A/N: Thank you to all who are enjoying this story and many apologies for not updating Dragons Bookworm recently! Hit a bit of a wall with that one but hoping to work through it. For now, this one is flowing more for me so I'm just going with it. Hope you enjoy! OH and I don't own Fairy Tail!
Chapter 9 One Step Closer
With a tired sigh, Natsu collapsed onto his couch, his mind still reeling from everything that had already happened. He didn't need to open his eyes to know that his dad dropped onto the couch next to him, while Gajeel took the chair. The distinct sounds of water running, then cupboards being opened and closed, told him where Levy had gone. There were a few moments of blessed silence as they waited for the tea to be done and brought to the coffee table, while the teasing smell of strawberries and vanilla drifted along the air in the room.
Spearing his hands into his hair to support his head, tried to remember all of what had happened, aside from seeing Lucy in spirit again. Hell, just thinking about what had happened had him aching with a deep need that he knew only she would ever be able to ease. Hearing the rattle of a tray being set down, Natsu opened his eyes to find that Levy had indeed made tea, the tea that Natsu kept on hand for Lucy specifically. Without further thought he reached forward and prepared his own cup the way he liked it, leaving the others to do what they would.
After draining half the cup, the fresh heat doing nothing to harm him, Natsu let out a sigh, and sat back, knowing he was about to be bombarded with questions; he only hoped he'd be able to get in a few for himself.
"Alright, fire away." Natsu stated, letting his eyes fall shut once again.
"What the hell salamander? Would you mind explaining why you were attacking your dad?" Gajeel asked, reaching out to pull his own shrimp onto his lap, taking the cup of tea she had made for him with a grunt.
"Before we get into that, why don't we start with the part where I had to pull my sons ass out of the water before he died?" Igneel cut in, taking a sip of his own tea while lifting a brow at Natsu.
"Wait what? He almost died? What the hell Natsu?! I thought you wanted to find Lucy!" Levy yelped, jerking in shock.
"I did find her alright? Or at least, I sort of did…" Natsu sighed, placed his now finished tea on the table before rubbing his face with a hand. A vague pulse and soothing sensation washed over him as he did this, drawing the others attention to the increased glow coming from his right side.
"Uh…..salamander…..would you mind telling the rest of the class what's going on with your right arm?" Gajeel muttered, an utterly perplexed look on his face. "When the hell did you have time to get a tattoo?" Being a dragon slayer, he was able to make out the lines of what looked like a tattoo, but the glow made it difficult to see any detail.
"What are you talking about tin head? I didn't get a tattoo." Natsu huffed, not missing the smirk on his dads' face from the corner of his eye. "And what are you so high and mighty about old man? Need I remind you yet again that you've been gone for seven bloody years?"
"No, you don't need to remind me, believe me, I'm as aware of the time having passed as you are. Do I regret it? No. Am I glad that it happened? Again, no. Do I wish that another way could've been found? Oh hell yes. But that time has passed, I'm back now, and that's all that matters. And Gajeel, I believe he is telling the truth, or at least in his mind he is. He has not gotten a tattoo."
"Then what the hell do you call that thing on his arm? For that matter, why the hell does it smell like Lucy in here?" Gajeel demanded as he shifted Levy into the chair so he could move around the table to poke at what he hadn't gotten a clear look at before. Before he could touch it however, a low level pulse burst from it, just enough to shove Gajeel back a couple of steps. Finally feeling the pulse, Natsu turned to look at his arm in shock.
"Uh…I would be a little more cautious about how you approach Natsu, for the time being at least, Gajeel. That is far from your typical….tattoo."
As Igneel continued to sip at his tea, Gajeel and Natsu stared at the "tattoo", not seeing Levy get up to come around to get a closer look. Slowly, carefully, and gently prying off the restraining hand of her mate who had caught her arm in worry, she stepped closer, until her nose was all but touching Natsus' skin.
"What-how is she able to get so close?" Gajeel asked quietly, taking deep breaths to keep his inner dragon under control. He didn't like how close Levy was getting to him, but somehow he knew that Natsu wasn't a threat to her, or trying to claim her. His instincts were only coming from the fact that he hadn't claimed Levy himself yet, and saw ANY other male as a potential threat.
"Because I'm not actually trying to touch him, and I approached in a calm manner." Levy answered quietly, watching the tattoo pulsing lightly in a seemingly friendly way even as she shifted through the endless knowledge she had stored in her head. There was something about this that seemed to call to her, beckoning her closer…biting her lip, she reached out slowly, ignoring the growl that erupted from behind her. Pausing for a bare moment to settle her nerves, she let her fingers brush across the glow. She didn't hear the concerned shouts as she was pulled under.
*An hour later*
"-hell isn't she awake yet? What the hell did you do salamander?!" Gajeels snarl reached her ears, the worry making her feel warm and safe.
"I don't know! I didn't do anything! You saw she touched me!" Natsu yelped. A resounding thud could be heard and Levy could only assume that he had been knocked to the ground.
"It's not his fault Gajeel. A lot has happened in a very short amount of time, and so whatever happened is simply taking a bit of time for – Levy was it?- to process. I'm sure we'll have many more answers when she wakes up." Another, unfamiliar, voice reached her ears.
With a groan, she managed to force her eyes open to find everything blurred. After a moment, and a few blinks, things cleared and she found her worried body of bolts staring down at her over the back of what she assumed was the couch.
"Shrimp? Can you hear me?" Gajeel asked, his red eyes full of worry as he took in the slightly pale form of his mate. When she had collapsed an hour before, he was certain that his heart was going to stop. He had managed to catch her before she hurt her head, and got her onto the couch after Igneel and Natsu had quickly vacated it.
Letting out another groan, she lifted a hand to her head. She didn't know how many times she told him this, but she was sure that she'd never be able to stop but- "I have a name you know."
Letting out a relieved chuckle, Gajeel could only smile and cup her face in a hand. "Yea, but you'll always be shrimp to me."
Scowling at him lightly, Levy managed to pull herself into an upright position, leaning back against the arm of the couch before turning her gaze to the other two men who had taken up spots on the floor. Seeing that a glass of water had been placed near her, she scooped it up and quickly drained it, grateful for the refreshing sensation against her throat.
"So what was that about Levy? Any idea why you passed out?" Igneel asked, propping his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward.
Letting out a sigh, she rolled her head from shoulder to shoulder, relishing in the relief that came from the sounds of her neck popping. "Yes, I know exactly why, since out of the three dragons in the room, none of you were paying any attention to the one who was trying to show they were here."
"And who was that?"
"Lucy."
She couldn't help but smirk some as Gajeels' and Natsu's jaw dropped. Thankfully she could tell that Igneel knew what she was talking about and simply sat back to watch the show.
"What are you talking about Lev? She's still just beyond the veil, wherever that may be." Natsu stated, unaware that he had lifted a hand to start tracing his upper right arm.
"You're right, she is." Levy conceded with a small smile. "Or at least part of her is, just like part of you now is too. You're marked now Natsu, with what I can only guess is her mark, in what is a soul bond, something that is very rare and very hard to accomplish for dragons apparently."
Blinking at Levy for a moment, Natsu turned his head and couldn't stop the grin that nearly split his face in two before darting off to the bathroom and the mirror above the sink. Leaning close to the mirror, he was aware of the others standing at the doorway, but paid them no mind as he traced reverent fingers over the dragon sprawled across his shoulder.
Curling around him in a fashion similar to the one that he knew now graced the shoulder of Lucy's spirit, the dragon was a deep blue, almost black in color, speckled with lighter colored scales. Its' wings were outstretched slightly, and he could see odd designs decorating them. Looking closer he realized the designs were the constellations of the twelve zodiac that Lucy had gold keys for.
They had spent so much time together over the years and plenty of it was spent star gazing that she had taught him over time how to find the different spirits in the stars. Shifting his gaze in the mirror to where the head rested across his collar bone he found gold eyes peering up at him and blinking.
"Uh…Igneel? I thought marks can't move?" Gajeel muttered, watching in fascination as the dragon blinked and shifted, the tail swishing lightly across Natsus' skin.
"Regular mating marks can't. They provide needed protection from their mates element, and a few other things. Soul bond mating marks on the other hand….well….that becomes a whole new level of fun and interesting." Igneel explained, seeing the small black dragon that was shifting on his son.
"What do you mean by that?" Levy asked as she glanced up at the tall man beside her.
"Soul bonds allow the mark to act in a way similar to that of a pet that can help its' owner. Hell in a lot of ways, that's the marks sole purpose. While the mark cannot actually separate from the marked skin, they can move around wherever on said person. Natsu, why don't you try encouraging your mark to move someplace else?" Igneel stated.
"Uh…how?"
"How should I know? I've never found my mate, so I don't know. Just try something."
"Um…ok?" Keeping his eyes on the mirror, he lifted his hand to tap lightly against his forearm, below the dragon. His fingers had just barely left his skin when the dragon shifted and the four people watched in awe as it slid down to wrap around his lower arm, its head coming to rest on the back of his hand.
He could now see the dragon in its entirety and to say he was stunned would've been a massive understatement. When he finally found himself able to speak, his words came out softly in a near whisper.
"Why didn't you tell me about this when you told me about the soul bond in the first place dad?"
"Because I didn't and still don't know all of what comes with a soul bond. I only know that they do exist, and that they can increase certain aspects for the mates." Igneel paused for a moment, thinking back over what he had learned in his time away. The pause, unfortunately, did not go unnoticed.
"What is it? What are you not telling us?" Natsu asked, turning his head to meet his dad's gaze head on.
Scratching the back of his head in thought, he looked at the three standing before him, and realized there was a lot more going on than he had originally thought.
"Son….there is one aspect of a soul bond that I never mentioned because in some ways I had hoped it would never happen."
"Why?"
"Because for a soul bond to take place, something very traumatic has to happen, allowing for the souls of those to be mated to be able to meet someplace else and mate there as well as in the physical."
"Ok, and?"
"Well, I think I figured out why you were able to get that soul bond. In what little bit of information I have about it….soul bonds are very tricky to obtain because more often than not….the traumatic experience cannot be planned, and it only worked because I got lucky in pulling you out of that pond. Usually getting a soul bond doesn't work…because the attempt usually results in death. If I hadn't been here…you would've died, and then so would Lucy."
