Okay, so the pairing has been decided, and I will tell you this much: I'm turning this into a NaLi/NaLu mixture so everyone's happy! If you want to see how I pull it off, then you'll have to keep reading. I have not decided on any other pairings. If there are any in particular that you want to see, then please leave your comments in the reviews.
As always, thanks for reading!
Chapter 13: Not So Bad
Natsu opened one eye the next morning to see Lisanna trying to sneak out unnoticed. He wasn't sure whether to be amused or annoyed. The dragonelle had hardly said a word to him since she convinced him to stay, and now she wasn't even going to tell him where she was going?
"Lisanna, stop."
The dragonelle stopped dead in her tracks and looked back with a guilty look.
"Yeah, you know I caught you." he growled, "Where are you going?"
"Home. Why?" she asked.
Natsu's tail twitched, "And you weren't going to tell me this…why?"
Lisanna blinked, "I didn't think you'd care."
"Didn't think I'd-of course I'd care!" he exclaimed, "Wouldn't you freak out if one of your friends suddenly disappeared in the morning? I'd have searched the whole territory trying to find you!"
Lisanna stared at him, "Really? Even though I'm your enemy?"
Natsu nodded, "You're letting me stay here. I can't just not return the favor. Besides…" His gaze became unwavering, "Didn't I just say you were my friend?"
She seemed to comprehend that, then looked away. Natsu frowned, "What's wrong?"
"I shouldn't be your friend." she said bitterly, "I shouldn't even be doing this. I don't know why I'm doing this, or why I can't even bring myself to tell the rest of my Thunder about you. And I don't want either of us to get attached to this. It won't help things. We're enemies, and that's it. This is just a…a neutral zone, okay?"
Natsu stared at her, "Is that really how you see this?"
Lisanna didn't answer him and just flew out of the cave. The Flame Drake watched her go, then lay his head down with a sigh.
Why does she make this so complicated?
/\/\/\/\/\
Lisanna sighed for the umpteenth time that morning as she basked in the morning sunlight. It'd been near a week since she'd left Natsu in the waterfall cave and returned home, but now she was getting restless. She couldn't help but wonder if he really stayed in the cavern like she had told him, or if he was off raiding again.
Levy, sitting beside her, glanced with a scaled eyebrow raised, "What's wrong with you?"
"Hm?" she managed, then shook her head, "Oh, nothing…"
"…Are you okay?" Levy asked pointedly.
Lisanna looked at her oddly, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well…" the smaller dragonelle shuffled her wings and tilted her head, "You just…you seem different. Ever since last week, you've been kind of…I don't know, out of it. What's bothering you?"
"It's nothing important." Lisanna assured her, "I just haven't been sleeping that well…"
Levy's eyes narrowed, but there was a curious glint in them, "You look a lot like Mira."
The dragonelle frowned, "Well, she IS my sister, so-"
"Not like that." Levy interrupted, "You've just got the same expression."
"What expression?" Lisanna asked.
Levy glanced around to make sure no one else was paying attention and whispered, "You look moony. Like Mira when she's talking about Laxus."
Lisanna's scales almost bristled. Almost.
She knew who was on her mind, but there was no way she was moony over him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Lisanna lied. Moony?! As if! But even as the words went through her head, a retaliating image of Natsu saying he thought of her as a friend smothered it.
No. I won't get attached. I absolutely will NOT get attached to him, she swore to herself.
"You're definitely thinking about someone." Levy almost giggled, "Who? Come on, you know I won't say anything."
The dragonelle wanted to growl, but she held her displeasure back, "I'm not mooning over anyone. You must be imagining things."
"You are!" Levy gasped, "Or else you wouldn't be so defensive. It's not like you at all, Lisanna. Ask Lucy, and I'll bet she'll tell you the same thing."
"I'm not going to ask Lucy about something that doesn't even exist!" Lisanna snapped, "For the last time, I'm not mooning over anyone, okay?"
Levy smiled slyly and Lisanna knew she'd get no peace. Especially when her sister walked over. Mira came up with a curious look on her face, "What's this I hear about my sister?"
Lisanna rolled her eyes and stood up, then stalked away. Levy called after her, "When you're feeling more cooperative, tell me who it is!"
Now that's something I'm NEVER going to do, she thought, then walked
Her stomach growled. She was getting hungry, but Lisanna wasn't interested in any of the food the humans brought up. With a last moment of consideration, she decided to fly back to the waterfall cave, to see if Natsu was still there.
As she walked past her friends again, Lisanna called to her sister, "Mira! I'm going hunting! I'll be back in a few days, okay?"
Mira blinked and nodded, "Okay! Good luck!"
Levy stared as Lisanna flew off south again, "She's been hunting a lot lately."
"It's being cooped up like this." Mira explained, "I haven't been able to go to my favorite hunting spots because those dragons keep raiding around there. Lisanna's lucky that she's got her own secret place that they haven't discovered yet."
"I guess you're right." Levy murmured, then got up and stretched, "Okay! I'm going to see if Lucy made any progress with her story! Dragion took her fishing the other day, can you believe it? Fishing!"
Mira hummed with laughter, "If Dragion came up with it, I can believe it. Was that an attempt to cure her writer's block?"
Levy nodded, "Something like that. Anyways, see you later, Mira!"
Mira watched her go, then turned her gaze back to the disappearing figure of her sister on the horizon. She frowned a little.
What HAS gotten into you, Lisanna?
/\/\/\/\/\
When she got to the waterfall cave, Lisanna froze.
Natsu wasn't there.
She searched the whole cave, but there was no sign of the Flame Drake. And from the scents, it seemed as though he hadn't been there for quite a while.
He didn't leave to go raiding, did he? He said he would stay!
Lisanna was starting to freak out, and she wasn't entirely sure why it mattered so much, but the fact that Natsu wasn't there made her worried. His scent was old- he could easily be quite a ways away, possibly raiding a human village again.
She was about to fly out of the cave and go after any scent trail she could find, but then Lisanna heard wingbeats. A few seconds later, Natsu burst through the waterfall and shook himself dry as he padded into the cave.
He came back!
Natsu saw her and blinked with surprise. It was only then that Lisanna realized he had a plump deer clamped in his jaws. He had just gone hunting.
Stupid! Of course he has to eat! I was worried over nothing!
Lisanna visibly relaxed, "There you are. I thought maybe you'd left to go raiding."
Natsu dropped the deer and shook himself, "Tempting idea, but no. The nearest village is that one I razed a couple weeks ago. There's nothing there for me to bother with." He nosed the deer in her direction, "Want something to eat?"
She shook her head, "No, that's okay. I'm not hungry."
As if on cue, her belly rumbled in protest.
Natsu smirked, "Your stomach says otherwise."
"I can go catch my own food." Lisanna offered, "That was your catch. You can-"
"I already ate a few." Natsu interrupted, "I just brought this one back in case I got hungry later."
She frowned, "But-"
"Lisanna." he sighed, "Eat. It's your prey, anyway. It was on your territory."
Lisanna shuffled her wings and muttered, "Thanks…"
Natsu flicked his tail in acknowledgement and trudged to the back of the cave, where he settled down and started cleaning his talons. Lisanna picked up the deer and found a spot a little ways away from him.
Before she started eating, Lisanna spoke to Natsu without glancing at him, "Nice catch." She paused for a moment, then added easily, "For a hot head."
Natsu looked at her sharply, "What did you call me?"
"Hot head." Lisanna replied with a straight face.
His tail tip twitched briefly. Lisanna felt tension in her body, but it wasn't a bad feeling. She almost felt…excited.
Natsu lunged for her, growling with amusement, but Lisanna dodged and launched out of the waterfall cave, out into open air. The Flame Drake flew after her, just meters away as she flew skyward.
"Just wait until I get my claws on you!" Natsu threatened, but his voice was laughing.
"You'll never catch me!" Lisanna yelped as he snapped at the tip of her tail, but missed.
They flew around in loops as the sun set, dousing the two dragons in soft, golden light. Lisanna flew as fast as she could, trying to evade Natsu with flips, spins, and an array of aerial acrobatics, but he matched every move she made and never fell more than a few feet behind.
When the sky became dark and stars lit up the night, Lisanna finally retreated back to the waterfall cave and landed, then flopped to the ground, panting. "I can't fly anymore!" she gasped.
Natsu collapsed beside her on his side, a tired grin on his face.
"Hot head!" she whispered.
Natsu suddenly flipped himself over and sank his teeth softly into her neck, pinning her to the ground. "Who's a hot head?" he purred.
"No one!" she wailed.
Natsu let her go and sat up, catching his breath. Lisanna pushed herself to sit as well, but slipped on a wet patch of ground. She squeaked as her unbalanced footing made her fall against the Flame Drake.
"Hey!" he protested as her sudden slip caught him off guard and made him fall over, resulting in Lisanna falling onto his scaled chest.
"Oof!" he wheezed.
"Sorry!" she gasped, scrabbling until she got up.
Natsu rolled to his feet and ruffled his wings with a purr of amusement, "Maybe I'm a hot head, but you're pretty clumsy."
Lisanna felt hot with embarrassment, "I'm so sorry, I forgot how slick the ground here gets. Whenever I stay here, I'm usually asleep by now. The water doesn't evaporate at night with no sunlight."
"No harm done." Natsu said with a grin, then gave her a curious look, "You're in a better mood now than you were last week. Did something happen?"
"Not really." Lisanna yawned, "My friends were just nagging at me because they thought that I was mooning over a drake."
Natsu's tail twitched and he frowned, "Were you?"
"No! Not at all!" she said quickly, then sighed, "They always assume stuff like that. I don't know why they bother, since it won't ever happen."
Now he looked confused, "What won't happen?"
Lisanna glanced at the ground, looking crestfallen, "I won't ever have a mate."
"What?!" Natsu gaped at her.
"It's one of the Thunder's rules." she said bitterly, "All the Thunders have a dominant male and female, the leaders of the group. They're the only ones able to have any young. The rest of us can't, because the leaders worry that our instincts might cause us to kill their offspring."
Natsu looked stunned and disbelieving, "Are you serious? But that's stupid!"
"I agree." she mumbled, "But I love my Thunder. Fairy Tail gave my siblings and I a home when we really needed one. They don't want to leave, and I don't want to be apart from them. But if I stay, I won't ever have a mate."
"That doesn't seem fair." Natsu growled with a lash of his tail, "What right do the leaders have to keep the other dragons from having a mate? You could easily get a mate if they weren't holding you back!"
Lisanna stared at him, "You think so?"
"Yes!" he exclaimed.
She dropped her gaze to the ground. For some reason, the compliment made her feel very self-conscious.
When Natsu nudged the deer her way, Lisanna blinked. She had completely forgotten that she was hungry. But now she hesitated, "Um…do you want to share?"
Natsu eyed the deer, "Fat as it is, I don't think there'll be much for the two of us."
"It doesn't matter." she said quickly, "We can hunt again tomorrow morning."
He shrugged, "If you're sure."
The dragons crouched beside each other and took turns biting into the deer, though six bites later, there was nothing left. It was enough though, because Lisanna's belly was no longer growling at her.
Natsu settled down and sighed, "That was great."
Lisanna was keenly aware that the Flame Drake's side was brushing hers, but she didn't snap at him.
"Are you cold?" Natsu asked.
She blinked, then realized she was shivering. Lisanna hesitated, not wanting to look weak in front of the Flame Drake, "W-well, I-"
"You know, you can stay like this if you want." he offered, "My scales are warmer than most other dragons."
Lisanna stared at him, "I'm not sure that's a good idea…"
"Oh, come on, it's just to warm up!" Natsu sighed, "Don't be so uptight. If you still consider me your enemy, then just call it payment, okay? I owe you for letting me stay here."
She was still hesitating, so Natsu took matters into his own hands. One of his wings unfurled and covered her back. Lisanna was about to protest when she realized that she had stopped shivering with his wing blanketing her.
"Better?" he asked.
Lisanna gave in and lay her head down, "It's okay…"
Natsu set his head down next to hers and closed his eyes.
She frowned at that. He's too close.
But he was warm, and even though she knew that this would definitely be considered a betrayal to her Thunder in more ways than one, Lisanna couldn't remember feeling so safe.
His words echoed in her head. You could easily get a mate!
Just thinking about it made her feel self-conscious again. Lisanna closed her eyes and did her best not to think of it. She didn't want her thoughts to ruin the light mood after their games. Her view on Natsu was starting to change.
Maybe he's not so bad.