~ My Protector ~

That morning, when I opened my eyes, the first person I saw was not Natsu but Erza. She stood by the sofa and just looked at me with an unreadable expression.

Still in a half-awake state, I hadn't fully registered the situation. Wearily I rubbed the sleepiness out of my right eye and muttered, "Erza?" Why's she standing there? And how long had she been standing there?

"You…" She said, visibly staggered by something…

And then I became aware of the warmth around me.

Natsu radiated with heat, and he trapped me with his limbs. His arm wrapped around my waist kept me close, while his other was my pillow. One of his legs was thrown over mine and prevented me from moving. I was stuck.

"What are the two of you doing?" Erza almost shouted, having finally regained her ability to speak.

Ah… that's right. I unintentionally met up with Natsu last night and fell asleep beside him.

As I panicked internally, wondering how I should explain this to Erza, Natsu stirred from his sleep. His leg lifted and freed me as he shifted, but his movement didn't stop there. First, he rolled over, onto his back. And then he rolled off the sofa.

Erza reflexively backed away, leaving Natsu to land on the rug with a carpeted thud. Immediately, I sat up and checked on him.

"Ouch, Lucy. What'dja do?" Natsu muttered as he began to awaken.

"I didn't do anything, you idiot," I chided without any real anger in my voice.

"You guys…" Erza spoke again. "Did the two of you sleep here all night?!" Although she shouted, she wasn't angry. It sounded more like she was surprised.

"Morning, Erza. Yeah, we did," Natsu answered nonchalantly and rather sunnily as he sat up.

Ugh… I feared to know what Erza thought of this whole thing. I wanted Virgo to come out and dig a hole for me to crawl into… I couldn't even make up some excuse because who knows how long she had been standing there and watching us.

"Do you do this all the time?" Erza still raised her voice in that same incredulous tone.

"Oh yeah, pretty much," Natsu replied casually. Oh, just stop talking, I wanted to say.

Instead I said "But last night was completely unplanned." It was a feeble attempt to make things look better.

Just then, the large grandfather clock that was in-built into the brick wall above the fireplace chimed and it got all our attention. It was 7am.

"Ok, look," Erza said. It seemed like the fact sank in and she accepted it. She regained her composure and spoke sternly. "It's going to be 7:30 soon and everyone will be coming down for breakfast. So get out of here. Go back to your rooms, wash up and go for breakfast. Do NOT do this again. It's fortunate that I woke up earlier today…" At this point, I noticed she wore her purple pajamas with pink Heart Kreuz prints. "…so I'm the first to discover this, but if it were anybody else… well," Erza didn't have to finish her sentence.

I knew what she meant. Word will spread, rumours will fly, and it'll be more difficult to do our job when we become the center of attention, watched by everybody in the school. But on the other hand, she didn't seem to mind Natsu and me sleeping together. On the same sofa I mean.

Natsu looked at me without saying anything. I knew what that look was for.

"I understand," I told Erza. I liked last night as much as Natsu did, but there's no helping it.

Hold up – since when have I liked sleeping in the same bed as Natsu?

But before I could spend any time pondering over that pertinent question, Erza chased us off again. "Hurry up, go back to your rooms."

Natsu said, "I'll see you at breakfast!" and then he ran off to the East telepad (short for teleport pad). I was about to do the same, except I realized I didn't bring my card key down with me last night.

"Come, I'll walk you up," Erza conveniently offered. But she didn't do so because she knew I'd forgotten my card key. Did she want something from me?

After activating the telepad with her master card key, we arrived in my room. I was initially surprised to find the bedroom empty, but soon I realized that someone was in the shower. However, the other person who also lives here had already left the room.

As I wondered whether it was Levy or Juvia in the shower, Erza got my attention again.

"Lucy," she called. I looked at her; her expression was dead serious, like something was severely wrong. This must be why she came up with me.

"Yes?" I acknowledged.

"Did you and Natsu sleep together?"

I was about to give her the seemingly obvious answer being "Yeah, didn't you just see us?" when I realized that that wasn't what she meant. She meant the other implied meaning behind those two elusive words "sleep together". No wonder her face looked like that.

"W-what are you saying?" I said with a blush.

"Did you?" She repeated herself, with great worry darkening her eyes.

"You think Natsu and I– No!" I exclaimed, and then, in a much calmer tone, I reaffirmed my answer, "No, we didn't."

She gave a huge sigh of relief at my response and her face immediately lit up. "Phew~! For a moment there I was really concerned."

"What's there to worry about? He's Natsu."

"Hah! That's true," she said. "But even if he is Natsu, he's still a hot-blooded young guy, not to mention, a fire-element dragon slayer."

"You have nothing to worry about," I reassured her. "We may sleep in the same bed, but it's not like that. Besides, Natsu doesn't even see me like that. He probably doesn't think of me as a girl at all."

"I wonder about that…" Erza said pensively. "I'll never let him off if he takes advantage of you like that, not that I think he will. But… I worry about you. You're a kind-hearted girl who hates troubling others, and so you don't really tell me about your troubles. I feel like something's bothering you but you never talk about it… I worry I won't know if something happens to you."

Is that what Erza thinks of me? But she's right. Other than Natsu, I haven't let other people in Fairy Tail know that I am Lucy Heartfilia and that I have run away from home.

I smiled at those words. "Thank you, Erza." For always looking out for me.

"Anytime. See you at breakfast." She turned and disappeared at the telepad.

The whole team student team plus Erza met up during breakfast. We sat at a table in a secluded corner of the dining hall and I received two surprises.

Surprise number 1 was Gajeel. He was a long black spiky-haired dude with lots of piercings, but that's not all… He's a metal dragon slayer! Yes, the same kind of animal as Natsu! The first thing I thought of was what the heck, there're two of them?! But unlike Natsu, he was very reticent, just like everybody else had said before. Mostly he just chomped on his food in the corner and didn't speak. So then, who told me he was a metal dragon slayer?

Totomaru – surprise number 2. He's that black-white split-haired guy from the Hargeon shoe department! What a coincidence right? Also, he uses fire magic like Natsu! Coincidence x2!

Somewhere in between, while we were having breakfast, Juvia slipped away without anyone noticing; I only noticed her absence. But at 08:20, after finishing breakfast, the remaining 6 of us left for school.

As we sauntered through Oak Town, the sky rumbled and turned gray. The next thing I knew, a raindrop fell on my cheek.

I wiped the droplet off and looked up. Suddenly, it began to pour. Yet, I stood rooted to the ground as I looked to the sky. Somehow, I felt an impassive gloom exude from this rain; it was a familiar sadness that I knew but at that point could not recognize. What is it about this rain that makes me feel like this?

"Lucy, c'mon," Natsu broke my daze.

I looked around and saw that everyone had gone ahead, running to get out of the rain. Natsu held his book bag over my head in an attempt to shelter me from the rain. But the rain was unrelenting and inexorable. It drenched everything in a matter of seconds from the moment the first drop landed on the ground.

It's like someone is crying tears of loneliness …and drowning in these tears of loneliness.

"At least get out of the rain," Natsu said when I didn't respond to him, and then he pulled me by my hand to the nearest shelter he could find. The shelter was a small rectangular pavilion made of stone.

While I stayed transfixed on the rain, a gust of hot air rushed past and my clothes all dried. I stared incredulously at Natsu as I thought, human drying machine…

"The rain smells like that woman."

I gave him a questioning look.

"Juvia," he explained. "The rain woman."

How can all this come from one person…?!

"My nose is never wrong," Natsu, sensing my disbelief, reconfirmed.

And for the next few minutes or so, we stood there in solemn silence. If we just left, it would feel like we were abandoning our comrade in times of despair. I wanted to wait it out, and I knew Natsu shared my thoughts, and so we waited.

In the beginning, Phantom Lord Academy students would walk past us or run by. The girl who sat in front of me in class (I didn't know her name) even stopped by and offered to share her umbrella with me, but I told her that it's alright.

Gradually, the number of students passing by decreased. When nobody went by this path anymore, we knew it was going to be 9am and we were late for lessons. Nevertheless, for who knows how long, we continued to watch the rain quietly. All the while, I thought about Juvia.

The rain persisted.

A while later I broke the silence. "Hey, Natsu."

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever felt like this before? Juvia's degree of sadness…"

"What? Eh. No, I don't think I've ever…" Natsu answered. "I felt sad when Igneel disappeared, but it just made me more determined to find him."

"That's true… It's you after all."

"What about Lucy?"

I paused to think of how I should reply him, and then I said, "I have." I glanced at him and he was intrigued.

Turning back to the pouring rain, I continued softly, "It was that time when Mama died. I'll never forget how that feels. Even though everyone at the mansion was there for me, it just isn't the same…"

Natsu was quiet as he listened to me go on. "…Sometimes when I think of her I still feel sad, but not like before. With each passing day the feeling fades, but… I never forget. She's always in my heart… She's Mama after all; she's special. Ah-re?" A raindrop?

No, it's a tear. Unbeknownst to me, a tear had rolled down my cheek and I realized what it was. When it reached the bottom of my chin, I wiped it away with the back of my hand.

"Lucy…"

"I'm okay." I quickly said. I think the rain just made me extra emotional, that's all.

But even though I said that, more tears began streaming down and I didn't know why. I wiped them away profusely, but more and more kept coming down just like the rain.

"H-hey, what's the matter?" Natsu sounded at a loss.

The tears clouded my eyes and I couldn't see his face clearly. Each time I wiped them, they would just resurface. I wanted to stop but I couldn't stop! They wouldn't stop falling!

"Sorry," I muttered. I knew guys felt weird around girls who were crying. As I wiped them away, I saw Natsu looking a little flustered before the tears welled up and spilled over again.

"Ah… no, you don't have to apologize."

Still, the tears kept flowing down, causing Natsu to exasperatedly exclaim, "Argh!" And then his arm went round my shoulders and crushed me to his chest. In that instant, I completely fell apart.

I buried my face into his scarf and my hands tightly gripped at his school shirt. I felt him tuck my head under his chin and then, his other hand lightly rest on my head. Gently and soothingly, he stroked my hair.

"Don't cry," his deep voice said. "Usually when you cry I just have to beat someone up. But when it's like this, I don't know what to do…"

"I'm sorry," my voice was muffled by his scarf.

"Shh… It's alright, everything's alright. Lucy's Mama may not be around anymore, but you have Fairy Tail now; you have me." I felt his smile at the end of that sentence and I nodded into his scarf. Mama is special to me, but so is Natsu.

A moment passed and the tears stopped flowing. Perhaps from the fading sound of my sobs, or perhaps from the way my grip on his shirt loosened, he sensed that I had calmed down and released me.

"Sorry, I think Juvia's emotions kind of seeped into me for a moment," I said. "And thank you."

"Lucy's Mama amongst the stars would hate me if I didn't take good care of you, especially after you ran away from home just to join Fairy Tail." He joked. "So smile!"

I did; upon hearing those words, I lightened up and smiled. It was then that I noticed that the rain had stopped.

"Shall we–"

"AH–! It's Juvia!" Natsu yelled.

I whipped round to look and there she was, walking past the pavilion unhurriedly holding a pink parasol with hearts a shade pinker and white frills along the edge.

"Juvia!" I called out to her. She stopped midway and Natsu and I ran towards her.

"Lucy, Natsu," she said, still having a blank face but with justa hint of added expression in her voice. Something good happened and it definitely cheered her up a little. I'm so glad!

"Shall we go to class together?" I smiled and said.

Seemingly taken aback by my offer, she hesitated and then she nodded.

By the time Juvia and I got to class, it was already nearing the end of first period. When we walked in, the teacher reprimanded us and demanded to know why we were late. Juvia covered for me by saying it was because she didn't feel well and that I stayed behind to look after her. I wonder how Natsu dealt with his teacher. Oh well, I'll just ask him later.

Wait a minute… I still haven't asked him for his class! How am I going to find him later?! Sigh…

About five hours later, all ten of us were summoned to the director's office. It was our first official meeting but it didn't last very long.

Director Jose Porla, also one of the Ten Wizard Saints, was a man with a long, sharp face. His hair was black with hues of red and it was long enough to be tied up. He wore a military-style blue coat and he wore his Wizard Saint's medallion around the neck of his collar (like a necktie too). He rested his elbows on his desk, his fingers intertwined with each other and he leaned forward as he spoke to us.

"Welcome to Phantom Lord. I am the director of this school, Jose Porla," he began. "I trust Makarov has already told all of you what's going on."

Everyone from Fairy Tail nodded.

"Good," Jose Porla continued. "It's the second day of the new school year so there aren't any new cases. However, I would like you to begin by investigating the previous reports.

"There's not much we can do until we find out what exactly is going on and either confirm or dismiss the occurrence of such incidences, hopefully dismiss. And therefore, I would like everyone to patrol the different areas of the school in pairs, every day and every night until we find out what's going on."

"Just ten of us? But the academy is so huge." Erza said.

"Five teams are enough, one to focus on one area." Jose Porla replied. Then he patted a small stack of papers before him and said, "Over here are the reports of all the sightings from the students. There has been a total of 17 sightings altogether, all of which occurred in just 5 areas around the school compound."

"Then… what are our groupings?" I asked uncertainly.

"About that…" Jose Porla pondered for a moment. "Makarov has only left one instruct, and that is to pair Natsu and Lucy together…"

I lit up at that reply.

"Alright!" Natsu exclaimed and punched the air. I smiled at his reaction.

"…Although why is that, he didn't say. In any case, for the rest of you, I will randomly pair one from Fairy Tail and one from my side so… Gray and Juvia," he pointed as he said their names. "Erza and Sol, Aria and Totomaru, and… Gajeel, I'm afraid you can't work solo this time round; you have to pair with Levy."

"Hm," Gajeel in the corner of the office brusquely grunted in acknowledgement.

I shot Levy a concerned look. Was she going to be okay? She shrugged in response. I suppose that meant 'I'll see how it goes'.

"Most of the pairs are according to your Year so as to make things more convenient. Alright," Jose Porla then split the single pile of reports into five less significant stacks. "I've separated the reports according to their locations. Each pair come and get a stack."

I stepped forward and grabbed the one closest to me. I skimmed through the cover sheet:

Sighting of Ghost on 05 September X784

Written by: Tachibana Yuki (Secretary, Student Councilor)

Reported by: Boze and Sue (Students of Class 207)

Date: 05 September X784

Time: Around 7pm

Location: Parapet

Summary: Black, faceless ghost sighted at the parapets.

Other Remarks: –

"Read through them, understand what's going on. Choose a suitable time to patrol the area based on these students' reports. You'll notice that some of these sightings are in the day, which is why I find them pretty hard to believe." He paused and sighed before carrying on, "But nevertheless, you must get to the bottom of this matter. Do whatever you have to do. If you need to patrol during official school hours, please go ahead. I will excuse you from lessons or from your teacher duties, whatever you need. You have my full support."

"Understood." Gray answered on our behalves.

"I will crush anything that threatens Phantom Lord's safety." Totomaru said.

"How sad! The sadness of these students is overwhelming!" Aria cried and began to actually cry through the piece of white cloth that covered his eyes.

"My monocle whispers to me and it tells me we'll find out what's going on soon, Master," Sol adjusted his lens as he said. This was my first time meeting Aria and Sol and… what weirdoes…!

"Juvia will not disappoint you." Juvia spoke.

"Thank you everybody. There's nothing else so you may leave now." Jose Porla dismissed us.

Just outside the director's office, everybody lingered for a moment before spreading out and going to their respective locations.

"Hey," Erza called and I looked up from my papers. "Everyone, make sure your identities stay hidden and remember to act appropriately." It was more of a reminder for the other four of us who were from Fairy Tail.

"Uh-huh." I said.

"Okay, Erza," Levy answered.

"Of course!" Natsu replied.

"We're a pro at doing that already so don't worry about us," Totomaru said.

"Hey, Lucy, where's our location?" Natsu put his arm around my shoulder and casually leaned in to look at the papers in my hands.

"The upper towers and the parapet I think," I said as I flipped from cover to cover of the three reports. The first one said "parapet" as the location while the other two said "West Tower 5th floor stairwell".

"Huh? Puppet?"

"No, it's pa-ra-pet." I stressed the pronunciation. "You know, it's like the walkway along the top of castle walls. This school is like a castle, right? The rooftop of the castle walls that link the top parts of the towers together is a walkway, which is called the parapet." I explained.

"Oh I see…"

"Levy-chan, where's your location?" I looked at her.

"School library…" She replied absentmindedly as her eyes were glued to the pages. I'll bet she wasn't used to reading at such a normal pace without her Gale-Force Reading Glasses.

"Keh! How boring." Gajeel, leaning against the wall, scoffed.

"Don't mind him, he's usually like that," Totomaru said. "Then, if you'll excuse us, we'll be leaving first."

Totomaru and Aria walked away. A few steps later, they disappeared?!

"Eh? They're gone but they're still here?" Natsu, who could smell things better than most, said.

"Oui! That's Aria's magic!" Monsieur Sol explained. "His magic can decompose his body and other people's bodies into air, seemingly turning 'invisible'."

"Wow." Even though two of them seemed like true weirdoes, the Element 4 wizards are powerful wizards.

"Oooooo… That's awesome!" Natsu marveled.

"Monsieur Sol, have you taken a look at the reports yet?" Erza politely asked as she handed them out to him.

"Non, non, non!" And then when he took them from Erza, he said, "Merci."

"It seems ours is in the day…" Erza said to Sol in particular, and then she turned to ask the rest of us who still stood around. "Are any of yours in the day?"

I flipped through the reports again. 'Around 7pm', 'Between 8-9pm' and 'Between 7-8pm' were written on them.

"Nope," I replied. "All nighttime."

"Ours too," Gray said.

"Mmhmm, same here," Levy said without looking up.

"So… we don't have anything to do from now until nighttime?" I asked.

"Juvia will find the people who reported the sightings and interrogate them." Juvia said and then she walked off.

"Ah! Wait, Juvia!" I have to warn her…

I chucked the reports to Natsu and caught up with Juvia. We were some distance away from the main group, but not out of range for the dragon slayers, and probably Erza whose hearing was well-trained for battle.

"What is it?" Juvia said.

"It's about Gray but… I'm not sure if you know…?" I hesitated.

Her expression was a puzzled blank which told me to go on, "He has a compulsive stripping habit," I whispered. "And his Fairy Tail insignia is around here," I drew an imaginary circle around my right chest area. "So– eh? Juvia, your face is all red!"

Juvia's usually pale skin had turned to a deep red.

"Did you say s-s-s-st-strip!?" She forcefully stammered.

Ah, right. It's not a very normal habit, is it? I've been hanging out with weirdoes for too long.

I bashfully ruffled my hair and said, "Y-yeah…. It's a weird habit, but you have to look out for it because his emblem is on his right–"

"Okok," Juvia cut me off. "Juvia understands." She took a deep breath, seemingly to calm herself and her redness receded. Then she proceeded again, "Juvia will make sure he acts appropriately around the school."

"I've been in the same group as that pervert loads of times," Natsu said as he strode over. "So if you can't handle him, let me know and I'll gladly bash him up." Natsu playfully punched a fist into his other palm a few times for added effect.

"Oi, oi… I'm the one who'll trash you, alright?" Gray came over and refuted Natsu's statement.

"Really? You wanna go now, tarime-eyes? Let's see who'll trash who." I could see the (metaphoric) fire light up in Natsu's eyes as he challenged Gray.

"Are you two fighting again?" Erza and Sol were now walking over.

"No!" Instantly Natsu and Gray yelled in unison and acted like they were getting along. I rolled my eyes at that blatantly obvious and familiar act.

"Monsieur Sol and I will check out the gardens and the backyards now. See you guys later." She said and left with Sol.

"Lucy, let's go explore the upper towers!"

"Oh yeah!" I replied with enthusiasm that matched Natsu's. "See you later guys!" I waved as Natsu and I walked off.

That afternoon we familiarized ourselves with that area and that night, from 7-9pm, we stayed up there. It was a peculiar place, not all schools are castles, but it was probably also a very scary place to encounter a ghost (if they exist).

The parapet was long and narrow. It led from the East Tower, through the Central Tower, to the West Tower. Any sightings might actually have been more like a close encounter because, well… Frankly speaking, it seemed unlikely that anyone could see wrongly in such a restricted area like this.

We loitered around for three days and didn't encounter a thing. Every day after dinner, Natsu and I brought our homework there and finished them there. I would have fun spending time with Natsu and, on the surface, the two of us acted like normal students. Being with great company and at a fantastic location under the stars with a view to behold every night, I was enjoying my school life at Phantom Lord. We saw nothing until the fourth day.

On the first Friday of my first week at Phantom Lord, I saw something I felt I shouldn't have – because I never thought it existed.

At 7.45pm, after finishing our dinner and grabbing our books and relevant homework from our respective dorm rooms, Natsu and I met up again in the great room. We were in our uniforms and he carried his standard book bag like a sling bag.

"Got your keys?" He asked.

"Yep," I replied. My pouch was hidden, held up by a garter around my upper thigh beneath my skirt. I only brought them around with me during the night patrols when lesser people were in school (although the upper towers and parapet were practically void of people. There's virtually nothing up there so nobody really goes there.)

"Let's go!"

The West and East Towers were each about a 30m distance away from the Central Tower in the middle. There were no doors, just a rounded arc sort of doorway for the two side towers, and two doorways for the central one. At night, the upper levels of the towers were certainly creepy because it's so deserted and empty. But at least I've got Natsu with me. I was comforted by his presence.

When we climbed the stairs and arrived on the 5th floor of the Central Tower, I looked left and right at the East and West Towers, checking for any thing but there was nothing.

The 5th level of each tower was just a bare opening. The side towers were both square towers whereas the central one was rounded. On the first day, when Natsu and I first patrolled this area, we got ourselves familiar with the place. The top floor of each of the side towers (the sixth floor) had an attic room which was dusty and only stored old, useless things inside. The top floor of the central tower, however, was locked, but we figured it was just another attic storage room anyway.

Hugging my books closely, I walked towards the West Tower and stopped midway along the parapet. There I dumped my books on the cobbled stone floor and sat down beside it. The crenelated walls along the walkway were about 1.5m high and served as good back support as I leaned against them.

"I can see it if you sit like that," Natsu said.

"See what?"

"Your panties."

"Natsu Dragneel!" I yelled as I folded my legs in and pulled my skirt down.

But he just shrugged and sat down cross-legged on my left.

"So, what have you got today?" I said.

I'll admit, it's pretty weird for two students to be coming here every night to do homework, but I thought it would be a decent cover story if anyone were to find us. I mean, Natsu and I look like a couple right? Everyone seems to think we are. I'm just using it to our advantage.

"Urgh… something called meh the mad ticks and lit a tree creature, something or another…" Natsu answered.

"Huh…?" Meh the mad ticks? Lit a tree creature? I ran them through my mind really quickly. "Oh! You mean mathematics and literature!? Natsu, do you even know what math and literature are?"

"I know, the mad ticks are these number thingies and the tree creature is this book that's made of paper so they're like tree creatures. I don't know why they don't just call them books though."

I laughed at his response.

Clearly, he doesn't pay much attention during lessons or he doesn't understand the lessons at all, or both. But that's normal considering he never had to learn about such things, what with being a Dragon Slayer and all. Just learning how to read and breathe fire was enough for him.

The day before yesterday, I helped him with sciences. Yesterday, I helped him with Earthland geography and Fiore history. Today, it would be math and literature. We didn't have to do the homework because we weren't real students, but Natsu said it helps him fit into his student character and lets him blend in better so I just help him out. It made for a good cover whenever we had to do our real job anyway.

"What's so funny?" He asked.

"Oh, nothing."

"Lucy, you're weird." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, okay," I said, totally disregarding his statement. It's not the first time he's called me that. "So what book have you got for literature?"

"'A Flower that Blooms in the Rain'**," Natsu replied.

"Oh! I know that book!"

"Great! You can help me with that later. Let's do the numbers thingy first."

He opened his textbook on his lap and I looked over. The night sky was dark, the walkway was dim. Some light came from the stars above, but mostly it was emitted from the miserable old chandelier hanging on the fifth floor ceiling of the Central Tower. And the only source of warmth was Natsu.

Feeling the chill of the night setting in, I sat closer to him. "What are the questions you have to do?" I asked.

"Erm…" He flipped through a few pages. "Oops, it's not this book." He put it down and then grabbed another one. "Here, all the questions on this page," he said after turning to the page.

"Pencil?" I asked for one.

He dug around his bag and produced one. As he handed the wooden pencil to me, my fingers brush past his hand and from where we touched the brief warmth spread and gradually dissipated.

"Lucy, you're cold," Natsu said.

"Just a little," I distractedly said as I focused on reading the first question. All of a sudden Natsu removed Igneel's scarf, and then wrapped it around my neck. The whole time, I watched him his face; his face displayed true concern for me.

"I won't allow you to feel cold around me." Natsu's black eyes sparkled impishly and I thought I sensed a double meaning behind the way he said that. But… I was probably reading too much into things.

I shook my head and dismissed that thought. "The first question is a typical question," I said and I scribbled the steps on his textbook. "You do it like this…" I thank my Heartfilia background and all the private tutors I'd had otherwise I wouldn't know how to do any of these questions.

"Ohhh…" Natsu wasn't the brightest, but he was no idiot. He had never learnt this stuff before but he caught on fast.

"Now you can try the next 3 because they're the same type of question." As for me, I'll do my own math homework.

But when Natsu bent forward to write against the floor, I received the shock of my life.

Black, long hair that reached the floor, covering up any sort of face that it might have which might even make people mistake it for a back view…

Pale skin that was white as a sheet… or maybe that was a white sheet covering its arms…

I tugged at Natsu's sleeve without taking my eyes off this ghoul. Do ghosts not have a smell?

"What?" Natsu turned to me, but I pointed at that thing.

"HOLY SHIT!" He shouted and scrambled backwards towards me.

I, who was too stumped to say anything, sat there frozen. I wished it would go away… What am I supposed to do? What were we supposed to do? We're only told to patrol this place for those things. But nobody ever told us what to do in the event we meet one!?

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, that phantom took a step forward and shadowed over us. No, stop! Don't come any closer, I wanted to shout.

My hand that still held onto the end of my best friend's sleeve trembled. Natsu felt that I was shaking badly, and so he got into a protective crouching position before me. Then, he took my hand from his sleeve and closed his hand around mine.

His warmth slowly transferred to my hand. As my cold skin warmed to the same temperature as his, my heart rate stabilized, my mind refocused and I felt a flicker of courage reignite within me.

As long as he's here with me, come what may, I'll not be afraid of anything; he's an undying, blazing flame of hope.

He is the dragon who protects me.

[To be continued…]

Ah… It's almost 3 weeks. I took really long this time round didn't I? I always aim to finish in 2 weeks but end up finishing by 3 instead. Really sorry about being so slow :/ but I hope that's ok because it's a rather long chapter and it's got more NaLu inside ^^ I hope you like it!

A few things about this chapter!

The part about the Juvia and the rain. I kind of want to write a side story to explain Juvia's mindset at that point in time but I don't have the time, so I'll just summarize it here…

Like in the original FT, before Juvia joined FT, she's this lonely, gloomy rain woman… So in this chapter, Juvia was feeling the blues again when it began to rain, and then when she was walking along in the rain at a later timing, she saw Natsu and Lucy from afar. She stayed nearby and watched them, listening in on their conversation. Knowing Lucy was deeply affected by Juvia's gloomy rain, she felt comforted, like somebody else finally understood her feelings, and so she was slightly happier and that's why the rain stopped. (: (BTW, Juvia's scent is kind of masked by the rain so Natsu couldn't sniff her out…)

And then there's the part about all the descriptions of the building again…! I hope you guys don't mind me describing the classrooms and the towers… and I hope it's not confusing x.x LOL

In case you can't imagine it… for the classrooms, what I meant by 'the top half of all walls separating the classrooms from the corridor was a transparent glass panel' is pretty typical in many other types of school-based manga I suppose? Try and recall some sort of school-ish manga that you might have read! It's not in FT OVA 2 though…

Alright! Leave me a comment please! I hope you like this chapter! Thank you very much for all the support thus far! ^^

** 'A Flower that Blooms in the Rain' is Hiro Mashima's title for FT chapter 56 :D