Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from the Fairy tail franchise, all rights to the series belongs to their creators...I sort of own Nashi, though or this version of her.

True love shines

Natsu continued to struggle all the way to the job site.

The pink-haired dragon slayer squirmed and pleaded Gajeel to let him go so he could go back to his pregnant wife and be there with her encase she needed him. He didn't want to be separated from the woman he loved so much and he really didn't want Lucy to get hurt while he wasn't there to help her.

At this point he was near the point of tears as he continued to squirm and beg shamelessly.

"Gajeel! Cut it out! I gotta get back to Lucy, she could have the baby at any minute! Please! LET ME GOOOO!"

Gajeel didn't care for Natsu's pathetic begging.

One had to wonder, though, why was he doing this and not Gray? The simple reason was that Gray was going to stay back with Lucy just encase something did happen, and this was a Dragon slayer trait and nobody other than a fellow Dragon slayer was going to try and crumble that pathetic overprotective behaviour. What Natsu didn't know was that the jerk who was basically holding him against his will had grabbed a job request on their way out of the guild. Gajeel knew that it wasn't really his place or his business but he did care for the pink twerp, even if he'd rather die then admit it, and he was determined to try and get Natsu to slowly cut down on the overprotectiveness with Lucy to give her a chance to breathe...and there was one more reason.

Gajeel grinned internally.

"Sorry, Salamander, but I need some payback for what you did at the Grand magic games a few years back."

Natsu stopped squirming for a sec and thought was probably referring to when the two were about to face off against twin dragons Rogue and Sting and he shoved Gajeel into a cart to send him away so he could take on the two by himself. He knew that Gajeel could hold a grudge but he should have known that there was a grudge this deep.

Try as he might, and he did try, Natsu couldn't escape the strong grip the Iron dragon slayer had on his shoulder as he was dragged off somewhere —somewhere where he didn't recognise too well. Minutes passed as they silently walked on and on through what seemed like endless forest and foliage.

Natsu finally ceased struggling completely and started to take in his surroundings. He looked around carefully, onyx eyes surveying the woodland that both Dragon slayers found themselves at. Gajeel still kept a very tight grip on Natsu but loosened it ever-so-slightly so he could get a look at where they were too.

This area seemed quite unique, to say the least.

There were hedges that seemed like very heavy walls surrounding them as well as large trees that appeared thickly grown together so their thick trunks could also act as some sort of way to trap anyone whom were unfortunate to find themselves around them.

Upon looking around, the Fire and Iron Dragon slayers noticed that they seemed boxed in.

Gajeel stopped and had a peek at that request paper he ripped from the board before they left.

"Hmmm...this is weird..."

"What's weird, iron jerk?!" Natsu snapped.

Gajeel ignored that little insult and looked away from the paper and skyward with utmost caution. He looked as though someone was about to ambush them at any time and it certainly created an utmost uneasy and eerie atmosphere. The trees towered over the both of them as Gajeel scanned the words of the request carefully and answered the pink-haired dragon slayer's angered inquiry without even looking back at him.

"It says here that there's something weird in this forest. The request says somethin' about us needing to gather this special flower for someone to make a special brew or rather..."

Natsu couldn't help but turn to look at Gajeel and then he stared dumbly at him despite being in a chokehold. Did Gajeel honestly not read the whole thing about this strange Guild request? To be honest he didn't find this all that shocking and he had to admit that he made the same error himself when he was younger...but Gajeel was seriously a lot older now! Maybe about in his mid 20's...he should be more responsible then that!

Natsu yelled as he somehow mustered enough strength to move his arm and snatch the paper right out of Gajeel's hands and he started reading it himself.

"Give me that!"

When the paper was in his hands he scanned the paper himself, reading each and every word carefully, but his eyes widened whence he started to notice something very off with it. He could feel his heart thump in response to the realisation when he noticed that the request was very strange and, when he put his nose a bit closer to the paper, he sniffed it closely. He deeply inhaled the light scent of oak and the heavy scent of something else...he sniffed again, he smelled roses. According to the request, this pharmacist-herbalist expert living in Fiore was looking for a special and rare flower that was located in a special location in Magnolia.

A special magical maze.

Natsu's heart dropped into his stomach.

They now seemed to be lost in a magical maze...

Natsu started to grumble in a low tone that almost made an electrifying chill trickle up the Iron wizard's spine. "G-Gajeel...tell me that this isn't real...please tell me that you're pulling my leg, tell me that we're not trapped in a maze..."

Gajeel took note of the dark undertone in the pinkette's voice, he knew that any normal person who were unfortunate to be spoken to with that tone would have instantly been intimidated by the wizard. He wasn't really intimidated but he would have been lying if he said that that tone didn't make him break into a small sweat as he bit his lower lip with his fangs.

He shook his head and looked to Natsu whom he still had in a chokehold.

"Now see here, we're not trapped!"

Natsu growled angrily as he finally broke free of Gajeel's hold and knocked him back with a fiery punch to the face. "FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!"

Gajeel stumbled backwards, clutching his jaw where he was hit, and he shook his head to rid himself of any disorientation that he felt. His long spiky black hair swayed with the movement. He hadn't seen that coming but he wasn't entirely shocked that Natsu was enraged because now they were in trouble and as he steadied himself, Natsu stomped towards him with pure rage and fury on his face and his fist was still on fire.

The pink-haired Fairy tail wizard's eyes were flashing jade green and dark red scales were starting to cover his face and his arms.

"You kidnapped me and literally dragged me with you to go on a mission and Lucy is back at the guild, probably about to give birth to my baby, and now we are STUCK IN A STUPID MAZE! FACE IT, GAJEEL, WE ARE TRAPPED!"

Gajeel looked into Natsu's eyes and noticed that they seemed to be practically overflowing with anger and if the term "looks could kill" were true then he'd probably be a burning pile of ashes right about now. Yet he wasn't frightened...or at least not extremely frightened. However there was something that he had noticed and he lifted his head and started to sniff the air and try and hear passed Salamander's screeching.

He found something else a little strange.

Gajeel could smell...something bad, it made his stomach turn. He didn't know what it was exactly but he did hazard a guess and it was a guess that he hoped that he was wrong about.

Natsu started to stomp over to Gajeel as he raged on and demanded whilst shoving his face directly in Gajeel's and he was so close that he was actually inches away from letting the tip of his nose touch the edgy Iron dragon slayer's, he ignored Natsu's rage for several long moments until his eyes widened in actual fear. "WHY ARE YOU IGNORING M-uuumph!?"

Before Natsu could finish his sentence, Gajeel proceeded to slap his hand over his mouth.

Natsu was stunned into silence. Why had Gajeel silenced him like that?

The answer to his silent question was "Just get a good whiff of the air, you idiot! Don't ya smell it?"

Natsu was confused until he started to sniff the air like he was asked and he found himself being overcome with this sense of dread. He recognised that smell but it had been awhile since he'd come across it. A worried frown crossed his face as he glanced skyward and noticed that the tall trees that were towering over the two of them looked as though they were rattling violently —as though something had been hiding in them.

The realisation hit the two Dragon slayers like a ton of bricks falling on top of them.

"Oh no..." Gajeel started.

"...Vulcans." Natsu finished.

Within seconds, five large Vulcans surrounded the two.

The ape-like monsters scowled angrily at the pair of Dragon slayers. They didn't look very happy that they were there and with pretty good reason; the two had seemed to stumble upon their territory and Vulcans were very aggressive when people stumble on their territory. Natsu held his hands up and tried the calm approach despite his already-simmering temper, he didn't like the idea of fighting lots and lots of Vulcans at once alongside Gajeel and he didn't want to risk any casualties in spite of his heightened anger and he didn't want to end up doing something rash.

Gajeel, in the meantime, had to ask himself how Natsu could try and be calm despite giving him a fiery punch to the face a minute ago.

"C'mon, guys, can't we be rational about this?"

The Vulcans growled deeply as they showed signs of charging and they looked at both Natsu and Gajeel as though they were large punching bags. This forced both Natsu and Gajeel to stand back-to-back with their fists clenched and their eyes focused on their large opponents. They didn't want to take on these many enemies since they were large and angry but they were beginning to run out of options.

One vulcan, the biggest, flexed it's huge muscled arm as it pointed a large accusing finger at the two Fairy tail wizards. "Fanged-humans invade our home! Fight!"

Gajeel heaved a deep breath of frustration. He wanted nothing more than to throw a huge chunk of iron at these overgrown primates but knew that there were probably too many of them. He looked back at Natsu whom glared right back at the leader with both patience and rising cross ness. He was clearly trying to explain the situation calmly. "We're just passing through. We came in here to grab a flower and then we'll be out of your way."

That made the leader vulcan extremely infuriated as it jumped up and down and proceeded to drum its massive fists down against the earth. Each time the massive hands came into contact with the ground, it shook violently as though a miniature earthquake was rumbling beneath the Fire and Iron wizards feet and they almost lost their balance because of this.

With each punch to the ground, the vulcans would chant, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Natsu closed his eyes and drew a deep breath, it was almost like a disappointed sigh.

He didn't have time for this.

The pink-haired man straightened his stance against the crumbling ground and he looked up at the main vulcan. He stood strong as he let his own two fists ignite and burst into flames as he stared down his opponent with the most determined of looks etching upon his face. His scarf fluttered in the wind as it blew around his neck.

"I'm gonna try and make this quick because I need to get back to my wife!"

Gajeel stood with his back firmly pressed against Natsu's and watched him with awe and surprise. Did this guy have a brain!? Of course Natsu had beaten impossible odds before and had stomped on enemies much tougher than this but that had been a few years ago and Natsu hadn't been on many hard missions lately since he had been busy taking easier missions to provide for both his guild and his blooming family. Could Natsu put some jewel where his mouth was and clobber these guys?

But, before either Gajeel nor Natsu could even move, they heard some distant voices call out.

"Natsu! Natsu, come quick!" Happy cried out, panicked.

Natsu glanced back and saw that Pantherlilly and Happy both looked frantic.

Of course they were both relieved to see the two Exceeds had found them in the maze but Natsu wasn't thinking about that at all. He was more concerned to see the absolute frantic expression in Happy's face and he was wondering why he was looking so panicked and out of sorts.

He cocked his head to one side.

"Happy? Lilly? What's the matter?"

"I-It's Lucy! Sh-sh-she's...she's...SHES HAVING THE BABY!"

"WHAT!?"

A/N: Oooooh, cliff-hanger!

I know it would have made more sense if it were Natsu and Gray trapped in a maze together but I thought it would be just as funny if it were Gajeel and Natsu because reasons. Anyways, it seems that Natsu and Gajeel are trapped in a maze and have been ambushed by vulcans and now Lucy has gone into labour.

Can they get out of trouble and get out of the maze in time?

Find out in the next chapter!

-Chloemcg