Hello,

This is a story I wrote a long time ago (probably 4/5 years ago, I'm not sure) but I didn't find it good enough to publish. Now I have had some free time and took some time to mostly rewrite it, I am not completely satisfied with it, but am tired of having it unpublished. So let me know what you think of it. Right now I am not planning on continuing to write this story, but I might change my mind.

Natsu was 20 years old, he had inherited his father's company and was now coming back from work to the apartment he shares with his girlfriend, Lisanna.

It had been hard at first, dealing with the disappearance of his father, Igneel, when he was 13. At the time, he was quite impulsive and wanted to drop everything, including his studies, to go on a wild chase for Igneel. But fortunately, his friends, (mostly Lisanna), convinced him not to take such decision so impulsively.

It took years for him to accept the disappearance of Igneel, and a few more for him to start taking his studies more seriously to be ready to take over his father's company once he was of age. Now he was in a good situation, thanks to what his father left him, he was in a good situation financially, and had a nice apartment he was living in. Lisanna had moved in with him around 2 years ago and they were happily living together since then.

Right now, he was glad to finally be on his way home, he had just had a really busy day at work, it was already late, and he was looking forward to relaxing at home and cuddling with Lisanna, that was his favorite part of each day. Though, as he was walking, he heard a girl's quite crying coming from a nearby alley, it got his attention back to reality.

Turning a corner, he saw a young girl, who couldn't have been older than 8. She was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees and he could hear her crying quietly, her long blue hair didn't let him see her face. Next to her was a small white cat seemingly trying to comfort her.

He walked slowly towards her as to not startle her, but soon saw she hadn't noticed him.

"Hello" He called, to make sure she knew he was here.

Immediately hearing him so close, she looked straight at him, and he could see a pair of big frightened brown eyes looking at him before she tried to put as much distance between her and him until she had her back to the wall.

He didn't move at all while she was doing this, he didn't want to scare her anymore than he already had.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, I promise I don't want to hurt you. If you are mor comfortable that way, I won't come closer, is that okay?" He asked softly. The only answer he received from her was a simple nod.

"Okay, first my name is Natsu, and I am 20 years old, can you tell me your name and how old you are?" The girl showed 7 fingers, but didn't say anything.

"You're 7 years old?" he wanted to confirm understanding he would have to wait to get her name, she nodded.

"Are you on your own?" he continued, trying to know more about her, she nodded again.

"Where are your parents?" he asked, she saw her hesitate, he could see she was shy and wasn't sure she wanted to talk to him. He didn't move and waited. It took her a few minutes to decide.

"I don't know my father. My-my mom died a-a month ago" she answered very quietly. This surprised Natsu.

"Do you have anyone looking after you?" he asked already having guessed it but hoping he was wrong. She shook her head no and started crying again.

"So, you have been alone outside for a month?" he continued, hoping to be wrong once again. Sadly, she nodded. That's when he also noticed her shivering, taking a better look at her clothing, she was only wearing a summer dress, and it was already starting to get quite cold.

"I can see you are cold. Would it be okay if I came closer to give you my vest?" He asked, as he took of his vest and showed it to her. Once again, he saw her hesitate it took less than a minute this time, for her to slowly nod.

He walked towards her, and once he was close enough, draped his vest over her shoulders. He just wanted to hug her to make things better for her, but knew that if he did this now, he would only frighten her. He sat down next to her, keeping a bit of distance not to make her uncomfortable.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Wendy, Wendy Marvell" she mumbled.

"It's nice to meet you, Wendy."

There were a few minutes of comfortable silence before she spoke again.

"Why are you staying here?" She wondered shyly.

"Why wouldn't I?" He answered confusing her. She looked at him waiting for more answers "What I mean is that I am not planning to leave you, a 7-year-old girl, alone on the streets, you don't deserve that." He explained. She was surprised, until now nobody had paid attention to her since she was left alone on the streets. At first, she tried asking for help, but people would just walk past her.

"Why do you care? Everyone else doesn't." She told him, sadness obvious in her voice.

"I told you; I care because you don't deserve this. When I was a kid I too, lost my parents but was lucky to still have a house and friends looking after me, I don't want you to have to go through this on your own."

"Thank you for caring" she told him sincerely.

They stayed like this for a few more minutes before she once again asked him something.

"If you don't want to leave me on the streets, what are you planning to do?" she asked.

He thought for a few moments before answering.

"I would like to offer you to come to my apartment where I live with my girlfriend, at least to have dinner and if you want, we have a guest room where you can spend the night. But if you don't feel comfortable enough for that, I at least want to buy you something to eat and find you a hotel so that you can have a bed to sleep in, you are the one to decide" he told her, hoping she would agree to come to his and Lisanna's place.

She thought about it, it was a difficult choice, on one side, she couldn't really be sure that she could trust him, and the last month taught her not to trust people too much, on the other side, having two people to take care of her sounded really appealing and he seemed to be really nice, he had taken a lot of time of his day just to make her comfortable.

Just then his phone rang, he took it to see it was Lisanna calling.

"Hey Lis, what is it?"

"Natsu, I was worried, you usually are home by this time, are you on your way?"

"Yes, I should be here soon, I'll explain why I took so long once I get home."

"Okay, then I'll see you in a bit."

"Wait, if you start preparing dinner, I will probably be bringing someone home, so please prepare a bit more, otherwise we'll get started together once I get home."

"Okay, I'll start preparing some pasta and you'll explain me everything once you arrive."

"Thanks Lisanna, you're the best!"

"I'll talk to you when you arrive, bye."

And with that she hung up.

After hanging up he looked back at Wendy and could see on her face that she had decided.

She looked shyly at him. "I would like to go home with you."

Natsu smiled brightly at her "That's great Wendy." He hesitated for a few seconds before asking "Would it be okay if I gave you a hug?"

Wendy was surprised, and after only a few seconds, she nodded.

Natsu wrapped his arms around her, and gave her a hug, she was a bit tense at first, but then melted into the hug, even though she tried to not care, she had missed having someone care for her, she was still only a child after all.

After a minute, Natsu released the hug to see a smiling Wendy looking up at him.

"Do you have stuff to take with you?" He asked her.

"Yes, I have my suitcase and I have Charle" She answered, pointing first at a small suitcase he hadn't noticed and then at the white cat next to her.

"Okay, I'll take your suitcase, and you can carry Charle, is that okay? We should only have five minutes to walk home."

Wendy nodded and took Charle in her arms.

Natsu took Wendy's suitcase in one hand and reached for Wendy's hand with the other. After hesitating, Wendy took his hand, and they started walking towards Natsu's apartment.

After five minutes, they arrived in front of the apartment, when he opened the door, Natsu could see Wendy's shyness coming back, he gave her a warm smile to encourage her to come with him.

He led her to the living room.

"You can sit on the couch while I go talk to Lisanna, then we can have dinner and get you settled for the night. Is that okay?"

Wendy nodded before sitting on the couch and starting to pet Charle, who was in her lap, to calm herself down.

In the kitchen, with Natsu and Lisanna:

Lisanna was 20 years old too and was studying to become a veterinarian, her classes didn't last as long as Natsu's working days, so she was often home earlier.

She had been Natsu's first friend when he arrived in the city when they were 6 and they had stayed best friends ever since. They had both developed feelings for each other, but it took some time before they confessed to each other. They had started dating at 15 and had moved in together only two years ago.

As soon as he arrived in the kitchen, where she had gotten started on preparing dinner, he hugged her and kissed her, it was always the first thing he did when he came home.

"So, how went your day Lis?" he asked smiling.

"It went great, even though not much happened. But from what I understood on the phone, yours wasn't as calm as mine, so tell me, what happened?"

"My work went well, it was when I was coming home that I found a 7-year-old girl, Wendy, I wanted to help her and found out she lost her parents and had been alone for a month." He began explaining and could see the sadness on Lisanna's face. "You know me, I couldn't bring myself to leave her alone there, so I took some time to make sure she was comfortable with me and offered her to stay here for the night at least." He continued and could see the relief on Lisanna's face. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you beforehand, but I thought you would agree."

"Of course, I would agree with this, we can't leave a child on their own especially when we have everything needed to help her." Lisanna confirmed smiling at him. "Now why don't you go back with her until I finish getting dinner ready and we'll arrange everything else after dinner?" she continued.

Natsu nodded, "Thank you Lisanna, you really are the best.", he gave her one last kiss before going back to the living room.

In the living room, Wendy was worried, holding Charle close to try and calm down but it was not enough. She was worried Natsu's girlfriend wouldn't agree to her staying here and she would have to go back on the streets.

She saw Natsu come in the living room and was prepared to hear him reject her as so many people did (though every other people did that as soon as they saw her, Natsu was nicer she thought hopefully).

"Lisanna's okay, you can stay here for the night, we'll talk about what comes next tomorrow if that's okay with you" he said cheerfully.

She couldn't believe it, someone was willing to take care of her, and seeing as he was already talking about what to do next, he was not planning to throw her back on the streets tomorrow.

"I think Charle will like it here" he said pointing at the white cat on her laps. "Though, I think Happy's getting a little jealous, whether it is of the attention you're giving to your cat or the attention she gives you, I am not sure though" he chuckled motioning toward a blue cat sitting next to her on the couch.

Wendy suddenly started to cry softly, which didn't go unnoticed by Natsu.

"Hey, what's wrong Wendy? Are you hurt?" He asked worriedly, setting a hand softly on her shoulder.

She gently set Charle down on the couch next to her, before clinging to Natsu's shirt and continued to cry quietly.

"No, it's just that-that it's been a long time since someone really cared for-for me." She cried, trying to stop because she didn't want to bother Natsu, but being unable to do so.

He understood and gently wrapped his arms around her holding her close, knowing that at this age, physical affection could be very comforting and that she had lacked any form of it for too long.

"it's okay, now don't worry, you'll be okay." He whispered soothingly.

After a few minutes she finally calmed down and released Natsu's shirt.

Natsu noticed she was still wearing his jacket and her dirty dress and looked toward her suitcase.

"Do you want to get changed before we have dinner?"

She nodded and took her suitcase in her hand. Natsu pointed her towards the bathroom.

"Thank you" she told him before going inside.

She came back out of the room with a cute yellow and blue dress (the one she has during Oracion Seis). Natsu was surprised to see her still not wearing anything warmer, even if they were inside, it was still a bit chilly right now.

"Don't you have anything warmer?" Question to which she shook her head no. "Then you can keep my vest for now, I wouldn't want you to catch a cold." He told her smiling warmly before once again draping his vest over her shoulders. It was way too big for her, but it kept her warm and that made her happy.

"Natsu! Dinner is ready" Lisanna called them for dinner.

Natsu could see Wendy's shyness coming back once again and saw her hesitate.

"Come on Wendy, let's go!" He encouraged her.

He led her toward the dining room. She was behind him the whole way, really shy, she hadn't yet met Lisanna and was afraid Lisanna would not like her and either throw her out or get angry at Natsu, she didn't want him to get in trouble because of her.

"He-hello Miss Lisana." She said shyly.

"Hi Wendy, you don't have to be so shy around me, you can just call me Lisanna don't worry." Lisanna said comfortingly.

"O-okay." Wendy nodded, reassured but not fully convinced yet.

"Now come on Wendy, I'm sure you haven't had a decent meal in a while" Natsu told her as he led her toward a chair.

"Yes, since I left home a month ago." She answered, her stomach gurgling loudly at the sight of food, embarrassing her greatly.

Both Natsu and Lisanna found that quite cute, but didn't say anything, not wanting to make Wendy uncomfortable.

"Then eat as much as you want, I'll make some more if you're still hungry", Lisana said, serving Wendy some pasta, before serving herself and Natsu.

The little girl ate with great appetite.

"Thank you very much" she said politely before asking for more.

"Don't mention it" Natsu answered.

Some time later, the meal was finished and Natsu went to wash the dishes while Lisanna stayed with Wendy.

"Wendy, would you like to take a bath?" Lisanna asked her.

"Yes, sure, it would be really nice."

"Then go to the bathroom, there are towels under the sink and shampoo and soap next to the bath." Lisanna explained.

"Thank you very much." Wendy answered, walking towards the bathroom with a smile on her face.

"When you'll be done call me and I'll check and make sure you aren't hurt after so much time on your own, is that okay?" Lisana continued.

"Okay"

And with that, Wendy entered the bathroom, this was soon followed by the sound of the bath starting to get filled.

"I'll go prepare her room" Natsu told Lisanna as he came back, having finished with the dishes.

After half an hour, Wendy finished her bath and Lisanna went to check on her.

Just after that, Lisana led the girl to her room which Natsu had prepared.

When she saw it, Wendy couldn't believe it, there was a huge bed with a big fluffy blanket and a big comfy-looking pillow.

"You will sleep here for as long as you stay with us, tomorrow will be the weekend, we will figure out what we do next then." Natsu told her.

"Thank you so much." She said, but Natsu could see she was hesitating to ask him something.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, encouraging her to tell him what was bothering her.

"Would it be okay if Charle stayed with me for the night?" She demanded worried that he would refuse to have a cat sleep in the bed.

"Of course!" he answered, opening the bedroom door, and letting Charle enter through the opening and jump on the bed before settling next to Wendy.

"Thank you" She thanked him once again.

"Don't mention it."

She quickly went to bed and felt so comfortable after sleeping on the streets for too long, she almost instantly fell asleep.

I hope you liked it, if so, please don't forget to review.