Hey guys thank for all the reviews on this story it really helps with my confidence that the story got so popular so fast. The chapter will be the first one of character development over the course of 3 or 4 chapters but there will still be fights as such in them, maybe not as epic as you'd want but hopefully still pretty good. The 3 or 4 chapters will cover over a few months in the story due to a mission which will take us to a few weeks before the Grand Magic Games and over these chapters I will hopefully have been able to develop the relationship between Natsu and Kagura into something good. So anyways here the next chapter enjoy.
One day had passed since Natsu had joined Mermaid Heel and he had spent the Majority of the time getting to know the women in the guild a bit better, even Kagura and Milliana because although he had met and talked with them before he didn't know all that much about either of them well apart from their relation to the Tower of Heaven. The rest of the time Natsu had spent with the Master ironing out a few details, these included Natsu keeping the fact that he joined Mermaid Heel a secret until the next Grand Magic Games, when he did missions he had to be paired up with another one of the guild wizards so that they could meet the clients and get the info for the jobs while Natsu would wait somewhere out of sight for his partner.
Natsu was also told that he couldn't have his guild mark somewhere that was in plain view so he chose to get the mark in red in between his shoulder blades. Another Natsu would have to do in the future if any men decided they wanted to join that Natsu would be the person to test them because he was good at judging a person's character, but that wasn't all after seeing his fight with Kagura their ace Master Aerial decided to make Natsu an S-class wizard and as much as he protested that he needed to take some sort of test to prove he was S-class but the Master Argument of that Kagura usually was the guilds main method of S-class promotion made him give in giving Mermaid heel another S-class mage.
Now though Natsu was standing in front of the request board looking to find a good first job for his new guild but nothing appealed to him until he noticed an S-class job perfectly. "Let's see take out a dark guild that has been terrorising Mine town, reward 60,000,000 jewels!" Natsu read to himself quietly before shouting out the last bit getting everyone's attention. "Natsu why are you being so loud?" Kagura asked in her usual emotionless tone, well that was just a façade she in fact was just like any other girl but only when she was alone with a certain pink haired dragonslayer.
"Oh sorry, it's just that I've never seen a dark guild extermination request worth so much money" He replied in a carefree tone and being completely honest he never had. "Hey Kagura wanna do my first job in the guild with me, I mean it's not that I want the money I've got plenty it's just I want to you know make an impression help raise the guilds reputation" he said in a happy tone while giving his usual grin. "Besides with me and you doing this job together we'd finish in half the time maybe even faster!" He then continued excitedly.
But Kagura didn't hear anything past you wanna do this job with me and due to the erotic novels she had borrowed from Erza causing her imagination to run wild forming steamy situations between the two which ranged from the two of the staying in a hotel room with only one bed and it was the only one left resulting in the two sharing the bed and then some. Kagura was snapped out her dream like state, "Oi Kagura you in there?" Natsu asked rhetorically wondering as to what she was thinking that could cause her to make such a lewd looking face. "Huh?" was he response, "So…what you thinking?" Natsu asked with a smug tone knowing whatever she was thinking had to be embarrassing for her.
"N-nothing just about how much chocolate cake I could buy with the reward money…hehe" Kagura said lying through her teeth while almost dying of embarrassment inside but trying not to show it on her face. "Yeah right, I've seen Erza have that face a ton of time is never the cause." Natsu thought to himself while giving Kagura a sceptical look. "Well whatever you say, now how about that job or if you're not interested I could ask Milliana…" "No I'll do it!" Natsu started but Kagura cut him off by shouting gaining the attention and shocking everyone present.
"Wow Kagura I knew you liked him but I didn't think you'd be jealous if Natsu ask me out on a mission…maybe you RRReeeaaalllyyy LLLiiikkkeee him." Milliana purred in response pulling a happy causing Kagura's face to glow an unhealthy shade of red before running out of the guild literally dragging Natsu out of the guild. Milliana had to admit she was really enjoying this new side to Kagura, she was worried about her friend as all she ever cared about was getting revenge on Jellal but now that Natsu is around she seems to have let it go, even though he's only been around for one day but even the way she is acting is different from before even if she was trying to hide it.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't you two!" Milliana shouted to her friend ready to burst out laughing at her friend when she heard a faint "SHUT UP MILLIANA!" yeo that did it Milliana as well as a few of her guild mates were rolling around on the marble floor of the guild hall trying but miserably failing to get up and stop laughing. "Oh…my…god! This…place is…gonna…be so much more fun with Natsu around." Milliana managed to say through her fits of giggles, "Hahaha I gotta admit you're right about that Milliana." Ariana responded trying to contain her laughter while Risley and Beth along with other members were still busy laughing so hard that tears were forming in their eyes.
At the train station
"I can't believe her, what the hell was up with that!" Kagura huffed walking towards the train station not realising she was still dragging Natsu along, that is until he spoke. "Um Kagura you let go of my hand people are staying" Natsu said slightly embarrassed at what people were whispering about how the two looked but he soon felt pain as Kagura had flipped him over shoulder throwing him into the ground with her foot thrust firmly into his chest. "Oh crap I'm sorry I didn't mean to, I forgot you were there and then…" Kagura said while jumping away from the downed dragonslayer to get in a bowing position causing the people to start saying stuff about the pair's relationship Natsu even thought he had heard someone say something about S&M.
"Kagura its okay I startled you so it understandable you'd react this way." Natsu said ending Kagura's seemingly endless apologetic rant, "Quickly stand up people are staring" Natsu said in an embarrassed tone due to all the speculation people were making.
After a 4 hour long train journey much to the dragonslayers dismay the pair arrived at Mine town by early evening. "Look I'm just saying you wouldn't have to deal with motion sick Natsu if we walked" Natsu said referring to himself in third person as they walked along the platform, however Kagura wasn't in the mood to agree as she almost fell victim to the dragonslayer's projectile vomit which resulted in her Knocking Natsu into a near death like state. "I don't care the train is quicker and how come you weren't sick on the train when we first met?" Kagura said rather angrily due to her beloved white and gold lined blazer nearly being soiled by vomit. "I don't know why, maybe because I was so focused on talking with you but even then it still made me uncomfortable." Natsu replied trying to come up with a decent answer.
"Well it doesn't matter now because I'm going to make sure you get over it, even if it means I have to make sure you ride the train all over Fiore five times" Kagura replied in a smug tone while smiling evilly as she watched Natsu's face turn white while sweating buckets of water. "Y-you wouldn't dare?" Natsu asked in scared tone causing her to smirk at his obvious fear knowing full well this could both be used as a bargaining chip and a source of entertainment. "Aw what's wrong is de big bad dwagonslayer afraid of a whittle twansportation?" Kagura replied in a teasing tone which in the dwagon…I mean dragonslayer's opinion sounded way too cute.
"You now damn well I am, we all are except Wendy! lucky little so and so." Natsu replied shouting out the first part while whispering the last part to himself, if it were any other dragonslayer then he would have used Curses that were unfit for human ears but because it was Wendy he could never bring himself to say anything bad about her, after all he saw her as a little sister so how could he ever say something bad about her. "Let's just start this job, okay" Natsu said in a fed up tone knowing that Kagura was going to milk as much entertainment as possible from him. Not that he minded, he enjoyed seeing a new side to Kagura it just expanded her pallet of emotions.
While Natsu waited in a tall tree out of sight Kagura went to the Mayors house who was the client for the job, after about ten minutes came back to find Natsu to tell him the details of the job. "So what we up against here?" Natsu asked jumping down from his treetop perch landing behind Kagura as gracefully as he could. "Well it seems like the dark guild isn't just focused in a single area like the mayor originally thought, instead they've broken out into numerous fragments that span all over Fiore so we're in for a much bigger and longer fight than we anticipated." Kagura explained in a rather exhausted tone as she knew that as strong as both she and Natsu were they couldn't take multiple factions of dark guilds across Fiore and that they would most likely collapse from exhaustion or worse magic deficiency.
"Do we at least know the name of the dark guild were after and what their insignia looks like?" Natsu asked as he scratched the side of his face. "According to the client their name is Crimson Claw and their guild insignia looks like a dark red demonic claw surrounded by black flames." Kagura explained in her usual stoic manner. "I've never heard of a guild insignia like that before, they must be fairly new and if not they have kept themselves hidden from other dark guilds, I'm leaning more towards the second option." Natsu replied giving his input on the matter. "What makes you think that?" Kagura asked confused as how to Natsu came to his opinion, "Well consider it, they have factions all over Fiore and no-one has ever heard of or seen their insignia before, this can only mean they have been gathering members since they started up and by spreading themselves all across Fiore it gives them a tactical advantage." Natsu explained to Kagura.
Natsu got into for the first time in his life a thinking pose not saying anything for at least two minutes before letting out an aggravated groan, after taking in everything he had said he could only come to the decision of "Aaarggh! Fine even I'm not stupid enough to go through with this alone. How about we take care of the factions here before returning to Mermaid Heel and get Milliana and the others to help us because I'm assuming the reward was increased due to the lack of information?" Natsu asked his partner. "Yes that would be the best action to take and the money has been increased from 60 million jewels to 240 million jewels." Kagura replied in a neutral tone before walking in the direction of the dark guild factions near Mine town.
"Okay let's go kick some ass!" Natsu shouted aloud while slamming his flaming fist into his other hand. The two then started running through a forest with Natsu taking the lead using his nose to find the scent of the dark mages of the local faction of the dark guild, though he didn't have anything physical to use as a scent marker he was able to pick up the scent of the dark mages' magic as their magic always had a weird awful smell like burning flesh or human blood. Within twenty minutes Natsu had pinned down the location of the dark mages, the two were outside a campsite hiding in the bushes taking in what they were up against.
"Okay there at least forty member here most of them are lightweights with the occasional strong one here and there, nothing too difficult so I vote we go for plan T." Natsu said in a whisper although excitement was definitely traceable. "I know I'm going to regret this, but what is plan T?" Kagura asked with regret definitely traceable in her voice, causing Natsu to leap out into the camp site shouting "TAKE'M BY STORM!" which caused Kagura to magic face palm herself because normal face palm wasn't enough for this level of idiocy.
"Well no use in hiding now" Kagura said to herself as she sprung out of the bushes only to see Natsu acting like a child chasing after a new toy, "Oh where do ya think you're goin?…don't worry you're next!... het don't run away from me!" Natsu said as he bound from dark mage to dark mage like he some sort of Lunatic which again caused Kagura to magic face palm. "WOULD YOU CAML DOWN! Gravity X75!" Kagura screamed out casting her third largest gravity spell that affected the whole camp site forcing everyone bar herself and just herself into the ground.
"Kagura…let me up…I'm one of the good guys" Natsu said in between pained breaths as he felt like his body was being crushed underneath the enormous weight and pressure. "Not until you calm down and promise not to run around like a lunatic!" Kagura shouted in response, "O-okay…now please let me up" he replied through gritted teeth baring with the pain while trying to push himself up. Letting the pressure ease of bit by bit Kagura finally stopped casting her gravity spell allowing Natsu and whatever dark mages that managed to stay conscious to get up. "Damn did you really have use a spell that powerful? Your X50 would have been enough, DAMN that hurt!" Natsu shouted at her with a rather large tick mark on his head.
"Well it doesn't matter now, come on let's finish this." Natsu said while cracking his neck, back and knuckles in succession. "Okay but if you get out of hand again next time it will be X100" Kagura replied in a very threatening manner causing the dragonslayer to shrink on the spot giving a timid nod cowering in fear before taking off to finish the remaining dark makes, "Damn, she's even scarier than Erza ever was." He thought to himself chuckling sadly as he remembered what said person had done and accused him of, remembering this caused him a bit of sadness but he immediately felt a surge of anger as most of his family didn't believe him.
So after a very short battle with an anger fuelled Natsu which would leave his opponent traumatized needing years of psychiatry to deem them even remotely mentally stable Natsu and Kagura took out the remaining factions of the dark guild in the area and returned to Mine town to find a place for the night because it was already late but before doing so Kagura sent a message via lacrima to inform them that they would be stopping by the guild tomorrow to pick up Kagura's team of Milliana, Beth, Ariana and Risley.
"We'd like two rooms please" Kagura asked the owner of the inn they located politely, it was actually very easy to find it as it was the only Inn in the entire town. "Sorry mam we only have one room left" the inn keeper replied sheepishly scratching the back of his head "WHAT!" Natsu and Kagura both shouted in unison. "Yeah we got a last minute mass booking for a party under the name of a Mr. Monkey. " the short innkeeper explained while hiding behind his desk in fear.
With no other options they paid for the room which was on the third floor they took the key and made their way to the room, Natsu was sweating bullets in the fear of there being only one bed as he had been told what he does when he and another person have to share a bed together by a certain scarlet haired wizard because if it happened again he didn't want it to be the ace of Mermaid Heel who according to rumour once castrated a man who coped a feel of her ass when she wasn't looking and even though it was a rumour all rumour extend from some form of truth how small that truth is was what was getting to Natsu as for all he knew it could have been 100% true.
As they entered the room their fears were consumed as there was only a single medium sized bed, by now Natsu was sweating bullets more than humanly possible and Kagura had gone into a dream like state as her new found imagination thanks to Erza's erotic novels took a hold of her mind taking in what was in front of her and warping it into what you would describe as a very lewd, inappropriate and steamy situation between herself and the dragonslayer.
"I'll sleep on the cou…floor" Natsu said as he stared at the item of furniture he was about to volunteer to sleep on but immediately changed his mind seeing the state it was in and opted for the floor instead. "What I can't let you sleep on the floor, it wouldn't be right…we can share" Kagura said but whispered the last part so quietly that Natsu couldn't hear it even with his advanced hearing. "Wait what did you Kagura?" Natsu asked wondering what it could have been to mark her face as red s Erza's hair.
Kagura started fidgeting nervously on the spot while she tried to say it, her lips were forming into a quaking wobbly line which made it obvious to Natsu that whatever she was trying to say was embarrassing but he definitely had to admit that the face looked like the cutest thing he had ever seen and he had seen a lot of cute things in his life time, "heh cute" Natsu thought to himself.
"We…can" Kagura tried to say but couldn't finish and started to fidget even more than before which showed she was very uncomfortable. "We can what?" Natsu asked but had already guessed what she was going to say, "WE CAN HARE THE BED!" she ended up shouting loud enough for everyone in the inn to hear her. Natsu was actually a little taken back, he knew she was going to say it but still she looked very uncomfortable when she said.
"As much as I appreciate the offer Kagura I don't think it would a good idea" Natsu said causing her to look at him with a confused look and a feeling of hurt which confused her even more as she really didn't know why hearing him say that hurt her so, it didn't go unnoticed by Natsu as he saw that she looked a bit hurt from what he said and he definitely didn't want her thinking he wasn't going to share the bed with her because he didn't find her attractive because it was quite the opposite as he would have jumped at the opportunity except for the fact that if he accidently coped a feel in the middle of the night he'd be either dead or non-existent. "Don't take it the wrong way it's just that according to some of the people in Fairytail when I share a bed I get how to put it, a little grabby." He said to her trying to comfort her and it actually seemed to lift her spirits slightly as her saw her smile.
"Well I'm sure Erza didn't mind that much" Kagura said in a teasing tone as she knew she hit the nail on the head when she saw Natsu blushing a storm. "Damn how did she now?" Natsu internally asked himself, "Fine I'll share the bed. So do you want to take a bath first or can I go?" Natsu asked Knowing he wasn't going to get off with sleeping on the floor. "I take the first shower thank you" she replied politely but immediately pushed that aside and going for a darker tone "But peek on me and I swear it will be that last thing you ever see…got it" she said in a very intimidating voice as she was surrounded by a murderous aura that could rival that of Erza and Mira combined.
"AYE SIR!" Natsu immediately replied while saluting, "Good" Kagura replied simply as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door "How does she go from a stuttering embarrassed mess to the most terrifying thing I've ever seen, I think she could even make Gildarts and Laxus shit themselves." Natsu whispered making sure Kagura didn't hear him. Natsu made his way to the balcony of his room and sat down on one of the chairs that was lying out there.
"I wonder if you're out there dad, I hope I'm strong enough to meet you again so you be proud of me." Natsu said to no-one in particular as he lay back in the deck chair starting to think about all that's happened. "I don't really know if I can count this as a fulfilled promise, I promised him I'd find her but I also promised I'd take care of her, I guess it's half kept then. I also have to tell Kagura about what really happened that night because I don't have much time the effects of the spell last a year at most and it has already been a couple of months so if I don't do something soon I might be too late."
"I need to get to know her better to make this work, I know I like her she everything I could want in a mate, strong, loyal, caring not to mention beautiful I'm just not sure how much I like her yet" Natsu thought to himself before he started to drift off and within seconds was fast asleep.
Meanwhile in the bathroom Kagura was allowing herself to steep in a hot bath while she thought about some of the stuff that had happened over the last few days. "What's up with me, I know I haven't been myself these last couple of months but over the last few days I've been even more so than usual." Kagura thought to herself pondering why she had been acting differently before sinking deeper into the water while bringing her knees closer to her face which only half stuck out above the water. "It almost as if I've been acting even more different when Natsu showed up" she said with a slight smile, "Even the slightest thought of him makes me feel different… but in a good way I just don't know why."
Getting out of the bath, drying herself and putting on a plain white robe that was hung in the bathroom for the guests Kagura walked out into the room to tell Natsu it was his turn to use the shower but couldn't find him anywhere. She then felt a sharp breeze come from behind her, turning she saw the balcony door was lying wide open and when she went out there she saw the sleeping form of the dragonslayer laying on a deck chair sprawled out in all directions. "Natsu wake up it's your turn for a shower" she said softly as she nudged Natsu's shoulder.
Natsu began to stir and then raised he head up swiftly before saying "What, who, were, oh Kagura it's just you I…" Natsu started saying but stopped when he got a good look at Kagura, he could see that she was just wearing a simple plan white robe that she must have tied in hurry because a good bit of her cleavage was showing and because she had slightly bent over it gave Natsu a very good view. There were also still droplets of water on her skin that seemed to glisten in the moonlight in short she looked extremely hot so much that Natsu had to turn away a hold his nose in order to not die from blood loss.
"Natsu what's wrong?" Kagura asked confused with the way he was acting this way, however the confusion was lifted when Natsu bolted for the bathroom but not before motioning to his chest and then to Kagura who just looked down and much to her embarrassment the robe she was wearing had come lose at the top exposing her breasts. It took a few moments to register what had happened and by the time Natsu had made it into the bathroom she let out the girliest scream imaginable. "KKYYYYAAAHHHH!" was all that could be heard throughout the whole inn, some people were alarmed at the scream while others who knew that tone of scream all too well pitied the poor soul.
After preparing the bath for himself Natsu got in and shoved to pieces of twisted tissue into his Nose to stop the bleeding, the whole time throughout the bath he simple kept repeating the phrase "I am not a pervert" over and over again trying to calm himself down in the process. Natsu then to remember that he had other promises he need to keep and decided to try and fulfil these promises while traveling across Fiore exterminating the branches of the dark guild he and Kagura were tasked with defeating, the way he saw it he thought it would be killing several birds with one very large stone.
After getting out of the bath and using his magic to instantly dry himself Natsu put his baggy white trousers back on and made his way back into the room where he saw Kagura in a pair of light blue pyjamas with white floral designs on them, she was curled up on the bed with her face buried in the pillow. "Kagura you okay there?" Natsu asked in a concerned manner.
Kagura didn't notice Natsu exit the bathroom so when he spoke it surprised her causing her to immediately turn to face him before noticing he was only wearing his trousers which left his whole upper body exposed, she took in every detail from his chiselled muscles to the top of the X shaped scar on his hip that he got from future Rogue, she was so focused on him that she didn't notice she started to drool. "You okay there?" he repeated snapping her out of hr trance before she buried her face back into her pillow.
She then felt Natsu's weight shift the bed, "Are you sure it's okay for us to share a bed?" Natsu asked making sure she was okay with it, she didn't say anything but nodded to show she was okay with it. Natsu then lay on the bed which was surprisingly big enough to accommodate the pair but with very little room between them, there back faced each other and neither of them had anything to say to break the awkward silence. Natsu then felt Kagura shiver which he deduced as his fault for leaving the balcony doors open.
"You're cold, here this should do it" Natsu said and then raised his body temperature so that the heat now surround her. "T-thank you" she muttered in response as she curled up underneath the sheets. "He really is very warm, I don't know why but while I'm like this I feel…safe, like nothing can hurt me" Kagura thought to herself with a smile while a slight blush made its way onto her face before drifting off to sleep, "Night Natsu" she said before succumbing to sleep, "Night Kagura" Natsu replied before he too fell asleep.
Next Morning
The next morning Kagura started to stir because she felt warmer than when she fell asleep last night, she felt the sun's rays of light irritate her eyes, Kagura then tried to get up but found herself immobilised. She then felt a pair of warm arms wrapped around her body and she instantaneously figured out why she felt warmer, Natsu had somehow in the middle of the night snacked his arms around her body without waking her and had pulled her right up against himself.
Natsu was talking in his sleep and when Kagura had tried to get up for the second time he tightened his grip around her like a child would when try and take away their favourite teddy before he buried his head into the side of her neck causing Kagura to go as stiff as a board as she felt his hot breath tickle her skin but if she had to admit it she was actually getting a bit aroused, but Kagura would never ever admit that to anyone not even herself. Soon enough she started to relax before falling asleep again due to the heat his body was emanating and just like last night it was warm, comforting and made her feel safe.
Eventually about an hour later Natsu started to wake up he thought it was at first strange that there was such a strong smell of apple and cinnamon but shrugged it off when he remembered that Kagura was beside him and went back to cuddling whatever he was holding….wait what…he opened his eyes and much too his horror he saw his arms wrapped around what he originally thought was a pillow but was in fact Kagura who was too silent for comfort. He thought he was inclined to say I told you so but that would have been dangerous especially in this situation.
As Natsu was slowly but surely trying to remove his hands from around Kagura's stomach he thought he would have felt the same super murderous aura from last night but instead he felt her hand grab his but instead of the bone crushing grip he thought it would be it was actually very gentle. "Please, just stay like this for a little longer" Kagura said in an almost pleading voice as she started to shake a little. "Hey what's wrong, why are you shaking? Natsu asked in concern as he saw felt her shaking in fear.
"I had that dream."
And that's it for chapter 3 guys I'll admit now that I honestly didn't know where I was with this at first so I kind of just thought of stuff as I went along but after reading it over I'm happy with the end result. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and next story for my update will be either my NaLi fanfic or my crossover one. Until then bye