I just noticed that Chapter 1 is 1,761 words, including the Author's Note, Chapter 2 is 2,303 words and Chapter 3 is 3,076 words. Wow it's a good thing these chapters are getting longer and not shorter. (Yeah well Chapter 4 was just over a thousand words so... yeah no.) But don't expect them to get a thousand words longer each chapter! Otherwise at like Chapter 17... 17k words... Yeah not gonna happen. But I hope to get most Chapters in the 2k-4k word range! On another note, I'm pretty glad I started this in the summer. I don't know if I'd have the time to write a pretty lengthy story in the winter, especially with school and all. But Hey, it's July 1st at the time of the author's note. I guess that this story will go up on the Second of July! (Sorry bud, it's going up on the third. Didn't mean to get your hopes up, past me). (Oh yeah I added the parentheses sentences after I wrote Chapter 4... so yeah!)

Natsu hurried off cheerfully! He was so excited. Now if only he could find this Lucy girl, then he could get into a fight. A FIGHT! It's just like home, Natsu thought. He realized though that he should probably keep his magic until he needs it, hopefully when the guy decides to pull his sword out. That would be better at least.

Then it hit him... does he even know who Lucy Heartfilia is? Surely he knows a Lucy, but is that Lucy the one he's looking for? Oh well, he figures, might as well check. He began to look around the entire school building. School was let out only 10 minutes ago, so he hopes that Lucy is still here. He's aching to fight someone since it's been A LONG TIME since he has. I mean it's been like what, TWO DAYS since he last fought someone. That's way too long in his opinion. Even the ice stripper would do for him now.

He looked everywhere, up and down the hallways, he peeked his head through the windows of each classroom door that had lights that were on in case she was in detention. He walked down to the main entrance of the building, scanned the outside again, noticing she wasn't there. He went back in and checked the library, and lucky for him, happened to find her sitting in the back corner of the room reading a book. He approached her, a little shy, and said,

"Hey, are y-you Lucy Heartfilia?"

"Uh yeah, but please just call me Lucy, I don't like that last name of mine. It makes people think I'm some kind of rich snobby girl." Lucy said.

"Oh ok, just making sure, and I don't think you're snobby at all. You certainly don't act rich, if you know what I mean." Natsu answered.

"Thanks for the compliment, Natsu was it? Oh yeah! You're the guy I ran into yesterday with the cool pink hair!" Lucy said in between laughs.

"HEY! It's not pink it's SALMON! Geez, everyone keeps saying it's pink. I mean it's not like I have bad vision or something." Natsu said, defending himself.

"Well you don't need do get so worked up about it." Lucy said, then chuckled. "By the way, I'd love to keep talking to you, but you see I got this really crazy boyfriend who's really protective. Like seriously, it's kinda annoying he doesn't let me talk to ANY other guys. He thinks they're all trying to get into my pants or something. It's so stupid!" Lucy complained to Natsu.

Natsu smiled to himself... It looks like he found the right person. How could he make sure he ran into Dan? Oh yeah! A tour. A tour around the school would be good! That way he'd go everywhere so he'd most definitely have to run into him somewhere. That and he couldn't find the cafeteria during school. Boy was he hungry. All those meals he missed out on... 1 meal. Yup one meal too much, Natsu thought to himself.

"Oh well I'm not really afraid of him. You see, I'm not very worried about him. I was wondering though, if you could give me a tour of the building. I kinda couldn't find the cafeteria today and so I'm REALLLLLLLLY hungry." Natsu said.

"Sure that'd be fun! Just don't say I didn't warn you if we run into my boyfriend. I'll try to hold him off though, because I think that it'd be at least fun to do talk to another boy. My friends are pretty nice, but I haven't made a new one in a while since Dan started attacking all the boys for going near me. In fact the longest someone has ever talked to me with Dan showing up was about 2 and a half minutes." Lucy said.

"Oh well I'm sure I could beat his record. In fact, I'm gonna talk to you for more then 10!" Natsu said, punching his fist into the air. He now knows why Sting said three minutes. Natsu has to break the world record! Lucy just giggled at his cheerfulness. She almost felt bad, she hoped he wouldn't run into Dan and have to face the consequences. She really wishes Dan wouldn't do that.

The tour began. Natsu and Lucy went down the halls together, stopping on each floor to say which subject each floor centered on. As they were heading to the English floor, Natsu swore he could hear some arguing coming from the hallway thanks to his super dragon senses. When he recognized what it was about, he told Lucy he didn't need to go there. Natsu didn't Lucy's heart to be broken.

"Don't you dare go near my Angel ever again or I'm going to kick the crap outta you!" a raging male voice said.

"A-alright, I-I'm s-sorry D-dan I won't do that again. I th-thought you w-would be a-after that pink haired freak who was talking to Lucy." a voice in fear said. Natsu was pissed. Not only was he called a pink haired freak, but he was also being ratted out for talking to Lucy. Originally he wanted to be caught, but after talking to Lucy for so long, he wanted to keep talking to her for a while longer.

"WHAT?! SOMEONE IS TALKING TO MY LULU?! AND DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK OF ANGEL AND I! I SWEAR IF WORD GETS OUT IT'LL BE THE LAST DAY YOU LIVE!" Dan screamed at the young male.

"U-understood, s-sorry D-dan, I w-won't speak of i-it." the voice answered, even more frightened then before.

As Natsu and Lucy were headed out the door, it had been a total of 30 minutes of talking. That EASILY shattered the record that the last person held. Natsu not only learned how to navigate the school, but he also learned quite a bit about Lucy. He learned that she is the daughter of the richest man in the city, her mother died when she was young, and her father didn't pay attention to her much. He learned that she ran away from home and that when she first came here she had a hard time fitting in. She learned about how Dan was nice to her and became her first friend, and was really the nicest up until a few weeks ago when he seemed to distance himself quite a bit from her. Sure he was with her a lot still, just not nearly as much as before. Natsu knew why, but wasn't about to say it to her face. More importantly however, Natsu learned a lot about her. He learned that she wanted to be a writer. That she didn't have many friends, really only a few besides Dan, and they weren't really close. Natsu learned about how she really liked fairy tales, and dreamed of living one. Natsu learned about her kindness, but also learned that she was feistily mean. Natsu learned almost everything about her. In fact the conversation changed from what was what in the school to what's Lucy's life like. Natsu learned how her favorite color was blue, but that she really also liked pink. He figured that's why she was so infatuated by his hair. She asked several questions about it, and Natsu just ended up saying it was a thingy that was really uncommon, or a "genetic mutation" as Lucy called it.

Lucy was a little confused that Dan didn't show up. Usually he's always there whenever a perverted teenager comes after her, not that Natsu was, but Natsu was a boy, and Dan didn't like boys going near Lucy in general. That wasn't to say Lucy was sad about it, in fact, Lucy was overjoyed. It's been the longest time since Lucy ever had a casual conversation with a guy that wasn't Dan, and honestly, Lucy was starting to lose interest in him. He may have been overprotective, caring, and somewhat handsome, but he wasn't very fun. His overprotectiveness kept Lucy away from perverts, but it did isolate her from a lot of nice people.

When they got outside, Natsu asked Lucy where her home was delighted to hear that it was just next to his, so they could continue to talk. As they were walking down the street, Natsu asked Lucy,

"Hey I kinda wanna test something, can I have your right arm for a second? I promise it's nothing perverted." Natsu asked.

"Sure, okay. I trust you." Lucy said back with a smile.

Natsu grabbed her right arm and put her right wrist against his. Immediately, he noticed a small glow coming from the top of each other's wrists. It was like a golden glow and they both stood their amazed. Lucy was starting to freak out, when Natsu was about to jump for joy. Still holding that position, she asked,

"What does this mean? How come my wrist is glowing like this? And why is yours too? Is it some kind of trick?" Firing questions at her, Natsu wasn't sure which to answer first.

"YOSH! I FOUND HER!" He screamed in joy. Remembering she was there, he added, "Oh Lucy, I've got a lot of explaining to do. Do you want to meet up at school earlier tomorrow? I'll tell you everything then. But promise me you won't tell ANYONE, not even Dan about this. It's super secret stuff." Natsu said. Lucy nodded her head and tried to fake a smile, but she was so shocked she couldn't even begin to fathom the situation.

Suddenly, a voice caught up to them, screaming out,

"HEY PINKY, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING WITH MY GIRL?" Natsu immediately recognized the voice, it was Dan Straight's.

"Who said you could call me pinky. I only let friends call me that. And you don't seem like a friend of mine." Natsu answered coldly. He continued, "Besides, Lucy can talk to anyone she wants. I'm kinda new here and I bumped into her in the hallway yesterday. She seemed kind of nice so I asked for a tour of the place. She agreed and we went on a tour."

"I don't remember approving your conversation with my Lulu." Dan answered, looking for a fight.

"I don't remember needing your approval to talk to my friend." Natsu answered, just as coldly.

"Please don't fight him Dan, he's a nice guy. He just wanted a tour." Lucy pleaded.

"Well I don't like him getting all close to you. It seems like he's just trying to steal you from me." Dan said.

"That's not what's happening!" Natsu and Lucy said in unison. They looked at each other, shocked that they had said the exact same thing. Dan didn't approve of it though, and screamed back,

"ALRIGHT NOW YOU'VE SERIOUSLY PISSED ME OFF. YOU'RE SO TRYING TO TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME." Dan screamed, and sent a punch towards Natsu. Unfortunately for Dan, Natsu caught his fist with one hand and said,

"Sorry bud, but I'm not going to fight you. It'd make my friend sad to see her boyfriend get hurt." As much as it hurt Natsu to say that, he really didn't want to make Lucy upset. Though he knew Dan was relentless and would fight him either way. Natsu just needed an excuse to start the fight.

"ARE YOU EXPECTING ME NOT TO FIGHT YOU? SERIOUSLY? YOU'RE SO DEAD." Dan replied, charging towards Natsu. Natsu moved to the left to dodge, and Dan turned towards him. This time he was close enough to throw a punch at Natsu to his face, but Natsu ducked. Dan's other fist followed and went towards him in his crouched position. Natsu fell back onto his back and rolled to the right. He stood up again and said,

"I'm serious I don't want to fight. Can't you see your girlfriend is sad right now? She doesn't want us fighting either." Natsu said.

"If you can't handle me, then you shouldn't have talked to my girlfriend in the first place." Dan said while charging at Natsu. Unfortunately for Natsu, he didn't catch on until it was too late. A punch hit him straight in the stomach. Natsu was pissed.

"Oh you've done it now, Dan, I'm sorry Lucy, but I can't forgive him for punching me like that." After hearing that, Lucy took a step to the side, as to be out of the way. She didn't want it to end like this. Natsu was such a nice guy, and would've been a great friend. Lucy took a seat on the bench and tears formed in her eyes. Stupid Dan! Why can't I make friends with other guys! They're not all trying to hit on me! Thoughts like these flooded through her mind as the tears fell.

Meanwhile back with Natsu and Dan, Dan was spouting off some taunting words. Natsu took the opportunity to charge, and he threw a punch against him that would hit him across the face. Dan was getting angry. The nerve of this kid, who would punch HIM, DAN STRAIGHT, son of the second wealthiest person in Magnolia, in the FACE! HIS BEAUTIFUL FACE!

To say Dan was angry was an understatement. Of all of the people who ever fought Dan before, none punched him in the face. They knew if he did then that'd be the end of it. Of course those who fought him didn't know about the sword, or just thought he wouldn't use it. But Dan would, and did use it. On several occasions. Dan charged at Natsu, trying to punch him to distract him. He aimed for the chest, thinking that Natsu would duck again. Wrongamundo, Dan. Natsu jumped. Not like normal height, but seriously high. He jumped abnormally high. Natsu jumped high enough to the point where his feet were level with Dan's head. He came crashing down on Dan's protruding fist. Dan didn't pull back fast enough, stuck in awe of how high Natsu jumped. Seriously, the guy was like a kangaroo on steroids.

As Natsu's body came down on Dan's arm, he attempted to head-butt Natsu with extreme force. Natsu caught onto this and when he was falling, he punched Dan in the face. It stung Natsu's fist, but it must have really hurt Dan because he stepped back a few feet, he wasn't sure he could keep his balance.

"You're quite agile, kid. I'll give you that. You know how to jump pretty high. I've never seen something like it. Unfortunately, you just hit the one guy you don't want to hit in the head TWICE! You're in for a world of hurt kid." Dan said. He knew that someone was with Lucy, so he had brought the sword in case he needed it. He was so thankful he had it. It wasn't a fancy sword, but it was good enough to slice someone. Dan had learned to use the sword in his past and was now an expert at it. He was the best in Magnolia, and no one could compare to him.

As Dan began to pull his sword out, Lucy came back to reality. She saw Dan with a bit of a busted up face, and Natsu, who didn't really look hurt at all. She was thankful Natsu wasn't hurt yet, but she shrieked when Dan pulled the sword out. Seriously? That's lethal! She could see it in his eyes, the hatred and anger, and desire to kill. She screamed,

"PLEASE DAN, NO DON'T DO THIS. HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO DIE! HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"

"Lulu you'll thank me later when you realize this guy was just trying to get into your pants." Dan said.

Natsu was a little troubled. He wasn't afraid of dying. No, a puny sword was nothing to him. He could melt it if he wanted to, but he had to be smart about it. He remembered, people don't like fire in Earth. Natsu began to look around for some secluded place to hide so he could release his fire on Dan. He didn't want to kill Dan, no, he just wanted to melt his sword. Then he saw an alley! His face lit up! An escape!

Dan took his first step forward, an evil smirk on his face. Sobs from Lucy completely drowned out from his thought, he thought this was for the best. Nobody should be near his girlfriend. Any guy posed as a thief to him, someone just trying to steal his Lulu.

"Backing away in fear, pinky? I thought you were Mr. Tough Guy." Dan said.

"HEY! I told you that you can't call me that! Only friends can. And no, I'm definitely not scared. I just wanted to tell you a secret, so I was looking for a secluded place where no one could hear us. After all, what's the fun of secrets if everyone knows them?" Natsu said, with a smirk on his face.

"Sure, why not. After all, it'd be harder to hide your body when the blood stains are out on this open road." Dan said, just as confident

Natsu backed into an alley. He kept going back and back taking a step at the same pace as Dan. Suddenly, he felt the hard wall of a building against his back. Then his smile only got brighter.

"Looks like this is the end of the line, Pinky. Wanna share that secret before you go? Any last words?" Dan said, sword ready to slash Natsu.

"HEY LUCY! LISTEN UP! I'M ABOUT TO SHARE A SECRET AND YOU GOTTA PROMISE NOT TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT? OK?!" Natsu screamed towards the blonde. She looked up, eyes, puffy and red, and she nodded, while pleading one last time.

"Dan, please no. For me. Don't do this. I don't want him to die. He's so nice. He doesn't deserve this! PLEASE DAN!"

"Sorry Lulu, but I'm doing this and I'm going to do it now. So Pinky, what's your secret. I'm dying to know. Actually you can say it while my sword comes to strike you." Dan said.

"DAN IF YOU KILL HIM I'M GOING TO BREAK UP WITH YOU! DON'T DO IT DAN, FOR ME!" Lucy said, pleading one more time. Unfortunately, her words fell upon deaf ears, as Dan's sword swung up behind his head, ready to come down on Natsu.

"I..." Natsu mumbled, then he said it louder, "I... really...", suddenly flames started to appear at his feet, but Dan didn't notice. His eyes were not focused on Natsu. His sword began to decline towards Natsu. "I... really... like..." Natsu said again, in somewhat of a whisper. The sword was about 3 feet from Natsu's head. The flames continued to spread up his legs, and started to hit his torso. Lucy stood in horror as she watched Natsu get engulfed in flames. She thought he was being burnt by something Dan threw at him, but she didn't realize Natsu wasn't of this world.

"I REALLY LIKE FIRE!" Natsu finally screamed. Dan's sword inches from Natsu's now completely engulfed body came to a sudden halt. Dan looked at Natsu in shock and saw a burning man in front of him, holding his sword in place. Then he turned his attention back to the sword, and saw the metal beginning to melt.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Dan screamed. He wasn't sure if Natsu had lit himself on fire, but he wasn't confused as hell when he saw that sword of his melting into little droplets of metal.

"You know why I REALLY LIKE FIRE, DAN? Because I can CONTROL IT! Well yeah, that and it's fricken delicious you know. Have you ever had fire before. Especially golden flames. They're absolutely delicious. Don't eat the yellow ones though, they taste AWFUL." Natsu said, rambling on about the different colors of fire and their tastes.

By now, Dan's sword split in two. Natsu had melted it halfway down the blade and part of it fell on the ground while the remaining piece was in Dan's hand. Dan screamed in horror, but it was quickly silenced as Natsu hit him on the back of his head. No, he wasn't going to burn Dan. But he was going to hit him hard enough to make him forget his memory for the past few hours. But he knew he had too much of a heart to do that to Lucy. After all, Lucy was one of his new friends, and he didn't want to hurt her. Friends were special to Natsu Dragneel.

Natsu pulled the now unconscious Dan Straight out of the alley and put him on one of the benches near the alley. He took out a phone he got from his room and quickly snapped a picture of him and goofy smile with an unconscious Dan Straight on the bench. He tagged it, "Havin fun with my best-buddy Dan Straight who was totally okay with me talking to Lucy." Sting would easily catch onto the lie though, noticing that Dan's face was all bruised up from fighting Natsu. Then he remembered.

"HEY LUCY!" Natsu said with a smile on his face. Lucy who was now more horrified than anything else looked at him, fear in her eyes.

"Don't worry Lucy, I wouldn't do that to you, you're like my bestest-friend!" Natsu said with a bright smile.

"N-Natsu... how d-did you d-do that? I m-mean that's l-like im-impossible without b-burning yourself." Lucy said.

"Hey Lucy, please stop crying. Don't worry, I knocked Dan out, so he won't be able to come near me. I didn't kill him, but I hit him hard enough so that he won't remember any of this." Natsu said, smiling to Lucy.

"Y-yeah, okay. Hey N-natsu? C-could you c-come to m-my apartment and explain what j-just happened?" Lucy said.

"Alright, okay. I didn't have any plans for the afternoon so sure! Hey and yeah promise you won't ever tell anyone what just happened. Not you friends, not your family, not your anyone." Natsu said.

With that, the two of them, Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia headed down Strawberry Street to Lucy's apartment.