Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Fairy Tail.
yes, It's been a hot minute. It's been over a year since I updated this story and I honestly can't apologize enough. If you want the short story, I graduated university and I'm unemployed. This gives me free time to write, but also not free time because I'm trying to find a job and the economy absolute sucks.
Anyways, I've tried to revisit my fan-fictions and revive them with updates where I am able to. Thank you for all of those who have been patient with me during this difficult process of life.
"Where's Lucy?" Natsu asked after coming down the stairs scratching the back of his head. "She was gone when I woke up."
"Lover's quarrel?" Gray sneered.
"Stop that" Laxus grunted.
Even he was starting to get tired of all the jokes surrounding the trifles and tribulations of Natsu and Lucy's relationship.
"I think she left earlier this morning" Rogue shrugged, "Something about New Years Shopping."
Natsu just slumped with a sigh. He was at least hoping to tag along if for nothing else but a meal out.
"Wait..." Natsu suddenly shot up strait, "Did she leave alone? Was anyone with her?"
Everyone's heads whipped towards him with slight intrigue at the panic that was seeping into his voice.
"I... think so..." Rogue added, raising his brows, not sure what this was leading to.
"Shit" Natsu cursed under his breath before scrambling up the stairs to throw on warmer clothing and head out the door.
He just threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a heavy jacket. On second thought he also grabbed his white scarf with the black outlined box patterns and a black beanie to cover some of his pink hair. It wouldn't be good for him to be mobbed in public right now while he was trying to find Lucy.
Why did she do that?! Natsu cursed to himself inside of his own head. Did she forget already how much danger she was in? The pinkette couldn't be completely angry with her because when he woke up it didn't occur to him much either. It seemed that just about everyone else was oblivious to the entire situation as well. Lucy didn't want to expound much on the situation as it were, let alone to all the rest of them. It was a private matter to her.
After taking off down the street, Natsu tried to cautiously look through the display windows of the stores to see if he could catch sight of blond hair. Unfortunately, every blond he saw was not Lucy, and with each passing store he grew more and more frantic. Eventually he breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted her inside a store that reeked of roses and herbal soap, like the Macy's fragrance department.
Slightly agitated and somewhat furious he charged inside the boutique store and waltzed right up to Lucy, grabbing her arm and hissing, "Do you have ANY idea ho-"
Before he could finish getting his sentence out a grey haired muscular man had grabbed his wrist and Brazilian styled jujitsu slammed him to the floor, folding his arm behind his back and calmly saying, "Sir I'm going to need you to maintain your distance from her."
"Maintain my WHAT?!" Natsu practically shouted, garnering a lot of unwanted attention.
The two different bottles of body spray Lucy had in her hands that she was debating on purchasing were promptly set down as she turned to the two men on the floor, "Capricorn! It's ok! He's ok! Let go of him!"
"As you wish" he said as he promptly let go of Natsu's arm and stood up fast enough to dodge Natsu's wildly slung arm he threw in retaliation.
"Time to go" Lucy said nervously under her breath as she sped-walked towards the door now that every store attendant and customer had their eyes on them.
"Dammit" she hissed as they walked along the sidewalk, "I really wanted to get new body spray, and they were on sale too..."
"Who's this?" Natsu finally asked, breaking the silence after Lucy's grumbling.
The pinkette had his arms crossed with his eyes slanted sideways at Capricorn. Being body slammed to the ground was not a good way to make first impressions, nor was it a proper introduction.
Lucy stopped and turned 180 degrees on her heels to face the two men behind her before pointing at her body guard first, "This is Capricorn, my new bodyguard." Then turning her pointed finger towards Natsu, "Capricorn, this is Natsu, my boyfriend. So you don't need to slam him to the ground anymore, ok? Be nice to each other."
The two men looked in opposite directions from each other, clearly having an unspoken battle with tangible tension.
"Look" Lucy broke the silence again, "I can't enjoy my New Years Eve shopping like this. Either you two get along, or I'm going to ditch the both of you."
"You can't do that miss, it's against protocol" Capricorn instantly quipped.
Natsu recoiled at his robotic and staunch response before adding, "I don't think that's a good idea."
"Then stop it" she hissed.
"Stop WHAT?" Natsu asked getting slightly agitated at the ambiguity of the situation.
"THIS!" She turned around and made wild hand gestures in the general vicinity of the two men, "Stop this macho man too masculine to talk to each other cause one of you got tossed like a rag-doll bullshit."
"Tch" Natsu clenched his teeth, "I'd kick his ass in a fair fight."
"Then why aren't you the one guarding miss Lucy?" Capricorn egged him on.
Natsu began to twitch slightly in anger before responding, "Because I don't have as much free time as you do to go shopping and parade around in a suit and sunglasses."
"That's IT!" Lucy shrieked as turned around and stormed off in a completely random direction. Capricorn was hot on her heels but she dove strait into a mob of people standing outside a store that was having an annual end of the year sale and she completely lost them both in the sea of people.
Natsu and Capricorn however were able to easily find each other. They were both mad at the other, and grabbed each other's shirt collars ready to throw punches before they realized that there were more important things to do. Finding Lucy was one of those important things.
"She what?" a confused Grey asked on the phone with Rogue and Sting sitting nearby trying to eaves drop, "No, I haven't heard or seen her. I'll call you if anything turns up. Ok, got it, bye."
"What now?" Sting asked excitedly like a teen girl waiting to get a peak at the newest gossip rag.
Rogue was trying to maintain a respectably stoic facial expression, but it was painfully obvious that he wanted to know about the situation too.
"Lucy ran off into a crowd and ditched Natsu and apparently some new body guard she has. Natsu's all upset and was hoping she'd come back here. I told him I'd call if she did." Gray grumbled, setting the home phone back on its receiver.
"Lucy has a body guard now?" Rogue asked with slight confusion and curiosity.
Sting hunched over the back of the couch as he wined, "Why don't we get body guards?"
Gajeel was walking by and slapped the blond of the head with the crumpled newspaper in his hand, "Because your whining repels people naturally."
"Hey!" Sting feigned insult as he shook a fist at Gajeel who was already making his way out of the living room.
If there was anyone who was privy to Lucy's whereabouts, it was Levy. Gajeel decided to meander next door to see if he could find the bluenette in her usual book-nook reading herself into oblivion. It didn't come as a surprise when he found her exactly where he expected her too, but instead of a book in her hand, she was furiously typing on her phone.
"I suspect you're talking to the blond Houdini that just ditched her security detail" Gajeel leaned against a wall nearby with his arms crossed nonchalantly and a leg casually crossed over the other.
Levy looked up from her phone at the sudden voice that appeared nearby before nodding and returning to type onto her phone screen. She was trying to convey to Lucy that if she was going to ditch her guard detail, that it would be best if she just came back home for the rest of the day to cool off. Loki and her father were probably somehow keeping tabs on her and as crafty as Lucy was, it would be very difficult for her to fend for herself if she got swarmed by the millionaire's personal secret service.
After a few moments there were some disembodied shouting from downstairs before Juvia came running over to the pair, "look at what Juvia saw scrolling on her social media!"
Holding out her own phone towards Levy, there was an article titled "Missing Heiress Found, but Fallen." Levy scrunched her face before gently taking the phone to click on the article and see the details. It was clear that whoever wrote it had insider information as they completely invaded the privacy of Lucy's current occupation and recent contract signing that would lead to a future music career.
"Not good" Levy commented, "Go take that to Laxus and have him call Jellal. We have to get that article taken down ASAP."
Juvia nodded before scurrying back down the stairs and reading the newest message on her phone from Lucy. Somehow the blond had gotten herself lost in the city square with all the crazy semi-annual sale shoppers and she wasn't quite sure how to weave her way back to somewhere she could get her bearings. Levy was trying to give her words of comfort and calm before she said "I'm being followed." After that, Levy did not receive another text message for several minutes and was panicked.
"No... no no no no" Levy kept repeating as she used one hand to grip her hair, the frazzles strands weaving out through between her fingers.
Gajeel could sense the urgency in her face and her tone before looking over her shoulder and seeing Lucy's last message. After grabbing Levy by the arm he grunted "let's go" and dragged the bluenette gently by the arm down the stairs headed towards a car. He threw the keys to Levy, as his motion sickness didn't make him the best driver. Even though Gajeel never said a destination, Levy knew it was implied as they both drove towards the city.
Lucy was wondering to herself where she'd ended up as she was reading the short novels her friend had sent her begging her to come home. As time creeped by and she became more disoriented, Levy's plea started to make more and more sense. After the crowds started to become thinner in the restaurant and coffee shop district of the city, she noticed that there were some suspicious figures following her in conspicuous looking identical jackets with sunglasses. Neither of them had hair that was like Natsu's striking pink or Capricorn's staunch white. Whoever these goons were, they weren't her goons. She immediately panicked and sent an SOS to Levy before popping her phone in her pocket, making sure the location GPS was still turned on so her whereabouts could be found by Jellal when Levy conveyed the situation to him. All she could hope for now was that someone would extract her from this situation before it was too late.
At the end of the strip of restaurants and coffee shops, a long line of 24 hour diners and bars starting appearing as she slowly found herself in the all too familiar district she used to inhabit. She was familiar with the landscape and thought she could use it to her advantage when she side stepped and disappeared down an alleyway. She knew it would come out to a different section of the city after 3 blocks of back building entrances, and she nearly ran to get there. The sound of feet rushing behind her made her legs burn as she desperately tried to outpace them. Her wedge heels were not a good choice for today and it wasn't until now that it became apparent.
When someone had caught up to her and grabbed her arm she screamed at the top of her lungs and threw her bag full force into the unseen offender's head. Luckily, their raised hand absorbed most of the blow. Bacchus's face was squelched in pain from her scream as his hand gripped her bag, unintentionally spilling some of its contents.
"Fuck" he hissed, "Who were you expecting?"
"Not... not you" Lucy said hesitantly as she let tears pool in the corners of her eyes from the panic ebbing away slowly.
Bacchus immediately read the situation insinuated by her mental state and looked around cautiously before spotting the duo Lucy had seen before, who had probably sent her running down this alleyway.
"You sure picked a bad travel route for this. You should always be around other people when you're being followed." Bacchus held off on his chiding as he slowly started leading her towards the exit of the alleyway she was headed. Unexpectedly, they were met by another two goons dressed the same as the ones behind them that were closing in. "Stay close" Bacchus grunted under his breath as he waited for them to strike first.
One of the men had a stun gun on him, thankfully it wasn't the kind that shot projectiles so he was able to dodge to the side and knock it out of the man's hand before bending his arm behind his back and breaking it. Lucy thought she was going to pass out when she heard the sickening crack and the man scream. Before long the other three were headed towards Bacchus all at once, but he quickly used a nearby trashcan and threw it, knocking two of the men to the ground so he could punch the one still standing square in the jaw.
After the two who were knocked down regained their composure Bacchus had to be careful how to finish them off, aware of the two who were flailing on the ground in pain but could also get back up at any moment.
Unsure of what to do, Lucy took her phone back out and sent an SOS location to all of her contacts. It was too difficult to cherry-pick. She just hoped Levy knew what it meant, and that everyone else would too.
"Tell me how to get here" Levy ordered a nauseous Gajeel to be her navigator as she drove. The steely man took the phone and saw it was a location message sent by Lucy
"She much be here. I hope we're not too late..." he growled under his breath.
Natsu and Capricorn were frantically running around the square, neither one of them letting the other out of their sight for petty and personal reasons. When their phones simultaneously beeped with a message from the blond who had slipped through their fingers, Natsu and Capricorn looked each other dead in the eye with a mutually serious expression.
"Move it or loose it" Natsu grunted as he took off running towards the location with Capricorn hot on his heels.
They were accidentally knocking down several people on their way, which would make Jellal squirm from the PR repercussions. Consequences be damned, Natsu knew that message was sent as a cry for help.
Unnoticed by Lucy and Bacchus's original observations, a fifth person was waiting further back in the shadows near a dumpster. This man was dressed in a nicer outfit than the other four, but he made no hesitation in identifying Lucy as his target.
"Well, if it isn't our favorite local beauty queen" his cold voice matched the ice blue hair pulled into a side ponytail that was cascading down in front of his right shoulder.
Lucy's eyes widened for a moment before she took a dive for the stun gun on the ground one of the men had dropped. Soon after she dove for it, the menacing figure crushed her hand underneath his boot, causing Lucy to scream in pain before clenching her teeth and glaring up at him like a defiant creature who refused to acknowledge being cornered. She tried to use her other hand clenched into a fist to pound on his foot, but the solid leather boots absorbed most of any impact she was making. He rewarded her efforts by twisting his foot down onto her hand letting out a new stream of sobs.
"You clowns couldn't capture one single girl?" The stranger in a cobalt blue trench coat asked his henchmen rhetorically.
He quickly grabbed Lucy's wrists and fastened a zip tie to them then abruptly pulled her to her feet, slowly dragging her down the alleyway towards the way she had come in. There was a black van parked on the street there with darkly tinted windows. Lucy felt the spit in her mouth dry up as her heart dropped to her toes. The entire reason Capricorn was hired was to protect her from this very things.
In that moment, like an answered prayer, she saw both Capricorn and Natsu appear in front of the van, directly in front of her and this man dragging her towards the car.
"Natsu!" she shrieked in joy as she threw herself forwards, breaking the man's grasp on her as she thudded into the dirty cobblestone of the alleyway.
The mysterious kidnapper put his hands up and slowly backed away as he grumbled, "I know when I'm outnumbered." Not missing the presence of a battered Bacchus behind him.
Before Bacchus or Capricorn could grab him, he fled up a flight of metal fire-escape stairs and retracted them out of the two men's reach. That didn't stop Capricorn from scaling a separate flight of stairs nearby and then jumping onto the rooftop of the other building. As soon as the trench-coat stranger had moved away, Natsu dove for Lucy. The zip-ties on her wrists were slowly turning her hands red and purple. Natsu wanted so badly to tell her "I told you so" as he used his pocket knife to cut the restraints and help her to her feet, but withheld his criticism as he embraced her in a hug and apologized. A few tears streamed down his face as he tried to push the thoughts from his mind of what could've happened had Lucy been shoved into the black van that had now sped off violently down the street away from the scene.
"Don't ever do that again" he seethed as they parted from their hug and Natsu threw his jacket over her shoulders.
Her clothes were damp from falling on the cobble stones and he had just run a 5k to find her. He felt she probably needed the warmth more than he did. More than she would ever admit, it was the scent of his jacket that brought her the most comfort. The shaking of her body wasn't as much from the cold as it was from the shock of what had just happened. She knew that her father and Loki were both capable of hiring personal professionals for dirty work, but she had debated over whether or not they'd actually risk getting caught and do it. Now she had her answer.
"We need to get to a hospital" Bacchus said as he clutched his ribs nodding at the blond.
Natsu immediately whipped his head to Bacchus, confused as to how he had found Lucy before him, but also what he meant saying that while nodding to Lucy. "Did you hurt yourself?" Natsu asked her.
Lucy was cradling her crunched hand in her good one. The sun was gone by now, so it was hard to tell in the dark what the damage was. After Natsu's prying stare she tried to slide her hands further back into herself, inside his jacket. When the pinkette reached his hand out to grab hers, the wince told him all he needed to know.
"Get in!" another familiar voice yelled as the car came screaming to the curb in an almost Tokyo-drift fashion.
Levy was driving as Gajeel had sunk halfway down to the floorboard from anxiety and motion sickness. Natsu huffed at having to get into the car, but put Lucy in the middle seat as he and Bacchus occupied the seats on each side of her.
"Is everyone ok?" Levy turned around to ask as she saw the grungy looking bunch.
"No" Natsu said as he nodded to the other two in the back with him, "We ought to head to the urgent care. No one's fatally wounded but I would imagine some of these injuries are not treatable at home."
Levy nodded before throwing the gear shift forward and pulling away from the side of the road and off towards the hospital.
"Get ready for a shit show" Bacchus warned as he scrolled through his phone, "Lucy's already in the media for something else."
"What!" she exclaimed in the backseat as she tried to grab at Bacchus's phone to read the title.
"Ignore it, Lucy" Gajeel advised her, "It's all tabloid-rag gossip no one takes seriously anyway. We already told Jellal about it and he's already filed a cease and desist order, as well as libel charges for them to take it down."
Bacchus sighed before he added "It's inevitable that she's going to be a paparazzi target now though. There's no telling who saw us come out of that alleyway together or who is going to be calculating our moves for pictures and more tabloid stories."
Natsu smacked a hand over his face as he took the jacket that was on Lucy's shoulders and lifted it up so that it was covering the top of her head and shielding the sides of her face. "Wear it this way when you get out of the car. Don't talk to anyone, go strait to the doors."
Levy pulled the car into the underground parking deck of the hospital, and it was no surprise that a small group of about 4 camera men with their giant flash-photo accessories were trying to get picture of Lucy. Natsu was shielding her face as best he could with his jacket and his hands, not bothering to hide his own identity. Levy got fed up and almost shoved one of the photographers until Gajeel grabbed her arms to keep her focused and following them inside the doors. After a doctor had taken Lucy and Bacchus back, the other three were texting the rest of the posse and Jellal to keep him updated on the situation and what had just happened. Natsu checked the time on his phone and it read "11:23pm." The entire day had escaped him and in less than 40 minutes it would be an entirely new year. This wasn't exactly the "bang" he was looking for, nor was Lucy intending to start the year this way.
A nurse hadn't let them back due to how crowded it was (New Year's Eve was notorious for crazy accidents and emergencies), but they had only waited a total of two hours before Lucy and Bacchus were walking back out together. Lucy had three of her fingers taped together with a splint and an ice pack in her hand, and Bacchus had bandages stuffed under his shirt from presumably broken ribs.
"Looks like you guys will be out of commission a few weeks" Gajeel grunted.
"Only a few days for me, I have to get back to work early to start prepping equipment for when everyone else gets back" Bacchus grinned as if he didn't mind having to do that.
"Thank you..." Lucy managed to finally show her gratitude, "I don't know what I would've done if you weren't there..."
Natsu felt a small pang of jealousy in his gut. After all, it was him who ultimately came to Lucy's aid before she was almost thrown into the van. Bacchus hadn't fully protected her and would've failed if the rest of them hadn't shown up.
"Don't mention it. You looked panicked and I was across the street, so I was going to check on you. Didn't expect to get a face full of your 30lb tote bag."
Lucy blushed and laughed slightly embarrassed as she scratched the back of her head, "Sorry about that."
Bacchus just waved a hand before giving her a pat on the shoulder and ruffling her hair on his way out of the building to head back to his home. Natsu wrapped an arm across Lucy's shoulders as they all exited the building as well. It seemed the paparazzi got the pictures they wanted and had gone home for the night, so the walk back to the car was much less chaotic. Lucy couldn't help but feel her stomach clench in anxiety at the first explosion she heard. It had completely escaped her mind what day it was, and when she checked her phone it was 12:01am. The new year had begun and this was how she had started it. A new career, a new resurgence of an old enemy, and she had ultimately build herself a new life. A year ago she was working naked on a metal pole this time of night. Now, she got to go home and rest in her bed in a house full of people she had come to consider almost family. Even though a few of her fingers might've been fractured, she knew things could be much much worse.
A/N: Please leave reviews! I tried to take my time in writing this, but there are probably still typos. Please be patient with me! I will try to post another chapter before the end of July! (Maybe in two weeks time from now if I'm lucky and stay focused enough).