Lucy covered the top of her head with her arms when debry of dust and cement particles clouded her vision, protecting her head from any sharp rocks. Waiting until the scuffle coming from behind her hiding spot of the giant barrels, Lucy cracked one brown eye open and listened as best as she could with her ears, even though they were ringing a tiny bit from the echoing crash.

Before she could pick up anything, a large mass dropped itself by her side, making her squeal in shock as she swung her head around to see Natsu all covered in dust and sneezing like the dork he was. "Natsu!" she yelped before lightly pushing his shoulder when he made a questionable snort. "What happened?"

"Fell through the wall, is all. Wasn't supported well enough," Natsu said as he shook his hands through his pink hair, removing any pale dust off of his head and brush his shoulders clean. He was wearing a white shirt and black jeans with his racing boots, a couple tears exposing his torso, he didn't look to be bleeding and Lucy took that for a good result. "You doing okay?"

"Can I come out now?" the blonde sighed as she willingly reached up and fluffed his hair, where he missed the spot to remove the dust. "We're suppose to find that safe, not tear down the whole place."

"Yeah, yeah," the racer grumbled in a pout before standing up, grabbing the slender hand along with him to bring Lucy to her feet. "I couldn't find anyone in here, so we're all good to go!"

The job was simple. All Natsu and Lucy had to do was go to this abandoned warehouse outside the limits of the city and look for a safe that belonged to a name that was found on the files Lucy obtained back in the train - the station was ecstatic with the newfound information the files gave once translated - and asked Makarov to look into it. Makarov had explained to Natsu and Lucy that the files noted about a safe holding on to more documents on future deliveries, which the dealers would sneak into and take without notice (trespassing was fairly simple, if you do it right). Natsu and Lucy just got permission...

They drove into the parking garage to find motorbikes leaned against the walls, so Natsu - the overprotective partner he is with Lucy - told her to hide away from the car while he scoped out the area. As usual, the pink haired racer must've thoroughly searched the garage for any cameras or wires, just incase. Some of the garage had construction around, and Lucy found the wall he fell through and onto a pile of debris and rubble that knocked over.

Lucy shook her head with amusement when Natsu strolled lazily over to the doorless entryway that would lead into the warehouse before following close behind him. Her taser strapped to her belt and her blonde hair in low ponytails, she felt confident in her given task as she kept up with her partner in the hallway, looking into rooms that they passed by, either trashed or empty.

"Where do you usually hide a safe in the drug dealer's world?" Lucy asked when she hopped closer to his side, looking to see him somewhat ignoring the rooms on his side. "You seem to know where you're going, Natsu."

"In the office?" Natsu guessed dumbly, making Lucy twitch at his answer.

"Really?" Lucy sighed before slapping her palm to her forehead. "Haven't you done something like this before?"

"Well, yeah, but every drug boss is different!" Natsu shrugged before smiling to Lucy like he always does. "Some keep it in the most obvious spots and others tend to hide it, and it gets really annoying sometimes. One time, Erza told me to go find this guy's safe who was running an illegal operation of child labor, and I couldn't find it whatsoever! Funny thing was that the safe was in the dude's bathroom under the sink."

"Sometimes I wonder if you make some of these stories up," Lucy sighed again, but smiling nonetheless at how serious he was being in actually starting to look around for clues."I ain't gonna lie to ya, Lucy," Natsu grumbled like a stubborn child, making Lucy giggle and reach to grip on to the hem of his shirt as he hurried in his pace. He seemed to have his attention in seven different places at once. "It was in his bathroom, and it was a nasty-lookin' place to be, I swear to God. You walk in there and it hits you like when Laxus tried to electrocute me while I was sleeping."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me," Lucy said bluntly, stopping Natsu by tugging on his shirt to go into a room that resembled a trashed bedroom you would see in a crime movie. Paper littered with empty beer cans and a torn up mattress in one corner, Lucy used her foot to kick a small pile of crumpled paper to see names written on it.

"What'cha lookin' at?" Natsu asked when she reached down and picked up a pink paper.

"This paper has train routes and delivery stops on it," she said, holding the paper up for him to take. "The file didn't have any deliver routes, did it?"

"Not that I remember," Natsu shrugged before tapping a corner of it. "This is dated from last week, too, and it's crossed out the train we got into to get the drugs. Looks like they were going someplace in the city after the trains top."

"Does it say where?" she asked, frowning to see him shake his head.

"Wherever it was gonna go, they scratched it out. I can't tell what it says, but we can probably hand it over to Gramps to give to the station when we get back," he offered with a half-grin. "You're good at this, Luce! Like a detective, or something."

Lucy rolled her eyes and got up to look around the room. "I don't see a safe in here, but they seem to look over junk in this room. Wanna check out another room?"

"Hold on a moment," Natsu reached into his pack pocket and pulled out a switchblade, making his way over to the shredded mattress. The blonde watched with a raised brow as her partner dug the knife into the torn part in the middle, yanking out chunks of the stuffing and throwing it over his shoulder, littering the room more before he perked.

"What is it?"

Natsu pocketed the switchblade before reaching in with both hands into the stomach of the mattress, pulling out a small-sized, silver safe with a black spin in the middle. A dorky grin on his tanned face, the racer snickered like a naughty thief as he placed the safe on his toned shoulder. "Looks like we hit the jackpot after all, Luce. Wait until I get to rub this in ice prick's face!"

"Calm down there, cowboy," Lucy chuckled as she got to her feet. "We should still check out the rest of the place, you know. Just incase there's more than one safe or we find something to bring back.""Oh shit, that sounds pro," Natsu's eyes opened wide at Lucy's serious idea, dropping the safe into his palms as he weighed it carefully. "Alright, we'll check the rest out. I'm gonna put this in the backseat. You wait here until I come back, then we can check it out."

With that said, Natsu hauled the safe out, leaving the blonde in the trashed room to look around boredly for one minute. The mattress stuffing and shredded paper all over the place, Lucy couldn't pick out anything else that was of importance to their job.

'It's not gonna hurt to look in the next room,' Lucy thought as she came to the doorway, looking both ways of the hallway before stealing a sneaky glance to the closed door a little ways ahead. She was above the garage, so it was going to take Natsu a couple minutes to get to the car, dispose of the safe inside and come back. And, honestly? Lucy hates waiting when there is so much more to explore.

'Come to think of it,' she thought as she walked over to the door and opened it, 'I don't think I've ever been this brave until I came to Fairy Tail. It's kinda funny how an undercover gang can make me feel more alive and confident with little things!'

Opening the door and walking inside, Lucy couldn't help but smile. 'I probably have Natsu to thank for that, honestly. He's the more adventurous and wild one compared to everyone else when it's on the job...'

A cough stopped Lucy from taking another step, brown eyes coming up to meet bloodshot, ugly ones from across the room near the window. A grunt with heavy tattoos and lack of hair stared straight back at her; dressed in a stained tank and torn jeans, the man was unclean and gnarly-looking as he turned in his cushion, a syringe in one hand and another arm bound with a rubber strap. Lucy stiffened when he moved, her fingers shaking and knees wobbling.

"A...ah..!" she stuttered with her back straightening to a point when the man sloshed to a stance.

"Whad'ya doin' 'ere, hah?" the man slurred, obviously angered by being interrupted for his intended drug-intake. Lucy barely noticed the bottles and cans of empty alcohol around the floor and a heavy stench of the beverage and other unpleasant odors in the air to know fairly well that he wasn't all in the right mind. "Who sent ya in 'ere? 'm busy! Tell 'em I ain't interested in a whore right now!"

Lucy's teeth clattered when his eyes sharpened a stabbing glare at her. Her hands slowly reaching to her belt loops, trying to remember where exactly she placed her taser. When she did so, the man seemed to have noticed what was going on.

"What are ya -? Hey!" the man's voice raised when Lucy took a step back and he slammed his syringe on the floor, shattering it. The grunt began taking hard stomps towards her. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE -!"

By some magical way, Lucy was able to grasp her taser and point it at the man, pulling the trigger and watched in slow motion as the probes shot and aimed perfectly on the man's dirty chest. The addict stiffened and suddenly shuddered to the ground, causing a hard thud to the floor before going completely limp. Lucy let out a shaky exhale when the taser died down and retracted to the gun, her heart pounding hard in her ribcage.

"Oi! What's goin' on?" another alien voice came from up the small flight of stairs to Lucy's right, making her eyes widen. "We're tryin' to sleep, ya fuckin' asshole!"

She refused to hesitate as she dashed to her left, where she and Natsu came from, not looking behind her when footsteps came closer and noises of men started shouting at the surprising sight of their companion on the floor. Nearly stumbling down the steps into the garage, Lucy dove towards the familiar body of Natsu rising from behind the driver's side door, jumping on him with tears in her eyes.

"Luce, what was -?"

"They're coming. We gotta go!" she gasped urgently before scrambling to her side of the car, ripping the door open and leaping inside. "Come on, Natsu! I got their attention!"

Natsu was about to speak before a shout came from the doorway that lead into the building. "HEY!"

Natsu saw four dirtied men pulling out their guns from their pockets, making the pink haired man blink before ducking at a flying bullet. Getting inside the car rather calmly, Natsu slammed the door shut and locked his vehicle before looking to Lucy with narrowed eyes.

"What are you doing? We gotta go!" Lucy screamed at him, seeing the goons trying to open the car doors and shooting at the windows. However, the Lancer was equipped to be bulletproof and stubborn as a tank.

"What did I say about waiting for me, Luce?" Natsu scolded with a serious tone in his voice that made the blonde freeze for a second. "I told you to wait for me to come back before leaving the room!"

"I didn't mean to run into a fucking drug addict!" Lucy yelled back at him in her seat. "I tased him when he tried coming at me and I freaked out! I woke them up, okay? I'm sorry!"

"Wait, you used your taser someone?" Natsu blinked with surprise. He suddenly smiled with interest. "Ya serious? Where'd ya get him, Luce?"

"Natsu!" Lucy shrieked when one of the men slammed their fists into her window, making her lean away from the window and grip onto Natsu's torn shirt.

"OPEN UP!" one of them screamed, causing Natsu to go still.

"Why ain't the bullets breakin' it?"

"
MSome kind of bulletproof shit!""Just get the fucking whore, alright!"

Lucy peeked up to see Natsu with a grumpy expression, seeing how one of the men were trying to climb on the hood of his ride. Sitting back in his seat, Natsu turned on the car and reversed the gears, hitting the gas to cause a ear-piercing screech as they flew backwards into the dusty field, the man stumbling back onto the floor of the garage as his friends screamed. Lucy yelped at the sudden force, gripping tighter to Natsu as she lost her balance and landed with her face into his rock-hard abs, hurting her nose.

The remaining three ran to their bikes and readied to chase after them, prompting Natsu to casually reach over to the glove box and pull out a handgun. Lucy squeaked in shock when he spun the car around with one hand on the wheel as the motorbikes made their way towards them; the city was in sight, but at a great distance away, Lucy knew, and she felt her heart in her throat."Luce," Natsu called her name for her to look up from her spot against his lap. He gave her a kind smile, but his tone was the opposite of his usual, childish self. "Stay down, okay? I'm opening the windows."

"What?" Lucy gawked, but her partner was already doing so already.

Aiming the gun to one side of the opened window, Natsu waited until the first motorbike came to view, shooting at the front tire to explode and cause the rider to crash. Lucy figured none of them bothered to put on helmets, so the agonyzing scream she heard gave her the idea of what kind of mess it was.

"GET 'EM!" one of the men shouted at Natsu's side of the car, prompting the pink haired man to switch his aim to the remaining two on their own bikes, closing one eye to aim directly at the grunt's shoulder. A horrible scream came from the man's mouth, making Lucy plug her ears as the swivel and crash came afterwards.

The last biker remained in Natsu's out of range, but the racer didn't need his gun to finish the job as he pocketed it in his pants where Lucy wasn't holding on too tightly. Spinning the wheel, Natsu rammed the side of his ride to the bike, forcing it to skid and make the rider fly off forward on the trail. Lucy watched as Natsu changed the gears and spun a half-circle to a stop, making the car lurch.

With careful handling, Natsu peeled Lucy's arms off of him and settled her upper body on his seat as he exited the car, allowing her to see him approach the fallen biker feet away from his bike; his leg twisted at a horrible angle and a bad wound to his naked back, the man groaned painfully before looking up to see Natsu hovering over him.

Dropping down to rest his elbows on his knees, Natsu grabbed the back of the man's dirty hair and rolled his head back, forcing eye contact. The man whimpered in pain as Natsu glared darkly before standing, still holding to the man's head and turning around.

Holding the man's injured body to the opened door, Natsu ignored the pained groan and begging from the biker as he spoke in a low voice. "Ya see her in there? Do you see her in the car?" he barked darkly, making both Lucy and the man flinch at his tone. "Answer me!"

The man nodded, tears swelling in his eyes. "P-please, man..! D-don't -!"

"She's not a whore, you understand?" Natsu stopped him, gripping his scalp tighter to make him shriek in pain. Lucy slowly sat up, her breathing deep and hard. "Now, apologize to her."

"I-I ain't the one who -!"

"APOLOGIZE!"

The man sobbed before going limp in Natsu's hold. "I-I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry!" he sobbed to Lucy, his eyes begging for her to do something. "I'm sorry! Sorry!"

Natsu dropped the chanting man and stomped on his head to knock him out, a blank expression on his face as he left the man with his face planted in the dirt. He made his way back to the car and got inside, making Lucy watch him close the door and put on his seatbelt. She didn't get much to say when Natsu leaned over her and slipped her belt over her torso and locked her in properly before resuming to his driving towards the city with no one after them.

Lucy swallowed thickly, stealing a few glances to her driver before coming up with the smallest amount of courage to talk. "N-Natsu...""I'm not mad that you nearly got caught, Luce," he said, his voice calm and casual. The kind of Natsu she was used to, and it made her feel a little bit better. "I'm actually really glad that you used your taser before someone was able to grab ya. That would've turned out messy if you hadn't."

Lucy turned her head to him with furrowed brows. She didn't say anything as she watched him take a deep breath and kept his eyes on the road ahead of them - coming onto a paved trail that would lead back to the city. "It bothered me that one of those shits climbed on the car - not like it was already dirty, but you don't go rubbing your dirty self all over my ride like that. But, besides that, that didn't get to me as much as it normally does."

"T-then what made you so mad?" she asked in a quiet voice, her hands twisting on her lap nervously.

"Because they called you a whore, and I didn't like it," he said seriously, head coming back to rest against the headrest of his seat. Lucy noted it that it was something he did when he truly felt stressed about something (Erza's scolding was usually the cause of this move), and hearing him say the inappropriate word sounded strain to her ears.

Lucy's eyes stun for some reason, but her heart was feeling light and sweet in her chest. It felt like her stomach had butterflies inside, so it was pointless to try to hide that tiny smile from emerging on her lips. Exhaling slowly, Lucy relaxed in her spot and leaned over, resting her head on Natsu's strong shoulder, right where his gang tattoo poked out from the short sleeve of the white shirt. Natsu peeked down to her to see her relaxed, yet he blinked in confusion.

"You doin' okay, Luce?" he asked her, now sounding concerned. "You're not hurt, are ya?"

She shook her head slowly against his torn shirt, her smile still present. "No, I'm good. Thank you, Natsu," she whispered to him.

"What for? I didn't do anything," Natsu whined with a huff, making her smile a bit bigger and hide her tiny giggle. "Those assholes had it coming!"

"Mmhm," she sighed against him. 'You honestly have no idea how much you've done, you idiot,' she thought, wishing she could have said that instead. However, she didn't feel like it was right to say it outloud, even though she knew she could at this point.

"Oi, ya feeling hungry at all? Feel like I could go for a cheeseburger or two right now, after all that trouble we went through."

Lucy's eyes cracked open and her smile turned to a firm line of irritation. "We literally just ate before coming out here. That was no longer than two hours ago, Natsu," she reminded him through clenched teeth.

Natsu, however, as usual, was his giddy self in the end of it all. "But think about the cheeseburgers, Lucy!" he snickered with delight the closer they got to the city. "Should we get Mira's cheeseburgers, or go through a drive-thru? Ooh, how 'bout both?"

"No, Natsu," she told him sternly. "Wait until dinner, so you won't get sick so easily when you and Gray do that stupid brawl you two do after every meal."

"You know he starts it, right? I didn't do anything!"

Lucy rolled her eyes before closing them, mumbling to Natsu to shut his mouth as she held onto his arm gently that was casually laying on the gear shift while he drove with one hand. The driver asked her if she felt okay after being chased and using her present for the first time, Lucy smiled once more and told him she was just fine.

'Really more than just fine,' she thought, feeling how Natsu relaxed under her touch. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest, but she kept that for herself. 'Definitely more than just fine...'