I think we're getting there guys. I'm thinking five more chapters, max. I'm really excited for Zeref to show up, but I'm doing my best not to rush it.
As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading!
Lucy's fingers were numb, but she managed to set down the phone before it dropped to the floor. As she slowly sat down on the stairs, she felt a chill begin to fill her, all the way down to her bones.
She'd never even met the man but she knew deep down something bad was going to happen. She didn't doubt a man with a voice that cold could be a threat. With a sigh, she put her head in her hands and cursed her emotions for getting the better of her. If not for her hangover, she would be able to think better. Instead, her fear was beginning to take over and she couldn't come up with a plan.
Something nudged her body and she looked up to find Dragneel at her side. He was hunkered down as far as he could, looking unsure as he nudged her leg. "What are you doing out?" she whispered. He lowered his head again and whined. With a smile, she leaned forward and rubbed his snout. "Levy didn't put you back, huh? That's okay." She laughed when he leaned into her and made her fall onto her back. "Okay, okay, calm down. My head is killing me and this isn't helping."
Dragneel grabbed her shirt carefully and lifted her back into a sitting position. "What am I going to do buddy? Zeref called. He wants you back." At the name, Dragneel's purring stopped and his eyes widened. As Lucy watched, she couldn't help think that he looked torn. His expression seemed to bounce back and forth between sadness and fear. Eventually, he focused on her again and hummed as he leaned into her.
Miss him.
Pain.
Don't wanna go back.
Should go back.
Where I belong.
Where I belong?
Stay.
Lucy…
"Does that mean you'd like to stay?" The dragon pushed his head more firmly into her side, hiding his eyes. "I'm sorry buddy. I know you probably care about him, but I just can't send you back until I'm sure he's going to take good care of you. You know that's all I want right?" She nudged his head away so she could look into his eyes. "I don't want to take you away from him if I don't have to, even if I would like you to stay. I just want to make sure you'll be okay."
Dragneel hummed again before burying himself into her side once more. Lucy cuddled up to his nose, and after a while, his warmth lulled her to sleep.
Lucy was doing her best to catch her breath when she was suddenly knocked over and surrounded by a familiar heat. "Damn it- Natsu! I- can't breathe!"
His weight vanished, but he didn't let her go as he sat up. His arms were iron vises around her, but they weren't crushing her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine- just need- a minute."
Natsu remained tense as she slowly caught her breath. When she finally let out a long breath and leaned into him, he relaxed and hugged her. "Don't scare me like that again."
"Don't scare you!" Lucy pulled away slightly.
"Yeah! You are the one who ran into an obvious trap! Why did you let him bait you like that?"
Lucy looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "He was bad mouthing you… I can't just stand by while someone insults you like that."
"Luce, you know I'm not one to back down from a fight, but you got reckless." He leaned his forehead against hers. "They are just words," he whispered. "Words from someone like him mean nothing. His opinion doesn't matter." He sighed. "You shouldn't let anyone's words get to you like that. You should think before you act in a fight."
Lucy blinked up at him, surprised, before she began to chuckle and then laugh. Soon, she was falling over, laughing so hard she was having trouble breathing again and tears were falling from her eyes.
When she finally pulled herself back together, she found Natsu sitting with his arms and legs crossed, a bemused expression on his face. "You done?"
"Yes," she reassured him before taking in a deep breath.
"What was that about?"
"It's just funny to hear all that coming from you," Lucy pointed out as she moved back into the circle of his arms.
"Why? I can give good advice too, you know."
"Guess I must be a good influence on you."
"What?! Why do you get the credit?"
"Because you certainly don't follow that advice."
Natsu sputtered. "What? Why-"
"One word," Lucy said, raising a finger. "Gajeel."
He scoffed. "He doesn't count."
"Alright, what about literally anyone else in the guild?"
Natsu's cheeks pinkened, but Lucy only chuckled as she pulled his face down to hers and kissed him. It was a soft kiss, and when she pulled away, she could see the heat in his eyes that meant he didn't want to stop. "Thank you."
He blinked at her, surprised. "Thank you? For what?"
"For reminding me that I don't care about others' opinions." She placed her hand on his cheek and whispered, "Only yours."
Natsu gave her a soft smile before pulling her close again to kiss her properly.
"Lucy?"
The blonde shot up and hissed as her head pounded in response. She saw Wendy hesitantly coming from around the porch. "Good morning, Wendy."
"Are you feeling better today?"
"Depends on what you mean," Lucy said with a grimace. Dragneel eyed the girl as she made a wide berth around him, but didn't do anything else as she came to sit at Lucy's side. "I'm not upset about what Cana said, if that's what you mean."
"Is something else wrong?"
"Just a hangover." Lucy tried to open both eyes to look at her friend, but closed one only a few seconds later. "I know better than to drink around this day but… you know." She saw Wendy watch her for a little bit before she gave her a small smile.
"Promise you won't tell the others?" Lucy wasn't sure what the little dragonslayer was going to do, but she nodded anyway. Wendy lifted both hands and held them on either side of Lucy's head. As her hands began to glow, a cooling feeling surrounded Lucy's head, slowly erasing the pounding pain. When Wendy eventually pulled her hands away, Lucy was not only headache free, but she felt more awake and refreshed than she had in a long time.
"Wow, that's amazing. Thank you, Wendy." Dragneel leaned forward, looking tense, but Lucy rubbed his nose and reassured him she was okay. "Why don't you want the others to know you can do that?" Lucy asked.
"Because if they knew, they'd drink themselves silly every night and then ask me to fix them all every morning."
Lucy chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right." She leaned against Dragneel's nose and then glanced around her property. "I am glad you guys came to visit," she said.
Wendy smiled at her. "I am, too, although I'm sad we didn't see more of you last night."
"Yeah… I'm sorry, too."
"I understand, though." Wendy glanced behind them at the kitchen door. "Between you and me," she said quietly, "I don't believe he's gone either."
Lucy's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"
"Really." Wendy gave her another smile. "I feel like we'd know if he was gone. Natsu wouldn't go down without a fight, and since we haven't heard about any mountains being knocked down, or any lakes drying up overnight, or craters or anything like that, I don't think he's gone. I think he's biding his time so he can come back to us." She grabbed Lucy's hand and gave it a quick squeeze. "To you." When she pulled away, she scooted to the side. "Incoming."
"Incom-" The door blew open and a burst of light shot through, coming to a stop between Lucy and Wendy to reveal Laxus, tails crackling.
The suddenness of his arrival caused Dragneel to yank back, a growl and fire building up in his throat. Laxus didn't seem at all perturbed; he merely huffed and then looked up at Lucy with an expectant expression.
Lucy rubbed Raijū on his head, right between his ears where he liked. "Hey little guy."
Wendy whispered, "Lucy…"
Lucy looked up to see Dragneel still ready to attack, so Lucy held out her hand in his direction. "It's okay, he's friendly." Dragneel closed his mouth, but he continued to growl faintly. "Come on, come here."
Eventually, he leaned into her hand, his eyes focused on the little creature. "This is Laxus. He's a friend, see?" Lucy continued to rub between Laxus' ears. The dragon watched for a while before finally seeming to relax. When Lucy praised him, he closed his eyes and leaned into her with a content sound. "See? Nothing to worry about." As he completely relaxed, Lucy suddenly remembered Wendy and looked her way to see the girl staring at her with wide eyes.
"That was amazing."
"Not really," Lucy chuckled. "He's always been fond of me."
"I see…" Wendy watched him for a while. "He reminds me of-" She cut herself off, looking away. "Nevermind."
"You were going to say Igneel, weren't you?" When Wendy looked at her with surprise, Lucy gave her a soft smile. "I see him, too. Honestly," she said as Laxus moved forward to sniff at Dragneel, "I see Natsu, too."
The girls continued to watch as Dragneel pulled away from the porch, watching Laxus as the Raijū began to walk around him. The dragon didn't seem to know how to respond, so he jumped when the little creature suddenly disappeared. Dragneel looked around quickly, searching for him. He was surprised when Laxus suddenly appeared again, sitting on his nose, his crackling tails twitching. The Raijū smirked and then disappeared again, making Dragneel growl. He spun in circles, trying to find the little creature, when he was suddenly knocked over by a different flash of light.
Sting came out of his light, his mouth pulled into a grin, as Dragneel was hit from another side by a dark shadow. When the shadow revealed itself to be Rogue, Dragneel perked and growled in his direction. When Laxus blasted passed and knocked Sting over, Dragneel chuckled, causing Rogue to shoot a ball of shadows his way. He dodged and then chased the drake until he disappeared in his shadows again.
"Play fair!" came a voice. Lucy and Wendy looked over to see Yukino heading their way. She gave the pair a smile as she sat down. "Good morning you two."
The girls both greeted her as well. Suddenly, Laxus shot under the drakes, knocking them off their feet. The pair jumped back up and began to chase after him, Dragneel hot on their tails.
Yukino sat down on a lower step and chuckled as she watched the creatures fighting together. "I wanted to let my boys out for a bit, but I didn't realize Dragneel was out as well."
Wendy glanced at Lucy as the blonde smiled and chatted with the other woman, obviously feeling much better. She wondered if Lucy realized just how terrible she'd looked earlier and decided not to mention it to her. She'd be mortified to know people had seen her looking so awful.
She turned back toward the yard and watched as the drakes and dragon tried time and again to catch Laxus and fail. Even when Sting and Rogue used their light and shadows, they couldn't catch the little Raijū. He appeared occasionally and stood still, mocking them with little yips and crackles of lightning, only to shoot off again when they chased him. At one point, Dragneel had spit some fire at him, but a firm word from Lucy had him closing his mouth and once more trying to catch him using only his speed.
Wendy was more than impressed- she was in awe that Lucy had trained the dragon so successfully. And so quickly. She'd never seen anything like it. She'd been raised by a dragon, and she'd heard Gajeel's story about his father. She'd even met a couple dragons, before they'd all disappeared, and she'd never known one to act like the one in front of her. What's more… she couldn't shake the feeling that he was familiar.
"I have a little work I should get to," Lucy said as she got to her feet. Suddenly she frowned and looked around. "Speaking of work…"
"What's wrong?" Wendy asked.
"It's getting late in the morning already and none of my spirits are here yet. It's strange…"
"I'm sure they're fine," Yukino said. "You'd know if there was a problem."
"I suppose." With a final wave, her frown still stuck in place, she turned and headed back inside.
"I should probably round those two up and put them back," Yukino said as she got to her feet. As she did, Rogue began a round of rather hearty coughs, causing Yukino to rush to his side.
Only a few minutes later, after Lucy collected Dragneel on her way to the shed, Wendy found herself alone on the steps with a smug looking Laxus at her side. She was rubbing his head, distracted, so she didn't realize at first that someone had joined her.
"Good morning, Wendy."
Wendy looked up and saw Levy rounding the end of the porch and coming her way. "Oh, good morning Levy. I didn't see you over there, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, I haven't been standing here long." She hugged the books in her arms closer to her before moving to sit on the other side of Laxus. The Raijū looked her way, but something inside seemed to distract him, because he yipped before turning and heading back into the house.
Once Levy was seated, she opened her mouth, but then closed it again before saying anything. She seemed to be trying to find the words for whatever she wanted to say, so Wendy remained silent, patiently waiting. While she did, her attention was momentarily drawn towards the shed, where Natsu was still walking with Lucy. She'd stopped to grab her cart on the way, and Dragneel was currently trying to steal snacks from one of the bags. When Lucy noticed, she turned around and pushed his nose away from the cart and then shook a finger at him. The dragon dropped his head and a moment later, Lucy's face softened and she reached up to rub his nose before grabbing something from one of the bags and giving it to him.
"You wanna talk about the dragon, don't you?" Wendy asked.
Levy's shoulders dropped and she cocked her head. "How did you know?"
The girl smiled. "Just a feeling."
"Well, you're right, I have some questions." She set down the books next to her and opened up to a few tabbed pages. "You've actually interacted with dragons, and I've already spoken with Gajeel, but his father mostly taught him about fighting. He didn't tell him anything about drakes or much else, so I'm hoping Grandeeney might have told you something that will help me decipher this," she said as she gestured at the books.
"Sure," Wendy said, turning to lean against the banister. "Ask away."
