His restless body tossed and turned on the floor of Lucy Heartfilia's apartment that night. As if his body knew that the next day, his life would be changed completely. Natsu had mindlessly let the guilt settle into his stomach, heightening his nerves. How could he have let someone get away from him so easily with Happy's life at stake? His fists tightened as his anger fused within him. He couldn't help but let his mind stray into the worst of thoughts regarding Happy's condition. The masked man had to pay whether it be with an ass whooping or with his life. That depended on Happy's condition.
Before Natsu could fall asleep, morning rose, chasing away the night sky and Lucy was beginning to wake up. She lifter herself out of her flat position and stretched her arms, her eyes immediately leading her to Natsu. She fixed her lips to ask if he was alright, but by the way the veins in his forehead protruded and how tightly clenched his fists were, it didn't take any verbal answer from Natsu for her to figure out how angry he was. She could honestly admit that she was afraid.
Without either of them so much as breathing a word, they both knew that time it was and they both knew what they had to do.
Upon arrival to the Fairy Tail threshold, the two mages were greeted by an ecstatic Levy, who carried tightly in her arms a black satchel. She held a worried look in her eyes as she approached the two. She stuck her hands out, gesturing for Lucy to take the leather satchel away from her. "Gajeel wanted me to give this to you before he left. He told me you might need it before you guys go off to find Happy later on today." Lucy thanked her before turning to face a spaced off Natsu, his eyes averting anyone else's inside the guild. Lucy thanked her, but kept her gaze on Natsu. Her heart sank at the sight of his current state. Not once before had she seen him so lost.
Just like the past two days, it felt as if it had taken forever for night to fall. With no sign of Gajeel, the two of them walked impatiently to the entrance of the wood. A fire building inside of Natsu that he couldn't wait to release on the boy in the mask. Natsu gladly took the liberty to break out into a sprint with Lucy hot on his tail.
The minutes it took them to find the designated area felt like unending hours. But their search had come to an abrupt close when the familiar mask stood in the midst of the cool night, a perfectly healthy Happy standing by his side. The little blue cat ran with open arms before leaping in the air and sprouting it's angelic wings and leaping into Natsu's warm embrace. "Oh, I missed you so much, Natsu!" Happy nearly cried as he was slung around in Natsu's embrace. Even Lucy's warm smile surfaced as she watched them reunite.
Remembering why he'd lost his best friend in the first place, Natsu fixed an angry gaze on the masked boy that stood in front of him. Releasing Happy, Natsu took a fist to his own hand, setting it ablaze. "You've got a lotta nerve taking happy like that, you creep. I hope you're ready for a fiery world of hurt!" Just like Erza, with a glow of light, the masked villain was able to produce a sword. A two-toned black and silver blade with bandages wrapped around the handle of the sword and cascading down in a spiral. "If you thought you could kidnap Happy and get away with it, then you've got another thing comin!" the pink haired boy charged at the masked man, both fists ablaze.
"Be careful, Natsu!" the pink haired boy could barely hear Happy scream at him.
Sensing a presence outside of the four of them, the faceless "\boy paused, everything slowing down in his mind as he made an attempt to figure out where the presence was coming from. In the same moment the salamander executed his strike, another man, his face covered with a bandana and his attire fairly uniform. Effortlessly, the boy hauled himself from Natsu's attack, all the while landing an attack on the new enemy. The heavily dressed boy landed lightly on his feet, waiting on the body of the masked man to fall. Once it had, the masked assassin lifted himself from his landing position and slowly turned to face Natsu. Natsu's wide onyx eyes could bore holes into the young man's soul he stared so hard.
"Who was that guy?" Lucy whispered to herself.
"I dunno, but whoever it was, I don't think he wants mask man alive," Happy guessed.
"He's not the only one here. He brought friends," the boy said, remaining completely still, waiting for the more of them to emerge. Natsu couldn't help but argue that the strange boy was doing nothing more but buying time to avoid his ass whopping. But when the hoard of predicted enemies emerged from the bushes, Natsu failed to mention how wrong he was.
