Chasing a Lion
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Have fun reading this chapter XD
Chapter Two:
Natsu had known something was different, when he woke up that fateful day. Surprisingly he even showered, even though the washing day was still a few days away. He even went to the guild earlier than usual, his partner Happy still asleep. When he arrived at the guild hall, he had actually ignored the ice princess in favour of sitting down on of the bar stools in the far corner, away from his rumbustious family. He was aware that he had been acting weird thorough the whole day. Even his appetite had been close to normal. For some reason he left the fatty parts untouched. Instead of throwing them away, he had asked Mira to store them away for later. After his request Mira started to look at him, like he had grown a second head. Just like the ice cream mage. And all the other early birds of Fairy Tail.
Ignoring the even weirder behaviour of his guild mates, he looked at the mission request board, but ended up without choosing one. While the unknown urge to earn money was there, an unknown force overwhelmed him and made him stay. He couldn´t explain why he felt so weird. Or why he felt like he was preparing for something. Which was actually a hilarious thought, since he never prepared anything for something. Natsu even considered to go to Makarov and ask for help. He was freaking himself out.
The rest of the morning was spent with various musings about things he never thought of before. By midday, the dragon fire mage contemplated whether to buy a larger hammock or to clean his house a little bit.
Not noticing that he had actually spoke his thoughts out loud, he actually flipped every alarm switch in the ice mage, who had been ordering something to drink at the bar and therefore been close enough to hear.
"Dude, the fuck is wrong. Your house is a fucking dumpster. Like it would matter, if you clean or not."
That was the fire Natsu actually needed to get back to his track. Unknowingly Gray had just insulted the fire mages hoard. One may argue about the value of the hoard, but to Natsu it was important nonetheless. Before Gray could utter another sentence, Natsus fists lit up and headed towards the bare torso of the ice mage. Gray barely managed to dodge, but noticed that the force behind the blow was heavier then usual. Was that guy out to kill him or something? When another fist came crushing towards him, he knew he would have to go further than usual. There was no way that he would let himself getting overpowered by the flame brain.
Not caring where his powerful flames actually hit, Natsu continued to throw some punches that had it in them. The rampaging fire mage lured other powerful mages to join the fight between those two. Erza was surprisingly the first one, who joined in, closely followed by a smirking Gajeel and very motivated Elfman. "Bar fights are manly!", the Strauss brother had screamed before throwing his huge fists at anyone who dared to challenge him. The iron dragon slayer used the momentary distraction the bulky man caused to sneak behind the male members of team Shadow gear to flip over their table. Outraged cries were heard throughout guild hall and a seconds later, Jet and Droy joined in as well, unaware that Gajeel had already been hunting the next prey.
Meanwhile Gray had shed the remaining clothes, infuriating an already furious Erza even more, who summoned a lance upon seeing the naked body of the ice mage.
"Inappropriate behaviour!", she huffed and hurled the sharp metal at the unsuspecting Gray, who was still fighting off the flames that somehow always found their way to him.
Maybe he should have stayed home today.
Busy with the fighting none of them noticed, when the door opened. No one noticed the blonde haired girl enter the guild hall, except for their beloved bartender. Not even one dragon slayer recognized the unknown scent. Under other circumstances they would be watching any unknown person passing the gates of Fairy Tail like a hawk. This time their brawl took away all of their attention. It was actually heavier than the usual skirmishes they had. So when Gray hit the salmon haired mage with a weaker version of the Ice Make: Ice cannon, Natsu had not expected to land in front of a blonde unknown girl, that could apparently sent his instincts to overdrive and make him spill the most ridiculous things. So after demanding a possible but still over the top amount of kids, even though he originally just wanted to tell her his name, he just wanted to crawl in the next hole or travel through time. After correcting the numbers of kids he wanted to have with her, he was finally able to introduce himself, but got no name in return. It kind of disheartened him, but he quickly snapped out of it. His eyes never left her, even if she did her best to avoid his gaze, when she and Mira actually had the nerve to create a distance between them, he was tempted to head over to them and actually attempt a real talk with the blonde. He couldn´t figure out why he was so taken with her. A girl he didn´t even know the name of. It couldn´t have been her smell, because he wasn´t particular fond of strawberries, though he had to admit that he considered to change his opinion on the fruit. A feeling in his gut told him, he would be smelling it more often from now on. He trusted his gut feelings. They had yet to disappoint him.
He barely registered the half naked man standing next to him. Apparently Gray had found his boxers and actually wore them, but it would be only a matter of time before they would be dropped on the floor. The ice mage was already tugging on his waistband.
"Have you finally reached puberty, fire snot?", Gray taunted the dragon raised boy, but barely got any reaction out of him, his mind being completely occupied by the girl, sitting down on the stool where he had been sitting before the brawl had broken out. This had to be fate!
"He liiiiiiiiiikes her."
He would not deny it. Natsu hadn´t even notice Happy coming to the guild, so he was quite startled, when Happy hovered next to Gray with an evil smile, hidden behind his tiny blue paw. Forgetting his partner in crime, such a thing had never happen before. The exceed could take care of himself, but it still irked his protective instincts. Happy was nest after all.
While Happy and Gray still made fun of him, his thoughts however drifted back to the blonde, his focus becoming so intense that he actually forgot the blood dripping down his forehead. Sadly enough, he noticed, she didn´t even spare a glance in his direction. He wanted her to see him. Him and not the creep, he had been seconds before. He had to admit, he had outdone himself for once, never before had he acted this strange before and this was coming from someone who was strange on a daily basis. Maybe he should consider a visit to Porlyusica. Watching her lounging at the bar, being her natural self, made him hungry. He couldn´t tell, why but it felt different. It was not the kind of hunger he felt, when his magic resources were depleted nor the hunger he usually felt most of the time.
Damn, what was wrong with him?
"Natsu?" Happy sounded worried. Only now did he notice that his best friend had sat down on his unruly salmon locks and pushed his paws against his scalp, as if he wanted to give a massage to Natsu. "Are you sick?"
"N-no, I´m fine, I think...", Natsu replied still unfocused. The noise of stool hitting the floor, broke him finally out of the daze.
The blonde vixen muttered something under her breath, he could hear her heartbeat quicken and her eyes were wide open in shock. What could have made her react like that? His gaze followed the direction she was looking and suddenly it slammed in his gut like a train.
He took in the air sharply.
Loke, along with a girl in each arm, was causally sitting on the other side of the guild hall, throwing perverted jokes left and right and seemed to have the time of his life.
Dots connected within Natsus brain and apparently it also happened with the blonde, whose name he still did not know. Maybe she was his ex-girlfriend?
"Take responsibility, you fucker!", she screamed and ran towards the unsuspecting male. She looked furious. Anger blazed in her brown eyes. When she reached the table, where the playboy was, still unaware of the situation, despite the fact that every other member of Fairy Tail had directed their attention towards the raging blonde, he first smirked at her in usual fashion, before the realization that he actually knew her dawned upon him. Faster than anyone had ever seen the ring mage move, he pushed himself from the bench, just in time to avoid a powerful punch, enough to slightly splinter the wood. The girls, who had been entertained by Loke, only seconds before slide to the sides of the bench, like they were already used to attacks like that.
Loke, who was lying on his back, as he basically somersaulted backwards to save his sexy ass, raised his hands in appeasement, hoping to calm the blonde down. She would have none of it. Instead she raised her fist and plunged down towards his chest. None of those present, expected what would happen next. The fist did not stop at the first instance of resistance. It dove right into the ribcage, where the heart lied. They expected a bloody fist to resurface, along with the cracking noise of the broken bones, but no drop of blood was shed. Loke was equally as stunned as the rest of them. Natsu stood frozen and stared at the weird situation in front of him.
Strands of her blonde hair fell out of place and covered her face, but Natsu had seen her smile in the split second. It was mesmerising.
"Lucy!", the shocked outcry of Mira, broke the rest of them out of their reverie. Erza dashed ahead, a shimmer in her hand forming into a sword. Without thinking for a second, Natsu followed.
The red haired mage crouched low and swung her blade at Lucy. He finally knew her name, but for now he would be happy about it only in his mind.
Lucy noticed the attack almost too late and barely dodged. Her cheek got nicked by the sharp blade and blood flowed for real now. Erza adjusted her grip on the sword slightly, before starting another blow, only for it to get blocked by flaming fists.
"What are you doing, Natsu?", Titania growled. She could probably make the mighty fire dragon Igneel cower in fear, though Natsu would rather die than admit that out loud.
"Uhm, well...", he could not come up with an answer that would spare him getting pummelled to death by Erza.
When he felt Lucy shift behind him, he leaned more to the righten side to cover her with his body, though he failed gloriously. She simply shoved him aside.
"I have not hurt him.", she explained, showing her hands as an evident. No red spot stained her hands. Only a golden ring on her ring finger and a golden key with some weird ornaments attached to it were there.
Erza narrowed her eyes. She refused to believe some stranger, who thought it would be a good idea to attack one of her family. Even if he was a no good skirt-chaser.
"Look at him", she urged the red haired women.
Erza hesitated, but looked at the victim of Lucys attack, despite her inner self proceeded to to tell her, that she should take out the possible threat first.
The two unknown girls squatted down next to the still immobile Loke, who stared at his chest with an unidentifiable emotion. It did not quite look like shock, more something between resistance and resignation.
"I guess, I got caught.", he muttered, still looking at his chest, where an arm had been shoved through minutes before.
Uncertainty flashed over Erzas features, but quickly hid them, before anyone could have noticed it.
"I only did my job, okay?" , Lucys hands were still raised in surrender.
Natsu, who had been pushed to the side lines, was pushed out of the way once more and tiny man made his way to the two women, who had entered a staring contest.
"Erza, drop it.", he demanded and pushed her raised sword with his wooden staff away. "She is a Wähler. She is only doing what she promised to do."
"A what now?", Natsu whispered. This was all going way over his head. Makarov still heard him. " A Wähler, someone who collects celestial keys."
"Among other things.", Loke added, as he tried to sit upright. A groan left his lips and his body felt stiff and alien. All attention was now directed at him.
"Leo the Lion, I have searched for you for three years. For three years, you´ve been neglecting your responsibilities.", Lucy stated. Her anger came of in waves. It was so potent, that Natsu could smell it.
"I-I just don´t want something like that to happen again", Loke explained and ran his hand over his face. "I just wanted freedom for a small while. I mean, you haven´t found someone yet, right?"
Lucy flinched. Whatever that mean, it made her firm posture waver for a second.
"As long as there is no one, who is worthy enough, can´t you allow me to stay with Fairy Tail? I am here on my own magic"
Loke sounded desperate as he begged the blonde to show mercy and grant his wish.
Lucy knew that Leo would never ask for that, without actually meaning it. Technically she could do that, since she had his key, but would his safety be assured in a rowdy guild like this? She knew that Fairy Tail did everything for their members, but did it still hold true even if Leo was not even human and had lied about it?
"Why don´t you join Fairy Tail?", someone behind her screamed. When she turned around, she saw the weird salmon haired guy grinning at her, as if he had presented the best idea ever. "That way, he could stay and you´re close enough to watch him."
"Not possible. I have to look for other keys and-"
"We will help ya!", he interrupted her refusal.
She shook her head at his brash nature, her brows furrowing.
"That wouldn´t be the only reason, why I can´t join Fairy Tail.", her voice was shaky, losing the confidence with every word that left her rosy lips.
A hand ghosted over her cheek, so careful, as if the owner was actually afraid of hurting her and mere thought of breathing was enough to shatter her.
"Why?", the husky voice that belonged to the fire dragon slayer mage resounded through her body, making every cell of her body hum along.
A shaky intake of air, that was reminiscence of someone who was about to cry. She looked up and stared in his onyx eyes.
"I can´t use magic."
