Lucy opened her door slowly, just waiting for the lizard to jump at her as it had when it first hatched. For a moment, there was no movement and she started inside when, barrelling out of nowhere she was hit in the stomach by a dark blur.

"Oof…" She fell back form the force of the impact and smacked into Natsu behind her. He set her upright again. She painfully pulled the lizard from her stomach and held it up. "Natsu, meet Evrylesce. Evrylesce, meet Natsu." She groaned as she put the lizard into Natsu's hands and walked into her house, barely making it to the bed before she fell over. The dragon and dragon slayer looked at each other for a second before Evrylesce hissed and clawed at Natsu's hands until he let the creature go. The black dragon, unable to fly, dropped to the ground and then nimbly ran over to Lucy and curled around her arm. Any time Natsu attempted to approach, the dragon would growl and hiss at him.

"I don't think he likes me very much," Natsu commented finally giving up and sitting on a chair rather than the bed. Lucy looked over to him.

"So, it is a he?" she asked. Natsu nodded. "Great."

"Come on Lucy," Natsu complained. "That's not nice. It's a dragon! That's awesome!" Lucy groaned and sat up. Almost immediately, Natsu's excitement over the beast was dampened by what he saw. Already, a dark bruise was forming on Lucy's stomach where the dragon had tackled her. The beast was only a forearm in length and pretty skinny, but it had strength.

"That's just it," Lucy pushed some stray hair out of her face. "It's a dragon, I have no idea what to do about it!" The creature crawled into her lap and snuggled against her. The blonde girl sighed and gently stroked the dragon's dark scales. "I mean, he's nice and all, but I don't know what I'm doing. I wouldn't know how to care of a human baby let alone a dragon one…"

"Is it… purring?" Natsu asked leaning closer to the dark scaled dragon. Instantly, whatever he was hearing stopped and was replaced by a low growl. The dragon's eyes opened and glared at him. Natsu slowly leaned back. Lucy laughed.

"Maybe he knows you're a dragon slayer," she guessed. Seeing Natsu retreat, the small beastie turned back to Lucy and clamped down its small teeth into one of her fingers. "Ow!" Lucy pulled her hand away from the creature quickly. Evrylesce froze and looked up expectantly at Lucy, almost sorry.

"Maybe he's hungry," Natsu commented. Normally, Lucy being bitten by a baby dragon would be funny, but it wasn't. He remembered the bruise the creature had caused and scowled.

"And it bit her, twice…" he continued. "Dragon, cool. Dragon hurting Lucy, not as cool."

"There's a steak in my fridge, you wanna grab it for me?" Lucy asked, pulling Natsu out of his thoughts. He got up and did as she asked. When he got back, the dragon sat rigidly staring at the piece of meat. Looking between him and the steak, it seemed like Evrylesce didn't know whether to growl at Natsu to back off or be a good boy and get the food. Eventually food won.

As the dark dragon tore at the steak, Natsu slowly reached out and touched the scales. He remembered Igneel's scales being really hard, but the baby dragons were soft and almost fuzzy. Maybe it was a newborn thing.

"I thought it was strange too," Lucy commented as though she'd read his mind. "I guess, when they're born, their scales are actually soft. They are a little harder now than when he first hatched though." The dragon, now finished with his steak turned towards Natsu's hand and the dragon slayer froze.

"Uh…" he waited to see what the dragon would do. Evrylesce caught Natsu's index finger between his small claws and sniffed his finger. The dragon seemed to debate what to do for a second before beginning to lick the steak taste off Natsu's fingers.