AN: Here we are with chapter two! Kaeli wrote this one, and the next is mine! Reviews are very much appreciated!

Dog Days

Chapter Two: Because of Winn-Dixie

First things first, they need a game plan.

Natsu watches helplessly as the last furry behind rounds the corner, hightailing it out of there with no more than a backwards glance at the couple tangled together on the ground. The words shit shit shit repeat in his head as Lucy wastes no time trying to push herself to her feet. "Trying" being a very important word there. One elbow to the ribs, his hand grabbing somewhere highly inappropriate, and a knee dangerously close to his groin later, and Lucy is standing above him with a horrified expression on her face, twisting and turning in several directions as though not sure which way to go first. It's too bad they can't multiply.

Wait, that didn't sound quite right.

"W-what do we do now?" She whirls around to face him, her eyes wide and desperate as she bends down to help him up, her hands reaching out for his. His fingers lock with hers easily, and he finds himself jerked to his feet as she tugs with both of her hands. He's mildly surprised that she was able to lift him so easily. He's not exactly a small guy. It must be the adrenalin. He's read stories about mothers lifting cars off their babies and stuff like that. Wow, Lucy would make a pretty great mom! Her eyes bore into his, her bottom lip stuck between her teeth. "Do we split up?" she asks shakily. "You know, to cover more ground?"

"No," Natsu shakes his head, taking a second to think as he brushes dirt from his jeans. Not that the dirt really bothers him, considering it kind of goes with the ripped, edgy look that he's been sporting since his freshman year of college, but staring down at the faded denim gives him an excuse to look away from his girlfriend's wide, panicked brown eyes.

"There's way too many of them to try and split up." Especially considering that Lucy would probably end up being dragged off somewhere with all of the dogs. With a heavy sigh, he stands back up and places his hands on his hips, trying to buy himself some time as he looks around absentmindedly. "We'll be better off if we stick together, so that way one of us can round them up while the other takes the leashes."

Well, it's a good idea in theory, at least. What's the worst that could happen if they stick together? Natsu bites down on the inside of his cheek, crossing his fingers that things start to go their way soon. Lord knows they need all the luck they can get right now. If this is bad karma coming back to bite him in the ass for cheating at strip-poker he's going to be pissed.

"Okay," Lucy nods slowly, wringing her hands together nervously and taking short, shallow breaths, fingers trembling. He winces, not entirely sure whether she actually agrees with him about it being a good idea, or if she's just taking time to process everything that's happened. She's always been the more dedicated of the two when it came to work, this mistake must be killing her inside. He watches as she takes a deep breath, turning away from him to try a Hail Mary and whistle in case any of the dogs had decided to stick close by.

Fat chance.

Natsu makes a note to keep an eye on the blonde until things started to smooth out; while his girlfriend is undeniably brilliant and resourceful in every way, she's been known to occasionally melt when under too much pressure…

Not that he blames her in this case.

Sixteen potentially very, very upset dog owners coming to collect their furry babies—and Princess—only to be told that their entrusted caretakers had lost them would be… not good. That would be very not good. That would be so not good that he'd have to get a real job.

He doesn't want a real job. He wants the fun, financially profitable job where he gets to pet animals.

Natsu gulps, rubbing his sweaty palms against the denim of his already hopeless jeans, upon realizing that his future is at stake.

"Well, who should we go after first then?" His eyes drop to Lucy's as she looks up at him, still shifting her weight from side to side as if preparing to sprint off in the first direction he manages to spit out—which is funny because Lucy hates running. She starts bouncing on her toes as she thinks out loud. "Milo is a menace to himself," she mumbles, turning to look down the street where they'd last seen the Great Dane take off. "But," she turned her head, now facing the opposite direction leading towards town, "Princess is a menace to society. Maybe we should go after her—"

Natsu snorts, holding up one finger to silence his favorite blonde. "I'm gonna stop you right there," he tells her, shaking his head. "We aren't going after Satan's mutt until we absolutely have to."

"She's not a mutt." Lucy pauses her pacing, coming to a standstill in front of Natsu while placing her hands on her hips, lips pressed into a thin line, eyes narrowed. "She's a griffon bru… uh," she blinks, cocking her head to the side. "She's a griffon something."

Natsu's lip curls back as he rolls his eyes. "She's wookiee offspring is what she is."

He jumps back on his heels, just barely managing to get out of the line of fire as she aims a light slap for his shoulder. Yeah, he totally should have seen that coming.

"Well, what about our friends?" she frowns, changing the subject. "Should we call them for help?" She turns her head to look down the street, as if hopeful that all sixteen dogs—including their own, that traitor—would come running over the hill as if to say "haha, just kidding! That sure was a fun game of hide-and-seek, right?"

If he didn't feel so screwed, Natsu would have fallen to his knees for the second time that day, no doubt laughing his ass off at the very idea of calling him for help in this particular situation. "Have you met Gray?" He laughs, but it's quickly choked off when she widens her eyes at him, tears burning at the backs of her eyes. "B-but, it's always a possibility!" he reassures. The last thing he wants is for Lucy to start crying, because he has no idea what to do, and her being upset makes him feel horrible.

"Besides," he shrugs, rubbing the knot that's forming between his shoulder blades thanks to the stress of those damn dogs. "He may not be very willing, but he's really our only option since he's the only one who lives in the area. Everyone else would take too long to get here." Lucy nods, silently agreeing.

Ultimately, they seem to have decided to keep Gray on reserve as their Plan B, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to refer to it as "Plan G."

Okay, not funny.

Gray really dislikes animals, but that's okay, because the feeling seems to be mutual.

Except for one rather large exception, which happens to be Milo. The Great Dane has a really soft spot for the dark-haired boy for reasons that Natsu has yet been able to figure out. However, it's pretty unlucky for Gray, who's terrified of the giant dog.

"You guys, that is not a dog," Gray gulped the first time he'd made the mistake of stopping by Natsu and Lucy's place during the workweek. "That's a fucking horse!" He made quick work hiding behind an unamused Lucy, who was busy refilling the numerous assortment of water bowls.

"Damn it, Gray," Lucy groaned when he caused her to slosh water all over herself, dousing the both of them. She yelped when Gray all but attempted to jump on her back when Princess got too close, trying to nip his exposed ankles while Pugsley tried to steal his shoelaces.

Natsu laughed his ass off that day, his friend's freak-out too good to pass up considering Milo wouldn't hurt a fly—unless that fly happened to be unlucky enough to find itself in the way when the clumsy oaf would trip over his own, too-long giraffe legs.

It's been almost two months since the incident, but Natsu still cherishes the photos on his phone that he'd snapped that day, and is still weighing the pros and cons of uploading the video on the internet.

Natsu rolls his wrist over to check his watch, frowning at the small window of time they have to round up sixteen dogs that have scattered in all directions. He runs a quick hand through his already messy hair, beginning to feel pretty helpless himself.

His resolves only wears even more when he catches Lucy staring up at him, as if waiting for him to step up and take charge of the situation. Not feeling quite sure if he's up to the task, the young man sighs, stepping forward to wrap his arms around her waist in a quick hug, pressing his lips to the top of her head to help calm her nerves—and his own.

Surprisingly, it helps. Natsu feels himself smirking before he even realizes why he's doing it. But, as his gaze falls on his girlfriend of four years, he can't help but be reminded of something:

He always has loved a challenge.

"See anything?"

Natsu tightens his grip on Lucy's waist, keeping her steady as she balances on top of a trashcan to help give them a better vantage point. He doesn't inform her that it gives him a pretty sweet vantage point as well. He doesn't want her trying to hit him again, after all.

He gives her hips a small, reassuring squeeze when he hears her heavy sigh as she reports back, "No, unfortunately. Not one slobber trail in sight."

Natsu smirks. "Which means Pugsley probably isn't anywhere in the vicinity."

She nudges him with her hip, but he knows she's trying to hold back a smile.

He tightens his hold on her briefly, leaning forward to press his lips on the exposed part of her hip where her shirt has ridden up. "You know, I keep waiting to hear someone scream when Zeus tries to take their left shoe."

Lucy snorts. "Or Atlas trying to take their right." Her eyes widen as she nearly loses her balance, her sandals not allowing very much traction against the trashcan's slick surface. She uses the top of Natsu's head to help steady herself, and the man winces when her fingers grip his hair painfully tight before he quickly helps her down (in a different situation, his reaction would be entirely different).

"Natsu." Lucy bites her lip as she grips his hands, carefully hopping down from her perch. "We really need to find them," she whispers.

They'd decided to venture to a nearby park that they frequented often on nice days, hoping to find at least one(if not more) of the dogs rolling around in the mud or harassing a couple of teenagers trying to play ultimate frisbee. Zeus and Zelda in particular were fond of any and all who played with frisbees.

"We will find them," he reassures her, taking her hand and hurrying along down the trail. "We've just gotta—"

"Woof!"

Two pairs of eyes widen as the sound cuts Natsu off, and when they whirl around on their heels, at their feet is a spunky, cream-colored Cairn terrier panting happily at the sight of his sitters. He jumps playfully at Natsu which results in two muddy paw prints on the knees of his jeans, not that the boy even cares anymore, though they are his favorite pair.

Natsu's eyes light up. "Winn-Dixie!" he shouts, sounding more than a little insane.

Beside him, Lucy rolls her eyes and swats her boyfriend's shoulder with the back of her hand. "I told you to stop calling him that, you'll only confuse him. Besides, Winn-Dixie and Sammy aren't even the same breed, you dork."

Natsu ignores her comment, laughing as he bends down to ruffle the little guy's ears with both hands, the feeling of relief almost proving overwhelming as Sammy licks his palms and barks once more. "Good to have you back, little buddy!"

"Um, why are you touching my dog?"

Natsu stills at the new, tiny voice that let's itself be known, and that's when the young man realizes that Sammy's leash isn't trailing the ground like it should be. Which… would imply that someone else is holding the dog's leash…

Someone that isn't Natsu or Lucy.

Slowly, starting at the collar, Natsu's eyes trail up the light blue material of Sammy's leash, following the line until he comes face to face with a little girl who can't be any older than six. She's not very tall, about eye-level with Natsu who is kneeling down. Her hair is pulled back into a low ponytail that probably has come loose during her time on the playground, and her lips have a red outline around them that looks very… sticky. Eww.

"Uh, hi?" he says, the words sounding more like a question than a greeting.

"Hi," the girl gives him a grin that reveals the loss of one front tooth before quickly getting back to business. She's quick to repeat herself, pointing to Natsu's hand. "Why are you touching my dog?"

Natsu can already feel a headache coming on. "Sorry, your dog?"

"Yeah," the young girl retorts with as much sass as a six year old can muster. "I found her sniffing by the sandbox, which means she's mine now! Finder's keepers!" She bends down, swatting the man's hand away so that she could pat Sammy on the head. (Natsu chooses to ignore the tongue she sticks out at him.)

He doesn't have it in him to tell the girl that the dog is actually a boy, and he finds himself praying that the girl found Sammy before he could make good use of that sandbox.

If not, Natsu's heart goes out to the people who would have to take care of that mess.

Sammy is a sweet dog, but he could be a real little shit when he wanted to be.

"Sweetie," the man snaps back to attention at Lucy's soft tone as she bends down beside him, her words aimed at the girl. "I'm really sorry, but this dog is in our care right now." As if to help prove her point, she stuck out her hand for Sammy to sniff, and the dog happily licked her fingers in greeting. "Thank you for taking such good care of him—her, of her—but we'd really appreciate it now if—"

Both Natsu and Lucy's eyes widen comically when the girl lets out a sudden wail that hurts both of their ears; Sammy's howl soon joining into the mix.

The young girl sobs. "You're trying to take my new puppy away from me!"

Bewildered, Natsu holds up his hands and shakes his head, trying in vain to shush the girl before her crying could attract any unwanted attention and give people the wrong idea.

Damn it, Natsu. Think!

Except, without thinking it through, he suddenly blurts out, "We'll do whatever you want! Just please stop crying!"

To his surprise, the girl's cries stop almost immediately, and she grins brightly at the pair. "Really?"

It's such a quick mood change that Natsu would've laughed if he didn't feel so played. He turns to Lucy, who looks just as stunned as he feels, and mumbles under his breath, "What kind of conniving kid…?"

The little girl is unfazed by the pair in front of her, however, as she's too busy tapping her chin in thought. "Uh, um…" she frowns, as if Natsu and Lucy are genies and she's faced with making the three most important wishes of her life.

Natsu raises a brow at how hard she seems to be thinking about her request.

"Oh, I know! Kiss each other!"

Definitely not what he'd been expecting.

Natsu turns to Lucy, who shrugs, and gives his girlfriend a quick peck on the lips. There's a beat of silence as they turn back to the girl, who's frowning.

"Well," she huffs, folding her arms and giving them both a little pout. "That was boring."

Natsu pinches the bridge of his nose. You've gotta be kidding me.

"Okay," he says, "we did what you wanted. Now can we please—"

"Ooh ooh, I know!" The little girl acts like Natsu hadn't said anything as she points a little, probably sticky, finger at him. "Be a horsy!"

"A what?" he deadpans, wondering if she's being serious while really hoping that she isn't.

She gives him a look as if to say yeah, you heard me. Do you need me to spell it out for you?

Natsu feels himself become offended by the six-year old's hypothetical words that he'd made up in his head, grumbling to himself, I bet you don't even know how to spell it.

Lucy giggles despite herself from beside him, reaching out to stroke Sammy's fur before turning her attention to the six-year old.

"What if I told you that if you give us this dog, then we could come back with another one that's like an actual horsy!"

Natsu snorts at the idea of this girl riding Milo like a horse, wondering how long the dog would make it before tripping over a blade of grass that happened to be a centimeter longer than the rest.

The girl only shakes her head, however, tightening her grip on the leash. "You're lying!" She turns to Natsu with her lower lip sticking out in a pout, her large eyes filling with tears as she begs, "Be a horsy! A horsey! A horsey!"

"But I don't wanna be a horsy!" Natsu whines before noting his mistake, quickly clearing his throat and deepening his voice an octave or two. "Uh, horse. I meant horse."

He hears Lucy's exasperated sigh from his right. "Come on, Natsu." Her eyes are pleading with him, and he knows she's as desperate to get away from the little girl as he is. The longer they stay here, the less time they'll have to round up the others. "Be a horsey, just for a little while. Please?"

"No."

"Natsu—"

"It's above my pay-grade."

"You've got to be be joking—"

"Not gonna do it."

He raises a brow at seeing Lucy roll her eyes, and he holds his breath as she leans in close enough that her lips are right at his ear, so that way the girl can't hear her words as she softly promises, "I'll make it worth your while."

Damn.

Well, at least Gray isn't here to see this. Natsu could just picture the smug bastard's smirk as he begrudgingly drops to his hands and knees, wincing when he can feel himself sinking into the soft ground. He grits his teeth as the young girl cheers, nearly stepping on his fingers with the heels of her boots as she hops up and down before clamoring up onto his back.

He winces when her bony little knees press into his back as she steps up, that is until Lucy decides to stop giggling behind her hands—Natsu feels his blood run cold when he thinks he hears the sound of her phone's camera go off—and helps the girl get settled.

"Yay!" The girl cheers, using her tiny cowboy boots to kick him in the ribs to get him going, and Natsu wrinkles his nose at the feeling of the mud squish between his fingers as he crawls forward.

These damn dogs will be the death of me, he groans, silently thinking of individual curses for each of the sixteen traitors before hearing Lucy scream from somewhere behind him.

"Sammy!"

Natsu's eyes widen as he exasperatedly wonders, what now?

He ignores the girl as she kicks his sides again—he is really beginning to hate cowboy boots—and instead ducks his head down to peer between his own legs just in time to see an upside down view of his girlfriend as she chases after a small terrier that's darting across the park's lawn.

The girl must've dropped the leash before Lucy was close enough to grab it.

You've got to me kidding me. Natsu would've collapsed to the ground in defeat right then and there if he wasn't currently responsible for the safety of the very annoying six year old on his back.

He's a grown man, dammit, and a good person! Just what had he done to deserve such shitty karma?

After he made quick work of emptying his pockets for crumpled dollar bills and loose change, he left the little girl by the swings where other children were playing—he isn't about to just leave her in the middle of the grass by herself. Stranger danger, after all—with enough money for an ice-cream cone to compensate for the horsey ride that was cut short.

Soon, Natsu finds himself trailing behind his girlfriend who's running after a dog who's chasing after some poor squirrel.

When the squirrel cuts off from the path and disappears up the side of a tree, Natsu finds himself relieved, thinking the chase is over.

But Sammy doesn't stop.

He leads them through a line of bushes with leaves that snag their clothing and twigs that leave behind scrapes on their hands and Lucy's exposed shins. The blonde makes a grab for the handle of the leash as it trails after the dog, but Natsu ends up running into her from behind and sending them both spiraling to the ground.

Normally, Natsu is pretty fond of finding himself in situations where Lucy ends up on top of him, but, unfortunately, there is no time at all to enjoy his girlfriend's company before she's scrambling to her feet, pulling him up by his t-shirt before they're yet again on the dog's trail.

At one point, Lucy hops over a small puddle that Sammy had happily charged through, but Natsu doesn't notice it until it's far too late, thoroughly soaking his shoes.

These dogs are trying to ruin my business and my wardrobe. Natsu ultimately decides the dogs have it out for him, which is so not fair. Has he ever shown them anything but love in the past?

He suddenly regrets not sneaking Blue an extra treat behind Lucy's back that morning like he normally does. His own dog is probably behind this entire mutiny.

Is it weird that the idea made him just the slightest bit proud?

Natsu, drenched socks and all, barrels ahead just as they reach the entrance of the park, resorting back to his high school football days as he dove forward for the leash just as Sammy hits the edge of the sidewalk on his way into traffic.

The young man's chest is heaving as he flops onto his back, handing the leash off to Lucy—who wraps the light blue material around her wrist three times, just to be safe—while Sammy jumps onto the boy's stomach, licking his face and barking happily at his sitters, as if saying "good to see ya! What took so long?"

Lucy, panting pretty heavily herself, bends down with one hand outstretched to help her boyfriend to his feet.

Still trying to catch his breath and feeling like he's just run a marathon, Natsu looks down at their snagged clothing and his muddy, wet shoes. With a mouthful of grass and a layer of dirt now covering his face, he shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair.

"One down," he says, spitting out blades of grass and bits of clover, using the bottom of his t-shirt to wipe his mouth and the rest of the dirt from his face, "fifteen more to go."

Natsu takes a deep breath, swallowing hard as he looks around for a nearby water fountain. He really, really hopes that they'll be able to find the others, and soon. His distressed-style jeans ironically can't seem to handle this type of stress.

"Well," Lucy takes a step towards him, grabbing ahold of his arm as leverage with the hand holding Sammy's leash, using her other to wipe away some of the dirt that Natsu missed with her sleeve. "Where do we go now?"

Natsu,still basking in the victory of just finding one dog, suddenly realizes that Lucy has a point.

Looking around, the young man drops his head in his hands as it dawns on him.

Despite now having Sammy, they still have no idea as to where the others might have run off too.

They're essentially back to square one.

AN: We would love for you guys to review and tell us what you thought! For every 50 reviews, there will be a special bonus chapter dedicated to either the life of Gray, Happy and the new fish, or a Natsu/Lucy flashback!