Not much to say...

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does. I do own the idea and concept of this story.

Chapter 3: An explanation.

Natsu let the droplets fall on his muscular tanned body as his hands were washing his spiky rose-colored hair. The man had his left-eye closed and let the water pour on his face, making it wash away the stress that he was currently feeling. The man lowered his face and opened his eye, a glint of nostalgia in it as he eyed the ground. Not too long ago, he came face to face with a person he rather didn't want to see. Not that he had any ill feelings for said person, oh no, it was quite the opposite. He still cared for her, but the same couldn't be said for her.

"She still hates me for it, but who could blame her? I practically left her two days before that. No sane woman would've liked that..." Natsu muttered to no one in particular as he stood leaning against the cold wall with crossed arms, wondering.

The pinkette shook his head before grabbing a bottle that stood on a nearby rack. He eyed the glass object for a moment with his onyx-black eye.

Absinthe it read.

It made the pinkette chuckle a bit. Each room he entered, a bottle or glass of alcohol would be already present. No complains, if you'd ask him.

"Just what I need, a strong drink to forget about my damn past, even if it's just for a moment..." The rosy-haired man thought as he opened the bottle before taking a long sip. A strong burning sensation was coursing through his throat, making him cough a bit because of how intense absinthe was. Natsu forget how strong this alcohol was as only the more experienced drinkers were letting this through their throat due to various reasons; divorce, affairs, death of a loved one and that sort of reasons. Natsu had somewhat similar reasons and it only motivated him further to drink it. His mind wandered somewhere else as it remembered that happened a couple of hours ago.

Flashback

2 hours ago...

"It's been awhile since we saw each other, no, Cana?" Natsu said with a hint of nostalgia in his voice as he glanced at the brown-haired woman with an honest, distant smile. Said woman was looking with shocked eyes at him before her face morphed into a scowl.

"What the hell are you doing here?" The woman growled, making the pinkette flinch under the icy tone the woman was giving him. He breathe out a sad sigh as he removed his arm from Gildarts' shoulder and placed his hands on his knees, his left-eye staring at the ground. Natsu didn't want to look in the brunette's eyes because he knew what he would find in those once warm and loving chocolate-colored eyes.

Hurt and anger.

"I see that you still think that I'm the biggest asshole who's currently walking the planet."

"Damn right you are! " Cana remarked venomously, her scowl now changed into a hateful glare. The brunette's brown orbs were burning holes in the skull of the rosy-haired hitman and he knew that. He didn't have the courage to look in the eyes of woman as he feared that all those regrets and self-loathing would wash over him like a flood and Natsu couldn't use that right now.

Cana's eyes still held the hurtful glint in her eyes, but she slightly softened her glare into a frown and crossed her arms.

"What do you want, Natsu?" The mentioned man raised his head, but still didn't look at Cana, making the woman frown deeper. He thought for a moment as how to come up with the right words without sounding like a careless ass. He had to choose his words carefully, or else a lot of suffering would be felt on his part. After coming up with what he wanted to say, he finally decided to look Cana in the eyes, his face sporting a serious expression.

"I'm here on a job and I'm quite unknown with the place. I was wondering if you could offer me a place to say for the night..."

The brunette cocked an eyebrow at the request. She turned around and looked over her shoulder at the pinkette. Her eyes were as still cold as stone and it made him feel uncomfortable. From the outside, it seemed Natsu was unaffected by it as he sat impassively on the couch with a knocked out Gildarts resting his head on the man's shoulder, drool falling down the orange-haired man's mouth. On the inside, though, he could feel those ice-cold eyes freeze his very core, making him experience a chill that he only felt a few times. Were it not for the orange-haired man sleeping soundless, the tension would've been considered as 'serious'.

After what felt like hours, the brunette answered in a tone that made Natsu cringe.

"What makes you think that I can even stand you? There are other places where you could stay, not necessarily here..."

Natsu's glanced at her for a moment, his eye widened in surprise before they returned to its normal size. Natsu sighed in dejection before standing up and walking to the stairs. He half expected such an answer and he already prepared himself for it. With all the things he put her through, he was even surprised that Cana didn't kick him out the moment she saw him sitting next to her drunk tard of a father.

Before descending the stairs, Natsu cast one final look at the brunette who now faced him with her body, her face still plastered with an intense frown. He sighed one more time while his hand went through his wild messy hair.

"I'm sorry for what I've put you through and I know that it's a bit too late for apologies. I was careless and I didn't think straight. Not many things in my life I regret, but is an exception ." The pinkette confessed, his left-eye looking downwards to all the people who were dancing on the floor with drinks in their hands, singing along what was currently playing. It reminded Natsu when he did those kind of things before he became what he was now.

The rosy-haired man rubbed the bridge of his nose in exhaustion, not really wanting to delve into the past and it didn't help him that the music was starting to give him a headache too. He glanced over his shoulder at Cana and smiled honestly at her.

"If you don't want me around, I can understand that. It was nice seeing again, Cana, really. Whether you want to believe it or not, I regret the way I parted. I think... I'll see you around." With those words, the pink-haired hitman walked down the stairs calmly, leaving a drunk Gildarts and a conflicted Cana.

"She hasn't changed, after all those years..." Natsu chuckled as he thought what happened afterwards. He rubbed the back of his head, remembering where the brown-haired woman hit him with an iron object.

As Natsu was walking down the stairs, Cana was thinking about him and the emotions that were coming to surface as she reminisced her past with him. The chocolate-haired woman had mixed feelings because of his sudden appearance. First, a rush of anger went through her when her brown eyes fell on the form of the pink-haired bastard who disappeared two years ago without giving so much as a good-bye. Before he vanished, they were dating for almost a year and their anniversary was just one day before all that happened.

Cana, completely oblivious who Natsu really was, decided to date the guy after they met in a bar outside New Magnolia City. She just went through another shattered relationship and she resorted in the very thing she did every time that happened, only this time with more... stronger alcohol. Because of the constant nagging of her friends, she decided to visit her favorite bar and drink her sorrows away there instead of listening to those idiots she called friends.

That's when she met the guy.

At first, she wasn't even paying attention to the man. The pinkette sat next to her and ordered the strongest bottle of alcohol the bar had. Unfortunately for him, it was sold out. Who bought the last bottle? Cana herself...

Snorting amusingly, the guy challenged her to a drinking contest and the winner would have that bottle of liquor as the price. For a moment, the brunette looked at the guy as if he grew another head and the bar went silent for a moment before it bursted out in laughter The brunette was legendary here for being the only woman who could hold her liquor against the strongest type of alcohol. This stranger thought he could beat her in her own game? No way in hell...

Confidence and pride took the better of her and she accepted it, thinking that this man would be knocked out after a few shots. Oh she was wrong. So, so wrong...

After twenty shots, the guy still grinned like a fool. Cana had to admit, she was not slightly tipsy, not even very tipsy. Nope, she was just plain drunk. Still, she wanted to continue their little game, completely disregarding the fact that she could end up in the hospital because of alcohol poison. The rose-haired man noticed how drunk Cana was and decided to call it a night for her, to which she heavily protested to, claiming that she could beat him.

Seconds after those words left her mouth, she lost her conscious and was about to hit the floor if it wasn't for the pinkette, who caught her in his arms. Natsu, knowing that he himself was drunk too, rented two rooms upstairs. He didn't want to take the chance of driving this girl home and fly off a cliff in the process because of his drunken state. The pinkette brought Cana to her assigned room and was about to leave... were it for a hand which grabbed the guy by the wrist before roughly yanking him on the bed. On top of the rose-haired man was a brown-haired drunk girl glaring daggers at his face.

"You... Nobody beats me in a drinking contest and walks away with it. Let's see if you're a challenge in bed too... First who gets tired loses." Bacchus would've gone WILD upon hearing that if he was there.

After that, they both woke up in each other's arms as naked as the day they were born.

That's when Natsu and Cana exchanged phone numbers. They saw each other more often and hang out more. One thing let to another and before they knew it the both of them started dating each other.

As Cana thought about it, it did a small smile to the brunette's face as she remembered their first date. Her smile soon faded as quickly as it came as she shook her head, wanting to forget the memory. The brown-haired bar owner was about to walk away, but she suddenly heard a groan coming from the couch. Cana's dark-brown eyes fell on her father's form, who clutched his head tightly while having a pained expression featuring his face. Gildarts glanced at his daughter with a knowing look.

"You know, dear, you never heard his side of the story..."

The chocolate-haired woman noticed her father's lack of playfulness. The brunette glanced at her father with a deadpanned face.

"Of course I don't know it, I haven't spoken to that pink-haired prick for two years."

Chuckling amusingly, Gildarts stood up on his legs before quickly grabbing the side of his head, groaning again because of his throbbing headache. Cana let out a laugh at her father's expense, making the orange-haired man smile at her before turning serious again.

"Just go to the bastard. If you want to move on then at least clear things out with him. I haven't shot the pink-haired fucker yet because I know he's a good kid deep down."

Sighing, Cana nodded with a sour look on her face. She still didn't want to see Natsu, but she guessed that her soft side influenced her decision. The brunette glanced at the orange-head and gave a small 'hmph' before walking towards the banister. Her eyes scanned the dance floor in search for pink hair, almost blocking out the other colors with her senses as she concentrated. Her brown eyes eventually fell on the spiky pink locks of Natsu who was pushing his way through the dancing mass.

Rummaging through her purse that she had with her, she fished out a set of keys before looking back at the pinkette. Swinging the ring of keys a couple of times around her finger, Cana aimed the iron object at her target.

The back of Natsu's head.

With a swing, the brunette threw the key set towards the unsuspecting adolescent, hitting him in the back of his head.

The pinkette was glancing around himself with a glare plastered on his face, trying to discern who just threw something hard against his head. The man noticed Cana looking at him with an amused smirk on her face before her expression turned neutral again as she pointed downwards with her finger. Raising an eyebrow, the pinkette looked down in curiosity. He noticed something shimmering on the ground. Natsu's eyes soon widened as he picked up the thing that hit him at the back of his head and recognized it as a set of keys.

The rosy-haired gun user turned his head towards the second level and noticed Cana pointing somewhere towards his right. Natsu's gaze turned right and he noticed a sign reading 'rooms upstairs'...

The pinkette exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and with another one he was drying his hair. Natsu wandered towards the bedroom and quickly grabbed his clothes that he left there. After he properly dressed himself into a simple black tank and black shorts, he plopped himself on the couch. The pinkette gave a sigh in content as he felt relaxed after a good shower. Natsu started to search for the remote and soon found it on a nearby table.

The pink-haired man took the remote and turned on the TV, browsing through the channels and trying to find something interesting. His eyes soon fell on a Fiore anime serie called A Ghost's Conviction. The pinkette raised an eyebrow at the strange name but brushed it off as he continued watching, finding it rich when the guy known as Dauwz called the other named Midnight an 'emo-goth-batshit-crazy-freak'. Giant mechs and lots of blood and fighting? Natsu's type of anime...

"Only in Fiore you'll find this kind of shit... Who the hell calls his characters Dauwz or Midnight anyway?"

Natsu suddenly heard a knock, making him look away from the screen and glance at the door with an annoyed expression. He got up from the couch before getting the door. Who he expected certainly wasn't the person that was currently standing in front of him.

"...Cana?"

Holding a bottle of wine in one hand and two glasses in the other, she looked at him with an apathetic face. She was dressed in nothing but a black top, showing off her assets and white shorts that ended above her thighs. She sure wasn't afraid in showing off her feminine charms...

"Mind if I come in?"

"Uhmm, no, I guess..." Natsu replied awkwardly as he stepped aside so Cana could enter the room. The brunette stepped inside at glanced around for a moment. Her brown eyes fell on the TV and the current show that was playing. She glanced behind her shoulder and smirked condescendingly at the pinkette.

"Didn't know you were this childish."

The pinkette snorted, irked at the woman's hostility but he kept his mouth about it.

"I'm not, I was just bored so I turned on the TV and looked for something entertaining."

Nodding, the brown-haired woman sat down on the couch while placing her bottle on the table next to it. She looked at the rosy-haired man for a second before patting the spot next to her on the sofa. Natsu complied and took a seat next to her while grabbing the remote and turning off the TV. The two of them soon fell in an uncomfortable silence as they both looked to the opposite site from each other.

"What is she doing here? I thought she wanted to avoid me, yet here she is, dressed for a good rumble under the-"

"You're gonna explain something to me, Natsu." The pinkette was brought back to the world when he heard the brown-haired bar owner. Natsu glanced to his side and locked eyes with Cana, who glanced at her left at the same moment.

"Sure. What do you want to know..."

"Why did you leave..."

"..."

Natsu looked back to the ground and had a mental argument with himself as he pondered about whether answer the woman or not. It didn't take long before he realized that he owed her a proper explanation about how things turned out between them. Having made his decision, the guy stood up and walked towards the window, looking outside at the dark-blue, almost black, night's sky with a strange smile on his face.

"Before I get to that, I think it's better to tell who I really am."

"I think I know too much about this guy called Natsu Dragneel..." Erza mumbled to herself as she walked through the halls of Zeref's castle. The redhead had a slight blush and a permanent frown on her face. Her high-heeled boots clicked on the marble floor as she strolled around the castle, searching for a place where they served some drinks.

After having a rather... colorful talk about how... energetic her future partner in crime was, the scarlet-haired woman decided to search for a drink. Never in her life did she heard such perverted words coming out of a woman. Ultear was a unique woman and she showed it the way she used her choice of words to describe things...

"Seriously, that woman could give Minerva a run for her money when it comes to... never mind." The red-haired woman sighed as she turned a corner. For the umpteenth time...

Erza was pretty sure that she got lost, but she didn't want to bother herself in asking directions. Who ask directions? Just go with the flow, she always exclaimed. The scarlet-haired assassin soon came to a stop when she spotted hall which was filled with various kinds of armor. Intrigued, the woman approached the hall. What she found there made her eyes widen in awe.

The corridor was filled exotic armors: from traditional samurai armor from Joya to the legendary armor known as the Thunder Dragon, which was worn by King Laxus XI, who ruled nearly 342 years ago when Fiore was still a kingdom. It was a glistening piece of golden armor with the heads of lions as shoulder plates. Their jaws were wide open, enough the fit a full-grown man's fist in it. The body-armor was made of pristine gold orichalcum, a metal that was said to be nearly indestructible yet very light and flexible. The flag of the former kingdom, the head of the yellow dragon resting on top of a black rose, was painted on the red mantle of the armor and in front of the golden colored cuirass. The vambraces were also shimmering with the same gold and the fingers of the armored gloves were pointy and sharp. Up to the knees the greaves reached while they ended to the ankles. Metal-plate boots which reached to the ankles protected the wearer's feet, the nose of them sharp. All the skin that was unprotected by armor was covered by golden mail. To finish the set of armor, a bright shining helmet, that was formed like a dragon's head with its maws open and two curved horns on either sides of the helmet was lying next to the armor on a shelve.

"...Er-chan?"

Hearing her name being called out by a familiar voice, especially the nickname that only one person used, the scarlet-haired woman instantly turned her head around and noticed a woman standing not too far from her, gazing at her with surprise-filled eyes.

The woman, whose caramel-colored hair reached till her ears and was stylized in a bob-haircut and whose features strangely looked like that of a cat, was dressed in a white female dress suit and a white skirt that ended above her knees with a blue tie around her neck with a silver clip in it, black sunglasses and her feet were sporting six inch red heels. She held a suitcase in one hand while her other hand was clutching her phone.

"Millianna? Is that you, Millianna?"

"Oh my God, it's really you, Er-chan!" The woman ran up to the redhead, dropping her suitcase before embracing Erza in a tight hug, a very tight hug...

Struggling with her breathing, but remaining calm on the outside, the redhead patted the white dressed woman known as Millianna on the back a couple of times. She was a little annoyed because of the affectionate gesture, but also happy.

"It's... not... that... I'm not... glad... to see you, but... could you relax your... hold around me?"

Noticing her mistake, Millianna soon lessened her hold on Erza, making the scarlet-head able to breath better.

"Sorry, but it's been awhile since we've seen each other. What are you doing here in Castle Dragnologia, anyway?"

"I got transferred here, orders from Zeref himself."

The brunette muttered a low 'ah', her face briefly frowning. Her features soon changed into a smile again as she took off her glasses and folded them before placing it between the front of her collar.

"I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing here?" The red-haired assassin asked with an expecting look as she crossed her arms, waiting for the caramel brown-haired woman to answer. Millianna smiled smugly as she took out her glasses again before putting them on.

"I'm Zeref's personal lawyer. Though the man has an entire army of them, I handle his financial business with Acnologia Inc. Whenever someone impeaches the company, he sends me out to chew the guy or woman out for being stupid enough to pick a fight with Zeref." Millianna started to wave her hand in front of her face."You know, let's take this outside, it's kinda hot in here and some fresh air will do us good."

Erza nodded, making the brunette smile before gesturing to the scarlet-head to walk with her outside.

"So... What brings you to the Apocalypse Order's HQ, Er-chan?" The brunette asked while sipping on her cup of coffee. The two of them sat at one of tables that were located outside on a open roof level of the castle. The castle conveniently had a cafe and so the two decided to get a drink there.

"Like I said before, I got transferred here." The redhead replied as she glanced at the brown-haired lawyer.

"Yes, you did said that, but not why?"

The scarlet-haired assassin sighed for a moment as she placed her strawberry-flavored glass of wine on the table.

"I'm here, because Zeref wants me to be partnered to someone. I think he got a important job in mind and he wants me and the guy on it."

"Millianna cocked her eyebrow quizzically. Did Erza said partner? This girl doesn't do partners...

"You? Having a partner? Did you tell-"

"Yes, I did. Still, the guy wants it and his word is law... I think."

"And who's gonna be the partner of the renowned Blood Knife of Magnolia?" Millianna answered in a teasing tone, leaning slightly forward as she rested her elbow on the table while placing her chin on her hand. Erza huffed, annoyed at the woman's antics, but didn't react on it as she folded her arms.

"Zeref told me his name was Natsu Dragneel..."

Millianna blinked, then again, and again until her eyes widened in shock. The brunette stared intently at the redhead... before bursting out in laughter.

"So-rry, I think I he-ard you wrong. I though you said Natsu Dragneel, eheheh...?" Seeing the frowning look of the scarlet-head, the woman started laughing nervously.

"Surely, you're joking, right? Right...?"

The red-haired woman shook her head slowly, her face dead serious about the matter. She grasped her wine glass and took a sip of it, savoring the taste of strawberries as she drank the beverage.

"Then you'll have a hard time, girl..."

Choking in her drink, the redhead coughed a bit. She placed her glass down and glared intensely at the woman who sat across of her, who didn't seemed bother by the hostile look.

"Where are you getting at, Millianna. Me? Having a hard time?" The scarlet-haired growled and Millianna merely gave a nod.

"That's right. You see, Er-chan, Natsu Dragneel is quite... an interesting guy. It doesn't help that he's one of the four Aces of Zeref, too."

There it was again, that whole Ace-concept the redhead noticed.

"Aside from our main topic, what does it mean to be an Ace?" The scarlet-haired woman asked, curious about what this system meant. The brunette quirked her eyebrow.

"You don't know about the {Deck of 52} System?" The redhead shook her head again. Erza was getting tired of not knowing things like this. These were important information and Zeref apparently didn't want to bother himself in explaining it to her.

Lazy Sonuvvabitch.

The brunette grabbed her grey suitcase and placed it on the table. She opened it and took out a sheet of paper and a pencil before closing her case and placing it back on the ground. Millianna started to draw fifty-two squares on her sheet of paper, each one sported a symbol.

"The {Deck of 52} System is a system based on cards, obviously. Though Acnologia Inc. has also illegal departments like drug trafficking, prostitution and money laundering, the Apocalypse Order is a special branch within the corporation. It busies itself with assassination." Millianna then shoved the sheet to Erza's sight so she could have a look at it. "Each 'color' specializes itself in a way of assassination, but they're also associated with one another." The brunette first pointed at the spades with her finger."Spades are specialized in poison. They're responsible for developing the most deadliest poisons that could kill an elephant within ten seconds." Millianna then pointed at the Diamonds. "These S.O.B's are in charge of weapons and development/construction of new weapons. From the tiniest gun that could fit inside your sleeve to sniper-rifles, there isn't a thing that they can't make." Then her finger fell on the Clubs. "These guys are responsible for martial-arts training. They'll teach you how to kill a full-grown human with only punching a few nerve points." Lastly, her finger fell on the Hearts." These guys... well, what should I say? Ever heard of Project-Vermilion?"

Erza shook her head for the umpteenth time, making the brunette frown in annoyance at Erza's lack of being informed.

"Sheesh, Erza, what did they tell you when you were in Magnolia. It looks like you're completely ignorant about how things here in Crocus are handled." Millianna said, the amount of exasperation thick in her voice.

"Whatever, just tell me what this so-called Project-Vermilion means."

Millianna nodded before continuing her story."You see, 20 years ago, there was a man called Igneel Dragneel, Acnologia Inc's most prestigious scientist. The man developed things that are now the reasons why the Apocalypse Order is known as the most fearsome organization of the world. His greatest work was Project-Vermilion, a project based on how to create Modified-Humans, people who are capable of feats beyond imagination. Though the man was probably the most brilliant man of his time, he couldn't finish his project. Why? All his test-subjects died because they couldn't handle the operation. His works ultimately started to fall to crumbles. You see, in order to survive his project, one had to have a special type of blood-cells and genes. Igneel searched for decades for the right person who he could test on, but to no avail. That is, until he became desperate and experimented on him..."

The redhead looked at Millianna intently, wanting to know who this guy was.

"And who might be the unlucky one?"

The brunette smiled darkly at Erza, making the woman shiver a bit. Millianna let out a small chuckle as she had her hand before her mouth.

"Who, you ask? It's none other than your future partner himself."

Erza's eyes widened in shock, backing a bit away as she glanced at her friend.

"You don't mean..."

"Ah, yes I do. Igneel Dragneel experimented on his own son... Natsu Dragneel..."

Does Igneel come over like a dark person to you guys? *laughs madly* He sure does to me... Does he has a reason to? Who knows... Sometimes, when characters are OOC, then it becomes, you know, interesting... *laughs madly, again*

Another thing, just because Natsu has... contact with more than one woman doesn't immediately mean it's a harem fic, right? *shrugs*

As for any mistakes you guys see... Excuse me, but I'm seriously tired and can't find the energy right now to check my grammar, sorry if it's going to bother you... I'll correct anything when I have some strength again.

Okay, well, let's summarize this. I'm dead-beat, exams start on Monday and I still have a lot to do. Consider this my last chapter before I'll disappear from the face of the Earth for awhile.

Till next time guys!

Fafnir hissing out

Second note: Noticed some stupid mistakes on my part and I couldn't resist correcting them. Sorry, I know it comes over a bit unprofessional, but meh, I did nonetheless.