-A.N.: Hello again! I know that it has been several months now since I have uploaded a new chapter, and I'm soo sooo sorry!=,( I have been losing focus and drive to finish this story and I have no clue why, ( I did start working full-time so that is a factor.). I have some exciting things planned out for the ending but its taking me too long to get there. Anyway, I plan on wrapping this up soon hopefully. I might consider writing shorter stories in the future so that I don't have this problem again. Please enjoy and review!

-Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fairy Tail.

A Meal To Remember

Chapter 11

Once they were fully dressed in their uniforms again, Natsu and Lucy made their way down the hallway towards Grey. He was leaning up against the wall waiting for the rest of the team to meet up there.

"Hey flame-brain, why were you running around the hallway naked a minute ago?" a chuckling Grey asked. He was still entertained at this golden opportunity to make fun of Natsu.

Natsu was clenching his fists and about to respond back angrily. Lucy thought; Even though it will be embarrassing to admit, I know that it is the only way to shut up Grey and his taunting. She grabbed Natsu's arm and responded first.

"Grey, what Natsu and I do in our private time is none of your concern. I suggest you mind your own business before I get one of my spirits out after you."

Her gaze was piercing his with serious fury behind it, and he knew that she wasn't kidding around.

"Oh sorry, my bad guys. I didn't know you two were…. Oh look here comes Erza and Happy." Grey couldn't have been happier at the sight of them just then.

"Erza! We need to tell you something. We believe that we saw someone acting suspicious." Lucy was eager to get this conversation over with and avoid telling the other two what her and Natsu were doing.

"Really? That's good news then, because I haven't seen anything at all. Please tell me everything, down to the smallest details."

Lucy audibly gulped in nervousness but started telling her what they witnessed. "Natsu and I were in another room down this hallway, talking. That's when someone wearing a cloak opened the door and immediately ran away after we saw them. Nobody who isn't us or a staff member should have been back here."

"Hmm…. That is indeed suspicious. We all need to keep an eye out for this person for the rest of the day. Let's split up into the same groups as earlier and see if we can find this mysterious person. We will meet back up in the main room at five when the museum closes to the public."

They immediately split up into smaller groups again and proceeded to search for the cloaked creeper. After several hours of surveillance and no luck finding the cloaked person, five o'clock rolled around and they all met up in the main room. They grabbed their belongings and set up their sleeping bags and things, and then Erza brought out the provisions so everyone could eat dinner.

"OK, now that we are finished eating, let's figure out how we will split up our guard duty shifts for tonight. I think that it should rotate; starting with Lucy, and then Natsu, followed by Grey and then me. If Natsu is the one waking me up for the start of my shift, I might hurt him in anger. He's not known for being quiet or calm after all." Erza grinned at her picking on Natsu's flaws.

Lucy chuckled, "I hate to admit it but, it's true." She saw that he was scowling at everyone; he didn't like being made fun of. She took and gently squeezed his hand. "Well except for when you're with me."

Natsu's eyes and face lit up at her words. It was the little caring things that Lucy did, like defending him, that made him fall in love with her.

"How come I'm not getting a turn to guard?!" Happy asked crestfallen at not being included.

"You're still a young exceed, so you need all of your sleep. Plus, you've never been very good at staying up really late, you could fall asleep on the job." Erza reasoned to him.

Everyone decided to go to bed early except Lucy and Natsu, since they were going to have the first and second guard shifts. They had laid their sleeping bags side-by-side and were sitting on them chatting away.

"Hey Luce, check out what I got from the gift shop earlier." He pulled out the bag of chocolate candies showing them to her and grinning.

"Oh yum! Did you get them just for us?"

"Yup! I thought you might want a nice little dessert after the crappy dinner we had to stomach haha." He gave the bag to her while grinning; she poured some out into her hand and gave the bag back to him.

They devoured the treats in no time, and continued to sit together with Lucy's head on Natsu's shoulder. While they took their first guard shifts, they discussed everything from past missions to what they wanted their future together to be like.

After two hours they woke up Grey for his shift, and they settled in to sleep for a couple of hours till their next shifts.

Grey was halfway through his turn, when out of nowhere a small, green glass ball rolled across the floor from the shadows towards him. He looked questioningly at it and picked it up to examine what it could be. As soon as the heat from his hand touched it, it released a cloud of green gas that filled up the entire room. Within seconds, he felt extremely drowsy and passed out into a deep sleep. Then the cloaked figure from earlier emerged out of the darkness, along with a small group of seven people, all of them were wearing cloaks as well. The cloaks were magic and repelled the effect of the sleeping gas.

The leader of the group removed its hood. She was not much older than the man who lay asleep in front of her. She was also short and beautiful, with long, dark, curly hair. She originally came here to retrieve the Crystal Orb, but now she was here to take someone as a hostage back to her hideout.

"You three go and retrieve what is rightfully ours. The rest of us will take the pink haired one back with us. We will need leverage to keep the rest of this group from chasing after us."

The sleeping gas affected Natsu, Lucy, Erza and Happy as well. Four of the cloaked figures picked up Natsu and carried him out of the museum, with their leader following behind them. Once they were all outside, they waited for the three with the orb to meet up with them before heading back to their hideout.

It was not long before Erza awoke to find that Natsu was missing, and nobody was on guard duty. She had a feeling that something was wrong, as Natsu usually didn't disappear. She woke up the others and asked them if they remembered anything. Grey recalled what happened with the glass ball filled with green smoke.

"I was afraid of this." Erza said in a quiet voice. "I believe that the cultists not only succeeded in stealing the Crystal Orb, but also took Natsu with them as a hostage."

"What!" Lucy shouted in shock. She was petrified of anything bad happening to him. She knew he was strong, but the circumstances were not in his favor. If they knew how strong his magic was, then they might have found a way to protect themselves from it while keeping him prisoner. Tears were welling in her eyes but she knew that she had to be strong, now more so than ever.

"Don't worry Lucy, we'll get both back and give that lot a thrashing when we do." Grey was trying to encourage Lucy to get angry. He knew that was when her magic was at its most powerful.

"Yeah you're right. Ok guys what's our game plan from here?" Lucy's eyes burned with intense rage as she decided to suppress her feelings of worry for now, and focus on getting justice and revenge on whoever dared to come between her and her mate.