"We've secured Ivan in the van," Erza said to Natsu as he stood outside, leaning against one of their unmarked cars and icing his knuckles. His team stood around him, discussing the events that had transpired.

"We have his men and the movers cuffed and are holding them in an office inside the warehouse." Gray ran his fingers through his hair, shaking away the stress Natsu was all too familiar with. Running an op like this would put anyone on edge. But Gray's cool demeanor barely registered a change. It was only because Natsu had known the guy for so long that he could even tell. The job got to all of them, at some point. You just had to keep moving, to keep reminding yourself that it was worth it, in the end.

"Good," Natsu said simply, not meeting their eyes. He was avoiding asking the question spinning in his head, not sure he really wanted to know the answer.

"I reached out to my contact in the feds," Erza added. "They should be here any minute. While we don't have enough to pin anything on Tartaros, he thinks it may still help in building their case."

"Did we get enough on Ivan? Did we get what we needed?"

"We got footage of the movers preparing to do their job," Freed chimed in casually. "Ivan didn't say a whole lot on tape, but he said enough that it should hold up in court."

"We also have the drugs," Grey pointed out. "Even if we can't directly link it to Tartaros, Ivan's possession and attempt to move the substance overseas is an additional sentence all together."

"What about the girls?" Natsu said finally, staring at the floor.

"Gajeel recruited that bouncer, Bacchus, and the two of them moved all the girls that were left at the club to a safe house we set up nearby." Erza sounded pleased. "He was more valuable an asset than I was expecting."

Natsu nodded. "Gramps knows what he's doing," he said referring to Makarov.

"I still don't trust the guy," Gray said in a low voice.

"Me neither, but he held up his end of the bargain. When I asked him to tell Ivan about my sneaking Lucy out of the club he got pretty cagey. I wasn't sure if he would follow through."

"Well, so far so good." Erza's commanding voice rung through their circle. "We'll bring him on as a PI, to start with at least. Though, he may be better suited for security."

"I'm not having him on my team," Gray shot back.

"We can discuss all of that later," Freed pointed out, shutting down the conversation. "I will move my team out after we hand everything over to the feds, I'll see you all back at headquarters."

The tall man walked away without another word, heading toward a beat up old van at the end of the block.

Natsu's stomach turned. He needed to know. He looked up at his friends.

"What about Lucy and the others?"

Gray frowned, but Erza gave him a comforting smile.

"Juvia and Cana are a little banged up but they were already coming-to by the time you apprehended Ivan. We sent them to the hospital to get checked out, just in case. But besides being a bit drowsy they were just fine."

"Erza!" a man called as he approached the red head. "Feds are here, we need you inside.

Erza nodded.

"I'll let Gray fill you in on the rest." Erza move fluidly toward the warehouse, her unflinching confidence breeding a sense of strength in the men that followed her.

Natsu turned to Gray, wishing Erza hadn't left.

"Well?" Natsu asked the dark haired man shortly.

Gray frowned again.

"Lucy had a pretty bad hit to the head. There was a good amount of bleeding but they were able to stitch her up. They're watching her for a concussion but she keeps saying she's fine. The girl is refusing to go to the hospital," Gray shook his head "She says she won't go until she sees you first. She's sitting in that ambulance down the street."

Natsu peered down the street at the white and red truck.

"They should take her in, she probably is concussed. There's no way she would want to see me if she were in her right mind."

Gray sighed.

"Look, I know I've given you a lot of shit about her. But the fact is, she's exactly what you needed. Even I can see that. You've been letting this job get to you for years. Recently it's been like having the old Natsu back. Not that I like you either way," he added, "but at least the old you isn't so serious all the time."

"Look who's talking," Natsu quipped back.

Gray gave a rare grin.

He pulled something out from his pocket and handed it to Natsu.

It was Lucy's necklace.

"Go get the girl, you dumb ass," he chided.

Natsu smiled.

He took off toward the ambulance, clutching the key in his hand.

Lucy sat at the back of the ambulance, the doors wide open, her feet dangling off the edge.

The paramedics had demanded that she go to the hospital, but she had refused.

There were too many questions she needed answered.

What she needed, was to see him.

She looked down at her arm, massaging the mark Ivan's grip had left there. Her jaw ached from the hit to the face. But she would be alright now, she knew. It was all over.

"Hey Luce,"

Lucy looked up to find Natsu standing a few feet away.

He looked different, relaxed. The suit jacket was gone, ditched in favor of a tight black tee shirt. His unruly pink hair was free of the hat he usually wore.

The cold look in his eyes that was there earlier had evaporated, replaced by concern. He gave her a small, reserved smile.

"Hey Natsu," she greeted him quietly. All the things she wanted to say seemed to catch in her throat as she looked at him.

"How's your head?"

"Throbbing," she replied, raising a hand to her injury.

"That was really stupid, you know," he said somberly.

"What?" Her defenses immediately rose.

"What you did, knocking into Ivan. It was a stupid thing to do."

Lucy glared at him.

"Well you certainly weren't getting anywhere with him," she snapped.

A wide, sly smile crept over Natsu's mouth.

"It's something I would have done."

Lucy paused.

"You do a lot of stupid things, apparently," she retorted.

Natsu grinned. "True."

An awkward silence fell between them, neither seemingly knowing what to say next.

"Lucy," Natsu said, his voice softening. "I'm sorry. I should have never put you in the middle of this."

Lucy looked at him, her eyes burning despite her efforts to stop them.

"I wish you had told me what you really do, who you really are."

"I couldn't," he whispered. "I couldn't risk putting you in any more danger than you already were. I wanted to warn you about what was coming but... I didn't get the chance."

Natsu's eyes fell to the floor. His confidence waned.

Lucy reached out to him, putting her hand gently on his bare arm.

"It's okay," she whispered. "I understand."

Natsu looked back at her in surprise.

"I know why you did what you did. And... well..." Lucy stuttered nervously. "Thank you."

"Lucy..." Natsu wrapped his strong hand around hers. "I never expected to meet anyone like you. I didn't even realize how lost I'd been until I met you. And now..." he paused, letting his hand fall away. "I know you can't forgive me. I just want you to know, I wasn't lying about how I feel about you. That was never a lie."

Without a word Lucy moved from her perch. Throwing her arms around Natsu's neck, she crashed into him.

"That's all I needed to hear, Natsu." A tear rolled down her cheek as she spoke. "There's nothing to forgive. You rescued me, just like you said you would."

She leaned over and gave him a light kiss on the cheek.

Natsu was so surprised by her that at first he didn't react. Finally he wrapped his strong arms around her, holding her to his chest.

"You should hate me," he breathed into her hair, still in disbelief. "Why don't you hate me?"

"If you haven't figured that out yet, I don't know what more I could do to convince you," Lucy echoed the words he had said to her long before.

Natsu leaned away, looking her square in the eye.

A long smile crept over his face. His eyes flared with hope.

Hesitantly he took her head in his hands. Lucy leaned towards him as he brought his lips to meet hers.

The kiss was gentle, yet full of meaning. The apologies and the hurt, all of it melted away as he embraced her.

Finally he pulled away, still hovering inches away from her.

"Where will you go now?"

Lucy's expression faltered.

"I'm not sure... Your friend, Gray I think his name was, he said something about a safe house for all the girls. I guess I could go there. It's not like I have anywhere else to go."

"You could stay with me," Natsu whispered.

Lucy's heart jumped in her chest.

"What?"

Natsu gave a small shrug. "You could come and stay with me." Then he moved to retrieve something from his pocket. When he brought his hand up, he was holding out the necklace he had given her. "You already have a key."

Lucy's heart nearly exploded with emotion.

"It's a key to your place?"

Natsu nodded. "I hoped someday you'd need it."

Lucy leaned in and kissed Natsu, hard and full of passion. She shuddered as he opened his mouth to hers, deepening the kiss.

As Lucy broke away to take a shallow breath, Natsu whispered to her.

"You know I love you, right Lucy," he spoke with a sly smile- a grin that filled her heart with joy.

"I love you too, Natsu."

Natsu reached up, brushing his fingers against her neck as he tied the necklace.

"How about we get out of here?"

Lucy smiled. "Please, Natsu, take me home."

Natsu took her hand in his and began walking down the pavement.

"Hey, where the hell do you two think you're going?" Gray's voice called out from around the other side of the ambulance.

"Home," Natsu called back casually.

"The hell you are. She has to go to the hospital you moron. And you need to get back to the office. Makarov wants an update."

"You do it, I'll go with Lucy."

She laughed as they turned back to the ambulance.

"It's your operation, Natsu. Isn't that what you said?"

"All work and no play, Gray, you know how the saying goes. I'll see you tomorrow."

Lucy let Natsu give her a hand up into the ambulance. She relaxed into the bed as she listened to the men banter.

She loved seeing him so relaxed, so free. She took a deep breath of the cold night air. And now she was free too, she smiled.

Wicked Game is the first in the Heart Shaped World series which will arc over three stories featuring some favorite Fairy Tail couples and characters. See below for more information on the next instalment!

The Heart Shaped World Series:

The team at Fairy Tail Private Investigation and Security, the leading private security contractor in town, is caught up in an ongoing investigation into the crime family known as Tartaros.

* Available Now! * In Part Two, Born Without A Heart, Levy McGarden, a brilliant young agent on Fairy Tail's Intelligence and Cyber Security team, gets paired on a case investigating a new drug called Lullaby with their newest PI operative, Gajeel Redfox. Between Gajeel's reckless risk taking and Levy's by-the-book work ethic, can the tension and growing desire between them cool long enough for them to solve the case?

In Part Three, Forever Blue, Gray Fullbuster, Fairy Tail's head of Security, is at his wits end when he gets put in charge of protecting Juvia Lockser, a former dancer on the run from her previous employer, Phantom Lord. Is Juvia truly innocent, or is she part of a larger scheme to infiltrate Fairy Tail? And why is her helpless dependence on Grey causing him to risk his own life to protect her?

While technically a series, I've tried to make them stand-alone as well so you can pick and choose which characters you're most interested in. That being said, it would probably still be more enjoyable to read them all.

Also, although the subsequent stories feature different characters in the leading roles, you'll still see more of the same Natsu and Lucy you just met, as well as other Fairy Tail favorites!

What do you guys think? Would you like to read more stories in this alternate universe I've constructed?

*Author's Note:

I tried to save all my notes until the end to make reading more streamlined. But I just want to add a couple of things and some fun facts below.

Firstly I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to read the whole story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Your comments have meant the world to me. I don't know if I would have stuck with it without all the encouragement from you guys. Thank you.

Fun Facts:

I got the idea for this story while listening to "Wicked Game" by Chris Issak- though that may not be a surprise, given the title. I imagine the song playing during the opening when Natsu first enters the bar, it really sets the mood.

I tried to throw in as many little nods to Fairy Tail as I could, for example The Blue Kitten Nightclub. I didn't have room for a talking cat, so that's my homage to Happy.

And did anyone notice that the key on the necklace Natsu gave Lucy was modeled after Aquarius's key? That was a fun tid-bit for me.

Thanks for letting me ramble, and again thanks for reading. Please comment and let me know what you think!