26th June, Saturday, 12:07 am

If you told Lucy that she would break into someone's house, steal something (ahem...she meant take something and leave the money on the counter because the owner would never sell that said 'thing') and then run from the angry guards, she would never believe you. But she is doing just that.

Lucy ran as fast as her legs allowed, realizing that she was in a pinch. A very, very big pinch.

Okay fine! She was in trouble. Like 'breaking-in-to-a-place-and-being-caught-stealing- something-precious' trouble. She clutched the bag which held the stolen-I mean the bought without permission, thing closer to her chest.

"YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME!" Her partner-in-not-crime yelled as if he was enjoying this. The boy proceeded to grab her wrist, pulling her along with him since she was panting and sweating, causing them to slow down. His carefree grin reminded her of why she was doing this in the first place. Returning his smile, she began running with a new passion.

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And the skeletons dance

By: I always smile

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Chapter two

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25th June, Friday, 4:22 pm

"Natsu! It's this way, come on!" Lucy called out to the pink haired teen, who was about to take a wrong turn.

"I-I knew that! I was just seeing uh..uh..if you knew the way! Yeah! I was checking to see if you knew the way!" Was his excuse. "Hahahaha, and you thought I was going to get lost! Hahahaha...ha?" His laughed was offbeat, sounding like a question more than anything.

Lucy giggled, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Pinky."

"E-Eh? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing~ now hurry up!"

"Sheesh, what's the big deal, weirdo? It's a bookshop, it's not like it's a-" Natsu's words died out when he saw the store.

...

Where had this place been all Natsu's life?

It looked more like a castle than a bookstore. "The Magnificent Duke Everlue's Bookshop" was what the huge neon sign read, but Natsu wasn't looking at that. The books didn't particularly 'excite' him. His gaze was fixed on the freshly colored white walls! They were just calling out to be vandalized! He was so coming back for these walls with Gray and Gajeel. They would make the epicest-

Lucy pulled him out of his thoughts. "Natsu, look at that..."

Natsu followed her gaze, seeing an old man begging another old man for something. The elder that was begging looked pretty normal; not looking poor enough to be begging for food or money. While the other man, he was...um, I have no words so I'll stick with Natsu's-a freak! He could swear humpty dumpty looked exactly like him. Natsu decided it was hate at first sight. To tell the truth, Natsu didn't care about how people looked. He didn't hate that strange man for his strange looks. It was because the way he treated the other man.

"Please sir, please. It is my father's last work!" The normal looking man begged.

"NO! I paid your father to write that for me! It's mine to keep!"

"I'll pay you! Twice, no, three times the amount you paid my father. It was a horrible book; my father had already gone mad by the time he wrote it!"

"But it's mine! I will not give it away! Get lost, you ugly piece of trash!" He sneered, pushing the man to the ground as he walked inside.

Natsu and Lucy rushed over to the man on the floor, Lucy picking up the items the man dropped while Natsu offered him his hand. "You okay, old man?" Wow, wasn't he the politest thing!

The old man nodded anyway as Natsu helped him to his feet. Lucy handed him his stuff, "Geez, what a freak!" Natsu sent a glare at the house as if humpty dumpty could see it.

"You don't want to sell the damn book, then keep it! Don't go pushing old men into roads!" He yelled at the house.

Lucy silently nodded, "Are you sure you're okay, Mister? Maybe we should get you looked at." The man opened his mouth for the first time, saying, "It's quite alright, dear. My name is Kaby Melon." He introduced himself.

"I'm Lucy and this is Natsu."

"Thank you Lucy, Natsu."

"You're welcome." Lucy said, Natsu shrugging in return.

"So, what were you doing with humpty dumpty?"

"Humpty...dumpty..?" Kaby looked confused. "Oh! You meant Everlue?"

"THAT'S DUKE EVERLUE?" Lucy screeched. Damn, she was way too loud.

"Yes." and here Lucy was, hoping he had been some handsome young man...

"So what did you want from him?" Natsu asked and Kaby's expression immediately changed.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Lucy quickly added, noticing his expression. Though she really couldn't deny her own curiosity.

"No, it's okay." Kaby took in a deep breath. "He has the manuscript of my father's last work...he forced my father to write it. If my father refused we were to be sued. Uh, my father wasn't able to pay him the interest on the loan we took from him. So father wrote it, it took him three years. But he had gone mad by then. The story was nothing but bullshit, it was his last and worst work. I heard the duke plans to publish it, but I don't want that. It would demolish my father's reputation as a writer..." Kaby eyed Natsu and Lucy. "If I dare ask, would you two consider doing me a huge favor?"

"Sure, what is it?" Natsu asked. Lucy was a bit annoyed though. Hello Pinky, did you consider Lucy might not agree? Of course not! Lucy's eyebrow twitched a bit. Maybe she's gonna back down...

"I want you to buy that manuscript for me if it's not too much trouble. It's tilted Daybreak. My father's pen name was Kemu Zelaon..."

"NO WAY!" Lucy screeched again and Natsu made a mental note to get his ears checked. He was pretty sure he was gonna go deaf if Lucy kept screaming like that!

"YOUR FATHER IS KEMU ZELAON!" (Yep, Natsu's definitely gonna go deaf if this continues.)

Lucy was in fangirl mod. "I'm his biggest fan in the world! Don't worry about a thing, Mr. Melon. We will do everything in our power to get that manuscript!" Natsu didn't quite like the glint in Lucy's eyes...

25th June, Friday, 4:38 pm

"WE ARE NEVER COMING BACK HERE! YOU HEAR? YOU JUST LOST A LOT OF YOUR CUSTOMERS!" Lucy shouted when she was refused (and to think Lucy even used her sex appeal) as she walked out of the door. She turned to Natsu, "What do we do?"

Natsu snickered, (oh how ridiculous Lucy's so called 'sex appeal' was) "I thought you had 'everything under control'." He said in a fake Lucy's voice. Lucy had the urge to send him flying but refused it. She still needed to get her hands on that manuscript. (How many times do you get an opportunity like this? Mr. Melon wouldn't mind letting her read it...hopefully.)

"Help me, pretty please~" She batted her eyelashes at him and Natsu burst into laughter. The urge to punch Natsu was getting harder and harder to fight with each passing second.

"You...hahaha...tried to se-se...hahaha...seduce t-t-that clerk..haha.." He clutched his sides while rolling on the floor, well, sidewalk. Meh, it's still close to ROFL-ing. Make that ROFLMAO-ing. Because it really did look like Natsu was laughing his ass off right now. And that was it! Lucy's patience died, she finally did kick the idiot.

25th June, Friday, 5:04 pm

"This is ridiculous!" Lucy was wearing the maid outfit Natsu handed her. And no, Natsu wasn't carrying that in his bag, if you were wondering. It just happens to be that there was a cosplay shop nearby.

"No, it's perfect. Now you can pretend to be a girl who needs a job. Besides, I heard the clerk (it took all Natsu had not to start laughing about Lucy's little stunt) talking to another guy, about how Everlue was looking for a blonde maid. You're blonde and look like you're desperate enough for a job. ("HEY!" Lucy yelled.) You can cook and clean, so you're perfect to play the maid."

Leaving no space for Lucy to argue, Natsu rang the doorbell, hiding behind the mailbox. Playing the maid, huh? Lucy was cute enough to pull it off. Lucy gathered all her cuteness and rang the doorbell again...cutely.

25th June, Friday, 5:47 pm

"HOW DARE HE!" Lucy was fuming! "HE DARE SAY I'M UGLY? ME?"

Natsu had already done the ROFL - err - ROFSWLMAO part and this time he was kicked then punched then kicked again. This chick is too much of an abuser! So now he was trying his best to choke back the laughter that was coming back with the strength of an elephant.

"WHAT DOES HE KNOW OF BEAUTY? ALL THE MAIDS HE HAD WERE ABSOLUTELY HIDEOUS! I WANNA JUST...UGH!" Apparently Lucy wasn't going to be done with her ranting anytime soon... "..."

Natsu froze, oh gawd! Why was she not rambling aimlessly? Why was she turning around? Why was she looking at him? Why did she look so angry? Why was she fisting her hands-oh shit!

"Natsu..." Why was her voice so cold? "...This is all your fault, isn't it?" Man, she rivals Erza any day.

"Err...no?" He was pretty sure he was about to die, so why not try to live? He had nothing to lose, right?

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Right?

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"I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!"

25th June, Friday, 11:47 pm

"Please remind me why on Earth I agreed to this!"

"Shh, ninjas don't talk. Nin, nin."

Lucy had the urge to facepalm. Even if she ignores the point that they were sneaking in a closed shop like thieves; Natsu was playing the ninja wrong. She has got to make him watch Naruto. Well, he watches One Piece so he wouldn't need the forcing ... wait-why is she making plans to make him watch an anime while they were in a CLOSED BOOKSTORE!

They weren't going to steal the book, mind you! They were just going to take it without the owner's approval and leave the money on the desk. Yep! That's not stealing at all.

Lucy shut up and searched for the book, eyes skimming through the shelves, often pausing on a good book, making a mental note to come back during daylight to buy-oh yeah she said she wasn't coming back again...

"LUCY I FOUND IT. IT'S THIS ONE ISN'T IT!"

"SHUT IT IDIOT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE QUIET!"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SCREAMING THEN?"

"WELL SO ARE..." Oh! Lucy really was shouting, wasn't she? She was quick to fix her mistake and she whispered, "...sorry. Let's both keep it down, show me the book."

"BUT-" Natsu wisely decided to shut the hell up when he saw Lucy's glare. He quietly handed her the old manuscript. Lucy's eyes widened a bit.

The pages were yellow and worn out with age, the title reading DAYBREAK. Under that, in smaller words were the author's name, Kemu Zelaon.

"This is it!" Lucy whisper shouted. "This is the book Mr. Melon requested!"

"You sure?"

"Yeah, there's no doubt that this is it!"

"Let's get outta here then!" Natsu swiftly ran for the exit, only to find his partner opening the manuscript and start reading it. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"I'll just read the first paragraph...I really can't wait till we get outside." Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back up a bit. She wanted to read a book sitting on the floor of the store they stole it from? What is wrong with this chick? Being the idiot Natsu was, he was unsure of what to do. Let her read the first paragraph? It's not like somebody was gonna find them anytime soon. Or, he could yell at her and drag her along because there was no way some sane person would want to stay there for another second longer.

His thought process was disturbed when the blonde gasped and a hand came to cover her mouth.

"Oh my God! This book..." She trailed off, making Natsu curious. He stepped closer to his friend, only to trip on a book (WHAT KINDA MORON LEAVES A BOOK ON THE FLOOR-wait wasn't it Natsu who left the book open in the first place? ...) and take a damn shelf along with him in his fall.

CRASH!

"What was that sound?"

"It came from the store."

"Oh lord! Somebody must've broken into the store! Get the guards!"

Shit! Shit! Shitty shit! Lucy panicked. They heard us! What do we do! What do we-"Eeeek!" Her thought process was cut off when the pink haired boy rose from the floor, grabbed her hand and ran towards the window to jump out safely. The pair could already hear the distinct but rushed footsteps from behind. Shit! They realized we got out!

And that's when they really began running.

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