Well. I don't actually know these guys' names. In the scantalation I read, they're just called "The Vanish Brothers". The younger brother is the one with the braid/tail and the ginormous frying pan. This is in his POV for the most part.

I don't own Fairy Tail.

~MM~

This man named Salamander wasn't even taking the fight seriously. Despite his elder brother's taunting, the flame mage simply looked bored; he jumped and dodged and never really gave them a second glance. He jumped over the younger brother's frying pan, ducked under the elder brother's fists and feet, and just in general sighed, rolled his eyes, and never really moved more than two feet from where they'd first attacked him. In short, it was absolutely infuriating for the two Southern Wolves to be one upped by a hardly-serious, not-even-S-class mage. It got to the point where the Vanishing Brothers were debating going to find the cat and the girl, just to save a bit of face and maybe pick up some hostages – except that didn't work so well.

Really, is was a quiet conversation, muttered under inhales – they'd been talking about the best hostage plan – but somehow the Fairy still managed to hear it. How didn't really seem so important after the reaction it provoked:

the younger brother was able to hit him. In the face. With his frying pan.

Salamander was hit so hard that he flew through the wall, quite a ways, blazing a trail of destruction that left stuffy moats of cloying dust that dried the lungs and pages of books that just so happened to have the reverse-serendipity of being on a book shelf directly behind the swing floating in the air. A swing which, the younger brother thought, slightly nettled, hadn't even been at his full strength. None the less, he'd been hit, and neither of the brothers were going to let the oddness of it get to them as long as they could keep hitting Salamander.

Both of the Vanishing Brothers were out in the lobby before either realized that Natsu had gotten hit on purpose. Even once that processed and computed, turning into a grudging admiration for one tricky enough to manipulate his opponents like that, the flame mage had managed to put himself between the hole in the wall, just above them and on the balcony, and the brothers.

The younger, smarter of the two brothers was slightly miffed, his ego withering under the realization that he'd just been had by the person he'd called, none too long a time a go, something of an impulsive, unthinking barbarian. So he charged at the annoyance once more, determined more than ever to hit him with everything he had.

Natsu, once more, jumped, twisted, landed, and sighed; he even yawned at their pathetic attempts.

Both elder brother and younger this time ran at him, distracting from one side and dealing damage from the other. That didn't work. In fact, the frying pan ended up catching the punch meant as a diversion, throwing the older brother clear of the battle field and leaving an unscathed Natsu sitting on the railing above the Vanishing Brothers looking down. The younger couldn't help but see red. A very bloody, very enraged, very prideful red.

Natsu once more sighed, and the younger watched him glance through the hole in the wall – which had been made purposefully. He had let himself take damage on purpose – and a distinct sentence, not at all warbled by distance or distorted with worry, passed through his ears:

"Lucy could have handled these guys. Why aren't I fighting that bastard Everloo?"

And so both Vanishing Brothers managed to bring Natsu back down to the floor – probably by the Salamander's own discretion; the younger brother doubted he could have gotten the Fairy to do anything he didn't want to do. They both prepped their final, most devestating attack, the one no one had survived before, and when it hit, the younger felt an explosion of triumph and the return of his pride like one experiences a flash flood – nothing there at first, then he was drowning. Of course, as soon as Salamander stood back up, asking if that's all they had, the flood dried up like the Sahara.

As soon as the magic came out, flames wrapped like demonic aura around his fists, dancing and laughing in the face of opponents so weak, both brothers knew that the fight was over.

It was on the edge of falling into a pit and the brink of jumping that the younger heard Salamander Natsu of Fairy Tail speak again, an unwilling respect and humility raining down on what had been his self-esteem:

"Now, should I go look for Lucy? Where are they anyway?"

–and then the younger brother realized that Natsu had blocked the route to his feline and companion instinctively rather than consciously. He hadn't gotten hit on purpose, per se, he'd gotten hit out of an instinct to protect, knowing that the hit wouldn't leave a scratch. Which made the beat down he and his brother had just taken all the worse.

(He hadn't missed the infliction on the "I" in the Salamander's little speech either. He wondered if the Fairy even noticed he'd done it.)

~MM~

I royally suck at action sequences. Luckily for me, my writing style allows me to be vague. I have a feeling I'm going to get plenty of practice writing out fights too, yay me.

This one's a bit longer. I'm trying guys, trying to make them longer.

THANK YOU for reviewing you guys! I love you all and all of your comments made me smile like I just won the lottery. My brother thought that I'd lost it.

Sunny Mars, rebelflynn, lovelylevernt, fanficlover818, Straw Heart (I wrote your name as "Straw Hat" at first *shot*), StellaLuna24, LunarJade, Shannon Summer, Banana-chan, Lectori Salutem, and TheCursedDoll-Beelzenef; thank you all for telling me what you think and for commenting how much you like my writing style *blushes*. I seem to, like all authors, have a severe inferiority complex when it comes my writing. This chapter is for all of you!

R&R Please!