dedicated to my friend Sara on tumblr!

disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or any of the characters/information/plots related to it.

a/n: it will contain light character spoilers (aka you learn about some characters mentioned here in the Tenrou Island arc since I don't think they are mentioned before that), but otherwise you should be fine.

one:

The bus lurched forward, bustling along the graveled road at breakneck speeds, leaving Lucy feeling queasy, but not nearly as much as the pink haired boy at the front of the bus. She winced for him, but turned her gaze out the window, knowing she couldn't help.

The trees passed in a blur of green and brown, stretching far above her head with interweaving branches blocking out the sun. Here and there, she could see pockets of sunlight, but overall, the forest made it dark and she crossed hers arms more tightly over chest, a shiver working down her spine. The bus moved too quickly to see, but she felt as though there were something behind the long line of tree trunks, watching her.

You've been reading too many horror stories, she scolded herself. How would her father allow her to go next year if she came back home with nightmares this time? It had taken cunning and dedication, some letters from her friend about the camp, and some nudging from her maid, Virgo, before Jude had allowed her to come to camp Love and Lucky. She didn't know what the eccentric maid had said, but she guessed it had worked on her hard-headed, workaholic father more than Lucy's attempts or Natsu's letters.

Natsu Dragneel didn't really have a way with words. It had irked her a little when the camp first assigned him to be her pen pal as a way to encourage communication between peers so campers were more comfortable with their surroundings at Love and Lucky, but overtime she came to enjoy it. His words had a life of their own and deciphering them often left her feeling as though she were unraveling an ancient language overnight.

This friendship had started last year, back when she originally was supposed to go to camp, but Lucy's mother died before she could and after that, she didn't need a guide, she only needed a friend. Natsu had helped, more than perhaps he knew, and she wished, more than anything except to see her mother again, that he would be attending camp again this year.

Nobody stuck out as Natsu though. How did a loud, dense idiot not stand out from everyone else on the bus? The only conclusion she could make was the obvious one: Natsu wasn't here.

Her shoulder bumped into the window as the bus took an abrupt turn, her eyes blinded as they escaped a sky of dark foliage and entered into the bright sunshine. The bus shuddered once – perhaps it would explode – before stopping completely.

"Waah! We're here!" The pink haired boy yelped, his face green as he lurched to his feet, swaying like a drunk man. The difference between the novice campers and the newbies became apparently obvious when teens and kids crowded the windows, trying to take their first peek at the camp.

Lucy, of course, was proudly a newbie and she climbed onto the seat across the aisle, peeking out the window in awe.

The trees ended abruptly, as though the twisting branches and dense covers had been protecting the camp from intruders, and instead circled around the cabins like a fence of ferns. A glistening lake stretched across the grounds further ahead, so large that the cabins across it that belonged to a rival camp looked like mere dots. She couldn't see the dock, but she thought it was on the other side of a large, rickety cabin like structure directly to their left.

On the other hand, she could see the collection of smaller cabins dotted around the camp along a faint dirt trail. She thought that would be where she and whoever would be her roommates would be sleeping.

It was ordinary, exactly as she expected a camp to look, and more beautiful than she expected. Her eyes traced over the camp with a constricting heart and a lump growing in her throat, wondering which parts Layla Heartfilia had known. Did the trees and the lake mourn her as Lucy did? Did they remember her touch or had time taken the memory from them as time had taken it from Lucy?

She grabbed her travel bag off the seat, the last person to exit the bus. The dirt crunched beneath her feet, unnoticed as a white-haired girl interrupted any further thoughts. "Your luggage will be delivered to your cabin, please follow Erza to the mess hall for orientation."

"Man, again? We already know what to do," scoffed a boy in the process of removing of his sweater.

Erza turned out to be a girl not much older than Lucy with long red hair and the eyes of a monster as she turned an evil look to the boy who spoke. Instantly, the boy tensed and quieted, now beginning to strip off his shirt to the enthusiasm of a pale, blue-haired girl beside him.

There were no grumblings as Erza led a silent parade of kids her age to the mess hall, which surprised Lucy more than anything. The bus had been rambunctious and filled with talking, but something about Erza – perhaps the fact that she was a demon in disguise – quieted even the loudest person.

Maybe even Natsu would cower from her glare.

Lucy found her frightening – but then she ushered the group ahead of her into the rickety cabin Lucy had spotted earlier. Rather than follow them, Erza stayed behind and Lucy slowed her steps, making no attempts to hide her eavesdropping as Erza crouched beside a teary eyed young boy. Though Lucy couldn't hear her words, the softness on her face made Lucy reassess her a little more.

Then Erza straightened and Lucy hurried to catch up with the group because she didn't reassess her that much.

"Wow," she murmured, "This is kind of…"

She didn't have a word for it except anticlimactic. The rickety cabin was filled with two long wooden benches on one side of the room and a little booth that Lucy guessed everyone collected their food from. It was woodsy, from the large beams supporting the ceiling, to the floor, to even the booth. It was also rather plain.

Erza entered the room and ordered everyone to sit down. The talking started up again, familiar faces seeking out other familiar faces, till Lucy could barely hear her own thinking, let alone try to strike a conversation with the people around her. As this was no different than home, she pulled out her notebook and scribbled more of her story.

Orientation seemed to take no time at all. A short, balding man told a story about the camp's origins that involved fighting a water dragon in the lake, recited off a list of rules that ranged from Do Not Kill Your Fellow Campers to Fights are Reserved for the Grand Games at the End of the Year, pointed out the list across the room with their cabin numbers, reminded them of the welcome festival tomorrow, and then sent everyone off to bed even though it felt like they had only been in there half an hour.

One glance outside told her it had been much longer because it was dark outside.

It wasn't late enough to sleep, but everyone still had to find their cabins.

A crowd surrounded the list, but Lucy elbowed her way to the front quite easily.

Heartfilia, L. – Cabin 13.

Her heart dropped. If the camp was called Love and Lucky, she figured that meant someone could be unlucky too and was there a number worse than 13?

…

There was absolutely nothing unusual about cabin 13. Even her roommates seemed normal: a petite girl named Levy, a bikini-clad girl named Cana, and Erza Scarlet.

Yup, that Erza…

Sleeping with Erza Scarlet in the next bed over was the reason that Lucy had such an unsettling night of rest. Or the uncomfortable beds, or the murmur of voices that woke her up, or just the disconcerting feeling that waking up in a new placed provoked in her. Either way, she slept badly and she didn't know how could muster up the energy to be in a festival.

Her groggy state lasted only until the end of breakfast when – abruptly – Erza slammed her cup down on the table, bellowing across the room, "NATSU! GRAY!" Two boys brawling immediately separated and hugged each other with frightened smiles on their faces.

Lucy didn't hear whatever they said to Erza, her wide eyes locked on the two boys. Natsu? One was dark haired and shirtless for some reason – the other was the pink-haired boy who had gotten motion sickness on the way over.

Which one was Natsu though? Shirtless boy or motion sickness boy? She thought it was the shirtless boy, because brave, strong Natsu didn't seem like the type of person to get motion sickness and yet the shirtless boy didn't look much like a Natsu either, his features to cold and expressionless for someone like the boy in her letters. The pink haired boy looked wild enough to be Natsu, she thought.

Both were glaring mutinously at the other while Erza berated them for making fools of themselves when Lucy approached.

"Lucy, don't follow their lead," said Erza suddenly, spotting Lucy from the corner of her eye.

Lucy faltered and both boys looked at her speculatively. "E-eh? Okay?"

"Lucy?" the pink haired boy said, tilting his head. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

The dark haired muttered something about an idiot under his breath.

"THE HELL DID YOU SAY, ICE PRINCESS?" the pink haired boy said harshly, whirling to face him.

"Natsu," Erza warned. Natsu stopped, turning to them, but Lucy couldn't think of anything, her thoughts completely derailed.

Natsu. Pink hair, sharp teeth, and onyx eyes. A tiny furrow in his brow as he studied her for that something he couldn't remember. His arms were crossed now that he wasn't fighting the other one – Gray – and she noticed they were strong and muscular, surprising for someone so thin. She tried not to ogle him, but couldn't stop herself from drinking up the sight of him.

"Lucy?" Erza asked, confused by the sudden, awkward silence as both teens stared at each other.

Natsu, her friend. Natsu, who she didn't think would be here.

Natsu, who was the second reason that Lucy tried so hard to come to camp. Natsu, who continued writing letters to her a year ago when she was nothing more than a stranger in need of a friend.

Natsu, who had prodded her into giving her skype and then, later, her phone number so they could talk outside letters.

Natsu, who looked at her now with wide onyx eyes, recognizing her at last.

Wait…

"YOU DON'T REMEMBER MY NAME?"

...

The group roared with laughter as Erza retold the story later that night. Natsu and Lucy sat quietly at the furthest edge from the fire and didn't notice till everyone laughed that the story had been about them. Both jolted, looking over at the group, who were watching them with a mix of amusement and wicked grins, as though they thought the two were being cute.

In reality, they were arguing about the other's handwriting, debating which one wrote like an animal and which wrote like they were using the wrong hand. Not a legitimate argument, nothing that would break their friendship, but a sort of careful prodding around a topic that neither knew how to examine properly.

Argument broken, Lucy flushed, playing with her fingers in her lap. Levy smiled brightly at her, giving her a thumbs-up in reference to something that Lucy didn't understand, but she guessed was about winning the argument.

Except she didn't win.

"Draw?" Natsu ventured, eyes flickering to her face then back to the fire.

"Draw."

It was the second night of camp and the warm weather had disappeared within minutes of the sun descending, leaving the remaining campers scrambling to their cabins or to the bonfires scattered around camp. There were camp leaders at each one to keep the campers under control – Erza at this one, Mira at another, and some man named Gildarts at the last. In the distance, she could hear the melodious voice of Mira and her group drifting over to them and, further away, she could hear the howling laughter from Gildarts group.

It was peaceful even if Natsu and Lucy were awkward.

The group had moved on to talk about something else. She struggled to think of something to say, but nothing fit. Should she thank him? Should she hug him? Lucy had known Natsu for over a year now, making him her longest and oldest friend, and this was her first time meeting him in person.

"Remember when we talked on skype the first time? We didn't really say anything, I just wrote and you did… whatever you do, draw maybe, and it was a little awkward at first?" Lucy asked as the memory occurred to her, recalling their first call on skype.

"Yeah?"

"Happy jumped on your laptop and knocked it out of your lap. I remember you swearing and Happy sounded pleased with himself."

"You laughed at me," he said, sounding unbothered by this fact.

"It was funny," she said, grinning. "You don't swear in writing."

"You don't yell in writing."

"I don't yell."

"Do you have memory loss I need to know about?"

"Says the one who forgot my name."

"I didn't think you were coming!"

"I told you I was coming in my last letter!"

Natsu stopped suddenly and she could have sworn his face was red, but, no, it was just the flickering fire on his face. "I didn't read it," he admitted and she tried not to feel hurt. His letters had been a life-line for her, she read them as soon as she got them regardless of most other obligations – which were none, but still.

"Oh," she said, frowning.

"I'll read it with the rest of my letters," he continued, not noticing.

"Rest of your letters? How many people do you know?"

"I know a lot of people! Like… there's the book girl!"

"Levy," Lucy corrected.

"Yeah."

"You have a letter from Levy, too?"

He laughed. "No, weirdo, why would I have a letter from Levy?"

"But I thought you said!" Or had he been answering the second question only? Did that mean he didn't have letters from other people? It was ridiculous to feel special knowing she was one of the few people who sent him letters and yet she couldn't deny the strange disappointment at the idea that he got some from tons of people.

"We should get mail in a few days, I'll read yours with my dad's. Then I won't have Droopy Eyes reading over my shoulder," he said, punching his hand.

Lucy held her breath. If all had gone to plan, she would be reading a letter from her mother and father in a few days too, one that detailed the camp as Layla Heartfilia remembered it and recommendations of where Lucy would go, then updates of how things were at home. Lucy would only have been gone for a few days yet the sight of her mother's handwriting would make her ache for home.

In a few days, she would get nothing. No mother left to send a letter; no father that cared to bother. She pressed a hand to her aching heart, but it wasn't from a longing for home so much as the longing for her old life and she struggled valiantly for the sound of Layla's voice in her memory.

"Lucy?"

She blinked and Natsu's face appeared in her vision. His brows were scrunched thoughtfully, a look she hadn't seen on his face the entire time she had known him. "Yes?"

He narrowed his eyes and her own widened, afraid that her thoughts had played across her face. They were too strong, too unspeakable, for Lucy to tell anyone, not even Natsu, even if she wouldn't have hesitated in one of their letters. "You were making a weirder than usual face." She scowled at him, preparing to retort, but he abruptly stood up. "Come on, I think they are telling scary stories. The fire will help you feel better, too."

She didn't know how to respond to that so she followed him. They chose the only free space around the fire, which unfortunately allowed the wind to blow smoke into their faces. Natsu didn't mind, but Lucy squinted, tilting her body away.

Natsu was right, they were telling scary stories. Gray just finished up a tale of something grabbing his leg in the lake last year – Natsu sniggered, she guessed the monster in this tale was him – and nearly drowned him, but how he escaped. The ending wasn't scary, but the rest of it must have been because she could see the look of horror on Levy's face.

Cana laughed when Gray finished. "We've heard a ghost story and a mermaid in the lake," she said, counting it off on her fingers, her body swaying slightly. Natsu made a noise about the mermaid, pouting when Lucy nudged him with a snicker and his retort cut off when Cana continued. "My turn, I'll tell you the best story."

"And the last," Erza said, eyeing the dark sky as though she could harm it for ruining a pleasant evening.

"Best?" Gray asked, outraged.

"Yup. Best. Because this one is actually true," Cana said, smirking, leaning her elbows on her knees. "Have you guys heard of the monster Acnologia?"

"Acno-luigi?" Natsu repeated.

"Why do you get Luigi from anything that has an L in it?" Lucy wondered, remembering one of his letters where he had started it out as Yo, Luigi!

Natsu shrugged and beamed. "Anything with an L in it makes me think of you."

She narrowed her eyes. It sounded sweet, but loser had an L in it, too.

"Flirt later!" Cana ordered. "Stare in the flames for a minute, you need to be properly prepared for this one." She eyed everyone till they followed her command. Lucy stared into the flames, forehead ticking as the smoke blew into her face. Natsu had no such troubles, leaning his elbows on his knees to watch the flickering light.

"Breathe deeply, forget everything except the flames and the sound of my voice."

Lucy frowned. Meditating hadn't ever been an art that she picked up before, not even when her tutors did practicing for it, and she questioned whether she could do it now. She breathed – and coughed. Absently, she felt a warm hand on her back, patting her till her lungs were clear and her eyes twitched to the left, where Natsu sat. His eyes were on the flames, his face oddly calm as though lost in trance, but his hand didn't move from her.

Clearing her throat, Lucy tried again. As Cana began her story, she didn't even notice when the smoke burning her eyes and lungs faded, when the hand on her back faltered, so focused on the sound of Cana's voice that she could feel and see nothing else.

"Before this was called Love and Lucky, it was called Fairy Tail!"

The final day of camp crept over Fairy Tail at the exact same time a summer storm began to hit them. Dark clouds blotted out the setting sun and with it, the warmth of the day faded, leaving the campers to scuttle to their cabins. A brisk, cold wind flew through the barricade of trees, ruffling the long hair of a short, pale haired girl. Girl would be the wrong word for her as this person was named Mavis and she was the first camp master. Though many of the campers were her size or larger, Mavis commanded respect and attention, her mind a brilliant combination of strategy and leadership.

She crossed her arms over her chest, watching the camp with the look of someone lost in thought. For good reason, too as this was Fairy Tail's first session and already the camp was risking closure. Two campers had vanished from their hiking groups in a two-day period and while the police with volunteers combed the woods for survivors, Mavis cancelled all trips into the forest outside of searching.

However, just that morning, Hades – her second in command - informed her that another camper had gone missing, directly from their cabin this time. Her roommates were moved to other groups while the cabin was cornered off until the police could investigate tomorrow morning. Mavis hadn't seen the cabin yet, trusting Hades' word, but a wary, instinctive part of her needed to know.

Mavis trusted her feelings.

She waited till the camp was silent, the sun long gone and the fire only embers, and then began her trek to the missing camper's cabin. She ducked under the tape, her bare feet silent on the wooden steps and the door opened without a single noise to betray her; she flicked on a flashlight, blinking her eyes to adjust. The clouds blocked the moon, preventing her from seeing anything outside of the beam of light.

A sick feeling built up in her stomach at the inside of the cabin.

The missing camper's bed was indistinguishable from the other three – except for the bloodied, ruffled sheets and the scattered glass on the floor around it. She held her breath, stepping further inside, wary of wayward glass and flicked her light around the cabin for anything else amiss, when something caught the corner of her eye.

Beneath the dirt and grime of the wilderness, the windowsill was crushed as though something large and sharp had gripped the ledge. She crept closer, letting out a little gasp of air as she spotted a trail of blood leading from the bed to the window. The window itself looked strange, as though a large tree branch had broken through it and broken the frame, but the mangled mess left behind didn't hide the bloodied print.

As though someone had grabbed the window in a vain attempt to escape whatever held them.

It led outside.

Mavis felt a kindle of hope. Perhaps her camper was still alive. Perhaps she could save them. She left the cabin calmly; she had spent so long inside that the weather had worsened, becoming a steady downstream of water. When she arrived back, she would have to tell someone to watch the lake in case it flooded from the rain, but that was only an absent thought. With the storm as her cover, Mavis darted into the woods, following the trail of blood.

Deeper and deeper into the woods she went; the lights from camp were swallowed up in the darkness, leaving nothing but her own footsteps and the beam of light as her companions. Mavis felt trepidation, not for her own well-being, but for the thickening blood trail that was her guide and the person to whom it betrayed. She climbed over a fallen tree, so disguised by the moss and grass that it looked little more than a lump among the trees, and appeared in a clearing of blooming flowers. The rain had fallen to a light drizzle, the wet grass squishing beneath her feet till Mavis jerked to a stop.

A person lay in the center of the field, the moonlight shining down on the pale features of their face, the flowers swaying in time with Mavis' breath.

"No," she murmured, a sick feeling building in her and she forced her legs to approach. The person was a light-haired girl dressed in tattered scarlet pajamas, blood oozing—

"CANA!"

"Sheesh, fine!"

The girl was dead, Mavis didn't need to examine her any closer to know, but her sightless eyes made the sorrow nearly unbearable and she lowered the girl's eyelids. For all her stillness, she might have been asleep. "We will remember you," Mavis murmured sadly, gritting her teeth against the furious tears welling in her eyes.

She swallowed it back. One girl down, but there were other campers missing and Mavis knew that the marks on the girl's body were not from any bear or cougar. No, the marks weren't from anything native to this forest; Mavis could sense the malice in the woods and her eyes traced the gouged marks in the dirt around her, the markings similar to those on the windowsill and only just now reminding her of a footprint.

A footprint of something large. A footprint of something sharp, capable of breaking a window and dragging a girl from her bed without alerting anyone else in the camp.

Something that could steal two campers without a sound.

A monster.

But…

Mavis eyed the trees around her critically and then back to the girl. She regretted telling no one of her actions or of her motives; she wouldn't be able to wait for someone to find her and she wouldn't be able to take the girl with her.

Sadly, but promising to be back swifter than any gazelle, Mavis made to leave the clearing.

The weather protested her departure, sending up a gust of wind that spewed dust and fallen twigs from the forest into her face. As she blinked her eyes clear, she heard it. A low, pain filled moaning. A sickening snap. Abrupt, eerie silence.

A shadow edged into the clearing and a large, monstrous figured appeared on the edge. It didn't make a sound, not with its footsteps nor with the shape – a person, she realized with horrifying certainty - it dragged behind it, till it tossed the person right into the clearing beside the girl.

Like a presentation to the moon. Like a presentation to her.

Look who you failed to protect.

Look at the lost children's future.

Look.

Look at me.

Mavis looked at it, obeying its command. Her eyes widened at the creature that stared back at her. The creature opened its mouth –

The fire exploded, jolting Lucy from the story and only the hand on her back kept her from toppling back out of her seat. Cana, her face deadly serious despite the amused light of her eyes, tossed something else in the flames; it sparked violently.

"It opened its mouth and spewed flames. Mavis and her missing campers were swallowed in the onslaught, their remains never found, and lurking in these very woods is the monster that claimed them, the one hungry for flesh, the one that Hades called Acnologia. After her demise, the camp was remained Love and Lucky, in honor of those who died and those survived to tell the tale," Cana said, finishing the story.

Her ending was met with an awkward silence. Lucy applauded, echoed by the rest as they recovered from their shock.

"That was a good one," commented Levy, shivering. "I swear I thought somebody was watching me."

Lucy didn't comment that two boys named Droy and Jet were doing just that; their fixation with her friend was strange, but so far it seemed harmless and Levy seemed either blissfully unaware – or so used to the attention that she no longer thought much of it. She couldn't tell – and Lucy was definitely not ignoring the near heart attack that occurred from Cana's story.

What a horrible story, she thought, eyeing the fluttering trees in the distance with distaste. An untrue, horrible story. One that was, she knew, partially true – Love and Lucky had been called Fairy Tail; the first camp leader had gone missing along with some of her campers; their remains had never been found.

The idea of a monster behind it was preposterous, though. Lucy sighed, forcing her heart to calm down, knowing it was the flow of Cana's words and the trick with the fire that had scared her. Tomorrow, she wouldn't think anything of it. Unfortunately, that was tomorrow and it was tonight, a dark moonless night that made the story all the creepier.

Natsu leaned close to her. Her breath caught, wondering – foolishly – if he noticed her fear, if he would comfort her. "She got you good," said Natsu, sniggering. She scowled, nudging his shoulder with hers, because this was Natsu and he didn't do comfort like a romantic lead.

"She got you too!" Except Lucy hadn't been paying attention much to his reaction. Surely if the story hadn't scared him, the fire would have – no wonder Cana wanted them to stare so deeply into it.

"Nope."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Why would I be scared of fire?" Natsu scoffed and, to prove his point, plunged his hand in the fire.

Or would have if Lucy hadn't grabbed his wrist at the last moment, jerking it back away from the flame. "ARE YOU CRAZY?" Lucy exclaimed. "Are you trying to become Captain Hook?"

"Captain Hook? Sheesh weirdo, I wasn't going to put my hand in there."

"What? Then why did you grab it?"

"Not to burn my hand off, obviously."

Before Lucy could retort – obviously with something immensely clever – Erza stepped into the conversation. "Will you two continue your confessions later and help the rest of us clean up?"

Natsu blinked. Lucy did as well. During their squabble, the rest of them had been gathering their belongings and cleaning up around the campfire; she could see the other groups doing the same or doing a strange sacrificial dance, she wasn't sure, more likely the former since this was a camp and not a cult.

Erza cleared her throat pointedly.

Lucy leapt to her feet, releasing Natsu's hand with a flush. "It—it wasn't a confession! I was just—and he was—and it wasn't!"

"Of course," Erza allowed in a voice that didn't sound believing. "Clean up, lights out in twenty minutes."

"Aye," Lucy said clearly, back straight at the shift in Erza's eyes. When she focused her attention on some other poor unfortunate soul – sorry Jet – Lucy let out a breath. Natsu still stood straight, his eyes pinched and Lucy giggled at the discomfort on his face as he obeyed orders. "So, you clean up here, I'll clean up where we sat before?"

"Fine," he replied, shoulders dropping.

Considering they had only devoured a burger at their previous spot, there was very little for Lucy to clean and she was done within a minute, waiting for Natsu to finish his equally empty spot. By then, the campfire was empty, the flames doused and only a single curl of smoke clinging to the last of its life to say that a fire had been there recently.

It was too dark. No moon, no fire, and only a few lanterns dotted along a trail to the cabins.

She remembered Cana's story and then shivered. From the cold air, of course, and the knowledge that her cabin was the closest to the forest.

"C'mon," Natsu said, his hands folded into his pockets as he started toward the end of the camp.

"Your cabin is that way," Lucy pointed out, thumb pointing behind them. His was closer to the lake, lucky him.

"I'm walking you to yours," he said, laughing.

"Why?"

His words were a joke, she could see from the quirk of his lips, but there was something else that Lucy couldn't decipher. "I wouldn't want a monster to eat you." Honesty. She thought that might be the thing she couldn't figure out, even if she couldn't tell what that meant. Maybe it didn't mean anything.

Natsu didn't hide what he felt and he didn't sugar coat it either; they came out as he felt them and when he felt them, no more and no less, and she wondered if his prodding earlier had been his way of comforting her. Not with sugary words of a shoujo lead, but the way Natsu would: with laughter and teasing, with his friendship and his company.

That was like him – both the one in the letters and the stranger that was him in person. Except, he was less of a stranger now, as though his words had started to push the two opposing images of him – the one that had been her best friend through the worst year of her life and the one she had met in person for the first time ever – together.

Or Lucy was thinking far too much about a playful comment.

"Hey, Natsu?" She ventured, going on faith with her heart beating fast.

"Yeah?"

"I wouldn't want you to be eaten by a monster either."

He smiled at her and she felt as though she got it right.

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