Hello dear Reader!

As a fore warning, I will not have to time to post much of this story until the end of the year, so if you do not like reading stories that have very random chapter update times, I suggest you wait until 2024.

Side notes :

Narration

"Talking"

*Thinking*

Disclaimer : I do not own Fairy Tail

Lucy

Dark clouds were gathering overhead as the Celestial Spirit mage walked home, her heels clacking against the paved roads of Magnolia. Her mind was still replaying the scene that had just occurred in the forest's clearing with Happy and Natsu. Was leaving those two out-there the right choice? Should she have stayed and tried to smooth things over between the two?

No, ridiculous. She had barely known them for two days, and one of them was a Dragon for Mavis' sake! A big, strong, fire breathing dragon that the entire Continent would start hunting down if they ever found out he was sleeping near one of the biggest Mage populated towns… Lucy stopped dead in her tracks as she felt a single cold drop of water fall on her arm. Looking up at the now dark sky, guilt seeped into her bones as heavy rain drops started falling at a faster rate.

As she began to run towards her apartment, cold droplets started pelting down onto the empty streets of the city, water seeping through her clothes. By the time she reached her apartment building, Lucy was thoroughly drenched, cold from the rain and wind, and feeling absolutely miserable. The thought that Happy and Natsu were now out in the open clearing still arguing, with probably no more fire and under the pouring rain only made the guilt more unbearable.

Once home, she wasted no time hanging her soaked clothes to dry in the bathroom as she prepared herself a warm bath, the guilt growing as she realized that, here she was, enjoying a nice hot bath in a cozy home while Happy and Natsu…

*No!*, she steeled herself *one is a mangy blue alley cat and the other is a giant pink fire breathing dragon. They are clearly used to sleeping outside in the wilderness and under harsh weather, otherwise they would have been dead years ago… They probably knew a storm was coming and decided to stay in the clearing near their temporary source of food (me) until the weather got better. Once the skies clear, they'll probably leave the area and go… wherever giant pink fire eating dragons go.*

Nodding to herself, Lucy laid back into the warm bathtub water, her guilt fading away as she repeatedly told herself that it was pure coincidence that she had met with the Dragon and cat duo again after that night near Hargeon's forest, and the only reason Natsu had listened to her silly orders to 'sit' and 'lay down' was because she had baited him with a few flaming twigs. When the pink dragon had wanted more, he had easily pushed her aside to snuff out her fire. Physically she wouldn't be able to hold him back. Moreover, he was very smart and seemed to be able to communicate with Happy. He also had no difficulties understanding the conversations she and Happy had shared if his earlier reactions were anything to go by.

By that point of her internal monologue, Lucy had convinced herself that the pink dragon had simply humored her childish attempt at 'taming' him and would probably be gone from her life once the thunderstorm now raging outside had passed away. She let out a heavy sigh, feeling a little disappointed that her great dream of being the first ever mage to tame a dragon to hunt down other dragons had only lasted 3 days... But still, she could now boast that she had lived through not one, not two, but three encounters with a dragon! A smile tugged at her lips, the thought was greatly amusing now that she had convinced herself that she would probably never see the blue cat and prink dragon duo.

Lucy lazily opened her eyes, a shiver running through her body as woke up in the now cool bathwater. While musing on her failed dragon taming attempts, she had fallen asleep in the warm water of her bath, her head against the edge of the bathtub. She couldn't tell how long she had nodded off, but the thunderstorm was still raging outside.

As she emptied the bathtub and started drying herself off, Lucy pondered whether she should slip into her pajamas or dress up to go outside. A loud thunderclap cut her ponderings short. Clearly, she wasn't going to be going outside anytime soon, so nice fluffy pink pajamas it is!

Slipping under the covers with a book sounded like a lovely idea, with the terrible weather outside, this was now a 'stay in bed with a book' kinda day. The blonde mage passed by her desk, picked up the last book she had been reading, and marched back to her bed, stacking up her pillows against the wall before slipping halfways under the fluffy covers, back against her newly formed pile of pillows near the edge of the bed. Once she was comfortably installed, book opened to the page she had last read, a small voice in the back of her head told her something was off.

Ignoring the passing thought, Lucy read on. After a few minutes, she took one leg out from under the covers. With the pouring rain outside, the air inside her apartment was fresh, but her covers were really warm right now. Focusing on her book for a few more pages, Lucy started to wiggle her second leg out from under the covers, only to hit something with her food. Putting her book aside, she threw the thick fluffy covers aside, unveiling a man.

A pink haired man.

A very NAKED pink hair man. In her bed.

The blonde mage stared dumbly at the naked back, lowering her eyes towards…

*Nope, look up, those are very naked butt cheeks.*

When the sleeping form started moving, Lucy bolted up and out of bed, her hand reaching for her keys as she quickly went through the list of spirits that could potentially help her out of this predicament without destroying her apartment in the process. As she faced the pink haired stranger once again, Cancer's key tightly gripped between her fingers, she froze.

The man was looking straight at her with jet black pupils, pink locks completely disheveled from his nap as he was, thankfully, still lying down and the bottom part of his body angled away from view. When he noticed she had frozen in place, he gave a her wide toothy grin :

"Hey Lucy!"

This complete stranger, sleeping in HER bed in his birthday suit, knew her name and was smiling dumbly at her. Anger flared, Cancer's key long forgotten :

"Who the HELL are you?"

She saw another movement from the corner of her eye as two blue ears popped out from behind the smiling pink hair lunatic. Suspiciously familiar blue ears.

"Luccyyyy, stop being so loud, we were sleeping", the shameless cat came into view, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his little paw.

The blonde woman looked at the blue cat and back at the stranger. The pink haired stranger. With onyx colored eyes. And toothy grin with very pointy looking canines.

"N-Natsu?", her voice was barely a squeak, but his grin only widened at hearing his name. She felt her legs buckle under her, falling flat on her ass as her brain tried catching up with what in Mavis above was in front of her.

*Nope, nope, nope, nope.*

Happy walked towards the edge of the bed, looking down to where Lucy was clearly having a brain meltdown on her bedroom carpet.

"I think you broke her, Natsu", the blue cat stated matter of factly.

"Nah, humans don't break that easy", came Natsu's voice from over the bed, out of Lucy's view. When she heard the sound of rustling sheets, Lucy snapped back to her senses.

"DON'T! DON'T YOU DARE MOVE!", the young woman screeched at the top of her lungs as she quickly got up and rushed for her drawers. Frantically opening and closing them, searching for large and baggy clothes for the still very naked man sprawled on her bed… she was gonna have to burn the bed sheets, Lucy thought as she felt a mad blush take over her face.

After a few seconds of searching, she pulled out a long white scarf. It had been one of the few things she had brought with her from the Heartfilia mansion. She couldn't remember where she had gotten it from, but it kinda had always been there with her, so she had left with it. Hesitating for a few moments, she figured he needed it more than she did and blindly threw it over her shoulder towards the bed. After that came baggy black pants and the largest white shirt she could find. Lucy then stubbornly glared at her drawers as she ordered Natsu to dress up. There were a few seconds of silence before she heard rustling sounds coming from behind her as Natsu dressed himself. When he gave her an 'All good!', Lucy peeked over her shoulder, thanking Mavis and all the Constellations above that he seemed to know how to dress himself properly and she didn't have to go through what would have been a very mortifying process of explaining human clothes to a dragon.

Natsu was still sitting on her bed, but was now fully clothed in black baggy pants, a white shirt that seemed a little tight around the shoulders, and her long white scarf he had slung loosely around his neck. He was smiling broadly at her, as without a care in the world, while Happy had taken over her pillows. This situation was surreal. Pulling a chair from her desk, Lucy sat across from her bed.

"Alright. How the heck did you two get in here?"

Natsu just pointed towards her window, "It was opened."

"Wha... I live on the second floor, I have no balcony, of course my windows aren't locked. You're not supposed to be climbing the side of the building! Or entering peoples' homes through the windows!", she looked at them dumbfounded. How could she have forgotten that Happy had also entered through her window just the day before?

Lucy jumped to her feet as she started pacing back and forth in front between the chair and her bed. So many questions were buzzing through her head.

"Why were you sleeping in my bed?"

This time, Happy spoke up, "It was raining and cold. The fire went out… You're so heartless Lucy, leaving us out there all alone in the forest…". Lucy stopped her pacing to glare at the cat. Though she had felt guilty leaving them outside, she could hardly hide a dragon in her tiny apartment… then again she didn't know Natsu could shrink down to human size. Her gaze went back to the pink-haired boy still sitting on her bed.

"Are you… really a dragon?", she whispered the last words, not sure how this was possible.

"Yeap!" Natsu answered, sitting up straight and buffing out his torso with pride, "I'm a fire dragon, the strongest of our kind!"

"... right…", she wasn't sure what part of his answer she doubted exactly, but something wasn't adding up, so she pressed on. "I never knew that dragons could take on a human form."

"Of course not, you're a human. It's supposed to be a secret."

Lucy blinked slowly. Was he an idiot? "Then why did you tell me?"

"Because you're Lucy!", he gave her another wide toothy grin.

The blonde mage looked at him bewildered by his random answer. "That makes no sense."

She slowly turned around and sat on her chair, processing the information. If anyone knew anything about dragons, it was the Heartfilias. Her family had an absurdly large quantity of texts and records on all the ways to hunt, kill, dissect and extract everything and anything dragon related. Above that, she was pretty damn sure the hunting world wasn't aware that dragons could take on a human form. No wonder it's supposed to be a secret among dragons, this could change everything!

Cold dread seeped into her heart. Why the hell did this dragon, who had met her a total of 4 times now, decided to reveal to her what was probably the best kept secret since the Great Wars? To her? A human mage! Sworn enemy of all dragons!... Was this a ruse to make her lower her guard to then kill her and take over her home so he didn't have to sleep outside anymore? To blend in with other humans?

As she started to frown, worrying about what in Mavis' names she had gotten herself into, a low gurgle was heard. Lifting her head, she saw Natsu holding his stomach, a slight blush creeping along his cheeks. "Hey Luce' would you have some food to spare?, he asked sheepishly. Unbelievable. He had no shame in falling asleep butt-naked in a stranger's bed, but was blushing like a schoolgirl when asking for food?

*Cute…*, her eyes widened at the intrusive thought as she quickly got up and sped walked to her kitchen. Her thoughts fully focused on making food for her guests and nothing else. As she started making a mental list of ingredients she would need for some fast and easy spaghetti and meatballs.

Thank you to BethxAngel, Dragonrider314, POKEMONfanforever, LightiningDragonSlayer, Clockwork Giant, Carla the Wizard, for the Favorites, Follows and Comments!