A/N: Another upload, kinda an apology for such a short chapter before this.
"Are you kidding me, flame-brain?!" Gajeel hissed as he exited the principal's office with his cousin.
"It's not my fault!" Natsu groaned. "I don't like it either!"
"Well?" Erza frowned at the pair. "What's the verdict?"
"Banned from prom!" Natsu groaned.
"Thanks a lot, idiot." Gajeel hissed. Prom was in one month and he already had ordered a tux. He'd never get the money back.
"It's your own faults." Erza sighed, shaking her head. "And Lisanna wanted you to ask her ever so badly, Natsu."
"Oi! Shut up!" the pink haired teen's cheeks burned.
"I'm going to work." Gajeel grunted, trudging out of the school with his hands in his pockets. He couldn't stand to be around his cousin any longer. Their fight was about something stupid, as always, but Principal Makarov was pissed about them breaking a door. And a chair, and a locker, and inadvertently hitting some other dude with Natsu's flying body… Gajeel shook of the memories of the fight as he jogged to his truck.
It was downpouring. He cranked his windshield wipers to high (although they were barely keeping up with the sheets of rain). His truck moved pretty quickly, not too many puddles had formed yet, and he drove past someone who looked pretty damn pathetic in the rain. He slammed on his brakes, pulling over immediately and reversing to catch the blonde huddled under an umbrella. He rolled down his window as she peered warily at him.
"Oh, Gajeel!" she jumped over to the window.
"Get in, you're soaked." he commanded.
"Are you sure?" she asked, although she had already began opening the door and closing her pink umbrella. He rolled up the window and rummaged around the backseat before producing a spare blanket.
"Here, try and dry off with this." he grunted out. She thanked him and huddled it close to her shivering body. Gajeel shut the AC off and began driving again.
"Where are we going?" she questioned.
"I need to stop at the garage and tell my dad that I'll be dropping you off at home." he replied, carefully weaving through the after-school traffic. She sighed.
"Can you… not take me home?" she asked quietly.
"What? Why not?" he glanced over at her. She was staring out the window.
"I just… I don't want to right now."
"What's wrong, bunny girl?" Gajeel used the nickname he teased her with, but his tone was soft and serious.
"Nothing, I just… Nothing." her voice made his throat constrict. The blonde usually had a grin lighting up her face, but that wasn't the case today.
"I understand if you don't wanna talk about it. But you don't hafta act all tough around me." she was silent still. "Okay well. Funny story. Today, flame-brain pissed me off real bad. He was goofin off in our calculus class-"
"You take calculus?" she questioned. He nodded.
"What, think I'm not smart enough for it?" his grip tightened.
"I think you're really smart, actually." her voice was clear. "I just thought you'd be in higher classes. Like, AP and stuff." she clarified.
"Yeah, I take four of those already. School said I can't take more than that." he grunted.
"That's a stupid rule." she said softly.
"Most rules are stupid. Like the rule that I'm banned from my prom this year." he tried to get a rise out of her.
"What?!" she gasped. "Gajeel, what did you do?!"
"Fought with Natsu. He was pissing me off, remember?"
"You can't just beat somebody up when they're being annoying!"
"You can with Natsu. He enjoys it." Gajeel explained the fight to him, not even leaving out the part when Natsu pantsed him. She laughed a lot at the visual she was getting.
"Boxers or briefs?" she was smiling again. (He thought she was really cute when she smiled, not that he'd ever tell her that).
"Unless you're planning on getting into my pants I'm not revealing anything to you, ya perv." Gajeel pulled into the employee garage next to the auto shop. He let it idle as Lucy gathered her stuff and shut it off in time to run around to open the door for her. He led her through the office into the repair portion of the shop.
"You can hang out in here, if you want. I've just got a few oil changes and then I'll just be waiting for walk ins." Gajeel had an easy day, lucky for him.
"I think I'll take you up on that." she grinned at him, setting her bag and umbrella down in a corner, tightening the blanket around her.
"Coffee? The new machine works pretty great." Gajeel offered.
"Sounds good to me." she sent him another of her signature smiles, and he couldn't help it when the corners of his own mouth quirked. He was just so relieved she was happy again. They entered the empty break room, located conveniently behind the front desk, and he poured her a cup.
"Here. Creams and sugars in the drawer."
"Thank you!" she sang out, adding two creams and three sugars. He shuddered at the thought of the sickeningly sweet drink. He didn't make a comment on it, though. She sipped it a bit as they sat on the couch in the break room.
"I've got an appointment in twenty minutes, he might show up early. I'm gonna head to the desk." he stood, offering a hand to her. She gripped onto his much larger hand and he yanked her up, letting it go once she was steady on her feet. She glared down at her low heels before kicking them off.
"I'm leaving these in here." Lucy announced. He shook his head at her (honestly, she walked to school in heels?) and they went back into the office. Her hair was just a bit damp, but her clothes were almost completely dry, so she folded the blanket and set it on the counter next to her coffee. "So, how much of a hot mess do I look?" she questioned, turning towards him.
"You've got a little black under yer eyes, but otherwise fine." Gajeel shrugged.
"I'll go fix it. Bathroom?" Lucy wandered in the direction he pointed. As soon as she was gone, his dad showed up.
"Hey, you were a little late. Also, I got a call from the principal. Banned from prom?!" Metalicana, a tall, intimidating man shouted.
"Yep." Gajeel grunted, looking straight into his father's eyes. He already knew he screwed up, and he didn't need his father to chew his ass out about it.
"I should've known my kid would be a troublemaker. Did I ever tell you about the time I -"
"The time you slashed your principal's tires? Or the time you set all the sprinklers off in the school to get out of a test? Or the time you - " Gajeel began listing things.
"Oi, oi! Never mind kid, I tell you way too much about my life. Don't get any ideas." he wagged his finger at his son. "Stay in school and get your precious engineering degree."
"Engineering degree? Sounds fancy." Lucy's voice appeared from behind them. She had fixed up her hair and makeup a bit, and her uniform looked a bit more dry. "My dad called and asked where I am. He's coming to pick me up."
"I - you - Gajeel! Who's this?!" Metalicana was flustered to see the cute (barefoot, and damp) blonde walk behind the counter to stand next to his son.
"Dad, this is my friend Lucy. She got caught in the rain so I gave her a ride here." Gajeel introduced. "Lucy, this is my pops, Metalicana."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Redfox." Lucy held out a hand, looking every bit as prim and proper as she usually did. But then she let a grin creep across her face. Metalicana thought that this girl may have been the sweetest little thing he'd ever seen. He then shook her hand, gave his son a look that screamed 'we need to talk later' and then he went to the break room.
"Sorry 'bout that." he grunted.
"Hey, I was thinking." Lucy ignored his apology.
"That might be dangerous, bunny girl." Gajeel teased.
"Shut up." she said dryly. "Anyways, since you're banned from your prom," she began, not looking at him, "and mine is on the same day, I think we should go to mine. Together." there was a light blush on her cheeks, but she would never admit it. But Gajeel had definitely noticed it. He would never admit it either, but his cheeks felt a little warm as well.
"Okay. What time?" he grunted. Her breath hitched in her throat, he said yes?!
"The dinner's at seven, and after that the dance starts. Grand march is at nine-thirty, I think?"
"Okay. You on court?" she still couldn't believe he was being so nonchalant about this.
"Yeah, the court got voted on. I'm with Rogue, Levy is with Jet." Lucy nodded.
"Figures. I'd vote for you." they still hadn't looked at each other, so she snuck a glance over. He had a matching flush on his own cheeks, and it gave her a bit of pride.
"Yeah. I'd vote for you too." Lucy replied with a grin. He snorted and looked at her. Her phone chimed in her pocket. "Oh, my shoes."
"I'll get them." Gajeel loped back into the break room to grab her shoes. His dad was standing near the door with eyes so wide his pupils nearly disappeared.
"Gajeel! I heard everything." his dad seemed excited somehow.
"Shut up for a minute." he grumbled, picking up Lucy's heels and bringing them back out to her. She thanked him and went outside, leaving pretty swiftly. She left the folded blanket and the now cold coffee. His dad burst out of the break room.
"She asked you to prom! Oh son! Such a cute girl likes my son!" he sobbed, hugging the shorter boy.
"Oi! Get off!" Gajeel's voice was slightly muffled by his father's chest.
"Oh my god I need to call Igneel and rub it in his face." Metalicana referenced his brother, Natsu's dad.
"Why don't you just call Grandine so she can tell Wendy while you're at it." Gajeel said sarcastically, wrenching himself from his father's arms.
"Great idea!" his father ran over to his cell and immediately started dialing. "Hey, Igneel, you'll never believe this…"