-The strange boy- orphanage arc Chapter 8

After happy had passed out Erza was ticked off that she couldn't have been that scary for a cat the pass out at her voice. She was honestly hurt… but all jokes aside the rest of the team finally managed to catch up to Erza as she loomed over the hole happy had found as now he was unconscious.

"Oi, what happened to happy?"

"Don't know he just screamed and passed out when he heard me say 'hello'…"

"Ah I see…"

*a grey avoided her gaze as he knew why happy would pass out in such a scary place after hearing erzas voice*

"Anyway what's that?"

*interrupted as she pointed at the same hole happy found."

"..I actually don't know, I haven't gone to look inside it yet but it looks like a small person when inside the hole."

*Erza replied as she put down happy on the ground now*

"Aw man, if only you wouldn't have scared happy, he would have been perfect fit to go inside the hole Erza~"

*groaned natsu at the waist of time now they had to choose someone else to go inside.*

"I'll go inside, I'm pretty sure I can fit-"

"Not in a million chances Luce! You forget you handicap! If you want to go in so badly I'll go in for ya"

*natsu made way as he dived into the hole and surprisingly he fit like a glove. Maybe it was because of his slim frame but he was like a snake burrowing into the sand*

"*sigh* I guess we'll have to wait now till the idiot gets back."

*a drowsy grey replied as he was already ready to go to sleep if not had Erza noticed that Happy had gone missing during their conversation.*

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As natsu grunted as he made it through the other side of the tight tunnel, he came into a tiny like cave that was underground somehow. It had torches of fire on the walls and seemed like someone was living in here. As he whistled a tone of amazement as he sat on his butt with his legs crossed to observe the room he heard someone whimper.

*natsu could already tell it was a child by the way it sounded, and that it was hurt somewhere because he can smell blood. He began crawling because the ceiling of the cave was too small for him to stand up straight and he didn't want to be constantly bending at a 90 degree angle so he choose crawling like a baby the best option. He soon came to another room with a tunnel that connected the two caves together as he heard another whimper which he assumed was the child's bed of hay. The child was hiding behind the 'bed' in a fetus position trying his best to hide from natsu.*

"Hey buddy, it's ok… I'm not the bad guy. I won't hurt you-"

"STAY BACK!!"

*the child had a knife in his hands now as he painted and pointed the knife at natsu who was 5 feet away from him.*

"Ok."

"?"

"I said ok. I'll stay here till your ready.."

*natsu backed up a bit to sit on his butt again. He stared at the child as he saw the flicker of the lights of the fire torches dancing on the small boys face.*

The boy was beaten that was for sure. Natsu could guess the boy was probably 6 or 7 years old. He was still so young but already so violent which meant he either had abusive parents or a abusive guardian. It pissed natsu off how parents could leave children alone like this to fend for themselves. He knew deep inside him if it wasn't for master makarov for adopting him that day in the forest he would have been like this child too. He sighed as he looked away and flopped back on his back in a defeated position with arms and legs stretched out. This made the boy flinch back thinking natsu was gonna attack him but relaxed now seeing natsu was wide open for the kill.

"Are you stupid sir?"

"W-what?"

"I asked if your an idiot!"

"I still don't know what you mean by that…"

*Ooo this was gonna be fun…*

"I mean it in a way that you open yourself up wide for me to kill you!!!"

*the boy obviously had some anger issues, and a temper problem. Natsu knew this wouldn't be pretty*

"Well.. your not exactly being friendly either so might as well show you I'm no threat in my own style.."

*natsu brought his hands now behind his head in a resting style and closes his eyes*

"…. your so weird.."

*whispered the boy, but was shocked when he heard natsu reply*

"Thank you"

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5 min became 10 min, which became 15 min at this point the boy was now unawarely comfortable around natsu's presence as he lightly snored still in the same position.

*the boy became curious as he came close to natsu now as he looked at him to make sure he was actually sleeping.*

The boy felt a strange sense of familia to natsu, maybe it was because natsu had the same hair color as his but, he began to see things he liked about natsu. Natsu was patient enough to agree to listen to his commands of staying away. He also noticed natsu was careless if he really was planning to kill him by sleeping wide open for him to stab him in the heart. But also he saw natsu something he could never be, happy… they didn't talk much but he can tell that natsu had achieved a level of happiness he would never reach. The boy began to feel anger again as the idea of a happy family began to form imagining natsu as the son with a imaginary little sister and mother and father all eating dinner in a nice cozy home. The boy was furious now as he grabbed the knife and was about to stab his thigh again for the second time that night when a strong hand stopped his knife from making contact with his thigh.

*the boy looked up in a terrified gaze waiting for natsu to hit him or smack him for either being phyco or doing something 'bad' to himself when he instead felt a warm hug embrace him.*

"Sh sh sh sh… it's okay now, I got you lil' buddy… it's going to be okay now"

The boy began to cry so loud that it was almost like a mute had taken place and you would only just see the pain take shape on his face as he finally let go of the knife and began to sob into a mess in natsu's coat and scarf.

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"What is taking the idiot so long? What is he trying to do? Make it all the way to the other side of the world?"

*a very grumpy grey complained as time went on and they haven't heard anything from the hole that signaled natsu found something.*

Suddenly a scream was heard, but as the scream went on they realized it was a howling cry. They began to panic as the crying wouldn't stop till suddenly the crying seemed to fade.

In a short 3 min, came out natsu head first as he smiled at the group with a conscious happy now.

"Hi guys, I want ya to meet someone…"

*he climbed out of the tight hole and as he came out a pause was placed as the group waited and waited to see who would come out the hole*

"Hey kid, it's okay. They won't hurt you they are my friends and family. If one of them hurt you I'll beat them up for you…"

*natsu chuckled as grey responded with a punch at his arm at that last statement*

"It's okay come on out are you hurt? We can help you.."

*lucy intervened now to try to convince the figure to come out.*

*slowly a boy popped his head out the hole. With his face exposed to the moonlight he now was in view for everyone to see. He was very dirty that's for sure. He had mud on his cheeks and his hair was covered in what they can assume was 'mud' which gave him a brown hair color look. Then they saw he had beautiful blue eyes. Almost shining like the stars in the sky. The boy soon threw out a bag of his belongings and stepped out of the hole and pulled the bush back in place with ease.*

"….hello."

*the boy finally spoke a word after inspecting the eyes that followed all his little movements he did. This made him nervous and self conscious if they had noticed his puffy eyes from crying*

*natsu slung a arm over the boy's shoulders as he smiled wide catching all the attention to himself*

"I'm bunking with this kid tonight so the rest of you guys can sleep in the tents. We can sleep outside, would that be all right kid?"

*the boy blushed as he felt like he finally was going to get out of this rat hole as he found some hope in the man standing before him. Honestly he was like the older brother he never had.*

"Yes! That would be ok!"

"Well then we can ask questions in the morning-*yawn* now we can all finally go to sleep*

*Grey yawned as he started leading the team back to their campsite as they walked through the woods.

"Don't worry, we won't pressure you with any questions you can't answer.. let's just rest for tonight and look forward to tomorrow"

*smiled lucy warmly at the boy who just nodded looking at the floor.*

"Luce, your scarring the kid. Just sleep with Erza tonight and we can talk about this tomorrow."

"Fine, I guess you have a point.."

"I always have a point!"

*the boys eyes grew as large as saucers as he saw lucy punch natsu on the head and began to bicker with him. But then he covered his face and eyes when he saw natsu grab her shoulders and swung her around and finally landed her a kiss on the mouth as he whispered something to her ear and she had blushed.*

"Don't mind them, they just got engaged so they are all over the place and a mess. Anyways.. I don't think I caught your name? Hello, my names Erza Scarlet. What's yours?"

"Oh.. well my name is Steel, but my everyone who knows me just call me Eel. I don't have a last name since I'm a 'orphan' is what I'm told."

The mood went sour fast. But Erza didn't acknowledge it so it was quickly dodged away as Erza talked about the night of how pretty it was and showed where Steel would sleep with natsu for the night. She and the others bid goodnight as they all went to bed finally on the first night.

- - - - - - - - - -

In the morning, steel had woken up in a very comfy blanket. It was nice and warm as he snuggled a bit into it smelling a scent of cinnamon and some burned bark? He didn't question it since he lived in a hole.

The memories of last night flashed through his mind as he grew stiff now sensing now that the cozy blanket was a person.

*Steel backed off the figure he had cuddled around as he saw who it was. Natsu had still been asleep which steel sighed in relief since he was saved from being caught in a embarrassing position acting like a child. Then he heard the weird mage begin to talk in his sleep*

"Nashiii~ come here…. Mmm hmmmm your no fooon…. Come and give paaa~pa- a hUUUg…"

*Steel cringed as he just assumed maybe the girl he had seen the weird mage kiss yesterday was probably the girl known as 'Nashi' as he stood up now from the edge of some tree roots him and natsu decided to sleep last night.*

"I see your up now, I didn't bother to wake you since you looked 'comfortable and warm' with natsu."

*lucy finally made her existence known as the boy flinched now knowing it was to good to not be caught by anyone*

"Ahem, I don't know what your talking about…"

*steel played it off as well as he can as he blushed underneath his mud masked skin.*

"Anyways I think we should get yo-"

*lucy was interrupted as natsu sat up quickly then proceeded to dash off behind some trees not far from their as some gagging sounds came out*

"What's wrong with him? Is he terminally ill or something?"

"Ah no, it's just a stomach bug he has been dealing with for the past few days… like I was saying we should get you out of those dirty clothes and clean you up."

"AH! No IM OKAY! I like my clothes plus all this mud is for camouflage against some 'people' I don't like…"

*the boy was now suspicious. Lucy never had heard a boy talk as if he was a grown adult, plus he seemed 'scared?' No more like he was trying to 'avoid' someone. This just made lucy grow more suspicions as she decided it was no choice but to bring Erza in*

"Well let's at least get some breakfast, me and my friends would like to ask you something's about the forest around here. We aren't from around here so I think it would be a good idea to ask you."

"Well no shit,- I-I mean sure.."

*Steel checked his own fowl mouth in respect of this nice girl. Other girls he had met would have thrown a shoe or probably insulted him and put his self esteem down whenever they would see him. But he felt quite comfortable around these people.*

"LuUuUucCy~ I don't feel good~"

*Natsu came back with a pale face as he leaned all his weight on her back, trying to recuperate from his 'motion sickness'*

"Knock it off natsu you scared me yesterday when you wouldn't even say you were okay inside the hole. I really thought something happened to you.."

*steel took in a hard gulp now because technically something 'could' have happened to natsu if he had stabbed him and he felt a sense of guilt knowing now his friends, this girl would have been hurt because of his death.*

"Aww… did you really think something like 'that' could hurt me luce? Who do you think your fiancé is? I'm disappointed in you lucy.. Come on kid, let's leave the mean lady alone."

*lucy blushed from anger but couldn't help a sigh and laugh as she saw natsu cling his arm around the boy who had begun losing his temper when referred to as 'that'. Natsu was really someone amazing to make new people feel comfortable around their new surroundings.*