So…while pondering exactly how I want to end Until She's Home Again, I decided to type up the first chapter of my next idea and see how it goes over. (And by the way, for USHA fans, I've got the last chapter almost done).

The actual 'framing' part from the summary won't come in until a bit later. Just warning you.

Anyway, not that I need to say it, but I do not own Fairy Tail or any of the marvelous characters; I simply borrow the characters and Fiore for my own personal amusement and sometimes for yours. I also borrowed Demon Card from Rave Master. The honor of ownership belongs to Hiro Mashima, so support the mangaka and actually read the manga and/or buy it. I know I'm going to purchase all of the volumes someday.

And now, enter if you dare: Fueling the Fire.

It was clear to see. Everyone in Fairy Tail was on edge, and everyone knew that there was something ominous brewing, even if no one knew just what that ominous something was. It left a sense of utmost foreboding upon them all, hanging like a stifling black storm cloud on a midsummer's day or a swirling maelstrom preceding a violent tropical storm. Sitting with Levy McGarden at the bar, Lucy Heartfilia was brooding on the exact same subject. The two girls had just come to the joint conclusion that the unease filtering throughout their usually carefree guild was to be blamed on a newly discovered dark guild called Demon Card.

After all, the two friends had reasoned out, numerous Fairy Tail members had been either attacked or threatened or even both by this fearless and yet cowardly guild. The attackers had yet to show their faces, though they always left a trademark card behind. The threats were almost anonymous, were it not for the aforementioned identical cards that were left on each occasion. The thoughts were driving Lucy absolutely mad because she hated nothing more than people threatening or hurting her nakama.

"It just doesn't make any sense at all," Levy grumbled, flipping through the most recent listing of dark guilds. "This group stays under the radar for who knows how long and then they suddenly come out with a bang by threatening our guild? What do they gain from all of this, in the end?"

Lucy thought about it for a few moments, mulling a few ideas over in her head.

"Maybe they just want to say that they could scare the infamous Fairy Tail," the blonde supplied, not completely sure of herself. "There are a lot of guilds that would love to do the same to us. Or they could just want to steal our unofficial title of the most famously infamous mage guild. But really…do people like that need a legitimate reason for doing such stupid things? It's just in their nature."

Lucy was trying to make light of the topic, but it was hard. The gloominess surrounding her only made it worse.

"No, I don't guess they need a reason," the blue-haired girl began to mull over her friend's perspective in her mind. Lucy could tell instantly that the other girl was considering each new angle extensively. In the meantime, the blonde let her chocolate brown eyes stray around the rather subdued guild. Her eyes found her best guy friend in the entire world, Natsu, and noted that even he, for the time being, was too worried and uneasy to start a fight with the oddly almost fully clothed ice mage seated next to him.

Laxus strode in just then, sporting a bleeding cut on his cheek that made everyone freeze in whatever they were doing. It was exceedingly strange to see the blonde man hurt in any way unless they remembered back to when he'd been beaten by Natsu and Gajeel prior to being excommunicated—he had since been reinstated, of course, for attempting to save them all on Tenrou Island in that fiasco. But since those days, no one had seen any damage on him and so the blood on his face was a shock.

Noticing all their eyes on him, he stopped walking. His voice carried throughout the silent guild.

"Those Demon Card bastards are getting cocky. Watch your backs."

A warning like that from Laxus Dreyar was not to be ignored; it was rare that he even offered such cautionary words in the first place. He was a distant sort of person, but the fact that he was even contributing advice like that was proof that he cared deeply for every one of his guild members. As she watched Laxus and his tight facial expressions, she spotted Natsu's shoulders stiffening. She knew it was because of Laxus's warning and knew that Natsu was thinking that if Laxus found it difficult, it was a danger to the guild. Natsu relaxed his muscles quickly, though, to assume an air of calmness and to keep his game face on.

Even from a distance, the celestial mage was not fooled. She could tell that Natsu was even more worried than before. The ease with which she read him came from being so close to him, and so it was easy for her to judge his thoughts; they were the very best of friends.

"Did Laxus…?"

"Yeah, he did," Lucy answered Levy's unfinished question and the two girls fell into a lengthy silence. Levy once more pored over a large tome, putting aside the dark guild registry. Her delicate brows were furrowed in concentration as she tried to absorb more knowledge. Lucy didn't know what her blue-haired friend was searching for now, but she didn't interrupt Levy's research. Instead, the celestial mage allowed her eyes to scan the rest of the guild.

Mirajane was impulsively wiping the bar down, but her heart was clearly not in it. The white-haired barmaid's eyes were unfocused, and it was obvious that she was lost deep within her thoughts. It was never a good sign when even Mira couldn't bring a cheerful smile to her face. Similarly, Lisanna sat next to Bixlow. Both of them wore serious expressions as they conversed in low tones. The seith mage's dolls didn't even repeat anything their master had said—perhaps they understood the gravity of the situation? Lucy's eyes sought the last of the white-haired siblings and found him staring blankly at the shelves of liquor behind the bar. It was harder to discern what he was thinking than it was to understand his sisters, but his uncharacteristic silence spoke volumes. He was unsurprisingly sitting next to Evergreen, who seemed to hang around him a lot more often since the botched S-class exams and the tournament. She had her hand placed comfortingly on the big man's even bigger arm, but she was just as out of it as he was. After realizing that she'd examined all the white-haired siblings and two of the Raijinshuu, Lucy's chocolate eyes began to search for the third Raijinshuu member. Fried Justine could be found, oddly enough, doing Mira's job as she was rather indisposed. She was too out of it to notice anything else let alone serve beer or drinks to her peers. As the green-haired man passed the cover girl, he gently laid his hand on her shoulder and she spared him a brief and distracted nod. Lucy knew it was a comfort that the woman, as well as everyone else, needed right now.

Next, her eyes found the table where Wakaba and Macao sat with mugs of beer in front of them. Their age made their worry more apparent than ever before. At the same table sat the Father-Daughter team of Gildartz and Cana. Gildartz had one large, deadly fist atop the table, knuckles white and brow furrowed. Cana was laying out her cards, regular sized beer bottles littering the area around her rather than the usual barrels. Lucy knew Cana, and she knew that the little crease between the brunette's eyebrows meant that she was troubled by the problems at hand. The card mage looked up as though she felt Lucy's eyes on her and nodded in acknowledgement before immediately returning to her cards. Her father and other companions spared a glance in the blonde's general direction after seeing Cana look up.

Nab and several others, like Warren and Max, were scattered at the usual spots, all subdued and in either hushed conversations or brooding silences. Laki was making the wood table that she shared with Mickey undulate and contort oddly, her eyes narrowed in concentration.

Lucy took a breath, casting a quick glance at Levy to find her still reading whatever monstrous book she thought might help them. It briefly crossed Lucy's mind that she didn't have the gale force reading glasses, which would have made things quicker, but she knew that absorbing all the knowledge they could was more important than speed right now. As if feeling eyes on her, the blue-haired girl looked up at Lucy as she turned the page, distractedly acknowledged her blonde friend, and then returned to reading promptly afterwards. Lucy watched her bookworm friend for a few moments longer, wondering just how badly the other girl was affected by everything that was happening, before sliding back to observe her fellow guild members once more.

Her brown eyes then crossed the gloomy guild to a shadowed corner where Pantherlily was clearly visible and Lucy tried to make sense of his expression. As the intelligent Exceed he was, Lily was likely trying to puzzle out Demon Card's logic and motive. The slight scowl on his features proved that he wasn't having too much luck with that. Half hidden in the shadows behind his Exceed partner and definitely appearing intimidating sat Gajeel Redfox. He leaned against the wall in his carefree manner, but for the first time Lucy was shocked to realize that the normally imperturbable dragonslayer was worried. The rigidity in his stance was more than enough proof of this fact, as well as the bouncing of his foot.

Back at Natsu's table, Wendy was staring at her clasped hands, unsure of what to do while Romeo sat beside her, his arm protectively wrapped around her thin shoulders. Gray's unease was apparent because he was still almost fully clothed, which absolutely never happened when there was nothing wrong. Erza's strawberry cake sat in front of her more out of habit than hunger. As a friend of the redhead's, Lucy knew that she was trying to work everything out in the solitude of her mind, just like everyone else. And still Natsu wasn't as loud or as obnoxious as he would have been under normal circumstances. He wasn't trying to pick a fight with Gray, Erza, Gajeel, or even Laxus or Gildartz. And what was more; his brow was furrowed in thought and frustration, his dark eyes boring holes into the table he stared at. Happy was sitting quietly by Charle atop the very same table, neither one willing to utter any sound to break the silence. The blonde wished there was something she could do about all of this—the silence permeating the air, so thick it was almost tangible, and the feeling of defeat that seemed to surround them all. It just wasn't like them.

Lucy had to grudgingly admit to herself that at the moment, Fairy Tail just wasn't acting like Fairy Tail at all.

Movement in the guild was minimal, as though everyone was afraid of drawing attention to themselves, but Lucy really couldn't take it much longer. The scrape of her barstool drew several eyes, though not those of her best friend. But it didn't matter because she would get Natsu's attention for herself in a matter of seconds.

Gray's eyes followed her uncomprehendingly, as well as the eyes of Erza, Mira, Levy, and many other members of the guild. The celestial mage put on her brave façade, however, and ignored whatever looks were thrown at her. She was a member of Fairy Tail, and as such she couldn't stand it when her precious family didn't act like they usually did.

The silence was suffocating…so suffocating that she'd decided to break it.

"Natsu," she said determinedly, not bothering to keep her voice down. As he slowly turned his head to look at her, he had to utilize those quick reflexes he was blessed with in order to dodge her fist.

"What the hell, Luce?!" he jumped up, eyeing her like she was some sort of homicidal maniac. The drastic change in how she usually acted had probably caught him completely off guard, since she usually avoided the brawls at all costs. In fact, at her attack, Gray had also scooted away rather quickly, the same confused expression on his features.

"Fight me," Lucy demanded, hands on her hips. "You always ask if I want to join in! You just always neglected the fact that maybe I wanted to start it all."

"What are you going on about?!" The fire dragonslayer was frowning at her. As she thought, her request seemed entirely out of place.

"I'm talking about a fight," she said simply. "You and me. Outside, if you want."

"It's not manly to hit a woman," came the unmistakable voice of Elfman Strauss.

"It's not manly to get your ass kicked by a girl, either!" Lucy cried defiantly as she lunged at Natsu again. "C'mon, Natsu! Hand-to-hand, even! No magic allowed!"

"I'm not gonna hit you, Luce!"

Or so he said when her punch landed squarely on his jaw. He involuntarily cried out and rubbed his already bruising jaw, scowling. The blonde did her best to hide the fact that hitting him really hurt. It didn't just hurt physically, either.

Yes, Lucy knew she was being rash and foolish, but the brooding aura was slowly fading as the silence in the room did, which was a good thing for the overall sanity of the guild. And of course her fists were already throbbing because she was never the physical sort of fighter anyway, but she wouldn't let the others see that. She'd gotten better since the island, so they didn't need worry for her on top of everything else going through their minds.

"Natsu," Lucy returned her hands to her hips, "You always ask me to join in…but now you won't even fight me?"

"Just because I'm the one that asks you to join in doesn't mean that I'll be the one to hit you," was his almost grumpy but matter-of-fact statement. The reply made her ears feel a little warm, but Lucy kept calm.

"Okay. Fine. Who isn't too chicken to fight me?!" the blonde asked the guild at large, rather loudly and verging on shrilly. Her demanding tone was sharp and dared them to refuse her.

"Lucy, are you sure you want to do this…?" Gray asked, raising an eyebrow. The blonde's pride was injured, that was for sure. Didn't they think she could handle herself?

"If Lucy feels like she has to fight, then Juvia shall be her opponent," was the almost timid suggestion. Leave it to Juvia, who had, at times, wanted to kill Lucy in the past. But whatever the case was, the blonde was extremely happy that someone had volunteered to accompany her.

"Shall we stay inside or go outside, then?" Lucy smiled, and it felt a bit more roguish than her usual grin. Perhaps Natsu's old cheerfulness and mischievousness had rubbed off on her, as improbable as it seemed.

"Juvia thinks we'd cause less damage outside," the former Element Four member suggested, a finger twisting in her pretty blue locks uncertainly.

"Outside it is," Lucy agreed, already almost to the door. "Feel free to join in!"

The last was directed to the entire guild and almost everyone rushed out to see what was going to happen between the two mages. Those he stayed behind were Master Makarov, Mirajane, Levy, and Cana. The brunette card mage, however, left as soon as she'd filched three more beer bottles from the bar, waving as she exited the building.

"What is Lu-chan thinking?!" Levy fretted incredulously, her eyes drawn to the door with worry for her blonde friend.

"I don't know…" Mira trailed off, concern apparent in her voice as well.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Laxus as he descended from the second level, a small bandage on his cheek. At their slightly confused gazes, he turned his eyes to the door and continued, "She's trying to distract everyone from their moping around and you've gotta hand it to her; her plan's working. None of you were even thinking about Demon Card after she went and attacked Natsu, were you?"

Mirajane let her mouth open in a soft "oh!" of surprise and Levy just gasped, eyes widening at the revelation.

"That's right," Master Makarov agreed with a wry grin, and both girls turned their attention to him as the blonde male walked out through the same door as everyone else. "Lucy doesn't want anyone to hurt anymore, can't you see? She's always been like that, I think. She'll try to handle things on her own, even when she doesn't have to. Who knows how much weight that child carries on her shoulders?"

Levy and Mira quickly followed the path of their guildmates after that, waiting to see how Juvia and Lucy fared against each other.

Lucy and Juvia were already facing each other across a ring formed by the Fairy Tail members. Giving Juvia a smirk that seemed entirely uncharacteristic, Lucy cracked her knuckles. Happy looked over to Charle and, in earshot of several of others, asked timidly, "Lucy's acting like the Edolas Lucy, isn't she?"

The white Exceed looked at Happy and deigned to reply with just a curt nod of agreement.

To Lucy, however, it didn't matter whether she won or whether Juvia won or even whether some random guild member who just jumped in would win. What mattered the most to the blonde woman was that they made everyone temporarily forget their troubles. She wanted Mira to stop staring off into space as though she didn't know where she was or what she was doing, and she wanted Cana to drink barrel after barrel of beer like normal, and she wanted Fried to stop serving drinks with such a glum expression on his features. As odd as it seemed, she wanted Erza to be protective of her cake and she wanted Gray to be virtually naked and freaking out about the fact.

Perhaps most of all, Lucy wanted Natsu to be his old cheerful self again.

She wanted her Natsu back.

"Go!" someone shouted from the crowd, a voice suspiciously like Wakaba's, and Juvia wasted no time in charging forward.

Lucy sidestepped the fist that was aimed at her stomach and spun straight into a kick, which the water-mage blocked by raising an arm. The blonde, in order to balance herself, fell into a backflip, standing straight just as Juvia ran at her again.

The two continued exchanging blows, with neither one really landing any major hits even though Lucy had expected Juvia to be far better than she was at hand-to-hand combat. There was always the possibility that the blue-haired woman was holding back because she, too, thought that Lucy couldn't handle herself, but she chose to ignore that. She ducked a kick from the water-mage and rose up quickly, striking Juvia in the bottom of the chin and jerking her head up.

At some point, one of them fell into the ring of onlookers—neither one would recall who it had been—and dragged a few more guild members into the fray. When Juvia was suitably distracted fighting against her beloved, Lucy sought out the sullen pink-haired man and fought her way to him. Without any regrets at all, just as he knocked out Nab with a single hit, Lucy grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him to her, and socked him right across the mouth.

Natsu spluttered incoherently, looking at Lucy as though she was a three-headed monster, and then shoved out of his way to kick the approaching Macao in the stomach. The older man reeled back from the blow, grinning.

"What was that about?" he asked, a little choked. "I was going after Lucy, not you."

Natsu grinned a fierce, toothy grin and said simply, "I know."

The two would have gone at it again had it not been for Laki being thrown into Macao then. Natsu turned to find his next victim, only for Lucy to punch him in the stomach.

"Shit, Luce, would you stop hitting me already?" He asked, reaching his hand down to rub where her fist had made contact. Lucy doubted that his abs would be hurting nearly as much as her bruising knuckles were, but she made no comment on that front. She just smirked like Lucy Ashely would have.

"If you won't fight me back, I'll just have to kick your ass," she declared.

"I'm not going to hit you, Lucy," the tone was serious, but the moment was ruined when Gray went flying into the back of Natsu's head, sending both men flying into the back of the intimidating iron dragonslayer. Gajeel turned and loomed over the others as they struggled to disentangle themselves from one another, and Lucy couldn't help but giggle.

On instinct, Lucy ducked and sure enough, Romeo went flying over her head.

"Dang it, Sis!" he roared, shaking a fist at her as he tumbled into Mickey.

Lucy decided she'd let Natsu and Gray and Gajeel and the newly joined Erza have their fun; she raised her arm to block the attack from Bisca with a grin.

"Having fun?" the gun mage asked with a huge smile.

"A little," the blonde replied, shoving the older woman back with a well-placed kick, "I think I'm starting to see why everyone in this guild likes to fight so much!"

And the fight continued, just like that. Just like the brawls of Fairy Tail always did—loud, a disturbance of the peace of Magnolia, and involving everyone in a massive free-for-all. It was friend against friend, sibling against sibling, father against son, and no one really cared much at all. It was home; it was Fairy Tail. And this had been Lucy's goal from the start.

In the confusion stemming from the massive, riotous brawl that Lucy Heartfilia had actually begun, no one noticed that one of their own had been whisked away.

So…here's the first chapter. THIS IS SHORTER THAN I INTEND FOR MOST OF MY CHAPTERS TO BE. I expect the others to be a bit longer than this. This one was only about 3700 words, so I'm sorry. It's also completely unbeta'd, so forgive any mistakes or shortcomings. I'll do my best on my own for now, though.

Thanks for giving my new story a try.