Welcome back to my project of the day!

PROJECT: Don't keep my lovelies waiting and while they read contemplate who would or wouldn't beat me up for giving them a lick. .

Rated M.

M is for MATURE people.

If I can pretend to be, then you can too.

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING! *sob* However sometimes I wonder if Mashima-sama used to follow me around and take character ideas from my friends and I.

At least let a girl dream!

If a cow can jump over the moon, then I'M the dish that ran away with the spoon.

Chapter 8

Beware of Dragons

Lucy had enjoyed a long soak in the tub. Once she had gotten out, she applied medicine to the gash on her leg and dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank top. She still didn't care for anything with itchy seams rubbing on her sunburns. It felt much better, but for comfort's sake, a tank top was preferable. The Celestial mage then studied the contents of her pantry and pouted. October sux. Everyone knows Master is pulling our guys in for the Sacred Rite, so no one is posting up jobs. I should have gone on more last month. Settling on making herself a sandwich, she grabbed what she needed and got to work. Afterwards she poured herself a glass of milk and sat down and enjoyed her meal. Her eyes glanced around her kitchen and stopped when they landed on the fabric she'd bought for her costume. Hmm. I suppose I know what my project should be today.

She imagined several ways she might want her dress to look like. She wanted to be a gypsy, dressing as a thief really didn't appeal to her. She had seen a thief once when she was a little girl. He was caught before he ever made it out of the mansion, but she had been horrified that the awful man was trying to take her mother's jewelry. Lucy used to go into her father's room and admire her mother's fineries after she'd passed. Once the thief had tried to rob them though, her father had them locked away and she'd never gotten a chance to see most of them ever again.

Definitely going with gypsy.

Lunch finished, the blonde grabbed the fabric and went to her room. She cleared off her desk, carefully stowing her novel into a drawer. Once the desk was completely clear, she had a decent work space to make her dress. Lucy pulled her sewing kit from under her bed, and sat at her desk. It's been a long time since I've done this, hope I can remember how.

^.^

"NATSU!"

The fire wizard immediately stood up and turned to Makarov. Master had used his angry voice... What had he done now?

"We haven't had enough volunteers to help with Fairytail's Festival of the Dancing Sky. I am assigning you to take on whatever job Mirajane needs of you."

"WHAT?" Natsu's jaw went slack, "But Gramps! I gotta-"

"NO BUTS!" Makarov's voice boomed. "You'll do this because you were told!"

Natsu hung his head. "Yes sir..."

Mirajane smiled from behind the bar where she was shining up a mug. "Don't worry Natsu! I have a job for you I know you're gonna love! Do you know how to juggle?"

"Ehh..."

Natsu jumped at the sound of Mirajane placing three heavy palm-sized balls on the counter in front of him with another smile, "Better start practicing!"

The fire mage stared at the balls much like he would a poisonous snake. All of a sudden an abnormally large hand grabbed him, "Let's go Natsu."

The pink headed dragonslayer couldn't help but claw at the ground as Makarov dragged him out of the guild. Looked like the master would have to give him a crash course in the art of juggling whether he liked it or not.

^.^

Sunset finally had Makarov dismiss his student from training. Natsu was walking away from the guild and rotating his aching arms. Man I hate training with Gramps. Why the hell would I know how to juggle? All day of practicing, and Gramps still said he wasn't good enough. This sux. I wonder what Lucy's up to. I wish Happy would come back. The blue exceed had seen that Makarov had him in his clutches and flew away as fast as he could. He's probably buggin' Carla again. I'll bet he's just DYIN to get her to ask him to that party. He grinned at the thought of Happy staying by boring Carla's side, hoping against hope that she'd just ask him already.

His feet carried him to Lucy's place without him even thinking about his destination much. Natsu stopped and looked up at the window, noticing her light was on. He grinned happily at the fact of her being home and jumped up in his tree and let himself in from the window. Lucy was sitting at her desk messing with the fabric he had had Juvia's help getting back for her. She was so immersed in her work that she hadn't noticed his arrival. He stepped out of his sandals and sat crisscrossed on her bed and watched her for a while. Eventually he got bored and spoke up.

"Hey Luce. Whatcha doin'?"

It wasn't his fault that his greeting startled her to no end! That didn't help him from feeling bad when she stood up so quickly that she banged her knee against her desk in mid turn, grabbing at the desk to keep from falling, then screaming out in pain when doing so made her prick her finger from the sewing needle. The dragonslayer was behind her in an instant. He smelled that her finger was bleeding and took hold of her hand to examine it.

"Damnit Natsu!" Lucy tried pulling her hand away but he didn't let go. "If there's any blood on my dress I'm gonna get you!"

"Sorry about that Luce, who knew you'd be as high strung as a cat just sitting here at home? I didn't mean to scare you." He lead her to the bathroom and sat her down then pulled out a tissue and held it tightly against her finger.

She sat there looking at his hands enveloping her injured one and sadness filled her eyes. "You can be scary sometimes Natsu."

He tilted his head to look at her face, blinking in surprise. "Scary? Luce, you shouldn't be scared of me!" Fire tamer didn't notice that his hand tightened over her's, something that Lucy couldn't miss.

The Celestial mage lowered her eyes at though she were ashamed. "It's not that I'm really all that scared of you, it's just that you can be scary sometimes."

Natsu was taken aback by how much her words stung. It felt as though his heart would stop. "I.."

Lucy looked up at him then. Her heart broke when she saw what her words had done to him—so she told a little lie to help him out. "To the bad guys. They think you are REAL scary, Salamander."

She gained her desired effect when he grinned brightly, "I get it now." he took the tissue off of her pricked finger, bending over to examine it again. "Those guys should be scared of me. I'll kick their ass ten times over if they come trying to mess with Fairytail." His eyes looked into her eyes from over his brows and kissed the hurt on her finger, "or you."

Lucy's face turned red, she couldn't help it. Provider Natsu had shifted to Predator Natsu just like that. She gently pulled her finger from his hands and pulled out a tiny bandage to tie on her finger. Her partner took it from her as soon as he saw it and snatched her finger back. She started to protest—but stopped when Natsu's eyes met her's. She could read what that look meant, and let him bandage her finger.

When he finished, he begrudging released her. Natsu was feeling particularly possessive at the moment. He wanted to hold her and never let go. He was contemplating this realization when Lucy got up and walked back to her room. Out of nowhere everything seemed to fit into place. From why he hated to see Lucy cry, all the way to why he felt irrevocably possessive of her. I guess Cana and Levy knew before I did. A half smile came onto his face. I really do want to be with Lucy... How does that happen? The dragon stepped out of the bathroom to see her back at her desk as though he'd never come. He scratched his head. So what now...?

He walked behind her, looking down at her work. "What are you doing anyway Luce?"

"Mira found this fabric when we were out shopping. I bought it so that I could make my gypsy dress." She stopped, then leaned back in her chair which landed the top of her head on his stomach since she had angled her head up to look at him. "I would have lost it if it hadn't been for you getting it out of the river." Her smile was sweet and simple, but to Natsu, it was more beautiful than all the sunsets and sunrises he'd ever seen combined. He couldn't help but recall the other night when his lips had actually touched her's, was it alright if he did that now?

"Uh, yea Luce, it umm, wasn't a problem..."

Lucy smiled a little brighter then sat back up to continue her work again. The loss of physical contact led the fire wizard to reclaim his seat on her bed. This time being perfectly content to sit and watch her backside. There was something he needed to get off his chest though.

"To be honest," Natsu sighed, "It's Juvia you should be thanking."

"What do you mean?" She kept her eyes on her sewing.

Natsu scratched his head. "She's the one who searched and found it under the water." He grinned widely, "I'd just asked her to. Oh! And dried it up so it wouldn't get all stiff."

Lucy shook her head, he could hear the smile in her voice. "No, that just means you should thank her, because she did what you asked her to. I should thank you, because you made sure it was returned to me." She glanced over her shoulder at him then, probably to see if her words had sunk in.

Natsu recalled asking Juvia to help him, she had done it, and he DID thank her. I do owe her a favor cuz of that. Then he'd brought it back to Lucy, and she thanked him, Eheheh, I got to hug her. That's more than the lion cub got outta her that night! He raised an eyebrow at the way she looked at him over her shoulder, his eyebrow twitched as one of her eyebrows started to raise. "What?" The dragon slayer cried out, "I DID thank her! I get what your saying alright?!"

His partner chuckled and turned back to her work again. "And you might want to thank her x2 when my dress comes out amazing!"

"Yea, I'll do that..." Natsu sweatdropped.

Things got quiet again. How long has she been here working on that thing? Natsu was struggling. Until now, he'd always spoke his mind, made sure people knew what he thought, how he felt. His problem was that somehow he knew that if he were to come out and tell Lucy, 'hey guess what? I love you,' she would freak out and quit letting him hang out with her so much. He smiled smugly when he recalled their game yesterday. I guess I know why THAT was so fun... he recalled how excited he had been going after her. This unquenchable thirst came over him just from thinking about it. It started to feel stuffy and he found himself short of breath, HEY! Chill out dragonslayer, Natsu mentally yelled at himself. You're in love. Not in heat. …...I think.

I'm in love...

Here goes.

"Luce?"

"Hmm?"

"Uhh," Natsu started to tense up. He turned his head away and watched her from the corner of her eye, "have you thought much on the Gypsies and Thieves Ball?"

"Of course. I decided I would dress as a gypsy, AND I designed my own costume for it."

Damnit. That's not thinking about the party at all! Who are you taking for fucks sake?!

Allowing not a drop of frustration to enter his voice, he dared to continue, "What I mean is... Mira gave the girls complete control over who goes with who. Most of the guys don't care for that rule much," he grinned and scratched his head, "so they've just been staying away from the guild." He paused, still watching her from just the corner of his eye, "you'll have to go hunting to find one of them to ask out."

"Mmm." Lucy just kept right on sewing. "I haven't had much of a chance to think about that." Finally, she turned to look at Natsu causing a lump to rise in his throat. Lucy was frowning, but her eyes were smiling, "SOMEONE chased me into the woods for the rest of the day."

"Ah aha hah..." Natsu grinned again, "you gotta watch out for those dragons!"

Lucy sweatdropped, "Indeed I do..."

She looked over her shoulder at her half complete dress. "That's about all I can stand of that today." the blonde mage stood up and stretched, and as we all should know, a stretch is not all that fulfilling unless you:

A. Arch your back til it simply won't arch anymore. (this inevitably pushes the breasts out as far as they will on us ladies, btw)

B. Stand on your toes, at LEAST at the ultimate climax of said stretch

C. Let loose a long and veeery gratifying moan, squeal or purr (to each his own) from the beginning of your stretch, all the way to the end.

So thanks to a certain Celestial mage knowing the absolute best way to enjoy a stretch, a certain dragon slayer in her house knew for absolute certain and without a doubt of what lust really and truly is.

Yuuup. Fire mage was red all over, unable to peel his eyes from her. Her body, her hair, her legs, her body. I've actually told this person from time to time that she wasn't sexy enough?! IDIOT!

His partner however, had no idea about her near hyperventilating visitor. Her eyes were closed contentedly after a long day's work and was walking into the bathroom. "I'm going to soak in the tub Natsu. I still feel a little gritty from last night."

Yea you should feel dirty. You just made my mind sin in at least twelve different ways, Natsu could not get a hold of himself, and yet somehow he was still able to squeeze out:

"Alrighty Luce! You enjoy, I'm-sure-you-earned-it!"

She closed the door behind her, "And stay out of the kitchen Natsu! Seriously! I'm almost out of food!"

Natsu's face settled back to nearly his regular shade as he stared daggers at the infernal door shutting him from the way to his prey. Fortunately for you Luce... that's not what I'm hungry for anymore.

^.^

*Rhyming should totally be a part of dragon LORE*

*Holy shit that last page of text up there was SOOOOO fun to write!* XD

It wasn't terribly late when Lucy emerged from that bathroom for the second time today, all the same, entering her bedroom revealed a sleeping slayer on her bed. It was like he'd just let himself tip over from where he'd sat when she'd left! His legs were still crisscrossed, though his far knee jutted into the air now. She sighed at her partner's shenanigans, grabbed a pair of pajamas, complete with itchy seams, and returned to the bathroom to change.

Finished, Lucy walked over to the bed. "Natsu."

No response.

"NatSU!"

Nothing.

She bent over and rubbed his shoulder. "Get out of my bed Natsu!"

A bit of gibberish came from him as he reached out and pulled her into the bed, "EEP!"

He uncurled his legs just to curl them back up right around HER legs and wrapped both his arms securing around her waist spooning her in an entirely too comfortable fashion. He nuzzled the neck of an increasingly bewildered girl as a low growl started rumbling from deep within his chest, sending Lucy spiraling into memories of a rather vivid dream she'd had last night. His growl transformed into words that let her know that she was not going to get another chance at moving him, or her tonight.

Her blood boiled when she heard him growl, "Caught you," right into her ear.

It was hard for her to find sleep wrapped in the arms of 'Predator Natsu'... fortunately though... not too hard.

Gotta watch out for us dragons...

Now be honest! How many of you felt the need for a most EXCELLENT stretch after I spelled out the proper way to enjoy one? I know I did!

Once again let me remind you how much I am enjoying writing for y'all that bother to speak up and tell me how you feel—it's sooooo much better than chocolate, and believe me, I likies my chocolate! APHRODISIAC

Much love

Stay naughty

Seri!

ps. btw, I hope some of you stepped outside tonight and witnessed the super lunar eclipse with me. It was so, so beautiful. There is still magic in this world. Just shut down those irritatingly scientific brains and enjoy the magic.