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There's a lot of things happening in this chapter, so I hope I don't bore or confuse any of you... Oh! Special thanks to tinygrande and biggest fan 3 - when I saw the long reviews and wonderful praises you guys sent me, I could almost cry a river with tears of joy. Thank you so much for these kind words! And to everyone else who reviewed: I'm feelin' the love and I want to hug and bake you all loads of cookies! xoxo!
I TURNED ANOTHER YEAR OLDER ON 4/30 WTF.
Decoding
Laxus Dreyar was entirely too many things: too hot, too rich, too manipulating. And he has his sights set out for a certain, unsuspecting Heartfillia.
Chapter Fifteen
What Goes Around...
"So let me get this this straight," Levy enunciated while she swallowed the sandwich she brought from home. They were sitting in the courtyard, where it was more quiet because not a lot of people wanted to sit on the 'dirty' ground. Jet and Droy wasn't with them this time, being held back in their class to finish a lab project that they missed the previous day. "The captain of the Sabertooth basketball team asked you to go out on a date, and you rejected him?"
Lucy hummed, in her hands held Celestial Spirits, the book she's read over ten times. Her fingers grasped the page in front of her and turned it over. "Yeah."
"How can you just say that so casually? This is like, the chance of a lifetime!" the blue haired girl whined. "How'd you guys even meet outside of school?"
"He...found my work one day, and likes to come in and annoy me," Lucy replied with a sigh. Given that Levy was the closest person she knew at Fairy Tail, she couldn't keep her secret about her job, or the 'blackmailing' from the blond haired president, much longer. She didn't want a lie to bring them apart. "Besides, I have my grades and rent to worry about, I have no time for...dating," she said the word as if it was something foreign.
Cana was already always nagging her to get a boyfriend, Gray was still convinced that she had a thing with Natsu, and she was pretty sure Erza was a closet romantic. All of which effectively waned her away from the dating scene for the time being.
"What did you say to him, exactly?" Levy pouted.
"I said 'No.'"
The petite bluenette shook her head in pity. She didn't know him, personally or at all for that matter, but she felt bad for the rejected basketball player.
"I mean, it's not a big deal...what is a big deal, though, is the fact that you went on a date with that biker dude."
Levy's cheeks reddened at that, "Lu-chan! I told you, it was just a form of thanks for saving us!"
"Sure it was," Lucy teased, thankful that the topic was not on her any more, "what a nice way to discreetly ask somebody out."
"Lu-chan!" If it was possible, she would have thought that the girl's face turned an even brighter red.
"You should have known that this was going to happen."
"Mou..."
Just then, Fujiokaji, the scrawny male with glasses that Lucy got to know as the person in charge of most of the student council committee's paperwork, walked up to them in a superior manner—if that haughty smirk was any indication—and planted himself firmly in front of Lucy.
"Heartfilia, you presence is requested by Headmaster Makarov," he said offhandedly, not even waiting to receive an answer before he walked away.
"Wow, he's unpleasant," the bluenette mumbled as Lucy's eyes twitched with irritation.
Damn four eyes...
"Well, I guess I'll see you later, Levy-chan," she said, closing her book and getting up. She waved at her friend and made her way inside the building and towards the headmaster's office.
What could Headmaster Makarov want with her at this time? She hoped that she wasn't in any type of trouble...
Her shoes clicked down the mostly empty halls and she swallowed a lump down her throat when the office neared. It felt familiar; she remembered the first time she was pulled from lunch—a memory that marked the start of her battle with Laxus Dreyar.
Okay... here I go. Lucy pushed the double polished doors open.
"Headmaster Makarov?"
Lucy peeked her head into the room and failed to see the short, happy-go-lucky old man. There was soft piano music playing from a vintage turntable in the corner of the room. To Lucy, the aura reminded her more of a music room than a headmaster's office.
"Ah, Lucy-chan~"
She started, the skin almost jumping off of her body as the old man popped out of seemingly nowhere. She watched as Makarov climbed into the too-big plush leather chair—a rather comical feat considering the merry man didn't look the least bit intimidating like a head of the school was stereotyped to be. Nonetheless, she stood up straighter.
"Hello, Headmaster Makarov. Fujiokaji-san said that you needed to see me?" Lucy asked, her tone casual.
"Hmm?" Makarov tilted his head as if in thought. It was starting worry the girl as a moment of silence dragged through the air, but she was relieved when the headmaster lighted up. "Yes, yes! I wanted to talk to you about your latest exam score...or lack thereof."
"Pardon me?" Confusion laced Lucy's voice. She had taken a calculus exam just days ago, and she remembered it to be a bit challenging, but she thought she knocked through it the best she could. "D-Did I fail it?" she asked worriedly.
"No, actually..."
Lucy gulped.
"We can't find it."
"—What?" How was that possible?
"Eh, I think your exam disappeared~ because we do not have a score... You will have to retake it today."
Relief came before realization and chocolate eyes widened. "T-Today?"
"Yes~ Right now, to be more precise," Makarov patted his seat and giggled aberrantly, "Here, you can do it right here."
. . .
Ivan narrowed his eyes at the report in front of him. The manor in which he owned in London was more desolate than the one in Japan, but it didn't bother him the least. With the fog and rain that accompanied this European country at this time of the year despite summer nearing, he felt it was a nice companion to the gloom of the manor.
But he was not liking what he was seeing at this moment.
As a long time partner with Grimoire Heart, and he would consider Hades as a profitable, if not valuably cruel, business partner. However, sometimes the white haired man could go a little overboard with his assumed power.
From the reports that Ivan received over fax from one of his secretaries, it stated that Hades had decided on his own to recruit a few more smaller companies to his—and also Dreyar Corp's wing as seen that they were partially partners—without his consent. In Ivan's opinion, the smaller companies would only serve to bring his company down.
He'll hate to think that Hades was planning something.
"Kurohebi!" he bellowed to his right-hand man when it came to travelling abroad.
The skinny and pale man was inside his office immediately, his snake-like black pupils looked straight forward as he stood silently in readiness to receive the next order from his boss. Ivan liked the lanky man because he was silent, but just as gloomy and deadly, as he was. And unlike many of the underlings he had disposed of, Kurohebi was loyal.
"I want you to go back to Japan and keep a close eye on Grimoire Hearts and Hades. I think he's getting antsy while I'm away," Ivan said with a slight smirk. He clamped his hands below his nose, pausing to think about something else. Just a few days ago the Agurias met up with him to speak about the arranged marriage between their children. "You know about the Aguria heiress wanting to opt out of the arranged marriage, don't you?"
Kurohebi nodded. "A pity that young master and the heiress don't seem to get along. However, the Agurias are still willing to collaborate even without the marriage."
Of course they will; the Dreyars held more power, after all.
"The marriage stays," the glint in Ivan's eyes was pure diabolical, "make sure you get that into the boy's head, nice and clear."
. . .
Lucy mentally calculated the equation in front of her before filling in the blank space for the answer. It's been a little more than half an hour; Headmaster Makarov had excused her from her next class to finish the test since her grade point average depended on it.
Although Makarov was posing as her proctor, he had slipped out just a few minutes ago, happily informing her that he was going to be 'checking up' on the classrooms. He was very trusting of her to leave her alone where someone could easily cheat—not that she would in a million years, but it greatly contrasted the merry man from his cunning grandson.
The clock ticked by, and soon she was completely finished with her retake. She felt quit good about the result this time around; she beamed to herself as she held the paper out in front of her. The missing test sheet was more like a blessing than a misfortune now.
"I see the old man likes to keep runaways in his office now."
While checking over her work, Lucy had failed to notice the person that came into the room. And of course, she just couldn't go a day without seeing the great heir to the Dreyar Corps.
"Dreyar," she said curtly.
Said male smirked and strode across the length of the giant office to the desk Lucy was sitting within mere seconds. Leaning against the desk, he glanced at the test paper she was working on and almost rolled his eyes when she tried to cover it up like a little kid preventing her table neighbor from copying.
"Should it be a concern that you're in an unaccompanied room working on an exam?" he drawled, ice blue eyes scanning the stubborn expression adorning the busty second-year's face. "I don't know if I can allow this."
She really shouldn't be use to the president's crude ways to make her life miserable... Lucy puffed her cheeks as she glared at the president. "You know damn well that I wouldn't cheat. I wouldn't even be here if the school didn't lose my exam in the first place."
"Ah, the lost exam paper," Laxus grinned, his canines showing. "Must have been a handling problem."
Lucy's chocolate eyes widened, Don't tell me...
"Did you have anything to do with this—"
"I'm back, Lucy-chan~" Headmaster Makarov bounded back into the office with a bliss expression, not at all sensing the tense atmosphere between the two blonds. "Laxus! Why are you here?" he questioned childishly.
Laxus seemed to be a little more aloof now that his grandfather was present in the room, and he looked to be scowling. "Do your job, old man. You're losing it."
"Lucy-chan is a reliable young lady, so I trust her," the headmaster waved offhandedly. "It was the school's fault for losing her test sheet, anyway. We should be more careful next time, ne Laxus?" His comment was ambiguous, but not imposing.
"Keh. You keep this up, and Fairy Tail is going down," Laxus critiqued in distaste.
He wholly thought that by the lax way Makarov was managing Fairy Taill, it was going to end up like those ratty public schools. No class, no stature, no prestige. God knows letting in scholarship transfers was already like a pity charity case. It was a good thing that Ivan took over the Dreyar company; his father was more ruthless and perfect for the business world, just like he was trained to be.
Makarov was too lenient. Too... nice.
"Don't worry about that, my boy," Makarov brushed it off without a blink of the eye. Skipping over to Lucy, he took her finished test paper and looked it over really fast. "Good job Lucy-chan! You can go now."
He really didn't seem to be bothered by much of his grandson's obvious distaste.
Lucy, while silent during the exchange by the two Dreyars, thanked the short man and swiftly walked out of the grand office.
The relationship between the two seemed really strained—the tense moment between them reminded her a little of the ones that were of a daily occurrence at the Heartfilia Manor in the months following her runaway.
I wonder...
How he's doing...
. . .
"Fujiokaji."
Tarou Fujiokaji looked up upon being called and paused the sorting of papers in front of him. He wasn't expecting anyone to come at this time; it was his free period and he usually spent it on getting all of the paperwork that was sent to the student body council's office done. Alone.
"P-President," he greeted, standing up immediately to the higher status heir. Truth to be told, he was incredibly intimidated and scared.
Laxus still stood by the doorway, enjoying how he was making the bespectacled male sweat. "Continue on with what you're doing, I just needed to check something in here," he smirked.
"O-Okay."
Tarou went back to his task, but watched from the corner of his eyes with weary. Having someone looking over your shoulders was not a comfortable feeling—especially if that person was Laxus Dreyar.
The president just shown up all of the sudden! Tarou knew, down in the pits of his stomach, that Laxus must have found something that he didn't like or something that the student council did wrong.
It was just the matter of time before he dropped the ball.
"Say Fujiokaji, how is the workload?" Laxus drawled.
"It's fine... I take care of it all myself," he told him, glad that he could hide a portion of his eyes behind glasses. He saw that Laxus strolled to the trash bin, where the useless papers were shredded.
"How dedicated. It's to be expected of our council members."
"T-Thank you," Tarou sighed in relief. Was that all Laxus Dreyar wanted? To check up on his work?
"You're out, Fujiokaji."
"S—Sorry? What?"
Laxus knocked the trash bin down with an outstretched foot, the contents of the container flowing out across the floor like spilled paint. Inside were club papers, notice sheets, old accounting calculations, and no doubt Lucy Heartfilia's one and only calculus exam. A angry grin marred his face, "I do not need scum in Fairy Tail. My student body council has no place for imprudent council members who tamper with other's exam sheets."
The gold and silver fountain pen dropped from Tarou's hand and onto the ground with a clang. The male's face instantly paled.
Simpleton. It didn't take much for Laxus to find out about the mysterious disappearance of Lucy Heartfilia's test paper. All of the exams are first sent into the hands of the council members before it gets into the computers—not only would it reflect badly upon the council, but more so, the reason behind the disappearance was petty and he did not like petty people under his wing.
Fairy Tail was, after all, a prestigious school built upon the Dreyar name and he did not like it when simpletons taint the name of something that was owned by a Dreyar. Even a little thing like getting rid of a test was a scum move that was not going to fly under his nose.
And if anyone was going to make the Heartfilia's life miserable, it would be Laxus and he did not like to share.
"But President! I-I'm the one who always gets the most work done! I'm the most dedicated!"
"Clean up this mess," Laxus simply refuted in a bored tone, smirking as he saw the utterly defeated and humiliated look on Tarou's face. He turned to leave, "Then get out of my sight before I expel you."
Although losing Fujiokaji would be losing somewhat of a commendable asset, since the male was very punctual and whole with his tasks, the council could go on without him all the same. Besides... Laxus' smirk grew with great mirth.
He already has the perfect replacement in mind.
. . .
The first thing Lucy noticed when the council members took their seats for the after school meeting was that four eyes wasn't present. It wouldn't have been that weird if she didn't know that the unpleasant glasses-wearing second-year was very serious about his duties as one of the council members. He was never late—never has she seen the male miss a meeting. Even though every member was dedicated in their own way in their duties (yes, even Bickslow was surprising responsible with the sports club reports that he was assigned to oversee), they sometimes either miss or skip the meetings without getting the wrath of their 'beloved' council president.
"What's up, cheerleader baby?" Bickslow slid into the chair next to her the minute she sat down. Through the many meetings, Lucy has found an odd tolerance for her crazy blue haired senior. As long as he didn't catch her on a particularly bad day, he was safe. But regardless he would be very annoying with the purposeful slurs of his words and horrible nicknames.
"I think I'm quite happy that four eyes isn't here today to glare at me." Well, she wasn't all that innocent with names either.
"Four eyes, huh? I didn't know you had a mean side. Nice!" Bickslow laughed, patting her head much to her chagrin. "But I heard 'four eyes' was taken off the council."
Lucy's stared at him in surprise. "Really?" As much that she hated to admit, the guy was very efficient and quick. Out of all of the people in the room, he was the least likely to be kicked off or anything of that sort. "What happened to him?"
"Tarou Fujiokaji unfortunately messed up on the handing of important papers, leading to his resignation from the council," Laxus answered for Bickslow as he strolled into the room. Like everyone else, Lucy was dumbfounded with the explanation.
"That's troublesome," Evergreen, who was sitting on the far end, rolled her eyes. "Who's going to do his job then? My hands are down, Laxus."
"Yeah..." Members around the table murmured to each other, not having as much guts to voice irrelevant opinions into the discussion. Bickslow seemed to be the only one who was mellow and not that bothered by the new turn of events. He didn't care because he knew he wouldn't be stuck with the paperwork job.
"Whoever's replacing Fujiokaji better do a damn good job," he yawned.
The attention all fell on Laxus and Freed, one of the them would be appointing the new candidate. In turn the president smirked and once again Lucy got a very bad feeling.
"Lucy Heartfilia. Will you do the honors?"
Of course he would throw the most troubling and time-consuming job in her way. What did I expect? She sighed to herself; there was the Eucliffe to blame—she knew the two heir had somewhat of a rivalry between them and it was not going to end well for her.
"Woo! You'll be an official member of the council now, cheerleader baby!" Bickslow grinned.
Lucy glared. Who could forget that day when Laxus introduced her as the 'unofficial member' of the student body council? Every one on the council, with the exception of Bickslow (since he was busy trying to hit on her), had treated her like the committee dog, ordering her around to do things that they didn't feel like doing. Thinking about it still irks her to degree because they were just so cocky.
However, having this position wouldn't be too bad. It was just some more paperwork that she will have to fill out and check over after school each day—she can do it in under an hour with how fast she worked. Plus she wouldn't dare to show some kind of weakness in front of the Dreyar, much less ask for him to appoint someone else.
Biting the insides of her cheek, Lucy flashed Laxus a fake smile. "I'd love to."
Good old Fujiokaji is back (sort of), but is he here to stay? Dun dun...