Alright guys, it's me Mslead! You've had Snogfairy with the first Act, you've had Toxineena with the second Act, and you'll have me for the final leg of this journey. You guys ready for the fun? I really hope you are, because I had a lot of fun writing what comes next.
Chapter 19: Combustible.
Capable of reacting with oxygen and burning if ignited.
The ground crunched under Natsu's feet, gravel shifting under the heels of his boots. Waiting was part of the game he couldn't stand, it weighed down on him like a heavy blanket, suffocating him with every lungful of air. It wasn't in his nature to just sit around to wait for the action to get to him. This was torture.
"Natsu, stop fidgeting, you're going to draw attention to yourself," Lucy's voice crackled in his earpiece.
The tenseness in her voice was audible, but Natsu thought he could pick up trace amounts of worry and amusement coloring her tone. Smiling to himself, Natsu stretched his arms over his head, crossing his forearms at the wrists to support the back of his neck.
"I've got pink hair, detective," Natsu didn't bother to hide the cocky grin splitting his face in half, "A little hard for me to be subtle."
"That much is clear, try to stay focused on the job, pyro," Gray's voice cut in short and angry.
The other cop's words punctured Natsu's humor like a sharpened stake, stabbing through the heart of whatever amusement he had been entertaining. Just like that, his good mood evaporated as dark anger licked hot in his veins.
Resentment poured over the silent line from both sides, neither men liking this situation any better than the other. The guilt Lucy had for asking Natsu to do this hung heavy between them, making the already uncomfortable situation worse. It wouldn't be nearly so bad if Gray, the damn bastard, would go rescue lost kittens from a tree or something like the hero he was instead of clogging up Natsu's rather limited time with Lucy.
Did cops rescue kittens from trees – or was that a strictly firefighter thing?
Regardless, the analogy was appropriate no matter which way he thought of it because Gray was still a dick.
He was about to snarl something uncomplimentary into the headset. As bad as he felt about a lot of things that went down between him and Gray, Natsu wasn't the type to take a jab lying down. However the thought was cut off when the rolling of tires against loose gravel caught his attention.
Natsu crossed his arms over his chest and kept his face neutral as the luxury car pulled up in front of him. It wouldn't do him any good if he started sweating bullets now. But it was almost frighteningly easy for him to step back into the personality he earned for himself when he burned as the Salamander.
He didn't even question why Jackal had invited him in on this job. He knew why.
Ego.
The flashy bastard wanted to try and show Natsu up. Not that it would happen, but he wanted Natsu to be beaten down and humiliated for even trying to get back in the business. Too bad for Jackal, Natsu was born ready to drag his face through the dirt.
A cocky grin flashed over his face as a tailored business suit stepped from the sleek black car to open the side door. The bodyguard looked unimpressed by Natsu, and was a gorilla of a woman, standing head and shoulders over both Natsu and the vehicle.
"Fancy," Natsu remarked, smirk widening. Eyes flicked over the whole car and was able to determine it was worth more than anything he could make in five years of hard work. He already knew he was going to hate this guy.
Almost immediately, Natsu was proven correct the second he laid eyes on his potential 'client.'
A portly man with a bad comb over and curled moustache sat in the soft leather seats, legs dangling almost comically off the edges due to his short stature. Mad laughter built in his chest and Natsu almost cracked a rib trying not to outright cackle at the sight.
"So you're Everlue." Natsu eyed the man, but made no motion to get closer to the car. With the way the gorilla-like woman was cracking her knuckles and glaring at him with beady eyes, Natsu didn't feel like pushing his luck. Besides, with the way karma had been screwing him over lately, he would get snagged into that car and be turned into a new set of chairs for Everlue to sit his overindulgent ass on.
Everlue looked rather displeased by the casual way Natsu spoke, but took one look at the man's hardened stare and the tattoos curling over his arms and seemed to think better of speaking his mind. Which was good, because Natsu wasn't interested in hearing anything he had to say.
"Do you normally speak to your betters like that?" The little man asked, brave in the shade of his car and behind the wall his bodyguard posed.
Natsu just grinned.
"I don't see anyone better'n me here, do you?" He asked, a sharp toothed smile lighting his face. His thumb rolled over the flint wheel of his favorite lighter, but not with enough pressure to cause it to strike. A curious motion, small and seemingly innocent – but strangely threatening all on its own.
His smile grew at the nervousness that beaded over Everlue's face. Even in the coolness of his car, the boiling heat that slammed down across them seemed to reach into the man's safe confines.
"Speaking of losers," Natsu continued, "Where's Jackal? I heard he was supposed to be here for this deal."
He twisted his wrist over once, momentum causing the lighter's cap to snap shut. Metal rang through the air and he dropped it into one of his baggy pockets. Everlue seemed relieved to see it gone but he still regarded Natsu with a wise air of caution.
"It was unnecessary to include him in today's transaction," Everlue huffed.
Natsu watched as the man's thick fingers, each adorned with a heavy ring, came together to rest at the head of a cane balanced in his lap. Gaudy baubles, gilded with filaments of diamonds and crusted with other precious gems Natsu couldn't bring a name to. For a man looking to get out of debt by an elaborate insurance scam, he seemed rather put together.
He scowled. Jackal was a no show, and all Natsu had to show for it was a man with expensive but ugly taste in jewelry.
"Rumor has it Jackal messed up on his last job. Some even say people died," Everlue scoffed at the thought, but Natsu's heart was busy jumping in his throat at the comment Everlue made so casually about the case they were working on.
His teeth grit in anger over the casual way the portly man dismissed the deaths of the office workers trapped inside the torched building. Fists curled at his sides, sliding in his pockets to hide them from sight.
"Easy, Natsu," Lucy's voice soothed, calming him before he could give himself away, "That isn't a confession. It's not enough to hold Jackal much less convict him. Everlue is just an expensive small-fry, keep your eye on the prize."
"This is a waste of time, we should pull him out before he does something stupid like actually accept this job," Gray shot back to Lucy. A satisfying yelp came from Gray along with a hissed, 'Ow! Woman, let go of my ear!'
"Give him some more time! He can figure this out!"
Wrestling his fiery temper back under control, Natsu's eyes narrowed and decided to walk towards the man, dropping a hand on the slick paintjob. He didn't care he was leaving smudges on the man's pretty car, or the way the bodyguard had lifted her hand to stop him from getting closer to her client.
Lucy's words reverberated in his head. His knuckles cracked in his pocket, but he slowly let the tension draw from his body, a soft huff escaping his lips. He could do this.
"That's the rumor," allowed Natsu, almost biting his tongue off in the process of speaking, "sloppy work if you ask me."
Everlue looked relieved, because for a second Natsu's expression had darkened in a way it made the businessman fear his nose would be broken in short order. Natsu knew as satisfying as it would be to follow through on such an impulse, he would set Lucy's investigation back. She was already risking a lot for him to prove himself not guilty.
His fingers tapped slow patterns against the car and his smile dragged across his face, "So you decided to jump over Jackal's head to come to me instead?"
Thinking with a more rational frame of mind, he adjusted their plan on the fly. Jackal's pride was his biggest weakness. Its fragility was hidden behind his blimp-like ego. To realize he was not only passed up but also outright dismissed for this job – to Natsu of all people, it could be enough to make his sloppy streak continue.
Enough for them to gather evidence that wouldn't burn up in a fire.
"I don't need to hire an amateur, the police would be all over me with a messy investigation if someone died on my property," Everlue sniffed, his eyes focusing on where Natsu's hand was currently smearing the wax finish on his beloved car.
"The work you did at the strip mall a few weeks back was perfect, I had a few contacts in the station pull reports for me. The way you started the fire was exactly what I need," Everlue let loose an odd sounding laugh that made Natsu's stomach twist.
"I don't know what you're talkin' about," Natsu grunted in response, his hand dragging down over the black exterior he leaned on. He began to draw an odd caricature of his 'client' on the waxed surface, "But if I did, I'd say you were impressed by a warm up."
Slanted eyes assessed the nervous looking man, clearly intimidated by Natsu's proximity but too afraid to say anything. Memories of how this ran flashed up to the surface of Natsu's mind and he leaned in forward with a smirk. He showed just enough teeth for the points of his canines to rest into the curve of his lips, the predatory grin of a criminal sensing fresh blood on the block showing through, "Let's talk location and payment – it's not as fun burnin' out when I can't rub Jackal's face in it, but I could console myself into doing it for a nice fee."
"He can't be serious!" Outrage from Gray screeched across Natsu's ear.
It nearly made him break face and wince from the ringing throbbing through his head. The bastard's voice was so loud; Natsu missed Lucy's response to the frosty detective. He damn near made him deaf.
"I'll give you a handsome reward for your talents and silence," Everlue glanced around their impoverished surroundings, and the toppled over, empty oil drums Natsu often liked to use as makeshift seats. Lip curling in distaste and clear disgust written over his face, he waved a chubby hand, "Enough for you to get out of this squalor."
Squalor?
Natsu wasn't the most well educated guy out there, but he knew when someone was calling his stomping grounds a dump. Red hot anger boiled through him, and he side stepped the mammoth woman.
Leering at him, Natsu's lips curled over his teeth to bare down in a warning snarl. As run down and as shitty as downtown was, it was home. And everyone here would back up one another without remorse or regret. They grew up together, so even those who had taken different paths in life like Erza would always return to help.
A man like Everlue wouldn't know a damn thing about bonds like that.
"I'd agree, there's too much trash around here," Natsu scoffed and backed up.
Lucy was hissing into his ear to keep his cool, but he wasn't too interested in listening. Only the thought they were going to drag Jackal down brought him enough comfort not to put Everlue to sleep for a bit with a right cross to the jaw.
Natsu pushed a slip of paper with his phone number into Everlue's hand, "This number will be good for a week. Put your order in there, you'll get instructions for cash out. You know the drill, unmarked bills with clean serials."
His stomach twisted as the pudgy fingers snatched the scrap from his hand, bitterness boiling in the back of his throat. This was almost too easy – too easy to fall into old habits and old plotting. The casual way he handled drop offs rolled off his tongue like an old friend and just as seductive as the first strike of a match.
Only the weight of the piece nestled in his ear and hidden by unruly strands of hair, carefully arranged by Lucy's clever hands earlier, kept him tied down to the fact that this was pretend. None of it was real.
"What do you take me for?" The flamboyant man scoffed at Natsu, "I am no amateur like that fool Jackal! Strictly professional, as is expected of a man of my standing."
Natsu flapped a hand at him eager to see the man gone, and with it the dark feeling gripping onto his lungs.
"Yeah yeah, sure. I'm real impressed. Now get goin,' a discoball like you is going to attract all kinds of attention in a place like this," He dismissed, sliding his hand in his pocket and walking over towards the closest oil drum. Paying no more attention to the wealthy bottom feeder, he sprawled down on one laid out on its side the moment he could.
"Come on, Virgo," Everlue scoffed at Natsu, an air of superiority exuding from him once Natsu's threatening presence was gone from his personal space, "Let's leave the criminal to his matches."
Natsu didn't respond, just waiting for them to go no matter how badly he wanted to scream after that stupid shiny car and his stupid glittering smile.
Once he was alone though, he allowed a smile to flicker over tan cheeks. He breathed out, lungs expanding as a few more steps to his master plan began to adjust themselves to his liking.
"Please tell me you got this conversation recorded, because I really want to listen to it again and be super proud over how I didn't punch that guy's face in," Natsu smirked up at the blue sky.
"There will be plenty of time for that later," Lucy's voice came back disapproving, but the amusement she tried to hide bled through clearly. Natsu's smile widened, warmth flickering in his chest at the sound of it. The knot trying to burrow its way through Natsu's diaphragm loosened at the sound of her humor. Thinking that would be enough for now, he groaned and rolled back to his feet, heels digging trenches into the gravel thanks to his shifting weight.
"Natsu, what're you planning?" inquired Lucy, her voice still a calming balm to his recent exchange.
"You'll find out soon enough," a wicked grin curled across sharp teeth.
"But first, I'm going to need that recording."
It looks to me that the trap is set. Now they just to have some fun time luring our firebug in.
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