And I give life to yet another fanfiction, I can't help myself it seems. If anyone is curious about how this one was conceived then leave a question in a review or something, I'd gladly spout out the events prior to its birth. Even if no one is curious, still leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. Enjoy.

Does anyone think that Hiro Mashima has enough time to waste on some fanfic when he owns the real thing? Just asking.

As a psychology major, Lucy never expected her final project to be to counsel the screwed up womaniser Natsu Dragneel. But, unfortunately, it was, and she was in for some shit.

The door squealed in protest as it was roughly opened from the outside, filtering in some of the light from the hallway, then shut, and taking with the fatal slam Lucy's only hope for escape.

She rearranged the books on the desk in her assigned office for the hundredth time for the hour to mask her climbing anxiety as the object of her distress sauntered into the small room like he owned the place, magenta hair flopping onto his forehead. His jade eyes lazily scanned the room then dropped onto her, sparking as if measuring her worth then drifting away as if the result wasn't much.

Lucy almost frowned but quickly regained her composure and plastered an obviously fake smile onto her face, hoping that her cheeks weren't twitching as much as it felt like they were.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dragneel," she started in the professional voice she spent hours trying to master, not that it worked since she heard the blatant croak of nervousness in it.

The man quirked an eyebrow, lips twitching in amusement.

"Please have a seat," Lucy continued, letting her irritation seep into her tone this time. She took a calming breath.

The man plopped into the offered chair then slouched casually.

"I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and I've been assigned the task of offering you...help as the Internal Assessment for my degree in psychology. Do you know why you were chosen, Mr. Dragneel?" Lucy asked, shifting in her seat to cross her arms. She frowned; her body language was clearly screaming defensive while his was just relaxed, why the hell was she reacting like this?

He ignored the question letting his eyes drag across Lucy's body once again, but this time pausing at and ogling her very full rack, and then meeting her wary mocha eyes. He leaned forward; Lucy instinctively pressed herself more into the chair even with the table as a barrier between them. The man laughed.

"Don't worry Doc, I'll be a good boy," he said. "Besides, you're not my type, you're too polite," he muttered, nose wrinkling in distaste.

Lucy flushed, "Mr. Dragneel, I'd appreciate it if you could control yourself."

His lips pursed slightly as he melted back into his seat.

"Natsu," he said, "I don't like this Mr. Dragneel thing. It's too damn formal for me. Just call me Natsu."

"Mr. Dragneel, it's not appropriate for me to address you by your first name. It is a breach of my professional ethics," Lucy replied immediately, feeling as if she gained an upper hand, a smug look crossing her face.

"Well I hope you don't mind if I call you Luce, eh Doc, cause you're gonna have to get used to it," he drawled devilishly, smirking at Lucy's miffed expression.

"Whatever makes you happy," she replied stiffly, "But please don't refer to me as Doc, I'm not qualified."

"But calling you Doc makes me happy," Natsu replied with mock innocence.

Lucy gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"Anyway," she continued, barely suppressing her rising temper, "We'll need to start off on some sort of common ground."

Natsu looked away, bored, "Don't mean to disappoint ya Luce, but I don't think that that's possible."

Lucy sighed, "Do you want to be helped?"

"I don't need help," Natsu snarled, suddenly angry, "I'm only here since they threatened my graduating position. I'm making it my goal to give you as much stress as possible."

Lucy blinked in surprise.

"Well, Mr. Dragneel, I appreciate the honesty, at least we got somewhere."

Natsu stared at her, dumbfounded.

"I tell you that I wanna make your life hell and that's what sticks?! I really don't understand what's going on in that head of yours."

Lucy politely chose to ignore that comment.

"Firstly Mr. Dragneel, I need you to acknowledge that you need help before we can move forward with this, otherwise it will be waste of time," she murmured while shuffling through her files containing Natsu's information and copies of the files of the other women he supposedly messed up.

"Were you even listening to what I was saying?!" Natsu demanded, "I don't need help. This thing is just a bloody waste of time."

Lucy glared up at him, "Look at me, Dragneel, I don't want to be here as much as you do, but I need to do this if I wanna graduate with honours, so even if you don't want to be here, you should at least care about another human being enough to stop this selfish and childish behaviour, you understand me. And stop spouting this nonsense about how you don't need help; there must be reason behind your destructive behaviour in all of your relationships. People don't just wake up one day and decide to wreak havoc on their love life like some sort of stupid maniac."

Natsu watched the irritated woman in mild surprise, "Wow Luce, you sure do talk a lot when you're pissed off. How does your man handle that shit?" he drawled, amused at the immediate dust of blush across her full cheeks.

Lucy was about to retort but the man abruptly stood up.

"Well would you look at the time, it seems that our hour is up, eh Doc, see ya."

With that Natsu strolled out of the room with a short, casual wave. Lucy scowled for a few minutes at the closed door, before sighing in defeat.

That guy is a piece of work, Lucy thought, closing her eyes tiredly while reaching up to massage her temples at the telltale throb of an approaching headache. She stayed in the silent room, the only sound coming from the consistent and monotonous tick of the clock from its perch on the quaint cream coloured wall.

Give me patience, Lucy sent a silent plea then left, hoping that it was granted.

"How was the first session in Project Dragneel?" the small woman nestled in Lucy's bed asked as she munched on a bowl of cherries.

Lucy blanched, remembering what occurred over the course of the prescribed hour.

"It was that bad huh," the other woman laughed after observing Lucy's expression while rolling onto her stomach, absentmindedly poking Lucy's pet Plue that looked like a freaked up cross between a bald, wingless duck and a dog without a tail.

"That's an understatement. You're so damn lucky you only have to do some community work; I don't know why I chose to major in psych where I have to fix some messed up people, I obviously didn't think that decision through, maybe I should've just listened to daddy and do business. I seriously can't handle Dragneel at all. He's so pompous and full of himself acting like he calls all the shots or something," Lucy whined from her seat on the carpeted floors where she was filing her fingernails.

"I'm lucky?!" the woman exclaimed, shooting upright and frightening away Plue, "I'm stuck with Gajeel Redfox, I don't like him at all and my project is to work with him to catalogue and translate some rare manuscript he stumbled upon in his garage and see if he has more artefacts to find in the junk heap of the house he inherited from his father. He's so damn controlling and annoying, treating me like I'm some sort of child and calling me a shrimp!"

Lucy snickered at her friend's misfortune then looked up at her with a sympathetic smile, understanding her frustration, "Well you and me both have to put up with idiots, eh Levy. But we're gonna work through this, though so let's not stress out too much."

"You're too optimistic," Levy groaned, tossing one of the trough pillows on the bed at Lucy who easily dodged it with a playful smile.

"Pillow fight!" she declared then proceeded to wage war with her friend, cherries rolling on the bed and file dropping onto the floors, both forgotten amidst the cheerful giggles.