I apologise for the late update. I actually had the chapter written before but Fanfiction wasn't uploading and stuff.
So yeah, enjoy!
Levy tossed Lucy an irritated glance, arms folded tightly against her chest; gnawing on the inside of her lip in self control. Lucy averted her eyes guiltily.
"Sorry Lev," she whispered nervously, her mouth twitching in anxiety.
Levy pursed her lips as if contemplating whether or not to accept Lucy's apology.
"I really didn't think that your Gajeel would be part of Dragneel's friend group."
Levy's frown only deepened, a small reddish hint creeping into her cheeks.
"He's not mine!" she snapped.
"Gihee," the tall, muscled man with long, unruly black hair and an endless amount of metal embedded in his face laughed gleefully as he towered over the much smaller blue-haired woman.
"Yeh just can' keep yerself away from me, eh Shrimp," he said obnoxiously, "I knew tha' yeh had a thing fer me."
"The only thing I'll ever have for you would be a dictionary, you ass, since you can't even pronounce your words like a human," Levy retaliated immediately.
Natsu snickered from his perch on a crate in the old warehouse that the group was occupying.
"I didn't think that the almighty Metal Freak would be dissed by such a little girl," he laughed crudely.
"Who the hell are you calling a little girl, imbecile?" Levy shot at Natsu, effectively shutting him up to Gajeel's dark amusement, her petite body suddenly looking dauntingly huge to all the occupants.
Lucy sighed. When Levy was like this she would lash out on anyone, the best thing to do was to just let her cool off, not that the two men who had fell prey to her vicious responses knew and she certainly wasn't going to enlighten them. A miniscule part of her felt sympathy since she knew how much of an animal Levy could turn into, but the satisfaction in her overrode it; the bastards deserved it for taking so much of Lucy's and Levy's thinking time, not that the thoughts were particularly good since they did involve the most painful methods of castrating men.
Lucy shook her increasingly dark thoughts away while curiously observed her surroundings, droning out Levy's heightened-pitch responses to Gajeel's provoking prods at her shrimp-sized- ness.
The walls were unpainted, except for the distasteful graffiti that spelt out obscenities. The large, cluttered warehouse was lit with cheap torches that emitted wan, yellowish light. Black splotches and rust marks decorated the bare concrete floors and the thick scent of oil constantly infiltrated Lucy's senses. The furniture that was seen among odd car parts was old and looked as if it would collapse if a moth breathed on it. Overall, the room was definitely ghetto, the fitting kingdom for a delinquent to rule from.
She shifted her attention to the other people in the room who just seemed to be enjoying the show that Levy was putting on, unintentionally.
There was a ginger-haired man sitting coolly on the sole couch in the room, arms wrapped around two scantily dressed women. He sent Lucy a flirtatious smile when he noticed that she was looking at him, to which she responded with a nervous wave, inwardly blanching as his eyes practically raped her. She suddenly felt as though her extremely modest t-shirt was a bit too tantalising.
Her eyes were drawn to a man who was absent-mindedly pulling off his shirt from the corner of the room he was occupying, a light blush dusting her cheeks at the view of his sculpted body. She tore her eyes from the almost too much exposure of skin to discover that she was being glared at by one of the other women in the room who was rather overtly hiding behind one of the beams extended from the ceiling.
Lucy gulped cowardly, wondering what she had done to offend the woman, trying to smile politely but paling at the frigid glare she received instead.
"Don't worry, Darlin'," the ginger-haired man said as he extracted himself from his two companions, slinking over to Lucy and draping his arm around her shoulders, ignorant to the rigidity entering her body, "She tends to get possessive over the stripper." He gestured to the man who was now only clad in his boxers.
Lucy frowned in discomfort, trying unsuccessfully to shrug off the arm.
"Relax, Princess," the man laughed, "I'm not like these guys."
Lucy smacked his arm away, finally, not caring about his reaction.
"Don't touch me," she snarled.
"She's feisty eh Loke," Natsu chuckled from where he was watching the entire time.
"Yeah," the man identified as Loke replied, "I like it."
Lucy backed away from the man, turning towards Levy. "I think that we should leave," she said, voice trembling a bit, unwilling memories of the last time she was almost subject to kidnapping raising their ugly heads.
Levy looked to Lucy, pausing in her tirade against Gajeel who had, unfortunately for him, further roused the beast, noticing her friend's desperate want to leave.
The two women started towards the door, Lucy locking eyes with Natsu hoping her disappointment towards him was effectively conveyed in the connection. He smirked.
Then again, who the hell was she kidding? There was no hope in this guy, he was seasoned in whatever shit he had gotten himself into, helping him would be bordering the impossible.
"You're leaving already?" he asked innocently, hopping off the crate and ambling over to them. Lucy stepped back, pulling Levy behind her.
I'm an idiot! She thought, Why didn't I realise that he was only lying? Of course he would pull some stunt like this, he's a delinquent!
Lucy glared at him while inconspicuously reaching for the pepper spray that was tucked into the waistband of her pants. Her fingers trembled as they closed around the cool, waiting can.
Natsu sneered at Lucy, stopping a few feet away from her, arms crossed over his chest antagonistically.
"Now, Luce, what was this thing that you were telling me earlier on today again? 'I need you?'" He paused. Lucy swallowed, her hand itching to whip out the spray and unleash its fury onto the deceptively calm man.
"I need no one," he growled, muscles tensing, "And certainly not some spoiled rich girl who's had everything handed to her on some damn silver platter. Don't you insult me by thinking that I'm just gonna follow your orders like a damned dog. I ain't tame for no woman, and you certainly not gonna break that trend."
Lucy shivered at the absolute malice spilling out of Natsu's voice and echoing in the now silent warehouse, even the two prostitute looking girls had enough sense to be quiet. She swallowed at the small tremors she felt from Levy, immediately drowning in guilt knowing that she was the one that pulled Levy into her mess.
Natsu smirked at her blaring nervousness, his formerly wounded manly pride swelling. He took a step closer, Lucy took one back.
"Stay away," she croaked, internally groaning at how defenceless she sounded. She whipped out the pepper spray from behind her and aimed it with trembling hands at Natsu. His smirk immediately dropped being replaced with something much more serious. His lip curled in disgust as he smacked it away, too quick for Lucy to even process that it was gone.
Her eyes widened in fear.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Her little experience in martial arts surely couldn't compare to Nastu's bad boy prowess, having earned the title of Salamander due to his deceiving lean frame that hid hard, rippling muscles. Now that her last protective measures were gone, she and Levy were in for some deep shit.
She took another step back, unconsciously bumping into Levy, not that she noticed. Natsu's arms tensed dangerously. She gulped, fumbling against Levy in her panic; Levy still immobile from her overwhelming fear.
"Just chill, Flame Brain," the 'stripper' drawled half-interestedly, posture slouched, however in all his naked glory; he looked like a knight in shining armour to Lucy.
Natsu shifted his attention to the interruption.
"Or what? You gonna fight me?" he sneered.
The 'stripper's' cobalt eyes flashed in rage for a moment before he slid them shut and took a deep breath.
"All I'm saying is," he started in a controlled voice, "She's the heiress of a huge company, her folks won't take nicely to you roughin' her up."
Yes! Tell him! Lucy thought desperately, hope a sliver away.
Natsu frowned, rolling the thought around his head, then smiled.
"You're right for once in your life, Ice Princess," Natsu said, "I guess we'll just have to deal with her friend instead, eh Metal Face?"
Lucy felt her heart stop.
Levy...