Chapter 2: Arrival

Natsu's eyelids cracked open, the sunlight immediately barraging his vision. He winced, and sat up slowly, a few spots in his back cracking. The sky seemed bluer than usual, the clouds, whiter, and the grass, greener. He loved the sunshine, but Natsu remembered falling asleep under the shade of a tree. The tree was still present, just the shadow shifted. "Has it really been that long?" Natsu quietly asked himself.

He glanced at the sun, which had far passed the center of the sky, and reveled in his thoughts of nothing in particular for a moment before bouncing up. He was supposed to be back at the guildhall before noon. "Happy, come on!" He yelled to his companion, still sound asleep in the grass.

The blue cat popped up uncharacteristically quickly, but his voice cracked from sleep as he spoke. "Yeah? Natsu, what's going on?"

"Come on, Happy, Erza's gonna kill us, we were supposed to be there at noon!" Natsu had already begun to sprint. The guild hall was about a fifteen minute run away - but Natsu could make it six.

"Oh, I see." Happy stared at his hand, taking a moment before recognizing his impending doom. "Holy shit Natsu, why'd you let me sleep? She's gonna literally kill us." He said before taking flight.

Natsu turned his face away from his companion and smirked. Unlike Happy, he wasn't actually scared of Erza, feigning it only to seem normal. Natsu couldn't remember the last time he was genuinely scared, not that 'wide eyes, dropped jaw' bullshit act he puts on.

Another side effect of being a demon. Natsu thought to himself. He wondered what it felt like, fear. Emotion in general, actually. The very few emotions he had the privilege to feel seemed very distant, although he often even convinced himself with his act.

Natsu shook himself out of his thoughts to focus on running. He could indeed mop the floor with Erza's bloody and limbless corpse, but doing that would give him a less than decent reputation, and would also most likely reveal his true nature. So he ran, fast, even calling upon a small portion of his demonic power to boost is speed. But he whipped around a corner too fast, giving him barely enough time to slow down before he slammed into an pedestrian.

Immediately, Natsu was captivated. Not in an intimate way, he had no ability to think like that about a human, but she seemed different than the rest. She seemed pure, incorruptible, and for a split second, Natsu felt vulnerable, as if she immediately knew everything about him, just from a glance. But the feeling disappeared as quickly as it came, and Natsu helped the girl up. She was blonde, with big, brown eyes, and a more than averagely sized rack. She wore a white vest, with blue stripes lining the edges, and a blue skort that went down to about half a foot above her knees.

"Ah crap, I'm sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention." Although Natsu was a demon, he didn't always embrace the stereotypical demonic characteristics. In fact, he hated said stereotypes. He didn't just feast off of the suffering of others, like demons are supposed to. Well, he did, but that doesn't mean he just hurts everyone he possibly can.

He looked down to what she had dropped to see a hundred shards, the remainders of a ceramic, maybe. "Shit, I'm so sorry about breaking that, I can pay for it, if I can…" He said, ignoring his expected presence at the guild hall, as well as the absence of a certain flying cat.

The blonde was perfectly fine and uninjured, and laughed, something Natsu was not expecting, and it immediately entranced him. "No, it's okay, thank you though." She looked down to the broken item. "Honestly, I kinda wanted to get rid of that thing anyway." She giggled again, and Natsu blinked, still lost in his captivation.

"Are you sure? Maybe lunch, or something, I'd feel bad if I didn't make it up." Natsu said. He didn't mean this in any intimate way, and it was clear that the girl didn't take it so, but Natsu had a reputation he had to uphold. He expected her to say no, but he wasn't disappointed when she said otherwise.

"Actually, I'll take you up on that. Not because you owe me, but I'm moving in, and I think it'd be nice to meet some of the neighbors." She giggled again, and Natsu decided it was a common occurrence that he most definitely would not mind.

"Is that so? Then welcome to Magnolia…" He made a gesture and gave the girl an expecting glance, but still wore a charming smile.

She blushed, and dropped her head in attempt to hide it - Natsu wasn't expecting that much of a reaction. "Lucy." She mumbled.

Natsu snorted. "'Scuse me, ma'am," He pulled out the word playfully. "But you're gonna have to speak up a bit."

Lucy's face took on an even darker hue of velvet, but she kept her head angled downwards - Natsu still noticed the blush deepen. "Lucy." She mumbled again.

"Seriously? I really can't understand you." Natsu made himself sound chipper and friendly, an act he had plenty of experience with.

She cleared her throat, and whipped her head up, forcing herself to make eye contact with the friendly stranger. She made her voice prouder, and straightened her back in attempt to appear taller. "My name is Lucy." She said, almost yelling.

He smiled, amused by her slight annoyance. "Well then, Lucy" he said, stretching the word out once again. "I'm Natsu." He stuck his hand out with his brightest smile on his face; the '1000 Watt Smile' he liked to call it.

Lucy stared at him, eyes wide and even though she felt her cheeks burn even hotter than before, she couldn't bring herself to look away. She timidly met his hand with hers, expecting sandpaper skin, and a grip that would rip her arm off. But instead, she nearly cooed aloud at the softness of his skin, and while his grip wasn't weak, it was gentle, yet had a noticeable strength contained.

Natsu could see the reaction in her eyes, and while he still felt bad about wrecking her vase, he couldn't help but laugh in his head, somewhat evilly. Humans are too easy. He thought to himself.

Natsu had brought his new friend to a restaurant that he often went to, mainly for the bottomless dishes, but also because the waitresses weren't always trying to get in his bed (something that he had indeed let happen before, but for entertainment purposes only).

Being a demon, his body requires more than eight times more food than that of the average human, 80% of which had to be meat, more or less. However, he restrained himself when he ate with Lucy, only eating half as much as he usually would. Granted, that was still four times more consumption than a normal person, but she didn't seem to mind.

He went from ignoring his expected presence at the guild hall to completely forgetting about it - along with the whereabouts of his blue furry friend - getting lost in conversation with Lucy. He found that her voice rarely got a break, something that didn't annoy him much; her voice was oddly tolerable, and actually somewhat soothing, much like her laugh.

About 13 dishes in, Lucy had just finished a story and he signaled the waitress to stop bringing him more; she looked like she needed a break. "So what are you doing in Magnolia?" he asked Lucy before she could start another story.

"Oh, well it's a very long story, so I'll be quick." Lucy said, pausing to take a breath. "I'm kind of a… well, I guess you could call me an outcast. My family didn't like me very much…" Her voice darkened and her eyes were cast down to the table. It was obviously a hard topic for her to talk about.

Whilst not outraged, or anything of the sort, Natsu was surprised that anyone ever didn't like Lucy. He was a demon, with the smallest tolerance level known to man, demon, or angel, and he genuinely liked Lucy's presence. "Lucy, if you don't want to talk about this, you don't have to." He did want to know, but he didn't want to seem insensitive.

She shook her head and smiled, but Natsu noticed it failed to reach her eyes. "No, it's okay, I need to get over it eventually. Anyways…" She inhaled. "I ran away from home, I doubt they even noticed I left. I guess I'm just an wanderer, looking for a new family, to put it simply."

Natsu could relate to that. Even though he was a demon, and demons were supposed to be absolutely heartless, he hadn't always gotten along with the other Generals of Hell. He wished he could've run away, escaped his fate as a general, but there aren't many people who would be willing to take a demon in.

He hadn't even noticed the thought before it escaped his lips. He had asked Lucy to join Fairy Tail. Shit, running my fucking mouth, yet again.

He explained to her what Fairy Tail was: a group of outcasts that he had joined just a few days after his arrival in Magnolia to make him fit in better. Most of its members were former crooks and criminals who wanted to escape their past life of sin, others were just innocents that were bored of their life of, well, innocence. But Natsu treated them like how he would treat his family, if he had one.

Natsu continued to mentally yell at himself for being so careless, but he still awaited her answer, a little anxious. He was afraid she'd say no, then everything would be weird and awkward. He had just met her after all. Or maybe she'd make a scene, yelling at him, assuming that he was only after her body; a fair, yet incorrect assumption.

But her answer was not as he predicted. Instead, Lucy's face became one of true and almost contagious joy, and Natsu couldn't even help but genuinely smile, something that not often occurred. "Really? That'd be okay with everyone?" She asked, smile still staining her lips.

Natsu couldn't say no now, she was practically cheating with that smile. "Of course, and if not, I'll just pummel them." He said casually, and smirked to himself when she giggled and blushed, yet again.

There was a healthy pause before Lucy spoke up. "Thank you, Natsu." Her voice became softer, sweeter, and the demon just loved it even more. "I was expecting to not fit in here, for a while, at least. And yet here I am, having lunch with someone, and joining a group of misfits. So thank you."

"Don't mention it. Anyway, it'll be nice to have someone I actually like in the guild." He genuinely meant that. Although he could make it seem otherwise, most of the guild members made Natsu crazy - it was so tempting for him to rearrange their internal organs.

Lucy smiled once more and giggled into her hand, and to Natsu it seemed like she was deliberately trying to drive him mad. It then occurred to him how quickly she got under his skin, and that bugged him. He wasn't like what demons were made out to be, for the most part, but he was rather intolerant, especially when it came to humans.

He never had a burning hatred for them, or even a subtle one, but to Natsu, humans were still a nuisance. They were ignorant and self-centered, they fought with one another, bringing greed and violence everywhere they went. To Natsu, humans were the true demons, just too small-minded to realize it.

But Lucy was different. Although he had known her for only a few hours, she seemed, well… different. Natsu couldn't even describe it. She was so pristine and pure, so untouched by the corruption of both humans and demons alike, as if immune to all evil. And she was so beautiful, something he didn't believe he could think of someone. Her skin was so clean and shiny, like that of a porcelain doll, her hair as bright as the sun, her eyes as deep as the pits of Hell, but the eternal pain and suffering replaced instead with peace and warmth. She was inhuman… she was perfect.

A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for the massive delay. I know that there were a few people who wanted this as a story, so I'll try my best to make it a good one, but please be patient. Like always, tell me what I did wrong and how I can improve and whatnot, but I do want to know one thing in particular… I really don't know if these chapters are an acceptable length, so PLEASE tell me if you guys want it longer or shorter. Also, I know everyone says this, but I am really going to try to update more.