Chapter Text
It was pretty easy picking out a mission this time. Usually, Lucy and Natsu would argue back and forth for a while, but this time Lucy agreed with the first one he suggested. A town in the south was experiencing a lot of trouble with some forest Vulcans and apparently some girls had disappeared as well. The town was a couple of hours away by train which Natsu didn’t like, but the reward would be enough to cover Lucy’s rent and his and Happy’s outrageous food expenses.
After they officially accepted the mission, they decided to meet at the train station an hour later. Happy made them late of course, so Natsu ended up having to run to the station with Happy flying behind him.
"Look who finally showed up," Lucy said with her arms crossed. "My apartment is farther away from the station and I still got here before the both of you."
"Yeah, yeah," Natsu panted, trying to recover from the run.
"Lushee!" Happy whined, flying over to Lucy. "We just got here and you’re already being mean!”
"Oh, I'll show you mean, cat."
"Natsu!" Happy tried flying over to him, but he was waved off.
Natsu wasn’t about to be pulled into their bickering when he already had so much to worry about, like how the hell he was going to survive this train ride. Just looking at the train made his stomach start to do somersaults. By the time they actually started to board, his face had turned a pale green.
Lucy ended up grabbing his scarf and leading him to the seats in the back. She pushed him into a seat by the window and then sat down next to him. "Honestly, Natsu. We haven't even started moving yet."
"You- You try not getting s-sick on a train," he managed to squeeze out between dry hurls. He leaned his head against the side of the seat, hoping the cool air from the open window would help some.
Lucy laughed at his pain like usual, so Natsu turned stuck his tongue at her. She only laughed again and Natsu was about to say something but then the train started moving and it was all Natsu could do to not throw up. He half heard Lucy and Happy talking, but he could barely hear what their conversation was about.
Natsu wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but after what seemed like hours of torture a soft hand started combing through his hair. The touch was soft and warm, and it surprisingly helped alleviate the motion sickness some. He leaned further into the touch until eventually his whole body fell sideways into Lucy. Her lap was a much more comfortable pillow than the side of the seat. Her hand was still combing through his hair, and before Natsu knew it, his eyes were beginning to close. Natsu caught a glimpse of Happy covering his smile with one of his paws, but before he could wonder what that was all about, he drifted off to sleep.
-
Lucy practically ran off the train as soon as it rolled to a stop. She had given Natsu a good shake when they arrived but didn’t wait around for him to fully wake up. Happy would be able to get him up and going and Lucy needed some time to cool off. It’s not like she meant for Natsu to fall asleep in her lap, but she couldn’t have really pushed him off once he laid down.
She took a few deep breaths and fanned her still red cheeks. Lucy didn’t even know why she was freaking out. There had been plenty of times that Natsu had fallen asleep on his lap. Maybe it was because Grey and Erza weren’t with them as well. Or maybe it was Happy who teased her throughout the entire train ride and only stopped when she threatened to steal all his fish. Either way, Lucy needed to pull it together.
Happy flew out of the train a few moments later with Natsu lumbering behind him. He still looked a bit queasy, but he perked up the minute he stepped onto the platform. “Alright! Let’s go kick some Vulcan ass!”
Lucy sighed but followed the two idiots to remind them they needed to stop at the Mayor’s house to get some more information about the quest. It ended up being a short walk, which Lucy was grateful for. A maid let them inside the house when they arrived, but before Lucy could sit on one of the comfy looking sofas in the waiting area, they were immediately let into the office.
Something was wrong. Usually, they would have to wait a bit before getting debriefed on the mission, especially when meeting important people like the Mayor. Lucy knew she was right when they entered the office and saw the worry plastered on the old man’s face.
“Thank you for coming so quickly,” the man said. “I’m Mayor Jazu.”
“We’re happy to help,” Lucy said politely. “I’m guessing there was another disappearance?”
Mayor Jazu nodded. “My daughter. She went out last night and never returned. I extremely grateful you wizards came when you did.”
“Like Lucy said,” Natsu cut in. “We’re happy to be here.”
“And I’m Happy!” Happy yelled.
No one dignified the flying cat with a response, and instead began discussing the Vulcan’s known locations and the different girls who were kidnapped. The mayor was eager for them to get started, and even provided a wagon to give them a ride to the forest.
“Okay,” Lucy said as the group began their long trek through the woods. “We should come up with a plan. We know the Vulcans tend to lurk around high-traffic trails, but we don’t know where they live. Their probably keeping the girls there, so we need to figure that out first.
“Oh! I have an idea.” Natsu looked over to grin at Lucy, and she tried not to roll her eyes because Natsu and idea are two things that don’t belong together. "Since the Vulcan have an obvious type, I was thinking we could use you as bait."
“Eh?!”
“Come on, Luce. You know its not that bad of an idea.”
“Yeah, Lushee!” Happy agreed. “I think you would be really good bait. Maybe good enough that we could use you to catch a fish!”
“Why can't you be bait?” Lucy whined. “We could just put a wig on you. It’s not like the Vulcans are that smart."
Natsu shook his head. "I don't look good in a wig."
"That's your issue with it?"
"I don’t think looking good matters, Natsu," Happy said. "Lucy doesn't look good with her own hair, so a wig would be fine.”
Before Lucy could respond with her famous Lucy-Kick, Natsu put out his hand to stop.
"It's here," he whispered. "Alright. Here’s the plam. Happy and I will go the left and hide in those bushes. Lucy, you keep walking the path. You’ll distract him with you ‘feminine charm’ and then I’ll attack him from behind. Then, we’ll force him to tell us where the hideout is. Got it?”
Lucy scowled but didn’t argue. They didn’t have time to come up with a plan that didn’t serve her up on a silver platter. She sighed and hesitated for a moment, mentally preparing herself for the gross and vulgar remarks the Vulcan would no doubt say to her. They were all perverts through and through. Natsu must've taken her hesitation as anxiety, though, because he reached down and squeezed her hand.
"We won't let anything happen to you, Luce."
She smiled and squeezed his hand back. "Yeah, right. We both know It'll be me saving your butt."
Lucy let go of his hand, and casually strolled into view. The Vulcan was about fifty meters down the dirt path. It looked as ugly as she remembered, with matted green fur and very unfortunate facial features.
It didn't take long for the thing to spot her. Its eyes grew wide and immediately made its way over, chanting "Wo-man! Wo-man! Wo-man!"
"Oh no!" Lucy cried dramatically, doing her best to act scared.
"Better acting!" Natsu hissed from his hiding place in the bush.
"Shut up," she hissed back.
Lucy made a feeble attempt to run, making sure to purposefully trip over a fallen branch. "Oh no!" she cried yet again, ignoring the snickers coming from the bushes on the left.
The Vulcan finally caught up to Lucy and it towered over her. Before Natsu could make a move, it grabbed Lucy by her legs and yanked her up, leaving her to dangle upside down. Lucy let out an involuntary squeak as she tried to keep her skirt up.
"Put me down, you overgrown monkey!"
The Vulcan ignored Lucy’s protests and began sniffing her creepily. “Wo-man smell nice.”
“Ew, ew, ew!” Lucy cried. She glared behind the Vulcan at the bushes concealing her teammates. “Any second now!”
Natsu finally emerged from the bushed and ready for an attack, but of course their plan had to go to shit, because why should their plans ever work out? Right as Natsu was about to launch himself at the Vulcan holding Lucy, two more even uglier Vulcans came running through the trees.
"Wo-man?" The second one asked dumbly.
"Wo-man." The one holding Lucy confirmed.
God, could they be any dumber? Lucy thought as she tried to wiggle out of its grip. It was tight, but not unbearable. What was unbearable, however, was the stench coming from its hand. Did it use this hand to wipe its ass? At least with a scent this strong, Natsu would easily be able to follow it back to the Vulcan's cave.
But, like always, Natsu just had to be an idiot and jump right in without thinking. Instead of going back to his hiding place and then attack the Vulcans from behind (like any sane person would do), the pink-haired-dummy ran straight at the two newcomers.
“Eat this!” Natsu yelled, his fist burning bright with his flames. He hit one Vulcan with no problem, knocking it back a good twenty feet, but the second Vulcan was a little quicker than the other one. It dodged to the left and rolled to get behind Natsu.
“Behind you!” Lucy yelled, trying to warn her teammate. The Vulcan holding her squeezed tightly at her shout and she couldn’t stop the scream that escaped her.
Instead of looking behind him like Lucy wanted, Natsu turned towards her when he heard the scream. “Lucy!”
Lucy could only watch in horror as the Vulcan smacked Natsu aside flinging him through the trees. He was thrown so far that Lucy couldn’t even see where he landed. “Go get him Happy!” Lucy gasped as she fought against the grip squeezing her lungs.
The flying cat flew high into the air, out of reach from the Vulcans. “But what about you?”
“I’ll be fine!”
Lucy could see the indecision in Happy’s eyes, but she sighed in relief when Happy flew towards Natsu. She still had her keys and whip, but with her arms pinned, there was no way to summon her spirits. Hopefully, they wouldn’t think to check her for weapons. Lucy tried not to let the fear get to her as the Vulcans began walking in the other direction. With any luck, Natsu wouldn’t be hurt too badly, and he could track the Vulcans scent to wherever they were going to take her.
Even as they got further away from her teammate, Lucy knew Natsu would come after her no matter what.