Hiya! You guys are so wonderful, like you don't even know it. Thank you all for reviewing just on the first chapter somewhat of a month into the story, you don't know how much that made me happy so I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and I decided to post this earlier than I usually would because you guys are so wonderful and deserve it, so please enjoy. Thanks for those who reviewed, favorited, and followed! You all deserve a cookie! ^^ Please leave a review and favorite! Farewell and Enjoy!

-Let there be midnight

Fairy Tail is not owned by me or in my possession, Hiro Mashima has all rights

What's Inside the Doll?

Hiding Behind a Tale of Lies

He's freaking out. He knew something was wrong when he couldn't pull up the fake Natsu and he answered truthfully. He knew something was wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. So wrong it made him sick to his stomach. He wasn't supposed to answer truthfully. He wasn't supposed to let his act drop. Nothing was supposed to happen like that.

This was the first time he had ever had problems with his act. He was always precise and knew how to act, but this time it was as if something pulled fake Natsu away and put a truth serum in him. And no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't pull back fake Natsu. It's as if he never existed in the first place and that terrifies him.

He did the only thing he knew how to do when he couldn't act. He ran. Well, he didn't run because he refuses to let people see the inner works of his mind, but he walked out as calmly as he could, feeling the stares boring into his back and making his hair stand on end.

Run run run. His mind kept echoing, but he couldn't run, he had to act calmly for his last line of defense was down.

Be like you used to before fake Natsu showed up. Be like you used to before you hid yourself. He kept thinking over and over again.

He squeezed his eyes shut once he was away from civilization, his nose and eyebrows squeezing together as his mouth purses in a thin line.

What happened back there? The thought echoes itself in his mind. Memories of moments earlier rush to his mind so fast that his knees felt like Jell-O and he had to prop himself up against a tree with an arm so he didn't fall into that thorn bush in front of him. The rush of recent memories pushed up old ones he had long ago tried to forget.

"Natty, why are you still acting?"

"Hmm, what do you mean?"

"You only reserve your act for special occasions."

"I'm not acting."

"Natty, I've known you for a long time. I know when you act and when you don't."

Just as the memory came, Natsu forcefully pushed it back and away from his subconscious, something he had managed to train himself to do over the years.

"Natsu!" His head jerked roughly to look over his shoulder so fast that for a moment he thought he was going to suffer from whiplash.

"Where did you go, flame brain?" He stood up in time for the rest of his team to come in sight and stop their yelling when their eyes laid upon him. He took a step back but otherwise cooled his expression into a nonchalant one, trying to pull fake Natsu's expression up again, only to fail.

"There you are," Erza said, worry lines creasing her forehead and the skin around her lips. "What's wrong?" Natsu looked briefly down to his feet before he caught himself and looked up.

"I can't act anymore." he found himself saying before he could catch himself. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before they went back to normal.

"Act?" Lucy asked with tense shoulders, eyes narrowing just slightly. Natsu looked over his shoulder in an absent minded way before turning to look over at his friends while he took slow steps backwards. His eyes flickered over to Gray's twitching fingers as they had the urge to curl into a fist, then they flickered over to Erza's hands as they twitched as if she was trying to grip a sword's hilt that wasn't there in comfort.

"Nothing. It's nothing." Natsu muttered distractedly when he saw Happy's tail swishing to and fro in impatience and worry. "I-I just," The way Lucy picked at her peeling pink nail polish on her thumb was distracting to him and how Gray would wet his lips every five seconds while Erza's limbs twitched as if they were wanting to will her armor on. Happy was the most distracting with how he would attract and detract his nails and twitch his ears.

"Just… what?" Gray asked, taking a step forward while Natsu took one back.

He gave them a shaky smile that looked nothing like the smiles he given before but instead looked pretty weird and awkward on his lips.
"Something came up," he mumbled, not meeting their eyes as he took another step backwards and found his back brushing against the rough bark of a tree. He figured since he couldn't lie, he could somewhat tell the truth and make himself believe in what he was saying to be true.

One defense down, another to create and build and mold into the outer shell of who I am and to hide the truth. Time to create and hide and be the perfect doll maker I can be.

"And…" he trailed off as he moved his hands to lightly trail against the bark as if he was trying to claw his way out of the situation.

A snap of a twig jerked his attention up to Erza who looked to be getting irritated the longer he stalled.

"Stop playing games," she ordered. "And tell us what is wrong, because clearly you're not acting right Natsu and not telling us anything isn't going to help you any time soon." There was a glint in her eyes that Natsu understood clearly as the glint of I-will-hurt-you-if-you-don't-tell-me.

"I'm not playing games," he laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't feel good, alright and plus, like I've said, something came up." They started to inch towards him making him feel like a cornered animal and started to make his heartbeat increase slowly. His palms started to get sweaty, but Natsu refused to wipe them off on his pants while they were there. He didn't want to give them anymore signs that he was stressed and nervous as it was.

"Natsu," Lucy started, drawing his eyes to her big brown ones. "Me and Levy were messing around with a spell that makes hidden mannerisms pop up and we decided to do it on your for fun—" he cut her off before she could finish.

"Not asking for my permission to do something like that isn't very polite, Lucy—Luce." he caught himself just in time to make the conversation more casual like his fake would do, but it didn't seem to do anything like he'd had hoped.

"We didn't think you'd start acting like this!" she defended. "We thought it would be something more subtle like—"

"Like what?" He winced internally at his anger. "Like I would suddenly start singing or some shit?" his voice started to get louder the more he felt cornered and there was no escape. "Even then did you even think to ask?" Lucy faltered in her own slight anger, biting her lip and narrowing her eyes at him.

"No—"

"Then what, Lucy? Tell me. I would love to hear." He growled, forcing his shoulders to drop and lose their tension as Gray took a step forward and put his arm in front of Lucy as if he was protecting her from Natsu's own anger.

"Chill, it's not a big deal—"

"Not a big deal?!" Natsu wanted to laugh bitterly at what Gray said, because it was, in fact, a huge deal. Letting the fake Natsu crumble and disappear was the worst case scenario to ever happen to Natsu and no one could ever understand. Even though fake Natsu was just a lie, he was a protection. He was Natsu's strongest line of defense against the world because letting people know who you truly were was a weakness he hated. "This is a huge deal." He forced his voice to calm as he took little breaths, closing his eyes as every muscle in him was forced to relax. "You just don't understand." Natsu whispered, barely low enough for them to hear. Natsu started to shrink in on himself like a child being scolded for eating too much for dinner, the shadows from the trees and his hair falling over his face enough to make it where his eyes were hard to see. "It's nothing new, so there's no need to worry." Natsu said softly, instantly changing the direction of the conversation. His eyes flickered to the slight movement of Gray's foot, then to the movement of him sucking on his bottom lip to restrain himself from yelling.

"Why were you lying to us?" Lucy breathed, silencing everyone around them. Natsu didn't change the angle of his face, to keep the shadows in his favor. His defenses were down, he can't let them see past the wall he's so desperately and failing to build. He won't let them, he won't even if it cost him his life. His newest on the spot wall was even failing him.

He's the worst doll maker in all of history, even his creations fail him when he needs them the most.

"There's no reason to hide," A voice from his past spoke up. "Nor is there any reason to lie." His hands coiled into fists just slightly enough that he knew the others couldn't see or detect.

"There's all the reason in the world to. No one can take me down from the inside that way, there's no way since the inside is the liar and the outside is the actor." He squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to forget the long ago conversation. Not now. Not ever. Forget forget forget. Do what you're best at. Lie lie lie. But what is there to lie about when all the walls are down? When the defenses have crumbled and can't be built? There's simply no time. Stall. If lying is not at the ready, stalling will have to be second best until there's a perfect time to slip away and rebuild what is left. Try to fix the damage that has been caused. Fix what has been broken. Mend the pieces left behind. But leave the truth and never look back. The truth is the enemy and the lies are the allies.

"I'm not," I am.

Ignore the second voice and believe you're not lying.

"There's no use in hiding, aren't we friends?"

"Yes." I don't know.

What really are friends?

"Then tell us the truth."

"I am." I can't.

What truth? What is there to tell? You won't like what you see.

"Natsu,"

"I have to go." Anymore of what you see will further damage the unfixable.