Chapter 2: Close as Strangers

Summary: Natsu pushes Lucy to her limit and Erza was in the wrong place at the wrong time… Gray just wants to eat his lunch in peace.

Chapter title taken from "Close as Strangers" by 5 Seconds of Summer

"You look like shit." A shirtless boy very helpfuly commented with a smirk. His raven black hair laid casually on his head as he fiddled with the chain dangling out of his pocket. Natsu lifted his head off of his desk, barely registering what his friend had said before slamming it back down with a groan.

"Thanks."

The dark haired boy released his smirk, tilting his head with pity. "It was that bad, huh?"

"Bad doesn't even begin to describe it!" Natsu felt tears well up in his eyes at the memory. "It was so dumb Gray! Why did they even kill themselves without checking to see if the other was alive!?"

"It's a romantic tragedy dumb ass. They were too heartbroken to check or something."

"That's no excuse! I blame Juliet for every bad thing that has ever happened to them!"

"It wasn't even her fault-"

"I am thrilled to know that you were paying attention, maybe we should go again sometime." Both boys stiffened at the new voice. More so the owner of the voice. Erza Scarlet took a seat beside Gray, pulling her bag over the back of the chair and facing her childhood friends with a small smile.

"Good morning, Natsu and Gray."

"M-morning…" The two managed to stutter out as they subtly tried to scoot further away.

Erza looked Gray up and down, narrowing her eyes in a silent command for him to fix his bare chested situation. The boy shrieked, digging into his backpack and pulling out one of his backup-backup shirts.

Lord knows how many backup shirts he owns in each of the classroom's cabinets alone. Due to the boys' strange stripping habit, the principal had made it a requirement for each teacher to have a stock of extra uniforms in their classrooms- not that Natsu thought they needed them in the first place. All someone had to do was walk down to the basements, turn right at the far corner and boom, a room titled 'Lost and Found' is (and will always be) stuffed to the brim with size 7 male uniforms.

Gray sent his rival a look, glaring at the small twinkle in his eyes. Natsu grinned, snickering under his breath as he gained Erza's attention.

"Hey Erza," He smirked. "You should take Gray with you next time, he was just telling me about how much he loves the performing arts-"

"What!?" Gray growled, getting up out of his seat and butting heads with his rival. "Say that again you damn pyro!"

"You mean how you're a lame sissy that likes to make dolls!"

"Ice sculptures are not dolls you idiot! Something that you'd know if your brain wasn't stuffed with coal!"

"What'd you say to me, princess underpants?"

"You heard me, fire freak!"

"Why you-"

"Settle down class." Their homeroom teacher Macao sighed, slamming a pile of books on his desk and ungracefully flopping down in his seat. The two rivals rolled their eyes, shooting each other one last glare before following Macao and flopping into their seats.

His class had grown used to the man's sulky behavior, knowing (through his hundreds of rants) that he and his wife were having relationship problems. In a way, even though they were barely learning anything of educational use in his classroom, the students had universally taken one thing into consideration. None of them wanted to end up like Mr. Conbolt.

"We have a new addition to our class today." The teacher began, gesturing towards the open door. "I hope you brats can control yourselves long enough to not scare her off."

In walked the new student, her hands hanging loosely by her side but her posture demanding some sort of respect. Her nose seemed to sniff up, showing off a newly presented snobbiness. She moved a strand of blond hair out of her face and behind her ear, stopping in the front of the classroom and tilting her head in a cute manner. Her dark eyes squinted a bit as she smiled kindly, bowing in respect.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Lucy." She bit her lip and nervously fiddled with her skirt, just now realizing the dozens of pairs of eyes following her every movement. "I-I look forward to learning with everyone!"

"AH!" Natsu stood up in his seat and slammed his hands on the desk, instantly recognizing the blond from yesterday. All eyes were now turned on him as he gaped at the girl in front of him, opening and closing his mouth in shock.

"The hell are you doing here!?" They both called out in shock.

Macao looked on with boredom as one of his favorite 'problem children' proceeded to do the exact thing he directly instructed them not to do. The little brat was scaring her off! Not even 30 seconds in the classroom and it was obvious that Lucy was about ready to sprint out of there.

"Goddamnit Natsu, what the hell did I just say!?"

"Mr. Conbolt, please refrain from using such foul language inside of the classroom." Erza glared at the teacher, nodding as he flinched back a bit. She then set her sights on Natsu, full on glowering at the boy until he had the common sense to look at her. The pink haired sophomore shivered, eyes widening before slowly turning to face the red head. Her eyes narrowed.

"Is there a problem, Natsu?" She spat his name with venom.

"N-no!" The boy bounced his leg up and down as he struggled to come up with a believable excuse. And Lucy, the blond minx, seemed to be reveling in his very apparent discomfort if the large smirk on her face was anything to go off of.

"I just…" Natsu didn't know why but the sight of this girl really pissed him off.

"You see…" It pissed him off more than the damn metal freak from the class next door… even more than Gray's stupid face! He had to do something! Something to relieve this strange itch that begged him to give her a taste of her own medicine. But leading her into some sort of silly trap seemed out of the question. He couldn't possibly play a prank on her right now… right? He paused, blinking in awe as an idea hit him smack dab in the forehead, before giving the new transfer student the most terrifyingly devious look to ever appear on his face.

She seemed so interested in him right now? Fine. Let's see how she likes spending an entire day with him. "I met Lugy-"

"It's Lucy!"

"-yesterday at the priss- performing arts studio. I just thought that maybe I could… show her around... Since we know each other and all."

"Oh!" Erza nodded in understanding, elegantly falling back into her chair with a satisfied smile. "Excellent idea Natsu! I'm glad to see you making new friends."

"Is that okay with you, Lucy?" He purred her name. To anyone else, it was a simple question, but to Lucy… it was a very apparent threat. Her left eye twitched.

"Ahaha, I'm looking forward to it…"

Natsu grinned wide. Oh, he was planning on making her first day at Magnolia High miserable.

Lucy was quick to walk out of the door.

Chemistry was probably the longest class she'd ever had to sit through. Not only was she completely lost due to the fact that she transferred into school only 2 months after it had initially begun, but because Natsu, the obnoxious pink haired… jerk!, had watched her struggle the whole time with an infuriatingly smug smile practically glued on to his dumb face!

How was she supposed to now the elemental relationship between earth, wind and fire!? For someone who wasn't even in class when this unit began, the teacher was unjust in calling on her to answer a difficult question about oxygen. A question she inevitably got wrong which sent Natsu into another cackling fit!

She couldn't wait to get some food into her system and finally start making friends. Otherwise there would be no point in coming to a public school. Well other than for her fathers image… but that wasn't the point! The point was that the hallways in this school were way too long and that Lucy's feet apparently needed to be faster in order to lose the pink haired nuisance casually strolling beside her!

"So, Linny, how're ya liking school so far?"

The girl growled, ready to do something to injure his face before noticing a group of students putting notebooks into their lockers. They stopped what they were doing and blinked at the scene in front of them with curious eyes. Her own eye twitched. Lucy laughed, aggressively slapping Natsu on the shoulder.

"Thank you for showing me around!"

She kept at it until the students grew uninterested, tuning back into a conversation. Lucy let out a relieved sigh.

"You liar!" She hissed as they continued walking towards what she believed to be the cafeteria. "You had no intention of showing me around the school, Jerk! You just wanted to get on my nerves!"

Natsu held his hands up in defense. "I didn't lie." He mocked. "I said that I met you yesterday, which is basically true. Erza didn't have to know the specifics."

"Well look at that everybody! The incompetent halfwit can use words with more than 2 syllables!"

"Incom...pamperous…?" The boy looked down at his hand, silently counting the number of syllables before shaking his head furiously. "Stop with your confusing words, demon woman! I didn't lie! I am a very honest person which is why, unlike all of the other blind ass pricks in this goddamn school, I can tell you to your face that you're a conceited asshole!"

"C-conceited…" The blond paused her feet, watching the floor as Natsu continued on. The boy only turned around for a second, watching with slight guilt at the dejected aura around her.

Ok… maybe that had been a bit too harsh. He slowly walked back towards her, his body hesitant to comply with the idea of comforting her (barf). So what, she was a snobby rich kid? His father always told him to appreciate inner beauty. Hopefully she had at least that because the pink haired boy absolutely refused to admit how nice her outward appearance really was.

"Look…" He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck out of habit. "I didn't mean-"

"H-how the hell do you know what conceited means but not Incompetent!?'' She glared at him with accusing eyes.

That was the reason why she stopped!? Natsu felt a vein in his head pump wildly as she wagged her stupid finger in his face.

"S-shut up!" he barked, smacking her hand away. "Just let me eat my lunch in peace! Go try and make some friends. Let's see how long they stick around."

With that particularly aggressive statement leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, Natsu stalked into the lunch room, instantly heading towards the long line of students waiting for their lunch.

He really tried not to turn back around this time because he could care less about what a privileged blond thought about him. But the sound of loud clattering and a gross 'splat' sound caught his ears and, like he promised himself not to do, he turned around.

His eyes blew wide as he struggled to hold in a shriek. Lucy laid on the ground, clothes covered in some kind of mashed potatoes with a vegetable- maybe meat mixture? And hair that looked as if it had been washed with a bright pink strawberry smoothie. And staring down at her with a glare cold enough to dim sunlight was his childhood friend and the girl rated "school's most feared female'' in every year book so far: Erza.

Lucy gaped, unmoving as the scarlet haired woman wagged her finger around, demanding Lucy watch where she had been going and to pay more attention when someone was talking to her. The blond closed her eyes and, to Natsu's great confusion, scooped a handful of mashed potatoes off of her outfit. Erza continued to yammer on as she shook, finally sending a rivaling glare back up at her current nuisance. The lunchroom went absolutely silent as Lucy drew back her arm and threw her mashed potatoes. At. Erza.

Natsu sucked in a breath. Ok, he knew that she was stupid but there was no way she was that stupid. He blinked just to make sure he wasn't seeing things as Erza stared into space, wide eyed and unmoving with a little clump of potatoes tauntingly slipping down her cheek.

Yep. Definitely real. Maybe it would have done her some good to tell her about the Titania, master of swordsmanship and biggest threat to the student body. Now he felt guilty for saying something so mean before she died.

His brain remembered to focus back on what was happening in front of him. Inside of the deathly quiet cafeteria, all eyes were on the scarlet-haired girl, waiting with startled breaths for her next move. A move that came in a rather terrifyingly calm way.

"I see." She bowed her head, moving her hand to her face and scooping off as much mashed food as she could. She nonchalantly threw it back down on Lucy, getting into what looked to be a fighting position and breathing in deeply. "If it is a fight that you want, then a fight you shall get."

The pink-haired bystander stood shaking, mouth agape like the rest of the cafeteria as Lucy stood up and got into a fighting position too!?

Uh oh. Oh no.

Yeah, if there was any time to step in and break up this fight, that would be now. Natsu followed his feet (out of the corner of his eye he noticed Gray doing the same), confidently running over to the center of attention and grabbing Lucy from under her arms just as she was about to launch her first attack.

Gray struggled with Erza but managed to yank her away just in time to avoid any painful bruising or bloody noses. Of course these girls weren't ones to go down without a fight so they began kicking and squirming and screaming to get out of the boys' hold.

Natsu expertly dodged the lazy punches Lucy had tried to get at him, breathing heavily as she began kicking at his shins. Ouch, that was definitely going to bruise. She continued aiming for his shins as soon as she noticed his sharp intake of breath taking out all of her frustrations on him.

"This is all your fault!" She cried as she twisted to the side and kicked his shin again! "You're so annoying! And rude! And you ruin everything! He'll never let me come back if he hears about this and it's all your fault!" another kick. "I'm a person too! I have my limits! I'm sorry you think i'm such a conceited ass hole but that's just how I was raised! It's not my fault I've never HAD ANY FRIENDS!"

Finally the blond stopped struggling but that was the least of Natsu's problems. The circle that had formed some time after he ran into the fight had been parted and opened the way for the principle of Magnolia high. Makarov Drayer, the short old man, stood in front of them with his hands balled into fists and his face as red as Erza's hair. And oh boy, Natsu knew that look all too well.

"What in the world is going on here!" He screamed, looking directly at Erza, though it was obvious he had already gotten the gist of it.

"Sir!? I can explain, and it all starts with this very rude young woman over there-"

"Oh you did not just try to blame this on me!"

"Was it not your idea to start a childish food fight when all I wanted to do was enjoy my lunch!?"

"Was it not your idea to be a huge DIC-"

"ENOUGH! All four of you, detention, you'll clean the attic!" Natsu and Gray went to protest but the old man only held a hand up in defiance. "I don't have time to deal with you problem children today! The 7th star just bloomed last night and If I don't find a solution now we could be dealing with an apocalypse!"

He ignored all of the confused looks sent his way and began walking towards the exit. "You don't leave this school until that attic is spotless- Hell! Why not get a head start and begin cleaning it now."

And just like that, he was gone. As Lucy shoved him off of her and the rest of the lunchroom cleared out for class, Natsu began to mull over just how screwed he really was.

Problem number one: Natsu had gotten detention.

Ok. Whatever. It wasn't the end of the world or anything. The boy had gotten more detentions in the last two months than he could count on all 20 of his fingers and toes. Detention was nothing new to him. Unlike his next problem.

Problem number two: … Lucy was crying.

And it was his fault.