Two years later was when that rusted cage became relevant again.

Not in an a common, normal way, it was with a provision the old man had implemented for the betterment of Natsu's age group. S-class wizards taking on a simple job with a younger counterpart so that they had more experience with high ranked assignments. Originally he had been moved to protest, for at first glance the plan had no merit, far to dangerous for both parties involved. If glanced upon with a more ludicrous gaze it made a twisted type of sense. Matching his luck, he had been paired with Natsu. Because of course, he had been, maybe he had made his avoidance of the pink haired teen too obvious, and Gramps had decided to be a meddling old man trying to fix what was not broken.

Being twenty did not change much of his disposition, but it did give him a mind less clouded by the confusing thing that was hormonal impulses. Natsu being paired with him was not what he had expected, but it was the preferred result as the other options were far less appealing, in hindsight, the only one he got along with amongst the group was the Dragneel. A strange statement, as it was sentimental to an extent.

Of course, being as this was the loudest of the batch, he chooses a job best suited to someone of his exuberance stance in life. Being that it requires little to no discretion, so there was less risk if the enemy did confront them. Natsu couldn't be stealthy even if he didn't have a ridiculous flying feline. Admittedly, Laxus had a hard time of it himself, being over six feet tall had certain disadvantages a sacrifice to his stealth was one of them, the flashing lightning didn't aid in that regard either. At least, if it became necessary, one of them was relatively small. That being said, he had a profound hope that it would not be.

Natsu's lack of ability to be anything other than a blown fuse with the skills of fighting all presented forth was not something he considered necessary or even of value. Laxus was well aware of his own power, far superior to his companions although more pronounced in certain areas. Which in itself was what he found to be the issue. Natsu was profoundly unaware of how to better himself in regards to magical ability or stamina. For someone continuously in the mindset of challenging all who came forth, it was a dangerous weakness. It weighed on him as a S-class wizard -and perhaps more so as a man who cared slightly for the wellbeing of the younger man- that Natsu was so ignorant.

From himself to Erza, Mirajane, and even Gildarts, each of them had been given a comprehensive briefing on each of their student's' advantages, weaknesses and abilities. Of course, most of the said information was surface based, unassessed at a more detailed view. In his, there was the basic; Fire Magic (Dragonslayer), enhanced physical durability, increased magical core. The stuff he was aware of already, as an example, it didn't include; erratic bouts of stamina depletion, or Natsu's well known ability of understanding his opponents fighting style and responding appropriately.

So, Laxus had the ideal of turning this otherwise quick job into a specialized training trip. Remaining unaware of this exercise was the dragonslayer himself, no doubt that should he gain knowledge there would be a very loud, very irritating, possibly reoccurring verbal argument of ability and strength. The notion brought a headache forth, as was Natsu's yell far too breaching, none could remain unaffected, even he.

First, he observed, although his impression of the fire breather's fighting style was largely inconclusive. Mostly because of the lack of technique presented. The only pattern was that of blind luck, or perhaps flawed faith, as the boy with pink hair continuously dodged the most obvious of attacks, or proceeded to wildly strike with a blaze of hellfire. While his adaptability was commendable; the manner in which he conducted his footing, used his magical energy -wastefully-, and joyful attitude while engaged in combat was concerning. It was too brazen, too unsynchronized and sloppy. Certainly, if he continued fighting as such he would be killed.

Of course, he knew Natsu well enough not to present this forth as an obvious fact, or indeed fact at all. There would be to many objections. So, therefore, his second task was to devise a way to showcase the instability of a brazen fighting style and get Natsu to correct himself. A challenge, but surprisingly he did not find it to be a tedious one. In fact it was rather a fun prospect.

Though, in order to craft a better wizard, he would have to understand the driving force for the boy's actions. Mainly his insistence on dealing with all who challenged him -or even those who didn't, to a brawl.

Laxus could acknowledge that he himself loved a fight, the adrenaline, physical response, instinctive and primal areas in which many did not indulge themselves in with a modernized society were appeased and a certain calmness settled over his mind. That being an awareness: He also did not desire to fight as often as Natsu did, he did not care for it. Understanding his own stance as a powerful mage did nothing to lighten his desire to spar or brawl with a good opponent, but sometimes violence did nothing. Natsu did not seem to understand that violence could not solve all issues.

Maybe he was to invested, but it was similar to his own systemic issues as a teenager -not that he was far surpassing that age currently- but he had mellowed considerably from the angry boy continuously blaming family for the disturbances in his life. Natsu was clearly different in the fact that his family was all foster or adopted based, but his tendency for violence was the same as his own had been.

Currently, they were near the fair city of Chocas, and Laxus had every intention of exploiting this as beneficial. He intended to introduce the kid to some small jobs, such that he wouldn't normally take. Based on the file he had read Natsu had taken maybe two total D-class jobs in his entire time with the guild. Meaning, thusly that he was profoundly inexperienced with everyday life in regards to the common civilian. This was a platform in order to build the understanding Natsu only natively knew, common people did not have magic to solve things for them. Certainly, they did not have the luxury of violently reacting to every hurdle impeding them. By doing small jobs to help the elderly or children he would be learning how to respond to a challenging situation without punching it in the face.

That didn't stop him from complaining the entire time, a moment of peace would be interrupted by him shouting something about his 'stupid mentor' to the latest clientele. It got to a point where the lightning mage busted out his earphones and blasted heavy metal to keep out the sound of his shrill voice yelling about the next problem he had with the small jobs. Watching the combat 'specialist' -Laxus says that skeptical when the boy barely understands how to use a coherent attack without lady luck.- rescue a straying balloon without the help of his fire was hilarious. Involving a lot of falling out of trees and running across the really old infrastructure. What amused him most was the splash he took into the oncoming river.

Camping out was better then getting a hotel, not because he was being frugal, but he had learned many years ago that Natsu didn't like houses. Not condos or apartments, he enjoyed sleeping outside underneath the stars to watch them 'd trace patterns within their forms and would mumble out their stories to himself, probably told to him by his father. It was one of the things they could both understand, while he faced no aversion to shelter, there was a need to be outside at night to see what stories he could find. They lay on the grass now staring up at a clear sky. Natsu didn't even shiver through his clothes were soaked through.

"Say Laxus?" He grunted in reply, not having expected conversation. In turning to look at the damnable brat he found eyes staring at him, with the small illuminance of the glowing sky, they looked fragile. Not as if his strength had fled, but that he knew not how to cope with the world he found himself in. "My Dad always said that humans looked at the sky and saw stories different from ours. Did you learn any?" Ah, that would be the vulnerability then, speaking of his father was always a taboo around the fireball.

"My Father would occasionally if he was in a good mood." Natsu perked at that, sitting up by his elbows, leaning over his personal space normally salmon pink hair falling forward in a deep cherry pink under the moonlit sky, shimmering a little under the glare of the moon. To a man bound by instinct, it appeared near ethrial and he had to avert his gaze before his cage cracked more at the sight. A trickle of disgust crawling around his spine at the perverse nature his thoughts took him in that moment. A weakness, the plaintive desires of a man beholden to hormones did nothing to soothe his mind, lust towards a little man was something he shouldn't be feeling, even if it had been long time wrought.

It brought him at a wroth to himself at the fact presented forth in his inappropriate guidings.

Being who he is, Natsu noticed nothing of his own inner fight, seeming for once quiet and keen. Seeking for something Laxus could not pinpoint. So in search of drawing his own attention away, he escaped. "What did your Dad tell you then?" He was marginally curious, seen as no one knew really what sort of man Natsu's father was, where he came from. Perhaps he was indigenous? Something radical would make better sense, as the fire mage was convinced he was a dragon incarnate. Maybe a heavy type of transformation magic they used in the Northern areas.

Not paying attention to the escapism so cavalierly used, the boy smiled largely and pointed from where he was to the astrological sign of Virgo. "Virgo -as you know her, was supposedly the maiden of a powerful Dragon lord, he claimed her as his mistress having been struck by her beauty. When Virgo denied giving into his desires even after years of formal courting, he proclaimed that she should bare his young. It was said that a powerful wizard took pity on her and using the strength of his magic made her baren so that she would not be begotten with a child even making her body a temple where no sin of intercourse could enter. That's how she got the name Virgo the Maiden, or the Virgin because she could never lose her purity, as she never lost it to the dragonlord to whom she had married." For a moment Laxus just stared, how could someone who hardly knew how to read speak so fluently? Nonetheless, it was well told, and made sense, never minding the dragon part.

"I like that version better." He decided. It was more wholesome to the woman of the tale, which said much about the state of the one he knew; something about a maiden of arrogance denying all men who want of her, before she gets struck down from her position and sold to a master with a bad reputation. He couldn't remember it all, and from what he could his only consideration was that it wasn't a very nice fable.

Natsu sets himself down, much to the grown man's irritation right on top of him. But when they actually are showing a fair comraderence he can't find himself pushing the teen off in spite. "You're always so aloof, why don't you talk to anyone?" Funny for someone so socially unconscious to notice a recluse. Not that he had taken to that behaviour from the beginning, he hadn't minded the little brats when he had been a pre-teen or even in teenagedom, just not wanting to engage them. Besides they only became more then ravenous little delinquents after Natsu joined.

A small thing with rose coloured hair, trying so desperately not to be alone, yet so awkward around other children. He'd wrestle with them and end up breaking a bone, looking shocked about the crack of bone everytime. His father must have been a traveler, because Natsu was a sweet kid genuinely, caring and firey, along the way as pride became more important some of him was lost to time. A thing that Laxus felt bad for. There was always the idea lingering back in his mind that maybe Natsu still felt alone even with his makeshift family. Not in the traditional sense, but in the way that he couldn't understand other people as he should.

"Says the brat that can't understand people." His self-proclaimed blanket starts at that looking him direct in the eyes, somewhat with a small near invisible pout.

"Humans are confusing." He sighs out face planting into the abdomen beneath his head. And rolling it sideways Laxus knew not how comfortable that would be, but he couldn't imagine very. "Lisanna keeps talking about marriage and stuff, and its weird, sure its tradition here, but I don't follow it. Its like she expects me to marry her, which is just-" He collapses again. Laxus sees an opportunity, knowing how attached the youngest Straus could be to his student.

"Brat is a dreamy romantic, ignore it if you don't like it. Surely your Dad taught you about marriage? Whats so confusing about it?" Natsu crawls up his torso making him more then a little intimidated by his own impulses, hanging above his head now both figuratively and literally.

"He did! Its just that they have a different way of doing things, way different then humans." There it was, out of wanting not to get a headbutt he refrains from rolling his eyes. "Humans treat females weird too. Like they're all vulnerable when pregnant and that makes no sense, when someone is pregnant they are far more dangerous. I know I'll be, but also ew." He curls his nose, and Laxus raises his eyebrows, wondering just how this kid can be so ignorant about his own anatomy.

"Traditionally the Dragons will fight their intended first, but that ended five hundred years ago. So instead they began the gifting ceremony, which had the D-class dragon gather gifts for their desired over a long span of time to show their prowess." That was where Laxus kinda zoned out, a trickle of thrill ran up his spine at the words, unusual and an overwhelming instinct to do something that he could not name. It was a dangerous growling in the back of his head and it wouldn't shut up. The lack of knowledge would have made him panic if the instinct wasn't so encompassing as if it were planting a natural rationale for its own existence. Still, he held it down fast, not yet knowing what it implied nor the reasoning for its sudden appearance.

Imagining only concludes Natsu to be the cause, and given his own acknowledged problem of strange tydings, he could not consider it a biased reasoning.

As a means of distracting himself he focuses instead on something that can use to focus the mind. "You follow these… rituals?" He gains a blink and a tilted grin, pleased not uncomfortable.

"Of course! I was raised by a dragon after all, not to mention Dragonslayers are different from normal humans. I expect pampering and a good fight!" From that he merely rolled his eyes. Although what was interesting was how Natsu had managed to completely craft such an expert tale Again, something pronounced in his head gave way, though he could not think of what thought had just passed his own caution.

"Your deluded if you think some poor shit will pamper you." He said instead, fed up with racing thoughts he pushed the pouting teen off him so that he rolled into the grass. Sitting and glaring beside him as opposed to laying on top of him in a goddamned cuddle. However in opposition to the indignation he expected, when looking to the teen, he found Natsu looking at the ground with a sulk. Unfortunately rather then being angry and childish, it looked forlorn, and the grown man did not know how to deal with that from the pink-head.

This was not a comfortable environment for a man who remained socially inept. Because to add spice to the misery he whispered: "I thought that…" the rest was muttered, though Laxus was not a complete moron he'd say above average intelligence was around where he marked. So he knew what the tagline of that sentence was, and man wasn't it a kick in the ass.

"You think that I-" he then proceeded to watch the other's face turn pink and sweat bead despite the cold air.

"So what!? Maybe I did!" Once more rage seemed to be his response. Though the grown man didn't know what to do about it. Although if the steering in his gut was anything to operate by being forward would probably suit them both just fine. Which of course conflicted with his own set of really shaken morals. "Your kind of.. the ideal mate…" he mumbled again, switching between a defensive yell and a vulnerable whispering utterance.

This was so very uncomfortable. More because Laxus understood he wasn't exactly against the idea. Though he had no real concept of 'dragon mating,' but then he just took it to be Natsu's prerogative for dating and flirting. Which when considered matched him perfectly Concerning him was the fact that his mind was considering what it would take to woo the pyromaniac.

This taken from what he understood at this point. Naturally, it became an escaping route for a man so concerned with morals and appearing to much like a predator hovering over a minor. As such his question became a diversion. "What about that other Dragonslayer? That freaky weird one in Phantom?" Were his eyes getting sore from how much he rubbed at them in avoidance? In regarding his companion Natsu just seemed to be pulling faces at the concept.

"I dunno, your just more attractive to my inner voice. I can't really explain it. Guess its just a dragon thing." The entire conversation had become so surreal to a man married to the reality that for moments at a time the business of 'dragons,' became an accepted measurement of strange. Nevermind a basis for rational explanation. At some point he had become less indulgent and more enraptured with the idea of dragon courtship.

Indeed; the concepts they presented made him want for the youth before him with the vivacity of an animal hunting, with thoughts so jumbled he could hardly form sentence nevermind coherently think of what action had done. "Laxus?" With the banging beginning to throb within his head each reprieve from the sound and pain became a moment of bizarre clarity wherein he could make out the worried face of Natsu, so contorted into his look of curiosity. A grumble threatened his throat, he wanted for things he couldn't understand and in his haste to stop himself from doing something he would never be able to morally regard.

He stood with the grace of a man terrified with the sweat of a man compromised unto himself. "Hey!" With his mentally so confused he did not notice that he was being grasped until he got slapped on his arm. Intent to shake the teen off him, not only was he met with resistance he was faced with a reluctance in himself.

Reasoning dictated several viable responses: Natsu's weaknesses, age, experience… None of which seemed to matter to his very compromised mind. While he'd considered it a high improbability his instincts were screaming, and he could only pin it to the spell placed on his dragon lacrima within. Though as he thought continually, it was the fact that he desired as any man would, experience in matters of sex, desire, but not affection. He knew the truth he was obstructing himself from.

"You aren't against it. Are you?" Natsu demanded an answer as if it weren't an intrusive question.

"I don't know what you want kid." He said in way of answering, though it offered little in way of true response, Natsu seemed unsatisfied himself. Huffing loudly, and both of them found themselves sitting on the grass again, slightly made awkward by the kid he had straddling him, staring directly through him. He wasn't sure what to make of it.

"You want to court me. I can feel it. Your warm." The want to shove the kid off him was mounting.

So, maybe he did. Perhaps it wouldn't be entirely inappropriate if he courted Natsu, four years wasn't far apart. Sixteen and twenty wasn't far. So he wasn't against it. Cautious at himself, and circumstance he grasped at the arms holding his shoulders, gaining a flushed tone from his captor. "How do I court you then?"