Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Fairy Tail—The Master and the Dragon

Chapter 8

The morning sun showered the room with a soft light, causing Mira to stir from her sleep. She was too comfortable to even attempt moving right now, so she readjusted slightly and snuggled into her warm body pillow. A low rumble gently sent vibrations through Mira's body and she smiled at the pleasant feeling. She slowly opened her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the bright room, and saw her arms wrapped around a white, firm pillow…that was moving. She looked up and saw Nikolias' face with a peaceful and small smile. He was still fast asleep with his arms wrapped around her lower back. She immediately began blushing furiously.

She began to recall last night's events. She was awoken by Nikolias restlessly moving around in bed, soft and pained grunts escaping his lips. It was clear to her that he was having an awful nightmare, for his entire skin glistened in the moonlight from the light sweat that clung to his body. She didn't want to wake him up, but she figured that the dream was causing him discomfort and she wanted to make sure that he was okay. She shook him awake and she remembered the look of fear in his eyes when he looked at her. She remembered comforting him and hugging him to keep him warm. She remembered the amazing feeling she had when they embraced. And then she remembered how happy she felt when he said to her, "Thanks for being here with me".

After remembering this part of the conversation, Mira couldn't help but smile as she took in Nikolias' sleeping face. She couldn't believe how wonderfully she slept while in his arms. She felt safe, warm, comfortable—it felt natural and it felt right. She gently placed her chin on his chest and smiled fondly as she watched him sleep.

'He's really cute when he sleeps.'

Suddenly, an alarm sounded to their left, startling Mira from her daze. She glanced over her shoulder and wondered when that was set, but figured Nikolias set it while she was in the bathroom last night. She hit the alarm to turn off the horrible noise and then repositioned herself to keep looking at Nikolias…only to see him looking back at her. As their eyes locked, her entire face turned red.

"Good morning, Mira," Nikolias said, a big smile on his face. "How did you sleep?"

"Very well, thanks," she said, looking away and making Nikolias laugh.

"Good. Sorry about the alarm, but I wanted to make sure that we didn't oversleep. Of course, I think you were already up." Mira's face grew redder and Nikolias laughed even harder. "I'm just teasing. I'll let you get ready first as an apology for embarrassing you."

"I'm not embarrassed," she stated and then winked. "But thanks for first bathroom rights!" She got up and grabbed her clothes before walking into the bathroom and locking the door behind her. She turned on the water and undressed while waiting for the water to heat up. When she got in, she did her best to sigh quietly. 'I can't believe he caught me staring. How embarrassing…'

Out in the room, Nikolias got dressed into his clothes for the day. Since he didn't know a lot about this monster, he made sure that he was prepared for an intense fight. He wore a tight black shirt and fairly loose forest green pants, allowing him a lot of mobility while fighting. He chuckled as he looked in the mirror, thinking that he looked ready to go to war. He sat down on the bed to put on his shoes and ran through last night's dream. 'I haven't had that nightmare in a long time. I wonder what brought it around again.' He finished tying his shoes and looked down at his rough hands. 'I'm glad Mira was there to wake me up. I really didn't want to see the next part.'

"Nikolias?"

Nikolias looked up to see Mira, now in her usual pink dress, looking at him with a concerned look. "All set? All right, give me a few minutes and then we can head out."

"Are you alright? You look a little disheartened."

He gave her a small smile. "You're sweet to ask. I'm fine, though. I was just thinking, that's all."

"Are you sure?"

He placed a hand on her shoulder as he walked by and smiled. "Positive."

She smiled back and watched him walk into the bathroom. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was bothering Nikolias. She decided she'd let it go, though. Nikolias was clearly a closed book and unless he wanted to share, he wouldn't say anything. Still, she wished that he would share more with her. Then again, they've only really known each other for about a week. Mira shook her head. She really wished that she knew more about Nikolias.

Nikolias walked out of the bathroom and nodded to Mira. "All set. Let's get some breakfast and then we'll head out. Sound good to you?"

Mira smiled and nodded. "Sounds good."


After finishing breakfast, Mira and Nikolias headed over to the surrounding woods, prepared to take out whatever creature was terrorizing the people of Shirotsume. It was a rather quiet breakfast. Mira could tell that something was definitely upsetting Nikolias and she wished that he would talk about it, but from the way he acted in the room, she knew that he wouldn't say anything no matter how many times she asked. She attempted conversation and Nikolias partook, but it wasn't the same as before and it bothered her. It was then that she decided that she would try and get to the bottom of things on the way to the mission.

Nikolias stretched his arms as he walked. "Alright Mira, we've never fought together before, so it'll be hard to synchronize our moves and since we have no idea what to expect with this 'monster', things will only be tougher. Any thoughts?"

"I think the best thing we can do is to wait and see what we're up against before we attempt a strategy, don't you think?"

He smiled at her and nodded. "I think you're right. You have quite the brain to go with your good looks. A very dangerous combination."

Mira blushed at the compliment. "Thank you, Nikolias. You're very good looking, too."

He scratched the back of his head. "Thanks. Now from what I've heard and what you've told me, you're really powerful, so if you don't mind being our first line while I analyze a bit that could help a lot. I don't want to use more power than I have to, so I need to see what exactly we're up against."

"I can definitely do that. Just leave it to me."

"Good. I think we'll be able to fight well together."

"I think so, too."

As they began to enter the woods, Mira took a deep breath to build up her confidence before asking, "Nikolias, what was your nightmare about?" Nikolias suddenly stopped walking and stared at the ground. "Nikolias?"

"Mira, please don't ask me about that."

"Why not?"

"It's bad enough that I have to experience that nightmare on more than one occasion, but having to talk about it is just too difficult."

"But it's just a nightmare, right? It can't hurt to talk about it," she said gently. She could sense the tension radiating from Nikolias and it was scaring her a little. Nikolias lifted his head and looked into her eyes. She could see fear and sorrow in his golden eyes and she could tell that he was holding back tears.

"It wasn't a dream, Mira. It was a memory."

"A memory?"

"Yes, from my past. It's extremely painful to relive, so I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk about it."

Mira nodded her head. "I understand," she replied. Disappointment was clear in her voice. She badly wanted to know more about Nikolias, but he just wasn't offering anything.

Nikolias saw how badly she wanted to know. He walked up to her and hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry, Mira. I'm just too afraid. My past is something I want to forget. I just want to move on the best I can."

"Then you should eventually talk about it," she said as she hugged him back. "That's the best way to move on. Other people can help you. I can help you. You don't have to be afraid."

He pulled away from the hug and gave her a sad smile. "Maybe one day I can talk about it with you, but for now the only person who knows anything about my past is Gracie."

Mira nodded. "I hope one day you will talk to me about it." Mira decided to try for one more bit of information. "Nikolias, I understand if it's too painful, but Gracie told me that you were in love once. Can you tell me about her?"

Nikolias' eyes went wide and he tore himself away from Mira. "I don't want to talk about that either, even less than I want to talk about that nightmare. What brought that up?"

Mira took a step closer. "I was curious if…if you could fall in love again? It has become my understanding that Half Dragons along with Dragon Slayers find someone they want to spend the rest of their lives with, so I was just wondering if…" She stopped, unsure how to word the rest of her question. Nikolias turned to look at her and Mira could feel his eyes burrowing into her soul, as if they were searching for something.

After a few seconds, Nikolias gently smiled at her. "I can't give you a straight answer there. However, I'd like to think that maybe one day I could."

Mira smiled. "I'm glad to hear that."

Nikolias sighed, feeling emotionally and, strangely, physically drained from Mira's interrogation. "If you don't mind, can we continue onward? I'd like to beat the shit out of this monster now."

Mira nodded as she continued walking alongside Nikolias.

They reached a large clearing before Nikolias stopped. He sniffed the air and growled. "I smell something foul in the area. We're really close."

"Something foul?"

"Yeah, I don't know how else to describe it."

"Alright, well we'll just have to be on our guard from now on."

Nikolias nodded.

They slowly walked forward, trying to hear or see anything that could hint to where the monster was. As they reached the center of the clearing, Nikolias put his left hand in front of Mira to signal her to stop before quickly putting his right hand index finger to his mouth to tell her to be quiet.

"Did you hear something?" Mira whispered.

A small nod was all the response she got as Nikolias carefully scanned the area. After a while of just standing there, the two felt a small tremor beneath their feet. Both looked at each other, making sure that neither just imagined it.

Suddenly, the entire ground began to shake violently.

"What's happening?" Mira asked as she tried to maintain her balance.

"Shit, it's coming from underground!" Nikolias shouted as he grabbed Mira around the waist and jumped backwards right before a massive hand shot out of the ground in an attempt to pulverize the two Fairy Tail members. Feeling nothing underneath it, the hand pushed off of the ground, slowly pulling the attached body from beneath the earth.

Nikolias and Mira could only stare in disbelief as a towering blue behemoth emerged from the ground. It easily stood at 25 feet tall and was extremely wide and bulging with muscles. It had five arms extending from its torso, four where most humans would have two and one coming from its back. Its eyes glowed an eerie yellow as it glared at the intruders and let loose a fierce roar, revealing massive rotting fangs.

Nikolias' hand immediately shot to his nose. "Fuck that's some foul breath. Sometimes dragon senses are a curse, I swear."

Mira still couldn't believe what was in front of her. "What the hell is that?"

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it before. All I know is that a description should have definitely been included now that I'm seeing it."

The behemoth before them drew back its two right arms and unleashed two high speed punches directly at Mira and Nikolias, immediately ending any conversation. The two dodged it easily, but the tremors that the punches caused from hitting the ground made landing gently a challenge.

"Nikolias, I'm going in. I'll distract it for a while and you come in when you're ready," Mira said as she transformed into her Satan Soul. Nikolias was taken aback by how different she looked in this form. Her pink dress was gone, leaving behind a dark red leotard that revealed her toned stomach, upper back, and a lot of cleavage. The leotard rose up into a spiky collar that was tied around her neck by a cravat tie and on her shoulders were dark red belts that attached to her uniform. She had dark red high-heeled boots that reached up to her mid thigh with black and gold blade-like shapes in the fabric reaching from her mid thigh down to her knees. On her upper thighs were long scars that ran horizontally. Her forearms and hands became covered in scales and her hands had dull gold gauntlets with pointed fingers. On her forearms were fin-like protrusions. From her back side, she had large black bat-like wings and a tail covered in plates that decreased in size as they neared the tip. Her ears were now pointed and a scar went across her right eye from the top of her forehead to her jaw line. Her hair was wild and curlier, standing straight into the air, and her front ponytail that kept her hair out of her face was now much longer. Her eyes were darker and her eyelashes were longer. Her now dark lips were curled back, revealing elongated canines.

Nikolias shook his head. "No, we're going in together. I know exactly what to use for this fight. I'm going to go partial-dragon. But I have to tell you now; once I take this form, you can talk to me and I'll understand you, but you won't be able to understand me. You'll be giving orders if any are needed. Understood?"

"I got it."

He grinned, revealing his teeth had become fangs. "Awesome. Well, let's kick some ass then!" Nikolias' body instantly became engulfed in shadows as his arms, legs, and part of his face became covered in scales. The black blades protruded from his forearms and his feet and hands became claws. His wings and tail erupted from his back side and he flapped his wings to stretch them out. His ears vanished and black, boney spikes grew out of his skull. His eyes were now dragon-like and golden and he narrowed them as he glared at the behemoth. He went down on all fours in preparation to pounce, digging his talons into the dirt and revealing his fangs as he snarled.

"Let's go," Mira said as she jumped into the air, followed by Nikolias. They both hovered in the air, waiting for the moment to strike.

The behemoth threw a punch at the two, who easily avoided it. Nikolias saw his first opening in the behemoth's overextended punch. Shadows began dancing around his blades as they seemed to grow in length and he flew towards the behemoth, dodging any attempts it made to swat him out of the air. He picked up speed as he neared the behemoth, slashing through it and causing it to roar in anger and pain.

Mira saw the behemoth's blind rage create another opening and she intended to take it. Mira charged up a large ball of dark energy and pointed it at the behemoth, firing a dark purple beam towards it at high speed. "DEMON BLAST!" It collided with it and sent it to the ground, causing the entire ground to shake violently.

Nikolias growled as he looked to end this fight immediately. Shadows began to envelop his claws as he slashed the air, sending ripples of shadow towards the downed behemoth. The ripples tore into the behemoth's flesh as it roared once more.

Nikolias and Mira both landed as they awaited the behemoth's status. They both knew that despite the damage they caused it, there was no way this monstrosity was out for the count.

And they were right.

Slowly, the behemoth rolled over and pushed itself back onto its feet. It turned to glare down at its adversaries with renewed hatred emanating from its eyes.

"Round two," Mira said as she flew back into the air. She lifted her hand into the air and began charging Darkness Magic.

Nikolias recognized that Mira needed time to charge her next attack, so decided he'd be a distraction. He ran on all fours towards the behemoth at incredible speed. While running, shadows engulfed his hands and feet and just as the behemoth was about to attack Mira, Nikolias lunged at it, landing a power-packed punch into the behemoth's chest, causing it to lose its balance. Without its feet solidly underneath it, the behemoth's attack against Mira completely missed, leaving it wide open to Nikolias' next attack. Without missing a beat, Nikolias redirected himself in the air with his wings and fired a bone shattering kick right in the behemoth's ribs. A loud cracking sound caused the behemoth to stumble backwards and roar in sheer agony.

This was all the time that Mira needed. The sphere of power she had been charging was now immense as she pointed her hands at the behemoth. "SATANIC BLAST!" she shouted as a pillar of Darkness Magic was fired at the still recovering behemoth. It threw its head back and roared as its flesh was torn to pieces by the Darkness Magic. The incredible pain coupled with its fractured ribs rendered the beast immobile.

Nikolias grinned as he saw the perfect opportunity to end this now. He balanced himself on his hind legs and gathered shadows into his mouth. He leaned backwards as he inhaled deeply and unleashed a massive vortex of shadows; a vortex that was at least twice as large as the one he fired at Natsu during the spar. The vortex collided with the behemoth, tearing a hole through its abdomen.

The agonizing screams stopped as the vortex vanished and the pillar of Darkness Magic died away. The behemoth was frozen, a look of pain on its forever screaming face. It swayed a little before falling forward with a loud crash, creating a small indent in the ground to forever mark where it fell. Mira landed on the ground next to Nikolias as they both transformed back into their human forms. Once they were human again, they smiled at each other.

"A job well done," Mira said.

"That wasn't too difficult at all," Nikolias said as he turned his attention to the dead behemoth. "I guess we should be thankful."

"Yeah, we should. We're still really close to the town. If this thing went berserk, who knows what kind of trouble there would have been."

"Very true." He returned his attention to Mira and smiled again. "Well I think we make a very good team, Mira."

Mira blushed slightly. "I think we do as well. We played off of each other's moves efficiently and barely gave this thing a chance to strike back."

"I agree," Nikolias said as he began walking towards the head of the downed behemoth. "Well, I guess it's time to collect." He held out his hand to the side as he walked. "SHADOW SWORD!" he shouted as shadows began to gather in his hand and eventually took the shape of a black broad sword. He stopped at the neck of the behemoth and raised his sword above his head before swinging it down with enough force to sever the head from the body instantly.

Mira crinkled her nose. "Is that necessary?"

Nikolias lifted the head with ease, showing just how strong he was. "It's proof of completion. Right?"

"I guess."

Nikolias began walking back towards Shirotsume. "Shall we head back?"

Mira nodded and ran over to Nikolias so that they could walk back to town together.


Mira couldn't help but giggle to herself as she saw all of the shocked expressions of the townspeople. I guess it wasn't everyday that two people walked through town while one of them was carrying a massive head around with one hand.

Nikolias didn't appear to even notice the looks they were getting. The only thing evident on his face was satisfaction. Mira could tell that Nikolias was feeling good after letting off some steam. She couldn't help but feel like she created some of that need, though.

After dropping off the head at the client's establishment and gathering the reward, they headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before heading out. Nikolias said he was going to get some lunch, leaving Mira alone with her thoughts for a while.

She still wanted to know about Nikolias' past, but it was clear that he wasn't ready to talk about it yet. She was racking her brain to try and figure out how she could breach the barrier Nikolias put around himself and delve into what has made Nikolias the way he is. She sighed as she realized the only thing that she could do was be patient. If she gave Nikolias his space while spending time with him, maybe he would lower the barrier on his own. She nodded as she solidified her plan and then decided that as soon as Nikolias returned, she would apologize to him.

Almost twenty minutes later, Nikolias walked into the room with a couple of sandwiches in his hand. He smiled as he tossed her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Thank you, Nikolias."

"You're welcome," he said as he tore open the wrapping of his roast beef sandwich and began to devour it.

Mira was about to begin eating, but decided that now was the best time to clear the air. "Nikolias?"

"Mhm," he hummed as he chewed his sandwich.

"I just wanted to apologize for prying into your life earlier. It wasn't my place."

Nikolias swallowed and walked over to where Mira was sitting at the end of the bed before sitting beside her. "Apology accepted," he said with a smile, "but you don't have to apologize. You were curious so you asked. I can't blame you for that. I'm just not ready to talk about any of it."

"I understand."

He moved his left hand to hold her right hand and locked eyes with her. "I will say this, though. With every passing day I spend with you and everyone in Fairy Tail, I feel more and more comfortable with humans again. It's possible that I can open up once more, but I'm not making any promises."

Mira put her hand over his. "I'm glad you're feeling comfortable in Fairy Tail and I hope one day you feel like you can share with me."

"I do, too."

She looked away, a faint blush staining her cheeks. "I was so afraid that I'd made you angry and scared you away from wanting to spend time with me again."

Nikolias laughed. "That could never happen. I could never be angry at you and there's nothing you could do to keep me from wanting to spend time with you."

She turned her head to look at him again. "Really?"

He gave her a big grin. "Absolutely! Besides, if I didn't want to hang out with you, would I have bought these?" He released himself from Mira's hands and whipped out two tickets from his pocket.

"What are they?" she inquired.

"Tickets to the festival tonight."

Mira's face lit up with excitement. "Really?"

"Yeah. I bought these in the lobby after I renewed our room for another night."

Mira jumped up with joy. "Yay! Oh, this is so exciting! I wonder what this festival will be like."

"It should be interesting, that's for sure."

Mira threw her arms around Nikolias' neck, tackling him to the bed and hugging him tightly. "Thank you, Nikolias. This is a wonderful gift."

Nikolias returned the hug and laughed. "I'm glad you like it."