Hey bros and sis'! Back at you with chapter 9! I hope you enjoy

Right now I am lying in bed with purple dye in my hair, and I am once again ruining my covers.

My mother will kill me.

You shall never get chapter 10...sorry...

ENJOY!


PREY AND PREDATOR

~9-HUMANITY~

"I put clothes in the spare bedroom. First door to your right when you come out." Lucy said through the door of the bathroom. There was no reply. She guessed he was probably marveling over soap and shampoo. She laughed at the thought, and went into the kitchen.

"Food..." she sighed. "Makes a change from whatever rancid water and icky bread they were giving me..." she smiled, as she went to her fridge, and found peanut butter. She put two slices of toast in the toaster, and waited for them to pop out. She put her hand to her stomach, she had been hungry for the past five weeks, but yet...she didn't feel that hungry at that present moment. She shrugged it off, and waited for the toast.

"Lucy?" Natsu asked, as he walked into the kitchen.

"Mhm?" Lucy said, and tuned around, before staring at him. He had black jeans on, and a red t-shirt. "W-wow..." she whispered.

"What?" He asked her. She smiled at him.

"Nothing. Brush your hair." She said.

"I don't know how to brush my hair..." he muttered. Lucy looked back at him.

"What?!" She shouted.

"I said I don't know how to brush my hair!" He said louder. Lucy stopped, and there was silence, till she couldn't hold in any longer. She laughed, making Natsu angry. "HEY! Have you lived in a cave for the best part of your life?" He shouted. Lucy laughed.

"Sorry..." she said, and stopped. "Hey, are you actually embarrased?" She asked, seeing the angry blush on his cheeks.

"No." He said, looking away. Lucy smiled.

"Come on, I'll brush it, maybe someday someone will see your eyes..." she mocked, flicking his hair out of his eyes. She led him into the bathroom again, and stood him in front of the mirror.

"I hate this..." He sighed, as she grabbed a brush from the sink.

"Hate what?" She said.

"Being a stranger to all of this. I've heard music before, but I don't know where it comes from. I have been in a house before, but a long time ago. I feel...like a kid..." he sighed. Lucy smiled.

"Don't worry. I hate this as well." She said, and brushed. He swore, as it caught on nots.

"Ow! Hate what?" He asked, as she ignored him, and continued brushing.

"Hate this thing between us. What are we? Are you still going to try and feed on me? Am I still just prey to you?" She sighed, and turned him to face her, as she brushed the strands of hair covering his eyes to the side.

"Lucy...I haven't told you about something that happened..." He said.

"When you fed on me. Then I blacked out. Is that what happens when you feed off people? They black out?" She asked.

"N-no...usually they just feel weak, if we don't finish them." He said. "But...I started feeding on you, I could taste you, and usually I can stop kissing my prey there, but you... you kept on kissing me, not becoming weaker, you became stronger, and then...it was my 'emotions' leaving me. You fed off me, and acted like one of us." He said. Lucy looked at him, her mouth open.

"B-but..." she said, and took a step back. The brush fell to the ground. She took another step back, and ran out of the bathroom.

"Lucy!" Natsu shouted after her. "Tsch..." he sighed, realising she was gone. He bent down, and picked up the brush.

Lucy had her head in the pillows. Her exploding head. No way! No way could she ever be...one of them... she was human! She ate food!

"Hey..." Natsu's voice said at the door. She didn't answer. He sighed, and walked in. "Come on. Don't be a grump." He said, and sat down next to her.

"A grump?! You've just told me I fed of you and you are calling me a grump?!" She shouted. He grinned.

"I am just trying to lighten the situation here." He said. He brushed her tears away. "And to answer your question, we are friends. If you want us to be, and I will help you anyway to find out who and what you are." He said. She smiled.

"Friends?" She asked.

"Friends." He nodded.

"A purely platonic relationship?"

"What?" Natsu asked, confused. Lucy rolled her eyes.

"I mean that just because we have kissed mutliple times doesn't mean we are more than friends." Lucy said.

"Don't friends kiss?" Natsu asked, as Lucy got up.

"What? Where did you get that idea from? More tree-stalking?" Lucy laughed.

"Well, sometimes I see people kissing, and I do it to give pleasure, and this people were happy after they kissed, or during kissing, so isn't just like a hug?" Natsu asked. Lucy laughed.

"Your view of the world..." she laughed. "Let me have a shower and then I'll explain it to you. And we can probably watch a film." She said, and went of to the bathroom. "Behave." She said, and left Natsu in her room. He sighed, and looked around. There were pictures of people around her room, a blue haired girl, a black haired boy, and one large one, of everyone that must be her friend, and herself, all standing in a line, laughing. Natsu sighed, he wished he could understand humanity...

He went downstairs, and sat on the sofa, waiting for Lucy to come back, and when finally all the noise from the bathroom stopped, and he heard the door open, he grinned.

"Took you thirty minutes." He said, after looking away from the clock at the wall.

"Well I'm sorry, I haven't had a shower in five weeks." She said. Natsu turned around, and was speechless. Never had he seen someone as beautiful as her. Now she had a shower, her hair was bright, and soft by the looks of it. The remaining trails of blood and stone grazes were gone, leaving her skin pale and clear, and her cheeks had a light blush to them. And to top it all off, she had a violet dress on, making her look amazing.

"Is that shower magic or what?" He asked, when finally his eyes had got mildy used ot the sight. Lucy laughed.

"Sometimes I wonder myself." She said, and sat down on the sofa. "Come on, I want to show you a film." She smiled.

"What's a film?" Natsu asked.

"So you can read time, but you don't know what a film is?" Lucy laughed. "It's a form of entertainment, and hopefully you will understand love between people."

"I know what love is! It's enjoying something. Don't treat me like an idiot." He said. Lucy smiled at him.

"You still don't understand, go on, sit." She said, and went and put a DVD in the player.

"What." Natsu said, as she put the screen on. "How?"

"Television." She laughed, as she sat down on the sofa. She rested her head on his shoulder. Natsu looked down at her, and couldn't shake the lingering thought he had since they left...how would he feed?

"Lucy...I am-"

"Shh. Watch it." She said. Natsu sighed, and rested his head on Lucy's, enjoying the smell of her shampoo. He enjoyed the way she was so at ease with him, despite everything... he closed his eyes, and remembered the girl who had told him to burn in hell, and now, here she was...sitting by him... but...maybe the ease she was feeling, the way she was acting, so happy, was just to do with her feeding off him...

"Lucy, please here me out, I am really, really-"

"Natsu, just watch the film." She said.

"I am hungry. I haven't eaten in six weeks. Apart from that time when I tasted you..." he said, and sighed. Lucy paused the film.

"What can I do to help?" She asked.

"I have a theory. You are obviously one of us-"

"I can't be. I have survived eighteen years on human food." She said.

"Then some of you is. We don't have emotions like humans...they aren't matter, we have to build up our own emotional range, and once we do, it's unlimited. Lucy I think somewhere inside you, you have something like that." He said. Lucy sighed.

"You want to try and feed off me." She said.

"Yes, but-"

"That involves hurting me." She said.

"No..." Natsu sighed, he moved his shoulder, and Lucy looked up at him. "Lucy I would never hurt you again. These emotions that we have, they are like blank pages, like as if one piece of paper could be drawn on with whichever emotion. If you just focus on pain, then it will come. And then I just have to contradict it to eject it out of your system."

"But I thought you couldn't feed off your own?" She asked.

"You fed off me. We aren't the same species." He said, and stroked her cheek quickly. She looked down at the ground.

"Okay..."

"Thank you." He said, and turned to face her.

'So...how do make emotions?" She asked. Natsu smiled.

"Listen to what I say. Now close your eyes..." he said, his voice low, and his hands on hers. She did so, frowning slightly. "Relax, Lucy."

"I can't." She said. He laughed gently.

"Yes you can. You are home, and no bad will ever come of you again. Just relax, and let your emotions flow." He said. Lucy's frown relaxed, and Natsu felt her emotions. She was nervous, yet curious. But not scared. He smiled to himself. "Okay, now just concentrate on that feeling you get when you cut yourself." Natsu said.

Lucy nodded, and clenched Natsu's hands more. He smiled, and felt it.

"Okay, now, just picture those blank pages floating around inside you. Do you see them?" He asked. Lucy nodded. "Excelent. Your pain is ink, now let it spread across one of those pages." He said, and then, he sensed it, the emotions that he only got from one of his kind. It became more potent, and Natsu's breathing became quicker, as he felt the hunger tug at him.

"Natsu?"Lucy squeaked. He felt her human fear.

"Sorry." He said, hungrily staring at her closed eyes. "Okay, I am going to contradict it now, just keep your emotions flowing, I can feel them." He said, and put his hand on her cheek. He could already feel the enjoyment in it, and to him, enjoyment was love, she loved it. He placed his lips on hers, and gave her pleasure, pleasure which he felt, and then, the flowing taste of pain. The taste he had missed so much, and with Lucy's background taste, it made it even more bittersweet. He put his other hand on her waist, and psuhed her down, Lucy let him, feeling strange, like as if an extra part of her was leaving. She didn't feel weak like she thought she would, just...nice...

"Natsu..." she whispered, making little waves in the blue energy.

"Shh.." he said, as he held her mouth open, and put his legs on either side of her. Lucy kept her eyes closed, but wanted to find his hands again. She felt better...with him, not just with him feeding off her, but when he was there, telling her he was there.

Natsu felt her yearning, although he didn't know what for. Was he causing so much pleasure she wanted it to coninue even past the feeding? But she said just because of the kissing, it didn't mean they were more...

"You're confused." Lucy whispered, once again, making irregularities in how the energy flowed. Natsu stroked his hands through her hair, not wanting the flow to stop. Lucy was breathing quicker, as Natsu put one of his hands on her thigh, lifting her dress up. "Natsu." She said, and pushed it down.

"Mhm?" He asked, as she turned her head to the side, breaking the connection. He frowned at her, but didn't move.

"Too much...you're already causing enough pleasure as it is, don't...do that." She said, the blush that she had when she had pleasure on her cheeks. Natsu sighed.

"So? What is the problem?" He asked. " I haven't eaten in six weeks-"

"And you were contradicting the pain! You didn't have to start touching me everywhere!" Lucy said, trying to get Natsu off her.

"I just wanted to, I don't know. It felt right." He said. Lucy looked up at him, her mouth slightly open.

"I want to get out please." She said.

"Lucy..." Natsu sighed.

"Now." She said. Natsu got off the couch, and let Lucy up.

"What did I do wrong?" He asked.

"You have no concept of love." She sighed.

"Enjoyment. You enjoyed that. Therefore you loved it." He said.

"Natsu! Love is more than enjoyement!" Lucy said. "Love is more than friendship, it's when two people...when they want to spend the rest of their lives together, make a family, get married, and die together. Why do you think your parents had you?" Lucy asked.

"They didn't know I would be what I am. That's why." Natsu said.

"No...because they wanted something to represent their love, someone to bring up together." Lucy said. "People kiss to show each other they love each other, not as friends. Friends don't kiss. Lovers do." Lucy said. "That's why we need to set boundaries. Kissing for feeding is fine. But...but not like what you did." Lucy said. Natsu sighed.

"So since we are friends, we don't kiss?" He asked. Lucy nodded.

"Hungry?" She asked. Natsu sighed.

"No...thank you though. I am here if you ever wanna feed off me." He said. Lucy laughed.

"Natsu, I really doubt I will ever-" Lucy was interupted in her words, as she collapsed onto the ground.

"Lucy!" Natsu yelled, and ran over to her. She had fallen over, and was boiling. He pulled her up onto his lap, and placed two fingers to her neck...just like 'he' had told him to do in situations like these. Her heart was frantic, jumping all over the place. He picked her up in his arms, ad walked up the stairs to her room. "Hey...are you awake?" He asked her, as he placed her on her bed. She was pale, and her skin was moist.

Natsu didn't know what to do, suddenly, she had collapsed. He rested his head against her chest, and tried to listen for her emotions, but still nothing. He sighed, and thought to try one thing. A newborn needed one thing...a lot of food... Wendy devoured entire families to begin with. He tilted her head gently to the side. "Which emotions do you eat..." he sighed, but closed his eyes. One blank paper, just put all the emotions on...

Natsu put his thumb on her bottom lip, and spread her lips apart. He didn't make contact, but concentrated on letting his emotions out. The flow wasn't being taken, and Natsu was already fealing slightly weak. He sighed, and kissed her gently.

All of a sudden Lucy's hands were on his cheeks, holding him in place, kissing him hungrily, making him feel excited yet scared. They rolled off the bed, Lucy on top of him.

"L-Lucy!" Natsu gasped, as she seperated their lips. The flow was being forced out of his mouth. He opened his eyes. Lucy's eyes were enitrely blue, even her pupil, like as if she had lost control. She didn't let go of his emotions, and continued feeding. She was unstoppable, holding Natsu's arms down, and she rocked her hips, Natsu wanted to put his hands on her waist, but no, he couldn't. She was holding him down. He couldn't have this... He knew how to communicate with newborns, purely animals... he looked up at her, straight in the eyes, and didn't break the glare, despite his heart and breaths struggling with the flow being forced out of him.

"N-Natsu?" Her voice asked again, the flow stopped.

"Ah!" He said, gasping in, and letting his eyes closed.

"Natsu!" She shouted, and got off him, staying next to him instead. She put her hand to her lips. "What?"

"Ah...you...fed off me...ah..." he gasped. Lucy turned pale, as her chocolate brown eyes widened. She had caused Natsu to be reduced to gasping and feeling weak... she had become the predator...


End ^^

NEXT CHAPTER!

~10-BLOSSOM~

Sunrise, love, friends, and the return of a friend? Or enemy?