Lucy tapped her fingers against the marble counter top, impatiently waiting for Natsu to finish eating and explain himself. He was skimming over the file while he ate and hadn't let Lucy look at it yet. How did he know Gold Pistol? What exactly was his connection with the Italian Mafia? Why did they call him Salamander? How did Gray get mixed up with the mafia to begin with? And where was Gray? There was still so much about the situation she didn't understand, and in order to save Gray, she needed all the answers she could get. She sipped her wine, trying to remain calm, but inside, her nerves were frying. It hadn't even been 24 hours since she left New York with Natsu to go treasure hunting and everything was a mess. Gray—Gray was in danger, and she was sitting around doing nothing. How could Natsu not see the severity of the situation they were in? How could he act like nothing was the matter? Where was the urgency?
"Alright." Natsu stood abruptly, having finished eating and turned towards Lucy. His gaze was grave; his onyx eyes were full of a severity that made Lucy mentally prepare herself for what he was about to say next. Finally, she was going to get the answers she needed – the answers that would help save her best friend.
"I'm still hungry!" he roared, grinning as he walked to the fridge. Lucy choked on her wine, almost spilling her glass at the same time. She coughed several times, trying to recover herself.
"N-Natsu!" she coughed.
Natsu rummaged through the fridge, collecting the ingredients for his sandwich again. "Don't worry there's still plenty of food left," he responded over his shoulder. "There are caretakers who look after this place when my sister goes off to one of her other haunts. They always make sure the fridge is stocked just in case my sister comes by. Though, they mainly worry about making sure there's enough wine in the cellar. Cana is definitely-"
"That's not what I meant!" The tone in Lucy's voice made Natsu pause and stop messing around in the fridge. "You said you would explain everything once we got away from Gold Pistol."
"I suppose you want your answers now," he sighed, closing the fridge. "Fine." He grabbed the file from the counter and dropped it in front of her. Gray's face peered up at her from the many pictures taken of him that spilled out of the folder. Notes on Gray's activities for the past two weeks were mingled in with the pictures along with a full background investigation of him.
"It states that the princess was commissioned by Gold Pistol at the request of his niece, Juvia. Apparently, she's a huge fan of his work, so Gold Pistol brought him to Italy to paint several portraits of her as a birthday present. The report goes on to say that the two fell in love during their time together and are set to wed early next month. There's even a save-the-date card mingled in there."
"That can't be the truth!" Lucy protested. Still, the save-the-date card notified the recipients that Gray Fullbuster and Juvia Lockser were to wed in only three weeks. "But Gray…Gray's not the type of person to marry somebody he just met, especially somebody like her. There's no way he could love her." A girl who ordered men to kill another girl simply because she was friends with their love interests was somebody Gray would never go for. Lucy tossed the wedding invitation away, allowing it to skid across the counter top, far away from her. The thought of Gray marrying Juvia was preposterous. It just didn't make sense to Lucy at all. It was out of character for him.
"Jealous?" Natsu jested with little humor in his voice.
Lucy rolled her eyes in response as she continued shuffling through the information in the file. Natsu watched her for a moment before continuing on.
"Regardless of the princess's feelings, I could tell Juvia's were, indeed, true. The report isn't lying when it claims she loves him."
"How can you be certain? She seemed more psychotic than love-struck." However, remembering the look in Juvia's eyes when she yelled at Natsu made Lucy doubt her own words.
"I have a talent of reading people, remember?" He grabbed a handful of the purple grapes, popping them into his mouth. "Anyway, the last known sighting of the princess occurred when Juvia was out with him in Rome. They were looking at different wedding venues together when he disappeared. Immediately after noting his disappearance, Juvia had Gold Pistol lock down all transportation going in and out of Italy."
"He can do that?" She gasped.
"Yeah. It's taking a lot of his man power, but you can't leave or enter Italy without his knowledge. They have pictures of Gold Pistol's treasure at all stations. They're monitoring the movements of all of the passengers, but none of them have been flagged. That's why Gold Pistol believes he is still in Italy. And I agree with him."
"So that makes things easier right? All he has to do is take a train or rent a car or something and we'll know where he is." Lucy visibly relaxed a little. Their search was narrowed to one country, instead of the whole world. Even though it was still daunting, Lucy's hope of finding Gray rose significantly. "So we just wait for one of the places to get flagged and then we go and pick up Gray. Right?"
Natsu stared at her, giving her a look as if he was contemplating whether or not to tell her something. The hope that was rising sunk down into her heart fast.
"What? What is it? Tell me!" She pressured him.
"If it was that easy, Gold Pistol's men would have found Gray by now. So that leaves only two options. One: Your friend is dead-"
Lucy slapped Natsu across the face. Her anger had come over her hot and swift, moving her hand without a second's thought. The impact stung her hand, and the stool she was sitting on was knocked over. Natsu's eyes widened momentarily in shock but narrowed as he held her glare.
"Don't. Don't ever say that again," she threatened. "Unless you see it with your own eyes, there's no proof, and there's no need to say that."
Natsu touched the spot where Lucy slapped him and smirked. "That won't do," he said darkly, taking a step closer to her. Lucy took a step back, but he caught her wrist and held her there. He raised the hand she had slapped him with in front of him.
"Let go of-"
"Slaps are cute," he cut in, "but they don't speak loud enough." Natsu folded her fingers down, and laid her thumb across them to form a fist. "Next time I upset you, hit me with your fist so I can hear you loud and clear." He let her wrist go, and Lucy snatched her hand back.
"Don't say things that'll upset me then," she mumbled as she looked away again.
"That's something I can't promise," he said. She looked back at him, but he didn't seem upset that she had hit him. In fact, she couldn't read his expression at all.
"What's the other option," she said as she righted the stool she knocked over and sat back down. She didn't regret what she did, but she didn't want to mull over it either. It seemed Natsu silently agreed with her as he answered.
"The other option is a rival mafia group took him in an attempt to gain leverage against Gold Pistol."
"What? I thought Gold Pistol was the leader of the entire Italian Mafia. Who would go against him, and why would they kidnap Gray as leverage?" She looked down at one of the pictures of Gray in the file. He was being fed spoonfuls of gelato by Juvia, who looked completely blissful and vastly different from the woman who had threatened to kill her. In the picture the two looked like a couple on a date and Juvia looked definitely like a girl in love. "I would suspect Juvia would be a better option to make Gold Pistol do what they wanted."
"Even though Gold Pistol is the Boss and holds the majority of the power in Italy, there are other powerful members who want to claim that power for their own. The Underworld of the Italian Mafia is complicated, but one thing is clear: kidnapping Juvia will never be an option to gain power." Natsu grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and opened it, sipping on the drink.
"Why is that?" she asked, still staring at the picture in front of her.
"She is the reason why Gold Pistol became the Boss in the first place," he explained. "Her mother was Gold Pistol's younger sister. She held a lot of influence over the Italian Mafia and was a core reason it has the power it has today. However, she died and left Juvia in the care of her older brother, Gold Pistol. He used the influence of his deceased younger sister through Juvia to catapult himself up to the rank of Boss. Kidnapping Juvia would be seen as a grave offense and a death wish to anyone who tried."
"She has that much influence?!" Lucy was astounded. No wonder the men obeyed her without any hesitation.
"Yeah, even more so than she realizes," Natsu continued. "Juvia became a quiet and shy girl after her mother died. She's not really involved in the politics of the mafia, much to Gold Pistol's benefit. Still, Italy's Underworld sees it as its duty to protect Juvia and will do whatever it takes to make sure her happiness is assured. If Juvia wanted to, she could order the men to kill Gold Pistol and assume the title of Boss, and no one would think twice about it."
"Why are they so loyal to her? Did her mother really hold that much power?" Lucy asked, trying to wrap her mind around everything.
"Let's just say, Marcella "Tempesta" Lupo-Lockser was a terrifying woman. There's no one in the Underworld who doesn't know her name or remember what she did."
"If she's that important to the Italian Mafia, then why would Gray be kidnapped? If Juvia truly loves him as you say, then wouldn't they want to respect her happiness and protect him as well? This isn't making any sense." Lucy swirled the wine in her glass, peering into the glass in hopes that it might, somehow, bring clarity to the situation.
"That's the thing." Natsu leaned against the counter and crossed his arms, furrowing his brow. "If he was kidnapped by one of the powerful members in the Italian Mafia wanting to usurp Gold Pistol, it would explain why the princess hadn't been spotted at any of the places Gold Pistol is monitoring. The person would have considerable leverage and mobility among the Underworld to get around the traffic stops. However, in order to barter your friend's release, the person would reveal that he went against Juvia's happiness in the first place, which wouldn't go well for him at all."
"So it's someone that's outside the Italian Mafia, but still has enough knowledge and power to move around in the Underworld undetected. Is that even possible?" she asked.
Natsu's eyes widened, and then he smirked as he looked towards Lucy. "Of course!" He pushed off the counter and grabbed his duffle bag from the corner. He rummaged through it and pulled out a black leather jacket and a few other items he quickly stuffed into its pockets.
"I need to gather some more information to be sure, but I think we may have the beginning of a trail." Natsu shoved his arms into his jacket. He grabbed the file from the counter and took a photo of Gray out. "There's some people I need to…talk to first."
"Wait," she stood, following him. "We need to contact the police. If you think you might know who has Gray, we should hand over this information to them and get them involved. Maybe they'll be able to find Gray."
Natsu stopped only to laugh at her. "The police? Weren't you listening to me?"
Lucy puffed her cheeks. She didn't see what was so funny about suggesting the police become involved. Gray was tangled up with the Italian Mafia. They needed all the help they could get in order to rescue him, and going to the police made complete sense.
"Yes, I heard everything you said, and it's terrifying. That's why we need the police involved." She threw up her hands in exasperation. "They'll be able to help us and provide protection against Gold Pistol and whoever you think has Gray."
'Lucy. Lucy. Lucy. You're the CEO of a publishing company. Please tell me you have read at least one of the detective books you published," he laughed. "You would know that the police can't help us."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.
"Gold Pistol is the police," he stressed. "He has eyes and ears everywhere in Italy. If the man can lock down the whole transportation system in Italy, he has to have the means and the connections to do so. The police are in his pocket. They're already looking for the princess because of his instructions."
"Well, then I'll go to the United States Embassy. Surely Gold Pistol's reach doesn't stretch that far?" They were Americans in trouble in a foreign country. One of the functions of the embassy was to help in these kinds of situations. As a government entity, it should be immune to the corruption of Italy's Mafia.
"If it's in Italy, Gold Pistol has his hands in it," Natsu declared. "You don't seem to realize just how much influence the Mafia Underworld has."
"That's not right!" she protested.
"Regardless," he shrugged, "it's the truth. If you went to the police or to the embassy, Gold Pistol would know. And it wouldn't do you any good either. They're all looking for the princess anyways."
With that, Lucy felt defeated already. If the police couldn't help them and not even their own embassy, how were they going to save Gray? It was just the two of them against the entire Italian Mafia and whoever took Gray. The whole situation was overwhelming. Natsu, however, seemed unfazed by the odds. Looking at him now, he looked as if he was excited by the prospects. There was a devilish glint that flashed in his eyes when he figured out a clue to finding Gray.
"So we're on our own? How are we going to save Gray then?" Lucy sobbed.
Natsu gave her a look of mocked surprise. "You of little faith. I hunt and find rare treasure for a living. Finding the princess is nothing compared to what I normally do."
"But the person who is eluding all of Gold Pistol's traps is even more fearsome and powerful than him. And he has Gray!"
"I wouldn't say more powerful, but certainly smarter," Natsu corrected. "Though it seems like Gold Pistol is all powerful in Italy, there are holes in his power. And he's too prideful to realize that. If I'm right in my assumption, then the person who has your friend is definitely capable of maneuvering through the holes without alerting Gold Pistol to his activity."
"That doesn't make the situation any better," she groaned.
"Actually, it does," he countered.
"How?" She arched an eyebrow at him.
"Gold Pistol may be more powerful and this other person may be smarter than him, but I'm in a class of my own. I'm more terrifying than either of them," he smirked at her.
Lucy let herself feed off of Natsu's confidence to build up her own courage. She was terrified, but she wasn't going to let her fear stop her. The moment she found out that Gray was in trouble, she had already made up her mind to do whatever it took to save him, even if that meant going against Gold Pistol's power and outsmarting Gray's kidnapper. Somehow, she had to make sure the impossible happened.
"O-okay where are we going then?"
"We're not going anywhere," Natsu corrected. "You're staying here. I can't do what I need to do with you present."
"What? I'm not staying behind. Gray's my friend. I'm not going to sit here and do nothing to save him." Lucy crossed her arms across her chest. "Besides, you promised to bring Gray back to Gold Pistol. I'm not going to let that happen." She knew if the situations were reversed, Gray would stop at nothing to rescue her. Her best friend always worried about her and had looked out for her for so many years. She wasn't going to repay his friendship with inaction.
"I never promised Gold Pistol anything," Natsu clarified. "I told Gold Pistol I would locate the treasure he wanted. And I will. But, I never said anything about handing the princess over to him."
"But you accepted Gold Pistol's treasure request. He's expecting you to deliver Gray to him, so that means you have to…." She trailed off when Natsu laughed dryly.
"Did you forget that I wanted to refuse the hunt in the first place?" he reminded her.
"Well weren't you just going to leave him here in the clutches of the mafia though? You said the treasure wasn't worth hunting, and you also didn't want me to see that it was Gray in the first place," Lucy stated.
Natsu sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I knew how you would react if you saw the princess's face in the file. As much as I hate to admit it, I know you two are close,…and you reacted exactly as I knew you would. I had planned to start looking for the princess as soon as we got away from Gold Pistol, but then Juvia appeared, and you started yelling at the Boss of the Italian Mafia." Lucy's eyes widened. Hearing Natsu recap what she did sounded unbelievable to her and made her inwardly groan. When it came to her friends, she lost her temper quickly.
"Gold Pistol doesn't take too kindly to being ordered around. Then the situation escalated in a way I wasn't expecting.…" Natsu trailed off, and Lucy shuddered. Gold Pistol had called her near-death experience a "small matter" after all. "Besides, it's the truth. I would never consider him a treasure worth hunting. I don't think he's worth my time. There are a lot of things I would rather be doing and none of them involve running around Italy trying to rescue a lost princess."
"Well if that's how you feel, why are you trying to find him? If you're not going to hand him over to Gold Pistol then why are you doing this?" Trying to make sense of Natsu's words and his actions was making Lucy even more puzzled. He made it very clear that he didn't like Gray and didn't want to go and save him. So why was he about to do just that?
"Because a certain CEO I know would go tripping around in the Mafia's Underworld in an attempt to play hero, only to get herself killed." He folded the picture of Gray he grabbed earlier and inserted it into an inside pocket of his jacket.
"That's not true!" She protested. "I can take care of myself just fine. I know self-defense." Yet, her words didn't convince Natsu as he raised his eyebrows at her in disbelief.
"Right," he smirked and rolled his eyes. Lucy could feel her irritation growing. Natsu seemed to know how to press on her nerves.
"So you're going to play hero then?" Looking at him now, in his usual black clothes and black leather jacket, Natsu looked like anything but a hero. Although, she had to admit, it wasn't a bad look either.
The humor in Natsu's eyes blinked out. His hand moved to lightly touch the shoulder his tattoo was located on.
"That's something I should never be called," he said quietly. His voice was so low, Lucy couldn't hear what he said. However, the look in his eyes made it seem as if he was reliving a moment in his past – and not a particularly fond moment either, she noted. His fingers flinched away as he gave a dry laugh in response. He blinked and shook his head as if to toss the memory far away.
They had moved from the kitchen back to the entryway. Natsu fished out his phone from his pocket and typed a quick message to someone before placing it back in his jacket.
"Alright, I need to go." He motioned to a set of stairs on their right that led to the upper stories of the house. "Cana's not here, so you can pick whatever bedroom you want. Try and get some sleep. The jet lag is going to be tough, but trying to adjust to the time difference as soon as possible helps. There are some sleeping pills that will help in all the bathrooms. Don't drink anymore wine if you do want to take them. This place doesn't beat your apartment, but treat it like it's yours. Help yourself to whatever you want."
"Thanks, but I told you I was coming with you," she reminded him.
"You're stubborn," he said and rushed towards her.
The wall pressed up against her back and Natsu grabbed her wrists, holding them above her head. Lucy gasped at the sudden motion, her eyes widening at his actions. She tried shaking out of his grasp, but his hold on her was firm.
"N-Natsu? What are you doing?" She struggled further, but she was trapped. "Let me go. This isn't funny."
"Make me." He leaned in closer to her, smirking as he continued to hold her captive. Something dark burned in his eyes that made Lucy shiver as she struggled harder to get free.
"Natsu."
He ignored her as he leaned in closer. Natsu lips brushed against her ear as he whispered to her.
"You fail." He held onto her wrists a moment longer before he let her go. He backed away from her to lean against the front door.
"What the hell was that!" she yelled, backing away from him.
"A test," he replied casually.
"A test? How the hell was that a test?" she shot back.
"I thought you said you knew self-defense?" he questioned.
"I-I was caught off guard," Lucy snapped. She wasn't expecting that look in his eyes. She could still feel where he had held her. He didn't hurt her, but it was like he was a different person. 'I'm more terrifying than either of them.' His words replayed in her mind, and in that moment, she wondered about the truth of them.
"And that's why you're not coming with me." He gestured at her. "You never let your guard down. There are people trained to take advantage of that and take you out. This isn't a normal treasure hunt. There's too much politics involved this time. I can't worry about protecting you while collecting the information we need to save the princess. I don't know all the players in this game at the moment, so it's too dangerous right now."
"Well if you try shit like that again, I'll really punch you," she warned.
"Will you? I wasn't even being serious right there, and you could do nothing," he argued. "In the Underworld, there are no heroes out there to save you if you get caught off guard. There are only mad wolves who want to sink their teeth in you and devour you before you can even scream."
"So what about you?" she demanded. "Why aren't you scared of these mad wolves of the Underworld? Is it because you're the fearsome Salamander?" she mocked, glaring at him.
Gold Pistol, Juvia, and even Gold Pistol's goons had all referred to Natsu by that name. He still hadn't explained how he got that nickname and what it truly meant. It was becoming even more apparent than before how little she knew about him.
"Yes," he answered curtly.
"Well what does that even mean? Is that how you know Gold Pistol? And why do you know so much about the mafia? You haven't answered all of my questions and I-"
"Lucy." His voice was hard as he silenced her. He had moved from the door to stand closer to her. She could see the grave look in his eyes, but after a moment, they softened. "Please," he pleaded, "I need you to stay here – where I know it's safe. I didn't think this would happen when I asked you to go treasure hunting with me. But since this is the situation, you're going to have to trust me and do things my way. I'll find the princess and get you both back to New York safely. I promise."
He had to say those words. Lucy was about to protest and demand he let her go with him and give the answers to all the questions that keep piling up, but those two words made her pause. Although she knew so little about him, she realized early on that whenever he said those words, he would do whatever it took to make whatever he promised, somehow, true.
"Damn!" He shook his head. "I didn't think it was possible, but that princess just keeps pissing me off more and more. I knew the first time I saw him he was going to be irritating, droopy eyes and all, but this-" He punched the palm of his hand. "This exceeds even my expectations. The fact that he had to go off and get himself into trouble and make you worry about him pisses me off so much!"
The serious atmosphere disappeared as Natsu jested. Lucy shook her head. She was still unhappy with Natsu and had a ton of questions left unanswered that she wasn't going to let go; she was extremely worried about Gray and prayed he was okay, but she was going to try and believe in Natsu's promise.
"Two hours," she announced. "I'll give you two hours to come back, or I'll go to the embassy and report this. I don't care if you say it's pointless, but I won't just sit around here and do nothing to save Gray."
"Two hours. More than enough time to get the information I need," Natsu said, accepting her demands. "Now if you're giving demands, then here is mine: Don't leave this place for whatever reason until I get back."
"Fine," she huffed.
"Not good enough." He stepped towards her. "Promise me."
"I promise," Lucy conceded. She didn't want to be alone right now, but the situation couldn't be helped. Natsu relaxed his shoulders a bit after hearing her promise and nodded.
"Great, because if anything happened to you, I would lose my comfy bed in New York and that would be a tragedy," he chuckled.
Lucy rolled her eyes and huffed loudly. "Just leave already!"
He gave her one more smirk before heading towards the door.
"Natsu," she called after him suddenly. He paused and looked at her over his shoulder. "Promise not to do anything dangerous, okay?" she added.
"Get some rest, Lucy" was his reply as he opened the door and left to begin the hunt.
Left alone in a strange house with so many unanswered questions, sleep was the last thing on Lucy's mind. She went back to the kitchen and reached for the grapes that were left on the counter. She popped a purple one into her mouth, chewing on the sweet fruit while reading through the file on Gray.
Gold Pistol really was the person who hired Gray. She thought, remembering back to the last phone call she had with her best friend, before any of this craziness happened. Flipping through the pictures of Gray with Juvia, she toyed with the idea that Gray truly loved her.
In the 5 years that they had been friends, Gray hadn't shown any interest in any one girl. He had had casual affairs with girls, but it was never anything serious. He had often mentioned how his art was his true love and that loving anyone else would make him unfaithful. Lucy had suspected there was more to it than that, especially after one night Gray had gotten really drunk. She found him in his apartment muttering a name over and over again after receiving a weird call from him. The next morning she had asked him about it, and he had gotten really quiet. Lucy didn't think he would ever answer her and was about to change the subject when he told her that the name he muttered was the name of his sin. After that, he never said that name again and she had never felt brave enough to push the subject. After all, she had her own reasons why she avoided love as well. She understood how some things are better kept secret.
Natsu may have been right about Juvia loving Gray. As much as Lucy didn't want to admit it, Juvia had that look in her eye she knew very well. It was the look of someone who had her heart in her eyes. She was definitely in love. But she knew Gray. Looking at him in the pictures, she could clearly see there was no love in his eyes. His supposed wedding had to be something he was being forced into by the mafia. Lucy wasn't about to let Gray get married to someone he didn't love. Reaching towards the bowl, she popped another grape into her mouth. She wrinkled her nose as she chewed on a sour grape. Grabbing the bowl, she placed it back in the fridge.
She stuffed all the pictures and papers back into the file and closed it. Thinking about all of this was making her remember things she didn't want to. She returned her mind to positive thoughts. Natsu would return with a lead on Gray, they would find him, and they would all return to New York safely. They'd get away from the mafia – and their death threats and marriage schemes.
It had only been 30 minutes since Natsu left, but Lucy was impatient for him to return. She didn't like being incapable of helping in this situation. Luckily, her anxiety about being alone was being kept at bay by Natsu's promise to return. She just had to keep herself distracted until then. All the worrying she was doing wasn't helping the situation. She needed to believe everything was going to be alright, even though everything was far from it.