Finding the Dragon
- Fairy Tail -

Welcome to the world of derivatives and normals, where private investigator, Gray Fullbuster, is enlisted to locate a lost shape-shifter but the name of Natsu Dragneel.

-FtD-

Gray Fullbuster looked past steepled fingers and into the eyes of a young girl. Her hair was fair and her eyes were wide as she glanced around the room, one hand tightened repeatedly on the arm of the chair. She had just finished explaining what she wanted from him and he was pretending to consider the offer. He would take it, but the more he made her wait anxiously the less likely she was to debate over his rather... heavy prices.

Her brother, a wolxfoe, had vanished the week before. To Gray, a self-proclaimed expert in all thing magi, this did not seem very strange at all. She had insisted that he had been what he is for a long time and that this was the first ever that he had vanished without telling her. She knew something was wrong and was willing to pay to find out what.

"Well, miss, I think I can get him back for you. Though I'm no expert in tracking his wolxfoe, I got to say." He shrugged.

"I just want you to try! I want to know that he's alright. Then I can rest easy." It was all she wanted. The ice bender new this like he read it off her face; and in a sense he did. In the P.I. business you had to be good at reading people or you could get shit on real quick.

The girl then turned and produced two pictures from the inside of her coat. One was a picture of her brother in his normal form and the other in his wolxfoe form. In one he had fair skin and pink hair and the other he had sharp scales and horns. Most people, when they heard the term, thought of werewolves, but the ice bender knew that it wasn't the case. It was sometimes, but most the time it wasn't. Wolves weren't strong enough to break through the barrier to the Other and the real world. Mostly dragons and ogres got through. And this boy was definitely no ogre derivative.

He put the pictures down to his left for further evaluation, then he turned back to the blonde. "You two don't look anything alike. Are you sure you're brother and sister?" She nodded a yes but her swallowing a new lump in her throat said no. "Okay. Why say he is then? Makes no sense to lie to me."

Again she swallowed. "Because of what he is and what I am. Besides for... family, there is no reason a normal would search for a derivative."

"Why'd you come to me then?"

"Rumours."

He knew the exact rumours she was talking about. That he, too, was a derivative.

They weren't wrong.

"What's your friends name?"

-FtD-

The next day was spent using the starting payment as a means to fill his cupboard and his stomach. The blonde – who hadn't disclosed her name, and to be fair, he hadn't asked for it either – had left him a hefty some; some inclination for him to start sooner. He planned to. After he ate.

The food felt refreshing on his stomach. It was a good, old-fashioned, grease weeping burger that made his arteries clench. Then, licking the last of the juices from his fingers, he bent over the two pictures of Natsu, his notes and set to work.

His notes were so vague that minutes ticked by and he was still waiting on a revelation. Someone once said that you could rush progress, but at this rate he would owe the base fee back to the blonde before the night was out. To avoid that he would have to do it the old fashioned way.

Rising from his seat, he dropped change down onto the table for his tip and sidled over to the cash register with a twenty and a five. The change would have been seventy-six cents but he left before the employee could even punch it in. Gray got to hear the sound of the cash register ding before the door slammed shut behind him.

He had three places he liked to visit for a good old fashion man-hunt; the Den, Sally's shop of Horrors, and the morgue. Normally he visited the morgue last, he didn't want to find his target dead, he didn't want to find his target undead, and he didn't want to find a particular ghost.

So his first stop was to the bar. He walked through it liked he owned the place and it turned heads. This place was a derivative house for the most part. The entrance was underground and scared many of the normals away. The scattered few did slip in, but those were, normally, already drunk and looking for a fight, or in the company of a derivative beforehand. Some occupants had a problem with this, but a sharp glare from the damphyr at the bar shut them up nice and clean.

Mirajane smiled at Gray when he walked in. She poured him his usual, tagged with a little note reading 'On the house'. That was the best thing about Mirajane, if she liked you – and she liked Gray – then the first drink was always free. And the second drink was always double. It was why Gray never ordered two.

She plopped down on the counter and waited. Gray took his seat and produced the two photo's of the boy from his inside pocket. He could feel a lot of eyes on him; most of them stared approvingly at his dress shirt and jeans. Others simply starred at him out of hate. You couldn't please everyone.

"Who is this, Gray?" asked Mirajane. Her silver haired washed across the counter top. Gray wondered why damphyrs never seemed to cut there hair.

"My target. A friend of his came in requesting that I find him because he's been missing for a while."

"He's a wolxfoe?" Gray nodded. "They do tend to disappear for long periods of time."

"I know that. But she insisted that this wasn't like him." This time Mirajane nodded. She was one of the few people who believed in Gray's ability to see the truth in expression; not even Gray believed in it, in all honesty.

"I haven't seen him. You can ask around if you like but I get the feeling that most of them will tell you the same."

"I get that feeling too."

Still, he did just that. Many answered honestly, others didn't answer at all, and some of the ones Gray was acquainted with punched him. He rubbed the pain out of his jaw each time; somehow they all managed to punch him in the same spot every time. Just has Mirajane had predicted, he left the Den no wiser then when he entered.

-FtD-

His next destination was Sally's shop of Horrors. That, as he suspected, gave him the same results. Even the well-read Levi could not read into peoples locations. That, unfortunately, left the morgue. The last time he was there it was in search of a vampire. Not that vampires preferred dusty morgues to anywhere else, but they were often mistaken for corpses when they slept. When the vamp had awoken the two of them had a good chuckle over his carelessness. The bloodsucking derivative had a better laugh when Juvia decided to crawl up from her ashes and sexually harass Gray. Needless to say, that was a very well paying job.

Now he found himself pushing the twin cement doors open, his muscles bunched under then strain. These things were heavy but they were also enchanted so that nothing from the Other could get out. Protection against zombies and vampires alike. It rendered Gray's bending useless; he wondered why he even had the bloody stuff. It didn't seem to help him any.

The ghost, as expected, was there to greet him. Gray remained on one side of the barrier, and Juvia was forced to stay on the other. Like in the bar and in the shop, Gray produced the two photo's and showed them to her. "Have you seen him?"

She shook her head, smiling. Ghosts couldn't talk, which made them great for keeping secrets.

"Why don't I believe you?" She frowned in mock disapproval. "Is he in there?" he asked hardly. When she remained unresponsive he repeated the question, softer and more sincere.

Her reaction was immediately. She blushed, turning away abashed. Her tiny hand pointed down the dark hallway and into the main cell. This time, Gray decided, she was telling the truth. That didn't make him any less weary to step inside. The last time he was sexually harassed, the time before that he was mauled by zombies, and the time before that he was attacked by a giant, hungry spider. This place had bad news written all over it.

For once, Juvia stayed her distance. She loitered at Gray's hip but did nothing more then that. The ice bender doubted that she was doing it for his sake; which meant that there was something going down with Natsu.

He popped the corner and was instantly treated with the sight of a transformed wolxfoe. There was no pink hair in sight, but the dragon shape-shifter was distinctly Natsu Dragneel. And in his lap was a kitten. The small, blue furred animal purred quietly as the wolxfoe's fingers trailed over it.

"I've seen some interesting things in my day, but this has got to take the cake."

Natsu turned to look at the ice bender with a vehement expression snapping into place. "You got a problem with me being here, normal?" he snapped. They had obviously gotten off on the wrong foot, but Gray couldn't help but smile at his amateur mistake. Unlike many derivatives, Gray did not have fur, of claws, or glowing eyes, he looked one-hundred percent like a normal. That was the benefit of being a bender. And that was why those rumours that Gray was a derivative were just that; rumours.

"You're blonde friend is missing you."

"So? You here to bring me back?"

"Yes, actually." Gray smiled at Natsu's expression as he produced the two photo's on his pocket and his business card. "P.I. Gray Fullbuster. That friend of yours happened to hire me cause you got yourself lost."

Gratefully, Natsu shifted into his normal form. Scales and horns were quickly and painlessly replaced by fleshy tones and pink hair. "I didn't get lost. Not this time."

This time? Gray chuckled at the thought. For a dragon wolxfoe, who were normally quick to anger, this guy was amusing. And the kitten in his lap said something for his temper. "So, why are you out here in this derivative infested hole?" Juvia puffed up behind him, clearly insulted.

"I found Happy in an alleyway. He was hurt and alone so I wanted to take him home. But our apartment doesn't allow pets so I... brought him here." He added a shrug to the last part, making it clear how obvious it was. Pretty damn obvious.

"Never mind that and come back with me. You can talk to Lucy and get this whole mess sorted out; least her credits go to waste." Natsu scowled up at Gray, looking down pointedly at the kitten in his arms. He was standing now and the ice bender couldn't help but wonder when he rose. "And you can take that bloody cat with you."

-FtD-

When the blonde walked into Gray's office her face flooded with three different emotions; happiness, confusion, and rage. In that order. Gray was quick to pick up the blue kitten from the desk before the blonde, Lucy, sent Natsu flying into it with an impressive right hook. That day, Gray decided that women were scary.

She took Natsu home by the ear. The wolxfoe shouted back to Gray as he left to take care of Happy, who mewled at the thought. Gray was too busy dying of laughter at that moment to say much of another about getting a pet because of a job.

A/N: Something I decided to do after reading Moonsheen's story 'Darkling I Listen'. And Storm Front (Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher. It's not an ultimately original idea but I do like little worlds like these :P Very much.

This hasn't passed through the eyes of my Beta yet but I did reread it. So lets hope the mistakes won't make your eyes bleed.

Review~? I love to hear opinions! They is my fuel to keep going :D