Yo! Finally back from a broken computer and procrastination! Don't hate me! I know it's been a while but I hope this chapter makes up for my absence! Anyway, this is a late Christmas and late New Year's gift so I hope you like! Thank you for those who reviewed, favorite, and followed! It made my day! Please leave a review and favorite! Farewell and Enjoy!

-let there be midnight

ME NO OWN FAIRY TAIL

Uncle

She was crawling towards him, her brown hair tangly and matted with blood. Her left eye was swollen shut and her lip split and bloody. Two of her teeth had been knocked out, creating a hug gap on the top of her mouth where she had already lost her two front baby teeth a few weeks earlier, before her whole village was succumbed by fire and killed.

Behind her, her legs were bent at awkward angles, one of her small ankles having been torn off at some point and her right arm was missing from the elbow down, but yet she still crawled towards him, tears streaking down her face as her village crackled behind her as the haze of smoke bellowed in the night sky.

"H-H…" She couldn't form words properly through the blood and missing teeth in her mouth. She spat out the liquid swirling annoyingly in her mouth, not minding the pure redness of it as she continued crawling towards him. "… H-H… H… H-Hew… p… me… Hewp… me…" she pleaded, her grey/yellow eyes looking up at him pleadingly, but he took no notice. He only saw her as a nuisance that had survived his massacre.

He looked down at her as she crawled achingly slow towards him, blood smearing on the ground and her right eye swam out of focus. He frowned in annoyance under his hood as she muttered out her plea like a broken record, unable to form the 'L' in 'Help' since he had bashed her head into a tree and she had lost even more teeth. And it seemed to do her brain some type of damage too since she didn't recognize him as her attacker, but kept crawling at him with hope that she would live.

"Tch." Was all that was heard from him when the small girl had reached him and started to try to climb up his cloak with just her one arm. He brought his leg up high and stomped it down on her, the girl barely able to utter a cry as her hand was torn away from the cloth and dirt entered her mouth.

He bent down low to the girl who slowly started to look up, trying to utter the word 'Help' to him once more, but he would have none of it. He looked at her one good eye and barely thought about it before he found his hand gouging it out, a scream filled with agony following as he tore it from her body and crushed it in his hand, shaking off what used to be an eyeball before he brought his fist up high and brought it back down on the girls head, a sickening sound of bone crushing underneath the weight of the fist and the blood curdling scream was instantly cut off as the girl stilled.

He looked at the mangled remains of what used to be a sweet, kind, seven-year-old girl name Helen as he wiped off the bloody remains he had coated his hand with on the grass, standing up once his hand was somewhat clean. His lip upturned in disgust as he spat at the young girl, turning to walk away.

He was only thirteen and yet his heart was tainted. He was only thirteen and he knew more on how to create death than to create life.

He was only thirteen.

Gray stirred awake, blinking his eyes blearily as he turned his head to the window, only to be surprised when he saw Natsu sitting there on the windowsill, watching over the night silently with his chin on the palm of his hand and elbow sitting on top of his knee.

He furrowed his eyebrows together in sleepy confusion as he sat up on his bed and blinked.

"Natsu?" he asked softly, the pink haired teen not bothering to look at him and instead gave him a low hum of acknowledgement. Gray ran a hand through his hair, keeping in mind that he still has to be quiet for the sleeping Iron Dragon Slayer on the other bed. "What time is it?" he whispered load enough for the other to hear. Natsu turned his head slightly, just enough to look at Gray through the corner of his eyes for a few seconds before he turned his gaze back out the window.

"2:30 a.m." he replied in his usual monotone, not really caring if he kept his voice low for the other sleeping occupant. He seemed to be in a deep enough sleep where he couldn't hear him no matter how loud he was so it didn't really matter anyway.

"What are you doing?" Gray asked, hoping that the teen on the windowsill was somehow sleepy enough to tell him why he was awake, but unknowingly to him, Natsu was wide awake.

"Looking." he said shortly, not really looking for a conversation… well, he was never one for conversations in the first place. That involved human interactions and he rather keep that at a minimal.

"How long have you been awake?" Gray tried again, waking up a little more each minute.

"For an hour."

"Why are you awake?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" This time Natsu did turn to look at Gray fully, an eyebrow arched in a silent question on his otherwise emotionless face. Silently, Natsu rested his cheek in his hand as he rested his elbow on his knee, looking blankly at Gray. "Why are you awake?" he countered.

"Gotta piss." It wasn't a lie, seeing as how he was going to do just that before he caught Natsu awake and staring out the window. Natsu snorted a little and raised his eyebrow at him again, gesturing to the bathroom door that was cracked open.

"Be my guest." He turned back around to stare out the window as Gray rolled his eyes, standing up to use the restroom. He returned minutes later to see that Natsu hadn't even moved from the position he had left him in.

"So, why are you awake?" Gray asked as he sat back on his own bed, watching Natsu carefully for any signs that could point to the answer Gray was seeking. Natsu remained quiet, seemingly to ignore Gray for staring at the empty streets and the silent night sky. "Nightmares?" Gray asked innocently, his eyes picking up at the slightest tense movements of Natsu's shoulders as he willed himself not to flinch away from the seemingly innocent question. Gray smirked to himself in triumph. Bull's eye. Right on the mark. "What was it about?" he asked again, feigning innocent curiosity. Natsu remained motionless as he tried his best to ignore Gray, hoping the other would just leave him alone, but Gray had other plans. He felt himself getting warmer and his curiosity to rise. "Was it about King?" he asked and Natsu turned sharply to him, his eyes warning.

"No." he growled out, causing Gray to flinch at the tone and to make sure he was more careful about this subject.

"Okay…" he trailed off awkwardly. "Was it about Happy?" Natsu closed his eyes and rose, raising his arms above his head as he stretched to get his stiff joints some relief.

"You wish." he growled threateningly under his breath. "I'm going for a walk." Before Gray knew it, Natsu was gone out of their room, leaving only him and the snoring Gajeel alone. He cursed under his breath as he flopped back down on the bed and pulled the sheets up to his chin. He should've been more careful knowing that the pinkette would probably get scared off easily. Moments later, he was asleep with the interaction between him and Natsu gone from his mind.

Outside, Natsu stood off into the darkness of an alleyway, leaning against the cool slick stone wall behind him, the hood of his cloak drawn over his features. He didn't open his closed eyes when an older male with a dark dusty yellow cloak entered, pulling down the hood to show the peppery hair and guarded grey eyes that softened when they looked at the young teen.

"It's been a while." Natsu said as he crossed his arms and pushed himself off the wall to look at the man, pulling down the hood of his own cloak as they looked into each other's eye. The man smiled a little at Natsu, nodding slightly.

"So it has." he agreed, his smile increasing just a little when he saw the ends of Natsu's mouth twitching a little up at the ends.

"A little too long for my liking." Natsu admitted, a small smile finally gracing his lips. "Wouldn't you say so Uncle?"