Nasha watched and waited until Elkis's car was completely gone. After that she left the school building while making sure that she was unnoticed by any of the adults there and then she started to make her way to the nearest bus station. She wasn't going to attend school today, instead she was going to memorize the bus schedule here and then figure out how much a bus ticket cost. She had some money saved up from doing chores for some of the kind and sympathetic neighbors of her previous foster homes and it may not have been much but she was sure it would be enough to buy a bus ticket. Her plan was to leave town. She believed that she was old enough to take care of herself and she didn't want to deal with another rejection from a foster care system.

She pulled a pencil and a small note pad from her backpack which she used to make a list of things she would probably have to buy for her runaway trip. She was walking as she did this and not paying attention to where she was going so she didn't realize that she was walking into the street and right in front of a moving car. Just before she could be hit she felt a strong pair of arms grab her waist and pull her out of the way.

"Watch where you're going you stupid kid?!" The driver in the car shouted. 

For a moment Nasha was in shock due to almost getting run over but when she snapped out of it she realized that her rescuer was a man. A rough looking young man with spikey hair and bits of car oil and grease on his cheek, arms, and fingers. Obviously a mechanic. 

"Are you alright?" He asked putting her down on the side walk.

"Yes." She answered when she could finally speak again.

"A word of advice don't write and walk at the same time." He said. "Lucky I saw you otherwise you would have been a goner."

"Thanks for the advice and the rescue. I'll probably heed it."

He noticed that she had dropped her notepad. He picked it up and took a look at what she had written.

"Let's see flashlight, water bottle, pocket knife?"

"Give me that!" She snatching the notepad from him. "Don't you know it's rude to read other people's notes without their permission?"

"Sorry, I guess I'm a little nosy." He chuckled. "So if you don't mind me asking, what do you need this stuff for? A camping trip?"

"No offense but that's none of your business."

He took notice of her annoyed and yet apprehensive expression. Call it a sixth sense but he could tell that she was planning something and she didn't want anyone to know about it.

"Oh....I get it now. You're planning to run away aren't you?" He said.

"How did you know?" She asked surprised that he figured it out so fast.

"A lucky guess and maybe before you do this you should think how it will make your parents feel. No doubt they would be heartbroken."

"I don't have any parents. I'm an orphan."

His face softened a little with sympathy. She was getting real sick of sympathy. 

"I'm sorry to hear that." He said. "So if you don't have any parents where are you staying?"

"I'm supposed to be staying at the Scarlet Shelter but I don't really need another foster home. So I'm going to find out what the bus schedule is, buy a ticket with my saved money, pack up my things, and get on the first bus out of here."

"Not bad except for the fact that we don't have a bus system here."

"What?! But a bus brought me here."

"From where?"

"Louen."

"Well that was Louen's bus you took. They have bus system but we don't."

"What kind of town doesn't have a bus system?!"

"It is a little weird but to tell you the truth no one ever leaves this place so I guess a bus system isn't it needed. I mean we have school buses but nothing that travels from here to another city."

"Great!" She huffed. "Now how am I supposed to get out of here?"

"Maybe you shouldn't leave. I mean you're a little girl and a little girl can't survive on her own."

"I am not a little girl!" She said feeling insulted. "I'm thirteen."

"Kid you're way shorter than me and you're a girl so in my eyes you're a little girl."

"Whatever. The point is I'm old enough to take care of myself. I don't need anyone to look after me anymore."

"You say that now but once you realize what it really means to live on your own you'll definitely be singing a different tune."

"I know how the world works."

"Newsflash no one knows how the world works. I'm a grown man and even I don't know how the world works. So why don't you do yourself a favor and go back to Miss Scarlet."

"So she can just send me away in one week or less like all the others?"

"I haven't met the people who have taken care of you kid but I happen to know Miss Scarlet very well and she isn't going to send you away."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"Let's just say she's been dying for a chance to take care of a kid and I think she deserves this chance."

Nasha could tell by the man's eyes that he was pleading for her to give her new foster mother a chance and not only that but she felt a strange sense of familiarity in those eyes. Like long ago a pair of eyes just like his were looking down at her but they had different emotion in them.

"So what do you say? Will you let me take you home to her?" He asked.

"Alright." She sighed. "I guess everyone deserves a chance."

"Great. Come on we'll take my car."

The two of them walked over to his vehicle that was parked on the road. He unlocked the car, they opened the doors, and stepped inside.

"Oh by the way I never got your name." He said.

"I'm Nasha." The girl answered.

"Nakku. Nakku Dragneel. I'm the mechanic around here so if you ever need a car, trunk, or other vehicle fixed just call me. Of course in your case you'll probably have to wait a few years."

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Dragneel."

"Just call me Nakku okay kid?"

"Okay."

...

Young Natsu looked out the window of the house where he lived, eagerly searching the night for any trace of his father returning home.

"Natsu?" Came the gentle voice from behind the door to his room. "Are you asleep?"

He quickly jumped from the window and hurried back to bed but he wasn't quick enough because when his mother opened the door she saw him standing three inches from his bed.

"Natsu you were supposed to be asleep in bed an hour ago." She said sternly.

"I'm sorry Mother but I couldn't sleep. Not when Papa is coming home tonight. Oh please let me stay up with you and wait for him. Please! I promise I'll go straight to bed when he comes home!"

As he pleaded with his mother he gave her his best puppy dog eyes and in the end she couldn't resist.

"Very well. But we're going to wait for him in bed." She said. "And if you'd like I'll tell you a story."

"Oh yes! Tell me a story." 

Natsu crawled into bed and she got into bed as well but moved the boy to sit in her lap.

"This isn't going to be some gross, kissy, love story isn't?" He asked her.

"No. No it's a very exciting story but it's also a little scary and I'm not sure if I should tell it to you. You might not go to sleep like you promised."

"I won't get scared." He protested. "I'm not scared of anything."

"Alright." She chuckled. "Once upon a time there was a brother and a sister who loved each other very much. They always took care of each other and protected each other. But they came from a very poor family."

"Like us?"

"Yes dear. They were always so hungry and had so little to eat. Their father who loved them dearly worked so hard and did everything he could to raise enough money to give them what they needed but no matter how hard he worked it was never enough. And to make matters worse the children had a greedy and selfish stepmother who hated the children."

"Why?"

"Because she saw them as a burden. She blamed them for the fact that they were starving. So one night she told her husband that they should abandon the children in the forest so the couple would only have to worry about feeding themselves."

"That's terrible! Did the father agree with her?"

"No. He was horrified, disgusted, and furious that she would suggest such a thing. He told her that he would never do it and ordered her to never think like that again. But a few days later when the father left on a trip to find work else where the stepmother took the children into the forest and left them there alone."

"Were they eaten by bears or something?"

"No but that didn't mean they weren't headed for any kind of trouble. They wandered in the woods for hours until they discovered the most unusual house."

"What was so unusual about it?"

"The whole house was made entirely of gingerbread, cake, candy, and other sugary sweets."

"Wow! That's the most amazing house ever! If I saw a house like that I'd move in right away!" He said excitedly.

"That's what you would think at first but trust me by the end of this story, if you ever see a house like that you'll turn tail and run. Now the children who had been starving immediately started to nibble on the house which alerted the person who lived there. She appeared to be a kindly old woman who invited the children to come inside her home so they could eat and rest."

"Did they go in?"

"Yes and it would be a mistake that would haunt them both for years. Because the old woman was really a witch who ate little children and used their bones as tools and ingredients for her potions and spells."

"Eww!"

"The witch locked the brother in a cage and made the sister cook all kinds of meals for him so the witch could fatten him up. To make him plump and juicy for when the time came to eat him. But the children were a lot smarter than the witch thought. For one thing she only had one good eye so the children managed to stall her from eating the brother by tricking her into feeling a skinny chicken bone instead of his arm so she would think that he was still skinny. But eventually she got tired of waiting and decided to eat him fat or thin."

"What did they do?"

"When the witch was getting the oven hot, her plan was to throw the sister in first but the brother had managed to grab some tools which he used to pick the lock on the cage while the sister feigned ignorance to stall the witch longer. The witch became frustrated and lost her temper. She grabbed the sister and got ready to throw her inside but the brother had gotten loose. He jabbed one of the tools into her good eye and the sister shoved her into the oven, slamming the door shut, and putting an end to her completely."

"Really? They killed a witch? But I didn't think kids could do anything."

"Never underestimate what a person can and will do when someone they love is being threatened. Anyway the children discovered that the witch had stolen many gold coins and jewels. They collected as many as they could and left the house where they were reunited with their father who had been searching for them for days."

"What about the stepmother?"

"Oh he left her. Found out what she did and threw her out. With the gold and jewels they found the three of them were able to live happily. They were no longer poor and they even shared their wealth with the starving people in their village. For the rest of their childhood the brother and sister wanted for nothing."

"Is this a true story Mother?"

"Yes it is. So if you ever see a house made of sweets or any kind of food you better ignore your growling stomach and run."

"But that witch is dead Mother."

"Yes but there are still witches out there and a lot of them target little children so be very careful."

"Is that why you don't like me to go off on my own? Because you think a witch will go after me?"

"Yes dear." She said holding him close. "Believe me there is nothing more frightening to a parent than the thought of losing their child."

"Not even a troll?"

"Yes. I would much rather face a troll than have you disappear from my life forever and someday you may understand that fear."

Being a child himself Natsu couldn't possibly understand that fear but he would. In time he would know all too well what that fear was like.

Just then they heard the sound of horse shoes drawing near. Looking out the window they saw a man with a horse and wagon approaching the house.

"Papa's home!" Natsu cried gleefully. He jumped from the bed and hurried downstairs with his mother following close behind to greet the man at the front door.

Note: Just like in the series, a lot of people in this fic are related in someway.