, and inside, she was drowning in utter turmoil. Lisanna Strauss had only ever had two boyfriends in her life, and to be dumped by both (albeit one was an ex-boyfriend) in a time span of not even ten minutes…

She wants to tear out her hair. "I get it," she repeats, gesticulating wildly in the air and pacing back and forth. Feeling a little silly, Lisanna laughs harshly (although a little halfheartedly). The white-haired female leers at him, desperately grasping for anything to say. Please, give me an idea. Give me a word. In this little moment where she's so deeply hurt by being rejected by Natsu – especially because, up until the moment he responded in the negative, she had been absolutely positive that he would accept her back – Lisanna wants to hurt him right back.

She feels childish, like a little girl throwing a tantrum. And she wants nothing more than to make up with him and smile like they used to – before everything.

And that's when Lisanna considers saying something nasty about Lucy Heartfilia.

She doesn't know how she feels towards that blonde.

Lucy Heartfilia, from what she had seen, is nothing but nice, a little tough, and genuinely likes Natsu Dragneel. Lisanna can see how often that blonde likes to sit and stare at Natsu spinning his pencil, at Natsu sleeping during class, at Natsu smiling, at Natsu laughing.

Lisanna sometimes sees Lucy Heartfilia's face after she and Natsu have gotten into a fight.

So sad.

So miserable.

But the white-haired beauty can't stand it.

Lucy Heartfilia is perfect.

She makes Natsu smile and laugh and joke around with her. She can make him angry and yell and frustrated and guilty. But Lucy Heartfilia can make Natsu Dragneel run after her and say sorry, sorry, and please don't cry because I don't like it when you do that, it's so sad.

And Lisanna Strauss is supposed to love, love, love Laxus Dreyar, but when she sees that kind of thing, she wishes Natsu would run after her like that one more time. And he has. So many times. But Lisanna kicks him away every time. And Lucy Heartfilia was the someone, was the girl, who actually accepted Natsu running back to her, to apologize and ask for her company again because he misses her.

For a moment, she considers saying something nasty about that Lucy Heartfilia.

But her heart trembles, and she decides against it. Lisanna wouldn't succumb to that level of bitchiness.

So, instead, she bares her teeth and says something that pains Natsu as much as it pains her. "I get it. You don't care about me anymore! You don't love me anymore! You don't need me, and you're ready to forget about me… you already hate me so much, don't you?!"

A shocked silence descends on the two of them.

Natsu stares at her, his face blank with surprise. He can feel something tearing his heart.

Then a look of sheer agony comes across his features.

Lisanna rushes on, trying very hard not to focus on him. Trying hard not to concentrate and notice his negative reaction to her words. "You said it before, didn't you? Between you and me…that there's nothing? That you've severed all ties between us? Honestly…did you ever think that that hurt me, as well?! You hate me."

She pauses for a moment to inhale sharply and then-

" You can just say it, Natsu! Even I can say that I hate me! Honestly, I do!"

Lisanna was veering sharply away from her original topic, but she couldn't form any coherent thoughts. All that thinking about Lucy and Natsu and who she was supposed to love, who she really loved had really messed up her head.

An alarming quiet blankets over them, and Lisanna's insides drop to an unbearable temperature and freeze over. Because classroom door after door is sliding open, allowing students to filter out into the hallway in curiosity. Teachers push through the crowds of their pupils and peer hotly out at the spectacle in the middle of the hall. Some instructors hiss and spit at having their precious lessons disrupted, but, even so, make no move to stop the disruption. Others were extremely glad that classes had been interrupted - either because they were unfortunate substitutes being bullied by a majority of the class or they were teachers who were still dreaming about laying in bed, even at this time of the day.

This isn't the scariest part.

The scariest part is when Natsu and Lisanna's classroom door slide open from behind them. The white-haired girl tenses even further when That Blonde stares out into the corridor, her jaw dropping open into a perfect "o".

"Of course. Natsu. What's going on?"

(In the background, a struggling, snarling Erza is being held against her will by four or more people. Gray is off to the side because the last time he had tried to hold Erza back when she had wanted to go on a rampage, he had ended up with two black eyes.)

The blue- eyed girl almost can't bring herself to look directly at her childhood friend and his new "best friend" as she steps out to put her hand gently onto his back. That Blonde's lips are curved into a disapproving frown, but a flicker of concern glows in her chocolate orbs. Lisanna knows that the blonde wants to ask if Natsu is okay, but the atmosphere isn't suited for the question.

It's too heavy. Too tense.

"It's fine, Lucy. Go back to class."

(There's a short moment where Lisanna questions is Natsu is even aware of his surroundings one hundred percent of the time.)

Lisanna feels her cheeks burn and something painful prickles the back of her blue eyes. If Natsu had said the exact same thing to her, she would have accepted his protection in a heartbeat. In contrast, That Blonde - with her ruined, uneven, yet beautifully golden hair - gazes up the salmon-headed boy defiantly, as if daring him to force her to go back to class.

"Are you stupid? How can I go back to class when you've disrupted every class in the near vicinity?"

Natsu disregards Lucy's scathing remark, and instead focuses in on his childhood friend. Lisanna's face is completely readable. she had always had a horrible habit of widening her eyes to the size of large pizzas whenever she was suppressing the urge to cry - and this just made them seem even shinier than they were before. Natsu utilizes every skill that school had ever taught him. Lisanna's facial features clearly suggest that she is enduring some emotional turmoil (which she is unsuccessfully hiding) - in short, Lisanna is in pain. (And what the f*** happened to the teachers and students anyways? What kind of school lets this kind of thing unfold? What about the lessons that needed to get taught for tonight's homework assignment? What about the punishments that were supposed to be given out to the two people who were clearly disturbing the sanctity of the educational environment?)

(Anyhow, going back to his initial thoughts) Natsu stares vacantly at Lisanna.

Why? Why was Lisanna hurting?

He feels like carding his fingers through his bubblegum hair over and over and over again. There were just too many overwhelming things factoring into his already complicated (love) life. (As Gray would say, "Suck it up and a grow a pair, man.")

"What are you saying?" he chooses his words carefully. "What exactly are you implying?"

The white-haired girl's pupils do some sort of dance as they jump from the floor to her hands, to him, to Lucy, and back to the floor again.

"I hate me." Pause. "Is what I'm saying." Pause again. "Is my implication."

A hushed whisper surges through their audience. Even the teachers who were "so intent on getting back to their lessons" are watching in openmouthed captivation.

"Why?"

Lisanna is surprised by the harshness and roughness of Natsu's tone.

She meets his gaze this time. He's glaring at her. He's GLARING at her.

"Why do you hate yourself?" he repeats. "I don't get it. It's stupid."

The white-haired girl feels herself bristling in fury. "Wha-?! Stupid?! You have no right! I've been agonizing over this for a while now! Don't belittle my problems!" She feels her face flushing, but she presses on. "You don't have to pretend you don't understand! I know I've been unbearable. I know! I hate myself! And you hate me too! You and I hate me because I dumped you and trampled all over your feelings and made you sad and angry and frustrated and miserable! You and I hate me because even though I knew you were so deeply cut by me and Laxus, I didn't even stop and talk to you! I hate me because I kept being indecisive even while I was dating Laxus because..." Lisanna hesitates. "I hate myself because even though I've hurt you too many times, I kept on thinking you would always love me! I hate myself because not even fifteen minutes ago I took advantage of you and kissed you even though you love someone else..."(Natsu blinks rapidly, and his cheeks become red) "...and I still..." Lisanna stops. And then, "I still love you!"

There is a nerve wracking silence.

And then-

"...you guys...kissed?" a voice asks, cracking slightly.

Lisanna and Natsu suddenly remember.

That Blonde.

How is it? I hope you readers enjoyed it! Really, I do. I'm sorry that this chapter is full of Lisanna-emotions-and-what-she's-feeling-inside-and-this-chapter-is-mainly-her-talking-about-things but, I wanted to give a little insight about her character. But! But next chapter will be Natsu and Lucy! And I bet all of you are throwing your hands up into the air and screaming, "FINALLY!"

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Please review!

Until next chapter (which hopefully won't take two months to come)!