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~I do not own Fairy Tail~
The gloomy atmosphere in the corridors was accompanied by the two rainclouds hanging over their hung heads as they slowly pigeon-walked forwards with me in between them. Their ballet shoes echoed throughout the empty hallway, the kitten heels adding more height to their already-towering height and I felt their heart crushing every time their shoes click-clacked against the floor. I joyfully skipped forwards and then stop every so often to turn back at them and shout, "Hurry up!" They moaned loudly and quickened their pace despite their anguished faces.
"Why do you think Makarov had these costumes in his back cupboard?" Natsu thought to himself out loud. Immediately, I regret ever considering the reasons behind those outfits.
"Honestly, I don't care why. I'm only concentrating on keeping hold of whatever pride I have left." Zeref tried to hold a high head but deserted the idea and slouched his head downwards.
"At least it wasn't a back-breaking punishment." I pushed myself between him and Natsu and smiled up at them then at the empty donation boxes in their hands, anticipating how heavy they'll be after they've been filled with generous coins and loose change. I noticed a piece of paper badly tied to Zeref's bucket and grabbed it curiously, then quietly read to myself what it had written on it.
Coincidentally, the room they had to visit was the class of people in our year, which I smugly pointed out. They both stopped walking and sank to the floor, sulking with a growing grey cloud above their heads, and almost tore their tight-fitting dresses.
Of course, I felt like they deserved it. From what I've heard, today wasn't the first time they've fought so recklessly, so it was about time for them to be punished in such a way that they wouldn't dare go outside in the next ten years or so.
"Come on, we have to do just this one class before lunch," I enthusiastically grabbed their muscular arms and pulled the two dismal teenagers up from the rank-suitable floor, "Plus, I don't know where this classroom is." I quietly added.
"Well then, let's go," Natsu confidently jumped up and punched the air with determination but I knew he secretly wanted this ordeal for him to be over as soon as possible. "After all, it's for charity, isn't it?" Natsu sourly emphasised the last sentence at Zeref, who reluctantly got up.
I sat down in-between Loke and Levy and waited for their speech to begin with an approving look from the very tall and scarily hench teacher called Mr. Strauss, quoting that, "Only real men will complete a punishment, no matter how embarrassing or degrading." This comment led Natsu and Zeref looking down, taking in all of the shouts and woops from the male audience.
However, I could see the girls around me blushing and pointing out the bulging muscles contained within the tight dresses of Natsu and Zeref, most of the comments aimed at Zeref, who apparently only wear clothes which covers most of his whole body and was a rare sight to find out of them. For some reason, I felt instantaneously annoyed at the girls' and grumpily sunk into my seat, trying to block out their irritating voices.
"Hey, Mittens, speak up!" Gray Fullbuster shouted from the back of the class at Natsu, who began speaking after the long ten minutes of straight-out laughter from the whole room stopped, which caused Natsu to angrily lash out.
"What did you say to me, Ice-Freak?" He raised his fists at the smirking boy, but Zeref calmly held him back and, much to the surprise of the whole class, Natsu relaxed his body and exhaled.
"We're here to support a charity desperately in need of money so they can provide aid necessary to help poor, helpless animals who lack simple necessities for a graceful life. Put yourself in their positions and donate whatever you deem necessary for you to leave behind a life of poverty and malnutrition." Zeref heroically stepped forward, where a sudden light appeared from out of nowhere, and dramatically preached to the student body where I could see his little 'fanclub' wiping a tear from their eyes. I rolled my eyes and sighed at them, then caught eyes with Zeref, who softly smiled at me. Despite his ultimate prepubescent womanliness in his white pompom dress, I grinned proudly when I noticed he was always looking at me throughout his speech.
The whole population of girls began frantically walking up to the two boys and generously emptying their pockets into the red buckets then tried chatting with them, leaving Loke and I by ourselves near the back. Whereas, Natsu would naively reply to the obviously-flirting girls and Zeref ignored them or answered very bluntly, which I happily smiled to myself about.
"Quite inspiring, wasn't it?" Loke looked over at me with his deep, hazel eyes and tipped his head cutely; I nodded at him and giggled at the two boys' costumes once more, "Oh, Lucy, your laugh is absolute harmony to my ears!" He gently took my hand and kissed it lightly.
I was completely shocked by this gesture and my face flushed bright pink, however I didn't snatch my hand back because I was lost in his dreamy eyes, which I've only just noticed were surrounded by pure, slightly tanned skin and small, pouting lips. From the corner of my eye I could see Zeref struggling to push himself through the crowd of donators towards me, but before I could turn to face him, Loke suddenly wrapped his arms around me and hugged me, frightening me to death.
"Lucy, you don't know my true feelings, do you?" He gasped melodramatically.
"Feelings? We've just met!" I exclaimed and tried to look at his face to see (or hope) if he was joking. He wasn't, in fact, he tried to kiss me. I closed my eyes and leaned away from him when I suddenly felt his hands abruptly abandon their grip on my shoulders; opened my eyes and looked up. Zeref was furiously holding Loke by his shoulder with glowering, red orbs staring right at him and a crinkled face. Despite the immense force Zeref held the teenager he was expressing a proud smirk on his face.
"Hit a nerve, did I?" Loke smugly asked Zeref, who soon caught on with whatever he had planned and let go of his shoulder, ferociously shoving him away from us.
Dazed and still frozen from what had just happened, I looked at Zeref for answers but I couldn't help staring at the little floppy ears he had on his head. His face plastered on his regular stoic emotion and stepped towards me, entrapping me into the corner, feeling terrible déjà vu, and spoke lowly.
"Stay away from him, Lucy." He growled.
"Right, should I be writing that down along with the many others you've told me to avoid?" I snapped and angrily shoved passed him, walking away without looking back and headed towards Levy, who was suspiciously viewing the whole scene from afar.
"You okay, Luce?" She blinked her massive hazel eyes and held my hand to comfort me. I smiled, shaking my head and rolled my eyes, avoiding any answer at the moment. "Well, this lesson's nearly over and lunch is next, you still joining us?" She beamed up at me.
"Of course, I could take a break from Mr. Grumpy." I said with utmost relief.
At first, I thought I could learn more about Levy in lunch because we were the first people to arrive at the aging maple tree however the person of subject turned out to be me, most specifically, Zeref and I.
"How'd you get those bruises?" I had a feeling she already thought she knew the answer as we sat down on the grass, but I wanted to express to her that Zeref isn't a bad guy.
Leaving out what he did to those men, are we? I asked myself
"On the first night I was here, you know -when I was at the beach- I strayed and some guys got rough -they're the ones who gave me this- but thankfully Zeref saved me." That answer seems to of disappointed her in a sort of way.
"Sounds scary, what happened?"
"I just told you." I quickly replied.
"I mean, like, when Zeref saw the men." She refused to say anything heroic about him and I don't know why.
"He roughed up the dudes, saved me heroically and then happily ever after we fell asleep." I lied, it didn't feel good but the truth sounded worse than how it actually was.
"Oh! Who are you roomies with? I haven't seen you around the dorms." Levy waved at Loke and the others, who were walking up to us a while away.
"Zeref, they didn't have other rooms, apparently."
"WHAT? You're sharing a room with HIM? You must get Makarov to change it or something." She slammed her chopsticks, which still had sticky rice attached to the ends, on the ground.
"What's your problem with him? You don't seem to like him." I frowned for the first time in her company.
"He's evil. Weird and freaky, you should stay away from him, Luce." Levy sourly spat out his description.
Okay, yes, he is weird and freakish because he DID measure my body whilst I was sleeping. I guess he's also killed a lot of people because of that weird black mist. Come to think of it, I saw it surrounding him during his second encounter with Natsu, before he screamed and then it vanished. He's not evil. I know him and he is the total opposite of that!
"I must disagree with you; Zeref is a good person, a good roommate and a fantastic friend." Suddenly, I didn't want to be here anymore; I felt out of my comfort zone and I wanted to be with someone I knew, someone like Zeref. When I saw Gajeel and Loke approach us amongst the others I felt even more uncomfortable so I briskly walked away, ignoring Levy's call and apologies, and walked directly across the field where Zeref lay comfortably against a tree, wearing his usual clothing.
He looked up to me expressionlessly, but the sun caught his face in a beautiful, angelic angle and my heart fluttered as I sat next to him. I looked guiltily at the ground and unpacked the lunch he perfectly made for me in the morning, offering him a sweet that my dad used to give me all the time and I guess some ended up in my bag.
"I'm very lucky to have met you, Zeref, and I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier." I apologised after he refused my sweet. He nodded, accepting the apology, and brushed some loose dirt off of my shoulder.
"It's fine. Understand that what I say is only for your benefit and you don't have to follow what I say all the time, but what Loke did was unacceptable." His lip stiffened cynically.
"Yeah I know, I have no idea what got into him. Anyway, what's our last lesson?"
"Makarov, if you would like to speak with me, then Lucy must stay too." He ignored my comment and spoke towards an empty space, where a little figure popped out of nowhere.
"Very well, this is about what happened today," Makarov put his hands behind his back and strolled up and down repetitively, "Firstly, you were extremely reckless to have started a fight period. But with Natsu Dragneel? Both of you fighting in a small area equal complete destruction of my school and you know this. Especially since you began releasing your Deathmist which could've killed everyone, luckily, that's how I knew what was happening." He stopped pacing and looked directly at Zeref. "Such magic is so destructive because not even its creator can control it, but I'm curious because you managed to restrain it. How?" I knew it! His screams of pain and struggle were because he was opposing this Deathmist.
"I fought it inside my mind: something I've never been able to do before. There was some sort of strength in me that I haven't felt before." Zeref confessed.
"Maybe it was the presence of someone who hasn't been with you before, perhaps they powered up your abilities to withstand it," Makarov and Zeref looked at me, causing me to be stunned to the ground. I influenced Zeref's magical ability? "My hypothesis is that something about Lucy's magical aura positively contrasts with yours. This is indeed interesting and something we should look more into." Makarov concluded before leaving us alone again.
I looked at Zeref, completely puzzled but extremely anxious to know how I compliment his magic and he knew something about it, I can tell. But all he would do is innocently shrug as if he was clueless. What is he trying to hide?