Hey all! I'm back with another chapter of Bleeding Out!

Don't got much to say at the moment lmao, so ENJOY! UwU

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL OR ANY REAL WORLD REFERENCES IN THIS STORY!

Ch5 - Of Felines and Gang Fights

The first thing that I thought about wasn't exactly the best thing. It was simply just the question of what is happening to me? Every morning I woke up, I felt as though my hands were sticky. They also felt strange in the sense like the bones within them were shifted, and it hurt. This has been happening ever since Gray and I had our little scuffle five days ago. I had no dreams, which I frankly didn't mind, but it was unusual. I also started feeling as though someone was always looking over my shoulder, even when no one was around. It was troubling to say the least. I'd even bothered to ask Gray if he'd detected anything. Although neither of us agreed with asking each other for anything, I'm sure he was concerned for the others which caused him to assist me. Neither of us have gone at each other. At least, not with magic of course.

He and I have had multiple competitions, which Gajeel happily joined in as well. He also introduced us(mostly me) to his hobby which happened to be just what I was hoping for. He was a boxer in underground fights. People would bet money on the fighters, which prompted me to want to join. Being a demon in disguise(and the strongest one at that), I should have no problem taking out a bunch of humans, no matter how strong they were. It also gave me a shot to see how strong Gajeel was considering he wasn't trained by Metalicana himself.

As it turned out, he was a fine boxer, stronger than the average human of course, but much stronger than I anticipated. I also got to meet Laxus Dreyer, who was a professional boxer and who trained Gajeel to be the fighter he was. The strength he gained helped him in his line of work, especially when it came to helping people escape a burning building. When I fought him, I tried so without the gear they recommended for me, and I did so pretty well I might add by almost knocking him out in the first round. I saw Gray cringe out of the corner of my eye, obviously knowing that even though I was only using a small fraction of my strength, I had overdone it. Gajeel, however, laughed upon being knocked down, saying he'd wondered when someone would come along contesting his power in the ring, other than Laxus obviously.

While the fight had been going on, I searched for traces of magic power within him, elated that he had more than any of the humans I'd met(besides Gray of course), but disappointed to find it wasn't enough to allow him to access magic of any kind. When Gray and I fought, I was toe-to-toe with him, though he had me on the ropes for a while since he'd fought Gajeel before. About halfway through the second round, Laxus called it off when we started taking "illegal" shots at each other.

Like I said before, I'd thought Gajeel could've given me a scare if I were human, but Laxus was a different story. He was taller, more muscular, and his face was just plain frightening(though I kept my cool) no matter what face he made, including a sincere smile(at least I thought it was. It might have been one that meant he wanted to kill me? I don't know). But he was tough and his first hit was a doozy! I hadn't prepared myself enough so when his fist came in contact with my face, I thought he was about to bust all of my teeth out of place, and send them flying like shrapnel throughout my head.

While I shook off the feeling of dizziness, Gray laughed while the large blond helped me up. After giving that black haired ass the bird, I shook off the woozy feeling and got ready for another round. Of course, it was short. And I bet you all knew I was going to win. Sike, I lost again. I'm losing my touch. While living with the dragons underground, I was known to be one of the cavern's strongest inhabitants. And now this human knocked me down not once, but twice? I would be the laughing stock of all dragon and demon kind if word got out. I glared at Gray as he was dying of laughter on the floor, which was really pissing me off.

In other news, I had been going to work, as of late and things have been pretty great! I did also request more hours to Yajima, to which he told me if anything came up with the other employees, I'd be the first to know. Looking around at the people I've met, I got a sliver of the population's personalities. But truly, this could only be a portion. I had yet to meet the worst of the worst(not me… i think). I hoped I wouldn't have to meet any, just so that I could peacefully live my life as a human. Is that too much for me to ask? I think not.

I also had done a little digging since it was coming upon Lucy's birthday. I already knew she loved to read and write, so I figured getting something for her in that sense. Now, I know some of you might be thinking it odd of me to get this human a birthday gift, but I'm just returning the favor from when we met. Listen. If there's anything I've been taught throughout my life, it's to repay your debts. I may be a demon, but I always pay back what I owe(no matter if it takes me ages or not).

But while I surfed the web on my computer(which Levy got me as a moving present), I heard something wrapping on the hardwood floors in the kitchen. I stopped and tried sensing any magic presence, and sure enough, there was one. I carefully crept towards the kitchen, and peaked around the corner. To my surprise, I saw what appeared to be a blue cat rummaging through my fridge. And not only that, he was wearing a green small satchel on it's back. I knew this was no normal feline, and not just because it was blue. One: it was humming to itself. And ttwo: it was standing on its hind legs with ease like it was a person or humanoid. It's tail swished happily behind it as it continued going through my fridge, exclaiming a quiet "aha!" when it found a large salmon I had been saving in the freezer.

"Oi! What are you doing in my freezer!?" I growled. I felt bad since it slipped, conked it's head on the freezer door, and hit the floor face first. I got closer and kneeled down to get a better look at it, but just as I got close, I got bitch-slapped with the fish.

"What the hell are you doing!?" It said angrily, narrowing it's large eyes at me. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"You don't say?" I grumbled, fed up with the little creature already. "And what, may I ask, are you doing rummaging through my food?" I cracked my knuckles, ready to punt the feline out of the window. Sorry for all you cat enthusiasts out there, but I was not going to take that from an animal.

"What do you think, smarty pants? I'm hungry!" it said. "Let me have this fish at least. This sweet, juicy salmon." As it said that last sentence, it was drooling and stroking the fish. Now, I had no intention of eating it.

"Fine," I said. "But take it and go." I went to wipe my face off since it started to smell like raw fish.

"Go? Where?" It questioned. "Can I please stay with you, Mr. Demon?"

Okay, he's gone. Grabbing it by the head, I walked to the window as it squirmed. "Wait, wait, wait! Please don't throw me out! I can help you if you need me to get the mail!"

"You're a talking, blue cat. That'd be like announcing I'm some sort of magical being."

"I-I can get you chicks!"

"As in ladies? Don't need that."

"I can help you track other magical species that might be a threat!" It pleaded.

"I can do that just fine on my own." I said, opening the window. "Now, go home."

"But I don't have one!" I stopped. It was dangling only by the grip of my fingers on it's head. Personally, that struck a chord in my so-called "heart". Being a demon, I never was really welcomed, even by my own kind since pretty much everyone feared me. For the short time I wandered with Zeref after my rebirth, it didn't feel like home. At first, the dragons I lived with seemed nice and all, but sometimes I doubted they recognised me as a part of their interconnected family of sorts even with Igneel and Grandeeny's influence until a couple years before now. I looked into his eyes, trying to tell if it was lying or not, and I saw only the truth. A lone tear dripped down its furry cheek. Damn it. I pulled it back inside and set it on the floor.

"Tell me about yourself." I said with a sigh as I plopped down in a chair. As it turned out, it was a male, and an age of six years old who went by the name Happy. He was not a regular cat as I had already deduced, but he was of a magical species I haven't heard of in a long time: Exceeds. They were feline like creatures that could speak and walk like humans. They also have the ability to use magic, but were known to only be able to use a rather simple and specific type called Aera. It allows them to sprout large angelic wings to give them the ability to fly. They can change the speed they can fly at, but at the cost of consuming more magic power the faster they go. If they deplete their magic power, the wings will disappear.

In all honesty, I thought their species was extinct. It was said they died out or committed to becoming full on cats hundreds of years ago, just as humans ditched their magic power. It seems as though they haven't all disappeared after all. As for him having a family, he said he hatched all alone in a forest(and yes, they lay eggs and hatch from them). That made me feel bad for him, and the way I treated him. So, deciding to be a merciful being, I came up with an idea.

"Listen, Happy," I said, causing his little ears to twitch. "I'd be willing to let you stay here, but under the condition that you listen to whatever I say. That means you follow any rule I tell you, got it?"

His little eyes lit up as he cracked a smile and jumped into my arms. "Oh, thank you!" he cried, his little tears staining my shirt. I rolled my eyes and stroked his head.

"The question is," I wondered aloud. "How am I going to explain your appearance to the others?" It was a valid question since as I mentioned, they walked and talked like humans.

"Easy! I can just act like a normal cat!" He said. "Plus, I can use a little bit of transformation magic!" I was surprised and didn't really believe it at first, but sure enough, in a quick poof he looked like any normal cat… well, one that was blue at least.

"Can't you change your color?" I asked, worried about his answer. He shook his head and poofed back to normal.

"No, sorry Mr. Demon." he said sadly. I bopped him on the head, causing him to yelp. "What was that for!?"

"First off, I'm in cognito in a sense." I sighed. "So don't ever mention that I'm a demon, got it?"

"But they won't hear me if I don't say it."

"Just call me Natsu. Natsu Dragneel."

He shrugged and smiled. With a quick salute and click of his heel, he remarked with a goofy response. "Aye Sir!" I couldn't help but chuckle at that. Maybe having him around wouldn't be so bad.

BOY was I fucking wrong. I came back not an hour later and my curtains were ripped, my couch smells like rotten fish, hair balls and fish bones on the floor, and a very guilty feline at my feet. His eyes looked at me with much regret, and I looked at him with much anger in mine. I tapped my foot as I looked once more at the carnage around my apartment.

"Happy, would you care to tell me what happened here?" I said through gritted teeth.

"S-sorry Natsu." he said sadly, hanging his head. I rubbed my face and wondered how much this would cost me. Certainly enough to set me back in my savings, damn it! I guess I didn't think about making sure he knew the rules.

After going over the rules for what felt like hours, I felt utterly exhausted. This must be how Igneel and Grandeey must have felt dealing with me. After fixing the room and running to a store and buying a few things, I fixed what I could. The floor looked normal, and sure the couch smelled of the heavy scent of Febreze, but it was alright for now. As for the curtains, I'd have to order some later on. I did, however, buy a little bed that Happy seemed to like. We also practiced how he was to act around others. Surprisingly, he didn't mess up. Even when a surprise guest came over.

"Is that a cat?" Lucy asked when I opened the door.

"Meow." Happy said, or meowed. I really couldn't tell. Lucy was silent for a while until she rushed and enveloped the little blue furball in a hug.

"He's so cuuuuute!" she said as she scratched Happy's chin. She looked like a kid in that instance, and I admit I might have smiled a little bit in response. "When did you get him?"

"Today, actually." I replied, interested in why she hadn't ask-

"Why's he blue?" she questioned, analyzing the feline.

I just shook my head. "I'm not quite sure myself. I found him on the street and took pity on him."

"Wow! That's a really nice thing to do, Natsu." she said with a smile. She then turned her attention back to Happy who was being held close to Lucy's chest. For just the slightest moment, I thought I saw him smirking. That kind of irritated me for some reason. I didn't really like the fact that he had such a smug look on his face while… nevermind. A few days later it had become normal to see him walking around the house both on all fours and on his hind legs(thankfully he was quick to switch if someone came over and he never once complained about it). Life became okay for the most part with him around, though the girls literally lost their minds around him. Gray figured out that he wasn't a normal cat within the first couple seconds meeting him since he went to use my restroom and Happy was sitting there on the toilet reading a newspaper(don't ask why, just accept it like I have). I think he's been partially traumatized ever since that moment, and both Happy and I have a laugh about it every once in a while. How do I know? Well, he always looks for Happy first before knocking on the door(I also had to teach that damn cat how to lock a door, which he can easily reach with his Aera magic).

Things have really begun to settle down now, though I keep feeling like someone's watching me. I tried searching for a magic presence but I couldn't feel anything. Either there's nothing to worry about or there's someone who knows how to mask their magic presence well enough that a powerful demon like me can't feel it. I tried to distract myself from the idea a few nights later, but I just couldn't so I decided to go for a run. It was getting closer to Lucy's birthday and I still was waiting on the gift I ordered for her, which was really pissing me off. I thought they had same day delivery in this era since they don't use horses or wind magic. Man I was having the strangest luck lately. I had run into a demon slayer, and exceeded who's partially annoying and eats all my fish products, and now the gift I'd ordered for Lucy was taking forever. What pissed me off even more was when I tripped and fell into a sewer.

Yeah, you heard me. I fell into a fucking sewer. Wow! My life is only at its peak according to human scientists. Fucking Yippee! At that moment, all I could think about while I was laying in sewer water flowing through the pipes was, Does life really hate me this much?

Of course the answer was yes because I heard a multitude of voices down at one end of the tube, and my magic sensors were picking up a large amount of bodies. I just thought to hell with it and began to make my way over to them. I crept quietly until I peaked out of a grate in the pipe to see what looked like an underground gang meeting. Lucky me. They were smoking, drinking, waving guns around and acting like what a modern gang would act like(don't ask me what they act like cause I don't know myself, I'm just guessing here), though there were a few people who stood out from the rest, wearing dark hoods like Gray had had on the night we fought in a far corner. They seemed different and sure enough, I couldn't feel a magic presence from them. But I did feel, however, two strong urges: one to kill them, and the other to run as far as possible. Since I prefer not to run, I figured why not beat the shit out of them and find out who they were, but they seemed to notice me before I noticed them. I instantly activated my dragon scales, so they might not recognize me in case one had seen me around before, and melted the bars between me and the whole group.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, now had their eyes on me. I looked around as I walked towards the center of the room. I counted up to be around three hundred people packed within this underground room. Anyone who had a weapon had it aimed at me, as well as a confused look in their eyes. Personally, I felt magic was superior to weapons in combat(not including those who use weapon related magic), but with numbers, non-magic weapons could do damage to someone like me, not to say I'm weak or anything. Bullets just hurt.

The man who seemed to be the leader of this gang stopped messing with the ladies who were giving him some "attention", and stepped out from his little corner. He held what appeared to be some sort of automatic rifle(Gajeel likes to hunt and his "dad" was in the military).

"Who the fuck're you?" he grunted. He reeked of alcohol and other liquids I wish not to discuss at the moment.

"Just someone who tripped and fell in the sewer." I answered plain and simple, earning laughs from the crowd.

"You must be some sort of fucking idiot to have done that, bro." he said. "On one bigger one to be dressed in some… some… whatever shitty lizard you're supposed to be.

Ohhhh boy. Now he's done it. "Care to say that again?" I replied through gritted teeth.

"I said, you look like some fucking shity, ass lizard!" He laughed. It literally took a second for my scaly hands to be around his through and partially crushing his windpipe. He was dangling in the air and gasping as I held the pressure. I cursed myself inwardly since now all the barrels of the weapons they had were trained on me. Lucy had tried to get me into popular culture and showed me a movie called Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This situation was like that opening scene in the movie where the villagers were surrounded. Like them, I felt as though the force wasn't with me, but what do I care if they outnumber me in bodies and firearms. I'm the king of demons!

"Drop him!" one of the men around me said.

I sighed and decided to teach them a lesson they would never forget: NEVER fuck with a demon. I tossed their boss into the crowd and braced myself as the bullets came in waves. Steam and gas began to circle around me as the bullets melted instantly against them. When they all stopped firing, they stared in utter shock at my form as I stood up without a scratch. One shot went towards my face as I caught the bullet with my fingers, crushing it easily and flicking it to the side.

I gave them a wicked smirk as the whites of my eyes turned black. It had been too long since I had some fun. "My turn."

Meanwhile on the other side of town...

A black-haired male walked down the dark streets in the middle of the night. He had a black hoodie on, and grey sweatpants. His eyes scouring around for signs that he was being followed. He turned down an alleyway, looked around behind him before he pressed multiple bricks like a passcode and a doorway in the wall began to open. It revealed stairs leading downwards. The way down was dark as the door shut behind him, but he could see fine. He came into an open room, almost like a church. Multiple people in black robes were there, turning to him. One of the people in the room wore a purple robe, rather than black. He removed his hood to reveal a head of short and red, spiky hair. His eyes were red, and the black haired mail bowed before him.

"Chancelor Malcolm." He said.

Malcom smiled and motioned for him to rise. "What brings you here at this hour, my pupil?"

"I came to report what I've seen throughout my return to America." he said.

"What possibly could have forced you to use the Gate System?" Malcolm questioned. "This better be worth my time."

"I've found someone." the male said.

Malcolm scoffed in annoyance. "Let me guess. They want 'in'"

The male shook his head. "No. They are a demon." This gained Malcolm's attention.

"Oh? Is it one of the Demon Gates? A Stray perhaps…"

"Neither, your grace. I believe he is the one we have been searching for."

"DO NOT TOY WITH ME!" Malcolm screamed. "I've been receiving these blasphemous reports saying the demon king lives among humans, but they are folly!"

"Sir, I have met him. He doesn't think I suspect him to be the demon king."

"YOU REVEALED YOURSELF?" Malcolm growled. "You insolent fool! He shall disappear now if what you say is true!"

The male smirked. "He doesn't know who we are, and he never will. I already have a plan to kill him."

Malcolm sighed and walked towards an altar in the middle of the room. "If you have a plan, then speak of it now before I lose my patience. Just because you are my prized pupil doesn't mean I will listen to banter. You better be right about this, Gray."

The male removed his hood. His body was covered in the same black markings as he had shown Natsu the other night.

"Of course, Your eminence. He's within my grasp, and I will crush him when he is weakest and suspects nothing."

Malcolm was silent for a moment. "Then it is settled." He said as red demon skin crawling up his arm and spreading to his body just like Gray's. "In order for us to accomplish our goal, we must kill the demon king: END."

"The hour is near, and we, the Order of the Mark shall bring peace at last to the lands of this world!" Malcolm continued as those in the room cheered. "The Mark Guides us to victory! Hail the Mark!"

All in the room cheered. "Hail the Mark!"

Gray smirked as his eyes turned purple.

"Hail the Mark."

That's a wrap for chapter 5! I hope you all enjoyed! It was a little difficult, and I know the name of the cult is weird, but it made sense at the time lol. Looks like Gray has some BIG plans for Natsu. What will happen? FIND OUT NEXT TIME! UwU

That's all for now! Until next time! UwU Again, please give me ANY feedback you can! :3

STAY SAFE OUT THERE! BE ALERT, NOT ANXIOUS!

With luv,

WritingHobbyist2020

AS ALWAYS, FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A REVIEW OR A QUESTION IN EITHER THE REVIEW SECTION OR IN A PM, AND THANKS FOR READING! :D