The walk from Fairy Hills to the main courtyard was a short one, which was great because my legs were completely beat. My plain white tank top was replaced with a chiffon green one so I didn't feel too underdressed anymore. The sun still remained high in the sky, beating down on everyone under it, but the light wind that occasionally blew made the heat a little more tolerable. We spent a few minutes walking on the clean concrete road and admiring the beautiful view of the flowers and the other red brick buildings of FTA before we finally got to the large square courtyard. It was a beautiful area with four large stone pathways, each coming from different directions and leading up to a huge fountain that stood tall at the center. Between these pathways was grass that seemed to always be perfectly green and trimmed, and there was a stone border along the edges of the square, where seating areas consisted of pairs of wooden benches facing each other with a stone table between them. It was fairly easy to find our friends sitting at one of the tables, since we had picked one of these seating areas to be our main spot in our first year. It was the one in the far right corner, next to a tree that provided shade over the majority of the table, somewhat secluded from the main area. I looked over to that spot, and sure enough, our guy friends along with Mira and Cana were sitting on the benches talking and laughing about something I was too far away to hear. I spotted a certain dragon slayer almost immediately, his prominent pink hair visible from a mile away. Sigh. I looked over to my other friends to see their expectant reactions, and sure enough, they looked the opposite of how I probably did right now. Erza and Levy looked elated to see everyone, and Lisanna's eyes were sparkling, her grin getting bigger by the second. Before I could even blink, she was bolting across the large open space yelling "Natsuuuuu!" over and over, tears spilling over her cheeks. Erza and Levy were laughing and shaking their heads at her adorableness, but I could see the same excitement in their eyes as we too began making our way to the pyro. I couldn't help but smile, though. Lisanna and Natsu had always been close friends. How she dealt with him, I didn't know, but then again the only person he really seemed to annoy the most was me, for whatever stupid reason. As soon as he spotted the white-haired mage, Natsu had immediately gotten up from his seat, rushing across the courtyard to greet her.

They met at the fountain in the center of the square, Lisanna throwing her arms around his neck and his around her waist as they exchanged a huge hug. We caught up to them shortly after, and they were still locked in a tight embrace. He soon let go of Lisanna to give another hug to Erza and Levy, but I wasn't around to witness those because I walked straight past Natsu over to the table where everyone else was, ignoring his presence completely. I could faintly hear the girls sighing tiredly behind me, but what were they expecting? Did they think I'd be like Lisanna, throwing myself in his arms and crying tears of happiness? If they did, they were sorely mistaken. I won't put aside the way he had acted around me ever since we were kids in a few short years. It'd take a hell of a lot more than that for me to forget how he mocked me constantly ever since we were little. I mean, I knew I wasn't exactly a saint in our relationship either but that was only because of his attitude toward me. Things haven't changed just 'cause he suddenly began to pop back up randomly after 2 whole years.

"Still hate me, Luce?" He asked amusedly when they caught up to me, and I didn't even have to turn and face him to see that he was wearing that stupid smirk. But I did anyway.

"Still being an insufferable ass?" I spat, my glaring eyes contradicting his amused stare.

"Oh come on, that was all in the past," he replied, giving me his innocent looking grin, but I knew it was anything but.

"C'mon Lu-chan, lighten up! We're all reunited!" Levy exclaimed brightly with a large grin.

"I guess that's true," I admitted with a smile of my own. Yeah, Natsu being here slightly annoyed me, but everyone else seemed to be really excited he was here, and I wasn't going to ruin that. I loved seeing my friends happy even more than I hated Natsu's stupid smug face.

Everyone greeted us with smiles and hugs as we approached the table and joined them.

"Ok, so everyone's here," Mira stood to face us all and slapped a hand on the table, effectively gaining everyone's full attention. "Natsu. Talk."

"Huh?" He said lowly, playing dumb while avoiding eye contact.

He felt a single claw-like fingernail slowly begin to dig into his hand that rested on the table. "Natsu…" Erza's evil glare was beginning to peek out from under her bangs.

"Alright, alright! It's kind of a long story."

"We have time," Gray responded with a no-nonsense expression.

Natsu took a deep breath.

"I was hiding from my brother."

...

"Huh?!" Everyone let out in perfect unison.

"Since when did you have a brother?" Gray questioned, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Lisanna added, a frown washing over her face. Nods of agreement followed, everyone still in complete shock.

Natsu has a brother?

No freakin' way.

"Please let me finish. My brother is bad news. Straight up evil. That's why I didn't tell anyone about him," he explained, and everyone fell silent.

"Long story short, he tried to use my dragon slayer magic to awaken a dark evil thing that should never be touched. My dad knows some really strong wizards, and they disguised me so I could hide until he was dealt with. My whole physical appearance and my magic was changed so he couldn't sense me, and I moved into a small cottage with Happy in the woods. My dad led my brother to believe I was hiding from him somewhere else, when I was actually hiding in plain sight the whole time. I took private classes at night."

"Oh Mavis, you poor thing," Mira said softly, concern filling her wide blue eyes as she grabbed Natsu's other hand and squeezed it. "You must've been so lonely."

Rather than the sad expression we expected, we were met with a huge grin from the pyro as he shook his head. "Nah, I had Happy with me the whole time! He helped me through it the whole way."

Something flared up in my gut at that. That was so… cute.

Oh Gods stop. He's an ass, remember?!

Right.

Shoving all pro-Natsu thoughts to the back of my mind, I came back to reality. Even though he said he was fine, and Happy supported him through it all, there was a hint of light missing from his wide smile. Even with Happy around, not being able to talk to any of his friends probably took a toll on him. For the first time, I actually felt bad for the pink haired jerk.

"But anyway, there's nothing to worry about now! I'm back, so let's just put it all behind us alright?" He beamed.

You could tell that everyone still had a lot of questions, but for Natsu's sake we dropped the subject and spent the rest of the time simply enjoying the afternoon weather and catching up with our recently returned friend.

I avoided talking to him to prevent pointless bickering, though I couldn't ignore the nonstop glances he sent my way every so often. I also found it really weird that the whole time, he never once did anything to get a rise out of me.

Weird.

We eventually retired to our dorms when the sun began to set, all of us tired from the long day. I could hear the sound of other long lost friends laughing and having fun through my open window, and for some reason, it made me feel at peace. I had forgotten how good it felt to be free from my father's clutches, although years ago, I would've wanted nothing more than to hang with him while he did his work. It wasn't until my mother died when I was nine that I began to dread being at home.

Back in those days, we were all one big happy family. My mom was a ball of sunshine, and it would rub off on my dad, and in turn we'd always be smiling, together. But after her death... It seemed the only thing that kept us happy was snatched away from us, and I haven't seen my dad smile once since then. He became so immersed in his work be barely paid me any mind, and whenever he would it would always be business related. Possible marriage arrangements, training to take over the railroad company we owned, wearing huge, uncomfortable dresses and constantly having to learn proper etiquette... It all consumed my life, and I had nowhere to escape.

That is, until I got to Fairy Tail Academy.

FTA was my escape from my reality. It was far away from my house, therefore far away from my responsibilities, and my father. My home away from home. I could wear clothes that exposed my legs and arms without being reprimanded, I didn't have to worry about how I looked all the time, I didn't have to listen to my father talk to me about my "bright" future... To put it simply, whatever I couldn't do back in that stupid house, I could do here, without worrying about any type of negative consequences. I loved it.

I was hanging my sweatshirt up in my closet when I felt an oddly strong breeze behind me. It was getting late, and the breeze was beginning to get a little chilly. I closed the closet door and turned to go close the window, and immediately froze in my tracks when I spotted a certain pink haired douche sitting irritatingly nonchalant at the edge of my bed.

"Hey Luce! Mira wanted me to let you know we're all gonna go to the dining hall in 30 minutes," he stated casually, with his pseudo-innocent smile.

My jaw dropped.

He grinned wider.

"GET OUT!"