Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters.

...I can't believe it took me so long to update. I had the chapter all written one week after the previous one, for a change! But my beta was on vacation in Portugal, so she couldn't even read it until now... Anyway, on with the drama! (next chapter will be funnier, I swear! It's just the plot, it's kinda over-dramatic right now...)

Hope you like it!

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Chapter 10: This is war

Natsu felt like he had just woken up from a particularly restless sleep. His body was hot, even for him, and every one of his muscles felt sore. Maybe he even had a broken rib or two.

The dragon slayer took in his surroundings quickly, only to gape at the situation he was in.

He was squeezing a body against a wall (it was Lucy, he realized after seeing strands of strawberry blonde hair and two wide brown eyes staring back at him), and pressing his lips on its lips! No, not 'its lips', Lucy's lips!

Putting as much space between the celestial mage and him as he could in one jump, he gazed at her, thousand questions in his eyes.

"What...?!"

A blue form suddenly came into his field of vision, harboring a knowing smirk and flying in his direction.

Happy?

"What...?!" he repeated, glancing at Lucy, who had not moved an inch after he had broken his embrace, not even taking time to blink, or even breathe. She was covered in bruises and cuts, and held her keyring in one hand.

Who did this to her? he thought frantically, random images of the fight that had taken place in the room filling his brain, but making no sense to him.

"What happened?" he finally managed to utter. He tried to put back the pieces of his memories together. First... the brothers had come in, and started a fight with him. He had easily beaten them at first. Then why is Lucy hurt? As he was about to end the fight with a Fire Dragon Roar... they had attacked him with their own magic... and then... there was a black hole from here, until the moment Happy had made that comment. Natsu had the impression his consciousness had simply evaporated for a while, and come back just a second ago. No, maybe not quite evaporated. It had just shrunk to the size of a drop of water, to expand suddenly a moment later. What made it go back to its normal size? And why is Lucy hurt?

All his questions just kept spilling into his mind without getting any answers.

A rough voice cut him off of his wondering thoughts, its tone sarcastic:

"We hoped you would provide the answers, not us."

"Happy, is your voice okay?" Natsu asked, dumfounded at the sudden change in pitch. The exceed just laughed his question off and gave him a hug with his little paws.

He then gestured to the wooden door, where a short figure was standing, warm smile on but eyes wary at the scene displaying in front of him.

"Korri!" The grandpa waved at him slightly before taking a step toward Lucy, who still hadn't moved one bit from her spot against the wall. Natsu frowned. He also took a step in her direction. "Are you okay?" he asked softly, worry etched in his voice.

If one thing, Lucy's eyes grew wider than before, suddenly focusing on the dragon slayer's face. She let out a sharp breath and Natsu could practically hear her heart beat wildly in her chest. He smiled weakly at those signs of life, but his frown never quite disappeared; there was a look of pure panic in those brown eyes, and it looked as if it was directed at him. "Are you okay?" he repeated when she didn't answer, but it was getting obvious that she wasn't anything near okay.

Natsu took another hesitant step, but before he had even set his foot down, Lucy started raising her arms out in front of her, shaking her head slightly.

"N-no, don't...come... I'm fine!" she sputtered, averting her eyes from him.

The pink haired mage froze, one foot in the air. Then realization hit him.

Lucy didn't want him near her.

Ignoring the way his heart had started pounding painfully in his chest, he attempted to place a smile on his face, but he was sure it came out more as a grimace. "O-okay, good if you're fine."

When had it become so awkward, talking to Lucy? His best friend?

Why was he so awkward?

He really had to figure out what had resulted in him pinning his partner to a wall and... well.

Stop asking yourself questions you cannot even answer! a voice in his mind suddenly sounded. You're Natsu Dragneel, of Fairy Tail! That thought actually made him feel a little better. He grinned his trade mark grin, and he noticed the corners of Lucy's mouth twitch upward for a brief second.

Now he just knew everything was going to be alright. When his friends were smiling, trouble could be overcome. That was one of the many things he had learnt while a member of Fairy Tail. He heaved a sigh of relief and turned to Happy.

"How did you know we were in there?"

"We were just waiting for the coast to be clear before going to meet up with Lucy. We had come up with a diversion for the brothers but it didn't last long and we were beginning to worry they had found you all..." the exceed explained. "Seems like you were the ones to find them, though!" he added happily, glancing at the two beaten bodies across the ground. And then his smile faded a little. "Who's that?" he asked, gesturing to a third unconscious body lying on the damp stone.

"Layla!" Lucy blurted out suddenly as Natsu noticed the form for the first time. Both of them rushed to the girl's side. The dragon slayer kneeled down and slightly raised her face up, watching as her mouth let out a peaceful breath. She's just sleeping. Relief took over him as he realized his friend was alright. The girl didn't even seem to have cuts or bruises. Lucy sighed softly and brushed away strands of dark hair from Layla's face.

She then got up and spoke up:

"We need to get out of here. Korri-san, do you know of any safe place we could go to? I think we should just rest for today and prepare to take action during the contest."

Korri nodded.

"Just come over to my house," he offered, a warm smile on his wrinkled face.

They all got up, Natsu taking Layla in his arms carefully and Lucy locking the brothers up in the remaining cell beforehand. However, before any of them had time to lay a finger on the doorknob, the wooden board flew open and a pair of cold black eyes matching a cruel face was scanning the inside of the dungeons. The eyes promptly spotted Natsu holding Layla's sleeping body. And widened in surprise.

At first, the black orbs were only filled with shock and sadness – it seemed utterly out of place in this bottomless darkness –, but soon those feelings were replaced with deep hatred.

Nobody had thought of moving during the short span of time he had arrived, letting the owner of the hateful black eyes exclaim in a loud voice: "So that's how it is... I wanted to give you two another chance but I guess it was no use."

Suddenly his eyes fell on the person standing the closest to him, hand still outstretched toward a now imaginary doorknob, and his eyes lit up with malice. Grabbing Lucy's arm roughly, ignoring her faint cry of protest, he turned back to Natsu and Layla and added, spiteful and amused all at the same time: "Let's see just how far you can get in the contest, with me taking part as well with this girl! I challenge you!"

And before anyone could react to his monologue, he vanished in thin air. Lucy still in his grip.

Natsu's heart dropped to his stomach when he finally registered the information. He had let a bad guy he didn't even know get a hold of Lucy and take her away from him. And now she was in danger. Again.

Without even thinking, the dragon slayer handed Layla's form to Korri and rushed outside into an unfamiliar corridor lined with torches and dusty armors. He hadn't even gotten to the other end of the corridor before a sudden wave of weariness washed over his body and he collapsed on the ground, groaning, his vision becoming blurry. He tried to get back on his feet but his muscles just wouldn't obey his brain.

Move, move, move! he repeated vehemently to himself; still his legs remained unbelievably tensed.

The others had caught up to him. Happy was now lifting him from the ground.

"You're in no shape to have a fight with Leeds right now," Korri simply stated as Natsu mumbled "have to...save...danger...!"

And with that, they headed to Korri's house, bathed in the afternoon sunlight, totally ignoring the dragon slayer who was trying to talk them into going back to the castle to save their friend right away.

Natsu's mind was boiling with thoughts throughout the short trip out of the castle and across the village. Why had this Leeds guy reacted like that to him holding Layla in his arms? Now that he thought about it, his face had conveyed nothing but pain for an instant... He remembered hearing his name before. Yeah, Layla told me he is the master of the dark guild... and he is in love with her or something... Was he jealous then? But that was so... unlike what a master of a dark guild would feel! It was the only explanation he had though, so he decided to go with it for now.

His thoughts always seemed to drift back to Lucy at one point in his inward ramblings. The small smile that had crossed her features back in the castle gave him strength at first, but soon he remembered her panicked, almost... frightened expression as he had tried to make sure she was fine, and doubt overcame him. What had he done to her during that time he couldn't remember? Aside from... yeah. Will she even want to remain partners with me and Happy after all that? Maybe she's stay with Happy... He hasn't done... that to her... He felt miserable without the certainty of his friendship with the blonde mage. Then again, why is she here? He realized he hadn't had the occasion to ask her the question. She was probably heading to Talinvene... maybe she wanted to take on the mission too after all! His heart lightened for a split seconds, and then he recalled the look in her eyes and misery took a hold of him again. I'm such an idiot!

Though his friendship with Lucy was nothing compared to her safety. Before beginning to worry about the former, he still had to make sure of the latter. Which wasn't the case right now. I'm so going to kill that Leeds bastard...! he thought, his teeth gritted and his eyes throwing daggers.

The dragon slayer was interrupted in his thoughts by their arrival at Korri's place.

Korri's wife (who was none other than the obaa-san who had hired the two Fairy Tail members as the new employees the day before) welcomed them all with a frown at their tired expressions, gesturing for them to enter the little cozy house. The group consisting of Natsu, Happy, Korri and Layla made its way to the living room. The old man placed Layla on the closest armchair he could fine, letting out a loud groan and holding his back. Happy just dropped Natsu on the floor next to the armchair before lying down next to him.

At first, they didn't talk about what had just happened; they let Layla time to properly wake up, they grabbed something to eat (Natsu ended up lighting a fire in the old chimney even though it was already a hot summer afternoon), took time to fix their wounds and take some time to rest.

As every one was feeling a little better and Layla had gotten an update on the situation, they formed a circle in the room and started planning the rescue of Lucy and of all the villagers. Natsu had decided to trust Korri when he had told him Leeds wouldn't do anything to hurt Lucy, since he was planning to use her as a partner tonight (Natsu had still cringed at the use of the word "partner". Lucy was his partner. His!). And that was how he had been able to sit still through the afternoon.

Just wait for us, Lucy, we're going to save you! his mind kept repeating, hoping the celestial mage would be able to hear his mental message.

"Ready to go, then?"

"Aye, sir!"

This is war.