As always, thank you to everyone who has reviewed. Reading them always puts a bright spot to my day. Welcome to a few new readers and it is good to see those of you who have been here from the beginning. You guys are absolutely the best! I hope this chapter was worth the wait.

A Dragon's Heart – Chapter 16

Natsume stretched out his wings and fluttered them for a bit before settling them back down to a comfortable position. This was the best he had felt in… well… probably since his mother passed away. It would have been the best ever if Mikan had slept with him last night but she has her reasons he mimicked an annoying falsetto voice in his mind.

If he didn't do something about those 'reasons' soon, he was going to lose his mind. Last night after their date, Natsume and most of the other adults were stuck with fun the task of trying to find a home for several dozen goldfish while Mikan took a quick dip in the ocean with Hotaru and Hayate as her guards. On the bus ride home the children had been begging and pleading to be allowed to swim with her, but she had been adamant that it was too late and the water would be too cold for them to swim. They did however manage to get her to agree to go swimming with them in the morning.

Natsume being the obsessed idiot that he was, figured that he would relieve Hotaru once he was done with the stupid goldfish and keep a watch on Mikan himself. Yeah, he may have already been rejected by her tonight, but he was not completely lost to his dragon lust. He could keep his hands to himself for one night. He just wanted to see her.

Yeah right.

He had flown from the take off cliff towards the beach with every intention of landing there when his far-too-keen vision spotted her coming out of the water wearing a one piece swimsuit. The swimsuit was nothing spectacular, one that was meant for function rather than aesthetics, but the woman wearing it was another matter. Maybe he was more sensitive to magic when he was in dragon form, or maybe Mikan's skin had odd reflective properties, but the woman was glowing! Not glowing like the way some people say a happy bride to be or mother to be is glowing, she was well and truly brighter than the air dragons next to her. It was like the moon had wanted all to know who was its favored child and radiated its cool glow through her. Even at a healthy distance he could feel the power of the ocean radiating from her.

At that point Natsume spun on his tail and beat a hasty retreat. He couldn't kid himself any further; there was no way in hell he was going to be able to keep his hands to himself if she looked like that. He fled back to the safety of his room where he took a quick cold shower ranting 'she has her reasons' over and over. He spent the rest of the night flopping and thrashing endlessly about his bed wondering how long it was going to take to deal with those reasons.

Yes, things were much better this morning. Not really on a hormonal level. That was still very much and issue, but there were also other people and children present to help keep him in check.

And he was enjoying the sun right now.

The others had grabbed inflatable rafts, umbrellas, picnic baskets and whatever else one would take for a day at the beach. Natsume himself had taken advantage of the new security bug cameras Hotaru had made and Yuu's ability to hide him with an illusion if humans did show up. The young red transformed into his dragon form and glided over to the ledge where the old shrine was. He promptly stretched out in a position that would allow him to watch Mikan swimming, while warming his hide with the sun.

If he were a cat right now he would purr. He had almost forgotten life could be like this. His grandfather, his uncle, his work, all of the politics of his clan, all just hid in the back corner of his awareness. He would have to deal with them soon enough, but for now they could bloody well wait. The sun was lulling him into a state of bliss.

If Mikan was a beloved child of the moon, then he belonged to the sun. He could feel it caressing him and infusing him with its power. Dragons were not meant to spend all their time in human form. He thought lazily to himself. He angled his snout on his foreclaw better so he could watch Mikan in her dragon form playing in the water with the kids.

He wasn't sure what kind of game they were playing; it seemed to involve some sort of ambush attack on her part. The kids would be swimming around trying to figure out where she was, then seemingly out of nowhere, one of them would get mysteriously launched into the air. The child would let out a piercing squeal before safely splash landing back into the water. Mikan's part was obvious, he just wasn't sure if the kids were trying to get launched or get away from it. He couldn't tell with all of the squeals, giggling and laughter. Watching the water-play was cute though.

When the kids started to wear out, she dropped them off onto what Imai called her portable desert island. It looked like a small island with a few trees and rocks, but it could be moved or anchored like a boat. It even had a large hidden storage compartment for food and drinks. Once the children were dropped off, Mikan moved off to swim a bit on her own.

God he liked watching her swim. She really had no idea how sexy she looked coiling and bending in the water. Every now and then she would swim up close to him and they would make eye contact for a few seconds, before she curled herself back and swam the other way. He wondered if he would ever get tired of looking at in her dragon form. He doubted it. The more times she came back to see him, the more tail curled and twitched excitedly.

"You're pathetic." He heard Luka call out to him. His brother and sister were lounging comfortably on their own large raft along with Youichi and two other kids.

Natsume picked up his head and snorted a wisp of smoke at them. Shut up. He told Luka mentally, knowing that his brother was having fun with teasing him about a girl for once.

"He he he, Not so funny from the other side is it?" Luka called.

Easy for you to say, you didn't sleep alone last night. Natsume responded tartly, causing Luka to blush. Actually, now that he thought about it, maybe his brother could be of some help. The pair of them were almost like twins. They might tease one another, but they had experienced absolutely everything together. If there was anyone who might be able to offer advice it would be him.

Luka, he began very seriously and his brother picked up the tone and gave him a serious look in return. When Aoi was younger, how did you… cope… with not being able to touch her? He was so glad he was in his dragon form and that he could communicate to his older brother without saying that out loud. He would probably keel over and die from embarrassment if he had to ask that normally.

"Not making much progress huh?" Luka spoke in his mind ruefully. "Well I've been there and done that." He said with a fond look over at Aoi. "Maybe she is not interested." Luka suggested.

Oh she's interested, but apparently she 'has her reasons'. He was beginning to hate that phrase. His distaste for it tinged his mental conversation. Suddenly the draman sat up straighter looking worried.

"You don't think she has a mate do you?"

Natsume claws flexed involuntarily making deep gouges into the hard stone. Bloody well better not he growled in his mind. He'd roast the bastard on a spit for dinner. No male in his right mind would let a mate like her wander about the globe freely. But then again, the bit of telephone conversation he had overheard suggested she was not supposed to be in Japan. Oh gods, what if she did have a mate? No, think Natsume, if she had a mate she was serious about she would be with him, not running away. He told himself silently and apart from his brother. He didn't want Luka to know that he was actually worried about Mikan having a mate.

"Well, I wish I could give you some great advice, but to tell you the truth, I ended up having to become really well acquainted with my hand at that time."

Natsume gave him a snort. I would rather not if I don't have to. It wasn't that he hadn't done it. Every boy in existence with working equipment has, no matter what they say. He just did not have to do it often because he had other options open to him. He felt like such a juvenile having to resort to it.

What about the concubines? Did you never seek them out?

Luka gave him a surprised look. "When it is the right one, the idea of others just loses all appeal. Once I had come to terms with my feelings, I couldn't even look at a concubine." The look Luka gave him suggested he should have realized this by now.

Without wanting to, Natsume recalled the other night when he had briefly mistook Mikan for a concubine. The way he was about to tell her to hit the road even though he was so clearly sexually frustrated. A woman would have solved his problems quite expertly, but he just did not find the idea of stimulating. If anything the idea annoyed him. Even now the idea of having one just felt so… yuck… Natsume looked over to where Mikan was swimming and tried not to think about what that might mean to them. He refused to let the thought fully form, because if what he was afraid to think was true, it would be disastrous for both of them.

A tug on his wing distracted him from his thoughts. He turned to see Youichi pulling at him.

"Natsume, come swimming with us." The little silver ordered while pulling on his wing as if he could ever move a full sized dragon.

Natsume instinctively flexed the wing out of the kid's hands which caused the boy to lose his balance. Afraid that the Youichi might fall badly against the rocky ledge, Natsume quickly extended his wing low, catching the falling body on the thin membrane of his wing like a fishing net. This left the kid sitting on his wing in a rather uncomfortable spot, so he shifted and lowered his wing further off the ledge, allowing Youichi to roll harmlessly back into the ocean.

The little silver dragon landed with a splash and his head popped back up to the surface laughing. "That was great! Do it again!"

Oh lord. No sooner did he say that than the other children wanted to play with him. Natsume rolled his eyes and briefly allowed the children to use his overlarge body as a jungle gym. It went against his 'fearless leader' image, but he could not bring himself to tell them to get lost either. It was not really that bad, most times all he did was use his tail to pluck them off his hide and throw them back into the water. He would manage to get one off, but another one would scramble up and take its place. The children apparently thought it was hilarious.

In a strange way it kind of reminded him of how his stepfather used to play with them as kids. His dad would always make time to play with them when they were little, and memory if it filled him with giddy warmth. Without meaning to, his gaze wandered back to Mikan who was swimming in intricate patterns again. She better not have a mate. I'd have to strangle her for not saying something sooner.

Mikan swam up and saved him from his jungle gym fate. As soon as they saw her they called her to play with them. This time she gathered them in a group and swam in a tight circle around them, causing a tiny whirlpool that they all seemed to like.

Natsume continued to watch his sea dragon. The only indication that he was enjoying himself was the way his tail tip was whipping back and forth over the rocky ledge which caused it to flick in and out of the water.

Eventually she included him in her play.

She would swim up to him and flick a bit of water his way. Natsume would get annoyed at having cool water splashed on his nice sun warmed hide and would grunt and shoot a small tendril of fire at her much to the amusement of everyone watching them.

They continued this once, twice, a third and fourth time, so when she swam up to him the fifth time he was more than ready to retaliate. Except she did not surface when he expected.

Where is she? Did she-ey-eh OW! That was my tail dammit!

She bit his tail.

She bit his freaking tail!

He let out a rather undignified sound that was a deeper, rumbling version of a screech that a cat would make if its tail was stepped on causing everyone to look at him strangely.

He pulled his tail tip up to his snout to look at it. Her sharp teeth did not pierce his tough hide, but it still stung damn it. His tail was sensitive! Just because it was dangling in the water did not mean she had to bite it!

Mikan's large wedge shaped head popped out of the water to look at him and he dangled his poor abused tail tip in front of her. Look what you did to my tail! He ranted at her mentally.

Mikan tilted her head at him. It was hard to read her expression on her dragon face, but he got the impression that she felt contrite for hurting him. She leaned forward towards it and he was tempted to snatch it away lest she bite it again, but that would look cowardly, so he held still, prepared to pull it back if needed.

If you even think of biting me, I'll boil you where you are. He threatened mentally, but instead of biting, she licked the injured tip with her tongue.

She licked his tail.

He could feel her tongue with shocking clarity dragging over his sensitive tail tip.

Oh gods.

The young red's breath clogged in his lungs and his heart rate took off at a frantic gallop. Pleasure tremors began at tail tip and travel all the way up through to the top of his head. They were so intense he was sure they had to be visible to everyone watching. Oh-oh-ohh-ohhhhh-oooooo… gods, was that ever hot, sexy and completely unexpected. He felt like he was going to melt into a pile of goo.

Mikan must have felt a bit embarrassed, because she was starting to retreat into the water again. Oh no you don't he thought mentally and moved so his head was extended over the water. She paused in her retreat and extended her snout up to meet his.

Natsume couldn't stop what happened next if his life depended on it. He nuzzled against her blue-green snout in a gesture that is far more affectionate than one would expect a dragon was capable of. Mikan emitted a weird gravely hum from her throat and Natsume responded in kind. Her tail emerged from the water to twine with his and his blissful hum increased in volume. Natsume then shocked himself and everyone else on the beach by giving her muzzle a long affectionate lick.

Once he did it though, the young red pulled back feeling a bit surprised at his bold move. He had never ever witnessed or even heard of dragons flirting or engaging in foreplay in their dragon forms, but he was fairly certain they had just done exactly that. And with others watching no less.

But oh did he like it.

He was relatively oblivious of the others around him until he heard Koko who had paddled up unnoticed; awkwardly break the tension in the air. "Uh, yeeeaah… maybe it's time we head back to the beach for lunch. I don't think the kids need to be around to see this." Rather miraculously, they all disappeared within seconds.

Natsume could not hold back any longer, he transformed and leapt into the water at her. Mikan transformed as well and backed away from him.

The sudden chill of the water should have cooled his ardor but he couldn't even feel it. The only thing that felt real to him was Mikan.

Shit was that swimsuit ugly. She probably did not care what she looked like out of the water since she spent most of her time in it, but he was going to have to buy her a bikini. Make that several, one for every day of the week something to show off her slim athletic figure.

Feeling playful, he continued to chase her while she continued to remain just out of his reach. She let out a silvery laugh mocking his attempts to catch her.

"You do not actually believe you can keep up with a sea dragon in the water do you?" she asked in a sweet voice.

"Come back here you little minx and finish what you started."

Mikan paused and gave him a shocked look "What did I do?" she asked. He took advantage of the moment to surge forward and catch her.

"Just where did you learn that little stunt with the tail?" he asked with a heated grin, trying hard not to think about the possibility that another man had taught it to her.

She gave him a sweet smile "It is kind of a family secret."

Natsume held on to her waist lightly and moved in to brush his lips along the soft skin of her nape. "Nice secret." He breathed against her neck. "Do you have any other secrets you want to share?" he whispered suggestively. He wanted her badly. He was quite convinced he would probably do just about anything if he could have her right now.

He pulled back fully prepared to start begging for whatever it was that would convince her to let him make love to her, and almost drowned in her luminous eyes. Much to his excitement there was more than a little lust and interest there, but then they started to cloud over and her interest slowly faded away leaving nothing but caution in her eyes. No! Don't you dare pull back from this again! His mind screamed and thrashed in denial refusing to accept that he had lost this opportunity.

"Actually," she said, pulling away from him. If she gave him some crap about having reasons right now, he would be forced to do something violent. "We should get out of the water."

He blinked a little in confusion. His hormones had kind of addled his wits. "What?" he asked, a bit confused. He was tempted to make a quip about her wanting to get him out of the water so she could have her way with him, but his temper was riding too high on sexual frustration. Anything that came out of his mouth would probably be rude and acidic.

She gave him a remorseful smile and sighed. "You probably aren't as sensitive to it as I am, but we are currently being influenced."

Again he just blinked at her in confusion and gave her a less that patient look to hurry up and explain what the hell she meant.

Again she sighed "The water misses its sea dragons and is trying to find a way to get them back."

What the hell was that supposed to mean? No one knows what happened to the sea dragons in the area. They just sort of disappeared overnight. And then a thought struck him.

"By getting them back, you mean it wants to make more." He stated having a bad feeling he was right.

Mikan blushed cutely and looked away. "Yes. The problem is that you need at least two dragons to make more."

"So you are saying that what I am feeling is just some sort of glamor or love spell?" The idea that he was under some kind of spell pissed him off and killed a good chunk of his lust with it. Nothing and no one orders him around.

This time she shook her head. "No, water and water spirits do not have that kind of ability. It cannot make you want someone you do not find attractive. At best it can alter the body chemistry, make us more aware of one another, occasionally it can give visions and impressions but that is about it."

"So that thing with the tail does not normally happen?" Shit. He really liked that trick. It was hot as hell.

Mikan blushed even harder "No that was real. I've seen it done before and it almost always results in the pair running off to find somewhere private. What the water can do is take away my inhibitions about doing that in front of people with someone I barely know."

That would explain why he licked her back. "Oh? So does that mean you are trying to drag me off to somewhere more private?" he asked teasingly. Now that he knew the tail trick was real, his mood picked up. He would have to remember to try that when the water was not influencing them.

"No I'm trying to stop us from becoming parents." She said abruptly. "One thing water can do is make you forget to care about whether or not you are ready to be one."

Inside him, the far more primal urges of his dragon stirred. They were not animals, but they were definitely more in tune with their bestial natures because they were dragons. Hunting, fighting for territory, the need for a mate and having offspring were basic urges in them. Those needs were not as buried under religious and moral codes as they were in ordinary humans. For just the tiniest second a thought of Mikan carrying his baby entered his mind. Normally, with concubines, Natsume had been terrified that he might accidentally slip up and sire a child with them, but now his deep inside of him his dragon was rumbling eagerly.

Not good. They really needed to get out of the water.

"Can you pull us to shore?" he asked with all seriousness. She nodded and he very stupidly tried to hold on to her. This time when their energies and skin touched, the lust surged like before but the energy between them sizzled and crackled. Mikan cried out and he let out a grunt in shock. Did it do that before? Or was he too dazed by the water's influence to notice?

Mikan quickly changed to her other form which dulled the effects between them, but not by much. Natsume had ended up holding her around her neck and she was kind enough to keep her head above water while they rocketed through it. The spray from the water stung his face, arms and chest at that speed, but he welcomed it because it gave him something to distract him.

Their sudden arrival at the beach had surprised more than a few, but they were all smart enough not to question it. The pair quietly sat down close together, but not so close as to risk accidently touching again. Anna served them a rather impressive lunch and they ate in subdued silence.

From time to time one of the others would try and talk to them, but the new uncomfortable aura seemed to be contagious around them making others feel awkward.

After lunch, the children who were the only ones immune to the strange atmosphere, came up and asked Mikan if they could go swimming again. At first, her face broke into a smile and it looked like she wanted too, but then she shot an odd look to Natsume which got him all pissed off again.

"Go. I seem to be fine as long as I am not in the water." The told her brusquely and she went with the kids and a few adults back into the water.

He watched Mikan from the safety of shore when he felt his brother behind him. 'Natsume? Is everything okay?'

No. he said with as much abrasiveness as he had with Mikan. His human and dragon sides were both restless and dissatisfied. They were both angry, but there was nothing he could target to lash out at. How can someone be angry a water?

The bottled up negative energy was threatening to burst out of his control so he got up and started pacing the beach with a frantic vigor. He was aware that he was probably scaring his subordinates and maybe even a few of the children but paid it no mind. His need to move was the only way he could protect them from something worse. He needed some way to vent or he would explode at one of them.

Finally, he stepped into the shallows of the water spitefully. The water was not even up to his knees and he could feel it trying to pull him in. "Stop it." He growled at it quietly. "You want me to be with Mikan and I want to be with her." He continued in a voice only he and the water could hear. Fingers of water tried to curl around his legs trying to pull him towards the object of his obsession.

"I said stop. When I have Mikan it will be on my terms and no one else's. So stop interfering." He ordered harshly.

With more than a little shock, the waves stopped pulling. He waited in the water for several minutes and felt nothing special or out of the ordinary. At that point Mikan came out of the water to face him.

"What did you do?" she asked. Her expression showed nothing but total shock and confusion.

"I told it I mate on my own terms and to back off."

"And that worked?"

"Apparently."

"But… but… you shouldn't have been able to! Even I couldn't get it to stop its games! There's no way… how… it just doesn't make sense!"

"Maybe you just do not know how to talk properly to it." He answered, feeling a bit better. Mikan gave him a dark look that was about as scary as a hissing kitten. She started to fidget nervously as if she too, needed to pace.

"Something is definitely not right here. I don't know what it is, but I… " Mikan's thought trailed off and she spun to look at the water. Her mouth was hanging open and the look on her face was a mixture of horror and shock. The ripples of energy he was picking up from her were screaming in denial.

Natsume followed the direction of her gaze and tried to see what she was looking at, but saw nothing but water. Mikan quickly spun to look at him and shoved him hard enough to force him to stumble backwards to the water's edge. Natsume quickly regained his balance and looked out to where she was looking and finally saw what she was looking at.

Something huge was moving like a torpedo in the water towards Mikan. Natsume did not even have time to process the thought before an enormous sapphire colored sea dragon sprang up and out of the shallow water. Its massive head hovered a good fifteen feet above Mikan and Natsume's heads while its tail coiled around Mikan, effectively separating her from Natsume.

In a bright flash of light, the sapphire sea dragon quickly melted into a disgustingly handsome man with his arm draped around Mikan.

"Yo." the stranger said in accented Japanese "Am I interrupting?"

Who the fuck is this now?

tbc

AN: Oh cruelty of cruelties! A cliffhanger! *ducks flying pitch forks, rotten fruit and assorted other airborne objects*

Easy guys easy! I can't write and doge at the same time!

So I admit I was a bit anxious about this chapter I was not sure how well I could pull off flirting in non-human form. Did it feel a bit off? Or was it okay? It is hard for me to judge since I know what I mean to say, but that is not always what the reader picks up.

Ta for now!