Disclaimer— I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Fandoms of Fanfiction. And to the lawyers for which law stands: one franchise, I'm under oath with a lack of invisibility...with...wait...— okay, I don't own Fairy Tail or any of the characters included in said anime-package. Please, don't sue me...

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I appear like wind. I disappear like smoke, tricking your eyes
I approach like a petal. I burrow like a thorn, aiming at your heart

— Danger by Taemin

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Beautiful, is what he wanted to say as soon as he set his eyes on her. It had been a while since someone had left him so awestruck, the last person being his mother of all people. He felt his mouth go dry at the sight of her, her shimmering blonde hair tied into a childish ponytail, chocolate eyes wide in surprise and...

...fear?

Right, he had just threatened to kill her and her father.

Right.

He grabbed the girl by her wrist, dragging her out from under the wooden desk and into the limelight. She hissed under his tight hold, whimpering when his arm wrapped itself around her neck. The chilled metal of his gun poked at her temple, sending shivers down her spine. With her back pressed against him, Natsu shivered as well...but for completely different reasons. Oh my god, I am such a perv.

"D-Dragneel..." Jude—dammit, Natsu found himself forgetting that old man even existed—stammered, inching closer to where his daughter was held hostage. He dropped his gun instantly, raising his hands in defense. "let her go. Please, my daughter has nothing to do with this."

The younger man ignored him, resisting the urge to nuzzle his face into Lucy's neck. She was stiff under his hold, nails digging into his forearm. "Judy," Natsu whispered, his warm breath hitting her skin. "I can't believe someone as fugly as you made something as...nice as this. Should I keep her?" Oh my god, I am such a perv.

Jude blanched. "Natsu, no. Release her now..." His order fell upon deaf, shamelessly distracted ears. When he could no longer take his defenseless Lucy's small cries of discomfort, Jude growled, pulling out the second gun he had hidden in his back pocket. "Get your filthy hands off of Lucy or I'll—"

"Shoot?" Natsu raised an eyebrow, pushing his weapon further against Lucy's head. "Go ahead. I have a shield anyways." He looked down at the quivering girl, smirking when she glared at him, obviously trying—yet adorably failing—to disguise her fear. So Lucy is her name, he thought.

"Shit," came Fullbuster's hoarse exclamation. Situated by the window with his gun still drawn, he worriedly announced, "his backup's here!"

From across the room, Redfox rolled his eyes, angrily shoving his gun into his pocket. "Great. Just marvelous. We come here for one guy, a ton of spare time on our hands, and Natsu fucks it up with his annoying foreplay."

As much as he wanted to ignore his team mates and continue "getting to know" this Lucy girl, Natsu couldn't help but frown at their warning. With one last glance at the blonde, he roughly pushed her towards her father. Jude sighed in relief, hugging his daughter tightly as if he had actually lost her. Walking towards the door in long strides, Fullbuster and Redfox right on his tail, Natsu called behind him, "yo Luce. Meet me at 8-Island this Thursday at nine. I'll buy you ice cream."

Lucy watched the trio run away after that, the tears clouding her vision beginning to fade as she registered his words. Turning to her father—who was red with steam coming out of ears—she numbly asked, "Father...did he just ask me out on a date?"

|July 7th, 2005 — 8-Island|

Lucy felt humiliated as she waited for that Natsu guy to show up to the designated meet-up place. Dressed in nothing but a light blue sundress and flip-flops, highly unwanted make-up caked onto her face, she tapped her foot impatiently— daring that criminal to stand her up.

An "undercover mission", her father, his superiors and a few other men Lucy didn't care to identify had told her. After Natsu had escaped their clutches for the umpteenth time a few days before, they used his invitation to ice cream (which she was sure was just a joke) as a way to catch him. How they could have fallen for such a thing, Lucy wasn't sure. No wonder it took them years to catch that Elfman fellow. No wonder they couldn't ever seem to find Natsu's hideout. They were all idiots!

Lucy glanced down at her prized Lion King watch—Timon and Pumbaa's characteristically dorky smiles doing nothing to brighten her mood—sucking her teeth when she realized she had only been waiting for a measly three minutes. Looking around, she recognized a few undercover police officers walking around as inconspicuously as possible. Though with how large their earpieces were, how awkwardly they walked and how terrible their casual fashion was, Lucy knew their "inconspicuous" goal wasn't exactly being met.

Only a blind and deaf man with no sense wouldn't be able to see that they were clearly coppers ready to pounce.

"Luce!" The call of the disgustingly familiar nickname caused Lucy to turn to the source. To her right, she could see Natsu running towards her, an wide smile on his face. Handsome, is what she wanted to say as soon as he caught up with her, completely out of breath. She blinked, realizing how...friendly he looked when he wasn't thrusting a gun into her head. Lucy could only scrunch her nose at such thoughts.

"You're late," she noted, stiff under his...soft gaze. No, that wasn't right. Just yesterday he had his men kill dozens of completely innocent people. He had tried to kill her, for Pete's sake! How embarrassing would it be if her father found out she thought he looked handsome and friendly and much nicer than how she initially thought? Jude would probably collapse. But not before strangling her into a coma, of course.

"Or you're just early," was his response. He smirked. Lucy blushed, desperately trying to calm her racing—why was it even racing?—heart. "So...welcome to my most favorite restaurant ever!"

Before she could say a word, he had her by the wrist, pulling her into the infamously expensive 8-Island restaurant. The chefs were all the famous children of other famous chefs who were all the children of other famous chefs. The same went for the architects, the designers and the suppliers. Lucy had never step foot into such a place—even the oxygen made her wallet feel a few dollars lighter—how had scum like Natsu managed to dub this place his favorite?

"Two under Dragneel."

The doorman (or whatever the men who verified your reservations were called) didn't even need to look down at his list. He guided Lucy and Natsu to their seats way back in a private booth where she was sure no one would hear her scream if she needed to. A pretty unsettling observation. The doorman gave Natsu a weird thumbs-up-wink combo and smiled warmly at Lucy before making his way back to his post. Old man probably doesn't know how Natsu really is, her mind reasoned bitterly.

From the corner of her eye, she could see two inconspicuous men waltz inconspicuously into the restaurant a few seconds later, inconspicuously flashing the doorman their badges. The elderly man shrugged, guiding them to a booth a bit too far away from where she was for Lucy's comfort.

"You think they'd learn to look less obvious," she heard Natsu say with a sigh. She jumped at the sound of his voice, struggling to resist the urge to verbally agree with him. "Do they honestly think I can't see them? I'm not blind nor deaf and I'm pretty sure I have enough sense to know when I'm being followed."

Lucy remained silent, too afraid that the criminal—yes, the criminal, Lucy. Please stop forgetting he's a criminal, she mentally warned—would randomly shank her if she so much as opened her mouth. She shivered when his cool, ebony gaze focused on her.

"I'm not a bad guy. I'm only seventeen, what real harm could I ever do," he attempted to reassure. But the way he toyed with his butter knife didn't exactly help prove his statement. "if anything, it's your dad who's the bad guy."

At the mention of her father, Lucy's face hardened. She quickly pushed aside her fears as she finally spoke, eyes ablaze with anger. "Excuse me?" She enjoyed watching the big and bad Natsu flinch at her hiss. "Last time I checked, my father didn't barge into other people's workplaces and make a cemetery out of them!"

"Really?" He laughed. What a nice laugh, was Lucy's last stupid thought before she shook her head clear of them. "Funny you say that. How do you think Elfman got arrested in the first place, Luce?"

When she didn't answer, opting to simply cross her arms, he continued. "Innocent ol' Elfman was just trying to get some extra cash to support his family. He never fought, never killed, he just seemed to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of my men even knew he was being sought after by the police. He never did anything. So when they came storming into his apartment, killing his mother who had tried prying them off of him, we were all shocked. They arrested him, creating false evidence to convict him. And now he's a poor sap locked away for god knows how long. Can you guess who was behind all of that, Luce? Who's now reaping the benefits of arresting a completely innocent man and murdering his mother?"

Anything she could have possibly wanted to say died down in her throat, stubbornness bubbling away into disbelief. It was when a small blue-haired waitress had placed two bowls of ice cream in front of them, smiling brightly, that Lucy witnessed her slipping Natsu a gun. The blonde could feel her brave front collapsing within seconds.

Before she could call out a warning to her father's oblivious subordinates, Natsu shoved a numbingly cold spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. I freaking love chocolate, her obviously disconnected brain squealed as Natsu yanked her out of her seat.

They moved quietly to some back door, somehow never catching the attention of the distracted, happily chattering police who were supposed to protect her. Lucy wanted to punch all of them.

"Thanks Levy." Natsu nodded to the blunette who gave him that same silly thumbs-up-wink thing in response.

What's up with these people and their weird greetings? Lucy, still mindlessly savoring the sweet ice cream, looked at the petite girl as if she had grown five heads. But the waitress only forced a smile in her direction before skipping off into the bustling dining area.

Odd.

The warm feeling of fingers wrapping around her wrist snapped Lucy's eyes away from the retreating Levy. She looked up at Natsu, his wide grin reminding her of the two characters on her watch. "Hey, Luce," he said. "Let's forget we even had that conversation earlier, okay? Now that your dad's men are distracted, it's time to go to my real favorite restaurant."

Lucy pulled the spoon from between her lips, eyes wide as she spluttered, "w-wait, are you...k-kidnapping me?"

"Maybe." Such a vague, brief reply made Lucy feel sick.

So much for this stupid mission.

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一━══┳┻︻ To Be Continued ︻┻┳══━一

Author's Note: MORE STALLING! Don't mind me! Quick thanks to all who read, reviewed, followed and favorited~ you guys rock my socks off! And...errr, yeah. I'm kind of feeling itchy to continue writing from the car accident scene. Soooo the chapters that deal with how Nalu met/start dating/blah blah blah will probably last for only two-three more updates. Yay? For now, stay tuned for chapter three and review if you wanna!

chu~