It all started with a box.
A normal box to be sure, made of wood and rather ordinary-looking, except for the note pinned on top. Which said, "Lucy don't look inside this box."
And when she saw it in Natsu and Happy's house, laying haphazardly on top of a pile of clothes and various other odds and ends, her interest was naturally piqued. Well, how could it not? Why was she not supposed to look inside the box? What exactly did Natsu not want her to see?
It took her one week before her curiosity got to the point where she picked up the box and shook it. Something clattered inside - a small something, but knowing this only made her even more curious.
Her writer's imagination started thinking up all sorts of scenarios for why Natsu would hide something inside a box and leave a note telling her not to look inside. They ranged from the innocent to the humorous to the nefarious. But it wasn't until she realized that her latest novel's plot had somehow changed to become about the plucky heroine fighting against an evil mastermind who happened to also live inside a box that she knew she had a problem.
"Argh, what could it be?" she asked herself, pulling on her face while staring at the box. "What's Natsu hiding in there? What doesn't he want me to know?"
She started pacing around it, now pulling on her hair. "But it's Natsu… it couldn't be anything bad, right? I mean, it's Natsu… I know Natsu… and he's the last person who would ever be involved in anything bad. But then why doesn't he want me to look inside the box? What if I actually don't know him as well as I think I do? What if he has a double life and he dresses up as a clown to go rob food stores at night?! Don't look inside the box, Lucy. Don't look inside the box, me! What if he's secretly some sort of super powerful demon and he's hiding his baby pictures of him as a cute adorable baby demon in there?! Argh, you can't protect me from knowing about this forever!"
She picked up the box and lifted the lid. Inside… was a ring. A very pretty, sparkly ring with a yellow gemstone.
"Oh…" Lucy put the lid back on, her face completely red."I didn't look inside the box. I didn't look inside the box…"e box…"/p