When the group entered Natsu's dorm. They each had different expectations when they entered; Levy expected it to be messy and to possibly have a multitude of weapons and other devices. Juvia expected something like Gray's room, which is to say a bit of a mess and full of equipment. Gajeel expected it to look like a dorm that'd only been lived in a day and a half. Gray expected a bunch of magazines, and some beat up training dummies. Wendy expected to be frightened in some way. And Lucy was completely stoned.

What none of them expected was a neat orderly room and the smell of fresh baked cookies. Natsu is standing by the sofa placing a tray on the coffee table. He looks up and frowns.

"What's with those funny looks", he grumbles, flushing slightly. " I didn't have much in the way of ingredients so they're peanut butter, do you guys not like peanut butter?"

Gajeel is the first to recover, he walks forward puts his hand on Natsu's shoulder and laughs heartily. He looks pointedly at Natsu before turning back to the rest of the group. Saying, " This guy, what a riot amiright?" he turns back to the cookies and laughs more, " You can cook, never would have guessed. Maybe you could teach Levy a thing or two, for all her brains her cooking could kill a buffalo." he continued to laugh as Levy bristles and beats weakly on his massive chest.

Natsu laughs softly at the sight. He catches his breath as he looks up and notices the blonde staring at him purposefully. He could have sworn she was high as hell when she'd walked in, what had happened. He sat on the couch and gestured around him. The others all found seats. He clapped once and said, " Let the first meeting of Etherious and Co ,commence.

He had Levy and Gajeel brief him on the happenings around the school. They told him about the troublemakers to keep his eye on, they told him about the staff, and about the disciplinary committee. They told him about the recent drug raid and how that completely eliminated all drug traffic within the school. He looked at the blonde as they said this last part and was surprised to see her squirming embarrassedly. Levy saw this and decided to change the subject.

" Mr. Dragneel, What about the rumors regarding your disciplinary record. Are any of those stories true?", she'd deliberately chosen this topic, she knew tough guys loved to brag, and she figured he was no different.

Natsu sighs, and looks down. " to a degree most of them are at least half right", he says softly. He looks up at Levy, and she is surprised to see no pride in his eyes, only sadness. Natsu continues, " Most recently there's the case with my old teacher. The popular story is I was caught with a whore and attacked him when he tried to stop us from doing it at school, the official story is that I viciously beat a teacher I caught with my girl." He pauses, and looks at Levy dead in the eyes. " the true story is that that teacher had called her in to retrieve some papers. I saw her go in and heard a crash, I ran in there and saw him pinning her to a table. She was fighting but she couldn't do anything to him. He'd ripped her shirt open, and had her bra and skirt mostly off. I charged him and sent him into the wall. The next thing I remember a paramedic was shaking me slightly, I was kneeling over the teacher, in a pool of his blood. I'm pretty sure he lived though." Silence was all that greeted this news. He went on to correct there views on every single one of the stories they'd heard.

Levy takes a deep shuddering breath and raises her head to look at Natsu. "Why tell us all this?", She asks.

Natsu looks at her and breathes a long slow breath. " Because I need you all to trust me, and I'm tired of being treated like a monster."

-Lucy-

Lucy floats in her own oblivion once more. She can see Happy Lucy as she talks with that one face she can never remember. The face leads Happy Lucy along somewhere. They arrive at more facs, more shapes without definition. Lucy feels nothing for a time she can't specify, time was one of the first things she lost track of. All the faces turn the same direction and a brief feeling of warmth radiates past her cocoon before receding. She reaches for it but it slips past her. The face is leading her again, and she becomes aware of a scent. It lifts her from the nothingness, as if it were an angel pulling her from Hell.

Lucy blinks and looks around as she becomes lucid once more. The scent returns and she looks down to see a tray of cookies. The smell of them reminds her of a time long past. She feels happy, and sad all at once. Her mother used to make peanut butter cookies, she'd loved them. She reaches out to grab one and locks eyes with the same boy from, how long ago was that? She couldn't tell. He looked sad and scared, but he also seemed so very warm. Then a question came to mind;"why's it so quiet"?

-Levy-

Levy didn't know what to think. On one hand Natsu claimed all the stories were false. But on the other if he was lying, he could prove to be even more dangerous. But his face looked sincere, and no one could have faked that pain, could they? Levy was still thinking when she feels Lucy shift beside her.

Levy looks over to see Lucy leaning down to pick up a cookie. Levy blinks trying to process this. No one had touched the cookies yet, and Levy was quite honestly wary of them. Lucy had no reason to grab a cookie except at her own volition, which Levy had long thought her void of. But as her friends grabs a cookie and looks up Levy sees her face, and her eyes widen slightly. The movements are purposeful and clear, the eyes locked into focus a slight smile touching the corners of her mouth. Levy almost cries out and gabs Lucy as she sees her friend sober and calm. But she follows her friends gaze and finds it locked onto Natsu's visage.

Levy forces herself to relax in an effort to not give away Lucy's normal nature. She grabs Natsu attention by speaking, " So do you have a plan for this school… sir"? She speaks the last word with heat, trying to goad him.

Natsu looks up at her and shrugs. " Not really… miss". He says the last word with heavy sarcasm. He then stands and heads for the door. He looks over his shoulder and says, " it's nearly time for class.

Levy sits for a second stunned. The others start to get up to, Gray and Juvia disentangle themselves and make to get up. Levy turns to where Lucy was sitting only to find her gone. She whips her head around searching and spots her walking out the door after Natsu. Levy blanches and rushes to the door, she didn't even want to think what Natsu might do. She still didn't trust him no matter what he said.

-Lucy-

Lucy didn't know why she was following the boy, she just felt drawn to him. She followed behind him as he passed through the door, she watched the muscles in his shoulders move under his shirt. She steps into the hall behind him and walks with him. He turns to look at her and rolls his eyes.

"What are you looking for?", he grumbles down at her.

"Did you make those cookies"? She asks with a slight tilt of her head. "They were quite good."

He stops and cocks and eyebrow at her. He seems to study her inside and out before speaking. "Thanks, it's no big deal".

Lucy shakes her head and looks up at him. " It's plenty big a deal if you ask me." she pauses as if unsure. She breathes deeply before continuing, " My mother used to make cookies like that."

Lucy looks down tears rimming her eyes. She looks up again and asks, " What's your name anyway. I'm Lucy."

He looks down tenderly for a moment before pulling her in close. He wraps his strong arms around her and she melts into his comforting embrace. " It's Natsu", he says softly.

He holds her for a few seconds before pulling away his hands still on her shoulders. She's looking down tears still on her cheeks. He lifts her head and whispers, " Don't cry, it's all gonna be fine".

Lucy looks into his eyes and sees only a tender caring gaze. She basks in the light she feels from him, letting it lift her from herself. Suddenly she's ripped from her trance by A loud voice.

"Lucy!", Calls a loud and familiar voice. Lucy looks the way they came and sees Levy searching frantically for her. She backs up from Natsu and he nods before walking away.

Levy rushes over to Lucy and grabs her hands. "Are you alright, what happened, Why did you leave?", Levy's voiced is laced with fear. Lucy starts to answer but suddenly her voice won't work. She feels cold and whispers start to appear at the edges of her mind. She blinks rapidly and motions to Levy.

Levy looks confused for a moment before realizing Lucy's drugs must have worn off. She fishes in her purse and hands lucy a couple pills. Lucy swallows them eagerly and soon her eyes once again glaze over. Levy sighs and leads Lucy to the classroom.

-Natsu-

Natsu couldn't stop thinking about that morning. It was obvious Levy didn't trust him farther than she could throw him. Although what he was really thinking about was the blonde. He'd thought her just some drugged up bimbo that hung around Levy. But she seemed fine when they were talking, and so very sad. He'd reacted on instinct, to comfort her. He'd always had a protective drive but this felt slightly off. He couldn't quite place why. He decided to forget about it for now and focus on studying.

He looked up to the front of the class and found the seats directly around hm void and the teacher behind his desk. Natsu blinked confused for a second before realizing he'd been scowling again. He adjusted his features and gestured for the teacher to do his job. The teacher stood slowly and shakily made his way through his lesson.

After his first class went so terrible he decided to make sure the second on went perfect. He pumped his fist as he walked into the classroom causes several kids to duck for cover. He held up his hands and made his way to his seat. The teacher walked in and Natsu realized it was a different one from the day before. He sighed with relief, if this teacher somehow didn't know him this class was gonna be alot easier.

He was wrong of course the teacher had nearly fainted when he saw Natsu's name on the roll call. This had been the first of many mishaps during that class. Natsu had nearly dropped a vial and trying to catch it sent it flying into the blackboard. The vial smashed and the liquid inside sizzled on the board. He went to apologize but the teacher wouldn't give him a chance with all his pleading. He'd also set of a chemical reaction that filled the whole room with thick bluish smoke. He was not happy going into the cafeteria for lunch.

"At ,east there's no line". He thought as all the kids in line dispersed as he entered, except one. Natsu cocks an eyebrow at the girl who still stands in front of the desserts apparently enraptured in choosing a cake.

Natsu shrugs and grabs a tray ladling food in as he goes. He gets to the girl and waits a second before speaking. " lot of good choices"? He says shyly. The girl turns to him a gleam in her eyes.

"Quite a few, can't quite decide whether or not to get strawberry custard or strawberry tart." she responds casually.

Natsu blinks twice before speaking, "Maybe try the… custard?" he says unsure.

She regards him for a second then nods, "I think I will." she says adding some to her plate. She then walks off without a word.

Natsu shrugs and leaves without bothering with a desert. "What a strange girl", he thinks, "it was nice that she wasn't scared though".

As Natsu walks Gajeel materializes from the crowd. Natsu doesn't quite know how he blends in with that hair. But says nothing on the subject.

Gajeel leans in close whispering, " That was erza scarlet, you did well getting on her good side. She may be more feared than you, but people don't want to make her feel bad by acting scared cause before we came around she was also the only thing keeping this place civil. She's also really nice most of the time."

Natsu swallows and looks the way the girl had gone, she'd seemed nice hadn't she? Natsu had no clue what to think anymore. This school was a strange place for sure.

Natsu's third and fourth classes go by just as smoothly as the first two. Natsu walks defeatedly to his room and drops off his bag. He then heads out to the supermarket down the street to get some good food. He stops for a second thinking. He nods and decides to also get a lunch box. He passes a few thugs on the street but no one tries to stop him.

He gets to the store and walks inside. The fluorescent lighting hurts his eyes as he makes his way through the aisles. He gets essentials like potatoes, flour, sugar, eggs, chocolate, half the rack of spices, buns, and ground beef. He picks up some fresh produce and case of soda as well. He checks out and walks back to his dorm. When he arrives he once again hears creaking and moaning from Grays room. He sighs and puts the food away.

Natsu lay back on his bed trying to figure out how he'd gone so far in two days. He sighed and sat up. He walks to the bathroom to take a shower. He stepped into the shower and let the hot water wipe away the stress from the day. Natsu revelled in the heat for awhile before getting out of the shower drying off and heading back to his room.

-Erza-

*post cafeteria*

Erza walked away from the cafeteria eating her custard and thinking. "That boy was familiar, and it was odd how everyone suddenly left when he entered. I should keep tabs on him". She turns and walks to the other end of the the school.

She arrives at a room with no number and knocks three times. The door opens revealing a very short elderly man. Erza walks in and sits in front of the desk. The man sits behind it and looks at her expectantly.

" Headmaster Makarov, I need to know about a student, a boy with pink hair", she says crisply. The old man nods and pushes a large heavy file towards her. Her eyebrows raise as he does. THe headmaster has files on every student, the fact that he had this one ready and that it was so thick didn't bode well for the situation.

" Erza, child. Don't read this if you're not prepared for it". He pauses before continuing. " your file has nothing on this."

Erza pauses her hand hovering over the document. She scrunches her eyebrows and places her hand on the document. She sighs and pushing it back to him. " Never mind", she says before getting up and leaving.

The old man sighs and puts the file on to stack of six. He turns from the desk and looks out a window. " Lord help these children", he says softly.

%&#&$*^

Makarov