"Wendy's gone."
Silence followed Carla's words. She was obviously trying her best not to burst out crying, her jaw trembling and eyes moist, not batting away Happy when he held her paw comfortingly. The truth was the she really needed some form of comfort, and she certainly didn't mind Happy's.
Lucy gripped her pen tightly. So Wendy was gone, too? That would make the third dragonslayer to suddenly disappear form Fairy Tail. Gajeel and Laxus had both disappeared sometime last week without a trace. Wendy had cried, saying that she couldn't follow their traces – they all ended up at their homes.
It was also all over the headlines on the newspapers: DRAGONSLAYERS GO MISSING. Sting and Rogue from Sabertooth had mysteriously vanished – along with some others that Lucy had never heard of.
That meant that Natsu was the only one left. Lucy tore her eyes away from Carla, who was now sobbing into Happy's shoulder, no doubt thinking that it was her fault Wendy was gone. But Lucy could not locate Natsu anywhere. A sudden bolt of panic surged through her. Was he gone? Did he disappear too? She couldn't bear the thought of her teammate just gone, and she got up quickly and ran out of the guild hall.
The first place she could think of where Natsu might be was his house. Her body was on autopilot, legs running as fast as they could to the house. What if he was gone too? There had to be a reason to why only dragon slayers were disappearing…
"NATSU!" Lucy screamed, and burst through the door. Said mage looked up from his bed in surprise. "Lucy?" he grumbled. "Whaddya doing?"
Seeing that he was safe and sound, she let out a sigh of relief, then placed her hands on her hips. "Why aren't you at the guild?" she snapped, annoyed that he made her worry so much.
"I was tired," was the simple reply, and Lucy sighed again, and grabbed his hand. "Let's go to the guild."
"Hey, wait, Lucy!" Natsu sputtered as he was practically dragged along the road by Lucy. "Why do I have to go to the guild right now?"
"Wendy disappeared."
There was silence, and Lucy did her best to ignore it, keeping a firm grip on Natsu's scarf. Then he spoke quietly,
"So I'm the last one, huh?"
Lucy scoffed. "You're strong. You can fight off lots of things. Besides, if you get taken by something, I'll be there with you." She chuckled to herself, thinking about how cheesy that sounded.
Natsu sighed and allowed himself to be dragged into the guild hall, flinching as the guild doors nearly bashed his head in two.
Lucy let go of Natsu, who plopped onto the floor with an, "oof!" and smiled weakly at the staring eyes of the guild. "He's safe, at least."
Makarov let out a sigh and stood up, leaning on his staff. "We'll be looking for Wendy," he said without confidence. "Erza, Carla, Freed, and Elfman, you may go search now." Erza nodded and barked for everyone to follow her, and they marched out of the hall.
"Gray, you go and stay with Natsu to make sure nothing happ-" he continued, but was interrupted by a loud,
"WHY HIM?"
"You copying me, Ice Princess?" Natsu roared, slamming his forehead against Gray's.
"No, I think you're the one who's a copying bastard, flame brain!"
"What was that, stripper?"
"Are you deaf, fire breath?
"ENOUGH!" Makarov roared, and the two immediately fell silent. The master rubbed his temples and sighed. He'd had a long week, trying to sort everything out, and even the smallest noises could set him off.
"You two are strong, and together you could fight off most powerful enemies." Makarov hopped off of the bar and began heading to his office. "I'm done speaking. Go and do whatever you need to."
Lucy sighed, sweatdropping a little. "I'm not sure putting Gray and Natsu together is the best idea…"
And she was so, so right.
"ARE YOU STUPID, FIRE IDIOT?"
"NO, BUT I'M SURE YOU ARE, YOU WALKING POPSICLE!"
"I SAID COLD CHICKEN FOR DINNER, SQUINTY EYES!"
"AND I SAID SPICY CHICKEN FOR DINNER, DROOPY EYES!"
"ARE YOU -" Gray's vehement retort was cut off when someone knocked on the door. Grumbling, Natsu opened it, poking his head out. He looked around but saw nothing until someone squeaked, "Could you possibly be Natsu-san?"
Looking down, Natsu saw a tiny boy with sandy hair and bright blue eyes, holding a letter out to the dragonslayer. The poor boy was dragging a blue mail bag that was almost his own size. Natsu nodded and took the mail, thanking the boy.
"Have a good day, Natsu-san!" the boy piped again, before happily skipping down the road, lugging his huge bag behind him.
Natsu closed the door and headed back to Gray while opening the letter.
"What's it say?" Gray asked, curious.
Natsu took the paper out. It only had a few sentences on it.
Hey Natsu!
I hope you're safe! It's dangerous to be alone, so I'm inviting you to dinner! Meet me by the bookstore in a few minutes after you read this, please!
Love,
Lucy
Gray wrinkled his nose. "I didn't know Lucy sent letters with love to you."
Natsu punched him. "It's not a love letter! Look, she's inviting us to dinner! I bet it's an all you can eat buffet! Now this is what I call awesome!"
"Wait, isn't the letter a little -" Gray began, but saw that Natsu had already run out the door. "That idiot," he sighed, and ran after him.
"Lucyyy!" Natsu called, finally arriving at the bookstore and out of breath. It was quite late at night, and most of the shops in Magnolia were closed, making the street seem very dark.
But Lucy wasn't there yet. Maybe she got delayed, he thought, and leaned against the glass window of the bookstore.
Gray wasn't there either. "The stripper can stay hungry then, for all I care," Natsu muttered to himself, and continued to wait.
Quite a long while later, when Natsu was getting tired of waiting, he spotted a dark figure walking towards him. Grinning broadly, Natsu ran forward. "Lucy! Finally! I was getting bored waiting for you! Gray's not -"
The figure stretched a hand out, and a dark magic seal formed, glowing. Natsu skidded to a halt, confused. This wasn't Lucy.
The next thing he knew, he was sinking into a blissfully comfortable darkness.
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I'd love any of those. Thanks for reading!
Just a warning, this is not a romance story, so major pairings are not in here! I also will not update a lot!