Lucy ran into Natsu on her way back from a simple, well-paying job. He grudgingly allowed her to tag along back to the guild, grunting in response to her questions. At the door of the guild hall, she finally lost her patience with him.

"Keep up that tough guy act and you'll never get the girls to like you," she teased. Natsu stopped. She kept walking a few step before she realized he had frozen. Turning, Lucy could see him shaking ever so slightly. "Natsu?"

Before she knew it, he had pressed her up against the wall. His hand was uncomfortably tight around her throat.

"Shut up about things you don't know about," he snarled in a low voice. She choked when he finally let her go, watching him stride into the guild. What was that about? Scary! Lucy entered the library, trying hard to ignore Natsu's piercing stare. She could still feel his fingers around her throat.

"Hey, Mira!" Lucy called. "What are you doing up there?"

"Just a bit of reorganizing," Mira replied from her position on the ladder.

"I'll help you!" Lucy said cheerfully, eager to forget about Natsu.

"Are you sure you want to?"

"Yeah! I'm good with boring stuff!" As she got closer, Mira exclaimed in dismay.

"Oh, Lucy, what happened to your neck?" she asked, tenderly touching the red skin. "It looks like someone tried to strangle you." Lucy shrugged.

"I said something that Natsu didn't like very much, so he gave me a warning." Mira frowned. "It's fine, really!" she said, waving it off. "It was a stupid decision." She told the barmaid about what happened.

"I'll be talking to him later," Mira decided. "But… be careful around Natsu. He may seem like he's just a grump, but he can and will be vicious if you make him angry." Lucy nodded as she stacked books on a high shelf. "But his aloofness does make him seem attractive, doesn't it? I can see that you're attracted to it too!"

"WHAT?" Lucy slipped on the ladder in shock and landed hard in a pile of books.

"Are you ok?" Mira asked, rushing over.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I'm not used to this." Lucy pulled a painting out from under a book. "What's this?" Mira laughed softly.

"I remember that. Oh, it does bring back memories…"

"Is this everyone when they were kids?"

"It sure is," Mira smiled.

"This must be Gray," Lucy said, pointing to a half naked boy with dark hair. "And… who's that next to him? Cana? Whoa! Macao and Wakaba! They're so young!" Lucy had to smile at the sullen heavily cloaked boy. "This must be Natsu. Only he would wear something like that at that age. I guess he hasn't started wearing helmets with horns, then? And what's with the little blue dragon?"

"Oh, that's Happy!" Mira said.

"Seriously?! How did Happy come to Fairy Tail anyway? Did Natsu find him? That cat is super attatched to him…"

"Let me think," Mira thought. "It happened just after I joined Fairy Tail… so it was about six years ago."


"Natsu!" Makarov called. Where is that dratted boy?

"If you're looking for Natsu," Wakaba said.

"He said something about training," Macao finished. Makarov sighed. He just hoped that he didn't run into Gray. The two of them were little balls of hate who fought every time they ran into each other. Unless Erza was there, they fought until she arrived.


"Natsu was always getting into fights," Mira sighed. "He seemed to be burning off his anger at the world. He was always distant, not really daring to open up."

"He's still like that," Lucy noted.

"Sometimes, though, I caught him looking… well, deflated would be the best word, I suppose. One day, he found something strange while training."


Natsu slammed his fist into the tree root. Curse my stupid tiny hands, and feet! Curse you, Igneel, you stupid overgrown, fire-breathing lizard! Hell, curse this entire stupid world! The tree root shattered at last under his furious assault. It's been a year since you left… Where are you? Why couldn't I track you down? Natsu stood there, panting, before noticing his bleeding hands. Swearing violently under his breath, he wrapped bandages about them. He continued punching a different root. Just as he landed one good punch, something heavy fell out of the tree and landed on his unprotected head.

"What the heck?" he wondered, staring at the egg. "Is it just me, or is that…?" A grin plastered his face. What better way to destroy this stupid world than with a dragon by his side?


"Check it out, suckers!" he shouted, running into the guild hall, feeling like a child for the first time in years as he brandished the egg above his head. "I got a dragon egg!"

"It's huge!" people marvelled.

"Where in blazes did you get that?" Makarov demanded.

"Found it in the East Forest," Natsu said smugly.

"The East Forest?"

"That's what I said, old man. Are you going senile or something?"

"Guess you're good for something after all!" Gray smirked. "Gonna fry it up for us?" Natsu picked up a mug and brained Gray with it.

"'Course not, you moron!" He grinned manically, though no one could see it. "I'm going to hatch it! And together, we'll burn the world to the ground!" Nobody thought much of that remark. Natsu was always saying things like that. Little did they know that he was more or less serious.

"Why, you-" Gray started.

"Gray, your clothes!" Cana sighed.

"Kya!"

"Are you sure that it's a dragon egg?" Cana asked as Gray scrambled to find his clothes.

"Look at the pattern!" Natsu snapped. "Of course it is!"

"I don't know about that…" Gray said, inspecting the egg.

"Now the real question is, how far along is the egg, and how long till it hatches?" He hugged it tightly and increased the heat. 'Evil' plans were going through his mind at light speed.

"I wish you the best of luck with hatching the egg," Erza said. "You usually burn and break stuff, so this will be a welcome change."

"I've been looking for you, Erza!" Mira shouted. Erza gave her a displeased look. "Why don't we pick up where we left off? Come and get some!

"You're going to fight again?" Cana asked.

"Mira," Erza said. "Now that you mention it, we never did finished our fight, did we?"


"That girl was you?!" Lucy shouted in horror.

"Yep!" Mira smiled. "Surprised?" Lucy compared the Mira in the picture to the Mira in front of her. They were both so different!

"Yeah! This doesn't look like you at all! And wait… you said you were picking a fight with Erza?!" Mira just chuckled and smiled sweetly.


"I'm gonna bury you alive!" Mira shouted.

"I'll make you beg for mercy!" Erza yelled back. Everyone looked the two girls, shaking their heads.

"Stubborn wench!"

"Navel-showing floozy!"

"Scum girl!"

"Bony girl!"

"Thunder thighs!"

"Four-eyes!"

"Erza's always been telling us not to fight, and now she's doing it herself?" Gray wondered.

"One of these days," Natsu said, "I'm going to beat them up. They really bug me."

"Aw, give me a break," a sweet voice said. Something squeezed inside of him uncomfortably. He avoided the girl when he could because of memories that were… unpleasant to say the least. But now she had him cornered. "Keep up that tough guy act and you'll never get the girls to like you," she grinned.

"Shut up, midget," he snapped. "What do you even want?"

"Don't be mean," Lisanna playfully scolded. "Can I help raise the egg too?" Natsu gave her a wary look. He wanted to continue avoiding her, but now he was stuck. Either agree and make himself miserable, or say no and get beaten up by the guild for daring to refuse her request. Lisanna was most certainly the sweetheart of the guild. Natsu sighed in defeat.

"Fine," he said. "Just don't mess things up and stay out of my way." The little girl beamed at him. I think the cuteness is going to make me sick.

"Raising an egg sounds neat!" she said, skipping after him as he carried the egg out of the guild. "I bet it'll be real fun!"

"I'm not sure that fun is the right word," Gray muttered.

"Gray, your clothes!" Cana called.


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