Natsu Dragneel didn't give a rat's ass about exams. He'd spend his days playing football everyday, playing video games and- of course, every popular boy's main job- socialising. So, to simply put it, according to him, he didn't have time to study.

But he had no worries, really. He passed every time with almost 0 hours of studies even for the biggest exams. Why?

Lisanna Strauss, his childhood best friend always took pity on him when he pouted and told her how much tired football had made him and let him cheat off her paper.

It was simple. Due to their roll numbers in their class, Lisanna and Natsu sat in one exam hall. In fact, Lisanna sat in the seat right in front of him in the row on his right. Lisanna wrote bigger in size in exams and tilted the paper upwards for him to see for long-answer questions and used the pre decided code touches to help him answer the multiple choices.

So, Natsu wasn't worried for this test, either. Sure, it was a really, really, really important test according to Lizzie and she did request him to study for it- which he did for around half an hour!- but Natsu really didn't care.

But this time, little did he know, he wouldn't be able to cheat from Lisanna.

Today the juniors of Magnolia International High School are giving their last final exam. But it also turned out to be one of the hardest subjects. Plus, it was one of those main subjects which could hold you back a year if you didn't pass in it even if you got full in every other.

The thought of such subject's exam would scare even the most slacker of a student into studying. But not Natsu Dragneel. He spent half of his study leave playing football and other video games with his best friend yet somehow rival Gray Fullbuster.

His other best friend slash rival, Gajeel Redfox was having great plans of playing the study leaves away with them but his smart and know-it-all girlfriend and Natsu's another bestie, Levy McGarden, forced him to study along with her for every exam.

He says an upside to this situation was that he could answer every 3 questions correctly and he'd at least go to his senior year with Levy because he thinks Gray and Natsu can't pass these exams.

Natsu and Gray would always smirk and tell him to never underestimate the power of cheating.

While Natsu has Lisanna Strauss, his childhood best friend who always pitied him and helped him, Gray has Juvia Locker.

Juvia used to be this fangirl of Gray, nothing unusual there especially considering that Gray had a very bad stripping habit and a very toned and sculpted chest. Now, Gray and her have this weird relationship where Gray talks to her, holds her hand and even kisses her cheeks while scoffing at the idea of liking her in front of her and then smiling like a loony after her when she turned her back to him. Gray had some weird problems with love due to his past, but one of these days Natsu was sure that he'd spontaneously burst with pent up feelings and tell Juvia. Natsu always wanted the best for Gray, his best buddy in the world.

And Juvia, even though excelled at being obsessed with Gray, was very good in studies. Hell, she was one of the top 5 students in the entire freaking year. Lisanna was admittedly good 12 ranks or so below her but he'll make do with what he got. At least she was in top 20. This made him an above average student just by pure cheating which was a big fucking thing.

Now, standing in front of the exam hall, Natsu was pulling off his perfectly mastered by now Please-help-me-Lisanna-I-am-so-tired-and-regretful look trying to convince Lisanna that he is the regretful little puppy he is and to to help him. Lisanna would cave in eventually.

After a complete 15 minutes convincing, Lisanna agreed and Natsu started worrying if he should find a new cheating partner because Lisanna is becoming more and more adamant to not letting him cheat. It never took more than 5 minutes to convince her at the start, now it is around or even more than 15 minutes.

The first bell rang meaning that the students should get seated inside their respective classrooms. Then the second bell rang and the invigilators started handing out the sheets of exam paper and a booklet to write their answers on. This was called the 'reading time' where they read and understood the paper. So naturally, wasted those 15 minutes. And then right at 9, the third bell rang, signaling the start of examinations as multiple sounds of pen caps being taken off and papers shuffling was heard throughout the school.

Natsu had written all the answers he knew, which a grand total of 10 questions of 1 and 2 marks and this one 5 mark question which Lisanna forced him to see a few minutes ago saying that it was very important and bound to come. Well, she wasn't wrong. He needed 40 out of 100 to pass and currently he had only 35 marks. He needed a good 35 more marks to keep up his above average student facade and 5 more marks to just pass.

'Goddamnit, when did these exams get so hard? Last year, I could write at least 50 marks without any studying done!' Natsu thought.

He took a minute more, pretending to write and coughed twice. Signal to call Lisanna for help.

Lisanna just tilted her head a little towards him, seeing him from the corner of her eyes.

He pretended to scratch his jaw with 3 fingers meaning question number 3. Foolproof method, none of the invigilators doubted it.

Lisanna gave him a barely perceptible nod and read the answer she had written from her answer booklet and messed with her earring 2 times. Meaning, answer was choice B.

Like that, he cheated for more than 15 minutes, going from 35 marks to 48 marks when Lisanna gave a dirty look. Signaling 'Let me write my paper, you dumb asshole'.

Natsu sighed when he gave a carefully hidden pouty look and asked the answer to another 2 mark question. He shall rest in peace for 15 minutes more if he got at least 50 marks.

Lisanna mouthed the answer and he sent her a confused look. This was the hard part, guessing whatever Lisanna mouthed to him. Instead she sighed and raised her paper a little for him to see.

'Aha!' Natsu thought and scribbled the 2 lines down. He remembered the process his teacher was explaining now. It was one of the explanations that stuck despite him not paying attention most of the times. Now that he remembered the phenomena due to Lisanna's help, he could write the answer to another 3 marks question somewhat which dealt with the same process.

Natsu grinned at Lisanna, Lisanna rolled her eyes and glared playfully at him and Laki, Natsu's maths teacher, burst inside the classroom with her hands folded and her face stern, glaring right at Natsu and Lisanna.

"Where you both cheating?" She questioned, and if Natsu wasn't scared shitless at the precise moment, he would laugh at the question. Who would admit to doing the crime?

"N-no, ma'am!" Natsu stammered out. Lisanna nodded furiously even though her eyes were so wide that Natsu was worried that the skin at the corners of her eyes were going to tear open. Jesus save them. Lisanna was terrible at lying. She'd go red and her mouth and eyes would go impossibly big and she'd stammer to say one word. Natsu wasn't the greatest at lying, too, but like, Lisanna shouldn't even attempt at lying.

The invigilator was shooting them venomous glares and the other students were torn between watching the drama unfold or writing their papers as time was a limited resource.

Laki looked at the pair long and hard- in which time stopped, they froze and their hearts beat like crazy- then sighed, shaking her head. Natsu was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she called out his name loud and clear.

"Natsu Dragneel, please take your things and shift to the next room. You may not have been cheating from Lisanna as Lisanna is a good child but one can never be sure." Laki said and held the door open.

He looked at her normally, nodding and flashed a grin to Lisanna while leaving but internally everything in him was screaming, "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL WILL I DO?"

Natsu tried consoling himself, saying that everyone gets lesser marks at least once in their time it would be his turn but Natsu really wanted to get 70 or above in his exams. A small, justice loving part which he did not know exists, scoffed while thinking, "Well, nitwit, then you should've studied. You are mourning as if you actually learnt shit."

Laki opened the door to the room and signaled Natsu towards a bench at the back, while talking to the invigilator who took it as his personal mission to glare at him.

Natsu settled down, organizing his stuff on the table as if he was going to write something.

And then Laki went and everyone went back to their business, except that the invigilator was eyeing him more than the other students. Natsu pretended to write whenever he looked at him, but otherwise just stared at the paper, hopelessly melancholic.

Just then the girl who was sitting next to him with sunshine gold hair jumped as her pouch tumbled down from the desk and her stuff scattered all over the floor. Many of the things had come right under Natsu's desk and Natsu bent down to pick up all the pens and pencils that had fallen out of her pouch. Not like he had a lot of things to still write in his paper and was extremely busy.

When he had gathered all the pens on his side, he lifted his face to hand it to the girl when he clearly saw her face and he was struck. This was easily the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had sunshine blonde hair- which he had noticed as it is the kind of colour which literally demands others' attention- and chocolate brown eyes, with pink pouty lips and a cute, little button nose. He hadn't seen her face as he had been avoiding looking at everyone due to his situation but this girl...this girl looked nothing short of an angel.

Natsu Dragneel was smitten.

She gave a little a cough, took the bundle of pens and pencils from his hand and gave him a pointed look towards his left. He dazedly looked at that direction and saw that it was that weird pen styled pencil with small lead refills kinda thing. One of the most annoying contraptions ever made because Natsu always wrote with a lot of force and the lead would break or go inside and become dull.

He looked back at her with a puzzled look and she mouthed a 'Use it. Read.' when the invigilator furiously questioned, "What is going on here?"

He strode towards them as the girl got up and brushed her skirt off after stowing the pens inside her pouch and Natsu quickly snatched that pencil.

"Nothing, sir. He helped me gather my pens." She said to him with a sweet and innocent smile. Then she turned to Natsu just the smile brighter, and warmly said, "Thank you!" She then sat back in her seat and started writing her paper again.

Natsu also nodded towards the sir who was looking suspiciously at them and sat down in his seat. Only when the invigilator turned his back to Natsu did he pull the paper off the lid of the pen-pencil and open it. And he opened it to find all the 1 mark question answers crammed in 2 lines in a neat yet small and cramped up handwriting and all 2-3 mark questions cramped up in 10-12 lines, to the point of not being able to understand where one line ends and another starts. The 5 mark questions were written on the next side with diagrams almost a scribble.

But Natsu was so, so grateful to this beautiful girl.

He didn't understand how she got the time to do it, he really didn't. But he just saved him big time and this time, he was surely getting 85+. Something which didn't happen frequently since his freshman years.

The exam got over around an hour and half later and when all the papers had been collected, he practically ran to the goddess who had helped him.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Was all Natsu was able to mutter, while holding her hand and staring in her beautiful big eyes.

"Your welcome." She laughed a tinkling laugh. Good gracious, Natsu was honest to god smitten.

"You looked like you needed the help." She added and smiled a bright, warm smile at him. And Natsu grinned back at her equally brightly.

Around 1 year later:

"Lucy! Please help me out and don't make me do this!" Natsu pleaded to his blonde and beautiful girlfriend.

Yes, after that day in the exam hall, Natsu continuously found ways to talk to the pretty girl who helped him and she didn't resist any attempts, too. In fact, Natsu still thinks that she conveniently appeared in the hallways he was waiting for her and helping him out. He found out her name was Lucy Heartfilia and around 8 months later, Natsu asked Lucy out completely spontaneously when they were taking a walk in the beachside area.

Not only did Lucy become Natsu's girlfriend, Lucy became Gray and Gajeel's younger sister like figure and best friend. Furthermore, Lucy and Lisanna got along very nicely and Levy McGarden practically became Lucy's best friend in the span of minutes. She also became close friends with Erza, Mira, Juvia and Cana, too. It certainly helped that Lucy happened to be in his class for the senior year. He still thinks it was Erza's doing as she is the Head Girl of the school.

"Natsu, listen. You are going to follow this exam schedule I made for you. Is that clear? And no, Gajeel like last year will be studying all day long, too, and this time, even Gray will. So you have no one to play with even if you do plan to slack off." Lucy instructed sternly.

The only downtime to Lucy being his girlfriend? She makes him study for exams now. And not only does she force him to study and get marks due to studying rather than cheating, she has also convinced Lisanna and Juvia to not help him or Gray. And since Lucy's arrival, Levy's law of not cheating has got even stricter. Furthermore, the boys' never told Erza that they cheat as Erza is as law abiding as it gets, and Erza threatened to pummel them if they cheat. And Erza's beatings is something Natsu never wants to suffer in his life.

Seeing Natsu's sad face, Lucy croons, "Natsu, you know right that you are very smart? I have to study a lot to get the marks I get and you have to study half the time I do to get almost same marks. Please, do this for me?"

And the way she says it, ensnares Natsu.

"Okay, fine. Only because of you. Afterall, you did save my butt last year." Natsu said while grinning.

"Yep, I was your knight in shining armour." Lucy laughed out. Natsu laughed, too and hugged his girlfriend. After all, she did save him back then.

A/n: Yep, it is a shorter oneshot but I really liked the idea as my exams are approaching, too. So my updates might be slower now because a) I have exams which start almost exactly in a month (finals so not that different from Natsu here except that I have no Lucy or Lisanna to cheat from), b) I have my school's annual function and I am dancing in it and they have ridiculous amounts of afterschool staybacks for it and even if I don't have staybacks, I am tired of dancing for 9 periods straight and c) I have multiple ideas for multi-chapter fics and oneshots. So, I will start on the multichap fics and oneshots and whenever I complete the oneshot, I'll put it up. And I will post the first chap of the multichap story only after my exams are done and I have written around first 10 chaps of it.

Anyways, that's it for now. Hope y'all like this one!