Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Main Pairing(s): Natsu Dragneal x Zeraf (eventual), , Jellal Fernandes x Erza Scarlet (established)

Other Mentioned Pairing(s): Gajeel Redfox x Levy McGarden (established), Loke x Lucy Heartfilia (eventual)

WARNINGS: AU , eventual Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing), you have been warned

Modern Fantasy

By V. Shalyr

4. Doubts and Invitations

"Natsu?" Wendy asked, stopping in the doorway of their main office with her hand still on the knob. "You're here early today."

And with several books on his desk, no less—books that he was actually perusing. She didn't think she'd ever seen him actually sit at his desk before. The dozen or so agents that shared this room all kept their respective workspaces in some degree of order, but Natsu's spot stayed immaculate from disuse rather than tidiness. He was always on the move and ridiculously energetic—restless, she'd venture to say.

"Morning," he greeted her, turning another page. Its black binding embossed with their division's winged seal in gold marked it as an official record of registered wizards. There were hundreds more of them in the basement archives.

"Are you looking for someone?" she asked, moving to deposit her bag at her own desk next to his.

"Ah, you could say that."

"Is it for a case?"

"Not exactly."

Natsu frowned down at the records. He had the sneaking suspicion that Z was an unregistered wizard—a dark wizard, in other words. That would explain why he was so skittish, although it wouldn't explain why he assisted Natsu with his work and spent so much time at a coffee shop frequented by law enforcement officers.

He could be wrong, of course. He didn't know Z's real name and hunting through hundreds of volumes of pictures was anything but efficient. All the same, he'd always trusted his instincts, and his instincts told him that he was probably right.

He just couldn't decide what to do about it, if anything.

He liked Z. The boy had stopped trying to avoid him, which would have been a pointless endeavor anyway, and was good company in a quiet and thoughtful sort of way. Quiet and thoughtful was a pretty good description of him actually, and he knew a lot about a lot of things. He listened to Natsu's stories about his day with a baffled fascination that the Dragon Slayer found rather amusing, and even though he didn't like to talk about his past, he had opened up enough to share some of his thoughts and snippets of things that he had seen.

It wasn't like Z was causing anyone any trouble. So it should be okay that Natsu spent almost all of his free time with him these days, right?

He hadn't been lying when he'd told the dark-haired boy that he liked his scent. Natsu found it calming, which was rare.

"Natsu? Natsu!"

Wendy was giving him a concerned look now. Pushing his doubts aside for the time being, Natsu grinned at her.

"Just checking up on a few things. Don't worry about it." He shut the record book and added it to the dozen or so on the corner of his desk. "So, what do you think that message from Erza is all about?"

.

"Gah! It bit me!"

Gray looked up from the report he was filling out. His patience had been worn to almost nothing already by a late night raid, and he was not in the mood to deal with whatever it was they had brought back from the dark wizard's hideout.

"What did?"

"This book," Elfman said, taking a step back from the pile of recovered artifacts and regarding it warily. Compared to his tall, broad-shouldered frame, the book looked incredibly unimpressive.

"Don't be such a wimp," Evergreen snapped, tilting her glasses up with one long, manicured finger. "It's just a book. How much could it hurt?"

Not exactly famous last words, but close enough.

The book opened covers suddenly lined with fangs rather than pages and lunged for the nearest muscular arm. Elfman yelped in pain and swung the arm, smashing said book against the wall until it finally let go and flopped to the ground, its pages now stained with blood.

"This thing's vicious!" he said, grabbing the jacket from his chair to temporarily staunch the bleeding. "Can't you turn it to stone for awhile so we can catalog it and figure out what to do?"

Evergreen fixed him with a cold, contemptuous look, but her hands were already moving to retrieve the first aid kit from her desk drawer. "Does it look like it has eyes to you?"

Gray groaned. "Cut it out, you guys. Here."

He got up and slammed his hands into the floor. Ice sheeted across the tiles to reach the book, wrapping it up and immobilizing it. Once the book had been properly encased in frozen water, he picked it up and put it back on the table with the other artifacts.

He had to finish this report and get to that meeting. Erza hated it when people were late, and she was an incredibly scary woman when she was angry. And sometimes when she wasn't angry.

"Loke, did Erza say anything at all about why she wants the two of us there?"

"Sorry, no. But she said about five times that it was important."

Right.

Gray blinked a few times at the words in front of him, but they failed to stop swimming in his exhausted vision. Forget this. He'd finish writing up what happened later.

.

Natsu knew the moment he and Wendy arrived in the conference room that Erza had important news. Everyone present was in her inner circle of agents, people she had personally worked with out in the field and trusted without question. It wasn't a terribly large number.

She'd also chosen a conference room with no windows.

Jellal Fernandes was present as well, hovering at the far end of the room with such a grave expression on his face that Natsu wondered if someone had died.

"All right," Erza said the moment the conference room door had been shut and locked. "I need you all to pay close attention to what we're about to say. You are aware that security has been stepped up around the city? Well, that's because the dark wizard organization Grimoire Heart has been confirmed to be in our area."

"I've heard of them," Gray said, resting his elbows on the black tabletop and leaning forward in his chair. "They're a fairly powerful group, aren't they?"

"Very."

Seated next to his field team captain, Loke pushed his tinted glasses further up on his nose and frowned. "Do we know anything about their goals?"

"We got lucky there." Erza glanced at Jellal. "Would you like to explain?"

The university professor cleared his throat. "The organization's goal as a whole has always been to obtain powerful magic and create a world run by wizards. As far as we know, this hasn't changed. As for what brings them to Magnolia... we believe that they're looking for the Black Wizard Zeraf."

Zeraf. They'd all heard that name before. He was only one of the most famous figures in magic history, a genius wizard who had had a hand in developing many of the world's most dangerous magical artifacts.

"Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he live hundreds of years ago?" Wendy asked.

"Yes, but we have reason to think that he might still be alive."

There was a pause in which each of them tried to digest this information and figure out where this was headed.

Erza squared her shoulders, eyes hard. "Unfortunately, we have no idea what he looks like, what kind of person he is or where he might go, but that doesn't matter. We can't let Grimoire Heart find him first. We have other agents trying to locate the organization's members, so you don't have to concern yourselves with that. Starting from today, the top priority of everyone in this room is to find Zeraf."

Which was all well and good except that none of them had the first clue where or how to start.

.

The computer on her office desk hummed as Lucy clicked through the database of old news articles, searching for inspiration. Or for a distraction, she would settle for either one at the moment. Her major deadlines had just passed and she actually had a few free days coming up.

One particular day—namely tomorrow—kept creeping back into her mind and it was starting to drive her a little crazy. Levy promised to go shopping with her after this, but her friend's last class for the day had only just started.

Wait a second.

She'd been staring at the same list of articles for five minutes before what she was seeing clicked. Her brow furrowed and she began to read in earnest.

An hour and a half later, someone spoke behind her.

"Wow, I thought you'd be too anxious to work."

"Hi, Levy," she said without turning around. "I was just looking at something interesting."

"What kind of something?"

"There were break-ins at a number of museums all around the world in the past couple years."

Levy leaned over her shoulder to peer at her desktop screen, one hand resting on the back of the blond girl's swivel chair. "I wouldn't have thought that would be that unusual. I mean, museums have a lot of valuable items, especially museums with magical artifacts on display."

"Yes, but that's the thing. Nothing was stolen at any of them. And get this. All the exhibits that were broken into contained magical artifacts dated roughly four hundred years ago."

"Hmmm." The Rune Wizard made a thoughtful sound in her throat. "Jellal was looking up information from that period recently too."

"Really? Do you think this is something he and Erza would want to look into?"

"It wouldn't hurt to bring it up."

"I could mention it to Natsu this Saturday. I sort of asked him to get a table at the same restaurant and keep an eye on things. Or actually, come to think of it, I could just tell Loke. He's in the department too after all."

Levy straightened. "Natsu? I'm surprised. I mean, I know you two are good friends, but I was sure he'd refuse."

"Bribery gets you everywhere," Lucy joked.

"Ah, Lucy, did you tell Natsu...?" She bent to whisper something in Lucy's ear.

Lucy's stomach dropped. "Are you sure about that?"

"I am, unfortunately. I waitressed at the Aria for a few months when I first moved here. I left when I got the offer from the university."

The journalist groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Ugh, guess I'd better get it over with. At least I know he won't bail on me."

If there was one thing she knew about Natsu, it was that he always kept his promises.

Natsu picked up on the third ring. "Hey, Lucy, what's up?"

"Um, sorry about springing this on you, Natsu, but you'll need to bring someone with you when you come on Saturday," Lucy said quickly, intent on getting everything she had to say out in as short a time as possible. "I just found out that the Aria's the kind of restaurant people don't go to alone."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"It doesn't have to be a date or anything."

Lucy glanced at Levy, who confirmed this with a nod.

"It could be anyone really. Wendy, maybe, or even Happy."

Although management might have some minor issues with a cat sitting at their table.

"I'm pretty sure they've got plans. Wendy said something about an art gallery and Happy's taking Carla to the beach."

"Oh, come on, Natsu. Just—think about it, okay?"

Maybe she shouldn't have just hung up like that, but she was nervous enough with everything else on her plate as it was.

.

"Don't you ever get tired of eating the same thing?"

Z looked from Natsu to the sandwich the waiter had just set in front of him then back. "I never really thought about it."

"I wouldn't have thought it was something you had to think about."

"You usually eat half my sandwich," Z pointed out. "Are you tired of it?"

Natsu scratched the back of his head. "Huh, I guess I'm not. Good food is good food."

There was a reason almost everyone from the department could be found at the Tenrou Coffee Shop at least once a week.

"So the food here is considered good then?"

Natsu raised his eyebrows. "Isn't that why you come here every day?"

Apparently not, since the comment surprised him. It wasn't obvious in his expression, but Natsu could tell by the way he hesitated, going still as he tried to decide how to respond. The Dragon Slayer was getting good at reading him.

"I am staying close by," Z said at last. "And the staff here leave me to myself and don't mind if I stay late."

"Those are the only criteria, huh?"

Z shrugged. "I have yet to come across a place with food that was truly terrible."

Natsu chuckled. "That's a good thing. If you want really bad food—well, if you can even call it food—you should try flying fish. They serve them at the park by the museum sometimes."

"Why do people buy them if they are so bad?"

"Usually it's because they've never had them before."

And most of them never had it again.

"Hey, how do you know about Slayer magic anyway?"

"You are not the first Dragon Slayer I have ever met."

"Really?" Now that was intriguing. "Other than me, I only know of two other Dragon Slayers, and they're both here in Magnolia."

"There are three Dragon Slayers in this city?"

"That's right. Guess that means you weren't talking about either of them then. I didn't know there were any other Dragon Slayers around."

"...It was a long time ago."

"How long ago are we talking here?"

"Very long."

He was getting uncomfortable again, so Natsu let the matter drop. Somehow, he had the feeling Z wasn't just talking about a handful of years. He didn't know how old Z was—he was good at dodging that question—but he probably wasn't as young as he looked.

Mentally, Natsu added his age to the list of things Z didn't like to talk about. His age, his past, what kind of wizard he was... Damn, he probably was a dark wizard, wasn't he? Just not quite like any dark wizard Natsu had ever met or heard of. Natsu wondered what he was running from. Whatever it was, it didn't appear to be law enforcement, and Natsu hoped that was a good sign.

"What can I get for you today?"

The Dragon Slayer glanced from the sandwich in front of Z to the waiter. "Pasta, the one with chicken. And can you get me an extra plate?"

"Sure, no problem. It'll be out in just a minute."

"Thanks."

"An extra plate?" Z asked when the waiter had gone. He never spoke when anyone else was around., most likely afraid—and rightly so—that it would encourage people to approach him.

Natsu grinned. "So you can try some, obviously."

.

The kitchen staff had gone ahead and separated the pasta into two plates for them. Just because Zeraf didn't speak with them didn't mean they didn't notice what was going on. As soon as both plates were on the table, Natsu pushed one over to him.

"Here. This one's really popular. A friend of mine gets it all the time."

"But I—"

"Just try it. It's good."

The ringing of Natsu's cell phone put an end to any further protests. Zeraf inspected the pasta with some curiosity while Natsu answered the call. Clearly, he needed to learn more about food. It was a much more complicated feature in people's lives than he had thought.

Natsu seemed a bit annoyed with the person on the other end of the line. A few words were exchanged and then he pulled the phone away from his ear, glaring at it in disbelief.

"She hung up on me."

Then something else seemed to occur to him and he fixed Z with a speculative look.

"Hey, you busy this weekend?"

TBC...

.