I know I said that next chapter will be about Snow White, but then I got an idea so this chapter will be intertwined with the Fairy Tale: Little Red Riding Hood (A little twisted of course!)

Animal, Person...Or Dragon

Wolf: You know, my dear, it isn't safe for a little girl to walk through these woods alone...

Chapter 3

Dumb Blonde Riding Hood

The scream lasted all of Lucy's breath. The delinquent face in front of her made her heart fail rapidly. It didn't help that the guy donned spikey pink hair. Her eyes widened and she sat up, briskly sitting the farthest away from him as possible. She found herself at a loss of words, but she didn't mind. Something about this stranger made her trust him slightly, she was still irritated but somewhat uncomfortably relaxed.

"Why are you in my house?" The young man asked, staring puzzlingly at her. Natsu wasn't aware how foreword he acted and that he was scaring Lucy.

"S...sorry!" Lucy spluttered still quite drowsy from just waking up, uncomfortable for the stranger did not comprehend personal space. Shifting in her seat, she looked everywhere but in his eyes. She felt somewhat guilty, breaking into his house and even worse, sleeping on his couch.

"My name's Natsu Dragneel." He stretched out his hand, gently giving Lucy a handshake. "What's yours?" Natsu's eyes felt like they were searing into Lucy's brain, waiting for an answer.

She hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether she should trust the odd man in front of her...and his soft blue cuddly cat. "Lucy..." She whispered, audible to Natsu only because of his close proximity. Lucy needn't say anything else, but Natsu still kept glaring at her, pressing her to say her last name also. She let the breath that she didn't know she kept in and answered. Natsu did tell her his last name, so now it was deemed mandatory to tell him hers. She intended to stay polite with the man. Although, she wanted to scream at him for invading her personal bubble and almost bequeathing her a light stroke.

"...Heartfilia...its Lucy Heartfilia." She said with a louder more trustworthy tone, shaking his hand friendlier that before. Natsu repeated her name, mouthing it slowly and pronouncing every syllable. When he was done, he looked satisfied, sitting on the couch next to her while Happy crawled into his lap and dozed off again. It wasn't surprising; on average, cats sleep fifteen hours a day.

"That's a weird name...but I like it" He grinned at Lucy, petting Happy at the same time. "What do you think Happy?" Lucy tried not to laugh, but Natsu sure was bizarre. "It's decided, you will be my friend." Natsu declared, proud of himself, Lord knows why.

The blonde's mouth just hung wide open, surprised how forward and childish he was acting. She never had a guy her age ask to be friends. They were either chatting her up, asking her out or using her to get closer to one of her 'pretty' female friends. Men were usually utterly stereotypical, thinking that all blond women were stupid enough to go on a date with them. She despised blond jokes, especially the one about Little Red Riding Hood:

There was a blonde in the forest walking on little Red Riding hood's trail when she spots the bad wolf. She tells him, 'Hey bad wolf, I see you and I'm not scared!' So the wolf runs away, but a few minutes later she spots him hidden in the forest again and tells him, 'Hey bad wolf, I see you and I'm not scared!' So the wolf runs away again, but after a few minutes she spots him hiding behind a tree again, and yells to him 'Sorry wolfie, I still see you and I am not scared.' The wolf sighs, shakes his head and says 'Geez, is there no place I can go to the bathroom without you watching me?'

She had to admit, most people would laugh at this joke, even though it was rather lame. She couldn't grasp the reason why people —at such an extent— found dumb blond puns funny.

In the beginning she would have thought Natsu one of those stereotypical guys, but his voice sounded sincere and face genuine. She had no idea what he saw in her to want to be friends with a complete stranger. A lot of unanswered questions flooded through her brain. None of them she could figure out herself.

All that came out of her mouth after Natsu's statement was; "O...ok?" She said, quizzically.

A large grin formed on Dragneel's visage, showing his giddiness like that of a schoolboy, not peeping a word. Quietness swept in, surrounding both new found friends. Staring was all they could accomplish before finding the right words to rekindle their diminishing half awkward conversation.

"So what's up with your keys?" Natsu was the first to commence, pointing at her keys still hanging off from her brown belt; a little lighter than the colour of her irises.

"They're magic keys! Allowing the holder to summon magical Fairy Tale creatures!" Lucy exclaimed, flinging her arms in the air for a more dramatic effect, smirking whole-heartedly. She was being a hundred percent sarcastic, but Natsu didn't catch on...at all.

"Really. So cool! Do you have a dragon key?" The dragon lover cried awestruck, believing every word that came out of Lucy's silver tongued mouth without a doubt. His eyes searched frantically at her keys, pondering which of the ones could summon a dragon, a unicorn, or perhaps a dwarf.

"Dense Idiot! I was just playing with you! I can't believe you fell for that!" She burst out in hysterical laughter, beginning to act more herself around him subconsciously. "They are just decorative keys. I like to collect them, I find them cute." She continued widening her explanation.

"What?...it does make more sense...but wouldn't you like it to be true? That life could be magical at times?" He looked a bit sad, but then perked up when he asked her opinion with a question.

"Well, sometimes I like to think about things out of my usual thinking box, but more when I need to find inspiration for my writing." The blonde said, thinking about her answer. It was true, on a few occasions...perhaps more often than she noticed, she did wonder off into the imaginary realm, getting into the head of the characters she had created for her murder mystery novel. She enjoyed figuring out why and how the victim was killed and what was the motive of the killer. Money, vengeance, love...spontaneous burst of anger? The possibilities were infinite. It made her feel a little more alive, while writing and imagining what her characters would do next. How the victim might feel or react, leading up to their eventual death or murder. If there would be a love story or a suspenseful one. The ideas and questions were the things that made her brain work a little faster.

"What writing? Are you a famous author?!" Natsu looked excited, as he always looked...most of the time.

"No, no, I haven't even published my book yet." Lucy looked flattered at Natsu's remark, looking down at her hands She then looked up, back into the man's handsome irises. He looked so interested in what she was saying. Most men just pretended to listen, not really caring. She liked that about him. It was a plus that he was quite handsome. She was attracted to him...one way or another. She had just not realised it yet.

"Why do you live alone, in the woods?" She asked him.

"Because I'm waiting for my dad to come back." He answered, a flicker of sadness, but also hope sparked in his eyes for a moment, just long enough for Lucy to notice. She decided not to push. It looked personal.

"Why did you barge into my house?" He asked seriously, enjoying having a proper conversation with someone other than his cat.

"My car broke down...and I got lost." The blonde felt a bit stupid, getting lost in the woods. She didn't tell him about thinking she saw a bear. It was too embarrassing. "Sorry about that...you know...about barging into your house."

"Nah, its fine. I got to meet you right." Natsu gleamed, he found Lucy interesting. Weird, but beautiful. Inside and out.

"Do you have a phone? So I can all a tow truck?"

"Don't have one. Never needed it." Natsu shrugged. Electronic devices made him feel uncomfortable. He thought they would give him shocks if he held one of them.

"How will I ever leave this forest! I need to get to my appointment! WAIT...I'M ALREADY LATE...TOO LATE! Lucy screamed, cupping her hands in her face. A few tears daring to fall.

Natsu didn't know what to do. He didn't know how delicate women's emotions were. Especially how to comfort them. Words were never his strong suit. So he used his arms, pulling her into a warm hug.

"It'll be fine. There's a small town not far from here. I go there sometimes. I'll bring you. However you could stay for a little while longer...I haven't had guests in a long time and we all need company sometimes." The hug was short but sincerely warm for both of them, but they let go. Hugging for a little time longer would become highly ill at ease. For both parties.

Lucy sighed, out of relief and hopefulness. She contemplated whether she should stay a little longer. She to admit, she was enjoying herself as much as Natsu. She never felt so connected to anyone.

"Fine, but only for a few more hours. I have a publishing company to apologise to." She was surprised at herself for choosing to spend a couple more hours with a almost-stranger rather than accomplishing her dream of publishing a mystery book. It baffled her immensely.

"Great! I should show you all my books about dragons! They fascinate me with their large wing span and especially the amount of fire they can breathe out..." The salmon haired boy started to ramble on about the description of dragons, depicting every little thing about them. Getting bored after twenty minutes, she stopped him.

"Yes, I know you are fascinated about dragons." She rolled her eyes at him. She then motioned her hand at the entire house. "What about being fascinated about cleaning your house? It's a mess!" Her eyebrows went up, he didn't care one bit about the sloppiness of his accommodation. She smirked, she needed to add one last thing to change his mind.

"Think about poor Happy." She rested her hand on his lap, shaking her head dramatically, making her look like she was thinking of the cat's misfortune. That did the trick...oh how conniving she was. She made a boy decide to clean his room.

Thanks for reading...just to say...I enjoy reviews.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...who's the fairest of them all?

~welshcanadian14~