His lungs were on fire, burning as they gasped for air.

Natsu kept pumping his arms, running for his life despite the pain. His breath coming out in large heaves as he sprinted. His feet barely even touched the ground as he kicked off again with the other, pushing himself to go as fast as his little legs would carry him. He was practically soaring. Glancing back over his shoulder, he groaned, realizing that they were still right on his tail.

Girls.

Natsu knew the other boys were in a similar predicament, running away from their female classmates. It was a new development that had boggled his young mind. The girls had created this new game that had caught his attention initially; Natsu was always keen on learning and playing new games to keep himself from getting bored. Nothing positive came from him being bored.

But this game was no fun at all.

The almost devilish look the girls had given him had caused the pink-haired boy to shiver as one of the girls mumbled something about 'girls chasing boys'. Natsu did not understand the game's concept let alone how this could possibly be seen as 'fun' at all.

It had all started out innocently, Natsu dodging and running around, avoiding every girl that chased him around the school yard. But Natsu's blood ran cold when he witnessed what happened when a boy was 'captured' by a girl.

The young boy cringed at the memory and felt sorry for the boy from earlier when the girl planted her wet, gross cooty-covered lips all over the boy's face. Natsu wanted to hurl. The stakes for this game had risen higher than Natsu could have ever predicted.

And thus he continued running.

Running for his life.

The boy continued to search for a place to hide or anything that would protect him from the monsters behind him. Their cat calls and screeches would haunt the pink-haired boy for the rest of his nights. Tears began to sting his eyes with each of his dry swallows, but Natsu pressed on anyways.

It was not much longer before Natsu spotted a place to hide. As he came zipping around the corner, the boy spotted a few bushes along the side of his path. Taking a quick glance back to make sure none of the girls spotted him, Natsu dove into the prickly bushes. Any pain he might have felt from the thorns and bristles from the bush were forgotten out of sheer desperation for safety from the ravenous females.

This was why Natsu could not stand girls. They were completely insane! The weirdest creatures Natsu had ever come in contact with in his short existence on this earth. Girls were the worst to play with, always so fragile and delicate; you couldn't punch them without them crying home to their mommies and getting him into trouble.

Girls were something to stay clear of.

Natsu held his breath, not making a sound, as the group of girls came bounding around the corner and continued to run unknowingly right past him. As soon as they were out of sight and ear shot, Natsu sighed, relief running through him and his sore muscles. Taking a quick glance around, Natsu finally stood up from his hiding place, hopping out of the bush before dusting himself off. His shirt was dirty and his jeans were kind of torn up making Natsu groan; his mother was going to have a field day with this one.

"Natsu?"

The boy tensed at the sound of his name coming from female lips. He slowly turned around, ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. But he sighed in relief once more when he realized it was only his best friend, Lucy, walking towards him, her eyes filled with a combination of worry and confusion, "Hey Luce."

The blonde girl was wearing her usual side pony tail and a nice summer dress. Despite her immediate 'girly look', as Natsu had infamously dubbed it, Lucy had scraped up knees and rolled up sleeves. Natsu smiled. She had become his constant companion since his early days in preschool; the two were never seen too far away from each other.

"Why were you in that bush?" Lucy asked when she reached her pink-haired friend, raising and eyebrow at her friend's odd choice in recess activity.

Natsu cringed at the memory, "The girls were chasing me so I hid there from them."

"Why were they chasing you?"

"How should I know?!" Natsu threw his hands up in the air in confusion, "Girls are so weird!"

Lucy became annoyed, crossing her arms in front of her, "Hey!" giving him a whack on the head at the 'weird girl' comment, "You probably did something to make them chase you."

Natsu grumbled, rubbing the new goose egg that was developing on his head; she had a tougher swing than he would like to admit, "It was 'cause of some stupid game they made up."

"What game?"

"I don't know, the girls said tag and then they all started chasing all us boys and went around kissing us when they caught us!" Natsu grew more hysterical and loud as he continued on his story, animatedly painting a horrific portrait of his recess experience thus far, his arms waving about frantically.

Lucy cringed, feeling sorry for her friend and having hit him after all of that, "I'm sorry."

Suddenly the school bell rung, gaining the children's attention and alerting them that recess had finally ended. Natsu frowned but turned back to Lucy asking, "What for?"

"Well that doesn't sound like fun and I hit you," Lucy pouted.

Natsu cleared his throat, pulling on his tee shirt. Was it getting hotter or what? "Oh it's okay, Luce. You didn't know. Girls are just weird, it's not your fault."

The blonde's cute apologetic mood was quickly replaced with a heated glare sent towards the pink-haired boy, "Weird? I'm not weird!"

Natsu gulped at the girl's sudden change, "Uhhh, I didn't mean...that is, you're not weird, Luce!"

Lucy huffed, turning towards their school, walking back to their class before they got in trouble. The blonde stomped her feet, fists forming as she made her way back to the school, refusing to continue this conversation with him, Natsu frowned, following the blonde back, "Lucy, what'd I say?"

"I'm a girl and you just called girls weird."

"But you're not like a girl," Natsu explained, hoping she would understand. He was never as eloquent with his words as she was.

"But I am a girl, you idiot!" Lucy growled, wanting to give the boy a matching black eye to go along with his throbbing goose egg.

Natsu jogged in front of her, stopping just a ways before her which caused the girl to stop her dramatic walk back to class and glare at him. The pink-haired boy raised his hands in defense, noticing the murderous look he was being sent, "No that's not what I mean! You are a girl but you're not like them. You're different! You weren't chasing me around all day and being gross."

"Different how?"

The look he was getting from Lucy told him that the next words that came out of his mouth would determine whether or not he would live and walk away from this, "I uhhh...well you see...umm-" Natsu blushed, finding a particular pebble next to Lucy's pink sandals incredibly interesting.

"Spit it out already, we're going to be late!" Lucy huffed.

Natsu rubbed the back of his neck, feeling his cheeks heat up, "Well umm...you're a girl but..." he felt his eyes drag up from where they were staring at the paved ground below them, up to her eyes, "if you were chasing me for a kiss, I'd let you catch me."

A/N: Hey folks! This one is set around the two of them being like...8 or 9 me thinks. Let me know what you think! :)

ALSO! As of May 2nd, I will be AWOL. Not here. Gone. Meaning no updates from me. I've just graduated from university and am going on an internship to central Nigeria until mid-June. It's going to be crazy awesome and I'll be working in a field of study I have developed an interest in: Linguistics. I love Languages in general so it's become a new passion of mine.

Sorry for this temporary hiatus but I will be back to updating as soon as I can...so like June 13th abouts. Thanks for all of your continued support and I hope you all have a wonderful May/June while I'm away from the internet world. :D