Lucy enters her room slowly. Being away from it for a couple of days made it feel weird to come back. Even if she's been gone for longer. This time she feels like a totally different person. Her room feels foreign to her. She only dreads the bathroom, since it brings back so many awful memories.

Lucy pulls out a towel from her hall closet, and heads towards the bathroom in her room. She stops when passing by her night table, where there is cold tea and gross melted ice cream. She crinkles her nose. Unable to stand the sight she takes the bowl and cup with her to the washroom, dumping its contents in the sink. She places the empty cup and bowl back on her night stand and finally feels at ease.

Shutting the bathroom door behind her, Lucy slowly takes off an article of clothing after another. She runs a brush through her hair and stares at her naked body. She sighs. Her body. No where near as beautiful as any of the other girls' bodies. And her random birthmark on her hip that looking like a star. But an ugly star.

With yet another sigh of dissatisfaction Lucy almost reaches for her drawer. Her hand freezes over the handle. At the back of her drawer still sits all of her razors. It's tempting, but Lucy fights it. Suddenly, the voice inside her head whispers, "How about a quick cut on your hip? No one will know~ Plus you can just shower the blood away. No suspicion or anything! Quick and easy!"

"No." Lucy says aloud, backing away. "Natsu trusts me. If I can't even be alone for a couple of hours, than what am I worth?"

Lucy enters the shower and turns the water on hot. She feels relief flood through her as the scorching water relaxes the tension in her back. She didn't cut. She fought it. It's possible to fight the temptation. Lucy did it. She can do it again next time too. It's okay. She's okay.

With deep breaths, Lucy keeps running the same lines over and over in her head. Just hold on until Natsu's back. She can do that. She will do that. She can't even imagine hurting Natsu again by cutting. See that look on his face once was bad enough. Twice... That would be too much to handle. For both of them.

Lucy turns the water off and wraps a towel around herself. She exits the bathroom and looks through her closet to grab her clothes. She changes quickly and lays on her bed for a while. What is she supposed to do while she waits for Natsu? Should she just head to the guild, or wait for him here?

"Lucy!" A voice calls from somewhere inside her house, most likely the kitchen. Lucy jumps at the sudden noise. She makes her way downstairs to find Natsu in the kitchen, with a mouth full of her left-over chicken. He waves a flyer in his hand and says with a stuffed mouth, "I found an easy job for us!"

"What is it?" Lucy takes the flyer out of his hands. She reads, "'Help wanted! Please find our lost daughter in the East Forest! 50,000 Jewels' Doesn't sound too hard. And it's not very far at all! Should we head out right now?"

"Every second counts." Natsu says.

Lucy's sweat drops. "It's kind of hard to take you seriously when your mouth is full of chicken."

"Oh, sorry." Natsu swallows the last of the chicken and grins. "Okay, we can go now."

The two head towards the house of the requester. The house is just outside of the forest, but close enough to the city to be part of Magnolia. No wonder the child would have gotten lost in the forest. Lucy nudges Natsu. "You've been to the East Forest a couple of times, haven't you? You probably know your way around, right?"

"More than just a couple of times. I know my way around the basic areas. I have no clue where a little girl could be hiding." Natsu answers. "But if anything, she probably found Porlyusica's house and stayed there."

"Except Porlyusica hates humans and would turn her away." Lucy says. "So we have no clue whether or not she'd be there."

"Even still, it's a good place to start."

When the two reach a house that looks as if it might be the one, Lucy taps lightly on the door. After a few seconds, the door opens to show a couple who seem to have been crying. Lucy looks over at Natsu who shrugs. The husband is first to speak. "Y-Yes?"

Lucy smiles warmly at the couple. "Hello! I'm Lucy and this is Natsu. We're here on behalf of your request to find your daughter?"

"Oh, yes, please come in!" The husband says, stepping aside and allowing the two entrance. Lucy walks in first, followed by Natsu. The man leads them to the living room while the woman heads to kitchen, muttering something about tea through her sobs. Lucy and Natsu take a seat on the couch, and the man takes a seat on the couch across from them.

"My name is Koga Chikafusa. My wife's name is Koga Hikaru. Two days ago we were out enjoying a picnic with our daughter, Yuna, when she ran off. She said something about going to see the river and went to go look at it. We began to get worried when she didn't come back. We were searching for her all day, and when it began to get dark, I suggested Hikaru go home. She's pregnant and I don't want her to stress.

I was looking for her all night, and even throughout the next day. While I was searching, Hikaru placed a request at your guild. I began to think I myself was lost, and headed back. We thought we should leave it to you mages to help." Chikafusa says.

"So... Worst case scenario is that she fell in the river." Lucy says. "Best case scenario is that she is lost."

"Great! We'll head out now!" Natsu says, completely disregarding Hikaru as she walks in with four cups of tea.

"Natsu, relax." Lucy says. "Can we see a picture of her, so we know who to look for?"

"Oh, of course!" Chikafusa takes out his wallet and hands them a picture of the girl.

Lucy is surprised to be looking at a beautiful young lady, probably Lucy's age. Natsu gives the picture a glance too. Lucy looks up at him, expecting him to gush over her beauty, but instead he nods his head. "Alright, we know who we're looking for. Let's go!"

Natsu dashes out the door. Lucy gives the couple an apologetic smile. "Sorry, he gets excited easily. I promise we'll find your daughter for you. And I wish you two luck with your pregnancy."

"That's very kind of you, Lucy." Hikaru says, rubbing her belly.

Lucy waves and runs after Natsu. When she catches up to him, she knows his first location he wants to visit already. Lucy nudges Natsu's side. "So, that Yuna girl is really pretty. And her name is beautiful too. I wonder what she looks like in person."

"Eh." Natsu replies, uninterested.

"She looks very kind. Her parents were very nice, too. I wonder if we'll become friends?" Lucy wonders whole-heartedly. Also, it's a way of seeing if Natsu is really interested in any girl other than her. Natsu doesn't even blink. Lucy smiles slightly. Natsu doesn't really care about the girl in a romantic sense, only business from the looks of it.

Once Porlyusica's house is in view, Natsu runs to knock on the door. Porlyusica opens it with angry scowl. "What do you want, Fairy Tail?!"

"Hello, Porlyusica-san!" Lucy says pleasantly. "We're here on a mission to find a girl about my age. Brunette hair, brown eyes, about 5'6?"

"Haven't seen her." Porlyusica says sharply, about to slam the door when Natsu sticks his arm out.

"Have you heard anything that could have sounded like a girl in the last two days? Even something distant? Or even a twig snapping? She could have been calling for help from some place." Natsu says seriously.

Porlyusica sighs. "Child, leave me be. I have not noticed anything suspicious in the last week. This is a forest, if there is a twig snapping, it's just another animal, which there are a lot of. So hurry up and find the girl before she is eaten, rather than pestering me."

With that she slams the door and leaves Lucy and Natsu standing on her front step. Lucy puckers her lips and pops them. "Well, that was a pleasant encounter. Where to?"

"We can go look around the river. Try to find any clues there or even find her." Natsu says, leading the way. "And if she's not there, then we're screwed."

Lucy sighs. "I promised the Koga's we'd find their daughter."

"But who's to say we'll find her alive?" Natsu asks.

"Natsu, don't say stuff like that." Lucy says sadly, feeling a shiver run down her spine. "We're gonna find her. And we're gonna take her home."

Natsu nods. Soon, they reach the river bank. The start off looking to find foot prints our any kind of evidence that could show she's been there. But there isn't anything, not even a sign that shows she may have fallen into the river and carried out by the waves.

"She's not here. So either she didn't make it here, or she got lost on her way here." Lucy observes. "We should try looking deeper into the forest."

"I have a feeling she may be taking shelter in one of the trees. It would protect her from the animals and she'd have a place to sleep at night." Natsu adds. "But there are plenty of trees, and it's beginning to get dark."

"Not to mention the clouds look kind of scary." Lucy notices with a gulp.

"Let's take a look around a couple of trees nearby then take shelter in one of them when it gets dark." Natsu orders. Lucy nods and they make their way to the first tree near them. They search around it and continue to look inside. Once that tree is clear, they move on to another, and another.

"Koga Yuna!" Natsu calls out. "Koga Yuna! We're here to rescue you! Koga Yuna!"

"Natsu! What if a forest vulcan hears you?" Lucy warns, looking around yet another tree.

Natsu scoffs. "Then I'll kick his ass."

Lucy is about to reply when she feels a large drop of water land on her cheek, followed by a couple more on her head. Lucy ducks inside the tree for cover, followed by Natsu. Natsu closes the door and turns to Lucy, who's is trying to adjust to the dark. "I can't see anything!"

Natsu lights his hand on fire, giving them some light. Lucy sighs in relief. She looks around the tight space. "So, are we supposed to sleep here for the night and head out to search again in the morning? It's kind of small in here."

"I'd let you sleep in here alone but I'm worried you'd be afraid of the dark." Natsu says, taking a seat on the ground. "I guess we'll have to sleep here."

Lucy lays down and looks over at Natsu, who's still sitting. "Aren't you going to sleep?"

Natsu nods, laying down next to Lucy. He places a protective arm around her waist. The flame is gone but Lucy can see the outline of Natsu's face. He's smiling at her. Lucy blushes when she feels him lean his head closer. Close enough to feel his hot breath on her shoulder.

"N-Natsu?" Lucy says stiffly.

"Hmm?" Natsu answers back lazily.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Lucy says, cursing herself for sounding so squeaky.

Natsu grins. "Nothing I couldn't do more of."

"Natsu..."

Natsu's arm tightens around Lucy, securing her next to him. He just chuckles slightly before wandering off to sleep. Lucy's eyes are wide open though. Why does he keep doing this? And why does he just fall asleep so soon? Not that she's complaining or anything... But-ugh!

What does all of this teasing mean even? Does this mean he's interested? Or is he leading her on? Or is he just being the clueless Natsu that he is? Well you can't quite say such things and be clueless about it. But is he implying something here... Dammit Natsu!

All she can do now is sleep. But it's hard to do that when the guy you borderline love is sleeping right next to you, with his arm over you and you can feel his breath on your shoulder. Which, quite frankly, tickles a lot. Just the usual, you know.


A/N: Haha, I hope that was a good tease ;) I'm still waiting for that right moment to add it in. I mean, it wouldn't be nice to just be like, "BABAM" and out of no where LEMONS, LEMONS EVERYWHERE.

Can you guys guess in the reviews who Koga Yuna is based off of? Haha, you probably won't get it, but take a wild guess. ;) Hint: A girl not from the anime world, but still named "Yuna".

Reviews are greatly appreciated!