The next morning Lucy awoke to a warm bed and a strong embrace. She was facing Natsu and he was holding her tightly to him, immediately she began blushing.
'I don't remember coming home last night, in fact I think I fell asleep in the meadow' she thought to herself 'the idiot must have brought me home' she sighed, figuring that she would give him a break for bringing her home last night.
She attempted to wiggle out of his strong hold, but he just held her tighter and in his sleep growled something along the lines of "mine" making the poor flustered blond blush even harder.
She grew saddened by the fact that the simple statement made her heart flutter, because just for a moment, just a single moment she could pretend that he was talking about her, but he was probably just dreaming about keeping his food from Gray or something.
She sighed before calling out to his sleeping form, "Natsu, Natsu c'mon I'm not yelling at you so can you please wake up and l-let go of me" she didn't really want him to let go, but she had no choice. He groaned before letting go of her and sitting up, still looking very tired.
"Lucy, we still need to talk" he said groggily, she sighed before walking into the bathroom to get ready for the day.
Upon coming out she directed her attention towards Natsu, who was much more awake now, "c'mon lets go to the guild" she gave him a soft smile and he followed her.
Well they walked Natsu continued speaking to her, "I'm serious Luce, I understand why you hide this, but you can't hide it forever, hiding something like this is hard because of our emotions. You feel how hard it is controlling your emotions, you've seen me when I get too angry, eventually you'll lose control!" he gave her a stern yet worrying look waiting for her reply.
She just looked down, "I know, but I have to try as long as possible, to keep my promise" she said with a quiet voice.
They finally arrived at the guild and Natsu kicked the doors opening before marching in ahead of Lucy who just walked in behind him waving hello to all her friends. They both sat at the bar and ordered their individual drinks.
While drinking in comfortable silence, something caught her eye; the blonde looked to the dark corner where Fairy Tail's residential iron dragon slayer always sits with Lilly, only to see her best friend Levy.
The solid script mage was sitting on the man's lap with his arms wrapped possessively around her waist, while Levy read her book with interest as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"What's up with them?" she asked Natsu, who followed her gaze before chuckling knowingly, "The old metal head mated her" he said simply catching Lucy by surprise.
Her eyes widened before looking closer using her dragon senses, she knew all dragon slayers could tell when one has a mate and who that person is. Then she noticed something she hadn't before, the odd scent of Gajeel coming off levy, "Oh wow" she whispered turning back to Natsu slightly blushing, "erm, I don't know much about dragon slayer mating, Calli never told me much, can you explain it for me?" she asked quietly. Natsu just gave her a toothy grin, "Sure Luce! Well a dragon slayer doesn't immediately know who his or her mate is even when they are around them, but they're drawn to their mate constantly, wanting to be around them and protect them. Once they figure out who their mate is, they become slightly possessive and they try their best to win over said mate" he finished with the lightest blush staining his cheeks.
Lucy just stared down with a confused look in her eyes, trying to rattle her brain for any time he acted possessive towards her or someone else, she wasn't sure but she was in fact sure that if the information Natsu told was right then she knew who her mate was.
Her mate was Natsu, she already knew she loved the pink-haired idiot, she never wanted to leave his side, even when he drove her up the walls, she loved him and that made her softly growl when she thought of Lisanna.
The soft growl made him jump turning away from his drink and looking down at the blonde next to him before waving his hand in front of her face, "earthland to Luce, are ya in there?" he said jokingly knocking her out of her deep thought, "Oh sorry Natsu, just thinking, anyways I'm going" she gave him an embarrassed smile still shell-shocked from her recent realization.
"No you aren't Lucy, because we are going on a mission" the stern voice of Erza said with Gray following behind her.
Lucy perked up; going on a job should get her mind out of this whole 'mates' thing, "okay Erza! Let's go Natsu!" she smiled and Natsu smiled right back before jumping off his bar stool and following the group out.
Wendy ran after the group with Charle and Happy on her tail, "Wait! May I please accompany you on your mission?" she said with a slight bow and a soft polite voice, "of course Wendy, we'd be happy for you to come with us" Erza said before continuing her walk out of the guild, where everyone split up to go pack then met at the train station.
Once Team Natsu + Wendy and Charle boarded the train and Natsu became sick collapsing on Lucy lap where she gently stroked his hair, Erza started explaining the mission.
"Our mission is to go to a fairly large city that is about a day's train ride away, once there we will have to take out and capture a small dark guild. It may sound simple, but the guild has quite powerful mages that we must defeat"
And with that everyone (aside from the drooling Natsu) gave a stern nod.