"I'm going to kill you." The pinkette said sternly with his cell phone pressed against his ear.
"Shouldn't you be thanking me? That's what a friend would do." The person on the other line scoffed in a uninterested tone.
"Ay, where does that key belong to?" Natsu asked curiously shutting a door behind him.
"Your house."
"When the hell did you make a copy of my house key? Wait. Don't answer that, you'll only piss me off." The young master growled making his way out of the apartment building. "My night was wonderful before I called you."
"You should be thanking me. Tch, I swear this is the last time I ever step in to do anything."
Natsu rolled his eyes at the comment ignoring it. He spent the rest of the evening with his sweetheart. She talked about her day in her classes and work, dabbled a bit in her school work to which he assisted her in some extent. He insisted on cooking for her while she worked on homework. Lucy was impressed by his culinary skills with what little she had in her kitchen. Natsu made sure after they ate that she took a bath so that she could go to bed and sleep soundly for school the next day. He laid in bed with her till she was sound asleep and it took everything in him to peel himself away from her sleeping form that clutched onto him even if he didn't want to.
"Listen, I'm heading home right now alright. Stay safe." Natsu told his friend then hung up the phone after Gray told him to do the same as well as bid him farewell.
The pinkette was giddy with every step he took down the streets. He parked his truck a few blocks away instead of the blonde's apartment complex parking lot, in fear that she would have saw and never came home. He rounded the corner when he started to hear the rattling of dumpsters behind the stores he passed. Natsu though nothing of it. But when he turned down the way to a small public parking area where his vehicle waited, a loud crash rattled him. He swung his head left and right on full alert to whatever the crash was. He didn't lower his guard a bit even when he inched closer and closer to his truck.
"Oh young Dragon Lord master~" A voice cooed in a sickening sing song tone.
Natsu narrowed his eyes and turned his head in all directions while one of his hands reached into his pocket. A rule of thumb his dad had advised him on, was to always have a concealed weapon of some sort. The pinkette's concealed weapon of choice was a pocket knife.
"Don't tell me the almighty Natsu Dragneel is scared." The voice spoke again from a place Natsu couldn't even pinpoint. "Your just like your dad. A pathetic excuse of a man."
The pinkette saw red at the very comment of his dad. Igneel Dragneel, may he rest his soul, was far from a pathetic excuse. Igneel was a ruthless man of power, something Natsu grew up learning.
"Good thing your dad's dead. He doesn't need to see how his son ran the guild he created to the ground." It continued.
"COME OUT AND TELL THAT TO ME IN MY FACE YOU COWARD." Natsu shouted not caring if it woke any civilian or alerted any cop that he didn't have connections with. No one speaks ill of his own father.
A shadow came forth from against a building. Slowly Natsu took in the appearance of the person. Their black pants and white tee shirt topped off with a blue and gold sleeveless vest but what set the pinkette off was the growing smirk on the blonde's face.
"The coward between the two of us is your own father." The blonde hissed.
The pinkette growled baring his canine teeth that were sharper then his other teeth. He knew who the man was. Sting Eucliffe, one of the Co masters of their rival guild Sabertooth.
"Shocked to see me?" Sting chuckled tilting his head up to look down at his rival. "Cause I'm very happy to see you." Sting casually took a few steps towards the other man.
Natsu didn't say a word as he charged toward him with a fist pulled back aimed for the blonde's smirking face. When he came just a foot away from Sting, Sting jammed his knee into the other man's torso sending him into a wheezing pile on the ground.
"You said you'd kill us! Where's that spite now?" Sting hissed giving Natsu a hard kick where he previously hit him. The blonde stomped on the fallen man's back satisfied when he heard choked coughs beneath his feet.
Natsu was struggling to move even struggling to regain his breath once more. He squeezed his eyes shut thinking about giving up now, feeling unable but as he did people filled his mind. Specifically Lucy. A though of her curled up to him during her overnight stay with him invaded his mind. She was peacefully napping against him with Happy jammed between the two. Natsu had envision the same scene but with a baby nestled happily against Lucy's peaceful form.
The pinkette's hand trailed back to his pocket for the pocket knife he hadn't forgotten about. He took it out so Sting who was still stomping his back won't see. Natsu was careful to open the knife then with all his energy, push Sting to the ground where the Dragon Lord master raised the knife to his neck. Sting stared up at him with a smile.
"Now you wanna play huh?" The Co master of Sabertooth asked. "Let's repeat history." He said in a whisper as he sent a punch to Natsu's head.
Groaning the pinkette got to his feet sucking in air as he did with his knife up ready to slash at the other man's face.
Sting ran toward him with a hand pulled back. He connected the punch sending Natsu in a daze. In his daze state Natsu was carelessly swinging the knife around enough to graze Sting just at his eyebrow. The blood dripping from the wound seeped down to cover the blonde's right eye. While Sting struggled to rid himself of the blood, Natsu regained his senses and sent the other man flying to the ground from the force of his boot. Dropping the knife, Natsu straddle the man and viciously punched him in the face not holding back anything.
"To hell with you." Natsu breathed between punches.
When the pinkette noticed the blonde not moving he stopped his punches and sat there trying his best to breath. When he felt okay to move he tried heaving himself up but felt pained at his side. He looked down at his torn scarlet dress shirt.
"I'm not so easy to put down." Said Sting slashing the pocket knife across Natsu's cheek with pressure.
Natsu hissed in pain getting up and away from Sting but got striked again getting cut on his neck. The blonde was huffing from his sudden movement. They both stared up at each other glaring daggers then charged at each other again. Natsu threw punches in no particular place and shielded himself with his arms as Sting came at him aiming for the open wounds on his side and face.
'I need to go to the guild hall or I'll be wasted out here.' Natsu thought ducking away from Sting's fist. He stole a glance at his truck still parked a foot away. He knew the blood from Sting's brow was still dripping down blood and hindering his right eye's vision. A plan came to mind when with Sting being so close.
Natsu punched Sting hard in the abdomen then when the blonde clutched his midsection the pinkette elbowed him hard in the back. Once he saw that Sting made no attempt to move, Natsu raced over to his vehicle as his hands searched in both pockets for his keys. He unlocked the drivers door and threw himself in locking himself inside. He hurried to jam the key in the ignition and put the vehicle in drive. Before long he was on the road leaving the public parking lot with Sting there.
Natsu drove to his guild hall and parked carelessly in front of it. He limped to the building that had lights pouring out the windows and music blasting while holding onto his side with what little energy he had. He barely made it through the door when some of his Dragon Lord members stared shock asking him questions he couldn't understand in his current state.
"Gray!" He faintly heard one say.
"Somebody get a chair! Get towels!" Another called out.
Natsu puffed out air before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he landed on the ground face first with a thud.
Gray came racing to the entrance with other members holding various of things. The music stopped as well as all merriment. With wide eyes the raven hair man could hardly speak seeing his friend in such a state.
"Someone call Missus Porlyusica." Jura called out from beside Lyon who stared as did everyone else.
Gajeel came rushing over from the bar. "Gray we gotta move him." The long haired man moved the unconscious man to his back with a worried gaze. "Everyone can't see him like this. We can't see him like this."
Gajeel called out to Elfman to help him move their guild master along with Gray who pressed a towel to his friend's side. Everyone who crowded the guild hall made a small path for the men leading to a small room that was lined with cots designated for drunk or injured members to rest.
The hall remained quiet only hush voices and footsteps running along the wood floors echoed.