A secret Santa gift for the wonderful and talented Dark Shining Light!

Dragon Tail

This had never happened before.

In his entire 22 years of existence, the only significant movement that ever came from the one window in the tall tower that was his home, was when his brother came over.

And that was usually with a loud call of his name.

But now...now he could hear the steady sounds of someone scaling it - softly grunting the whole while.

He was very unsure of how to react. Sure, he could breathe and conjure fire, but the last thing he ever wanted to do was to hurt anybody.

He was pretty certain his appearance alone would do significant harm to the poor soul about to reach his quarters. He knew, since his brother had constantly, constantly warned him of the fear that he would bring.

But when one dainty human hand was visible on the ledge of his one window, he found himself ducking into the shadows, hoping against hope that that wouldn't be the case.

He so desperately wanted to make a frien -

His thoughts were brought to a halt as the mystery person hauled themselves into the room, panting as they did.

As she did.

A girl?

No, a woman!

He had only vaguely read about those, back when he had a small interest in books.

But no book could do any justice to the form in front of him.

Her long golden hair was pulled back and tied, allowing them to flow but not get into her eyes. She was wearing what looked like men's clothes - trousers, a shirt, and a belt with rope, keys and a sword - but the way she wore them made him question what kind of clothing suited whom. They fit her frame well, complimenting it but also loose enough for comfortable movement.

She was a vision.

He instinctively took a few more steps back, avoiding the large patch of light coming from the window - which happened to be lending the stranger an almost ethereal glow.

And though it was instinctive, he found himself feeling safe hidden there. Well, relatively speaking, since his heart was still pounding a mile a minute.

He watched with a weird mix of anxiety and wonder as the person dropped from the ledge onto the floor, sitting down and catching her breath, before turning around to peek over the ledge.

Was she looking for something?

Suddenly she froze, and he did too in response, ready to attack if the unfortunate need arose.

He watched as one hand quickly darted to the sword on her hip. "I know you're there," she said, low but steady. "Are you one of my father's men?"

But he was too busy being fascinated with what her voice was doing to him - unsure if he had ever heard anything as lovely before.

"Okay, that was stupid," she seemed to correct herself under her breath. "Way to barge into someone's place and then make seem yourself sooo unsuspicious, Lucy."

He could hear all of it of course, and snorted at the sarcasm, making her jump. The action, in turn, scared him as well, but for totally different reasons.

"Please don't leave!" he said in reflex.

The plea - for it was a plea - had her brows furrow and a frown form on her pretty face. Squinting into the shadows, she was obviously trying to make him out in the shadows.

"Are you..."

'A demon? A monster?' his brain supplied on her behalf.

"Are you okay?"

He found himself mutely blinking back at her and the very simple question. A simple question that nearly plunged him into an existential crisis, with him questioning everything that was currently his life. No, his existence.

He was a monster, sealed away from the world for nearly all his life with only one person - his brother - who wasn't scared of him.

So, was he okay?

"You..don't have to be afraid of me," her lovely voice came, snapping his thoughts back to her. "I don't mean any harm," she said, raising her hands so he could see she was being sincere.

He felt the need to respond bubble up in him, and for once, he did as he wanted. "Why are you breathing so hard?"

The woman's face still seemed worried, though funnily enough, it didn't look like it was herself she was concerned for when she distractedly replied, "Was running."

He found himself stepping further into the shadows when she didn't relent in trying to catch a glimpse of him. "Why?"

"I can't tell you more until I know who you are," she said gently, but with firm authority.

"I don't want to scare you," he didn't want her leaving just yet. She didn't seem like a threat - according to his instincts anyway - and he was far too fascinated to let her go. He barely recognised the other, more dominant emotion she drew from him, something he hadn't truly felt in years.

Hope.

"Why would you scare me?" she asked, genuinely puzzled.

He couldn't respond to that, fearing that she would run if she knew. So he decided to do the easier thing - take a shot in the dark and step out of it.

He saw, his heart clutching in fear and dread as her eyes widened as he slowly slid into the patch of sunlight coming from the window.

"You..." she whispered, one palm reaching to cover her gaping mouth, the other pointing a finger at him.

He stood still, his heart frantic and his thoughts mess. Everything he had ever been told was coming true. She was scared and she would run away, because he was the monster he was. The demon he was.

"You're.. you're a - "

- he braced himself -

"A dragon, oh my gosh."

"Wait, what?"

But she didn't seem to hear, for she was now on her feet, standing a little shorter than him. Her eyes scanned him from the tip of the horns jutting through his pink hair, down his scaly half-naked form and his human-like arms talon-like legs. And his long tail.

"A dragon! A real live dragon! Wow! I mean sure, you're kind of human too, but wow look at these," she said gesturing at, well, all of him.

'Dragon? Kind of human?'

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything, I - "

"You didn't!" he said, still a bit awestruck. "So you're not...not scared of me?" he asked hesitantly.

"Would you hurt me?" she asked.

No. No, he knew wouldn't. He had no need or any remote want to. So he shook his head.

"Then I'm not," she grinned.

Natsu soaked in the sight, overwhelmed by the trust she was putting in him, not quite realising how the corners of his own lips were curling to mirror hers. "You glow," he sighed through that smile.

Curiously enough, she changed colour. He found that he quite liked that.

"I-I do?"

He nodded, firmly, enjoying how the red in her cheeks only darkened.

"I'm Lucy by the way," she introduced herself, a tad bit awkwardly.

"E.N.D." he said, offering her his name.

"E.N.D?" she echoed, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"Letters for a name? How weird."

"Not as weird as someone climbing into someone else's house," he quipped, laughing as she began sputtering apologies he didn't need. A part of him thrived in the light-heartedness they were sharing - it had been a sort he had never experienced. Even his own brother maintained a formal demeanour around him.

"Etherious Natsu Dragneel. E.N.D. for short," he explained, once having made clear he didn't really mind her having come over.

Not one bit really.

"Can I call you Natsu, then?" she asked shyly. "E.N.D feels too...clinical."

"Okay," he, Natsu, said, finding that he liked the name a whole lot more than E.N.D.

Especially when she said it.

"So you live here?" Lucy asked, looking around the dimly lit, sparsely decorated room. The single room was fairly big, but with not much inside. She could see a hammock, some weights, and lots of soot on the walls.

"Ever since I can remember," he clarified, watching with interest as she zoomed towards his old bookshelf as soon as she noticed it, dusting them off and reading their spines in glee.

"Oh wow! Look at these! Limited edition prints and all so well kept! Oh, and I didn't even know this series even had a fourth book!" Her head snapped away from the books to Natsu. "Please, please may I borrow these?!"

"Keep 'em," Natsu found himself saying, enjoying how she only seemed to light up even further.

"You sure?"

"You saw the dust, does it look like I read them?"

But she had been distracted as soon as he nodded. Natsu didn't mind. It made him feel beyond thrilled to have made her this happy.

And not scared her off or killed her like Zeref always said he would have.

He brushed the thought off as a different question popped in his head.

"What were you running from?"

"My Dad's men," she answered, eyes still scanning the back of a book.

"How come?" he wondered out loud.

Lucy's attention finally snapped away from the books at that, looking up at Natsu with wide eyes. "Oh, umm, I kind of ran away? From home?" She answered sheepishly, not quite meeting his gaze.

'Ran away? Was that even an option? How cool was she?'

She pouted at his stunned silence, misunderstanding it. "I-it was a long time coming! How long was I supposed to be cooped up at the palace, before marrying some random guy and being cooped up at his?"

Natsu only blinked at her, soaking in everything she had confessed. He wanted to be able to reassure her that he was far from upset with her story, when he smelled it in the air.

Him.

In a blink of an eye, Natsu had Lucy in his arms and dropped in an unceremonious heap inside an empty cupboard, even before she could say a word in her surprise.

He indicated for her to be quiet, before shutting the closet doors with only a little gap to let air in.

And not a moment too soon, because -

"Brother dear, I have arrived. Let me see you!" a voice echoed from down below.

Natsu went along with the usual routine, doing his best to hide any fear or excitement he was feeling. He was pretty certain his brother wouldn't be very thrilled that he had a visitor.

Lucy had decided to honour her new friend's request and stay quiet, however the greeting had her curiosity piqued.

She carefully moved so that one eye was able to see through the small gap between the doors. And what she saw had her stunned.

Natsu began letting his tail grow.

Really grow.

Lucy stifled a gasp as the tail coiled itself around a hook outside the window, as though having a life of its own, before dropping outside. And though she couldn't believe it, the analytical side of her brain knew that it could reach ground level.

'Wait a second,' she realised suddenly, 'No doors! Then has he never - '

"Brother dear," a soft, low voice spoke, drawing her attention back to her endeavour in espionage, watching as a short man in dark robes had now reached the window, Natsu's tail coiled around his form, resembling a swing.

Natsu, on the other hand, was now felt nervous at the possibility of being caught. He didn't want to have to say goodbye to the first friend he had made since Happy. Not at all.

"How was your travel?" he asked instead, as always, helping his brother into the room.

"Fruitful, I found a new plant that will go a long way in facilitating my experiments."

"I see," Natsu responded, not really seeing.

"You look a bit distracted," said Zeref after a thoughtful pause. "Care to share with me what has your mind otherwise pre-occupied when your dear brother has returned from his long trip?"

Natsu knew that the offer of a choice was a mere formality. "I..." He began gingerly, "I was just wondering...if I could step outside for a bit."

"And risk you being exposed?" Zeref responded calmly, smiling even. But Natsu knew better. The way his eyes had turned red was indicative enough. "You're going to kill every soul you don't scare away anyway, with you being the demon that you are. So what's the point?"

Nastu's shoulders slumped as his heart plummeted to his stomach. He wasn't sure why he had expected anything different.

He was no dragon. He was a monster.

"Sorry," he whispered.

"That's better!" said Zeref cheerily, before turning around, hopping over the coils of Natsu's tail and heading towards the bookshelf.

"I see you've finally chosen to dust this off. Good boy," he lauded, though Natsu didn't feel the least bit like he had received a compliment.

Zeref didn't seem to care for his mood though, as he continued searching the lone shelf. "Huh," he mumbled. "Seems like we're missing a book. Or few."

Natsu was about to hurriedly offer an answer when -

"I must have misplaced it. That's unlike me," he whirled back to the window, adjusting his dark robes. "Let me back down, Natsu."

Natsu silently nodded and coiled the tip of his still-long tail around his brother.

"I've left a bag near the shelf, it'll have all the food you need for the next two weeks. I'll be off to find that book," he paused to really look at Natsu. "Ration it carefully, you do not want to finish your food prematurely and starve until I return again," he reminded, before jumping off, leaving his weight to be braced by Natsu alone.

Natsu continued watching with a shattered heart as his brother walked away from his tower, along with any chance of him ever being free of those four walls.

That is, until, he remembered -

He turned around fast enough to give an ordinary person whiplash, only to see Lucy emerging from inside the cupboard.

Crying.

An apology was ready, at the tip of his tongue, but she interrupted it.

Quickly, she moved to him and held his hands. She fixed her teary auburn gaze at his dark eyes and spoke, in a slightly shakey voice, words that would change his life forever.

"Come with me," she pleaded.

Natsu was already shaking his head when she began arguing even more frantically. "It'll be fun!"

"With me?" he asked.

"You're not a monster," she affirmed. "I wouldn't be in one piece right now if you were."

"I..." Natsu tried arguing, unsure if he should allow himself to believe what she was telling him. Or to listen to the silenced voice inside him that had always urged the same sentiment.

Doing her best to ignore how his voice cracked with emotion, Lucy nodded firmly. Pointing outside his window she explained, "Every year on the seventh day of the seventh month, you can see these glowing orbs float into the sky. They look like fire...or the stars, and appear each year like clockwork."

"I've seen them!" Natsu supplied, thinking of how it was a yearly tradition for him to watch them gently reach for the sky before disappearing. The sight brought him a lot of calm joy on lonely nights.

Lucy smiled, letting go of his hands, "No one knows where they come from. But legend has it that a huge red dragon makes them, calling for his lost son."

Something inside Natsu hurt to imagine the lonely, sad dragon.

"So, come with me?" Lucy pleaded once more.

"But I..." Natsu said, still unsure.

"I'm fine. I've been with you for some time now and I'm fine. I do not think you'd willingly hurt anyone else either" she reminded him again, eyes locked onto his. "At no point did you make me afraid or give me any reason to think you'd hurt me. You were gentle even when you hauled me into your cupboard! You don't seem like a monster to me at all, and if you are you're sure as heck the nicest one I've ever met."

Nastu's eyes widened, and his throat closed up with emotion. No one had ever said that before, and though he was doubtful, he wanted with all his heart to believe her.

"Please join me? You'll be back before the emo-guy returns if you have to, safe and sound. You have my word. It'll be an adventure!"

"An adventure?"

Lucy felt a bubble of joy at the hope she heard in that simple query. "Yes!"

Natsu seemed to be deep in thought for a moment and Lucy allowed it. She knew better than most how difficult such a decision could be - stepping away from everything you'd always known into the outside world was by no means an easy task.

She was so lost in her own thoughts and she nearly missed his quiet response.

"Okay."

"What was that?"

"Okay," he said more determinedly, "I'll come. Just give me a few moments."

Lucy grinned happily as Natsu ran around his home, gathering together small knick-knacks into the bag Zeref left behind.

He made quick work of his sorry excuse for packing, the old bag being filled with more food than clothes or anything else, forcing Lucy to smother a fond giggle.

Finally, having stuffed his - now her - books inside it, Natsu finally headed to his hammock, scooping up a small ball of fur out of it and cradling it close to him.

Lucy's eyes widened as he approached her, handing over a blue kitten.

She had just about secured her hold on the little thing, when she felt her feet leave the floor.

Natsu having picked her up in his arms and all.

"P-p-put me down!" she whisper-yelled, holding the snoozing cat close to her for safety.

"That's not a smart way to go down, weirdo," Natsu responded blankly. "Besides, this will be fast and we've places to be."

His excitement was infectious, because despite everything, Lucy soon found herself grinning back. "Yeah, let's go!"

Securing himself using his tail, Natsu made the jump into the outside world for the first time ever. And in doing so, also unintentionally opening up a whole new chapter in his life.

One of travels, food, adventure, making new friends, facing his past and overcoming it, meeting a legendary dragon, finding out the truth of his roots and his identity, and fighting everything that had held him back for so long - thus discovering himself, discovering freedom and, in his saviour and best friend, discovering love.

He didn't know any of that just then, but as he heard her joyful squeals during their rapid descent, he was certain of one thing.

Things would never be the same again.

And boy, was he grateful that that.

And for this weirdo who decided to climb in through his window that fine day.

Thank you for reading! Do let me know of what you thought! :D