Chapter 2: Fairy Tail Cafe

"No matter how hurt someone is, they're meant to overcome it and try to go forward."

-Mirajane Strauss

Natsu

It was a late night at the Fairy Tail cafe in which Natsu Dragneel worked along with a bunch of other teens. He and his childhood friend both worked in the kitchen of the restaurant to cook all the meals.

It was a job they both enjoyed because it allowed a friendly competition between the two. Natsu and Gray always found a reason to get into some sort of fight. The topic of the disagreement was typically over frivolous things such as name-calling or a choice of food. That's due to their opposite personalities and interests.

Cooking in the same restaurant allowed the friends to compete in fights to see which one of them would receive the most tips based on their ability. Being under slightly strict rules of the establishment kept the two from going overboard most of the time. Excluding the three fires that had occurred in the first week, they'd both begun working there.

The pinkette sat in one of the booths of the restaurant, indulging in a bag of hot fries. One hand scooping the spicy chips into his mouth, and his other hand leaving chili powder stains on his phone screen as he scrolled through different apps.

"What in the world are you doing, Lava Brain?" A voice belonging to a certain Gray Fullbuster called out as he plopped his body into the opposite side of the booth.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Droopy Drawers? I'm starving and we are about to close anyway." Natsu said with a scowl, looking up from his device to chew loudly just to annoy the lather.

Gray looked at his friend with tired dark eyes and gave a sigh leaning back against the seat. He was exhausted from work to say the very least, it had been a long shift for the both of them. From noon to ten pm, as per usual shifts on summer days. Each time is flexible depending on how business was that day.

"Hot fries though? Those smell disgusting, don't eat them here." The dark-haired man said with a groan, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

"Lay off, I'm starving and Gramps hasn't told us we can go home yet," Natsu said, setting down his phone and throwing a handful of the fries in his mouth.

"Speaking of which, where is the old man? It's already around quitting time already, why'd he want us to stay after for a bit?"

The group of employees was usually anxious to get out the doors for a well-deserved rest at about that time at night. Natsu was especially ready to leave to get back home to his sister and best friend. He enjoyed spending time with his girls a lot and having missed some quality time with them really made his heartache.

"I need to get back to the house soon, I just texted Lucy it wouldn't be long for us to close up. Don't want to let her down." The pinkette said, licking the red chili powder dust off his stained fingers with an obnoxious popping sound.

When it came to Natsu and Lucy, people would usually assume the two friends were together romantically by the first look, and by the way, they would passionately talk about each other. However, all their close friends knew they were just simply friends, and no one doubted their love for each other in that aspect.

As far as actual romance went between the two, everyone had their suspicions as to what happened between closed doors between them. Although, it was believed Natsu was too dense to ever start anything as far as a relationship, and Lucy's feelings were just too unclear for people to notice besides her practically living in his house.

The blonde and pinkette were something you couldn't simply label. They were more than friends, but less than lovers.

When things were getting difficult in Lucy's life, she would stay at the Dragneel house and struggle to manage the rent of her own place. Igneel and Grandine would beg the young girl to accept some extra cash to aid the bills she had to pay to keep her apartment since they both partook in higher-paying jobs. The mother is a nurse practitioner and the father having a position in law. They even offered for her to fully move in with them many times, but she always refused.

Lucy was always afraid of being a burden on anyone, and she knew she needed to be independent and move on from her past tragedies. She kept her head up most of the time, pushing herself to face life and her underpaying tentative job with a smile. Selling writing commissions to people online didn't make a whole lot, but luckily she had that side career and her weekend job at an earring shop.

With all, she was carrying on her shoulder sometimes just joining in on the family's game of monopoly or going along with them on their occasional camping trips meant the world to the young teenager. Sleeping in a tent cuddled up to her best friend and his little sister made being alone less harsh on her. Lucy was glad she had the Dragneel's to be there for her whenever she needed company, because honestly without that sense of comfort she probably would have lost her mind.

Natsu was very aware of how much she needed them, and as a family, they all knew they needed her as well. Each one of the members loved her in their own unique way. She was a part of their family no matter what, and they would all do anything for each other.

That's why his heart yearned to be back at his house as opposed to the Fairy Tail cafe.

Gray pulled his feet to rest upon the table between the two, stretching out his tired legs. His calves and feet were starting to cramp up from all the running around they'd been doing during the evening rush hour. He knew very well it wasn't a great idea since it was a public restaurant, but no customers were inside at that time anyway. They would have to wipe down the tables tomorrow morning again, so it didn't matter much to him at all.

Seeing as Gray hadn't continued the conversation, Natsu brought his attention back to scrolling mindlessly on social media, and he continued munching loudly on his food.

He had eventually reached the last of the contents in the chip bag, causing a groan to emit from his throat. Not wanting to waste any flavor remaining, he held the bag above his head and emptied every last content onto his red-stained tongue.

Once he finished, he glanced back over to his device to see a picture of his best friend staring back at him. It was a photo of Lucy and her tiny white, fluffy Pomeranian named Plue. She had her left arm strewn over the small dog, as she squatted beside him. She had an adorable smile adorning her face as she took the selfie of the two.

Natsu couldn't help but smirk upon the sight of the picture. The blonde looked genuinely happy and it warmed his heart to no end. She'd been going through a lot lately and she deserved that happiness that was evident in the photo.

His eyes slowly skimmed down to like the picture and caught a glimpse of a comment that caught his attention.

fairlyboozed: Nice rack ;)

Natsu raised an eyebrow in confusion upon reading the message, it was pretty unusual to see on Lucy's picture. Although he was aware that it wasn't said maliciously.

After processing Cana Alberona's comment, he subconsciously glanced back up to realize Lucy had been wearing a low-cut pink tank top revealing the top half of her bra and spilling cleavage. Natsu wouldn't normally notice something like that of Lucy, but he did this time after seeing the mention of her breasts.

The comment itself made by their brunette friend didn't bother him much until he read the comment below hers.

lowkeeey: Very nice indeed.

Loke, one of their classmate's comments, had been one to push Natsu to his slightly pissed-off state. Why did he have to comment on Lucy's body? He understood Cana because the girls were close friends. Loke didn't have that kind of clearance to get away with such a comment though.

It made the pinkette decide to quickly type a response to defend against the boy's words towards his best friend, without really realizing what he was saying. He was acting more on instinct and annoyance than on intelligence.

firedragon7: Doesn't mean you have to comment on her boobs, Lucy knows they're great.

Feeling triumph with his response he threw his phone on the table, and it slid over towards Gray's direction. In return, he picked up Natsu's phone to read all the comments including the new one by the teen boy.

The dark-haired boy just raised an eyebrow in Natsu's direction. "You understand she'll get pissed at you for saying that too, right?" Gray inquired almost rhetorically, in a matter a fact tone, setting the device down.

Natsu wasn't as stupid as most people believed, truth be told he could be brilliant at times. That showed when helping his friends in need and giving motivational quotes. Those talents were best in competitions, fights, and specific events. However, quick, hot-tempered comebacks weren't always his strong suit. They usually came out differently and did the opposite of the purpose of what it was intended to do.

"Shaddup Popsicle Dick, Loke just doesn't need to be commenting on Lucy's boobs. She should know she has amazing ones without his opinion." The pinkette said, crossing his arms over his chest.

He had always been one to be defensive over his close friends, and Lucy was always someone to rile him up easily. She was family to him, and whenever it came to her, he always got worked up pretty fast. Natsu never thought about why she was so different from everyone else when it came to his emotions, he just dismissed it as because they were close friends.

"You know she wouldn't like you commenting on her tits at all, Flame Brain. So I'd tone it down."

Natsu only seemed to squint his eyes towards Gray, before beginning to say his comeback, "I'll have you know I've touch-"

That's when a louder voice cleared their throat drawing the male's attention towards the middle of the restaurant. There stood a short man with gray hair slightly covering the back of his head, the lack thereof in the front, due to his balding. He looked like those type of grandpas who play chess alone at parks in movies.

He had a grim look upon his face, with furred eyebrows showing obvious concentration as to what he'd say.

"I'm sorry kids, but I've got some bad news," He began with a sigh, aware of how his employees weren't going to enjoy his announcement in the least bit. "There's been a notice of an accident occurring recently, and I believe it would be best if you all remained here until further notice. I'm not clear on the exact details, but it is understood that it's not in anyone's best interest to travel alone at night right now."

The boys sitting stared in astonishment towards Makarov, the owner. They had no idea what to even think. What could have been going on?

If it was necessary to make everyone stay late, so they wouldn't risk their safety, it meant it had to be pretty serious. That fact alone baffled Natsu because Magnolia was a very small and calm town with hardly any crime anymore.

There had been past incidents before since no place was ever really completely safe, but nothing overwhelmingly dangerous as to threaten civilians on a normal basis.

Nothing drastic had been occurring since the gigantic issue with Zeref and his cult years ago. That was when the underground gangs of the whole country of Fiore were pretty intense. Magnolia's area of the issues were people mainly selling and profiting from illegal drug deals.

There were different branches of the big tree of drug dealing, with the specific shadowed figure ahead of it all. The news stating each affiliation underneath Zeref made between sixty-eight to two hundred billion jewels on average within the black market.

The gangs were known to be associated with other crimes such as theft, distribution of counterfeit weapons, and other things as far as murder occasionally. However, all but two of the gangs had been discovered, with the last on the run.

The Balam Alliance consists of Grimoire Heart, Oracion Seis, and Tartaros. The first group had gone through years of interrogation and research before only two of the females were released with specific circumstances to keep them in close contact with law officers, and therapy visits to check up on their mental health. The rest had been imprisoned based on crimes.

The entirety of the Oracion Seis was on the run from the law, and all but one were currently missing. Magnolia's second most wanted group right after Tartaros.

That head of the alliance, Tartaros, made all the others' crimes seem completely innocent in comparison. When something went wrong in the community, they were the ones in charge of dealing with the problem. They were the ones who called the shots of who lived or died. Until the alliance fell is when they disappeared for years, fifteen to be exact. Since then only one of the members had been discovered by enforcement.

The one by the name Jackal, was caught entering the very restaurant in which the boys were located in. That was not too long ago, but still what felt like years ago. Before Natsu or Gray worked there. No one knew the entire instance except for Makarov's grandson who refused to discuss it with anyone but the police, seeing as the incident landed the tough guy in the hospital.

Following that day, the man in question had been taken into custody and entered into a mental hospital under tight security. He claimed insanity to avoid a prison sentence until further notice at that time. The whole trial was messy, but the basis of it was the so-called Zeref had inside people save the man from coming close to leaking any valuable information of the gang.

That was all the information anyone had heard of true crime in the close-knit community until this very instance.

"What happened, Gramps?" Natsu called out, dropping everything to jump out of the booth onto his feet. The name he had called had been one they all had given the owner, as a form of endearment to him.

The older man only replied with a deep sigh, pinching the skin between his eyebrows together in concentration. He had no idea what to tell his workers that he considered almost his children. Makarov didn't want any of them to worry, but he knew they should know.

"I'm not entirely sure at the moment, but we were just alerted by a phone call that someone dangerous was on the streets of our city and that any and everyone should remain indoors until further notice." He replied, thinking that was the best response he could give everyone.

A few of the women who worked behind the bar gave each other worried glances, unsure what to think of the situation as well. The whole incident seemed so random like it couldn't have been a mere coincidence for something random to happen such as this.

"No, this is not going to happen. If this is going on, I need to get back home immediately. My family is there and I need to be with them if something like this is happening, I need to protect them." The pinkette announced repeatedly with a dark look consuming his features, revealing the seriousness in his demeanor.

Gray stood up from the booth to join in the conversation, furring his eyebrows unsure of what to say himself. "I know what you're saying Natsu, I have people I'd like to protect too but we need to listen to Gramps. He's in charge, and you know he wouldn't make us do anything if it wasn't what he really believed was right."

His statement got a few agreeing comments from the Strauss sisters who wanted to also be together with their family, which consisted of their brother awaiting them at home.

"I will let you all know more information as soon as I'm notified of it," Makarov began making his voice louder above the rest of the murmurs heard, "for now we need to lock up the place, close the blinds on every window, and turn out all the lights. After that's done you all need to go to the break room in the back and wait there until it's clear to leave."

By the harshness of his voice, it was understood how serious he was about the situation. Makarov wasn't about to take the incident in a joking manner, it was his job to watch after everyone and that's what he was intending to do.

Everyone moved to follow his instructions silently beside Natsu. The hot-headed teen just stood there with his arms crossed, pissed at the fact they were going into a lockdown when Wendy and Lucy needed him at home. He was determined to get out of there, and nothing would stop him.

He just needed to find a way out, where Gramps wouldn't be able to stop him. Makarov was persistent, and even Natsu knew he wouldn't be able to escape without the older man preventing him.

He needed a plan to escape.

That's when the pinkette heard a familiar buzz from the table he was last at, and he recognized it as his phone's notification going on. He immediately unlocked his device to read the message on the screen sent to a group chat he was included in.

Erza: Hey guys, I just saw on the news that some guy escaped a mental ward.

Natsu stared at his phone blankly, confused as to what the text meant before a flurry of more arrived on his screen with back and forth conversation between Gray and the redhead. That's when he read a name mentioned, one that seemed so familiar that it was at the tip of his tongue yet so far in the back of his mind.

Zeref.

That's when he finally responded to the chat, learning information as to what was honestly going on. Jackal, a previous member of Tartaros, who worked under the man Zeref had escaped the supposedly tightly secured mental hospital in the city. So much for tight precautions on a man who had killed possibly hundreds of people in his life without an ounce of remorse.

That's when the information hit him. Wendy and Lucy home alone with a lethal man walking the streets.

He then began sending a rush of texts to the blonde as he felt anxiety begin to bubble in his chest for the girl's safety. He needed to get out of the restaurant quickly, or else who knew what could happen.

Natsu needed to protect them, he wouldn't forgive himself if anything were to happen to them. That was for damn sure.