YO, I'm back home sweet home.

So, this chapter we finally have a little insight into the kids past.

Thankyou to all who alerted/favourited: Alien She, DemonPrincessKleo, youshouldn'tneedtoknow, Rangiku9815, Srai, Nadeshiko Redfox, washing-machines, Neongurl1999, Rin Ride, HappyTheDragon, Lucy-Erza-Hearthfilia, NoTengoUnNombre.

aaand to everybody who took the time to review: xxx4everAlonexxx (hehe happy dance, like Ikkaku in Bleach? and thankyouu, you can have a DOUBLE cheers this time), Imouto-chan (*sticks tongue out at bossy sister*), GoldenRoseTanya, toriwhite.9256 (aha fab, hope I don't disappoint), DarkXFeatheredCosmic (yeah gotta love mira and freed and thankyouu), Guest (aha fab! leaving you with questions is what I was aiming for), aprildragonfire16 (arww that's so nice! And afraid you won't find out about the magic just yet though), SunsetRika (cheers and I've tried to, but the kids have got to have centre stage!), celestial spirit (Arigatou!), MelodyKey (thanksyou but I can't really say it's a plot secret), Wasabi-kun (your reviews always make me laugh, and I think you probably do know, OR DO YOU? *laughs evilly*, ahem yes I think you do), MaJorReader619 (hehe, you ARE smart, I was waiting for someone to figure that out), xXLovelyAnimeLoverXx (fab, I hope I won't disappoint), Guest (you will now, *smiles* and as fast as I can pal), Argon Jaden Siberite Jewel (cheers, that's the plan).


Chapter 7: Run For Your Life

Lucy was running towards him, her blond hair streaking out behind her, a huge grin plastered on her face. Natsu's smile mirrored her own as he stretched out his arms to catch her. Natsu waited, it was strange but …. she didn't seem to be getting any closer. Lucy was calling for him now, she sounded anxious.

"Natsu!"

'I'm here Lucy!' he tried to shout, but found that he couldn't move his lips.

Lucy continued to call his name, her voice becoming more and more desperate. Suddenly Lucy was surrounded by hundreds of faceless men. Together they lifted a stone up and down, continuously dropping it on Lucy and crushing her. She was now positively screaming his name. And yet, Natsu still couldn't move. 'Lucy!' he tried to yell, 'LUCY!'

But the men continued to crush her and the loud banging of the stone hitting the floor intensified. And just when Natsu thought that he could bear it no longer.

He woke with a start. His hair plastered to his face with sweat. A dream, he told himself, just a dream. Just another nightmare about Lucy. But if it was just a dream, then why was the banging still continuing?

It took him several more moments to register that the banging was coming from the front door and not from inside his head. Someone was knocking, no, pounding on his front door. Not sorry to have been woken from his nightmare Natsu jumped up to get the door and then froze as the realisation stuck him.

There was only one person he knew who would ignore a perfectly serviceable doorbell and attack a front door like that.

Erza.

Natsu began to sweat again. Had he done something? Erza had never called at his house before. In fact, how the hell did Erza even know where he lived? He had never shown anybody to his house except well himself, Happy and … Lucy. Natsu swallowed and continued to the door, figuring it would be best to get it over with. If there was one thing that Lucy's absence hadn't changed about Natsu, it was his entrenched fear of the scarlet-haired knight.

Natsu took a deep breath and pulled the door open. "I didn't do it Erza I swear," he squeaked.

Erza swelled indignantly. Natsu recoiled, "make it quick then" he said falling to his knees.

Erza scowled at him "Natsu stop talking rubbish and come to the guild with me this instant, there was an attack last night."

Natsu jumped to attention at once, "explain," he ordered.

Erza gave an account of Juvia's entrance with the real Gray and then of the battle and its results. "… so everyone slept at the guild for safety, we would have come and brought you to the guild too but no one knew where you lived except I, and as I needed to stay and protect the kids I decided that your abilities were adequate enough and the location of your house obscure enough to ensure your safety."

"Erm, right." Natsu replied, not sure if Erza was complimenting him or not. He wanted to ask how she knew where his house was, but decided that now was not the moment to ask.

Meanwhile back at the guild, two children were being lightly shaken awake. Levy hovered over them, torn between 'arwwing' at their cuteness in sleeping huddled together like that and laughing at the loud snores emanating from the little girl. Levy frowned in frustration, shaking somebody with one arm was kind of difficult. Eventually she resorted to tickling, which caused Scarlett to wake with an especially loud and comical snort.

Levy chuckled, "it's time to get up now sweetheart."

Scarlett nodded and scrambled out of bed. Levy winced as she stretched and clicked all her joints. She then moved to shake Neil, frowning as he remained asleep.

"I haven't been able to wake your brother yet though,"

"Oh you won't be able to wake him like that; he's like a dead body when he sleeps." said Scarlett, "here, I'll help you."

She jumped up next to Levy and shook Neil so hard that the entire bed quivered.

"Hmm, it's still not working," she said, "Maybe I should kick him?"

"No no," said Levy hastily, mentally wincing at what Erza would do to her if she came back and found out that she had allowed the children to start kicking each other. "I'm sure we'll be able to find another way."

Levy went to the bathroom to fetch as glass of water to pour on Neil, she re-entered the bedroom in enough time to see Scarlett run out of patience and shove Neil off the bed.

"HEY, what'd you do that for?"

"You wouldn't wake up! You sleep so deeply it's like a coma!"

"Well it's got to be deep if I'm going to block out your DEAFENING snores!"

The argument rapidly descended into a wrestling match, with poor Levy at the side lines trying to pull them apart. What energetic children. She managed go stop them by pouring the glass of water over both of their heads. They looked up at Levy like wounded puppies, with water dripping down their faces.

"Now children," said Levy, trying and failing to be stern. "That's quite enough, you have to get washed and dressed now." 'Before Erza comes back' she added silently.

"Washed?" repeated the two children, Scarlett in the tone of disgust and Neil of confusion.

"But where?" asked Neil

"But whyyy?" moaned Scarlett

Levy was confused by their questions, so she simply took Neil's hand and led him towards the bathroom. He dragged his sister with him.

Scarlett stopped quite suddenly and started patting her clothes in a panic. "The KEYS!" she yelled.

"Scar, Erza has them remember!" said Neil, while Levy nodded in agreement.

"Oh yeah," said Scarlett, calming down. "But wait, where's Erza?"

"She went to get Natsu, he's the only who wasn't at the guild when the intruder attacked yesterday," answered Levy.

Scarlett looked slightly crestfallen, "will she be back soon?"

"Very soon," said Levy encouragingly. The mention of Erza only made her want to get the children to the bathroom quicker. But once inside, the bathroom only seemed to confuse the children more.

"It's a shower," said levy looking at the bewildered children, who were staring about the place.

"A what?"

"A shower, haven't you ever used one before?"

"No."

"So how did you wash?"

"Whenever we found a lake or something."

Levy's heart seemed to contract painfully. They'd never used a shower. She knew their circumstances meant that they would have had a difficult life, but she had not imagined that they had lived without basic necessities, like clean water. Levy felt her eyes tearing up and hurriedly brushed them away before explaining the workings of a shower.

"So water comes out of this?" said Neil dubiously, nudging the side of the shower with his foot.

Levy nodded, "why don't you try it?"

Scarlett crossed her arms stubbornly across her chest, "I don't like washing!" she said.

"But you've got to wash," said Levy flummoxed, "or – or, you will catch dangerous diseases."

"They can't hurt me; I'll defeat any diseases that challenge me!"

Neil and Levy sweat-dropped, "it's not that sort of enemy…."

"It's alright," whispered Neil, "I'll get her in. SCAR, LAST ONE IN THE SHOWER IS A LOOOSER!"

"You're a loser, you're a loser!" she chanted, practically throwing herself into the shower. Neil winked at Levy and followed her in.

As it turned out it, Scarlett took liking to the 'rain-machine' (previously known as the shower) and refused to get out for over an hour. But if Levy was honest, the children really needed the extended wash. The amount of dirt that came pouring off their bodies and clothes was truly incredible. Levy was surprised their little bodies could carry so much filth. Over half of it alone seemed to come from their hair, which completely changed colour. It was now a light sort of ginger.

The kids were found spare clothes in the guild as their old ones needed to be dried, or better yet thrown out, Levy thought. Thankfully she had the pair of them settled at the bar, devouring breakfast before Erza came back.

When Natsu and Erza entered the guild, Gajeel came to drag Levy away from the children.

"Look they're back now, you don't need to stay."

"But-" Levy protested.

"Come on squirt, you need to rest, you should have never gone on look-out last night in your condition." said Gajeel and he patted her stomach.

Jet and Droy both squawked indignantly and his words, their Levy couldn't be…

"I'm pregnant Gajeel NOT infirm; I can stay up for an extra couple of hours without collapsing."

Oh no the worst had really happened, Droy fainted on top of Jet, taking the smaller man out and knocking them into a heap on the floor. The rest of the guild seemed not to notice, they were all gazing excitedly at Levy and Gajeel. Freed looked anxiously at Mira to see how she would feel about this. She gave him a reassuring smile, Mira wasn't the sort of person to begrudge others happiness because she had suffered.

Gajeel picked up the protesting bookworm and carried her away from the kids, "come on, the brats can manage without you for five minutes."

Scarlett stuck her tongue out at Gajeel as he left. He returned the gesture.

Neil on the other hand was watching Natsu, who had now approached, unconsciously drawn by the smell of food. Scarlett looked round too when she felt the temperature around her rise. Natsu was staring after Levy and Gajeel with a wistful and in Scarlett's opinion, creepy look on his face.

To stop him staring more than anything she asked, "So you're a mage, huh? Tell me about your magic."

"Well I'm a Fire dragon slayer, I use fire to attack and defend and…"

"What? Yeah, yeah, cool." said Scarlett, who had stopped listening and was standing up on her chair looking for Erza.

Natsu looked mildly annoyed, why did she ask him if she wasn't going to listen? Neil smirked to himself, if it had been anyone else he would have apologised by now for Scarlett's short attention span, but no, not with this guy.

"Unfortunately I wasn't here when my powers could have been of use," Natsu muttered to himself, "but if anyone tries to hurt my nakama again I'll turn them into ashes!" and a ball of bright fire lit up his fist. Neil tried to yell for him to put it out, but the cry was only halfway formed before Scarlett had seen.

She cried out. In her haste to get away from the flames she fell off the bar stool onto the floor, where she lay with her arms wrapped around her head, shrieking in terror. Neil was beside her in an instant.

He turned to Natsu, "STOP, STOP! She's afraid of fire!"

He hugged his sister tightly as Natsu extinguished the flames, "it's okay Scar, it's okay."


Scarlett's flashback:

Their little group (four humans in total; a little boy and girl and two young women) was trudging through a particularly marshy part of the woods. The wilderness in which they lived was so total that when they saw it they could hardly believe their eyes.

"A house!" Scarlett shouted, recognising the building from her mother's descriptions.

"It's empty," said her twin to their mother, after giving the house a quick scan.

"I guess we can stay there then," she replied. The young mother wasn't naïve enough to think that a house this far from civilisation would have electricity or running water. But it was shelter and that was something.

"YAY!" cheered Scarlett and sprinted towards the house.

"So she had enough energy to run but not enough energy to carry Sora," muttered the boy grumpily as he followed his sister.

Their mother just laughed.

When they reached the house they saw that it was very large, practically a mansion. The kids were absolutely awestruck. When inside the gloomy building, unfortunately devoid of furniture, their mother turned to them.

"Alright kids, mum has some spells she needs to try out. So you go and pick a room where we'll sleep, not too far okay?"

"Okay," they replied enthusiastically and ran off. Their mother smiled indulgently after them, before turning to meet the enquiring gaze of the other lady.

She scratched her bubble-gum pink hair, "I should go with them, no?"

"Yes," replied the mother, "thank you."

The other pink-haired lady followed the children out of the room, leaving the mage alone to her spells.

Scarlett chose a room on the second floor and she and her brother settled down to sleep. The pink-haired woman hovered protectively by the door to the room as the exhausted children drifted off.

Scarlett woke to an unpleasant smell and uncomfortable heat. The sun was creating flickering shadows on the wall of the room, except…..the sun doesn't cause flickering shadows. No, the house was on fire! The room was full of smoke and there were loud voices and shouting coming from very close by. Scarlett turned her head sharply; her brother was no longer next to her! She looked to the door where see could see dark figures fighting their pink-haired protector, but she looked like she was losing. Scarlett started to get up, she had to help! But she didn't get beyond a sitting position before she was frozen in place. A binding spell? Oh no, not more hunters!

Scarlett couldn't even see who was casting the spell. This was bad. Where was everyone else? Suddenly Scarlett felt flames licking their way up her ankles. She resisted the urge to snort derisively.

Did these people really think they could hurt her with this?

Abruptly, the red flames on her legs turned black and she was engulfed in terrible, mind-splitting agony. Her scream pierced the night as she tried in desperation to break the binding spell. The pink-haired woman looked round in horror, only to receive a knife in the throat for her lack of attention and dissolve into nothingness.

"SCARLETT!" a voice yelled; her brother.

She heard pounding footsteps and saw the remaining hunters blasted aside. But the fire did not go out. Her brother scrabbled desperately at her ankles, the flames burning his own palms, but he could not move her. There was a loud crash as more hunters leapt into the room.

"MUM!" both the children screamed.

They could hear the sound of intense fighting going on downstairs, and then their mother's voice calling to them. There was much noise as she fought her way towards her children. By the time she reached their room the smoke was so intense that the children could only see dense figures clashing. But Scarlett felt it when her mother grabbed her ankles, extinguishing the flames and freeing her of the binding spell. She saw a flash of gold and then she and her brother were being gripped by strong arms as they made a beeline for the window. The man jumped without hesitation, knowing that they would be caught and sure enough there was the tell-tale sound of an exceed's wings and a sudden jolt as they their fall was stopped.

Both children were yelling, "NOO, WHAT ABOUT MUM?"

"WE CAN'T LEAVE HER!" screamed Scarlett.

"IT'S WHAT SHE WANTS!" the man yelled back.

As they continued to fly away from the mansion, the children looked up into the celestial spirit's face and were terrified to see tears streaking down his cheeks.

The lion spirit was trying desperately to control himself, "you guys come first, you are the most important" he whispered.

There was a tone of finality in his voice that panicked Scarlett. She looked over Loke's shoulder to see her mother still fighting close to the window. The very last thing she saw was her mother's body steadily becoming engulfed by the black flames.


That was one year ago.

And ever since that day Scarlett had been absolutely terrified of fire. Scarlett was sobbing quietly into her brother's shoulder now, "I want mum," she whispered.

Neil flinched; Scarlett had just violated their unspoken rule never to mention their mother at times like this.

Neil closed his eyes. He felt exactly the same as Scarlett did. So honestly, what could he say that would make her feel the slightest bit better?

As always please review review review :)

Also I'd like to say, I'm about to post a new Naruto fanfic, if you like this story and Naruto, go check it out. If you don't well er…don't then?

This story will still be my main focus though because FAIRY TAIL COMES FIRST (well it does in my book anyway).

aaand this chapter was named after 'Run For Your Life' by the Fray. It has freakily accurate lyrics for Scarlett's Flashback.