Natsu pressed the snooze button yet again, not in the mood to wake up in the slightest. When he finally moved out of the bed, his hair was about as messy as the rest of his room and his underwear had slid down a little in his sleep. He fixed his pants and went into the bathroom to get ready, which usually meant just brushing his teeth and using the toilet, he wasn't a very complicated person.
Natsu noticed a bit of blue in the corner of his eye while he was brushing his teeth. Happy jumped onto the counter and did his best to rub himself against his pink haired owner. Natsu started scratching him while he finished brushing his teeth, only stopping to spit. Then he picked his blue friend up and carried him back into his bedroom to change.
"Hey kid, ya need to start hurrying it up, the trolley leaves in 10 minutes." Igneel called from down stairs, reminding Natsu that he needed to hurry putting on pants.
"Yeah yeah, I'll be down in a sec." Natsu called back and hurriedly put on his shirt.
After a few minutes, Natsu ran down the stairs and entered the restaurant's kitchen where his father was going over inventory.
"Hey dad, I'm leaving! Feed Happy for me would ya?" Natsu said and waited for his father to answer.
"Alright, your breakfast is in a bag on the counter." Igneel pointed at the bag and watched his son get it and run off to catch the trolley.
Igneel went back to the inventory when he heard the door close behind Natsu, he always waited for that, not because he didn't trust him, but because he just liked making sure that he was out safe. Especially after that incident 7 years ago...
But now that he was pretty confident that his son could fend for himself, he didn't really need to worry as much as he did, but old habits die hard.
Natsu had barely made it on to the trolley, he wasn't really in the mood to miss it despite his crippling motion sickness. He could walk but then he'd need to wake up much earlier or he would end up being late, which happened on the first day.
So his upper body was now hanging outside the trolley window and his face was as green as the grass. He hated vehicles because this always happened but he knew that he'd have to live with it for now, as much as he wanted too, he couldn't exactly walk everywhere. He just couldn't wait for the ride to be over so he could actually move without everything spinning and making the nausea worse.
When he arrived in the classroom he remembered her umbrella, which was still leaning against the hallway wall in his home. He'd have to remember it tomorrow.
"Luce!" He called to her and went up to her desk. "I completely forgot your umbrella but I promise that I'll bring it tomorrow, alright?"
"Oh that, yeah it's alright, I'm not exactly demanding it back, so no worries." She began "just bring it whenever you can."
Natsu thanked her and the two talked until the class started, with Lisanna, Levy and Gray joining in.
When Lunch came, the group all ate together, continuing their conversation from earlier with an added Juvia this time, not that she was contributing much to the conversation, she was just blushing and glancing over to Gray every now and then while she shared lunch with Levy.
"So did you guys hear about the cat shelter downtown that's being closed?" Lisanna said.
"Oh, the one that's being shut down because of some big organisation?" Lucy remembered reading about it on the news board in the hallway.
"Oh, I know what you're talking about." Levy pitched in "Apparently they don't have anywhere to send the cats so they'll be put down."
Natsu had been listening to the conversation a little before that, but when he heard that all those cats might be put down, he started thinking of his own blue little cat. "We need to do something, stop them from taking the shelter!" Natsu loudly said.
"I agree with the flame princess, it's too cruel to put them all down." Gray added into the conversation.
"Well you're in luck, because gramps said that four students can go after school." Lisanna said "It says so on the flier on the information board."
"Well then it's decided, I'm going, you too Luce!" Natsu stood up and made Lucy do so too.
"M-me?" Lucy began, she did care about all those cats, but she had no idea what she could even do for them. "Alright then. Levy?" Though she knew that the least she could do was at least go.
"I would if I could. But I haven't really talked to the boys ever since things happened at the rooftop the other day, so I'm gonna sit them down and get them to talk to me at least a little." Levy answered, and then turned her attention to Juvia "Juvia, is Gajeel ok?"
Everyone was a little surprised by her asking that, mainly because not many knew about the rooftop incident, though some rumours had begun to spread.
"Oh, yes he is, he had to take out his studs though to avoid infection. Thank you for asking." Juvia answered her fellow blue haired classmate.
"No need to thank me, I just wanted to make sure he was alright, is all." Levy scratcher the back of her head, she didn't really think that she should have been thanked for worrying a little.
"Juvia will thank you nonetheless, Gajeel-kun doesn't have that many friends so Juvia is glad to know that at least someone cares about him a little." Juvia sincerely smiled at Levy, though a hint of sadness could be seen if you looked closely enough.
Meanwhile Natsu dragged Lucy to the principal's office with Gray following them as well. They couldn't get a fourth person since Lisanna was busy with family things, she did say though that she would cheer them on from the sidelines. That also ruled out Mirajane and Elfman, so they didn't exactly know who else to ask, maybe Cana, but first they'd have to get permission at least.
"Hey gramps, we're going to the Cat shelter thing!" natsu barged into Makarov's office, the old man was a little surprised at first, but he didn't react much, it wasn't uncommon for the children to just barge into his office so he didn't really mind.
"Good, then we have four students." Makarov said and looked over the students who were now in his office.
"Wait, four? Who else is coming?" Gray asked the small principal.
"That would be me." Erza said and stood up from the chair she'd been sitting on the entire time and the boys had somehow missed, Lucy greeted her when she had entered after Natsu.
Natsu and Gray jumped a little when they saw Erza, they hadn't exactly been prepared to see her so it was a good thing that they didn't barge in while arguing, she would have scolded them like always. The boys knew though that they couldn't pretend to be all cuddly the whole time, so they silently agreed to try and not argue while she was there, at least not loudly.
"I have told Erza all the details so she'll relay them to you." The old principal began "But I will let you know that there will be other schools in the surrounding area joining in the effort to save those cats, so be at your best behaviour." Makarov then realised that he had just asked Natsu Dragneel to be at his best behaviour. Despite not being a student of Fairy Academy for very long, Natsu already had quite the reputation for being rather rowdy, plus there was everything from previous schools to back up most of that reputation too.
The four students left the office and the first years waited for the student council president to start talking about what Makarov had said to her before.
"Alright, so we are too meet at a Café downtown that's close to the shelter." She began "We will meet there after school and I will wait by the gate, I know what train we'll need to take to go there and Makarov has given me day passes for the four of us." Erza handed each of them a single pass, Lucy sighed in relief because she was a little tight on money so she gladly accept any help or job she'd find.
"At the Café we will meet the students from the other schools and the shelter will send someone to come get us and explain the shelters situation to us a little better." Erza said.
"Do you know who they're sending?" Gray asked the red head.
"No idea, but we'll know when they arrive later." Erza answered Gray's question, then looked at Lucy "Lucy, you're in the same class as these two, right?"
"Uh, yeah, I am." Lucy answered, she was a little confused as to why she had been asked that.
"Good, then you can make sure that they go to the gate on time, we don't have too much time before the train leaves, so please." Erza smiled when Lucy nodded and agreed to her request, at least it was one less thing to worry about, now all they had to do was wait for school to be over and then they could see who else would be joining them to help the small cat shelter.
Authors note
So decided that this chapter would be a bit more Natsu centric. I'll probably do more chapters that center around other character as well.
Plus I'm super excited to finally introduce Wendy!