Dragon's child

•Seven•

"Alright. Natsu, Gajeel, today is your turn to watch her." Mira said firmly, placing their breakfasts in front of them.

"What do we do?" Natsu asked through a mouthful of food.

"Sit with her. Talk to her. Bond with her." Mira replied, with a tone that indicated that this should have been obvious.

"That's not gonna happen." Gajeel sipped his coffee. "She's just gonna sit there, clingin' to Lily or Happy, and not say a word. Just like she's been doing every other time we tried ta talk to her."

Mira glared at him and Gajeel automatically flinched. "What's important is that you keep trying. Kids are perceptive. Sooner or later she'll start opening up."

"Good morning~!" Wendy called, pushing open the guildhall doors.

"Morning!" A handful of people called back.

Gajeel sighed, knowing exactly what was going to happen. Sure enough, little feet pattered over and Lily hopped off the counter to go play babysitter. Gajeel snorted. He felt ridiculous, being jealous of a little girl, but Lil was his cat, dammit! He heard a slight fluttering of wings and Lily placed Ryuchi in the seat between the two men and reclaimed his spot on the counter. "Huh? What're you wearing?" Natsu asked, swallowing loudly. Gajeel looked over and tried not to laugh.

Instead of the pants and shirt she normally wore, Ryuchi was wearing what was clearly one of Wendy's shirts. It was quite big on her, despite Wendy's own small frame, and looked more like a dress than a shirt. "One of Wendy Marvell's garments. I don't know why; mine fit much better than these." The child answered, looking down at it.

"Yes, but yours needed a wash." Charla replied, snagging Wendy's breakfast.

"But they fit better." The child insisted.

"You needed to be clean." Charla said firmly.

Natsu and Gajeel felt Mira eyeing them. "And these two will be happy to go get you clothes of your own~" She giggled. They spat out their drinks.

Ryuchi looked back and forth between the spluttering dragonslayers. "They don't look like it." She said doubtfully.

"Oh they are~" Mira said, smiling her Satan Soul at each of them.

"Y-Yeah! Sure we are!" Natsu said hastily.

"First things first though." Gajeel turned to face Ryuchi. "Gimme your hand." The little girl did so, and noting the nervous look on her face, the iron dragon slayer sighed. "I'm not gonna hurt ya, I just gotta take those cuffs off ya. They'll attract attention otherwise."

Her face cleared. "And that will compromise the mission?"

"It's not really a mission, but yeah."

"Affirmative." Ryuchi sat very still, allowing Gajeel to carefully bite off her wrist and ankle cuffs. However, she squirmed when he went to remove her collar.

"Hey, ya gotta hold still. I don't wanna hurt ya by accident."

"You can't take it off." She replied solemnly.

"Why not?" Natsu asked.

"It's a Punishment Collar." Ryuchi replied. "If you try to take it off without permission, it hurts you."

"Hurts you how?"

She didn't reply. "Hmm..." Gajeel mumbled. He pulled her hair out of the way, noting the round mechanism on the hinge in the back. Deciding he didn't want to find out what it did, he tilted Ryuchi's chin back and bit enough of the collar away so that he could slid it off without opening it.