They had an hour or two before the sun fell, Natsu thought, judging the distance of the sun from the horizon with a critical eye. Lucy stood beside him, curiously letting Yukino strap a pair of heavy leather vambraces onto her forearms. Yukino was grinning, explaining their usefulness, and Natsu turned his attention onto them, studying the written spells sewn into them. They would repel any spells that were cast at their wearer, and were strengthened by magic, meant to hold up against powerful blows.
As she rolled her shoulders, Lucy looked over at him and frowned suddenly. "Don't cause too much damage to the area. This isn't our house, nor do I want you to risk upsetting anything with the Eclipse Gate."
Natsu grinned, showing off his razor-sharp teeth. "I don't know what you're talking about," he practically purred, slamming his flaming fists together and dragging a heavy sigh from her lips. Sure that he'd listen despite his comment – mostly because she knew he was as wary of the Eclipse Gate as she was – Lucy turned back to Yukino and said, "Ready?"
"Yep," said Yukino, whipping out a celestial spirit's key. "Are you?"
Lucy nodded, running through the spirits she held contracts with. She decided on one, curious to see what they could do, and then followed the group away from Yukino's cottage. Rogue led the way up a small hill nearby and finally, dubbed them a safe distance from the cottage. When he did, he shocked Lucy by suddenly spinning and firing a blast of shadows in her direction.
Natsu laughed at the ambush as he breathed out a gust of fire. The blast caught the shadows and they exploded as they collided. Lucy threw her hands up in front of her face to protect her eyes and then slashed her key through the air when she realized that Yukino had already danced back and summoned Pisces. The massive fish spirit swirled protectively around her before suddenly diving at Natsu.
Lucy smiled to herself when Gemini materialized beside her, its small bodies bouncing. "Miss Lucy!" cried one, and she glanced at it. The two halves blinked up at her in turn, looking excited to help her in any way they could. "Who would you have us become?"
Realizing she knew nothing about Gemini's power and what it could do, Lucy said firmly, "Whoever you think would be most useful in this situation. It's just a sparring match, so don't get too mean, okay?"
"Yes, Miss Lucy!" chirped the second half of the spirit. The two seemed to debate, watching as Natsu diverted a blow sent her way. Yukino focused her attention on Natsu as well, and Lucy noticed how Pisces seemed to know exactly what she wanted, slamming into the ground disrupting his balance. They knew exactly how to work together – something she was still figuring out. Lucy immediately locked onto that idea; they just needed to disrupt that ability then.
"Ready, Miss Lucy!" came Yukino's voice from beside her and Lucy snapped her head around in surprise. Gemini grinned at her, its eyes shimmering with the same warmth that the real Yukino's held. It turned its face to the pair of fish that circled above, dive bombing Natsu whenever he was distracted with what Rogue was doing and slashed a hand through the air, murmuring, "Forced gate closure."
Pisces vanished in a flash of light, leaving everyone but Lucy and Gemini confused. Even Natsu and Rogue paused mid-clash to stare at the sky. Lucy grinned when they looked at her, snapping the whip she'd removed from her belt. Yukino stared at the copy of her, looking shocked, and Lucy's smile widened. "Meet Gemini," she said simply, and Gemini chirped as it dissolved into two forms once more, bouncing around her legs.
Natsu squinted at Gemini, lowering his flaming hands. "Isn't that the one who started our problems in the north?"
"Yes," she said defensively, "but that wasn't Gemini's fault, that was Grimoire Heart's – and ours. It was testing us, and the test got interrupted, that's all."
Gemini turned its faces toward Natsu, studying him in turn. "Hello, Master Natsu," both halves said cheerfully in greeting, although Lucy didn't miss the wince Natsu gave at the term "master." Proof that the spirit was very aware of who it was looking at – and held it against him, although Lucy wasn't entirely sure what the term "master" had to do with it.
Lucy thought it was Natsu's fault for getting distracted when Rogue suddenly slammed into him, smirking. Despite his hesitation to get involved in the sparring match, he was clearly enjoying himself. Natsu snarled in what sounded like a violently angry way, although Lucy knew for a fact that he was having fun. They hit the ground and immediately began wrestling to get a hand over the other. Lucy advanced, confident now.
She had Gemini, who could keep Yukino off her back. Yukino hadn't shown any proficiency with weaponry, though Lucy kept a wary eye on the other key-wielder. She was watching Lucy just as closely, her mouth forming words Lucy didn't understand as she thought over how to react.
Lucy saw Rogue's leg kick out to sweep Natsu's feet out from under him when they got up, and lashed out with her whip. Rogue yelped when he hit the ground on his back, foot pulled out, and Natsu laughed as he managed to nearly land a flaming blow to him. Rogue dodged with ease, reaching down to grab the whip, but Lucy flicked it free and struck at his wrist instead.
Lucy was, luckily, prepared for the blur of motion that suddenly came at her. Just as Natsu had taught her, she let Yukino's weight carry her back as they tumbled to the ground. Yukino laughed breathlessly, and Lucy found herself grinning, even with the heavy pain in her body from wherever Rogue struck Natsu. She didn't mind the pain at all for once, using it to drive her. Lucy waited until the right moment to push free, lurching back. She tripped and grinned when Gemini, having taken on her own appearance, caught her shoulders to keep her from falling. "Thanks!"
"Anything for you, Miss Lucy," chirped Gemini in her own voice. Lucy thought it a little unnerving to find that she was looking at herself, but rather than focusing on the matter, kept her attention on Yukino as Yukino withdrew to summon another spirit.
She'd just lifted the key to do so when something suddenly caught Lucy's attention. It was only in the corner of her eye, but she still looked back instinctively at the bright flash – just in time to see Natsu yelp as it hit him hard in the chest and knocked him away from Rogue. In an instant, Rogue was back on his feet, knees bent and ready to move.
Yukino stiffened, prepared for an actual fight to break out, but relaxed when she realized it was only Sting suddenly barreling his way over with a grin on his face. "That's cheating! We're doing three-on-three, not three-on-four!" Lucy heard Natsu wail just a few moments before Sting tackled him, cackling.
"I didn't know he was coming back," said Yukino, lowering her key with a frown. "He shouldn't be. He should have had far too much paperwork to complete back at the guildhall to be back this soon."
Rogue seemed to come to the same thought as Yukino and retreated back a few steps, no longer interested in the sparring match. Gemini dissolved into two forms again and stood neatly at Lucy's feet, gripping each leg and peering around them with distaste at the dragon and demon suddenly wrestling with loud laughter.
"Natsu!" Lucy suddenly called, a sense of unease writhing in her gut, and Natsu immediately ditched his effort to pin Sting to briefly glance over at her, freezing all movements as he ensured his partner and Marked One was alright. Frowning as he quietly took in her sudden anxiety, he gave Sting a final smirk, declared, "I win," and bounced to his feet, bounding over before Sting could so much as think about trying a cheap trick like the last time they'd done so.
"What's up?" Natsu asked casually, stopping in front of her and cocking his head like a curious dog.
Lucy fought the urge to laugh at his eager expression, a stab of fierce fondness flashing through her as she smiled lightly at him. He beamed back, so easy-going in comparison to the near razor-blade looks he'd so easily worn months prior. There was a hint of stiffness to him though, as if he was ready to fight if need be – and not a sparring match either.
Instead of answering, she looked over to Yukino when Sting and Rogue made their way over. The silver-haired Keeper frowned at Sting. "What are you doing back? You have work, don't you?"
Sting pouted a little, grimacing. "Yeah," he said after a long moment. "But I wanted to come say hi to Natsu–"
"That's not why you're here," Rogue immediately growled, glaring at him. "What's going on?" He leveled Sting with a warning glare, daring him to try and avoid the subject another time. Sting rolled his eyes at Rogue's irritable look. "Sting."
"Okay, okay," he sighed, rolling his eyes a second time. Sting rocked back on his heels shrugging as he looked in the direction of Sabertooth's guildhall and Crocus. "There's been reports of a possible vampire hunting in the streets. It wouldn't normally be that big an issue – you guys know how vampires are – but this one's left bodies."
Natsu cocked his head, looking surprised. "Really? I thought the Council worked out a deal with the vampires; they don't kill anyone, we don't go after them."
Sting's eyes gleamed as he replied, "That's the thing. I don't think it's a vamp. I did a run-through of the area and caught whiffs of something nasty and dead, but it sure as hell wasn't a vampire. All but one of the bodies that were found vanished in the time it took someone to get help, and the only reason the one didn't was because the person who found it kept eyes on it until that help got there. And to top it all off, someone claims they saw their dead brother wandering around."
Natsu let out a loud breath in realization and Lucy glanced between him and the others. "What?" she demanded as Rogue and Yukino both winced, looking disgusted. "Natsu, what is it?"
Rogue took pity on her as Natsu grumbled under his breath and drew a nasty look from Lucy's partner when he explained in Natsu's place. "It's very likely that there's a necromancer in Crocus. They're normally human, although not explicitly human, and specialize in written spells that raise the dead. They often perform terrible experiments on people in the area. To have one escape notice for this long and be capable of such damage in a city like ours…it's concerning and tells us that they've been at it for a while. They'll be skilled and dangerous for even a dragon to go after."
"Are we going to stay and help?" Lucy asked, glancing at Natsu pointedly. "I know we're going to be expected at the Archives, too, but we've still got some time before the seventh of July. We could spend a few days helping them scan Crocus, right?"
Natsu surprised her by setting his lips in a hard line and admitting, "I don't think you should get involved with a necromancer, Luce. You're better at what you do and stuff, but necromancers are somethin' else. You heard what Rogue said."
Lucy tried to avoid being too insulted by his comments, knowing that he was only trying to be realistic. He wasn't wrong, she supposed, even if it bothered her a lot to hear him say it. "Hold on," she muttered in realization, "then are you–"
Natsu earned a glare when he turned his back on Lucy and said firmly to the two dragons, "I can do a run through of the place and see if I can find anything with whichever of you is gonna deal with it."
Lucy gaped at him angrily, furious that he'd think of doing such a thing without her, and Yukino took her shoulder in hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "It's not because you're weak, Lucy," she said soothingly in Lucy's ear, "but because it really is that dangerous. I'm not going either, you know. Necromancers…if they get one piece of you, just one lock of hair…they specialize in more than just raising the dead."
Lucy shuddered, finding that she couldn't argue with that. "Still," she said firmly, "you tag along to everything I do, so why shouldn't I tag along to everything you do regardless of what it is? You're my partner and friend, and I'm not going to sit back and watch you get hurt again, Natsu."
Natsu blinked over his shoulder at her, a little caught off guard by her declaration. After eyeing her for a few moments, he settled into a stance that Lucy knew well: he was bracing himself for a fight, which meant he was still against her going. She opened her mouth to fire something off, immediately irrationally angry that she couldn't go, but he silenced her with one single phrase.
"What the hell is your plan if a necromancer gets his hand on Layla's band?" he demanded.
Sting perked up, immediately looking at the second arm band she wore. Its gold gleamed in the sun, and Lucy stopped to wonder if the spell that had disguised it was gone. "Wait, that's Layla's? Does Igneel know?" He peered curiously at it before suddenly snapping his gaze to Natsu with a frown. "Hold on," he said, and Lucy's stomach twisted with the realization that she really wasn't about to like whatever happened. "That scarf – you left that on Tenrou the day you left, Natsu."
Natsu, rather than reacting, merely touched the scarf self-consciously and pulled it away from his mouth. "Your point?" he growled after a moment, scowling defensively. Too defensively, apparently, because Sting's eyes flew wide.
"You went to the island," he breathed, stepping towards Natsu with a look of astonishment. "You visited Tenrou."
Rogue narrowed his gaze slightly. It was a thought he'd clearly been considering for a while now. He rumbled, "How did you make it out alive?"
"Lucy," Yukino breathed, and Lucy realized she could feel an uncomfortable tension in the air. Swallowing thickly when she realized that neither Sting nor Rogue were happy with Natsu for this and not wanting to see a fight – a true fight, at that – break out, Lucy stepped in.
"It wasn't an invitation back," she said, and Sting's furious glare turned on her. Natsu immediately tensed unhappily, but she waved him off and held Sting's gaze. "It was my fault. Grimoire Heart was foolish and flew right into dragon airspace. Metalicana tore the ship to pieces and I got stuck on the island. Natsu had to come get me."
"That doesn't explain the scarf," Rogue pointed out. "That was within your den in the caverns beneath the tree, Natsu; I saw it myself just hours before we left. There are laws! You can't just go and enter the island of the dragons without permission."
"He had permission," Lucy retorted. "Like I said, he had to come and get me." Natsu continued to glare over her head at the pair of dragons, angry that they were so agitated with him. Lucy gently touched his arm, drawing her fingers along the muscles and skin until he reluctantly relaxed. "And we're not welcome back in person, believe me."
Sting scowled and turned his back on Natsu, which in turn made him puff up furiously, as if it was something even worse than the snide comments. Rogue, however, cocked his head and simply sighed tiredly. "May we at least know," he requested, "if our parents are alright? We've not heard from them in some time. We weren't even sure there were dragons left alive on Tenrou outside of Igneel after what Gajeel told us started happening."
Sting glanced over his shoulder at the question, wary, and Lucy smiled kindly. It was understandable. Despite remembering her promise to the dragons on Tenrou that she'd keep quiet about their requests for information on their children, she said, "Weissologia and Skiadrum are both alive and when I told them what you were doing here in Fiore, were very happy. Skiadrum," she added, "was particularly proud that you'd Marked someone, and seemed to like Yukino when I told him about her. Weissologia, too."
Yukino blushed, but seemed pleased. Rogue and Sting exchanged happy looks, too, although Lucy could tell right off the bat that the white dragon still wasn't all that happy with Natsu. Enough so that he looked at him and lifted his chin. The earring he wore caught the sunlight and scattered it, seeming to glow, and Lucy found herself drawn to it, wondering what it was. "We don't need your help with the necromancer. We'll deal with it."
No, Sting certainly wasn't happy with him.
In fact, he was furious.
"Sting–" protested Yukino. "This isn't something you should be refusing help on. Especially from someone who has Orga's respect–"
"You know," Sting interrupted suddenly, grinning in a way that didn't seem friendly at all, as if he was suddenly itching for a real fight. "It just occurred to me, Natsu. We really don't know all that much about you, and there was the conversation you had with the Dullahan. You're not a dragon. You've never taken on a full dragon's form. You don't even smell like a dragon."
Natsu went deathly still, face blank as he stared at Sting, and Lucy exchanged another worried look with Yukino as Happy suddenly sprang onto Natsu's shoulder with shocking ease. He curled his tail around him, settling into a stance Lucy was familiar with. She thought those normally friendly feline eyes glimmered with the glow of flames.
She did not like where this was going.
"All those centuries, you didn't change one bit," continued Sting, his anger growing with each word. "We grew up and you looked the same. I don't care how slowly we dragons age; you aged less than Weissologia did in that time. All the dragons were always so wary of you and always mocked our parents for letting us play with you. They hated you."
"Sting," Rogue said, looking uneasy now as something in Natsu's gaze guttered, as if this had gone much further than Rogue would have liked.
Sting ignored his friend and glowered at Natsu. "What makes you so special that the Dullahan would come talk with you above everyone else?" he challenged. "What makes you so great that every god and goddess respects you when you're more of a child then Wendy? And if you aren't a dragon – if you're not one of our kind – why the hell do you get to go back to Tenrou Island, our birthplace and homeland? Why do you get to see all of our parents? We want nothing more than to go home. And we can't. Because of you."
Natsu clenched his jaw, and Lucy felt her heart ache when guilt spiraled through him. Guilt, and despair, and a cold feeling that worried her more than anything else. He averted his gaze – an admission that Sting pounced on.
"I haven't gotten to see my father in almost twenty years," snarled Sting, stepping forward, "because we got asked to follow you, to make sure you were okay in the big, bad world. It's always been about you. Go keep Natsu occupied," he said in a high-pitched, mocking tone that seemed to make Natsu shut down further, "go stay with Natsu while the grown-ups talk, trust Natsu, do what Natsu says, follow Natsu and ensure that he works well with the mainlanders even though he's been around for centuries and has your parents going to him for advice." He spat the word. "Our parents are dragons. Igneel is the Fire Dragon King. What the hell are you that he goes to talk about important matters with you?"
Still, Natsu said nothing. He merely stared blankly at Sting, waiting for him to be done. Lucy realized he wouldn't stop him, either; he'd let him rant it out, and when he was done…
Lucy wasn't sure what would happen.
"Do you know what kind of stories they tell about you? The body count when you're done? For all we know about you, we could be standing in front of someone who's burned a city to the barest bones!" Natsu flinched then; Sting looked rather like a shark when he latched onto that. He went to continue, but it was Yukino who put an end to it.
"Sting," she snarled, suddenly stepping in between the pair and shoving him. Unprepared, he stumbled a bit, grunting, and Yukino didn't stop there. She launched into a hissed rant that Lucy didn't hear.
She was too busy watching Natsu.
Outwardly, nothing had changed.
He was as emotionless as he'd been moments before, his body still and not moving outside of his fingers curling into fists. His lips pressed into a hard line and Lucy was fairly certain that if she'd poked him, he'd not budge.
But she could feel the pain that splintered through him, no matter how much he'd later deny it.
She felt that uncertainty that he pretended didn't exist. He was hurting, terrified, and accepting in a way that simply broke Lucy's heart – as if this was the response he'd expected to get when people came to the realization that he was something entirely different than them. The comment about body counts…true fear flickered through his veins when Sting said it, so much like the lingering fears from Aries's test so many months before. This was worse than Gajeel and Levy, she thought.
They'd been scared of a demon – a creature notorious for the pain it inflicted.
Sting was angry with Natsu.
"Natsu," Lucy breathed when she felt something shift. Just as quickly as he'd felt such intense things, nearly overwhelming her with all of it, he'd wiped it away. She was unnerved by how easily he did it, how cold she felt with nothing filtering in. She moved to touch his arm, something in her chest twisting with worry, and he snapped away from the touch as if she'd burned him.
Just as quickly, he was gone, heading away from the cottage Yukino lived in, leaving Lucy to desperately watch after him, unsure of what to do.
Some drama and important things happening here. ;) Mentions of the necromancer! It'll be a specific chapter or two that determines whether or not the rating will be upped, so I'll let you know when it's coming.
NOT ONLY DO WE HAVE 1 YEAR OF ODAS, BUT WE'VE HIT 1K REVIEWS! I'm literally crying. Thank you so much, lovely people. I really, truly appreciate it and can't wait to share the next (hopefully entire year at least) of ODAS!
Thanks to reviewers (stranger1999, sweet opposition, LePengwen, aquarius592, MeowOrbit, x HallowedFangirlx, NaLuFireSpirit, lcr0718, ToukaKanekiUlle, Lissuin, and Lovetoreadff!) as well as those who favorited and followed!
