So first of all, before you read this chapter and think 'What a total disappointment that was', it's about the fifth time I've rewritten it and every other time was much worse. At least it's long! Secondly right, I have more secrets up my sleeve. Did you really think I'd tell you everything in one chapter? Hell nah! We've got more to come baby! Way more. There's more behind our characters yet and if I really revealed everything in one chapter, I would have no story. And I'm sure you don't want that now...

Morenoel: Thankyou! To be fair, I did disappear like right at the beginning of publishing the first chapters so it's the first time many people will probably see this, yet I'm actually surprised people still find it and enjoy it. I hope you stick around for more!

EAsis: Well I mean, I do try. Once a month is what I'm going for but it's beginning to vary slightly. Don't worry though! I have a system and I know what's going to happen so my updates should be fairly regular for a while. I hope anyway.

JustSomething: I was going to leave it until the end of the month but I decided, after the long wait last time, I wouldn't be so cruel. You all deserved a little treat for sticking around for so long! I spent ages actually debating how I was going to make that chapter end, originally she wasn't going to let him in, but I decided to give the tense build up a shot for once. I think it turned out pretty good actually. And to what he is exactly, part of that is revealed here. But as I mentioned above, there's still more to come! The whole truth will come out eventually...

RainbowMagic657:...I can almost hear someone screaming in my ear. But that's good! Means people are excited. You will find out everything in time. The truth begins to unravel here but you'll just have to stay tuned for future chapters to see how the rest of his story plays out!

Previously on When Worlds Collide:

Lucy stared at him with a look of pure determination set deeply into her eyes. He had to admit, he was almost intimidated. Almost.

"I want to know everything." Came her simple reply.

"Everything? You sure?"

Lucy nodded, "Everything."

Centuries ago, before the time in which this story begins, the kingdom of Fiore was not like it is today. The land was once brimming with beings of every kind, magic pouring out of every corner and being a major part of everyday life as people became accustomed to it. Originally, if someone was born with one of these incredible gifts believed to be a blessing from the gods, they were hailed as a miracle, a deity of sorts. But eventually, such powers lost their novelty and the people of Fiore tired of the magical beings around them, seeing them as nothing more than a nuisance using up their resources and living such entitled lives in their little communities when they themselves were forced to suffer.

Of course it didn't help when these "monster" communities, as people often referred to them as, began abusing their powers and a small minority of them decided they were above humanity, using their abilities for darker deeds and forcing the citizens into living lives of fear. The king at the time decided he had no other choice and began culling the families of beasts that roamed their lands. These powers could only be passed on via blood relations. If you had any form of creature blood in your veins, so long as they were your family, you would not escape death. They had to be sure. They had to be safe.

One by one, they were slaughtered, their blood dying the castle dungeons red. Families fled into hiding until eventually, finally, people believed they were gone for good. Every trace of them was wiped from history as if they had never existed and humanity learned to survive without them, dissolving into the regular routines that we now see today. But the creature were never entirely gone, they still lurked in the darkness and the kingdom knew they would never fully dispose of them.

Secret governments were set up to keep these creatures under control, only a select few people ever fully knowing the truth. Beings once hailed as gods now cowered in fear as their lives were threatened, ripped away from them for simply being born different as if it was a choice they made. And thus the tales of witchcraft and devil hunts that we hear today may still hold some truth to them though we will never know.

This was the world Natsu grew up in over 400 hundred years ago, much to the shock horror of Lucy as he recounted the origin of his abilities to her. When he told her exactly what he was, she didn't believe him until he showed her and the constant pressing of fear that hit against her chest reappeared every time she looked at him. It was an image she would never get out of her mind. It would scar her for life and she knew that from that point forward, she probably knew more about the world around her than the majority of human beings living in...well, the world.

This just wasn't something that regular people like her found out. It shouldn't even be something that exists yet here they were. She knew more than she wanted to but there was no going back now as all of the recent revelations swirled in her mind with her desperately trying to make sense of it all.

Natsu's Story

"If..If you're sure Luce-"

"I am." She nodded adamantly again, though the sudden cowardly change in her demeanour perhaps meant this was something she would most likely regret. No going back now though. "Well in that case..." Natsu mumbled, sliding past Lucy to take a seat rather anxiously on her couch. He gestured for her to sit down and she knew he wouldn't start until she complied. The atmosphere seemed to change between them immediately. Whereas before it was awkward, now it was tense and fearful. They both feared that if they said the wrong thing, the other would leave. Just leave and probably never want anything to do with them again.

"I guess, today, you would compare me to...I don't know, let's say Dracula." He was stumbling over his words. This whole situation had made him nervous beyond all reason and an anxious Natsu was not something she had seen before. "It sounds stupid but you have to understand, the world hasn't always been...like this. When I was born, things were different. And by different I mean we were practically living in what you people imagine as a fairy tale world. Magic existed. Creatures of all kinds roamed the earth and humanity lived alongside us. It was just the way of life for us, until some hot head king came to the throne and decided we were freaks of nature. He slaughtered them...people died because...because they were born differently. And they didn't ask for their abilities, but they had them."

Natsu's voice was breaking as he spoke, a mix of anger and sadness heavily lacing his tone. At first, Lucy had mentally scoffed at his story and although she still didn't believe him, she felt sympathy for the pinkette. He all believed it was real and it had genuinely upset him. Whether or not she believed him or not, she could at least comfort him when he needed it. This was hard for him. "I was human once," He mumbled, "But apparently, that's not good enough. I should be dead by now but I'm not."

"Dead? What do you mean?"

"My whole family...we were involved in a house fire. Someone bastard burnt our cottage. My brother," Lucy didn't miss the sneer at which he said brother. Something had happened between them. "He got out. My parents and I, we weren't so lucky. I was still alive when he pulled me out but they had perished with our home, and my lungs were so full with smoke that I should have been dead within in minutes. In fact I did die actually. At least I think I did."

The blonde sighed at his story. It made no sense to her. Whatever made him believe it must have been pretty convincing. Lucy didn't believe him though and she wasn't sure how much longer she could let this go on, "Natsu, listen to me-"

"You don't believe me do you?" His attention suddenly directed to her, catching her off guard with the betrayed fury in his eyes, "You think I'm crazy, don't you?"

"Well-"

"I'm not! What do I have to do to prove to you I'm telling the truth? You want me to go out there and just scream 'Oh hey! I'm a vampire! Look at me burn in the sun!'"

"What? No!" Lucy argued back, trying not to aggravate him any further. "Ok fine then. Prove it. Prove to me you really are a- EEP!" She cowered into the back of her couch as Natsu suddenly got so close to her their noses were practically touching. His arms were placed at either side of her and he was glaring, determinedly, into her eyes. "Fine." Was his simple reply, though it was more of a growl, before suddenly his face began to contort and twist. His ears grew pointed and to twice their original length whilst she watched, in horror, as his fingernails elongated and formed into sharp talons on either hand.

Natsu bared his teeth and showed her the white protrusions that slowly pushed through his gums and down to lie with the rest of his teeth, hanging significantly longer than the rest yet somehow seemingly hiding perfectly behind his lip. But what was the most terrifying feature of all, was how his deep, warm onyx eyes suddenly darkened and were replaced with hot red pools of rage. It took all of her willpower to not scream. That and the fact Natsu had quickly covered here mouth with his now clawed hand, gesturing frantically for her to be quiet.

But could you blame her honestly? This was something straight out of a horror movie, something she knew she had seen quite clearly in her nightmares. Those eyes. The same ones that struck fear in her heart yet she still trusted them unconditionally in her dream state. They were staring right at her. Suddenly, Lucy couldn't breathe. She felt the air catch in her lungs and the next five minutes were spent with a still monsterfied Natsu frantically diving around her apartment as he tried to help her.

Then, as if nothing had happened, they were back to being perched on her couch. "That was..."

"Terrifying," The man offered, "It was for me as well, the first time it happened." He gestured to the form he still possessed as the metamorphosis began again and she found his "normal" version sitting beside her once more. But it was something she would never get out of her mind again. She would never see him as normal again. "What...what are you?"

"I don't know really." He answered honestly, "I guess for the past century or so, I've classed myself as a vampire. I mean, I'm immortal, haven't aged since my nineteenth birthday and rely on blood for survival, "Lucy's eyes widened at the last statement and he quickly backtracked, "W-well I-I-I mean, not necessarily human blood. I did. But not now. Never again. I use animals instead. Or even something from a blood bank. Killing humans...I could never do that. Not again."

"Again?!" Lucy squawked, earning a sad smirk from Natsu.

"Yeah. Again. All part of my curse you see. After the fire, my brother took me to see a lady who was living isolated in the forest. I don't remember her name or much of what happened there to be honest, but I know I woke up a few weeks later fully recovered. The only downside was that to keep such a form, I had to drink the special substance she gave me. I only later found out it was blood. But it quelled the burning in the back of my throat and made me feel so...so alive. I needed it."

Natsu was already dead when he had been taken to the lonely witch. She revived him but at a price. For one, his brother had to sacrifice something. Because of the curse, the brother had to give up both his humility and mortally. He would become like one of them, inhuman. Secondly, Natsu would have to take life if he wished to live a full one. The witch's curse meant that he needed to feed off of people's humanity and body to live. But he wasn't immortal. He wasn't human anymore either, but he didn't realise it until the witch was captured for "crimes against humanity".

His brother became greedy. Having seen how Natsu grew in the years after, he became jealous and did not want to be apart from him anymore. Another secret visit to a darker witch made Natsu immortal, but he didn't realise. The price of this curse? If one brother were to die, they both would. And, the older one could only die at Natsu's hand. One was happy, the other was confused. Neither were human anymore yet both their fates were now entwined for eternity, or at least until they decided they wanted to die. Every curse has a price and this was the price of theirs, a cures Natsu never asked for.

The first witch disappeared and Natsu was left to dwell with his demons. He was hungry, thirsty. The burning in his throat got worse as time passed and soon a lust for blood overcame him. Eventually he couldn't ignore it anymore. Soon the land lived in fear of the immortal army that had slowly risen as he had searched to quell his hunger. Nothing could stop them, not even the king's men. But Natsu didn't care, he just wanted the burning to stop forever.

"People rose up eventually though. They were able to defeat us. They found a way to kill us accidentally and used it to their advantage. I went into hiding, alone and afraid. My bother had left some time beforehand after...an incident. But at this time, the time of the 'hunters' as we like to call them, I wasn't interested in culling humanity anymore. I nearly lost mine and if I had succumbed completely to my blood lust, who knows what would have happened? I'm a monster."

"No...no you're not." Lucy tentatively lay a hand on his arm. He flinched back but she persisted. Eventually he relented. "I don't see a monster."

"You didn't think that twenty minutes ago." He reminded her of her reaction to his change and a pang of guilt stabbed into her stomach, "I've been able to do some good I guess. My little sister,Wendy," A fond smile spread on his features, "I saved her life. She was dying thanks to some other prick I turned, and I wasn't going to let her die because of my mistakes. So I...I made her like me. I took her under my wing and taught her how to use her power properly, without hurting anyone or killing anything. Then we met Igneel. He's like a second dad to me." Lucy noticed the way he seemed to light up when he spoke about his new family. It made her happy, for some reason. "He was turned one night when he and his family were attacked by one of us. They kept him alive though. Young vampires can be careless. I don't think they realised that he was still alive let alone turning into one of them. When I found him, he was starving himself because he couldn't bare to kill anyone if he meant he got to live. So I taught him how else he could live. They've been my family ever since and are really the only thing that lets me feel...normal."

He continued to rattle off the friends he had who were like him, who refused to drink from humans. Lucy saw a photo he carried with him of his little sister and adoptive father. She found it sweet how much he smiled when he spoke about them, as if they were the most important things in the world to him. Yet he refused to even mention his brother again or tell her what he was even called despite how many times she asked. Whatever had happened between them, it must have been serious for the look of pure hatred that overcame him when he spoke of this mysterious relative was something she found almost as horrifying as his other form.

By the time he finished his story, it was late. Darkness was beginning to descend on the city. A dozen or so missed messages had piled up on Lucy's phone and even on Natsu's, though they both ignored them for once. She wanted to know more. It was selfish but she wanted to know what he hadn't told her. However it could all wait until a later date. Today, he had shared more than enough and despite the difficulty he had with it, she could see a weight had been lifted from his chest. He seemed relieved, relaxed even. And yes she wanted to know more, but she knew the toll it would take on him.

"I'm the reason that they all exist, and the reason you have that thing on your arm." When her gestured to the mark on her arm, flurries of colour flooded across her mind and the memories of the previous week made themselves known again. She had forgotten about them entirely whilst she was engrossed in his story, yet the horrid scar that defiled her skin only brought those memories back in full force. At least now it made a bit more sense to her though this whole idea of whatever this situation was, was still no clearer to her.

"These creatures, we only exist because of my brother's selfishness and the fact that the witch was easily manipulated. I was meant to be the only one like me, ever. But I guess every curse has its downsides huh. Whenever I had to...to feed, it passed onto people and they became like me but with much less control over their abilities. That effect doesn't happen on animals though, for some reason, unless we want it to."

A sickening thought washed over Lucy as she stared at the very obvious bite on her arm. She hadn't wanted to believe that it truly was a bite but now, everything was just screaming that it was and she had to know. She had to know what was going to happen to her now that that thing had dug its fangs into her. "N-Natsu." She spoke softly, tracing the lines of her scar, "What...what happens to me now? Now that I have this?"

He paused, barely glancing at her arm. Obviously he had seen it before and it had been a question he had pondered over for the past week, "Well, usually people...changes usually happen within the first few hours. Nothing more than a few days at the most. It's been a week since you got that so I think you should be fine." A sigh of relief escaped her until she noticed how his demeanour changed to being serious again, "Bora's no amateur with his abilities," Natsu looked her dead on in the eye, "He knew what he was doing. If his fangs had gotten in deep enough, you would be one of us by now. Lately I've been tracking him-"

"Tracking?"

"Part of my job." He says job. It was more of an obligation really, "I seek out and incapacitate those of us who are threat to revealing our society's existence. Bora is someone we've tracked for a while, mainly due to his selling of newly turned vampires to rich, older families of our kind looking for servants. Basically, our form of human trafficking and slavery." Lucy let out a gasp at that, "When I tracked him the other night, he was on a date. With you. And I so didn't want to interrupt it and reveal myself but, when he attacked you, I guess I just snapped. I lost it and before I knew it, I was down there in a flash and beating him to within an inch of his undead life." The venom and remorse laced in Natsu's tone contradicted each other so much so that Lucy couldn't tell if he was genuinely sorry or angry. It was probably both, "I hate him Luce. I believe his original plan was to make you his newest prisoner to be sold off. But when it came down to it, I think he was just hungry. You were going to be a meal and a weakened slave. Two birds, one stone and all that I guess."

It's not everyday that you are told you shouldn't have survived but that was all that was ringing in Lucy's ears at that time. If Natsu hadn't stepped in when he did, if he had been even one moment too late, she wouldn't have been sat there at that moment. She would probably be locked up in some dingy cell somewhere with a bunch of innocent girls like her, waiting to be sold off to the highest bidders. Oh she didn't want to believe it but the very image of such a fate sent a shiver up her spine.

He saved her. It didn't matter how he did it or what he was, Natsu saved her. And that was something she would be forever grateful for. She owed him her life. Now how do you repay an immortal being for something like that? "That's it."

"Huh?" She must have spaced out because when she returned to focus, eventhough she wasn't looking at him, she could feel Natsu's curious stare on the back of her head.

"That's it. My story. I'm done for tonight." It was kind of disappointing but she didn't mind. This whole evening had just been a roller coaster ride of emotions and thoughts, and it was highly unlikely she would forget it anytime soon. A yawn erupted from her mouth and she heard the pinkette chuckle softly beside her. In her groggy state, she swatted weakly at his arm and attempted a scowl but both of these only furthered his amusement.

He made to leave, giving her a quick goodnight, but didn't even get past the couch as the tired blond lazily grabbed onto his sleeve, much like a small child. "Natsu," she yawned again, embarrassed, "Stay here tonight."

"Stay...What?!" The pink on his cheeks did not go unnoticed. It nearly matched his hair and the blonde internally smirked at his flustered state. Ahaha! Victory! Her inner voice cheered. Natsu seemed rather taken back by her sudden demand and Lucy knew she would have to elaborate. So she sighed and swallowed her pride, ducking her head away, "Listen, after everything that's happened, I...I don't feel safe. You said it yourself, I nearly died-"

"Technically I said-"

"Can I finish what I was saying?" He shut up and nodded, allowing her to continue, "I nearly died. And, your story...there are more people like him out there. They scare me but...you don't," She mumbled the last part but Natsu's sensitive hearing caught it, sudden realisation dawning on him, "I was hoping, maybe, you would stay here. Just for tonight though!...So I could-"

"Feel safe again?"

"Y-yeah! Exactly." Natsu smirked and Lucy immediately regretted her question. It was a stupid idea anyway and she knew plain well that he would take advantage of it to the full extent she would allow him to get away with. He was going to have fun with this and she knew it. But she also knew that she would feel much safer with someone who could fight on their level sleeping in her living room in case anyone did try to come after her again. Bora had accomplices, she knew that much, and she knew that they would all be lurking somewhere out there. Having Natsu with her just made her feel so much safer.

"Alright, on one condition!"

"What is it?" Lucy asked sceptically, fearing the ridiculous statement he would come up with.

"I'm taking you somewhere tomorrow and you're going with no more questions. Capiche?"

"That's hardly fair-"

"Hey, I just spilled my life story to you. You owe me something in return." Dammit he has a point. Lucy had no choice but to agree with him. Despite the difficulty she had getting him to this point, and eventhough she knew he was still hiding a lot from her, they had made progress today. He had opened up to her and she knew that was a feat he was not comfortable with. The least she could do was follow him on one of his weird excursions tomorrow. Besides, maybe she'd learn more about him.

With a great deal of reluctance and suspicion, she agreed, much to his joy. They spent the next few minutes making him a makeshift bed on the couch, though he insisted he didn't actually need it. Lucy disagreed and said he should still be comfortable at least and so he was forced to comply. And when Lucy finally wished him goodnight and disappeared into her bedroom, his cheery facade dropped, replaced with a look of exhaustion and anger.

His phone had been going off the entire time he had been here and he knew exactly what it was. Sitting on the blanket Lucy had insisted he use, he took out the small device and glared at the familiar barrage of messages that always lit up his phone screen. They were all usually from the same people or, more specifically, the same person who would always insist wasn't angry with him when he knew deep down that was a lie. However one particular message caught his eye, one that sent a shiver up his spine and would have turned a normal person's blood cold.

It sat there, clear as day, on the tiny screen in his hand. His knuckles had gone white with how hard he was clutching the device and the murderous rage had returned to his now red eyes. He must have only glanced at it for a second but it was long enough. Long enough to know that whatever instincts Lucy had that forced him to stay, she was right.

Unknown:

I see you.

Z.