I finally caught a break and am available to write finally after so many months. I really love this fic and I hope that at least some of you are still interested. If ever, I'd like to thank you dear reader, for bothering to even come back. Just know I havent given up yet.

Stolen

"What one shows is physical. What they really want is a secret."

Ch. 3

"It's you!"

Natsu frowned up at the peculiar blonde lady, who had her pointer finger out at him with the most menacing example of a glare plastered on her face. He raised a hand, pointing to himself. "What? What about me?"

At his question, the blonde's face reddened with anger. "You know what you did!"

Happy stood by her foot, attempting to pull at the helm of the ridiculously long brown skirt she was wearing. He looked between his master and the young man with wide worried eyes.

Natsu scowled. What he did?! She was the one who technically stabbed herself and brought him into this freaky household! He has just as much right to tell her that as she did.

"What could I possibly have done?"

"You dare speak to me in that matter of tone after what you did; how extremely unforgivable of you to be, scum!" She grabbed the front of his shirt, bringing him back up to his feet. "Where is it?!"

He pushed himself away from her, pulling out a dagger in his hands in a fighting stance. "Don't. Touch me."

She frowned. "Asshole, so it was you!"

His eyebrows knit together. "What the fuck are you talking about—?!"

"Nobody speaks such vulgar language to Miss Lucy!" Natsu faced the staircase to see Lisanna in her monstrous form, running down the staircase towards him. "BARBARIAAAAAAN!"

"Shit—!" Before he could speak, Lisanna pounced at him, bringing him to the ground. Natsu's arm held back her neck, grabbing at her fur as he swung his dagger at her, while she just tries to bite his head off. "What the hell are you?!"

"That's my line, dirty mouth!" She roared at his face.

"Nat—ow is so strong!" Happy said in amazement, watching the two wrestle as he pulled at Lucy's hem. "He can take on Lisanna like that! Amazing right Lucy?"

Lucy looked down at him with a dim expression, not amused. She walked towards the two and grabbed the back of Lisanna's fur, pulling her. "STOP THIS."

Lisanna yelped and went back to her human form in a flash of white, bowing down repeatedly. "S-Sorry Miss Lucy!"

Lucy faced Natsu. "It was you wasn't it?! The one that broke into the Heartfilia mansion!" She said, her voice laced with venom with each step she took towards him, making him scurry back. "Now tell me, where is the jewel that you've done the absolute dirtiest of means to take?!"

"What the fuck are you—!" Huh?

Wait a minute. Does she mean—!

Natsu's eyes widened. The bag!

"I don't know what you're talking about." I can't feel it around me. Where would it—?!

Where…

"You take too long."

Her…that woman…

"Liar!"

Natsu gritted his teeth.

It's her! She should have it! It must have fell when I ran away.

It should have.

"I'm not lying." Because you have it.

"Can't be…" She whispered, confused. What? "You're Natsu Dragneel aren't you?! You're the man who's responsible for last night's incident!"

Natsu watched her as she spoke with unsure determination. She doesn't know? But she knows him! She knew his name, and called him out for it.

She's…she's different.

He looked up. Nonetheless, he wasn't that much of an idiot to not realize it. To top it off, what she's wearing is absolutely different from the woman before. Nothing compared to something so plain.

"I don't know who that is."

"That's a blatant lie!" She exclaimed. Also, she's not as calm.

"But I'm serious. I don't know who the hell you're talking about!"

"Shut up! It has to be you, why else would you trespass these walls?!" She's sharp.

"I was lost." Though it's not completely a lie.

"Bullshit!" She's persistent. "You can't possibly tell me you got lost climbing up sixty-foot walls?!"

"Well it happened! Deal with it!" Annoying.

Really annoying.

"Just admit it already!" She screeched. Really annoying. "You're the criminal who's responsible for last night's incident! Not just that, but you're also the man responsible for robbing so many items of importance all over Fiore! You did all those sick, horrid things…you have to admit it and pay for your crimes!"

He decided.

He completely, utterly, whole-heartedly, hates this woman.

"You…" He started, glowering at Lucy, "I don't even know what more to say in order for you to just fucking believe me! Don't you think it's completely disrespectful of you to assume it's me who you're completely convinced this Natsu person is when I've been genuinely saying otherwise?! Look, just because some guy just stole a jewel or whatever the hell it was, doesn't mean it's me!"

"JUST stole—you didn't JUST stole the jewel! You…you also—!"

"If you're so convinced it's me then why don't you just call the cops?!"

Natsu panted, realizing he talked too fast. He watched as Lucy's mouth opened, as if she had something to say back, her eyes widened in disbelief, her face red in anger…but she shut it. She grew blank. His brows raised.

Silence.

She stared at the ground for a long moment, only to look back up at him. What, she bought it? Natsu thought.

"It…really isn't you?"

"Yeah…"

"You…" Natsu's eyes widened at a tear falling down the side of her face. "…you really didn't know?"

He didn't reply. He was too shocked to.

Lucy faced the ground and closed her eyes like she practiced. She can't seriously be doing this now, at this situation. She can't…just…everything. Everything's happening way too fast.

She mumbled. "Everything happened way too fast. They just keep coming and coming." A tear followed after, and another one, and another until Natsu lost count.

That woman from before was definitely different, he was now certain of that but…

Those wide, expressive brown eyes…they're definitely the same. And they're…crying. He was confused, why one minute she was all up in his face and was definitely winning but suddenly…become like this. He was losing, he never lost because he was never backed into a corner before and that's exactly what she was doing, he was so angry.

But still, my hand is raising itself towards her.

Why?

"Hey…"

Before he could touch her hair, she slapped it away and swept off her tears harshly. "No. It's nothing." She said, her voice firm. Natsu grimaced. "Really, forget it. It's an emotion that shouldn't have been brought up. My mistake."

Natsu looked at her strangely, more confused than ever. She exhaled a breath, and looked towards the mansion. "You…did you see everything?"

"Y-You mean those things?"

Lucy frowned at the mention of the word things, but nodded. "Yes."

"Well, yeah. Yeah I did…"

"You're really not Natsu Dragneel?"

He frowned. "Yes."

"What's your name then?"

"Nathan." Natsu immediately picked off the list in his head. "Nathan Dawn."

"I see." She nodded again, slowly. "Well, Nathan…"

She looked up at him, her eyes dimmed.

"I can't let you leave."

He frowned. "What? What are you—?"

"Lisanna."

"Hey—!" His hand reached out to hers, which was the last thing he remembered before his injured head hit the ground.

"What happened?"

She held the newspaper in her hand towards him. "Here, it got published just this afternoon. The only article in the whole thing." He roughly took it from her, his eyes intently scanning through it as he read. "Guess they wanted to spread the word out as soon as possible."

He didn't speak a word as he read. Her eyes wandered to the mountains of paperwork piled up on his desk, some she recognized were ones she signed earlier, and a lone glass of wine sitting on the edge. She bent over and picked it up before he slammed the paper down on the table, all the paperwork falling to the floor.

She took a sip. "Finished?"

"Was he caught?"

"Are you drunk?"

He glared at her. "Answer me."

"Don't be ridiculous." She laughed lightly at him. "It's Natsu Dragneel we're talking about. He never gets caught. He's invincible, barely human I could say, so you don't need to worry about that…" She paused. "However, it seems he has gone missing. As you've read, there was nothing left to trace, and our men haven't heard of him since yesterday…"

She watched, curious to see how he would react. He merely stared at the newspaper in his hand and stood up, starting to pick up after the fallen paperwork.

"…you're not mad?" She asked as she set the glass down, bending down to help him.

"…at the moment, he works for me. That's all there is to it."

She laughed. "What's with that?"

"We came to him." He said, stacking a few papers before bending down to pick up new ones. "He wouldn't have had anything to do with us had it not been for my offer to him." He chuckled slightly. "If anything, he'd find it a nuisance."

"How would you know?"

He paused for a little bit, as if to ponder over his choice of words before speaking.

"That man…he's determined. He knows what he wants, and he'll do what he needs to do to get it. In a sort of naïve sense I guess, I believe that my offer is of value to him…" His eyes caught something under the table. "He's a man of mystery, you never really know what he's thinking, only that with how he speaks and acts. But it somehow becomes okay to trust him, even though he'll never trust you back…rather dangerous I'll say."

She sees the paper he holds in his hands—it was the wanted flyer.

"Perfect for a thief."

A small smile crawls up his aged face. "Perfect for a thief."

A review would be nice :)

-K-