LUCY:

"Lu! Where on earth have you been?" My best and only friend, Levy, stomped up to me and stuck her hand in-between my eyes and the yellowed pages. I tried to move the book away from her but her hand stayed glued to the page. A smile began to form on my lips despite my valiant efforts to stay neutral.

"Le-vy! Can't you let me read in peace?" I tried to sound innocently exasperated, but one look at my friend's face told me I failed miserably.

"I wake up to find you gone, then you don't show up for breakfast or lunch, and now you just pop up like nothings' wrong! What is your problem, Lu?" The little blunette waved her hands for emphasis. I giggled and gave, unable to keep her worried for nothing.

"It's fine. I just went to the beach, ok? Geez…" I sighed, hoping she wouldn't leap from one thing to the other.

"You went to look at the ship." Her eyes narrowed and she stuck her hands on her hips. I cursed inwardly while keeping up the good girl façade. After a long moment she rolled her eyes and plopped down on the worn couch, leaning over my shoulder to look at the book. "What's this one about?"

I flipped the book over and handed it to her, letting her read the summary. Yes, I'd gone to look at the ship. It had crashed into the massive rocks on the coast of our little island a few days ago, but our first expedition didn't turn up any survivors. Any bodies at all, for that matter. A ship had to have a crew, so I kept sneaking out at night to watch the wreck. Last night my efforts had finally paid off.

"Levy?"

"Hm?"
"I saw a fire. Last night, on the ship." Her eyes shot up from the book and focused on me.

"You sure?" She sounded excited, but also nervous. Besides each other, we had never seen or spoken to a person. Not that we remembered, anyways.

"Yep. I don't know if there was anyone actually there, since I stayed until past lunch and no one showed, but I definitely saw a fire." I traced the worn design of the couch cushion with the tip of my finger.

"All right then, let's go." Levy jumped up from the couch, the book tucked under her elbow. I just stared at her for a few seconds, not really following. She gave an exaggerated sigh and grabbed my hands to pull me up, dropping the book. When I got up she picked up the fallen tome and placed it on the couch, making sure to dust it off. It was my turn to roll my eyes as she cooed over her little precious before she gave me an evil grin and ran through what was once a door.

"Last one to the wreck is a chicken!" She called. I groaned but ran after her, a smile light on my face.

NATSU:

"Dammit! What d'ya think you were doing, metalhead?" I yelled, staring hopelessly and the bashed up generator. The metalhead in question elbowed me in the ribs before scratching his chin.

"It was dark!" I shot him a murderous glare, to which he responded to with a smirk. "You gonna kill me, Salamander? You're the one who burnt down our entire freaking food supply."

"Oh, shut it, Gajeel. For the last time, that wasn't my fault. We're gonna die either way." I pulled a hand through my salmon hair, nearly groaning in frustration. Here we were, two princes on our last adventure before the damnation they called marriage, shipwrecked and stranded in no-man's-land. No way home, no supplies, and worst of all, no food. Even though that may or may not be partially my fault.

"Remind me, hot head, why are we the only two survivors?" Gajeel played with some weird metal thing, his infamous smirk plastered firmly on his face.

"Remind me, iron bucket, why are you one of those survivors?" I growled at him. Sure, we did hate each other, but in reality we were pretty good friends. A messed up friendship, if anything, but we managed. My side began to throb again, the long gash seeping blood. "Dammit…"

"How's your side?" Gajeel leaned back to inspect it, careful to keep his weight on his left. I poked the bandages and winced at the spark of pain.

"Fine. How's your leg?" I asked him, already knowing his answer. Neither of us would admit to weakness – it was a stubbornness thing, according to everyone else.

"It'll live. You know, we should explore the island soon." He looked out at the green chunk of land, floating in an endless sea. I followed his gaze, taking in the golden beaches and leaning palms. It was a gorgeous place, rivaling even the royal gardens. If I wasn't doomed to die with an idiot, I might've actually enjoyed it. The midday sun was already beating down at full strength, scorching the life out of my back and neck. I threw one last glance at the generator before turning my back and sticking me hand in my pockets.

"Let's just go now, before we fry to a pair of little crisps." I strolled across the wreckage and jumped down to the soft sand. Gajeel followed, his landing punctuated with a suppressed hiss. It must've hurt, landing with a sprained knee. We made our way towards the forest, minds set on the search of food.