"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough."

A young Erza had lived most of her life not trusting anyone anymore. The countless times she's been abandoned by the friends she so once called.

Abandoned, turned to slave. It did not matter to her anymore.

After she had joined Fairy Tail, a mage guild filled with cheerful mages, she still had not learned to trust anyone.

Always keeping to herself, always bottling up her feelings, she didn't try to invest as much trust into these people, regardless of their personality. She knew more than enough that sooner or later, the people you call friend or friends, will abandon you. If it is not now, it will be later, that she was assured of.

It had been a peaceful evening. Erza was enjoying herself alone, sitting at one of the tables. She was reading a book lent by Levy who was eager enough to let her borrow one of her books, being a bookworm and all.

She sighed as she was just about to finish her current book, The House of the Scorpion, as it was called in red letters at the front cover.

From one of the corners of the guild, near the bar, sat Gray, an ice mage, staring at her direction and in many others, just to see what his guildmates were doing.

"You want more orange juice?" Macao asked as he was the one behind the bar.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Gray answered.

As he continued to watch his surroundings, a familiar pinkette had arrived through the front doors of the guild and walked towards him. "Hey Gray." He greeted.

"Hey Natsu." The small pinkette took a seat right next him. Natsu was the newest mage that joined the Guild. He'd only stumbled into the Guild only after looking for his dragon father who had left him for some unknown reason.

"What you doing?" Natsu asked him, observing the boy who apparently had no shirt on.

"Just checking around that sort of stuff," he answered. As he brought his orange juice near his face, he accidentally lost a bit of his grip and managed to spill some on his chest. "Aw crap!"

"Well sucks to be you." Natsu snickered at Gray's misfortune.

"Here." Macao brought some napkins for Gray then retreated back to the bar.

"Goddammit!" Gray cursed. It was more unfortunate t say the least when he had no idea where he put his shirt, after all, his habit of stripping without noticing was a hassle for him to handle.

Natsu then looked into the direction in which Erza was. "Who's that?" Having only been here a few days, he still had no clue who was who, what was what and where was where.

"Oh that's just Erza," Gray answered as he got another load of napkins to clean his chest of orange juice. "She was here longer than me but to be honest, don't know much about her, she mostly keeps to herself, locks her mind down stories and books and such."

"Hmm." Natsu couldn't help but to continue to stare in her direction. She looked about his age.

"Yeah, I think she has trust issues or something, I don't know," Gray continued. "I'm no psychologist."

"Well you don't have to be one to clearly see it, I think," Natsu got himself off his chair. "I'm gonna go talk to her."

"Knock yourself out, she might not want to talk though." Gray warned.

"Eh, I have talked to worse." He remarked and now made his way into her vicinity.

As her eyes wore on her book, she didn't notice the pinkette right next to her.

"Hey." He greeted her, hoping to converse with her.

No bulge from his greet. Her eyes still on her books. His presence and his greet weren't brought to get her attention.

Natsu now did the unthinkable and that was placing his hand on the text of her book, blocking her gaze into the fantasy world of the book. "What the-"

"Hello there." He greeted once more as she soon recognized his presence.

"…" She only stared at him, not wasting any breath to greet back at the rude boy.

"Sorry about that," Natsu apologized for his rudeness as he scratched behind his head, nervous to say the least. "I just wanted to say hello and all." He took a seat in front of her, reading the front and back cover of the book she held at hand; The House of the Scorpion, it read. "My name is Natsu. Natsu Dragneel."

"… my name is Erza. Erza Scarlet." Erza finally broke her silence.

"Nice name," Natsu complimented. "What you got there?"

"It's a book." She answered, dumbfounded on his question.

"Thanks Sherlock, I know it's a book, what's it about?" Natsu smirked at her. He felt undermined to say the least from her response.

"You can clearly see the summary." Erza remarked, pointing the obvious as she held up the book near Natsu's face.

"Well I want to hear what you think of the book," Natsu didn't want to read it, which added to Erza's dismay for socializing. "So, what are your thoughts on it?"

Erza's right eyebrow twitched adding to her annoyance with the fellow mage. She closed her book, got herself up and left without saying much.

"You know, I asked you a question!" Natsu said loudly as he too got off his chair.

She continued to ignore him.

"Sure and you called me the rude one." He crossed his arms.

"I never called you rude," she clarified. "Stop putting words in my mouth."

"You know it's easier for me to add words to your mouth than you are yourself." He remarked right back at her.

"What did you say!?" Their arguing got louder, crowding the attention of their fellow guildmates to turn and look at them.

"I said, ahem," Natsu cleared his throat. "It's easier for me to add words to your mouth than you are to yourself."

And in that instance, Erza threw her book right at Natsu. Having quick reflexes, Natsu dodged it only to be caught by Master Makarov who could see their inciting fight. "Master!" The two said in unison.

"Wow," the small guild master held the book with one hand. "What in the world are you two doing?" Makarov held the book to his side now with his left arm. "It's bad enough that you and Gray fight but now your picking fights with Erza?" He turned his attention towards Natsu first, scolding him.

"I only asked her a simple question…" Natsu now pouted.

"And you," he turned his attention towards Erza now, scolding her as well. "Why are you throwing books? Books are for reading, not throwing."

"He was bothering me…" Erza muttered.

"You know what?" Makarov now had a grin, which worried the two. Natsu had already been punished but this is the first Erza was about to be punished. "Laxus!" He called out to his blonde grandson.

The blonde teen jumped down from the balcony upon hearing his name. "What's up gramps?"

"Bring me the handcuffs." Makarov requested.

"You don't mean-"

"Yes, those handcuffs." Makarov assured him.

"Oh no." Erza knew the treatment she was getting along with Natsu.

"Handcuffs?" Natsu raised an eyebrow. "What kind of handcuffs?"

"Magical handcuffs," Laxus now brought the handcuffs. "More specifically, a friendship handcuff."

"A what now?" Natsu still had no clue what the handcuffs do.

Master Makarov instantly placed one of the handcuffs on Natsu's right wrist. "Come here Erza." He instructed her to do so.

As much as she wanted to refuse, Erza had to comply. The master now placed the other handcuff on her left wrist.

"What the-" Natsu couldn't believe that he was now chained to Erza. "How do we get these off?"

"Two ways," Laxus now explained the ordeal of the handcuffs. "Either gramps unlocks it or you two begin to trust one another."

"Trust one another? We're gonna die like this!" Natsu couldn't believe that he had to be stuck with Erza until then.

"It can take days, trust me, he put that on Freed and Bickslow and those guys took about 2 weeks to finally be friends." Laxus told them.

"2 weeks!?" Natsu now freaked out. "How did they even use the bathroom!?"

"The chain can extend only when in need of the bathroom for privacy." Makarov explained.

"Geez…" Erza sighed.

"Well then, off you go then." Makarov now walked away along with his grandson, leaving the two handcuffed with each other.

"So what now?" Erza asked Natsu as he continued to pout over the handcuffs.

"Well," Natsu sighed. Knowing the master, they were only left with one option and that was the two now trying to bond. "We could do a couple of missions like this, might help us bond or something…"

"I guess."

A couple of hours passed and the two seemed like they would never be able to get the handcuffs off.

They would bicker about which mission to take, complain about one or the other is wasting time, criticize each other in how they do and complete missions and at times, would pull one another from side to side.

After saving a cat that was stuck in a tree and giving the old lady her pet back, Natsu and Erza seemingly walked side by side, exhausted at the missions they took.

"You know, you didn't have to throw me up into that tree," Natsu advised her as he held his lower back in pain. "I could've easily climbed that tree."

"Figured it saved us time," Erza had a few leafs in her hair. When she had thrown him, she forgot about the chain, causing her to go up into the tree as well. "Sorry."

"Nothing we do bring us closer to getting this thing off of us." Natsu to continued to lash onto the handcuff around his wrist.

"Stop whining." Erza told him.

"You're not in the very least concerned about it!?" Natsu asked her, appalled to see that she had no concerns over their predicament.

"Very," she answered. "Us being like this, is your fault."

"My fault!?" he couldn't believe that the woman had the audacity to shift all the blame to him. "Don't pretend like this wasn't your fault either!"

"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't bother me." She clarified her reasons to blame him.

"No, this wouldn't have happened if you only had simply answered my question instead of throwing a fit and literally using your book as a weapon!" He explained to her why she was in the wrong.

"Are you really that upset that I didn't answer your dumb question?" Erza raised her voice at him.

"Are you really that angered that I asked?" Natsu retorted back at her at the same leveled tone.

They were at their throats once more. "You clearly saw the summary, not my fault you don't have a high enough reading comprehension skill."

"Ooh, I'm sorry, I thought having someone tell you how they feel about a book was a better explanation than some silly summary."

"Clearly you don't know any better."

"And neither do you."

The two now walked in silence as they headed back to the guild. Night time was coming as the sunset right behind them as they walked.

"My feet hurt…" Erza lowly said.

"Mine too…" Natsu can barely drag his feet now. He then saw a tree. "Hey, let's uh, sit down by that tree."

Erza was quite skeptical about it but didn't argue. Along with him, the two went towards the tree and sat down.

The sun was setting and the trees covered most of the sun and it's vibrant colors before the two.

Erza couldn't help but enjoy the view from where she sat. As she stared, she thought about the things she had told Natsu, the pinkette right next to her. "Hey." She lowly said to him.

"What's up?" Natsu glanced at her.

"S-Sorry about earlier and stuff…" She muttered underneath her breath.

"What was that?" Had his ears deceived him? Did he hear what she just said to him.

"I SAID I'M SORRY!" She yelled right into his ear.

"Alright, alright, I heard you," Natsu placed his hand on his ringing ear drum. "I too am sorry about earlier."

"It's just, it's been awhile since I've talked to someone, you know?" Erza placed her head on her knees, hugging her legs.

"I hear you," Natsu couldn't agree more with her. "I used to live in the woods with my father, he was a dragon named Igneel." He sighed. "Coming to Fairy Tail was a huge environment change for me."

"At least you had a parent of some kind, I didn't even meet mine." Erza sulked as she mentioned her past.

"Ouch, that.. must've sucked…" Natsu felt some empathy for her. He never met his human parents but Igneel was enough to fill that void of having no parents. "Is that why… you have trouble trusting?"

"Not only that," she licked her dry lips before continuing. "Before coming to Fairy Tail, I was a slave, building some type of tower."

"Wow, that's just… wow." He had no idea that the scarlet haired mage had to live like and through that.

"The other slaves their were my age as well, I trusted them as well but when we managed to escape, they left me all alone, abandoned again…" Erza's voice began to be hoarse, holding onto to tears. "I trusted them and like that, they disappeared."

"I trusted my father as well, he too left." Natsu commented.

"What's your point?" Erza sniffled, wiping away the small boogers that crept out of her nose as she held her tears back.

"Sometimes, when trust too much we end up hurting ourselves but," Natsu closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "When we trust too little, we end up hurting ourselves as well." He told her. "We're humans, we're bound to trust a few and those few can turn our trust into trash but when that happens, we learn from it."

"Trusting takes time but, when you know you can trust someone, then you know that you can trust them," Natsu continued. "I never thought I could trust again but the moment I stepped into Fairy Tail, saw everyone as Their joyful smiles, I knew that I could trust them as comrades and as a family."

"…" She took his words into consideration.

"What happened in the past can stay there," he continued. "When you're offered something new like the Guild, you just gotta trust your instincts and build he trust once again."

"… thank you…" Erza lowly told him.

"Hmm, for what?" Natsu raised an eyebrow at her statement.

"For helping me understand what it is to trust again," Erza leaned in, kissing Natsu right on the cheek, causing the man to harshly blush a pink shade. "Thank you."

"I, uh, y-yeah." Natsu stuttered.

The two now just sat there, enjoying the view of the sunset underneath the tree.

Slowly falling asleep from their exhaustion, Erza laid her head onto his shoulder and Natsu on her head, sleeping soundly together. Underneath them, the chain that once held them together had now unchained itself.

Learning to finally trust each other, their now new friendship, possibly something beyond that, had now begun…

Author's Note: So yeah, this one is kid NatZa. Hope you enjoyed it!