~He was constantly scaring her, but she never seemed to be able to scare him. And although she doubted telling him a ghost story would work, she was willing to try.~

A Ghost Story

It wasn't very shocking that Natsu seemed to never get scared. He was strong-willed and up for anything and so it really wasn't a surprise. However, it was frustrating. Why? Because it seemed he scared her every single day.

At first it was on accident. He'd show up on her bed or rummaging around in her fridge when she'd walk out from taking her bath and she'd nearly jump out of her skin, screaming and throwing whatever was nearest to her, at him.

Then it was on jobs too. He'd disappear, saying he was going east, and she should go west, and before she knew it she'd hear a rustling in the brush and he'd pop out, asking her why she hadn't gone where he'd told her to. She had gone west, however inevitably they'd have gotten themselves lost and began going in circles, so they'd met back up with one another.

It was mundane little things like that at first, and while yes, they were sort of annoying and she was getting a little tired of the near heart attack she'd get, they weren't avoidable.

However, they'd escalated. He apparently thought it was incredibly amusing to sneak up on her in the guild, or outside, or really much of anywhere. He thought it was great to play pranks, put out fake spiders, and tickle her back unexpectedly. She however, thought it was the exact opposite of great. The loud and piercing "kyaaa!" she'd let out every time he surprised her seemed to egg him on, even when she whined at him or even slapped him and demanded he stop. He didn't listen, of course.

And so she just figured she'd get him back. However… that was easier said than done. How was she supposed to go about scaring a fearless Dragon Slayer? She tried everything he did: popping out from behind a wall, putting fake bugs and snakes in his house, she even went as far as to make a fake wound on her arm with "blood" gushing everywhere. Not only had he sniffed out that it was phony, but he'd said getting hurt wasn't something to joke about.

She'd rolled her eyes and pouted for the rest of the day. He'd pretended to have his hand pop off once to scare her… it'd been fake but it'd still scared the living hell out of her. Hypocrite.

And so it was when Happy leaned over and whispered that he might have an idea on how to scare Natsu, that Lucy decided she could stoop so low as to try the cat's idea, which honestly sounded like there wasn't any chance it could work. But hey, she was desperate by now, and she'd do anything to get back at Natsu, even if it was only a little.

She waited until nighttime to try. Natsu of course showed up at her window on cue, throwing it open and walking in like he owned the place.

"Hey, Natsu!" she piped, skipping in, feigning innocence. "Wanna hear a story?"

He seemed taken off guard, plopping down in a chair by the table and resting his feet on its surface. "A story? 'Bout what?"

Lucy shrugged, slowly walking over to a chair across from him. "Oh, I don't know, just like a little ghost story."

Natsu sighed. "Y'know if you're still tryin' to scare me, it ain't gonna work. But if ya still want to, fire away." He faked a yawn.

She narrowed her eyes. He was in for it. Yes, Happy's idea seemed rather far-fetched, but now… she really hoped it'd work. She cleared her throat, carefully sitting down. "Alright. Once up on a time…" Did ghost stories even start with 'once upon a time'? She had no idea. Growing up as a Heartfilia, she'd never been camping and hadn't been introduced to "horror story telling" as it was probably too "unruly" for her father's tastes. She stifled rolling her eyes. "Once upon a time there was a boy who lived in a small town-"

"What was his name?"

She faltered as Natsu interrupted. He'd seemed so unenthused that she hadn't expect him to give any input. But here she was just one sentence in and he had already taken his feet off of the table so he could lean towards her, his eyes wide. He was so easily excitable that even though she could tell he didn't want to get into the story… well, let's just say that anyone telling him about anything seemed to excite him. "D-Does it matter?"

"Yes, o'course it does! If yer gonna tell a story you better get your details straight!" he nodded as if he were an expert storyteller.

Mavis, why was she even doing this? Happy had followed Natsu in and was now laying on the bed, although she swore she could already hear him snoring. This was his idea; he should be helping her, right? Stupid cat. "His name was… Greg." She pulled a name out of thin air.

"Ooh," Natsu nodded. "What's Greg look like?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Like… I don't know; he looks like you."

Natsu gasped. "Me?! Greg looks like me?!" He whirled around to look behind himself, his eyes narrowing as he turned back around. "Does Greg know what I look like?" His eyes shifted as his voice hushed to a whisper, as if he thought Greg was spying on them at that very moment.

"What? No," Lucy spat. "He's not real. This is a story."

Natsu looked at her skeptically before nodding and leaning back in his chair, arms crossed. "I don't like Greg."

She sighed. "Why? You like yourself. Why wouldn't you like Greg?"

Natsu pursed his lips. "If he's like my doppelgänger or something, that's totally not cool. He's ripping off my character."

Lucy was surprised he knew a word that long, but decided to brush past that point… and the point he'd made. She rested her head on her fist and rolled her eyes. "Okay, whatever, you don't have to like Greg. I'm getting back to the story now."

Natsu shrugged. "'Kay, I hope something bad happens to him, though."

"Okay, so there was a boy –Greg- who lived in a small town. It was a town where everyone knew everyone, and secrets weren't ever kept for very long, and rumors spread quickly. One such rumor had spread recently through the town." He was already intrigued, his eyes wide as he waited patiently to hear what came next. She didn't exactly have too much faith in her storytelling skills. Sure, she could write, but telling a story out loud? She'd never done it before.

Happy was still asleep on her bed. She hoped this story did scare Natsu. If so, Happy would totally miss it, and he'd sounded a little curious and excited about the possibility of watching Natsu cower in fear. Lucy cracked a grin.

"One night there was a loud explosion near the south of the city. When the townspeople went to investigate, all they found was a wrecked train, completely empty of cargo or people, still lightly smoldering. This wouldn't have been a surprise, as trains do often derail and crash, however this town was nowhere near any sort of railroad. The nearest tracks had to be miles away. It was a mystery to the people, and so, as with all mysteries, someone came up with their own explanation, which quickly spread as a rumor."

Natsu opened his mouth to say something but she held up a hand to stop him. He closed his mouth, his eyebrows pinching upwards in the middle as if he were a little worried, or perhaps a little offended she'd cut him off.

"The rumor stated that long ago there'd been an abandoned mine near where the train crashed. There had been plans to build a railroad track that led to the mine, to transport the coal more quickly, however the night before they were to begin work on the railroad, the mine collapsed, as if someone had forcefully blown it up, sealing escape. Three men died that night in the mine, the culprit behind the collapse of the mine never caught. And because of this history, an elder in the town had stated that they absolutely knew what had happened: those three men had died in cold blood, and had come back and acted as the engineers of the train that'd crashed, bringing the "ghost train" –as it was becoming called- back to the site of where the railroad was to begin, in search of who killed them."

Natsu didn't look scared, rather curious. So much for this. Happy's idea was totally bombing. But she wouldn't give up on it now. She took a deep breath and continued.

"The boy in this town, as the rumor started to spread-"

"Greg."

"Yes, as the rumor spread, Greg grew curious, and wanted to find out if there happened to be any truth behind it. So one night, he took a flashlight and his backpack to the site of the crash, wanting to search for the collapsed mine. He found the wrecked train, still in the same spot it had been when first discovered, and slowly and meticulously searched around it. Sure enough, in just around a quarter mile of the train was the beginning of a small rocky range, at the front of which were piles and piles of huge boulders, crumbled on top of one another, looking like they were sealing some sort of hole. Greg, eager to then investigate the train, hurried back to the crash site and without hesitation, climbed the few metal steps into the first car."

Natsu looked intrigued still. At least she was holding his attention… here came the part Happy had told her to tell him about.

"Greg shined his flashlight around the car, looking for any abnormalities, but found none. Suddenly, there was a deafening screech and he whirled around to see the metal of the train behind him bending on its own, the stairs he'd just boarded reaching upward and crumpling in on themselves to seal off his exit. There was a jolt, and the train seemingly came to life, the floor chugging underneath him as he could hear the engine puffing to life. There was a loud and booming voice. "For you condemned us to a slow and painful death, trapped in the mine, we will condemn you the same, oh killer. May you never leave this train for the rest of your breathing minutes." And suddenly the train jolted forward, speeding off at an incredible pace. Greg struggled to keep his balance, and only then did he realize that there was something different about this train: there were no windows, no doors, not even an entrance into the engine room or the next car. The only entrance had been the one that sealed off behind him, and with thick metal all around, too thick to break or bend, there was no chance of escape. The train jolted and jostled, moving around much more than any normal train and traveling at a speed that Greg knew to be miles and miles faster than any train of this world. And it was there that Greg was trapped for days upon days, weeks upon weeks, with nothing except the constant banging of the engine and movement of the train-"

Lucy cut off the end of her story, staring wide-eyed at Natsu. She hadn't exactly seen it coming, but suddenly all the blood in his face had drained and she swore he was shaking. He looked beyond terrified, as if he'd quite literally just seen a ghost. She didn't have faith in her story, however suddenly she did have faith in Happy's idea. Happy had said the only thing that scared him was the thought of transportation, and so she'd given him a story where someone was trapped in such a thing, hoping for the best.

And the result was priceless.

Natsu shuddered, his arm shaking as he slowly pointed at her. "B-But he just… Greg just… forever? He was on the moving train fore-" He dry heaved at just the thought. "A t-t-t-t-train like that doesn't exist, right? I mean like w-w-we can't get trapped on a train…right?!" He was breathing heavily and getting more and more pale by the second, forcing out an awkward and panicked laugh.

She sputtered out a giggle. "Oh my god it actually worked!" She keeled over with laughter, which apparently Natsu did not appreciate.

"No b-but seriously trains can't d-do that, right?! It's not funny! That was a horrible story, Luce! I can't believe you trapped Greg in there like that! A train like that… no one deserves that… NOT EVEN GREG!"

Lucy just continued to snicker to herself, trying to permanently brand the image of him sitting there, scared witless, into her mind for the rest of her life.

However, in jobs to come she wouldn't be laughing. Because his aversion to trains was now only heightened because of that story. Yes, she got to scare him –albeit in a very weird way- however he now absolutely abhorred the things, and refused to go on one, for fear it would trap him inside, which in turn, meant she was forced to walk to most jobs now. Nothing came without a price, she guessed.

#33 - terrify

There's my little ode to Halloween coming up! XD This was so random and so long just... I don't even know what to say about this cheesy craziness lol! Sorry for the walls of text when she was telling the story. Hopefully they weren't too big. ;D

Natsu always scares Lucy and I love it. So time to turn the tables. Just a little silly stupid one again. :D Thanks for the reviews! I really can't express how much I enjoy hearing what you all think of these, and it's nice to know there're other people who need more NaLu fluff in their life, just like me.

Anyway, I hope you have a lovely Halloween and I hope you enjoyed! :D

~Foxtail-chan