Hello kids. New chapter already. WOW. Don't expect them to come out this quickly all the time. I was just feeling inspired. Anyways not much to be said other than I hope you enjoy the newest chapter.

Fairy Tail and it's characters are owned by Hiro Mashima

"Go, go, go!" Gajeel hollered at Natsu's back.

His feet pounded against the ground as he chased after Natsu, his bag slapping against his back as he ran. Looking over his shoulder, Gajeel saw that Greasy and his boys were keeping up, despite being completely, violently smashed.

Turning forward again he noticed that he was already overtaking Natsu. He may have been a faster man than Natsu, but there was no way he should be gaining on him this fast. If he kept up that pace the drunks would catch them for sure. Natsu and Gajeel might have been damn good fighters but they still couldn't walk away from a fight against four guys unscathed. What the fuck is slowing Natsu down? Then it dawned on him. The bag!

"Natsu! Lose the fucking bag!" ordered Gajeel. "It's slowing you down!"

"No fucking way!" Natsu snapped. "I've got Dad's scarf in this thing!"

Gajeel cringed at the mention of Igneel. There was no way Natsu would abandon the bag.

"Fine!" Gajeel shouted, "Give it here, then!" Without giving him a chance to argue, he yanked the bag off his friend's back and slung it over his own shoulder. "Now pick up the goddamn pace!"

With that he sped up, trying to put more distance between himself and their pursuers. Natsu kept up easily now and even took the lead, taking them around corners and into alley ways in an attempt to shake off Greasy and company. When Gajeel bothered to look back again he noticed one of them had fallen behind—but the others were still going strong.

"Fucking Christ," he spat, his frustration mounting.

Natsu was looking left and right, searching for an escape, and took a sharp turn into an alley. Gajeel followed only to find that Natsu had slipped into another, smaller alleyway that lead back to one of the main streets. The corner had been sharper than Gajeel had expected, so he ended up skidding and slamming into the wall before righting himself and continuing. Slipping through the tiny alley, they emerged in an area of town nicknamed "The Red Brick District". It mainly consisted of older buildings. Meaning tightly packed buildings, and fewer side roads to hide in.

"Well, fu—"

Gajeel didn't get to finish before Natsu yanked on his shirt and pointed, taking off again.

"Wait!" Gajeel called out. He chased after him in an attempt to stop him, but Natsu had already ducked into one of the other alleyways. Gajeel followed—and for a few moments they were out of sight, but now they were trapped. As Gajeel had thought, the alley ended in a tall chain-link fence. They had no chance to make it over the top without being found first. "Idiot! I told you not to come down here."

Natsu waved him off, and began to retrace his steps.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Natsu just kept ignoring him and began yanking off his shirt. He hastily wrapped it around his hand, running up a small flight of stairs to a side door, with little glass window panes on the top half. Natsu reeled back before punching through the bottom-right pane.

Gajeel, who had caught on too late to stop him, rushed up the stairs after him.

"Idiot!" he hissed, whacking him across the back of the head, before sticking his arm through the hole and opening the door. It was broken already, he justified. He proceeded to push Natsu inside. Not wasting time to check behind him, he slid inside after his friend and shut the door, crouching low.

Gajeel glanced over at Natsu, panting, before reaching over and punching him on the shoulder, hard.

Natsu swore under his breath and reached up to rub his arm. "What the hell was that for?"

"For being a fucking idiot! What the hell were you thinking? Taunting them like that? Then to put a cherry on top of the shit-pile, you break into someone's goddamn house!"

"It's not a house, shit-for-brains, it's a book store." He turned away from the door for a moment to point at some bookshelves.

Gajeel, turned his head to see that this was indeed, a bookstore. Gajeel was about to speak when voices outside the door had both of them redirect their attention to the door. They sat in tense silence, hoping that the drunks wouldn't notice the broken window. As they shuffled further away Gajeel turned his attention back to Natsu.

"The fact that it's a business doesn't change anything," he growled. "Actually, you could have made things worse for us. Most businesses have fucking alarms and shit."

"Well," retorted Natsu, "obviously, this one doesn't."

"That doesn't make it any better!"

Outside, he could still hear shuffling and the muffled voices of their would-be attackers. The two of them would have to stick it out a bit longer before they could leave.

"How much do you think we should leave for the window?" Natsu whispered.

"Fuck if I know." He glanced over at his friend who was glaring in a contemplative manner at the window he had broken. "You know, I thought you were drunk earlier but now I realize you're just an asshole."

Natsu grinned and turned to look at him—but as he moved, he focused on something behind Gajeel, and his smile froze.

Gajeel spun around just in time to see a tiny woman with vibrant blue hair standing behind him. Her hair was ruffled and messy and she wore baggy pjs with fuzzy slippers. The most noticeable thing about her at that moment was the wooden bat gripped in her hands. As he had turned towards her, she gave a surprised squeak and swung the bat, aiming directly for his head.

Levy had been upstairs, sitting in bed, going over some paperwork when she heard the sound of shattering glass. She looked up from her work and took off her glasses.

"What on Earth," she mumbled, pushing aside her papers and going over to the window she had left open. She pulled aside the curtains and looked into the alley below. Three or four men were milling about below her, obviously looking for something. Withdrawing her head, she closed both the window and the curtain. Then she tip-toed out of her room and opened the door separating her apartment from the store. From downstairs she could hear tiny bits of movement and two voices. Am I being robbed? I haven't even been open a week and I'm being robbed already?!

Furious, she slipped back into her apartment. How dare someone come into my store and try and take my hard earned money, or worse yet—my books! Later, she would think back on it and wonder what burglars could possibly want with books, but right now she was too enraged to think about the small details. Going back into her room, she got her baseball bat from under the bed. She would protect her store at all costs. The Garden meant every thing to her and she would be damned to see anyone so much as lay a finger on a single book. So, armed with the bat, courage, and perhaps more than a little bit shortsightedness, Levy slipped out of her apartment and began to creep down her stairs.

Once she had reached the bottom, she paused—there were no more voices, no shuffling, no nothing, and for a moment she wondered if she'd just imagined it all. Then the whispers started up again and she quickly followed the sound. It led her to her side door, where all of her shipments came it. Two men were crouched in front of the door, their backs to the shop. One had bright pink hair and was not wearing a shirt, showcasing a lean and muscled build. The other was a taller, broader man with long, shaggy black hair. He had a duffel at his side and she could see flashes of silver piercings on his arms. He also had some angry looking scars peppering his tanned skin, corded muscles tense with anticipation.

For a moment, fear lanced through her. These men could take her down in a heartbeat. Why didn't I called the police? What had she been thinking? Then she saw the glass on the floor and the window they had broken and her fury was back, pushing away the fear.

She hefted the bat over her shoulder when the pink haired man turned towards her. His smile halted and his eyes grew wide at the sight of her. The shaggy man seemed to recognize the look on his face and spun around to face Levy. He moved incredibly fast, considering his size. Pairing that with his intimidating piercings and harsh red eyes, Levy couldn't help but give a yelp of panic and she swung the bat with all her might at his face, surprising herself as much as the man before her.

The bat never even got close to its intended target. In a flash, the man had yanked the bag off the floor and used it as a cushion between his head and the bat. He tried to yank the bat from her hands, but Levy's grip had been so tight on the bat that he pulled her forward onto floor with a resounding thump.

"Shit," he growled.

Levy felt one of his hands clench her shirt and he pulled her up from the floor. He caged her in his arms and clapped his other hand over her mouth. She attempted to struggle against him, shouting through his hand.

"Shh!" the man hissed in her ear. "I'm not gonna hurt you but if they hear us we're all in for an ass-whooping. You want that? Cause I sure as hell don't."

Levy wondered for a moment who "they" where before she remembered the men loitering around in the alleyway; and her captor did sound genuinely concerned about their predicament. She took a deep breath through her nose and stilled, reigning in her anger. The man holding her did not loosen his grip—but then again, he wasn't holding her tightly enough to hurt her.

Straining her ears, she could hear a bit of shuffling and talking outside, but nothing much. She couldn't tell how close they were, though both of the men hiding just in front of her door looked tensed, ready to fight. The guy with pink hair looked almost anxious while the one pinning her to his chest looked more troubled. Clearly, whoever was outside was very close to finding them. What would they do to her poor store if they made it in? Break the door in? Turn over the shelves? Trample my books?! Levy found herself praying that she hadn't given them away. She prayed that the men outside would give up and wander off.

After what seemed like an eternity, her prayers were answered. There was some mumbling outside that she couldn't make out, then some shuffling. The men in her store both relaxed, the pink haired one looked almost deflated. What's wrong with him?

Suddenly, the red-eyed man was stood, pulling her up with him. He released her and backed away till his back was touching one of the book shelves. His partner, likewise, backed away from her with his hands up. He then scratched the back of his head and gave her a sheepish look of all things.

"Wow," he said, eliciting an exasperated sigh from the larger of the two. "I am so sorry!"

"Sorry?" Levy managed, utterly bemused at how casual he was acting. Had he not just broken into her store and nearly brought in a gang of thugs, itching for a fight, along with him?

"Yeah," he added. "Seriously, I had no idea that someone lived here. I thought this was just a business. If I'd known you were in here I would have chanced the fence. I never would have pulled a stranger into our mess."

"Our mess?" the other one growled, raising a studded brow. Goodness, his piercings were everywhere—his ears, his eyebrows, his nose. There was no end to them.

"Um, so, are you okay, Miss?"

She turned her attention back to Pink, yet again, who was putting on a shirt.

"Am I okay?" she asked slowly. "Am I okay?!" She raised her voice with each word to showcase that, no, she was not, in fact, okay. "Well, let's see here!" She began to tick off on her fingers. "You broke into my store and my home, you nearly led those... those hooligans outside in here as well. You scared my out of my wits and borderline assaulted me!" She pointed a finger at Shaggy to emphasis. "So what do you think?!"

Pink looked positively miserable at her proclamation. He looked like a kicked puppy and if she hadn't been so furious, she probably would have felt bad for him.

"I really am s—"

"I don't care about sorry. I just want you out, both of you!"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out some money.

"At least let me pay you for the window we broke," he insisted, holding out wad of cash.

"I don't want your money, I just want you out of my store."

"But . . ."

"Now!"

Shaggy pushed away from the shelf and grabbed his bag—which was at Levy's feet—and backed up towards the door.

"Come on, Natsu," he growled.

"But, I can't leave after causing her all this trouble."

"Natsu," he warned.

"Gajeel..."

"I think we've caused the lady enough problems for one night." A dangerous edge had crept into his tone that silenced Pink—or rather, Natsu. "Stickin' around when she wants us to leave is a dick move. So we're gonna leave."

Gajeel opened the door and gestured for Natsu to go through. Natsu hesitated for another moment, then dropped his hand and skulked outside. Gajeel gave Levy one last look before closing the door, and the pair slipped off her porch and out into the night.

A few minutes later, her adrenaline finally wore off and Levy sagged against a shelf. What an awful way to end the night. She looked up at the door and noted the missing window, then down at the shards scattered all over the floor. With a sigh, she stood up straight and went to look for something to cover up the hole, as well as the broom.

"Natsu and Gajeel," she muttered, wondering if she should call the authorities. She shook her head. She wasn't a malicious person. Perhaps she was even too forgiving at times. They'd only been hiding from their attackers; and they apologized for breaking in, even offered to pay for the damage—she stopped. No, that wasn't right. Natsu had done all that.

"Gajeel," she said his name again, resent on her tongue, "that jerk did even attempt to apologize!"

Woot! Another chapter comes to a close. As always please review, review, review. I hope I'll be able to give you a new chapter soon. At least in the next two weeks I hope. Anyways, until next time everyone.