Part IV


"I've seen you refill that cup three times already, and it's not even ten. Did you get any sleep at all?"

Natsu's head shot open, startled by Gray's voice, spilling coffee on his white shirt from the cup he was holding in his hand.

"Uh, yeah. I went home late yesterday," he replied, frowning at the mess he had just made.

"Had a bit too much fun perhaps?" smirked Gray, putting his feet up on his desk, and laying back on his chair to look quizzically at his partner.

"I was on the case, you stripper," grumbled Natsu, his cheeks dusted with red as he remembered his unexpected passionate encounter. He wasn't about to tell him that he couldn't sleep because his thoughts were plagued by his mysterious woman.

"Stop calling me that, you idiot," snarled Gray.

"Why not? The name suits you. I'll stop when you quit your perversions," smirked the pink haired man, putting his cup on his desk. "Where's your shirt, by the way?"

Gray looked down at his torso, and sighed in defeat, looking around for his top. It was lying on the ground at his feet, and he couldn't help but stare at it for a few seconds. "I'm too lazy to even get down and pick it up."

Natsu shook his head in annoyance. He got up to get a clean shirt to change into out of his bag. He always kept one there in case of emergencies. He picked up Gray's shirt on the way, tossing it at him, and started unbuttoning his own top.

There weren't a lot of people in the office today, most of them on the field, and Natsu and Gray had been ordered by Erza to stay inside in their shared office room and write their late reports. They had of course objected to the idea at first, both being men of action, but her glare sent them cowering back to their seats.

"Looks like the nickname doesn't only apply to me now," said Gray, watching him as he stood shirtless in the middle of the room.

"It's your fault that my shirt is stained," grumbled Natsu, turning around from his partner to take the clean shirt in his hands.

"Don't blame for you own clumsiness-holy shit Natsu," gasped Gray, startling his partner. The fact that Gray had called him by him name alone was alarming, but he could also hear the genuine shock in his voice.

He turned around, eyes wide open, and furrowed his eyebrows at the other male. "What? What is it?"

"What the hell happened to your back?"

"My back?" asked Natsu.

Gray nodded. "You have scratches all over it. And not some I bumped into the wall kind of scratches, it looks like a tiger used you as a scratching post."

Natsu stood frozen in place for a moment, before his tan face turned crimson, competing with the colour of his hair, as he hurriedly put his shirt on.

"Uh, well," he stuttered out. He really didn't know how to explain the marks on his back, so he opted for the offensive. "I-it's nothing. It's none of your business anyway!"

Gray's astonished face slowly left place for a giddy kind of look, his lips stretching into a wide grin, like a kid's face on Christmas. "Did you…get laid by any chance?"

Natsu grumbled something unintelligible, refusing to look at Gray, and the dark-haired man's smile only widened. "I can't believe this, you're not a virgin anymore!"

Natsu glared angrily at him. "I wasn't a virgin before either!"

Gray smiled smugly. "Ah, so you did get laid! Who was it, tell me?" his stopped in his tracks, and stared at Natsu with curiosity. "Don't tell me you got back with Lisanna?"

Natsu scowled, sitting back on his chair. "No, it's been over for ages. We're just friends now."

"Okay. Who did you sleep with then?"

"You don't need to know that," replied Natsu, flipping through a document he had on his desk, before sighing in discontent and setting it back on the desk. "I hate this, why did Erza force us to stay inside? I wanted to go with the others to help with the questioning."

"It probably has something to do with us skipping paperwork for the last few weeks," laughed Gray. "If you're that bored, you can always tell me about that mystery woman of yours."

"Knock it off already. Why do you need to know anyway?"

"It's not often that the great Salamander gets flustered over a woman," replied Gray with a tint of irony in his words. "She must be a special one."

Natsu's expression turned thoughtful for a moment as he pictured the blonde woman's face, her soulful eyes, and her oh-so tempting lips. She was indeed one special woman, and she made his heart beat faster than he thought it ever would, and only after three encounters.

"Take that stupid look off your face," said Gray after a long silence. "You look disgustingly mushy."

Natsu glared at him. "Who are you calling mushy, you ass?"

"You, of course. Now are you going to answer my questions or what?"

Natsu sighed in annoyance, giving in to Gray's insistence. They might be the biggest rivals in the office, but if there were someone Natsu could choose to trust with his issues, it would be Gray. They had known each other since they were ten years old, and despite their constant bickering and fighting, they're been through everything together for the last fifteen years.

"Fine. But whatever I tell you cannot leave this room, understood? If I hear about it from someone else, I'll rip your head off."

Gray looked at him in surprise. "Wow, this must be some important shit if you're threatening me."

"The thing is that if Erza or gramps' hear about, they'll be very disappointed, and I'm not sure I would be able to keep this job," said Natsu.

"Did you do something illegal or what?" asked Gray.

"Not necessarily. But let's say that there's some stuff concerning our case that I should have told them. Remember when we went to Jose's house?" he asked.

"Yeah," laughed Gray. "How can I forget that? You got handcuffed and left behind, your face painted red. I don't think I even want to forget."

"Yeah, well," continued Natsu, choosing to ignore Gray's snide remark, "the woman who handcuffed me, the same one that we saw at the bar-"

"Wait, wait, wait," cut him off Gray. "Are you trying to tell me that you slept with that blonde bombshell?"

Natsu nodded sheepishly. "I saw her at Grimoire Heart when I was on duty."

Gray looked at him for a few seconds, before bursting into laughter. "You banged a stranger –who might also be a criminal- while you were supposed to be working on the case?"

Natsu shifted uncomfortably. "I admit it's not the smartest thing to do, but you would have done the same thing! I had been at it for two weeks, and nothing happened! I was bored out of my mind, until she came along. Man, you should have seen her. She was a sight."

Gray stared at him, before smiling perversely. "Was she good at least?"

"Well, it was definitely worth it," mumbled Natsu. "It's the third time that I've seen her in a place related to Hades' case. She definitely has something to do with it."

"You think so?"

Natsu nodded. "I'm certain about it. She even told me that she was looking for information."

"Erza would definitely kill you if she knew that you saw her again without arresting her," said Gray.

"But she didn't kill Jose," protested Natsu. "The bullet matched the one we found in Aguria's body! It's definitely one of Hades' men who did it. I wouldn't be surprised if he were the one who sent someone to murder Jose."

Gray nodded, reaching for a file on his own desk and flipping through it. "Poor girl. Talk about wrong place, wrong time."

"How many other girls are we going to find until that bastard is behind bars?" growled Natsu.

Gray trailed his fingers down the page his eyes were skimming over. "Do you think the blonde one is one of his girls?"

Natsu shook his head. "No, I don't think so. She has money, she doesn't need to work for him."

"It could be to keep up appearances. You know that he likes to dress them up fancily to hide their real jobs."

"That's true, but I am sure she isn't one of them. She was a virgin," he admitted.

Gray's eyes widened, and he looked up from the file on his lap. "That woman, a virgin? You must be kidding me."

"I was as surprised as you are," said Natsu. "That's why I'm saying that she doesn't work for him. She can't be one of his prostitutes."

"So she was a virgin, and she has money you say," muttered Gay. "Maybe she's a rich heiress. That narrows it down to less than one percent of Magnolia's population. It shouldn't be too hard to find out who she is."

Natsu looked at him with surprise. "What? Why?"

"Don't you want to know whose cherry you popped?" mused Gray.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then we should get into it. If she's looking into Hades, we should start looking into his rich associates. She could even help us with the case and lead us to him. She seems to be at par with us."

Natsu sighed, leaning back on his chair and extending a hand towards Gray. "Alright, give me one of the files."

-: :-

Natsu sighed in annoyance, carelessly throwing the file he was holding on top of the other ones he had already read. "Nothing! All of this is useless! I can't find shit, even the electronic database got nothing. I can't find that woman anywhere!"

"You should have gotten her name at least," said Gray.

Natsu glared at him. "Do you think I haven't tried? She refused to reveal anything about herself!"

Gray stretched his arms above his head, staring at the pile of files he had gone through. "Maybe we're not looking deep enough. She might be hiding somewhere in those files for all we know. We could have missed a name."

Natsu rubbed his tired eyes. "No woman has never tired me this much in my life," he muttered.

"Not even Lisanna?" laughed Gray.

"Definitely not Lisanna. Everything was pretty smooth with her."

"That's true," nodded Gray. "So what do we do now?"

Natsu thought for a moment. "We could look into Hades' past. Maybe one of his earlier friends or associates could lead us to her."

"No," Gray shook his head. "Everyone in this office had gone through his file at least ten times. Plus, I don't think tackling him directly is the solution."

"Do you have a better idea then?" asked Natsu.

Gray smiled. "As a matter of fact, I actually do. The online database only dates back to 2009, and these files were printed from it and don't hold much information. We could look into older cases."

Natsu shuddered in disgust. "You mean the ones in the archive room? There's tons of them! We'll never be able to finish reading them all!"

"Not when we know what we're looking for. I doubt there are that many relating to rich heiresses."

Natsu pondered for a moment, looking at Gray with well-hidden admiration. Natsu was a man of action, and so was Gray. But he would sometimes surprise Natsu with specks of genius. Not that the pink-haired man would ever admit it.

"That's actually very logical," he muttered, standing up from his chair. "I'll take care of it."

-: :-

"Yo, metal-face! I have a favour to ask from you!" shouted Natsu, his head peeking from his office.

Gajeel looked up from the screen of his computer. "What do you want? It better be quick."

"I need you to get us something from the archive room," said Natsu.

Gajeel scowled. "Why don't you go yourself?"

"Well," started Natsu, leaning against the door, "Erza put us on report-duty, and if she sees me outside of the office, she'll know that we're not following her order. I just need you to make a quick trip to the archive room."

Gajeel snickered, going back to whatever he was doing. "That's your problem. Serves you right for skipping paper-duty. I'm not doing shit for you."

"Come on," whined Natsu. "I really need this, it's urgent!"

Gajeel kept ignoring him, preferring to stare at his screen. Natsu huffed in annoyance, and looked around the office. When he didn't see the familiar red hair of his boss, he walked towards Gajeel, and leaned against his desk. "Come on Gajeel, I know you want to go there. I'm giving you the perfect excuse to see Levy."

Gajeel's eyes widened, and his usually stoic face reddened. "W-what? Why would I want to see shrimp?"

"Cause' you like her, obviously," shrugged Natsu. "So what do you say?"

The other man growled, annoyed by Natsu's persistence, before sighing in defeat. "Fine, I'll do it. But not because I want to see her!"

"Whatever you say," laughed Natsu in triumph. "Ask her to fetch us all the cases about the richest individuals in Magnolia dating back to the last twenty years."

"Why do you need those? Aren't you supposed to be working on Hades' case?" asked Gajeel, watching the pink haired man walk back to his office.

"Oh, it has everything to do with the case," shouted Natsu with a laugh.

"That imbecile," muttered Gajeel, getting up from his chair. "As if I liked shrimp. The audacity!"

-: :-

"What do you think she needs from Hades?"

"Beats me," answered Natsu. "I don't even know her name and you're asking me about her motives?"

Gray thought for a second. "Fair point. But maybe it's something so obvious that it's right under our noses."

Natsu stuffed another file in the box he had just gone through. "Why are you so determined to know who she is anyway? I should be the one to insist on finding her, not you."

Gray laughed. "You're right. Why didn't you start looking for her name before? Is it that you like the mystery behind your little encounters? It must be hot to fuck an anonymous criminal."

Natsu reddened, grabbing another file to hide his face behind the documents. "Shut up, it has nothing to do with that. We don't even know if she is a criminal or not. Maybe she's some sort of vigilante or something."

"Like batman?"

"Sure, why not?" shrugged Natsu with amusement.

"I don't recall him fucking a cop in a dirty bathroom-"

"Gray?"

"What?"

"Shut the fuck up, please."

Gray laughed, and they both went back to their reading. All that could be heard in the small office were the sounds of pages turning, and chairs squeaking with their occupants' shifting.

"Maybe she knew one of the prostitutes recruited by Hades. She could be some sort of vengeful angel for them," finally spoke Gray.

"I wouldn't blame her. What kind of sick man kills innocent girls for wanting to escape that sort of life?" asked Natsu.

"The devil himself," joked Gray, albeit a bit humorlessly. There was nothing fun about the killings of women wanting a better life.

"I don't get it," said Natsu, looking at him quizzically.

Gray deadpanned, giving his partner a glare. "Hades? God of the underworld in Greek mythology, get it?"

"Nope."

"You are an uncultured swine. Have you ever even picked up a book?" inquired Gray.

"I don't need to, all these reports are enough readings to last me ten lifetimes," responded Natsu, looking at the boxes they still had to go through with disgust.

Gray rolled his eyes. "Stop complaining, you're the one to blame for this. If you had just arrested her, we wouldn't have to do this," he told him. "But then again, you wouldn't have lost your virginity either-"

"For fuck's sake," moaned Natsu. "Why do you keep saying that? Are you trying to hide that you're the virgin here?"

"You wish," huffed Gray. "Did you find anything yet?"

"Nope. Not one blonde girl."

"Me neither," sighed the dark-haired man. "Not one blonde women in my files. Not alive anyway."

Natsu perked up. "What do you mean?"

"There's this blonde woman who had been killed, but they never found out who did it. But it was more than fifteen years ago, I doubt it's your mystery lady," he smiled.

"Let me look at it, it could still help us," said Natsu.

"Sure."

Gray looked through the files he had rummaged through, and picked up one of them, opening it to look inside and make sure it was the right one. He tossed it at Natsu, who easily caught it in his hands, and opened it lazily. His eyes scanned the pages, reading the summary of the case, before he turned the page. When his eyes fell on the picture of the woman, they widened in surprise, and he looked up at Gray with his mouth open.

"Holy shit, that's her."

"What?" exclaimed Gray.

"That's exactly her face! You've seen her before, don't you remember?"

"I wasn't exactly looking at her face," muttered Gray, receiving a glare from Natsu at his perversion. "Either way, that's not possible! She died ages ago, and there's even pictures of her mangled body!"

Natsu looked down again, his eyes looking at the pictures taken at the crime scene, and he grimaced in disgust. The pictures showed what would have been a nice and fancy living room, if it weren't for the bloodied body lying on the ground at the foot of the sofa. A blonde woman was sprawled on her back, her eyes wide open in shock, and her mouth agape. Her white nightdress was stained with blood, and was hiked up her legs, showing deep gashes on her thighs. The cause of death was written in the document, being a bullet to the head, and Natsu realized that the grey mess on her blonde hair was brain matter. The next picture showed a close up of the bullet wound on her temple that he couldn't see in the first picture, and he almost gagged when he saw that a big part of the side of her head had been blown away by the bullet.

"Damn," he muttered, horrified. "I've seen some pretty fucked up stuff on the job, but this one is definitely up there."

"Worse than that body cut in half?"

"Definitely worse. At least the cut had been clean. This one here is messy and plain sadistic. There's other wounds on this woman's legs, and there's others shown in the pictures of the autopsy. The killer took his sweet time with her," he noted, reading the autopsy report.

"I haven't even looked at the rest. I closed it immediately when I saw the first picture," said Gray.

Natsu gave him a pointed look. "You probably missed something important."

"Come on," whined Gray as Natsu avidly read the file. "You saw the pictures, it can't be her! It's just a coincidence, there's apparently seven people who look just like you in the world. It could be just due to chance-"

"There!" shouted Natsu in triumph, getting up from his seat to shove the file in Gray's face. "Do you see this? They found a kid on the crime scene! A little seven year old girl! Today, that would make her our age! I bet you everything I have that it's her!"

Gray grabbed the file from his hands, reading it with his mouth open. "Well, damn. You might actually be right. She left a daughter behind."

Natsu left Gray's side, and enthusiastically sat back on his chair, typing furiously on his computer. "Let's look up what happened to her then. What was that woman's name again?"

"Layla Heartfilia," read Gray.

"Layla Heartfilia," repeated Natsu, typing the name and pressing enter. When the page loaded, nothing came up and Natsu groaned. "There's nothing about her, everything about her murder is in that file."

"Look her up online. Since she was a rich heiress, some tabloids probably wrote about her death," suggested Gray.

Natsu followed his partner's advice, and looked up the deceased woman online. A few articles showed up, and started going through them.

"Wife of Heartflia Konzen owner Jude Heartfilia found dead in their mansion," he read out loud. "The injuries lead the police to believe that it was a murder- okay, this is all the same basic stuff. There's nothing about her daughter in this article. Why is it so hard?" he groaned. "It's like her existence had been deleted from every database!"

Gray tossed the file on the ground and got up, annoyed at his partner's complaints, and stood behind him to look at the screen. "Of course they're not going to leave her name in the file, she was a kid," he said, taking the mouse from Natsu's hand. "You have to be smart about this."

Gray started scrolling through the articles, when something caught his attention in the related articles on the side of the page. "Wait, look at this. The company went bankrupt a few years ago, that explains why I had never heard of them."

"Why does that woman have so much money if it's the case?" asked Natsu.

"Maybe she doesn't," suggested Gray. "Just because she dressed nicely doesn't mean that she's rich."

"She didn't deny it," mumbled Natsu.

"So if the company went bankrupt, what happened to her and to her father?" wondered Gray aloud, reading the article. "Holy shit, look at this."

Gray moved his head from the screen, allowing Natsu to take a look at what was written on it. "He killed himself?"

"Yeah," mumbled Gray. "He apparently did when he started losing money. His debts were payed off with his mansion and companies after he took his own life."

"I don't get it," said Natsu. "Why would he do that and leave his daughter behind?"

"I don't know," replied Gray. "There's still nothing about her in these articles. It's like she disappeared after her mother's death."

"At least we know who her parents are, and her last name," said Natsu.

"So what do we do from here?" asked Gray.

"We keep looking, maybe we'll-"

"Here, boys," said a voice behind them. They turned around and saw Levy at the door, carrying another box filled with files. "I found more files for you. I still don't know why you need so many."

"For a case, but it's classified. We can't tell you since you're not an agent, Levy," teased Natsu.

"Tell that to the person who files all your cases," scoffed the petite woman, walking towards them and setting the box on the ground. "So, what's this all about?"

"It's about a wo-" started Gray, before stopping in his tracks when he noticed the glare Natsu gave him, and he suddenly remembered his threat. "About Hades. Yeah, we're looking into his rich associates."

Levy gave them a doubtful look, but nonetheless shrugged it off. "Okay then, agents. I'll leave you to it."

"Say hello to Gajeel on your way back, make the man happy," snickered Natsu.

He could see Levy's cheeks redden. "Why would I do that?" she squeaked out. "I don't care about what makes that ruthless man happy!"

"Sure you don't," mumbled Gray, sharing a knowing look with his partner.

"Whatever," she mumbled, walking back to the door. Her eyes looked at the files scattered in the office with disdain, dreading the fact that she would have to organize them all over again before putting them back on the racks of the archive room. She was about to exit the room, when an open document on the ground caught her attention. She bent down, grabbing it in her hands, and looked at the picture, her eyes widening in recognition.

"Oh my God, Lucy?"


Hi guys! Thanks to those who reviewed, favourited, and followed this story! Some of you guys' reviews made me cry with laughter :') It made me really happy to read your positive comments on the story! That said, don't hesitate to give any criticism, I'm always up for improvement!

I got some good news (I guess they're good?) for those who like this story. I decided to make it longer than just 5 parts, maybe even reaching 10-15 parts.

The mystery of it was actually supposed to be resolved in this chapter, but I found it a bit too fast for my liking. I like to keep the mystery going. I also just had too much fun dragging the conversations between Gray and Natsu, I like their dynamic in the manga, and even though I'm not the best at writing dialogue, i wanted to try with those two.

(It also has to do with the fact that I love writing this, it's just way too fun! Detective stories are one of my favourite genre after all.)

So there it is, some more info on the case and on Lucy. I like leaving you guys with cliffhangers ;)

Until next time, and as usual, leave a lil review for me to read :)