~|~ Chapter 5 ~|~

"L-leave?" Sting exclaimed, "Me? Leave?" he asked pointing at himself with his thumb.

Gray tilted his head and glanced Sting over, "Yes, you. Now get lost." He waved with a hand in Stings direction and turned back to Natsu. "I just need to talk to some people and we can leave. Where are we leaving to?" Gray asked, he looked back at the blond who was still standing there, a dumb struck expression on his face.

'He wants me to leave?' Sting thought as he looked up at the morning sky. He sighed and started walking towards the ally's exit when he suddenly turned around and lunged at Gray, his hand balled into a fist.

"Like hell I will leave Natsu!" Sting yelled as his fist hit Grays face.

The prince staggered back and glared at him. Sting took another step forward and raised his fist again. But a hand landed on his shoulder and Sting looked over to see Natsu staring at him. "Don't bully the weak," he said, inclining his head towards the prince. "I was about to tell him that I wouldn't go anywhere without you, but you wanted to punch him."

Sting stepped back and dropped his fist. "Sorry, it's just that, I don't want to leave you, Natsu. I have been searching for you ever since I first heard about you a long time ago. I-"Sting was broken off when Gray stood up and walked over to Natsu.

"And who are you calling weak? I am the Prince of this Kingdom. I can-" Gray had started but that earned a laugh from Natsu.

"There's no time for this." Natsu said sternly as he exchanged glances between Gray and Sting. "We need to get out of here before Gajeel get to us." He dropped his hand off Sting's shoulder and shoved them into the jackets pockets. Natsu turned and started heading towards the ally's mouth.

Natsu stopped mid-step and looked back, "Are you two coming?" he asked.

Gray glared at him but he knew they had to leave. He glanced over at Sting before moving and saw the blond glaring at him.

'Why do we have to bring him', Sting thought as he followed after Natsu towards the mouth of the ally and out into the busy street.

'That damn Salamander,' Gajeel thought to himself as he paced along his hideouts main room. He had almost succeeded in grabbing the red and blonde haired women when Erza had struck at him with her sword and almost tore his arm off. He let a smile cross his face at the memory of it. That was the closest anyone had ever got to hurting him.

The small thumping of feet coming down the stairs that lead to the outside entrance had started to resound throughout the small room. Gajeel looked up as a petite, bright blue haired girl stepped into the room. She had on a pair of glasses and a stack of books in her hands. A quill rested and ink well rested on top of the stack.

A smile broke across her face when she spotted the assassin. "Gajeel!" She yelled as she set the books down in a corner of the room and rushed over to give him a hug. "Where did you go this morning?" She asked.

"I was sniffing out a failure," he said as he hugged her back.

Gajeel had met Levy when he was on a mission in the western part of the continent. His mission was to kill the heirs of a major fishing company. He had ran into her when he was tailing one of his targets in town. She had approached him and asked him if he would like a newspaper. He had ignored her and shoved her aside as he continued to walk. But she followed after him and kept repeating the same statement over and over again. Gajeel finally turned around and was met with a newspaper that had an envelope sitting on top seal with wax. The seal pressed into it was that of a dragons head with a dagger stabbed through its snout- Dragon Slayer.

It finally dawned on him that she was a courier and an informant for the guild. The letter stated that she was sent from the guild to help him do his mission faster. She had already memorized a map of the city and the daily lives of the two heirs he was to kill. Levy had also given him certain dates and times that would best to get them alone and hide the bodies without finding out.

At first, he thought she was nothing more than a lowly third-class informant for the guild, but he found out later that she was worth much, much more to the guild than he first thought. He had also fallen in love with her during their mission together. Though he never let her watch him torture and kill his targets.

"Hey, Levy," Gajeel said after he let go of her. "Can you search through the guilds member list and find anything about a blond haired guy for me. He was with Salamander and I don't think I have ever seen him anywhere before." Levy was the Records Keeper and Head Informant for the guild. She had a book of all the assassin's- their names, alias's, and physical description included. The book also contained all the couriers and informants currently working in the guild. She also had a separate book that kept all the missions everyone has done.

She nodded her head and headed towards a the wall opposite the stairs and pressed her hand against a board, causing the wall to pop open and reveal a walk in room that was stacked full of books. The Achieve was what Levy called it.

"There shouldn't be any blonds in the guild, not since Wiselogia left the guild a long time ago." She said as she started picking up a book and flipping through it.

"Yea, I know." Gajeel started as he leaned against the entrance of the room. "But there was one with Salamander. And he jumped out the windows with the prince and this blond guy in hand. I didn't chase after them because there was two other people in the room, and one of them tried to kill me." He followed Levy as she set down the book and went to pick up another.

"Hmmm," she mused as she flipped through the pages. "I don't see any with that hair color. Maybe he was a normal citizen that got dragged into this mess?" She asked as she set the book down and walked further into the room.

"But he could be another assassin sent from the guild to help Salamander with his mission. Which he failed." Gajeel said the last part slowly, his voice getting softer.

"He…failed?" Levy had stopped what she was doing and looked back at Gajeel.

Gajeel nodded and drew a letter out of his pocket. "This came this morning," he passed it to Levy, who had walked towards him. She turned it in her hands and her face paled at when she was the seal.

"T-This is…" she trailed off as he handed the letter back to Gajeel.

"Yea, it's a letter from him. With orders to execute the assassin Natsu Dragnell."

"After this is over, I will kill you personally." Murmured Gray to the pink haired assassin next to him.

Wearing only a pair of tattered brown pants, a shirt that only covered his arms and was open down the middle, showing his bare chest. A bandanna covered his pink hair, and he wore that familiar smirk on his face. He looked over at the prince, "Now, it could be worse." He stated as he slapped his back.

Gray picked at the oily and torn grey shirt he was forced to wear. And glared down at the filthy pants Natsu had found. "You could have picked something a bit nicer." Gray said back as he walked beside Natsu.

"Quit your whining," came the voice of Sting. He was dressed in the armor of one of the lower cities portal guards. The thin silver chain-mail rustled slightly as they walked and the helmet looked a bit too big for his head. And the pike looked out of place in his hand.

"Don't talk to me like th-" Gray was interrupted as Natsu started talking again.

"Now listen up; here is the plan. When we get to the gates, Sting will pretend to be guiding us to our house on the outside of the wall because we got lost. That is if anyone asks us why we are traveling with a portal guard." Natsu looked back and Sting nodded his head, the helmet bounced back and forth. "If no one asks; then keep your mouths shut tell we are on the other side of this fucking wall." Natsu commanded as he turned back around.

The lower city was where the lower middle class and pour lived. It was also the area with the highest crime rate in the entire city which is why it also had the most guards. But they were not trained from the battle-masters like the ones at the Palace but by lower ranked guards.

The street was crowded with the people of this city, and Gray was stuck in the middle of it. He mentally noted that when he got back to the Palace, he would do something about the disgusting smell of this place and see if he can't do anything to help the people out.

'That is if I ever make it back.' He thought as he eyed Natsu out of the side of his eye. But he was unable to look at the assassin's face but instead at the broad chest and well-toned muscles of his body.

"See something you like?" He heard the man next to him say to him. He jumped in front of Gray and started to walk backwards and crossed his arms behind his head. "I'm single you know." He said winking at the prince before turning back around and shoving his hands into the pockets of the tattered pants.

"As if I would, you're a guy. Why don't you go to a brothel if you need to get off so badly." Gray said to him as he turned his face to the side to look at the people passing by them. No one was paying any attention to them. Did none of them recognize him? 'I am there prince. Maybe they haven't seen enough of me to know what I look like.' He thought as he turned back around. Only to be greeted by the assassin looking back at him.

"I've been to a brothel or four before. But I all the women just come to me, it's hard to pick just one of them so I end up leaving." He raised a balled hand and pointed to a nearby building. "There's one. Why don't we stop and let you have some fun, Your Highness." Natsu smirked back to him but kept walking past the building.

Gray glared at him and turned to look at Sting, who was also staring at the worn down building. "Why don't we stop and let your-" Gray was interrupted again.

"There's the gates." Natsu said as he pointed with a jerk of his head towards the giant entrance gates in front of them.

Gray swallowed and looked up. The stone wall stood ten meters high and was covered with the morning frost. The gate was pulled half way up and only two guards stood chatting to each other as people wondered in and out of the lower city.

Natsu walked in front of the two men behind him and kept his hands in his pockets. He had ripped out the right pocket and strapped a dagger to his upper right thigh and kept his fist balled around it at all times. The Torturer was in the city somewhere, who knew when he was going to attack again.

He also had to worry about the prince running away or getting into some trouble with the guards. Or if Sting decided to betray him. Was he on his side? He apparently knew the Heartifilla heiress. Maybe he had some kind of connection to her? A suitor maybe? No, that didn't seem to fit his image. Maybe a guard. But he looked like he had no idea what he was doing with the sword earlier. Maybe he had never held one?

Sighing, Natsu shoved all thoughts of Sting from his mind and reached a hand out to scratch at his chest as they passed the guards. His eyes watched the guards talk, even though he couldn't hear a word they were saying, he could still make out what they were saying.

"I heard there was a panic at the party last night at the palace, what do ya suppose it was?" Asked the one on the left.

"I heard someone accidentally hit on the Princess Juvia in front of the Prince." The one of the right said.

"But that wouldn't have caused that much commotion."

"But everyone knows that the Princess of the Island Kingdoms belongs to the Prince. He would have anyone beheaded if they even talked to her.

"That sounds over the top," the one on the left said as he reached down and took a gulp of the ale sitting next to him.

"It could have been the assassin," said a new guard. He was dressed in the royal armor of the guards that patrolled the Palace. Gray's guards.

The thought quickly hit Natsu and he turned towards Gray who was staring off into space in front of them and turned out that he hadn't noticed yet. But Natsu didn't want to take any chances. He looked over at Sting and made eye contact. Natsu nodded and start to walk faster.

If he was to grab Gray's arm and run with him; Gray would protest and create a commotion and that would attract the guards' attention and he would see that the Prince was here and take him back to the Palace.

'Unless I killed him first,' Natsu thought, but decided against it. If I was to kill the guard here, that would create a panic and then entire Kingdom would know that he was there and that he had their Prince held hostage.

He glanced back over his shoulder to look at the three guards and noticed that they were all still talking over something. Natsu let a small sigh and started to pick up the pace when he heard someone shouting.

"Guard! Guards!"

Natsu stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face the Prince, who had just started shouting over at the guards.

Rin: Updated like five months later~ SORRY!

Last year got hard towards the end with finals and worked over summer and now senior year :)

But here is the next chapter~

Ok, bad news- I lost my USB that had my stories on it, and it had the plot and notes for my Assassin!AU in it. But it's slowly coming back together.

And if there is anything you guys want to see happen- please tell me! I will see what I can do~

Ah, yea- The GaLe that happened, I plan on writing their story sometime but there is a sneak peek/spoiler of it XD

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and characters are owned by Hiro Mashima, I only take credit for some plot elements.

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Thanks for reading!