Chapter 3: Facing the Obvious

It was exactly 6 o'clock in the morning as a lone, pink- haired figure left the old potion shop just outside of the still sleeping town. The slightly crisp morning breeze caressed his skin as he stopped his tracks, suddenly realizing he had yet to figure out where he was headed.

Sure, someone might wonder what kind of a person would willingly get up at such an ungodly hour only to space out. Well, the dragon slayer had his reasons, first of which would be the fact that he had hardly gotten any sleep the previous night and couldn't bare to keep tossing and turning in his bed when he clearly wasn't about to get any rest.

An icy chill ran down his spine as the chilly wind picked up slightly and he cursed under his breath. This day sure wasn't promising to be any better than the previous one. But as nasty as the feeling of being out in this hour was, he'd gladly accept it if it meant staying out of that old potion maker's way.

Natsu wasn't one to hold a grudge, but he figured seeing that old man wouldn't exactly go smoothly. Not after yesterday's events, at least.

Now that he had successfully escaped an encounter with the potion maker, the question of where to head off to still remained. He could always go to the forest and vent out some pilled up frustration…

And just then, the image of leaving Lucy alone in that hideously tacky room right before some hormonal pig entered flashed before his eyes.

Damn it! He hated being this protective of her. It made him feel guilty, like he was doubting her abilities, even though he knew very well she was perfectly capable of protecting herself.

Truthfully, he had a hard time understanding why he had been worrying about her almost obsessively ever since this mission started. He never had a problem like that before, so why now? And why did he feel the strong urge to take down just about anyone who tried to make a move on her?

He knew very well feeling possessive over her was quite foolish. They were best friends, partners; he considered her one the most precious people in his life, but that didn't give him the right to beat the living daylights out of anyone who would approach her in a lecherous way. It didn't, but he still wanted to do just that.

His mind slowly started leaning towards the only rational, yet incredibly frightening explanation as to why all of this was happening to him….

Could it be that the care he felt for her wasn't as innocent as before?

No way. This fiasco of a mission must have turned his mind into a fried, chaotic mess. So what if he felt his blood pressure rise at the thought of someone touching her? And so what if he just recently started noticing her enticing, feminine curves, or how smooth her legs were…Or how soft and creamy her skin looked?

He shook his head in order to free his mind from those disturbing thoughts. There was no way he'd actually fallen for her… Right?

The dragon slayer let out an irritated sigh. Why the heck was he even thinking about this all of a sudden? All he needed to do was stick to their plan and wait for Lucy to say it was okay to kick the crap out of the creeper who started this chaos.

Finally moving from his spot, he figured he might as well be of some use and headed down the road, hoping to find someone willing to talk about this brothel owner person. The more info he could dig out on his own, the less time Lucy would need to spend at that disgusting place and the lower the chance of some horn dog laying a hand on her…

The fire mage let out a troubled sigh. He was a hopeless case. And this mission really needed to end.

Soon.

Lucy lay on her bed motionless, staring at the ceiling, deeply distracted by her tormenting thoughts.

Since the fateful day she joined Fairy Tail she had survived several ridiculously dangerous missions, a trip to a parallel dimension and an attack by an ancient terrifying dragon, but somehow she felt those experiences were not as bad as she originally thought compared to the events from last night.

Her eyelids closed shut as the nasty headache she'd been dealing with all morning continued to thump behind her ears. The spirit mage found out first hand that sleeping with a knocked out pervert beside your bed was a bigger challenge than she had expected.

After she forced the potion on the unconscious man, she spent the rest of the night trying to force her mind to relax for at least a few hours of much needed sleep. It didn't quite work, however, as she was far too troubled by the fact that she had no idea what would happen when her customer woke up, and the absolute last thing she needed was another confrontation like the one she had before she called out Taurus.

Fortunately for her, the old man Hingaro's potion seemed to have done the trick as when her customer woke up, he simply complimented her with words she'd rather not recall, promising he'd ask for her again and leaving without a doubt about what had actually happened between them.

The stellar mage figured hearing perverts such as him calling her names, as utterly repulsive as it was, was a sacrifice she just had to make in order to achieve the goal of her mission.

However, the obnoxious feeling of shame over yesterday's "meeting", as irrational as it might have been, was still boiling inside her stomach. She let out a long sigh and decided to head downstairs to join her fellow colleagues for breakfast.

She entered the kitchen, carefully looking around, hoping she'd somehow manage to stay out of her female boss's way.

"Mai-chan, over here! " A familiar voice called her attention and she titled her head to its source.

"Hey." She smiled as she saw Yuki among other girls sitting at the round table.

The spirit mage sat among them, feeling a tad uncomfortable as none of the gathered girls would shift their eyes from her.

"Sooo, how was it?" Yuki inquired seemingly excited, as the other girls drew closer, staring at her in anticipation.

"How was what?" She frowned in confusion, grabbing a waffle from the plate.

"You know… your customer…?" Yuki urged her on, lowering her voice. "From last night?"

"Did it hurt?" She heard one of the other girls ask. "Was he at least trying to be gentle?"

"Oh…" Lucy mentally kicked herself for spacing out like that. She needed to do something about her focus, otherwise these girls really will start thinking she's some kind of an idiot. "Hm, yeah, it was fine." She answered nonchalantly, hoping her words were believable enough.

However, Yuki's eyes widened considerably at her statement. "Fine? God, I wish I could say that about my first time…"

"Me too." A blonde girl beside her admitted, letting out a small sigh. "I still remember how that drunken pig jumped on me…"

"Yesterday, Kin wanted to try it against the wall…" Another girl Lucy remembered to be called Rin exclaimed, and the others immediately focused their attention to her. "I thought I was going to break!"

The other girls nodded in understanding, each sighing as another girl started sharing her experience from last night that made the spirit mage feel heat slowly starting to spread to her face. She knew she was probably going to start blushing like an idiot, but she had a damn good reason for it too! She knew she had next to no experience in sex, aside from the few things she'd hear from Cana here and there and all this talk was becoming painfully uncomfortable…

"Well, I guess you can say you're lucky. You're eighteen after all…" Yuki broke her thoughts. "Ayu here lost it when she was thirteen!"

"W-What?" Lucy stuttered in utter bewilderment as she titled her head to the young, quiet girl on the other side of the table. She managed a weak smile before her sullen eyes dropped to the floor.

But before Lucy could properly react to the outrages information, Rin added. "There are a few girls under 13 here, too."

The stellar mage felt her jaw drop at the statement, her eyes widening in disbelief.

"Fumiko says they'll be learing for the next two years before joining the business"

Learning? Joining the business? What the hell is this place? Lucy bit her lip nervously as her eyes motioned over the gathered girls. She desperately wanted to tell them who she was and what she was planning to do. She felt a strong urge to say that their nightmare would be over soon and that she had actually come to free them from this hellhole, not "join the business" as if it were a normal thing to do.

A few brief moments of silence passed before Lucy finally decided to ask. "What about… The owner?"

The girls glanced at each other worriedly, as if they were scared of opening that subject. "No one knows anything about him." Yuki confessed, her voice low, almost a whisper. "None of us have ever seen him, but…" She leaned in closer. "Every woman he's ever had seemed to have disappeared mysteriously."

"Yeah, no one's ever seen any of them the morning after." Rin added quickly. "One time I asked Fumiko-sama what the deal was with those girls, and she said if she ever cought me talking about the boss again, she'd start sending the roughest customers directly to me…"

Lucy frowned, remembering how that evil old wrench threatened her just yesterday, and her admiration for the girls grew onto a whole new level as she realized what they've been dealing with ever since they got trapped in this horrific place.

As the girls returned to their casual chatting, the stellar mage dropped her half-eaten waffle on the plate and buried her head in her hands in desperation. This new bit of information, as disturbing as it was, got her nowhere near solving this mystery. If anything, she was even more confounded then before.

The blonde could only sigh in discouragement.

This mission was far from over.

Natsu rolled his eyes in disbelief as he stood in front of the brothel, reading the outrageous shiny sign above the door. Just when he thought this place couldn't get any tackier… He let out an exhausted sigh as he slowly entered, unsure of what to expect.

"Hi there." He heard a low, raspy voice from the corner and turned to face its source. It was a tall older woman whose intense stare instantly made him cringe in discomfort. However, what captured his interest was the unusual scent coming from inside the room behind the bar. It was so unique, the dragon slayer swore he never smelled anything like it before… "Your first time here, am I right?" The woman broke his thoughts.

"Yeah, it is…" He trailed off thoughtfully as he approached her, his focus still fixated on the strange aura coming from the room behind. It made shivers run down his spine, yet he had such a strong desire to go inside and see the source of this unusual sensation he was feeling.

"Well, might I suggest someone for you?" She stopped his thoughts again, raising her eyebrows in a way that made the fire-mage's skin crawl. It seemed this annoying woman really wasn't going to leave him alone and he suddenly had a real problem on his hands. How was he supposed to ask for Lucy now that she knew it was his first time in the brothel…?

"No, I…" He started, forcing his mind to come up with a suitable response fast. "Well, I've heard that you have a new girl…"

"Oh?" Her eyebrows narrowed in surprise. "Yes, her name is Mai. The newest addition to our little… Family." Natsu frowned darkly at her use of words, but reminded himself to stay calm. He watched her in disgust as she opened some sort of planner and her eyes wandered on the paper before she spoke again, smirking. "It seems this is your lucky night. She's free."

As bizarre as it was to pay for seeing his partner, and as wrong as it felt, Natsu was forced to drop the money the potion maker gave him earlier on the desk as the irritating woman kept giving him all sorts of unneeded information. Once he heard what room Lucy was in, he left wordlessly, focused on finding her as quickly as possible.

Ever since he left her the day before, the blonde mage hardly left his thoughts. He needed to check if she was alright. He needed to see her.

After wandering around the halls for a few minutes, with muffled groans and moans from the nearby rooms distracting him from his task, he finally found himself in front of room 32 as instructed. Reminding himself what happened the last time he came to her unannounced, he decided to knock before slowly opening the door. "Luce?"

The stellar mage, who was sitting on the wide bed seemingly deep in thoughts, immediately responded to the call of her name. "N-Natsu? Hey…"

The fire mage frowned slightly as he gazed upon her troubled expression. She somehow forced a weak smile at him, but he could tell something was deeply bothering her. She looked absolutely exhausted with dark circles under her eyes, though the fire mage knew he wasn't looking much better himself, but that wasn't the cause of her gloomy mood. "Did something happen? You look a little…"

"Uh, what?" She blinked in confusion as she snapped out of her thoughts, causing him to raise his eyebrows. "No no, everything's fine!" She tried to assure him. "Sit!"

He obliged, never dropping his gaze off her. "Are you sure everything's…?"

"Absolutely! Don't worry!" Natsu was quite sure he had never seen a smile as fake as the one she was wearing. Still, the spirit mage kept insisting. "Everything's going according to plan!"

"Glad to hear it." He replied dryly, realizing it'd be futile to press the subject further. He never thought he'd meet someone as stubborn as himself, but the blonde somehow managed to prove him wrong continually.

"I've been snooping around for clues all day and no one seems to know a thing about this guy!" Natsu told her, remembering the bad luck that'd been following him for the past hours. He asked in every pub, bar and restaurant he stumbled upon, but as soon as he mentioned the words "brothel owner", people would either stare at him with widened eyes or distance themselves quietly, unwilling to grant him any kind of response. "Tell me you got something."

Lucy sighed defeatedly. "Not much, except…" She threw him a worried look and cleared her throat nervously. "Well, the girls told me that any women he's ever been with disappeared without a trace."

"What?" Natsu frowned, taken aback by her statement. How was that even possible? "The first thing I noticed here was a weird stench coming from one of the rooms downstairs." He told her and the blonde narrowed her eyebrows confusedly. "Something's definitely not right here, Luce."

The stellar mage could only nod in agreement. She bit her lip anxiously, furrowing her brow, and Natsu could tell she was already deep in thought, trying to solve the riddle that came with the clues they've discovered. The dragon slayer knew strategizing wasn't exactly his specialty, but even he could tell they needed more details if they were to resolve the mystery behind this place. He scowled darkly at the realization of what that actually meant.

Lucy had to stay here longer.

The fire mage needed to know one more thing before he left. Silence lingered as he studied the blonde's troubled expression, debating whether it was wise to open this new subject. "How did it go yesterday?" He queried in a soft voice.

She looked up at him as a solemn expression graced her features. "Oh, it was fine." She answered quietly, managing a weak smile. "Taurus had no problem knocking him out…"

Natsu nodded wordlessly, unsure of what or even if he should say anything to her at all. He knew her well enough to understand that her experience from yesterday was far from "fine". He knew her well enough to notice the pain and sadness her eyes displayed, even though she tried so hard to cover them with her faint, forced smiles. And as much as it pained him to leave her like that, he knew there was no way to make her confess what was going on. "Well I guess I should get going…" He said quietly, getting up.

"W-wait!" She exclaimed urgently. "I mean, you can't just go, you're a customer…" She tried to explain as her cheeks slowly turned pink. "You have to spend the night… Or at least stay a little longer." She added quietly, her gaze dropping in embarrassment.

The fire-mage realized he should have probably thought of that himself, but what grasped his attention almost immediately was the fact that the room had only one bed. The only solution that came to his mind was to share it, though he wouldn't dare to offer that idea to Lucy, seeing how the blonde reacts every time she catches him snoozing in the privacy of her own bedroom….

"We can share the bed, I don't mind…" She exclaimed, smiling shyly, as if she heard his thought process. The stellar mage then turned to grab her night gown and Natsu immediately turned around, giving her privacy to change.

He swallowed hard as he slowly took of his scarf, not entirely sure why the feeling of anxiety was suddenly swooping upon him. He had slept beside Lucy just about a hundred times before, so why was he getting so nervous now? And why was his stomach suddenly captured by this weird, fluttering sensation?

"Natsu?" He heard her voice from behind. "You can turn around now."

He obliged, turning to see her already covered with sheets, and felt his hear rate rise as he slowly approached. As he lowered himself on the bed and pulled the sheets over his body, he swore he saw a light shade of pink on her cheeks and couldn't help but smirk to himself. It seemed he wasn't the only one getting nervous after all.

Beside the obvious shyness she displayed, the fire mage also noticed she was lightly trembling; her tiny nightgown revealed more than it covered, and even though her lower body was covered under sheets, he could tell she wasn't comfortable.

"You're cold, aren't you?" The dragon slayer mumbled out, and her chocolate eyes shifted to him. "Come here, I'll keep you warm." He murmured, the words coming out before he had a chance to think twice about his somewhat bold offer. He was sure her cheeks turned an even darker shade of pink as she shyly placed her head against his broad chest and one of her hands next to her face.

Her tiny, soft body pressed against his side and the dragon slayer knew he'd have a hard time denying just how good it felt. He brought one arm to rest on her back as he inhaled her sweet scent. There was a new, foreign essence to it that must have been part of her brothel "performance", but her original, deliciously tempting scent was still there. He'd know it anywhere.

And while his hand slowly started caressing her side on instinct, the fire-mage let out a long breath as he finally faced the terrifying truth.

Yes, he had fallen for her. The more he thought about it, the clearer and more obvious it became. How in the world did he not fall in love with her sooner? She was weird, yes, but in her own adorable way. She was beautiful, so beautiful Natsu couldn't quite understand how he didn't notice it was a strong, capable and very determined mage, but he still felt the urge to protect her from any harm that could come her way. Most of all, she was a generous, loving and kind hearted friend, one of the best friends he's ever had.

She was the only one he could ever love like this.

And all of their troubles, the mission, these new, confusing feelings… He would shove those thoughts aside for now. The only thing that mattered was the fragile girl in his arms.

The dragon slayer let out a long breath and wondered if sleep had claimed her yet when he heard a few light snores coming from below and smiled.

He buried his lips into her silky hair and whispered. "Sleep tight, Luce." He pulled her closer and heard her let out a soft sigh in response. "You're safe tonight."

To be continued…

A/N: Finally!I can't believe how long it took me to update, but I've been having massive trouble with this chapter! Plus, I've had some minor health issues over the last few days, so I wasn't able to update over the weekend like I planned/promised.

Well, how did you like this one? Do you like it when I write in Natsu's mindset? I gotta admit, I find it a bit more entertaining :P

Thank you soooo much for your amazing reviews! You guys keep me motivated! Like I said before, you can connect with me on tumblr (kleiocat is my user), so if you have any questions or if you're simply curious about sneak peeks/next chapter progress, I'll see you there!

Take care everyone!

xo