AN: Here you go:) I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for those who gave feedback. It really helped me to finish this one up.

Chapter Three

Lucy stood in the dewy, morning air, her foot tapping impatiently, her eyes struggling to stay open. It was already a long day, or more correctly, it had been a long night. After their detention yesterday, Natsu and Lucy made plans to meet up before school and work out some sort of strategy; however, as each minute passed, it became increasingly apparent that the pink haired male's habit of tardiness would get in the way of this plan. Her mood wasn't helped by the assault of text messages Natsu sent her throughout most of last night, and these messages varied from questions regarding Lisanna to funny pictures he found on the internet. It wasn't until 3AM that Lucy finally had enough sense to turn her phone off completely, and by then, she had lost the ability to fall asleep. She buried her face in her hands, feeling overwhelmingly exhausted and mentally cursing Natsu for her current state of being.

"Hey, Lucy!" A familiar voice greeted her enthusiastically, and Lucy's head shot up to face him.

"Natsu?! Where have you been? I've been waiting here for like- twenty minutes!"

"Well, you see, I was up late texting you and I overslept. And you didn't respond to any my texts this morning. And then I couldn't find my shoe. And then-"

"That's enough," Lucy sighed, "Look, class is going to start soon," She absentmindedly scanned Natsu's attire, "And we still have a lot of work to do."

"What? Is something wrong with my clothes?"

"No—it's just," She looked him over once again, noticing his untucked shirt, his carelessly rolled up sleeves and what was going on with that scarf? She huffed, "Just come with me."

Lucy forcefully led the boy into a nearby janitor's closet, double checking that no one was in the vicinity, lest they get the wrong idea.

"Uh- what exactly are we doing?" Natsu asked as the blonde closed the door behind him.

"I just—We have to fix your look-"

"What's wrong with my look?!"

"It's a mess!" She exclaimed. Natsu was about to protest this, but Lucy interrupted him, "You said you wanted my help. You said you'd do what I said. Now, are you going to keep fighting me?!"

"But-"

"Natsu!"

"Fine." Natsu finally responded after a few moments of silence, "Do your worst."

Lucy sighed, "Okay, let's start with your hair-"

"My hair?! What's wrong with that? Is it the color?" Natsu asked, grabbing the ends of his pink hair.

"No, it's not the color—it's all over the place." She commented, using her hand to smooth it back.

"So, how does it look now?" Natsu asked when she was finished, and to be honest, he looked like a crime boss. Lucy quickly ruffled his hair into it's usual spikiness.

"Never mind, this is better. What about your tie?"

"What about it?"

"You're not wearing one!" Lucy groaned, "Can't you a least get rid of the scarf-"

"No-"

"Natsu-"

"The scarf stays." He said darkly, and Lucy wisely chose to leave that be.

"Fine, we can make that work somehow. Alright, now you're shirt."

"Really? My shirt?" Natsu asked as if she was asking the world of him. He quickly stripped it off, throwing it to the floor as Lucy watched horrified. She screamed, immediately grabbing the shirt off of the floor.

"Natsu!" Lucy bellowed, covering her eyes and pushing the shirt into his chest, "Put it back on!"

"I thought we had to change it-"

"There's nothing to change it with!" She exclaimed; her face a deep red. Natsu shrugged as he began to put his shirt back on; however, much to her irritation, Lucy noticed that he was buttoning it up lopsided, and she immediately pushed his hand away. Natsu watched on awkwardly as she buttoned his shirt for him.

"So—uh—what about your look?" Natsu asked hesitantly. The blonde's eyes narrowed.

"What about it?"

"Well, nothing. Just—uh—" The boy roughly pulled out her hair ribbon.

"Ow!" Lucy exclaimed as her hair cascaded around her face, and she roughly slapped Natsu's chest.

"Hey, it looks better this way-"

The blonde suddenly stopped, grabbing fistfuls of her hair, "Really? Down? You think?"

"Yeah." He said simply, and Lucy blushed, quietly returning to buttoning his shirt. The pair looked away from another; although, this didn't last very long as the door suddenly slammed open.

"What's going on here? Someone said there was a scream—" A redhead girl, taking in the scene, looked at them in shock, "Natsu?! Lucy?!"

"Erza!" They both exclaimed, looking at their menacing friend in fright, a black haired male popped out behind her.

"Gajeel?!"

"Well, isn't this interesting." He said gleefully.

The moments that followed were painfully long. Erza insisted on punishing Natsu physically, and she gave Lucy a lengthy talk about sex which the blonde found absolutely terrifying. As if this wasn't enough, Gajeel told whoever was in radius the news, and this resulted in a haphazard group of classmates, many close friends of either Natsu or Lucy, confronting the pair in the school courtyard during lunch.

"I am very disappointed in both of you." Erza said for what must have been the hundredth time, "What you're doing is very irresponsible."

"It's not what you think." A now, fully clothed Natsu groaned, gently rubbing his shiny, new black eye: a present from Erza.

"I know what I saw, salamander." Gajeel chuckled.

"Shut it, metal breath!" Natsu left his spot to argue with the black haired boy. Lucy took a deep breath, trying not to rip her hair out in frustration.

"Lu, when I said that detention might open the gates of romance, I was kidding." Levy said, looking extremely concerned for her friend, "I mean, you hated him yesterday, isn't this rushing things."

"I'm privy to agree, Lucy. These are not the sorts of things to rush into." Erza added, and a tall, blue haired boy, Jellal, nodded his agreement.

"Nothing happened!" Lucy exclaimed, "How many times do I have to say it?!"

"A couple hundred more times." Lisanna suggested, looking extremely uncomfortable.

Erza explained, "She's right. You haven't given us any explanation regarding your activities with Natsu in the janitor's closet that required you to be fiddling with his half open shirt-"

"I can think of a few reasons," Gajeel laughed, dodging Natsu's punches.

"This is so stupid," Natsu exclaimed, "I know it looks pretty bad, but you can take my word for it. Nothing happened."

"I trust you about as far as I can throw you." A raven haired boy added, and Lucy's stomach went into knots at the sound of his voice.

"No one asked you, Gray!" Natsu said.

"You wanna go, flame brain."

"Bring it on, ice freak!"

"I'll get in on this." Gajeel grinned, cracking his knuckles.

"Enough!" Erza commanded, and everyone immediately stopped and turned to her, "We are not here to fight one another. We are here to intervene in our friend's, Natsu and Lucy's, irresponsible behavior-"

"Okay, that's enough!" Lucy exclaimed, "There's a perfectly logical explanation for all this."

"And that is?" Gray asked her, and she immediately lost track of her thoughts.

"It's—Uh—I-"

"Lucy's gaining weight." Natsu deadpanned, much to the collective shock of the group.

Lucy looked horrified, "Natsu?!"

"Uh- Her shirt's too tight, and she was gonna trade shirts with me?" He said hesitantly. All at once, everyone's gaze turned to Lucy's shirt, which may have been a bit tight, but that was mainly due to her naturally large chest as opposed to any weight problem. She instantly crossed her arms over her chest and marched right up to Natsu.

"How about this everyone?! Natsu's so stupid, he couldn't figure out how to put a shirt on without help!" Lucy yelled, and Natsu's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, well—Lucy's crazy! She just started yelling at me and taking off my clothes. I think her eyes rolled back-"

"No way! Natsu has some weird rash! I think he might have an STD-"

Natsu gasped, "Lucy's a witch! She was gonna use my shirt for some creepy spell!"

"Those two are ridiculous." Gray commented, and a nearby Lisanna nodded in agreement; all the while, this argument continued, and the claims became increasingly outlandish, including Lucy as an evil, alternate version of herself and Natsu as part of a strange cult that needed female sacrifices. Their friends watched on, mildly entertained by the spectacle, yet they slowly dispersed as they realized that they weren't going to get anywhere with the pair.

"Well, Lucy—"

"That's enough, Natsu!" The blonde exclaimed, taking deep breathes. She had suddenly realized that their friends had left, and immediately, the feelings of shame and guilt sunk in, "We did it. We ruined everything."

Natsu, who was still riled up, simply looked at her in confusion, "Huh?"

"Gray. Lisanna. They just watched us go at for-" She looked at her watch, "Thirty minutes!" She exhaled, dropping down on the bench behind her, "They must think we're insane."

Natsu considered this, and groaned at the realization, "You said I was born a girl."

"Yeah, well you said I was getting fat." Lucy snapped.

"You said I had flesh eating bacteria!"

"Stop!" Lucy exclaimed, putting her hands up in defense, "I don't want to do this again! We were so stupid to think that this had any chance of working! I—I acted crazy. Again. You make me crazy! I can't even understand how you do it! I mean, I don't want to be that person-" She paused to take a deep breath, and her voice calmed, "But this is my fault. I should have known better. A secret deal in the shadows of detention isn't going to make Gray suddenly like me, and why would he? I'm either yelling at his best friend or butchering any sentence I speak to him or just being- Lucy. I don't know. Why would anyone want to get involved in this mess— with me? I'm-" The shadow of the word got stuck in her throat: hopeless.

Natsu didn't respond to this; instead, he simply stared at the blonde, his face unreadable. The pair remained silent this way for several long minutes, until Natsu turned and walked away, leaving behind an incredulous Lucy.

"I guess that's the end of our little arrangement!" Lucy called after him, mentally cursing herself for being so stupid.

The rest of the school day passed in almost a blur. Lucy sighed in relief, glad that it was over. She had continued to avoid her friends for the remainder of the day, and it was exhausting work. The blonde simply wanted to spend some time to collect herself before facing their assault of questions, and her mind, one again, wandered to possible cover stories for the whole scenario; although, she wondered why she should even bother now. After all, her deal with Natsu was over.

"Lucy!" A voice called to her as she walked through the school gates. The girl turned at the sound, and she found herself facing Gray. After the scene she made earlier, the girl had half a mind to run away completely; however, his eyes caught hers, and she stood frozen in her spot as he walked up to her, "I've been looking for you."

"You've—what? Me?" Lucy asked, her speech becoming the disjointed words and sentences that so often happened when he was around.

"Yeah," Gray smiled, "Natsu told me everything."

"H-he did?" She asked. Boy, was she going to kill that pink haired-

"I just wanted to say that I think what you're doing is pretty cool."

"What?" Now Lucy knew something was wrong.

"I mean, helping Natsu out like that, and I know he can be a pain."

"Uh-huh." Lucy said skeptically, and Gray seemed to notice this, putting a reassuring arm on her shoulder. An action that made the girl scream internally. She decided hen that she could care less what they were actually talking about.

"Lucy, it's okay. Natsu already told me." The boy said, and at Lucy's continued look of confusion he added, "You're tutoring him."

"Tutoring?"

"I know you promised him not to tell, but he already told me – everyone, actually. And we kind of all feel like jerks for jumping down your throats," Gray explained, sheepishly scratching the back of his head, "I mean, it makes sense. You're the smartest person in our grade. If anyone can bring up that idiot's grades, it's you, and bringing him up to dress code? It's about time that happened."

Lucy didn't respond to this, simply staring at the raven haired boy; her eyes wide, and the full impact of what Natsu had done hit her. He had went out of his way to make it clear that nothing happened between them, and in a way that made her look good. But why would he…

Gray smiled at the blonde, "Yeah, well, I just wanted to say that you keeping his secret, even with everyone giving you guys a hard time—that was really cool of you."

"Thanks," She smiled, suddenly feeling more confident, and as Gray started to walk away, she added hopefully, "I'll see you around?"

"I hope so." He replied, and Lucy's heart fluttered.

Once again, Lucy stood in the dewy, morning air, patiently awaiting the arrival of Natsu; although, she doubted he would be here any time soon as he didn't even know she was waiting for him. The pair hadn't spoken since their exchange in the courtyard the day before, but Lucy felt obligated to say something—anything to the pink haired boy, especially after he had gone so out of his way to clear up that whole misunderstanding with the janitor's closet. She chuckled at the thought; it had already become a distant memory. Suddenly, that familiar head of pink hair walked through the school gates, yet that was all that was recognizable. Lucy didn't even have time to be surprised that he came to class early. He was wearing his blazer—actually wearing it, and his shirt was tucked in. He still left out his tie, keeping the top few buttons of his shirt undone, and he wore his white scarf loosely around his neck. Yet somehow, it suited him.

Lucy instantly ran over to him, "Hey, you!"

"Oh, hey." Natsu smiled as she approached him, "I thought you'd be here early."

"Well, yeah." She replied, still looking at him in disbelief.

"And you hair." The boy smiled, noticing that she had worn it down.

"It's nothing," She said dismissively, running a hand through it, and she instantly gestured to his clothes, "What's all this?"

"Oh, that's the thing," Natsu explained awkwardly, "I know I kind of got carried away yesterday- and I know you were just trying to help—so I thought I could—I wanted to—Maybe Lisanna—Ugh-" He face palmed.

"Thank you, Natsu," Lucy said gently, putting her hand on his shoulder, "For everything."

He gave her a huge grin, "So is the deal still on then?"

"Fo sho!" Lucy exclaimed, and Natsu chuckled at this.

"Natsu!" A sweet voice interrupted them, and at the sight of the white haired girl, Natsu froze.

"Hi, Lisanna," Lucy greeted her, elbowing Natsu in the side to do the same.

"H-hi."

"Hey, guys," The white haired girl smiled then she turned her attention to Natsu, "Wow, look at you."

"T-thanks," He managed to say thanks to another elbow from Lucy.

"Lucy, you got him to do this, right? I heard you're supposed to bring him up to dress code along with the tutoring." Lisanna asked the blonde.

"Uh—yeah, that's it." Lucy replied, then seeing her opportunity, added, "Doesn't he look nice?"

"He looks great! Good job, Lucy!" Lisanna exclaimed, lightly squeezing Natsu's arm, and Lucy happily noticed him blush. The blonde gave Lisanna a thumbs up as the white haired girl walked into the academic building. Once she was out of sight, Lucy turned to Natsu excitedly, and he instantly grabbed her arms and started enthusiastically jumping up and down.

"It's working! It's working!" Natsu exclaimed, and Lucy couldn't help smile. Maybe they weren't so hopeless after all.

AN: Let me know what you think! School starts for me Monday, so I'll try to get the next chapter out as quickly as I can.