Chapter 2 - Partners in Crime
"You can't be here." I whispered rather too loudly. "This is the girl's room you know! Matron will catch you." I spoke a bit quieter this time as the rustling of one of my bed companions shifted beside me. Though my words were a bit scolding, my tone spoke the opposite. To be honest, I was excited to have my night time visitor. After all, out of everyone here in this god awful place, he was the only one that I liked.
"Oh, don't be a stick in the mud, Eve." A spiky black haired boy of five whispered back to me from the foot of my bed - a grin spreading across his lips. He knew full well that I was happy to see him.
"Now come on, and follow me." He turned and walked away. One second he was there and the next he disappeared in a whisp of black smoke.
I sighed. Careful not to disturbed my bedmate, I slunk past the rows of beds filled with the sleeping forms of the other girls of the orphanage, avoiding the creaking floorboards before reaching the door. I gave the doorknob a twist only to find it still locked.
"Not funny, Natsu." I growled in a low whisper. I could hear a snicker on the other side of the door, followed shortly by the click of the lock released. I twisted the latch slowly, making every effort to be as silent as possible in opening the door and passing through into the hallway outside. I closed the door, before turning to face my late night visitor.
"You could have just taken me with you." I huffed angrily.
"Still working on that part, and besides, what fun would that be?" Natsu grinned back in the dark. Despite the darkness that lurked in the hallway, I could clearly see the outline of his form. Or it would be more accurate to say that I saw the aura that surrounded him.
I had learned early on that only I could see this - souls I mean. Everyone had a different color. Some were solid and persistent to strictly one color, while others swirled and fluctuated with a variety of colors. And if I focused hard enough I could even distinguish souls through solid objects from far away. Made it very useful when it came time to hide from Matron if I could see her coming to hunt the pair of us down. That and when combined with Natsu's newly discovered quirk of teleporting, we were upgraded from the troublesome pair to the "bad children". Not that the adults here truly knew what my quirk was. They were convinced that it was some sort of narcolepsy. Even gave it its own nickname - Sleeping Beauty. Well, they weren't wrong. I could sleep on demand anywhere and at any time. But that wasn't my quirk. Not really.
"Now come on!" Natsu leaned forward and took my hand, earnestly leading me away and down a set of stairs.
"Where are we going?" I whispered as I trailed after him.
"You'll see!"
I could only laugh at his antics, but when we reached the bottom of the stairs and passed through a series of side rooms did I have a notion of where Natsu was leading me.
"What's in the kitchen?"
"Can't you smell it?" Natsu inhaled through his nose greedily, finally letting go of my hand when we had reached the kitchen door - locked of course.
I took a deep whiff and immediately started to drool.
"Cookies!" I let out a squeal. I slammed my hands over my mouth at the sudden noise, silently cursing myself at the chance of giving ourselves away.
Natsu winced at the sound, his own hands jerking up to cover my mouth before I had beat him to it.
"Sorry." I whispered behind my hands, looking a bit sheepish.
Natsu released the breath he had inadvertently held in, slumping forward and shaking his head.
"It's okay." He straightened back up, the grin returning to his face. "Now," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the door, "take a peek inside and tell me if anyone is in there."
I nodded silently, focusing my gaze on the door and beyond as if my life depended on it. There were cookies behind that door after all. I blinked and my sight shifted to a world of swirling colors.
"Well?" Natsu asked impatiently.
"Hang on will you?" I growled. "This isn't easy as it looks." My eyes settled on Natsu, a scowl on my face.
"Fine. Fine." He raised his hands in defeat, before stuffing them in his pockets.
I returned my gaze to the door, sighing deeply before concentrating once more. The door fell away before me and I could see into the other room. A pink flamed figure was slumped over the kitchen island. The outer edges of the flame were listless and dull, indicating that the person was fast asleep. I wrinkled my nose instinctively at the color. I hated that color with a passion simply because of the person it was tied to.
"Well?" Natsu asked again. His excitement could not be contained.
I blinked, the room falling away from my sight, a smug grin now on my face as well.
"Matron is in there, but she's fast asleep."
"Sweet!" Natsu fist pumped the air.
"Do you want me to, or..." I indicated to the door.
"Nah, I got it." Natsu rolled his neck before giving me a two finger wave and vanishing from the spot.
I rolled my eyes, a faint smirk on my lips.
"Showoff." I whispered quietly to myself in the dark.
The click of the lock being released was the only sound in that hallway as Natsu pushed the door open for me.
"Welcome to other side! We have cookies!" He waved me in, not bothering to lower his voice.
"Shh!" I took the door from him and closed it behind me, quickly glancing over to Matron who was passed out over the kitchen island. An empty wine bottle was next to her and she was snoring loudly.
"She's out cold tonight." Natsu nodded at the sleeping figure. "We must have really outdone ourselves today if she drank the whole bottle."
"That's not a good thing, you know." I chided him, but nonetheless a tiny bit of pride ran through me for being able to give the woman some hell. Ever since she took over the orphanage, she commanded obedience through fear and intimidation not only from us orphan's but also from the staff - at the least from the ones that still remained from the previous ownership. Matron had slowly but surely forced out the previous caretakers to be replaced with her own lackies - as Natsu and I liked to call them.
"Whatever." Natsu stuck his tongue out at me and walked over to the plate of cookies resting on the counter. "She deserved it anyways." He stuffed a cookie in his mouth, carrying the plate over to the door that led out the play yard.
"Some of those cookies are mine too!" I raced after him out into the cold air of the night.
Natsu ignored me and continued stuffing cookies into his mouth as he settled on the rusty merry-go-round. I sat beside him, swiping a few cookies off the plate before they could be devoured by him.
"You really should tell the grownups about your quirk, Eve." Natsu said between mouthfuls.
"Might get you adopted out faster if they knew what an awesome quirk you have."
I shot him a sideways glare, pausing with a cookie halfway in my mouth. It was an unfortunate truth that existed for us orphans that those with the most promising quirks were adopted out at a higher rate than those with more mediocre quirks.
He continued, "I mean don't tell them about seeing through walls. They definitely wouldn't like that, but you know," he stuffed a whole cookie in his mouth, and muffledly added on, "tell them about the soul thing."
I shook my head, "Nah, I don't want to tell them just yet. Plus, if I get adopted and leave this place, who else is going to make sure Matron doesn't kill you."
Natsu grinned but didn't look at me. "She'll have to catch me first. But," his face fell, "anything is better than this place."
At this I looked around at the derelict playground. Once it had been brand new and taken care of. The previous Matron saw to that, but now... It was falling apart and broken much like the orphanage that was the only home we ever knew.
"I'm going to work on my quirk," Natsu said with newfound determination, "and when I finally have a handle on it, I'm going to get out of here." He suddenly looked into my eyes, a fire burning behind those navy irises, "I'm going to get both of us out of here. No way am I leaving my partner in crime behind."
I grinned, shoving the whole now cold cookie into my mouth.
"You better not...partner."