Cana and I went to my house and unloaded the groceries, then back to Fairy Tail, where we sent Kinana home and worked the last couple of hours before shutting down at six.

Cana took her car and I walked the two blocks home, Erik following me at a crawl.

On the walk home, I formed a plan.

Vijeeter couldn't go up in a puff of smoke and he wasn't smart enough to hide so well. If Natsu hadn't found him, then something was up. If he got the diamonds and went to Alverez, then where was Loke?

Unless something had happened to Vijeeter and Loke (which I hoped it had not), or Vijeeter had gone off looking for Loke (which would be stupid therefore not unheard of), then Vijeeter had to be hanging out, waiting for Loke. If he was camping out near Loke's house, waiting, then there would have been a forest fire by now. I didn't imagine Vijeeter paid a lot of attention to fire safety.

Vijeeter was a bit of a loner. He came to parties and went to concerts only when asked and without an entourage. I was certain Reedus and The Nabster were his only friends.

Except me.

I boiled all these things down as best I could, considering I was not a spy, a detective or a criminal mastermind.

What I came up with was that Vijeeter had to be somewhere close. He had to be taking advantage of a friend's kindness. And, to my mind, since he wasn't with The Nabster, and Reedus had also disappeared then Vijeeter and Reedus were holed up somewhere. Maybe at Reedus's house, in the basement, with copious amounts of cheese puffs, only coming out when the coast was clear or to bake a frozen pizza.

Or even if they'd stayed there for a while and then cleared out, there may be evidence or a clue to where they went.

I needed to establish a pattern of Vijeeter's movements. His car wasn't at his house and he'd been to Loke's yesterday morning. These were the only things I knew.

I decided I needed to search Reedus's house for clues. We were coming up with a big fat zero everywhere we went and I might as well.

Since it was illegal, first, I didn't want Cana involved, and second, I didn't want to do it in broad daylight.

I sent Erik a jaunty wave, then I blew him a kiss for good measure before I went in the front door of my house and closed the door behind me.

I stood there in happy oblivion at being home for the first time in two days.

I loved my duplex. Grandma had died six years ago and it had taken me that long to make the place, which had been stuffed full of all her and Gramps' crap (and there was a lot of it), my own.

The living room and dining room were one huge room, though it looked like at one time it had been two. The kitchen was in the back, obviously added on sometime after the house was originally built.

I'd painted everything a soft peach. I had chartreuse armchairs and an electric blue sofa with clean lines, and a kickass dining room table that could fold out to seat twelve people, though in a little bit of a crush.

All of this gave off a feel of light, airy, modern and uncluttered. The floors were new, gleaming hardwood and I wanted to throw myself on them and kiss them.

Instead, I ran to the phone and grabbed it. Natsu would be at my place soon and I didn't have a lot of time. I was sacrificing Balsamico Grill for this, not to mention what was to be my first-ever 'date' with Natsu. If I didn't hurry, I'd lose control and give in, give up and go with Natsu.

Then something occurred to me and I put the phone down and stared at it.

If Natsu and his boys could disable the alarm, get into my store, wire it, install cameras and re-enable the alarm, then they could bug my phones too.

Crap.

I looked out the window and saw Erik sitting in his SUV. He wasn't leaving.

Crap again.

Maybe I was being paranoid, but I wasn't going to take any chances.

I ran upstairs. Two bedrooms separated by a bath, my bedroom in back had a door to a balcony that was half the roof of my kitchen, half overhanging my brick paved backyard. The front room was the TV room and where I kept my desk.

I wrote a note for Natsu, ran downstairs and put it on the ottoman that sat between my sofa and chairs and served as a coffee table.

The note said: Something came up. Rain check?

I had no idea if he'd come into my house, but if he did, he'd see it. If he didn't, I wasn't going to put the note on the door for Erik to see it now. Natsu would just have to think he was stood up. I'd explain later or find a believable lie.

I ran back upstairs, went out to the balcony and jumped the small railing to my neighbor's balcony and then banged on their outside bedroom door.

Max and Warren lived next door. They were both flight attendants. They had a Turkish Angora cat named Carla who gave more attitude than either Max or Warren, and as Max was the top drag queen in Magnolia, this meant Carla threw a lot of 'tude. I watched Carla when they were both on flights and I loved that cat. I understood attitude, admired it, respected it and encouraged it.

Her two dads were of her ilk. Warren made eggs Benedict from scratch and always smiled and kissed your cheek when he saw you. Max could lip sync to 'Time and Tide' like nobody's business, could make me laugh so hard tears rolled down my cheeks and we shared the same dress size. They kept the yard tidy and were quiet. They were the best neighbors ever.

Max opened the door and stared at me.

"Girlie, what in the hell are you doing? And what happened to your face?"

I pushed into their bedroom, shut the door behind me and ran it down for him.

I told him about the shooting, diamonds, coffee guy, stun-gunning, kidnapping, Natsu's sex-tortion plans, the love of my life business, and even Makarov with the goggles. I explained I needed to hang out at their house until Natsu came and went or I'd likely be charmed out of my panties and have my heart broken by seven o'clock Monday morning.

Max blinked.

Then he said, as he linked arms with me and walked me out of his room, "Warren's barbecuing chops. I'm sure we have extra."

They always had extra and not much fazed Max. We'd been living next to each other for years. He was used to my escapades, not to mention he was a drag queen. I'd have to add murder and perhaps international incident involving royalty to faze Max.

At eleven o'clock, I jumped the railing back to my house.

Warren had interrupted our Yahtzee marathon, played nosy neighbor and saw Natsu come and go. Somehow, Natsu had gone into my house, opened the door with what Warren said appeared to be a key and left with the note in his hand.

"Uh-oh, gorgeous hunk is unhappy," Warren said.

My stomach lurched.

I decided I'd worry about that later.

While Warren was still looking out the window, he asked, "Tell me again why you don't want him in your panties?"

Jeez.

For my evening's activities, I pulled my hair back into a high ponytail and put on a black turtleneck, black jeans, black Vans and my black belt with tiny rhinestones in the buckle, because if I was gonna get arrested, I was gonna go in looking good regardless of my shiner.

I grabbed my bag and keys and jumped the railing again. In an effort to avoid a tail, I made a deal to trade car keys with Warren and Max for the night, so I took off in their CR-V.

The whole way I checked for a tail, spending more time looking in my mirrors than at the road. I was looking for any car that might be following me, but looking especially for Natsu's Crossfire, a motorcycle that looked like it was being driven by an unhappy hunk or an SUV. Since nearly every car in Magnolia was an SUV, I was panicked throughout the drive to Reedus's, but I couldn't see anyone following me.

By the time I turned down Reedus's block, no one was behind me, not for blocks.

I didn't waste any time. I wanted to be in and out of there as fast as I could. I had no idea what I'd find, but I hoped it would be Vijeeter hiding in the basement and this whole mess would be over.

I got out of the car and walked right up to the house.

No lights on at Reedus's, no lights on at the neighbors. It was nearing midnight, and even though the next day was aSaturday it seemed like no one was keeping a late night.

I knocked on the door and waited for an answer. I listened for any sound at all to come from the house.

Nothing.

"It's Lucy Heartfilia. If Vijeeter's in there, I'm just here to help, I swear," I whispered as loud as I dared.

Still nothing.

I tried the door and it was locked.

I did the same with the back door and then I went around the house, trying to look in the windows and checking to see if they'd slide up. I couldn't see much, and every single window was either painted shut or locked.

"Fuck!" I hissed under my breath, standing next to a window at the east side of the home.

Then something settled on my shoulder.

I gave a little screech and whirled, not knowing who I'd see. It could be Natsu, Everlue's goons, the shooters, a police officer or Dracula.

Instead, it was Makarov standing there with the goggles no longer on the top of his head, but over his eyes.

He put his finger to his lips then, a scant second later, put his fist through the window.

"What are you doing!?" I whispered.

"B and E, darlin'," he answered casually. He was wearing a flannel shirt and work gloves and pushing all the glass away from the windowpane.

"You can't break someone's window! We should have tried to jimmy one open."

"Quit your squawkin' and get in there." Then he grabbed me by the waist, picked me up and threw me through the window like I weighed no more than a bag of flour.

"Careful of the glass," he said.

Too late. I'd landed on the glass and rolled away, hoping nothing cut me, but I was too wired to feel a thing. I got to my feet and looked around in the darkness a little hysterically. Something smelled seriously funky and not in a good way.

Makarov heaved himself in behind me and I spun around to glare at his hulking shadow.

"Are you crazy?" I asked a crazy man. "You just threw me through a window."

"You looked like you were gettin' second thoughts."

"It's dark, you can't see me."

He tapped his goggles. "Night vision."

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

"Don't like that smell," Makarov remarked, and I could hear him sniffing the air because I couldn't see a thing. "That's not a good smell."

He was right, it was a terrible smell.

"You stay here. I'll have a look around." Then I saw his shadow move off.

"Don't leave me here!"

"Don't be such a girl," he returned, already somewhere else in the house, and I found it odd such a big man could walk on such quiet feet. He barely made a sound.

I stood in the dark, thinking we'd probably made an awful lot of noise breaking the window, and I listened for the sirens that would mean my doom. Dad would be seriously hacked off and Igneel would make sure Grandinedidn't invite me to the Fourth of July BBQ. I didn't even want to think what Gajeel would say.

Then I wondered if one of the other teams in the Vijeeter Hunt would have the same idea and come, say tonight, say at that exact time. Say that team was the shooters, say it was the shooters with guns drawn.

"Makarov, where are you?" I whispered. Loudly.

I started to make my way through the shadowy rooms, and the further I got into the house the funkier the smell was.

"You don't wanna come in here," I heard Makarov say when it seemed I hit ground zero on the smell.

I put my hand over my nose and mouth. "What is it?"

His shadow was still as a statue and the way he was holding himself scared me.

"Is it Vijeeter?" I asked, looking around the dark room, which I could tell was a kitchen but not much else.

Makarov moved. He took off the goggles and then settled them on my face. My hand fell away from my mouth and everything went green. I could see much better, but unfortunately this included the body of a man, his butt on the floor, back to the cupboards, legs splayed out in front. He had dark stains on his face, the origin of which came from what appeared to be a hole in his forehead.

"Oh my Mavis. . ." I breathed and then everything went bright. So bright it blinded me and I cried out in surprise.

A hand came over my mouth and the goggles were torn from my head.

"Keep quiet, for fuck's sake."

It was Natsu. He'd turned on the kitchen light, and when he was certain I wouldn't yell again he took his hand from my mouth.

I turned and looked at him and he was staring down at the body, his face tight.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Yeah? What're we? Havin' a party?" Makarov asked.

Natsu turned cold eyes to Makarov and Makarov said no more.

Then Natsu turned to me.

"I followed you."

"No one followed me. I kept checking."

He gave me a look.

Fucking Natsu.

"You with her?" Makarov ventured.

"Yeah," NAtsu answered.

I wanted to scream that I was not with Natsu and he was not with me, but the situation kept my mouth shut. Instead, I turned back to the body and there he was, not in the eerie green night vision, but lit up and easy to see. And I could see not only him, but all the blood and gunk that had come out of the back of his head to splatter all over the kitchen wall.

Not Vijeeter.

It was disgusting. I'd never seen anything so foul. It was a nasty, awful, horrible, smelly, sad death.

I gulped, almost sure I was going to puke. Natsu heard it, grabbed my arm and pulled me through the house and out the back door.

"Lean over. Deep breaths," he ordered.

We were standing in the back yard and he pressed his hand to the back of my neck to force me over. I put my hands on my knees and gulped deep breaths of fresh air, leaving the Death Air behind. With some effort I fought back the nausea and stood up straight.

Makarov had followed us out.

"Was that Reedus?" I asked Makarov.

"Yep."

"Ohmimavis."

"Please tell me you didn't touch anything in there," Natsu said to me.

I shook my head.

"Please tell me you didn't break that window," Natsu went on.

"I did the breakin' and the enterin' for both of us. After I did the breakin', I threw her through the window," Makarov offered this information and Natsu's eyes cut to him.

"I'm sorry?" Natsu asked and his voice was scary.

Makarov seemed not to notice it. "She was gettin' second thoughts."

Natsu stared at Makarov for a beat.

"Mavis," he muttered then he pointed at me. "Stay here. Don't move." His finger moved to Makarov. "You come with me."

Natsu tossed the goggles to Makarov and they re-entered the house. I was a little surprised that Makarov followed Natsu's command, but then again, Natsu was using that brook no argument tone again.

I sat down on the grass, too freaked out to stand any longer, and I put my forehead on my knees.

I feared this did not bode well for Vijeeter, and I feared more that this did not bode well for Loke.

They came back out. Natsu closed the door, fiddled with the handle and then walked toward me, removing surgical gloves.

"No Vijeeter," he told me.

"Thank Mavis," I said on a whoosh and didn't realize I was holding my breath.

He put a hand on my upper arm and hauled me up.

"I'm callin' Gajeel in on this one," he announced.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head. "You can't! He's gonna freak that I'm here!"

"You weren't here. Makarov was here. Makarov, the concerned neighbor," Natsu replied.

"That's me. Everyone around here knows I'm a concerned neighbor. Gotta go make a call." Makarov put his big hand on top of my head. "You did good, for a girl. Didn't puke or nothin'."

"Thanks Makarov," I said on a shaky smile, not quite sure that was a compliment but willing to accept it as one all the same.

Makarov ambled off and Natsu dragged me to a Mercedes sedan. He'd hit a button on his phone and was waiting for it to ring through.

"Natsu . . ." I said.

He pulled me to a stop at the passenger side, opened the door and pushed me in. He stood in the opening of the door while his call was picked up. I sat in the car, too freaked out by the dead body to fume at him pushing me around.

"Gajeel, a call's gonna come into nine-one-one soon. I need to talk to you about it." Pause. "Yeah." Then he disconnected.

Natsu slammed my door and got in on the driver's side of the car.

I turned to him. "I have a car here. It's my neighbor's. My bag's in there. I have to-"

Natsu held up a hand and I stopped talking.

"What you need to do is keep your mouth shut until we get back to the condo so I can take that time to talk myself out of strangling you."

Yikes.

I felt it prudent to do as he requested. I'd had a rough couple of days. I didn't want it to end in strangulation. And anyway, Natsu was such a badass, even if it didn't end in strangulation he might come up with some more creative punishment.

Natsu didn't say one word until we were in his condo. He dragged me by the arm into the bedroom, pulled out a drawer and threw me a T-shirt.

"Get ready for bed," he said to me.

I immediately saw red.

It wasn't surprising. I wasn't one of his boys. I wasn't one of his troops. I wasn't a child. He couldn't tell me what to do. I'd had a tough night. I'd seen a dead body, for goodness sake!

I was willing to give him some leeway with his being pushy when I was in the vicinity of said dead body, but this was too much.

"No!" I snapped. "Stop telling me what to do. I want to go home. I want to sleep in my own bed. I want-"

I didn't say any more because Natsu came at me. I backed up and slammed against the wall. Natsu's body came up against mine and he bent his face so he was nose-to-nose with me.

"You want your dad to see crime scene photos of you, dead, sitting on that sweet ass of yours with your brains splattered against the wall?"

Yikes.

My stomach lurched and my legs went weak.

"No."

"Then this ends tonight."

I stared at him.

"Lucy, by Mavis, if you don't promise me-"

"Of course it ends tonight! I just saw a dead body! You can't think I'm that stupid."

His face said he thought I was that stupid.

"Natsu! Vijeeter's my friend. He's out there, somewhere. And they're not only looking for him, they're looking for Loke. And now they're killing people."

"I'll find him and I'll find Loke."

We looked at each other for what seemed like days. His onyx eyes were hard and angry. I tried to tell myself that all his anger wasn't directed at me, but I was having trouble believing it.

My gaze slid away. "I couldn't have known I was going to find that tonight," I whispered.

"I told you these were bad guys."

My gaze slid back.

"What kind of job do you do that you know about this shit?"

He shook his head. He'd moved back an inch so we weren't nose-to-nose anymore, but he was still close.

"Un-unh, you aren't gonna make this about me."

I moved out from between him and the wall and I stomped to the bathroom on my favorite parting line. "Whatever."

I brushed my teeth with what now seemed like my toothbrush, which was cozily resting next to Natsu's.

I tried not to think of my day's plan of not ending up in Natsu's car, company, condo or bed, all of which I'd failed to do. I tried not to think of Reedus Jonah, dead and smelly and left to rot in his house while his neighbors worried about him. I tried not to think of Vijeeter or Loke in a similar position, either now or later.

I tried not to think of Max and Warren's car, which I had left outside a crime scene. I tried not to think of what a fuckup I was, or how Natsu could move around in these situations so casually without blinking an eye.

I got undressed and put his T-shirt on. It was huge on me and had a Night Stalkers insignia emblazoned across the chest. Too big. I was going to get tangled up in it the way I slept but I wasn't going to tell Natsu that.

Plus, it was a fucking cool shirt.

I walked into the bedroom, about to dump my clothes on my bag I'd left on the floor, when I saw my bag missing.

"Where's my bag?" I asked Natsu as he walked into the room, coming toward me. I dumped my clothes on an armchair.

"Judy unpacked you," Natsu replied, still coming toward me. He grabbed my wrist and walked me toward the bed.

"Judy?" I asked, not paying much attention because I was thinking of being unpacked, my clothes hanging next to Natsu's. My panties in a drawer. My toothbrush next to his. My body in his bed.

How did this happen so fast? It had only been two days, for Mavis' sake! Whatever happened to taking it slow?

"My housekeeper," he answered.

"You have a housekeeper?" I was shocked he had a housekeeper. I was shocked that I was kind of living with a man who I didn't know had a housekeeper. I was shocked that I was kind of living with a man, period, dot, the end, much less that man being Natsu.

He pushed me gently and I fell back on the bed and finally realized where I was and what he was doing.

"Natsu-"

Then he moved fast. He pulled my wrist over my head, leaned into me, I heard a snap and ratchet, then I heard another snap and ratchet.

Then I was handcuffed to his bed.

"What the hell!" I yelled.

I was on my back, my left arm over my head and cuffed to one of the slats in the headboard of Natsu's mission style bed. Natsu was leaning over me.

"I'm goin' out and I'm makin' sure you don't do anything stupid."

"You can't leave me handcuffed to your bed! What if there's a fire, a break in?"

He shook his head, pushed away from me and got off the bed.

"I won't do anything stupid," I told him, my voice just this side of seriously pissed off, saying clearly that the first stupid thing I'd do when he let me go was kill him.

He came back, leaned in and kissed my forehead. "I know."

Then he walked across the room, turned off the light and was gone.

Fucking, fucking Natsu.

Normally, I could sleep just about anywhere. Crash on someone's couch, in a double bed with four other people (mainly because my activity cleared the bed), in the back of a van.

I was learning I had a great many life skills I had not known I possessed, such as running away when people were shooting at me, holding my own when I'd been kidnapped and not throwing up when I found a dead body.

Unfortunately, those new life skills did not include being able to sleep while I was cuffed to Natsu Dragneel's bed.

I found a somewhat comfortable position and tried to sleep, but I was spitting mad, and every time I closed my eyes all I could see was Reedus and his brains that were no longer contained in his body.

What seemed like hours later, I heard the door open and my body tensed. I kept myself perfectly still and listened as someone walked through the house. They didn't turn on any lights and they were quiet as a cat, the only noise a barely distinct rustling.

Then someone walked into the bedroom. I heard something fall on the chair. The whisper of movement of the sheets, then hands at my wrist. The smell of leather, campfire and cinnamon, and when I was released from the headboard, I knew it was Natsu.

No sooner was I released than I rolled toward the other side of the bed and freedom.

I got a roll and a half in before an arm hooked around my waist and I was stopped.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm getting a taxi home," I said between clenched teeth.

"No."

"Then, I'm sleeping on the couch."

"No."

Great. We were going to go through this rigmarole again.

"I'm sleeping on the other side of the bed."

"No."

"You're an asshole."

"Maybe."

Shit.

Natsu settled in and tucked my back to his front, his arm wrapped around my waist.

I laid there wondering if I should flip over, knee him in the 'nads and take off.

Then, for some reason, the vision of Reedus floated into my head and my body started trembling, like, a lot. Full-on human earthquake.

"Shit," I whispered, and Natsu turned me to facing him and wrapped both his arms around me, tight.

I pressed into his warmth and tried not to cry.

"Did you know him?" Natsu asked softly.

"No." My voice sounded shaky, even on that one word. I took in a big, broken breath. "Though I think he'd come into the store every once in a while." I took another breath to control the threatening tears. "It's an ugly way to go. What are his parents gonna think?"

Natsu started stroking my back and he didn't answer, likely because he had no idea what Reedus's parents would think and didn't want to dwell on it.

Natsu started to play with my hair and I pressed my face into his neck. His body was hard and warm and I could hear his steady breathing. His hand at my hair relaxed me and his arm around my waist made me feel safe.

After a while, I fell asleep.