"That's kinda dumb, Gildarts" Natsu deadpanned.

"What? How else am I going to get all you kids together every week to train? And that's Mr Clive to you in school, brat" the teacher grumbled, his eye twitching in annoyance.

"But if you give us detention every Saturday, won't it look bad on our personal records?" Looks like I had to be the voice of reason when communicating with these fools.

The Monday after our ridiculously eventful Saturday detention, the students in Magnolia college were bursting with blatantly exaggerated stories of what happened to them when the local earthquake struck.
In everyone else's opinion, it was rather bizarre that the only group of students who had no exciting stories were the ones who were stuck in school when the disaster happened. After all, the school seemed to be the worst hit place.

I was in the middle of a group of people pestering me on how I got my injuries when Guildarts called me, Loke and Natsu aside to talk.

"That's where my daughter comes in" Gildarts beamed, suddenly off in his own world.

It took Loke a few seconds of waving his hand in front of the teacher's face before he came back into reality.
"What about your daughter?" The spirit asked.
Gildarts was about to answer when his expression suddenly turned dark and he was surrounded by a sinister aura.
I momentarily started to panic, thinking that only the presence of something truly evil could cause that reaction.

"If you try anything with my daughter, you'll regret it" he growled at Loke, no doubt having picked up on the spirit's flirtatious attitude.
I giggled at the stereotypical overprotectiveness whilst Loke choked out a pathetic "Aye sir!", before Gildarts decided to answer the Lion spirit's question.

"She… has a knack for computers and fortune telling" he winked when he said the word 'knack'. We didn't dare talk about our magic in obvious terms where eavesdroppers may hear it.
"She's hacked into the school's network and put you all down for Saturday detention every week, but she developed a virus that deletes any record of the detention after it's been served." He continued proudly.

"And she'll be training with us too?" I asked, warming up tremendously to the idea.
"Yep, she's the same age as you guys but uhh… education isn't her thing so she dropped out of school." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "Plus, there was no way I was going to leave my little Cana undefended when those ravens are on the loose!" he cried.

Another thing; we had named the monsters 'Ravens' for now. It represented the black colour of the beasts, and it was a lot more practical and discrete than shouting about monsters all the time.

We all agreed to the plan, setting ourselves with the task of telling the other members of our little detention group.
Lisanna, even without magic, decided to be a part of it so she could help in any way she could. Erza even offered to teach her martial arts to which Lisanna graciously accepted. Seeing her level of acceptance with minimal persuasion really gave me hope for the future.
Maybe, one day, mages would no longer have to live in fear?

"-uuuuucy, you've got a weird smile on your face." Natsu whined in my ear.
I jumped, refocusing my eyes on the food in front of me. I thanked the gods that I was zoning out during lunch time rather than a lesson.
"Meh, I was just thinking about something" I smiled to myself.

There was a comfortable silence between us as we both ate our lunches, but I was distracted by the slight frown on Natsu's face. Since when did Natsu have an expression other than bliss when he ate?

"Something wrong?" I asked
He looked at me, surprised. What, he thought he could mope without me noticing it?

"It's just… there's this girl back at the place where I grew up." He muttered.
"And that has you all frowny because…?"
"She's a m-" he stopped himself, thankfully, "she's like us." he replied.

I felt irritated. Why? No clue.
Okay, maybe I had a clue, but I refused to believe I would be that petty.
Jealousy?
Did I even have a right to be feeling like that?
Maybe it was the fact that she knew Natsu's secret way before he even met me.

Maybe it was the fact that the way he spoke about her made it blatantly obvious that he cared about her very much. Like she was family. Or… a girlfriend.
Which would explain why he didn't seem to be at all interested in any of the girls as college.

No, I refused to be jealous. Whatever his relationship with this girl, it wouldn't get in the way of the friendship between Natsu and I.
Would it?

I shook away my thoughts, cursing myself for even thinking them in the first place.
"So you're worried that a raven will target her, huh?" I asked.
He winced at my words, and I mentally hit myself for not phrasing it better.
"Yeah" was all he said, his forehead creasing in worry.

Well, the answer to how to solve this was obvious to me. It was kind of unlike Natsu to not be a man of action, but I guessed he would need some prompting.
"So you're just going to sit there and do nothing?" I asked, turning back to my food.

I saw his eyes widening in my peripheral vision, so I carried on.
"Because the Natsu I encountered last Saturday would have lit himself on fire, bought a lifetime supply of fish, and bribed Happy into flying him to this girl straight away." I whispered, smirking.

Before I knew it, Natsu was no longer sitting next to me.
I looked up to see that he was standing on top of the freaking table.
"YOSH! LET'S GO GET WENDY!" he shouted, ignoring the exasperated comments from other students.

Instead of moving away and pretending I didn't know the guy, (which I was very tempted to do) I yanked him back down from the table, muttering about how he should shout louder because some aliens in outer space probably couldn't hear him.
Honestly, I deserved an award for what I had to put up with.

"I'm sure Gildarts wouldn't mind another student, right Luce?" he asked quietly after I had gotten over my second hand embarrassment.
I smiled at him and nodded, wondering against my will whether this Wendy girl was closer to Natsu than I was.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I had no work on Wednesday afternoon, so Natsu asked me to accompany him on a trip to see or collect Wendy, depending on how she reacted to our news about the ravens. Not that the overprotective dragon slayer was going to allow her to stay there, of course.

We just about managed to get on the train before the doors shut.
"At least I didn't hit the closed doors again" I muttered to myself, panting with exhaustion. Working on my cardio was still on my to-do list.
Ignoring Natsu's stifled laughter behind me, we went inside an empty carriage, shutting the door behind us.

"Those travel sickness tablets had better work. Taking time to buy them almost made us miss the train!" The pink haired boy mused, opening Happy's bag to let him roam free.
"I never thought you'd be sad about missing a train, Natsu." The cat drawled, resting himself on his owner's lap.

The train had been moving for about 5 minutes, in which time I caught my breath and got out a book to read, when Natsu suddenly decided it was a good time to invade my personal space.
"LUCE, THESE TABLETS ARE AMAZING! ARE THEY MAGIC? I DON'T FEEL SICK AT ALL!" he shouted, suffocating me with what he might call a hug. Attempted murder is what I called it.

"I- can't- breathe-" I wheezed out, attempting to pry him off me.
"Oh right, sorry Luce" he grinned, letting go of me.
The idiot had just tried to kill me, but I couldn't help smiling back. His ways of showing gratitude were definitely interesting.

"So where are we going exactly?" I asked, putting my book down.
"A care home for children. Someone brought me there when I was found wandering the forest looking for my dad." He replied solemnly.
"Did they think it was odd that you were looking for a dragon?" I asked, my eyes watering slightly when I pictured a mini Natsu looking all lost and sad.

"Igneel told me that other humans didn't react kindly to magic, so I knew not to say anything" He was now looking out of the window. I knew that talking about his father was painful, but at the same time I was glad that he was able to.

"Wendy, though-" He continued, "her dragon mother didn't have time to talk to her about that because she was too young. I ended up having to help her hide it; it was really lucky that I was the only one who found out." He smiled.
"She's a dragon slayer as well?" I asked, my eyes widening. How many of them were there?
"Yeah, I guess you could say we're kind of like siblings."

Siblings. The word repeated over and over my head, and I felt a huge weight leaving me as it did. A weight I hadn't even been aware of until now. Why was I so relieved that that was the relationship between Natsu and Wendy?

"She has her own exceed as well!" Happy added, the hearts in his eyes distracting me from the unanswered questions in my head.
"Awww does Happy liiiiiiiike Wendy's exceed?" I teased, using his annoying way of drawing out words against him.
"Not as much as Lucy liiiiiiiikes Natsu" Happy retorted, A devious glint replacing the hearts in his eyes.

Well, that backfired.
"Stupid cat, don't say things like that!" I spluttered, attempting to swat him in mid-air as he flew around the carriage.

"Ticket inspection! Get out your tickets!" the door suddenly slammed open.
It was that inspector, Macao, from last time.
Happy was still flying around the carriage.
Macao was looking right at him.
In a panic, I shot a look at Natsu to see that he was going to do about this.

I almost fainted in disbelief when I saw a welcoming smile on his face, directed at Macao.
"The blonde's a mage then?" asked the ticket inspector after closing the door behind him.

It took me a few seconds longer than usual to work out how he had deducted that from seeing only the cat using magic. Happy only used his magic in front of mages, with Lisanna as an exception.
So, Macao was a mage.
I let out a sigh of relief.

Natsu nodded in reply to the man, beaming at him.
"And let me guess, no tickets today?" the inspector asked.
I let out a gasp of realisation whilst Natsu continued nodding his head. How on earth had I forgotten to buy a ticket?

"Off the train." Macao ordered sternly.
"We'll trade you important information for a free pass." Natsu grinned. Was he talking about the ravens? He planned this, didn't he?
"How important?"

At this question, the grin dropped from Natsu's face. I found myself suddenly feeling awkward and rather grave.
In that moment, I realised that breaking this sort of news to fellow mages would be no walk in the park. I didn't want to tell anyone that they were in huge danger. I didn't want to see the fear in their eyes when they realised just how much closer they were to being found out.
But in the end, it was necessary.

Macao had the reaction I expected when we told him about what had happened to us last Saturday, and the implications of it. There was a hint of doubt in his eyes, so I made sure to get rid of it by lifting up my shirt to show him the still healing wounds on my side. He would have to take this very seriously if he wanted to survive.
"Their weakness is their eyes." Natsu finished.

Needless to say, Macao let us have a free pass for the rest of the ride. The atmosphere as he left was tense.
"That was more difficult than I expected." I commented quietly, staring at the door after Macao shut it behind him.
"Yeah, well, he has a kid to look after so he would take it badly." Natsu replied.

The driver's voice then echoed through the sound system, announcing the next stop.
I flinched when I heard the name of the next town.
My home town.
What if they were still searching for me there?

All thoughts of Macao and his kid left my head as I looked for a spot in the carriage where nobody would be able to see me from the outside.

Natsu POV

"Luce?" I questioned. Her entire body had frozen when the driver's voice announced we were reaching the next town.
Ignoring me, she walked towards the window and sat underneath it, hugging her legs.

I shared a confused look with Happy, who returned it, shrugging.
"Luuushy what's wrong?" The cat asked worriedly, flying directly into her unfocused line of vision.
I could see both fear and unshed tears in her eyes as they landed on Happy.
"It's my hometown." She whispered. "Remember? It's the place I-"

She cut herself off as realisation dawned on my face.
"The place you ran away from." I finished for her.
She nodded and I sat down on the seat next to the window, watching her as she sat with her back to the wall, hiding from whatever may be outside.

I really didn't like seeing her like this. Why was this so difficult for me, when she was the only person who had an excuse to feel like shit?
The fact that she was sad made me want to beat up whoever made her feel like that. She sure as hell didn't deserve it.
Over the last few weeks, I noticed that when Lucy wasn't reacting hilariously to someone teasing her, she was doing something to make someone else feel better.

Hell, the weirdo even told us all to run when she was staring death in the face.
She ignored her own injuries after getting battered by that raven just so that she could call my sorry ass back to the classroom.
And then I found out that she saved Loke's life, even though he aggravated her immensely on the first day.

Shaking my head to get rid of the nightmarish images of the raven approaching her broken body, I reached down to hold her hand. I knew she had a thing about personal space, but the fact that she squeezed my hand told me that she was okay with it.

"What were you running away from that day?" I asked, knowing she would answer me now. There was no doubt in my mind that it had something to do with her being a mage.
"The royal guard. My dad caught me using magic."

Thank fuck I pulled her into the train.
And if I ever met her father… I would be glad to give him a piece of my own mind. What sort of father willingly gives his own daughter to a concentration camp?

The train eventually stopped and I glanced outside to see the town where Lucy used to live.

I felt my heart stop when I saw her outside.
A black and white drawing of her. The drawing version of Lucy had different eyes though, and it was missing the smile that I had come to enjoy seeing on her face.
Nevertheless, it was her. And she was on a wanted sign.

"Are there many guards?" Lucy asked timidly, unable to see what I could.
I shook my head, trying to keep my expression neutral. I should tell her, right? But wouldn't that just freak her out?
I was sure as hell freaking out.

"Just… don't go back there again, okay Luce?" was all I managed to get out as the train started up again.

She either understood or just didn't want to know what made me say that.
We stayed silent, holding hands for the rest of the journey.

A/N: my exams are finished! In other news, updates might still be slow due to me going on holiday. I'll let you guys know when not to expect updates!

Okay, so it's filler but I'm working on major Nalu development at the moment. It's difficult because they're both dense as fuck and I want to keep them in character, but I hope I'm doing it justice.
I also dislike the idea of girls competing with each other for male attention, so I didn't want Lucy to go too far down that road, yaknow?

redeyedshadowslayer - oh right, thanks for pointing that out, I'm working on getting a better flow in my writing so thanks for the advice and compliments!

fairygirl1101 - we never see Romeo's mother though, nor do we hear anything about her. I wonder if that's going to become relevant at any time in the manga?

a big thanks to my other reviewers as well, you guys are gr8

-usnoozulose