Wanted to say a quick thank you to Rinkika, star, and xLyneex for reviewing and supporting my fan fiction!

Also a special thanks to FruhlingDragon for catching a hidden joke from the third chapter. If you want to know what it was, guess you will just have to read their review or find it yourself :)

Disclaimer: Same as the last three chapters

Now, on to the fourth chapter! Enjoy!

Natsu's POV:

"Natsu, you're growling again." Happy said quietly, most likely a little worried about his friend.

Natsu just crossed his arms and sighed. They had been walking for over an hour just to find their way out of the city, almost making it to the edge of the forest where these robbers were allegedly hiding out. During the entire time Natsu had to deal with Lucy and Cole flirting in front of him, holding hands and talking about how great their date was last night. Apparently he wasn't too good at hiding his annoyance, because that was the eighth time Happy had caught him growling and warned him before Lucy could notice. He had smirked in pleasure when Happy had told him about how one of Lucy Spirits had burned Cole's hand. At least someone else shared in his suspicions, and he would gladly high five that Spirit… Unless it was Aquarius. Natsu didn't fear many things, but that women scared him more than anything.

Lucy turned to look and him and he instantly plastered on a fake smile. No matter how annoyed he was, he could never take his anger out on Lucy because she was his best friend.

"Natsu, hurry up, you're falling behind!" She called with an amused smile, "Usually it's me trying my best to keep up to you!"

Natsu shrugged, "Just enjoying the scenery!" He lied.

Lucy gave him a slightly confused look before turning back. His smile automatically fell from his face. He saw Cole look down at her with what seemed to be a soft kind of expression, but there was something else in his eyes, something that was there and gone so fast that Natsu didn't have time to see exactly what it was. Happy nudged him again, and Natsu wanted to punch something.

"Are you mad because Cole is dating Lucy?" Happy asked suddenly.

Natsu frowned. Sure he wasn't really happy about the whole situation. Lucy knew that he didn't trust this guy, and yet she had agreed to go out with him. He recalled the conversation he had overheard back at the guild. He was careful not to look at the gossiping girls so that they wouldn't know he was eavesdropping, but he couldn't help it. They were talking about Lucy and Cole so he automatically used his sharper hearing to listen in. He was doing well up to the point where Mirajane had demanded if he had kissed her or not, then his head snapped up and his eyes bore into Lucy's back, listening intently for the answer. Now that he thought about it, she didn't actually answer the question. Natsu stared at Lucy now, trying to figure it out for himself. Even if Lucy had gone on a date with that guy, he found it hard to believe that she would kiss him right off the bat like that. He knew her better than anyone, and he also knew that she had never had a boyfriend before, so Lucy would probably be too shy to kiss him so early. He felt a sense of relief, and then confusion washed over him. What was the real reason he was happy that Lucy hadn't kissed him, or hopefully hadn't? Sure it was because he didn't like Cole, but was there another reason?

Natsu was so lost in thought that he didn't notice that they had arrived at the forest, and he bumped right into Lucy's back. She gave him an annoyed look and he gave her a sheepish grin.

"Sorry about that, I was just lost in thought." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him and he silently cursed himself. Natsu wasn't a complete idiot, but he knew that he wasn't the one to really think too hard about anything, especially while on a job.

"Anyway… This is the entrance to the forest where the robbers are said to be hiding. How do you think we should handle this?" Lucy asked.

Natsu opened his mouth to reply, but Cole beat him to it.

"From what the request said there should only be four or five of them, easy enough for any one of us to take down alone. So we should split up and look for them, it will be way faster that way. When one of us finds them we should just send up a flare of magic power when they are taken care of, just to tell the rest of us where you are and that the job is complete." Cole said, his voice all business.

Natsu glared daggers at him. "That's a bad idea. We don't know what kind of magic that these people could have. We shouldn't risk having to fight them alone, especially if one of us will have a disadvantage to them." He retorted.

Lucy turned on him and crossed her arms. "Are you implying that I wouldn't be able to handle them on my own?" She demanded.

Natsu's jaw dropped. "Wait, that's not what-"

"Just because I'm not some ability-type wizard or I'm the weakest on our team doesn't mean that I can't take care of myself!" She snapped. "I'll go North, Cole you go East and Natsu you go West. We are going with Cole's plan because it's the best one we have. If there is no signal within two hours we will all regroup back here." With a last furious glare at Natsu she stormed off into the forest, her figure quickly becoming obscured by the trees and foliage.

Cole seemed to smirk at him before also taking off into the forest, going his respected way.

"Lucy didn't even count me!" Happy pouted.

Natsu was frozen in place, his mouth hanging open while staring after her in shock. What the hell had just happened? He had just mentioned that it could be dangerous to go alone, and for some reason Lucy had acted if he had personally offended her. What was wrong with women, always over-reacting to everything! Still, even though he had absolutely no idea what he had done, he still felt bad. If Lucy was mad at him, that means he must have said something insulting to her.

"Happy, what did I say wrong?" He asked, looking at his flying blue friend desperately.

Happy stared at him for a moment, and then just shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder how you have survived this long, Natsu." He said just loud enough for the dragon slayer to hear.

Natsu crossed his arms with a victorious smile. "Because I'm the strongest dragon slayer in Fiore!" He said triumphantly.

Happy just shook his head again in exasperation and flew off into the forest, leaving Natsu to follow him, muttering about how true his statement was. They had been searching for a long time, and to Natsu's annoyance they had found absolutely nothing. Happy, who had been flying in lazy circles above his head, plopped down on his shoulder and sighed.

"Natsu, can't you sniff them out or something?" He whined.

Natsu looked at him from the corner of his eye. "You're always boasting about your amazing sense of smell, why don't you do it?"

"Because I'm too hungry to smell anything!" He muttered.

Natsu shook his head. "Are you kidding, you just ate four fish! And that doesn't even make sense." He tacked on under his breath. "I honestly can't make out any scents. There are so many strange plants and flowers in this forest that I can't even lock on to Lucy's or Cole's scents. It's weird…"

After a little longer of searching, Natsu finally threw his hands in the air, flames starting to dance across his palms. "Maybe if I just set the forest on fire it will smoke them out!" He said with a grin.

Happy rolled his eyes. "I don't even think I should have to explain why that's a bad idea. Hasn't it been two hours already? We haven't seen anyone's magic signal so maybe we should go back to the meeting place."

Natsu hesitated. "But if they haven't found them either, that means that they are still hiding in this forest somewhere. If Lucy decided to go back to the meeting place this could be the perfect opportunity to find them before she does. I don't want her to get hurt." He murmured.

Happy smiled winningly at him, "You llllllike her." He trilled.

Natsu went to tell him off, but he didn't find the words. There it was again, that weird feeling in his chest that he got every time he thought about Lucy. What was wrong with him? Maybe he was getting sick? No, he had never been sick a day in his life, so that can't be it. Than what was the reason?

"Hey Happy, what does-"

A pained shriek pierced through the quiet forest, successfully shutting him up. His eyes widened in shock and alarm, instantly recognizing the voice as Lucy's.

"Lucy's in trouble, Happy let's go!" He yelled, taking off sprinting.

"Aye, sir!" Happy agreed in determination, using his wings to fling him forward and grab on to Natsu's shirt, flying them at max speed in the direction of Lucy's scream.

Hang on, Luce, I'm coming for you.

Levi's POV:

Levi was laughing with Jet and Droy as they watched Panther-Lily and Gajeel argue about whether Kiwi's tasted good or not. Lily was going all out with his defense of the deliciousness of his favorite food, but Levi could tell that Gajeel was only arguing it because he was teasing the powerful Exceed. She could tell because he wasn't really fighting too much, and he had an amused look in his eyes the entire time. Her attention was distracted when she noticed the guild doors open, revealing Gray and Erza walking in while they were having what seemed to be a heated discussing about what job they should take next.

Levi waved at them kindly. "Hey, guys! What's up?" She asked.

Erza walked up with Gray in tow, who was looking slightly annoyed. Most likely because he had just lost the argument about the future job. Why did he even bother, it was always obvious that Erza was going to win.

"Hello, Levi. Have you seen Natsu and Lucy yet today? We have a job for us that pay's very well. Lucy's rent is coming up and I had a feeling that she would be panicking about it by now." Erza said, smiling at her own observation of her friend, albeit a true one.

"Oh, didn't you know? Cole was looking for a job to take Lu-chan on. I'm pretty sure that they had left already. I don't know where Natsu is though." She answered.

Cana walked up and slid in beside her on the bench, pushing Droy out of the way so she could get closer to them. "Didn't you know? Natsu took Lucy on a job and she asked Cole to tag along. Apparently it's a pretty routine one; catch some robbers hidden out in the forest." She informed them, waving her hand apologetically at Droy who took the seat beside her, muttering about rude drunk women in the guild.

Levi looked at Cana in surprise. "Robbers in the woods? That's the job that Cole wanted to take Lucy on. You're saying that Natsu was the one who accepted it?"

Cana nodded, downing the rest of her drink and Jet wrinkled his nose at the foul smell of alcohol. Cana noticed his disgust and grinned evilly. "Why don't you get a few drinks in ya, stop being so prudish!" She teased.

Jet huffed, looking slightly embarrassed. "I've gotten drunk before, but it doesn't really fit me that well." He said hotly, his cheeks slightly pink.

Droy laughed. "Ya, the last time he got drunk he started running around the guild at top speed and ended up running face first into a wall and breaking his nose. He's just lucky Wendy was there to heal him."

Jet glared at Cana and Droy as they laughed loudly at him, but Levi was ignoring them. Instead she got up and went over to Mirajane, followed by a confused Erza and Gray.

"Mira-chan, why did Natsu take the job that Cole had taken before him?" Levi asked the S-class wizard.

Mirajane looked at her in confusion. "Cole never took that job. You're right that he was going to, but then he noticed Natsu also looking at it so he ended up not taking it. I think he's just trying his best to get on Natsu's good side." She said with a hopeful smile.

Levi frowned, her mind going to work. "So either way, Lu-chan was going to go on that job." She said, mostly to herself.

Gray crossed his arms, eyebrows pulled in. "What are you saying Levi?"

Levi started pacing back in forth, her mind going crazy with the paranoid thoughts she was having, but the feeling in her gut told her that it wasn't paranoia. "Did anyone notice how quickly Cole seemed to take to her? I mean sure, Lu-chan is a very attractive girl, but it was literally the moment she walked through the door that day. He had been by her side every moment after that, constantly walking with her and flirting with her, almost as if he was doing everything he could to get close to her."

"You're starting to sound like Natsu." Mira said in amusement.

Levi suddenly stopped, a cold feeling spreading through her veins. "What if Natsu was right? Remember, he said that Cole smelled funny, that he smelled dark."

"But that's only because he is a Shadow mage." Erza pointed out.

Levi shook her head. "No, that's not it. Gajeel never mentioned him smelling dark when I asked if he felt the same way. If that was the case, Natsu would have said the same thing about Rogue from Sabertooth, but he didn't."

Gray looked at her in concern. "Levi, I think you're reaching for something that isn't there." He said softly.

Levi turned on him. "I think I'm right about this. Natsu has been telling the truth the entire time. Why would Cole give up a job with Lucy so easily? I doubt it's to get on Natsu's good side, he actually doesn't seem to like Natsu at all."

"But he wouldn't have known that Lucy would go with Natsu on this, and he couldn't have known that Lucy would ask to go with him." Erza said, looking as if she was questioning her sanity.

Levi bit her lip at this. They had a point; maybe she was just making stuff up because she was worried about Lu-chan. She went to say so when Master Makarov appeared at the stairs, walking towards them while holding an envelope and a grim look on his face.

"Master, is there something wrong?" Mirajane asked worriedly.

Makarov had his eyes closed for a moment before fixing them with an intense look. "I just received a letter from Sting, the new Master of Sabertooth who sent one to every guild. If what he says is true, then there could be major trouble. Where are Lucy and Cole?" He asked in an uncharacteristically serious voice.

"They took a job with Natsu and Happy, they left about an hour ago. Why?" Levi asked, her heart starting to beat fast in panic.

"If that's the case, then Lucy is in serious danger."