I actually updated this story. HA! Bet you didn't see that one coming!

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this chapter. I'll try to get the next update out muchhhh sooner this time. :) Leave a review to tell me what you think! ~

"Maybe we should wait a little bit," Lucy said for the thousandth time since they had left her apartments.

After a raisin-free breakfast, she and Laxus had gone back to her place so she could get dressed in preparation of the big reveal. However, as enthusiastic as she'd been about telling the guild a few hours ago, the whole trip there was spent trying to weasel her way out of it.

"No," Laxus said simply, having long given up trying to reason with her. He too was anxious, but he'd rather get it out in the open than try to hide. However, he also realized that Lucy was talking out of fear, not sense. Fear, he found, was hard to negotiate with, so he'd given up entirely, instead opting to drag the poor blonde along.

Literally.

She tried to dig her feet into the stone pavement without any luck, sliding behind her muscly beau. He sent a half-annoyed, half-amused glance back at his struggling girlfriend.

"Lucy, no matter what they think, it doesn't matter. If they love us together, great, if not, it doesn't matter. I'm not leaving you," he said, just in case that was what she needed to hear.

She straightened up a bit and stared at the ground.

"I know that," she pouted. "I'm still nervous."

"I know," he said, slinking one arm around her shoulders. "But we can do this together."

"Yeah," she agreed with a deep breath. She smiled up at him as they turned the corner and the guild came into view.

"I take it back, I'm a chicken," she said, trying to duck under his arm and make a run for it.

"Oh no you don't," he growled, sweeping the spirit mage off her feet. She let out a squeal as he carried her the rest of the way to the guild.

"Laxus! Let me down!" she protested.

"Nope. You're a flight risk that can't be trusted," he said. His face was a blank slate but for the twinkle in his eye.

He kicked the front doors open, immediately gaining the attention of all the guild members.

"Lucy and I are dating!" he shouted, oblivious to how red the blonde in his arms turned. "Any of you got a problem with that, you can fuck off."

The whole hall was silent. Lucy buried her flaming face in her hands as if it would somehow help her disappear. It didn't, which turned out to be an okay thing because seconds later the guild erupted in true Fairy Tail fashion. Laxus set Lucy down as the couple was bombarded with words of congratulations, praise, and encouragement. Lucy looked up to Laxus' face, meeting his currently blue eyes and the smile that she mirrored. He wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked into the crazy crowd.

"How long?" "How did this happen?" "When am I getting great-grandbabies?"

A thousand questions came flying their way, some a bit more uncouth than the others and a few making even Laxus blush (you can always depend on Cana for a few unsavory questions). They made their way to the bar and sat down while everyone crowded around them and Mira started handing out prizes from a betting pool regarding Lucy's dating life that the blonde had been blissfully unaware of up to that moment.

Lucy scanned the crowd looking for a familiar head of pink hair and found it sitting in the corner with Gray. To her surprise he was looking right at her, an apologetic look on his face as he gave a small wave. She waved back, hoping she'd get to talk to him soon. For now, though, she had to get through Mira.

"Tell. Me. Everything," she commanded, her icy blue eyes positively demonic with gossip-lust.

With a wide smile, Lucy launched into a version of their relationship independent of Libra's key and any shady agreements. She tried to emphasize that she and Laxus had only been together for less than a week, and that they were only telling everyone so that they weren't hiding it – it wasn't like they were getting married or anything. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure her words of caution fell on deaf, overly-excited ears, especially as Makarov kept talking about how beautiful his new great-grand babies would be.

When everyone had finally asked everything they could think of – and I mean everything – Lucy wandered over to the corner mildly exhausted to talk to Natsu. She sat down, weary after her interrogation. Gray gave her an understanding smile and left so that it was just her and Natsu.

"I'm really sorry," Natsu said, peeking up at her between strands of pink hair. He looked like a puppy begging for forgiveness, and Lucy couldn't stay mad at him.

"That really wasn't nice," she said.

"I know, and I was a dick. I was just worried about you, I mean, dragon slayers are so different from other people and you're important to me. But now that I know you're his mate, I can be happy for you," Natsu said, his face bright with joy.

"Mate? What does that mean?" Lucy asked.

Natsu's expression instantly fell. His eyes shot over to look at Laxus, who was deep in a conversation with the Raijinshuu crew and luckily didn't notice his slip up.

"Oh shit," he said. "Uh—nothing it means nothing. I meant girlfriend."

Lucy gave him that look that often indicated a Lucy-kick wasn't far behind.

"Natsu," she growled intimidatingly.

"I'm sorry!" he cried, quivering slightly. Either he'd have to face Lucy's wrath or Laxus' and, frankly, Lucy's sounded worse. "I don't think I was supposed to tell you!"

"Natsu!" she barked irritably, now wondering just what it was he was hiding from her.

He sighed in defeat. "It's a dragon thing. We all have one mate, like a soul mate, and once we find our mate then that's it, they become everything to us. Kind of like "one true love" from a fairy tale or something."

"So, you're saying that I'm…" she said, slightly flabbergasted. Natsu nodded his head.

"And Gray is mine," he added.

"So, what does that mean? We're like married or something?!" she asked, feeling a strange panic setting in. What if she wasn't good enough? What if Laxus didn't really love her and was only with her because of some strange dragon voodoo?

"Well, in dragon culture mates are equivalent to spouses for humans, but even more. They're magically drawn to each other, like I said, one true love. No one else could ever replace that feeling for them. Especially after they're officially mated, they can sense each other, like a kind of sixth sense."

"What do you mean mated?" she asked nervously.

Natsu sighed again. He really didn't think he should be the one explaining all this to her, but they'd just made up and he sure as shit wasn't about to jeopardize their friendship again.

"The dragon – or dragon slayer in this case – marks their mate with a bite, normally to the neck, infused with their magic. As they drink their mate's blood, the mate's magic sinks into them, and the two become merged. It can be kind of painful, so normally it's done with, y'know…sex."

Lucy's head was spinning. This couldn't be right. Laxus had only started talking to her at all because he found Libra's key!

"You're probably wrong, Natsu. There's no way that I'm…that he's…"

Natsu frowned slightly. Finding one's mate was supposed to be a happy thing, but Lucy looked so bewildered.

"You are. He told me himself," he said.

"He…told you?"

"Yeah, this morning I went to apologize to him – and to you, but he said you were sleeping – anyway, and he told me that you were his mate. That's when I knew that he wasn't just playing with you and that you didn't have to worry about falling in love with him only for him to find his true mate later."

"But how does he know that I'm his mate? Maybe he's wrong!" Lucy said desperately.

She didn't know if she wanted this to be true or not. Part of her felt like it was imprisoning her into a relationship that she might not even want, but a bigger part knew that she wanted it. Whether it was because of the magic or not, she wanted to be with Laxus. But was it really true love if magic made you feel that way?

"Lucy," Natsu said, taking her hand into his. Her heart was racing and her eyes wide as they bore into his, searching for answers. "A dragon is never wrong about their mate. It's not something you could mistake with anything else. It's not the whirlwind kind of love that people fall in and out of so easily. It's built to last centuries, longer than our lives. If Laxus says that you are his mate, then you are."

Lucy had nothing to say to that. Natsu sounded so serious, and it was kind of weirding her out. Whatever this mating business was apparently was huge to dragon slayers . And now it would be huge to her.

"I…" she started, but cut off, not knowing what she wanted to say.

"It'll be okay," Natsu said, giving her a reassuring smile. "Finding one's mate is one of the best things to ever happen in a dragon slayer's life, and in their mate's. And if it's not, I'll kick his ass for you."

Maybe this really was a good thing, but she was just so afraid that it was too good to be true, that one day she'd wake up to realize that everything had been a dream. Then again, if ancient dragon magic was involved maybe everything really would be alright.

Lucy smiled.

"Thanks, Natsu."

"Who's gonna kick my ass?" a deep voice asked from behind them, and Lucy turned to see her boyfriend – her mate – strolling over to them. It didn't seem like he'd caught any more of their conversation but Natsu's bold declaration, which Lucy was relieved about. Now didn't seem the best time to bring up the issue about mates.

"That would be me," Natsu said, clearly taking cue from Lucy to distract Laxus from inquiring into the subject of their talk. He set his arms on fire and stood up, ready for a fight to blow off all the steam that had been building up over the past few days.

"Pfffft, sit down, flame-head, I don't want to hurt you," Laxus smirked.

"Oh I'm all fired up now!" Natsu yelled, launching himself at the lightning slayer.

Lucy was thankful for Natsu's distraction as the two dragon slayer began rolling around on the floor. She certainly had a lot to think about.

Lucy and Laxus spent nearly the entire afternoon at the guild amongst friends and – literally for Laxus – family. When they left, the sun was beginning its descent behind the horizon casting long shadows off the buildings and filling the air with a warm, orangey glow. Despite the calm of the evening, Lucy hadn't said much to her boyfriend – mate? – since her talk with Natsu. She had so many questions weighing on her heart and mind.

Laxus, however, seemed to be in a very good mood and was almost chatty – almost – as they walked back towards Lucy's apartment. Apparently his grandfather's seal of approval was the thing he was most worried about, and now that he'd acquired that it seemed like nothing was in his way. That is, until he looked down and noticed the strange look on Lucy's face as she looked out vaguely into the distance while they walked.

"Lucy?" he asked. The girl turned her large brown eyes up to him, but they were murky and unreadable to him, something he hadn't had a problem with in their few days together. "What's wrong?"

Lucy looked away from him. In truth, she wasn't sure what was wrong, but something about Natsu telling her she was Laxus' mate bothered her to no end and her mind wouldn't stop chewing on it. She took a deep breath. They had reached her apartment and were standing next to the canal where friendly boaters waved and shouted hello. Lucy gave them a half-hearted wave before looking back to her boyfriend.

"Natsu said you're my mate," she said, her voice quiet and unsure.

He frowned slightly as he took in her words mixed with her troubled expression, and his chest ached slightly as he realized she wasn't particularly thrilled about it.

"Shit," he said even more quietly than her. He was going to kill that bastard. This wasn't how he wanted her to find out. He looked into the water of the canal which reflected the setting sun and wished that it was beautiful enough to distract him from the hurt he felt, from the hurt she felt.

"Yes," he said finally. "You are."

She took in a shaky breath. All chance of Natsu lying or being mistaken was wrong and it felt like her fate was sealed. Somehow it made her feel trapped, even though it trapped her right where she wanted to be.

When she didn't say anything, Laxus spoke again.

"Do you…know what that means?" he asked. She was a bit surprised to hear the strong and powerful dragon slayer sound so weak at that moment.

"Natsu explained it a bit. He said it's like…soul mates," she said.

Laxus ran his hand nervously through his hair. "I guess that's a good explanation," he conceded.

"How do you know?" she asked timidly, looking everywhere but at his stormy eyes.

"I just…know," he said. "Part of it is your scent. I've never smelled anything so wonderful in my life. Then there's the possessiveness and the instinct to protect. It hurts when you're not with me. And I just feel drawn to you, like you've my other half. I just know that there is no one out there like you. Not for me."

Lucy's breathing hitched at his speech. It was beyond romantic, not just sweet words to make her swoon. He sounded like a murderer confessing to his crimes, so passionate and desperate it made her spine shiver.

"Laxus…"

"I'm going crazy, Lucy. I don't know who I was before my inner dragon claimed you, and I don't care because I'll never be that man again. I'll never be able to live without you again," he said, his voice deep and breathy as he tried to convey just how much she meant to him, though words could never do him justice.

She glanced up to meet his eyes which were pleading with her to accept him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, tears filling her eyes.

That, she realized, was what really hurt. She didn't mind being his mate – hell, she'd never been so happy to hear something in her life! – but she couldn't figure out why he would hide something like that from her. It wasn't a small detail, it was the very crux of their relationship, and he had kept it from her as if he didn't trust her.

Laxus bit his lip, hating himself for making her question his intentions at all. He had been such a fool to let his fear of rejection lead him to hurt his mate.

"I…didn't understand it. I didn't know the effect it would have on you and I was afraid," he admitted lowly, hanging his head. "I first noticed it about half a year ago. We'd never even talked, there was no way I could just come up to you and tell you that you were my mate and had to spend the rest of your life with me. I wanted it to be your choice, and I didn't want you to think that some creepy magic was the only reason I cared for you, because it's not."

Lucy said nothing, so he continued.

"I never had a dragon. My powers come from the lacrima embedded inside of me, I never had anyone to teach me about these things. At first, when I started to feel the pull towards you I ignored it. I tried to distract myself with other women, but I just kept thinking about you, someone I'd never even talked to. Everyone else just fell away, they were worthless to me. When I finally accepted what was happening, that you were my intended mate, I knew I needed a reason to talk to you. So I started searching for another one of the keys. I spent months following rumors and dead ends until I found one."

Lucy was still stunned speechless, so he continued.

"I wanted to try and have a relationship with you first, before I told you about mates. I never wanted you to feel like you didn't have a choice-"

"Laxus…" she said quietly and he stopped talking.

"Yes?" he asked, when she said nothing else.

Her heart was racing at a thousand miles an hour. She was so utterly lost in a way she hadn't been since she first left her father's estate. She'd never felt so connected with someone, and yet so horribly alone.

Inside she was split into two painful halves. The intellectual side of her completely understood everything he said and accepted it, but the other, less rational half of her still felt so betrayed. She felt like she'd been conned even though she knew he only had her interests at heart. She was angry, both at him for hiding it and at herself for her irrational response.

"Lucy?" he asked again. His deep voice washed over her, so calming and comfortable. In less than a week, the man in front of her had become her home, her life, and that scared her more than anything ever had.

"I…I need some time to think," she said, hoping the words came out coherently. She stumbled back towards her apartment building, throwing open the door and rushing inside.

"Luc—" she heard him call out behind her, but she ignored him.

Tears streamed down her face and her hands shook so violently she could barely unlock her door. When she finally made it inside she ran straight to her bed and collapsed onto it in a pile of tears and confusion. She sobbed until she fell into a restless sleep filled with every fear she'd ever had about their relationship.

Outside Laxus stood like a statue until the sun went down and the moon rose high into the sky. Silent tears streamed down his face, but he barely even noticed. He felt like he'd been ripped in half, his heart pulled straight from his chest still beating – being kicked out of Fairy Tail hadn't been even a fraction as painful as this was. Underneath the pain he could feel hatred stirring in his gut. Pure, unadulterated hatred for himself for messing up the one thing he'd ever really wanted.

Finally he walked away, slowly wandering back to his apartment where he sat in silence and breathed in the last of her lingering scent, wondering if he'd ever smell her in this apartment again.