Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence. Sexual content. Substance abuse. Sexual abuse. Generally, a whole lot of sensitive topics.

Sweet-Rot

She didn't look like much. Wheat-coloured hair twisted over a pale face, plump lips spread in calm breath, buxom curves. Gentle. That was the way he would describe his target. Not just gentle, but soft. Everything about her. Her hair would be like satin if he touched it, her skin as smooth as petals. She was a creature of luxury, her mouth made for sipping wine and eating grapes on the precipice of sweet-rot.

She was beautiful. And he hated her for it.

Regardless of how he felt about this pampered debutante, this kind of work always left a sour taste in his mouth. This was his responsibility, though. His family came first.

From a bag in his pocket he unfolded a rag soaked in sleeping tonic. It wasn't for now; it was for if and when she started to scream. Crouching, he allowed himself to brush her hair back from her forehead. She was as soft as he thought, smelling like jasmine and temptation. Temptation for her, for this life she'd lived that he would never experience. The line between rich and poor was a great divide.

"Lucy." Her name rolled off his tongue, like it was always meant to be there.

She stirred.

"Lucy." He kept his voice gentle and counted down the seconds, wondering if he was going to relish in her fear or not. Who was he kidding? Of course he was—though he wasn't a monster. Her kind deserved this treatment. "Lucy."

Three.

"Wake up, Lucy."

Two.

"We have something important to talk about."

One.

"It's about your father."

Her eyes came open, as did her lips. Natsu allowed only the strangled pre-curser to Lucy Rosanta Heartfilia's scream, then he clamped his hand, and the rag soaked through with sleeping tonic, over her mouth. Those warm toffee-coloured eyes widened just before they fluttered closed. She slumped, breasts heaving as she hit the bed. She was out. He had assumed he'd have to carry her from her mansion, though he'd hoped that she'd be one of the girls that were too shocked to scream, one of the ones that were scared enough that they just stared blankly until he asked them his questions, then they would spew answers and give him all the information he needed, so he didn't have to cart them back to the Den.

No such luck.

Natsu tore back her blue silk duvet. Lucy Heartfilia dressed for bed like she dressed for a ball, her nightgown as silken and decorated as her blankets, low cut so her breasts spilled from the neckline.

He caught his eyes wandering over her exaggerated lines and looked away, disgusted with himself for looking and with her for tempting him into doing so. Stooping, he gathered her up. She was heavier than expected, deadweight now. He adjusted so her cheek was against his collarbone and he was holding her from beneath the knees. Her delicate hand swung limply before him, moving with every breath he took.

Holding her close, he exited the way he came, things only getting awkward when he hefted her over the second-storey railing. She hung over the air with nothing but his arms cradling her. If he let her go she'd fall. And really, would the world miss another privileged—and useless—aristocrat? He told himself to look past the hate if for no other reason than Lucy Heartfilia had his answers, and he'd be damn sure he got them.

Down below, Wendy waited, dark blue hair curling and shining in the moonlight.

"Ready?" Natsu whispered hoarsely. Not that he thought Jude Heartfilia's lazy guards would notice their departure. They hadn't noticed them arrive after all, and they hadn't even tried to be quiet.

The girl nodded once, silent as a wraith. Natsu let Lucy Heartfilia go and watched her plummet like a plump apple freed from a tree. Seconds before she hit the ground, Wendy's magic took hold and Lucy levitated, safe. If only Lucy knew how close she came to a few broken bones. Something like that would be a good interrogation tactic. He stowed away the information for later then, heart beating with excitement and a tinge of trepidation, followed Lucy's path over the ornate bannister, allowing himself to free fall all the way to the ground. He hit lightly, coming to rest inches from Wendy's side. "Cutting it kind of close, weren't you?"

"She lied about her weight on her last trip to the doctor," Wendy grumbled.

"So did you," Natsu returned.

"Growth spurt," Wendy corrected.

"Can you levitate her back or not?" Natsu knew his answer before Wendy shook her head. With resignation, he plucked the blonde from the air and brought her back to his body, a slew of sensations vying for prominence. First was revulsion.

The second made his body do things that he didn't ever want it to do for some rich police chief's daughter. To combat a stiffening cock and a quickening heart, he thought of all the things he hated about Magnolia's crooked-as-they-come, right-side-of-the-law-criminal, Jude Heartfilia.

One: all the privilege that high society and station offered him.

Two: the way he ruled the streets with an iron fist.

Three: the undue respect everyone gave him. Bosses and underlings alike all cast their eyes to the ground when Chief Heartfilia rolled through in his cruiser. And who could blame them? It seemed that every lawbreaker paid their dues. Jude Heartfilia and his men were very good at their jobs.

Natsu could get along with all that glamor. What really got under his skin was the kids that were going missing from the streets, picked up in cop cars and never seen again. First it was the ones with the hefty records, guys and girls with things like assault and larceny and murder backing their names. It didn't stop there, though. When they inevitably became scarce, those with petty records started to go, too. And not to jail. Not to death's row, if all the reports were to be believed. They were just… gone. Vanished like ghosts in the fog.

It had been months since the disappearances had started. Not one of the kids had been a Den member. Zeref thinks the cops won't touch us, Natsu thought as he carried Lucy Heartfilia through the streets. But now he knew better.

"Do you think Zeref will be mad that we brought her back?" Wendy asked.

"Not once we tell him what happened to Happy," Natsu replied.

"How do you know that's what happened though, Natsu? You said you didn't see it."

"I saw enough."

"Enough to warrant kidnapping the police chief's daughter?"

"Yes. I told you what happened."

"Well... Maybe you should tell me again."

Natsu wasted no time, feeling righteous. "We were scouting out Crawford's house for that job Zeref wanted us to do. Happy went east, I stayed on the west side because Crawford—" The fat privileged slob— "had that damn gnome out again."

"What is your obsession with that thing?" Wendy asked exasperatedly.

Natsu glowered. "Have you seen it? I told Crawford I was going to take its stupid gold hat last time he and Heartfilia started burning down the slum's tents, so how could I resist?"

"With a little bit of self-control," Wendy muttered.

Natsu ignored her, finishing his story. "And that's when I heard Happy yell. His .22 went off. I ran over, but by the time I got there, a car was peeling away from the curb and Happy was gone."

"That's hardly cause for kidnapping. It could have been anyone's car," Wendy said, trying to be rational.

Natsu squeezed Lucy Heartfilia so hard there would be finger marks in her legs and in her arms tomorrow. "No. I saw the car. It was black and white and had 'Magnolia' on the fucking side, so don't tell me it could have been anyone."

Wendy chewed a lock of hair, figuring out the best way to voice her opinion. "Even if it was… Taking on the cops… that's a big move, Natsu."

"What else can we do? Zeref said he thought we were safe from them—that they wouldn't bug us." And Natsu had believed him. Hell, why not? The Den didn't have the numbers other gangs in Magnolia did, but they didn't need them, either. They made up for it in viciousness. Scare tactics and brutality were far from disgraced in the Den's underground halls, and because of it, everyone was afraid to cross them, the cops included. "They were supposed to be too scared, Wendy."

She went back to chewing her hair. "They were. I can't remember the last time a member's been arrested. Something's changed."

Yeah. Something. Happy was just another street boy with a rap sheet a mile long, gone, and no one knew where. Except, he wasn't. He was Natsu's best friend. Natsu expected cops to put men into cars and drive them out into the snow, but only when they found bodies in the river and nobody seemed to know.

Again, he tightened his hold on Lucy Heartfilia's body. Looking down at her slack face he whispered, "You're going to tell me everything you know."

Natsu came in through the Den's underground entrance and went straight into Zeref's office, Wendy at his side. From his large wooden desk, (stolen (quite gracelessly at that) from a traveling merchant that had spat on Natsu when he was just a boy, hungry and begging) Zeref lifted his gaze from the ledger he read and looked from the Heartfilia girl, to Wendy, to his brother and back again.

"What's this?"

"Lucy Rosanta Heartfilia," Natsu said with a hint of a manic grin.

"Yes," Zeref said calmly, "I see that. Why is she here?"

"To tell us what happens to the people Heartfilia takes. And then we're going to use her to get Happy back," Natsu said with conviction. "We'll do a trade. Happy for this girl."

Zeref chewed his cheek. "Happy was taken?"

"Right from Crawford's grounds," Natsu affirmed.

"But no one touches our people."

Natsu mimicked Wendy's words. "Something's changed."

Zeref's expression got dark. Natsu searched the other man's face, looking for the outburst he thought was coming. Zeref was difficult to read, hiding his emotions well, but when you'd lived with him for twenty years like Natsu had, you came to know that the tilt to his mouth that some would mistake for displeasure was actually bemusement, though the dragon slayer thought maybe it was perhaps a bit displaced.

Zeref twiddled his pen between his fingers. "Something's changed… That's one opinion of it, I suppose. Not necessarily a good one. We should remind them of why they don't fuck with us, I think." Zeref's eyes lingered on Lucy. "Good job getting her. She'll be a valuable tool."

"A valuable bargaining tool," Natsu said firmly. "I want Happy back."

Zeref considered him, a million thoughts going on behind his eyes. Finally, he said, "We can use her as an exchange, and why not some profit, too?"

Natsu smiled for real. "I'll get Rogue to draw up the ransom note."