Flaming Keys One Shots

by Sweet Little Demon

A series of One shots of Natsu and Lucy, that will probably be extremely long and probably a little rushed, but have good plot (I hope!)!

1. Not Letting Go

Not Letting Go

Lucy let out a groan of annoyance as she dropped her head onto the bar counter. This day was just not going her way at all, or the week really.

"Are you alright Lucy?" a gentle, kind voice asked. The busty blonde lifted her head enough to look at the beautiful white haired waitress, Mirajane.

"I'm fine. Just … stressed, is all." She said, turning her face back onto the countertop. It was true. She was stressed. And she hated it.

They had just returned from Edolas, Lisanna welcomed back home with wide open arms. Now, don't get Lucy wrong, she liked Lisanna, she loved her, but the newly found guild member was hogging Natsu's attention. So they hadn't gone out on a job all week, and with her rent coming up soon, that wasn't good.

Lucy glanced over at the table that Natsu, Erza and Lisanna were seated at, taking note of their happy expressions and light airiness around them. Complete opposite of her mood at the moment.

"If you want to go on a job, why not just go ask Natsu? I'm sure he would jump at the idea." Mira added onto their conversation a few seconds later. Lucy flung her head up to stare at the transforming She-Devil with a comically shocked expression.

"How did you …" Lucy trailed off.

"I just do." Mira replied easily with a giggle, setting a glass of water down in front of the shocked summoner.

"Well, they look like they're having a good time, and I don't want to interrupt." Lucy trailed off once more to herself as she picked up the glass, taking a small sip. But one small look at the calendar behind Mirajane had her forcing herself off the stool. She could hear Mira giggle quietly behind her as she dragged herself across the guild hall to the table her friends sat at.

"Hey Lucy!" Lisanna smiled at the approaching blonde with a wave. This drew the attention of the other two mages towards Lucy, both immediately smiling at the celestial wizard—who had just reach the table.

"Hello Lucy. Would you like a slice of my cake?" Erza asked, gesturing at the dessert placed decoratively on the plate.

"No thanks." Lucy smiled with a dismissive wave, a genuine smile growing across her face. Lisanna nudged Natsu off his side bench they both sat on, succeeding at knocking him on the floor in order to give Lucy a place to sit. With a quiet grumble about pushy women, he plopped himself down on the other side of their table, next to Erza.

Lucy giggled and took her seat beside the short haired mage, happy to know that she was still accepted by her friends. She had been worried that once Lisanna was back, she would be ignored, like she had been a replacement of sorts. She should have never doubted her guild. They were family, no matter what. Even though Natsu had been distracted by Lisanna as of late, he never ignored her when she talked to him. In fact, if he saw her first, he'd go up and slap her on the back in greeting … before catching sight of Lisanna and rushing off to talk to her.

"Natsu, I was wondering if we could go on a job soon. I could really use the money." Lucy said to the dragon slayer, leaning her arms on the table comfortably. She learned long ago that telling them her rent was almost due never did anything to force them into action, so she eventually just gave up and just asked for them to go on a job.

Her heart filled with hope when his eyes lit up with that special sparkle that was only saved for the idea of fighting/work. And then realization splashed its way across his face.

"Actually, Lisanna and I were gonna go out on a mission later today. You know? Like the old days, before she disappeared on us." He said, gesturing between the two of them.

"Oh." Lucy mumbled quietly, lowering her eyes, the hope deflating instantly. Natsu continued on, probably either ignoring her reaction, or hadn't noticed it in the first place—most likely the later.

"But we'll definitely go on one when I get back!" he said, pure excitement gleaming in his tone as he raised his arms and waved them around his head comically. "Don't think that just because we've had a few days off means you get to slack off on your part of the team." He added on with a wide grin, looking directly at Lucy with beaming eyes.

A small smile grew on her face. It truly made her happy that he still wanted her as a teammate, even though his old one was finally back after so long. She would have felt a lot more comfortable if they could have gone on a job immediately, but she guessed it wouldn't hurt if she waited a few hours. Knowing Natsu, they'd be back within the next morning, tops if it was a simpler mission.

"Okay. What job did you guys decide to take?" she asked, looking at Lisanna for the answer.

"We're going to go rescue a priceless ring that got stolen from a family by a pack of Morgelurs." She said with a dreamy smile, obviously ecstatic about working again. Lucy panicked a little on the inside. That job lasted at the least a week. She had to pay her rent in two days.

Sure, the actual job itself might not take that long, but the distance to travel to and from was a total of two days in itself—that is if Natsu even let's them take the train. Not to mention they would have to track down the pack of vicious beasts, get the ring out safely—something to worry about with Natsu around—and do the paper work of the damages that would more than likely be caused on the town.

Even if they finished the job the very second they got there, it wouldn't be enough time. But Lucy didn't say anything. They were both obviously excited about the job and to be hanging out with one another, so Lucy wouldn't be the one to rain on their parade.

They chatted animatedly for about another hour before Natsu, Lisanna and Happy set out on their job, bidding farewell to their fellow Guildmates as they raced down the street.

^v^v^v^v^v^

The next morning, Lucy was yet again at the bar, but this time, her eyes were shifting between the job board and the doors. Should she take a job? She had definitely gotten stronger and could take care of herself just fine, but she wasn't like Erza, Natsu and Gray. She couldn't fight as physically well as them after she ran out of magic power or dropped her keys, pretty much rendering her helpless. Sure, she always had her whip, but it wouldn't do much damage to a ferocious monster. Probably only tick it off. Severely.

But her rent was due tomorrow. The land lady was nice enough to hold off her pay if she was on a job, knowing she'd be coming back with money. So, if she took the right job, she could pay her rent and the tax that gets added onto it for the wait, and still be able to buy food for the next week.

She stood from the bar again, determination radiating off of her like heat as she walked over to the board. Her eyes scanned over the options, completely ignoring the S-class missions and the ones that wouldn't have enough money to even buy a loaf of bread. She mainly focused on the prices, not even looking at the job description. She kept feeling a pull towards one of the fliers that was stapled to the corner of the board, but she kept searching, just in case there was another one that might be up her alley in anyway. But no matter what, she seemed to keep finding herself looking at that one flier.

90,000 jewel. It was persuasion in itself. She ripped it from its metal confines with a smile and walked over to Mira.

"Mira, I'd like to take this job, please~" she said, almost singing the words as she slapped the flier down onto the wooden top of the bar.

"A-are you sure, Lucy? Isn't this a little … difficult for you?" Mira asked with uncertainty as she held out the flier for the blonde to see. It gave little detail, but enough to let the mage interested about what they would be dealing with. A few Dark Minions and some strange hound creature—requesting that they be run out of town with the reward of 90,000 jewel.

Lucy had to admit, it was definitely something that she wouldn't originally do without any help, but she needed that reward. And she knew enough about Dark Minions to be able to scare them off. As for the hound, she'd figure something out once she figured out its weak points. She had been picking up details about how to take down an opponent, thanks to Erza and her training sessions they had been doing lately. Nothing physical quite yet, just training Lucy to heighten her senses so to pick up on hints of what the enemy would do next—offence or defense. Stuff like that. Of course, Natsu and Gray were left out of this little detail, deciding they would end up crashing the sessions to try and take on Erza, or possibly Lucy if they were bored enough.

Anyway …

"Couldn't you way for Natsu to come back? Or maybe bring Erza or Levy with you?" it was obvious that she was worried about Lucy, but at the moment, said spirit wizard didn't really care.

"Erza isn't here to ask, and I'd hate to break up … whatever's going on between her and Gajeel." She waved her hand in the direction of the blue haired book worm who was speaking with the iron dragon slayer. The two of them looked about ready to leap across the table separating them and do the dirty deed itself right there on the guild floor.

"Well, if you're absolutely sure …" Mira signed the job and handed it back to Lucy, a small, supportive smile on her face. "Good luck!"

"Thanks, Mira!" Lucy called over her shoulder as she ran out the doors, a beaming smile on her face. She rarely had a chance to go on solo missions, thanks to her friends catching her as she looked over a job flier or as she was heading out the door. She knew it wasn't that they didn't trust her abilities, it was just a part of being in Fairy Tail; they're all naturally protective of their members, and will always have one another's backs.

And now, was her chance to prove that she was worthy of being a part of the strongest team in Fairy Tail. Seriously. Next to erza, Natsu and Gray, she was as powerful as a rock made of plastic … not even capable of causing the enemy to flinch.

Gray! She totally forgot about her remaining teammate. She hadn't seen him at the guild, same with Erza (who was currently on a personal mission of revenge for the murder of an innocent slice of cake), and was now cautious of running into him in town. If he did catch her and figured out she was on her way to a job, he would for sure tag along.

She didn't mind his company, or anything like that, since it was usually full of comfortable silence—which then would turn awkward because his clothes would somehow magically disappear. But it was a rare occasion she got on a mission alone with anyone without Natsu, since he insisted on going with whenever Lucy tried to leave town—mission or not.

After a quick stop at her apartment to pack a quick bag of the necessities for travel, she made her way towards the train station, keeping a wary eye open for the dark haired ice mage. She ran different excuses of why she was heading the way she was through her head in case she happened to stumble across Gray, drifting in and out focus as she walked. It was around midday, so the streets and walk ways were rather busy and crowded. Which meant that she got knocked around a good amount by people passing the opposite direction as her. Though her shoulders were probably going to become purple with bruises, it at least knocked her out of her dazed state so she could focus on getting to the station mostly undamaged and on time. Tugging her bag high up her shoulder with a determined "hmph", she marched faster towards the station.

After she paid for her ticket, she sat down in one of the waiting chairs, looking over the flier. If things went according to plan, she should be back before Natsu and Lisanna finish with theirs. She had to wonder what mission Natsu and herself would go on after all this passes. Most likely something pretty simple that would turn into something life threatening, which would involve destroying half whatever town they were at and not get paid. Even though it did get annoying at times, she wouldn't change it for the world.

According to the job description, it shouldn't take more than two to three days to finish the job, and the ride was only two hours away by train. She also liked how they would be paying for her stay at the local hotel, which was nice since she didn't have any money to spare anyway. If they hadn't offered, she'd most likely have camped out under the stars.

Before Fairy Tail came along, she never would have done something like that. But traveling with Natsu, Gray, Erza and Happy, she learned to love sleeping outside. She got to look at the constellations and study them more thoroughly, even though she already knew them all. She was a celestial wizard after all. She knew every single constellation and it was one of the things she was the most proud of, aside of having almost all the zodiac keys and being in Fairy Tail.

Her head jerked up in surprise when a nearby train whistled, again knocking her out of her thoughtful trance. She looked at the service board and saw that her train would be arriving any second now, so she grabbed her bag handle and heaved it over her shoulder once again, rising to her feet.

Shifting from foot to foot, she started down the train tunnel, waiting for the familiar beams of the train headlights. She stepped aside when a group of people passed by her, nearly trampling over her in the process. She struggled to keep steady, flailing her arms around frantically to keep herself from stumbling to the ground. And that's when she saw him.

Gray.

Well, the back of his head anyway. And there was no doubt in her mind that it was him, since he was lacking every other item of clothing other than his boxers. He stood a few yards away, holding a bag loosely in his hand as he stared at the service board. She held in an 'eep' at the sight of him and hunched down, managing to hide behind a rather large man sitting on a bench.

She assumed he was heading out on a mission, but for all she knows, Mira might have sent him after her and now he was on her trail. Deciding that she liked the idea of the first more, she managed to squeeze her way into a crowd of people that were heading for her train—that had finally arrived. Unfortunately, they had to pass directly by Gray to get to the door, so she was praying to Mavis that she didn't get caught.

Huddling over slightly with her bag pressed over her head to hide her vibrant blonde hair, she held her breath as she passed by the ice mage with only a few feet. He didn't seem to acknowledge them, thankfully, so she was able to hand the ticket to the conductor and pass onto the train with no problem. Though she did get a few strange looks from the people around her as she continued to keep her bag pressed around her head—just in case he happened to spot her as she passed by one of the windows.

She sat down on one of the lone benches, setting her bag at her feet with a sigh of relief. She had made it without any real difficulty, so that was good.

Turning to face the windows, watching as they set into motion a few moments later, she let a smile creep across her face. Her first solo mission. She had to admit, she was really excited. It was time that she got to show the world just how strong she was. The Magic Games and the exam had done nothing but show how easily she was defeated. Even though Raven Tail had cheated and Minerva had played dirty, she had still lost so easily. She had done barely anything during that time period, and she knew she had to redeem herself. She had to prove she was worthy of being in Team Natsu.

^v^v^v^v^v^

About two hours later, she stepped off the train onto a lonely, desolate looking station with no one around. It kind of gave her the chills, but she shook those off and marched on. She jumped right over the few rotting wooden steps that lead to the dirt path, landing with as much grace as a one-winged duck. Thankful that no one saw her little trip up, she continued on her way down the lone dirt path that led to the town of Wakaba. She didn't entirely understand why the train station was so out of the way, a good ten minute walk through a forest just to reach the edges of the town. And aside from completely vacant streets and sidewalks, it was a beautiful little town that had a rather alluring aura about it.

Though it was beautiful and she felt her muscles slightly relax just from stepping on the cobblestone road, it was still a little … creepy. It appeared that there was absolutely no one living in this town, but she could see them peeking their doors and windows open to see the new arrival. Slowly, the peaceful feeling she had picked up on was replaced with a self-conscious, nerve-racking, paranoid feeling. She instinctively sat her hand over her hip, right where she held her keys. She fingered Loke's absentmindedly, almost feeling the urge to summon him just to have someone else around. But she knew better than to do that—since she wanted to save up as much of her magical energy as she could.

She eventually stumbled across the Mayor's office, a tall building that was mostly made up of many flights of stairs with one room sitting on the fourth floor and a bathroom tucked in the corner. Thank Mavis she was in good shape, since she didn't want to be all out of breath and disheveled when she confronted the man that had requested their aid. She knocked lightly on the threshold of the door.

"Hello? I'm a member of Fairy Tail; Lucy. I'm here to help you with your problem." She called through the door, waiting patiently for a response. Instead of a vocal reply for her to enter, like she expected, the door was thrown open and she was yanked right off her feet into the room. She let out a slightly startled squeak as she attempted to compose and right herself before she face-planted on the wooden floors—which was a wasted effort.

She pushed herself up so she wasn't lying flat on her face, brushed off the front of her shirt and tugged the helm of her skirt a little lower—it having ridden up with her tumble. Lucy glanced up at the man that had thrown her inside the room, who was looking slightly panicked and apologetic as he stumbled in a circle around her.

She cleared her throat as she stood to her feet, a kind smile immediately sprouting across her face as she held her hand out to the man.

"Let's, uh, try that again. My name is Lucy of Fairy Tail, and I'm here to help you with the request you sent in." she lifted the flier with her other hand to show her authenticity.

"Yes, yes. Thank you so much for coming Ms. Lucy. We were alerted of your arrival immediately and everything is prepared for your stay. I am Mayor Wilson, but feel free to call me Willy—that's what everyone around here does." She felt slightly sorry for the obviously nervous man, who was sweating bowling balls and slightly rambling. He was a rather short man, chestnut brown hair parted strictly down the middle of his head and big bushy eyebrows that pretty much covered his pale grey eyes. In a way, he reminded her of Everlue, minus the nose-hair-mustache.

"It was no problem at all Mr. Wilson. I'm happy to help. Now, I think we both want this to be started as soon as possible, so why don't you fill me in on what's been going on around here." Lucy said, mentally patting herself on her back for sounding so professional.

"Yes, yes. Indeed. Please. Sit." He gestured to one of the two chairs sitting in front of his desk, hobbling himself across the floor. It appeared that he had stepped on something to reach his chair's height, but Lucy decided to keep her comments to herself out of respect. They were supplying her a place to stay. And judging by the way that people were avoiding leaving their homes like the plague, it was a good thing. When she sat down, she was slightly startled when she dropped a little lower than she expected, bouncing rather loudly on the cushion.

"In your description, you said that you're town was overrun with Dark Minions and some strange hound thing, right?" she asked as she pulled the flier out yet again to look it over.

"Yes, yes. A few months back, people had been disappearing out of their homes and off the streets at night, so we sent a search party into the woods. Only two of them made it back. One was in absolute hysterics, mumbling about beady black skin and shinning white eyes that never blinked. And the other one was just deathly silent. He still hasn't said a word to this day. In fact, I haven't seen the man for quite some time, since he never leaves his home."

"Do you have a better description of what they saw? Maybe I could talk to the man that had been mumbling to himself." Lucy offered, trying her best to look like she knew exactly what she was doing. In all honesty, she was rather nervous now.

"Yes, yes. That would be a good idea, if he was still around. He had gone and jumped out of his apartment window and ran into the woods. We haven't seen or heard from him since. But I do have a more detailed description, yes, yes." Lucy watched as he stood up—and again, dipped lower as if stepping off of something—and walked towards a small bookcase pressed against one of the walls. He pulled out one of the books and brought it over to the desk, not even bothering to sit down again as he opened it to a specific page and laid it in front of the celestial mage.

"This entire book is filled with villagers descriptions and drawings of what they believe they saw, yes, yes. Putting everything together, we managed to discover what the black skinned and white eyed creatures were, but we haven't found out what the hound beast was."

Lucy silently agreed by nodding her head, looking at the rather detailed drawing—that could possibly rival Reedus' artwork—of a small, black skinned, pointy toothed and eared, clawed hands and feet, white eyed monster that looked kind of like a gremlin. It was definitely a Dark Minion.

Lucy flipped the page, her brow furrowing as she looked over another sketch, this time of what did appear to be a monstrous hound. But it wasn't very detail and just looked like a red eyed Great Dane.

"No one has actually seen the hound up close and lived to give us any detail. All we know is that it only attacked from sunset to sunrise. Yes, yes, no one's seen it during the day; that's when the Dark Minions come and ransack our town for food. Thankfully no one has been taken for the past couple weeks. We've managed to satisfy the creatures' hungers with our own food, leaving it just outside of town."

Lucy was in complete and utter shock.

"Why haven't you sent out for help sooner? This is terrible!" she cried in exasperation, throwing her arms above her head to show just how complete stunned she was.

"Yes, yes, our connections to any outside towns have been nearly nonexistent. Everyone is too scared to go anywhere near the woods to go and mail the request. But recently, a man passed through and we offered him a place to stay if he would go and give our request to anyone that could help." The man sighed, dropping his head onto the top of his desk with a groan.

"Not to worry, Mr. Wilson. I will do everything in my power to help your town." Lucy said with a confident smile, standing from her seat. "Do you mind if I take this book with me? I'd like to look it over a little and see if maybe I can have one of my friends find anything on the hound."

"Yes, yes, take it. I'll personally show you to your hotel room."

^v^v^v^v^v^

The room was quaint and small, but big enough for her to live in. A tiny fridge that was stocked full with all sorts of foods, a one person bed, a dresser and a window … with bars and cross-wired screening. Obviously they wanted the person that was going to help save them to be safe. Deciding it'd be best if she started immediately; she grabbed an apple from the fridge and sat on the bed, opening the book to the picture with the best looking hound drawing. Pulling out her keys from their small little bag, she summoned Crux silently without using her call.

"Do you think you could find anything on this beast? I'd would like to know what I've just got myself into." She asked with a smile, holding the book up for the ancient looking cross to see. He squinted at the picture, nodded a few times … and then nodded off, his signature snot bubble blowing from his nose.

And while he was doing that, she decided that she'd stock up on her magical power while she could. Crossing her legs lotus style, she held her knees as she closed her eyes and look slow deep breaths. She had learned that meditation really did help strengthen her magic power. Even though she could summon two spirits at once, she couldn't really hold them for all that long—not nearly long enough for an actual battle where her life could be on the line. So day by day she had grown stronger. She was proud to state that she could summon three spirits at once now and still have left over energy to summon another for a short amount of time.

She hadn't really told or shown the others of her grown strengths yet, wanting to surprise them in a battle that she could finally have the upper hand in. And thinking about this brought her attention to her team. She wondered if Gray got to do what he wanted when she saw him in the train station, and that Erza was having luck with whatever she had been doing, and Natsu … she hoped that their traveling was going well. They probably hadn't reached the city the mission was taking place at yet, since she was positive that they had gone on foot for Natsu's stomach sake. Really, the only person who could persuade Natsu onto a vehicle was Erza, and sometime Lucy when she offered to buy dinner or even hesitantly let them crash at her apartment when the mission was over. No one else stood a chance at getting the stubborn pink-haired boy on any sort of auto-mobile.

"Hmmm, Ms. Lucy? I've found something."

Lucy snapped out of her meditative trance and looked up at the spirit she had briefly forgotten she had summoned.

"Oh, good! What did you find?" Lucy asked gleefully, leaning forward on her elbows while remaining cross-legged.

"I'm afraid I could not find very much, but what I had is at the least of some use. A very powerful beast, it truly is, and a rare one at that. (A.N. Don't bother looking up any of these names. I'm just coming up with them on the spot.) A Heveron. A demonic beast that will rise out of the bowls of hell and devour whatever civilization is nearby—slowly to gain back its strength. I also know that if it gains back its entire strength, it will be near to impossible to stop it. That is all I know."

It wasn't really what she had been hoping for, but it was better than going in completely blind.

"Thank you, Crux. You can return now."

She had been hoping that she could learn more about its abilities and its weaknesses, not so much about its history. But at least she knew what it was … a monster straight out of hell. Now she was regretting not listening to Mira and taking someone with. She was a little over her head with the hound. But at least she could be of service with the Dark Minions. She knew exactly how to deal with those.

Glancing at her barred window, she was shocked to see that the sun was actually setting already. She guessed she had actually been meditating for far longer than she thought she had—and Crux must have had to search extremely hard for it to have taken so long to find that little of information. Lucy had hoped she'd have more time to prepare, but she had a feeling that the sooner she approached this, the better. Besides, her power was most likely at its full max—judging by the way her skin had a slightly more prominent glow to it than normal and she was slightly jittery, full of boundless energy.

Actually, for the first night, she planned on rooting herself up in a tree and play look out, see if she can actually spot the beast first. And if she did, she'd stalk it from afar and watch it, wait for a possible opening to attack—or better yet, learn what could bring it down. While she sat at one side of the town, she would have Virgo keep watch over the other side, and immediately alert her of anything suspicious.

Knowing she'd most likely be camping out for most of the night, she packed a little food in a small bag and placed it in her jacket pocket. She didn't even have to be outside to tell that it would be rather chilly, so she pulled out one of her thicker coats from of her bag. Making sure her keys were secure at her waist, she strutted out of her room and into the chilling evening air. It was getting dark extremely fast, and she'd rather be in the woods and in her tree before everything became pitch black and end up getting lost. So she pushed herself into a fast paced jog, aiming for the more lit up part of the woods that had yet to fall to the falling sun's shadow.

Picking a tree hadn't been hard, but climbing it had been an entirely different story. All the branches were too high for her to jump and grab onto, and the trunks were all too thick to wrap her arms and legs around. Even attempting ended with her hands getting multiple splinters, a good amount of cuts, and landing on the perfectly made sandwich she had in her pocket—which had bummed her out more than not being able to climb the tree. She eventually gave up and summoned Taurus to give her a lift. It used up about .01% of her magic, since the perverted cow hadn't used any of his abilities whatsoever. The little magic she had used was just to get him to and from Earthland.

After she had settled herself comfortably in the fork of the branch, she summoned Virgo. The pink haired maid has asked if it was "time for punishment" which had nearly caused Lucy to fall out of her branch from flailing around screaming that she never considering even the thought of it.

"No, I just would like you to go to the other side of the town. Keep watch over there and tell me immediately if you see anything out of the ordinary, especially Dark Minions and a giant dog monster. Okay?" Lucy had asked as politely and patiently as she could, still flustered about her spirit's peculiar request. You'd think Lucy would be used to it by now, or Virgo would have learned that there was no Punishment Time, but clearly, that hadn't happened.

"Yes, Princess." The spirit bowed and burrowed into the earth, disappearing through a hole that seemed to magically disappear the moment Lucy decided to check on the state of her sandwich—which was still edible, just not as attractive as it had been before she had landed on it.

Lucy looked around at the canopy that surrounded her, waiting for everything to fall into complete darkness. She had been right to wear a warmer jacket, because the moment the sun completely disappeared, the temperature seemed to have dropped at least thirty degrees. She could even see her breath turn to little ice shards after hitting the air. Everything was shroud in darkness, but not enough that Lucy couldn't see anything. But it seemed that all she could really make out were shadows against slightly less darker shadows. So basically in two minutes, she had learned that there were more than sixty shades of grey, or that maybe she had suddenly lost the ability to see color—which she quickly disproved by looking at her jacket, a beautiful plum purple.

Everything seemed relatively normal. She heard the usual animal noises, stuff she heard all the time while camping out with Natsu and Happy. She wasn't as jumpy as she had once been—unless it pertained the previously stated Dragon Slayer suddenly barging into her room at completely random and inconvenient times—then she screams and kicked in his general direction out of instinct in hopes of distracting whoever had broken into her house long enough to summon a spirit. Natsu had of course grown used to this 'friendly greeting', as he would call it, and just would grab her ankle before it hit anything vital.

Anyway … somehow her thoughts had gone from the condition of the forest to kicking Natsu in his baby maker. She questioned her mental links sometimes.

Lucy jumped slightly when she heard a crack come from below her, at the bottom of the tree a few yards away from hers. She squinted, trying to see what had caused the noise and saw that a piece of bark had just chipped off. Feeling slightly ridiculous at her paranoia, she had to remind herself that this wasn't some fantasy story she was trying to disprove. She was out here to fend off a bunch of little bastards and one giant deadly bastard, so she really shouldn't shrug too many occurrences off as nothing. Anything out of the normal state could mean something.

So when she heard another crack noise, this time coming from her own tree, she glanced down and saw that an extremely large portion of the bark had been peeled away and was nowhere to be seen. Lucy gulped nervously, her hand gripped her keys firmly in one hand, ready to summon the first key she touched—as long as it wasn't Aquarius, whose key was always at the end so she wouldn't accidentally summon her in a small puddle on a dirty manure coated road again—and her sandwich with the other. Lucy furrowed her brow as she held her breath, listening to the barely audible sounds of something scurrying across the grass. It didn't sound like any kind of animal she knew of, since there were sloppy sounding pants added in. It sounded somewhat like one of those dogs with the squished up face and curly tails that seemed to always be panting and having their tongues out.

She could pin point where the sounds were going to—a tree just across from her—and where the breathing was coming from. Whatever it was, it was small. Though it was hard to tell from being so high up, judging by where each chipping of the trees were—about two feet away from the ground—she assumed that whatever it was would barely reach her knee. But Lucy knew better than to underestimate size—Wendy, Levy and Makarov were proof enough that size didn't matter. She hadn't been able to see whatever it was yet, but she saw that when the bark was ripped away, it was done with inhuman speed and cleanliness. When she didn't hear anything for a couple moments, she began to feel extremely uncomfortable, goose bumps sprouting all over her body—and not from the cold. She listened so intently, she could even hear the sound of a squirrel really far in the distance, it was faint, but she could pick it out easily. So she couldn't understand why she couldn't hear where that panting creature had gone.

Then her branch shook violently, nearly whipping her off in the process. She whipped around with wide eyes, immediately finding the white-eyed figure grinning at her with pointed teeth sitting at the end of her branch. It was about the size of Plue, maybe a little bigger, but at this point, she really didn't give a shit about what it looked like. It had white eyes and was drooling as it looked at her. She let out a rather hoarse scream and chucked her sandwich at it as hard as she could.

Apparently it hadn't been prepared whatsoever for her to actually react, so the sandwich had hit it in the face and knocked it back a few steps, which happened to be the very thin, weak part of the branch, snapping immediately under its weight. Lucy watched in a terrified fascination as it hit the earth with a sickening crunch on his head, its body slumping over and not moving again—the sandwich sitting just a few inches away from it. Lucy was about to leap down and check to see if it was alive, when she heard the panting again.

This time, there was more than just one.

She pulled herself to a higher branch, trying to seclude herself from being seen, but still be able to see. She watched as another one of the creatures—a Dark Minion she easily figured out after her she gained her senses back—emerged from the darkness, scuffling across the ground on his long arms and stubby legs. It crept closer to the body of the one she had unintentionally probably killed, about a dozen other ones following closely behind the new arrival. When the Dark Minions sniffed curiously at her sandwich, she felt a small dose of depression sink in her chest when four of them ripped it apart and ate every single crumb. And then held in the urge to gag as they all circled around their fallen brethren and began to slice its' limbs off its tiny little midsection.

And they carried the pieces away, each one holding a piece of the Minion she had killed with a sandwich … man the guys back at the guild would not believe this.

Deciding it'd be best to follow them back to wherever they were taking the body pieces—hopefully to the rest of the little beasts—so she could summon Leo and scare the things off, she crawled through the branches of trees that were close enough together. She was actually making pretty good progress until one of the branches she had just crossed over onto began to shake and crack under her weight. She had quickly grabbed onto the one above her and yanked herself up just as the branch fell, hitting the earth with a loud crack. Fortunately the Minions didn't look to fully into the fallen tree limb, only picking at the bark slightly and then breaking it into pieces and bringing it with them.

It had probably been about a half hour of following the beasts when they finally came to a halt at the edge of the woods. Lucy thanked Mavis for the break, finally being able to completely catch her breath and pick the leaves out of her hair. She'd rather not go walking into town looking like a monster they would want to shoot at. Unfortunately, she couldn't follow them any further than where she was, since she was on the last tree before it went out onto a small grassy ledge—which the minions walked out onto. They lined the edge, their heads bowed slightly for a few seconds before they threw the body pieces over the edge at the same time.

And then jumped right afterwards.

Lucy waited a few seconds before dropping from her branch, tucking and rolling with the drop so she didn't sprain anything. But that didn't mean she hadn't rolled over a rock, a few three branches and possible a puddle of the body piece's … fluids. She got to her feet and ducked behind the trunk, waiting to see if they had heard her. When nothing changed, she eased her way out onto the ledge, crawling across the grass like a snake—or a walrus, she assumed looked more accurate. She was slightly nervous to see what was down there, hoping it was their little village or whatever they called it so she could just get them all out and over with and focus on the big task.

And damn right it was their little village.

There were holes dug up all over the place, and there had to be at least three hundred of the little buggers stumbling around on the dirt surfaces. It disturbed her to find a pile of human limbs mixed with tiny blacks ones at the bottom of the cliff. She kept watching curiously—and slightly disgustedly—as two of the creatures walked up to the pile and pick up what she could identify as a rotting male torso. They carried it above their heads and out of her line of vision. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what they did with it.

She crawled away from the ledge and back into the woods, slapping a hand over her mouth to hold in any food that possibly wanted to exit her body the wrong way. Thankfully it was only a few seconds of dry heaving before she leaned against the tree and summoned Leo. She gripped her key firmly, closing her eyes and breathing through her mouth so she couldn't smell the lingering scent of blood and rotten flesh.

"Leo." She simply said in a hushed whisper.

"Ah, my beautiful princess, I was wondering when you were going to call upon me." Leo stated rather loudly. Lucy quickly rushed to throw a hand over his mouth, glancing at the ledge nervously. When, again, nothing seemed to respond to his outburst of loudness, she removed her hands from his mouth.

"You gotta be quiet! There's a big village, camp thing full of Dark Minions down there. I need your help warding them off to someplace else. Away from Wakaba." She said in a hushed shout, leaning in towards Leo as she pulled on his sleeve so she didn't have to stand on her toes.

"Of course, anything for the love of my life." He said, bowing onto one knee and preparing to kiss her hand.

"I wouldn't do that. It's covered in most likely minion blood from when I jumped from that tree." Lucy suggested, but not doing anything physical in stopping him. Loke seemed to agree with her silently by pulling away abruptly, his nose scrunched up to show his displeasure, that he didn't hide very well. But then a new emotion placed itself across the lion spirits face. His eyes began to search the area around them, curiosity and confusion.

"Where's Natsu? Did he abandon you to do all the work again? I swear, the next time I see him, I'll tell him how to treat you right—"

"He never abandoned me. He got flung all the way across the town that one time and I had to summon you so I wasn't completely defenseless—and that's not important right now! I'll explain why I'm alone later, but right now, our priority is down there." She whispered harshly, pointing at the ledge.

Leo seemed to process this slowly, thinking over her words in his mind before nodding and throwing her a confident smiling.

"Then why don't we speed this along so I can show you a night to remember?"

"Believe me; I'm pretty sure I couldn't forget what happened here tonight if I wanted to."

^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v

Lucy awoke the next morning in her borrowed apartment, slightly disoriented, extremely sore, but strangely satisfied. She saw a glass of water perched on the bedside table and immediately gulped its contents down. Everything had gone as planned. Using Leo's Lion Brilliance attack had wiped out nearly the entire Dark Minion population, unfortunately, the power of the blast had taken an extreme toll on Lucy's mental strength. She hadn't collapsed immediately; she still had enough strength to ask Leo to finish off the remaining few that huddled in fear behind human body parts. He had quickly finished the job and had turned to face her with possibly a flirtatious comment, but had stopped short at the sight of her ashen face and drooping eyes.

She must have collapsed because she didn't remember anything after that. Leo must have used his own magic to stay in her world to carry her back. Even though she usually didn't like it when her spirits used their own magic to do something she was supposed to do for them, she was entirely grateful for the helping hand her friend had granted her.

And that reminded her.

She grabbed her key set that sat next to the empty cup of water, and grabbed Virgo's key. She had barely even grazed the clean surface before she was in the presence of the pink haired maid.

"Virgo!" Lucy shouted in slight surprise, not expecting her to show up so instantaneously.

"Princess, I was forced back into the spirit world very early this morning. I apologize for not fulfilling my job. Would you like to punish me?" she asked with the same deadpan expression that she always seem to have.

"NO! How many times have I told you, I don't do that kind of stuff! Anyway, did you see anything suspicious while you were still here?" Lucy had forgotten that she had also been keeping Virgo out for nearly the entire night. No wonder she had collapsed so easily after only one of Leo's power surges.

"Again, I apologize. But I did not see anything out of the ordinary, Princess. Would you like to punish—"

"Okay! Thank you, Virgo! You can go back!" Lucy cut the spirit off, laughing a little too loudly and a little awkwardly. In an instant, Lucy was alone again. She sighed in exasperation as she sat up in bed, crossing her legs again as she ran her hands over her face and through her hair. She still felt pretty drained, mentally anyway, but physically, she was alright. A little scraped up and bruised from her journey through the trees and her little tumble out of one, but other than that, she was fine.

Jumping out of her bed, she walked over to the small little bathroom that had been built into the corner. It was actually a decent size, even though it was a little cramped. The mayor had explained that it was the luxury suite in their town, so she didn't complain. It did have a shower, sink, and toilet cramped into one little corner. As long as she had hot water, she would be happy.

Stripping out of her dirty clothes, she climbed into the water—hot, thankfully—and began to clean the forest out of her hair. She wasn't entirely surprised to see a few twigs and a lot of dirt drop onto the tub floor, but the caterpillar had been an unexpected surprise.

The mission was going surprisingly well, and moving rather quickly, like she had hoped. But now came the actual challenge. The Heveron. She had absolutely no idea what to do about this. It only came around at night, so that would mean she'd have to sleep during the day—something she'd always been opposed to since it threw off her sleep schedule—and also meant that she'd be spending a lot more time in the forest.

Joy.

She quickly exited the shower, dressed herself, wrapped her scrapped up hands tightly with the bandages she had packed in her first aid kit and began to make her way down the street towards the Mayor's office. She had a feeling that he'd like to know that the Dark Minion problem had been solved immediately. She was actually surprised that it had been so incredibly easy, it had only taken the first night and barely five minutes—of you didn't count the stalking through the trees.

((^v^v^v^v^v^v^))

Back in Fairy Tail, Mira was scrubbing out the inside of a beer glass when the Guild doors had been thrown open, startling her to the point of where she nearly dropped the glass—something Mira never did. She looked up in surprise as Natsu, Lisanna and Happy came marching into the building, the first two looking disappointed and a little peeved off. They both marched up to the bar, Happy going off to find Carla since he had missed her the entire time he had been gone.

"What are you doing back so early, you two? I was sure that you would have been gone for at least a few days." Mira stated with slight concern as she took in the two expressions on their faces.

"The job got canceled. We had barely gotten to even Hargeon when we heard that the family had found the ring. The man had been on his way here to tell us." Lisanna explained dejectedly, leaning forward onto the counter. "And, plus, the team wasn't really working out as planned." The younger white haired girl added in as an afterthought.

"Why? What happened?" Mira asked in complete shock. Before Lisanna had disappeared, she and Natsu had worked great together—sure, not as well as he and Lucy did, but still, they had maneuvered well.

"We had different transportation ideas." Natsu mumbled simply, not adding anything onto it like Mira had been hoping.

"Well, why don't you try a different job? One that's in more of walking distance?" the eldest transformation mage offered, a nervous smile and sweat beginning to grow. She knew that if she didn't keep Natsu distracted, he would remember the promise that he'd made to go on a mission with Lucy when he got back. And though she'd feel more comfortable if Natsu was there with Lucy, she knew the celestial mage could handle herself quite well, and didn't want to accidentally insult her when she had so obviously been excited about doing something for herself.

"Maybe another time." Natsu said, lifting his head from his folded arms with a new shine in his eyes. "Besides, I told Lucy we'd go on a mission when I got back. Well, I'm back!" he said with an extreme amount of enthusiasm that even had Lisanna smiling through her mild annoyance.

Mira uncomfortably started to move away from the two, since the conversation was beginning to head in the direction of a certain blonde.

"Where is Lucy? She's usually here about now." Natsu asked, the second part more to himself. His eyes skimmed the room, trying to find his busty blonde partner only to turn up empty handed and visibly disappointed.

"I-I haven't seen her yet today." It wasn't a lie. Mira thought to herself. Though Natsu didn't seem to notice the slight stutter, Lisanna did, who raised her head and cocked a white eyebrow at her older sister. Mira brought a finger to her lips in a shushing motion, pleading with her big blue eyes to keep quiet. Lisanna gave a sweet smile and a wink before requesting an apple-orange juice mix so Mira would have an excuse to escape. Mira gave an extremely grateful smile and began to rush towards the back room. Though Natsu wasn't the smartest person, he could easily pick up when Mira was lying, so she wanted to avoid any of his prying questions about Lucy.

"Hey, Mira! Wait a second!" She skidded to an awkward halt, the panicked sweat growing on her neck and forehead again. "Do you know where I can find Lucy?" Natsu asked with a hopeful smile. "I want to get to work right away! I was all fired up and I didn't even get to make anything explode!"

"Oh, that's too bad, Natsu. At least it's less paperwork for Master." Mira offered awkwardly, trying to avoid the question as she inched backwards with a stiff smile.

"So do you?"

"Do I what?" Mira asked, her voice cracking rather noticeably. She tried to cover it up with a cough, which was rather pathetic since it cracked, too.

Now Natsu lost his excited smile and was replaced with a suspicious stare. Oh no, he's catching on! Mira thought in a panic, her eyes searching the guild for anything to distract the fire dragon slayer. She had never thought the day would come that she wished Gray was there to start a fight with Natsu.

"Do you know where Lucy is?" Natsu asked in a slow tone, which was different since usually it was other people talking to him like that.

"Yes." …

"… Are you going to tell me?" he asked, irritation beginning to grow in his onyx eyes. Mira was feeling extremely guilty for keeping it from Natsu, since he did have the right to know, but she felt she held a promise to Lucy to not tell him where she was.

"T-tell you wh-what?" There was a puddle of nervous sweats growing at her feet as she shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot.

"Miraaaaa!" Natsu cried in frustration, not really angrily, since no one could really be all that angry at Mira for any reason at all, but still irritated.

Lisanna sat watching the whole ordeal, wishing she had a bowl of popcorn since it was better than any drama piece she had gone to see. She had to admit, she was extremely curious as to where the no-longer-rookie had gone off to that even had Mira nervous to share.

"Tell me where Lucy is." He said in a completely serious tone, staring Mira right in the eye.

"Wakaba." She said quickly, then turned her back and slapped a hand over her mouth as if she had just cursed Mavis' name. Great, she couldn't even tell a lie to him, she had just blurted out the answer without thinking. Natsu was incredibly terrifying when he wanted to be, and she had a feeling that Natsu had never looked more scary than he had just then.

"Why would she be in Wakaba … no, she didn't." Natsu's eyes widened at the consideration.

"Aye, the flier's gone, Natsu!" Happy came speeding in and crashed into the dragon slayer's head. The blunt impact didn't even phase the pink haired male.

"Did Lucy actually take that mission? And you let her go on it?" Natsu's voice was getting increasingly high pitched with each word, making Mira overwhelmingly nervous. Lisanna stared wide-eyed at both of them, at Natsu for getting as close as he had to yelling at Mira, and at Mira for actually giving Lucy the job. Even she had steered clear from it; pretty much sensing it was too much to handle.

"At least tell me she took someone with her." Natsu all but pleaded, even though anyone could see that he absolutely loathed the idea of Lucy teaming up with anyone other than him.

"She h-has her s-spirits?" Mira looked about ready to pass out in nervousness, so Lisanna decided to dive in—only it was too late. Natsu had stood from his stool and ran out the door, leaving a fiery trail behind him.

The room had gone dead silent, no one wanting to break the silence until they were absolutely sure that Natsu was gone. It took several minutes and a few people had begun to continue on with what they were doing when Gray came walking inside in all his shirtless glory. He looked slightly confused and a little dazed as he slowly made his way down the steps and to the bar.

"What's the matter, Gray?" Lisanna asked when he sat down beside her.

"I've got to be going crazy or something. I just ran into Natsu, looking for a fight since I haven't had one in the past few hours, but he just brushed me aside saying he didn't have time for me and got onto a train. Alone!" Gray pretty much hollered the last sentence, looking completely freaked out with the experience.

"Natsu got on a train? Willingly?" Mira asked, finally having managed to calm herself down a bit. Gray then began to explain the story in a little more detail to the beautiful white haired girls, but Lisanna was only half listening. She smiled sadly down at her lap. So, he'd go on a train for her, huh? Then she chuckled gently. Sure, she had been hoping that she could have gotten together with Natsu if she ever got back, since it had been a little painful to watch the Edolas Natsu and Lucy so happy together. Yes, they had been an item, even before Lisanna had shown up. She had hoped that maybe it could have been different back on Earthland, but apparently, even if their personalities were switched a little, it was still Natsu and Lucy.

Because if Earthland Natsu got onto a train with no hesitation whatsoever for someone, that shows that he truly cares deeply for someone. The same way Edo Natsu had ditched his car to go help Edo Lucy and stood up for her, even though he had obviously been completely petrified.

True love in the making. At least I'll get to see how it happens this time. She thought to herself with another small chuckle.

(^v^v^v^v^v^v^)

She couldn't have just waited for me to get back? Natsu thought to himself as he sat on the train, his thoughts too preoccupied to even wonder why his motion sickness wasn't acting up. The people that took the train tickets had been too afraid to stop him from entering the vehicle since his face had been a burning red with scales starting to form under his eyes, smoke had began puffing out of his nose and wherever he stepped, he left a tiny little fire that would go out instantly, leaving charred rock. So, in other words? He. Was. Mad.

So what if his sudden rage was a little unnecessary, he was never one to really hold back emotion. If he was happy, he was going to fucking happy, if he was sad, he was going to be fucking sad, if he was angry, he was going to burn anyone who got in his way to a fucking crisp. And right then, he was seriously considering giving the train a little rocket boost and completely skip all the other stops just to get there faster.

What had Lucy been thinking? Everyone knew that, even though she could hold her ground, Lucy worked better with a team. The fact that she carried her own little team on her hip in the form of keys was a sign alone that Lucy wasn't very powerful without another being. Sure, her kicks hurt really bad, but that wasn't going to bring down … what was it that the flier had said? Dark Onions? No, Minions. That was it. And then some rabid dog or something. He hadn't really looked at it, since it seemed somewhat a waste of time when there were bigger jobs that could have been done, ones that involved more fighting. Sure, the job might have been simple enough for him, but Lucy? By herself?

He couldn't even stand the idea. It actually made him a little nauseous at the thought of Lucy fighting, then running out of magical power and not having anyone there to protect her. If her magic ran out, not even Loke could really do anything, at least Natsu thinks so.

Loke. Damnit. She had Loke with her, of course, her most trusted and powerful spirit. That playboy had probably already put the moves on his partner the second he got summoned. Sure, Natsu liked Loke enough, they were still guildmates after all, and they both wanted to keep Lucy safe, but that was where their mutual agreement stopped. They both wanted her safe, but they disagreed about who should be the one protecting. Loke had pointed out that he was always with her wherever she went, and that Natsu only got to be with her when they were working together and whenever she actually allowed them to stay at her house. But then Natsu would point out that the spirit was actually pretty useless if Lucy were to forget her keys, or ran out of magical power—which had Loke slightly stunned that the supposedly dense pink hair boy had actually had a retort.

And honestly, his hair annoyed Natsu. I mean, whose hair actually stood up like that? So stupid …

Anyways. Lucy, think of Lucy. Not Loke or Leo or whatever he goes by nowadays. When he got to Wakaba, he'd track down Lucy, throw her over his shoulder and carry her back to the guild if she didn't agree to come quietly with him. She was in over her head with this job—she could get severely hurt. And who the hell jumps into a job that literally tells you that there's an unknown monster that was killing off people? Apparently he couldn't let her leave his sight, since if he left for a few hours; she throws herself into a dangerous situation willingly. Why couldn't she just wait for him? She knew perfectly well that he didn't like her fighting on her own—though there was a good possibility that she didn't know this, since he never actually told her … but she should know better!

Natsu was now huffing in a rather childish way in his seat, his brows furrowed deeply and his lips jutting out in a pout that he would argue about it being 'so adorable'. He wasn't adorable, like Lucy always told him just to peeve him off. He was manly and strong and heroic. Lucy was the adorable one out of their duo—aside from Happy who was a cat, and was more or less cute than adorable. And he wasn't afraid to admit that he thought she was adorable, to himself anyway. When she acted childish and immature, she was adorable—something he loved to see, since she always stated that she was the reasonable mature one out of everyone. And plus, he felt he could somewhat get along better with the childish Lucy, himself being an adult sized child. But then, there were those times that she had this fiery determination that gave him a new feeling.

Instead of wanting to laugh and ruffle her hair, possibly tug her into a hug like when he thought her to be adorable, a new feeling would stir when he saw that passion in her eyes. It made him feel hot in his chest, hotter than normal anyway, like there was boiling lava just sitting behind his rib cage. Whenever he saw that look it actually made him falter for a second, because instead of adorable, she would look absolutely beautiful. The way her jaw would be clenched into a firm grasp, her brow furrowed in concentration and that fire. He could see it smoldering in her chocolate brown eyes. These new feelings made him slightly uneasy, never having felt them before. So he tried to push it aside, hoping maybe it would go away even though he had to admit it felt kind of nice. These feelings were showing up more and more as of late—and it only happened when he was with, saw or thought of Lucy.

In fact, even though he wasn't entirely sure what these feelings were, he knew that they were stronger than what he should feel for a friend. He wasn't sure if it was this 'love' thing, cause he knew he loved Lucy, he just wasn't sure if it was platonic or … mate love. At least, Igneel had told him he'd one day have feelings for someone like this, and that this person would smell amazing, he just never really understood what these feelings were suppose to be like. Igneel never really got into detail on the feelings themselves, only that he'd have them and that the person he felt them towards was the person for him. And, he really did love the way Lucy smelt. She smelt a lot better than everyone else in the guild, even better than Lisanna—who he had used to think smelt wonderfully. But now, Lucy's scent seemed to be everywhere for him, and it had him almost on a sort of high. Did that mean that Lucy was …

Natsu was snapped out of his Lucy based thoughts when he heard tapping on his window. He refocused his eyes and saw Happy struggling to keep up with the train and get Natsu's attention at the same time. The dragon slayer was quick to open the window and help his blue friend inside of the vehicle.

^v^v^v^v^v^

Lucy was quite literally about ready to pass out from either boredom or just the mental exhaustion from the night before. Either way, the pile of books lying on the table in front of her was beginning to look extremely similar to a cloud of pure comfort. After her visit to the Mayor's Office, she had headed towards the local library, hoping to find anything whatsoever on this Heveron thing—even if it was just the name.

But her mental strength was wavering between being conscious and dreaming. She had almost fallen out of her chair about three times in the last twenty minutes, so she was considering just buying the books and going back to her room. She was having no luck, and she had gone through at least seven books—using her magic glasses to speed through it—in finding anything on the Heveron. The librarian had done everything he could to get what she needed, fussing over her shoulder when she first started reading until she told him to go and get himself a cup of coffee and relax so she could focus. The man was currently running around the library at hyper speed with his cup rattling in his hand as he shelved books at a pace that shouldn't be considered possible—even for a Fairy Tail mage.

"Hey, sir!" Lucy called after the gust of wind that had raced behind her. Immediately a short brown haired boy, maybe nineteen years of age, skidded to a halt at her shoulder, his eyes looking wide and dilated and he was twitching sporadically.

"Can I help you, Ms. Lucy?" he asked, his voice sounding jittery. She was a little unnerved how his eyes bore into her without blinking and looking like they never intended to.

"Um, yeah. I was wondering if maybe I could just borrow this book instead of buying it. I don't even know if it has what I need in it. I promise I'll return it as soon as I'm done." She said, her eyes glimmering hopefully as she looked up at the man, but quickly averted her eyes since he still had yet to blink.

"Of course! Take whatever you need!" he shouted. Lucy found it rather ironic that the librarian was the one being loud in the library, since usually they were the ones shushing people if you so much as whispered louder than the wind blows.

"Thanks!" she said, giving him a small, awkward smile before packing up the books that she needed to still look over and started towards the front door.

She needed to meditate and build up her mental power for the coming night … and maybe take a little nap. She had gotten barely any sleep at all the night before, since she had spent most of it keeping watch for the Dark Minions and then stalking them through the trees. She'd need as much energy as she could get, since this time, the enemy was a lot more powerful.

Lucy sneezed suddenly, causing her to stop in her tracks. Even though it had been tiny, it had made her brain feel like it was rattling around inside her skull. Yeah, she definitely needed to get some sleep. She was about to take another step when another sneeze racked through her body and out her nose. And then another. And then another. She stood up straight, resting a hand on her forehead as the world swayed slightly. Yep. Definitely needed a nap. And she hoped she wasn't getting sick. She couldn't afford something like that right now. She needed to help these people as best as she could. Maybe someone was talking about her, or something.

When she was sure that her little sneezing fit was done, she hurried to get back to her room, jogging the rest of the way down the street. She was back in her room rather quickly, the bag that held her books being tossed on the ground next to the bed as she flopped down onto the plush mattress. The pillows and sheets were calling to her. And she was beyond tempted to heed their call.

Kicking off her shoes, she tugged the sheets out from their posh position of being made and stuffed herself under them, smacking her fist into the pillow to make a little crevice for her head. Just a short nap. That was all she needed. Hopefully she'd be fully rejuvenated when she woke up and would be able to stay up the entire night. Also, she put her mind into her meditative state, so her mental strength would be at full power when she woke up.

(&)(&)

She knew she hadn't slept for very long, since the sun was still rather high in the sky when she woke up, but she still felt a lot more refreshed than before.

She sat up and kicked the sheets off of her legs, leaning over the side of the bed to grab the bag full of books. She thought it'd be best to search for what she could before she started the mission that coming night. Lucy brought out the thicker of the three books and sat it in her lap, turning to the first page that held the index. There wasn't anything specific about "Heverons" like she had assumed there wouldn't, but there was a section about hell beasts.

But as she turned to the listed page, she was disappointed, yet thrilled at what she saw. What she could see on the page was the top half of some kind of black dog head, but what disappointed her was that more than half the page was missing. She couldn't even tell if it was even the beast she was looking for since there were hundreds of dog like monsters—but she had that feeling as she looked at what remained of the picture. That one absolutely positive feeling that it was what she was looking for.

But the page was gone. And it was definitely done by somebody in a rush, and not by old age. So, who would want to rip out this particular page, and why? Frustration began to rise in her chest as she continued to stare at the damaged book that could have possibly held the answers to her unanswered questions.

With a growl, she grabbed Crux's and sliced it through the air, never taking her eyes off of the page. The elder spirit didn't need to say anything, already sensing the tension in the air to tell that she was extremely serious with whatever it was that she was asking.

"There's a page missing out of this book. And I think it held information on what I need. Can you tell me anything about this particular chapter?" she asked with a dead pan expression, lifting the book for the old cross to see.

"I'll see what I can do." And immediately fell asleep.

While he searching for whatever he could, Lucy started looking through the remaining two books, coming up completely empty handed with nothing to help her whatsoever. But she continued to try and hold her composure, trying to keep a level head. Spazzing out and getting angry wouldn't solve anything. Patience and concentration was the way to solve this.

"Ms. Lucy, I am displeased to tell you that the particular page is not what you're looking for. It was about a different being, known as a Hell Hound. That is not what you were looking for, correct?"

Lucy sighed out in exasperation, running her hands over her face and through her hair.

"I guess it's all I really have. Tell me what you know St. Crux, anything is better than nothing."

(^)^)^)^)^)^)

Night was beginning to fall quickly as Lucy began making her way towards the edge of town again, tugging the small, dainty backpack tighter around her shoulders. Nothing that Crux had said really sounded important, even for the creature it was talking about, but what she found interesting was that a hell hound could change its appearance to human. She began to have her suspicions that maybe the beast she was actually looking for was the hell hound, but she wasn't so sure about anything. There was a lot of information that had gotten crammed into her mind in the last hour.

After Crux had told her the little facts that the article in the book had held, she had left to go and find herself a weapon, deciding that she would be better off with one. She got lucky with the sandwich the other night, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't work a second time, especially on whatever this monster really was. She had taken a brief lesson on how to use the metallic staff that had many different forms of attack. Definitely better than a sandwich, which she had brought yet again to hold her over for the night—along with a small bag of chips, an orange and a bottle of water.

She had also asked around the small town where they would guess the beast would most likely appear, hoping to come across it sooner than later. She was still full of energy and she'd rather face the creature that way instead of half conscious and stiff from sitting in a tree for hours at a time. They also said that drawing it out of hiding wasn't too difficult; just walk around the darkest part of the forest and it will for sure appear.

And that's exactly where she was heading. She was going deep into the west side of the forest, where it was already dark even though the sun was still up. She wanted to get this job over and done with and get home as soon as possible. Even if she did get home before Natsu returned, she knew that his sense of smell would pick up on this areas particular scent if she stayed too long. That would mean questions about where she had went and why she had been there, something she'd rather avoid. And also, if she got beat up too much, that would definitely draw suspicion from the dragon slayer. She couldn't blame every injury on tripping over Plue and falling down the stairs.

Lucy groaned when the thin tree branch she had been pushing out of her way slipped from her hand and smacked her in the forehead, knowing that there was at the least going to be a red scrape there. Another injury she'd probably have to explain. She could always cover it up with her bangs, or a pretty hat. But that would only work for so long, so she hoped that she'd have time to heal before she or Natsu got back. Oh man, she was going to get a mouthful from Mira when she did get back.

The foliage was beginning to become too thick for her to squeeze through, so she started to back track a little and find a way around it. But her foot caught on an uprooted root and she spun and twisted in the air before rolling onto the ground. She must have hit her head on a tree or something because her vision was slightly fuzzy and there was a throbbing on the side of her head. For the love of Mavis, why was she so clumsy today?! She pushed herself onto her knees and wiped the dirt, grass and leaves off of her arms and hair before standing and doing the same to her legs. When she looked up, she realized what had just occurred …

She had spun and twisted and rolled so much that she lost where she was backtracking to. She didn't know what direction was which, which way was deeper into the woods and which way was the way back to town. In other words, Lucy was now … lost. She wanted to call upon Pyxis, but according to her contract, he wasn't available today. And she always followed her contracts, and she didn't plan on breaking that streak right then.

Wondering around aimlessly was either sure to get her more lost or she'd find a stroke of luck and find her way back to town, but judging with the way her day had been going, she assumed that it wasn't going to end with the later. So, she sat on the ground in the lotus position, and began to meditate. She needed to clear her thoughts and focus, and maybe she'd be able to figure out a plan on what to do next. She could always call upon Virgo to dig a tunnel out of there, but if she was lost, so were her spirits. For all she knew, Virgo could end up accidentally digging them deeper into the woods. Taurus would just chop down all the trees in his way and cause a ruckus, not to mention destroy nature. Leo wouldn't be of much assistance other than getting on her nerves saying something along the lines that 'as long as we're together, we'll never be lost' or something cheesy and totally cliché. Aquarius was completely useless in this situation, unless Lucy felt the need for an extreme beat down for opening her gate in a muddy puddle of her water bottle. She could call on Crux, maybe he'd know how to map out the area, but that wasn't really his area of expertise. He knew history and facts, not travel and navigation.

So, she hoped for one of those moments of clarity that she had gotten once before when she was meditating. It hadn't been a big deal, but she had seen a vision of herself getting hit with a Frisbee at the beach in the exact spot she had been sitting, so she had shifted over the slightest bit. And sure enough, a Frisbee had come slicing through the air at a deadly speed and hit the spot she had just been sitting at. She was hoping for one of those visions to help her get out of there.

So, she focused. She used her senses to feel the area around her. She could smell the earth and the trees surrounding her, a hint of lilies and possibly some sort of nectar. She could feel the moist, soft grass underneath her crossed legs, and the nightly dew soaking into her shorts. She could hear the silence that engulfed her, the small sounds of birds and bugs shifting through the trees. Everything was as it should be in the woods. But there was definitely something in the air, making it thick and cold at the same time. It sent chills down her spine and goose bumps all over body, but she remained focused and took notice to the smaller things that she needed to struggle for; the hint of maple in the air, the leaves rustling silently across the ground, the faint smell of smoke, possibly from a house in the town. She couldn't exactly pin point where the scent was coming from, but she could definitely smell it.

A gasp slipped past her lips as a scene played behind her closed eyes at top speed. Though it took less than a second for her to see it, she knew what she saw easily, like it had been playing in slow motion. She quickly jumped to her feet and ripped her special staff out of her bag, whipping it to her side so it would extend to a longer, more deadly, length. She tensed her limbs, ready to leap out of the way of anything that came her way.

That creature was nearby, and if she didn't move from this area soon and find a place to hide, she would be ripped to pieces in a matter of seconds. Keeping her grip firm on the staff, she spun on her heel and ran in a random direction, weaving her way around the trees that seemed to pop up out of the darkness. Thank god her senses were still heightened slightly, because if she didn't have good eyesight right then and there, she probably would have ran into one of them right away. But instead of looking straight ahead, she probably should have been watching her feet more, because her right foot, yet again, caught on a root.

She managed to stay standing, but there had been an unusual pain in the right side of her ankle when she put pressure on it. If she hadn't been used to pain by then, she probably would have collapsed to her knees at the pressure. She kept all her weight on her left foot as she started down at the other, poking it with her staff to see where it hurt. When she hit a tender spot on the ankle, she hissed in pain, clenching her teeth.

Definitely a sprain. Damnit. This was so not the time for this. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit!

It was beginning to hurt immensely, bringing tears to her eyes. There's a possibility that it was worse than a sprain. Not broken, but highly possibly worse than a sprain. Maybe she broke a tendon or something. She really didn't know. She wasn't going to be able to get anywhere any time soon on her own, so she reached down and grabbed Leo's key, silently summoning him.

"Lucy, my—what happened?" he said the very second he popped up. He stared at her for barely a second before immediately rushing to her aid, throwing her arm over his shoulder so she didn't have to lean against the tree.

"I was running and wasn't paying attention to where I was going. There's definitely something wrong with my ankle though. Can you keep watch for anything suspicious while I wrap it?" she asked, pleading that he just went along with what she said without too many questions. He merely nodded and helped her get comfortable on the ground before turning his back in a battle ready stance, prepared to protect his master.

Lucy sat her staff beside the leg that she had stretched out to her side, the hurt one crossed over it and held close so she could reach the injured part. She pulled the small roll of bandages out of her bag and was about to begin wrapping her ankle when there as a series of loud snapping and crashing coming from the side. She and Loke shared a look, wondering if it was really this so called, deadly beast approaching them. If it was, it obviously didn't care if they heard it. Either way, Loke changed his position and stood in front of Lucy, his fists clenched as he waited for whatever was making its way towards them.

"LUCY!" a voice bellowed out from the direction all the noise was coming from. Lucy immediately tensed at the familiar voice, eyes widening as she stared at Loke's back. What was he doing here?! He was supposed to be on his mission with Lisanna, and there was no way they made it back already! Even if they took the train! In technicality, they should have been arriving at their town about now if they did take the train.

Making a quick decision, she grabbed her staff, made one end become pointed and used it to shuffle herself behind the tree. The noises that came out were rather loud from the pain on her ankle and the exertion from moving without any help, but at least she was hidden. Though that wouldn't really do anything to help much.

When the noise stopped and nothing happened, she closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. Either Leo was holding him off and talking, or he had gone the wrong way in finding them. But when she opened her eyes, she was met with familiar onyx eyes mere inches from her own. And though they were as dazzling dark as usual, they held a sort of relieved anger/ impatience. She shrieked in surprise, jerked backwards and hitting her head against the tree trunk.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked with a deadpan voice, his eyes half lidded as he stared at her. She held in the smile when she saw the very little tint of concern for when she hit her head.

"Oh, you know, just resting up from my, uh, long hike." She said, giving a nervous smile at her dear friend.

"Oh, really? Is that so?" he asked, his eyes never leaving hers as he moved his hand to her foot and poked it gently. Even though it was gentle and he barely grazed her ankle, pain spiked up her leg, causing her face to contort in pain. His eyes narrowed in rage, his teeth clenching as he stood to his feet, his anger now directed towards Loke. "How did she get hurt?! You're supposed to protect her!" Natsu said, marching up to the spirit and poking him roughly in the chest.

"She didn't summon me until just now!" the irate lion snarled back, shoving Natsu back.

"That shouldn't matter! She needs to be protected! That's your job!" Natsu growled right back, getting up in Leo's face. "But I guess she doesn't need you now, does she?" he whispered harshly so just Loke could hear.

"You guys, I'm fine! It's just a little sore, it's nothing to get so angry about—" she was cut off when two glared met her own eyes.

"You have no say in this." They said in unison, continuing to stare at her with agitated glares until she pouted and broke their locked gazes.

"Why are you getting mad at me? You're her partner, what was she doing out here on her own?"

"I was out of town and didn't even know she was going to go on a mission! I thought we agreed to go on one together when I got back!" Natsu retorted, the last part directed more at Lucy. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye with a look that said 'you got some explaining to do'.

Leo was about to say something back when he disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Lucy and Natsu alone. The dragon slayer looked over at the celestial wizard and saw she held Leo's key in her hand and was putting it away.

"That is quite enough, Natsu." She said, not meeting his eyes as she picked up the roll of bandages again and began to pull off her shoe, hissing in pain at the movement. In a seconds notice Natsu was at her side, grabbing her wrists from doing anything else.

"You. Talk. I'll do this." He said, taking the roll of bandages from her hand and sitting cross legged on the ground next to her, setting her foot in his lap. "What were you thinking? I thought we were going on one when I got back." He said, sounding slightly hurt, but he masked it pretty well.

"We were! I still planned on going on one with you! But I needed the money badly for my rent, and you and Lisanna were all excited about going on this mission and I didn't want ruin it for you guys. So I thought I'd just go on one by myself while you were gone, get the money I needed, and then we could go on one when you got back." Lucy quickly explained, barely stopping to breathe as she summed it up.

"You could have just told me ya know. Lisanna would have understood and we could have waited for another day to go." He said rather accusingly.

"Well, what are you doing back so early? You should have been gone at least a week. I would have had this job finished up before you guys got back!" she said, poking him in the side of the head. He glanced up at her, slight amusement taking place on his frustrated and concentrated face for a split second before it disappeared. He kept his attention on her ankle, his heated hand gripping the injury. The pain was beginning to dull, but not disappear. He did this for her a lot whenever she pulled a muscle or got a cramp.

"The job got cancelled and our ideas of transportation were different. That's all I'll say. It just wasn't working out." He said as he pulled his hand away and started to tightly wrap the limb. She flinched and winced the entire time, him only glancing up at her and smiling apologetically, but continued on with the procedure. "Why didn't you take someone with? That would have been better than you being alone."

"I had my spirits." She said quickly.

"And look how that turned out." He said pointedly, finishing his work by slipping her boot back on her foot. The wrapping was tight and the support the boot gave helped the pain seem nonexistent.

"This was my own fault. I tripped over a root, it's not like I could summon a spirit in a split second just to catch me from falling." She mumbled, crossing her arms and pouting childishly. "Besides, I already finished half the job. I got rid of the Dark Minions easily last night, I would have been home soon, anyways."

"That doesn't matter. Though I'd prefer if it was me that you took, I'd rather you have someone else with you if I can't." he said, scooting closer to the tree. "Now, let's get you some real help." He said, shoving one arm underneath her knees and the other going to her waist, heaving her into his embrace. On instinct she wrapped her arms around his neck with a squeak as he stood up.

"I can walk, Natsu. And I have a job to finish. I need the money or else I won't be able to keep my apartment." She said, trying to jerk herself out of his hold, but his grip only tightened.

"No way am I putting you down. Judging with how beat up you look, you'll only end up hurting yourself even more. And no way are you finishing this job. I'll go collect what reward you've earned and I'll help pay for your rent." He said, beginning their walk.

"What's up with the mature attitude all of a sudden, eh?" Lucy quirked an eyebrow up at him, amusement shining in her voice. She didn't get the response she was hoping for; only gaining a shrug, but it was enough. "Fine, you can help with the job, but there's no way I'm just leaving this place with that demon dog thing."

"Demon dog thing?" Natsu stopped walking, looking at Lucy in realization. "I think I ran into it on the way here." He said, starting to jog in a different direction than where he had been heading. Though they were going rather fast, Lucy wasn't jostled whatsoever, but she did hold onto him tighter and bury her face in his scarf. And she only looked up when they came to a stop.

Looking down at their feet, she gasped at what she saw. There, on the ground, was a giant black dog with red eyes, lying on the ground unconscious. The thing was gargantuan, maybe the size of a rhino if she had to guess.

"Y-you … you finished the job for me." she said, sounding rather stunned and a little … disappointed. She wanted to be known as the person that helped save this town, but apparently, it had been finished without her even knowing.

"I guess I did. I was on my way to you, since I picked up on your scent and stuff, and this thing just jumped out of nowhere and tried to eat my head. But one punch and it was down and out." He explained, nudging the thing's head with his sandaled foot.

"We should probably take it with us to the Mayor. The job is done, so I guess I do have to leave." She said, staring down at the dog.

"It wouldn't matter if the job was done or not, you'd be coming back with me anyway. Once we got back, I would have just sent someone else to finish it for you." He said, shifting Lucy around in his arms so she could crawl onto his back and wrap her arms around his neck. While he supported her with one hand, he used the other to grab the hound by the scruff behind its neck and drag it with them.

"Why couldn't you just do it while you were here?"

"Because clearly I can't let you out of my sight for too long. Who knows, you might get tangled up in your bed sheets and suffocate if I leave you to rest up." He said. Even though he had a joking tone to it, he sounded dead serious about not being able to leave her alone for too long.

"Oh, don't be so overprotective. I'm fine. We'll get back to the guild and Wendy can heal me up in no time." She said, rolling her eyes. And when she rested her head on his shoulder, her face being buried in his scarf, Natsu couldn't help but smile at her.

When he had first arrive, her scent had been extremely faint, nearly impossible to track. But for some reason, it was almost too easy to find her. He didn't even have to follow the actual trail, he could just pick up her scent in the wind and managed to pin point where she was. He had never been able to do that for anyone else. And he had to admit, when he finally caught her scent, it felt like an impossible weight had been lifted from his chest. He had found her minutes after he arrived, and what do you know, she'd been hurt and Leo hadn't been able to help. Big shocker.

And to add onto this revelation, he had thought more about what Igneel had said, and found everything had some connection to his blond partner. The extreme over protectiveness, the possessive feeling he got whenever she went on missions with other guys (or even really talked to them), the jealousy when she gave her undivided attention to someone else (even Happy), the feeling of unbridled joy when she laughed, smile, talked and touched him and then the need to always have her at his side. Igneel had explained that once it's official, it will almost become painful to be separated. It was already painful to be apart, for him anyway.

And one of the better things that Igneel had told him was that he didn't have to worry about the feelings being mutual. Dragon's destinies intertwined with their mates before they even meet, so the feelings are or would eventually become mutual. And he had a feeling that it was already that way, judging by the heat radiating from her cheeks as she tried to hide her smile and blush in his scarf.

And she smelt very delicious. He was actually holding back the temptation to stretch out his tongue and lick her. He couldn't even really pin point on what the scents were a blend of, just that it made him want to push her against a tree and ravish her. But since he couldn't do that without a reasonable explanation, he would be content with just carrying her … for now.

And he flat out refused to release her from his hold for the rest of the day. When they went to pick up the reward, he continued to hold her princess style, when they got on the train, he kept his arm around her waist so they were pressed shoulder to shoulder, and when they got back to the guild, she was tossed over his shoulder and marched up to Mira. And thus Natsu held a very serious conversation with Mira about letting Lucy go out on jobs without him—saying it was not allowed.

Because he wasn't letting go.

I know, really … um, rushed, at the end and shuddup it seemed like a good idea when I first started then I ended up not wanting to keep going, but I felt like I should finish something in my life for once. Apparently a really big mistake because Natsu turned out EXTREMELY OOC, and I'm sorry. I guess, when I do write about Natsu and Lucy, he's gonna be out of character—but hopefully in a good way (protective and sorta possessive, I love it).