Hiya! Sorry for the little wait and all, but here's a new chapter! I am now recently trying to make my chapters long and all, so they might progressively get longer or something along that line or just stay these length depending on how I write them, so yeah! Thanks for those who reviewed, favorite, and followed last chapter! Please leave a review and favorite! Farewell and Enjoy!

-Let there be midnight

Me No Own Fairy Tail

The Attic's Little Secret—

Stray Waters

"That?" a small finger pointed towards a picture in a book.

"Swimming. It's called swimming." A small head tilted in confused, dull multicolored eyes squinting.

"Swameng?" Confusion, a voice so drawn out from the world, but yet so small and vulnerable, so out of place.

"Swi-mm-ing. Swimming." A correction came from lips of something cruel and evil, so drawn to his experiments that it doesn't matter what it is making him nothing like a human, more of a monster that creates for its own benefits.

"Swa-m-eng. Swameng." So tiny, so detached, so young, so broken and nothing of what it once was.

"Don't worry, we'll get the name correctly soon." A brush off, it's not really important, but really, it is.

"What is?" the focus of the picture is back in mind, a small finger pointing it out once more, a finger with nails chewed to the brim from hours of sitting in a locked cage with nothing to do but sit, fingers that are cracked with blood for it wasn't known when to stop chewing or that clawing fingers against the metal of the bottom of the cage till the skin was pulled back and became raw and bloody, it wasn't known that one shouldn't do those things.

"People swim in large bodies of water with nothing supporting them from underneath, nothing but water. They flail their arms and legs in a certain way to keep them from sinking and dying." It was simple, children were supposed to know something as simple as this, but the small figure only new complicated math equations and scientific chemicals along with how to build such complicated machines in such a short time period and how to disable them again. Swimming was foreign, swimming was new, it was nothing like the equations, chemicals, or machines that he knew of. Swimming was weird.

"Swink? Die?" a tilt of the head, pink fringe falling in eyes that were meant to be the same color, but not only can science create, it can destroy.

"Yes, but you don't need to know anything about swimming. You need to know more about bombs and how to create massive ones from scratch in less than ten minutes." Eyes of two separate colors looked down at the picture, mind instantly sweeping it away into an abyss where it was now barely recognizable and known that it wasn't important. Something new replaced it, something supposed to be important. Building such a complicated thing that was to make a massive explosion, and to build it in less than ten minutes.

It was wrong, but it was life.

Standing next to a small detached boy with mismatched eyes and unnatural pink hair, stood a monster with a white lab coat and black hair and red eyes.

Next to the boy stood someone who should never be.

The water glittered and shimmered under the early afternoon light, lapping softly onto the bank lazily, no importance drawn to the day before it. Natsu stood in front of it, eyes squinting in the sun light.

He knew of the horrid light that came from outside, he was forced to see it having to come out here for something to drink on some days if he remembered correctly, but he was never fond of it since it pierced his eyes in such an unforgiving way, it made him loath it. But today, it seemed he would have to become used to the big yellow circle in the sky that he hated so much.

That wasn't the only thing.

He was forced to wear this weird shorts-type thing made from weird material and was a dark blue and a little big on him, but held together at the last minute by some rope. His chest was bare and so were his arms and legs showing his many forgotten scars from years and years ago, a bit distorted on his body from age and growth.

Next to him he barely heard the buzzing conversation of that blonde girl taking with the red girl, their names coming briefly to mind before vanishing again: Lucy and Erza. A little behind them and sitting down on the nice lush green summer grass was the raven boy and ginger boy: Gray and Loke. Each of them were having their own conversations leaving Natsu staring at the water with confusion.

A soft breeze blew past, ruffling soft pink hair gently, blowing some strands into mismatched eyes.

He felt very uncomfortable at the moment, his body drawling in on itself making him shuffle his feet nervously and chew his bottom lip in between his top and bottom teeth as he quickly glanced to his right where the blonde and red were talking to each other, discussing something he really didn't care to hear at the moment.

Their attention were drawn so much to their conversation that they didn't notice him looking at them, so he turned to looked over at raven and ginger behind him, both mumbling conversations together lazily as ginger plunked the lush green summer grass out of the ground before tossing them gently away and repeating the process.

Poor grass.

They didn't notice him.

He turned back to face the water in front of him, feeling a little feeling of disappointment settle in his chest before a decision came to mind.

He walked forward slowly and unsure of himself until he felt the smooth warm waters start to lap at his feet lazily, tickling him a bit as he continued, neither of the four noticing or paying mind to what he was doing.

When the water began to reach his waist, he lifted his arms to hover above it, not wanting them to be wet just yet as he continued.

Then something so sudden happened.

The water was barely above his waist when he had taken a step only there to be nothing underneath his foot, plunging him into the waters below with a loud yelp of surprised.

He squeezed his eyes closed tightly as he sunk, water inclosing around him and entering his opened mouth making him loose his breath, his chest tightening uncomfortable.

He barely noticed the splashing sounds as they came closer to him with arms reaching under his arms and gripped him tight, dragging him back above the water.

When he broke the surface where air greeted him happily, his hair stuck to his forehead and the side of his face as he coughed, water spluttering from his mouth as his lungs were desperate to get air. He wasn't paying any attention to whoever was dragging him back to land until he was forcibly forced to sit on his rump.

"Are you crazy?!" a voice shouted, the voice coming from the raven: Gray.

Natsu cracked open an eye to look at him, bright green looking into alarmed midnight blue. Still spluttering, Natsu recoiled from him, not liking the angry tone he used, not liking it at all.

"What were you doing?!" he continued on, blonde trying to butt in calmly, but Gray would not allow it. "You could've drowned and died and we would have to haul your body back up from the bottom of the fucking lake!" Tears stung at the corner of Natsu's eyes, lips wobbling. He decided right then and there, he didn't like being yelled at, he didn't like it at all. "You have to be careful swimming in lakes you know! The ground underneath you can suddenly drop off to a hundred feet without you knowing! That's especially dangerous for people like you who can't swim!" By now, tears were streaming down Natsu's face as he looked up at Gray, trying to repress his sobs.

"Gray! That's enough! I'm pretty sure Natsu has had a pretty big scare just now and yelling at him won't do any good!" red (: Erza) told Gray. He turned to her, his midnight blue eyes alight with anger.

"Well, he gave me a pretty good scare, too! One second he's just standing there and the next I hear him scream with a splash and he's nowhere to be seen!" he countered, Erza looking up at him with even more anger in her eyes.

"Yes, I know, it scared all of us, but you can't just go screaming at him! He's like a child! He's learned his lesson probably and he most likely won't do it again!" Guilt suddenly slammed in on Natsu, making the tears fall faster down his face and his throat clench with sobs.

"N-Natsu-c-chan s-s-s-s-sor-ry!" Natsu sobbed loudly, surprising everyone.

"Oh, Natsu…" blonde (: Lucy) cooed apologetically as she leaned down and rubbed his back in soothing circles. "It's okay, there's nothing to be afraid of. Gray's not really angry, he was just worried, that's all." her voice was soft and warm, making Natsu lean towards it even more. "You just gave us a scare. You should've at least told us what you were going to do before you went to do that. We would have teach you how to swim properly." Natsu brought up his hands to his eyes and started desperately to try and wipe away the tears that fell, though more came with them.

"N-Natsu-chan just wanted to see w-what's in the middle! Natsu-chan di-didn't wanna bother!" He drew his legs up to his chest, his sobs coming in harder and rougher, leaving him breathless and gasping for more breath only for it to leave him.

"Oh, come on, why don't we get you out of that and into something else, I bet you've had enough today." Lucy said softly, offering him a slight smile. "Loke, why don't you help me get him back to the house then you can help him change into something." Ginger (: Loke) nodded in agreement, wanting to get away from here fast seeing the great tension developing between Gray and Erza.

He walked towards the two, gently took Natsu's forearm and helped Lucy stand him up as they walked back towards the house.

Erza and Gray were then left alone at the lake side, each glaring at each other in separate anger.

"There was no need to scream at him." the red haired girl spat, crossing her arms over her chest. Gray narrowed his eyes at her, muscles tensing with anger.

"Oh, yeah? Well, there was no need to him to suddenly do that without us paying attention!" he shouted back, arms flying about him as if to emphasize the worry and anger he had went through. "We've only really known him for a day, actually, less than that, and just yesterday he had tried to kill us! But seeing the way he is now, he's like a five-year-old stuck in a teen's body and I just can't help but to worry about the kid who had tried to kill us just 24 hours earlier!" Gray expressed, running a hand through his wet hair that had clung to his forehead annoyingly.

"Yes, I know. Everyone feels the same way pretty much, but that doesn't mean you scream at him! He's not only basically a child, but he also has a…" she trailed off, eyes closing as she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, taking a second then looking up at Gray with her brown eyes. "He's mentality is most likely out of whack. He doesn't remember everything after that reversal shot-thingy and he's been alone for the majority of his life, it's a miracle he didn't just starve himself in the first year! And you screaming at him certainly does nothing for his already ruined state of mind. To him, he just went through something traumatic, probably not even fully understanding what's going on and you screaming is most likely confusing him!" Erza said, trying her best not to raise her voice as she got her point across.

There was a few moments of silence as the two looked at each other until Erza spoke once more.

"Look, how 'bout you get dressed and go into town, buy a few pairs of clothing that would better fit Natsu and just walk around to clear your thoughts, okay? I'll even give you the money, just try and be back before dinner?" she looked up at him with her eyebrows arched in question, Gray no longer looking at her as he nodded his head softly before walking back towards the house, leaving Erza behind.

Lucy and Loke had finally managed to calm Natsu down once they got back to the house and got him changed back into the clothing he had borrowed from Gray the night before and around ten minutes later, he was sleeping peacefully on his bed.

When they saw that the pinkette was most likely not going to wake up, they walked quietly down stairs and sat at the kitchen table, saying nothing as they waited for both Gray and Erza to come back up from the lake where they were most likely arguing their angry little hearts out at each other.

"Well, he most likely won't want to swim ever again after today." Loke said, trying his best to lighten the situation and start a small conversation with Lucy as they waited. Lucy nodded her agreement, not looking up from the table top.

"That's for sure." she replied with a short laugh that didn't exactly have humor in it. Lucy looked up at Loke with her eyebrows furrowed together. "Gray was a little scary though, don't you think?" she asked, her lips pursing in thought. Loke shrugged.

"You should see him when he gets in fights at school." he told her with a little smile, still attempting at the humor even though he kinda knew it was pointless seeing as Lucy wasn't wanting to be humored in any way at the moment, but you can't blame a guy for trying. "He's like freakin' Godzilla, but even scarier than that. You're lucky you've never seen him in a fight, it makes you think you're the one he's fighting and not the guys getting the bruises and bloodied lips." he gave a little laugh just as Gray burst through the back door near them, surprising the both of them and causing them to jump in their seats and whirl around to face him. They didn't get much of a glimpse of him because as soon as he entered, he was gone once more.

"Gee, is that what he looks like when he fights?" Lucy whispered, sounding out of breath with wide brown eyes, Loke narrowing his eyes at the place where his best friend had disappeared.

"A bit yeah."

Gray had only driven through the small town only once before and that was yesterday, so finding a place where he could buy Natsu a few pairs of clothing was a bit hard, but he did eventually find a small little place a bought a red hoodie, a few orange, blue, and grey shirts along with one black muscle shirt, sweat pants, cargo shorts, and regular jeans along with a few pairs of underwear knowing the kid would need some his own size. He didn't even attempt to buy him shoes seeing as he only had enough money for the stuff he already picked out and he didn't know the kid's shoes size, hell, he kinda guess what size the kid wore, only going a size down from his own just to be safe.

After that was done he put the stuff away in the car and decided to do what Erza had suggested him to do, walk around and clear his head before he headed back before dinner.

He knew he shouldn't of yelled at Natsu, but that's what he does when he's worried and doesn't know how else to express his emotions. He falls back on yelling and sometimes he just shouldn't do that because in the end, he always ends up kicking himself with guilt. He knew he was going to apologize to the kid once he gets back and at least try to make it up to him, though he doesn't know how he'll do it. He doesn't even know what the kid likes, and he sure as hell knows the kid doesn't even know what he himself likes.

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he did, but stopped right in his tracks when he heard soft meowing noises coming from the alley he had just passed. Blinking, he walked backwards and glanced into the alley, but he eyes didn't find anything out of the usual so he was about to walk away once more when he heard the soft meow of a kitten once more.

Curious, he stepped in the alley and kept on going attentively, stopping when he heard the meow once more, though right beside him.

Looking down he saw a little kitten that was most likely a stray. He had the most unusual fur Gray had ever seen on cats, knowing that they probably weren't supposed to have since it was blue with little white patches on his chest and the tip of his tail, but brushed it aside when he saw the kitten's large pleading eyes look up at him, making his heart clench in his chest and turn to goo.

It was then that Gray had the most brilliant idea as he bent in front of the small kitten and held his hand in front of him to show he wasn't any harm, the blue kitten sniffing it then pushing it on top of its head for Gray to start petting it.

The little creature reminded him of someone else he had recently met and that was what gave him the idea.

Smiling, he picked up the blue kitten and cradled it close to his chest.

"Hello there, wanna come home with me? There's someone I want you to meet."