One week on from the capture job and Alistair was still to leave his bed, let alone his house. He'd simply stayed there either asleep or just lie there thinking about his past, only leaving his comfortable pit's embrace to relieve himself.

The Fairy Tail mage was beginning to lose weight, and was also beginning to look dishevelled having not shaved or washed for a week.

It was two in the afternoon; Alistair was asleep again, hiding his conscious thoughts in his subconscious slumber. The sound of a window opening echoed through the hallways of Alistair's home, waking him from his slumber.

In an instant he was out of his bed - only in his boxers - armed with a 5.7mm pistol held in both hands. He had the weapon held in a firing position ready to confront any possible intruder. Alistair was simply being cautious, he knew as well as anyone that it could be nothing. The odds however, were stacked in favour of the there being an intruder.

Alistair had designed and built his home himself, and part of that design was a low tech alarm system, one that normal people would simply see as a flaw in the design. Certain floorboards were designed to creak in a certain way when stepped on that would echo throughout the house so that even in a deep sleep, Alistair would hear it.

Of course, there was more to the total security system than just the floorboards, but in his sombre stupor, Alistair hadn't armed them a week ago.

The creaking could be heard from the kitchen downstairs. With his weapon raised, Alistair quickly and silently approached the kitchen expecting to find a burglar or some other schmuck that was unwelcome.

As soon as a mop of salmon pink hair and blue cat ears came into view, Alistair knew exactly who'd broken in.

"Natsu, why the fuck are you in my house?"

"Whoa Alistair! Put the gun down!" Natsu wailed, startled by the fact that Alistair was pointing his gun at the dragon slayer.

"Get out, and I will."

"But Alistair, we only came to check on you! You haven't been to the guild for a week!" Happy pleaded with his fellow guild-mate.

"And you do that by breaking into my house?" The redhead deadpanned.

"We break into Lucy's house all the time and she doesn't mind!"

Alistair didn't even give them the benefit of a quip for the idiocy in that statement.

"Alistair, whatever it is that's eating you up, everyone in the guild is worried about you. What's wrong?" For the first time since joining Fairy Tail, that was the first time Alistair had ever heard Natsu say something not only compassionate, but reasonably intelligent. And whilst he might've been impressed by it, Alistair was not in the mood to be dealing with Natsu, especially when it came to opening up about his personal issues. He took a deep breath before beginning to speak, lowering the pistol as he did.

"Natsu, I appreciate your willingness to help me, sincerely I do. But, you need to understand something about myself and my condition.

"I'm not an open person, I don't go out of my way to tell people about my problems as I don't want to bring them down too or upset myself even further. It's stupid, I know, but that's how it is with me.

"People with this condition, this, horrible and debilitating illness need to open up about what it is that's causing it on their own. If we start to talk about it, it means that we're ready and, relatively, comfortable to do so. If someone else starts it off, we become defensive, almost to the point of aggressiveness in some cases."

"Like now?" the little blue exceed innocently asked. Throughout Alistair's monologue, Natsu had remained resolute to hear his nakama out, Happy too. And whilst the pair of them may not have totally understood what Alistair was saying, they were willing to heed his wishes.

"Like now, Happy. Someday I'll be able to open up about my inner demons to you all, just not for the time being. So can you guys just wait, until that time comes?" Alistair sent the pistol back to its pocket dimension, he was still irritated by Natsu and Happy's breaking and entering, but he could feel the sadness welling up inside of him, overcoming that anger he'd previously been feeling. Natsu looked Alistair dead in the eye for a brief moment, peering into the mechanisms of the man that had come to be known as the Fairy Machine.

"You can be sure we'll wait for you Alistair. We're your nakama after all, and if that's what you want us to do to help, that's what we'll do." The Salamander shot one of his goofy grins at Alistair before he spoke to Happy. "OK, Happy, let's go back to the guild and let everyone know."

Happy merely responded with his trademark saying. "Aye!"

Once he was sure the dragon slayer and exceed pair had left his home and were comfortably out of earshot, Alistair just sat back against the nearest cabinet, covering his face with his hands as tears began to uncontrollably fall from his eyes. Several self-deprecating and depressive thoughts crossed his mind as well as painful memories of similar past mistakes flashed before his eyes.

Unbeknownst to Alistair, Natsu and Happy hadn't actually moved out of earshot of Alistair's house just yet. Instead, they were outside opposite his front door, just by the canal's side relaying their information to Lucy.

The Celestial Spirit mage had been more concerned than any of the other guild members over the past week because she had seen Alistair breakdown after coming into physical contact with the Joker along with the fact she knew from firsthand experience what the Arc of Embodiment mage must've been going through.

And as Natsu and Happy had noticed all weak that Lucy was extra-concerned, they'd suggested that they all go cheer Alistair up, or at the very least get to the bottom of their companion's inner turmoil. None of them had expected this to be the outcome.

Just knowing that one of their own was on his own crying his eyes out was heartbreaking and enraging for the three Fairy Tail mages. But they knew that if Alistair wanted to be on his own, he'd appreciate it more if they allowed him to wallow in his own sorrow more than if they barged their way back in to comfort him.