Love Test

Chapter 3: "I will never betray my friends"

Natsu dashed up the stairs and out of that dungeon, or so he called it. The sun had just barely started setting; meaning Lucy should still be awake. The fire mage's pace increased as excitement pulsed through his veins. He was going to get Lucy to fully agree this time! It was an easy request, one that Lucy would like, and it had a good reward too! Jumping up into her open window, the pyromaniac looked for his partner. Spotting her at her desk, her head slumped down on the desk and her feather pen still in hand, he scowled. She was writing something he wouldn't be allowed to read again. He never understood why she was so secretive about what she wrote. "Oi Lucy!" He called loudly, hopping off the window sill and into her home.

When he got no response from the blonde he dragged himself over to her angrily, he was about to yell again, until he realized how even her breathing was and how still her feather pen was. She couldn't be… asleep, could she? Natsu brushed some of the hair which covered her face, revealing her closed eyelids and slightly parted lips. The young Heartfilia was indeed, asleep. Natsu made a face which read, "what the heck weirdo?" He scowled. If she slept like that she'd get cold, and her neck or back would definitely murder her the next morning. He groaned before allowing a smile to grace his face. Lucy was so weird sometimes. Maybe, just maybe, if he moved her onto her bed nicely, he could use this as a means to get her to go on the job he picked out. Natsu shrugged, it was worth a try.

Kneeling, he slowly snuck an arm underneath her thighs and another behind her back, before slowly standing up with the beautiful blonde in his arms. Her pen fell out of her fingers' weak grip, as Natsu carried her across the room to her bed. He used his knee to support her bum as he quickly pulled the comforter of the bed before proceeding to carefully lay the sleeping beauty down onto the warm sheets. Natsu then proceeded to cover her up, and gently, as gently as he possibly could, remove the hair ties that bundled her hair into two pigtails. Natsu then proceeded to remove the hair which fell onto Lucy's face. Feeling drained himself, for some unknown reason, he folded his arms on the edge of the Heartfilia's bed, and resting his head on his muscular arms he dozed off easily.

Earlier that day…

"Damn it! We missed her!" A blonde male cursed.

"She did say it was in two days' time," the ebony haired man glared at him.

"But!" The blonde groaned a second time. "I thought we would be able to figure it out today!"

"I believe she said in two days' time so that she wouldn't waste our time, we could be training."

The two males continued to bicker. It wasn't long before the pink head of their conversation flew by, a request paper in hand.

"Ah! Look it's Natsu-san!" The blonde mage smiled. "Let's follow him Rogue!"

"Not interested. You go ahead Stin-" Rogue had barely finished his sentence when his partner went running past him at top speed.

"Go Sting-kun!" Lector cheered in the background. "You're the fastest!"

"Fro thinks so too," the exceed in the frog suit agreed.

Sting's nose twitched as he continued to follow Natsu's distinct scent, which he had long since identified. It was faint, and was mingling itself with all sorts of other scents. Slowing his pace down to a walk, he treaded through the town carefully, attempting to maintain his grasp on Natsu's scent. Sting smiled happily, as Natsu's scent began to increase in strength. Following his nose, he soon came upon a house near the river. This was where Natsu's scent ended. He saw that the window was left open, opting that it would be wiser to surprise the pinkette, he leaped up onto the window sill. "Yo, Natsu-sa-whaaaa!" Sting began before he toppled backwards and off the window sill eyes wide at the sight before him. "What the…?"

Sting hopped back onto the window sill, and watched as Natsu snored peacefully on his celestial mage partner's comforter. Those silly rumors couldn't be true! They couldn't be! Natsu was… Natsu was… much too cool to be interested in girls! Sting was completely taken aback. It couldn't be that Natsu lived with his partner, could it? No! He'd have to go check, that Mira lady! She should know!

On that not-so-hapy note Sting hopped off the window sill and took off in the direction of Fairy Tail. He had to know.

0o0-_-_-_-0o0

"Lisanna!" Mira called out.

"Yes, Nee-san?" the younger Strauss responded.

"Can you come with me for a second, master needs to talk to you," Mirajane's smile faltered a bit, shifting into a nervous one.

"I-Is everything alright?" Worry coated the animal soul user's voice.

"A-Aah, it's nothing about you really," Mira grabbed her sister's hand and dragged her to the master's office.

"O-Okay."

"M-master, you wanted to talk to me?" Lisanna asked nervously, alerting the old man of her presence, stimulating him to turn around and sit Indian style on his desk.

"Yes, I did, please sit down child, you have nothing to worry about," the old man smiled.

Lisanna sat down nervously in the comfy plush seat in front of Makarov's desk. "We would like you to help us explain to Natsu what 'the deed' is."

"W-what!" Lisanna asked cheeks aflame. "How can I do that?"

"Well, you don't have to engage in the activity with him, all you have to do, is put your hands on his shoulders and sit in his lap," Mira added helpfully.

"W-wha-"

"Don't worry he'll have no idea it's you," The dwarf man reassured her. "And in case things wrong, we have arranged a matrimonial ceremony at the church nearby."

"We have already prepared the invitations and dress, all that's left is to let the groom know," Mira squealed.

Lisanna blinked surprise written all over her face. "I-I can't do that Mira-nee, I can't do that to Lucy," Lisanna gulped nervously. Lucy was her best friend, as was Natsu, that's why… that's why she refused to destroy their chances at happiness. "I'm sorry master, but you'll have to find someone else," Lisanna said walking towards the door.

"L-Lisanna!" Mira called out frantically.

"NO!" Lisanna yelled. "I will never betray my friends!"

Makarov then spoke, his voice low, "It has to be you, I can only rely on you! Won't you do something so simple for me? Lisanna?"

Lisanna turned to look at the dwarf man, who was very much her grandfather. How could she deny her grandfather anything? He was looking at her as though he was extremely disappointed in her. Eyes watering Lisanna mumbled, "I-I'm sorry Lucy."

"I-I acc-" Lisanna paused. "I still refuse! I might participate in helping you teach Natsu about 'the deed', but only because I want to see what his and Lucy's children would look like!" Lisanna added quickly, "but I refuse to marry him, Lucy is my friend, and I refuse to do anything to hurt her!"

The master let out a long hearty laugh, making Lisanna wonder if this was all a test. "That was really mean master!" Mira scolded.

"Well you still went along with it," the elderly Dreyer grumbled, "anyway we were just joking with you Lisanna, if things were to go wrong, Mirajane and I would be there to control the situation."

The younger Strauss blinked, before she erupted into a river of tears, "Mira-neeeeee that was so mean!"

"Now, now Lisanna," Mira patted her little sister on the back, "you're getting the rug…and yourself all wet."

Meanwhile…

The infamous white dragon slayer ran into Fairy Tail, panic and desperation dominating his features. He looked all around the guild for the beautiful long haired demon, but to no avail. Groaning, the blonde slapped his palm on his handsome face, allowing it to slide down slowly. "What's wrong Sting-kun?" A brick-red exceed looked at the mage worriedly.

"Ah! Lector!" Sting smiled. "Have you seen Mira-san?"

"Isn't she," the cat looked to the bar, "I think she went into her master's office."

"Ah, is that so," the saber mage smirked ready to burst into the office.

0o0-_-_-_-0o0

"KYAA!" Lisanna screamed as the impact of the door sent her flying.

"Yo! Mira-san! You in he-" the blonde stopped once he spotted the woman he was looking for, "there you are!"

He was about to approach her, but the daggers her eyes shot at him made his sweat run cold. That's when he noticed he'd hit the other white-haired beauty within the room. "Oh, haha my bad," Sting rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "sorry about that," he said walking over to the younger Strauss and offering her a hand.

Lisanna glared at his hand, but took it anyway, since he was kind enough to offer. The white dragon slayer pulled up the animal soul user with ease. His nervous smile still on his face he turned to see a smiling Mira, letting out a relieved sigh, he turned around to ask her a question, until…

"BAHAHAHAHA!" Fairy Tail's master's jolly laugh ran throughout the office, making the two siblings laugh alongside him.

An irritated look took the saber mage's features. "He's a lot like Natsu isn't he?" Mira giggled.

"Nah I think this one's brighter than Natsu," the Wizard saint grinned.

"Anyway, you were looking for me?" The older Strauss asked.

"Aah!" Sting ran up to the lady. "Does Natsu-san live with his partner? You know that Celestial mage?"

"W-why do you ask?" The demon in disguise asked taken aback.

"I saw him sleeping with his partner on the same bed."

"How do you know where Lucy lives?" Lisanna asked, suspicion clear in her voice.

"That's the Celestial mage's house?" Sting's eyes widened.

"Answer my question!" The younger takeover mage demanded.

"I followed Natsu-san there," the blonde's eye twitched, boy this lady sure was forceful.

"Why were you following Natsu?" The S-class takeover mage asked bewildered.

"I wanted to challenge him to a fight."

"Why did you have to follow him to Lucy's apartment?" Lisanna glared.

"He was running at top speed outa the guild!" Sting groaned loudly.

"Why didn't you ask him then?" Lisanna asked.

"Like I already said, "I saw him sleeping with his partner on the same bed!" Sting tugged at his hair.

On that happy note the two Straus siblings were out of the office and on their way to their favorite Celestial mage's apartment, not wanting to miss the chance to see the two cuddling.

"O-Oi! You haven't answered my question!" Sting was about to take off when he heard the old man respond. "Huh?"

"Natsu has a home of his own, but he prefers to live in Lucy's apartment," the old man opened an eye to look at the young mage's blank face, "so, in a way, yes they do live together, even though they really don't."

0o0-_-_-_-0o0

"Kya! They're so cute!"

"Aren't they! Kya!"

"Shh, be quiet, or we'll wake them!"

"But you were loud too Nee-san," Lisanna pouted.

"Okay, but now we have to be quiet," the former pin up model whispered.

"Still, that stupid saber got us all excited for nothing," Lisanna grumbled, "I thought they were cuddling or something."

"Ufufu," an evil laugh was heard, making the two takeover mages turn their heads around so fast they almost got a whiplash, "they lllllllliiiiike each other."

"Shhhh! Happy!" Lisanna whisper shouted.

The blue exceed completely ignored the Strauss as he yawned loudly, flew into the apartment, and plopped himself down onto the bed in between the two sleeping mages, falling asleep almost immediately.

Back at the guild…

"You look terrible."

"I feel terrible."

"Fight Sting-kun! You'll make it through!" The ever loyal exceed cheered.

"Fro thinks so too," his ever compliant friend agreed.

"I think the first part of that rumor is true," Sting groaned, burying his face in his hands.

"Not interested."

"By the way, is Gajeel still staring at that bookworm?"

"Not interested."

"You should try talking to her, that would catch Gajeel's attention."

"And you should try talking to that Celestial mage, Natsu Dragneel, would be eager to fight you then."

"Whatever."

Well since there wasn't any NaLu fluff in the last chapter I tried to make up for it in this chapter. Any who~ please leave me a review telling me what you liked, what you didn't like, and what you hope to see in the future. ^-^

Thanks to all those who reviewed, favorited, and followed Love Test! It's thanks to you that my happiness continues to rise beyond the charts.

Sorry for any and all grammar mistakes, I was in a rush to update!

By the way feel free to call me Pinky.

And in case I don't update in time, I'm going to be travelling between the dates of May 19-May 22, so I won't be able to get any work done then, but I'll try my hardest to get Chapter 4 out before then! Thanks again everyone!

-Pinky out.

(Anyone else detecting NaLu fluff in the next chapter?) ;)

PREVIEW:

Chapter 4: "A Friend's Love"

"Oho! Welcome back to the land of the living bastard!"

…..

Natsu didn't like this, he didn't like this at all. There was an annoying weight on his lap, and it made him feel filthy. He felt like he was betraying someone. Like he was betraying Lucy, and it aggravated him. His face scrunched up in disgust, he would never betray Lucy! He was so angry with himself. He wanted this stupid test to be over and done with so he could get rid of this cruel feeling. Stupid Mira, stupid Ji-chan he cursed.