Hi Everybody,

Thank you so much for your support in my story, also sorry for the wait, I just got back from Spring Break and school has been hectic.

And without further ado, The Warmth of Her Dragon Chapter 3!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only Hiro Mashima does.

Lucy was happily heading towards to the appointed meeting spot. She couldn't wait to see Igneel again and hear his stories and learn more about magic! She was happier than she had ever been since her mother's death.

The past week had been horrible for Lucy. She didn't want her father and servants to suspect anything because she knew they would never let her go see Igneel if they found out it was the dragon that had scared them away from their mansion a week ago. Even though she was much happier now, whenever she saw her mother's grave or something of her mother's, Lucy reverted back to her former self, before she had met Igneel.

But because of Igneel, the heaviness in her heart seemed lighter. Meeting Igneel had sparked a fire in her heart that brought light and warmth to her previously cold and dark world. It was big enough to give her hope, but not enough to end her sorrow.

The closer she got to the clearing the happier she got. She was able to leave behind her sorrow and fantasize about stories and magic! When she reached the clearing, she saw that Igneel was already there, "IGNEEL!" She screamed as she hugged his snout. "You came back!"

Igneel chuckled at the girl's antics. "Of course I came back. I never break my promises to my friends!" Igneel felt relieved when he looked at Lucy because he realized that she looked much happier than she did the week before.

Lucy went and sat down at the picnic table. As she sat she swung her legs back in forth in anticipation for talking with the Fire Dragon.

"Well you seem excited," Igneel noted when he saw that she couldn't seem to keep still.

"Of course I'm excited! This past week has been awful!" Lucy pouted.

"What was so bad about this week?" Igneel asked genuinely curious about why she seemed so happy when she had had such a bad week.

At the thought of what was keeping her down, Lucy slumped down in her chair. She was no longer the happy girl she was moments ago, "Multiple reasons really. The first was that I didn't want to wait to see you again…"

Igneel smiled at the young girl's kind words.

"... The second being that my father didn't really pay attention to me at all, even when you had attacked the mansion, he completely ignored me. And lastly, talking with you last week just made me remember how much I miss Mama. She would always listen to me, and she would never ignore me…" When she started talking about her mom, she started crying.

Igneel cursed himself for making her cry. Just when she started finally seeming truly happy, he had plunged her right back into the black abyss that he mother's death had thrown her in. "Lucy can I ask you a question?" When he spoke he tried to sound as sincere and kind as a fire dragon could.

Still crying, Lucy nodded. "What?"

"Do you think your mother would want you to be this sad? Do you think your mother would want to see you cry?" Igneel realized that he had to help her get out of this depression, and he would try to help her find the joys of life on her own.

Lucy looked confused, "What do you mean?"

Igneel mentally sighed, it felt like trying to explain something to Natsu, "I mean did your mother ever like seeing you sad?"

Lucy quickly shook her head, "No! Whenever I was sad Mama would always try to cheer me up, she said it hurt her when I felt sad."

"Exactly!" Igneel practically shouted.

Lucy flinched at the loudness of his voice, "What do you mean 'exactly'?"

Igneel face palmed, it was exactly like explaining something to Natsu, "If your mother was here, she would want you to be happy not sitting here crying for hours." He told her softly.

At the dragon words, she got angry and shouted, "I know that!"

Igneel was shocked by her outburst, "You know that?"

After realizing her outburst, she quietly said, "I know that Mama would want me to be happy instead of sitting here crying. But I don't know how to be happy when Mama isn't there to cheer me up. I've forgotten what it's like to laugh. I've forgotten how to be happy and smile."

It was at that moment that Igneel realized how he could help the girl in front of him. If he brought laughter and smiles into her life, then she could be happy, "Maybe you don't remember how to be happy right now, but you can always learn again?"

The girl looked defeated by the world around her when she said, "I can?"

"Yes, you can always find things to make you happy," As gently as a dragon could he used his claw to wipe her face from the tears.

"But how do I do that?" Lucy was desperate to leave the dark, yet she couldn't seem to manage it by herself, she needed a guiding hand.

"Well, you said that you miss your mother and loved her very much, so why did you love her so much?" He thought the best way to cheer her up was think of happy times with her mother, and then do the same things her mother did to make her happy.

The ghost of a smile made its way across her face at the thought of her happy times with her mother, "Mama was the prettiest person ever! She was kind and gentle, and she always made me laugh."

"What did you love the most about your mother?" Igneel inquired.

A smile had finally made its way on Lucy's face, "I loved her stories she would always tell me."

"What kind of stories did she tell you?" In his head Igneel was cheering that he got Lucy to remember her mother and not be sad.

Lucy looked up to the sky in thought of the tons of stories her mother shared, "She told me tons of different kinds although they were mainly fairy tales or stories revolving around her Celestial Spirits. I liked ones about the Celestial Spirits better because Mama would sometimes bring out her Spirits to tell me stories! Isn't that incredible?" Lucy was waving her hands all around and smiling as bright as the sun.

Igneel laughed at the little girl's enthusiasm, "That's incredible! Hearing their own stories from the actual spirits. So what was your favorite story?"

"Even though the stories about Celestial Spirits are great, I'd have to say I liked the stories Mama told me about her own adventures as a Celestial Spirit mage the best. They were always so incredible, so it made me want to be Celestial Spirit Mage."

"Is that what you want to be when you grow up?"

A determined look crossed Lucy's face at the question, "Yup, that's my dream, to be an incredible Celestial Spirit Mage. I want to collect all 12 Zodiac Keys and be the best wizard ever!" Lucy exclaimed with a laugh.

"It's going to be very hard to collect all 12 of the keys."

Lucy looked crestfallen for a second…

Then Igneel smiled and said, "But I'm sure with that much conviction you'll definitely be able to do it."

Lucy giggled, "I know it's going to be tough, but I love Celestial Spirits!"

Igneel smiled back down to the small girl. He seemed to realize that Lucy's smile brightened the world around her.

"Ne Igneel? Do you have any stories?" Looking up at the huge dragon expectantly.

As he started to think of one to tell her, he realized that most of his past experiences weren't appropriate for the girl in front of him to hear. And Lucy had enough tragedy in her life to begin with, "Well I don't know… What do you want to hear about, Lucy?"

She contemplated her answer for a few moments before she remembered something he had mentioned at their first meeting, "Oh I know! Tell me about your son!"

Igneel looked down at her shocked that she could remember the brief moment he had mentioned his son.

"What was his name?" She was completely ignoring Igneel's flabberghasted expression as she started to talk to herself, "It was Natsu!" She exclaimed proud of herself for remembering.

"I don't really know where to start with Natsu," Igneel replied a little lamely.

"Well..." Lucy started, "What does he look like?"

Igneel instantly knew what to say with that prompt as he confidently stated, "He has spiky, pink hair."

Lucy looked dumbfounded at his description.

"Umm…" he started awkwardly but couldn't finish his thought because Lucy immediately started to laugh.

"Pink hair!" She was practically doubled over from laughing so hard. "That's such a weird color."

Igneel looked surprised as he asked, "Really?" when she finally started to calm down.

Lucy immediately stopped laughing when he said that, "What do you mean, really?" Looking at him with a deadpanned expression.

"Is pink really a weird color?" Igneel asked nervously.

"Of course it's a weird color! Pink hair on a boy is funny!" As she started to giggle again.

"Why is pink hair weird?" Igneel asked genuinely curious about this aspect of humans.

Lucy was stumped. Why was pink weird for a boy, she honestly had to think about that. "Well… pink is often seen as a much more feminine color so boys don't like to wear pink clothes because they think it's hurts their manliness," she said sounded thrice her age.

Igneel was honestly impressed that she even knew what feminine meant let alone properly use it in a sentence. "Oh… that's interesting."

"Wait! Igneel you never knew that?" She asked honestly surprised that the dragon didn't know what was a girly color and what wasn't.

"Well, Lucy, I am a dragon, and not too many dragons try to understand humans. Also, dragons have different customs and different standards of beauty, so I honestly didn't know."

"Oh that makes sense," she said with a nod. "Which reminds me! If Natsu is a human and not a dragon then he isn't your actually son, is he?"

Igneel was once again surprised but the matureness of the girl in front of him, she understood the ways of the world better than most teenagers would. "Yes, that's true, Natsu isn't my real son, but I treat him like one."

Lucy just couldn't seem to wrap her head around this situation with her sparse knowledge of the dragon in front of her and his son. "So, why do you take care of Natsu? Why isn't he with his parents?"

Igneel wasn't sure how she would react to the truth, but he told her anyway, "Well I found Natsu when he was a baby in the forest. His parents had abandoned him, so I took him in as my son. I raised Natsu and taught him magic."

At his story a range of emotions flashed across her face, confused, sadness, loss, and curiosity. But sadness and loss won over in what emotion she was going to respond with, "His parents abandoned him?" She asked in a small voice.

Igneel didn't like the truth either, he couldn't understand why anyone would want to abandon their own child, it was absurd to his dragon nature. Dragons have a very strong sense of loyalty and protection to their children and mates, "Yes, and Natsu knows that I'm not his actual father, so he has abandonment issues. He doesn't like it when I leave, because he just feels like he's going to be left alone again."

Lucy didn't know what to say to that, should she apologize or what? But, Lucy being the curious girl she was couldn't neglect one word he said, "You mentioned it before that Natsu was learning magic, some type of dragon magic, I think. What is it exactly?"

Igneel was thankful for Lucy's incessant curiosity, "He's learning Dragon Slayer Magic. It's a magic that let's him take on the attributes of a dragon. And the type of Dragon Slayer Magic he's learning is for fire."

Lucy's eyes sparkled as brightly as his fire when she asked, "What kind of attributes?"

"Well, because he is a Fire Dragon Slayer he's immune to fire and use fire to attack. But one of the most interesting things is that he he can replenish his magic by eating fire." Replied Igneel knowledgeably.

"HE CAN EAT FIRE!" She screamed in astonishment.

Igneel started to get a nervous sweat thinking lucy thought she was it was scary and that he was a monster.

"THAT'S SO COOL! He must be really amazing!" She looked up at him with awe.

"I think you two would get along really well. You're probably one of the few people in the world that doesn't think Dragon Slayers a monsters." He said thinking of the torment Dragon Slayers have received in the past by other humans.

"Well of course not! Everyone is special and if everyone tried hard I'm sure they could understand each other and become friends. Like Mama's Celestial Spirits, their all my friends not just magic!"

But Igneel could never reply because a voice had cut off whatever he was going to say next.

"LUCY-SAMA~~~~~~. IT'S TIME TO COME INSIDE NOW!" One of the servants yelled out to her.

Lucy immediately froze up at the sound of Spetto's voice. "I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!" She yelled back.

"You should probably go before they come all the way out here and see me," Igneel said really softly to her.

Lucy was devastated at the thought of leaving Igneel again, "I know I should go, but do you promise to come back?"

He smiled down to her, "Of course, I'll be back in four days, same time, same place. And I'll wait until your father away until I leave."

"OK four days it is," she replied with a smile. "See you, Igneel!" And with that she ran off back to her house filled with servants and a neglectful father.

"Bye Lucy" And with that he waited until he took off into the sky towards his son, with the promise of a new friend for him.

Thank for reading and please review!

NekoMimiLover