Hey guys, I'm so sorry I haven't updated for a while. I had so many finals to take. In fact, even though I suffered through the hell that was the AP world exam I still had to take two finals in my global class anyway. So, yeah, I was dying and I haven't been able to really look at this story for a while.

Plus, a lack of idea's for how this chapter would proceed also factored in as well.

Anyway, to make up for it I made this one extra long! And I like this chapter, so yay! Enjoy, my lovelies!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. If I did, this fanfiction would have no point.

Lucy stood outside Juvia's apartment. She was able to feel the depressing air surrounding the door, and she knew that once she went in there was a very good chance that she will end up drowning in Juvia's tears. Or the amount of emotion in the room was going to suffocate her. She's my friend, she's my friend, she's my friend... Lucy gulped and reached for the doorknob, surprised to find the door unlocked.

"Juvia?" Lucy opened the door and tiptoed into the apartment, praying that Lyon wasn't there. If he was, she'd be walking into a battlefield that she would never escape. When the couple had a fight, they tended to throw very sharp projectiles that always headed straight for Lucy's face. Plus, she never really was comfortable with Lyon. Maybe it was his slanted eyes or his too perfect smile, but she just couldn't seem to trust him. Or maybe it was just her always lovely trust issues.

"Oh, Juvia!" Lucy sung as she walked towards the sound of crying, which seemed to come from the bathroom. Nudging the door open with her toe, she peered into the eye of the storm. There were candles tipped over, with water and soap were splashed everywhere. However, there was no Juvia in sight. The crying stopped, the eerie silence washed over Lucy, giving her bad memories a chance to flash in her mind. Lucy walked over to the bathtub and sat on its edge, peering into the water to see if she could find the outline of her friend's form.

"So, strange weather we're having," she started awkwardly. It was her special way for asking Juvia why she was upset; usually it worked, since the woman gets her emotions out very easily, but this time Lucy was met with silence. "Come on, Juvia, tell me what's wrong," she poked at the water, praying her friend would respond and at least take her normal form again.

"Lucy?" Juvia's faraway voice called. Excited at the response, Lucy leaned over the tub to hear her better. "Why is Lucy talking to Juvia's bathtub?"

"I'm talking to you- wait, what?" Lucy whipped around to see her friend giving her a strange look in the doorway. Behind her Mirajane was gracing her with the same look. "I thought you were- never mind." Lucy followed them out of the bathroom to Juvia's kitchen table.

"Juvia had a fight with Lyon again. It was nothing, Juvia needs to stop being so emotional," the water woman launched into a blow by blow of the fight. Lucy became more confused as she listened. It sounded like it was all Lyon's fault, but her friends went down to the bare meaning of the words and somehow came up with the conclusion that "oh, he does care!" and "Juvia must apologize right away!" From past experience the blonde knew to keep her mouth shut about her thoughts, since she had probably screwed up more relationships with her advice. Still, the feeling that there was something wrong going on. Before she could voice her suspicions, Juvia was on her cellphone and Mira was pulling her on the apartment. As the girls passed through the doorway, Lucy smelled the most interesting floral perfume.

"Juvia, did you get any perfume lately?" Lucy asked.

Juvia shook her head and went back to her phone call.

"How are you, Lisanna?" Natsu asked, breathless. The girl smiled and took a step towards him, but the smile dropped as he took a step back.

"Good. You?"

"Fine," he edged farther away.

"Natsu, you can stop running from me," she sighed, referring to the fact that ever since Lisanna had come back, Natsu stayed away from her. He was getting better, but the distance was still there. Natsu still saw her bloody "murder" scene flash before his eyes when he went to sleep, and he still blamed himself for the pain her loss had caused. If he had been a little bit stronger, or a little bit faster...

God, he was such a depressing person.

"I know," his smile was so fake that Barbie would have called it plastic.

"I was going to go eat, you want to come?" She asked hopefully.

"Sorry, I can't," Natsu felt like a monster for saying no to his childhood friend, but it wasn't like he was lying. While with his interesting blonde student, Natsu didn't notice the time ticking away. It was almost time for him to go to his job, and if he was late Jellal would skin him alive. The tattooed man was weird like that. God forbid you show up late, but randomly disappearing is perfectly acceptable. Natsu tried to ignore the disappointed look on her face and the sinking feeling that he was a jackass.

"Oh, okay. Bye then, Natsu," she walked away.

"Bye, Lisanna," he whispered.

Natsu tapped his foot in tune with the music thrumming through the room as he watched his coworkers though the smoke that filled the cramped space. The ice head was making sculptures for his guests and had seemed to have lost his shirt and vest in the process. Gajeel was wiping the floor at poker. Elfman was doing push ups. The trio of Hibiki, Ren and Eve were making the air around them sparkle as they surrounded their confused employers. Everything was proceeding as it normally did.

What he would do for an interruption. Seriously, anything would be appreciated.

"Natsuuuuu," whined one of his regulars, tugging on his shirt to get his attention. Damn you, that is NOT when I meant, he thought angrily before shooting her a fake smile. "You weren't listening to me at all, were you?" She pouted like a bratty five year old. If, you know, a bratty five year old had giant, plastic boobs and stuff. Natsu usually didn't even pay attention to things like that, his friends even joked that he still hadn't hit puberty yet, but when its shoved in his face like this idiot usually did he couldn't help but notice.

"Sorry, you had me in a trance," he lied smoothly, trying not to barf at his line. If there was anything that was entrancing on this woman it was her hair; it was definitely not natural to have to spiky puff balls on either side of your head. Her hair was defying gravity. However, she didn't notice the fakeness at all, blushing and giggling like an idiot.

"Well, anyway-hey!" Natsu caught his guest before she could fall to the floor, however funny it would be. The pusher, a wicked looking woman with light brown hair and glasses, turned around to scoff for half a second before continuing her journey to the other side of the room. Natsu watched her, noting that she kept shooting quick glances around the room, as if she was looking for someone. She caught sight of something, and started moving towards her target-

"You caught me," the woman in his arms breathed. Natsu had forgotten that she was there, and he almost dropped her in surprise. Maybe she noticed his grasp on her slack, but maybe she didn't. Either way, she pressed herself as close as physically possible to him like a cling on.

"Of course I caught you. You can trust me," he winked.

Trust. Falling. Wait a sec...Lucy...

"Natsu!" Two more familiar looking faces approached him. They overwhelmed him; a group of shiny jewelry and big hair and slutty dresses pressing in on all sides. For a moment he couldn't even breathe due to the smell and smoke clogging his nose.

"Come on, let's have some fun," one of them whispered into his ear, smiling wickedly the whole time. He mirrored the smile, but when she was looking he shot a desperate glance around for some backup. Sadly, there were no fellow hearts nearby to help him out.

Lucy was going to have to wait.

It was very late at night when he called her. Or maybe it was really early in the morning. Whatever time it was, Lucy had finally drifted off into the in between, not exactly sleeping per say but not necessarily awake either. Almost like the Twilight zone...but not. She was about to jump into a pool of bacon when the worst possible noise broke through her delicious paradise.

Her phone. Again. Just like fainting in Dante's Inferno, her phone just liked to speed her life along. Lucy fumbled for the device and flipped it open. What she heard next were the scariest words she had ever heard in her life.

"Do you trust me?" Natsu asked. She paused for a second, but it was more for dramatics than her actually thinking about it.

"No, not really," she answered bluntly.

"Great, then I want you to meet me outside the library ASAP," he ordered. Lucy flipped onto her stomach and started at her clock in disbelief. He apparently wanted her to get up at 3 AM and walk to the library. When it was cold and dark and dangerous. Did she forget to mention it was 3 in the morning?

"Fine," she grumbled, grabbing her sweats off of the floor. It was probably better to just do what her teacher wanted then try to argue with him. He seemed like one of those people that just drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

What am I doing? Lucy wondered as she ran out the door. She already knew the answer to that though. No matter how insane the shy, safe playing Lucy thought this idea was, there was another Lucy in chains yelling at her to go. It was about time she had some excitement in her life.

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"It's cold."

"Is it?"

"It is."

"Sucks to be you, huh?"

"Meanie."

"Did you seriously stick your tongue out at me?"

"Yup," Lucy smiled at the easy banter they had. They had been walking through the alleyways of the town, heading towards the waterfront that the river passing Lucy's apartment lead to. It seriously was cold though, that Lucy wasn't lying about, but talking kept her mind off of it.

"And here we are," Natsu gestured to the water in front of them. There was a rock wall that was raised a couple of feet from ground level to keep drunks from walking straight off, though the stones looked loose and the top seemed slippery. Before Lucy could even comprehend it, her teacher grabbed her by the waist and set her on the ledge.

"Natsu! I'm going to fall!" She screeched. Wow, this was a form of complaining. She hadn't really done that since...um, when was the last time she complained...?

"Save the complaining for another lesson," he stepped back, "and yeah, that's the point. Today we're practicing the art of trust falls," Natsu held out his arms. As if she was going to willingly fall back and trust a stranger. No thank you, Lucy wasn't that crazy and the ground looked very hard and painful.

"No. Nononononnononononono," she wobbled on the edge. "Let me down!" She was referring to the fact that Natsu the blockhead was blocking her every move to hop off the edge. Jerk.

"C'mon, you trusted me so far!"

"This is different!"

"Just pretend I'm a piece of bacon or something!" He yelled exasperated. Lucy opened her mouth to lecture him on his misuse of the powers of bacon, but someone else cut her off.

"What kind of foreplay is that?" Yelled a deep, mysterious voice. The two adults whipped their heads to the dark alleyway next to them. The abyss was pitch black, but the sound of footsteps echoed through the buildings. Slowly a large group of thugs stepped out, parting to allow the leader of the group through. He didn't really look threatening, more like he stepped out of a costume store.

"A monkey?" Lucy giggled. Laughing along with her, Natsu grabbed her off the ledge and set her back down on the ground. The so called 'leader' had a squished face and disproportionate ears that made him look hysterically ape-like. Couple that with his rendition of what the man apparently thought were gangster clothes and you got the mental picture of what he looked like. You may now take a moment to laugh along with Natsu and Lucy.

The leader looked at them angrily and snapped his fingers. In an instant the group behind him responded, moving to surround the laughing pair. Lucy's laughter cut off abruptly, but next her her Natsu grinned wildly, waving his hands in the universal come-at-me-bro gesture. The gang swarmed them like a hive of angry bees, converging on the pink haired maniac in a second. Lucy looked on in silent terror as he disappeared from sight.

Oh, Natsu, you were a good f-WHAT? Lucy's thoughts became a scream as she saw flames rising from the middle of the mosh pit. The fire lashed out at everyone like a whip, revealing a perfectly fine Natsu laughing maniacally in the middle of the chaos. Half of the members started jumping into the river to put out the fire that caught onto their clothes. The other half parted to let a single member through.

"Come on, all your asses burn the same!" Natsu threw a fireball at the cloaked figure. The man raised his hand and the fireball stopped in midair. It floated there for a second before it started to change. The swirling reds and oranges drained from the flames, leaving a clear mass in it's place. A menacing chuckle swept across the harbor and the mass was launched right at Natsu's chest. Lucy's breath hitched as she watched him stumble back a bit. He looked down, bewildered, at his hands, as if he was willing something to happen. The remaining gang members started to laugh boisterously.

"Not so hot without your flames, huh?" The leader yelled as he set a large weapon on his shoulder. Lucy's eyes widened. He was going to shoot them. She was going to die. Natsu was going to die...

"RUN!" Natsu grabbed her hand and they tore down the sidewalk, barley managing to avoid the shots pointed in their direction. They made a sharp turn into an alley to try to shake them off but the drunken calls were closing in. Up ahead a metal staircase lead to the roof of the abandoned buildings they were running between, and the two scrambled up the stairs faster than what would've been thought possible. Luckily the roofs were pretty close together, because it wasn't long before Lucy could hear the mass following them up the stairs. They started jumping the rooftops, dodging magic bullets along the way. The system was working well until Natsu made them avoid a patch on the roof. He jumped to the ground, using the wedge between the buildings to slow his descent. Lucy, unable to follow his movements, skidded to a stop at the edge.

"Natsu!" She yelled frantically. The group of men were closing in behind her, and there was no other way to get off the roof. It was either be captured or jump. Either way she was probably going to die. How the hell did she get herself into this kind of situation? A couple of hours ago she was in her warm bed! This is why she didn't like to socialize with people! This is why she chained that wild part of her away!

"Jump!" He yelled. The blonde looked behind her; the gang was on the roof next to the one she was standing on. She was out of time. Hopefully she wasn't out of luck too.

She closed her eyes.

Breath in.

Breath out.

Jump.

The air whooshed through her hair and for a split second she felt the absolute freedom she had always been craving. It was scary and thrilling at the same time. Then, she landed on something warm. Opening her eyes, Lucy came face to face with the toothy smile of a certain pink haired someone.

"See Luce?" He grinned. "You just have to trust me," Natsu set Lucy on her feet and they both watched as the other half of the gang that was chasing them fell through the roof of the building they were on. "The structure was weak there. I could feel it when we were running," he supplied as she stared at the scene open mouthed.

"Wow, you're smart," she said, amazed. Natsu grinned foolishly before he realized what she said.

"Hey!" He yelled. Lucy grinned and started running back towards her apartment while laughing all the way, Natsu yelling as he chased her.

Maybe trusting someone isn't that bad.

"Anything new to report?" Asked a brown haired beauty. She shifted her glasses, which glinted in the little light the room provided, and stared at her coworker. Well, technically, her ex-coworker.

"No, nothing yet," Fried Justine reported. The supposed 'fairy queen' faked a laugh as a bunch of eyes drifted her way, suspicious of the serious air surrounding the duo. Th eyes drifted away and they were able to continue their conversation.

"Good. I'll go tell him," she covered her mouth as a cackle bubbled out of her throat.

Everything was going to plan.

God, if I had a dime for every hint I dropped for what I want to do with this story I would be able to buy Fairy Tail off of Hiro Mashima. Seriously. I really hope I'll be able to fit in all of the scandalous things I have planned here ;)

Okay, so, here's the thing. I need some ideas of what to do here. Half the time it takes to write each chapter is just thinking of what to do, so help from you guys, the lovely people who take time out of their lives to read my unworthy story, is very appreciated.

Plus, I have no friends. When I get a review from you I can pretend like I have some.

Also! Do you think that this is progressing slowly?

-NeverMakesSense