You're Fucking Jealous, Natsu-san

"The sports festival is coming up, isn't it?" Gray said, turning the page of his history book.

Erza caught fire, writing slowly in her workbook, "Oh… is it?"

Lucy giggled, "Your body gives you away, Erza."

"Erza really shines at the sports festival," Levy said. "Naturally. She's the most sports oriented student at Fairy Tail. No one stands a chance against her."

"Really?" Lucy leaned her chin in the palm of her hand. "What kinds of sports do you usually do?"

"It's different every year," Gray said. "Since Erza is at such a ridiculous advantage, Director Makarov likes to really shake it up."

"We can do anything from table tennis to rock climbing to competitive horseback riding," Levy explained.

"That sounds fun," Lucy said. "So is it a competition between the two classes?"

"No," Gray shook his head. "Since Fairy Tail is such a small school, it's basically every man for himself. We usually don't play any team oriented sports like basketball and the cavalry battle."

"Yeah, well," Macao stood over the students, crossing his arms over his chest. "This year is going to be a little bit different."

"Different how?" Erza asked, still burning steadily with the flames of her excitement.

"This year, Makarov received a challenge letter from the mayor. He's setting up some kind of city wide sports festival involving all of the top schools. It's going to be hosted at the Crocus arena."

"And Fairy Tail qualified as a top school?" Gray cocked an eyebrow. "That's a new one."

"So basically what that means is that Makarov will be putting together a team to represent Fairy Tail in these games."

"So I will be able to pummel new foes?" Erza said, practically shaking with excitement.

"So we won't have to be pummeled by Erza this year?" Levy said with a sigh of relief.

"How exciting," Lucy smiled. "I'll be sure to cheer the team on from the sidelines."

"What do you mean? You might be picked to be on the team," Gray pointed out.

She laughed, "I doubt it. When it comes to sports, I'm pretty average."

"Same here," Levy raised a hand. "I'll sit this one out, thanks. Unless there's a trivia game."

"Well, the final decision is Makarov's," Macao shrugged and headed back towards the front of the classroom. "I guess we will see who he chooses."

The group of Fairy Tail students went back to studying for their midterms for a few minutes before Leo walked up to the table. "Hey Lucy, can I borrow you after school today?"

"Sure," she finished up an answer on one of her workbook questions and turned the page. "What for?"

"Papa Heartfilia wants us to meet with an old friend of his at the hospital. In fact, Salamander could tag along too if he wants."

Everyone in the study group turned to the pink-haired Salamander in question. Natsu was turned backwards in his chair, leaning heavily on the backrest with arms dangling uselessly at his side. His eyes were glazed over as he stared through the window.

"I think he's too dead to go anywhere," Erza mused, poking the boy in the ribs with her pencil.

"What's wrong with him anyway?" Levy wondered. "He looks like he's seen a ghost."

"Ah…" Leo smiled and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "That might be my fault. We had a good long talk last night about certain things that he just couldn't comprehend, being the simple child that he is."

"Things like what?" Lucy cocked her head to the side and blinked innocently at him.

"Nothing really worth mentioning," he leaned his butt on the desk across from their cluster of desks and chairs. A sudden glint of mischief crossed his eyes and he smirked. "By the way, Lucy… you didn't get home until pretty late last night, huh?"

Lucy's cheeks flushed, "N-no… it wasn't too late."

"Really? Because I went into your room at one am and you were nowhere to be found…"

Was she with her ex boyfriend all day? Levy wondered, tapping her pen on the desk.

She was with Sting, I bet, Gray thought, staring at the blonde closely.

"Lucy, you were with Sting-kun last night, weren't you?" Erza blurted out.

Gray rubbed his temples, "Tactless as ever, huh Erz?"

"Wh-what?" Lucy's eyes widened. "How… how do you know about—" Realization hit and she whirled towards Natsu. "You idiot! I didn't give you permission to tell everyone about him!" she punched him in the back and he let out the first sound of the morning.

"Gack!" he convulsed under her fist and then dragged his chair around to face the group. "What gives, Lucy?" His eyes met hers and his cheeks promptly flared a bright pink color. He averted his gaze and rubbed the sore spot on his back while staring at the unopened history book in front of him.

"Why are you telling everyone my secrets?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You never said it was a secret," he grumbled. "Besides, they were probably gonna figure it out eventually anyway…"

"That isn't for you to decide!"

"Aw, lighten up, Lucy," Leo said. "It's not that big of a deal, right? Unless you feel guilty about something and that's why you want to keep Sting a secret? Perhaps… what you two were doing last night?"

She blushed again, "It's… it's not what you think."

"So says your mouth," Levy said. "But your cheeks say otherwise." She leaned forward expectantly. "C'mon, tell us what you were doing last night with sexy Sting-kun!"

"Well…" Lucy froze. "Wait… how do you know Sting is sexy?"

"He's not that sexy," Natsu grumbled. "I'm a whole ton sexier than that pretty boy…"

Leo cleared his throat into his fist and then coughed out, "You're fucking jealous Natsu-san you pathetic cute little love bird you…"

"Do you need a throat lozenge?" Erza asked, lifting her purse from the ground.

"Yes please."

"Answer my question," Lucy growled.

Levy reached out and patted the girl's shoulder gently, "Don't worry about it, Lu-chan. We just so happened to be eating at the same restaurant you two were at yesterday. That's all."

"You were spying on me!"

"Spying is such an ugly word," the blunette fluttered her eyelashes innocently. "I prefer justified reconnaissance."

"Never mind what we were doing yesterday," Erza said, replacing her purse on the floor. "What were you doing with Sting until the late hours of the night?"

Natsu clenched his hands into tight fists.

Lucy let out a sigh, "Fine. If you really need to know…" she pushed her hair behind her ears. "I went over to Rogue's house to see his cat, Frosch. Then I kind of got caught up with looking through his old albums of pictures of us when we were younger. Then Sting got a call from this girl that I know and she was kind of having some trouble with some… shady characters so I went with them to help her out. Next thing I knew, it was about three am."

"So you guys weren't making love?" Levy said, not without a hint of disappointment.

"Of course not! Sure, Sting and I dated. But that's in the past! I broke up with him a long time ago and I'm over it!"

"Why did you break up with him in the first place?" Gray wondered, scribbling an answer down in his workbook, seemingly not interested in the conversation at all.

Lucy gulped and looked away, "It's not important."

Natsu stared intently at her and she grew hot and uncomfortable under his gaze. She let out an exasperated sigh.

"I don't want to talk about it! We just weren't meant to be, okay? I realized that and I broke it off. Since it wasn't really a bad break-up, we are still close friends. There's nothing juicy or dramatic about it. Can we please move on now?"

Everyone went silent for a moment. Natsu leaned his chin on the back of his chair, still pouting, although less. Gray turned the page of his workbook and went to work on the problems quietly. Erza coughed gently and retrieved her purse once more and pulled another throat lozenge out. Levy let out a heavy sigh. Leo watched Lucy closely as she flipped through the pages of her history book angrily.

"Anyway," he said finally, knocking her gently on the head with his fist. "Meet me at the front gate after school and we can go take care of that thing together."

"Fine."

He glanced at Natsu, "And what about you? Want to tag along, Salamander?"

Natsu's cheeks flushed slightly and he straightened, clearing his throat. "Nah. I'll pass today."

Lucy peeked up at him from under her bangs. He leaned on the palm of his hand and stared through the window once more. She gulped and busied herself with her study materials.

"I've never heard of this friend," Lucy observed as she and Leo arrived at the hospital. "Who is he?"

"Don't really know much about him myself," he answered. "Just that his name is Roubaul and he is the head of the Cait Shelter Corporation. I guess it's some sort of textile manufacturer?"

"I've never heard of it…"

"It's more a ghost than anything these days."

Lucy pursed her lips. "What does Dad have to do with him?"

"No clue. He just called him a friend. Maybe they used to run together back in the day."

They entered the elevator and Leo pressed the button for the fourth floor.

"I wonder why Dad wants us to meet with him," Lucy murmured as the elevator gently rose.

"You know the old coot," Leo said. "He's into that sentimental crap. Maybe this guy is dying and Jude wants him to meet his cute little daughter before he goes. He's always bragging about you, you know."

Lucy smiled ruefully, "For good reason. I'm a delight."

"With nice tits," Leo reached out and squeezed one of her breasts, earning a vicious punch to the throat.

By the time the elevator ding-ed and the door opened, Leo was on the ground, coughing up blood. A nurse pushing an old woman in a wheelchair stared into the elevator with wide eyes. Lucy smiled at them and exited, stepping over Leo's quivering body on the floor.

"Should I take him to an empty room?" the nurse wondered, staring at the man with concern.

"He'll be fine," Lucy insisted and headed down the hallway. The nurse rolled the old lady into the elevator.

The patient barked with laughter, "Did somethin' ya shouldna have, eh? Well, serves ya right, youngin'." The door closed on her prodding Leo with her foot.

When Lucy found the room, she stood outside and peered in. The first thing she noticed was the impressive feathered head piece perched on top of the head of the sickly, man in bed. The next thing she noticed was the small, blue haired girl clutching tight to a white cat sitting in the chair next to the old man.

Lucy cleared her throat, drawing their attention. The little girl stood, and the old man cracked his eyes open.

"H-Hello," Lucy said, bowing. "My name is Lucy Heartfilia."

"Ah…" the man struggled up into a sitting position.

"Grandpa!" the little girl set the white cat down on the chair and went to his side, putting her hands on his arm. "You shouldn't force yourself! Just rest!"

"Nonsense, Wendy. Don't worry your heart about a silly old man like me," he groaned and pressed his back into the pillows the little girl rushed to set behind him.

Lucy entered the room and stood at the foot of the bed. He let out a deep sigh and then stroked his impressive white beard. "My name is Roubaul," he said. "Your father and I go way back." He ran his eyes over her slowly before grunting and saying, "I see you wear the uniform for Fairy Tail High."

Lucy glanced down at herself momentarily, "That's right. This is my first year there. I was homeschooled before now."

"This is Wendy," Roubaul motioned to the girl. "I've been homeschooling her for the past seven years. I'm afraid she's getting a little too smart for me though."

"You're a great teacher, Grandpa," Wendy said softly.

Roubaul took a deep breath, eyes closed for a moment. He opened them again and looked to Lucy. "For the past ten years, my company, Cait Shelter Corporation has been under the protection of the Heartfilia Keys. Jude-sama has kept my business up and running all this time, even after bigger corporations were bullying me into selling. I think of your father as my savior."

Lucy smiled, "Thank you. It makes me happy to hear such praise about my father."

Roubaul nodded and coughed wetly. Wendy bit her bottom lip, eyebrows furrowing.

He looked to his granddaughter. "Wendy, would you go see if I could get an extra cup of pudding? This old man needs some sugar."

Wendy gulped, "Y-yes Grandpa." She rushed from the room.

Roubaul sighed, "Miss Lucy. There's a reason Jude sent you here to speak with me."

Lucy moved further into the room, coming around to stand at his side. "I figured there was more than just him wanting me to meet his old friend," she said quietly, reaching out and taking his small wrinkled hand.

He squeezed her fingers weakly, "To put it simply, I'm dying. Pretty soon, in fact. Doctor says if I take my medicine and wear an oxygen tank I can live for a few more months. But bah," he frowned. "I was once a powerful man. Strong. Even though I'm like this now, I still have the pride of my youth. I refuse to live off of cords and artificial air."

Lucy sat on the side of the bed.

He let out a sigh. "I'm going to sell my company."

Lucy blinked at him.

"I received an offer from some bigwig. It's a good offer. More than I thought the old business was worth."

"But all this time you've fought for it…"

"I fought for it. Yes. But I fought for it for myself. Not for the business. With me no longer around, what's the use of the company still thriving? Besides… who will take it over with me gone?"

"Your granddaughter might—"

"If you ask her, she'll tell you that she wants to keep Cait Shelter alive," he interrupted. "That's what she'll say. But she's not saying it for herself. She's saying it for me. Do you really think that's what I wish for her? To follow in my footsteps because of a sense of duty? That girl doesn't actually want to run a textile business." He closed his eyes, "She's much too smart. She's too special."

Lucy squeezed his hand.

"If I sell the company," he continued quietly, "At least I'll be leaving Wendy something that will be of use to her. At least the money I receive from Cait Shelter will aide her in her own dreams. It'll pay for her to live comfortably. It will pay for her to buy pretty clothes and delicious food. It will pay for her to get her degree from a good medical university like I know she wants." He opened his eyes again and stared into Lucy's. "She's going to be a wonderful doctor. She's already so bright. She's kept me ticking all this time. I know she will be successful."

Lucy smiled.

"The reason you're here…" Roubaul paused to cough, a deep hacking coming from deep in his lungs. Lucy gulped at the sickly sound. When he was done, he rested back on his pillows and let out a sigh. "The reason you're here," he started again. "Is because Wendy doesn't have anyone else. Nobody but that white cat over there," he nodded at the regal feline sitting on the chair, eyes on the old man as he spoke. "Perhaps I was selfish to try to keep her all to myself. If I had enrolled her in a real school, maybe she would have someone else to talk to when I… bit the dust."

"She will never regret spending so much time with her grandpa," Lucy denied.

"Either way… I regret not leaving her more prepared. That's why I will ask this favor of you. Please… take care of Wendy. Be a friend for her."

"Of course," Lucy immediately agreed. "I'll take her to Fairy Tail. She'll make many friends there. We will take good care of her. I promise."

Roubaul sighed deeply and closed his eyes. A small smile formed on his lips. "Thank you."

"Uhm… Lucy-san?"

Lucy glanced over her shoulder at the small blunette as she followed her down the hallway unsurely.

"What is it, Wendy?"

Wendy blushed and looked down at her uniform, "Do I look weird?"

Lucy smiled and paused so that the girl caught up to her. She draped an arm around her shoulders, "Of course not. You look cute!"

"Uhm… the people here at Fairy Tail are nice, right?"

"Don't be nervous. Everyone is going to love you. That's the best part of Fairy Tail. No matter who you are, they're always willing to accept you into the family."

"B-but… they don't even know me and I haven't done anything to make them accept me—"

"Doesn't matter. You're registered. Now you're an official student of Fairy Tail and therefore a part of our family." Lucy smiled down at her, giving one of her high blue pigtails a gentle tug. "If you ever need help, come to us, alright?"

Wendy's cheeks turned pink and she smiled shyly back up at her. "Alright. And the same goes for you. If you ever need help… you can come to me. I'm not really all that skilled... but I'm a little experienced in simple first aid so..."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lucy winked and paused outside of the classroom's door. She removed her arm from around Wendy's shoulders and said, "Okay. Are you ready?"

Wendy smoothed her hands through her pigtails nervously. "Are you sure I don't look weird?"

"Positive."

She nodded, "Okay. I'm ready."

Lucy slid the door open and walked inside, fists on her hips. "Alright! Listen up troublemakers! We've got a new student so treat her nice and watch her back, got it?"

"Lucy's channeling Director Makarov today, it would seem," Mirajane giggled.

"A NEW GIRL?" Cana rose from where she sat at Lucy's desk and rushed the front of the room, apparently already sloshed as her stumbling gait suggested. "LEMME AT HER!"

"New girl?" Leo stood from his seat and skipped happily up the aisle, swinging his loosely clenched fists giddily at his side.

Wendy walked into the room and promptly hid behind Lucy, holding her arm tight.

Leo and Cana froze, quickly lacing their fingers together and huddling close as they stared at the small blunette.

"Everybody," Lucy said with a smile. "This is Wendy Marvell."

Wendy gulped and moved slightly out from behind the blonde. She bowed hurriedly, "Good morning! It's nice to meet you! Please take care of me from now on!"

Cana leapt forward and grabbed the girl, hugging her close and rubbing her cheek all over hers. "How cuuuuuuute!" she sang. "Oh my gosh! Look at how adorable she is!"

Leo nodded in approval, rubbing his chin. His eyes glinted behind his blue tinted sunglasses, "Yes, indeed. If she were only four years older… heh heh heh—"

Lucy knocked him over the head.

The rest of the class gathered around the girl, with exception to Gray and Natsu and the former newest students of Fairy Tail, the two ex members of Phantom Lord that hung out in the back of the room.

"What's the big deal about a new brat?" Gajeel muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away.

"She is cute," Juvia murmured. "Juvia hopes that Gray-sama doesn't fall victim to her cuteness…"

"You're still weird as ever."

"Gajeel-kun should try harder to integrate into the class," Juvia decided.

"What are you talking about? Me and that pink haired bastard beat the shit out of that blonde electrical nerd guy the other day, didn't we?"

"Yeah but since there wasn't a chapter to cover that, Gajeel-kun needs to find another way to show his crossover from evil to good."

Gajeel scowled, pierced brows pulling low over his red eyes. "Oh yeah? Like you've done that?"

"Juvia bonded with the Akane Beach group when we fought together against Erza's shady past," Juvia pointed out.

"That didn't get a chapter either!"

"Oh yeah…"

Gajeel and Juvia fell silent, depressed at how easily they had been dropped and forgotten from the story line.

After a long minute, Juvia held a fist up, "Juvia will find a way to make herself a bigger character during the sports festival!"

"Me too," Gajeel said. He grinned, "Maybe I'll get the chance to kick some strong guy's ass."

"Good luck, Gajeel-kun!"

"Gajeel! Juvia!" Levy waved from the front of the room, drawing the attention of the two. She smiled, "Come meet Wendy!"

Juvia and Gajeel both looked away, color tinting their cheeks. After a moment, Gajeel cleared his throat.

"Well… since it was requested of me… I suppose I'll have to go up there…" he turned but Juvia was already at the front of the room, greeting Wendy cheerfully.

Natsu leaned his chin on the palm of his hand, eyes following Lucy as she laughed and stood protectively at Wendy's side.

"Aren't you gonna go meet her?" Gray asked, turning towards the brooding boy.

"I met her last night," he mumbled. "Lucy brought her and her cat Carla over to meet me."

"Oh…" Gray narrowed his eyes at Natsu. There was something bothering the boy, obviously. Normally he'd be up there with the others, joking and laughing. In fact, he had been acting strange for the past couple of days. What's this idiot's problem?

"Hey, Ice for Brains," Natsu finally said, eyes still locked on the blonde.

"What, Fire Breath?"

"I'm gonna spit you a hypothetical situation. Help me figure it out, alright?"

Gray cocked an eyebrow and leaned his cheek on his fist. "Alright. Hit me."

"So… suppose there's this guy. And he has this friend. A girl. And for a while now, he's been a little confused about her—"

"He's in love with her."

"You didn't even let me finish!" Natsu shouted, shaking his fists angrily.

"Right. Continue," Gray stifled his smirk.

"Okay… well… the guy has been noticing her a little more. And he gets mad when she hangs out with her ex boyfriend. And sometimes he catches himself thinking about how he'd like to spend all day, every day with her. Doing normal stuff, like cuddling in bed and holding hands as they watch TV and cooking spaghetti together every night for dinner…"

He really did a shitty job on making this hypothetical, Gray thought as he stared at the other boy blandly.

"Someone told him that he was in love with her but he denied it because he didn't agree. But maybe it was because he's never been in love before? Or maybe he's not really in love with her and the other guy just didn't know what the hell he was talking about?" Natsu finished, turning his confused stare towards the ice sculptor.

"Right…" Gray straightened. "No, he's totally in love with her."

"What?" Natsu looked thoroughly displeased with this answer. "But why? What makes him in love with her? What is love? What does it feel like?"

"Idiot," Gray rolled his eyes. "It's what you're feeling right now! Err… I mean what the guy is feeling."

"But… what is he feeling?"

Gray rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Well, first off, he's feeling jealous about her hanging out with her ex boyfriend, right? Usually, someone only feels jealous over something like that because they have feelings for the person, right?"

"I… guess…"

"And he wants to do stuff with her that couples normally do, you know? Like cuddling and holding hands. That's not something that people in a platonic relationship do on a normal basis."

"It's not?" Natsu blanched.

"Dude."

"I totally thought it was. Seriously."

"You idiot. That's like if you and I cuddled and held hands. That's fuckin' weird," Gray made a disgusted face.

"We're not friends, Ice Princess."

"Fine. Can you imagine doing that shit with Erza then?"

Natsu's face completely shifted until a look of depression washed over his features.

"Oh my God," he muttered, holding his head in his hands. "You're right… I would totally not do those things with Erza. It's just… I do them with Happy so I thought…"

"You hold hands with Happy?" Gray narrowed his eyes.

"Well yeah… it's cute, you know? I'll hold his paw and see how long it takes before he pulls it away and places it on top of my hand. And then I'll do it again and again until he gets mad and changes seats…" he noticed Gray's incredulous stare. He let out a heavy sigh, "It gets lonely in that house all alone."

Gray stood, "Man… just accept it. You're in love with Lucy." He turned towards the front of the room as Natsu's face turned an unhealthy shade of red.

"I told you it was a hypothetical situation!"

"Cana!" Gray called out as he headed towards the group of students. "Why are you even in here? This isn't your class!"

"Shut up, Gray! Can't a girl get lost every once in a while? JEEZ," Cana pulled her flask from her blazer and twisted the lid off. "Just SUE me, why don't ya!"

Natsu slumped down on his desk, arms around his head. He peeked through the gap in his arms at Lucy as she made room next to Wendy for Gray to introduce himself to the young girl. Natsu gulped and watched as Lucy laughed and pushed her blonde hair behind her ear, brown eyes alight with joy and warmth. Natsu's heart ached and sped up in his chest. He reached in and clutched at it, fingers notched in the skin and muscle.

"Nngh," he buried his face in his arm and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

Author's Note: I'm not sure if anyone falls in love the way Natsu does in this fic. (Or in Her Strength, I realize they're a little similar. I'll shake it up later. Promise.) Seriously, like... to be so in denial and disbelieving and honestly just... dense as shit. Like seriously, Natsu get ahold of yourself. It's only love. There are worse things in the world. Like black licorice and the smell of honeysuckle. Kill me.

I don't know why I like to write Natsu in this way. You know... just innocent and incredulous about the whole act of loving someone else in a way different from the love of family and friends. Even though in the manga it's looking like Natsu is much more aware of such things, and much more mature about it... I just love to make him seem like a scared little boy in the clutches of love sickness. Maybe it reminds me of the MOTH, who is full of childish excitement, warm cuddles, and hand holding. And Lucy always seems to be the more mature one. I would say that I put myself into this but then again... not really. I still let Lucy seem pretty warm and kind, falling in love a little more gently than her counterpart. Whereas I fell in love like a proper stoic, full of "Ah yes, our children will be very strong with good teeth and thick hair."

Everyone experiences love in different ways. ;) Anyone have a good falling in love story you'd like to share? How did it happen for you? All at once? At first sight? Slowly? TELL ME DAMN IT.

Okay, I'm done for now. I had originally wanted to do all of the arcs in a modern way, re-imagining them from a whole new perspective, but I decided that it was just too damn tedious to think about so I'm just gonna do whatever the hell I want to do. (Ah the joys of being a writer) There will be some more references and similarities though in some future happenings. I hope I can pull them off in a way that everyone will notice and think clever, but we will see.

Anyway... I love you all! It warms my frigid winter heart whenever I hear from you lovelies! And with all the snow piled outside my house... I need some warmth. Hope you all like the chapter. Love love! Kiss kiss!

Love-Moo