what did you get for christmas?

Chapter Six

Hooray for cakes

Point of view: [Lucy]

I went over the 'to do' list in my head, adding things as I go. First I needed to buy some groceries on my way back home since I'm down on supplies, then I have to study for the upcoming exams, I also have to start making preparations for the New Year's dance, which I signed up for a while ago, I also needed to go to work after this club meeting is over… and hmm, what else?

Ah yes, how could I possibly forget?

KILL THE IDIOT THAT'S BEEN KNOCKING ON THE DOOR FOR THE PAST FIVE MINUTES!

"Come on Lucy~", I heard him mumble from behind the classroom door, even though I told him a while ago that non-members aren't allowed. Ever since then, he has been shamelessly interrupting my session with the small group of the reading club, making it unable for us to talk. Today, we were going to review the last book we read, and decide on what to read next.

I stopped talking a while ago, unable to over-shout the agonizing screams of the pink-haired fool deliberately pounding on the door, making everyone feel uncomfortable.

"Maybe we should just let him in," I turned to my left, watching Levy squirm in her seat as if this had been her fault, "what's the worst that can happen?"

"I'm against it!" Sting, who had only recently joined the club, shouted right the second Levy's proposal was made. "It's not like he'll put any effort into things. He won't take any of this seriously!" He yelled, even though he wasn't taking things seriously either. He hadn't read a single page from the previous book. But I guess I should cut him some slack since he joined a few days ago.

"I also think we should let him in," Mirajane, who had been giggling silently the whole time finally decided to have her voice heard.

I sighed, deciding that it was probably the right thing to do.

"Alright," unlocking the door I had previously locked for obvious reasons, I let the illiterate idiot inside. I really had no idea why he was here, since he showed absolutely no interest in books whatsoever.

He walked in and hugged me tight for finally letting him enter, and dragged a chair over to where I was sitting, pushing Levy's chair away so he'd have the space to sit next to me. He frowned when he noticed Sting sitting on my right side though, but I didn't know why.

I continued the meeting as if he wasn't here, and resumed talking about the book.

"So about the reincarnation part, I think that it was a nice thing to be able to be reborn infinitely, but why did he keep it a secret? Why didn't he—"

"If I had infinite lives I would spend them all with you." Natsu's sudden comment made me stop dead in my tracks, and I forgot what I was about to say next. Mirajane squealed happily for some reason, and I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. Just who does he think he is? First he interrupts my meeting, then he adds sarcastic comments!? Idiot!

"She'd die eventually you moron," Sting replied, "You'd reincarnate but she'd die. Then what?"

Natsu opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, having not thought out that part of his plan, and struggled with finding an answer. I knew he was just teasing me with the remark he made earlier, but I wasn't in the mood for shallow comments like that, and I instantly regretted ever letting him in, in the first place. I opened my mouth to tell him to get out, when I heard the bell ring, signalizing that the seventh period, which on Tuesdays and Thursdays was reserved for club time, had just ended.

The members started packing their bags, bidding me goodbye as they left the room. I ignored the presence of the two angry boys who were still here, and turned to get my own stuff ready as well. Natsu and Sting kept glaring at each other, and I didn't care enough to make them stop. But just as I was about to leave, I finally noticed the red mark plastered on Natsu's face. What the hell?

"Are you okay?" I asked unconsciously, standing next to the door, as they both turned to face me. "Your cheek is all read and swollen."

"Oh," Natsu's hand shot up to rub the marked patch of skin, "this? It's no big deal." He shrugged, "I was slapped." The toothy grin assured me he was feeling alright, but I was still not content.

"Go get a handkerchief or some sort of cloth from the nurse's office and dampen it with cold water. I don't want his face to swell up." I told Sting, watching him unwillingly walk out the door.

Dropping my bag to the floor, I knelt down before Natsu's chair, so that I was face to face with him. Before I had realized what I was doing, my hand had cupped his flaming cheek, and I knitted my brows together in worry, "Are you sure you're okay?"

His eyes and mouth both widened on cue, and the redness from one cheek spread to the other, enveloping his face in a shade of pink. He didn't blink, staring into my eyes with a look of bewilderment, unable to say anything. Why was he so surprised, and why was he paralyzed? Did I say something wrong?

"Uhm, I…" his eyes darted around, looking anywhere but in my direction, as he finally settled on looking down on his lap, "I'm fine." Just when I was about to get up though, he raised his head and opened his mouth to say something else.

"Ahem," Sting's sharp voice cut off whatever Natsu was about to say, and I got up to leave as well, "Time to go." He threw the wet towel in Natsu's direction, and he pressed it firmly against his head. Sting and I prepared to leave, but I turned at the last moment, watching Natsu stare at me as I held the door, not moving his gaze even when I shut it firmly behind me.

I'd love to stay and chat, but I have homework to do.

I finished the shopping, studied for two hours, and was done with all my homework, when I decided to make something for dinner before I go to bed.

I was whisking the eggs in a bowl together with some flour, waiting for the batter to become thick enough so I can add the sugar and later the chocolate. The mixture stirred and sloshed before my eyes, making me hungrier by the second. I was about to add the sugar in my bowl, when I heard the doorbell ring. It was 9PM, and needless to say, I wasn't expecting any guests. I involuntarily set down the whisk, not bothering to even try and ignore whoever it was, because the person had rang about 10 times in the past thirty seconds. Instead, I brushed back my unkempt hair, and clapped my hands together to spank off the leftover flour, making it evaporate into small clouds in the air around me.

Cursing whoever interrupted my baking, I barely put on a straight face when answering the door. My surprise must've shown on my face, since my visitor panicked and rushed to explain himself quickly as to ease up the tense atmosphere.

"Pardon the intrusion!" He shouted before I even got to say he was intruding, cocking his head rapidly from one side to the other, as though he was expecting somebody else to be with me. "I was just um, passing by and uh…"

"Sting?" My voice echoed the thoughts in my head, finally capturing the blonde boy's attention, "What the hell are you doing here?"

He stared at me blankly for a moment, as if he was wandering the same thing himself. And maybe he was. He pushed back a strand of his hair that had fallen over his eyes, and cleared his throat rather loudly, but other than that, he said nothing.

"How did you know where I live?" I offered the question as a conversation starter, feeling the tips of my fingers being bitten by the chilling air threatening to freeze my entire room. When he made no move to reply, I invited him in. I mean, what could I do? He was obviously freezing in the cold outside, and I worried for my room temperature as well.

Unwrapping the long scarf he had encircled around his neck, he finally sat down on my armchair, blowing hot air on his hands and rubbing them together in an attempt to warm himself. I discarded all thoughts concerning my half-done cake, and rushed to my bedroom to bring him a blanket, which he accepted with a lot of enthusiasm, and ran off to the kitchen to fix up some tea.

"Is chamomile okay?" I asked, before it finally downed on me. I was treating this pesky intruder like the guest of honor and he still didn't even tell me why he was here.

"Yeah, chamomile's fine." He answered from under the blankets, snuggling up to keep himself warm, as I threw some more wood into the furnace.

A few minutes later, the fresh cup of tea was sat down on the coffee table before his eyes, and he almost jumped out of his seat to get it. I watched him pour the liquid in his throat, not stopping for a second to let it cool off, and finally set the empty cup back on the table, before I dared ask him again. "So," I continued, "are you going to explain what's going on, now that you've warmed up?"

"Well, my motorcycle ran out of gas a few blocks away, and I know you live around here somewhere so I asked around. My phone's battery is dead, and I couldn't contact anyone else, so I came here." He replied, the words exiting his mouth in a slow manner, building the image in my mind. Well, if what he was saying was true—and I didn't plan on running around the neighborhood to see if his bike really was out of gas—than it was okay that he came here. He explained that he had seen Porlyusica, who was my neighbor, taking out her trash and she pointed him to my house.

"Alright," I replied, getting up to go back to the kitchen, "You can just make yourself comfortable and rest for a while, and I'll go finish the cake I started earlier. You can have a slice when it's done, and then I'll call you a cab, okay?" I wasn't particularly happy to be around him, but at least I had some manners, and I wasn't going to just toss him out on the streets right away. And after all, being all alone here everyday gets pretty boring from time to time, and having a little company—even though it's someone I don't know all to well—is not such a bad thing.

I was enveloped in my cloud of positive thoughts, mixing the sugar and cocoa when I remembered what everyone else was saying to me about Sting Eucliffe.

He was the ultimate bad boy. Went after all the girls then never called them back, talked back to the teachers even when he was in the wrong, got sent to detention more times than he could count, spent more time in the principal's office than he did in class, and I even heard he was the one who made that graffiti on the back of the school. My body tensed up, and I peaked from underneath my bangs to where he was sitting on the armchair. He seemed to be busying himself with one of my books, opening and closing it at random, staring the words and skimming through pages. From where I was standing, he didn't look threatening at all. He looked soft, vulnerable even. His eyes were slowly closing from what I calculated was lack of sleep, and he waved his leg back and forth in a bored-manner.

School jock? Not in particular.

I didn't catch myself staring until his eyes looked up to meet mine, which were tactfully hidden behind my hair, and I looked down in time for him not to notice me gawking. He stood up, probably losing interest in whatever it was he was reading, and walked over to where I was. I was just adding the last drop of batter in the pan, before I tossed it in the oven.

I turned to face him, still a bit wary of his presence due to the rumors I had heard. "It will be done in about fifteen minutes, or so," I said, in the calmest voice I could muster at the moment, stealing a glance at his face. He looked excited, peeking in the oven through the glass door, watching the batter slowly rise up in the pan. I could almost see the happiness seeping from his eyes.

How was he evil, exactly?

I didn't think he was. After all, we had talked a lot of times in school, and he even joined my club recently, so I wasn't convinced he was that bad of a guy.

Suddenly, without no warning whatsoever, he opened his mouth, and before I could ask what was wrong, he blew in my face. He literally blew in my face. Only when I saw the puffy cloud of flour form in the air between us, did I understand why he had done it.

"You had flour on your face," He said, adding the now-useless bit of information.

"Thanks," I mumbled, feeling my cheeks blush at the sudden closeness.

We talked for a while after that, mostly about school since we didn't have much more in common, when I went to take out the cake, and he helped me prepare the chocolate frosting. He was fascinated with the way cakes work, since he'd never made one himself, and covering it in chocolate took twice as long as it should have, but it was twice as fun as well.

We gushed at how great it looked, and swooned over the amazing taste in our mouths, blabbering on and on about how we were the greatest cooks to walk the planet, and how we should have our own show. He might be rude to other people but he was nice to me, for some unknown reason.

And as long as he wasn't sticking my head in the toilet, well, who was I to complain?

"Thanks for wrapping a few slices for me," he said, as I placed the plate in his hands. We stood out the door of the house, waiting for his taxi to come and pick him up. "This was fun," he stated, and I had to agree. It was nearly 12 o'clock, but I guess I could sleep more tomorrow. We watched the yellow car pull up in front of my lawn, as he commented about the weather, "It might snow tomorrow." I didn't believe it, since it didn't snow at all last year, but nodded all the same.

As he turned to leave though, he had one last request.

"Can we take a picture?" He asked, holding up his phone, with the front-facing camera on. I shrugged, not really caring in particular, as he thanked me for basically doing nothing, and pressed the button. The shutter noise signalized that the photo was taken, and he showed it to me. We looked pretty decent, as he held the wrapped plate in his hand and I looked as serious as ever.

He thanked me again for having him over, and not leaving him out in the cold weather like that, before I closed the door, and turned around to go back to the sink and wash the dishes we'd made.

I was on to the last cup, rubbing off the coffee stain, when I heard my phone buzz with another message from Natsu. I kept ignoring him since I wasn't interested in any sort of relationship, friendship or other, at this time, having set my grades and my new job as my priorities. But this time, my phone just wouldn't stop beeping, as I fiercely slammed the cup on the table, almost breaking it.

I opened the messages he had sent, not even knowing how he got my number. They were all asking how I was, and since I was fine, I decided not to answer. But holding this contraption in my hand, I finally realized something I had overlooked a while ago.

Didn't Sting say his phone was dead?

How did we take that picture?

And before my mind could melt, Natsu sent me another message, attaching a picture on which I could clearly see my smiling face, as I was being hugged by Sting, who held the aluminum foil-wrapped plate.

Just what in the world was going on?

Author's notes: Aaaah, a little bit of Sting + Lucy romance...

BEAR WITH ME! This was not an easy chapter to write at all, and I cringed everytime i had to write Sting's name. But alas, we need some rivals, and rivals we will have!

Hold on, Natsu!

Anyways, I just read my horoscope for 2017, and let's hope it's as good as it sounds. Do you guys believe in astrology? I don't but I like reading it for fun sometimes. What sign are you?

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it (you probably didn't :/ ) and don't worry, more NaLu in the next chapter 3

kisses!

~With Keys, through Flames! Aye!~