When she fell asleep he tucked her into bed and left. He would be back to check on her tomorrow, that much he knew. He would keep his promise to her mother and be her friend. He would be her comfort and make sure she wasn't alone no matter what anyone had to say about it.

Rules be damned.

Natsu sat in the shade of a Sakura tree, the park around him was rich with life as families played and couples walked together. Since he had to still deal with a death yesterday, it didn't count as a day off. So here he was, day off part two. Occasionally a dog would bark at him and their owner would scold them for barking at nothing. He found it mildly entertaining, that some animals could see him while others couldn't.

There were so many things about the world that he didn't understand. It was probably a fair trade, the human world didn't understand death and death did not understand the human world in its entirety. He did have an advantage over them though, he had an eternity to find out whatever he wanted to know. They had a limited amount of time and could only ever find out about him once that time was up.

Natsu stood up and stretched his arms out in front of him. Time to go see Lucy, surely she would be awake by now. He popped into her room, only to find it empty. Well... he did have to get to know her better in order to be her friend right? What better way to get to know someone than to snoop through there things while they weren't around?

She had a large bed in the centre of the room, with draws on each side and a photo on top of the right side draws. She had a desk in the corner on the far side from the window. A full length mirror, a book shelf and other than that, nothing. The room looked surprisingly bare.

The books all looked boring as hell, not that he could actually touch any of them or even pick them up to find out. Her desk however contained a stack of papers, all kept neatly and a sketch book, opened at a particular page. His curiosity got the better of him so he blew lightly on the pages to make them move. They were good drawings, some only half finished and others completed to the smallest details. Some were of her mother, some were of her father and others were what looked to be different places. Natsu didn't recognize any of them. He stopped when he got to a page that contained a drawing of a boy. He had pink spiked hair and dark eyes. He looked pretty sad in the drawings but Natsu didn't particularly care about that.

That boy was at his spot on Lucy's window. The nerve of him. Natsu had been there many times and had never seen another person and besides... it was HIS spot. If this guy was Lucy's boyfriend then he needed to learn his place and his place was NOT in Natsu's spot on her window.

He didn't have much in the world. Actually that was a lie, he didn't have anything that he could call his own. The clothes on his back were the only exception, and if a human were to wear them they would look naked. That spot was one of the only things he could say were his, stupid pinky McSpiky head was not going to take that away from him.

Natsu slammed the book shut with a single breath then layed on Lucy's bed, it was pretty comfortable so he was fine to just wait there. He was use to being alone so it didn't bother him, just laying there and thinking.

"What are you doing in my room?" Natsu looked up to see Lucy standing in front of him, not looking very pleased to see him. He sat up and smiled at her, better to just pretend she was happy to see him. Then maybe she wouldn't be grumpy.

"Waiting for you weirdo, what else would I be doing?"

"What if someone came in my room and seen you, idiot! I can not risk getting in trouble for having some random guy in my room!" Lucy's voice was a harsh whisper. "Also, how am I weird? You are the one sitting in a random girls room!"

"Ahhh, don't you remember at all? You are the only one who can see me Lucy. If anyone walked in, even now. All they'd see is you scolding a mattress. Weirdo." Natsu grinned at her and she shook her head... still, he could swear she had the smallest smile on her face.

"You know you're an idiot right?"

"I may have been told that once or twice."

Lucy layed on the bed next to him, it was large enough for there to still be a large gap between them. "Ya know, you are nothing like how I would picture an angel of death."

"What the hell is an angel of death?" Natsu rolled his eyes. Could nobody understand. He was death. That was all, why did he need some fancy name? Why couldn't he just be Natsu.

"Well you said you didn't like being called the grim reaper so I looked up other personified versions of death. Angel of death seemed the most fitting for you. You have a very youthful and kind face and you float outside my window so it's not exactly a long shot." Lucy shrugged.

"You think I'm kind?" He was surprised. He had been called many things before. Kind was not exactly on the top of that list.

"Well yeah, you have been nothing but kind to me since I met you." She furrowed her brows and looked at him as though her response should be obvious.

Natsu coughed. "Well, thanks. It's not every day I get a compliment."

"You're welcome." Lucy beamed at him.

Natsu walked up to her with a heavy feeling in his chest. She looked so small, her face hidden by her pillow and her body shaking. He sat next to her but not too close. He knew he hadn't been around for a few days but he didn't expect to come back and for her to be so sad. How long had she been crying? He hoped not too long.

"What's the matter Lucy?"

"Everything". Her voice sounded defeated but she moved the pillow away from her face to reveal tear stained cheeks and red eyes.

"Ya wanna talk about it? Maybe I can help?" He layed on his side facing her but she just stared at the ceiling.

"Just my luck. The only person who would be willing to help me is also the only one who can't do anything no matter how much he wants to". She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.

"Come on you don't know that, there might be something I can do if you talk to me about it". He poked her cheek and she swatted his hand away.

"Its stupid, it shouldn't matter". She shook her head, her eyes were still red but at least she wasn't crying anymore.

"If it matters to you, it matters to me too". He noticed her side fringe was sticking to her forehead so he pushed it back. Crying into a pillow apparently caused your whole face to get wet. It wasn't particularly interesting information but he still felt as though he had learned something.

"It's just people at school. I don't have any friends and they are all cruel to me. I always feel so lonely there. Like nobody cares about me. Today one of the meaner boys stuck gum in my hair and now look! It's so short and I look hideous! I begged daddy not to make me cut it but he insisted that a real lady would never want the germs the gum left behind even if I did get it all out!" She put the pillow back over her face and sobbed again.

Natsu hadn't even realized that her hair was different, she was still Lucy after all. He stayed quiet for a moment contemplating what to say before her spoke again.

"Ya know Lucy, if you really feel that lonely at school I could go with you? I know it's not the same as having actual friends at the school and that you won't be able to talk to me in class or anything but you won't be alone anymore. As for your hair, I didn't even notice it was cut. You still look as beautiful as you always do, aside from the red puffy face and all".

She peaked out from under the pillow and looked at him with wide eyes.

"You'd really do that for me?"

"Well yeah? I'm not good at this whole 'friends' thing but isn't that the sort of thing friends do for each other?"

She smiled softly at him before hugging her head to his chest and he placed a protective arm over her. If anyone walked in it would probably make a strange picture but for them, being like this was as natural as breathing. Neither knew that they were the ones occupying each others thoughts.

Lucy was thinking about the fact that Natsu called her beautiful. She had never been called beautiful by a boy before, but because it was him it felt nice.

Natsu was thinking about the fact that Lucy had called him a person. He had never been called a person before. Still, it felt nice to be acknowledged as though he could ever just be normal. That Lucy thought of him as her equal, as a person.

"How much?"

Natsu groaned. He hated taking the souls of business men or women. They always tried to bargain. Some offered money, others offered sex. As if death could be so easily swayed.

"How much what?" He should have known better than to humour the man, but it was a slow death day and Lucy was at school so he had time to kill. Lots and lots of time.

"Anything you want, I am a wealthy man. I can give you a house or car or enough money to by both. Everyone has a price, what's yours?" The man grinned at him and cocked an eyebrow.

"Sir, that may work on the living. I however, have no need for material possessions of any kind". Formal and cold. He had learned to be this way. Some people needed a warm approach and others needed a firm hand. This guy was clearly the later.

"Come on man, there must be something that you want. Something that you need".

Natsu's thoughts flashed with blond hair, brown eyes and a bright smile but he shook them away just as quickly. "Nothing. Death doesn't want or need anything". Then he walked forward in silence, contemplating why he had thought of anything in that moment. He had been asked a million times what he wanted, the answer had always been nothing because he knew better. Sure there were lots of things he would have liked to have. He had always known better than to actually truly want them. Wanting for things caused nothing but longing and pain.

Still, there was one thing he wanted in that he wanted. Truly wanted, was to keep the only promise he had ever made. To make sure Lucy was never lonely. To be her friend.

He finished the job just as he always did. Watching the soul pass through the barrier that he would never touch then taking out his pen and crossing out their name, watching in vanish right after. Job, done.

Natsu sat with his legs hanging over the edge of the building. The sun had already set and the stars lit up the sky like the flame of a small candle lit a room... Terribly. For flaming balls of gas they did a shit job and if it was up to them to keep things bright all the time, the world would be submerge in almost complete darkness.

He had never really understood why stars were so loved by humans. What was so special about them? The just floated around in space and done absolutely nothing. The didn't even look that pretty. Sure they were okay and all, but definitely overrated.

He looked below him and noticed that even though it was getting late, the streets remained busy. Filled with life one might say. His eyes focused on a couple who were sharing an ice cream- he assumed they were a couple based on their willingness to share saliva. They could just be really close friends but that didn't seem right, do close friends share food that way? It seemed a little unsanitary but who was he to judge? Friendship wasn't really his area of expertise.

He could hear footsteps that sounded like they were approaching him. Probably another personification. Regular humans had no way to get up here. Maybe if he ignored them they would go away?

"Hey Natsu, what ya doing?" The voice was female, bubbly, high pitched and happy. Lisanna. Natsu groaned and rolled his eyes.

"What do you want?" Natsu didn't look at her. She was far too happy all the time. Sure she was really nice and he liked her, but he was not in the mood for her joyfulness.

"You could at least pretend to be happy to see me you know?" She sat next to him with her legs crossed and looked at him.

"Yeah but I'm not a very good liar so you probably wouldn't believe me anyway." He shrugged, looking at the couple who were now arguing. He scoffed to himself. Human emotions were so weird, one minute they were happy and they next they were angry.

"I suppose you're right" Lisanna shrugged her shoulders and looked away from him and to the hustle and bustle below, her smile still plastered to her face. "You know, rumour has it that you found a human that can see you."

"Where did you hear that?" Natsu scoffed. "They should mind their own business. As long as I do my job, what I do in my free time is nobodies business but mine."

"Bixlow, you know I don't get it. You choose to be so miserable and sarcastic all the time. It's like you don't want to be happy."

"I should have guessed it would have been him. Well I don't get how you can be so happy all the time. We are not even alive, we exist and that's it. How can you be happy with that?"

"Existing isn't so bad you know? You can find lots of things that make it great! You're still young, it's expected that you still have lots to learn. Learn it all and find something you love."

"Like how you found Bixlow? No thanks." Natsu shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"What's so bad about finding a partner? Someone to make your existence less lonely huh? Besides that wasn't even what I was talking about. You could always try making friends?"

"You mean we are not friends?" Natsu put his hand to his heart "Lisanna, you wound me so!" Natsu spoke sarcastically before laughing.

"Stop trying to change the subject!"

"Oh busted, you really are a genius in your field."

Lisanna glared at Natsu with crossed arms and a fake serious expression and shook her head.

"Well that human girl sure is going to have a hard time trying to be your friend that's for sure."

"Nah, I actually like her".

"You will like me plenty when you realise that I am the only ally you have. Everyone else thinks you are an idiot and that you shouldn't be allowed to see her at all. I am the only one who thinks it could be a good idea. When all this comes to a head and you realise that I am the only thing standing between you and the possibility of never seeing her again, you will be kissing me feet with gratitude."

Lisanna jumped to the pavement, leaving Natsu feeling rather alone. Normally he liked being alone, now? Not so much.

Lucy was sleeping when Natsu climbed through her window. Not surprising really, he didn't know the exact time but by human standards it was probably pretty late. It still left him in a confusing situation. On one hand, he could leave now and she would never even know he had been there. No harm done. On the other hand though, the bed looked really comfortable and he had nothing better to do. He was meant to go to school with her in the morning, how would he know where it was or even the time if he didn't stay?

With his mind made up he crawled into bed next to her, carefully not to touch or wake her. He couldn't pull the blankets over himself, but he didn't need to. So he closed his eyes and imagined. He let his thoughts consume him and his imagination run wild. He couldn't dream, but he could pretend to and that was better than nothing right?

He felt Lucy moving throughout the night so he thought nothing of it when she moved again until it was too late.

"What are you doing in my bed!" He opened his eyes but before he could answer she had grabbed his arm and pulled him onto the floor. It didn't hurt or anything, but her outburst shocked him.

"It looked comfortable?" He stretched his arms in front of him and stood up from the floor expecting to see Lucy smiling at him, only she wasn't. She looked mad.

"If you wanted to be comfortable you should be comfortable in your own bed! What if someone walked in and seen me in bed with a guy?" She shouted and crossed her arms.

"You are still the only person who can even see me last I checked and I don't even have a bed!" He didn't know why he was shouting, but she was shouting and it made him want to shout too.

"Well it's easy to forget that I am the only one who can see you okay! Buy your own bed! You have a job, surely you have some sort of special shop you can go to and buy things!"

"Why would I buy a bed when I don't even have a house? Where the hell would I put it?" He liked shouting, it felt good for some reason. Like a release of tension.

Lucy froze for a second and her expression changed. It turned softer somehow. Like the anger just vanished.

"Natsu, do you own anything besides what you have with you right now?" He didn't like the way she was looking at him, it made him feel uneasy because he didn't know what it meant. Besides, he wasn't done with shouting yet. He was just starting to get the hang of it. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Yes actually!" He shouted before pointing at her window or more specifically, the ledge attached to it.

"You own my window?"

"No! I own that spot! It's my spot. Or it was before some other guy took it! Tell him he can't take it, it's my spot!" Natsu clenched his fist, it just felt like the right thing to do. He had never had a "human" argument before. It was different some how.

"Calm down idiot! I stopped shouting so you can too! And what other guy was at my window! That's creepy! You should have told me about it!"

"I thought you knew considering you drew him! And don't call me an idiot. How would you like it if I called you names!"

Rather than answering him Lucy walked over to her desk and started going through her notebook. Natsu walked up behind her and watched as she flipped through the pages until she came to the page with a young boy staring through the window.

"That's him! That's the spot thief." Natsu glared at the drawing as though he could set it on fire if he looked hard enough.

"This is the guy you were talking about?" Lucy looked at him with an amused expression.

"Yes! He took my spot and I want it back!"

Lucy responded by slapping him in the back of the head.

"Do you seriously not even know what you look like, and why were you going through my things!"

"How could I! I don't have a reflection! And I was bored, it's not like I could actually touch any of it!" Natsu was getting sick of shouting now. He just wanted it to stop. It got old quick.

Lucy held the page in full view of him and pointed at the drawing.

"This is a drawing of you! This is what you look like dummy."

Natsu looked at the drawing, then back at Lucy a couple of times.

She drew a picture of him.

"Really?"

"Yes, I thought you were a figment of my imagination at the time because there is no way anyone could climb up to my window on their own. It's a drawing of you".

Natsu coughed, feeling kind of stupid. Maybe Lucy was onto something when she called him an idiot after all.

"Well, are we going to school today or not?" He looked around her room trying to avoid eye contact.

"You're really going to come to school with me?"

"I said I would didn't I? I can't promise that I won't disappear randomly but I can assure you I will come back as soon as I can and-"

Lucy nearly knocked him over with the force of her hug. Her head was buried against his chest and her arms were around his neck.

"Thank you Natsu."

"You're welcome Lucy."

The first thing that Natsu noticed as they walked through the school gates was how much bigger it was than he expected. The second was all the mean stares directed at Lucy. It seemed like everyone they passed had a new version of the same cruel look.

He looked at Lucy beside him and noticed how different she was. Her shoulders were slumped forward as she clutched her books to her chest and looked at the ground. He didn't know what to do so he just put his arm around her shoulder, if she didn't want it there she would just shrug him off anyway. Instead she leaned slightly into him.

"You know, since none of these arseholes can see me, I can run a muck without any of them even knowing."

Lucy visibly perked up slightly. A small smile finding its way onto her lips "That might be fun."

"Shhh, don't talk to me or people will think you're crazy." Natsu joked

"Probably. But I don't need to care what they think anymore."

"That's the spirit! You hear that arse wipes! Lucy doesn't care what you think!" He put his hands around his mouth and shouted.

Lucy laughed and pushed him. She probably looked rather strange to anyone watching. If she didn't care then neither would he.

A noise went off through the halls and Lucy informed him that it meant it was time for class to start. It was called math apparently. Natsu had heard of it and knew a little about it.

He knew how to count and basic things like that, they were required for his job after all. Counting the amount of people who die in a day and things like that. However everything else just sounded stupid to him. Who's idea was it to mix numbers and letters anyway?

Lucy pulled out her chair and sat down at a desk clearly meant for two people. Nobody sat next to her. Natsu wondered if anybody ever did.

He sat on the desk next to her books and watched her write, tuning out most of what the plump woman at the front of the room was talking about.

"I can see why you hate it so much here, it's boring as hell!"

"That's not why I hate it." Lucy whispered, not taking her eyes away from her book.

"Yeah, the people suck to. Such snobs." Natsu crinkled his nose.

The teacher walked out of the room. Natsu didn't listen to the reason why, he didn't really listen to anything she said if he could help it. Besides, his attention was solely focused on the girl standing in front of him and Lucy with her hands on her hips.

"You're really annoying you know that right?" Natsu thought her voice resembled nails on a chalkboard. A noise he hadn't heard until the teacher done it earlier. It was awful but her voice was some how more annoying.

"Okay." Lucy responded, not even looking at the girl.

"Nobody wants you here."

"Brilliant observation. Ten out of ten." Natsu snorted at Lucy's bluntness.

"Why don't you just leave. Nobody likes you, even your mum died just to get away from you."

"Hey! That's not right!" Natsu shouted despite nobody being able to hear him. "Don't listen to her Lucy!"

"Don't worry, I'm not." Lucy said to Natsu but the girl in front her must have thought Lucy was talking to her.

"You're not what? Leaving? Well then why don't you go and join your mummy?" The girl grinned viciously.

"Why don't you?" Lucy spat back. "Or don't, truthfully I don't care what you do. Just do it away from me." Lucy started packing her books away and stood up when Natsu grabbed her arm.

"Don't walk away Lucy. Stay where you are. She wants you to leave, don't give her the satisfaction. I'm going to pay her back for you okay?"

Lucy nodded and sat back down just as the plump lady walked back into the room and the girl walked back to her desk.

Natsu was limited on his options. That wouldn't stop him from getting revenge. He couldn't move things with his hands, but he could blow them and make it look as though a gust of wind did it. He started with her chair, right as she was about to sit down. She fell straight to the ground with a loud thump. Then he blew her paper out the window. She spent the rest of that class outside searching for it.

Another sound rang through the room and Lucy stood up and gestured to him to follow her, as soon as they were out of sight she started laughing.

"That was great! How did you do that? I thought you couldn't touch anything!"

"I can't touch anything, nobody is meant to know I even exist and being able to touch things is kinda a liability."

"Then how do you explain that?"

"The wind did it." Natsu shrugged

Lucy hugged him for the second time that day.

"You're the best friend I have ever had." She whispered into his chest.

He put his hand on the back of her head, not really sure about his actions but he had seen people do this action before. "You're the only friend I have ever had."

He felt the familiar sensation of evaporating into thin air. He had never hated his job more, because he meant he had to leave Lucy alone.

"Someone just died, I will see you as soon as I am done." He whispered right before he vanished from her sight completely.

It was night time when Natsu was finally finished. Every time he finished building some, someone else needed him. Finally he was finished.

He could always just appear in Lucy's room, but he enjoyed climbing through her window. It startled her less that way. When he was finally through she looked at him with a grin plastered to her face.

"Why are you acting so weird?"

"I have a surprise for you." She smiled and clapped her hands together.

"I've never had a surprise before." He eyes her cautiously while walking toward her.

"Don't look so worried! You will like it." She hopped off her bed and grabbed his hand.

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Oh shoosh. Don't ruin it." She started walking with him back to her window before pointing at the ledge attached to it.

'Natsu's spot' Now deeply engraved into the wood. It was the first time he had seen his name written on something.

"You did this, for me?" He looked at Lucy who was smiling at him and fiddling with her hands.

"Well yeah. You said you liked that spot and thought of it as your spot, now its officially yours and you never have to worry about anyone taking it... Do you like it?"

"I've never gotten a present from anyone before, I don't really know what to do or say." He rubbed his fingers across the wood and felt his name.

"Well normally when receiving a present from someone you say thank you and tell then if you like it. Then you can shake their hand or hug them depending on your relationship with them." The smile was gone from Lucy's face and she was watching him nervously.

"Thank you. I like it, love it actually. Nobody has ever done anything like this for me before. I've never officially owned something that wasn't a part of my job before." Natsu put one arm around her and pulled her to his side and traced over the carving on his spot with his free hand. "You wanna know something?" He asked absent-mindedly.

"Yeah"

"I didn't know what warmth really felt like until I met you. I don't feel cold or warm, Soul's don't feel cold or warm and humans normally can't touch me at all. But you... You feel like what I always imagined would be like." He tightened his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder.

'You make me feel almost alive'.

A/N

The third chapter of this story is now done! Thank You to everyone who takes the time to read the stories I write

I honestly can not put into words how much it means to me every time I see a new person has followed or favorites or reviewed or even sent me a private message! It truly does keep me motivated to write and create something that will make the people who read it happy!

This story might take a little longer than In fire and Starlight but that is mainly due to the chapters being longer and I will try to update more frequently!

As always, lots of love and well wishes to all of you! Xx