"He's dead?" I repeated in stunned silence. Lisanna nodded slowly. "So he did this to Lucy and then died? What kind of a sick person would do that?"

"Not exactly," she responded. "You see, Takizawa's death is the reason why Lucy became this crazed. He was her boyfriend, and he was murdered right in front of her on his birthday."

Oh. For some reason, finding out he was her boyfriend made me even angrier than I already was. Stupid. Natsu Dragneel did not get angry on the behalf of girls; he got angry at girls.

"Well now I'm really interested," I said, which wasn't entirely a lie. "So please, tell me more."

Lisanna looked at me coldly, gesturing at Lucy who was starting to shudder under her blanket.

"It doesn't matter how interested you are ; you are not getting information about him in this room while Lucy is here. If you really want to know, you have to come every day to help out with her for a month and then I'll tell you about her whole past okay?"

Haha, nope. There was no way I was going to waste some stupid time on a stupid blonde girl I didn't even know just because of some stupid fake interest. No way.

"Alright so I'll be here after school then, and at four on weekends when I can." Wait…what? No, I didn't say that. Of course not. I'm NatsufreakingDragneel I don't spend my time with annoying crazy people! That was so not me! But even I recognized my voice as it continued to plot against me. "That's ok right? Or do I need to be here more often?" MUTINY! My mind was conspiring against me, that's what this was!

"Well then I guess I'll see you tomorrow Natsu. But don't tell anyone about Lucy. Or you don't get to visit anymore," Lisanna said, her eyes gleaming with confusion at my forced acceptance, because once again, that was not me!

"Yeah whatever. I'll be back tomorrow," I grumbled irately, turning and exiting Lucy's unnervingly white room to stomp down the hallway and outside of the building.

Day One

Once again, Gray and I were complaining about the sub and the new homework assingnment we received on our way home from school, but this time he didn't abandon me before we reached the building so I turned into it awkwardly and he followed me in.

Mirajane was typing away at her counter like yesterday, but when I stepped through she looked up and smiled, seeming to recognize me.

"Hello Natsu, back so soon? Seems like only yesterday you walked through those doors, complaining about your assignment!" she laughed, with a mock moan. Gray snickered from behind me until he stepped around me and actually got his first look at the white haired beauty, causing his jaw to literally drop. Heh.

"It was just yesterday Mira," I sighed, already making my way to the hall I'd been dragged up the day before. "I'm here to see Lucy." I ignored another snicker from Gray and nodded to Mirajane as I passed her.

"Eh? Who's that?" both Mira and Gray asked at the same time.

"Lucy's my friend," I laughed to Gray. "And that idiot is Gray, and he's not my friend," I explained for Mira.

"Oh, so you really came," a voice chimed from in front of me, and I turned back to see Lisanna staring at me, and then letting her blue gaze slide to Gray. "You're here too? Don't tell me Loki is going to walk through those doors next! If every popular guy at school gets here I might just faint!"

"Dude," Gray glowered, "You know two gorgeous white haired babes and you don't even tell me!? I thought we were friends! And just who is this Lucy chick?" choosing not to respond, I passed Lisanna with an I-told-you-so smirk. And then I strolled straight to the room with the white door.

It was open this time, which I took as a sign she wasn't freaking out like last time, and so I peeked in. Lucy sat on the floor, staring at her hands. I knocked awkwardly on the door, and she slowly turned to face me.

"Taki?" her face filled with hope and love and I could feel the throbbing of my heart as I took in her face, suddenly much more attractive than the blatant stare I'd previously known and seen her with.

"Who, this idiot? No this is just Natsu," Gray sneered. Crap, I'd completely forgotten he was there. Lucy's excited expression faltered and she seemed to sink into herself, her gaze dropping back to her hands.

"'Of course it's not Taki. He never comes to visit. Why would he want to? He doesn't love me anymore…" Lucy moaned sadly.

Again, the mention of Takizawa stung my heart and I threw a hurting glare at my frienemy before he could see the emotions I might have been leaking out.

"Can we come in Lucy? I want to talk to you, maybe be your friend?" I asked nervously. Gray was right next to me, he could tell the whole school that I was practically begging a girl to go into her room—which I never did! I'm Natsu! I'm the most popular guy at school!—which would totally ruin all the popularity points I had received.

"Yes. Pink and Black can come and quack; Yellow likes to sing," she said softly. Gray shuffled into the White Room, seemingly unperturbed by the strange rhyme.

"My name's Gray, Gray Fullbuster. What's yours?" he laughed. Lucy met his gaze, her eyes widening.

"Mr. Black is actually Gray! Who would have guessed? The Blue isn't as nonsense as she speaks! They should know, they should know! Black and Blue, together as two, Red as lonely as it seems, but White is happy and Pink is pretty, and Yellow is lost in her dreams," she sang. "Yellow is lost in her dreams. Dreams, dreams, dreams. Takizawa always told her her dreams were important. Who's there to tell her they're important now? Does Yellow not need to dream anymore? It's useless now…" Gray looked somewhat freaked out and I shrugged to him; she had not spoken anything other than 'Takizawa' yesterday so this could be normal.

"Um what? Can you please tell me your name miss?"

"I'm Lucy! But I'm also Yellow! And you are Black! And the world is gray and the door's the way and we don't know why, but we want to cry! But don't fall down, we are not clowns, cuz if we were…" Lucy stopped speaking and draped herself over her mattress, with a slight sob. "Taki hates clowns so we can't be clowns; can't clown around. He even told Yellow not to rhyme, but she does it all the time! I can't stop no matter how hard I try, I know I will die, both you and I. we will all die and Taki… taki will love me again." With those words, she closed her eyes and sank into the mattress, falling asleep in an instant.

"Ok…. She missing some screws? Or maybe all of them? That's not really normal. Oh wait… this is that house for the insane peoples?" Gray asked me, his voice tight with confusion.

"Um, well…I just met Lucy here yesterday… so it could be normal," I responded with a shrug.

"Who's Taki?" he continued as I knelt next to the bed, staring at the sleeping girl's face.

"Her ex-boyfriend," I murmured as to not wake her, not picking up the look of shock on his face as my own face softened while I took in Lucy's sleeping sweetness."

"Dude, do you like her or something? You're staring at her all weird like. That's not normal, especially not for you. And heck, she's all caught up on this ex of hers! Even if you did like her, there would always be this awkward third wheel, not that I care about you or-!"

"Takizawa is dead," I interrupted, much like Lisanna had done yesterday. "And maybe I do like her. I don't honestly know, because like I said earlier, I only met her yesterday," I sighed, resisting the urge to reach out and pet her sleeping face because I didn't want her to snap awake and freak out at the sight of a strange boy touching her. Because honestly, if I made her flip I doubted I'd be allowed here again and even with my conflicted feelings I knew I would want to come back here.

"Actually, if I don't, then I'm going to try and fall in love with her. And I'll do my best to make her love me back because it's not fair to leave her all broken because of Takizawa. So yeah. Um… I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anybody about this yet? I have a reputation to hold at school and all that." "How sweet," Gray sneered. "'I'm going to get this girl to fall in love with me but I don't want anyone to know because it will ruin my reputation'. I can tell you love her sooooo much," he teased.

But as I let my gaze drift back to Lucy's face, I felt that I really did love her. And I knew then that I would do my best to heal the hole that Takizawa had left behind.

Hah. Talk about cheezy, predictably ending. But I felt that I needed to reward the people who reviewed and asked for a new chapter soon so that's what I did. And you should know that school has started up again so my already slow chapter updates have just become…. That…. Much… slower…. And I'm to try and get a new update out monthly alright my sweet shadow-fans? You know the drill- review!