"Looking at your textbooks and thinking, 'What a waste of a good tree.'"

-Teenager post # 195

CHAPTER 8: A MOMENTARILY TRUCE

4:13 PM

Cake Shop, Magnolia, Fiore

'Our first quarter examinations are coming in two months. There's barely enough time for me to review.'

Erza Scarlet didn't care about anything but her thoughts at the moment.

'I've got to finish my plans for the magic clubs, the bulletin boards, the Fantasia open-school festival,'

She walked with concentrated, thoughtful eyes on the floor and holding a plate of a family-sized strawberry cheesecake in the cake shop.

'The theatrical annual school play, the field trips, the Fairytale-themed centennial dance,'

She sat down on a random table which she assumed was empty and released a deep sigh.

'There's just so much to do.'

"Well, hello to you too, Gray." A new voice startled the scarlet-haired girl. Her eyes jerked forward, the spoon in her hand momentarily hanging in the air.

She put the spoonful of delicate strawberry cheesecake back on the plate. "What are you doing here, Fullbuster?"

"Oh, that's right; I forgot you always called me by my last name, Scarlet." He mockingly replied.

Erza crossed her arms in irk, "You're half naked. Again."

He looked startled for a moment in realization that she was right, before answered with a cool "I did that on purpose."

"Sure you did." She retorted back. "And go find another table."

He raised an eyebrow, daring to defy her for the umpteenth time, "I was here first."

She ignored this comment and glared at him, "Sit somewhere else; people might think we're friends."

"Don't you think I should be saying that?" he sipped on his strawberry milkshake and kept the glaring contest going.

"I hate you." She plainly stated, earning a curious look from the usually uncaring ice mage.

"And that is because?" he asked with a playful smirk that she would just love to wipe off with a chainsaw. Or a sledgehammer.

Before she could retort with a saucy 'Because you're you,' the door opened with a gentle chime.

"Oh, great." Gray Fullbuster muttered with a heavenly roll of his eyes when a certain fire mage walked towards the two.

"I didn't know you two hang out here, Erza." Natsu Dragneel commented with a grin, propping himself on the third chair.

"Trust me, we don't." the ice mage answered, while Erza Scarlet commenced eating her strawberry cheesecake.

"Why're you here, Natsu?" the scarlet-haired girl asked, eyes focused on the dreamy strawberry cheesecake.

"I wanted to go get some ice cream." He answered with a shrug.

"And this is why people call this a cake shop." Gray dully spoke.

"Well I don't see you with any cake either, ice princess." The fire mage retorted with fiery eyes.

"What'd you said, fire-breath?" Gray quickly countered.

The onlooker cut off Natsu before he could come up with anything and resulting in the two turning the cake shop into dust with a "How was detention, Natsu?" her dangerously low voice making the fire mage gulp and stop, the cryomancer snickering in the background.

He thought for a second or so, before answering with a big smile. "I talked to that Lucy girl."

"Stared stupidly while she talked, you mean." Gray mumbled, earning a direct stomp on his foot by the glowering Titania.

"And? Did she, by chance, slap you on the face and walk away?" Erza asked, earning two bewildered stares from her two companions.

"What? No. Why would she do that?" Natsu incredulously asked.

The scarlet-haired girl rolled her eyes, "She's a damsel-in-distress. Who woke up with a stranger who looked ready to strangle her in his sleep."

This earned a mocking laugh from the ice mage, who Natsu turned to glare with loathe.

"I woke up hugging her, Erza. Not strangling." He retaliated.

"Big difference." Gray Fullbuster muttered once more, succeeding in annoying both the requip and fire mage.

"Fullbuster," Erza calmly stated.

"Scarlet," the ice mage taunted with a smirk.

"Dragneel." The oblivious fire mage joined in, noting the glaring contest between the two.

"Do Fiore a favor and stop talking." Erza finished, before turning to Natsu, "If she didn't slap you, what happened?"

"We talked." The fire mage cringed at how well their conversation went, "Then I asked her if she wanted some ice cream."

"She said no, of course." The requip mage chewed on thoughtfully while the fire mage leaned tediously on his right palm, his elbow propping himself on the table.

Gray Fullbuster, never taking an order from the requip mage to simply shut up, asked "You expected her to say yes?"

Natsu nodded, never feeling as dejected as before.

Erza patted him on the back, rather hardly, the fire mage thought; and looked at him with pitiful, emotion-filled eyes. "It's alright, Natsu. First love sometimes comes unrequited. And need time and patience. So you can't just give up!" she exclaimed, earning weird stared from the other people inside the shop.

"What? Love? Patience? No, no, that's not right." the fire mage confusedly thought out loud, but now deliberately being ignored by a moved Erza Scarlet and a sympathizing Gray Fullbuster.

"Okay. Since we're friends, we'll help you." The requip mage momentarily stopped eating the heavenly dessert.

"Help?" Natsu now had no idea in all of Earthland of what was going on.

"We?" Gray asked in unison, the scarlet-haired girl simply nodding in determination.

"Yes, we, Fullbuster; as much painful as that sounds, are going to help Natsu Dragneel attain the utter and blissful romantic cliché high school love story with the girl of his dreams." The scarlet-haired girl finished with a flourish of her hands.

The fire mage simply jaw-dropped and gaped at the two. A loud 'WHAT' swirling around in his head.

"Are you calling on a momentarily truce with me, Scarlet?" Gray Fullbuster amusedly asked, oblivious to the confused, dizzy-eyed fire mage.

"Never thought this day would come." Erza shook her head.

"We were mortal enemies for two days, you know." The ice mage stated,

"And we'll be mortal enemies 'till the end of high school." She proclaimed, "But yes. This is, for the sake of a comrade in need, a momentarily truce."

4:24 PM

The Apartment, Strawberry Street, Magnolia, Fiore

Lucy from Fairy Tail unceremoniously and practically dropped dead on her white, plush, queen-sized bed. She closed her eyes, arms spread out, while feeling serene at the much awaited silence.

She should finally feel at peace, she thought; but then there was something else bothering her. It felt like something was missing. She slowly opened her eyes in thought.

Slowly, she got up from her bed and sat down in front of a desk with a plain mirror in front of it. She surveyed herself; same blonde hair, same brown eyes, same uniform, and same skin complexion.

'What's wrong with you, Lucy?' she annoyingly thought, until her eyes travelled towards her reflection's pale, white and bare neck.

She stood up alarmed. Her hands flew up to her neck and felt that it was, indeed, bare.

'My necklace. The one mom gave me. It's missing!'