Found & Forgotten

Chapter 20

Gray knew immediately that something was very wrong, because Natsu, who had, not two seconds previously, been stuffing his face with food, following their unceremonious expulsion from the local council building, suddenly sat bolt upright and promptly started choking as he tried to swallow and speak at the same time.

Sighing, Gray stood and took the opportunity to thump Natsu hard on his back, safe behind the 'he was choking' excuse. Natsu glared at him, coughed a little, then began running as soon as he regained his breath, leaving his chair teetering on one leg.

The whole guild stood in stunned silence, wondering what exactly it was that would cause such an extreme reaction from Natsu, who was normally a rather easy going, if temperamental, person. The sound of Natsu's chair finally overbalancing and crashing to the floor broke the spell, and everyone turned back to their normal conversations, apart from the group around the table Natsu had just left.

"Lucy." Erza stated.

Gray nodded in agreement, already moving towards the door of the guild to follow the pink-haired baka; Erza, Mirajane, Gajeel, Panther Lily and Happy were hot on his heels. Only Lucy could elicit such an odd reaction from Natsu...and, judging by the extremity of it, only Lucy in trouble. Which led to the question, what exactly had happened to her? She had only gone with Levy to the apartment buildings...

"Whatever's happened to Lucy, Levy is probably caught up in it too," Erza said as they ran, eerily echoing Gray's thoughts.

Gray's gaze slid sideways to rest on Gajeel, noticing the slight tightening of his expression and the way he sped up slightly. Grinning to himself, he made a mental note to tease the dragon slayer about it later, once the two were safely back.

Up ahead, Gray saw a flash of bright pink round a corner and sprint towards one of the main roads out of Magnolia.

"That way." He managed to point in roughly Natsu's direction, receiving nods from the others as they also caught sight of Natsu's hair.

"He's not normally this fast," Mirajane commented. "We're having trouble even keeping up with him, let alone catching him."

"Hai," Gray agreed. "It's because it's Lucy who's in danger...any ideas what happened to her?"

A chorus of 'no's was heard from the group, although each of them had a half-formed idea involving the celestial magic based SunSphere that was disrupting all of their lives at the moment.

"Happy, Lily, you two should fly higher and see if you can locate what Natsu is following," Erza instructed.

The two Exceeds obediently rose higher into the sky, easily keeping pace with the runners below them. After a few moments they flew back to give their report. Lily had a grim expression on his face, while Happy just looked panicked.

"It's some kind of magic-powered vehicle," Lily told Erza. "There's no way we'll be able to keep up with it."

"Isn't there any way to go faster?" Gajeel suddenly burst out.

"Well, don't complain," Gray shrugged, calling on his magic.

"Complain? Why would I com-" Gajeel started, confused by the cryptic statement.

"Ice make floor!" Gray shouted, planting his fists on the ground and creating a plane of ice in the path they meant to take.

Flipping over his hands, he landed on his feet and began surfing, in a manner of speaking, along the ice runway he had created, guiding the direction of the new sections as he went. Erza, Mirajane and Gajeel were not so lucky. As Gray had neglected to warn them what he was about to do, they had all tripped over the ice and each other, momentum carrying them forward, so they were sliding along behind Gray in a jumbled heap.

Lily landed in between Gray and the heap, using the force from his flight as a starting motion, while Happy elected to slam full force into what happened to be Gajeel, at that particular moment.

"Now I get," Gajeel forced out between breaths, "why you said...not to complain." His face was a rather green colour from motion sickness.

"Gomenasai, Gajeel," Gray apologised swiftly, grin on his face, "but we are travelling twice as fast now."

"True." Gajeel agreed grudgingly before falling silent.

"However," Erza, having managed to right herself and at least face the way they were going, commented, "we are still nowhere near Natsu."

"There's only so much ice can do." Gray shrugged. "And nothing catches up to an angry dragon."

"Nicely put." Mirajane complimented him as she and Erza managed to haul Gajeel to his feet.

Gray made as if to mock bow. "I try."

Then he refocussed his efforts onto maintaining the path of ice beneath them.

Natsu was only vaguely aware of his surroundings flashing past him as he ran, intent on finding Lucy. He was following the scent of what he assumed was her kidnapper. Concentrating hard on the odours he was following, he caught the scent of both Lucy and Levy, though both were overpowered by the rather vile smell of the kidnappers.

Natsu paid no attention to his protesting muscles, pushing himself to run even faster.

"I'm not," he growled between breaths, "going to let you down again, Lucy. I promised I would protect you. I've failed once, but I won't fail again!"

Lucy's muffled and distant cry of 'NATSUUU-mmph' played through his ears again. He was lucky, he reflected, that he'd heard that, as he hadn't been paying particular attention to it, but he was very glad that he had.

Though an icy determination radiated from him, Natsu was struggling to control his internal emotions, simultaneously trying to deal with guilt and pleasure. Guilt that he had, again, left Lucy to the mercy of whoever had taken her. Pleasure that he had been the one she had called for.

Perhaps, he reflected, despite the fact that Lucy had lost her memories of the guild...of him...

The influx of hope just served to make him run even faster.

"I'm coming for you, Luce."

Ohaiyo, minna-san!

Gomenasai for the late update! As I said, I've started my exam period now, so what with revision it's hard to find time to write. Also, next week is half term, and I'm going on holiday, so I won't have internet and I won't be able to update. Like I said, an update a fortnight is my aim until exams are over.

Huh. Not a lot actually happened this chapter. They ran/flew/ice surfed (is that even a thing? Well, it is now *shrugs*) :D

We see some more of Natsu's thoughts, though! (shocker! Natsu, thinking!)

Anyway, I guess that's about all I have to say? Oh, my exams are going great so far, thanks for asking, since I bet you're all desperate to know... ;)

Hope you enjoy the chap, please COMMENT and tell me what you think!

Matta ne, minna-san! :D

AA