This is a birthday present for siriusly-random! I started working on it as soon as I saw it was your birthday! :D Your stories were some of the first ones I read when joining the Fairy Tail fandom, so thank you for that! I hope you enjoy this one-shot!

Summary: Lucy was a good girl, so winding up in detention was a shock she wasn't prepared for. Thankfully, her fear was lessened by the pink haired boy in detention with her, who wouldn't rest until he saw her smile.

Pairing: Natsu/Lucy

Genre: Friendship

Word Count: 2.3K

Detention

Lucy clutched her book to her chest, bottom lip quivering as she looked at the sign on the wall.

Detention

The single word made her stomach twist and her eyes prick. Never in her twelve years of life had she been in trouble with her school, but today she slipped. She knew she had to face her consequences, but she didn't expect it to be so daunting.

A few kids passed her on their way into the room, a mixture of smiles and frowns on their faces. Lucy wore a frown, something she tried to avoid while in public. She wanted to appear in control of her emotions, but today wasn't agreeing with her.

After a few minutes, she stepped forward. It had less to do with her gaining courage and more to do with the ringing bell. She didn't want to add being tardy on top of her offenses that day.

Feeling terrified, Lucy went to sit in the back of the classroom. Most kids sat on the other side, giving her space to think about her predicament.

'Father's going to be mad,' she reminded herself, shaky hands setting her book on the desk. The last time she got in trouble with him was when she was eight and interrupted him during a conference call in his home office. Since then, she had done everything in her power to avoid trouble, until today.

'Why couldn't I let it go?' she wondered, no answer to sooth her besides her stubborn attitude. It wasn't her fault the science teacher marked her paper wrong, giving her a 'C' instead of the 'A' she deserved. Anyone would have stood up for themselves. However, it was her fault when she called her teacher a moron, landing her in after-school detention.

That she couldn't blame on anyone but herself.

At least the teacher changed her grade... after he assigned her a punishment.

A middle-aged man strolled into the room, making his way to the front. He told the students they had to sit there for an hour before they were allowed to leave. Lucy saw him sit down at his desk, leaning back and closing his eyes as he dozed off.

Lucy wanted to scoff. Here she was freaking out about detention, yet the teacher acted as if this wasn't a big deal.

'He doesn't have to face my father when he goes home,' she told herself, fear striking her when she imagined what he would do.

Grounding her wouldn't do any good, her lack of a social life gave her father no leverage. Being the new kid at the school didn't leave her with a lot of opportunities to make friends. She had two friends total, one being the student body president while the other was the only other bookworm in her homeroom.

Deep down she wished she had more friends, but she was thankful for the two she had. At least they seemed to like her company, even if they only talked during lunch.

Dropping her head, Lucy's eyes landed on the book she brought to read, but she couldn't calm her mind long enough to open it. She couldn't stop herself from thinking what her father would do when she got home. She expected yelling, knowing he didn't tolerate mess ups.

Her shoulders shook as she tried to hold back the tears. Her father would no doubt be angry. He would have to call the maid to rearrange picking her up since she would be an hour later than usual. That alone would aggravate him. She knew her father hated changing plans, especially when it came to her.

'If only mom was still alive... She was nicer.' Lucy lowered her head, eyes closing to squeeze out a tear. It was only a matter of time before she started crying, but she hoped she would have lasted longer than the first five minutes. 'Why can't he be-'

"Hey!"

Lucy jolted, head snapping up and eyes searching until they landed on a head of pink hair. For a moment she thought it was her father's maid, Virgo, but once she looked down she noticed the hair belonged to a boy her age.

Instead of greeting him, she stared blankly. The boy stood in front of her for a moment before frowning, shifting to sit backwards in the seat in front of her so he was still facing her. "What's wrong?"

Blinking, Lucy cocked her head. "What?" She didn't know why, but she didn't expect him to talk to her. She couldn't remember seeing him before, but she didn't pay attention to other students most of the time.

The boy gave her a lazy grin when he heard her voice. "I said, 'what's wrong?'"

"N-nothing," she lied. Her heart beat faster when she saw him narrow his green eyes at her. She opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing, but he cut her off.

"Well that's obviously a lie." He shook his head, finger tapping at his own cheek. "You're crying. What's wrong?"

Instead of answering the question, she snapped. "None of your business. Go away."

She dropped her head, trying to hold back her tears as the boy continued to stare. He made no effort to leave, frustrating Lucy until she was no longer upset, she was angry.

"Look," she said sharply, raising her head to tell the boy to go before she told the teacher. She stopped once she saw his toothy grin, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Wh-what?" She didn't like that look he gave her or the way it made her stomach flip.

The boy with pink hair -who she didn't have a name to place with his face- let his head tilt as his smile grew. "That's better." He chuckled, a sound that made her face feel a little warmer than before. "You look better when you're not crying."

Lucy's hand came up before she could stop herself, fingers pressing to her cheeks to feel her tears had stopped. She knew it was due to her anger at the boy, but something about his warm smile had her releasing those bitter feelings.

"Fine, I stopped crying," she admitted, gritting her teeth. "Will you leave me alone now?"

The boy didn't hesitate to shake his head. "Nah. I'm not done talking to ya."

Her eye twitched, the urge to pull at her blonde locks in aggravation growing. "What could you possibly want to talk abo-"

"Why were you crying?" he cut her off again, causing her hand to ball into a fist.

Lucy swallowed, trying to control her emotions. The boy was trying her patience. "If you must know, I'm worried my father will be mad at me for getting detention. Now, if you could please leav-"

"Why would he be mad at you? It's not like you robbed a bank or anything. You just got detention."

She wanted to tell him it was rude to cut people off, but judging by the cheeky grin he offered, she figured he knew that. Choosing her words carefully, she admitted, "He's very... strict." That was putting it lightly. Her father demanded perfection, but she knew she wasn't perfect.

"Ah," the boy started, nodding his head. "That sucks. I'm sure he'll understand though. Mr. Clive was being a moron."

Lucy blinked, mouth parting but no words escaped. She saw the boy laugh, predicting her next words. "Yeah, I have the same science class as you. You never noticed?"

She shook her head, heat rising to her face as she said, "I... I'm new to the school... I don't even know who you are."

The boy placed a hand over his heart, an exaggerated wince coming from him as he said, "Damn, that hurts."

Brown eyes widened when she heard him curse. She looked around, making sure no one heard him swear. Her eyes flitted back to him when he started laughing, hand on his stomach as he smiled her way.

"Jeez, relax would ya? A cuss word never killed anyone."

Lucy resisted telling the boy to shut up, not wanting to encourage his behavior. She had a feeling he was trying to mess with her, though she couldn't figure out why. They didn't know each other after all.

"What do you want?" Lucy asked, keeping her voice calm despite her urge to throttle him when he snickered. 'What is wrong with this boy? Can't he leave me alone?'

"You're weird," he said, making her scoff.

"I'm weird? Me?" She couldn't believe he would suggest that. He was the weird one, bothering her when she wanted to sulk alone. Where did he get off calling her weird?

The boy ignored her question in favor of asking one of his own. "Wanna know why I'm in detention?"

"Not really." She couldn't see how that information would be useful.

Instead of listening to her, he explained his situation. "I'm in here for fighting."

Surprised, Lucy's eyes widened. "Really? Why?" Fights were rare at their school, or at least that was what she had been told by Erza, one of her friends.

The boy jerked his thumb to the side, sneering over at a dark haired male who was talking to a girl with blue hair. Lucy didn't recognize either one of them, but they seemed familiar. She wondered if she had a class with either one of them.

"Gray over there was making fun of my hair, so I punched him."

Lucy had no idea what to say. "You... you punched him?"

He laughed, nodding. "Yeah. That's how I got detention. Not as cool as calling a teacher a moron to their face, but I think I was pretty badass."

Lucy's eye twitched when he cursed again. It was something she didn't think she would get used to. "Why is he here then?"

"Huh?" The boy glanced over at Gray, then shrugged. "He punched me back. It's kinda our thing."

"To hit each other?" she asked incredulously.

"Yup!" His smile was wide, as if he were proud of himself. "He's my best friend."

Lucy couldn't comprehend how fighting with each other could make someone friends, but she didn't want to judge... much. "I see."

"Oh!" the boy started again, not allowing any pauses in their conversation. "My name's Natsu by the way." He held out a hand, to which she reluctantly took to shake.

She opened her mouth to introduce herself -it was the polite thing to do after all, but once again Natsu cut her off.

"I already know your name's Lucy." Natsu snickered, hand still holding hers. "It's hard to forget your name after Mr. Clive's said it like ten times this morning."

Lucy wanted to shrink down, remembering the incident that morning. She had been forceful with her words, demanding he recheck her paper. At the time she was trying to avoid her father's wrath, knowing he would be angry if she showed up with a 'C'. However, her own stubbornness got the better of her when she flung an insult the teacher's way after he told her she was wrong.

She had been right, but that didn't excuse her behavior. There were better ways to go about bringing up the issue, but she had chosen wrong.

Sighing, Lucy's eyes glanced at her book, then back at the boy. She wondered why he was still sitting in front of her, but she didn't get a chance to ask before he opened his mouth.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Huh?"

Natsu didn't skip a beat, repeating the question before smiling her way.

She decided to answer it, thinking it was the fastest way to get him to leave. He didn't go, asking another question, then another, until finally she was asking some of her own to keep the conversation going.

She didn't know it then, but Natsu was trying to distract her, filling every bit of awkward silence so she couldn't get stuck in her head again. At the time she was annoyed, but towards the end of the hour she found talking to Natsu somewhat enjoyable, even if he did cuss a few more times.

They talked about anything that came to mind, finding they had a few friends in common as well as a few interests. Natsu surprised her, finding an odd comfort in the boy's smile and warm demeanor.

When the hour was up, the students were dismissed. Natsu walked Lucy to the front of the building, telling her she should sit with him and his friends during class next time.

"You're pretty cool... for a weirdo."

Instead of scoffing, Lucy smiled, brown eyes reflecting the happiness she felt after talking with him for the better part of an hour. "Thanks. I guess you're cool too, for a...a..." She didn't have a good comeback, causing her to sigh.

Natsu wrapped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a half-hug before pulling away. He wore a toothy grin, one that made her heart flip in her chest. "That's okay! I don't mind being just cool to you."

Lucy opened her mouth to tell him he was full of himself, but he was already running down the street. "See ya tomorrow, Luce!"

"Wait!" she called out, frowning when he didn't turn around. She had no idea he was sporting a blush, heart pounding from the small hug he gave her.

Instead of being sad, she smiled. He may have been a strange boy with a seriously random personality, but she had fun talking with him.

Facing her father didn't seem so scary as she climbed in the back of the maid's car, waiting to be driven home. She looked out the window, peering at the school. For the first time, she couldn't wait to go back the next day, wanting to see Natsu's smile.

...Even if he tried calling her weird again.

Eeek, I hope you liked it siriusly-random! Happy birthday once again!

Let me know what you all thought!