A/N: Apologies for long wait, I had few issues to resolve first but new chapter is here for you to enjoy.

For reason well known to Lucy, she didn't have to wait for Natsu. He was already in front of public library doors before she even arrived, waiting with big, dumb smile only he knew how to pull off. Natsu was leaning against the wall beside the door, clothes portrayed his usual and expected style… ripped jeans with chains hanging from pockets, tight red shirt, punk-style wristbands and sunglasses that were staying on top of his head rather on his eyes. In his hand was but a single notebook. A modern rebel incarnated… if he would chose a look it would be this one. Lucy on the other hand decided to make her best effort and not look in any way attractive. Blue jeans with plain white shirt, intended not to be tight but failed rather miserably under the pressure of her chest and to complete the look was a backpack that was hanging over her shoulder.

"You are late" Natsu said watching Lucy approach with look that was less than amused

"It is…" she lift her left hand and looked at watch "Five minutes until two, how am I late?" She responded with slight confusion in her voice

"Because I am standing here for half hour now."

"That is entirely your problem Natsu… I told you to be at 14 and there is five more minutes. The fact you stood there like an idiot for half hour is your problem" Lucy was already annoyed

"Shouldn't girls supposed to be like… coming early on dates?"

"No that's guys and this is not a date, this is half hour study session which we are going to complete and never speak about ever again. Now come" she ordered him and pulled tall doors of the library, entering first and making him follow in silence. The several rows of table stretched long at the grand main hall of library, each had two chairs on opposite sides facing center and at the far left were seemingly endless rows of bookshelves and all that was just first floor. Having no ceiling between floors, it was easy to see to second, third and even fourth floor with even more shelves and tables… It was rather impressive sight indeed, any booklover's paradise containing almost every publication of any book ever written in Fiore and beyond.

Natsu was in state of slight awe, trying to comprehend the amount information that was reaching him… beyond gym halls, stadiums and courts he never saw hall this big or so densely filled books.

"Amazing isn't it?" Lucy said in hushed voice, and for reason completely unknown to Natsu she was actually smiling now "Get seat over there" she pointed at one of few remaining seats that were left unoccupied. Natsu snapped out of his little moment and made way toward pointed table, sitting down and placing notebook on table. His eyes wandered again trying to find Lucy who first went to the far side of hall to speak with library clerk and then disappeared among the vast jungle of bookshelves.

It wasn't taking a genius to recognize the swift change from awe to boredom that swept through Natsu's face. He was sitting, he was waiting… he was alone in completely unknown world where people would either come in or leave in silence. A single tap of his finger upon the wooden surface of the table rang in his ears more loud than he thought it would be. Another tap and he listened the echo it would make… he was not used to this kind of silence.

Sigh escaped his lips as minutes passed in waiting. He became impatient and waiting in silence was not something that his personality accepted so easily… distraction was needed desperately and he proceeded to crack his knuckles but the sound, usually unnoticeable on field, was like a set of knives that pierced ears and this was met with few people turning heads to look at him. There was silent judgment in their eyes and he could see it as they pressed their fingers to lips in an attempt to signalize him to be quiet and for odd reason he stopped his little "distraction" and nodded head in apology.

Another long minute passed and Natsu was about to lose himself in little world he had in his head, to drift in simple daydream but all this vas in vain as the thump interrupted and couple of books appeared in front of him. Lucy finally arrived and sighed in relief as she sat down across him.

"Collected work of William Butler Yeats" she said in quiet tone

"He wrote all of that?" Natsu asked as he looked at both books in front of him

"Mhm… although this is printed version of all his collected poems. The other one contains his biography, as much as it is documented, but not all of it is about him, there are other poets in so we'll take what we need and write about it. Where do you want to start?" She asked him. Natsu averted look from the book and gazed at her noticing that for once she was not in foul mood like she used to be, quite the contrary her face had soft, smooth lines… there was no doubt that when she had her mind not set on hating him, she was quite the beauty.

"Ummm… what do you want me to do?"

"You seriously don't know?" She rolled eyes and same frown appeared yet again "Did you not at least made some plan?"

"I did" Natsu said with a bit louder tone, making few heads turn "I planned to be with you, I am with you, so far it's going according to plan."

"About the task…" she replied with teeth gritted.

"Well it is on my list of "tasks to do" and very high on it" he winked but she made no remarks, giving him now blank face.

"Natsu…"

"Yes?"

"Can you please focus?"

"On poet or being here with you?"

"On poet… Look, I know you came here to flirt, to get me to be a bit more open to you or to get to first or any base with me but it is not going to happen. Be it half hour, hour or ten hours it will not change and I really, desperately need to complete this because I desperately need points from Professor Justine to keep my scholarship."

Natsu was in listening in silence as Lucy's frown turned upside down, she was no longer angry but instead her emotions matched her words perfectly… desperation and he could not avoid it… not the look in her eyes nor the words that were actually pleading. He had many questions for her now but decided not to ask any of them… for now.

"Alright alright, lets work on biography first, life and stuff and then write a poem of his and maybe say something about it."

"That now sounds like a proper plan." Lucy sighed, feeling relieved as she managed to get to him finally.

He took the book and went over pages. After short while he found the title he was looking for and turned it for her to look. They spent next ten minutes going lines and lines over what was important to even say about Yeats and all the while… something bugged Lucy, there was something that constantly hanged above her head but she couldn't point out what exactly… it was the less smug Natsu… something about him, something alien about him.

"You have phone right?" He asked, his head was leaned in palm of his left hand, elbow firmly placed on desk, eyes fixed on notebook with other hand writing

"I do" her eyes averted from book to glance at him "What about it?"

"I mean, phone has digital clock on it… why do you need watch?"

"That is your question? Why I have watch?" she now lifted her head to look at him

"Well yeah I mean… You can easily look at your phone, why do you need watch?" He now looked at her, meeting her gaze

"I like it… it is a gift and I guess I trust it more than I trust my phone" she responded and returned her gaze down. To Natsu, technology was a tool, useful and practical and watch was something archaic and strange to have when everything could easily fit in one device.

"Parents gave it to you?"

Lucy made a long pause, long enough for Natsu to stop writing and look at her

"No…"

"Touchy subject?"

"I really don't want to talk about it Natsu…"

"Are they… treating you bad or something?"

"They are gone…"

"Oh…" Natsu replied in low tone, it was all he could say, it seemed like it didn't even phase her but some strange, some stupid bug in head made him continue "So… you live alone?"

"Yes…"

"With relatives?"

"No…"

At this point, it was obvious even to Natsu that she became uncomfortable with the topic. Her free hand clenched a bit and she showed sign of biting inner side of her lip, perhaps to stop from showing any emotion, perhaps to cover something but for once, just this once he listened to his reason rather than the bug and did not ask next question. He began thinking that this perhaps was not such a great idea, to consider this as date and he really wanted it to be. They resumed, uttering only words that were regarding the task they were given and for a while they were working well together but yet again… this thing that Lucy had in her mind bugged her What is it about him, something strange, something… unnatural.

"What about your parents?" She asked, looking his way. For her to initiate conversation was a spring of fresh water to a thirsty man and even though her answers were rather dry he decided to be generous with his.

"I live with dad, he's still alive… well obvious" he chuckled.

"And your mom?"

"She's umm… she died long time ago when I was still kid" his grin on face slowly died.

"So you live alone with your dad?" She continued with questions, much to his pleasure of doing.

"No, dad remarried about… 6 years ago and I got stepmom and stepsister, we live at same house."

"Is she nice?" Lucy asked.

"Hmm?"

"Your stepmother. Is she nice person?"

Natsu took a little time to be in silence, it wasn't the question that bothered him but rather some memories, one in particular that made him uncomfortable but he shifted from it. Indeed she was not the least bit bad person, quite the contrary she eagerly accepted Natsu and all he was in rebellious nature and endured years of his silent abuse in form of shunning her from his own little world he created.

"She is okay." Natsu gave half-assed reply.

"You two don't get along?"

"No it's just… I get along well with stepsis, I just don't get on good terms with Gran. She doesn't exactly understand me."

"What did you do?" Lucy's voice was filled with you probably screwed up something kind of tone.

"Why do you think I did something?"

"…"

"Fine fine, since we are sharing. It started couple of months after she moved in. We kind of had an argument and she… hit me."

"How did she hit you?" Lucy asked, her focus averted from book and directed toward Natsu.

"She slapped me across my face." He replied with bitter tone, resenting the memory of it.

"Why did she do that?"

"I…" He took few seconds "I said something bad I suppose…."

"Like what?"

Natsu chuckled, pressing his palm against forehead and rubbing it "I told her screw you, you are not my mother"

"What happened before?"

"What do you mean?" he looked at her, frowning at her question.

"I guess there was reason for argue, what did you do?"

"I was still a kid alright? It was, don't know about ten in the evening and I kind of sneaked out of house through my window to play games at friend's house… they came to my room and couldn't find me, they called police and every one of my friend's house but I already left… came home around, three in the morning and they were waiting inside. Dad was already giving pissed at me and started giving huge lecture and Gran stopped him couple of times from slapping me. After that we kind of argued, I said that and she slapped me."

"So… you ran out of house without telling them where you are going" Lucy began, lifting eyebrow as she watched Natsu "made them worried sick and they called police because they couldn't find you… then instead of apologizing you told her that she is not your mom and she slapped you. Has it ever occurred to you that she was worried most and that what you said hurt her?"

"Why would she care?"

"Because it takes more than blood to make a family, Natsu… she accepted you right away, if she didn't care she wouldn't have hit you, instead you managed to hurt her twice in one evening. You should be happy, Natsu" she waved head and took the book again, going through pages.

"Why?" He asked, raising tone but this time he didn't care about heads that turned.

"Because at very least you have someone at home to care about you. When I ran away first time, my father didn't even care why I did it."

There were no words that came out of Natsu's mouth, this sentence was something that swept ground under his feet. Slowly, pieces of puzzle began to reveal in his mind, one piece at the time came into its place and first of those pieces is why Lucy was so desperate…

"I think we have enough about biography" Lucy said, sighing as she rubbed her eyes and looking at notebook "what are we going to pick about poetry?"

"I dunno, you know more than me about this" Natsu shrugged

"Well don't be lazy" she rolled her eyes "take a book and find a good poem"

A sweet melody of torment for Natsu. More work to be done in field he was not versatile and knew almost nothing about but it became impossible to reject Lucy. He took the book and went slowly over pages, not going further than titles but with every page flipped his eyes would glance at her. Natsu couldn't help it but marvel, he couldn't not notice that when focused, when not frowning and rejecting him, she indeed looked more and more beautiful, even plain as she is now… no… for some reason she was more attractive to him now than she was in the club.

"Aedh wishes for the clothes of Heaven" he read the title and grinned "Hey it's the one I was reciting yesterday!" the grin turned into chuckle

"Then it's a no"

"What about…" he turned few more pages "A prayer for my daughter"

Lucy stopped for a moment and looked at Natsu who had a blank expression on his face and she waved head, making his eyes roll in exasperation and he continued flipping pages.

"Alright what about The Rose Tree?"

"Read it" Lucy leaned slightly forward, expecting Natsu to begin. He cleared his throat and began reading

"'O WORDS are lightly spoken,'
Said Pearse to Connolly,
'Maybe a breath of politic words
Has withered our Rose Tree;
Or maybe but a wind that blows
Across the bitter sea.'

It needs to be but watered,'
James Connolly replied,
"To make the green come out again
And spread on every side,
And shake the blossom from the bud
To be the garden's pride.'

"But where can we draw water,'
Said Pearse to Connolly,
"When all the wells are parched away?
O plain as plain can be
There's nothing but our own red blood
Can make a right Rose Tree"

"Alright…" she took deep breath "What do you think it means?"

"Looks to me like Rose Tree is country and that politics ruined the country… what it requires, to bloom again, for country to be green again is to be watered like any plant but they have no water, as in… they have no means to do so… but the other man said that only their blood can make rose tree red… meaning that only sacrifice of men can make country rise"

Lucy was yet again in awe, for second time in two days and that feeling she had so far appeared, more and more prominent as if it was a couple of cogs than began turning.

"How did you do all that?" She asked, frowning

"What? Reading bit? I dunno, I guess I just knew letters and decided to… put them together" he grinned wide at his sarcastic comment and Lucy narrowed her eyes at him.

"Not that, what you just said about poem, and poem yesterday… how did you memorized it so quickly and even analyzed on class?"

"It's really not that hard you know, just… think a bit about it I guess" he shrugged.

Lucy extended her right hand slightly, leaning elbow on table as her index finger extended and pointed toward him "So you just pretend to be complete moron while you are…"

"Genius?" He quickly interrupted her and grinned

"…. Average" She finished, not allowing him to boost any kind of ego he could prompt at this point. "Then why are you acting like one all the time?"

"Hold on love!" He took her hand that was in the air, and fingers pressed on back of her hand while thumb found way into her palm. Lucy tried to pull her hand away but the grip was firm, unrelenting "You just assumed that I am idiot that knows nothing but to play football without actually wanting to talk to me. I am the one who wants you to get to know me but you push me away."

This part was true, Lucy knew that well and had nothing to reply on the comment, her mind slipped from attempts to pull away from his grip only enough to continue with train of her thoughts.

"So why do you..."

"Play football?" He finished her question "Let's face it honey, you don't see artist driving in new BMW or teachers that go to fancy parties. I mean some idiot painted two dots on white background and got ten million jewels because some other dumb idiot thought that is 'art' and the same artist became famous even though his grade was 2 out of 5 in school and he said that he is "misunderstood" where in reality he couldn't paint horse ass even if his life depended on it"

Lucy's jaw dropped, she couldn't believe words she was hearing and none of this was the usual bullshit that Natsu knew to spill… this was a side that she didn't see… this was what bugged her… Natsu is moron but not because he is stupid, but because he simply choses to be moron.

"And second thing, look at football players. Train, play a game, score, get better, move to better team, earn 200 million jewels per year, that's kind of life I want to have and I am damn good at football. I am fast, I am got body of a marble and on court I am unstoppable and even coach Strauss says I am the best! Why shouldn't I do what I do best and live life of comfort?"

For entire minute they just sat there in complete silence, not averting the gazes that were fixed one upon another. For Lucy it was a small bit of time to reminiscent on idea that is Natsu, that despite his asshole coating, there is at least some sanity down in his center but she was not allowing to be swayed even with this new light… even if he is an enlightened philosopher it was the asshole coating that he so eagerly spread around that mattered because it was his choice to begin with… for Natsu, this was a time to watch Lucy close, not much of deeper meaning except of the one where he began collecting the puzzle pieces. She was a mystery, an enigma, a complex rubic cube that he slowly began solving and right now he realized that he learned just a little bit from her expression… he saw something that he thought he couldn't see in her. A little bit of surprise.

The minute passed and it was Natsu who broke the gaze and the strange silent tension. His eyes gazed down at hand he held and as soon as she noticed that he was still holding her, she yanked it out. There was just a little faint blush on her face.

"Right… let's write down what you said about Rose Tree…" She said quickly and he nodded, finding out that he did enough "damage" on her ice wall for one day.A while later and they closed books and Lucy them both of books where she found them and they made their way out.

It was as they left the building when Natsu took his phone and looked at it, smiling wide "I guess I won"

"What?" Lucy asked, confused by his professing victory

"It is exactly 14:35, I made you stay five minutes longer than you said you would, I count this as my victory"

Lucy sighed, there was no argument she could make that would make him shut up "Fine, you win"

"So… to compensate, do I get to kiss you for five minutes? Fair reward."

"You get five minutes of watching me leave. You can only dream of the kiss." She smiled briefly and packed her notebook in backpack before turning away and walking. In any other case he would either yell or chase after her but there was nothing coming from him that was directed to her… nothing except the faint smile as he placed his sunglasses on his eyes and turned in other direction. Chuckle yet again escaped his lips as he said to himself "Man she is one tough nut to break…"

Fifteen minutes later and he was in front of his house, just as he reached to open a door his mind flashed to a particular conversation he held with Lucy. He frowned slightly, took deep breath and exhaled through his nose… hand opened door and he walked in, looking around. Making way to the stairs he stopped at the bottom and looked at living room and the person on the couch.

"Hey Gran…" Natsu said in soft voice and silver haired woman turned, averting her gaze from book she was reading to look at him, smiling lightly at him

"Yes dear?"

He stood for ten seconds in silence before opening mouth "Thanks…"

"For what?"

"Just… thanks" he said again and made his way toward his room, feeling small and odd feeling of satisfaction, leaving her to look toward stairs in utter confusion at his usual response.

A/N: I had a bit of conundrum... The Rose Tree characters refer to some iconic people and I had idea of implementing Fairy Tail characters instead of them to but in that case i would belittle the work of W.B. Yeats so eventually I decided that unchanged, original version is the right one. This fanfiction is moving in direction even I did not originally predict I would take it but for some reason it is becoming more intricate and every chapter contains a little bit of information that leads to big one. Anyway, I talked enough, let me know what you think about the chapter in reviews, thank you all for you continuous support, you move me :).