A Dragon's Treasure

A Dragon's Treasure is Found

It had been a long mission, but a good one. Lucy Heartfilia and Natsu Dragneel had just finished taking out some Vulcans from a nearby village that was starting to get over run, and came out with just enough jewels to pay Lucy's rent and buy plenty of food for Natsu and Happy - the blue exceed. The team was walking along a shaded forest path, back to Magnolia.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked, getting the young pink haired man's attention.

"Yeah Luce?" He replied, his head still tilted to the sky with his hands laced behind his head, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"We should get the gang together when we get back, to go do something fun." She said it simply, wanting to sound like it didn't matter to her if he said no. What Lucy really wanted to do was spend some alone time with the dragon slayer, but didn't want it to sound too much like a date. She may have feelings for Natsu, but she was sure he still liked the younger Strauss sister, Lisanna. She had begun to notice her feelings for Natsu just before the Tenrou Island incident. After their seven years of sleep on the island, it has now been nearly four years since they came back, and reclaimed their rightful spot as the number one guild in Fiore. She was 24 years old now, and she couldn't believe that she still couldn't tell a boy how she felt! Eleven years and she hadn't told him her feelings, even if most of that was spent in a trance.

"Yeah! Of course Luce!" Natsu was excited to see his guild mates again, but Lucy didn't notice the slight twinge in his eye. A little disappointed that she hadn't asked if they wanted to do something together, just the two of them. "Now," he continued, "what would be something fun to do..." As he was thinking of things to do, and they came upon a small clearing in the forest, that is when the unexpected happened.

Out of nowhere, eight men appeared on the path they were on, surrounding them. Before either Natsu or Lucy could make a move, two of the men had grabbed Lucy, one of them holding a knife to her neck.

"Now!" A gruff voiced man barked out, getting Natsu to listen. Although he wouldn't take his eyes off of Lucy. "Listen here you little punk! We want all of your jewels, and any other valuables you have, or we are going to take our anger out on your girlfriend over here, and then you!"

Natsu knew he could take them, but didn't want to risk hurting Lucy. He also knew that if he could help her get her arms free from behind her back, or catch her captives off guard, that she could reach for her keys and get herself to safety while he took out the rest of the bandits. Natsu finally looked away from Lucy and to the man who seemed to be in charge.

"Wow dude, you really picked the wrong girl to mess with," he said with a slight smile. "I mean, you can take her if you really want to, but I doubt you can handle her." Natsu was trying his best to be nonchalant. Natsu looked back to Lucy and made eye contact. She was smart and Natsu could tell she was already on the same page as him. "I mean really man, please, take her off my hands." Natsu now had his hands in the air, shrugging his shoulders with his eyes closed, but his ears focused on every movement around him. The bandits seemed taken aback, unsure of how their regular go to plan had failed. As one of Lucy's captors reached back to scratch his head in confusion, she took that as her que. She broke herself free and dropped to the ground as fast as she could.

"Now Natsu!" Before Lucy could even finish those two words, Natsu had already begun to yell.

"Fire Dragon Roar!" He let all of his fury about Lucy being in danger be unleashed in that one, massive, attack. Hitting her two captors so hard they went flying through several trees and then into the forest behind them. The leader was only caught off guard for a moment before he recovered, but that was all Lucy and Natsu needed to get the upper hand. Natus sent Happy to fly back and get the local police to take in the bandits once they were done with them, and had already turned to take on three of the other men, while Lucy reached for her whip and keys.