Chapter Text
🔭: Lesson 8
She clapped her hands to her face. It was normal for him to walk around in his boxers in his own house, she was used to it, so why was she constantly thinking about how he never put on a pair of pants when they had worked through the lesson plan that he was going to be bringing with him today. He was also supposed to show a bit of a demonstration on what he was going to do, which was why he couldn’t just send a lesson plan. Besides, the principal wanted to meet him in person first. She slapped her cheeks, again, and stared at her computer screen. She was pretty sure the reason why she couldn’t stop thinking about it, even though she had been completely used to him walking around like that - well, she may have been used to it, but that didn’t mean she was all too comfortable with him doing that - was because of what she had seen in his bathroom drawer.
“Lucy?” Levy waved a hand in her face.
She looked down at her keyboard, “You got this, Lucy!”
“Lucy.” Levy muttered again.
“Yes?” she asked, looking over to her.
“The bell rang five minutes ago, don’t you have class?”
She jumped up, “What?”
Levy sighed, and shook her head, “No. The first period hasn’t even begun yet.”
Lucy groaned, and sat back down in her chair, “Don’t scare me like that, Levy.”
“You were all zoned out, with a face blaring red, you okay?”
She sighed, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”
“You were like this all day yesterday, too. What’s on your mind?”
Lucy groaned, “It’s nothing.”
“Sure doesn’t seem like nothing…” Levy hummed, “If I recall correctly, you were going to go to your friend’s place after school to help him out with something… the day before yesterday.”
She slammed her head onto her desk, “Oh gosh, what have you done, Levy?”
“Oh? Did something happen?”
Lucy sighed, and shook her head, “No.” She looked at the time, and pushed herself up, grabbing her books, “I have class.”
“Okay, okay.” Levy smiled, and waved her phone at her, “You’re getting text messages.”
She snatched her phone, “Levy, I swear, sometimes I don’t know why we’re friends.”
“I’m your best friend, Lulu, you can’t get rid of me.”
“You don’t have class?”
“No, it was moved to the fifth period instead.”
“Lucky.” Lucy sighed, and made her way out of the teacher’s room.
The students greeted her in the hallways as they made their way to class. She smiled at them, and looked down at the onslaught of messages she had received. At least Levy hadn’t been lying about that. Something about how her father wanted her to come home this weekend, which was tomorrow, couldn’t he have informed her a little bit more in advance? A message from the principal asking when Natsu was going to arrive, and quite a few from Natsu, too. It looked like Natsu had dropped Happy off at least thirty minutes ago, which meant that he’d be arriving any second now. She answered her principal’s message first. She was the priority, after all.
Her phone rang, rather loudly, she had forgotten to turn it on ‘do not disturb.’ She juggled it in her hand, as she tried not to drop her books, and answered it, bringing the phone to her ear, “Yes?”
“Hey, Lucy…” Natsu replied on the other side, “Your school is fucking huge.”
“Yes, it’s decent sized. It’s a private school though, it’s not that big.”
“No, this is bigger than my middle school.”
“You actually remember that?” She asked, smiling at the students who greeted her.
“Of course I do.” Natsu replied, “I’ve been walking around trying to find that damn principal’s office for like five minutes now.”
“Did you drive today?” she asked.
He groaned, “I had to, I wouldn’t have been able to make it in time, if I didn’t.”
“I see. You okay?”
He groaned, “Uh, no. I’m not. I was in my car for like ten minutes, I’m not okay.”
“Did you-”
“Obviously, I took them.” He replied before she could finish her sentence.
“That’s good.”
“Who are you talking to, Teacher?” one of her students asked.
She smiled, and waved them off. “Get to class, the bell is going to ring soon.”
“So, where on earth is the principal’s office, Lucy?”
She sighed, and looked out the window, “Where are you?”
“I don’t know, there’s a big mermaid fountain, and a whole bunch of bushes, and flowers… and kids.”
She sighed, “So, you’re in the courtyard. Well, do you see the big building with the clock tower on it?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“The principal’s office is in that building.”
“Okay? There’s a lot of floors.”
“There’s only four floors, Natsu.”
“The clock tower is a lot taller than four floors.”
“The principal’s office isn’t in the clock tower, it’s in the building that the clock tower is attached to.”
“Oh, that makes more sense.”
She sighed, and shook her head, “Listen, I have class,” she muttered, outside of the door to the classroom she had for first period, “The principal’s office is on the fourth floor, end of the hall, double doors, when you get to the floor from the stairwell.”
“Okay, got it. What does she smell like?”
She stopped, she needed to hang up, she didn't have enough hands to open the door, “I don’t know, why?”
“Just thinking I might be able to find her by her perfume or something.”
“Are you a dog?”
“No.”
“Just head up to the fourth floor in the building with the clock tower, it should be the room with double doors. Just ask another teacher if you get lost. I have class.” She replied, and hung up, and opened the door to her classroom, “Good morning, are we awake today?”
🔭🔭🔭
“So,” she stated, tapping her finger on the table, “Did you convince him?”
He sighed, “You said you’d take him to Gajeel’s right?”
“Yes, Juvia will take him to Gajeel’s, but…” She tapped the table again, “Did you convince my darling Gray to meet this weekend?”
He leaned over the table, “I don’t know, we don’t talk much…”
Juvia whined, “But you promised Juvia!”
“Natsu!” Happy exclaimed, “Gray’s calling you.” He said, handing him his phone. He had let him play with it while he got some coffee and to let himself digest his motion sickness pills so that he could drive the ten minutes from the station to Lucy’s school.
He reached his hand out, “Give me it…”
“Juvia thought you said you two don’t talk.”
“We don’t.” Natsu replied, putting the phone up to his ear, as he lay over the table. Juvia leaned closer, practically pressing her ear against the other side of the phone. “What do you want, ice face?”
“Flame brain, you gotta explain to me what you meant by ‘movie night or die’ in your text last night.”
He sighed, “Exactly what it says.”
He groaned, “That’s so weird. You never ask me to your place for a movie night.”
“No, at the movie theater.” Natsu grumbled.
“The movie theater?” Gray replied, “You’re asking me to join you at the movie theater? That’s even more unbelievable than going to your place.”
“Juv-” Natsu slammed a hand over her mouth, before she could continue.
“Well, there’s a movie I wanted to see.”
“Oh really? What’s the movie?” Gray asked.
Natsu blinked and looked over to Juvia.
She pulled out her phone and showed him the screenshot of her tickets.
“The Sketchbook.” Natsu muttered.
“What? You want me to watch The Sketchbook with you? Isn’t that like… a rom com?”
He looked up to Juvia, she nodded profusely. He sighed, “Yeah.”
“You want me to watch a rom com with you?”
“Yeah?” Natsu asked, gesturing to Juvia, asking her why she had to pick a movie like that.
She pointed again at the picture, and started dancing by herself as if Gray was in front of her again.
He groaned, “Yeah.”
“You’ve officially gone insane.” Gray muttered, “Was there a gas leak in your lab or something?”
“I’m not insane!” Natsu snapped, “And yeah, there was.”
“You’re kidding. You okay?”
“There was a gas leak?” Juvia exclaimed, “Was there a fire?”
He sighed, “Yeah, there was a fire, but I put it out, don’t worry.”
“Who are you with?” Gray asked.
“Ju- Happy.” Natsu replied.
“That sounded like a woman, not a six year old.”
“Happy!” Natsu exclaimed, “Don’t touch that!”
Happy jumped and stepped away from the cabinets, “Why?”
“There’s knives in there.” Natsu replied.
Gray sighed, “I guess I was wrong, thought you were with that blond friend of yours.”
“Lucy?” Natsu asked.
“Yeah, Lucy.”
He sighed, “No, she’s at school right now.”
Juvia gestured to the tickets on her phone again.
Natsu sighed, “So, you’ll come with me to see The Sketchbook at four pm on Saturday?”
Gray sighed, “I guess, I don’t have practice on Saturday, but what’s the movie theatre? It’s not a super public one, right?”
“Um…” he looked at the tickets, “It’s at…” he looked up to Juvia, and gestured to the tickets.
She waved her hands in the air dramatically, before pretending to cozy up to someone.
“Meh-en Cinema.”
“What?” Gray asked.
“Yeah.”
“Natsu…” Gray muttered, “I don’t swing that way.”
“What?”
He sighed, “I’m not gay.”
“Yeah, you are.”
Juvia’s jaw dropped.
“No, gay, not gray.” Gray sighed, “I don’t like men.”
Juvia leaped for joy.
“That’s good to know.” Natsu replied.
“What?” Gray asked.
“I said it’s good to know.”
“Didn’t you just… oh never mind, I’ll talk to Erza about your sexuality later.”
“What?” Natsu muttered, “My what?”
“Okay, fine, I’ll go with you, if you really want to watch it. That movie is too mature for Happy.”
Juvia started gesturing again.
Natsu frowned as he tried to understand what she was trying to say, “Have… you… seen… it… yet?”
“Why are you talking like that?” Gray asked, “And no, I haven’t yet, it wasn’t really on my radar.”
“That’s… good.” Natsu muttered.
“You’re talking really weird.”
“No, I’m not.” Natsu sighed, “Anyway, it’s good to know, so, I’ll meet you at three thirty on Saturday, and then we’ll go see the movie together.”
“Okay, sure. You’re a weirdo, dragon breath.”
“Not more than you, you frozen princess.” He hung up.
“He’s going to go?” Juvia exclaimed, grabbing Natsu’s hands.
“Yeah.” Natsu replied, “What is that movie?” He asked.
“It’s a romantic movie! The first time Juvia saw the trailer, Juvia just knew she had to watch it for the first time with my darling Gray!” She clasped her hands together, and started dancing in place.
“That’s great, Juvia, but you can’t be wearing any of that merchandise,” he gestured to the plush keychain she had hanging from her belt.
She gasped, “But it’s my darling Gray tomagachi!”
“No.” Natsu sighed, and pushed himself from the table, looking at the time on his phone, “I need to head to Lucy’s school, or else I’m gonna be late. You’re gonna drop off Happy with Gajeel and Lily?”
She nodded, “Yeah. Happy!” She exclaimed, “You’ll come with Juvia to brother Gajeel’s place, right?”
He pouted, “Fine. Lily’s going to teach me how to defeat Natsu.”
Juvia gasped, and covered her mouth, “Oh my!”
Natsu laughed, “Anyway, thanks, Juvia, I’ll pick up Happy from Gajeel’s, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Sounds good!” Juvia smiled, “Juvia can’t wait for her date with Gray!” She snapped her fingers, “Oh! Natsu!”
“Yeah?” He asked, stopping from leaving, and looking at her.
“Do you want Juvia to match you with a man?”
He sighed, “I don’t care.”
Juvia hummed, and skipped over to him, “Are you Juvia’s love rival?”
“Ew, hell nah.” Natsu exclaimed.
Juvia smiled, “That’s good to know, so… what type of man do you like?”
“Man?” Natsu repeated, “A man?”
She shrugged, “Or woman.”
“Uh… I don’t know, a weirdo who is an idiot sometimes but actually pretty smart?”
She blinked, “Do you have a gender preference, though?”
He shrugged, “I don’t know, Juvia, I’ll go on the date, regardless.”
Juvia hummed, and skipped around him again, “Juvia thought you didn’t want to date.”
“It’s whatever, I guess,” he looked over her shoulder, “Be good to Juvia and to Lily. I don’t care about Gajeel.”
“Aye, sir!” Happy exclaimed, and saluted him.
He saluted him back, before waving her goodbye, and left the fire station. He had to get to Lucy’s school, but he really wished he could just walk there, instead of driving, but he’d be late if he didn’t drive, and Lucy hated it when he was late to something. He also couldn’t exactly walk there when he had to bring some of the tech that he needed to. He had the vacuum room all taken apart in a bag in his car, and it was just a little too heavy to be carrying for all of that distance.
He wanted to hurl the second he arrived on her school campus. He pushed the door open to his car and bent over, knees on the ground. He was never driving again after this. He sighed. She had never told him that there was security that he had to go through to come in. When the security guard asked him why he was here, he didn’t even remember what he said, he was trying to keep himself from throwing up at the time. He looked up, this place was huge. How many students were at such a huge middle school? When Lucy talked about it, she never made it seem this big. He got up off the ground, wiped his face, and opened the door to the backseat. He reached over Happy’s carseat - they rarely ever used the car, so he hadn’t even thought of getting him a booster seat yet - to get the bag that had the supplies for his little experiment that he had to show the principal. Was he going to be doing the experiment in the principal’s office? He wasn’t sure, Lucy didn’t tell him much information in regards to that.
He made his way to the entrance of the school. Where on earth would the principal’s office even be? He tilted his head as he looked at the giant buildings. He was getting dizzy. Why were they so tall? Did a middle school really need buildings that big?
“Excuse me,” someone muttered.
He looked over at them, “What?”
They looked him over, before muttering, “This is Love & Lucky Girls Middle School.”
“Yeah, I know.” Natsu replied, and looked around again. Lucy absolutely sucked at preparing him for this.
“Sir.” The person continued, following him, and stepping in front of him, “Can I help you with something?”
His eyes widened, “Oh, my, gosh! You’re a saint!” He exclaimed, “Yeah, I need to find the principal’s office.”
“Ah, yes, the principal’s office.” The person smiled, “I’d be more than happy to assist you, if you wouldn’t mind following me.”
He turned around and followed them, “I honestly have no idea where I’m supposed to go, Lucy didn’t tell me anything.”
“Lucy?” The person asked, stopping in their tracks and turned around.
“Yeah, Lucy.” He said, looking around, “All she said was that I had to meet with the principal for something-”
“Do you have a student here?”
“Huh?” He asked.
“Does your sister or niece go here?”
“I don’t have those.” Natsu answered, “So, where’s the principal’s office, I’m pretty sure I came this way already.”
“So then… Do you know someone here?”
“Uh, yeah. Lucy.”
“Lucy…” the person muttered, and looked him over, shaking their head, “You can’t be talking about the heir to the Heartfilia Co. are you?”
He tilted his head, “Heartfilia what now?”
“Heartfilia Co.”
“Heartfilia Co?”
The person smiled. “I think you got the wrong school.”
“Uh, no, I didn’t.” He replied, “Lucy said this was the one.”
“Lucy… Heartfilia?”
“Yeah, yeah, Lucy Heartfilia,” He looked back up at the building, “Wait, isn’t this the entrance?”
The person laughed, “You know Lucy Heartfilia?”
“Yeah.” Natsu replied, and started making his way back the way this stranger had guided him.
“I don’t believe it. If you’re gonna lie, come up with a better one.” The person sighed, “Please leave the school.”
“No way, I came here for a reason, drove here, too, I’m not leaving.” He sighed, and pulled out his phone. There were a couple of girls who were staring at him, and this weird stranger wouldn’t leave him alone. He’d just call Lucy and ask, he hadn’t wanted to do that, because he didn’t want to disrupt her class, but there were students walking around, so surely she wasn’t in class yet. He put the phone to his ear, taking a step away from the weird person who kept trying to get him to leave. He thought they were nice, but they turned out to be the opposite. Those people are the worst kinds.
“Yes?” Lucy answered. He sighed in relief, she didn’t have class right now.
“Hey, Lucy…” He began, and the weirdo who kept following him took a step closer to him, again, “Your school is fucking huge.” The person gasped and looked around, as if he had said something wrong.
“Yes, it’s decent sized. It’s a private school though, it’s not that big.”
Was she serious? “No, this is bigger than my middle school.” Maybe three times the size? He wasn’t sure, he wasn’t that good at math.
“You actually remember that?” She asked.
“Of course I do.” Natsu replied. Why wouldn’t he? He had met Gajeel back then there. “I’ve been walking around trying to find that damn principal’s office for like five minutes now.” The person gasped again, as if he said something wrong.
“Did you drive today?” she asked.
He groaned, that weird person kept following him, he made his way into a more open area. “I had to, I wouldn’t have been able to make it in time, if I didn’t.”
“I see. You okay?”
He groaned, “Uh, no. I’m not. I was in my car for like ten minutes, I’m not okay.” This weird person kept trying to get too close to his phone, too.
“Did you-”
“Obviously, I took them.” He wasn’t going to get in a car without taking his motion sickness meds.
“That’s good.” Lucy paused for a second before saying, “Get to class, the bell is going to ring soon.” She was likely talking to a student.
That weird person kept following him, and there were so many girls who kept staring at him and whispering, it was beginning to feel like he wasn’t wanted here, “So, where on earth is the principal’s office, Lucy?”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know,” He looked around, “there’s a big mermaid fountain, and a whole bunch of bushes, and flowers…” a couple of the students stopped and stared at him, with wide eyes, “and kids.”
She sighed, “So, you’re in the courtyard. Well, do you see the big building with the clock tower on it?”
He looked around, and sure enough there was a large clock tower across the courtyard, as she called it, “Uh, yeah?”
“The principal’s office is in that building.”
Really? Inside the clock tower? That’s… a choice. “Okay? There’s a lot of floors.”
“There’s only four floors, Natsu.”
He shook his head, “The clock tower is a lot taller than four floors.”
“The principal’s office isn’t in the clock tower, it’s in the building that the clock tower is attached to.”
Now he felt a little silly, “Oh, that makes more sense.”
“Listen, I have class,” did he interrupt her class? “The principal’s office is on the fourth floor, end of the hall, double doors, when you get to the floor from the stairwell.”
“Okay, got it.” He started making his way over there, and that weird person was still following him, “What does she smell like?” He asked, eyeing the weirdo.
“I don’t know, why?”
“Just thinking I might be able to find her by her perfume or something.” He made a gesture to the weirdo to go away, but they didn’t.
“Are you a dog?”
“No.”
“Just head up to the fourth floor in the building with the clock tower, it should be the room with double doors. Just ask another teacher if you get lost. I have class.”
“Ah, wait, Lucy-” He pulled his phone away from his ear, “And she hung up.” He sighed, and pushed open the doors to the building.
“Excuse me! Where do you think you’re going?”
“The principal's office.” He replied, now where were the stairs? The elevator was right there, but he wasn't going up that.
“Sir.” The person continued to follow him, as he walked around the first floor trying to find the stairs. He pushed open the door to the emergency stairs, and started making his way up. “Sir!”
He looked down at them, shifting his bag in his hands, they were a flight of stairs below him, “What?”
“Why are you seeing the principal?”
“Why do you need to know?” He asked, and began making his way up the stairs some more.
“Because I'm the vice principal!” The person exclaimed, “and I can't have you going to see our principal-”
“It's not like I wanna see you dumb principal either,” he muttered, “your principal wants to see me.”
The person laughed, and rushed up the stairs to catch up to him. He pushed open the door on the fourth floor. End of the hall? He looked back and forth. “Double doors?” He muttered.
“Sir!” The person exclaimed, grabbing his arm abruptly.
“Hey, don't do that, the stuff in here is fragile!” He exclaimed, snatching his arm from them. He knelt on the ground, and opened up the bag. He sighed in relief, the glass didn't break. He closed the bag again, and made his way down the hall.
“Can I at least get your name?” The person asked. He knocked on one of the double doors, before just opening it. “Sir!”
“Uh, hello?” The woman behind the desk asked. She had blond hair that was the same color as Lucy's, or would have been if she wasn't at least thirty years older than Lucy.
“Hey, you're the principal, right?” He asked, setting his bag down on one of the chairs.
“I'm so terribly sorry, I should've-” the person started apologizing, but the principal interrupted them.
“Are you Natsu Dragneel? The fire researcher?” The principal asked.
“Yeah,” Natsu replied, and sat down in one of the chairs, “I don't have much time, I've got an appointment that I had to move later because of this.”
“Oh, I'm so sorry, you could've told me if this time wouldn't have worked for you.” The principal exclaimed, making their way around their desk.
“Principal Heartfilia, you can't seriously think that this man is the scientist Teacher Heartfilia told us about, do you?” the vice principal asked.
“Heartfilia?” He asked, and looked over at the principal as they sat down in the chair across from him. She must be related to Lucy, because not only did she kind of look like her, but she had a similar smell to her, too.