The Third Favor

The sunshine rose, the birds tweeted, and Igneel's happy (or more like crazy) laughter filled the whole Dragneel house. He quietly opened his son's bedroom door and tip-toed to the windows, opening the curtains to greet him good morning.

Expecting a cheerful greeting from his one and only son, he extended his arms and waited happily for the figure to stand up,

only to be smacked by a pillow.

Hard.

"What the hell are you doing, you old man?!"

And that was how Natsu's cheerful morning began.

XXX

"Good morning, Nat-chaaan~!"

A familiar face appeared in front of Natsu's face as soon as his feet stepped inside the school grounds. The ghost beamed in front of the boy and happily floated around the area, excited to start their third mission.

"I missed you so much! Don't you know that?!"

The lad continued walking around silently to class, ignoring the blonde girl trailing happily behind him. Half because there were other people around and it would be weird to talk to her and half because...well...let's say he's still awkward with what happened the last time they met.

After his sudden confession, he made sure to lock his door tight and spend the whole day alone. Not even Igneel could make him come out of his room. He didn't want to imagine the reaction Lucy would give him.

'It's not a confession, Natsu.' he reminded himself as he strode down the hallways, 'It was just an outburst you wanted to express because you were simply happy. That's all.'

Yes, he's a smart guy. But as a result of being isolated and always alone (not to mention, judged by his peers), he came to believe that there's no use to impressing them with his high intellect and cheerful behavior (which is always, might I add, hidden). He'd always be bullied for who he is and there's no changing it.

"You were really, really, really, really mean yesterday!"

Well, at least he had this annoying ghost to keep him company.

"I thought we'd agreed on cake?!" Lucy sighed dramatically as she began her daily nonsense chatter, "I even baked one for you! But you just had to lock yourself inside your room the whole day, did you?!"

The blonde held on the lad's blazer, dragging her along the direction Natsu was walking in, "You're simply horrible! You left me behind! I had to do some work so that we could have some progress! I mean, can you imagine that?! I'm dead but I still have to work?!"

Natsu resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he sat down on his desk.

"But anyways, we shall begin the mission at lunch!" Lucy beamed (Tch. Bipolar ghost), plastering an evil grin on her face, but to Natsu, it kinda looked like a child trying hard to be scary but failing.

Natsu's face remained the same as Lucy bid farewell, going to wherever the hell she usually disappears to whenever class starts. But he didn't care, she would come back anyways.

It was only until the blonde ghost was out of sight did Natsu's mouth twitch upwards.

XXX

The bell rang and the ghost came bursting inside the classroom, as promised.

"Natsu! Let's gooo~!" she chirped as she dragged him outside, ignoring the bodies that were near them.

Their mini-marathon finally stopped as they reached the place. Dropping his bag to the floor, Natsu held out a tired sigh and laid groggily on the couch. Ignoring the fact that this was a foreign room to him.

"Soo..." he heard Lucy cough, "You like the place?"

"What place?"

She furrowed her brows and pouted, "This place, I mean. I designed it!"

"Oh..." Natsu could only gape and inspected the room, "It's...nice."

Truly, it was. It looked like the usual classroom, and Natsu thought it was an old one. The whiteboard in front, the teacher's desk, and a couple of chairs and tables. But what was weird is that there's a mini-lounge behind it. A black modern couch and coffee table. A cabinet in each side and a fur carpet below it.

"Nice? That's all you could say?" Lucy scoffed and shook her head.

"Where did you get all these stuff?" he asked as he looked around. Natsu didn't remember the school having these furniture before.

"Well, the things is..." Lucy chuckled nervously as she played with her fingers, showing a sheepish grin as she looked at the ground.

Natsu sighed and frowned, "You stole it, didn't you?"

"Umm...teehee?" she poked a tongue out, making the lad groan.

'And to think I respected her for once...' Natsu thought, "They're already here so we can't return them anymore. Might as well put it to good use."

Lucy immediately brightened up and nodded.

"Still, I'm curious about one thing..." he place his hand under his chin, as if in deep thought of something, "You're a ghost...but you can move things around? I thought ghosts can't touch anything solid or liquid?"

"Oh, about that," she held out a finger to explain, "sometimes, I choose not to touch objects. And sometimes, I do."

Natsu stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Okay, look. Technically, I'm half-alive since I can still talk and interact. So that means I still have some energy left in me. I use that energy to move or touch objects. But I try to conserve them as much as I can because unlike you humans, I can't restore them anymore by resting. It's a different matter for ghosts."

"I see..."

"It requires lots of concentration but it's pretty normal. Although I have to refrain from using it too much because it might not cause balance between the spiritual and the physical world." she smiled slyly, "But Kami-sama did say that I don't need to extract energy on things that are aware of my existence. Sooo..."

And before Natsu knew it, a pair of cold hands were running up and down on his torso. A scream was heard throughout the room, and Natsu was merciless against the blonde ghost who was now tickling him.

Yes, he had a ticklish side.

"L-let go of me, y-you stupid g-ghost!" Natsu's limbs swung around as he tried to release himself from the girl's grip.

"Call me master and I'll let you go." Lucy happily replied as she began tickling him non-stop.

"A-alright fine! Master! Master! T-there! Happy n-now?!"

"Nope." the ghost let out a sly grin, "Now say, 'Master Lucy, you are my entire world, my everything. I love you'."

"M-master Lucy, y-you are my entire world, m-my everything-stop!" Natsu tried rolling around the floor to release Lucy's grip, but failed as Lucy only ended on top of him, making it quite an awkward position.

Lucy blushed upon the skin ship and immediately backed out, floating upwards and staring at the lying (and breathless) figure under her.

"E...Enough playing for now," she coughed, "Let's start on the third favor now, shall we?"

Natsu nodded and tiredly sat on one of the desks, "S-sure..."

XXX

"So, imagine that this is your classroom..."

Lucy drew a couple of chairs on the whiteboard and presented it to Natsu, "You'd be sitting on the back seat near the window, am I correct?"

The lad nodded, gesturing for the ghost to continue.

"Good. Now, imagine the person next to you. Who would he be?"

Natsu gasped. NO. F*CKING. WAY.

Lucy noticed his reaction and smiled, assuring him that it would be alright, and scribbled down his seatmate's name.

"For our third favor, we're going to help your seatmate, Gray Fullbuster."

TO BE CONTINUED

A/N: A long chapter to make up for my absence. I hope you liked it! And yay, Gray's appearing~!

Thanks for your reviews. I appreciate it very much!

Please continue to enjoy my story,

Bye~!