Hello Fairy Tailers... I'm back... With another story, yet again, to add to my list of UNCOMPLETED Stories!

Anyway, this has been a story that has been niggling me for months now and I just couldnt fight it anymore. So I sat down and this little multi-chap oneshot was born. I had no idea what it was going to be about, but the characters took the story from me and Desk Notes was born. :)

So this is my first time writing a ficlet or short story. I need comments and feedback on how I can IMPROVE! The more feedback and comments I get, the more ficlets to Desk Notes will come!

So keep an eye out, request this story or put it in a community or something, because I believe this story is significant to what happens in the real world and what happens around us. So please heed me out :)

I will add other chapters up soon, so catch me on Ao3 where updates come first :)

Enjoy Desk Notes

It started with - 'Hi, how are you?'
She scratched it into the wood of the desk, going over the words several times for the ink to stain the surface of the battered school desk.
She looked up to make sure the teacher wasn't watching her before going over her graffiti on the desk once more. She didn't realise that this tiny little scrap of writing was going to change everything.

'Hi, I'm good. What's up?'
Lucy stared down at the graffiti line underneath hers the next day in class. She looked around the tables in her class, looking at her schoolmates before back at her desk.
From beside her, her best friend Natsu slammed his head on the table with a groan. It couldn't have been him.
Reaching into her pencil case, she pulled out her trusty blue pen and began to scratch again.
'Wow, I didn't expect somebody to reply to this. I'm good. Class is boring.'

'Class is boring. That's why I replied to your message. What's another scrap of graffiti going to do this crappy table?'
They were only simple notes, just ink scratched into the table. But strangely enough, Lucy walked into the classroom and straight to the rickety old desk in the corner to see what the next message said.
She knew it was going to become a habit if this person kept replying to her desk notes.
Making sure she wouldn't be caught drawing on the table, Lucy smiled down and began her next little note.
'I'm sure that more graffiti won't hurt. Besides, it gives me something to do in class.'

The desk was clean the next morning.

Lucy stared down in dismay at the clean, cheap plastic desk, her notes not there anymore. She bit down her disappointment, wondering if her anonymous friend would still graffiti the desk, replying to her notes.
She set everything down before catching a little line at the top of the desk.
'Teacher caught me writing. Had to clean the desk.'
It made Lucy's day when she saw that.
'That's good. I was annoyed when I saw it. But seeing your note made my day.'

'Graffiti notes aren't very manly.'
'^^ Whoever that is... Is a retard. Well, At least I make someone's day.'
Lucy snorted out in laughter when she saw the next compilation of lines the next morning.
It had been a full school week since Lucy started the Graffiti notes. She hasn't realised how much she looked forward to the morning class to see what the next line was on her desk.

'Hmm? What are you laughing at Luce?"
Natsu tried to peer over, but Lucy covered up her notes with her books. "Nothing" she lied, "Just something I remembered. It's quite funny."
Natsu gave her a questioning look before slinking back over to his desk and grabbing his pen. Then he began to doodle in his notepad.
'You made me laugh in the middle of class! That has to bring a smile to your face at least?'

'When I find out who called me a retard, just you wait. I'll prove to you who's the real man!'
'Is this a desk chain? Can I join in?"
'It's me...the original talker. Couldn't help but smile when I saw that. Judging by your handwriting, you're a girl. So I can imagine that.'

Lucy bit her lip at the extending list of Graffiti on her desk. It was going to get noticeable. She looked up, her eyes falling back on Natsu who was scratching a picture into his own desk.
A wicked face looked back from the cheap, plastic wood with sharp teeth and cross-eyed eyes. The words 'Eat me Sucker!' Stood out. At least Natsu would get into trouble before she did.
'So what if I'm a girl? You have halved the chances of finding out who I am. Here I thought you were a nice person?'

The desk had been cleaned of the previous days notes. But she didn't miss out on anything.

'Girls can be very manly.'
'There's nothing wrong with being a girl, you go girl :)... PS if we get caught writing on the table and have to clean it, leave this message.'
'Happy? I left your notes. See I am a nice person. You don't have to worry though, I can find out who you are very easily ;)'

Lucy's heart fluttered momentarily when she saw that ridiculous winky face on the Tuesday of the next week. The school was massive; it would be quite hard to find out who she was talking to.
All she could fathom was that the 'Man' comments were coming after her mid-morning. The other person, a girl she presumed was early afternoon.
And her mystery person was in the late afternoon.
'Is this turning into a game now? :) All I was doing was drawing on the table, Have I found new friends?'

'Real men don't back down from a challenge. But if I do find you, I can be your manly friend.'
'Oh yeah, count me in. I can be your best friend :). I won't be hard to spot and find out.'
'...Sure, this can be a game if you want it to be. But I guess it won't hurt if I gain a friend from this.'

On the Wednesday, Lucy couldn't help but smile.
Out of the thousands of kids on the Campus, she had managed to get three desk talkers like herself and she could possibly find out who they were.

She smiled into her notebook as the Teacher stood over Natsu and lectured him about his large graffiti drawing on the desk. Natsu looked bored and Lucy made sure to hide her little notes under her notebooks.
'Okay, I am going to walk past this classroom window at the start of each period. I will wave to whoever is sitting here. If you wave back and give me a thumbs up, I can figure out who you are :)'

Lucy waited until second period to see who sat at that table.
Natsu waited for her, asking questions the whole time before she determined that nobody sat there during second class.
She and Natsu went to their next class, Lucy quickly ditched him at the end of second and the start of third to see who she could see.

She walked past the window and towards her first class seat, she saw a hulking boy with wild silver hair staring back at her. She waved, he waved back and gave her a thumbs up.
She was ecstatic and couldn't keep the grin off her face.

She did the same over and over, resulting in a tired and rather demanding Natsu, questioning her motives.
Her next Desk Talker wasn't found until fifth class, a girl about her age with tousled blue locks and the sweetest face. They both waved and the girl gave Lucy a thumbs up. Now it left her mystery talker.

He wasn't at school that day.

'Mr Nice Person? Who replied to my first message. Are you still around?'
She wrote that on the Friday of the second week of desk talking.
And never received an answer back.

"So you guys met writing on the desk?"
Natsu looked incredulously at Lucy and the blue haired girl she had befriended, "And your name is?"
"Levy..." The girl gushed happily, "Levy McGarden."
She beamed at Natsu, "I have seen you pair hanging out together all over campus. Do you two go out?"
Lucy, who was drinking a popper, spat apple juice all over the concrete, "eh?" She cried out in horror, "Me and Natsu? No way."
"I'm not going out with my best friend!" Natsu cringed "That's gross. You aren't supposed to do that."

"Oh I'm sorry" Levy laughed, "I didn't mean to be rude."
A shadow loomed above them, "Are you the Desk Talkers?" A deep voice rung out.
Chills went up the girls spines and Natsu was on the defensive to protect Lucy. "What's your problem" he started to shout; only to have a massive hand cover his entire face and his words were muffled.

Lucy looked up and saw the same young man she had seen previously, the one with striking white hair. He had a large scar dragging down the left side of his face, and skin tanned from being in the sun.
His sharp eyes landed on Lucy, she only nodded helplessly. Then he looked down to Natsu, who was trying to punch him while his head was still being held back.
"This..." He said, "Is not manly."
He pushed Natsu back, letting him stumble back. "I'm Elfman Strauss!" He declared, "I'm a real man!"
Lucy sweat dropped, "Right" she chuckled nervously.
"Mind if I sit with you?" Elfman said in his forever-loud voice. Lucy didn't have the heart, nor the guts to say no.

'I'm back... That's if you are still leaving desk notes. I was...sick."
Lucy stared down at the scrawled desk note on the fifth week of starting desk notes.
She, Levy and Elfman had stayed steady friends ever since their little endeavour on the desks. Yet none of them had ever met, or seen this mysterious desk writer that Lucy had encountered first.

'I'm so happy' she scrawled onto the desk, going over the words a couple of times to make them darker. 'You were sick for nearly three weeks, that's a long time.'

"Has he or she come back now?"
Levy bit into her sandwich as Natsu poked around the sweets in her lunchbox. He looked up, "Yeah you should have seen her face light up this morning. He or she, whatever, has been sick all this time."

"Do you think it's a man?" Elfman asked, leaning against the fence and looking down on his friends, "We all left notes to reply to."
It's not their fault," Lucy declared, "You can't help it if you get sick; some people stay sick for a long time. At least they are back at school. Maybe we can finally meet them."

"I really don't care." Natsu shrugged, "I still find it weird that you all met each other writing on the desk."
He pulled a tart out of Levy's lunchbox and began to eat it, "But you guys are alright," he mumbled between mouthfuls of tart, "Ruushii carn make fweinds vey eashily."
He spat crumbs everywhere and Lucy rolled her eyes, "Eat before you speak Natsu. I'm surprised I'm still your friend."
Natsu only grinned, his abnormally sharp teeth gleaming, "I'm all you have!" He laughed.

'I know. Doc said if I get sick again, I won't be able to come back. I was lucky this time. We're you actually happy to see this note?'

Lucy stared down at the note, her heart clenching at the sadness that seemed to pour out of it. She clutched her pencil case and stole a glance at Natsu who was pulling out his connecta-textas to build something.
She looked back to the note with a heavy heart; she placed her pencil case and books down and pulled out her pen.

'That's sad. I hope you don't get sick again. Of course I was happy to see this, you know, the other people desk writing with us? We're really good friends now.'

'A real man doesn't allow themselves to get sick. Fight it. You really give a reason to write on the desk, it's still unmanly.'

'Oh my... Please get better, maybe you can become our friend as well? Just don't get sick again and leave before we can meet you :)'

'... Friends? Haven't had them in a while. I get sick easily... Doc says its terminal. But hey, why would I care?'
Lucy didn't reply to that desk note that day.

"Levy!" Lucy went running to Levy at lunch that day dragging Natsu behind her like a rag doll. "I couldn't reply to the desk note, why would you say something like that? Especially when other people can see it!"
Levy pursed her lips, "Lucy, we have been doing this for quite a while now, I think I have come to notice that you, Elfman and I only sit at that rickety desk. It's still sad that they are terminally ill."

"Do you think that they will let us be friends?" Asked Lucy as she saw the looming shadow of Elfman coming up behind them.
"Just because they are sick," he said in his deep voice, "Doesn't mean that they will shut out others. We haven't even met this person yet. We should give each other a chance."
Natsu poked his head up over Lucy's shoulder, "Hey guys?" He asked, "What's terminal mean?"

Lucy spun around and hit him in the head, "It means that you are going to die of an illness!" She shrieked, "How inconsiderate can you get? I thought you knew better Natsu!"
Natsu hit the ground clutching his head looking guilty, Lucy spun around with tears in her eyes before hiking up her bag and running away from her group of friends.

"Lucy!" Levy cried, going to run after her friend, but Natsu stopped her. "Don't Levy," he murmured, "I was stupid. I shouldn't have said that. Lucy has issues with illnesses that kill you." He looked up to her, "Her Mother died of an illness, just give her time. She'll come back."

'How can you be so blasé about something that is going to kill you?'
A teardrop smudged the last word as Lucy scribbled into the desk, 'You should be out there having fun, not wasting away being unhappy.'

Natsu looked at his friend as she scribbled. He saw a tear ooze out and fall on the desk; he felt his chest tighten in sadness.
"I'm sorry that I can't make you happy Lucy," he thought miserably.

'Don't cry over a person you haven't met before,' came the response the next morning.
Lucy's knuckles went white as she clutched her books, reading the scrawly blue pen note, 'I see you have an issue of me not caring?'

Lucy spun around on her heels and walked up to the front of the classroom; she slammed her books down and fell into the seat. Her head dropped onto her arms and her shoulders began to shake.

Natsu frowned at the scene before him before picking up his stuff and moving to Lucy's usual desk.
He chose a red pen, because red is an angry colour.
'You' he wrote savagely, 'How dare you make my friend cry! You don't know what she has been through. She has only wanted to care about you and you make her sad! Just you wait till' I find you! I will knock some sense into you!'

"I didn't say anything," Levy said, "Did you really put that Natsu?"
Natsu sent a glance at Lucy sitting alone on a bench against the wall a little distance away. "Of course I did" he said defensively, "Levy, that stupid note made Lucy cry! She went to the front of the classroom and cried her eyes out. She had to be sent to the bathrooms."

"It's not manly to make a woman cry," Elfman said disapprovingly, "Poor Lucy."
"I'm going to protect her" Natsu said vehemently, "I swore to myself that I wouldn't let Lucy cry again. Now a stupid desk note breaks her heart all over again?"
He hit the steel fence with his fist, "I just wish that I could fix everything for her, Lucy is too beautiful to be sad."

'You just sound like a flame brain! Who are you to get up me? I didn't mean to make your friend cry alright! You wanna have a fight huh? Meet me after school behind the Bus Bay! Then we can settle your little anger tiff. Don't bring anyone else. PS. Rub this out when you see it you idiot. I don't want your friend seeing this.'

Natsu gritted his teeth as he read the note, "What an idiot" he snarled under his breath.
Natsu had raced ahead of Lucy that Friday morning; he had come into the empty classroom as the Teacher went to get some work sheets. He slammed his bag down and went back up to the front to grab the desk cleaner and some paper towels.

He sprayed the note about ten times before scrubbing away at it furiously, erasing the note from existence. There was no way he wanted to be the one to make Lucy cry this time. He wanted to make it better.

That Friday afternoon, Natsu bade Lucy farewell as she climbed into her car and drove home. Natsu clutched his own car keys and made his determined way towards the Bus Bay.

He made his own way through the throngs of school kids waiting for the Bus and towards the back of the Bus Bay where a small classroom was. A shadow loomed on the right side of it and Natsu fell against the front of it. Refusing to see who was on the other side of the brickwork.

"Don't want to face me?" a cold voice came out.

Natsu had a death grip on his keys and he said through grit teeth, "I don't want to see you because if I do…I would want to knock your brains out for making my friend cry."

"Look!" the cold voice broke out, "I'm sorry that I made your friend cry! I didn't mean to hurt her the way I did! I was only saying what came to mind on those stupid desk notes!"

"She enjoys seeing what you write every day" Natsu stated, he clenched his fists, "Every day I sit next to her in that class, I see her smile as she writes on the desk! She thinks that I don't know? I hear her laughing as she writes!"

He hit the brick work with a 'thump.' "She was happy at the thought that she was going to make some new friends again. Instead, you upset her."

"Why do you even care?" the voice came out, less cold and more quiet. "What did I genuinely say to make her so sad? It's my illness, nobody else cares."

"Her Mum died" Natsu bit out, "Her Mother, wasted away in Hospital because of an illness. I was with them every single day. Her Mum never once said she was going to die in front of her daughter, she was always saying that she was going to come home and she was going to get better. We believed that."

Natsu felt the sadness descend upon him and start to crush his chest. "She was always so happy, we spoke to her that morning before school. After that, we weren't allowed to go back to the Hospital. Her Mother died alone in that blasted hospital! And the Doctors said that she died with a smile on her face!"

Natsu fought back the sad memories, "Lucy wasn't the same after that. She still hasn't gotten over it."

"Lucy…" the voice was quiet. "Is that her name?"

"Of course it is" Natsu snapped, "And you have made her cry! I said to her that I wasn't going to let her cry ever again."

"You don't know what I have been through" the cold voice suddenly came back with a vengeance, "I know you are only here protecting your friend. But how do you think I feel? Knowing that I am going to die long before anybody else! Knowing that my body is failing me, I'm sorry that I can't be happy about dying!"

There was a brief silence before he spat again, "I'm sick to death of people staring at me with pity in their eyes and whispering about how I am going to die. As if I don't already know that."

"I want you to apologise to Lucy" Natsu said bitterly, "And actually give a damn about what she says, because nobody would know your pain as much as she would. She would be the only one to give a damn about who you are and how she can make you happy."

Natsu stepped off the wall, "I'm going to leave before I reach around there and hit your head against the bricks. I will hunt you down if you hurt her again and that's a promise."