"What?" Lucy widened her eyes. "What do you mean it's missing?"

Natsu looked at her. "You came out here yesterday by yourself, right? Was it still here?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes. It was still here. How could this have happened?"

Natsu clenched his fists up in anger. "Someone must have stolen it."

"Don't jump to conclusions," Lucy said, deep in thought. "We don't know for sure what happened to it. Besides, why would someone want to steal a dragon egg?"

"Well, it's the only explanation that makes sense," Natsu pointed out. "It couldn't have just grown legs and walked away."

Lucy rolled her eyes, chuckling. "I know. I'm not stupid. But it still doesn't make sense that someone would just sneak into the hut and steal the egg."

Natsu's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh my god! What if it hatched already? What if the baby dragon hatched and flew away?"

"You're right!" Lucy shrieked. "Ugh, I can't believe we lost our baby. I'm such a horrible mom!"

Natsu laughed. "You've got that right."

"Hey!" Lucy teasingly smacked him. "You don't have to agree with me."

"I'm only kidding, Luce. I think you would be a wonderful mother."

Lucy smiled. "Thanks. I really hope I'll be a good mom one day."

Natsu smiled back, feeling a warm feeling inside. But that warm feeling was instantly replaced with a feeling of dread as soon as he remembered what was wrong. "Any suggestions on where the egg could be?"

Lucy blinked twice, snapping back to reality. "The egg. Right. Well, maybe we should ask everyone back at the guild if they have seen it."

"Fine. I guess we have no choice." Natsu sighed.

When they got back to the guild, everything seemed normal. As usual, Mirajane and Erza were in some sort of fight that Lisanna was trying to break up and Macao was talking to Makarov at the bar. Lucy then spotted Cana sitting with Gray at a small wooden table.

"Let's ask Cana," Lucy siggested. Natsu nodded and followed her over to the table.

Cana looked up at Natsu and Lucy with a smile on her face. "Hey, guys. Is there something you need?"

Lucy nodded sadly. "We can't find our egg."

A few people from the guild crowded around them, listening in on their conversation.

Natsu stepped forward. "So, does anyone know where it could be?"

Cana thought for a moment, concern plastered on her face. "No. Sorry."

At that moment, Makarov jumped down from the chair he was sitting on and walked over to them. "Did I hear you correctly? Is the egg really missing?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes."

Makarov looked at them. "Where's the last place you saw it?"

"We always keep it at the hut, "Natsu replied.

"Yeah, it should have been safe," Lucy added.

Natsu stepped towards Makarov. "Do you think someone stole-"

"Natsu," Lucy cut him off. "I told you not to jump to conclusions."

Natsu sighed dramatically. "But, Luce, someone had to have stolen it! If you don't think so, prove it."

Lucy stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine then. If you're going to have such a bad attitiude, then you can search for the egg all on your own."

"That's alright by me," Natsu replied. "I don't need you."

The two were interrupted by Makarov chuckling. "You two get along better than any kids I've ever met."

At first, Lucy and Natsu assumed that Makarov was being sarcastic. After all, they were just arguing. But the expression on the guild master's face showed that it was no joke.

Suddenly, Lucy began grinning. Natsu grinned back, and soon they were both laughing uncontrollably. "What were we fighting about, again?" Lucy asked.

Natsu shrugged, smiling once again. "Who can remember?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy noticed that Makarov was watching them with a satisfied smile on his face. "Why don't you two look around for it? Ask a few people in the town if they've seen the egg, or just look for it in the meadow or the forest."

"Okay," Lucy and Natsu said at the same time. They walked out the guild doors and immediately began talking about where to look.

"I think we should check the town first," Lucy suggested. "If no one has seen it, then let's look around in the woods."

Natsu nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me."

Natsu and Lucy searched in the town for over an hour with no luck. They asked several people and looked all around, but still coundn't find it.

"This is rediculous, Lucy," Natsu groaned. "Someone stole it. You can't deny it anymore."

Lucy sighed. "It does seem to make the most sense. But we haven't checked everywhere just yet. Let's go to the woods."

Natsu looked up at the cloudy sky. "It's getting late. Soon it will be totally dark out, and it looks like there's a storm coming. Maybe we should just head back to the guild."

Lucy crossed her arms. "How can you say that? We would be horrible parents to leave our egg out in the pouring rain!"

"Yeah, but..." Natsu trailed off, thinking about their options. FInally, he sighed. "Okay, okay. That would be pretty bad parenting. Let's go now before it gets too dark."

Lucy smiled widely. "I knew you'd understand. Come on." She grabbed his hand and they began running towards the large forest that was connected to the meadow. When they started walking along the damp, muddy pathway, the two noticed how dark it had gotten.

"The trees must be blocking all the light," Natsu realized. "Not that there was much light to began with."

"Natsu, wait up!" Lucy called from a few feet behind him.

Natsu turned around, confused. "What are you doing way back there, Lucy?"

"I had to stop because my shoe fell off, and you kept walking," Lucy explained.

"Yeah, well, hurry up." Natsu began walking again. "It's dark and I want to find the egg as soon as possible."

A few minutes went by with Natsu walking in silence. Every once in a while, he would stop and look around for the egg, but to no avail. In fact, he was so absorbed in finding the egg that he didn't even notice how Lucy hadn't caught up with him yet.

"Lucy!" he called. Suddenly, he was filled with panic. She couldn't possibly have taken that long to catch up with him. Natsu ran back towards the enterance of the forest, looking all around him for any trace of Lucy. "Luce, where are you?"

Suddenly, he noticed a small pink shoe in the middle of the trail. "Lucy's shoe..." he whispered in fear. What had happened to her? Was she okay?

"Natsu?"

Natsu whipped around only to face a concerned-looking Lucy. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Natsu sprang up onto his feet. "What about you? I thought something terrible had happened!"

Lucy looked at the shoe in Natsu's hand. "Hey, you found it!" She grabbed it from him and slid it onto her small foot.

"So... nothing happened to you?" Natsu asked, feeling a rush of relief.

"Nope." Lucy smiled. "I just got a little lost. I'm sorry I worried you."

Natsu smiled back. "It's fine, as long as you're okay. I think we should head back to the hut for now. We can spend the night there and continue looking in the morning."

"Okay. I mean, I hate that we were unable to find the egg, but there's nothing else we can do about it now. We have to wait until tomorrow," Lucy said.

They were able to successufully make their way out of the woods without getting lost, even in the dim lighting. When they reached the hut, Lucy gasped. "The egg is here!"

"But... how? How is that possible?" Natsu peered over it, looking for any sign of damage. "It looks fine, just how we left it."

Lucy nodded. "This is really weird. It wasn't here this morning."

Natsu shrugged. "For now, let's just be grateful that we have it back. Come on, let's go to sleep."

Meanwhile, Lisanna was outside of the hut, listening in on their conversation. "I'm sorry," she whispered, even though she knew they couldn't hear her. "I'm really sorry." And with that, she walked away.