Disclaimer: Fairy Tail does not and sadly will never belong to me but this plot does! I'll sue you if you attempt to steal it haha ^w^ *LOL*

(WAIT! WARNING: CHAPTERS 1-3 HAD BEEN RE-WRITTEN ON THE 9TH OF JANUARY DUE TO SOME CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS BEING DISCOVERED. I WOULD SUGGEST YOU RE-READ THEM IF YOU HAVENT ALREADY BEFORE MOVING ON! THANKYOU.

As per the votes I received, the majority votes are against any side pairings and so, this story is going to be side-story free… Sorry for late update! Please read on!)

(Lucy's POV) Behold the first character POV of this story hehe

After a long bath which I always take when I am…confused, here I am sitting on my bed hugging my fluffy pillow and staring at my new friend, 'Winky-dinks'. I don't know why but right now I am just smiling. Yeah, just smiling. I didn't even realize I was until I looked in the mirror! This is like totally odd… But somehow, it feels nice. It's been a while since I could smile so easily and freely and…openly. Maybe Gray isn't such a bad guy… or maybe he's a good guy but that doesn't change much because he is still just that – a 'guy'.

*…My heartful song, my heartful song…Utau yo itsumademo…*

Her phone rang playing one of her favorite songs, 'Heartful Song'. She picked it up immediately.

"Hello?"

-The next day, Fairy High, Literature class-

(Normal POV)

*sigh*

That made nine…no ten…no definitely nine. Gray out of boredom was trying to follow Lucy's sighing but despite himself he was losing track. Finally he scribbled something at the back of his notebook and pushed it towards her. She turned to look at him for a moment then at the notebook and as if Gray: Watch and learn.

understanding she read the message.

Gray: What say? Wanna have some fun?

Lucy grabbed her pen and scribbled a reply.

Lucy: How?

Gray: Something out of the usual… something totally childish and outrageously silly :p

Lucy: Like what?

Gray paused in thought for a moment and then suddenly his face lit up…an idea.

Gray pulled out a rubber band from his pocket, not one but many. He singled them out.

"Um, what're you doing?" Lucy asked, whispering.

"Who'd you like me to target?" He asked her jokingly and she just stared at him as thought telling him she had no idea what he was asking. "Just pick a person" He said again and she looked around her.

"Umm…Loke" She finally said and Gray smiled smugly and she waited anxiously to see what would come next. Gray then stretched the rubber band between his index finger and thumb, and placed a piece of paper that had been folded many times to make it hard; then like a catapult, he aimed at Loke and released it.

A seemingly loud sound was emitted and Loke immediately reacted with a yelp that attracted the attention of all the people around him including the teacher Evergreen.

"Is there a problem Mr. Stellar?" Evergreen asked sternly, hands on her hips.

Loke looked around for what had hit him and when he found nothing, he turned to face Evergreen with a perplexed expression. At the back corner of the class, Gray and Lucy were doing their best to hide their giggles.

"No, nothing." Loke finally replied to Evergreen and the class continued.

"Who next?" Gray asked turning to Lucy and Lucy's face lit up. Somehow, once again she was getting dragged into his pace… Maybe this was what they called the 'Gray effect'. She then pointed at a girl in the second row of the class, "HER" she said in a voice that showed her resent for the said girl.

"Juvia?" Gray asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah. She's given me one hell of a hard time ever since we got paired as seatmates!" Lucy whispered back and Gray couldn't help but face palm. He had many fan girls, sure, but none of them were or are as horrible as Juvia. She was like the one shadow he saw almost every moment of his life almost as often as he saw his own! Crazy, I know…

"Gotcha" He replied and aiming it just at her neck, Gray shot at Juvia and as expected she went all dramatic.

"OUCH!" She yelped and everyone turned to look at her again, "Juvia feels like a bullet just shot through her! Is this the end of Juvia?" (I wish…)

"Get a life Juvia" Someone from the class said to her and the class erupted in laughter.

"Ok so next?" Gray asked again.

"This time I want to try" Lucy said cheerfully and Gray after letting out a chuckle, handed her the rubber band. Lucy began to imitate Gray and aimed at her target carefully but sneakily. Evergreen who had been writing on the chalkboard all this time, turned around and just as she did so, a shot zoomed its way and slammed on her forehead.

"Ouch!" She yelped

"Bull's eye!" Gray declared and high-fived with Lucy. The entire class, once again, erupted in laughter and Evergreen began fuming. Lucy could've sworn she saw smoke coming out of Evergreen's nose. Right now, Evergreen was no different than a bull being shown red.

Apparently Lucy had made a shot at Loke but Loke who was now alert due to being the first target, dodged the shot, resulting in it zooming to the front of the class where it should've hit Levy but with a stroke of luck, unknowingly, she bent her head low in just the nick of time and dodged it and inevitably it slammed onto Evergreen who just happened to turn right at that moment. Had she not have turned and moved that one centimeter or so, the shot would've definitely missed her… pure luck.

"Fullbuster. Heartfilia. Out" Evergreen pronounced every word with equally deadly amount of weight and the two who were finding it so hard stifling their giggles much like the rest of the class, approached the front of the class. Gray bumped fists with Loke as he passed his seat and collecting their detention slips, Gray and Lucy walked out of the class.

Upon coming out, they finally broke loose, releasing their laughter heartily.

"That was just super fun!" Lucy said breathing heavily, smiling wide.

"Wasn't it? See, I am just the best person to be around" Gray joked, dusting of imaginary dust from his jacket and Lucy punched his shoulder playfully.

"STELLAR! ALBERONA!" The two heard Evergreen shouting inside the class, as well as lots of laughter and they broke into fits of laughter again.

They walked together to Freid who barely even noticed them. He seemed to be really busy in his files.

"Gray, Miss Heartfilia, this is the second time in a row and once again you two have come out TOGETHER. This is no alliance or anything I would like to assume?" Freid asked, not bothering to look up from his files.

"Hey Freid give us the blind eye for today man" Gray said and Freid looked up for the first time.

"Gray in normal circumstances I would have but we have Miss Heartfilia here too and certainly we wouldn't want her developing this habit of yours and getting detained every now and then would we?" Gray rubbed the back of his neck and looked like he understood and then Freid smirked.

"Go on. I've got no jobs available for you and I really don't want you two in my office at this time so I'm gonna overlook you two. If you're caught then Gray, you know what to do." Freid stated and Gray patted him on the back in a thankful manner.

As they walked down the hallway Lucy asked, "What did he mean by 'you know what to do'?"

"If we get caught then we take responsibility. Meaning that he wasn't involved"

"Oh…so now where?" Lucy asked and Gray pointed a finger up and said, "up"

Moments later, they were sitting on the railing of the School's roof – a place forbidden to students.

"You seem to come here really often" Lucy said.

"Yeah. It's my hiding place whenever I get detention"

"Which considering what you just pulled in Literature, should be very often"

"Affirmative" Gray replied, "so I'll take your sudden attitude change towards me as that we're friends?"

That one question was like a billion bricks crashing upon her because it was the same question she had been asking herself. It was like every time she was around Gray, she would just have a character change and get dragged along in his pace… in a sense she would like to say, "Yes we are friends" but she was just… afraid – afraid of what could come after that. She had lost the thing in her to trust people, to allow them to become too important.

"Hey um, you're spacing out" He called out to her.

Returning back to reality she looked at Gray then at the ground…

"I…I don't know" She finally replied. She watched his reaction from the corner of her eyes and was surprised to see him smile slightly. He shifted in closer to her and placed a hand on her hand. Lucy blushed crimson.

"I won't ask why you keep yourself so reserved because first of all I don't yet have the right to do so and secondly, I am sure it's something saddening… But Luce, there's one thing I'd like to tell you. Whether you like it or not, to some extent we ARE friends. If we weren't, you wouldn't be sitting here with me... All that's left is for you to accept that. No matter how much you try to protect your heart from others, your heart will still give in to emotions and feelings because that is after all its job. You may think you're doing the right thing by following what your mind believes is best for you but most times, you should give in to what your heart wants. Sometimes, taking the risks is the right thing. Luce, trusting people isn't a bad thing. Not every person is crooked… There might actually be someone out there worthy of your trust and you will never know because you don't want to take the risk of trusting. Break out of this shell Luce and you'll see that there ARE actually a lot of wonderful people around you that you may have never noticed before."

The period bell rang, signaling time for Lunch and Gray patted her head before walking away. Lucy just sat there stunned. She watched him disappear down the staircase. Her eyes welled up and she let the tears flow…

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NEXT CHAPTER: Touched by Gray's words, will Lucy finally give in and let her relationship with Gray bear the name of friendship? Or will she remain stubborn? Continue reading to find out!

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

JA'NE!