A/N: Hello, lovelies! It's been a while, I know, but if you happen to follow my old profile, you probably knew this would be coming out soon! I promised I'd have this guy rewritten and revised in October, and I managed, even though college was telling me that the speech due in three days is more important. Meh, who needs speeches when you can have ships, right?

This isn't a Halloween fan fiction, but... well, to avoid spoilers, I did rate this M for a reason. It's nothing too bad! I'm saving the really dark, ghastly goodness for the actual Halloween fan fictions that I'll probably release around Christmas because I'm lazy and I do kinda want to pass my classes.

Anyways, for those of you that have read the original version of this fan fiction on my other profile, this is the official notice, and I'll update the original so everyone knows this: the original will be deleted tomorrow night! I know it's kind of abrupt, but that story is an embarrassment compared to what I'm capable of now and I'd rather see more input on what I'm proud of than what I'm mortified to have posted nearly three years ago.

With all of that out of the way, you're free to dive on into what you actually came here for!

Without further adieu, I give you...

~*Something More*~

Written by:

Stella Nova
(S.N. Novellas)

CURIOSITY WILL CONQUER FEAR EVEN

MORE THAN BRAVERY WILL

—James Stephens—

It looked at her, perhaps even through her with how transparent she felt underneath its gaze. Of course, that's not something she could say out loud. Maybe if her team had tensed up the way she had upon entering, maybe if they'd been casting glances out the window as she did, maybe if they let their smiles drop for a fraction of a second, she could have told them.

They never once hesitated at any point in their unpacking, bickering, and laughing. They didn't feel it like she did, and perhaps that's why she felt so vulnerable.

The forest wasn't looking at them. Only her.

A squeak tore from her throat when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder, jumping as she refrained from kicking the pinkette reflexively. "Natsu!"

"You're spacing out, Luce. Erza's gonna scope out the town and grab some food for everyone, so we're all meeting back here at five," he advised, before shooting a toothy grin, "I haven't had my pre-dinner dinner yet. Come with us!"

Gray scoffed, and Natsu's smile twitched. "How many dinners do you need, flamebrain?"

"The more power I use, the more I gotta eat. That explains why you don't eat half of what I do!"

"I don't need five orders of burnt chicken to kick your ass, matchstick!"

"You wanna fight, popsicle!?"

Lucy calmly slipped past Erza as the redhead turned on her heel, gauntlets raised to end the scuffle. "I'll be in the library when you wake up!" Natsu was out cold before he could ask what she meant, but Happy gave her a thumbs up as he curled up on his unconscious partner's back.

Once Erza had wiped any unflattering smudges from her armor, she followed the blonde outside, pointing out the various places she intended to visit before making her way down the barren street.

Humming a soft tune, the stellar mage turned on her heel and began her short walk to the library, which sat just a few buildings away from the hotel they'd taken up residence in. As she moved, her eyes took notice of her surroundings, internally mapping the city out in her mind.

The mission itself was simple enough: remove dangerous beasts. It was the details behind the mission that had caused her to hesitate at first. Said beasts were unknown in size, ability, location, quantity, even motive if they happened to have any. They'd also killed three people, and although the bodies hadn't been found, bone fragments belonging to distinctly different people were a telltale sign. It was suspected that it was a family of three that had been lost, but not nearly enough had been found to discern who it was that had been taken.

All they had to work with was speculation.

Speculation and the chill that went down her spine every five minutes, as it was now. A deep breath kept her from sprinting the last few meters into the library, but with the way the forest was eyeing her, it was a very tempting action to take.

Her lip worried between her teeth as she tried to shake off the unpleasant feeling, wondering how she could broach the topic with her teammates.

Hey, guys, I'm pretty sure the trees have been staring at me since we got here.

Right. That would go over well.

Lucy shook her head, opting to keep it to herself for now as she focused on the bookshelves. If she was being honest with herself, she was probably being paranoid. It was the first official S-Class mission Erza had brought the team on, so nerves were a given. That thought alone gave her the assurance she needed to ignore the lingering feeling of eyes boring into her back, and she put her best foot forward as she grabbed books she felt would be useful in learning about the area.

It was one of the few things she prided herself in amongst her team; her intellect. They were all brilliant fighters and could outsmart many of the foes they faced, but they typically never looked into the areas they would be working in, resorting in last-minute battles that left them all low on power with a fair amount of injury and very, very empty wallets thanks to damages. It also didn't help that most of their knowledge was limited to all things battle-oriented, whether it be weaponry or past enemies. She, on the other hand, had a broader range of topics in her arsenal.

She set aside the book on top for the time being, having haphazardly thrown it to the top of the stack as she'd passed it by, and focused on the first book she'd grabbed. After spending a short moment admiring the cover, Lucy flipped the pages open, placed her Gale Force glasses on her nose, and dove in.

Natsu wasn't a doctor, but he was pretty sure his nose was broken. Maybe it was the way it was pressed into the not-so-soft carpet of the hotel room, or maybe it was the fact that he'd been laying on it for the better part of three hours, but it had never hurt this badly before.

In an attempt to be helpful, Happy tested his theory and batted at the sore appendage, confirming that no, it wasn't broken, but yes, it was tender and hitting it didn't feel good. At all. "Sorry, Natsu," the exceed mumbled as the dragon slayer cupped a hand over it, hissing a bit at the ache that rippled out over his face. Before he could scold his friend, two things came to mind.

One, Lucy wasn't there. She was probably fine on her own, but he was bored.

Two, Gray was still unconscious, and while he didn't have a marker, Lucy's waterproof eyeliner was just as efficient.

It was all of five minutes later that the slayer was rubbing a stray mark off the back of his thumb, following his partner's lingering scent and finding himself unsurprised that she'd holed herself in the library.

"What weirdo sits in a library for three hours," he grumbled, making his way inside as Happy drifted further down the street, eyeing a vendor selling taiyaki with an overjoyed and equally devious gleam in his eye.

Natsu had hardly been inside for two minutes before he decided that trying to find Lucy in a library was like trying to find Gray in a strip club. They blended in painfully well. Her scent was everywhere thanks to having walked down every aisle in search of books, she was deathly quiet so as not to disturb anyone, and it didn't help that the poor fire mage rarely visited libraries to begin with. The layout was extensive, complex, and he had the vague idea that just spreading all the books out on tables would be a lot less difficult.

He was a solid two inches shorter than the massive stacks, meaning he couldn't just peek over the top to find her. Even if he could, she was probably too short to see. Just as the man decided to start setting things on fire and wait for her to come to him, he rounded a corner and found an area littered with small tables, chairs, and beanbags. The blonde was settled into one of many chairs, eyes narrowed as she flipped through the pages, her gale force glasses set next to her hand as it seemed to be writing, or maybe sketching, on a blank notebook.

"Luce!" She floated above her chair for a solid second, the book fumbled to a close, and a very dark, ragged line now took up half of the page she'd been writing on. Any other day, and he would have laughed at the sight, but the solid glare she sent his way had his chuckle dying in his throat.

Scaring Lucy when she was working was probably the worst idea he'd ever had.

"Natsu…" she growled, and the fact that she still followed the rule of silence and whispered it made it all the more menacing. A shiver ran down his spine as he rubbed the back of his neck, muttering apologies as his other hand raised, whether apologetic or to block anything she threw at him he was unsure. It was only after she'd released a shaky sigh and her brow unfurrowed a fraction that he deemed it safe to approach, pulling up a chair and staring at her notes.

"What're ya workin' on?" He asked, deciding that none of it made much sense and opting to stare at her until she explained.

Her cheeks reddened when she realized his gaze was unmoving, so she pointedly focusing on the papers she'd strewn over the table to avoid his relentless stare. "I'm just doing some research on the area. This," she pointed to the paper before the pinkette, "is a map of all of the routes. It's rough, but sketching it out makes it easier for me to understand. The little circles are where the bones were found, so those would be good areas to examine."

"Over here," she continued, flipping through various pages, "are mainly just facts about the landscape. Dangerous plants, commonly seen animals, areas to be cautious of, and so on. This page is about villains and criminals that have been in this area before, just in case the beasts have any relation to any of them, but I doubt it."

Natsu reached out, snagging the book at the top of the stack of books she'd read and flipping through it. "Oh, I didn't see much of importance in that one. It went into more detail about past criminal cases, but the summaries were enough-"

"Oi, why are your keys in here?" Her brow scrunched at his interruption, leaning over to peer at the page. Her throat went a bit dry as a sketch of one of the criminals she'd previously read about appeared next to a picture of a celestial key, though it wasn't the color of any key she'd ever seen. Silver was common, gold fairly rare, and there was rumor of a thirteenth black key, but this was a deep violet, with streaks of black striking through it like the webs in shattered glass.

Despite having never seen it before, it looked unbelievably wrong. Unnatural, even. Natsu called her name, but Lucy paid him no mind as she strung her Gale force glasses over her eyes and breezed through the few pages discussing the criminal. When she sat back, tears were pricking at her eyes, but Natsu's nose couldn't smell the sadness over the deep, boiling scent of anger in the air. "I know people mistreat their spirits, but… how is this even possible?"

Her hand unconsciously hovered over her own keys as she eyed the text with a menacing glare. "Apparently, he discovered a way to steal a spirit's power for himself. Doing so is one of the many taboos celestial mages have to avoid. Copying the power of a spirit is one thing, but stealing it and absorbing it yourself… it's like intaking ethernano loaded with a magic different from your own. It messes with your entire system, and enough of it can completely change your own magic. He used his spirit like a person would ethernano, and absorbed the spirit's magic. Without it, in this world, a spirit will die."

"So he killed his spirit?" Natsu asked, and Lucy gave an uncertain nod.

"I think so, but if that were the case, the key would be entirely black. The fact that it was discolored… it may be because the celestial magic is still present, but the spirit itself is gone. That was years ago, though, I doubt the mage survived for long with magic from another realm in their body. I know there are spells that allow mages to use a spirit's power for five, maybe ten minutes. Years would kill even a practiced celestial mage." She flipped the book shut, shoving it far from her as she ran a thumb over her keys. "I can't imagine doing such a horrible thing to a spirit. People see them as tools, but still, to be able to do that to another being… it's sickening."

The stellar mage's focus was taken away from the books when an arm draped over her shoulder, tucking her into her partner's side. "Which spirit was it?" She peeked inside the book again, before letting the cover close.

"Maybe Lacertae," she replied, leaning into his half-hug. "Maybe Serpens. I haven't seen that symbol in ages." Almost as quickly as it had come about, her anger faded, leaving a small sense of remorse for the poor spirit in its place. "Thanks, Natsu," Lucy whispered, attempting to move from under his arm.

"No problem, weirdo." Her eye twitched as she cast him a sidelong glance.

Without much thought, the blonde's elbow dug into his side as she retorted, "Way to ruin the moment, idiot!" The slayer laughed at her attempt at a pout, which was disfigured by the smile hidden beneath it. Once he started, she couldn't help but join him, only to flush and cough when the librarian's head appeared, shushing the two of them with a glare. "Well… anyways, I should probably put these back. We have to meet Erza in the hotel room in ten minutes, right?"

Her partner blanched as he looked at the clock. "She's gonna kill us if we're late."

At that, Lucy suddenly remembered just who she was supposed to meet, and she shoved a few books in Natsu's hands as she gathered the rest. "Follow me, we've gotta put these back!" For his part, he was doing well at keeping up with her, mildly impressed with how quickly she was able to put the books back where they belonged. She only stumbled once, backtracking and crouching to place the book on one of the lower shelves before carrying onwards. It was only after the last book had been put in place that Lucy paused, looking towards the pinkette with a curious look. "Did Happy come to the library with you?"

All he offered was a shrug before half-dragging his partner out the doors. "Probably not, but Erza won't beat him up too badly, right?"

"Says the one sprinting to the hotel," she muttered, only for him to pick up his pace. "Hey, slow down!" Her only reply was a devious cackle as he moved just a fraction faster.

"I'm telling you, you can't be the first one back if you never even left, ice princess!"

"Like hell I can't, you're just mad I beat you, ash-for-brains!"

Any other day and Erza would have bashed their heads in for arguing, but the fact that Gray hadn't noticed the squiggly moustache, the eyes scribbled on his eyelids, or the fish on his forehead had the redhead struggling to keep a straight face. Lucy had caved long ago, silently forgiving her partner as he'd honestly put her makeup to good use.

Happy had, in fact, made it back in time, which was surprising considering the sheer number of probably-stolen taiyaki he was carrying in his tiny arms. If it weren't for the cake stuffing his cheeks, he would have called Gray out by now. Thankfully, Lucy had time to swear him to silence as Gray continued arguing, butting foreheads with Natsu as they yelled insults.

The pinkette threw the first punch, leaving Gray laughing against the wall as the slayer now had his own fish-shaped mark on his forehead. It took a few moments for the ice mage to realize just where the mark had come from, but once he did, the two men rushed to the bathroom to view themselves in the mirror.

"I'll allow them to settle this amongst themselves," Erza mused as Happy disappeared into the room, cheering Natsu on as another scuffle broke out. "Don't damage the hotel!"

"Aye Sir!" The men squawked, freezing in terror for a moment before the fight resumed behind the now-closed door.

After waiting a moment to ensure that the two really were practicing some semblance of control, the scarlet-haired woman took a seat on one of beds, gesturing for Lucy to sit across from her. "While they settle their differences, why don't we discuss what we learned during this evening's outing." At the blonde's nod of agreement, Erza took a bite of one of the many taiyaki on the bedside table, motioning for Lucy to begin.

"Right, so I spent my time in the Library and focused on researching the area's landscape, history, and past criminals that have been here." She flipped to the page with the sketched map, one finger pointing to a small circle towards the top. "This is where all of the nature trails begin, and the circle at the bottom is where they end. You take one trail down, then choose another on your way back. There are six in total. The bones of the victims were found between trails Two and Four, above the small cave Trail Three will take you through.

"I've marked the areas that were searched in green, and the areas that are likely to be uninhabitable in blue. All other areas not on the trails are likely locations for the beasts to be hiding, if they're still here." She flipped again, giving a brief overview of dangerous plants to be wary of and animals that are common in the area, before pausing as she turned to the page listing the criminals.

"What is it?" Erza asked, noting the blondes hesitation from around her third Taiyaki.

Lucy blinked at the names, before flipping back to look at the dangerous plants in the area. "Erza, none of the animals on the list could eat these dangerous plants. Yet they still stay perfectly under control despite the freedom they have to spread." Her mind held the last piece of the puzzle, but the answer just wouldn't click into place. Before she could really grasp where her brain had taken her, the bed shook and raised her into the air as Natsu flopped face-down on its surface, Gray having stumbled before he ever made past the bathroom door.

"I think they're done," Happy mumbled, before shrieking at his slightly diminished snack pile. Erza, having already forgotten Lucy's stumble, quickly grasped the back of Natsu's shirt and flipped him face-up, scowling at the black-and-blue face of her friend.

"You still have eyeliner on your face. You're lucky none of it got on the bed… you should clean up before sleeping."

"I can't feel my everything," Natsu groaned. Having lost her train of thought, his companion merely sighed and busied herself with getting a warm towel for each of the men while Erza explained rather harshly that if he was in pain, he could feel just fine. Deciding to spare the pinkette's ears, Lucy tasked Erza with getting the makeup off of Gray, who was slowly regaining conscious for the second time that day, while she tended to Natsu. "Lu-u-u-u-shy-y-y," Natsu groaned, his cheeks squishing together as she scrubbed the stubborn makeup off. She wasn't wasting her make-up wipes on this idiot, no matter how funny his prank had been. "Ow ow ow, tha one'sh shore!"

"You should have thought about that before fighting," the blonde sighed, finally slowing her scrubbing as she reached the much firmer surface of his forehead. "Wendy isn't here to heal you, so let's just hope the two of you aren't too sore when the sun is up tomorrow. We've got locations to check out and, if we're lucky, the beasts will be there."

Natsu pouted at her sigh, picking up quite clearly on her exasperation with how much he'd gotten hurt — not that the ice prick had done any of it, of course. It was all intentional, just so the poor guy didn't look bad!

At least, that's what Natsu told himself. Still, Lucy wasn't happy about it either way. Once she leaned back to toss the rag in the hamper, he sat up and ruffled her hair, much to her annoyance. "Thanks, Luce," he said, barely dodging her kick as he moved to retrieve the food that Erza had left on the table. The first two boxes were obviously not his — one was ungodly sweet, the other smelled like it was cold. He took the last two in his hands without much thought, and handed the lighter one to his partner, knowing with a whiff that the box left in his own hands was heavily burnt and spicy just from the scent.

Her pout no longer prevalent, the two enjoyed their dinner to the sounds of Erza's chastising, her armor clinking as she scrubbed at a now-agonized Gray, whose face was an unnatural shade of red and still marred by a stubborn stain.

Her fingers clawed at her sheets and comforter as she tugged them closer to her, wondering if the room was unnaturally cold or if she was chilled to the bone for another reason entirely. Her heart rate had picked up ever since she'd heard it, an unbelievably small click at the window.

The window that was on the third floor of the hotel, too high for any of the small, decorative trees to reach, not that any were close enough. Her eyes, which had been closed in an attempt to ignore the feeling of being watched she was becoming accustomed to, had shot open just in time to see the moonlight on the wall flicker as something darted past.

When the covers were as close as possible to her, she held them with one hand while the other clutched at the space over her heart, trying desperately to calm herself. She couldn't feel the eyes watching her anymore, but just knowing that something had been there, not only now but during every uncertain moment while she stared into the forest… it ate away at her already-slipping hold on her emotions.

Another noise sounded, this one much louder and closer, and she jerked, sitting up and peering about the room fearfully, only to see Natsu staring wide-eyed at her frightened form. He looked like he wanted to say something, but paused as Erza let out a gentle snore. Rather than risk waking her, he moved slowly from his own bed and towards Lucy's. Unlike the multitude of other instances where she kicked him from her bed, she didn't say a word against it, simply curling against him as she shook lightly.

His arm moved to wrap around her after pulling the covers more securely over her. "What's wrong, Luce?" He whispered.

"I'll tell you in the morning," she replied, so softly he had to tilt his head to hear her. "I just… need to sleep for now."

The slayer nodded his understanding, but kept his arm securely around her shoulders as he waited for her to fall asleep. His eyes never once left the window, having heard the same slight sound she had, but while he hadn't seen anything, the smell of something sharp and unnatural was radiating from the slightly-cracked window that he knew Erza had been sure to close.

Something wasn't right, but only morning would answer his questions. With one last restless glance at the window, he buried his nose into his partner's hair and slept, unsure of who was comforting who.