No. No no no no no.

Lucy's heart rate spiked almost immediately once she heard the all-too-familiar nickname. There was only one person on the planet that knew that name, no way was the world that small.

Throwing the quilt off her still naked body, the blonde instantly felt exposed. Natsu was shifting in his sleep but all Lucy wanted to do was shake him awake. Part of her was desperate for answers but the other part just wanted to run. He was still sleeping, she could easily get dressed in silence but the more she looked at him, the less likely that option was. Running away and disappearing after a night like theirs was a bitchy move, plus she'd have to deal with the awkwardness upon seeing him in class. Best to deal with the situation right there and then. Grabbing her shirt and panties, she threw them on before gently shaking her bedmate awake.

"Natsu, wake up!" she commanded, the TA's eyes shooting open in response. He groaned but sat up, the quilt falling to his lap and exposing the rippling chest that the freshman couldn't help but stare at. She shook her head clear of distractions before continuing her barrage. "What were you just dreaming about?" Or who?

His cheeks flushed and he dropped his gaze to the bedspread. Something was wrong, Lucy knew it. Natsu never looked so...embarrassed. "Ever watch Teen Titans?" he asked, obviously trying to cover something up. "You know, the redhead? I don't know, I guess I've always had a thing for weird girls." The more he danced around the topic, the more suspicious she became.

"You honestly expect for me to believe that you were dreaming about that alien chick…?" Lucy interrogated. She waited for him to reply but his silence said everything she needed to hear. Natsu couldn't even look at her for Gods' sake! His bizarre actions were only proof that Natsu and her cyber-friend DragonSlayer666 were one and the same.

Her stomach fell to her feet while her throat began to burn. Images from the night prior replayed in her head but it only made her sicker. Her mind reeled with questions. How had he known she was Starfire? Had Natsu been playing her all along? Was he just trying to add to the torment she'd felt all those months before? Pictures of him and Minerva laughing manically together played like a movie in her head and the mere thought made her dizzy.

Natsu must have noticed her paling color because he reached out to grab onto her, but Lucy shrugged him off. A blind man could have noticed the hurt in the grad student's eyes but she couldn't bring herself to care. "How long," she asked, her voice soft but demanding. His lack of response only enraged her. "Damn it, Natsu! How. Long?!" she was screaming and the tears were beginning to streak down her cheeks. She was so conflicted by her own heart, half of her aching to be held by the very man that had manipulated her.

The shock in Natsu's face was horribly apparent. She waited patiently for a few moments before he dropped his gaze again to the faded quilt, his hands wringing in his lap. "Since the tailgate," he murmured. "You left your phone, remember?"

Chords of anger struck her aching heart. Lucy immediately began looking for the rest of her clothes and grabbed her cell phone only for Natsu to throw himself from the bed, still naked himself. When she looked at him, her heart fluttered and it killed her. Couldn't they just crawl back into bed and pretend it all never happened? That they were just two people that had met in a college lecture and fallen for each other? Of course, she wasn't that lucky.

Natsu's warm grasp around her bicep grabbed her attention long enough to cease her search. The more she looked into his emerald eyes, the more the tears built up behind hers. "I was going to tell you, I swear," he placated, trying to pull the blonde into his arms. Lucy stood firm and refused to budge so much as an inch, skin burning just at his touch.

"When? After you told your friends about what we did?" Lucy spat, pulling her arms away so quickly her shoulder creaked under the pressure. The words were coming up her throat and she knew there was no stopping them. "Does she know?"

"That bitch has nothing to do with this," Natsu growled, running his fingers through his hair exasperatedly. "You really think I'd team up with her? Against you?! How could you even think that?!"

Lucy was too angry to think straight. She wanted so desperately to believe him but her head was too jumbled to make sense of anything right then. Finding her shorts and Chucks, she yanked them on while Natsu watched, saying anything to get her to stop. By that point, she wasn't even hearing him, his voice floating in the background of her mind as she pictured Minerva with Natsu the night before. Nothing made sense and everything was hazy, but one thing was for sure. Lucy had to get out of that room and away from the entirety of Greek Row. Especially Natsu Dragneel.

"Come on, Luce, stop," he pleaded but Lucy just continued until she was barely grabbing onto the doorknob. Her hand was shaking as she reached out to take hold of it, the sounds of brothers (or their conquests) waking and starting their day wafting through the cracks in the door. Her heart ached at the tone in Natsu's voice but she refused to be played again.

"Fool me once…" Lucy muttered softly before throwing the door open and rushing into the hall. She could hear Natsu behind her, and all she could do was hope that he had covered himself with something. They had already caused enough of a scene, there was no need for him to add insult to injury. Eventually, she found herself on the sidewalk outside of the Fairy Tail house and her instincts kicked in.

Without thinking twice, she took off running toward her dorms, the tears falling freely as she heard the rubber soles smacking the pavement. Lucy arrived soon after and barricaded herself in her room, avoiding her suitemates. Stripping down, she threw on a baggy t-shirt, plugged in her phone and crawled into bed, curling in on herself in order to continue sobbing. The pain tore her apart and the tender spots Natsu left behind all over her body certainly didn't help the situation. Each bite, bruise, and sore muscle served as nothing more than a reminder of her own naivety.

Lucy's mind soon turned on her, filling her with nothing but doubt. Flashbacks of their encounter over the summer now mixed and melded with the memories from that morning. She was nothing more than a joke. Again. They had played her for months, making her believe that Natsu genuinely cared about her. There was no way he'd known for less than 24 hours. Everything had always seemed too easy between them, so carefree, that she should have expected something to be wrong. The thought of Natsu sharing her private thoughts with someone like Minerva made her ill, but there was a tiny voice shouting at her that she was wrong in her assumptions. Her pride and pain simply wouldn't allow her to listen, but combined with the tears? The three rocked her into a restless sleep.

Fuck.

Upon returning to his room, Natsu promptly put a fist-sized hole through his bedroom wall. The basketball shorts that he had thrown on before chasing after Lucy hung low on his hips as his chest heaved while trying to regain control.

Everything had been going so perfectly but of course, he had to fuck it up. How could he possibly control what he said in his sleep? Or what he dreamed about? Gods that dream had been wonderful but waking up to Lucy screaming at him had completely thrown him for a loop. The look of hurt in her eyes was something the pinket would ever forget, her tear-filled chocolate eyes forever burned into his memory. It reminded him of how she looked that night back at Lily Heart but so much worse. At least he hadn't been completely to blame last time.

"Who pissed in your Cinnamon Toast Crunch?" Gray murmured sleepily, his raven hair reaching in all different directions as he rubbed his eyes. The half-naked fraternity brother looked around the room confusedly before speaking again. "And where's Lucy?"

Natsu threw himself down on his bed and dropped his head into his hands. "She's gone Ice Dick," he sighed. "I fucked it up and I have no idea how to fix it." Running his fingers through his pink rat's nest, he felt like he wanted to punch something again. Luckily, his best friend read the situation and invited Natsu outside to release some energy as they continued their conversation.

When they arrived in the backyard, Natsu and Gray chose an isolated corner of the yard and squared up. Luckily, being a Sunday morning, the house and surrounding street were still quiet, giving Natsu the space he so desperately wanted. It didn't take the two of them long to fall into a familiar pattern, bumping fists before beginning their sparring session.

"So how bad were you in bed that she left in such a hurry, Lava Brain?" Gray implored as he landed the first punch to Natsu's exposed stomach. Natsu's response was to land a kick to the side of Gray's right thigh, causing the other man to buckle slightly.

"Remember how I told you about that chick I met online?" Natsu huffed between blocks, attempting to hit his target at every possible turn. "Turns out Lucy and that girl are one in the same. Small fucking world right?" He couldn't help but chuckle, even as Gray's fist rocketed toward his face. He pivoted sharply and sent his elbow into the side of Gray's chest.

Gray hissed at the hit but laughed out loud. "No way, you're absolutely sure?"

Natsu nodded as he dodged to his left, narrowly avoiding his brother's incoming attack. With every passing movement, he could feel the tension lifting off his shoulders. With that came mental clarity. His body went into auto-pilot as his mind drifted to thoughts of a certain blonde. There had to be something he could do to make it up to her. The grad student was certain he'd do just about anything to fix what he'd built with Lucy but he had no idea what. Gray's fist colliding with the right side of his jaw shook Natsu from his jumbled thoughts.

"No, dipshit, I just imagined seeing my message pop up on Lucy's phone," the pinket snapped, pulling away from his target and dropping his fists. Looking up at his best friend with a desperate gaze, he all but got to his knees and begged for help. "What do I do?"

"Let's go upstairs and wake up Juvia."

The two boys made their way back inside, taking the staircase two steps at a time. When they got to Gray's room, the blunette was just sitting on top of his bed while scrolling through Gods knew what on her phone. Luckily she was dressed, wearing her black leggings and one of Gray's t-shirts. The only evidence of the night prior was Juvia's dress slung over Gray's desk chair and deep maroon marks peeking out from under her collar. "Morning Gray, Natsu…" she greeted, awkwardly shifting around on the dark blue down comforter. She could obviously tell that they had been out back, her eyes raking over Gray's body with concern as she mentally cataloged each blossoming bruise. "Is everything alright?"

Before Natsu could speak, Gray joined her on the bed but sat at the foot of it. "Flame Brain over here screwed up with Lucy and has no idea how to fix it," he explained, earning him a cool glare from his fraternity brother. Natsu could feel himself getting worked up again, but took a deep breath before explaining the situation to them both, in detail. After a few minutes, the three of them sat silently for a moment as they waited for Juvia's input.

"That poor girl," she sighed, dropping her gaze to the floor. Both Natsu and Gray waited for her to explain herself, the former making his growing agitation evident. After a punch to the shoulder from Gray, they prompted Juvia to continue.

Looking between the two boys, she shook her head. "Lucy has been humiliated. On more than one occasion." Her cheeks reddened softly before she went on. "She cares very deeply for you, Natsu, but I can't imagine the pain she must be feeling. If it were me, it would take something substantial to remedy this again." Her stress on 'again', only dug the knife in the pinket's heart deeper. Juvia must have noticed because she was quick to speak again. "You know, Sorority Rush starts tomorrow. Since Fairy Tail volunteered to assist Cait Shelter with our events, I'm sure my sisters wouldn't mind helping you in return..."

The three of them shared a glance before nodding and dispersing in order to get dressed. They only had a week, and Natsu hoped that would be long enough to plan something in order to win Lucy back.

Oops. Natsu, Natsu, Natsu... What are we going to do with you? xD

What did you guys think? Did their conflict seem genuine? How about Natsu and Gray blowing off some steam? Juvia is going to try to help out so hopefully they'll resolve everything soon. Glad you all seemed to enjoy the lemons last chapter though! ;)

We're coming around full circle y'all. There should be about nine more chapters, maybe a couple more. There are quite a few characters that still need closure...

Also, thanks to EVERYONE who reached out to me after last chapter, both here and on Tumblr. Luckily, my house survived the storm but we were without power for almost a week. I had a generator, so I was able to do a couple things, but a majority of the time I was working or trying not to bake. Thank you for all the positive thoughts and prayers. At the last minute, the storm made a turn that saved us from a major assault so I'll chalk that one up to you guys. *hearts*

Thanks, as always, to my amazing Beta: Mushi0131. Seriously don't know what I'd d without her half the time.

Thanks to everyone who left comments/love last chapter! Nightside14, iiOneLoveii, FairytailxFangirl, Gigi-san28, wordsaremyspells1331, OtakuPrincess28 (Hope you guys were safe where you were and that you came home to no surprises!), The 0beservanc3 (thank you for that lovely, heart warming compliment), FlameDragonHime, Terra of Life, Serthrek871, Pixiecatost (hope y'all are okay!), Monika, Juvia is my spirit animal, emoelmo41212, cat-tsukki (nothing but the truth dear! :D), Loveroftheword, sarara1.8, and Aetherium (so much love to you Aury!)

See you guys next chapter! :)