I own none of these characters except my own. All the official Fairy Tail characters are owned by Hiro Mashima.
Ch 6: Remember People's Faces You DumbassWhile the girls were hiding out on the rooftop, the boys who enjoyed the attention, hang out near the basketball courts and field. They ate their meals on the bleachers near the soccer and football field as they were banned from the cafeteria for violent behavior. In other words, fighting. They all had already finished eating lunch and left their bags on the table as the group shifted over to the court.
They were originally playing three on three but now Gajeel and Gray were standing on the sidelines with Jellal sitting on the ground next to them reading a book. Rogue was standing a yard away from Gajeel in the corner watching him out of the corner of his eyes. The three with the exception of Jellal had their eyes on the two remaining players on the court. There was the constant clap of the ball hitting the ground and the cheers from the girls surrounding them or watching from other bleachers. The two were dripping with sweat and their faces were red from the exercise but neither looked ready to give up.
"You're pretty good at basketball huh, Natsu-san? I pegged you more of a football type of guy." Sting casually poked at him as he dribbled the ball on the left before swerving quickly to the right in hopes to fake him out. Natsu however has the instincts of a wild animal along with ball game experience so he anticipated the fake and easily maneuvered over to the right as if mirroring Sting's actions. Rushing forward, he slapped the ball out of Sting's hand and after successfully stealing it, bolted down the court and easily passed mid court before Sting stopped him right in front of the zone. Sting was now blocking the center circle so Natsu either had to make a 3 pointer or pass Sting and make a 2 pointer.
Sting didn't really know how capable Natsu was at shooting and how accurate his shooting percentage is so he assumed it was somewhere around his accuracy which was 50-60% and decided to push Natsu into a three pointer, sure he'd miss and be able to take the rebound. Backing away, he made enough room for Natsu to shoot on the three point line but had enough pressure to block the zone so it was more pressured than implied he had to take the shot at that moment. A smirk came across Natsu's face as he caught onto Sting's body language. Oh so this is how it's going to be, Sting you bastard.
"I'm all fired up!" Natsu called out his classic catch phrase as he took the challenge head on and bent his knees as he lowered his body. Gaining enough momentum, he launched himself forward and launched the ball towards the hoop. Sting tried to block and held his hands out hoping to intercept the shot but didn't even manage to touch the ball as it soared right at the hoop. It swished easily and made a basket. Nothing but net.
Natsu threw his head back and his hands were propped on his waist as he let out a thunderous laugh. Sting merely held a look of pure shock as he stared at the ball which bounced on the ball. He quickly snapped his jaw up when his eye caught contact with Rogue's and with his cheek burning bright red, he grumbled as he picked up the ball. "Lucky shot. Don't push your gut. I'll get you next time."
Natsu shook with anger at that and raising his right hand, he made a "come at me" gesture by curling his fingers.
About ten minutes later, the two boys were passed out and lying flat on the dirty blacktop. Their blazers and ties were littered on the floor. The ball was laid forgotten against the pole of the hoop. Their breathing was labored and it made small puffs in the cold air. The three bystanders were now sitting back on the bench since they become bored with the match.
Catching his breath, Natsu slowly rose from the ground and pushed himself onto his feet. He first walked over the pole, retrieving the basketball, before sitting himself next to Jellal on the bench. Sting would have joined him also since he didn't want to be outdone. However at that moment, his emotions got the better of him and he kept lying on the ground with a firm pout on his mouth, sulking like a sullen cat. After allowing himself a few minutes, he forced himself off the blacktop and trudged his heavy legs to the group.
"So what theme are you all going to choose for the Ichiya tea ceremony assignment?" Jellal inquired as he slid his scarf under his chin so he had more access to speak. Almost as if they rehearsed it, all of them groaned at the same time at the mention of the disastrous project. Except for Rogue of course but he did scowl at the mention of it.
"I seriously don't understand what he was thinking. What's the purpose of us throwing a tea ceremony? Sounds like bullshit to me. I mean when have you ever seen a king partake in such pansy activities. I mean only Mom plans these activities in my kingdom." Gray complains as he ruffled his hair with his right hand. He felt a little awkward planning and throwing it but at least he wasn't the only male doing it. However, he was a little worried he was going to receive a bad grade since he was inexperienced. He sighed in despair already seeing the 3- on the grade sheet.
"Come on, use your brains you knuckleheads. They gave us partners for a reason. We can just have them do all the work. Easy peasy." Sting replied with a coy smirk on his lips. He honestly didn't want anything to do with this project. In fact, as soon as Ichiya spoke of the project in class and assigned partners, he was going to request for an alternate project but when he opened his mouth, a pen suddenly flew past him, barely grazing his cheek and leaving a long ink mark.
With goosebumps running through his body, he was unfortunately stuck with the dreaded tea ceremony as his future attempts ended the same way with his almost demise. Shaking off the thought of the death pen, he rested his head on his palm and continued his thought, "I mean I have this one really stuck up girl as my partner. She's all prim and proper and always takes notes in class and wears the uniform exactly how rules want you to. I mean who does that? A tryhard that's for sure. She never talks and probably has something wrong with her." A brash laugh slipped from his lips and his fangs were revealed when he grinned, "She's such a nobody. I don't even remember her name. What is it? Selene? Serenity? Honestly I don't fucking care as long as she does wor-"
A gasp then burst from him as a foot lodged itself into his stomach, a good inch or so in, before he flew backwards from his seat. His face also exploded in pain as knuckles bit hard into the bridge of his nose. A loud crunch sound occurred and he was unsure if it was him or his attacker. He hit the ground hard and he instantly wrapped a hand around his aching stomach and covered his now bleeding nose. "Fuat eh ell, Matsu! Hat ur-" Once again he was interrupted as Natsu slammed his foot near his head and knelt down into his face while he lifted him up to meet him by the collar, teeth bared like a wild dog. There was a rogue look in his eyes and his face was red from rage. It was if he was in flames. Growling, he roared, "You fucking shut up, you lucky piece of trash. I'll have you know Celestia is nowhere near a nobody. She can do shit you can never do which makes you unwanted, a nobody. How dare you talk about her like that when you have no idea what she's going through. I would die to have her as my partner yet here you are throwing her away. If you even have the balls to do any of this shit to her, I'll find you and end you."
With that, Natsu dropped him, not even caring that his head hit the floor with a soft thud, and walked off with hunched shoulders, his feet making slight slapping noises on the pavement. It was as though steam was billowing off of him. Sting's jaw had dropped watching the one he looked up to getting angry but something he had said. However, Natsu wasn't the only one who was mad. Across from him, Gray made splinters in the table between the benches, as his rage got the better of him. His vision turned red and he felt something shift inside of him when he heard such words come through his mouth about his crush. He remembered the feeling of his stomach dropping the moment he heard that she was paired with Sting and not him. Before he was jealous of Sting, but now he just felt bad for Celestia to be paired with a jerk like him.
Next to him, the iron prince showed emotions of silent fury, his eyes narrowed and a scowl cracked across his face. While Gajeel was related to Natsu as distant cousins, he wasn't related to Celestia as she was from the opposite side of Natsu's family tree. However, when they were little, she was always nice to him despite his grumpy and outlandish nature. He was always failing hard in his studies so she would help him even if she didn't need to. Even when he snapped at her to leave him alone, she was always patient and kind, wanting to help him. Though he never visited her kingdom before, he heard about her family situation and cared after her. She was like a small lamb to him and he wanted to protect her from anything that tried to harm her. In a way, Gajeel was sort of like an oversized teddy bear. Jellal was in a similar set of mood. He knew Celestia well being on the same sports team as her and did not like the way he spoke of her. Not wanting to be in his presence any longer either, all of them got up and followed Natsu leaving a bleeding Sting to nurse his wounds with an unsympathetic Rogue.
With his face covered with both blood and shame from being beaten so easily, Sting flapped one of his arms in the air as he was still using the other to cup his nose. Like the egotistic drama queen he was, he waited for Rogue to lift him up despite being capable of doing so himself. His twin brother however wanted Sting to feel a little karma for his decision and turned his head in the opposite direction, studying a fallen leaf which just happened to be next to his seat.
"... The leaf is pretty." He said after a count of twenty seconds and Sting let out a yowl in defiance. He now clawed the air and cried in response, "I on't wucking are aboot sum weaf! Khrist Fogue huep meh oop." Sighing, he obliged to his dying request and swiftly hoisted him up in one swoop. Sting didn't expected this and made a slight strangled noise before placing his feet on the ground with a small "ooomph". Being the responsible child he was, Rogue took a pack of tissues out of his pocket and handed it over to him to stop the flow, "You know… that was pretty stupid. Even for you. If you want to be on his good side again, it's best apologize to the Celestia girl."
"Yeeh, yeeh I gut et…" Sting grumbled darkly as he sat himself back onto the bench. Taking out two tissues, he rolled them up before using them to plug his nose. While doing so, he analyzed Natsu's speech from before. Considering his tone and actions, she must be someone important to him, possibly a close friend. Or maybe a girlfriend? Scoffing, he shook his head. Though he glorified Natsu, he still was conscious of the fact that he was the definition of an idiot. But then again, just to be sure he still can't rule out that option. She must be more important than he originally suspected as the other princes and noble were also offended with his comments. With this new information, a spark went off for once in his puny brain and a plan started to formulate.