Learning to Love

Chapter 2: Pick one!

After a long and exhausted day at school, Natsu had finally returned home. He locked the door behind him before walking upstairs to his room.

Just slamming his door in, Natsu threw his book-bag to the floor on a pile of clothes he had left early in the morning and threw himself onto his bed. "Aww, my bed…" A tranquil sigh escaped his mouth.

Just as he was enjoying the peace and quiet, his phone started to ring and vibrate in his pocket. Reluctant to pick his phone up, he let it ring.

Again, his phone rang and vibrated once again. He threw his white flag of surrender and reached into his pocket. Not bothering to look at the contact info, he answered in annoyance. "WHAT!?"

"Whoa, kiddo it's just me." It was his father calling him.

"Oh, sorry dad," he sighed, apologizing for his rude behavior as he answered. "Just had a long day at school, what's up?"

"Just checking in on you," he told his son. "Anyways, just called to inform you that I might not make it home 'til midnight."

"Oh, that's fine." It wasn't a surprise for his father to call him for that. He had always spent most of the time alone in the house.

"There's still some leftover rice and chicken from yesterday, you should be able to just heat it up in the microwave." The man advised his son.

"I know that dad," Natsu told him. "Anything else?"

"Love you kiddo." He heartwarmingly told him through the phone.

"Love you too." Natsu replied back with his own heartwarming comment.

"See you later."

"See you later pops." And like that, Natsu ended the conversation with a single beep.

Natsu now threw his phone to the side, hoping he can just lay down on the bed and take a little nap, after all, he was still exhausted after the long day he had.

He still couldn't believe that his art teacher, Mr. Trent, had paired him up with Erza Knightwalker to help her paint a mural of the mascot on the central wall of the school. Just the mere thought of him working with Erza was a brain cluster.

Of all people, it had to be the one person who is never there in school, to help him. It was a slap to the face.

He could already picture how it was going to go down: she would be there however, he would practically be the only one trying to paint the mural while she ran off to do something else herself. It appalled him to say the least about the scenario.

"Dammit…" He sighed, rolling to his side and now his sights were out of his window. "Alright Natsu!" He got himself up, pumping himself. "You can do this! Once you see Erza there tomorrow, stand your ground! Don't let her out of your sight and God forbid she actually helps you with the mural!"

He gave himself confidence for the days to come. The mascot was a dragon and it was gonna take him quite awhile with her to get it done.

"Alright, that made me feel a bit better…" Natsu gave out a small ball of air. He looked at his book-bag and remembered he had homework to do. "Ah well, better get started on it."

…

The next day came by quickly and Natsu was skirmishing through both his bag and locker. He was leaving a few unnecessary books while taking a few for the rest of the day.

Just as he was finishing up tidying up, the locker right next him was opened. He knew that had to be Erza.

He closed his locker and saw the scarlet haired baddie rummaging through her locker. "Hey." He greeted her, in hopes of small talk.