Partners


"So… do you know what your powers do?"

A blank, perplexed look formed on her face for a while, a strand from the top part of her hair that she pulled into a side pony popped up in unruly defiance from the others. She turned to me, forming her fully glossed lips into a thoughtful pout.

"Well what do you mean by that?"

The smells of exhaust from car fumes and fresh bread from nearby cafes proliferated the air. The sun was hot, scorching actually, remnant of the hot summer days that dominated from the season before. As Lucy and I walked along the paved cement dressed in our fall school uniforms, countless cars whizzed on by us, some going in the opposite direction, while others where headed for a common destination with their teenagers in tow. That place would be none other than the drug house known as Fairy Tail.

School. I'm sorry I did mean, school.

"Well obviously… your… powers right? I mean come on Lucy, don't make me explain this."

She turned to me again, her big, wide brown eyes blinked twice telling me she really had no idea what I was talking about.

"Well if you're talking about my wings-"

"Well no duh." I say rolling my eyes.

"-then I'm not really sure what happened to them. They just sort of… disappeared after St. Peters." She gave a nonchalant shrug.

"What do you mean 'they just sort of disappeared'? Have you tried summoning them again?"

She shook her head sheepishly.

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well it's just…" She started eyeing the road which was opposite me, probably to avoid eye contact. Chuckling nervously, she continued. "Well, you know… it was kind of… ummm… I… I don't know how to summon them again…"

My eyes bulged out of my sockets.

"Say what?!"

The day after Lucy and I came back from St. Peters, she and I obviously had a lot to talk about, but she and I hadn't exactly been speaking much, we had both been too busy trying to maintain the house. Although that was probably just something we were doing because there was so much we were keeping bottled in that neither of us knew exactly how to talk to the other about.

Lucy had then approached me one day at dinner. We were trying to hold small talk over rice and grilled chicken when she stopped eating suddenly.

"Hmmm? Are you full or something?"

"Will you just be willing to just risk your life again if you're in a situation where it seems hopeless?"

I slowly stopped chewing. Looking at her, directing that burdened stare at the dining room table made me lose my desire to eat. I put the fork down and pushed the plate slightly from me.

It's been weeks since that St. Peters incident.

Why was she suddenly bringing this up now?

"I am your guardian angel!" She shouted, looking at me in the eyes. "I don't like the idea of you risking your life singlehandedly for everybody else."

"What? But-"

"And I'm sorry for how terrible that may sound, but Natsu Dragneel, I now forbid you from risking your life ever again. Out of the two of us, I'm supposed to be the one risking their life! That's what I'm here for! I'll be the one to put my life out on the line. I am your guardian angel Natsu, I am always prepared to die for you."

If I thought I had lost my appetite before, then my body must've rejected my stomach now because it flew South for the Winter, hearing her say those words.

My fists clenched on their own and my forehead tensed.

"That's no good…"

The words just barely left my throat, softly.

"What?"

And then suddenly they're just coming out without me thinking, one after the other in one good sized word vomit.

"I said that's no good! What are you some kind of human shield? What are you supposed to do anyways, you didn't even have the power to fight that guy! We were all gonna die if I hadn't stood up to him!"

She flinched after I started raising my voice, her passionately convicted gaze from earlier, wavering dramatically at my refusal.

I can't lie, I felt guilty after seeing the completely shocked then saddened look on her face after what I said about the fight.

"Hey… hey I'm sorry alright?" I cooed. Her face started turning a splotchy red and her face revealed she was trying to fight back tears. I sighed loudly and dramatically, running my hand down my face then running my hands through my spiky pink hair exasperated at the sudden turn of the events.

"Okay, so obviously neither of us want to the other to do something dangerous for the other."

Lucy didn't respond, instead she kept her eyes trained to something to the right of her, avoiding eye contact with me. Her bangs were now assuredly covering her eyes, so I couldn't tell if she was crying or not.

"So from now on, neither of are going to risk their lives for the others sake because we're going to work together."

Her head snapped from whatever she was looking at to me.

"Huh…?"

I smiled at her, barely able to contain my welling glee.

"Let's be partners!" I say, extending my open palm towards her.

She was unmoving, obviously unsure.

"Look, from now on, we'll work together as a team to take on whatever gets thrown at us! That way, we won't have to be driving ourselves crazy being worried or angry with each other."

My grin turned into a smirk. "You know I could really use your strength Lucy."

She stared at me blankly for a moment more, then her face erupted into a delightful grin as she jumped up out of her chair, taking my hand.

"Okay!"


That was the conversation that prompted this one.

"What do you mean you can't summon your wings?"

Fairy Tail was finally in our line of vision. After making a left turn off of one of the main roads in Magnolia, we started towards a long stretch with nothing but luscious forestry to the left and the right of us. At the end of this dead end road was a grand three story building, with a grandfather clock ticking right in the middle of the very top, sounding off the large bell at the start of every period. The architecture was similar to that of a castle, with the peak in the middle where the big bell was and the endless width that stretched forth full of fancy glass windows, visible from each floor.

As we got closer to the school, the gate that indicated the drop off point for parents in cars, and the official entry for students was visible. I saw the old, pink-haired hag standing guard at the gates. I groaned.

"Honestly Natsu… I only think my wings appeared back then because it was an emergency. I mean, what would I need my wings for all the time anyways? It's not like dangerous situations like that are going to be happening all the time, and God forbid something like that ever happens again."

"Hmmm…" Well she had a point.

"Honestly, I think that my role is I'm just supposed to be here for you as a reminder that… there is hope out there… as long as you keep marching forward like you've been doing already!" She turned to me again, tilting her head and smiling.


Thanks to my little escapade to the middle of the country, I totally flaked out on having a summer job, so money's been really tight on us this summer. Somehow someway, we made it work. Makarov posted up flyers to promote some sort of summer giveaway thing at a grocery store and Lucy entered it without me knowing and won us free groceries for the next three months.

So, the old man's good for something other than dealing, I guess.

"Natsu do I look okay?"

As we stood in the corridors that led to the double doors of the Grand Auditorium, my guardian angel, squirmed beside me, fiddling with the blue bow holding up her side ponytail idly, while she looked at the ground in embarrassment, her cheeks dusting pink. All freshmen and new students were required to attend New Student Orientation in the Grand Auditorium before they are given their homeroom assignments. I didn't have to go to Orientation since this would be my second year at Fairy Tail, but since Lucy was just 'transferring' here for the first time, she had to go with all the transfer students and ninth graders.

I eyed her pristine presentation in the girls' uniform, with her white school shirt ironed to a T and her blue skirt being pleated to perfection. Similar to the boys' uniform she had to wear a blue and white, diagonally stripped boys tie, although I never used to wear mine until today, because I didn't want Lucy to show me up. She was in the bathroom for literally an hour this morning just trying to give that high side ponytail of hers some curls with a flat iron. Then she insisted on taking another fifteen minutes to straighten the rest of her hair, even though her hair was naturally straight.

She made sure every single detail about her appearance was perfect before she left the house this morning. Honestly, I don't even know she bothered to put so much effort into this.

I, on the other hand, wore the same fall uniform I had last year, with the first button of my shirt undone, my tie slack and my patented scarf wrapped securely around my neck. I mean, I guess I was nervous too, but holy crap, not nearly as much as her.

Then again, maybe it's because she's meeting so many new people for the first time. I heard some people saying that this year's freshman class is going to be the biggest its been in a long time, and that was evident with how many kids were still walking through the doors to enter the Grand Auditorium filling it up. The Grand Auditorium is nothing to sneeze. It's so big, that you could probably fit the entirety of the last school I attended in there, including the playground and the parking lot.

"Yeah, you look fine I guess." I say.

"Umm, okay, can you walk me inside please?"

"Actually, Lucy I got to go, see they posted the homeroom assignments for tenth graders on the second floor, and I've got to go find my name and be seated before school starts. So…"

She looked at me with dread in her eyes. "Really? Okay…" She said nervously. "If you have to go…"

I gave her a parting grin and the peace sign.

"Thanks Luce! You're the best!" I call out in the distance already sprinting in the direction of the nearest stairwell.

I would never admit this to Lucy, but I was secretly hoping that Lisanna and I would end up in the same homeroom class this year even though the prospect was highly unlikely. I wasn't completely lying to her though, trying to find my name on that bulletin board was going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Running, I had to swerve and weave through crowds of people flittering the halls. Just as I was about to reach the staircase, my nose was picking up other people's scents. I was smelling everything. There was someone coming down the stairs as I was about to sprint upwards and before we had the most epic collision ever, my body reacted without me realizing it and I launched myself over the guy.

The kids in the hallway who saw me were staring at me in utter shock.

When I say I jumped over this guy, I mean, I sailed clean over this guy to the midway point of the stairs.

That wasn't even supposed to be humanly possible.

Without listening for it, my ears picked up on the murmurings of people nearby.

I was like radio antenna, tuning in on who I wanted to hear, and once I knew who I wanted to hear, I could tune in to the exact words even though they were far away.

"Did you see that just now?" One girl said.

"That guy just flew over that other guy."

"What was that just now?"

I stepped down closer to the guy, who had somehow ended up on the ground after my jump and reached out my hand to help him up. "Uh, sorry man… I uh, guess my gymnast instincts kicked in."

"You take gymnastics?" He said in disbelief.

"Well yeah." I say hoisting him up.

"Ooh okay. Well then you're really good at it man!" He said, smiling at me approvingly.

I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes in his face. That seemed to defuse the situation well enough because the kids went back about their days as if nothing happened.

That was a close call.

Lucy made it perfectly clear to me that no one is allowed to find out about my powers ever. If people found out, it'd be troublesome for me and for her. I think she said she'd get in trouble with her Master and the angels in authority over her.

Besides, who knows how people would treat me if they found out about my powers. People already treat me like enough of a freak as it is, I don't need people knowing, I can hear their very heartbeats even from different rooms, or that I could smell their individual scents even when they aren't nearby.

After my fight with that mysterious guy back at St. Peter's, my senses just became supernaturally heightened. I could see better, hear better, but most importantly hear better.

Imagine what they'd say then.

I continued my journey to the second-floor bulletin board, this time making sure not to draw attention to myself anymore. When I made it to the board, there was a herd of familiar faces forming a thick semicircle around the board.

Thankfully I didn't see the two people I didn't want to run into, but I also noticed a spiky, honey blonde mane in the thick of the semicircle that resembled Loke.

Opting not to get to close, I stayed put and tried to start looking for my name from the homerooms posted on top. It was actually easier than expected because my homeroom was the second list I looked at. Class 10c.

Dragneel, Natsu.

I decided to take a peak at the adjacent side to the girls list. I tried not to get my hopes up as I went down the line.

Smith, Kierra

Solomon, Ashley

Strauss, Lisanna

I looked over her name three times to make sure it was her.

Strauss, Lisanna.

Lisanna Strauss! It is her!

"Yes!" I shouted.

My celebration was short-lived as a group of boys, talking and laughing with each other said something to me as they walked on by.

"Hey Dragneel, guess who's in your class?" I whipped my head to the boys who were looking at me with mocking grins on their faces.

"What are you talking about?"

"Just check the list."

Dreading what I might see when I did, I went back and checked the list for my class again anyways, this time not stopping at just my name and Lisanna's.

Dragneel, Natsu

Edgecombe, Brady

Fullbuster, Gray

"Damn it!" I slammed my fist against my knee in defeat. If it isn't one evil, it's the other. Well at least I don't have to deal with his tagalong, Loke for the rest of the semester. Not as far I can see.

The bell rang, indicating the start of homeroom. As the mob around the bulletin board started to dissipate, that head of honey blonde hair I saw earlier started to migrate away from the crowd, revealing his glasses and ever present pretty boy smirk, along with a small crowd of bantering girls.

His eyes met mine and he and eye flinched in surprise. When he gained his posture he smirked at me, readjusted his glasses and turned away smugly.

I fixed my backpack on my shoulder and sighed. Slowly, I began to trudge towards my new homeroom.

This was going to be a long year.


Lucy spent several long moments standing outside the Great Auditorium doors, psyching herself up to walk through the double doors. The Orientation Assembly had already started and was in full swing by the time Lucy decided to touch the handles to the doors to open them.

Just as she was about to pull the handles, the double doors burst open on their own and an ocean of students began pouring out. Lucy, not knowing which way she was supposed to go regardless, ended up getting swept away with the crowd.

The great big bell started to sound, bringing an end to every other students' first period and the start of classes for freshmen.

Lucy ended up following the wave down some corridors and to some foreign looking hall, off of the main halls where freshman students started breaking off into classrooms.

The blonde stood helplessly as she watched them all file confidently into their respective rooms. She became panicked knowing that the other kids knew where they were supposed to be going but she didn't.

She had missed orientation. Now she had no idea where she's supposed to go for classes or anything. The overwhelming sense of hopelessness that started to envelope her, made tears start to burn within her pupils.

She looked up at the warm orange lamp solely illuminating the mysterious dark corridor. She was trying hard and tried desperately to blink back tears. This was her first day of school, why did she mess things up for herself like this? She didn't want to cry, but it was so hard not to.

And where was Natsu?

She was so busy trying to pull back tears that she hadn't noticed the boy who had been silently watching her from a few feet off.

The boy stalked over hoisting his tan messenger bag with one hand over his shoulder and the other in his pocket. As he approached Lucy, she sensed his presence and looked up, immediately noticing the disheveled wreck his clothes were in. The first two buttons of his shirt were undone exposing some of his bare chest and the bottom of his shirt was untucked from his pants. His school boy tie was draped over his neck, completely untied.

His gaze was cold and unfeeling, and under the warm lamp colors looked downright intimidating. She quickly fumbled to wipe the tears from her eyes and regain her composure.

His face looked as if he was looking down at her for being so pathetic and most importantly silly.

"U-uum, I-"

"Are you lost?" He said the words assertively and coolly, effectively shutting the blonde up.

His spiky brunette locks tickled at his merely tolerant eyes. Despite herself Lucy couldn't help but think that he was really handsome.

"Yeah…"

He bent down and picked up her white messenger and slung it over his shoulder.

"Thank-"

"What a pain." He said and then he began walking in the direction he was stalking her from. She quickly stumbled forward trying to follow him.

That's weird, she thought. He seems so mean and so nice at the same time.

As they walked, Lucy noticed the looks of girls staring at her as she trailed shamefully behind her rescuer. Her heart started racing a mile a minute at the looks they were giving her. She supposed that's how it was, having to be saved on the first day after her undue negligence. However, she also noticed that no boys were looking at her harshly, it was just girls. She wondered why.

"This is the office. Give them your name and you'll be set."

"Thank you… thank you very much!"

He looked at her surprised for a moment, then he nodded his head tersely and the ghost of a smile played on his lips.

"Don't mention it."

Her face broke out into a wide-childlike smile.

Friendliness!

Lucy couldn't help but think that his kindness helped to make her morning a little bit better.

"Well then… see ya." He said, giving her a back handed wave as he walked off. As he was walking away, Lucy suddenly realized that she never got his name. She wanted to call out for him, but he was already out of sight. Oh well.

The big bell rang off again, and suddenly students were pouring out of classrooms into halls all at once. Panicking, she spun onto her heel and ran into the front office. She couldn't take getting swept away by another mob.


By 10:25am that morning, students of Fairy Tail were now all comfortably seated in their second period classrooms, with their teachers now done with formalities, teaching their lessons. In the Pythagoras Science Center, third floor, room 317, a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very bored blonde was texting incessantly on his phone under the table. His biochemistry teacher, a short, middle aged, but very beautiful Indian woman was outlining the syllabus for the semester.

He kept looking out of the window below him at the grand courtyard, admiring the beauty of the main school building and the other subject buildings that were in a star formation around the courtyard. He couldn't wait for this class to end. This was his least favorite subject.

"Loke," The woman by the board called, her Indian accent was evident. "I know that you can't wait to just jump out of this classroom to get away from me for recess, but would you at least pretend that you're paying attention?" The whole class snickered at him and the professor had a sarcastic grin on her face, giving him a knowing look.

His face flushed, slightly embarrassed. She caught him.

"Now why would I ever want to leave from your side Ms. Mukherjee?" He recoiled quickly. "Especially if you keep saying my name in that gorgeous accent of yours." The class started murmuring, some laughing at Loke's antics while others were commenting at how smooth he was.

Sarcastic smirk was now long gone from her face and she gave him an unamused glare to which he shot her back a charmed smile, readjusting his glasses.

"Alright, alright, settle down class." She turned back to the blackboard, with chalk in hand, about to write something, when there was a knock on the door. As she walked over to the door, Loke took the opportunity to text back the girl he was talking to from earlier.

After a while, the door slammed again and Loke's head shot up instinctively while he slipped his phone in his pocket. When he saw the student who was following his teacher, a pang went straight through his chest, then his heart started beating uncontrollably.

The girl was blonde, with ivory skin and curves to die for. When she turned to face the class, and his professor pointed at the empty stool next to his he felt as is someone stopped his heart, then restarted it with a defibrillator a second later.

As she walked over to the seat next to his, he tried readjusting his glasses and then pushing his backpack a little further away from him – anything not to make it seem so obvious that he's staring at her.

"Hello there," She said sitting gracefully on the bar stool next to him.

"Hi." He snorted nervously.

As the teacher resumed class, he was racking his brain for the name of the beautiful new girl seated next to him. He was sure, he had heard some things about her during summer school. He didn't pay any attention to them though, he was sure the boys were just exaggerating a bunch. Now he was mentally slapping himself for not being more attentive. The rumors he heard didn't do her justice.

After resting her white messenger bag on the counter, she turned and smiled at him again, a small blush dusting her cheeks.

"I feel so silly. I missed Orientation this morning and now I've just been ruining everyone's day I come across."

He was taken aback at her depreciating words.

"There's no way." He said quickly. "My day just became a million times better when you walked through those doors. In fact, you're the highlight of my day!"

She jumped in her seat and her cheeks became a potent tomato red. Her brown pupils dilated, and her eyes grew into the size of saucers.

"Th-Thank you…"

"Loke." He finished for her since she was coming short for a name.

"Loke," She repeated. "Nice to meet you Loke, my name is-"

"Lucy!" He shouted, suddenly coming out of the brain fart he was having earlier. That was her name, Lucy! How could he have forgotten that.

"Loke!" Ms. Mukherjee shouted angrily from the front of the room. "Are you trying to get detention on the first day of school?"

"No ma'am."

"Then please, just try to listen, okay?" Her demeanor was pleading with him to comply. She obviously didn't like getting so angry with her students. He felt bad for pushing her. "Anyway, class, as I was saying, you should choose your biochemistry partners carefully. The person you choose is who you're going to end up working with until the end of the class. There'll be lots of group work and partner assignments and how well you and your partners work together could be the deciding factor in how you finish this class. In addition the research project that you'll have to turn in at the end of the semester is also partner work, and will account for 45% of your grade in this class. So again choose wisely, you'll be bosom buddies for a long while."

A loud dragging sound then thud drew everyone's focus from the teacher to Loke, was already out of his seat, stool toppled over and on one knee encasing Lucy's left hand in both of his.

"Loke, what are you doing this time?" The teacher asked, this time with a defeated sigh.

Then, the students started talking all at once.

"Loke are you proposing?"

"Oh, my goodness, seriously?"

"Loke's proposing to the new girl!"

"Someone record this!"

"No! Why?! Why her? Why not me?!"

Lucy, looked around flabbergasted, not entirely sure how to deal with the tidal wave of a situation that Loke had thrown her into.

"Lucy, my darling." He turned on his charm to full force once more, smizing at her and kissing the outside of her hand gently. "Will you do me the greatest honor… and be my biochemistry partner?"

She felt her left eye twitch uncontrollably as she felt the strange and uncontrollable urge to smack the boy on the ground in front of her.

"If I say yes, will you stop?"


In the middle of the cafeteria was a bench that was unofficially reserved for soccer team and their associates. The boys at the table were all talking and laughing, some of them were playing with their food like smiling with the sliced peel of a grapefruit covering their teeth or pretending that their apple juice was pee. One of the boys was telling the others of a story about the time he tried and failed miserably to sneak his brother's girlfriend in the house, and by the end of the story the entire table roared in laughter, causing a disturbance in the already noisy cafeteria.

"You guys are like a bunch of children you know. The whole cafeteria can hear you." A spiky black haired teen walked with his lunch tray in his hand over to the table, giving a disapproving look to the boys' loudness.

When they saw him, they shouted his name gleefully.

"Gray!" They chorused in unison, all collectively ignoring his last remark.

"Hey, man we missed you, how's it going?" The one telling the story asked. Gray gave him an incredulous look.

"Brady, shut your ass up, I just saw you in homeroom."

Brady laughed, raising his hands in surrender. "You caught me."

"We're just catching up each other on what's been happening since the summer." Another boy with a black gelled hair, sitting on the edge of the bench piped up. "Brady was telling us how his dad thought his kid brother's girlfriend was hooking up with him secretly or something. His dad literally, sat him down and had a talk with him and finished it up with 'these hoes ain't loyal'."

The table erupted in laughter again Gray couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips.

"Speaking of catching up Gray," Brady interjects. "Loke here tells us you're seeing somebody now?"

The table broke out into collective 'oohs' and teasing whoops and laughter. Gray gave an unconscious half smile at his food, then turned to glare at his best friend who was seated in the center of the table, participating in the teasing noises.

"Well yes, actually." He said, not breaking his gaze from the food on his tray.

"Well…" One of the other boys anticipatorily. "Who is she?"

Before Gray could rack his brain for an acceptable answer that would get his friends off his back but didn't give away his personal life, a third party's voice interrupted the conversation.

"Who is who?" The voice inquired.

Gray whipped his head around to see the short, white haired girl in her girls' school uniform and lunch tray, smiling at them.

"Lisanna!" He couldn't help the surprise in his voice. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

She snorted. "Why, you don't want me interrupting your little boy time?"

"No not at all!" Brady cut in, in an attempt to save his friend. "Anyone can sit with us if they want too."

She smiled sweetly at him and then took a seat next to Gray after one of the boys opted to sit on the table like Brady and made space for her.

"Wow, we just didn't think our little Gray had it in him! He's… he's… such a virgin!"

The table shook with laughter again, this time with Lisanna covering her mouth to hide the giggle that was threatening to spill out. Gray's face flushed in embarrassment as he grimaced in the other direction. Lisanna's face was a little pink too.

"Well, I mean, with girls you know? Like talking to girls and stuff. He can be such a virgin when it comes to that sort of thing. I mean, I personally don't know if he's a virgin the other way you know!" Brady says quickly, waving his hands again in surrender. The boys at the table laughed once more, with Gray and Lisanna's faces were turning pinker by the minute.

"I think what Brady is trying and desperately failing to say is," The boy with the gelled black hair spoke again, and the boys chuckled at the obvious jab at their friend. "Gray's never seemed to be interested in girls before so, you must really be something special."

Gray's blush was to the point where it was impossible to hide, and the boys all awed in unison at their friend's expression.

"Okay, okay, enough of me already," Gray said, having more than his fill of teasing from his friends. "Are we all just going to ignore the fact that Loke proposed to someone today?"

As soon as Gray said that, the boys were all over Loke's case, giving Gray and subsequently Lisanna a chance to breathe.

"Hey Lisanna," He started.

"Hi."

"I'm sorry about those, guys, they're idiots."

She shook her head.

"That's fine. They're really entertaining."

He smiled at her and nodded his head. "Cool."

Lisanna's gaze was a burning a hole through Gray's hands as she watched him pick up his sandwich and take a bite of it. She gave up and focused her dejected gaze at the table. Then, completely to her surprise, he grabbed her left hand with his right hand underneath the table out of the view of his teammates. She looked at him, completely surprised, but he continued to eat his sandwich like nothing was happening. Gray gave her a sly side gaze as he swallowed his bite, holding her hand firmly in his. When he was done swallowing, he turned to her fully and give her a small smile. Seeing him look at her in the eyes like that and smile his warm smile, made her stomach flutter with angry butterflies. A red blush coated her cheeks. She smiled back, with crystal blue eyes trying to convey her love for him all over again.

"So wait, do you like her now or something?" One of the boys asked Loke.

Loke looked at the boy blankly. Then opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, not knowing what to say.

Everyone at the table, especially Gray, stared at Loke wide eyes, deer-in-the headlights shock wasn't enough to describe the looks on their faces at the moment.

"What? What is it?!" Loke spat impatiently, becoming squeamish at the uncanny silence that overtook the boys.

"There's no way…" The gelled boy next to him started.

"What?! What is it Trevor?!"

"For once when we asked you if you like a girl, you didn't answer immediately." Another one said.

"So?"

"'So?' That means you've been thinking a lot about this haven't you?"

"Wha-"

"Usually, when we ask you if you if you like a girl, you always answer immediately 'yes' or 'no'. Normally as soon as you meet a girl you determine weather you can like them or not."

"With this one, you're actually… at a loss for words!" Brady exclaimed.

"Loke, the guy who's slicker than an eel dipped in oil, who always has something to say… can't answer us! It's a miracle!" He continued.

The boys all erupted in laughter.

The boy named Trevor was the first to stop laughing, nudged Loke at something that caught his attention. "Hey, isn't that her over there?"

The observation was only meant for Loke, but soon enough all the boys were looking in the direction where Natsu and Lucy were seated together, not far from the exit.

"I saw her earlier today," Gray stated looking at her. "I had to show her to the office after I realized she was lost in the B block. She seems nice."

He felt Lisanna's grip on his hand tighten. He looked at her confused, but she drank her water staring at him innocently.

One of the boys snorted. "She's with that reject? No way."

But alas, there was Natsu and Lucy, sitting side by side with their backs turned to them and Lucy's head was almost resting on Natsu's shoulder as he ate. The boys watched as Natsu stood up abruptly, angrily almost, picking up his tray and walking through the exit. Lucy quickly scrambled to get her lunch on her tray and follow him.

"What's up with that guy?" Brady said softly. "Its like he always has a problem. With everything and everyone."

"Yeah and it doesn't help that he's always isolating himself either." Trevor remarked.

Gray snorted. "Oh please. Don't even bother. That guy's a lost cause."

"Hey, Loke, you don't suppose he's still embarrassed at the fact that you beat him in his own fight?" Trevor said with an impressed look, nudging the honey blonde next to him.

Once again, the boys were all over his case.

"Yeah, man, I heard about that! You got into a fight with the freak during summer school? And won? Who knew pretty boy Loke had that in him, am I right?"

Loke was only half listening to all the fuss that his friends were making over the one-sided fight between him and the pinkette. He was far more concerned about what he saw at the now empty lunch table a few moments ago. He supposed that, that part of the rumor was true to form after all.

He felt a numbing sensation buzz faintly in his chest as he quickly looked away from where Natsu and Lucy were sitting as he couldn't take it anymore.


Next Chapter: Back to School Blues