Disclaimer— I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Fandoms of Fanfiction. And to the lawyers for which law stands: one franchise, I'm under oath with a lack of invisibility...with...wait...— okay, I don't own Fairy Tail or any of the characters included in said anime-package. Please, don't sue me...


with such dangers stemming from the past, our peace will never last

.

.

Lucy slapped him.

And no, it wasn't a typical, girly, little baby slap (mostly made up of fleshy palms attached to an arm swinging at a speed of -.204 miles per hour)—it was a full-blown, final scene in an 80's action movie-esque, who the hell do you think you're talking to type of slap. One that sent him reeling back into the door behind him, eliciting quite the unmanly shriek from the normally "brimming with testosterone, watch me flex my guns" Natsu.

When the shock of being assaulted by someone who barely reached his shoulders finally settled down, Natsu glared at her and hissed, "what the hell was that for?!"

Lucy huffed, matching (maybe even stumping) his furious expression with her own. "For being stupid," she answered plainly, "and for always yelling at me. Seriously, I can't believe I once thought you were worthy of looking up to."

Natsu sputtered. "You looked up to me? When was that, huh? When you embarrassed me in front of my co-workers? When you almost got me fired? When you refused to explain to me why you're even here? When you slapped the living shit out of me?" He ranted, somehow managing to pace in the small space of the janitor's closet. He snapped his fingers with a look of mock excitement. "Oh I know! It was when you ruined my entire life without giving a single fuck, wasn't it?"

"Ruined your life? Ruined your life?!" Lucy growled. Her eyes narrowed even more (if that was still possible at this point) and Natsu found her sudden flare in temper something that could rival even Erza's.

Yeah, maybe he should've kept his mouth shut.

Before Natsu could even gulp, pray or maybe even run for his life, Lucy was hurtling random cleaning supplies at him. Whatever she could get her hands on, she was throwing his way, non-stop—empty bottle after dirty rag after jug after bucket. "You stupid dumb moronic idiot!" She screeched, fangs glistening in the dim light of the hanging bulb. "I'm saving your life! Why can't you just believe in me?! Why are you making things so complicated?"

"Complicated? I'm making things complicated?" Natsu defiantly caught one of the many old notepads she had aimed for his defenseless face. "You can't be serious. All these weeks we've spent together and I'm the complicated one?"

And, as if he knew the gods themselves were preparing for his arrival in the afterlife, Natsu threw the notepad right back. It flew by her forever twitching ear, grazing it before landing beside her feet with an anticlimactic flap.

Silence.

They both stared numbly at the notepad. Eyes zeroed in on the wrinkled book of papers, seconds slowly ticking by. Neither of them moved, neither of them blinked. Not a sound was made, not a breath was taken.

...until Natsu awkwardly coughed anyways.

"Sorry," he grumbled, "didn't mean to actually throw that."

Lucy snorted. "Sure, whatever."

More silence.

Another awkward cough.

"Sooo..."

"This is getting ridiculous."

"It is."

"You won't ever drop this, will you...?" Lucy asked, although she was pretty sure what he would answer with. Natsu had proven to her time and time again how annoyingly stubborn he could be. There was no way a mule like him would ever let the matter go.

"Nope." Just as she thought.

"Fine," she said with a huff, "you win. Let's play."

Fifteen minutes later, Natsu and Lucy found themselves sitting on the cement floor of the messy (courtesy of the latter's miniature bitch fit) janitor's closet. Wrapped in the jacket Natsu had forgotten he'd even been wearing, Lucy silently poked little holes into the cheap polyester. Beside her, Natsu scribbled "really unnecessary, stop being stupid and just listen" notes on the same bruised and battered notepad they had thrown at one another.

"So let's summarize. You're twenty-five in human years, two in cat years?"

Lucy nodded.

"I see," Natsu grumbled with a pout. He furiously scratched his pen against the notepad, crossing out whatever nonsensical chicken scratch he had written there. "So you're older than me?"

She glared at him.

"Right. Irrelevant. Sorry," he quickly said, "moving on. You need a 'brand' of special cat food to help turn you into a human, one that is magic-y-sized by someone."

Slow nod.

"You can only turn back into your original form if one, you're too tired to remain in your altered state or two, your will to transform overpowers that of the magical food's spell."

"Yeah."

More scribbles. Natsu hummed in thought before continuing. "And that Layla person, the old woman from the store, she's the only one that can cast the spell?"

Lucy shrugged. "As far as I know, yes."

"Meaning you admit that it's all magic and not 'science' and that I was right all along and you just tried to make me look stupid even though that's clearly an impossible thing to do?"

She glared at him again, this time with a snarl to boot. Natsu hurriedly scooted away into the safety of a nearby corner.

"Right. Irrelevant. Sorry." He shuffled through his notepad, dramatically flipping through pages in order to ignore the feeling of Lucy shooting eyeball-lasers at him from across the room. "Uhh...so yeah. Layla. She was your owner for a year before she sent you to live with this...Mavis lady, right?"

Lucy sighed, folding her legs up to her chin as a soft whine flew from her lips. "Sadly," the blonde eventually confirmed, "and I hated every second of it."

Natsu frowned. "Why?"

"Oh, I don't know," she sang with a snort, "maybe it was because my once loving owner abandoned me with Mavis who was this rude ass little bitch—"

"Woah. Language."

She waved him off. "—that treated me like a machine rather than an actual living creature." Natsu pretended to not hear the crack in her voice or her little sniffles. "I don't know the whole story, no one would ever tell me, but I do know that Mavis did something bad and, after months of begging, had Layla try and clean it up for her because they were friends or some shit."

He didn't even bother scolding her this time for cursing. Maybe she's been around Cana too much. Or Macao. Or Gray...or just everyone. "Did that bad thing involve this Zeref dude?"

"Yes," she whispered, "it has everything to do with Zeref. He's the problem. He's the bad guy. Catching him, protecting you from him...that's my mission." Before he could repeat that one question he'd been asking for the longest time—why me—Lucy shook her head, already expecting it, and said, "I don't know. Not even Mavis knows. All we have to go by is that Zeref wants to kill you and that can't happen. Both Mavis and Layla will get into life-threatening trouble if the product of their magic hurts a human. It's illegal."

Natsu didn't speak for a while, allowing all of the information to sink in as he secretly wondered whether or not he's been on some serious drugs for the past month or if this was all actually happening. He looked down at his notepad, little grids of x'd out tic-tac-toe games littering the page. "So," he began, teeth gnawing at his bottom lip and eyes shakily meeting with Lucy's. "does that mean...magic-people have laws too?"

She looked ready to slap him again. "Is that seriously all you can ask after I just explained everything to you?!"

He sheepishly twiddled his thumbs, laughing awkwardly because yes, that was all he could ask after having everything explained to him. It seemed like a pretty interesting question when he first asked it in his head. "I was kidding." Lies. "What I really wanted to ask was...um, why you?"

"Why me?"

"You sound like me now." He laughed. Lucy didn't. He cleared his throat. "But yeah. Why did Layla give you to Mavis. How can you stop Zeref when they couldn't? And, not to sound like a beefcake or anything but, how can little ol' you protect me when I'm pretty sure men are far superior to women in terms of—"

"Stop right there," Lucy interrupted, raised hand and all. "I've spent enough time with Levy and Erza to know what you're about to say will be so stupid, even your future children's children will want to facepalm."

Damn, the cat police strikes again. And they aren't even here. "Right. Ignorant. Sorry."

"No problem. Just...delete that thought before you say something like it again in front of someone much less uncaring than me."

"Noted."

"And remember what gender it was that convinced you to buy expensive toilet paper with just a look and also 'slapped the living shit out of you', as you so nicely put it, about thirty minutes ago."

"Alright, let's not drag this out."

Lucy smiled a smile Natsu was sure he hadn't seen on her face in a long time. It was nice. Really nice. "Hey, I was just reminding you. Wouldn't want you to get castrated." But that wasn't. Not at all. "Anyways, to answer your questions...it's simple—"

"Ha! Simple," Natsu jeered, "what a foreign word for someone like you."

The fur on Lucy's tail stood up on end. "How about you shut the fuck up?"

Natsu flinched, face contorting into one of utter shock and disbelief. "Woah," he cried, absolutely scandalized, "language, Lucy. Where did you learn to even speak like that?"

Her smile widened, ears fluttering in amusement. "Even though I was a cat, I could still hear all of you. It wasn't hard learning how to speak your language fluently. Curses included."

He glowered, an image of a heartily laughing Gray appearing in his mind because Gray was the root of all evil even when he didn't do a thing. "Do I need to punch someone?"

"Not Gray. I know what you're thinking. Don't blame him, he's nice...or he tries to be."

Natsu scoffed, a hand pressing against his heart and his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline: the true image of someone pathetically feigning hurt. "Lucy, why would you ever think I'd blame my best friend of thirteen years for something like corrupting your innocent mind with foul language like the bastard he is—oh my god, I'm going to kill him, what else has the creep done to you while I wasn't around?"

"Okay, shut up. What I'm about to say is important," Lucy snapped. Right. This was supposed to be a serious conversation of unveiled secrets and solved unknowns. What was he doing? "I was chosen by Mavis because I'm—"

Thump

Natsu blinked, instantly on his feet before helping Lucy up until she was standing beside him. "What was that?"

Thump

Crack

"Not sure," Lucy mumbled, eyes flashing around the room.

Thumpthumpthump

Crack-crack

"Y-you don't think it's..." Natsu gulped. "Zeref, do you?"

"If it is, what will you do?"

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump

Natsu jumped behind Lucy, arms tying around her waist while he hid his face in the crook of her neck. "Shit. Lucy, do something."

"But Natsu," Lucy mockingly crooned, "I thought men were superior to women in terms of—"

"How about you shut the fuck up?"

Lucy snickered as she lifted a hand to pat Natsu's cheek. "Don't be such a baby," she gently demanded, "I'll protect you."

THUMP

Natsu squeezed his eyes shut.

Craaaaaack

"Dragneel, I want Sir Fluffball the Great back. It's time for his—oh."

"Erza, did you get the door open? It took me forever to find that battering ram and if it didn't work, we could always use—oh."

"Have you guys seen Natsu? I really need that toilet paper and—oh."

"What the hell is all the noise out here? It sounds like someone's smashing my battering ram into a door, which isn't right because I could've sworn I hid that thing—oh."

"Macao spilled his drink all over my desk, that fucking alcoholic. Can someone pass me a mop from the janitor's cl—oh, what is this~?"

Natsu cracked an eye open at the sudden onslaught of voices.

He desperately wished he hadn't.

Before him stood a blank-faced Erza (bad), a confused and pale Levy (that's bad too), a squirming Loke (Natsu would just assume that was bad for now), Gray who looked like he didn't know whether to crack a lame joke or crack a really lame joke (very bad...and annoying), and a devilishly smiling Cana (the epitome of bad).

Natsu blinked, peering down at his and Lucy's...admittedly suggestive position. It looked straight out of a typical chick-flick...or a porno (which probably explained Gray, Loke and Cana's wiggling eyebrows and jabbing of elbows into each other's guts).

Déjà vu, anyone?

Natsu was off of her faster than the quintet could scream at the top of their lungs, "INCEEEEEEEST!"

How unbelievably fantastic.

Three hours later and Natsu, the King of Misunderstandings, Dragneel was sitting on a nearby curb, head buried in his hands while Lucy (now dressed in an old, ripped and stained janitor's uniform Levy had begrudgingly found) gave him a few sympathetic pats on the back. A box of his office supplies sat on his right while his pride, dignity, hopes and dreams sat forgotten on his left.

Lucy poked his cheek as she attempted to console him over his sudden unemployment. "I'm pretty sure Quick'Donalds is hiring."

Yeah.

Fantastic.

.

where it all ended, where it all began

.

"Mav," Layla sighed. Her lips quivered, wavering between a relieved smile and a disappointed frown. Mavis spun around excitedly at the call of her name, a proud smirk in place. "I honestly don't know whether I should congratulate you, Mav...or just call you stupid."

At the older woman's words, Mavis instantly matched her expression, occupied hands itching to become fists at her sides. "Excuse me," she drawled, "this success most certainly deserves a round of applause. Pulling off such a spell is absolutely unheard of yet we did it on our first try. Be happy."

Layla shook her head, warily eyeing the tiny creature resting in her friend's cupped palms. "How can I be happy when you just distorted the work of mother nature herself? We aren't supposed to use our magic for something like th—"

"Oh, don't be such a party pooper," Mavis interrupted with a dismissive wave. She gently stroked the furry animal in her hands, cooing when its ear twitched in delight. "Besides, you took part in the spell too. I know it was me who begged you, but you're still the one who helped turn him human in the first place."

Layla rolled her eyes. "I only did that because you don't know how to."

"You still did it," Mavis muttered. She shrugged when Layla shot her a pointed glare. "What? You did! So you can't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you." Layla pinched the bridge of her nose. "I understand why you did it. You were lonely and wanted a companion who'd actually talk back if you ever started a conversation with them."

Mavis nodded. "Right. And it's not like I could do that with you since you're always off with that cat of yours."

"Lucille is like a daughter to me. I can't help it if she—"

"Yeah, yeah. I know." She had cut her off yet again. "So it shouldn't be such a problem for you if I want a daughter-like pet too. Or, in this case, a son-like pet..."

"He didn't need to turn into a human! I would never do something as inconsiderate, and not to mention dangerous, as that to Lucille!"

"Well sorry for not being you," Mavis snapped. She huffed angrily, turning back to the tubs and bowls of bubbly mixtures on her desk. "I just want to know what Zeref is thinking. Is that so bad?"

Layla looked on with pitying eyes at her pouting friend. She inched closer, a wrinkly hand settling atop Mavis' head. "I'm sorry, Mav. I really am. But just know...nothing good can possibly come out of this."

Mavis smiled sadly. "Has anything good ever come out of magic?"

"Not really."

"Exactly!" The small platinum blonde chirped. She grinned widely before gently placing the animal onto a nearby pile of clothes. "Now come here, Layla. Let's make Zeref human again. We only got to do it for a few seconds during the experimental round, but now I want to really see him. To really talk to him."

Layla reluctantly stood beside Mavis, her teeth gnawing at her lip. "He'll die if he stays human for too long," she softly warned.

"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm capable of turning him back to his original form, huh?" Mavis said with a roll of her eyes before narrowing them at Layla's shaking hands. "So do it. Hurry up."

"But," Layla gulped, "what if you don't have enough magic to turn him back? What if I'm not here to help you? You'll hurt him, Mav. You'll be worse than his previous owner. This magic can kill him."

Mavis scowled, grabbing Layla by her wrists and forcing her hands into a bowl of gooey substance. "Enchant it, Layla. Now. Cast the spell now or so help me—"

"Alright," Layla hissed. Her hands glowed a blinding electric blue as the substance began to boil and solidify. "But I won't say I told you so."

Mavis ignored her, laughing giddily at the sight before her as her eyes brimmed with tears. "Good. This is good. I won't be alone anymore, Layla. I finally won't be alone."

As soon as the light from Layla's hands dimmed down into nothingness, Mavis reached into the bowl and grabbed a handful of the enchanted substance shimmering with magical essence. She eased her palm beneath the dozing animal's nose, shivering in anticipation when its nose twitched. It cracked an eye open.

And then the change began.

The burning light.

The pained groan.

It was done. He was human. Her precious Zeref was finally finally finally human. Mavis squealed, a bright smile breaking out across her face. Yes. This was everything she wanted and more. "Zeref. It's me, Mavis," she nervously greeted. She stepped towards him, arms open wide. "Say something to me, Zeref. Please."

The naked man before her blinked, his ruby eyes flashing around the room in a confused daze. "N...n," he croaked. When his focus finally landed on Mavis, she giggled and, at that, his shocked expression melted into one of serenity. "K-k..."

"What's he trying to say?" Layla asked with a squint of her eyes. Her momentary relief from the successful transformation had instantly faded. A chill ran up her spine as all alarms to leave as quickly as possible rang throughout her mind. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. "Mavis, back away from him."

Mavis paid her no mind, taking yet another step to where Zeref calmly sat. "Mavis. Say Mavis, Zeref."

The man's lips twitched into a small smirk. He tilted his head to the side, allowing the bones to crack before releasing a pent-up sigh. He stood, rolling his shoulders, all while staring directly into Mavis' watery eyes. His smirk widened.

"Mavis," he eventually said, voice as raspy as it was chillingly dark.

A tear ran down her cheek. "Zeref—"

It had happened so quickly, too quickly. Zeref was suddenly across the room, a hand locked around Mavis' throat as he slammed her into a concrete wall. The wall cracked under the immense pressure and Mavis could only wheeze out a weak cry of his name before his grip tightened. "Where?" He demanded. "Where?"

Layla screamed as she attempted to help her apprentice, but a fast jab of Zeref's elbow to her face had her unconscious at his feet in seconds. He glared at Mavis, snarling when she began to whimper. "Where?" He pressed on.

Mavis clawed at his arm. "W-who?"

"Natsu," Zeref hissed darkly. "Kill...Natsu."

She wildly kicked her legs, desperately trying to escape his unyielding hold. It was becoming too hard to breathe. Everything hurt—her lungs, her head...her heart. Whywhywhywhy, her thoughts screamed.

The last thing Mavis saw before succumbing to darkness was Zeref's broken look and his mouthing of that one foreign name.

Natsu.

.

.

(=・ω・=) To Be Continued (=・ω・=)


Author's Note: I'm back. Next exam is on the 6th. Let's all make a prayer circle, please. And, as a backup plan, let's prepare my eulogy in advance. ;-;

Author's Responses: Woah, it's been a while since I did one of these. Hopefully it'll be here next chapter too. Then again, knowing me and my laziness, it most likely won't. Hehe...sorry.

MutsyTiger — HERE'S ANOTHER UPDATE 3

Snavej — lol thank you. Luck is something I really need right now.

SakuraPetal9 — does this mean my story should be arrested for manslaughter? *badum-tiss*

AnimeOnCookie — gee, you guys are super sweet. Thank you~!

NaLu x Buckets — more answers/less confusion (I hope) coming at ya soon! :D

Mia Anime — that was about to be a serious plothole if you didn't point that out lol. Thanks~

Iceshadow27 — plot ftw. I love ninja!plots. Thank you for reviewing~ :)

ArtGirlLullaby — after all of the characters' problems are solved, I promise there'll be more romance in this story. I kind of suck at writing it, but I shall try!

FANATIC-CHANGE — awww thanks. I'm trying here, I swear. It just seems life doesn't want me to update on time. TT_TT

Guest — thanks for the review! And about the whole Lucy thing: let's just say both her and Natsu are stupid (or blind to each other's feelings) in their own ways. Things shall get clearer soon, I promise.

Melodymusical8910 — well, I love you~ lol, but yeah. I'm trying to update faster now. This chapter only took a month to come unlike last chapter's two months, so I'm improving right? No? Okay.

The-Rosette-Wolf — here is the more! :D

ineptia — ATTACK OF THE NINJA!PLOT. Oooh, and uh...in her human form, Lucy doesn't have two sets of ears (lol, that actually would be irksome. I hate stuff like that too), she just has her regular kitty ears. And your guess on what Lucy is to Natsu is way better than what it actually is. Damn, I should've thought of that. You're smart! As for my battle against the Boss Exams, I'm pretty sure I died like...five times. The situation now calls for the ultimate technique of button-mashing! Thanks for your luck, I'll definitely need it~

The Siege — yyyyyyyyyyeah sexy times in the janitor's closeeeeeeeeeet~ XDDDD I honestly would love to write a rated M story and I'm pretty sure I could with all the crazy smut I've read (TMI or nah?), but I'd probably find some way to screw everything up and make an awkward mess of awkwardness. I stick to T ratings to save you all from the second-hand embarrassment. You're welcome. And holy crap, it's a k-popper! Gah, you don't know how long I've been waiting for someone to notice the chapter titles! THANK YOU. I'm a Cassie down to the bones. I freaking love TVXQ/JYJ and everything they do. But I'm also into Big Bang (saw them in concert. It was amazing), VIXX, BTS, SHINee (their new album is my everything right now), EXO and a few others, plus some girl groups like Red Velvet and Crayon Pop. Haha, I'm just freaking out right now. You're making me fangirl. XD Thanks a ton for reviewing~

Ah, and remember kids, stay tuned for chapter eight and review if you wanna!

chu~