Lucy woke up to suffocating heat... Natsu? She turned around and saw a tuft of pink hair. She groaned, trying to push Natsu away from her. Oh dear God! She thought as he just wrapped himself around her. She sighed. She briefly wondered if he would ever learn boundaries.
She was some how able to pull herself away from him by tickling his arm pits, he woke up laughing. When he did open his eyes he saw Lucy's red face. "Why are you all red Luce?"
"Because your body heat is killing me under this thick heavy blanket. Can you let me get up?"
"Oh!" Natsu smiled sheepishly.
Lucy got up covered in sweat, "hey Natsu are you hungry?"
"No," he yawned, "but I am hungry for some fire! Is the heater going?"
Lucy looked at the heater it was embers at this point. She would definitely need to go and get more. "No, but we need more fire wood, I'll go get some. Why do you need fire?"
"Because I gotta eat it to stay healthy." Lucy looked perplexed but didn't question it. If that was the case then she needed more fire wood.
Lucy went to the bathroom and put on some clothes. When she emerged, she had on a white cable knit turtle neck, and some dark hunter hunter green jeggings. She paired the over all look with a dark brown belt that held her keys, dark brown knee high boots and a brown leather jacket.
"Why do you need it to stay healthy?"
"Well I need some of my element! It's a dragon thing, Igneel taught me if a dragon doesn't eat it's element it can get sick, nauseous, and have head aches. It's like dehydration. You gotta keep hydrated. Or you'll die." Lucy nodded. In the back of her head she freaking about Laxus- did he have enough lightning? Oh dear God this was going to kill her.
"Okay! Well I'll have to go and get more wood!" She called out. She didn't hear anything though, Natsu had fallen back asleep. She sighed, Virgo feeling her Master's distress appeared out in front of Lucy as she was leaving the house.
"Hime is something wrong?"
"It's Laxus. Again! When is he not driving me nuts! Natsu said he needs to eat his element. Or else he'll get all sick! Maybe even die?"
Virgo stopped walking...uh...
Virgo debated about being honest with Lucy at the moment. The answer was no she wasn't checking to see if he was eating his element. Hell she wasn't even leaving him food...
She had done little research and was treating this like a science experiment...what could she get away with and what she couldn't... Because science...
"Lemme go and check on that Hime!" She said quickly.
Lucy nodded her thanks, and walked away to the grocery store. Virgo sighed in relief and disappeared to go and check on Laxus. When she got there she took a deep breath.
As Virgo watched him she took the chance to study this hibernation thing. It in fact wasn't a true hibernation. But we'll get to that in a moment...
Virgo was beyond the human conception of being old. She was around before time was a concept to humans and was put into terms that humans could understand. However, with all her time of being a spirit she never got to see a dragon, or a dragon slayer, or work with a celestial mage who knew any themselves. Let alone Lucy, who now knew of 5 in all existence. And she never really saw any animal hibernate truly, so this was like a weird science experiment for her. She was pretty sure Master Laxus wouldn't appreciate that after what his father did to him but eh he's asleep, so no harm at the moment.
Lucy had Virgo check on Laxus to make sure he was ok over the past few days. But he wasn't moving, or doing really anything. . So Virgo didn't leave food out. After consulting with Crux she had found out that dragons didn't hibernate they did what was call Brumation, it's the reptilian version of hibernation. They could go without food but did need water. Reptiles generally begin brumation in late autumn (more specific times depend on the species).They often wake up to drink water and return to "sleep" according to him. So she had been playing around with Laxus as a guinea pig.
Virgo had set up water at first to see if he would come for that. A empty glass of water told her he was drinking. Reptiles may eat more than usual before the brumation time but may eat less or refuse food as the temperature drops. Natsu had eaten more, Gajeel according to Levy who came by to visit, had said he had eaten less. Virgo wondered if that had to do with Gajeel's eating habits though, the man only ate iron practically. However, they do need to drink, she saw that when he would get up to go to the bathroom that he would drink water every time.
First thing she noticed, and she picked this up from Lucy and Happy, that Natsu's over all body temperature dropped. That's why he was sleeping next to her heater. He being used to having a higher body temperature than other people, and according to Charla who came over for tea one day, Wendy's did run higher it wasn't as hot as Natsu's. Neat right? Anyways, like most animals his whole body temperature lowered, causing him to feel colder. So he curled up next to the fire for that reason. Not used to new temperature. Along with making his nest extra cozy prompting all the layers regulating his temperature to something he was more accustomed too.
It was interesting, she messed with Laxus's room temperature, and had found the colder she made it the more restless he became and he would try and burrow in the covers. Another thing was, and she asked Grandpa Crux about this, animals slowed down their heart rate during hibernation. She checked on his heart rate, it fell below 60 BPM, what was considered deep sleep for humans. His breathing was slower too. When she changed the temperature to being colder, over the course of a few hours his temperature, heart rate and breathing slowed visibly.
The hotter she made it, he would toss and turn and wake up more but was insanely tired still. His body temperature would rise, and his breathing became quicker. She was sure if he found out it was her messing with the room temperature he would have killed her. He looked annoyed every time he had to wake up. But maybe that was Laxus in general waking up. According to Crux, hibernation in the animal world is applied based on active metabolic suppression rather than declined in body temperature. So that wasn't much to go on. But his metabolism slowed down she was sure. She cast a spell on him to monitor his vitals. In green lettering and numbers it appeared above him, and it showed her all she needed to know about calculating his metabolism, and heart rate, etc.
Hibernation functions to conserve energy when sufficient food is unavailable. To achieve this energy saving, an endothermic animal decreases its metabolic rate and thereby its body temperature. Hibernation may last days, weeks, or months - depending on the species, ambient temperature, time of year, and the individual's body-condition. Before entering hibernation, animals need to store enough energy to last through the duration of their dormant period, possibly as long as an entire winter. Larger species become hyperphagic, eating a large amount of food and storing the energy in fat deposits. Natsu had stocked up on food but not Gajeel and Laxus.
This was all fine and dandy, but this is what created the problem, dragons, according to Crux were ectotherms. They didn't really regulate their body temperature. They were essentially big reptiles. But dragon slayers were mammals. So true hibernation is restricted to endotherms like Laxus, Nastu, Wendy, Gajeel and bears.. Still, many ectothermic animals undergo periods of dormancy which are sometimes confused with hibernation. And that's what dragons did..While endotherms and other heterotherms are described scientifically as hibernating, the way ectotherms like lizards, which is what dragons were, large lizards with magical powers and wings, go dormant in the cold and a separate name was invented for it, Brumation. It marks the differences from hibernation in the metabolic processes involved in ecototherms.
The brumation period is anywhere from one to eight months depending on the air temperature and the size, age, and health of the reptile. In human history, the northern countries wouldn't see dragons for almost up to a year while other places where it didn't get cold, saw them more frequently. Virgo was leaning however, based off of what Happy had said though, it would be only a short period of time, they were still human. Laxus was interesting because he was a second gen so how long would this affect him? It clearly was affecting the man. But why did he not prepare for this? Or was he just that kind of guy that winged stuff like that? Virgo doubted that. She guessed that it was possible that Laxus had always been taken care of but surely people would notice this? And did he just get taken care of all his life like that? She doubted that. From what she remembered, Laxus had told Lucy that he had been living on his own since 15...maybe the Thunder Legion took care of him?
Brumation was triggered by lack of heat and the decrease in the hours of daylight in winter, similar to hibernation. So yes, lack of food possibly due to their enormous size, might have made it harder to find food or their element. Fire dragons may have stocked up because it was harder to find food and fire and lived in areas that didn't get cold for long periods or maybe migrated? Gajeel had said he seen Metalicana eat iron all the time, maybe they didn't need to eat as much because iron was in everything practically so no need to stock up? The possibilities were endless at this point.
Lack of heat contributed to dragons dormancy in the winter months that she was positive about. With the sudden cold front, it triggered the slayers instincts to brumnate. Laxus just had the soul of a dragon locked behind his eye so this was interesting. Was he affected in the same way? Perhaps this was why he was knocked on his ass when it happened. He had no idea what he was doing. But she suspected this other theory.
Crux had said something that piqued her interest. Dragon slayers that used their magic more often became more dragon like, i.e. Natsu and Gajeel were pretty dragon like. It became so bad they would turn into dragons and could go in and out of that form. The stronger the mage got and was proficient with his or hers magic, things like motion sickness affected them. She suspected that Wendy being so young was not as good as Natsu and Gajeel and that's why she wasn't affected by the motion sickness. She was also confident in this theory, Laxus was no doubt a powerful mage he got his power from his grandfather and Yuri Dreyar she heard of from previous Masters was nothing to scoff at, Laxus was powerful and probably never really practiced his dragon slayer magic as often and as much as Natsu and Gajeel did. He didn't need to and he hid it for so long no one knew. She theorized that when he went into dragon force before he was kicked out, it triggered his side effects possibly? And maybe in conclusion, that's why he was knocked on his ass this winter.
Virgo was surprised to see Laxus actually up when she got there...
"I seriously owe Blondie a lot of money or I'm going to have to get out of here soon. How the hell did I pay for this if she didn't?" He mused getting into bed and getting under the covers this time.
"You're not," Virgo smiled, "my old Master is.."
Laxus looked confused but didn't say anything for a moment. "So you've been taking care of me?" She nodded, he sighed. Of course.
"Is this Master ok with that?" He doubted that.
Virgo shrugged thinking about the Duke Everlude, "he's in jail and he's not going to notice."
Laxus nodded. He wasn't going to touch that right now.
"What's going on with Blondie?"
"Much like what I'm doing she's taking care of Natsu. He's decided to camp out at her place."
Laxus growled, "and where is Flame Brain sleeping?" He didn't need to ask he knew. But he hoped he was wrong.
"He was in a ball underneath her clothes and blankets in front of her heater but then he got super hungry and then climbed into bed with Hime the the other night."
Laxus growled and pouted.
"She's not sleeping in the same bed with him."
Laxus stopped, now more annoyed. "So where is my woman sleeping?"
"She's not your property. You know she would get mad hearing that. But she's sleeping on the couch."
"Well here, buy Blondie a air mattress please. And a blanket that Natsu won't steal. I don't want Flame Brain thinking he can snuggle up to my woman." Virgo smirked, "and you said you're not possessive."
Laxus glared at her, Virgo smirked. "Are you hungry?"
"Why?"
"I can leave some food, if you want to starve-"
"No! I'm peckish. But not incredibly hungry. What I really need is a thunderstorm right now."
Virgo nodded, so he did need his element. And he knew he needed it. Interesting...
"Well...I can leave some crackers and jerky, things that wouldn't go bad. Anything else you like?"
Laxus looked thoughtful. "I like apples." Virgo was surprised she didn't take him for a fruit man. But ok.
"I'll get some and leave them here. As for the lightning I'm not sure how to do that. I'll see what I can do to help-"
"You don't have to-"
"Hime wants you to be ok, and I'm not disobeying her order." Laxus smiled at that, "thank you then Virgo. I've got a protein bar in my bag, it will tie me over. As for the lightning, I only get it at one place and unless it's out in the wild-"
Virgo nodded, "I think I have an idea." She said, then disappeared.
Before he went back to sleep. He snuggled down into bed. He missed Lucy. He grabbed a pillow and inhaled, cleaning supplies. Gross. His nose wrinkled, he missed his lady. His dragon was pleased that she had sent Virgo after him. He wished it was herself, but he vaguely remembered the whole you get what you get and don't throw a fit thing from when he was a child. He sighed and got back up. Virgo was gone, he went to his bag thankful he kept an extra in his bag. He pulled out the now slightly torn picture of them. He sighed and climbed back into bed, he leaned the photo against the lamp on the stand. For some reason gravity was on his side and it stayed up. He got back into the covers and stared at it. Sleep eventually took over and his eyelids drooped, the last thing he saw was of Lucy.
AN: so two parter becomes three...because I'm horrible lol hope you enjoyed my little thing here trying to apply science to this was hard but I tried! We're going to give this little thing a happy ending though.
Cowseatgrass, I feel you. Common core sucks. I'm trying to help my brother and it's not working lol I've got to throw away his stuff and teach him basically like you said, we carry ones in our house too lol my brother is 13 we have a ten year age gap and it's ridiculous. I'm also helping with science work, that also inspired this fic. I hope you survive all of this! Thank you for the support it means a lot
Alicia! You're a genius and I was thinking the same thing but wasn't sure. And you've made me suddenly feel better about doing this idea! Thanks for the favorite!
RachJemi, thanks for all the love and support! It means a lot.
See you all next chapter! I really need to a do a chapter clean up day I think. Clean a few things up maybe I'll do that tomorrow! Lol
