I hope everyone had a Happy Easter yesterday, for those who celebrate. Thank you to those who have reviewed and have enjoyed the story so far. Concerning my updating schedule, I don't really have one. When I have a chapter typed out, I post it. So it could be one everyday or one every few days. Nothing set in stone so far, but rest assured that this story will be completed in a timely manner.

Anywho, enjoy the newest chapter!

My reaction was immediate.

"I'm gonna kill you," I told Cana.

She walked in and dropped an overnight bag on the floor, chuckling.

She set me up. She knew Natsu was coming home last night. Crazy bitch.

"What's going on here?" Grandine asked hopefully, rooted to the spot and staring at us, not with disapproval at our carnal clinch, but with eyes filled with hopeful bliss.

Natsu got his eyes from Grandine, and all the kids got their long, lean body from her. Grandine was always a bundle of energy, the kind of mom who held down a full-time job, made dinner every night, had home-baked cookies in the cookie jar and, every year, sewed all her kids' Halloween costumes from scratch.

Natsu moved to the side then jumped up and sat on the counter beside me.

I hastily closed my legs.

"Anyone want coffee?" Natsu asked courteously.

I jumped down and took a step forward, escape on my mind. It was pretty clear to me that I'd slid through a tear between the worlds and I had to find my way back to my home world pretty damn quick.

Further, now that the Natsu of this world was no longer kissing me, I had to get away from him or I was going to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze.

Natsu leaned forward, caught me by the waistband of my jeans and hauled me back between his legs.

"What's going on here?" Grandine repeated, her eyes taking in the cozy scene.

Far too cozy. Far too fast. Far too weird.

Shit.

I opened my mouth to speak but Natsu beat me to it.

"Lucy and I are together now. "

My entire body froze in disbelief, my mouth still open.

"Oh my Mavis. Oh my Mavis," Grandine chanted.

"Righteous!" Cana exclaimed.

I twisted around and glared at Natsu. "You said one night of sex!"

Natsu's eyes held mine. "I didn't say one night. We've been waitin' a long time. One night won't do it." Then he paused and said, "But, if you want, we can try."

My breasts swelled at the idea of trying to fit years of sex into one night with Natsu.

I ignored my breasts and paid attention to my temper.

I figured it would be bad form to smack Natsu in front of his mother.

And definitely strangulation was out.

Grandine was in her little slice of heaven, so much so that she missed my 'one night of sex' comment and Natsu's response.

"I can't wait to tell your father," she told me. "And your father," she told Natsu.

"I wouldn't do that," I said, beginning to panic.

"Of course, we all shouldn't get too excited. This is happening fast, but not that fast, if you know what I mean," Grandine went on.

Fast? This wasn't fast. This was warp speed.

Grandine was staring dreamily ahead, not focused on a thing, and we'd all melted into the atmosphere. She was picking wedding colors. She was deciding china patterns. She was mentally knitting baby booties. She was planning her visit to my mother's grave to impart the blissful news.

Shit.

I twisted back to Natsu.

"Asshole," I mouthed.

He was unfazed at my word, though he seemed somewhat fascinated with watching my mouth form it.

"I brought you a change of clothes and some of your stuff," Cana said, reaching behind us and grabbing the coffee pot. "Looks like I should have brought more."

I moved my glare to her.

She was just as good at ignoring it as Natsu. Better, she'd had more practice.

"I'll take some of that. Lucy already has a cup," Natsu murmured.

"Not surprising," Cana said, pouring coffee into three mugs.

They were acting like it was business as usual at Natsu's condo, just like it was any other day, and I decided I was most definitely in an alternate universe because this was all just plain old nuts.

"Listen people!" I cried, trying to get everyone's attention. "This is not what it seems."

Cana looked at me.

Grandine's happy dazed eyes focused on me.

Natsu's hard thighs tightened on my sides and his forearm wrapped around my chest and neck. His chin dipped to the curve of my shoulder, his lips at my ear. "Don't spoil Mom's moment," he murmured there.

"What is it, then?" Grandine asked.

Natsu's fingers dug into my shoulder and I could feel the muscles flexing in his forearm at my neck. I took one look in Grandine's eyes.

Damn it all to hell.

"We're taking it slow," I said for lack of anything else to say, like the truth.

Wouldn't sound so good to say, Your son is trying to extort sex from me. News at eleven.

Grandine breathed a sigh of relief, sent us a dazzling smile and put sugar in her coffee.

Cana wandered into the living room.

Natsu brushed my hair aside with his chin and softly kissed the spot where my shoulder met my neck.

I guessed this was his way of saying thank you.

It was a good way.

"Hey, where's Vijeeter?" Cana asked.

I froze.

So did Natsu.

We'd completely forgotten about Vijeeter.

"Fuck," Natsu said.

He moved me forward and jumped off the counter, prowling into the living room. I caught a good look, both of his muscled back and his ass in his jeans, and went a little weak in the knees.

"Natsu Dragneel, that mouth!" Grandine admonished.

I followed Natsu, but he was already moving out of the living room and through the kitchen.

I looked at the quilt and pillow on the couch.

No Vijeeter.

"Fuck!" Natsu clipped from somewhere in the condo.

I ran to him.

The second bedroom door was closed. The bathroom door was open with the bathroom empty. I walked into Natsu's room and he stalked out of his bathroom.

"That fucking twat," Natsu muttered.

"Mouth!" Superpower-mom-eared Grandine called from the kitchen.

Natsu could always swear really, really well. He'd been doing it since I could remember.

Natsu walked to the dresser and slid a drawer open. He pulled on a navy, long-sleeved T-shirt that fit super snug to his chest and arms and grabbed a pair of socks. I watched as he sat on the bed to pull on the socks and a pair of black motorcycle boots with square toes and silver hoops at the side.

Seriously kickass boots.

I shook my head to clear thoughts of Natsu's boots and started to worry about Vijeeter and why he would leave, what he was doing, where he was going and what was in that pot-addled brain of his.

Then something occurred to me as Natsu got off the bed. And for the first time that morning, I smiled.

If I found Vijeeter first, and got the diamonds back to their owner, then I wouldn't owe Natsu a thing.

Hee hee.

I was so happy with my thought, I had decided to share it.

"I guess this puts a crimp in your sex extortion plans."

I timed my 'nanny nanny foo foo' very poorly. Natsu was close enough to hook me around the back of the neck with enough force to send me slamming into him. He gave my hair an erotically rough yank, tilting my head bak.

Then he kissed me.

It was a hard, deep and serious kiss with a liberal dose of tongue.

My toes curled into the thick carpet.

When he lifted his head, he announced, "I have plans for you. Don't leave this apartment."

I nodded.

I had every intention of leaving his apartment.

He watched me.

"Lucy, you leave this apartment, I'll come lookin' for you."

"Jeez, we haven't even slept together and you already don't trust me."

"I've known you all of your life, not to mention the fact that my idiot sister is in the next room and when you two get together it's like Laurel and Hardy do Magnolia."

"It is not!" I cried.

"What about that time you bought scalped tickets to a Garth Brooks concert from Richard Buchanan?"

Richard Buchanan, better known as Uncle Richie. We'd known him since we were seven. He used to ride the squad car with Dad.

"He was in disguise!" I defended myself.

"He was wearing a baseball hat," Natsu returned.

"Yes, but he's a Quatro Cerberus fan, he was wearing a Phantom Lord hat. His head should have been on fire."

The sides of Natsu's eyes crinkled in a grin that didn't involve his mouth, but was nevertheless ultra-effective, and he let go of my hair.

"We aren't finished yet," he told me.

"Yes we are," I retorted.

Natsu's crinkles disappeared and his face got serious.

"This is happening between you and me," he threatened.

I wasn't entirely sure what 'this' meant since he announced to his mother and sister that we were 'together'. Considering what I did know was that a goodly part of it involved us being naked, in his bed, participating in activities that required my avid participation, I wasn't going to have any part of it.

"No, it isn't," I snapped.

"We'll talk about it later."

"No, we won't."

His eyes narrowed. "Do I need to kiss you again?"

I took a hasty step back and watched my toe draw a pattern in the carpet.

"No," I muttered.

"Mavis, I need to get my head examined."

My head snapped up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked angrily.

"Nothin'. Be here when I get back."

"Sure."

Not on his life.

Cana Dragneel had yet to decide on a career. Currently, she was on her one hundred and eleventh bartending job. She already had a Bachelor's degree (majored in political science and squeaked by), was a certified radiology technician (a tough gig, but she saw it through and worked the MRI machine at Magnolia Medical Center for two months before quitting; Igneel's head nearly exploded after that one) as well as a certified nail technician.

Of all those things, Cana gave good nails, but she found sitting in a chair all day filing, polishing and forming plastic gloop into nail shapes was not compatible with her energetic personality.

Luckily, bartending left most of her days free, and whenever she needed a bit of cash (which was often), she worked for me part time at Fairy Tail.

Before coming over with Grandine, Cana had gone to my house and chosen a Cana outfit for me. If I was to choose a search-for-Vijeeter outfit or a night-after-Natsu outfit it would have included jeans. But then most of my outfits included jeans unless I had a backstage pass.

Cana had chosen a denim skirt that was mini in the sense that it hit five inches above my knees, not mini in the way Cana wore them, which was five centimeters below her ass. She also brought my vintage Rolling Stones T-shirt (I wasn't a fan but the shirt was way cool), a red belt with a delicate filigree-and-braided design and my red suede flip flops.

After Natsu and Grandine left, I filled Cana in on the whole Vijeeter Debacle and my plan to find him. She (not surprisingly) immediately volunteered her assistance and I (equally not surprisingly) took her up on it.

I showered and dressed while Cana tried, and failed, to call Loke.

Then we went to the bookstore to help Kinana. With Loke and Vijeeter out, Kinana was alone at the store and was in a tizzy because she was handling the espresso machine by herself and thus actually had to speak to people.

Kinana was not good at speaking to people. She could shelve a mean book and was really good at tidying, vacuuming and updating our computer book inventory, but customer relations was not her strong suit.

Cana and I worked alongside Kinana until the morning rush was over. The regulars weren't happy that Vijeeter wasn't there, but we'd all been working alongside Vijeeter long enough to be able to do a fair imitation. Still, it wasn't the same.

Then Cana swung by Vijeeter's house on the off chance he was there. This was off-limits for me because Natsu might have found out Vijeeter's address using one of his mysterious 'ways' and might be there, and I didn't want to bump into Natsu just yet, especially not searching for Vijeeter or the diamonds. He didn't know my plan and I wasn't about to let on.

And anyway, business on a weekday didn't really die down until after the lunch hour and I couldn't leave Kinana on her own.

While Cana was doing the stop off at Vijeeter's place, my phone rang.

It was Dad.

"Hey, Dad," I said.

"What's this about you hooking up with Natsu?"

Shit.

Grandine.

"We're taking it slow."

"Take it real slow," Dad said. "That boy's a tomcat. Mavis, why couldn't you choose Gajeel? Gajeel's a good guy, a solid cop, has a job where both his feet are planted on the right side of the law."

Yikes.

Dad went on, "Don't get me wrong. Natsu's his own man, doesn't take shit from anyone, gotta respect that, but hell. My daughter?"

I was silent and Dad was on a roll. You couldn't really get much in when Dad was on a roll.

"Grandine is beside herself," he told me. "Your mother and her had some sort of blood pact where they stuck their fingers with pins and put them together, silly girl crap, and they promised their kids would get married, have babies, and that they'd be related."

That sounded familiar.

Dad's voice changed from frustrated to coaxing. "Gajeel will have a good pension."

"Dad, I'd make Gajeel's head explode. We'd last, like, a day."

"Shee-it."

Dad knew this was true.

He didn't say much more before he hung up.

Guess Natsu didn't have the Dad Vote.

I shook off the call and mentally assigned Natsu the duty of letting his mother down easy. He'd gotten us into this, he'd have to get us out.

I decided to call a couple of Vijeeter's friends that he'd put down in his file as emergency contacts to see if Vijeeter was with them or if they'd seen him. I got no response from one. The other was home, sleeping it off, unhappy to be disturbed, and had not heard from Vijeeter in a few days.

I called Loke again. Twice. No answer. And he didn't have his voicemail set up for me to leave a message. I mentally added to my list of things I needed to smack people upside the head for.

Then the door opened and Jenny Realight walked in. Jenny Realight lived next door to the Dragneels all the while we were growing up. She was between Natsu and Cana and me in age and she was a good friend. She had been fettered by a scoliosis brace in junior high and orthodontics in high school.

She married a jerk, got a divorce and moved back in with her parents a year ago. Jenny was taking her divorce hard, and living with her parents at age thirty-one harder.

She was five foot five and used to be cute as a button, but the divorce was taking its toll and she was drowning her sorrows in Oreos. She was a nurse at Magnolia Medical Center and had made house hunting a full-time hobby.

She rushed up to me at the espresso counter, her cheeks flushed.

"I heard you finally hooked up with Natsu Dragneel," she said.

Shit, shit, shit.

Jenny was intimately acquainted with my lifelong crush and had been recruited for some of my Natsu Maneuvers in the past. She probably thought I was over the moon and needed a friend to take me wedding dress shopping.

"We're taking it slow," I said.

"Have you . . . you know . . . done it yet?" Her eyes were beginning to glaze over at the very thought of doing it with the legendary Natsu Dragneel.

"Nope."

"What are you waiting for?" She nearly shouted, and if she'd reached across the counter and grabbed me by my shirt and shook me, I wouldn't have been surprised.I took Jenny's mind off Natsu with a mocha, heavy on the chocolate syrup and whipped cream.

After Jenny left, making me promise to call her the minute I did it with Natsu and gave her all the details (not gonna happen), I called Gajeel.

I did this because I thought maybe Vijeeter might do something stupid, like hock the diamonds and go to Alverez. According to him, he was owed fifty dollars for some of the 'primo' grass I never knew he grew in his basement, and the guy gave him a gazillion dollars worth of diamonds.

That was seriously fishy, and Vijeeter was seriously stupid for taking the damn things.

Though, what did one do when presented with a fortune of diamonds? Say no?

I didn't actually blame Vijeeter for wanting to cash in his windfall and skip town. Personally, I wouldn't have picked Alverez though.

If Vijeeter successfully slipped, and Natsu was right in what he said last night, this meant that Vijeeter would be in Alverez, and there was a good possibility that either Natsu or I or both of us would be target practice.

I really shouldn't have mouthed off to those guys, and I was in wholehearted agreement with Natsu. I'm sure he'd been shot at tons of times, and if he didn't like it, I'd never like it.

This also meant I owed Natsu big time for putting his life in danger. Not to mention my life would be in danger and I'd have a hard time talking myself out of having sex with Natsu (at least once) before I died.

Further, I'd never replace Vijeeter at the espresso machine. He had a God given talent, no joke. He was the Picasso of Coffee.

The first thing Gajeel said, "I hear you've finally hooked up with Natsu."

Shit.

Grandine, the fastest dialing fingers in Fiore.

Something had to be done.

"Not exactly," I responded.

"Yeah, takin' it slow."

"Something like that." Really slow. Snail with a hernia slow. "Listen, can I talk to you about something?"

"Anything."

"Can you step out of your cop shoes for five minutes?"

Silence.

Gajeel wasn't very fond of me asking that question, which I did over the years a lot.

"Shit. You and Cana haven't stolen candy from the convenience store again, have you?" he asked.

"We didn't steal it! We were just buying a bunch and didn't know what we could carry, so we started putting it in our pockets early to see how much we could pack in."

"They have bags there, you know," Gajeel pointed out.

"Those plastic bags clog the landfills and choke the environment."

Or something.

"Mavis, a politically-correct Lucy. Someone save us," he muttered.

"Smartass," I said on a smile.

"What did you wanna talk about?"

Big breath.

"How would I go about finding a missing person?"

Gajeel became all business. I couldn't see him but I heard it, for sure. "Who is it?"

"You don't know him." Well, Gajeel did know Vijeeter, but only to buy coffee from when he came to Fairy Tail.

"How long have they been missing?"

I tried to calculate it. "About ten hours."

"Sorry, Lucy. Not missing yet."

"What if they actually are?"

"Who is it?" he repeated.

"An employee of mine. He's a steady guy." That was a lie. Vijeeter was anything but steady. But Vijeeter never missed a chance to make coffee. He worked seven days a week and never complained. "He didn't show up for work today," I went on. "His name is Vijeeter Ecor."

"The same Vijeeter Ecor Natsu's lookin' for?"

Say what?

"Natsu only knows his first name," I snapped.

Hesitation then, "Natsu has ways."

Grr.

Everybody was always saying this. Natsu had ways of getting into girls' panties. Natsu had ways of getting parts for his car when he didn't have a job. Natsu had ways of finding choice parking spots wherever he went.

Natsu had ways of getting out of being grounded an average of one hour after the grounding, when Cana and I would usually have to do the whole week, or month, or whatever our transgression had bought.

Gajeel didn't read my frustration. He just kept talking.

"Starting with his PI databases. He can tap into a lot of things. Natsu called in a couple hours ago. Asked me to let him know if Ecor surfaces. He doin' this favor for you?"

Pause for answer.

I kept my mouth shut.

"What's goin' on?" Gajeel was losing his good-natured, business-like voice and was lapsing into his stern older brother voice. "Why are you and Natsu looking for the same guy?"

Rule Number One in the Lucy Heartfilia Life Code: When in doubt or possible trouble, lie.

"Don't know. Listen, Gajeel, can you call me first if you hear anything about Vijeeter? And then forget about it for about an hour or two or twenty before calling Natsu?"

"Not if you don't tell me what this is about."

Like brother, like brother. Stubborn to the last.

"Forget it. See you Saturday at Dad's BBQ."

"You comin' with Natsu?"

"No, I'm not coming with Natsu. I'm pretty sure we'll be broken up by then. Later."

I hung up and went to my contacts. I scrolled down to Natsu, took a big breath and tapped the call button, a button I'd never used in my life.

He answered after one ring.

"Natsu? It's Lucy."

A customer walked up and asked for a double espresso. I gave him a 'one minute' hand signal and Kinana started banging the portafilter against the sink to loosen the last pot of grounds.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Fairy Tail."

"I thought I told you to stay at the condo."

As if I ever did what I was told.

'I have a business and I'm down two employees. I had to come to work."

"Less than twenty-four hours ago, people were shooting at you."

Hmm, he sounded pissed off.

"Kinana can't handle the store alone in the morning all alone. She'll have a meltdown."

Why was I explaining myself to him?

"Listen, you have to stop Grandine, she's telling everyone we're together."

"We are together."

"We're not together."

"Who has she told?"

"Dad, Jenny Realight, Gajeel, Mavis knows who else. This is getting out of hand. It has to stop."

"Mom didn't tell Gajeel. I told Gajeel."

"Why would you tell Gajeel?" This was said in a near shout, and the customer took a step back.

Natsu was silent for a second, thinking thoughts I couldn't fathom, then he changed the subject. "When do you close?"

"Six."

"Don't leave the store. I'll come by tonight at six to pick you up."

"Natsu-"

"See you at six."

Then he hung up.

Rat bastard.

Cana came back to get me with news of no Vijeeter at his house.

I asked if there was any Natsu at Vijeeter's house and that was a negatory too.

We took off to go see Vijeeter's friend, emergency contact number one. He had a house in the Highlands area. Great old houses and bungalows, though Vijeeter's friend didn't live in one that had been renovated.

For that matter, he didn't live in a block that had a single house that had been renovated. Or in a block that had a single house with more than a dozen blades of genuine grass growing in their yards or decent curtains in their windows. It was semi-wasteland.

We knocked to no answer.

We sat in my car and called the house number on my cell phone, no answer.

We scanned the neighborhood and Cana pointed to the end of the block.

We got out of the car and walked to the corner Stop & Stab, which had surprisingly not been crushed by the overabundance of Magnolia's convenience stores. An older man stood behind the counter.

We walked up to him and he smiled.

"You want gum?" he asked.

"No, we're-" I started to say.

"Cigarettes? They're bad for you but I have to sell them or I'll go bust. Everyone in this neighborhood smokes cigarettes."

I shook my head. I noticed Cana staring at me like, Hello? And I soldiered on.

"You know Vijeeter Ecor?" I asked.

"You're not buying goods?" the counter man asked back, looking both disappointed and defeated.

I couldn't help myself. He immediately made me sad.

"Yes, mints," I grabbed a pack of mints and put it on the counter.

He stared at the mints.

I stared at the mints.

Cana stared at the mints.

The mints seemed lonely and the purchase of the mints wasn't going to do anything to help feed this man's family.

I put another pack of mints on the counter, followed it with two candy bars and then walked over to the fridge and grabbed two bottles of water and two diet sodas.

On the way back to the counter, I grabbed a box of cream-filled, prepackaged cupcakes. I hadn't had a cupcake in ages.

He happily started ringing up my purchases. "Who are you looking for again?"

"Vijeeter Ecor. He works for me and didn't come into work today and I'm worried," I lied.

I was a good liar. I'd been doing it since Natsu, Cana and I were caught behind the garage trying to smoke leaves when Cana and I were eight and Natsu was eleven. I came up with the imaginative excuse that we were thinking about roasting marshmallows but didn't know how. Igneel bought it. Kids, marshmallows, my cute, angelic smile. It all seemed benign and plausible.

After we got off with just a lecture about fire safety and the danger of matches, Natsu tousled my hair.

Happy memories.

"I don't know a man named Vijeeter." the counter man said.

"Vijeeter doesn't live around here, but his friend does, down and across the street about four houses. His name is Reedus Jonah."

"I know Reedus. He buys lots of cheese puffs and frozen pizzas."

If Reedus was a stoner the caliber of Vijeeter, I had no doubt he bought a lot of cheese puffs and pizzas.

"Vijeeter's thin, about five foot seven, chestnut colored hair. Looks a bit like Kurt Cobain, but his face isn't as pointy.," Cana put in.

"I know no Kurt Cobain, but I have seen a man of this description with Reedus."

"Have you seen him lately, like say, today?" I asked as I paid for my purchase.

"No, not today."

"Reedus?" Cana asked.

"Not Reedus either."

He handed me the bag and I took it at a loss for what to do next.

"Jeez, Lucy. Don't you read detective novels? You own a bookstore for Mavis' sake," Cana hissed and then turned to the store owner.

The counter man smiled huge. "You have a bookstore? I love books. What bookstore do you own?"

"Fairy Tail, on the corner by Kardia Cathedral.," I answered.

"I know that place. My wife goes there. Books are cheap there and then you can sell them back and get cash money."

"Yep, that's it." I nodded and smiled, happy to meet a customer by proxy.

Cana was busy scribbling my name and numbers on a piece of paper she found in her purse, and when she was done she handed him the paper. "Maybe you could give us a call if you see Vijeeter or Reedus. Would you do that?"

"Of course. I'm an employer. Only my wife works for me, but I understand how important it is to trust your hired help. I will call you."

"Thanks."

We went out and sat in my car and stared at Reedus's house while we thought about what to do next. We both were new at this. Neither of us had tracked down a stoner on the run before. We'd stalked plenty of guys, but we'd known where to find them.

We both ate a cupcake to get the brain juices flowing.

"That guy was nice," I said through pink cake and cream.

"Yep," Cana replied, her mouth equally full.

Someone tapped on Cana's window and we both jumped and swiveled our heads to the side.

I nearly spewed better-living-through-chemistry cream on my windshield at what I saw.

It was Grizzly Adams, but the serial killer version. He was enormous, had lots of wild, white hair, a thick, and seriously overlong (we're talking ZZ Top here) beard and was wearing a flannel shirt even though it had to be nearly ninety degrees.

He was also carrying a shotgun and had some kind of freaky-ass goggles on the top of his head.

"You want somethin'?" he growled.

"We're looking for Reedus Jonah," Cana replied calmly.

"He's not here," Grizzly said. "Move along."

"Yep, yep. Going!" I shouted and started the car, put it into gear and took off.

"Where are we going?" Cana asked.

"Hell if I know," I answered.

"We should have asked him some questions," Cana said, completely at ease.

"Right. No. We're trying to avoid me getting dead. Definitely you getting dead. I don't talk to people who carry shotguns around in broad daylight."

"He looked interesting," Cana replied contemplatively.

Shit.

It was just after four.

After our introduction to Grizzly, we'd swung by Fairy Tail to help out Kinana for a while and ask if she'd heard from Loke (answer: no).

Now Cana and I were in my pastel-yellow VW beetle, windows down, sunroof back, sitting outside Vijeeter's house sipping left-over water and waiting.

My Beetle wasn't exactly a rock 'n' roll-mobile, but it was hella cute. It had cream leather seats that were great in the winter because they heated up. Now that it was summer, the seats stuck to your legs and every time you got out it felt like three layers of skin tore off (another reason to wear jeans).

Magnolia had killer weather, as in nearly perfect. Summers were hot, but usually at night it cooled off enough to sleep under a blanket. Spring and fall were volatile and allowed for variety in wardrobe. Winter was never too cold because there was no moisture in the air.

The occasional blizzard was a bummer, and sometimes there were snowstorms in July, but nearly every day was sunny and the blue skies of Magnolia could not be beat.

We'd already called Loke, like, a gazillion times. Loke and Aries were visiting Aries's parents out of town. They were supposed to be home in the morning but had still not arrived. I didn't know Aries's parents number or her maiden name. We were stuck on that score.

I found Loke's disappearance curious and a little scary, Loke had been known to go walkabout, except it was a walkabout on a Harley.

Loke didn't do voicemail and I was loath to go to there cozy house in the woods. Although Vijeeter would likely be there or go there, at least eventually, as that was where the diamonds were, so might Natsu, and I had decided I was definitely back to avoiding Natsu.

I had not come to terms with this abrupt about-face and needed time to process it.

Who was I kidding?

There was no processing going on.

Natsu and I were not gonna happen.

I hated to break Cana and Grandine's hearts, but I'd seen Natsu tear through a variety of women's lives and I wasn't going to be one of them.

These days he was never home.

I had no idea what he did for a living, but I was pretty sure it was dangerous.

And he was way too damn cocky.

Cana and I were both staring at Vijeeter's house and I was trying to pluck up the courage to drive to the woods, and maybe have a scary face-off with Natsu that I had to have the cojones to win, when someone tapped on the back passenger window.

"Shit!" I jumped and shouted.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

In Cana's window was a nice-looking man. A wee bit steroid ridden and overdeveloped in the chest area, but he had a good haircut, shirt, tie and slacks.

"We're a bit jumpy. We've had kind of a rough day," Cana explained, smiling her flirty smile.

Conversely, although Cana could head bang with the best, she was a White Hat type of gal. She liked the good boys. She liked preppies and corporate types and definitely men in uniform. She understood a good guitar riff, but she liked her men clean cut, and ties and uniforms drove her wild.

"You looking for Vijeeter?" the man asked.

I blinked.

Were we that obvious?

"Uh, yeah," I replied.

He nodded. "I live over there."

He pointed in the vague direction of 'over there' and both Cana and I followed his finger, not sure precisely which house 'over there' was his, then looked back to him.

"Is Vijeeter in trouble?" the guy asked.

"Does Vijeeter get in trouble, do you know?" I asked in return.

The guy shook his head. "Not that I know of. Quiet guy. Killer coffee."

We all nodded.

"I'm Gaku," he said.

Cana extended her hand. "Cana," she said and then she pointed to me. "And this is Lucy."

Upon hearing my name, he turned, looked over his shoulder and gave a nod.

Cana and I turned and looked over our shoulders too.

Too late.

Before I could react to the two men running toward our car, my door was wrenched open. I was dragged out and I let out a howl when the backs of my legs were ripped from the hot leather seats.

I stopped my howl midway with an 'oof' because I hadn't taken my seatbelt off, and when the guy yanked me out my belt jerked me back.

"Jesus, Erigor. Release the belt," another man said.

I took this opportunity to scream.

Erigor dropped me. I hit the side of the seat and I used the steering wheel to pull myself back into it.

Cana had already been hauled out the other side. She wasn't screaming and that scared the shit out of me.

I had no time to look for Cana as Erigor's hands came around to undo the belt and I bent forward and bit his arm.

"Fuck!" He reared back and punched me in the cheekbone.

Hard.

I have never, in my life, been hit by a man.

I got in a bitch slapping catfight at a concert once, but we were in a mosh pit gone bad. It was punk, it was expected.

Getting hit by a man hurt.

A fucking lot.

So much, I quit screaming and concentrated on the burning hurt that was radiating out of my cheekbone into my entire face.

"Erigor, for Mavis' sake. Are you nuts? She's Dragneel's. He's gonna rip your dick off. This is supposed to go smooth."

I opened my mouth to scream again and started back with the struggling.

Then Erigor was pulled away, someone touched me with something, and after that I didn't remember a thing.