A/N: Hey there guys. I'm back with another update.
I'm starting to struggle a bit with posting a new chapter everyday. I'm dangerously close to final exams so you'll probably be seeing less of me (say, only twice a week now *sad face*).
Now for a bit of info about this fic.
1) It may be about ten chapters. I'd initially planned on twelve but I'm starting to feel that drawing out this particular conflict will diminish the strength of the emotional woe of the characters. So, yeah 10 chaps (with maybe a few extras)
2) Lemons. There will be LEMONS. It's not in my DNA not to write some dirty, nasty, depraved smutty content. Sorry to all the others who don't appreciate that. I'll try my best to give a warning before each one.
3) Realised I didn't mention this before. It's a bit late now but still... I use very inappropriate language like on a daily basis. My characters (eh hem, I mean, Mashima-sensei's) are adult so it's their prerogative to use them or not.
4) Someone suggested changing the humor tag. I kinda agree but man it would feel weird writing a Fairy Tail fanfic without a tag for all their hi-jinks. I'm considering it.
5) All will be revealed don't quite kill Natsu yet, remember he's more discerning than he lets on.
Alright! Enough blabbering, on to the show!
Chapter 5: Sore Muscles
This had to be payback. Judgement. Retaliation. Punishment. Natsu must have pissed off a female deity at some point in his life. Or maybe it was because he'd so carelessly violated the most sacred of all bonds last night. His friendship with Lucy. But either way, this was cruel and unusual punishment.
Objectively, he knew what was happening to his body. Igneel had warned him about this. But it didn't make the process any more bearable. He'd been burning up all morning. It was a strange and supremely uncomfortable feeling. At some point, he'd thrown his sheets from the bed, wondering why they weren't ashes already. The metaphorical fire under his skin was so hot that the house should have been in flames by now. But it was just him.
He'd sweat through his clothes so those had to go too. Which left him stark naked on a sheet-less bed on this lovely Magnolia morning.
The phenomenon, he was currently enduring, used to be called 'heat'. The name had changed since the dragons were around but most still knew it as that. Some scholarly bunch had renamed the process to some fancy new terminology that he couldn't be bothered to remember. The term was inaccurate to some but Natsu felt that it was very much justified in his case.
See, most dragon slayers experienced this feeling, but it wasn't always hot or even feverish. What really happened was that the magic inside their bodies went haywire and turned on them. So, in Natsu's case his fire was trying to burn him from the inside out. For Example, for a slayer like Wendy, she'd have difficulty breathing considering her element of air. Their greatest strength would become their greatest weakness.
Not to mention the fucking mindless arousal. He knew that it wouldn't kill him, but it would come very close to doing so if he didn't rectify it. Herein lied the problem. A dragon (or dragon slayer in this case) couldn't enter 'heat' unless they'd swapped bodily fluids with their chosen mate. Seeing as his tongue was throat deep inside Lucy's mouth the previous night, they'd certainly 'swapped bodily fluids'.
Now, his mate was supposedly designed to be the ying to his yang. So, theoretically, she could put out the fire. But only if he gave into his depravities and defiled her six ways to Sunday.
The guys at the guild were always talking about the things they did to the women they had sex with and Natsu wanted no part of that. He couldn't forgive himself if he 'stretched Lucy so wide she cried' or 'pressed inside so deep, she felt it in her tummy' or the one that bothered him the most: 'drilling her hard enough that she was sore and bedridden for days'. All those things sounded like they would seriously hurt Lucy. And he didn't want that. No matter how loudly the animal inside him cried out that he did.
He was a monster for even being turned on by those things. Lucy was his precious best friend. He'd promised to protect her. Even from himself. No way would he desecrate their bond like that. Not again. The slayer had done enough damage last night by losing control of himself like that. Natsu had promised himself that he wouldn't touch her. But he did. And it had felt so fucking good.
The thought made him groan and twist uncomfortably. She'd felt so soft to the touch, so delectable like an impossibly delicious fire. And her taste! Mavis help him, her taste would forever be imprinted on his taste buds and nothing would satisfy him ever again. Natsu valiantly tried not to think of the aroma of her arousal, or the honeyed sweetness of her moans, or, gods forbid, the flush in her cheeks and need in her voice.
He tried not think of those things.
He really did.
… not really.
The pinkette had already jerked off to the scene in his head 9 times in the last 3 hours. Not to mention the party he'd had in the shower the night before. Luckily, Happy was caught up in another one of his long-term schemes to woo Carla and was consequently, mostly at Fairy Hills these days. Because there was no way the little exceed wouldn't have overheard his… enthusiasm that night and the proceeding morning.
His dick actually felt chafed. The fire mage didn't have soft hands by any measure and his continuous rough strokes left his member red and painful to the touch. Though, to be fair, the redness could be attributed to his intense arousal. The sweat was getting to be a bit much as well. And the fullness in his balls was beyond uncomfortable. Even with having some kind of knowledge of what going on, he still couldn't believe that he had more cum to give. It was all so frustrating and… frustrating!
It was pretty early, but he already needed another nap. In this particular season, all his body wanted to do was eat, sleep and fuck. Not even fighting appealed to him right then. Though he felt that he would jump at any chance to burn off the excess energy and tension. But he knew that unless that chance was called Lucy Heartfilia, it would do fuck all to cure him.
A soft knock sounded at the door as the celestial mage was about to get up to show Gray out. The look in his eyes told her that it was their impending guests.
Lucy conjured up a smile right out of the bullshit-box located somewhere beside the I-gotta-be-strong-for-my-friends box in the back of her head. She let it filter into her voice as she called out to the nervously shuffling women.
"Come in, it's open."
Juvia's head poked in first. Followed by Mira, Cana, Evergreen, Erza, Lisanna, and of course, Levy.
She'd only really expected about three out of the seven. So, one could imagine her shock at having her little space fill up with so many mages.
"Oh wow, hey guys. What're you all doing here?" They looked at each other shiftily. No rambunctious response. The bevy seemed to be all contemplating how diplomatically they could tell her the truth. Lucy didn't like it.
Juvia spoke up in that soft, gracious way of hers, "Juvia and the others were wondering about your well-being after…" she appeared reluctant to answer. Instead, turning to Cana, for help.
The brunette breathed a put-upon sigh as she responded "…After what we saw with that bozo, Natsu, last night."
Ah. She knew why they were here, but it looked as if no one wanted to bruise the evidently already-wounded girl by making any careless statements about the event that transpired in the guildhall. So, here they were. Mighty, fearless, Fairy Tail mages, treating another one of their own with kid gloves.
Lucy really didn't like it.
Contrarily, the woman appreciated the effort they were making for her. But at the same time, it made her feel like… less, somehow. She'd already felt like a total idiot for losing her shit so completely before. And with this new fragile treatment, she felt even more misplaced and unsure. Juvia hadn't even called her 'Love Rival'.
That wouldn't do at all.
In a move meant purely to provoke the water mage, Lucy slinked her arms around Gray's chest from behind and leaned onto her very tippy toes to peck him on the cheek.
"Juviaaa! I'm sorry, but I'm stealing Gray away. He's too nice!"
The man became exceedingly hot as blood rose to the surface of his cool skin. "He-Heyy!" He twisted his head towards, thusly, dislodging her intimate hold. The demon slayer mage suddenly became aware of the dramatic drop in temperature that wasn't due to him.
Both he and Lucy watched as the rainwoman's face darken with a fierce glare.
"Love rival!" her scream rattled the beams in the ceiling, "I knew it! I knew you were trying to steal my Gray-sama away!"
"Juvia, wait…!" she didn't bother hearing him out. The long haired bluenette wrapped Gray up her arms like a small and child and whisked him out of the building at break-neck speed.
Lucy could make out the words 'you'll never have him love rival!' somewhere in the distance as the two disappeared.
The blonde doubled over in a fit of giggles and after a moment the others joined in too. As the laughter slowly died down, Cana blew in with two wine bottles tucked under each arm and two in each hand.
"Told ya' kooks she was fine," the card mage seemed unfazed by the destroyed half of her apartment. Instead she just settled on the ground by the untouched coffee table and placed her bounty there. The familiar pop of the wine cork preceded its familiar sweet and tangy aroma.
"Alright, I'm here to get drunk, get them drunk," she pointed the open end of the bottle at the mass of woman still standing in her doorway. "and to get you wasted. You're allowed to. Trust me." Here the bottle found her in a haphazard swing.
Lucy smiled. She noted that it was barely pass ten. But to be fair, that was late for Cana. It looked like the brunette had been waiting for her to begin.
That was probably the most touching thing anyone had ever done for her.
After an hour of small talk and avoiding the proverbial elephant, Mira finally got around to asking her what happened with Natsu after they left. Lucy was a little hesitant to share the details but eventually figured that this impossible situation was bigger than her anyway. Maybe these more experienced women could let her know what to do.
So, after making Erza promise not to cut off Natsu's balls, she'd begun her tale of woe.
The bottles were dwindling, and Cana wasn't the only culprit for once. They were smashed. And it didn't take much considering that there was plenty of leftover alcohol in their systems from the night before.
"He said that?!" Lisanna yelled. She was the second most coherent of the group. Though, on a scale of one-to-ten of drunkenness, she was a solid seven.
"Yeah!" Lucy hiccupped. "Then he said th-that he didn't love me li-like that… he only wanted to fuck me like-like some some…" the word eluded her.
"Whore!" Evergreen filled in indignantly. The self-declared fairy queen was in a state of undress. Her dress was somewhere above them on the bed and she was sprawled out on the floor with the rest of them, clad only in her bra and panties.
"What a-a jerk. Jerkface Natsu!" Levy yelled to someone apparently in the ceiling.
Mira and a barely tipsy Cana was busy holding down a flush faced Erza. She whined and wiggled like a rowdy kitten. But the alcohol had sapped away her energy. Otherwise nothing could have stopped her from ramming her sword up Natsu's ass.
"L..mme-Lemme at," hiccup, "Lemme at him! I'll kill that numbskull," her words were slurred and barely audible amongst her quiet mutterings and hiccups. But they got the gist. Natsu would be a dead man if she wasn't so inebriated.
Lucy's mood suddenly swung from righteous anger to despair. Her lips wobbled as her eyes teared up above ruddy cheeks.
"G-Guyssss?!" the group sat up at bit straighter at the change in demeanor. They took in her hunched seating and the incredibly red colour of her skin. It seemed a bit much for just an alcohol flush. Her breathing was uneven. With a quiet sort of hyperventilative sound.
The group looked on in abrupt sobriety.
"What-what should I do?" her brown eyes were threatening a storm of tears, but she bravely sniffled and swallowed back the gargantuan lump of emotion perilously close to regurgitation along with all the consumed spirits.
"Oh dear," Mira walked over with a kind smile and leaned down to press their foreheads together. She missed a few times but eventually got the alignment right with a little giggle.
"Just what I expected," for a drunk person, the silverette sure was being articulate. Those big sister instincts seemed to be able to override anything.
Their she-devil's finely shaped eyebrows were wrinkled in worry. "It looks like you have a fever, Lucy. A really high one."
The girl in question, panted slightly with a pained expression taking over her face. The fever seemed of no concern as her mind was weighed down by her most urgent worry. Her relationship with Natsu.
The blonde's distress felt palpable to the room's occupants. One of their very own was hurting and they couldn't do a thing to help.
Well… most of them couldn't.
"Oh, Lulu," Levy snuggled into her friend's side and wrapped slight arms around her waist. "I don't know if this will help but I can at least tell you about Dragon slayer mating."
The whole room perked up in curiosity. Any word surrounding the dragon slayers were a treat. Despite having four in the guild, very little was known about their draconic instincts and the slayers themselves weren't very forthcoming with the information. So, no one would miss the opportunity to her about any mundane to significant aspect of their lives.
Lucy returned the hug. Thus, burying the smaller girl's face in her bosom. Levy looked up at her with a warm smile and Lucy suddenly wanted to kiss her. In a platonic yet sexual way. She'd always thought that the solid script mage was a petite beauty but the sudden craving to put her lips on the bluenette's was a little surprising. The celestial mage put that thought away for further analysis at a later date.
Levy drew back and began her explanation.
"Gajeel explained as much of it to me as he could but I had to do some research on my own to get my facts in order. As you can imagine it wasn't easy as there are so little resource materials on dragon slayers. Not to mention their mating."
Lucy nodded sympathetically. As a fellow researcher and book worm, she understood the difficulties of finding any worthwhile or even truthful information about the lost magics and their users.
The blue-haired woman continued.
"See, dragon slayers don't just take on the magic of their draconic counterparts. They're also imbibed with their natural instincts and biology. That would explain, for instance, Natsu's incredible sense of smell." She looked around the room at their attentive but unsurprised faces. "But you guys knew that. Where the romantic relationships of dragon slayers are concerned, these instincts guide them towards a select group of people."
Her eyes bored into Lucy's as she tried to impart her next words with the utmost sincerity. "The slayers don't just have one possible mate. It's not like that. What Natsu said about… being able to…" The flush in her cheeks brightened with the salacious implications of her thoughts. "… ya know, easily im-impregnate you."
"Easy there, Levy. Slow down or you might pass out," the women giggled at Cana's indulgent remark. The mage in question truly did look like she might collapse under the immense heat in her cheeks.
She just smiled and carried on. "Anyways, what he said about… that, was actually pretty accurate if not a bit crudely stated and over simplified. There are people in this world that, for no reason I can scientifically discern, are suited to be a dragon slayer's mate. His or her biology aligns to the slayer's magic so well that they tend to attract him or her once both parties have hit maturity. What differentiates the best possible mate of one slayer to the next depends on a number of things including but not limited to magical chemistry, personalities and just those person's feelings."
Lucy didn't want to interrupt but she desperately wanted to ask Levy if she was one of those special people.
The other woman seemed to hear her thoughts as she answered the unasked question. "Lulu, you're one of these people. So am I. The only difference is that somehow Gajeel and I line up perfectly biology-wise as well as all the other factors, so his instinct was to claim me as his mate instead of maybe you. For you, you and Natsu must've lined up perfectly as well that's why it's been so hard for him recently to control his baser instincts around you."
The blonde was in a state of shock to say the least. She knew she and the pink-haired man shared a special bond but had wrongly assumed that it was their doing. Somewhere in the heavens above or wherever, someone decided to put a dragon slayer beacon on her back. And thus far the result wasn't fun.
Levy could see the hard look of concentration on her friend's face. She was no doubt pondering the same question she did. Surprisingly, Evergreen was the one to voice it.
"So, wait, you're saying that those two didn't really have a choice? They were like fated?"
The petite mage smiled and shook her head, as Lucy looked over with that very question peeking out from behind scared eyes.
"No. I'm not saying that at all. It would've been perfectly possible for Lucy to be mated to another dragon slayer or no slayer at all if she chose."
She turned to the girl in question, "It wouldn't be a perfect match but as with all relationships you would learn to love them and they you. With perfect mates the draw is a lot more powerful and much harder to resist. Biology basically made your body one of an undetermined amount that can make an unmated slayer react to it se-sexually." Both friends were pink from embarrassment.
"But it's who you are that makes you such a match for him. He had to have made a conscious decision to make you his mate before now."
The celestial mage's eyes flickered between joy and sadness. On one hand this new information meant that Natsu really did want her for more than just sex. But on the other hand, it seemed that he'd changed his mind.
Levy held her hand and squeezed in solidarity.
The smaller woman sustained. "A slayer can decide who their mate is going to be from a very young age. They just can't act on it until they're old enough for their instincts to confirm that that person is indeed a biological match."
Both mates had a silent conversation through their eyes.
Ohh, that's why you and Gajeel hadn't gone further.
Yeah.
"This was a failsafe to ensure compatibility for k-kids," she cleared her throat, "They usual know this by about 21 to 25 years old. Now, technically Natsu and Gajeel, Wendy too, are more than 400 years old but their bodies had been put on pause for 400 years so they wouldn't have had any actual time to mature. Add the seven years on Tenrou and I'd say the men are about 423 now."
That's why he couldn't leave," Erza murmured quietly.
"What was that?" Lisanna asked.
"During the Fairy Tail tournament, Natsu couldn't leave the guild hall and the only two rules for confinement in Freed's runes, were the stone figures and people over 80," Evergreen answered guiltily. Even now the members of the Thunder Legion were plagued by their mistakes. Though everyone else had forgiven them.
"Huh, I never even thought of that," Mira mumbled.
The room seemed to darken with the bad memories. It wasn't a fun time to remember. Fairies fighting against each other would hardly ever be a pleasant thought. Though most of the guild members were over it. No one had forgotten. No one was exempted from the slight tinge of pain from the reminder of those times. Only Lisanna in her absence could declare certain absolution.
"Why the long face? Have a drink!" Cana said good-naturedly before stuffing the bottle down Ever's throat.
The woman choked and cursed at the card mage once she was allowed to breathe.
"You- you…! Ugh!"
A round of uproarious laughter.
The method was a bit crude. But the objective was achieved. Lucy noted the look of self-hate vanishing from the bespectacled woman's face. Her friends really were amazing.
"If I am understanding this correctly," Erza spoke up in that stern voice of hers. Seemed the alcohol was wearing off. That did not bode well for Natsu. "Lucy is Natsu's mate by design but also by option. Long and short is those two chose to love each other and that resulted in a bond being formed, tying her to him. Is that correct?"
Her gray eyes bore into Levy's with a fierce look. The woman was splayed out on the ground with only an elbow to prop her up and a raised knee supporting an arm deadened by liquor, but the Fairy Queen still made for a picture of fearsome retribution.
The bluenette knew that the look was for Natsu but still could only squeak out a scared Yes!
"I see. Will he ever be able to move on to another mate?"
The blonde felt her heart plummet. She hadn't even though about that. Given Levy's explanation, it should be a possibility. A possibility that she would lose Natsu forever.
A searing pain cut at the bottom of her belly. Like a disembowelment, but worse.
"It's okay Lucy," she didn't realise that the room had fallen out of focus. Levy's blur was rubbing her shoulders while the others fluttered around her nervously.
Her sight slowly returned in increments.
Erza looked afflicted by the strange scene. "Oh Mavis, I'm so sorry Lucy. I didn't mean to imply…"
"It's okay, Erza," the blonde turned to Levy, "What the hell was that? I felt like I was dying just now."
"That would be that answer to Erza's question. You've been pair bonded to Natsu for months now. At this point, there is no one else in the world for him. But I suppose with immense effort you could theoretically sever the tie on your end and be free to love another. It would hurt a great deal more than the sensation just now. But you could and would eventually have to if he doesn't guide you through Devium Essentia."
"Devium Essentia?" Mira asked. The question glimmered in the eyes of all the curious Sallys in the room.
"First, let me explain the pair bond. It's like a pre-stage to the big D.E. In this stage the dragon has chosen a mate, and the mate has accepted. If another man, worse dragon slayer, so much as looked at you right now, Natsu would kill him wouldn't second thoughts."
Well, that was a scary sentiment.
"Now after the pair bond comes Devium Essentia. It used to be called heat. And from that name alone you should understand what exactly happens in this period."
"Yeah!" Cana piped up, "You fuck like bunnies."
Levy giggled, and Lucy's breath hitched.
"Pretty much. It's not a physical heat, but a deep longing for your mate. For each slayer it's different, but considering that Natsu is a fire dragon his would literally be a burning heat. Once a slayer and his mate swaps 'affection', otherwise known as bodily fluids, Devium Essentia starts. In fact," she took in Lucy's flushed face and dangerously climbing temperature, "I believe you've started Lu."
"Huh?!" the girl pressed the back of her hand her forehead. "I thought it was just a fever," she whispered despondently.
"Sadly, no. I don't know this personally. But I've read that it will be incredibly uncomfortable for you if he doesn't act on his instincts at this time. Oh, and it wouldn't be a good idea to go outside right now. The pheromones you're letting off attract regular men as well. And in this state soon enough, your inhibitions will be low enough that you'll consider taking one or two of them to bed. Worse if they're close to Natsu and thus have his scent on them."
She thought back to Gray's presence in her apartment earlier and blushed. For once, it was a good thing Juvia whisked him away then. She could only imagine how awkward it would be to be aroused by her brother figure and having him return the favor.
Lucy allowed all this new information to wash over her. None of it absolved Natsu of his disregard, but at least the pressure on her chest had risen a great deal. She could only guess that the idiot thought she didn't want exactly this. And he also wasn't very keen on change.
It could be the combination of good company, good wine and good advice but she was feeling really confident. Speaking of which.
"Thank you, Levy. I think I understand now. But if the pain of the heat and the difficulty of fighting his instincts don't drive him to me, what-what do I do?" she grasped the girl's much smaller hands in hers, "I can-can't lose him." The blonde could hear the panic in her own voice. The absolute desperation at the object of losing Natsu. Because let's be real. She'd never stop loving him and he was strong enough to hold out against doing something that he thought wasn't right. There was no way their friendship could survive the tension and eventual resentment.
"We now know that there is an actual dick between his legs. Use that against him." Cana took a long swig and continued, "Natsu loves you Lucy but for some, no doubt dumb ass reason, he's convinced himself not to be happy with you. Make him want you so much it's impossible to resist."
The feverish blonde flushed even deeper. "I've practically thrown myself at him half naked. What more could I do?"
Evergreen crossed her legs with a victorious smile. "You have a beautiful body darling but you're still a virgin, so you don't know how to use it yet. Skin isn't everything." She gracefully flicked a lock of hair behind her head and lowered her glasses with a sultry look. Everything from her wet lips to messy hair and bedroom eyes was perfectly seductive. Lucy had to admit that she looked incredibly sexy just from the pose and intent alone. "Men are like animals, dragon slayer or not. And when training a wild animal, a balanced push and pull is needed, reward and punishment is also key. This is how you'll get that boy…"
And so her sexual education began.
As she's showing the girls out that night, Levy paused in the doorway behind the boisterous bunch.
"Levy?"
The smaller woman seemed worried.
"Remember when I said that slayers took on a lot of their dragon counterpart's abilities and instincts?"
Lucy nodded.
"Natsu's is a lot stronger because he got his magic from the fire dragon king. It should be especially difficult for him to ignore this. It could be what's driving him up the wall with a certain heat madness for his mate. Sometimes, it drives them mad. Be careful, Lulu."
A smile ate up her flushed cheeks. Everything was looking up now. She couldn't help but be hopeful.
"I will. Thanks Levy."
They parted with excited smiles and the door shut with a soft click.
Now to prepare.
Now that she knew what she did, she saw a lot of Natsu's words in a different light. He feared the change, the new intimacy, and was afraid it would make them different. Lucy would have to show him it wouldn't. Their bond would only become more profound. She would try everything in her new arsenal to make that boy hers.
The bodacious blonde was the most powerful celestial mage in Fiore. She'd helped to defeat Tartarus, dispatched the Spriggan-12, closed the Eclipse gate and rewrote the book of E. N. D.
The woman had just forgotten who she was for a moment. But she remembered now. She was Lucy Heartfilia, Fairy Tail Mage.
And Fairy Tail did not give up.
