Hello there everybody Long time no see?

Before we start, I'd just like to say that this is a nalu story. I DO NOT apreciate people telling ME what couple MY story is going to end in! It is really infuriating.

It is NOT a Nali story people, you're telling me.

Anyway, now that that's outta my system. Please! Read on! XD

Oh yeah and warning: this chapter is really long. But that's to make up for the short chapter last time and the long update time.

"Wake up." A voice said. It was soft and gentle.

"Wake up Natsu." The angel whispered.

I lazily rolled my eyes. "Lisanna?"

The girl huffed seemingly annoyed. I smirked happily out of habit.

"Natsu? Natsu, come on get up. Natsu? It's morning sleepy head." She said in a more irritated voice.

Oh, it was just Lucy my mind realized.

I felt her fingers delicately move over the blanket. Oh no.

Please don't move the blanket.

"Natsu?"

Please do not move the blanket.

The blonde eased her way over to my side of the bed and tried to gently tug the blanket off of me. Panicking, I subtly reached under my pillow and I felt something pretty weird. I smirked feeling a little... spiffy.

"Nats-"

"UWAAAAAHHH!" I jumped up from the blanket, the secret weapon on my face and a terrifying screech from my lungs.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Monster!" Lucy cried out in terror. Her face looked a mix of Casper the Friendly ghost, Franklin, and Madonna. Well, if they had a love child.

I was wheezing out spurts of laughter at this point, and wiping away a continuous flow of tears from my eyes. My gut started clenching harshly but I couldn't stop laughing.

Lucy's face burned with anger and embarrassment at this point.

She threw a pillow at me. "Stop laughing!"

Confidential

Okay, so maybe scaring Lucy with an old Halloween mask when she thought I was asleep wasn't perhaps a very nice thing to do (although it was funny as f***), she's a pretty fragile girl and all, but did she really have to lock me out of my own house?

"Lucy!"

I did another series of quick rams on the door for what? The fifth time? "I'm sorry for laughing at you earlier Princess, now open up!" She had the front and back doors locked, and all the windows were screwed shut. Okay, so maybe now I know how she feels every morning. You see, it's been about three or so weeks since our little "shopping spree" and the last time I saw Lisanna. We exchanged phone numbers and blah, blah, blah, off topic. Since we basically have everything we need to live, for the rest of the summer in our house, I no longer see the need to leave. Of course, while I felt one way, the blonde felt differently.

Every morning she wakes me up 7:00am on. The. Dot. On the dot. Every morning. In motherloving, mother fucking, bitch ass loving summer.

But this morning I was tired. I spent the whole night and most of the A.M, on my phone, stealing WiFi from the neighbors to Whatsapp Lisanna. It was, an amazing conversation. Yeah, even though we still haven't gone on that date she was so excited about the last time we'd seen each other, she does in fact have a summer job, and never is really a good time for her, and I completely understand. Although a small, very small part of me kind of doubts her for some reason. Like it feels as if, she's trying to throw me a curve ball or some shit. Anyways, when Lucy came to wake me up this morning I found this old Purge-looking Halloween mask, and decided to scare her with it. You should've seen her face! She looked like she was ready to shit bricks.

"Hahaha! Damn that was funny..."

I rammed on the door again.

"Lucy open this door right now!"

Then realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

I don't need this. And I most definitely don't need her. This is my street, my turf, my area, I'm sure I can find some place to go hang out around here.

I turned away and began making my way over to the street.

My house is a little old building seated next door to a multimillion dollar construction site. I was told when I first moved in the place that it was a house that was built with the purpose of being used as a clubhouse for a bunch of 8-year-olds. If that's true, it would explain the one bedroom, small kitchen, living room, and even smaller bathroom. The parents did a nice job. Anyway my house is also located on the edge of the forest.

So on one side, a bunch of bush.

And on the other, the Tower Babylon.

So yeah, I don't get to see much in my little corner. However on the other side of the road, there's a row of houses owned by struggling people like me, in poverty stricken conditions. And yes, while I don't know many of them I- I well, don't like any of them. Wow. I genuinely didn't think this through.

On the main road of the back streets of Magnolia, there's this old abandoned meat factory, broken down windows, mold mildew, the works. However, a few months ago a couple of mischevious kids broke into it in the middle of the night and had a nighttime dance session.

Now, it's a become a popular hang out for young teens my age, to let out their creativity in this troubled neighborhood. Wether through lyrics, like rap battle or poetry, or though movement in different forms of dance. It was "the spot".

At the time, there were having a breakout session, and boys were on the mat taking turns freestyling dance. And there, I saw a little munchkin I was actually happy to see.

"Mind if I joined in?"

The kid turns around, his purple hair swishing ever so slightly and his cheeky face lights up when he sees me.

"Natsu!"

"Romeo!"

He jumps into my open arms and we share a warm hug. I actually like Romeo. He and I met several years ago at the police station. I was being held there for doing something stupid (I was pretty rebelious at the time) and I noticed the kid crying at the front desk, begging, pleading for someone to go bring his daddy back. The scene struck a nerve in me cause it reminded me of all the times I asked people to bring my daddy back and they wouldn't listen. Everyone to my mom, from when my dad first left us, down to the adults at the orphanage when I told them my daddy was still alive and out there.

So, not thinking properly, I run, grab the kids arm and storm out of the police station. I swore to myself that I was going to bring this kids father back. Little did I know however, that the boys father was actually a police officer at the station, and that his crying fit was actually routinely at the station, because hes always afraid of his father getting hurt or something. It explains why everyone at the station was so indifferent to his crying, and unfazed because they were so used to it.

So I end up looking like an ass, having a huge tantrum on them ,then running outside with the kid to look for his father as if he was kidnapped or some shit. We went looking for about 5 hours, until the kids father actually found us and turned me into the police station. I was the laughing stock of the kids at the orphanage for four straight weeks solid, but Macao, his dad told me that ever since that night, Romeo hadn't thrown a fit at the station since. And now, the kid is striving to be like me (which I highly advise him against), so ever since that night I've been trying my hardest to live my life straight for him. He's changed me for the better.

No, on that night we brought out the better in ourselves for good.

And ever since, we'd been closer than brothers.

The music comes to a halt from the breakout session, and everyone starts crowding around us. Make no mistake about it, I recognized every face in this group, it's just that I don't like any one of them.

"Man I heard you got a girlfriend." One of the boys say. Everyone else started this low howl in disbelief. I shivered once again at the "g" word.

"Yeah a pretty little blonde girl," He continued, "Didn't think you were into the ditzy type Natsu."

My eyebrows immediately shot up. "What do you mean, the 'ditzy type'? Lucy's not stupid, you mother fucker."

"Woah, defensive much? Get all riled up over your girl?"

I stepped up to him. Mavis, stop saying that!

The crowd watched silently as the scene unfolded before them. God knows why, I'm sure all of them knew I didn't have patience for shit.

"Listen to me Monte," I grabbed the bastard by the collar and lifted him off the ground. "First of all Lucy's not anything of what you just said. Second, she is not my girlfriend."

I let him down with a horrified look on his face. I smirked triumphantly on the inside, but his terrified look reminded me of Lucy, which was the reason I'm out here to begin with. And it just seemed to piss me off.

"I'm outta here." And the crowd immediately clears a path for me, a look a fear reflected in their eyes, but I simply deflected it from my mind.

"Natsu! Wait for me!" I heard Romeo's voice trailing behind me, but I didn't start walking any less faster.

I speedwalked right from main street, to the roads leading to the highway. In this area is where the majority of the middle-class live. The suburbs, if you will. In this area is where you'd find alot of shops, traffic, and foot traffic. In fact, a little ways from here, was my school Fairy Tail.

"Natsu look!" Romeo cried.

And a certain cafè.

It was a small building, located in the heart of town called the "Love Bugs Cafe". It is literally surrounded by skyscapers and located across the road from the national insurance place, so as you can imagine it had alot foot traffic, which is why its the most popular coffee shop in town. But not just its location, part of its success is due to the fact that it has the best coffee in town. Even better than the two local Starbucks franchises, located in the mall and by the community college. However the majority of the college students come here.

This is where Lisanna and I were scheduled to go for our first date.

Well, before I decided to run away from her to save Lucy.

"Natsu! Natsu! Why are you in such a hurry?!" Romeo said.

I groaned and wiped my face. I was going to have to tell him. I didn't particularly like keeping secrets from Romeo, and besides it would feel better if someone else knew the Lucy thing so in case there's a situation.

I took a deep breath, and told him my story.

Cars honked at each other on the stop light. A mother taking a walk with her son sipped on a blue slushie then bent down and gave her boy a sip. A helicopter flew over the city.

It was funny how their mundane, everyday lives could still take place amidst this crazy mind boggling revelation.

"So she's an actual angel?"

I nodded my head.

"And definetly not your girlfriend."

I shook my head, albeit a little confused.

"So... Do you still like Lisanna?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Hey man, if you're thinking of trying to steal her away from me-"

"Just answer the question!"

I flinched a little at his hurtful tone of voice. But nodded my head obediently.

"Then don't turn around."

At first I was confused, but out of curiosity, I still turned around.

And my heart was flattened.

Inside the cafè seated by the window in a cozy two person booth, was Lisanna and Gray.

"Lis, thanks for coming on such short notice." He said. His hair was in its normal messy spiky state like mine, nothing special there. He was wearing a blue button down shirt, casual jeans, a gold watch and brown shoes. He looked like he was dressed for a date.

"No problem Gray," Lisanna said. She was dressed in a strapless, fiery red, summer sun dress that stopped mid-thigh along with a black hair tie on her wrists and red pumps on her feet. Date ready.

Well she sure got dressed up for someone who was seemingly put on "short notice". And thats another thing; somehow she's able to drop what she's doing to run down to the cafè to meet up with Gray, but for me, its this excuse or the next.

"Anything for you," Lisanna gushed. Her cheeks went cherry red and she smiled at him. He simply stared icily at her. His signature "Cool as ice way" I suppose.

Bastard.

"Look, I've had some time to think about what you told me the other day in the rain." he said.

I scoffed. "The other day in the rain"? That was my birthday you bastard!

"Uh huh..." Lisanna said anticipatorily. It was if she was hanging onto his every word. Her big blue orbs bulged and I saw her lean forward every so slightly. I think my chest started to hurt.

"And I don't think I was being fair to you when I told you no..."

He told her no! That idiot.

"Then randomly kissed me." Lisanna whispered, her voice trailing off.

He let out a chuckle. "Yeah..."

At this point Romeo and I had our faces shmushed unceremoniously against the glass. Although I had really sensitive hearing, and could listen to every word they exchanged I couldn't help myself.

Onlookers be damned.

Back to Lisanna and Grays date, I could feel my soul crushing just standing here waiting for the inevitable final blow to my soul when this date was finished.

"Did you know, the original owners of this place was an old retired married couple?" Gray said as he dipped his buttercream crackers in his tea. "They originated from Iceland and they migrated to Magnolia to retire. They sold this amazing coffee, using local Icelandic beans they ground into coffee. Their secret by the way. The idea, was an instant hit and they ended up starting a small business, selling coffee in a log cabin on snowy days. They were busier than they'd hope but they were happy together."

"Aww," Lisanna cooed. "That sounds really romantic."

"It is.." He said and then intertwined their fingers.

No...

Romeo turned to me. "Natsu are you okay?"

I shook my head. I don't think I'll ever be okay again.

"Well when they died," Gray continued, "Their children took over. They made some serious mordern renovations, for example, upgrade from a log cabin."

Lisanna chuckled.

"And add more things to their menu, like hot chocolates and teas. Oh, and sweet pastries and stuff to eat. Look, the point is the children, well the grandchilden now, named it the "Love Bugs Cafè" in honor of their grandparents undying love for coffee... and each other."

He took hold of both her hands.

"Its the most romantic place in Fiore," his voice was but a mere whisper. "And the perfect place to do this."

He reached down in his pocket and pulled out a rectangular jewelry case.

"Gray!" Lisanna cried. She placed both her hands over her mouth.

My heart was breaking- no, more than breaking, words couldn't explain how hurt I was right now.

The sights and sounds of the world dulled and blurred itself out. My hand weakly touched the glass of the cafè to the shape of Lisanna's figure.

She took the small beautiful bracelet from the box and she watched teary eyed as Gray adorned it on her wrist.

"Lisanna I'm willing to give you a chance... give us a chance." He said.

She gasped in disbelief. Then in one swift move, she threw her arms around him and smashed her lips against his. At first he was surprised, but then it slighlty faded and he gently kissed her back. They broke apart.

"There," she said. "Now we're even."

"Lisanna...?"

I felt Romeo's hand on my cheeks. He kept rubbing them until I realized my eyes were wet.

"Big bro... don't cry..."

I felt my cheeks, and alas I was. And the tears kept falling. What was I thinking? Lisanna was going to love me? Ha! How stupid am I? She'll never love a bum like me. No one has. And no one ever will. I'm going to die alone.

"Let's go..." I said softly.

I turned the knob to the door to my house. It turned all the way. It was opened? Lucy. That idiot could've gotten hurt.

"Lucy? Lucy!" I cried. I guess she was asleep, it was after ten or so by now.

After a whole evening of sulking about Lisanna with Romeo (it's nice to have a friend who knows your problems even if you don't say them) I decided to take my worn out and weary self home to have a nice long nap.

July 21st might've just been one of the crappiest days of my life.

But what should I expect? Its on the same month day as my birthday.

I wondered aimlessly in the dark in my living room until I found the light switch. I found it and switched it on.

"Surprise!"

Lucy popped from behind the couch, a party hat on and a huge grin on her face.

What in the-

Oh Mavis, I forgot I live in a house with a looney.

"Happy Birthday Natsu!" She blew into a noisemaker from a party bag and from that same bag took a handful of confetti and threw it at me.

I rubbed my hands over my face. "What are you doing?"

"Its your birthday party silly!~I read online on a Earth website to make a person really happy you throw a party for them. And this is your birthday party!"

Was I hearing this right? Was I hearing anything right?

"Okay Lucy..."

Explain this slowly Natsu, she's a bit... well crazy.

"Birthday parties are usually on the person's actual... birthday."

Her high ponytail swished over her neck as she tried to comprehend what I was saying.

She was adorned in silk, baby blue pajamas with dark blue bunnies adorning it. This included her button up short sleeved top, and her pajama shorts.

"I think I get it," she continued. "But if I'm not mistaken, I crash landed in your room on your actual birthday a month ago, yes?"

"Well I mean... yes but..."

"Well ever since then, I've been trying to plan a surprise birthday for you to make up for ruining your birthday last month!" She chirped happily

Huh. So she decided to make a make-up party for an original party that never happened. Nice logic.

"I had it all planned out. First, I would get all the party stuff I got from Don's. Then, I needed an excuse for you to get out of the house for the day to set up the decorations, so I pretended to be mad when you tried to scare me with the mask."

I scoffed. "Don't try to play it off."

She looked at me with serious eyes. "Natsu. I am an angel, and I see supernatural things every day. I once fought a league of demons, in the raw, with my best friends. And demons aren't the prettiest of creatures. Do you really think some Earthly piece of plastic, is gonna scare me?"

Normally I would suspect her of lying, but just by her tone of voice and facial expression, I could see she wasn't lying.

So that means when she was at Don's she intentionally picked all that stuff up. And that also means she pretended to be scared then angry this morning, as an excuse to get me out of the house to set up the decorations. Wow.

Maybe she's more clever than I give her credit for.

But I don't care. I'm not in the mood for it right now.

"Look sorry Princess, but not in the mood," I brushed past her roughly on the way to my room. "Clean up my house, then go to bed."

I turned the door knob to my room to find Lucy inside lying on my bed.

I screamed. Naturally of course.

"Why do you keep doing that?!"

"Oh please Natsu! Please please please!"

I sighed. If I knew one thing about Lucy, it's that she's persistant.

"Fine. If it means I can go to sleep."

"Yay!"

"Okay, so there are three fundamental elements that make up a good birthday party. One is the song. So since I don't know the birthday song, I decided to do a freestyle."

"You decided to do a what-"

"Birthdays are the time of year..."

Oh my gosh.

"Where the birthday boy should give a cheer..."

Dear god make it stop...

"So we make it a happy, happy BIRTHDAY!"

After a few more torturous moments of singing bad enough to make the dead roll over in their coffins and say 'shut the hell up..."

She moved on.

"The next thing on the agenda is the birthday cake."

I raised an eyebrow skeptically at her.

"Did you bake a cake?"

"Uh well... sort of."

"Let me guess, you burned the cake to a pile of ashes? Destroyed my oven? Or better yet, you ate it."

"Uh... well the batter was just so good and- and, I just wanted a taste. And well... when I was done tasting there was kinda, sorta... nothing left at all."

"You ate all the batter?"

She held back a burp then nodded her head. "You were gone a long time." I could tell she was ready to puke just thinking about it.

I realized I had a crummy day, but Lucy just sat here all day and gorged herself in cake batter. Oh wow, the greedy monster got what she deserved. I couldn't help but laugh.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. I couldn't seem to stop laughing.

I looked down at her with my grin still on my face. Her eyes widened at me and she blushed.

"You smiled at me..."

We stared at each other eye to eye for a few long moments.

She then cleared her throat.

"Now onto the third and final thing. The gift!"

I immediately perked up." You brought me a present?"

"Nope." I drooped in my chair again, disappointed.

"I've got you something even better." She sang confidently.

Lisanna's heart? Gray's head on a silver platter? My dad alive and well?

"A story." She said.

Okay, that is so not better than an actual gift.

"Once upon a time, there was a man and a woman. The woman had just given birth to a premature baby in the midst of terrible illness."

I continued to stare intensely into her eyes. I don't know if she was doing this purposefully or not, but it was like I could see the story as she was telling it.

"Miriam! You did it!" A man yelled out to a woman, lying on a bed, sweaty and exhausted. "You had my child!"

The woman, pale and breathless, managed to give the man a weak smile. "Oh, Adelbert..."

The old woman who was in the room, that helped deliver the baby, walked over to the couple with a sleeping bundle in her hands. "It's a boy..."

The man slowly reached out for his son, and as he held the baby in his hands, tears began to flow. "I have... a son. A tiny person of my own, to call my child..."

However, the baby continued sleeping.

"You guessed it right," Lucy said, "The baby was sick."

I continued to stare deep in her eyes and watch the man coo at his child. The mother continued sleeping.

"The baby's mom died on that delivery table." I snapped out of my trance when I heard that. "She was never in any physical condition to carry a child, and her cancer tumors weren't making things any better. But despite the odds, and despite what all her friends had to say, she loved that man so much, that she decided she had to gave birth to his baby."

I couldn't even bring myself to look back at Lucy. To think that, that woman died because she loved that man so much. It was an act of love so selfless, it was breathtaking. I could only hope and pray that one day, someone would love me like that.

At one point, I thought that person was Lisanna.

She lighlty held my chin and turned my head at such an angle that I was staring deeply into her eyes once more. My heart started pounding thunderously in my chest.

"The father was devastated but he needed to start looking for help for his son or the baby would be joining his mother next."

The man continued to weep over the dead body of his wife as the nurse who delivered the baby checked him out.

"Mr. Adelbert?" she said, her tone heavy.

He sniffed. "Yes?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong. The baby just won't stop sleeping. And, he's unnaturally pale."

She handed the man his baby. He stared tenderly at his small pale baby. His breathing was soft and weak.

"Oh my son..." He moaned.

Eight days after her death, it was finally the day of Miriam's funeral.

The sky was black and overcast. Thunder and lightning cracked throughout the sky. Rain was pouring in by the bucketloads. A small group of people were huddled over a closed coffin at the far end of the cemetery. Family and friends alike were sobbing as two men slowly began to lower the coffin in the hole.

Up on a hill a ways off from the ceremony, was Adelbert himself.

He couldn't bring himself to go down there and see his lover be lowered down into a deep trench, never to see her again. He didn't want to be around all those sad crying people. And he most certainly didn' t want nosey people to ask about his son.

After endless searching from medical experts and healers, Adelbert could find no one who knew what was wrong with his son. The last doctor, told him to give up and not get too attatched as the baby was dying slowly. So thats where the baby was now. In his house, a distance away but at a see-able distance.

Suddenly Adelbert smelt smoke. He turned his head to discover his house was on fire.

And the baby was asleep inside!

"Oh my..." I watched as the flames gradually engulfed the house and thick piles of smoke bellowed throughout the windows.

I looked at Lucy with wide eyes.

"So what happened to the baby?"

She looked at me and smiled. "It was a miracle. The house went up in ashes. But after everything was hosed down and such. The firemen found the baby- and he was crying! It seemed as if the baby absorbed some of the fire to stay alive, and the fire burned out the illness running through his veins."

My jaw slackened. "Woah..."

"Wait for it," she whispered.

"Son! Son! Son!" Adelbert cried absolutely hysterical. Gathered around the pile of ashes that used to be his house were the firefighters, the funeral goers and all the townspeople. It was a small town.

"Noooooo!" the bloodcurdling shriek came from his lungs as he continued to dig through the rubble. "Its all my fault..." His voice began to break.

The firefighter handed the man a small crying bundle.

"What?" He took it, and unwrapped the sheets surrounding the baby. He looked burned, charred a little but the baby's skin now had a deep tan, his eyes were feral and alive, his hair turned red.

And for the first time in about eight days, Adelbert finally had an idea about what to name his son.

"Igneel..."

He named him "Igneel" a slightly altered form of the word "Ignite". As in, the fire that was meant to destroy him, instead ignited the life within him.

I gave Lucy a peculiar look. "My dad...?"

She nodded her head.

"This, is the story of your father, Igneel."

As a single parent, Adelbert had to take on the role of both mother and father. But in raising Igneel, Adelbert was falling to the pressure of society to raise a productive young man.

He was very strict on his son and he made him start working on the family farm as soon as the boy could walk.

Igneel had slaved and laboured for most all the days in his young life.

And he didn't like it. At all.

"Igneel!"

Trotting from out an old run down barn was a twelve year old muscular boy with feral eyes and red hair.

"Yeah dad?"

"Why isn't your scrawny little butt out here, plowing the soil?!"

The boy shrunk back. "But dad its Sunday... And I haven't done my homework... or my make up work!" He cried. "At this rate, I'm going to fail my classes!"

Adelbert stopped hoeing his corn field to stare his son dead in the eye.

"Well then, I can't have my son flunking now can I?" The boys spirit lifted.

"Drop out."

The red head did a double take in surprise. "What?! Why?!"

"Because, this school thing is always cutting into the time you need to be doing farmwork. A man needs to start working on his farming skills from a young age. It's what your mother would have wanted."

Poor Igneel, he ran back into the barn with tears in his eyes. "Its not fair," he sobbed. "It's not fair..."

When he was a teenager he ran away from his home in a small town on a farm. He was sick and tired of his father putting so much stress on him, for things that was out of my control. Like his mom dying for instance.

He ran off on his sixteenth birthday to the big city.

Igneel was tired of working for things the hard way. It was time he started getting what he wanted, when he wanted.

"Heres when the story gets interesting," Lucy said, "This is the start of the reason why your father left your family many years ago."

"Well what happened?"

"You see, your father was a teenager living on foreign grounds. He needed basic neccesities like food and shelter. But for all that he needed money. So his first job was as a smuggler."

"Well what happened to him? That kind of stuff, really messes you up for life."

"He did many illegal jobs. He was a new kid in the city, young and naive and the perfect victim for adults to prey on. He even got a job in a assasination squad."

"Damn, my old man was in an assination squad?"

She nodded. "Igneel began to have such a thrill breaking the law all those years, that an assination squad was the only logical next step for him."

They were formerly called "D4" but after Igneel joined it became "D5".

"Boss," a woman said indescretely. "The mission is complete. The owner of the chain of food franchises is dead."

"Excellent Akira," an omninous voice replied huskily. "You didn't let the others get out of hand did you?"

The woman sighed in exasperation. "Nothing more than a few innocent bystanders. C'mon boss, you and I both know, those boys can't be tamed."

"Before you go, Akira," the boss said "Make sure that new boy is boding well with the others. Those three can be very viscous sometimes. Especially your brother."

The woman in all black chuckled. Some of her silky black strands forming a veil over her face. "Yes sir."

Igneel, of course having no experience formerly killing people, was very aloof to the whole "assasination" thing. However the boss of the organization saw something special in him. Something the others obviously couldn't see.

"Hey Igneel," Crash said. "Do you dye your own hair or do you go to a salon?"

The other two D5 boys laughed. Igneel simply glared.

One of the other boys jumped down from his shack on the roof and quickly snatched Igneel's scarf.

"Hey give that back! Nibble!"

The others ran a hardy laugh as they watched Igneel try to fruitlessly steal his scarf back. Unbeknowest to the boys in the room, Akira had entered the room.

In one swift, clean, ghostly move, the woman snatched the item from her twin brother, flipped him over her shoulder and tripped Igneel.

"Stop fooling around," she said and gave them all a deadly glare. They shivered. Every man, who thought he was a man in that room put their tails between their legs and sat at attention to Akira.

"Ha ha, you got whooped by your sister," Brainiac teased.

"Shutup," the boy punched him in the arm.

"Stop the stupidity in here boys, or else I might have to kill one of you." She scanned the row of bowed heads until she saw the red head. "You! Come with me."

"Akira had officially taken your father under her wing. They soon became very close going out on missions, plus, she found his knack. He could breathe fire. Eventually Akira grew an admiration for the muscular man. And said admiration eventually, turned into something more."

I raised my eyebrow. "You don't mean..." She nodded her head and yawned. "This story is taking alot longer than I thought." She yawned again.

"Well then go to sleep, your yawning is starting to piss me off."

She yawned again. "No no, I wanna finish the..." Her head dipped. As she dozed off. I watched the clock tick from 11:39 to 11:40.

"Get up." I picked up the blonde in my arms bridal style and made my way over to our bedroom.

That sounded a little wrong.

"I wanna finish this story Natsu."

"No." I said sternly.

"But I wanna finish it."

I stared at her down in my arms. "Why are you pushing yourself so hard just to tell me this stinking story?"

"Because your father is important to you and if knowing about your father makes you happy, then I want to do it." She looked up at me eyes hazy, a smile on her face and said:

"That's what friends are for."

She continued smiling and gushing at me and I stared wide eyed at her.

Friends?

After everything that happened to us so far, I thought she hated me. I mean, I would hate me if I were her. What is wrong with her?

Friends?

So I guess that meant she didn't hate me.

I guess the birthday party should have been an obvious sign.

Its just... I never really had a friend apart from Romeo.

"Natsu?"

I blushed.

"Whatever, just summarize this quickly so we can go to bed."

She snuggled into my chest. "Where were we?"

"Hey! I never said you could do that!"

She ignored me.

Igneel and Akira fell hard for each other. Their code names in D5 were the "Fire Dragon King" and "The Mistress of the shadows". They became the ultimate couple.

One night in a hot spring a little ways from the D5 headquarters, Igneel and Akira had finally consumated their love. This was the peak of their relationship.

After they were done, Igneel hopped from the pool to get their clothes, and while he was doing so he discovered the D5 headquarters were on fire. There were police officers and law enforcers swarming around the building. He turned back to Akira to see her fighting off FBI and SWAT team members. But she was naked so she was easily subdued.

Igneel panicked. He thought all the mistakes of his past were just going to suddenly come back and haunt him all at once. Everything he'd done in the past was bound to come back and bite him in the butt.

He ran away.

He managed to escape capture unlike all of his former teammates, but the guilt of it all never left.

So he started wandering. He became a traveler, because he no longer had a home, or a family, or friends.

A week and a half after Igneel's miraculous escape, he saw in a local newspaper that the government had ordered out public execution on all his former friends in D5.

Even Akira.

He was heartbroken, but he had to let her go in order to move forward in life.

Igneel was now in his mid twenties, and he began thinking about the past of his life, and he began regretting and rethinking some things. He vowed to spend the rest of his life a changed man.

Just as he made that vow, he found the love of his life.

In a gas station mini mart he bumped into a beautiful blonde.

And that blonde was soon to be Natsu's mother, Natsuki Frelise.

Igneel was immediately smitten by her beauty and grace. She was shy and timid and apalogized profusely for bumping into him.

He met her again at a pet hospital in Manaroe. After that, they started talking, then dating and eventually got married.

The man with the red hair, and the woman with the blonde hair, eventually made a boy with pink hair. Natsu.

And Igneel finally decided to settle down, to properly raise and take care of his family. So for safety reasons he moved his family into a small house in the middle of the dense woods.

"Do you remember that Natsu?" Lucy asked.

I nodded my head. Of course I remember that. Living with mom and dad in the forest were some of the best years of my life.

We ate wonderful meals from mom, I got to always play in the woods with dad, and at the end of it all we'd sleep under the stars.

"It was amazing." I said.

"It was amazing," she mused. "But just as he feared during the assault on D5, his mistakes in the past did come back to haunt him."

My smile dropped.

"Since he decided to settle down and stay in one place and no longer roam around, people started to sniff him out. Remember those "adventures" he used to take you on when you were young?"

Yeah I remembered those. My dad used go away from the house alot for trips he never went into detail about. But I remember when I was about four years old I begged to go on one of his trips. We didn't do much but walk and talk, but on the way back home we were attacked. Best. Day. Ever. After that, taking me on his trips became a regular thing.

"He had those trips to finish off the people who knew about his current location. You both became infamous in the fighting world."

She let out a long yawn. It was 1:20am. You know its a bit of a coincidence. Yesterday morning, I stayed up all night and some of the morning talking with Lisanna.I said it was an amazing conversation. Tonight, I did the same thing, instead with Lucy.

"One day, Igneel got an ominous note from a mysterious person, promising to kill him and his family. The time had come. He knew he had to leave. He thought, the thought of him finally being happy and raising a family was silly of him to think. Especially after all that he's done. So he decided to leave."

My mind flashed.

"Daddy!"

Its a day, I'll never forget.

"Igneel set out to find the person who threatened his family. But this person was clever and cunning. He assasanited Igneel with a poison bullet to the back. But despite that, when the killer revealed his identity the shock alone could've kill him."

What did she mean. The shock alone?

"Lucy," I whispered, but the blonde was out cold. So I carried her out into the room, only one question plagued my mind.

Who killed my father?

"Natsu..." Lucy moaned. "Good night..."

I sighed.

"Shutup and go to bed, will ya!"

Hey guys I'm on vacation What was your favourite part? And what do you think about the backstory to the cafe? I thought really hard on that :D And the cafè scene. What did you feel on that part, happy or sad. :(Also, what do you think on the fact that Lucy had a party just for Natsu? That girl is just too sweet! Most importantly leave your thoughts on Igneel's backstory! And... Go!