Their first encounter with each other ended up with Natsu having a loaded gun pressed against his forehead. Lucy Ashley was not one to be compassionate to strangers, and when she thought he was going to attack him, she kicked his feet from under him, pulled out a gun, cocked it and aimed.

The poor boy could only look at her face, which was determined and unreadable, having rendered him defenseless without breaking a sweat.

"Name," she demanded. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. Her patience does not wane, "Name"

"D-Dragion. Natsu Dragion," he managed. The tip of the gun is still cold on his forehead.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was lost."

She raised an eyebrow, indicating him to continue.

"I wanted to ask directions."

The gun finally pulled away and Lucy held out a hand, and Natsu does not hesitate in grabbing it to pull himself upward. After being asked where he was headed, Lucy took him to their small village.


Natsu did not have any parents, siblings or friends – not that he knew of, at least. And since he was fending for himself, the people of the small village of Fairy Tail were kind enough to let him stay. It turned out he was a whiz with vehicles, and had their old and thought to be useless contraptions up and running. The boy even managed to fix a car took it out for a test drive, asking Lucy to try it out with him.

Test drive, her foot, it was like they were on a race track.

"Hey, was your hair always pink?" she asked him one time while they were headed home.

"Y-yeah, it was," he stammered, consciously flattening his hair down

She made a face, "That's a weird color."

"So they say," he admitted.

She turned, looking at his hair again, his hand still trying to flat it out. Then she notices, while the sleeves slightly fall down, revealing a part of his wrist, a stitch. Not the type of stitches a doctor give you when you get an accident. The type of stitch you see in a dress, or a ragdoll. She grabbed his hand, making him yelp in the process and was about to pull the sleeves when he yanked it back and runs ahead of her, yelling, "I have to go do something, sorry, Lucy!"

She was rightfully suspicious.


For the next few weeks, the pink haired boy made it a point to avoid her whenever he could. Only helping when the folks asked him to, or when she was not around. Somehow, whenever she visited his placed, the door was always locked and he was never home. Once curious, Lucy was not the type to easily give up.

But curiosity killed the cat. Or so they say, anyway.

"Maybe he just has this weird habit of stitching into his skin?" she wondered out loud on the way home, "That's disturbingly masochistic."

"What's disturbingly masochistic?" Levy sat on top of a wall, grinning at her

"Step off, Levy," she growled, "Nothing of your interest here."

When the blue haired girl said otherwise, several broken bones were heard cracking that evening.


"Hey"

She turned to the other side and continued walking.

"You're mad, aren't you?"

She doesn't answer.

"Lucy"

The motorcycle Natsu managed to fix overtook her and stopped in front of her, "Sorry?"

"Oh look, after two months of avoiding me, he finally shows up." She rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in an exaggerated display, "What do you want, strawberry?"

"I…wanted to apologize, I guess," he scratched the side of his face, "And you shouldn't really be out at this time, it's almost dinner."

She snorted, "Yeah, I could say the same thing to you. Apology not accepted by the way,"

"What?" he gaped, spluttering, "B-but…"

"Not," she cut him off, "Until you spill about that stitch on your wrist."

His eyes widened, and he gulped, "Ah, that…is a touchy subject."

"Parents?"

He smiled sadly, "Not really."

"Will you tell me?" she asked, hopeful.

"Maybe," he shrugged, "If you don't freak out"

"Well, until then, we're not friends," and with that, she ran off as fast as she coud to the opposite direction while Natsu stammered her name, kicked the starter and went after her on the motorcycle.


"Oi"

"Aah!"

The empty glass that he was holding flies a few inches from his face and he has a hard trouble trying to catch it when it starts falling to the ground. Luckily, he manages to grasp it before it hits the floor, and Natsu breathed, "Don't scare me like that, Lucy."

"Last I remember, you were pretty confident on that motorcycle," Lucy sat down beside him. They were outside, sitting on one of the cliffs near the village, looking up at the stars. The blonde ran a hand through her hair, "You're different when you're in cars or riding motors"

"Y-yeah," his thumb ran on the rim of the glass, tracing small circles, "They…say that as well"

"'So they say', huh, Natsu?"

"Yeah. So they say"

"What do they don't say?" she asked, turning to him, "What do people not say, Natsu?"

He sighed and looked up, "You…wanted to know about the stitches, right?"

"Yeah," her full attention was on him now

"That's what they don't say"

"What?" she frowned, "They don't ask about it, then? Is that what people don't say?"

"No," the pink haired boy shook his head, "Not that. They don't say what I really am. Because they don't know."

He placed the glass down beside him and, gaining confidence, pulls the sleeve of his right arm up. His wrist and forearm are littered with stitches, connecting flesh and carefully joined at the joint so that he could bend and move. Lucy, wary, reached out and took his left arm, slowly pulling the sleeve up. The same sight. Natsu pulls one leg pant up until his knee and kicks a shoe off, revealing the stitches on it as well.

Finally, Lucy spoke, "So, you're saying you're not human," it was a statement, not an accusation, and Natsu smiled, smashed the empty glass that was beside his and dragged one sharp piece along the palm of his left hand. A deep gash was formed, but it did not bleed.

Lucy breathed in for a while, "You're not human. What are you?"

"I don't know," Natsu shamefully admitted, pulling his hand from Lucy's grasp, "I don't know."

"Okay," she nodded, "So, you don't bleed, you're stitched together, and you're probably undead. So what do you think you are, a vampire?"

Furious shaking of the head met her answer.

"A'ight, calm down. You're probably some sort of zombie. Maybe you were embalmed for good measure"

A smile crept its way onto his features, "Yeah, maybe."

Lucy chuckled. He scratched his face out of nervous habit again, "You're taking this quite calmly."

"I'm in shock. I'll scream my head off when I come out of it."

"And that is?"

"A while from now."

"Ah, "It was his turn to chuckle.

"Hey, why didn't you say anything?" she turned to him and he looked up again, "Well, if I did, a gun to my head obviously wouldn't be the only thing I'll receive. I'd receive a bullet to the brain as well."

"Oh yeah, that's how you can kill animated corpses," she muttered

"So, we're friends again?"

"Would you mind if I went out of shock first?"


As soon as she got home, she buried her face in her pillow and screamed.


"Hey"

"Yeah, hiya, strawberry."

"If…you don't mind me asking…that…was you right? After you got home, this scream rang out through the village…was that…?"

"Yep, that was me. Courtesy of you, by the way."

"Wasn't my fault I'm like this."

"Are you talking back?"

"N-no…sorry"

"*sigh*"

"…"

"Friends?"

"Friends."