While Lucy was making her phone call, Natsu finished the second of the large windows, smiling a goofy but happy smile to himself. The amount of light that came in to the room was increased and just thinking about it, how it would shine off the polished floors and tables, the cleaned mirror and bar! All the greens, blues, ambers and deep rich browns of the various alcohol bottles, the brushed nickle of the beer taps...! Just thinking about it, the excitement filled him, his grin widening as he turned to look and -
Realized how horrible the place looked. In the five hours he and Lucy had been working, all they'd managed to do was dirty countless cleaning rages, change the water buckets at least ten times, wash two windows and add to the endless footprints left in the dust. Looking at the floor now, Natsu was able to pick out Lucy's smaller foot prints within the dirt and fluff, his larger ones always right there beside or behind hers. Always there, standing behind her to reach that spot just out of reach of her finger tips. Here and there, his foot prints a little wider apart, hers missing her left or right step. It was then that he'd laced his fingers so his hand was almost a cup for her to set her foot in, her small hand digging in to the fabric of his t-shirt and clinging for dear life as she scrubbed a particularly stubborn dirt spot on the window...
"Hey, earth to Natsu!"
The loud snap of her fingers to his ear jerked him back to reality, the images of her determined expression above him, her tiny body trapped by his reaching arms, even her sweet smelling scent – mint, he realized – fading from his minds eye all to quickly. Growling softly, Natsu mentally chided himself. Lucy was here to help him clean and that was it. Besides – this sweet smelling, tiny slip of a determined woman was his tenant for gods sake! On top of that, he just met her less then ten hours ago!
He figured he'd better answer her and soon, judging by the unreadable look on her face. Focusing once more on the bar around them, it again dawned on him how old and abandoned this place really was. How much work they had ahead of them. Earlier in the day, he'd figured out the city had in fact turned on the water, heat, air conditioner and electricity as he had previously requested. Realizing an escape from the tedium and boredom of cleaning, Natsu worked his way to his phone and jabbed the screen – perhaps a tad to hard, but hey – it was the dirt's fault for being here in the first place! That was his story and he was sticking to it, no matter what! Snorting a little laughter, he felt more like his old self as he pulled up a music selection he rather liked – a mix of country, some rock and one or two piano and violin instrumental pieces – and set out to clean.
"We should probably sweep before we do much else. I guess it's a good thing you grabbed a few brooms, hm?"
Both knew that was not what she had wanted to say. Natsu could feel the question hanging between them in the air as he grabbed a broom and mask, roughly sweeping in a corner. With each pass of his broom, a light and pale wood of the floor came in to view. What little patch caught the light, Natsu knew would look amazing once it was polished and properly mopped! He also knew that the stupid floor was just a distraction as to the real elephant in the room.
Why would some one as young as himself buy a place like this to open a bar – how could he even afford it? Why so sudden? Sighing inwardly, he clamped down that little internal idiot of a voice that told him that was in fact three questions instead of one. All of them were relevant, damn it! Tenant or no, nice or no, Natsu knew he wasn't stupid enough to go about and tell the woman his exact reason he was here! That would go over totally well!
Ah, yeah, Lucy...guess what! So I stole money from my own boss – a crime lord who illegally imports and exports any and all caffeinated products your little heart desires! I used to be a runner for him when I was a kid, then a barkeep – but one day the cops found out and we were raided, I escaped and went on the run – less then a year later, here I am looking to open my own Coffeehouse! Looking for work besides that bio hazard of a grocery store? I'll pay well, you just need to trust me under threat of death, with your life and not breathe a word of my activities to anyone or I'll have to kill you! Dream job right there!
Yep...totally well...
"Sweep any more and you'll be able to dig to the basement!"
Natsu turned, just in time to catch Lucy's grin as she went back to dancing and sweeping, the dust moats floating around her like fairy dust in the sunlight. Just the sight of it was enough to distract him from sweeping again, the feelings flooding him knew and weird, almost like he'd run up an endless flight of stairs non stop, his heart was beating so fast just watching Lucy. Just before he tore his gaze away, he could've sworn he'd seen her cheeks more pink then they were a mere moment ago.
Growling at himself once more for becoming distracted by this...irksome woman!...Natsu turned the music a little louder, falling in to his old rhythm of back when he worked for Jude as a barkeep. When it was a slow night in the bar and coffeehouse, he would close down early – shut down the big lights, shut off the open sign, lock the doors and give the kitchen a once over. Once that was done – that's when his fun really began. Popping his phone in to the coffeehouse sounds system, he would blast the music just loud enough for his liking and clean.
Ignoring the goggles and mask, the tang of the bleach stung his eyes and nose, burning with each blink, searing with each breath – and he welcomed it. Much like the fire he controlled, this burn was one that allowed Natsu to feel alive. Working with Jude was never an easy job, right from the get go. One would figure as a kid, he'd get some special treatment, right? How quickly that tune changed. It was worse for the kids that worked with Jude. They did not have the strength or knowledge to defend themselves, their innocence making them ignorant – if they were lucky enough to even realize their innocence for what it was. An escape. Most often the children would break. Snap under the pressure of working with a sick and twisted man like Jude and most of his underlings. Bidding their time until their time of service was complete, not realizing it never was.
Although Natsu himself had never had the extreme displeasure of 'welcoming' the new kid to the coffeehouse business, he'd seen first hand what each kid went through. Illegally adopted, sold by their parents or just plain grabbed right off the street, what kids were working for Jude did not have an easy life. Right from the get go, Jude himself would show them the consequences of betraying his 'laws' as he called them. Three basic rules really: No snitching, no stealing, no getting out. Once you were in, that was it. Anyone who broke those rules – especially the no snitching and stealing, were given harsh punishments.
Natsu was just a boy when he'd seen Jude kill a man. He'd had one of his cronies, a kid about Natsu's age at the time – Gajeel Redfox to be exact – pin the man down while another crony, this one an ice make mage, slowly shoved a dagger made of ice right in the man's jugular. Then he'd just left him there to bleed to death, eyes wide and so full of fear. The man was reduced to nothing but a twitching and bleeding mass of flesh. They'd gone so far as to beat Natsu when he'd tried to cauterize the man's wound. He was just seven at the time.
As further punishment, Jude had made Natsu burn the corpse to ashes and clean the room after that was done. For years, that metalic and rotting smell of burning flesh and hair clung to his senses, digging in and lingering like a parasite. Not even the warmth of fresh coffee or the spiciness of the perfume from the women that came to the coffeehouse could chase away that smell. No matter what he'd tried – it'd taken years for it to finally leave him. Even then, as a dragon slayer with heightened senses, on bad days, he could still smell it all to vividly, that sickly sweet smell of death.
"Magnolia police, open up!"
A loud and more feminine scream drowned out the screams of the dying man, clearing the fog of memories from Natsu's memory swamped mind. Instantly dropping the broom, he vaulted over the counter, cursing as he knocked down the open bottle of bleach, the burning sensation now more intense then ever. Wrapping an arm around Lucy's waist to easily move her out of danger if need be, Natsu was about to ask the police officers what they wanted when he words stopped dead in his throat.
"Miss me...Dragneel?"
With those three words, the passed thirteen years of his life he'd tried to run away from came crashing back to him. Shattered coffee pots in the sink...loud whistle blasts of the police...commands to get down! Get down and lie flat, arms behind your head! Rough hands shoving him towards the door as it was bent and twisted beyond recognition...Gajeel standing in the door way, metal scales slowly molding over his body for armour, protecting Natsu from prying eyes as six police officers in full SWAT gear bared down on him. The sounds of gunfire and whistle blasts, the tang of blood and coffee sharp in his senses was the last memory he had of the night of the raid, when all of his world went to hell.
"Redfox...? I thought...! Are you – how?!"
Here stood the last person he'd expected to see – an embodiment of Natsu's dark and blood soaked past.