CHAPTER 2: Surprise!

In the cafeteria, many of the students in Fairy Tail High are already there to take up their snacks for the morning. As Natsu stood by the door, he sees the two blondes continue to walk inside along with their other friends. They didn't seem to hear him when he shouted as the crowd's noise overpowered his voice. Natsu was then a little annoyed.

Stumping his way to his friends instead, Natsu walked past Lucy and the others and went straight to their usual table. As soon as he came in view to his friends, a certain dark-haired boy with a halfway open school uniform gave a grin while raising a brow at him, "Hey hot-headed! What's with that glare?"

"Shut up, ice-princess!" Natsu grumbled, "And can you stop unbuttoning your polo?! Such a stripper," Natsu said as he took an empty seat while throwing a dagger look at the two blondes, lining up in the food area.

"Oy! what did you call me?!" The raven-haired teen shouted back but was ignored by the pinkette as he just glared at the two blondes.

"Hey, Natsu…" Levy suddenly greets, catching the attention of the pink-haired student, "I heard you were going to surprise someone today?" Levy then puts down her tray and book as she takes a seat in front of the pinkette. "Who is she? Assuming it's a girl,"

"Lisanna…" Natsu mumbled before looking away and returning to glaring at the two blondes waiting in line.

Each one at the table then looked at the others with disbelief. However, Natsu didn't seem to notice as he never left his sight on the two blondes.

A red-haired girl then broke the silence and asked once again, "Lisanna? Really? We didn't expect that. All along we thought you would surprise Lucy…"

Hearing their assumption, Natsu finally breaks his gaze on Lucy and faces all of his friends. "Why would I surprise Lucy? What's the occasion? And besides, she was the first person to know about my surprise,"

"Well," Juvia then trails off as she tries to observe everyone. She then realized that the group left the job for her to break the truth, "It's just that-" Juvia begins but was unexpectedly cut off by a hand covering her mouth. She struggled a little at first, but when she realized it was Gray, she stopped squirming.

"Just what, Juvia?" Natsu glances at the blue-haired beauty. But before he could even ask more, a voice suddenly spoke coming from the back.

"Hey, guys! What's up?" Lucy greeted as she stood behind her best friend who was still confused with Juvia.

"Hey, Lucy! Hey Sting," Levy waved and gave a small smile at the blonde-haired boy. Everyone at the table then greets the two newly arrived students.

Sting gave a nod as he looked at everyone. But then Natsu refused to reply back and gave a death glare instead as looked up at him. Lucy then takes a seat beside Natsu on his right side before signaling to Sting to sit next to her.

Seeing the gesture, Natsu's eyes suddenly grew wide as he realized that the two were going to seat next to each other. So, without warning, Natsu cried, "No!" and moved to the seat that Lucy was going to sit in.

"Lucy, you sit here!" Natsu then pulled Lucy to his left making the blonde beauty surprised and tumble, "I sit here," Natsu then threw a glare again at the blonde-haired guy, "You sit here," Natsu said with a growl in his voice, but Sting just shrugged his shoulder as he moved towards the empty chair.

Lucy skeptically looked at the pinkette, "What's the matter with you?" she asked as she slowly puts down her meal and took her seat.

"Nothing," Natsu exclaimed sitting in between Sting and Lucy. The pinkette then stared really hard at Sting, as if he was trying to burn the boy with his stare, "Hey, Eucliffe…"

"What?" the boy nonchalantly replies as he looked at Natsu with a bored expression.

"Why did you place your hand on Lucy's back a while ago? Who told you, you can do that?" Natsu bluntly asked with a tone of annoyance as he pointed at the girl behind him with his thumb.

Everyone then gave a disbelief and confused gaze at the pink-haired student. Feeling embarrassed by the conversation, Lucy looked back and forth at her best friend and classmate. Lucy then pinches the side of Natsu, who flinches but remained to ignore her. "Natsu, what are you talking about?" Lucy gritted her teeth. She then felt eyes looking at her, making her look back at her friends and sheepishly smile, "Natsu's just being ridiculous again—Natsu!" Lucy whispered madly at the pinkette as she poked his side again.

The group just gave her a look of questioning before chuckling at the trio in front of them.

"I was just being a gentleman to Lucy," Sting then raised a brow at the pinkette, "Don't you know how to be a gentleman?"

Natsu's vain animatedly appeared as he glared at the blonde student, "I am perfectly aware of how to be a gentleman." Natsu then leans forward as if he was going to challenge the blonde teen to a fistfight.

"Come on now, Natsu," Juvia coos as she quickly notices the growing tension between the two, "Just relax. I don't think you should take it personally. Sting is just being courteous to Lucy," Juvia then shrugs her shoulders as she calmly watches the glare of the pinkette.

"Wait, is no one going to comment about what Natsu said? That he's aware of how to be a gentleman?" Erza teased, making the pinkette turn his attention to the scarlet head for a moment before looking back at the blonde boy. Everyone then giggled at the fact that Natsu didn't dare to challenge Erza.

"For your information, Erza, I know how to be a gentleman. Just ask Lucy," Natsu comments back with his eyes trained on the blonde boy, who seemed to ignore him as he continued to eat his snacks. Everyone on the table then glanced at the blonde beauty, making the girl slightly jump in her seat at the sudden attention.

"Uh…he does know…he just chooses not to act gentleman," Lucy then looked at the pinkette, who quickly whipped his attention to her. Lucy then shrugs with a smirk as their friends chuckle at the stated fact, "It's true. I mean, as you said, you are aware. You just don't do it,"

Natsu then rolls his eyes at the sarcasm and hard truth of it. Seeing that the teasing was now on him, the pinkette just sighs as he crosses his arms and looked away from his best friend.

Noticing his defeat, Gray couldn't help but mess around with Natsu even more. He pointed at the pinkette with his spoon, "Oy, flame-brain, the fact that Lucy didn't back up that says a lot. Maybe Sting is more of a gentleman than you are,"

"Shut-up stripper, as if you are one," Natsu opposes back with a raised brow.

"Oh, Gray-sama is an excellent example of a gentleman," Juvia chimes in with a giggle in her tone.

"Yeah, sure. That would explain why he barely talked to you back then," Levy mutters to herself as she pushed around the food on her tray.

"Levy-chan, did you say something?!" Juvia then glares at the blunette, who just chuckled in defeat. Rolling her eyes, she then focuses back to Natsu, "If I were you Natsu-san, be like Gray-sama. Maybe in that way, you can win Lu-cha—"

"Lisanna!" Gray suddenly cuts her off. Everyone then looked fishy at the raven-haired boy, who fussily smiled at them, especially at Lucy.

"What do you mean, Lisanna?" Lucy asked before glancing around the cafeteria but the mentioned silver-haired girl was not around as she was to attend school later after lunch. Lucy then glanced at her best friend, "What does Gray mean?"

Natsu then looked at his best friend, ignoring the stunned faces of Erza, Levy, and Juvia. "What about?"

Lucy then rolls her eyes as she felt like her friends were playing cagy, "Juvia said to learn from Gray so that you'll win Lisanna. What does that even mean?"

"Well… "Gray started trying to answer the blonde but failed to continue as he didn't know how to break the news about Natsu. It felt like it wasn't his news to break. So the raven-haired student eyed the pinkette and gave an expression like he was pushing the pinkette to talk.

"Uh…Natsu, why don't you just explain the whole thing? For everyone's clarity? I'm sure it shouldn't be a big deal, right?" Erza then glances at the boy before looking back at Lucy who was obviously getting confused.

Sighing at the conversation, Natsu then clears his throat and said, "You're right, this isn't a big deal. It's not like I'm trying to keep this a big secret or what," Natsu stated as he looked at everyone, except Gray, who slowly gave him a disbelief expression. Juvia then looked at Gray, who kept his head down and suddenly pretended that his food was more interesting.

Natsu then faced Lucy making him turn his back to the other blonde beside him, "We all know that Lisanna and I became really close, especially during summer, because of you." Lucy then nods her head as she waited patiently for him to continue. "We spent so much time together that I started thinking, Lisanna is a great girl. So…"

Lucy anticipated for the pinkette to continue with growing excitement and nervousness at the same time. Natsu's smile was growing wide like he was really proud of what he will be saying next.

"I'll be asking Lisanna to be my girlfriend! I'll be surprising her later at lunch when she gets here with Mira and Elfman,"

Natsu then gave his signature grin to his best friend as Lucy was silently stunned, trying her best to show her usual happy smile. The blonde girl can feel some eyes watching her, and she knows that they know how much she wants to burst out crying.

In all honesty, her close friends, are aware of how Lucy has a crush on her best friend. At the start, she thought that maybe its just some puppy crush. Admiring Natsu's relentless energy and passion for doing things, Lucy couldn't help but feel giddy every time she was with him. Because of Natsu's natural tendency for extreme protectiveness and care, Lucy may have thought that maybe she's special to Natsu too. Their friends would always point out how Natsu cared for her more than their other friends. But apparently, that wasn't the case given the news he broke.

"Is that so?" Lucy then ducks her head as she feels tears threatening to drop but quickly covers them by laughing excitedly, "Oh my goodness, good for you! Finally, you man up to ask a girl to be your girlfriend," Lucy then taps Natsu's shoulders before standing up abruptly.

Natsu's smile slowly faded and turned confused as she watches Lucy step out of their table and grabbed her tray. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, I just remembered that…" Lucy then swallows hard, trying to stop her voice from cracking.

"Lucy! I remembered the papers you asked me for is in the student council lounge. Here are the keys," Erza supplied instead, as she notices the struggle of the girl. Erza then hands the keys, to which Lucy felt grateful for the excuse.

"Thanks. I was just about to do that," Lucy smiled at Erza, avoiding the confused look of the pinkette. Lucy then looked at Sting, who was intently watching her, "Um, Sting, do you mind if—"

"Sure," Sting then stood up without letting the blonde even finish. He then grabbed his tray and walked off with Lucy.

Natsu was left dumbfounded as he followed Lucy and Sting's figures leaving the cafeteria. When the two were gone, Natsu immediately looked back at his friends and asked what bothered him, "Is it just me or did I say something wrong? Lucy suddenly walking off feels odd to me,"

Levy eyed the pinkette for a moment before shaking her head, "You know Natsu, sometimes—no, most of the time, I don't understand how you see and understand things,"

Natsu then tilts his head in wonder, "What do you mean? Was there something to read between the lines or something?"

Levy just sighed as she shook her head and stood up, "Forget what I said. I'll head back to the classroom. Bye guys," The bluenette then left, making Natsu even more confused.

"Natsu, a piece of advice," Erza suddenly muttered as she started cleaning up her place as well, "Let Lucy alone for today. You wouldn't want a moody Lucy today," Erza then tried to give an assuring smile at the pinkette, but it came out more unsure than she wanted.

Soon enough, they started fixing their things and prepared to leave. Within minutes, the bell rang and they all bid each other goodbye. However, for Natsu, he felt rooted in his seat as he felt confused by the mixed reactions he got from his friends. But the weirdest response he couldn't shake off was the sweet smile of Lucy but with her eyes filled with tears. He didn't know how he'd explain the tingling feeling he felt. It was like he made her cry, which he hates. But he could also feel the genuine compliment Lucy gave him.

Sighing to himself again, Natsu looked back at the cafeteria doors where Lucy left. He then quietly mumbled to himself, "What's wrong Lucy?"

To be continued...