Chapter Eight

Anna, My Love?

Harsh light filtered through the dreary eyes of the Salamander, unsure of his surroundings or even what had happened to him. The last thing he remembered was the Demon of Fairy Tail attempting to intrude into his mind, knowing that could have disastrous results if she managed to rattle E.N.D's cage.

His eyes started to adjust but as he tried to get a good look at his surroundings, he was stricken by the site in front of him, his heart suddenly thumping painfully hard against his ribs as he looked at her, sitting as gracefully as an angel by the side of him.

"Anna?" he asked in a frail voice, trying to reach out to her with shaking hands, "Anna my love, is that really you?" his voice was desperate for it to be true. He couldn't believe it, was she really there, sitting right next to him.

Before he could reach her, she suddenly became aware of the fact that he'd awoken and taken several hasty steps back, allowing more light to reach his sensitive eyes.

Trying to shy away from the brightness he clasped his hands down with a quiet hiss while it all slowly filtered through. The first thing he noticed was that his hands were bound in rope, as were his feet, and then he noticed how both of the aforementioned were connected all across his body.

"Why am I tied up in such a… Kinky way?" he asked aloud, not realizing that he was surrounded by more than just the visage of his late love.

"I tied you up, it has anti-magic seals woven through the fibres, we had to ensure that you would stay with us here until the master returns, that was his wish." Erza's voice pulled his attention away as she stepped into his view.

"Right… But why did you tie me up like I'm about to be fucked to death?" he asked her again, noticing the violent blush that rose through her cheeks. She didn't say anything but simply walked past and smacked his face, hard.

"Rude." he uttered before looking back at the blonde in the short skirt, "You're not really her, are you?" he asked sadly, seeing the look of fear that had been worn across her features from the moment he'd tried to reach out to her.

She slowly shook her head, "I'm sorry, but my name isn't Anna, it's Lucy." she confirmed, still watching him through an intensely cautious gaze.

"But you are a Heartfilia, you look identical to my Anna." his words struck her to her core, causing so many questions.

"I'm an only child and my mother's name is Layla, you can't possibly have known that my name is Heartfilia, how did you…" she stopped and just stared at him again, almost as if she was waiting for him to fill in the gaps for her.

"No, you wouldn't know her. My Anna was taken from me, hundreds of years ago, I was just… I'm sorry, you just look so much like she did, and you're swimming in celestial energy, just like her." Natsu added, his gaze one of loving reminiscence, not at all anything like the abrasive and challenging personality that she'd seen of him thus far.

"That's because she's a celestial mage, silly!" a chirpy voice called out from right underneath his chin causing him to look down and notice that there was a blue winged cat comfortably curled up on his chest, showing no fear nor signs he was about to move.

"Oh, hello, what, uh… What are you doing, and what exactly are you?" he asked with an inquisitively raised brow. He'd never seen a one of those before.

"You're really warm, it's sooo nice here. My name is Happy and I'm a cat, obviously!" the blue furball answered as cheerily as anything.

"Obviously." Natsu mirrored, bemused by the feline's antics.

"Aye sir!" Happy confirmed.

"Well that's a little strange, but ok." Natsu grumbled before trying to angle himself so that he could see everything else around him without dislodging the blue cat from where he was clearly enjoying Natsu's ambient body temperature.

"Hey, flame-brain, you just said that this Anna person was taken from you hundreds of years ago, how old are you exactly, and what kind of magic can keep someone looking so young? Even gramps hasn't been able to stop the wrinkles from setting in." Gray asked, making his voice know from where he'd been sat shirtless on a small stump over on Lucy's left.

"Several hundreds of years old, and… Did you call me flame-brain? What, the little ice princess couldn't think of a better nickname?" Natsu grinned at seeing Grey's chagrin.

"If you're going to try to insult me then let's at least make one thing clear, I'm an ice-make mage and if I focused enough power, I'd be able to trap you permanently in a shell of unbreakable ice, so maybe keep that in mind the next time you think about coming after us like that." Gray threatened him, unsure of whether or not it would even land against someone like the Salamander, it seemed that everything so far was unremarkable to him in some way or another.

"Oh yeah, well why don't you ice-make this,-" he said, casually flipping Grey his middle fingers, "and shove it up your-" he'd been cut off as Mira came across his view, her personality having totally flipped from the fiery eyed Satan Soul user that he'd previously had an encounter with.

"Silvertop." he greeted her as she kneeled down to be as close to eye level with him as she could.

"How did I beat you?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she watched him with a blank expression.

"You were on the cusp of losing control forever, I had to do something that I haven't done in an age." he admitted with a gentle shrug, being sure to not disturb Happy.

"I can use a magic called Nullify which does exactly what it says on the tin, but it's a double edged sword." he explained, seeing the lights go off in Mira's mind as her eyes suddenly filled with understanding.

"It nullifies your own magic as well?" she asked.

"Exactly, at which point it becomes a war of attrition between the user and the target, so, actually, I'm still nil for nil against the Fairy Tail guild because Titania only one because some dickwad used time magic on me, and between us I was defeated by my own spell, so, nuh." he said, sticking his tongue out at her childishly.

She quickly flicked him on the nose, earning a glare from the Salamander.

"You did recover my magic, I can summon my Satan Soul whenever I want, and I'm in full control of it, so I should be thanking you, but…" Mira trailed off, sparing a glance at Erza who watched on impassively.

"I accept payment through kisses, homecooked food, and the blood of my enemies, though, honestly the first one is always more preferable." he said, holding a grin as he watched Mira sigh.

"Idiot." she said, smacking him on the side of the head much the same as Erza had before she too got up and stood over by the Fairy Queen, their stances matching.

"Rude." he said again, grumbling slightly.

"Hey, Lily-" he said, glancing over at the celestial mage.

"Lucy."

"Whatever, you wanna hit me as well, make it three for three on the hotties of Fairy Tail striking an unarmed man while he's proverbially down?" he asked, trying to glare at Erza and Mira but being unable to crane his neck that far over.

"You know what, I think I owe you one for destroying our guildhall." Lucy said, slowly walking back over to him. He could see Grey in the background barely able to contain his laughter at seeing the Salamander being so effectively manhandled by the three of them.

"Well, it seems like my time here is up, sorry Happy, but I gotta move you little guy." he said, gently grabbing the blue cat as he readjusted and sat himself up, much to Happy's displeasure.

"Yeah, I know. I'll make it up to you sometime though. You like fish? I'll be sure to bring you a good one if I ever come back through this way." he said, making a promise to the blue cat that had tugged at Lucy's heartstrings.

If she hadn't seen the way he acted in that little bar earlier then she would never have believed that the man in front of her was THE Salamander, it just didn't make sense, he seemed like such a kind and loving soul.

"Aw, ok then, but that's a promise so you've gotta come back soon!" Happy said, taking to the air as he started to circle around Lucy.

"I don't make promises, not anymore, but I will try really hard to come back this way and give you that fish." he said at last before standing up and stretching out. The ropes that had been bound around him at questionably tight intervals had burst into flames, falling to the ground as ash in no time at all.

"Those were extremely high quality anti-magic ropes." Erza stated flatly with a frown as she watched the small pile of black char at Natsu's feet.

"I'm not apologizing for burning your sex rope, you shouldn't have tried to contain me in the first place." Natsu shot back, looking Erza right in the eyes with a challenging smirk that he was surprised to see she hadn't returned.

"They were asked to keep you here until that idiot Makarov returns, I do so hope you aren't about to start fighting in my home." a wizened voice caused him to turn to face the newest presence, though he had a sneaking suspicion on who it might be based off of the smell he'd gotten only seconds prior.

"Porlyusica, you old salt! You're as beautiful as the day I first saw you!" he gushed, marching right over to her and taking her hand, placing a gently kiss on it. There was a moment where none of the Fairy Tail mages knew what to do until Porlyusica had slapped him across the face, hard.

"Ooh, not sure I deserved that." Natsu said with a soft smile, tenderly rubbing the already throbbing cheek.

"It's already been over a decade since you last left here, and you told me that you were going on a hunting trip, that you had Igneel's scent and that if you didn't find him within a few weeks that you would return here. You should never make promises to a lady that you don't intend to keep." Porlyusica told him with a deathly glare.

"I take it back, I did deserve that." Natsu agreed, looking away from her.

"I hate to sound like a broken record, but I'm pretty sure I just picked up Igneel's scent, so I'm going to make like a tree and get the fu-" Natsu had been moments away from walking away from the group in the clearing before Lucy stood in his path.

She wasn't sure quite what she was planning but something deep down told her that she had some level of leeway with him purely because of the similarities she held to a relative she'd never even heard of.

So she went for it.

"Not so fast, you've been told that you're waiting for the master to return so you're going to sit down and behave yourself!" she demanded, poking a finger against his chest that made him take an involuntary step back.

He had an instant flashback to a memory where almost those exact words had been ushered before the terrifying Anna Heartfilia had unleashed a torrent of celestial energy on him that had tanned his hide for a week straight.

"Yes Anna!" he said without realizing what was happening.

He'd been halfway to sitting down before it had struck him. "That was dirty, you were leaning into that." he said with a glare that burned a hole through the celestial mage. She had to put every ounce of self control into standing her ground but fortunately after a moment the Salamander's intense eyes had softened.

"Fine, what does the geezer want with me? I've already paid a hefty bag of commandeered jewels in lieu of your guild hall, as far as I'm concerned that ceases my involvement." Natsu told them, looking between them to try and see if they'd known what was going on.

"Well there's also the streets of Magnolia that you tore up." Gray pointed out unhelpfully.

"Wha- that wasn't me, that was the hot one!" Natsu shot back in exasperation.

"Which one is the hot one?" Erza asked, her tone laced with so much venom that even the would-be dark made flinched at it.

"I decline to answer." he responded immediately.

"I think he was pointing at Mira." Lucy told them, not doing so well at hiding her smirk.

"Actually ice-dick over there is more my type." he said with a grin, hoping that this would throw them off of him entirely.

"Really dude?" Gray sighed.

"Well, I mean, I've definitely woken up after drinking way too much and, well, you know, ahem, anyway, my standards have definitely fallen beneath you in the past." Natsu admitted, scratching the side of his cheek.

"I'm going to take that as the compliment that it was kind of meant to be, but I'm not going to fuck you." Gray retorted, crossing his arms as he stood his ground.

"Odd that you think you would be the dominant one." Natsu grinned, knowing that challenging him on something like this was sure to get a fight going.

"Oh I absolutely would be, you wanna throw down right now?" Gray asked, intending for it to have sounded far more aggressive than it really did.

"What, you just wanna go at it in front of these three? I mean, sure, I'm game." Natsu shrugged, taking his jacket off and peeling it over his shoulders and off of his body, revealing am upper body that looked like it had been chiselled from granite.

All three of the female mages among them were staring in varying decrees of subtlety.

Lucy was trying her best not to focus on it, Erza was not so clearly shielding her eyes and yet still managing to get a decent look while Mira was just openly staring with a highly appreciative smile on show, shamelessly surveying the various different muscles adorning his frame.

"I am living for the sexual tension between you two," Lucy said, "but what the hell happened to your chest?" she asked, referring to the immensely scarred area above his heart, it was a sickly pale shade compared to the rest of his impressively tanned skin.

"At some point I stopped doing push ups and started doing planet-downs, usually gets the pecs pretty pumped up." Natsu told her.

"I'm pretty sure she means what happened to the skin on said pec." Mira jutted in, still drinking in the image in front of her.

"And I would love to tell you, but, we're just not that close." he said with a laugh before donning his jacket again, albeit this time it was open and still revealed the abdominal muscles that looked like they'd been woven by the god of crafts.

"And seeing as your master isn't likely to return any time soon and none of you can actually stop me, imma head out." he grinned before actually proceeding to leave.

"So, how do we stop him from going, exactly?" Lucy asked.

Erza gently tapped the sigil that had been branded onto her chest, wondering if it would have any real effect on him. They watched as he stopped dead in his tracks, slowly turning to glance at her.

"Do you really want to use that up?" he asked, his tone no longer the cheery one he'd held during this encounter.

"Our master wouldn't have asked us to keep you here if it wasn't for a very good reason, please don't make this difficult on us." Erza asked gently, hoping to appeal whatever good nature the man might have had.

He simply stared at her for what felt like an eternity before huffing and walking back towards them.

"Laney-"

"Lucy!" she corrected him.

"Whatever, give me your hand." he told her, grabbing it as soon as she was within reach, "Gods you even smell exactly the same, are you sure you're not Anna?" he asked with a flirtatious grin.

"If I was then I assume I'd have a lot more patience for whatever bullshit this currently is." she said, glaring at him, not enjoying his antics at the moment.

"You wound me." Natsu laughed, vastly enjoying the verbal challenge he'd gotten from these Fairy Tail mages so far. "This one is a freebie, summon me when your master is back, but it better be good otherwise I'm going to break your new guildhall once it's built." he said, placing a different kind of sigil on Lucy's shoulder, one that she wasn't going to be lead into a fight from.

"Ladies, Porlyusica, stay sexy." he told them before flipping Gray off once again and leaving for good this time. It wasn't long before they couldn't feel any traces of his enormous power lingering. They all had different thoughts about him but the predominant ones were of how different he was compared to the first few moments that he'd walked into the guild hall.

"I hope that master Makarov knows what he's doing." Erza whispered to herself, unbeknownst that they'd all heard her reservations, and agreed with it.

"He's not a dark mage like many believe him to be." Porlyusica told them all, her steely gaze still glue to the path she'd watched the Salamander walk, "a scoundrel that toys with the hearts of women perhaps, but he's no dark mage, he was just unfairly branded as such by the magic council decades ago after an excessively volatile argument."

"Then, the master should be able to fix that with his meeting, right?" Gray asked, unsure if that was something that he even wanted, he could feel that there was already going to be an intense rivalry between them, fire and ice, it was destined to happen.

"No," Porlyusica sighed, "Probably not. The council aren't likely to forgive him for destroying their last building for another few decades to say the least."

A/N: Review?