Dedication to @Leviismabeayeahh for your multiple hilarious comments that had me laughing for a really long time.

Natsu's POV

School inched by relatively fast. I wasn't sure if it was because I was slightly dreading studying with Gray after school today or the fact that this English assessment was going to kill my semester grade. There was only a month left of high school left, so this was it. There wasn't any turning back now.

Gray and I had decided on studying at the public library, as we knew the school one would be crowded with Literature Club members this afternoon. I was currently leaning on the flagpole perched in front of the school, crossing my arms and attempting not to look like a loner.

My mind would not stop thinking about Sting and this mystery Rose, however. It was quite obvious to me that Sting was hiding something, something he should be telling me, because when I get suspicious, I will find out what he's hiding.

I briefly recalled the time in ninth grade when Sting was being shady and avoiding me the week before my birthday. After weaseling information out of his mom, I discovered the pleasing news that he was throwing me a surprise birthday party.

Guess who wasn't surprised when my friends jumped out from behind couches and lamps that Saturday afternoon?

No matter what, I could tell Rose made Sting happy, and I was glad. Hell, every single time I brought her up, he would light up with a goofy, lovestruck smile and his face would go red. He denied the fact he was in love, assuring me it was "just a little crush". I literally just have to say 'Rose' and he'll start grinning like an idiot.

But makes me think that Sting's moving on, but I'm here, wondering if I'll ever find "the one".

I mean, look at me. I'm almost eighteen and I've never even been kissed. Not that it matters that much to me, but everyone around me is getting girlfriends and I'm spending my Friday nights binge-eating and watching YouTube videos.

Gray snapped me out of my reverie by clearing his throat. Dazed, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and waved awkwardly at him. "Hey," I smiled.

"Hiya. Ready to go?" Gray ushered towards the parking lot, attempting to be a gentleman. I resisted an eye-roll and we got into my car, parked in my assigned spot. "My poor car is going to be staying here for the night- I'll probably have to get Lyon to drive me."

"What college kid would be up at seven in the morning by choice?" I asked, appalled.

"Not him, that's for sure. He's probably the laziest person ever," Gray admitted bemusedly. I nodded, knowing that made way more sense, and we threw our stuff in the backseat.

"Library, here we come~!" Gray sang as I backed out of the parking space and hit the road to the public library, trying to block out his awful singing with my mind. "Oh hey, so I was reviewing the list again..."

"Here we go..." I mumbled under my breath, bracing myself.

"Number seven says 'Go to a concert'. My best friend Rogue and his band are playing a gig tomorrow night, are you interested in going?" Gray asked excitedly, turning his head in my direction.

"Rose?" I repeated.

"Rogue," He corrected, not irritated at all. "I know, I know, they sound pretty similar. No, he's 100% male."

I gripped the steering wheel tightly, the blood draining out of my fingers until they were almost white. "Shit," I muttered.

"What?" Gray quipped.

I sighed, figuring it wouldn't hurt to explain everything about Sting to Gray. "My friend recently developed a crush, this black-haired, red-eyed girl, saying her name was Rose. And sometimes he's messed up his speech and said he instead of she, and I'm really suspicious," I babbled.

"You realize no one in our grade goes by the name of Rose, right? No offense, but I think your friend's lying to you," Gray said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, I know that now," I rolled my eyes. "But, is this Rose... your friend Rogue? Sting's not even freakin' gay!" I raised my voice a level, shocking myself.

"I'm telling you, it's gotta be Rogue," Gray shrugged, apparently unfazed. "Look, how about this. You come to the concert and bring Sting along. Just pay attention when they see each other there. Oh, and mention to Sting that Rogue is performing beforehand. See what he does."

"Jeez, what kind of spy-lord mastermind are you?" I stared open-mouthed at him. "Someone has too much time on their hands."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny. No... I think I just know how people tick," Gray admitted, looking out the window shyly.

"Well it's pretty hard to figure me out, so good luck," I muttered. Gray didn't say anything for a minute until we pulled into the Magnolia Library parking lot.

"I wish I brought snacks..." He wished to himself quietly. I bit my lip, choosing not to say I had some in my backpack. I didn't want him to know about anything and start making wild assumptions that honestly, always end up being spot on.

"Okay, I rented a private room for us to study in," I explained as we took out our backpacks, locked the car doors, and entered the vicinity.

"Ooh, private," He said mischievously. I scoffed and rammed my shoulder into his. Gray laughed, shoving me back lightly. "How long do we have the room for?"

"Uh, I think I reserved it from 4:30 to 6:00," I answered. "I figured an hour-and-a-half would be a good chunk of time to get some studying in."

"That'll be plenty of time," Gray lowered his voice flirtatiously, practically purring. I rolled my eyes, chuckling. We made our way to the front reception desk and I told the librarian my name, so she could give us the room assignment.

"You're in Glass Room 3," She had said. The Glass Rooms were a series of four - shocker - glass rooms back to back on each other. They were often occupied and I was really lucky to get a spot at such a busy time. We went to the room with the number 3 above the doorframe and locked the door behind us.

The only thing in the room was a large table with six chairs. There wasnt much walking space or room to put our bags in, so we sat across from each other and plopped our knapsacks in the chairs adjacent to where we were both sitting.

"Alright... where do we start?" Gray pulled his English textbook out of his backpack, letting it drop with a satisfying thud that made me jump two feet in my seat.

"Well, let me recover from the heart attack you just gave me first!" I cried, clutching my shirt. "Sheesh."

"Sorry," Gray grinned sheepishly. "Err... okay, let's start with vocabulary." He took out his vocab list that our teacher had provided us as a study tool. "What's the definition of..." Gray ran his forefinger over the page, choosing a word. "Wait, let's make a bet."

A/N: I'm sorry I'm such a huge nerd who looks up vocabulary words for fun and memorizes them I literally have no social life okay you probably don't know any of these.

"A bet?" I repeated with a straight face curiously, not liking the sound of that.

"Sure, it makes things more fun," Gray rested his chin on his palms, smiling at me innocently. "Loser has to buy the winner ice cream after this."

"Gray, it's still April. It's like, 40 degrees outside," I gave him an obnoxious look. "Fine, whatever. Prepare for a lose."

"You're on! Okay, what's the definition of serendipity?" Gray asked, apparently starting off easy. I knew this one, and answered confidently without hesitation as soon as he finished the last syllable of the word.

"Easy," I smirked. "It's a positive, unexpected discovery someone has while looking for something else."

"Ding ding ding!" Gray clapped childishly. "Okay, you ask me one now."

"Ultracrepidarian," I quizzed him, knowing he'd never get it right.

Gray paused for a moment, furrowing his eyebrows. I held back a laugh- he was going to lose on round one? Hello, ice cream! "Someone who doesn't know what they're talking about," He said finally.

"Ha! That's-" My eyes traveled down to the definition. "...right?"

"Told you I'm the master at everything," Gray boasted, hitting his chest with his fist and blowing a peace sign my way. "Okay. Sagacious!"

"Showing good judgement! Verisimilitudinous!"

"Having the quality of being true or real! Defenestrate!"

"To throw something out of a window! Evanescent!"

"Fading away! Trifecta!"

"When a better gets their first, second, and third place bets all correct! Prolix!"

"Redundant or containing too many words! Pulchritudinous!"

"Uh.... Unappealing look!"

"Wrong!" Gray shouted triumphantly, standing up abruptly. "Pulchritudinous is an appealing look!" He pointed at me, laughing mockingly. "You lose!"

"Damn it," I conked my head on the table, which, in fact, is way more painful than people make it out to be in movies.

"Here, remember it this way. "Gray is so pulchritudinous that he makes all the girls faint," He boasted, putting his hands on his hips and staring out the window dramatically. "Prepare yourself to buy me chocolate chip after we're done, sweetheart."

"Shut up, you bitch," I sassed. "Now help me study."

We somehow made it though the reserved time with minimal slacking off. I actually felt way more confident with my newly-created flashcards and reviewed knowledge fresh in my brain. I was, but ask me this and I'll deny it, kind of thankful Gray took the time out of his day to help me. I don't know what I was feeling, however- I just couldn't shake it off and forget it.

"Okay, who said this in Romeo and Juliet?" Gray quizzed me, covering the flashcard with his hand so I couldn't peek and cheat. "'Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.'?" He read the quote with a soft, slightly theatrical tone.

"Uh..." I tapped my forehead, trying to remember. "Juliet...? To Romeo."

"Correct-io," Gray applauded me as I faked a bow. Well, as much of a bow as I could do while sitting down in a chair and half of my body under a desk. "I honestly think you're ready. How do you feel?"

"You sound like a psychiatrist," I pressed my lips into a tight line. "I feel way better now. More confident."

"Prepared to make an A?" Gray added on, smile stretching across his face when I nodded affirmatively. "Sweet. And speaking of sweet, it's ice cream time."

I sighed, having forgotten the fact I lost to Gray at something... again. "Fine, a bet's a bet. Let's go, loser."

"Right behind you, jerkface."

We packed away our things, pushed the chairs into their proper places, and exited the Glass Room. I handed the key to the receptionist librarian and she sweetly wished us a good evening.

"Ice cream," Gray spun around, elongating the 'e'. I visibly cringed, morified to be seen with this spinning fool of a human being.

"Gray, stop acting like you're five," I hissed, blushing a bit. I mentally cursed my ancestors' genetic info for the 'getting embarrassed really easily' gene and rubbed my temples, feeling stressed.

"Drive me to the ice cream parlor, STAT, woman," Gray commanded as we found my car and hopped inside. I took the liberty of solving the issue by whacking his arm and telling him to shut up. Thankfully, TCBY was only a couple minutes away, so I only had to endure Gray's incessant blabber for a brief period of time.

"TCBY is frozen yogurt, you know," Gray pointed out as we parked in front of the hot-pink-painted building on the corner of the shoppping center complex. "I'm disappointed."

"At least I'm getting you high quality, and not that freezer-burned-tub shit," I retorted, smiling fakely.

Gray, being the oblivious, dabbling fool he was, thought my smile was sincere and grinned back. "Come on!" He egged me on, dragging me towards the front door.

"Jeez, Gray! I can walk myself, you know!" I exclaimed, feeling his tight, twisting grip on my wrist make it start to ache. Gray ignored me and continued to pull me to the entrance, looking like a child on Christmas morning, staring at a sea of intricately-wrapped presents.

A bell tinkled as we entered the plaza and got in line. Luckily, there was only a single elderly couple, and they were paying for their order. Gray and I studied the flavors, and I decided to get Rainbow Wonderland.

A red-headed girl with a visor, who I assumed was the girl on duty, had her back turned to us and was filling up a medium-sized waffle cup with soft-serve vanilla ice cream. She turned around, poured a twinge of sprinkles on top, and handed it to the elderly woman. The man gave their money to the other girl on duty, a brunette, also female, who cheerfully rung them up and wished them a good day.

"Hi, welcome to The Country's Best Yogurt. What would you like?" The redhead asked us politely. She adjusted the hem of her issued bright-pink polo top and I stared amusedly at how it clashed with the yellow shorts and yellow visor.

"Um, I'll take a medium cup of Rainbow Wonderland," I pointed to the ice cream that contained swirling pink, yellow, and blue colors. "What do you want?" I turned to face Gray.

"Could I have a dipped vanilla cone, please?" Gray ignored me and flashed a sweet smile at the girl, whose nametag read Erza. Erza nodded and quickly got us our orders. We shimmied down the counter to pay while Erza filled Gray's cone with the soft-serve.

"Hey, your total will be $8.33," The brunette girl said. Her outfit was nearly identical to the red-head's, but instead of a pink polo, she had a baby blue one. Her nametag read Taylor, and I found her really pretty. She and her co-worker looked about our age. Maybe they went to our school.

"Here you go," I put a ten in her outstretched palm.

"Would you like anything else?" Taylor asked, reciting the issued speech her boss gave her.

A wave of confidence rushed though me and I spoke before I even realized what I was doing. "Your number, possibly?" I flirted, smiling genuinely.

Taylor giggled and bit her lip shyly. "Haa... okay," She nodded, grabbing my cup. She took a Sharpie and scribbled a number on the side, handing it to me. "Call me whenever. You two have a good day now."

"Bye," I waved as Gray whispered a nearly incoherent goodbye.

Gray and I chose a table outside, getting a wonderful view of the sunset. I immediately began shoveling ice cream into my mouth, putting the number in my phone contacts so I wouldn't lose it. When I slipped my phone back into my pocket, I noticed Gray had a slight pout, something totally abnormal for him.

Well, I had only known him for a day. So maybe not totally abnormal.

"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling oddly troubled at the sight of him staring at his ice cream cone sadly.

"Ah, nothing. Just thinking about stuff," He mumbled monotonously.

I decided to brush it off and ate another bite. When I finished, I threw the paper cup in the trash and went to go back and sit down. Gray still hadn't taken a lick of his ice cream cone, and by this point, I was worried.

So I did the obviously most considerate thing to cheer him up- poke a hole in his cream and lick it off my finger. Surprised, Gray turned his cone around, narrowed eyes flashing back and forth from my satisfied face to his damaged dairy treat.

"Bitch," He couldn't help but laugh.

"Mmm, tasty," I winked, slurping on my finger. "Anyway, what's the news about the concert? You coming to pick me up, or...?"

"Yeah, I can do that. A good time to be ready would be about 7, I think. I'll come around then," Gray answered, sounding a bit more spirited than he was not even thirty seconds ago.

"Alright. I'm kind of nervous to see how this plays out, to be honest," I stared at him sheepishly, shrugging one shoulder.

"There's no need to be nervous. Who knows? Maybe it'll be serendipitous."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

*hisses* Taylor... (Guys dont hate on her please you have no idea who she may really be.)

I don't know about you but I'm so excited about this story. I know it's a dumb idea but it's literally got me updating lengthy chapters daily!

Ahhh! I'm so pumped about the next chapter! Concert time! And maybe a bit of matchmaking, too...? *softly chanting in the distance* stingue stingue stingue

Thoughts?

Remember to vote and comment, thank you! Funniest/sweetest comment = dedication!