xX Picking Up the Pieces Xx

Xx Chapter 1: What Do We Do With Her? xX

Natsu and Gray stood on the other side of the window, watching the woman inside the room.

"So what's wrong with her?" the pink-haired man asked.

"She's an amnesiac," the other responded.

"Sucks."

"Yeah."

Silence.

Rewind.

The woman in the room was identified to be Lucy. Just Lucy, for she couldn't remember her last name. She had blonde hair caked with dirt and other stuff reaching to the top of her waist, wide, chocolate brown eyes, and plump lips, which Natsu was decidedly not looking at.

They were chapped and blue, from being out in the cold rain for who knows how long.

Apparently, she was found sitting in some dirty alley in a tattered pink sundress, staring off into space with lifeless, cold eyes. Her forehead had been bleeding and bruised, showing she had been hit with a blunt object and most likely knocked unconscious. She was awake when Cana had stumbled past her, muttering something about 'being sorry'.

When questioned, they found out she hadn't remembered anything besides her first name.

Poor sod.

Currently, she was wrapped in a large police jacket that brushed past her mid thigh - that sundress was trashed - and large, baggy sweatpants. Her shoulders hunched forward, making herself seem smaller than she was, as their ace interrogator, Mirajane, pried into her mind. Her eyes stared deeply at her hands, which were twisting together in her lap, as she nodded slowly and shook her head sharply.

"I hate to ask you again, Miss Lucy," they heard Mira ask through the speakers, "but are you absolutely sure you can't remember anything?"

The blonde nodded.

"Not where you come from?"

She shook her head.

"And relatives?"

She shook her head once more, and Mira leaned back, looking at the window. She made eye contact with Natsu through the glass - how did she know where he was? - and shrugged.

Why did she look at him? He sure as shit didn't know what to do in these situations. All he was sent out to do was catch criminals and pray he didn't destroy anything in the process.

And play with fire, because he really, really liked fire.

Mira leaned forward and placed her hand on the center of the table. "I am going to talk to my colleagues to see what we can do to help you, Miss Lucy. I will be right back. Please try and see if you can remember anything." The blonde girl nodded as Mira stood, making her way to the door and closing it behind her.

The white-haired beauty sighed before giving Natsu and Gray a look.

"No," they said.

"Come on," Mira said, whining slightly.

"No," they repeated.

"She won't talk to me, not a word! Maybe one of you guys can get her to-"

"No," they said.

Mira sighed. "The one time you agree without a fight is when an interrogation is involved. You guys are too alike."

The boys shifted.

Natsu hated interrogations.

Something about them made him feel dirty. He hated intimidating people into confessing. He hated being sweet enough to make them confess. He didn't do well on either side, and it often made him look like a fool.

Well, he was a fool, but that was of his own choice. Interrogations made him look stupid for no reason.

The few times he was put in the position, he ended up getting spit on, his foot smashed, being yelled at, and having to face a lot of tears. Natsu hated dealing with crying people.

And he had a feeling that woman in there would start crying soon.

But...

Natsu sighed and moved into the enclosed room, shutting the door softly behind him.

He didn't sit down, he wasn't going to be in there long. He just wanted to try, and if he made progress, well, he could shove it in Mira's face later at the risk of losing only one finger this time.

So he removed his gun holster, handcuffs and his cell phone, placing it all on the metal table, leaning on it to give him a casual look. The girl - Lucy, he needed to call her Lucy - looked up at him.

Her eyes were brown, the color of rich soil, or chocolate if he wanted to be sweet. They were large too, staring up at him almost innocently. But being a detective came with certain skills.

In those eyes, he saw fear, confusion, nervousness, was that relief in there too? Her mouth opened slightly as she took a breath - look away Natsu - and her cheeks started gaining a bit of color from her pale complexion before. She was getting warmer, that was good.

"Yo."

She stared.

Then started crying.

Fucking-

"I didn't even start saying anything yet! Only one word!" he shouted, throwing his hands up in frustration. She flinched and then let out a soft sob, moving her hands up to wipe at the falling tears.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, and Natsu paused, looking at her. She had spoke, saying something other than her name. Granted, she had said 'I'm sorry' when Cana had found her, but they were still words. More than Mira had received anyway. "I'm so sorry..."

Natsu waved his hands, trying to calm her down without touching her. "You shouldn't be sorry. I'm the one who's sorry, I shouldn't have exploded like that."

But in his defense, she shouldn't have started crying.

She shook her head, inhaling shakily, wiping the rest of the tears from her face before more came coursing down. "I-I haven't been much help. I'm sorry, I can't remember anything and you..."

"And I?"

"...Have pink hair."

Natsu scowled, and she flinched.

"It's salmon."

"It's...It's salmon."

"Damn right."

They descended into silence. Natsu staring at her and her staring at her hands. It was uncomfortable and tense. The detective scratched the back of his head.

"So...you're sure you can't remember anything? Anything at all?" he pushed.

"...blood."

"Huh?"

She shut her mouth again, and Natsu scrambled to kneel beside her. "Come on, you just said something! Blood? You said blood. Whose blood was it?"

She remained silent, and he was beginning to get desperate. "Come on Lucy - Miss Lucy. You've come so far, you gotta keep going! This could help us figure out who hurt you!" Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and Natsu practically begged. "Whose blood was it Miss Lucy?"

"...I don't know."

He deflated, quite literally. His shoulders sagged and he flopped back to sit on the floor, his eyes staring at the ceiling blankly.

So close, so damn close to getting one clue, and now they were back to square one. It was wrong to be irritated at an amnesiac, but he wasn't the most patient person, and this whole thing was testing his nerves.

Mira was supposed to be doing this, not him. Gray was supposed to try this, not him. Levy could do this, not him. So why the hell was he even sitting in this room with her?

He heard a harsh knock on the one-way window, and he looked at it even though he couldn't see what was on the other side. He shrugged, knowing they could see it.

"Your hair reminded me of blood," Lucy whispered. Natsu chuckled wryly. "I remember seeing blood in water, someone washing their hands, turning the liquid pink." Her eyes glazed over. "Burning, everything was burning. I can't breathe, so much smoke, but he can't get the blood off. He won't leave until the blood is off. My throat is closing up, I can taste the smoke-"

"O-Oi," Natsu interrupted when she started shaking.

"We need to get out, but he won't leave. Sorry, he's so sorry, I'm so sorry. We need to go, let's go! Not until he gets the blood off, he says! Hurry up! Blackness." She choked on a sob, lifting her hands to her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut. Natsu just stared.

What the...hell was that shit?

"H-He knocked me out," she said over her tears.

"Who did Lucy? Who knocked you out?" he asked softly, and she shook her head.

"I don't know..."

And back to square one.

But still progress.

"You don't know if he is alive?" 'He' was obviously the one who hit her, but this mystery man might've been involved in something more sinister. They need to apprehend him, question him, see what he's been up to.

If only she could remember. But if he was still alive...

"I don't know..."

Well shit.

Natsu stood up and made his way out of the room without another word to her. Mira, Gray, Erza, Levy, and Jellal were staring at him with something equivalent to shock. He tried to figure out when the other three came in.

"She-"

"We heard," Erza cut him off, crossing her arms. "Your hair triggered a memory Natsu."

"I bet yours would have triggered more," he grumbled.

"I'm not willing to test that." The redhead tapped her foot, looking at the sobbing blonde in the small room. Natsu shifted.

Now what? He had gotten more information than Mira, and now they knew there was a possible homicide and arson involved. Lucy - Miss Lucy was obvious a witness in a crime they had yet to find out about. A witness, accomplice, suspect, and amnesiac.

She had a lot hanging over her head, and they couldn't let her go on her merry way like they had planned.

Natsu scowled.

"So what do we do with her?"

"Well it seems like the injury wasn't what caused her amnesia," Levy said, tapping into her medical mind. He could practically see the gears turning in her head, and, not for the first time, he wished he could read minds. He knew she was thinking about something, and he knew it wouldn't be beneficial to him.

It never was.

"Retrograde amnesia," the tiny doctor said, cupping her chin, "a loss of memory-access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease. RA is often temporally graded, consistent with Ribot's Law: subjects are more likely to lose recent memories that are closer to the traumatic incident than more remote memories."

"Great, now put that in a way that doesn't make my brain melt," Natsu said.

"Scary event, forget it, literally," Mira clarified with a smile.

"Much better."

"So her memories will come back eventually?" Erza asked.

"A scan would help, but from seeing what just happened, most likely," Jellal said. It was weird hearing him talk. Usually he was locked in his lab like the creepy scientist he was, and when he came out, Erza was the only one he spoke to.

Made sense, Natsu thought, since she was his wife and all.

Although, scuttlebutt said they were having issues...

Oh, gossip. What was happening to him?

"So...that didn't answer the question," Gray said, jerking his thumb at the window behind him. "She's obviously a witness, so we can't send her off. But we can't keep her here in that condition. So...now what?"

Natsu hated that Gray was thinking the same thing. Asshole.

"Well there's a possible chance she could be in danger," Erza said. "She's alive, she witnessed a crime, and though it didn't sound like the man she was with wanted to kill her, others could be after her. She needs to be in protective custody of someone...capable..."

Slowly, everyone's eyes slid to him.

Oh hell. The fuck. No.

"No," he said.

"You did get her to talk..." Levy said.

"No."

"Maybe you could help her remember," Jellal added.

"No."

"You're strong enough to protect her if it comes to that," Erza threw in.

"No."

"I'm glad it's not me," Gray snickered.

"Shut the fuck up."

"Then it's settled!" Mira clapped, and Natsu briefly forgot she was in the room. "Natsu will be her caretaker!"

He hated his life.

1. So this has been in my head (and documents) for a while now. I like it.

2. All Nasty-kun's POV because I can't write from an amnesiac's POV.

3. I feel bad that I haven't put out content from either story for a while since I'm recovering (from an accident, those of you who don't know) so take this until I get working on Talking Body.

4. Screw this cast because ITS HARD TO TYPE.

5. OOC? Fuck it. I don't care. I like realistic characters, so take realistic characters. Plot? Yes. Cursing? You can bet your ass. Smut? Not telling, mostly because I don't know. Continue? Oh hell yes because I like this a lot.