Hey everyone! It hasn't been too long, I hope. Thanks to everyone that followed, favorited, and/or reviewed!

The Author's Note at the bottom has the results of the poll.

The song in this chapter is "Echo" by Jason Walker. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LISTENING TO IT WHILE READING THE LYRICS. This song is so very important to Natsu, please at least read the lyrics.

Here's chapter ten!

My voice is soft, at a moderate pace as I begin to sing.

"Hello, hello
Anybody out there? Cause I don't hear a sound
Alone, alone
I don't really know where the world is, but I miss it now"

My voice picks up in volume for the chorus of the song.

"I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name
Like a fool at the top of my lungs,
Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright
But it's never enough"

Sadness fills my voice as it slows for the next verse.

"Cause my echo, echo
Is the only voice coming back
Shadow, shadow
Is the only friend that I have"

I pause in my singing as I enter the cemetery. I walk towards the hill my parents' graves rest on and, once there, continue in a somber and pleading tone, looking down at their grave stones.

"Listen, listen
I would take a whisper if that's all you had to give
But it isn't, is it?
You could come and save me, and try to chase the crazy right out of my head"

Desperation creeps into my voice as I raise it, and I look out over the edge of the hill with watering eyes.

"I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name
Like a fool at the top of my lungs,
Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright
But it's never enough"

My voice slows again, filled with a depression unlike any other, and I avert my gaze from the hill in favor of my parents' graves as I sit in-between them.

"Cause my echo, echo
Is the only voice coming back
Shadow, shadow
Is the only friend that I have"

Tears stream down from my eyes as I scream the next desperate verses out toward the hill.

"I don't wanna be an island
I just wanna feel alive and
Get to see your face again

I don't wanna be an island
I just wanna feel alive and
Get to see your face again"

I lower my voice so it can only be heard by me, and I slow down as my voice cracks.

"But 'til then…
Just my echo… my shadow
You're my only friend and…"

I rise abruptly and yell to the horizon:

"I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name
Like a fool at the top of my lungs
Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright
But it's never enough"

I drop to my knees, the fight gone, silent tears sliding down my cheeks, and softly sing the next lines to my parents.

"Cause my echo, echo…
Oh, my shadow, shadow"

I raise my head from looking down, and finish the song looking out over the hill at the town of Magnolia.

"Hello, hello
Anybody out there?"

I drop my gaze to my hands resting on my knees. My tears drop silently onto my open palms as I continue to cry.

No matter what my 'friends' say, I'm alone. I always have been, and always will be. They may say they're my friends, but they're really not. I have no friends. I'm that loner, that kid in the back of the class no one knows, that no one bothers to know. Try as I might, I will forever be on my own, bullied, abused, and hopeless, with no chance of escape, of freedom. No one is here for me anymore.

So why am I still alive? I wonder.

A rustle in the bushes to my right breaks me away from my thoughts. I'm glad for it; it's a distraction from my miserable life.

My head swivels in the direction of the noise, and a figure steps out. In the darkness of early morning, I can't make out who it is.

Until they're standing by a light staked into the ground, that is.

And who stands there shocks me. Why are they, of all people, here, in a cemetery? Why is it always her?

Why is it always Lucy Heartfillia?

My eyes slightly widen—well, as much as they can, being swollen and all. This may sound selfish, but did she follow me? If so, why? What's the point of following a nobody?

The more I think about it, the more I realize that idea's crazy-talk.

She steps closer and bends down in front of me as I sit here, dumbfounded, on the dirty ground between my dad and my mom's graves.

"Natsu," she starts, slowly, softly, like I'm a fragile being that can break with the smallest of nudges, "it's okay. I'm here for you."

I look up into her warm, yet concerned, chocolate-brown eyes. My mouth moves, but no words form.

"There is somebody out there."

Her hand comes up to rest comfortingly on my shoulder. I don't shake it off even as it pushes down on a bruise.

I say nothing, only look down at my lap.

"Natsu…" Lucy looks really worried, and I feel bad in not replying. But I'm afraid the second I try to say something, I'll burst into tears.

"Come here," Lucy murmurs, as she places her right hand on the back of my head and her left around my back, pulling me close to her in a gentle, caring hug. Her hand strokes my hair softly in an oddly soothing way.

The action shocks me immensely. So warm, I think.

"Natsu?" Before I know it, I'm sobbing into Lucy's shoulder, getting her red V-neck wet with my tears. "You okay? What's wrong? Natsu?"

A choked sob is her only answer.

I've never done this before, letting my bottled-up emotions out to another human being. It's weird, unfamiliar. Yet, at the same time, it's comforting, it feels good. It's a total stress-reliever.

But it's also something I can't afford to do.

Because crying leads to worry. And worry leads to questions. Questions then lead to answers said or unsaid. This leads to conflict and more worry, which leads to more questions, thus the cycle repeats itself. I can't have this happen often. But…

Maybe, just maybe, this one time is okay.

My grip on her shirt tightens as I continue to bawl. Lucy keeps stroking my hair in an attempt to help me calm down. After so many years, though, it doesn't do much to help. It'll take a lot more than a couple pats on the head for me to get over my grief and trauma.

"Shhh," Lucy coos. "It's okay. Let it out. I'm here, I'm here."

I can tell by the tone of her voice she doesn't have the slightest clue as to why I'm weeping into her shoulder. But I can also tell that she's genuinely worried about me and wants to do anything and everything she can to help. I'm grateful to her.

She's the only person in eight years to even try.

Once my sobs cease, my breaths slow, and my body's shaking is more controlled, I breathe in and out slowly, carefully, as if going too fast will break my barriers even further and I'll start all over again. I inhale and exhale deeply, then begin to breathe normally. I close my eyes, gathering my thoughts, bottling up my emotions again, hiding my feelings. My eyes open, and I pull away from Lucy without a sound.

She sits in front of me, our bent knees less than an inch away from touching, so close that I can feel her body heat.

Her hand raises, stops mid-air, and returns to her lap. An action that shows she's not sure what to do. She settles with: "Natsu?"

Not wanting to talk about the previous events, I say, "W-what are you d-doing here?" I look anywhere but directly into her eyes.

She turns her head to the right. "Visiting Mom."

Following her gaze, I see a lone tombstone a couple yards from my parents'. So she knows the pain of losing a loved one, too, I think.

A soft "Oh" is all I manage.

Sudden realization hits me like a sucker punch to the jaw. With how close Lucy's mom's grave is to my parents', she probably heard my song—my incredibly personal song. I feel my face flush slightly.

Her eyes land on mine. "What about you?" she asks.

I look from my right — my dad's grave — to my left — my mom's. "Seeing my parents," I reply.

Lucy turns her head in both directions. "Both?"

"…Y-yeah."

I see pity enter her eyes. It enrages me. Why pity someone? It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't change anything. It only makes the one being pitied feel weak, useless, like a burden to others. Pity is our downfall.

"So," she starts, almost uncertainly, "what about that song you were singing?"

Uh-oh, she heard it. "W-what about it?"

"Well, you know," she stumbles to find the right words. "Is it just some song you made up?" She pauses, hesitating in continuing, but does anyway:

"Or is it something more… personal?"

I don't know how to respond to that. How can I? What should I say? I mean, I can't tell her that it is personal. It would put her in danger! The next move I make probably isn't the smartest one, but I can't bring myself to lie to her or to tell her the truth.

I pull my coat's hood—torn, dirty, and bloody as it is—over my head to hide my face.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Through my salmon bangs, I see Lucy's somewhat frustrated and very anxious face. She lets out a sigh before reaching her petite hands out. They carefully pull the hood from my head just as the sun begins to rise. The sun's rays shine on Lucy, illuminating her golden hair, making her eyes shine brighter. But with the rising of the sun, her features grow more worried, tense, and confused. I hear her gasp.

She brings her hands up from my hood – which is now resting on my back – to tenderly cup my cheeks. I lean into her soft, warm touch, and close my eyes for a bit.

"Natsu…" At the amount of anguish in her voice, I open my onyx eyes to look into her chocolate orbs. "What happened?" It comes out as a distressed whisper.

It's now that I realize the sun is making all my injuries visible. She can see them clear as day.

When I don't answer, she asks, still in a whisper, "Was it Sting?"

I shake my head 'no'. "It wasn't him."

"Then—"

"It was no one, okay? It doesn't matter," I say defensively, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from my horrendous wounds.

She looks at me, mad for some reason. "It does matter!" she all but shrieks. "You can't have done this to yourself! Stop saying things like that!"

"Lucy…" I don't understand, I think, why is she getting riled up about something that happened to someone that doesn't even fully consider her a friend?

"You need to stop acting like this," she continues, her voice firm. She stands. "It's the reason you have no friends. Who would want to trust someone that keeps secrets all the time?"

I rise too, glaring straight into her eyes with a hard expression. "That's right, who would? Why do you care so much? What's the point of this? If you really believe what you just said, you'll leave me alone." Just like everyone else, I add to myself.

The split second before I turn away from her, I catch a glimpse of her expression: hurt, confusion, frustration, betrayal. I don't miss the slight waver in her lips, the tremble in her hands, the extra shine in her eyes as the sun reflects off her gathering tears. It pains me to see her – to see anyone – like this, but I can't ponder on it at the moment.

I stalk off, my hands shoved roughly in my hoodie's pockets, my steps slow and uneven.

I should apologize.

Turn around, say you're sorry.

She's the only one you have.

No, I won't. I won't turn around, won't apologize. I've been going through life without someone there for me for eight years; I can survive on my own just fine.

But what if I can't? What if, one day, it all becomes too much and I snap?

When that day comes, maybe I will finally be free.

Maybe freedom is closer than I think.

I shake my head, trying to rid it of the thoughts sure to come. I can't think like this. It's not the answer. It can't be.

Death is not the answer.

But the more I think about it, the more I start to believe it is. Maybe I should just end my misery. Maybe things will be better that way. Maybe I'll get to finally meet Mom. Maybe I'll get to see Dad again.

I'm leaning more and more towards 'the answer' with every step I take.

"Natsu!" Lucy's call drags me from my dark mind, and I halt my steps, but don't turn around.

I hear her pounding feet stop a little ways behind me. She catches her breath.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes. "Whatever I did, whatever I said, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

I still don't look her way. "Well, you said it. It's done."

"Natsu… I'm so sorry."

I ignore her. "But, you know," I chuckle humorlessly, "you do have a point."

"Wha—"

"Who would trust someone like me? I hold secrets, many secrets, secrets I intend to keep." I turn to face her, my gaze and expression hard, almost scolding. "I hold secrets you couldn't even begin to understand."

I feel like I've said too much, like I've revealed too much about myself. But I can't stop, now that I've started, now that I'm angry.

"Na—"

"So just leave it be, okay? Stop butting into my business like we're friends."

The hurt in her eyes, in her tight jaw-line, is impossible to miss.

"… Okay," she says after a while. "I'll drop it."

The way she says it, the way her hands fidget at her sides, the way she doesn't look me in the eyes says it all.

She's only dropping it for now, most likely just this once.

"Good." I turn to leave again, but a hand on my arm stops me.

My head turns so I'm looking over my shoulder. Lucy holds my lower arm in her hand, her head bowed so her bangs hide her eyes.

"Come with me," she says. It's not a question, but it's not a demand either.

I gaze at her inquisitively. "Why?" I ask.

She looks up, her eyes almost pleading. "Just come. You'll see when we get there."

My eyebrows furrow, but I nod a quick and stiff 'yes'. "Okay."

She leads me out of the cemetery with hurried steps. Whatever it is she wants, she wants to do it soon.

Nervousness starts to creep into my stomach. What does she want? Usually after someone explodes like I just did, you'd want to keep your distance for a day or two. So what is she up to? I come up with many possibilities, all of which she would never do—I hope. I can't think of many positive reasons as to why she's half-dragging me down a sidewalk this early in the morning, so I let my mind go blank. All the thinking's making my head hurt.

Before I know it, we're standing in front of an apartment building. I look up at the four-story building, my mouth open in awe of the simple yet beautiful designs on the exterior. Not to mention the gorgeous flowers surrounding the perimeter.

Without a word, Lucy walks inside, pulling me along by our joint hands.

We climb up three flights of stairs and come to the third floor. She walks down the hallway, to the fifth door, and unlocks it with a key she fished out of her pocket. The door opens with a barely audible groan, and I follow Lucy inside. She shuts the door behind us.

"Sit," she says, pointing to a comfy-looking armchair in the corner of the room. I oblige, relishing in the plush and softness of the furniture. It's been so long since I sat in something so cozy.

I look around the room as Lucy enters a different one—the bathroom, it looks like. This seems to be a living room area, what with the two-seater couch, small coffee table, TV, and the chair I currently occupy. Then there's the door Lucy entered, and another door on the wall adjacent to that one. Lucy's room, I mentally guess.

I sigh, closing my eyes, relaxing for the first time in years. I feel content here, almost safe. There's a reassuring atmosphere here, in Lucy's apartment, that I've never felt anywhere else since my adoption. It's nice, and warm, and most of all it is secure. I feel protected here, like nothing can harm me, like nothing can even touch me.

My tense muscles go slack.

Eyelids heavy, I almost drift off to sleep. But before that can happen, Lucy reappears in front of me, her arms filled with first-aid supplies. She squats, dropping everything to the floor, and grabs a bottle of something. I open my mouth to ask what she's doing, but she shushes me with one finger to my lips. Then, she wipes a liquid on a cut on my face.

It stings.

But I don't even flinch as I watch her place a band-aid over the nasty cut and move on to the next one.

I sit in silence, watching Lucy as she thoroughly checks me for cuts, scrapes, bruises and the like, humming as she does so. Each swipe of the antiseptic liquid over an open wound stings, but I don't voice a complaint; this is nothing compared to last night.

I don't know how long it takes—an hour? Maybe more—but when Lucy starts putting everything away, I snap out of whatever trance I was in.

"L-Lucy?" I stutter.

She continues packing up, not looking at me as she replies. "Yes?"

"Um, you know….." Oh shit, I have no idea how to word my question. "Uh, I—what—why—"

Now she looks up. And she giggles. She giggles. One hand covering her mouth, she giggles.

It's a sweet sound, one I want to hear again.

"I just cleaned and bandaged your cuts and such, is all."

I look at her questioningly. "But… why?"

She smiles softly, her lips closed, but the sincerity clearly visible. "It's what friends do."

Friends… I'm hearing that word a lot more lately. I don't know what to think of it. People call others their friends all the time, but are just using them for their own selfish reasons. Is that what friends are? I always thought friends are people that have your back, support you, help you, pick you up when you fall down. People that love you for you, don't try to change who you are. Lucy calls me her friend. She helps me, cares for me, bandages me, worries about me. She does everything a true friend would, and doesn't ever ask for anything in return.

Lucy's my friend, right? Can I call her that? Can I honestly say I have a friend?

Seeing her expression—happy, caring, protective, concerned—I finally, after all this time, realize it.

Lucy Heartfillia is my friend.

I gaze at her cocoa eyes with my charcoal ones.

"Yes," I say. "Friends."

The word feels foreign on my tongue.

She smiles that wide, closed-lipped smile of hers, her eyes so soft and warm, so caring and loving. Her hand places itself on the back of my head, and she pulls me closer so our foreheads are touching, resting against each other's. She looks up to return my gaze.

"Friends?" I ask, the word sounding alien to me.

"Always." And she plants a gentle kiss on my nose.

My thoughts on this chapter? Honestly, I'm damn proud of it. It's longer by about 1,000 words than other chapters, for one. And its got NaLu!

Anyway, the results of the poll... Having one or two chapters out of Lucy's POV won. So, I'll put up another poll (soon, hopefully) to decide which chapter(s) will be selected.

To all those that wanted a separate story

Truthfully, I like the idea of that, and will most likely write it. It'll be after My Savior ends, though, so I don't know how long the wait will be. It will probably be titled Saving Him, so keep an eye out for it when this story ends.

IF YOU READ THE FAIRY TAIL MANGA, READ THIS: I was watching the newest episode of the anime, and at the end there was a preview to the next episode, and it looks like the next episode has the Tartos Arc in it! It's finally here (I think)! The episode title for the previewed episode made it sound like the beginning of a new arc, and the tree-guy was there! I so hope it's the Tartaros Arc! Is anyone else not emotionally prepared for it, yet still excited as fu*k?

Ahem... well then,

Til next time!

-AlphaDemon

Review Responses:

MikurisanScarlet- Thanks so much for reviewing! I kind of have considered it, but I don't know yet...

ceceplayz- Thanks! And she will, in time, find out. You'll have to wait and see on the other question though.

FTBNOP-ALWAYS- For the last chapter and this one, it's dark out. But when he goes to school, it's just heartless bastards that don't seem to care (;-;). I feel mean, doing this to poor Natsu...

383BooksFictionally- Thanks so much! I'm not sure about meeting Jiemma (she might, I don't know yet).

Lizzyg423- Thanks! I feel bad for Natsu... But I'm the one putting him through this... My thoughts are conflicted...

yamiyugi101- I hope happier things happen too... That's an interesting idea, I'll think about it :)

SpeedyMomentum- I'll try to add them in in later chapters, I promise! I'll keep them in mind while writing and let my plot bunny go wild XD

Kawaii-Potato111 (guest)- Lol! I'm so glad you like it! And thanks for supporting me til the end!

CyanFoxX- I honestly felt really, really happy at getting a reaction like that :) Thanks! Lucy met up with him; I hope it satisfied you.

camacazi1- Yep, Minerva's coming in. *evil glint in eye* But who said anything about Natsu being tortured more...? Heeheehee

08- Thanks for reviewing! To answer your question: Natsu's scared, he doesn't trust people, so he doesn't want to let anyone in. But he also wants to protect others, so he's afraid that telling someone will put them in danger. Yes, it would be easier, but he doesn't want anyone to get hurt; he wants to be a sort of shield. I'll try to bring in the usual clique soon.

kkmuscha- Thanks so much! Hopefully the wait wasn't too long.

lunastarlight (guest)- I know right?! Teachers don't realize we don't have the time for projects... Man, school work sucks. Lol, you're reaction to my last chapter had me laughing.

GRUgrace- Yay! I got a reaction! Thanks for reviewing!

ImmaVegeta (guest)- Thank you! I hope you like this chapter!

OTAKU4EVER (guest)- Jiemma deserves that. He really does. Thanks for reviewing!

IlluminatiLeaderTati- Thanks so much!