Ch 4
Lucy walked through the guild doors early that morning. She had a sleepless night, wondering what to do with Sting's confession and Natsu's moodiness. She figured she'd head over to the guildhall early and try to dig up some information about dragon slayers in their library, if not here then the town's library.
Their argument last night really bothered her. Natsu and Lucy had fought before for sure but they were never as bad or as serious as this one was. Looking back at the whole situation Lucy wondered if she was overreacting. Natsu had a point- and Lucy had her own doubts about the validity of outrageous claim of dragon slayers having mates. Maybe.. she should make it up to Natsu? Well he was worried about her...
Sighing she shifted through the numerous books their guildhall had stored away. Maybe once Gajeel and Wendy came by today she could ask them to help her understand more about dragon instincts and characteristics.
Once she gathered enough books She thought would be helpful Lucy carried them up and over to her favorite spot at the Bar. People were starting to file in and the guild's chatter and noises helped drown out the silence.
"Hey Lucy! Starting off today early huh?" Mirajane greeted the blonde, getting a soft smile in return.
"No kidding- I couldn't sleep a wink last night." Lucy shifted through the books and settled ona book that briefly mentioned Dragons. "Yesterday was so hectic. I still can't wrap my mind around it."
Mirajane gave her a sympathetic look and began making her a strawberry smoothie, Lucy's favorite.
"Well it's not everyday you get told you're someone's mate!" She giggled and slid the drink over to Lucy who happily accepted it. Who cares if it was too early for milkshakes- Lucy needed this.
"Hey Lu! You had the same idea as me." Levy popped up with a tired looking Gajeel and a stern PantherLily trailing behind her. She carried her own books and sat down next to Lucy. "I grabbed these books from the town library on my way over here. I figured we could find some information about dragons in here!" The petite woman pulled out her speed reader glasses and expertly put them on.
"Really? You're gonna help me?!" Warmth flooded Lucy's chest and her sour mood lifted. She saw more of her friends starting to file around her.
"Me too!" Wendy approached the group with Carla in tow. "I'm curious as to whether or not that man was telling the truth."
"If it is true then that would be very important information for Wendy and I to know." Carla flew up on top of the bar counter. " imagine if we didn't understand such an important fact about Dragon slayers. How devastating it would be."
"I'm tellin ya guys that guy's full of it." Gajeel stretched before ordering some iron centric meals Mirajane made up especially for him. "I don't remember Metalicana once mentioning something as important as having a mate. And I like to think I'm way smarter than the pyro to remember it."
"Perhaps Metalicana was going to tell you once you got older. But he wasn't able to because all of the dragons disappeared before then." PantherLily suggested his face serious.
"Hmm.." Mirajane pondered. She recalled insisting on being there for Lucy when Sting and her had their long discussion yesterday. "From what I remember. Those two Sabertooth members Sting and Rouge called themselves 3rd generation dragon slayers. Not only were they raised by a dragon like Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy, but they also have a dragon slayer lacirma embedded into them like Laxus has."
"Did I hear you guys mention Sabertooth?" Macow walked towards the group a frown on his face.
"Yeah. Yesterday a man named Sting Eucliffe followed me into the guildhall and well…" Lucy trailed off sheepishly.
"He's a dragon slayer and claimed that Lucy is his mate." Levy finished for her. Mockow ran a hand over his face.
"Sting Eucliffe from Sabertooth huh?" Worried lines appeared in his aged face. " While you guys were frozen for 7 years you know how Fairytail no longer became the strongest guild right? Well Sabertooth quickly took that title and one of their strongest members is a man called Sting Eucliffe."
"If Sting's one of the strongest members of the strongest guild in Fiore.." Wendy looked at Lucy worriedly. "Lucy-Chan you could be in serious danger if you turn him down!" Carla patted a fretting Wendy while Lucy grimaced.
"You mean that guy is that strong?!" Flashes of Sting's blushing, pouting, and begging face crossed Lucy's mind. "Really?"
Mocoaw nodded grimly.
"If Sting was telling the truth then that means an incredibly strong mage is going to become 'hostile, restless, and unpredictable.'" Lucy put a hand to her chin as she echoed Rouges words. "That's what his partner Rouge said would happen if a dragon slayer didn't have his mate nearby."
"Key word here is 'if'!" Levy grinned "we gotta find out if he's telling the truth first." Gajeel nodded.
"I'll go inform the Master about this." Mirajane smiled before leaving the group.
"Gejeel and I will head into town and to find any rumors relating to Dragon Slayers." Lily crossed his arms as Gejeel grunted while gnawing on a piece of metal.
"Maybe I should ask Porlyusica if she knows anything about this." Wendy offered. "She did say she spoke with Grandenia before she disappeared.." Carla floated into the air.
"The sooner we discover the truth the better it will be for all of us." Carla headed towards the guildhall doors "Come along child we need to meet up with Porlyusica immediately." Wendy waved goodbye and followed her exseed.
"And I'll help you look through all of these books." Levy grinned at Lucy. Lucy felt tears pricking her eyes as she smiled back at her best friend.
"Thanks so much." Lucy now determined, looked back at her own stack of books. "Alright let's do this!"
——
30mins later and the girls found nothing. Levy and Lucy went back to the guild hall library to return the books they did have in search for more books. If there were any records about dragons, Fairytail sure didn't have them.
"HEY WE'RE HOME." Natsu bellowed as he kicked the guild doors open. Happy flew closely behind him and people called out their greetings.
"Hey anyone seen that popsicle freak?" Natsu flashed a toothy grin at his guildmates. "I'm just itchin to try out my new moves on him."
"Sorry Natsu, I haven't seen Grey all morning." Mirajane sat down some drinks for her guildmates.
"Alright then- how about Gajeel where's he at? Usually he's here clinging to Levy's side." Natsu frowned.
"He went into town, both him and PantyerLily." Kinana answered for him.
"Have you seen Wendy and Carla?" Happy flew over to the bar counter asking Mirajane.
"They were here earlier this morning but I'm not sure where they went." She looked up as Natsu came over to the bar for breakfast ready to start sulking. "Oh Natsu, if you're looking for Lucy, she's back in the guildhall Library with Levy."
Natsu didn't respond and Mirajane almost thought he didn't hear her… of course being a dragon Slayer she knew he could. Odd, he'd usually perk up at the mention of his best friend. Happy winced as Mirajane prepared Natsu's breakfast.
"Natsu and Lucy got into a fight last night." He told the She-Devil softly. Mirajane raised an eyebrow and looked at the Dragon Slayer who made it a point to ignore them.
"Really? I find that pretty hard to imagine...What did you two fight about?" She gave Natsu his food and he began picking at it. When he showed no signs of answering, Happy sighed wearily.
"Lucy told us about that Sting guy claiming to be her mate. And that he wants her to leave Fairytail to be with him." Natsu scowled and shoved a huge helping into his mouth not wanting to relive the argument.
"That's right you guys weren't at the guildhall last night…" Mirajane studied Natsu as he blatantly ignored them. Happy saw an opportunity to lighten the mood and took it.
"If you ask me…" he grinned "Natsu's just jealous because if anyone was going to be Lucy's mate it'd be hi-"
"Happy." Natsu glared a warning at the blue cat who sweat nervously. "Enough."
"Are you going to explain what you two argued about?" Mirajane picked up a cup and began to clean it. "Maybe it'll make you feel better talking about." Natsu clenched his fork tightly. He did not want to talk about this but it looks like the former S-Class mage wasn't going to let up.
"Fine." He threw the fork down and crossed his arms looking at the counter top irritated. "That creepy pervert had followed Lucy's scent to her apartment and demanded to speak with her…" Mirajane looked at him surprised. "I was there and they both" he gritted his teeth " were talking about Lucy leaving Fairytail. WHICH IS RIDICULOUS! I can't believe Lucy would even think about it."
Mirajane was silent as Natsu began to open up.
"I told her that there's no such thing as a dragon slayer having a mate. But she wouldn't listen to me. She took that stranger's word over mine!" Now Natsu was beginning to get riled up in a tangent. "We started arguing about it after Sting was dragged off by his goonie. But she wouldn't listen to reason- like she wants that liar to be telling the truth. I say If she likes the idea of having Sting be her mate so much then she should just leave already and betray us like she's planning on doing. Didn't think a guy was all it took for her to turn her back against the guild."
Mirajane slammed the cup she was cleaning on the counter loudly, almost breaking it. Her eyes flashed darkly at Natsu, clearly furious.
"Nastu." Natsu flinched but refused to look at the bar maid. "Natsu look at me." The pyro begrudgingly looked at Mirajane's stormy eyes, they almost looked like her She-Devil form eyes.
"Lucy loves this guild just as much as everyone else here does. She would sacrifice everything for us and you know it. It just sounds to me you're upset on how this whole problem is going to affect you- did you even stop to think about how stressed out Lucy is right now?" Natsu's eyes showed signs of guilt as he continued to listen to his elder guildmate. "Do you think she wanted this to happen? This is a very serious problem for her. Someone's life is on the line. I seriously hope you did NOT say any of that to her."
When he didn't say anything Mirajane took a deep breath to calm herself down. Happy sat by quietly as though he was getting scolded as well.
"Do you know what Lucy is doing right now? She and a bunch of others are running around trying to prove that Sting is lying. She's been here since dawn." Natsu's shoulders sagged as his anger depleted. "Trust Lucy Natsu, like you've always had."
"Yeah… you're right Mirajane…" Natsu ran a hand through his spiky hair letting out a sigh. "Lucy wouldn't ditch us… I should... go help her…" Natsu left his food untouched and went in search of his blonde friend.
"I seriously hope he's going to apologize." Mirjane pouted crossing her arms. Happy sighed as he took a fish from Natsu's plate.
"That's the problem with Natsu, he doesn't like admitting he's wrong… if he's still got beef with someone and they're still mad at him Natsu will eventually apologize with his actions. Not his words." Happy frowned. "Lucy though… she'll forgive him without an apology. She'd never hold a grudge like that… in the end Natsu will see that Lucy's not mad anymore and probably just act like they never fought in the first place!"
Mirjane nodded, she could see that happening. How worrisome, if they don't talk things out all that tension is eventually going to blow up in their faces one day...
"I never knew you were so observant, Happy."
"Well I tend to have an eye for these kinds of things." He stated proudly. Before frowning again. "You should have seen it Mira..., I've never seen them fight like that… and after Natsu left Lucy started to cry. Natsu couldn't sleep a wink last night. He was pretty upset about the whole thing too."
"Cheer up Happy, they're best friends I'm sure they'll work it out." Mirajane patted Happy's head affectionately.
—————
Lucy put back another book that was useless.
"All these books and we haven't even been able to find out one rumor or legend about Dragons." Lucy groaned. Levy looked defeated as well.
"Since the guildhall had to move- it looks like the library got downsized as well. That's such a shame." Levy took off her speed readers and sighed sadly.
"Who needs crusty old books when you got a real dragon slayer right here!" Natsu popped up right next to Lucy who let out a small shriek. Lucy's heart skipped a beat when he flashed his mischievous grin at her.
Huh? Is… is he no longer mad?
"Natsu!" Levy stood up to greet the fire dragon Slayer. "You're right it'd be better if we could use the dragon slayers in our guild as a reference. Wendy and Carla should be coming back from Porlyusica's house any minute now."
Lucy glanced at Natsu out of the corner of her eyes. She remembered just how angry he was last night. But now he was acting like nothing happened… Lucy felt a pang in her chest. Was she the only one stressing out about their argument?
"Awesome!" Lucy smiled, she didn't want to think about it right now. She was just grateful to have her two best friends around to help her and she didn't want to ruin it.
"We should make a list of specific traits all dragon slayers have and from Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy's memories we can learn a little bit on how dragons behaved." Levy led the group out of the library. She figured this would take a while and with the antsy Fire mage around she was afraid he'd end up destroying what was left of their library.
Natsu hid his concerns well from the celestial mage. He snuck a few glances here and there. Sure enough signs of stress were apparent on Lucy's face. Dark circles showed signs of a restless night, and a frown constantly popped up. Natsu felt really guilty now.
Mira was right… he didn't stop to think about Lucy's feelings at all. He just assumed. That wasn't like him, Natsu would trust Lucy with his life. Why would he doubt her now?
"Alright." Levy held out an areo-pen and wrote out all the dragon slayers names. "Let's see… Natsu… Natsu… abilities of a dragon. Heighten senses…" she began writing out Natsu and Gajeel's abilities just as Wendy showed up with Carla in her arms.
"Oh Wendy, where'd you run off to?" Natsu asked. (He already forgot Levy told him where she went.) Levy narrowed her eyes at Natsu. He never pays attention huh? Maybe that's a dragon slayer quirk… Levy thought bitterly towards a certain metal dragon Slayer.
"I went by to visit Porlyusica, however when we got there she wasn't home. It smelled like she hasn't been there for a couple days." Wendy sat Carla down to stand on her own.
"You went to go see Porlyusica? Oh I'm sorry Wendy I should have mentioned that she was out," Mira gave the young girl an apologetic smile." She won't be back for at least 2 months. She went to gather some important ingredients she can't have delivered here."
"So much for her help.." Lucy sighed. "Then again who knows if she would have helped us anyways.." Levy chuckled with her.
"Hey guys." Grey walked into the guild hall and spotted his friends huddled around scripts written in midair. "What's all this?"
"It's a list of dragon slayer traits we know of." Lucy turned to greet him. "To see just how far dragon slayers inherited Dragon like traits. Although so far my biggest worry is Dragon Force…"
"I can't call on Dragon force by will." Natsu added. "But I am the only dragon slayer here who has gone into Dragon Force. I'll tell ya- I've never felt more like a dragon until then. My senses and strength increased and by mind was sharper than ever."
"The thing is we don't know enough about dragons or dragon slayers to figure out the extent of their influence." Levy sat down. "So basically we've run into a dead end."
"Looks like I came at the right time then." Grey smirked "this morning I've been contacting Blue Pegasus. Got Hibiki to look into any information that could be useful to us. His archive Magic will be able to get information not just in Magnolia but in many other cities as well."
"That's awesome news!" Lucy perked up hopeful
"What I'm having Hibiki focus on is Sabertooth and Sting Eucliffe. Just who is this guy. What's his deal? Ya know?" Grey unknowingly took his shirt off.
"He's a real pervert if you ask me." Natsu crossed his arms remembering the annoying blonde. "He claimed to be able to follow Lucy's scent all the way to her apartment."
"What difference would that make between him and you?" Carla scoffed. Natsu scowled.
"Hey! Don't compare me to him!" Natsu put his hands behind his head. "Look us dragon slayers might have a heightened sense of smell, but we ain't bloodhounds ya know."
"What do you mean Natsu-kun?" Wendy tilted her head confused.
"What I mean is- it's super hard to recognize the scent of a stranger you just met to that of the familiar scent of someone ya know."
"So what you're saying is- Sting couldn't have possibly recognized Lucy's scent enough to follow her home… unless he had already met her for long periods of time beforehand..." Levy stated.
"Or he already knew where I lived in the first place and just used his nose as an excuse." Lucy scowled. "Either way it really gives me the creeps." Lucy shivered to make a point.
Gajeel and Panther Lily came through the guildhall at that time with stern looks on their faces.
"Oi Gajeel! There you are." Natsu waved at the duo to come over.
"So? Did you find anything useful intown?" Levy ran up to the tall man. Gajeel and Panther Lily shared a look.
"Before I update ya guys- Bunny girl." Gejeel crossed his arms and looked Lucy square in the eyes. "I need you to be honest here." Lucy gulped as she was suddenly put on the spotlight.
"Uh.. ok? I will…" Lucy didn't like the look on his face.
"What do you really think about being mates with Sting Eucliffe? Would you accept him or not?"
Natsu felt his heart rate increase as the group fell silent. What does she think about it? Lucy's face flushed red with embarrassment and she took a step back.
"Well I-I-uh… You see I'm not entirely sure… I mean it's flattering being told you're someone's s-soulmate. But still! I hardly know the guy." Lucy waved her hands in front of her face brushing the question aside.
"You mean if you got to know him you'd consider being his mate?" Mira piped up with the sound of a possible romance. Lucy put her two index fingers together becoming shyer by the second.
"I-I mean maybe? I dunno…"
Natsu clenched his fist tightly as he felt his stomach twist uneasy. Really? She'd really consider dating that guy? Natsu watched his best friend, pain flickered across his face briefly.
Gajeel nodded before running a hand through his hair.
"Alright so here's what I found out. Lily and I ran into some old man who used to live in Crocus, that's where the King of Fiore lives. Anywho that town has a bunch of historic monuments and celebrations dedicated to Dragons. Anything we need to know about dragons is right there. Lucky for us the old man just so happened to love learning about dragons and such. He had a ton of knowledge about em."
"According to the man it was true that Dragons had mates." Lily continued for Gajeel, his firm voice only adding to the seriousness of the situation. "Dragons only have one mate for life. Their loyalty is incredibly strong, so once their mate dies they won't take another. Oftentimes dying shortly afterwards from grief."
"But what about dragon slayers?!" Levy asked anxiously. "They're part human so maybe it's not the same?"
Gajeel shook his head.
"The old geezer only knew about dragons themselves, he hardly knew anything about Dragon Slayers."
A light started flashing as Grey pulled something out of his pants pocket.
"It's Habiki. He must have finished sending us the information he was able to find." Grey walked over to a more open spot and placed the gem down on the floor. Images and articles filled the air, all the effort from Habiki's hard work was seen by all.
"Only known dragon slayers…" Wendy read out loud as she saw pictures of Her guildmates, and three other men. Sting, Rouge, and Cobra from the Oración Seis.
"Sabertooth is widely known as a reputable guild with a 99% success rate." Levy studied the information in front of her. "Known for being incredibly strict… none of their guild members have a bad streak to their name."
"Sting and Rouge sure are popular…" Mirjane scanned some articles about the Twin Dragon Slayers. "But it's a known fact that neither had ever taken a girlfriend and they openly admit to refusing to sleep with anyone…they were waiting to meet their mates…"
Wendy blushed at the blatant comment and Carla tsked disapprovingly.
"While as respectable as that is- they shouldn't tell such personal matters out to the public like that." Carla flew from image to image.
Lucy looked down at the floor dejected. Everything kept pointing to one thing.
"So… he was telling the truth…" Lucy felt conflicted, she fiddled with her celestial keys nervously.
Natsu and Gajeel both were quiet as they absorbed this new information. It all sounded true, it all easily made sense. So if Sting was right then… they haven't met their mates yet.
That didn't sit well with either men.
———————