The Power of One Dream (A One Piece x Fairy Tail Story)

Part 17

A/N: Warning: Gender questioning (maybe a little insensitive) Natsu to follow.

Both champions turned to the two fearful female voices to the far side of the room. All thoughts of their previous fight vacated their minds as they beheld the very two they had fought tooth and nail to find. Lucy looked tearfully at Natsu's injuries. Nami was on the verge of bawling her eyes out at Luffy's injuries. Without another word, the two women rushed to their respective partners and embraced them lovingly. Natsu's injuries flared a fresh in the grip of Lucy's warm embrace while she silently sobbed into his shoulder. But to him, seeing her unharmed, taking in the luscious strawberry/vanilla scent of her hair in his nostrils, and feeling the sweet pitter-patter of her heart beat against his through her ample bosom as he held her were all the best medicine in the world.

"Hey... I guess you two really like each other, huh." Luffy croaked matter-of-factly with a scratchy voice and a bloodied mouth. Nami pulled out of her lover's embrace just enough to gaze at the pair with a bright smile in spite of her tear-strewn face. Natsu and Lucy looked into each other's eyes (or into Natsu's one unswollen eye) shocked and embarrassed. Soon though, blushes on both pairs of cheeks and whirlpools of emotions gave way to dawning realisation.. and small hopeful smiles on both faces.

"That or you're constipated.. (Natsu and Lucy turned to the tactless pirate captain with a deadpan stare).. Hey 'Loosely', are you constipated?- OWWW!!!"

"YOU JUST HAD TO KILL THE MOMENT!!!" Nami shrieked, angrily thumping Luffy on top of his head. Natsu and Lucy continued to stare, and sweat-dropped.

"Ahem..."

The foursome turned sharply to the far corner of the room. The women having forgotten in the moment, and the men being unaware until that moment, that they were not the only ones in that room. Natsu and Luffy instinctively tensed at the sight of two Manticore Sting members (one average size, the other about 3 times their size, and with large red horns poking through their hood) amongst the group. "It's alright, their friends!" a young pink-haired woman spoke up anxiously standing before the masked individuals and the foursome; her dressed in the same grim black robes.

"Meredy...??" Natsu regarded the Maguilty Mage cautiously. Fairy Tail's former enemy (a former member of Grimoire Heart and the notorious 'Seven Kin of Purgatory'), now an uncertain but nevertheless valiant ally. All the while wondering what the Heck would bring her here among these nutjobs! And perhaps stranger still, Loke sat on an infirmary bed near to them seeming pretty chill, apart from looking totally drained. The latter of which (given the general negative aura that hung around the whole place) Natsu could understand. "Tra-Guy..??"

Natsu looked back to Luffy on the floor rubbing his sore head, and followed his gaze to another man seated on a bed opposite. He wore a white furry cap with black spots and a long black fur-trimmed trench-coat over blue jeans. He carried a long thin sword in a black scabbard with white cross-decorations in hands with the letters 'D-E-A-T-H' tattooed across the knuckles. And his trim-bearded-face was contorted in an irritable (and particularly weary) scowl as his icy-blue eyes looked to Luffy, to Nami, to her pregnant belly, and back to Luffy.

"Can't stop complicating things, can you Mugiwara-ya!?" he sighed wearily. "Hey! Can someone tell me what the Heck's going on here?!?" Natsu exclaimed, feeling his head aching with so much happening at once. Meredy looked to Lucy, who gave her a solemn nod. Then the pinkette addressed Natsu and Luffy.

"For the last 4 months, I've been working under the pretence of servitude to Manticore Sting, whilst co-ordinating my efforts undercover for Crime Sorciere with a select group from other Wizard Guilds. It's thanks largely to them I was able to convince the Elite Guild Members that I had forsaken my former comrades to serve them in their grand scheme, given my own chequered past-", "It's thanks to you pushing your Magic and your limits to keep us all in the loop and get word to the outside that's kept us from being discovered and becoming Manticore Food for this long!" one of the robed/masked figures interrupted praising Meredy, to which she bowed her head humbly. A voice Natsu was sure he knew.