Prompt: Natsu and Lucy meeting as dragons.

(Not romantic/OTP!NaLu. This is BrOTP!NaLu. See it however you want, to be honest, but it was not written with any romantic intentions in mind, and it will stay that way.)

Natsu the Live-in Dragon

Her yellow-scaled tail swished along the ground as she made her way back to the den she called home. Lucy didn't like leaving the den much those days, especially when it meant leaving her egg unattended – they'd had one stolen by those horrible little creatures called humans once before. Granted, she had gone and wreaked havoc on the village and gotten her egg back just in time for it to hatch, but that wasn't the point. Their current lair was between two villages, and some of the humans had been getting too close for comfort lately, so Lucy had taken to doing little surveillance flights every now and then. At least if she saw some of those nasty little humans coming for her (or her egg, more accurately), she could go someplace safe for a little while. She certainly couldn't fight off those creatures while she was trying to protect her egg. Lucy wasn't a very big dragon to begin with anyway. Her mate, on the other hand...

Well, aside from her mate being a big and scary dragon (or so he claimed, but Lucy wasn't quite sure of that), her mate was also no doubt off teaching the other hatchlings to fly (or so he'd said), although Lucy knew that he was probably just off terrorising humans from the sky with the younger dragons. (He claimed it helped them become swifter since they were having to dodge all the arrows the villagers aimed at them. Lucy disagreed, of course.)

But, on her fly-by that evening, Lucy had found not a single human nearby, so she was going to retire to her den with peace of mind, knowing that her egg would be safe there for another night, deep inside the lair and protected from everything.

Meow!

Lucy jumped up at the strange sound, her head colliding with the rock at the top of the den, loose stones and fragments of shale crumbling and falling to the damp floor. She backed into one of the walls, her tail wrapping around the front of herself as she looked for the offending creature that had made the small noise.

Meow!

A blue feline of sorts emerged from the shadows and came to sit in the small patch of light shining on the floor from the large crack in the cave roof. It made the strange noise again, and Lucy flicked her tail at it. "Shoo! Be gone!" she hissed at it. She didn't think it was a harmful creature – it was smaller than her egg hidden deep in the den – so she didn't think it was worth really harming the small thing. But apparently her tail was fascinating to the little creature, and the feline kept pouncing on the tip of it. Lucy continuing to swish it only made it worse, she quickly realised, so she pulled her tail up and held it between her front paws. "No! Bad creature! Leave my tail alone!"

Meow?

The cat continued to stare at her, and Lucy didn't like that one bit. She needed to get rid of it. So, she carefully backed away from the wall she was pressed against in an awkward fashion, and then picked the feline up in her jaws, holding it just tight enough that it wouldn't slip but gently enough that her teeth wouldn't pierce the animal's skin. It continued to meow as she carried it all the way back outside, its tail swishing at the side of her snout angrily. Once outside, Lucy dropped the animal onto the ground (she was almost fascinated by how it landed on its feet so perfectly) and then turned back around to go take a nap next to her egg.

Except... The cat followed her back inside And every time Lucy turned over her shoulder to look at it, the cat would sit and meow at her again. At some point, she just gave up, thinking that there were worse creatures to have stalking her.

So, she continued on her way, weaving around the stalagmites that had formed deeper inside the cave to get to the safe haven she'd chosen for her egg. But where Lucy expected to see her blue, yellow, and purple egg sitting all alone in the nest she'd perfectly crafted for it, Lucy found a dragon. A dragon that was not her mate. A dragon that was red and snoring and should most definitely not be there right then.

She huffed, quickly forgetting about the cat that was following her as she stomped over to the intruder dragon to snatch up her weakening egg from where the red dragon had curled himself around it. Lucy swished the dragon with her tail then (it was the only free limb left), repeatedly flicking the dragon's snout with the tip to get him to wake up.

The red dragon's nose twitched before he sneezed, a little puff of red flame sparking from his open mouth. Lucy flicked him again, quickly growing impatient as the dragon only curled himself up again. It was much easier to wake her mate up... Well, sometimes.

Growling, the red dragon eventually emerged from his slumber, stretching out slightly, his tail long tail unfurling from around himself to swish slightly in the air. He blinked twice as he opened his eyes, and then blinked again when he came to see a bright yellow dragon sitting on her haunches and protectively clutching the egg he could've sworn he was wrapped around when he'd gone to sleep.

"You. What in elder's name do you think you're doing?" Lucy hissed. If she couldn't ward off humans, then she'd certainly lose against a dragon – especially one much larger than herself.

"Huh?" the dragon mumbled. He stretched again before he rose to stand on all feet, peering behind the yellow dragon in search of his blue-furred friend. "Have you seen Happy? You didn't eat him, did you?"

"Excuse me? Did I eat what?"

"The cat. The blue cat. He was here just before, I swear..." he mumbled.

Meow!

The red dragon grinned as his small companion came padding up to him, and the cat purred as it nuzzled the dragon's scaley hide. "Happy! There you are! Were you keeping watch, buddy?"

Meow, meow!

Lucy just watched in utter shock and slight mortification as she watched how the small feline was lifted up with the broad tail of the red dragon, and then placed on top of the dragon's head. How those two were companions, she had no idea. Most small creatures just ran away from her in terror...

She shook her head and clutched the egg to herself tighter. It felt warm against her – almost too warm, even, but that didn't seem to bother her much. "You didn't answer me," Lucy continued. "What. Do. You. Think. You. Are. Doing. Here?" she demanded.

The red dragon lifted a paw to scratch his ear with a pointed talon. Why was the yellow dragon being so huffy about him being there? He didn't really know. "I just wanted to have a nap, that's all," he told her.

"So you thought you could just waltz into someone's den?"

"Well, I didn't know it was your den." Though he was guessing it was, considering how protective she was of the egg.

Lucy lifted up the egg to show it to him again for emphasis. "Egg! There was an egg here!" she glowered. "Whose den would it be?!"

He shrugged. "I thought it might've been abandoned, so I thought I would look after it," he said. He'd come across plenty of abandoned eggs in his life. He didn't like how many he'd seen, though.

She felt herself calming down a little and she sat back, bringing the egg back in against her. "Oh... I see..." Lucy murmured. She too knew how often dragons could abandon their wyrmlings before they'd even hatched. But she was not that kind of mother. She protected all of her little dragons, right up until she was sick of dealing with them and she kicked them out of the nest. (Her oldest hatchlings were just about there, thankfully. They were beginning to get on her nerves.)

But... Maybe this red dragon really had meant well. As far as Lucy could tell, the egg hadn't been harmed either, so... Maybe, she'd just overreacted a little bit. Granted, her going all out with the mysterious red dragon (and probably losing) would've been justified, especially since her egg had been on the line. And if it had been her mate returning to find a strange dragon curled around the egg, well... There would've been a dead dragon in their lair. Her mate was very protective of his hatchlings. Lucy liked it, though.

Lucy liked to think that they could go their separate ways without a fuss. She could go back to minding her egg, and... Well, whoever the red dragon was, he could go find his own den and not intrude on someone else's (and he could take the damn cat with him, too).

She lifted her nose high and huffed again. "Well... Thank you, I suppose. For not, you know... harming it..." she said quietly. It would've been a very different conversation had her egg been harmed.

The red dragon shrugged. "I wasn't gonna hurt an egg. We're a small race, you know!"

"I know... But... You still need to leave."

"Aww, but why? It's so nice here!"

"Because... Because it's my den!" Lucy answered. "Not yours!"

He turned around on the spot, breathing a warm ring of fire beneath his feet before collapsing down and curling up on himself, giving the yellow dragon his best hatchling-like pout and trying to draw out her motherly instincts. "We don't take up much room! And Happy doesn't eat much!" he argued.

Lucy huffed again, a little smoke coming from her flared nostrils that time. Who did this dragon think he was? He was nuisance, that was what! "No! I don't care!" She turned slightly just to flick him with her tail again. Fortunately for Lucy, her tail was somewhat barbed at the end, so she doubted the red dragon would be able to put up with her flicking him for long. "You are not staying here! Especially when I don't even know if you have a name or not!" Knowing her intruder's name was a bare minimum for letting him stay.

"It's Natsu. I think. That sounds about right... But—"

"No buts, Natsu!"

Natsu growled under his breath and pushed himself up again as Happy continued to purr where he was perched on top of his head, curled up into a perfect little ball. "Fine, fine... I'll go..."

"Good!"

He was like an abandoned puppy as he left, tail dragging along the ground as he let his head hang down shamefully. Lucy followed him, waddling behind him on her hind legs as she continued to clutch at her precious egg (she wasn't letting go of it anytime soon). And every time Natsu turned to look over his shoulder, maybe to try and make her change her mind and let him stay, Lucy merely glowered at him and he sighed and just kept walking.

"Are you sure I can't stay?" he asked at the mouth of the dark cave. "There's no good lairs around here!"

"Well, that's not my problem!" She was lucky. She'd made her cave a home. And it was close enough to the stream and deep enough in the mountains that it was strangely warm – perfect for the little hatchlings and hard for horrible humans to reach quickly. "You're not staying," Lucy insisted. "And if you come back again, well... Well, you'll regret it!" Her mate surely wouldn't appreciate a strange male dragon invading his territory anyway.

"Fine..." Natsu mumbled dejectedly, and he finally turned to leave the cave. "Come on, Happy. We'll go find our own den... Where it's nice and warm and cosy..."

Later, after the sun had long since set and her mate and her other hatchlings had returned, Lucy was woken up to the sound of her cave roof collapsing on itself and then a loud thud from some kind of monstrous creature falling through the new hole. It was a cloudless night and the moon was directly above them, so as soon as Lucy saw the large red wings unfurling just right in front of her to shake off the excess rock, as well as the small blue feline scampering away from the rubble, she knew exactly who it was that had just literally come crashing into her den.

"Natsu!" Lucy screeched. "What do you think you're doing?!"

The red dragon pawed at the back of his head. He'd merely been trying to peer into the small slit in the cave roof, but then all of a sudden he'd been falling through the rock and shale and picking himself up from the cave floor. "Y'know, you really should've chosen your lair a little more carefully," Natsu mused. "That could've really hurt someone!"

She was absolutely at a loss for what to do with that dragon right then. She'd never come across a dragon like that before. He was just so odd. And rude. And he had to be downright moronic to have actually come back. She'd made it quite clear that the cave was hers, thank you very much.

Beside her though, her two oldest hatchlings merely yawned and continued to sleep tangled up in a mess of tails, wings, and limbs. And behind her, her purple and blue-scaled mate continued to snore peacefully where he was still wrapped protectively around the egg, just like he always was. Lucy huffed, and she turned to flick him repeatedly with her tail. "Oi, you miserable waste of scales. Are you seeing this?" she hissed, trying to get his attention. The dragon groaned in his sleep. "He's invading your territory!" Lucy continued. "He could hurt the egg! Or your hatchlings!"

Natsu blinked at the spectacle, sitting up peacefully and watching in mild amusement. He had to admit he found the yellow dragon's family just a little cute right then, all curled up together. All Natsu had was Happy.

But, try as Lucy might, her mate did, in fact, refuse to wake up. The larger dragon even made a point of growling under his breath and getting up, just to walk around in a circle, half asleep, and then collapse back down in the opposite direction, facing the cave wall that time and letting his long tail swish back to flick Lucy. He was getting old, damn it. He liked his sleep.

"Stupid overgrown lizard," Lucy muttered. She turned to find Natsu watching her in mild amusement, and she could only sigh and then quickly glance around at the large cave. She had a feeling she wasn't going to be getting rid of Natsu anytime soon, and... Well, she also had a feeling that the red dragon really just wanted somewhere warm to sleep. The den was big enough for all of them. At least for a little while.

She lifted her front paw to point a sharpened talon to the far side of the dark cave. "You can go sleep over there for now," she told him. "Come near my dragons and I will hurt you."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Natsu bounded over to his designated space like an overexcited hatchling, with Happy following closely behind him.

Lucy merely shook her head before she got up just to warm the spot beneath her with a little flame. She only hoped the red dragon didn't snore too loud. She'd probably be able to deal with him then.

A/Ns: I don't usually add notes to the end, but I kind of figure more people are likely to read them then? Maybe? I don't know.

Anyway. Fic-wise, I originally didn't want to write this, just because I don't like NaLu and I pretty much refuse to write it. But, a friend on tumblr helped me figure out something to write so that's how protective mama dragon Lucy came to exist. I strangely love it? Also, I have no idea how to write dragons, if you can't tell.

Now, onto the not-fic stuff. I decided I'd just make my entire hiatus thing a 'semi-hiatus'. Since, after all, I am still somewhat active on here. At this point my hiatus is only for chapter stories and longer one-shots (i.e, everything except requests). I think that works a little better.

Also, I made a separate blog on tumblr for all of my writing. It's april-vsthewords . tumblr . com. Also, for anyone curious about Third Time's the Charm and Adventures in Step-Parenting, I have actually posted Chapter 7 and Part 2 (respectively) to my tumblr. If you want to read those, feel free to dig around my blogs to find them, since those two won't be getting updated on here anytime soon.