Lucy and Erza had been asking around the village about the strange disturbance they been hearing in order to catch the culprit. All signs pointed that it was probably a wounded animal in the forest that has been trapped for those last 3 weeks. Having no luck on finding anything else that can help them identify the 'animal' they looked for grey who decided he would check out the abandoned house alone with happy.
They finally met by the front entrance of the porch of the house as grey nodded his head in a disapproval manner.
"There's nothing here that can give us a clue to what you both said the villagers said the animal is"
*grey gave a defeated sigh as he was growing impatient that he was stuck in a wild goose hunt*
"True, plus natsu isn't back yet it would have been a great help if he would have sniffed out the trail with his nose."
*Erza added to Greys complaints as she sighed too*
"Let's just take a break, I'm pretty sure natsu should be coming back by now.."
*lucy gave a justification reply trying to keep the team motivated*
"AYYY! There he comes!!"
*happy squeaked in a happy tone as he waved hi to the two figures appearing by the side of the abandoned house.*
"Sorry guys it took longer then expected I had to clean up this mess first and teach him some manners before bringing him back."
*natsu said enthusiastically with a grin on his face as he head locked a newly dressed and clean steel.*
"Wait that's the muddy runt we found yesterday?"
*grey asked with a curious look*
"Yeah, you wouldn't believe how much mud he had on his hair! You punk you were so filthy I thought your hair color was brown!"
*natsu teased steel now, as steel broke out of the head lock and fixed his hair*
"Shut up! You were scrubbing my head so hard I thought I would have gone bald!"
*steel finally began to act like a kid arguing with natsu who was ticking him off*
"Heh it's funny how you both look and ACT the same. Natsu are you sure you didn't get drunk one night and made a 'mistake' "
*grey finally hit the topic natsu was ready to back fire if someone ever made the connections between him and steel*
"No stupid ice-pervert, I didn't have a child. And if I did it, luce would have had 3 children by now.."
*lucy blushed red as she felt betrayed and embarrassed at how natsu became so fowl mouthed in topics about 'bedding'*
"I see, but natsu now that we have you hear please use that dragon slayer nose of yours and smell out the animal the villagers have been complaining about."
*Erza gave natsu the order now as she waited patiently for him to begin to work his stuff*
"Actually Erza I found out who it was that was causing a disturbance.."
"Really? Who?"
"Um … it was me.."
*steel pointed at himself in a shy manner*
*everyone looked at steel taking in his new profile carefully, he looked like a normal kid now but compared to before he was dressed almost like. A animal.*
"Can i ask why would you be the root of the problems? Or why you did it?"
*lucy asked in a kind voice, she didn't know what but she felt sorry for the boy for probably having reasons why he was causing problems in the village..*
"… because I'm not 'normal'.. I explained it to natsu already. In short, I have been experiencing weird things like eating metal and having glowing eyes."
*steel began telling them of the night he stayed at the haunted house, he described now what he had seen in the broken mirror. He saw a boy with glowing cold-blue piercing eyes and elongated fangs as he huffed in rage. Everyone just processed the information as they continued to hear steels story*
"When exactly did you begin to notice change in your body?"
*Erza finally spoke up*
"I think ever since I was 3, it was scary first because I took a bite out of my metal spoon when I was still at the orphanage without noticing till after…"
"Do you remember something that could have caused you to begin changing? Like anything you eat before or did?"
*lucy began asking as well trying to help find the root of things*
".. well.. not really… I just remember eating a blue candy that looked a bit strange and tasted awful… I spit it out immediately and hid the evidence so I wouldn't get in trouble."
*steel seemed to remember these things like if it was yesterday, it was weird and kinda scary as he thought back how could a 3 year old remember so much?*
"Do you know where you hid this candy? If possible can we look at it ?"
*grey smirked now, he had a hunch of what that 'candy' was now and just needed confirmation*
"Yes I do still remember where I hid it but you wouldn't find anything now… it's probably been eaten by ants or other animals.."
"Steel, just show us where the stone is. It can help figure out what is wrong with you if the Ice-strippers hunch is correct."
*natsu inputed now which grey was surprised natsu had the same hunch as him.*
"Fine come, it would be back at the orphanage by a willow tree. I really didn't want to go back there anymore but, I'll go back just to show you guys.."
*steel led the way now as they began walking back to where he once called it a 'home'*
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Happy flew over the orphanage to take a peek at where steel had mentioned, he saw some kids playing in the back and front yard of the orphanage which was a problem to steel. He didn't want to get forced back into the orphanage so he stayed behind with happy in a hidden spot above the trees. Lucy and natsu would pose as parents wanting to adopt to get the nuns and childrens attention while Erza and Grey would go to the spot by the willow tree steel had mentioned.
"Wel hello their folks, what pleasant surprise for you to come by our little orphanage how may I help you today?"
*a old nun had approached natsu and Lucy as if they were fresh meat. This kinda gave Lucy the shivers and natsu just stood there with his arm tight around Lucy's waist for assurance*
"Well actually we were on the way to the village but wanted to help in some way when we heard about this orphanage from the villagers. See me and my fiancé just got engaged so we wanted to have a experience playing with the children."
*natsu came up with a clever excuse, he made it straight forward that they wouldn't be adopting but made it ominous enough to give the nun hope that maybe by the end of the day they would decide to adopt in the end*
*the nun didn't change her happy facial expression as she welcomed in the couple with curious children following behind her. Soon many of the children who were playing outside had rushed inside the orphanage or peeked through the windows to get a look at the pair.*
"Nows our chance Grey, let's go quickly.. happy will signal us if anyone comes our way."
"Got it."
*Erza and grey began to look around and rustle the dirt around the tree looking for any blue pigment to appear.*
——————
"Hey!! Don't pull on my hair little kid!"
"Is your hair really pink mister? Isn't that a girls color?"
*natsu found himself bending over as a little girl pulled on his hair and looked at it closely*
"Now now children what did I say about being respectful, "
*A younger nun was now heard as she walked in with tea and cookies to offer the guest*
"I-if you don't have nat-thing nice to say,…*breathes in a big breath* don't say it at all"
*the small girl with brown hair and green eyes replied as she frowned with blown up cheeks making her look more cute then she was*
"Good. Now run along go play with the your other brothers and sisters. We will call you if we need anything."
"Ay!! "
*the girl showed off her missing toothy smile as she ran outside with so much happiness and enthusiasm*
"Well I'm sorry about that Mr. ?"
"Dragneel. Natsu Dragneel"
*the nuns eyes grew as big as saucers, as so did the older nun as they finally recognized who was sitting infront of them*
"Oh my! Where's my manners! It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Dragneel, so as to finally meet your partner. Lucy Heartifilia, correct?"
*lucy was a bit suspicious as to how they knew them but didn't show it as she just smiled softly and nodded her head*
"Yes that's right, I'm guessing you know we are from the fairy tail guild correct?"
"Ah yes! *clasp her hands together* I read the paper not a while ago how natsu proposed to you. It was really charming. But what brings you here today? "
*The old nun asked with worry now, in which she would have to because natsu planned to gamble a bit to see what is really going on*
"Nothing much we just happened to-"
*Lucy was caught off as natsu placed his palm infront of her who sat next to him as he leaned forward twords the nun*
"To be honest we're here because we were called for a disturbance in the area. We have asked people around the village and they all mentioned a 'monster' but their was no such howl or scent of one."
*natsu paused his explanation as he saw the nuns eyes contract a bit but she held her stern face in place*
"We spent two nights already here in the woods where the monster was spotted but we didn't hear or see anything all night."
*lucy knew that so far natsu has told the truth about he situation. But waited to see what natsu was planning if he was telling the truth to the nun*
"And somewhere along the trail, I smelled blood. It was faint but I believe it belongs to a boy, I had also asked any villagers of missing children reported but none have heard of any reports…."
*natsu leaned back now in a relax posture as he sighed and looked at lucy then at the nun*
"… I know you probably don't want to tell us or that you 'can't' so I'll just ask one thing and we will be on our way…. Has a child from your orphanage ever gone 'missing'?"
*in a moment the older nun exploded in tears as the younger one tried to calm her down.. she looked at lucy and natsu as she decided it was time to come clean*
"… yes, 3 weeks ago a boy around 6-7 years old had runaway… we didn't really know what to do but we went to go look for him when the moon was highest in the sky.. we came across a abandoned house as we heard something going on… *sob* we- we saw the poor boy being beaten black and blue by some men, *sob* then they had began to rip his clothes and drove a dagger into his chest because he was resisting… we decided to leave that night for fear we would be spotted but we failed to save that young boy- *the younger nun finally began to sob profusely as she hugged her sister as the painful imagery of that night took place*
*lucy could only feel herself grow emotional as she pieced the pieces together, steel had told his side of his story with not much detail, but the nuns had mentioned the beatings he had tooken and would hesitate on mentioning what else they saw happen. She could only fanthom that steel had been sexually assaulted then stabbed to be killed. But somehow that stone he ate had saved his life that night*
*natsu hugged lucy as she turned to him and hid her face as she began to join in the mourning cries the other women started. Natsu wasn't stupid he knew what they meant when they would pause as sections of the brutal story. He was pissed off now. He wanted to strangle those men, make them pay for such disgusting things. But he had to be strong for Lucy now so that would have to wait.*
"Do you sisters work with any lacrima?"
"Um yes we do… *sniff* but why does that have anything to do?"
"Can I see some of the lacrima you use and where do you use them?"
"Sure follow me"
*the nuns guided them to the kitchen as they opened a little door to what seemed to be like a power box which had lacrima.*
"We often buy lacrima when they run out of power. They shatter after they are no longer able to extract power to lighten the orphanage up at night… here you can see one."
*natsu investigated the jewel as Lucy gasped thinking what natsu was thinking, no… no way steel would have eaten one of these…*
"Sisters I'm sorry but that boy I meantioned is still alive.. I can't tell you where he is because he's coming home with us .."
*the nuns were shocked but confused as to what natsu was talking about, but soon began asking questions*
"What do you mean the boy is alive? Where is he? Is he eating well??? Please can we see him one more time?! "
*it was Lucy's turn to look confused as she looked at natsu*
"What do you mean he's coming home with us?"
"It's exactly how I said it luce, we are keeping him"
*he smiled at natsu with a goofy grin as the nuns gave up with their tears and just smiled in a sadden
Happy way.*
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