Yeah, I know I suck. Sorry for taking so long, I really did have a lot going on. I was supposed to have put this up earlier but I ran into quite a fair sare of problems. There's a kind of rebellion/revolution going on at my school and long story short, there's a lot of fucked up shit going on and I'm a huge part of the rebellion. Hell, I started it. I'm not stupid enough to let anyone who would use it against me know because my mom's a teacher and what I do reflects on her but I have to do something. She's worried I'm going to do stupid shit but I know what I'm doing. I am also sick and posting this at three in the morning after eating salmon spread and crackers.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this latest installment of Overprotective Dragons! This one mostly focuses on the NaLu portion but it does have a few treats for everybody. :)

Lucy's grip on his hand tightened momentarily and he glanced at her before rubbing circles on her hand soothingly and grinning at Laxus and Mira. He wanted to laugh at how confused and angry they looked but didn't chance it, instead clearing his throat. Lucy threw him a look, knowing exactly what he was thinking and shaking her head slightly. He raised one hand halfway in the air for surrender, trying to fight back a smile as he felt the warmth rush through their bond and nodding. They didn't notice the narrowing of three pairs of eyes at their actions before Laxus cleared his throat loudly and glared at them.

"Well?" he asked, his eyes focused on them as they looked up. Natsu grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, thinking of a way to explain this to his brothers without the others figuring out what he was saying. He would have liked to tell them properly later but he'd forgotten himself after smelling Lucy's scent. Staring up at the sky, he gave a low whistle.

"Do you know how old I am?"

Everyone stared at him and his grin grew wider as he held back his laughter at their perplexed and frustrated faces.

"See, last month, I turned seventeen! You threw a party, remember?" he asked, turning to face Mira. She nodded, twirling a lock of her hair around her fingers as she waited for him to explain why she hadn't known of this.

"And seventeen is a really special number," he said, nodding importantly, eyes trying to send Laxus and Gajeel his message. "It means I'm of age now."

Their eyes widened and Gajeel swore as Laxus groaned and covered his face with his hands. The girls looked at them confusedly and then Juvia seemed to realize what it meant because she giggled only a moment later. (And how fair was that? Seriously, why the heck did she get to know what they were talking about? It's not like Mira or Erza had been waiting for this since, I don't know, when Lucy first came?!)

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Laxus asked him, eyes begging him to say no as Gajeel stood in the back, looking as if he wanted to slump on the ground and just sit there for a few days.

"Nope," Natsu shook his head, his hand itching to rub the back on his neck again as he held back the urge and watched them instead.

"And you didn't think to tell us before you freaking went and-," brown eyes widened and Laxus groaned again. "Wait," he said, glaring at Natsu momentarily before looking at Lucy, "I don't see anything on her."

The others tried to follow with this conversation to no avail as only the dragon slayers, Lucy, and Juvia seemed to know what was going on here. Lucy shifted and gave nervous little laugh before nudging Natsu, silently panicking as her hands trembled and a flush grew on her face. She stared at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing she'd ever seen in her life, steadily growing even more red as time passed.

"About that," Natsu said, his canines gleaming as he grinned and raised an eyebrow, "I'd be pretty mad if you could."

Gajeel and Laxus stared at him wide-eyed for a moment before Gajeel threw his hands in the air and Laxus looked as if he wanted the earth to swallow him whole, his countenance pale.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Gajeel groaned, his hands covering his face. Laxus nodded his head in agreement and Natsu raised a hand in defence.

"Come on, you knew it was going to happen! It's not like I could have stopped it or something!"

"Well you didn't have to tell us where you put it!" Gajeel hissed.

"I didn't! You guys are just making assumptions," he retorted.

"No, they're not assumptions. At least you weren't stupid enough to put it anywhere disturbing," Laxus groaned again, hands running through blond hair as he gestured to Lucy. They turned to see what he meant and Natsu turned a little bit pink at the sight. A cherry faced Lucy was staring at the red lotus that was glowing red from behind her clothes on the right side of her hip, her jeans unable to hide it from everyone as she tried to cover it with her hands. It wasn't like an ordinary tattoo, the lotus looking as it were mad of actual flames fluctuating and burning in front of them.

"Well," he coughed, turning away from her and facing Laxus, trying to shake away the pink in his cheeks. "Thank you?"

Gajeel bashed his head against the nearest building, cursing loudly as the girls computed what just happened, Juvia still giggling in the corner unseen by the rest.

"Oh my god," Mira screeched, hands covering her face as she gazed at Natsu. "You marked her?! Like, as in officially marked her?!"

Lisanna gasped and Erza looked faint, her expression somewhat between approval, shock, and anger as she gripped onto the edge of a table close to her for support. Juvia beamed and skipped up to Lucy and Natsu, lacing her arm through the blond's.

"Yes! And that's why Juvia has been so happy! Juvia doesn't have a rival for love anymore and Juvia's friend loves him very much!"

"Juvia," Lucy whispered embarrassedly from behind her hair as she resisted the urge to hide her face behind her palms, "please stop."

Juvia turned to face her confusedly, tilting her head. "Why should Juvia stop? Juvia is saying the truth. Isn't she?"

Lucy's face burned even more but she nodded, a smile on her face as she answered and Natsu felt his grin grow impossibly wide as he heard her answer, his heart doing a little dance.

"Yes, you're right, and I will always love Natsu with all my heart, but for now, could you please not announce it to the world?" she pleaded. Juvia didn't seem to get it however but before she could formulate her next sentence Laxus beat her to it and asked them a question.

"Wait, wait, wait," he said, massaging his temples lightly with a pained look on his face. "If she's…marked, then that means you-?"

"Uh-huh," Natsu nodded, the pink returning to his face as he glanced at Lucy from the corner of his eyes. "I did."

"God," Gajeel groaned, finally done bashing his head against the building as he turned to gaze at the couple angrily. "I did not need to know about this. In fact, I could have gone my entire life without any of this happening. Seriously, can I-just for one day, can I get a break?"

Erza seemed to regain her composure and came right into the middle of the conversation, completely forgetting Gajeel as she stormed up to Natsu and pulled him up by his vest.

"Explain this right now," she hissed, eyes glaring at him as he gulped and nodded quickly.

"See, um, dragon slayers have this thing where they become of age at seventeen and when they're seventeen they're eligible to mate and mark their other half as their own officially and it's a lengthy process but basically I love Lucy so I kind of slept with her and made her my wife forever with absolutely no way out and marked her as mine and only mine?" he blurted as he wired his eyes shut, hands in front of his face just in case a hit was directed there as everything around them seem to go silent.

A moment later, the grip on his vest was gone and he peeked through his closed eyelids to see Erza faint, quickly grabbing her by her scarlet hair before realizing what he'd done and banging her head against a table when he let go immediately. Wincing, he laid her against a chair and hoped she didn't remember too much of what happened before straightening and seeing a furious Mira leaning over him.

"Oh, you are so in for it mister," she seethed, her face blocking out any light from the sun as she cornered him, Lisanna sighing behind her. "What do you think love is, huh?! You think you can just sleep with a girl, call her yours, make her totally inaccessible to a guy other than you and everything'll be okay?!"

"Um, yeah?" Natsu questioned, stepping backwards as she gained on him. Apparently, it was the wrong thing to say because she promptly shook him by his shoulders harshly, screaming into his face.

"Wrong!You're supposed to tell me first! You come tell me and then you can do whatever the hell you want, but you let me know, got it?!"

He nodded frantically, gulping when her glare seemed to deepen.

"You better," she whispered before letting him go and causing him to slump on the ground as he sighed in relief. Turning on her heels, she went for Lucy next.

"And how come Juvia knows before I do, huh?! What did she do that I didn't for you to tell her and not me?! I just want to spread some love," she whined, tugging on Lucy's sleeve and causing the others to sweatdrop at her dramatic change in attitude. Lucy grinned weakly and shrugged, looking at Juvia for a moment before turning back to Mira nervously.

"She found out by accident?"

Mira paused in her whining at this, pouting and stomping her foot quite like a child throwing a tantrum as she took this in for a bit. Relieved, Lucy thought she was satisfied with this answer only to try and remain upright as she shook her by her arm wildly.

"But whhhhhhhyyyyyy?!"

Dizzy, Lucy tried to focus on Mira's image as things seemed to double in front of her. Blinking, she shook her head and brown eyes met blue as her vision returned to normal and Mira's hands on her arm stopped to let her answer.

"Well, it's not like I wasn't going to tell you," she said, "I just wanted to wait for a bit. You know, the right moment. I didn't want things to end up-well, like they did just now. Not that this isn't good," she hastily said, waving her hands in front of her face before dropping them and blushing softly. "I wanted to be able to tell you that he was my lover properly."

Mira's anger dissipated and she hugged Lucy tightly cooing into her ear.

"Awww, I'm sorry Lucy. It's just that I've been waiting and planning for a long time so I was really frustrated that this happened and I didn't know. Tell me all the juicy details later over a vanilla milkshake, huh?" she winked, releasing Lucy from her embrace.

Lucy laughed and nodded, her eyes turning to Erza, who was still slumped and unconscious. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, "Should we wake her up?"

"No!"

Turning around to face Natsu, she was just about to ask why he'd said that when she burst out laughing, clutching her stomach. It seemed that while she and Mira had been talking, Laxus had taken it upon himself to scold Natsu with much shaking and hitting, just in the middle of slapping him silly when he'd called out fearfully about not waking Erza up.

"You stupid fire-eating flame brain idiot! You little piece of dragon slaying shit, I should kill you for this," Laxus yelled, Natsu raised in the air by his vest as he was shook fiercely. "Gave me a damn near heart attack and now we have to deal with some brat who wants Wendy too?!"

The girls giggled and Lisanna stepped forward and smiled.

"Come on," she said, grinning. "We should Erza somewhere to recuperate so we can finish tailing her. Although I wonder why you call Romeo a brat, we don't have time for this or we'll miss the entire thing."

All three dragon slayers froze and slowly turned their heads to face her as Laxus almost dropped Natsu.

"Romeo?" they echoed, disbelief painted all over their faces.

"Yeah," she said, tilting her head in confusion at the obvious surprise in their tones.

"Oh shit," Natsu swore quietly, pupils wide and Laxus and Gajeel's own eyes nearly popped out of their eyes as they all stared at the white-haired girl.

"Oh shit is right," Laxus muttered, his grip on Natsu's vest loosening as he fell to the floor and his eyes seemed to widen even more.

Wendy giggled as a nearby clown danced funnily, making the crowd of children around him cry out in laughter. Pulling her attention away from the strange clown, she grinned at the adorable confusion on Romeo's face as he tried to figure where they were on the amusement park's map and resisted the urge to peck him on his cheek. Blushing at her train of thought, she looked around them for a ride that would give away their location and saw it: a Tilt-A-Whirl. Peering at the map, her face brightened as she pointed to where they were.

"Romeo, I found it!"

"What? Where?" he asked, eyes drawn to the spot her finger was gesturing to and he grinned.

"Thanks, Wendy! Nice job."

They grinned at each other and Romeo scanned the map for the ride he wanted before tugging Wendy's arm gently and walking. Their hands still laced together, she followed him and asked where they were going.

"You'll see," he answered cryptically, winking at her as they walked through the crowds of people to their destination.

Wendy nodded even though he wasn't looking at her anymore, the pink on her cheeks darkening as she admired Romeo. He dressed like Natsu now, but it still felt different. He seemed so mature and yet childish and fun at the same time, always doing his best. He worked hard and he was kind. She had no idea why he'd fallen for her, but all she knew was that it wasn't one-sided in the slightest. In fact, she didn't think he even knew how much she liked him.

Blushing hotly, her grip on his hand tightened for a moment and he glanced at her confusedly. Shaking her head, she smiled at him and he glanced at her once more before continuing on their way to wherever it was he wanted to take her. God, she sounded so starstruck. Studying him in the light as his grin glowed brightly and his hair ruffled slightly in the wind, she seemed to think her reasons were justified. Hereallywasamazing.

"We're here," he called out excitedly, Wendy shaking her head out of her thoughts and focusing on what was in front of her.

Flying…..chairs?

"Well," he said, rubbing the back of his neck adorably as she stared at him, "I thought you'd like them because they go really high and you always like the feeling of flying. It's a lot like that and I figured it would be fun for you aaand this was a really stupid idea, I'm sorry."

She shook her head and pecked his cheek (And gosh that felt good even if she did have to tip toe a bit) before beaming at him. He was so cute and thoughtful and she knew she'd gotten in a bit too deep for her own liking, but right now she didn't think it was too bad. After all, no one could blame her for liking him, right? Giggling, she bounced up to the ride's gates and raised an eyebrow at Romeo.

"Aren't you coming?" she teased, laughter in her voice as he ran up to her and grinned.

"Of course," he answered, bumping his shoulder with her's gently. "Wouldn't want anybody trying to make a move on my pretty girlfriend, would I?"

She laughed and wiggled her eyebrows at him as her stomach filled with soft butterflies fluttering around at his words.

"Oh? Is it official now?"

"Yes," he declared as the ride emptied and they climbed the stairs. "Now, would you like to sit on a chair with me?"

Pausing, he shook his head and said, "Wow, that sounded a lot better in my head."

She laughed and he winked at her before offering his hand to her and bowing, causing her to giggle before straightening up and taking it.

"Why yes, I think I would, kind sir."

He grinned and her breath caught for a moment before they stepped onto the ride and the gate closed behind them.

Yeah, she had it bad.

But then again, so did he.

So, how was it? Bad? Good? Okay? Just barely compensating or my stupidity and procrastination? I felt a bit off about this chapter but I liked my little bout of teasing with Wendy and Romeo a lot. I think that they would still be a little shy about each other if they were dating but they'd tease each other a lot and be really cute and fluffy and innocent. :3 I just really like that idea.

Review please? I don't deserve it, but I'm a selfish dastardly little thing who wants what she shouldn't get.

~ForeverBlackSun

Published 3/8/14