Here is the next chapter, sorry it took a while, I'm still on vacation after all. Thank you for helpful reviews and tips! I understand that a lot of you feel a bit inundated with detail, so I promise to try hard to make the story less pedantic. No absolute promises however, as this really is just the way I have always written! Also, someone asked how I came up with the detailed fight scenes? Simple, just play Mortal Kombat.

I own nothing.

Cognizance

"Crap, crap, crap." Natsu thought as he hurried down the school's hallways. He was going to be late for class, he just knew it. Last time he was late to class had not been a good experience for him, and he was not about to risk getting battered by a disgruntled teacher on his first day here. He had ran through the lobby so fast, the receptionist had not even seen him. Dashing up to the fourth floor, Natsu saw his assigned classroom up ahead, remembering its number from the syllabus. He sprinted harder, gliding across the floor like a speed-skater. His feet were cramping up, because he was not wearing running shoes, but he ran through it anyway, used to pain from his years of training. If he could power through tendonitis for 4 years, then this was nothing. He skidded to a halt with an emphatic SCREEECH, and turned into the classroom. Controlling his breathing before entering, he meditated for a quick moment as he did not want it to look like he had been running to class. Calmed somewhat, he entered, quickly scanning for a seat and scurrying to it, so as to not draw too much attention to himself.

With a groan of disappointment, he realized that his seat was next to yet another football player. Why did this school insist on seating the peasants next to the knights; it had certainly never worked throughout history before. With a resignation to his fate, he plopped down next to the boy, who had vibrant and spiky white hair, making him look sort of like a super-saiyan Natsu noted to himself. The boy was busily enjoying his eyes' attention on his phone screen, but it looked like a mouse in the hands of a cat; the student was easily the biggest that Natsu had glimpsed the whole day, dwarfing most of the other football players.

Leaning back in his chair he saw that the teen was devoting a flurry of finger movements to playing Candy Crush of all games. Natsu had to try hard not to snort with laughter, but he let out a little grunt of joviality and the boy paused his game to turn to look at him. Initially expecting to see nothing but hatred and dislike in those eyes, he saw nothing but happiness instead, which surprised him. His expression was bemused and his eyes puzzled. With an act of violating the axiom that Natsu had assumed about everyone in this school, the large boy held out his hand, a sign of recognition and approval. Natsu hesitantly took it while the boy spoke up, "Hello, MAN, I have never seen you at this school before, are you perhaps, MAN, new?"

Natsu did not really know how to answer that question, as he was more perturbed by the strange ticks that the teen seemed to involuntarily go through when speaking, "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but real quick, what' the heck's up with your voice?"

"Ah, you must be talking about my Tourette's, I myself didn't know I had it until, MAN, yesterday."

Natsu did not really want to hear the story behind why this kid's particular case of Tourette's had him yelling "man", so he quickly introduced himself to deviate the conversation to something more light, "Well, anyway, yes to your first question. I am new here, this is my first day actually; my name's Natsu by the way.

"Elfman" the football player answered in turn. He did not seem that bad to Natsu, in fact, observing Elfman's face, he saw no evil there, no wretched look of violence; there was simply nothing. All he really could make out was a boy who's size hid his real personality behind a veil of muscle. He seemed harmless, even more so than the pierced boy that he had shared a look with three periods previously.

"So Natsu, are you a man?"

"Of course I am, do I not look like one?" Natsu asked, feeling slightly violated.

"Well, MAN, I couldn't see your face under your manly hood, so I wasn't sure, MAN, what you were."

"MY voice, my voice," Natsu repeated exasperatedly, "my voice is obviously that of a boy's."

"Well, MAN, it definitely could have been that of a girl too, but don't worry, girls are just as manly as boys." "Ugh", Natsu thought. This was getting weirder by the minute.

"Wait?! Are you still implying I'm a girl?" Natsu asked hesitantly, his face forming a confused look.

"No, not, MAN, at all, I simply was telling you how to be a man."

"That doesn't even make any sense." Natsu thought, and for the rest of the period, him and Elfman went back and forth, Natsu debating that he was indeed very manly, while Elfman assured him that it was now acceptable in society to be queer. Natsu didn't even know where that had come from, but he continued to try and break the ancile of Elfman's mind. Even through the light work that the teacher had assigned, the twosome continued to incessantly quip back and forth with another while doing their assigned worksheet. It took the intervention of the other person sitting at their table to put an end to things. She had purple hair, and had introduced herself as Laki Olietta; she had also said that she would shove a wooden stick up both of their asses if they didn't shut up. Despite her horrific threat, Laki turned out to be nice enough, engaging in thoughtful discussion with Natsu and Elfman about the work they were doing, while trying to keep them from going back to their heated debate. Elfman had turned out to be surprisingly smart notwithstanding his appearance and he and Natsu were able to complete their work with a good amount of time still left in class. However, when Laki excused herself to go to the bathroom, the two idiots pounced on each other like cats, intent on finishing what they started.

The bell was going to ring in about 15 minutes, and while Natsu was arguing hotly in his own favor, he had enjoyed his brief verbiage with Elfman so far in that class, the bigger boy coming across as a bit eccentric, but a really innocent person at heart when one tried peeling away at the layers of obvious manliness that wrapped ever so tightly around him like bondage; it was like trying to pry a women from Eros, nearly impossible. Natsu was gaining in the battle, about to win by delivering the final blow on why he was a man, when Laki came back in the classroom. The two had dropped their gazes from each other's faces and instead looked away, Elfman at Candy Crush and Natsu at his shoes.

When the bell actually did ring, Laki had bid the two a goodbye and went on her journey to her next class, leaving Natsu and Elfman standing outside in the hall, hands in their pockets as both found it awkward to say anything. Natsu took the initiative and spoke up, something he didn't usually do, but Elfman was a good person, "So, what class do you have next?"

"College English, MAN, I signed up for the special course because I thought it would be manly of me to take it." the large boy said with a proud gleam in his eye as he puffed out his huge chest.

"REALLY? That's what I have too!" Natsu said excitedly, not exactly sure why, but he knew this meant that he would have someone to talk to in the class instead of wallowing away in his own self-pity.

Elfman smiled warmly, "Maybe having conjoined classes will allow us to continue the life-changing debate on whether you are gay or not."

Natsu really couldn't gauge if he was joking or not, but the ambience around the large boy so far had been anything but normal. But it wasn't bad, just different. The two walked gleefully to class, smiles on their faces as they controverted about the issues of sexuality, their conversation evolving into a more serious one. Natsu brought up a rather controversial topic, "Since we're talking about this anyway, did you hear about the legalization of gay marriage that happened all across Fiore last Monday?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I did, MAN, I for one don't not really see the big deal about the whole thing."

Natsu realized that for all of Elfman's eccentricity, he could be serious when he wanted to be, and that this was one of those moments, "You really think that? Because that's how I feel about the whole thing too."

"Yes, I do. I don't get why many people are creating a riot over it. Actually, MAN, I'm confused as to why gay marriage was banned in the first place." Elfman answered with a thoughtful look in his eye. The two had just turned into their classroom, which was at the end of the hall, and had made themselves comfortable next to each other in two seats.

"Yeah I agree, I mean, what's the big deal? I just feel that people should care about more important things than who you want to marry. It probably should never have been banned in the first place. Marriage is just a fact of life, and you should be able to marry whoever you want. Hell, I should be able to marry a cat if I really wanted to, it's my life after all! Instead they made this big deal out of trying to marry the one you love, which should always be simple." Natsu argued with an insightful voice, grinning a bit when he joked. Elfman smiled a bit at that too and remarked how manly marrying a cat would be. That didn't help Natsu gauge his mental state any better, but the large boy didn't care.

The duo analogously turned their heads to the teacher as the women began her lecture for the day, analyzing different parts about the book, Atlas Shrugged. The lecture ended 15 minutes early and Natsu turned to ask Elfman about what sorts of friends he had. The bigger boy looked a little apologetic as he told Natsu that he did not actually have many friends, the Tourette's usually scaring them away before he could explain. Natsu nodded understandingly, as he had gone through similar things before. Elfman said that since he was on the football team, the members did talk to him, but that most of them were in tightknit cliques of their own already, and those were pretty hard to intrude upon without seeming gauche. Natsu wanted to cheer up the boy, who had gotten a little dejected with his explanation, "Hey, it can't be all bad right, you must have some people really close to you, everybody does."

"Why yes, MAN, I actually do, I have two man sisters that are very precious to me, an the three of us get along very well" he reminisced with a gleam in his eye. Natsu decided to just ignore that little comment about "man sisters" and proceeded to ask him who they were. One was apparently called Mirajane, who was older than him, being a senior, and the other was called Lisanna, who was younger than him, being a sophomore. When he talked about and described them, there was such joy etched into his face that it made Natsu grin. It seemed to him that Elfman's best friends were basically his beloved sisters. But what the bigger boy said next perturbed him, "There is also someone else who is sort of a friend to me." Elfman said softly, inexplicably blushing a bit. Natsu couldn't fathom why.

"Who is it, and why are your cheeks red, are you sick or something?"

"THEY are not red!" he exclaimed, before blushing again, "She is just someone I met last year at, MAN, a football game. We didn't get along at first, but she, MAN, warmed up to me a little as the year went by."

"Ah," Natsu started, with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, "it's a girl I see, now I know why your cheeks were flushing."

Elfman sputtered while blushing yet again, "Qu-be quiet, there's nothing like that going on between us. Her name is Evergreen, and she's the head cheerleader, she wouldn't ever be interested in that way with a guy like, MAN, me anyway. She's too manly for me." he said sadly, betraying his previous refusal of attraction to the girl with a hint of longing in his voice, as if that last comment was an actual compliment. Natsu had to admit, if this was how this guy talked to girls too, he could maybe see why Elfman thought that the girl wasn't interested in him. However, not wanting to dampen the boy's spirits, Natsu patted him on his back and tried to switch the topic of the conversation away from Elfman's lack of friends, though secretly he was glad he had found someone that was in the same boat as him; a good person who was judged at an untimely moment, having it backlash across their lives and cause its ripples to effect the course of their journey. At least they each had a few people that they really cared about.

"I say if that girl isn't interested in you, who needs her? Maybe you're secretly homosexual and it would never work out between you two anyway." Natsu countered, intent on bringing Elfman's focus to another agenda. Before the bigger boy could say how man it was to be gay, the bell rung, letting Natsu know he had been victorious in his mission to brighten the boy up. He checked his schedule with Elfman, and saw that, sadly, they did not have the same last period.

Bidding the boy farewell, but not before exchanging numbers, Natsu made his way all the way up to the top floor, aiming to see school through with no incident to mar his first day there. His last class was World History, a class that was rumored to be nigh impossible to do well in. Natsu found that to be farcical nonsense though, as the class seemed pretty easy; all he had to do was take a lot of notes, but that was something he was very good at. Not having friends consistently no matter what school he had gone to, Natsu had never really had the means to goof off in class or get distracted in any way at all. His only remaining options were to either sit there in listless boredom, or take notes. He chose the latter, and became extremely good at it, now being proficient at writing while not looking at what he was writing and being able to talk with someone at the same time. Thus, the class was fairy simple for him: he looked at the board and then back at his paper to write, and then he rinsed, washed, and repeated until the class ended.

The final bell was like a siren singing to Natsu, pulling him closer to home. He had hurriedly packed his belongings into his back before dashing out of his classroom, not before adding a "have a nice day" to his teacher though, who had been very engaging and deserved to be ingratiated upon. He raced down the steps of the grand stairway, taking 4 at a time as he went, intent on reaching his locker. He got down to the floor where his locker was, and he proceeded to rush to his hallway. Swiveling on a dime, Natsu turned into the hall and ambled over to his locker. He rapidly punched in the combination and performed his soon to be daily exchange of items between his locker and his book-bag, as if he was at the counter of a barterer. He took what he needed and stood up, looking back the way he had came.

There was a blonde girl at her locker, but she was bent down low so he could barely make anything out about her appearance. Not wanting to delay his weekend in the slightest, Natsu was off; he thought he saw the turn her head at his racing past, but he really could not have cared less at that moment. He rushed down to the floor that the lobby was on and hastened to said lobby. As Natsu was about to step out the door, to experience glorious freedom once more he noticed through his peripheral vision that there were some students milling about near an announcement board in the lobby. Natsu carefully peered at it and gasped when he saw the word "partner"; he had almost forgotten to check it. "Whew, glad I remembered, Wendy would've been so pissed" he thought thankfully while wiping a brow.

Carefully making his way over, Natsu realized that he was the only one left, everyone else already having left. He looked up the rows and columns of the list to find his name, realizing just how big the school really was. He traced the huge list with his finger; it was like trying to find a grain of salt on the beach. Finally, he found his name, and he read an unfamiliar one across from his.

"Who the hell is she?!"


Anyone reading this story, you should check out a oneshot I recently wrote called Without Him, you'll enjoy it! Also be sure to be on lookout for a new story I am making!