If The Key Fits || A Fairy Tail {Nalu} Fanfiction

Chapter 2 ||Consequence||

Happy late Easter everyone! I was really hoping to post this in time for Easter, but it wasn't fully edited so I decided to postpone the update until after I returned from Japan, which was mid last week (which was amazing, by the way). The beginning of this chapter was originally in chapter 1, but was extended out because someone just had to have Zeref added to the story (*glares at _Olim_*) Ahem. Yes, you heard right; Zeref will be in this story. Don't hold out hopes for too soon, though. Natsu and Lucy are the stars of this show. So without further ado, here is chapter two!

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If The Key Fits by SisterDragonSlayers, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, © 2016

Chapter 2 - Consequence

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The azure exceed trembled violently. He had no strength to even lift his head.

Scrapes and scratches marred the ruffled blue of his fur with ugly splotches of red like haphazardly applied paint, poisoning the air with a metallic stench. His spirited wings had retreated. As Lucy and Natsu sprinted to his side, Happy could barely keep open his eyes, pure pain glittering in the corners where tears gathered.

Every breath was ragged and sharp. The sounds the cat gasped out were peppered with agonising wails that were as cut and twisted as his frame. His tiny body jerked abruptly, rolling around as though the ground was on fire.

Lucy reached his side first. Dropping down to her knees, her flesh nicked against the multitude of tiny rocks that honeycombed the rough ground. The pain didn't bother her. Not when the exceed furled in such obvious torture.

'Happy! Speak to me! Please!'

Lucy's hands hovered over his side, hesitating: what if she made it worse? Ever so slowly, the glaze lifted from Happy's eyes, pupils concentrating. They focused on her.

'Ngh ... Lu ... shee ...'

Lucy heaved a relieved sigh, 'Oh, thank Mavis.'

'Happy,' Natsu formed his companion's name, but pure terror melted his words to a mush that burned the inside of his throat.

The dirt beneath the dragon slayer was steaming, threatening to turn the forest clearing into a newly formed volcano. Quaking fingers sluggishly crumpled into his palms. The temperature blasted up ten degrees as Natsu's stomach churned, the world becoming a vehicle as it did loopty loops around his horror-struck mind.

Lucy scooped Happy up tentatively, 'Holy ... he's burning up! His fever is sky high!'

Natsu's patience bit the dust, 'Oi, bastard. What did you do to our friend?'

The final cloaked mage was unseeable. Black as a nightmare was the cover he donned around his thin and feeble build that dragged down to his worn and muddy boots. No features were visible.

'Only what you failed to prevent me from doing,' the mage sneered. 'The great Fairy Tail; is this all you are? Arguing "comrades" that allow those around them to fall?'

Natsu gnashed his fangs together. Lucy cradled the injured Happy in a gentle, motherly embrace as the exceed's breathing evened out in sleep. Jitters plagued his catatonic state. Distressed as she was about Happy's wounds and the prospect of him not waking up, the dark mage managed to hold rapt her attention as she tried keeping the exceed comfortable in her shaking clasp.

'The curse's effects are temporary, I assure you. His soul will be fine. However, for you two,' the hesitation snaked a smile onto the mage's shrouded face, 'you'll do nicely for the project.'