This is a long one. You're welcome.

History

It had been four months since Levy accepted Gajeel's offer to court. Spring had finally arrived, and Levy was no longer cooped up in her den. True, Gajeel's visits had made the winter less boring, but she still had a bit of cabin fever after being in her den all winter. It was the first truly warm day of the year now, and Levy was happily flying through the sky, enjoying the warmth and the freedom as she flew around the valley.

A loud roar echoed through the valley, mildly startling Levy. She turned her head to see Gajeel flying towards her, coming down from his nest in the mountains. He'd seen her flying around and had decided to join her. He gave a teasing nip to her neck as he flew past her. He was flirting with her again, and Levy could only roll her eyes in amusement.

The nips were not hard; they were just light stings. To dragons, it was flirting. He was showing his power in being able to move fast enough to catch her, and his control by not really harming her with his bites. It was masculine flirting, indeed. Though it was a bit childish and it did show his age some.

He was younger than she'd thought, originally. He was a very large dragon, after all, so she had expected him to be close to five hundred years old. But he was around three hundred and fifty, from what he'd told her. Still quite young for a dragon… and really not much older than she was. She would reach two hundred years this summer, and she would hit maturity soon, though that was different for each dragon.

Dragons usually matured somewhere around their two hundredth year. Some matured early, some were late. It varied. Levy guessed she would be a late bloomer, based on her small size. She was small even for a female, even for a young female. But once she hit maturity, things would change. She would fall into a deep sleep for about a month as her body adjusted to becoming an adult. When she wakes up she will have grown some, and she will continue to grow for about a century after that. She'll never be as big as Gajeel is now, but she will, hopefully, be significantly larger than she is now.

Because right now she was absolutely tiny next to him as they flew through the sky. He had horns that were larger than her head, and she could stand easily in the space between his belly and the ground. Even for male dragons, he was quite large. She'd seen older dragons who were smaller than him, and male dragons only continued to grow as they aged. If Gajeel survived long enough to be considered an elder, he might just be the biggest dragon to ever exist.

And Levy just had to be the smallest. Just her luck.

They flew for a while, just enjoying the spring weather. Levy loved feeling the sun on her back, warming her and vanquishing all feelings of cold she'd experienced during the winter. It was relaxing. And knowing that Gajeel was right next to her made it even more so. She could be in her battle form more and more often simply because he was there. He would protect her from rival males, because she was officially part of his territory.

Levy suddenly got an idea as they flew over the river. She got a mischievous glint in her eye and she flew down towards the water sharply. She used her wing to fling water at Gajeel, roaring in delight as it hit him in the side. He let out an amused growl and used his tail to splash her back. Well, that of course started a water fight. They both landed in the river and ran and jumped around flinging water at each other. Gajeel knew it was incredibly childish to be doing this… but his female was technically still a child, after all. And he was still young, so it was okay. He was just enjoying himself, teasing and flirting with the female he wanted to mate.

At some point the playing moved from the river onto land. Amused roars and growls filled the air as Gajeel chased her, nipping teasingly at her legs and wings as she tried to dodge his sharp teeth. She swatted at him playfully, even managed to hit him a few times. She couldn't do much damage to him, even if she tried, so he allowed it but did not reciprocate. One half-assed swing from him could seriously hurt her. He stuck to biting, at least he could control that better.

Besides, letting her play fight with him was great practice. She needed to learn to fight… she usually would have done it with her parents or siblings… and Gajeel briefly wondered why she was all alone at such a young age. Males would be kicked from the nest around her age, sure, but females almost always stayed in their parents' nest until adulthood. Yet Levy was all alone when he found her, and looked to have been alone for several years, at least.

Questions for later, he mused. For now, things were getting a bit rough and he needed to focus. Otherwise he might hurt the tiny dragon. She was doing pretty good, actually, aiming for weaknesses. She managed to get a bite at his neck, though she didn't bite very hard. He growled in approval, telling her she was doing good, and she seemed to beam at the compliment… until he bit her back and the play fighting continued.

Levy began to tire soon. It was draining, being in this form so long, especially when she was doing so much. Things started to calm down as Gajeel backed off, sensing her low energy. He gave her a gentle nuzzle with his head, a sign of affection which she happily returned. Females liked affection from their males, and this one was no different. She enjoyed his gentle nuzzles and affectionate nips to her horns, and he made sure to do it often with her. He wanted her to be happy with him as a mate.

They rested, then, along the river. They laid out in the sun together, side by side. Gajeel had a wing splayed out over her. She would have been upset that he interrupted the sun's rays… but as a black dragon he absorbed more heat, and this was distributed back to her through his thin wing. Essentially, he was warming her even more. It was nice, and being close to him was relaxing. Levy found herself resting her head on his arm and dozing off quite quickly.

The sun was going down by the time the dragons stirred again. Levy shifted as she felt the coolness of spring nights creeping up on her. Gajeel felt her shiver and he gave a soft amused huff. He stood and aimed his head at her, opening his mouth and breathing out a light stream of flames at her. Her scales protected her from the harshness of the flames while they absorbed the heat they offered. Levy could only stare at him in awe. He had such control over his flames. The dragons she'd seen always spewed forth the hottest flames they could.

Gajeel saw her staring at him and he gave a mirthful snort. He aimed his head to the sky and breathed out the hottest flames he could. A fireball appeared above them before dispersing into air. If that had hit anything, it would have disintegrated. Hit a dragon, the dragon would not be alive anymore. It was hot enough to burn straight through their scales.

He looked back to the small female beside him, finding her staring at the flames above them in awe. He nudged her head with his and gestured to the air, telling her to try. She let out a low rumble of shame and lowered her head. She couldn't. She couldn't breathe fire yet and she didn't know why.

Levy flinched suddenly when Gajeel's head suddenly appeared by her snout. He sniffed at her for a few seconds before snorting, his eyes full of amusement yet again. Nipping at her horns, he beckoned her to follow him, and soon they were flying again.

He took her to his nest in the mountains. She'd only been here once before, just to see where it was that he'd built his nest. It was a large cave that could easily hold him in his battle form, as that was the form he tended to be in the most. He led her into the main cavern, looking back now and then to make sure she was following him. It was easy to get lost in the tunnels he'd carved out.

The main cavern was massive, even for a dragon. And all along the walls, Levy could see deep gashes. Claw marks that were obviously from Gajeel. Why would he claw at the walls? She moved close to one of the deep gashes and sniffed at it. There were coal deposits in here. As Levy inspected it, Gajeel came up to the wall. He stood on his back legs and used his front claws to rip out chunks of the deposits. He picked one of the large chunks up and ate it, then motioned for her to do the same.

She hesitated. Eat… coal? She looked to Gajeel again, and he was giving her a serious stare. He motioned again for her to eat it, and she hesitantly did so. It was gross and bitter, not sweet like her berries, not savory like the game she caught. It was just gross, and she had to force it down. When she'd eaten enough, Gajeel urged her to follow him back outside.

They stood at the entrance to his nest, looking out over the valley as they stood side by side. Gajeel had her watch him closely. He showed her that just making sparks did nothing. She needed to breathe out all the gasses that were accumulating within her due to the coal breaking down inside her… then make sparks. He let loose a huge breath of fire over the valley, then stepped back to let her try.

It took a few times for Levy to figure out the gas thing. She'd never had to use it before. She'd known, of course, that dragons had special organs to capture such gasses and release them at will… but she'd never known that she needed to actively fuel herself to make those gasses. She finally got it, and she breathed fire for the first time. It was amazing! She kept doing it, over and over, until she ran out of gas and energy at the same time.

Levy reverted back to her base form in her fatigue, but she smiled happily and ran to Gajeel as he shifted into his smaller form, as well. "I did it! I did it!" she cheered happily, throwing herself at him. He let out an amused chuckle as he caught his excited mate to be. Ah, to be that young again where everything amazes you. Although…

"Tiny," he'd called her that nickname ever since she started courting him, poking fun at her size, "how come ya didn't know that? That's something yer parents shoulda told ya when ya were super tiny." He poked at her size again, but his tone was serious. Why hadn't she known such a simple thing about their anatomy? He'd guessed that she wasn't able to find coal deposits, which was common for young ones, but her utter excitement told him that she'd never breathed fire before in her life…

"I…" her mood shifted quickly and sadness fell over her. She looked away from him in shame, but he took her chin in his hand and made her look at him again. "I was abandoned." She admitted quietly, tears in her eyes as shame filled her. She was too tiny. Her parents thought she wouldn't survive to adulthood anyways, so why bother feeding and caring for her? "I was left at the edge of the big dessert. I was young, so the dragons that went through didn't kill or hurt me. I learned what I know from the ones that made it across and rested in my area."

"You learned courting, but not basic anatomy?" her male questioned in wonder.

"I… I suppose they assumed I already knew?" she shrugged. "I was too young to even shift back then, so it's not like it was an important topic to me. I asked them to tell me what they thought was important to know." She explained. The travelers were usually kind. They stopped to rest a few days, anyways, so they saw no harm in teaching a youngling to hunt and cure hides. The females were nicer. They taught her about courting and child rearing, and about the many foods she could find that were not game. They taught her all the things her mother should have taught her.

"I… I left that area when the males started to be too interested in me." Levy shifted nervously as she told her future mate these things. "O-one tried to… to… b-but I got away and I fled. I… I found this place. It's so far away from the other dragons, so I thought nobody would find me here." But Gajeel had found her. "I-I've been in this valley for fifty summers."

"You were so young and a male tried to…" Gajeel trailed off, feeling anger rising in him. Yes, females were rare, but to try and rape a female that was so young… it was despicable. She was only a hundred and fifty back then… in human terms… she was twelve. She would have been just barely old enough to shift into her battle form and fly then. Thank goodness she was, or she would have been raped. No wonder she wanted him to leave so badly when he arrived. It was a wonder that she wasn't afraid of males in general.

Now he understood why she seemed to lack in such random areas but was perfectly normal in others. She wasn't skilled at fighting, because she didn't grow up play fighting with anyone. She couldn't breathe fire, because she didn't know she needed a fuel source. But she knew about courtships and flirting and practical skills that she needed to survive. It seemed Gajeel would just have to teach her everything she didn't know about herself and about dragons in general.

"Tiny… you ever have any questions about anything, you make sure ta ask me. Got it?" he said firmly, watching the little female nod as she stared at him in mild surprise. "Good. Now… let's get ya home. It's getting late." He reached for her but she shrank back a bit, a blush coming to her cheeks.

"U-um… could I… stay with you tonight?" her question surprised him, but pleased him, of course. "I… I feel safer with you." She admitted with a deep blush.

"That so?" he hummed with a grin. When she nodded, he pulled her into his arms. He rubbed his face against hers affectionately, renewing his scent mark on her while she hummed happily at the affection. "Yer more than welcome in my nest." He assured her with a teasing nip to her neck.

He loved how she shivered against him, his bite sending pleasant chills down her spine. He could smell that faint spicy scent of arousal coming from her. She'd never experienced arousal before he came into her life, so she didn't understand the odd sensations his actions made her feel. But she liked it and wanted more. He would gladly introduce her to these feelings… but later. They'd both had a long day after being in their battle forms all day.

"Let's get some sleep, tiny." Gajeel regretfully pulled away from her, leading her towards the back of the first cavern in his den. There was a large bed of furs and hides back here where he slept when he was in his base form. He would sleep there tonight with her, and hopefully every night from now on, if he got his way.