2 updates in a row? Wow. I blame it on the fact that I opted to work on this story rather than study. Anyway, enjoy!


Levy gaped at the man on the other side of the bar. No way was he actually there. She was obviously dreaming.

Though she was pretty sure her brain didn't have the capacity to imagine someone like that.

Glancing between his nephew and the short bluenette, Lily struggled to keep from grinning like a fool. They were blatantly ogling each other. Cana was right: there was definitely a major spark there. She'd made a good call, telling Mira and Lisanna about Fiore's new resident.

Some love would do the boy good, and wasn't it his job as a doting uncle to assist in any way possible?

Pasting on an innocent looking expression – or as innocent as his face could get, anyway – he decided to give the two a push. "Oh? Have you met before?"

They both jumped – he hid a grin – and carefully avoided looking at each other.

Gajeel coughed. "Uh, not really. I picked up her cat on my way here from the airport the other day… we met briefly when I returned it." Levy nodded, face slowly turning red.

Unnoticed by the rest of them, at the back of the group, Natsu was squinting at Gajeel, obviously confused by something. Lucy nudged him while the others were talking. "Hey, what's wrong?" she whispered.

He frowned. "I'm not sure… wait."

Suddenly his jaw dropped.

"Holy-! Metal head?!"

At Natsu's outburst, every head in the room turned to stare at him – Gajeel included, shocked face identical to the other man's. Levy, meanwhile, looked heartbroken at the interruption.

"Salamander?!" Fantasies of how their re-meeting was going to continue quickly crumbled as Levy latched onto Lucy, who was torn between shock, annoyance at Natsu for ruining the perfect shipping moment, and wanting to comfort her poor, disillusioned friend.

Grinning broadly, the pink haired man leaned against the bar. "I can't believe it! Haven't seen you in eons."

Gajeel smirked at him. "Never thought I'd see you or your old man again after you guys left LA. How's Igneel doing, anyway?"

He shrugged. "Eh, same as always. We opened a restaurant – you should stop by, I bet he'd love to talk." Pausing, he lowered his voice and leaned in closer. "Any word from Metalicana yet?"

Stone faced, Gajeel shook his head, lips pressed in a thin line. Natsu grimaced.

"Uhm… do you two… know each other?"

Looking around towards the source of the question, the two men realized at everyone was staring at them, dumbstruck and wide eyed.

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, we go way back. Our dads were sworn brothers so we saw each other all the time. Ran with the same crew for a long time too." With every word he said, their listeners just got more and more confused. Sworn brothers? Crew? "Then a job went bust and Igneel and I ended up having to leave in a hurry… why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Gajeel, who was holding his temples, sighed heavily. "Salamander… you never told them about your life in LA, did you?"

Confused, the pinkette shook his head. "Nah, but it's not like it makes any difference… oh. OH."

Lily, who had been struggling to contain his laughter ever since he realized what Natsu was talking about, decided to intervene. "Gajeel, since it's now out there in the open, why don't you just… enlighten everyone?" The look of utter disbelief on his nephew's face sent the man stumbling into the bar as he doubled over laughing.

"Are you insane?"

The man just laughed even harder at his question. Levy started to be seriously worried that Lily was going to hurt himself, he was laughing so hard. Glaring at Natsu, she pouted when she remembered that it was his fault that she wasn't talking to Gajeel anymore.

Not that she had been doing such a good job of it before.

While she was pouting, Natsu and Gajeel started bickering like little kids – and somehow, Gray ended up getting dragged into the argument as well. The three were hurling insults at the each other.


Meanwhile, Mira and Cana were having an emergency meeting.

"What should we do? They need to talk more!" Cana hissed, gesturing towards their new project.

"Damn Natsu. Why did he have to interrupt?" Mira was practically sobbing.

A new voice suddenly joined the conversation. "Interrupt what?"

"Erza! You made it!" squealed Mira.

"Yeah, traffic was bad. Anyway, what were you cursing Natsu about?"

A new plan came to Cana. They could make use of the brutally strong, yet hopelessly romantic, woman to get things back on track "Well… ya see…"


"NAATSUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

Freezing, the man in question slowly turned towards the demonic looking red head marching towards him. "Y-yes?"

"I hear you've been making trouble…"

"N-NO! I haven't I haven't a swear! Gray and I are being best buds! No conflict here!"

Natsu was desperately hoping that that would get her off his back. What had he done this time?

"You've transgressed far beyond mere forgiveness! It's time for your punishment!" Erza growled, grabbing him by the scarf and dragging him out the door as he shrieked for mercy.

The rest of the group stared after them as the door swung shut behind them and Mira and Cana high fived silently in the corner. They nodded to Lily, who brought out an armful of beers.

The brunette slammed her mug down on the bar, drawing everyone's attention to her.

"Let's party!"


I feel like such a troll now. Somehow constantly throwing bumps into their relationship is so satisfying, though. Poor guys can't get a break.

Anyway, some of you may have noticed that I retitled the story. Even though I liked the original title ("Missing!"), I decided that it didn't actually have much to do with the overarching storyline – which, at this point, has transitioned into being more about their incredibly unlucky when it comes to trying to meet up again – so I decided to change it. I think I might end up having to re-rate it to T, too… idk, we'll see.