"Come on guys is this really necessary?" Poor Natsu had been strung up with special ropes that kept him from using his spectral powers by the angered Sting and Rogue who were demanding that he pay them back for borrowing money and causing damage. "Just let me go please! We can discuss this later!"
"No way man!" Sting said. "You'll pay up or you'll hang there for the rest of your afterlife!"
"I don't have time for this! There's a little girl I'm supposed to be watching right now and lord only knows what kind of danger she could be in! Let me go so I can find her! Please!"
"You expect us to fall for that excuse?"
"It's the truth!"
"Yeah right! Now cough up the money."
"The thing is I don't have any with me at the moment."
"Oh what a shame." Rogue said. "Looks like we'll have to find some way for you to earn that money back."
"I got it! Let's sell his body parts!" Sting suggested.
"What?! No! You can't do that!" Natsu cried.
"What should we sell first?" Sting said rubbing his hands together deviously.
"I say we start with his head." Rogue said. "I know a guy who's willing to pay a lot of dead man's coins for an ugly ghoul's head that he can make into a mask."
"We'll this guy's mug is definitely ugly enough to be a mask." Sting said.
"Hey! I am not ugly!" Natsu protested. "My looks are flawless and I have the creepy letters of my ex girlfriends to prove it!"
"Maybe we should sell his head without the mouth." Sting said." It's so annoying."
"Agreed."
Suddenly someone whistled for their attention, they turned in the direction of where the whistle came from and they saw a woman's leg sticking out from behind a corner.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Sting asked looking at the leg in a lecherous manner. "Looks some lady ghoul wants to get a little naughty with us tonight. Hey Rogue why don't we introduce ourselves huh?"
With their attention being drawn to something else, the two left Natsu alone. Right away Lucy came from the shadows and started to untie him.
"Lucy?" Natsu said.
"Shh! Keep quiet!" She hushed.
"What are you doing here?" He asked quietly.
"Saving your ass." She said in irritation. "And by the way you owe me big time."
"For what?"
He then noticed that Lucy only had one leg attached to her body at the moment.
"Whoa. You mean that's your leg over there?"
"Yes and I hate it that I had to use one of my body parts for such a disgusting display."
As she finished up untying Natsu, Sting decided to be slick and run his hands over Lucy's detached leg. Needlessly to say she didn't like that so she willed her leg to kick Sting right in the groin.
"Ow!" He groaned.
"Serves you right." Rogue told his friend. "You should never touch any part of a lady without her consent."
The leg then came out from the corner, revealing itself to not have a body at the moment.
"What the-" Rogue said startled by this.
The leg then hopped over toward Lucy who had finally freed Natsu.
"Hey! He's getting away!" Sting pointed out.
Lucy grabbed her leg and Natsu lifted Lucy on to his shoulder before running away from the two angry ghouls. Sting and Rogue were fast but not nearly as fast as Natsu who managed to ditch them after ducking into the nearest crowd.
"Are they gone?" Natsu asked Lucy when he felt too tired to keep running.
"I think so." She said looking back. "I don't see them anywhere."
"Phew!" He sighed.
"Don't stop and rest yet." She said. "You're going to carry me home so Juvia can sew my leg back on."
"I know, I know, I know." He said. "I didn't even know you could actually remove parts of your body."
"I'm not supposed to."
"What does that mean?"
"Your body parts come off and on with ease mine don't and it was a great struggle for me to get this leg off. It even hurt me in some areas."
"Ouch. I'm sorry. I guess I really do owe you big time."
"Yes you do."
"Why didn't you just use those hand to hand combat moves of yours to fight them off?"
"It's two against one dummy. I wouldn't have stood a chance even with my skills. My best bet was to distract them and get you loose."
"I see. Smart thinking."
Suddenly Natsu realized something that made him smile.
"What?" Lucy asked. "What's with the creepy smile?"
"You tore off your leg even though it hurt just to help me?"
"Well I..." She started to get a little flustered.
"You like me don't you?"
"I do not."
"Yes you do. If you didn't why else would you hurt yourself like that to help me?"
"Because...Because...Because..." She tried to think of an excuse that would fool him unfortunately she couldn't. "Alright so I like you a little bit but don't get any ideas, you're still repulsive to me."
"But you like me anyway."
"I like you a little bit. Key word a little bit. Anyway why were those guys mad at you anyway?"
"I borrowed some coins from Sting and I might have accidentally put a dent in Rogue's car while I was taxi driving. It's been awhile since I've paid them both back for those instances."
"Hmm no wonder they were so pissed off. Let's just get home before something else happens."
"Right and we'll go home as soon as we find Wendy."
"What do you mean as soon as you find Wendy?"
"Okay don't get angry but I...I kind of brought Wendy over here and then lost her."
"You what?!" She screamed. "You idiot! What were you thinking?! Bringing a living human child to the In-Between! By any chance did you die of brain damage?!"
"Technically it wasn't my fault. I wouldn't have lost her if those goons hadn't of jumped me."
"Natsu that girl is probably the most innocent and precious child on earth and you abandoned her in a world where she could be torn apart by the undead?! I'm gonna kill you!"
"Too late toots. I was killed a century ago. At least I think I was killed, I was young when I died so I'm pretty sure I didn't die from natural causes."
"Just shut up and find her before I rip out your eyes and sell them as golf balls!"
"Calm down Lucy, Wendy is perfectly fine." Gray assured her as he made a sudden appearance from the shadows.
"Ah! Where the hell did you come from?!" Natsu asked, startled.
"The shadows. Believe it or not they are an excellent way of travel."
"So Wendy is alright?" Lucy asked.
"She's safe in bed as snug as a bug in a rug."
"Thank goodness."
"How did you find her?" Natsu asked.
"Well I figured your stupidity would cause you to do something that would put that child in danger so I sent my shadow to keep an eye on her. Sure enough my suspicions were correct and when she did get into trouble my shadow informed me right away so I went to her aid like a gentleman."
"She wasn't hurt was he?"
"Hurt? No. Scared halfway to death? Yes."
"What happened to her?"
"I'll explain everything when we get home." He said. "It's getting dark and- Lucy why do you only have one leg attached to you?"
"I don't wanna talk about it." She answered. "Just tell Juvia to have her needle and thread ready."