a/n: woohoo! i finally got around to finish writing this chapter from my drafts. and i made a cover photo for this story since, you know, there isn't really fanart that kind of goes with this story. chapter three! sorry for the wait on this, guys.

Ambivalence

Anonymous Blood

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In the end, Natsu didn't manage to remove the chains from her limbs. After the blow his family jewels suffered he merely glared at her and scooted to the other end of room, which is where he still currently was. Lucy has tried to apologies to him over and over and to get through to him that she didn't mean to hit him, but he seems to have blocked her voice out. Their feet were a foot from touching in the middle of the crammed room, bare toes in front of hard combat boots. And since he obviously was giving her an angry silent treatment, Lucy decided to take this opportunity to take in his appearance. Their first encounter left her no room to get a good look at him, and Lucy shivered, irritated at the memory. Gray's face flashed to the front of her mind, but Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and forced the image to a dark corner of her mind, wanting to rid and forget it. Once she reopened her eyes, she let out a quiet and calmed breath and started her sights at the soles of his shoes.

They were worn and torn down with the dark brown, colored leather fading and chipping off in places along the edges and toes of the boots. There were small amounts of dirt and grass stuck in-between the creases of the rubber, and the straps looked snipped as well. Her eyes slowly moved up his ankles and to the fabric of his pants, which seemed to have been in no better condition than his shoes. Grass and dirt stains coated his knees lightly and there was a hole on the side of his thigh where a buttoned pocket was, with the handle of a knife showing through the top.

The sight of the weapon reminded Lucy he was no one she should get comfortable with, and that he could probably kill her any time he felt like snapping.

Though Lucy has only been in the presence of this man for about two hours, and he has already given her the impression of an idiot with a false label on his forehead.

But she is outside the protection of the kingdom walls and in the woods that her mother forbade any soul from entering, so she will have to be more than careful and on guard for the time she is here. That is if she ever gets out. She was not entirely confident in her hand-to-hand combat skills, but she has already proven to have quite the strong upper jab and kick.

She worked her way up the side of his leg and to his belt line. He had many compartments clipped to the side of his hips and a few more spare knives, like he didn't have enough. And to the left, lying against his upper thigh and the ground were her keys. She tried not to show any reaction to seeing them and forced her eyes up, feeling her chest squeeze.

She has never had them out of her possession until now. It felt wrong to see them not in her hands or in safe keeping. Who is to know what he was going to do to her keys? Or perhaps use them against her somehow?

Lucy caught herself spaced out on his torso when she finally pulled herself from her thoughts. His skin tight shirt did well at showing the slight creases of his muscles beneath the dark fabric, she thought, narrowing her eyes at the area. The only man she has been around was her father growing up, not counting the few male butlers and Gray and his forsaken stripping habit. Seeing a man from outside Fiore, this was a first for her.

He was indeed a man, Lucy decided. Even his hands showed it. His fingers showed the hard working years he has spent in the past, and is still spending now. Unlike her, who has grown up in a place where she couldn't even dress on her own.

Something foreign came over her in that moment she was eyeing his fingers and arms. She bit her lip and slowly ran her tongue over the inside, and caught herself the moment she did and used her chapped lips as an excuse to cover it up. Lucy aggressively bit and licked the dry skin of her lips as she felt the wave of embarrassment flood over her face.

She was not just checking him out, was she? What was wrong with her?!

He was not the first man she has ever seen, and he wasn't exactly a good one at that!

But Lucy would have to admit her hormones must be surfacing due to the sudden change of atmosphere. Taken from home and locked in an unknown tower in the cursed woods with a strange muscular man sitting across from her with his arms crossed. This obviously showed she was attracted to him somehow, or maybe it was just the volume of his muscles.

And gosh, does she like muscles.

But seriously, she should be passed this girly stage! Curse him and his muscles for making her mind and body react unconsciously without her approval.

Her eyes found their way back to his body and up to his neck. He has scar on the right side of his neck that she could see faintly from the angle he was turned in. She supposed it was to be expected that someone like him wouldn't have flawless skin. And from his appearance and status, she wouldn't be surprised if there were more scars than that to come from on his body.

In all honesty, Lucy has always looked at scars as beautiful galaxies that crossed ones skin, since everyone and everything was made of stars, she believes. But to one like him, they just might be a wound healed from a battle—a remembrance and a symbol of survival.

Lucy flickered her eyes up to his face and stiffened when eye contact was made. She watched him stiffen as well, and both their eyes widening as they caught each other face on. Lucy was the first to tear her eyes away and face away with drumming, startled heart. If her hands were not bonded to the sides of her, she would have pressed her hand to her chest to calm her heart rate.

That did not just happen. That did not just happen. Thatdidnotjusthappen—

He was looking at her, too? And at the same time she was! What kind of conscience was that? She didn't know, but now she felt nervous to be in the same space as him. And not the 'I'm scared' kind of nervous. Her heart showed no signs of calming down so long that he is across from her, and she still could feel him watching her. Couldn't he look away? Wasn't he at least bit embarrassed in her catching him? God knew she was.

But Lucy dared herself to sneak a peek from the corner of her eye, hiding herself behind the strands of her hair. His eyes were still on her like she had guessed, but he showed no clues of embarrassment. His shock was gone from a moment ago, and a small feeling of disappointment landed at the bottom of her stomach.

Was that all the reaction she got?

With a brave face and a deep breath, Lucy face forward once again, but kept her eyes in the area beside him. The silence now was tense for her and she strived for a way to break it, digging through her mind for an intelligent and mature thing to say. Of course, the thing her mouth decided to say was neither of those things.

"Do your—" Lucy flickered her eyes at his belt for a second before diverting them to the corner of the door on the other side of the room, "Does it . . still hurt from before?"

It took a few long moments for him to react and comprehend what she asked him before his shoulders and knees shot up from where he was sitting, and before she knew what he was doing, he was quickly scooting farther away from her and towards the window ledge in a corner. Lucy, startled by his actions, snapped her attention back towards him and felt her jaw fall slack. Natsu was now pressed into the corner of the stone wall with his arms crossed tighter than before, and his eyes narrowed to slits towards her.

What kind of reaction was this?!

"Pervert." He muttered a second later.

Lucy heard something crack in the back of her head, "Pervert? I asked you that out of concern! You're the pervert!"

"Tch, says the pervert." He muttered again.

"I'm not a pervert!" Lucy raised her voice higher.

"Only a pervert would say they're not."

"Ugghh!" Lucy scrunched her brows and squeezed her eyes shut, and dropped her head back against the stone wall behind her. One moment she might have found him attractive, and the next he has already given her a headache. Why didn't she just continuously slam her head into the wall right here?

"They're fine." His voice sounded again after a while, but smaller than before. Lucy rolled her head over to look at him, brows furrowed in interest to what he had just mumbled. There was a pout on his lip that she braved to think was adorable, and his narrowed eyes were now towards the door and not on her.

"'They're'?" Lucy questioned, only realizing what he meant right after she said it. A hot blush rose to her cheeks.

Natsu flailed and jumped to his feet and pointed an accusing finger down at her, obvious embarrassment now showing in his face. Lucy braced herself to be shouted at when he opened his mouth, but barely got so much as a sound out before a blur of blue shot through one the openings in the wall and collided into the side of his face, sending his balance off and nearly into the floor. What ever he was going to say to her became muffled.

Natsu found his balance again and stood still for a moment as they both registered the animal that was now hugging his face. Lucy looked in amazement as the blue furred cat curled its tail around Natsu's arm and rubbed its face and whiskers around his forehead before Natsu finally managed to pull the creature off him. Lucy wasn't expecting to see a bright smile on his face when he held out animal in front of him, but when it showed, she was not able to look away from it.

"Happy!" Natsu exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up and smile growing wider, "Where've you been?"

"With Erza and Gajeel, remember!" The cat cried, "I missed yoooou!" Natsu laughed and allowed the feline to claw its way around his shoulders and curl into his neck, and Lucy hadn't noticed she was smiling at the scene until the cat had taken a notice to her. The smile dropped and the felines ears shot up straight and the pupils of its eyes thinned immediately. Sweat began to build at her brow as she ended up caught in a stare down with the cat as Natsu became occupied with a slip of paper peeking out from the small bag on the Happy's back.

"Did Gajeel send this? The handwriting is horrible." Natsu mumbled, mostly to himself, but Lucy couldn't help but hear. He turned his body to the side and rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he read the wording on the paper. Lucy watched his eyes scan back and forth before his eyes thinned and the paper folded down in his hands. He turned for the door and unlatched it, and opened it enough for him to walk out. He paused in the doorway though, and looked over his shoulder at her. "Happy, stay with Lucy."

"Aye sir!"

"Huh? Wait, where are you going?" Lucy sat up straight and moved to get up, but the chains restrained her from doing so. The cat skipped up and sat down in front of her, and watched Natsu walk out and turn to shut the door behind him.

"I should be back before dawn." He said before the door was slammed shut and locked from the outside.

"Are you the princess?" Happy asked, but Lucy didn't hear him and was still staring at the door.

Where was he going off to so suddenly? He couldn't leave her alone here again like that! She never got to ask him the questions she needed to! She won't see him again until tomorrow; she would be asleep when he returns.

Lucy turned to the side and peeked out the opening in the wall to see if he walked out yet, and caught him walking out the opening of the other side of the tower, pulling a cape up on his shoulders and a hood over his head. The gleam of his machete flashed in her eye as he attached it to the side of his leg.

Why did he need a machete? Where was he going?

"You're an ugly princess." That she heard. Lucy growled and snapped her head towards the cat sitting innocently at her feet.

"What did you just say, stupid cat?!" She roared. This cat was lucky she was chained in place or he would be eating his tail!

By the time Lucy turned back to the hole, Natsu was out of sight behind the trees. And she couldn't help but recall that he called her by her name, and not Princess like he had done the first time she saw him. She didn't have to tell him twice like she did with everyone else. Could he have heard her that time?

She jumped up suddenly. She can't get comfortable here, what is wrong with her! Just because some guy flashed a bright smile and called her by her first name didn't give her a reason to be comfortable around him. He is a criminal! A dangerous one! He cannot be trusted here.

She had to keep her guard up and be aware of anything.

It was then her stomach let out a loud grumble of hunger and she grossed her legs up to try and silence it. Happy 'pfft' behind a paw and looked at her in amusement, much to her embarrassment. She couldn't help it! She hasn't eaten anything since yesterday!

"I have some left over fish if you want it!" Happy perked up before turning to go through his bag, pulling out a headless dead, raw fish a second later.

Lucy gagged and shook her head, rejecting the fish and turning away.

She woke up to the sound of rain starting to pour down on the roofing above her. She must have dozed off some time while she and Happy were talking, because now the sky looked like it has been dark for hours now. The temperature has dropped greatly, and her only source of warmth was the cat that was curled into her stomach. Droplets of water started coming through the stones from the ceiling and the walls, and mist sprayed in from the window across from her. Unconsciously she hugged Happy's small form closer into her abdomen the best she could, just enough not to wake him but to feel the heat from his body.

The door sounded suddenly as it was unlocked, startling her before it was pushed open. Natsu's hooded figure stalked slowly in and Lucy pushed her back up against the wall as he walked towards them, removing his hood as he kneeled down in front of her knees.

Her stomach dropped to the ground at the sight of the blood dripping down the side of his temple, and splattered across the side of his face, mixing with rain water that soaked him. She paid attention to nothing else as he placed a tied sack on her legs and pressed the cuffs on her wrist open. He looked unharmed and showed no signs of pain in his features.

So that meant, the blood on him had to be someone else's? That is where he went?

A cold flash ran through her body.

"I got you some food from the nearest village. It's on the outskirts on the woods, so it was close." Natsu quickly explained as he loosened the chains behind her, "You must be hungry. Eat up while it's still warm." He patted Happy on the head and pushed up to his feet and turned to the door, but not before Lucy got a clear view of the large knife attached to his leg, and the amount of blood that coated the blade, before his cape hid it from her.

Was he not just a criminal, but an assassin as well? A murderer?

The door was shut and locked behind him as he exited, leaving Lucy in her silent terror. All the attraction and smiles from the day before felt like they were now gone.

She had to get out of here. Before it was her blood running down that knife.

a/n: * wipes brow * i was going to add more to this, but i figured i'd end it there and save the rest for the next chapter. i wrote part of this from my phone, so i'm sorry if any of it looks weird! i was sitting in the locker room at school for three hours waiting for the afternoon class, so i wrote some of it heuhe.

anyway, till next time, guys!