Authors Note:
This is based on the song, Trees, by 21 pilots. We are currently addicted to that band and we felt the urge to do a one shot based off one of their songs haha.

Happy birthday to my co-writer and one of my greatest friends, Sophie. When I first learned we shared a birthday, I knew that she and I were destined to write together. Love you Sophie, I wish I could express more about how much you mean to me and how much you've helped me through my problems. Thank you and Happy birthday love.

-Jason

---(J)---

Natsu stood at the edge of the boundary that separated his town from the forest. It wasn't really illegal to go in the place however everyone was always too scared to even take one step thanks to some silly rumor. So that's why he was here, to prove there was nothing to be afraid of.

"Natsu..." A voice said from behind him. "Are you sure you're ok with going alone? The elders say that they lady of the forest will kill you if you go alone."

"You can't possibly believe that, Wendy." Natsu sighed and turned to face the girl. "The Lady of the forest won't kill me. If there really is one that is."

"It's just a story they made to get us to stay out of the woods. There's nothing dangerous besides poison oak and that's easily curable. I'll be back by daybreak."

Wendy looked doubtful before nodding and pulling a necklace off her neck. "Take this at least... It's the healing water I got from granny P. I have some more at home so don't worry."

Natsu stared at it for a moment before smiling and pulling it down and over his head, hiding the vile in his shirt. "Thanks..." He mumbled and brought her into a friendly hug. "I'll see you later, ok?"

Wendy smiled sadly before stepping away. "Bye bye..."

Natsu nodded to her before turning back around and facing the forest again. And without saying another word he took a step forward and began his journey into the forest.

Once he got a good distance in, he decided to stop and look up at the sky, the leaves making it possible to only see little specks of pale blue. A smile made its way back onto his face, feeling rather accomplished. "Hah! Lady of the Forest? My ass." He snorted, spinning around. "I'm perfectly fine being alo—AH!"

Natsu yelped as he tripped on a root and tumbled down a small hill, ripping up the contents of his backpack. "Damn it..." He cursed and collected everything he dropped, though he knew he wasn't just going to carry everything with him. "I guess this will just have to be my set up area for the night." He mumbled.

Natsu stood up and shuffled over to a large tree, placing his items down at its base.

"Who are you?"

The pinkette shrieked and jumped closer to the tree, cautiously looking at the source of the voice, but no one was there. "Where....?"

"Hello." A blonde girl chirped as she jumped down from his tree, standing right in front of him.

Natsu yelped again and flattened his back against the tree trunk, looking at the girl up and down. "What the..."

"I'm Lucy." The girl smiled, though it seemed a little pained. Natsu looked down to notice that she was holding onto her arm tightly, right above her elbow. Red liquid stained her hands.

"You're bleeding!" He said, shaking himself out of his thoughts as he surprised around for his necklace. Luckily it wasn't broken from his fall.

Lucy eyed the small container carefully. "You can to poison me?"

"Poison you?" Natsu raised an eyebrow before quickly shaking his head. "No no no no nothing like that at all. The opposite in fact."

She stayed silent.

Natsu bit his lip and glanced between her and the vile in his hands. "Someone has tried to poison you before?"

Lucy's grip on her arm tightened before looking up at the sky with a smile. "No... But I know that someone will try to do that soon enough according to all the other things they did to try and kill me."

"Oh my gosh..." Natsu chuckled and turned away to rub his face. "The lady of the forest. That's you, huh?"

Lucy looked back down towards him.

"I thought you were a myth but here you are. And I'm still alive... Alone in the forest."

She watched as the pink haired continued to laugh at himself, keep bringing up how he wasn't dead.

"I bet... I bet you don't skin your victims either... And wear them as coats." He chuckled, forgetting about her wound as he noticed her smile. "What?"

"You're not afraid of me."

Natsu was silent for a moment before returning her smile. "Of course not... I never was."

Lucy's whole stature relaxed though her grip on her wound never faltered. "I could really use your strange healing thingy you mentioned."

"Huh?" He blinked before turning a bright shade of red and rushing over to treat the wound. "S-Sorry I'm just a little star struck is all... I mean... Wow."

Lucy giggled and led him over to a rock, sitting down as he poured the water over her wound. "You never told me your name."

"It's Natsu..." He said almost immediately, kneeling in front of the beautiful girl as he held onto her arm. "I'm the uh... Man of the village. I guess. I don't know."

Lucy laughed and shook her head, watching as the wound began to seal up quickly. "Well Natsu. I like you. So I'll tell you there is no reason for you to run away."

Natsu smiled. "Why are people scared of you? There's so many stories of you killing people and all that."

The blonde smiled sadly before shrugging and looking away. "I guess they just needed an excuse to get rid of me..."

---(S)---

Wendy sat by the edge of the forest with a frown upon her face. It's been a long week, and Natsu still hasn't come out of the forest.

"The Lady of the forest is real..." She said under her breath as she fell backwards into her back, staring up at the blue sky. "And she took my cousin."

The small girl stayed quiet before covering her face with her hands. "Don't cry. He'll come back. He promised he would. You have to believe him."

"Yo Wendy!"

Wendy shrieked and jumped up from the ground, her eyes dashing around before she locked them the with the gaze of the missing boy. "Na—"

"Woo! It's been awhile. Like what? A week?" He snorted. "My bad. But hey guess what! I brought a friend!"

Wendy wanted to scold her cousin, but not until she made eye contact with the blonde who stood beside him.

"I'm Lucy." The said girl said eagerly, thrusting her hand out.

Natsu chuckled and took Wendy's hand, forcing it into the girl's beside him. "Friendship."

"Natsu do you have any idea who that is?"

Lucy frowned.

Wendy hesitantly took hand away, not keeping her eyes off the other girl. "The Lady of the forest..."

"She's harmless." Natsu said quickly with a now nervous gleam in his eyes. "Seriously. She's just misunderstood. She kept me safe this whole week."

"She might be trying to fatten you up with her candy house."

"Okay one! She has a house made of wood. And the only thing I've seen her eat is plants and... And more plants." Natsu hissed, taking Lucy's hand and pulling her behind his back protectively. "All these rumors about her are fake and they're completely idiotic. It's a surprise that a so called idiot like me can get that."

Lucy blushed lightly at his words and tightened her grip on his hand.

Wendy sighed softly and looked at the lady of the forest before looking back at Natsu with a reluctant look on her face. "Just... Don't blame me if the elders banish you to the woods with her."

Natsu watched her for a moment before giving Lucy an encouraging look and leading her towards the center of the village, making sure nobody stared at them for too long.

---

Lucy watched from a separate room as Natsu was being verbally punished by the village elder. She was doing a lot of pointing and spitting, and it was obvious that her breath didn't have the best scent based on the way he scrunched up his nose every time she spoke.

She felt guilty, and knew very well she shouldn't have left the forest with Natsu, however he kept insisting and somehow he managed in the end. And now he was the one being punished because apparently he skin was poison to the touch and once you touch her you become her slave. That must be a new one now that Natsu was siding with her.

A sudden slam caught her attention and snapped her out of her thoughts as she looked back over at Natsu through the doorway. She immediately noticed the shock look in his eyes and the red spot on his cheek. The old woman stood above him with a red palm.

Standing up from her chair, she started to walk into the room but halted when Natsu gave her a smile. Such a bright smile that made her loose track of her thoughts again.

The elder finally noticed her and closed the door to speak to Natsu alone.

---

Lucy had to remind herself that magic existed, although in the smallest things. Like the magical healing water Natsu had given her when they first met. And yet people knew it was very hard and rare to find magic, they assumed that she held it all in her body.

And now because of her, Natsu has been accused of gaining the ability hold magic in his body as well, when he's only ever held magic when healing the gash in her forearm.

He watched her silently, one of his eyes swollen and black from his punishment a couple hours earlier. A smile still stayed plastered on his face, and especially widened whenever she would look back at him.

"You know what I'm going to say, don't you?" He finally spoke up. "I've known you for a little bit longer than a week and I feel like I know everything about you."

"I won't allow you to live in the forest with me, Natsu. You have a family here."

"I've got Wendy but I don't want to ruin what she has. Sure I'll miss her but I'll ruin her chances of her becoming a doctor like she always wanted." He said and stood up from the ground, pulling Lucy up with him. "I'm going with you."

The Lady of the Forest but her lip and looked down at their hands before looking at the border of the forest. "I guess there's no stopping you."

Natsu watched as she let go of his hands and walked into the woods, standing with her arms outstretched to her. He smiled softly and stepped forward, interlocking his fingers with hers.

"Welcome. Master of the Forest."

"I'm glad to be home, Lady of the forest." He whispered happily before concealing them in the foliage and placing a soft kiss against her lips.

She smiled as they broke apart and looked at him joyfully before laughing and leading them to her small wooden house. "It really is where I belong, huh? Where we belong..."

"Hidden in the trees."

---
Authors Note:
I'm listening to an Amy Winehouse album as I wrote this and I'm like, "I should do one with Jason based on one of her songs", but I realized how sad it would end up so nah.

But happy birthday to Jason. You're the best person to share a birthday with and you have no idea how much I love you. I have a million words to say to you about how much you mean to me but I'm afraid I need my fingers for a little bit longer to write stories for you and these wonderful readers of ours. Stay bloody brilliant Jay.

And Happy Birthday to us both
April 10th, 2016
Happy 16th birthday~

-Sophie

*not proofread*
2058 words