General POV

Adrian, of Angels and Demons walked through the cave slowly, admiring the small, non-precious but still beautiful, stones embedded in the walls. Unbeknownst to him, he was being 'shadowed', badly, by the world's biggest idiot.

For those who are the world's new biggest idiot and can't figure it out, it was Natsu Dragneel, of Fairy Tail.

Both guilds searched frantically for the two missing mages, but the cave was very far away. Too far away.

Adrian reached the end of the cave, a dead end, and turned before a voice interrupted him.

"I thought you were supposed to be smart, but you didn't even notice I was here." He turned to glare defiantly at the ridiculous pink hair of a certain fire-mage.

"If you had any brains at all, pinky, you wouldn't have picked a fight with me." He mocked.

"Don't call me Pinky! My hair is salmon! Salmon!" Natsu whined.

"Nope. It's pink."

"Salmon!"

"Pink."

"Salmon!"

"Pinky, pinky, pinky~" Adrian singsonged.

"I am not!"

"Just face facts, would you? Your hair… is pink!"

"That's it!" Natsu ran forward, fist ready to punch, and Adrian did the same. Soon, the two fists collided and the shockwave sent a tremor in the cave, causing rocks to fall.

"Shit…" Adrian muttered. "Run!" he yelled, turning on his heel and running to the back of the cave. Natsu followed suit, and soon the two mages were running side by side, unwilling to give up their rather stupid argument. "This is all your fault!" Adrian yelled.

"Is not! It's yours! You should have just stood there and let me punch you!" Was Natsu's retort.

"What kind of an idiot would do that?!" the rocks caught up to the mages, but thankfully stopped before the end so they still had some room. Both managed to escape without serious injury.

"Oh, crap!" Adrian exclaimed, eyeing his swelling ankle angrily.

"What?" Natsu walked over to take a look. "See?" he smirked. "I told you so." He taunted.

"Oh, shut up. It was your fault." Adrian muttered, before looking up triumphantly. "So you have to take responsibility!"

"What?!" Natsu yelled, his voice rising an octave.

"Yep! Now find us a way out of here!" Adrian ordered his new 'slave'.

(I can't be bothered writing all the failed attempts. Sorry. But it involves Natsu landing on his arse, defeated by a pile of inanimate boulders a lot. Imagine away!)

"We're stuck in here!" Natsu finally announced, after failing for the umpteenth time.

"Great. Just great." Adrian grumbled to himself.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" Natsu's voice broke the tense silence which had formed.

"Definitely! Luciana will have noticed we're gone by now, and she will be rounding up the whole guild to start looking for us, if she hasn't already!" Adrian said confidently.

"How can you be so sure?" Natsu laughed darkly.

"Because Luciana is Luciana. She saved me, in every way a person can be saved, and if I die, I will die fighting for her." Adrian said firmly. Natsu's eyes widened in shock.

"Why?" his voice was soft, but his expression filled in any blanks.

"I had a pretty dark childhood, and my early teens were even worse. If I didn't have a pulse, I could have sworn I didn't have a heart. Then I met her, and she changed everything. She literally dragged me out of the hole I had dug for myself over the years and into a new world. We travelled together for a while, and soon we ended up with so many friends. So many of us, we only have one thing in common. Her. She saved us from something or other, and we all love her for that. She's been a mother, a sister, a leader, a healer, a saviour and just about anything else."

"Wow." Natsu muttered, absorbing this new information. Naturally, he blurted the first thing that came to his mind. "But she's so scary!" Adrian laughed.

"That's only if you rub her the wrong way, or piss her off. Most of the time she's the most cheerful person you'll ever meet, but push the right button and instead of the Angel, you get the Demon. That's why our guild is named that. Mostly because of her, our Luce." He smiled softly.

"What? What did you just say?" Natsu looked up sharply.

"That's why our guild is named…" Adrian guessed.

"No, after that."

"Our Luce?" Natsu smiled sadly at this.

"My best friend's name was Lucy. She was everything to me. The sister I never had. I called her Luce. And sometimes Luigi, but she would just use her famous 'Lucy Kick' on me and all would be forgiven." Natsu laughed at the memory.

"She sounds nice." Adrian finally said.

"She was. She had a smile that could light up all of Magnolia. She was the kindest person in the world, but the strongest person I had ever met. I have never seen someone be able to go through so much, and still be her, you know? I don't think I could have done it." Natsu shook his head in awe.

"You say 'was', like past tense? What happened?" Adrian asked hesitantly.

"One of my friends, Lisanna, came back 'from the dead', and I was blinded by that. I didn't even notice Lucy until one day when Lisanna picked a fight with her. I should have sided with Lucy, but I didn't want to do that and then have everyone shun me too. I was a coward. I should have kept my promise. I promised I would stay with her. It's been two years and she probably still hates me." His eyes were full of self-loathing.

"She sounds a lot like Luciana. Only, Luciana has a smile that can light up the whole of Fiore, so…" Adrian trailed off, and the two laughed softly. "But if she is anything like Luciana, she won't hate you. I was a killer, but Luciana didn't hate me. I remember trying for years to wash the blood off my hands, but I never could. And then she came along, and it was like she just took my hands in hers and wiped them clean with nothing more than her own hem off her shirt. Does that make any sense?"

"Yes. Before Lucy, I didn't really have anywhere or anything in mind, but then, within a week, she practically had me and the rest of Team Natsu ship-shape. She carried the map, made sure we didn't destroy too much, carried medical equipment and looked after injuries. She looked after us when we were sick, carried fish for Happy, and even let me sleep on her lap on the train!" he was smiling now, lost in memory.

"We?" Adrian questioned.

"Me, Erza and Gray." He replied. "We would never have become friends, let alone family if it weren't for her. She held us, who have absolutely nothing in common, together like glue. It's thanks to her that Gray is my best mate, and Erza is like my sister. But she isn't my actual sister. That's a spot reserved for Lucy." He added sternly.

"So where is she now?" Adrian regretted it almost as soon as he said it. Natsu's head lowered, and his bangs covered his eyes.

"I don't know. I look for her, we all do." Natsu's tear-choked voice was so sad. "She could be dead, and I wouldn't know." He stood up suddenly. "She can't be dead! She can't leave me!" he cried, smashing his fist into the wall repeatedly.

"Natsu. Natsu. Natsu!" Adrian finally yelled, doing a commendable imitation of Luciana/Lucy, with an almost identical stern look on his face. "You would know it Lucy was dead. Just like I would know if Luciana was, okay? You'll find her. Just like Luciana always says, 'You have to keep going, no matter how dark and hard to see the road is. There's always a streetlamp, just a little ways ahead'. She also once said 'There's no difference between giving up and giving in, except one's a sugar-coated, pansy-ass excuse and one's an act of a coward'. She said that to Konran when Konran tried to run away from confronting her family."

"Those are good quotes." Natsu smiled.

"Thanks." Adrian replied easily. "She also says, at the end of the road one, though it's kind of private, 'And I'm there, so the shadows are less scary' or 'And I'm there, so the shadows will have to get through me first'. Kind of makes you feel bad for the shadows." He cracked, and laughed when he got the desired result. The two began swapping jokes, laughing and digging at each other.

"Adrian?" Luciana's voice interrupted the deep conversation between the two mages, and their heads shot up at the familiar voice.

"Luciana?" Adrian called, wishing he could run to the pile of rocks, yelling at the top of his voice to be heard.

"Adrian? What the hell are you doing in there, you big fat idiot?!" she screamed. "When I get in there, I'm going to kill you!" she promised, making the poor boy tremble in terror.

"I changed my mind. I'll stay in here." He muttered to Natsu, who, the suicidal dumbass, burst out laughing.

"Is that Natsu Dragneel?" Luciana's voice was dangerously calm.

"Yes! Yes, he's here to! And it's his fault the roof collapsed!" Adrian shouted back instantly, sacrificing their new-found acquaintanceship for his life.

"Natsu Dragneel! When I get in there, I am going to let Erza kill you, and then I will bring you back so I can hang, draw and quarter you!" Luciana boomed, her voice ringing clearly through the layers of rocks. "Now back the hell up or get crushed! Your choice!"

Adrian's eyes widened in shock, and he grabbed Natsu who reacted instantly and dragged him to the side just in time to avoid the rocks that exploded in their direction. They breathed a sigh of relief, which quickly turned to terror when the dust faded to reveal a seething Luciana.

"Crap. Her eyes look different. We're dead." Adrian trembled, hiding behind Natsu. She approached the two dangerously, but when she took in Adrian's leg injury, her eyes softened and she slumped in defeat.

Before the two boys could say anything, she had bent down and picked him up, carrying him in a piggy-back.

"Fairy Tail is on their way, so wait here." She ordered. Natsu nodded quickly, not wanting to make her mad again. Her eyes became gentle once again, and she offered him a small, albeit familiar, smile. "Thanks for not killing him flame-brain."

Then she walked out of the cave, and Natsu hesitantly followed. Her loud voice echoed through the caves as she called one of the Fairy Tail mages.

"Oi! Snowflake! Flame-brain's over here, okay?" she thundered, and Natsu could do nothing but laugh as Gray replied, disgruntled at the name but too scared to do anything about it.