Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

Author's Note: Just my take on an, in my opinion, overused plot. Btw, I'm planning to hint out a couple of other pairings just for the sake of it, but Natsu and Lucy will be the main focus of this story. Here's a new chapter for you, enjoy and don't forget to review :)

Chapter 1

Magnolia was a very vibrant city, which was to be expected since it was a merchant city. During daytime, the streets would be bustling with people looking for magical trinkets, books, and scrolls to buy or sell. The city had always been known for being a place of magic since the ancient times, and its reputation only reinforced for housing what many consider to be the strongest Guild in all of Fiore. Fairy Tail.

It wasn't uncommon for Natsu Dragneel, famed Fire Dragon Slayer and one of Fairy Tail's strongest members, to be stopped in his tracks by a piece of paper being shoved in his face. Uncommon it was not, but it sure was annoying as hell!

"What the—," he muttered to himself as he raised his head to peek over said piece of paper. A short, blonde girl was looking shyly up at him with her bright green eyes from behind the paper. She would've been pretty, Natsu thought, if it weren't for her green eyes. He glanced at her hair. Too dark.

"—your autograph, Mr. Dragneel?"

"Sorry, I'm on a mission," he replied, as he stepped to the side before quickly walking past her. "You can go to Fairy Tail if you want, they have my autograph there!" he yelled as an afterthought, noting how disappointed the girl seemed to be.

But nothing was more important than the mission at hand, Natsu thought to himself as his eyes darted around. Instinctively, he looked above him and saw Happy approaching him from the sky. From the frown on the blue Exceed's face, Natsu already knew the answer before he even asked the question.

"Nothing?"

Happy shook his head. "Nothing. Nobody from the guild has seen her," he said in a panicked voice, his big eyes becoming teary. "It's like she just disappeared, Natsu!"

But the pink-haired mage shook his head. "She wouldn't do that to us, Happy. She's not like that," he said, patting Happy's head softly. "Why don't you go back to the guild and wait for me there?"

Happy peered up at him as he sniffled. "You sure?"

Natsu flashed him a toothy smile as he put his hands on his hips. "Positive! Go ahead, buddy."

It was only when Happy was out of sight did Natsu's smile turn into a frown. He looked at the bookstore beside him and sighed. Book Land, one of the many bookstores here in Magnolia. It was a pink colored, average-sized building and the last place Natsu knew where to look. He was running out of patience with the lack of leads he was getting.

Yesterday morning, he and Happy went out on a mission to retrieve a client's missing locket up in Mt. Hakobe. The same snowing mountains that they, along with Lucy, had saved Macao from what seemed like a long time ago. They had asked Lucy to come with them on their mission, pestering her to no end, but she didn't seem interested; saying that she couldn't and that she'd be late for something important. Natsu thought that if Lucy was passing up on making money to pay for her rent, then it must be really important. And so, Natsu and Happy went on the mission without Lucy, sulking all the way.

The mission was so easy Natsu could've done it with his eyes closed! One of the Vulcans had taken interest in the locket and refused to give it back without a fight. Said fight only lasted four—maybe five seconds. One Fire Dragon's Roar and it was over, much to Natsu's disappointment. What was the word Happy used? Ah. Overkill.

The travel time it took for them to go to and from the mountain took up most of the mission. Natsu wished angrily that he hadn't picked that mission at all. But that wasn't the problem now. No, the problem now was that they arrived from the mountain almost two hours ago and Natsu hadn't seen his blonde partner yet; and according to Happy, nobody from the guild had seen her today either.

Happy had a tendency to overreact when it came to Lucy, but Natsu knew Lucy wouldn't just up and leave without at least a letter. After all, the celestial spirit mage had left a couple of times without saying anything in the past but always made sure to leave a letter so no would worry about her. It seemed equally unlikely to Natsu that she'd get kidnapped like she did before, considering that Lucy's reputation as a Fairy Tail mage had grown that no other mage would underestimate her abilities to defend herself.

Just when Natsu was about to run out of ideas, a familiar blue-haired mage walked out of Book Land carrying a bunch of books that were placed in a plain paper bag. "Levy!" he called out, raising his hand in the air when she turned around to the sound of his voice.

"Ah, Natsu," she greeted him with her usual cheerfulness when he approached her. "I didn't know you were back from your mission."

Natsu rolled his eyes at the mention of the mission. "It was a lame mission," he scowled. "Happy could've done it on his own, that's how easy it was."

Levy chuckled as she brushed a stray hair away from her face with her free hand. "You should've known there'd be nothing challenging for you up there."

"Yeah," Natsu replied, when he suddenly remembered the reason why he called Levy's attention in the first place. "Say, you haven't seen Lucy around, have you?" he asked, hoping that she had.

But Levy just shrugged. "Last time I saw her was yesterday," she said as she nodded to the book store she had just recently come out from. "We met at Book Land for a book signing. I accompanied her so she could meet Ralph Traugott."

The name definitely didn't ring any bells. "Who?"

"I guess you wouldn't have heard of him," Levy said, smiling as she started talking excitedly. "Ralph Traugott is a famous fiction writer from Crocus and he happens to be Lucy's favorite. He had a book signing here yesterday."

"Okay," Natsu said slowly. Helpful information, he supposed, but it didn't tell him where to find Lucy though. "Did you guys go anywhere else after that?"

"Uhm," Levy said, looking everywhere but at Natsu. Her cheeks had slightly turned pink, which Natsu thought was strange but didn't comment on it. "I actually went somewhere else before the book signing ended. I don't know where Lucy went after I left."

"Oh," Natsu said, his eyebrows furrowing as he bumped into another dead end. "Thanks Levy."

Levy looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry I wasn't any help."

The pink-haired mage shook his head and offered a small smile. "Nah, you were plenty of help Levy, thanks. I gotta go, though, see you later at the guild!" he said, saying the last sentence while walking away with a small wave.

The solid-script chuckled, shaking her head as she did so. She was about to turn around to begin walking back to the guild when she heard Natsu call her name. The dragon slayer was grinning at her, and the next words he said before running off made her whole face red in mortification.

"Say hi to Gajeel for me!"

Natsu was at a loss. He honestly had no clue where Lucy was, and he absolutely refused to even think that something had happened to her. Besides, Natsu's gut was telling him that she was just here within the city. There was only one more thing he could do; it was to wait for her to get home.

It made sense to just wait for her inside her apartment; after all it was something their team always did. It was natural. But despite how tempting the thought was, he decided against it. So he waited on the roof instead. Natsu sat cross-legged and interlaced his fingers behind his head and leaned against one of the chimneys.

That was when he heard it; the familiar voices of two men telling Lucy to be careful. He turned his head toward the sound and, sure enough, Lucy was walking on the wall separating the sidewalk and the water canal. Natsu couldn't help but smile at her childish habit; that was until he saw that she was holding on to a hand that belonged to a man. Natsu quickly stood up from his position and used the chimney he was previously leaning on to hide himself.

He was sure he had never seen the man with Lucy before. From what he could tell with the light coming from the lamp posts, this man had dark hair. He was wearing a dark coat that reached the back of his knees, dark trousers, and dark shoes. And from the way he was laughing with Lucy and holding her hand, Natsu knew he didn't like this strange man one bit. And when the man put his hands on Lucy's waist to assist her as she jumped down from the wall—the wall that was low enough that he didn't need to assist her—Natsu found himself gritting his teeth; his hands clenched into fists.

Natsu stepped back into the shadows as they neared the apartment until they were standing right under the lamp post that was directly in front of the apartment. Something was telling him that he should leave before he saw anything else, but Natsu didn't listen. A second later, he regretted it.

It was in that moment that Natsu found out what a broken heart felt like.

Lucy knew what was coming when he placed a hand on her cheek, his other hand lingering on her waist. She could feel her heart skip a beat before beating faster against her chest. Her whole body tingled with anticipation as he closed in. Their lips connected. Time seemed to slow.

Just before Lucy closed her eyes fully, she caught a shadow that seemed to leap from one roof to the next out of the corner of her eye. But she didn't care. Nothing would ruin this moment.

She had no way of knowing that while her heart was doing somersaults, another heart was silently breaking.