A throbbing pain centered in the front of his head and to the side was what woke Natsu and released him from the dark. His golden hazel eyes slowly began to open as he turned his head to the side and groaned before he shut his eyes tightly again. The pain seemed to intensify as his stomach decided to join in, as the feeling of dizziness and nausea mingled in with his headache. A sudden realization had hit Natsu like a punch to the stomach would when he suddenly open his eyes and getting a good look around. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to will the pain in his head to ease.

He was in a moving vehicle.

But where-?

No sooner did he ask himself that when memories flooded back into his mind. That's right. He got home after a nice walk through the neighborhood to the nearby park then receiving a phone call from his boyfriend only to have his door obliterated into tiny teeny pieces that then lead into a fight and he lost- To a man who somehow knew him and as a result, broke into their home and apparently, took Gray's pick-up truck as well, he knew this interior and wintergreen smell anywhere.

Fear was starting to creep up on the pinkette when he attempted to move his arms only to discover that they were both tied behind his back with a string of hard plastic; a zip-tie if he guessed right that slowly began sawing into his wrists. All traces of his nausea and headache seemed to vanish as his fear was slowly working to consuming him as he discovered that his ankles were zip-tied together just like his wrists. He wanted to say something, scream for help, call out to someone, when he noticed that he was gagged as well; a piece of cloth was stuffed in his mouth and had another one tied tightly around his mouth to keep it in place. Natsu quickly took the time to examine the rest of himself and was somewhat surprised to see that he still wore the same clothes but found that not only did he posses no shoe wear but his muffler was missing, his eyes narrowed dangerously at the thought of that dirty lowlife touching his prized possession.

But where was it?

He took a deep breath. Panicking wasn't going to get him anywhere. He looked up to the back of the driver seat when he felt the truck slow to a complete stop, followed by a voice, a voice that filled the helpless pinkette with anger, fear and resentment as it spoke through the din that was the truck's engine.

"Yeah yeah. I'll give him a call tomorrow, although, I don't know why," Natsu could hear the venom dripping in his voice. "Yeah, once you see our- uh- guest, you tell me what we should do. Uh huh, yeah. See you later tonight. Okay. Bye."

The man hung up as the truck came to a complete stop. Natsu watched from his position on the floor of the car as he saw what little of his kidnapper from the driver's seat at the angle, when his anger suddenly flared up just as the truck began to move once more. Ignoring the logical part of brain on the dangers from his choice of actions, he squirmed around in the back seat as quietly as possible, twisting and turning until he was at the right angle where his legs were bit closer to the seat, he slowly raised them up high and then slammed them into the backseat as hard as he could. The man jumped in the seat from the sudden act, jerking the steering wheel causing Natsu's head to be thrown left to right, giving his headache more power.

"AH! WHAT THE-" He quickly looked behind him, his face full of shock that quickly turned to a look a glee. "Oh, you're awake." Natsu would love nothing more then to somehow break free from his restraints punch his lights out. "Lovely."

Natsu could feel the truck coming to a stop and looked up out the window to get a understanding of where he was. From the looks of the trees, they were in some form of the woods that was perhaps far from the nearest town. Natsu turned to look back at him, growling at as the bastard dared to address him.

"To be honest, I didn't think you would wake up so soon," He chuckled, shutting off the engine, not fazed by Natsu's sad attempt at sounding threatening. "After a blow like that to the head, I was pretty sure you'd be out for hours."

Natsu tried to yell at him and demand him to let him go and give him back his scarf only to have it muffled by his gag, looking up as he heard the sound of a door opening and closing followed by the sound of crunching gravel outside and the opening and closing of a car door. Natsu jumped out of his skin when the man suddenly appeared above him and reached out one hand to gently caress Natsu's cheek, thumb stroking the soft skin near his eye causing the pinkette to struggle to move himself away from the man's vile touch, letting out a muffled growl in warning that only came out more as a strangled hiss. He didn't seem to bothered as he leaned forward slightly, barely inches away from Natsu's face. Natsu could feel the cold sweat running down the back of his neck as he gazed into those soulless dark tunnels.

"You are indeed quite the catch. I can safely say I now know why he wanted you so bad but unfortunately for that prick, you're mine now," Natsu trembled under the man's gaze. He? Who was 'he'? Did he mean Gray? "Now why don't we be a good little boy and to go back to sleep, okay? Since we still have a long way to go before we get to your new home."

Natsu glared as hard as he could at this man, even though it was quite obvious that he didn't have any clue as to what the prick meant but for one thing and there was no way in hell he was going with this man without a good fight. He suddenly found his eyes drifting down and over to the man's other hand clad in a glove made of black leather, clutching a white cloth that emitted an odd smell. He struggled in vain to get away from that cloth, eyes widening when he realized what the smell was and began to frantically struggle to keep from breathing in the funny bitter smell. He shook his head wildly from side to side trying to make it as difficult as possible for this bastard.

The man, for his part, watched with utter amusement at Natsu's sad attempts to avoid the cloth. It hard to believe that such a sweet, reckless and care free young man like Natsu could hold such a wild and fiery spirit. One of the many things that made the man to come around and begin craving and desiring the pinkette. Gods, what he would like to do to him. After a while, his amusement began to die down, he really needed to get going, lest he wanted to be caught, by someone with authority and questioned on why he had a human being bound and gagged in the back of a car that wasn't even his. But if Fairy Tail caught him- He shuddered.

Fairy Tail wasn't a very forgiving group if one of their own was threatened.

With his free hand, he grabbed a fistful of pink hair from the back of the pinkette's head and gave it a sharp yank, earning him a muffled shriek, pulling the boy's head back he pressed the cloth into his face, watching as Natsu's struggling began to lessen and those beautiful golden eyes began to droop and losing focus just as the bastard released his hold on the smaller male's hair once he slumped back into his unconscious state.

He watched the sleeping boy's form for awhile, admiring the slim, delicate looking body before him. He placed the ether-soaked cloth near the unconscious boy's face and reached both hands out and latching them onto both of Natsu's hips, turning him onto his back carefully and began kneading them gently as he unconsciously began climbing on top of the smaller male's still form as his hands began to slowly trail up the sides of his body before they parted ways, with one pushed its way underneath the pinkette's shirt and the other moved back down his back to grab a handful of the boy's delicious ass and shuddered in delight at the feeling of the boy's warm soft flesh in his hands. He smiled, leaning closer and closer, his lips barely an inch from Natsu's ear, his breath hot and heavy against the boy's skin.

He blinked before chuckling and shaking his head.

No.

Not yet.

He pushed himself up and off the boy's body and stood up, dusting himself off before shut the door, concealing the source of his uncontainable temptation from sight before returning to the driver's seat. He couldn't wait to break that fiery spirit the boy possessed but first things first, he had to tie up some loose ends.

'Business first...' His grin grew darker. 'Then pleasure.'

He looked over to the passenger seat where Natsu's cellphone sat. He grabbed it on whim, forgetting exactly why he wanted the dumb thing in the first place. He knew that Gray prick called the device no less then a hour and half ago, for the eighth time looking for its owner. He quickly pressed end, sending the dark haired bastard directly to voicemail for the second time. He picked up the phone, examining it in his hand, a dark smile forming on his lips.

He warned that bastard and it was his fault he didn't take it seriously.

Perhaps a game was in order.

The minute Loke pulled up into Gray's driveway was minute Gray knew this wasn't going to end well- for him, at least. And boy howdy was he right. The minute he came home and jumped out of Loke's car and began to run to his door was the minute all hell was unleashed upon him.

In the form of Natsu's older brother.

Gray barely managed to reach the end of the walkway when out of nowhere, Sting came storming toward him, causing Gray freeze in his path. Before he could say or do anything to defend himself, a fist came flying out of nowhere and connected itself to the right side of the ravenette's head, causing Gray to be thrown back from the energy of the punch, his back connecting to the car and landing hard on his ass. He trembled under the teary eyed glare of the blonde haired man was throwing his way as he struggled to escape Rogue and Loke's hold on him.

"YOU! YOU DID THIS!" Sting screamed, tears falling down his face. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FUCKING PROTECT HIM! LIKE YOU KEPT TELLING ME! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HIM!"

Gray's eyes grew wide. His worst nightmare came true and he was at a lost for words. He didn't know what to do... Or say even.

"I KNEW YOU WOULD BRING NOTHING BUT TROUBLE!" Sting continued, throwing the two men off of him. "MY BROTHER DIDN'T DESERVE THIS! IT'S YOUR FAULT HE'S DEAD!"

"Wha- Dead?" Gray didn't want to believe it, anything but that as fresh tears began to spill from his eyes. "No... No."

"Sting, are you sure?" Cana asked. "How can-"

"I'M SURE!" Sting yelled, shocking them all into silence. "THE BLOOD ON THE WALL IS PROOF ENOUGH! YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD FULLBUSTER! YOU HEAR ME?! DEAD!"

Gray closed his eyes as he felt himself being yanked up onto his feet by his throat, turning his head to side and tensing himself for the blow that would no doubt end him. Maybe he would see Natsu once more, with that thought he readied himself for death's embrace when- Nothing. He slowly cracked an eye open, wondering why he wasn't dead and found that Sting's fist was barely an inch away from his face and was stopped by the wrist by no other then Gajeel Redfox. A tall and muscular young man like Sting but most of his exposed body is covered in sets of simple, round studs and long, spiky black hair, which was slicked back revealing his forehead that was covered by a bandana. His red eyes were narrowed as he kept them trained on the blonde.

"What seems to be the problem, Blondie?" He asked, his grip firm.

"Gajeel?" Sting asked, surprised to the man there as his tears still continued to flow. "Why? Why?"

"Because I said so."

"Gajeel!" cried a young woman who was running up the block, her book bag swinging around behind her. "GAJEEL!"

"Hey Levy."

Levy McGarden Redfox was a rather petite woman of a slender build who stands at a rather below-average height for her age. Her shoulder-length wild blue hair, which has eyebrow-length bangs, was tied up with a bright green bandana around her head. Her hazel eyes shone with compassion as she stopped barely an inch away from her husband.

"Don't hurt him."

"I wasn't going to."

"Levy, Gajeel... What are you two doing here?" Loke asked, surprised.

"I heard you were on you're on Honeymoon." Rogue said, just as surprised. "What on earth brought you back here?"

"We were." Gajeel replied, pulling Sting effortlessly away from Gray. "But we, as in Shrimp here, received a text from Lucy here about Natsu. So we came back home."

Gajeel slowly released his hold on Sting's wrist, once sure he was that the blonde was no longer a threat to the ravenette in front of him while Sting, for his part, just allowed his arm to slip from the man's grip before he fell to his knees, tears threatening to fall. Levy gently approached the blonde before sitting down on her knees in front of him.

"First our parents... Now my brother..." Sting whispered, body shaking. "It's not fair... It's not fair. I couldn't protect him. I'm so sorry."

"Sting- Sting sweetie, come to me," Levy cooed gently with open arms as Sting, surprising everyone present, obeyed and fell face forward into her lap, wrapping his arms around her small body and burst into a rare show of anguish as Levy stroked his hair soothingly. She looked up. "Lucy said something about a kidnapping as well."

"Lucy-?"

Everyone quickly turned to her.

"I'm sorry." Lucy whispered, backing away slightly. A pink blush on her cheeks. "I-I thought we were going to need help and- I-I-I-"

"No. That's fine, it's okay," replied Loke, moving a bit away from Sting and toward Gray. "But-"

"Answer me this," Gajeel cut in, standing before the still man. "Just what the hell happened? All I'm hearing is that some sick fuck broke into your house, apparently stole your truck and kidnapped Natsu and next thing I know Sting's already got a target put out on you and I had to save your dumb ass. I wanna know what's going on... And NOW!"

"I can tell you what I only know." Gray responded quietly, eyes wide and staring.

"Fine."

Gray blinked, regaining his focus as he launched into his story. He told them that when he first called Natsu to check up on him only to be put on high alert from a noise in the background, how he tried unsuccessfully to call Natsu back, to make sure everything was okay. He then told them and showed them the anonymous text and how he gained the balls to call Sting. Everyone listened and watched Gray with rapt attention, even Sting was watching and listening with wide and unreadable eyes.

"That's all I know." He finished, watching Gajeel carefully. "I swear."

"I see," he nodded. "And what about you, Blondie? I wanna hear your part of the story too."

"My part?" Sting asked, completely dumbfounded. "On what? Gray told you everything he told me."

"On what you found..." Gajeel elaborated with a roll of his eyes. "Dumbass."

Sting blinked before nodding in agreement before he launched into his own story. He told him how Gray called him and Rogue and asked them to go check on Natsu, how he and Rogue found the entire first floor of their house in shambles. He told on about what Rogue found and the message on the wall that had Levy and Lucy gasping. Sting held his breath watching the dark haired man himself.

"Can I go take a look?" Gajeel asked after awhile, looking to Gray. "Are we allowed inside?"

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever you want."

Gajeel nodded as he made his way toward the house, arms folded across his chest followed by Gray, Rogue and Loke leaving Lucy, Levy, Cana and Sting on the front lawn. Gajeel carefully threaded the threshold, arms dropping to his sides and moved past the deceased door. He turned to Rogue and Sting.

"Where's the message?"

Rogue pointed to the living room as the wild haired man followed the arm into the said room. He paused in front of the scene, arms refolding themselves across his chest once more as he stared long and hard at the message in front of him. Gray felt the world fall out from underneath him as he read the message and his heart stop. It was true all true;

He was never yours to begin with, Fullbuster.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Gajeel growled, as he moved closer to the wall.

"We don't know." Rogue looking to Loke as he explained the message. "I can't even fathom the meaning behind it if was written in blood. And if it Natsu's blood then what was the poin-"

"It's not his blood."

"What?" Gray and Rogue asked on the same breath.

"If it's not Natsu's blood- Then who's is it?" Loke asked, eyes wide.

"Nobody's." Gajeel said, as he passed in front of the wall and swiped his hand across the words, 'never' and 'yours', covering his hand in the 'blood' and swearing the two words into a blur.

"Nobody's?!" Gray was lost. "That's impossible! It's got to belong to somebody."

Gray quickly clutched the flesh over his heart as hope bubbled in his chest. Sure, it was never good to have message written in blood in general but if it's not Natsu's then that meant-

"It's nobody's." Gajeel repeated in annoyance, as he brought his hand down to his face and gave it tentative lick."It's fake."

"Fake?"

"Huh?"

What do you mean?"

"It's fake blood," Gajeel explained, still holding his hand up still and turning to look at the small group behind him. "Ya' know- That Halloween special effect shit. Stuff you would pick up from anywhere between 3 to 20 jewels a bottle. Depending on the size, the brand and the location you buy it from."

"So that means-" Gray could feel relief replacing the blood in his veins and pumping into his very heart.

"It means Natsu's still alive and unharmed," Gajeel nodded, before looking back to the wall. "But for how long, I don't know. Looks to me this guy means business."

"What do you mean?" Sting asked as he moved closer.

"I think this guy's looking for revenge," Gajeel explained. "Gray or Natsu, one of you two must've done something to piss this guy off."

"But why does it refer to Natsu not belonging to Gray?" Cana asked. "I'm lost."

Sting bristled. "Don't say that."

"Say what?" Lucy asked. She paused. "Oh! You mean the word, 'belong'?"

"Yes- THAT! Don't ever mention that word in my presence."

"I'm sorry!" Lucy squeaked, trembling.

"ENOUGH!" Gajeel barked. "Go cry me a river Timberlake! I don't know either, but if I'm guessing right, we probably have at least 48 hours to find Natsu and quick."

"Or what?" Loke asked as he pulled Lucy close to him. "What will happen to him?"

"If we don't find Natsu and fast," Gajeel bit his lip. Gray didn't think there was a time he remembered the taller male looked this scared and it made him feel scared. "He's going to end up buried in a shallow grave somewhere in Fiore."