"Okay, so once upon a time—" Lucy smacked his chest, and he chuckled. "Once upon a time, I was…I'll say not in a good place. Yeah. I grew up in this pub, so I really only knew this place. I never went to school like you did, or knew anyone else my age. These beer guzzlers were the only kind of role models I had.

"They didn't really parent like normal parents, they just taught me two things, over and over again. One thing was to hit first, hit last, and don't get hit in the face. The second thing was to never hit someone unless I had a reason."

Lucy must've look stricken, because he laughed so hard he doubled over, smushing her face into his chest. "It actually isn't bad advice, trust me. But I did get into a lot of stupid fights because of it." His smile faded. "After maybe the hundredth one, I was asked if I wanted to fight for money in the pub. I was around eight, I think." Lucy's heart twisted. That would mean he'd been fighting for…ten years? Lucy was horrifed.

"Why would he ask you to do that?" Lucy whispered. His hands stilled in her hair, and she opened her eyes to see him looking at her sadly. He had a tiny smile on his face, and he leaned his head against the wall.

"I was good at it. Those fights I picked? They weren't with other kids. You haven't seen a kid in here yet, right?" Lucy shook her head. "I was fighting with whatever stumbling drunk got in my way. Whenever they scolded me, I would tell them they were in my way, or said something I didn't like. Looking back on it," his face scrunched up. "I never really had a good reason. But they never really stopped me. Which sort of leads to the whole Salamander thing, beginning and end." He gave her a pointed look to punctuate his last statement, which piqued Lucy's curiosity.

He didn't elaborate, though. "My first fight was against a regular; he came in every Thursday and always drank five glasses of the hard stuff. He always caused a panic, either chumming with other people or acting like the cops were coming. Someone convinced him to climb into the ring, but he was chicken. He picked me because I was like three feet shorter than him. That was my first win.

"After that, I just…I never really lost, you know? They put me up against the biggest guys they could find, but they always fell. It gave me a really big invincibility complex. I thought I just couldn't lose. Sure, I got cut up pretty bad. I got this in my third fight." He held up his forearm to show her a thick patch of scar tissue, about two inches in diameter just under the crease of his elbow. "They started calling me Salamander because I was quick and small. I couldn't be squashed." Lucy raised her eyebrows. "Seriously, I can quote people on that."

Lucy giggled. What a ridiculous way to earn a name. But she sobered when Natsu's hands started shaking in her hair.

"The name stuck, but it didn't really become the name of a criminal until I was about fourteen. I had gotten a lot better by then, and I was starting to do damage. The punches of a kid are a bit different from a teenager's. But I was too proud of my reputation to really notice. I can remember thinking…" He trailed off, and Lucy stayed quiet. She didn't want to shut him up, not when he was giving her the answers she had come for.

He shook his head. "No. Anyways, I kept fighting. I was a real brat, but I brought in so much money that no one important cared. My name became the pub's claim to fame in the underground; if there was any funny business in the pub, any broken deals, they had to deal with the Salamander.

"The first time I heard the whispers about me, I beat up the guy that told me them. He told me everything, not knowing who I was. I let him talk for a good long time; I wanted to hear what people thought of me. Boy did I hear it. I learned that the Salamander was a criminal and a monster, apparently, and beat up anybody that he didn't like. So, I went and proved him and everyone else right by leaving him in a back alley with a split lip and concussion. He really pissed me off."

Natsu was smiling bitterly, but Lucy's heart broke with every word he said. She felt horrible for having been angry with him. It didn't excuse what he did, but Lucy saw that he hadn't known better. It was tragic.

"I think that guy was the start of the real monster that people know the Salamander to be. I figured, if they think I'm a monster, then why not prove it? I beat my opponents within an inch of their lives sometimes, but I was sure to never let them die. I was never that angry, and I never had a reason to kill anyone. It was like the angsty teenage years of a soldier or something." Lucy smiled quickly at his attempt to cheer her up, but she still felt horrible. So she tried to steer the conversation toward something hopefully lighter.

"Natsu, you said something about the end of the Salamander. And you haven't been anything like that since I met you..?" She let her voice end in questioning tone, and he caught what she meant.

"Well, excuse my wording, but you killed the Salamander, Luce." Lucy's eyebrow quirked. "Really. When I took you out of the pub, I really was going to leave you in the street. I only got you out because I didn't want the pub getting shut down due to some newbie not keeping her mouth shut." Lucy tried to look offended, but she knew he didn't buy it. He only laughed at her. She stuck her tongue out instead.

"But when you made me walk you home…God, this sounds so cheesy." He covered his face with a hand, covering the cute pink blush he was sporting. Lucy's heart was beating a mile a minute, but she teased him anyway.

"Oh yeah? What's cheesy?" She smiled meanly, wagging her eyebrows like a creeper.

He met her taunting gaze, still blushing. "Okay. Well, I thought Natsu, that kid from all those years ago, had died when I was eight. That kid was gone. I had too much blood on my hands for that kid to ever come back. But that night, he…you found him." He groaned and covered his face again. "I hate myself."

Lucy was blushing worse than he was, but she laughed in a way not offend him and turned her face to his stomach, smiling like an idiot. "No, it was sweet. And I understand what you mean. It was the same way for me, you know."

He looked at her curiously. "You know this already, but my mom died when I was little. My dad sucked, and still sucks, at being a dad, and never really paid me any mind outside of signing that pesky tuition check. I thought I had died with my mom. I guess we found each other, right?" She moved her face to look up at Natsu, who was glaring at her. Lucy immediately flushed in embarrassment. "What?"

"How can you say cheesy stuff so naturally? It sounded normal when you said it!" He pouted, and Lucy busted out laughing. Uncontrollable giggles racked her body, Natsu quaking with laughter as well after a minute. Tears formed in Lucy's eyes, and she turned and wrapped her arms around Natsu's waist. He looked down at her smiling, and she breathed out a happy sigh.

"You're back."