A/N: Hey. So uh. Life happened. Lots of life happened. It was pretty bad. Plus I had horrible writer's block and kind of wanted to cut out these couple chapters, but I'd already started this little mini-arc so I had to finish it. Forgive me if it's awkward, but it was a seriously bad case of writer's block. I rewrote this chapter like ten times.

But I finally finished it! And because I already had Chapter 22 ready to go, you get two short chapters today!


Babysitting the camp while the others went into the city was really boring. Everyone else was off having adventures exploring the streets of Crocus and spying on government officials, while he was stuck sitting with his legs dangling over a small ridge on the hill that overlooked Crocus, swinging them back and forth. There wasn't much else to do but watch the shadows shift over the city as the day passed.

"Was it this boring when Lucy and I left you to watch our stuff?" he asked Happy.

"Aye," Happy said. "Even more boring, because there was no one to talk to."

"Sorry 'bout that."

"Are you bored, Natsu?" Lucy said. For her part, she didn't seem bothered by the situation at all. She had one of her spirits bring her a book from the Celestial Spirit World's library and had been absorbed in it all day. Natsu never had the patience for books, though at times like this, he wished he did.

"Do you even have to ask?" Natsu said. "We've done nothing all day and the others are out having fun."

"It's relaxing," Lucy said.

"We've been relaxing this whole trip over here. No fights or anything. It's so boring."

"Are fights the only thing you find fun?"

"No," Natsu said defensively. "But they're more fun than sitting around doing nothing."

"Then how about we do something?" Lucy closed her book and stood up. "Want to spar?"

"With you?" It was a tempting thought. On one hand, Lucy was a strong opponent that he'd love to test his strength against, but on the other hand, it felt weird fighting against his partner. It was like sparring with Happy. It's just not something he did.

"I'll even give you a handicap," Lucy said. She took a moment to call out Plue.

Natsu scoffed. Plue, really? Did she really think Natsu was that weak that he couldn't win if she used her combat spirits? Plue may be a wolf, but he wasn't much more than a mascot when it came to fighting.

This was a challenge. She was mocking him on purpose.

But he wasn't going to take the bait. Not this time.

"I won't fight my teammate," he said firmly.

Lucy paused, then seeing the conviction in his eyes, she sighed and sat back down next to him. Plue curled up between the two of them, his large horned head in Lucy's lap.

"You fight Gray and Gajeel all the time," Lucy pointed out. "And you've definitely talked about fighting Erza before. You sure you're not just scared to get beaten?"

"You're underestimating me," he growled in response to her teasing. "But they're different. They're teammates now, but you're…you're like Happy. You're my partner. It's a different kind of 'teammates.'" He looked over at the exceed curled up between everyone's bags. Part of him wanted to ask Happy to play cards to pass the time, but the playing cards were in Erza's bag, and it looked like Happy was asleep anyway.

"Well, if it's not fighting, what else do you like to do for fun?" Lucy said.

Natsu shrugged. "I usually just do whatever."

"Come on, you have to have done something while you were wandering around. I know how easily you get bored. Unless everyone's lying about you being a vagabond, I'm sure you had a lot of free time on your hands."

Well, there were some things outside of fighting and hunting. But he was hesitant to do it with Lucy around. "You wouldn't like it," he said.

"Like you ever let that stop you."

He looked at her, then back out at Crocus in the distance. "I would set people's stuff on fire. Their hair, the tails of their waistcoats…"

Lucy laughed out loud. "Natsu, you already do that all the time."

"I could probably do it from here if I concentrated hard enough," Natsu said, squinting out toward Crocus. With his enhanced dragonslayer eyesight, he could just barely see people going in and out of the city gates. It would be a good way to fine-tune his control over his fire, but he and Lucy were supposed to be laying low today.

"Please don't," Lucy said.

"Killjoy."

"The last thing we need is for people to know you're in the area and they send those guards after us again."

"I could take 'em," Natsu said, but she was right. Even if nobody had recognized them before, the two of them had made quite a fuss in the palace. Who knows how many people had come to know they were there? Staying away from the city proper was a good idea.

Of course, it being the capital, the surrounding area had quite a few people as well. And Natsu was none too pleased when he started to sense a small group of people tracking an animal through the woods.

"We've got hunters," he informed Lucy as their scent grew stronger. The bear had run off in a different direction, but the hunters were still headed straight for their camp, oblivious to their prey's change of course. Just great.

Lucy quickly sent Plue back to the Celestial Spirit World. She pulled a blanket over her head and turned to face the cliff, her back to the hunters as they came across the clearing.

"Oh," said one of the hunters, stopping short. "Guess we lost track of that bear. Hello, travelers."

"It went off that way," Natsu said, pointing them in the right direction. Hurry up and leave.

"Really? Thanks, travele— Wait a second."

Natsu tensed as the hunter looked suspiciously between him and Lucy's turned back.

"What is it?" the hunter's companion said.

The hunter just gave a faint smile and shook his head. "Never mind. Have a good day, sir. If you see the bear again, run away; you're lucky you didn't get eaten by it. It's been terrorizing our village lately."

"I'll keep that in mind," Natsu said.

The hunters left, and Natsu didn't relax until they were far away from the camp. The bear had changed direction again, but the hunters could figure that out for themselves this time around.

"They're gone," he said, and Lucy let out a long breath, letting the blanket drop to her shoulders.

"Thanks for the heads-up," she said. "I would've been recognized for sure if Plue had still been here."

"Our luck is the worst," Natsu said, sitting down next to her again. "We're out in the middle of nowhere and we still manage to come across people."

"I don't think being this close to Crocus counts as 'the middle of nowhere,'" Lucy said.

"But still, for them to come across us here of all places, on top of a small mountain."

"I can't be 'Lucky Lucy' all the time," Lucy said with a sigh.

"Is that your nickname?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you this story?" Lucy said. "Of how I got my name."

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Nope," he said.

"So my father actually started out as a businessman," she began, launching into a story of how her parents met. Her father went to a store called "Love and Lucky" for business purposes and came across a woman there. He didn't know that woman was the queen disguised in civilian clothes to explore the town, but that's where they first met, and where they went often in the hopes of encountering each other again and again. When they eventually married, Jude Heartfilia had already amassed enough wealth as a businessman for the match to be socially acceptable.

"My mom always called me Lucky Lucy," she said. "They apparently chose the name because it was spelled almost the same as where they first met. To the public, they said the meaning was for me to become the light of my people, because Lucy means 'light,' but that was only part of the reason."

"Lucky Lucy," Natsu murmured. "You do have a lot of luck."

"Not today, I don't," Lucy said with a laugh.

"Hanging out with me all day isn't a lucky occurrence?"

"Seeing as it's an occurrence that happens every day, I wouldn't say so," Lucy said. "Though meeting you the first time might have been."

"Then the fact that you're still here with me proves that you're still lucky."

She smiled. "I guess so."

But luck really wasn't on their side. Out of nowhere, palace guards surrounded them.

Natsu didn't even have time to be confused before he felt something on his wrists and the strength drained from his body. He couldn't use his magic.

He caught Lucy's eyes for a moment in a sideways glance. Then his vision flickered and suddenly they were surrounded by familiar architecture.

Teleportation magic? This was the palace, right? How—

Sure enough, a familiar face greeted them. "Good. You've brought them," said Chief Advisor Mard.

Lucy leveled a hard glare. "Mard Geer," she said.

The Chief Advisor smiled faintly, but ignored her. "Thank you," he said to the guards restraining Lucy and Natsu. "You were quite efficient."

"What should we do with them?" one of the guards asked.

"I'll take care of the girl," the Chief Advisor said. He looked at Natsu. "As for this rat, put him in the dungeon."

So Tartarus was after Lucy. However they'd found her, whatever they wanted her for, this didn't sound good.

"Don't you dare take her away from me," Natsu growled. Blood boiled in his veins. He was furious. But he couldn't do anything as Lucy was pulled away in her anti-magic cuffs, and he was dragged in the opposite direction.

Her neck twisted to look at him, distress in her eyes as they took her away. "Lucy!" he shouted. "I'll come get you. Definitely!"

And then she was gone.