6...
Pyrolysis
The chemical decomposition of a compound into one or more other substances by heat alone; pyrolysis often precedes combustion.
When they arrived at the scene, tires squealing and rubber burning, Everlue's place was already well on its way to becoming a parking lot. Lucy's headlights sliced through the night air, illuminating a surprised looking Jackal. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting company.
And to Gray's credit, he wasn't holding a tub of gasoline and a match, but the pipe bomb he had clutched in his hand was enough damning evidence.
He turned and sprinted into the shadows behind the house, just as screams from those trapped inside the mansion rose over the roaring of flames. Natsu sprang out of the car, Gray and Lucy on his heels with their weapons drawn.
"Get Jackal! I'll help the people inside," Gray shouted, sheathing his gun and sprinting towards the fire.
Natsu hesitated for a second, but when Lucy sprinted after Jackal, he made up his mind and followed her after Jackal's trail. His eyes spotted the perimeter fence, and immediately made his way over to it, hoisting himself up and over it after shouting at Lucy to let her know where he was going.
"Head around and cut him off! I'll follow him this way!" Natsu shouted as he found the right handholds on the slick wall and scrambled up it.
"Natsu, no! What are you doing!" Lucy shouted at him, "You're a civilian!"
But he was gone and over the wall before she could yell at him anymore. If he was running from the police, seconds away from closing in on him, he would go this way. Jackal wouldn't have had time to scout the place and find an out. He would go for the fence to put some distance between himself and the cops. And by a fence, Natsu meant a goddamn perimeter wall.
Sure enough, Natsu caught sight of Jackal's stupid looking furry coat flash around a corner. Swearing, he jumped off the top of the wall, rolling into a hardy looking bush. Groaning with leaves in his hair and thorns lodged in his palms, he rolled back to his feet. Wasting no time waiting for his detective, he ran after Jackal.
He had to delay the bastard long enough for Lucy to go around and cut off Jackal's exit. He followed Jackal off the estate and into the street, spinning around a corner into a storage unit set up. Natsu's heart thudded in his chest as he caught sight of Jackal skidding down a hallway.
"Jackal!" He called out, hoping to distract the arsonist and let Lucy know where they were, "You really fucked up this time, didn't you?"
Sure enough, it did the trick. At the sound of Natsu's voice, the man stopped dead in his tracks. Blond hair shifting from his face and a maddening glare darkening his entire being, "Salamander? You were working with the fucking police?"
Natsu advanced a few steps, standing in front of an empty storage unit. His lips twisted into a mocking smirk and he shrugged casually, "Maybe."
"You piece of shit rat!" Jackal snarled, fury outlined on every tense muscle in his body. If that dark, insane glint hadn't entered Jackal's eyes, Natsu might have been amused by seeing him so riled.
"Looks like you still can't outsmart me," He taunted, bold even in his approach now that Jackal was cornered, "Seven years of practice and you're still a fucking loser. Pretty pathetic, eh?"
A cruel smile flashed over Jackal's face, and he shook his head, "You so sure about that? Because I think I'm about to make a getaway, and finally be rid of you."
Natsu's mouth opened to question what the hell that was supposed to mean, when Jackal exposed the pipe bomb hidden behind his back. The slow, soft hiss from the crackling fuse was all Natsu had time to register before Jackal threw his arm back and hurtled it.
It bounced once, twice, and then rolled at Natsu's feet. His eyes measured the burn of the fuse and judged he didn't have enough time to rip it out. No time to stop it, no time to run.
But…
He swore profanely and threw himself into the open storage unit at his side, throwing his arms up and hurtling the door down. He dove to the end of the locker just as the door jolted when the bomb went off.
It was a deafening boom, the crack and pressure of the door folding in on itself letting loose a rush of violent heat as shrapnel from the pipe itself embedded into the walls. That wasn't what Natsu was struggling with though. He had chosen to take refuge in a metal storage unit.
The reverberation of the loud bomb going off in a confined space dropped Natsu to his knees, his hands covering his ears even as he tried to protect his head and neck from the the force of the explosion. He groaned, disoriented and the room spinning.
Natsu only had enough presence of mind to see the hazy image of Jackal stepping into the locker through the brutalized door, Natsu's vision swimming. Blinding light tore through his retinas and the clatter of the unit door falling off making his head pound.
Jackal rudely kicked the screeching metal to the side, Natsu hissing in pain as he lifted a hand to shield sensitive eyes. It turned out, having a bomb explode near him was not fun.
"Six Jackals in my face," Natsu managed to gurgle out, "This must be hell."
The touch of something cold, hard and metal connecting gently to his forehead was enough to ground him. Natsu's chest tightened and adrenaline poured through him, as he realized that all six jackasses swimming in his vision were holding guns.
"I'm impressed you managed to get around my explosive, that was some fast thinking," Jackal snarled, glaring down at Natsu. He pulled the hammer down, loading a round into the chamber, "I have to admit, it would have been satisfying to see you go up in flames."
He leaned into Natsu's dazed face. Pushing himself up onto shaky arms, Natsu growled out a defiant 'bastard.'
"Boom," Jackal purred, letting his victim shift up enough onto his heels so he was kneeling in front of him, "I would have preferred the bomb. You should have just let it happen Salamander."
Natsu watched as all of the Jackals seemed to blend slowly back together, his index finger caressing the trigger. A shadow moved behind Jackal's shoulder, but Natsu kept his entire focus on the man about to kill him.
"What's one more body to my count? After I'm done with you, I can disappear quietly with a bag full of cash I got from Black Star for burning their store and make a new life for myself away from this," Jackal cackled, "With the Salamander dead and gone, I could find a way to pin this, and the other fires to you. And best thing is no one will be around to dispute it."
"Thanks for the confession!"
Lucy whipped around the corner, her gun levelled at Jackal's. A wave of relief rushed through Natsu at the sight of the detective. She was like an angel of vengeance. The hard, stadium lights of the storage unit illuminated her from behind, casting a halo and glow over her golden hair.
He was in love.
"MPD! Drop your weapon!"
The expression of disbelief and gobsmacked horror was almost funny. If Natsu wasn't nearly concussed with a gun in his face, he would have laughed.
He let out a small giggle anyway when Jackal reluctantly dropped his gun. Lucy toed her foot around to catch it and kick it away.
"Hands over your head, lay flat on your stomach and move your hands to the ground," She snapped authoritatively, and Natsu suddenly realized why she was such a good cop. He was part of the way down to the ground himself when he realized she was talking to Jackal. So instead he was rewarded to the sight of Lucy driving her knee between Jackal's shoulderblades and dragging his hands behind his back to cuff him.
"Holy shit, Lucy," Natsu's jaw dropped in awe. His head throbbed in agony, but he was distracted from it by how Lucy had dropped a man twice her size with very little effort. She began to read Jackal his rights, and dragged him up to his feet again.
"Is it weird helping out the cops?" Lucy asked once she was finished. She forced him back to the manor and shoved him into the back of a patrol car. An ambulance had arrived, and Natsu craned his head in time to see Gray walking around the back when Everlue was loaded inside.
"Little bit," Natsu's could feel the heat from the fire wash over him. It was dark and ugly, a destructive flame that send anger and tension boiling through his blood. Even though the flames were being tethered down by a line and a hundred pounds of water, the fact that it had even come to this infuriated him.
The first thing he learned when handling fire was to respect the element. And to know that while they sparked it, they could never command it. It was an incredible power that could never be allowed out of control. And setting it loose on another human being was out of the question.
Still, the spray of water soaked the air around them and made the hot earth steam.
"You're too late. The explosive was rigged to the door. The moment they tried to get out, boom," Jackal sneered, even when Lucy slammed the door in his face.
"Could be, and under normal circumstances they would be dead," Natsu walked over to the window in front of Jackal's face, blowing a huff of steam to fog it up. He drew a smiley face in the mist, a crooked smirk decorating his face, "But you didn't do your research. You rushed this job, and the construction of the doors in a house like this - well it'll be hardier than your average consumer doorframe."
"Not able to withstand a detonation, but I doubt your target was blown to smithereens," Natsu smirked, "Idiot."
Lucy led him away by his elbow a moment later, giving him a firm 'stop antagonizing the suspect' look. It was the same glare she had given him when he was in interrogation.
He turned towards the fire, a curious thought nagging him. The fire had been explosive, but not nearly as big as he thought it would be. For the amount of material the arsonist bought, even counting that tiny pipe bomb, there was a discrepancy on how much material was missing. A flame caused by that amount surely would have flattened the house.
Gray was just heading back, his hands sooty and sleeves rolled up to his elbows when Natsu caught him. Dropping a hand on the man's shoulder, Gray gave the appendage a look as if it were the most vile of poison.
Natsu removed the hand before Gray could put a silver manacle over it and shove him into the back of the squad car with Jackal.
"What do you want?" Gray grunted.
"Have your guys see if the radius of the fire matches the amount of material Jackal bought," Natsu glanced at Gray, "Could be he still has a stash he's hiding somewhere. It's what I would do if I were still active."
Gray gave him a long, hard look before he sighed and nodded, "Okay. I'll look into it."
"You ready to head back to the station?" Lucy asked walking up to the two men and interrupting their conversation. She glanced between the two of them when they both fell silent, her eyes narrowing with suspicion, "Did I miss something?"
Natsu was saved from answering when Gray just shook his head.
"Nah, just talking about the materials from the fire. I'm looking into it, besides you need a break. You took this one down. Lucy, so I'll handle processing," He cracked his neck and stretched. Gray shot Natsu an uncomplimentary glower. Still, he thought he imagined it was less angry than usual. Which he supposed was a sign of progress in the right direction.
"Get some rest, alright?" Gray smiled at his partner.
Luckily, Lucy did not argue with Gray over booking Jackal. It was clear to Natsu that a bath and a glass of wine awaited Lucy. That, and maybe a movie, wrapped in a cozy blanket with Happy snuggled on her lap. Natsu could imagine it.
Lucy let out a thankful sigh and tugged Natsu's hand to get him moving.
"Come on, Natsu, lets go."
-::-
The car ride was tense. Everlue's condition was unknown, but they had managed to capture Jackal. The day was a success, the mission finally coming to an end. Natsu was able to breathe out, his involvement coming to an end with this weird case. It was a part of his life he had managed to get tangled into Lucy's.
It was over. It was really over. He could hardly believe that was possible.
But there they were, in Lucy's fancy car, returning to her home after Gray dragged Jackal off to dump him in holding. The ride was tense, but with a kind of air that had nothing to do with the end of a case.
Lucy swung her car into the driveway of her home. Natsu's stomach was drifting somewhere back and forth between his kidneys and throat. He was grateful to finally be out of that metal trap she called a car, swinging the door open and dropping his heels onto the blessedly unmoving cement.
Solid ground. Free from the tyranny of moving wheels and nausea.
He perked right up when he was finally free from the confines of the car and Lucy's hand rested against his shoulder. He could feel the gentle warmth of her skin bleeding through his jacket, the cool night air having very little to do with the flush that was coating across his cheeks.
He smiled at her, a crooked grin that was comfortable with where they were and at peace with the result of their investigation. Natsu didn't care much for Everlue, but he didn't want the man hurt or dead because of an impulsive play Natsu decided to act. Knowing that, it was with dragging feet he moved himself towards Lucy's stairs.
Somehow he felt responsible. Even if it was just because of a mistake, he had dragged Everlue directly into Jackal's crosshairs. There was no way for a man like that, no matter his wealth, to prepare against a psychopath like the arsonist.
Who knew if Everlue was going to make it. When the firefighters had finally pulled him from the building and strapped him to a gurney, the man had been burned with an oxygen mask latched onto his face.
Lucy pressed a hand further into his arm, her fingers digging a warm path into the back of his jacket. She smiled at him encouragingly, dragging him forward by his shirt and up the steps of her condo. At the top of them, she flashed him another smile that eased his mind like rain falling over a window.
It soothed the boiling emotions he felt pushing through him, trying to ooze out the slits in the fractured wall he built around himself. Cracks he embraced, because they were made by the woman in front of him. How had she wrapped him so intricately around her slender fingers in such a short amount of time? Natsu wished he knew. He really did.
But in truth, he already knew the answer. Heart flipping backwards over the gentle, almost fleeting touches she made across his shoulders and down his heart. Natsu knew.
He knew what he felt. What he was too afraid to say.
What could he do though? Natsu felt with a rawness that consumed his body like it was kindling. Emotions had always been the true fire that burned hot within him and swallowed everything in its path. But what he had was so new and fragile, he was afraid a single puff of air would smother the spark between them before it had time to grow.
What he felt for her.
He was afraid to voice it.
But when she looked at him a moment later, two small, soft hands cradled the sides of his head and dragged him down without question or resistance. He just blinked as she rose on her toes and fisted her fingers into the dark material of his shirt.
Her lips found his, warm against the cool night air chilling his skin. Her fingers pressed into his hair and her hand ran down his jaw. Natsu slipped in closer, arm twining around her waist to anchor himself to her.
It was done.
It was over.
He smiled against her mouth and bumped his forehead against hers, his heart fluttering in his chest. The sweet smile she gave him was completely different from the in-charge detective that had slammed her knee between Jackal's shoulder blades just a while earlier. Natsu's hands lifted towards her face, calloused thumbs dragging lightly across her cheeks as he simply stared into her eyes.
"The case is over, Miss Detective, you don't have to pretend anymore," He grinned at her, thumb running across her jawline. The way her teeth bit into her bottom lip fascinated him. It was a habit he noticed she did whenever she was thinking. Every time it happened, Natsu wanted to swoop back in and coax her into him. Nearly laughing at the impulse, he remembered when he first thought he acted like a trained dog looking for Lucy's approval.
"It's Lucy," She gave him a teasing smile, "I'm off the clock."
"Fine then," Natsu laughed back, heart jumping when he felt her arms drift down from his face to wrap around his shoulders. Lucy's hands clasped behind his neck, inviting him closer. He dipped back down, mouth slanting over Lucy's with a tenderness he didn't even know he could show, "Lucy."
His emotions swelled in his body like a tide, crashing down around him. And as he kissed her on the porch to her front house, surrounded by her posh neighborhood, he filled his senses with the comforting scent of strawberry.
Who cared if he couldn't say what he felt for Lucy aloud?
He had always been more a man of action than anything else.
Natsu was a one girl kind of man. He had always known that about himself. It wasn't hard to guess. Girls had never been huge on Natsu's priority list, sure he liked them, and they were pretty to look at, but aside from a sprinkling of interactions here and there, no one had caught his eye.
Not until Lucy.
Lucy was that girl for him.
"You want to come in for a cup of coffee?" She asked slyly, her fingers twitching into his jacket.
This confused Natsu as he blinked at her curiously. Coffee? It was practically a fact how violently Lucy hated the stuff. So much in fact, that her idea of coffee was just plain sugar and cream. His hand squeezed her hip as he cocked his head at her.
"But, Luce, you don't own a coffee pot?" He frowned.
"I know," She answered, a little smug. Her lips brushed into his as she spoke and his stomach clenched. Warmth was beginning to seep into his body, making him feel rather conflicted about 'coffee.'
"Then how can we have-" He suddenly realized there would be no coffee. That she was inviting him inside for something more than a round of late night drinks, "Oh."
"Oh," Lucy replied, fingers tangling into pink hair, curling him closer. A soft grunt escaped him at the feel of her tugging, hair gripped beneath pliable fingers. He bowed his head towards her and smiled.
"Oh," Natsu breathed, his hand lifting to run along Lucy's arm. His heartrate was going fast enough to break the sound barrier now and he couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah. Coffee sounds great."
But a sudden thought stopped him in his tracks before he could so much as turn to go inside with Lucy. He hesitated, and Lucy stilled as well, her hand on the knob and key sliding the deadbolt open.
"But first, there's someone I need to talk to," He murmured, leaning a forearm over the frame of the door and sighing. As much as he wanted to go inside with Lucy, there was something he had to do first. And no matter how badly he wanted to ignore his moral compass for the time being, he knew he couldn't.
Not with that one thing looming over his head.
"Gray?" Lucy caught on, her clever eyes gleaming with understanding.
Relief poured through Natsu, happy he didn't have to explain why he wasn't following her inside her home to have 'coffee.' Lucy really was incredible, the thought sprang to his mind without pause.
"Gray," He affirmed.
Lucy just nodded, and set a hand between his shoulders, resting just over his spine, "Go on then. I'll be here when you get back. I have to jump into the shower anyway to get the smell of Jackal off me."
"Yes, please do, he smells like wet cat," Natsu leaned over her, heart fluttering as he leaned in for another breath stealing kiss, gentle and unhurried. So soft, and sweet, it made his insides melt and feel all soggy. He made a mental note never to say that to Lucy, very much doubting she would appreciate being associated with the word 'soggy.'
"Happy would be so offended," Lucy whispered against his mouth, a content, sleepy smile drifting over her face. Natsu couldn't help but stare at her, completely amazed by this strange woman that dropped into his life. He had never considered himself lucky before, but right now, nothing else could convince him otherwise.
"Well I'll just bring him a fish then," Natsu smirked back at Lucy and pulled away, his hands sliding into his pockets. He headed down the stairs, smiling back at Lucy, his heart feeling very light.
His detective rolled pretty eyes and flashed him a smile before disappearing into her home.
Strawberry street would never grow on him. Natsu knew that he didn't belong in a place like this no matter how hard he tried. But he would put up with the rich neighborhood if it meant keeping her company. Natsu walked down the nice sidewalks with one destination in mind.
This conversation with Gray was long overdue.
CLEAN UP TIME!
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