The next morning when Natsu stepped through the swinging doors of the bar to go see Lucy he was dumbstruck by the level of hyper activity going on. There was more yelling and laughing and crying than usual, which was odd considering that there weren't any people passed out on the floor among empty beer mugs.

Every guild member in the bar was crowded around the table directly in front of the kitchen where Mira was coming out carrying two trays full of food while everyone at the table tried talking all at once.

Natsu hung around in the door way for a second and tried to see what the fuss was about by listening to the little snippets of conversation that he could catch over the deafening sound of everyone else's voices and getting absolutely no information at all.

God would it kill them to share some frigging information with me so that I'm not left out of the loop? He wondered in irritation as he took several steps out of the door way and headed towards the crowd and finally managed to ask, "Did we get a new member or something?"

He wasn't asking because he really cared at the moment, he was asking so that he could figure out why everyone was making so much noise when Lucy was trying to rest. The thought didn't make much sense to him since he wanted his partner to wake up so badly, but at the same time he wanted her to be able to rest undisturbed. Elfman and Gray turned to look at him with huge smiles on their faces as they broke away from the crowd and ran over to him.

"Natsu!"

"It's unbelievable! Lucy woke up!"

Natsu didn't even blink as he walked by them, picking up his pace a little bit and started to rudely shove his way through the rest of the crowd. Not caring if he had to resort to stepping on toes and elbowing some while he grabbed others by the scruff of the neck and tossed them out of his way until he reached the table and stopped cold as he came face to face with his partner and nearly fell to his knees and started to cry himself as he looked her over.

She still looked a little pale, but her color was much better today. Her long hair hung over one slender shoulder in a thick braid. And she had a fork in her hand and was in the middle of taking a bite of food when he grabbed the chair next to her and pulled it out, startling her a little bit if the way she jumped was any indication at all, and then sat down and propped one elbow on the table and settled his chin in his palm and smiled at her as she looked at him.

"Hi." He said, hoping that they could simply strike up a conversation like they usually did. He needed to hear her voice so badly it wasn't even funny. She dropped her fork a little bit and looked around with a slightly uncomfortable look on her pretty face before looking at him again and giving him a nervous smile.

"H-Hi."

"It's been a while hasn't it?" Natsu said gently as Lucy tilted her head to the left slightly and stared at him for a moment a small frown marring her features.

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She didn't know what was going on, or who these strange people were.

All she had woken up knowing was that she was hungry. Which was why the first thing out of her mouth an hour ago had been 'food'. And now that she had eaten some stuff she felt considerably better than she had before when her stomach had been empty. Not only that but with her stomach full now, she was able to better focus her mind and think.

Which had led her to wonder where she was, and who all of these overly familiar, loud, hyper and obnoxious people were. She didn't recognize any of them as people that she knew. The building that they were all in didn't look very familiar.

The people were all dressed strangely and some of them looked like mutants. Not that she had anything against that, it was just a little disgruntling to wake up too when you were already confused about stuff like; who, what, when, why, and how.

She had been perfectly content to sit there and eat, and then out of no where this guy with sort of spiky pink colored hair and amber eyes appeared and sat down next to her silencing almost all venues of conversation around her.

She had been about to ask the guy what he wanted when he had smiled at her and said 'hi' and then tried to draw her into conversation with him by saying that 'it's been a while hasn't it?' effectively gaining her undivided attention while she tried to figure out if they had ever met before.

So far she was coming up with a whole lot of blanks. Which was just weird since she was pretty sure that she'd remember meeting a guy secure enough in his masculinity to be seen in public with pink hair.

Which was why she hesitated a second before asking him in a slightly nervous tone, "Do I know you?"

The young man studied her for a second and slowly dropped his arm, a frown working it's way across his face followed by a little bit of a hurt/worried look. "Are you serious Lucy? Do you really not know me?" He asked in a velvety soft, yet oddly calm tone.

She looked around again, noting the troubled looks on everyone else's faces and wondering if she should lie. But knew that lying to them would be pointless since she really, honestly didn't know any of them. "N-No..." She stuttered with an anxious look on her face. Almost fearing how the young man and his many, many, many friends would react to her answer.

None of them reacted the way that she had expected. Instead of shocked gasps, or displays of frustration or anger the young man next to her gave her a sad smile and held his hand out to her. "I'm Natsu-" She reached out tentatively and grasped his hand and blinked as he wrapped his fingers around hers and gently shook her hand before saying, "And you are my partner."

She blinked at him again.

Partner? What did he mean by that?