Chapter 4:

26 Days (pt.2)

Lucy stood at the door of the nurses office, her hands practically glued to the door handle as Natsu situated himself inside, an ice pack pressed to the burn. The room was small. Her fathers office was almost 3 times as large but this room felt… nicer. More homey than her fathers office could ever be.

The cozy atmosphere of the room however, couldn't disguise the awkward energy between the two. They had been stuck in a heated silence since the incident in the chemistry classroom and it was clear that neither one of them wanted to be the first one to own up to their mistakes…

But Lucy knew better than to let the air clear itself. She was taught to handle problems diplomatically, no matter how avidly she preferred to ignore them. She may be stubborn, but she was not an insensitive ass. It was time for her to step up and be the bigger person, even if that meant apologizing to the boy who's done nothing but insult her all day.

She didn't even care about her stupid promise or her dumb plans anymore. She didn't care that a trip to the principal's office could mean isolation from society because of her father. Truthfully, she just wanted the heavy pit in her stomach to go away so that she could breathe again. The girl took a deep breath and stepped deeper into the nurse's office.

"Natsu-"

"I'm sorry."

Forced to stop mid sentence, Lucy's mouth was held agape. "What…" She tried to speak but the words had somehow clogged her throat.

"I'm sorry, Lucy." Natsu looked up at her, his legs crisscrossed on the bed. As the words continued to stay lodged in her throat, the wind blew in from the open window, moving the hair out of his eyes and properly painting the boy's somber expression.

For the second time in the last week, Lucy felt her breath stutter. Too distracted by the fact that he had just called her by her name… By the fact that Natsu had just called her Lucy , she had almost failed to hear the rest of his apology.

"I probably shouldn't have brought gasoline to class… that was pretty stupid of me. And you aren't a privileged jerk." he turned to the side, muttering to himself, "You're just a weirdo. "

Thankfully Lucy hadn't heard him, too stunned by his apology.

"I-" She breathed. "I'm… sorry too."

"I know."

"I was kind of rude to you too… I didn't mean to imply that you were stupid."

"I know."

"I um… I tend to throw that word around… a lot ."

His mouth twitched a small smile. " I know. "

She felt herself smiling back.

Well… this was certainly an interesting turn of events. In every single scenario she had played throughout her mind, none of them ended or even started with Natsu apologizing. Perhaps… Lucy had misjudged him. Him and his charming smile. She preferred that look over the one he was giving her earlier…

The pit in her stomach was quickly easing up, replaced by another foreign giddy feeling. "Let's… take a look at your arm." She spoke, grabbing the first aid kit on the desk and sitting down next to him on the bed. He gave her a questioning look as she opened the kit and began inspecting the inside.

"I can do it y'know." Natsu offered. "I'm no stranger to patching myself up after an accident."

Lucy looked up in confusion. "What do you-" Her memory flashed to their first meeting. The way he had so gallantly rescued her from a crowd of crazed fans… on his skateboard.

"Oh." She said, shaking herself out of her stupor. "Well, I'll do it. It's kind of my fault that you got hurt in the first place…"

Natsu admittedly had no counter argument for that. He eyed her wearily one more time. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

"Of course!" Lucy looked up from the box, confidently holding up a bandage wrap. "You aren't the only one experienced in patching up an injury."

HIs eyes widened in surprise and worry before the girl realized her mistake. "Don't worry!" she hurriedly steadied his arm. "It was just another part of my studies."

"Your studies?" He raised a teasing brow.

Lucy rolled her eyes and began applying a cream onto the wound, apologizing when Natsu flinched.

"My health tutor thought it'd be good to know how to handle any kind of injury. You know… Just in case."

"Well lucky us." Natsu quipped, cracking a smile. "You get to put that practice to good use and I get to be treated by the world's best doctor."

"And don't you forget it." Lucy winked, pinning the last of the gauze on his burn. She held her hand on the wound for a moment longer, feeling insanely guilty for being the cause of it.

"Well doc, am I gonna make it?" The boy asked when she hesitated on releasing his arm.

"O-of course!" Lucy flung his arm out of her grasp. "But unfortunately, I'm not permitted to prescribe you any medication."

"Well," he tapped his chin in thought. "I heard that exposure to the culprit helps wounds heal quicker." He offered.

Lucy decidedly liked the casual rhythm to their conversation. Natsu was more amusing then he first let on.

"And where did you hear that?" The girl played along, moving off of the bed to put the first aid kit back where she found it..

Natsu grinned. "The smartest man in the world of course! And he says that Lucy Heartfilias must take responsibility by sitting with the patient…at lunch tomorrow."

Lucy bit her lip to hide the smile slowly creeping onto her face. "So you do know my name." she raised a brow.

"Yeah." Natsu got shy all of a sudden. "And since you already repaid me, it's my turn."

The girl made a noise of question as his expression suddenly grew serious. "I really am sorry for how I treated ya. I guess this burn was kinda deserved." He chuckled.

Lucy caught herself frowning at this, glancing down at the gauze covering his bicep again. "Of course it wasn't! I'm the one who-"

"Let's start over." Natsu interrupted. Climbing off the bed and standing close… so close that Lucy was sure he heard her irregular heart beat.

The boy held out his hand. "Will you be my friend, Lucy?" He asked as if Lucy could say no to that! As if he was aware how weak that smile suddenly made her feel. Lucy felt her face grow hot even though she'd technically only known him for about 4 days, 14 hours 27 minutes and 8 seconds…

Technically .

She had no choice but to grab a hold of his hand and ignore the shiver that it sent down her spine when they touched. "I would love to be your friend, Natsu."

She was unable to contain how wide her smile was at that moment, and frankly she didn't care much. Because Natsu Dragneel was smiling back just as wide.

The principal's office wasn't as scary as she had chalked it up to being. Maybe it was Natsu's warm presence beside her that had eased her nerves. Or maybe it was the fact that the principal was 2 feet shorter than her.

Either way, the two of them had only received a stern talking to that Natsu completely ignored in favor of doodling on his arm. Lucy had left the office to Natsu animatedly retelling a fight he apparently won against Gray. And she had left the school, offering a wave to the boy, a wide grin permanently stuck on her face.

Once she arrived home, happily greeting Ms. Spetto and Horologium at the entrance, the girl ran straight for her room, throwing her bag on the bed and slamming the door behind her. She readily pulled out her phone, wincing at the worried texts from Levy.

With her contact name in sight, Lucy clicked the call button and held the phone up to her ear.

"Levy?"

"Lu!" The shorter girl answered after one ring. "Are you okay? I can't believe that idiot blew up another experiment. He always does this-"

"Woah calm down Levy, I'm fine!" Lucy giggled a little at her friend's antics. She was such a worry wart. "Actually I'm more than fine."

She could practically see Levy's teasing eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah." Lucy rolled her eyes, sitting down on the window seat and staring down at the bustling city below. "We may have started off on the wrong foot… I kept calling him stupid and he assumed I was a 'privileged jerk'-his words not mine."

Levy sounded confused when she asked, "Natsu said that?"

"Yeah?"

"That's strange… He's not usually so quick tempered, believe it or not." The girl scoffed. "Well, unless it comes to Gray."

"I bet." Lucy found herself giggling remembering how the two jumped up on the lunchroom tables earlier that day only to be knocked off by a very pretty red-haired girl. "Anyways, we went to the nurses office and sorted it out. I'm eating with him at lunch tomorrow!"

"Congrats Lu!" The blue haired girl cheered her on from the other end of the phone. "Man, you're almost as obsessed with Natsu as Juvia is with Gray."

" Except for the fact that Juvia is madly in love with Gray and I simply want to pursue a friendship." The blond huffed.

"Oh, so now we moved on to friendship?"

Lucy didn't like the teasing lilt of her tone. She could picture Levy's wide toothed raised brow expression so vividly it was almost like the girl was directly in front of her.

"W-well of course!" She struggled to keep her face cool. "Natsu seems like a good guy. Perfect friend material."

"So he's no longer a pink haired, pig headed, no good jer-"

"No!" She snapped. "He's Natsu and he's my friend and we're gonna have lunch together tomorrow and I'm going to tell him all about myself and he's going to be so shocked and embarrassed about not knowing me before and Operation: Make this rude no-longer-stranger know me like I know me better than… me?"

"Operation: Make Natsu know me as well as I know myself in one month's time?" Levy offered.

" Thank you . Operation: Make Natsu know me as well as I know myself in one month's time' Will succeed before the end date and I will be victorious!" Lucy finished with a maniacal cackle.

The line went silent while she recollected herself, a smug satisfied grin on her face.

"Sure thing, Lu." Levy sighed tiredly. "I'm gonna let you be a psycho in peace, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Levy!" The Heartfilia girl smiled, blowing a kiss and hanging up the phone.

Lucy then stood from her seat at the window, mischievously staring down the calendar beside it. She tugged away the pen attached to it, and gleefully crossed off today's date.

"One down, 25 to go!"

She placed the pen back in its place and pulled a notebook out of her school bag, deciding it was time to focus on something she actually enjoyed. The creative writing class she had taken with her best friend was some of the most fun she's had since learning trigonometry.

As Lucy blissfully scribbled out a short story at her desk, absentmindedly humming to herself, she failed to notice the 2 pairs of eyes peeking in on her, warm smiles on both of their faces.

Horologium silently shut the door and ushered away. His eyes crinkled in amusement. "Lets let her be."

dusted her hand off on her apron, offering the old man an appreciative glance. "I haven't seen her this happy in a very long time… thank you."

"Think nothing of it."

Horologium set off down the hallway, gripping his hands behind his back as a woman with blond hair and kind eyes flashed through his memory.

"It's what Layla would have wanted…"