The group of five worked their way over to a free booth in a corner near the back of the establishment, closer to the kitchen. Though Erza would have preferred to separate Natsu and Gray during their meal, Nashi's eyes had practically begged for them to sit together, and she found herself unable to decline. The boys found themselves sitting together on one side with Erza and Nashi across from them, Happy surprising the group by flying straight to the little girl's lap and settling there.

From the moment they had sat themselves down across from each other, Natsu would not stop staring at her. At first sight, she had giggled at the man, having never seen a boy with pink hair before. As his staring only seemed to intensify the longer they sat, Nashi was beginning to rethink her decision to go along with Erza, whom she decided was not so scary after all. After a full ten minutes of this unrelenting behavior, he leaned over the table separating them and — was he sniffing her hair?

Natsu couldn't understand it. This girl had her own smell. It was weird in it's own right, but that didn't explain why the pure, unadulterated scent of Lucy was coming off of her so strongly. It was like she bathed in it, like someone had bottled up Lucy and sold her as a body wash. Natsu wouldn't mistake it for anything, of that he was sure. Gray smacked him over the head.

"You're creeping her out, dumba—ah, dummy." The ice make wizard caught himself before he started cussing in front of the kid. The disturbed look on her face amused him deeply, and he would have laughed under different circumstances. As it was, he was already on thin ice with Erza, and Natsu was acting like a total creep. He was smelling her, for goodness' sake. Noticeably.

Likewise, Nashi couldn't understand Natsu's fascination with her. She had taken Erza's advice to tuck her keys underneath her shirt so as to not attract attention, and with her silver keys now stowed deep in her left boot, the only visible belonging that Nashi had left was her doll, though she was almost certain that none of her new friends had taken notice of it, or else they would have asked about it. Anyway, she had stuffed it inside of the key pouch on the belt, having no other place to carry it. The doll was a tad too big, sticking out a bit at the top, but not enough to really be recognizable. Truth be told, Erza and Gray were asking a lot of questions, and Nashi was none too pleased. She couldn't tell which she disliked worse; their questions, or Natsu's staring. And, er, smelling. She hoped he did not make those a habit.

Now Gray turned his attention back to her. He had at this point been filled in on how she came to join their little group by Erza and herself, glazing over the bakery incident. They decided that Nashi's criminal status wasn't important. Still, he seemed to have plenty of questions for her.

"So your Mom went missing about two weeks ago," he recapped after berating Natsu for freaking her out. "Do you know where you were?" Nashi decided that she liked Gray for standing up for her against Natsu, even if his admonishment wasn't very effective, as the pink haired boy continued to eye her between bites of his food.

"There was a lot of forest around the city, with a bunch of creeks and rivers. Mommy would take me to look there, and then we would go back to Malba to eat. We were staying there."

"Malba. That sounds familiar. We've been there, haven't we?" He looked to his comrades for an answer. Natsu was still being Natsu, but thankfully Erza came through for him. After swallowing a mouthful of food, she replied.

"Yes, it was the Avatar incident. It's a small city with a large outdoor marketplace. Lots of stores. I assume Nashi here is referring to the Mikage Forest." Nashi nodded her head vigorously.

"So what exactly were you and your Mom looking for?" Gray directed his question at Nashi again. You like him, she reminded herself. You can answer.

"Mommy was looking for her friend. Every time we left home, we looked for her. That's why I learned to swim so well!"

"Swim?" The three adults at the table seemed confused. And not without reason; what could possibly be the correlation between the two? This question was posed by Erza.

"Yeah. Mommy said her friend loves the water. If we were going to find her, that's where she'll be." Stumped and seeing no where to continue this line of conversation, Gray steered them back to their present situation.

"Okay. So why did you come to Crocus?" There was no water around Crocus, after all. It was smack in the middle of the continent.

"This is home." Her words shocked the wizards around her. Gray did not know what to ask next. Surprisingly, though, Nashi continued to speak. "Mommy and I lived here when I was really little. she worked for a magazine here. We had a house, but I don't remember where it is. It's prolly filled with spiders." Nashi then proceeded to divulge into a string of stories of all of the different spiders she encountered. Happy humored her with the occasional response as she spoke while the three remaining wizards absorbed the information they'd learned thus far. Gray and Erza shot each other looks as they leaned closer across the table to converse quietly. This left Natsu to continue to watch the girl entertain his little buddy with the dramatic details of her daring endeavors encountering eight-legged beasts. She had quite a penchant for storytelling, he couldn't help but notice. She was good at it.

Another thing Natsu couldn't help noticing was her eyes. He couldn't pinpoint why, exactly—plenty of people had brown eyes. It was a very common color, and he knew that. He supposed the scent of Lucy that overwhelmed his senses had probably muddled his brain and was messing with his mind. Warping his perception. Their eyes were probably totally different.

It was getting harder for him to breathe. Natsu wasn't following their conversation. How could he? He couldn't even think straight.

Meanwhile, Erza wanted to tell Gray more about her suspicions of Nashi, specifically in regard to the golden keys, though she was hesitant to speak in front of Natsu. He was already acting strangely, and she didn't feel inclined to open Pandora's box with him unless absolutely necessary. Nashi had said they were fakes, and she had given Erza no real reason not to trust her. Adversely, she hadn't given them a reason to trust her, either. It's because she's a kid on her own that they are welcoming her into their hearts. But she's also a stranger. And she did cause chaos at the bakery. The kid is a thief. Oh, no… A horrible thought occurred to the redhead.

Could she have stolen the keys? Perhaps she had come across Lucy at one point, and she thought they were pretty just like she said… But when would she have? No, the only times Nashi had stolen, it was absolutely necessary. She was hungry, she just stole food. Right?

Erza cast a long glance at Nashi as the young girl engaged with Happy. She doesn't seem like the type, though. Not someone who would steal something just because she thought it was pretty. Erza calmed herself down, as she waved over the waiter to bring them their check.

As he lost Erza's attention to her own internal conflict, Gray turned to study his best friend once more, and was surprised when Natsu didn't react. To Gray's surprise, he was looking extremely bothered by something, which was unusual behavior for the fire dragon slayer. Loud and boisterous as he often was, the Natsu they knew usually sported a smile and good humor, and was also very responsive. Under normal circumstances, the only times his cheerful demeanor vanished was in the presence of a serious threat. Redirecting his focus on the little girl, he couldn't find a single remotely threatening thing about her. Maybe she was a little weird, but what harm could possibly be hiding in the pink-pigtailed squirt sitting across from him?

The group of five left the diner shortly after, allowing Nashi to finish weaving her tale. Storytelling seemed to have put the child in a cheerful mood, for which all of them were glad. She skipped around, playing chase with Happy as they made their way to the Train that would take them to Magnolia at last.

In their little game, she had fallen over a couple of times, but always bounced right back without a second thought, motivated to succeed. They wove between crowds, paying no attention as Natsu and Gray riled each other up, with Erza walking ahead of them all as a guide. The redhead only turned around a few minutes later, when the volume of the fight going on behind her grew loud enough to bring her back. They were around the corner from the Train Station with ten minutes to spare. Really, these boys. Will they never learn?

The moment she turned around the two boys stopped, fear in their eyes and apologies on their lips. Despite the arms they held around each other's shoulders in a friendly manner, there were scorch marks and ice patches littering the ground behind them. Nothing broken, exactly. There shouldn't be any trouble. As she surveyed the minimal damage, she decided it wasn't worth traumatizing Nashi with a punishment as long as there wasn't going to be a fine, and went to take her hand and lead her into a train car, when she noticed something.

She wasn't there. Looking around, there was no sign of her pink pigtails anywhere. Where'd she go?

Gray and Natsu both figured that they were in the clear, so when Erza turned to them again with burning eyes, they panicked.

"Hey, what did you do now?" Before the other could retaliate, Erza intercepted.

"Where is Nashi?" The two young men paled considerably. Oops? Happy stopped and looked around, surprised to see he was no longer being chased.

"You probably scared her away with your stripping," Natsu accused, pointing out Gray's lack of a shirt.

Well. That was a new development. When had he done that? Without bothering to answer, Gray shook his head and took off in the direction he'd seen her last, while Natsu decided to follow the scent that had been haunting him since they met a few hours prior.

"I'll stay here and stall the train," Erza said to no one, requipping and summoning a sword from her arsenal. An insurance, so that no one would give her any trouble. She and Happy boarded the train to wait for them more comfortably.

It did not take Gray very long at all to find Nashi. She had intended on going back to the restaurant the very moment she realized that her doll was no longer attached to her belt. It must have fallen out while she was running around and distracted, and the thought of losing it had put her in an inconsolable frenzy. Of course she had gotten herself lost and at a dead end, and as soon as Gray realized that she would not calm down to talk to him, he lifted her over his shoulder and carried her back, her hitting him all the while. It didn't bother him, though. He had a kid of his own, he was used to it.

Back on the train, Erza heard a deep roar that confused her to the core. It sounded like Natsu, but at the same time it sounded so sad. It's been a while since she'd heard him roar like that. At this rate, he would scare Nashi. Erza wondered briefly if he had found the little girl and perhaps discovered her keys, only to shake the thought out of her head. Impossible. Rushing toward her was Gray, with a wriggling mess of a girl tossed over his shoulder. She was freaking out, but otherwise looked unharmed. Same large purple shirt, same grime in her hair, and she could see the cord with the keys peeking out of her shirt around the back of her neck, otherwise concealed. So what happened?

The dragon slayer was beside himself. He stood at the side of the street, looking down toward the cobblestone, upon which lay a small rag doll, wearing a very troubled look on his face. Was this some kind of sick joke? He had followed the same strong scent that had been coming from Nashi all day. Had she been concealing this all along? This …doll?

Of course it was a doll. And not only did it reek of Lucy, but it looked like her too. He may not have seen her in over seven years, but there was no mistaking it. It was as if Lucy had been replicated in doll form, down to the blue ribbon in her hair, albeit a bit more modestly dressed. He picked it up slowly, almost scared to touch it. It just smelled so strongly of her. Was it some kind of voodoo?

What the hell was going on!?

About two minutes too late, Natsu burst into the train car in which his friends were waiting to go home. He marched straight up to Nashi, angry and hurt, forgetting that his current target was only six years old. His senses were overwhelmed with Lucy.

"Explain this!" He shouted at her. Gray was shocked and more than a little annoyed at this outburst. He was trying to calm the girl down, dammit! Not work her up more. Nashi, however, surprised them all as she lunged at him, ripping the doll from his hands. Angry at herself for losing it, and angry at Natsu for accusing her, she pushed him back, screaming not to touch it. At that exact moment, the train began to move and Natsu slumped onto his seat feeling resigned, rendered speechless by his motion sickness. Though the remaining two occupants both tried to understand what had transpired, as soon as the girl had reclaimed what was hers, she went straight to a corner and curled herself into a ball, hugging her doll too closely for either Erza or Gray to recognize it. She refused to speak to anyone at all for the next few hours, until the train finally stopped in Magnolia.

By the time they exited the train, Nashi calmed down enough to explain what happened, and so that is what occupies three of the five as they trek back to their home, Natsu slowly trailing behind them, exceed at his side.

The walk to Fairy Tail seemed shorter than usual as Nashi took in the city around her. She couldn't help admiring it as they passed through the streets, and so grew unaware as time ticked by on their journey.

They're nearing the Guild when someone finally asks the question that had been on all of their minds. Gray reaches out to open the door.

"So why do you care about that doll so much, anyway? You said you haven't even had it that long." This was true. On the walk over, she had begrudgingly told Erza and Gray about her circumstances in finding it. Erza had been especially bothered to hear she had stolen it, bringing her older concerns flaring back to life. Maybe she did steal those keys after all. The older wizard felt her stomach turn with unease.

Surprisingly, a pretty pink blush appeared on Nashi's face to match her hair. They were stepping passed the threshold into the guild hall. A pause, then Nashi answered.

"It's because it looks like Mommy." They had almost made their way to Mira at this point, to proclaim their job complete and introduce their new little friend, though the three now stood stock-still, incapable of speech.

Natsu was staring at Nashi with a variety of emotions fighting to take control of his face.

Grey, not having seen the doll in detail, looked between his two friends with curiosity.

Erza thought of the keys.

Most shocking of all, though, was when a familiar man with light pointy hair scooped up the little girl into his arms and greeted her as an old friend.

"Nashi! Is that you? You've gotten so big!"

Hi guys! Thanks again for the feedback. All will be revealed in time. In the meantime, can anybody guess who? I'll be impressed if you do.