7...
Convection.
Heat transfer by circulation within a gas or liquid.
Lucy had to admit, Natsu was an adorable little thing when he was sleeping. He was curled up on the spare bed, the blankets having fallen over him, tangled around his waist and legs. She sipped her cup of orange juice, enjoying the citrusy taste clinging to her lips as Natsu snored on. It was early. Very early.
She almost felt bad for having to wake him up, especially with how late they had stayed up the night before. But today was the day they had been waiting for. Happy was curled onto the pillow next to Natsu's head. The little traitor.
Deciding to have a little mercy on Natsu, she approached his nightstand and dropped a coffee cup next to his head. She had run down quickly to the corner store and back with it. She didn't know what kind of coffee he liked, if he even liked it, so had gotten something basic and flavored it with random cheap vanilla creamer Levy seemed to like, plenty of sugar, and some whipped topping. That should have made it palatable.
Or at least edible.
Sleepy green eyes creaked open to blearily look up at Lucy. A dazed, somewhat dopey smile crossed his face. Lucy almost laughed at his sleep deprived expression before his brain seemed to catch up to what he was looking at.
"Lucy…?" He grunted, his voice low and rough. Lucy's heart constricted at the sleepy sound, finding it both very attractive and stupidly adorable. He was trying to keep his voice down in the darkened room for Happy's benefit, because the cat hadn't so much as stirred at Lucy's approach.
"What timeizzt?" Natsu mumbled, sliding a hand through sleep mussed hair. It stuck up in every direction, even wilder than it normally was. The back of it was oddly mashed, and Lucy resisted the urge to crawl into bed next to him to comb her fingers through and fix it.
"It's time for you to get up, we're heading down to the station," Lucy murmured, watching Natsu's body move, zombie-like trying to sit up. Really, he was so sluggish in the morning, it was almost amusing. Especially since he seemed unable to sit down at any other point during the day.
His elbow knocked over the cup of coffee as he navigated gently around Happy, but managed to freeze just in time to stop from spilling it over Lucy's white carpet.
"Wazzat?" He asked, bowing his head to take a sniff. The sight was so amusing, Lucy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Really, was he man or beast? Sometimes Lucy didn't know.
"Coffee, I didn't know if you drank the devil's bean juice, but I figured it couldn't hurt getting you some," Lucy replied. It was amusing the way he crept a hand out and snatched it the moment he was told precisely what it was.
However when he took a single sip of it, Lucy was fascinated by the expression of utter revulsion that flashed over his face and how he nearly retched in response.
"Oh my god, what the fuck did you put in this," Natsu coughed, suddenly wide awake as he wiped the back of his mouth with a hand. The blanket slipped from him enough she was able to tell he not only slept shirtless, but he abandoned his sweatpants in the middle of the night as well. Black underwear could be seen peeking out from white sheets, a grey band of elastic resting just under his waist.
Natsu was too busy trying to hack up a lung to notice his audience's eyes had dipped a bit further south than what was strictly G-rated. Forcing her gaze back to his red cheeks, she frowned at him.
"What's the matter with it? I made it sweet!" Lucy protested, wondering how he could drink his coffee any other way.
"I can tell," Natsu thumped his chest under the collarbone, his eyes watering, "I think I felt all my molars rot and fall into the back of my throat."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad," Lucy protested and took an angry sip of her orange juice, "How do you normally take your coffee?"
"Black, instant, and not as rich as this," Natsu grunted, his nose sniffing at the coffee. He swung his legs off the side of the bed and peered into the cup after he peeled off the lid. He made a face at the sight of the whipped cream. His eyes turned thoughtful, before his tongue darted out to lick the cream off of what had stuck to the lid.
"Alright, then give it to me and I'll dump it out in the bathroom," Lucy huffed with impatience taking a few more abortive steps towards him.
Natsu cringed away and clutched the cup closer to his chest, careful not to spill a drop of it. His cheeks burned in the dark room, "Nonono." He mumbled, "It's fine."
Lucy frowned as she watched Natsu reseal the lid, acting as if it were some sort of precious gold. Her arms came up to cross under her chest, her fingers pressing into her shirt.
"But you don't like it," Lucy protested, shuffling over towards him.
Natsu shook his head, "So? I'm still not going to let you throw away a perfectly good cup of coffee."
He stood up then, the rest of the blanket slithering away from his tanned body and his head tipping back, giving her a plentiful view of his tattooed throat as he pounded back the burning hot coffee.
The image was ruined a moment later when he slammed the cup of coffee down on the nightstand and let loose a loud roar that probably woke up the neighbors three houses down the road, "Alright come on!" He challenged the ceiling, disturbing Happy from his rest.
"LETS GO CATCH THAT BASTARD! I'm all fired up now!"
Lucy was quickly beginning to realize that the sugar in Natsu was not a combination that was going to end well for anyone. The man already could never sit still, so when he got dressed faster than Lucy had ever seen, he put his shirt on backwards and crammed both legs in one leghole and flopped over on his face.
Unsure if it was a result of the coffee or how he had just woken up, Lucy filed Natsu into the car with the quiet demand for him to leave Happy at home. Her cat was not fond of car rides and had a tendency to shed on the leather interior.
Not to mention the cat had no place at the precinct.
Natsu calmed in the car, but mostly because he went a little green in the cheeks. Natsu's severe car sickness when he wasn't in control of the vehicle making itself known and putting a halt to his shenanigans right there.
Once he was set loose on the station, Lucy had enough presence of mind to realize Natsu and Gray would more than likely get into it even worse than usual now that Natsu had so much liquid cocaine pumping through his system.
Sure enough they got into a fight, until Natsu was banished to the police force gym to work off some of his spare energy. Lucy was a bit afraid he was going to pick a fight with someone from another shift while he was there, but who knew babysitting Natsu could be so exhaustive.
She had him with her on the off chance they needed his help. So he was more than likely going to be stuck at the station all day, bored out of his mind.
An hour later when she was busy answering emails and keeping in contact with the squad car that was tailing after Jackal, she visited Natsu down in the gym.
… only to find him asleep on a bench, completely crashed out.
Lucy snorted in amusement as she looked at the way his head lolled off the workout bench, broad shoulders and an arm hanging off the edge. His other arm was folded behind his head, supporting his neck to keep him from getting too bad of a crick when he woke up.
It looked as if he took her advice and trained for a while until his sugar high crashed, causing him to drop right alongside it. A snore shuddered out from the back of his throat and Lucy smiled in amusement.
Really, he was cute when he was sleeping, that hardened look to his eyes disappearing when he made himself vulnerable like this. Gaze darting around, Lucy made sure they were alone before she let her professional mask slip a bit so she could sneak a hand out and poke him right in the belly.
Natsu surged up with a flail, narrowly avoiding knocking heads with Lucy as his dangling hand instinctively rose to shield his stomach, throwing his precarious balance off. He ended up jerking right off the bench and onto the matt.
This time Lucy couldn't smother the laugh that rang from her as she looked at the miserable man, who was groaning, face first into the floor.
"Lucy, what the hell," He groaned, looking as if he had lost every ounce of energy in his body.
Slowly he sat up and dragged his hand over his face, looking like death warmed over.
"Sugar and you don't agree well, do they?" Lucy asked, fascinated by this new development. The look Natsu gave her could have given ol' Frostbite a run for his money.
"Can't say I'm used to having it," Natsu admitted, peeling himself up from the floor and standing up. Lucy watched him get up, picking up the weights he used and wipe them down. He was moving a bit sluggish now, as if the opposite effect had happened. Lucy knew that look, often seeing it on Levy's face when she hit the after-lunch blues.
"Igneel never let me have that many sweets growing up, and afterwards I didn't get a chance to eat them," He groaned, looking like he was hit by a truck. Lucy winced in sympathy because he certainly looked as if he had been run over.
"I'm not huge on sweets, but I can make the exception," Natsu groaned, squinting up at the bright gym lights as he joined Lucy. They headed back up the few floors even as Lucy filed away that information for further investigation.
Natsu headed immediately for the break room to get another cup of coffee, this one made to his preferences. Bitter, black, cheap, and disgusting.
Lucy just didn't get it.
He returned with a familiar 'I love my garden' mug, dropping down in a spare chair Lucy pulled up to her desk. Lucy's eyes nearly bugged out at the sight of the cup in Natsu's hands, but just barely managed to bite her tongue to keep from laughing. He gave her slanted, suspicious looks out of the corner of his eye, as if sensing she was in on a joke he didn't understand, but didn't bring it up.
Instead he seemed very satisfied with his cup of gross coffee, content to sit at her desk for the time being and enjoy it while he recovered from the sugar attack which had crippled him so thoroughly.
Time crawled by, Natsu growing increasingly more restless as the reports on Jackal came in. The man went out for breakfast, got the tires on his ridiculously expensive car changed, and he visited a sleazy motel and left with two women. Each task he performed was increasingly menial, but Natsu fidgeted more and more with every task.
"Just wait for it," He would mutter.
And then the report came in that had Natsu's spine locking, his eyes flashing with interest, and a wicked smirk lighting his face.
Jackal went to visit the Black Star building.
"He's done for," Natsu hissed, straightening up in his seat and listening to the radio closely.
Gray arrived back again when some more time trickled by, a folder tucked under his arm and a pen crammed behind his ear. He sat down on the other side of the desk that divided his section from Lucy's scowling at Natsu.
"The beat cops reported Jackal visited a hardware shop and left with several questionable purchases," He grunted, passing the folder over to Natsu with great reluctance for him to look.
Lucy watched Natsu's smirk grow even more shit-eating and he batted his eyes at Gray, "A present for me? You shouldn't have Dairy Queen."
He flipped open the folder, flinty green eyes scanning over the papers of what he had purchased. Lucy's stomach dropped as Natsu's smirk faltered and a frown creased between his brows.
"Huh."
"'Huh' what, Natsu?" Lucy pressed the ex-arsonist. Even Gray's eyes were sharpening on Natsu, who was suddenly looking less cocky and … worried.
"I might have done too good of a job at pissing Jackal off," Natsu admitted, dropping the folder on Lucy's desk. His finger tapped down the list of items the man had bought and traced over the quantity, "He's making a bomb."
"Isn't that what we want him to do, pyro?" Gray demanded, his eyes narrowed on the other man. Lucy saw Natsu's eyes flash with temper and she dropped a hand on his wrist to keep him focused.
"This isn't a normal cracker or a demolition test like the ones he's been cranking out before," Natsu grit out, sharp teeth biting into his bottom lip, "This is a bomb's bomb."
"You mean he wants to level a chunk of the city?" Lucy asked between stiff lips. They knew Jackal's crimes would escalate, but for him to do that… She didn't know if she should have felt relieved or not when Natsu shook his head.
"I don't know, but he has enough material to take out several acres or make more than one," Natsu admitted. His thumb rolled against his bottom lip as he considered their possibilities. It seemed like he was trying hard to focus on what kind of explosive Jackal could be aiming to make with that amount of material. He shook his head a moment later, "It should be fine so long as you guys don't lose him-"
As if cursed, Levy went running up to her, eyes wide and a bundle of papers in her arms while her shoulder pressed a phone to her ear. If the expression on her face weren't so dire, Lucy might have laughed at the silly image her friend made. All rumpled up and messy, she had a feeling a certain Captain would like to see her like that.
"Lucy, the squad car tailing the suspect called in!" She looked upset, immediately causing Lucy's mood to sour, "They just lost sight of the suspect."
"Oh for fucks sake," Natsu exclaimed, thrusting an arm out at the three of the police officers gathered in front of him. Utter shock was on his face as he stared between them, searching for answers, "How do you guys even manage to catch criminals if they aren't delivered directly onto your lap?"
"Sometimes they're pinned under support beams," Gray snarked back at Natsu, who gave him a dismissive glare.
"Shut up," Natsu growled.
A tan hand dropped to his waist, his attention turning on full to Lucy. She didn't imagine the sharp, very worried look on his face. It looked so strange on Natsu's face, a trickle of unease ran down her spine.
"You seriously have to get eyes back on Jackal. Bombers are trickier than arsonists because of the flexibility of their targets. If you lose track of him, he could build that bomb anywhere in the city and we could never find it until it was too late," Natsu hissed.
The ClickClickClick of a pen filled the silence left behind by Natsu's comment. It hung heavy between the three cops and ex-convict, leaving behind a heavy sort of suffocating air that Lucy didn't know how to break.
Gray's habit of fiddling with his pen when he was thinking was the only sound left to listen to. Lucy let the rhythmic click of it soothe her and let her thoughts unravel. While Natsu was right, that was not the only way of finding a suspect who had slipped a trail.
"What would you do?" Lucy asked him. She prodded him gently, not wanting him to think she was associating him with Jackal, but needing him to put himself back into the arsonist mindset he tried so hard to avoid.
Her stomach churned with guilt.
Just one more time. She had to ask him of this one more time.
Jackal was running loose with a pile of explosives that were rigged to bomb. He had enough on him to do some serious damage and kill a lot of people.
Just…
Just once more.
Natsu's eyes flashed to her, steely and narrowed. He seemed to be considering her for a long moment before he shook his head, "I'm not sure I get what you mean."
Gray sighed and rolled his eyes, "You're just like the psycho. So go find him."
Lucy sighed, her hand on him proving to be a good decision on her part. She squeezed his wrist. Natsu's lips were curling into a furious snarl and his body was tensed to spring, "Well you're the one who pissed him off so you're the expert."
"You expect me to be able to find him?" Natsu asked her incredulously, "Do I look like a bloodhound to you?"
Lucy sagged and gripped his wrist tighter, finally catching his sharp attention. She needed him to think this through backwards. Find a timeline and to put the pieces backwards from now until the party. He needed to think like a cop and an arsonist, "Natsu, based off of the amount of explosives, we know he is going to need a large target. But what kind is based off of your personal knowledge on what a lunatic like Jackal would go after."
"You said before he had an ego the size of his mansion. You have to know some kind of target he'd go after, something flashy right?," She began, but felt him abruptly go stiff under her hand. At first she thought she had said something wrong, but a wild gleam had entered his eyes.
"Mansion," Natsu breathed. His head whipped around towards Lucy, "You're right! A mansion!"
"Everlue owns a mansion right? That rich bastard talked shit about Jackal and I played that recording to him! Everlue picked me over him," Natsu explained as he caught sight of their confused looks. His arm flailed, knocking into a lamp on a nearby desk, but Natsu didn't even seem to notice. Instead he was too focused on his sudden stroke of brilliance, "His ego will be scratched enough to want personal revenge."
"There's plenty of explosive for a target like that, and then some," Natsu finished.
Gray pushed out from his computer and jabbed his pen at the screen. As soon as Natsu stuck on the word 'mansion' it was clear he had begun to research Everlue. The possibility of revenge on a client had been clearly growing in all of their minds, "I got an address. Everlue lives on the outskirts of Shirotsume."
He snagged the jacket off the back of his chair and slipped it on, his hand dropping to his chest to stop his tie from getting caught in his desk, "We'll call the local cops and FD from the car. Lets go."
"Come on, Natsu" Lucy said hurriedly, standing up next to Gray.
"What, me too?"
"If Jackal isn't at Everlue's we're going to need you," Lucy explained, pushing Natsu from his chair, "Now come on. We're heading into the car."
Natsu just rolled his shoulders and groaned.
"I call shotgun."
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