People always ask me what I think 'color' is like, but I don't know why. It's not like I've seen it. I don't even really believe it exists. I mean, it's kind of hard to imagine something so undescriptive. The folks at Fairy Tail, the dance school I hang out at, describe it as if it were tangible. Alzack, Bisca, and Erza are the only ones that have actually seen it. Erza says she's seen it ever since she was a child. They say there's one called 'green' that's fresh and happy no matter the shade. Apparently the trees and other plants are commonly 'green'. I always ask them to tell me about 'red'. It's said to be… warm… sometimes intense. That's what I like about it. It has two sides. Erza says I have that in common with it.

I ain't a downer, though at the same time, I often have hard times believing in what they say. They aren't crazy, I know that. I've known these folks since I was five. Maybe younger. I don't really remember. Anyways, I guess you won't see color until you see your true love, which I don't fully believe either since I've loved meat since childhood but I still haven't seen anything yet. Whatever.

Erza told me my hair is 'pink'. It's soft and romantic, she says. How ironic.

She also told me the sun isn't white, and it is, indeed, 'yellow'. Yellow is another one of my favorites. It's bright like red and full of life. It seems to match me much better.

Anyways, enough about that. Yes, Erza knows lots about color and I have soft hair both physically and… colorly. But right now, I'm actually running. Yeah, running, which isn't a new thing to me. I run all the time for various reasons. Sometimes it's because I'm late to the guild, (that's what we members of Fairy Tail call it) but usually I'm just running from Erza because I pissed her off and she's a monster. Happy is usually here to help me screw with her, but last time we did, she threatened to cut the amount of fish he got. Poor guy has been too scared to get on her bad side for a week now. It's not as fun alone but it's better than hanging around that pervert Gray.

A few minutes ago, I was taunting Erza, telling her she was crazy about the colors she saw. Of course I don't think she's crazy, I mean, maybe a little, but not because of the whole color thing. I just wanted to mess with her. I've been so bored lately with Happy hiding in the corner behind the bar by Mira all day, doing anything to avoid Erza. I needed SOME kind of entertainment. Anyways, I don't even know why I'm running. I mean if a fight was what she wanted, I could take her. I could take her just fine. Just fine.

So that was precisely what I was going to do. I came to a halt and swiftly turned around. I stood firmly with my head held high and my arms crossed. And I waited. After I had stopped, it didn't take her long to catch up. When she saw me looking into her eyes, she stopped too. She walked up just close enough for us to stare each other down. I glared into those dark, firm eyes. Those eyes that were probably… what was the name for it… black. Just like her soul.

And nope I wasn't doing this today. I started running again. I ran and ran and ran but each time I looked past my shoulder, she was still there. The sun was beginning to set but she showed no sign of giving up. Well two could play at that game. I'm an athlete. I could run for hours straight without a break. Days, weeks, months, years. Just to show her that, I picked up my speed. My bangs flew out of my eyes as a result from the breeze into my face. My sandals pushed against the ground harder each time as I breathed in and out. I couldn't remember the last time I ran so fast. Of course I'd always had the potential, I just never used it. My vision was going blurry, probably because I was going so fast.

I thought I saw something in front of me but I ignored it. Whenever I ran away from Erza, people knew to move out of the way. But this thing was getting rapidly closer and closer and didn't show a sign of moving and oh god as I expected, it was a person. I tried to stop, and my efforts worked to some degree. I got slower but I didn't stop in time to collide with a girl. It wasn't just my fault. She had been running too. The next thing I knew, I was pushing myself up and rubbing my head. Was that blood?

I looked down past my palm at the girl under me. Her eyes were only half open and she was bleeding too. Her hair pooled around her face around her, while she laid half-conscious on the ground.

"Oh shit are you okay?" I quickly asked her as I propped her head up. Her deep eyes stared up at me. I saw them slowly travel down to my shoulder where my guild tattoo was at. Her hair was covering her face so I tried, as gently as I could, to pull it away. I brought my fingers up to her face and pulled away a soft strand. It was… bright and full of life. I brought it up to my eyes. It was… yellow.

I looked around. People were staring. Tsk. Where was the nearest hospital? In fact, where was I?

"Um… excuse me?"

I turned around to see a young girl with bright… uh….what was it called? Nevermind. Her hair was bright. Not like the girl I was holding. It wasn't golden, no.

"You two.. are uhm… bleeding a lot. I am a doctor in training. I can give you first aid… If you'd like…" she fumbled with her words and wouldn't look me in the eyes, but she had a cat with her, so she seemed trustworthy enough.

"Alright, I'll leave things to you then," I said, setting the girl down.

She timidly walked up to the girl and pulled some kind of tape looking thing out of her bag and a bottle of who knows what. She also had tweezers and cotton balls for some reason. "I'm going to clean the wound," was all she said.

I curiously watched over her shoulder while petting the white cat as blood ran down my face. She gently dabbed a cotton ball over the girl's forehead where it had hit mine. She seemed to be in worse condition than me. I always did have a hard head. After cleaning up her wound, she carefully wrapped the cloth around her head, tying it in a knot at the end.

"I'll clean yours now," she said, turning to me.

I sat down next to her with my legs crossed and closed my eyes tightly as the cotton touched my head. Whatever she put on it was cold. And stung.

"I'm sorry. It will be over soon," she quickly apologized after I flinched.

"Nah it's cool. Thanks for helping us out."

"Of course. The nearest hospital is 5 miles from here and all of the wagon rentals have already closed for the day," she said.

I nodded as she finished tying the bandage around my head and looked up to see her pick up the cat. "This is Charle. She's an exceed," she said with much more comfort than before.

"Hello," the feline simply said.

"An exceed!? You have one too?" I asked, surprised.

An Exceed is just an ordinary cat, except it can talk. And fly.

"Too?" she asked. "You also have an exceed?"

"Yeah, his name is Happy!" I beamed. I'd never met someone else that had an exceed. Happy would be thrilled.

Just then, the brightly headed girl sat up, slowly rubbing her head. "Ugh… What happened?" she asked nonchalantly. She turned, her eyes lighting up when she saw us.

"He- hello," the younger girl welcomed.

"Hello," said Charle

She said hello to them, her eyes a little wide. Maybe she's never met a talking cat. Then she turned to me.

"You!" was all she said.

"Hey," I replied with a smile.

"I'm so sorry for running into you! I really am, please forgive me! Don't sue me!" she said in one breath.

"It's cool. I was running too. Party my fault," I replied. As much as I didn't want to admit it, it was partly my fault.

I saw her relax a bit then turned to the young girl. "Did you wrap my head up?"

"Huh? Ye-yes!" she nodded.

The girl smiled then said, "I still feel bad for causing this and feel in debt to you," she started, turning to the young doctor, "can I treat you two to something at the café down the street?"

"Three," I corrected. I don't know how she missed Charle.

She looked down at Charle and smiled. "Of course, my mistake."

Charle's wings sprung out and she flew up to the yellow-haired girl's height. "We accept your kind offer," she said.

But the young girl quickly added in, "Are you sure it's no trouble?"

"Of course."

I watched the conversation, unnoticed, until the 3 of them turned to me. "What?" I asked.

"Will you accompany us?" the blonde girl asked with a smile brighter than her hair.

I couldn't think of any reason not to go, I mean free food. You don't reject free food. Also, I was really mixed up with the whole… color thing. I don't know what happened but when I collided with that girl, my world became brighter.

"Sure," I nodded with a grin.

She smiled back wider and stuck her hand out. "Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia."

Lucy. I took her slim hand in my callused one and shook it. "Natsu Dragneel."

We stared at each other for what must have been several seconds before she turned to the other girl and stuck her hand out again.

"Oh uh- Wendy... Marvell," She stuttered out. "And this is Charle," she said while gesturing to the cat.

"Hello," Lucy greeted formally.

"Pleasure," Charle smiled, shaking Lucy's hand with her tail.

Lucy turned to face all of us and said, "So I was thinking we could go to Hargeon for tea or something."

"Actually," I started, grabbing their attention, "I have a better place in mind."

"Where is that?" Charle asked

"Just follow me!"

Wendy looked a little nervous but gave a little smile and shrugged at Charle before running up to catch up with me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Charle face palming (or pawing?) as Lucy laughed softly. Lucy was next to run up to us, Charle shortly after, releasing a sigh. Together, we ran down the sunset lit streets to the best place to get free food: Fairy Tail.