Hey guys! As I say, your reviews motivate me, so here is chapter 23! Enjoy! StellarMEL, you're close to getting it right, but still slightly wrong... 3:D

WHEN WE WERE KIDS

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

"If I'm only fourteen, how come I have a fiancee?" I asked, still lost in confusion land.

"It's only two years." He said.

"Am I dreaming or not?" I said, he laughed.

"Pinch yourself." He said. "Go on."

"Okay." I said, and pinched my forearm. My forearm! Where were my burns! Last I remembered, I still had new pink skin there, could that of been the dream? "It hurts."

"See? You are awake, Lula. Now, go back to sleep." He said, taking my arm, and gently stroking it. I remembered my pet name he had for me, Lula.

"Huh? Why?"

"Because it's only three a.m., see, it's still dark." He said, standing up, and sitting on the side of the bed.

"Then why are you up?"

"Because you kept moving around, budge up." He said, climbing in next to me. It didn't feel natural, but it did feel familiar. He put his arm around me, and I just lay there. "What's the matter? You aren't being you're usual affectionate self." He said.

"I'm sorry, still a bit shaken, that's all." I said. Act natural. I lay on his chest, and he stroked my hair. I could hear his heart beating, and his chest rise up and down. The breathing became more rythmic, and he was asleep. I fell back to sleep, to.

I woke up again. Still on Tristan's chest. The clock in the corner of my room showed five a.m. I got up, carefully, as to not wake him up.

I couldn't sleep, more like I didn't want to, I hadn't been here for four months, well, I had, or had I? Maybe me walking at that precise moment was a dream to. The corridors were dark and silent, I moved like a ghost through the halls, no one knowing I was there. All of the rooms, I had never been in all of them. My thoughts stopped in there tracks, as I heard clanging, distant, but in the mansion. It scared me, clanging of chains on metal. It wasn't normal. I rushed towards the sound, not knowing where I was going espacialy, but I found my was to a staircase, that led downstairs. The clanging stopped, but I continued. My footsteps ecchoed through the corridor, which looked more like a dungeon than anything else. I walked on. Suddenly, the walls that were lined with wine racks turned into what looked like a prison, a cell ever five meters.

I found a cell, with the outline a person inside. One standing up. I rushed to the bars.

"H-hello?" I said.

"Lucy ?" A voice I knew well said. He stepped into where the light hit.

"Natsu!" I said, reaching out towards him through the bars. He rushed forwards. His hand were cuffed behing his back. I remembered what happened, before I fainted, and frowned.

"Was that you?" I asked.

"What? When?" He said.

"When I fell unconscious. Was that you?"

"Hold on, you fell unconscious, why? When?" He said, walking right up to the bars.

"Somebodys impersionating you. They drugged me, I think..." I said. I could see him closer now. He had a black eye, and his clothes were dirty.

"Lucy, please tell me what's happening." He said.

"I'm not sure myself. I'll start from the beginning. Somebady's been blackmailind me."

"What?! Tell me!" He said. I told him about being blackmailed, and how I couldn't speak to him.

"So then, I wake up, after having met someone who looks like you and was in your house and room, next to my friend who I thought was dead or something, and it turns out he's my fiancee!"

"Fiancee! You're fourteen!" He said.

"I don't know, but then he say's that I'm not being my affectiante self when he's lying next to me, as in sleeping in the same bed as me!"

"Something bothers me..."

"Oh! Not the fact that I may be dreaming, probably the fact that this cell hasn't got rats in it!" I said, angry.

"You took those pills to say bye to me?" He finally asked. I was taken aback by he question, but it stopped me being angry.

"Yes, what I had done to you that day, ignored you, hurt your feelings, Cana told me about how the nurse came to get you... I had to say sorry and explain it to you." I said, as he turned around, and I tried to find a way to break the chains.

"But I wasn't home, neither was Gramps." He said."Luce?" ah, it was nice to hear that name.

"Yeah?"

"You asked me 'was that you', did the person pretending to be me do something to you?" He asked. I hesitated for a second, torn between wether to tell him, or not. "You hesitated. He did something to you. I swear... what did he do?" He continued, his voice dead serious.

"I'm not sure."

"What do you mean? How could you be not sure?!"

"I fell unconscious when he kept trying to kiss me." I said, looking down. He growled.

"When I get out of here, I will find that person, whoever they are, and give them a piece of my mind!" He said.

"Natsu?" I asked.

"What?" He said, still angry.

"I'm really confused, I think I might be dreaming. You see, Tristan was with me when I woke up, and he said I kept saying names in my sleep, Erza Cana, Juvia, Natsu... and then he tells me, that I haven't left the mansion..."

"So you think that right now you're dreaming?"

"I don't know, either that, or it's when I'm with Tristan. I don't know how to make the difference, and my burns are gone, so I don't have any proof." I said. He was silent for a while.

"I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"You need something to prove to yourself that Magnolia, Obba, and I, are real. I'll give you something."

"How? You hands are cuffed, and you have nothing."

"Not an object, that's to easily lost, I'll give you a mark or something."

"How?"

"I don't know, I can't really do anything without my hands...I just had another idea."

"What? Don't tell me your going to bite me or something, I'll call you a vampire for the rest of your life." I joked.

"I was going to say that, but never mind." He said. "Unless..."

"What?"

"Please don't slap me."

"Huh?"

"Another type of bite." He said.

"What? You don't mean..."

"Yes, I can't think of any other way. Do you mind?"

"We are talking about the same thing?" I asked.

"Yeah, love bites." He said, once again, as cool as ever. I sighed.

"Fine." I said, resigning myself maybe a bit to easily.

"Okay, I'll do it on your neck, tilt your head." He said. I approached the bars closer, as did he, and I tilted my head. "I'm sorry." He said, I tutted. He put his lips to my skin, and opened them slightly, then started sucking. It hurt slightly, like when you put your finger on a bruise and press down, a bit like that, but it made my heart beat faster than it should, and my eyes flutter. If only those bars weren't there... it was still amazing, just like I had told Levy, the pressure, the movements of his lips, the warmth of him, I wondered if his heart was beating as fast as mine? Probably. I let my eyes close, to enjoy the pleasure as much as I could, was he enjoying it? I sighed, not in boredom, in content, that he was there, even if this was a dream, it was definitely one worth having. He removed his lips after around a minute. "I think I left a mark." Was his response. I put my hand up to where he had been, and sure enough, there was a lump and it hurt.

"Yep. That was the last time." I said.

"Hey! I'm helping you by doing this!" He said in protest.

"Whatever. So if I wake up with this, I'll know you're real."

"Yes."

"Okay, and then, I'll get you out, and you can go back to Magnolia."

"Hold on, you? Why not us?"

"You have a place in Magnolia, mine will always be here. I can't risk that blackmailing thing happening again." I said.

"Lucy!" He shouted, angry at me.

"Hey! What's the matter!" I asked, annoyed.

"Don't ever say that! You are never leaving Magnolia because of someone else! Your place is Magnolia, with us!" He shouted. I looked into his eyes, and I could see he was truly angry at me. "I will make sure they never EVER blackmail you again! Whoever they are, I will find them, and tell them not to touch you!" He said. I felt my heart skip a beat, and I knew he was saying the truth...

"Natsu..." was all I could mutter.

"Now go to bed, and when you wake up, you will still have that mark, because we are not your dreams, we are your friends, okay? Do you remember what Cana said, about love bites?" He asked, and didn't give me time to answer. "She said they were a mark of territory, basicaly, you're mine, and if anybody tries to harm you in anyway, I will make sure they never even think about it, 'kay?" He said. I stared open mouthed at him. "Now go to bed, and sleep." He ordered. I nodded, and ran off, back up the stairs. His words had made me sure, he was real, and that mark was to, but I needed to make sure. I ran back into my room, where Tristan was still sleeping. I lay down next to him, and slept.

The thing that seemed strange, was that it kind of felt like a battle between Natsu and Tristan, or I had to decide between them, why? One was my fiancee, one was my crush, one I loved, one I wasn't sure what to think about.

Next chapter! Probably the final of the blackmailing, your questions will be answered, and more pain and pleasure! Till next time! Bisous, from Roji :*