A/N: It's never really registered to me before this chapter, but wouldn't Natsu sort of qualify as Happy's father, in a way? With that thought in mind, it would make sense that he'd be extremely protective of him.
Yes, I'm late to the party. I didn't want attend, you see.
Oh yeah, added some stuff down the bottom of last chapter. You may wanna go and peruse that if you haven't already, it may help.
Kageyama didn't bother to pay attention to the stares he was receiving as he hurried towards the train station. Dishevelled clothes hung from his thin frame, which had only diminished in the last few weeks. The ominous flute he held tight enough for his knuckles to turn white was drawing some attention, but nobody had decided to approach him about it yet, and he wasn't planning on stopping and allowing anyone the chance.
He was tired, having spent the last twelve hours travelling on foot, and the thirty-six before then using up all of his magic four times over. He was hungry, having not had the chance to stop even once in his quest. His eyes were sporting large bags, the product of days on end without sleep, and without the tie that he'd lost Kami knows when, his hair was a complete mess, resembling something that a blind bird would build to keep their eggs' safe, whilst intoxicated.
But above all that, he was ecstatic. Not that anyone would have been able to tell, what with the thousand-yard stare and the way he almost tripped over with every third step, but rest assured, Kageyama was feeling over the moon right now.
Not because he'd accidentally huffed smoke from the last trap that he'd failed to notice between himself and his target, but that could have had something to do with it. No, Kageyama was extremely happy, because after close to a month of good, solid effort, he'd finally managed to complete his Guild's first major goal.
He'd managed to retrieve Lullaby.
The flute had been a complete bitch to even locate, and most of the defences surrounding it had been more than slightly ludicrous, but he had managed what so many before him had probably failed to do.
No, not stealing the flute, nobody was dumb enough to want that sort of power in anyone's hands. He'd managed to complete a task set to him by Erigor, his Guild's Ace, which meant that he probably wasn't going to have his soul reaped by the Shinigami of Eisenwald!
Kageyama could have broken out into song at that very moment, but he looked crazed enough as it was. Plus, his singing sucked, and getting arrested for public indecency was more than likely going to make him fail the mission.
This had been Erigor's dream for six years, what he was holding in his hand. A means for revenge against all those Guilds that so willingly threw his down the path of darkness. It was their fault that Erigor had to resort to such measures against them, how dare they turn their backs on a fellow Guild in their time of need? What was so bad about the assassination missions? Somebody needed to take them!
The saddest thing is that the small monologue above isn't Kageyama or the narrator being sarcastic (for once). There was not a trace of irony flowing with the words as they circled through Kageyama's mind, such was the influence of the man that had terrified even his own Guild Master into submission.
Kageyama had been hearing those sentiments for so long, coming from a person he admired, reviled, and was shit scared of, that he'd begun to believe it himself.
He had no choice but to get the Demon Flute back to Eisenwald. If not for himself, then for Erigor. For all his comrades that had been forced to the shadows that he could manipulate and had used more than once to end a person's life for money.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that statement. Wind is the strongest of the periodic table. Heil Erigor.
Ooooh, a butterfly.
In his sleep and hunger deprived lunacy, Kageyama didn't even notice the mountain in front of him, even as he shuffled towards it at a snail's pace. The mountain was looking at him oddly even before he impacted against it, hitting a chest that may have well have been a brick wall and falling onto his ass with a sound between a yawn and a shout of surprise.
It didn't help him look sane, if that's what you're asking. Quite the opposite, in fact.
"Are you alright?" Someone who sounded like they didn't own an indoor voice inquired from above him.
Kageyama peeled his head from the ground, barely quashing the impulse to skewer the person that had decided to get in his way with shadows. Getting ready to apologise and run, Kageyama looked up, the words dying in his throat and a call for his long lost whale brethren replacing it.
OK, who the fuck shaved the Vulcan and threw it into the town? Come on, raise your hand. We don't judge here.
That's a lie. We judge everything.
Noticing the house was staring at him as though he were insane, Kageyama pushed himself to his feet, tottering from side to side unsteadily. Oddly enough, his right arm felt a lot lighter than it had a few seconds ago. Why was that, Kageyama wondered?
It took him far longer than he would like to admit, but once it became apparent that his fingers were no longer closed around the Demon Flute, Kageyama gave a short scream that caused a nearby mother to hurriedly lead her child away, throwing his head around this way and that in an attempt to find where his newest most precious possession had gotten to.
Upon landing his eyes upon the caricature of what Kageyama had always imagined he'd look like when he was seven, the three cold, dead eyes that were staring at him sent a rush of adrenaline down his spine, and for what happened next to make any sense at all, we all need to come to terms with a few things.
Over the last few weeks, Kageyama had worked himself to the bone to find that flute. It had been his sole purpose of living, for if he failed to retrieve it, he would be forfeiting his life to the Shinigami of the Eisenwald Guild. He may have been their best Magic Dispeller on hand, but he wasn't the only one, and with his mediocre at best skills on the battlefield, Kageyama was very well aware that he wasn't irreplaceable.
So when the food he'd packed for the mission had run out halfway through, he'd gone without. When his deadline had started approaching faster than he would have been able to dispel the traps surrounding the flute, he'd sacrificed his sleep for more precious time with which to work. There had been no stopping to rest, and once the final spell had finally been felled, he'd not given himself even a moment of respite.
He'd grabbed the flute, and ignoring the limits his body was very clearly reminding him that he had, he'd started to run.
The Demon Flute had always been Erigor's goal. He, along with the rest of his surviving Guild, had been forced into studying how to dispel protective magic, all as a means for Erigor to reach his goals.
There had been very little anyone could do; they were a Guild of assassins, not warriors, and the Shinigami was the best of them. None of them, alone or together, could stand against Erigor with any hope; the man was as close to a God that Eisenwald had ever gotten.
A God of Death. Even years afterwards, that stigma had never left Erigor, and neither had the fear that surrounded it. More than half a decade, living in that terror and close proximity with such a person, was going to have an adverse effect, no matter how big or small.
Whether through that debilitating fear, or any other such deciding factor, Kageyama had started wanting that flute. His desires had started to mirror Erigor's, and so now here he stood, staring dumbly down at the flute he'd worked so hard to get be waved slowly back and forth as the giant clicked the tree trunks he probably called fingers in his face.
Kageyama hadn't eaten in over a week. He hadn't slept in almost as long. He'd been surviving on whatever streams he'd been lucky enough to find on his journey, and had such little magic left inside him that a child wielding a Nerf gun would find no issues in defeating him in open, all out combat.
Erigor may very well have been unnecessarily malicious and insane, but he wanted that flute, and Kageyama was shit scared of Erigor.
But most of all, even after all the Hell he'd gone through to retrieve that item; even with the enormous punishment that was awaiting his failure, years upon year of fine-tuned conditioning, whether accidental or deliberate, had culminated into the most driving reason behind Kageyama's actions.
Screw Erigor. After all the shit he'd gone through, Kageyama really fucking wanted that damn flute.
So it would really come as no surprise to anyone aware of the context when Kageyama dropped the pre-planned gentlemanly approach he'd always default back to, raising his arms in front of him and taking a shambling step forth as he screamed, "Demon Flute MIIIIIINE!" at the top of his lungs.
He then proceeded to trip over a pebble in the road, and was out like a light before he even hit the ground.
And as Elfman scratched his head in confusion, looked down at the ridiculously obvious evil flute in his hands, and wondered what the Hell he'd just been subjected to, Kageyama's stomach rumbled.
XxX
"…That book really needs to be destroyed. I can't forgive that book's existence."
The previous jovial mood which had been enjoyed by all those present in the sitting room died down, following after Kaby's eyes as they descended to the small table that separated him from his new employees. Lucy found herself sitting up a little straighter as Kaby's mouth twisted into a bitter frown, watching from the corner of her eye as Natsu slowly crossed his arms and Happy's jubilant cry of, "how many fish can I buy with two million!?" faded into an awkward murmur.
There was a moment of silence, during which Happy cleared his throat quietly and stared at the ceiling.
"So," Kaby's wife, whom had yet to relinquish her name, Lucy noted absently, stepped forward, her hands clasped over her chest and a small smile on her face in spite of the room's atmosphere, "will you take the job?"
Lucy fidgeted in her seat as Kaby's wife's eyes landed on her, overly happy about the fact that she'd decided against wearing her new maid's uniform to this interview. Opening her mouth to answer, she was immediately cut off as Natsu tilted his head back until it hit the back of the couch they were sitting on, heaved a deep breath through his nostrils, and propped his feet up onto the table with no shortage of noise.
"I'm not buying it." He announced, after he'd slammed his feet onto the table and damn near gave Kaby a heart attack. The poor man had shot upwards in his seat, almost sailing right over the back of his couch as he clutched at his chest.
"But Natsu, he doesn't want you to buy the book, he wants you to…" Happy blinked a few times, trailing off as his face lit up in understanding. "Oh, nevermind."
Natsu's head fell to the side, staying that way just long enough for him to roll his eyes in Happy's direction before it snapped back upwards. In the approximate amount of time that it took Lucy's heart to beat, Natsu was leaning forward, his feet back on the ground and his elbows resting against his knees.
"You smell nothing like this house. You don't actually live here, do you?" Natsu began, once it became apparent that nobody else was going to break the silence. Kaby looked like a deer that had been caught in the headlights, his wife not fairing much better. Lucy, as was becoming custom for her, felt utterly left out of the loop, and Happy wasn't really paying attention anymore.
"People live here, I can smell their scent all over the place." Natsu continued, rotating a finger around the room. "All of the furniture is in place, and there's already dust all over them, so you couldn't have just moved in. As for the pay…"
Natsu shook his head, releasing a sigh through his nose as he narrowed his eyes.
"Two hundred thousand is a lot for this kind of thing, but there wouldn't be any point questioning that, if this was your house. Two million is S-Class level pay and that sounds like a trap to me." Kaby gulped nervously, his eyes shifting to the side as Natsu turned a piercing stare onto him. "I can smell your anxiety. Why are you so desperate? What's in that book?"
Kaby's Adam's apple bobbed as he glanced over at his wife, whom, if possible, looked even more nervous than he did. Lucy's eyes travelled down to his hands, which had started to shake to an almost violent degree, and accompanied with a gulp of her own, the fact that she may have gotten herself into a situation she wasn't prepared for in the slightest registered.
So pre-occupied she was with those thoughts, that Lucy didn't even notice the fire springing to life across Natsu's shoulders, nor the fist that was very rapidly descending onto the table's surface.
Natsu's hand slammed into the wood with the sound of a cannon being fired, hard enough to send a network of cracks screaming across the surface. Lucy and Kaby's wife both gave small shrieks, one of surprise and the other fear, whilst Kaby himself jerked back as though he had been the one struck.
"For all I know, you've put two of my friends in danger just by asking us to come here. You know more than what you've given us and you will tell me, now." Natsu's voice travelled in a low growl, one that abolished any doubts that Lucy had about his adoptive parentage. Flames raced down Natsu's arm, coating his fist with orange and blue flecked magic. Interestingly enough, the fire itself didn't so much as touch the table, never moving to the underside of Natsu's fist or crackling over to its threshold.
"M-my father was Kemu Zaleon!" Lucy's eyes, already open pretty much as far as they could go, didn't really have the chance to react to that piece of news. Considering the circumstances, she neglected against requesting an autograph.
The way the man flinched at his own father's name wasn't lost on any of them.
"That book was the last thing he ever wrote, after he was kidnapped by the Duke Everlue! For three years, I never got to see my father! He was forced to write it, and when Everlue released him, he…he…" Kaby's voice broke into a desperate whisper, one quaking hand rising to wipe the moisture from his eyes. Heedless of their company, his wife hurried over, throwing herself onto the couch beside Kaby and drawing him into a desperate hug.
"That book…it's a stain. It ruined him." Kaby's voice was barely loud enough for Lucy to hear, what with it being muffled through his wife's shoulder, not that that was really an issue for Natsu's senses. "After he killed himself, I never got a chance to say goodbye. That book needs to be destroyed, for his sake…"
Kaby's arms tightened around his wife, and his next sentences really were too low for Lucy to hear.
"Everyone else I hired hasn't come back, and I don't know what else I can do. Please, I have his inheritance; I've just not done anything with it. I'll pay anything…"
Giving in to primal urges, Lucy turned to look out the window, in order to give Kaby and his wife some semblance of privacy. Happy, who had at some point relocated himself to Lucy's lap, did the same, though he did turn back once Natsu began to withdraw his hand from the table slowly.
"Ninety thousand jewels." Natsu casually brushed the shards of wood that had managed to break through his skin from his knuckles, before reaching into his pocket and pointedly ignoring the looks everyone in the room was giving him. Pulling his wallet out, Natsu made eye contact with Kaby, his face cracking into a grin that really had no place in their current environment.
"And you don't tell anyone about asking for our help."
Lucy blinked uncomprehendingly at the abrupt shift in mood, whilst Kaby and his wife both gaped outright. Natsu raised his eyebrows after a few moments of silence, grinning once again and hurriedly dragging both Lucy and Happy out of the room at Kaby's hesitant nod.
A moment later, he sprinted back in, throwing a few paper bills in Kaby's general direction and slamming his wallet back into his pocket.
"That should cover the table!" He called over his shoulder, following it up just before slamming the front door shut with, "it smells like it would be expensive!"
Kaby stared down at the money, his face clearly asking for an explanation.
Kaby's wife just wondered why the Hell she hadn't been designated a name yet.
XxX
"Only you could stumble halfway around the continent in a drugged up haze, and then show up a day later with a Golden Celestial Spirit Key."
Silver blew a piece of medical gauze away from his nose, staring at the opposite wall through lidded eyes as Ur continued to wrap his various injuries.
"I'm also the only person who can fly at speeds over that of sound." He pointed out, not giving Ur the pleasure of hearing his discomfort after his (admittedly smart-assy) comment earned him a harder tug than necessary. "Sometimes these things overlap, what can you do?"
"You could try having more self-preservation instincts than Natsu on the days when Gildarts and Laxus are hung-over, to start." Ur shook her head in exasperation, as though she hadn't been the one to tie him to a chair and break out the medical supplies as soon as he tumbled through the Guild's doors.
So he'd been bleeding freely for about twice as long as most people could even survive, big deal. How was he supposed to freeze the ravine on the back of his head shut when he couldn't see it, and wasn't even aware it had been there?
Apparently, his public and very blatant refusal to allow her to kiss it all better had just been the first handful of dirt in the quest to dig his own grave.
It also didn't help that Ur had taken to punching everything, after she'd disinfected and bandaged it. There were better times to teach people things than when they were possibly suffering concussions, after all. Plus, Silver just sucked at retaining information at the best of times.
"Anyway, ridiculous coincidences aside, what happened next?"
"Oh. Well, after the fifth demon tried to assassinate me, they eventually gave up and asked me how I knew about the Key." Silver's eye twitched as Ur finished wrapping, and subsequently smacked, the back of his head. "That parts kind of blurry, but I do remember laughing at someone's nose and being challenged to see if I was worthy of the Key."
Ur hissed between her teeth as she came across a particularly nasty bruise between his shoulder blades, before kicking him harshly in the shin where she knew a hairline fracture was recovering. Silver couldn't tell if his lack of reaction annoyed or dismayed her, unfamiliar with the odd look that passed along her face for but a moment before he raised an eyebrow and turned back to face the wall.
"Eventually, they decided on trial by fire," Silver rolled his eyes, "of course, my dumb ass then decided to tell them that I'd felt more heat the last time I lost my shirt in public, and that their fire was lame. Apparently, they didn't like me insulting their fire, because they upgraded it to trial by volcano."
Ur sprayed something that smelled vile on his upper back, and Silver's eye twitched minutely again as the stinging sensation set in.
"Sounds fun." She commented, tightening the ropes around his wrists that had loosened slightly. He probably wouldn't have stayed put, even if every bone in his body had been broken, so it was more a precaution than anything else.
"Their stupid piece of shit volcano was inactive." Silver glanced over his shoulder again, Ur matching his bored expression with one of her own. "I had to reactivate it. Do you understand how difficult it is to reactivate a volcano with ice?"
Ur neglected to answer, choosing to instead raise an eyebrow and flick his upper thigh, which had turned green at some point, for whatever reason.
"Turns out, it was more difficult than what I was willing to deal with." Silver briefly considered the prospect of amputating his leg once the sensations failed to stop, but decided against it. Prosthetic legs were Ur's thing, he couldn't go around copying her any more than he already did; he already used her magic. "So I decided to threaten them with genocide if they didn't just hand over the damn Key."
"You threatened to kill an entire island just to get your own way?" Ur asked, her tone reprimanding.
"Hey, I offered them money, and they insisted on trying to screw me over. I'm not even sure if they had a volcano." Silver tolerated Ur's blank stare for all but a second before scowling. "Don't look at me like that, I was young, stupid, and off my tits with something that I now assume to be experimental. In fact, I think I still may be."
Ur held his gaze for a moment, before sighing and shaking her head.
"And they just gave you the Key?" She inquired, as if expecting anything but yet another ridiculous coincidence which would allow all the chips to fall in exactly the right place for-
"Of course they didn't. That would have been too easy, so I beat the shit out of the guy guarding it and stole it." Silver snorted. "The path of least resistance always was my favourite."
Ur deigned not to comment on that one.
"Though if we're ever part of a war and we need Galuna's assistance to win, then we're screwed." Silver glanced at the ceiling contemplatively. "What are Magnolia's laws concerning public battles to the death?"
"Very lax, why?"
"I think I heard the head demon declare a blood feud on the house of Fullbuster when I was flying away." Silver narrowed his eyes, a hand composed of ice springing up from the floorboards to scratch his chin. "Would that fall under Galuna's jurisdiction? Actually, how did he even know my name?"
"Are you asking me how the demon knew of the person famous for killing demons?" Ur silently Ice-Made a large knife, absently slicing through the ropes binding Silver's wrists and ankles, as well as the stool she'd dragged up from the first floor.
Silver blinked at her tiredly before abandoning the stool, neglecting to stretch in favour of swiping his cup of coffee and draining at least four fifths of its contents.
After sniffing it suspiciously first.
"You know what, never mind." Silver tottered to the railing of the Guild's second floor, inadvertently covering his trail with medical gauze. Seeing as the only things left out in the open were his eyes, mouth, and one of his hands, it wasn't really all that surprising.
Gingerly reclining against the railing, Silver returned Mirajane's wave from behind the counter with a half-hearted one of his own, glancing over his shoulder just in time to watch Ur snap the med-kit she'd been using shut, and throw it carelessly over her shoulder.
Gildarts and Cana, both of whom were sitting at the bar below them, seemed to find his current situation hilarious. Much like everything else in Silver's life, they were easy enough to ignore.
"So where is everyone?" He inquired as Ur joined him by the railing, ignoring the sounds of the med-kit flying through the closed window and apparently landing on several metallic objects and stray cats.
"I think Max went-"
"Let me rephrase that." Silver drained his cup, flicking it to the side and into the water filled sink below them. "Where is everyone that I explicitly care about?"
Ur snorted as she mirrored his stance against the railings, her head falling to rest on his less injured shoulder.
"You're no fun." She informed him unnecessarily. "Let's see, uh… I know Makarov's at some event for Guild Masters, and the Raijinshū are with him as bodyguards. Gray's at home- he left a little before you got here, and Natsu took the new girl and Happy on a job."
Silver rolled his shoulder, Ur letting out a low squeal of childish amusement as she rode the movement. It was clear that she was ignoring the message behind it, that being 'get off'. "What about Erza?"
"No clue." Ur replied unceremoniously, her head stubbornly remaining steadfast as Silver shook his arm roughly. 'Please get off'. "Last time I saw her was two days ago, maybe? I dunno."
"Fair enough." Contrary to the nature of their Guild, both Ice Mages lapsed into a comfortable silence, broken only by Ur's annoyed grunts every time Silver poked the side of her head with his entirely wrapped hand.
'Get the fuck off.'
XxX
"Natsu… what are you doing?"
Natsu stopped adjusting his new domino mask for a moment, one eyebrow appearing above the black plastic as he glanced over at Lucy.
"Before I tell you, I want you to keep in mind that I have good ideas, and this is one of them." At Lucy's hesitant nod, Natsu dug around in his pocket, pulling out a colourful piece of fabric and holding it out to the Celestial Spirit Mage. "We're ransacking Everlue's place."
Lucy opened her mouth, leaving her jaw hanging for a moment before slowly closing it. For those silent seconds, Natsu continued to extending the fabric expectantly as Happy drifted down to alight his shoulder, the top hat that had been thrown over his head having fallen down to completely cover his eyes.
"Why?" Lucy finally inquired flatly. She'd only been familiar with Natsu for a little less than half a week, but already she was realising that resistance was futile.
Clever girl.
"Everlue's a bastard." Upon noticing Lucy's confusion, which, to be fair, hadn't really left, Natsu decided to elaborate. "I asked around when you got the costume, and nobody likes the guy. 'Course, I actually don't know anything about him, but sheep mentality is always the easiest one to follow, and I really want to impose myself where it would cause the most damage."
"…Why?" Lucy repeated.
"Because it'll be funny, and I didn't get to blow up the boat." Natsu shook his occupied hand, drawing Lucy's attention back down to it. "Now put this on; I don't feel like bailing you out, and Laxus would force me to."
"Why only ninety thousand jewels?" No, wait, apparently Lucy still had some fight in her. Poor girl.
Natsu sighed patiently. "Because that's your first month of rent, and my payment for this job will be whatever I see in Everlue's place that I want. Come to think of it… Yo, Happy, Bixlow still has those contacts in the Yakuza, right?"
"Aye!"
"Sweet, make sure you grab anything that looks expensive, we'll fence them later."
"The YAKUZA!?" Lucy almost shrieked, only just managing to keep her voice down to just above the low murmur the group had been using up until that point.
Oh yes, they had to speak quietly, because they were currently crouched behind a bush, just on the outskirts of the Duke Everlue's mansion.
Proooobably should'a mentioned that sooner, huh?
"Yep." Natsu nodded jovially, still holding the fabric out to Lucy. He looked entirely too happy for the situation, which really shouldn't have come as a surprise at this point. "And I might have already sent them a message to let them know that they'll have some new stuff by tomorrow, so we'd better get moving. I like my fingertips."
Well aware that she would come to regret this, Lucy tiredly accepted the fabric with no small amount of trepidation, unfolding it to reveal…
A luchador mask.
A rainbow luchador mask.
...Maybe she should have chosen the coat, cape and cowl combo during that hypothetical situation Natsu pitched to her over lunch.
XxX
"…Let me see if I've got this correct, Sir. You claim that one of the elites from Fairy Tail, Salamander to be exact, broke into your mansion wearing a mask, along with a talking cat and a… wrestling maid. The three then proceeded to utilise Ex-Quip magic, among others, to disable all security inside your mansion and make off with numerous belongings, of which was included a Golden Key and a golden book?"
"AND MY GOLDEN TOILET!"
The officer blinked down at Everlue, cast a long glance around at the destruction surrounding him, and tapped the communications Lacrima that had been sewn into his uniform's shoulder pad.
"Yeeeeah…" He murmured into the Lacrima, as Everlue launched into another angry rant over how they could have at least waited until he'd finished before ripping [grumble grumble grumble] from the ground and tipping it over his head. "You wanna get that search warrant, or should I?"
XxX
In case you're wondering, for the sake of my story, let's just say that drug use is illegal in Fiore. I don't know what the laws concerning it are where you're from (I don't even know what the laws surrounding them are where I'M from), but rest assured that it's unnecessary to the plot (at this point or any other point in the future, most likely), and I do not care.
Why am I fragmenting the Daybreak Arc so much? Because it's boring and unnecessary. Natsu is fun to write, but at the same time, he's really damn difficult. And before you ask, no, Natsu is not a member of the mafia. He's merely part of a Guild that's affiliated with them. Is that pushing the suspension of disbelief too far? I hope not, because we're just getting started.
Who is to say that the mafia doesn't need to hire mages ever, after all?
I'll write a character that's oblivious at times, but I'm not tolerating another idiot hero. Just imagine that Silver now has a different angle to look from, and is not willing to accept that his eternal rival was that daft. I just…dunno. Am I sucking here? I hope I'm not sucking here.
Either way, I'm still having a ball writing this, so there's that. I hope you've enjoyed yourself as well!
Until next chapter!
X
