Chapter 2

Demons have jobs?

Natsu stared at the people rushing on the pedestrian streets, going on about their daily, busy life through the large window of a homey little café. His untouched cup of coffee on the small crudely painted wooden table was starting to cool down but he didn't spare it a glance. His attention was elsewhere that he didn't even notice when a dark-haired man entered the café and sat down in front of him. His usually sensitive nose recognized the familiar scent of the man and the brain didn't give out with any sort of alarm.

"Why're you drinking coffee at 5 in the evening?"

Natsu jerked in surprise at hearing the deep baritone voice and focused his onyx eyes on the man. Gray had adorned a dark blue V-necked cotton shirt that stretched across his lean chest and he could see a peak of dark blue tattoo on his right pectoral. And of course, he wouldn't leave without his precious necklace.

"I haven't had coffee in a while and I missed the taste."

Gray brought Natsu's cup to his lips and took a sip of lukewarm dark liquid and grimaced.

"I don't get why you like black coffee. It's like drinking a liquid tar."

Natsu flipped him a bird and grabbed the cup back. Roughly setting down the cup on the plate, he crossed his arms across and leaned back on his chair.

"Fuck off. No one told you to drink it. How did you even know where I was?"

Gray shrugged and put his hand up to catch an attention of the sole waitress in this café. Not that he had to since the girl had been staring at their table since Natsu came in an hour ago. She nearly ran to their table and took Gray's order of ice tea, all the while blushing and giggling madly. When the smitten waitress finally left, Gray answered Natsu's question.

"Lucy told me. She got to the base this morning while you're off somewhere. Erza dropped her off."

Natsu scowled and glared at the cup. Of course, Lucy would know where he was even though she just arrived. Still, she could have kept the information to herself since she probably knew he wanted an alone time.

"Alright, give. Why're you pouting? You've been like this for three days straight and I'm sick of it."

Onyx eyes wavered a bit and a deep frown appeared between dark pink eyebrows. He didn't want to look at Gray's eyes because the man knew him too well and had an uncanny ability to make him feel safe and vulnerable at the same time. Gray waited patiently while Natsu had a blinking contest with his cup. It wasn't after his drink was delivered that Natsu spoke again.

"Do you think us being together is the right thing?"

Gray looked surprised by the question. When they first started the monogamous relationship, this question came up more often than not and now, a decade later, he thought Natsu was secure about their relationship already.

"Why? Did somebody say something?"

Natsu looked up finally and Gray felt a pinch in his heart when he saw doubt in his lover's eyes. Was Natsu sick of this exclusivity? Did he meet somebody else or was he just not enough?

"It's not that. I just feel like we're hurting some people by doing this."

Gray remembered their meeting at the hall about a week ago and how Juvia seemed conflicted by their interaction and it clicked.

"You mean Juvia."

Natsu rubbed his eyes tiredly and nodded.

"She still has feelings for you. It's clear to everybody. I feel like she's hurting every time she sees us together. I mean half the reason why she joined Lucy's army at first was because of you for crying out loud."

Gray reached across the table and grabbed Natsu's hands. His unnaturally warm hand fit his cold one perfectly.

"I know that this isn't fair for her and I wish I could do something about this but we've been through a lot of things to give up now. So, dammit you're stuck with me for fucking eternity. Find a way to deal with it."

A smile tugged at Natsu's lips at Gray's harsh words. Their intertwined hands still remained on the table, providing comfort to both.

"Your funeral then. I'll probably make your life a living hell."

"I look forward to it. Sounds like home to me."

Reluctantly, they both withdrew their hands and Gray was relieved to see that the burden on Natsu's broad shoulders were close to nonexistence now.

"How's Lucy, by the way? Does she like the new base?"

Gray chuckled when he remembered the sparkle in Lucy's eyes when she saw the spacious lounge and high-end bar counter that took one-fourth of the first floor. She nearly leapt over the counter but Erza grabbed her before she could and proceeded to drag the unwilling blonde to the main office to discuss their "strategy".

"She loves it. I think she's going to start today. Erza barely stopped her twitchy hands from the liquors just now."

The glass door to the café opened and a woman and a man strolled in. The woman was smiling uncomfortably when the man pulled the chair out for her to sit while talking non-stop.

"Damn. I can't believe she said yes to going out with me. That's why rich girls with daddy-issues are the best to manipulate. She's gonna be in for the ride of her life later."

Gray was startled for a few seconds when he heard an unfamiliar voice of a man in his head before remembering that, even after tuning most of other people's thoughts out, the darkest thoughts filtered through the barrier. It was like they were shouting their inner most thoughts out loud.

"What? You've been staring at those people for a long time."

Should he tell Natsu about what he heard? Technically, it was none of their business but Natsu's worried eyes made him change his mind.

"I just heard that man's thoughts. They aren't very….gentleman-like."

Natsu's eyes widened and he looked at the couple again, this time with assessing eyes. The girl was clearly not into the man and looked ready to bolt any minute. The man, on the other hand, had that crazy eyes that Natsu knew too well.

Without a warning, he stood up and walked toward their table which made Gray sighed in defeat. He knew this would happen. But letting him deal with this alone sounded like a worse idea so, he followed the pink-haired man.

"Excuse me. Could you stop leering at the poor girl? Can't you see you're making her uncomfortable?"

The pair was shocked by the completely unexpected interlude and Gray watched as the man face slowly turned into purple with anger and humiliation. He stood up from his seat and sneered at the two men.

"Why don't you mind your business and leave me and my dates alone, pretty boy?"

The girl was still staring at them with wide eyes.

"I would but your bad intention towards her was so obvious that you soured our date with your bad mojo."

"Natsu..."

Natsu shrugged off Gray's hand on his shoulder and ignored his warning tone.

"Are you picking a fight with me, pinky?!"

Natsu grabbed the man's shirt collar and lifted him up a few inches off the ground and the man's eyes nearly bulged out of his eye sockets at Natsu's show of strength despite his lean body.

"Nobody else calls me that except my boyfriend. Now, get out before I skin you alive."

When Natsu released him, the man nearly crumbled to the floor due to his weak knees. Glaring pitifully at Natsu and Gray one last time, he hightailed out of the café without looking back. Gray looked at the event unfold with disinterest while Natsu looked disgusted.

"Umm… Thank you, misters."

Only then, they recalled that the girl was still there. She smiled gratefully at the duos.

"I didn't know how to walk away from the date without being rude. My name is Hisui."

Natsu smiled widely and Gray nodded in greeting.

"It's no problem. My name is Natsu and this is Gray."

Hisui waved her hand at the empty chairs across from her.

"Would you, maybe, like to join me for a cup of coffee?"

Gray held up his hand to refuse politely. After a long day of travelling from Hell to Earthland, he would like a quiet day.

"Oh it's ok_"

"We don't mind. I could go for another cup of coffee since my first one is completely cold now."

Damn Natsu and his friendly nature. Why he was even called a demon?

However, it turned out Hisui was a lovely girl and he actually enjoyed talking to her. The conversation, soon, turned to what they were doing in Magnolia.

"So, you aren't locals? Are you just visiting here then?"

Natsu and Gray turned to look at each other, wordlessly arguing who should take this question. Gray gave in first and gave a vague answer. He couldn't tell her that he and a bunch of other demons are in Magnolia to look for a bunch of lost souls.

"We're looking for somebody."

Whatever she had been expecting, his answer wasn't it.

"Oh. I hope you find that person soon. Have you gone to the police station?"

"Police station?"

She smiled and nodded at Gray.

"Yeah. Magnolia PD is one of the best precincts in all of Fiore. You should file a missing report to them if you haven't yet."

Natsu rubbed his chin with a gleam in his eyes and Gray could smell the trouble coming. Lucy wasn't going to be happy about this.

"Police station huh?"

The place was filled up to the maximum capacity even before 9 o'clock. There was a long queue outside the door that went as far as the next block and even for a popular bar like 'Crossroad', it wasn't a usual thing. Especially for a Tuesday night. But nothing attracted crowds more than the news of a performance by a brand new enchanting lady that had supposedly the most haunting voice. Tonight was going to be her first debut.

It was noisy in the club with everyone's excited chatter about this mystery woman. The lights dimmed in the spacious bar and the spotlight shifted to the large stage at the back. Unlike other bars in Magnolia, Crossroad maintained a more vintage interior design with a hint of a modern furnishing. A large platform for occasional live performance stood at the back of the space and on the opposite end was a bar counter that took the entire width of the room. Knowing the show was about to start, the place grew quiet just as a disembodied sweet voice floated from the back of the curtain.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Crossroad. Tonight, making her first debut with a voice of a siren is our finest, Rain-woman."

The dark purple velvet curtain lifted to reveal a beautiful woman with the long, wavy hair with the color of peacock blue. Her long baby blue dress was split at one side till it reached the middle of her thigh- her right slim, long milky leg making a flirty sneak-peak through it. Loud, enthusiastic clapping and a couple of obnoxious wolf-whistling erupted from the audience.

"I put a spell on you

Because you're mine"

Her soulful, musical voice immediately captivated the hearts of all the audience and they couldn't even mind the fact that this blue song seemed a bit out of place at this modern club. It was like they were dragged back to the late 60s suddenly.

"You better stop the things you do

I tell ya I ain't lyin'

I ain't lyin"

The man manning the bar looked at the stage with a smug, proud smile on face. There was no patron to tend to at the counter since everyone's attention was solely on the woman.

"She's entrancing, isn't she? I always tell her she has one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard."

A petite blonde behind the voice took a seat on the bar stool and turned the chair in the direction of the stage. She was dressed in moss green waistcoat vest without a shirt underneath it and a pair of skinny jeans.

"How was the talk with the amazon woman?"

Lucy groaned and turned back to the black-haired bartender. He had piercings on his eyebrows, on the side of his nose and under his lips. Despite his ruggedly handsome face, he made quite an intimidating figure- not someone you might want to come face to face with in the dark. He grabbed a cocktail shaker from the top shelves and added a little bit of, Lucy knew just from the smell, coconut rum and a couple of other liquids and shook.

"Sooo long. I mean, seriously, she went on and on about this "golden rule" of not harming even a hair on a human. I get it. No using my power for evil purposes while on Earthland. Geez."

The man chuckled and poured the drink over ice and set the glass down in front of Lucy.

"Pineapple fizz for our queen."

She squealed in delight and bent over the counter to give him a brief but warm hug.

"Thanks, Gajeel."

She took a sip- sighing happily when she tasted the unique slightly bitter sweetness that accompanied any good cocktails.

"Yeah, that's the stuff."

With a wink, she faced Juvia on the stage again and let herself relax for the first time since she landed in Magnolia.

"You know I love you

I love you

I love you

I love you anyhow

And I don't care if you don't want me

I'm yours right now"

She heard a phone rang from behind the bar but knowing Gajeel would take care of it, she paid no attention to it.

She was admiring the fluid, graceful way Juvia moved around on the stage while sipping from her glass when Gajeel called her name in a strained voice.

"Lucy, we've got a problem. It's Natsu and Gray. They've been arrested."

Lucy could feel a headache coming already. She shouldn't have let Natsu and Gray roam around Magnolia by themselves. She put the glass down on the counter and hopped off the stool.

"I'll take care of this."

Gajeel nodded towards the stage.

"What about Juvia? Shouldn't you wait for her?"

She looked back at Juvia who seemed to be enjoying her time in the limelight for once. She didn't have a heart to make Juvia leave in the middle of her singing just so they could clean up Gray and Natsu's mess.

"Nah. I'll be fine by myself. Call me a cab. I'll grab my wallet and coat from the office."

Lucy barged into a police station with a full scowl on her face. They had been on Earthland for less than 24 hours and those two buffoons had already got into trouble. She ought to lock them up in a room for the entire time they would be in human realm if she didn't need their help.

At the corner of the room, there was a small holding cell only big enough for ten people but was only occupied by two, currently. Natsu was pacing around the cell while Gray was lying on the bench without a shirt.

She stormed towards the locked cell and they both turned to her when they heard someone approaching. Their faces turned ashen when they saw irritated Lucy standing outside the lockup.

"What were you two thinking?! This is not your first time on Earthland. You should have known better than to start a chaos in the damn police station. I have half a mind to let you rot in there."

Risking getting hurt by the angry woman, Natsu approached Lucy slowly and made a sad puppy face. Gray, always the smarter out of the two, slinked further from Lucy on his bench.

"I'm sorry, Luce. We just came in to file a missing person report and things got out of hand."

Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose and made herself take a deep breath.

"Miss. Are you here to bail these two guys out?"

A young man in a full dark-blue police uniform smiled kindly at Lucy and in a blink of an eye, Lucy turned into her charming self. Natsu and Gray, used to her legendary mood-swings, didn't even bat an eyelash at the change.

"Yes, I am. They are my cousins and they get so hotheaded sometimes, you see. I hope they didn't commit a serious treason or something."

The man shook his head and nodded his head towards a closed door at the end of the station. The blinds were closed but a gold plate that said Captain was enough for everyone to know better than to bother the man unnecessarily.

"They kind of barged in on an investigation and threated the pert. Captain got angry and put them behind bars. You just need to pay for the bill and they can leave."

Lucy subtly glared at the two demons and gave the policeman a grateful smile.

"That's good to know. I'll get both of them out of your hair as soon as possible if you could just show me the way to pay the bail."

After paying less than hefty fine, Natsu and Gray were finally let out of the cell. But with Lucy waiting for them outside the entrance, they felt like they were actually going to be locked up for real this time. Natsu put up his hand before Lucy could start yelling at them.

"Wait. I only went inside the interrogation room because I smelt one of the escaped souls. I think it's the pert but I can't be too sure. All the weird smells in the precinct has compromised my olfactory."

Lucy's eyes shifted into piercing yellow before returning to its original topaz color and her lips lifted barely to show a hint of her pearly white teeth.

"You didn't think to contact me first? You know better than to manage the situation by yourself."

She pointed them to the busy street and growled softly.

"Go back to the base and inform everybody. I'll take care of the situation here. Don't let me catch you straying this time, boys."

With a final glare, she went back inside the building.

"I love her to bits but she scares me sometimes."

Gray looked at Natsu who mock shivered with a smirk on his lips.

"She is supposed to be scary. She's the devil, non-metaphorically speaking."

Natsu took off his wool coat and handed it to half-dressed man.

"I know you're not cold but let's not shock the humans with your exhibitionism."

Despite the heavy sarcasm in his sentence, Gray could detect a small hint of concern. Even for an ice-element demon like Gray, too much exposure to cold is not ideal since they, literally, just came from Hell. Sudden climate change can affect his human body and in turn, his power.

With a subtle nod of gratitude, Gray accepted the warm coat and put it on. Natsu's abnormal body heat immediately cocooned Gray and he sighed in contentment.

Now only in a long-sleeved blue shirt, Natsu couldn't even tell the difference in temperature due to its abnormal body heat. They both strolled on the sidewalk to the way back to Crossroad, none of them talking but just enjoying the comfortable silence.

Natsu halted all of a sudden and Gray looked at him in question. The pink-haired man glanced around the surrounding which just made Gray just got more confused.

"What are you doing?"

Natsu shushed at him and crept silently towards the tall bush at the corner of the street and leaned in to get a closer look at something. With a loud gasp, Natsu jumped into the bush, to Gray's surprise. He could hear the struggling and growling from in there. Before he could move to help, Natsu appeared again, all scratched up and dirty, with a small kitty in his hand. Most of its white fur was covered in blue paint, even half its face and it was struggling to get out of Natsu's hand.

Natsu cooed softly to the kitten and finally coming to understand that it is in no danger, it ceased its thrashing and looked up curiously at the man with weird pink hair. Gray spoke softly to not alarm the small creature.

"Natsu. I know what you are thinking but we cannot bring back strangers without Lucy's permission."

Natsu gently cradled the still frightened cat against his chest to share his body warmth.

"It's just a cat, Gray. I'm sure Lucy will understand. Besides, look at it. It's so thin and I can't leave it in this kind of weather."

The cat, wrapped in Natsu's warmth, had already fallen asleep in his arms. Gray didn't have a heart to tell him to just abandon it again so, with a defeated sign, he turned around and continued on their journey back home. A second later, Natsu joined him on his side with the cat still in his arms and a big smile on his face.

"If it pees on Lucy's favorite shoes, she will castrate you, just so you know."

Without even looking, Gray knew Natsu's smile slipped a little.

Lucy walked back in the station and her eyes travelled around the building, trying to locate the interrogation room. They settled on the door on the far right with a uniform guard standing in front of it with constant vigilance. She knew she couldn't just barge in the room without a proper cause so, that just left her with one option. Diversion.

Different ideas ran through her brain but only one sounded most plausible and fastest to carry out because of that damn rule about not using their celestial power on humans directly. At time like this, it would be convenient to have Erza's power of twisting the flow of time. Again, she walked out of the station and about fifteen feet away, she found her target. She casually leaned against the side of the building and stared at the large, rectangular metallic box that sat inside the iron fences. A transformer box. She had seen it on her way to the station earlier. Her eyes turned golden for a split second and with a loud boom from the transformer, sparks flew and the whole neighborhood went dark.

With a satisfied smug smile, she strolled back in the station. It was too dark for humans to see without any light but because of her demonic nature, even in human skin, she could easily navigate in the dark. Not one to leave things up to fate, Lucy flicked her finger and created a second distraction. One of the computers burst into flame and the officer in front of it jumped out of his seat. The department turned into a massive chaos as they tried to put out the fire in the dark. Successfully avoiding the bustling policemen, she found herself in front of, now unguarded, interrogation room.

With a quick look to ensure no one has spotted her, she opened the door quickly. Inside, she could see a bald man sitting on the other side of the table with his head down. She close the door behind her and at the sound of the door shutting, the man looked up but she could tell that he was having trouble seeing her.

"Are you another cop? Look, I told you I had nothing to do with those robberies. I just had a heart-attack a week ago and I'm still recovering. Can I go now?"

Instead of answering, Lucy pulled out the other chair and sat down, without taking her eyes off him at all.

"Hello? Is this some kind of interrogation technique? Silent treatment to freak me out or something?"

"Oh, I wouldn't call this interrogation."

The man tried to focus his vision on the other person in the room but with his eyesight being compromised, his other senses heightened. He could smell floral scent that was too light to be a perfume and combined with a delicate voice, the person was definitely a woman. But he couldn't tell more than that.

Something flashed in the dark and the first thing that caught his attention was what seemed to be a ball of blue fire and to his shock, it was resting on the woman's gloved right hand. He told himself that it was probably some kind of fancy flashlight but the moving blue flames contradicted that idea. His eyes quickly took in a small blonde woman with expressionless face.

"What are you?"

The woman raised her eyebrows and for an unknown reason, a chill went down his spine.

"I think the more important question is, how stupid are you?"

She passed the fire ball to the other hand like she was juggling a plastic ball. Her strange brownish yellow eyes were still on him the entire time. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's not play stupid, shall we? You are one of the escaped souls that invaded this poor man's body during his near-death time period."

"I don't know what you're talking about but I'm leaving."

The man tried to stand up but to his horror, his whole body was paralyzed except his head.

"It's rude to walk out during the middle of a conversation. Let's cut to the chase because I don't have much time. I am a demon and I can see through your soul, you pathetic creature. You're going back to where you belong and trust me, you will be punished accordingly."

"No, no, no. Please. Please don't make me go back there. I beg of you. I'll do anything."

With another flash of yellow eyes, the man found his lips sealed shut but he still tried to shake his head, trying to placate for mercy. However, without even batting an eye, she summoned for a soul reaper through the mind link. Though soul reapers and demons weren't the same being, they were both under Lucy's ruling.

The large man yelled louder in his throat when he saw a tall man in a long black robe and his face was completely hidden by the hood. Through the open front of the robe, his skeletal chest was poking out of it. The scythe in his hand glinted against the blue fire in Lucy's hand. The blade side of the scythe moved closer to the human and his eyes widened even further with terror. Being restrained by invisible robes, he couldn't move away. The dull side of the blade touched the man's chest and Lucy saw the life left the man's eyes. When the scythe pulled back, a small white globe of concentrated white light was pulled out of the man's mouth alongside with it. His soul. Without any soul to be hosted, the shell of a body was just that, a dead body. He slumped forward and dropped face-first on the table. His soul securely in the soul reaper's hand, Lucy instructed him to take it back to Hell where Mira would be waiting. With a nod to show he understood, he vanished with a pop.

Lucy stood up and walked out without even a glance back.

A/N: So, I'm so excited that you guys love the first chapter. Don't worry. Our hotties will show up in the next chapter *cough*Bickslow and Laxus*cough*. This is a slow burn love fic so, there will be fluff and smut please be patient. Thank you for reading my fic and hope it makes smile at least once. :) Until next time, my lovelies.