Natsu was bored, and starting to feel hungry. He'd been searching for an hour now, and had found no one. He was thinking of taking a nap,when he heard Happy yelling his name.

"NATSU!"

He looked around, and found a building tall enough. Climbing to the top, he spotted Happy, a flying blue speck.

"Down here, buddy!"

Happy rushed down to him. As he got closer, Natsu saw that there was something wrong. He looked worried.

"Lucyfaintedandthesepeopletookherinsideahouseandshelooks sickandIthi-"

"Now slow down. What's that about Lucy? Why aren't you with her?" Natsu said, calming Happy in his arms.

"She fainted and these people came out of nowhere and took her!"

"WHAT?!"

Happy unfolded his wings, and grabbed Natsu by his collar. He took off, heading in Lucy's direction.

"I don't think they're bad guys, I think they were trying to treat her."

Natsu looked mad. "But what's wrong with her? Did anyone attack her?"

"No, I think cause it's she hasn't eaten since yesterday."

"Thay makes people faint?!"

"I don't know, but Lucy is amie-amie..."

"Anaemic? What's that? Is she dying?!"

"I dunno, Natsu, but that's the house. The yellow one.",

Happy flew lower, and Natsu let go of him. He hit the ground running, and burst through the front door.

Inside, several faces stared at him. There was a woman, standing frozen, with what looked like porridge in her hands. A man was sitting on the floor, and several children sat next to him. In the midst of all of them sat Lucy, holding a glass of water.

"Natsu!"

_______________________________________________________________

"You're okay? Happy said you fainted."

"She was dehydrated, and she hasn't eaten breakfast, lunch, or last night's dinner. No wonder she did," The woman said, watching Lucy eat.

Natsu and Happy were sitting at the Raymonds' dining table, next to Lucy.

"I'm fine now, ma'am. I'm sorry for being such a bother."

"Oh you're alright, Lucy dear, the only thing that's bothering me is your boyfriend breaking down my front door."

Happy giggled.

"She's not m- I'm sorry about that, I'll get you a new one."

"Natsu, did you tell Gray and Erza about this?" Lucy asked.

"Oh crap, Erza." He ran outside.

Raising his arms, he shot fire into the sky. It burst into beautiful yellow colours, just like fireworks.

Immediately, the whole family froze in their tracks. Then, there was total pandemonium.

"Why would you do that?!" The father demanded, rushing towards him. Startled, Natsu jumped back, his left hand ablaze. Lucy ran, and managed to get in between Mr. Raymond and Natsu.

"I'm sorry, sir, we just signalled to our friends to let them know that we found civilians, please don't hurt us. And Natsu's just jumpy, he means no harm." Lucy smiled weakly at the man. Extinguishing his flames, Natsu straightened.

"Yeah man, chill. We're not monsters, we won't hurt ya."

"NATSU FUCKING DRAGNEEL, I WILL KILL YOU!"

_______________________________________________________________

Erza was running towards them at full speed, her Light Armour glinting in the last of the sun's rays. Her eyes looked like they were on fire, and the spear in her hand did not help matters either.

Mr. Raymond and Natsu were shaking like leaves in the wind.

"I said one hour. One!" Her voice was deafening. "I SWEAR BY THE BLADE I WEILD, YOU WILL REGRET BEING ALIV- oh hello there, sir."

She skidded to a stop, and gave Mr.Raymond a warm smile. His knees gave away, and he sat down on the pavement. He was sweating, and his face was white.

"Not monsters....you said?" He muttered. Lucy knelt down next to him. "We might seem a little...excited, but we're trying to help you, I swear." He shook his head, and chuckled slightly.

Erza requipped into her regular clothes. "My apologies, sir, for being so loud. It's just that my accomplice, here," She shot Natsu a dirty look,"worried me a little."

That's when I showed up majestically, skating on the path I froze.

"Jeez Erza, you could've slowed down. Also, I might've frozen most of the streets on my way here," I said, with my deep, sexy, voice. That makes ladies swoon all the time.

"Gray!" Happy yelled.

"Yo Ice Princess, what took you so long?" Natsu asked.

I rolled my eyes. I would've retorted, but the man sitting next to Lucy on the ground started laughing. A lady (she was very pretty), probably his wife, stood framed in the doorway, her face exasperated.

"Oh lord," He said, chuckling,"You all are crazier than what we've heard."

"Hey, I wouldn't say that. You did appear out of thin air," Happy said.

"You're in no position to judge me, cat. Look at y'all. Didn't eat for nearly two days, broke down my front door, used the streets as a skating rink, and.... turned into a demon," He said, gesturing around.

"Well, I suppose you're right," Erza said, smiling lightly. "But onto more pressing matters, we were called here professionally, so sir, could you please take us to your mayor?"

The man smiled. "Sure. In fact, you're looking at him right now.

"Whoa ma-" Natsu shut up, seeing the look on Erza's face.

"You're t-" Lucy froze. Erza was glaring at her.

I snickered.

"We're glad to be of service to you, sir," Erza said, and helped the man up. His wife came forward, and smiled at all of us.

"Why don't you kids come inside?"

_______________________________________________________________

When Erza followed the Mayor inside, Natsu, Lucy and I hung back.

"What were you two doing, making out?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Both of them got flustered. "No!" They chorused.

"Lucy here, got sick."

"And Mrs. Raymond helped me get better!"

"And I came here to see if she was fine!"

I couldn't help but smirk. "Sure," I said, and left them to blush.

The table at the Mayor's house wasn't big enough for all of us, so his children were made to eat in the kitchen. Mrs. Raymond hadn't expected these many of us, and she hadn't prepared much food, so we settled for coffee. Except Lucy, who was given a bowl of porridge. I noticed that both Natsu and Lucy had taken seats as far away from each other as possible, and were avoiding eye contact. I couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

"...yesterday afternoon, I mean. She skipped three meals, and she's anaemic. No wonder she fainted, the poor thing," Mrs. Raymond was saying to Erza. She looked at Lucy, her gaze considerably softened.

"So, um...sir, can you please brief us on the situation here?" Erza asked.

"Yes. And where did all the people go?" Lucy continued.

"The people are fine. I moved them underground, for now, as the situation here isn't exactly safe. A little over a month ago, a band of wizards came to Greenthorne. It was a dark guild named 'Shadow Claw'. They took over the Southern part of our town, and captured a few of the citizens."

"Oh they wanted ransom?" Natsu interrupted.

"No, in fact, Greenthorne has great reserves of emerald within the soil. It's where it got its name. We are a peace loving town, and we hate the hustle and bustle, so we traded emerald only in small amounts, which meant word didn't get out that our mines were rich."

"But somehow, these people caught wind of it, and came into town. So they held some of our people as hostage, and want us to surrender our mines to them. However small our emerald dealings are, it's our main source of income, and we don't want to give up on our heritage."

"Understandable, of course," Erza said. "Please continue, sir."

"However, these people are...strange."

"Strange?" I asked.

"Like, do they have horns in their heads?" Happy interjected.

"No, they seem, ah, let's say, fun. They're hosting a party tonight, and they've invited the whole town. We'll be holding negotiations, afterwards, apparently. Obviously, none of the townspeople would attend. But something doesn't feel right about it. The forests to the North of here are unoccupied, and our research has shown that they have huge reserves of emerald as well.

It's not part of the town, and we mentioned this to their guild's leader. But they seem adamant, and insist on taking over our town, as the mines make up a pretty large part of Greenthorne. I think they're behind something else, and I want to know what. Besides, we also need the hostages back."

"Interesting...sir, this party. Can you give us the details?"

"It starts at eleven tonight. It's held in my mansion, in the Southern borders. They've been residing there, and have invited me to stay with them, too, but I wouldn't hear of it."

"I don't get it. Why didn't we notice it, then? We'd surely notice a mansion with a guild full of people in it," Natsu said.

"I was supposed to go South, right? And I fainted. So we didn't look any further." Lucy looked down, evidently feeling bad.

"Hey Luce, don't blame yourself. It's alright, it's your amenia," Natsu said, smiling at her.

"Anaemia," She corrected him, smiling.

"Whatever. It won't kill you, right?"

Lucy shook her head. Erza seemed to be deep in thought.

"Sir...I think you should make your citizens go to the party."

"What?!" The Mayor seemed shocked.

"Think about it, if the citizens went, too, we could blend in. And we could snoop around a little, find out what they're after, and maybe free the people they took. And if there's a trap, and they capture everyone, we could defeat them, anyways. It's not wise to underestimate our opponents, but we are the strongest team in Fairy Tail, so I think we could do this," Erza finished.

"Seems like a good plan to me," Natsu said. Mr.Raymond considered it.

"Fine," He said, finally. "I'm putting a tremendous amount of faith in you, so do not let me down. I'll inform everyone about the party."

He rose from the table. "Sir, could you do us a favour, please? We'd like to stay somewhere for a while, just until the party, maybe, so we need a few rooms."

"Oh don't worry," He said, not bothering to turn back. "You can use any house in Greenthorne."

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It's 3:00am and I'm so tired ugh. I hope this isn't too long. I hope you liked it, and I hope it isn't too lame. Ah, hope. Nevermind. Thank you for reading.

~T.